An answer from Robert De Niro and some giant toilet rolls – our 2025 North West highlights from BusinessLive UK WIRE

Editor Alistair Houghton looks back on some of his favourite tales from 2025

From left: Liz Scott, Robert De Niro, and the Essity factory in Trafford Park

From left: Liz Scott, Robert De Niro in Manchester, and the Essity factory in Trafford Park(Image: Turing Innovation Catalyst Manchester/BusinessLive/M.E.N.)

As it’s New Year’s Eve, I hope you’ll indulge me as I take a look back at 2025 as we saw it here at BusinessLive in the North West – including everything from Robert De Niro to giant toilet rolls.

It’s not every day you get a two-word answer from Robert De Niro, but then this wasn’t any old groundbreaking ceremony.

The Hollywood icon was in Manchester to mark the launch of the Nobu tower, the tallest skyscraper planned for the city centre (so far) and one which will contain a Nobu restaurant, hotel, and luxury residences. No surprise that some 200 guests came to the cold but spectacular brick-arched vault off Albion Street for a touch of glamour alongside the development hype.

Mr De Niro joined fellow Nobu co-founders Chef Nobu Matsuhisa and Meir Teper onstage, alongside Simon Ismail from developer Salboy. The actor-turned-entrepreneur was clearly new to Manchester, admitting he “did not know much” yet about the city but was intrigued by the “real character and creative passion” he had already seen here.

As for me, I asked the Nobu trio if they were still excited about opening new venues around the world. After a short pause Mr De Niro took the mic to say… Well, you can read all about Robert De Niro in Manchester here.

Speaking of famous names and towers, I also enjoyed hearing from footballer turned property developer Gary Neville as he officially opened the £400m St Michael’s development.

Robert De Niro (fifth from left) and council leader Bev Craig (third from left) ‘broke ground’ on construction at the Nobu tower in Manchester(Image: LDRS)

At Chotto Matte, the rooftop Japanese Peruvian fusion flagship at No 1 St Michael’s, Mr Neville spoke about his move into property and the huge “responsibility” of leading such a huge city centre scheme.

And while he said Manchester needed more homes and more towers, the city centre also needed to adapt to become more suitable for young families.

He said he felt Deansgate could have been pedestrianised, saying: “They should have made it a park. They should have made it independent cafes. They should have people spilling out into the streets.” And he said the city centre needed more green spaces, asking: “How do we encourage young families to come into our city?” Read more on Gary Neville and St Michael’s here.

Our passionate business leaders

One of the joys of business journalism is getting to speak to people who are truly passionate about what they do, and who want to share that enthusiasm with the world.

In January, I went to an event about Manchester’s £15bn tourist ambitions and was impressed by the passion James Whittaker had for Trafford City, which he wants to make “the best retail and leisure destination in the world”.

I then caught up with him over a coffee where we talked more about his plans for the area, which is set to include a £400m water park to attract millions of visitors, an ice arena, a surf park and a luxury hotel. And of course we also talked about the family businesses that have spun out from founder John Whittaker’s original vision.

“My father said to me 10 or 15 years ago that he wanted Trafford City to be the best retail and leisure destination in the world,” James Whittaker smiled. “Like that’s not a hard challenge, dad!

James Whittaker, managing director, Peel Waters(Image: Peel Waters)

“But that’s the objective. He’s always said – if you’re going to aim for the mountain, aim for the top.” Read more about James Whittaker’s big ambitions for Peel Waters here.

Meanwhile Liz Scott, executive director at the Turing Innovation Catalyst (TIC) Manchester, told me about Manchester’s AI ambitions as the city aims to grow its AI ecosystem to $15bn.

Ms Scott, an enthusiastic ambassador for her sector, told me: “We’ve got the largest AI cluster outside of London. We have over 13,500 people working in AI in Greater Manchester. That’s astonishing, and I think quite surprising for some people.” Read more about the region’s AI ambitions here.

And some of the North West’s top AI entrepreneurs showed off their technology at a Turing Innovation Catalyst showcase in February.

I couldn’t resist opening my account of the day with Jason Crispin’s presentation, which he began by yelling “Aaaargh” and hurling a giant volume of rules and regulations at the floor. Read more about these AI pioneers – and find out all about that red tape – here.

And speaking of pioneers and entrepreneurs, the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II has continued its work backing businesses large and small across the region. I spoke to senior investment manager Sue Barnard earlier this year, and she told me the fund was seeing particular success from backing manufacturers and female founders.

The BusinessLive whoop-o-meter: Watching Rachel Reeves’ Budget

Meanwhile politics ground on, with Chancellor Rachel Reeves facing a tough year as the Government looked to somehow unlock UK growth.

I enjoyed watching her November Budget alongside Liverpool business leaders and came up with a pleasing way to measure its success – my own “whoop-o-meter” – before I quizzed audience members on what they thought.

As I wrote in November, “I caught a couple of tiny whoops and one half-hearted ‘yay’” from the audience – quite a contrast to the noisy braying in the Commons as the Chancellor spoke. You can read my report from the Hope Street Hotel here.

Inside the factories: From giant hair dryers to warehouse-sized freezers

Another great joy of working business journalism is the site visit, and the chance to look behind the scenes at how some of our biggest businesses operate.

For example: did you know you need to make a giant paper smoothie and put it through a hair dryer to make your toilet roll?

You probably don’t give much thought to where your toilet roll or paper kitchen towel comes from. But in Trafford Park there’s a 200-strong team that can churn out as many as 4.5 million toilet rolls every single day.

A 1.2 tonne roll of paper is lifted onto the second production line at the Essity paper mill in Trafford Park(Image: Jake Lindley / Manchester Evening News)

Like your paper soft and luxurious? Then you’ll like the paper made at Essity’s mill, on its £20m line that opened in 2020 and helped it meet the nation’s massive demand for toilet roll as people emptied supermarket shelves to stockpile supplies during the pandemic.

As I saw on its tour of Trafford Park, that line turns wood pulp into what look like the biggest toilet rolls you’ve ever seen– man-high 50-kilometre rolls of paper that each weigh 1.2 tonnes. Read all about the Essity factory here.

My other favourite trip this year was my visit to Iceland’s new warehouse-sized freezer in Warrington. We were taken on a tour by Iceland’s pleasingly outspoken chief executive Tarsem Dhaliwal, who was proud his business was investing £100m in his home town at the warehouse complex at the Omega logistics hub.

Just some of the miles of shelving inside the giant new Iceland depot in Catalina Approach, just outside Warrington(Image: Alistair Houghton)

The depot is split in three – an “ambient” room temperature warehouse, a chilled warehouse, and best of all a warehouse for Iceland’s famous frozen foods that has ice on its high walls. When BusinessLive and fellow visitors went into the frozen warehouse, Mr Dhaliwal put his head in but quickly jumped out again with a smile, leaving the rest of us to experience just how cold a giant freezer is.

Later he smiled: “I have been in cold rooms for a long time, both in stores and in here, so I know what a cold room does. It’s cold!” Read more on Iceland’s huge North West investment here.