BROMPTON BIKES REVEALS PLANS FOR NEW £100M GLOBAL HQ IN KENT

Starling Bank expects profits to more than quadruple in 2023

Starling Bank, which runs a large part of its operation in Southampton, is expecting its profits to more than quadruple in 2023.

The digital bank’s founder and chief executive, Anne Boden, wrote a new year blog looking back at 2022 and also to the future.

She said that, in December of last year, Starling generated annualised revenue of nearly £600 million for the month, generating pre-tax profits in excess of £250 million. The bank now has 3.4 million customer accounts, of which 520,000 are small businesses.

Anne wrote: “Should you wander into one of the big High Street banks, you’ll see a prominent notice on the wall with Starling’s name in the No 1 spot for overall service quality for both personal and small business accounts.

Bicycle manufacturer Brompton Bikes has submitted plans for a new £100 million factory and global headquarters in Kent. The scheme would house a world-class production facility at Ashford. By 2027, the company expects to employ more than 1,500 staff.

Once fully operational, the proposed development will result in around 4,000 jobs being supported locally, including in the supply chain, those supported by the spending of staff and the factory operation itself.

The planning application, submitted to Ashford Borough Council, details how the new factory will be constructed within a 100-acre floodplain, which will provide an opportunity to restore wetland and promote walking and cycling.

Cllr Gerry Clarkson, Executive Leader

of the council, said: “This represents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the borough to develop a partnership with an internationally-renowned cycling brand that will bring jobs and opportunities to the town.

“The scheme will enable Ashford to fulfil a long-held ambition to create a wetland park that will enhance the environment and encourage more people to explore the area in a sustainable, eco-focused manner.”

He added: “Ashford has set the pace in Kent for inward investment and this new factory will bring many positive benefits and will put Ashford on the map as a cycling hub.

“The application will be subjected to a rigorous and meticulous planning process to ensure it meets the high standards upheld in this borough, which is at the heart of the Garden of England.”

“Starling was always the underdog; the diligent, hard-working, socially aware, tech-savvy fintech. Never as cool as those businesses run by those 30-year-old tech bros. But as we have seen, markets have a nasty habit of correcting.

“Many start-ups and scale-ups are having difficulty raising funding now. And it’s fair to say that for a while some private market valuations became inflated, with predictable consequences for some.

“We’re no longer up against the plucky scale-ups. We are now a big player when it comes to serving the current account market in the UK and find ourselves rubbing up against the establishment, as our Competition and Markets Authority results show only too well.”