Category: Manchester Business

Manchester may be well-known for its entertainment values… but those living here generally need to do something to earn money to enjoy it (unless they’re a premier league WAG, obviously).

What is Manchester like to work in? Well, it depends what you do, to some extent, but various recent reports have shed some light on the the city’s professional circumstances.

Salaries
The average annual wage within Manchester City Council boundaries is £26,120, if considering everyone from top-level executives down to manual labourers. This figure was revealed in a study published in December 2011 by general workers’ union GMB. Outlying areas such as Salford, Stockport and Trafford score better, however, with averages at £26,360, £32,487 and £32,335 respectively. The real value of earnings throughout the north west has actually fallen by 9.1 per cent over the last four years, in the tough financial climate – but wages have climbed.

Working conditions
A recent report by Mars Drinks UK, highlighted by the Manchester Evening News, suggested that conditions for Manchester’s office workers leave a lot to be desired – summarised as nine hour days, a quick cheap sandwich at lunch and very little time spent away from their desk. However, this is an average scenario that is likely to be echoed all over the country. And, if you really hate sitting still in front of a computer all day, there are alternative career paths you can take. Just remember how much it rains here, if you’re thinking of an outdoor job…

THAT BBC move
Manchester work has been in the spotlight in recent years thanks to several BBC operations moving north to MediaCity in Salford, from their former home in London. Yes, this is a Salford issue, but Salford is part of Greater Manchester and only a stone’s throw from Manchester city centre. The frustrating part for many lovers of this region is that many people have drawn comparisons between London’s nicer residential areas and the still-developing location of Salford Quays, which is a rather an inaccurate comparison. It’s not as if BBC executives currently live on the doorstep of Television Centre. No, they live in affluent suburbs… and guess what? Greater Manchester has plenty of those within an easy commute.

Here in the capital of the north, we may not have quite as many five-star hotels as they do in London (they’ve got more than 50 and we’ve got two – one of which is actually in Salford), but there are still some very nice places to stay.

Providing five-star accommodation in the heart of the city centre, the Radisson Edwardian is located on Peter Street, which links Deansgate and Oxford Street. This makes it an ideal base for sightseeing and entertainment in Manchester, enjoying proximity to a plethora of theatres, art attractions, restaurants, bars and clubs. It is housed within the grade II-listed Free Trade Hall, which was originally built in 1846 and rebuilt after the Manchester Blitz of World War Two. It has also famously hosted gigs by Bob Dylan in 1966, Pink Floyd on numerous occasions and a legendary concert by the Sex Pistols in 1976. Its well-regarded restaurants are named Opus One (formal) and Alto (less so).

Despite being geographically located in Salford, the Lowry Hotel is often considered part of Manchester city centre, sitting on the banks of the River Irwell within easy reach of the shopping district and numerous bars and restaurants. It is the choice of many celebrities who visit Manchester, due to its five-star status and striking design. The Lowry Hotel’s River Restaurant has received excellent reviews in recent years and it also boasts luxury spa facilities.

The Midland Hotel on Peter Street is probably Manchester’s most famous, being the meeting place of Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce in 1906 – an event which resulted in one of the world’s most well-known car manufacturing companies. The grand building was built between 1898 and 1903 and has been a hotel ever since, now operating at a four-star level.

Manchester’s other notable hotels include Abode and Malmaison in Piccadilly – and the city also offers a wide variety of self-catered accommodation options. Manchester serviced apartments are located in the Northern Quarter, Deansgate, the Gay Village and Salford Quays, among other locations.

Manchester Airport has had a few trifling difficulties in the last week – first a dusting of snow on the runway, then a dog. Of course, it’s always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to planes, but that never stops people moaning!

Manchester Airport is the UK’s fourth busiest – behind London airports Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted – so it’s no wonder situations tend to snowball (haha) if there’s a hold-up from time to time.

On Friday morning (16 December), 3mm of snow fell on the airport’s runways, meaning that passengers were left sitting in planes for as long as three hours waiting for clearance to take off.

I’ve been delayed at airports before, but never actually sitting on the plane. When you’ve got a three-hour-plus flight to Spain ahead of you, it must get very frustrating… not to mention uncomfortable, if you’ve gone for cheap seats!

Apparently, planes don’t have very good grips on their tyres, so it simply isn’t safe until de-icing has taken place.

One day later – and this is one of my favourite news stories of this month – a whippet got on to the runway and went tearing around the airfield, meaning that once again, planes couldn’t take off or land. The dog was spotted at 10:40am and it took 40 minutes for airport staff to catch it!

People were less annoyed by that than by the snow, though.

DJ Clint Boon, who was among the delayed passengers, summed up the mood via Twitter: “Delayed flying from Paris because of industrial action. Delayed landing at Manchester due to ‘dogs on the runway’. I love this city.”

It’s a funny time of year for businesses to make changes and start new offerings, what with the chaos of Christmas and hospitality gloom of January being so near – but apparently no one’s told Manchester’s food and drink purveyors.

Not that I’m complaining. I’m a foodie through-and-through and I always get excited when there are new developments to appreciate.

In the openings stakes, there’s Aubaine at Selfridges in Exchange Square, Leckenby’s just off Deansgate and Peppermint Bay in Spinningfields.

Meanwhile, moves and updates include a change of hands at Livebait, a departing head chef at Harvey Nichols Second Floor and Paul Heaton (of The Beautiful South and The Housemartins fame) is the new landlord of Chapel Street’s The Kings Arms.

Aubaine is Manchester’s latest high-end French eaterie, following hot on the heels of 63 Degrees – and certainly appears to have the right tools to become one of the top Manchester restaurants.

Leckenby’s Champagne & Tea Rooms and Peppermint Bay both cater more for light bites and have received rather good reports, so far. I can’t wait to visit… though I might ask the wife to test out Leckenby’s with her lady friends before venturing in myself. I like a good cake, but it looks a bit girly. Though, having said that, they do morning fry-ups too!

It’s heartening to see that dreary fish place Livebait will have a new lease of life, with a new menu and refurbishment planned under successful restaurant businessman Richard Muir. He’s done great things in Scotland, apparently.

As for Paul Heaton at The King’s Arms in Salford… well, I just hope I like his pub strategy more than I liked his music.

When one thinks of the PR industry it is not uncommon to envisage smartly dressed women holding lunchoen meetings in top London cafes and restaurants. But following a rise in creative companies based in the North, PR should no longer be solely associated with the capital.

Manchester is slowly building for itself a reputation for being a hub of creative talent, with many local companies becoming top players in media services. Manchester’s superiority within the creative media industry can be seen through its extensive range of PR agencies. Many of which specialise in different types of PR.

City Press is one of many well known agencies in the area, which also operates from London, promising to offer strategic consultancy whilst specialising in reputation management and media relations. Brazen PR is another of Manchester’s large agencies, its expertise lies within consumer PR and it has lots of large name clients on its books. Tangerine PR seems to be Manchester’s fastest growing agency, a home-grown company, winning the 2011 CIPR Excellence award.

But, it’s not just large companies that are doing well in the city. The city also houses much smaller, or ’boutique’, agencies that claim to offer the same quality service as their larger counterparts. Ethos Public Relations is one of these smaller agencies, based in Manchester. Their focus is very much on crisis communications and corporate social responsibility, and have been known to work with some top local celebrities. Another smaller agency that is flourishing in the North West is JAMpr. Also a design consultancy, JAM has won many awards in the comparatively short time its been around, and has also worked on many national accounts.

When searching for a PR agency, whatever the requirement, it is no longer essential to look to London, as Manchester has it all.

This week the first cohort from the BBC have migrated North to move into MediaCityUK in Salford Quays. Although the move was faced with some hostility from the lot at White City initially, their acceptance that it was inevitable has meant this week appears to have gone smoothly so far.

The main departments to have moved away from the capital include BBC Sport, BBC Children’s and BBC Breakfast, but the corporation has many other employees gracing the city too, along with new job roles opening up. Peter Salmon has revealed that over 500,000 people have applied for some 500 jobs.

The MediaCityUK project, aimed at the creative industry, seeks to offer a metropolis for innovation and creation. Along with the BBC many other companies have seen the appeal in starting afresh in the new arena. ITV, Coronation Street and Salford University are amongst some who are exploiting the opportunity.

The MediaCityUK development is a huge opportunity for Manchester businesses to expand and acquire new office space in a vibrant area that will attract employees. The Salford development aims to become a world class hub for the media and creative industries. The area, which is easily accessible from the city centre via tram, offers restaurants, cafes, hotels and brand new apartments for people working in the area.

Although it is only in its infancy, the next few years will see MediaCityUK become an exciting and energetic place to both work and live. Now is a good time for businesses to set up in the development as it has already shown its popularity through the amount of people applying for jobs in the area.

For Manchester as a whole the expansion is a real positive. It will encourage new people to the city while opening new job opportunities and new facilities for current residents. The venture has also seen many major developers investing in the city, something that will only bring Manchester good fortune.

The Home Office this week launched a new website that contains information on all reported crimes throughout England and Wales, making them the first two countries in the world to do so. The site revolves around an interactive map (yes, like Google maps) that features spots of numbers in areas where crime has been reported. The spots don’t appear in exact locations – for example on someone’s house – because they didn’t want to draw attention to specific victims of crime, but they are accurate to within about 12 houses.

As with all things concerning crime, the police and government actions, this has inevitably caused quite a reaction, not least because the site didn’t actually work for the first two days. Too many people visiting it, was the excuse. We’ve wisely left it another day before exploring a little and had a look, naturally, at Manchester. It’s interesting viewing – to a point. The gripe some people have with it is that it will drive house prices down in areas where there’s a lot of crime. That might have some validity if the statistics were in any way specific, but they’re not.

They’re categorised using six headings, for a start: burglary, robbery, vehicle crime, violence, other crime and anti-social behaviour. See how they’ve sneaked ‘other crime’ in there, to literally cover a multitude of sins? This ‘other’ category includes sex crimes, theft and shoplifting, in an effort to ‘help protect the identity of victims.’ ‘Other’, in other words, could mean just about anything. The general nature of the ‘crime clouds’ that appear on the map also make the statistics confusing in many areas. The local media was of course onto all this straight away, the MEN reporting yesterday that the biggest ‘hotspot’ for anti-social behaviour in Manchester was Chicago Avenue. Never heard of it? Well, you wouldn’t – it’s an empty strip of road next to Manchester Airport, a hotel on either side and not much else besides.

So why is this street showing up as being such a flash point for crime? Reasoned wisdom assumes that it’s the address all airport crimes are reported against, meaning this deserted stretch of grey tarmac clocks up some mean statistics. Second on the list, incidentally, is Withy Grove, in the centre of Manchester – also known as The Printworks. No explanation needed.

Ultimately then, what does this all mean? Do the people who claim it’s going to have a negative impact on house prices have a point? What about the Home Secretary, who says it will make the police more accountable? Or is it all just dots on a map – imprecise dots on unspecific areas of a map showing vague categories of alleged crimes. We’ll probably have all forgotten about it in a week.

A new Employers Charter unveiled by the government this week aims to create more jobs. The proposals detail a radical reform of current Employment Law in an attempt to encourage businesses to take on more staff without the threat of being taken to court for small issues, or not being able to sack problem or under-performing staff.

The new regulations will force former employees to pay a fee if they wish to bring employment tribunal cases to court, in an attempt to discourage unfounded or fabricated claims. The plan were described by the Prime Minister as being “the most pro-business, pro-growth, pro-jobs agenda ever unleashed by a government” and will no doubt be welcomed by those in the business of offering employers law advice.

Gathering together a number of the UK’s largest businesses in a ‘Jobs Summit’ at Downing Street, the Prime Minister welcomed representatives from firms including Asda, John Lewis, Land Rover, Tesco and McDonalds. He unveiled the new Employers Charter to them in an attempt to instigate discussion on how best to encourage British businesses to begin taking on more staff. It has long been seen as a problem for businesses, especially SMEs, that they can’t hire and fire staff as readily as they might like, especially if the staff are underperforming. The news has received a mixed response in the business world.

Some, in particular owners of SMEs, have been supportive of it but want to see action before they are convinced. Others simply see it as another obstacle for those who have been unfairly dismissed to overcome – especially as they are likely to be recently out of a job and not in a position to put out a lump sum to cover the costs of a legal dispute.

For anyone reading this outside of the UK, here’s some news for you: it’s cold at the moment. Not news, you say? It’s winter, it should be cold? Yeah, well try telling our national media that. And everyone other person you speak to. We are, as a nation, obsessed with the weather, so say some people, and it’s at times like this that you can see why.

If it’s not the actual temperature or amount of snow fall that’s filling the front pages of the eager tabloids at the moment, it’s that other great British pastime – moaning about its effect on transport. Snow and ice naturally disrupt things to an extent but not a day … no, an hour goes by without mention of the length of the queue outside St Pancreas station or the number of people holed up in Heathrow. It is of course the airports that are most greatly affected at times like these – I mean, I’m not keen on flying at the best of times but if the runway’s covered in ice, I’m definitely staying in contact with terra firma, you know?

Manchester Airport, it seems, is making itself something of an exception in these turbulent times. They’re not doing anything out of the ordinary, it would seem – they’re just getting themselves sorted out. Clearing the snow, in other words. While Heathrow and Gatwick lie under a blanket of white stuff and strain against a barrage of disgruntled would-be-passengers, Manchester Airport is not only operating close to normality, it’s taking diverted flights from elsewhere, to ease their pressure.

So what is it that makes Manchester Airport so good in the snow? Perhaps we’re just a bit more used to it up here. My parents, who live near the south coast, emailed me in raptures the other week with photos of their garden under three inches of fresh snow. “Look,” they said, “at all the snow we’ve got!” Snow? I replied. That’s not snow – we get more than that up here in August.

The Northern Quarter has been awarded a national award, naming it ‘Britain’s Best Neighbourhood.’ The area, which can be loosely described as centring around Oldham Street, just off Piccadilly Gardens, has been increasing in popularity over the last decade or so and is now a firm favourite with the city’s scenesters. Cocktail bars abound where once there were pet shops and beatniks; you’re more likely to get run over by a fixie than bump into any authentic bohemians these days. So where did it all go right for The Northern Quarter? And can it even be described as a ‘neighbourhood’?

Manchester expert and serial go-to man for Manchester media opinion, Dave Haslam, thinks not. “For me, a ‘neighbourhood’ should be a fertile, intriguing, comfortable mix,” he said. “The fact is you never see children in the Northern Quarter – or old people.” He’s got a point about the children. Not sure about the old people though – there’s plenty of them propping up bars in traditional pubs long forgotten by the youth – the Dry Bar, for example.

Haslam also identifies a number of amenities lacking in the Northern Quarter, like a school or nursery, a park, a friendly corner shop, a youth club, a church, mosque or synagogue. There might be something in that – it’s not presenting itself as very neighbourhood-like, is it? So what does the Northern Quarter have, if not these things? Well there’s a bar or two. Or three. Or ten. A few restaurants, take-aways, cafes. The odd clothes shop, a couple of hairdressers, a bike shop … that’s about it.

It’s not always been that way though. The Northern Quarter has long been an area of Manchester that attracted people, for different reason. In the Victorian era it became a centre for pet shops and developed its bohemian image, being a favourite hangout for artists, writers, thinkers and debaters. It was that image that initially spurred the current popularity, on the back of a surge in the late 1990s when it became the final hub of the dying Madchester music scene. Places such as The Dry Bar and the Night and Day Cafe held the torch for live underground music in the city and it was around these venues that the Northern Quarter of today was born.

The pet shops, pickpockets and philanderers of the Victorian era would no doubt be aghast at the Northern Quarter of 2010. ‘An extension of the Printworks’ is one description Haslam has used and it is this popularity, this evolution into a ‘place to be seen’ that has turned the area into one that gets noticed and wins award such as this. Comparatively, this has also contributed to some bemoaning its status as ‘the cool place’ and the loss of its bohemian, alternative roots. The trend setters may be moving out, looking for the next Northern Quarter, but for the time being it seems this popular area of town – this neighbourhood – maintains its long held popularity.