Duke wins top honour for Liverpool One

THE Duke of Westminster and Princes Foods were the big winners at the Daily Post’s celebration of business success in Merseyside and Cheshire. Business reporter Alistair Houghton was there

See the picture gallery for the Daily Post’s Regional Business Awards

“I’ve known this city for many years and for many of those years it has drifted. It has been very much regarded as the poor second cousin to all our other great industrial cities throughout the United Kingdom. But now it has a project which is a flagship. It has something it can be deeply proud of.

“It provides, yes, jobs and prosperity. But above all it provides hope for the future. It provides hope for young people who hitherto have left Liverpool to seek pastures green. It provides stability Liverpool can now build on.”

The Duke said the scale of Grosvenor’s investment in Liverpool showed the depth of its commitment to the city.

He said: “Grosvenor and my family have been always in business for the long term. We’re not a quick hit and run merchant.

“My own family have been based in Cheshire for nearly 1,000 years, so longevity and stability is nothing new to us. We have great confidence in Liverpool One. We know it will be a huge success.”

The winner of the KPMG Business of the Year award was Liverpool’s Princes Foods.

Princes is a £900m turnover group with a portfolio of market-leading brands and products which are bought by millions of people every day.