What happened in world of Yorkshire business during 2023: October to December

Deals were agreed to sell up to 71 stores to Poundland and to sell up to 51 shops to fellow rival discounter B&M. Poundland said it had offered jobs to more than 200 former Wilko workers.

The Wilko brand has not disappeared from the high street completely despite the collapse, after The Range struck a deal to buy its brand, website and intellectual property for £5 million. It opened new Wilko stores in Plymouth, Exeter and Luton in early December.

In late October, it was the turn of Bradford-based Safestyle UK to enter administration.

The company, which had been the country’s leading installer of windows and doors, was wound down with around 700 people losing their jobs. It has subsequently come to light it owed around £30m at the time of its collapse.

There was more positive news in the same month for Leeds Bradford Airport, which announced the imminent start of a £100m terminal expansion and refurbishment programme designed to shed its “ugly duckling” image.

Work will involve a three-storey extension to the terminal and “significant refurbishment” of the existing building in the first major improvement since it opened in 1968.

Meanwhile, debt collection specialist Lowell moved its 1,600 staff into a new purpose-built £52m office building at Thorpe Park Leeds.

UK CEO John Pears said despite the impact of the pandemic on office working the company felt it was important to continue with their plans – and are already seeing the investment bearing fruit.

"The vision we had was a place where people could innovate but also collaborate as well,” he said.

"As we have gone through Covid with hybrid working and people getting more comfortable in a blend between their work environment and home environment, it is really important to have a welcoming work environment."

In November, Northern independent supermarket chain Booths made global headlines after announcing it intends to axe almost all its self-service checkouts as part of a strategy to promote good customer service.

​Booths, which is a family owned and operated independent supermarket with stores across Lancashire, Yorkshire, Cumbria, Cheshire and Greater Manchester, said the move was in response to feedback from shoppers.

A spokesman for Booths said: “We believe colleagues serving customers delivers a better customer experience and therefore we have taken the decision to remove self-checkouts in the majority of our stores.

“We have based this not only on what we feel is the right thing to do but also having received feedback from our customers."

In the same month, it was reported that grocery price inflation had fallen below 10 per cent for the first time since July 2022. But experts noted that consumers would still be “feeling the pinch” despite the welcome moment.

Yorkshire food-production giant Cranswick separately said that post-Brexit recruitment pressures on the business have eased after being allowed to hire almost 500 Filipino butchers.

In late 2021, the company told MPs that “each of the Cranswick sites have been affected by the widely reported skilled butcher shortage as a result of Brexit and the lack of qualified British butchers”.

It called for improvements to the system around skilled worker visas and has subsequently been able to recruit hundreds of new staff from the Philippines.

Brexit-related disruption was removed as a “material risk” in the company’s latest accounts this quarter.

In December, mining giant Anglo American said it was prioritising investment in its multi-billion new fertiliser mine in North Yorkshire as it announced cuts to production elsewhere in the globe.

Anglo American will reduce production at its Kumba iron ore operations in South Africa and will go down to one operational plant at its Los Bronces copper mine in Chile.

Its massive North Yorkshire scheme known as the Woodsmith Project to mine for crop nutrient-containing mineral polyhalite is unaffected by the cuts plan.

Duncan Wanblad, Chief Executive of Anglo American, cited crop nutrients as an area of investment which will to help secure long-term growth for the business.

The Woodsmith Project involves the creation of a new mining site near Sneaton to the south of Whitby and a 23 mile tunnel that will transport polyhalite to new processing and shipping facilities on Teesside.

The product will be sold as a fertiliser suitable for organic use that can boost crop yields and aid more sustainable farming. The site is expected to be operational by 2027.