Business News

Anoto Group AB (publ) (“Anoto”) announced in a press release on 6 April that the loan Anoto received from Swedish investors that was announced in a press release on 10 August 2021 now partially is converted into shares.

Anoto is a publicly held Swedish technology company known globally for innovation in the area of information-rich patterns and the optical recognition of those patterns.

The UK’s largest listed provider of private rental homes, Grainger plc, is expanding its portfolio of private rental homes in The Midlands with a stylish new residential development located in central Birmingham. Due to launch in May 2022, the new purpose-built rental development, Gilders Yard, sits on the site of a former jewellery factory and involves the renovation of a three storey Grade II* listed building, once home to local jeweller, J Ashford & Sons. 

Brilliant Planet Limited (formerly Susewi Ltd), the nature-based carbon capture and storage company, announced the closing of its oversubscribed $12 million Series A funding co-led by Union Square Ventures and Toyota Ventures.  Additional and follow-on investors include Future Positive Capital, AiiM Partners, S2G Ventures, Hatch and Pegasus Tech Ventures.

Brilliant Planet is unlocking the power of algae as an affordable method of permanently and quantifiably sequestering carbon at the gigaton scale. 

Podcast listening in the UK is booming. The audience of 19.1 million listeners in 2021 is projected to grow to upwards of 28 million by 2026. And it is in this growing marketplace that UK sales transformation specialist Sales Talent has announced the second season of The Sales Talent Podcast.

The first season generated over 5,000 downloads, with Sales Talent MD Paul Owen and his guests focusing on learning how to sell; it served as an impactful ‘beginner’s guide to sales.’

A city shop owner and employee who persistently sold and distributed illicit tobacco have been given suspended prison sentences.

Karanveer Singh Dhaliwal, the shop owner and former premises license holder of KS News, in Oxford Street, Bilston, and shop manager at the time Ashok Singh Kumar, appeared before a judge at Wolverhampton Crown Court. The two men were both sentenced to six months in prison, suspended for two years.

Nearly half a million UK businesses are set to benefit from a tax cut worth up to £1,000 from 6 April 2022. The Employment Allowance has risen from £4,000 to £5,000 – meaning smaller firms will be able to claim up to £5,000 off their employer National Insurance Contributions (NICs) bills.

Announced by the Chancellor at last month’s Spring Statement to reduce employment costs, the change takes an extra 50,000 firms out of paying NICs and the Health and Social Care Levy.

As part of its ambitious growth strategy, leading law firm Shakespeare Martineau has appointed corporate partner Michael Stace.

With more than 25 years’ qualified experience, Michael joins Shakespeare Martineau from Browne Jacobson, where he was head of the firm’s Birmingham office.

A stylish new home interiors showroom targeting Manchester’s fashion-conscious city dwellers has officially held its grand opening and website launch. 

Oppein Home Manchester in Altrincham offers high-end design at affordable prices with kitchens, wardrobes, fitted furniture, bathroom products and more available from its deluxe store on Stamford New Road.

From 1 April, new legislation came into effect regarding the use of red diesel and rebated fuels, which has been used in a variety of industries often associated with agriculture and construction. The Government initially announced the changes in the 2020 budget and the legislative changes have been delivered through the Finance Bill 2021 and subsequent secondary legislation.

The background for the restriction of red diesel in certain uses is driven by two objectives.

From Monday (April 4), a new national advertising campaign will appear on television screens across Great Britain to help every household cut their energy costs by as much as £332 - cutting the average energy bill by nearly a fifth. The campaign has been launched after Utilita’s own research of 5,000 households revealed that any Government advice on cutting energy usage has failed to reach most households (84%).

A Wolverhampton shop owner found to be repeatedly selling illicit cigarettes and tobacco has been jailed for 24 weeks and told he was “selling poison to a child” by a judge.

Mohammed Sokhanvar Mahani, the proprietor of Super Mahan in Thornley Street, had pleaded guilty to a string of 12 charges, including one contrary to the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 and one contrary to the Fraud Act.

Rural communities are increasingly turning to Junior ISAs invested in stocks and shares as a tax-efficient way of protecting wealth and combatting inflation. The number of new stocks-and-shares Junior ISAs opened with leading rural insurer NFU Mutual increased by nearly 10% in 2021 compared to 2020, and the rural community are investing more than the national average too.

Businesses are being urged to ensure their cyber security is up to scratch after latest figures revealed that 39 per cent of firms reported breaches or attacks in the past 12 months. Government figures released this week revealed that cyber attacks continue to pose a serious threat to all types of UK businesses, with one in five of the businesses affected reporting a sophisticated attack such as denial of service, malware or ransomware attack.

XPO Logistics, Inc., a leading provider of freight transportation services, has been awarded VETS Indexes Recognized Employer status for 2022. The designation honors XPO’s strong record of hiring members of the military community.

The construction industry needs to capitalise on the collaborative atmosphere created by this year’s MIPIM in order to meet the key challenges it faces, according to Andrew Carpenter, chief executive of Constructing Excellence Midlands. Speaking in the wake of this year’s event – which was attended by more than 20,000 delegates from around the world – Carpenter says that while a collaborative spirit is alive and well in Cannes, it risks being wasted if not capitalised on at home.

The Scottish Government has launched a new retail strategy, which aims to encourage fair work and improve skills in the sector. Usdaw, the trade union for retail, has been involved with the Scottish Government’s Steering Group, ensuring that the views and concerns of Scotland’s 240,000 retail workers were heard in the formulation of the strategy.