LDP Business Magazine

M O N T H LY R E G I O N A L B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E

LDP BUSINESS w w w . l d p b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

Gold glitters in the gloom See our Wealth Management special feature – Pages 19-24

Bargain hunter: Joe Morris profiled A Vision for Liverpool: City’s great ambition Business Lunch: Dining delight at the James Monro

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INSIDE 4

LDP BUSINESS

19

NEWS

Pension fund spends £115m

EDITOR Bill Gleeson 0151 472 2319

7 BIG INTERVIEW

bill.gleeson@liverpool.com

Joe Morris, TJ Morris

DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR Tony McDonough 0151 330 4918

10 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY Big acquisition for Halton

tony.mcdonough @liverpool.com

12

BUSINESS WRITERS Alistair Houghton

WEALTH MANAGEMENT Private equity investment

alistair.houghton @liverpool.com

15 Training at the Chamber

19 BIG FEATURE

How the wealthy invest their cash

Barry Turnbull

7

EDUCATION

barry.turnbull @liverpool.com

Neil Hodgson neil.hodgson @liverpool.com

Alex Turner

31

alex.turner@liverpool.com

HEAD OF IMAGES Barrie Mills

26

barrie.mills@liverpool.com

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

MARKETING EXECUTIVE Litza Gorman 0151 742 2352

One man’s vision pays off

29 PROFESSIONAL SECTORS

ADVERTISEMENT DIRECTOR Debbie McGraw

Liverpool’s top accountant

31

ADVERTISMENT SALES Jackie McMahon 0151 330 5077 Trudie Arlett 0151 472 2476

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Liverpool Vision

35 HOW GREEN IS YOUR BUSINESS?

PHOTOGRAPHY Trinity Mirror

Helping hand for small firms

41 INTERNATIONAL TRADE Effects of the exchange rate

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PUBLISHED BY Trinity Mirror NW2, PO Box 48, Old Hall Street, Liverpool, L69 3EB.

42 THE LIST

43 SOCIAL DIARY

TELEPHONE 0151 227 2000

Carolyn Hughes out on the town

44

FAX 0151 330 4942

RESTAURANT REVIEW The James Monro

COPYRIGHT

LDP Business is printed monthly and distributed with the Liverpool Daily Post. No part of this publication may be reproduced without permission of the publisher.

46 NETWORKER

Alistair Houghton goes star-gazing

THE judges of this year’s Liverpool Daily Post Regional Business Awards introduced the innovation of visiting the shortlisted companies in some of our categories.

The categories we selected for visits had shortlists made up of apples and pears. We hoped our visits would give us more information that would allow us to sort the wheat from the chaff. The big risk of making any award during a recession is that the company you choose then goes bust the next month. Don’t laugh, something like it has happened before.

Our visits proved one thing, above all. There is no chaff on our shortlist.

Far from finding any signs of distress, our visits made our task even more difficult. All of the businesses we spoke to were thriving

BUSINESS CLUB INQUIRIES 0151 472 2352

EDITOR’S LETTER and bore no visible signs of the ill-effects of recessionary times.

All of them had responded with impressive alacrity and innovation to shore up their defences and find new markets to replace lost sales.

Some had positively metamorphosed in recent times. All were well-led businesses with plenty of achievements notched up already. All demonstrated a clear vision of where they were heading.

In some ways, it was a bit unreal.

How can so many firms still be growing, even hiring staff, when we hear so much about rising unemployment, business bankruptcies and falling economic output?

It’s tempting to think that the businesses that have fallen by the wayside are those that have been badly managed.

But I can’t help conclude that well-managed, imaginatively-led businesses, with no or little debt, that possess a strong customer service ethos, a passion for what they do and which offer value for money, will get through the current hard times comfortably.

What did we learn

from these visits? That good businesses invest in their future by retaining profit. They also invest in their people by training them and paying them enough to retain them.

Nor was this superficial. In some cases, we got the impression that they were quite pastoral about it.

Another striking feature was the way the staff had bought in to the vision. It’s easy enough to speak to a business owner or chief executive and be given the party line on customer service and strategy, etc. But when you hear it back from the staff, then it’s plain that the strategy has been cascaded through the

business to the coal face and is for real.

Nor are these successful businesses paying any attention to the debate raging around them about how long it will take before the current gloom lifts. We heard the Chancellor use his recent Mansion House speech to repeat the claim that the economy would be back on track by the end of the year. Then we heard from the Governor of the Bank of England, who told us it could be a year or two yet before we see growth.

While our leaders squabble and disagree, the real entrepreneurs, the people who make a difference to the prosperity of their communities, are getting on with the job.

BILL GLEESON 3

NEWS

Business condfidence rises despite tough climate

Ian Goalen, senior partner for KPMG in Liverpool

BUSINESS confidence among Merseyside’s senior executives about their prospects is at its highest since spring last year, a new study claims.

This is despite an increase in the number of those facing financial difficulty, according to KPMG’s latest National Business Confidence Survey.

The proportion of senior executives questioned for KPMG

by Opinion Leader Research, who think their business prospects are good,

has almost doubled to 42%, from 22% in the first quarter of 2009.

And only one in four executives currently believe their own prospects are poor, down from 37% in the spring.

Ian Goalen, senior partner for KPMG in Liverpool, gave the finding a cautious welcome. He said: “While it’s encouraging, this is only an improvement compared to the spring which revealed the lowest levels of optimism since our survey began in 2004.”

City pension fund buys £115m of property IVERPOOL -BASED pension fund – Universities Superannuation Scheme – has completed three commercial property deals worth nearly £115m in less than two months.

USS has acquired two retail parks: Marsh Mills Retail Park, in Plymouth, and Enfield Retail Park, Enfield, in separate deals from the former Norwich Property Trust and Henderson Retail Warehouse Fund respectively.

On the industrial side, it has also purchased the majority of Prologis Park, Bromley by Bow, in east London.

The units acquired at Prologis Park comprise 500,000 sq ft of industrial and warehousing accommodation, just half a mile from Canary Wharf.

As well as units let to tenants such as Iron Mountain, Dutch logistics company MAAS Systems and Crown Records Management, the estate includes the Royal Mail sorting centre for the whole of the City of London, as well as north and east London.

Across the retail parks, tenants include Homebase, Currys , DFS, Furniture Village, JJB Sports, TGI Friday's, Toys "R" Us and Halfords.

Philip Rooney, managing partner at law firm DLA Piper Liverpool, who led the teams advising on each of the USS acquisitions, said: “In the last two to three months, sentiment has changed in the marketplace.

“Those with cash are now capitalising on the opportunities in real estate, which are being thrown up by the current state of the market.

“With excellent yields achievable of 8% or more, it makes sense to acquire investments now which are let to good quality covenants. Where potential buyers have cash, we have seen stiff competition for quality assets.”

L

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DLA Piper managing partner, Philip Rooney – advised on the deals

Brendan Luddan, from New Concept – scored a winner with the company’s in-game jOG

New Concept in award hat-trick TWO Liverpool firms scooped accolades at the Big Chip Awards, the North West’s annual awards for digital excellence.

New Concept Gaming won three awards, while Mando Group won one at the ceremony at the Palace Hotel, in Manchester.

New Concept Gaming scored a hat-trick with their jOG concept – an in-game motion-sensing controller – which won Best Application of Technology, Big Chip International Award for Innovation and the overall Grand Prix Prize.

Web design agency Mando Group scooped best Public Sector Project for Liverpool Biennial 2008. The ceremony was rounded off by comedian, actor and musician Bill Bailey,

who took to the stage for a 15-minute mini-gig.

Organised by Manchester Digital, the trade association for the North West’s digital sector, the awards attracted a record number of entries, with 226 in total from 134 companies – and a shortlist of 55 entries.

Manchester’s LOVE also won four awards, for Best Digital Marketing Campaign for Doctor Martens, Best Use of Visual Design for its LOVE website, the Big Chip New Media Agency Award and the Tasty Website Award.

Mark Hughes, executive director of Economic Development at the Northwest Development Agency, said: “These are exciting times for the region’s digital and creative sector.”

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Steps to success

Dance teacher Clare benefits from business support STEPCLEVER is an exciting initiative helping generate an enterprise culture in North Liverpool and South Sefton, by offering free business advice, grants and other financial support for existing enterprises, start-up companies and individuals. Here we look at a successful business helped by Stepclever.

CLARE ROBERTS has always had a passion for dancing – so it was only natural that she would set up her own business, Dance Passion.

The 27-year-old professional dancer opened up the Liverpool-based dance agency in 2007, providing dance training, choreography and performance to dance organisations and individuals of all ages, who love to dance.

“I started ballet dancing at the age of four, and I later went on to learn Latin American,” said Clare.

“I have always been a dance enthusiast and,

through my agency, I am now able to pass on my enthusiasm and passion to others.”

Clare, who has danced on the international stage and has represented England at a professional level, is now using her skills, expertise and passion to help other people achieve their dancing dreams.

As a fully qualified dance teacher, before starting her own business, Clare was employed at Broughton Hall School, in Liverpool.

She added: “It was a big decision to become self-employed, but I’m so glad I did it as I am thoroughly enjoying working for myself.

“Clare received support through the Stepclever programme and specialist support for women through enterprise agency Train 2000.

“I have been really impressed with all the help and support I have received,” said Clare.

“With the Stepclever grant I was awarded, I was able to finance my website, a new laptop and some advertising

for my business.” Clare has also joined the newly-formed Stepclever Women’s Group, a network that has been set up

by Train 2000 through the Stepclever programme.

It enables self-employed businesswomen to meet on a monthly basis to share ideas, support one another and get advice from a series of guest speakers.

Clare said: “The Stepclever Women’s Group is a real source of inspiration and information, and I am particularly glad that this has been set up, as sometimes, being selfemployed, you can feel on your own.

“I am so passionate about dancing and the work that I do, but the business side of things has been much more difficult for me, so the support of the women’s group and the training sessions on areas such as tax and National Insurance and PR have been invaluable to me.”

Clare is extremely positive about the future of Dance Passion and believes that her

Support for Business

business will grow, going from strength to strength.

■ FOR information about Dance Passion, call Clare on 07751 240 230, or visit her website at: www. dance-passion.co.uk

Latin night DANCE Passion holds an annual Latin American Dance evening every year in July, in Liverpool.

Last year, more than 200 people enjoyed it.

The event brings together people who love to dance, as well as those who are just willing to give it a go.

Attendees will enjoy a flavour of song and dance along with a buffet, in order to keep those energy levels up for dancing!

There will also be an auction held in order to raise money for a local charity, which this year is Marie Curie.

This year’s event will be held on Saturday, July 4, at a venue to be arranged.

LINACRE L NA RE E

We can Help

Stepclever offers FREE specialist advice to growing businesses including access to a range of financial incentives, support with developing your business idea, managed referrals to other available support, developing new production processes, finding suitable business premises and a dedicated Business Development Manager to help you on a one to one basis through the whole process.

If you would like some more information please contact us by either email or phone.

DERBY BOOTLE

• Want to grow your business and create new job opportunities?

• Want to know how to get FREE advice and continued support to develop your idea?

• Require financial assistance to help you achieve your goals?

Clare Roberts – the brains behind Dance Passion

COUNTY O NTY Y EVERTON FC

BANKHALL

K K KIRK KD KDALE

VAUXHALL

ANFIELD

LIVERPOOL FC

EVERTON LIVERPOOL CITY CENTRE

You can call us, free of charge, on 0800 030 4376 Email: info@stepclever.co.uk

www.stepclever.co.uk

© Crown copyright.

All rights reserved 100018351 2008

Who to contact Stepclever has established offices in the heart of the communities serving the areas of Anfield, Everton, Kirkdale, County in north Liverpool and Derby and Linacre in south Sefton.

5

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Business with added value Skills demanded at senior management level offered through leading edge courses THE European Centre for Corporate Governance, at Liverpool John Moores University, is directed by Professor of Corporate Governance, Stephen Letza.

Professor Letza has written over 200 academic papers and several research-based books.

Professor Letza says: “Corporate governance has risen to the top of the agenda for many companies in these troubled times: one only has to look at the banking crisis to see the significance of issues such as regulation and control.

“Even the very essence of what constitutes a modern capitalist approach is changing due to the current global crisis.

“A knowledge-based economy requires people to view themselves as a brand to which they constantly add value in order to make themselves 'recession proof'.

“Companies see knowledge creation and thought leadership as crucial elements in their strategic approach to global competition.”

Professor Stephen Letza Professor Letza has a wealth of industry experience and is currently a non-executive director for two companies, including Controline, which is involved in high-technology control systems.

“We aim to develop a blend of leading edge theory and real life practical experiences on the MSc Corporate Governance programme at LJMU. “For an intelligent, ambitious individual wishing to augment their

qualifications and knowledge in a leading edge area, which will always be demanded at senior management and director levels, the corporate governance leading edge course can add value to your business and represents a very coherent choice.

“Companies can use this knowledge in numerous beneficial ways.”

Professor Letza is a chartered accountant and Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

Away from his busy academic life, Professor Letza enjoys spending time with his family, as well as playing his beloved trombone – he was once a member of the National Youth Orchestra.

■ FOR further information on the European Centre for Corporate Governance, or to apply for the MSc in Corporate Governance, email: blwpg@ljmu.ac.uk or telephone 0151 231 3800.

You can also visit the website at: www. ljmu.ac.uk/eccg

LJMU offers desirable qualifications at its European Centre for Corporate Governance

have you got what it takes to be a 21 Century Business Leader? st

Prestigious MSc Programmes in Corporate Governance Commencing October 2009 You have achieved a lot but the professional in you knows you have to take the extra step to attain excellence. As the world evolves, business decision makers need the tools and skills to analyse, and find effective solutions to, a range of complex issues.

The European Centre for Corporate Governance (ECCG) offers flexible, one year Masters level programmes in Corporate Governance, Risk and Crisis Management, Corporate Social Responsibility, and Management Consultancy.There is also the potential to undertake PhD studies in these areas.

The MSc programmes develop in participants the ability to perform in a variety of business settings, and provide the perfect opportunity to learn from experienced business practitioners who are highly academically qualified.

Whether you are running your own business, managing a department or working your way up the corporate ladder, our programmes and expertise are invaluable.

6

If you have at least 3 years’ management experience and a good first degree or other relevant qualifications then these programmes can help you to fulfill your career aspirations. We also invite applications from exceptional people who may have a non-standard background.

Experienced MBA graduates can also apply for our fast track route (normally 7-8 months).

ECCG has an established reputation for excellence in corporate governance, leadership and management education. Our degrees are recognised by North of England Excellence who sponsor an annual award for the best performer.

The next induction day is 5th October 2009.

For details on how our MSc programmes can best meet your needs please the contact the Programme Administration team on telephone: 0151 231 3800 or email: blwpg@ljmu.ac.uk quoting reference LXM43. Alternatively, you can visit the website at www.ljmu.ac.uk/eccg

THE BIG INTERVIEW

Morris builds for the future

BY BARRY TURNBULL

▲ ▲

There are still a few rays of sunshine among the black clouds of economic woe.

Just ask Joe Morris, operations director of the Home Bargain discount chain.

7

THE BIG INTERVIEW JOE MORRIS CONTINUED FROM PAGE 7 E CAN’T help smiling as sales soar and expansion plans are set to proceed at breakneck speed. I met up with him inside a giant 350,000 sq ft shed that has been constructed at company headquarters in Gillmoss to complement another monster of 300,000 sq ft, all designed to handle the business’s vast quantities of stock.

The family firm has grown progressively to 180 UK stores, but the new handling capacity has been created to cater for 350 shops.

But there will be no stopping at that point, as the plan is to drive on towards 500 stores, which means yet more warehousing space will be required.

Not bad for a business founded less than 40 years ago in Old Swan selling toilet rolls and odds-and-ends.

Although the three Morris brothers who run the chain had big ideas about how to develop the business, the recession has created even more demand than they anticipated from bargain-conscious shoppers.

Joe Morris said: “We have invested £35m in extra space, both in terms of the building and the technology which uses robots to handle the pallets. We currently have space for around 17,000 pallets but that will be going up to 60,000.

“We preferred to put up our own building, rather than rent, as it gives us much more control.The expansion is necessary to service the increased number of shops we plan to open over the next few years.

“We had this in mind four years ago, so it was pre-credit crunch, but that hasn’t deterred us from pressing ahead.

“It’s a big challenge and we have a fair way to go to reach 350 shops but there are lots of areas of the country that we feel will welcome the brand.”

The family’s confidence is certainly backed up by the figures.

The current 25% year-on-year sales increase follows year-end results for 2008, which showed operating profit reaching £34.7m – a £5m increase on 2007.

Turnover has also demonstrated impressive growth, coming in at £383m, up from £322m in 2007.

This follows several years of sustained growth.

That trend looks set to continue with the recession pulling in ever greater numbers.

Morris continued: “If people are looking to save a few quid, we offer great value for money. And who isn’t, these days?

“People are living longer, so there are more pensioners, but at the other end of the scale you have people like students also watching the pennies.

“These sort of circumstances suit our business model, although we don’t have a typical customer in mind. We don’t do market research or anything like that, it’s just a matter of putting products on the shelves for people to buy them.

“However, that doesn’t make us complacent because every day is a challenge. We don’t have any direct competitors as such, but lots of people are looking at discounting these days, even businesses like Tesco, so you always have to keep on top of the business.”

He says the business is still relatively small in national terms, but the growth strategy will make them a bigger player in time.

The heartland for Home Bargains is the North-West, but the brand is also strong in the Midlands and has made in-roads into the North-East.

H

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TJ Morris operations director Joe Morris, centre, opens the new Home Bargains store in Prescot Road, Old Swan, with staff, from left, Emma It is envisaged that many other regions will also be hungry for discounting stores.

Earlier this year, the firm made its first foray into Scotland, at Bathgate, in the Lothians, and intends to operate six outlets in the Glasgow area.

Former Woolworths stores that have been taken over are scattered around England and Scotland and locations include Oswestry,

Blackpool and South Road, in Waterloo.

Products are frequently changed as new opportunities arise. The business takes lots of clearance lines and unused stock and because they take such big quantities they can strike some good deals.

And they also retain just 4,000 lines, compared with Tesco which has around 60,000. The low number of product lines means stock control

is much more efficient. A recent survey showed that the chain is now the second biggest independent retail grocer with food and drink sales rising fast.

“We can take a lot of stock off people’s hands,” he added. “So we can pass on some real bargains to customers. Because we are a family firm, we can also make quick decisions when necessary.

“We also keep a very keen eye on

costs. In this business, it’s very much about being lean and mean.” That frugal mindset also mean the company has managed its own affairs in a prudent way and is therefore is in a strong position in terms of its own cashflow and balance sheet.

Home Bargain does not rely on bank funding but has an excellent credit rating and when it does borrow it tends to pay off loans

THE BIG INTERVIEW JOE MORRIS

Joe Morris outside TJ Morris’s expanded Gillmoss warehouse

Latimer, Diane Lewis, Jennifer Pasztak, and Callie Smith quickly. It’s a position many other firms would envy, and means other ways of raising cash are not necessary.

Morris explained: “We are in a very good position in not relying on banks, although we do have a very good relationship with our bankers.

“It also means that going to the market for a flotation is not on the agenda.

“As I said, we like to be able to

control all aspects of the business without being beholden to shareholders.”

In January this year, the business announced it was acquiring 14 former Woolworths stores after the iconic brand collapsed into administration.

Since then, it has relocated its very first high street store, which opened in Old Swan’s Prescot Road, in 1979, to the nearby former

Mark Basnett, of The Mersey Partnership, second right, presents the Investment of the Year Award to Joe Morris and the TJ Morris team at last year’s Daily Post Regional Business Awards Woolworths site, doubling staffing numbers from 15 to 30. Morris sees the irony.

He said: “We started in Old Swan 30 years ago, so I suppose it’s a bit like going back to the future.

Woolworths, of course, seemed to be an unshakeable high street giant and competitor to what was then the Home Bargain minnow.

“Woolworths seemed to be in a different league all those years ago.

This shows how the retail market can change because they were the sort of company that set the standards.”

There are still a couple of areas in which the company hopes to improve. Shoplifting continues to plague the stores, amounting to £6m a year, although there is still no intention to introduce security.

The hope is that competent staff will help combat the problem.

There is also no online presence although the firm did operate a website called halfpriceorless.com but that was closed six years ago.

Morris explained: “It’s something we may return to in the future but at the moment management time is focused. Besides which, a lot of our stuff, such as toilet rolls, doesn’t lend itself to being an online product.”

The ultimate aim for Home Bargains is to become a £1bn a year concern, which would catapult it into a major retail force. It is hoped that can be achieved by 2015.

One way the chain does stand out from the crowd is the attention to detail in terms of fitting out new stores. It’s not a case of a slap of paint and a new sign – each outlet receives a three-month £500,000 makeover.

Another unusual part of the business model is that the company does not advertise or use public relations to promote the brand.

Again, the emphasis is on keeping costs down and advertising is seen as an unnecessary extravagance.

Morris says the reputation of the business spreads by word of mouth, and the slogan “Top brands at bottom prices”.

It makes you wonder what effect advertising would have on the business. Morris said: “As I’ve said, for us it’s about keeping costs down and delivering quality products at value prices, and customers seem to appreciate that.”

Casting his eye over the wider economy, he commented: “There is a long way to go. At the moment, as a country, we appear to be in uncharted territory as far as the economy is concerned.

“The golden age of cheap credit is over and it has been a tremendous reality check for everyone.

“It’s difficult to know where it will end, but the current bite is likely to last years. We are in as good a position as anyone to weather the storm.”

TJ Morris was established over 30 years ago by Tom Morris. Since opening his first store in Liverpool, he has grown the business organically to become one of the biggest privately owned companies in the country.

The company now boasts over 170 stores and employs more than 4,000 staff. It is widely regarded as one of the largest businesses in Merseyside with its long-term plans including the employment of 12,000 people.

After our chat, Morris announced that he was on a tour of stores in the North-East the following day.

Although his visit is in the business diary, he admits to sometimes calling in at some stores incognito to check whether everything is as it should be.

Outside of the business, TJ Morris is also actively involved in supporting enterprise in schools and colleges.

As well as financially supporting a number of schools, the company works closely with them to provide practical business experience.

Morris also sits on the Advisory Board of the University of Liverpool’s School of Management and the company has also been a leading supporter of an initiative called the Enterprise Game.

Developed in conjunction with Halton Borough Council, the game aims to develop entrepreneurial skills in young people.

Players run their own business and must use their new skills to try and make their enterprise as successful as possible.

Morris explained: “We support a range of community organisations and projects. Our focus is on enriching the lives of local people.”

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

Going places – Widnes Waterfront, now poised to become a major new employment site for the area

Halton makes land acquisition

Purchase of industrial land will help push forward huge Widnes Waterfront regeneration scheme A MAJOR investment opportunity for new buildings has been created on the banks of the Mersey.

Halton Council has acquired a 40acre industrial development site with £6.1m of supported funding from Northwest Development Agency.

It will form part of the Widnes Waterfront regeneration scheme, which is challenged with breathing new life into huge swathes of brownfield land.

The site is situated off Gorsey

Lane, in close proximity to the site of the proposed new Mersey Gateway bridge, and is one of the largest parcels of commercial land to go on sale in the borough for over ten years.

The site is currently occupied by Bayer Crop Science, which announced closure of the site in 2007 as part of a restructure of operations and is due to vacate the site by March, 2011.

This summer, the council will begin a master-planning exercise to

evaluate potential uses for the site, and create a detailed plan by 2010.

When completed, the Widnes Waterfront will generate and safeguard over 1,000 jobs in the area.

Tony McDermott, leader of Halton Borough Council, said: "This is a major step forward for the regeneration of the Widnes Waterfront.

“The sheer size of this piece of land offers unprecedented opportunities in terms of jobs and regeneration.

“Over the next eight months, we will carry out extensive analysis into the potential uses for the site, and put together a strategic masterplan which will complement the diversity or the waterfront's current commercial offering."

Steven Broomhead, Chief Executive of the NWDA, said: "This site is located in a key position within Widnes Waterfront, and this investment will help to unlock its potential as a major new employment site for the area.

“The Agency has already invested over £6m to take forward the transformation of Widnes Waterfront into a prime business location, and this additional investment will support further commercial development within the site."

Brendan O'Herlihy, director of BNP Paribas Real Estate, said: "We are delighted to be acting for Bayer on the region's biggest single sale of industrial land to a sole purchaser."

Extensive research work will be needed on the chemicals site.

Big Rack is now back on the market

ONE of Merseyside’s big sheds is being relaunched today (June 23).

The Big Rack, in Knowsley, has vacant space amounting to 475,000 sq ft.

Last year, healthcare group Movianto became a new tenant, taking 79,263 sq ft industrial warehouse at Deacon Park.

The pan-European healthcare logistics

10

supplier agreed a 10-year lease from landlord Highcross, at £3.75 per sq ft on the fully racked facility, which is on a five-acre site around six miles from Liverpool city centre.

The joint letting agents were Jones Lang LaSalle, CB Richard Ellis and Edward Symmons.

Deacon Park is sited on the junction of the

M57/A580 East Lancs Road and is part of the 1,200-acre Knowsley Industrial Estate.

In recent years, investment has changed the whole character of the park, with new industrial schemes, a hotel and Liverpool FC’s Academy. Current occupiers on the park include QVC,St Ivel and Vertex.

Property agents tucking into a fish and chip lunch on a visit to The Big Rack

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

Glut of empty big sheds costs landlords dear Huge warehouses are standing empty due to market lull

Occupier wanted – The Vault, situated close to Liverpool John Lennon airport

The Vault is ready to open for business A MONSTER shed built in the shadow of Liverpool airport was sold to a US investment group in an unusual deal sealed last year.

The cavernous Vault building covers 618,000 sq ft, but has been empty since it was completed

by Gladman at the beginning of last year.

Rockpoint snapped up the structure, via UK partner Evander Properties, which is now seeking to find an occupier.

The Vault formed part of a portfolio of buildings that Gladman sold on for £4m.

Marketing manager Richard Horsefield said: “There was a lot of interest in the development from people with a particular requirement.

“You would probably be looking at something airport or ports-related, possibly retail distribution.

“You are also looking for just one occupier and, while all that might sound challenging, there

are not that many buildings of this size in the region, so that puts you in the running when someone is looking for something like this.

“It is unusual to sell to an investment fund, but they clearly feel it is a good opportunity even in the present market.”

Gladman is the only major distribution developer to incorporate an internal building/ contracting division.

As a result, the costs of returning to the site to retro-fi t items and carry out bespoke alterations are minimal, in comparison to traditional speculative design and build contracts utilising external contractors.

He said this will enable the warehouse floor to be retro-fitted, allowing customers to vary the floor specification to suit their own requirements, saving them significant cost and time implications.

The Vault is situated at Liverpool International Business Park, close to the airport.

A SURFEIT of big warehousing sheds on the market is causing a headache for landlords and property agents alike.

When business was booming between 2005 and 2007, many large-scale units were built, a number of them very successfully.

Now, however, the landscape has changed, with over-supply a clear problem, along with the dreaded empty buildings tax.

For instance, at a 456,000 sq ft building known as The Rack, in Knowsley, owners Highcross will have to pay around £350,000 a year if it remains vacant.

At Dallam Lane, in Warrington, DHL is about to vacate a 375,000 sq ft facility that will cost £1.75 sq ft to keep empty or £656,000 per annum.

No wonder some owners are opting to tear buildings down.

Howard George, big property specialist at commercial agency CBRE, said: “The empty building rates burden is a huge issue and a massive squeeze on company balance sheets.

“If a building becomes vacant, it creates a huge pressure to be filled to meet the high bills that accrue.

“The problem we have is that, in the good times ,too many units were built in the North-West and Midlands, and this has led to over-supply.”

There are numerous examples across Merseyside. Examples include: ■ The Big Rack, Knowsley (456,000 sq ft); ■ The Bear, Widnes (Up to 150,000 sq ft); ■ Manor Point, Runcorn (128,000 sq ft); ■ Pioneer Point, Ellesmere Port (625,000 sq ft); ■ The Vault, Liverpool International Business Park (618,000 sq ft); ■ Atlantic Park, Netherton (275,000 sq ft); ■ G Park, Gillmoss (360,000 sq ft).

However, the picture is not entirely bleak. There still remains plenty of activity in the big lettings market, unlike further down the scale.

Mr George added: “We are still seeing activity, but it is the smaller

Available – 625,000 square feet of space at vacant Pioneer Point, in Ellesmere Port multi-lets that are really struggling.

Also, the acquisition picture is positive and we are acting for a number of clients who have requirements.”

Not only that, there are bargains to be had as hard-pressed owners are desperate to shift space.

At Stadium Industry Park, in St Helens, rentals are available at just 99p per square foot. There is 257,000 sq ft available until the site is cleared to make way for a new stadium for St Helens rugby club.

Mr George said: “This is the time to act, because there are some very

good deals out there.” Property agents Colliers CRE says the availability of new stock will gradually reduce, as there are very few new schemes planned to start this year.

A spokesman said: “We anticipate that the tough market conditions will continue throughout 2009.

“We do not see this situation improving until early 2010.

“Currently, the North -West has an over-supply issue.

“However, there will be a shortage of new accommodation by the time the latter half of 2010 comes around.”

Warrington defies property gloom

High-profile – Bridgewater Place, Birchwood Park

WARRINGTON is defying the gloom around the UK commercial property sector with take-up of office space up 20% in 2008, according to a new report.

The Warrington Annual Property Review, produced for the borough council by BE Group, revealed that the local office market recorded its second-highest number

of deals of more than 2,000 sq ft since 1997.

By the end of 2008, total office space take-up had increased by 20% from the 2007 level, to reach more than 250,000 sq ft.

This coincided with a new high prime office rent achieved by MEPC’s Birchwood Park, where the high-profile Bridgewater Place attracted relocations from

Rolls-Royce and UKAEA, at just under £18.50 per sq ft.

The review cited the 50-hectare Birchwood Park as “the 2008 success story”.

Near Junction 11 of the M62, the park accounted for a third of the office take-up across Warrington, with 14 transactions out of 47. This also included two of the largest three deals done in the year.

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WEALTH MANAGEMENT

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Private equity proves popular Steve Sealey, centre, with James Wilkins and Mark Bigley, directors of Aintree-based postal services firm Secured Mail, a recent Aquarius investment

High net worth individuals turn away from traditional investments and look for lucrative alternatives HERE was a time when wealthy individuals would have pretty straightforward choices when it came to decisions on how to invest their money.

They could put it in a high interest savings account, let a stockbroker play the markets with it, or maybe invest it in property.

All those options can still yield good returns, but the global financial crisis of the last 12 months has dramatically changed perceptions of where it is safe to put your money.

High net worth individuals have seen the banking system being brought to the brink of collapse and subsequently stock markets have become volatile.

Property is now also crossed off the list of many people as the value of both residential and commercial

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buildings has plummeted. Despite their new-found lack of trust in bankers, stockbrokers and financial advisors, the wealthy are still not keen on the idea of stuffing their cash under the mattress.

So many are now being courted by an increasingly dynamic group of private equity investors who are offering the potential of generous returns on investments.

A number of such practitioners are now active in Merseyside and the North West and are specialising in offering investments in real trading companies with high growth potential. One of the leading players is Steve Sealey, who made his fortune from the sale of Skelmersdale-based AM Paper.

For the last few years, he has been running Aquarius Equity Partners (AEP), a venture capital fund

manager which currently operates two funds and last month launched a third. AEP generates millions of pounds for investment from a network of high net worth individuals from across the North West and beyond.

The company was established in July, 2005, after the buy-out of Axiomlab Investment Management from the Axiomlab Group.

As part of the deal, Aquarius took over the management of a £4.5m regional venture capital fund, the North West Seed Fund, or NWSF, funded by the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA). It made equity investments of up to £350,000 in seed fund and early stage businesses.

In 2007, Aquarius launched the Northern Entrepreneurs Fund, a £20m fund specifically raised to

invest in progressive companies within the “equity gap” range of between £750,000 and £2m.

In May this year, it launched the Aquarius Origin Fund, which aims to raise £7.5m from wealthy individuals to invest in early stage companies, in particular those who have potentially valuable protected intellectual property.

The twist with this fund is that it will allow people to invest through their SIPPs (Self-Invested Personal Pension), thereby enjoying considerable tax benefits on their investment returns.

Sealey said the fund was “truly different” and had already attracted “significant” funding commitments from some of the region’s most successful entrepreneurs.

“We think this is a wonderful idea and is a real unique selling point,”

said Sealey. “There are no shortage of businesses who fit that category and are looking for investment.

“In the current climate, I think we offer something very attractive from an investor’s point of view. Many wealthy individuals have become disillusioned with some of the more traditional ways of managing their wealth.

“They have had a real battering in the current climate. They don’t trust the banks, equity markets are uncertain and property has not yet reached the bottom.

“What we offer is attractive because the value of companies is very low at the moment.”

In June, four North West financiers launched a new corporate recovery fund and debt advisory service targeting distressed businesses.

Andy Ball, Grant Berry, Tim

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

Open to ideas – James Dow, of Dow Schofield Watts

as investors hunt new options Murphy and Dan Wright have formed NorthEdge Capital, a new corporate recovery resource for all stakeholders in businesses with a turnover greater than £10m.

The fund, which is not sectorspecific and will operate nationally but with a focus on the North, is seeking institutions and individuals of high net worth interested in becoming active investors.

Between the four partners, the NorthEdge team has been responsible for actual realised returns of over £450m over the last few years in both distressed and mid-market private equity deals from over £200m invested across the North of England.

Partner Grant Berry said: “We are looking for businesses where we can re-organise funding, work alongside management and introduce active

investors with relevant experience to the team.

“We have funding and a serious track record of success. Further, we have taken a decision to limit the number of deals to guarantee genuine personal involvement from the partner base.

“In our first year, we aim to be involved in up to four deals.

“We are confident that our model will appeal to outstanding business people with funds to invest.”

In March, PHD Equity Partners Fund No 1 was launched by the partners of Warrington corporate finance firm, Dow Schofield Watts.

The fund has now achieved it first “close”, meaning it has successfully raised its first tranche of cash from investors.

The total raised so far is £4.68m, mainly from high net worth

individuals, and the fund will have its final close before the end of the year and will be capped at £10m.

Once fully invested, it is expected to make up to 12 investments, focusing on buy-outs of up to £10m transaction size in established businesses.

It will also seek to invest in larger transactions through co-investment opportunities with other private equity funds.

Dow Schofield Watts director, James Dow, told LDP Business earlier this year they had been “extremely pleased” with the response given the current economic climate.

“We have mainly approached people who were already known to us and we were very happy with the response,” he said.

“We are open to ideas, but we

won’t be looking at start-ups or sectors like construction.

“Deals will have a mix of our funding, money from banks and capital from shareholders, so a £10m fund actually gives us a purchasing power of about £30m.”

Liverpool city centre law firm O’Connors is advising the fund.

Partner Mark O’Connor said the success of the initial fundraising showed there was still an appetite for good quality venture capital deals.

He added: “The fund is aimed at investment sizes where, traditionally, it has been difficult to raise capital and we expect it to do really well.

“Despite the underlying economic uncertainties, we are seeing an increasing number of individuals, consolidators and institutions looking to re-enter the small and mid-cap markets .”

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14

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

EDUCATION

Tailoring key training needs Liverpool Chamber offers the perfect combination of experience and innovation ECESSION or no, Trident, the training arm of Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, has never been stronger.

In simple financial terms, it soared last year from a £549,979 turnover in 2006-07 to £687,290 during 2007-08.

And indications are that its expanding programmes, linked to government funding for learners, mean the Chamber’s financial driving force is consolidating its position even more as companies and individuals recognise the need to upskill in such testing commercial times.

Trident Training, based within the Chamber’s Old Hall Street headquarters, has been around for 23 years providing learning opportunities for its members and a wider range of local and national clients.

Lynn Lock has been workforce development manager with the organisation for six months, but has seen it embrace the ethos of flexible services and recruit more assessors in a bid to reach out to even more clients.

She said: “We are a 24/7 business and assessors go out in the evening to sign up people and make presentations to people on night shifts.”

The organisation can offer up to nine programmes across various government-funded initiatives, ranging from Train to Gain, retail skills, management, team leader and customer service NVQs and a certificate in volunteering.

Trident has up to 400 learners at any one time training.

Lynn’s team carry out a training needs analysis with clients to identify gaps to address: “We can then knit them a programme to develop their people.”

Training can take place either in the workplace, at the Chamber’s own state-of-the-art training centre, or even at home through an innovative IT development.

Lynn said: “We have an ‘e-portfolio’ which is an icon that sits on your computer desktop that does away with the need for paper, but also improves visibility for learners to see where they are up to in their training and lets people do extra work at home on their PC.” Trident’s clients are just as diverse as its programmes, with ages ranging from 16 to people in their 70s.

“We have funding for people with no qualifications at all to get them into the learning cycle.”

The most popular courses are Train to Gain and the Young Apprenticeships programme.

Lynn explained: “Small firms, in particular, can access great funding for Train to Gain, especially in this economic climate.

“However, the funding pot is quite tight at the moment. But we hope that might increase in the near future because it is very, very popular.”

She believes all the support possible should be available because, in times of economic downturn, many companies cut training costs

R

as a matter of course: “Marketing and training go in a recession, which is foolhardy because it is the ideal opportunity to get people ready for the upturn in the future.”

But, in some ways, this can benefit organisations like Trident Training: “We find in tough times like this employers tend to cut back on their training departments and see us as a bolt-on option.”

Liverpool Chamber is also leading the way on apprenticeship skills and has been chosen to run the first scheme within the National Apprenticeship Service which is replacing the Learning and Skills Council.

Rachele Ellis, 24, who works as a PA for the National Apprenticeship Service, will be the first in the country within the service on the programme when she takes on a business admin course run through the Chamber’s Trident Training organisation.

In the meantime, Trident is steadily building its client base across all sectors, from organisations like ScottishPower to one-man bands, as well as charities and hospitals, which is a sector Trident believes offers great potential.

“We are currently helping volunteers at Clatterbridge and Aintree Hospitals, respectively. The third sector is big in everyone’s focus.”

Another fertile area for training over the next few years is a course for taxi drivers.

The Road Passenger Vehicle Driving level 2 qualification is now available, and Lynn believes that, within five years, it is likely all taxi drivers will need this to gain their licence.

“All licensing authorities have different needs for taxi training, and we are currently working with all five Merseyside councils on this.

“The Skills Sector have set the new training requirements for the taxi programme and we deal with private hire and hackney cabs.

“We work with drivers on the road, rather than in the classroom, so it is more flexible.

“If they are offline, they are not earning. We are very driver-responsive.”

Lynn said since the downturn more workers are interested in training to build their skills when Trident assessors go into a workplace.

“No-one knows what is around the corner, so we give people as many skills on their CV as possible.

People do feel the need to upskill themselves.”

Staff can even gain accreditation for existing skills they have acquired as part of their job to enhance their CV even more.

Lynn explained: “We can give accreditation for prior learning.

“This is a big factor and is a case of rewarding the skills people have already achieved, so long as they are easily evident.

“We use Dictaphones, witness testimonies from employers and photographs so people don’t have to be sat in a classroom writing reams and reams of paperwork.”

Lynn Lock, workforce development manager with Trident Training, based in the Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, inset

15

EDUCATION

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Rachele Ellis, the first apprentice for the regional National Apprentice Service, with the organisation’s Director of Employer Services, John Myers, pictured at Trident Training

First for Rachele

Pioneering the latest apprenticeship training for the region RACHELE ELLIS is blazing a trail for Trident Training.

She is the first apprentice for the new National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) in the North West, which is taking on work from the Learning and Skills Council, and is undertaking an Apprenticeship in Business Administration, working towards NVQ Level 2.

Rachele is currently working as an administrator for the NAS and is part of the Employer Services Team who work directly with North West employers encouraging and supporting them to take on apprentices.

Her role involves working closely with the NAS Director of Employer Services, John Myers.

This work includes taking enquiries from employers and providing essential support and co-ordination for the Employer Services teams covering the North West regions of Merseyside and Cheshire and

16

Warrington. Rachele revealed that she hopes that starting her apprenticeship will help her progress within NAS in the near future, and will lead to her gaining more confidence when working with employers.

She said: “I’m really excited to start an apprenticeship and to be the first apprentice for the NAS in the North West.

“It’s a great opportunity to develop new skills and will help me progress.

She added: “It will give me more confidence to try new things and to get more involved with the employer services work, which is all new to me at the moment.”

Looking further ahead, Rachele said she was hoping to move on to an Advanced Apprenticeship after she had completed her current level 2 programme.

The National Apprenticeship Service was officially launched in April this year, and will be the vehicle used to drive forward the

Government’s ambition for apprenticeships.

NAS will assume total responsibility for the delivery of apprenticeships, and aims to encourage significant growth in the number of employers offering apprenticeships.

Its main focus will be to make it as easy as possible for employers to take on apprentices, streamlining the application process and offering support and advice at every step along the way for both the employer and the learner.

In addition, the NAS will have responsibility for the administration of the Apprenticeship “credit” initiative, and also management of a task force initiative to overcome particular barriers to the growth of the programme, along with responsibility for promoting Apprenticeships and their value to employers, learners and the country as a whole.

MORE THAN TWO DECADES OF SERVICE TRIDENT Training, a division of the Chamber of Commerce, was set up in 1986.

The organisation expanded rapidly and opened its own in-house training suite in 1992.

Since then, it has received an influx of trainees that reflect its success in building a reputation as a leading staff training organisation.

The division offers a host of training courses to suit the needs of its clients, ranging from accountancy and administration to customer service and IT. But it hasn’t always provided training for professional qualifications alone – other packages offered included training in equestrian skills, sports training and electrical skills.

Trident was split into four departments: administration, recruitment, training and a sports and recreational centre located in Wirral which only recently ended.

Its main aim was to train young people between 16-24 on government-led training programmes such as advanced modern apprenticeships, foundation modern apprenticeships, and NVQ training.

Trident became the preferred training provider for Liverpool council’s Positive Action Training Programme on an administration and customer service qualification which won the National Training Award in 2001.

And it was not only UK students who benefited from Trident's services.

In 2002, forty-nine Spanish students travelled to Liverpool to take up roles working in businesses across the region, and students from other European countries also experienced Trident's training facilities.

A number of Trident's courses also received the backing of Objective 1 European funding.

Invest in your future, through part-time study If you are looking to find new and interesting opportunities in the future, invest in yourself now. Develop your skills and knowledge in the stimulating environment that is Edge Hill Business School. Courses are designed in consultation with leading employers; ensuring students gain highly relevant experience and use industry standard equipment.

The Business School is committed to providing opportunities for those wanting to obtain their qualification at both undergraduate and postgraduate level on a part-time basis, enabling participants to continue working while developing their skills and knowledge.

UNDERGRADUATE DEGREES BSc (Hons) Business and Management BSc (Hons) Computing (Information Systems) There is government funding available for many students studying part-time degrees.

MASTERS PROGRAMMES MSc Computing and Information Systems MSc Internet Computing MA Management MSc Management Development MA Marketing and Communications MSc Web Development Courses run over half a day/evening or two evenings a week, supported by online resources for busy part-time students.

For more information on all the courses we offer, please visit our website:

edgehill.ac.uk/business

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18

THE BIG FEATURE

Golden opportunities

All that glitters is not gold . . . except in a recession, when the precious metal is one of the most reliable investments that money can buy

BY BARRY TURNBULL

â–˛ â–˛

Barry Turnbull discovers how the smart money is invested during a downturn

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THE BIG FEATURE

Brown sold off gold reserves cheaply

The lure of gold still hypnotises investors

A safe haven for your money And pawnbrokers are also doing a roaring trade . . . with the financially well-heeled N TIMES of economic uncertainty, many investors turn to gold, and this recession is no different. In fact, historically, the precious metal is legendary for its allure. Remember the fabled city of El Dorado, the Gold Rush in the United states and the fact that many longstanding wealthy families have hoarded tons of the glittering commodity.

Of course, there is always the exception that proves the rule.

Between 1999 and 2002 Gordon Brown, while chancellor, sold off half of Britain’s 395 tonnes of gold reserves – at the bottom of the market.

The difference between the value of the sold-off reserves then and now is a staggering £7bn.

Mr Brown has resisted attempts to release Treasury notes on the matter.

Today the price of the precious metal remains close to record levels of around $1,000 an ounce, with little

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sign of demand slowing. Fears that inflation may rise are contributing to the fact that gold is seen as a rock solid investment at times of crisis.

Total demand for gold in the first quarter of 2009 rose 38% year on year, to 1,016 tonnes.

According to figures published by the World Gold Council (WGC) in its first-quarter Gold Demand Trends report, identifiable investment demand for gold, which includes exchange traded funds (ETFs) and bars and coins, was the major source of growth in the quarter, reaching 596 tonnes.

Net retail investment (total bar and coin demand) remained highly robust, rising 33% year on year to 131 tonnes, despite some bar and coin sales in eastern markets as investors took profits.

Germany was the single biggest bar and coin market in quarter one, where demand rose 400% to 59 tonnes, with inflation concerns being

a key buying motivator. Aram Shishmanian, CEO of the World Gold Council, commented: “There has been a seismic shift away from capital appreciation towards wealth preservation, and we believe this trend will define investment behaviour in the next decade.

“Gold, as one of the few assets that has held its value during the current economic crisis, has been sought out by investors who are drawn to its proven, protective attributes as well as safeguarding themselves from the erosive effects of future inflation.

“The shift in the balance of demand that we have witnessed this quarter, where the gold price has risen despite a severe drop in jewellery and industrial demand, perfectly demonstrates the robust nature of gold’s fundamental supply and demand dynamics.”

David Owen, senior investment director at Rensburg Sheppards, in Liverpool, said: “Gold has an inverse

relationship with the dollar, which is at its lowest level for six months against a basket of six currencies.

“Investors have shunned dollar assets and are considering alternatives to the world's reserve currency.

“With unprecedented global stimulus passing through the system, gold is an ideal hedge against resurgent inflation as a traditional store of value.

“Gold pays no interest, but, with historically low base rates, the lost income is so small that many investors see it as an attractive shortand long-term investment.

“China owns $3 trillion of US bonds so any movement by them towards gold will inevitably force the price higher.”

With the spotlight on gold's recent surge, silver has been ignored. Yet this year, it has soared by 43% to a ten-month high of more than $16 an ounce. Gold has gained just 12%.

Silver is unusual as it is both a precious and an industrial metal.

Indeed, it tends to rise faster than gold as the market is smaller and less money is required to move it.

Gold is still being tipped by many analysts as the place to be though.

With minimum outlays of around £1,000 at most bullion companies, tangible investments are looking increasingly attractive for middle-income savers.

It seems that factors which once deterred people from investing in gold – such as bullion not paying interest – are no longer putting savers off.

However, the message is still that people should not put all their eggs in one basket.

Peter Bickley, director of economics at Deutsche Bank Private Wealth Management said: "As a house, we're very positive on gold.

Estimating how much it will go up by in the next year is a mug's game,

THE BIG FEATURE

Business owners seek to protect wealth from slump

COUTTS Bank says enquiries from entrepreneurs interested in wealth protection have increased markedly.

Around a third of the bank’s customers nationally are business owners, although on Merseyside this rises to 70%.

Personal banker John Price said: “Entrepreneurs require a tailored and integrated service for their extremely sophisticated financial needs.

“They need the expertise from someone who will have an in-depth understanding of their short, medium and long-term requirements as we will often find that entrepreneurs tend to have insufficient capital set aside to provide for long-term personal lifetime requirements, which may include retirement planning and schooling fees, for example.

“And, in many cases, particularly those looking to expand their operations, they also need immediate access to liquid funds and this requires access to a range of flexible lending products offering reserve lines of credit for standby use allowing them to borrow funds without being tied into rigid repayment structures.

“Recognising this and many of the other wealth management needs of this group, in 1999 Coutts & Co established a dedicated team of advisers focusing on the entrepreneur’s specific requirements.

“Coutts’s tailored approach to managing their wealth helps clients to build up their businesses, supports serial entrepreneurs in the buying and selling of businesses, while taking good care of their private financial requirements.”

Andrew Birley, right, and Aled Williams, of Birley Williams Wealth Management

in gloomy times but the arguments in its favour are strong.

“It's a safe haven in times of financial mayhem, though the strength of that argument is now diminishing.

“Also, it is a useful hedge against the risk of quantitative easing leading to inflation, and against the global attempt by governments to depreciate currencies. So it's certainly attractive at the moment."

Generally the cheapest ways to buy gold are bars, Krugerrands or sovereigns. Of these three options, gold bars can usually be bought for the lowest percentage premium, followed by Krugerrands then gold sovereigns.

He said most other gold coins are more expensive, and therefore generally avoided, at least by serious gold investors. British sovereigns featuring kings and queens are currently popular in the market-place.

Another aspect of the gold market relates to scrap or second-hand rings and bangles. High gold prices coupled with economic miseries brought about by the global financial crisis are forcing people to sell their old gold.

In fact some have described 2009 as the year of scrap gold and look at the Middle East bullion market if you need any proof.

Even as gold prices continue to march ahead to a record $1000 per ounce, scrap gold and jewellery items are flooding the bullion market across the Gulf nations.

Gold refiners in Dubai and other cities in the Middle East are these days buying big quantities of scrap from gold consuming countries like China and India.

And this is filtering down to other markets. One only has to look at the business done by Liverpool’s pawnbrokers where transactions in scrap gold have reached fever pitch.

Hayward Milton, of pawnbrokers Milton’s, said: “People are very well aware of the price of gold at the moment and are taking full advantage.

“In our sort of business word-of-mouth spreads the news very quickly.

“The market has certainly turned since Mr Brown decided to sell half our reserves but first flagged it up to the market which was the most stupid thing to do.

“Things have recovered since then.

In fact when there was fears of a run on the banks we had a stampede from people wanting to turn cash into gold.”

Mr Milton said gold was still a safe haven but warned that the pound’s relationship with the dollar was crucial: “People need to be aware that gold is valued in dollars so if the pound is weak it can have a significant effect on values.”

Now could be the time for medium to long term investors to come back WHILE recent falls in world stock markets have been a cause of considerable concern to many investors, history suggests this period could now be a buying opportunity.

At times like this, it’s easy to let short-term conditions influence long-term investment goals.

The credit crunch has certainly been unsettling, but reducing exposure to the stock market now could prove a mistake.

Aled Williams, of Williams Birley Wealth Management, based in Chester, said: “The message to investors has to be not to panic but to recognise that, in

the past, so-called ‘bear’ markets like these represent a real buying opportunity.

“Right now, there is a keen sense that market valuations are increasingly attractive in a number of sectors, providing huge opportunities for investors taking a medium to longer term view.

“Whenever confidence is shaken, however, higher risk opportunities, such as equities, tend to be avoided in favour of cash – the perceived safe haven. Yet, with interest rates at historic lows, those with cash on deposit stand to lose in real terms.”

21

THE BIG FEATURE

Market analysts optimistic MARKETS remain volatile although some sense of stability may be emerging.

Experts Robin Adamson, of Deutschebank, and Mark Esner, of Barclays Wealth, give their views.

Mr Adamson said: “If you believe that, over the long-term, equity markets will go up – and from today’s perspective that looks particularly compelling – then now is arguably the time to look at gearing.

“Gearing allows investors to squeeze extra performance from their investments.

“The vehicle in which you are invested borrows money to add alongside your investment. If the returns are greater than the costs of the debt, then your returns are enhanced.

“In a falling market, gearing obviously has the opposite effect – exacerbating returns. So you are recommended to take specialist advice before investing in geared funds.

“But, if you feel it’s time to step your investments up a gear, then investment trusts are worth considering – they are usually cheaper than unit trusts, and crucially often have a gearing facility.

“From a gearing perspective, the ideal investment trust is one that has the capacity to borrow on attractive terms during bull markets and the ability to reduce debt quickly during bear markets.

“There are three key issues to consider: how much the investment trust is using gearing, if it has the capacity to borrow, and, in both cases, what are the terms.”

Mark Esner, of Barclays, commented that market prospects were now looking brighter.

“The last year has been extremely difficult for all investors. But things are now looking rather brighter than they were, even a month ago.

“There has been a conspicuous recovery in share prices since early March, even if they remain well below their level of a year ago.

“Less obviously, but equally importantly, there has been some rather better news on the economy.

“This might seem like an odd claim to make, given that much of the day-to-day economic news has remained very grim.

“But there are growing indications that firms’ output – and individuals’ consumption – are not

22

falling quite as sharply as they were.

“Of course, recovery could still stall. There remain many risks. One of the lessons of last year was that an increase in investors’ fears of economic policy failing, and a really bad outcome – a prolonged 1930s-style depression – could quickly destroy confidence and the financial markets, too.

“Continued recovery will depend on investors keeping faith in government economic policy, and this faith is certain to be tested in the months ahead, particularly if retails sales keep falling.

“Policymakers in the UK have been busy cutting interest rates, and attempting to revive the economy and financial system by a wide range of other means.

“As we all know, policymakers in the US and Europe have been doing likewise. But you may be less aware of the enormous efforts by being made in China and other developing Asian economies to refloat their economies. “ These efforts are already having results, and Asia is likely to emerge from this downturn even stronger than before.

“Despite these efforts, recovery in the UK is likely to take some time to start, and will be slow and hesitant.

“And this is on the assumption that everything works out reasonably well from now onwards, with no further unexpected shocks to the global economy and financial system.

“The UK economy will certainly contract sharply this year. At best, it will expand only very slightly in 2010.

“High debt levels, for both individual households and the government, will put the brakes on personal and government spending.

This will hinder the recovery, as will rising unemployment.

“The slow pace of recovery means that central banks will keep interest rates low for some time to come.

“We don’t expect any increase from Bank of England’s Base Rate before late in 2010, at the earliest.

“In short, the fact that most people are less pessimistic about economic and investment prospects is a very good thing; if we could see reasons to become optimistic that would be an even better thing.”

Mark Esner – there has been a conspicuous recovery in share prices since early March

THE BIG FEATURE

The cash game has turned sour for some – not since the bursting of the dotcom bubble has so much money been wiped off the value of private wealth

Super-rich losing millions

New figures show the number of millionaires has slumped to 2003 levels due to the downturn HE number of millionaires in the UK has returned to 2003 levels due to the slump in property and share prices.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR) estimates there are currently 242,000 millionaires in the UK, compared to 489,000 in 2007.

Between 2003 and 2007, the number of millionaires rose from 230,000 to 489,000, with many people joining the elite club because of the rise in house prices. But, with the property market stalling, many people are back beneath the threshold.

In 2006, the CEBR estimated that there would be 760,000 millionaires in the UK by 2010; however, with the economic crisis in full flow, this figure will now be far lower.

With property prices showing signs of bottoming out, CEBR estimates that the number of millionaires will start to increase

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again in 2011. Billionaires are also facing financial problems in the recession, with the Sunday Times Rich List recently showing only 43 left in the UK, compared to 75 in 2008.

Not since the bursting of the dotcom bubble has so much money been wiped off the value of private wealth.

The list showed that steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal, the richest man in Britain, had his fortune slashed by £16.9bn to £10.8bn.

Chelsea football club owner Roman Abramovich also saw his fortune dwindle, losing £4.7bn.

Only one person in the top 20, Sir Ken Morrison, increased their wealth – adding £160m due to the recovery of the Morrisons supermarket group.

The average wealth of a UK millionaire has fallen by an estimated 24%, according to the CEBR.

CEBR chief executive Douglas McWilliams said the decline of wealth had an adverse impact on demand for luxury products, with sales of Bentley cars down this year by 66% and BMW’s down by 35%.

On Merseyside, the impact of the recession has also been felt.

Earlier this year, the Daily Post listed the region’s super-rich.

1) Gerald Cavendish, Duke of Westminster, £6.5bn.

The Duke’s property company, Grosvenor, has been engaged in debt refinancing talks in order not to breach it’s banking covenants. Yes, it’s a hard time in the property game and prices have plummeted by around 14%, so adjusted wealth is estimated at £6bn.

2) Moores Family, £1.2bn David Moores sold his stake in Liverpool FC for £90m and sparked the biggest internecine feud in football. That stake followed the sale of the Littlewoods business for £750m

and other assets brings the family fortune to well over a billion pounds.

3) Phillip Shepherd and family, £300m The scrap business has certainly proved profitable but prices have dropped sharply.

4) Sir Paul McCartney, £390m Macca’s divorce from Heather Mills last year cost £24m, making a bit of a dent in his fortune which was estimated to be £400m by the case judge.

Taking into account this reduction and subsequent loyalties, the figure is now around £390m.

5) John Hargreaves and family, £450m Discount chain Matalan was worth a staggering £3bn at the peak of its stock market roller-coaster ride.

Times have changed somewhat and the business is privately owned again after Hargreaves reclaimed the 47% of the company he didn’t own in 2006.

6) Steve Morgan, £350m Snapped up Wolverhampton Wanderers for a tenner, but it cost him £100m to divorce his wife.

7) Michael Newton, £390m The king of closed circuit television started the ball rolling in snooker halls.

He set up Dedicated Micros in 1982 and started with a CCTV device which monitored how long players spent at the tables.

8) Tom Morris and family, £235m The Home Bargains chain continues to prosper in dismal times.

9) Martin Ainscough and family, £200m The owner of Liverpool’s Racquet Club pocketed a fortune when selling the family crane hire business.

10) Alan Murphy, £165m Toilet roll and paper towel firm set up in Skelmersdale was sold for £150m in the 1990s. Now involved in property with Nikal Investments.

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THE BIG FEATURE

Turning off the taps Investment chief speculates on bathtub economics HE market is splashing around in bathtub economics, according to investment firm Rensburg Sheppards.

The analogy of a “bathtub” provides an explanation of how the banks approach lending when their balance sheets are under pressure.

Imagine the banking system as a bath full of water, in which banks make loans in total, proportionate to the volume of water in the bath. Whenever they make a provision against bad debts or write off loans, they pull the plug out for a few seconds.

As the water level drops, they cannot support the existing level of lending and have to call in existing loans, unless someone turns on the taps and replenishes the volume of water.

In many cases, governments stepped in to provide this emergency top-up; in a few cases, we have seen rights issues and new “white knight” investors save the day.

Chief investment officer Chris Hills explained: “As the water level dropped, we spotted that there were a number of bricks in the bottom of the bath, which had falsely raised the water level.

“The bricks represent banks’ use of structured finance and off-balance sheet accounting, which allowed them to pursue greater volume of loans. Removing this ballast means that either taps have to be opened again or loans pulled back. “ He said the situation at the moment meant investors were guessing the likely form of recovery of the markets, with many believing the bottom of the market had been reached.

The form guide says stock markets typically bottom between four and seven months before economies do.

“But is this the case this time?”, asks Hill. “If the peak for equity markets proves to have been in March, could the trough for the economy be somewhere between July and October?

“There has been much punditry about the shape of the economic curve – is it a ‘V’, ‘U’, ‘W’ or even an ‘L’ shape? We need to understand how the consumer will react in recession and how the health of the banking system will impinge on the economy.

“The International Monetary Fund’s Global Economic Outlook gives an indication as to how consumer spending might develop. They sorted previous recessions around the globe by whether they were induced by a financial crisis or not.

“A preceding crisis saw the economic cycle bottoming out seven months later than in ‘normal’ recessions.”

Significantly, consumer spending recovers far more gradually and takes at least two years longer to pick up.

Consumers typically enter a financial crisis living beyond their means; the larger financial crises have been characterised by greater levels of overspending.

These big spenders then rein back on outgoings to reach some semblance of neutrality. But, as economies pick up, consumers materially increase savings. Savings rise over a three year period by

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24

around 9% – a huge brake on the pace of economic recovery.

He added: “Banks will not want further government capital as it would be, in effect, back-door nationalisation.

“Shareholders are squeamish at the thought of a bottomless pit of further write-downs, especially in corporate property, where lending was large and near the top of the cycle in valuation terms. So a brake on new lending could well be the most likely outcome.

“In an economic climate where both lenders and borrowers are likely to be wary about the amount of debt utilised, we can see why the rate of growth in activity might be very subdued. This is important for those economies where economic vibrancy was driven by the accessibility and availability of cheap debt.

“So we can foresee a potentially protracted period in which economic growth in the West remains sluggish.

Investors need to keep an eye on the level of the bathwater to know when we reach the low point of the economic cycle.”

Around £800m may have been wiped off the value of the Merseyside Pension Fund, but it has still outperformed.the stock market.

The fund lost 17% of its value at a time the market slumped by a third.

End-of-year figures also showed the Merseyside Pension Fund (MPF), which is administered by Wirral council, had to write off £10m because of the collapse of investment bankers Lehman Brothers.

The state of the fund, which is primarily paid into by local government workers, was revealed in a report to the pension committee.

The fund managers last night expressed confidence the MPF would recover and blamed the recent depression in world financial markets for the problems.

A council spokeswoman said: “We recognise people will be concerned at these figures, but must emphasise the fact we have stringent risk controls in place to ensure investments are not limited to any one type of asset or market.

“Changes to the overall value of the Merseyside Pension Fund will not affect pension entitlements in any way. Pensions are completely safe.”

The investments were valued at £4.255bn on March 31 last year.

But the report by Ian Coleman, Wirral’s director of finance, said the MPF returned -17.7% in 2008-09 and “declined in value by circa £800m over the financial year to March 31”.

In addition, about 6% of the pension fund is invested in “alternative investments” – primarily hedge funds, which have been among the hardest hit in the recession – a proportion which was increased from 3% in 2007 and implemented during 2007-08.

Sometimes the taps in the economy have to be opened again, above, says Rensburg Sheppards chief investment officer Chris Hills, inset, left

ADVERTISING FEATURE

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Chartered status is designed to reinforce the importance of professionalism in a fast-moving and competitive market.

Placing firms on a par with other professional practices, such as accountants and solicitors, strict qualifying criteria apply and it demonstrates a level of technical

qualifications, knowledge and experience.

The first financial planning firm in Liverpool to achieve the new status was Fraser Wealth Management, a company established in 2004 by Paul Bocking and Kevin Gillibrand.

Says Kevin: “Chartered status signals to the public that financial advisers and financial planners are ‘fit for purpose’.

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inheritance tax planning.

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The company says its fee-based service offers the prospect of more efficient financial planning that is transparent, specialised and client centred.

Kevin, who has also achieved individual Chartered status, explains: “Our focus is our client, we aim to provide holistic financial advice and be clear in our dealings on their behalf, so they know how we get paid, what we can do and what we are hoping to achieve – all of which will be explained in plain English – for a client agreed remuneration.”

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Paul Bocking, left, and Kevin Gillibrand, the founders of Chartered financial planning firm, Fraser Wealth Management

25

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

The late Trevor Burke, a business visionary whose ideas are now being employed in the latest technology which is transforming the experience of TV sports viewers

Burke’s vision pays off Video technology brought to your screen by Edit.tv THE late Trevor Burke was something of a business visionary, a great ideas man who launched a company called Phonelink in the mid-nineties, which is today known as information specialist GB Group.

I went to see him at his Caldy home before he died a couple of years ago, when he was talking about his next big idea which revolved around video technology.

With a widescreen TV and bank of equipment, he demonstrated his on-demand video tagging system, using England's famous 5-1 defeat of Germany in 2001 as the example.

Icons at the bottom of the screen

were used to zoom in on particular events, such as the goals. So, for instance, if you record a day's play of a cricket test match, you could come back and immediately find all the wickets or boundaries scored with out trawling through all the footage.

Trevor had all the patents in place and was working towards practical applications of the technology. Today, a company called Edit.tv, based in Liverpool's Old Hall Street, is taking those ideas to market.

It already has partnerships with OPTA, the sports data company and sports TV channel in Germany.

However, its services are also

Michael Owen celebrates a goal in England’s 5-1 defeat of Germany in 2001, a match used to demonstrate the video tagging system

26

available direct to the general public.

Managing director Phil Ventre said: "Trevor did the research and development work, as well as applying for the patents with the idea of turning them into products.

“Edit.tv transforms your recorded ball game or big match into a series of the most important events of the game, using icons which represent the key events to skip to the event you want to watch, automatically created for you.

“Imagine you have been out and have recorded your chosen sport with your PCTV recording feature, and just want to come in and watch the goals, the home runs of the big game – simple, just synch your recorded game with our unique event file, search on goals and there they are in seconds.

“As you record more and more sports content, we allow you to interact more and more with your favourite sport by searching across all your library to compile and create unique playlists.

“Want to watch all the goals from across your video library? Easy, search on goals or crashes and all those events are compiled into a unique video playlist for you to watch.”

Edit TV supports football, baseball and American Football and plans to support many more.

BARRY TURNBULL

Sites like YouTube have led the way in video THE rise of websites like YouTube demonstrate the extraordinary reach of video.

And so it’s not just sports events that have practical uses, Edit.tv is also looking towards sectors like education.

Tagging whole archives creates an advanced video search engine, allowing search both within and across media, providing customers with a new generation of content solutions.

Product manager Matthew O’Connor explained: “This allows them to take advantage of workflow and media management gains internally, and gives the opportunity to revolutionise the user viewing experience with Edit.

“Cultural and technological trends have meant that the use of video has proliferated within the education sector, both in Europe and the US, with research showing

students often being more inclined to react positively to visual media and teachers recognising its benefits to students in the learning process and being willing to use it as a vital area in teaching practise.

“Edit’s revolutionary ability to allow users to tag, create and share personalised educational video means it can create a significant impact on the education sector, for both teachers and students.”

The company has also signed up to a deal with OPTA, the sports data company, to create a range of desktop and web-based video applications for sporting businesses, content owners and other media operations in Europe and beyond.

Edit have been developing an end-toend web portal product that allows the user to upload, tag, publish, view and share video that uses OPTA’s available information.

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Bright spark lights the way at ideas firm

Award-winner Robert Davis, head of EA Technology, has masterminded new business

Energy company ventures into new marketplace A COMPANY set up to take bright new ideas in the energy industry off the drawing board and into the market place has appointed a new managing director.

George Lilley heads-up newly-formed EA Technology Ventures, created as a launch-pad to get off the ground some of the most exciting new ideas in energy-related products and services.

The North West Business Investment Scheme (NWBIS) – a funding programme for businesses managed by YFM Private Equity on behalf of the NWDA (Northwest Regional Development Agency) has

already made a significant investment into the company. This will allow EA Technology Ventures to fund the commercialisation of a portfolio of opportunities – including innovative systems that can help reduce the nation’s dependence on coal-generated power and state-of-the-art electrical protection devices.

EA Technology Ventures is an offshoot of the EA Technology Group, a leading-edge power asset management company with a reputation for delivering innovative business solutions to the energy industry.

MERSEYSIDE FIRMS OPT FOR FIBRE-OPTIC MERSEYSIDE companies are leading the UK in investing in next-generation networks to streamline their businesses, according to ntl:Telewest Business, part of the Virgin Media Group.

Since the beginning of 2008, 754 Merseyside-based businesses have chosen to use fibre-optic connections, rather than the traditional copper-based network infrastructure.

Ntl:Telewest Business’s sales between January, 2008, and March, 2009, reveal that 451 Merseyside enterprises invested in the high-speed Ethernet services they need to deliver voice and Internet across multi-site businesses.

The next most popular services, with uptake among 306 companies, was Internet Protocol Virtual Private Networks (IPVPNs), enabling remote working.

Set up in the 1960’s as the R&D centre for the UK electricity industry, EA Technology is now independent and has 140 employees in the business.

EA Technology Ventures will be based within EA Technology’s headquarters, at Capenhurst, Chester.

Robert Davis, chief executive, of EA Technology, said: “The support EA Technology Ventures will enjoy through its association with EA Technology, combined with George’s leadership, creates an exciting opportunity to nurture and develop innovative new ideas across the energy industry.”

George, 49, has more than 15 years of Board experience.

A Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, his key areas of expertise include corporate development, strategy and planning, His career has included driving a company from a turnover of £2m up to £40m.

George said: “This is a new, challenging role and one I’m really looking forward to.

“Through EA Technology Ventures, EA Technology now has the opportunity to release some of the pockets of ideas it currently holds, but has not previously had the resources to commercialise. we intend to reach out to the inventor community to identify and support some of their new ideas too.”

27

PROFESSIONAL SECTORS LEGAL SERVICES

BOARDROOM Professionals get set for city’s own Idol race

CONFIDENTIAL with David Holland, of Grant Thornton Liverpool

In the second of a three-part series, David Holland, a strategic business advisor, tackles a problem posed by the director of a Merseyside business.

Q

I HAVe prioritised driving down staff costs, but I’m under pressure from two of my best-performing managers to make pay awards well above a level that I regard as reasonable. I don’t want to set an expensive precedent, but I fear losing them to competitors. What other rewards would you recommend?

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THE downturn has affected the dynamics of pay rewards, but some things never change.

Entrepreneurial businesses tend to be lean operations, where senior managers are vital to operations.

Remuneration is a sensitive issue, and you’re certainly not alone when it comes to wrestling with the problem of reconciling the demands of ambitious managers and retaining key talent against the realities of tougher market conditions.

A well-designed reward structure, of which pay is only a part, is a powerful tool in influencing employee behaviour in line with your business objectives. So, in the first instance, I think you should consider a bonus scheme – linked to individual or team performance, and measured against meaningful targets or objective criteria.

Key here is to ensure that your managers “buy in” to the bonus metrics and, of course, for them to be able to control and influence the results. The right scheme will not only reward top performers, but earnings will be tied to the success of the business. So, if the market does well, you can pay bonuses. If trading is bleak, you are not saddled with any additional costs.

While not a decision to be taken lightly, you can also look at providing employees with shares or, more often, share options, “locking” them into the business over the longer term. You could agree to grant options to buy shares

at an agreed price at a later date. As well as tax advantages, this can also be linked to the achievement of targets, performance objectives or events, such as the eventual sale of the business. Also, share options, unlike shares, do not give voting or dividend rights until they are exercised.

Other options to consider might include flexible working and benefits arrangements. Childcare vouchers, car parking at work, enhanced pension entitlement, and discounted goods and services are all in widespread use. Many of these can be delivered effectively by way of salary sacrifice.

Just be aware, however, that these flexible benefits and share option schemes need to be properly set up and will require professional advice.

Also make sure that appropriate contracts of employment are in place and are updated to reflect any changes that you make to your managers’ reward packages.

One often overlooked point about the downturn is just how keen entrepreneurs are to maintain their workforces and avoid redundancies. Our own research – the Grant Thornton Entrepreneurial Insight Survey, canvassing over 500 UK entrepreneurial businesses – revealed that reducing headcount is the biggest issue for just 1.6% surveyed.

Entrepreneurs see the value they have in their companies as being embodied in their people and, if the people go, then the value goes, too. They don’t regard employees as numbers; nearly 54% said the greatest single asset their company has is its people.

Their strategy appears to be focused on actually keeping people in order to be ready for the upturn expected within the next two years.

Entrepreneurial businesses tend to be of a size and structure that allows them to be agile and adapt to changing circumstances. By following this example, you could adopt an affordable reward mechanism that manages costs, meets staff expectations and motivates your managers to achieve an even higher standard of performance.

‘Pay is only a part of a welldesigned reward structure’

■ DAVID HOLLAND was a financial director in industry before joining Grant Thornton’s Entrepreneurial Advisory practice

28

From left: Frank Herlihy, of Dow Schofield Watts; Mark Chadwick, of Professional Liverpool; Sue Weir, of Medicash; Edmund Chan, of DLA Piper; Martin McQueen, of Halliwells; Jennifer Lee, of KPMG; Colin Wardale, of Hill Dickinson; Jon Else, of The Steve Stuart Partnership; and Mike Petyt, of Medicash THE finalists have been chosen for the X-Factor-style contest to find the city’s next Professional Idol.

The inaugural Professional Liverpool Idol contest will see ten singers from organisations including law firm Hill Dickinson and accountants KPMG go head-to-head in front of a panel of judges and a screaming audience.

The event will be held on Thursday, July 9, at PanAm Restaurant and Bar, at the Albert Dock, and aims to raise over £15,000 for the leading learning disability charity, Mencap.

All contestants will receive professional vocal coaching from Jennifer John, of Sense of Sound, before the event and on the night will be accompanied by a live band.

The winner will be chosen by the audience.

The contestants are Martin McQueen, of Halliwells; John McCaffery, of Grant Thornton; Jon Else, of The Steve Stuart Partnership; Frank Herlihy, of Dow Schofield Watts; Carla Whitehead, of PKF; Edmund Chan, of DLA Piper; Colin Wardale and Mike Powell, of Hill Dickinson; Mike Petyt, of

Medicash; and Jennifer Lee, of KPMG. The event is being run in partnership with sector support body Professional Liverpool.

Its chief executive, Mark Chadwick, said: “The contestants deserve support from their colleagues and friends in the business community, and we want to raise as much money as possible, so we are urging people to buy their tickets now before they sell out.”

Sue Weir, chief executive of Medicash, said: “We are delighted to be supporting this fundraising event and,

alongside our own member of staff taking part, we are looking forward to seeing how the rest of the contestants get on.”

Gayle Derrick, head of regional fundraising at North West Mencap, said: “The Liverpool business community has really taken this event to heart.

“The contestants are eager to hit the stage and the audience numbers are swelling. It promises to be a great night.”

■ FOR information, call Ms Derrick at Mencap, on 0161 968 9269 or e-mail gayle.derrick@mencap. org.uk

ALISTAIR HOUGHTON – PAGE 46

Fast-growing Armstrong adds business services RMSTRONG Solicitors has launched a new business services department, the Old Hall Street-based firm announced this week.

Ian Carruthers, formerly a partner at Rex Makin and Co, joined the firm to lead the new team.

Directors at the firm claim it is the fastestgrowing in the UK. It has grown to more than 100 staff in just two years.

Mr Carruthers has almost 20 years’ experience in commercial litigation and has particular knowledge of professional negligence and defamation.

He said: “Armstrongs

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has grown rapidly during the past two years, attracting some fantastic local legal talent.

“We want to offer something fresh and dynamic in the North West legal market place.

“Unlike other firms, we do not claim to offer everything. Instead, we concentrate on areas in which we have experience and a proven track record.”

Director Alan Wharton also offers a number of commercial services, conveyancing and acquisition, and sale of businesses. The firm’s biggest team remains its 75-strong personal injury unit, which has won more than £35m for claimants over the past two years.

The Armstrong team: from left, Peter O'Hare, Lyn Mousley, Paula Watson, Alan Wharton, Ian Carruthers, Sarah Sykes and Amy Gibson

PROFESSIONAL SECTORS ACCOUNTANCY

Providing the support that accountants can count on Alistair Houghton meets Michael Sale, new president of the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants

ICHAEL SALE knows just how painful a recession can be – now he is determined that the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants will do everything it can to help members though this most difficult of times.

Mr Sale, who became president of the society in May, lost his job in the last recession, and says many accountants are facing the same fate this time round.

He says the society will focus on offering support to members hit by recession by helping them find the advice or training they need to find new jobs or move into new areas.

“As someone who experienced the recession badly last time, my aim is to try to assist our members this time,” he said.

“We exist to provide services to our members. We will try to help people who have unfortunately lost their jobs, be that offering assistance in writing CVs or providing training to assist them.

“In the last recession, there were a lot of accountants working in industry who decided to move into practice. But, if you’ve worked in industry, you don’t necessarily have the right skillset to work in practice. Your tax knowledge, for example, might not be up-to-date.

“People who might have been the only chartered accountant in their business may need bringing back into the accountancy networking fold.

“People need to think about what additional skills they might need.”

Mr Sale, who was born and brought up in Southport, began his career in 1978 with hometown firm Lithgow Nelson.

He qualified in 1982 and joined KPMG before joining the Liverpool office of Deloitte Haskins & Sells, now part of PricewaterhouseCoopers, in 1984.

His time there saw him spend three months on secondment in Zambia and he rose to become senior manager but, in 1992, as recession hit, he lost his job in a group restructuring.

Mr Sale said the experience was “awful” at first, but said it showed him the importance of keeping his skills up to date – a lesson he now plans to pass on to society members.

“I left a senior management position and I was probably over-qualified for most jobs that were around,” he said.

“I was loosely ‘out of work’ for two years.”

In that time, Mr Sale set up his own practice, worked as a trainer at Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and did some voluntary work for charity.

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He joined Liverpool practice Kemp & Co in 1994, and has been there ever since.

Today he is responsible for the firm’s larger corporate clients, developing businesses and charities.

Mr Sale says accountancy practices in and around Merseyside are themselves having to make tough decisions to survive the recession, meaning more professionals will have to face potential redundancy and the need to find new jobs.

He said: “There are instances of large firms laying people off or going down to four-day working. Some medium-sized firms have made staff redundant.

“We are professional firms, but we are also businesses. People are having to make difficult decisions.”

Mr Sale says firms should make sure they keep training their staff, no matter how hard things get.

“Training is one of the things that goes first, though it shouldn’t be,” he said.

“But then you read about successful firms – they’re having less work for their staff to do but they’re investing in training so that when they do start to up-scale their staff will have the appropriate skills to help them move forward.”

Mr Sale says small firms are perhaps finding themselves in a Catch-22 situation when it comes to finding accountancy services.

“We are a small business and predominantly look after small and medium-sized firms,” he said.

“The reality is they need accountancy services more than ever.

“The downside is cash. They need us more than ever – but do they have the cash to pay us?”

Mr Sale agrees that the slowdown in bank lending and the resultant shortage of finance are hurting firms badly – and says the situation shows no immediate sign of improving.

“Bank lending is a problem. We have stories of clients renegotiating their overdraft facilities and there are apocryphal tales of those facilities being withdrawn or reduced.

“When facilities are reduced, the interest rates are increased and the up-front costs are quite considerable.

That’s clearly not helping small business.

“Businesses are closing, not necessarily because they’re unprofitable, but because they’re running out of cash. Businesses that are unprofitable will probably close anyway.

“I don’t think we’re coming out of recession yet, but businesses that do survive will be a lot stronger.

“Government plans to guarantee loans to small businesses are admirable but don’t seem to be working yet.

“It’s a very different marketplace.”

Out of work for two years after losing his job in the last recession – Michael Sale, president of the Liverpool Society of Chartered Accountants

29

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30

Rail freight falls

Phased progress – the Mersey Multi-modal Gateway scheme, recently awarded £1.74m from the NWDA

RAIL freight fortunes have ebbed and flowed along with the UK's economic currents.

Overall volumes are down this year by between 12 and 15%, but the picture is far from clear-cut.

Volumes from ports have faltered with the decline in shipping trade, but the domestic market has held up thanks to retail trade.

And, overall, there has been no decrease in freight trains that are running, although, on some services, the number of containers or boxes being carried has been reduced.

The trend over the past decade has been from road to rail, with the latter up 60% over the period. The Government may have championed the trend on environmental grounds, but it has been private industry that

has led the way on investment. Local examples include the Potter Group's siding at Knowsley and the ambitious multi-modal site at Widnes, spearheaded by Stobart Group.

Chris Macrae, policy manager for the Rail freight Association, conceded the industry had experienced mixed fortunes: "In broad terms, the severest impact has been on deep sea inter-modal traffic due to the decline in container trade.

“The world economy has had an effect on shipments such as cars, steel, aggregates and the construction sector.

“The domestic market has been much more robust, people have still got to eat. And whereas there have been some cutbacks, this has been more to do with final settlements

from Network Rail. The industry view is one of cautious optimism and that next year may see something of a recovery.”

A Network Rail spokesman said: “Traffic is steady but container volumes are down. It is difficult to generalise though, coal is holding up but aggregates connected with the building trade are down.”

Meanwhile, Halton's Mersey Multi-modal Gateway scheme recently received a further £1.74m from the Northwest Development Agency for the second important phase of the project designed to create a business park with 1,000 jobs and a major rail and transport hub.

The scheme, known as 3MG, already has an inter-modal terminal serving five trains a day.

Port rail link will be successful in the future

A REVIVED freight rail link to the Port of Liverpool has so far failed to catch fire, but there are long-term hopes of its success.

The reconstruction of the Olive Mount Chord at a cost of £7.6m restored access between the port and the West Coast Main Line.

Freight firm DB Schenker is currently providing 14 trains a day.

However, another service from the

Seaforth depot to Scotland, run by Freightliner, has been axed.

The hope is that all 21 daily train slots will eventually be filled, potentially cutting 50,000 lorry journeys a year.

According to think-tank The Northern Way, one of the link's partners, chairman Neville Chamberlain added: "Our ports are major assets and important drivers

of the North's economy. It is important for their future growth that they have excellent connectivity.

The restoration of Olive Mount Chord helps deliver that for the Port of Liverpool.”

It is envisaged that demand will return once international shipping trade recovers from the doldrums it is currently facing, particularly with regard to container traffic.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Clear Vision through gloom

St Paul’s Square has seen massive change – and Liverpool Vision is committed to phase three of the development

Business start-ups key as regeneration platforms launched from Liverpool suburbs to Shanghai N THE last decade, there has been an outbreak of ambition and planning in Liverpool which has led to major changes across the region.

Liverpool One, the transformation of Speke Airport into the international gateway, the explosion of commercial office and residential space in the city centre and the development of the Knowledge Quarter are just a few of the major changes from £4bn of investment which have regenerated the image and reality of Liverpool.

With the Capital of Culture year succeeding in providing a 12-month global marketing vehicle for the city, there is now a momentum and an optimism.

Well, except for the worldwide downturn . . .

I

But that doesn’t mean that the city’s economic regeneration company, Liverpool Vision, is taking shelter and waiting for the economic storm to pass.

Instead, the organisation – formed from a three-way merger of Business Liverpool, Liverpool Vision and Liverpool Land Development Company in April last year – is focused on maintaining the once-in-a-generation opportunity the city has created.

Mike Taylor, the former chief executive of Business Liverpool who is now director of enterprise and investment at the enlarged body, is clear about the scale of the challenges ahead for the organisation.

“After the merger, there’s considerably less money available,”

he said. “The money from the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) has dropped off in the physical side, we need to optimise the investment and enterprise side of it. We always knew the amount of NWDA and European money would start to tail off.

“It’s one of the big challenges for Liverpool Vision. There’s a shift away from infrastructure to maximising value in the investment and enterprise side.

“How do we work with businesses to get value? How do we promote more business start-ups?

“The £4bn of funding has presented great opportunities. We have created an infrastructure, but Liverpool as a city is 6,000 businesses short of where it should be – it should have about 20,000 businesses.”

That is the conundrum which he would love to be able to solve with the proverbial golden bullet.

“If I could change just one thing, it would be that Liverpool has another 5-6,000 businesses,” he said.

“There’s an issue about critical mass. The overall economy of the city is too small and with another 5-6,000 businesses we would have a critical mass of the size, scale and potency in the economy which would make it easier to attract more businesses.

“There would be more natural economic growth coming from businesses. It’s absolutely fundamental that we do this – new business starts and new businesses coming into the city.

“If we found a way of doing this, the effects would be huge.”

The Knowledge Quarter is a major focal point for this growth, with a report last year estimating that the four main institutions in the Knowledge Quarter – the University of Liverpool, Liverpool John Moores University, the Royal Liverpool University Hospital and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine – were worth £1bn to the city’s economy and supported 14,000 full-time jobs.

Mr Taylor said: “We are working with the universities and Liverpool Science Park. That has to be a key focus over the next three to five years – how do we create more high-value jobs in the city but also work on the worklessness agenda for local people?

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

31

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT REGION CONTINUED FROM PAGE 31 “For every high-added-value job, there’s 14 jobs created at a service level.”

But Liverpool Vision – which receives four-fifths of its annual £4m running costs from Liverpool City Council – also works to pull up the poorest areas across the city.

The Index of Multiple Deprivation, published in 2007, ranked the 32,482 super-output areas in England – which each covers about 1,500 people – of which 291 are in Liverpool.

It placed four of the 10 most-deprived areas in Liverpool and a further 14 areas in the bottom 50.

More than 90% of Liverpool’s areas appear in the bottom half of the rankings.

“We can do the high level things – such as developing the knowledge economy,” said Mr Taylor. “But we are also operating at the community level where we are promoting business start-ups.

“We are working with disadvantaged and under-represented groups – women, ethnic minorities, the disabled, immigrant groups.

“It’s a real strength of Liverpool Vision that we understand working with local communities and addressing the worklessness issues.

“It won’t be a massive GVA [gross value added] driver but giving people a sense of worth and for them making their own contribution is a huge boost for the community.”

Liverpool Vision’s portfolio of projects ranges from the Baltic Triangle – where a community interest company has been set up to ensure the art and creative industry are not forced to relocate outside the city – a focus on North Liverpool, which ranges from Peel’s Liverpool Waters plans, to the StepClever programme for entrepreneurs, and the city’s presence at the World Expo in Shanghai next year.

“You can’t disaggregate the projects and look at them individually,” said Mr Taylor.

“To take the private sector to the Expo is important. Peel can talk about Post-Panamax, Liverpool and Wirral Waters, its 30-year growth strategy for Liverpool John Lennon Airport, the ocean gateway and Media City.

“The Expo puts all that on the world stage.

“If it enables Peel to get investment and people want to come to Liverpool, it gives us the opportunity to do something transformational in North Liverpool.

“A rising tide lifts everyone.”

At the moment though there is a focus on ensuring Liverpool’s businesses don’t get dragged down by the economic current – and Liverpool Vision is involved in a new scheme that is designed to allow businesses to access support information quickly instead of being swamped by a network of bureaucracy.

“We agree with the CBI that it will be SMEs that get the city and country out of the recession,” said Mr Taylor.

“Proportionately, we have more SME companies than other core cities – how do we help them get the skills, get the finance?

“It’s essential we work with SMEs to get them to the head of the pack when we are coming out of recession.

“We have been working with Business Link, Chamber of Commerce and others.

“We are also working with companies, those that need help, and getting private sector specialists in to help them.

“There are all these different

32

The £135m Mann Island redevelopment, on Liverpool’s waterfront, combines 376 apartments and an 11-storey office block that will become flavours and textures being offered, but where do they get the help from?

“Very sensibly we have all agreed to get together and we will be launching a new web portal. It will simplify and collectivise the offer.”

It is one of the tools that it is hoped will continue to improve local companies’ perceptions of the city.

An independent survey of the city’s businesses, produced by market research agency GfK NOP and published in May, showed satisfaction levels had risen among both city centre and out-of-city firms.

The third Foundations for Growth report produced a business satisfaction rating of 6.9 out of 10, up from 6.6 last year.

The report said this figure, along with an increase in the number of businesses rating Liverpool as an excellent or good place to do business year on year, showed that “economic

recovery clearly remains on a positive trajectory”.

The 850 businesses surveyed were asked for their views on the importance and quality of eight areas, including skills, premises, safety, cleanliness and levels of support.

Mr Taylor said: “Overall, the results from our tracking survey are positive and suggest businesses are optimistic about the future.

“We have been told once again that Liverpool provides a good business environment and a place where businesses can prosper now and after the recession, and it is part of our job to help them achieve this.”

The quality of commercial premises and safety in the city were again identified as key concerns, having been highlighted in last year’s report.

Liverpool Vision pointed to the

slow process of changing perceptions in relation of crime and safety, highlighting that crime levels in Liverpool have decreased overall by 40% since 2005/06 – although saying efforts should be maintained in reducing crime and improving safety.

OWEVER, the issue of providing enough suitable commercial space is more tricky.

“There’s a chicken and egg situation with commercial property,” he said.

“The new sales team in The Mersey Partnership are doing a great job and much better than before.

“They are dealing with a pipeline of projects. If half of them come off, this city doesn’t have enough quality office space.

“There are at least another four

H

serious opportunities like Maersk to take Grade A office accommodation.

That’s why we are committed to phase three of St Paul’s Square.

“The city isn’t just about low cost.

It’s about the range of knowledge and cultural assets the city has. But the cost base is 20-30% lower than other cities.

“That’s why businesses are looking at Liverpool as a real opportunity for investment. We need to make sure we have a supply of Grade A office space. We don’t want to be turning people away.”

It is in the middle of this unpredictable economic climate that Liverpool Vision has created its business plan for 2009-12.

The agency points to Liverpool’s rising GVA – a measure of the borough’s economic output – which is slowly closing the gap between the economic performance of the city

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT REGION

REGIONAL OUTLOOK with Steven Broomhead, of the NWDA

STEVEN BROOMHEAD, Chief Executive of the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), gives an overview of the priorities and changing role of our regional development agency, and the latest news on foreign investment into the region ■ AS THE tough economic climate continues to create challenges for the Merseyside, North West and UK economy, the NWDA remains committed to focusing its resources and leadership on supporting our businesses and communities through the downturn.

The strategic role of the NWDA is to lead public sector investment in the region’s economy and support private sector investment.

We do this by engaging the public, private and voluntary sectors to identify the key priorities for the region through the Regional Economic Strategy.

Our key objective is to support businesses in the North West. In the current economic climate, we are focused on providing effective business support to help companies weather the downturn and emerge stronger.

This includes helping small and medium-sized businesses access finance through the management of over £50m of grants, loans and equity finance each year.

Equally, the Agency prioritises overseas inward investment into the region as a crucial driver of continued economic growth.

The NWDA has long recognised that long-term, sustainable economic growth is about success in international markets as much as the UK. Just recently, the latest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) statistics were released

by UKTI and, despite the difficult economic conditions across the globe, England’s North West was again the UK’s leading region for FDI outside of London and the South East.

The number of inward investment projects secured in the North West over the last financial year has risen to the highest recorded number for the region, with the number of jobs created/safeguarded remaining strong too.

The North West has attracted 176 investment projects during 2008/09, an increase of 21 projects on last year and an increase of 64 projects on 2006/07.

These 176 projects have created or safeguarded 11,436 jobs, a surprising increase of 4,000 on the 2006/07 totals, but 3,000 less than the record breaking figures achieved during the buoyant economic landscape in 2007.

Although we are delighted at the figures this year, particularly given the economic conditions, we are remaining realistic and we know that the year ahead will also be challenging and we should be prepared for this.

However, I am also confident that we are seeing some seeds of growth and we should all remain optimistic and prepare for the upturn now.

FDI remains a fierce competition and we should be proud of the work of our investment teams in Merseyside and across the North West.

Ten years on from the inception of the NWDA, our role continues to evolve, and the Sub-National Review (SNR) has highlighted new responsibilities for RDAs, including developing single integrated regional strategies, bringing together economic, spatial and housing strategies.

In the North West, this will mean an enhanced and changing role for the Agency and new ways of partnership, working via a joint planning and investment business model.

The North West is once again leading the way and we are the first region to begin working on this. Consultation on the Principles and Issues Paper is now complete and the Agency and 4NW will now begin work on the draft strategy, which we will be consulting on later this year.

It is vital to ensure that we don’t lose sight of our longterm aims, whilst making sure we respond robustly to the current economic climate.

The development of the Regional Strategy will ensure that, working in partnership, we are in the strongest position possible to realise our long-term goals for Merseyside and the North West.

‘Our key objective is to support businesses in the North West’

Merseytravel’s headquarters. Inset: Mike Taylor, of Liverpool Vision compared with the UK. The most recent data, for 2006, showed Liverpool’s GVA was £17,489 per person compared with £19,430 for the UK. Liverpool’s figure is now 92% of the UK level, up from 86% a decade earlier.

The city’s business base is also increasing, up 1,140 units between 2001 and 2006.

It says its three-year programme “does not reflect a step change in activity, nor – with the exception of the anticipated growing emphasis on north Liverpool – does it introduce significant new areas of activity”.

The current development programme includes the Lime Street Gateway, Mann Island, phase three of the St Paul’s Square development and work to provide public sports facilities at Speke District Centre.

Proposed developments include public realm works in the creative quarter and knowledge quarter, infrastructure work

at Stonebridge Park, gap funding at Liverpool Innovation Park and a small business premises programme in North Liverpool.

“We have got high-level strategic thoughts,” said Mr Taylor. “We have also got an important role to bringing economic opportunities to our disadvantaged communities. In between is our SME community.

“Layered on that is this need for another 6,000 businesses to get to where we need to be to get on a par with the UK. “We need to work smarter, more collaboratively, with other economic development partners.”

The changing economic landscape has meant a change in approach for the enterprise and investment team.

He said: “There has been the creation of opportunity and the issue of how we get the NEETs [not in employment, education or training] to that.

“The reality of where we are now is we have got to focus much more on creating the economic opportunity, creating the jobs for local people.

“We are going to have to work harder at getting that investment in. As a city it’s right that everyone is on the radar but for Liverpool Vision we need a real focus on those economic opportunities.

How do we create the jobs and the opportunities?

“It’s not just Liverpool Vision which is driving this. It’s about partnership.

Unless we all realise that the future is about smarter partnership working with a stronger, clearer focus than we aren’t going anywhere.”

Partnership is very much in evidence in the planning for Liverpool’s presence at the World Expo in Shanghai.

The city’s presence is being led by a partnership of Liverpool City Council

CONTINUED ON PAGE 34

33

Liverpool will exhibit in the Urban Best Practice pavilion at the World Expo in Shanghai, 2010. Liverpool's exhibition space will be in this pavilion, near Venice, Cairo, Pondicherry (India), and the Chinese garden cities of Hangzhou and Suzhou

CONTINUED CONTINUED FROM FROM PAGE PAGE 32 33 and the Liverpool Shanghai Partnership, supported by Liverpool Vision and the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA).

The city council has committed £300,000 and the NWDA is providing £1.25m.

Talks with other public and private sector organisations looking to sponsor Liverpool are ongoing after the launch of the search for partners in March as organisers look to attract a further £1.5m in sponsorship.

That investment is dwarfed by the estimated benefits – of up to £50m.

N INDEPENDENT report by consultants Scott Wilson has set out the rewards Liverpool and the region can expect from its presence at the Expo.

Increases have been forecast in the number of Chinese tourists and students, as well as a rise in exports and additional inward investment.

A

34

The report sets out “relatively conservative” forecasts – such as an additional 100 students a year from 2013 and a 0.25% increase in annual regional exports from 2012, peaking after four years – which it forecasts will generate benefits of £5.5m.

However, it goes on to say that “using an upside scenario it is possible the benefit or gross value added could range between £15.6m to £47.5m” in the 10 years following the Expo.

Liverpool is targeting its message at potential tourists, students, businessmen and investors to showcase the attractions of the city and the North West region.

The city is already two years into its planning for the event, which will be four times bigger than the previous World Expo in Japan, with 70m visitors expected to attend.

Mr Taylor said: “One of the things we have got to do is make sure we don’t lose momentum after 2008.

“Tourism will be a major benefactor from the Expo. How do we continue to attract the kinds of

investment it has seen in the last few years?

“Expo is the next ‘08 – it’s a £50m opportunity.

“Liverpool ‘08 was a great focal point – surely 2010 has got to be seen as another peg in the ground for what Liverpool has to offer on an international stage?”

Liverpool will exhibit in the Urban Best Practice Pavilion, promoting how Liverpool as a modern, leading city has developed and prospered while conserving its rich history as a World Heritage site.

It will have six different themes which will change each month and will include culture and sport, the knowledge sector and professional services.

“The six key themes at the Expo will be asking people ‘did you know’ about what the city can offer?” he said.

“It’s not that we haven’t got the economic assets, but we don’t promote them and give them the vehicles.

“I will be pulling together groups

from those sectors so they can articulate what to say in their particular theme.

“How do we articulate that story?

We want the private sector to be saying ‘this is what we do – we are world-class’.”

The opportunity presented by Shanghai is not just about the potential benefits from the six-month exhibition but is about the city deciding how it will present itself on the international stage for the next few years.

“We need to take the opportunity and turn it into real economic opportunity,” said Mr Taylor. “We can’t drive a city on our Beatles and football reputation.

“How are we going to tap into sovereign wealth funds? Where should we be building relationships for future international investment?

“To get investment, we need to know what we are selling.

“We are very good at hiding a considerable light under a bushel.

We need to get more brave about shouting about what we do.”

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

HOW GREEN IS YOUR BUSINESS?

Green scheme for small firms NWDA will help fund investment into carbon-reducing technologies THE Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) has launched a new initiative to help small firms fund investments in carbon reducing technologies.

Its Grant For Improving Your Resource Efficiency is designed to help SMEs fund investments in carbon reducing technologies, such as biomass energy systems, through the provision of grant funding which will lead to reduced CO² emissions.

“The launch of this programme provides a great opportunity for businesses in the North West to reduce their energy costs while at the same time helping to tackle climate change,” said Nigel Blandford, senior sector development manager of the Biomass Project at Envirolink Northwest.

“Biomass is substantially cheaper than traditional fossil fuels and offers an opportunity for businesses to take advantage of the North West’s rich biomass resources.”

“The North West of England has the best biomass fuel supply chain in Great Britain, and is able to deliver large quantities quickly and regularly to large-scale energy users.

“It is a cheap fuel, costing as little as 0.5p kWh.” The Grant for Improving Your Resource Efficiency is a £4.4m programme which will cover capital purchases of up to 50% including installation costs, which can demonstrate CO² savings, to a maximum of 200,000 euros.

The programme will run until March, 2012, and will directly contribute to moving the region towards a low carbon economy.

Access to the programme is via Business Link Northwest.

Steven Broomhead, chief Executive at the Northwest Development Agency said: “A low carbon economy addresses the implications of climate change and actively helps businesses to become more efficient, less wasteful and more cost effective through innovation and enhanced skills.”

“The Grant for Improving Your Resource Efficiency and the additional funds available under the Grant for Research and Development will not only deal with improving the region’s green credentials, but will also offer

HOW TO APPLY

A biomass burner being delivered to a school in Cheshire. Such facilities can help energy efficiency financial support to businesses and re-establish the green agenda during these economically challenging times.”

The Northwest Biomass Project is a £750,000 project hosted by Envirolink Northwest and funded by the NWDA to increase the

uptake of biomass energy systems by the region’s industries.

The UK’s first regional biomass fuel supply directory was launched in the Northwest in 2006, and can be viewed at www.envirolinknorthwest.co.uk Companies which have been

awarded a grant and would like advice and guidance when selecting a biomass system and sourcing a biomass energy source should contact Nigel Blandford on 01925 813200 or email n.blandford@envirolink northwest.co.uk

HOW LONG WILL THE PROCESS TAKE? You should receive a decision on your application within 30 days, providing your application is complete and accompanied by all the relevant supporting information.

It may take slightly longer if it is for a particularly large or complex project. Timescales of the project will be considered when appraising applications.

During the appraisal process, you’ll be assigned a dedicated advisor who may wish to visit your project’s location and discuss your application.

Other Government departments may also be asked to advise on your application.

For example, checks may be made at Companies House and with the Insolvency Service, and may also share information with the European Commission.

If your application is successful, you'll be allocated an NWDA advisor.

Their job will be to advise you on how to claim your instalment payments.

HOW ARE GRANTS PAID? All grant payments will be handled by the NWDA. If successful, your grant will usually be paid in one or a small number of instalments over the course of the project as you achieve certain pre-agreed targets.

Your targets will be agreed during the appraisal of your application. They will usually coincide with the project's anticipated progress.

They will include capital expenditure, Co² emission or other environmental benefits.

ASSISTANCE If you require any support in making your application, contact Business Link Northwest. They can also provide assistance with finding a suitable consultant if needed to help you complete the application (though they may charge a fee). They can be contacted on 0845 0066 888.

PAPER APPLICATIONS Unfortunately, all applications must be submitted online for this grant.

City trio working towards international accreditation THREE Merseyside businesses have followed the lead of Liverpool Chamber by taking steps towards gaining an internationally recognised environmental accreditation.

After attending the environmental management seminar hosted by the Chamber to support the Year of the

Environment, the management companies of the two brand-new Liverpool landmarks – Liverpool One and the Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre (ACC) and the city’s main recycling service, the Furniture Resource Centre – have all signed the green pledge and agreed to work towards the key environmental standards

that are outlined in ISO14000.

This is the internationally accepted standard for environmental management, designed to help reduce the environmental footprint of any business.

Bob Prattey, chief executive of ACC Liverpool, said: “Sustainability is at the heart of everything we

do here at ACC Liverpool.

“Our building has been designed with environmentally friendly measures, including include five of our own wind turbines which contribute to the venue’s electricity provision and rainwater harvesting.”

Bob Prattey, chief executive of ACC Liverpool

35

HOW GREEN IS YOUR BUSINESS?

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

From left, Dr Robin Hickman (CABE), Edward Hobson (CABE), Neil Scales (MTP), and Jim Gill (Liverpool Vision) at the Merseytravel breakfast event

Public and private have to pull together

Expert says co-operation is the key to Merseyside meeting CO² targets MERSEYSIDE’S business and public sectors have to pull together if the region is to meet the national target of halving transport carbon emissions by 2025.

That’s the view of regeneration expert Dr Robin Hickman, who addressed an audience of commerce and community leaders in Liverpool.

As author of the recent CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) report – Hallmarks of a Sustainable City – he told the audience at a Merseyside Transport Partnership (MTP) breakfast briefing that connecting transport and urban planning is the key to reducing transport carbon emissions.

Transport currently accounts for a quarter of all carbon emissions.

Dr Hickman highlighted the importance of having a joined-up, strategic approach to the location and connectivity of new homes, businesses, schools, hospitals, leisure facilities and green spaces if the region was to successfully reduce its current level of carbon emissions.

Successful, sustainable city regions use good design with highquality open spaces and streets, along with low carbon planning, to achieve a real economic advantage, was the message he delivered.

He said: “We need to make sure good public transport networks are in place to help people shift from using the car to other modes of transport. The role of street patterns and design, for example, can make it easier for people to walk, cycle or

take public transport to school, work or leisure destinations, rather than drive. Merseyside is actually doing a good job in encouraging more people to use sustainable modes of transport through its current Local Transport Plan, and through TravelWise initiatives.

“However, the region could be in a much better position and it really needs to build on that success.

“Merseyside has huge potential to become a centre of excellence for smarter travel choices, leading by example to other areas in encouraging more walking and cycling.”

More than 100 delegates attended the event, which took place at Liverpool’s Jury’s Inn Hotel. MTP chairman, Neil Scales, hosted the

breakfast briefing, which also featured speakers Jim Gill, chief executive of Liverpool Vision, and Edward Hobson, head of research and futures at CABE. Mr Hobson stressed that sustainable transport planning must work with improved urban design to make the city region better able to respond to climate change.

Neil Scales told delegates: “What has become clear is that no single organisation can achieve the goal of sustainable regeneration and a low carbon economy by itself – a multi-agency and multi-disciplinary approach is actually what is required.

“That's why events like these are important to bring people together and it’s great to see so many

business and community leaders taking the time to join the session.

“Merseyside is one of nine regions named by Transport Minister Paul Clark as being eligible to bid for a share of the £29m of Government funding, which is being invested over the next three years to create England's first sustainable travel city.

“I’m confident that, by working together in partnership, we will be in an excellent position to be successful in this bid.

“The additional funding would allow the Merseyside Transport Partnership to further expand the TravelWise programme to help us become a more sustainable travel city, as part of proposals for transport planning across the Liverpool city region.”

Government minister visits Cheshire energy company THE Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Miliband, heard how new technologies pioneered in Cheshire have a vital role to play in the global energy market, during a visit to the county.

Mr Miliband toured the new Energy Innovation Centre and world-renowned EA Technology, at Capenhurst, Chester, where he met with leading energy chiefs and inventors who are working

36

together to create cutting-edge technologies for the energy sector.

The visiting party – including Ellesmere Port and Neston MP Andrew Miller, Chester MP Christine Russell, and Euro-MP Arlene McCarthy – were introduced to a range of new products being developed at the two sites, including an award-winning fault detection monitor for electricity substations and a

consumer-friendly smart online energy meter which monitors home energy use and takes secure payment.

They also heard about the latest advancements in sub-station forensic investigation which will avert future failures and further increase staff safety, and a carbon-free flexible energy scheme designed to meets peak requirements in the National Grid.

Mr Miliband said: “I have

seen lots of things which are going to make a big difference to consumers and save them money, and make a big difference to our ability to manage energy demand in the future, and meet our ambitions around climate change.”

During his visit to the region, Mr Miliband also met a number of leading figures from energy firms Scottish Power, CE Electric and Electricity North West.

From left, Denise Massey, Robert Davis, Christine Russell, Ed Miliband, Arlene McCarthy and Andrew Miller

37

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For many mid-size enterprises managing storage, completing backups and controlling the day-to-day running of IT, makes finding time to implement any new data management solution a difficult task.

Liverpool Briefing Dates: To register to one of these events please visit our Website at www.gardnersystems.co.uk\netapp to register your attendance and see how your business can start saving money.

■ Cut your nightly backup window by 90%

About Gardner Systems Gardner Systems is a specialist IT Company based on Wavertree Technology Park. Since its formation in 1984, the company has gone on to develop strong relationships with leading global IT companies such as NetApp to allow our customers to take advantage of technology from IT industry leaders.

By building close relationships with these influential global players, Gardner Systems is able to bring the wealth of resources available through such multinational companies to local businesses in the North West. www.gardnersystems.co.uk

or more increasing business uptime ■ Improve storage utilisation by 50% or more, which means less hardware and less cost.

■ Reduce annual power and cooling costs by up to 30%

MONTHLY BRIEFINGS ON MERSEYSIDE AT GARDNER SYSTEMS SPECIALIST BRIEFING CENTRE.

About NetApp NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that accelerate business breakthroughs and deliver outstanding cost efficiency.

Discover our passion for helping companies around the world go further, faster at www.netapp.com/uk

✁

If you would like to notify us of any other areas which you would like NetApp to offer advice, please contact us via the following locations:I am interested in _____________________________________________________ Name: _____________________________________________________________ Organisation: ________________________________________________________

✁

The objective of these meeting is to provide a suitable meeting point between local IT users and key NetApp technical and commercial staff. Best known for our world beating storage and back-up solutions, we are leading specialists in:-

To register to one of these a.m. events please visit our Website at www.gardnersystems.co.uk\netapp to register your attendance and see how your business can start saving money.

If you want to find out how, why not join us at one of our informal briefings here at Gardner Systems where we’ll introduce you to NetApp and their technology and how it can help your business save money when deploying a storage infrastructure.

■ Reduce storage systems by 10:1, making storage easier to use and manage

For more details of this programme visit: www.netapp.com/uk/soltions/infrastructure/ virtualization/guarantee-uk.html

Thurs 23rd July Thurs 20th August Thurs 24th September

We can help....

NetApp delivers simplicity with a range of data management systems that means you can:

All this from one, unified solution and one leading vendor: NetApp - delivering simplicity and value throughout your enterprise.

In fact, NetApp guarantee you will use 50% less storage with them, compared to traditional storage solutions, and offer the NetApp 50% Virtualisation Guarantee Programme with this in mind. *

FREE LIVERPOOL BRIEFING DATES:

Tel: __________________________ Email: _______________________________

■ Virtualisation

■ Back Up and Recovery

Email: NetApp@gardsys.co.uk

■ Database management

■ Messaging and Collaboration

Tel: 0151 220 5552 - request NetApp Desk

We are committed to our customers and are interested in hearing from you.

A list of forthcoming Merseyside seminars is available at www.gardnersystems.co.uk/netapp where you can register your interest or attendance at one of our events

www.gardnersystems.co.uk/netapp

Fax: 0151 220 5715 Post to: NetApp at Gardner Systems plc, 1 Faraday Road, Wavertree Technology Park, Liverpool L13 1EH

39

ADVERTISING FEATURE

The IT challenge for 2009 Gardner Systems offers businesses real solutions to improve efficiency

AS COMPANIES move into the second quarter of 2009, business is increasingly looking at ways to become more effective and efficient in many facets of their day to day operations. IT is one such area, where effective use can greatly reduce cost and improve efficiency.

Gardner Systems is a specialist IT Company based on Wavertree Technology Park. Since its formation in 1984 the company has grown by developing strong collaborations with the world’s leading IT companies including IBM, Microsoft and NetApp. By building close relationships with these industry leading businesses, Gardner can bring not only their technology but a wealth of resources, here to the business community of Merseyside.

Gardner understands that the needs of business are constantly moving and evolving as they look to meet head on the charges faced in a demanding market place.

The key question we are asked today is: ‘How do we improve our business efficiency by optimising our IT resource?

1.Reduce costs; 2. Lower our spend; 3. Get more from what we have.

So, what steps can you take?

Consolidate, review your current system usage.

Virtualisation is changing the way that businesses deploy their systems, removing the need for deploying inefficient under-utilised systems, by deploying more effective platforms and greatly reducing day to day running costs.

Gardner Systems offers its free Cobra survey, to help businesses review the potential savings available by consolidation of their current hardware estate.

It’s not only servers that are prime for consolidation. Intelligent unified storage, with technology such as deduplication and cloning, can greatly reduce your storage costs.

Make sure you are using what you have. Many people purchase software licensing and are not always aware of what this entitles them to, for

instance, many Microsoft licence customers are not aware that their licence agreement gives them access to training and deployment support, plus free access to applications.

Make sure your business is getting the best out of its applications.

Appropriate training and understanding how software can impact your business are key to making sure you get the best from this investment.

Lower your cost of ownership.

Increasingly, businesses can take advantage of services delivered on an on-demand basis; everything from storage to day to day business applications.

Organisations such as Microsoft now offer their business products online, managed and delivered from the ‘cloud’ to you for a monthly fee.

Standardise and simplify.

A large overhead for any business is the constant management and support of their infrastructure, ensure your infrastructure is simplified and standardised, deploy management tools where applicable and minimise the amount of desktop images you have.

Reducing to a single standard desktop image can save around £50 per year, per desktop.

Reduce travel costs Take advantage of communication and collaboration technology and see how desktop based communications and conferencing can reduce your travel expenditure by allowing

people to easily communicate regardless of location.

Collaborate See how the latest collaboration and search technologies can assist your business in more effective ways to store, find and use data. See the potential of improving document management and workflow, coupling this with enterprise level searches to more effectively find the data stored within your organisation, reducing time looking for content, but also reducing the need for duplication and unnecessary recreation of content.

These notes are provided to give just an overview of the kind of IT challenges and the possible technologies available to address them.

If you would like to find out in more detail then call Gardner on 0151 220 5552. Email: info@gardnersystems.co.uk to arrange a discussion with a consultant, or visit the upcoming events page at: www. gardnersystems.co.uk to register for Gardner’s events.

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INTERNATIONAL TRADE

‘Beggar-my-neighbour’ policy helps economy gain traction

Hopes that the weak pound can boost UK GDP – and pull the economy out of recession NOBEL Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman is clear on the effects of the falling value of sterling.

“The depreciation of the pound is a nice thing from a UK point of view,” he said.

“The UK has achieved a lot of monetary traction in the way that no one else has through the depreciation of the pound. In effect, it has carried out a successful beggar-my-neighbour devaluation.”

Sterling’s value has fallen significantly against the currencies which the UK predominantly trades with.

The exchange rate index (ERI) of sterling measures the value of the pound against a trade-weighted basket of currencies. Countries are included in the calculations if their share of either UK imports or exports on average over the latest three-year period, exceeds 1%.

The weights applied are based on the latest available full set of world trade data.

Eurozone countries account for 53%, USA 17%, non-Euro European countries 9%, China 6% and Japan 4%.

The ERI had been relatively stable for more than a decade – between September, 1997, and March, 2008, it had varied by only 10%.

The rate, which was calibrated at 100 in January, 2005, went below 95 in March and under 90 in August last year.

Then, in the 10 weeks to December 30, it plummeted from 90 to 73.25.

The last three months have seen a steady climb – from 75 in mid-March to above 84 on June 16 – but remained lower than any time since September, 1996.

Despite still being at this low level, the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee have this month expressed its concerns that the appreciation of sterling could have on exports.

The low value of sterling is credited with helping to pull the UK out of recession in the early-1990s and – as the graph shows – there has been a sympathetic correlation between the value of sterling and GDP growth over the last 30 years.

In the minutes of its June meeting, the committee said: “The appreciation of sterling in recent months might represent the unwinding of some excess pessimism about the United Kingdom’s prospects

compared with other major industrialised economies.

“But it would reduce the boost to net trade arising from the depreciation since summer 2007, particularly if sterling appreciated further in coming months.”

Last month, the director-general of the Confederation of British Industry, Richard Lambert, was hopeful that the combination of sterling’s value and returning stability across Europe would boost exports.

He said: “Sterling has been devalued by around 25% since the summer of 2007 – a massive fall by any measure.

“So far, the impact on the trade numbers has been minimal – not surprising, given the collapse in world trade. But signs of greater stability are also beginning to appear in our major export markets in continental Europe.

“Some firms tell me that their export margins are strengthening, and there are also signs that domestic manufacturers are beginning to give importers more of a run for their money.

“This improvement in the net trade balances should start to make a positive difference to the GDP numbers later in the year.”

Economist Paul Krugman argues the weak pound has been good for the UK

Shoppers could face price rises as increased import costs hit the high street

PRICES on the high street may rise in the next 12 months as a result of the weak pound, professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) has warned.

It said the UK’s non-food retail sector could be potentially exposed to more than £20bn of extra costs as they feel the impact of the cost of imports.

The dollar-sterling exchange rate fell 30% – from $2 in March, 2008, to below $1.40 in March, 2009. It has since eased

to above $1.60 in June. PwC says that this extra £20bn will have to be absorbed somewhere in the chain, by suppliers or retailers, or passed onto consumers in the form of higher prices, for example on clothing and footwear.

Reduced commodity and transport costs, as well as lower factory utilisation, have enabled about 50% of the impact to be mitigated by the retailers.

However, that still leaves an estimated £10bn – or 5% of the

total non-food UK retail market value – to be passed on.

Karen Bluff, head of retail at PricewaterhouseCoopers in the North West, said: “At a time when UK consumers are watching their spending closely and consumer confidence appears to be improving, the last thing shoppers need is price rises.

“But since retailers’ margins are so tight, these extra costs will potentially spill over into the prices consumers are asked to

pay. I suspect we'll see changes across the price architecture, rather than at opening price points to disguise the impact.

However, the increase will be there.

“Hopefully, the more recent strengthening in sterling will serve to abate some of this pressure.”

The weak pound has brought some benefits to UK retailers.

They are benefiting from the repatriation of foreign earnings from their overseas operations

when sales are translated into sterling.

Online retailers have seen increased sales from overseas shoppers taking advantage of cheaper prices.

Fashion and beauty retailer Asos recently reported a threefold increase in sales to international shoppers.

The weak pound also makes shopping cheaper for foreign tourists and is expected to dissuade some UK consumers from holidaying abroad.

41

THE NETWORKER

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

THE BUSINESS LIST Wednesday, June 24

The Ellesmere Port Business to Business lunch is at the town’s Boat Museum. Organised by CEPNW Chamber, the two-course lunch is from 12pm-2pm and costs £15+VAT. For more information, call 01244 669988 or e-mail info@cepnwchamber.org.uk.

TUESDAY, JUNE 30 - WEDNESDAY, JULY 1/THE 2ND EUROPEAN SHORTSEA CONGRESS

Thursday, June 25 St Helens Chamber is looking to help would-be entrepreneurs start their own business at a free event.

Specialist advisers will be on hand from 6pm-8.30pm to discuss the issues that are holding you back. To book or for more information call Rachel Leigh on 01744 742035.

Friday, June 26 60 really useful minutes . . . with Mark Shipley from Shipleys Solicitors is from 9am-10am, at Liverpool Chamber. To book, contact Sue Platt or Melissa Bush on 0151 227 1234 or e-mail events@liverpoolchamber.org.uk.

Tuesday, July 7 St Helens Chamber is hosting a series of free one-to-one surgeries with HMRC, ACAS and Business Link. Advisers will be available all day to provide confidential, expert advice and answer any specific questions you may have that are affecting your business. One-hour appointments available on the hour throughout the day. To book an appointment, call St Helens Chamber on 01744 742000.

Sir Michael Bibby, of Liverpool-based Bibby Line group, will be a keynote speaker at the European Shortsea Congress

Wednesday, July 8 A seminar is targeting existing exporters looking to grow their overseas trade and firms who have not yet found a market. Experts will be on hand from UKTI, HSBC, Enterprise Europe Network and CEPNW Chamber to offer personal advice and guidance throughout the morning to discuss how companies can access specialist support. It is from 10am-1.30pm at Double Tree by Hilton, Hoole, Chester. Cost is £10+VAT and includes lunch. For more information, call 01244 669988 or e-mail info@cepnwchamber.org.uk.

A MAJOR two-day conference on shortsea shipping is being held in Liverpool next week.

The 2nd European Shortsea Congress, supported by UK Trade & Investment, will look at and debate the major issues facing the sector

Tuesday, July 14 The next Halton Women in Business event is at Foodini

over the next 10 years.

These include the effects of the global financial crisis and the consequent free-fall in freight rates, whether shortsea supply chains can be more efficient to drive down costs and how the shortsea sector

can work with its customers to deliver environmentally friendly solutions.

It will debate the regulatory burden the sector faces and if it will begin to work in its favour – and whether Brussels can deliver real

42

A seminar by The Bizz, Growing your Business with Better Teamwork, will take place at The World of Glass, St Helens, from 11.30am-1.30pm. Joan Callaghan will discuss how different personality types and gender

The conference is at The Liner Hotel at Liverpool, Lord Nelson Street. It also includes a tour of the Port of Liverpool.

For more information about the Congress, visit navigateconferences .com/shortsea09.htm.

Wednesday, July 15

Restaurant, The Heath Business Park, Runcorn. Each event will provide a fantastic opportunity for female entrepreneurs to meet and network in a relaxed atmosphere and build contacts. The speakers include Julie Cooke from Merseyside Police. It is free for Halton Chamber members, and £10 for non-members, and includes afternoon tea. To book, call Janet Gorry on 01928 513217, or e-mail Tracey Farrow at traceyf@haltonchamber.com.

Wednesday, July 15

Ellesmere Port boat museum

value and support. The conference follows from a Dublin Congress in 2008, which was attended by over 150 shortsea professionals.

It will attract Europe's unitised and bulk shortsea shipping interests.

Liverpool Curry Club, powered by www.mynetworkingpa.com, is holding its monthly hot networking event from 6pm-8pm at Sultans Palace, Victoria Street. The event costs £15 for unlimited food and a free drink on arrival. To book, e-mail info@mynetworkingpa.com.

Thursday, July 16 Mark Shipley will be the guest at Liverpool Chamber’s latest ‘60 minutes with . . . ’ event differences impact on relationships – affecting lives and businesses – often because of misinterpretations.

For more information call Nichola Saunders on 01744 453798.

Do you feel like you’re wasting valuable time chasing up invoices and debts? Ensuring your customers pay you for your services is key to effectively managing your cash flow. In this seminar by St Helens Chamber, learn how to make sure your customers pay on time and what to do if they don’t. For more information, call 01744 742035.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

SOCIAL DIARY THE NETWORKER

Rebecca Findlay, of Blackhouse Grill, with Louise Darcy Kemp, of Living Ventures, and Chantelle Joseph, of www.crystalflipflops.co.uk, at the Cheshire WITCHES event

Jane Kirkham and Mandy Molby, of Wirral Witches, with Jan Foley, of Hallmark Jewellers, at the Witches’ charity luncheon

CAROLYN HUGHES STYLISH bar and restaurant GUSTO, in Telegraph Road, Heswall, was the venue for the latest Wirral Witches (Women in Touch with Claire House) charity luncheon.

Almost 100 of the Wirral’s most stylish ladies turned out to join the Witches to help raise vital funds for the children’s hospice.

■ ONE of Chester’s most stylish bars and restaurants, the Blackhouse Grill, in Newgate Street, hosted the Cheshire WITCHES inaugural fundraising lunch, A Summer Lovin You. Although the sun failed to shine outside, the summer-themed lunch made up for the lack of

summer rays as almost 70 of Chester’s finest ladies came out to support the newly-formed group.

■ RADIO City Founder Terry Smith hosted a retirement dinner at the Hope Street Hotel. Invited guests, including Radio City managing directors spanning 35 years, the Chief Constable, and senior radio industry personnel , toasted Terry’s enormous success since he launched Radio City in 1974.

■ MORE than 50 local business people gathered at Redwood Expresso on World Environment Day to view recycled art and enjoy locally sourced food and organic wines.

Lynne Wood, with Mersey chief constable Bernard Hogan-Howe, and Lorraine Rogers, Mersey Partnership chief executive, at Terry Smith’s retirement dinner

Gabby Cattrill, of Redwood Expresso, and Paul Garrett, of Urban Space, at the World Environment Day exhibition

Dave McTague and Craig Thomson, of Another Media, with Kelly Daley, of Redwood Expresso, at the World Environment Day exhibition

Liverpool Echo Editor Alastair Machray and Merseyside Chief Constable Bernard Hogan-Howe at Terry Smith’s retirement dinner

Zoe Bock, Events Organiser, Cheshire WITCHES, and Rob Bastow, General Manager, Blackhouse Grill, at the summer-themed lunch

43

THE NETWORKER

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

BUSINESS LUNCH Barry Turnbull picks up the bill with credit control expert Jenny Esau HE heat seems to bring out idiots like a rash. On a recent Sunday, a fiery blast of hot weather helped New Brighton resemble the Cote D’Azur – OK, it takes some imagination – hazy sunshine rippling across the sands under a blazing blue sky and even the normally grey Mersey looked translucent and inviting.

Then a drunk lurched past clinging on to a near-empty plastic bottle of white cider before sitting down near us and belting out a cacophonous version of an Irish folk song. Time to move on.

The next day, as the heat continued to belt down with barely a whisper of breeze, I was on the train to work when another grizzled individual with suppurating facial boils fiddled beneath his suffocating robe of rags and produced a can of Special Brew whilst conversing with a young lady who was apparently on her way to visit her boyfriend in prison.

An animated exchange garnished with fruity language ensued and not for the first time I wondered if there were some way of persuading Merseyrail to run an express service bypassing particular stops on the West Kirby line.

Talking of feeling the heat, many businesses are currently at fever pitch with the state of the economy and the lack of available credit.

But in good times and bad times, there are always those who can flourish. Insolvency firms are literally making hay whilst others, such as the Credit Management Group, find business is brisker than usual.

I met managing director Jenny Esau at the James Monro in Tithebarn Street to find out how she helps firms keep cool under pressure.

First we browsed the menu at the venue which purports to serve up New York-syle nosh. Specialities included spicy buffalo wings with a rich blue sauce, crispy fried soft shell crab sandwiches and steamed littleneck clams.

Jenny's company helps other businesses diagnose credit control problems and offers solutions or hands-on expertise.

She explained: “I think we are seeing more companies realise that in the current climate they need to get a real grip on credit, whereas in the past many may have just thought about it when problems with getting paid actually arose.

“Traditionally the focus has been on sales rather than making sure the resulting cash translates into money in the bank.

T

44

“More businesses are taking a long, harder look at the projections and thankfully, an increasing number of businesses that we help realise that it’s not a weakness to outsource credit control” As she talked I examined the pan-fried oxymoronic jumbo shrimps (£5.95). A circle of dearly-departed crustaceans flanked a wreath of greenleaf salad amid a scattering of chilli, lime and garlic butter.

Tasty enough, but I couldn’t help thinking that true Noo Yoikers would have expected a groaning plateful rather than this modest offering.

Meanwhile Jenny munched on Brooklyn meatballs (£4.95) lounging on a bed of cous cous, declaring them delicious.

Knowing that many businesses are extremely challenged in terms of time, she has devised an online toolkit to assist in credit control and chasing debts. CMG Zone is all a business needs to understand what to do to get paid quickly and prevent bad debt.

She says it’s easy to use and understand with template documents and a credit check service on potential clients.

It’s a passionate subject for the former air hostess, now based in Wirral.

She said: “I do get annoyed by some of the bad advice that some firms get. One client of mine I couldn’t save from going under because of the very bad way they were dealt with at the hands of a factoring division of a major bank.

“One of our advantages is that we are really hands-on and develop a good relationship with customers. It is important to have mutual trust, especially when the going gets tough.”

The restaurant was busy and has a smart, Big Apple chic interior with some intimate booths at the back of the main room.

The lunchtime menu is a tad limited but I have to say the handcut fries (£1.95) were Stonehenge-style slabs of joy. Also, the New York deli sandwich with parma ham, buffalo mozzarella and sun-blushed tomatoes (£3.95) melded together deliciously.

A glass of house white (£4.10) accompanied the repast although my guest declined as she was driving back to Wirral.

Pudding was also deemed a no-no, allegedly for health reasons All in all, for a quick bite at lunchtime, the James Monro is an ideal

Chic: the interior of the James Monro, in Tithebarn Street, Liverpool city centre venue to chew the fat. Interestingly, Jenny pointed out that it costs ten times more to gain a new customer than to keep an existing client, yet many companies take a “sledgehammer” approach to collecting payment from their customers.

They get paid but lose their existing client base in the process, destroying future business relations.

History has some important lessons but clearly some people don’t take them on board.

The James Monro has some history of its own, being an offshoot of the Monro in Duke Street which was

Jenny Esau

named after the first scheduled ships passenger service to New York in 1817.

That Clipper ship, which also carried apples, hops and other dry goods to the New World, was named after the then US President James Monro. It was deemed fitting to call The Monro’s second restaurant The James Monro.

Apart from lunchtime fare, the eaterie also provides brunch at the weekend, with US-style eggs Benedict and eggs Florentine among the dishes on the menu.

We both left for our next appointments fully sated.

■ THE James Monro, 69, Tithebarn Street, Liverpool.

Tel: 0151 236 9700 Email: jamesbookings@themonro.com

A tasty prawn dish

DETAILS James Monro 69 Tithebarn Street Liverpool Tel: 0151 236 9700 www.themonro.com

Access Downtown’s Little Black Book Downtown Liverpool in Business Join The Business CluB wiTh ATTITUDE! 0151 227 1633 www.DownTownLIvErpooL.com

45

THE NETWORKER

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

ALISTAIR HOUGHTON . . . could we have the next Susan Boyle lurking behind the office photocopier and does stardom await one of our lawyers?

OVE over Susan Boyle, stand aside Leona Lewis, get out of the way Will Young – Liverpool’s accountants and lawyers are barging their way into the spotlight as the city’s professionals host their own version of the X-Factor.

As you’ll have read elsewhere in these pages, the Pan-American Bar & Grill, in the Albert Dock, will next month play host to the first-ever Professional Liverpool Idol contest.

Ten members of the city’s professional community will be “swapping the boardroom for the big stage” and singing their hearts out in front of a live band, in a bid to be named the best singing lawyer or accountant in Merseyside.

So which of these intrepid performers will pull a Su-Bo (that’s Britain’s Got Talent’s Scottish songstress Susan Boyle in tabloid-ese, fact fans)? Who will shuffle shyly from the wings, a vision in grey, stumbling in front of the microphone to the barely-concealed mockery of the audience, but then wow

M

the judges and the crowds with their soaring, operatic, pitch-perfect version of I’ve Got A Brand New Combine Harvester?

Who will become an overnight sensation, their name in lights above Old Hall Street, but then see their star fade, the goodwill disappear and the adulation dry up, till they are remembered as little more than a footnote in the Trading Gossip column?

Who will in years to come star in their own Behind The Music special late at night on digital channel 1,345, their face sunken and concrete-grey, recounting their rise to fame, their Newz Bar VIP receptions, stealing the spotlight from the most glamorous of Hollyoaks sirens, the queue for their autographs outstretching even that for Stevie G or that bloke from The Zutons?

And will they, as night follows day, recount the story of their fall, the flash cars all gone, the barmen at the trendiest of nightspots looking straight through them, the way they were reduced to scrabbling in the streets of the business district in a haze of Special Brew, bellowing at terrified passers-by that “they used to be a contender”?

We may mock – well, let’s face it, we are a bit – but they’re fearsome things,

Will any of the Professional Liverpool Idol contestants follow Susan Boyle’s path to fame?

46

these talent contests. At my previous paper, the Hull Daily Mail, all the reporters were expected to judge some of the rounds of the annual “Talent Trail” social club singing contest the paper sponsored.

Looking back, it now feels like gazing into the distant past, simply because I remember the main feature of the Inglemire and Cherokee Clubs being the inescapable, dense haze of cigarette smoke that seemed to fill each venue.

As a judge, I would sit, nursing a pint of mild, between two stalwarts of the East Yorkshire entertainment scene, ready to give my verdict on the parade of singers trilling or bellowing their own interpretations of pop classics old and new, usually by Robbie Williams, Mariah Carey or Whitney Houston.

There was also the separate Soundalike contest, when you had to judge crooners’ Stars In Their Eyes-style attempts to sound like their idols. Easy to judge when someone’s doing Elvis, but hard work when someone’s “being” a country singer you’ve never heard of and you have to assess how much they resemble the original.

But woe betide any reporter who made the schoolboy error of being too critical of a contestant’s efforts, not knowing that each contestant had an army of family and friends somewhere out there in the haze.

And woe betide anyone who said anything at all at the Inglemire Club when at half-time the club fell silent for the bingo man, his flashing-light bingo machine and his live link to a national bingo game broadcast to a network of social clubs around the country. Good job the Talent Trail organisers made sure the judges were equipped with beer tokens.

But, for all the Phoenix Nights-style aspects of the contest, it was hard not to admire the commitment of the successful contestants, and the passion of their support both in the heats and at the Grand Final in front of hundreds of people in a packed Hull City Hall. The good contestants were really very good.

And anyone who dares to get up on stage and sing is a braver person, frankly, than anyone here on LDP Business.

So good luck to those Professional Liverpool contestants – Martin McQueen, of Halliwells; John McCaffery, of Grant Thornton; Jon Else, of The Steve Stuart Partnership; Frank Herlihy, of Dow Schofield Watts; Carla Whitehead, of PKF; Edmund Chan, of DLA Piper; Colin Wardale and Mike Powell, of Hill Dickinson; Mike Petyt, of Medicash; and Jennifer Lee, of KPMG. And let’s hope none of the Professional Liverpool Idol judges decided to pull a Simon Cowell and trample their dreams into the dirt.

■ FOR more information on Professional Liverpool Idol, which is being held on Thursday, July 9, visit www.liverpoolidol.co.uk

Invest in the future

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47

Play alongside the golf stars of tomorrow...

...at one of golf’s leading venues.

Book a team in the Europro Tour Pro Am. Tuesday 18th August 2009.

From Monday August 17th through to Friday 21st of August you’ll not only be able to enjoy watching some of the potential stars of tomorrow, on Tuesday 18th you can also take part in our special Pro Am Event where your company can enter a team of three to play alongside a top PGA player against rival companies all for a cost of just £395. To book a team call Tim Cowell on 01704 875 699 or email tim@formbyhallgolfresort.co.uk

Visit

www.formbyhallgolfresort.co.uk

or call 01704 875 699 for more details.

Formby Hall Golf Resort & Spa, Southport Old Road, Formby, Merseyside L37 0AB

48

£395

For a team of 3 including tea, coffee and bacon rolls on arrival and a gala dinner.