Member Article

Faith in TopicUK leads to first UK Franchise

TopicUK the community B2B magazine, first launched in 2013, has announced its first franchisee; Brighouse business couple Carl and Stefanie Hopkins.

The pair who run public relations firm Faith PR and also co-own Big Shots Café in Brighouse, will take over the publishing of the Kirklees/Calderdale TopicUK editions with immediate effect.

TopicUK’s first magazine was launched in Wakefield in April 2013 by Ghost Publications Limited run by partners Gill Laidler and Rob Blackwell. “We launched TopicUK with the purpose of helping SMEs who were struggling to get free publicity and affordable advertising. The concept of linking the business community together has been a huge success which has resulted in the magazine’s distribution five times that of the initial print run with pagination almost doubling,” said Gill.

As a result of its success, a second edition was launched covering Kirklees / Calderdale in April 2015 and at the same time, TopicUK incorporated Close Up for Business, the official magazine of the Mid Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce. Hot on the heels of Kirklees / Calderdale was the launch of a third edition in Barnsley and a fourth edition launched in Soho in February.

Gill continues:

“As TopicUK is community based, with each edition featuring only local businesses, it is important that each edition is managed and run by a local company, so we are delighted that Carl and Stefanie have taken over the running of the Kirklees / Calderdale edition. This collaboration can only strengthen TopicUK’s presence in the market place.”

Faith PR founding director Stefanie Hopkins added:

“Taking over the Kirklees/Calderdale edition of TopicUK is a natural extension of our business interests and we feel it will not only benefit our immediate business network but will also provide support to the wider business community across the Huddersfield and Halifax area. We look forward to growing the TopicUK brand and cementing its position as a truly local business magazine.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Alex Mason .