Platinum Business Magazine - issue 96 by Platinum Media Group

platinum ISSUE 96 APRIL 2022

THE LARGEST CIRCULATION REGIONAL BUSINESS PUBLICATION IN THE UK

INFLUENCERS FORUM

Family Businesses

THE INTERVIEW

Grant Bourhill Surrey Research Park

TRAVEL

Cape Town

MOTORING

Audi Q4 e-tron

LAUNCHING

The Central South Business Awards

THE BIG STORY

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY ONE COMEDIAN, TWO BOXERS AND A LUNATIC

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A P R I L 2022

CONT ENT S

INFLUENCERS FORUM

70 LEGAL

16 What is the economic crime act? 30 The cautionary tale of social media 46 Working with Russia in the Brave New World 52 It’s time to evolve your Corporate Governance to enhance the reputation of your company

2 EVENT LAUNCH

BIG STORY

2 Central South Business awards

INTERVIEW

20 The UK’s pioneering Research Park 68 Material girls

CHARITY FOCUS

24 Vlad All Over

INNOVATION

64 Young entrepreneurs get a kickstart in annual StartUp Sussex competition

EVENTS

18 Dynamic awards 38 Sussex Business awards 58 Surrey Business awards 62 Brighton Summit: the final keynote line-up

TRAVEL

80 Cape Town is back, baby and more fabulous than ever!

33 Help create egg-citing memories this Easter 56 Rockinghorse children’s charity supports the mental health crisis in Sussex

FINANCE

36 What are the alternatives to National Savings and Investments? 42 Understanding your business credit score 51 Why should I look for a business mentor?

BUSINESS

40 Find your way forward 54 Case Study: Sourcery

ECONOMY

PLATIN UM

84 MOTORING

84 AUDI Q4 e-tron

PLATINUM MEDIA GROUP

48 NatWest’s market analysis

INNOVATION

64 Young entrepreneurs get a kickstart in annual StartUp Sussex competition

EDUCATION

72 T he purpose and difficulty of GCSE mathematics

All rights reserved. The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of the publisher. The publisher cannot accept responsibility for any errors or omissions relating to advertising or editorial. The publisher reserves the right to change or amend any competitions or prizes offered. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior written consent from the publisher. No responsibility is taken for unsolicited materials or the return of these materials whilst in transit. Platinum Business Magazine is owned and published by Platinum Media Group Limited.

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WELCOME Welcome to the 96th issue of the UK’s largest circulation business magazine. We are delighted to announce the launch of the Central South Business Awards, covering Surrey, Hampshire, Dorset and West Sussex. This is a huge region and a tremendous addition to Platinum’s roster of the major county business awards across the South East. We will also be launching a brandnew magazine, Platinum Hampshire to add to Platinum Surrey and Platinum Sussex. In this issue, we take a look at the world’s latest hero, Volodymyr Zelenskyy – comedian turned national hero. We also have the latest Influencers Forum on the fascinating subject of family-owned businesses and NatWest present the latest PMI stats on the state of the south east’s economy. We interviewed Grant Bourhill, CEO of the pioneering Surrey Research Park, and DMH Stallard explain the pitfalls of the Economic Crime Act. Tess reviews the wonders of Cape Town in the travel section and Maarten got busy with Audi’s latest EV which then got his blood boiling with the rather large elephant in the room! There is so much more in this issue and we hope you enjoy it.

The Platinum Team CONTACTS PUBLISHER/EDITOR: Maarten Hoffmann maarten@platinummediagroup.co.uk COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR: Lesley Alcock lesley@platinummediagroup.co.uk EVENTS DIRECTOR: Fiona Graves fiona@platinummediagroup.co.uk EVENTS EXECUTIVE: Sarah Goldsmith sarah@platinummediagroup.co.uk TR AVEL EDITOR: Tess de Klerk tess@platinummediagroup.co.uk HEAD OF DESIGN: Michelle Shakesby design@platinummediagroup.co.uk PROOFING: Alan Wares alan@platinummediagroup.co.uk

W W W.PL ATINUMME DIAGROUP.CO.UK

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❛❛ The only networking event l ever attend ❜❜ KEITH JACKMAN MERCEDES-BENZ

Michael Pay (Director, EMC Corporate Finance), Maarten Hoffmann (CEO, Platinum) and Barry Carden (MD, Cardens Accountants)

The Platinum Business Club for Leaders and Innovators in Business

Sean Dennis (CEO, Let’s Do Business), Donna Holland (CEO, Rockinghorse), Adrian Alexander (Partner, FRP Advisory)

Julie Sebastianelli (Wealth Management Director, Mattioli Woods), Maarten Hoffmann (CEO, Platinum)

Graham Gayler (Director, Ridgeview Wine Estate), Fiona Anderson (Innovate UK Edge), Sonny Cutting (MD, Sussex Business Show)

❛❛ The networking highlight of my month and never to be missed ❜❜

GARY CHOWN DIRECTOR, NATWEST GROUP

Colin Laidlaw (Partner, Kreston Reeves), Colin Grant (Relationship Director, Lloyds Bank)

Adrian Alexander (Partner, FRP Advisory), Faye Long (Regional Director, Natwest Group), Paul Cannons (Divisional Director, Brewin Dolphin Wealth Management)

Jamie Pellman (Lawyer, Britton & Time), Dan Skipp (Managing Director, White House Block Management), Sophie Campbell-Adams (Lawyer, Britton & Time), Alex Williams (Partner, Burt Brill & Cardens)

Maarten Hoffmann (CEO, Platinum) and Kirsty Sadler (Area Director, Lloyds Bank)

Elizabeth Squires (Lawyer, Britton & Time), Nicky Craddock (Cow Corner), Sophie Campbell-Adams (Lawyer, Britton & Time)

❛❛ The Platinum Club is unique in the way it is run and the high level guests that attend ❜❜ ALAN HARBER DIRECTOR, LLOYDS BANK

The Platinum Club has been the region’s leading peer-to-peer business networking event for CEOs, Managing Directors and Partners of many of the leading companies across the South East for over 12 years. Limited memberships are available and to apply, please contact maarten@platinummediagroup.co.uk

THE PLATINUM CLUB

Rob Clare (Director, Innovation Capital and Chairman of the Sussex Chamber of Commerce), Pam Loch, (MD, Loch Associates)

Nicky Craddock (Cow Corner), Lee Clark (Divisional Director, Brewin Dolphin Wealth Management), Lesley Alcock (Commercial Director, Platinum Media Group)

TARIFFS EASED The US has agreed to ease Trump-era tariffs on UK steel and aluminium shipments, resolving an issue that had strained relations between the allies. The move follows earlier deals with the European Union and Japan over the controversial taxes, which were imposed by former President Donald Trump in 2018 in the name of national security. In exchange, the UK will suspend extra taxes it had put on US products such as bourbon and Levi’s jeans.

❛❛ Most often people seek

life occasions for persisting in their opinions rather that for educating themselves ❜❜ André Gide

NEWS BULLETIN MOST VALUABLE BUSINESSES Figures just out reveal the most valuable companies in the world – no surprises but a few changes in position 1. APPLE: $2.694trn As of March 1st, Apple is the world’s most valuable company by market cap. The tech giant is one of five companies valued at more than $1trn. 2. MICROSOFT: $2.239trn Microsoft briefly passed Apple as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company in 2020 and analysts predict that it could also hit the $3trn market capitalisation. Its cloud revenue could be the “key factor that will drive its valuation higher”. However, shares fell by almost 9% between November and December, and investors “should be wary of pullbacks”.

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3. SAUDI ARAMCO: $2.202trn Saudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, hit the $2trn mark on a number of occasions in the past couple of years – and in 2019 it became the first company in the world to reach the milestone. With a “near monopoly on production in the world’s leading oil-exporting nation”, Aramco is a “rare case of an old-line company that tops technology giants in market value”. 4. ALPHABET: $1.782trn Alphabet, Google’s parent company, briefly hit a market cap of $2trn in November 2021. Big Tech’s boom throughout the pandemic saw companies across the world shift from in-person workplaces to remote, cloudbased work environments and Google “benefited in the form of cloud storage subscriptions and digital ads”. Since the start of 2021 its value rose by 66%.

5. AMAZON: $1.562trn In July 2021 Jeff Bezos’s 27-year spell as Amazon CEO came to an end as Andy Jassy took charge of the multinational tech giant. After a strong stock performance in 2020, Amazon trailed 2021’s “healthy market rally”. However, 2022 could be a “banner year” and the company’s fortunes are poised to change. Amazon is “uniquely positioned to exit this crisis as one of the biggest beneficiaries of accelerated digital transformation”. 6. TESLA: $899.59bn Led by Elon Musk, the world’s richest person, electric car maker Tesla joined the “$1trn club” in October 2021 – but its value has now dipped below the milestone mark. Tesla has been the world’s most valuable car maker for some time, but for years it “struggled to ramp up production” and investors speculated it would fail. However, in 2021 the company “upped its game and became profitable for the first time, prompting its shares to take off”.

NEWS PR DISASTER P&O Ferries boss Peter Hebblethwaite has admitted to MPs that a decision to sack 800 workers in March without consulting the unions broke the law. He said there was “absolutely no doubt” that under UK employment law the firm was required to consult unions before making the mass cuts. “We chose not to consult and we are, and will, compensate everybody in full for that,” he said. The firm sparked outrage when it sacked 800 seafarers with no warning using a video message.

DEATH OF FUNERALS A provider of pre-paid funeral plans has collapsed, placing in doubt the arrangements made by 46,000 customers in advance of their deaths, and whether they will get their money back. Wakefield-based Safe Hands had been in discussions with the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) before calling in administrators as the watchdog is due to oversee the currently unregulated funeral plan market from July. However, the firm stopped taking new orders and withdrew its application for FCA authorisation in February. The Joint administrators from FRP Advisory said their appointment “was made by the directors of the company, after a period of severe financial challenge, which has left the business unsustainable in its current form”.

Most of them will be replaced by foreign workers who will be paid less than the minimum wage, and in some cases £1.82 per hour. Mr Hebblethwaite apologised at a joint transport and business committee for the distress caused by the sackings, but added they were necessary to save the business which is heavily loss-making. He was answering Labour MP Darren Jones, who asked: “Are you in this mess because you don’t know what you are doing, or are you just a shameless criminal?” It is thought the company will be ‘heavily loss-making’ regardless as the British public tend not to admire companies that behave like this and use, effectively, slave labour.

❛❛ A good restaurant critic really only needs two things in order to do the job properly. No eating disorders and the gastric morals of a hooker with a mortgage ❜❜ AA Gill

BREAKING GRIM RECORDS The UK’s cost of living crunch continues with the rate of inflation rising by 6.2% in the 12 months to February 2022 – up from 5.5% in January, according to data published by the Office for National Statistics. This “faster than expected” increase means the UK’s inflation rate has now hit a new 30-year high. And it worsens a “historic squeeze on household finances”. Household energy bills – which are up almost 25% on a year ago – and the price of petrol were the biggest drivers of February’s price jump. “In a blow to poorer households”, food prices were rising across the board, “unlike in normal times when some prices typically go up and others fall”.

❛❛ Slow success builds character. Fast success builds ego ❜❜ Anon CHEMIST GETS THE BOOT Apollo Global Management, the New York-based buyout giant, is lining up banks to fund a £6bn tilt to buy Boots, Britain’s biggest high street chemist. Sky News has learnt that Bank of America, Credit Suisse and Royal Bank of Canada are among those in talks to help finance a takeover bid from Apollo. Apollo, which declined to comment, has been linked with offers for other major UK retailers during the last year, although reported interest in J Sainsbury and Marks & Spencer has failed to materialise.

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MICHELIN STAR A chef says receiving a Michelin star was a “dream come true” as the accolade is not recognised in his home nation. Jean Delport is the executive chef at Restaurant Interlude, located in the 240-acre woodland gardens of Leonardslee Estate, near Horsham. The restaurant retained its Michelin star in March, after being first awarded the prestigious honour under the South African chef in 2019. Restaurant Interlude is one of only three restaurants in Sussex with a Michelin star. The others are Gravetye Manor in East Grinstead and Restaurant Tristan in Horsham. And Jean, who is only the second South African chef to ever be awarded a Michelin star after Jan Hendrik, said he has his eyes firmly set of another one. “A second star is the dream. We’ll start pushing hard towards that, upping our levels”

LOCAL NEWS ❛❛ I’m an optimist, but an optimistic who carries a raincoat ❜❜ Harold Wilson, Former British PM EMERALD CITY The Grand Brighton was lit up in emerald lights to 300 guests arriving at a charity gala dinner. Three hundred guests arrived in the Empress Suite to celebrate Rockinghorse Children’s Charity’s emerald anniversary. The evening, hosted by television presenter Marcella Whittingdale and auctioneer Nick Muston, long-term supporters of the charity, raised an astonishing £59,000. All the money will go towards supporting a range of projects that help the mental health and wellbeing of hundreds of children across Sussex. The charity CEO, Donna Holland said ‘I am taken aback by the generosity of the city towards our most important charity. I cannot say thank you enough on behalf of all the children of Sussex’

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BEST PRACTICE South East-based accountants, business and financial advisers firm Kreston Reeves has been named a finalist in the prestigious Tolley’s Taxation Awards, Best Tax Practice in a Regional Firm Award. The awards are acknowledged as the marker of excellence in the tax sector, covering the whole of the tax profession and recognising the contribution made by both individuals and firms, at a national and international level. Daniel Grainge, partner and head of tax at Kreston Reeves, said: “On behalf of the whole tax team here at Kreston Reeves, we are delighted to be named as one of four finalists and we hope to go one step further in May and be crowned the Best Tax Practice in a Regional Firm.

Does your business need a helping hand? During these unprecedented times, many businesses are struggling so we would like to help. We are offering free general guidance on: • Unpaid invoices & contract disputes • Commercial landlord & tenant issues • Professional Negligence • Commercial insurance claims

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or visit www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk/here-to-help

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NEWS

RIDGEVIEW DINING Ridgeview Wine Estate has revealed plans to transform their onsite hospitality, offering a complete experience from vine to glass. Ridgeview’s new all-weather, outdoor venue will take pride of place alongside Ridgeview’s Chardonnay vineyard in Ditchling. The new venue is set to open in late summer and will offer wine tastings, transform its onsite dining, tours and retail. The space will be landscaped in harmony with its natural surroundings, crafted by RHS Chelsea Flower Show gold medal winning designer Andy Sturgeon. Tamara Roberts, Ridgeview’s secondgeneration CEO said: “Our philosophy of ‘Life is for Celebrating’ will be experienced throughout the whole destination. We want to create a place where visitors feel welcome time and time again, to simply pop in for a glass, to celebrate together with friends and family or to spend the day with us enjoying a tour and tasting too.”

GATWICK CELEBRATION Gatwick Airport’s South Terminal reopened for its first flight in more than 21 months on March 27th, with airport bosses preparing for a holiday rush this summer in response to pent up passenger demand. Minister for Aviation, Robert Court MP, who visited for the reopening said “This is a hugely significant moment for the airport and for everyone who works here and for the wider area around Crawley because of the enormous amount of jobs that support it. “There is a real feeling of having triumphed over two of the most difficult years in the aviation sector’s history”. Bosses hope that three million passengers will pass through the airport by the end of April.

❛❛ It’s not that l am so smart, it’s that l stay with the problem for longer ❜❜ Albert Einstein

TAX INCREASE Council taxpayers across the South East are facing increases in their bills again this year. Surrey County Council approved a 4.99% rise, East Sussex agreed a 1.99% hike, and West Sussex a 2.99% increase. Meanwhile, Kent County Council voted through a rise of 2.99% which opposition councillors said was like treating people ‘like cash machines’. Any rises would add pressure on people also facing hikes in National Insurance and energy bills from April.

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LEGAL

Business leaders need to take note of the new Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Act 2022. Simon Elcock, Head of Dispute Resolution at DMH Stallard explains the background to the Act and what it will mean when introduced.

WHAT IS THE ECONOMIC CRIME ACT? The Economic Crime Act was fast tracked through Parliament to set up a register of overseas entities and their owners. This will require overseas entities who own land to register in certain circumstances. Changes have also been made to strengthen the Unexplained Wealth Orders regime and sanctions legislation has also undergone something of an overhaul. It is the responsibility of businesses to ensure that they comply with the new legislation. The fines for non-compliance can be up to £2,500 per day, with custodial sentences of up to five years.

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The UK government introduced to Parliament the Economic Crime (Transparency and Enforcement) Bill, which was fast-tracked through Parliament and received Royal Assent on March 14th 2022. The main aim of this Act of Parliament is to ensure that ownership of UK property is transparent. In particular, the Act is being introduced to crack down on illegitimate money which is circulating in the UK property

market. The National Crime Agency (NCA) has estimated that each year money laundering costs the UK approximately £100 billion. The government’s introduction of the Act is an important response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which prompted the Houses of Parliament to rapidly pass legislation.

The National Crime Agency (NCA) have ❛❛ estimated that each year money laundering costs the UK approximately £100 billion ❜❜

LEGAL THE ACT HAS 70 CLAUSES AND IS DIVIDED INTO THREE MAIN MEASURES: n The introduction of a public register of the beneficial owners of overseas entities that own land in the UK. n C hanges to strengthen the Unexplained Wealth Order regime. n C hanges to the existing sanctions legislation to encourage deterrence. The plans include: n A register of overseas entities to be established, requiring all beneficial owners who own land in the UK to disclose their real identity. This requirement to register would apply retrospectively to property and land bought by individuals based overseas on or after January 1st 1999 in England and Wales. However, overseas companies which purchased over 6,000 property titles before this retrospective date do not need to register and, therefore, these individuals are exempt from having to declare their ownership. Furthermore, only beneficial owners who hold more than 25% of the shares or voting rights in an entity will need to register, who fails to capture individuals under this threshold, as well as companies who claim that they have no beneficial owner. n T he Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI) will be given greater powers, enabling them to impose weighty fines and publicly expose companies who have breached sanctions but have not been fined. n C ompanies House will undergo important and extensive reform. For example, Companies House will be given the power to verify individuals’ identities who are seeking to set up or control a company in the UK. To increase transparency, Companies House will be able to challenge suspicious information and report this to law enforcement.

WHAT SHOULD BUSINESSES LOOK OUT FOR? The Act proposes to amend the Policing and Crime Act 2017, by way of introducing a strict civil liability test in relation to sanctions breached. This removes the current requirement that businesses must have actual knowledge or reasonable cause to suspect that sanctions have been breached. Now businesses could find themselves liable in situations where they have no knowledge or reasonable cause to suspect such a breach. This stringent change means that the UK’s response will be similar to that of the US, where the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) classif y breaches as strict liability offences. Therefore, law enforcement will have greater power to impose large fines for breaches of the sanctions.

Fines will increase ❛❛ from £500 per day up

to £2,500 per day and custodial sentences will increase to a maximum of five years ❜❜

The Act implements criminal sanctions for non-compliance. Fines will increase from £500 per day up to £2,500 per day and custodial sentences will increase to a maximum of five years. Furthermore, businesses should be aware that the transition period for the Act is six months. Following unease from the UK Labour party, who were calling for the transition period to be reduced to 28 days to prevent asset flight, the House of Lords have inserted a new provision into the Act which requires businesses to disclose the beneficial owners of any relevant dispositions of land which were made in the period beginning February 28th 2022. There is little clarity at this stage on how verification of data will work. We may find that the government will introduce legislation to enable Companies House to have the power to introduce verification checks and to query, investigate and remove false information. We also still need clarification on whether UK enforcement agencies can expect any increase in resourcing to support and deploy these legislative developments to real effect.

For more information please contact enquiries@dmhstallard.com www.dmhstallard.com

n C hanges are being made to strengthen Unexplained Wealth Orders (UWO), meaning that individuals who are suspected of making illicit gains will be required to reveal where their source of money has come from.

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INTERVIEW

Grant Bourhill is the CEO of Surrey Research Park and is committed to forging a community of businesses, investors, academics and R&D support enterprises to converge and drive innovation forward for a better future

THE UK’S PIONEERING RESEARCH PARK You are quite new to the Research Park, can you give the readers some details of your background? I have worked in innovation in various sectors including space, low carbon energy, consumer electronics and defence. Previously, I was CEO of Leicester Science Park where I led the delivery of a new £100m+ facility for the Space Sector.

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Before this, I worked with the Energy Technologies Institute where I led the development of clean-energy products and services for the residential market.

I also spent eight years with Sharp, bringing several world-first consumer electronic products to market, primarily in the mobile but also automotive sectors.

We provide access to Angel investors, ❛❛ training, and support which has already

helped our SMEs raise over £100 million ❜❜

INTERVIEW

We have planning permission for ❛❛ approximately a further 100,000 square feet and are now talking with a variety of existing and new customers ❜❜

With your first tenant arriving in 1985, how many tenants do you have now and what is the breadth of their activities? We have over 200 companies and 4,500 employees on the Park, responsible for over 10% of the local economy. Despite the challenges faced by everyone over the last two years, the Research Park is full and we are experiencing our strongest ever demand. Our businesses are diverse, from newly formed companies to global corporates such as Airbus and BAE Systems. Can you explain to our readers why the Research Park was established and what its core function is? Surrey Research Park is one of the UK’s pioneering Research Parks and it was formed in 1982 with planning permission obtained in 1984. The planning permission covers 70 acres and to date, just over 600,000 square feet has been developed across 31 buildings. The main functions of the Park are to: n provide a competitive advantage for companies locating on the Park, creating an environment favouring business formation, development and growth n support local and regional economic development n Drive connectivity for our customers with nearby innovation actors such as the University and the Royal Surrey County Hospital n elevate the profile of the region as an innovation hotspot

While technologically broad, we have significant clusters of excellence in space, animal and human health, digital (from cyber through to digital games) and the environment. With the sole funder being the University, can you explain how the University benefits from the Park and what benefits your tenants derive from being associated with the University? The University of Surrey has always been committed to working with industry to drive forward innovation and societal impact. Last year, Surrey was recognised as being in the top 10% of universities nationally for working with business. In addition, the University received an award by the Royal Academy of Engineering for its 5G/6G Innovation Centre in recognition of its exemplary partnership between academia and industry.

Having Surrey Research Park on its doorstep provides the University with the opportunity for greater collaboration with industry leading companies in sectors such as space, animal and human health, sustainability and digital – specialisms that dovetail brilliantly with the expertise at the University. The Research Park also provides an excellent opportunity for student experience and graduate opportunities. It is a golden age for innovation, and we believe driving forward enhanced collaboration between University researchers and Park businesses will help us all realise the competitive advantage we have as a cohesive, like-minded innovation community. A recent example of this was demonstrated at our latest sold-out event at Surrey Research Park whereby we invited Artificial Intelligence experts from a wide range of private and public institutions to discuss the application of AI in Surrey and how we can build Surrey as a national hotspot for AI. At the event, the University of Surrey discussed how its new Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI, a hub of more than 250 cross-disciplinary researchers bringing together Surrey ’s core AI-related expertise will be working with Industry. The AI institute will be involved not only in the development of technology but, crucially, how it is used, applied, and who will be using it. This will require wide-ranging collaborations across Surrey – partnerships with businesses from various sectors will be critical.

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INTERVIEW

You boast an array of ‘value added services’, and l wonder if you might explain what these are and the further benefits of becoming a tenant? We have an eight-page directory of value - adding ser vices that our customers can enjoy, so this is challenging to remain brief! But as examples…. n We provide our tenants with funding and investment opportunities from our established and growing networks, providing access to Angel investors, training, and support which has already helped our SMEs raise over £100 million. We also provide access to a wide range of collaborative funding opportunities n Our businesses can access business suppor t services ranging from start-up support, MBA-based business c onsultancy or ac c ess partnership opportunities with the U n i ve r s i t y ’s m u l t i d i s c i p l i n a r y Institutes or Centres such as the 5G / 6G Innovation Centre, the People– Centred AI Institute and Surrey Space Centre n Our customers also have a distinct advantage of direct access to the University student and graduate talent pool as well as access to a wide range of University of Surrey facilities n We are also focussed on staff wellbeing. Staff of businesses on the Park also benefit from discounted rates at Surrey Sports Park, nearby nurseries as well as excellent hospitality services. We also operate a free electric shuttle bus for any tenant employee between the Park and Guildford Railway Station. The bus is kindly supported by Surrey Satellite Technology Limited. A crucial added value aspect of locating at Surrey Research Park is being part of a community of like-minded innovators. Innovation, experience, knowledge and transfer of skills are enhanced when surrounded by like-minded people.

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The University received an award by the Royal ❛❛ Academy of Engineering for its 5G/6G Innovation Centre in recognition of its exemplary partnership between academia and industry ❜❜ With the Park being such a popular location, is there any remaining space to be developed? We have planning permission for approximately a further 100,000 square feet and are now talking with a variety of existing and new customers. Our businesses are growing, and to ensure they remain within the region, we are determined to provide the physical expansion space that they need. Are there any further development plans and what does the next decade hold for the Park? The Park is enormously successful. We have more businesses wishing to locate here than space available. As we look to the future, we are focussed on growth, sustainability and fostering even stronger regional partnerships. Surrey Research Park has created an environment that is making a significant contribution to the region. We are now

looking to build on our contribution to the region and economy by forging partnerships across the region to add value to an even wider customer base. We are committed to creating a community across the wider region in Surrey and the South-East. We believe that collectively we can cement Surrey’s reputation as a key component of the national innovation ecosystem, supporting the UK in its objective to becoming a global science superpower. Additionally, we know that there is ever increasing market demand from businesses, the investment community and Government to support sustainability targets and practices. In a similar way to the University being at the forefront in committing to net zero by 2030, the Surrey Research Park will support that ambition and provide a compelling, sustainable environment for companies to grow.

Surrey-research-park.com Tel: 01483 579693 sales@surrey.ac.uk

Understanding your business credit score Finding out and understanding your business credit score can help you achieve your full growth and development plans. To find out, improve, or discuss the implications of your business credit score, contact Rachel Emmerson for an initial free phone call. #shapingyourfuture

For more than accountancy, business and financial advice. Call: +44 (0)330 124 1399 Email: enquiries@krestonreeves.com

BUSINESS

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BIG STORY

“… Anyway, so there’s this mad Russian geezer goes into his neighbouring country. You know who I mean. He didn’t get very far – in fact, he was more put out…!”

VLAD ALL OVER By Alan Wares Imagine a scenario where a former comic, voice-over artist, director of a TV production company, born into a religion with a history of being persecuted in his own country for centuries can be elected leader in a landslide, unite his country, and garner support from most of the world, all in the name of freedom and self-determination. Throw in two former heavyweight boxing champion brothers; one of whom is now the Mayor of that country’s capital city, and the other who has joined his country’s reserve units, all thanks to one Russian leader with his head stuck in the Cold War. Certainly Hollywood’s lame ‘three-ideas and that’s it’ script-writers would have a meltdown.

To all those observing eastern European politics, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was no surprise. The Russian President had been warning of it for a decade or so, aided and abetted – in what during Cold War times would have been considered a long-term brilliant subversion programme by Moscow, worthy of Markus Wolf himself – by winning over Establishment elements, especially in London. By way of punishment, the EU and the US – two of the biggest trading blocs in the world – sanctioned a number of Russian oligarchs; primarily those close to the Moscow-based kleptocratic regime. The UK eventually dragged itself into sanctioning a handful – the Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich being the highest profile case – of Russian billionaires.

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BIG STORY

The lists of sanctioned Russians – which includes 386 Duma members (Russia’s MPs) – overlap between the EU, US and the UK, but are by no means consistent. The ties between Russia and far too many members of the British political Establishment has led to an influence and inter ference from Moscow hitherto never seen before in the Westminster corridors of power. The Cambridge Five were mere gophers compared to those Moscow now has influence over within the Palace of Westminster. Of the sanctions themselves, individuals and companies have no legal means to prevent the government from adopting sanctions against them. Once sanctions are adopted, any challenge is first reviewed by a government minister. Zelenskyy sworn in as Ukraine’s sixth president

The plight of fleeing Ukrainian civilians has been harrowing for Europe. It has been partially eased by every country in the EU waiving its visa insistence on Ukrainians families and individuals. Sadly, the UK is not playing along. It is now the only country in western Europe to insist on visas for Ukrainian refugees. 3.6 million people have left Ukraine, with the UK taking in a paltry 12,400 (or 0.3%). The UK government cites ‘security issues’ believing Russia will plant spies among the women and children; oddly, something no-one else has done by way of excusing your moral obligations. Zelenskyy with his family If the government refuses to overturn the sanction, the individual can then take the matter to court. However, the sanctioned individual can only pay their lawyers or any court fees with a licence from the Treasury. Even if a licence was granted the sanctioned individual might still find that there was no bank prepared to carry out the transaction.

❛❛ In the late 1970s,

Ukraine was part of the USSR, and did not achieve independence until 1991 ❜❜

A deliberately farcical visa application system for those UK households - under the Government’s Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme – who wish to house Ukrainian families hasn’t helped. For a long time after its online-only launch, it was only in English (not Ukrainian nor Russian), and there have been many accusations of excessive red tape. Many households are abandoning the scheme, and so far, only 10% of the visas for those trying settle under the Ukraine Sponsorship Scheme have been issued. JEWISH COMIC TURNED LEADER But what of the Ukrainian leader, Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy? He was born into a Jewish family on January 25th 1978 in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, a conurbation of around 680,000 in 2022. Zelenskyy’s grandfather rose to the rank of colonel in the Red Army during World War II, while his grandfather’s brothers and father all died during the Holocaust. In the late 1970s, Ukraine was part of the USSR, and did not achieve independence until 1991. In 1995, at the age of 17, Zelenskyy entered a team into the Russianlanguage TV humour programme KVN (Klub Vesyólykh i Nakhódchivykh, or ‘Club of the Funny and Inventive’). This highly-successful programme ran from 1961 to 1972, and again from 1986 to the present day. Starting in the local heats, he was invited to join the Ukrainian national team, which eventually won the competition in 1997. That same year, he created and headed the Kvartal 95 team which later transformed into the production company Kvartal 95. In 2003, Kvartal 95,

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BIG STORY EASTERN SLAVIC NAMING CONVENTIONS The eastern Slavic naming convention is that a man is given his own first name, plus he takes the father’s name, with ‘ovych’/‘ovich’ – literally ‘son of’ – at the end as a patronymic. In this instance, Volodymyr’s father was called Oleksandr. Meanwhile, although the family name is Zelenskyy, for women, an ‘a’ is applied at the end of the female surname. So the female family name is Zelenska.

produced its first TV programme, and by 2008 was releasing major Russian language rom-coms and feature-length films. Over the next decade, Zelenskyy’s production company became a major force in Russian-speaking Ukrainian TV and films.

❛❛ The UK government cites ‘security issues’

In 2014 and 2017, he dubbed the Ukrainian voice of Paddington Bear in the two eponymous films. (Ben Whishaw for UK PM, anyone?)

When entering politics, and even following his emphatic victory in the 2019 Ukrainian Presidential Elections, he was saddled with issues on his country’s borders. Russia had already illegally annexed the Crimean peninsula in the south of Ukraine, and was making petulant noises and in-roads on some of Ukraine’s eastern territories.

In March 2018, members of Zelenskyy’s production company registered a new political party called ‘Servant of the People’ – named after the satirical programme that Zelenskyy had starred in, where he played a teacher who was elected President of Ukraine after a viral video showed him ranting at corruption in Ukraine.

believing Russia will plant spies among the women and children; oddly, something no-one else has done by way of excusing your moral obligations ❜❜

To try and explain the history and politics behind Russia’s behaviour would take forever. Suffice it to say, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, despite its promise

in 1991 to recognise its sovereign independence has little basis in reality. Among the Russian President’s main justifications – in a bold nod to a total lack of self-awareness - is to rid Ukraine of the ‘nazification’ of the country’s governing figures, and to protect persecuted Russian speakers in Ukraine. The tragic irony – not to mention the appalling gibberish – of this notion is not lost on anyone. In marked contrast to his Moscow counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has, through sheer force of personality, managed to unite most of the rest of the world behind Ukraine’s cause. It’s difficult to think of many world figures through history who have garnered so much international support in the face of hostile conflict. In the majority of armed conflicts through history, countries have sided with their friends, their ideological allies, their cultural cousins or even just their main trading partner.

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BIG STORY

Given the relative ignorance of the Russo-Ukrainian history in the West, it’s astonishing just how quickly the vast majority of the world (except the Internet Karens, of course) has come down on one side. Or rather, come down against one side. Appealing to nations individually across the world for support, Zelenskyy has addressed many First World governments citing important historical references (on speaking via Zoom to the UK Parliament, he paraphrased Churchill and Shakespeare). But the most obvious issue whereby Zelenskyy has gained most praise, is in his patriotic stoicism in promising to

defend the country, the capital and its people from Russian aggression. He was offered an airbridge out of Kyiv by the United States, but refused, and insisted on standing shoulder to shoulder with his fellow Ukrainians. It’s the kind of narrative and spirit which endears him to western culture. In seeking to win the PR war with the rest of the world, Zelenskyy is helped by two more Ukrainian heroes. Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko, brothers born in what is now Kyrgystan and Kazakhstan respectively, are sons of a former Soviet Air Force major general, and an attaché for Ukraine in East Germany. Both sons have taken on their family’s home state to assist – and been seen to assist – in the defence its capital city.

❛❛ In 2014 and 2017, he dubbed the

CREDIT: WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Ukrainian voice of Paddington Bear in the two eponymous films ❜❜

PEOPLE WHO HAVE UNITED THE WORLD People who have united the world in public support are rare; extremely few and far between. The likes of Mohandas Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, Dr Martin Luther King Jr, and even Sir Winston Churchill never gained universal praise in their lifetime, whether politically, ideologically, or culturally. They all had too many opponents working against them. It is only after their death that the appreciation surfaces and, in some cases, narratives re-written.

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NELSON MANDELA

The ultimate ‘one man’s freedom fighter is another man’s terrorist’. South Africa’s despised apartheid system, in place since 1948, was what had kept Nelson Mandela in prison for 27 years. Through his campaigning while locked up on Robben Island, and his subsequent release brought worldwide acclamation. More astonishingly still, while certain cultures might have suggested he was within his moral rights to exact retribution, he instead founded the Truth & Reconciliation Committee in a noble attempt to draw a line under South Africa’s recent past.

MALALA YOUSAFAZI

The Pakistani schoolgirl who was shot by the Taliban for campaigning for women to attend school. The attempt on her life sparked an international outpouring of support for her. Weeks after the attempted murder, a group of 50 leading Muslim clerics in Pakistan issued a fatwa against those who tried to kill her. Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan were internationally denounced by governments, human rights organisations and feminist groups.

BIG STORY

In February, at the age of 45, former world boxing champion Wladimir joined the Kyiv Territorial Defence Brigade (a military reserve component of the Ukrainian armed forces). Both he and his brother Vitali, also a former world champion, and now aged 50, has been the Mayor of Kyiv since 2014, pledged to fight to protect the city. Now consider the images of the Russian President - sitting alone at the end of a 30-foot table - placed in lonely opulence, an unthinking, uncaring man who is still fighting mythical historical battles from 40 years ago without wishing to move on. If ever there was a metaphor for Russia’s isolation on the world stage…

❛❛ It’s difficult to think of many world figures through history who have garnered so much international support in the face of hostile conflict ❜❜

RUSSIAN AEROFLOP? The Russian President’s plan may not be going completely as he wished. His catastrophic error of believing Ukrainians are his brothers (brothers to be bullied, but ‘brothers’ nonetheless) who need protection from Nazism by the Russian state, thereby thinking his troops would be welcomed in, may well be his undoing. The Russian army going in under-funded with ill-maintained equipment isn’t helping their cause. What can almost certainly not happen in the future without continuing internal strife is a Russian occupation, nor even a puppet leader put in place by Moscow to satisfy the President’s lust for glory. The Ukrainians, themselves proud within their own force of nationalism, won’t stand for it. Guerilla warfare and insurgencies would be the norm, and no pro-Russian would ever be considered safe from retribution. However, this is the Russian army; an army which NATO is admittedly looking to re-evaluate due to its apparent inefficiency. But in the final analysis, Zelenskyy may well have to trade peace for land. It’s what that peace deal eventually looks like that will determine his own fate. The Russian President on the other hand, not one noted for listening to facts, advice and expertise (doesn’t that sound familiar?) may well weaken his hand all the while his troops fail in their objective. But one thing is certain - the way the rest of the world is near-universally united in condemnation of Russia, and that is something Zelenskyy must hope lasts.

BOB GELDOF

Bear with me here. For a short time, the mid-talented Irish motormouth was seen as the saviour of Ethiopia, embarrassing and bullying government after government, organisation after organisation into helping the victims of the east African famine. Through sheer force of personality and a diplomacy not generally seen in Establishment quarters, the whole world – East and West – came together for one day to raise awareness and money for famine relief. Not many people could have done that, and only one person did.

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LEGAL

By Pam Loch, Employment Law Solicitor and Managing Director of Loch Associates Group

THE CAUTIONARY TALE OF SOCIAL MEDIA Since Friends Reunited was launched 22 years ago, the popularity of social media has grown exponentially so that it’s now an integral part of our daily lives. Alongside posting holiday snaps and news about life’s ups and downs, it can help us with everything – from selling houses to finding a local plumber to promoting your business and networking. Whilst it has a vital part to play in keeping people connected with others, social media misuse has also become a recognised source of mental ill health issues and it is increasingly relied on to evidence misconduct at work. So do we need to reconsider the benefits of using social media for work? We know that WhatsApp and other social media platforms can be excellent for engaging with each other and for managing remote teams. With its ease of communication, flattening of hierarchies and acting as a vir tual ‘watercooler’, social media is an ideal hub for people to come together especially when working remotely, to have conversations that may spark new ideas, products or other business improvements. What’s more, the security of the messages is ensured due to the ‘end-to-end’ encryption, which means only the messenger and the recipient/group can see the message. Recent research by Guild has shown that more than 50% of workers use messaging apps for workplace communication and 38% for work-related matters and this is likely to continue to increase. Unfortunately, there is a downside though as an increasing number of our clients are seeking our advice on managing grievances and claims for

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bullying and harassment which involve inappropriate WhatsApp or other social media messaging. The complaints commonly arise from: n B eing excluded from groups and plans for after work social activities n Gossip or ‘banter’ and inappropriate language being used in messages n I nappropriate pictures or videos being shared. Both new joiners and existing staff are at risk of being excluded from unofficial WhatsApp groups or other social media channels and this could lead to successful claims of unlawful discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 and bullying. Staff are often unaware that they could be personally liable themselves for bullying and harassment claims, as well as being exposed to civil or criminal complaints under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. What’s also become apparent from our experience is that most people don’t appreciate messages they exchange on social media platforms, could be used as evidence against them later. We often encounter Directors who have set up “the Directors WhatsApp” group, where they exchange ‘open and frank’

Changes in the way we approach social media could be forced upon employers ❜❜

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work related messages, without being aware that these messages are disclosable in Employment Tribunals. This can lead to some red faces when they have to explain what they meant when they said X,Y and Z about one of their staff. This can be addressed by ensuring all staff understand that even messages which are exchanged on their private devices, and in their own time, can become publicly available in a Tribunal or Court hearing later. It’s critical to ensure that everyone knows that what you put in writing on social media, could come back to haunt you one day.

LEGAL

Having clear policies in place is a first step to address these concerns, but you also need to train your team on what is acceptable when using social media, both in and out of work. They also need to know what the consequences of breaching the policy could be. This not only includes dismissal, but the potential for claims being brought against them previously for discrimination, if the messages constitute, for example, sexual harassment. One other common mistake employers sometimes make with social media is to assume there’s no need to carry out a full investigation when a complaint is made about it. It’s important that managers recognise they have to take social media misuse seriously. Again, this is where training can play an important role in ensuring all managers and their teams know about this and operate in the same consistent way.

Employers also need to keep up to date and be alert to new apps and trends to make sure their policies continue to be fit for purpose as technology develops.

Often employers don’t know about groups that exist on Whats App. We recommend employers carry out an audit to establish which social media platforms are being used by staff so that the employer can decide what should be their official stance on what platforms are used for work purposes.

We often encounter Directors who have set ❛❛ up “the Directors WhatsApp” group, where they

exchange ‘open and frank’ work related messages, without being aware that these messages are disclosable in Employment Tribunals ❜❜

Changes in the way we approach social media could be forced upon employers. The TUC is pushing for the right to disconnect following the recent implementation of this right in Belgium, Northern Ireland and other jurisdictions in the EU. It’s designed to limit out of work hours contact with employees. With remote working, we have seen a greater reliance on electronic communication and a change in approach as managers may think that it’s okay to send social media messages out of working hours rather than an email. Of course, the employee may still be accessing their personal messages and may spot the work-related ones, placing them under pressure to respond out of hours. There is also the added risk of claims arising from out of hours messaging, becoming overfriendly or inappropriate after the consumption of alcohol. There is no doubt there are risks with the increasing use of social media platforms at work. While the use of social media platforms for work purposes is here to stay it is time for employers to review their approach and recognise that it does need to be considered more carefully managed, and more effectively. With the right policies and training to ensure we use social media in the right way, there is no doubt it’s a powerful tool we can all benefit from.

Pam Loch, Employment Law Solicitor and Managing Director of Loch Associates Group

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CHARITY FOCUS

Help create egg-citing memories this Easter Spring is in the air and Easter is around the corner. And for lots of kids, it’s a time to get excited about chocolate eggs! But, did you know that most of the children and young people Chestnut Tree House children’s hospice care for can’t eat chocolate? This is because many of them, like Faith, are unable to eat or swallow food and might be tube fed or have specialised diets. This Easter, instead of a gift of chocolate, Chestnut Tree House are asking the local community to donate and help fund activities that all children with life-limiting and life-threatening conditions can enjoy.

FAITH’S STORY

In 2018, Vicki, from Haywards Heath, went to a 16-week baby scan at her local hospital where she received the devastating news that her baby girl had an occipital encephalocele, meaning that her skull didn’t fuse so she had brain tissue and fluid leaking out of the back of her head. “They told us that she had less than a 1% chance of surviving. And even if she did survive, she would be wheelchair bound, she would never breathe independently, never see, never hear. But they also couldn’t guarantee that,” said Vicki. At this difficult time, the family’s bereavement midwife suggested a referral to their local children’s hospice, Chestnut Tree House, so they could explore their options for end-of-life care. Explaining how she felt when the family first visited the hospice, Vicki said: “I expected to walk into a hospital, and I thought there would be a dark cloud over the place. The word hospice conjures up a lot of thoughts. But you walk in there and there is unbelievable comfort, it instantly felt like a home away from home. “I remember saying ‘if we can get our little girl out of hospital for end-of-life care, let’s get her here as quickly as we can.’ We just felt safe.” Faith was born at King’s College Hospital in London on Wednesday

January 16th 2019. Despite her obvious brain exposure, she defied all expectations and was born breathing, happy and healthy. “We had a five-minute cuddle and it felt like a lifetime. When you are not expecting to have a cuddle with a baby that is alive, it’s huge. “Faith has very complex needs; she is severely visually impaired, hearing impaired, is very delayed, has motor impairment, and has daily seizures. No one dares to talk about Faith’s life expectancy, because she has done amazing to even get this far. We can’t live every day like it is our last, but we almost have to, because any day could be her last. “Faith has an unsafe swallow, meaning that she is tube-fed and on a specialist diet. There are lots of things she can’t eat, including chocolate eggs at Easter,” said Vicki. The family regularly attend events in their local community that they wouldn’t be able to go to without the support of their local children’s hospice.

“Funds aren’t unlimited when you have a child with complex needs. A lot of your time and money has to go on getting to medical appointments and buying new equipment, for example. We also never know where to take Faith as she gets sensory overload sometimes. But Chestnut Tree House help us find perfect events that Faith and her siblings enjoy together. Because of their support, we have been to a sensory circus, a pantomime and even on the i360! And Faith’s older sister, Lily, has recently been to a crazy golf sibling activity day that she loved.” When asked what life would be like without Chestnut Tree House, Vicki said, “I don’t know. It would take away a big part of Faith’s quality of life; the swimming, the sensory room, everything, we couldn’t do that without them”.

Please, rather than donating chocolate eggs to the hospice this year, choose to give a few pounds – or however much you like - and help pay for an Easter treasure hunt, a magical session in the multi-sensory room or a trip to the cinema that families like ours can enjoy. To make a donation to Chestnut Tree House this Easter, please visit: www.chestnut.org.uk/easter

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GET YOUR COMPANY FIT FOR BUSINESS 1000’S OF PARTICIPANTS & 100’S OF COMPANIES WILL BE COMPETING ACROSS SURREY & SURROUNDING AREAS!

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Sports Ambassador Sally Gunnell OBE “It’s a great example of the power of Sport and Business coming together for health and wellbeing benefits”

Visit our website for more information and view our brochure

THE ULTIMATE MIX OF SPORT, BUSINESS & TOURISM

UK Corporate Games

1 – 4 September 2022 OPEN TO ALL FOR THE BENEFIT OF ALL THE ULTIMATE TEAMBUILDING EVENT Europes largest multi-sport event for businesses is coming to Surrey in 2022. Join us at some of the fantastic local Venues including Royal Holloway as the Hub, River Thames by Windsor Castle, Eton College, ACS International School Egham, Huntswood Golf Club and Pyrford Lakes Woking, Teamsport Karting Reading and Braywick Leisure Centre and Airport Bowl.

BENEFITS AND REWARDS • Helps your business to build a legacy around health & wellbeing • Creates employee confidence, loyalty & team spirit • Supports staff integration • Increases brand awareness • Platform to network • Explore new business opportunities

It’s one of the best investments your organisation will make!

IT’S EASY TO ENTER! Enter online or request details from the Games Office.

london@corporategamesuk.com

The Games Entry Fee is £85 + VAT per employee (Supplement applies to Golf, Karting, Tenpin)

Entry Fee includes • Welcome Festival

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FINANCE

What are the alternatives to National Savings & Investments? National Savings & Investments (NS&I) is a firm favourite among UK savers, who appreciate its secure government backing and the excitement of its premium bond prize draws. Yet with interest rates on its products typically below the rate of inflation and often lower than those offered elsewhere, it might be wor th considering alternative options. The decision that’s right for you will depend on your individual needs and goals, which a financial adviser can provide clarity over. In the meantime, here are some alternatives to consider.

CASH SAVINGS With interest rates at historic lows, it can seem an uphill struggle to get a return on cash savings. But it is wise to have an accessible pot of cash for use in an emergency, or simply to meet regular bills if you face a salary cut. Financial advisers typically recommend holding six months’ worth of essential spending in an easy-access account. You can find the top paying accounts using comparison sites such as moneyfacts.co.uk and moneysuper market.co.uk. These compare accounts from NS&I alongside a whole host of banks and building societies.

If you’ve built up a cash buffer and have some ❛❛ time on your hands before you need the money, you could consider investing in the stock market. ❜❜ 36

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Fixed-rate savings accounts tend to offer slightly higher returns, but you need to be willing to commit your money for between two and five years. If you withdraw money before the end of the fixed-rate period you might have to pay a penalty, so this option probably isn’t suitable if you’re holding cash for its easy accessibility. Bear in mind that all deposits held with NS&I are protected by the government. With a bank or building society, a maximum of £85,000 per person, per banking licence is protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Depositing no more than £85,000 with the same banking group could help you earn the best rates while keeping your money safe.

FINANCE

STOCK MARKET INVESTING If you’ve built up a cash buffer and have some time on your hands before you need the money, you could consider investing in the stock market. Investing carries risk but history shows that, over the long term, equities tend to outperform cash and grow above the rate of inflation. The stock market is volatile, which means you should be comfortable committing your money for at least five years, ideally longer. This will hopefully give your investments time to recover from any market downturns. Spreading your money across a range of asset classes, including equities, bonds and cash, can help to minimise the impact of losses on your overall portfolio. This is because different assets tend to perform differently to one another in a range of market conditions. A wealth manager can help you build a diversified portfolio with the right balance of risk and reward for your individual circumstances.

An Investment ISA not only gives your ❛❛ money the potential to grow over the long term, but also lets you shield your investments from capital gains tax and income tax. ❜❜ TAX-EFFICIENT INVESTING An Investment ISA (also known as a stocks and shares ISA) not only gives your money the potential to grow over the long term, but also lets you shield your investments from capital gains tax (CGT) and income tax. If you sell investments outside of an ISA, you could be charged tax on the profits you make above your annual CGT exemption. And if your investments pay dividends or interest, this could be included when calculating your overall income tax bill, potentially pushing you into a higher income tax bracket. Cash ISAs are also tax-efficient, but with interest rates on cash at historic lows, you could find your money starts to be eroded by inflation and loses its real value over time. For example, our analysis shows that an inflation rate of

2.5% would reduce the real value of £100 to just £53.10 after 25 years. A nother option to consider is maximising your annual pension allowance. Pension contributions benefit from tax relief, which effectively boosts your contribution by 20-45%, depending on your marginal rate of income tax. This makes pensions an extremely effective way of saving for longer-term goals. A financial adviser can explain which options are likely to give you the best chance of meeting your objectives, including ensuring you aren’t simply hoping for a premium bond prize draw win to support your finances. With a solid financial plan in place, you can enjoy life today while being prepared for whatever the future might hold.

Lee Clark E: lee.clark @brewin.co.uk www.brewin.co.uk

The value of investments, and any income from them, can fall and you may get back less than you invested. Tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in the future. Neither simulated nor actual past performance are reliable indicators of future performance. Information is provided only as an example and is not a recommendation to pursue a particular strategy. Brewin Dolphin Limited is a member of the London Stock Exchange, and is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (Financial Services Register reference number: 124444).Registered office: 12 Smithfield Street, London, EC1A 9BD. Registered in England and Wales – Company number: 2135876. VAT: GB 690 8994 69.

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SUSSEX BUSINESS AWARDS 2022

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We felt very privileged to be among ❛❛ some incredible businesses and we’re absolutely over the moon to win Thomson Properties

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We are still a bit in shock! This recognition has given the whole team a lift to have and we’re very proud

❜❜

to have won Green Mop

CATEGORIES Best Customer Service Business Growth Award Businessperson of the Year Community Hero Award Creative Industries Award Employer of the Year Innovation in Business Award International Business of the Year Professional Services Award Start-up of the Year Small Business of the Year Medium Business of the Year Large Business of the Year Company of the Year Young Achiever of the Year

is very much an award ❛❛for This our team – each member works so hard and is dedicated to our vision and our goals. We honestly couldn’t have won it without them all. What a fantastic end to the year for them and the business Nordell

SUSSEX BUSINESS AWARDS 2022

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CONTACT INFO@PLATINUMMEDIAGROUP.CO.UK

BUSINESS

FIND YOUR WAY FORWARD Locate East Sussex explains how, as the Inward Investment agency for East Sussex, it supports businesses in the county or looking to join the county to reach their growth ambitions It’s safe to say that everybody has dreams and ambitions, and for business owners those dreams could be anything from staying profitable to world domination. Something, however, that is common among business owners, is being unaware of the support that is available to them locally to make those dreams become reality. With the changing landscape of modern business since the Covid-19 pandemic, many are relooking at their five-year plans, to assess if they are on the right path or if essential changes should be made.

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Locate East Sussex, fully funded by East Sussex County Council, the five District and Borough Councils and by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) are here to provide support to businesses looking to grow within, or relocate into East Sussex. It is there to listen, guide, and advocate for the businesses of East Sussex. Since it was established in 2013, Locate East Sussex has been there to help businesses discover the opportunities available to them for growth. This

BUSINESS We went to Emily at Locate East ❛❛ Sussex when we wanted advice on

growth and support for funding applications. Over the time working with them we received so much useful advice, guidance and valuable information. We couldn’t have asked for better and more personal support and would recommend to any business in the East Sussex area Josie, To The Rise Bakery

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includes 12 hours free advice on topics such as financial planning and strategy, support in applying for business finance and grants, help finding the right commercial property for them, or simply introducing them to make the right connections for their business. With a proven track record, Locate East Sussex has supported hundreds of businesses, handled thousands of enquiries and been integral to the creation and safeguarding of over 800 jobs. Locate East Sussex is also the delivery partner of East Sussex County Council’s ‘East Sussex Invest Fund’ (ESI). The ESI grant and loans programme, has provided over £6m in support to businesses looking to grow, and create jobs within the county. With grants of between £10k-£25k and loans of £10k-£200k, this scheme has helped many businesses get the boost needed to complete their plans. The team of accomplished Business Managers at Locate East Sussex are passionate about business and about

East Sussex, and with over 100 years of management experience between them, they have all the right knowledge and contacts to put you on the right track. The reviews speak for themselves, and with many businesses being referred to the service by previous clients, the value Locate East Sussex can deliver to you and your business is clear. I’m now entering my third year of ❛❛ running a successful small business.

At my first meeting with Chris Thomas from Locate East Sussex, anxious would’ve been an understatement. I was out of my comfort zone and lacked any sort of confidence or coherence in voicing my aims and ambitions. With time and a lot of patience, Chris helped me push past that barrier and provided me with the skills and knowledge I needed to get my business off the ground. I am absolutely certain that the knowledge I gained from working with the Locate East Sussex scheme provided me with the skills needed to not only adapt, but actually thrive during the difficulty of the last couple of years

Focus SB Limited are starting to ❛❛ see the fruits of investment into a

brave new market in China and it all started two years ago with an ESI loan and grant supported by Locate East Sussex. The process was very easy and painless, mainly thanks to the help from Adam Berger and the great support team! We will definitely be using their services again in the future! Gary Stevens, Focus SB

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Eleanor Seymour, Lana’s Basket East Sussex is quickly proving itself to be a hot location for business, with m i l l i o n s b e i n g i n v e s te d i n to infrastructure, connectivity and town regeneration, and commercial property prices remaining competitive in comparison to the surrounding areas. East Sussex is getting noticed for its stunning location, talented people and its commitment to ongoing improvement, making it an exciting proposition for those looking to grow their business.

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Locate East Sussex can support you to fulfil your business ambitions through their advice, training, and connections. If you are looking to scale up your business, and take it to the next level, then do get in touch by emailing enquiries@locateeastsussex.org.uk or visiting our website at www.locateeastsussex.org.uk

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FINANCE

Rachel Emmerson, Business Advisory, Accounts and Outsourcing Senior Manager at Kreston Reeves

Understanding your business credit score It is estimated that before the Covid pandemic only 15% of UK businesses regularly borrowed money and analysis from British Business Bank at the end of the Coronavirus Loan Scheme (July 2021) showed UK businesses had benefited from 1,670,939 government guaranteed loans, worth a combined £79.3bn. Clearly many more businesses have had to take on debt and financial support, perhaps for the first time, to help them through the last two years and many will be repaying this debt for years to come.

Our research, (Shaping your future report, November 2021) showed that 36% of businesses we surveyed reported lower cash reserves in Q4/21 than when entering the Covid pandemic and 20% of businesses that have borrowed from government-backed loan schemes have not been able to or do not expect to be able to repay that money. There will be a number of businesses now with both ongoing and new borrowing requirements, especially as trading in some sectors will continue to face some level of disruption (being,

supply chain, labour and logistics) but now also rising costs of fuel, labour, materials and any uncertain outcomes following the events in Ukraine. If you then factor in three consecutive UK interest rate rises, then the cost of borrowing for many will also rise. Some UK lenders are also reviewing business lending criteria. It is important therefore to put yourself into the best position if you do need to borrow and to understand what you need to do as a business if you want to borrow and/or maintain that ability to borrow or secure credit, on favourable terms. Along with financial forecasting and putting robust business plans in place, looking at some more practical steps such as improving your business credit score is vital. With all this in mind, all businesses need the ability to secure credit, whether this

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FINANCE

Businesses that survive their first year will see a rise in their credit score with it plateauing after about five years. However, the types of credit currently held and applications for new credit can have both positive and negative impacts on the overall credit score. In the UK there are five credit agencies that issue company credit scores, and they all work on different algorithms. One business can end up with five completely different scores and five very different suggested credit limits, so it is important to find out which suppliers use which agency. You will never be penalised for checking your credit score so checking reports across agencies regularly is a good idea. It can also help pick up any fraud. Benefits of a good business credit score: n Longer contractual terms – leading to better working capital n Enhanced business reputation n I m p r o v e d c r e d i t te r m s a n d relationships with suppliers and clients n Reduced security deposits n B etter access to funding and lower interest rates n Lower price bandings due to reduced risk.

❛❛ For any businesses reliant on credit, proving

your financial stability is crucial in helping you to achieve your full growth and development plans ❜❜ is through conventional banking services, alternative forms of finance, or terms agreed with suppliers. For the growing number of businesses reliant on credit, proving your financial stability is crucial in helping you to ac hieve your full grow th and development plans, as well as allowing you to make the best use of new opportunities and markets as they arise. Understanding your business credit score and the ways you can build strong financial foundations is an important starting point. Your business will need to show a proven track record of generating revenue and profit, and the way the

business is run will be considered. Good character will be taken into account; for example, paying invoices on time, avoiding building debts, and managing bad debtors. Creditors will also look for previous director insolvency or business failure as personal credit scores of company officers will have an impact. Your business SIC code will play a large role in determining your credit score so although your business may have had a particularly good year, the industry that you are in may have been affected negatively (for example retail during the pandemic) and this will have a negative impact on your credit score.

If you would like to find out your business credit score; discuss the implications of that score on your ability to borrow, secure tenders or negotiate credit terms with suppliers, or find out ways to improve your credit score, get in touch with our Grants and Funding team. Rachel Emmerson can be contacted by email at rachel.emmerson@ krestonreeves.com. Visit www.krestonreeves.com/ shapingyourfuture or call us on 0330 124 1399.

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LEGAL

Working with Russia in the Brave New World As the awful events in Ukraine have unfolded on our screens over recent weeks, so the economic response by the UK, EU and other western countries has evolved. By Lee Hills This has culminated in the UK government imposing a raft of trade sanctions on Russia, Belarus and on named individuals, some of which may have a direct impact on UK businesses importing goods from or exporting goods to these countries. As the conflict in Ukraine continues, so the depth and breadth of sanctions has increased. It is important for UK businesses dealing with these countries to understand not only where they can turn to for guidance but also the legal and reputational impact of falling foul of sanctions. Failure to comply, even inadvertently, may lead to criminal conviction, financial penalty, civil liability and reputational damage. For businesses trading or intending to trade with Russia or Belarus, it is important to undertake due diligence to confirm the identity of the party on the other side of a contract. Sanctions can apply not only to businesses operating out of the countries concerned but also those that are owned, operated and or controlled by those to whom sanctions would otherwise apply.

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UK businesses engaged in the import or export, supply or distribution of goods in the sectors specified by the UK government and which include chemicals, construction, defence, electronics, energy, digital technologies and transport. And given the rapidly escalating situation, those which are not presently affected by the sanction regime but could well be at some point in the future, should be reviewing the terms of their commercial contracts. Careful consideration should be given to the existence and wording of force majeure clauses and the impact, if any, that sanctions may have on the ability of either party to perform its obligations under the contract. Even if a force majeure clause exists, its wording will be critical in determining whether the impact of sanctions and the corresponding consequences of a failure to perform the contract can benefit from the protection of a force majeure clause, irrespective of any separate legal arguments that performance of the contract has been frustrated by the imposition of sanctions or rendered unenforceable through illegality.

LEGAL

❛❛ Failure to comply, even inadvertently, may lead to criminal conviction, financial penalty, civil liability and reputational damage ❜❜ UK businesses already trading with Russia or Belarus or intending to trade with businesses which themselves may be impacted by the effect of global sanctions and which may have a knock-on effect further down the supply chain, should give urgent consideration to the termination provisions contained within their commercial contracts, the payment terms and ability to tighten these. And in the event to non-payment the existence of and ability to rely upon retention of title clauses and their practical effect. Where the possibility exists of sanctions being extended to countries or trading entities with whom UK businesses may trade at some point in the future, consideration should be given to

a sanctions specific clause within any contract addressing what the effect of sanctions being imposed will be on the performance and continuation of that contract. In anticipation of difficulties arising, a review of existing insurance policies including trade, credit and travel would be advisable and whether such policies can continue to be relied upon in the context of not only sanctions but the conflict as a whole. Although the UK government has issued guidance in respect of the potential impact of the key pieces of legislation, namely the Sanctions and Anti Money Laundering Act 2018 and the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit)

Regulations 2019 with individual guidance notes being issued in respect of Import Controls, Trade Restrictions on E xpor ts and Russian Sanctions Guidance, this will be of little comfort to individual directors or companies falling foul of this legislation and who find themselves the subject of criminal investigation, civil action or, perhaps more importantly public scrutiny. Ongoing due diligence and review of contractual dealings with any business directly or indirectly affected by UK sanctions is and is likely to remain for the foreseeable future, sound business practice.

Lee Hills, Partner E: lhills@mayowynnebaxter.co.uk Tel: 01273 223232 www.mayowynnebaxter.co.uk

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ECONOMY “A further relaxation of pandemic restrictions in the UK led to stronger demand for goods and services in the South East. Output rose at the quickest rate for eight months while employment levels rose sharply as firms seek to tame rising backlogs. Meanwhile, easing restrictions across the globe provided a boost to sentiment which improved to a six-month high.

› COM M E N T MELANIE HANNAY

Regional Director London & South East, Corporate & Commercial Banking.

“However, the strong performance was once again overshadowed by record, and nearrecord increases in output prices and input costs respectively. The intensification of the energy crisis along with rising costs for materials, wages and transportation added to price pressures in February. With external price pressures and geopolitical issues emerging, firms in the South East could be set for an extended period of elevated costs. That said, local companies will likely welcome the ‘living with covid’ announcement which will further facilitate a return to normality.”

NATWEST'S MARKET ANALYSIS DEMAND AND OUTLOOK NEW BUSINESS GROWTH QUICKENS TO EIGHT-MONTH HIGH

NEW BUSINESS INDE X

sa, >50=growth since previous month

Private sector companies in the South East reported a further increase in new work intakes during February. Firms overwhelmingly linked the relaxation of pandemic restrictions, new projects and greater demand to the upsurge. The overall rate of growth was marked, and the quickest since last June. New business growth in the South East was slightly stronger than the UK average, while service providers noted a steeper uplift than their manufacturing counterparts.

60.7 Feb ‘22

70 60 50 40 30 20 10 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

FUTURE ACTIVIT Y INDE X

sa, >50=growth expected over next 12 months 90

GROWTH PROSPECTS REMAIN WIDELY OPTIMISTIC

80 70 60 50 40 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Sources: Natwest, IHS Markit

Sources: Natwest, IHS Markit

80.5 Feb’22

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Local companies continued to forecast output growth over the course of the year, with the overall degree of optimism improving from January. In fact, sentiment was the strongest since last August with confidence pinned on hopes that international travel restrictions continue to ease, and domestic demand continues to improve. Positive sentiment among firms in the South East was the third-strongest of all 12 monitored UK regions, ranked behind London and Yorkshire & Humber.

ECONOMY EXPORTS EXPORT CONDITIONS IMPROVE SHARPLY

The South East Export Climate Index is calculated by weighting together national PMI output data according to their importance to the manufacturing exports of the South East. This produces an indicator for the economic health of the region’s export markets.

E X P O R T C L I M AT E I N D E X

sa, >50=growth since previous month

54.7 Feb ‘22

70 60 50

The Export Climate Index rose from 52.6 in January to 54.7 in February, signalling a sharp and accelerated improvement in export demand conditions. Sharp expansions were seen across all five of the key export markets in February with Ireland recording the steepest uptick. The Netherlands and US followed with growth accelerating in the latter. Meanwhile, output rose at the quickest rate in six months in Germany, while France registered an eleventh successive monthly expansion.

40 30 20 10 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Sources: Natwest, IHS Markit

❛❛ South East companies continued to report

historically elevated rates of input price inflation during February. The rate of increase was substantial, accelerated to a three-month ❜❜ EMPLOY MENT INDE X

sa, >50=growth since previous month

BUSINESS CAPACITY MARKED AND ACCELERATED INCREASE IN EMPLOYMENT

57.1 Jan ‘22

60 55

Companies in the South East continued to signal employment growth in February, with the period of job creation now extending to a year. The rate of increase quickened for the second successive month and was the strongest since last October. Panel comments suggested higher output, paired with the anticipation of greater demand following the relaxation of restrictions, encouraged hiring activity.

50 45 40 35 30 25 20 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Sources: Natwest, IHS Markit

INPUT PRICES INDE X

sa, >50=inflation since previous month

83.3 Feb’22

90 80 70 60

PRICES NEAR-RECORD INCREASE IN INPUT PRICES

South East companies continued to report historically elevated rates of input price inflation during February. The rate of increase was substantial, accelerated to a three-month high, and was the second-steepest in the series history (surpassed only by that seen last November). Higher prices for fuel, utilities, energy, materials, labour and transportation were reported. Input costs in the South East rose at a quicker pace than that seen across the UK as a whole.

50 40 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 Sources: Natwest, IHS Markit

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FINANCE

By Daniel Morgan, Managing Partner, Haines Watts Esher

Why should I look for a business mentor? Many of the business owners I work with have decided to start their own business because they enjoy the freedom and control that being in charge allows them. But alongside the benefits there are also unique challenges. For many entrepreneurs, they figure out what works and what doesn’t as they go. As the business grows and expands this becomes an increasingly risky way to operate. And when the buck stops with you, this can cause a huge amount of stress that your family and friends may not necessarily be able to relate to. WHAT IS A BUSINESS MENTORING? Mentoring is an impartial relationship between you and someone with business experience. The relationship can guide you through making difficult decisions and prompting thought by asking you the tough questions. While the mentor will be a trusted adviser all decisions will still sit with the business owner. The aim isn’t to tell you the answers but to dig deeper to find out what you think the right move is. WHAT BENEFITS CAN A BUSINESS MENTOR BRING? Business mentors can make a huge difference through the insights they share from their own personal experience. While the mentoring relationship will look different depending on the needs of the mentee, a good mentor will stimulate your thinking and challenge your assumptions. The aim is to support both business decisions as well as personal growth by:

n O ffering impartial and unbiased advice – your friends and family are personally invested in your success and this can cloud their judgement and prevent them from seeing the bigger picture. A good mentor will be neutral but informed offering a perspective that you may not have originally considered. n A cting as a sounding board – running a business can be lonely, particularly if you are the sole owner. A mentor can be an invaluable resource for you to bounce ideas off or talk through challenges. Sometimes talking things through is all you need to reach a decision. n Keeping motivation high – Motivation will ebb and flow but once it is lost it can be a struggle to bring it back. Listening to the experiences of someone who has been there and done that can be key in restoring your inspiration and getting you back on track.

It’s easy to think that your accountants only deal with numbers but there is a real value and opportunity in moving beyond just compliance. It is already a highly trusted relationship and the experience gained from supporting a variety of businesses is invaluable. When working with my clients I call upon this as well as my experience running my own business to offer my clients context and insights for the challenges they face.

Get in touch if you want to learn about how we can support you and your business. www.hwca.com/accountants-esher T: 020 8549 5137 E: esher@hwca.com

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LEGAL

By Sandeep Nighoskar

IT’S TIME TO EVOLVE YOUR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE TO ENHANCE THE REPUTATION OF YOUR COMPANY Since the 2008 financial crisis we continue to see organisations failing, not just in terms of insolvency, but in terms of behaviour and transparency. We have witnessed the collapse of Carillion, Wonga, Cambridge Analytica, Wirecard, Bell Pottinger, 1MDB and many more. Whilst many would argue that the issues of those listed above were around the flaws in the business models and the challenges with financial viability; one should not overlook the governance and by that I mean four key words: Leadership, Culture, Behaviour and Ethics. We have seen recently Boohoo Group PLC, having their growth and success pegged back by a lack of internal control and an inadequate governance framework. Leadership, Culture, Behaviour and Ethics set the strategic drive for any organisation, starting with the CEO sharing the vision, the journey and how they view success. It is not just about profit and turnover growth being the key measures. Creating a progressive culture goes to

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the very heart of the organisation and affects how people respond to structures, systems, processes and procedures, culminating in whole entity assurance, which is what traditional theoretical governance has historically been about. WHAT IS CORPORATE GOVERNANCE? I was recently asked by some students what the word ‘Governance’ meant to me, knowing they did not want a textbook answer; it made me think long and hard. Since I first started in this profession the themes associated with traditional Governance had widened over the years, but why? The reason was simple, cause and effect. The theoretical view of Corporate Governance is a framework system covering effective, entrepreneurial and prudent management ensuring sound stewardship of the organisation. It requires leadership from the top in setting the tone on accountability, transparency, probity and focus. Public sentiment has shifted, and with the rising tide of regulation, the focus on

environmental and social perspectives is forcing the public to question the corporate moral and behavioural alignment when in pursuit of profit. The public / potential investors will want to know: n D oes the organisation behave in a socially responsible manner when trying to meet its corporate objectives? n Are the existing structures, processes, procedures and controls capable of meeting the growth and compliance challenges of the future? n How successful is the organisation in communicating its awareness of the many social and political challenges of the public? If an organisation can articulate the above well and demonstrate good strong governance, they will enhance their reputation, credibility and value. Organisational reputation is now more important than ever, whether you are a corporate, an educational establishment or a charity. Choosing business partners carefully is also as important as the organisation’s own behaviour, as reputational damage simply by association can often be just as bad.

LEGAL

Sandeep heads up the firm’s Company Secretarial and Corporate Governance Services. He also leads a newly launched Governance Consultancy ser vice offering, which provides Governance Consultancy Services that bring all aspects of Governance, Risk and Compliance together to address emergent strategic risks, enabling Directors and Trustees to confidently discharge their responsibilities and make for a more effective Board.

❛❛ Organisational reputation is more important than ever, whether you are a corporate, an educational establishment or a charity ❜❜ WHO LOOKS AFTER YOUR CORPORATE GOVERNANCE? Senior executives, directors and trustees need to ensure that they do not overlook attitude to social development or regulation. The need for continuous oversight and monitoring of developments is why the role of the Company Secretary and governance professional, has changed. The role today is much more about board support and horizon scanning for the organisation on the emerging strategic risks and steering the organisation more proactively. It is better to deal with these demographic, technological, environmental and sustainability issues before a regulator steps in to fill that void. This proactivity is exactly what good stewardship and good governance is about. The Company Secretary is

there to support the Board, the role is primarily to aid the Chairperson to ensure the proper functioning of the board. The Company Secretary is often the best placed as they have the oversight of all that holds the organisation together to ensure the organisation and board work effectively. HERRINGTON CARMICHAEL ADDS EXPERIENCE TO CORPORATE GOVERNANCE SERVICES Herrington Carmichael’s Corporate Governance Ser vices have been enhanced by the arrival of Sandeep Nighoskar as a Legal Director. Sandeep is a Chartered Accountant and Char tered Governance Pro fessional, providing governance, risk and compliance support to boards ranging from corporates, charities and the education sector.

Through the Governance Consultancy Service offering, Sandeep’s team can assist your organisation by: n S uppor ting, implementing and creating robust governance cultures in small , medium and large organisations. n E stablishing purpose, value and strategy to ensure cultural alignment. n Guiding management focus on the framework of prudent and effective internal controls. n Helping and guiding in the assessment and manage me nt of various corporate and commercial risks. n W riting, developing and guiding policies, procedures and practices to assist in the management of internal control to safeguard the corporate assets. n Dealing with the Governance related interdependencies through active participation in issue resolution. n Board support. n Running meetings, and committees and acting as the central point for the sharing of information across committees and boards. n Acting as company secretary.

For expert advice on company secretarial or corporate governance related matters: Contact: Sandeep Nighoskar sandeep.nighoskar@ herrington-carmichael.com DD: 01276 854 929 M: 07824 359020 >

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BUSINESS

CASE STUDY SOURCERY Entrepreneurship is seldom a linear journey – and the story of Zoe Law, founder of Sourcery UK, is a case in point Here’s a look at how Zoe went from working in charity sector and multiple consultancy firms across the world, to founding Sourcery, a platform facilitating eco-friendly procurement from independent British brands, with a vision of creating a micro-grid of small brands and retailers that trade with each other. Although Zoe’s latest venture started in 2020 proper, she tells us that her entrepreneurial journey really started years earlier. Having graduated with a degree in Politics, Philosophy and Economics, and a Master’s in Political Economy, Zoe has aspired to create a positive societal impact through her work. Driven by this purpose, she went on to work for three years in the Charity sector, before making

a career change to consulting in Shanghai, China, when the opportunity arose. While Zoe worked with large companies in her consulting work, she mentions about how these experiences gave her useful exposure to sales, logistics, business modelling and setting of key performance indicators – crucial skills for any entrepreneur. Her time at an innovation consultancy also allowed her to gain insight into future growth areas and opportunities. Above all, however, Zoe tells us that the diverse nature of work in consulting equipped her with the confidence in her ability to learn quickly. This has allowed her to thrive in unfamiliar situations and verticals, especially when working with a variety of startups: ranging from a cheese-making startup that aimed to make use of surplus milk, and a precision farming startup. In late 2020, opportunity struck: after hearing from a friend who worked as a restaurant manager on how difficult it

was to source sustainably, Zoe took this as a cue to start a business that aligned closely with her values of creating positive social and environmental impact. From this, Sourcery was born. Today, Sourcery has achieved a considerable level of success, boasting 130 business customers, over 250 products and 20 suppliers. While the platform has temporarily been paused due to high demand, Sourcery aims to relaunch in June, and attract over 100 suppliers, providing over 1000 products. To build capacity, Zoe has hired two new people to handle marketing and engagement. When asked about the greatest challenge faced when running her business, Zoe points out that the shift from the corporate environment to becoming an independent business owner was daunting in many ways: For instance, it can be difficult to know whether one is doing well as an entrepreneur. Additionally, she also cited the challenge of screening potential investors and cofounders, to select a partner who truly shares the ethos of Sourcery. To this end, as a solo founder, Zoe credits various Accelerator programmes with the opportunity to meet like-minded people, going through similar challenges. In some words of wisdom to entrepreneurs looking to start out on a similar path, Zoe encourages experimentation with ideas, ideally in a low-risk way. After all, with all its unpredictability, the path of entrepreneurship is a learning journey,

https://sourcery.uk

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CHARITY FOCUS With children and young people’s mental health issues on the rise, Rockinghorse Children’s Charity are supporting services and projects aimed at helping young people to survive and thrive

Rockinghorse Children’s Charity supports the mental health crisis in Sussex We have all seen the news recently about the increasing numbers of young people who are struggling with their mental health, with sharp rises in the numbers being admitted to hospitals with severe mental ill-health such as eating disorders, suicide and self-harm. Between April and October last year, the numbers of children needing care for serious mental health issues increased by 77%. This number can be difficult to put into context, but it translates as one in six children, or five children in a class of 30 will have a diagnosable mental health problem. Dr Mohammed Rahman, Paediatric

Consultant and Lead for the HDU at the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, Brighton, is at the sharp end of this crisis, seeing hundreds of young patients a day come through the A&E department at the hospital.

On top of that, a couple of years ago Brighton was named as the UK town most affected by County Lines, where criminal gangs from larger cities exploit vulnerable young people to supply and distribute drugs.

Dr Rahman said: “We have huge numbers of young people feeling depressed, anxious and unwanted. The numbers of teenagers we have requiring hospital admission for self-harm or attempted suicide are considerably higher compared to the national average. The amount with eating disorders has rocketed and we are seeing increasing numbers of teenagers attending A&E for alcohol or substance misuse.

As a team we do the best we can during the time these young people are in hospital, but we simply don’t have the time to explore some of the underlying issues resulting in their visit to A&E or follow up cases in a way that might prevent them from needing to be re-admitted.” And these mental health issues aren’t just related to young people in crisis. There are also hundreds of children and teenagers with long-term physical health conditions like cancer, diabetes and cystic fibrosis who have really struggled with their mental health over the last two years. Children like 13-year-old Rose, who has a genetic condition that causes her quite a number of significant health issues which affect her kidneys, lungs, liver and is also severely visually impaired. Rose’s mum Lara said: “The last couple of years have definitely had an effect on Rose’s mental health. The loneliness, the difficulty in re-integrating into society and the lack of routine made things really difficult for her.” But Rockinghorse Children’s Charity is helping young people manage their mental health and help resolve some of the triggers and underlying issues causing their mental health to suffer.

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CHARITY FOCUS are seeing the physical impact of mental health conditions, as services across Sussex are struggling to cope with the numbers of children needing support with their mental health. At the same time, we are hearing from parents who are worried about their children who may be struggling with school, social situations or the current horrific events in the world. It’s a scary time for children and it’s a scary time for parents. At Rockinghorse Children’s Charity we support children and young people, but we also support their families – from offering first aid training to new parents, support when parents need to stay over in hospital or at Christmas, when we bring a bit of festive cheer to all families with sick children.

The numbers of teenagers we have requiring ❛❛ hospital admission for self-harm or attempted suicide are considerably higher compared to the national average ❜❜

And secondly, supporting wellbeing projects such as art therapy, sea swimming and woodland wellbeing days for people like Rose. These projects aim to help these children feel better able to manage their conditions, normalise their experiences, feel less anxious but above all, have some fun.

“But during the last couple of years, these connections have disappeared,

Donna Holland, Rockinghorse CEO said: “Mental ill health can happen to anyone at any time. Through our work with children’s hospital services across Sussex we have seen a huge rise in children coming to hospital as a result of their mental health. Doctors and nurses

Proud to support

Charlotte Savins, a psychotherapist from the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital, will be running some of the Woodland Wellbeing sessions. She explained why these are so important for the children she works with: “For children already struggling with ongoing health issues, connection with other children in similar positions is so important. It helps normalise their experience, builds their resilience and improves their wellbeing.

making an already difficult situation even harder to manage. These Woodland Wellbeing sessions will help re-establish these connections, enable these children to recognise that they aren’t on their own and that a little support can make a big difference.”

il d

it y

Firstly, they are funding a youth worker for the A&E department at the Alex whose role it will be to work in a holistic way with young people presenting to the department in crisis. They will be able to spend the time helping young people who feel adrift, undervalued or alone and who don’t feel they are armed with the ability to cope with the pressures that life has thrown at them.

r e n ’s C h a

The charity has already made some progress on funding these projects, having raised an amazing £60,000 in their Rockinghorse Emerald Ball on March 19th at The Grand Brighton. The event, to commemorate their 55th anniversary, was a great success and really helped the charity to be able to illustrate the support that’s so badly needed for children and young people in the local area. Donna said: “All our projects and services come directly from the doctors and nurses that work in the children’s hospital, wards and units across Sussex. We respond directly to the issues and problems they see – buying lifesaving equipment, funding ground-breaking medical projects and seed-funding staff who can ensure that Sussex is a safer place to children to grow up.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP Mental health can affect anyone, at any time, but it can be difficult to know how you can help – especially with your own children. But there are things you can do: n Talk to your children about their mental health. Try to be open and honest so that they understand that taking care of their mental health is as important as their physical health. n Visit the ‘Parents A-Z guide to support’ at www.youngminds. org.uk where there is advice and guidance on how to help your children with their mental health. n Support Rockinghorse Children’s Charity www.rockinghorse.org.uk to help them ensure that there are services and projects to help young people with their mental health all over Sussex.

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EDUCATION

By Xiao Ma, Teacher of Maths, Hurst College

The purpose and difficulty of GCSE mathematics The first of these is the easiest to meet – questions that require students to problem-solve and apply methods in novel ways can usually be written for any topic. It is the balance between the latter two purposes that is the subject of this column. When a maths teacher is asked the classic question “When are we ever going to use this in our lives?”, most educators try to think of a real-life application of the content. For many topics, I have stopped trying to do this, and instead motivate it in terms of problem-solving. The reason is that they are right - much of the content is simply not useful for everyday life. What should the purpose of GCSE mathematics be? Broadly speaking, most aims can be categorised into three areas: n To develop transferable prob lem-solving and critical thinking skills. n To teach practical numeracy that is useful for everyday life. n To prepare students for further study of mathematics and sciences in tertiary and higher education.

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In education policy, there has been a steady drift toward a neoliberal

❛❛ Maths is a compulsory subject and future options are severely limited if students do not pass ❜❜

agenda. Successive governments have promoted STEM subjects – wanting more scientists, engineers, computer programmers and doctors – while arts funding has been cut. The changes made to higher GCSE mathematics in 2015 are a stark illustration of this. Some of the topics covered include set notation, functions, vectors, and a huge amount of algebraic manipulation. These are clearly biased towards providing a foundation for A-level mathematics rather than any direct everyday use. What was even more dramatic, however, was the increase in difficulty. The new papers are much, much harder. This is fantastic for the more able students who weren’t challenged enough by the old specification and who want to continue studying Maths, but not for the majority of the student population. Maths is a compulsory subject and future options are severely limited if students do not pass. Students are not allowed to study A-levels, and most universities, apprenticeships and jobs require passes in English and Maths.

In 2019, students had to score 22% to pass GCSE Mathematics. While such a mark does not necessarily mean a student only understands 22% of the content, the point still stands. What is the point of trying to do so much when the average student feels like they are going at too fast a pace and only able to acquire a fragmented understanding of the subject? It is unproductive and demotivating. More options are required for students. Some may point to the foundation tier GCSE, which can be a good choice for those really struggling to

pass. The issue with this, however, is that it puts a ceiling on achievement – the highest grade one can obtain is a five (equivalent to a C). The many middle-of-the-road students thus face an unenviable choice: study higher tier when they may not fully understand much of the content/use again in the future or pick lower tier and have their potential capped. So, what can be done? A third qualification in between higher and foundation may be a good idea. Another is more choice in syllabi, especially those with a greater focus on practical applications for those with no intention of further study in Maths. Courses like this exist, but most schools do not offer their students much/any choice. In any case, this is an issue that deserves attention and thought.

For more information: www.hppc.co.uk

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EVENTS

BRIGHTON SUMMIT: the final keynote line-up At this year’s Brighton Summit, we’ve got three keynotes who are sharing their stories, all linked in their own way to this year’s theme: Unite. In case you missed it, in January we announced our first keynote, Baroness Floella Benjamin (Playschool alumni will recognise her name!), and we’re delighted that joining Floella as keynotes on April 29th will be Mike Adams and Rachel Watkyn.

For Founder of Tiny Box Company, Rachel Watkyn, life hasn’t always been straight-forward. An early job in Sierra Leone led her to witness both poverty and a military coup – and what she saw inspired her vision for a Fairtrade business.

Mike Adams is CEO of multi-millionpound disability business Purple, dad of five and devoted Brighton fan. Purple is a cutting-edge organisation committed to changing the disability conversation, and it provides direct support services to more than 4,500 disabled people, helping them to lead more independent lives. Traditionally, the focus for the disability conversation has been on charity, welfare, vulnerable people and responsibility of government. But this needs to change, and a move towards understanding the value, wider contribution and opportunity for people and organisations is needed. At Brighton Summit Mike will tell, through stories, how change is being achieved. He’ll explain how and why organisations, as well as individuals, need to unite to play a part.

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Tiny Box Company is now the UK’s largest online gift packaging e-commerce company, with 90 employees, 700 products and over 120,000 customers. Rachel’s keynote will look at how the problems life continued to throw at her have prepared her for the challenge of business, and why she’s just launched a new sustainability company. If her name is familiar, it might be because you heard her speak at our Hybrid event in November. We’ve invited her back to share her powerful story with the wider Summit audience.

EVENTS

WHAT ELSE IS PLANNED SO FAR… As well as three brilliant keynotes, our Summit schedule is fast filling up. We have a choice of workshops to help you unfrazzle, learn to speak confidently in public with an opera singer, or how to ask smarter questions. Our Come Together (right now) HOUR is an inspiring session to do something different. You can choose to see a quantum physics lab up close, get a Sussex wine and cheese masterclass, disassemble a laptop or meditate with an organ recital. And, we’ve also got thought-provoking speaker sessions with Victoria Garcia from Brighton & Hove Buses and Metrobus, Jack Maddalena from Naurt - plus plenty of time for networking (and refreshments) built in throughout the day. We’re still announcing new workshops, speakers and HOURS every week. So, to get the latest Summit updates sign up to the Chamber mailing list.

You can book a ticket for Brighton Summit: Unite, and see the full schedule so far for 29 April at brightonsummit.com

Sponsored by: Cardens Accountants, Paper Round, A-plan Insurance, EMW Law, EQ Investors, Ingenio Technologies, Psydro and University of Sussex.

PLATINUM M E DIA G RO U P

With thanks also to our media partner, Platinum Media Group, The Sentence Works for copy, illustration by Sandra Staufer, graphic design by Visual Function, website by Madison, and print by Lollipop.

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INNOVATION

Young entrepreneurs get a kickstart in annual StartUp Sussex competition A manufacturing business for videogame controller accessories and an innovative personal security product to protect people from having their drinks spiked won their young creators prizes worth £10,000 each at the StartUp Sussex awards The annual enterprise programme, delivered by Sussex Innovation for students and recent graduates from the University of Sussex, reached its climax as the recipients of prizes worth a total of more than £37,000 were announced. Following two years where the grand finale was staged virtually, the finalists, family and friends, judges and mentors were able to come back together for a live awards ceremony and celebration, held at the Sussex Innovation Centre in Falmer on Thursday 24th March. The 2022 StartUp Sussex winner was f inal year B S c Marketing and Management student Julius Crutchley. His business GETTAGRIP aims to level the playing field within competitive gaming by providing gamers with affordable, high performance console controller accessories.

As well as earning the title of University of Sussex Entrepreneurs of the Year, the winners received a £10,000 prize consisting of a cash award and ongoing m e m b e r s h i p, c o n s u l t a n c y a n d marketing from Sussex Innovation. The StartUp Sussex prize is underwritten by the University, while the Social Impact Prize is funded by a generous private donation from a Sussex alumnus. “When I was announced as a winner, the overriding feeling was relief!” said Julius Crutchley, founder of GETTAGRIP, “I’ve

spent the last six months developing relationships with manufacturers and mentors, and don’t want to lose the momentum I’ve built. Now I have the funds to kickstart the business and begin prototyping and testing our products to get the ball rolling. My most important takeaway from StartUp Sussex is that the harder you work, the more people want to help you succeed.” “There were so many great start-ups that will have a positive social impact, that when they announced the winner I just couldn’t believe it,” said Jazmine Tiley, founder of Protective Bubbles. “The programme has helped shape my business, from the incredible help and mentoring of the Sussex Innovation team, to the thinking and planning I had to do for the business plan around my launch product. Winning the Social Impact Prize will really help me get started with developing a website

The Social Impact Prize is awarded each year to the enterprise with the most potential to bring about positive social change. The 2022 winner is 2nd year BSc Psychology student Jazmine Tiley, whose business Protective Bubbles will develop products designed to help individuals protect themselves, their loved ones and their belongings.

(L-R) Simon Chuter, Jazmine Tiley, Richard Lassiter, Nigel Lambe

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INNOVATION

box that has won multiple national start-up awards and appeared on the BBC’s Dragons’ Den, and Darren Tenkorang with TRIM-it, a mobile barber service that has received £1.1m of seed investment and been the subject of Channel 4 documentary The Money Maker, as well as features by BBC Business and Forbes. “This year’s finalists made it a very tough call for us,” said Chief Executive of Sussex Innovation, Nigel Lambe, who sat on the 2022 judging panel. “We saw an extremely strong collection of entrepreneurs, any one of whom could have succeeded on another day. As so often in this competition, we were weighing up a wide range of different business models and enterprises at different stages of their development – but ultimately our winners made a clear and compelling case that they will deliver real value to their customers.”

(L-R) Julius Crutchley, Jazmine Tiley design and packaging, and legal costs.” The 2022 competition began back in September with more than 80 budding entrepreneurs attending a series of Start-Up Lab training and workshop events, hosted by members of the Sussex Innovation consultancy team and the University of Sussex Careers and Entrepreneurship department. By March, 12 finalists were left pitching in front of a panel of expert judges. “Congratulations to the winners – and all of the finalists, who’ve had to work incredibly hard to prepare detailed business plans in just a few short months,” said Simon Chuter, Student Enterprise Manager at Sussex Innovation. “It’s always an absolute honour and a pleasure to run this programme and watch these young entrepreneurs grow from their experience and develop confidence in their ideas. As anyone who’s been part of the programme over the past seven years would tell them, this is where the hard work really starts!” “It’s exciting to see the increasingly high quality of startup ideas and growing involvement in entrepreneurship among our students and graduates,” said Luke Mitchell, Entrepreneurship Manager at

❛❛ It’s exciting to

see the increasingly high quality of startup ideas and growing involvement in entrepreneurship among our students and graduates ❜❜ the University of Sussex Careers and Entrepreneurship department. “The programme of support we offer gets bigger and better each year, with our flagship competition StartUp Sussex providing the inspiration, encouragement and practical help that makes a difference. We will continue to work with these talented participants through our summer accelerator and beyond, and look forward to seeing them follow in the footsteps of others who have succeeded in this historic competition.” Previous StartUp Sussex winners have included Molly Masters with Books That Matter, a feminist literature subscription

THE OTHER 2022 WINNERS: In second place in StartUp Sussex 2022, Sam White (BSc Business and Management) received a £6,500 prize for his enterprise, Marco – a student collaboration platform that combines the networking effects of LinkedIn with the community management capabilities of institutional SaaS solutions. In third place, David Ade-Odunalde (BSc Computer Science and AI) received a £4,250 prize for his product, Epsilon AI, a software service that helps everyday sneaker fans to buy the latest limited edition trainers and clothes to hit the shelves. In second place in the Social Impact Prize 2022, Samuel Gandy (MSc AI and Adaptive Systems) received a £6,500 prize for his social enterprise, Wireless Wild, a business idea built around using technology to resolve the issue of data scarcity in biodiversity efforts.

Visit www.sinc.co.uk

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INTERVIEW

MATERIAL GIRLS By MDHUB Member, Kate Bendix What do you think are women’s top pet peeves when it comes to fashion? I’ll go first – a lack of pockets on everyday clothes. And is it possible to find a gorgeous dress if you’re ample chested and don’t want to look like a bag of spuds? Asking for a friend. Well, if you can sew, pop on over to The Fold Line, find a pattern you love, choose a material to die for and get sewing. Founded in 2015 by new MDHUB members, Rachel Walker and Kate Underdown, The Fold Line is a website for people who love sewing and making their own clothes. They supply unique

sewing patterns, in paper and digital formats, made by independent designers for customers to make and tailor to fit them whatever their shape or size. Rachel says “The Fold Line was set up to sell advertising and grow a community of makers. To help us diversify we worked with Fiona Shafer of MDHUB. It was great to have such a caring and competent person on our team. With her help and experience, we transitioned into selling patterns online made by independent designers. We are now the largest supplier of sewing patterns in the world.”

Rachel Walker and Kate Underdown Rachel and Kate come from different backgrounds but share a love of sewing and making. Rachel started out in science, then wholesale and pattern production. Now she oversees business operations. “I like to be productive and busy, I love the challenge of sorting things out and keeping things going.” Kate is the warp to Rachel’s weft (look it up). She’s a knitwear designer-turnedmilliner-turned-guru of the indie sewing world; the creative mind behind social media and content. The Fold Line is the epitome of Instagram with 132k followers. She is also the champion of their sewing community. They started out to build a community of makers so when the website became a store there was a ready-made audience hungry for content. “It wasn’t part of our strategy. It just happened. The importance of the community is massive, especially on Facebook. Makers provide help and encouragement to others, often sharing video tutorials, reviewing work and giving tips.” Thinking about it, sewing is a solitary craft. You can easily lose a weekend to a

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INTERVIEW

The Fold Line’s annual Sewing Weekender - where makers turn up with a project to work on as a collective, sharing tips and helping each other out nearly bit the dust but was transformed after they took it online in 2020 where it will likely remain. Last year, 2,000 makers showed up from all over the world. “It’s now far more inclusive and accessible to those who couldn’t take part before.” Brexit hasn’t been kind. They’ve lost paper pattern sales to EU customers due to rising costs. Stock that previously took a week to arrive easily takes five and customs has its own challenges. Costs have gone up across the board. Now that Rachel and Kate want to take The Fold Line to the next level they’ve joined MDHUB to help them get there. “We have our processes and teams in place and the next step is to go international. Being members of MDHUB means we get to work with ‘The Greats’.”

new pattern, ensconced in your sewing room or cubby hole. The Fold Line’s Facebook community is 1,600-strong, so you’ll always find someone to assist with a bobbin issue, for example. A customer commented “Keep doing what you do. It’s so inspiring to be part of and has made me braver in my sewing as well keeping me connected over this last year.” Kate and Rachel have also been a force for change when it comes to inclusion and diversity. “We want to give people of all shapes and sizes what they need to make great clothes and we have requirements for our designers to make sure our patterns work for everyone.”

We have our processes ❛❛ and teams in place and the next step is to go international. Being members of MDHUB means we getto work with ‘The Greats’ ❜❜

But how have they fared through Covid and Brexit? “We had to close down in the first few weeks of the pandemic but when we finally opened the doors, sales went up because people wanted a distraction from the stress and worry. We consider ourselves very fortunate to have done so well.”

Being an MDHUB member has far exceeded their expectations. “We’re impressed by the sheer range of businesses and found the peer working groups especially beneficial. The facilitators are key to bringing the group together to make sure everyone gets what they need.” “One big plus of membership is how reactive they are to new and ongoing world events. We get email updates, and workgroups pop up overnight. There’s a lot of support from MDHUB right now around current events and their effects. With digital patterns, there’s no limit to where we can go, we have huge potential for growth so now was the right time to join MDHUB. We love what we do. We’re able to give a maker the tools they need to create the clothes they want to wear. What can be better than that?”

The Foldline website is: https://thefoldline.com MDHUB Member, Kate Bendix – Writer/Author and owner of www.wormcountsfordogs.co.uk To find out more about how the MDHUB can help you as a Business Leader visit www.mdhub.co.uk

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INFLUENCERS FORUM Welcome to the Influencers Forum – on the subject of family-owned businesses. One advantage of a family-owned business is common values, sharing the same ethos and beliefs on how things are done. This often gives an extra sense of purpose and pride and a competitive edge for a business but unique problems can arise. It’s important to identify a succession plan which sets out the details of who, how and if, it is to be passed onto the next generation; a plan which is financially sound for the business as well as for retiring family members. This roundtable discussion explores challenges and opportunities around structures and long-term vision for a family business. I’d like to welcome Jo White, tax consultant at Kreston Reeves; Rebecca Blott, Director of Castle Construction; Robert Beasley, Partner at Kreston Reeves; Oliver Butts, MD of the English Soap Company; Jack Clipsham, Corporate Finance partner at Kreston Reeves; and Tamara Roberts, the CEO of Ridgeview Wine Estate. One thing that I found enlightening was that in 2018, there were 5.1 million family-owned businesses in the UK, representing 87.6% of all private sector firms. That took me by surprise. The UK family business sector employed 14.2 million people in 2018; more than half of all employees in the private sector, and 40% of the UK total employment. I’m sure it’s not news to our panel, but it certainly was to me.

MAARTEN HOFFMANN

LESLEY ALCOCK

Maarten Hoffmann is the facilitator for the Platinum Influencer Forums The Platinum Media Group is the largest circulation business publishing group in the UK, reaching up to 720,000 readers each month across three titles.

Lesley is a marketing professional, having spent many years with Capital Radio in London and the Observer Newspaper, and was instrumental in the launch of the Observer Magazine.

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T: 07767 613707 lesley@platinummediagroup.co.uk

The Platinum Publisher

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Commercial Director Platinum Media Group

INFLUENCERS FORUM

REBECCA BLOTT

ROBERT BEASLEY

Director Castle Construction

Accounts and outsourcing partner Kreston Reeves

Rebecca Blott is the owner and Director of Castle Construction; a premium construction company based in Brighton. A family-run business, Castle Construction was created by Rebecca and her husband, Scott Dowdy to deliver high-quality workmanship, coupled with industryleading customer service to domestic and commercial clients. Their range of projects include basements, extensions, garden rooms and structural alterations.

Robert has considerable experience in advising owner managed businesses at all stages of their development. He offers practical advice from creating business plans and reviewing systems to quantifying and controlling costs to improve profitability. robert.beasley@krestonreeves.com www.krestonreeves.com

rebecca@castle-group.co.uk www.castle-construction.co.uk

OLIVER BUTTS MD, English Soap Co.

Oliver – Bob and Juliet’s son, joined in 2012 to work alongside his parents as Managing Director. Bob remains the Senior Director and Juliet is Company Secretary. Ailsa, Oliver’s wife, joined the company as Operations Manager in 2016. Before Oliver joined his parents in 2012 The English Soap Company brand didn’t exist and there were three or four customers. Since then turnover has quadrupled. There are now some 220 products and 3,000 customers worldwide. oliver@christinamay.com www.christinamay.com

JACK CLIPSHAM

TAMARA ROBERTS CEO Ridgeview Wine Estate

Private Client Tax Director Kreston Reeves

Jack has more than 25 years’ experience advising SME and mid-market clients across a wide variety of sectors. He provides strategic advice to companies looking to develop both organically and by acquisition as well as advising on exit strategies.

Tamara joined Ridgeview, her family’s English Sparkling Winemaking business, in 2004 and became CEO 2014. Since then, production has doubled and she has put in place a strategy to double again by 2025 alongside a £1million investment into on site hospitality and tourism. Ridgeview is dedicated to the three pillars of a sustainable business – social, economic and environmental.

Jo’s provides both corporate and personal tax advice to business and individuals. She specialises in family investment companies, inheritance and property tax planning and editor of Kreston Reeves Pathfinder tax and wealth newsletter

Corporate Finance Partner Kreston Reeves

jack.clipsham@krestonreeves.com www.krestonreeves.com

JO WHITE

jo.white@krestonreeves.com www.krestonreeves.com

www.ridgeview.co.uk

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INFLUENCERS FORUM RBt: Rebecca Blott RBe: Robert Beasley OB: Oliver Butts

JC: Jack Clipsham TR: Tamara Roberts JW: Jo White

Tamara, at Ridgeview Wine Estate, most certainly a family business as I know that it was started by your father. And you now run it as CEO with quite a few of your family involved. Are there more advantages than disadvantages in a family business? TR: I’ve worked at Ridgeview for most of my working life. Certainly those common values and an aligned purpose, along with the commitment and determination to make the business work, are things that are shared across a lot of people, not just the entrepreneur who started the company. There’s a sharing of the burden, and keeping each other going when the times get tough. Because when it does get tough, there’s nowhere to turn. RBt: I see it as a massive advantage, Often people think that my husband and I working together means we must be at loggerheads. Quite the opposite is true. There’s a mutual respect, which you have to have. There have been companies that have been managed and owned by family members where that hasn’t worked. For us, it is that set of shared values that you have together; that you’re all pulling in the same direction. And that includes our young children who are already interested in what we are doing at work. OB: A lot of it depends on the individual family. If you’ve got skill sets that complement one another, and you can get on harmoniously, then it’s certainly an advantage, because you will have that shared ethos, identity, drive and determination to make the company succeed. That said, I’m sure we’ve all heard of countless businesses where it’s gone on to the next generation, having been split between three or four siblings, and the business has fallen apart. In our case, my father founded the business, and I’ve got two brothers, and neither of them are involved in the business in any capacity, because my father knew that it wouldn’t work out. So it’s my wife, my father and I who now run it. And that works well.

The UK family business sector ❛❛ earned more than £1.9 trillion in

revenue in 2018, 44% of the private sectors total turnover ❜❜ 72

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In a family business, it can be very good, but there is a downside. Tamara do you find that you can go home and not talk about business? TR: It’s hard not to when I work with my husband. Both my boys have started to work in the Hospitality Group as well. So even from them I get stuff about what’s going on over there! I am fairly conscious of that, and if it gets too much, I say, ‘right now, we’re not talking about that anymore.’ But it is such an important part of our life. So in a way to not talk about it would be just as odd as to talk about it. And sometimes, getting stuff off your chest can be quite useful. Jack, have you come across the trials and tribulations of family businesses? JC: I have this issue at home because on the one hand, I’m a professional corporate financier with a career of 30 years. On the other hand, I’m a husband of a wife who owns her own beauty salon, and who has spent the last two months rebranding, refurbishing and investing quite a lot of money into it to build her business. The difficulty I face is when she comes home and she starts talking to me about it. Am I supposed to be wearing my ‘professional corporate finance’ hat, or my ‘husband’ hat, or the ‘listening’ one as opposed to a ‘Mr. Fixit’ hat? Woe betide, Jack, if you get the hat wrong…! JC: I often do! It’s not easy. It’s fantastic to be able to have that family environment where you can offload and you can talk to each other and support each other. I’ve seen it where that closeness has actually been the value behind the business which has enabled it to grow. But I do think it is a bit of a minefield. One business that I’ve got happens to be second generation; it’s a business that works in logistics and haulage. The parents set it up originally, handed it over to three sons, the eldest of which is very much involved with the business. But the other two have got roles within the business without them being key to it. So we’re now in a process of marketing that business for sale. We can present it very well but it’s on the basis that there is one person who is key to the business but wants to exit. We have two other people who are less key to the business who also want to exit so it’s trying to explain to potential buyers who see senior management stepping away from that business. Lots of intricacies there.

INFLUENCERS FORUM Jo – do you have much experience within your roles at Kreston Reeves with family businesses? JW: It’s mostly people wanting to ensure that they protect the family business, from both a tax and a commercial perspective. I’ve also seen it from the other side, where you’ve got siblings falling out. Somebody has died, the siblings have been left everything 50/50, one doesn’t want to be involved, the other does, and we’re trying to negotiate through that process. It’s such an emotional thing, especially when you’re looking at it in retrospect, when somebody has died, you’re dealing with grief on top of everything else. And somebody often breaks at some point during that process. So it’s about upfront communication and making sure everybody’s on the same wavelength. Do you feel sometimes you end up more as a family counsellor than a tax consultant? JW: 95% of my job is counselling! If I knew I needed that skill, I’d have done a degree in psychiatry, law, or sociology…! JC: I just wanted to pick up on succession. Because personal experience says it tends to be third generation when there becomes an issue about people expecting roles, expecting jobs, but perhaps not really the right person to go into it. If you were going into a marketplace to recruit those people, you wouldn’t necessarily recruit your children, because they haven’t got the right skill set. Tamara was saying that she likes to pre-empt that, and have early conversations to try and make sure everybody has the right expectations. But I wonder generally, how much of a problem do people see that to be? OB: When I joined the family business straight out of university, I did a degree in history and politics, so if someone was to objectively look at the students who came out of my university, on paper, I wouldn’t be the best person to run the business. I think the difference that being a family member has is that you have something which those people won’t have, and that is the drive and the determination that comes from being in a family business. TR: The skills that were needed in the business, when I started in 2004, were very different to the skills needed in the business today. Before, when it was smaller, you got to do a bit of everything. Now, it’s much more about needing particular skills and experience to maintain a given role. I’m already putting in my next layer of management, as part of my progression into succession planning. It’s not going to be my children, because they’re too young. So whoever that someone else is, it will be their decision as to whom they recruit into management. I won’t be involved in that decision.

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INFLUENCERS FORUM

Only 8.2% of family businesses have any directors in control of the business who are not owners. Is that something that’s healthy? RBe: I think it can be healthy, because there’s a different view and perspective, and it takes some of the family issues out of the conversation. But then that one person against the family can also be quite challenging. Where my clients who don’t have that ‘external person’ on the board, they tend to use us to mediate between family members. I would imagine it would be quite intimidating for a director or a manager to come into a business that’s family owned. Do you think it’s healthy to have an outside person involved in the company? TR: I couldn’t work with just my family. You’re in a goldfish bowl. We all know how each other thinks; we’re a similar age, so there’s no diversity of opinion. And we’ve been doing it for so long. I’ve got non execs, I’ve got a young, senior management team, all with different roles. Only my brother and I are on the board with our mum; none of the other family members are. I need to work with the accountability of somebody who’s not a family member being in a senior position in the business. RBt: Fortunately, we’re not at that stage yet. But I agree that you’ve got to have people to challenge your thinking, because otherwise you just come up with the same ideas. It’s important to us that everyone feels they’re able to challenge us. Robert, what do you see as the main drawbacks in family businesses? RBe: It’s when it’s the generation that’s exiting the business that still wants to retain some of that control and doesn’t want to pass it down. It’s sometimes down to new ways of working, they’re less open to adapting, and ultimately we get ‘it always works like that, why can’t we do it that way?’ And that’s where I come in to act as a counsellor. I’d show them that there is a different way, and that the more open and honest people are, the more they can have those difficult conversations that they might otherwise put off.

Family firms in the UK ❛❛ contributed £657 billion to the

UK gross domestic product in 2018, 31% of the UK’s total GDP ❜❜ 74

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INFLUENCERS FORUM

Family firms paid the UK Exchequer ❛❛ £198 billion in tax receipts in 2018, one quarter of the UK governments total revenue ❜❜ We touched on succession planning. Jo, I assume succession planning in a family business is an absolutely paramount thing to get right? JW: Certainly from a tax perspective. When you’re dealing with a trading company, there are many tax reliefs available. But as companies or shareholders look to sell, or they look to diversify, there are tax consequences. We do a lot of inheritance tax planning. When it comes to identifying responsibilities and setting expectations, we’ve had Generation Three having an expectation that they’re just going to get an income from a company without doing anything. The open communication we talked about earlier is key to making sure that they don’t think that. Ultimately, they may well get some value from it, whether it’s the sale of the company and they get some cash, or whether it’s the shares in the business. But it’s the bigger picture that we need to be thinking about. Family businesses paid £196 billion in tax in 2018, which is more than 25% of the entire government revenue. It’s a huge number. I was also surprised by the fact that the greatest number of family firms are in this region of England. 1.72 million family firms are based in London and the south east, which is over a third of the national total of family firms. What do we think that’s down to? JW: It depends how they define family firms. When it comes to tax planning that we do with clients, they will set up a property investment company, for example, that has only family shareholders. That is now a family business, it’s just not a trading business. And there are many property opportunities – whether it’s land for sale or commercial properties for letting - in this region. Within those figures, I’d be interested know how much of it is ‘trading’ as opposed to ‘investment vehicles’? We look at a lot of company structures for tax planning purposes for things other than trading operations. OB: It could be partly due to the south east being a more affluent area than most of the rest of the UK, meaning you’re more likely to have that money to start a business. But also, the south east isn’t where you’re going to put a large logistics hub. Amazon isn’t going to put a giant warehouse outside Brighton, they’re going to put it outside a more central town.

Oliver, you said that your father passed the business down to you in preference to your two brothers, and you have to convince him that you have the wherewithal to do it. I presume winning International Business of the Year at the Sussex Business Awards must have been a hell of a pat on the back to you. He is involved, but he works from home part-time, and sometimes involves himself. Yes, he was happy. I’m going to bring Lesley in here. Before she joined, she worked in her family firm for 15 years. Do you recognise most of what we’ve spoken about here? LA: Yes, I do - a lot. Sadly, Robert’s point is the one that resonates the most. And it strikes me that Oliver has experienced this as well. It was resistance to change from my dad who set the electrical retailing business up, and ran it for nearly 50 years. When I went into the business, it was because, like Rebecca’s experience, my kids were three and five, I’d left my job in London, moved down to Sussex, and I desperately needed something to do. He persuaded me to go in supposedly to ‘help out’. To start with, it was because it fitted around two young kids. It worked, as I needed a challenge. But I constantly fought with my dad over everything I wanted to do. As I understood more and more about the business, I could see where we should be going. I even had to fight quite hard just to get a website started. John Lewis and AO.com very quickly became our main competitors; not the other retailer down the road, as it always used to be. And I fought very hard to get a website set up – and lots of things like that. The truth is, the constant battling probably drains you more than anything. It wasn’t the customers, it was the what was going on inside the company. As my dad got older, he got worse, and more resistant to change! It was ‘we’ve always done it like this, why do we need to do it differently?’ But there were some of the positives that have been talked about. There were the common goals; we never actually fell out. It was just frustration on my part that he couldn’t see that we needed to change and grow the business and move on. But there was a fabulous feeling of camaraderie. So it was a bit of a mixed bag, really.

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INFLUENCERS FORUM

In a Deloitte survey from 2014, the majority of complaints about family business was the mess it can leave behind. To quote: “Family business can be messy. Navigating the dynamics of recruitment promotion, dividends, salaries, and decision-making can breed resentment, disengagement and entitlement among family and non- family alike. Business conversations can start to dominate mealtime. Disagreements at work can spill over into conflicts of home.” RBt: My mum and my sister, a few years back, decided to start a business together - a training company. It was a disaster. From the outside looking in, they both had very different ideas about who was going to undertake which role in the business. Strategically, having that long term vision is vital. We’ve talked a lot about everyone focusing and going in the same direction. But it was evident from discussions that they just didn’t have that. It all went horribly wrong, and ended in a lot of arguments, and it did damage their relationship. The biggest question out there with family businesses that I came across time and time again was succession. When should family businesses be looking at their succession policy? JC: The earlier that somebody can start thinking about it, the better. Tamara said earlier that she likes to pre-empt the conversations. That’s exactly the right way to go. If the family aren’t going to take it over, is it going to be an outright sale to a trade buyer? Are you going to be looking to support members of the second tier management team – who may not be family – who may be keen to do a management buyout? Try to identify whether you have a problem or not, or whether there is a succession issue to resolve. But either way, look at the options and plan for them. And the more time you give yourself to plan, the more likely you are to have a successful conclusion. JW: I echo those comments; the earlier, the better. A lot of these things will often take time to manage through that process, whether you need to bring in external people or not. And setting expectations from the outset is really important. RBe: Also keep talking because your personal and business goals change over time, so you might need to revisit whatever plans you had before.

TR: You can’t use your business as a vanity project as you get into your elder years; to stifle it moving on. It’s so important to have an idea of when to stop being the key decision maker in the business. I’m thinking many things, but maybe should it be when I hit 60. Do I want to be doing what I’m doing beyond 60? The answer is absolutely not. Hence why I’m working now to bring the management team through the business. We’re right bang in the middle of that planning process now, because it doesn’t happen overnight. You’ve put so much of your family’s life into the business and very successfully. Do you think you will be able to walk away? TR: I’ve got to. And I have to, over the next 10 years, get that into my head. OB: My father is planning to retire formally in November; he turned 70 this year. For him, it’s like there’s a rage against the dying of the light, because as he gets older, his influence in the business gets diminished. Rebecca, have you thought about succession planning? RBt: It’s early days for us. The agreement that I made with my husband was that if I gave up my career, it would be to help with the business. We would grow it into something bigger. But that was with the idea of having a business to sell on.

The UK family business sector ❛❛ employed 14.2 million people in 2018 - more than half of all employees in the private sector ❜❜

I must admit that there’s an element of envy of you guys holding it together with family. We’re coming close to the end, so what I’d like to ask each of you. What would you say to any of our readers who are thinking of starting or running a family business? TR: Good old-fashioned, clear, honest communication as regularly as you possibly can. Sit down and have those conversations with your family. Ask the difficult questions before they become a crisis situation, and get your planning ahead sorted. Think of what everyone wants from the future as much as what the business can deliver. Those two things are so strongly linked. You can’t deal with them separately. They’ve all got to come together.

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INFLUENCERS FORUM

In 2018, there were 5.1 million ❛❛ family-owned businesses in the UK, OB: It’s got to be a meritocracy, inside and outside of the family, when you have other people working alongside you. Also cultivate the knowledge and ideas of those who aren’t within your immediate family. Otherwise, if you’re a husband and wife, and you go home and talk to each other, you only end up reinforcing each other’s point of views and perspectives. You do need fresh ideas from the outside to help you grow.

representing 87.6% of all private sector firms ❜❜

RBt: Respectful communication will be at the top of my list. One other element to be clear about is what each party brings to the table in terms of contribution – and be very clear about their role. I think that’s important. JC: Communication, communication, communication, absolutely. It’s making sure that there’s a commonality of directions. So everybody needs to be signed up to the same aims and objectives. If there are different agendas, it’s not going to work. The power of the family can can help to achieve those objectives. And with communication, as well as respect, I would add the need for honesty and realism. I think there are fathers – and maybe I’d probably be one of them - who would think it was fair to my children to leave it equally between them. I presume, Jo, that’s not necessarily a very smart thing to do? JW: It’s a fine balance between showing that you treat your children equally, versus the reality that, if you do that, there’s going to be problems in maintaining the profitability of the business, and ultimately realising that value. Then there’s the relationship with your other family members. One’s going to be more disgruntled than the other because they’ve done all the work, but only getting a third of the value. It’s a huge responsibility for the founder of the business, isn’t it? We’ve all seen it; it can break families apart, though that’s never the intention of the founder, but it’s a very dangerous thing to do, is it not Robert? RBe: Very dangerous. That’s why I think it’s important to begin with to set those clear expectations of what everyone is going to bring to the party; what everyone’s roles within the business are going to be, and how that aligns with everyone’s individual, personal and family goals. Hopefully this will avoid those family conflicts later on.

It is an absolute minefield. But I’m delighted to say that we’re speaking to three business owners here who have navigated it well and correctly. I’d like to thank you very much for your time. Thank you.

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CONNECTSURREY

PEST CONTROL

Make sure you are getting what you are paying for By Paul Bates While it is very true that you get what you pay for, ‘cheap’ often means a substandard service. It is also unfortunately true that ‘expensive’ and employing a household name company does not always equate to a high standard of service. Recently we posted a video on social media from one of our pest control technicians, Richard Quarterly. He was called to a canteen’s commercial kitchen that had a mouse problem with staff regularly finding mouse droppings. Mice spread a variety of nasty diseases through their urine, droppings, saliva and nesting materials, including hantavirus, salmonellosis and listeria. Richard’s video showed his discovery of a large gap around a waste pipe. Next to this, there were greasy smears running along the wall. Smears are a classic sign of a mouse infestation. They are made from a build-up of dirt, urine and oil from the mouse’s fur, and they are often found around high traffic areas like pipes, holes and walls. What made this job even more galling was that the company in question had taken preventive pest control seriously. They had contracted a professional pest control company to undertake onsite pest control, but the service they received was just not acceptable. The company contracted to provide preventive pest control wasn’t a fly-bynight, one-man operation. This was a well-known company and you would expect the job to be done properly.

The company ❛❛ contracted to provide

preventive pest control wasn’t a fly-bynight, one-man operation. This was a well-known company and you would expect the job to be done properly ❜❜ They seemed to have thought it was acceptable to just leave a few traps around the site. They hadn’t bothered to check these traps and Richard found dead mice in them. Again, this is unhygienic in any work environment but especially a food preparation area. Even worse, there was no evidence of proofing. Mice don’t just miraculously appear in a kitchen; they must find an entrance. What is annoying is that the canteen was doing the right thing by employing a household name pest control company. However, the technician obviously didn’t

believe in good customer service and the pest control company was failing to ensure the client received an adequate service. Cleankill is now working with the client to solve the problem. Richard is conducting extensive proofing to stop the mice entering the premises. He will then back this up with regular visits to ensure the problem has been solved. Clients deserve to get the service they pay for and, to safeguard the reputation of the pest control industry, it is important that we all work to the very highest standards. Award-winning Cleankill Pest Control is the only pest control company in England to hold the Investors in People Gold accreditation. The company has one of the best-trained teams in the UK.

For a free pest control survey email info@cleankill.co.uk or call 0800 056 5477

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CAPE TOWN IS BACK, BABY

and more fabulous than ever! Capetonians did not sit on their laurels during 2020 and 2021. No, the Mother City has seemingly used the time to become more inspired, more creative and more fabulous! By Tess De Klerk It has to be said that travel during the last year had, at times, been hit and miss. Some holiday destinations felt in the grasp of a bad hangover, shell-shocked and trying hard to rediscover their je ne sais quoi. Not so with Cape Town. The hubbub of Camps Bay, for example, is as vibrant as it had always been. Bree Street’s bars are busy and the entire city is abuzz with enthusiasm and ideas. New

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restaurants, menus and experiences abound and creativity floats everywhere. It’s impossible not to be swept up by the charge of excitement in the air. Everyone should visit this majestic city at the edge of Africa at least once in their lives and now is a great time to go with temperate climates and the famous Cape Doctor wind past its overzealous

season. Expect balmy days and comfortably cool nights well into May... then again, expect that all year long in the sunny Cape. The rugged beauty of its coastline dotted with giant granite boulders and pristine white beaches, overlooked by the 500 million-year-old Table Mountain, its flanks carpeted with greens and indigenous fynbos flora, inevitably leaves visitors in awe of this southern tip of Mother Africa. Its cosmopolitan-cool attitude feels intimate and welcoming with friendly faces, excellent food and wine and fantastic accommodation available at feel-good prices.

TRAVEL

NOT TO BE MISSED! SOAK IN THE ATMOSPHERE IN CITY BOWL

Immerse yourself in City Bowl; a natural amphitheatre-shaped area bordered by Table Bay and defined by the mountains of Signal Hill, Lion’s Head, Table Mountain and Devil’s Peak. The Bowl holds some of the most interesting and historically significant neighbourhoods such as Bo Kaap, Oranjezicht, Tamboerskloof and Gardens which provide hours of easy meandering, trendy restaurants and fascinating historical sights.

TABLE MOUNTAIN

Seep in the soul of Cape Town from atop the ever-present Table Mountain. You’d be hard-pressed to find a more spectacular view than that of the Atlantic and Indian oceans merging under the African sky. I suggest hiking the Plattekloof Gorge (1h30 -2h) or the awe-inspiring Skeleton Gorge (5h) to the mountain top to really take in the unique fauna and flora of the area or simply hop into the cable cars from City Bowl.

ABSEIL FROM THE WORLD’S HIGHEST COMMERCIAL ABSEIL LOCATION

Abseil from Table Mountain which is the world’s highest commercial abseil location, standing at 112 metres, for serious scenery and bragging rights! www.capextreme.com

ZEITZ MOCAA MUSEUM, V&A WATERFRONT

Definitely don’t miss the world’s most extensive collection of contemporary African art housed in the spectacularly refurbished 1930s grain silo complex. It is refreshing to see such a variety of art, hopefully reframing the notion of African art as only ‘crafts’. zeitzmocaa.museum

GETTING AROUND Get hold of a City Pass to enjoy free entry to over 70 Cape Town attractions, including whale watching!

BOULDER’S BEACH FOR PENGUIN WATCHING

You’re just about guaranteed to see the famous African penguins at Boulder’s. In fact, they’re likely to come within touching distance but, of course, don’t touch or feed these adorable creatures, they are wild animals in their natural habitat. The beach is named after the ancient granite boulders that protect it from wind and large waves, making it an ideal swimming spot throughout the year.

WHALE AND DOLPHIN WATCHING

The Cape waters are home to a wealth of resident dolphins, porpoises and whales all year round but it is the annual migration of the Humpback, Bryde’s and southern right whale in particular, between June and November, that allows for exceptional land-based, and boat-based, whale watching in South Africa. www.boatcompany.co.za

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TRAVEL BOOK YOUR STAY MOUNT NELSON BELMOND HOTEL

Cape Town’s iconic pink lady opened her doors in 1899 and has attracted a wellheeled mix of loyal guests ever since. Service is impeccable, interiors are glamorous, gardens immaculately groomed and the number of restaurants, bars and city sights within strolling distance to its doorstep are plentiful. This urban oasis is my Cape Town favourite. From £254 PRPN www.belmond.com/south-africa

CAPE GRACE

Everyone loves a classic, particularly the kind where the service might lull you into thinking you’re the only one at the hotel. That’s no small thing, especially considering Cape Grace has hosted famous tycoons, diplomats, and Clintons aplenty. Though the hotel only opened its doors in 1996, it harkens back to a bygone era. Elegant rooms evoke the surrounding area’s nautical heritage, and many have views of Table Mountain. Cape Grace’s unbeatable location, at the heart of the popular V&A Waterfront district, makes for easy access to prime Cape Town sites. From £360 PRPN www.capegrace.com

HAVE A DRINK AND BE MERRY

< CHINCHILLA ROOFTOP CAFÉ AND BAR, CAMPS BAY

Arguably the best spot for a sundowner with its impressive views over the ocean and the iconic Lions Head and Twelve Apostles mountains. Over weekends resident DJs start on the decks from late afternoon until sunset which create a buzzy vibe. The crowd is mixed and inclusive. www.chinchillarooftop.co.za

> GRAND AFRICA CAFÉ AND BEACH, V&A WATERFRONT

Not quite as grand as the name suggests but definitely not a beach shack either. Sit back, enjoy views of the harbour, sand between your toes, good pizza and a choice of excellent spirits and wines. www.grandafrica.com

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TRAVEL

GETTING THERE British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have reinstated their direct flights from Heathrow. Flights takes around 12 hours and jetlag is minimal since only one time zone is crossed.

New restaurants, menus and experiences ❛❛ abound and creativity floats everywhere. It’s impossible not to be swept up by the charge of excitement in the air ❜❜

DORP BOUTIQUE HOTEL

> THE PIANO BAR, DE WATERKANT

This cosy cocktail club in the middle of De Waterkant is reminiscent of the classic New York jazz bar, with live music every evening. Check the lineup before heading out as entertainment ranges from fantastic solo artists on the baby grand to more lively indie pop. www.thepianobar.co.za

Dorp, meaning “village” in Afrikaans, defies categorisation. It is not for those looking for an onsite gym, spa or conference room to be sure. No, it is for those who will appreciate the utterly original with streaks of artistic genius, for those looking for a stay which will be long remembered. Dorp is a passion project of creative maverick, Gail Behr and the complete antithesis of chain hotels. Highly recommended. From £195 PRPN www.dorp.co.za

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AUDI Q4 e-tron

By Maarten Hoffmann, Senior Motoring Editor

PLATIN UM

The Audi Q4 sits between the Q3 and Q5 (obviously) and the complexity of all these model names continues to bore me. With the identikit routine now in full swing, this model has the MEB electric platform. Therefore it is a VW ID.4 and a Skoda Enyaq but with a different party frock. There are three basic starting models to choose from – the 35, 40 and 50-badged models. The 35 e-tron comes with a 52kWh battery, 208-mile WLTP range and a 168bhp motor. The 40 e-tron gets a 77kWh battery, 316-mile WLTP range and a 201bhp motor, while the 50 e-tron quattro has the same battery set-up as the 40 but with an extra front motor to give the car four-wheel drive, boosting available power to 295bhp but reducing the official range to 298 miles. Those

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cars can then be chosen in four trims – Sport, S Line, Edition 1 and Vorsprung. Phew. I don’t know about you but l do not understand why, having spent billions on designing their oil burning cars, why so many manufacturers decide to start all over again with the design of their electric cars. Surely, just rip out the oil burner, pop in the electric motor and off we go. But no, we have a range of daft looking EV’s on the market. Except here.

❛❛ This is a very good EV. And then we come to the elephant in the room ❜❜

The Q4 is essentially the petrol Q4 and that is a very good car. Therefore, this is the perfect first EV as you will notice little difference – apart from the silence and the lack of need to visit a petrol station, taking out a mortgage for every fill. The Q4 has a smooth ride, sits well on the road, corners well regardless of the extra weight of those batteries and is very well put together. Often the issue with such silent cars is that you then hear all the squeaks and rattles from the rest of the interior but here you have the testament to German engineering – everything is silent. It is not the quickest EV out there but then you have little temptation to cane it and watch your electricity drain away. But it is quite quick enough, with a really

MOTORING

TECH STUFF

comfortable interior, everything to hand and that slightly higher driving position that buyers today seem to love. It is far less at home attacking country roads than cruising on the motorway but it is difficult to argue that this is a very good EV. And then we come to the elephant in the room. I know l am odd as l only have these cars for seven days and therefore l don’t have a charger at home, but even if you did and you do more than the claimed 298 miles per charge, you are going to need a public charger. Here the fuming anger starts. The total and utter incompetence of the UK’s charging network comes into full focus. On one journey to Marlow, l charged the car at a supermarket and then got a £60

MODEL TESTED: Q4 e-tron 50 quattro MOTOR: 77kWh POWER: 295 bhp SPEED: 0-62, 6.2 seconds TOP: 118 mph RANGE QUOTED: 298 miles PRICE: £54,545 PRICE AS TESTED: £65,065 fine for staying too long! And the charge failed halfway through so I only received 100 miles. That got me to Marlow but on the return, l stopped at Beaconsfield services on the M40, to find that three of the six chargers were out of order, ‘no tap and pay’ so another app added to the six l already had! But that didn’t work either. After crawling so slowly that l could have been fined for driving too slow on a motorway (that would be a first), I limped into Cobham services on the M25. Again, three of the four chargers were broken and someone was on one that was working. Infuriatingly, it appeared they had gone off to do their weekly shopping as they

returned an hour after their charge had completed. Finally l got onto the charger and was merrily informed that it would take 6.3 hours to charge. Sorry! The car literature states that l can get 80% charge in 38 minutes and l am sure somewhere on the planet l can but not anywhere near the South of England it would appear. So we waited 2.5 hours to get enough juice to limp home. It reminds me of the last time l reviewed a Tesla. In Brighton, l needed one of their famed fast chargers and, after calling Tesla, was told the closest one to Brighton was on the Isle of Dogs!! My journey back from Marlow took 4.5 hours, including getting soaked in the rain as l tried to get the blasted things to work, fat as a house as we ate three meals to pass the time and l now have more charging apps on my phone than contacts. I am fully aware that when the Model T Ford was introduced, there were probably very few petrol stations as it takes time for the system to catch up to the sales of such cars. But that was 1908 – surely in 114 years we should be able to do better?

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Sandown Mercedes-Benz At Sandown, we pride ourselves on excellent customer service. Our dedication to customer care and quality stretches beyond the forecourt, with specialists always on-hand to help you at our Sandown Mercedes-Benz Retailers. Please be assured that we have always prioritised the safety of both our customers and staff. We have taken all the necessary steps to enable you to deal with our sales, service and parts teams safely and in full compliance with the latest government’s guidance.

Our Sales, Service and Parts departments are all COVID-19 compliant.

Appointments booked in advance over the phone or online.

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Platinum Business Magazine - issue 96

Articles inside

AUDI Q4 e-tron

Cape Town is back, baby and more fabulous than ever!

The purpose and difficulty

Material girls

Rockinghorse children’s charity supports the mental health crisis in Sussex

Working with Russia in the Brave New World

It’s time to evolve your Corporate Governance to enhance the reputation of your company

Why should I look for a business mentor?

Brighton Summit: the final keynote

Case Study: Sourcery

What is the economic crime act?

The UK’s pioneering Research Park

What are the alternatives to National Savings and Investments?

The cautionary tale of social media

Vlad All Over

Understanding your business credit score

Help create egg-citing memories this Easter

Find your way forward