:: Popular Belfast coffee shop chain District, owned by Downpatrick businessman David Rea and operated by Bangor hospitality professional Richard Stitt, opened its third outlet in the city on the Lisburn Road, adding to its existing sites on the Ormeau and Stranmillis Roads. District took on the café at Bedeck, retraining three jobs and creating three new posts, and the owners said they have plans for further expansion in the city.
:: Finnebrogue Artisan, best known as a top tier sausage producer, revealed plans to invest £3m into the north's first-ever vegan and vegetarian factory, creating 90 jobs at its existing food-processing plant outside Downpatrick. It is expected to have sales of £30m a year when at full capacity. Managing director Brian McMonagle said: “Finnebrogue has always prided itself on providing consumers delicious, innovative products, and our new product development team is doing extensive work to make some of the tastiest meat-free products on the market.”
:: The north stands to reap a lucrative economic windfall if the 2022 FIFA World Cup is moved away from Qatar and staged instead in England, according to a report by London-based management consultancy Cornerstone Global Associates. It said team training bases could be held in Northern Ireland, raising the possibility of a global footballing power like Brazil or Argentina setting up camp in Belfast. And it said that Northern Ireland as a UK region "would have the greatest benefit after England" in terms of economic and political spin-offs.
:: Prominent Ballymena firm JBE Mechanical Electrical, set up in 1983, said it was ceasing trading with the lost of all 57 jobs. Managing director John Blair cited significant losses on contracts in Scotland as a factor. Notable previous contracts for JBE work in Northern Ireland include Victoria Square shopping centre, the two Belfast airports and the Galgorm Resort and Spa.
:: Global services firm Deloitte confirmed that it was moving 1,000 staff into the £85 million 213,000 sq ft Bedford Square grade A office development in Belfast. It is taking 100,000 sq ft of office space and will become the anchor tenant in McAleer & Rushe’s new venture, located across the street from its existing office on Bedford Street. It will become Deloitte’s largest UK office by headcount outside of London.
:: One of Europe's leading metal stockholders launched its first service centre in Northern Ireland as part of a £500,000 investment. Smiths Metal Centres has opened a new 7,500 sq ft facility in Belfast at Titanic Quarter’s Channel Commercial Park. It is the company’s 14th UK service centre and stocks metal plate, sheet and bar products including a full range of ferrous and non-ferrous materials. Smiths Metal Centres is a multi-metal stockholder supplying a wide range of engineering materials to global industry.
