I N F O the magazine for anglo-french business french chamber of commerce in great britain
september / october 2013 www.ccfgb.co.uk
shaping the city: regeneration and real estate
ALSO in this issue arnaud Bamberger: our new president
5 minutes with... Madani sow, chairman of Bouygues uK
Negotiating the minefield of uK pension reform
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- info - september / october
Arnaud Bamberger President, French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain, and Executive Chairman of Cartier
editorial
I
n this, my first editorial for INFO since becoming President of the French Chamber, I would like to say how pleased and proud I am to have been elected, and that I will, with a wholehearted spirit, do my best to build on the great heritage laid down by my predecessors. I am fortunate to have a dedicated team to work with and together we will uphold the French Chamber’s good reputation, high standards and consummate professionalism, of which this magazine INFO is an example. INFO is one way in which we can broadcast what a fantastic job the French Chamber is doing to develop and connect both French and British companies, but we need to build awareness and promote ourselves a bit more. It is also not all about attracting big and famous companies – we need a good representation of what the world is, and smaller companies make up a huge part of that. The centrepiece of July was the Annual General Meeting, which was an opportunity to appreciate the scope and range of the Chamber’s activities, and of course marked the start of my and Richard Brown’s tenure as President and Deputy President, respectively. Another successful Dîner des Chefs was also held in the month as well as several engaging sessions of our various Forums and Clubs, including a Climate Change Forum visit to Veolia’s Newhaven Energy Recovery Facility. After the holiday month of August, we look forward to ‘la rentrée’ with a full calendar of Chamber events from September and we hope you will join us for many of them. This issue of INFO has a focus on Urban Regeneration and Real Estate. As inhabitants of cities we all have a stake in the built environment – our homes, neighbourhoods, offices and businesses – and the articles in this issue cover different aspects of the complexity that is urbanity. London is a particular focus, reflecting the experience and scope of our Chamber member companies who are involved variously in regeneration projects, both commercial and residential real estate and property investment in the capital. Other articles look at trends shaped by the economic climate, issues of supply and demand as well as environmental imperatives to create sustainable buildings for the future. I
info - september / october -
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Contents issue 208 / September - October 2013
8 6
Arnaud Bamberger: the Chamber’s new President
22
5 minutes with... Madani Sow, Chairman of Bouygues UK
46
From efficiency to effectiveness: office space enters a new era
Her Majesty the Queen opens pioneering facility at James Cropper
66
The Chamber begins the next chapter
6 Arnaud Bamberger: the Chamber’s new
20 Schools news
47 Hot property: why London attracts the
5 mins with...
22 Her Majesty the Queen opens pioneering
SMEs & Startups
48 Prime tenants demand prime properties 49 French real estate investment in London:
President
8 Madani Sow, Chairman of Bouygues UK
News in the City
25 Clémence de Crecy, Clementine Communications and Bigoodi
27 Laurence Colchester, Bitter Lemon Press
12 City Profile: Marc Mourre 13 City shorties
Success Story
News
28 Sophie Mirman, serial entrepreneur
Focus
14 GDF Suez doubles its energy efficiency
32 An urban regeneration orientation 34 Approaches to urban regeneration in the UK
36 Joining up the dots of regeneration across
activities in the UK through Balfour Beatty Workplace acquisition EADS restructures and rebrands as Airbus Group
15 Airbus, Air France, Safran and Total team up
and France
London
16 AXA adds another €100 million to scientific
38 Regeneration of the Lea Valley 39 Engineering the green economy 40 The comfort of a sustainable future 42 To build or not to build: is financing the
17 New royal arrival on JCDecaux’s national
43 Property investment trends: the London
19 A sweep of awards for Société Générale
44 Small is beautiful 45 London’s luxury core 46 From efficiency to effectiveness: office space
to develop sustainable aviation biofuels Veolia to lead London’s first heat-from-waste network
question?
research fund
conundrum
network
Private Banking Hambros PwC wins HSBC audit
20 BDO tops merger & acquisition league tables Managing Director: Florence Gomez Editor-in-Chief: Keri Fuller Communications Co-ordinator: Marielle Fraize Graphic Designer: Prima Hevawitharane Advertising & Sales: Lorraine Germaix Publications Assistant: Paul-Gilbert Colletaz Subscription: INFO is published every 2 months Printed by: Headley Brothers Ltd
current trends
facility at James Cropper
11 Are we heading for another house price bubble?
world’s wealthiest
enters a new era
Contributors: George Adams, Liam Bailey, Phil Brumby, Ségolène Chambon, Eric Charriaux, Dr Othman Cole, Hugo Frieszo, Nicolas Guérin, Richard Halderthay, Leo Hammond, Michael Horwitz, Richard Hutt, Thibault Lavergne, Yann Leclercq, Kevin McCauley, Bryan Radford, Jemma Scott Cover
1. Canning Town Regeneration. Image courtesy of Bouygues UK 2. Cranes at the BBC Media City site, Salford Quays. © Ian Roberts. www.flickr.com/photos/salford_ian/3134250986 3. Image courtesy of French Touch Properties
1 2
3
Culture
53 54 56 57
Royal Academy of Arts What’s on Book reviews
Cheese and wine press
News @ the Chamber
60 New members 62 Hello / goodbye 63 Hats off to... 64 Chamber shorties 66 The Chamber begins the next chapter 68 So daring! So surprising! So Aussignac! 69 The resilience of a boxer and the ambition of an Alpinist
70 How to benefit from a liberalising China 71 Negotiating the minefield of UK Pension Reform
72 Visit to Veolia’s Newhaven Energy Recovery Facility
73 Forthcoming forums & clubs 73 Forthcoming events Distribution: French Chamber members, FrancoBritish decision makers, Business Class lounges of Eurostar, Eurotunnel and Air France in London, Paris and Manchester Editorial and Publishing Office: French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain Lincoln House, 300 High Holborn London WC1V 7JH Tel: (020) 7092 6600; Fax: (020) 7092 6601 www.ccfgb.co.uk
info - september / october -
Arnaud Bamberger: the Chamber’s new President Executive Chairman of Cartier UK, Arnaud Bamberger has been a French Chamber board member for 18 years, and Cartier a Chamber member for 101 years. Patience notwithstanding he feels the time is now right to step into this new role and give something back to the Franco-British community of which he is such an intrinsic part You are the face of Cartier in the UK, and over the past 21 years have become a well-known figure in British society. Where did it all start?
I’ve worked for Cartier for the past 37 years, which is almost a lifetime in a business terms. Alain Dominique Perrin hired me in 1976, and I started as an export director in charge of the Middle East. I spent seven years in the US, based in New York, where I opened and ran 15 stores. That’s where I really got to know the business of retail. Then I returned to Paris to oversee retail worldwide. In the late 1980s and early 1990s we were opening stores all over the world and it was my job to check up on all of them, so I spent my life living and working in aeroplanes. By then I had remarried but hardly ever saw my wife and baby daughter, so I told the president I couldn’t do it any more. He proposed that I go to London because the group (Vendôme at that time) was going to be listed on the stock exchange, and they wanted to promote the Cartier brand, which was the ‘jewel in the crown’. I was only meant to be here for a couple of years, but fortunately business went well, I wanted to stay and the company was happy for me to do so. I made it my kingdom and I loved it. I had created a network and made a lot of British friends – I am one of the few ‘frogs’ to have been accepted by the ‘roast beef’! Cartier opens a lot of doors, including those of Buckingham Palace, but you have to keep them open and this is more difficult, but something I have worked hard at. Cartier’s associations with the Royal Family and Great Britain go back a long way. Can you tell us a bit about its history in this country?
Edward VII referred to Cartier as ‘the jeweller of kings and the king of jewellers’, and gave us a Royal Warrant in 1904. We made 27 royal tiaras for his coronation and that’s how it started. I am a great admirer of Her Majesty the Queen – she is wonderful, and so is Prince Charles. I deeply respect what they do and their dedication to the country. Pierre Cartier, a grandson of founder Louis - info - september / october
François Cartier, opened Cartier’s first shop, at 4 New Burlington Street, on the day of King Edward VII’s coronation (9 August 1902). His brother Jacques took over the running of it when Pierre was sent to New York in 1909. Cartier has been a member of the French Chamber for 101 years, so it is about time that someone from Cartier is President of the Chamber. We’ve waited patiently for over a century! What have you done for Cartier UK since your arrival in 1992?
I had to develop and grow the company, which I did. I did not want my bosses to think they should replace me with a younger guy who could do better. What I set out to do was to create an awareness of Cartier – not that it was unknown, but it was a bit of a Sleeping Beauty. I asked myself what I could do to attract the British clientele, and realised very quickly that they liked horses and gardens. So I began by creating and developing events around these themes such as the Polo (initially Cartier International, and now Queen’s Cup), the annual Chelsea Flower Show Dinner, which people call the opening of the social season, the Racing Awards Dinner, and the ‘Style et Luxe concours d’élégance’ at the Goodwood Festival of Speed. They have become events that people look forward to, almost institutions in the social calendar, and of course they are all elegant, glamorous and very Cartier. I have high standards and if I do something it will be the best possible. My aim has been to create good will for the brand and make Cartier the place that people come to when they are thinking of gifts for special occasions. I was made several offers of top jobs in the group but it would have meant going back to Paris and travelling a lot again. It was not a lack of ambition – I was happy with what I was doing and my heart is here. Then I turned 65 but did not want to retire. Luckily I was able to stay as Executive Chairman but had to hand over the reigns as Managing Director to my successor, Laurent Feniou, whom I chose. I enjoy working and having built up something here in the last 20 years I want to ensure that the legacy goes on.
of Eurostar, accepted. I look forward to working with him and using his great experience to help me further develop the Chamber’s profile and bring new ideas and members. What is your vision for the Chamber?
Arnaud Bamberger
Why did you decide to run for President of the French Chamber?
With a bit more time on my hands, I decided that maybe it was time for me to add something to my business life and give a little back to the French community. The person who really convinced me was Florence Gomez, whose drive and pursuit of excellence resonates with me. Also, having been on the Chamber’s Board for a long time, I’ve seen its evolution, I admire what the past presidents – Pascal Boris and Arnaud Vaissie – have achieved, and I see how important the Chamber is to the members, the community and both governments. All those factors helped me decide. I had plenty of excellent British people to choose from for my Deputy but am very happy that Richard Brown, the ex Chairman
I want the Chamber to continue to be the place where people are happy to be, to network, to meet and learn things. I still want to add a tiny bit of fun and glamour because there is nothing wrong with having fun at the same time as working hard, and glamour because being from Cartier I always like a bit of sparkle. But I want the Chamber to continue to be taken seriously, as it has been within the past presidency. I want to thank both Arnaud Vassié and Peter Alfandary for their hard work and dedication to the Chamber. I will need their guidance as much as they are willing to give me. Obviously I will try and bring something new but there won’t be a sudden change of direction – I think it’s very good the way it is with a very dedicated team of people. I plan to involve the Advisory Council more in the management of the Chamber. Their role is to advise and I want to ensure that they have the opportunity to give us more ideas and feedback about the way we run the Chamber as well as help us recruit more members. I also want to ensure that we have a working board. All our board members are busy people who are not always available but that is why we are increasing the numbers. The more great minds we have the better. I am happy to say we have already started working on this, and have invited some very important people to join the board. I also want to raise the profile of the Chamber, shout a bit louder about what we do and create awareness that it is not only the best Chamber of Commerce in the UK but the best worldwide, and that it is worth being part of it. I am very proud and pleased to be the new President of the Chamber but I am experienced enough to know that I cannot be successful alone, so I look forward to working with the team and to continue what has been done so wonderfully so far. I KF info - september / october -
5 m i n u te s w ith ... Culture plays a part too. In France, I knew the clients and what they wanted. Here in the UK, I have to work harder at listening and understanding what the client is asking for
Madani Sow
Chairman of Bouygues UK You have headed Bouygues UK since 2008, having previously been Managing Director of Bouygues’ private sector construction in the greater Paris region. With your overview of the construction sectors in both countries what would you say were the differences and similarities?
One of the biggest differences between France and the UK are the type of contracts and the way they are read. In France, public contracts are completely regulated through the Code des marchés publics. In the UK there are many different types of contracts and greater flexibility within them. Flexibility can be a good thing if all parties involved have a true understanding of the variations and options available. Legal aspects of a contract in the UK are more complicated than in France, which can impact the timing of projects. Ultimately, the final product in both countries is very similar. There may be small differences such as the fact that a builder would not provide a flat in France with a kitchen, only a sink, whereas a fully fitted kitchen is expected in the UK. Culture plays a part too. In France, I knew the clients and what they wanted. Here in the UK, I have to work harder at listening and understanding what the client is asking for. I’ve also found the decision-making process can take longer in the UK; a recent example of this has been the Comprehensive Spending Review, which, whilst fully understandable, has led to delays in decisions on contracts. With little visibility to the forward pipeline of opportunities, this makes planning and preparation for a business like ours much more difficult when you are committed to delivering projects in the public sector. It is hoped that Infrastructure UK, the government unit set up to work on the UK’s longterm infrastructure plan, will change this. Another major difference between France and the UK is the perception and importance of the construction - info - september / october
industry. In both countries the sector accounts for around 7-8% of GDP, but in France it is taken much more seriously by the government than in the UK where financial services, which is nearly 10% of GDP, carries considerably more weight at central government. Civil engineers are held in much higher regard in France, and its construction skills are impressive. It seems in the UK, children often don’t aspire to go into the construction industry – it has traditionally had a negative image, so investing in education and skills as well as putting out a positive message about the sector would make a difference. This is something everyone involved in our sector must work better at.
What different aspects of the UK’s built environment is Bouygues UK involved in? Bouygues UK operates under three management units, namely Construction, Housing, Thomas Vale and our development and regeneration business called Bouygues Development. We have 130 sites and 12 offices in England and Wales, covering the area south of Stoke-on-Trent, employ 1,700 people and have a turnover of about £800 million. Of this, about £300 million is housing and the rest is non-housing construction, such as schools, hospitals, leisure centres, etc. Housing ranges from residential estates of several hundred houses and apartment blocks, such as the 26-storey one we are currently building in Southampton, to high-end houses in the £5-30 million bracket. We work with both the public and private sector. In Canning Town, we are working with Newham Borough on a mixed-use regeneration project in the area around the station, which includes building over 1,000 flats, part social, part private, as well as retail units in five phases. Phase one will be completed in 2015 – 200 flats, a 70,000 square foot supermarket and a car park. We have a smaller but more complex project in Addlestone, Surrey,
5 m i n u t e s w i t h M a d a n i S ow
Madani Sow, Chairman of Bouygues UK
where we are regenerating the town centre within the existing urban fabric.
Does Bouygues offer any competitive advantages in the UK market? What makes us different in this country is our inhouse technical ability. We have a strong technical department, a team capable of building the structure of our projects, and a project finance team. By keeping these in-house we remove some of the risk and are able to offer innovative technical or financing solutions to the market. This model is different to a number of our competitors in the UK who tend to work with third-party companies to deliver these elements of the project. The UK has a huge backlog in fulfilling market demand for housing, especially social housing, a sector in which you have undertaken a number of projects. What are the main challenges in the UK and is Bouygues, as a French company, able to bring fresh solutions? The main problem is a lack of available land and lack of funding. Local authorities have a lot of power, but some boroughs or councils would need to address their resources. As government grants have been sharply reduced a new financial model needs to be found, although some housing associations have been smart in finding ways to create new subsidies. One solution is to build more housing for rent. In the UK around 16% of people rent compared to over 30% in France, which
is partly culture and partly to do with the different concept of retirement planning in the UK, but this will have to change. In France, Germany and Switzerland, where you have a lot of private rented housing, there are management companies for the building and additional services. We propose doing something along these lines in the UK, starting with a project already under construction in Barking.
What has been your most challenging project? I would say developing and integrating the British businesses that we have acquired over the past five years. These include Thomas Vale, which operates in the Midlands, Warings and Leadbitter, incorporating Denne. Bouygues is a French group, but in the UK, the vast majority of our people are British and it is very important to the future of our business that we integrate the best of all those businesses we have acquired with the existing Bouygues UK business to develop the new ‘Bouygues UK’ – a business that is focused on delivering the needs and expectations of our UK clients. What changes would you like to see in the operating environment for private sector developers and construction companies? First would be the upgrading of skills in the construction sector. And second would be a recovery in the economic environment, particularly in the regions. Something is certainly starting to happen in London but it has yet to reach the regions. I KF info - september / october -
Still guiding the way for global business. ft.com/125
10 - info - september / october
n e ws i n t h e ci t y
Are we heading for another house price bubble? Riding on a raft of positive economic data and boosted by government stimuls measures, house prices are up, but opinions differ as to whether it will build into another bubble
mall signs that the British economy has turned the corner are accumulating. Second quarter GDP grew 0.7%, making national output 1.4% bigger than it was a year ago, and the rate of growth faster than it’s been since 2011. Moreover, growth is also coming from all sectors, not just services, and that alone is nearly back to its pre-recession levels. On top of that, export sales are up, as the most recent British Chambers of Commerce survey showed – 23% in manufacturing and 36% in services – and unemployment, currently at 7.8%, is edging downward. ‘Forward guidance’ from the Bank of England has created a measure of certainty with the provision that it won’t consider raising interest rates until unemployment drops to 7%, which is not expected to be for another three years. The most robust figures by far are house prices, which rose 3.1% in the year to June, the fastest growth since 2006 according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. London, as always, leads the charge, with prices climbing a staggering 8.1% in the past 12 months, putting them a fifth higher than their pre-crisis peak in 2008. Elsewhere in the country (excluding London and the Southeast) prices are up 1%, although some regions are still seeing values falling. Apart from rising confidence, the recovery is apparently being fuelled by a range of government stimulus measures, such as the Funding for Lending and Help to Buy schemes, which are designed to spur mortgage lending and house-building. According to the Council of Mortgage Lenders, mortgage lending to first-time buyers was at a six-year high in the second quarter. However, rather than a reason to bring out the bubbly, rising house prices are conjuring up the old spectre of a housing bubble as they start to grow faster than inflation. There are two schools of thought on the question of a housing bubble – those who fear rising prices will push the UK property market back into bubble territory, and those who think that outside of London, property is still undervalued and the fundamentals don’t stack up.
Critics of the Help to Buy scheme see it as inflationary, or worse – Albert Edwards, a strategist at Société Générale reportedly called it ‘a moronic policy’ (Financial Times). For the moment it offers subsidised loans for new-build houses but from January 2014 it will offer £12 billion in mortgage guarantees for existing properties and that is expected to further stoke prices. Prices are seen to be dangerously inflated in places, particularly in the capital where the house-price-to-earnings ratio is 7.1%, just short of the historic high of 7.2%. Giving buyers increased finance at a time when demand outstrips supply and there are no concomitant programmes to build the 25,000 homes needed each year is viewed by the bubble-watchers as a recipe for... another bubble. The nay-sayers take a different view. They recognise that house prices are recovering, but on average, and adjusted for inflation, are still 15% below their 2007 peak. Subdued wage growth and the fact that many still have difficulties getting a first foot on the property ladder mean it will be some years before prices recover fully. While the government schemes are providing a temporary boost to the market, ‘if house prices show real signs of overheating these schemes are likely to be phased out and interest rates will start to rise,’ says John Hawksworth, Chief Economist at PwC (City AM), who sees a housing bubble as unlikely in the next couple of years. London, as always, is another country. Here the housing price boom never really went away, particularly in Central London, where foreign investors, seeking safe havens for capital and benefiting from a weak pound, have kept the market buoyant. And it’s spreading: prices are now also up 10-11% in outer and ‘less exclusive’ boroughs such as Hackney, Camden and Merton. Demand is being driven by a burgeoning population and a housing shortfall. The real question is whether London can afford to outprice its working population. I KF © flickr/ bryan birdwell
S
info - september / october - 11
news in the cit y
Profile
Marc Mourre Marc Mourre is managing Director, Vice Chairman of Commodities and Africa at Morgan Stanley, the global financial services firm, which is a Patron member of the French Chamber
A
Morgan Stanley veteran of 27 years, Marc Mourre has been involved in the development of its Commodities Division from a fledgling team of seven to a significant international business, which has seen him working outside of France for most of his career. That he would come to specialise in commodities was not obvious from the start, although perhaps an expatriate career was, as Marc started working life in Hong Kong, where, as part of his compulsory military service at that time he was assigned to the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Cultural Attaché Marc Mourre for three years. While in Hong Kong, Marc also lectured at the university and worked on research for his PhD. Educated in the best French academic tradition he already had a DEA1 in Business Administration from ESSEC/IAE Aix en Provence, a DESS2 in Foreign Trade and International Transport from the Centre Supérieur de Transports Maritimes, Université d’Aix-Marseille, and a Master of Sciences in Business Administration from Marseille Business School. On his return to France, Marc joined Elf Aquitaine (now Total) as a crude oil trader in the international division, which is where his interest in commodities was sparked. For the four years he was there, Marc kept a foot in academia by lecturing in International Finance at HEC. It was a position that offered the best of both these worlds that prompted his move to Morgan Stanley in 1986. ‘Morgan Stanley was just beginning its activity in commodities and it was the combination of what I was teaching in international financial markets and the commodities I was trading with Elf, as well as the transfer of technology between the financial and commodities worlds that really interested me,’ he says. Within months, Marc was sent to London to set up the Commodities Trading Office. ‘There was one gold trader in London at the time,’ says Marc, ‘and six in New York who made up the entire Commodities Division, and it expanded from there.’ Asia featured in this expansion, and Marc soon found himself commuting between London 1. Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies; 2. Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures Spécialisées
12 - info - september / october
and Hong Kong, and finally moving to Singapore in 1990 to establish a Morgan Stanley office and head the commodities trading and marketing operations there. Five years later Marc returned to London as Global Head of Commodities Marketing and Business Development, becoming Managing Director of Morgan Stanley in 1997. An additional title and responsibility was added in 2008 when he became Vice Chairman of Commodities with a focus on Emerging Markets. Now also focusing on Africa for the Group, Marc coordinates business there too. From small beginnings, the group’s Commodities Division has grown to around 350 front and middle office staff worldwide. Its activities are predominantly in energy commodities – oil, gas and power – while precious and base metals account for the rest of trades. ‘I don’t know if the commodities supercycle is coming to an end, but what is certain is that this business is cyclical,’ says Marc, who sees future growth coming from emerging markets. While he has now been in London for 17 years, Marc is clear that home is wherever he works. ‘Of course you gain a lot from having international experience but it is not the same if you work for a French company abroad,’ he observes. ‘You may gain a new perspective but it is still a view that is directed by a certain French way of looking at things. British and American companies tend to be much more international in composition and outlook.’ Beyond the world of finance and commodities, Marc is Chairman of the Trustees of the Friends of the French Institute in London in which capacity he has been involved in numerous projects, including the renovation of the cinema for which they raised £800,000, the creation of Culturethèque, an online multimedia library that was the first of its kind amongst French Institutes worldwide, and Diaphonique, a Franco-British fund for contemporary music. The next big project is the £1.5 million renovation of the library, for which they are in the process of raising money. That sounds like a big job, but for a global multitasker like Marc it is just ‘something on the side’. I KF
news in the cit y
Baby booming Britain ||| Prince George may be the most prominent new addition to the British population but he is certainly one of many. Official figures recently published by the Office for National Statistics show an upward surge in the British population with 813,200 births registered between mid-2011 and mid-2012, the largest number for 40 years. This has pushed the British birth rate well ahead of that in similar-sized European countries such as France and Germany. The net effect,
after accounting for deaths and migration, is an increase of 419,900, which takes Britain’s population to a new high of 63.7 million. London is the hot spot, with its population rising twice as fast as the average in the rest of the country. New births account for 61% of population growth, overshadowing net migration, which up until 2007 was the largest contributor to the population. A young, growing population augers well for future economic growth... I KF
Increase
% Increase
Total populations
UK
419,900
0.7
63.7m
France
319,000
0.5
65.5m
Germany
166,200
0.2
80.4m
Netherlands
61,900
0.4
16.8m
Source: Office for National Statistics
Population increases: 2011-2012
||| The latest batch of British school A-Level results has revealed a 7.4% rise in students taking economics, which is the biggest growth in any single subject. A report in the Financial Times points to the fact that there has been a 50% increase in candidates studying the subject since 2007, when the financial crisis first hit, attributing it to an increasing financial awareness and interest in economics spurred by media coverage of the economic climate.I KF
© www.flickr.com/photos/kozminskiuni
More students studying economics
Winning over the crowd ||| Crowdfunding is catching on. For small businesses and entrepreneurs struggling to get finance from big banks, it is a way of raising funding for stand-alone projects by tapping ordinary people for small investments through websites. One of its high-profile proponents is Kevin McCloud, presenter of Channel 4’s Grand Designs, who is seeking to raise at least £1 million through website Crowdcube to expand his property development company Hab Housing into the custombuilt house market. For as little as £100, investors will receive a dividend of 5% on their cash in 2016, and a discount if they buy a Hab house. Another is fund manager Nicola Horlick, who invited backers
via the Seedrs crowdfunding platform to provide £150,000 of seed capital for a 10% equity stake in her new film investment business Glentham Capital, which they did – in 22 hours. There are many websites and a multitude of projects to invest in, but it is a fast-growing sector that regulators have yet to catch up with. A few websites are regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), but the majority are not, giving crowdfunders little or no protection if the business or project fails. Plans to regulate online crowdfunding will be formalised by the FCA in February next year. In the meantime, caveat emptor! I KF info - september / october - 13
news Compiled by Marielle Fraize
Companies
GDF Suez doubles its energy efficiency activities in the UK through Balfour Beatty Workplace acquisition
Liverpool central library’s facility management has been managed by GDF Suez since June 2013
||| GDF Suez, through its Energy Services business line, has bought Balfour Beatty’s UK facilities management business – Balfour Beatty WorkPlace. The acquisition will give GDF Suez a strong position in energy services, technical services & facilities management in the UK. With its existing Cofely business, GDF Suez Energy Services currently employs 2,200 people in the UK, providing similar services to 13,000 customer sites in commercial, industrial and public sectors. It is also the UK’s largest provider of district energy. The enlarged activities will generate annual revenues of approximately £800 million.
Balfour Beatty WorkPlace provides a range of services to thousands of facilities nationwide, including numerous hospitals, schools and local government establishments. The business has a number of major contracts in the UK with clients including the Department for Work and Pensions, HM Revenue & Customs, North East Lincolnshire Council as well as the Romec joint venture with the Royal Mail Group, which provides a wide range of technical and building services to Royal Mail, Post Office and Parcelforce Worldwide. The business is expected to continue to provide facilities management services to Balfour Beatty’s current portfolio of social infrastructure PPP (public-private partnership) assets in the UK and to collaborate with the Group on the development of its investments in the future. Commenting on the acquisition, Jérôme Tolot, CEO of GDF Suez Energy Services, said: ‘This acquisition will consolidate the Group’s significant European position in energy and facilities services and will also create a strong position for GDF Suez in the UK. It is fully in line with the Group strategy to provide innovative and energy efficient solutions for customers across all sectors of the built environment, assisting them with the transition to a low carbon economy and in the creation of the Cities of Tomorrow’. I
EADS restructures and rebrands as Airbus Group, while more orders roll in ||| EADS will be integrating Airbus Military, Astrium and Cassidian into one Defence and Space Division, and is renaming the Group and its divisions using the globally recognised Airbus brand. The Airbus Group will consist of three divisions: Airbus, responsible for all commercial aircraft activities; Airbus Defence & Space, home to the Group’s defence and space activities including Military Transport Aircraft; and Airbus Helicopters, comprising all commercial and military helicopter activities. The move is in response to the changing market environment with flat or even shrinking defence and space budgets in the Western hemisphere, as it will provide optimised market access, cost and market synergies and improved competitiveness overall. Implementation will begin in January 2014 and will be completed in the second half of 2014. Meanwhile, International Airlines Group (IAG) and Vueling have signed a $5.4 billion purchase agreement to buy 62 Airbus A320s as part a wider IAG agreement for a total of up to 220 aircraft. I 14 - info - september / october
news
Airbus, Air France, Safran and Total team up to develop sustainable aviation biofuels in France
||| At the Paris Air Show 2013, Airbus, Air France, Safran and Total organised a ‘Joining our Energies – Biofuel Initiative France’ flight to illustrate the French industry’s technical capacity to integrate aeronautical biofuels. The four players underline the need to improve research into the development of sustainable biofuels with a view to creating a
French biofuel industry. Today, the air transport sector generates around 2% of global man-made CO ² emissions. Manufacturers are fully mobilised to reduce the impact of air transport by all possible means. As the aviation industry has no alternative to liquid fuels of fossil origin, the use of biofuels is essential for drastically reducing CO ² emissions. As an increasing number of initiatives are being implemented in Europe and worldwide, France has numerous assets for creating an innovative value chain with its world-leading fuel supplier, engine manufacturer, aircraft manufacturer and airline. I
Veolia to lead London’s first heat-from-waste network
A groundbreaking network for London: Councillor Barrie Hargrove, Cabinet Member for Transport, Environment, and Recycling, Southwark Council (front) and Simon Bussell, Commercial and Development Director, Veolia Environmental Services
||| Southwark Council and its recycling and waste partner, Veolia Environmental Services plan to supply heating and hot water to parts of the borough generated through the South East London Combined Heat and Power energy recovery facility (SELCHP). The heating network will be the first of its kind in London and will mark the first time that the heating potential of the SELCHP facility has been fully realised since it was built in 1990s by CNIM SA. The £7 million scheme, due to be completed by the end of the year, will utilise waste that cannot be recycled to provide low carbon heat to five estates in Rotherhithe. The existing gas boilers on the estates will be switched off, resulting in a reduction of around 8,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions per annum. ‘We are delighted to be partnering Southwark Council in this innovative project which will become the second major district heating network we operate in the UK. In simple terms, we are providing heat and hot water for local residents from their rubbish which is unsuitable for recycling. The great news is there is capacity for more buildings to join the SELCHP network and there are already interested potential customers. This will increase the facility’s efficiency even further and shows the circular economy in action,’ said Estelle Brachlianoff, Veolia Environnement Director of Northern Europe and UK Country Director. I info - september / october - 15
news
International SOS unveils world’s most advanced travel risk management solution ||| International SOS and Control Risks have recently unveiled the world’s most advanced online travel security tool, helping employers keep their people out of danger when travelling overseas. A fully redesigned TravelTracker 6 enables clients to quickly identify the location of their employees and communicate with them in their time of need, wherever they are in the world. Its advanced features are a gateway to the services of International SOS and Control Risks – working together to offer the world’s most comprehensive medical and travel
Overview of the TravelTracker 6 service
security solutions. Rich Gallagher, Chief Digital Officer at International SOS said: ‘As global business opportunities evolve and shift to different parts of the world, risks also increase for employees and expatriates living, working, and travelling abroad.’ I
AXA adds another €100 million to scientific research fund ||| AXA has renewed its support for international science and independent academic research by contributing an additional €100 million to the AXA Research Fund budget for the period 2013 to 2018. This amount tops the initial €100 million granted to the AXA Research Fund at its inception in 2007, which has since benefited 367 projects led by researchers of 49 nationalities working in more than 150 universities in 27 countries throughout Europe, Asia and the Americas.
The funding will allow the AXA Research Fund to continue its mission to support top-tier researchers in areas associated with environmental, socioeconomic and life risks, and to promote the public dissemination of their discoveries. The AXA Research Fund will in particular increase its efforts to help scientists go one step further in sharing their knowledge with a broader audience in order to actively nurture public debate on risks threatening our societies. I
WPP buys The Group, while its Kantar Media partners Twitter ||| WPP has acquired UK online corporate communications company The Group and will merge it with its own corporate communications specialist, Addison, to create the Addison Group. Founder of The Group, Mark Hill, will become chairman of the new consultancy, which has expected revenues of £12m. WPP said the acquisition was part of its commitment to strengthening digital capabilities. It follows the purchase of a majority stake in Hong Kong digital consultancy Designercity and minority stake in social media analytics business SecondSync, as WPP builds its digital offer. Meanwhile, WPP’s Kantar Media, a leader in 16 - info - september / october
audience measurement, is partnering with Twitter to develop a new suite of tools to support planning and analytics for the UK television industry. The first of these new products will be available commercially to UK broadcasters, media agencies and the wider industry in 2014. Bringing together social television data from Twitter with the audience research expertise of Kantar Media, the tools will enable broadcasters to assess programmes and series, plan programme promotions more effectively and help media buyers and sellers to integrate social data more comprehensively into the television component of their media mix. I
news
Accor rolls out free Wi-Fi in UK hotels ||| Accor, the international hotel group, is officially rolling out free Wi-Fi in all Ibis Budget, Ibis, Ibis Styles, Novotel, Mercure, Pullman and MGallery hotels in the UK, incorporating all bedrooms and public areas. In total, 194 Accor hotels across the UK and Ireland will offer guests free, high quality WiFi, with many hotels offering fibre-optic Wi-Fi to guarantee the best possible service. Thomas Dubaere, Managing Director of Accor UK & Ireland explains, ‘We recognise that guests expect to have free Wi-Fi wherever they are in the hotel and for it to be a quick, high quality connection. This is why we invested across all our brands in the UK in super, fibre-optic Wi-Fi so that guests can use smartphones, tablets, laptops – whatever technology device – at ease, anywhere in the hotel and for no charge.’ I
Mercure – London Bridge
The new royal arrival on JCDecaux’s national network ||| Reaching 2.3 million passengers a travel by rail into London and the day, JCDecaux’s national network of Southeast. This panel provides real insight into the views and opinions rail Transvision screens were used for a campaign by The Sun newspaper of commuters by providing reactive surveys, polls and forums across a this summer to announce the royal new arrival. Transvision is a network broad range of categories. of large, elevated digital screens Transvision is celebrating a JCDecaux’s Transvision screens herald new arrival of its own, with the which display animated advertising. the Royal newborn addition of a Transvision screen at The Sun’s campaign featured fellow Brighton Station, bringing the network to 23 screens ‘rulers of the world’ – children of celebrities: Harper across 18 stations. JCDecaux’s Transvision network is Seven, North West, Elijah Furnish-John and Blue Ivy. available across London terminals, the high-resolution Not to be swayed by such unusual monikers, screens have been placed in high traffic and high dwell JCDecaux’s ConnectedCommuter poll of rail passengers locations across the UK’s busiest termini concourses, correctly predicted that George would be the royal capturing the attention of the multitude of people that baby’s name. Connected Commuter is a smartphone pass through every day. I community comprising of 2,000 smartphone users who
TomTom launches GPS watches
TomTomRunner and MultiSport watches
||| TomTom, a leading provider of navigation and location-based products and services, has launched its new range of GPS watches that deliver at-a-glance performance information for runners, cyclists and swimmers. Both the TomTom Runner and the TomTom Multi-Sport feature an extra-large display, full-screen graphical training tools and the industry’s first one-button control to make it easier for users to access the information needed to stay motivated and achieve their goals. I info - september / october - 17
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news
A sweep of awards for Société Générale Private Banking Hambros ||| Société Générale Private Banking Hambros has been voted best UK Private Bank of the Year by the Investors Chronicle and Financial Times Wealth Management Awards and Top 25 Trust Companies by Private Client Practitioner. As part of Société Générale Private Banking they were also voted Best Wealth Planning Team at a European-based Private Bank
(WealthBriefing). ‘These awards reflect the very high level of expertise and professionalism of our private banking, wealth planning and investment teams. This recognition illustrates the resilience of our business model and our continued commitment to delivering what is best for our clients,’ said Eric Barnett, SGPB Hambros CEO. I
EDF Energy wins Private Sector Diversity and Inclusion Award ||| EDF Energy was awarded the ‘Overall Winner for the Private Sector at the Employers Network for Equality & Inclusion (ENEI) awards ceremony. Denise Keating, Chief Executive of ENEI, said: ‘These awards recognise the commitment of organisations to achieving diverse and inclusive workplaces, celebrating the teams and individuals who really are making a difference. With over 90 organisations entering the awards, we have been encouraged and moved by the steps organisations are taking to promote equality and diversity and hope this will encourage other companies to follow their lead.’ The award recognised a range of activities and initiatives across EDF Energy including top level commitment from senior management, engagement initiatives, targeted recruitment and talent activities such as its Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Mentoring Scheme
PwC wins HSBC audit ||| PwC has been chosen to replace KPMG at banking giant HSBC’s audit. The decision reinforces PwC’s dominance as the UK’s biggest audit firm. The accountant already audits both Barclays and Lloyds Banking Group, both of which it has done for more than a century. In response to audit changes PwC said: ‘With an increase in audit tendering, we are seeing fierce competition in action. This gives us the chance to explain the value and relevance of PwC’s audits to more people. We are well prepared to compete to retain our existing clients, but also see a great opportunity for PwC to win new clients. We are confident that the significant investment in our audit practice over the last five years will ensure that we remain the market leader in the delivery of high quality and challenging audits.’ I
The EDF Energy team shows off its ENEI award
and robust benchmarking to measure progress against the best in the field. I
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BDO tops merger & acquisition league tables ||| BDO reached the first and second place respectively in the Experian Corpfin and Thompson Reuters league tables, ranking advisors to UK deals by volume. BDO moved from third to first place in the Experian Corpfin league table of financial advisors on deals with any UK involvement. The firm also moved up from fifth to second place in the Thomson Reuters 2013 rankings of financial advisors to UK deals worth less than $500 million. In each case, the number of deals that were included in the league table (44 and
32, respectively) placed the firm ahead of many of the world’s largest investment banks, reinforcing BDO’s commitment to providing expert advice and support to mid market companies and beyond. Jamie Austin, M&A Partner at BDO, said: ‘This is a great result in volatile markets where deal volumes remain subdued. We believe that our focus on particular sectors, long track record of advising entrepreneurs and excellent relationships which we have built up with the private equity community are bearing fruit.’ I
Schools
Find your way to the top with ESCP Europe’s General Management Programme (GMP) ||| Business success & career progression are the key goals of the General Management Programme (GMP). The one-year, part time programme (equivalent to 50% of an ESCP Europe EMBA) provides participants with a deep understanding of contemporary international business. Using classic and new management tools, participants learn how to make informed decisions and respond to uncertainty. The new London-Berlin track, packs all nine core courses of the EMBA* into compact modules: a longweekend with a unique consulting skills (Problem Solving & Decision Making) workshop, followed by three intensive six-day weeks between January and September, two of which will be in Berlin (travel and accommodation costs for London students is covered by the School). Graduation will be in November in London. The course minimises the time participants take off work and many will use annual leave. The GMP Certificate is a standalone course in itself, but also opens the door to students wishing to continue to work for the full EMBA degree by completing a series of elective courses, international seminars and an international consultancy project. A new feature is that the electives are also on offer now in aggregated clusters to minimise the number of trips for those living far away. I For more information, contact Emily Centeno T: +44 (0)20 7443 8854 E: ecenteno@escpeurope.eu or visit www.escpeurope.eu/gmplondon *Currently ranked 5th worldwide for career progression (FT, 2012)
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Schools
Top ranked business schools to launch joint executive Global Reward Management program ||| Grenoble Ecole de Management, France, Vlerick Business School, Belgium and ESCP-Europe, Germany, are joining forces to deliver a multi-campus Global Reward Management executive education programme, starting January 2014. This new and unique programme is designed for professionals wishing to consider new approaches or perspectives for the implementation of their organisation’s reward policies and practices aligned to the corporate business strategy. The programme is aimed at professionals who have international responsibilities in human resources and/or reward management, working in
international firms or in businesses with plans to expand internationally. The 11 days of training combine practical preparation and academic applied research. Each of the four main sections is delivered in a different European city, sequentially: 1. Aligning strategy and reward – Ghent 2. Driving strategic change and employee behaviour – Grenoble 3. Meeting the challenges of rewarding in a global context – Berlin 4. Developing, assessing and/or reshaping a reward strategy – Brussels. I
EUROPEAN IDENTITY GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE ACCELERATE YOUR CAREER WITH OUR EXECUTIVE MBA The Executive MBA at ESCP Europe provides a transformational experience for high potential, ambitious professionals with international career aspirations. Incorporating five campuses across Europe (Paris, London, Berlin, Madrid and Torino), the ESCP Europe EMBA is a flexible programme which focuses on leadership and innovation. Capitalising on our unique pan-European structure, it offers a truly multicultural qualification. ÇŠ 3URJUDPPH WUDFNV DYDLODEOH DW ČŒYH (XURSHDQ FDPSXVHV ÇŠ )LYH LQWHUQDWLRQDO VHPLQDUV ÇŠ ÇŻ N VFKRODUVKLSV DYDLODEOH ÇŠ 3DUWLFLSDQWV IURP FRXQWULHV ÇŠ 3HHU OHDUQLQJ DQG QHWZRUNLQJ ÇŠ 5DQNHG LQ WRS ZRUOGZLGH E\ WKH )7
Contact: Emily Centeno Tel: +44 (0)20 7443 8854 Email: ecenteno@escpeurope.eu T h e Wo r l d ’s F i r s t B u s i n e s s S c h o o l ( e s t . 1 8 1 9 ) PA R I S LO N D O N B E R L I N M A D R I D TO R I N O
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Briefs
Her Majesty the Queen opens pioneering facility at James Cropper
Explanation of the RCF process
The Queen starts the RCF Conveyor
||| James Cropper plc, the specialist paper and advanced materials group, has developed technology to recycle disposable coffee cups into high quality paper products, and has opened a £5 million Reclaimed Fibre Plant using this technology at its production mill in Kendal, Cumbria. Until now, the plastic content of cups has made them unsuitable for use in papermaking. In the UK alone, an estimated 2.5 billion paper cups go to landfill. James Cropper’s recycling technology separates out the plastic incorporated in the cups leaving paper pulp that can be used in the highest quality papers. The new facility was inaugurated on 17 July by Her Majesty The Queen who visited James Cropper’s HQ in the English Lake District alongside Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal. Mark Cropper, chairman of James Cropper plc, said: ‘Cup waste is a rich source of high grade pulp fibre, but until now the plastic content made this product a contaminant in paper recycling. Our technology changes that and also addresses a major environmental waste problem and accompanying legislation. We are greatly honoured that Her Majesty The Queen and The Princess Royal joined us on the occasion of our new plant opening. There is no more fitting way to celebrate this pioneering development.’ I
||| 1000Mercis has acquired the Real Time Bidding (RTB) pioneer Matiro and is now launching a full RTB offer for advertisers. Matiro, a company created in 2010 by Yann Le Roux, is a pioneer of RTB customer acquisition and retention techniques and will help 1000mercis develop its presence on the Trading and Display market. RTB Display is the fourth electronic customer relationship marketing (e-CRM) channel offered by the Group in addition to email, mobile and social media. Yseulys Costes, 1000mercis Group CEO, said ‘Our know-how in Data Marketing and Matiro’s expertise allow us to reinvent the Display market and make efficient and profitable strategies for advertisers based in the UK or overseas, for both acquisition 22 - info - september / october
© flickr/Baron Visuals
1000Mercis buys real-time bidding company Matiro
and retention campaigns’. The 1000mercis Group’s investment totalled €700,000, with a €300,000 capital increase. I
spotlight on s m e s & s ta r t u p s
Ligne Roset: on show at the London Design Festival and opening in Bristol ||| Ligne Roset will be making its mark on the London Design Festival (14-22 September) this year with several collaborations. The company’s largest urban store, Ligne Roset City, will be host to one of the concepts selected by art:i:curate, a global community of art curators that votes for emerging art showcased online to be exhibited offline. The brand is also supporting young talent through a collaboration with London-based designer Benjamin Hubert for a new Container lamp. An installation of over 30 factory castings, showcasing the entire design process of the ceramic lamp from prototype to production, will be showcased at Ligne Roset’s Westend store. And for the second year running, Ligne Roset is exhibiting at Tent London 2013, displaying its latest designs with a neo-medieval twist. Besides its London activities, Ligne Roset is branching out in Bristol with the opening of a new showroom at Cribbs Causeway in September. I
||| Alliance Française de Londres is offering Skype sessions as part of a bespoke course for people who are unable to get to Alliance House or prevented from taking a full course because of tight work schedule. Students are able to connect to native speaker tutors and join virtual classrooms for the interative lessons. The Level 5 (C1-C2) students will be studying a recently published and highly acclaimed French novel: La vengeance du Roi-Soleil by Jean Contrucci. This is a partnership with Editions JC Lattès to mark MarseilleProvence Capital of Culture 2013. I
EVENTEAM on the court in 2014 ||| EVENTEAM has been appointed one of the French Tennis Federation official agencies for Roland Garros and BNP Paribas Masters tennis events for the next three editions: 2014, 2015 and 2016. I
© www.flickr.com/photos/yersinia
Jean Contrucci and interactive classes at Alliance Française de Londres
FlexiJobs launches English website and offers free workshops ||| At the end of September, FlexiJobs the e-learning, training and coaching platform, will launch the English version of its website: a move that will increase the French company’s visibility within the UK. The company is also running free workshops in both French and English for individuals and professionals with details available on www.flexijobs.fr I
Flags and spectators at Court Philippe Chatrier, Stade Roland Garros, Paris
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Profile
Clémence de Crecy, Clementine Communications and Bigoodi ||| ‘I’m a bit of an entrepreneur,’ confesses Clémence de
Crecy, as she talks about her new ‘side’ business, Bigoodi, a luxury hair salon for kids she set up in early 2012. Inspired by a specialist children’s hair salon she visited on a trip to New York with her two young children, she saw a business opportunity and decided to set up her own version in London. Creating the brand and website was a cinch for Clémence, whose main business is Clementine Communications, a public relations and media consultancy with a focus on lifestyle and the luxury sector, and the rest fell into place quite quickly. Eighteen months on, with a director in charge, ‘it is working absolutely fine on its own’ she says, but she keeps an eye on it from her nearby PR agency. Clémence plans to give it another 18 months before weighing up the options including franchising or licensing, but ultimately, she describes it as ‘a creative brand to sell’. Creativity lies at the heart of Clémence’s PR business, and in a market that has been hard hit by slashed media budgets in recent years, she has always stood from the crowd by being different and coming up with new formats that will capture the imagination of a somewhat jaded media. One example is the ‘rockclimbing’ press day she recently organised as part of a Chilean and Argentinian wine tasting: ‘we had writeups in almost every single newspaper we invited because clearly they had fun and it was different.’ Although not all her clients are French, Clémence is ideally positioned as a bridge for French companies entering the British market. She knows the UK market very well having been here for 10 years, and as a student before that on the Erasmus programme. ‘Many companies think they can just replicate what they did in France, but I have to tell them they need a different approach here,’ she says. ‘For example, in France we love big press conferences, where hundreds of journalists gather, the spokesperson or CEO of the brand speaks about the product and people raise their hands to ask questions, but this just does not work in the UK – journalists won’t turn up and they certainly don’t want to share their questions with peers.’ Another big differentiator between France and the UK is social media, a channel that Clémence passionately believes in. ‘My French clients still do not understand social media or what it can bring to their brands,’ says Clémence. ‘It’s a medium that scares them, but this is the future of communications. Although some of these brands are traditional, they are creating products for their customers, not themselves and
Clémence de Crecy
have to connect with them.’ She adds that nowadays it is the only way to contact some journalists and buyers. But while communication is increasingly digital, and social media is now an integral part of any campaign, Clémence is not ready to call time on print as a medium: ‘there is still a generation reading print newspapers and magazines,’ she says. ‘It is a matter of finding different angles for different audiences.’ About 40% of Clémence’s client base is food and drink related, including La Maison du Chocolat and Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne, as well as British artisan crisp company Corkers. The rest is travel, destinations, hotels, overseas property and luxury brands, particularly watches. Travel is an area she wants to develop as the economic climate improves and she is also looking to grow the luxury division back to what it was 7 years ago. About 90% of her business comes from word-of-mouth referrals, and the rest through networking. Clementine Communications also has a Paris office, but since appointing a managing director there, Clémence no longer has to commute weekly across the Channel, although she still does panEuropean campaigns for some clients. ‘It is a very personable job,’ comments Clémence, and she describes how she takes a hands-on approach for all her clients, with weekly brainstorming sessions for each brand. ‘PR is far more than just contacting the press,’ she says. ‘Sometimes it is a matter of educating clients about this, what a difference speaking to a genuine consultant who understands the market can make to a business and that it doesn’t have to cost the earth.’ What is clear is that businesses need to communicate to be seen, and in such a fast-changing environment, they have to be poised to catch the next wave. I KF info - september / october - 25
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Interview
Laurence Colchester, Bitter Lemon Press Before publishing, Laurence Colchester’s long and varied career has included working for Citibank, the Hudson Institute and the French Embassy in London. She was most notably the Managing Director of the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain from 1983 to 1995
||| When and why did you found Bitter Lemon Press?
Bitter Lemon Press was launched in 2004 by Francois von Hurter, his brother and myself. We share a love for books, an upbringing on the Continent, and many decades of living in the Anglophone world, so thought we could identify novels from distant places that would appeal to readers in the UK or the US. We did some market research by going to see some independent publishers. Everyone told us we must be mad to focus on translation. There’s no doubt that the economic model of doing translated fiction is a difficult one, and small-scale publishing in general doesn’t really make sense financially, because you need to be prepared to wait patiently for results in a way that doesn’t apply in any other field. But we wanted to share our love for these books so we went ahead. We thought it prudent to learn more about the business by initially concentrating on crime and noir fiction, a genre we admire and one perhaps more ‘commercial’ than others. Nine years and 60 titles later we are still committed to the genre but have occasionally gone off-piste and published some general fiction by authors already on our list.
includes authors from most European countries with an emphasis on Italy, Germany and Poland, extending East to Turkey. We also have a strong list of South American authors from Argentina, Cuba and Mexico. What is your role in the process?
What I love in my job as a small independent publisher is the flexibility, the rapidity of the decision-making process and the fact that I am involved at each stage of the publishing process. We are three partners and all the staff is freelance. I read and select manuscripts, negotiate the rights, commission translations, work with copy editors on the text, discuss covers with the designer, set the publicity and marketing plan with the publicist and present the books to the sales team. I also get to know the writers and throughout the years have built warm and personal relations with our authors. What are the main issues you face?
The first is finding time to read the submissions from foreign publishers, agents, translators and authors (especially in the aftermath of visits to the Frankfurt and London book fairs) and the second is getting our books What are the criteria for the books you choose? into bookstores. We operate in a landscape very different We explore the world for books we can fall in love with. from the one we knew when we started in 2004. First For us that means a deep sense of place, an insider’s view retailing changed as large chains supplanted independent of a foreign culture (tell me about your crimes, I’ll tell books stores (when we started London had three stores you about your society), an emphasis dedicated to crime fiction, today none). on character and psychology rather Then the internet started competing than plot, and an insistence on good with the chains and so they have also What I love in my job as a writing. And I must add a need to started to disappear too. small independent publisher laugh or at least smile while reading is the flexibility, the rapidity a good crime story. Humour, often Has the advent of eBooks changed of the decision-making dark, is an important ingredient for your business? Bitter Lemon Press. We find our Crime fiction is an area where eBook process and the fact that I authors in many ways: by word of sales have soared. We decided to go am involved at each stage of mouth, reading the literary pages of digital four years ago and have never the publishing process. the French German and Italian press, regretted it. All our titles are published getting manuscripts from agents in paper and digital format and our and foreign publishers. Our first author was Tonino digital sales represent close to 20% of our sales in the UK and 40% in the US. I don’t think eBooks will replace paper Benacquista, a Frenchman whose novel Badfellas (Malavita in the French edition) is now being made books. There will continue to be a market for both with a into a film by Luc Besson with Robert De Niro, Michelle trend towards more ‘beautiful books’ published in paper Pfeiffer and Tommy Lee Jones. Our list is eclectic and format and more novels in digital format. I KF info - september / october - 27
s u cc e s s s to ry
We vowed never again to borrow, overexpand or take the company public...a strategy that has paid off
Sophie Mirman, serial entrepreneur A veteran entrepreneur, Sophie Mirman has experienced highs and lows, spectacular successes and high profile failures, but her family company Trotters Childrenswear & Accessories has benefited from all the lessons learned and grown from strength to strength
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f you Google Sophie Mirman, the name ‘Sock Shop’ will dominate the list of results. Sophie herself is resigned to this association: ‘My entry in Who’s Who is listed as co-founder of Sock Shop International, so I suppose I have had a long time to reconcile myself to the fact that whatever I do or achieve, my epitaph will always recount those seven years between 1983 and 1990,’ she says, adding emphatically, ‘I did, however, have a life both before and after.’ The only child of French parents, Sophie’s upbringing in the UK was far from conventional. Her mother, Simone Mirman, was a milliner, and the first foreigner to have two Royal Warrants for the Queen and the Queen Mother. She also worked closely with Christian Dior making the hats for his collections. ‘I was used to the rich and famous coming and going to my mother’s salon on the ground floor of our Belgravia house,’ she recounts. Her father, Serge, had introduced Christian Dior into the UK in the early 1950s, opening the salon in Conduit Street and negotiating the first hosiery licensing deal. However, despite all appearances, money was scarce: ‘My father was very ill, the house was rented, and, in those days, designers rarely earned large sums of money. Bailiffs were a feature of my early life, and I learned, at a very young age, to take personal responsibility, including organising a bursary at my school, the French Lycée, so I could complete my studies.’ With her parents unable to support her financially, Sophie had to pass up a place at London School of Economics, and instead found a job so she could contribute to the family income. She initially joined a typing pool at Marks & Spencer, but when the opportunity presented itself, jumped at the chance 28 - info - september / october
to become personal assistant to the then Chairman, Lord Sieff. ‘The move proved to be a watershed for me. Lord Sieff was a truly great man; inspirational and charismatic, he became my mentor. Indeed, years later, he joined our board at Sock Shop as a non-executive director.’ Encouraged by Lord Sieff, Sophie went on to develop her career in the business, embarking on a management training programme with placements in Brighton, Croydon and Paris. In 1980, she answered an advertisement posted by a group of wealthy South African entrepreneurs who were endeavouring to establish a chain of specialist tie shops in the UK. ‘I had no experience in buying, nor in store openings, but they wanted me and I therefore negotiated what was then a very large salary, plus a percentage of turnover,’ she recalls. ‘Between 1980 and 1983, I opened the first 18 Tie Racks, organising everything from stock to builders, from staff to instore merchandising. I learned so very much, including the important lesson that one can learn just as much from bad experiences, and bad practices, as from good ones. To go from a patriarchal system to Tie Rack was an incredible culture shock, but an invaluable lesson in how not to do things.’ Then in 1983, aged just 26, Sophie left the Tie Rack together with the finance director, Richard Ross, who was to become her husband, risking everything to open a small kiosk in Knightsbridge Underground Station with a government loan. In Thatcher’s Britain, markets and opportunities seemed endless, and Sock Shop thrived, opening outlets in previously uncommercialised places such as mainline train stations, underground stations and airports. In 1987 the company was floated on the unlisted securities
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market. ‘The shares were oversubscribed by 27 times as queues formed round the block so investors could grab some of the action,’ recalls Sophie. Sock Shop’s success received much press attention and Sophie was thrust into the limelight, particularly as a young woman entrepreneur. She was named Marketing Woman of the Year in 1987, and in the following year Unlisted Securities Market Entrepreneur of the Year and Veuve Clicquot Businesswoman of the Year. Sock Shop also went international, expanding to New York, France and Belgium. But in October 1987, the stock market crashed, and the years that followed saw high inflation, interest rates that soared from 8 to 15%, borrowings in excess of £12 million, and two very hot summers and mild winters, when tights and socks were not good sellers. Wildcat strikes on the trains and London Underground also had a crippling effect on the strategically placed shops – 60% were closed for three days a week over a six-month period. It was all too much for the fledgling business. In February 1990, Sock Shop Serial entrepreneur Sophie Mirman was forced into administration. ‘With 139 shops and 850 staff, this was a terrible blow,’ says Sophie. ‘Yes, we as opposed to quarterly updates and the pressures made mistakes – we had over-expanded too far and too of market reporting.’ Their savvy approach has also fast – but very few young companies could withstand enabled them to buck current retail trends. Sophie puts the extreme change in economic conditions, and we, it down to a decision taken six years ago to eliminate along with many others, were swept aside.’ branded merchandise from their clothing ranges. ‘We But this was not the end of the story. Only eight recognised early on that the Internet and the changing months later, in October 1990, Sophie and Richard face of the high street would lead to excessive costopened the first Trotters Childrenswear & Accessories cutting, and grabbing of market share,’ she says. ‘What’s on Kings Road in Chelsea. ‘We had learned dearly about the point of selling a product which can be sold by the dangers of seasonality, narrow product range and someone else at a lower price, especially if you have a our own personal strengths and weaknesses, and we put high cost base? So we decided to design and produce that into play,’ Sophie observes. Trotters was designed clothing exclusively for sale within our stores and via to tap into year-round consumer demand, selling our website. This has allowed us to not only survive but also flourish, as we maintain a point of distinction children’s clothing, shoes, books, toys, accessories, as well as boasting a hair-dressing department. It was a from other players in the market.’ brave new venture after the bruising time they had been This has been a record year for Trotters with profits through, but not long after Trotters opened, Sophie was up 10% year on year. ‘It has a lot to do with London – particularly encouraged by an award with its high profile in 2012 and now for Motivator of the Year, and the the Royal baby, it is looking great at And with so few shops, feedback that followed from people the moment,’ says Sophie. Trotters’ who identified with her situation. London credentials have worldwide we have been able to ‘We vowed never again to appeal, if the rapid growth of online concentrate on product and borrow, over-expand, or take the sales is anything to go by. ‘We even merchandise development company public,’ says Sophie, and had an order from Hiroshima the other with the luxury of being it is a strategy that has paid off: 23 day,’ Sophie notes. Closer to home, the able to take the long view years later, Trotters continues to French also flock to Trotters, attracted flourish, but on its own terms, with by its classic European style. expansion deliberately limited to six shops. Sophie is Trotters is now a true family business, with Sophie quick to dismiss that as lack of ambition: ‘The stores and Richard as partners and eldest daughter Natasha have changed beyond recognition since 1990,’ she the financial controller. ‘It’s small, it’s private and I thoroughly enjoy what I do,’ says Sophie. Perhaps the points out. ‘And with so few shops, we have been able to concentrate on product and merchandise development next generation will have different ideas, but Sophie with the luxury of being able to take the long view has achieved her own measure of success. I KF info - september / october - 29
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Shaping the city: regeneration and real estate
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here is a symbiotic relationship between real estate and urban regeneration – one informs the other, and each needs the other. Quite apart from the social and environmental imperatives for urban regeneration, there has to be a strong economic case for it, which is the property market and the value generated for stakeholders – government, private corporations and individuals. Giving people a stake in property at all levels is what stabilises society. In turn, for real estate to have any value, it must be socially, commercially and environmentally responsive to its context. The built environment is the overarching subject of this Focus, starting with its fabric, from the broad scale of urban regeneration and place-making to the detail of materials and technology that are going into making sustainable buildings of the present and the future. There are evident issues and barriers to overcome, but the most successful examples generated by our member companies reveal a combination of French innovation and British pragmatism with the right balance of economic incentive and community buy-in. The fact that Greater London is the context for many of the regeneration projects described in the following articles, as well as the issues and trends in real estate, is no accident. As the city with the largest GDP in Europe, and a significant concentration of population and economy activity, it is where much of the action is, while other regions of the country are still struggling with the effects of economic decline. The Focus then turns our attention to existing buildings, the way they are used for working and
living, and their role and value in the real estate marketplace. It is a marketplace very much shaped by the economic climate of the past few years, and the resulting trends that are emerging in both the commercial and residential realms include size and effective use of space, as well as the changing profile of users and approach. Supply – whether of homes, prime retail space or land for development – is a perennial issue, and not one that is easily solved. In the crowded envelope of London’s luxury retail area a lack of supply has meant expansion into surrounding areas, creating more diversity and range. Conversely, a demand for homes that is not being met with adequate supply is creating problems not just in the short term but for the future. A city’s economy has to work on all levels and if high property prices make it the preserve of the wealthy and distort true values, it will become dysfunctional. A well functioning city is attractive to property investors, and London has drawn international investors like bees to a honey pot because it has all the right elements, underpinned by a transparent property market, reliable legal system and stable politics. But it is also drawing investment from closer to home as its French population starts to put down roots by buying family homes in the suburbs and regenerated areas. Ultimately it is this continued drive to invest in real estate as well as in the urban environment, to create places to live, work and socialise, that will foster the urban regeneration of the future – one that is sustainable, commercially viable and vibrant. I KF
focus contents part one: optimising the built environment
32 An urban regeneration orientation 34 Approaches to urban regeneration in the UK and France 36 Joining up the dots of regeneration across London 38 Regeneration of the Lea Valley 39 Engineering the green economy 40 The comfort of a sustainable future
part two: trends & issues in the real estate marketplace
42 To build or not to build: is financing the question? 43 Property investment trends: the London conundrum 44 Small is beautiful 45 London’s luxury core 46 From efficiency to effectiveness: office space enters a new era 48 Hot property: why London attracts the world’s wealthiest 49 Prime tenants demand prime properties 50 French real estate investment in London: current trends
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part one: optimising the built environment
Hugo Frieszo is a trained Architect, Urban Planner & Designer with over 20 years experience on large-scale urban regeneration projects in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia and Africa for both the public and private sectors. He is currently with Dargroup, an international consultancy specialising in engineering, architecture, planning, and economics
An urban regeneration orientation International urban design and planning project manager Hugo Frieszo shares an overview of urban regeneration and its fundamentals in the context of today’s multifaceted cities
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rban regeneration, the craft and process of redeveloping dilapidated or no longer functional urban areas, is complex and multifaceted, cutting across all scales and types of development, sociopolitical and economic conditions and local community needs and aspirations. It can cover everything from creating desirable homes in city centres to finding new uses for formal industrial heartlands. Both France and Britain are prime examples of countries whose towns and cities, while mature and established, are still in a process of dynamic evolution with urban areas
Parc de la Villette, Paris
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undergoing makeovers (using popular parlance) in response to prevailing needs, pressures and opportunities. There is no ‘one size fits all’, but one can discern common purposes, issues, approaches, delivery and trends in the worldwide effort to breathe new life into urban areas that have fallen into decay or need to be intensified to accommodate population and economic growth.
Purposes The purpose of urban regeneration is to redevelop, refurbish, renovate or reconstruct old sites or buildings in towns and cities. It is normally done on a large scale and either centrally or privately controlled or a combination of both. Urban regeneration seeks to reverse the decline in cities worst hit by the demise of their industrial and manufacturing economies that left many inner city areas blighted by unemployment, riddled with poor housing and socially excluded from more prosperous districts. It does this by both improving the physical structure, and, more importantly and elusively, the economy of those areas. The main goal of an urban regeneration programme is to reduce disadvantages in the poorest areas by focusing on four issues: unemployment, poor health, crime and education. Other issues such as improvement to the physical environment are usually secondary to these main priorities. Issues A central issue is always the backlog of affordable housing demand which faces even the most established wealthy cities. City authorities usually strive to create a balance between social and market-driven housing provision, which is often plagued by issues of access to affordable land with good or emerging infrastructure. Another key issue is retaining balanced, healthy communities in areas that have been overly ‘gentrified’ by private property investment. Cities are therefore always challenged to plan for safeguarding affordable
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choices in a variety of areas to prevent social exclusion. This, in turn, is related to end-user affordability which depends on skills training and creating opportunities for livelihood generation. Such provision is not profitable enough to be left to market forces alone, which means the public sector must take the initiative to balance social and market development needs by planning for a variety of housing levels, employment and commercial uses, community facilities, open spaces amenity, roads, transport and utility infrastructure. Linked to this is the further challenge of addressing climate change and energy consumption, as well as historical buildings and areas under development pressure. Once development plans have a legal status, the next step is funding. The public purse is always stretched and so the private sector also plays a role in financing if it is profitable to do so. Usually it is a combination of both, with the proportionality determined by the nature of the funding collaboration. Every regeneration project has a unique set of complementary and challenging contextual conditions and variables. Perennial questions remain about the effectiveness of regeneration schemes, such as how top-down government programmes can gain crucial local support to succeed, stimulate local economies and create jobs, or prevent displacing problems from one area to another.
The O2 and Canary Wharf, London
The Louvre with IM Pei’s Pyramid, Paris
The number of separate regeneration funding packages that have been launched and then dropped shows that these questions may still need further exploration, most likely at the level of more engaged stakeholder consultation.
Approaches The approaches to urban regeneration are implicit in the ‘planning’ and ‘managing’ of cities. There is nothing new in this – there has always been a requirement for cities to function properly within an ordered framework that is not left to chance. City authorities often tackle the challenges associated with large population density through territorial-based policies. Until recently, major urban planning strategies covered all aspects both aesthetic and practical, including streets, building facades, parks, sewers and water works, facilities and public monuments. However, cities today face new challenges in a globalised and interconnected world, and urban planning has had to adapt to deal with issues such as climate change mitigation, social inclusion and preserving cultural heritage. Delivery Implementation mechanisms are key to delivering urban regeneration. The players are usually the public sector city authorities, which permit development by law according to zoning and land-use/transport plans and the private sector, which seeks to win land sale tenders to secure real estate. The public sector should also safeguard social housing, open space, transport, community and utility infrastructure, as these are dependent on the coordination of a central public body. In turn, city plans give confidence to the private sector to invest its resources and expertise in property development which info - september / october - 33
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can also include the contribution of public infrastructure. In all regeneration programmes, public money is essential to lever in private investment into an area. Numerous funds have been launched over the past 20 years by the British government through setting up new regional development agencies, enterprise zones, urban development corporations and housing associations. There are currently two main regeneration funds: the New Deal for Communities and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund, as well as a raft of other streams focused on specific activities including lottery funding, grants for education, employment and health action zones, and Housing Corporation grants for new social housing, 60% of which has to support regeneration schemes. The government has also introduced a number of tax incentives to help regeneration. These include tax breaks for urban regeneration companies that have been set up to coordinate regeneration in three British cities, with another 12 planned. However, on tax breaks the government has not gone as far as the recommendations made by the Urban Task Force, a group chaired by architect Lord Rogers in the 1990s.
Approaches to urban regeneration in the UK and France Comparing examples from both countries, Nicolas GuĂŠrin, Managing Director of Bouygues Development, urges the sharing of best practice for the future of urban regeneration
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rban regeneration takes place when the physical, social and economic characteristics of run-down urban areas have been rebuilt as part of a strategic plan to improve an area. Successful urban regeneration has to take place at many levels. It involves the successful integration of complex social, economic, planning, construction and management activities. The impact of urban regeneration in the UK has been visible in a great many areas of the country. The regeneration of the Docks into Canary Wharf and in Stratford, the creation of the Olympic Park are good examples of successful regeneration.
The catalyst The UK has a much wider approach to regeneration than France. In the UK there is an understanding that the creation of a successful development requires a primary need that crystallises all other uses. In Canary Wharf, the catalyst was the office spaces but, unlike La Defense, there is great harmony between the office developments and the retail and residential elements of the development. The renewal of Stratford is mainly due to the Westfield 34 - info - september / october
shopping centre which created a fantastic destination. This has ultimately generated growth for offices and housing. A counter example is Saint-Denis which clearly segregates the offices areas from the housing and there is very limited retail. The best regeneration in Paris is, in my opinion, Bercy-Village, which integrates offices, residential accommodation and retail units very well. Unlike France, in the UK, retail units, pubs, restaurants and community spaces are paramount to delivering a vibrant area. The future stations of the Grand Paris project may miss this critical aspect in favouring the intellectual side of regeneration, rather than taking a pragmatic approach which should put the retail offer at the heart of the development.
A private-public partnership The UK partnerships between the private and public sectors is much stronger than in France. In the UK, the public sector benefits from the regeneration, often receiving a share of the profit generated by the developers to invest in additional public or community facilities like a school for example. Local authorities
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Trends Urban regeneration has been applied around the world to derelict industrial areas and waterfronts ripe for redevelopment into other land uses. Its success depends on a common vision across all stakeholders and mechanisms for implementation, underpinned by a strong sustainability argument to ensure economic, social and environmental imperatives are achieved. British government policy declares: ‘Urban policy is at the heart of the government’s Sustainable Communities Agenda – improving the construction and
design of buildings, ensuring that regeneration benefits everyone in the community, and developing the skills that are needed to ensure this happens. Towns and cities must be looked at as a whole so that we tackle their economic, social and environmental needs in an integrated way.’ There is no template, but there are some key givens. Urban regeneration is a long-term process requiring patience (and not short-term property perspectives), investment in social capital (which is as important as the physical side, but often not sufficiently understood) and complex and careful partnerships across key stakeholders. Ultimately, in spite of the many complexities and challenges to overcome, urban regeneration is now a trend in our cities where the action is. It requires a lot of very hard, smart effort but the rewards are great where it has made a significant difference to communities and provided economic growth and environmental enhancement. The acid test of successful urban regeneration is development that not only makes people feel good but makes them proud to be a part of it. I
always deliver urban regeneration in partnerships which can include central government, developers and construction companies and, perhaps most importantly, local communities. As a consequence, community regeneration is an integral part of urban regeneration and it is now hard to imagine the success of any regeneration project involving residential property where the views of local communities are not taken into account – the ultimate goal being to deliver a better environment, socially and economically, in which to live. Community involvement is particularly important when the regeneration of an area requires relocation of existing communities during the construction and development phase. Working with local communities and stakeholders can really help in creating as positive experience as possible for all parties involved. Another difference in the approach to residential development to note would be that in the UK, councils tend to mix housing tenures and favour ‘pepperpotting’ – the creation of private and social flats in the same building, more than they do in France.
The long-term view Another very important dimension of the regeneration is the long term view: appointing a bespoke private management company to ensure consistency of the developments, creating a balanced community over time (affordable housing, private rented, private owners) and appointing a single utility supplier who maintains the public realm and the common areas are just two examples. Unlike the société d’économie mixte (SEM), they are owned and managed by the private sector
Bouygues Development’s regeneration project in Addlestone, Surrey
which often enhances the development and its facilities through a more pragmatic approach. In conclusion, it is fair to say that in the UK, the overall approach, engrained in the mindset of both public and private stakeholders, is seeing greater advancement in the delivery of urban regeneration. In France, certified systems during the planning process of a project are speedier, simpler and create predictability. This coupled with the regulated legal and financial arrangements (vente en état futur d’achèvement) between developers and home owners to protect both parties throughout the delivery of the project to completion are enabling France to deliver three times more housing than the UK. I would urge British and French local authorities and developers to come together to share ideas and develop the future of urban regeneration. I info - september / october - 35
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Joining up the dots of regeneration across London Leo Hammond, an Urban Designer and Senior Advisor within the Cabe Team at the Design Council, looks at how Cabe (formerly Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment*) works to maximise the commercial opportunity and public benefit of regeneration projects across London
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© I m a ge cou r te s y of Peter B a rb er A rc h ite c t s
o one could fail to notice the amount of regeneration we have seen in London over recent years. While other parts of the country and the world have been continuing to struggle with the aftermath of the credit crunch’s impact on the construction industry, London seems to have carried on oblivious. The 2012 Olympics, the international movement of money into London property, an increasing population and the resilience of the jobs market in London are all fuelling the capital’s regeneration. At Cabe we are in the privileged position of assessing many of the capital’s regeneration projects through Design Review, which is an independent evaluation process whereby a panel of experts assesses the design of new buildings and public realm. Once more of an architectural critique, the focus now is more about supporting good design and planning, aiding commercially viable regeneration, while trying to maximise the public benefit for London. Cabe believe that the two aims of commercial viability and public good are not mutually exclusive and that good design produces both. In the last two years we have seen over 250 regeneration projects, allowing us to join the dots and try and maximise the public benefit for London and developers. So what themes can we draw out? London seems to be regenerating along two main approaches, with the common theme of increasing density across the capital, to provide homes and jobs for the rising population. The first approach I would call ‘regeneration by repair’. These projects are on smaller sites, where the city is repairing its fabric. It could be through derelict buildings being reused or extended or
New tree lined public space at Fleet Street Hill 36 - info - september / october
it could be through demolition and rebuild, with housing replacing employment floorspace. The second approach is ‘regeneration by starting afresh’, which is almost a start again approach with the wholesale redevelopment of large underutilised areas of London. These sites are generally identified in the London Plan as ‘Opportunity Areas’, where the Mayor has identified he wants to increase homes and jobs. Many of the regeneration projects are located around public transport, not only existing train and underground stations, but also areas with improved or new services. The new London Overground service, which has provided new stations in east and southeast London, has opened up traditionally more cut-off neighbourhoods in the boroughs of Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham and Southwark. Another example is Crossrail, the new east-west train link that will open in 2018, which has had a huge impact on the location of larger regeneration projects in London.
Regeneration by repair An excellent example of a regeneration by repair project is Fleet Street Hill by Peter Barber Architects for the developer Londonewcastle. Located next to a railway line near the new Shoreditch London Overground Station in Tower Hamlets, the project is for 43 homes and a community centre on a site
made available by the demolition of a redundant railway structure. The site currently has poor quality landscaping and lighting, making it prone to anti-social behaviour. Peter Barber and Londonewcastle have proposed to repair the site by creating housing around a new public tree-lined open space. New streets and houses provide natural overlooking to routes that lead to a bridge crossing the railway line and link other currently disconnected open spaces and streets. A tower on the corner of the site improves legibility and the community centre gives a place for local people to meet, socialise or learn. The value that Cabe added to the Fleet Street Hill illustrates the benefits of Design Review. Through collaboratively working with the architect, we worked to ensure
The result is a commercially viable development that maximises the public benefit with a public open space links to the surrounding area were fully realised, that sustainability opportunities were increased and that the designer was making the full use of the site. In this case, we thought the initial scheme was too deferential in height to the surrounding area in places and could provide more homes. The result is a commercially viable development that maximises the public benefit with a public open space, better links across the railway, affordable housing and high quality architecture.
Regeneration by starting afresh The ‘regeneration by starting afresh’ approach is on a huge scale compared to regeneration by repair. A good example is the Vauxhall Nine
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View towards new US Embassy showing the proposed linear park and new housing at Nine Elms
Elms Battersea Opportunity Area, which is an enormous 195 hectares. The plans are for the iconic Battersea Power Station to be retained for a mixed use development, while the semi-industrial area around it will be transformed to create 16,000 new homes, approximately 2,000 new jobs, provide a new linear park, a new section of pedestrianised publically accessible Thames Path, the new American Embassy and a new home for New Covent Garden Market, all served by an extension of the Northern Line with two extra stops at Nine Elms and Battersea. Cabe’s Design Review has seen many of the different residential sites that make up the Opportunity Area, as well as the proposals for Battersea Power Station, the American Embassy and New Covent Garden Market. This has allowed us to help in having an overview of the regeneration, ensure a joinedup approach and try and maximise the public benefit from the scheme, as we have no vested interest, apart from encouraging good design. The challenge at Nine Elms is bringing the different design teams together, especially when they have immediately adjacent sites. Design Reviews at Nine Elms have helped design teams to achieve the basics, such as sharing responsibility for building high quality new streets on adjacent sites, and harder challenges, such as multiple designers and developers delivering the linear park through the centre of the area, leading from Vauxhall Station to Battersea Power Station. The public benefit of having Cabe Design Review the proposals is that the linear park and Thames path will not be eroded in size, but will instead be designed to the highest quality, along with the architecture of the new buildings.
London going forward London is expected to have a population increase of one million people within the next 10 years, which will require 36,000 new homes each year to keep pace with demand, so there will be a lot more regeneration to come. London is one of the world’s great cities and to maintain its position, regeneration is required for it to repair and grow stronger. I * The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) was an executive non-departmental public body of the UK government, established in 1999. It was funded by both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport and the Department for Communities and Local Government. It was merged into the Design Council on 1 April 2011.
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Regeneration of the Lea Valley Yann Leclercq is a senior urban planner/ designer with Dar Al-Handasah (Shair and Partners) and was part of the planning team that drew up London’s 2012 Olympic Park masterplan in 2003/2004 when working for consultant EDAW
he stunning images of the Olympic Park that were beamed around the world last year were the culmination of several years of careful and considered preparation. But the event was just one major milestone in a long running strategy to regenerate East London and change some of the most run-down parts of London. Only 10 years ago, the area around Stratford in East London was a mix of semi derelict industrial land, a forgotten industrial backwater that formed a major physical barrier between east and west. Only 4km from the City of London economic powerhouse, the area contained Europe’s largest disused fridge mountain! Commitment to transforming East London was initiated long before talk of the Olympics. The new Stratford City neighbourhood to the north of the wellconnected station at Stratford (which now comprises the successful Westfield shopping centre), Stratford International station on the High Speed Link that could one day provide direct services to Paris and Brussels, and the planned Crossrail connecting to Heathrow airport were all in progress. When the bid was put together for London to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games back in 2004, the talk was of using the Olympics as a catalyst to the wider regeneration of East London. The investment made Olympic park facts and figures
Transport » Direct connections to a third of London’s rail and underground stations » 10 public transport lines into Stratford station Green Space » 35km of interlinking paths, waterways and cycle paths » 252 acres (102 hectares) of open space » 6.5km of rivers and canals running through the Park » 111 acres (45 hectares) of biodiverse wildlife habitat
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Source: London Legacy Development Corporation
New Neighbourhoods » Five new neighbourhoods developed over 20 years » Up to 8,000 new homes in addition to 2,800 in the former Athletes’ Village » A target of 35% affordable housing » 3 schools » 9 nurseries » 3 health centres » 29 playgrounds
in hosting the Games would be a fast track means to achieving long term economic gains. The key lesson to avoid was of previous Olympic Games, which ended up with sporting facilities that were never used. From the very beginning, discussions centred on the Olympics legacy – ensuring the long term impacts of hosting the event would have wider positive benefits. Once London won the bid in July 2005 there were just seven years to make it all a reality. And so began the seemingly impossible task of transforming the Lea Valley – a vast stretch of forgotten London – into the site of the world’s most televised event. No time has been wasted in keeping the momentum going. As soon as the pink banners were taken down after the Paralympics Closing ceremony in September 2012, work got underway to its next phase. Parts of the park have already opened to the public and have hosted summer events. The first residents of East Village, the former Athletes’ Village, will move in by September. Comprising almost 2,800 new homes, the new neighbourhood promises to bring the area to life. With a site of such a size and scale, a strong concern is how it will connect to the surroundings, ensuring the new shiny developments are not an island surrounded by deprivation. True regeneration success will be where the wide community feels the new Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park is theirs, and it is used. The London Legacy Development Corporation’s remit now comprises the fringes of the former Olympic Park – this is the area within which it has a say over all new development. It will be essential that connections are enhanced between this area and the park. I
London Legacy Development Corporation
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Engineering the green economy The integration of technology and design are key to creating a sustainable built environment, as George Adams, Energy and Engineering Director at SPIE UK explains
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ith the world’s carbon emissions reaching 400 parts per million, reducing energy consumption and environmental impact is urgent. For SPIE, a ‘green economy’ is about conserving natural resources and reducing the built environment’s energy consumption with a willingness to contribute solutions to climate change impact. We support the protection of Earth’s environment and our 2010 green economy policy makes energy issues central to a responsible growth strategy, aiming to incorporate best practice in design, implementation and operations of the solutions offered for our customers. With our work covering most sectors of the built environment we can independently consider all energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. That being the case, economics are always a realistic consideration. Heat reclaim processes, integrated controls and energy system selections along with the health and productivity of occupants are also essential ingredients. Yet the investigation of technology of many sources such as solar, fuel cells, controls, biomass and on-site generation is a must when deciding design proposals. Technology is moving fast with new materials such as flexible glass that will reduce the cost of solar panels. Another great example is the use of solar powered fuel cells being developed for on-site charging of electric vehicles. Analysis and application of new technology in reducing energy affordably is a developed skill essential to anyone practising in this field of engineering; especially when guaranteeing performance. An example of our integrated work is the solutioncentred design and implementation at the new McLaren production facility at Woking. Here the client gave us the opportunity to work from first principles integrating with signature architect Foster Associates. We introduced a balanced energy reclaim system, night free-cooling, balanced lighting/heating, open system controls and high efficiency free cooling plant/system. This was all achieved with energy saving strategy of over 40% whilst achieving cost reductions against plan of nearly 10%, at the same time as accommodating a brief of extremely high quality, and a demand for a
West Thames College
very fresh internal environment for the hand-built high performance sports car assembly process. The extensive West Thames College expansion that we’ve recently completed saw us re-engineer the energy systems to increase on-site sustainability from the 2% required by the local planning to 6% through the integration of air source heat pumps whilst reducing capital costs by circa 10%. In a different situation we assisted a major insurance organisation to consolidate staff into one existing building by redesigning/installing new lighting to significantly reduce power consumption to create the capacity to accommodate the additional occupancy. This avoided the need for a major upgrade of electrical power system, saving capital costs, reducing disruptions and enabling a phased integration process. The resulting energy saving created a payback compared to none for a traditional upgrade. Creating energy efficiency in buildings that are exciting to live and work in, whilst being economically viable is a fundamental ingredient of SPIE’s whole life approach incorporating design, facility operations and life cycle planning. I SPIE UK provides multi technical and support services, operating through SPIE Matthew Hall, SPIE WHS, SPIE Power & Nuclear UK, Alard Electrical and GarsideLaycock, with over 1,700 employees.
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The comfort of a sustainable future Building sustainable habitats requires collaboration and innovation, starting with the materials used, as Richard Halderthay, Saint-Gobain’s Director of Communications for the UK, Ireland & South Africa explains to INFO
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he UK’s commitment to reduce carbon emissions is now a legal obligation. Under the Climate Change Act 2008, emissions are to fall 26% by 2020 and 80% by 2050. This sets a clear challenge for our built environment, which represents 43% of the UK’s total carbon usage. In December 2006, the UK Government set out that all new homes would be ‘zero carbon’ from 2016, non-residential buildings from 2019. The road to carbon reduction is well and truly set and now the construction industry faces an enormous challenge in providing the materials, building systems, innovation and skills required to construct new buildings to a much higher energy efficiency standard and to retrofit the UK’s 26 million homes and 1.8 million non-domestic buildings.1 So carbon reduction is high on the agenda for many businesses operating in the built environment sector and Saint-Gobain, as the world leader in the design, production and distribution of construction materials and one of the most trusted and diverse construction businesses in the UK & Ireland has placed tackling this challenge as its key priority – setting its vision to become the reference in sustainable habitat as its strategic mission. ‘The key to achieving success in meeting these targets lies in collaboration across the building industry supply chain from manufacturers, suppliers, distributors, contractors and end clients,’ says Richard Halderthay. ‘This collaboration leads to innovation and a greater understanding of the solutions industry, which needs to address the key challenges of creating highly efficient and comfortable buildings with high performance characteristics. But it also leads to a greater understanding of other key issues and the solutions needed to tackle them – such as the importance of ensuring that the industry has the right skills, knowledge and people able to deliver this performance across a range of building types – in both the new build and retrofit sectors.’ ‘What is also fundamental,’ Richard adds, ‘is taking a ‘fabric first’ approach to constructing buildings to meet the highest energy performance requirements. The best type of building, after all, is one so efficient and comfortable for its occupants that it needs very little energy in the first place to maintain overall comfort, including good indoor air quality. This approach requires considerable planning in the early design phases of a new building, the right use of materials and application of building solutions and the right skills and knowledge to enable those constructing our buildings to do so in a way that leads to the building’s performance being as good in practice, when in occupation, as its design had intended.’ One approach to construction that places a ‘fabric first’ approach at its heart is championed by the Passivhaus Trust in the UK, an organisation of 40 - info - september / october
which Saint-Gobain UK & Ireland is a Founder Member. The Passivhaus (or Passive House) standard has been raising the bar for building industry standards for the past 20 years. Developed in Germany, it is now one of the fastest growing international energy performance standards, accounting for over 30,000 Passivhaus certified buildings around the world. Passivhaus aims to reduce the need for additional air circulation, heating or cooling systems by creating buildings that are more airtight than conventional buildings. As well as increasing comfort levels for occupants, this leads to less energy being used and wasted, reduced carbon emissions and lower energy costs. By ensuring that the building fabric is as structurally sound and well insulated as possible, Passivhaus buildings are among the best performing buildings for energy efficiency in the world. After gathering pace in Germany and Scandinavia, a turning point for the UK construction industry came recently when planning permission was granted for the country’s largest Passivhaus scheme. The plans for 150 houses built across 20 acres of Kingstone, in Herefordshire, 2 will be designed to Passivhaus standards, providing a benchmark for other developments in the country to follow. Building on the Passivhaus principles of delivering the
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Features of Saint-Gobain’s Multi-Comfort concept that go into creating sustainable, comfortable habitats from the inside out
highest thermal comfort and CO2 emissions reduction, Saint-Gobain has applied this standard to its own concept of ‘Multi-Comfort’ buildings. By designing additional performance benefits, including excellent acoustic and visual comfort measures together with improved internal air quality, fire protection and safety attributes, the Multi-Comfort approach is capable of delivering the homes of tomorrow, today. Since working on the Multi–Comfort approach, first developed by Saint-Gobain Isover, manufactures of high performance thermal insulation, Saint-Gobain will be deploying the concept throughout the UK & Ireland in the future, beginning with the
development of the Nottingham H.O.U.S.E. (Home Optimising the Use of Solar Energy) reference build, which has been constructed in conjunction with the University of Nottingham. It was a hit at the UK’s Ecobuild Sustainable Design, Building and Construction show in 2010 and is now at its permanent home at the University’s campus in Nottingham. The Nottingham H.O.U.S.E. was constructed almost entirely from materials supplied or approved by Saint-Gobain’s companies in the UK and Ireland. The full-scale home aims to use the Multi-Comfort principles as an example of the low-energy housing capable of being delivered today. There’s no question that the built environment has an enormous challenge ahead. Finite natural resources, leading to increasing energy costs for households, and legal carbon reduction obligations have led to an ambitious vision for the performance of future buildings. A vision that the construction industry can meet through innovation, collaboration, deployment of skills and commitment – key themes in the recently released ‘Construction 2025: industrial strategy for construction – government and industry in partnership’.3 Saint-Gobain is ready today with the solutions and skills to meet this challenge. I 1. Source: UK Green Building Council, of which Saint-Gobain is a Gold Leaf Member. 2. Source: www.ukgbc.org/news/uk’s-largest-passivhaus-housing-scheme-gets-go-ahead 3. Source: www.gov.uk/government/publications/construction-2025-strategy
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focus part two: trends & issues in the real estate marketplace
To build or not to build: is financing the question? Dr Othman Cole, Assistant Professor of Finance at ESCP Europe Business School, gives a macro-economic assessment of the UK house-building sector and the key factors affecting supply and demand
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ouse-building activity in July rose at its fastest pace for the last three years. This can be attributed to the government’s Help to Buy Scheme which gives first-time buyers a foot on to the property ladder, leading to a greater number of construction companies building more homes. Additionally, the Bank of England and the Treasury are supporting a Funding for Lending Scheme in which cheap credit is offered to banks if they lend more to households and businesses. But is this boost temporary? How strong are the fundamentals going forward in the medium to longterm? Key factors that influence the demand for new housing include population growth, interest rates, the state of the economy as a whole proxied by GDP growth, unemployment, and especially in the case of London, the influx of foreign buyers. On the supply side, some of the key factors include the availability and affordability of land, labour, materials, access to capital, and success with planning permissions. According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), London alone will see an increase in population of 14% within a decade. Projections show that the number of people living in London will increase by more than one million in less than 10 years to reach over nine million people by 2020, making it along with Moscow the only cities in Europe to have more than nine million residents. This growth is mirrored in both the East and Southeast regions, making southern England a prime area for new housing developments. In addition to a growing population, other factors that influence the sale of new homes are growth in the economy, rise in employment, and availability and cost of mortgages proxied by interest rates. With a second quarter GDP growth rate of 0.7% following 0.3% growth in the first quarter, there is a gathering momentum in the recovery of the UK economy. The unemployment rate is also down by 0.2% to 7.8%. The situation with interest rates and its effect on new mortgages is less clear. While rates are at unprecedented low levels and expected to stay low for at least the next three years, banks still have funding requirement challenges. 42 - info - september / october
It is therefore unclear to what extent this would impact on the demand for new housing and in turn growth in house-building activity. On a positive note, a factor that is contributing to the demand for new homes, especially in London, is the increased interest from foreign buyers from Singapore, Hong Kong, China, and Malaysia. On the supply side, the availability and acquisition of suitable land is always a challenge facing developers, particularly in dealing with the planning process. Environmental objections for greenfield projects are only expected to intensify, leaving mostly brownfield sites available, which can incur significant costs before they are ready for use. Labour availability and cost are less of a threat. According to the Construction Skills Network (CSN), employment in the Southeast is expected to rise by 7.7% to a total of 408,140 by 2016, representing a 5% increase from the previous peak in 2008. However, a key factor that could potentially dampen house-building activity in the UK is access to funding for the developers. Understandably, given the scale of writedowns across banks since the 2007/8 crisis for bad loans to the construction industry, their lack of appetite for funding new developments comes as no surprise. Even if some banks are willing to lend, they may lack the ability to provide such funding, given the stricter capital requirements. Therefore, unless banks are adequately capitalised and they return to their business of lending for viable projects, activity in new housing developments might be stifled. Perhaps a new model of financing is needed? We are already seeing developers pre-sell off-plan up to 70% of their projects in London to buyers in Asia, even before construction starts. This, they argue, is the only way banks would agree to finance the projects. The practice of buying off-plan is also well established in France, however we have not seen this adopted on a large scale in the UK. Whether this would work in the UK is unknown, but one thing is for certain, if enough new houses are to be built to meet the pent up and forecasted growth in demand, particularly in the Southeast, innovative ways of financing these new developments have to be explored. I
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Property investment trends: the London conundrum The top spot for direct property investment in 2012, London has attracted significant overseas capital to both commercial and residential sectors, but Richard Hutt, Director of Alpha Browett Taylor, expresses concerns about supply issues and increasing unaffordability
n offering a brief snapshot of the commercial property markets in the UK, it has been observed by many that in terms of both confidence and performance – 12 months ago – it was a country of two halves, i.e. London and the rest of the UK. In London - which has the largest city GDP in Europe - the level of vacancies and the high levels of demand have lead to an uplift in retail rents in the West End in particular. By comparison with 12 months ago, the West End and the City now offer additional office floor space with a number of landmark schemes including The Shard, the ‘Walkie Talkie’ and the ‘Cheese Grater’ – to name but a few. London of all international cities is said to have recorded the highest level of direct property investment in 2012 – outperforming even New York, Paris and Tokyo, although capital and rental values for Central London offices remained largely unchanged over the course of the last year. Where weaker demand exists, tenants are driven by a need for greater flexibility outside of the prime retail and office markets and landlords have generally been forced to accept ‘softer’ lease terms either when negotiating open market lettings or renewing business tenancies. Serviced offices report much increased demand and many landlords are now realising the need to ‘provide the customer what they want’ and leases which were once a minimum of between 10 and 15 years are now more oriented to the needs of business with much shorter lease lengths
reflecting this demand for flexibility and I suspect that this particular feature of the marketplace, reflecting Continental and US practices, is here to stay.
What has this meant for investment? The UK has attracted massive inward capital investment much from overseas (with just under 90% of all commercial investment in Central London over the last quarter being by overseas based purchasers). This is readily evident in some of the major London schemes – Battersea/Nine Elms (involving some £8 billion of investment from Malaysia into the Battersea Power Station site alone). The popularity of Central London investment has driven yields to levels of 4% (and less) in the West End and of the order of 5% in the City. Commercial property values have fallen since their peak – perhaps by some 25% and there has been a significant fall in Pound Sterling on international currency markets, that is to say London looked cheap to the international investor. The future? As the UK economy moves to annual ‘trend growth’ of nigh on 2.5% per annum, should we have any concerns amidst all of this? Well, quite frankly, yes. The popularity of Central London as a location to live as well as work and visit, together with the relatively low level of additions to housing stock during the last few years have lead to an upsurge of prime residential property values. In 2012, residential properties overall in London rose by some 5% compared to an average in the UK of just 1%, with 64% of all homes being owner-occupied in England and Wales (2011 Census). This is now giving rise to what some are describing as a ‘housing crisis’ – reflecting the problems of limited supply against an overwhelming demand which, in the short term at least, could lead to a deterioration in affordable housing standards. I © PH W
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Small is beautiful Phil Brumby, Managing Director of Artelia UK, considers the trend for downsizing in the commercial, retail and hotel sectors on both sides of the Channel
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n the second half of the 20th century, buildings and architecture were big, bold, and sometimes brutal. During this time, these features were considered beautiful in the property marketplace. So what has changed this century? Today there is a general trend in the UK to move in the opposite direction, towards smaller facilities. Is this the same the other side of the Channel? From the country that brought us the hypermarket in the 1960s, there appears to be some enthusiasm to follow this route, but not everywhere. In considering three industry sectors and exploring anomalies between the two countries, we have discovered that small is not always as beautiful in France as it is in the UK. When considering the office environment today, working from home, hot desking and open plan are the preferred ways of working for many UK companies. This requires less permanent space. In addition, the latest movement in the UK is towards even smaller offices for short term hire by the hour. By contrast, traditional partitioned offices for staff are still prevalent in many French companies, requiring, or allocating, more space per employee than in the UK. However, in the retail sector the trends are similar both sides of the Channel, albeit with the UK moving further on‘ small is beautiful’ than France. In the UK, the major retailers have been developing convenience stores for many years, despite the planning constraints imposed upon them and the shortage of suitable sites. One chosen way of overcoming the lack of sites has been
Major retailers in miniature at petrol station sites
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to establish joint ventures with fuel retailers. In the last 10 years a number of major retailers, among them Tesco and M&S, have built 1,000 stores on petrol station sites throughout the UK, which is still only a small part of the 8,000 retail outlets on forecourts. These have been developed to comply with the legislation that allows retail space of less than 3,000 square feet (280 square metres) to have unlimited opening hours on a Sunday – one of the advantages of being small . French retailers have taken a different route, combining petrol with their own retail facilities, and hence eliminating the need for forecourt stores. Large retailers such as Carrefour and Casino have developed small stores throughout France, however, with legislation having been relaxed recently, their stores tend to be larger than the UK convenience stores. The hotel sector shows little difference either side of the Channel. The major companies that operate in this sector tend to be international, so they expect to have similar facilities throughout the world. France began the ‘downsizing‘ of room sizes with chains of budget hotels, Etap by Accor being a successful example of designing a fully serviced bedroom within a 3 by 4 metre box. However, this trend has progressed further in the UK with hotel operators such as Easy Hotel and Tune designing rooms smaller than 10 square metres. However, on the basis that ‘what goes around comes around’, we should be planning now for the next revolution in real estate – ‘big is beautiful again’. I
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London’s luxury core luxury retail property specialists Michael Horwitz & Co has acted for over 80% of the retailers in London’s luxury core, and has observed an outward expansion from Bond Street, opening up a more extensive and diverse range for luxury shoppers, as company President, Michael Horwitz, writes
ondon is consistently identified as the premier, global tourist destination and is home to one of the most extensive and diverse retail offers in the world. As such, London is often the preferred overseas location of choice for retailers looking to expand. London is also attractive because of its language, culture, skilled workforce, established legal and political frameworks, transparent and mature real estate market and, currently, the relative weakness of Sterling. Able to rely on a constant and ever-growing stream of uber-rich tourists that cite shopping among their preferred activities, London has largely evaded the recession affecting the wider economy and the luxury retail sector in particular has gone from strength to strength. Luxury retail has traditionally been restricted to the iconic and world-renowned Bond Street, which is home to the largest number of haute couture retailers per square mile in the world. Overwhelming demand for the street, however, combined with a severe undersupply of quality units has caused rent levels to soar, and has consequently encouraged an outward expansion into the immediately surrounding streets. Indeed the boundaries of the luxury retail core now stretch from St James’ in the south to Bond Street in the north, and from Mount Street in the west to Savile Row in the east. This outward expansion has crucially opened the area up to a more extensive and diverse range of luxury and aspirational retailers. The more traditional luxury brands continue to favour prime Bond Street and pay up to £1,500 per square foot (psf) per year Zone A, and premiums of up to £20 million, to secure the most prestigious pitches. French brands Hermès, Louis Vuitton and Chanel have resided in the street for over 30 years now and Chanel recently increased their presence on the street with a new supersized flagship store. Newer, more aspirational brands are increasingly settling in the surrounding streets of Dover Street and
Albemarle Street where they benefit from the close proximity to Bond Street, but also a more modern, dynamic character and far cheaper rents. Indeed, Amanda Wakeley recently agreed to pay a Zone A rent of £350 psf to sit alongside an eclectic mix of fashion retailers and galleries including Paul Smith and Linley on Albemarle Street. South Molton Street is another street that has benefited from the overspill of Bond Street, and has been the destination of choice for French youth brands including Maje, Sandro, Zadig et Voltaire and Browns. Zone A rents on this street have risen in recent years to around £425 psf. Sloane Street, in the heart of Knightsbridge, is another world-renowned, luxury fashion destination, anchored at the north end by department stores Harrods and Harvey Nichols and stretching a kilometre South via a plethora of international fashion houses including Joseph, Fratelli Rossetti, Ermenegildo Zegna, Fendi and Dior. Rents are highest at the northern end at around £850 psf Zone A, lowering to around £425 at the southern, Sloane Square end. While there is a severe lack of units available on the open market, opportunities can be unlocked for the right retailers and key money. I
© w w w. f l ic k r. com /photo s /geu ko c he a
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From efficiency to effectiveness: office space enters a new era Kevin McCauley, Head of Central London Research at CBRE examines how upheavals in the business and finance sectors, and the rise of the technology, media & telecommunications sector have impacted demand for office space and even influenced workplace design and layout
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ver the last couple of years, companies have been reluctant to take new office space across Central London as economic conditions have created a greater level of uncertainty and had a detrimental effect on business confidence. In these circumstances, it is difficult for companies to make a business case for an office relocation. Instead, other factors such as the need to update space, headcount increase or merger & acquisition are the primary reason for firms acquiring new space, often in tandem with a lease coming to an end. As a result, leasing activity in the Central London office market was below average during 2011 and 2012, although there are some signs of improvement as the amount of space leased in the second quarter of 2013 was above average for the first time in 18 months. On the face of it, occupiers have been in the ascendancy as prime office rents in most markets remain significantly below the peaks reached of the last cycle and incentives in the form of a rent-free period are generous relative to historic levels. Occupiers are also benefiting from having a number of options available to them when deciding on a relocation as office supply hovers around its long-term average.
The TMT takeover But all is it is not what it seems. Some companies, such as those in the technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sector have been expanding rapidly recently and have become an important driver of office demand in Central London. Some of the largest deals of 2013 have been by this sector such as Google’s move to King’s Cross, Amazon’s move to Farringdon and more
recently, News UK’s acquisition of The Place – which, along with The Shard, forms London Bridge Quarter. TMT occupiers have traditionally preferred the West End, which is where rents have seen the strongest growth over the last year. This market has seen supply tightening and rents rising, which has forced occupiers to consider other locations. In contrast, markets which are more reliant on financial occupiers, such as the City of London, have experienced subdued leasing activity. Buildings have remained vacant for longer and prime rents have not changed in over two years, although parts of the City, for example EC3 where insurance companies cluster, have done extremely well over this period.
Recovery in a changing landscape Recent improvements in the UK and London economies, allied with
Real estate cost saving initiatives with the highest impact in the last 12 months 52%
Space reduction Renegotiation of financial terms of the lease
45%
Consolidation within portfolio
44% 15%
Renegotiation of length of lease Shared workstations or hot desking
12%
Relocation to cheaper sub-markets
11% 9%
Office or warehouse closure Energy management initiatives
7%
FM Sourcing negotiations
7% 7%
Supplier consolidation initiatives Capex reduction initiatives
6% 6%
Undertaking sale and leaseback 2%
Have not implemented a cost saving strategy 0%
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10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
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Moving from efficiency to effectiveness The pressures that occupiers have faced since the recession have seen an absolute focus on cost reduction in the world of corporate real estate. Companies have been herculean in their unwavering attention to reducing operational costs to deliver real, ongoing savings to the organisation. CBRE’s annual survey of European occupiers published in 2012 shows the range of measures adopted by corporates to streamline their estates. Just 2% of the global corporate occupiers surveyed had initiated no cost saving strategy. Succeeding in creating an efficient corporate real estate then leads to wider questions on the effectiveness of the estate. Does the portfolio provide what is required for a more productive and high-performing organisation? What do staff need to improve morale? What is required to improve attraction for potential new joiners and to retain the most successful? As the focus widens from efficiency to effectiveness and the requirements of the organisation in a more competitive landscape, the question is: does the
Office-based Employment in Central & Inner London Boroughs: By Sector Professional / Business Services Public Services Total (RHS)
900
0
800
2018
100 2016
1,000
2014
200
2012
1,100
2010
1,200
300
2008
400
2006
1,300
2004
500
2002
1,400
2000
600
1998
‘000
Finance TMT Administrative Services
000’
higher levels of business confidence, are expected to translate through to stronger leasing activity, particularly from the start of 2014. There are already signs of landlords being able to command higher rents and shorter rentfree periods. By implication, the occupiers’ bargaining position is weakening, although rents remain affordable in many markets so there is still time for them to exploit market conditions to secure a good deal – but they will need to hurry. Recent evidence supports the view that London’s economy is recovering. Data at March 2013 show officebased employment for London as a whole grew at an impressive 4.4% over the year and forecasts for Central and Inner London expect total office-based employment will benefit from a net addition of 163,000 new jobs between the end of 2012 and 2018 (Source: CBRE). At 24%, the TMT sector is forecast to see the most significant employment growth over the next few years driven by the recovery in the wider global economy. We expect London to consolidate its position as a leading centre for the TMT sector as it diversifies away from banking and finance, leading to further jobs growth over the next six years. However, the largest single contributor to the growth of new jobs will be from more established sectors, such as professional and business services, which will deliver the majority of Central and Inner London office-based jobs, with employment set to increase by 20% (86,300 jobs) between the end of 2012 and 2018. Employment growth in banking and finance is forecast to be more subdued as the sector continues to recover slowly from the credit crunch and ensuing crisis it provoked.
Source: CBRE based on ONS & Experian data
Utilisation of work space in CBRE’s Amsterdam office
organisation have the employee value proposition that it needs? How are we going to outperform the competition now that the economic cycle is beginning to change gears? Companies are realising that the workplace can play a significant and tangible role in responding to these issues. Knowing where to begin can be the most difficult question although a staff survey can report on the most important performance issues that people would like to see resolved and so provides a list of ‘quick wins’. Where organisations have largely operated in more open-plan environments, providing additional options for quiet, uninterrupted and confidential working can be a very real bonus to improve performance. More in-depth data gathering can shed light on options for different work patterns providing more autonomy and choice which supports greater trust through line management and subsequently impacts people’s performance. Understanding that alongside salary, company car and healthcare provision as the basics for reward, there are further incentives in how and what we provide in the workplace, can mean the difference between planning for the future or responding to the past. I info - september / october - 47
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Hot property: why London attracts the world’s wealthiest London has a good balance of the right fundamentals and has offered a safe haven to international property investors in economically unstable times, writes Liam Bailey, Head of Global Residential Research at Knight Frank
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t is not surprising that London attracts international attention, given that it is such a globally connected city which is home to a large overseas population. In fact, the total number of Europeans living in London far outnumbers the total population of a city such as Frankfurt. In the first half of 2013, 50% of property buyers in prime central London have been from overseas, highlighting London’s ongoing appeal to the world’s wealthy. The crisis in the Eurozone has helped boost interest in London’s property market among Europeans. Buyers looked to diversify away from Euro-denominated assets, given previous uncertainties about whether the Eurozone would remain intact. Average prices for prime property in London have risen by almost 60% since March 2009, with a 7% increase in the 12 months to July this year. London’s price growth compares favourably with other leading global cities such as Miami and Hong Kong, which have seen 5.8% and 2.4% price growth respectively over the past 12 months. UK investment also offers a currency play. The pound fell against many other currencies immediately after the
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economic crisis, and remains weak, offering investors an effective discount on purchasing property in London and the rest of the UK – this is especially true for those buying in US dollars or currencies linked to the dollar. With Europe’s key economies in a weakened state, London is a popular destination for relocating expats. The diversity of London’s population is reflected everywhere, for example the foundation of the French Lycée in South Kensington with satellites in Clapham, Ealing and Fulham – areas popular with French families. Census data indicates that the French population in London has increased by 75% over the last decade. The largest French communities can be found in Kensington and Chelsea where they account for about 4% of the total population in the borough (compared with an average for London of 0.5%). Of the French nationals who have purchased prime central London property through Knight Frank since January 2012, almost 60% bought a home in either Kensington or Chelsea. Our data shows that buyers were most active in the £1.5 to £5 million price bracket, with flats being more popular than houses. Kensington and Chelsea were also popular destinations for French rental tenants. Some 49% of French nationals renting in London since January 2012 did so in the area. London’s reputation as a safe haven location – as well as the world class education, shopping and entertainment on offer – has ensured that it remains firmly on the radar of international buyers and tenants. It has a transparent property market with clear property titles, which is underpinned by the legal system. London is also physically and politically safe. There is clear rule of law and transparency in the political system that is not replicated in some emerging economies. An independent judiciary further enhances this reputation. The city boasts a flourishing entrepreneurial sector, with small tech companies edging into the City of London. In fact, when looking at the make-up of office occupiers in central London, the technology, media and telecoms sector accounted for 26% of all transactions in 2012, up from 14% in 2011. I
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Prime tenants demand prime properties After a sharp decline during the recession, prime corporate lettings are recovering, but new trends are emerging as tenant profiles change and modus operandi shift, observes Jemma Scott, Head of Residential Corporate Services at Knight Frank
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he way global companies are approaching moving their senior executives is changing and as a result London landlords have adapted their approach to attracting and negotiating with these ‘prime tenants.’ At the start of 2009 and during the recession, companies cut back on employing overseas staff and there was a loss of corporate appetite to spend heavily on prime rental property. But the corporate lettings market is now showing signs of recovery. Knight Frank’s Global Corporate Lettings Survey1 found that 60% of lettings teams noticed an increase in corporate relocation budgets for senior executives in 2012. Companies are starting to tap into rich talent pools in emerging markets and are prepared to commit greater resources for prime properties to attract senior staff. For many firms, deploying senior level expatriate employees is becoming an increasingly important aspect of their business strategy, especially as growth comes back onto the agenda. But with volatile markets and stunted economic growth in many parts of the world still an issue, a keen eye on cost efficiency is essential. In London alone, Knight Frank let to 77 different nationalities in 2012. Across our network we have experienced first-hand the changing face of prime rentals.2 These markets are very much driven by both international senior executives and High Net Worth Individuals (HNWIs)3 whose moves are motivated by ‘choice drivers’ such as education, tax and lifestyle. In fact, in the Attitudes survey for the Knight Frank Wealth Report 20134, 47% of HNWIs interviewed stated they would consider moving country for tax reasons. In prime Central London increasingly we are seeing a desire for a ‘turnkey’ fully furnished luxury product. Premium rents are being achieved for these highest specification properties, not only in the luxury buildings such as One Hyde Park but also in family houses in classic prime locations. Another interesting trend reflecting global markets is the change of the tenant profile and as growth from London’s traditional occupiers has stalled, other sectors have flourished. The technology, media and telecoms (TMT) industry is one sector that has witnessed rapid growth in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
Turnkey luxury to rent: Marylebone, London (£12,000 pw)
In 2007, the UK technology sector companies listed on the London Stock Exchange were worth around £450 million. Now, the sector has a market capitalisation of just shy of £700 million. Over that same period, financial sector companies, such as banks, equity investment firms and general financial organisations, have seen their total market capitalisation fall from £950 million to £726 million. There hasn’t just been a shift in terms of the make-up of corporate tenants, but a change in how companies are managing the relocation of their staff. As the numbers of traditional finance house relocations decrease, the higher TMT take up requires a growing army of tech savvy expats who, in a marked change to traditional relocation packages, are often assigned a housing allowance to spend as they choose. This heralds a culture of responsibility as these executives – free to choose their own rental homes – will sign leases at level they are comfortable with and, most importantly for the company, remove the need for an in-house or outsourced support team to deal with the administrative challenges a large volume of company leases will require. Knight Frank data supports this showing a 43% decline in company leases in London over the past five years as corporates shift away from the ‘all inclusive’ expat package towards executives taking private leases. Once again the naturally transformative London market will, and already has begun to, adapt to this, the new face of the prime London tenant. I 1. http://my.knightfrank.co.uk/research-reports/global-corporate-lettings-review.aspx 2. Defined as above £1,000 per week; 3. Defined as those with over £20 million 4. http://my.knightfrank.co.uk/research-reports/the-wealth-report.aspx
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French real estate investment in London: current trends The changing profile and budgets of the French in London is driving a trend towards buying property for living as well as long-term investment according to Ségolène Chambon, Managing Director of French Touch Properties
L
ondon has always been a favourite destination for the French, not only for tourism but increasingly for work and living. The evolution of French tax legislation, and London Mayor Boris Johnson’s promise to roll out the red carpet for ‘talented French people’ have made London an even more attractive proposition, while many of the French who came to London years ago as expatriates, workers or students have no intention of ever moving back to France. More than 120,000 French people are registered with the French London’s ‘trendy’ areas are appealing investment prospects embassy as residents in London but as this procedure is not compulsory and many don’t the capital of the world and there are always wealthy make the effort, the actual number of French residents foreigners who want to buy in London, keeping the is estimated to be up to 300,000 in London alone. This market dynamic. invasion generates a parallel market for estate agents. So is it still all about location? Not necessarily. The main drivers are understandable; families tend to London is an ever-moving and developing city, with stay close to French schools, hence look to live in areas newly emerging ‘trendy’ areas that are still undervalued. such as South Kensington, Brook Green, Notting Hill, Is it worth going a bit further away from the centre? Hampstead, Fulham, Ealing and Clapham. Single people What about buying a house in a bad state to renovate or young couples seek trendy locations such as East and extend? London, Islington, Angels, Barbican Centre or Chiswick. Thanks to long-term regeneration, areas such as A recent trend is the reduction in the number of Earl’s Court, West Brompton, Battersea, Nine Elms and French people on expatriate contracts. Those who White City are well positioned for investment. They have switched to local contracts often end up moving are family friendly, popular and only a stone’s throw to smaller residences, but try to stay within the same from central London. Other opportunities are arising neighbourhood, as areas such as Notting Hill or Chiswick from massive investments in the public transport have a village and community feel. Before long, many network. For example, a French family who decided to become concerned about the vast amounts of money buy in Ealing because it is a nice place with a French they lose each month in rent and start thinking about school, now realise they made a great investment as the alternative – buying! the new Crossrail will link Ealing to Canary Wharf in French buyers are now looking not only for the right 26 minutes by 2019. family house, but also the right investment. And as far London is a city where it is still possible to find as lucrative investments are concerned, London is a a bargain or an opportunity next door. Take our very big deal. Property prices have been climbing for the consultant who bought a house in Hammersmith last 20 years, even during the crisis, and nothing would eight months ago for £680,000, fully refurbished it for indicate that this trend is about to change. London is £180,000 and has just had it valuated at £1,050,000! I 50 - info - september / october
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Compiled by Paul-Gilbert Colletaz
r oya l a c a d e m y o f a r t s
Richard Rogers: Inside Out
© Andrew Zuckerman Image courtesy of Andrew Zuckerman
Centre Pompidou, Paris, with its colour-coded external services
Richard Rogers
© Janet Gill Image courtesy of the Estate of Janet Gill
The serial warfare branch of the German Wehmacht during World War 2
Photo credit: Anna Au © RSHP
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© Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners Photo © David Noble Image courtesy of Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
||| Richard Rogers’ constructions are known for their futuristic functionalism and some of them have now become iconic: Lloyd’s of London, the Law Courts in Bordeaux, the Pompidou Centre in Paris… This exhibition explores Richard Rogers’ career and the different political and social elements which shaped it. Richard Rogers likes to say that he became an architect because his ALevel grades were not good enough to study medicine like his father. Instead, and despite his dyslexia, he entered the Architectural Association School of Architecture, and gained a Master’s from Yale School of Architecture. His designs have often courted controversy. In 1971, he, Gianfranco Franchini and Renzo Piano won the design competition for the Pompidou Centre in Paris, which was to establish his trademark ‘inside-out’ style of putting services on the exterior, but drew strong criticism. His scheme for the redevelopment of the Paternoster Square in London was not chosen, but was berated by the Prince of Wales, who said: ‘You have to give this much to the Luftwaffe*. When it knocked down our buildings, it didn’t replace them with anything more offensive than rubble.’ Yet, 80-year old Richard Rogers is still busy. The Leadenhall Building in the City, designed by his firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, is currently under construction close to his Lloyd’s building. The most prominent piece of this exhibition is the Homeshell (below). Designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners, it is a sustainable, cheap and stylish house which can be delivered in four weeks after purchase and assembled in 24 hours. Other aspects include previously unseen material such as his drawings and personal items, which trace the impact of his Italian origins on his work and allows visitors to get closer to one of the prominent figures of modern design. I Until 18 October. Open daily 10am6pm and Fridays 10am-10pm. Full price: £8
The Homeshell prototype in the Royal Academy courtyard
The atrium in Lloyd’s of London info - september / october - 53
w h at ’ s o n m u s eu m of london
Opening the Olympics
© David Parry / Press Association
‘The Museum of London is an active collector of objects of material culture, and there was no event which defined London more than last year’s Olympic Games,’ says Timothy Long, Curator of Fashion and Decorative Arts. This has resulted in a unique exhibition of the 2012 Olympic Games at the Museum of London, which brings together a collection of objects, costumes and stories, allowing the public to re-engage with London 2012 and reflect on its legacy and success. I Until 31 October. Open daily 10am-6pm. Admission free
n at i o n a l m u s e u m o f s c o t l a n d
Mary, Queen of Scots
© Royal Collec
Mary Stuart was born on 8 December 1542, succeeding to the throne of Scotland when she was six days old. After spending most of her childhood in France and marrying the Dauphin Francis II, she returned to Scotland in 1561 and reigned until 1567 when she was forced to abdicate in favour of her son: James VI of Scotland who became James I of England. In this exhibition, Mary is presented as one of several female rulers in
16th century Europe and her power and influence is compared with her peers. Along with fascinating objects never before seen together, French pieces of jewellery that the Queen brought back from France recall the Auld Alliance signed at the end of the 13th century between Scotland and France and referred to by Charles de Gaulle as the ‘oldest alliance in the world’. I Until 17 November. Open daily 10am-5pm. Full price: £9
n at i o n a l p o r t r a i t g a l l e ry
© Bob Dylan, 2013
Bob Dylan: Face Value
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Twelve new pastel portraits by the American musician, artist, singersongwriter and writer Bob Dylan are being shown for the first time at the National Portrait Gallery in London. This exhibition of portraits representing fictitious and real characters also marks the first time his work is being seen in Great Britain. Although he has been drawing since childhood and painting since the late 1960s, Bob Dylan only began exhibiting his pastel art six years ago. Art historian and former Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, John Elderfield advocates that his portraits, like his songs, are ‘products of the same extraordinary, inventive imagination, the same mind and eye, by the same story-telling artist, for whom showing and telling – the temporal and the spatial, the verbal and the visual – are not easily separated.’ I 24 August – 5 January. Open daily 10am-6pm + 10am-9pm Thursdays and Fridays. Admission free
w h at ’ s o n tat e m o d e r n
The EY Exhibition – Paul Klee: Making Visible The UK’s first large-scale exhibition for over a decade on the prolific painter Paul Klee (1879-1940) opens in October. Spanning three decades, the drawings, watercolours and paintings will trace the life of the artist from his emergence in Munich in the 1910s, through his teaching years at the Bauhaus and up to his final paintings made in his native Switzerland shortly after the outbreak of World War II. The opportunity to see his works together allows the visitors to explore, compare and eventually understand Paul Klee’s career and his intentions. This exhibition is the first of three facilitated by the three-year EY Tate Arts Partnership. I 16 October 2013 – 9 March 2014. Open daily 10am-6pm + 10am-10pm Fridays and Saturdays. Full price: £15
r oya l o p e r a h o u s e
© ROH 2013
Turandot
v i c to r i a
The production of Turandot by Andrei Serban was first seen at Covent Garden in 1984. Since then, it has remained one of the most popular operas and is now returning for its 16th revival. Two different casts will perform the opera narrating the romantic story of Prince Calaf’s courageous attemps to capture Princess Turandot’s heart or die trying. One will be conducted by the Hungarian Henrik Nánási, making his debut at the Royal Opera House, and the second will see Italian conductor Nicola Luisotti returning to the Royal Opera House to conduct all the February and March performances. I 9 September–10 March. Tickets from £8. For times, dates and details of performances, or to book visit www.roh.org.uk
& a l b e rt m u s e u m
This exhibition delves into the energy and creativity which developed in London in the 1980s through the work of some of the most experimental designers of the decade such as Betty Jackson, Katharine Hamnett, Wendy Dagworthy, John Galliano and Stephen Jones. Through more than 85 outfits, this production shows how the underground club culture reinvented fashion outside of the clubs. Whilst the work of young bold fashion designers of the time is exhibited on the ground floor, the mezzanine gallery focuses on club wear and garments worn by subcultures such as Goth, Rave and the New Romantics. Clubs appear as prominent cultural sites fostering extravagance, boldness and novelty.
© Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Club to Catwalk: London Fashion in the 1980s
The voices of Boy George, Adam Ant or Leigh Bowery will surely stick in your head long after you’ve left. I Until 16 February. Open 10am–5.45pm daily and 10am– 10pm Tuesdays. Full price: £5 info - september / october - 55
OohLaLA! a French music experience coming to London 21-24 October, Village Underground. Tickets £12-15 Presented by 2 for the Road and The Line of Best Fit in association with the Bureau Export and French Institute
||| OohLaLA! , the international festival celebrating the best of modern French music, is coming to London for the first time. Running over three nights in October at East London’s iconic Village Underground venue, the festival will feature live performances from experimental songwriter Dominique A, no wave disco artist Lescop, polemic post rockers ≠ FAUVE, cinematic pop duo Tomorrow’s World, electronic songwriter Petit Fantôme, psychedelic newcomers Moodoïd, electronic popstar Christine and The Queens, dramatic new waver ROVER and genremeshing French-Canadian Mélissa Laveaux. DJ sets from Stereolab’s Laeticia Sadier, the Line of Best Fit and The Quietus will complement the shows. I For more information and to book tickets, go to: www.oohlalafestival.com/london
≠ FAUVE
book reviews
The Last Days
Zulu
by Laurent Seksik Published by Pushkin Press Translated by André Naffis-Sahely
by Caryl Ferey Published by Europa Translated by Howard Curtis
||| ‘He looked long and deep into her eyes. “I’ll go first,” he said. “You’ll follow me... if that’s what you want.”’ On 22 February 1942 Stefan Zweig, one of the most popular authors of his generation, committed suicide with his wife Lotte. The final, desperate gesture of this great writer has fascinated ever since. Zweig was an exile, driven from his home in Austria by the Nazis. Fleeing first to London, then New York, trying always to escape both those who demonised him and those who acclaimed him, he eventually took his young bride to Brazil, where they were haunted by the life they’d been forced to abandon and by accounts of the violence in Europe. Blending reality and fiction this novel tells the story of the great writer’s final months. Laurent Seksik uncovers the man’s hidden passions, his private suffering, and how he and his wife came to end their lives one peaceful February afternoon. I 56 - info - september / october
||| As a child, Ali Neuman fled his home to escape Inkatha, a militant political party at war with the thenunderground African National Congress. He and his mother are the only members of his family who survived the carnage of those years and the psychological scars remain. Today, Neuman is chief of the homicide branch of the Cape Town police, a job in which he must do battle with South Africa’s two scourges: widespread violence and AIDS. When the mutilated corpse of a young white woman is found in the city’s botanical gardens, Neuman’s job gets even more difficult. He chases one false lead after another when a second white woman’s body is found bearing signs of a Zulu ritual. The investigation takes Neuman back to his homeland, where he discovers that the once bloody killing fields have become the ideal no-man’s land for unscrupulous multinationals, and that apartheid still lurk in the shadows of a society struggling toward reconciliation. I
c h e ese a n d w i n e p r ess
Cheese of the month by La Cave à Fromage: Brie de Meaux Baron Edmond de Rothschild ||| The name of Rothschild is more often associated with banking, finance, luxury hotels or exceptional wines than with a dairy farm near Disneyland Paris. But it is here that the only farm-made Brie de Meaux AOC in the world is produced, and it bears the name of Baron Edmond de Rothschild. It was a commitment to values and traditions that convinced the Baron to start making this cheese in 1995 at the Domaine des Trente Arpents, using the milk of the farm’s own cows which are fed on home-grown forage. Over 200 cows happily consume some 1,200 tons of hay cropped on the 3,200acre estate and yield around 1,500 litres of milk every day. Each cheese – the diameter of which must be exactly 36 centimetres – weighs 3 kilogrammes and requires about 25 litres of milk to be made. Eight to ten weeks of ripening produces a magnificent, pale cheese with a musky aroma and intense flavour. Leave it another week or two and the colour takes on more creamy, ivory hues and is even more pleasurable on the palate. No wonder Brie is nicknamed the king of cheese and the cheese for kings. I by Eric Charriaux E: eric@cheese.biz T: +44 (0)845 108 8222 www.la-cave.co.uk
Your wine with Brie de Meaux by Wine Story ||| The very special Brie de Meaux Baron Edmond de Rothschild could very well be paired with a wine from the Rothschild family’s famous vineyards. Today the Compagnie Vinicole Edmond de Rothschild (owned and managed by Benjamin de Rothschild like the Ferme des Trente Arpents which produces this Brie), incorporates Chateau Lafite, the iconic Premier Grand Cru Classé in Bordeaux, as well as various great domaines in Argentina (Flechas de Los Andes), South Africa (Rupert & Rothschild) and New Zealand (Rimapere). For red lovers, their Puisseguin Saint Émilion Chateau Des Laurets on the Bordeaux right bank, which has Merlot as its dominant grape could be a good match to avoid overpowering the delicate texture of the cheese. Nearby, the Montagne-Saint-Émilion 2010 from the Château Puynormond (Lamarque family) is a more affordable choice. Faithful readers of this column will know that I prefer white wine with cheese and particularly with brie. An aged 2009 Chenin Blanc Montlouis-Sur-Loire from La Grange Tiphaine would bring a lot of freshness to the rich creamy texture of the cheese. But without doubt, and particularly after a big meal, my ideal choice with this unique Brie ‘fermier’ would be the great organic ‘cidre fermier’ from Julien Fremont in Calvados, Normandy with the Cuvée Silex. Ripe apples with a refreshing palate provided by the flint soil, scents of straw, cheese, a fruity palate with a dry finish and small bubbles from natural fermentation. A great tasting, thank you Mr Rothschild! I by Thibault Lavergne E: thibault@winestory.co.uk T: +44 (0)7921 770 691 www.winestory.co.uk
Try the INFO cheeses and wines Those whose mouths have watered when reading this column, and who have longed to try the pairing of cheeses and wines so picturesquely described, we understand! You will now have the chance to try all the cheeses and their matching wines recommended in INFO at our new quarterly Say Cheese... and Wine event, the first of which takes place at La Cave à Fromage on 9 October in partnership with La Cave à Fromage and Wine Story. See p. 74 info - september / october - 57
Patron Members of the French Chamber of Commerce in Great Britain
LOGO Nยบ dossier : 20110049E Date : 31/05/11 Validation DA/DC : Validation Client
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LONDON BRANCH
News @ the Chamber S
ummer has come and almost gone, and with the first semester concluding with a successful, milestone Annual General Meeting, the Chamber is gearing up for the second semester, which has been called ‘the business end of the year’ and is certainly looking to be the busiest. Events are by far our most conspicuous activity, but in many ways just the tip of the iceberg, as all the Chamber’s departments work tirelessly on projects that are not always so visible, but just as valuable in what they contribute to mix. Despite the summer holiday exodus, the Membership Department continued to recruit new members – two new Patrons, namely Credit Suisse and WPP, four Corporates, including Alfi UK Ltd, Delville Management, HEC Paris and Hult International Business School and nine Actives. A number of businesses rent annual desks at the Chamber for one or more employees, many of them on the VIE programme. This allows French businesses to ‘dip a toe in UK waters’ as it were, with the advantage of a central London address and an employee in situ to develop business in the UK, with the added advantage of membership. Now, the Chamber is moving into ‘hot-desking’ by expanding its offer to any business that requires a desk or desks on
a long- or short-term basis, with all the same benefits. A freelance journalist was one of the first to take advantage of this ‘bureau de passage’, which like the VIE desk rentals, is overseen by the Business Consultancy department. The Recruitment Department is putting the finishing touches to its new e-newsletter, JobLink, which launches in September. Aimed at HR Managers and CEOs of member companies, this will regularly provide a selection of choice mini CVs in different sectors, as well as feature an outstanding CV of the month. New sources of talent are opening up as Recruitment continues to develop partnerships with business schools, enabling matches between high calibre candidates and positions within member companies. And finally, getting round to those highly anticipated events... They will, of course, be outstanding for their quality and panache, food and wine, but more than that, for their content, if the amazing lineup of speakers is anything to go by. A glance at the final pages of this magazine will reveal some of the names in store including Robin Southwell, Lord Phillips, Christian Noyer, Philippe Mellier, not to mention the heavyweights speaking at the Franco-British Energy Conference, which will be moderated by Guy Chazan, the Financial Times’ Energy Editor. Food for thought...I KF info - september / october - 59
new members
2 New patron members
CrÊdit Suisse (UK) Limited Credit Suisse Group is a leading global financial services company Represented by Brigitte Reech, Director | www.credit-suisse.com Credit Suisse Group is a leading global financial services company, offering private banking, wealth management and investment banking services. The Private Banking division offers comprehensive advice and a broad range of financial solutions to high net worth private clients – from simple investment funds to multi-asset class solutions, including equities, fixed income products and/or alternative investments. Each private client has a dedicated Relationship Manager to ensure a full understanding of their financial situation and requirements. The Relationship Manager is also the gateway to the specialists from across Credit Suisse to provide clients with investment banking and asset management solutions.
WPP Group plc WPP is the world leader in communications services Represented by Sir Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer | www.wpp.com WPP is the world leader in communications services. It comprises leading companies in all these disciplines: advertising; media investment management; consumer insight; public relations & public affairs ; branding & identity, health care communications, direct, digital, promotion & relationship marketing and specialist communications. In 2012 WPP had billings of $ 70.5 billion and revenues of $ 16.5 billion. WPP companies service clients worldwide including 350 of the Fortune Global 500; all 30 of the Dow Jones 30; 63 of the NASDAQ 100 and 31 of the Fortune e-50. Collectively, WPP employs over 165.000 people (including associates) in over 3.000 offices in 110 countries.
4 new corporate members
Alfi UK Ltd | www.alfi-resources.co.uk
Delville Management | www.delville-management.com
IT and change management for financial institutions Represented by Marc Tari, Business Development Manager
Interim transition management Represented by Anthony Baron, Co-Founder
Alfi is an historical protagonist of IT and Change Management for financial institutions with an organisational model based on social and environmental responsibility in order to build a long term relationship with clients. Alfi has a constant focus on a consultant’s personal development either as permanent employee of Alfi or as contractor.
Delville Management is an interim management provider of valuable assistance to companies of all sizes and in all sectors, during economic growth and critical times: management emergency; performance improvement; turnaround and restructuring; mergers and acquisitions. Thanks to a strong network and a European presence Delville Management is able to propose tailor-made solutions within a very short timescale, no matter what the role or sector of activity.
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new members
HEC Paris | www.hec.edu
Hult International Business School | www.hult.edu
Business school Represented by Bérangère Pagès, Executive Director Corporate Relations
Business School Represented by Alethea Sibois, Senior Director Corporate Relations
Specialised in education and research in management, HEC Paris offers a complete and unique range of educational programs for the leaders of tomorrow: Masters Programs, MBA, PhD, HEC Executive MBA and TRIUM Global Executive MBA. Founded in 1881 by the Paris Chamber of Commerce and Industry and founding member of ParisTech, HEC Paris has a permanent faculty of 110 professors, more than 4,000 students and over 8,500 managers and executives in training every year.
Hult is the world’s most international business school with campuses in Boston, San Francisco, London, Dubai, Shanghai, and rotation centers in New York City and São Paulo. The School offers a range of businessfocused programs including MBA, Executive MBA, Master and Bachelor degrees. Hult’s one-year MBA program is ranked 1st in International Experience and 3rd in International Business by the Financial Times, and 31st in the world by The Economist.
9 new Active members
Collections privilèges www.collectionsprivileges.com Luxury soft furnishings home-party selling Represented by Frédérique Le Miere, Founder/Manager
Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d’Angers (ESSCA) www.essca.fr Graduate school of management Represented by Christine SauloupTurpault, Work Placement Manager – Exchange Co-ordinator
Gide Loyrette Nouel LLP www.gide.com Provision of legal services Represented by David Klass, Partner (London, TAX)
Kirk Rice LLP www.kirkrice.co.uk French-speaking accounts in Central London Represented by Delia Rice, Partner
www.pearllinguistics.com Translation and interpretation services provider Represented by Tarun Mahandru, Sales Manager
Nuxe www.nuxe.com Cosmetics Represented by Anne-Sophie Guillemot, UK Business Unit Manager
Oscar Group Ltd www.oscar.uk.com Visual communications portable displays print & management Represented by Marie Nash, Director
hello
Laurent Lacassagne
Pearl Linguistics
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Shore Acres Telecom service provider Represented by Sophie Boudier, Marketing Sales Director
YSEOP Software company Represented by Vincent Perrin, European Business Development
g o o d by e
Laurent Lacassagne appointed Chairman and CEO of Chivas Brothers, taking over from Christian Porta Laurent Lacassagne has been appointed Chairman and CEO of Chivas Brothers, the Scotch whisky and premium gin business of Pernod Ricard. Having graduated from HEC Business School (Paris) Laurent joined Pernod Ricard in 1988 and has held a number of positions including Group Finance Director, before moving to Australia in 2003 as Chairman and CEO of Orlando Wyndham. 2006 saw Laurent appointed Chairman and CEO of Pernod Ricard Pacific before returning to Pernod Ricard Europe in 2008 as Chairman and CEO. He takes over from Christian Porta, who has been appointed as Chairman and CEO of Pernod Ricard Europe, after nine years at Chivas Brothers. I
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Terence Watson appointed Alstom UK President, taking over from Stephen Burgin Terence Watson, who will also retain his current role as Managing Director of Transport for Alstom in the UK & Ireland, has been appointed as the new UK President for the engineering firm. ‘These are exciting times for Alstom in the UK as we continue to expand our business and to move into new areas in our core divisions of Grid, Power and Transport, and I look forward to taking on all the challenges offered by that expansion,’ said Terence. Terence takes over from Stephen Burgin, who has moved to an international position within the group as Vice President Global Power Sales, Northern and Central Europe. I Terence Watson
Cyrille Ragoucy
Cyrille Ragoucy becomes the new main representative of Lafarge Tarmac Cyrille is CEO of Lafarge Tarmac, a joint venture between Lafarge S.A. and Anglo American plc. Lafarge Tarmac is the UK’s leading sustainable construction solutions company and employs over 6,000 people throughout the UK. Prior to becoming CEO, Cyrille was Senior Vice President of Health and Safety for Lafarge S.A. He was a member of the Lafarge Senior Executive team, reporting to the Group Chairman-CEO. He has 23 years’ experience in the global building materials industry, having joined Lafarge in 1998. Cyrille has held a number of senior managerial positions within the group, including establishing Lafarge’s Chinese joint venture in 2005 and he has held senior roles with Lafarge in North America. I
Yves Masson
Yves Masson becomes the new main representative of AXA, taking over from Jean Drouffe Yves is the new main representative for Patron member AXA, taking over from Jean Drouffe who is returning to France for a new appointment within the company. Yves has been Chief Executive of AXA Direct & Partnerships since October 2012 and joined the Board in February 2013 following regulatory approval. Since joining AXA in 1985, Yves has built up a broad range of insurance experience, in particular in household, motor, claims and partnerships. In 2009, he was appointed CEO Direct Assurance, AXA’s direct operation in France, and was also head of the direct and partnership businesses in Belgium and Poland. Prior to this role he was CEO and Chairman of AXA Assistance Group. Yves graduated from Lycée International de Saint-Germain en laye in 1981 and has a MBA from Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales. I
Phillipe Henry
Philippe Henry becomes HSBC’s new main representative, replacing Martin Tricaud Philippe Henry is the new main representative for Patron member HSBC, replacing Martin Tricaud, who has become President and CEO of HSBC Korea. A graduate of ESSEC, Philippe joined Bank Indosuez in 1988 and Credit Commercial de France (CCF) in 1990. Following the acquisition of CCF by HSBC in 2000, Philippe became Head of HSBC’s Debt Finance & Advisory for France. In 2006, he moved to London as European Head of Corporate – Global Capital Markets, returning to Paris in 2007 as Head of Corporate & Institutional Banking. He was subsequently appointed European Head of Credit & Lending. In 2011, he was appointed Head of Global Banking Central Eastern Europe (CEE) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Since March 2012 he has been given the additional responsibility of Deputy Head of Global Banking for all Continental Europe. I
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Laurent Baumann becomes Citroën UK’s new main representative at the Chamber, replacing Charles Peugeot Laurent Baumann is replacing Charles Peugeot as the main representative for Patron member company Citroën UK. Laurent has held various positions at Citroën in supply chain and sales and now looks after the brand’s retail sales in the UK as Retail Programmes Manager. Charles Peugeot is returning to Citroën France to lead part of the team that will develop future DS models. I Laurent Baumann
Géraldine Fabre becomes Thomas Eggar’s new main representative, replacing David Glass Géraldine Fabre is the new main representative for Corporate member Thomas Eggar, replacing David Glass. A Senior Partner at Thomas Eggar Géraldine specialises in the areas of corporate finance, mergers & acquisitions and capital market transactions. She has advised on numerous IPOs, reorganisations, acquisitions and disposals and has wide experience of cross-border transactions and commercial arrangements including infrastructure projects, in particular between France and the UK and more recently with Eastern Asia and Africa. Géraldine initially practiced as an in-house counsel in the IT and utilities, construction and environment sectors. She is the main contact for French speaking clients of the firm. She is dually qualified in England and France and is a regular speaker on international legal and business issues. I
Géraldine Fabre
Fiona Main becomes the new main representative of St Ermin’s Hotel replacing Sarah Mulloy Fiona Main has been appointed Senior Corporate Sales Manager at St Ermin’s Hotel in St James’s, London, following Sarah Mulloy’s departure. Fiona has over four years experience in the hospitality industry having worked previously at Pineapple Luxury Hotels, selling key city centre properties, country houses & beach resorts to corporations globally. Sarah Mulloy has taken up the position of Key Account Director at Siteminder. I Fiona Main
h at s o f f t o . . .
Arnaud Breabout
Arnaud Breabout appointed Vice President Finance and Head of GSK R&D Pipeline Arnaud Breabout, a graduate of Sup de Co Amiens and Harvard Business School, and previously Finance Vice President of the Biopharmaceutical unit of GSK, has been appointed Vice President Finance and Head of GSK R&D Pipeline. With investment of over £3.9 billion in 2011, and 16 new drugs approved by the FDA over the last four years GSK R&D is poised to deliver an unprecedented six new drugs to market over the next two years. I
Pierre-Yves Commanay appointed Director Europe of Sopra Pierre-Yves Commanay has held different positions at Sopra Group since 1991. He has recently been appointed Director Europe, responsible for the development of the company in the six European countries in which the group is present: Germany, Belgium, Italy, Spain, Switzerland and the UK, with the aim of developing business locally, but in line with the Group when it comes to their offers and services. I Pierre-Yves Commanay
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chamber shorties
Sixth business school partnership agreement signed with more on the way A new partnership agreement has been signed between the Chamber and Groupe Sub de Co La Rochelle. Like those signed with HEC, Grenoble and Reims business schools, this will open a reciprocal channel between the Chamber and the school, giving the Chamber’s Recruitment Service access to a pool of talent in the form of young graduates and alumni, while giving the business school the visibility of having its students recruited into top positions in prominent companies. Similar partnerships are in the pipeline with Sciences Po Paris, La Société des Ingénieurs Arts et Métiers, ESCP Europe and INSEEC London, and the department is just about to start work on another one with the Chamber’s first British business school member, Hult Business School. I
Launching soon: the Recruitment Service’s specialist newsletter JobLink
THE MONTHLY NEWSLETTER OF THE FRENCH CHAMBER’S RECRUITMENT SERVICE
Look out for the first edition of JobLink, the Recruitment Services’ e-newsletter that will be landing in inboxes in September, full of tantalising mini CVs of selected candidates in different sectors, each one of whom has been interviewed by the Chamber. With a database bursting with candidates, this is a way of bringing the cream of the crop to the attention of HR Managers and CEOs, and complements what is being done on the website. I
Welcome to Marielle Fraize, our new Corporate Communications Executive We are pleased to welcome Marielle Fraize to our team as our Corporate Communications Executive. In her last position at C&A, an international clothing retailer, she was in charge of External Communication within the French market. Marielle also worked before for communication agencies such as Grayling (PR) and Euro RSCG (advertising). She graduated from ESC Rennes School of Business in France (Master II Degree), and did part of her studies at the Portsmouth Business School in England. She replaces Hannah Medioni, who after four years at the Chamber left to pursue a new career opportunity with a Chamber member company. All the best to both of them! I
Hot-desking at the Chamber Besides its successful long-term desk rental service, the French Chamber is now extending its offer to businesses and professionals wishing to rent a desk or desks in its central London office for a period of time, be it a month, a week, a day or even a couple of hours. For businesses signing up to the Business Centre for a year, the cherry on the cake is the Chamber Active membership that comes with it, comprising access to Chamber events, the opportunity to join the SME & Entrepreneurs Club and the chance to network with the 600 members of the Chamber. The Chamber is conveniently situated in Holborn, not far from St Pancras International Station, and has work stations in a quiet, productive environment with Wi-Fi Internet access, telephone lines, office facilities as well as meeting rooms with audio and video
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conferencing equipment. For more information contact the Business Centre at businesscentre@ccfgb.co.uk I
chamber shorties
New names confirmed for the Franco-British Energy Conference 2013
Ed Davey MP, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change has confirmed his attendance at the Franco-British Energy Conference on 29 October, and Matthew Wallace, HSBC’s Global Head of Resources and Energy will join the panel of speakers. Furthermore, the Financial Times Energy Editor, Guy Chazan, will be moderating the debate that will hinge on two key questions of whether the UK Energy Policy will enable the UK to meet its energy challenges and how Franco-British partnerships can be developed to deliver the investments required. For more information on all the speakers and the programme visit the dedicated website www. thefrancobritishenergyconference2013.com. I Contact: Kim Darragon at kdarragon@ccfgb.co.uk or +44 (0) 20 7092 664
Partners in wine Only the best will do for our members, so we ensure we serve the finest French wines and Champagnes at every one of our French Chamber events, which enhances the experience and often leads to new discoveries. It is all thanks to the strong partnerships we have developed with a number of winemakers and companies, which provide us with their choice Crus and Cuvées. We have served exquisite Champagnes from Vranken Pommery and Perrier Jouët at events such as the Summer Champagne Reception, Dîner des Chefs and the Gala Dinner, where they will be starring again. The Saint-Emilion Wine Council educated us in their wines at a wine-tasting in Harrods and we will be serving them at the Gala Dinner, along with wine from Pessac-Léognan. Wines from the Médoc Wines Council and Brand&Fils as well as Vranken Pommery Champagne will feature at the Dîner de la Rentrée and Annual Financial Lunch, while Enologia has a treat in store for those lucky enough to secure tickets to the International Wine Tasting. Prepare to be spoilt! I
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recent event annual gener al meeting
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The Chamber begins the next chapter The French Chamber reviewed another year, set its sights on new challenges and voted in a new President and Deputy President at a successful and well attended AGM
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012 was a momentous yet challenging year for the French Chamber in the wider UK context, but despite scarcer resources, much was achieved, and the Annual General Meeting on 8 July provided a chance to reflect on this and build on the momentum for 2013. It also marked the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next as Arnaud Vaissié and Peter Alfandary concluded their six-year tenure as President and Deputy President, passing the baton on to Arnaud Bamberger and Richard Brown, who were voted in unopposed. Attendance for this milestone AGM was exceptional, with over 150 members gathered in Reed Smith’s offices – prompting Arnaud Vaissié to comment on the Chamber’s evidently increasing popularity! In his valedictory address, Arnaud Vaissié commented on what had been an extraordinary year for London and the UK. On the economy, he observed that although it had taken longer than anyone had hoped to recover from the biggest debt crisis, ‘good economic news has begun to fall on Britain like drops of rain in the midst of a drought.’ He noted that ‘Two countries such as Britain and France with much in common can only gain by pursuing policies of mutual interest and learning from each other.’ As for what the Chamber had achieved under his presidency, Arnaud Vaissié said: ‘As president I wanted to further reinforce the influence and representation of the Franco-British business community to fully reflect its economic weight as cross border investments keep increasing. In addition I was eager to make the Chamber a platform to exchange ideas, develop networks and
A record turnout
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influence policy makers in both the UK and France.’ He noted in particular the number of Forums and Clubs, which offer members ‘dedicated platforms to exchange experiences and share best practices’. Remarking on the fact that over his six years as President, the Chamber had put on over 300 high calibre events, he mentioned some of the key guest speakers in 2012, namely Sir Martin Sorrell, CEO of WPP, Nicolas Petrovic, CEO of Eurostar and Carolyn McCall, CEO of easyJet, who was in attendance and whose membership of the Board was confirmed later in the proceedings. ‘Even more satisfying,’ he said, ‘is the leading position of the French Chamber: benchmarking with the German and American Chambers has revealed the FCCGB had the highest turnover and the largest range of services. Another highlight is the establishment of one (and soon two), new French schools in London under the stewardship of the Chamber. In these tough economic times, companies need to watch and assess the international opportunities and environment. The imperative to stay alert and optimistic has never been stronger. In this context, the Chamber’s value as a place to network has never been greater. Where better to discuss the impact of a new government on your business and your own responses, than at a Forum or Club meeting? That’s what the Chamber is offering.’ Deputy President Peter Alfandary then introduced the proposed amendments to the Chamber’s Articles of Association, which would increase the size of the Chamber’s Board from 12 to 18, formalise the appointment of the Treasurer to the Board as a Director of the Chamber, enable the Board to appoint two ‘Additional Directors’ who are not representatives of Chamber member companies, allow Board members who had ceased to be senior executives of member companies to remain on the Board at its discretion, and increase the number of Advisory Councillors from 60 to 66. All proposed amendments were voted in unanimously. Managing Director Florence Gomez gave an overview of the Chamber’s activities in 2012, which she was able to keep brief because all the details had been encapsulated in the Chamber’s first printed Annual Report, distributed to all those attending the AGM. This was followed by the Treasurer Nicolas Ribollet’s presentation of the Financial Report for 2012, and the auditor’s report on the Chamber’s
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accounts. The Chairs of the eight Forums and Clubs also gave brief presentations on their respective achievements over the year and outlook for 2013, and were thanked by Arnaud Vaissié for their time commitments and quality of their contributions. Formal proceedings continued with the election of the new President and Deputy President, the renewal of the Board, the approval of the accounts and auditor’s report and the confirmation of Byrne Palmer & Co as auditors of the Chamber. Arnaud Vaissié then congratulated Arnaud Bamberger and Richard Brown on their appointments and offered his thanks, to ‘Florence Gomez and her team who have done a great job navigating the lows of the economic crisis and bringing more value to our members’, all the Board members ‘for their continuous support and dedication, in particular, Peter Alfandary who has been an outstanding Deputy president’ and all the members. ‘The Chamber generates new business and it also forges friendships,’ he concluded. Attending his third French Chamber AGM, the French Ambassador to the UK, HE Mr Bernard Emié paid tribute to ‘the remarkable work’ done by the outgoing President and Deputy President, and welcomed the new incumbents, expressing his full confidence in them. He emphasised what he expected from the Chamber: ‘We need you and we need to work together even more closely to reduce our trade deficit and meet the goals outlined by the government. Our priorities are foreign trade and getting foreign investment in our country to drive our growth, create jobs and combat youth unemployment. Trade diplomacy is at the heart of the French authorities’ action, and to carry this out we need you.’ He noted the Chamber’s strengths were its ability to persuade both French and British companies to join it, and bring together both major established corporations and expanding SMEs. Calling on the Chamber to ‘continue the battle’ together with the government for growth and employment, he asked for the Chamber’s ‘very strong involvement’ in preparing for a number of forthcoming engagements, notably the
Arnaud Bamberger takes to the stage as new President
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(L to R) Peter Alfandary, Richard Brown, Arnaud Bamberger, HE Mr Bernard Emié and Arnaud Vaissié
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annual gener al meeting
Foreign Trade Minister’s visit to London on 9 September, trade missions to Guernsey and Scotland, and the FrancoBritish summit. New President Arnaud Bamberger spoke a few words, accepting his new office with pleasure and thanking the members for voting for him. ‘I have been a member of the French Chamber since arriving in London 21 years ago, and I’ve been on the Board for 18 years, which means that one needs to be patient,’ he commented to much laughter. Paying tribute to Arnaud Vaissie and Peter Alfandary, he expressed hope that they would continue to be very much involved in the Chamber because he still had much to learn from them. ‘One of the main reasons I decided to run for President is Florence Gomez, who is exceptional, and together with her team has helped to raise the Chamber to the level it is today. I look forward to working with her,’ he said. He also welcomed his Deputy President Richard Brown with all the experience and expertise he will bring, and finished with the humble words, ‘I hope I will not disappoint you.’ The AGM thus concluded, and members convened for drinks and canapés against the most stunning views of London’s skyline, courtesy of ReedSmith, which has so generously provided us with this venue for the past four years. I KF info - september / october - 67
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With the generous support of
So daring! So surprising! So Aussignac! Chef Pascal Aussignac served dishes with flavour, finesse and a dash of audacity at Club Gascon for the second Dîner des Chefs this year
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A Champagne reception kicked off the evening
Florence Gomez welcomes the diners
Chef Aussignac (second from left) and his kitchen crew
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or the summer edition of the Dîner des Chefs, the Luxury Club invited its members and all Chamber gastronomes to explore the beautiful and generous cuisine from Southwest France. The evening was indeed an explosion of sensational colours and flavours carefully designed by Chef Aussignac. The Michelin-starred restaurateur prepared a special six-course menu that presented the finest French products with innovative and daring gastronomic twists. Imagine a royale of marrow bone, Aquitaine caviar and geranium served with a delicate Champagne Perrier-Jouët Cuvée Belle Epoque 2004 or a chocolate millionaire with 72% Colombian chocolate, lemon gel and... black olive paired with the rich and elegant Martell XO Cognac! Pascal Aussignac’s vision is that gastronomy should bring together regional ingredients and traditional recipes from different terroirs and cultures. This challenging, yet refreshing approach has produced a series of iconic dishes. Hence, among Club Gascon’s new classics, you will find the ‘Marmite Royale & Soldiers’, a gastronomic entente cordiale that combines the Britishness of the Marmite with some of the finest French Foie Gras. This provocative association received the Best in Taste Award by Taste of London in 2012. The journey of Pascal Aussignac is also an entrepreneurial success story. In fact, beyond his love and passion for food, he has proven to be an astute businessman opening with Vincent Labeyrie no less than seven artisan restaurants – Club Gascon, Cellar Gascon, Comptoir Gascon, Le Cercle, Cigalon and Baranis and Chip+Fish in both Westfield City and Stratford. The French duo will soon open a third Chip+Fish in Leeds hoping to charm the rest of the country with their playful but always authentic and sincere cuisine. The Luxury Club and the French Chamber wish to once again thank Club Gascon and Pernod Ricard UK for their most generous support. I Karim Mijal
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The resilience of a boxer and the ambition of an Alpinist: serial entrepreneurs and learning from failure In an interactive session of the Club, Sophie Mirman, Founder and Director of Trotters Childrenswear & Accessories, and Alexis Grabar, founder of AviaMediaTech recounted the triumphs, trials and tribulations of their respective entrepreneurial journeys
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he concept of failure is not one with which Europeans are particularly comfortable, but all entrepreneurs have to both confront and learn from it. As serial entrepreneurs, Sophie Mirman and Alexis Grabar’s experiences of success and failure have been very different, but both agreed that entrepreneurs have to have an ability to bounce back. The issue of failure is a cultural one, as Alexis Grabar explained: ‘For Europeans – particularly the French who come from a Grandes Ecoles background – the ‘f’ word is one we can’t even pronounce. In Japan it’s even worse – if you fail you commit suicide. Americans have a completely different perspective – they see the need to understand failure, learn from it and recover from it. The reality is that talking about what happened and learning from failure is very important.’ With over 30 years of experience as an entrepreneur retailer, Sophie Mirman (whose Success Story is told on page 28), related how the rapid and dizzying success followed by the spectacular and very public fall of their start-up Sock Shop had taught her and her husband about their own strengths, weaknesses, priorities and ambitions. ‘We were thrust into a limelight where we were never comfortable. We disliked running a public company and all the responsibility that went with it... We were distracted by what we saw was an obligation to expand beyond our comfort zone in order to satisfy, not our hunger or ambition, but what we perceived, rightly or wrongly, was expected of us by the City.’ For them, this was distilled into a business mantra of ‘Neither borrow, nor over-expand, and do not take the company public.’ Other lessons learned were the dangers of seasonality and having too narrow a product range, and these were heeded when setting up their current business – Trotters Childrenswear & Accessories – in 1990. All these have been contributing factors to Trotters’ continued survival and indeed success through the most recent economic downturn
and demise of the high street, but beyond a passion for the product and commitment to the highest standards of quality and service, Sophie emphasised that maintaining a point of distinction from other players in the market has been crucial. Alexis Grabar has created four businesses, describing them as ‘two successful and two not so successful’. He is the founder of AviaMediaTech Ltd, a venture capital fund and consultancy, and Avolus Ltd, a private aviation company, from which he recently stepped down as Managing Director. Drawing on his own experiences, he highlighted several areas of failure. The first is persisting with a business model that isn’t a great one in the first place. Alexis cited his own experience of trying to make small gross margins work, and not having a low cost, lean management. Financing and fundraising is also fundamental, and not raising ‘proper’ money. Losing the majority stake in your company can be a death knell too, for as soon as someone else owns it you are just an employee, even if you have shares in it. Alexis also spoke about spending too much time on mergers or deals that did not materialise instead of growing the business step by step. Finally, he highlighted the importance for serial entrepreneurs to have a long-term view and an exit strategy for each business within a 20-year period. ‘Only 30% of start-ups survive beyond three years, and the average lifespan of such companies is 7 years. As an entrepreneur you can expect that within 3 to 7 years your business might have been bought by someone else, changed names, or taken another form’. Above all, Alexis noted, entrepreneurs have to learn to fail small, fast and cheaply, understand why and move on. ‘The two images that come to mind are a boxer and an Alpinist: you need to be able to take the hits and get up, but while the going may be tough, you are aiming to reach the summit’. I KF info - september / october - 69
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How to benefit from a liberalising China What will China look like in 2050? How big will its economy be and how important will its currency be? Huo Rongrong, Head of RMB Business Development, Europe Global Banking and Markets at HSBC, gave the Finance Forum an overview of the Chinese economy, and the evolution of the Renmimbi (RMB) as an international currency for trade, investment and reserves
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y 2050, 19 of the world’s top 30 economies will be what are currently deemed ‘emerging markets’. Heading the list will be China, potentially contributing up to 20% to world GDP. However, China’s income per capita is expected to be $17,000, significantly lagging the US’s $55,000, so although wealth creation will continue, China will continue to face challenges in raising the wealth level of its population. China is already a force to be reckoned with and a story that is not going to go away, which is why many countries are taking a long-term view with regard to the Chinese economy and currency.
The internationalisation of RMB China’s growth forecast for 2013 has recently been revised down below 8%, but given that it is undergoing structural transformation, a healthy slowdown would help reforms line up with its medium to long term goals. Since 1997 China’s growth has been resilient –not many countries can boast a growth rate of over 7% in this period. The RMB, however, has not kept pace, which is why China has accumulated massive foreign exchange reserves - $3.3 trillion in 2012. This reliance on the dollar as well as the mismatch between the economy and the currency is spurring the internationalisation of the RMB. Moreover, China can no longer rely on trade for growth, dependant as it is on the vagaries of global demand, but rather needs to stimulate domestic consumption. However, China has to proceed at its own pace because of a cultural propensity for caution; as the Chinese saying goes, ‘Crossing the river you have to touch the stones’. And when it comes to the internationalisation of the RMB there are three stones that have to be touched: (1) promoting the RMB as a global trade currency; (2) promoting the RMB as an investment currency; (3) fulfilling the RMB’s potential as a reserve currency. RMB as a trade currency Currently 160 countries do RMB business in a typical month, which is double the number of 18 months ago. The RMB is now the third most used currency for cross border trade, after the US dollar and euro. It could be argued that this stage of the process is almost complete because there are no restrictions in terms of settling or 70 - info - september / october
financing in RMB. Hong Kong plays a huge role in leading the offshore development across Asia-Pacific, and London is the centre for European RMB business.
RMB as an investment currency Growing this business outside of Asia Pacific is where the challenges lie, because while some are familiar with it as an investment currency, others are sceptical. Nevertheless, capital control liberalisation is under way. Onshore and offshore markets are becoming more converged. Previously foreign institutional investors could only participate in the offshore market (outside China), but now can invest directly in China’s fixed income and equity markets through schemes like QFII, CIBM and RQFII.1 Conversely many domestic institutional and corporate clients want to invest outside of China, although not always in traditional ways – understanding what they are trying to achieve and who is behind the investment is key. Numerous schemes have been introduced to facilitate this two-way flow via trade and investment, and there are others in the pipeline such as the QDLP2 which will allow Western hedge funds to come to China, raise money and reinvest offshore. RMB as a reserve currency Making the RMB a reserve currency has long been considered a symbolic gesture rather than a long-term goal, but increasingly central banks around the world are positioning themselves to benefit from diversification into the currency of the world’s largest economy-to-be. Already 21 countries/regions have signed bilateral currency SWAP agreements with the Peoples’ Bank of China, most recently the Bank of England, and the ECB will soon follow. Amongst a number of central banks playing an active role, the Reserve Bank of Australia has put 5% of its reserves in RMB, and the Central Bank of Nigeria, 10%. This, together with the currency’s increasing liquidity through cross-border trade settlement and appreciation against the dollar, is evidence of the RMB’s potential to become the third global currency after the US dollar and the euro. I KF 1. QFII: Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor; CIBM: China Interbank Bond Market; RQFII: RMB Qualified Foreign Institutional Investor 2. QDLP: Qualified Domestic Limited Partnership
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Negotiating the minefield of UK Pension Reform Bryan Radford, UK Benefits Director at ALSTOM gives an overview of the issues and pitfalls of the new legislation for ‘auto enrollment’ that is being rolled out in the UK
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he chances are you work for a company which recognises and cares for its greatest asset – its employees – and would be rightly entitled to view Pensions Reform as causing unnecessary pain, anguish and costs for your HR & Benefits colleagues. The UK, unlike France, relies heavily on workplace pensions to provide a significant amount of retirement income; the maximum available from the State in 2016, when the flat-rate pension is combined with the existing basic and state second pensions, will be £155 per week (£8,060 per annum) which is broadly one-third of the average earnings. The problem is that too many Brits rely solely on the State for their pension and successive governments have known that action was needed. Although introduced by Labour, the reform has been embraced by the Coalition and should result in more than 10 million people having additional pension savings plan for the first time.
When does it apply? Each employer will have to meet this requirement on a given ‘staging date’ dependent on their number of employees (see graph below). The staging dates actually extend further to 1 February 2018 for employers with 30 or less employees. There is provision for employers to defer implementing by up to 3 months. Which employees must be included? There are three types of employee, an ‘eligible job-holder’, a ‘non-eligible job-holder’ and an ‘entitled’ worker. An eligible job-earner must be automatically enrolled and once enrolled (not before) they may choose to opt-out. To be eligible an employee must be aged between 22 and state pension age and earning at least (currently) £9,440 per annum; a non-eligible job-holder is someone aged between 140,000 120,000 100,000 80,000 60,000 40,000
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16 and 21 or state pension age and 74 and earning more than (currently) £9,440 per annum or aged between 16 and 74 pension age and earning between (currently) £5,668 and £9,440 per annum. These employees have the right to join (opt-in) and receive a company contribution. Lastly, an entitled worker is aged between 16 and 74 and earns less than the £5,668 threshold who has the right to opt-in but has no right to receive a company contribution.
Assessing the workforce By nature of these definitions, it has become clear to early adopters that with fluctuating earnings, employees opting out, and the simple fact employees have birthdays, means that the non-members of your pension plans must be assessed monthly as people move from one classification to another. In any event, the whole workforce must be reassessed every three years so that anyone who has opted out must be automatically re-enrolled again. Minimum contribution rates Minimum contribution levels are being phased in which will see the employer contribution rise from 1% of qualifying earnings (currently between £5,668 and £41,450) to 2% in October 2017 and then 3% from October 2018. It is a minefield It is clear from this simple précis of Pensions Reform, that it is complex and Stephen Webb the Pensions Minister genuinely seems to be listening and will make amendments in due course; in particular there is consultation underway with a big hint that people close to retirement, those who have fixed protection and, hopefully, others may be exempted from future auto enrolment requirements. Communication and planning The one big plus we have gained out of meeting the legislative requirements was the need for many functions to work together (HR, Benefits, Finance and Communications) and then engaging with all employees to help them through the complexities and explain why we were doing what we were doing; it is not simple enough to leave them to Karen Brady’s posters at train and tube stations! Lastly, on the back of warnings I received from colleagues on professional committees who staged last October, we started early and my recommendation is that you give at least 6 but preferably 9 months to prepare. I info - september / october - 71
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Visit to Veolia’s Newhaven Energy Recovery Facility A group from the Climate Change Forum ventured into Sussex to discover how our rubbish can be converted into energy in one of Veolia’s state-of-the-art facilities
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The first thing that strikes you about the Newhaven Energy Recovery Facility (ERF) is its design – a futuristic silver capsule, it sits snugly in its setting, with two thin 65 metre chimneys, the only obtrusion on the landscape. The second is that it emits none of the odours you would associate with a waste processing plant. The state-of-the-art superstructure was specially designed by French architects S’PACE to fit into its surrounds on the edge of the South Downs National Park, a designated ‘area of outstanding natural beauty’, and conceal the unsightly workings of the plant. Height restrictions necessitated a ‘floating caisson’ construction, which sunk the building 18 metres below ground. High quality materials were used, including a special architectural mesh fabric screen for the dome at one end which obscures the externally mounted cooling equipment. General Manager Allan Key explained to the visiting CC Forum group that Newhaven ERF is one piece of a jigsaw in an integrated waste management service delivered by Veolia Environmental Services in partnership with East Sussex County Council and Brighton & Hove City Council. While other facilities across the county deal with recycling and composting, Newhaven ERF processes about half of the unrecyclable household waste in the South Downs area, incinerating it in highly controlled conditions to create energy, which is then supplied as electricity to the National Grid. The numbers are impressive: approximately 210,000 tonnes of waste comes into the facility each year, and 16.5 megawatts of electrical energy is produced – enough power to supply 25,000 homes. As Allan pointed out, this process of energy recovery produces far fewer greenhouse gases than
Veolia’s Newhaven Energy Recovery Facility
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landfill, and displaces carbon emissions by generating renewable energy and saving over 17,000 tonnes CO2 equivalents per year. Diverting waste from landfill to the ERF has another environmental benefit in that it reduces the number of waste trucks travelling further afield to dump their loads in waste disposal sites. Following an introductory talk and videos, the CC Forum group were assigned hard hats and high-visibility vests for the tour around the plant by the Tour Assistant, Philip King. So well sealed is the building that only once in the locker room was there a whiff of waste smell. Designed as a green plant, the facility works like a power station, but its two boilers are fuelled by waste rather than coal or gas. Waste is delivered to the tipping hall by collecting vehicles and tipped into a waste pit, where it is mixed by waste cranes – giant claws operated from control chairs with a window view of the bunker – and fed down chutes leading to the combustion chamber. A grate conveys it through the chamber while it is burned at a temperature of a minimum of 850 degrees Celsius without any additional fuels, a process that reduces the waste to less than 25% of its original volume. The bottom ash is then cooled and passed through a magnetic separator to extract all ferrous materials for further recycling. The remaining ash is sent by train for processing and reuse within the construction industry as building material or road aggregates. Through a process of heat transfer on a closed loop cycle system, steam is produced, which turns the turbogenerator, creating electricity. The gases produced in the combustion process are put through a system to neutralise and filter harmful pollutants so that what goes through the chimney is within safe limits set by the Environment Agency. Every step of the process, including temperatures and emission levels, are constantly monitored on a bank of computers in the control room, and monthly emissions to air data are published on the website. Only two years old, the Newhaven ERF is one of seven energy recovery plants operated by Veolia Environment Services in the UK, and has set a national example of best environmental practice for residual waste treatment. The CC Forum group was certainly impressed, not only by the clean, efficient facility and its operation, but also by its openness to visitors. Our thanks to Veolia for being such gracious hosts. I KF
f o rt h co m i n g f o ru m s & c lu b s
Climate Change Forum
HR Forum
When: 10 September, 10:00am-12:00pm Where: The French Chamber of Commerce Chaired by Richard Brown, Chairman, Department for Transport Franchising Advisory Panel. Theme: Research and innovation By application only
When: 25 September, 08:30-10:00am Where: The French Chamber of Commerce Chaired by Rose Gledhill, HR Director – Northern Europe International SOS Theme: Skill Shortage Open to HR Directors and Managers
SME & Entrepreneurs Club
Legal Forum
When: 11 September, 08:30-10:00am Where: The French Chamber of Commerce Co-chaired by Frédéric Larquetoux, Senior Manager, Financial Accounting Advisory Services, EY and Sébastien Delecour, Managing Director of Doublet UK. Theme: Cross cultural management Open to all SMEs and Entrepreneurs
The Club at the Pub
When: 17 September, 6:30-8:30pm Where: Baranis The fourth of a series of free, relaxed after-work gatherings with fellow entrepreneurs and SME leaders. Open to all SMEs and Entrepreneurs
When: 15 October, 09:00-10:30am Where: The French Chamber of Commerce Co-chaired by Michael Butcher and Olivier Morel, Partner & Head of International Corporate Investment, Cripps Harries Hall LLP
Finance Forum
When: 31 October, 8:00-9:30am Where: The French Chamber of Commerce Co-chaired by Patrick Gougeon, UK Director ESCP Europe and John Peachey, CFO Global Markets, HSBC Theme: Challenges and opportunities in the Middle East By application only
For more information, please contact Karim Mijal at kmijal@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6638 or visit www.ccfgb.co.uk for the Forums and Clubs annual calendar
f o rt h co m i n g e v e n t s
17 Sept
19.00 - 21.00
sold out
International Wine Tasting 5th Edition At: DSTRKT London, 9 Rupert Street, London W1D 6DG Co-organised by the Argentinean, Austrian, Canadian, French, Italian, Japanese, Macedonian, Mexican, Spanish and Swiss Chambers of Commerce in the UK Partner: Enologia Cost: Members £30 + VAT per person / £40 + VAT per person A unique opportunity to taste a selection of wines from all around the world and meet members from other Chambers and network in an even wider international environment. contact: Kim Darragon at kdarragon@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6644
27 Sept
CEO Breakfast
Sponsored by
At: The Andaz Hotel, 40 Liverpool Street, London EC2M 7QN Guest speaker: Robin Southwell, CEO, EADS UK Cost: £40 + VAT per person Dress code: business attire
08.00 - 10.00
Robin joined EADS in 2003 initially as CEO of Airtanker Ltd during which time he secured the largest military PFI in history. He was subsequently appointed CEO of EADS UK. Robin’s early career at BAE Systems included marketing and negotiating contracts for commercial and military aircraft worldwide. Robin is Chairman of Quest Aviation Services, Concord Ltd and Airbase Group Ltd. He is also President of ADS, a Trustee of the RAF Museum and a NED of Farnborough International Limited. He was appointed a UK Business Ambassador by Prime Minister David Cameron in January 2012. contact: Kim Darragon at kdarragon@ccfgb.co.uk or 020 7092 6644 Robin Southwell info - september / october - 73
f o rt h co m i n g e v e n t s
3-4 Oct
12.00 - 14.30
Trade delegation to Scotland The next trade delegation will take place in Scotland and will be led by HE Mr Bernard Emié, French Ambassador to the UK and Arnaud Bamberger, President of the French Chamber. Whether you already have a subsidiary in Scotland or are planning to expand your business there, this event is a unique opportunity to meet key decision makers, including First Minister Alex Salmond. By invitation only For more information on sponsorship opportunities
In partnership with easyJet Sponsored by International SOS
Contact: Cécilia Gonzalez at cgonzalez@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6644
9 Oct
19.00 - 21.00
Say Cheese... and Wine At: La Cave à Fromage, 24-25 Cromwell Pl, London SW7 2LD Partners: La Cave à Fromage and Wine Story Cost: £20 + VAT per person Inspired by INFO’s cheese and wine column with all its tantalising pairings, this gourmet cheese and wine tasting is a chance to try the real thing. Discover exceptional cheeses, expertly paired to complimentary wines while meeting up to 30 new business contacts from a whole range of industry sectors. Exchange with fellow members and build your business in a friendly setting. contact: Kim Darragon at kdarragon@ccfgb.co.uk or call 0207 092 6644
17 Oct
12.00 - 14.30
Lord Phillips
Annual Legal Lunch At: The Connaught, Carlos Place, Mayfair, London W1K 2AL Guest speaker: The Right Honourable The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, KG, PC Cost: £100 + VAT per person; £950 + VAT for a table of 10 Dress code: business attire The Right Honourable The Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers, KG, PC is a retired Law Lord and past President of the Supreme Court of England and Wales. He was called to the Bar in 1962 and took silk in 1978. During his time at the Bar, he specialised in Commercial Law and Admiralty Law. He was appointed a Judge of the Queen’s Bench Division, where he sat in the Commercial Court. In 1999 he was elevated to the Court of Appeal, appointed Master of the Rolls in 2000 and Lord Chief Justice in 2005. Lord Phillips was appointed as Senior Law Lord in 2008 and oversaw the transition of the House of Lords to the Supreme Court in 2009, when he became the Court’s first President. He remains a non permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal in Hong Kong and also the President of the Qatar International Court & Dispute Resolution Centre. Following his retirement, Lord Phillips became the first Dickson Poon Distinguished Fellow and Visiting Professor in The Dickson Poon School of Law. He is currently President of the British Maritime Law Association and an honorary member of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law. He is Patron of Chartered Institute of Arbitrators and holds roles with various other bodies. Lord Phillips holds a number of honorary degrees and is an Honorary Fellow at King’s College, Cambridge and at the Society for Advanced Legal Studies. For information on sponsorship opportunities and booking contact: Karim Mijal at kmijal@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6638
74 - info - september / october
f o rt h co m i n g e v e n t s
22 Oct
19.00 - 23.00
The Annual Gala Dinner At: The Landmark Hotel, 222 Marylebone Rd, London NW1 6JQ Gold sponsors: EY, HSBC Silver sponsors: Accor, Colas Rail, EDF Energy, International SOS & Safran Cost: £179 + VAT per person; £1,650+ VAT for a table of 10; £1,900+ VAT for a table of 12 Dress code: black tie In Partnership with Le Conseil des Vins de Saint-Emilion, Les Vins de Pessac-Léognan, Champagne Perrier-Jouët The Annual Gala dinner is the premier black tie dinner and most glamorous event of the Chamber, featuring a Champagne reception, live entertainment and a luxury raffle with amazing prizes. contact: Cécilia Gonzalez at cgonzalez@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6641
LOGO Nº dossier : 20110049E
100
83
0
22
10
25
25
40
Date : 31/05/11 Validation DA/DC : Validation Client
29 Oct
08.30 - 13.45
The Franco British Energy Conference 2013 Meeting the UK challenges – partners in action www.thefrancobritishenergyconference2013.com At: One Great George Street, London SW1P 3AA Main sponsors: Alstom, EDF Energy, HSBC, Total Supporting sponsors: Altran, Areva, SPIE, VINCI Energies Partners: ESCP Europe, Franco British Council With the support of the French Embassy in the UK Cost: CCFGB member: £100 + VAT per person; non-member: £190 + VAT per person Dress code: Business attire This conference will address whether the UK Energy Policy will enable the UK to meet its energy challenges and how Franco-British partnerships can be developed to deliver the investments required. Moderator: Guy Chazan, Energy Editor, Financial Times Confirmed speakers so far: Ed Davey, Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change; Stephen Burgin, Vice President of Sales in Northern and Central Europe, Alstom; Robert Davies, Chief Executive Officer, Areva UK; Renaud Digoin Danzin, Executive Director, SPIE UK; Patrick Gougeon, Director, ESCP; Angela Knight CBE, Chief Executive, Energy UK; Vincent de Rivaz CBE, Chief Executive, EDF Energy, Member of EDF Group Executive Committee; Patrice de Vivies, Senior Vice-President Northern Europe, Total Exploration Production, Chairman of Total Holdings UK; Matthew Wallace, Global Head, Resources and Energy Group at HSBC; Rochdi Ziyat, Managing Director, Vinci Energies UK. contact: Kim Darragon at kdarragon@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6643
info - september / october - 75
f o rt h co m i n g e v e n t s
8 Nov
12.00 - 14.30
Sponsored by
afl_2013_v1.indd 1
Christian Noyer
Friday 8 November 2013, 12.00 - 14.30 At the Berkeley, Wilton Place, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 7RL with guest speaker: Christian Noyer, Governor of the Banque de France
Guest speaker: Christian Noyer, Governor of the Banque de France Sponsored by: Société Générale Corporate and Investment Banking Partners: Champagne Vranken Pommery, Le Conseil Des Vins du Médoc, Domaine Brand & Fils Cost: £100 + VAT per person / £950+VAT for a table of 10 / £1,140+VAT for a table of 12 Dress code: business attire
8/19/2013 2:39:45 PM
Christian Noyer read Law at the universities of Rennes and Paris, and is a graduate of the Paris Institute of Political Sciences (Sciences Po) and the Ecole Nationale d’Administration. After serving as a French naval officer for his military service, he joined the French Treasury in 1976. He spent two years in Brussels between 1980 and 1982 as a financial attaché to the French Delegation to the EU. Returning to the Treasury, he held various positions, dealing both with domestic and international affairs, and was appointed as Director of the Treasury in 1993. He also served as an adviser to Edouard Balladur, then Minister of Finance, from 1986 to 1988, and as chief of staff for two other Finance Ministers (Edmond Alphandéry and Jean Arthuis) in 1993 and from 1995 to 1997. He was appointed Vice-President of the European Central Bank in 1998 when the Bank was set up in Frankfurt, where he served until 2002. He is Governor of the Banque de France since 1 November 2003. contact: Cécilia Gonzalez at cgonzalez@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6642 Sponsored by
26 Nov
Franco British Business Awards Dinner hosted in Paris this year In partnership with the Franco-British Chamber of Commerce & Industry in France Sponsors: Barclays, Eurostar, London & Partners Partners: Invest in France, UKTI, CCI International Media Partners: Financial Times, French Radio London, ICI Londres, Lepetitjournal.com
19.00 - 22.00
The winners of the Franco-British Business Awards 2013 will be announced during a prestigious ceremony and dinner in Paris. On this occasion, four French and/or British companies will be awarded in the following categories: SME/Entrepreneur Award; Award for Innovation; Large Corporate Award; Jury’s Special Award. CONTACT: Sonia Olsen at solsen@ccfgb.co.uk or 0207 092 6644
76 - info - september / october
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