Our client base includes corporate and commercial businesses, many of whom have international exposures. We also arrange cover for high net worth individuals.

With our head office based in the North West, we have a network of offices throughout the UK and Ireland.

Our clients are from a wide variety of industry sectors and we have specialisms or schemes covering the following:

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We deliver bespoke insurance programme design, claims and risk management services – all with a clear focus upon reducing the cost of risk.

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Why not give us a call now on 0161 817 4450 and speak to Matthew Jarrold or visit our website – www.griffithsandarmour.com.

Known as the region’s property ‘Oscars’, the prestigious contest held at The Point, Lancashire County Cricket Club celebrates inspirational initiatives in the land, property and construction sectors.

The impressive £100 million new headquarters for The Co-operative Group – One Angel Square – won the Commercial property accolade, as well as the Design & Innovation award before being crowned ‘Project of the Year’ in front of over 300 of the region’s property professionals.

One Angel Square is the largest commercial office building in the Manchester and has also achieved the highest scoring BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ office rating in the country, setting a new national benchmark in sustainable design within the commercial sector.

RICS judges said every aspect of the building has been constructed with sustainability at heart, with leading technologies utilised throughout including underground earth tubes that provide an amount of free heating and cooling. Powered by a pure plant oil-fed combined heat and power system, the building also utilises rapeseed oil grown on The Co-operative Group’s own farmland.

Commenting on the Project of the Year, Chair of the RICS North West judging panel, Jane Lathwood of GVA said: “One Angel Square is more than just a new head office. It is an iconic landmark that will enable The Cooperative Group to significantly reduce its operating costs, whilst increasing staff performance levels thanks to the building’s inspirational, innovative working environment.

“The flexibility of the building also presents expansion and sub-divisional possibilities that will continue to meet The Cooperative Group’s requirements long into the future.”

Winners in four of the categories (Building Conservation, Community Benefit, Design & Innovation and Regeneration) will now automatically be entered into the national RICS Awards. This means One Angel Square will compete against built projects from all over the UK later this year for a chance to gain national recognition.

One Angel Square wasn’t the only Manchester based scheme to be recognised on the night which was hosted by Architect and TV personality, George Clarke – best known for channel 4 series – The Restoration Man.

Fabrica – a BREEAM excellent rated, contemporary office building and 150 bedroom hotel in New Islington – was Highly Commended in the Regeneration category. RICS judges praised the scheme for improving and encouraging further investment in the local area and providing much needed Grade A office space.

Roman Catholic boys’ grammar school, St Ambrose College in Altrincham, was Highly Commended in the Design & Innovation category. RICS judges were impressed with the innovative design of the selective intake school which reflects the college’s religious ethos, ambitiously built in the shape of a Celtic cross, with space at its centre representing the ‘heart of the community.’

Meanwhile, Wigan’s new zero cost energy park – Armstrong Point – was Highly Commended in the Commercial property category. RICS judges said the scheme is an excellent example of how a building can significantly reduce a business’s carbon footprint, not to mention costly energy bills.

The winners of all seven individual categories are as follows:-

• Building Conservation – Florence Institute, Liverpool
• Commercial property – One Angel Square, Manchester
• Community Benefit – Trinity Methodist Church, Ellesmere Port
• Design & Innovation – One Angel Square, Manchester
• Regeneration – Stockbridge Village Regeneration, Knowsley
• Residential property – Pickmere Court, Crewe
• Tourism & Leisure – Orford Jubilee Park, Warrington

Mrs Lathwood adds: “Over the years, the RICS Awards have attracted some outstanding and exemplar entries, and despite the ongoing uncertainty of the economic climate, this year was no different. It just goes to show that the North West is certainly not short of talented property professionals as we continue to produce impressive built schemes that set the bar for other UK regions.

“The exceptional teams behind the winning and Highly Commended developments should all be extremely proud of themselves. These schemes have improved local areas and are encouraging more investment in the region which will certainly help boost our local economy.”

Masaya Watanabe, vice president and executive officer of Hitachi, Ltd., remarked “it is a great honour to be able to combine Hitachi Group’s cutting-edge technologies with the healthcare infrastructure and development friendly environment offered by the NHS in Greater Manchester.”

“Healthcare is one the core focus areas of Hitachi’s ‘Social Innovation Business.’ Our ideas on how informatics can transform the delivery, experience and management of healthcare will be a key business driver for us over the next decade. This partnership offers us the opportunity to contribute towards the enhancement of healthcare in the UK and eventually duplicate this model in other regions around the world.”

Hiroshi Ashibe, president of Hitachi Consulting Co., Ltd., praised the momentum of the discussions noting that there is a “clear advantage in leveraging the synergies both in vision and technology between the Hitachi Group and the NHS in Manchester, where the wider health economy provides the ideal launch pad for innovative health services. We are very excited to be working with the NHS in Manchester in exploring this potential further.”

Chief executive of Eagle Matrix Consulting Co., Ltd., Yoshito Date, said “We are looking at technology as a facilitator of change, where the holistic integration of public and private health data will create an open service and technology ecosystem that enables innovation for the better management of our health providing much needed focus on the new social paradigm of personalised health.”

Professor Ian Jacobs, MAHSC director added, “We are delighted to be combining our expertise here in Manchester with a company as prestigious as the Hitachi Group. This initiative affords us a tremendous opportunity to develop new products and services of significant benefit to the NHS and people of Greater Manchester but it is also our joint intention to ensure scalability for the wider benefit of the rest of the UK”.

Professor Martin Gibson, chief executive of North West e-Health (NWeH) remarked, “The MOU with the Hitachi Group signals a really exciting time for Greater Manchester’s health economy. From a NWeH perspective, the agreement means we can pool the expertise and knowhow from all the parties involved and take our healthcare technology development to the next level, developing better outcomes for NHS patients in the process.”

As chief executive of NHS Manchester, Dr Mike Burrows explained, “I am really excited that we have established this agreement with the Hitachi Group. By utilising the wealth of our data more efficiently in combination with appropriate technology we can improve our service delivery and public health support”.

The discussions between Hitachi and the NHS in Manchester have been supported by UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) and the Department of Health.

Dr Mark Treherne, ceo of UKTI’s Life Science Investment Organisation, commented, “The UK has a huge amount to offer in health innovation specifically within the health informatics space as demonstrated by this MOU. The on-going appetite for industry and the NHS to partner up makes the UK an ideal place for a company like the Hitachi Group to develop ideas collaboratively. The NHS with 60+ million patients has access to unrivalled, clinically coded, granular health data, providing a unique opportunity to test innovative approaches to health informatics in order to meet end patient benefit.”

The six parties will be working over the next year in designing detailed technology and service applications tailored towards the population of Greater Manchester.

* North West e-Health is a joint-venture partnership between the University of Manchester, Salford Royal NHS Trust and NHS Salford.

In total the number of jobs created, safeguarded and relocated with support from MIDAS during the 2012-13 financial year was 4,143, with a GVA (Gross Value Added) impact of £189 million.

Of these recent investments, the ICT (information and communications technology) and F&P (financial and professional services) sectors have supplied the highest number of new jobs with a 23% and 19% jobs share respectively.

The new jobs are the result of both foreign direct investment (FDI) and UK-based projects.

A large proportion of this year’s investment projects (26%) has stemmed from the media and creative industries, conveying the rapid growth of the media supply chain that has followed the relocation of the BBC and ITV Granada to MediaCityUK, as well as the further development of the Sharp Project.

Projects arriving in Greater Manchester in the last year include California’s EON Reality (bringing 240 jobs), the Bank of East Asia, Polantis, Worldpay, Bright Futures, Healthforia, and Factory Games.

Tim Newns, chief executive of MIDAS, said: “We’re delighted with these results, especially as the newly created jobs span such a broad range of industry sectors, reflecting the strength and diversity ofManchester’s offer.

“The countries of origin for many of these projects suggest a healthy appetite for investing in the region, particularly from the US market. Greater Manchester has also seemingly bucked the trend by continuing to attract a high level of European projects.

“The key to continuing this success will be in keeping the spotlight on Greater Manchester’s strengths; namely its knowledge hubs, its scientific achievements, and the rapid growth of the digital sector.

“We’re also keen to push forward with Manchester’s ambitions to increase connectivity with China.  The new Manchester China Forum will be essential in helping to boost our capacity to drive investment from this important market and we look forward to establishing similar initiatives in other key markets.”

Michael Oglesby, chairman of MIDAS, said: “Although economic times remain challenging these are strong results that continue to show Manchester’s attractiveness as an investment location.  Over the next 12 months MIDAS’ focus will be on identifying as many new business opportunities as possible in order to strengthen and build on the project pipeline.  This activity will comprise a blend of mature markets, such as US and Europe, and growth markets such as India and China.”

MIDAS consists of a core team of sector and market specialists who pro-actively generate and nurture investment across the following sectors in Greater Manchester: biomedical sciences and healthcare; creative media and digital; ICT; energy and environment; financial and professional services, advanced manufacturing; and business services.

It works in close partnership with UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) to secure international business for Greater Manchester.

MIDAS offers an extensive package of expert, free and confidential advice for potential investors and location consultants. For more information: + 44 (0)161 875 2239 www.investinmanchester.com

The Creative England stake holder workshop was held on 24 April at The Greenhouse, a MediaCity business incubator, where cluster specialists worked with industry experts to create ideas which would help support established digital businesses and those industries making the technological transition.

The meeting was held as part of Cluster 2020, a European Creative Industries Alliance scheme. The 100million Euro initiative includes Germany, France and Belgium as well as the UK and looks at ways to provide better support to flourishing creative businesses.

Industry experts present at the meeting included members of the Digital Innovation team as well as representatives from Salford University, MIDAS, New Economy, Salford City Council and Mediasmiths.

Introductory discussions centred on a recent online report which posted findings from industry consultation sessions held throughout 2012.

Some key strengths and themes in the Manchester digital sector to emerge from the report centred on the diversity of skills on offer, entrepreneurial spirit, the ability to find new approaches and the sheer critical mass of those involved in the industry. It was found that small businesses were performing at national levels within a vibrant technological community which must be supported.

Constantly evolving

One of the main barriers facing professionals in the industry was identified as apprehension, something Ray Hanks, co-founder of CIBS at MediaCity, has witnessed throughout his career: “Fear is often the thing that stops people doing what they can do. I’ve run many workshops on marketing and confidence building and fear is the problem most people have. It’s really a matter of overcoming that and being prepared to take the risks.”

Those present were asked to take these factors into consideration when working in groups of their own to present ideas on how to digitise more traditional industries. The teams presented ideas on the use of digital technologies in healthcare, manufacturing and social platforms as well as considering the problems and solutions surrounding these. Further workshops will be held in Birmingham with the outcomes published and recirculated to ensure a dialogue is built from the events.

Johanna Bolhoven, a Cluster Development Manager for Creative England, spoke of the wider objectives of the project: “The ultimate aim is that at the end of the two years we have this blueprint for cluster success and all these findings will feed into that; it is very much an on-going process. We also hope to launch some initiatives, tools and products which businesses can pilot and hopefully benefit from. Without these sessions we can’t really understand what the need is and what the opportunities are, but by holding events like this we can then start to develop solutions.

“It’s interesting because clusters are emerging all the time. Part of the whole outcome of this project is that it will have a strategy that up and coming clusters can adopt and hopefully help them be more effective.

“There is always this gathering of expertise, people and businesses that happens around a supply chain or client base, but it’s constantly evolving – some will die down, others may build up and there’s definitely a need and a desire for it to happen.”

To learn more about Cluster 2020, or to read the full Creative England online consultation, click here