Author: Rhys Gregory

Independent wedding venue owner/operators, The Oldwalls Collection, today signed a £3.5 million-pound deal to open a brand-new wedding venue. The wedding specialists have acquired former country house hotel and restaurant, Llansantffraed Court Hotel based in Abergavenny. The new owners plan to invest an additional £1.5m into the Grade 2 listed property and create over 50 jobs. Work on the major refurbishment and restoration of the property is already underway. Managing Director, Andrew Hole Said: “Its no secret that the wedding and events industry has been one of the most badly disrupted. We have had to postpone over 500 weddings across…

Private equity investor Topland has acquired Marks & Spencer’s flagship Cardiff store for £23.23m. The store occupies a prime position at 72-76 Queen Street in the heart of the city centre and is uniquely let to M&S PLC for a further 135.5 years. M&S has occupied the building for over 80 years. Topland’s acquisition reflects a net initial yield of 6.42% and a capital value of £194 per sq. ft. David Sanderson of Topland commented: “This investment follows a number of recent Topland Group acquisitions across all sectors. We are buying counter cyclically in retail where we see value, we…

Cardiff based energy service provider Sero, amidst competition of more than 150 tech companies worldwide, has been selected as one of the eight strong cohort that will make up the newly launched FinTech Wales Foundry accelerator programme. The FinTech Wales Foundry is the first of a kind no equity accelerator, which aims to scale the next generation of digital ventures in Wales. This active collaboration between some of Wales’ biggest institutions and tech’s largest forces aims to build an ecosystem of innovation that can drive jobs, deals, and investment.  Alongside founding partners Admiral Pioneer, Principality Building Society and Cardiff Capital…

A charity that supports homeless veterans from across North Wales is helping a former soldier rebuild his life after his family lost their farm and he ended up sleeping rough. Alabaré, which runs three homes in Conwy and a further six across South Wales as well as in the south of England, has launched Field Kitchen, a wood-fired pizzeria in a converted horsebox, to raise funds and re-skill some of its clients. The venture is being supported by the UK’s biggest container self-storage company, Denbigh-based Lock Stock, which has 22 storage parks across North Wales and the borders, and is…

As this summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games gets closer, Calon Wen, a Welsh farmers’ co-operative based in Pembrokeshire supplying milk, butter and cheese, has already secured a gold medal position by being the only European cheese certified as organic by the Japanese Government. Calon Wen, a group of 25 organic family run farms across Wales which produce organic dairy products sustainably, has been exporting its products to Asia with the help of the Mineichi Group since 2017. Riding the wave of the Rugby World Cup 2019, which was hosted in Japan, Calon Wen and Mineichi saw the opportunity to venture into…

The International Choral Festival Wales, the brain child of former Llangollen Music Director Eilir Owen Griffiths, will be welcoming the international choral world back to Wales in October – virtually! The online competition will take place on 30 October 2021 and will be the third iteration of the festival – the first two events being held in person in the Wales Millennium Centre in 2018 and 2019. The timing of the announcement is significant, too, as Eilir Owen Griffiths explains: “We had hoped to be able to restart the festival in person this year, and our opening concert was scheduled…

Zip World, the adventure company behind the fastest zip-line in the world, has launched their Tower Coaster, the first rollercoaster of its kind in Europe. The latest announcement follows the hugely successful launch of Zip World Tower, which has already welcomed over 10,000 visitors since it opened in April 2021. Zip World Tower has already created 56 new jobs in the local area and with the impending launch of Tower Coaster, the company plans to recruit around an additional 25 new staff this summer to add to the growing team. The Tower Coaster is an industrial style toboggan rollercoaster that…

ONE day Llyr Rees was running 10 miles and preparing to enter triathlon competitions. The next he was fighting for his life. Headteacher at Ysgol Gynradd Bontnewydd, near Caernarfon, Llyr was a fit and healthy 50 year-old when struck down by a ruptured aorta just nine months ago. The aneurysm and resulting aortic dissection left him close to death, with doctors fearing he would not even survive the ambulance journey from Ysbyty Gwynedd, Bangor, to Liverpool’s Broadgreen Hospital, having been rushed there from his Anglesey home. It was four year-old daughter Catrin who found him clutching his heart on the…

The talent, skill and ambition of South Wales’ female property and construction student undergraduates has been celebrated recently at a virtual Women in Property Student Awards event, representing Universities across the region. Families, friends and professionals from the built environment industry all celebrated the achievements of the seven regional student finalists, at the event which was held on Zoom for a second year running.  The winner, a Cardiff Metropolitan University student, will go through to the UK national final, to be held at Claridge’s in September. “A year ago, we wouldn’t have expected to be running our Student Awards event…

Installation of state-of-the-art gold coloured panels has now started at Swansea Arena. Each panel will be equipped with cutting-edge LED lighting technology, enabling the hosting of light shows around the outside of the attraction. Once the arena is complete and open, the panels could also be used to promote upcoming shows, concerts, conferences and other events. Over 1,600 gold coloured panels will be installed in total around the outside of the arena in coming months, complete with more than 95,000 LED lights. The 3,500-capacity arena is one part of the emerging £135 million Copr Bay phase one district being developed…