The life and less ordinary times of LDC

LDC is excited to start what will be a phenomenal sporting year supporting 5 athletes from the UK’s premier athletic club – Birchfield Harriers.  LDC has committed to sponsor Birchfield Harrier’s ‘Junior Development’ programme in order to provide much needed funding to support the athletes from across the Midlands region, all of whom are considered to be rising stars in UK track and field events.

Birchfield Harriers, based in Birchfield is the UK’s premier athletics club and has been represented at every summer Olympics bar one since 1908. Based at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham they have access to a High Performance Centre, an indoor facility which provides indoor training for a range of events including long jump, triple jump, high jump, shot putt, and pole vault. Their aim is to get 12 of their athletes into the 2012 Olympics. 

LDC is supporting Jade Perry (Hepathlon),  Katie Stainton (300m hurdles), Melisa Hanson (100m and 200m), Jake Porter (110m Hurdles) and Rowan May (Pole Vault). See the below profiles to find out more:-

		Jake Porter 110m Hurdles Jake is an U20 athlete and has won national titles and English titles in the sprint hurdles. His major goal for 2012 it selection for the World Junior Championships.
		Melisa Hanson – 100m and 200m The highlight of Melisa’s 2011 season was winning the English Schools Championships. She suffered a hamstring injury the end of the season but is now back in full training and hopes to lower her current personal best of 11.83 seconds.
		Rowan May – Pole Vault Rowan is a highly tamented pole vaulter who in his first season as an U17 won both the U17 and U20 outdoor championships and the U17 indoor championships where he set an age group record of 4.91cm. he was selected for the World Youth Games in 2011 and is looking to break the 5m mark this season.
		Katie Stainton – 400m Hurdles Katie moves into the U20 age group in 2012 where she will move to the 400m Hurdles from the the 300m hurdles. She has won a number of titles at this event and was the bronze medallist at the English Schools Championship.
		Jade Perry – Heptathlon Jade is following in the footsteps of many successful Birchfield Harriers heptathletes including denise Lewis, Kelly Sotherton and Louise Hazel. She is looking forward to a successful season as she continues her improvement in the U20 age group.

Last week LDC, in conjunction with CBBC, held a seminar on the practicalities of expanding business into China.

This event was hosted by LDC at our Vine Street offices and our guests, MDs and CEOs from Mid Market businesses, heard from a number of contributors about the financial, tax and legal implications of making this move.

Whilst a full report can be found in the attached document both LDC and CBBC would like to thank the speakers at this event, Nick Emmerson and Sharon Shi from Eversheds, Maria Carradice and Craig Wilkinson from LDC, Steve Roberts-Mee from UK Export Finance, and Duncan Levesley, Senior Manager at CBBC.

A list of speakers and their biographies can also be found here.

For more information about LDC’s operation in Asia please contact Craig Wilkinson by email at cwilkinson@ldc.co.uk

LDC’s South Region encompassing the Reading and Bristol offices has been a key part of LDC’s regional footprint for over 13 years, and in that time, has played a key role in developing LDC’s investment track record. The team have also had a busy 2011 with new investment activity surpassing £50million with investments in eConveyancer, A-Gas and EDM Group as well as committing a further £50million into the oil and gas sector investor Epi-V. They have also recently exited Airclaims, Ascend and Davies Group in which these companies achieved transformational growth throughout LDC’s investment.

This year’s Southerly Forecast publication, the seventh edition, focuses upon growth of businesses in any economic climate with case studies about LDC’s recent investments, exits and portfolio companies including Ascend, Airclaims, Leasedrive, EDM Group and Quantel. The publication also features an insightful interview on delivering growth with Ruby McGregor-Smith, CEO of the FTSE 250 Bristol-based company Mitie Group. It also reviews some of the technologies that are driving growth in the media sector..(ever heard of an Xbox or YouTube?) with Peel Hunt’s Patrick Yau, an area of focus for LDC.

A full copy of the newsletter can be downloaded here: Southerly Forecast-Winter 2011.

The Independent Group launch their new Group logo on the nose cone of the Virgin F1 race car at Monza this weekend.

Following a period of intense activity the Independent Group is now primed to move into the next stage of its commercial development. And it has been an interesting and at times difficult period for the group. 

The Independent Group now forms the headline Company for the recently integrated Ansa Group, Independent Inspections Ltd., Home & Comforts and Chem-Dry companies, all centrally located in Preston, Lancashire. 

The integration process whilst on-going meant developing a common ‘shared services’ platform that centrally coordinates the operational and most active elements of the business. All of this had to be achieved in a timely manner whilst ensuring the service to their client base was maintained. And here was a great example of when LDC’s Value Enhancement capability had a role to play in helping the business to manage the change – integration being a prime area of expertise for this team. 

It will now be interesting to see how the business performs over the coming months especially as there is expansion in key areas of the business that is supporting strong growth opportunities. This is particularly the case in the supply and fit of floor coverings such as carpet and laminates. 

Andrew Lloyd-Jones, the CEO of the Independent Group believes the enlarged business is now ‘well positioned’ in the market with a number of clearly defined strategic objectives for the business. 

It is however clear that a new approach under a single unifying Group brand will provide another catalyst for the business, employees and it is hoped the prospects for current and future customers!                   

Editor’s Notes:

The Integrated group offers consolidated Claims Management Outsourcing services via Expert Validation for all UK Insurers. Predominantly active in the flooring & furniture, fire & flood restoration and drainage arenas the Independent Group delivers cost effective end to end solutions across these perils covering repudiation, fraud detection, restoration, fulfilment or cash settlement within the shortest cycle time, backed up by innovative software demonstrating on a claim by claim basis the lowest cost solution.

By Phil Riley, Chief Executive, Orion Media

From the days of crackling, muffled long wave to the now crisp sound of digital stations, radio has always been an influential source of entertainment and information.

The days of a few national channels and just one local station in each part of the UK are long gone. We are spoilt for choice, with an abundance of channels to entertain us across AM, FM, DAB and online.

Latest figures from Radio Joint Audience Research Ltd (RAJAR) show that radio listening is at record levels, with almost 48 million adults tuning into their favourite radio stations every week – that’s more than 9 out of every 10 adults in the UK.

However, I would argue that despite all this variety and choice, local radio remains at the heart of the radio experience due to its importance to its region and community, with the evidence coming from the success we are having at Orion Media.

In and amongst all this national competition, our own stations are doing well, growing audiences at an annual rate of just under 6 per cent since acquisition in 2009. We are particularly pleased with the performance of our two big hitters, East Midlands regional Gem 106, and Birmingham-based brmb, both of which are posting some impressive recent listening figures. brmb has registered an extra 92,000 listeners in the last six months, and Gem106 has grown by 43 per cent since the beginning of last year. I have to say a big thank you to LDC for supporting all of our radio stations since 2009, including backing a significant recent marketing campaign for Gem, and one in the pipeline for brmb. 

So why are people choosing to tune into local radio stations like ours?

Music is of course a key ingredient, and our carefully researched and selected mix of oldies and current tracks is designed to appeal to a core audience in their thirties.

Functional elements like up-to-date local news, sport, travel and event coverage is also critical and a key USP. As a recent example, all of our stations played an important role in ensuring that people from across the region were kept fully informed of the riots that were taking place in and around Birmingham, West Bromwich and Nottingham. Our riots coverage meant all of our stations saw huge surges in their social media engagement, both online and via facebook & twitter, demonstrating the need for the stations to embrace a multi-media future.

The personality of our presenters is also hugely important, and we have worked hard over the past two years to recruit talented DJs across the Midlands, to augment the great presenters who were here when we arrived. Also important is our ability to let our listeners engage with the stations. Our listeners want to be entertained – and quite often we let them entertain each other with their unique take on life by letting them interact with us using phone, text, email or facebook response.

Finally, wrapping this into a cohesive approach, we believe our current success is due to our commitment to “belonging” – ensuring that our listeners know their local station belongs to the area it serves. That involves giving something back, and this year our stations collectively will have raised well over £500,000 for local charities due to the generosity of our listeners and clients.

It has been a fantastic few years for us, made possible by the continuing support from LDC, and with listeners up and ad revenue growing, the future for Orion Media looks as bright as the constellation it is named after.