Rocket 9 agency is truly on the up
5 things we learned yesterday
1 Digital marketing agency Rocket 9 is to create 15 jobs as it sets out plans for expansion across Europe in the year ahead.
The Newcastle-based firm, which provides services for bingo and casino website operators, has grown swiftly since its launch two years ago, building up its workforce to more than 80.
Having expanded into larger offices at Newcastle Great Park, the company intends to break into a number of new territories throughout the next 12 months.
2 A housing company in Northumberland is among the first in the country to receive a royal award set up to boost the standard of training in the UK.
The Bernicia Group is among 33 organisations receiving the inaugural Princess Royal Training Award for its leadership and staff development training programme.
The awards are a new honour for employers in the UK that have created a lasting impact by successfully linking their skills development needs to business performance.
Ashington-based Bernicia was praised for working to address skills gaps in its industry and the challenge of an ageing workforce.
3 A housing company has secured £10m in funding to help it deliver 1,000 new homes over the next three years.
Prince Bishops Homes, a subsidiary of Derwentside Housing, has secured a £10m loan from the Charity Bank to build properties for rent and extend its rent-to-buy initiative, which helps first-time buyers get on the property ladder. The investment will first see fruit at the Swallowtail Meadows development in New Brancepeth, County Durham, where 32 family homes are being built by Swale Valley Construction. A further 17 developments across the North East will follow.
4 Budget retailers have bolstered their takings by nearly a fifth to £4.9bn as millions of first-time shoppers flock to their stores.
Bargain stores such as Poundland and B&M saw a 17% rise in sales in the year to July, according to data by Nielsen Retail Performance, underscoring the fierce competition in Britain’s grocery sector.
The increasing threat from budget retailers to the ‘Big Four’ supermarkets comes as more than 2.2m households bought from a bargain store for the first time in the past year, with 52% shopping at Poundland. The growth was partly driven by the sale of fruit and vegetables, which have seen the biggest rise in popularity out of all the products on offer at budget stores – albeit from a low base.
5 The pressure on Mike Ashley to shake up corporate governance and address concerns over working practices at Sports Direct has been ramped up a notch after another shareholder group called for an independent review of how the business is run.
The Investor Forum, consisting of influential investors holding assets worth more than £14trn, has urged the retailer to “undertake a widereaching independent review of the entire governance practices at the company”.
The unprecedented criticism comes amid growing shareholder unrest over the power wielded by Newcastle United owner Mr Ashley, who owns 55% of the group and is deputy executive chairman.