LDP Business Magazine, September 2009

44

DAILY POST Tuesday, August 25, 2009

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

Conferences, Meetings and Events

LDP BUSINESS w w w . l d p b u s i n e s s . c o . u k S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9

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LDP Campaign – See Inside

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Creative thinking

Merseyside firms meet the challenge of MediaCityUK

Cutting Edge: Cash boost for laser project The Big Interview: Stuart Thompson Economic Review: Is the NWDA value for money?

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Liverpool to Aberdeen and Southampton Day Tripper

up FR o to EE nb PA oa RK rd IN c G re or TR dit AN SP OR T

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Canary Islands Departing 23rd March 2010 for 14 nights

From just

Visiting: Liverpool – Leixoes (Oporto), Portugal – Funchal, Madeira – Santa Cruz, La Palma – Santa Cruz, Tenerife – Las Palmas, Gran Canaria – Casablanca, Morocco – Liverpool.

Eastern Mediterranean Departing 6th April 2010 for 23 nights

Visiting: Liverpool – Cadiz, Spain – Malaga, Spain – Catania, Sicily, Italy – Zakinthos (Zante), Greece – Piraeus (Athens), Greece – Mykonos, Greece – Volos, Greece – Izmir, Turkey – Thira, Santorini, Greece – Valletta, Malta – Eivissa, Ibiza, Spain – Lisbon, Portugal – Liverpool.

From just

Western Mediterranean Departing 29th April 2010 for 14 nights

Visiting: Liverpool – Gibraltar – Alicante, Spain – Barcelona, Spain – Marseille, France – Malaga, Spain – Leixoes (Oporto), Portugal – Liverpool.

Norway Departing 13th May 2010 for 8 nights

Visiting: Liverpool – Bergen, Norway – Flam Sognefjord, Norway – Gudvangen Sognefjord, Norway – Olden Nordfjord, Norway – Alesund – Kirkwell, Orkney Isles – Liverpool.

Baltic Capitals Departing 21st May 2010 for 14 nights

Visiting: Liverpool Skagen Denmark – Ystad Sweden – St Petersburg Russia for 2 days – Tallinn Estonia – Warnemunde Germany – Cruise Kiel Canal – Zeebrugge – At Sea – Liverpool.

Mini Cruise Departing 4th June 2010 for 2 nights Visiting: Liverpool – Dublin – Greenock. FREE Shuttle back to LIVERPOOL

Iberia Departing 11th November 2010 for 9 nights Visiting: Liverpool – La Coruna – Gibraltar – Lisbon Portugal – Vigo Spain – Liverpool.

Cape Verde & The Canaries Departing 20th November 2010 for 18 nights Visiting: Liverpool – Madeira – Tenerife – Mindelo (Cape Verde Islands) La Gomera – La Palma – Lisbon – Liverpool.

Visiting: Liverpool – Madeira – Palma – Tenerife – Gran Canaria – Lanzarote – Lisbon – Liverpool.

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Christmas Canaries Cruise Departing 21st December 2010 for 14 nights Visiting: Liverpool – Leixoes Oporto – Lanzarote – Gran Canaria – La Gomera – Tenerife – Palma – Maderia – Liverpool.

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43

THE NETWORKER

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

BARRY TURNBULL . . . social networking proves no substitute for the real thing as our man meets a Czech mate and an England cricketer OME people must think I'm terribly rude. I've lost count of the number of invitations I've had to join social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Plexus and the like. I have never replied to any, assuming that senders merely cast out a general invite to whoever is on their mailing list.

I revisited one message recently and found a personal note almost beseeching me to join his LinkedIn gang . . . maybe I should give it a go.

The only social site I did sign up to was Where Are You Now (WAYN), which is designed for people who want to meet new friends while on their travels. I was heading for a solo tour of the Tata mountain region between Poland and the Czech Repblic and thought it may be useful to make some contacts, but in the event WAYN proved to be no real friend. However, by proper social

S

networking – face to face – I met someone who insisted I stay in his flat for a few days while he went to his parents.

A female neighbour of his also proved to be very accommodating.

Despite my reservations, it seems virtual networking as a phenomenon is here to stay, even though, in the online world, things can move very quickly indeed. Take Friends Reunited, bought by ITV for a whopping £175m and sold recently for a knockdown £25m because its popularity has waned. I did have a dip into FR and discovered one school chum's hobby was buying doubledecker buses and another was an international tax consultant . . . I lost my appetite for further knowledge.

There are now sites out there that cater for every taste from Cloob (popular in Iran) to FetLife (bondage, etc).

Now another has crossed my radar. Club Penguin. My 11-year-old son chose to join this young people's site as a reward for doing well in his SATS tests but it's led to all sorts of

complications. Boys tend to follow fads at that kind of age, and it soon became apparent that he had struck up a friendship with someone who has a barn owl for a pet.

Now it's grown into an obsession about getting a bird of prey that was fuelled recently when he was pictured with an eagle at the Wirral Show. Books from the library, internet research, feeding habits, costs; a bombardment that shows no sign of stopping. The plan seems to be to wear me down but it hasn't worked and I've had to curtail use of the website to get some peace.

Maybe it's an age thing but I still can't get any enthusiasm for twittering or blogging. Good old-fashioned direct communications suits me fine. I was thinking about the world of virtual meetings after speaking to someone who knew about such matters at a PR firm’s summer party. Apparently most of the cyber-users have about five close friends, like in real life, but many more casual acquaintances.

So, for many, the virtual world is somewhere they can pick up many more acquaintances than they ever could in real life. Some wear it as a badge of honour with more than 1,000 contacts and some are real nerds with few social skills.

Evidence of this is the way some friends are “dropped”.

AM told that to have in excess of 1,000 friends is not uncommon. It can be a bit like trainspotting. They just want to get as many people on their list as possible.

However, it can start to upset some people. They start by feeling good that they appear to have made a new friend, only to find out that they are simply being added to a list.

This and the nature of online friendship had spawned “the phenomenon of defriending” as a means of severing relationships.

Instead of having a row or pointedly refusing to speak to a friend whose views or behaviour were unacceptable, they could simply have their names deleted.

Interesting, but not for me.

Not so long ago, I lunched at the Restaurant Bar and Grill where I bumped into financial adviser Ian Cockbain who introduced me to his son, Ian jnr. Both used to play cricket for Bootle.

I almost fell off my bar-stool some days later while watching some of the Ashes series when the aforementioned young man joined the England players as a substitute fielder.

Now that's proper contact making, and might be useful for tickets, too.

Although, by the time you read this, hopes of winning the Ashes may well have been dashed.

I

Ian Cockbain Jnr – one day shooing the breeze in the Restaurant Bar and Grill, the next turning out for England against the Aussies

42

INSIDE 4

LDP BUSINESS

17

NEWS

£800,000 boost for laser project

EDITOR Bill Gleeson 0151 472 2319

9 BIG INTERVIEW

bill.gleeson@liverpool.com

Stuart Thompson, EA Technology

DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR Tony McDonough 0151 330 4918

13 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

City retail rents

tony.mcdonough @liverpool.com

14 Offshore tax amnesty

BUSINESS WRITERS Alistair Houghton

16

Barry Turnbull

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

alistair.houghton @liverpool.com

LDP joins forces with Business Link

17 BIG FEATURE

Merseyside’s creative sector

barry.turnbull @liverpool.com

9

CAMPAIGN

Neil Hodgson neil.hodgson @liverpool.com

Alex Turner

4

alex.turner@liverpool.com

HEAD OF IMAGES Barrie Mills

25

barrie.mills@liverpool.com

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

MARKETING EXECUTIVE Litza Gorman 0151 742 2352

Harvesting rainwater

26 HOW GREEN IS YOUR BUSINESS?

ADVERTISEMENT DIRECTOR Debbie McGraw

29

SALES MANAGER Jackie McMahon 0151 472 5077 Trudie Arlett 0151 472 2476

Go-ahead for Peel project

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Northwest Development Agency

34 EDUCATION

PHOTOGRAPHY Trinity Mirror

36

BUSINESS CLUB INQUIRIES 0151 472 2352

University’s business links

INTERNATIONAL TRADE Sound City in Japan

40

26

38 THE LIST

39

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

SOCIAL DIARY

Carolyn Hughes out on the town

TELEPHONE 0151 227 2000

40

FAX 0151 330 4942

RESTAURANT REVIEW Bar Italia

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.

42 NETWORKER

Online social networking

IT WASN’T a great summer, weather wise, was it? Not exactly the barbecue summer we were promised by our forecasters.

Lured by the prospect of good weather at home and deterred by the pound’s weakness against the euro, we chose to take a holiday in Britain this year.

One place that is definitely showing no sign of recession is the Lake District. I was up there two weeks ago, and the place was bustling. Bowness on Windermere couldn’t physically have handled many more people. According to the man in the ticket office selling boat trips on the lake, 2009 was busier than either of the two previous years.

The same is true of the little Welsh fishing village we also visited, where there are grand plans to build a new

EDITOR’S LETTER quay and hotel because trade has picked up so much in recent years.

We have been visiting the town for a decade now, and it is much busier these days than it was ten years ago.

If Alistair Darling is right, the rest of us are out of recession as well.

That is what he predicted at the time of his last Budget speech.

Britain, he said, would see economic growth in the second half of 2009.

It helps his case that Germany, France and Japan have all recently

published economic data that shows these countries have pulled out of recession. Perhaps the same could be true for us in the near future.

Some signs are encouraging.

Inflation is well and truly under control at the moment, meaning that interest rates can remain low for some time to come yet, thereby assisting the recovery without busting government targets. There are signs of a gradual return of car buyers, though clearly there is a long way to go before those figures return to previous levels.

And some retail data has been surprisingly positive in recent weeks, too.

Yet there has also been a sharp decline in output and the one figure that is not going to pick up again any time soon is unemployment. If the experience of the last recession in Britain is anything to go by, unemployment won’t start to drop for up to four years after the end of the downturn.

Of course, the best piece of good news around at the moment concerns the region’s car industry. Tata has secured the funding it needs for the future, including money it needs to develop new models. There is also some good news from Vauxhall, which has now been sold to a more viable owner. It’s a

great relief. It was touch and go that the region’s car industry would survive the downturn.

But, despite the desperate attempt to find good news lurking somewhere in the tea leaves, there is one very big and obvious piece in the jigsaw that is still missing – namely, the banks.

Yes, foreign banks have gone back home and British banks are trying to rebuild their balance sheets and solvency margins. There must still be some scope for big property investment write-offs to come through in subsequent trading results. But surely it can’t be too long now before they re-enter the market place.

BILL GLEESON 3

NEWS

Investor acquires 18.5% stake in property group

Cavern Walks, in Liverpool city centre

INVESTMENT fund Hansteen Holdings has acquired an 18.5% stake in troubled property group Warner Estate Holdings.

Warner is the owner of Liverpool’s up-market Cavern Walks shopping mall and the Grange and Pyramids retail centres in Birkenhead.

AIM-listed Hansteen is issuing 3.29m new shares, at 10p each, to help fund the deal.

It had already carried out a £200m equity raising in July.

In early August, Warner admitted it had suffered what it

admitted was “possibly the worst” year in its 118-year history.

It posted pre-tax losses of £297.1m.

Despite selling £80m of property in a bid to cut costs, the speed of the recession affected property values so badly that the group’s gross asset value is now only just above its level of debt, but directors believe they have enough resources to continue as a going concern. The group has convened an extraordinary general meeting to discuss its plight on September 18.

Laser project secures £800,000 cash boost PROJECT to develop laser technology for the benefit of North West firms is to receive more than £800,000 of European cash.

North West Laser Engineering Consortium (NWLEC) is a strategic alliance between the universities of Liverpool and Manchester.

It was established in 2005 with a £2.5m investment from the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) through the Northwest Science Fund.

Now its work is being given a boost with an £882,000 investment from the Northwest European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The project has developed international capability at the forefront of laser applications in micro and nano technology, and there is evidence of strong interest in this technology from companies across key growth sectors, particularly advanced engineering.

However, the technology remains unproven in an industrial context, and industry needs access to expertise and support in order to assess its benefits and adapt the technology to optimum solutions.

The money will enable experts on the project to work with companies to provide a link between the knowledge base and companies that want to utilise the technology.

Steven Broomhead, chief executive of the NWDA, said: “The North West is home to a world-class higher education sector, producing cutting-edge research, and is a vital resource for North West businesses.

“This research needs to be more accessible for companies, with the right support in place to enable it to be translated effectively into innovative new products and processes that will ensure they remain competitive.”

A

4

Bright sparks . . . making the most of laser technology

Restaurateur Vince Margiotta

Top 50 for food and drink launch FIFTY of the city’s top bars and restaurants have now signed up for the Liverpool Food and Drink Festival which launches this month.

An opening day carnival of mouth-watering dishes will be served up at Sefton Park on Sunday, Sep 13.

Through the following week, popular eateries will be offering discounted food and drink.

Establishments include The London Carriage Works, Wagamama, Panoramic and Italian Club Fish.

Sponsors for the event include The Mersey Partnership, Liverpool One and Internet marketing and design consultants Ph Creative.

Vince Margiotta, whose Il Forno & Sapporo brands are

also sponsoring the festival and who will be holding daily events, said: “Slowly but surely, we’re building a festival to be reckoned with.

“The support from private sector companies who have worked tirelessly on marketing on this year’s showcase will hopefully inspire others to follow suit in coming years.

“Our aim is to be lauded as one of the UK’s major food & drink festivals in years to come.”

Candice Fonseca, owner of Delifonseca, in Stanley Street, added: “The success of last year’s festival has already created an impressive list of sponsors and supporters for this year’s event, and speaks volumes about the magnitude of the city’s restaurant and bar scene.”

Access Downtown’s Little Black Book Downtown Liverpool in Business Join The Business CluB wiTh ATTITUDE! 0151 227 1633 www.DownTownLIvErpooL.com

41

THE NETWORKER

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

BUSINESS LUNCH

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Dame Ellen opens sail centre

Ellen MacArthur and Stepclever toast the success of local sailing and diving school Alistair Houghton tries out Bar Italia, in Castle Street, with Switch Media creative director Chris Evans EETING Chris Evans in Liverpool’s Bar Italia proved, in the best possible way, to be a real meeting of new and old.

Chris’s company, Switch Media, is one of Merseyside’s leading digital businesses, with clients from Harley Davidson to Samsung.

It’s a business that’s winning a national reputation, making the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 rankings for two years in a row, and is now offering new broadband and telephony services to help it win new business.

Meanwhile, Bar Italia – this year celebrating a decade in business – is an unashamedly old-fashioned Italian restaurant with hearty portions and a family feel.

Tucked away down a flight of stairs from street level, it’s a bit of a hidden gem – and that’s how Chris sees his company. Switch, he says, has kept a low profile up to now, but is keen to make itself known in Merseyside and beyond.

He said: “The excellent quality creative team that Aaron Bimpson has put in place has won a lot of recognition for the work it does..

“That, coupled with the strong technical capability we have and with all the technical infrastructure we have, allows us to attract clients such as Harley Davidson, Universal Music Group and most recently Samsung.

“We’re now being invited to tender for projects we would never previously have been offered or known about.

“We see ourselves as the quiet Liverpool company that hasn’t said much in the past and has been growing quietly.

“Now we have ambitions to be a major player in the sector.”

After the restaurant’s attentive staff had escorted us to a table, we nibbled on grissini breadsticks as Chris told me how he and fellow Liverpool John Moores University student Mr Bimpson started the business back in 2002.

Aaron brought the creative skills while Chris, a software engineering student, brought the technical know-how he had gained both through his course and through work he had already done at local internet service providers.

They both left university to concentrate on Switch.

Chris said: “We noticed that, though there were lots of hosting companies out there, there were none with their own design function.

Likewise, design companies didn’t do much in the way of hosting.”

M

40

The company is run as two divisions – hosting, led by Chris, and creative services, led by Mr Bimpson.

The Switch board is completed by Stuart McBain. He got to know the business in its early days, and was so impressed he made an equity investment and eventually came back. In their first year, Chris and Aaron turned over some £34,000, but the following year turnover more than trebled as Switch’s reputation grew.

At first, Switch had to outsource its hosting services, even while they were managed by Chris, simply due to lack of space. But when it moved to Fenwick Street, around the corner from our lunch venue, Switch was able to build its own secure infrastructure.

As we chatted, our starters arrived.

Chris had vegetable soup while my choice was a tuna and bean salad.

It was a tart, lemony mix of beans, tuna and onion, managing to be both filling and refreshing.

Switch boasts around 15,000 web hosting customers.

“A lot of our success is down to the systems we’ve put in place internally,” said Chris.

“As a web company, we’ve got an internal intranet we manage everything from. We know it frees staff from admin work. Everything is as highly automated as possible so there’s as little paper running around the office as possible.”

Switch has also grown along with its customers, as they have expanded and want to do more with their websites.

“When they came on board, they were larger SMEs,” said Chris.

“They’ve matured and so have we.

These companies are requiring much more demanding services.

There’s a natural element of growth with the clients we’re working for.”

For my main course, I went for the Rigatoni della Casa, billed as a “selection of fish” in a tomato, cream and white wine sauce, while Chris went for roasted peppers stuffed with vegetables.

Experience had taught me not to expect much fish in such a dish, but when Bar Italia says “a selection” it really means it as the bowl was packed with chunks of salmon, white fish and squid in a flavoursome sauce.

Chris and his team had started preparing for Switch to be floated on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) last year, but the plan was shelved thanks to unfavourable economic conditions.

Last year, Switch suffered what Chris admits was a disappointing year and parts of its business

STEPCLEVER is an initiative to generate an enterprise culture in North Liverpool and South Sefton, by offering free business advice and support, as well as grants and other financial assistance for existing enterprises, start-up companies and individuals.

Here, we look at an exciting venture which is being helped by Stepclever.

LONG-DISTANCE yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur has launched an Dame Ellen MacArthur exciting new centre enabling years olds in Merseyside. It young people to learn about is the only centre of its type sailing and diving. in the UK. The state-of-the-art Ellen MacArthur said: "I Glaciere Sail Dive centre, at was really excited to be Oakmere Community asked to open the new College, in Walton, provides Glaciere centre, at Oakmere vocational training, exciting Community College, which is positive activities and basic skills to disadvantaged 13-19 providing some brilliant

facilities for local people to go sailing and diving.”

The centre has been created from what was previously an industrial unit, never before used for learning. Its development has been supported by a £50,000 grant from the social enterprise strand of the Stepclever Enterprise Gateway. It also received funding from the Youth Sector Development Fund.

The new purpose-built nautical style centre will allow Oakmere to offer further learning and enrichment opportunities to students, enabling them to progress to employment, education or training.

It has classrooms, meeting rooms, changing facilities, and a retail outlet, and boasts a 6ft deep swimming and diving training pool.

Neil Francom, the

Support for Business

Administration Manager for Oakmere Community College, said: “The new facility brings together two existing charities, Oakmere Community College and Glaciere Sailing and Diving School, and will create a centre of excellence that will

A little bit of Italy in Castle Street – Bar Italia were restructured. But he says the company is now well-placed for growth, and that he still wants it to float at some stage.

“We still intend to pursue that when market conditions allow,” he said. “We are in contact with the same investment network that was prepared to invest.

“We believe that our business model is flexible and we are willing to respond very quickly to the market conditions around us.”

In December, the company also raised £200,000 in a rights issue to pay off its longer-term debt.

Switch set up after the dot.com bubble had burst, leaving behind a fractured web hosting marketplace.

Since then, some consolidation has taken place, but Chris has

Chris Evans

strived to keep Switch independent: “Over the years, we’ve had four takeover offers and we’ve rejected them all,” he said.

Instead, Switch is considering making acquisitions itself. While some talks have fallen through, Chris remains confident Switch will be able to snap up other companies to help its business expand. He says the company is keeping an eye out for distressed assets.

He said: “We are looking out for businesses that will complement our business, our product range and our customers. We can save costs, increase the size of the business and bring talent across from the acquired company.”

To close, we had coffees, served with grapes, cherries, some biscotti and some Bar Italia-branded chocolates.

Chris has ambitious long-term plans, but in the here and now he is busy expanding the services the company offers.

“We’ve just launched a broadband offering,” he said.

“We’ve invested in our technical infrastructure, and it’s all hosted from a data centre in Liverpool.

We’re not reselling it for anybody, we’re doing it ourselves.

“The next thing we’ll add to our product suite is telephony services.

“We’re looking to provide an overall solution to businesses, not so much for the large corporates but for the smaller enterprise that wants to come to a single supplier for broadband, hosting websites and telephony services.”

Chris had to make a hasty departure, but I made sure I had time to try the complimentary limoncello offered at lunchtime. Overall, lunch came to £31.85, including soft drinks.

Bar Italia is the kind of place you might walk past every day without giving it a second thought, but, if pasta’s your thing, then perhaps you should pop down the steps and give it a try.

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.

Oakmere, we are all about helping the most disadvantaged and vulnerable young people.”

■ FOR more information about Glaciere Sailing and Diving School, visit www.oakmere.net

A 3-D schematic design of the Glaciere Sail Dive Centre

LINACRE L NA RE E

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?

provide accredited learning and enrichment activities for our students.

“The capital investment award from Stepclever allows us to provide an exceptionally well-resourced facility which is unique in Greater Merseyside. At

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.

DETAILS Bar Italia 48a, Castle Street, Liverpool L2 7LQ Tel:0151 236 3375 www.baritalialiverpool.com

5

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

BUSINESS MATTERS with Steve Sankson, of The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest in Merseyside STEVE SANKSON, Regional Director for The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest in Merseyside, explains what support is available to SMEs at the present time, and looks at the practical steps that businesses can take to help get through the difficult economic climate ■ SMALL and medium-sized businesses form the backbone of the North West’s economy, with the majority of the region’s companies employing fewer than 50 people. Given the difficult economic conditions at present, many of these businesses are quite rightly looking to their bank for practical help and support.

Earlier this year, the RBS Group announced a series of initiatives which included a commitment to make available £16bn-worth of new lending to UK businesses over the next 12 months. So far, over 100,000 businesses have benefited from RBS loans this year, and we are currently providing over 5,000 loans per week to businesses.

Across the North West, we are working with organisations such as Business Link, the Chambers of Commerce and other professional advisors to offer practical advice and guidance to our customers, and later this year we will be hosting a series of SME seminars across the region, which are designed to give practical assistance and advice to business owners.

Our Merseyside-based teams continue to actively promote the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme (EFG) as a lending option. To date, we have led the field in taking applications with over £200m-worth of loans agreed or in the pipeline across the whole of the UK. Recent figures from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) show that, of all EFG lending across the industry, NatWest and RBS have provided nearly half of all loans drawn down.

Recent local examples of EFG transactions include a £100k loan to Liverpool-based Aimes Grid Services to support their expansion plans, and a £200k loan to CAL Systems, in Chester, to help safeguard the company’s future, after one of their major

clients unexpectedly changed its payment terms. To counteract the difficult economic conditions, we are helping many SME customers realign their business models and address key issues like cashflow and cost management.

Many profitable businesses run into difficulties because they don’t have sufficient checks in place to predict short or medium-term cash needs. In today’s climate, being able to confidently forecast cash requirements (and ensure you have sufficient funding lines) will go a long way to ensuring your business can take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Recent research conducted

by NatWest shows that almost 40% of small and mediumsized companies have no cash management strategy in place and almost a third (29%) take no action at all to ease their cashflow issues. These figures are a real concern and our number one priority at present is ensuring we are talking to business owners about what we can do to help and examine what practical steps they can put in place to address these issues. To help businesses manage their cashflow more efficiently, NatWest and RBS have created a practical guide which provides key tools to enable businesses monitor this issue.

The guide, which is available from www.natwest.com and www.rbs.com, also contains information on what constitutes a viable business and an insight into what kind of information the bank would expect businesses to prepare when they are looking to secure funding. We have found that the most important thing a business can do right now is review their operations and question what they are doing and why? What changes can they make to their business model and how they operate?

Next month we will build on these themes. The pleasing thing is that we are starting to see positive signs in terms of number of start-ups and business activity generally.

There are opportunities out there and making sure businesses are well-placed to take advantage of these is a key priority for us.

‘We are helping many SMEs to realign business models’

6

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

SOCIAL DIARY THE NETWORKER

Accountants say Bank is set to print more money

Governor wanted to expand quantitative easing programme

Lord and Lady Derby, Paul Adams, and Rupert and Sarah Maitland-Titterton

Bill Holroyd, Simon Parker, and Paul Heathcote at Paul Adams’s party

CAROLYN HUGHES Patrick Adams, Lisa Bentinck, Paul Adams, and Loren Downing at Paul Adams’s party

Bank of England governor Mervyn King – wanted to increase the quantitative easing programme by £75bn to £200bn THE Bank of England looks set to pump more money into the UK economy on top of the billions already announced, Merseyside accountants agree.

The Bank surprised many analysts this month by announcing a £50bn package of quantitative easing (QE) – higher than many had predicted.

Last week, the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)’s latest meeting revealed that the Bank’s Governor, Mervyn King, was one of three policymakers keen to increase the Bank’s QE programme by £75bn to £200bn.

The decision to instead increase QE by £50bn was passed after six members voted in favour, but Mr King and the dissenters argued that there was less harm in boosting money supply by too much than there would be by too little.

The MPC minutes also revealed the committee was unanimous in voting to keep interest rates at their historic low of 0.5%.

Leading Liverpool accountants say the Bank looks to be getting set for another round of QE. Barry Flynn, senior partner at Ernst & Young, in Liverpool, said: “Interest

rates are likely to remain pinned down to their 0.5% floor well into next year, and are likely to rise at a steady pace thereafter. The mid-to-long term outlook for inflation is quite weak, so rates are unlikely to be pushed up too rapidly.

“On the face of it, it appears that QE has yet to make much of an impact – the economy shrank faster than anticipated between April and June. However, without the policy in place, the growth figures may well have looked worse.

“With three out of the nine MPC members voting for a bigger expansion of the programme this month (including the Governor), and the Bank’s own weak projections for inflation, they have left the door open for more QE. “The current round of asset purchases should be completed by the end of October, so a lot hangs on whether the economy picks up faster than expected, and whether inflation falls as far as forecast.”

Brian Clark, senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Liverpool, said: “It is likely that we will see a continuing focus on quantitative easing by the Bank to ease liquidity and credit conditions in key financial markets.

ENTREPRENEUR Paul Adams celebrated his birthday with friends and family at a spectacular Moroccan-themed party in the grounds of his Lancashire home.

Mr Adams, whose business ventures include The Vincent Hotel and Warehouse Brasserie, both in Southport, welcomed guests including Alex Curran, Kenny and Marina Dalglish, Lord and Lady Derby, script writer Lisa Bentinck and chef Paul Heathcote.

■ THE Isla Gladstone Conservatory, in Stanley Park, celebrated the culmination of a multi-million pound

restoration and conversion project with a series of launch events to showcase the venue.

The Victorian Conservatory is now the centrepiece of the park which links Anfield and Goodison football grounds.

■ THE Living Room, in Victoria Street, Liverpool, hosted an evening to showcase its new menu changes to selected clients. Guests were treated to fine wines, Champagne and a selection of dishes.

New starters and main courses went down well, but the winner of the evening was the superb mini sweet sharing platter.

Winnie Chan, Ian Ayres (commercial director, Liverpool FC), Alan Kennedy, Sue Franklin, Chloe Franklin, and Phil Neal, at the Gladstone Conservatory, in Stanley Park

Barry Flynn, senior partner at Ernst & Young, in Liverpool “Has quantitative easing had an impact? It's hard to tell. However, recent business surveys and data releases point to a significant moderation in the rate of decline in the second quarter of 2009.

“In addition, consumer and business confidence has become less negative and the housing market has also shown some tentative signs of stabilising.

“In terms of interest rates, we expect the bank rate at 0.5% to remain there or there abouts for the rest of 2009.”

Neil Sturmey, managing partner from Grant Thornton in Liverpool, said: “There are signs the Bank of England’s action last month has had

some effect on the economy.

Lending markets are slowly returning to normal with the margin between LIBOR (inter-bank rate) and the Bank base rate narrowing considerably over the past few months.

“But, quantitative easing seems to have had very little impact on money supply growth, which is still at very low levels. As this has not picked up, there is scope to increase quantitative easing even further, and I would expect the Bank to pump a further £25bn into the economy in the October or November meeting.

“My prediction is this will be the last of the quantitative easing measures.”

Liverpool FC legends Alan Kennedy, Jamie Carragher and Phil Neal, at the Gladstone Conservatory, in Stanley Park

Actress Suzanne Collins at the Gladstone Conservatory

Esther McVey and Paul Adams at his birthday party

Glenda Gittins, Beverley Doyle and Mandy Molby at the Living Room menu tasting

39

THE NETWORKER

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

THE BUSINESS LIST

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Friday, August 28

The monthly Finish@5pm networking event organised by mynetworkingpa.com is at The Chameleon Bar, Back Colquitt Street (behind FACT). For more information on this free event, call 0845 301 7406.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11/ INAUGURAL LUNCH MEETING, RUGBY CLUB OF LIVERPOOL

Designs on Danish furniture

Elaine Cunninghan brings exclusive BoConcept store to Chapel Street LIVERPOOL will open its doors to stylish Danish furniture designer BoConcept on Friday, September 11, 2009, bringing considerable investment to the region.

The store is to be situated on Chapel Street, within the sister tower of the Unity Building, and is an iconic RIBA award-winning building.

A stone’s throw from the newly-opened Liverpool One area, BoConcept Liverpool is set to become a destination store in the newly- regenerated city.

Providing contemporary furniture for the working, sleeping, dining and lounge functions of the home, BoConcept offers affordable yet quality, flexible furniture which can be adjusted to suit rapidly-changing lifestyle needs.

This unique system sets BoConcept ahead of the crowd, placing the international chain of stores, which designs and manufactures all its products

Tuesday, September 1 The next 1stuesday breakfast event is at 7.45am at Foodini Restaurant, The Heath Business and Technical Park. September’s meeting will be the first themed as a healthy breakfast, all about what to do to improve your lifestyle and be fitter, smarter and develop a healthy business life. It is free to Halton Chamber members and £10 for non-members. To book, contact Nicola Holland on 01928 516142 or email nicolah@haltonchamber.com.

Wednesday, September 2 Chester Business Growth Club, hosted by CEPNW Chamber, is at Mollington Banastre, Chester, from 7.30am-9am. After breakfast, there is a five-minute presentation from a member company on the topic of business growth, which is followed by structured networking. The event costs £11.50 for CEPNW Chamber members and £23 for non-members. To book, visit www.cepnwchamber.org.uk or call 01244 669988.

in Denmark, at the forefront of cutting-edge design and innovation.

Fast becoming the number one brand globally within home furnishings, the Danish furniture brand already has UK stores in London (Harrods, Notting Hill, Selfridges and Tottenham Court Road), Glasgow, Bournemouth and Leeds.

Elaine Cunningham, owner of BoConcept Liverpool said: “When looking for a location in Liverpool, the reputation of 20 Chapel Street as a premier destination for office and luxury living, as well as amazing design, was the perfect choice to showcase BoConcept’s contemporary interiors collection.

“We are delighted to open BoConcept in Chapel Street, and introduce some Danish interior designs to north- west shoppers.”

Elaine Cunningham will own the new franchise store following three years of her

own interior design showroom, which also acted as a successful BoConcept studio, on Aigburth Road, Liverpool.

Elaine continued: “We are very excited to open this new store at a time when, despite the current eco- nomic doom and gloom, BoConcept furniture continues to be an excellent choice for stylish homes across the country.”

The collection features light design in vibrant colours and soft shapes for a more relaxed form of minimalism including stunning, lounging sofas that still incorporate the simple lines that BoConcept is renowned for.

Statement pieces such as asymmetric wall systems are also featured in the new collection; giving the impression of organised chaos, for a more decorative look.

One of BoConcept’s other “unique selling tools” is the cutting edge 3-D imaging system, Furnish.

This interior decorating

software allows customers to create their own piece of furniture or design a room creating a completely bespoke look.

In addition, BoConcept’s free design consultancy service can arrange a home visit to talk customers through the latest trends to help find a look that will work in their space.

The designers use personal style, daily routine and existing furniture as a basis to create a bespoke floor plan making visualising the customer’s ideal home become a reality.

With 220 stores and 120 studios in major department and independent stores across 52 countries worldwide, BoConcept is a leader in the interior design world.

■ BoConcept Liverpool, Chapel Street, Liverpool, L3 9AG. Telephone: 0845 612 6600 or visit the website: www.boconcept.co.uk/

The iconic 20 Chapel Street is a fitting location for BoConcept

Wednesday, September 2 Merseycare will share its expertise in understanding mental health issues and their relationship to the world of work and business and much more. The business breakfast, organised by Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, is at The Mocha Lounge, from 7.45am-9am, costs £15. To book, contact Sue Platt or Melissa Bush on 0151 227 1234 or e-mail events@liverpool chamber.org.uk.

Tuesday, September 8 St Helens Chamber is holding a free seminar on the opportunities for the London 2012 Olympic Games, for St Helens firms, from 9am-1pm. It is teaming up with the NWDA to provide information about

St Helens’s Chris Joynt, pictured here lifting the Challenge Cup at Twickenham in 2001, will be at the rugby-themed networking event THE first live virtual rugby club in the country – unaffiliated with a team, or indeed a code – will be launched on Friday, September 11.

It is aimed at business people in the city who want to get together in an informal setting.

The inaugural lunch meeting of the Rugby Club of Liverpool will be held at the Fly in the Loaf, in Hardman Street.

Club co-founder and Daily Post sports columnist Sean McGuire said: “At lots of networking events in the

maximising the chance to win new business leading up to, during and after the event. For more, contact Rachel Leigh on 01744 742035.

city, conversation very quickly turns to sport so we are effectively turning it on its head.

“We already have strong interest from business people who stopped networking several years ago because they were

seeing the same old faces say the same old things. We are looking to recreate the friendly, relaxed atmosphere that is associated with rugby clubs in Liverpool, a city with lots of fans but no club of its own.”

At the first event,

includes lunch. To book, call Liverpool Chamber on 0151 227 1234.

Tuesday, September 15 A seminar entitled Making IT communications work for you is being held by BT and Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. The free event, from 10am-1pm, will take delegates through an easy-tounderstand session on how to get the very best from IT and communications. To book, call 0151 227 1234.

Friday, September 18 Networking group Evolve West Lancs is holding its monthly meeting at O'Este Restaurant, Ormskirk. It is from 12.30pm-2pm, costs £8.70+VAT and includes sandwiches. For more details, call 01695 660750.

Tuesday, September 15

The Mocha Lounge, Sir Thomas Street

38

A seminar on climate change and business is being held at the Foresight Centre, University of Liverpool, Brownlow Street. It will look at the impact that climate change legislation will have on the region and its businesses, adaptation to new regulatory requirements and the developing

former St Helens and Great Britain player Chris Joynt will be joined by other distinguished guests from both codes of rugby.

■ FOR more information telephone Dominic Hornsby at the Fly in the Loaf on 0151 708 0817.

St Helens Chamber is holding a seminar about how firms can benefit from the 2012 Olympics low carbon economy. The Carbon Trust and the Environment Agency will also talk about how businesses can reduce their carbon footprint.

The event is from 9:30am-1pm and

Wednesday, Sept 23 Liverpool Curry Club, run by mynetworkingpa.com, is holding its monthly hot networking event from 6pm-8pm at Sultan’s Palace, Victoria Street. The event costs £15 for unlimited food and a free drink on arrival. For more information, e-mail info@ mynetworkingpa.com

7

Do you have a great idea?

If you have a great idea for a product or service related to the energy industry, the Energy Innovation Centre can help it become reality.

What is the Energy Innovation Centre?

The Energy Innovation Centre is a specialist business incubator. We are dedicated to helping new ideas related to the energy sector become commercial reality.

How can we help you?

“The support of the Energy Innovation Centre, and the funding they helped us secure, has been an essential factor in us developing the first of many next-generation energy technologies” Mike McCormack, Managing Director, FMC-Tech Ltd.

We can help you find funding from: • Energy industry grant funds through the Innovation Funding Incentive (IFI) with direct links to four of the UK’s largest Energy Companies • Equity funding through our network of Equity Investment Partners • Public Sector grant funding We can support your business: Energy Innovation Centre also connects businesses to: • The R&D teams of some of the key energy industry players • Technical support to validate new technologies • A professional business support network • Potential customers in the energy sector We can even offer high-quality office space in an industry incubator located in the North West of England. Relocation to the incubator is not compulsory, although we hope to encourage innovative new energy businesses to relocate to the region.

Is it right for me?

We welcome applications from anyone with an innovation that has the potential to become a marketable product or service within the field of energy.

Find out more

To find out how to turn your energy idea into a commercial reality, contact us: Web: www.energyinnovationcentre.com Phone: 0151 347 2433 Email: info@energyinnovationcentre.com

Supported by:

8

In partnership with:

37

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Liverpool Sound City making a noise in Japan’s music sector

THE BIG INTERVIEW

Changing the world

BY BARRY TURNBULL

Merseyside music festival promoters head to Tokyo to promote region’s music bands and businesses BIG in Japan is the name of a 1970s punk band from Liverpool whose members included Holly Johnson, Bill Drummond, Ian Broudie and Jayne Casey.

But it is also the aim of local music promoters Liverpool Sound City.

Becky Ayres, international manager of Liverpool Sound City, was part of a delegation of UK music industry leaders which went to Japan this month.

The mission, organised by UK Trade & Investment and the British Phonographic Industry, spent five days forging links between the UK and Japan.

It is the world’s second-largest music market but is seen as difficult for foreign artists to enter as up to 80% of its chart acts are homegrown – although the UK remains the largest exporter of music to Japan after the US. Phil Patterson, UKTI’s Music Industry Specialist, said: “The originality of UK music makes it a major influence on the world’s music scene.

“However, British music companies still need to know the right people to talk to. The aim of this mission was to help them network with the power brokers in the Japanese industry.”

Liverpool Sound City was held for the second time this May, with gigs at venues throughout the city alongside a conference .

Ms Ayres said: “It was to get out and meet with the key Japanese music industry people.

“Japan is the second-biggest market in the world and Japanese music is getting fairly popular. It’s a real draw for a lot of UK music industry people.

“We wanted to get the word out to promote our Liverpool and

Dubai events to artists, record labels, publishers and others who would come over.

“They are also in a position to licence and help UK artists in Japan.

“I was really pleased with the response we had. The Beatles are still very popular, so we had a lot of people who wanted to come here anyway. There were quite a few very senior people with record labels and music associations who said they will come to Liverpool and Dubai.”

Liverpool Sound City organisers will be taking Merseyside bands and music businesses to the United Arab Emirates for Dubai Sound City from November 5-7 – under the slogan Sheikh, Rattle and Roll.

They say they want to sell Merseyside bands and music businesses to an audience from as far afield as South Africa and Australia.

It is hoped the three-day music festival and a two-day music conference event would become an annual fixture in the emirate’s cultural calendar.

Ms Ayres added: “I work with the export organisations around the world who want to help their artists break into the UK. The managers, labels, can come over and network and meet people from the music industry.

“It’s really exciting having lots of people over. Lots of people who come to Liverpool Sound City have never been to Liverpool before and really enjoying seeing the city and all the great venues that the city has got.

“Internationally, there are a lot of people who love the idea of coming to Liverpool, but have never been, who are attracted by the music.”

Big In Japan on stage with Jayne Casey flanked by Holly Johnson, left, and Bill Drummond, right

Providing an expert language solution to international dispute resolution

36

final settlement to problems that had threatened to drag on for months.

Expert Language Solutions provides live interpreters for dispute forums who can provide both written and verbal real-time online translation support. The firm manages a network of 500 translators working in 65 languages to provide transcription, translation, interpreting and business culture briefing.

Expert Language Solutions’ managing director, Jessica Houghton, said: “A popular

course of action to resolve such disputes is, of course, mediation.

“Such mediations can and are frequently conducted in English but there is an increasing call for other international languages as the global business market expands.

Translation is an important factor in international, multilingual disputes.

Graham Ross, at The Mediation Room, said: “The internet and e-commerce, by its very nature, results in an increasing amount of

international business. Sadly, it is in the nature of business that disputes do, from time to time, arise – hence the important role of TheMediationRoom.

“One of the most important issues at present is to address not just the different languages but the cultural differences involved in the management and approach to disputes.

“We were attracted by the fact that ELS provide not just translation of the words used but, importantly, localisation to ensure nuance and custom are not overlooked.”

EA Technology is a champion for green energy. Acting managing director Stuart Thompson explains why.

▲ ▲

Jessica Houghton, of ELS

TWO Liverpool businesses have joined up to provide a mediation service to businesses all over the world.

Translation and interpretation firm Expert Language Solutions (ELS) is working with online business The Mediation Room to enable international disputes to be resolved.

Public and private sector organisations have used the multi-lingual mediation service to come to resolutions with firms all around the world, including Argentina, Costa Rica, and Poland, to bring a quick and

9

THE BIG INTERVIEW STUART THOMPSON

EDUCATION

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 OU could almost imagine Stuart Thompson breaking into song when he said EA Technology's mission was to "make the world a better place".

Recently departed pop icon Michael Jackson had the same notion when he sang Heal the World, an anthem about how love can make a difference to people's lives.

EA's aspirations are more practical; combating climate change through energy efficiency and power management.

Based at Capenhurst, outside Chester, it has been private since 1997 when the management bought out the enterprise from its regional electricity company owners.

But whether publicly or privately owned, it has always been at the cutting edge of electricity technology, and has also now branched out into new sectors like rail, petrochemicals and retail.

More recently, it has formed a subsidiary, EA Technology Ventures, and created the Energy Innovation Centre to develop bright ideas and take them to market.

Stuart Thompson is the man charged with exploiting the commercial potential of new ideas.

He is currently acting group managing director in the absence of Robert Davis. He said: "One of our key drivers is energy efficiency and carbon reduction. It really is all about making the world a better place.

“We can do our bit and help develop technologies that make a difference and are cost-effective.

“However, the biggest task as far as consumers are concerned is changing behaviour. Even with encouragement and education, it would be difficult to succeed if something is too costly."

To illustrate this, it has been notable that electricity companies have been keen to hand out free lowenergy, long-lasting light bulbs in the hope that consumers will be encouraged to buy green products.

They are dearer than conventional bulbs to buy but last far longer, so are more cost-effective in the long run.

By swapping a normal bulb to an energy-saving bulb you could cut wastage by three-quarters and save £9 on your electricity bill. It might seem like small change, but if every home in the UK changed just three light bulbs, enough energy would be saved to light the UK’s street lamps.

Thompson is passionate about his role in helping to address such topical issues: " “The business here started in the sixties as a research centre for the electricity industry, and as a result we still retain all the contacts that were initially made in those early days.

“Ventures is a subsidiary of the group that is looking to tackle the challenges the industry faces. I would describe us as a funding catalyst for people or organisations with bright ideas, although in some cases we can take an equity stake.

“Our expertise through the energy innovation centre is providing the space and technical expertise to enable these ideas to be developed into a commercial reality.

“It is a bit like a Dragon's Den situation, with people trying to sell us their ideas, and we decide whether they fit the bill. It can be anyone from the man in the garden shed to large corporate organisations. And, like one of the Dragons, we can then provide the expert advice and contacts to develop

Y

10

Robert Davis, of EA Technology, was Cheshire Business person of the year in 2008. He receives his award from Cllr Steve Wilkinson

In the shadow of the Metropolitan Cathedral, the latest phase of Liverpool Science Park, IC2

for both town and gown plans for international expansion of the Liverpool brand to Neil Hodgson

Inside the innovation centre at EA Technology headquarters the basic idea." One company that has set up a base at the centre is Secure Electrans, which provides smart meters to monitor energy use in the home and offices. It is also hoped the company should be able to provide both electricity and gas prepayment metering services at costs well below that of the existing systems.

Centrica, through its British Gas Energy division, has acquired 22% of

Secure Electrans for a stake of £4m.

Secure Electrans is developing an in-home payment device which will allow prepayment customers to make payments from the convenience of their home. This device will be available exclusively to British Gas customers and commercial roll-out is expected to commence in the next 12 months.

SureNET Technology is a new venture spin-off from EA Technology,

EA Technology has been at the cutting edge of innovation set within the Energy Innovation Centre to develop innovative power restoration systems for the electricity network and rail industries.

SureNET's initial mission is to develop and bring to market four groundbreaking innovations.

There are a number of advantages to being located at the centre, including networking, licensing and intellectual property advice and

mentoring.

The idea is to build a creative community, says Thompson. He explains: "We have a good proposition and the ability to form working proposals which can get stuff to the market-place. We have offices, labs, testing facilities, but in some cases firms do not need to be occupants but can take advantage of facilities we offer.

“The other areas such as

students on campus and almost 4,000 other students studying in more than 150 countries online for a University of Liverpool degree.

But it can also enable wider economic growth through backing for sectors such as the knowledge economy firms at the burgeoning Liverpool Science Park to providing its vast array of expertise and services in closer links with local businesses.

Not only is it producing 5,000 highly-skilled potential workers every year, it can work with firms on specific issues or improve their workforce to tackle issues and make local businesses more efficient.

Mr Flamson said: “We need to get our messages clearer to people in plain language that this university is not sitting up on a hill removed from

the stuff of commerce.” That involvement can range from a simple placement with a small firm, to long-term collaborations with industry leaders that can lead to significant improvements to peoples’ lives.

Mr Flamson said many firms who may grudgingly accept a student placement soon realise the potential that these youngsters offer: “They are supremely bright, young and energetic with lots of ideas and coming into companies with lots of skills those companies don’t have.

“They are highly proficient in ICT, are almost like instinctive researchers and can address real pressing business problems.

“We don’t think that message is fully understood, particularly by small companies who tend to think

graduates must be for all the bigger employers.

“Well, no. They can be transforming, so that’s one thing we can offer, just through student placements.”

He said another area the university intends to work closer with local industries on is up-skilling existing workforces and on consultancy work.

“We are particularly interested in very pressing specific problems that they may have, some of which may be technical or business process related.

“Universities are a huge den of talent and probably more than any other business can pull together this mixed team to look at all aspects of a business problem.”

On a bigger scale, and usually

classified as “research”, the university commits to longer-term collaborations with groups, such as Port Sunlight’s global consumer business Unilever, on “a process of mutual discovery.”

Mr Flamson explained: “We have a Materials Discovery Centre looking to invent new products that could have applications in household products, new pharmaceutical products, or new medical products.

“We also do what you might call diagnostics with companies and have an Innovation Academy where we get companies to look creatively at some of their business problems.

“We will have a management specialist meeting, then we bring the chemist in, then realise we need a different way of looking at this and bring in the clinical psychologist and

then the engineer and, lo and behold, they get the solution.

“That’s about helping businesses think innovatively, not just about new products, but about service innovation.”

Mr Flamson added: “The story in all of this is the university knows what it is. It is a significant institution in the city.

“It cares about the city and wants to engage with it, and it believes it has got a lot to offer.

“Not just in terms of its economic weight or the services direct to businesses, or public agencies, but also in terms of its institutional and thought leadership.

“Package all of that up and that is a big offer to the city.

“And the time has come for the university to shout about it more.”

35

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

EDUCATION

THE BIG INTERVIEW STUART THOMPSON

John Flamson, the University of Liverpool’s first director of strategic partnerships and development, in his Foundation Building offices, on Brownlow Hill

John unveils global ambitions

University of Liverpool strategic partnerships and development director John Flamson explains his N THESE days of international trade and opportunities, linking “town to gown” has never been so important, and it is John Flamson’s job to ensure a seamless join between the two for the University of Liverpool.

The former town planner was head-hunted specifically to cement the ties between the institution which inspired the phrase “red-brick universities” and a resurgent city region.

Mr Flamson, born and bred in Dingle, is himself a graduate of the university. Now the university’s director of strategic partnerships and development, he said: “I asked the vice-chancellor at the time, can you summarise what you think this role is, and with tongue in cheek he said: ‘Your job will be to interpret the

I 34

world to the university and the university to the world’.”

Mr Flamson joined the university from Government Office North West’s Cunard Building base, which he believes is under-valued by many in the city. While at GONW, he was responsible for managing Merseyside’s Brussels-funded Objective 1 economic and social regeneration programmes.

“People tend to think of it as regional, but it’s not, it’s actually Whitehall in the region – it’s the end of a long corridor.”

Since taking up his new role in March, 2008, Flamson has mapped a strategy to not only improve links between the university and his home city’s industry and commerce sectors, but to develop the university’s reputation throughout –

and with it the fortunes of the city.

He explained that his role involves three distinct spheres of influence: local, national and international.

“This university is not just an established institution in the city region, but is an incredibly important institution because of its independence, the standards of excellence that it represents, but also because of its international reach.”

In June, 2006, the university was granted a licence by the Chinese Government to open a campus in Suzhou, 90km west of Shanghai, in partnership with Xi’an Jiaotong University, a top 10 institution in China.

It will also host a week-long international event this October aimed at forging closer ties around the world that will benefit the local

economy as well as the university.

Mr Flamson said: “In that sense, the university is a real gem in the city.

“When the city region was going through troubled economic and social times, it was almost as if the university was a constant beacon of high standards, of excellence, attracting people from around the world to study here or do business with it.

“That constancy has been a major gift to the city. But the university sees itself very much of the city, in the city, but not restricted to the city in respect of its development or its services.

“The best way I could put that, if I was using a strapline, is I would say the university is rooted in the city, but in touch with the whole world.

And that international dimension is one of the main contributions that it can make to the city and its profile and its attractiveness for all sorts of people.”

He added: “The university’s institutional weight is very, very significant.

“Because it bears the name of the city, the brand reputations are inter-linked, so not only does the university project supremely positive images of this city, it means also that the university needs the city to prosper, and so wants to contribute to the city’s economic, social and cultural life, because there is a symbiosis in their fortunes.”

The university is a significant regional economic driver in its own right with a turnover of more than £350m, nearly 5,000 staff, 16,500

in the power and energy market for 40 years. The company has expanded its based to include the new centre at Capenhurst, near Chester intellectual property rights really depends on individual circumstances, funding channels and so on.

“To be honest, we are almost full now, so it has been a very successful launch and now we will be looking to expand."

The centre is a unique idea that has already captured the attention of ministers. Energy secretary David Miliband toured the site earlier this

year and was impressed with some of the work taking place. Products being developed include an award-winning fault detection monitor for electricity sub-stations.

The ideas were taken back to Whitehall for digestion.

The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) is a partner in the project and contributed a £1.5m grant towards the construction of the facility.

Four electricity network operators (CE Electric, Electricity North West, Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern Energy) are also project partners and will provide financial assistance to the start-ups via the “Innovation Funding Incentive”, which is an Ofgem-approved scheme for supporting innovation.

The Capenhurst Energy Innovation Centre is designed to enable start-up companies and

individuals to nurture smart ideas.

The project will create at least 60 new jobs and 18 new business startups over the next two years.

Thompson added: “The centre provides the environment and resources which will enable occupiers to deliver technology solutions with tangible benefits and return on investment for their customers, develop into profitable and growing independent companies

and be part of an expanding community of technology innovators serving the energy sector.

“The idea originated here but has grown its reputation very quickly, and it’s pleasing to note that high-profile government ministers have been impressed with what we have achieved here.”

The EA Technology group's expertise in power asset management now has a global reputation in both existing and emerging markets.

Growth is occurring across the Far East, Middle East, Asia Pacific region and more recently a subsidiary was set up in Australia.

Thomson said the company’s greatest assets are the people combination of seasoned engineers and some of the brightest minds in the industry, underlying EA Technology’s combination of intellectual excellence and real world know-how.

Technological expertise covers asset management, maintenance policy and practice, data management, failure analysis and forensics, energy efficiency, distributed generation, renewables, power storage, economics and regulation.

Sector experience includes electricity and non-electricity utilities, railways, retailing, process engineering, petrochemicals and public sector power users.

“We have the expertise to improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of a vast range of power systems, from generation to final consumer.

Put simply: we know what works, in engineering and commercially”, adds Thompson.

“In many areas of the world, emerging countries are developing more advanced systems of various kinds and are looking to Western expertise to help them. We see ourselves as providing a leading consultancy role.”

Over the last 10 years, EA Technology has expanded its customer base into the rail, petrochemicals and industrial sectors.

He said involvement in the petrochemical industry, for example, has taken the firm from the oil rigs of the North Sea to the plains of Africa, from Scotland to Dubai.

Consultancy services are sought after from Ireland to the Philippines, and from Latvia to New Zealand.

“In addition, we are also expanding our overseas distributor network, which currently covers over 30 countries.

“And we are constantly developing new products, with the aim of enabling our customers to run their businesses more safely and effectively,” said Thompson.

The Electricity Council, made up of regional power companies, set up Capenhurst as a research site for the industry in the 1960s.

It has been involved in numerous examples of ground-breaking research. One breakthrough resulted in the development of a new, low-cost ozoniser to treat drinking water, treatment of sewage, the purification of some trade wastes and in the control of smells.

Back in the sixties, it also announced a pollution-beating electric motor car powered by a sodium sulphide battery.

The Daily Post, reporting the breakthrough at the time, said it would slash pollution from an estimated 500,000 commercial vehicles.

Sadly, that dream never became a reality as it was discovered the

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

11

THE BIG INTERVIEW STUART THOMPSON

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Berny Goodheart, chief technical officer for Secure Electrans, who have been using the Energy Innovation Centre at EA Technology to develop their Greengage Energy Manager CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 batteries had to be kept at such high temperatures it could prove dangerous in the event of an accident.

These days, the company’s scientists continue to chase the dream of a non-polluting road transport vehicle, but now the current thinking has moved on from electric to hydrogen-fuelled vehicles.

Technical problems still dog the dream, however.

Thompson explained that the widespread adoption of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles is hampered at present by the relative inefficiency of the electrolysis of the hydrogen from water.

In the 1990s, it was decided that

12

the best way to advance technological progress in power management would be to take the company private.

Management at the time, with the full support of 250 employees, decided to put forward a proposal.

Former owners included ten regional electricity companies plus National Power, Scottish Power and Scottish-Hydro Electric.

The company had a highly skilled workforce which included mathematicians, physicists, chemists, materials scientists and engineers and provided a wide range of services to the electricity industry, including advice on power cables, sub-stations and managing demand for electricity.

After privatisation, the business

was gradually built up to work on several different fronts including consultancy and technological developments.

In recent times it has created the UltraTEV Monitor, the most powerful and versatile system ever developed for monitoring electrical discharges from sub-stations.

It is also heavily involved in energy conservation.

The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target set by the EU means energy suppliers must, by 2011, deliver measures that will provide overall lifetime carbon dioxide savings equivalent to the emissions from 700,000 homes each year.

It is expected to lead to energy supplier investment of some £2.8bn.

At the same time, EA Technology

believes that millions of British homes and businesses should be encouraged to save energy by generating their own electricity and heat.

Thompson says there should be a comprehensive package of financial incentives, including council tax rebates, to kick-start the market for domestic-scale power generation.

Although the recession may have impacted on the spending plans for some businesses, the green agenda is sure to remain at the forefront of government thinking and mean more legislation.

In conclusion Thompson stated: “We feel the emphasis on renewable energy will mean demand for our services will continue and drive further growth within the business.”

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33

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Liverpool One has proved a popular destination

Prime Minister Gordon Brown joins Wayne Rooney to launch England's 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids, which is a key target for the NWDA in the coming decade CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30 “Where there were criticisms about delivery, the general view was that the Agency had been let down by central Government delay (for example, the Venture Capital Loan Fund) or failure to give the NWDA a “more prominent role” (the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme).”

David Higham, of Government Office North West, told the committee: “When we look at the NWDA budget of about £400m a year and the size of the North West economy, which is worth about £120bn, focusing on the budget itself rather underplays the role of the development agency.

“The key issue for the development agency is how it uses its budget to lever in other forms of funding, and how it uses its leadership in the region to influence other agencies.

“While it is tempting to look at the budget itself, that gives a slightly misleading impression of the role of the agency. The agency continues to play a very important role in taking the region forward, and will continue to do so.”

Moving forward, though, isn’t easy in a recession, especially when confidence is low – a problem that the NWDA is trying to address.

Mr Broomhead said: “I have been saying let’s be realistically optimistic about the conditions we are in,

32

rather than doomsterism. Let’s try to get a sense of determination into businesses.

“It’s not been easy. We have been working with Business Link, the Venture Capital Loan Fund, and with the banks to make loans fairer.

“Through grants, loans and innovation funds, we have tried to offer practical support.

“We have given businesses a lifebelt rather than just drawn a lifebelt – within the limits we have here, we don’t print money.”

That support includes a £10m transition loan fund, to be accessed by businesses with a viable business plan but which have been unable to get funding from conventional commercial sources, and a £4.1m innovation vouchers scheme, part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, designed to encourage SMEs to work with the knowledge base, such as universities.

As there is less money available, it becomes more important that the investment generates strong returns.

He said: “There’s going to be less public money available. That means we have to have good relationships so we get more bang for our buck and also to invest in projects that will reap benefits. For me, it’s making sure we have the right evidence and investing in things that do have a good return like science parks and the Arena. Projects like that do show good returns.”

The Rugby League World Cup will be held in England in 2013 But, for all the successes in which the NWDA has shared, Mr Broomhead has one big regret.

“The regret is the shared stadium for Liverpool and Everton,” he said, knowing how controversial the idea still remains.

“Four years ago, they ought to have got together and gone for it.

“Economically it made sense, and there was a lot of symbolism for Merseyside.”

Despite that setback, sport offers a

lot of opportunities in the next decade. He added: “My wishes for the next 10 years include seeing one of the semi-finals of the World Cup played at a shared stadium. The Everton stadium, in Kirkby, may come off and that would be good.

“But I still believe a shared stadium would make sound economic sense.

“We are leading for the RDAs on the World Cup. “If we could get some of the

closing matches of the World Cup, that would be great.”

And it is not just football that offers economic opportunities in the years ahead.

“The agency has played a key role in supporting the bid to host the Rugby League World Cup, so the Rugby League International Federation’s decision [to hold the 2013 event in England] is fantastic news, particularly for the North West which has enormous potential to benefit given the importance of rugby league in the region and our experience of staging major events.

“We’re also working hard to ensure the North West benefits from the UK’s “golden decade” of sport, which includes the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and the IRB Rugby Union World Cup, in 2015.

“We have been encouraging businesses to go for contracts for the Olympics. We have got training camps, swimmers from Australia and Oceania, we have got Thailand, we are hoping to get Ukraine in Leigh. it puts the UK on the map for most of 2012. There are opportunities from the Olympics for tourism in Liverpool, and trade links.

“I am very positive about it for the region – 18 months ago, I was worried about it, but I think the benefits will be very strong.

“They are sporting events, but they are also economic engines.”

City still a shopping magnet

But rental levels for city centre shops are falling sharply as landlords go through a tough time WHEN Liverpool was at the height of its popularity in the 1960s, shopping as a leisure pursuit took off and city centre retail rents were the match for any metropolitan area outside London.

Years of decline saw the city slide down the UK league table both in terms of rent levels and as a desirable destination.

While other northern regions embraced the idea of developing a shopping offer – in Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield – Liverpool

remained strangely static. Until Liverpool One. The £1bn investment by Grosvenor has redressed the balance, making the city an attractive haven for the leisure shopper despite the current gloom on the High Street generally.

Footfall remains buoyant with around 500,000 shoppers traipsing through the city centre in the past year but retail rents are falling, like in every other centre.

Rents are currently more than 15% down on last September's figure,

above both the regional and national average, with the market turning in favour of the tenant. The Local Data Company reports that 21% of shop pemises in the city centre are empty although this is hotly disputed by agents. Indeed, in terms of footfall and spending, matters are still fairly buoyant.

John Barker, agent at Hitchcock & Wright, said: "If you look at the situation in a historical context, Liverpool has had to play catch-up after falling behind many other

centres that developed shopping attractions. Grosvenor has had a big impact but, of course, was completed when the recession began to bite.

“What it has done is retain shoppers who may have travelled to places like the Trafford Centre, as well as drawing in people from farther afield. People in Liverpool, in particular, still enjoy spending."

However, in terms of returns for landlords, the rents have fallen from £320 per sq ft almost a year ago to the current figure of £270.

However, the bargain rates have seen Liverpool One continue to enjoy success and the development has now reached a lettings figure of 98.5%.

In recent months, it has signed up Reiss, Envy, JFour Jeans, Wheels of Sport, The Gym, and Ollie & Nic. This is in addition to the recently announced Everton FC store and the forthcoming TopShop Northern flagship store.

The development opened for business in May, 2008.

Government hand-out for empty shops LOCAL authorities on Merseyside are being encouraged to come up with imaginative ways of using empty shops.

Areas outside the city centre and other regional shopping locations have been particularly hard hit by the downturn. As a result, the Government is providing cash to help shopping areas fight back.

Merseyside councils will

share more than £200,000 to help reduce the impact of empty shops in the high street.

Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton and Halton will each receive £52,632 of government cash to help tackle the problem.

The money is being given to councils based on those with the highest vacancy rates and the areas with the most acute levels of deprivation.

The Government said it

was determined to help ensure town and city centres remain vibrant places for people to meet and shop.

Ministers say councils can use the money as they see fit.

Ideas to boost town centres and revive shops include turning them into something useful such as a meeting place for local community groups.

The idea is to ensure areas are not blighted by empty properties.

Empty shops are causing blight concerns in many neighbourhoods

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WEALTH MANAGEMENT

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

REGIONAL OUTLOOK with Steven Broomhead, of the NWDA

STEVEN BROOMHEAD, Chief Executive of the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), gives an update on access to finance and support for business across the North West

‘Funding continues to be available to North West businesses’

Tax accounts on the Isle of Man will be open to scrutiny

Tax haven accounts at risk

Revenue offers second chance with amnesty for full disclosure of accounts held offshore NITED Kingdom-based investors are being given a second and final chance to come clean about their offshore accounts.

The taxman is offering an amnesty until March 12 next year for full and frank disclosure about cash held in bank and building society accounts held outside the UK. The reward will be a tax bill for 10% – otherwise miscreants that are rooted out will have to pay the full 30% and face criminal prosecution.

A similar exercise two years ago targeted customers of the big five banks and yielded more than £400m from 45,000 individuals, but this time the Revenue is going to sweep an estimated 500 accounts.

Even famed tax havens like the Isle of Man, Switzerland and British Virgin Islands have agreed to comply with any government requests for information.

HM Revenue & Customs is also holding out an olive branch to

U

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investors who had failed to take advantage of the first drive two years ago with an offer to set the tax penalty on offshore holdings to 20%, coupled with a warning that, once the “window” closes on March 12, they would face stiffer penalties.

Dave Hartnett, HMRC permanent secretary, says taxpayers are being offered the chance of paying or communicating by paper or electronically, and added: "This will be the last opportunity of its kind."

Under the terms, taxpayers who make a disclosure between 1 September, 2009, and March 12, 2010, will qualify for a 10% penalty if they are not customers of the five major retail banks targeted in the 2007 amnesty. These taxpayers will be subject to a 20% penalty. “'I would urge anyone with offshore accounts holding untaxed income or gains to take advantage of this simple and straightforward scheme. Most offshore investors already pay the tax that the law

requires, and it’s only fair that everyone respects the rules.”

Brian Clark, senior tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in Liverpool, said: "Now is a critical time for anyone with undeclared funds in an offshore account or undeclared income from offshore assets, to take stock of their situation and ‘come clean’, if they don’t want to pay the consequences of their mistakes. There will be no more chances.

“It is estimated that HMRC will recover more than £2bn in unpaid tax in this second and final amnesty.”

By gathering information from all financial institutions, HMRC will ultimately be able to identify people who don’t come forward under the amnesty.

It is likely that such individuals will face larger penalties, greater prospect of prosecution and be subject to new naming and shaming provisions.

Individuals that find themselves needing to make disclosures might include family members who receive an inheritance in an offshore account with no explanation of where the funds came from, and businessmen who have diverted business profits offshore, deliberately to avoid tax.

There are also those who divert funds from illegitimate interests into offshore accounts.

Mr Clark offers people who may be considering the need to disclose the following tips: *Don’t bury your head in the sand, act promptly to avoid becoming a target for HMRC investigation. *Gather all relevant information such as bank statements to help calculate tax and interest due. *Make contact with an adviser who understands what type of evidence will be needed to ensure your disclosure is accepted without protracted enquiries from HMRC. However there still may be some

advantages in offshore accounts, said a spokesman for the Offshore Advisory Trust: “Trying to save paying so much tax legally is completely acceptable and there are ways to do this.

“Benefits are dependent upon the manner in which the interest earned in overseas private investments is handled.

“Even those individuals domiciled in the UK can defer paying tax by using an offshore company that specialises in insurance contracts, for example. Alternatively, with an overseas fund, the investor would be able to stipulate that any interest should be automatically re-invested into the investment in order to facilitate tax-free growth of the money.

“The only time that the investor would be liable to pay any taxes in the UK would be at the termination of the investment and when the money is brought into the country of residence.”

■ LAST month, we announced that £15m of additional and new transitional finance had been brought forward by the NWDA that would be made available to assist businesses in our region through the current challenging economic conditions.

This week, the first companies to benefit from this transitional funding have been announced and, while this transitional pot will temporarily close the gap in finance until April, 2010, we are making very good progress on the delivery of our long-term Venture Capital and Loan Fund (VCLF).

Over £650,000 has been approved and delivered to North West business this week including two in Merseyside: Nurock Ltd, based in Knowsley; and Merseyside Metalworks Ltd, based in Liverpool.

The scheme provides transitional loan funding of £50,000 to £250,000 to established and viable small and medium-sized enterprises facing a temporary shortfall in their working capital due to the economic downturn.

A critical element of the NWDA’s finance portfolio is the new long-term Venture Capital and Loan Fund which is currently in development.

We know a lot of people are waiting to hear about this multi-million pound fund. It is taking longer than anticipated, but we have now adopted a new model and agreed, with Government, a way forward in which to progress the structure of this fund.

VCLF is a combination of loan, equity and mezzanine funding to support business growth. Loans range from £50,000 to £250,000 with Equity and Mezzanine finance available up to £2m.

I believe that regional venture capital funds across England will start to receive approval and clearance to proceed from Government in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the transitional support helps improve the finance options available to new and existing businesses

in the North West, improving the lending available from commercial banks and following £10m of Transitional Loan funding announced by the NWDA in December, 2008.

This is a total of £25m the NWDA and the European Regional Development Fund have made available to businesses since December, 2008.

Funding continues to be available to businesses in the North West with a viable business plan which demonstrate an ability to service the borrowing required, but which have been unable to obtain such funding from conventional commercial sources, and in the absence of such funding is exposing the business to the risk of significant short- term contraction, or endangering its existence altogether.

We are also providing other critical forms of support through schemes such as the Innovation Vouchers Programme, with the latest round of Vouchers now available to North West businesses. The scheme enables businesses to apply for a Voucher, valued at up to £3,000 (with 250 available in the current round) to help business owners, entrepreneurs and social enterprises to proactively engage with the North West knowledge base, including colleges and universities, to develop innovation. We have also announced that the current round will have 50 additional larger Vouchers of £7,000 available to enable SMEs to interact with the region’s knowledge base.

The NWDA is playing a crucial role in response to the current economic downturn, with a number of actions being taken to meet the needs of businesses during these financially challenging times.

I will tell you more about the progress of the long-term VCLF in a future column, but in the meantime there is funding and support available to our North West businesses, and this can be accessed through the NWDA’s improved Business Link Northwest service. I would urge you to get in touch. For more information on business support in the Northwest, visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/ northwest.

RDAs, an average of £4.50 of economic output (or Gross Value Added, GVA) was created in the regional economies.

That is, the £5.1bn of evaluated expenditure during this time across the nine RDAs saw an overall return on investment of more than £23bn.

In the North West the report highlighted a number of Agency-invested projects and programmes.

This included the £7m investment in the creation of the Liverpool Commercial District.

This is attributed with creating or safeguarding almost 1,500 jobs and adding £56m GVA, which is projected to increase to £289m when lifetime

benefits are included. Mr Broomhead said: “It’s very positive to see that many of the projects and initiatives evaluated have had a real and significant impact on regional economies. Importantly, these results only demonstrate part of our impact and we know there will be more value to come.”

The House of Commons North West regional committee last month published a report entitled The Impact of the Current Economic Situation on the North West and the Government's Response.

In it, the committee assessed the role of the NWDA and how it had responded to the recession.

It said: “Most of our witnesses

were very positive about the work of the NWDA and the manner in which it had responded to the economic downturn, in particular the restructuring of Business Link to provide additional support to businesses.

“Manchester Airport expressed some concern about what it described as ‘a tendency [of the NWDA] to become distracted from the key economic drivers for the North West, in its efforts to build consensus across the whole of the region’, but most witnesses took the view that the Agency had responded appropriately.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 32

31

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Echo Arena Liverpool, which opened at the start of 2008, received £18m funding from the NWDA. In its first year, it is estimated it contributed £200m to the local economy CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29 chairman of the NWDA] and Bernice Law [NWDA’s chief operating officer]. Its been a major success.”

The NWDA has also been an important backer of Liverpool’s place at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, putting £1m into the project.

Mr Broomhead said: “This six-month world Expo will provide businesses in the North West with a unique opportunity to promote themselves to the expanding Chinese economy.

“Our support for the Expo will ensure this opportunity is open to the entire North West business

30

community and will help generate greater outcomes for our region, including inward investment, an increase in trade, and an influx in tourism.”

This Liverpool-centric project does, however, offer potential benefits for the whole of the North West.

“There’s a lot of Manchester interest,” he said. “Coming alongside the concept of the Atlantic Gateway, certainly Manchester is part of that, like Salford, I expect there to be further collaboration and input from Manchester.”

The regional nature of some projects works both ways – for example, Media City, in Salford

Quays, is expected to have a huge impact on the North West’s economy and profile when it opens in 2011.

“Media City wouldn’t have happened without us,” he said.

“While the local authorities were in debate, we were dealing with the BBC.” And that independent, regional perspective is what Mr Broomhead believes the NWDA adds to the overall economic landscape.

“If you left it to local authorities, either singularly or in a group, would they be able to make quick decisions that are based on priorities and not politics?” he said.

Mr Broomhead, who has headed the agency for more than six years, is

unperturbed by the ongoing speculation that a Conservative Government would scrap regional development agencies (RDAs). He insists that it is “business as usual” at Renaissance House, the NWDA’s Warrington headquarters.

He said: “I have had conversations that this RDA is seen to have impact in the region.

“We have got things done which could only have been done by us. We are seen to be well-thought of by the public and private sector. That isn’t the case for the south of England.

“The Conservatives don’t seem to have a clear view on RDAs. If there were big changes, they would have to think through what they would do to

prioritise support and investment. If they get rid of us, they would have to invent something similar, either across the North West or in Liverpool city region.”

There have been two recent reports which back up Mr Broomhead’s claims that the NWDA plays an important role and is well-regarded by the public and private sector.

Accountants Pricewaterhouse Coopers published a report for the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform assessing the impact of spending by regional development agencies.

It found that, between 2002-03 and 2006-07, for every £1 spent by the

15

NEWS LDP BUSINESS CAMPAIGN

Leaders back LDP campaign ‘Supporting Our Businesses’ is launched in partnership with Business Link Northwest BUSINESS and political leaders across the Liverpool city region are backing the LDP Business Supporting Our Businesses campaign.

LDP Business has joined forces with business support agency Business Link Northwest to highlight the peril faced by firms across Merseyside during the recession.

We revealed how 12,000 companies – around 18% of the total – in the Liverpool city region were at risk of collapse due to the dire economic environment.

The figures show jobs are most at risk in small businesses with fewer than 25 employees who have so far weathered the recession but have now made all the savings they can.

As soon as the Daily Post hit the streets last Wednesday, the Cheshire-based small business support group, the Forum of Private Business (FPB), got in touch to say it welcomed the campaign.

FPB spokesman Chris Gorman said that it would be vital in highlighting the issue in the Merseyside area.

He said: “We applaud the Post for highlighting this hugely important issue and trying to raise awareness of the plight of countless small firms in the region who are finding that every day is a fight for survival.”

His view was echoed by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). Chris Burgess, FSB Liverpool branch chairman, said: “Those who run small businesses are typically enterprising, hard working and determined, but they need all the help they can get.”

Praise for the campaign swiftly followed from other leading figures in the business and political world.

Cllr Gary Millar, Liverpool City Council’s executive member for enterprise, said: “Everybody recognises that these are difficult times for business and any campaign which provides support, especially for SMEs, is to be welcomed.

“Along with our partners, Liverpool City Council is working hard to ensure that not only are existing business safeguarded but that we can still see new companies start up and be in a position to flourish when the economy picks up.”

Mike Taylor, director of investment and enterprise at regeneration agency, Liverpool Vision, added: “This partnership between Business Link and the Liverpool Daily Post will raise the profile of the full range of support products and services available to business and has to be welcomed.

“At the same time, Liverpool Vision, in partnership with Business Link, ACAS and the Chamber of Commerce, has launched, and is promoting the new Liverpool Business Lifeline website which provides comprehensive information and access to all forms of support available to businesses in Liverpool.”

And support also came from Frank McKenna, chairman of business lobby organisation, Downtown Liverpool in Business, who said: “ In these challenging times, it is

16

imperative that we maximise support to small businesses and build on the initiatives already taken Cllr Gary Millar – anything that provides support for SMEs has to be welcomed by the Government.

“It is equally important to raise awareness of the assistance that currently exists to small firms, HOW YOU CAN GET HELP FOR YOUR BUSINESS FROM BUSINESS LINK particularly through projects being administered by the Northwest PETER WATSON, Business Link them are already ■ IF YOU run a Development Agency and Business managing director of Northwest and its providing extra help for business and want to Link. I am sure that the LDP Business Link, said the partners, alongside the businesses in the campaign will be warmly welcomed find out more about campaign “recognises Liverpool Daily Post, current climate. and supported by DLIB members.” how Business Link can the challenges that are taking to provide “Business Link is the Inward investment agency, The help you then call 0845 businesses are facing vital support to primary gateway to Mersey Partnership, is already 00 66 888. You can also across Merseyside, companies. business support in working closely with Business Link e-mail info@business and the wider North “Business Link Merseyside and it’s to help SMEs in the tourism and linknw.co.uk or West region”. works in partnership essential that leisure sectors. alternatively visit He added: “It will with a wide range of companies Lorraine Rogers, Chief Executive www.business demonstrate the organisations across understand, and of The Mersey Partnership TMP) positive action both the region and many of access, that help. link.gov.uk/northwest said: “The levels of investment and regeneration we have seen in the city region over the past 10 years has helped our business base grow and Stopforth pointed out that many of strengthen the region’s economy. the businesses deemed “at risk” “SMEs must continue to be a vital would survive and thrive. His view part of this growth, for example, in was echoed by David Holland, the visitor economy. director of entrepreneurial advisory “As the city region’s official at accountants Grant Thornton, in tourism body, TMP, is assisting small Liverpool, who said: “Although businesses across the tourism sector conditions are still tough, a high and working particularly closely percentage of entrepreneurs are with Business Link to assist hotels, remaining remarkably resilient. restaurants and food sector “They realise that they have to get businesses to improve their on with running their business performance and profitability.” despite the downturn, with our own On the day of the campaign research showing that the launch, Liverpool Chamber of overwhelming majority now see Mike Taylor – raising Frank McKenna – Lorraine Rogers – Commerce chief executive Jack opportunities emerging.” the profile challenging times SMEs are vital

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

in association with

Capital support for Liverpool ‘If it doesn’t make progress in the next two years, I will swim across the Mersey’ – NWDA chief executive Steve Broomhead, on plans for the Cruise Liner Terminal

Confidence and culture are among the achievements of the North West Development Agency HE chief executive of the North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA), Steve Broomhead, needed no prompting for what he would like to see be achieved across Liverpool city region.

“Short-term, I would like to see progress on the garden festival site and on Wirral Waters,” he said. “I would like to see Cammell Laird redeveloped. I would like to see a tram going down to the airport. I would like to see the golf at Birkdale and on the Wirral at least once in the next 10 years.

“I would also like to see a more energised workforce, set within a knowledge-led, low-carbon economy.”

The range of the wishes – which covers manufacturing, tourism, commercial property, employment

T

and sport – demonstrates the wide-ranging remit the NWDA has. It also has a budget to match, with £556.7m to spend in the current financial year.

In 2008-09, the agency’s action included supporting Liverpool ‘08, developing strategic employment sites – including Liverpool’s knowledge quarter – delivering regeneration in Liverpool via Liverpool Vision, including investment at Mann Island, the new Museum, the canal link and Liverpool Northshore.

Its key projects on Merseyside include the Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre, which it provided more than £18m for. In its first year, it contributed £200m to the local economy as almost 700,000 people used the waterfront building.

The £19m Cruise Liner Terminal saw more than half of its funding come from the NWDA. The facility, which opened in 2007, generates £2m a year of extra spending.

There are discussions ongoing about converting it into a turnaround facility so ships can start and finish their journey.

There are no baggage handling facilities, Customs, or immigration available at the Cruise Liner Terminal at the moment, and there are issues around the conditions that came with the original European funding.

“There’s a good chance of progress,” he said. “If it doesn’t make progress in the next two years, I will swim across the Mersey. We are working with the city council to help make it happen.”

Mr Broomhead, though, identifies three key achievements for the city region which the NWDA had a role in, but that aren’t directly related to physical infrastructure.

He said: “First of all, renewed confidence in the Liverpool city region, renewed business confidence and much better image and profile, nationally and internationally.

“Second, Liverpool city region has now managed to attract a significant amount of private investment, for example Liverpool One and the investment in the ports.

“Third, strong evidence of public-private partnership. Other people talk about it, but we have delivered. Two examples – in Halton, working on the Bridge project, and in St Helens, in areas like business support.

“The role of the agency is to gather the information and evidence and make things happen. My theme song has always been ‘A little less conversation, a little more action, please’. That’s sometimes a challenge in the region.”

Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year was a prime example of this, with its early days mired in fallings-out and controversy before it was brought back on track.

Partnership working was also in evidence for Liverpool ‘08, which is credited with generating £800m from more than 15m cultural visits.

Mr Broomhead said: “Capital of Culture – not only did we provide £2m towards its delivery we provided, Bryan Gray [the outgoing

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

29

THE BIG FEATURE

Time to get creative

An artist’s impression of how the MediaCity complex, in Salford, will look when it opens in 2011. Peel Media hopes the site will eventually house 15,000 workers

BY ALISTAIR HOUGHTON

▲ ▲

The creative and digital sectors are seen as crucial to this region’s economic growth. How are local firms riding out the recession – and how will they be affected

by Peel’s £500m MediaCity, in Salford?

28

17

THE BIG FEATURE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES HEN Tate Liverpool held an exhibition about the city’s art scene, called Centre of the Creative Universe, nobody batted an eyelid.

The city has always been proud of its reputation as a creative hub – and so the Government’s increased focus on the creative industries as a future source of wealth for the UK was music to local ears.

The creative and digital sector includes people working in areas from design to broadcasting, websitebuilding to architecture and marketing to fashion.

Many of Merseyside’s leading firms have seen strong growth in recent years and are winning regional and national reputations.

Companies such as design firm Uniform, digital agencies Rippleffect and Mando and broadcasters such as Lime Pictures are leading players in their sectors.

The Northwest Development Agency estimates that the creative sector in the region generates £16bn of economic output.

And while creative firms are battening down the hatches to get through the recession, the sector is seen by regeneration officials as crucial to the region’s future.

The most visible evidence of that can be seen at Salford Quays, where building work on the £500m first phase of MediaCityUK is well under way. Liverpool firms are being told to get ready to exploit the new opportunities that will be available at that massive complex.

Merseyside ACME, now part of regeneration body Liverpool Vision, is the agency charged with promoting the sector locally.

Its director, Kevin McManus, says that, since ACME was founded in 1998, it has seen many Mersey businesses achieve success regionally and nationally – and says those firms should be role models to the sector’s up-and-coming companies.

“When we started a decade or so ago, the sector was fairly immature and quite fragmented,” he said.

“There were lots of sole traders and micro-enterprises.

“It’s a fairly mature sector now.

“There are a lot of companies we’ve worked with at various points who are challenging on the national and international stage.

“We’ve got world-class brands like Cream, and Liverpool Sound City has just set up its first major international initiative, in Dubai.

“We need role models like them, as part of our mission over the next few years is to encourage companies to grow in that way. Sometimes it’s about looking nationally and internationally rather than locally.”

Mr McManus says the creative sector locally remains “very healthy” despite the recession. Sectors such as advertising have been hard hit, but Mr McManus insists most companies will be able to weather the storm.

He said: “The current downturn has had some impact. Some companies are going to struggle.

“But I think the sector tends to be fairly flexible and it’s adapted quite well to the situation.

“People don’t tend to be over-reliant on a couple of clients.

They’re adaptable because technology changes so quickly. If you’re a micro-enterprise, that doesn’t necessarily hit you, because your overheads are quite low.

“Companies are still growing. The ones that aren’t have probably pegged back growth. They’re not going to expand or take on extra people but will stay as they are.

“The trick for us is to support the high-growth companies and help

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Natalie Reeves believes not enough companies in the region are getting the message about their responsibilities when it comes to disposing of waste

Ambassador role for businesswoman Recycling firm director to spread the word to companies across Merseyside Kevin McManus, of Merseyside ACME, says the region’s creative sector remains in strong shape . . . despite the recession them to continue growing – but not forgetting the start-ups and early-stage companies, because there’ll be much more innovative stuff coming from them.”

The evidence of Liverpool’s creative success is all around.

On the design front, Liverpool will in October host a new design festival showcasing the work of the industry’s rising stars. It follows last year’s successful Design Show Liverpool and last October’s Liverpool Design Symposium.

On television, Hollyoaks, produced

by Childwall’s Lime Pictures, is still going strong.

Meanwhile, Kirkdale-based LA Productions is producing a second series of hit daytime drama Moving On for the BBC. The first series attracted acting stars from Sheila Hancock to Neil Fitzmaurice, and producer Colin McKeown said the new series would be “a huge financial injection into the local economy.”

Liverpool Sound City, held for the second time this year, has become a showcase for Liverpool’s thriving music scene.

In Liverpool, Merseyside ACME is developing plans to turn the Baltic Triangle into a creative quarter for the city.

Local councils are also playing their part in encouraging creative businesses to thrive.

Knowsley Council developed the

Creative Space complex, in Kirkby, three years ago as an incubator unit for creative firms. Through the Creative Space programme, the council also offers support and training for Knowsley firms.

Merseyside’s public relations and marketing sector has expanded rapidly in recent years.

Longer-standing companies such as October Communications, Kenyon Fraser and Ubiquity are being challenged by newer arrivals such as Active Profile and a host of other firms including Mason Media and Think Publicity.

Perhaps the best-known figure in the sector is Dougal Paver, managing director of Liverpool marketing and PR agency Paver Smith, who says increased competition among agencies is good for the city.

He said: “We’re seeing a lot more confidence. There are better agencies who are much more competitive.

We’re seeing a lot more business coming to the city.”

Paver Smith has grown rapidly since it split from Paver Downes in 2006. Today, it is now one of the North West’s biggest agencies, with clients from law firm DLA Piper to Marks & Spencer Simply Food and Liverpool’s delegation to next year’s World Expo in Shanghai.

The company is keeping an eye out for acquisition opportunities. Last year it bought Liverpool PR firm Factory Communications, while this

January it bought Manchester rival Stripe Communications.

Mr Paver agrees that the most successful Liverpool marketing firms are those that are prepared to fight for work outside Merseyside.

“It’s about being fit for the fight,” he said. “You’ve got to be competitive – with pricing, service, and training and development policies – across the board. Are you good enough to punch your weight against a Manchester or a London agency?

“There’s business to be won across the country. We’ve proved it. But you’ve got to fight for it.”

The region’s biggest digital agency is Rippleffect, which has worked with clients from Premiership football clubs to MediaCity developer Peep Holdings.

The company, bought by LDP Business parent Trinity Mirror in 2008, employs more than 50 people.

Founder Ben Hatton says Rippleffect’s drive to win clients nationally, not just locally, has helped it achieve rapid growth.

He said: “We are very much an agency with a national reach, which allows us to keep growing.

“We’re still recruiting people, bringing in new clients, retaining clients and increasing client spend.

“From our point of view, we’re working through the recession.

Having said that, I don’t think there’s anybody who can say it’s not having any effect. We’re only as good

as our clients and how well they’re doing.

“But we’re doing well and things are very positive. We’ve always been a specialist online digital agency and we are very good at what we do.”

Liverpool Science Park-based Mando is another of the North West’s most successful digital agencies, with clients ranging from United Utilities to the Health and Safety Executive.

Ian Finch, who founded Mando in 1997 with Matt Johnson, said: “We grew rapidly from 1997 to 2001, as most people did. But then the business landscape changed and we acted accordingly.

“Our success has been down to reacting to that changing business landscape.”

Five years ago, the company also made a conscious decision to become a national player and spread its reach way beyond Merseyside.

Finch says he believes clients are keeping up their spending on digital marketing, even while other spending is falling away.

“We’ve certainly had experiences of clients making redundancies and still giving us work,” he said.

Despite its importance, the creative world remains one made up of small and medium enterprises.

Manufacturing, seen as a sector in decline, boasts industrial behemoths such as Jaguar Land Rover with its 2,000 staff. Creative and digital firms,

LIVERPOOL businesswoman Natalie Reeves has been made a Green Ambassador by Liverpool Chamber of Commerce as part of the city’s Year of the Environment.

Ms Reeves, who represents a business that recycles electrical goods for use in the UK and overseas, will now encourage other businesses in Merseyside to sign the city’s Green Pledge and do more for the environment.

A Green Ambassador is a person or business based in Merseyside who cares about the environment and who demonstrates this through their business practices.

They work with their clients, suppliers, staff and local community to raise awareness about environmental issues such as

recycling, re-using and reducing waste.

More generally, they are people or firms that behave in a manner that shows consideration for the natural world by recognising the rights of everybody to a clean and sustainable world for the future.

Green Ambassadors will also receive a certificate that they can display in a public place at their premises.

Ms Reeves is a director of Tuebrook-based Northwest Electronics Recycling Centre (NWERC).

The company aims to solve the environmental problem posed by the huge volume of electronic waste discarded by today’s consumers.

It will take almost any electrical or

electronic product – televisions, IT equipment, fridges, washing machines, tumble dryers – and recycle them to be used again.

NWERC is currently working with Riverside Housing Association and Liverpool’s Beatles-themed Hard Day’s Night Hotel.

Ms Reeves said: “We are one of the few recycling companies in Liverpool, and that is why I was selected to be a Green Ambassador.

“The ambassadors are chosen for their working in leading the field on green issues.

“We will raise green issues, get involved in information exchange and produce reports for relevant authorities.

“When NWERC contacts firms, they often don’t understand how

environmental regulations about the disposal of equipment applies to them and they think they have no need for our services.

“I think there is still a lot of work to be done in educating firms.”

■ THE Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) has announced that it has approved the second phase of funding for a new centre of waste recycling in the region.

Around £3.8m will be provided by the NWDA as well as £2.7m from the European Regional Development Fund and £600,000 from local authorities in order to develop the Northwest Waste Technology Virtual Centre of Excellence.

The project, being delivered by Environlink Northwest, will be a hub

for recycling and services relating to waste technologies and will prevent an estimated 57,000 tonnes of waste from going to landfill sites.

It will also create 300 jobs and highlight the NorthWest as an innovator when it comes to green technologies.

It will have four main functions: support research and development in recycling, advise and guide firms on the commercialisation of ideas, promote the region’s 1,400 recycling firms at events and to supply chains, and work with big organisations to help create new markets for small firms.

Operations director Dr Martin Andrews said: “We will be encouraging big companies to do more recycling.”

The top North West restaurateur who is doing his bit AS ONE of the North West’s top restaurateurs, Paul Heathcote takes his green responsibilities very seriously.

Mr Heathcote operates eateries across the region and his outlets in Liverpool include the Olive Press and Simply Heathcotes.

He said there are a number of recycling and green issues faced by the restaurant trade.

In particular, the disposal of the many wine, beer and

water bottles that are used in outlets every day. He said: “Recycling of glass is something we try to do, but it is a real challenge.

“It is especially true at city centre restaurants where you have a minimum of storage space. Pick-up times are not always that good either.

“We do try to do as much as we can and we do better in some restaurants than others.”

Mr Heathcote says one of his aims is to have as much low-energy lighting in his outlets as possible.

He added “It is something we are looking at. Lighting in restaurants is very much driven by customer experience and so that has to be right.

“Cleaning thoroughly is also a challenge if you don’t have proper lighting.

“We do make sure staff

always turn off lights behind them and we are careful about the time we switch on the air conditioning so that it is not on when it is not needed.

“One thing we have always done as much as possible is use local suppliers and we have been doing that for 19 years.

“We also try to persuade our suppliers to take back empty boxes, but that is not necessarily always easy.”

Paul Heathcote – tries hard to make sure his restaurants are as environmentally friendly as possible

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Waste plant gets the go-ahead

Milky Tea stirs up design world 3-D specialist banking on the rewards of collaboration and national focus

Government approves Peel plan despite opposition from residents NORTH-WEST property and ports giant, Peel Holdings, has won approval for a 95 megawatt power plant fuelled by waste.

Despite opposition from people living nearby, the facility was give the go-ahead by the Energy and Climate Change Minister, Lord Hunt, following a public inquiry.

The plant will be capable of turning 600,000 tonnes of waste each year into electricity and heat.

The waste, which would have otherwise gone to landfill, will instead be used to generate electricity to power a new Resource Recovery Park, which is also set to gain planing approval.

Excess electricity will also be exported to the National Grid.

Lord Hunt recommended that consent should be granted for the construction and operation of the plant and also that planning permission be given for the Resource Recovery Park.

He said: “We need to increase our use of renewable energy and to find solutions to the UK’s waste problem.

“This power plant will convert over half a million tonnes of waste each year into energy.

“The inspector recommended the power plant be granted consent after a thorough public inquiry.

“I am satisfied that the mitigation measures to be put in place will protect the amenity of local villages.”

The separate planning permission for the Resource Recovery Park was given by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham.

Myles Kitcher, director of Peel Environmental, said: “We are pleased with the decision of both Secretaries of State to grant consent for the Ince Resource Recovery Park.

“It provides a significant opportunity for the North West to be at the forefront of the UK’s low carbon industrial strategy and to benefit from inward investment and a range of new jobs.

“Against the current economic climate and drive for more carbon-conscious development, this decision couldn’t have come at a better time.

“We also recognise that capturing such opportunities brings the responsibility to work with and address the concerns of local communities.

“We are committed to working with local people to ensure that proposals are undertaken in an open

LOANS FOR WIND FARMS

An artist's impression of the Resource Recovery Park being built by Peel Holdings at Ince, in Cheshire and transparent manner with consultation and liaison throughout the development.”

Local residents claim the 100 hectare site would threaten their health and quality of life.

An initial planning application for an integrated waste management facility and an environmental technologies complex, with road, rail and water access from upgraded shipping berth facilities, was refused planning permission in November,

2006. The separate application for the waste plant was also refused and a revised plan was submitted to Cheshire County Council.

■ JOHNSON Cleaners is investing £6m into an ongoing national programme to convert a further 150 stores to eco-friendly GreenEarth dry cleaning technology by 2012.

The Merseyside-based company, with its head office at Prescot, is the largest cleaning company in the UK,

THREE UK-based banks are teaming up with the European Investment Bank (EIB) on a programme to lend up to £1bn to onshore wind farms over the next three years.

The cash, part of the additional £4bn of EIB lending to support UK energy projects announced in the Budget, will help get building of onshore wind projects started that have been hit by the credit crunch, particularly small and mid-sized wind farms.

The banks – Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and BNP Paribas Fortis – have been teamed up with the EIB by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Treasury, following the announcement in April’s Budget Statement that the Government wanted to get more EIB lending to UK renewables.

Firms can also apply for DECC cash to develop offshore wind technology.

There will be up to £10m in grants, part of the £120m announced in the renewable energy strategy to support offshore wind. This is the second round of cash for development of offshore wind technology.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said: “We laid out a transition plan to a low carbon economy that included a massive expansion of green wind energy. The resources we are announcing back up our plans with clear actions to ensure we deliver.

“The European Investment Bank funds will help the building start on consented wind farms that could provide one gigawatt of electricity, enough to power more than 500,000 homes.”

with more than 500 branches. It has already trialled the GreenEarth brand in nearly half its shops.

Johnson Cleaners is the master licensor for GreenEarth in the UK. The technology is available for the same price as traditional dry cleaning but has been proven to be kinder to clothes, skin and the environment.

It uses gentle liquid silicone cleaning solvents that come from naturally occurring sand and gives

fabric a softer feel, with no tell-tale dry cleaning smell.

Paul Ogle, managing director of Johnson Cleaners, said: “The re-launch of our GreenEarth branches is part of a nationwide programme of transformation and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to investing in the future of the business.

“Our customers are demanding more environmentally-friendly products and services.”

Birkenhead firm designs eco-homes for the future WORK has started on the construction of six new homes, designed by Ainsley Gommon Architects, in Birkenhead, that they claim will set the standard for Britain’s homes for the future.

The houses will meet the rigorous German PassivHaus standard for energy efficiency in buildings.

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The standard, which achieves Level 4 under the code for sustainable homes, results in ultra-low energy properties that require little energy consumption for space heating or cooling.

Fuel bills, for instance, are likely to be in the region of just £100 to £200 a year.

Ainsley Gommon Architects have designed

the homes for the William Sutton Housing Association and they are being constructed by Bullock Construction as part of a 54-home social housing development on two sites in Sutton Park, Halton Moor, Leeds.

The scheme will be completed in 2010.

The homes will utilise passive solar gain and air

tightness and very high standards of insulation including triple glazed windows.

Alf Plant, director, Ainsley Gommon Architects, said: “The Government has set the building industry specific targets that all new-build housing must significantly reduce dependency on fossil fuels by 2016.”

Alf Plant, of Ainsley Gommon Architects

however, generally count employees in the tens rather than hundreds.

A 2007 survey by Burns Collett, commissioned by Merseyside ACME and Business Liverpool, showed the creative industries employed more than 10,000 people in Liverpool. Of those, just over 1,000 were self-employed, while the rest were split between 551 businesses.

Merseyside ACME suggests that smaller firms should collaborate to share ideas and win new business.

Its Kin2Kin online network, which has more than 2,500 members, aims to help small firms work together and offer each other business.

One of ACME’s own team members, Claire Walker, has taken that advice to heart.

Ms Walker, a consultant at ACME, has teamed up with other freelancers to form educational consultancy As Creatives.

The company formed in March 2008 and today offers training programmes to schools, colleges, local authorities and creative firms.

It subcontracts work to other creative freelancers and over the next 18 months plans to expand its work throughout the UK. Director Simon McKeown said: “It felt like new territory for five individual professionals to pool their experience in this way, and it felt like an exciting and somewhat daunting risk at the time. That risk and hard work has paid off.”

IF YOU’VE been near a Lloyds TSB branch recently, you’ll have had a taste of Milky Tea. The Liverpool 3-D design and digital art studio has produced a huge range of billboards, posters and print advertising for Lloyds TSB featuring the bank’s distinctive family of animated characters.

Milky Tea, like so many other creative success stories in Merseyside, has grown by looking for clients from far beyond the city region and by linking up with other city design firms.

Milky Tea is led by design director and coffee drinker Jon Holmes, who founded it in 1995.

Two years ago, it started focusing on 3-D work and began hunting clients in the south of England as Mr Holmes and his team began “taking the company to the next level”.

Today, its national reach is so great that the vast majority of its clients are based outside the North West – though it still works regularly with Hollyoaks producer Lime Pictures.

Mr Holmes says the company aims to act as an outsourced design office for its clients.

Being a proud Liverpool firm has done Milky Tea no harm when dealing with London agents – and the city’s growing creative reputation may even have helped it.

Mr Holmes said: “We do a lot of work at short notice.

That’s stood us in good stead nationally. A lot of agencies in London use us for that fast turnaround.

“But they also like the idea that we’re based in Liverpool. It’s become more fashionable.”

When dealing with

London agencies, says Mr Holmes, there is no room for error.

“We might only get one chance to deliver,” he said.

“If we don’t, the risk is we’ll never speak to them again.”

Last November, Milky Tea moved from Liverpool Innovation Park, in Edge Lane, to the new Elevator complex, in Parliament Street.

The company has an expansion plan in place and plans to move to a larger studio within Elevator to give it room to grow.

It is also launching new division – Milky Tea Interactive – so it can develop its own games and content, rather than just producing it for other people.

“A lot of people come to us for our creative ideas and our artwork,” said Mr Holmes.

“But as well as being a really good design studio, we want to come up with our own ideas.

“For the past few years, everyone has said ‘don’t diversify – stick with what you’re good at’.

“But, as the credit crunch has hit, we’ve had to diversify.

“The core aspect of what we do is the creative design process, but we’re bringing in to the business programmes to add value to what we’re doing.”

As with many other small creative companies, Milky Tea regularly works with other firms in Merseyside’s creative community, including fellow Baltic Triangle company Splinter Design Communications.

Mr Holmes said: “Liverpool has a good creative community where companies have good relationships with each other.”.

In safe hands: one of the Lloyds TSB adverts created by Liverpool design house Milky Tea

New showcase for design talent

THE design stars of the future will be taking centre stage at the new Liverpool Design Festival.

The festival, which will run from October 30 to November 8, aims to cement Merseyside’s reputation as one of the UK’s design capitals.

The Fashion Lab will allow trade buyers and the public to see work by 20 talented new designers from throughout the UK. The Finishing School, which will run from November 3 to November 6, is a series of workshops from industry experts including Justine Mills, of Liverpool

Kirsty Doyle boutique Cricket.

Designer Kirsty Doyle, who is artistic director of both events, said: “The Finishing School aims to contribute to the British fashion industry’s reputation of producing ground-breaking designers.”

Another festival highlight will be the Design Stars competition for 11 to 16-year-olds.

The festival will also include an Eco Design Show, which will showcase green design and craft.

Sarah Elderkin, of Design Initiative, said: “Liverpool has built a reputation as a centre for fashion and design.

“The festival aims to highlight the city as a location for creative industries and reinforce design as a major part of its economy.”

■ FOR details, visit www. liverpooldesignfestival. com

LDP Creative ■ THE Liverpool Daily Post has launched its new LDP Creative website, focusing on creative industries in Merseyside. So, if you're in advertising, marketing, design, web design, public relations, the media, television and radio production, architecture or any other creative sector, then visit the site to find out the latest news.

■ IF YOU have a story, e-mail alistair.houghton@liverpool.com

www.ldpcreative.co.uk 19

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SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Rain man taps into new market Firms ‘must take advantage of

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An image of how MediaCity UK will look once complete. The Salford Quays site is set to become a hub for the creative industries throughout the North West

Mersey creatives urged to exploit new opportunities in broadcasting and digital media available at FROM the 19th floor of one of MediaCityUK’s tower blocks, the scale of Peel Holdings’ ambition for the Salford Quays site is all too clear.

Last month, members of the media joined Peel’s top brass for a topping-out ceremony and a behind-the-scenes look at building work on the project’s £500m first phase.

Peel Media says that when complete the site will host 15,000 workers and generate an additional £1bn for the North West economy.

The BBC is the most high-profile organisation to commit to MediaCity, and will base 2,500 staff there.

Five departments, including BBC Sport and Radio 5 Live, are moving north, while the corporation’s existing staff from Manchester city centre will also move to the new BBC North hub at Salford Quays.

The University of Salford is also creating a new higher education centre onsite, while Peel is actively recruiting other tenants from the creative and digital industries.

There’s no question that MediaCity will cement Greater Manchester’s position as one of the world’s leading creative centres.

At first, that sounds as if it could present a threat to Merseyside’s creative sector. But many of the industry’s leading players say

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MediaCity will, in fact, present new opportunities for those companies ready and willing to take advantage.

They say it will bring decisionmakers from organisations such as the BBC much closer to Liverpool, and so make it easier for Liverpool firms to win business from them.

Peel Holdings is one of the North West’s biggest companies. It owns the Port of Liverpool, the Manchester Ship Canal and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Its Peel Media arm started work on MediaCity in July, 2007 after the BBC signed up as the anchor tenant.

The first phase will include 700,000sqft of offices and 250,000sqft of studio space, including seven high-definition television studios, two audio studios and a large central technical block. The complex will also include retail and leisure facilities, 378 apartments and a piazza capable of holding events for up to 4,000 people.

Peter Salmon started work as the BBC’s first-ever Director North on June 1. He believes the BBC’s move to Salford, bringing with it programmes from Blue Peter to Match of the Day, will help grow the whole region’s media industry.

He said: “This arrival of a major BBC network production centre an hour away should bring many new

opportunities to both established and new talent across Merseyside and the North West and will create hundreds of new job opportunities that talented people from Liverpool will have a great chance of accessing.

“The BBC has ambitious plans to boost out of London network programme spend to 50% by 2016 and BBC North is already in close consultation with independent production companies across the whole of the North of England, including those in Liverpool.

“The BBC is also working with Northwest Vision and Media on how to train and develop a workforce for the next generation of digital media and is excited by Liverpool's ambitious plans to invest in a £5m National Games Academy.”

Jon Corner, founder of Liverpoolbased production company River Media, was part of the project team that encouraged the BBC to move to Salford and is now chairman of the project executive committee for MediaCity, at the University of Salford.

He sees MediaCity as not simply a base for broadcasters but instead as a centre for excellence in the digital industries.

He said: “MediaCity itself will deliberately blur the dividing line between technologist and creative in

response to an emerging global emphasis on quality of ideas, on new ways of communicating and reaching audiences, on newer and more environmentally-aware methods of knowledge transfer.

“This is great news for Liverpool because we are a natural talent pool – it seems to be in our genes to think differently and to experiment.

“The city has traditionally expressed these talents through music, comedy, writing and performance – now it has a chance to express itself further through digital content design.”

That means IT and technical skills will be as much in demand at MediaCity as creative skills.

Mr Corner said: “When Mark Zuckerberg and friends created Facebook, they didn’t have to think about the mathematics behind the idea – that bit was already at their fingertips.

“We have to get our schoolkids taking science as seriously as football and fashion – otherwise MediaCity might feel as far away as the moon, instead of 30 minutes down the M62.”

Sean Marley, managing director of Childwall-based Hollyoaks producer Lime Pictures, agrees that MediaCity must become a hub for digital talent.

He said: “If we see MediaCity as

competition for London and Soho Square, so we try to persuade the TV industry to move to Manchester, we’re onto a loser.

“What we should be hugely ambitious about is creating a centre of excellence for new digital content here in the North West.

“Where this area is doing better than others is in non-traditional forms of content. The diversity of digital content that the North West has to offer is a big selling point.

“I don’t think it’s unrealistic that a graduate wanting to work in that area should see the North West at the top of the list of places to work.”

Mr Marley says Liverpool firms should feel positive about what MediaCity could offer them.

“The positives outweigh any negatives,” he said. “We need to embrace MediaCity and become part of it, rather than seeing it as just something down the motorway.”

Mike Taylor, director of enterprise and investment at Liverpool Vision, says he and Merseyside ACME will be investigating how to help Merseyside firms get a slice of the MediaCity pie.

Mr Taylor is a former executive at Manchester-based Granada television, and welcomes the fact that some of the broadcasting industry’s key decision-makers

Capturing rainwater is the green way to go for households in the future

Recycling rainwater one way to cut down on bills at home IT SEEMS extraordinary that one of our greatest natural resources is largely unused by businesses and homeowners.

The concept of capturing rainwater and storing it for later use has been around for thousands of years. And, of course, the water companies provide our tapwater from reservoirs that do precisely that.

However, rainwater buckets down on our buildings both at home and at work and in most cases it literally goes down the drain. The practice of catching rain at home largely died away with the introduction of reliable mains-supplied water.

However, with the ever-growing demand for water and subsequent increases in cost, the UK market demand for rainwater recycling systems is on the increase – mirroring what has already taken place in other industrialised countries.

This relatively new industry for the UK is at an early stage, but the new buzzword that can be expected to be heard over the next few years will be “rainwater harvesting”.

Combined Harvesters, in Bromborough, is leading the way in the development of new products.

Managing director Alastair Tunnington said: “We live in an

FIRM EXPANDING A 20-YEAR-OLD firm is ready to expand, three years after emerging from administration.

Wavertree Technology Park-based MyPAlive evolved from Senator Communications when it was bought out by Brian King with private finance and a £50,000 loan from Merseyside Special Investment Fund.

The loan has now been repaid and Mr King is recruiting additional staff as

part of his £350,000 investment in new systems and improved premises.

MyPAlive already employs 150 people providing call answering services around the clock for businesses clients such as Whitbread, British Red Cross, Brent Council, Vodafone and Save the Children.

More staff are needed to meet demand from companies’ outsourcing services.

increasingly environmentally aware society, and one that is ever conscious of frugality with regard to our necessary expenses.

“Combined Harvesters have amalgamated existing products with new, innovative and exciting systems to provide a 'one-stop', comprehensive approach to the harvesting of natural rain water and the attenuation of storm water.

“This water is practically chemical free and a great source to irrigate arid gardens, wash the pride and joy on a Sunday, or feed the toilets, and, of course, there is no burden of guilt during ever-longer periods of water restrictions.”

The company trade mark includes the Rain Catcher brand which incorporates an above ground awardwinning tank, designed and manufactured by Combined Harvesters.

Systems have been installed in Germany since the early 1980s, so one benefit of the UK market being generally behind the rest of Europe is that the potential problems have been worked through and solved.

Products include tanks, water butts, filters, pumps and hosepipes.

Systems lend themselves to new-build homes, but can also be installed at existing buildings.

Businesses can benefit from the Enhanced Capital Allowance schemes to offset the installation cost of rainwater harvesting against tax.

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THE BIG FEATURE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Hollyoaks producer looks to the future Lime looks to juicy factual and digital ventures

IT MAY be best-known for teen drama Hollyoaks – but Liverpool’s Lime Pictures is branching out into new areas as it bids to ride out the recession and the resulting cuts in drama budgets.

The company has launched a new reality department to produce glossy reality TV shows similar to earlier hit Living On The Edge, which focused on the lives of wealthy youngsters in Alderley Edge.

And its Conker Media arm, which specialises in developing interactive content and short films to go online, is also expanding as TV companies look for new ways to attract young viewers.

Managing director Sean Marley said: “Hollyoaks gives us a very firm grounding in the business. What we have tried to do over the past few years is diversify, so we are not just reliant on the highend drama budgets which are becoming harder to achieve.”

The company has now launched Lime Pictures Factual, led by Fiona O’Sullivan, to produce more so-called “dramality” shows, following the success of Living On The Edge. That show followed a template set by American shows such as The Hills.

Mr Marley said: “The main reason we’ve done that is that the industry is in a state of flux where drama budgets are concerned.

“We had Living On The Edge for two series. It’s an unscripted piece of TV that follows the lives of real people, but shot in a drama style – it’s become known as dramality. We seem to be one of the few people working in this area, and we believe there’s a market in it.”

Lime is also looking to create new factual programmes using the actors it has worked with.

Jon Corner, of River Media

Mark Pedley, of SmartLife Technology, models one of the health shirts

Firm is simply the vest Hi-tech shirt that can monitor the state of your well-being MONITORING health and vital signs usually means being hooked up to some kind of gadgetry – until now.

A Liverpool firm has developed technology that can be worn on a simple T-shirt to collect data about temperature, respiration and heart rates. The main applications are health care and sports performance, with both markets already valued at billions of pounds.

The HealthVest has detachable sensors which capture information over any period of time which can then be downloaded onto a computer.

Mark Pedley, chief executive of Liverpool Science Park-based SmartLife, said: "We have developed the technology and the product over five years and are now building the business and have five licences with commercial companies.

“There are numerous applications but if you look at healthcare, for instance, you might have a patient with emphysema, so instead of them going to hospital to be monitored they can wear a comfortable shirt at home.

“Similarly, in sports performance, it's all about ease of use because people currently wear belts or restrictive monitors.

“We see this as being useful for both individuals and sports clubs."

The company's target is sales of £10m

24

by 2012 through issuing licences.

The technology was drawn from leading research and development in electronics, materials science and textiles at the University of Manchester where a garment was created for monitoring human physiological signs.

SmartLife acquired the intellectual property rights, developed products and is now promoting the business.

Mr Pedley added: "Our garment system contains discrete electronic components, engineered to sense human physiological signs.

“The construction of the garments ensures the sensors are automatically in contact with the skin, their position is correctly located and the wearer requires little instruction for set-up or routine use.

“The technology represents a shift from traditional high cost patient monitoring in hospitals to affordable unobtrusive remote personalised monitoring in the home.”

“It is estimated the cardio-vascular monitoring market is worth £8bn alone, so we are confident of building a robust business.”

Another application is thought to be in the military field to keep a check on the performance of troops under stress.

Capturing health data is now easier than ever

Short-circuit device will save millions of pounds ELECTRICITY North West has developed new technology that will save every sub-station needing to be upgraded at a cost of £1m.

The fault-limiting device is currently under field trial by ENW and a consortium of partners.

It is designed to deal with the issue of managing fault levels when there is an overload or short circuit in the network.

With current consumer demand for electricity and the Government’s commitment to increased use of renewable energy, the distribution network will have to accommodate more generation over the coming years, increasing the problems of managing fault levels.

Traditionally, this increase in generation would have necessitated expensive network infrastructure reinforcement, typically £1m per substation.

ENW in collaboration

with Applied Superconductor Ltd, ScottishPower and CEElectric UK has solved this issue by creating its superconductor from “high-temperature” material, rather than electronic or mechanical components.

Steve Johnson, chief executive of ENW, which provides power for homes in Lancashire and Cheshire, said: “The super-conductor will allow for a significant increase in the generation connected to the distribution network without the need for an expensive infrastructure replacement programme.

“This development will be highly applicable to current plans to expand generation facilities in the UK, particularly from renewable sources and is an example of the key role the North West plays in driving progress in technology and engineering.”

The limiter has passed the verification stage and is being tested on site.

Peter Salmon, BBC North director

MediaCity’ new Salford Quays complex

will now be based in the North. He said: “We need to understand how to turn MediaCity into a strong asset and opportunity for our Liverpool-based businesses, and not see it as a threat.

“Having this complex in the North West is a fantastic opportunity for us. It’s not just about the BBC – it’s about a whole raft of sectors from law to logistics, software and games.

“Even from a BBC perspective, this is more about the digital agenda than it is about broadcasting. That means fantastic opportunities for local and regional businesses.

“We’ve got to find ways of engaging with it and with what’s being commissioned there.”

Northwest Vision and Media is set to move its headquarters to MediaCity within weeks.

Chief executive Alice Morrison agrees with Mr Taylor that having the BBC so close to Liverpool will be good news for Merseyside firms.

“You’re going to have a terrific buyer on your doorstep with a northern attitude,” she said.

“Liverpool companies will be looking to get a piece of that action.

“Does it make a difference whether the BBC is in London or in the North? I think it does, both in terms of proximity and in terms of relationship building.

“It’s good news. I understand the competition between Liverpool and Manchester, but, in truth, if I had a creative business in Liverpool, I’d be absolutely delighted that this huge buyer was moving a lot closer.

“If you’re a forward-looking company, you’ll be delighted.”

Peel Media chairman Bryan Gray agrees that Merseyside firms, especially those working in gaming and new media, must be proactive to take advantage of new opportunities at Salford Quays.

He said: “The whole raison d’etre of MediaCity for the BBC is to focus on content creation. They don’t do all that themselves, they buy it from a whole range of suppliers, both for TV and other content.

“The reason they chose the North West was that the region already had a strong and active creative industry.

“You don’t need to be physically based in MediaCity to win work. The people writing the cheques will be and the supply chain will build up around that.

“Let’s not forget that this is MediaCity, not just TV city.

“The BBC is leading the way with multi-channel content for internet or mobile devices. Liverpool has a particularly strong presence in gaming so I would expect Liverpool to benefit from that. “

LDP Creative

See our MediaCity slideshow

www. bit.ly/ mcpics

Firm grounding: a scene from a recent edition of Hollyoaks, showing Abi, right, giving baby Lucas to Ste Mr Marley says that, while drama budgets may be tight, broadcasters are still looking to find factual vehicles for recognised TV personalities along the lines of River Journeys With Griff Rhys Jones.

Conker Media, led by Lee Hardman, recently produced four-week multimedia venture Hollyoaks: The Morning After The Night Before. The Hollyoaks spin-off drama included a series of four-minute dramas on the soap’s website, as well as video blogs and podcasts.

Conker has also worked with the BBC on its new Switch project to produce content aimed at teenagers .

Mr Marley said: “We’ve just had the best year in Conker’s history.

“The world has caught up with what Conker was doing

five or six years ago and the cross-platform media world on which it has concentrated – short-form digital drama.”

Childwall-based Lime was founded by Phil Redmond in 1982 as Mersey Television. It was taken over by All3Media in 2005 and renamed in 2006.

Its first big hit was Brookside, while it produced Grange Hill until that series ended last year.

Lime’s other recent productions include BBC1 supernatural drama Apparitions, staring Martin Shaw. It is currently producing BBC children’s drama Ingenious, written by Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit author Jeannette Winterson.

Lime employs 345 people, with another 100 to 150 freelancers working on its projects at any one time.

Music industry striking the right note DECADES may have passed since Beatlemania, but Liverpool is still a big noise in the music world.

The city boasts a thriving live music scene and a host of businesses and venues.

Liverpool Sound City held its second annual festival in May. Its organisers have now created sister

event Dubai Sound City, to be held in November.

Meanwhile, Liverpool Music Week in October and November bills itself as the UK’s biggest indoor winter music festival.

Cream is a brand known worldwide, but it remains based in Liverpool. The Creamfields dance

festival will this week attract 100,000 fans to Daresbury Park, Cheshire.

Merseyside’s venues range from the new Echo Arena Liverpool to dozens of bars and clubs.

Innovative music firms include Sentric Music, which helps small and unsigned bands

collect royalties from radio play, live gigs, online sales and use in games.

Elevator Studios and Parr Street Studios attract some of the industry’s biggest names, while Adlib, in Speke, has provided sound and lighting for tours by acts from Bob Dylan to the Kaiser Chiefs.

21

THE BIG FEATURE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Online television reaches new markets From catwalk models to iPhone smoothies, amateur video gives way to a new professionalism ONLINE television is increasingly being used by businesses eager to engage with a wider audience.

It is different from video, which anybody can upload to the internet, in that the word “television” implies high production standards.

A few years ago, when the majority of British homes were connected to the internet using just old-fashioned copper wire telephone lines, online video or TV content was likely to break up, making it frustrating to watch. Today, the widespread take-up of broadband makes the experience much more satisfactory.

Mobile phone firm Vodafone’s YouTube channel currently hosts 37 videos. They include television adverts, videos linked to the company’s cricket and Formula 1 sponsorship deals and product demonstrations.

Yet the web is a double-edged sword. Not everything that appears is within the control of businesses.

The Official Virgin Trains Website is not owned by the company. Instead, it has been created by trainspotters who upload video of passing Pendolinos.

Other companies, however, suffer from less innocuous videos. Royal Bank of Scotland has become the object of the fury of somebody who has taken the trouble to upload a handful of TV news reports about the bank. Most of them deal with the controversy about Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension and an attack on his home.

There is, however, a huge need for the content to be hugely engaging and imaginative. While product demonstrations have their uses, not many people would log on to watch an advert.

Speke-based online retailer Shop Direct uploads television and video content to its own websites and YouTube. This includes its TV ads featuring Trinny and Susannah, as well as product demonstrations.

Its content also includes catwalk models parading in the latest designs, all professionally filmed at Shop Direct’s recently created TV studio space, in Speke.

Alison Broadhurst is the brand director of Very, Shop Direct’s latest online brand. Broadhurst says Very has been created following research which shows that, in the States at least, the shift to online was beginning to slow down. All the people who were easy to woo to online were converted. So more needs to be done to inspire the 94% who still shop in the high street. The

is why the figures are so good.” One local expert in the field is finding huge demand from businesses for videos that subtly promote their products.

Christian Hughes runs his own video firm, Curly, which shares office space at Liverpool Science Park with web design firm Mando. A recent example of his work includes a video for Hotpoint, which takes the form of a mini Interior Design programme featuring interior design guru Kelly Hoppen.

Hughes explains: “Most of it is her top tips for improving your kitchen, but 10% of it is subtle references to Hotpoint.

“You can do it so cheaply. These days, all the kit you need to make a film can be packed into a single bag.

“It’s very powerful when used correctly.”

One of the best examples of a good use of online video by a business is a series of YouTube clips uploaded by US firm Blendtec. The clips show company founder, Tom Dixon, demonstrating the smoothie making capabilities of his blender. One shows him placing an iPhone in the blender, while asking the question “Will it blend?” Just 30 seconds later, and a fine powder and a puff of black smoke is all that remains of the iPhone. While the videos are advertisements for the blender, they also make good viewing. Some Blendtec videos have had 2m views and sales have gone up 700%.

Hughes adds: “People are more likely to watch a video than read a paragraph of text. It’s a more human way of communicating. And, if it’s been professionally shot, it adds more to the website.”

MARK DOWD WITHIN four years, we will have a fast electrified rail link between Liverpool and Manchester – something which I, as chair of Merseytravel, have lobbied for long and hard.

A fast link between the North West’s two major cities will stimulate business and help attract inward investment.

Transport Minister Lord Adonis accepted our business case and we were greatly helped by Louise Ellman MP, chair of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee, who argued persuasively on our behalf.

Rolling stock has already been sourced for the Liverpool-Manchester link and will come from the south of England. The electric units will have seating for around 320 which will double the current capacity of the existing diesel fleet.

The decision to electrify the line also negates the announcement earlier this year that the Department for Transport is scaling down the number of new carriages allocated to Northern Rail from 182 to 106, a 40% reduction.

We now have an entirely new scenario.

Electrification means quieter, smoother trains capable of faster acceleration and higher speeds which attract a larger number of passengers.

Electrification of the Liverpool-Manchester line, which is being fast-tracked, also opens up tremendous opportunities for attracting further

Alison Broadhurst, brand director for Very, at Shop Direct’s head office, in Speke problem with online shopping is that it is an isolated experience – you tend not to do it with a friend. So Very’s website offers advice from an in-house fashion expert and uses celebrities like Caprice, Fearne Cotton, Holly Willoughby and others to attract viewers and hold their attention once there.

“The longer you keep them online, the more likely they are to buy,” says Broadhurst.

Very also combines television with social media that allows people to use Facebook or Twitter to get in touch with friends and ask their opinion about clothes.

Very has been up and running for two months, but the company is pleased with the way sales have gone.

Broadhurst says: “We have had a phenomenal amount of press coverage of the Very website, which

TRANSPORT

in association with

investment to Merseyside.

Ahead of electrification, we plan to double the frequency of the service between Liverpool and St Helens to four an hour, two will be stopping trains and two express.

Central Lancashire has a population of between 200,000 and 300,000, but the rail link between Liverpool and Preston is currently served by only one train an hour.

With electrification, we could double the service and cut the journey time to attract even more visitors to Liverpool’s leisure and shopping facilities.

We are currently undertaking a business study for the rebuilding of the Halton Curve which links Frodsham with Runcorn, and thus Chester with Liverpool. Again, the object is to attract more people into the region.

The Halton Curve would also provide North Wales with a gateway to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Improved and more efficient rail links in our region mean better access to work and leisure opportunities. Efficient public transport attracts inward investment.

The question was asked recently by the Daily Post: “Since when were regeneration and job creation part of Merseytravel’s remit?”

The answer is that it has always been part of our remit.

A thriving and successful region cannot exist without an equally thriving and successful public transport network.

Christian Hughes, of Liverpool video producer Curly

Arriva says it will comply with any inquiry into bus industry issues

Bus probe looms OFT orders inquiry into fares and competition issues

SINCE buses were deregulated 20 years ago, fares on Merseyside have risen by 85% while usage has plunged by 50%.

It's a similar story around the country, which is why the Office of Fair Trading has announced plans to order a competition probe into the entire sector. Deregulation has proved a nightmare with so-called predatory tactics, including upping the frequency of buses to “crowd out” rivals or timing buses to run just in front and sometimes also just behind a rival’s.

The OFT also said bus groups could increase competition by cutting fares significantly or running buses for free. They could also

refuse to take part in multi-operator ticketing schemes to limit the scope for entry or expansion by smaller operators.

At the moment consumers suffer, with the potential for fares to remain artificially high.

On Merseyside, it is hoped the situation will be redressed when transport authority, Merseytravel, takes control of bus services. The idea will be to seek a single operator, like in London, which means much more control can be exercised over routes and fares.

David Brown, lead director for Passenger Transport Executive Group, spoke on behalf of transport authorities when he said: “The

evidence that the OFT has found of higher fares where there are local monopolies, and of smaller operators being subject to anticompetitive behaviour by larger operators, is symptomatic of all that has been wrong about 20 years of bus deregulation.

“The best way forward is to use the powers in the Local Transport Act to ensure that local authorities have more influence over local bus services, in order to protect passengers' interests.”

A spokesman for one of Merseyside's big two operators, Arriva, said: "We will need to study the report in detail, but are happy to comply with any consultation.”

MagLev rail link still a must, says Chamber

Strategic marketing and PR - specialists to the technology, chemical and innovation sector.

Tel 0151 601 8688 E info@activeprofile.co.uk www.activeprofile.co.uk Active Profile Ltd, First Floor Offices, 12 Rodney St, Liverpool L1 2TE

22

Faster trains from Lime Street to Manchester

THE case for a high-speed MagLev rail service from Liverpool has been taken to the Government.

A few weeks ago, Ultraspeed UK presented the case for Maglev to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee.

Late last year, the NorthWest Development Agency funded a study by Ultraspeed UK to produce

a high-level business case for a 10minute Maglev link between Liverpool and Manchester.

The case has been championed

by Liverpool Chamber of Commerce chief executive, Jack Stopforth. He said: “High-speed ground transport is now universally agreed to be a pressing priority for Britain. I firmly believe there to be a

compelling strategic, commercial, economic and policy case that Maglev is faster, better, cheaper and greener than high speed rail.”

Stopforth believes that a Liverpool to Manchester service, with the potential to stretch to the Tyne, would rebalance the UK’s economy more than any investment in North-South transport.

23

THE BIG FEATURE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Online television reaches new markets From catwalk models to iPhone smoothies, amateur video gives way to a new professionalism ONLINE television is increasingly being used by businesses eager to engage with a wider audience.

It is different from video, which anybody can upload to the internet, in that the word “television” implies high production standards.

A few years ago, when the majority of British homes were connected to the internet using just old-fashioned copper wire telephone lines, online video or TV content was likely to break up, making it frustrating to watch. Today, the widespread take-up of broadband makes the experience much more satisfactory.

Mobile phone firm Vodafone’s YouTube channel currently hosts 37 videos. They include television adverts, videos linked to the company’s cricket and Formula 1 sponsorship deals and product demonstrations.

Yet the web is a double-edged sword. Not everything that appears is within the control of businesses.

The Official Virgin Trains Website is not owned by the company. Instead, it has been created by trainspotters who upload video of passing Pendolinos.

Other companies, however, suffer from less innocuous videos. Royal Bank of Scotland has become the object of the fury of somebody who has taken the trouble to upload a handful of TV news reports about the bank. Most of them deal with the controversy about Sir Fred Goodwin’s pension and an attack on his home.

There is, however, a huge need for the content to be hugely engaging and imaginative. While product demonstrations have their uses, not many people would log on to watch an advert.

Speke-based online retailer Shop Direct uploads television and video content to its own websites and YouTube. This includes its TV ads featuring Trinny and Susannah, as well as product demonstrations.

Its content also includes catwalk models parading in the latest designs, all professionally filmed at Shop Direct’s recently created TV studio space, in Speke.

Alison Broadhurst is the brand director of Very, Shop Direct’s latest online brand. Broadhurst says Very has been created following research which shows that, in the States at least, the shift to online was beginning to slow down. All the people who were easy to woo to online were converted. So more needs to be done to inspire the 94% who still shop in the high street. The

is why the figures are so good.” One local expert in the field is finding huge demand from businesses for videos that subtly promote their products.

Christian Hughes runs his own video firm, Curly, which shares office space at Liverpool Science Park with web design firm Mando. A recent example of his work includes a video for Hotpoint, which takes the form of a mini Interior Design programme featuring interior design guru Kelly Hoppen.

Hughes explains: “Most of it is her top tips for improving your kitchen, but 10% of it is subtle references to Hotpoint.

“You can do it so cheaply. These days, all the kit you need to make a film can be packed into a single bag.

“It’s very powerful when used correctly.”

One of the best examples of a good use of online video by a business is a series of YouTube clips uploaded by US firm Blendtec. The clips show company founder, Tom Dixon, demonstrating the smoothie making capabilities of his blender. One shows him placing an iPhone in the blender, while asking the question “Will it blend?” Just 30 seconds later, and a fine powder and a puff of black smoke is all that remains of the iPhone. While the videos are advertisements for the blender, they also make good viewing. Some Blendtec videos have had 2m views and sales have gone up 700%.

Hughes adds: “People are more likely to watch a video than read a paragraph of text. It’s a more human way of communicating. And, if it’s been professionally shot, it adds more to the website.”

MARK DOWD WITHIN four years, we will have a fast electrified rail link between Liverpool and Manchester – something which I, as chair of Merseytravel, have lobbied for long and hard.

A fast link between the North West’s two major cities will stimulate business and help attract inward investment.

Transport Minister Lord Adonis accepted our business case and we were greatly helped by Louise Ellman MP, chair of the House of Commons Transport Select Committee, who argued persuasively on our behalf.

Rolling stock has already been sourced for the Liverpool-Manchester link and will come from the south of England. The electric units will have seating for around 320 which will double the current capacity of the existing diesel fleet.

The decision to electrify the line also negates the announcement earlier this year that the Department for Transport is scaling down the number of new carriages allocated to Northern Rail from 182 to 106, a 40% reduction.

We now have an entirely new scenario.

Electrification means quieter, smoother trains capable of faster acceleration and higher speeds which attract a larger number of passengers.

Electrification of the Liverpool-Manchester line, which is being fast-tracked, also opens up tremendous opportunities for attracting further

Alison Broadhurst, brand director for Very, at Shop Direct’s head office, in Speke problem with online shopping is that it is an isolated experience – you tend not to do it with a friend. So Very’s website offers advice from an in-house fashion expert and uses celebrities like Caprice, Fearne Cotton, Holly Willoughby and others to attract viewers and hold their attention once there.

“The longer you keep them online, the more likely they are to buy,” says Broadhurst.

Very also combines television with social media that allows people to use Facebook or Twitter to get in touch with friends and ask their opinion about clothes.

Very has been up and running for two months, but the company is pleased with the way sales have gone.

Broadhurst says: “We have had a phenomenal amount of press coverage of the Very website, which

TRANSPORT

in association with

investment to Merseyside.

Ahead of electrification, we plan to double the frequency of the service between Liverpool and St Helens to four an hour, two will be stopping trains and two express.

Central Lancashire has a population of between 200,000 and 300,000, but the rail link between Liverpool and Preston is currently served by only one train an hour.

With electrification, we could double the service and cut the journey time to attract even more visitors to Liverpool’s leisure and shopping facilities.

We are currently undertaking a business study for the rebuilding of the Halton Curve which links Frodsham with Runcorn, and thus Chester with Liverpool. Again, the object is to attract more people into the region.

The Halton Curve would also provide North Wales with a gateway to Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Improved and more efficient rail links in our region mean better access to work and leisure opportunities. Efficient public transport attracts inward investment.

The question was asked recently by the Daily Post: “Since when were regeneration and job creation part of Merseytravel’s remit?”

The answer is that it has always been part of our remit.

A thriving and successful region cannot exist without an equally thriving and successful public transport network.

Christian Hughes, of Liverpool video producer Curly

Arriva says it will comply with any inquiry into bus industry issues

Bus probe looms OFT orders inquiry into fares and competition issues

SINCE buses were deregulated 20 years ago, fares on Merseyside have risen by 85% while usage has plunged by 50%.

It's a similar story around the country, which is why the Office of Fair Trading has announced plans to order a competition probe into the entire sector. Deregulation has proved a nightmare with so-called predatory tactics, including upping the frequency of buses to “crowd out” rivals or timing buses to run just in front and sometimes also just behind a rival’s.

The OFT also said bus groups could increase competition by cutting fares significantly or running buses for free. They could also

refuse to take part in multi-operator ticketing schemes to limit the scope for entry or expansion by smaller operators.

At the moment consumers suffer, with the potential for fares to remain artificially high.

On Merseyside, it is hoped the situation will be redressed when transport authority, Merseytravel, takes control of bus services. The idea will be to seek a single operator, like in London, which means much more control can be exercised over routes and fares.

David Brown, lead director for Passenger Transport Executive Group, spoke on behalf of transport authorities when he said: “The

evidence that the OFT has found of higher fares where there are local monopolies, and of smaller operators being subject to anticompetitive behaviour by larger operators, is symptomatic of all that has been wrong about 20 years of bus deregulation.

“The best way forward is to use the powers in the Local Transport Act to ensure that local authorities have more influence over local bus services, in order to protect passengers' interests.”

A spokesman for one of Merseyside's big two operators, Arriva, said: "We will need to study the report in detail, but are happy to comply with any consultation.”

MagLev rail link still a must, says Chamber

Strategic marketing and PR - specialists to the technology, chemical and innovation sector.

Tel 0151 601 8688 E info@activeprofile.co.uk www.activeprofile.co.uk Active Profile Ltd, First Floor Offices, 12 Rodney St, Liverpool L1 2TE

22

Faster trains from Lime Street to Manchester

THE case for a high-speed MagLev rail service from Liverpool has been taken to the Government.

A few weeks ago, Ultraspeed UK presented the case for Maglev to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee.

Late last year, the NorthWest Development Agency funded a study by Ultraspeed UK to produce

a high-level business case for a 10minute Maglev link between Liverpool and Manchester.

The case has been championed

by Liverpool Chamber of Commerce chief executive, Jack Stopforth. He said: “High-speed ground transport is now universally agreed to be a pressing priority for Britain. I firmly believe there to be a

compelling strategic, commercial, economic and policy case that Maglev is faster, better, cheaper and greener than high speed rail.”

Stopforth believes that a Liverpool to Manchester service, with the potential to stretch to the Tyne, would rebalance the UK’s economy more than any investment in North-South transport.

23

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

THE BIG FEATURE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

Hollyoaks producer looks to the future Lime looks to juicy factual and digital ventures

IT MAY be best-known for teen drama Hollyoaks – but Liverpool’s Lime Pictures is branching out into new areas as it bids to ride out the recession and the resulting cuts in drama budgets.

The company has launched a new reality department to produce glossy reality TV shows similar to earlier hit Living On The Edge, which focused on the lives of wealthy youngsters in Alderley Edge.

And its Conker Media arm, which specialises in developing interactive content and short films to go online, is also expanding as TV companies look for new ways to attract young viewers.

Managing director Sean Marley said: “Hollyoaks gives us a very firm grounding in the business. What we have tried to do over the past few years is diversify, so we are not just reliant on the highend drama budgets which are becoming harder to achieve.”

The company has now launched Lime Pictures Factual, led by Fiona O’Sullivan, to produce more so-called “dramality” shows, following the success of Living On The Edge. That show followed a template set by American shows such as The Hills.

Mr Marley said: “The main reason we’ve done that is that the industry is in a state of flux where drama budgets are concerned.

“We had Living On The Edge for two series. It’s an unscripted piece of TV that follows the lives of real people, but shot in a drama style – it’s become known as dramality. We seem to be one of the few people working in this area, and we believe there’s a market in it.”

Lime is also looking to create new factual programmes using the actors it has worked with.

Jon Corner, of River Media

Mark Pedley, of SmartLife Technology, models one of the health shirts

Firm is simply the vest Hi-tech shirt that can monitor the state of your well-being MONITORING health and vital signs usually means being hooked up to some kind of gadgetry – until now.

A Liverpool firm has developed technology that can be worn on a simple T-shirt to collect data about temperature, respiration and heart rates. The main applications are health care and sports performance, with both markets already valued at billions of pounds.

The HealthVest has detachable sensors which capture information over any period of time which can then be downloaded onto a computer.

Mark Pedley, chief executive of Liverpool Science Park-based SmartLife, said: "We have developed the technology and the product over five years and are now building the business and have five licences with commercial companies.

“There are numerous applications but if you look at healthcare, for instance, you might have a patient with emphysema, so instead of them going to hospital to be monitored they can wear a comfortable shirt at home.

“Similarly, in sports performance, it's all about ease of use because people currently wear belts or restrictive monitors.

“We see this as being useful for both individuals and sports clubs."

The company's target is sales of £10m

24

by 2012 through issuing licences.

The technology was drawn from leading research and development in electronics, materials science and textiles at the University of Manchester where a garment was created for monitoring human physiological signs.

SmartLife acquired the intellectual property rights, developed products and is now promoting the business.

Mr Pedley added: "Our garment system contains discrete electronic components, engineered to sense human physiological signs.

“The construction of the garments ensures the sensors are automatically in contact with the skin, their position is correctly located and the wearer requires little instruction for set-up or routine use.

“The technology represents a shift from traditional high cost patient monitoring in hospitals to affordable unobtrusive remote personalised monitoring in the home.”

“It is estimated the cardio-vascular monitoring market is worth £8bn alone, so we are confident of building a robust business.”

Another application is thought to be in the military field to keep a check on the performance of troops under stress.

Capturing health data is now easier than ever

Short-circuit device will save millions of pounds ELECTRICITY North West has developed new technology that will save every sub-station needing to be upgraded at a cost of £1m.

The fault-limiting device is currently under field trial by ENW and a consortium of partners.

It is designed to deal with the issue of managing fault levels when there is an overload or short circuit in the network.

With current consumer demand for electricity and the Government’s commitment to increased use of renewable energy, the distribution network will have to accommodate more generation over the coming years, increasing the problems of managing fault levels.

Traditionally, this increase in generation would have necessitated expensive network infrastructure reinforcement, typically £1m per substation.

ENW in collaboration

with Applied Superconductor Ltd, ScottishPower and CEElectric UK has solved this issue by creating its superconductor from “high-temperature” material, rather than electronic or mechanical components.

Steve Johnson, chief executive of ENW, which provides power for homes in Lancashire and Cheshire, said: “The super-conductor will allow for a significant increase in the generation connected to the distribution network without the need for an expensive infrastructure replacement programme.

“This development will be highly applicable to current plans to expand generation facilities in the UK, particularly from renewable sources and is an example of the key role the North West plays in driving progress in technology and engineering.”

The limiter has passed the verification stage and is being tested on site.

Peter Salmon, BBC North director

MediaCity’ new Salford Quays complex

will now be based in the North. He said: “We need to understand how to turn MediaCity into a strong asset and opportunity for our Liverpool-based businesses, and not see it as a threat.

“Having this complex in the North West is a fantastic opportunity for us. It’s not just about the BBC – it’s about a whole raft of sectors from law to logistics, software and games.

“Even from a BBC perspective, this is more about the digital agenda than it is about broadcasting. That means fantastic opportunities for local and regional businesses.

“We’ve got to find ways of engaging with it and with what’s being commissioned there.”

Northwest Vision and Media is set to move its headquarters to MediaCity within weeks.

Chief executive Alice Morrison agrees with Mr Taylor that having the BBC so close to Liverpool will be good news for Merseyside firms.

“You’re going to have a terrific buyer on your doorstep with a northern attitude,” she said.

“Liverpool companies will be looking to get a piece of that action.

“Does it make a difference whether the BBC is in London or in the North? I think it does, both in terms of proximity and in terms of relationship building.

“It’s good news. I understand the competition between Liverpool and Manchester, but, in truth, if I had a creative business in Liverpool, I’d be absolutely delighted that this huge buyer was moving a lot closer.

“If you’re a forward-looking company, you’ll be delighted.”

Peel Media chairman Bryan Gray agrees that Merseyside firms, especially those working in gaming and new media, must be proactive to take advantage of new opportunities at Salford Quays.

He said: “The whole raison d’etre of MediaCity for the BBC is to focus on content creation. They don’t do all that themselves, they buy it from a whole range of suppliers, both for TV and other content.

“The reason they chose the North West was that the region already had a strong and active creative industry.

“You don’t need to be physically based in MediaCity to win work. The people writing the cheques will be and the supply chain will build up around that.

“Let’s not forget that this is MediaCity, not just TV city.

“The BBC is leading the way with multi-channel content for internet or mobile devices. Liverpool has a particularly strong presence in gaming so I would expect Liverpool to benefit from that. “

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Firm grounding: a scene from a recent edition of Hollyoaks, showing Abi, right, giving baby Lucas to Ste Mr Marley says that, while drama budgets may be tight, broadcasters are still looking to find factual vehicles for recognised TV personalities along the lines of River Journeys With Griff Rhys Jones.

Conker Media, led by Lee Hardman, recently produced four-week multimedia venture Hollyoaks: The Morning After The Night Before. The Hollyoaks spin-off drama included a series of four-minute dramas on the soap’s website, as well as video blogs and podcasts.

Conker has also worked with the BBC on its new Switch project to produce content aimed at teenagers .

Mr Marley said: “We’ve just had the best year in Conker’s history.

“The world has caught up with what Conker was doing

five or six years ago and the cross-platform media world on which it has concentrated – short-form digital drama.”

Childwall-based Lime was founded by Phil Redmond in 1982 as Mersey Television. It was taken over by All3Media in 2005 and renamed in 2006.

Its first big hit was Brookside, while it produced Grange Hill until that series ended last year.

Lime’s other recent productions include BBC1 supernatural drama Apparitions, staring Martin Shaw. It is currently producing BBC children’s drama Ingenious, written by Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit author Jeannette Winterson.

Lime employs 345 people, with another 100 to 150 freelancers working on its projects at any one time.

Music industry striking the right note DECADES may have passed since Beatlemania, but Liverpool is still a big noise in the music world.

The city boasts a thriving live music scene and a host of businesses and venues.

Liverpool Sound City held its second annual festival in May. Its organisers have now created sister

event Dubai Sound City, to be held in November.

Meanwhile, Liverpool Music Week in October and November bills itself as the UK’s biggest indoor winter music festival.

Cream is a brand known worldwide, but it remains based in Liverpool. The Creamfields dance

festival will this week attract 100,000 fans to Daresbury Park, Cheshire.

Merseyside’s venues range from the new Echo Arena Liverpool to dozens of bars and clubs.

Innovative music firms include Sentric Music, which helps small and unsigned bands

collect royalties from radio play, live gigs, online sales and use in games.

Elevator Studios and Parr Street Studios attract some of the industry’s biggest names, while Adlib, in Speke, has provided sound and lighting for tours by acts from Bob Dylan to the Kaiser Chiefs.

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THE BIG FEATURE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Rain man taps into new market Firms ‘must take advantage of

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An image of how MediaCity UK will look once complete. The Salford Quays site is set to become a hub for the creative industries throughout the North West

Mersey creatives urged to exploit new opportunities in broadcasting and digital media available at FROM the 19th floor of one of MediaCityUK’s tower blocks, the scale of Peel Holdings’ ambition for the Salford Quays site is all too clear.

Last month, members of the media joined Peel’s top brass for a topping-out ceremony and a behind-the-scenes look at building work on the project’s £500m first phase.

Peel Media says that when complete the site will host 15,000 workers and generate an additional £1bn for the North West economy.

The BBC is the most high-profile organisation to commit to MediaCity, and will base 2,500 staff there.

Five departments, including BBC Sport and Radio 5 Live, are moving north, while the corporation’s existing staff from Manchester city centre will also move to the new BBC North hub at Salford Quays.

The University of Salford is also creating a new higher education centre onsite, while Peel is actively recruiting other tenants from the creative and digital industries.

There’s no question that MediaCity will cement Greater Manchester’s position as one of the world’s leading creative centres.

At first, that sounds as if it could present a threat to Merseyside’s creative sector. But many of the industry’s leading players say

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MediaCity will, in fact, present new opportunities for those companies ready and willing to take advantage.

They say it will bring decisionmakers from organisations such as the BBC much closer to Liverpool, and so make it easier for Liverpool firms to win business from them.

Peel Holdings is one of the North West’s biggest companies. It owns the Port of Liverpool, the Manchester Ship Canal and Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

Its Peel Media arm started work on MediaCity in July, 2007 after the BBC signed up as the anchor tenant.

The first phase will include 700,000sqft of offices and 250,000sqft of studio space, including seven high-definition television studios, two audio studios and a large central technical block. The complex will also include retail and leisure facilities, 378 apartments and a piazza capable of holding events for up to 4,000 people.

Peter Salmon started work as the BBC’s first-ever Director North on June 1. He believes the BBC’s move to Salford, bringing with it programmes from Blue Peter to Match of the Day, will help grow the whole region’s media industry.

He said: “This arrival of a major BBC network production centre an hour away should bring many new

opportunities to both established and new talent across Merseyside and the North West and will create hundreds of new job opportunities that talented people from Liverpool will have a great chance of accessing.

“The BBC has ambitious plans to boost out of London network programme spend to 50% by 2016 and BBC North is already in close consultation with independent production companies across the whole of the North of England, including those in Liverpool.

“The BBC is also working with Northwest Vision and Media on how to train and develop a workforce for the next generation of digital media and is excited by Liverpool's ambitious plans to invest in a £5m National Games Academy.”

Jon Corner, founder of Liverpoolbased production company River Media, was part of the project team that encouraged the BBC to move to Salford and is now chairman of the project executive committee for MediaCity, at the University of Salford.

He sees MediaCity as not simply a base for broadcasters but instead as a centre for excellence in the digital industries.

He said: “MediaCity itself will deliberately blur the dividing line between technologist and creative in

response to an emerging global emphasis on quality of ideas, on new ways of communicating and reaching audiences, on newer and more environmentally-aware methods of knowledge transfer.

“This is great news for Liverpool because we are a natural talent pool – it seems to be in our genes to think differently and to experiment.

“The city has traditionally expressed these talents through music, comedy, writing and performance – now it has a chance to express itself further through digital content design.”

That means IT and technical skills will be as much in demand at MediaCity as creative skills.

Mr Corner said: “When Mark Zuckerberg and friends created Facebook, they didn’t have to think about the mathematics behind the idea – that bit was already at their fingertips.

“We have to get our schoolkids taking science as seriously as football and fashion – otherwise MediaCity might feel as far away as the moon, instead of 30 minutes down the M62.”

Sean Marley, managing director of Childwall-based Hollyoaks producer Lime Pictures, agrees that MediaCity must become a hub for digital talent.

He said: “If we see MediaCity as

competition for London and Soho Square, so we try to persuade the TV industry to move to Manchester, we’re onto a loser.

“What we should be hugely ambitious about is creating a centre of excellence for new digital content here in the North West.

“Where this area is doing better than others is in non-traditional forms of content. The diversity of digital content that the North West has to offer is a big selling point.

“I don’t think it’s unrealistic that a graduate wanting to work in that area should see the North West at the top of the list of places to work.”

Mr Marley says Liverpool firms should feel positive about what MediaCity could offer them.

“The positives outweigh any negatives,” he said. “We need to embrace MediaCity and become part of it, rather than seeing it as just something down the motorway.”

Mike Taylor, director of enterprise and investment at Liverpool Vision, says he and Merseyside ACME will be investigating how to help Merseyside firms get a slice of the MediaCity pie.

Mr Taylor is a former executive at Manchester-based Granada television, and welcomes the fact that some of the broadcasting industry’s key decision-makers

Capturing rainwater is the green way to go for households in the future

Recycling rainwater one way to cut down on bills at home IT SEEMS extraordinary that one of our greatest natural resources is largely unused by businesses and homeowners.

The concept of capturing rainwater and storing it for later use has been around for thousands of years. And, of course, the water companies provide our tapwater from reservoirs that do precisely that.

However, rainwater buckets down on our buildings both at home and at work and in most cases it literally goes down the drain. The practice of catching rain at home largely died away with the introduction of reliable mains-supplied water.

However, with the ever-growing demand for water and subsequent increases in cost, the UK market demand for rainwater recycling systems is on the increase – mirroring what has already taken place in other industrialised countries.

This relatively new industry for the UK is at an early stage, but the new buzzword that can be expected to be heard over the next few years will be “rainwater harvesting”.

Combined Harvesters, in Bromborough, is leading the way in the development of new products.

Managing director Alastair Tunnington said: “We live in an

FIRM EXPANDING A 20-YEAR-OLD firm is ready to expand, three years after emerging from administration.

Wavertree Technology Park-based MyPAlive evolved from Senator Communications when it was bought out by Brian King with private finance and a £50,000 loan from Merseyside Special Investment Fund.

The loan has now been repaid and Mr King is recruiting additional staff as

part of his £350,000 investment in new systems and improved premises.

MyPAlive already employs 150 people providing call answering services around the clock for businesses clients such as Whitbread, British Red Cross, Brent Council, Vodafone and Save the Children.

More staff are needed to meet demand from companies’ outsourcing services.

increasingly environmentally aware society, and one that is ever conscious of frugality with regard to our necessary expenses.

“Combined Harvesters have amalgamated existing products with new, innovative and exciting systems to provide a 'one-stop', comprehensive approach to the harvesting of natural rain water and the attenuation of storm water.

“This water is practically chemical free and a great source to irrigate arid gardens, wash the pride and joy on a Sunday, or feed the toilets, and, of course, there is no burden of guilt during ever-longer periods of water restrictions.”

The company trade mark includes the Rain Catcher brand which incorporates an above ground awardwinning tank, designed and manufactured by Combined Harvesters.

Systems have been installed in Germany since the early 1980s, so one benefit of the UK market being generally behind the rest of Europe is that the potential problems have been worked through and solved.

Products include tanks, water butts, filters, pumps and hosepipes.

Systems lend themselves to new-build homes, but can also be installed at existing buildings.

Businesses can benefit from the Enhanced Capital Allowance schemes to offset the installation cost of rainwater harvesting against tax.

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Waste plant gets the go-ahead

Milky Tea stirs up design world 3-D specialist banking on the rewards of collaboration and national focus

Government approves Peel plan despite opposition from residents NORTH-WEST property and ports giant, Peel Holdings, has won approval for a 95 megawatt power plant fuelled by waste.

Despite opposition from people living nearby, the facility was give the go-ahead by the Energy and Climate Change Minister, Lord Hunt, following a public inquiry.

The plant will be capable of turning 600,000 tonnes of waste each year into electricity and heat.

The waste, which would have otherwise gone to landfill, will instead be used to generate electricity to power a new Resource Recovery Park, which is also set to gain planing approval.

Excess electricity will also be exported to the National Grid.

Lord Hunt recommended that consent should be granted for the construction and operation of the plant and also that planning permission be given for the Resource Recovery Park.

He said: “We need to increase our use of renewable energy and to find solutions to the UK’s waste problem.

“This power plant will convert over half a million tonnes of waste each year into energy.

“The inspector recommended the power plant be granted consent after a thorough public inquiry.

“I am satisfied that the mitigation measures to be put in place will protect the amenity of local villages.”

The separate planning permission for the Resource Recovery Park was given by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham.

Myles Kitcher, director of Peel Environmental, said: “We are pleased with the decision of both Secretaries of State to grant consent for the Ince Resource Recovery Park.

“It provides a significant opportunity for the North West to be at the forefront of the UK’s low carbon industrial strategy and to benefit from inward investment and a range of new jobs.

“Against the current economic climate and drive for more carbon-conscious development, this decision couldn’t have come at a better time.

“We also recognise that capturing such opportunities brings the responsibility to work with and address the concerns of local communities.

“We are committed to working with local people to ensure that proposals are undertaken in an open

LOANS FOR WIND FARMS

An artist's impression of the Resource Recovery Park being built by Peel Holdings at Ince, in Cheshire and transparent manner with consultation and liaison throughout the development.”

Local residents claim the 100 hectare site would threaten their health and quality of life.

An initial planning application for an integrated waste management facility and an environmental technologies complex, with road, rail and water access from upgraded shipping berth facilities, was refused planning permission in November,

2006. The separate application for the waste plant was also refused and a revised plan was submitted to Cheshire County Council.

■ JOHNSON Cleaners is investing £6m into an ongoing national programme to convert a further 150 stores to eco-friendly GreenEarth dry cleaning technology by 2012.

The Merseyside-based company, with its head office at Prescot, is the largest cleaning company in the UK,

THREE UK-based banks are teaming up with the European Investment Bank (EIB) on a programme to lend up to £1bn to onshore wind farms over the next three years.

The cash, part of the additional £4bn of EIB lending to support UK energy projects announced in the Budget, will help get building of onshore wind projects started that have been hit by the credit crunch, particularly small and mid-sized wind farms.

The banks – Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds and BNP Paribas Fortis – have been teamed up with the EIB by the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Treasury, following the announcement in April’s Budget Statement that the Government wanted to get more EIB lending to UK renewables.

Firms can also apply for DECC cash to develop offshore wind technology.

There will be up to £10m in grants, part of the £120m announced in the renewable energy strategy to support offshore wind. This is the second round of cash for development of offshore wind technology.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Ed Miliband said: “We laid out a transition plan to a low carbon economy that included a massive expansion of green wind energy. The resources we are announcing back up our plans with clear actions to ensure we deliver.

“The European Investment Bank funds will help the building start on consented wind farms that could provide one gigawatt of electricity, enough to power more than 500,000 homes.”

with more than 500 branches. It has already trialled the GreenEarth brand in nearly half its shops.

Johnson Cleaners is the master licensor for GreenEarth in the UK. The technology is available for the same price as traditional dry cleaning but has been proven to be kinder to clothes, skin and the environment.

It uses gentle liquid silicone cleaning solvents that come from naturally occurring sand and gives

fabric a softer feel, with no tell-tale dry cleaning smell.

Paul Ogle, managing director of Johnson Cleaners, said: “The re-launch of our GreenEarth branches is part of a nationwide programme of transformation and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to investing in the future of the business.

“Our customers are demanding more environmentally-friendly products and services.”

Birkenhead firm designs eco-homes for the future WORK has started on the construction of six new homes, designed by Ainsley Gommon Architects, in Birkenhead, that they claim will set the standard for Britain’s homes for the future.

The houses will meet the rigorous German PassivHaus standard for energy efficiency in buildings.

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The standard, which achieves Level 4 under the code for sustainable homes, results in ultra-low energy properties that require little energy consumption for space heating or cooling.

Fuel bills, for instance, are likely to be in the region of just £100 to £200 a year.

Ainsley Gommon Architects have designed

the homes for the William Sutton Housing Association and they are being constructed by Bullock Construction as part of a 54-home social housing development on two sites in Sutton Park, Halton Moor, Leeds.

The scheme will be completed in 2010.

The homes will utilise passive solar gain and air

tightness and very high standards of insulation including triple glazed windows.

Alf Plant, director, Ainsley Gommon Architects, said: “The Government has set the building industry specific targets that all new-build housing must significantly reduce dependency on fossil fuels by 2016.”

Alf Plant, of Ainsley Gommon Architects

however, generally count employees in the tens rather than hundreds.

A 2007 survey by Burns Collett, commissioned by Merseyside ACME and Business Liverpool, showed the creative industries employed more than 10,000 people in Liverpool. Of those, just over 1,000 were self-employed, while the rest were split between 551 businesses.

Merseyside ACME suggests that smaller firms should collaborate to share ideas and win new business.

Its Kin2Kin online network, which has more than 2,500 members, aims to help small firms work together and offer each other business.

One of ACME’s own team members, Claire Walker, has taken that advice to heart.

Ms Walker, a consultant at ACME, has teamed up with other freelancers to form educational consultancy As Creatives.

The company formed in March 2008 and today offers training programmes to schools, colleges, local authorities and creative firms.

It subcontracts work to other creative freelancers and over the next 18 months plans to expand its work throughout the UK. Director Simon McKeown said: “It felt like new territory for five individual professionals to pool their experience in this way, and it felt like an exciting and somewhat daunting risk at the time. That risk and hard work has paid off.”

IF YOU’VE been near a Lloyds TSB branch recently, you’ll have had a taste of Milky Tea. The Liverpool 3-D design and digital art studio has produced a huge range of billboards, posters and print advertising for Lloyds TSB featuring the bank’s distinctive family of animated characters.

Milky Tea, like so many other creative success stories in Merseyside, has grown by looking for clients from far beyond the city region and by linking up with other city design firms.

Milky Tea is led by design director and coffee drinker Jon Holmes, who founded it in 1995.

Two years ago, it started focusing on 3-D work and began hunting clients in the south of England as Mr Holmes and his team began “taking the company to the next level”.

Today, its national reach is so great that the vast majority of its clients are based outside the North West – though it still works regularly with Hollyoaks producer Lime Pictures.

Mr Holmes says the company aims to act as an outsourced design office for its clients.

Being a proud Liverpool firm has done Milky Tea no harm when dealing with London agents – and the city’s growing creative reputation may even have helped it.

Mr Holmes said: “We do a lot of work at short notice.

That’s stood us in good stead nationally. A lot of agencies in London use us for that fast turnaround.

“But they also like the idea that we’re based in Liverpool. It’s become more fashionable.”

When dealing with

London agencies, says Mr Holmes, there is no room for error.

“We might only get one chance to deliver,” he said.

“If we don’t, the risk is we’ll never speak to them again.”

Last November, Milky Tea moved from Liverpool Innovation Park, in Edge Lane, to the new Elevator complex, in Parliament Street.

The company has an expansion plan in place and plans to move to a larger studio within Elevator to give it room to grow.

It is also launching new division – Milky Tea Interactive – so it can develop its own games and content, rather than just producing it for other people.

“A lot of people come to us for our creative ideas and our artwork,” said Mr Holmes.

“But as well as being a really good design studio, we want to come up with our own ideas.

“For the past few years, everyone has said ‘don’t diversify – stick with what you’re good at’.

“But, as the credit crunch has hit, we’ve had to diversify.

“The core aspect of what we do is the creative design process, but we’re bringing in to the business programmes to add value to what we’re doing.”

As with many other small creative companies, Milky Tea regularly works with other firms in Merseyside’s creative community, including fellow Baltic Triangle company Splinter Design Communications.

Mr Holmes said: “Liverpool has a good creative community where companies have good relationships with each other.”.

In safe hands: one of the Lloyds TSB adverts created by Liverpool design house Milky Tea

New showcase for design talent

THE design stars of the future will be taking centre stage at the new Liverpool Design Festival.

The festival, which will run from October 30 to November 8, aims to cement Merseyside’s reputation as one of the UK’s design capitals.

The Fashion Lab will allow trade buyers and the public to see work by 20 talented new designers from throughout the UK. The Finishing School, which will run from November 3 to November 6, is a series of workshops from industry experts including Justine Mills, of Liverpool

Kirsty Doyle boutique Cricket.

Designer Kirsty Doyle, who is artistic director of both events, said: “The Finishing School aims to contribute to the British fashion industry’s reputation of producing ground-breaking designers.”

Another festival highlight will be the Design Stars competition for 11 to 16-year-olds.

The festival will also include an Eco Design Show, which will showcase green design and craft.

Sarah Elderkin, of Design Initiative, said: “Liverpool has built a reputation as a centre for fashion and design.

“The festival aims to highlight the city as a location for creative industries and reinforce design as a major part of its economy.”

■ FOR details, visit www. liverpooldesignfestival. com

LDP Creative ■ THE Liverpool Daily Post has launched its new LDP Creative website, focusing on creative industries in Merseyside. So, if you're in advertising, marketing, design, web design, public relations, the media, television and radio production, architecture or any other creative sector, then visit the site to find out the latest news.

■ IF YOU have a story, e-mail alistair.houghton@liverpool.com

www.ldpcreative.co.uk 19

THE BIG FEATURE CREATIVE INDUSTRIES HEN Tate Liverpool held an exhibition about the city’s art scene, called Centre of the Creative Universe, nobody batted an eyelid.

The city has always been proud of its reputation as a creative hub – and so the Government’s increased focus on the creative industries as a future source of wealth for the UK was music to local ears.

The creative and digital sector includes people working in areas from design to broadcasting, websitebuilding to architecture and marketing to fashion.

Many of Merseyside’s leading firms have seen strong growth in recent years and are winning regional and national reputations.

Companies such as design firm Uniform, digital agencies Rippleffect and Mando and broadcasters such as Lime Pictures are leading players in their sectors.

The Northwest Development Agency estimates that the creative sector in the region generates £16bn of economic output.

And while creative firms are battening down the hatches to get through the recession, the sector is seen by regeneration officials as crucial to the region’s future.

The most visible evidence of that can be seen at Salford Quays, where building work on the £500m first phase of MediaCityUK is well under way. Liverpool firms are being told to get ready to exploit the new opportunities that will be available at that massive complex.

Merseyside ACME, now part of regeneration body Liverpool Vision, is the agency charged with promoting the sector locally.

Its director, Kevin McManus, says that, since ACME was founded in 1998, it has seen many Mersey businesses achieve success regionally and nationally – and says those firms should be role models to the sector’s up-and-coming companies.

“When we started a decade or so ago, the sector was fairly immature and quite fragmented,” he said.

“There were lots of sole traders and micro-enterprises.

“It’s a fairly mature sector now.

“There are a lot of companies we’ve worked with at various points who are challenging on the national and international stage.

“We’ve got world-class brands like Cream, and Liverpool Sound City has just set up its first major international initiative, in Dubai.

“We need role models like them, as part of our mission over the next few years is to encourage companies to grow in that way. Sometimes it’s about looking nationally and internationally rather than locally.”

Mr McManus says the creative sector locally remains “very healthy” despite the recession. Sectors such as advertising have been hard hit, but Mr McManus insists most companies will be able to weather the storm.

He said: “The current downturn has had some impact. Some companies are going to struggle.

“But I think the sector tends to be fairly flexible and it’s adapted quite well to the situation.

“People don’t tend to be over-reliant on a couple of clients.

They’re adaptable because technology changes so quickly. If you’re a micro-enterprise, that doesn’t necessarily hit you, because your overheads are quite low.

“Companies are still growing. The ones that aren’t have probably pegged back growth. They’re not going to expand or take on extra people but will stay as they are.

“The trick for us is to support the high-growth companies and help

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Natalie Reeves believes not enough companies in the region are getting the message about their responsibilities when it comes to disposing of waste

Ambassador role for businesswoman Recycling firm director to spread the word to companies across Merseyside Kevin McManus, of Merseyside ACME, says the region’s creative sector remains in strong shape . . . despite the recession them to continue growing – but not forgetting the start-ups and early-stage companies, because there’ll be much more innovative stuff coming from them.”

The evidence of Liverpool’s creative success is all around.

On the design front, Liverpool will in October host a new design festival showcasing the work of the industry’s rising stars. It follows last year’s successful Design Show Liverpool and last October’s Liverpool Design Symposium.

On television, Hollyoaks, produced

by Childwall’s Lime Pictures, is still going strong.

Meanwhile, Kirkdale-based LA Productions is producing a second series of hit daytime drama Moving On for the BBC. The first series attracted acting stars from Sheila Hancock to Neil Fitzmaurice, and producer Colin McKeown said the new series would be “a huge financial injection into the local economy.”

Liverpool Sound City, held for the second time this year, has become a showcase for Liverpool’s thriving music scene.

In Liverpool, Merseyside ACME is developing plans to turn the Baltic Triangle into a creative quarter for the city.

Local councils are also playing their part in encouraging creative businesses to thrive.

Knowsley Council developed the

Creative Space complex, in Kirkby, three years ago as an incubator unit for creative firms. Through the Creative Space programme, the council also offers support and training for Knowsley firms.

Merseyside’s public relations and marketing sector has expanded rapidly in recent years.

Longer-standing companies such as October Communications, Kenyon Fraser and Ubiquity are being challenged by newer arrivals such as Active Profile and a host of other firms including Mason Media and Think Publicity.

Perhaps the best-known figure in the sector is Dougal Paver, managing director of Liverpool marketing and PR agency Paver Smith, who says increased competition among agencies is good for the city.

He said: “We’re seeing a lot more confidence. There are better agencies who are much more competitive.

We’re seeing a lot more business coming to the city.”

Paver Smith has grown rapidly since it split from Paver Downes in 2006. Today, it is now one of the North West’s biggest agencies, with clients from law firm DLA Piper to Marks & Spencer Simply Food and Liverpool’s delegation to next year’s World Expo in Shanghai.

The company is keeping an eye out for acquisition opportunities. Last year it bought Liverpool PR firm Factory Communications, while this

January it bought Manchester rival Stripe Communications.

Mr Paver agrees that the most successful Liverpool marketing firms are those that are prepared to fight for work outside Merseyside.

“It’s about being fit for the fight,” he said. “You’ve got to be competitive – with pricing, service, and training and development policies – across the board. Are you good enough to punch your weight against a Manchester or a London agency?

“There’s business to be won across the country. We’ve proved it. But you’ve got to fight for it.”

The region’s biggest digital agency is Rippleffect, which has worked with clients from Premiership football clubs to MediaCity developer Peep Holdings.

The company, bought by LDP Business parent Trinity Mirror in 2008, employs more than 50 people.

Founder Ben Hatton says Rippleffect’s drive to win clients nationally, not just locally, has helped it achieve rapid growth.

He said: “We are very much an agency with a national reach, which allows us to keep growing.

“We’re still recruiting people, bringing in new clients, retaining clients and increasing client spend.

“From our point of view, we’re working through the recession.

Having said that, I don’t think there’s anybody who can say it’s not having any effect. We’re only as good

as our clients and how well they’re doing.

“But we’re doing well and things are very positive. We’ve always been a specialist online digital agency and we are very good at what we do.”

Liverpool Science Park-based Mando is another of the North West’s most successful digital agencies, with clients ranging from United Utilities to the Health and Safety Executive.

Ian Finch, who founded Mando in 1997 with Matt Johnson, said: “We grew rapidly from 1997 to 2001, as most people did. But then the business landscape changed and we acted accordingly.

“Our success has been down to reacting to that changing business landscape.”

Five years ago, the company also made a conscious decision to become a national player and spread its reach way beyond Merseyside.

Finch says he believes clients are keeping up their spending on digital marketing, even while other spending is falling away.

“We’ve certainly had experiences of clients making redundancies and still giving us work,” he said.

Despite its importance, the creative world remains one made up of small and medium enterprises.

Manufacturing, seen as a sector in decline, boasts industrial behemoths such as Jaguar Land Rover with its 2,000 staff. Creative and digital firms,

LIVERPOOL businesswoman Natalie Reeves has been made a Green Ambassador by Liverpool Chamber of Commerce as part of the city’s Year of the Environment.

Ms Reeves, who represents a business that recycles electrical goods for use in the UK and overseas, will now encourage other businesses in Merseyside to sign the city’s Green Pledge and do more for the environment.

A Green Ambassador is a person or business based in Merseyside who cares about the environment and who demonstrates this through their business practices.

They work with their clients, suppliers, staff and local community to raise awareness about environmental issues such as

recycling, re-using and reducing waste.

More generally, they are people or firms that behave in a manner that shows consideration for the natural world by recognising the rights of everybody to a clean and sustainable world for the future.

Green Ambassadors will also receive a certificate that they can display in a public place at their premises.

Ms Reeves is a director of Tuebrook-based Northwest Electronics Recycling Centre (NWERC).

The company aims to solve the environmental problem posed by the huge volume of electronic waste discarded by today’s consumers.

It will take almost any electrical or

electronic product – televisions, IT equipment, fridges, washing machines, tumble dryers – and recycle them to be used again.

NWERC is currently working with Riverside Housing Association and Liverpool’s Beatles-themed Hard Day’s Night Hotel.

Ms Reeves said: “We are one of the few recycling companies in Liverpool, and that is why I was selected to be a Green Ambassador.

“The ambassadors are chosen for their working in leading the field on green issues.

“We will raise green issues, get involved in information exchange and produce reports for relevant authorities.

“When NWERC contacts firms, they often don’t understand how

environmental regulations about the disposal of equipment applies to them and they think they have no need for our services.

“I think there is still a lot of work to be done in educating firms.”

■ THE Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) has announced that it has approved the second phase of funding for a new centre of waste recycling in the region.

Around £3.8m will be provided by the NWDA as well as £2.7m from the European Regional Development Fund and £600,000 from local authorities in order to develop the Northwest Waste Technology Virtual Centre of Excellence.

The project, being delivered by Environlink Northwest, will be a hub

for recycling and services relating to waste technologies and will prevent an estimated 57,000 tonnes of waste from going to landfill sites.

It will also create 300 jobs and highlight the NorthWest as an innovator when it comes to green technologies.

It will have four main functions: support research and development in recycling, advise and guide firms on the commercialisation of ideas, promote the region’s 1,400 recycling firms at events and to supply chains, and work with big organisations to help create new markets for small firms.

Operations director Dr Martin Andrews said: “We will be encouraging big companies to do more recycling.”

The top North West restaurateur who is doing his bit AS ONE of the North West’s top restaurateurs, Paul Heathcote takes his green responsibilities very seriously.

Mr Heathcote operates eateries across the region and his outlets in Liverpool include the Olive Press and Simply Heathcotes.

He said there are a number of recycling and green issues faced by the restaurant trade.

In particular, the disposal of the many wine, beer and

water bottles that are used in outlets every day. He said: “Recycling of glass is something we try to do, but it is a real challenge.

“It is especially true at city centre restaurants where you have a minimum of storage space. Pick-up times are not always that good either.

“We do try to do as much as we can and we do better in some restaurants than others.”

Mr Heathcote says one of his aims is to have as much low-energy lighting in his outlets as possible.

He added “It is something we are looking at. Lighting in restaurants is very much driven by customer experience and so that has to be right.

“Cleaning thoroughly is also a challenge if you don’t have proper lighting.

“We do make sure staff

always turn off lights behind them and we are careful about the time we switch on the air conditioning so that it is not on when it is not needed.

“One thing we have always done as much as possible is use local suppliers and we have been doing that for 19 years.

“We also try to persuade our suppliers to take back empty boxes, but that is not necessarily always easy.”

Paul Heathcote – tries hard to make sure his restaurants are as environmentally friendly as possible

27

THE BIG FEATURE

Time to get creative

An artist’s impression of how the MediaCity complex, in Salford, will look when it opens in 2011. Peel Media hopes the site will eventually house 15,000 workers

BY ALISTAIR HOUGHTON

▲ ▲

The creative and digital sectors are seen as crucial to this region’s economic growth. How are local firms riding out the recession – and how will they be affected

by Peel’s £500m MediaCity, in Salford?

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17

NEWS LDP BUSINESS CAMPAIGN

Leaders back LDP campaign ‘Supporting Our Businesses’ is launched in partnership with Business Link Northwest BUSINESS and political leaders across the Liverpool city region are backing the LDP Business Supporting Our Businesses campaign.

LDP Business has joined forces with business support agency Business Link Northwest to highlight the peril faced by firms across Merseyside during the recession.

We revealed how 12,000 companies – around 18% of the total – in the Liverpool city region were at risk of collapse due to the dire economic environment.

The figures show jobs are most at risk in small businesses with fewer than 25 employees who have so far weathered the recession but have now made all the savings they can.

As soon as the Daily Post hit the streets last Wednesday, the Cheshire-based small business support group, the Forum of Private Business (FPB), got in touch to say it welcomed the campaign.

FPB spokesman Chris Gorman said that it would be vital in highlighting the issue in the Merseyside area.

He said: “We applaud the Post for highlighting this hugely important issue and trying to raise awareness of the plight of countless small firms in the region who are finding that every day is a fight for survival.”

His view was echoed by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB). Chris Burgess, FSB Liverpool branch chairman, said: “Those who run small businesses are typically enterprising, hard working and determined, but they need all the help they can get.”

Praise for the campaign swiftly followed from other leading figures in the business and political world.

Cllr Gary Millar, Liverpool City Council’s executive member for enterprise, said: “Everybody recognises that these are difficult times for business and any campaign which provides support, especially for SMEs, is to be welcomed.

“Along with our partners, Liverpool City Council is working hard to ensure that not only are existing business safeguarded but that we can still see new companies start up and be in a position to flourish when the economy picks up.”

Mike Taylor, director of investment and enterprise at regeneration agency, Liverpool Vision, added: “This partnership between Business Link and the Liverpool Daily Post will raise the profile of the full range of support products and services available to business and has to be welcomed.

“At the same time, Liverpool Vision, in partnership with Business Link, ACAS and the Chamber of Commerce, has launched, and is promoting the new Liverpool Business Lifeline website which provides comprehensive information and access to all forms of support available to businesses in Liverpool.”

And support also came from Frank McKenna, chairman of business lobby organisation, Downtown Liverpool in Business, who said: “ In these challenging times, it is

16

imperative that we maximise support to small businesses and build on the initiatives already taken Cllr Gary Millar – anything that provides support for SMEs has to be welcomed by the Government.

“It is equally important to raise awareness of the assistance that currently exists to small firms, HOW YOU CAN GET HELP FOR YOUR BUSINESS FROM BUSINESS LINK particularly through projects being administered by the Northwest PETER WATSON, Business Link them are already ■ IF YOU run a Development Agency and Business managing director of Northwest and its providing extra help for business and want to Link. I am sure that the LDP Business Link, said the partners, alongside the businesses in the campaign will be warmly welcomed find out more about campaign “recognises Liverpool Daily Post, current climate. and supported by DLIB members.” how Business Link can the challenges that are taking to provide “Business Link is the Inward investment agency, The help you then call 0845 businesses are facing vital support to primary gateway to Mersey Partnership, is already 00 66 888. You can also across Merseyside, companies. business support in working closely with Business Link e-mail info@business and the wider North “Business Link Merseyside and it’s to help SMEs in the tourism and linknw.co.uk or West region”. works in partnership essential that leisure sectors. alternatively visit He added: “It will with a wide range of companies Lorraine Rogers, Chief Executive www.business demonstrate the organisations across understand, and of The Mersey Partnership TMP) positive action both the region and many of access, that help. link.gov.uk/northwest said: “The levels of investment and regeneration we have seen in the city region over the past 10 years has helped our business base grow and Stopforth pointed out that many of strengthen the region’s economy. the businesses deemed “at risk” “SMEs must continue to be a vital would survive and thrive. His view part of this growth, for example, in was echoed by David Holland, the visitor economy. director of entrepreneurial advisory “As the city region’s official at accountants Grant Thornton, in tourism body, TMP, is assisting small Liverpool, who said: “Although businesses across the tourism sector conditions are still tough, a high and working particularly closely percentage of entrepreneurs are with Business Link to assist hotels, remaining remarkably resilient. restaurants and food sector “They realise that they have to get businesses to improve their on with running their business performance and profitability.” despite the downturn, with our own On the day of the campaign research showing that the launch, Liverpool Chamber of overwhelming majority now see Mike Taylor – raising Frank McKenna – Lorraine Rogers – Commerce chief executive Jack opportunities emerging.” the profile challenging times SMEs are vital

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

in association with

Capital support for Liverpool ‘If it doesn’t make progress in the next two years, I will swim across the Mersey’ – NWDA chief executive Steve Broomhead, on plans for the Cruise Liner Terminal

Confidence and culture are among the achievements of the North West Development Agency HE chief executive of the North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA), Steve Broomhead, needed no prompting for what he would like to see be achieved across Liverpool city region.

“Short-term, I would like to see progress on the garden festival site and on Wirral Waters,” he said. “I would like to see Cammell Laird redeveloped. I would like to see a tram going down to the airport. I would like to see the golf at Birkdale and on the Wirral at least once in the next 10 years.

“I would also like to see a more energised workforce, set within a knowledge-led, low-carbon economy.”

The range of the wishes – which covers manufacturing, tourism, commercial property, employment

T

and sport – demonstrates the wide-ranging remit the NWDA has. It also has a budget to match, with £556.7m to spend in the current financial year.

In 2008-09, the agency’s action included supporting Liverpool ‘08, developing strategic employment sites – including Liverpool’s knowledge quarter – delivering regeneration in Liverpool via Liverpool Vision, including investment at Mann Island, the new Museum, the canal link and Liverpool Northshore.

Its key projects on Merseyside include the Echo Arena and BT Convention Centre, which it provided more than £18m for. In its first year, it contributed £200m to the local economy as almost 700,000 people used the waterfront building.

The £19m Cruise Liner Terminal saw more than half of its funding come from the NWDA. The facility, which opened in 2007, generates £2m a year of extra spending.

There are discussions ongoing about converting it into a turnaround facility so ships can start and finish their journey.

There are no baggage handling facilities, Customs, or immigration available at the Cruise Liner Terminal at the moment, and there are issues around the conditions that came with the original European funding.

“There’s a good chance of progress,” he said. “If it doesn’t make progress in the next two years, I will swim across the Mersey. We are working with the city council to help make it happen.”

Mr Broomhead, though, identifies three key achievements for the city region which the NWDA had a role in, but that aren’t directly related to physical infrastructure.

He said: “First of all, renewed confidence in the Liverpool city region, renewed business confidence and much better image and profile, nationally and internationally.

“Second, Liverpool city region has now managed to attract a significant amount of private investment, for example Liverpool One and the investment in the ports.

“Third, strong evidence of public-private partnership. Other people talk about it, but we have delivered. Two examples – in Halton, working on the Bridge project, and in St Helens, in areas like business support.

“The role of the agency is to gather the information and evidence and make things happen. My theme song has always been ‘A little less conversation, a little more action, please’. That’s sometimes a challenge in the region.”

Liverpool’s Capital of Culture year was a prime example of this, with its early days mired in fallings-out and controversy before it was brought back on track.

Partnership working was also in evidence for Liverpool ‘08, which is credited with generating £800m from more than 15m cultural visits.

Mr Broomhead said: “Capital of Culture – not only did we provide £2m towards its delivery we provided, Bryan Gray [the outgoing

CONTINUED ON PAGE 30

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ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The Echo Arena Liverpool, which opened at the start of 2008, received £18m funding from the NWDA. In its first year, it is estimated it contributed £200m to the local economy CONTINUED FROM PAGE 29 chairman of the NWDA] and Bernice Law [NWDA’s chief operating officer]. Its been a major success.”

The NWDA has also been an important backer of Liverpool’s place at the World Expo 2010 in Shanghai, putting £1m into the project.

Mr Broomhead said: “This six-month world Expo will provide businesses in the North West with a unique opportunity to promote themselves to the expanding Chinese economy.

“Our support for the Expo will ensure this opportunity is open to the entire North West business

30

community and will help generate greater outcomes for our region, including inward investment, an increase in trade, and an influx in tourism.”

This Liverpool-centric project does, however, offer potential benefits for the whole of the North West.

“There’s a lot of Manchester interest,” he said. “Coming alongside the concept of the Atlantic Gateway, certainly Manchester is part of that, like Salford, I expect there to be further collaboration and input from Manchester.”

The regional nature of some projects works both ways – for example, Media City, in Salford

Quays, is expected to have a huge impact on the North West’s economy and profile when it opens in 2011.

“Media City wouldn’t have happened without us,” he said.

“While the local authorities were in debate, we were dealing with the BBC.” And that independent, regional perspective is what Mr Broomhead believes the NWDA adds to the overall economic landscape.

“If you left it to local authorities, either singularly or in a group, would they be able to make quick decisions that are based on priorities and not politics?” he said.

Mr Broomhead, who has headed the agency for more than six years, is

unperturbed by the ongoing speculation that a Conservative Government would scrap regional development agencies (RDAs). He insists that it is “business as usual” at Renaissance House, the NWDA’s Warrington headquarters.

He said: “I have had conversations that this RDA is seen to have impact in the region.

“We have got things done which could only have been done by us. We are seen to be well-thought of by the public and private sector. That isn’t the case for the south of England.

“The Conservatives don’t seem to have a clear view on RDAs. If there were big changes, they would have to think through what they would do to

prioritise support and investment. If they get rid of us, they would have to invent something similar, either across the North West or in Liverpool city region.”

There have been two recent reports which back up Mr Broomhead’s claims that the NWDA plays an important role and is well-regarded by the public and private sector.

Accountants Pricewaterhouse Coopers published a report for the Department of Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform assessing the impact of spending by regional development agencies.

It found that, between 2002-03 and 2006-07, for every £1 spent by the

15

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

REGIONAL OUTLOOK with Steven Broomhead, of the NWDA

STEVEN BROOMHEAD, Chief Executive of the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA), gives an update on access to finance and support for business across the North West

‘Funding continues to be available to North West businesses’

Tax accounts on the Isle of Man will be open to scrutiny

Tax haven accounts at risk

Revenue offers second chance with amnesty for full disclosure of accounts held offshore NITED Kingdom-based investors are being given a second and final chance to come clean about their offshore accounts.

The taxman is offering an amnesty until March 12 next year for full and frank disclosure about cash held in bank and building society accounts held outside the UK. The reward will be a tax bill for 10% – otherwise miscreants that are rooted out will have to pay the full 30% and face criminal prosecution.

A similar exercise two years ago targeted customers of the big five banks and yielded more than £400m from 45,000 individuals, but this time the Revenue is going to sweep an estimated 500 accounts.

Even famed tax havens like the Isle of Man, Switzerland and British Virgin Islands have agreed to comply with any government requests for information.

HM Revenue & Customs is also holding out an olive branch to

U

14

investors who had failed to take advantage of the first drive two years ago with an offer to set the tax penalty on offshore holdings to 20%, coupled with a warning that, once the “window” closes on March 12, they would face stiffer penalties.

Dave Hartnett, HMRC permanent secretary, says taxpayers are being offered the chance of paying or communicating by paper or electronically, and added: "This will be the last opportunity of its kind."

Under the terms, taxpayers who make a disclosure between 1 September, 2009, and March 12, 2010, will qualify for a 10% penalty if they are not customers of the five major retail banks targeted in the 2007 amnesty. These taxpayers will be subject to a 20% penalty. “'I would urge anyone with offshore accounts holding untaxed income or gains to take advantage of this simple and straightforward scheme. Most offshore investors already pay the tax that the law

requires, and it’s only fair that everyone respects the rules.”

Brian Clark, senior tax partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, in Liverpool, said: "Now is a critical time for anyone with undeclared funds in an offshore account or undeclared income from offshore assets, to take stock of their situation and ‘come clean’, if they don’t want to pay the consequences of their mistakes. There will be no more chances.

“It is estimated that HMRC will recover more than £2bn in unpaid tax in this second and final amnesty.”

By gathering information from all financial institutions, HMRC will ultimately be able to identify people who don’t come forward under the amnesty.

It is likely that such individuals will face larger penalties, greater prospect of prosecution and be subject to new naming and shaming provisions.

Individuals that find themselves needing to make disclosures might include family members who receive an inheritance in an offshore account with no explanation of where the funds came from, and businessmen who have diverted business profits offshore, deliberately to avoid tax.

There are also those who divert funds from illegitimate interests into offshore accounts.

Mr Clark offers people who may be considering the need to disclose the following tips: *Don’t bury your head in the sand, act promptly to avoid becoming a target for HMRC investigation. *Gather all relevant information such as bank statements to help calculate tax and interest due. *Make contact with an adviser who understands what type of evidence will be needed to ensure your disclosure is accepted without protracted enquiries from HMRC. However there still may be some

advantages in offshore accounts, said a spokesman for the Offshore Advisory Trust: “Trying to save paying so much tax legally is completely acceptable and there are ways to do this.

“Benefits are dependent upon the manner in which the interest earned in overseas private investments is handled.

“Even those individuals domiciled in the UK can defer paying tax by using an offshore company that specialises in insurance contracts, for example. Alternatively, with an overseas fund, the investor would be able to stipulate that any interest should be automatically re-invested into the investment in order to facilitate tax-free growth of the money.

“The only time that the investor would be liable to pay any taxes in the UK would be at the termination of the investment and when the money is brought into the country of residence.”

■ LAST month, we announced that £15m of additional and new transitional finance had been brought forward by the NWDA that would be made available to assist businesses in our region through the current challenging economic conditions.

This week, the first companies to benefit from this transitional funding have been announced and, while this transitional pot will temporarily close the gap in finance until April, 2010, we are making very good progress on the delivery of our long-term Venture Capital and Loan Fund (VCLF).

Over £650,000 has been approved and delivered to North West business this week including two in Merseyside: Nurock Ltd, based in Knowsley; and Merseyside Metalworks Ltd, based in Liverpool.

The scheme provides transitional loan funding of £50,000 to £250,000 to established and viable small and medium-sized enterprises facing a temporary shortfall in their working capital due to the economic downturn.

A critical element of the NWDA’s finance portfolio is the new long-term Venture Capital and Loan Fund which is currently in development.

We know a lot of people are waiting to hear about this multi-million pound fund. It is taking longer than anticipated, but we have now adopted a new model and agreed, with Government, a way forward in which to progress the structure of this fund.

VCLF is a combination of loan, equity and mezzanine funding to support business growth. Loans range from £50,000 to £250,000 with Equity and Mezzanine finance available up to £2m.

I believe that regional venture capital funds across England will start to receive approval and clearance to proceed from Government in the coming months.

Meanwhile, the transitional support helps improve the finance options available to new and existing businesses

in the North West, improving the lending available from commercial banks and following £10m of Transitional Loan funding announced by the NWDA in December, 2008.

This is a total of £25m the NWDA and the European Regional Development Fund have made available to businesses since December, 2008.

Funding continues to be available to businesses in the North West with a viable business plan which demonstrate an ability to service the borrowing required, but which have been unable to obtain such funding from conventional commercial sources, and in the absence of such funding is exposing the business to the risk of significant short- term contraction, or endangering its existence altogether.

We are also providing other critical forms of support through schemes such as the Innovation Vouchers Programme, with the latest round of Vouchers now available to North West businesses. The scheme enables businesses to apply for a Voucher, valued at up to £3,000 (with 250 available in the current round) to help business owners, entrepreneurs and social enterprises to proactively engage with the North West knowledge base, including colleges and universities, to develop innovation. We have also announced that the current round will have 50 additional larger Vouchers of £7,000 available to enable SMEs to interact with the region’s knowledge base.

The NWDA is playing a crucial role in response to the current economic downturn, with a number of actions being taken to meet the needs of businesses during these financially challenging times.

I will tell you more about the progress of the long-term VCLF in a future column, but in the meantime there is funding and support available to our North West businesses, and this can be accessed through the NWDA’s improved Business Link Northwest service. I would urge you to get in touch. For more information on business support in the Northwest, visit www.businesslink.gov.uk/ northwest.

RDAs, an average of £4.50 of economic output (or Gross Value Added, GVA) was created in the regional economies.

That is, the £5.1bn of evaluated expenditure during this time across the nine RDAs saw an overall return on investment of more than £23bn.

In the North West the report highlighted a number of Agency-invested projects and programmes.

This included the £7m investment in the creation of the Liverpool Commercial District.

This is attributed with creating or safeguarding almost 1,500 jobs and adding £56m GVA, which is projected to increase to £289m when lifetime

benefits are included. Mr Broomhead said: “It’s very positive to see that many of the projects and initiatives evaluated have had a real and significant impact on regional economies. Importantly, these results only demonstrate part of our impact and we know there will be more value to come.”

The House of Commons North West regional committee last month published a report entitled The Impact of the Current Economic Situation on the North West and the Government's Response.

In it, the committee assessed the role of the NWDA and how it had responded to the recession.

It said: “Most of our witnesses

were very positive about the work of the NWDA and the manner in which it had responded to the economic downturn, in particular the restructuring of Business Link to provide additional support to businesses.

“Manchester Airport expressed some concern about what it described as ‘a tendency [of the NWDA] to become distracted from the key economic drivers for the North West, in its efforts to build consensus across the whole of the region’, but most witnesses took the view that the Agency had responded appropriately.

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Liverpool One has proved a popular destination

Prime Minister Gordon Brown joins Wayne Rooney to launch England's 2018 and 2022 World Cup bids, which is a key target for the NWDA in the coming decade CONTINUED FROM PAGE 30 “Where there were criticisms about delivery, the general view was that the Agency had been let down by central Government delay (for example, the Venture Capital Loan Fund) or failure to give the NWDA a “more prominent role” (the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme).”

David Higham, of Government Office North West, told the committee: “When we look at the NWDA budget of about £400m a year and the size of the North West economy, which is worth about £120bn, focusing on the budget itself rather underplays the role of the development agency.

“The key issue for the development agency is how it uses its budget to lever in other forms of funding, and how it uses its leadership in the region to influence other agencies.

“While it is tempting to look at the budget itself, that gives a slightly misleading impression of the role of the agency. The agency continues to play a very important role in taking the region forward, and will continue to do so.”

Moving forward, though, isn’t easy in a recession, especially when confidence is low – a problem that the NWDA is trying to address.

Mr Broomhead said: “I have been saying let’s be realistically optimistic about the conditions we are in,

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rather than doomsterism. Let’s try to get a sense of determination into businesses.

“It’s not been easy. We have been working with Business Link, the Venture Capital Loan Fund, and with the banks to make loans fairer.

“Through grants, loans and innovation funds, we have tried to offer practical support.

“We have given businesses a lifebelt rather than just drawn a lifebelt – within the limits we have here, we don’t print money.”

That support includes a £10m transition loan fund, to be accessed by businesses with a viable business plan but which have been unable to get funding from conventional commercial sources, and a £4.1m innovation vouchers scheme, part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund, designed to encourage SMEs to work with the knowledge base, such as universities.

As there is less money available, it becomes more important that the investment generates strong returns.

He said: “There’s going to be less public money available. That means we have to have good relationships so we get more bang for our buck and also to invest in projects that will reap benefits. For me, it’s making sure we have the right evidence and investing in things that do have a good return like science parks and the Arena. Projects like that do show good returns.”

The Rugby League World Cup will be held in England in 2013 But, for all the successes in which the NWDA has shared, Mr Broomhead has one big regret.

“The regret is the shared stadium for Liverpool and Everton,” he said, knowing how controversial the idea still remains.

“Four years ago, they ought to have got together and gone for it.

“Economically it made sense, and there was a lot of symbolism for Merseyside.”

Despite that setback, sport offers a

lot of opportunities in the next decade. He added: “My wishes for the next 10 years include seeing one of the semi-finals of the World Cup played at a shared stadium. The Everton stadium, in Kirkby, may come off and that would be good.

“But I still believe a shared stadium would make sound economic sense.

“We are leading for the RDAs on the World Cup. “If we could get some of the

closing matches of the World Cup, that would be great.”

And it is not just football that offers economic opportunities in the years ahead.

“The agency has played a key role in supporting the bid to host the Rugby League World Cup, so the Rugby League International Federation’s decision [to hold the 2013 event in England] is fantastic news, particularly for the North West which has enormous potential to benefit given the importance of rugby league in the region and our experience of staging major events.

“We’re also working hard to ensure the North West benefits from the UK’s “golden decade” of sport, which includes the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, and the IRB Rugby Union World Cup, in 2015.

“We have been encouraging businesses to go for contracts for the Olympics. We have got training camps, swimmers from Australia and Oceania, we have got Thailand, we are hoping to get Ukraine in Leigh. it puts the UK on the map for most of 2012. There are opportunities from the Olympics for tourism in Liverpool, and trade links.

“I am very positive about it for the region – 18 months ago, I was worried about it, but I think the benefits will be very strong.

“They are sporting events, but they are also economic engines.”

City still a shopping magnet

But rental levels for city centre shops are falling sharply as landlords go through a tough time WHEN Liverpool was at the height of its popularity in the 1960s, shopping as a leisure pursuit took off and city centre retail rents were the match for any metropolitan area outside London.

Years of decline saw the city slide down the UK league table both in terms of rent levels and as a desirable destination.

While other northern regions embraced the idea of developing a shopping offer – in Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield – Liverpool

remained strangely static. Until Liverpool One. The £1bn investment by Grosvenor has redressed the balance, making the city an attractive haven for the leisure shopper despite the current gloom on the High Street generally.

Footfall remains buoyant with around 500,000 shoppers traipsing through the city centre in the past year but retail rents are falling, like in every other centre.

Rents are currently more than 15% down on last September's figure,

above both the regional and national average, with the market turning in favour of the tenant. The Local Data Company reports that 21% of shop pemises in the city centre are empty although this is hotly disputed by agents. Indeed, in terms of footfall and spending, matters are still fairly buoyant.

John Barker, agent at Hitchcock & Wright, said: "If you look at the situation in a historical context, Liverpool has had to play catch-up after falling behind many other

centres that developed shopping attractions. Grosvenor has had a big impact but, of course, was completed when the recession began to bite.

“What it has done is retain shoppers who may have travelled to places like the Trafford Centre, as well as drawing in people from farther afield. People in Liverpool, in particular, still enjoy spending."

However, in terms of returns for landlords, the rents have fallen from £320 per sq ft almost a year ago to the current figure of £270.

However, the bargain rates have seen Liverpool One continue to enjoy success and the development has now reached a lettings figure of 98.5%.

In recent months, it has signed up Reiss, Envy, JFour Jeans, Wheels of Sport, The Gym, and Ollie & Nic. This is in addition to the recently announced Everton FC store and the forthcoming TopShop Northern flagship store.

The development opened for business in May, 2008.

Government hand-out for empty shops LOCAL authorities on Merseyside are being encouraged to come up with imaginative ways of using empty shops.

Areas outside the city centre and other regional shopping locations have been particularly hard hit by the downturn. As a result, the Government is providing cash to help shopping areas fight back.

Merseyside councils will

share more than £200,000 to help reduce the impact of empty shops in the high street.

Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton and Halton will each receive £52,632 of government cash to help tackle the problem.

The money is being given to councils based on those with the highest vacancy rates and the areas with the most acute levels of deprivation.

The Government said it

was determined to help ensure town and city centres remain vibrant places for people to meet and shop.

Ministers say councils can use the money as they see fit.

Ideas to boost town centres and revive shops include turning them into something useful such as a meeting place for local community groups.

The idea is to ensure areas are not blighted by empty properties.

Empty shops are causing blight concerns in many neighbourhoods

13

THE BIG INTERVIEW STUART THOMPSON

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Berny Goodheart, chief technical officer for Secure Electrans, who have been using the Energy Innovation Centre at EA Technology to develop their Greengage Energy Manager CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11 batteries had to be kept at such high temperatures it could prove dangerous in the event of an accident.

These days, the company’s scientists continue to chase the dream of a non-polluting road transport vehicle, but now the current thinking has moved on from electric to hydrogen-fuelled vehicles.

Technical problems still dog the dream, however.

Thompson explained that the widespread adoption of hydrogen-fuelled vehicles is hampered at present by the relative inefficiency of the electrolysis of the hydrogen from water.

In the 1990s, it was decided that

12

the best way to advance technological progress in power management would be to take the company private.

Management at the time, with the full support of 250 employees, decided to put forward a proposal.

Former owners included ten regional electricity companies plus National Power, Scottish Power and Scottish-Hydro Electric.

The company had a highly skilled workforce which included mathematicians, physicists, chemists, materials scientists and engineers and provided a wide range of services to the electricity industry, including advice on power cables, sub-stations and managing demand for electricity.

After privatisation, the business

was gradually built up to work on several different fronts including consultancy and technological developments.

In recent times it has created the UltraTEV Monitor, the most powerful and versatile system ever developed for monitoring electrical discharges from sub-stations.

It is also heavily involved in energy conservation.

The Carbon Emissions Reduction Target set by the EU means energy suppliers must, by 2011, deliver measures that will provide overall lifetime carbon dioxide savings equivalent to the emissions from 700,000 homes each year.

It is expected to lead to energy supplier investment of some £2.8bn.

At the same time, EA Technology

believes that millions of British homes and businesses should be encouraged to save energy by generating their own electricity and heat.

Thompson says there should be a comprehensive package of financial incentives, including council tax rebates, to kick-start the market for domestic-scale power generation.

Although the recession may have impacted on the spending plans for some businesses, the green agenda is sure to remain at the forefront of government thinking and mean more legislation.

In conclusion Thompson stated: “We feel the emphasis on renewable energy will mean demand for our services will continue and drive further growth within the business.”

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 email bustalk@edgehill.ac.uk or visit our website:

edgehill.ac.uk/business More meeting facilities at the innovation centre

Edge Hill University, St Helens Road, Ormskirk, Lancashire, L39 4QP I T: 01695 575171

I F: 01695 579997

33

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

EDUCATION

THE BIG INTERVIEW STUART THOMPSON

John Flamson, the University of Liverpool’s first director of strategic partnerships and development, in his Foundation Building offices, on Brownlow Hill

John unveils global ambitions

University of Liverpool strategic partnerships and development director John Flamson explains his N THESE days of international trade and opportunities, linking “town to gown” has never been so important, and it is John Flamson’s job to ensure a seamless join between the two for the University of Liverpool.

The former town planner was head-hunted specifically to cement the ties between the institution which inspired the phrase “red-brick universities” and a resurgent city region.

Mr Flamson, born and bred in Dingle, is himself a graduate of the university. Now the university’s director of strategic partnerships and development, he said: “I asked the vice-chancellor at the time, can you summarise what you think this role is, and with tongue in cheek he said: ‘Your job will be to interpret the

I 34

world to the university and the university to the world’.”

Mr Flamson joined the university from Government Office North West’s Cunard Building base, which he believes is under-valued by many in the city. While at GONW, he was responsible for managing Merseyside’s Brussels-funded Objective 1 economic and social regeneration programmes.

“People tend to think of it as regional, but it’s not, it’s actually Whitehall in the region – it’s the end of a long corridor.”

Since taking up his new role in March, 2008, Flamson has mapped a strategy to not only improve links between the university and his home city’s industry and commerce sectors, but to develop the university’s reputation throughout –

and with it the fortunes of the city.

He explained that his role involves three distinct spheres of influence: local, national and international.

“This university is not just an established institution in the city region, but is an incredibly important institution because of its independence, the standards of excellence that it represents, but also because of its international reach.”

In June, 2006, the university was granted a licence by the Chinese Government to open a campus in Suzhou, 90km west of Shanghai, in partnership with Xi’an Jiaotong University, a top 10 institution in China.

It will also host a week-long international event this October aimed at forging closer ties around the world that will benefit the local

economy as well as the university.

Mr Flamson said: “In that sense, the university is a real gem in the city.

“When the city region was going through troubled economic and social times, it was almost as if the university was a constant beacon of high standards, of excellence, attracting people from around the world to study here or do business with it.

“That constancy has been a major gift to the city. But the university sees itself very much of the city, in the city, but not restricted to the city in respect of its development or its services.

“The best way I could put that, if I was using a strapline, is I would say the university is rooted in the city, but in touch with the whole world.

And that international dimension is one of the main contributions that it can make to the city and its profile and its attractiveness for all sorts of people.”

He added: “The university’s institutional weight is very, very significant.

“Because it bears the name of the city, the brand reputations are inter-linked, so not only does the university project supremely positive images of this city, it means also that the university needs the city to prosper, and so wants to contribute to the city’s economic, social and cultural life, because there is a symbiosis in their fortunes.”

The university is a significant regional economic driver in its own right with a turnover of more than £350m, nearly 5,000 staff, 16,500

in the power and energy market for 40 years. The company has expanded its based to include the new centre at Capenhurst, near Chester intellectual property rights really depends on individual circumstances, funding channels and so on.

“To be honest, we are almost full now, so it has been a very successful launch and now we will be looking to expand."

The centre is a unique idea that has already captured the attention of ministers. Energy secretary David Miliband toured the site earlier this

year and was impressed with some of the work taking place. Products being developed include an award-winning fault detection monitor for electricity sub-stations.

The ideas were taken back to Whitehall for digestion.

The Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) is a partner in the project and contributed a £1.5m grant towards the construction of the facility.

Four electricity network operators (CE Electric, Electricity North West, Scottish Power and Scottish & Southern Energy) are also project partners and will provide financial assistance to the start-ups via the “Innovation Funding Incentive”, which is an Ofgem-approved scheme for supporting innovation.

The Capenhurst Energy Innovation Centre is designed to enable start-up companies and

individuals to nurture smart ideas.

The project will create at least 60 new jobs and 18 new business startups over the next two years.

Thompson added: “The centre provides the environment and resources which will enable occupiers to deliver technology solutions with tangible benefits and return on investment for their customers, develop into profitable and growing independent companies

and be part of an expanding community of technology innovators serving the energy sector.

“The idea originated here but has grown its reputation very quickly, and it’s pleasing to note that high-profile government ministers have been impressed with what we have achieved here.”

The EA Technology group's expertise in power asset management now has a global reputation in both existing and emerging markets.

Growth is occurring across the Far East, Middle East, Asia Pacific region and more recently a subsidiary was set up in Australia.

Thomson said the company’s greatest assets are the people combination of seasoned engineers and some of the brightest minds in the industry, underlying EA Technology’s combination of intellectual excellence and real world know-how.

Technological expertise covers asset management, maintenance policy and practice, data management, failure analysis and forensics, energy efficiency, distributed generation, renewables, power storage, economics and regulation.

Sector experience includes electricity and non-electricity utilities, railways, retailing, process engineering, petrochemicals and public sector power users.

“We have the expertise to improve the efficiency and cost effectiveness of a vast range of power systems, from generation to final consumer.

Put simply: we know what works, in engineering and commercially”, adds Thompson.

“In many areas of the world, emerging countries are developing more advanced systems of various kinds and are looking to Western expertise to help them. We see ourselves as providing a leading consultancy role.”

Over the last 10 years, EA Technology has expanded its customer base into the rail, petrochemicals and industrial sectors.

He said involvement in the petrochemical industry, for example, has taken the firm from the oil rigs of the North Sea to the plains of Africa, from Scotland to Dubai.

Consultancy services are sought after from Ireland to the Philippines, and from Latvia to New Zealand.

“In addition, we are also expanding our overseas distributor network, which currently covers over 30 countries.

“And we are constantly developing new products, with the aim of enabling our customers to run their businesses more safely and effectively,” said Thompson.

The Electricity Council, made up of regional power companies, set up Capenhurst as a research site for the industry in the 1960s.

It has been involved in numerous examples of ground-breaking research. One breakthrough resulted in the development of a new, low-cost ozoniser to treat drinking water, treatment of sewage, the purification of some trade wastes and in the control of smells.

Back in the sixties, it also announced a pollution-beating electric motor car powered by a sodium sulphide battery.

The Daily Post, reporting the breakthrough at the time, said it would slash pollution from an estimated 500,000 commercial vehicles.

Sadly, that dream never became a reality as it was discovered the

CONTINUED ON PAGE 12

11

THE BIG INTERVIEW STUART THOMPSON

EDUCATION

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 9 OU could almost imagine Stuart Thompson breaking into song when he said EA Technology's mission was to "make the world a better place".

Recently departed pop icon Michael Jackson had the same notion when he sang Heal the World, an anthem about how love can make a difference to people's lives.

EA's aspirations are more practical; combating climate change through energy efficiency and power management.

Based at Capenhurst, outside Chester, it has been private since 1997 when the management bought out the enterprise from its regional electricity company owners.

But whether publicly or privately owned, it has always been at the cutting edge of electricity technology, and has also now branched out into new sectors like rail, petrochemicals and retail.

More recently, it has formed a subsidiary, EA Technology Ventures, and created the Energy Innovation Centre to develop bright ideas and take them to market.

Stuart Thompson is the man charged with exploiting the commercial potential of new ideas.

He is currently acting group managing director in the absence of Robert Davis. He said: "One of our key drivers is energy efficiency and carbon reduction. It really is all about making the world a better place.

“We can do our bit and help develop technologies that make a difference and are cost-effective.

“However, the biggest task as far as consumers are concerned is changing behaviour. Even with encouragement and education, it would be difficult to succeed if something is too costly."

To illustrate this, it has been notable that electricity companies have been keen to hand out free lowenergy, long-lasting light bulbs in the hope that consumers will be encouraged to buy green products.

They are dearer than conventional bulbs to buy but last far longer, so are more cost-effective in the long run.

By swapping a normal bulb to an energy-saving bulb you could cut wastage by three-quarters and save £9 on your electricity bill. It might seem like small change, but if every home in the UK changed just three light bulbs, enough energy would be saved to light the UK’s street lamps.

Thompson is passionate about his role in helping to address such topical issues: " “The business here started in the sixties as a research centre for the electricity industry, and as a result we still retain all the contacts that were initially made in those early days.

“Ventures is a subsidiary of the group that is looking to tackle the challenges the industry faces. I would describe us as a funding catalyst for people or organisations with bright ideas, although in some cases we can take an equity stake.

“Our expertise through the energy innovation centre is providing the space and technical expertise to enable these ideas to be developed into a commercial reality.

“It is a bit like a Dragon's Den situation, with people trying to sell us their ideas, and we decide whether they fit the bill. It can be anyone from the man in the garden shed to large corporate organisations. And, like one of the Dragons, we can then provide the expert advice and contacts to develop

Y

10

Robert Davis, of EA Technology, was Cheshire Business person of the year in 2008. He receives his award from Cllr Steve Wilkinson

In the shadow of the Metropolitan Cathedral, the latest phase of Liverpool Science Park, IC2

for both town and gown plans for international expansion of the Liverpool brand to Neil Hodgson

Inside the innovation centre at EA Technology headquarters the basic idea." One company that has set up a base at the centre is Secure Electrans, which provides smart meters to monitor energy use in the home and offices. It is also hoped the company should be able to provide both electricity and gas prepayment metering services at costs well below that of the existing systems.

Centrica, through its British Gas Energy division, has acquired 22% of

Secure Electrans for a stake of £4m.

Secure Electrans is developing an in-home payment device which will allow prepayment customers to make payments from the convenience of their home. This device will be available exclusively to British Gas customers and commercial roll-out is expected to commence in the next 12 months.

SureNET Technology is a new venture spin-off from EA Technology,

EA Technology has been at the cutting edge of innovation set within the Energy Innovation Centre to develop innovative power restoration systems for the electricity network and rail industries.

SureNET's initial mission is to develop and bring to market four groundbreaking innovations.

There are a number of advantages to being located at the centre, including networking, licensing and intellectual property advice and

mentoring.

The idea is to build a creative community, says Thompson. He explains: "We have a good proposition and the ability to form working proposals which can get stuff to the market-place. We have offices, labs, testing facilities, but in some cases firms do not need to be occupants but can take advantage of facilities we offer.

“The other areas such as

students on campus and almost 4,000 other students studying in more than 150 countries online for a University of Liverpool degree.

But it can also enable wider economic growth through backing for sectors such as the knowledge economy firms at the burgeoning Liverpool Science Park to providing its vast array of expertise and services in closer links with local businesses.

Not only is it producing 5,000 highly-skilled potential workers every year, it can work with firms on specific issues or improve their workforce to tackle issues and make local businesses more efficient.

Mr Flamson said: “We need to get our messages clearer to people in plain language that this university is not sitting up on a hill removed from

the stuff of commerce.” That involvement can range from a simple placement with a small firm, to long-term collaborations with industry leaders that can lead to significant improvements to peoples’ lives.

Mr Flamson said many firms who may grudgingly accept a student placement soon realise the potential that these youngsters offer: “They are supremely bright, young and energetic with lots of ideas and coming into companies with lots of skills those companies don’t have.

“They are highly proficient in ICT, are almost like instinctive researchers and can address real pressing business problems.

“We don’t think that message is fully understood, particularly by small companies who tend to think

graduates must be for all the bigger employers.

“Well, no. They can be transforming, so that’s one thing we can offer, just through student placements.”

He said another area the university intends to work closer with local industries on is up-skilling existing workforces and on consultancy work.

“We are particularly interested in very pressing specific problems that they may have, some of which may be technical or business process related.

“Universities are a huge den of talent and probably more than any other business can pull together this mixed team to look at all aspects of a business problem.”

On a bigger scale, and usually

classified as “research”, the university commits to longer-term collaborations with groups, such as Port Sunlight’s global consumer business Unilever, on “a process of mutual discovery.”

Mr Flamson explained: “We have a Materials Discovery Centre looking to invent new products that could have applications in household products, new pharmaceutical products, or new medical products.

“We also do what you might call diagnostics with companies and have an Innovation Academy where we get companies to look creatively at some of their business problems.

“We will have a management specialist meeting, then we bring the chemist in, then realise we need a different way of looking at this and bring in the clinical psychologist and

then the engineer and, lo and behold, they get the solution.

“That’s about helping businesses think innovatively, not just about new products, but about service innovation.”

Mr Flamson added: “The story in all of this is the university knows what it is. It is a significant institution in the city.

“It cares about the city and wants to engage with it, and it believes it has got a lot to offer.

“Not just in terms of its economic weight or the services direct to businesses, or public agencies, but also in terms of its institutional and thought leadership.

“Package all of that up and that is a big offer to the city.

“And the time has come for the university to shout about it more.”

35

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Liverpool Sound City making a noise in Japan’s music sector

THE BIG INTERVIEW

Changing the world

BY BARRY TURNBULL

Merseyside music festival promoters head to Tokyo to promote region’s music bands and businesses BIG in Japan is the name of a 1970s punk band from Liverpool whose members included Holly Johnson, Bill Drummond, Ian Broudie and Jayne Casey.

But it is also the aim of local music promoters Liverpool Sound City.

Becky Ayres, international manager of Liverpool Sound City, was part of a delegation of UK music industry leaders which went to Japan this month.

The mission, organised by UK Trade & Investment and the British Phonographic Industry, spent five days forging links between the UK and Japan.

It is the world’s second-largest music market but is seen as difficult for foreign artists to enter as up to 80% of its chart acts are homegrown – although the UK remains the largest exporter of music to Japan after the US. Phil Patterson, UKTI’s Music Industry Specialist, said: “The originality of UK music makes it a major influence on the world’s music scene.

“However, British music companies still need to know the right people to talk to. The aim of this mission was to help them network with the power brokers in the Japanese industry.”

Liverpool Sound City was held for the second time this May, with gigs at venues throughout the city alongside a conference .

Ms Ayres said: “It was to get out and meet with the key Japanese music industry people.

“Japan is the second-biggest market in the world and Japanese music is getting fairly popular. It’s a real draw for a lot of UK music industry people.

“We wanted to get the word out to promote our Liverpool and

Dubai events to artists, record labels, publishers and others who would come over.

“They are also in a position to licence and help UK artists in Japan.

“I was really pleased with the response we had. The Beatles are still very popular, so we had a lot of people who wanted to come here anyway. There were quite a few very senior people with record labels and music associations who said they will come to Liverpool and Dubai.”

Liverpool Sound City organisers will be taking Merseyside bands and music businesses to the United Arab Emirates for Dubai Sound City from November 5-7 – under the slogan Sheikh, Rattle and Roll.

They say they want to sell Merseyside bands and music businesses to an audience from as far afield as South Africa and Australia.

It is hoped the three-day music festival and a two-day music conference event would become an annual fixture in the emirate’s cultural calendar.

Ms Ayres added: “I work with the export organisations around the world who want to help their artists break into the UK. The managers, labels, can come over and network and meet people from the music industry.

“It’s really exciting having lots of people over. Lots of people who come to Liverpool Sound City have never been to Liverpool before and really enjoying seeing the city and all the great venues that the city has got.

“Internationally, there are a lot of people who love the idea of coming to Liverpool, but have never been, who are attracted by the music.”

Big In Japan on stage with Jayne Casey flanked by Holly Johnson, left, and Bill Drummond, right

Providing an expert language solution to international dispute resolution

36

final settlement to problems that had threatened to drag on for months.

Expert Language Solutions provides live interpreters for dispute forums who can provide both written and verbal real-time online translation support. The firm manages a network of 500 translators working in 65 languages to provide transcription, translation, interpreting and business culture briefing.

Expert Language Solutions’ managing director, Jessica Houghton, said: “A popular

course of action to resolve such disputes is, of course, mediation.

“Such mediations can and are frequently conducted in English but there is an increasing call for other international languages as the global business market expands.

Translation is an important factor in international, multilingual disputes.

Graham Ross, at The Mediation Room, said: “The internet and e-commerce, by its very nature, results in an increasing amount of

international business. Sadly, it is in the nature of business that disputes do, from time to time, arise – hence the important role of TheMediationRoom.

“One of the most important issues at present is to address not just the different languages but the cultural differences involved in the management and approach to disputes.

“We were attracted by the fact that ELS provide not just translation of the words used but, importantly, localisation to ensure nuance and custom are not overlooked.”

EA Technology is a champion for green energy. Acting managing director Stuart Thompson explains why.

▲ ▲

Jessica Houghton, of ELS

TWO Liverpool businesses have joined up to provide a mediation service to businesses all over the world.

Translation and interpretation firm Expert Language Solutions (ELS) is working with online business The Mediation Room to enable international disputes to be resolved.

Public and private sector organisations have used the multi-lingual mediation service to come to resolutions with firms all around the world, including Argentina, Costa Rica, and Poland, to bring a quick and

9

Do you have a great idea?

If you have a great idea for a product or service related to the energy industry, the Energy Innovation Centre can help it become reality.

What is the Energy Innovation Centre?

The Energy Innovation Centre is a specialist business incubator. We are dedicated to helping new ideas related to the energy sector become commercial reality.

How can we help you?

“The support of the Energy Innovation Centre, and the funding they helped us secure, has been an essential factor in us developing the first of many next-generation energy technologies” Mike McCormack, Managing Director, FMC-Tech Ltd.

We can help you find funding from: • Energy industry grant funds through the Innovation Funding Incentive (IFI) with direct links to four of the UK’s largest Energy Companies • Equity funding through our network of Equity Investment Partners • Public Sector grant funding We can support your business: Energy Innovation Centre also connects businesses to: • The R&D teams of some of the key energy industry players • Technical support to validate new technologies • A professional business support network • Potential customers in the energy sector We can even offer high-quality office space in an industry incubator located in the North West of England. Relocation to the incubator is not compulsory, although we hope to encourage innovative new energy businesses to relocate to the region.

Is it right for me?

We welcome applications from anyone with an innovation that has the potential to become a marketable product or service within the field of energy.

Find out more

To find out how to turn your energy idea into a commercial reality, contact us: Web: www.energyinnovationcentre.com Phone: 0151 347 2433 Email: info@energyinnovationcentre.com

Supported by:

8

In partnership with:

37

THE NETWORKER

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

THE BUSINESS LIST

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Friday, August 28

The monthly Finish@5pm networking event organised by mynetworkingpa.com is at The Chameleon Bar, Back Colquitt Street (behind FACT). For more information on this free event, call 0845 301 7406.

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11/ INAUGURAL LUNCH MEETING, RUGBY CLUB OF LIVERPOOL

Designs on Danish furniture

Elaine Cunninghan brings exclusive BoConcept store to Chapel Street LIVERPOOL will open its doors to stylish Danish furniture designer BoConcept on Friday, September 11, 2009, bringing considerable investment to the region.

The store is to be situated on Chapel Street, within the sister tower of the Unity Building, and is an iconic RIBA award-winning building.

A stone’s throw from the newly-opened Liverpool One area, BoConcept Liverpool is set to become a destination store in the newly- regenerated city.

Providing contemporary furniture for the working, sleeping, dining and lounge functions of the home, BoConcept offers affordable yet quality, flexible furniture which can be adjusted to suit rapidly-changing lifestyle needs.

This unique system sets BoConcept ahead of the crowd, placing the international chain of stores, which designs and manufactures all its products

Tuesday, September 1 The next 1stuesday breakfast event is at 7.45am at Foodini Restaurant, The Heath Business and Technical Park. September’s meeting will be the first themed as a healthy breakfast, all about what to do to improve your lifestyle and be fitter, smarter and develop a healthy business life. It is free to Halton Chamber members and £10 for non-members. To book, contact Nicola Holland on 01928 516142 or email nicolah@haltonchamber.com.

Wednesday, September 2 Chester Business Growth Club, hosted by CEPNW Chamber, is at Mollington Banastre, Chester, from 7.30am-9am. After breakfast, there is a five-minute presentation from a member company on the topic of business growth, which is followed by structured networking. The event costs £11.50 for CEPNW Chamber members and £23 for non-members. To book, visit www.cepnwchamber.org.uk or call 01244 669988.

in Denmark, at the forefront of cutting-edge design and innovation.

Fast becoming the number one brand globally within home furnishings, the Danish furniture brand already has UK stores in London (Harrods, Notting Hill, Selfridges and Tottenham Court Road), Glasgow, Bournemouth and Leeds.

Elaine Cunningham, owner of BoConcept Liverpool said: “When looking for a location in Liverpool, the reputation of 20 Chapel Street as a premier destination for office and luxury living, as well as amazing design, was the perfect choice to showcase BoConcept’s contemporary interiors collection.

“We are delighted to open BoConcept in Chapel Street, and introduce some Danish interior designs to north- west shoppers.”

Elaine Cunningham will own the new franchise store following three years of her

own interior design showroom, which also acted as a successful BoConcept studio, on Aigburth Road, Liverpool.

Elaine continued: “We are very excited to open this new store at a time when, despite the current eco- nomic doom and gloom, BoConcept furniture continues to be an excellent choice for stylish homes across the country.”

The collection features light design in vibrant colours and soft shapes for a more relaxed form of minimalism including stunning, lounging sofas that still incorporate the simple lines that BoConcept is renowned for.

Statement pieces such as asymmetric wall systems are also featured in the new collection; giving the impression of organised chaos, for a more decorative look.

One of BoConcept’s other “unique selling tools” is the cutting edge 3-D imaging system, Furnish.

This interior decorating

software allows customers to create their own piece of furniture or design a room creating a completely bespoke look.

In addition, BoConcept’s free design consultancy service can arrange a home visit to talk customers through the latest trends to help find a look that will work in their space.

The designers use personal style, daily routine and existing furniture as a basis to create a bespoke floor plan making visualising the customer’s ideal home become a reality.

With 220 stores and 120 studios in major department and independent stores across 52 countries worldwide, BoConcept is a leader in the interior design world.

■ BoConcept Liverpool, Chapel Street, Liverpool, L3 9AG. Telephone: 0845 612 6600 or visit the website: www.boconcept.co.uk/

The iconic 20 Chapel Street is a fitting location for BoConcept

Wednesday, September 2 Merseycare will share its expertise in understanding mental health issues and their relationship to the world of work and business and much more. The business breakfast, organised by Liverpool Chamber of Commerce, is at The Mocha Lounge, from 7.45am-9am, costs £15. To book, contact Sue Platt or Melissa Bush on 0151 227 1234 or e-mail events@liverpool chamber.org.uk.

Tuesday, September 8 St Helens Chamber is holding a free seminar on the opportunities for the London 2012 Olympic Games, for St Helens firms, from 9am-1pm. It is teaming up with the NWDA to provide information about

St Helens’s Chris Joynt, pictured here lifting the Challenge Cup at Twickenham in 2001, will be at the rugby-themed networking event THE first live virtual rugby club in the country – unaffiliated with a team, or indeed a code – will be launched on Friday, September 11.

It is aimed at business people in the city who want to get together in an informal setting.

The inaugural lunch meeting of the Rugby Club of Liverpool will be held at the Fly in the Loaf, in Hardman Street.

Club co-founder and Daily Post sports columnist Sean McGuire said: “At lots of networking events in the

maximising the chance to win new business leading up to, during and after the event. For more, contact Rachel Leigh on 01744 742035.

city, conversation very quickly turns to sport so we are effectively turning it on its head.

“We already have strong interest from business people who stopped networking several years ago because they were

seeing the same old faces say the same old things. We are looking to recreate the friendly, relaxed atmosphere that is associated with rugby clubs in Liverpool, a city with lots of fans but no club of its own.”

At the first event,

includes lunch. To book, call Liverpool Chamber on 0151 227 1234.

Tuesday, September 15 A seminar entitled Making IT communications work for you is being held by BT and Liverpool Chamber of Commerce. The free event, from 10am-1pm, will take delegates through an easy-tounderstand session on how to get the very best from IT and communications. To book, call 0151 227 1234.

Friday, September 18 Networking group Evolve West Lancs is holding its monthly meeting at O'Este Restaurant, Ormskirk. It is from 12.30pm-2pm, costs £8.70+VAT and includes sandwiches. For more details, call 01695 660750.

Tuesday, September 15

The Mocha Lounge, Sir Thomas Street

38

A seminar on climate change and business is being held at the Foresight Centre, University of Liverpool, Brownlow Street. It will look at the impact that climate change legislation will have on the region and its businesses, adaptation to new regulatory requirements and the developing

former St Helens and Great Britain player Chris Joynt will be joined by other distinguished guests from both codes of rugby.

■ FOR more information telephone Dominic Hornsby at the Fly in the Loaf on 0151 708 0817.

St Helens Chamber is holding a seminar about how firms can benefit from the 2012 Olympics low carbon economy. The Carbon Trust and the Environment Agency will also talk about how businesses can reduce their carbon footprint.

The event is from 9:30am-1pm and

Wednesday, Sept 23 Liverpool Curry Club, run by mynetworkingpa.com, is holding its monthly hot networking event from 6pm-8pm at Sultan’s Palace, Victoria Street. The event costs £15 for unlimited food and a free drink on arrival. For more information, e-mail info@ mynetworkingpa.com

7

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

BUSINESS MATTERS with Steve Sankson, of The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest in Merseyside STEVE SANKSON, Regional Director for The Royal Bank of Scotland and NatWest in Merseyside, explains what support is available to SMEs at the present time, and looks at the practical steps that businesses can take to help get through the difficult economic climate ■ SMALL and medium-sized businesses form the backbone of the North West’s economy, with the majority of the region’s companies employing fewer than 50 people. Given the difficult economic conditions at present, many of these businesses are quite rightly looking to their bank for practical help and support.

Earlier this year, the RBS Group announced a series of initiatives which included a commitment to make available £16bn-worth of new lending to UK businesses over the next 12 months. So far, over 100,000 businesses have benefited from RBS loans this year, and we are currently providing over 5,000 loans per week to businesses.

Across the North West, we are working with organisations such as Business Link, the Chambers of Commerce and other professional advisors to offer practical advice and guidance to our customers, and later this year we will be hosting a series of SME seminars across the region, which are designed to give practical assistance and advice to business owners.

Our Merseyside-based teams continue to actively promote the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme (EFG) as a lending option. To date, we have led the field in taking applications with over £200m-worth of loans agreed or in the pipeline across the whole of the UK. Recent figures from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) show that, of all EFG lending across the industry, NatWest and RBS have provided nearly half of all loans drawn down.

Recent local examples of EFG transactions include a £100k loan to Liverpool-based Aimes Grid Services to support their expansion plans, and a £200k loan to CAL Systems, in Chester, to help safeguard the company’s future, after one of their major

clients unexpectedly changed its payment terms. To counteract the difficult economic conditions, we are helping many SME customers realign their business models and address key issues like cashflow and cost management.

Many profitable businesses run into difficulties because they don’t have sufficient checks in place to predict short or medium-term cash needs. In today’s climate, being able to confidently forecast cash requirements (and ensure you have sufficient funding lines) will go a long way to ensuring your business can take advantage of opportunities as they arise.

Recent research conducted

by NatWest shows that almost 40% of small and mediumsized companies have no cash management strategy in place and almost a third (29%) take no action at all to ease their cashflow issues. These figures are a real concern and our number one priority at present is ensuring we are talking to business owners about what we can do to help and examine what practical steps they can put in place to address these issues. To help businesses manage their cashflow more efficiently, NatWest and RBS have created a practical guide which provides key tools to enable businesses monitor this issue.

The guide, which is available from www.natwest.com and www.rbs.com, also contains information on what constitutes a viable business and an insight into what kind of information the bank would expect businesses to prepare when they are looking to secure funding. We have found that the most important thing a business can do right now is review their operations and question what they are doing and why? What changes can they make to their business model and how they operate?

Next month we will build on these themes. The pleasing thing is that we are starting to see positive signs in terms of number of start-ups and business activity generally.

There are opportunities out there and making sure businesses are well-placed to take advantage of these is a key priority for us.

‘We are helping many SMEs to realign business models’

6

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

SOCIAL DIARY THE NETWORKER

Accountants say Bank is set to print more money

Governor wanted to expand quantitative easing programme

Lord and Lady Derby, Paul Adams, and Rupert and Sarah Maitland-Titterton

Bill Holroyd, Simon Parker, and Paul Heathcote at Paul Adams’s party

CAROLYN HUGHES Patrick Adams, Lisa Bentinck, Paul Adams, and Loren Downing at Paul Adams’s party

Bank of England governor Mervyn King – wanted to increase the quantitative easing programme by £75bn to £200bn THE Bank of England looks set to pump more money into the UK economy on top of the billions already announced, Merseyside accountants agree.

The Bank surprised many analysts this month by announcing a £50bn package of quantitative easing (QE) – higher than many had predicted.

Last week, the minutes of the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC)’s latest meeting revealed that the Bank’s Governor, Mervyn King, was one of three policymakers keen to increase the Bank’s QE programme by £75bn to £200bn.

The decision to instead increase QE by £50bn was passed after six members voted in favour, but Mr King and the dissenters argued that there was less harm in boosting money supply by too much than there would be by too little.

The MPC minutes also revealed the committee was unanimous in voting to keep interest rates at their historic low of 0.5%.

Leading Liverpool accountants say the Bank looks to be getting set for another round of QE. Barry Flynn, senior partner at Ernst & Young, in Liverpool, said: “Interest

rates are likely to remain pinned down to their 0.5% floor well into next year, and are likely to rise at a steady pace thereafter. The mid-to-long term outlook for inflation is quite weak, so rates are unlikely to be pushed up too rapidly.

“On the face of it, it appears that QE has yet to make much of an impact – the economy shrank faster than anticipated between April and June. However, without the policy in place, the growth figures may well have looked worse.

“With three out of the nine MPC members voting for a bigger expansion of the programme this month (including the Governor), and the Bank’s own weak projections for inflation, they have left the door open for more QE. “The current round of asset purchases should be completed by the end of October, so a lot hangs on whether the economy picks up faster than expected, and whether inflation falls as far as forecast.”

Brian Clark, senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Liverpool, said: “It is likely that we will see a continuing focus on quantitative easing by the Bank to ease liquidity and credit conditions in key financial markets.

ENTREPRENEUR Paul Adams celebrated his birthday with friends and family at a spectacular Moroccan-themed party in the grounds of his Lancashire home.

Mr Adams, whose business ventures include The Vincent Hotel and Warehouse Brasserie, both in Southport, welcomed guests including Alex Curran, Kenny and Marina Dalglish, Lord and Lady Derby, script writer Lisa Bentinck and chef Paul Heathcote.

■ THE Isla Gladstone Conservatory, in Stanley Park, celebrated the culmination of a multi-million pound

restoration and conversion project with a series of launch events to showcase the venue.

The Victorian Conservatory is now the centrepiece of the park which links Anfield and Goodison football grounds.

■ THE Living Room, in Victoria Street, Liverpool, hosted an evening to showcase its new menu changes to selected clients. Guests were treated to fine wines, Champagne and a selection of dishes.

New starters and main courses went down well, but the winner of the evening was the superb mini sweet sharing platter.

Winnie Chan, Ian Ayres (commercial director, Liverpool FC), Alan Kennedy, Sue Franklin, Chloe Franklin, and Phil Neal, at the Gladstone Conservatory, in Stanley Park

Barry Flynn, senior partner at Ernst & Young, in Liverpool “Has quantitative easing had an impact? It's hard to tell. However, recent business surveys and data releases point to a significant moderation in the rate of decline in the second quarter of 2009.

“In addition, consumer and business confidence has become less negative and the housing market has also shown some tentative signs of stabilising.

“In terms of interest rates, we expect the bank rate at 0.5% to remain there or there abouts for the rest of 2009.”

Neil Sturmey, managing partner from Grant Thornton in Liverpool, said: “There are signs the Bank of England’s action last month has had

some effect on the economy.

Lending markets are slowly returning to normal with the margin between LIBOR (inter-bank rate) and the Bank base rate narrowing considerably over the past few months.

“But, quantitative easing seems to have had very little impact on money supply growth, which is still at very low levels. As this has not picked up, there is scope to increase quantitative easing even further, and I would expect the Bank to pump a further £25bn into the economy in the October or November meeting.

“My prediction is this will be the last of the quantitative easing measures.”

Liverpool FC legends Alan Kennedy, Jamie Carragher and Phil Neal, at the Gladstone Conservatory, in Stanley Park

Actress Suzanne Collins at the Gladstone Conservatory

Esther McVey and Paul Adams at his birthday party

Glenda Gittins, Beverley Doyle and Mandy Molby at the Living Room menu tasting

39

THE NETWORKER

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

BUSINESS LUNCH

ADVERTISING FEATURE

Dame Ellen opens sail centre

Ellen MacArthur and Stepclever toast the success of local sailing and diving school Alistair Houghton tries out Bar Italia, in Castle Street, with Switch Media creative director Chris Evans EETING Chris Evans in Liverpool’s Bar Italia proved, in the best possible way, to be a real meeting of new and old.

Chris’s company, Switch Media, is one of Merseyside’s leading digital businesses, with clients from Harley Davidson to Samsung.

It’s a business that’s winning a national reputation, making the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 rankings for two years in a row, and is now offering new broadband and telephony services to help it win new business.

Meanwhile, Bar Italia – this year celebrating a decade in business – is an unashamedly old-fashioned Italian restaurant with hearty portions and a family feel.

Tucked away down a flight of stairs from street level, it’s a bit of a hidden gem – and that’s how Chris sees his company. Switch, he says, has kept a low profile up to now, but is keen to make itself known in Merseyside and beyond.

He said: “The excellent quality creative team that Aaron Bimpson has put in place has won a lot of recognition for the work it does..

“That, coupled with the strong technical capability we have and with all the technical infrastructure we have, allows us to attract clients such as Harley Davidson, Universal Music Group and most recently Samsung.

“We’re now being invited to tender for projects we would never previously have been offered or known about.

“We see ourselves as the quiet Liverpool company that hasn’t said much in the past and has been growing quietly.

“Now we have ambitions to be a major player in the sector.”

After the restaurant’s attentive staff had escorted us to a table, we nibbled on grissini breadsticks as Chris told me how he and fellow Liverpool John Moores University student Mr Bimpson started the business back in 2002.

Aaron brought the creative skills while Chris, a software engineering student, brought the technical know-how he had gained both through his course and through work he had already done at local internet service providers.

They both left university to concentrate on Switch.

Chris said: “We noticed that, though there were lots of hosting companies out there, there were none with their own design function.

Likewise, design companies didn’t do much in the way of hosting.”

M

40

The company is run as two divisions – hosting, led by Chris, and creative services, led by Mr Bimpson.

The Switch board is completed by Stuart McBain. He got to know the business in its early days, and was so impressed he made an equity investment and eventually came back. In their first year, Chris and Aaron turned over some £34,000, but the following year turnover more than trebled as Switch’s reputation grew.

At first, Switch had to outsource its hosting services, even while they were managed by Chris, simply due to lack of space. But when it moved to Fenwick Street, around the corner from our lunch venue, Switch was able to build its own secure infrastructure.

As we chatted, our starters arrived.

Chris had vegetable soup while my choice was a tuna and bean salad.

It was a tart, lemony mix of beans, tuna and onion, managing to be both filling and refreshing.

Switch boasts around 15,000 web hosting customers.

“A lot of our success is down to the systems we’ve put in place internally,” said Chris.

“As a web company, we’ve got an internal intranet we manage everything from. We know it frees staff from admin work. Everything is as highly automated as possible so there’s as little paper running around the office as possible.”

Switch has also grown along with its customers, as they have expanded and want to do more with their websites.

“When they came on board, they were larger SMEs,” said Chris.

“They’ve matured and so have we.

These companies are requiring much more demanding services.

There’s a natural element of growth with the clients we’re working for.”

For my main course, I went for the Rigatoni della Casa, billed as a “selection of fish” in a tomato, cream and white wine sauce, while Chris went for roasted peppers stuffed with vegetables.

Experience had taught me not to expect much fish in such a dish, but when Bar Italia says “a selection” it really means it as the bowl was packed with chunks of salmon, white fish and squid in a flavoursome sauce.

Chris and his team had started preparing for Switch to be floated on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) last year, but the plan was shelved thanks to unfavourable economic conditions.

Last year, Switch suffered what Chris admits was a disappointing year and parts of its business

STEPCLEVER is an initiative to generate an enterprise culture in North Liverpool and South Sefton, by offering free business advice and support, as well as grants and other financial assistance for existing enterprises, start-up companies and individuals.

Here, we look at an exciting venture which is being helped by Stepclever.

LONG-DISTANCE yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur has launched an Dame Ellen MacArthur exciting new centre enabling years olds in Merseyside. It young people to learn about is the only centre of its type sailing and diving. in the UK. The state-of-the-art Ellen MacArthur said: "I Glaciere Sail Dive centre, at was really excited to be Oakmere Community asked to open the new College, in Walton, provides Glaciere centre, at Oakmere vocational training, exciting Community College, which is positive activities and basic skills to disadvantaged 13-19 providing some brilliant

facilities for local people to go sailing and diving.”

The centre has been created from what was previously an industrial unit, never before used for learning. Its development has been supported by a £50,000 grant from the social enterprise strand of the Stepclever Enterprise Gateway. It also received funding from the Youth Sector Development Fund.

The new purpose-built nautical style centre will allow Oakmere to offer further learning and enrichment opportunities to students, enabling them to progress to employment, education or training.

It has classrooms, meeting rooms, changing facilities, and a retail outlet, and boasts a 6ft deep swimming and diving training pool.

Neil Francom, the

Support for Business

Administration Manager for Oakmere Community College, said: “The new facility brings together two existing charities, Oakmere Community College and Glaciere Sailing and Diving School, and will create a centre of excellence that will

A little bit of Italy in Castle Street – Bar Italia were restructured. But he says the company is now well-placed for growth, and that he still wants it to float at some stage.

“We still intend to pursue that when market conditions allow,” he said. “We are in contact with the same investment network that was prepared to invest.

“We believe that our business model is flexible and we are willing to respond very quickly to the market conditions around us.”

In December, the company also raised £200,000 in a rights issue to pay off its longer-term debt.

Switch set up after the dot.com bubble had burst, leaving behind a fractured web hosting marketplace.

Since then, some consolidation has taken place, but Chris has

Chris Evans

strived to keep Switch independent: “Over the years, we’ve had four takeover offers and we’ve rejected them all,” he said.

Instead, Switch is considering making acquisitions itself. While some talks have fallen through, Chris remains confident Switch will be able to snap up other companies to help its business expand. He says the company is keeping an eye out for distressed assets.

He said: “We are looking out for businesses that will complement our business, our product range and our customers. We can save costs, increase the size of the business and bring talent across from the acquired company.”

To close, we had coffees, served with grapes, cherries, some biscotti and some Bar Italia-branded chocolates.

Chris has ambitious long-term plans, but in the here and now he is busy expanding the services the company offers.

“We’ve just launched a broadband offering,” he said.

“We’ve invested in our technical infrastructure, and it’s all hosted from a data centre in Liverpool.

We’re not reselling it for anybody, we’re doing it ourselves.

“The next thing we’ll add to our product suite is telephony services.

“We’re looking to provide an overall solution to businesses, not so much for the large corporates but for the smaller enterprise that wants to come to a single supplier for broadband, hosting websites and telephony services.”

Chris had to make a hasty departure, but I made sure I had time to try the complimentary limoncello offered at lunchtime. Overall, lunch came to £31.85, including soft drinks.

Bar Italia is the kind of place you might walk past every day without giving it a second thought, but, if pasta’s your thing, then perhaps you should pop down the steps and give it a try.

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.

Oakmere, we are all about helping the most disadvantaged and vulnerable young people.”

■ FOR more information about Glaciere Sailing and Diving School, visit www.oakmere.net

A 3-D schematic design of the Glaciere Sail Dive Centre

LINACRE L NA RE E

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?

provide accredited learning and enrichment activities for our students.

“The capital investment award from Stepclever allows us to provide an exceptionally well-resourced facility which is unique in Greater Merseyside. At

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.

DETAILS Bar Italia 48a, Castle Street, Liverpool L2 7LQ Tel:0151 236 3375 www.baritalialiverpool.com

5

NEWS

Investor acquires 18.5% stake in property group

Cavern Walks, in Liverpool city centre

INVESTMENT fund Hansteen Holdings has acquired an 18.5% stake in troubled property group Warner Estate Holdings.

Warner is the owner of Liverpool’s up-market Cavern Walks shopping mall and the Grange and Pyramids retail centres in Birkenhead.

AIM-listed Hansteen is issuing 3.29m new shares, at 10p each, to help fund the deal.

It had already carried out a £200m equity raising in July.

In early August, Warner admitted it had suffered what it

admitted was “possibly the worst” year in its 118-year history.

It posted pre-tax losses of £297.1m.

Despite selling £80m of property in a bid to cut costs, the speed of the recession affected property values so badly that the group’s gross asset value is now only just above its level of debt, but directors believe they have enough resources to continue as a going concern. The group has convened an extraordinary general meeting to discuss its plight on September 18.

Laser project secures £800,000 cash boost PROJECT to develop laser technology for the benefit of North West firms is to receive more than £800,000 of European cash.

North West Laser Engineering Consortium (NWLEC) is a strategic alliance between the universities of Liverpool and Manchester.

It was established in 2005 with a £2.5m investment from the Northwest Development Agency (NWDA) through the Northwest Science Fund.

Now its work is being given a boost with an £882,000 investment from the Northwest European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

The project has developed international capability at the forefront of laser applications in micro and nano technology, and there is evidence of strong interest in this technology from companies across key growth sectors, particularly advanced engineering.

However, the technology remains unproven in an industrial context, and industry needs access to expertise and support in order to assess its benefits and adapt the technology to optimum solutions.

The money will enable experts on the project to work with companies to provide a link between the knowledge base and companies that want to utilise the technology.

Steven Broomhead, chief executive of the NWDA, said: “The North West is home to a world-class higher education sector, producing cutting-edge research, and is a vital resource for North West businesses.

“This research needs to be more accessible for companies, with the right support in place to enable it to be translated effectively into innovative new products and processes that will ensure they remain competitive.”

A

4

Bright sparks . . . making the most of laser technology

Restaurateur Vince Margiotta

Top 50 for food and drink launch FIFTY of the city’s top bars and restaurants have now signed up for the Liverpool Food and Drink Festival which launches this month.

An opening day carnival of mouth-watering dishes will be served up at Sefton Park on Sunday, Sep 13.

Through the following week, popular eateries will be offering discounted food and drink.

Establishments include The London Carriage Works, Wagamama, Panoramic and Italian Club Fish.

Sponsors for the event include The Mersey Partnership, Liverpool One and Internet marketing and design consultants Ph Creative.

Vince Margiotta, whose Il Forno & Sapporo brands are

also sponsoring the festival and who will be holding daily events, said: “Slowly but surely, we’re building a festival to be reckoned with.

“The support from private sector companies who have worked tirelessly on marketing on this year’s showcase will hopefully inspire others to follow suit in coming years.

“Our aim is to be lauded as one of the UK’s major food & drink festivals in years to come.”

Candice Fonseca, owner of Delifonseca, in Stanley Street, added: “The success of last year’s festival has already created an impressive list of sponsors and supporters for this year’s event, and speaks volumes about the magnitude of the city’s restaurant and bar scene.”

Access Downtown’s Little Black Book Downtown Liverpool in Business Join The Business CluB wiTh ATTITUDE! 0151 227 1633 www.DownTownLIvErpooL.com

41

THE NETWORKER

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

BARRY TURNBULL . . . social networking proves no substitute for the real thing as our man meets a Czech mate and an England cricketer OME people must think I'm terribly rude. I've lost count of the number of invitations I've had to join social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Plexus and the like. I have never replied to any, assuming that senders merely cast out a general invite to whoever is on their mailing list.

I revisited one message recently and found a personal note almost beseeching me to join his LinkedIn gang . . . maybe I should give it a go.

The only social site I did sign up to was Where Are You Now (WAYN), which is designed for people who want to meet new friends while on their travels. I was heading for a solo tour of the Tata mountain region between Poland and the Czech Repblic and thought it may be useful to make some contacts, but in the event WAYN proved to be no real friend. However, by proper social

S

networking – face to face – I met someone who insisted I stay in his flat for a few days while he went to his parents.

A female neighbour of his also proved to be very accommodating.

Despite my reservations, it seems virtual networking as a phenomenon is here to stay, even though, in the online world, things can move very quickly indeed. Take Friends Reunited, bought by ITV for a whopping £175m and sold recently for a knockdown £25m because its popularity has waned. I did have a dip into FR and discovered one school chum's hobby was buying doubledecker buses and another was an international tax consultant . . . I lost my appetite for further knowledge.

There are now sites out there that cater for every taste from Cloob (popular in Iran) to FetLife (bondage, etc).

Now another has crossed my radar. Club Penguin. My 11-year-old son chose to join this young people's site as a reward for doing well in his SATS tests but it's led to all sorts of

complications. Boys tend to follow fads at that kind of age, and it soon became apparent that he had struck up a friendship with someone who has a barn owl for a pet.

Now it's grown into an obsession about getting a bird of prey that was fuelled recently when he was pictured with an eagle at the Wirral Show. Books from the library, internet research, feeding habits, costs; a bombardment that shows no sign of stopping. The plan seems to be to wear me down but it hasn't worked and I've had to curtail use of the website to get some peace.

Maybe it's an age thing but I still can't get any enthusiasm for twittering or blogging. Good old-fashioned direct communications suits me fine. I was thinking about the world of virtual meetings after speaking to someone who knew about such matters at a PR firm’s summer party. Apparently most of the cyber-users have about five close friends, like in real life, but many more casual acquaintances.

So, for many, the virtual world is somewhere they can pick up many more acquaintances than they ever could in real life. Some wear it as a badge of honour with more than 1,000 contacts and some are real nerds with few social skills.

Evidence of this is the way some friends are “dropped”.

AM told that to have in excess of 1,000 friends is not uncommon. It can be a bit like trainspotting. They just want to get as many people on their list as possible.

However, it can start to upset some people. They start by feeling good that they appear to have made a new friend, only to find out that they are simply being added to a list.

This and the nature of online friendship had spawned “the phenomenon of defriending” as a means of severing relationships.

Instead of having a row or pointedly refusing to speak to a friend whose views or behaviour were unacceptable, they could simply have their names deleted.

Interesting, but not for me.

Not so long ago, I lunched at the Restaurant Bar and Grill where I bumped into financial adviser Ian Cockbain who introduced me to his son, Ian jnr. Both used to play cricket for Bootle.

I almost fell off my bar-stool some days later while watching some of the Ashes series when the aforementioned young man joined the England players as a substitute fielder.

Now that's proper contact making, and might be useful for tickets, too.

Although, by the time you read this, hopes of winning the Ashes may well have been dashed.

I

Ian Cockbain Jnr – one day shooing the breeze in the Restaurant Bar and Grill, the next turning out for England against the Aussies

42

INSIDE 4

LDP BUSINESS

17

NEWS

£800,000 boost for laser project

EDITOR Bill Gleeson 0151 472 2319

9 BIG INTERVIEW

bill.gleeson@liverpool.com

Stuart Thompson, EA Technology

DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR Tony McDonough 0151 330 4918

13 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

City retail rents

tony.mcdonough @liverpool.com

14 Offshore tax amnesty

BUSINESS WRITERS Alistair Houghton

16

Barry Turnbull

WEALTH MANAGEMENT

alistair.houghton @liverpool.com

LDP joins forces with Business Link

17 BIG FEATURE

Merseyside’s creative sector

barry.turnbull @liverpool.com

9

CAMPAIGN

Neil Hodgson neil.hodgson @liverpool.com

Alex Turner

4

alex.turner@liverpool.com

HEAD OF IMAGES Barrie Mills

25

barrie.mills@liverpool.com

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

MARKETING EXECUTIVE Litza Gorman 0151 742 2352

Harvesting rainwater

26 HOW GREEN IS YOUR BUSINESS?

ADVERTISEMENT DIRECTOR Debbie McGraw

29

SALES MANAGER Jackie McMahon 0151 472 5077 Trudie Arlett 0151 472 2476

Go-ahead for Peel project

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT Northwest Development Agency

34 EDUCATION

PHOTOGRAPHY Trinity Mirror

36

BUSINESS CLUB INQUIRIES 0151 472 2352

University’s business links

INTERNATIONAL TRADE Sound City in Japan

40

26

38 THE LIST

39

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

SOCIAL DIARY

Carolyn Hughes out on the town

TELEPHONE 0151 227 2000

40

FAX 0151 330 4942

RESTAURANT REVIEW Bar Italia

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.

42 NETWORKER

Online social networking

IT WASN’T a great summer, weather wise, was it? Not exactly the barbecue summer we were promised by our forecasters.

Lured by the prospect of good weather at home and deterred by the pound’s weakness against the euro, we chose to take a holiday in Britain this year.

One place that is definitely showing no sign of recession is the Lake District. I was up there two weeks ago, and the place was bustling. Bowness on Windermere couldn’t physically have handled many more people. According to the man in the ticket office selling boat trips on the lake, 2009 was busier than either of the two previous years.

The same is true of the little Welsh fishing village we also visited, where there are grand plans to build a new

EDITOR’S LETTER quay and hotel because trade has picked up so much in recent years.

We have been visiting the town for a decade now, and it is much busier these days than it was ten years ago.

If Alistair Darling is right, the rest of us are out of recession as well.

That is what he predicted at the time of his last Budget speech.

Britain, he said, would see economic growth in the second half of 2009.

It helps his case that Germany, France and Japan have all recently

published economic data that shows these countries have pulled out of recession. Perhaps the same could be true for us in the near future.

Some signs are encouraging.

Inflation is well and truly under control at the moment, meaning that interest rates can remain low for some time to come yet, thereby assisting the recovery without busting government targets. There are signs of a gradual return of car buyers, though clearly there is a long way to go before those figures return to previous levels.

And some retail data has been surprisingly positive in recent weeks, too.

Yet there has also been a sharp decline in output and the one figure that is not going to pick up again any time soon is unemployment. If the experience of the last recession in Britain is anything to go by, unemployment won’t start to drop for up to four years after the end of the downturn.

Of course, the best piece of good news around at the moment concerns the region’s car industry. Tata has secured the funding it needs for the future, including money it needs to develop new models. There is also some good news from Vauxhall, which has now been sold to a more viable owner. It’s a

great relief. It was touch and go that the region’s car industry would survive the downturn.

But, despite the desperate attempt to find good news lurking somewhere in the tea leaves, there is one very big and obvious piece in the jigsaw that is still missing – namely, the banks.

Yes, foreign banks have gone back home and British banks are trying to rebuild their balance sheets and solvency margins. There must still be some scope for big property investment write-offs to come through in subsequent trading results. But surely it can’t be too long now before they re-enter the market place.

BILL GLEESON 3

£1 50

GREAT VALUE READER HOLIDAYS pl us

Liverpool to Aberdeen and Southampton Day Tripper

up FR o to EE nb PA oa RK rd IN c G re or TR dit AN SP OR T

onboard

Boudicca

departing from Liverpool

Canary Islands Departing 23rd March 2010 for 14 nights

From just

Visiting: Liverpool – Leixoes (Oporto), Portugal – Funchal, Madeira – Santa Cruz, La Palma – Santa Cruz, Tenerife – Las Palmas, Gran Canaria – Casablanca, Morocco – Liverpool.

Eastern Mediterranean Departing 6th April 2010 for 23 nights

Visiting: Liverpool – Cadiz, Spain – Malaga, Spain – Catania, Sicily, Italy – Zakinthos (Zante), Greece – Piraeus (Athens), Greece – Mykonos, Greece – Volos, Greece – Izmir, Turkey – Thira, Santorini, Greece – Valletta, Malta – Eivissa, Ibiza, Spain – Lisbon, Portugal – Liverpool.

From just

Western Mediterranean Departing 29th April 2010 for 14 nights

Visiting: Liverpool – Gibraltar – Alicante, Spain – Barcelona, Spain – Marseille, France – Malaga, Spain – Leixoes (Oporto), Portugal – Liverpool.

Norway Departing 13th May 2010 for 8 nights

Visiting: Liverpool – Bergen, Norway – Flam Sognefjord, Norway – Gudvangen Sognefjord, Norway – Olden Nordfjord, Norway – Alesund – Kirkwell, Orkney Isles – Liverpool.

Baltic Capitals Departing 21st May 2010 for 14 nights

Visiting: Liverpool Skagen Denmark – Ystad Sweden – St Petersburg Russia for 2 days – Tallinn Estonia – Warnemunde Germany – Cruise Kiel Canal – Zeebrugge – At Sea – Liverpool.

Mini Cruise Departing 4th June 2010 for 2 nights Visiting: Liverpool – Dublin – Greenock. FREE Shuttle back to LIVERPOOL

Iberia Departing 11th November 2010 for 9 nights Visiting: Liverpool – La Coruna – Gibraltar – Lisbon Portugal – Vigo Spain – Liverpool.

Cape Verde & The Canaries Departing 20th November 2010 for 18 nights Visiting: Liverpool – Madeira – Tenerife – Mindelo (Cape Verde Islands) La Gomera – La Palma – Lisbon – Liverpool.

Visiting: Liverpool – Madeira – Palma – Tenerife – Gran Canaria – Lanzarote – Lisbon – Liverpool.

With our early morning departures and evening returns every weekday, you’ll be back home in time for bedtime.

Christmas Canaries Cruise Departing 21st December 2010 for 14 nights Visiting: Liverpool – Leixoes Oporto – Lanzarote – Gran Canaria – La Gomera – Tenerife – Palma – Maderia – Liverpool.

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£1589

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From just

£889

From just

£645

From just

£999

From just

£125

From just

£550

From just

Canary Islands Departing 8th December 2010 for 13 nights

£865

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pp

pp

£1139

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From just From just

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£729

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£1499

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* Sailings from NEWCASTLE throughout 2010 are available just ask our consultant for details.

Booking is easy and fully protected

0845 388 0644

*Fares are one way including taxes and charges for travel on/before 23 October 2009, subject to availability. Fares are non-refundable, changes and/or fare upgrade are not permitted. £6 handling fee applies to all credit card bookings oer transaction. 21 day advance purchase required.

Opening hours Monday – Friday 9am to 9pm, Saturday and Sunday 10am – 4pm Prices based on 2 people sharing an inside cabin, all subject to availability, prices correct at time of going to press, prices can change without notice.

2

please quote reference: RT09

simplycruising

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DAILY POST Tuesday, August 25, 2009

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

Conferences, Meetings and Events

LDP BUSINESS w w w . l d p b u s i n e s s . c o . u k S e p t e m b e r 2 0 0 9

2 brand new state-of-the-art conference rooms now available

LDP Campaign – See Inside

They say you shouldn’t mix business with pleasure, but at Formby Hall Golf Resort and Spa it’s difficult not to.

Having five purpose built rooms, each vary to suit the size of meeting or conference, but each have the same quality and state of the art facilties, all set within our 4-star luxury golf resort and spa. ✓ Single serve coffee machines available

✓ Meeting rooms from 2 to 350 delegates ✓ Large LCD televisions for laptop presentation ✓ Free wireless broadband internet access ✓ Fully air conditioned ✓ Direct dial telephone

8 Hour Day Delegate Rate from

Also available on request:

£35

✓ Projector/laptop Hire ✓ Photocopying ✓ Fax machine ✓ Flip Charts & Stationery ✓ Conference hosting

per delegate inclusive

24 Hour Delegate Rate from

£130

per delegate inclusive

Room

Theatre

Class Room

U Shape

Banquet

Board Room

Ambassador Suite

350

108

80

300

60

Diplomat Suite

150

40

50

160

60

Titleist Suite

50

30

20

40

20

Callaway Suite

50

30

20

40

20

Committee Room

25

12

12

N/A

12

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

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