In a sampling of the top business stories, Peter Elson recalls some of the region’s highs and lows

IN SPITE of the economic turmoil caused by the recession, there has been the usual rich tapestry of good as well as bad business news during 2010.

In February, Tesco and Stobart agreed a deal to bring 750 jobs to Widnes at a new distribution centre.

The supermarket giant signed a long lease on the 500,000 sq ft chilled distribution facility at Stobart’s inland port next to the River Mersey.

It replaced an existing Tesco facility, in Middleton, Greater Manchester.

The Widnes facility is part of the Mersey Multimodal Gateway (3MG) owned by O’Connor Group, which became part of Stobart in 2007.

Sadly, no year is complete without tracking the ups and – latterly – the downs of iconic Liverpool retailer Ethel Austin, which latest owner Elaine McPherson put into administration last February.

The firm collapsed with debts of more than £43m, and almost 2,300 staff lost their jobs, in hundreds of stores.

This was a dire state of affairs given ABN-AMRO Capital bought the business for £122.5m in 2004.

It finally left Knowsley, Liverpool, for Altrincham in April, after Ms McPherson bought 91 of the stores and found a new investor to back it as a new brand called Life & Style.

On the upside in April, one of the UK’s largest discount retailers secured £10.85m of bank finance to buy its new headquarters in Speke, in Liverpool.

B&M Retail moved its base from Blackpool to a 618,000 sq ft industrial unit known as The Vault, at the Liverpool International Business Park.

Formed in 1976 and acquired by brothers Simon and Bobby Arora in 2005, B&M Retail is now one of the leading variety retailers in the UK.

In July, shipbuilding officially returned to Merseyside after 17 years when the first steel was cut at Cammell Laird for the new aircraft super carrier, Queen Elizabeth.

The renowned Birkenhead shipyard has a £44m order to build the 65,600 ton carrier’s flight deck, hangars and some accommodation.