Business News

ALDI's Bathgate Distribution Facility has successfully resolved a seagull infestation on its rooftop by implementing the AVIX Autonomic Laser Bird Deterrent.

The cutting-edge laser bird deterrent system, designed and manufactured by Bird Control Group, has provided a highly effective and innovative solution to ALDI's persistent challenge. The facility's rooftop, housing 4,000 solar panels, had been plagued by seagulls nesting and fouling, resulting in various issues. Contractors refused to carry out essential work on the panels, and the dropping of items by the gulls caused significant damage.

Halo Solutions, the award-winning British tech company behind the world’s most intelligent crowd safety, incident and threat management  platform Halo (v5), is to make its tech software available free-of-charge to tens of thousands of small businesses, pubs, live music venues and entertainment spaces that are to be affected by the government’s new counterterrorism (protection of premises) legislation, which will be committed to law this year.  

COP28 President-Delegate, Dr. Sultan Al Jaber, met with heads of delegations and key negotiating groups including those from the Least Developed Countries (LDC) and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) at the Bonn UN Climate Change Conference, being held in the run up to COP28, emphasizing the need to engage and listen to all voices in the climate change discussion ─ especially those of the Global South. The conference, taking place in Bonn, 5-15 June, is hosting discussions on more than 50 agenda items.

Comac Medical (Comac or the Company) announced today that funds advised by EdgeCap Partners (EdgeCap) acquired a majority equity interest in the Company. Comac's founder and CEO, Dr. Milen Vrabevski, as well as other shareholders, retain a significant minority stake and will continue in their current roles as executive managers, thereby providing continuity to all its clients and partners. 

Business owners from Ethnic Minority backgrounds are still having to “smash through barriers” to access the networks and capital to help them succeed, a leading entrepreneur has warned. Speaking ahead of her keynote speech at next week’s Birmingham Black Business Show (BBBS) Daniella Genas, says shifting your mindset can help overcome any challenge.

Ms Genas, a business coach and the founder of Be the Boss, said: “The sad fact is that there are still far too many negative stereotypes about black owned businesses from inside and outside of the community. 

The subscription period of the rights issue in Anoto Group AB (publ) (“Anoto” or the “Company”) ended on 2 June 2023. The subscription ratio in the rights issue amounted to 69.3 percent. Guarantee undertakings corresponding to 15,740,288 shares, approximately 30.7 percent of the shares in the rights issue, will thus be utilized. Through the rights issue Anoto will receive approximately SEK 20.5 million before the deduction of transaction costs.

Jan Luyken Amsterdam is a 62-bedroom boutique townhouse hotel in the heart of Amsterdam that has relaunched following a multi-million-pound refurbishment. Jan Luyken invites guests to enjoy the townhouse and its spaces as if they were their own, with everything they need included.

The Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI) has announced a new partnership with the Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE). The partnership provides scope for the CISI and BSE to work together to enhance and promote professional standards in Botswana’s financial services sector by offering the CISI’s International Introduction to Securities & Investment qualification.

BSE will adopt the CISI’s International Introduction to Securities & Investment qualification as one of the core certifications for the Botswana capital market. This allows practitioners to obtain a globally portable professional benchmark.

Over 100 businesses have now committed to taking steps to cut their emissions and help the West Midlands become net zero by 2041.

Birmingham Botanical Gardens, The National Lottery, Severn Trent Water, and Black Country-based manufacturer AVACE are among the latest cohort to sign the West Midlands Combined Authority’s (WMCA) Net Zero Business Pledge, joining some of the highest profile employers across the region.

Former Leeds Rhinos and England Rugby League legend Jamie Jones-Buchanan has been confirmed as the latest sporting giant on the speaker list of the DIB Business of Sport conference which takes place on Thursday 7th September 2023 at Lancashire County Cricket Clubs Emirates Stadium.

Jones-Buchanan will be in conversation with SEDULO GROUP founder Paul Cheetham, who leads the business advisory firms ‘Be the Standard’ programme for business leaders. Jamie played his entire career with Leeds, winning seven Super League Grand Finals, three World Club challenges, three League Leaders Shields and one Challenge Cup Final with the club. He played for England and Great Britain at international level.

Analysis has revealed that a tax relief introduced to help people get onto the property ladder has resulted in 25,000 extra sales to first-time buyers. First Time Buyers’ Relief (FTBR) increases the threshold at which first time buyers pay Stamp Duty Land Tax (SDLT) and was introduced in November 2017.

Over a third (37%) of workers have admitted to taking steps to ‘prepare to look for another job’.

Career Cushioning – the process of being proactive about your career prospects to ‘soften the blow’ should anything go wrong with your current job – is a phenomenon that recruitment firm Robert Walters believes has grown in prominence as the UK continues to hover around the recessionary danger zone.

According to a poll of 2,000 white-collar workers, the leading reasons causing workers to ‘career cushion’ is a lack of job security from their company (72%), turbulent economic conditions (55%), internal changes within their business (45%), and low job satisfaction (33%).

New research has revealed the UK industries that have had the biggest increase in wages, with Mining and Quarrying coming out on top.

The study by UK Trading platform CMC Markets analysed the latest release from the Office for National Statistics, featuring results from their Wages and Salaries Survey since January 2000.

Anoto Group AB (publ) (“Anoto”) announces that it has sold 1 million shares of common stock of its education subsidiary Knowledge AI Holdings Ltd. (“KAIT”). The transaction was done at USD 12 million on a fully diluted basis. After the sale, Anoto will still own 4.3 million shares of Knowledge AI (47.8% on outstanding number of shares). The 1 million shares were sold to an investment company based in the United Kingdom.  

Leading building societies have said they will increase some of its mortgage rates due to the current economic outlook, saying rates on new fixed deals will rise by up to 0.45 percentage points. It comes amid expectations the Bank of England will have to raise interest rates higher than previously thought.

Darktrace, a global leader in cyber security AI, have announced the appointment of Chris Kozup as Chief Marketing Officer (CMO). Chris will join the executive management team on June 6^th, 2023, and will report to Chief Executive Officer Poppy Gustafsson.

Based in the U.S., Chris joins Darktrace from Zscaler, where he served as CMO and was responsible for global marketing strategy and execution across a team of hundreds of marketing and sales development professionals. Chris has more than 20 years of experience leading high performing marketing initiatives and teams for enterprise technology companies including Cisco, HPE Aruba Networking, and Nutanix.