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CHAMBER NEWS
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Cash is king during the crisis
Simple measures can help protect businesses from the impact of COVID-19, acording to Greg Palfrey of Smith & Williamson. He gives the following advice:
“Safeguarding your people and your business may mean making tough decisions. Basing these on sound rationale and good forecasting is important. “Tried and tested ways of getting through hard times are as relevant now as ever. Cash is king. Forecast your daily receipts and payments over a rolling six week period and then for the next six months identify weekly or monthly pinch points where you may need funding. “Look to preserve cash and generate it wherever possible by realising value from balance sheets, obtaining loans from funding schemes or using the breaks and benefits announced by the Chancellor. Professional help can be invaluable when building your forecasts and managing working capital. “Combining your cash flow forecast with trading and balance sheet forecasts can help predict productive trade areas and where to minimise exposure and costs. It can also significantly improve your chances of obtaining a loan “The bottom line is to take control of your cash flow. Don’t leave things to chance. If you think you need professional help, get it sooner rather than later. It can then be so much easier to help you solve your problem.”
www.smithandwilliamson.com
Beard breaks ‘vicious circle’ of closures
Family-owned construction firm
Beard is continuing to operate on more than 90% of its sites, despite the wave of closures that the industry has seen in response to the spread of Covid-19. Beard has fully implemented the Site Operating Procedures drawn up by the Construction Leadership Council. This ensures that staff and subcontractors working on Beard sites are not exposed to unnecessary risk. Additional safety measures include lengthening the working day and resequencing work to allow different workers to be on site at different times and minimise the need for contact. Although operational capacity has been reduced to around 50%, these measures mean that Beard has been able to continue working on as many
sites as possible. A key issue is the availability of building materials. Beard has engaged with relevant trade bodies to ensure it can continue to source supplies and to identify specific supply bottlenecks. Mark Beard, chairman of Beard, commented: “The safety of all those working for us, and of the general public, is always our top priority. But when sites close, that results in a fall in demand for materials, and builders’ merchants shutting their doors. This can lead to more sites being forced to shut, due to lack of supplies. “The Government has given the industry a clear steer that it wants construction work to continue where possible. We are determined to do our bit to help turn the current vicious circle into a virtuous cycle.”
My therapist told me the way to achieve true inner peace is to finish what I start. So far, I’ve finished two bags of M&Ms and a chocolate cake. I feel better already.
BUSINESS WISDOM
Vision Engineering wins Queen’s Award
Vision Engineering, the leading designer and manufacturer of high-quality visual inspection and measurement technologies, has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise 2020 in the Innovation category, for its high tech ergonomic optical inspection microscope Lynx EVO. The Queens Award is acknowledged as the highest UK award for companies. It is awarded to products or services that have been available on the market, and can demonstrate outstanding innovation and commercial success for at least 2 years. Lynx EVO is a high productivity eyepiece-less stereo microscope providing market leading ergonomic performance for intricate inspection and manipulation tasks. Based on Vision Engineering’s globally patented ‘expanded pupil’ technology, it was developed to address the issue of operator efficiency. It allows operators to sit further away from the eye-piece, leading to improved user posture, reduced fatigue and improved accuracy and efficiency. Lynx EVO has been widely adopted around the world for critical manufacturing operations, by large Medtech, Medical Device, Telecomms, Aerospace, Automotive and other manufacturers and their extended subcontract supply chains.
Careers at the Manor
Before the lockdown, Reigate Manor invited 20 Reigate College sixth form students to the hotel to learn more about what’s involved with working in the hospitality business. The students who have shown an interest in working in the industry, learnt about different roles within the industry. Giles Thomas, Operations Director for Manor Collection, said; “The students were very interested and left with a better knowledge of what’s involved with working in a hotel. They were given talks from our HR Manager, our Marketing Manager and one of the hotel managers who has worked his way up from a waiter to management level.”
Memset, one of the UK’s leading managed service providers, has partnered with Team BRIT, an all-disabled racing team. Memset provides businesses with a range of cloud services along with networking, online security and cloud storage. The company has pledged its support for Team BRIT, which enables people with disabilities to participate in motorsports. Team BRIT is managed from Dunsfold, Surrey, home to the iconic Top Gear track, and it is here where Memset will be making a real difference – providing the Team HQ with high speed internet access. This enhanced connectivity will be crucial for Team BRIT’s latest project –eTeam BRIT, made up of all-disabled online sim racers. The team hopes to stage a major iRacing event using first-class racing simulators. Chris Burden, Chief Commercial Officer at Memset said: “What Team BRIT does is truly inspirational and we’re extremely happy to help. Increased internet connectivity will make an enormous difference to their services, and we look forward to providing more support in the future.” Team BRIT Founder and Team Principal Dave Player said, “We have some exciting plans for eTeam BRIT but without the right technology and connection in place, hosting online racing events won’t be possible. But now with the help of Memset, we will have the setup we need to make us more efficient and we’re incredibly grateful for support. Information on Memset can be found at www.memset.com. Memset connects with Team BRIT
A Space to Breathe?
Jonathan Compton, partner at city law firm DMH Stallard and leading dispute resolution and litigation lawyer, explains why Lord Neuberger is both ‘right and wrong’ to call for a ‘breathing space’ for companies facing a breach of contract.
Lord Neuberger has called for a breathing space for companies facing breach of contract cases during the C-19 emergency. He expanded on this on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme (27/4/20).
He is, of course, both right and wrong.
His Lordship, a former president of the UK Supreme Court, is one of the most respected lawyers this country has ever produced. He is right in the general thrust of his argument that companies should be afforded what he called “a breathing space” before a claim is brought against them.
Lord Neuberger was not given the chance, things being what they are in a short radio interview, to explain what he meant by a short breathing space. He did describe the process of mediation which is a means of alternative dispute resolution. reasonable proposal, “the breathing space” is actually both a misconception, and a honeyed trap.
The idea is misconceived because, if we leave the ivory tower of the UK Supreme Court behind us, we can see life at the coal face is more subtle and complex. In the three months to 31.03.2019, there were 467,700 county court claims, [source MOJ National Statistics 06.06.2019].
Any lawyer, before simply issuing a Claim Form and Particulars in the county court, will need to follow either a set of formal procedures called “protocols” or a general procedure called “the pre-action practice direction” before a claim is issued. If a lawyer – or even someone pursuing a claim without a lawyer – decides to issue a claim without following one of these set procedures they will need to explain why to the court. There are safeguards within the court procedure to ensure this compliance.
A good lawyer will perform due diligence on a defendant company and get some idea as to the means to pay off the said company. Lord Neuberger’s intervention ignores these safeguards.
Further, Lord Neuberger ignores the fact that his “breathing space” ought to apply as much to people as to corporations. Does his Lordship propose a general moratorium on new claims during the C19 emergency? If so, then he runs the risk of commercial contracts and payments simply stopping.
The effects of this policy are difficult to foresee.
Second, and more fundamentally, his Lordship’s argument will tend to be taken advantage of by companies who will use the article written by him to justify late payment when, in fact, they have the means to pay. The result
may be to encourage litigation rather than to discourage it. His Lordship must also be aware that small businesses, which depend on prompt payment, may be prejudiced by any general rule that paying companies are entitled to a “breathing space”. Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Services”. The essence of a service is that it ity are well founded or not. Let the solicitors do the job they have been doing, which is one of triage of cases, clients and defendants, and let the Supreme Court do its job of deciding fine points of legal precedent and authority.
Also, we all know that deferring or removing an obligation on one party is simply asking another to carry that burden – sometimes, that is – or can be – a fair result. But to impose a general moratorium, if that is indeed what is being proposed, is unlikely to result in fairness.
The courts in this country are “Her provides a service. It is suggested by the current writer that he is far better qualified as a solicitor working at the coal face of litigation for 20 years, than is his Lordship, to look at a potential defendant company, undertake due diligence and advise his client on whether the company’s excuses of impecuniosBy his intervention, his Lordship risks that companies will delay payment and actually
www.dmhstallard.co.uk
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