Will the public have to pay nearly £20m to save Gloucestershire Airport?
The collapse of Gloucestershire Airport's deal leaves businesses in uncertainty; critics say £100,000s has gone to consultants and the debt level is now too great for any sale to get off the ground.
Dear readers,
More on Gloucestershire Airport today.
We broke the story last week that after eight months the deal to sell Gloucestershire Airport was off. Uncertainty - like Kyptonite for businesses looking to make decisions - hangs over those based on the site, and unfortunately the article below doesn’t do anything to change that.
Councillors have begun asking questions over what’s happened and how much money has been spent to date on consultants - and we’re none the wider as to whether it will ever be sold.
With so much debt - which we understand is now closing in on £20 million, it seems any sale is unlikely to get off the ground unless the councils write that debt off. That would be £20m of public money. But is it a price worth paying for a site which is also an economic catalyst for the county?
Special thanks to Carmelo Garcia at the BBC for his help with this one.
In more positive news, a festival due to take place in Cirencester this weekend aimed at showcasing the plethora of homes and interiors businesses based in or linked to the Cotswolds has brought to our attention a rather special entrepreneur who lives right here in the county.
As we seek to lend support to the event, we thought we’d showcase his CV a little below. More proof that the county is home to some great business leaders, and some great businesses too.
Have a great weekend.
Best regards,
Andrew Merrell (editor).
Diary Dates…
Friday:
🤣 Comedians Rosie Jones and Charlie Baker are set to play The Sub Rooms, Stroud. Doors open at 6.30pm. More here.
Saturday:
🏉 Gloucester Rugby play Harlequins at Twickenham in round 11 of the Gallagher Prem. KO 3pm.
⚽ Gloucester City FC play Uxbridge FC at home at 3pm.
⚽ Cheltenham Town FC play Notts County FC away at 3pm.
⚽ Forest Green Rovers FC play Wealdstone FC at home at 3pm.
Sunday:
🤣 Comedian Jason Manford performs at the Everyman Theatre, Cheltenham. More here.
🎻🎶 English Symphony Orchestra: Spring Equinox – A live concert at Cheltenham Town Hall. 3pm. More here.
Future thinking… more diary dates
🏇 Willans LLP solicitors and Cheltenham Open Door, the Cheltenham-headquartered law firm’s nominated charity for the year, invite you to join them for an evening of fun, fundraising and friendly competition. The entry fee, which all goes to the charity, puts you and a team in with a chance of winning one or more of six recorded races. Price includes two drinks and pizza. The date has been moved from the end of February to 23 April. At The Bottle of Sauce, Cheltenham, from 6pm. More here.
Briefing notes…
🏉💷 Arch West Country rivals to Gloucester Rugby, yes, that team from Bath, has released news that will get many teams thinking. Billionaire Sir James Dyson has announced he will “commit substantial new capital” to the club to help reduce its debt and support development of a new stadium. Apparently the deal “establishes a long-term 50:50 partnership between Sir James Dyson and Bruce Craig. The latter will continue to run Bath Rugby and lead the club’s next phase of development on and off the field.” Sir James, a supporter of Bath Rugby for more than 45 years, said the partnership was deeply personal.
🧑🏼💻 Gloucestershire-based technology and managed service provider (MSP) Emerge Digital has announced its B Corp Certification. It marks a period of strategic growth for the business following its recent expansion into South Wales and the appointment of business development director, former professional rugby player Alex Cuthbert. Last month the company also revealed a new three-year deal as part of its technology partnership with premiership team, Gloucester Rugby. The business now employs 24 staff, turnover has grown 15 per cent year-on-year and the number of supported users increased by 30 per cent over the last 12 months. More here.
The hugely successful Gloucestershire entrepreneur you’ve probably never heard of
An event in the Cotswolds this weekend has a rather special entrepreneur on the bill - a man who’s built and sold businesses for millions. He’s still at it - and he lives right here in Gloucestershire.
A former barrister and divorce lawyer who became a serial entrepreneur, founding and selling several multi-million pound businesses, is the headline name at Gloucestershire’s newest festival.
Rohan Blacker will be interviewed live on stage at the town’s Corn Hall by property PR consultant Jen Monk at this weekend’s Cotswold Homes and Interiors Festival in Cirencester on Saturday and Sunday.
Blacker’s CV includes being founder of Sofa.com, Pooky Lighting and his latest venture, Schplendid sofas, but the event also sees another fellow-Cotswold resident preening himself in readiness and - as is his forté - bound to draw plenty of attention.
That man is interior designer and television personality Laurence Llewellyn-Bowen, who is also on the bill - as are numerous local businesses in the homes and interior sector.
Blacker’s business career started when he quit the bar to found food delivery company Deliverance, a forerunner of Deliveroo, before selling it and going on to set up the London Soup Company and a restaurant called The Pen.
Deliverance sold for £5.5 million, before he and his business partner, Pat Reeves, turned their attention to the market for sofas, seeing an opportunity as the internet began to establish itself as a new marketplace.
That venture was Sofa.com, with Blacker and Reeves setting up the website and first showroom in 2006 and going on to sell £2m of sofas in that first year.
In 2015 they sold the business to private equity firm CBPE Capital for £50 million, with Blacker remaining a non-executive director.
Lighting business Pooky appeared in 2014. The business has a warehouse in Cheltenham and a showroom in Gloucester and in May 2024 had a turnover of £31.3 million with net assets of £14.5 million.
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Will the public have to pay nearly £20m to save Gloucestershire Airport?
The collapse of Gloucestershire Airport’s deal leaves businesses in uncertainty, critics say £100,000s has gone to consultants, and the debt level is now too great for any sale to get off the ground.
Attempts to clarify the situation with Gloucestershire Airport following the collapsed sale of the 375-acre site last week have only added to the uncertainly and confusion - and left an even bigger question mark over its future.
Councillors have begun rounding on the leaders of Gloucester City Council - which together with Cheltenham Borough co-own the airport - calling for answers, not least about how much has been spent so far on consultancy fees.
One of them suggesting that spend is as much as £200,000.
Gloucestershire accountants Hazlewoods and lawyers BPE are believed to have been involved in advising the councils.
When Horizon backed out of the deal last week - after eight months of ‘due diligence’ by all parties, it released a statement to The Raikes Journal explaining the stumbling block had been money - with its backers no longer feeling the UK was a good place for them to invest.
Raikes has since seen a stinging email from Kerry Evans, technical director at aviation maintenance specialists RGV Aviation, one of the businesses based at the airport, to the leaders of the local authorities demanding they do better and reminding them they have a duty to the businesses on the site to communicate what on earth was going on.
Whether it is this that prompted the statement from city council leader Jeremy Hilton, or the social media comments calling the situation “a farce” is unclear, but Hilton’s words don’t seem to have created the desired sense of certainty around the site or its future.
Hilton directly challenged the Horizon’s claim that it had pulled out because of money, and said the priority now was to keep the airport operational and to deal with the mounting debt.
We have previously reported that debt level to be at least £12m, but one insider told Raikes they believed it was now in the region of £19 million, questioning whether that actually made Gloucestershire Airport Ltd insolvent.
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