Gresham steps up regional activity and expands team - new Northern office to open this autumn Gresham Monitor highlights gloomier outlook of UK's backbone companies.

Gresham, the private equity house, is opening an office in Manchester this autumn and expanding its regional team. This follows the successful launch of the Midlands office in Birmingham two years ago.

Gresham's strategy of directly developing regional business through its local network is paying off. The Midlands office has so far completed six deals including most recently the £15m management buy-out of Whitworths, the UK's largest supplier of dried fruit and nuts.

Simon Inchley, Gresham director, will lead the team in Manchester and is being joined by new recruits Tim Smallbone and Andy Tupholme.

Smallbone, aged 34, joins from KPMG's Northern office, where he was director in charge of private equity services in Manchester and Leeds. He trained as a chartered accountant, after gaining a first class degree in civil engineering from Manchester University. He then worked on buy-outs and development capital deals with Price Waterhouse, North of England Ventures and Granville Private Equity before joining KPMG. He is a season ticket holder at Manchester City

Tupholme, aged 31, joins from PricewaterhouseCoopers' Northern region where he was assistant director working on a range of buy-outs, acquisitions and disposals. He trained as a chartered accountant with Ernst & Young, after gaining an upper second degree in economics at Durham University. He is a Sheffield United season ticket holder.

Simon Inchley says, "We are delighted to be opening our Northern office and to welcome such high-calibre additions to our team. Gresham has proven its ability to develop regional business in the £5m to £75m middle market and we look forward to building on our track record in the South and the Midlands. This will be a challenging time, as our research shows that Northern companies are more pessimistic about their prospects than they were last year. However, we are optimistic that our experience and excellent local contacts will lead to our continued success."

The latest Gresham Monitor, a regular survey of UK middle market companies, shows business confidence is waning. Northern companies, in particular, complain about the strong pound. Nearly two thirds said the strength of sterling had hurt their businesses in the past year. At the time of the last survey in December only 44 per cent complained. More than half of Northern companies transact over 40 per cent of their business abroad, compared with about a quarter of companies in the South and the Midlands.