'Blackpool must be positive about business opportunities'

Happy Creative’s strategic director Simon Brooke believes that 2017 is the year Blackpool should push itself to the forefront and make sure it gets its share from the Northern Powerhouse project.

He said: “Blackpool is getting its act together when it comes to business. It is a place that traditionally was set up to do business, a town built on enterprise.

“Businesses here need to shout a bit louder about how it is a good place to do business and about the good companies already here.

“We have the likes of Voiteq, Laila’s Fine Foods, Knight Rigging Services, The Houndshill, we have access to high quality engineering personnel across the Fylde coast, the stock of property available has improved dramatically over the 12 years that we have been in business at Happy. The more people know about Blackpool being a business town , the more likely we are going to attract the other businesses we need to progress.”

He said the location makes for a good quality of life for business owners and their staff which can be important in attracting talent. “We are situated on the coast – a great day in Blackpool is hard to beat!”

“There are challenges of course, if you go beyond the tourist area there are deprived areas but business needs to get together and highlight the many positives.”

He said the development of the Powerhouse could be a huge opportunity if Blackpool was proactive.

“It’s shifting the conversation 300 miles north of where it currently is. If it’s Manchester or Liverpool or even Preston that is still better than London, the powerbase is a lot closer.

“We have a lot of reasons to be positive about this coming year with some big investments in the area. Now we have the Conference Centre. It will focus on business and we should be getting back to leading on that sort of event.”