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IMPRESSIVE ROUND OF PROMOTIONS AT LEONARD CURTIS

Leonard Curtis Business Solutions Group has promoted 15 people to new roles from within the company as it continues to reward talent and strengthen its operations.

The ambitious firm confirmed that four of the 15 were promotions to Director level, including Paula Castle, who has been made Brand and Communications Director and Jennifer Moore who takes up a Director position within Leonard Curtis Legal for the first time.

Amy Mehers has become a Director within the personal insolvency team in Bury and Andy John takes up his Director post as head of the Group’s Hertfordshire office.

Elsewhere, specialist professionals across the Group’s offices and divisions have been recognised, including Ric Miller who becomes Senior Manager in debt advisory, Vicky Pitts who moves to Associate Director in the Group-wide compliance team, lawyer Deborah Hooton who becomes Senior Associate at Leonard Curtis Legal and Alana Mills, who has been promoted to Senior Business Development Manager.

In a number of other moves Taibah Rehman has been made a Senior Solicitor in the legal team, Anthony Bailey takes on more responsibility in the Liverpool office as Manager, Emma Edgar and Laura Hutchinson are both promoted in Bury to Assistant Manager and Supervisor respectively, Lucy Abbott becomes Assistant Manager in Birmingham, Alnur Miah takes up a Supervisor role in Preston and Amy Nelson has been promoted to Senior Administrator in Leeds.

Group Director Daniel Booth said: “We recognise that the greatest asset in our business is our employees. As 2020 marks our 25th year in business we’re delighted to report record performances in the last 12 months and it’s our team of 240 people across our 19 offices we have to thank for this.

“On behalf of the business, we would like to say congratulations on those who have earned well-deserved promotions and wish them all best for the future.”

HR Director Nicky Mitchell added: “We will continue to invest in supporting, training and developing talent to ensure we provide the best advice and services to our growing client base. We’re also increasing opportunities for those entering the professional services sector with more openings for graduates and apprentices.”

Consensus builds Box on the Docks dining experience with

Northwest diners have a unique new dining experience this Summer, as commercial fitout company Consensus Workspace has worked with Wayne Hemingway and MediaCityUK to install ‘Box on the Docks’, a series of 30 bespoke outdoor constructions for local hospitality providers in the Salford community.

Each box will provide additional outside space for eating and drinking and has been decorated by an independent artist, with designs including neon light installations and murals, sound projections and poetry. Consensus were approached by MediaCityUK and Peel to supply and fit the structures once Hemingway Designs’s proposals were approved and worked quickly to install the structures safely and securely for launch at the end of July.

Andy Plastow, MD of Consensus Workspace, comments: “The high winds at MediaCity meant that off-the-shelf structures were not an option. We worked with Elite Greenhouses to create specially strengthened glass booths and built extra strong sheds for the boxes, as they needed to be robust enough for the location while still staying true to the initial designs and providing a fun dining experience for all.”

Stephen Wild, Managing Director at MediaCityUK, said: “We know the hospitality and creative industries have been among the hardest hit by the impact of Covid-19, and ‘Box on the Docks’ is our way of helping them back on their feet. ‘Box on the Docks’ is the first in a series of initiatives, which will see us partnering with our key occupiers and the wider cultural community to deliver exciting outdoor activities during these uniquely challenging times.”

Wayne Hemingway, co-founder of HemingwayDesign said: “ At HemingwayDesign we are “glass half full” and after all these months of lockdown we are keen to emerge having fun (safely of course!) and support both local creative practitioners as well as the cafés and restaurants who have been shut down for all these months. ‘Box on the Docks’ delivers on all these and gives people a welcome dash of serendipity. It was a quick turnaround and Consensus Workspace were brilliant at getting the structures created quickly so that our artists could get to work.”

Concludes Andy: “We usually work with leisure providers, retailers and office interior specialists – so this was a little different, but great fun to build. It’s a fantastic initiative, we’ve been so impressed by how the leisure and hospitality industry has adapted throughout COVID and we were delighted to be involved.”

Retirement living communities are vital to the future of social care

A new report argues that retirement communities should be considered a major part of the solution on how care is delivered in England.

 

The Associated Retirement Community Operators (ARCO) and the County Councils Network, who co-authored the report, say that retirement communities offer care and support and could play a hugely important preventative role in addressing the adult social care funding crisis and keeping people out of hospital longer.

 

According to the report: “Retirement Communities offer a different choice for people and can help them retain independence for as long as possible, with the added insurance of care options being close at hand and readily accessible should it be needed in the future. By being open to the wider community and acting as hubs for the towns and villages around them they also keep older people engaged with wider society which is key to tackling loneliness and isolation in later years.

“Too often the central issue is of someone who has continued to live in accommodation which becomes increasingly less appropriate for them as their health deteriorates into old age – leading to a ‘cliff edge’ where they are forced to move into an institution because home is no longer safe, perhaps following a fall or illness.”

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Dr Ed Gladman, MD of Adlington Retirement Living, which owns and runs a number of retirement communities in the North West and Midlands, comments: “The report highlights some really strong examples of how retirement communities have an incredibly positive impact on both the physical and mental health of homeowners. One community found that its residents’ unplanned hospital stays reduced from 8-14 days to 1-2 days. They were also 75% more physically active, had 23% reduced levels of anxiety, and showed reduced levels of isolation and loneliness with 87% saying they never or hardly ever feel lonely. Retirement communities like ours allow people to live independently for longer and to make the most of their retirement.”

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It’s a well-known fact that people are living longer – 10.2 million people aged over 65 currently live in England and the number of people aged over 75 is projected to double in the next 30 years. The proportion of households where the oldest person is 85 or over will grow faster than for any other age group – by 2037 there are projected to be 1.42 million more such households in England. However, currently only 0.6% of over-65s in the UK live in a retirement community, which is about a tenth of the level of provision in New Zealand and Australia.

Dr Gladman explains: “In the UK there’s a general lack of awareness of modern retirement living communities and some deep-rooted preconceptions which are totally out-dated. One of our Homeowners summed it up:

I think some people have a perception of retirement communities, sitting around and doing nothing. That couldn’t be further from the truth here. Before lockdown, I used to go to Physiofit every week and had just started chair yoga. A group of us would sometimes go out for lunch at a local restaurant and I visited our on-site hair dressing salon every week. I’ve made some really good friends here.

“We offer the best of both worlds. Our Homeowners can enjoy the privacy of their own peaceful and spacious apartment, but there’s also a thriving community that they can dip into whenever they want to.

“Even during lockdown many of our Homeowners were chatting to each other from their private balconies and patios, joining each other for an online quiz and at some developments we launched a virtual exercise class and a socially distanced gardening club.”

In fact, Dr Gladman believes the experience of the Covid-19 Pandemic and the UK lockdown may have been an eye-opener for many people in the UK. 

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“Lockdown has demonstrated the reality of what a lot of elderly people are living with, in terms of the negative impact that loneliness and isolation has. It’s given many people an insight into that situation. 

“I’m really proud of the way that our on-site teams found new ways to go the extra mile to look after our Homeowners during the lockdown period. Although our restaurants were temporarily closed, our catering teams offered the same high standards of freshly-prepared lunchtime meals and delivered them directly to our Homeowners’ front doors, always maintaining social distancing and sanitising trays between deliveries. Our team members went shopping and collected prescriptions for our Homeowners and we created ‘pop-up shops’ at each development to provide a safe and easy way to pick up everyday essentials.

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“One of the concerns of the report is that there is still limited awareness of the Retirement Communities on offer, particularly among those who would most benefit. We’re hoping that by sharing some of our insight with our local business community, it might help to start a conversation with friends and family so we can remedy that situation.”

 

BRUNTWOOD SCITECH WELCOMES TRIB3 TO CIRCLE SQUARE

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The deal marks the next stage in the development of the Circle Square neighbourhood

TRIB3, the boutique fitness brand that specialises in bootcamp-style HIIT training, has announced plans to open its new global headquarters at Manchester’s newest city neighbourhood, Circle Square.

The move will mark the launch of TRIB3’s flagship studio in the UK with the Circle Square location joining more than 10 facilities worldwide across Russia, Finland, China, Spain and the UK. It will see the brand bring high intensity group workouts in a state-of-the-art fitness studio to the heart of Manchester city centre, and will provide the largest studio space the TRIB3 community has ever had access to with 60 spots available per session.

Located at the heart of Manchester’s innovation district, Circle Square – a joint venture between Bruntwood SciTech and Vita Group – is a thriving new neighbourhood which, when complete, will boast over 1,700 new homes, 1.2 million sq ft of workspace and over 100,000 sq ft of retail and leisure space, including a variety of restaurants, boutiques and bars.

TRIB3 will occupy more than 7,000 sq ft in one of Circle Square’s most unique spaces, the North Pavilion. The North Pavilion is a ground floor and subterranean space that sits within Symphony Park, Manchester’s largest and newest city centre park, and it is expected to be open to the public later this year.

Kevin Yates, CEO of TRIB3, said: “Circle Square is the perfect destination for our new, global headquarters. To be in the centre of Manchester’s technology and transformation hub is a really exciting move and it gives us the perfect base from which we can develop our franchise model and continue on our ambitious international expansion strategy. We want a flagship store that will truly showcase the TRIB3 brand and the space we have at Circle Square is going to be like nothing we’ve launched before.”

TRIB3 is the second retail and leisure operator to announce its move to Circle Square in as many weeks, demonstrating the community that is being built in Manchester’s newest neighbourhood. It is set to open in 2021 and will join the first-of-its-kind community lifestyle venue, Canvas Manchester, that will bring live music, events and entertainment to Circle Square when it opens next year.

Tom Renn, Managing Director, Bruntwood SciTech – Manchester, said: “Leading a healthy lifestyle and having balance in our lives is now more important than ever, so it is brilliant to be working with TRIB3 and welcoming them to Circle Square and it’s an honour to host their flagship store as they embark on a programme of international expansion.

“TRIB3 is creating a global movement in fitness and bringing people together to lead healthier lifestyles and to exercise in a truly unique environment – one that is more akin to a nightclub than a gym – we know this is going to really add to the city’s health and wellbeing offer and we can’t wait to welcome them to Circle Square next year.”
The new headquarters will also include the TRIB3 University, a dedicated space for the brand to deliver training for its teams, coaches and franchise partners worldwide, as well as the TRIB3 Live recording studio and shake bar. The custom-built studio will see TRIB3 launch a new virtual service so it can take its fitness experiences to the TRIB3 community wherever they are, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

The deal is subject to planning permission.

Zymurgorium Gin Announces SALSA Accreditation

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Zymurgorium, the creator of never before seen gins, liqueurs and rums, has successfully completed the SALSA (Safe and Local Supplier Approval) standard, achieving fully compliant status on their audit first time round.

The accreditation is the icing on the cake for the award-winning local business, which has undertaken a rapid expansion plan in the first half of 2020.

The Zymurgorium distillery based in Irlam, Greater Manchester, conducts its operations all under one roof including distilling, bottling, warehouse, and office functions, with state-of-the-art production and bottling facilities.

The distillery has the incredible capacity to produce nearly 70 million bottles a year, equating to a staggering 20,000km if laid end-to-end.

The Salford Business Award winners are also living wage accredited, employing 17 members of staff to create its 30 plus alcoholic products which are stocked in John Lewis, Wetherspoons, Greene King, Masters of Malt, Amber Taverns, Selfridges and via a range of wholesalers such as Matthew Clarke

The business was launched by Aaron Darke in 2013 with a multi-million pound investment into the development of a new distillery, state of the art bottling line; whilst developing a range of internal systems including implementation of the SALSA standard and recruitment of a new head of quality.

SALSA is a food-safety standard required to prove due diligence and originally drew down from the BRC standard. The SALSA certification is only granted to suppliers who are able to demonstrate to an auditor that they are able to produce safe and legal products and are committed to continually meeting the requirements of the SALSA standard with audits occurring every 12 months. The SALSA accreditation is a recognised food certification widely accepted across retailers which will now allow the Zym team to approach larger retailers and other national accounts.

Also looking to create an environmentally sustainable operation, Zymurgorium has successfully saved 156 tonnes of glass to date, following on from switching to an eco-friendly bespoke embossed bottle, with 132 tonnes of CO2 saved in glass consumption. Further investments across the group will see in excess of 1000 Tonnes of CO2 savings banked.

Jenny Birchall, head of quality at Zymurgorium, said: “We’re extremely proud of achieving the SALSA standard and the team have worked hard to make this happen. A whole new way of working has been implemented across our distilling, bottling, warehouse, and office functions in a short period of time. To gain fully compliant the first time round really was the icing on the cake and testament to all the hard work put in.”

Managing director of Zymurgorium, Aaron Darke added: “We have heavily invested in state of the art production and bottling facilities, so increased capacity and the SALSA accreditation will enable us to reach out into new markets, provide volume and due diligence side by side. We’re having some very interesting conversations at the moment and hope to be able to announce new partnerships very soon.”

Adding further prestige, Zymurgorium has also been awarded Silver in the 2020 Defence Employer Recognition Scheme (ERS) Awards.

The ERS awards encourages employers to support defence and inspire others to do the same. The scheme encompasses bronze, silver and gold awards for employer organisations that pledge, demonstrate or advocate support to defence and the armed forces community, and align their values with the Armed Forces Covenant.

This award is particularly important to the business as many of the staff have personal links to the military with over 42% of the staff connected to the wider military community including reservists and veterans.

Known for its distinct industry innovations including the world’s first Parma Violet gin liqueur and the world’s first Ruby Chocolate rum, Zymurgorium has over 30 plus spirits and liqueurs in its range, including a host of new alcoholic innovations set to launch this year.

Kellogg’s donate food to fill the holiday gap in Manchester

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The Kellogg’s factory in Old Trafford is donating one million servings of food to FareShare to help families in Trafford and Greater Manchester who are struggling financially over the summer holidays.

Boxes of Kellogg’s cereal and cereal bars will be donated to the food charity and redistributed to over 100 frontline community groups across the city region. The cereal will feed children who would usually rely on school breakfast clubs and free school meals during term time.

Miranda Kaunang, Head of Development at FareShare, said: “The extension of the Free School Meal voucher scheme is very important but there are still barriers for families that are digitally excluded, and neighbourhoods with no food retailers registered to accept the national vouchers.”

“This significant donation of food from Kellogg’s will help us reach the growing number of families who are struggling with food insecurity this summer.”

Kellogg’s is also supporting the charity Young Manchester to help fund playschemes at 14 locations in the city, as many children experience a holiday experience gap.

Imogen Gregg-Auriac, Head of Partnerships at Young Manchester said: “Young Manchester strives to improve the life chances of children and young people across the city and playschemes are one way for children to make new friends, stay active and access healthy food during the school holidays.”

The cereal company has supported school breakfast clubs for the past 22 years and extended their support to holiday projects in Manchester over the last six years.

Trio of Bury businesses change hands with Blacks during Covid-19 lockdown

Three Bury businesses have changed hands during the Covid-19 lockdown in deals arranged by Blacks Business Brokers, which has its headquarters in the town centre. The former Go Wild day nursery, the outdoor education business Communitree and the Expressos sandwich bar and café all found new owners while strict social distancing measures were in place to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Blacks Business Brokers is based in St Mary’s Place, near Bury Central Library and the Fusiliers Museum. It employs more than 30 people.

The firm’s managing director, Chris Rowlands, said, “It obviously hasn’t been business as usual over the last few months, and at the height of lockdown we faced logistical challenges around conducting viewings and arranging surveys of properties. However, these are now easing and there are plenty of buyers out there who see 2020 as a good time make a long-term investment.

“I am really pleased that, despite the challenges we have all faced, we have been able to arrange transactions that enabled our clients to move on to the next stages of their lives and allowed new owners to start making their own mark on the business scene here in Bury. We are also expecting several other business sales to complete over the weeks ahead – the entrepreneurial spirit is strong in our town, and the pandemic hasn’t changed that.”

The new owners of the three businesses recently sold by Blacks all intend to run broadly similar enterprises to those established by their predecessors.

The Go Wild day nursery, based on the site of the former Crompton Street Post Office, ceased trading in March of this year. The new owner, Wellcome Nurseries, already operates six other childcare settings around Lancashire, Essex and Greater Manchester, and plans to launch a 205-place day nursery at its newly acquired site in Bury.

Communitree is an outdoor education specialist which operates from sites in Summerseat, Ainsworth, Turton and the Smithills Estate in Bolton. It was founded in 2014 and provides a range of activities and courses ranging from primary school trips to Forest School leader training and corporate team building.

The business has been sold by its founder Danny English to the fitness and outdoor education specialist, Leanne Rostron. Ms Rostron is the co-founder of a number of other businesses including Dreamweavers Forest School, based at Bury Grammar School, and Whitefield-based Fitcamp Women and Little Fit.

Expressos sandwich bar and café has been trading on Bolton Street, close to the East Lancashire Railway station, for more than 25 years. Its new owner, Anthony Marsh, plans to continue operating a catering business from the premises.

Blacks Business Brokers, which operates nationwide, has a number of similar businesses currently on its books in Bury and the surrounding area. These include three bars in Ramsbottom town centre, as well as newsagents, restaurants and cafes around the borough.

Date announced for Manchester’s very first hybrid conference and exhibition.

Following the recent news that the events industry can reopen from 1st October, UVM EXPO 2020 launches its third industry exhibition – this time in hybrid format, on 1st October 2020.

Brought to you by Unique Venues of Manchester and a number of incredible partners, UVM EXPO 2020 will be a conference and exhibition style event, combining both live and virtual experiences, in what promises to be an unmissable showcase for hybrid events, as it aims to attract MICE professionals from the city region, around the UK and beyond.

The partners so far include Clear, Captive North, Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce, Marketing Manchester and Venue Seekers, with more to be announced.

Delegates can attend the city-centre event at Chamber Space, Manchester, or join online via the Swapcard platform to learn from industry experts from across the UK and connect with colleagues and suppliers, as part of a full day’s programme of speaker sessions, presentations, panel discussions, exhibition, entertainment and one-to-one appointments.

As well as knowledge sharing of international perspectives, the hybrid expo is aimed at event planners and will incorporate Manchester’s top venues, suppliers and industry-leading technology.

Free for event planners to attend physically or virtually, UVM EXPO 2020 takes place on Thursday 1st October between 10am and 4pm in Manchester’s Chamber Space, comprising 16 meeting spaces on Deansgate in the heart of the city.

Visit www.uvmexpo.co.uk

Mathew Jayne, director at Unique Venues of Manchester said:

“This type of event has not been done before in Manchester, so it’s all about showcasing fresh possibilities as we reimagine the future in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, as hybrid events such as this one become more commonplace. Throughout the process, we’ll collate our findings and share them with the industry, while asking for feedback and suggestions, with the aim of getting our sector back on track post-Covid-19. We’re very much looking forward to welcoming global events industry experts and event organisers, plus the finest venues, hotels and suppliers across Manchester.”

HIGH-GROWTH TECH FIRM JOINS RAPIDLY EXPANDING DIGITAL COMMUNITY AT ALDERLEY PARK

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CurrentBody, the world’s largest e-commerce supplier of beauty devices, has announced plans to relocate its headquarters to Glasshouse at Alderley Park in a move that will see it join a thriving hub of digital and technology businesses.

The high-growth beauty tech firm, which specialises in advanced home-use beauty devices is backed by BGF, the UK’s most active investor in growing businesses, and Mercia Asset Management. CurrentBody has experienced a period of significant growth and doubled revenues year-on-year over the past five years.

To support this trajectory it will take 5,300 sq. ft of office space at Glasshouse on a 10-year lease. The move marks the next major step on CurrentBody’s journey and will provide a workspace that matches CurrentBody’s ambitious growth plans, supporting the business’ future international expansion and enabling it to continue to attract the best talent.

CurrentBody will join a wealth of forward-thinking businesses at Glasshouse, many of which are working in areas such as AI, VR, digital animation and digital marketing, as they come together in a collaborative ecosystem to share ideas and exchange knowledge.

The business’ new workspace will include a unique balcony overlooking the central atrium, and its employees will benefit from the full range of amenities at Alderley Park. This includes a new gym and sports complex, in addition to the scenic walking, running and cycling routes.

Laurence Newman, CEO of CurrentBody, said: “We have been on an upward trajectory for a number of years now and to support our growth plans we need a workspace that will match our ambitions. Glasshouse at Alderley Park is that space, and we’re excited about the opportunities joining this vibrant business community will bring as we accelerate our growth plans.

“It is our mission is to be the leading online home for health and beauty technology and we want to offer the largest selection of safe, clinically-proven electrical health and beauty products in the world. To help us achieve this goal it makes sense to surround ourselves with like-minded pioneers in the health, life sciences and technology sectors, and we don’t think there’s any better place to achieve this than at Glasshouse.”

CurrentBody is the latest business to announce a move to Glasshouse following the completion of the £30m re-development in February 2020. Glasshouse, which is part of Bruntwood SciTech’s £247m investment in Alderley Park, is already home to companies including Lokulus, Venn Digital, Elixir Software and Chaucer.

Dr Kath Mackay, managing director Bruntwood SciTech – Alderley Park: “CurrentBody is a really exciting business and this move will see them join a community of tech firms and innovators that are doing some fantastic things here at Glasshouse. It’s great news and we’re really looking forward to welcoming them to Alderley Park.”

The deal was facilitated by Andrew Cowell at OBI who commented: “The space at Glasshouse provides the ideal platform for this world class tech firm to continue to grow and innovate from the North West.”

Colliers, Hallams & OBI are agents on Glasshouse.

Glorious Creative brand HarperNorth, the new HarperCollins’ seeking voices from the north

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HarperCollins, one of the world’s most foremost book publishers has opened the doors to its first Manchester-based division; HarperNorth. The newly established Northern Quarter office will be home to an experienced team who join from publishers such as Manchester University Press and Penguin Random House, led by Oli Malcom, who has been promoted to Executive Director.

The team have appointed Glorious Creative after looking for a logo both in tune with the brand’s existing identity and evolved enough to reflect the new venture. One of Manchester’s most established branding & design agencies, Glorious has extensive experience in working with clients from the arts and creative industries and designed the This is the Place book to raise charity funds following the 2017 Manchester Arena attack. Esteemed projects have also included work for Tate Liverpool, The Whitworth Art Gallery and Cheltenham Festivals, as well as a range of growing startups, SMEs and market leaders from across the UK.

HarperNorth briefed Glorious to create a strong, bold symbol and one that alludes to Northern identity. Glorious used the brand name initials ‘H’ and ‘N’ as a starting point for the iconography. The outcome was a symbolic logo, one that eludes to the north’s industrious past and illustrious future – a simple single stroke design representative of factories, mills, rivers and waterways. The expansive variety of genres set to be published under the new Manchester imprint meant the branding needed to be inclusive and required a logo design that would sit well on a variety of book spines.

HarperNorth will span fiction and non-fiction, from debuts to established names, harnessing their extensive global network to give diverse writers a wide readership. Now accepting submissions, the aim is to search out and support talent from across the North West and surrounding counties.

‘Glorious understood us immediately – they brought fresh ideas, creative energy, authenticity and flexibility to the project. We have already had a huge amount of positive feedback on the new logo, which we believe both roots us in the region and positions us as future-focussed. We’ve had a great rapport with the team at Glorious and look forward to continuing our working relationship with them as part of our collaboration with talent across the North,’ – says Genevieve Pegg, Publishing Director, of the successful partnership between HarperNorth and the Glorious team.

Mark Ross, Managing and Creative Director at Glorious says ‘We’re experienced in helping brands new to the North West connect with the local heritage and to a Northern audience. Supporting regional writing talent and bringing HarperCollins’ new imprint to the North is a great initiative, and one we’re very proud to have been involved with.’

Veterans of Manchester branding and design, the Glorious Creative team are always eager to help brands bring Northern roots to the surface of their identity.

HarperNorth is set to publish the first title with the new logo this autumn.