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[bizgrinnell]

Highlights of a week in Peterborough business

It’s been another successful week for the Peterborough business community where the focus has again been on job creation and where even the first interest rate hike in a decade could not shake confidence.

Hot on the heels of supermarket giant Lidl’s announcement of 500 jobs at a planned distribution park in Peterborough  http://bit.ly/2iTRlSJ two more companies have unveiled proposals to move into the city.

Discount retailer B&M is to create 60 jobs at a new store in the Ortongate Shopping Centre http://bit.ly/2zqqBQQ while new start-up manufacturer of modular buildings, Lesko Modular Group,  will create 120 jobs over the next year at new premises at Gateway Park, in Orton Southgate. http://bit.ly/2z0pV41

On a smaller but tasty scale, artisan chocolate maker Islands Cacao and Chocolate Ltd, of Orton Southgate, will create 10 jobs as it steps up production after securing a grant from the local enterprise partnership for new manufacturing equipment. http://bit.ly/2ymnsS5   

(Picture: Cocoa growing under the shade of coconut trees)

However, dark clouds are starting to gather on the city’s bright horizon. 

Some business leaders are muttering, privately at the moment, that Peterborough City Council is not doing enough to ensure there is sufficient affordable housing for the number of people the city needs to fill the jobs being created.

Without homes of the right quality or cost, people, will not want to move into the city. Companies will end fighting each other for staff - pushing up wages and leaving many vacancies unfilled.

It is a problem that needs addressing sooner rather than later. For the moment the drive to make Peterborough a more attractive  location in which to do business goes on.

It has been fuelled by the owners of the already impressive Lynch Wood Park (pictured below) who plan to carry out a year long refurbishment of the business park with some exciting additions. http://bit.ly/2imqivq  

The first rise in interest rates for 10 years on Thursday did little to unsettle the nerves of bosses of some of Peterborough’s leading companies. However, there were objections from the city’s Chamber of Commerce. http://bit.ly/2zctROS  

Finally, on a slightly techie note, Peterborough has been named as one of the top 10 Smart Cities in the UK. http://bit.ly/2xPRQjl

In fact, the city was ranked in ninth place but that’s still one place ahead of neighbouring Cambridge!

[bizgrinnell]

Boat builder’s numbers game

Luxury boat builder Fairline Yachts near Peterborough has just celebrated its 50th anniversary with an spectacular  owners’ party at Port de Sóller, in Mallorca.

It brought a record number of Fairline boats together - 50 -  from across the Fairline range. Each one representing a year since the first Fairline-named boat was manufactured.

It is a remarkable achievement for this British company - especially as it has really only been in existence for a year!

Fairline Yachts was set up by two Russian investors in early 2016 after they bought the assets of Fairline Boats, which had collapsed in December the previous year with loss of about 350 jobs.

I’m all for a party and it is great to see this Oundle-based boat builder on a crest of a wave. However, should not the new company be focused on building its own history and not wrapping itself in the past of a private equity run business that in the end brought anguish to its employees?