Business Eye December 2017

• Job Management • Quotes & Invoicing • Forms & Signatures • Time Tracking

Issue 174 December 2017 £2.50 Voted best Business Magazine in Ireland 2005 and Magazine of the Year for Northern Ireland

Musgrave Growing Good Business In Northern Ireland Features: 12

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MBA Success…

New Era For Queen’s

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Kailash Chada’s Phoenix Challenge

T i Ta n i c v e n u e s B e l fa s T B e Pa r t o f i t t h i s W i n t e r ! t itanic V enues B elfast.com

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UTV Business Eye Awards 2018

Contents

December 2017 ISSUE 174

Cover Story

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Musgrave... Fast Paced Growth For Retail Group

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James Devlin... Raising The Capita Profile James Devlin is charged with leading Capita’s customer growth in the Northern Ireland marketplace from the firm’s impressive Newtownabbey headquarters building, from where the IT giant works with a range of private and public sector clients alike.

Musgrave NI Managing Director Michael McCormack talks about ambitious growth for the retail group in the Northern Ireland marketplace, where ambition and product innovation are helping the Musgrave, SuperValu and Centra brands to increase market share.

Ulster Orchestra Launches Corporate Membership Scheme

Business Eye Round Table

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Unique MBA Builds On Success The new Queen’s University MBA Programme is being launched in response to increasing demand from employers for business school and MBA graduates. In a round table discussion held at Riddel Hall, Business Eye caught up with those who deliver the MBA course as well as three recent past students, now MBA alumni.

The Ulster Orchestra has launched a new Corporate Membership Scheme with a reception prior to one of the orchestra’s lunchtime concerts at Belfast’s Ulster Hall.

The new scheme, aimed at increasing links between the orchestra and the local business community, offers three levels of membership to companies and organisations here.

The winners of the Royal Television Society Northern Ireland (RTS NI) 2017 Programme Awards were announced at a glittering awards ceremony in The MAC Belfast, hosted by TV presenter Angela Scanlon with guest presenter Michael Smiley in November.

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Kailash Chada... Back Home For Experienced Finance Chief Kailash Chada might be a newcomer among CFO’s amongst Northern Ireland’s biggest organisations..... but the new finance chief at Phoenix Holdings is a Northern Ireland man with a strong pedigree at the sharp end of the financial world.

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Top Team Keeps Accountants To The Fore The Chartered Accountants Ulster Society is being led by two women with a passion for the accountant’s role and business in general. We catch up with Society Head Zara Duffy and current Chair, Pamela McCreedy.

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Social Enterprise Springs Into Action

Awards

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The 2018 UTV Business Eye Awards In Association With Emirates

A Northern Ireland social enterprise has created a thriving recycling business saving thousands of mattresses from ending up in landfill and creating new jobs for people with disabilities and health-related conditions. Usel (Ulster Supported Employment Limited) is on course to nearly triple the number of mattresses it diverts from the landfill from 13,000 last year to 35,000 in 2018/19.

Interest Rates Rise... BoE Acts To Control Inflation

The 2018 UTV Business Eye Awards were presented at Belfast Waterfront in early December.

In a picture special, we take a look back at another glittering awards ceremony which saw Peter Hannan of Hannan Meats and Newry-based Around Noon come away with the top two awards.

For the first time in over 10 years, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted to increase interest rates. Frances Hill, the Bank’s Agent here in Northern Ireland, takes a look at the economics behind the decision.

Eye on Infrastructure

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Eye on Banking

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Eye on Giving

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Eye on Leadership

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Eye on Charity

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Eye on Media

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Eye on Law

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Eye on Retail

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Moving On

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Eye on Finance

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Eye on Agri Food

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Eye on Motoring

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Editor Richard Buckley Commercial Director Brenda Buckley

Business Development Manager Ciara Donnelly

Design Hexagon Tel: (028) 9047 2210 www.hexagondesign.com

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Television’s Award Winners Are Honoured

Business Leadership

Regulars

Specials

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As we head into the Christmas holiday season, there’s little prospect over the horizon of the Assembly and Executive at Stormont being dusted down and brought back to life. In fact, there is no talks process and no dialogue between the two main parties....or any of the parties.

Comment

“Northern Ireland looked, briefly, as though it might just get a special status deal which could have set up apart as a unique and hugely attractive region. But the fact that the deal meant that we’d be different from the rest of the UK was too much for the DUP to swallow.”

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o the devolved government here in Northern Ireland is moribund. It’s a sad state of affairs but it’s one that the business community has to accept and deal with. That, of course, is something that we’re pretty good at. As has been said at business dinner after business dinner, we’re fortunate to have a resilient business community in this part of the world.

The bigger deal at the moment, as it will be in the foreseeable future, is Brexit. Over recent weeks, the action has gathered pace.

Northern Ireland looked, briefly, as though it might just get a special status deal which could have set up apart as a unique and hugely attractive region. But the fact that the deal meant that we’d be different from the rest of the UK was too much for the DUP to swallow.

Within days of that, Prime Minister Theresa May had done some sort of a deal with Brussels, promising no hard border on the island of Ireland and full links to the internal UK market. There’s little doubt, though, that the ‘no hard border’ pledge is a form of words. No one has yet to work out how exactly it is going to be achieved if you’ve got one part of the island in the EU and the other out of it.

Given our past record on these matters, maybe it’s time to be fair to Arlene Foster and the DUP. Without their Westminister influence over the Tories, Northern Ireland could well be heading towards a very dodgy Brexit predicament indeed. So, for that, we should be thankful.

But, as recent days and weeks have shown, the whole Brexit process is turning into a rollercoaster ride. The embattled Mrs. May cobbled together a deal in the pre-dawn hours of a Brussels morning

Richard Buckley EDITOR Irish Magazine Editor of the Year 2005

the other week. Then she returned to Westminster and, when she least expected it, the House of Commons voted against the latest stage of the Brexit legislation. This time around, the support of the DUP’s MPs wasn’t enough and that, going forward, could be a very significant development indeed.

But, on the other side of the Irish political coin, if we’ve got the DUP, in part, to thank for making sure that Northern Ireland stays front and centre of the Brexit agenda, we’ve also owe more than a nod to Leo Varadkar.

The Taoiseach has played a bit of a blinder over recent months, standing up to the UK Government and making sure that his European buddies stay close and cosy.

As we head into 2018, things could get very interesting indeed. There are so many possible scenarios........

Will the DUP continue to be able to influence what’s happening at Westminster?

Will Theresa May survive the winter?

Will Jeremy Corbyn eventually decide that sitting on the fence is too uncomfortable?

Will hopes of a return to devolved administration here be rekindled?

And will Arlene Foster be able to continue as DUP leader without a seat in the House of Commons?

Sit back, relax and enjoy the ride.......

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Eye on News

MOTOR GROUP INVESTS IN £6 MILLION SHOWROOM Northern Ireland’s largest family owned new and used vehicle retailer, the Donnelly Group, has announced plans for a new £6 million Jaguar Land Rover showroom at its flagship site in Dungannon.

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hilst the Donnelly Group’s partnership with Land Rover dates back to 1981, the addition of Jaguar adds a 19th manufacturer to the Group’s offering, and will be the first and only premium brand outlet anywhere in mid-Ulster.

Building work on the new 50,000 sq. ft. landmark building, which will create a number of new jobs when complete, is set to start in November.

The development will include 100 customer parking spaces and space for 16 show cars and 75 used Jaguar Land Rover vehicles.

Terence & Raymond Donnelly, the sons of Peter Donnelly who founded the Donnelly Group in 1947, said: “We are delighted to welcome the Jaguar brand to the Donnelly Group as our 19th manufacturer as a result of our longstanding relationship with Land Rover.

“It is especially fitting that work on

this exciting new Jaguar Land Rover showroom will commence this year, as we celebrate our 70th anniversary.

“Since our foundations in 1947 until today, our ethos has always been to provide unrivalled service, value and choice to our loyal customers.

“This state-of-the-art Jaguar Land Rover showroom, with its significant focus on customer experience, reaffirms these values and our commitment to our customers.”

As with all new Jaguar Land Rover sites, the interior will be characterised by the use of luxurious materials and high-end furniture.

New handover bays will also be created where customers can have their cars revealed to them before driving directly out of the showroom doors.

The showroom will benefit from a new luxurious lounge-style waiting area complete with a coffee bar and wi-fi, as well as a paint and trim area where customers can browse options for their new vehicle.

The new showroom will be built around Jaguar Land Rover’s new corporate identity, which puts customers at the heart of the retail experience with exciting architectural innovation, and a stylish, eye-catching scheme.

Currently being rolled out

Terence Donnelly, Raymond Donnelly & Dave Sheeran

across Jaguar Land Rover’s entire global network, the new-look showroom design is timeless and contemporary, and will be the only one of its kind in mid-Ulster.

Both Jaguar and Land Rover’s range of vehicles sit alongside one another in one building, identified by a large glazed area and two large ‘arches’, painted in colours unique to Jaguar Land Rover – Sunshine Grey and Champagne Silver.

Jeremy Hicks, UK Managing Director of Jaguar Land Rover, added: “The Jaguar Land Rover brands have seen enormous growth and

success over the last few years, and we want all our retail locations to reflect the style, comfort and luxury that our customers experience in each and every one of our cars.

“What the Donnelly Group has in store with its this new showroom is really exciting, and we can’t wait for our customers to experience this brilliant new Jaguar Land Rover location.”

During building work, the existing Land Rover showroom in Dungannon, which is one of eight Donnelly Group sites across Northern Ireland, will continue to operate as normal.

Grant Thornton Tops Financial Adviser Table Leading business advisory firm Grant Thornton is the top-ranked financial adviser in the latest report on the Northern Ireland mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market.

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he firm topped the local financial adviser league table in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland Mergers and Acquisitions Review. Produced by Experian and MarketIQ, the research reports on transactional activity

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during the first nine months of 2017.

The report indicates that Grant Thornton has acted for clients on more deals than anyone else this year, including the £125 million purchase of CastleCourt Shopping Centre in Belfast

by Holywood-based property firm Wirefox in August.

Richard Gillan, Managing Partner of Grant Thornton NI, said: “It has been another hugely successful year for Grant Thornton, and being the highest-ranked financial adviser in Northern Ireland reflects the impact the firm is making on the local market.

“The range of deals that we have acted on, which includes the largest single retail transaction in the region this year, is a further example of the breadth of our team’s M&A experience.

“We are enjoying a significant growth period - doubling our workforce and almost trebling our revenues in the last three years – and see major potential for future growth as we continue to serve some of the most dynamic businesses in Northern Ireland.”

Eye on News

NORTHERN IRISH TECH ECOSYSTEM BOOSTED BY LAUNCH OF DELOITTE VENTURES IN BELFAST Deloitte has unveiled plans to invest in, incubate and partner with start-ups in Northern Ireland by launching Deloitte Ventures in Belfast.

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eloitte Ventures is a UK-based team and investment fund that helps Deloitte develop start-ups both inside and outside the organisation. It has already invested in and partnered with disruptive technology startups in fast growing tech sectors such as fintech and blockchain.

Guests from the local tech startup sector, investment funds and academia attended the official launch in the Ormeau Baths innovation space to hear about Deloitte’s plans for further investment in the

start-up ecosystem in Belfast.

Scott Campbell, Deloitte Ventures lead explained: “At Deloitte Ventures we co-create and co-invest with leading corporations to build new partnerships, platforms and products.

“We pair disruptive technologies and ground-breaking start-ups with our advisory expertise to solve pressing problems and achieve commercial success. For us it isn’t purely about financial return – we look for strategic alignment with what Deloitte offers our clients.”

To date, Deloitte has invested

Pictured at the launch of Deloitte Ventures at the Ormeau Baths in Belfast are Roisin Finnegan from Deloitte in Belfast, Steve Orr of Catalyst Inc, Mark Dowds from Trov and Scott Campbell, Deloitte Ventures lead.

in 37 external ventures, from drones to fintech, and has helped its own staff to get more than 100 ideas off the ground. The investments it makes are in external companies which are at early stage investment, and are typically valued at between £150,000 and £1m.

Guests at the launch heard from an expert panel of speakers from the local tech sector which included Steve Orr from Catalyst Inc, Mark Dowds from Trov, Ian Browne from IGNITE and Ben Bland from Sensum.

Jackie Henry, senior partner at

Deloitte in Northern Ireland said: “The start-up ecosystem in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland has been developing at a rapid pace over the past number of years.

We as a firm are fully committed to growing these eco-systems in a spirit of real collaboration.

“We are extremely proud to be part of this vibrant, ever-growing eco-system and we recognise that if we as a firm want to continue to grow we must double our efforts to stay relevant, in part by combining forces with high growth start-ups.”

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Eye on News

Almac Group Enters Strategic Partnership with W5

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Budding scientist Beth Danagher (10) from Bangor, joined Alan Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of Almac Group (left) and Eric Porter, Chairman of the Odyssey Trust, for the announcement that over £1m is being invested in a partnership agreement between Almac Group and W5 to enhance STEM knowledge and understanding through interactive learning.

Over £1m is being invested through a partnership agreement between Almac Group and W5. The aim is to enhance STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Maths) knowledge and understanding among the next generation of budding scientists through interactive learning.

5 has secured the Craigavon-headquartered global organisation as its Health and Life Sciences partner for the next 10 years, enabling W5 to expand its current footprint to create a dynamic new family learning opportunity.

The partnership includes a new 4,000sq ft exhibition area that explores the physical, chemical, genetic and medical aspects of the body. It will also showcase Almac’s history and its work carried out in the drug development cycle for pharmaceutical and biotech sectors globally. The new exhibition area is expected to open in autumn 2018.

Alan Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of Almac Group, said, “This is an exciting and forward-thinking partnership between Almac and W5, an award-winning science and discovery centre, which will provide key benefits for the people of Northern Ireland as well as both organisations.

“We are thrilled that the exhibition space adds to our existing presence in Belfast and provides us with a platform to tell our fascinating

company history, from very humble beginnings to becoming a key player in the global biotech sector, employing almost 5,000 people worldwide, 3,000 of whom are based at our headquarters in Craigavon.”

“We plan to tell that story in an accessible and interactive way and hope we can inspire a new generation who have the potential to be employed in cutting-edge science in the future right here in Northern Ireland.”

Eric Porter, Chairman of the Odyssey Trust, said, “W5 and Almac share the aim of inspiring young people to consider careers in science, technology, engineering and maths.

This agreement will also provide young people with the opportunity to explore an expanding array of careers within Almac and the biotech sector, as well as showcasing leading research and developments in biomedical science.”

“This new partnership with Almac supports our aim to create better life chances for young people by linking informal learning opportunities with leading industry partners to inspire and support STEM futures.”

Baker Tilly Mooney Moore Backs Charity Sector Awards Baker Tilly Mooney Moore will sponsor the ‘Leading Organisation Change’ Award at the CO3 Awards, the most prestigious awards event for the Third Sector in Northern Ireland. This award will recognise successful and structured transition involving major, sometimes transformational changes in how an organisation does things.

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onal Laverty, Consulting Partner in Baker Tilly Mooney Moore said “We are delighted to be one of the sponsors to support CO3 as they recognise the very best practice in the Third Sector. Change is one constant that faces all organisations today and this award recognises those organisations that have successfully

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identified and managed this.”

Tracey McCreanor, CO3 Corporate Services Manager, said “Northern Ireland’s Charitable Sector continues to deliver on a daily basis changing lives and saving lives. Today the business of charity has changed dramatically in a new direction with a focus on innovation, enterprise, collaboration and partnership.

Donal Laverty with Tracey McCreanor of CO3.

Change can bring profoundly positive results but it also brings with it new responsibilities. We are delighted that Baker Tilly Mooney Moore is supporting the CO3 Conference this year providing inspiration, leadership development learning, and new perspectives.”

Donal is a guest speaker at the conference preceding the Awards on

1st March 2018 which will be under the theme of ‘Untapping Potential’.

Held at the La Mon Hotel, speakers will include Jehangir Malik, CEO of Muslim Aid and Dr Sam Collins, coach and best-selling author.

Eye on Infrastructure

Glider – the iconic new face of public transport in Belfast Public transport in Belfast is transforming.

This autumn, Translink and the Department for Infrastructure unveiled Glider – a new innovative mode of travel for an energised Belfast.

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ith services due to start in September 2018, Glider will enhance connectivity in Belfast providing direct cross-city services between east and west Belfast, linking into Titanic Quarter. It will help unlock the city’s potential as a forwardthinking, dynamic and ambitious city with a competitive edge attracting talent and investment.

It’s widely recognised that high quality transport infrastructure is a critical determinant of a country’s economic competitiveness.

Representing an investment of over £90 million, Glider is an Executive Flagship Project that supports the delivery of the draft Programme for Government and Belfast City Council’s Belfast

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Agenda which both recognise the crucial role transport plays in delivering a successful economy.

Translink services keep people connected for work, retail, leisure and tourism with over 800,000 passenger journeys already made every week in Greater Belfast; Glider will help deliver further passenger growth as more people make public transport their first choice for travel.

Glider customers can expect an effortless and smooth way to travel with a modern, high-capacity and high-frequency rapid transit service which integrates into the existing bus and rail network.

Additional features include free on-board Wi-Fi, USB charging facilities, audio next stop and

l-r - Peter May, Permanent Secretary, Department for Infrastructure, Lord Mayor of Belfast Cllr Nuala McAllister and Translink Group Chief Executive Chris Conway

destination announcements, CCTV and air-conditioning. An easy-touse, off-vehicle ticketing system will speed-up boarding times and offer excellent value-for-money fares with a focus on integration,

flexibility and convenience.

The striking 18m articulated Glider vehicles have been specifically designed for Belfast and will bring a further step change in helping to reduce

Eye on Infrastructure

Glider customers can expect a modern, comfortable, convenient and good value bus-based rapid transit service.

emissions and improve air quality.

They are the first of their kind in NI and have been manufactured

by Van Hool in Belgium – worldleaders in delivering high quality state-of-the-art vehicles. Using the latest diesel-electric hybrid engine technology, they offer a smooth take-off from halts, lower noise, reduced vibration and lower emissions.

Glider services will operate every 7-8 minutes throughout

the working day and each vehicle can accommodate up to 105 passengers with 3 sets of doors minimising time spent at halts and reducing journey times.

Work has already been completed on the new 520 space Dundonald Park & Ride Facility and work is underway on the construction of the Colin Town Centre Transport Hub & Public Square on the Stewartstown Road as well as a Service Centre to maintain the

Glider services will start in September 2018, integrating into the wider bus and rail network.

Glider vehicles. Both the Colin and Dundonald sites will facilitate a new ‘Park & Glide’ journey option for Translink customers.

More than 100 Glider halts will be situated around 400m apart along the route with a high quality ‘platform’ feel including larger enhanced shelters with real-time passenger information, ticket machines, validators and CCTV. Glider services will use bus lanes and benefit from bus priority at signalised junctions fitted with intelligent vehicle detection.

Since the introduction of bus priority measures in Belfast there are around 11,000 less vehicles passing through the city centre during morning peaks, yet more people are actually travelling into the city centre enjoying a safer environment for shoppers, workers, students, local residents and visitors. Bus Priority will allow Glider to operate reliably at high frequency throughout the day to deliver a 25% reduction in

public transport journey times.

Forward-looking cities across the world are making transformational changes, introducing the right policies, projects and interventions to tackle congestion and implement intelligent, integrated mobility solutions with public transport at their core.

Introducing Glider alongside other bus, coach and rail services reflects Translink’s ongoing commitment to keep people on the move, boosting the economy and creating a healthier, greener and less congested city.

Find out more at www.translink.co.uk/ gliderbelfast/

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Eye on Leadership

Developing Future Leaders

By Laura Jackson, BDO Partner.

Regardless of sector or industry, building capacity and capability for leadership is a challenge for all.

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ew technologies, shifting political dynamics and increasingly multi-generational workforces are heralding a new era in business operation. If companies are to successfully embrace rapid change and overcome growing skills gaps, the most important investment they can make now is in the development of future leaders.

It is a point that was made apparent in our recent Family Business Survey, as succession planning and talent were identified by many business leaders as critical factors for their organisation’s future success. For those businesses not classed as family-owned, the development of potential leaders in the right areas of business is just as pressing.

At BDO Northern Ireland, talent attraction and development has been embedded into our strategic planning for more than 20 years. Taking a patient, longer-term approach has paid dividends, as evidence by the fact that half of our partners joined us as graduates. We recognise that the demand for talent is changing and simply won’t be the same in the next decade.

Building tangible and practical links between students and businesses has a been a vital

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“Leaders do not all come from one societal group. Fostering diverse opportunities is critical to ensure the potential of talent is not smothered by personal circumstances.” part of our approach to future proofing our operation and fostering a pipeline of potential leaders. We’ve carefully invested time and resources into partnerships and initiatives with Queen’s University Belfast (Queen’s) and Ulster University aimed at advancing career-focused learning and workplace excellence.

Initiatives like Micéal Murphy Scholarship named in memory a past student of Queen’s and scholarship recipient,

have provided mentoring and opportunities for young talent to advance. Queen’s accountancy students have also capitalised on links with our French colleagues as part of the BDO International Network completing stints our Paris, Lyon and Versailles offices.

Good communication has been and will always be a critical asset for effective leadership. Alongside Ulster University, the BDO Interview Award provides expert

mentoring aimed at helping students adapt to pressure and express themselves in a clear and effective way.

Leaders do not all come from one societal group. Fostering diverse opportunities is critical to ensure the potential of talent is not smothered by personal circumstances. We know not all young people will want to pursue a university education, but that does not mean they should miss out on career opportunities.

Our links with Belfast Metropolitan College helps us to attract smart, enthusiastic and engaged people into our business who might otherwise have thought that a career in accountancy was not for them. There are many roads leading to the one destination.

By 2027, workplaces will for the first time reach the point where they are going to have four generations working together. Bringing generations of people together in a way that enables teams to grow and individuals to excel will be more challenging. Employers will be expected to understand and manage diverse aspirations.

As companies adapt to radically changing environments, the quality of talent in Northern Ireland remains our ever-constant and high performing asset. If we’re serious about turning this region’s potential into profit, then we need to consider how we forge the new wave of young leaders.

Visit our website at www.bdoni.com or follow us on social media @bdoni.

Eye on Furniture

New Website Showcases Balmoral Furniture & Its Specialist Divisions

Dunmurry-based furniture manufacturing company Balmoral Furniture (Moffett & Sons Limited) has launched a brand new customer-focused website.

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he new site – www.moffett.co.uk – went live this autumn and showcases the three distinct facets of the Balmoral business – Balmoral Home Furniture, Balmoral Contracts and Moffett & Sons Education. All three have been re-branded using a new family of logos. The new website marks the completion of the companys rebranding process that began more than 2 years ago.

Customers can click through from the main site to each or all of the divisional sites.

Established in 1920, the business remains in the Moffett family and has continued to grow through the generations. Today, Moffett & Sons operates from a 200,000 sq.ft factory, warehouse and

showroom complex at Seymour Hill in Dunmurry.

Balmoral Furniture, the home furniture side of the business, manufactures and supplies bedroom, dining and occasional home furniture along with an extensive range of wooden and metal beds and headboards.

The company also has a specialist bed manufacturing facility on the Dunmurry site, producing a range of mattresses and divan beds created from pocket springs, memory foam and luxurious bedding fabrics. The bed manufacturing plant also produces contract beds for hotels, residential homes, universities and other establishments.

Balmoral Contracts, meanwhile, supplies office furniture, desking and storage solutions to a wide range of customer in the business sector.

Moffett & Sons Education, the third member of the three-strong group of divisions, supplies classroom chairs, desks, staff room, library and nursery furniture to schools and education establishments throughout Northern Ireland.

Each separate website is targeted at its specific market – and customers – for ease of use.

The Balmoral Furniture site (www. balmoralhome.co.uk) features high resolution images of the company’s wide range of products across each category – beds, dining & occasional furniture, lift & tilt chairs, upholstery, bedroom furniture and mattresses.

Over at Balmoral Contracts (www.balmoralcontracts. co.uk), the site also provides full details and imagery of the contract furniture product range, but also showcases details of recent projects in its project portfolio section and provides rapid brochure downloads for customers.

And the same goes for the specialist education sector website (www.moffetteducation. co.uk) which also spotlights full product information and specifications along with a comprehensive project portfolio section.

Visit www.moffett.co.uk for full details.

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Eye on News

Wilsons Auctions Buys Welsh Auction Firm Wilsons Auctions, already the UK and Ireland’s largest independent auction company, has announced it is expanding its business with the purchase of Newport Auctions in South Wales.

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he acquisition of the family-run business, which is the result of retirement, brings the total number of sites for Northern Ireland-based Wilsons Auctions to seventeen including nine branches and logistic and storage locations across the UK and Ireland and will strengthen its offering into the South Wales and South West region of England.

The Newport site has been in business for 35 years and has grown to become one of the largest independent auction houses in Wales selling approximately 20,000 used vehicles annually. The acquisition will see the 30-strong workforce transition to Wilsons Auctions along with its weekly car and general goods auctions.

Formed in 1936, Wilsons Auctions is a family owned business and the acquisition of Newport will help to expand Wilsons Auctions presence across

Wales along with its Queensferry branch in the north. Wilsons Auctions also has branches in Belfast and Portadown in Northern Ireland, Dalry in Scotland, Dublin in Republic of Ireland and Telford, Newcastle and Maidstone in England.

Wilsons Auctions Group Operations Director, Peter Johnston said, “We are thrilled to announce we are adding another branch to Wilsons Auctions’ expanding map with the purchase of Newport Auctions. We felt it was a great opportunity to acquire this already established family business allowing us to expand our offering into the South Wales region and strengthening our position as the leading independent auction company within the British Isles.

“As a result of our law enforcement contracts, especially around the wider region of South Wales and the South West region of England, the Newport location,

premises and staff will be in an excellent position to strengthen our current offering. As a result of our growth plans, we are confident there will be further expansion for the branch with additional auctions taking place and ultimately leading to further job opportunities,” he added.

The purchase of the Newport site comes ten years after Wilsons Auctions first expanded its business into Wales with the acquisition of Queensferry.

Since then the company has seen considerable growth within its business adding Newcastle and Maidstone to its portfolio in February 2016.

Wilsons Auctions currently holds over 1,000 auctions annually, auctioning everything from cars and vans, plant and machinery & property to general goods, as well as the more luxurious items including planes, yachts, gold bars, supercars, designer

Ian Wilson and Peter Johnston of Wilsons Auctions

goods and prestigious watches.

The company manages the asset realisation process for a number of government agencies including over 40 law enforcement agencies across the UK and Ireland.

Wilsons Auctions is proud to be responsible for returning in excess of £80 million back into the public purse through the role it plays in realising important assets.

Judith Owens Appointed as Titanic Belfast’s Chief Executive

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itanic Belfast, the World’s Leading Tourist Attraction, has confirmed Judith Owens’ appointment as Chief Executive.

Judith Owens will take over the reins from Tim Husbands MBE as Titanic Belfast’s Chief Executive on 15th December 2017.

As Titanic Belfast’s Director of Operations and Deputy Chief Executive since before opening in 2012, Judith has been fundamental to the success of the award-winning tourist attraction looking after all front of house operations, including ticketing, events and the visitor experience, as well as recruitment, facilities management, learning and outreach programmes.

Alongside leading the operation of all signature events at Titanic Belfast, including

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BBC Sports Personality of the Year Red Carpet event, MTV Sounds and BBC Proms in the Park, Judith has also been integral in the business’ commercial development to include the operation of SS Nomadic (April 2015) and the Titanic Exhibition Centre (September 2015).

With her unrivalled knowledge of the tourism and events industry, Titanic Belfast has gone from strength to strength.

Prior to her role at Titanic Belfast, Judith was Head of Operations and House Manager at the Waterfront & Ulster Hall for 14 years.

With experience spanning nearly three decades, Judith is one of the UK’s most experienced and established operational venue management professionals.

Eye on News

Belfast’s Jewel In The Crown Sparkles Once Again!

Belfast’s Grand Opera House has lifted the curtain on the magnificent newly restored exterior of one of Northern Ireland’s most iconic buildings.

Over the past four months, the outside of the Theatre has undergone extensive restoration, cleaning and painting.

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pened on 23 December 1895, the imposing façade, built of brick and cast stone, features an eclectic mix of ornamental elements including decorative columns and oriental style onion-domes and minarets, all of which have been expertly restored, cleaned and repainted.

The Theatre’s iconic statue of Mercury, the winged messenger of the gods, situated on the corner of the building has undergone a stunning transformation. The statue, which originally held aloft an electric lit torch, has been fully restored and once again shines bright above Great Victoria Street having been gold leafed, thanks to a private donation.

“122 years ago theatre architect Frank

Matcham bestowed on Belfast one of his most imaginative and opulent creations. The Grand Opera House is one of Belfast’s most iconic buildings, the city’s foremost cultural asset, and the only remaining Victorian theatre in Northern Ireland,” says Ian Wilson, chief executive of the Grand Opera House.

“The works are the most comprehensive restoration of the Theatre’s exterior in forty years and demonstrates the Grand Opera House Trust’s commitment to maintaining and protecting the fabric and heritage of this important listed building for future generations.”

“The contractors have given us a building to be very proud of and I would like to thank them all for putting the sparkle back into Belfast’s

Jewel in the Crown,” added Ian. The restoration, cleaning and painting project, paid for by the Grand Opera House Trust, was managed by Patrick F O’Reilly Limited in conjunction with Consarc Design Group, and was delivered by a team of skilled specialists including Clarke Restoration, Oakridge Carpentry and Joinery Limited, McCrory Access and D Harkin and Co Roofing Limited.

Together with the Grand Opera House Trust, Ian Wilson and his team are currently putting together the final plans for a significant restoration project for 2020 that will see the unique auditorium returned to its former glory, in time to celebrate the Grand Opera House’s 125th anniversary in December 2020.

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15

Eye on News

MUSGRAVE INVESTS £17m IN LOCAL OWN BRAND RANGE Earlier this year, leading retailer Musgrave announced a £100 million commitment to the local food and drink industry, as well as a £10m investment into its store network, across Northern Ireland.

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o date, the company has spent £17m developing its own brand range, Fresh for You, which is available in leading convenience retailers, SuperValu, Centra and Mace, said Desi Derby, Marketing Director, Musgrave.

“We said we would commit a huge sum of money to Northern Ireland’s food and drink sector and nowhere is that investment more evident than in the production of our Fresh For You range.

“This entire range, comprising over 100 individual products, is made by local producers from right across the province that are as passionate about quality local food and drink as we are.

Through this range we’re able to make a positive impact on the economy too by supporting jobs across the food and agri sectors, particularly in the farming

community, so it’s a win, win for Northern Ireland,” said Desi.

He continued: “Our partnership with the hardworking families and producers who make our Fresh For You range has allowed us to be innovative and continually improve quality and drive value. It’s something that gives this range real stand-out in the own brand market.”

The Fresh For You range of products are only possible due to the calibre of the highly skilled producers available in Northern Ireland, continued Desi.

“We’ve started to redesign all our packaging for this brand, calling out the local suppliers name, where they’re from and telling customers a little bit more about them. Customers are telling us this is what they want – provenance and supporting local is very important to them. Some of these suppliers

include Willowbrook Foods from County Down, Strathroy Dairy from County Tyrone, Linden Foods from County Tyrone and Gilfresh Produce from County Armagh, to name a few, who each appear in a series of specially filmed videos which can be viewed on our Centra and SuperValu Facebook pages.”

Musgrave’s commitment to the food and drink sector in Northern Ireland cannot be underestimated, continued Desi.

“As well as employing 5,000 people across the Musgrave business, we also support jobs in every County in Northern Ireland.

We’re passionate about what we do and that includes the people we work with – it’s simple for us, customer’s demand quality

products at a great price and we see it as our job to provide it.”

The Fresh For You range is now award-winning too, having been recognised by the prestigious Great Taste Award recently.

Desi continued: “We were thrilled when our Fresh For You meals, Bacon and Cabbage Dinner and Leek and Bacon Gratin won Great Taste Awards recently. Our vision for the Fresh For You range is to continually improve so this award is validation that we’re getting it right on taste.

“Our commitment in delivering a fantastic product, every time across our Fresh For You range is stronger than ever and we hope consumers continue to enjoy the huge variety available at Mace, Centra and SuperValu stores”, concluded Desi.

ASG & Partners Appoints Valerie Ludlow As Chief Executive Belfast advertising and marketing agency, ASG & Partners, has appointed Valerie Ludlow as Chief Executive.

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V

alerie, who was appointed to the company’s Board in 2016, has been with the company for seven years, most recently holding the post of Deputy CEO, and previously, Director of Strategy.

The move will see Valerie responsible for all agency operations, including developing strategic, effective marketing campaigns for the wide range of ASG clients in the public and private sectors, with a strong focus on brand, content and integrated marketing services.

Valerie has over seventeen years’ experience in the marketing industry, working initially in London in market insights and research and then both client side and in advertising agencies in Northern Ireland. Her experience spans both the public and private sectors, planning and delivering award-winning campaigns that

influence behaviour, change attitudes and drive consumer engagement.

Speaking on the new appointment, Colin Anderson, OBE, founder and Executive Chairman of ASG & Partners said, “Valerie has significant experience in the marketing sector which encompasses all the relevant disciplines required of a leading integrated marketing agency. She is the ideal person to take the company into the future as its Chief Executive.”

ASG & Partners was established in 1982, initially as Anderson Advertising Ltd, by Colin Anderson. With its in-house brand & design studio, public relations and recruitment advertising division, it now employs 40 people and has a network of partners in NI, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland in digital marketing, PR, event management and media training.

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Eye on Cover Story

MUSGRAVE: Growing Good Business In Northern Ireland The scale of Musgrave’s operation in Northern Ireland might come as a surprise to some; they currently support 5,000 jobs across their head office function in Belfast, at their leading convenience retail stores, Centra, SuperValu and Mace, and in MarketPlace, but they also support thousands of jobs in other sectors, particularly the agri-food, construction and transport sectors.

The Musgrave business is also a leader in the Republic of Ireland, where they are the number one grocery retailer, wholesaler and food service provider, but Musgrave’s wider business successes reach as far as Spain and China and with growth continuing throughout their networks, Musgrave is a business experiencing an upward trend that shows no signs of stopping.

We talk to Michael McCormack, Managing Director, Musgrave, about the rise of Musgrave in Northern Ireland and what the benefits are of being part of a wider business network that continues to grow…

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he Musgrave story in Northern Ireland goes back 34 years when, in 1982, work began on the Duncrue Cash and Carry. The state-of-the-art, for the time, facility was to be located within the City’s new ‘enterprise zone’ known as Duncrue, close to the City Centre and the nearly completed final phase of the high-speed road network, the Westlink, connecting the north and west of the Province.

The Duncrue site was purchased from Belfast City Council and comprised six acres and local builder, R&J McKenny, carried out the work which cost £2.75m.

“Belfast was chosen as it had a substantial adjacent population and a thriving convenience retail sector”, said, Michael McCormack, Managing Director, Musgrave. “The objective was to launch a scale of operation that Northern Ireland had never seen and deliver £10m worth of sales per year with 60% of floor space dedicated to food and 40% to non-food.”

He continued: “At 52,000 sq ft and employing 80 people, Musgrave Distribution

20

Limited, as it was later named, opened its doors on October 4, 1983, by one of the Musgrave family, Chairman Jack Musgrave.

“Then in June 1989 we added 25,000 sq ft to the site at an additional cost of £900k which helped us to deliver a 12.4% increase in total sales. So Belfast was a huge success for us. In fact, in the early 1990’s, after some further investment in the site, Duncrue was delivering £29m in sales, £19m more than forecasted.”

With the success of Duncrue, Musgrave took the decision to expand further and opened a North West site.

Michael continued: “By 1994, only 18% of our customers to the Duncrue site came from outside the Belfast/ Metropolitan Belfast area, so we looked at other sites and decided that Pennyburn in Derry~Londonderry was to be our next move.

“Our expansion plans continued in 1996 when we decided it was time to move into the retail sector by acquiring five supermarkets in January, rebranding

the food retail outlets in these centres as SuperValu. Then later that year we bought twenty-one Wellworths stores dotted across Northern Ireland which were in time all rebranded as SuperValu.

“We felt then, as we do now, passionate about delivering a first-class convenience store experience for every person who came into our stores. In Northern Ireland we currently have 36 SuperValu, 83 Centra and 106 Mace stores.”

Musgrave is a 140-year-old, 6th generation family business with a rich heritage. They are the leading grocery retailer and wholesaler in the Republic of Ireland and the scale of the business means that they feed one in three people across the island of Ireland.

Together, with their many retail partners, including Centra, SuperValu and Mace in Northern Ireland, Musgrave supports over 40,000 jobs on the Island of Ireland and Spain and are Ireland’s largest private sector employer.

Michael McCormack, continued: “Our business is about building sustainable, profitable, omni channel brands that are different and better.

“Our business model promotes partnering for success and works in partnership with thousands of other family businesses and their local communities in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland, China and Spain.”

The organisation is made up of five divisions. Musgrave Group is the head office of Musgrave and is based in Cork. Musgrave Retail Partners Ireland (MRPI) operates the SuperValu, Centra and Frank and Honest brands in the Republic of Ireland and is also based in Cork, with three distribution centres in Tramore Road, Kilcock and Fonthill.

Musgrave Wholesale Partners (MWP) operates the Musgrave MarketPlace, Daybreak and Chipmongers brands and they

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Eye on Cover Story are based in Dublin. There are Musgrave MarketPlace sites in Cork, Waterford, Limerick, Galway, Ballymun, Dun Laoghaire and Clondalkin as well as a state-of-the-art distribution centre in Blanchardstown.

In the Republic of Ireland there are 457 Centra, 219 SuperValu and 210 Daybreak stores.

Musgrave Northern Ireland (MNI) operates the SuperValu, Centra, Mace, Musgrave MarketPlace, Chipmongers and Frank and Honest brands in Northern Ireland with offices in Belfast and there are Musgrave MarketPlace sites in Derry, Lurgan and Belfast.

Musgrave España employs close to 1,500 people across its retail and cash and carry network. They operate 94 Dialprix supermarkets – 79 in mainland Spain and 15 in Tenerife. Dialprix is a convenience supermarket brand and is the largest network of all Musgrava España brands with ambitious growth plans. Dialsur is Musgrave’s wholesale model with plans to be the leading Spanish food wholesaler by providing world-class retail and foodservice solutions to retailers and caterers at its 17 cash and carry outlets in Valencia and Murcia.

Musgrave also works with China’s biggest e-commerce group, Alibaba, which handles more transactions each year than eBay and Amazon combined. China is an economic powerhouse so the decision to export 40 own-brand products including SuperValu breakfast cereals, coffee, jam and biscuits, is a shrewd business move by Musgrave especially following comments made by Jack Ma, Alibaba’s chairman, who pledged to serve two billion consumers around the world within 20 years.

Michael said: “We have developed a number of food leadership initiatives over the last number of years, some of which we are rolling out this year and next year in our Centra, SuperValu and Mace stores.

“One of these is premium coffee, Frank and

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Honest, which is currently available at 55 Centra and SuperValu stores across Northern Ireland and the first Frank and Honest sit-in café just opened at our SuperValu Comber store. To date, there are 514 Frank and Honest outlets on the Island of Ireland.

“We could see that the coffee market in Northern Ireland was changing fast.

Consumers’ expectations of coffee out of home were shifting from a speedy caffeine fix to a high quality, gastronomic experience. Our overall objective for Frank and Honest is to deliver the best quality coffee on the go – with a consistent coffee experience 100% of the time. The feedback from customers so far has been incredibly positive and very soon everyone in Northern Ireland will have the chance to enjoy a Frank and Honest cup of coffee.”

Michael continued: “Our passion for innovation at Musgrave has also seen the first Chipmongers – our modern take on the traditional fish and chip shop but with a twist - open in Northern Ireland in Lisburn with plans to open 14 across Ireland by year-end. We also have an incredible ice cream brand, Moo’d coming down the line and there will be other food leadership initiatives hot on their heels.”

Earlier this year, Musgrave announced a £100 million commitment to the local food and drink industry, as well as a £10m investment into its local store network, across Northern Ireland.

Michael said; “In October, SuperValu Comber underwent a £600k revamp as part of our £10m promise to upgrade our Centra and SuperValu stores across Northern Ireland throughout 2017.

“Our cash and carry business, Musgrave MarketPlace, continues to go from strength to strength, following a £1.1m upgrade transforming it into one of Northern Ireland’s finest facilities for retailers and foodservice customers alike. We now employ 182 people at the Duncrue site and we have experienced double digit growth when compared to the same period last year. Musgrave MarketPlace has proved to be a huge success and we’re certain that the recent improvements will secure its future and help us increase footfall and revenue for many years to come.”

Sourcing locally has always been important

to Musgrave, continued Michael: “And it is only possible due to the excellent quality of the local food and drink producers. We have made a £100 million commitment to the local food and drink industry where we work with over 140 suppliers, selling more than 3,000 local products in our stores. We’ve significantly increased our spend in a number of categories including beef, food service, craft beer, gin and meal solutions and this represents more than 10% growth year on year.

“To date, we have made significant investment in our own brand range, Fresh for You, comprising over 100 individual products, all made by local producers from right across the province including Willowbrook Foods from County Down, Strathroy Dairy from County Tyrone, Linden Foods from County Tyrone and Gilfresh Produce from County Armagh, to name a few. Through this range we’re able to make a positive impact on the economy by supporting jobs across the agri-food sector, particularly in the farming community.

“We want consumers to know that when they shop with us, their money is invested back into their local community through wages, local sourcing, professional services and charitable contributions. This year, we invested £2m into health initiatives in the Centra brand with the Live Every Day campaign and SuperValu’s Let’s Cook mission.

“Our long-standing partnership with Action Cancer has gone from strength to strength as we continue to raise much-needed funds for the Big Bus and the Health Action Programme at our Centra and SuperValu stores. The Big Bus mobile cancer detection unit travelled to over 235 locations last year to carry out health checks and mammograms in local communities and the Health Action Programme continues to educate children about their health in a fun and engaging way.

“Musgrave is a family business and by working closely with other hardworking family businesses in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Spain, we have become a success story. We are committed to continuing to innovate and inspire whilst always bringing value to the people with whom we work and serve every day via our business networks”, concluded Michael.

Growing Good Business We are committed to making great quality, healthy and inspiring food available to everyone. We are also a proud supporter of many Northern Ireland suppliers.

At Musgrave we are working in partnership to develop highly successful brands that achieve sustainable, profitable returns, enrich everyday lives and contribute to a healthier, more prosperous, environmentally-conscious society. In a nutshell, it is about leaving a positive and lasting legacy for future generations. Learn more about how we work at www.musgravegroup.com

www.musgravegroup.com 23

Eye on Law

DO YOU WANT TO BE PAID WHAT YOU’RE OWED? Receiving prompt payment from a client or customer once a job has been completed should be hassle free and simple. Prompt payment fosters good working relationships, meaning that businesses are more likely to offer repeat services as trust has been created over assured payment timescales.

Adrian Kerr, Director, Mills Selig.

B

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usinesses are sometimes met with an unpaid bill and silence from customers weeks after an invoice has been raised. It is a frustration that many will be accustomed to.

The good news is that there is a law which states that certain types of customers/clients must explain (having received an invoice) why they have not paid the agreed amount within the agreed timescales. If they fail to provide an explanation, businesses are lawfully entitled to be paid the invoiced amount and can get paid within 2 months without having to go to Court.

Many businesses are not using the useful rights afforded to them by law.

Many businesses that are not typical construction sector businesses could (and indeed should) be using this legislation to get paid, and to deal with contract disputes quickly, efficiently and confidentially.

“I’M NOT IN THE TRADITIONAL BUILDING TRADE; CAN I USE THIS LEGISLATION?” The answer is ‘Yes’. Many businesses can use the legislation to get paid more quickly and to deal with disputes more efficiently. For example;

(ii) A right to adjudicate all disputes. Adjudication is a quick and cost-effective dispute resolution method that usually takes between 4 and 6 weeks from start to finish. If you claim money in an adjudication and win, you should be paid the full amount within 6 weeks, otherwise the Courts should usually ensure that you are paid without further delay.

This is usually much more attractive than running a full Court case to get your money;

Manufacturers whose contracts also involve installing the manufactured product in buildings or on land;

(iii) The right to suspend services if you’re not paid; and

Painters and decorators of internal or external surfaces of buildings/structures;

(iv) A ban on “pay when paid” clauses. If your contract provides that you only get paid when someone else gets their money from somewhere else, this clause in your contract would be legally unenforceable.

WHAT’S IN A NAME? When the Housing, Grants, Construction and Regeneration Act came into force 10 years ago in England, the name of the Act alone confused people. It became widely known as “the Construction Act” and when the equivalent legislation came into force here in Northern Ireland one year later, the Construction Order was born. Many businesses assumed that it only related to building contracts and therefore ignored the legislation.

This assumption is, of course, incorrect. The Construction Order applies to building contracts, but it may surprise business-owners to discover the wide variety of contracts to which the Order applies. The tools contained within this piece of legislation are grossly under-utilised because businesses assume that it doesn’t apply to their contracts when in many cases it does.

Installers of heating, lighting, ventilation, sanitation, security systems, communications systems or fire protection; and Cleaners (internal or external) of buildings (insofar as cleaning is part of construction, alteration, repair, extension or restoration of those buildings).

If the legislation applies to the contract created between your business and your customer, and regardless of what the contract includes or doesn’t include, the law implies into the contract the following items: (i) The right to be told how much you’re going to be paid and how that sum has been calculated BEFORE the final date for payment of the amount invoiced – if you are not told this, you can adjudicate (see below) and get paid the amount you invoiced usually within 6 weeks;

Mills Selig offer market-leading legal advice and this includes advice in relation to all contracts covered by the Construction Order. Our detailed knowledge and experience of this legislation can provide your business with a unique insight into the use of the tools created by the Construction Order. Simply put, we can help you get paid more quickly, and resolve disputes more efficiently.

Whether you are a traditional construction sector business or a business carrying out other operations that might be covered by the Construction Order and would like to explore this further, contact Mills Selig, Belfast’s leading corporate and commercial law firm for expert advice and guidance: www.millsselig.com

FUTURE OF WORK SOLUTIONS SUMMIT

28 FEBRUARY 2018 | WATERFRONT, BELFAST

Northern Ireland is targeted to be a leading knowledge economy by 2030 but 1 in 3 companies are at risk of automation by then.

This change is coming at pace and the key questions we need to ask are: – What jobs will be impacted by intelligent technologies?

– How do we re-tool to be competitive?

– What does a regional island economy need to do to meet our 2030 targets?

www.futureofworkNI.co

Eye on Technology

James Devlin...

Raising The Capita Profile

James Devlin is used to working with large organisations across Northern Ireland. He’s served in roles ranging from Head of Business to Head of Customer Management and now he finds himself in the role of Client Services Director at Capita Managed IT Solutions, one of the largest organisations of its kind in the UK and Ireland.

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ne visit to Capita’s Hillview House headquarters in Newtownabbey illustrates the scale of the operation. The vast open-plan building is home to 400 or so employees, part of the 700 employed in the Managed IT Solutions businesses across the UK and Ireland.....where Capita has offices in Belfast, Dublin, Hemel Hempstead and Glasgow.

The company has a particularly strong footprint in the public sector here in Northern Ireland where it’s best known for its partnership with education authorities. It also works in health, transport, justice and a number of other public sector areas both north and south.

“However Capita isn’t just about the public sector,” says James Devlin. “Our business in this region is split down the middle.

It’s around 50:50. We’re working with a wide range of private sector clients here in Northern Ireland and beyond, including some of our largest organisations.”

Capita provides a range of services to the Viridian Group’s Power NI and Energia supply businesses north and south and also works for companies as diverse as Bombardier Aerospace, AAH Pharmaceuticals, SHS Group, Brakes, Henderson Group and Norbrook Laboratories...all of

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them big names in the Northern Ireland corporate arena.

“It’s hard to summarise what Capita is doing for our clients because it entails a huge variety of different services and solutions.

We’re doing everything from supplying laptops to designing and implementing full managed IT systems,” adds James Devlin.

“This business is all about its people and the expertise that those people can offer to our clients.”

On the other side of the business coin, Capita works closely with the big guns of the IT industry, supplying hardware and solutions from companies like Dell EMC, HPe, IBM, Microsoft and the other leaders in the field.

“The important factor, as far as our customers are concerned, is that we’re not tied to one brand name supplier or another. We can take a view of the market and pick out the best solutions for our customers....and we think that’s a major plus factor.”

Capita’s undoubted strength in the public sector, James Devlin reckons, means that it can deliver the same kind of expertise and large-scale thinking to the private sector here. The current organisation has its roots in the old Sx3 of the early

Eye on Technology 2000’s, the early occupants of the impressive Hillview House site in Newtownabbey.

It was Sx3 that made early inroads into the education sector here. Nowadays, Capita works in partnership with C2k and the Education Authority to deliver the Education Network for Northern Ireland EN(ni) project, bringing infrastructure and cloud services to 1,100 schools in NI, and 350,000 teachers and pupils.

“We’ve also recently acquired Smartschools, a Wexford based provider of ICT services and equipment to the education sector in the Republic of Ireland.

With the Irish Government committed to spending €300 million on the upgrade and implementation of IT in schools (Digital Strategy for Schools 2015-2020), it means we’ll be well placed to expand our education business south of the border.”

Within the health sector, Capita works with each of the Health Trusts in NI providing a range of solutions including service desk and infrastructure support, in addition to digital led solutions and working in strategic partnership with health specialists to help clinicians deliver better patient -centric care.

And the public sector work doesn’t end there. Capita’s Hillview House hosts a busy call centre operation for the Driver Vehicle Agency, booking MOT and driving tests for members of the public.

The centre processed well over 200,000 appointments and handled 115,000 enquiries on behalf of the DVA last year.

Capita also has a long-standing relationship with children’s charity NSPCC, managing the infrastructure which hosts Childline, Adultline and Helpline as well as supporting a full managed service for over 3,000 users.

“It’s an interesting statistic that the people here in Newtownabbey, across the private and public sectors, respond to somewhere around 400,000 emails and calls every year,” adds James Devlin.

Security is always a hot topic on the technology front, no less so today. And it’s an area where Capita’s undoubted experience and expertise can be brought to bear.

“Cyber-crime is big business.

It’s as simple as that. We offer

our clients a full range of services including security audits, consultancy, disaster recovery, Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) services and secure remote access.

“Mobile working and multiple sites can create exciting opportunities for business, but also for those involved in cybercrime. It is a game of cat and mouse. In this industry, we’re doing battle constantly with criminals who try to respond to every move we make,” says Devlin.

“Security breach risks today are a very regular occurrence, with recent cyber-attacks including the WannaCry and Petja incidents highlighting the importance of cyber security and the trouble it can cause to both individuals and organisations.

“Even more worryingly, they can be unpredictable, go undetected and remain unsolved for long periods while they are investigated and security is restored. This in turn can cause a severe impact on businesses in terms of productivity due to downtime, loss of revenue and long term reputational damage.”

Security, James Devlin reckons, must be taken very seriously at boardroom level here in Northern Ireland.

“As attacks grow more advanced

“Mobile working and multiple sites can create exciting opportunities for business, but also for those involved in cyber-crime.

It is a game of cat and mouse. In this industry, we’re doing battle constantly with criminals who try to respond to every move we make.” and in order for businesses to keep their estates safe, it’s increasingly important to have flexible, scalable security solutions in place to meet changing security requirements and to keep up-to-date with everevolving technology solutions and regulations. Vitally, this is not only the case for IT departments, but of fundamental importance across all business functions.

“No one is ever 100% secure,” he warns. “But we can all do our best to minimise the risks.

“What we can offer is a wealth of in-house expertise in designing, deploying and supporting tailored security systems as well as audits, consultancy, email and web filtering and disaster recovery.”

Aside from security, Capita continues to work with private and public sector clients on cloud services.

“Cloud is no longer a new concept for business customers. It’s a

proven part of the IT mix, and users have faith in it as an IT solution.”

And, like any market-leading IT player, Capita and its team members spend plenty of time looking towards the horizon.

“There are always new developments coming down the tracks in this business. So we’ve all got to keep our eyes open. These days, we’ve got the emergence of the Internet of Things, we’ve got the challenges of big data, mobility is always a growth area and there’ll be plenty more challenges coming our way.

“Our job is to help take the strain of technology and its many challenges away from our customers....leaving them more time to get on with what they do best!”

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Eye on News

Multi Million Pound Win For Belfast’s Selective Travel Management Selective Travel Management, Northern Ireland’s largest independent travel management company, continues to add to its business success with the announcement of a two year contract worth £6 million to provide and manage travel services for Newcastle University.

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nnouncing the latest win in what has been another recordbreaking year for the business, Keith Graham, Managing Director of Selective Travel Management, said, “This is the second time we have held the contract and we are delighted to retain this prestigious client. This latest win will see our turnover growth for 2016/17 increase by 21.2%, taking us to just under £50 million.

“We have long been recognised

as one of this region’s largest independent travel management companies, but we are now also making our mark nationally as one of the fastest growing companies in our sector in the UK. Within the national marketplace Selective Travel Management is increasingly renowned and respected for its uniquely high service approach to providing managed travel to Government, B2B, Charity/ NGO division and Higher Education.

“Newcastle University is a member of the elite Russell Group of Universities, the association of 24 leading researchintensive UK universities, each of which operates as a major ‘business’ as well as a centre for academic excellence. Newcastle University is recognised as one of the most powerful research universities in the country, with the vast majority of its research classed as ‘world leading’ or ‘internationally excellent’ by the Research Excellence Framework 2014.

Keith said: “Retaining this high profile contract reinforces still further our

growing pre-eminence in the academic sector where we have outstanding expertise. This adds to earlier wins including Queen’s University of Belfast.”

In conclusion Keith commented: “We have an extensive and diverse client base serviced by 150 staff across four specialist divisions, covering Higher Education, B2B, Government and Charity/NGO. Each division benefits from considerable sector-specific understanding and expertise delivered by highly motivated and capable staff who have access to the very latest technology.

BELFAST INSURANCE FIRM MAKES TWO ACQUISITIONS Belfast-based Willis Insurance and Risk Management (Willis IRM) has acquired McCausland, Light and Rankin in Castlereagh and Hull-based Kennett Insurance Brokers for an undisclosed sum.

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he deals will bring together two of Northern Ireland’s best-known independent brokers and further extend Willis IRM’s presence in England, where it already has an office in Reading.

The firms will continue to trade as McCausland, Light and Rankin and Kennett Insurance respectively while the existing management and staff will also be retained, bringing the overall number employed by Willis IRM to more than 100.

Willis IRM Managing Director Richard Willis, whose father Robert Willis set up the firm almost 40 years ago, said the acquisitions would further strengthen its

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offering to companies across all sectors.

“We are delighted to come together with two long established brokers, each of them, like ourselves, have built up a strong client base over many years.

“The acquisition of local business McCausland, Light and Rankin will further strengthen our significant presence in the transportation industry and broaden our expertise in the taxi sector.

“By acquiring Kennett Insurance Brokers, we are continuing our strategy of growing independent businesses and will continue the

Welcoming the deal with Kennett Insurance Managing Director Nick Wride, centre, are, from left, Richard Willis, Managing Director, Willis IRM and Robert Willis, Executive Chairman, Willis IRM.

good work undertaken by Nick Wride and his team in establishing a solid reputation in east Yorkshire.

“It follows the opening of Willis IRM’s office in Reading in 2015 and we continue to look for further opportunities for growth through strategic acquisitions.

“The clients of both firms will have access to Willis IRM’s full-service offering, which includes Risk Management, Health and Safety, Financial Services and Employment Law.” McCausland Light and Rankin (MLR) was established in 1993 by Gary McCausland and operates from

premises at Castlereagh Business Park where it employs more than 20 staff.

MLR Managing Director Gary McCausland said: “The success of McCausland, Light and Rankin has been due to providing customer focused personal services to all our clients.

“It is that customer service which has allowed us to enjoy an exceptional client retention rate and it is an ethos that is shared with Willis IRM. We look forward to pooling our resources to further strengthen our offering to existing and future clients.”

NO arrangement fees NO legal fees NO valuation fees

Eye on Round Table

The MBA at Queen’s University...Unique Programme Builds On Success The new Queen’s University MBA Programme is being launched in response to increasing demand from employers for business school and MBA graduates.

Designed and delivered by Queen’s Management School the MBA is a career development programme for participants with postgraduate and relevant work experience who want to build strategic management and leadership expertise.

In a round table discussion held at Riddel Hall, Business Eye caught up with those who deliver the MBA course as well as three recent past students, now MBA alumni.

The Participants

Professor Nola Hewitt-Dundas – Head of Queen’s Management School and Professor of Innovation Management & Policy.

Anne Clydesdale – Director of the William J. Clinton Leadership Institute and an accredited business coach.

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Irene Breen – A winner in the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship competition with her start-up business, BellaMoon, a new baby breastfeeding product.

Brian Horgan – An experienced hospitality industry executive and now Head of Campus Food & Drink at Queen’s University.

Professor Kate Kenny – Programme Director of the Queen’s Management School MBA and Professor in Management and Organisation Studies at the university.

Richard Kirk – A qualified civil engineer and now Regional Director of Institution of Civil Engineers based in Belfast.

AC – We all recognise the fact that the MBA is one of the most sought after qualifications that you can have and we’ve been running MBAs for quite a few years. More recently, we’ve looked at the 21st century environment that we’re in now and we’ve modernised that MBA...how we deliver it, who we deliver it to as well as the content. Our objective is to make this MBA stand out from its competitors. In shaping it, we went out to industry experts across Ireland and beyond to find out what they wanted from a modern MBA, and we’re very excited about the result.

RB – So MBAs have changed through the years, haven’t they?

KK – Since 2008, the business landscape has changed. The old models just don’t work any more. Business schools and MBAs had to respond. We asked what was missing from graduates coming out of the universities and one key answer was critical thinking, the ability to challenge traditional ways of doing things. The best MBAs across the world now focus on critical thinking. Then there are specifics, like the rise of big data and how it is used. So our new MBA looks at both data and how to analyse and use it. It also looks at the importance of internal innovation as consumer markets change and adapt and the fostering of an entrepreneurial mindset.

Eye on Round Table

NHD - There is no doubt that management and leadership skills are vital in addressing low productivity and the rapidly changing political environment.

I’d also mention the rapid development of technology and how it impinges on business.

What’s vital is to harness these external factors and use them to help drive businesses forward. Ultimately the MBA is about ensuring that executives have the knowledge and skills to do this. For us, curriculum review is an ongoing process so what we’re doing with the MBA comes naturally.

There are too many MBAs out there which have been left unchanged through the years.

RB – You’ve mentioned working with business and industry.

How important is that?

AC – It’s very important that we share expertise and experiences with business leaders. Leadership is a very strong theme in this MBA and the programme will

be delivered by a fine blend of experienced academics and industry specialists. We’ll also be expanding the thinking of our MBA participants by building in a five day study visit to San Francisco and Silicon Valley.

AC – Peer learning is a very important part of the MBA. It is very much a post-experience MBA and it brings together a wide variety of people. We work had to make sure that the mix is a very strong one and leads to cross-fertilisation.

BH – As a past student, I would add that MBA students learn from each other. We all have finance problems, people problems, marketing problems.... and we found that discussing those issues was really helpful.

Most of us remain connected for years after we’ve graduated.

IB – Prior to my MBA I wanted to explore setting up my own business. So I think I was quite driven in my approach to the MBA and I used the modules to explore every avenue of the new business that I’ve now set up. I did everything in parallel. The MBA at Queen’s University was crucial in expanding my limited view of business, as was the wider resource of Queen’s University as a whole.

RK – I would echo that - whilst there are many excellent lecturers, it struck me fairly quickly that I could learn a lot from the people around the room.

We had a hedge fund manager who now runs a fashion store here, a banker and quite a few others from around the private sector. We were like-minded people. I learnt a lot from the course itself and from the networks that I became part of.

RB – What kind of commitment does a student have to make?

BH – It will change your life for two years. There’s no doubt about that. You have to make some sacrifices, particularly in terms of family life. But it does go in very quickly and when it’s gone...you miss it. We did things as a team.

As an undergraduate, you’re an individual. The MBA is different. We harnessed each other’s strengths.

RK – Yes, we all had real world issues and then we had our MBA. It’s a challenge to keep your life on track while studying.

IB – MBA students can be at a transition period of their lives.

They’re maybe getting married, having children, moving house.... and you end up balancing everything. Getting the kids to bed and starting work in the evenings, then giving up your weekends as well. But it is worth it in the end and you do get an enormous sense of satisfaction.

RB – Some participants are funded by their employers and it must be hugely important to engage with employers?

NHD – A lot of students are funded or part-funded. Once companies see what MBA graduates can do in their organisations, they know that it’s a pretty good investment.

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Eye on Round Table

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This is executive level education and companies know that. What makes it different? Exposure to the Queen’s research base and leading academics from all over the world. In fact, I think we’ll see the MBA itself attracting students from outside of Northern Ireland to a greater degree. Our growth in international markets is impressive.

RK – It’s interesting to talk about employer engagement. In my professional role, I’ve been involved in delivering a civil engineering apprenticeship which ties in with employers, and it’s part of the move towards linking businesses with FE colleges and other establishments.

It’s interesting to see colleges learning from employers.

BH – The quality of the teaching needs to be emphasised. We had really excellent lecturers and professors facilitating on our programme and people like that make a big difference. And these tutors had to be able to accept robust challenges from experienced business people... rather than undergraduates.

NHD – Yes, it is vital to listen to employers. One example is our employers’ forum where we identified the skills graduates need in the workplace and adapted our programme accordingly... with their professional help. Similarly, we are working with a number of companies in bringing industry practice into the classroom.

KK – In the past for example, Deloitte have come in each year from January to March and posed a strategy problem for our students to solve, and we’ve also worked recently with NI Water on a live strategy challenge that the organisation is facing in real life.

IB – I think employers can benefit in a lot of practical ways. Students learning about HR, for example, will often base their project work around their own organisations, and there are obvious potential gains there for employers.

RB – MBAs are a competitive business, aren’t they? Students have a lot of choice out there.

AC – Yes, and you can buy MBAs at all sorts of different prices. Our programme is not in the cheap seats. This is a prestigious programme and one which produces a demonstrable return on investment. So we think it represents excellent value for money.

RB – Are we behind the curve when it comes to MBA participation?

NHD –We’re probably behind in selling ourselves, for starters.

We see this across all of our programmes. As we start to promote the high quality of our programmes and graduates, our home and international markets have grown rapidly. Our price point

Eye on Round Table

is competitive and we don’t pile ‘em high like some business schools. Our MBA has a small, high qualify cohort.

RB – When does the new MBA start and how many students will be on the cohort?

KK – The new one is launching next September so the admission process will be starting soon.

Based on our current numbers, we’ll be expecting 20-25 new students. We’d like to see it developing in scale over future years, but for the moment, we’re concentrating on quality.

As others have said, our price point is good, we are attracting students and we have a range of ways of recognising the performance of

those students, running right through to our graduations.

BH – I won the Dissertation Prize at our graduation and I’ll never forget the sight of my 89-year old mother sitting in the audience with tears streaming down her face......you can’t buy moments like that!

RB – So for anyone reading this thinking of going for an MBA, what would your advice be?

RK – If you’re a potential student, do consider the sacrifices, but think about what you can achieve.

If you’re an employer, consider what this kind of experience can bring to your key people.

IB – For me, doing an MBA was like a lifelong dream. Do not hesitate.

Go for it. Life will always throw challenges at you, so don’t use them as an excuse. And think about the enormous pride and satisfaction you’ll feel when you’ve finished.

BH – I hadn’t studied for 20 years before my MBA. I was nervous coming into a classroom full of MBA students but I’ve no regrets at all. Get support at home and get support from your employer, then go for it. You’ll find the time.

AC – Listening to the three of you has been quite inspiring. I’ve learnt a lot. But I’d highlight the fact that the MBA gives people freedom of thought, helps them to think more

widely and to suspend limited thinking. That’s very powerful for any business person.

NHD – We’re very excited about the new MBA. We really feel that we’ve got something that hits the spot in terms of the learning that executives need in today’s business environment.

For further information on the MBA at Queen’s University: t: 028 90974200 e: s.m.armstrong@qub.ac.uk w: http://www.qub.ac.uk/ courses/postgraduate-taught/ master-businessadministration-mba/

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Eye on Sponsorship

Ulster Orchestra Launches Corporate Membership Scheme The Ulster Orchestra has launched a new Corporate Membership Scheme with a reception prior to one of the Orchestra’s lunchtime concerts at Belfast’s Ulster Hall.

Left to right: Founding members, Martin Groom (PwC), Harry Weir (Willis Towers Watson), Grace Best (Ulster Carpets Mills Ltd.), with Richard Wigley (Managing Director of the Ulster Orchestra).

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he new scheme, aimed at increasing links between the Orchestra and the local business community, offers three levels of membership to companies and organisations here.

The Ulster Hall reception heard from Ulster Orchestra Managing Director Richard Wigley and from Martin Groom, a Partner at PwC, one of the founder members of the scheme.

“I believe that an association with the Ulster Orchestra is not only a privilege but also of great commercial and business value,” he told guests at the event. “It gives local companies the opportunity to entertain clients and customers at some world class performances in the heart of Belfast.

“Companies and organisations also need to realise that their support helps the Orchestra to deliver some amazing work with schools and communities across Northern Ireland. The Orchestra is being utilised very successfully to promote leadership and teamwork, and I know that the management team sees more community work on the agenda.

“And there are other advantages to having a world class Orchestra based here in Northern Ireland. It can help with inward investment and it’s part of the wider cultural picture in this city and beyond.”

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The Ulster Orchestra’s Corporate Membership Scheme offers three levels of membership – Gold, Silver & Bronze.

Gold Membership (£4,500 + VAT per annum) – 20 top price tickets and programmes for concerts at the Ulster Hall plus 45 tickets to concerts at Belfast Waterfront; access to corporate members facilities including private members’ bar area; annual corporate members networking event; a backstage tour for up to 20 people & the opportunity to have musicians perform at bespoke events (at an agreed cost).

Left to right: Sophie O’Donnell (Ulster Orchestra), Denny Elliott (Ulster Orchestra) and Grace Best (Ulster Carpets Mills Ltd).

Silver Membership (£3,000) –As above but with 15 top price tickets for Ulster Hall concert and 30 tickets for Belfast Waterfront.

Bronze Membership (£1,500) – As above but without backstage tour and with 10 tickets for Ulster Hall concerts and 15 tickets for Belfast Waterfront.

Corporate members also receive accreditation as a member on the Ulster Orchestra website, in programmes and on the supporters’ board in the Ulster Hall.

Left to right: Richard Wigley (Managing Director of the Ulster Orchestra), founding member Martin Groom (PwC) and Stephen Peover (Chairman of the Ulster Orchestra).

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Contact Denny Elliott on denny@ulsterorchestra.com or 07799 346997 www.ulsterorchestra.org.uk/corporate-membership-scheme

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Eye on Banking

Danske Advantage Cyber Security Events Cyber security should be considered as high a priority as other business critical risk management issues, according to leading expert in online security, David Crozier, head of strategic partnership and engagement at Queen’s University’s Centre for Secure Information Technologies (CSIT).

Sabina Cherek, Richard Hepworth, Carol Murphy

David Crozier

Paul Brown, Fraud Manager, Danske Bank; David Crozier, CSIT and Mark Watson, Head of Belfast Business Centre, Danske Bank

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peaking at a series of cyber security events organised

by Danske Bank, Mr Crozier told businesses that a few simple measures could be all that is needed to protect Northern Ireland businesses from the significant and growing threat of cyber-attacks.

“There is still a degree of apathy in some businesses I speak to who believe that because they are a small Northern Ireland business or charity, they are not of interest to hackers.

That is not the case. The nature of these attacks evolves so quickly and involves a range of weapons, including spyware, ransomware and impersonation techniques. It presents a challenge that experts have to work hard to stay on top of.”

Mr Crozier advised businesses to stop thinking of cyber security as an issue that should only concern the IT department, rather it needs to involve everyone from

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board level to administration staff.

“You can’t stop cyber crime, but you can make it harder for criminals to target your business. We advise businesses to invest time in skills and training so that employees can recognise and identify risks. We want businesses to demand more from their security suppliers and ask for updates regularly on the measures they are taking to stay ahead. Any security product which is up to date today won’t be up to date in three years, so avoid getting caught in long term contracts.”

Paul Brown, fraud manager from Danske Bank, also spoke at the events about two common cyber security threats to businesses, Invoice Finance Fraud and CEO Fraud.

The events were part of the Danske Advantage series of events, bringing business experts and leaders together to share and discuss their views on various business sectors and themes.

Lisa Rea, Brian Glenn, Karen Hoey, Aisling Owens, Robert Crothers

Yvonne McIlmail, Martin Brown, Michelle Wilson

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Eye on Law

Fostering Healthy Business Practices Through A Focus On Mental Wellbeing Emma-Jane Flannery, Employment Law Partner at leading law firm Arthur Cox, examines the growing awareness of workplace mental health, and how addressing the issues can positively impact company performance.

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recently-published review into workplace mental health found it was incumbent upon all employers, no matter their size, to adopt certain mental health core standards.

The independent report, entitled Thriving At Work, was commissioned by the Prime Minister, Theresa May, and made 40 recommendations on how businesses and organisations can improve the wellbeing of their staff.

The issue has gained significant traction in recent years, as awareness of the importance of mental health grows.

The annual cost to the UK economy of poor mental health is, according to the Thriving at Work report, £99 billion - £42 billion of which is borne by employers. Meanwhile, the most recent HSE statistics reveal that 12.5 million working days were lost in 2016/17 due to stress, depression or anxiety.

In the case of Northern Ireland, the cost to the economy of poor mental health is estimated to be £790 million a year. It is the leading reason for absence cited by employees, while around one in five of the population shows some signs of ill mental health.

Thriving at Work, which was produced by Lord Dennis Stevenson and Paul Farmer, identified the core standard

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requirements to be: having a plan in place, increasing awareness among employees, stipulating line management responsibilities and routinely monitoring staff’s mental health and wellbeing.

The report, however, recommended that firms with more than 500 employees should take additional steps, stating that legislation should also be used to encourage employers to prioritise mental health.

At Arthur Cox, we are experiencing an increasing number of enquiries from employers keen to understand their duties when it comes to the mental wellbeing of their staff, with the understanding that a fit and healthy workforce can boost productivity and positively impact the bottom line.

There are a multitude of factors that can affect mental health, both inside and outside the workplace. Common issues include unrealistic workloads or long hours, poor management practices or employees unsure about their role and responsibilities.

Of course, many factors will be completely out of the control of employers, but some can be addressed through changing management practices, such as introducing new models of communication in the workplace and creating a culture of involvement and disclosure.

of training or policies in areas such as bullying and harassment or disability discrimination which, if not already formalised, should be put in place as a matter of urgency.

“The annual cost to the UK economy of poor mental health is, according to the Thriving at Work report, £99 billion - £42 billion of which is borne by employers.”

A prudent first step to addressing any concerns is to carry out a full audit of current workplace practices which may impact the mental wellbeing of staff.

This process should identify current gaps in the provision

Once the organisation has an overview of its current position with regards to mental health, an action plan can be drafted to promote wellbeing among staff and help reduce stress, depression and anxiety.

Any strategy should have

clearly defined aims and include a commitment to ongoing consultation and communication with staff.

Seeking professional counsel can assist employers in getting to grips with potential problems at an early stage, before serious mental health issues arise, thus staving off the risk of possible claims such as personal injury, breach of contract or even unfair dismissal.

The Employment Law Team at Arthur Cox is well positioned to advise on all aspects of employment law. Call +44 28 9023 0007 for further information from Emma-Jane or your regular Arthur Cox contact.

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Eye on Charity

Lunch with an “Old Bag” Lunch with an “Old Bag” returned to Belfast and raised a staggering £45,000 for the Prince’s Trust which helps young people in Northern Ireland transform their lives.

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he event, now in its fourth year was held at the prestigious Belfast Harbour Commissioners where some of the most glamorous and successful business ladies (and a few brave men) enjoyed a drinks reception, lunch, and entertainment

by Una Healy of The Saturday’s fame. The “Old Bags” volunteer committee that included

Judith Totten, Rose Mary Stalker (Chair), Ellvena Graham, Allyson McKimm, Sarah Mackie, Poppy Dunlop, Elaine Montgomery and Jill Adair racked up a selection of impressive auction items and “money can’t buy” raffle prizes including not one but two amazing David Yurman silver and diamond bangles from Lunn’s the Jewellers.

The Old Bags Committee … Sarah Mackie, Judith Totten, Allyson McKimm, Una Healey (The Saturdays), Rose Mary Stalker, Ellvena Graham, Elaine Montgomery, Jill Adair, Poppy Dunlop.

Rose Mary Stalker, Chair of Princes Trust NI, Judith Totten, Una Healy and Brenda Buckley.

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Emma Mackenzie, NewRiver and Bronagh Hamilton, LSH.

Eye on Charity

Ryan McIntyre and Una Healy.

Niamh McConville & Katie Doran, Lanyon Communications.

Suzie Lunn, Wayne Pollock, Elaine Montgomery and Poppy Dunlop.

Emma Kieran , 4C and Ruth Cunningham, Devenish.

Mark Dougan, Princes Trust Director, with Ruth Coates & Anya Coates of Roycroft Interiors.

Jill Adair, Pamela Ballentine UTV, Poppy Dunlop, Rose Mary Stalker, Judith Totten, Allyson McKimm, Elaine Montgomery, Sarah Mackie, Ellvena Graham.

Trefor Campbell and Nick Reid.

Danielle McAleese & Guest.

Poppy Dunlop and Shelley Cleere, Holywood.

Crioana Collins, LSH and Ciara Denvir, Argento.

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Eye on Retail

Henderson Group reaches 450-store milestone in Northern Ireland

At the centre of all Henderson Group’s operations in Northern Ireland, is a network of independent retailers and company-owned stores and a strategy that continues to develop facilities and services to meet the growing needs of local shoppers. Here, Stephen Gibson, Channel Sales Manager at Henderson Wholesale, talks to Business Eye about how Henderson Group, owners of the SPAR, EUROSPAR and ViVO franchises in Northern Ireland, invests in the development of its commercial property portfolio, working closely with retailers to provide support and additional services in store.

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n a year dominated by growth on all fronts, Henderson Group has witnessed significant increases in new independent and companyowned store developments, substantial investment in new commercial property and company infrastructure, and the rollout and development of new and existing services to its SPAR, EUROSPAR and ViVO store network throughout Northern Ireland.

The convenience store market in Northern Ireland is at times a congested marketplace. However, with the right strategy, coupled with a commitment to reinvesting in the business, it can also be a lucrative one. The total convenience sector in Northern Ireland currently sits at approximately 992 stores. Of that, Henderson Group has reached 450 stores in its network, supplying

45-percent of the total convenience sector in Northern Ireland.

This year, new store recruitment almost doubled on 2016, Stephen explained.

“In 2017, we’ve witnessed the highest rate of new independentlyowned stores opening for the past 12-years,” Stephen commented.

“We’ve welcomed 27 new stores to the Henderson Group network, compared to 14 stores in 2016.

Converting from other convenience store brands, these new retailers were encouraged and reassured by our 2020 strategy and commitment to reinvesting in the stores.”

Mr Gibson continued: “We’ve seen a huge increase in conversions and a lot of this is down to the success of our services. With each new service introduced – be it Daily Deli, the immensely popular Barista Bar

retail coffee experience, or our new Occasions range of flowers, cards and gifts – we test and trial them within our network of 86 company-owned Henderson Retail stores. Once fine-tuned and running successfully, we make these available to our independent retailers and the success of these services has been a key driver in recruiting and converting new business.”

Increasing its geographical spread, Henderson Group’s network of stores are a focal point for convenience retail in communities, rural and urban, throughout Northern Ireland.

“We’ve welcomed a significant number of new stores to the group this year in the West and North West of Northern Ireland as far as Tempo, County Fermanagh, the

Eye on Retail

“In 2017, we’ve witnessed the highest rate of new independentlyowned stores opening for the past 12-years.”

village of Augher in Tyrone and Waterside, Derry-Londonderry. The network then runs right through Mid Ulster, including a recently opened store in Cookstown, and as far east as Comber and Ballygowan,” said Stephen.

Building on the success of this year, Henderson Group continues to remain active in the redevelopment of existing stores and recruitment of new retailers as the year comes to an end and into 2018. “We’ve completed 60 re-fits this year, raising the standard for our existing retailers both inside and outside their stores, and are on course to reach 70 sites by the end of 2017. Next year, we plan to complete a further

70-75 re-fits as we continue to pursue our 2020 targets and develop a network of cutting-edge stores,” Stephen explained.

“Always supporting and encouraging reinvestment, our independent retailers added a further 14,000 sq ft to their premises this year and two new-build forecourts are on schedule to open in the first quarter of 2018,” he added.

The investment and development of company infrastructure has also been one of the main reasons that independent retailers have confidence in the company and are keen to join its growing store network.

Having opened the latest

phase of its multi-million pound warehouse in September, the company boasts an industryleading 99-percent availability for orders and an impressive 24-hour order lead-in time. The 180,000 sq ft warehouse at Henderson Group headquarters at Hydepark in Mallusk incorporates cuttingedge design from across the SPAR International network which operates in 44 countries, with over 12,500 stores and annual retail sales of over £33bn.

Mark Adrain, Group Property Director, commented: “This year we invested over £15million in commercial property, including £1.6million in new store openings, £9.2million in store expansions and

£4.5million in store conversions.

“We are also delivering plans to refurbish our existing 200,000 sq ft warehouse to incorporate an 80,000 sq ft chiller to support the growth in our fresh business across Henderson Group.

“We’ve had an incredible year, experiencing growth on all fronts – successes we have plans to build upon in 2018,” he concluded.

For more information on Henderson Group or the SPAR, EUROSPAR and ViVO brands, visit henderson-group.com.

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Eye on Aviation

Belfast City Airport Flies Into 2018 On A High George Best Belfast City Airport is ending a successful 2017 with further growth of its UK and European route network.

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he last few weeks have seen the airport announce a new summer route to Palma de Mallorca Airport, to be operated by JetsGo Holidays, and Flybe announcing an extension of its summer service from Belfast City with a new route to Doncaster Sheffield Airport.

These announcements came after Flybe, Europe’s largest regional airline, added extra frequency to its winter schedule from Belfast City. The extra services include twice daily flights to Cardiff, daily flights to Liverpool and an additional rotation to Manchester every Sunday - up from five flights to six.

Ellie McGimpsey, Aviation Development Manager at Belfast City Airport, and Daniel Reilly, CEO of JetsGo Holidays, announce the summer route to Palma de Mallorca Airport.

service to Reykjavik – a route with onward connections to Canada and the US that appeal to both business and leisure passengers.

Holidaymakers

Katy Best, Commercial and Marketing Director at Belfast City Airport.

In further growth, Flybe franchise partner, Eastern Airways, is introducing Sunday flights on its Belfast City Airport routes to the Isle of Man and Newcastle.

These recent announcements come towards the end of a year that also saw Icelandair arrive at Belfast City in June and launch its

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The JetsGo Holidays service to the Balearic Islands destination is expected to be popular with holidaymakers, including those with families, and will run weekly from June to September 2018.

Famed for its sandy beaches and picturesque seaside ports, Mallorca also offers a wealth of historic attractions to tourists from the old town of Alcudia to the beautiful capital city of Palma de Mallorca.

Katy Best, Commercial and Marketing Director at Belfast City Airport, said: “We are delighted to welcome a new charter partner on board, and to offer the JetsGo Holidays service to our customers for summer 2018.

“The route has been timetabled specifically with families in mind and with good availability of holidays for those travelling with

two, three, or more children, we anticipate high demand for this charter service.

“The arrival of JetsGo Holidays comes at the end of another successful year for Belfast City.

“We consistently work to widen and improve our network, both domestically and across Europe, as we strive to provide new routes for the business traveller and holidaymaker.”

Most convenient airport The new route to Doncaster with Flybe will commence on 15th June 2018 and run until 26th October, with flights operating on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays.

Welcoming the announcement, Katy said: “We are delighted our passengers can avail of direct access to Doncaster, Sheffield, and the surrounding South Yorkshire area.

“We have a comprehensive domestic route network that stretches across the UK, while

our close proximity to Belfast city centre saw The Daily Telegraph recently name Belfast City Airport as the ‘Most Convenient Airport in the UK and Ireland’.”

The new Sunday services to the Isle of Man and Newcastle with Eastern Airways will help provide weekend break opportunities and assist business passengers travelling to their destination on a Sunday, ready for an early start on Mondays. Flights are now available to book for travel from 18th February 2018.

Katy added: “The Isle of Man and Newcastle routes have proven to be extremely popular this year and the addition of new Sunday services is fantastic news for passengers.

“We have been recognised for our strong, successful partnerships with our airlines and we are delighted that Eastern Airways has recognised the market potential in Northern Ireland through the introduction of further services.”

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Eye on Communications

Last month, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond laid out ambitious plans that would help secure Britain’s position as a world leader in technology and innovation as part of his 2017 Budget announcement.

BUDGET: Boost or bust?

By Stuart Carson, Rainbow Communications

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ore money has been pledged for artificial intelligence (£75m) and the development of the national 5G mobile network (£160m) to support the tech and digital industries that will form “the backbone of the global economy of the future”.

He stressed a need to boost the number of trained computer science teachers and ultimately drive the development of digital skills for the 21st century’s workforce and this would be supported by £100m and a new National Centre for Computing.

This is of course welcome news for our industry, and others, as evidence would suggest the UK is losing its place on the world stage when it comes to the development of cutting-edge technologies, top-cited scientific research and artificial intelligence inventions.

The question we must ask is, is it too little, too late? The same research from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) suggests 70% of AI technological

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development is happening in Japan, Korea, Taiwan and China.

The investment these countries are making in this field is off the charts compared to the UK, especially when most secondary schools across the UK don’t even offer computer science at GCSE.

Putting technology front and centre of his plans for post-Brexit Britain, Hammond has committed to these innovations and investments emerging not just at universities and research institutes, but across the commercial sector.

“A new tech business is founded in Britain every hour. I want that to be every half hour.”

“Putting technology front and centre of his plans for post-Brexit Britain, Hammond has committed to these innovations and investments emerging not just at universities and research institutes, but across the commercial sector.”

Yet Hammond is determined to grow the tech sector in order to benefit the wider economy, create more jobs and increase salaries.

He appreciates that while the technology is developing today, it will continue to evolve and the next generation of programmers and engineers need to be moulded early on in order to fill the high productivity jobs of tomorrow.

As such, £20 billion of investment and a new £2.5 billion fund for startups from the British Business Bank will support regulatory innovation and help develop a strategy to back economic growth and help these start-ups to progress.

How do they do that? With a fresh supply of enthusiastic and entrepreneurial talent of course. The government is planning to nurture

said talent with the introduction of a retraining partnership with the TUC and CBI to boost digital skills, funded by a further £76m that will be shared by the construction sector.

All too often, new thinking can meet roadblocks in the form of regulation. Steps will be taken to remove these as much as possible and allow for more testing and product development.

Fantastic news, particularly for the telecommunications industry as we are constantly striving to be one step ahead of consumers, clients and the competition in terms of what’s to come.

We are always working to budgets, but this is one we are happy to work with, for the benefit of all.

Stuart Carson is Sales and Marketing Director at Rainbow Communications, Northern Ireland’s largest independent telecom provider. For more information on its full range of services, including bespoke solutions, visit www.rainbowcomms.com

Eye on Employment Law

THE PERFECT STORM

By Jenny Moore, Associate, A&L Goodbody Patterns of global mobility have changed considerably over the past two years.

Overseas secondments are common and many employees expect to have a cycle of experience outside their home country.

Business visits are increasing exponentially and are often the most common route to global mobility for many companies.

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ontrary to this trend however, countries are introducing protectionist immigration policies to meet political demands. Brexit, the Syria refugee crisis, and US and Australian immigration policies have turned immigration policy into front page news, creating the perfect storm. What are the challenges faced in this situation and what opportunities exist?

The 8th IBA Global Immigration Conference, held in London in November, saw over 200 delegates from 40 countries meet to discuss just that.

Panel discussions with lawyers from across the world created a forum for healthy debate and dialogue on the future of immigration policy, and key note speeches delivered by both Government and the Home Office provided updates on thought-process at a national level.

Key note speech delivered by the Rt Hon Brandon Lewis MP The Immigration Minster spoke in positive terms on the UK’s approach to immigration, indicating the Cabinet’s views on ‘welcoming migrant workers to the UK’ and agreeing on the significant contribution that these individuals continue to make to the UK economy.

The Minister talked about the major package of reforms that have been introduced over the past two years to Tier 2 of the UK’s Points Based System (the predominant UK immigration route for migrants from outside the European Economic Area).

Soundbites such as ‘we want the best and the brightest’ and ‘the UK is open for business’ were key themes to Mr Lewis’ speech. To attract that talent, the UK has introduced measures to relax the entry criteria for those individuals intending to come to the UK under the Tier 2 (Intra Company Transfer) visa category. The Minster suggested that this has also been facilitated by the relaxed thresholds for higher earners, along with a concentration on the tech sector.

Only last week the Home Office announced that the UK will double the number of Exceptional Talent visas from 1,000 to 2,000 per year.

On Brexit, the Minister deferred to the Director General, albeit he did convey a desire to ‘share the message of reassurance’ for EU nationals currently living and working in the UK. He suggested that ‘for those EU citizens already in the UK – we want you to stay in the UK’ and that with regard to a future UK immigration system, EU nationals ‘clearly, play their part’.

An overview of the ‘Brussels Map’ from Glyn Williams; Director General from the UK Home Office Glyn Williams, Director General for Immigration Policy and Strategy at the Home Office, is currently leading on the design of the UK’s immigration system after Brexit.

Mr Williams focused on what the future immigration system might look like in his delivery.

His speech came just days after the ‘Technical Note on Citizens’ Rights - Administrative Procedures in the UK’ had been released, primarily focusing on rights of EU citizens currently exercising their Treaty Rights in the UK. That Technical Note stated that, for those individuals not holding Permanent Residence, a full, costlier application for Settled Status will be mandatory. For those who already hold a valid EEA Permanent Residence document, there will be a simple process to exchange this for a Settled Status document, subject to ID verification and submission of a photograph, a security check and

confirmation of ongoing residence. The previous residence assessment will not be repeated.

The Director General, whilst concentrating on the ‘special relationship’ referenced by the Prime Minister in her Florence speech, did anticipate the end of free movement, per se, with EU citizens to be brought within the confines of a UK construct.

What does this mean in practice for NI employers?

Well, essentially, after the UK leaves the EU, there will be a formal immigration registration system. The Director General accepted that work routes will need to facilitate low and medium skilled jobs in the UK. Specific industry must be addressed; 80% of staff in the Nursing and Care Home Sector in the UK are foreign nationals.

Given that in NI we are ever more dependent on foreign workers in low/medium skilled roles than GB (seven percent of NI’s employees are drawn from the EEA, a figure exceeded in the UK only in London), that problem is compounded.

This is just one of many reasons why the future of our immigration policy is so crucial for Northern Ireland plc, and must remain as a priority agenda item.

To contact Jenny Moore, please call 028 9031 4466 or email jvmoore@algoodbody.com For more information about A&L Goodbody, visit www.algoodbody.com

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Eye on Energy

Kailash Chada...

Back Home For Experienced Finance Chief

Kailash Chada might be a newcomer among CFO’s in Northern Ireland’s biggest organisations... but he’s a Northern Ireland man with a strong pedigree at the sharp end of the financial world.

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Eye on Energy

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hada left his native Portrush to go to university in Edinburgh and moved from there to London, not returning to Northern Ireland for more than 25 years.

He’s getting used to the challenge of being Group Chief Financial Officer at Phoenix Energy Holdings, the parent company of Phoenix Natural Gas, a role he’s taken on after spending most of his career in corporate finance and banking.

“The business, and the gas and utilities sector, takes a bit of getting used to, but I’m really enjoying it, and I’m really enjoying being back in Northern Ireland.”

Chada came back home in 2013 with his Bangor-born wife to work in the CFO role for Royal Bank of Scotland’s Irish ‘bad bank’, Royal Bank of Scotland Capital Resolution (RCR), splitting his time between Belfast and Dublin. He’d worked for PwC in both Edinburgh and London before joining merchant bank Kleinwort Benson, moving from there to a London-based role with RBS. “RCR, by its very nature, had a finite lifespan, so I’d started to think about new roles when I was introduced to Michael McKinstry (the Phoenix CEO). Michael had been in this role himself and he had a few ideas about how he was re-shaping the senior management team here at Phoenix.”

Cutting a longer story short, Kailash Chada finds himself as one of a five-strong top management team at Phoenix.

“Moving from banking to what is effectively a large engineering company is something of a learning curve, but I’ve been enjoying it,” he says. “My degree is in civil engineering so that’s been a help as I try to get to grips with the intricacies of the industry.....and the fact that it seems to have its own language!

“I think that I’m adding value to the organisation now that I’ve settled in,” adds Chada, whose responsibilities at the organisation include Finance, IT, Facilities Management, HR and the Business Performance Unit.

Phoenix is ultimately owned by a mix of long-term investors having been acquired back in 2013 for funds operated by Hastings, the global infrastructure fund manager.

The company went through a round of re-financing just before Kailash arrived in the CFO’s office, but there’s no doubt that the wider group’s funding requirements are at the top of his priority list.

The business continues to undertake major investment in Northern Ireland’s natural gas infrastructure which is a real positive. This investment within a highly regulated industry is

not something that Kailash finds particularly daunting. “I’m fairly used to regulated business sectors having spent so much of my career in banking,” he smiles.

The current focus at Phoenix is on the company’s major investment in an extension of the natural gas network to 13 towns in the County Down area, including places like Hillsborough, Newcastle; Downpatrick, Saintfield and Ballynahinch.

“It’s a huge engineering project that adds some 350km to our existing 3,500 kilometres of gas pipeline and it’s one that will add 27,000 homes to the natural gas network. Even though I’m just the Chief Financial Officer, it’s been fascinating for me to be involved in an engineering and marketing project as big as this one - even if it’s only on the fringes.”

“With so much uncertainty around, it feels great that we are still building and investing in Northern Ireland,” says Kailash. “We have a lot of costs around the investment we must make in gas infrastructure so it can be a bit of a balancing act. But I suppose that is what I, and the rest of my finance team, are here to do.”

And it isn’t just the major projects that require capital investment. Twenty years since Phoenix first started work in and around Belfast, the company

is embarking on a replacement programme for facilities and equipment on the network.

As for the No. 1 priority at Phoenix, Chada, in common with his colleagues, doesn’t hesitate.

“Our number one priority will always be safety. We haven’t had a major incident involving gas in our lifetime as a company, and we work really, really hard at safety standards right across this business....out in the field, around people’s houses and here at head office level.

It is absolutely crucial and it is ingrained in everything that we do.

“In the not too distant future, natural gas will ‘pass’ 350,000 homes in our licence area here in Northern Ireland (meaning that a gas supply will run outside of these homes and be available to them....). That’s a major achievement for this company, bearing in mind that we started out from scratch 20 years ago.

“It’s achievement like these that help to fire our passion for this business. I might be new around here, but one of the first things I felt was that everyone here has a real passion for the concept of natural gas and for the brand. There is a real positivity around this place.

“And it helps that we’re selling something that people talk so positively about once they purchase.”

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Eye on AgriFood

Food For Thought!

Brexit isn’t the only dish on the menu Eoin Donnelly Agri Business Manager, First Trust Bank

2017 will go down as a strong year for the local agri-industry with the Total Income from Farming (TIFF) projected to be 28% higher than 2016. It has been buoyed by the continued financial windfall, driven by weakened sterling since the Brexit decision, which has resulted in a sustained increase in beef, lamb, pork and dairy prices, as well as an increase in Single Farm Payment subsidies – estimated to be up £15-£20million this year.

“T

he year hasn’t been without its challenges however, with input prices across feed and energy also creeping up. Straw and silage have almost doubled in price since last year for example and when you add the effects of the inclement weather since July on harvests, farmers certainly haven’t had it all their own way.

Brexit continues to dominate the headlines at every turn and undoubtedly the impact of this on the local agri-food industry cannot be underestimated. The real concerns for the industry are the longer-term implications and the ongoing economic uncertainty that seems inevitable. The key issue of what future agricultural support will be in place post EU common agricultural policy (CAP) is critical, when you consider that the scale of support in NI last year was £318m whereas total farm income was £244m. In other words, farming here operates on a deficit and currently needs a strong subsidy beyond Brexit.

There is no commitment or guarantee that the British government will put in place similar subsidies and the belief in many quarters is that any subsidy will be dependent on delivering increased farm efficiencies

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as well as meeting new commitments on health, environmental and animal welfare standards. All this will come at an additional cost to the farmer.

Of course, the eventual trade deals with the EU and the rest of the world that may come after Brexit are also critically important. The implications of any resulting tariffs will directly impact our competitiveness in export markets as will the relationships with other countries who may have different standards when it comes to food provenance and quality processes.

Brexit is for now a waiting game - albeit a high stake one - and while we welcome the recognition of the importance of the all-island agri-food sector in the negotiations, we will just have to see how the negotiations progress.

It is important to say that Brexit should not become a distraction for the local agri-industry however. The changing dynamics in the food chain are equally if not more important and local farmers, primary producers and processors should not lose sight of that. Changing consumer habits when it comes to food are fundamental. We know that shopping

habits have shifted significantly with a move towards multiple smaller shops and a desire for convenience formats. We also see a much more food aware consumer who is seeking greater transparency about where their food comes from, what goes into it and even wanting food to bring added health benefits.

Against this backdrop, it is through a customer and market focused approach that future opportunities in the sector will lie, whether at home and abroad.

We need a more innovative, adaptable and forwardthinking industry, where closer collaboration and shared learning across the food chain is the norm.

At the primary producer end, farmers need more than ever to be tuned into the changing trends from consumers and how those are being interpreted and met by retailers and processors. They also need to work this back to gain a thorough understanding of their cost of production – which should better equip them to have more influence and control over future price setting. The move towards fixed price contracts and specialist growing is also set to continue, not least given the lack of surety around Brexit – but in the right circumstances this can be a good thing for farmers who wish to invest for the future, while also giving processors guarantee of supply in uncertain times.

We have seen some consolidation within the all-island producer sector as well, such as the recent deal between Dunbia and Dawn Meats and we expect this trend to continue.

Such moves should help deliver economies of scale and put us in a better place compete internationally – especially in a post Brexit world.

The continued integration across the food chain is important, but going forward the ability to promote NI’s strong credentials in food security, traceability and provenance is all the more important and the efforts to introduce a NI marketing body with appropriate resources remains a vital requirement.

Against all of this change, First Trust Bank remains committed to supporting our customers through any short-term pressures which may arise, but also in helping them gear up to take advantage of new opportunities presented. Our relationship managers have many years of experience in the agri-food sector and we put a lot of store in listening to and learning from our customers.

Here we hear the views of three customers as to their views on the sector and its future.“

Eye on AgriFood Julie Hickey Tamnagh Foods

Northern Ireland’s Cheese Innovator Julie Hickey is one half of the husband and wife team responsible for Tamnagh Foods & Dart Mountain Cheese- an artisan food company that has been quietly gaining worldwide recognition for its award-winning range of cheeses. Located in the Sperrin Mountains near the village of Park, Tamnagh Foods also produce granola, relishes and chutneys. Established in 2010, Julie – the creative chef behind the business - reflects on their journey of artisan innovation.

“B

oth my husband Kevin and I have been involved in the food industry for over 20 years - working in hotels and restaurants while I was also a keen cook and cheese maker at home. Over the years, we noticed a dramatic shift in people’s attitude towards food and eating. There is an increasing demand for artisan food that incorporates the rich provenance of Northern Ireland’s heritage and landscape and a desire to want to experience different textures and flavour combinations and explore where your food comes from. It was when we were running a restaurant in Derry City in the late 1990s that I realised that while Ireland has a great tradition of cheese making, there were no cheeses indigenous to the North West. Cheese making has always been fascinating to me. With only one core ingredient, you can make an infinite number of variations based on tweaks or additions you introduce throughout the process.

It’s a product that never gets boring!

Thankfully this fascination with cheese and the production process has paid off. We supply a number of restaurants and shops locally including the Maydown Farm Shop, Primrose Kitchen, the Limetree and Browns Restaurants and we are

grateful to the local chefs who are happy to incorporate the range into their menus and experiment with our products. Working with two key distributors - Hendersons Foodservice and La Rousse Foods (recently bought by the Musgrave Group) - our products regularly go further afield to the UK and RoI and we hope to grow our export markets in the coming years.

We also sell products through our own online store - another area of the business where we see growth potential. Looking back on our time in business so far, I would say a key highlight for me has been our success at the World Cheese Awards. Most recently we won a gold medal for our ‘Banagher Bold’ - a cheese washed in pale ale made by another local producer, Northbound Microbrewery.

It’s humbling to see a product from a family-run business in a rural area in Northern Ireland named one of the best of its kind globally.

There are certainly advantages that come from being a small company.

We have complete oversight and decision-making powers - able to create the products we love in the way that works best for us. Likewise, there are advantages that come from operating in a small region. Northern Ireland has a tight-knit artisan

community and there is a great sense of collaboration and openness among producers. We share in each other’s difficulties and successes and are happy to pick each other’s brains on everything from business and finance to promotion and distribution.

Northern Ireland and in particular, the North West, also has the potential to grow its reputation as a food destination. Being geographically small means tourists and visitors can visit a number of areas in one trip. This is something we and other artisan producers and craft makers are keen to capitalise on by making food trails and tours more popular and accessible. We have experienced some success in this field already as one of the stops in ‘Slow Adventure NI’ - an initiative from Derry City and Strabane District Council that gives people the chance to engage with local produce, wildlife and the local environment. We also welcome those taking part in the ‘Far and Wild’ Cycle Sperrins and groups from local schools and community groups to teach them about the cheese making process and artisan production. To help capitalise on the growth opportunities in food tourism and play our part in showcasing the North West as a food destination, we

plan to open a purpose-built space on-site next year where we can host tour groups and create an even more immersive visitor experience.

One of the challenges that comes from running your own business is getting the work life balance right.

Cheese making doesn’t adhere to a 9-5 schedule - I’m often out late at night turning cheese wheels while Kevin is busy with the finance and distribution side. As the business grows so too does this challenge, but as my partner and I run the business together, we both see the long-term benefits. As well as our new visitor space plans, we recently invested in some new equipment to begin trials on new smoked cheese products and this along with our continued innovation across our range of chutneys, granola and relishes, means it’s full steam ahead as we move into 2018! Of course, Brexit is a concern for everyone North and South. We distribute to a number of delis in RoI so we’ll be keen to know what sort of impact Brexit will have on the movement of our goods. In the meantime, we’ll continue to travel across the island of Ireland and the UK with other local producers to showcase our products at exhibitions and trade shows.”

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Eye on AgriFood Alan McCulla Sea Source

Co Down Fishermen’s New Dawn Alan McCulla is CEO of Sea Source, a Kilkeel based co-operative owned by fishermen in Northern Ireland that catches, lands, processes, sells and distributes its own seafood.

With a career spanning over 25 years, Alan is also CEO of the Anglo North Irish Fish Producers Organisation (ANIFPO) which is committed to promoting sustainable fishing methods.

Here, he explains what lies on the horizon for NI’s fishing industry…

“P

eople talk about a decline in the fishing industry and while there has been a consolidation in the sector, decline is not a word I would use! In reality there are as many fishing vessels now as there was back in 1973 when we joined the European Economic Community (EEC). In fact vessels are catching as much fish and shellfish now as they did back then. Like every industry, we continue to encounter challenges but we face those challenges head on by taking control of our own sales and the marketing of our own fish and through innovative solutions. For example, an impressive number of our fleet of 60 boats are diversifying and adapting in order to qualify for the surveying and servicing work required by offshore energy developers. In addition we are working with trawlers from Ardglass and Portavogie to expand the pool of suitably qualified fishing vessels. This resilience and ability to adapt makes the fishing industry a good news story at a time when there are few.

Competition in the Irish Sea basin is fierce with many competitor ports along the south west coast of Scotland, the west coasts of England

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and Wales and the Republic of Ireland, yet Kilkeel has the potential to stand out as the most forwardthinking and ambitious of them all.

It is centrally located on the east coast of Ireland, near the border with the Republic of Ireland and employs roughly 1,000 people including boat crews, processors, retailers, marine engineers, electronic engineers, painters and boat builders. The Harbour infrastructure however must be upgraded to make it fit for purpose and able to deal with today’s much larger vessels. The plan in place for an outer harbour extension could be a real gamer changer for the industry creating up to a 1,000 new jobs, enabling larger boats to land their catches and opening Kilkeel up to new products such as mackerel and herring.

Fishing is somewhat unique as an industry in Northern Ireland as on the whole it has been supportive of Brexit and the potential opportunities therein, particularly around fishing quota management and the removal of bureaucracy. While we do export the largest part of our fish to the EU, we believe a strong post-Brexit

UK fisheries policy will be fairer to operators in the Irish Sea than current EU rules. Looking beyond Brexit, the biggest challenge we as a sector face is the availability of skilled labour – an issue I know other facets of the agriindustry are also encountering. Ideally we would love to be able to recruit all our crews locally, but in reality we have had to recruit from further afield due to a lack of local talent. This adds to the pressure on businesses because legislation surrounding the recruitment process is very complex, and over the last few years we have been lobbying local government and Westminster to ensure that skilled fishermen from outside the EU - in particular countries such as the Philippines and Ghana- are able to secure the appropriate work permits.

This is important as we strive to plug the talent gap while also promoting the sector as a positive career choice to young people locally.

Catching opportunities in the Irish Sea for 2018 are the best I’ve ever seen in my 25 years working within the industry. If we look at cod for example, the recommendation for next year is a 376% increase on what we are currently allowed to catch.

Traditionally Northern Ireland ranks at the bottom of the league table when it comes to fish consumption levels, but the tide on this trend is turning ! More and more, Co Down is recognised as the essential stop for good quality fish. You don’t need to go to the Mediterranean on your summer holidays to sample langoustine!

The fishing sector and development of offshore renewable energy projects all around the Irish Sea has helped Kilkeel re-emerge as an important economic hub and we continue to see optimism across the sector as evidenced by investment in new vessels and infrastructure projects. When you see major projects such as the £30 million ‘Voyager’ fishing boat - the most modern vessel of its kind in the UK and Ireland - commissioned recently by local owners Arnold and Robert McCullough, you get a sense of the confidence in the sector. Likewise, Sea Source itself is developing, moving from having one factory, to two factories, to exporting across Europe and across the world. Our focus remains stead-fast, delivering world class seafood and thankfully, the Irish Sea is full of fish.”

Eye on AgriFood Ian McMaster ChipMaster

When The Chips Are Down!

Third-generation farmer, Ian McMaster from near Broughshane in County Antrim made the decision in 2000 to add value to his potato crop. Farming over 100 acres of arable land, Ian experienced poor prices that year and spotted that at the same time, the processing sector was still thriving. From this simple observation, ChipMaster was born.

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cMaster established a small potato processing facility in redundant outbuildings producing chips, potato products and prepared vegetables for local hotels and takeaways. Over the past 17 years he has expanded the ChipMaster business with the support of First Trust Bank by building a 1000 tonne potato store in 2003 and opening a new factory in 2010, processing over 2.5 tonnes of potatoes per hour as well as other vegetables for a variety of markets. He tells us about the current business climate and challenges his business faces.

“ChipMaster was established out of a need to create an additional income stream from the growing end of our business. Today we currently employ 25 people and supply the food service sector including hotels, restaurants and chip shops within a 60-mile radius of our farm and more recently have expanded into wholesale markets as well as adding customers involved in further processing of our products for retail distribution. This broadening of our market has meant that we don’t experience the same peaks and

troughs and our supply is sustained throughout the week now, rather than spiking towards the weekend.

Through this diversification, the business has maximised the value of our potato crop and the move has opened new doors to fully utilise our skillset and expertise. But the key to our business is adaptability and in today’s climate that has to be one of the most important attributes any business needs. Faced with key challenges such as very inclement weather and ever-changing customer habits and market forces, we have always prided ourselves on being able to adapt to meet new opportunities.

Probably the single biggest change we have seen has been the clear move by the consumer towards convenience, a move which has greatly helped our business to grow. It appears that as we become increasingly time poor, people want convenient products either by eating out or by having convenience foods when eating in. The fact that we grow our own primary product right next to our production facilities means that we can grow specifically to meet the ChipMaster process while maximising efficiencies all the time.

Weather is a variable we cannot control unfortunately and this year has been a particularly challenging one with the levels of rain experienced. We still have around 33 acres of potatoes in the ground and it will be a waiting game to see whether we get anything useful from these crops in the spring.

How this pans out will have a major impact on our investment plans for the next year and beyond.

Essentially the growing end of our business can be very unpredictable, a bit like our weather, whereas the processing end is entirely predictable and controllable.

When it comes to Brexit, we are not overly concerned as we believe that given the fact that our market for now is local, we expect that people here will still need to eat whatever Brexit brings. We also expect that given the fact that most of our vehicles come from Germany, that sensible trading relationships will exist both ways post Brexit.

We would have concerns about the broader economic impact and uncertainty that Brexit brings to the local economy. Businesses like

ours require a strong local economy and jobs to ensure spending in local businesses many of which are our customers. This area suffered a lot of job losses in recent years, before Brexit, so it will be important for local government and the business community to work hard to deliver jobs and prosperity to this area and the wider Northern Ireland economy, regardless of what Brexit brings.

We are already experiencing difficulties in recruiting capable workers and we will have to see what impact Brexit has on our local migrant workers. If this ultimately brings additional challenge we may be faced with looking at our processes and products and adapting our offer once again.

While it is satisfying to know that anywhere between 25-30,000 people in Northern Ireland are eating our products in anyone day we never want to rest on our laurels. Our core belief is that as long as we remain adaptable and responsive, especially when the chips are down, we will continue to thrive whatever the weather brings!”

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Eye on AgriFood

Artisans poised for fast growth in Britain

Peter Hannan continues to pioneer innovation in food.

Here’s pictured with top chef Terry Laybourne

Artisan food and drink companies are making an increasingly significant contribution to the local economy. Sam Butler looks at the growth of the category and some of the innovative products from smaller enterprises.

A

rtisan food and drink is now a vibrant and fast growing category that has successful businesses throughout Northern Ireland and especially in rural communities. it’s a category in which companies are keen to develop greater business in Great Britain, particularly post-Brexit.

The category’s strength is

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evidenced by Mintel research which shows that artisan food and drink is worth around £200 million to the local economy and is projected to continue to achieve double-digit growth to 2020 and beyond. This compares with £400 million in the much larger Republic of Ireland.

Growth here is being driven by consumer demand for products and brands that have real, authentic and honest origins. Research also indicates that Irish consumers are more committed to local foods than ever before. They perceive local food and drink as being of high quality, tastier and, perhaps above all, safer There’s also a growing recognition that smaller food businesses create employment opportunities and add wealth to rural areas, in particular, especially through their direct link to local farms. They are also at the forefront of innovation

because they recognise that coming up with new products helps them to compete against bigger players…and also offers greater opportunities to sell to Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland.

Michele Shirlow, Food NI’s energetic chief executive, is seeing “an immensely encouraging growth in smaller businesses with smart ideas they are keen to export”.

“We’ve responded to this by working alongside Invest NI on initiatives that enable many more companies with innovative products to reach out to potential customers in Britain.

“These have included Food NI presentations and sampling sessions at major events such as Speciality and Fine Food in London and BBC Good Food in Birmingham.

We’ll also be taking the message about the quality of our food to

further events in Britain during 2018. And we’ll be working with companies to help them to prepare for sales in this important market and one in which opportunities will grow very strongly post-Brexit.”

Food NI is performing miracles with a limited budget and could do a great deal more, especially in the hugely important market in Great Britain, with the greater resources it richly deserves.

This focus on smart ideas has led to success in major national competitions such as the UK’s prestigious Great Taste Awards and Blas na hEireann, the Irish National Food Awards. At this year’s Blas na hEireann, held as part of the popular food festival in Dingle, Co Kerry, most of the top awards came to Northern Ireland.

Burren Balsamics, a producer of fruit infused vinegars from Richill,

Eye on AgriFood

Susie Hamilton Stubber of Burren Balsamics in Richhill was a major winner in this year’s Blas na hEireann Awards

collected the award for the best artisan product, the best new product was won by Lacada Brewery in Portrush and Passion Preserved, a specialist in savoury chutneys and jellies from Lisburn, earned a gold award and a marketing bursary.

The coveted Chefs’ Larder Award was won by Cavanagh Free Range Eggs from Newtownbutler in Fermanagh – the second year in succession.

Lacada also became the first craft brewery in Northern Ireland to brew a beer using dulse, our best known sea vegetable. The brewery, formed as a community cooperative, has an impressive portfolio of beers reflecting local landmarks around Portrush.

The Great Taste Awards saw continuing success for Peter Hannan’s pioneering Hannan Meats in Moira and Abernethy Butter in Moira. Hannan, the Golden Fork winner in Northern Ireland, brought his success in beef to bacon and especially salt-aged lamb.

He’s creating a new Glenarm brand for lamb from the Co Antrim estate. He’s also moved on to weave his magic with premium burgers and sausages which include Bramley apples from Armagh.

Abernethy Butter’s enterprising founders Will and Allison Abernethy came away from the Great Taste Awards with another major accolade for their high quality butters – the Good Food Award that was voted for by readers of one Britain’s top lifestyle magazines.

Bramley apples, just one of three local products to achieve EU protected status, also featured in one of the year’s most novel artisan products. Portrush resident Alastair Bell came up with the

idea to use the apples to create Irish Black Butter, a tasty and fruity spread.

Craft beers and ciders are also continuing to grow strongly. Northern Ireland now has over 30 craft breweries for a population of just 1.8 million.

The world’s first craft beer offering total traceability of ingredients was recently launched by Ireland’s Craft Beers in collaboration with arc-net, a specialist in technology to tackle food fraud. The beer, Downstream India Pale Lager, is being brewed by Mourne Mountains Brewery in Warrenpoint and is already on sale in Britain.

Ireland’s Craft Beers, an innovative marketing operation for smaller businesses, also weighed into help a group of local beers, ciders and spirits, such as Mourne Mountains Brewery, Long Meadow Cider and Copeland’s Gin, a novel fruit infused spirit, to win business in Lebanon.

And Mash Direct in Comber, among the most successful in the veggie category, teamed up with Knockout Craft Brewery in east Belfast to produce the UK’s first gluten-free beer battered chips! Mash Direct also launched a new and healthy ‘eat-on-the-go range of Nourish Bowls.

The first black pudding to feature seaweed has been produced in a cross border venture between O’Doherty’s Fine Meats of Enniskillen in Northern Ireland and Seashore Veg at Sligo in the Republic.

New whiskeys, gins and vodkas are also now on the shelves of supermarkets, bars and restaurants. The Quiet Man single malt and blended Irish whiskey from Derry has won a string

Gerry White has worked tirelessly to build business for Jawbox Gin in Belfast

Alastair Bell of Portrush came up with a novel Irish Black Butter

of international awards and is now on sale in over 30 countries. The company is on track to open a distillery at the city’s Ebrington Square in mid 2018.

Shortcross and Jawbox gins continued to prosper last year. Rademon Estate, the distillery behind Shortcross in Crossgar is in line to produce a new Irish whiskey.

Over the past five years, the role of artisan food and drink in drawing visitors has been recognised in both parts of the island and is now being encouraged by targeted initiatives such as the 2016 successful Year of Food and Drink in Northern Ireland and in the global marketing by Tourism Ireland and Tourism Northern Ireland.

The new beers, ciders and spirits are now being embraced by other artisans and used to craft bread, jellies and relishes. Other important trends include

eating clean, particularly gluten-free, as well as low in sugar and calories. Gutenfree has now gone mainstream with one in five (20%) Irish people shopping for gluten-free food regularly. The glutenfree market in Ireland is estimated to be worth some £60 million, experiencing a 36 per cent increase since last year.

And there was success too for one of our small coffee roasters in international markets. Pure Roast Coffee in Lisburn, a business founded

by Martin Symington, specialising in convection roasting of premium Brazilian coffee beans, landed substantial business in Sweden and China, the latter involving important collaboration in the world’s biggest food market.

This all adds up to an innovative and dynamic sector that’s increasingly winning business beyond these shores.

55

Eye on Beauty

Caroline Clegg shares her experience of non-surgical Thread-lift It’s not your wrinkles but your JAW LINE that is ageing you: Latest cosmetic treatment sees patients having their jowls and double chin tightened with Thread-Lifts.

Consultant Maxillofacial Surgeon Mr Ashok Songra sees a host of celebrities at his Holywood (Northern Ireland) and Chelsea Private clinics and says that the most recent trend is

‘I have been going to Mr Songra for years at the Cosmetech, Chelsea Private Clinic – he is very gentle and caring, and I trust him implicitly.

patients coming in every day asking how to improve a sagging jawline and double chin.

The first thing that our mind assesses when it comes to judging the age of the person is the shape of their face, a youth full face is the shape of an upside down triangle with high cheek bones and a defined jaw line as we age the shape of the face changes to a square shape with the development of jowls and a sagging chin.

The shape of the face is much more important than the lines and folds. In fact, according to recent research we universally recognise as younger, a person who has wrinkles but has a youthful face shape. Thus, traditional antiwrinkle injections on the forehead alone doesn’t improve youthfulness, but changing the shape of your face and tightening your jaw line, does.

On this occasion, I went in with a saggy jawline and double chin and came out with a much smoother defined jawline 45 minutes later!

Some areas were a bit uncomfortable, but apparently I was unlucky and some people hardly feel anything. I had 30 mini-threads inserted in total. I was coated with industrial amounts of topical numbing cream one hour beforehand and looked like a man about to have a big shave, so you need to take a book along with you. There is no downtime whatsoever – I could have gone to a party that same night!

Although I was told there’s a one in ten chance of bruising and to expect bruising which can last up to two weeks, I was lucky in that I had no bruising or swelling at all. The treated areas feel a little tight and tender, but even these feelings seem to be rapidly disappearing. Out of the three people I have seen, separately, so far, each one has paid me a compliment, and said I was looking good!

That suits me fine – I always think if people can tell what you have had done, then it was too much. All in all I could not recommend mini-threading more highly.’

Before

Caroline Clegg shares her experience

After

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57

Eye on Technology

The Future Of Work Belfast Event Looks Over The Horizon

Steve Orr, Director Connect at Catalyst Inc and Gavin Kennedy, Head of Business Banking NI at Bank of Ireland UK launching Future of Work in NI Solutions Summit.

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Eye on Technology Barely a week goes past without reports of driverless cars, pilotless aircraft, or some professional role or other being ‘threatened’ by the continued rise of robots and artificial intelligence.

B

ut what are the truths behind the hype? And, never mind the threats, how can business gain from best use of available technology?

A high-level event in Belfast on Wednesday, 28th February, 2018, will help to strip back the myths and look at the realities of the new working age.

The Future of Work In Northern Ireland (A Solutions Summit) is being organised by Connect, Catalyst Inc’s not-for-profit network of experienced entrepreneurs, business professionals and research talent dedicated to the promotion of innovation here in Northern Ireland.

The one-day event is being sponsored by Bank of Ireland UK. “It’s a unique forum for business leaders here to learn more about automation from global experts in the field,� says Steve Orr, Connect’s Director. “Businesses want to know about how to deal with the challenges that automation brings.

Issues like managing displaced workers, building solutions and applying new tools. And they want to learn about gaining competitive advantage through the adoption of technology. “Northern Ireland has set out to be a leading knowledge economy by 2030 with 80,000 jobs being created along the way. So it’s crucial that we take advantage of the opportunities presented by automation.�

Key questions to be addressed at the Solutions Summit include:t 8IBU KPCT XJMM CF JNQBDUFE by automation? t )PX EP XF SF UPPM UP be competitive? t 8IBU EPFT B SFHJPOBM JTMBOE economy need to do to generate 80,000 new jobs by 2030?

Two keynote guest speakers have already been lined up for the 28th February one-day event. Ravin Jesuthasan from

Chicago is a thought-leader on the future of work. He has led research on the global workforce, the emerging digital economy and the transformation of work and he was lead partner for the World Economic Forum’s “Shaping the future implications of digital media for society� and has spoken at conferences worldwide. He is the author of the recently released, Lead The Work: Navigating a World Beyond Employment, Harvard Press.

Jonathan Downing, a native of Northern Ireland, is a leading researcher at the Oxford Martin School and was responsible for publishing the September 2017 report entitled “The Future of Skills: Employment in 2030� which takes an entirely new approach to forecasting employment and skill demands in the US and UK. The study finds that many jobs will still be in demand by 2030 but the skills needed for success are changing.

They will be joined by additional speakers in a forum event which will be chaired and compared by BBC Northern Ireland’s Economics & Business Editor, John Campbell. “To put this into stark perspective, it’s estimated that 47% of jobs in the USA are deemed to be at risk from automation,� says Steve Orr. “That’s a shocking figure, but it’s vital that we look at the potential gains. We have to challenge all

of the assumptions around the rise of automation and take a hard-headed business look at it. “Whatever way you slice it, mind you, the changes are going to be profound. That makes it all the more vital that we start talking about what’s coming towards us. If we stick our heads into the sand, we’re going to be in big trouble. Instead, we want to hear ideas, we want to hear stories and we want to hear solutions. “We have to look in depth at the opportunities and at how we can develop our talent further on the back of the rise of automation.

Automation, we’re told, means competitiveness and we want to be competitive....don’t we?

Event sponsors Bank of Ireland UK has said that results from a recent poll of 600 local businesses found that 42% do not recognise the need to change the way they do business over the next 5 years while just 35% viewed digital and IT as a driver for competitive advantage.

Gavin Kennedy, Head of Business Banking NI at Bank of Ireland UK said: “The world of business is changing faster than ever. It is estimated that more than 80% of the jobs people will be doing in 10 years’ time have not yet been created. “In this era of globalisation, rapid technological growth and increased automation it is vital that businesses across Northern Ireland have a strategy to manage the changing economic landscape. “Northern Ireland has a history and a tradition of innovating and we want to

Ravin Jesuthasan Chicago, USA THOUGHT LEADER A thought-leader on the future of work who has led research on the global workforce, the emerging digital economy and the transformation of work. Ravin was lead partner for the World Economic Forum’s “Shaping the future implications of digital media for society� and has spoken at conferences worldwide. He is the author of the recently released, Lead The Work: Navigating a World Beyond Employment, Harvard Press.

play our part in supporting those businesses who want to seize on growth opportunities in the modern economy. “We want to stimulate debate and discussion among local businesses as to how they develop their understanding of the future economy and how they can act now to seize on new opportunities for growth in a changed world.

We are delighted to have joined forces with Catalyst Inc who have secured world class keynote speakers and our shared ambition is for this to be a high energy and highly participatory event.�

For more information and to purchase tickets please head to: http://www.futureofworkni.co

59

Eye on Tax

Inheritance Tax: What Is The Residence Nil-Rate Band?

Provision for downsizing, gifting or sale of the property

In the run up to the 2010 Westminster election, the Conservative party issued a manifesto promise to increase the inheritance tax threshold to £1 million.

Seven years on, the Tories made good on their promise when the new residence nil-rate band (RNRB) came into force on the 6th April 2017.

The legislation makes a concession for individuals who downsize, sell or give away their home after 7th July 2015 and lose out on all or part of the RNRB as a result. Provided certain conditions are met, the estate will be compensated for the lost RNRB with a downsizing addition. Broadly speaking, the downsizing addition will be equal to the RNRB that has been lost as a result of the property no longer being included in the estate.

Conclusion

T

he RNRB will be welcomed by many taxpayers as it is estimated that over 22,000 families will benefit by 2020. However, in Shakespeare’s immortal words “all that glitters is not gold”. The application of the allowance is far from universal, with the scope of the relief being both restrictive and complex, meaning not everyone will benefit.

What is the new residence nil-rate band?

The RNRB is a new allowance which effectively tops up the existing nil rate band (NRB) of £325,000 per individual, thereby further reducing the amount of the estate that is subject to inheritance tax.

The relief has been introduced at a maximum of £100,000 per individual for deaths occurring in the tax year 2017/18 and will increase by £25,000 per annum, until it reaches £175,000 in the tax year 2020/21. From 6th April 2021 the RNRB will increase in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

In the case of married couples and civil partners, as with the existing NRB, the RNRB is transferable to the surviving spouse where the allowance has not been used on the first death, either partially or in its entirety.

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Ciaran Hamill, Wealth Manager, Davy Private Clients

In a nutshell, when the full RNRB comes into force on 6th April 2020, a married couple or civil partners can potentially pass on up to £1 million worth of assets (including a residential property) to their direct descendants, free from inheritance tax - on the proviso that the qualifying conditions are satisfied.

Will your estate qualify for the RNRB? In broad terms the RNRB will only be available if: t " SFTJEFOUJBM QSPQFSUZ IBT CFFO included in the estate at the time of death – save where the concession relating to gifting or the sale of the property, as detailed below, applies, t 5IF QSPQFSUZ PS TIBSF PG JU has been passed on to ‘direct descendants’ (including children, step-children, adopted children, foster children and grandchildren, as well as a spouse or civil partner of a lineal descendant who has not remarried). Leaving a property on trust for direct descendants

will prevent the RNRB from being applied, except in a number of limited circumstances, t 5IF QSPQFSUZ IBT CFFO PDDVQJFE by the deceased as a dwelling house at some point. Although the property does not have to be the main home, a property that was never lived in, such as a buy-to-let, will not qualify, and t 5IF WBMVF PG UIF FTUBUF JT £2 million or less, otherwise tapering applies. The RNRB will be tapered by £1 for every £2 the net value of the estate exceeds £2 million.

The £2 million figure is arrived at after deducting liabilities but before taking account of exemptions or reliefs.

How much RNRB will apply?

The available RNRB will be the lower of: t 5IF OFU WBMVF PG UIF property (taking account of outstanding mortgages and/ or other liabilities), and t 5IF NBYJNVN BNPVOU PG the RNRB band in force at the time of death.

On the whole, the introduction of the Residence Nil Rate Band is to be welcomed, however it is fair to say that the qualifying criteria are rather more complex than one might have hoped. If you are in a position where your estate is likely to suffer inheritance tax then professional advice should be sought in order to ensure that your estate benefits from the additional threshold, to the extent possible.

Warning: The information contained in this article is based on Davy’s understanding of current tax legislation in the UK and the current HMRC interpretation thereof and is subject to change without notice. It is intended as a guide only and not as a substitute for professional advice. You should consult your tax adviser for the rules that apply in your individual circumstances.

I

BURNS NIGHT!

Saturday 27 January 2018, 7.45pm

The skirl of the pipes, the whirl of jigs and reels and the poetry of Robbie Burns are the ultimate Burns Night celebration!

Presented in association with

I

THE MUSICALS!

Saturday 17 February 2018, 7.45pm

All your favourite West End and Broadway hits performed by acclaimed West End stars and Belfast Philharmonic Choir!

I

ABBA!

Saturday 21 April 2018, 7.45pm Become a Dancing Queen and join the Orchestra and singers for a Super Trouper night to remember!

Special VIP package available to include champagne reception and Aftershow 70s disco

Tickets £15-£30 All concerts are at Belfast Waterfront Box Office: 028 9033 4455 ulsterorchestra.org.uk PRINCIPAL FUNDING PARTNERS

NEWRY FIRM COMES OUT ON TOP AT UTV BUSINESS EYE AWARDS Company Of The Year

Highly Commended

Around Noon

Jonathan Finlay, Finlay Wealth Management (sponsor) presents Owen Coyle, Keystone Group with a highly commended award in the Company of the Year Category. Also pictured are Brenda Buckley, Business Eye & Enda Corneille, Emirates.

Highly Commended

Gareth Chambers, Dave Graham & Emma Donnelly from Around Noon receive the prestigious Company of the Year Award from sponsor Jonathan Finlay, Finlay Wealth Management. Also pictured are Brenda Buckley, Business Eye & Enda Corneille, Emirates. with cabin crew members, Enya Barry and Meghan Quigley.

Fast-growing Newry company Around Noon took the Company of the Year title at the 11th UTV Business Eye Awards in association with new lead sponsors Emirates, with Moira-based meat entrepreneur Peter Hannan named as this year’s Business Personality of the Year.

T

he top two awards, and 15 other category awards, were presented at Belfast Waterfront last night (Thursday, 7th December) in front of an audience of more than 600 business guests.

Around Noon, a maker of sandwiches and convenience snack foods for retailers all over the British Isles, has expanded rapidly with acquisitions in both London and Dublin, while Peter Hannan and his Hannan Meats operation has been instrumental in the promotion of high quality beef from Northern Ireland farmers.

The coveted Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to the recently retired former Chief Executive of Belfast Harbour Commissioners, Roy Adair, for the commercial strides made at Port of Belfast made during his tenure.

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Bronagh Henderson, Henderson Group receives a highly commended award in the Company of the Year category from Jonathan Finlay, Finlay Wealth Management (sponsor). Also pictured are Brenda Buckley, Business Eye & Enda Corneille, Emirates.

Other key winners on a glittering night of awards at Belfast Waterfront were Cathal Grant of CGDM Construction, also based in Newry, who won Young Business Personality of the Year, and Dunurry-based ventilation specialists Brookvent, named as SME of the Year.

The Employer of the Year title went to Belfast’s Axiom Law, Kitchenmaster NI lifted the International Award while Around Noon was also named as Fast Growth Company of the Year.

“These awards are a great partnership for Emirates and help demonstrate our commitment to the Northern Irish market,” said Enda Corneille, Country Manager for Emirates in Ireland.

“Emirates operates two flights daily from Dublin direct to Dubai and onwards to a wide range of worldwide destinations and Northern Irelandbased business passengers are an important part of our growing customer base.”

Terry Brennan, Head of News and Programmes, UTV said, “The UTV Business Eye Awards in association with Emirates are a great opportunity to shine a light on some of the great work being done by businesses across Northern Ireland.

“Yet again, we have seen a diverse range of entries from right across the business world, showcasing innovation and creativity on both a local and international scale. “ 2017 has been a challenging year for many businesses, but what these awards show is that there are still many companies out there that are not only surviving, but are thriving in a very competitive environment.”

Full List of Winners – UTV Business Eye Awards with Emirates Young Business Personality

Business Marketing award

Agri Food Innovation Award

Research & Development Project

Sponsor: Ulster University Business School

Sponsored by UTV

Sponsored by Business Eye

Sponsored by U105.8FM

Cathal Grant, CGDM Construction

Musgrave

Mash Direct

Belfast City Centre Management

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Employer of the Year

Outstanding Leadership & Management

Family Business of the Year

Sponsored by Thales

Sponsored by Harbinson Mullholland

James Hagan, Hagan Homes

Wilsons Auctions

Most Innovative Company of the Year

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Dane Duffy, Brookvent

Business Personality of the Year Sponsored by Emirates Peter Hannan, Hannan Meats Company of the Year Sponsored by Finlay Wealth Management Around Noon HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Visit Belfast & Ulster Orchestra

Sponsored by SAP Business One Henderson Technology Okto Technologies

Keystone Group & Henderson Group

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Waste Reduction Project of the Year

Digital/Online Company of the Year

Sponsored by ISL

Sponsored by Zesty

Lidl

Northside Graphics

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Belfast One Business Improvement District

Bluezone Technologies

Heavenly Tasty Organics

Hillmount & Hagan Homes Fast Growth Business of the Year

Sponsored by UTV Axiom Law HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Lidl

Tourism/Hospitality Project Sponsored by Visit Belfast Derry City & Strabane District Council Belfast Food Tours

Sponsor: Charles Hurst Fleet Financial

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Around Noon

SME of the Year

HIGHLY COMMENDED:

FinTrU & Cyphra

International Award Sponsored by Business Eye Environmental Street Furniture HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Kitchenmaster-NI & BA Components

Sponsored by First Trust Bank Brookvent HIGHLY COMMENDED:

Heavenly Tasty Organics & Kukoon Lifetime Achievement Award Sponsored by MCS Roy Adair, Belfast Harbour Commissioners

Lifetime Achievement Award Roy Adair

Enda Corneille addresses the audience.

Richard Buckley addresses the audience.

Lifetime of Achievement Award: Roy Adair, Belfast Harbour Commissioners receives the UTV Business Eye Lifetime of Achievement Award from sponsor Barry Smyth MCS Group. Also pictured are Brenda Buckley, Commercial Director, Business Eye & Enda Corneille, Emirates Country Manager (Ireland) with Emirates cabin crew members, Enya Barry and Meghan Quigley.

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Highly Commended

Best Digital/Online Company of the Year Northside Graphics

Louise Doherty (second left) from Zesty (sponsors) presents a highly commended certificate in the Best Digital/Online category from Carla Sheerin & Pamela Ward of Bulezone Technologies. Also pictured are Emirates cabin crew members, Enya Barry and Meghan Quigley.

Leo Callow addresses the audience.

Gary White from Northside Graphics receives the Best Digital Online Company of the Year award on behalf of the company from Louise Doherty of sponsors Zesty.

Business Marketing Award

Highly Commended

Musgrave

Terry Brennan, UTV presents a highly commended certificate in the Business Marketing category to Ann McMullan for Visit Belfast.

Highly Commended

Desi Derby & Julie Cherry, Musgrave receive the Business Marketing Award from Terry Brennan UTV. Also pictured are Emirates cabin crew members, Enya Barry and Meghan Quigley.

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Michelle Baird, Miriam Crozier & Richard Wigley collect a highly commended certificate on behalf of The Ulster Orchestra from Terry Brennan, UTV (second left).

Business Personality of the Year Peter Hannan

Terry Brennan addresses the audience.

Business Personality of the Year: Peter Hannan (centre), Hannan Meats receives the Business Personality of The Year Award from Enda Corneille, Country Manager (Ireland), Emirates and Brenda Buckley, Commercial Director of Business Eye. Also pictured are Emirates cabin crew members, Enya Barry and Meghan Quigley.

Highly Commended

Marc Mallet, Nicola Alexander, Matt Williams and Terry Brennan.

International Award Environmental Street Furniture

Brenda Buckley, Business Eye presents a highly commended certificate in the International category to Jacqui Walsh & Brian O’Kane from Kitchenmaster NI.

Highly Commended

David Caulfield & Kieran McCracken from BA Components pick up a highly commended award in the International category from Brenda Buckley, Business Eye.

Brenda Buckley, Business Eye presents the International Award to Alan Lowry, Environmental Street Furniture.

65

Family Business of the Year

Highly Commended

Wilsons Auctions

Alan & Robin Mercer. Hillmount, receive a highly commended award in the Family Business of the Year category, from Darren McDowell from Harbinson Mulholland (sponsor).

Highly Commended

Darren McDowell, Harbinson Mulholland, presents the coveted Family Business of the Year Award to the team from Wilsons Auctions (Ian Wilson, Peter Johnston, Rebecca Wilson, Ricky Wilson & Gareth Wilson).

Highly Commended

Jamesy & James Hagan, Hagan Homes receive a highly commended award in the Family Business of the Year category from Darren McDowell from Harbinson Mulholland (sponsor).

Most Innovative Company of the Year Henderson Technology

Corin Hawthorne & Mark Chambers, Okto Technologies receive a highly commended award in the Most Innovative Company of the Year category from sponsor Jamie Stewart from SAP Business One.

Luke Douglas, Vince Kearney, Andrew Cunningham and Joanne Hartin.

66

Gillian Kelly and Sara Johnston, Henderson Technology, receive the Most Innovative Company of the Year Award from Jamie Stewart, SAP Business One (sponsor).

Highly Commended

Fast Growth Business of the Year Around Noon

The staff from FinTru receive a highly commended award in the Fast Growth Business of the Year category from Damian Campbell, Charles Hurst /Fleet Financial (sponsors).

Highly Commended

Damian Campbell from sponsors Charles Hurst/Fleet Financial presents a highly commended certificate in the Fast Growth Business of the Year category to Paddy Trainor & Phil Doyle from Cyphra. Also pictured are Emirates cabin crew members, Enya Barry and Meghan Quigley.

Dave Graham, Emma Donnelly & Gareth Chambers, Around Noon receive the Fast Growth Business of the Year Award from Damian Campbell, Charles Hurst/Fleet Financial (sponsor).

Outstanding Leadership & Management Award James Hagan

Maeve Monaghan, Brabara Kirkwood, Treasa Anderson, Siofra Healy and Orla Black.

Maggie Beaufoy, Thales (sponsor) presents the Outstanding Leadership & Management Award to James Hagan, Hagan Homes. Also pictured are Emirates cabin crew members, Enya Barry and Meghan Quigley.

Adrienne Rea, Irvine Rea, Sarah Rea and Warren Rea.

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Highly Commended

Waste Reduction Project Of The Year Lidl

Liz Kerr receives a highly commended certificate in the Waste Reduction Project of the Year category on behalf of Belfast Business One Improvement District from sponsor Celine McLarnon, ISL Waste Management.

Darren Jackson, Jenny Young, Claire Ferris and Kerri Beattie.

Angela Connan & Deirdre Ryan, Lidl receive the Waste Reduction Project of the Year from sponsor Celine McLarnon, ISL Waste Management.

Employer of the Year

Highly Commended

Axiom Law

Terry Brennan, UTV presents a highly commended award in the Employer of the Year category to Leah McConnell & Conor Boyle, Lidl.

Representatives from Axiom Law receive the highly coveted Employer of The Year Award from Terry Brennan, UTV (2nd left). Also pictured are Emirates cabin crew members, Enya Barry and Meghan Quigley.

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Arlene Lyle, Alan Weir and Rachael Moran.

Agri Food Innovation Award

Highly Commended

Mash Direct

Shauna Blair (centre) & James Blair, Heavenly Tasty Organics receive a highly commended certificate in the Agri Food Innovation category from Ciara Donnelly, Business Eye.

Ciara Donnelly, Business Eye, presents the Agri Food Innovation Award to Lance & Jack Hamilton, Mash Direct.

Highly Commended

Siobhan Mathewson, Brenda Buckley, Ciara Donnelly and Natalie Maginnis.

Tourism & Hospitality Project of the Year Derry City & Strabane District Council

Caroline Wilson, Belfast Food Tours, receives a highly commended award in the Tourism/Hospitality Project of the Year category from sponsor Gerry Lennon, Visit Belfast.

Cathy Martin, Gary McDonald and Paul McErlean pictured at the UTV Business Eye Awards.

Derry City & Strabane District Council receive the Tourism & Hospitality Project of the Year for ‘Halloween in Derry’ from sponsor Gerry Lennon, Visit Belfast.

69

Highly Commended

SME of the Year Brookvent

Seamus McGuckin, First Trust Bank (sponsor) presents Shauna & James Blair, Heavenly Tasty Organics with a highly commended certificate in the SME of the Year category.

Highly Commended

Paul Walsh, Kukoon receives a highly commended award on behalf of the company from Seamus McGuckin, First Trust Bank (sponsor).

Seamus McGuckin, First Trust Bank (sponsor) presents Dane Duffy, Declan Gormley, Gary Toner & Michael Reid from Brookvent with the SME of the Year Award.

Young Business Personality of the Year

Highly Commended

Cathal Grant, CGDM Construction

Dane Duffy receives a highly commended award in the Young Business Personality of the Year category from Professor Mark Durkin, Dean of the Ulster University Business School (sponsor).

Professor Mark Durkin, Dean of the Ulster University Business School presents the Young Business Personality of the Year Award to Cathal Grant, CGDM Construction.

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Orlagh McGrath, Sarah McGinley, Caroline Wilson, Claire Trainor and Ciara Donnelly.

Research and Development Project of the Year Belfast City Centre Management

James Hagan, Hagan Homes, winner of the Outstanding Leadership & Management Award with Marc Mallett, UTV.

Sarah Anne-Attwood, Belfast City Centre Management collects Research & Development Project of the Year Aisling McGreevey and Stacey McCann. from Peter McVerry of sponsors U105. Also pictured are Emirates crew members, Enya Barry & Meghan Quigley.

Harry Tregenna, Karen Douglas, Nigel Stronge and Scott Goldblatt.

Staff from CGDM Construction.

Highly commended certificate winners in the Fast Growth Business of the Year category, Cyphra.

71

Staff from Musgrave, winners of the Business Marketing Category.

72

John O’Connor, Mark Durkin and Gillian Armstrong.

Tanya Martin and Paul Martin.

Bentley courtesy of Charles Hurst.

Michaela McMahon and Claire McAtamney.

Conor Mills, Mark Singh, Mark Groves and Mark Beesley.

Richard Elliott, Andrew Armstrong and Rosie Colgan.

James Hagan (3rd left), winner of the Outstanding Management & Leadership category, with his son Jamesy Hagan (2nd left) and staff. Hagan Homes also picked up a highly commended award in the Family Business of the Year category.

Ruby Baxter and Sam Buckley.

Laura Chambers and Emma Donnelly.

Shauna Blair, Ursula Bradley and Nuala Curran.

Gordon McElroy, Ann McMullan, Liz Kerr and Conal Sewart.

Bronagh Luke and Bronagh Henderson.

Joe McCrystal, Celine McLarnon, Gavan Wall and Michael McLarnon.

73

David Jackson from The Voice performs with silk artist.

Lifetime Achievement Award winner, Roy Adair.

The Jersey Boys perform.

Host, Marc Mallett

74

Celine McLarnon ISL Waste Management presents Best Tweet of the Evening to Gerald Lavery.

Eye on News

JOHANN MULDOON NAMED FIRST TRUST BANK QUEEN’S GRADUATE OF THE YEAR Multi-award winning architect Johann Muldoon MBE has received the annual First Trust Bank Queen’s Graduate of the Year award at the Queen’s Graduates’ Association Charter Day Dinner.

A

graduate with a first class honours degree in Architecture, and now Managing Partner of Manor Architects in Co. Derry, this October Johann was the first woman in her profession in Northern Ireland to be awarded an MBE. When she was just 16 Johann was named UK Young Entrepreneur

by Sir Richard Branson and after graduation, became the youngest tutor at the Mackintosh School of Architecture in Glasgow, winning two Silver Medals for Architecture and The Royal Scottish Architecture prize.

Earlier this year she was awarded Best Woman Architect in Europe at the Women in Construction and Engineering Awards, with one of her projects shortlisted for the Worldwide Architectural Review Future Projects Award.

Johann, who received a perpetual trophy from the University’s Acting President & Vice-Chancellor Professor James McElnay, said: “‘There are certain places in life which we hold sacred. Queen’s University is, for me, one such place.

“To be seen worthy of this award is a tremendous accolade in itself and I am genuinely overwhelmed. It is a once in a lifetime moment and something I, and I hope my children, will always treasure. Thanks to those who nominated me and those who chose me out of what is sure to be a very prestigious list.”

Fergal McFerran, President of the Queen’s Graduates’ Association said: “The Graduate of the Year award recognises an exceptional graduate who has made a substantial contribution to their chosen field; and there is no doubt that Johann is an incredibly worthy recipient.

“She is renowned as one of the world’s leading female architects and with a string of awards and prizes under her belt, it’s not hard to see why. Johann is a reflection of the exceptional quality of education provided by Queen’s University and is undoubtedly an inspiration to many of our current architecture students,” he finished.

Mark McKeown, Manager at First Trust Bank added: “First Trust Bank are proud to have been sponsoring the prestigious

L-R: Mark McKeown (First Trust Bank), Professor James McElnay (Acting President & ViceChancellor, Queen’s University), Johann Muldoon MBE (Manor Architects), Fergal McFerran (President, Queen’s Graduates’ Association) and Mark Simpson (BBC).

Student and Graduate of the Year awards at Queen’s University for almost 20 years.

“This year’s graduate winner Johann Muldoon is a role model who has demonstrated creative ability in her chosen field of architecture winning amongst other awards Best Woman Architect in Europe at the WCEA and continuing to be a champion for women in her profession. She continues to be a passionate supporter of the next generation of young women in business and is a worthy winner of this award.”

Previous winners of the prestigious First Trust Bank Graduate of the Year Award include Jonny Bramley, BAFTA award-winning BBC Sport Executive producer, John Leckey, former Senior Coroner for Northern Ireland, broadcaster and wildlife photographer Jonathan Scott and Ramona Nicholas, entrepreneur and RTÉ Dragons’ Den panel member.

The QGA Charter Day Dinner is kindly supported by First Trust Bank, Allstate and Woodford Bourne.

MERVYN STEWART OPENS FIRST INFINITI STORE Mervyn Stewart has opened its first ever INFINITI showroom on the Boucher Road in Belfast. The investment was supported by Danske Bank.

Pictured are Stephen Stewart, Managing Director at Mervyn Stewart and Ellen Matthews, Business Banking Manager at Danske Bank.

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stablished more than 50 years ago, Mervyn Stewart is one of the largest family-owned car dealerships in Northern Ireland.

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Work on the new 3,000 sq ft. site started in November 2016 with the store opening this summer.

Managing Director Stephen Stewart

from Mervyn Stewart said: “INFINITI is a new brand to Mervyn Stewart, providing a range of premium products which are designed to be more eye catching than some of the more established brands.

“INFINITI is one of the fastest growing brands in the automotive industry and we are delighted to be partnering with them on this new venture. Our five car boutique showroom is already proving popular and sales to date have been strong.

“We have an excellent relationship with Danske Bank and this is the second major investment in a new showroom

that we’ve made in the past year.”

Ellen Matthews, Business Banking Manager, Danske Bank, commented: “Less than a year ago, we supported the opening of the new Mervyn Stewart branch in Conlig and it has proven hugely successful. Stephen and his team are forward thinking and have ambitious growth targets, with the ability to secure partnerships with brands like Skoda and INFINITI. “The Mervyn Stewart brand continues to go from strength to strength and this latest investment will help the business reach its full potential.”

UTV Live Weekdays 6pm 77

Eye on Awards

RTS NI REVEAL WINNERS OF 2017 PROGRAMME AWARDS T

Comedy and Entertainment: sponsored by NEP Broadcast Services WINNER: Stellify Media: Beauty Queen and Single (BBC NI) Nominees: Waddell Media Ltd: Francis Brennan’s Grand Tour Vietnam and Roughcut TV: Delete Delete Delete

The winners of the Royal Television Society Northern Ireland (RTS NI) 2017 Programme Awards were announced at a glittering awards ceremony in The MAC Belfast, hosted

by TV presenter Angela Scanlon with guest presenter Michael Smiley in November.

RTS NI Judges Award: sponsored by Ka-Boom – WINNER: MARK HUFFAM

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he big winners were Stellify Media which won the Comedy and Entertainment Award for Beauty Queen and Single and the Factual Entertainment Award for In Solitary.

Holywood Producer Mark Huffam was announced as the winner of the RTS NI Judges Award in recognition of his outstanding contribution to local television and film production.

Huffam who was born in Antrim, has produced a number of television shows and films including Saving Private Ryan, Mamma Mia and the first series of Game of Thrones. Unfortunately, although Huffam planned to attend the Awards in person, he had to send a video message as he was called back to film Christopher Plummer’s new scenes for the upcoming Ridley Scott thriller ‘All the Money in the World’.

Huffam said: “It’s great to see how Northern Ireland Film and Television is thriving in the current climate, largely down to a lot of self motivated individuals and entrepreneurs who have helped grow the industry at a rapid rate.

This couldn’t have been done without the support of Northern Ireland Screen and also local Government, who have been fantastic and very supportive, I’d quite like to see them back at work soon.”

Line of Duty filmed in Belfast

by World Productions took the award for Best Drama and Sixteen

Drama: sponsored by Yellowmoon WINNER: World Productions: Line of Duty (BBC NI) Nominees: HBO Entertainment in association with Bighead, Littlehead, Television 360/Starling TV: Game of Thrones and BBC Studios in Association with Cuba Pictures: Paula

South won the new Original Score Award for The Salty Chicken.

BBC Northern Ireland picked up two awards for Current Affairs and News both relating to its coverage of the RHI Scandal for Spotlight: Burn to Earn and A Nolan Show Investigation.

Crossing the Line’s Wild Ireland took the Specialist Factual Award and Tern Television and Borough Productions’ The Good Terrorist won Best Documentary.

The Interactive Entertainment Award went to Big Motive for Tara’s Locket – A VR Story for Children and the award for Children’s / Animation went to Zodiak Kids Studios UK for Secret Life of Boys.

The RTS NI Programme Awards 2017 are delivered in partnership with BBC Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Screen, Channel 4 and UTV, along with the headline sponsor this year Ka-Boom.

Sarah McCaffrey, Chair of the RTS NI Awards said: “Congratulations to all our winners who represent the best of the exceptional talent coming out of Northern Ireland in recent years.

“And a special congratulations to Mark Huffam for winning the Judges’ Award. As a creative community, we are extremely proud of his achievements making some of the best television and film productions in the world which has helped to put Northern Ireland on the global map.”

Specialist Factual: sponsored by City Air Express WINNER: Crossing the Line: Wild Ireland (BBC NI) Nominees: Alleycats: Pop Pride & Prejudice and Tern Television and Iconografie Films: Britain’s Lost Masterpieces: Aberdeenshire

Eye on Awards

Factual Entertainment and/or Features: sponsored by G&H Film & Television Services WINNER: Stellify Media: In Solitary Nominees:Tyrone Productions: Nathan Goes to Nashville and BBC NI Productions: Love in a Day

Original Music Score: sponsored by Millar McCall Wylie WINNER: Sixteen South: The Salty Chicken Nominees: World Productions: Line of Duty and Fables and Artists Studio: The Fall

Documentary: sponsored by Ulster University WINNER: Tern Television and Borough Productions: The Good Terrorist Nominees: Alleycats: How to Defuse a Bomb: The Project Children Story and True North: My Wig and Me

News Coverage: sponsored by InBroadcast WINNER: BBC Northern Ireland: A Nolan Show Investigation Nominees: UTV: UTV Live: The Death of Martin McGuinness and BBC Northern Ireland: BBC Newsline: The Death of Martin McGuinness

Interactive Entertainment: WINNER: Big Motive: Tara’s Locket – A VR Story for Children Nominees: Billy Goat Entertainment Ltd: Her Majesty’s SPIFFING and Neon: RETNE

Current Affairs: sponsored by Queens University Belfast WINNER BBC Northern Ireland: Spotlight: Burn to Earn Nominees: Erica Starling Productions: Channel 4 Dispatches: Under Lock and Key and UTV: UTV Up Close: Northern Ireland’s Prescription Addiction:

Children’s and /or Animation: sponsored by Performance Film and Media Insurance WINNER: Zodiak Kids Studios UK: Secret Life of Boys Nominees: Sixteen South: Lily’s Driftwood Bay – The Salty Chicken and Jam Media: Little Roy

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Eye on Giving

Rebekah Johanson Founder of Lines & Current - Minimal Jewellery & Accessory Brand since 2015 1. What are your thoughts, in general, on charitable giving?

Since we launched Lines & Current, we committed to giving at least 10% of our proceeds to charities that bring about change. The term ‘current’ in the brand name, was actually to reflect the idea of outward flow. When I started the brand, the idea of consuming more and more, without a way to ‘flow outward’ or ‘give’ just wasn’t appealing to me. I think when we give charitably we create life and keep things moving in our businesses, rather than things getting dammed up and stale.

2. Is your giving personal or corporate or a combination of both?

As a family we have sponsored children on a monthly basis and given to local communities for many years. For the past two Black Friday weekends in November we challenged ourselves to do something a bit countercultural. Instead of offering our customers a sale (like most other traders on this weekend) we decided to give 30% of proceeds from sales to charity. My customers are so amazing that instead of shopping elsewhere or expecting a bargain they were happy to purchase for full price knowing that 30% of proceeds from their purchase would be put to good charitable use.

3. How do you give to charity: monetarily, your own time as a volunteer or your specialist skills?

Mostly, monetarily. My husband and I run two businesses from home and have three kids.

Our time to volunteer is really limited although it is something we talk about. One thing we do annually is give bags of food to families on the breadline in Belfast every Christmas. We participate with a charity called STOREHOUSE for this and it’s great for our kids to experience what it’s like to give in this way. It involves meeting at a massive warehouse and receiving up to twenty bags of food that we distribute to three families in the greater Belfast area.

4. What types of causes do you favour and why?

We’ve given to such a range of charities over the past two years. Nine different ones in fact, but as an online shop owner it makes sense to give to charities that

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my customer base can relate to. Since we became parents, my husband and I have always had a big heart for kids, and since much of my customer demographic is 25-40 it appeals to many parents out there too.

5. Are there specific charities or causes that you give to regularly? How do you choose which to support?

Since the start of 2017, we have partnered with the SOS Children’s Villages charity.

We’ve had the privilege of sending six children who have been orphaned or abandoned to a primary school in Zimbabwe by covering the cost of their school fees, transportation and books for one year.

We give at least 10% of the proceeds we make on sale every quarter so we’re hopeful that by the end of 2017 we will also have given a few more primary school age kids the chance of education.

We do our research when picking our charities, which takes some time. We often set up skype conversations with staff members from the charity and discuss ways in which our donation can be the most responsibly divided.

6. Do you believe that companies and individuals have a duty to help others? If yes, why?

I don’t know that companies have a ‘duty,’ but I think charitable giving is a way to invigorate some life into your company.

Simply put, things can become stale fast if there isn’t an outward flow. If a person or organisation is concerned that they don’t have the funds to donate, I would suggest they take the risk and be amazed. There’s an old proverb that says “When supply seems to have dried up, look around you quickly for something to give away.”

7. What is your message to business people who may be thinking about becoming more involved in strategic philanthropy?

I think businesses should budget their giving in the same way they make budgets for other essentials in business. It makes sense to assess and review their investment regularly and modify in due course. We should always aim to be as responsible as possible with where our funds are released.

8. Giving Northern Ireland was set up to champion Philanthropy. Why do you think it is important that there is an organisation that helps businesses and individuals think more strategically about giving?

Often entrepreneurs like me are very busy, spinning loads of plates, from performing crucial administrative duties, fulfilling all types of creative functions and business related tasks and at the end of the day we are exhausted. An organisation that can provide a customised framework and strategy for giving is beneficial when our energy is spent elsewhere in our businesses.

Eye on Internet

Google is better at making your content usable than you are

By Gareth Dunlop, Fathom.

Google’s relentless pursuit of injecting speed into the lives of its users continues unabated.

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t the time of writing, Ireland is under threat from ex-hurricane Ophelia, which is scheduled to reach our shores over the next few days. I went online last night to find out more, specifically the actual statistics on wind and rain, and the impact on travel and other potential disruption.

I was struck by the role Google played in providing me with the information I needed, and how different that was from just a few short years ago.

Ten years ago a search about the weather would result in a list of websites with the word “weather” prominent in their home page text and meta data so with a simple click a user could select one and find out about the weather. Google had some influence over the quality of the user experience because it ranked those sites depending on their keywords. It also ranked them on their authority by assessing how effective it believed those sites to be based on user satisfaction, typically measured by the number and quality of inbound links from other sites.

Over the coming years they evolved this process so that the sites they listed were less to do with the word “weather” and more to do with the authority of the site, based on inbound links, popularity and various other measures of authority.

In practical terms this means that regardless of how much keyword wizardry a weather website might carry out, it will be very difficult for it to usurp Met Éireann, AccuWeather. com, Irish Times and RTE as the key sites in that sphere, because Google has identified them as the authorities.

This was developed further as Google brought content from those most authoritative sources into its

search results, meaning that users looking for the most common weather information didn’t need to click beyond Google’s search results page. A search for “Weather in Ireland” or “Weather in Dublin” will provide information on temperature, precipitation, humidity and wind, as well as a 5-day summary forecast on the search results page. In other words Google provides the vast majority of users with what they need without needing to go any further.

us of upcoming meetings, or letting us know proactively how many minutes it will take us to drive to the office and if there are any traffic problems or road works to be aware of en route.

This evangelical zeal for speed has resulted in Google being one of the most usable and used sources of information on the planet.

Crucially, it has also contributed to search engines being the

“Google is increasingly showing users information about your product, service and brand as part of their search results, before they get to your site.

The experience you offer your user will almost definitely commence before they arrive on your site, so it must be relevant and enhance trust and sentiment before that point.”

The latest iteration of this technology now means that Google will auto-fill weather information as the user types the search term meaning that the information the user desires is presented in real time.

To most publishers, real-time speed would represent the ultimate performance, but not Google. Not content with providing us with information such as weather information in the nanosecond that we have requested with it, for the past number of years they have focused on providing us with information we might require before we know or think we need it. This manifests itself in alerts and notifications reminding

most trusted source of news globally (72%), according to the Edelman Trust Barometer, beating traditional media (64%), hybrid media (63%), social media (59%) and owned media (57%).

This landscape compels us to draw the following conclusions.

Firstly, as the weather example illustrates, Google is increasingly showing users information about your product, service and brand as part of their search results, before they get to your site. The experience you offer your user will almost definitely commence before they arrive on your site, so it must be relevant and enhance trust and sentiment before that point.

Secondly, the relationship between speed, usability and trust has never been stronger or closer. Want to win over the trust of new customers? Give them a usable experience and get them to the content they are looking for as quickly as you possibly can.

I am reminded of the founding principle of the unwritten emotional contract between the user and the website “I will give you my attention if you don’t waste my time”.

Gareth Dunlop owns and runs Fathom, a user-experience consultancy which helps ambitious organisations get the most from their website and internet marketing by viewing the world from the perspective of their customers. Specialist areas include UX strategy, usability testing and customer journey planning, web accessibility and integrated online marketing. Clients include Three, Tourism NI, PSNI, Permanent TSB and Tesco Mobile. Visit Fathom online at fathom.pro

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Eye on Accountancy

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Eye on Accountancy

Top Team Keeps Accountants To The Fore Pamela McCreedy and Zara Duffy form a potent tag team at the helm of the Chartered Accountants Ulster Society... and the two women have already been making an appreciable difference in the organisation’s reach around the local business community.

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amela McCreedy, Chief Operating Officer and second in command at the Northern Ireland Audit Office, is well into her year as Chair of the body which represents Northern Ireland’s chartered accountants, while Zara Duffy took up the newly-created post as Head of the Ulster Society earlier this year.

The very fact that the Ulster Society took the bold step of appointing a fulltime head speaks volumes about its intentions to be seen and heard a bit more visibly and loudly in an economy well populated by business groupings.

“We’ve got 4,500 members here in Northern Ireland, including some of this region’s most influential business leaders, and we span both the private and public sectors,” says Zara Duffy. “So this is an organisation with real influence and with a voice that needs to be heard around the business community and beyond.”

In her new role, she works closely with the Ulster Society’s parent organisation, Chartered Accountants Ireland, which has a considerably larger membership of some 25,000 right across the island.

Part of the Ulster Society’s role is lobbying, a large part of it revolves around education and the administration of professional qualifications for young accountants. Then there’s the social element and the promotion of accountancy as a career choice. Not that it needs much promotion as things stand......

“At the moment, we’ve got more jobs in accountancy than we have people to fill those jobs, and it’s been like this for a while,” says Pamela McCreedy of an employment environment which is witnessing plenty of changes.

“Times are changing. The need for a degree isn’t set in stone in the way

that it used to be, and we’re seeing more school leavers coming straight into accountancy from school, training along the way.” PwC and KPMG are among the big firms training young accountants via the apprenticeship route.

“Further along the career route, we are working hard to encourage our members to consider continuous professional development and, as a Society, we aim to make that achievable for them.”

Now at the NI Audit Office and formerly with the Northern Health & Social Care Trust, Pamela McCreedy moved to the public sector after cutting her teeth in the private sector and having trained with KPMG. Zara Duffy also trained in practice as an accountant and went on to work in a number of roles in retail, banking, construction and the charity sector before taking up her new role.

“I loved the idea of this role when I first heard of it, and I’ve really enjoyed getting settled in an on with the job,” she says.

Both women agree that the vast majority of chartered accountants are firm believers that they got the best possible foundation to their careers.

“I don’t think I’ve met anyone who doesn’t believe that an accountancy qualification set them up for a worthwhile career,” Zara adds. “Think about it this way. It’s estimated that 50% of FTSE 100 CEO’s are accountants, and here in Northern Ireland, a large proportion of the CEO’s of our top 100 or so companies come from the same background.”

When it comes to the Ulster Society’s lobbying role, both agree that the most important factor is relevance.

“We have to be relevant,” says Pamela McCreedy. “And we have to work to

get the views of the accountancy profession and, by extension, business as a whole out there.”

The Society shows its initiative in recent months by engaging directly with the Northern Ireland Office in the continued absence of a local Executive and Assembly.

“We will continue to seek the right avenues to get our message across,” adds Zara Duffy. “We played a leading role in the corporation tax campaign a while back, and we know that we’ve got a role to play in the current debate around Brexit and what it could mean for the Northern Ireland economy.

“As things stand, it’s all about uncertainty but, as an organisation, we’ve been working hard to provide as much information and as much practical help as we possibly can.”

The Chartered Accountants Ulster Society recently staged a Brexit Seminar at Belfast’s Titanic Hotel. Like most events turning the spotlight on Brexit, it was played out to a packed house..... evidence, if evidence was needed, of the thirst for information on the subject.

The other topic that can’t be ignored in the current climate is that of devolved government.....or the lack of it.

“Again, we have to make sure that our voice is heard and I think we’ve been doing that quite effectively,” says Pamela McCreedy. “It’s crucial that the economy here, and wider society, isn’t adversely affected by the political impasse, and we’ll work with whoever we need to work with to help ensure that doesn’t happen.

“What’s important also is not to neglect the fact that there will be opportunities for Northern Ireland. It’s a unique place and it’s a great place to live and to work.

We have to continue to capitalise on the advantages that we do have.”

Pamela McCreedy and Zara Duffy aren’t the only two women driving the agenda for the all-island Chartered Accountants Ireland organisation. The current president is Shauna Greely of Ulster Bank Group, the first female president of CAI in 30 years.

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Eye on Social Economy

Social Enterprise Springs Into Action By Recycling Mattresses

Usel CEO Bill Atkinson (right) with Stephen McGarry from Work West at Usel’s mattress recycling facility. One of the keys to the organisations success and growth has been the development of strong partnerships.

A Northern Ireland social enterprise has created a thriving recycling business saving thousands of mattresses from ending up in landfill and creating new jobs for people with disabilities and health-related conditions.

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sel (Ulster Supported Employment Limited) is on course to nearly triple the number of mattresses it diverts from the landfill from 13,000 last year to 35,000 in 2018/19.

The company disassembles the mattresses into components such as foam, polyester, ticking and steel which are sent on for further processing and reused for things like carpet underlay, equestrian surfacing, acoustic dampening for cars and the steel springs are shredded so they can be melted down for re-use.

Awarded International Green World Ambassador by the Green Organisation, the organisation now employs 110 people and has supported and trained 1,500 to gain or remain in employment each year in its six regional locations.

Usel CEO Bill Atkinson explained: “Driving a Circular Economy within Usel has multiple societal benefits. It allows us to

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create more sustainable jobs for people with disabilities and health conditions whilst having a positive impact on the environment in which we live. Research has indicated that the Circular Economy will create up to 7000 new jobs in the next 10 years and we are delighted to be at the forefront of driving this in Northern Ireland.”

One of the strengths of the organisation has been to develop partnerships and over the past ten years, Usel has worked closely with Work West Enterprise Agency, which specialises in support to the social enterprise sector.

Stephen McGarry of Work West said: “Social enterprises have been market leaders in the circular economy with ventures tackling recycling and waste management, intervening where the private sector don’t see profit and where the public sector hasn’t worked. Social enterprise has found a perfect niche.

“It’s a massive accomplishment that Usel last year saved 400 tonnes of waste from mattresses going into landfill. At Work West we pride ourselves on working closely with social enterprise and it’s fantastic when you see the results of businesses like Usel, which has championed ability and provided employment for local people while reducing waste,” he added.

Usel is now providing mattress recycling to 4 of 11 councils in Northern Ireland as well as to a number of private sector businesses such as bed retailers and hotels.

However, the recycling project is only a portion of Usel’s extensive portfolio. Considering that the social enterprise actually had its origin in 1871, it’s no surprise perhaps that it has accomplished so much.

Its story began in 1871, when Thomas Cathcart a father of eight was blinded in an accident and a concerned Mary Hobson sought a sustainable form of help. Recognising Thomas’ ability, Mary established Workshops for the Blind, which manufactured commercial goods and created paid employment, for almost thirty blind people.

Usel was formally established in 1962 to provide supported paid employment for people within its Belfast manufacturing base. The company created beautifully crafted satchels, which it continues to produce and sell online through the Vintage Satchel Company.

It continued to grow and expand into other areas and is now the largest supporter of people with disabilities and health-related conditions into open employment in Northern Ireland.

They also manufacture brand new mattresses in their Slumberin range, bags and specialist equipment for the emergency services as well as music bags for Ruach Music and rucksacks for ethical business Madlug.

“Our partnerships with organisations like Work West and ethical entrepreneurs such as Dave Linton from Madlug have been a big part of our story. Relationships, collaboration and communication are the cornerstones that are helping drive forward new opportunities to grow in an ethically sustainable way,” Bill Atkinson added.

Eye on Finance

Interest Rates Rise...

BoE Acts To Control Inflation

By Frances Hill, Bank of England Agent for Northern Ireland For the first time in over 10 years, the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) has voted to increase interest rates.

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n 2 November the MPC increased Bank Rate from 0.25% to 0.5%. Bank Rate is the official interest rate set by the MPC and it influences other interest rates charged by banks and building societies, as well as the interest rate paid on deposits.

During my conversations with organisations in Northern Ireland, I have been asked by quite a few people to explain why the MPC decided to do this.

To understand why, it is important to remember that Parliament has given the MPC responsibility to keep the rate of inflation – the pace of increases in prices of goods and services – at 2% a year.

CPI is currently around 3%.

To ensure that the rate of inflation comes back down to the target, a majority of those on the MPC , agreed that Bank Rate should increase a little, starting with a rise of a quarter of one percent.

What has the MPC based that judgement on? Well, one positive aspect of the UK economy today is that unemployment is at its lowest level since 1975. Indeed, one million more people are in work than just two years ago.

More jobs means more people have money to spend which will help keep consumer demand up.

But, the very low level of unemployment is also likely to mean that wages will begin to increase more quickly as companies compete to take on new staff and keep their existing workers.

For example, I can see signs of higher wages in my regular conversations with employers in the mid-Ulster area - it is becoming more common for them to say that the next pay rises are going to be a little higher than in recent years.

And if wages increase more quickly then prices in the shops will begin to rise more quickly as well, as companies charge more to pay for staff costs. That means a higher rate of inflation.

Also, with so few people now out of work, there isn’t much scope for the economy to grow simply from increasing the size of the workforce.

MPC decided that a small rise in interest rates now is necessary to control inflation in future.

While this will increase borrowing costs for some – for instance, via higher mortgage repayments – we expect the impact to be modest.

“The main thing that will determine how quickly our economy can grow in the future, or the ‘speed limit’ of the economy, will be the extent to which we are able to produce more with what we have.”

The main thing that will determine how quickly our economy can grow in the future, or the ‘speed limit’ of the economy, will be the extent to which we are able to produce more with what we have.

The MPC thinks that the UK economy is currently growing at around its speed limit. If it were to grow any faster, that would push up on inflation.

As a result of these factors, the

Many more people are on fixedrate mortgages compared to the last time there was an interest rate rise. And, of course, higher rates are better for savers.

The MPC expects that any further rises in interest rates will happen at a gradual pace and to a limited extent. It currently anticipates that perhaps a couple of additional quarter of a percent increases in Bank Rate are likely to be needed over the next three years.

To assist the MPC, my colleagues and I in the Bank of England’s Agency network will continue to act as ‘the eyes and ears’ of the Bank.

We speak to diverse organisations here in Northern Ireland and around the UK and we feed what we learn directly into our policymakers in London. You can read the latest summary of our findings http://www.bankofengland. co.uk/publications/Documents/ agentssummary/2017/nov.pdf In this way, the people and organisations we speak to are helping policymakers to make decisions on how best to guide the economy through these uncertain times.

Frances Hill is Agent for the Bank of England in Northern Ireland. You can read more about the decision to raise interest rates at www. inflationreport.co.uk.

Tweet @BoENIreland

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Eye on Entrepreneurs

Cormac Diamond...

Blinds Entrepeneur Goes For Growth From digger buckets, to bespoke blinds, innovation and diversification have been the hallmark of the Cormac Diamond’s entrepreneurial career.

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he Queen’s educated engineer has just opened a two-story design studio on Belfast’s Lisburn Road for Bloc Blinds, a multi award winning company that the Bellaghy man established in 2006, and whose products recently featured in the show stopping John Lewis Christmas advert.

The company currently employs over 100 staff at its state-of-theart manufacturing headquarters in Magherafelt after a £4million expansion in 2016, supported by Invest Northern Ireland and First Trust Bank.

Cormac, who’s married with four children, started the company after a period of manufacturing for the UK and ROI’s building industry in Poland, something he describes as a ‘baptism of fire’.

“It was a challenge operating there, travelling out every week while liaising with customers here. I had just married and had a young family too.

“At that stage, there was no access to labour here, with almost full employment, and pre-credit crisis there were plenty of orders and the books were full.

“There was an opportunity for me to subcontract out at a lesser cost and get the work done in eastern Europe for the companies here to help supplement their order books.

“There was a buoyant engineering market and I was feeding into that supply line.”

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But with property crash came challenges “no one was digging holes in the ground as far as construction was concerned” prompting Cormac to return to the trade he’d worked in as a design engineer with Keylite Roof Windows, diversifying his business to include blinds, drawing from his previous experience and contacts within that market.

The product range was then expanded to include blinds for normal windows and this informed his belief that a market opportunity for a new, and better blind system that addressed the shortfalls in current designs was attainable.

The result is Bloc Blinds’ unique ‘Fabric Changer’ Roller Blind which allows you to switch your blind fabric to suit the season, interiors trends or even the weather.

The made to measure Skylight Blinds work with virtually any skylight brand available and the Easifit Roller Blind is a revolutionary bracket which requires no power tools or DIY know-how to install.

It’s evident that Cormac Diamond is a man who has the skills and drive to take on a challenge.

“One of the saving graces of the product we were manufacturing was that it was a low price point – it wasn’t a bigticket item. It was something that could add decoration to a home with a value that was accessible to a lot of budgets so it was almost recession proof, but maybe more so than other products.

“With the advent of the internet we were launching the products to a wider market, and we chose the online model because it was overhead light and didn’t require sales people in various countries and the costs associated with that.

“There was a gung-ho approach with a lot of gut feeling about how to fit into a market and the opportunities that were there. I’ve learnt to be a bit more calculating in how we continue to grow as a business and be more understanding of the nuances of the markets of each country, and what will and won’t work.”

Cormac credits long hours, dedication and the odd bit of luck with getting the product range right. And his new showroom is a testament to the company ethos, which is firmly entrenched in Northern Ireland.

“We are an ethical company, that’s not a cliché,” he says. “The whole project could have been designed to use low cost options from other countries, but I chose not to do that.

“I built the model round employing local people, and aiming to keep all supplies local.

“The benefit of that is what’s going back into the community in terms of wages and traceability. It also adds a lot of flexibility into how we develop the business moving forward.

“We can be very flexible in trends and colours and we can adapt quite quickly, that’s something we want to retain and the local model helps us retain that USP.

For a man who is used to rolling up his sleeves and getting stuck in at every stage of the process, Cormac admits delegation is still one of the major challenges he faces on a daily basis. But he’s understandably proud of how the company has developed, and quantifies success in the recognition this most local of companies is now getting on a global basis.

“Being recognised for the designs is fantastic. We didn’t want to be a ‘me too’ company all about turnover and profitability – for us that’s the offshoot of innovative products.

“We want people to really want our products, so we’re trying to steer our business in a different direction where people buy into our quality and innovations.

“That inventive aspect was part of launching a business during a recession. We had to be quite creative in how we were making machinery etc. It got us through the dark times of recession where we didn’t have the luxury of buying equipment and we had to make it up as we went along.

“There’s certainly a large dollop of innovation from product design to process development that were proud of, and which is the ethos of the business.

We all have that inventive spirit.”

Cormac Diamond, Managing Director of Bloc Blinds www.blocblinds.co.uk

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Eye on Health

The secret to living healthier for longer Think of a world where sickness is prevented rather than managed. A world where health risks are pin-pointed early and controlled with lifestyle changes before they become a major life concern - a world where you can view the most precise and up-to-date health analysis of your body.

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t Randox Health, we offer a range of health screening programmes which look at up to 350 individual biomarkers in your blood. Think of it as an ‘MOT’ for the whole body, constructing a comprehensive picture of your current health and arming you with the knowledge to manage your future health.

At Randox Health, we seek to highlight potential problems early to limit detrimental effects which can build up over time. We provide the insights to foresee what may be ahead for your health and support you over 12 months with repeat testing and private consultations to reverse risks with lifestyle changes.

Our health programmes can be carried out at one of our clinics in Crumlin, Holywood or London - or our unique mobile clinic service can be arranged to visit you at your preferred location, perhaps at the office or at home.

After all, a single blood test is all that’s needed for an unrivalled preventive health experience.

Corporate offerings include the innovative Randox Health Everyman and Everywoman packages - the world’s most advanced full-body health checks which assess everything from hormonal health to organ function, iron status to full body composition. Our signature package provides

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the comprehensive testing of Everyman and Everywoman but with an added array of unique specialised tests not available anywhere else.

Our specialised tests can also be purchased on their own or in combination. From testing for genetic haemochromatosis and genetic cardiac risk prediction to coeliac autoimmune disease and aspirin effectiveness, a specialised test may provide the answers you’ve been looking for. We have also developed the UK’s most advanced bowelhealth-at-home test and the world’s only at-home STI test kit, Confidante, which checks for ten of the most common infections. All packages and specialised tests can be purchased online at randoxhealth.com.

Health is becoming an increasingly important factor for employee benefits at work. A healthy, happy workforce leads to an increase in productivity and job satisfaction so a strategic plan to develop this should be imperative for any business especially since recent figures indicate that every year, sickness from work costs UK employers approximately £29 billion. At

Randox Health, we offer a range of corporate wellbeing health programmes to suit all business types, providing colleagues with the most advanced health check available on the planet.

Every employee has their own individual health risks – from absorption problems, hormonal imbalances, genetic predispotions and organ dysfunctions sometimes going undiagnosed until it’s too late to repair damage.

Randox Health is part of the world-leading diagnostics company Randox. Every year over 370 million patients are diagnosed using Randox technology as over 20% of the world’s major laboratories currently use Randox products and services. Randox has more new tests in development than any other diagnostic company, and its patented Randox BioChip Array Technology is the world’s only diagnostic grade biochip, allowing quicker and more accurate body sample results.

Founder and Managing Director of Randox, Dr. Peter FitzGerald, said of the Randox Health corporate offering: “The next revolution in healthcare is focused on preventing illness, rather than managing sickness.

Randox Health goes further than standard health screening and uses our patented blood science technology to identify the earliest warning signs of illness.

“Many common conditions today are preventable through simple lifestyle changes, including over 50% of all cancers, 70% of cardiovascular disease and 80% of strokes. The key to lifechanging preventive health action is just an appointment away.”

This Christmas you can give your staff and loved ones the most important gift: the gift of health.

You can purchase our 12-month health screening for a loved one, or set up a corporate package that shows your employees you are as invested in their futures as you expect them to be in your company’s future.

To find out more about our corporate wellbeing offerings, contact our Corporate Relations Manager Jonathan: jonathan.acheson@ randoxhealth.com / 028 94 343 044 / 075 8588 8074

Eye on Media

Coffee, Scones, Fags & Booze...

How Times Have Changed

By Tim McKane of NavaTalk Digital The Meeting. The meeting has changed beyond belief. In the Madman world of advertising in the 60s, 70s and 80s the meeting went like this.

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ime – if it was a morning meeting, coffee, scones, jam. Cigarettes. No asking, just smoking. Passing around the pack. Deep drawing in of smoke into the lungs.

Brands defined people. The Old Man smoked Sterling, then Bensons. King Size became normal size, so each cigarette gave you more tar and nicotine and cost more. Marlboro became the coolest way to suck smoke into your lungs. Then Marley Lights. Water was Perrier.

If you ran up to lunchtime, a G&T in the office to conclude, with the chat moving to personal.

The late afternoon meeting would often lead to a drink or two to finish the day. Chairs pushed back, ties relaxed, others from the agency would pop in to join in before heading home, or back to the drawing boards, literally.

Lunch was another country.

The client would take the afternoon off and be all for taking lunch into the evening.

The Strand on the Stranmillis Road was the place to go for a regular Friday drink with a client lunch. (You would find a client to bring, so you were on expenses).

All the agency account men were there. Johnny, Tony, Peter, Colin, Rex (otherwise known as Dad).

BPA. AVB, Armstrong Long, RMB, Andersons, McConnell… It was still mainly men in the agencies, but the media also arrive in force, with sales reps from the Telegraph, UTV, the News Letter and Irish News, and they were

more mixed in gender makeup.

Anne Turkington would greet you on arrival and knew which tables to keep apart.

Strand Mushrooms, with garlic mayonnaise, joined a G&T to get going. Wine with lunch, white then red. Chat as you got to know your client better, building relationships, talking some shop, but not a lot.

At about 3 pm, a sense of relaxation hit the restaurant.

It was the weekend. If you were still there, you were not going. The tables got hopped, as competitors in business became friends in the Strand.

Clients were there too, but the worry that they would

“Wine, cigarettes, whisky and gin. Laughs, jokes, stories, debates. Advertising at the heart of it all. Ads we had seen and loved, stories about what was going on in New York and London that we had read in Ad Age and Campaign. Ad men and women.

Hardly a PR Agency in sight.” be poached went, as the unwritten truce came into play.

Wine, cigarettes, whisky and gin. Laughs, jokes, stories, debates. Advertising at the heart of it all. Ads we had seen and loved, stories about what was going on in New York and London that we had read in Ad Age and Campaign. Ad men and women. Hardly a PR Agency in sight, apart from John Laird and Alan Burnside.

the best around, and we knew our clients so when we were working together there was a comfort factor that a friendship brings. Then back in on Monday, and looking forward to Friday.

The Business Lesson: There is more to clients and agencies than business.

We are all people too.

No marketing degrees, not a lot of degrees at all. Agency people came from the Telegraph where they had got Thompson Training (I had parental training, having Rex McKane as my mentor gave me an advantage. He had me reading David Abbott’s Sainsbury copy from the age of 10).

Then it was off for the weekend. With a sense that work and life merged in a positive way. That our jobs were

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Eye on Events

Hunt For Hospitality Heroes

Pinsent Masons Gala Evening

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ichard Masters (Chairman of Scotland & N.Ireland), Andrea McIlroy-Rose (Head of Belfast Office) and Richard Foley (Senior Partner) view Poppies Weeping Window, the powerful WWI

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commemorative art installation at the Ulster Museum. The trio from market-leading law firm Pinsent Masons hosted a gala evening for key business clients and contacts at the iconic cultural venue.

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he 23rd Institute of Hospitality Awards for Professionalism are officially open for nominations.

The highly coveted awards recognise talented individuals who have contributed to their business and the industry over the past year. For 2018 there are 21 categories with 4 new categories including; Duty Manager of the Year, General Manager of the Future, Human Resource Manager of the Year and The Unsung Hero Award.

For entry details visit www.iohniawards.

com or follow Institute of Hospitality NI on Facebook and Twitter #IOHNI18.

Helping to the launch the 23rd Institute of Hospitality Awards for Professionalism at Babel, Belfast, were, from left; Chair of the Institute of Hospitality (NI Branch) and Director of MH Hospitality Solutions and NATIVE by Yellow Door Marianne Hood, Vice Chair and Director of Sales & Marketing Fitzwilliam Hotel Siobhan O’Sullivan and host for the awards broadcaster Pamela Ballantine.

Eye on Events

Campbell Returns To Campbell

NATIONAL SUCCESS FOR RAINBOW

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ainbow Communications has been named Avaya’s “Irish MidMarket Partner of the Year” at Westcon-Comstor’s prestigious Partners of the Year industry event recently. One of only eight companies recognised on the night, the award recognises Rainbow’s customer-centric approach, a continued commitment to training and its close working relationships with Avaya and Westcon. Westcon are the leading global distributor of unified communications, network infrastructure

and data centre solutions, with Avaya being the global leader in delivering superior communications with the most complete portfolio of software and services for on-premises comms systems.

Celebrating the announcement at Rainbow HQ in Belfast are (from L-R) Stuart Carson, Sales and Marketing Director Rainbow; Jennie Greene, Account Director in Ireland for Westcon; David Beatty, Rainbow’s Director of Technical Sales and Brian Curtis, Territory Manager (Ireland) for Avaya.

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he 2015 Nobel Laureate for Medicine, Professor William Campbell, recently returned to his Alma Mater, Campbell College Belfast, to inspire the next generation of scientists at Campbell College Junior School.

Professor Campbell, now in his later 80’s, is best known for his work in discovering a therapy against infections caused by roundworms.

He helped to discover a class of drugs called avermectins, whose

derivates have been successful in saving the lives of those affected by conditions sich as river blindness and lymphatic filariasis....parasitic diseases affecting both humans and animals.

Born in County Donegal, he was educated at Campbell College and Trinity College, Dublin, and has spent almost all of his working life in the USA. Pictured with Professor Campbell are Prep 6 boys Torin Mitchelson, Theo Wilson and Monty Rigby.

NATIONAL AWARD FOR BELFAST WATERFRONT Belfast Waterfront has stormed ahead of its national competitors to bring home the coveted award for the Best Event Space 2017 at the Event Awards in London as the venue continues to place Northern Ireland on the map as one of Europe’s most exciting destinations for conferences and events.

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he ceremony, which took place last night at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, saw judges awarding top marks to projects which are regarded as truly awe-inspiring. This year, 30 industry professionals scrutinised more than 300 entries to find the very best brand experience campaigns and venues.

Belfast Waterfront was competing for the Best Event Space 2017

award against seven shortlisted venues including Excel, Olympia, The O2, The Crystal, Silverstone Wing, The Troxy and Tobacco Dock.

Extended in 2016, Belfast Waterfront is an international conference centre which offers 7000m2 of flexible conference, entertainment and exhibition space in the heart of the city centre. It hosts some 300 events annually and is

a major driver of business tourism to Belfast and Northern Ireland.

Over the last 20 years Belfast Waterfront has welcomed major names in business, politics and entertainment – from the World Council of Credit Unions to President Obama, the BBC Good Food Show to Kraftwerk and the World Irish Dance Championships.

Belfast Waterfront will welcome nine

major international conferences over the next 12 months, and is expected to generate more that £35m in economic impact for the city. The venue’s conference events programme will continue to boast many ‘heavy hitters’ from a multitude of industries including the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine Congress, the 16th Euro Fed Lipid Congress and Royal College of Nursing Congress.

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Eye Moving On 1 Flybe has appointed Ken Harrower as its new Country Manager- Ireland, responsible for its commercial relationships throughout Northern Ireland and Ireland, and working closely with the countries’ key trade and corporate organisations, tour operators, airports and tourist bodies. Ken has been with Flybe for 12 years and, since starting in 2005, has held a number of positions within the company including Regional Sales Manager Ireland, and latterly as Sales Manager- Commercial based in Belfast.

1 Ken Harrower

2 Michelle MacBeth

3 Chris Milligan

Belfast-based tour operator Travel Solutions 2 has appointed Michelle MacBeth as Long haul specialist with responsibility for the North American and Caribbean markets. Michelle who previously worked for Stewart Travel, Selective Travel and American Holidays has extensive experience and knowledge in creating exciting packages covering everything from single to multi-centred holidays, across the USA, Canada and the Caribbean as well as Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

3 Chris Milligan has been appointed Property Associate at leading law firm Arthur Cox. Chris has extensive experience, particularly within the energy industry, and has worked on the property aspects of a wide range of projects including renewables, energy from waste, nuclear, gas transmission, hydrogen and energy storage projects.

4 Dave Sheeran

5 Nabeel Gill

6 Danielle McCaughern

7 Raymond Duddy

8 Giles Williams

9 Finola Strain

The Donnelly Group, Northern Ireland’s largest independently owned new and used vehicle retailer has appointed a new managing director.

4 Dave Sheeran joins the Donnelly Group from Opel Ireland, where he was Managing Director and brings with him 30 years of industry experience across Sales, Marketing and Aftersales in the UK and Europe. He will be responsible for leading the more than 720 employees that make up the Donnelly Group, which includes Donnelly and Taggart, across its eight locations in Northern Ireland incorporating 18 manufacturers including Fiat, Honda, Land Rover, Mitsubishi, Vauxhall and Volkswagen.

5 Nabeel Gill has been appointed Head of Security at Belfast International Airport. With over 10 years’ aviation experience within aviation Operations & Security, Nabeel is a seasoned professional focused on the development of improved passenger experience & security 6 compliance.Also at the airport, Danielle McCaughern has recently been appointed Commercial Executive. Danielle, a graduate of Ulster University, has seven years’ experience in a marketing environment.

7 Raymond Duddy has joined law firm Davidson McDonnell from Tughans. Raymond possesses an extensive knowledge on a wide range of corporate matters and alongside Vicky Dummigan will grow the firm’s corporate and commercial 8 practice. Giles Williams has also joined Davidson McDonnell from Aaron & Partners in Chester. Boasting over 7 years’ experience in Real Estate, Giles brings considerable expertise to the already highly regarded Commercial Property team at Davidson McDonnell.

10 James Lancaster

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9 Finola Strain joins P2V Systems as a Cloud & Infrastructure Engineer. She was previously as Senior Systems Administrator with Capita Managed IT Solutions. Also at P2V Systems, 10 James Lancaster becomes Sales & Business Development Manager for England & Wales. He has worked for a number of leading technology organisations incuding Acuutech and Qube GB.

Eye Moving On 11 Jenna Watt has joined Johnsons’ Corporate and Commercial Department as a Solicitor, assisting Partner Rhys Jones, advising on Corporate Mergers and Acquisitions and Commercial Contracts.

12 Bradley Duncan becomes part of Johnsons’ Defence Insurance Litigation department as a Solicitor assisting Partner David Craig in the Large Loss Department in the Belfast Office. Johnsons has also appointed two new trainee solicitors.

13 Emma McKee and Darragh Carney will both 14 work in the Litigation department at the firm.

11 Jenna Watt

12 Bradley Duncan

13 Emma McKee

15 Kevin Reavey takes up the position of Graduate Surveyor within the Osborne King’s Agency Department which involves a wide variety of commercial property activities. Kevin graduated from the University of Ulster in 2017 with a BSc (Hons) degree in Property Appraisal Investment and Development. He initially joined the company on a student placement and returned as a graduate surveyor on completion of his degree.

16 Hannah McGrath has been appointed as a Solicitor with O’Reilly Stewart Solicitors in Belfast. Hannah joined the firm in 2013 as a paralegal and completed her professional studies in September obtaining a Distinction in the Certificate of Professional Legal Studies.

14 Darragh Carney

15 Kevin Reavey

16 Hannah McGrath

17 George McQuitty has been appointed Business Services Assistant at Northern Ireland Chamber of Commerce and Industry. George previously worked in HR managing internal and external recruitment for a range of major UK firms. Prior to this, he held a position in PwC with the data management team.

18 Cathal O’Neill has joined the Defence Insurance Litigation team at Carson McDowell. He practiced in the litigation team of another leading Belfast firm before joining Carson McDowell as an Associate.

19 Andrew Edwards has joined Carson McDowell as an Assistant Solicitor in the Employment team.

He advises employer clients on all aspects of employment law, including defending claims in the Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal.

20 And Peter Lamont has joined Carson McDowell as a Solicitor in the Commercial team. He completed his professional qualification from the Institute of Professional Legal Studies, being admitted to the Roll of Solicitors, in September 2017.

17 George McQuitty

18 Cathal O’Neill

19 Andrew Edwards

20 Peter Lamont

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Eye on News adventure centre We Are Vertigo Ireland’s First Indoor Belfast-based is expanding into the Titanic Quarter with the launch of Ireland’s first and only indoor skydive, Skydive Centre To representing a £1.5 million investment.

Open In Belfast’s O Titanic Quarter pening this December, the Vertigo Indoor Skydive Centre will create 20 new jobs, bringing the total number of staff employed by We Are Vertigo to 200 and its total investment in Northern Ireland’s leisure industry to £5 million.

The state-of-the-art facility will be located in the former T13 building and will be developed using the world’s leading Aerodium tunnel technology, used by the movie industry to film stunts for award-winning movies including the final fight scene in Jackie Chan’s Chinese Zodiac.

Continuing to grow and innovate as a company, We Are Vertigo has a future roll out plan to expand into other markets including Republic of Ireland and Great Britain.

Commenting on the expansion, We Are Vertigo managing

Gareth & Lorna Murphy of We Are Vertigo

director, Gareth Murphy, said; “Our mission as a company is to provide unique leisure facilities and this expansion follows We Are Vertigo’s success in opening Northern Ireland’s first trampoline park in 2014 and Northern Ireland’s first indoor ski and adventure centre in 2013.

“Indoor skydiving is already popular world-wide and we are proud to be the first company to bring this to the island of Ireland. We’ve invested heavily in the location, technology, equipment and the training of the centre’s instructors to make this a world-class facility based right in the heart of Belfast.

“I’ve no doubt it will be a welcome addition to the leisure and tourism industry in Ireland.”

Indoor skydiving is suitable for those aged 4 and upwards. The facilities can also be used by professionals to train for skydiving qualifications. An indoor skydiving session will start from £45.

McALEER & RUSHE GROUP CELEBRATE 50 YEARS IN BUSINESS McAleer & Rushe, which is one of the UK’s largest design and build construction and property companies, is celebrating 50 years in business and has hosted events in London and Cookstown to celebrate the key milestone.

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he events marked McAleer & Rushe’s journey from small beginnings in Cookstown where it was formed in 1967 by Seamus McAleer, and where its headquarters are still based, to its standing today as a brand that has its construction footprint in cities throughout the UK and Ireland.

With regional offices in London, Dublin and Belfast the company reported Profit Before Tax (PBT) of £10m in 2016, a 100% increase from the previous year with turnover in 2017 expected to exceed £350M. It currently employs 330 people across its operations.

The Company is jointly owned by Seamus McAleer, Founder and Chairman and Eamonn Laverty, Chief Executive,

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who together have been the driving force behind the business. The business made its name in the early years by delivering large scale social housing projects before moving into commercial construction and development. The Company would be recognised as the leading Hotel Design & Build Company within the construction sector. It has constructed over 20,000 hotel rooms, 2 million square foot of office space, over 10,000 houses and 7,500 student housing units across the UK and Ireland.

Commenting on the local to national journey that the business has been on, Seamus McAleer, said, “Our principles, which are based on hard work, a strong team ethic and ambition, are those

Paul O’Connell pictured with Seamus McAleer, Chairman and Eamonn Laverty Chief Executive at an event in the Landmark Hotel London to celebrate McAleer & Rushe’s 50th year in business

that we set out 50 years ago when we established our base in Cookstown and remain the cornerstone of our business today. We are fortunate to have such great staff, working hard for the company and sharing in our successful journey”.

McAleer & Rushe has dominated the UK wide ‘Construction Manager of the Year Award’ (CMYA) with one of their local Project Managers Margaret Conway being the first ever female winner (in the 39 years of the Awards) - winning the coveted title in September for her work on the £22m nine storey office block at 9 Adelaide Street in Belfast for Belfast City Council. This followed the success of her colleague Paul Marlow who became the

youngest ever CMYA winner in 2016 for a £29 million student accommodation project in East London for UNITE. Talking about the future growth of the business, Eamonn Laverty added, “2017 represents a very important milestone for our business and after gaining 50 years’ experience in the acquisition, design, development, construction and management of a variety of property types we are looking to the future with increased confidence. We have an extensive portfolio of work, a growing client base with a number of important projects in the pipeline and we are looking forward to the long-term growth of our business throughout 2018 and beyond.”

Is it true that, the less miles I put on the car, the less I pay?

To find out the answer, visit: dfcbelfast.co.uk/resources/pch-faq-video-be.html

Eye on Motoring

Motoring with Derek Black dbmotoring@btinternet.com

What’s This - A Kia In The Executive Car Parking Lot? Yes Sir! The car launch of the month was undoubtedly the debut of the Kia Stinger in Devon and Cornwall. The highlight was the sight of three red cars doing a demo drive along Newquay’s airport’s extra long runway at speeds up to circa 160mph.

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his audacious move into BMW territory by the Koreans looks like being more than just a vanity project. The attention to detail in the styling and the legendary rear-drive layout are enough to tickle the fancy of the enthusiastic driver who wants something rather different to the usual German suspects.

There are three powerful engines to choose from - a twolitre turbo petrol, a 2.2 turbo-

diesel and a sizzling 3.3-litre twin turbo V6 in the flagship. Prices range from £31,995 to £40,495 which is considerably less than the established premium makes are asking for their comparable models. That alone will attract a lot of attention.

The starter model comes with the turbo petrol engine and the GT-Line trim. This delivers 244bhp and is good for 62mph from rest in 5.8 seconds and a potential top speed of 149mph. Economy is rated at 35.8mpg Combined and emissions at 181g/km Diesel models are priced from £33,595 and are expected to be the best seller. The 2.2-litre engine has an output of 197bhp translating into a 0-62mph acceleration time of 7.3 seconds.

Not surprisingly, this is the most economical version and is rated at 50.4mpg on the Combined Cycle with emissions of 147g/km.

Okay, the tax man is going to take his share with BIK ratings between 31 and 37% but I suppose that is not the point

with this type of driver’s car. The Stinger will be a litmus test for Kia to see how much their image has improved. It carries their famous 7-year warranty and their hopes for the future. Yes, they are serious about this but it is the buyers who will decide!

Who Knew? Some Petrol Golfs Now Have Lower BIK Than Diesels!

With the cloud currently hanging over the future of diesel - though nothing much has happened yet - maybe we should look more carefully at the interesting new petrol engines that are popping up.

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found some food for thought in the small print of the press release detailing the latest Golf - which is being described as the Mark 71/2.

Not a great deal of change, as you would expect, but there is a modest price decrease.

Before you rush out to order your 1.6 or 2.0 TDI, take a close look at the petrol options. The surprisingly perky three-cylinder 1.0 TSI can

muster 58mpg Combined and emissions of 109g/km put it in the 20% BIK bracket. With 110PS on tap and 0-62mph in under 10 seconds, this is grand for city driving.

Even more interesting as a business car is the new 1.5litre TSI EVO petrol engine which will gradually replace the likeable 1.4-litre TSI. This gives more spirited drive with 0-62 in just over 8 seconds (and a potential 134mph top whack!) The EVO engine can cut off two of its four cylinders to save fuel when you are off the throttle.The driver does not feel a thing and the car gets back onto full chat quickly when you hit the accelerator again.

It can return up to 58mpg Combined and has emissions from 100g/km putting it in a diesel-beating 21% BIK bracket!!

So far, it is only available in GT and R-line trim which includes lower suspension and a higher price tag - look out for when it is available in the lower S and SE grades in the near future.

In other respects the newest Golf is exactly what you would expect - cleverly pitched with better than average quality but still costing less that premium equivalents.

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dfcbelfast.co.uk

Eye on Motoring

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These can be unexpected costs to your business. However, breakdown and maintainence can be included in your contract hire to make it easier for you to budget and to focus on your business BONUS - With servicing, maintainence and repair included in contract hire not only does it save money but also time 3. Newness - With leasing you replace your vehicles every couple of years for a brand new model giving your business a professional image BONUS - Leasing brand new models will also mean you benefit from the most recent technology where vehicles are becoming more fuel efficient saving your business money

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Eye on Motoring

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Eye on Motoring

Motoring with Derek Black dbmotoring@btinternet.com

Mazda Rides The SUV Wave With A Good Value/Quality Mix

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Boosted by the boom in SUV sales, the CX-5 has become a lynch pin of Mazda sales.

Driving the second generation car recently I was impressed by the accomplished way it does the job. While not a sports car, it proved to be rather pleasant to drive.

he short slick manual gearstick does remind you of the delightful MX-5 sports car and the composure of the roomy, high-sided carry-all on bad surfaces was notable. The laid-back big 2.2-litre turbo-diesel is quieter than before. It comes with 150PS version with front-drive for everyday driving. You can also get a 175PS turbo diesel with four wheel drive if that is your bent.

The CX-5 steers better too, thanks to Mazda’s latest G-Vectoring control system as introduced on the latest Mazda3 and Mazda6, which subtly ‘encourages’ the car to stick to the chosen line.

The lower-powered of the two diesels proved to be an effortless performer, picking up speed through the gears and had the legs for deceptively quick cruising. It reaches 62mph in 9.4 seconds and is rated at 56mpg on the Combined

Cycle thanks to the efficiency savings from its SKYYACTIV engineering. The BIK rating of 28% is a little less impressive.

The 2.2d Sport Nav model that I drove had loads of equipment including a powered tailgate, proper head-up display, leather, big alloy wheels, sat nav and the rest.

Safety stuff included radar cruise control, adaptive headlamps that dip automatically to avoid dazzle, lane assist and driver alert warnings.

Blind spot monitoring and rear traffic alert uses sensors to detect pedestrians, cyclists and other cars when reversing. This system can apply the brakes when reversing if it detects an imminent impact.

This is now a roomy, capable car that is knocking on the door of the premium class. My ‘loaded’ car was priced from £28k which has to be considered as value compared to German rivals.

is spreading to everyday cars.

That wee booster 0.9-litre petrol engine has rewarding attitude and reaches 62mph from rest in around 12 seconds. It is rated at 61-64mpg combined which means around 45mpg is realistic for real-life driving.

The emissions range from 99 to 104g/km, depending on model, putting it in BIK 18-19% bands.

There is a 1.5-litre diesel, again familiar from the Clio, that has similar

performance and is rated at 80mpg combined. Curiously, its emissions of 85-92g/km put it in the 20% BIK band, just a percent higher than the petrol - another vagary of the tax system!

Add to this the extra cost of buying a diesel - more than £1,000 more in most cases - and the choice is closer than in the past.

Priced from £15k the petrol Micra sounds like inexpensive travel.

Nissan’s Micra Makes A ComeBack With Some French Flair!

The Nissan Micra is back in contention after several lost years with a ‘vanilla’ generation that failed to excite buyers in the UK. Bigger, bolder and nicer to drive, the new one is set to regain lost ground.

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drove the 0.9 turbo petrol version at the recent SMMT test day at Wetherby in Yorkshire. There was something about the size and shape of it that reminded me of the Renault Clio - so I asked where it was made. Seems it is built in the same French factory as its kissing cousin!

That is not necessarily a bad thing as the result is a better car all round. It is stylish and has more presence on the road. There is also more room inside

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and there is more character to the car.

It drives well and is as comfortable as most superminis. That is a big step forward from the previous Micra and reflects new suspension front and rear.

A novel feature for a small car is the chassis control system fitted to all Mmodels. This can use braking to muffle bumps such as speed ramps and on corners to gently improve your steering line. All clever stuff but then technology

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30-DAY ROLLING IT CONTRACT

NITEC DELIVERS NI’S PREMIER TECHNOLOGY PARTNER At Nitec, we work closely with our customers to ensure their IT needs are managed to a gold standard. Indeed, we’re so confident in our abilities that we offer a 30-day rolling contract.

Compare that to the multi-year contract a lot of other firms will tie you into. So why not get YOUR relationship with Nitec rolling - get in touch with us now.

T: 028 9442 7000 E: solutions@nitec.com

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MANAGED SERVICES

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CYBER SECURITY

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CLOUD PRODUCTIVITY

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SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

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STORAGE SOLUTIONS

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UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS

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