GREATER Manchester Business Stories

From his start at a local comprehensive school in Orrell, Wigan, our guest this week, Jonathan Boyers, has built a phenomenally successful career in the world of Corporate Finance with KPMG and now leads their UK Corporate Finance practice from his base in Greater Manchester.This is a fascinating conversation as Jonathan shares how he discovered his love for the world of Corporate Finance, what really goes on behind the scenes of big business transactions, spending his career in one com...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations.Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

We're back!After a summer hiatus I'm to share this first new episode in a while. Let's call it the start of Season 2 shall we?And what a way to kick off with the fab Naomi Timperley who is Co-Organiser of Manchester Tech Festival, a new event for the sector that is launching this October.Enjoy this conversation with Naomi but more importantly head to https://www.manchestertechfestival.co.uk to find out more. As Naomi says everyone is invited and you absolutely don't have to be a '...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations.Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Praetura Ventures are a VC firm based in Greater Manchester that lead with a 'More than Money' promise. Alongside the funds they invest in some of the most exciting businesses in the North West they also put a huge focus on nurturing those businesses, and the entrepreneurs leading them, to inspire even greater success.Some phenomenal success stories are already coming through their stable (Bankify, Peak, Sorted, Pixelmax and many more) and Dave shares his desire to kick Praetura o...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations.Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

You may already know the wonderful Jennie Johnson MBE from the hugely successful Kids Allowed chain of nurseries that she founded in 2003. In this conversation Jennie starts by sharing the story behind her switch from a successful IT career into the world of Entrepreneurship and how she pioneered a completely new approach in a well established sector.However we quick move on to her failed attempts to retire having sold Kids Allowed and then the lightning bolt of inspiration that led to ...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations.Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

This episode is about Vegan chocolate that tastes like chocolate chocolate. In fact it's the story behind the fastest growing Vegan chocolate brand in the UK and they just happen to be based in Greater Manchester.But behind the delicious end products this conversation tells the inspiring story of Love Raw the business that Rimi Thapar has built with her husband Manav (whilst starting a young family at the same time).Love Raw are absolutely smashing it and if you haven't checked them out...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations.Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Except for when they’re taking down an evil corporate entity in a John Grisham novel lawyers tend to get a bad reputation. But the reality is that lawyers often work long hours, under extreme pressure and in situations where a single mistake can have huge consequences. And alongside all this pressure they’re often working with clients who are going through a particularly stressful event. So what I found really refreshing in this conversation with Matt Fleetwood was that in ta...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations.Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Having worked as a buyer with Sainsburys and the Coop Ben Davies had seen too many products launch into supermarkets and fail to meet expectations, often with costly consequences.Realising that technology provided the opportunity to build a platform that could help rapidly inform retailers and brands he set about creating Vypr - an intelligence platform that captures responses from the public at scale. Vypr is now plugged in to the NPD process for numerous companies, large and small, te...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations.Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Former teacher Rachel has launched Fearne & Rosie to help combat the growing issue of kids 'sugar loading' at breakfast. Her jams and condiments business makes a range of lower sugar products that contain more real fruit and Rachel shares here how she built a team or partners and advisors to make the business a reality.Now sold in Waitrose, Morrisons & Ocado Rachel is embarking on the exciting step of raising investment through Crowd-funding to support their next stage of growt...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations.Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Fintech startup Hydr was launched by Nicola and her Co-Founder Hector Macandrew in May 2021. Using their combined experience of the industry, and taking advantage of advances in technology, they have created a game-changing invoice finance platform that promises to liberate small businesses from the timely burden of using similar, more traditional, services.In this conversation Nicola shares how technology has enabled Hydr to disrupt an industry and their ultimate goal for Hydr to help...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations JEmail gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Happy 2022! We're back with a BANG with this amazing conversation with Steve Oliver the CEO of musicMagpie and Chair of the Stockport Economic Alliance.Steve shares the amazing story of how he and the musicMagpie team took the business from his converted garage to its float on the stock market in 2021 that valued the business at >£200m.He also digs into the 'Smart for the Planet' vision for the business that's reflected in the positive impact musicMagpie has giving second, third and ...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations JEmail gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

New Year Resolution time - do any of yours involve money management or that special something that you'd like to save up for?Either way you should be listening in to this inspiring story of two female founders shaking things up in an industry that has failed to address female financial 'wellness' for far too long.What started as an anonymous blog launched by Laura to share her own money management 'playbook' that she had created has now become 'Financielle', an app and community helping peopl...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations JEmail gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Merry Christmas you filthy animals!My gift to you is this banger of a conversation with Ash Jones who is an absolute guru on the topic of personal branding. Through his agency, Great Influence, Ash and his team work with some of the biggest names in business in Greater Manchester and beyond from Steven Bartlett to Sacha Lord, Gary Neville, Katy Lesson and Dom McGregor.If you're a business leader, or aspire to be one, you should give this episode a listen as it's fantastic starting point...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations JEmail gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

If you’re starting, or scaling, a business in Greater Manchester and you haven’t come across the Business Growth Hub then this is the conversation for you! The Business Growth Hub exists to support the success, and economic growth, of businesses in the area through free (yes I said free!) one-to-one time with subject matter experts or through the events, specialist programmes and many other services they offer, across all areas of running a business.They are truly one of the top reasons...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations JEmail gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Ged Tivey has been a partner and investor at the heart of some of the most impactful businesses in Greater Manchester over the past decade from Zerum to e3creative and most recently with Gary Neville’s Relentless Group. Ged has now launched his own design and venture studio - Kameno - making it his mission to help build purpose-led businesses that positively impact the world.In this conversation we cover off how Ged accelerated his career by working in smaller businesses and he also spe...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations JEmail gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Imagine spending your career building towards a single dream of opening your own gym and then finally achieving that dream in the same year that a Global Pandemic causes gyms to close and gym opening and attendance become a hugely debated and controversial topic. 😳This is the rollercoaster that Steve Hoyles has been through over the past two years as he planned for and launched 'MyGym' with his business partner David Sullivan.However in this conversation Steve shares how the gym is now ...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations JEmail gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations JEmail gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

New Local Heroes! If you want to celebrate the very best of Greater Manchester then look no further than this conversation with Matt Haworth and Ed Cox of Reason Digital. It was humbling and inspiring to hear the story of how their digital agency Reason Digital has grown into a 50-strong team of experts applying their skills, and the power of technology, for good. Since their launch in 2007 Reason Digital have been creating impactful digital solutions for charities and not-f...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Stockport has been through some tough times but in recent years the town has begun to bounce back with regeneration, inward investment and most excitingly an influx of great eating and dining locations.Adding to this buzz was been the arrival of Stockport Gin in 2019. A business born out of Paul & Cheryl Sharrocks passion for great gin that has thrived through the lockdowns of 2020 and saw the launch in summer 2021 of their own gorgeous small batch craft distillery right in th...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Richard has been helping SME and global businesses to succeed across the world for over 20 years. He set up his own design consultancy, Brandon, with his wife over nine years ago. He leads the key client partnerships within the business, looking to help make a creative and commercial difference to every brand and business he partners with. In this conversation Richard takes us behind the scenes of how Brandon went from being born out a desire to ‘escape’ London initially but has transfor...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Dr Ron Hill MBE is quite simply a legend of the sport of running – a world record holder, an Olympian, a running entrepreneur and someone who worked tirelessly to champion the health benefits of running. Over 40 years ago Graham Richards started work at Ronhill Sports, the innovative running apparel business started by Dr Ron Hill MBE in 1970. He is now Managing Director of Ronhill Sports and Hilly Clothing (another business started by Dr Ron Hill) and in this episode shares the in...

The Buzz: Angela Boggiano of At The KitchenOn 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Angela Boggiano is a food editor, food stylist and author who was born and raised in North Manchester and her Italian family heritage inspired a love of food that took her to London and a diverse career at the heart of the UK food 'movement' of the 90s and noughties - working on TV projects with personalities like Nigella Lawson and for titles such as Delicious and BBC Good Food Magazine.Moving back to Manchester Angela launched At The Kitchen, located in Cheadle Hulme, in partnership with he...

On 'The Buzz' we hit our guests from the main GMBS podcast with 20 rapid-fire questions to find out more about their personal connections to Greater Manchester through music, leisure, sport and of course food & drink.Do drop us a line with questions and interview recommendations Email gmbspodcast@gmail.comInstagram @gmbspodcastProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles

Joe Harper co-founded Just Bee with his friend Andy Sugden back in 2015 with two simple goals; to create exciting and healthy products using honey; and an ongoing mission to help Save the Bees. Looking for innovative ways to use honey they launched a range of soft drinks naturally sweetened with honey rather than sugar. Over the next 5 years they built distribution of their range with retailers from Fortnum & Mason to Waitrose, Boots and WHSmith before the COVID-19 lockdowns o...

The one where Joe chats about how and why this podcast has come about.Instagram @gmbspodcastEmail gmbspodcast@gmail.comProduced & Presented by Joe TaylorSound & Music Editing by Andy Blackaby-Iles