BQ North East Issue 07

www.bq-magazine.co.uk

ISSUE SEVEN: AUTUMN 2009

STEVE SCORES Steve Gibson’s vision for his £50m Rockliffe Hall Resort WHAT MIGHT HAVE BEEN Berghaus’s Richard Cotter on his dreams of a sporting life FORTUNE TELLER How Joanna Feeley’s trend-spotting secrets shape some of the planet’s biggest brands

URBAN SPACEMAN Sir Terry Farrell’s masterplans for Newcastle and the world ISSUE SEVEN: AUTUMN 2009: NORTH EAST EDITION

THE FOOD OF LOVE ...

Kitchenware Records’ Keith Armstrong on beer, fishcakes and a little band called Prefab Sprout BUSINESS NEWS: COMMERCE: FASHION: INTERVIEWS: MOTORS: EVENTS

NORTH EAST EDITION

Business Quarter Magazine

£2.95

FifIfofum Art Gallery, Northumberland Roy launched an e-commerce website, now he can reach new markets all year round.

innovator

Roy Sturgeon

8215 BENE BQ Mag 4p:8215 08/10/2009 14:00 Page 2

Mech-Tool Engineering, Darlington Keith invested in new IT systems which helped boost company turnover from £7million to £18million in two years.

innovator

Keith Bell

BOSS Black

BOSS Black Menswear and Womenswear Fenwick Newcastle Northumberland Street Newcastle Upon Tyne NE99 1AR Tel: 0191 232 5100

WELCOME

BUSINESS QUARTER: AUTUMN 09: ISSUE SEVEN It’s well known that when you get people talking - really talking, in healthy and well-informed debate - words lead to action.

Our latest BQ Live debate at Ramside Hall in Durham had more than 70 people representing many sectors of the North East economy taking part. Our rapporteur, Caroline Theobald of Bridge Club, kept everyone focused, ensuring that the event resulted in a clearly defined set of recommendations for supporting the regional economy that we are now taking forward to One North East, the Minister for the North East and Westminster.

BQ Live already has the backing of Nick Brown, Minister for the North East, and we have every expectation that the good work of the BQ Live participants will reap real results.

We’ve also talked this quarter to a veritable who’s who of North East business people, each of whom are making their own mark on the region’s landscape.

Perhaps the most literal embodiment of this is Sir Terry Farrell, whose Newcastle masterplans are re-shaping the city and its wider environs, and whose breathtaking Great North Museum has recently re-opened to wide acclaim from experts and general public alike.

The product of a Newcastle council estate whose work on landmark projects worldwide has made him a world leader in his field, he tells us that he credits his former art teacher with encouraging his career aspirations.

In similar vein, others may credit Lorna Moran with inspiring their entrepreneurial aspirations through Leadership Enterprise Opportunity - a new development programme she has launched through her own NRG Group and which we explore within these pages.

Talking of young entrepreneuers, we also feature Joanna Feeley, whose Trend Bible forecasts future trends relied upon by businesses worldwide, and the three young entrepreneurs, all of them under 30, who are growing their business Logistix through sheer entrepreneurial skill.

We’ve also got RTC North’s Gordon Ollivere on the region’s bid to improve product design, a glimpse of Steve Gibson’s much talked-about £50m Rockliffe Hall Hotel, Spa and Golf Resort, the sparkle of Richard Sinton Jewellers, and beer and fishcakes with Keith Armstrong of Kitchenware Records (Prefab Sprout, Lighthouse Family, Editors).

Tanya Garland has kindly fallen off the wagon to test the wine for us, and Duncan Weir takes the Lexus 450H out for an eco-friendly spin.

Thanks to all of them for taking the time to work with us, and to you for reading.

Do send your contributions, ideas and pearls of wisdom to editor@bq-magazine.co.uk and, if you see us out and about, tell us what you’re doing; you may just find yourself in print.

CONTACTS ROOM501 LTD Christopher March Managing Director e: chris@room501.co.uk George Cheung Director e: george@room501.co.uk Euan Underwood Director e: euan@room501.co.uk Bryan Hoare Director e: bryan@room501.co.uk EDITORIAL Brian Nicholls e: b.g.nicholls@btinternet.com Jane Pikett e: jane@thecreationgroup.co.uk DESIGN & PRODUCTION Euan Underwood, Kevin Waddell e: studio@room501.co.uk PHOTOGRAPHY KG Photography e: info@kgphotography.co.uk ADVERTISING For advertising contact Mark Anderson 0191 419 3221, mark@room501.co.uk

room501 Contract Publishing Ltd, 10 Baird Close, Stephenson Ind Est, Washington, Tyne & Wear NE37 3HL www.room501.co.uk room501 was formed from a partnership of directors who, combined, have many years of experience in contract publishing, print, marketing, sales and advertising and distribution. We are a passionate, dedicated company that strives to help you to meet your overall business needs and requirements. All contents copyright © 2009 room501 Ltd. All rights reserved. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All information is correct at time of going to print, October 2009.

THE LIFE AND SOUL OF BUSINESS NORTH EAST EDITION

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BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

CONTE BUSINESS QUARTER: AUTUMN 09 URBAN SPACEMAN

52 URBAN SPACEMAN Architect Sir Terry Farrell’s masterplans for Newcastle and the world

Features

58 LORNA’S FIGHTBACK NRG’s Lorna Moran on her support for young entrepreneurs

64 STEVE SCORES 26 NO TRUCK WITH FAILURE The young entrepreneurs making Logistix an international name

42 BQ LIVE Our latest live debate centres on boosting North East business

48 DESIGNS ON SUCCESS RTC North’s Gordon Ollivere on the region’s bid to improve product design

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

Steve Gibson’s Rockliffe Hall - set to score with its hotel, golf and spa

94 ALL THAT GLITTERS

52 LORNA’S FIGHTBACK

Richard Sinton’s family jewellers continues to sparkle after 25 years

100 FORTUNE TELLER How Joanna Feeley’s Trend Bible shapes the thinking of global brand-makers

106 ISSUES Brian Nicholls’ case for Northern Rock

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58

TENTS NORTH EAST EDITION

32 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

The landmark developments building the region’s industrial landscape

BUSINESS LUNCH

70 BUSINESS LUNCH Kitchenware Records’ Keith Armstrong on making music good enough to steal

Regulars

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76 WINE Tanya Garland tests two best bottles

79 FASHION Barbour - still waxing lyrical

86 KIT We are sailing - the new breed of yacht

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ON THE RECORD The deals making the news now

FASHION

90 MOTORS Duncan Weir in Lexus’s new RX hybrid

12 NEWS Who’s doing what, when, where and how, here in the North East

22 AS I SEE IT Debra Halcrow warns of the new law that could see executives risking jail

110 IN ANOTHER LIFE Richard Cotter of Berghaus on what might have been ...

114 FRANK TOCK Gripping gossip from our backroom boy

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79 BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

ON THE RECORD

AUTUMN 09

There are mixed fortunes for some, but good news for others, including new investment for North East Bakeries, new outlets for Mills convenience stores chain and a US deal for Mech-Tool Engineering >> Some win, some lose It’s proving a mixed bag of fortunes for North East firms fighting the global recession.

Among the newer industries, medical kit manufacturer Immunodiagnostic Systems of Boldon, cheered by a 56% leap in sales during the first half of its latest financial year, is confident of winning even more sales abroad as the strength of the pound wanes.

Data specialist Onyx Group expects almost to double turnover to £20m next year after moving to a new headquarters on Teesside.

In automotives over the past quarter Caterpillar, maker of earthmoving transport, has bought a fresh site for expansion at Peterlee despite paying off 300 workers there and at Stockton.

And trailer maker Schmitz Cargobull at Derwentside has made its first profit in six years and hopes to create 200 more jobs.

In the marine sector, Darlington subsea trenching and installation firm CTC, under its new US owner, has had a record year with sales almost doubled and has won its first order in the Middle East. A&P Tyne, which employs 160 at Hebburn, may get fresh investment through the Bailey Group, its new Welsh owner.

Another 300 jobs are coming to the former Dunlop tyre factory in Washington, which is being demolished to make way for a BAE Systems manufacturing plant.

On the railways, Grand Central, which links Sunderland to London daily, expects the route to be profitable next year despite losing almost £13m to date.

Environmental advisor Eaga, having taken on 300 more staff in our region, expects turnover to pass £800m, giving more than £50m profits this year. Hargreaves Services of Esh Winning is on the acquisition trail after hoisting profits nearly 50%. Whitestone Weavers, which bought Durham’s famous Hugh Mackay carpet firm out of administration three years ago, is bringing a lot of its overseas manufacturing back to Hartlepool, its headquarters.

The Fishburn stairlift company is entering the

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

>> For gain, but not for profit Durham University’s Women into the Network programme set up 10 years ago has been spun out and is now a not-for-profit company.

A group of women successful in business have taken over, intending to step up member benefits. Newly-branded Win Ltd will offer members personalised training, free and subsidised business tools, and collective buying and bidding opportunities to grow their businesses.

Win Ltd has secured £100,000 from the Government as part of a project offering the arts as a platform on which women in business across the region can enhance skills and confidence, develop new networks and re-engage in learning.

Directors of the new set-up are: Northumberland’s SCM Pharma director and co-owner Fiona Cruickshank; Mailing House Group managing director Jackie Peddie; Newcastle’s Solutions Recruitment managing director Margaret Clare; The bgroup creative director Di Gates; Ann Stonehouse, owner of Accountancy @ Willowbank and Co-Efficient Outsourcing on Teesside; and Dinah Bennett of Durham University’s Centre for

US market after sale-soaring times in the UK. The Findus food factory in Newcastle, which was devastated by fire, is creating 200 jobs with its reopening, though 420 worked there before.

Garlands, the region’s biggest call centre group, has reported sales down 10%, profits down 75%. But Sunderland call centre 2Touch is creating 200 jobs in a £1m investment.

The menswear clothing chain The Officers Club of Cramlington seems to have come through its bad patch and now expects £50m sales this year.

Private equity investors have saved 64 jobs with a buyout from administration of HFW Plastics of Gateshead. Sadly though, Mechetronics – once Westool employing

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Founding board: (anti clockwise from top) Dinah Bennett, Jackie Peddie, Ann Stonehouse, Fiona Cruickshank, Di Gates, Margaret Clare

Entrepreneurial Learning, who has built the organisation to date.

Win members, who can also be female employees who wish to advance their careers, will share an online network at www. womenintothenetwork.co.uk and get face-to-face support with personal development and business growth.

1,000 - has ended 60 years of electrical component manufacturing at Bishop Auckland as its new US owner switches production to China at a cost of 40 jobs.

>> From kitchen to Tesco A Teesside family which launched a business from its kitchen table has its health drinks sold by Tesco now.

The deal for Thorncroft Drinks to supply the supermarket chain with its Healthy Thirst brand comes after the Eaglescliffe firm under MD Sheila Woodall started supplying the range to National Trust properties. >>

AUTUMN 09

COMPANY PROFILE

VIEW OF THE REGION

N

OW that the recession has been quantatively eased to the point where talk over recent months has been of the green shoots of recovery, the recent round of party political conferences has focused on payback time. All parties seem to agree that future spending plans will involve heavy cuts and the North East, with its heavy dependence on public sector employment, (circa 30% in Newcastle), will inevitably suffer as a result. Cuts will not just be about lost jobs and the knock-on effect on consumer spending.

There is also likely to be an impact on funding for regional development agencies and export credit guarantees and, aside from its obvious spend on health and education, the public sector is a also a major purchaser of items as diverse as computers

and office machinery and legal services. All of these factors will impact on local businesses.

Most businesses have already cut costs, and are now looking for top line growth at a time when the public sector is likely to be cutting back.

Businesses should be looking closely at their customer base to assess the likely impact of spending cuts and considering some fundamental questions. Who are your customers and who do they supply? Should you have more or less? What do your customers want now - and in the future?

These questions must be answered in a business model that demonstrates viability. If not, professional advice should be sought to determine the options for the business, some of which may well be unpalatable. All too often I encounter businesses where the directors think they are

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making a profit but the reality proves to be different. In 30 years working within UK PLC I have found that the issue of inherent viability has always been utterly critical. All other business decisions flow from this issue.

In my work I focus on viability and I believe financial advice that reflects life in the real world has to be hard-nosed. I owe a duty to my clients to tell them how it really is, even if that is not what they want to hear.

For further information, please contact Joe McLean, Partner, tel 0191 203 7790 , joe.mclean@gtuk.com,www.grant-thornton.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

ON THE RECORD >> Low-carbon centre goes ahead A centre to pioneer low-carbon techniques and support petrochemical companies is being set up in a £12m investment at Wilton on Teesside.

It will enable new materials to be tested for biodiesel and biomass feedstock purposes, large scale. It will also create 15 jobs when it opens late next year.

Another £2.5m will be provided to support firms using the demonstrator facility and match funds will also be available.

>> Parking tax condemned Local authorities in our region are being urged to reject a new workplace parking tax proposed by the Government.

Richard Elphick, North East chairman of the Institute of Directors, believes the strategy has not been thought through properly.

He says major investment has to be made first to establish “decent” public transport systems and services.

He adds: “It is not feasible either for shiftworkers and others on unsocial hours to depend on public transport. There are also staff who need to use their cars as part of their job and require a parking space while at the office.

The country’s first workplace parking charge is being implemented in Nottingham, and it is predicted other councils will copy.

Under the scheme, any firm with more than 10 staff parking spaces will be charged £250 annually for each one.

>> Darlington-Chicago link augurs well Mech-Tool Engineering of Darlington has secured a deal with a company in Chicago supplying every atomic power station in the US, and is now preparing to break into the nuclear market at home.

The firm, which employs 175 people in Darlington and Middlesbrough, believes the deal enhances its bid for work on the

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

AUTUMN 09

new generation of nuclear power stations planned for Britain.

Despite the recession, the company enjoyed its most successful year to date last year, almost doubling turnover from £9m to £17m-plus and taking on 45 more staff.

>>Drug developer on a high Drug developer e-Therapeutics says it is nearer to meeting its ambition of becoming a £100m business after cutting losses by £300,000 to £1.9m.

The Newcastle firm, under its chief executive Professor Malcolm Young, expects by 2011 to be producing its three main drugs.

These are an anti-depressant, an oral drug for asthma and an antibiotic for Indian markets. It is also researching MRSA and cancer.

>> PR agency kicks off Wearside public relations and marketing agency Press Ahead has the contract to support Sunderland Football Club in its promotion of concerts and its bid to be a host stadium for 2018 World Cup matches.

>> Into pole position The family-owned Darlington firm of Harrison External Display Systems has consolidated its position as the UK’s biggest flagpole manufacturer with a £500,000 crop of three orders for Middle East nations.

It recently closed its manufacturing operation in Sri Lanka and restored the entire business to Darlington, where it hopes to double its workforce now to 80.

>> That’s even handier The Whitley Bay-based convenience stores group Mills has five new outlets, giving 78 in all, in the North East, Cumbria, North Yorkshire, West and East Midlands and South Wales.

>>R&D at B&D >> Something’s cooking North East Bakeries boss Greg Phillips (above) expects to expand its 13 stores and build turnover up to £5m thanks to a £100,000 investment by Evolve Finance.

The Newburn group now employs 140.

>>Clawing back a bob or two Firms suffering negative cashflow in the recession may be able to get some or even all of their tax refunded from previous years, say Tyneside accountants Robson Laidler.

Robson Laidler’s Graham Purvis says: “HMRC now lets businesses carry back losses for three years. As this reduces tax liabilities in those earlier years, the carry-back will produce refunds of tax – as long as the tax was paid in the first place!”

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Black & Decker at Spennymoor is now the US company’s European research and development centre following a relocation of manufacturing there to Eastern Europe. A staff of 120 is being retained.

>> Homebuying online Melissa Lines, after 16 years in the property business, has launched her own estate agency, designed to cut the costs of selling houses by running entirely online.

Big House Little House, Melissa’s venture, came about after she was made redundant as a director of estate agent Sandersons.

She is piling her knowledge now into www.bighouselittlehouse.co.uk All properties on the site will also go on the UK’s largest property search website, www.rightmove.co.uk

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NEWS

AUTUMN 09

Business is taking off this quarter, with new air services to Norway, a big boost for Nissan Washington, a major Malaysian deal for Solar Solve Marine, US backing for Park and Slide, plus much more ... >> £20m boost for printables

>> Take-off time for Scando trade New air links are providing better restaurants and other tourist attractions that opportunities for a take-off in trade with include Pulpit Rock, 600 metres above the Norway. Newcastle International, the UK’s nearby Lysefjord. most punctual regional airport, has two new At this end, the NewcastleGateshead Initiative services linking the North East with the is promoting Tyneside as a short holiday Scandinavian nation. destination for Norwegians.

Eastern Airways, Newcastle’s most punctual Bergen has presented the city of Newcastle scheduled airline, has started a Sunday with a Christmas tree every year for the last teatime service to Stavanger which serves 60 years. Its busy heliport serves not only Monday morning business meetings, and the oil, gas and subsea sector, but also restored Newcastle’s link with its twin city leisure travellers.

Bergen with a daily weekday service.

Joanne Leng, business development director The Sunday link with Stavanger complements of NOF Energy in Durham, says: “Norway is Eastern’s existing daily weekday services and a critical export market for the North East’s also further closes a gap from last year, oil and gas, and Bergen has many synergies when longstanding sea with our region, as both Up we go: Eastern Airlines has ferry services between are centres of excellence stepped up air links between the North Shields and Bergen in subsea technologies.

North East and Norway ended, with blame laid “Clusters exist in both on rising fuel prices. and new services will Mike Pedersen from the provide more bridges to North East-based encourage relationships Norwegian Collaboration in business.”

Centre, says: “A number Eastern Airways also of Norwegian companies provides the North East want to expand into the UK. The new business community with services from services will contribute to significantly Newcastle to Aberdeen, Birmingham, Cardiff improved trade with Norway.” and Southampton.

Stavanger provided Eastern Airways’ first The expansion of budget airline Jet2.com international route from Newcastle when has also introduced routes to Egypt, Turkey, launched in May last year. Chris Holliday, Cyprus, Greece and Gran Canaria. chief operating officer for the airline, says: “These new flights show our commitment • Glum news at Durham Tees Valley Airport, to developing routes between Newcastle however. Hopes there of getting an early and Norway.” replacement for the London link dropped by At Newcastle Airport, the head of aviation BMI collapsed dramatically when fraud development Chris Sanders has seen squad police were called in. passenger numbers between Newcastle and They swooped after the entire management Stavanger grow steadily. “The timing of the of Excelsis, the airline due to start services additional flight there is perfect, not only for between Teesside and London City business but also for leisure,” he says.

Airport resigned.

Stavanger was the European Capital of About 80,000 passengers a year used the Culture last year. It thrives on fine seafood Teesside-Heathrow services.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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A £20m investment for the North East Technology Park (NETPark) at Sedgefield is expected to lead to 250 jobs in the region and 1,500 nationally.

The new financial input for the park opened in 2006 comes from the Government and One North East.

NETPark is home to the Printable Electronics Technology Centre (Petec) and the funding will encourage more prototyping applications in: • printable photovoltaics • ultra-efficient lighting • printable flexible displays • new intelligent packaging The enhancement confirms the centre now as the national base for the emerging printable electronics sector, whose global market could reach £15bn by 2015 and £125bn by 2025.

Stewart Watkins, managing director of the County Durham Development Company (CDDC) which manages the park for Durham County Council, says: “This scale of investment signifies the faith in NETPark’s ability to become a leading player in printable electronics now and in the future.”

>> Double energy boost for the region Two big biomass plants are under way in the North East.

MGT Power is to build a 295MW plant on nearly 600 regenerated acres owned

by Port of Tyne. They stretch from Walker Riverside Industrial Park in Newcastle to North Shields.

Tyne Renewable Energy Plant - Tyne REP as it will be known - will be a £400m-plus investment. It promises 600 construction jobs, 150 on-site jobs, 300 - 400 indirect jobs and an annual £30m boost to the local economy.

MGT Power earlier won government approval also for a plant at Teesport to

AUTUMN 09

>>Sebastian has his doubts

be fuelled by some 2.4m tonnes of clean woodchip fuel a year, and giving up to 295MW of clean energy.

Andrew Sugden at North East Chamber of Commerce, says the dual development adds to the North East’s growing reputation as an international centre for renewable energy. The Tyneside plant involves a partnership of North Tyneside and Newcastle City Councils, and regional development agency One North East.

• Waste company Sita UK has opened an extension to its Haverton Hill, Teesside, plant on behalf of Northumberland County Council, with which it has a PFI. It provides enough electricity from non-recyclable waste to power 36,000 homes.

TRAINING

FINANCE

SALES & MARKETING

IT

ENVIRONMENT

LAW & LEGISLATION

NEWS

Young Sebastian Robinson (left) was delighted when he got his chance at 20 months to be a photographic model - though when his dad took him to see the giant billboard result later, he did look as if he might have had second thoughts. Having said that, his little face on a giant 48-sheet billboard poster certainly brightens Sunderland’s city centre. Sebastian is the son of Jacqueline Emmerson and Michael Robinson, who own Sunderland and Newcastle law firm Emmersons Solicitors. The billboard, at Gillbridge Avenue on the former Vaux site, is being used to promote the firm’s wills and probate service.

Jacqueline says: “We used our baby for the image to encourage people to think about protecting their family.” The husband and wife team have two other children Anna, nine, and Elspeth, six, who also help out with the family business. >>

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BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

NEWS

AUTUMN 09

Solar Solve: now serving Malaysia’s Navy

>> Electric vehicles boost Nissan’s Sunderland plant is tipped to start producing zero-emission electric cars when the global manufacturer takes it prototype Leaf model into mass production next year.

Though no official decision had been announced as BQ went to press, Noboru Tareishi, Nissan’s programme director for the new activity, has said the sporty five-seat hatchback will eventually be built on Wearside.

Earlier Nissan had said production would have to be near an appropriate battery making plant, then later announced it would invest £200m to introduce such an operation there - so creating 350 jobs that would offset many lost when the Wearside factory went into recession.

Also in Washington, Tyne and Wear, Tanfield Group is advancing plans for US production after receiving a £6m grant via the White House in Washington USA for its Smiths Electric Vehicles arm to prove abilities of its commercial vans, already in production, across American markets.

Tanfield already has a transatlantic presence and may manufacture in Kansas City as well as Tyne and Wear.

The group has been considering splitting its UK operation in two to counter a dive into the red following a £63m lapse in turnover.

Tanfield blames its setback – from £10.3m surplus in the first half last year to a loss of £11m in the year to June 30 – on the recession. But it says it is well placed to recover.

Its Smith Electric Vehicles and its cherry picker-maker Powered Access could be made separate firms. The electric vehicle division has been getting government funding.

Since late last year, Tanfield has cut staff costs by 40%, partly through 170 redundancies and shorttime working at Washington, which now employs about 300 people.

Chief executive Darren Kell says the group continues to be constrained by the global recessionary environment, but has taken appropriate and timely corrective action.

At Cramlington in Northumberland, Liberty Electric Cars plans to open a £30m plant turning out the world’s first electric 4x4s.

The Oxford-based company, already in talks with suppliers in the region, could start manufacturing before the end of the year, creating 250 jobs and pumping £120m into the North East economy.

More than 1,000 plug-in Range Rovers – the first model expected – could be made yearly.

>> US backs Gateshead space project A space-saving car parking device developed by two Gateshead inventors could be on sale in the USA soon.

Under an agreement brokered by product consultancy RTC North, Gateshead business partners Ken Riley and David Carr will have their Park and Slide brand marketed and distributed by Harding Steel.

Their large slide enables two cars to be stored safely in a confined garage. At the request of their American partners, the two have also designed a slide for a single narrow garage, a large wheel base slide and turntables for motor and quad bikes. Harding Steel president Jim Mayers predicts successful future for Park and Slide. www.totalliftingssolutions.co.uk.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

Singapore first, then New Zealand will have the world’s easiest economies to trade and deal, says World Bank

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>> Breakthrough for screen firm Solar Solve Marine has delivered its first order for anti-glare roller screens to the Malaysian Navy, fitted now to wheelhouse windows on the KD Lekir - one of two German-built Kasturi class frigates in the Asian nation’s fleet.

A month earlier, the South Shields firm delivered screens to a busy Taiwanese shipyard. While 86% of its orders may go to any of 76 countries, at home it has also recently provided screens for the Port of Tyne’s new pilot boat Collingwood.

It has also completed an order to supply shades on 14 vessels of Norway’s SKS fleet.

And most recently it has supplied sunscreens to the US Military Sealift Command.

>> Best places in business Forget about the USA - Singapore and New Zealand are the places to study if the next British government wants a model on which to optimalise conditions and opportunities for business in this country.

It’s Singapore first, then New Zealand which will have the world’s easiest economies in which to trade and deal, the World Bank concludes.

Britain presently comes fifth – behind also Hong Kong and the USA. New Zealand has the best conditions for business start-ups, followed by Canada.

Britain again comes fifth, but is highest ranked nation in Europe in that respect. >>

AUTUMN 09

COMPANY PROFILE

David Coppock amassed more than 25 years experience working for some of the world’s leading global electronics companies before taking over the reins at UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) in the North East three years ago

NORTH EAST FIRMS URGED TO GO FOR GLOBAL GROWTH

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ORKING for companies such as Rank Xerox, Philips Electronics and LG Electronics, he learned the many benefits international trade can bring to businesses and as regional International Trade Director he is committed to ensuring North East firms have access to the support they need to compete in the world’s markets.

“While there is no doubt the economic downturn has had a significant impact on the North East economy and exports have fallen in recent months, the region’s international trade performance is still one of the few bright spots,” said David.

“The total annual value of value of goods exported from the North East still stands at more than £10 billion and there has been impressive growth in several key sectors and markets.

“But although the North East continues to perform well in international markets, the actual number of companies that export is small and most of our overseas earnings come from relatively few industries such as the automotive, chemical, biotechnology and pharmaceuticals,” he explained.

“We want to encourage more companies to take up the export challenge, widen the range of goods and services that are exported and broaden the number of markets in which they are involved.

“Research has shown that companies which export are more resilient. Our challenge is to ensure that businesses know that help is at hand for North East firms wanting to navigate out of the downturn by seeking out new business opportunities overseas.

“UK Trade & Investment can help companies find

David Coppock, North East International Trade Director, UKTI

WE WANT TO ENCOURAGE MORE COMPANIES TO TAKE UP THE EXPORT CHALLENGE, WIDEN THE RANGE OF GOODS AND SERVICES THAT ARE EXPORTED AND BROADEN THE NUMBER OF MARKETS IN WHICH THEY ARE INVOLVED the markets that can make the difference.

Nationally, a recent survey confirmed UKTI had helped 20,700 companies, 90 per cent of them

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small- and medium-sized businesses. It’s estimated our support helped them generate an additional £3.6 billion of profit and earlier this year we launched two new key initiatives to offer further support.

“Gateway to Global Growth (G3) focuses on the needs of innovative companies who already have export experience, providing expert support to help them draw up and implement a strategic action plan to access new markets. More than 20 North East companies have already signed up.

“And Horizons – a joint initiative with One North East and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2007-13 – has provided £1 million of extra funding to help local companies target high-growth overseas markets. It’s proved a resounding success, with all the available funds now committed to support 36 companies.

“UKTI is here to help companies every step of the way,” he added. “We have a dedicated team of International Trade Advisers to offer expert help and access to a wide range of services to help companies reach new markets.”

To find out much more contact the Regional International Trade Hotline 0845 05 05 054, email enquiries@ukti.rito.co.uk or visit www.uktradeinvest.gov.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

NEWS

AUTUMN 09

>> Mag-Lev chases Formula One Durham Mag-Lev is getting a cash lift towards capturing Formula One business as it develops a system to eliminate problems that arise during aerodynamic testing of vehicles in wind tunnels.

Its quest to banish support strut interference is being backed with an investment of £60,000 from venture capital

firm NorthStar Equity Investors (NSEI).

The input from the North East Proof of Concept Fund (POC) will go directly to financing a full scale prototype of the pioneering maglev technology. Maglev is a magnetic levitation system based on high temperature superconductors.

These allow a total removal of the struts supporting the vehicle in the wind tunnel – and so eradicate any interference in the

>> Home sweet sustainable home The ID Partnership of architects is out to lead the UK’s expanding market in sustainable housing design with a new specification.

Its Newcastle office, after two and a half years’ research across Europe, has come up with its proposal for new sustainable housing that avoids compromise on the individuality of properties.

An initial eco-home prototype will be built early next year in the North East. If successful, it would hope to sell the results globally.

The project is backed by a £100,000 investment from regional fund management firm NEL Fund Managers, with ongoing finance also from Yorkshire Bank.

Established as Ian Darby Partnership more than 25 years ago in Newcastle, the five-partners group now also has offices in Coventry, Glasgow and London.

Its previous achievements include Sage Group plc headquarters in Newcastle Great Park, Northumbria University’s Squires Building and the Tyne Staiths regeneration scheme in Gateshead. Mark Massey, managing partner at Newcastle, says: “The amount of energy used during the whole life of a home, including its construction and habitation, is the key challenge for the future housing market, and we’ve already put significant resources into meeting this challenge.

“There is a national standard for sustainable design and construction of new homes, and our new specification fits at the very highest level.”

Home banking: (left to right) Dave Gilroy of Yorkshire Bank, Mark Massey, IDP managing partner and Nick Edgar, NEL

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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airflow. More accurate data will result.

Durham Mag-Lev, based in a NETPark Incubator at Sedgefield, is the inspiration of Dr Robert Muscroft and his PhD research at Durham University’s School of Engineering.

Dr Muscroft says: “I have always been interested in motor-sport and through my research have been able to create a solution to a well-known problem.”

The project team includes academic members from the Universities of Durham and Cambridge, and industrial members from subcontracting partners Aircraft and Commercial Tools Ltd and Durham Precision Engineering Ltd. The head of POC at NSEI Dr Richard Exley, who led the deal. says: “Formula One is an extremely lucrative and competitive arena, and a market we are confident Durham Mag-Lev can infiltrate.”

Durham Mag-Lev is combining the POC funding with a £75,000 grant it also has through a grant for research and development to bring on a grand scale prototype of maglev over the next year.

>> Tyneside: The new hotspot Newcastle’s independent Tyneside Cinema is offering corporate the chance to hire its versatile rooms and state-of-theart screening technology.

Recent clients include Jacobs Creek, Procter & Gamble, London 2012, Codeworks, Nokia and Jameson’s Whisky. Events have ranged from company meetings to product launches and fullblown conferences utilising the Cinema’s digital screening technology.

Jen Hedley, Hires and Events Officer at the Tyneside said: “This Christmas is proving especially popular as organisations secure us as their Christmas party venue. We tend to find that once someone’s been here to see a movie, it kick-starts their imagination and they come up with inventive ways to use our bars and cinema spaces for their own ideal hire.”

Find out more at www.tynesidecinema.co.uk/hire

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NEWS

AUTUMN 09

Coming down: The PowerCube offers cut-price power to remote parts

Every day different: Elin Roberts with the dinosaurs

>> Cheaper power for rural areas Diverse Energy, a new company, is marketing novel clean technologies for sustainable micro-generation of electrical power to serve remote locations.

The company’s multi-stage “ammonia cracker” converts ammonia to hydrogen fuel for the company’s PowerCube - a complete integrated turn-key power system in a secure 8ft steel cube.

Readily available ammonia is the second most widely used chemical in the world. Compared with diesel generators currently used for powering mobile phone towers in developing countries, the PowerCube offers zero local emissions of greenhouse gases and particulates, also lower overall life-cycle and maintenance costs.

From source to sink, the PowerCube will reduce greenhouse emissions by more than 80% and offer a return on investment of under two years.

The Centre for Process Innovation at Wilton will work closely with Diverse Energy to replace costly and high-polluting diesel generators.

One North East has put in a £100,000 research and development grant. Support has also come from the North East Enterprise Europe Network.

>> Marketing awards The Northern Marketing Awards return this year on Thursday November 26 with a ceremony at the Gosforth Marriott

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

>> Walking with dinosaurs Elin Roberts has taken up one of the more unusual jobs in the region.

One day she can be writing scripts for dinosaurs, and on another she can be helping children to make slime or to grow sunflowers to take home.

These tasks come with her newly created post, head of public engagement, at the Centre for Life in Newcastle.

Elin leads a team that informs and inspires people of all ages on all the possibilities of the science around them through astronomy and archaeology workshops, and a mini-medical school.

“The possibilities at Centre for Life are endless,” she says.

Elin, 32, comes from Hirwaun in South Wales. She has previously worked at Techniquest in Cardiff and the National Museum of Wales.

Hotel, Newcastle upon Tyne.

The awards celebrate the achievements of the North of England’s creative industries and entries are expected from some of the best agencies in the region.

The Northern Marketing Awards recognise skills and creativity from all companies, not just creative agencies but in-house talent, marketing teams and individuals.

There are ten categories offering excellent opportunities for a wide range of companies and individuals to enter plus the Grand Prix award, which recognises the most outstanding entry of 2009.

Nominations are invited now online at www.marketingawards.org.uk

>> Nine years herald change Echo-U contact centre has formed two divisions in its ninth year of operation, one for public and the other for commercial clients.

The Newcastle company has also appointed two new operations managers in the move: Jamie Oliver and Deepak Ture, previously with T Mobile and BT.

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>> The brain cells Universities in Japan and the United States have kept their places at the top of a league table of universities from which graduates hold leading positions in international organisations.

Gail Johnson: Exceptional work

>> Gail storms home first Gail Johnson is the Jack Charlton Young Employee of the Year this year. Gail, 23, with The Specials Laboratory at Prudhoe, had the edge on contestants from all over the North East. She impressed judges with an “exceptional” work ethic, and for her technical competence and quality approach as a production technician. >>

AUTUMN 09

COMPANY PROFILE

Leading North East solicitors Hay & Kilner has expanded some of its key practice areas. The recent appointment of four new solicitors is evidence of the firm’s confidence despite prevailing uncertainty in the wider economy

HAY & KILNER CREATES NEW JOBS

Left to right: Lucy Gray, Rory Patton, Leanne Roy, Martin Soloman, Karen Hutchinson, Holly Clegg and Jabad Jaigirdar

F

OLLOWING the successful completion of their training, Karen Hutchinson, Lucy Gray, Holly Clegg and Leanne Roy have secured their future careers with the Newcastle-based firm. Hay & Kilner has also recently appointed two new trainee solicitors.

Martin Soloman, Senior Partner at Hay & Kilner, commented: “We are always keen to attract high calibre graduates to the North East. Our rigorous recruitment policy has produced a number of

talented individuals and enabled us to offer permanent positions to four highly valued solicitors in areas where they can specialise and compliment the skills of the existing team members.”

Karen Hutchinson has joined Hay & Kilner’s specialist commercial property team. Karen provides advice to the firm’s diverse client base on a range of property matters, including landlord and tenant issues and sales and acquisitions.

Lucy Gray has been appointed as a solicitor in

HAY & KILNER HAS OFFERED PERMANENT POSITIONS TO FOUR HIGHLY VALUED SOLICITORS IN AREAS WHERE THEY CAN SPECIALISE AND COMPLIMENT THE SKILLS OF THE EXISTING TEAM MEMBERS

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Hay & Kilner’s dispute resolution team covering a wide range of commercial litigation matters, including contractual disputes, intellectual property and professional negligence. Dispute Resolution is a significant practice area for the firm, and the team boasts an impressive range of local and national clients.

Holly Clegg has joined the successful accident claims unit, working alongside partner Bruce Howorth. Hay & Kilner is one of the leading North East practices in personal injury litigation.

Leanne Roy successfully qualified into the firm’s highly regarded crime and family departments in their Wallsend office.

The firm’s two new recruits, Rory Patton and Jabad Jaigirdar, join four other trainee solicitors who are currently completing the final year of their training contracts.

23-partner Hay & Kilner has improved its impressive ratings in The Legal 500 Guide this year with recommendations in 23 different work areas.

The firm attributes much of its success to its personal approach and expertise across a comprehensive range of commercial and personal legal services.

For more information about Hay & Kilner visit www.hay-kilner.co.uk or phone 0191 232 8345

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

NEWS

AUTUMN 09

Doubling up: The SITS team (left to right) Phil Cambers, Russell Henderson, Paul Watson, Paul Rutherford

>> SITS stands to succeed NEW technology experts SITS Group has achieved its first year’s sales targets in just five months.

The dedicated visualisation specialist has now doubled its sales forecast for the year and appointed several new staff as it moves to bigger premises at Newcastle’s Quorum Business Park.

SITS helps businesses rationalise and reduce the size of their server estates, making the IT infrastructure more efficient at the same time.

>> Hauliers hit back British hauliers, backed by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB), have complained officially to the EC about the French government’s failure to stop

fishermen blockading French ports.

Small operators account for 99% of Britain’s 100,000 transport businesses.

They claim the French government has failed to meet obligations to ensure the free movement of goods - costing UK firms around £1m a day.

>> Beauty bars boost business Collectables, the family-owned North East giftware chain which recently diversified into designer fashion accessories, has now introduced a new beauty business.

Beauty at Collectables has opened beauty bars creating 10 jobs at its Stockton and Newcastle stores, where it is offering the ancient art of eyebrow threading, henna tattooing and a range of nail treatments.

The bars are the idea of the chain’s accessories buyer Sara Strangeway. She felt women drawn to the stores for handbags, jewellery and silver charms would also enjoy a little pampering as they shopped.

The Collectables group, owned by the Lewis family of Ponteland, has 11 outlets: Collectables stores in Alnwick, Newcastle, Sunderland, two at the Metrocentre in Gateshead, Dalton Park near Seaham, Stockton, Harrogate and Carlisle. It also owns Collections designer accessories boutique in

the yellow mall, Metrocentre and Mandale Fine Furniture at Portrack Lane, Stockton, which it acquired late last year.

>> Boost for energy efficiency A local company has launched a product to help businesses improve energy efficiency by up to 27%.

Eddie (Electronic Digital Display of Information and Energy) is the latest product from Jarrow-based EMU Systems.

It has a patent pending in the UK, Europe and North America for its way of measuring the use of electricity, temperature and humidity in commercial properties.

Users can identify when, where and how energy is being consumed 24 hours a day by accessing data on a website. Unlike conventional “smart” meters, this allows the energy consumed by individual appliances to be assessed. To find out more, see www.ask-eddie.com

Sailaway escape: David Fozard and a River Escapes vessel offering staycationers a getaway

>> Sailaway success Tyne cruise operator River Escapes has been holding up to the recession thanks to the trend for “stay-cations”.

The firm’s figures indicate that its number of scheduled cruise and private charter bookings equal those in previous years.

Managing director David Fozard says the rise in numbers of people staying at home for their summer break has kept numbers on the level.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

20

Clocking up: Managing director Geoff Thompson (left) and Charlie Wainwright (commercial director) with EMU Systems’ new Eddie device

>>Crying in their beer One in eight tied pubs are struggling to survive, hit by inflated prices of beer imposed on them by the pub companies which own them, says the Federation of Small Businesses. In a survey, one in eight said they are paying 50% or more for beer compared to untied pubs buying on the open market. They are then forced to pass these inflated charges to the customer to make ends meet, they say.

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AS I SEE IT

AUTUMN 09

Porridge, anyone?

Bosses who dare to ignore or overlook a draconian new law could be risking big trouble - even jail, warns Debra Halcrow, of forensic services at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in Newcastle Company directors who fail to act now to address tough new anti-bribery law risk severely damaging the reputation of their business - and the possibility of prison.

Stiffer rules on bribery in UK business have come a step closer since a Joint Parliamentary Committee recently gave its backing to the 2009 Bribery Bill.

Under these new proposals, firms with UK operations will become criminally liable for corruption in their business, supply chain or sales channels, as will management who consent or connive with the offence.

Yet many companies and business leaders appear to be generally unaware of the new responsibilities and potential penalties that could be heading their way. The new regime, which Justice Minister Jack Straw has undertaken to see enacted before the next election, will see a strict regime introduced

that’s somewhat similar to the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).

Existing UK laws have been criticised for many years, based as they are on a patchwork of 19th and early 20th Century rules, unsuited to the realities of doing business in today’s global markets.

My colleague Fran Marwood, who leads PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP’s Investigations team in the North, has advised many companies in relation to the US FCPA. He believes local companies with US connections, where the anti-bribery regulations have been in place for quite some time, may already >>

Many firms and business leaders seem unaware of the new responsibilities and potential penalties that could be heading their way

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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AUTUMN 09

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AS I SEE IT

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

AS I SEE IT

AUTUMN 09

have considered the risks. However, they represent only a tiny fraction of businesses.

Most will be starting from scratch when the new UK rules come into force. Implementing a robust internal system will take, on average, about a year.

Our advice would be for businesses, particularly those bidding for any foreign contracts, to start planning and implementing appropriate measures now.

Penalties under the new act are likely to include unlimited fines and disbarment from tendering for foreign government contracts.

As the Government is actively encouraging smaller firms to bid for foreign contracts, the danger is that these companies could be caught out.

Key changes include a new corporate offence of failure to prevent bribery. To avoid this liability, companies will have to provide evidence that their anti-bribery policies and controls are working in practice, not just established in theory.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee has recommended that guidance be provided to businesses on the expected polices and controls, while stating that they should be risk-based and take account of the size and resources of the business.

Facilitation payments (for example, paying for goods to be processed by customs more quickly) will remain illegal but subject to prosecution discretion.

Be warned: the changes are far reaching and will, for the first time for many UK businesses, require detailed evidence of operational anti-bribery procedures to be retained. Yet figures PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP recently gathered indicate that the level of preparedness and awareness is far from high.

Only one in 10 businesses appear to have discussed the implications of the UK Bribery Bill at board or audit committee level. And half of the 40 non-executive directors and senior managers polled were unaware of any preparations that might have been made within their organisation at all.

Only 20% were confident that

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

Doing the bare minimum is not an option. Once the law is in effect it will not be enough just to have an anti-bribery policy in place, however well crafted

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their organisation carried out a regular anti-bribery risk assessment.

The Joint Committee’s report is being issued at a time when government agencies are proving increasingly keen on enforcement. The Serious Fraud Office has already published its guidance for firms wishing to self-report instances of bribery and corruption within their business.

That represents a move towards the US system of self-reporting and plea bargaining.

Effective safeguards will take time and resource to design, implement and operate. So firms should start now to identify any risks of bribery within their organisation and put measures in place to address these risks. That will include better staff training.

The Bill is particularly pertinent to North East businesses active overseas because it introduces an offence relating specifically to bribery of foreign public officials. So, companies trading abroad could be liable to prosecution for bribes paid by any overseas employees.

Steps also have to be taken to avoid any bribery by third parties working on a company’s behalf.

While businesses face significant pressure to control costs in the current recession, failure to address this issue effectively could prove a false economy and could make all the difference between survival and failure over the longer term.

Doing the bare minimum is not an option.

Once the law is in effect it will not be enough just to have an anti-bribery policy in place, however well crafted, without proof of other measures to ensure the policy is properly applied.

Even firms that have taken steps to comply would do well to run an anti-bribery health check, assessing the design and operational effectiveness of the framework in place.

The rules will apply in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, but the Committee has strongly recommended their adoption in Scotland too.

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP will publish a paper on these changes shortly. n

www.nigelwright.com

Launching a successful firm on the back of 105 lorry trailers idle in a field is all a matter of Logistix, managing director Azim Hussain tells Brian Nicholls

NO TRUCK WITH FAILURE

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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27

It’s in the alchemy of enterprise to be landed sometimes with an opportunity which is quite unexpected - perhaps never even imagined.

Like 105 lorry trailers?

Who but holders of an HGV licence would want to consider that? Well, three young entrepreneurs have had no cause to regret such a windfall.

In fact, they acquired the trailers and have built on their backs, within three years, a £6m turnover business, an international operation grown in the North East, and are now aspiring to double their revenues within two years.

Their accounts already show profits beyond half a million.

It’s quite an achievement, indeed, given that none of the three now employing 40 drivers and 30 office staff had trucked before. Their backgrounds lie in accounting, finance, IT, property dealing and business banking. No CB Radio hint of Bears or Fender Benders.

Yet here they are with a 400-strong client list of local traders and blue chip companies that include a royal flush of pharmaceutical giants – Pfizer, Shire and Novartis among them – as well as the diverse requirements of the Fred Olsen cruise firm and Fowler Welch and DHL, fellow deliverers in logistics.

The three with suddenly fast accelerating >>

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

wheels of fortune are cousins Azim Hussain and Azeem Sharif, plus Mansoor Hussain – none of them over 30, yet all driving their business, The Logistix Group, to become a miles-eating mammoth of the roads.

“I suppose it must look to have been a bit of a risk, us with our backgrounds buying 105 trailers like that,” says Azim Hussain, the managing director and eldest of the three at 29. “But do you know,” he says, “we did have the opportunity to pick up 1,000!”

All three live in Middlesbrough and are Teesside born except Azim, who was born in Edinburgh and moved to Teesside at 16. He lived with his uncle, the late Dr Masood Anwar, then a lecturer in chemical engineering at Teesside University, while his father set up a textile operation in Belgium.

He studied mathematics, economics and computing at the sixth form Prior Pursglove College in Guisborough, then graduated in finance and accounting at Sunderland University. A member of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants, he went into banking and property, and also set up a personal property portfolio.

Azeem Sharif, the executive director and son of a retired senior chemist, studied computing at Leeds Metropolitan University, entered IT with Aker Kvaerner engineers at Stockton, where his father worked, and gained Microsoft Certified Professional status. He too set up in property, and later joined Azim in a joint property venture, Thornberry Properties.

Trucking was far from their thoughts then.

Even at university, Azim and Azeem had been investing in real estate – all three property activities are still ongoing - and at one point Azim even bought into a restaurant at Rotherham. “It was an opportunity as I was coming out of university,” he explains. “I went ahead and did it. I’ve always been entrepreneurial. We all have been.”

In Leeds, where their agency was, they chanced up on the trailers offer. Azim recalls: “A massive company called Transrent had 6,000 trailers that it rented out to other hauliers. But it had gone into liquidation. We heard about it and acted. We bought 105, wanting to sell them on. We had got them so cheap that they were easily saleable in the open market.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

“We thought, ‘yeah, there’s a little bob to be made there’. Then, from the centre of Leeds we looked into the haulage market and started trying to win business. We soon realised that we had some sort of sustainable business.

“So we thought, ‘yes, ok, we can take those and sell them on’, as people do. People buy and sell all the time. You don’t need to be an expert in logistics to buy something cheap and sell it on for a profit, do you? Nor do you need to be an expert to rent something out.

“So we started to rent the trailers out. We rang around and researched the market on the internet. But, to be honest, the level of research was such that we were acting first.

The fact was, there were trailers sitting in a field somewhere when they could be earning money.

“So, the priority was to get them out. Various people wanted to buy them, but we decided to rent them out. From there, we went into transport. Still in Leeds, we started buying jobs – winning contracts - and selling them on.”

The cousins were 26 then, and their

Get us out of here!

The owner of the Liverpool company Logistix moved in on was locked in cashflow crisis.

“That day we took over he had trucks stuck in Greece,” Aziz recalls. “Two drivers had no means to get back. The bank had pulled the plug. The fuel companies had pulled the plug. There was no method enabling those drivers to get back into the UK. “And if they couldn’t get back how could the invoice be raised against the job? Can’t be done. So – no money coming in.”

Logistix made its move. “We worked with the bank and they were happy for us to come in.”

Even happier were the drivers Logistix rescued. They had been stranded for about a week in a foreign land, the personal cash in their pockets draining away like sand down an egg-timer.

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enthusiasm soon drew in Mansoor who, today, is operations director. At 20, he had been running his own business supplying IT products and software to businesses on Teesside and he was still only 21 when Azeem met him. He brought in the technical expertise needed for a complex amounting now to shifting 1m pallets a year.

The three of them fitted neatly as a management. Now, partly by acquisitions, Logistix has about 300 trucks and trailers, including those of the refrigerated and articulated type.

The group - which also provides groupage and consolidation, trans-shipping, warehousing and packaging operations – began with distributing and warehousing at Stockton, then additionally at premises double in size on Brunswick Industrial Estate in North Newcastle, it established a depot with vehicle maintenance and repair facilities.

Today it also has depots at Skelmersdale near Liverpool, where it parks up transiting trailers, and a 20,000sq ft warehouse storing up to 3,000 pallets in Manchester. The search is now on for a 70,000sq ft warehouse there.

The Logistix Group, a member of the Geodis-owned Fortec Pallet Network for the UK and Ireland, provides a specialised, time critical, express pallet delivery service in mainland England and Scotland.

Building a freight fleet is one thing; building an enviable client list in pharmaceuticals, foodstuffs and myriad other lines is quite another. This group seems to have achieved both. How are big-name customers won?

Azim says: “When you do an acquisition you get the business connected with it. We got a distressed acquisition in Liverpool for example.

The company was about to collapse. We realised we had to pump a relevant amount of money into the business to keep it afloat.

“But we were also able to move the contracts over. It was a decent purchase given those contracts. In Newcastle we also bought a company, merged it and won good contracts.”

A subsequent prompt and safe delivery service is a follow-up requirement if contracts are to be retained, and Logistix seems to have fulfilled this side of obligations.

Liverpool is the group’s main centre of activity in the pharmaceutical supply chain. From there

AUTUMN 09

it ships to many parts of the world, including Greece, Spain, Italy, France and Belgium.

In the North East, where lots of its grouping and consolidation of freight goes on, Port of Blyth is its contact point for local trucks gathering pallets throughout the region.

About 20,000 pallets a week are moved; 8,000 for international distribution.

With the swingeing fuel tax, tightening legislation and the downturn in business generally, surely logistics is a tough business now? Azim is philosophical – or perhaps just realistic.

“Yes,” he replies, “it’s a difficult industry. But what industry isn’t just now? Property is difficult, wholesaling is difficult. Even running a shop is difficult. What you have to do is earn your money. I’ve had a dabble at a few things.

With logistics and the haulage industry, getting customers and winning business is not

INTERVIEW

Yes, it’s a difficult industry, but what industry isn’t now? ... What you have to do is earn your money

all that relatively easy. But it can come.”

The best way it can come, experience tells them, is by acquisition. “We’re on the trail at the moment,” he says. “I’m actually buying a business now at Ilkeston, near Nottingham. It’s only a mile from the M1 and it gets a lot of work from big French companies.

“What attracted me is its big workshop facility.

So as trucks move up and down the M1, they can trans-ship and go in for a service. Swap

trucks, swap trailers - it’s good integration from the workshop point of view. It also gives a chance to consolidate traffic in the middle of the country.”

It also moves the group network towards other points south besides Norfolk, where it has use of a site for refuelling and transshipping, and on towards mainland Europe, which accounts for 40% of the business. “I’ve just come back from Amsterdam,” he >>

Take ideas and make them a reality. “ Some people just need that push to suddenly think, ah, I can do this, and I will.

We formed the company in 2000 on April Fool’s Day, as luck would have it.”

Louise Allcroft, founder of Complement Genomics who has recently signed a major deal with US based Expression Analysis inc.

To read more about Louise’s story visit www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk/entrepreneurs/lousie-allcroft

We know from the experiences of our members that entrepreneurial spirit is infectious.

It feeds on itself as experience and knowledge are shared within the Entrepreneurs’ Forum community.

For more information call 0870 850 2233 or visit www.entrepreneursforum.net

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BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

Trucking on: Azim Hussain and Mansoor Hussain, at the sharp end of Logistix; the business expanding nationally and, now, internationally discloses. “We looked at a company there and that could help consolidate our international work. We’re also talking to business agents in Paris. Belgium too is a key target. A presence in these places could help our fuelling and servicing costs.”

Vehicle fuel is cheaper across the Channel because governments there make lower tax demands on road transport. “We already fuel up there when we can. But with a site there you can also have bunkering. There are so many opportunities,” Azim reflects.

The three partners are the sole investors, yet no bank loans hover like a guillotine. “We do have an excellent relationship with HSBC and Close Asset Finance, and we have a factoring facility with BB Finance, but no loans,” Azim affirms.

“Bear in mind, if you get 105 trailers for 40% of market value you have immediately acquired equity. Our mergers have also created equity. Turnover level goes up and equity is created too. Our Ilkeston deal will eliminate a garage down there, slowing the costs of other sites, and equity is again created.

“If we found another business in Newcastle now we could create equity by eliminating the

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

depot there and moving things to the one we already have in the city. It’s not a matter of purchasing power, but power within the group,” he explains.

“Hiring trucks and trailers minimises labour costs. It’s not turnover intensive, but it brings

Their sporting chance In going for further growth, Logistix is looking to sport.

Azim was at a Lloyds TSB presentation in our region and was convinced by Jonathan Edwards’ briefing that North East firms in many sectors can clinch profitable London Olympics contracts - if they make the effort.

“We’ve made a pitch there and we’re also pitching for work with Formula 1 motor racing,” Azim discloses. It does look, whatever the outcome here, as if Logistix will continue stepping on the gas.

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in a decent income. A decent part of our income comes also from storage, and then there’s container stuffing and packaging, too.

We’ve been active in business for quite a while, and when you want to do something, you can.”

Also, he chuckles, of the three of them only Mansoor is married with two children. He and Azeem, as bachelors, have fewer domestic commitments. Even so, Logistix streamlines as it grows; the risks surrounding the industry - particularly at this difficult time – are not being underestimated.

Cost analysis is made monthly. Nominal ledgers are scanned. Where have costs risen, where can improvements be made? “A lot of the big boys are on an acquisition spree. Or they are trying to take small rivals out by pricing. The whole industry is consolidating,” Azim says.

“Numbers are declining because small firms are being bought out or are going to the wall.

Probably about 80% are going to the wall. We have grown in recession. But a lot of other firms have had a lot of fixed costs and cannot be flexible. And yes, for everyone in this climate, turnover has dipped.” ■

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Quote BQ AUTUMN

The Manor House Hotel County Durham 01388 834834 www.manorhousehotelcountydurham.co.uk

The Victoria Hotel Bamburgh 01668 214431 www.thevictoriahotelbamburgh.co.uk

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

AUTUMN 09

Retail centre Dalton Park defies the recession, there are high hopes for a facelift of parts of Newcastle city centre, interest is growing at Baltic Quays, plus much more ... it’s all in commercial property this quarter >> Tin hat time in revaluations Despite the economic downturn, the Government is pressing on with a revaluation of all commercial properties from next April 1.

The rise will follow a five yearly rate review by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), whose figures will be based on a pre-recessional property market in April 2008.

Businesses will find out their new tax rates within the 2010 Revaluation in October, and will be expected to pay the new rates until 2015.

Guy Nicholson, head of rating at Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) consultants in Newcastle, predicts the increases could hit 30% in some cases. Consultants at GVA Grimley are urging all businesses throughout the UK to factor in the potential rises.

The upsurge nears at a time when, despite some easing in the pace of decline in capital values in all world regions, rental expectations have deteriorated further.

In Q2 the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) saw the sharpest declines in global commercial property rents in five years of quarterly surveys.

Surprisingly, not Dubai but Singapore, Ukraine, Spain and Ireland have shown the sharpest falls. China and India have shown the slightest.

LSH has, however, noted some improvement in UK comprop since July.

The market indicator - yields - began to show a rise, but vacant shops

Room with a view: : (left to right) Jones Lang, LaSalle’s Chris Hiatt, GVA Grimley’s Tony Wordsworth, DTZ’s Tony Hordon and (front centre) Stuart Hopley, development manager of Robertson, in Baltic Place on Gateshead Quays

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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suggest market towns in the North East are showing some of the worst effects, according to the Commission for Rural Communities.

Chris Wade, chief executive of Action for Market Towns, suggests that the towns which are furthest away from cities - such as Berwick-uopnTweed in Northumberland - may suffer less through being slightly more independent.

>> Team with the quays in their hands The marketing team behind Baltic Place, the new landmark on Gateshead Quays, has begun fielding enquiries.

The Newcastle offices of agents DTZ and GVA Grimley and London agent Jones Lang LaSalle have joined forces to promote the 131,000sq ft of office space overlooking the Tyne and next door to BALTIC, the centre for contemporary art.

Developer South Shore Developments, a joint venture between Robertson Group and City and Northern, has enlisted the trio to attract interest in one of the few city central office schemes to be completing in 2009.

Baltic Place, designed by Newcastle-based architecture firm _space group, is being delivered by contractor Carillion plc.

Tony Hordon, office agency director at DTZ in

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Newcastle, believes Gateshead has arrived commercially now, with Baltic Business Quarter clearly evident as a new commercial quarter alongside Open University and Gateshead College, together with the arrival of Baltic Place.

All this complements the cultural attractions such as BALTIC, Gateshead Millennium Bridge and The Sage Gateshead.

He says: “The arrival of these significant commercial projects is just reward for the work by the local authority Gateshead Council, developers Terrace Hill and the joint venture partnership of City and Northern and the Robertson Group.

“It also reflects how Gateshead has developed over the years as a ‘brand’, having sat for so long previously in the shadows of Newcastle. It has now emerged from there.”

AUTUMN 09

>> Major change likely for city centre Chances are growing that part of Newgate Street in Newcastle’s city centre will be redeveloped soon.

The transformation would see three new hotels, offices and shops and a new street running from Newgate Street to Fenkle Street, dividing the block in two.

The high-rise former Quality Hotel, on the site of the old Empire Theatre, would be demolished, as too the Newgate shopping arcade which failed to fulfil expectations.

Irish developer McAleer and Rush, which bought the Newgate shopping centre for £18.2m three years ago, is putting its ideas to Newcastle City Council.

Architects Devereux have been working with English Heritage on an appearance to complement the architecturally listed John Dobson and Richard Grainger buildings on Clayton and Grainger Streets.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

Brewery site into six new buildings.

Liverpool-based property group Downing expects the first phase of Downing Plaza near St James’s Park to be completed by spring 2011.

The 100,000sq ft of office space coming up is pre-let to Newcastle University Business School, and is seen as part of the new Science Central area of the city.

Future phases of Downing Plaza will include two new hotels, a student village and shops.

Amid public criticism, Scottish and Newcastle, which earlier relocated its brewery operation to Gateshead, has now announced that Newcastle Brown Ale will no longer be brewed on Tyneside, but in Yorkshire.

Highly sustainable: The Q9 building also offers five rent-free years

>> Curiosity grows at the Gate Interest from potential tenants is reportedly strong at Durham Gate, one of the North East’s biggest commercial and residential schemes. Work will start next year and an £8m improvement in transport infrastructure is expected.

The scheme is on the A167 at Spennymoor and will include offices, a hotel, a pub, a restaurant and shops. Carillion Arlington Real Estate (CARE) Partnership - Arlington is Hartlepool-based - is behind the £100m-plus development. The 200-acre site is currently home to Black & Decker, whose manufacturing has been switched abroad.

But the machine tool firm has a research centre there also and will remain a tenant.

About 2,000 jobs could be there ultimately.

>> The disappearing beer act Work is under way on a £200m mixed-use development replacing Newcastle’s former Scottish and Newcastle

>>Q9 sets a standard Q9, the first of a new phase of buildings at Quorum Business Park - England’s largest speculative office development - now carries a BREEAM Excellent standard rating, the indicator of best practice in sustainable design.

It is the first building in North Tyneside so designated and, built to a B level Energy Performance Certificate, means its energy efficiency is judged to be well above the Government benchmark for new buildings.

Quorum development director Fergus Trim calls it, “a significant milestone towards our aim of creating a more sustainable working environment.”

Quorum Business Park, which has 450,000sq ft under construction, carries a five-year rent free offer to incoming businesses. >>

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RICS puts sustainability on the regional agenda One of the main drivers of the regional economy in the future will be the commercialisation of opportunities to come out of the UK’s push towards a low-carbon economy and the need for sustainability.

For the RICS (Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors), the principle of sustainability seeks to balance economic, environmental and social objectives in order to meet modern needs without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their needs also.

David Coulson, RICS North East Regional Board Chairman and a chartered surveyor with Crook-based Broadley & Coulson, says: “Sustainability in the region is being driven in a number of ways, with one of the prime routes being through the RICS North East Renaissance Awards - an annual search for the region’s top quality building projects. There are eight categories in total, with Sustainability being one of the most popular to enter.

“This year, the Sustainability award went to Lion House, part of the ZEBRA Project (Zero Emissions Building Renewing Alnwick), which incorporates a number of low-energy technologies. Lion House is a flagship ultra-low emissions development, designed to achieve exemplary standards of sustainability and environmental performance.”

RICS is now looking for the awards stars of 2010 and entries can be submitted until January 22.

Entry forms are available from RICS Events co-ordinator Sue Doberman, tel 0191 221 0359, or email sdoberman@rics.org The awards will be presented on April 23, 2010 at the Newcastle Civic Centre.

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

AUTUMN 09

>> Business village offers extras Husband and wife team Mark and Helen Reed have launched Newcastle Business Village, with offices from 100sq ft to 1,000sq ft and workshops from 400sq ft to 4,000 sq ft available on flexible and short-term lease.

The new facility at Benton also has fully automated warehouse storage and business services on site. Facilities include a weekly clinic with experts in residence which include accountants, marketing experts, HR and legal advisers. There are plans also for a coffee house, stationery shop and picnic tables in the surrounding grounds, with the likelihood of social and networking events.

The Reed family, who previously ran Reed Print which folded in 2008, have owned the 53,000sq ft Benton premises since 1999.

Newcastle Business Village is fully managed, with no extra charges for cleaning, heating, maintenance or window cleaning. There is 24-hour security and free on-site parking and Palmersville Metro is nearby.

The second tenant there was Mark’s younger brother Paul, who has re-located his online business Express Envelopes. Paul, 39, has more than 20 years’ experience in print and direct mail.

He launched Express Envelopes a year ago from a Gosforth office.

>> Ton-up time at Sanderson Sanderson Weatherall’s Industrial Agency is celebrating after hitting £100m in stock turnover on sites across the region.

During the last three years, the firm’s Newcastle and Teesside offices have completed deals on buildings and land to the equivalent value of the current price tag placed on Newcastle United Football Club.

Director of Industrial Agency, James Pain, feels that the firm’s newly released figures are further evidence of the region’s solid industrial sector despite difficult trading conditions.

Time to cheer: Associate director Jonathan Simpson (left) and director of industrial agency James Pain (right) are celebrating Sanderson Weatherall’s £100m stock turnover

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

>> Retail centre defies recession Dalton Park retail centre in County Durham reports increasingly strong sales and growing visitor levels, despite the recession. Half-year results show overall sales 10% up year on year, visitor figures 6% up and spend per head 4.2% up.

New openings at the Murton destination, owned by ING Real Estate Development UK and managed by DTZ, include Denby, Broomhill & Co, Charisma menswear and the giftware and accessories chain Collectables, plus an extension to the Mountain Warehouse unit.

Catchment penetration within 90 minutes drive time has risen from a target 25% to 31%. Paul Donoghue, area manager North for Marks & Spencer says: “Our sales at Dalton Park have exceeded expectations.”

>> Questions over listed buildings Question marks hang over the future use and appearance of two Grade II architecturally listed buildings in the region. Tynemouth

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Working village: Husband and wife team Mark and Helen Reed have launched Newcastle Business Village

Metro Station, which is struggling to regain its former grand appearance, may have to have a convenience store incorporated to help pay for its £10m restoration. Station Developments Ltd is now putting the proposal to North Tyneside Council. The station was opened in 1882 and saved from demolition in 1980.

Further north, at Ashington, the future of a former Co-operative department store remains in doubt.

A proposal for it to become a community venue has been turned down, increasing the likelihood of it being put on the market.

The building opened in the 1920s but has been empty since 2006.

• Newcastle’s old Beavan’s Store on Shields Road, Byker, dating to 1910 and listed as a building of interest but empty for some years, has had its upper floors converted into flats to rent.

>> City of low carbon Newcastle leads UK cities as the lowest carbon producer at 1.9 tonnes a year against London’s 49.5 tonnes, according to a report by GVA Grimley.

And Newcastle is also one of the top >>

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

AUTUMN 09

three UK cities in terms of lowest level of CO2 emission per employee in commercial property, and for its improved recycling rates, which are driving towards the Government’s target of 50%.

Although transport-related CO2 emissions, the key concern, are relatively high in Newcastle, the total is reducing.

The report urges action to create more sustainable transport measures ahead of economic recovery. The property sector is estimated to generate at least half of CO2 emissions, but Newcastle is second bestperforming UK city, pipped by Edinburgh.

Mike Cuthbertson, regional senior director for GVA Grimley in the North East, says the improvement in household waste recycling has helped Newcastle’s standing.

>> Logistics firm grows Teesside logistics firm AV Dawson has added to its fast-growing property portfolio the former base of biofuels company D1 Oils at Riverside Park in Middlesbrough.

The company has invested nearly £7m in four sites over 12 months and it is now the largest individual landowner on Riverside Park with more than 80 acres of land.

Its latest site has been redundant since D1 Oils announced its Teesside refinery would close in April last year. AV Dawson, a family business established in 1938, intends to develop the site for rail freight handling and distribution.

>> Platinum for landlords North East Letting, which manages more than 500 properties in the region, now runs a Platinum Property Management service.

This includes a rent guarantee clause under which landlords still receive rent, even if a tenant does not pay.

It also covers all additional inspection charges, issue of a CP12 gas certificate, a photographic inventory, and the services of a dedicated account manager.

Once located, using a range of comprehensive marketing methods,

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

>> New to the chair David Coulson, senior partner at Broadley and Coulson of Crook, now chairs the North East regional board of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors. He succeeds Michael Henning, of Summers Inman in Gosforth.

tenants benefit from access to a 24-hour, 365-day online management centre to report any maintenance or emergency enquiries, make rental payments and view their tenancy details.

>> Hotels in search of owners Four major North East hotels which were formerly part of the Vaux Swallow empire went back on the market at the height of the holiday season with the collapse and entry to administration of their latest owner, Brentwood Hotels.

They are the 125-bedroom Swallow Hotel, a prominent landmark in Stockton, the 122-bedroom Swallow Imperial in Jesmond, Newcastle, the 50-bedroom Three Tuns in Durham city, and the 103-bedroom Swallow at Gateshead.

Hotels in Glasgow, Carlisle, Ipswich and Old Harlow in Essex are also for sale.

>> Another Teesside Tesco Tesco Express is opening a 6,000sq ft store in Middlesbrough’s city centre.

The new store will be on the ground floor of Python Properties’ award-winning Co-operative building.

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>> Training takes up space The Northern Training Partnership, now in its 10th year of offering consultancy and training for clients in the private and public sectors across the North East, has relocated to bigger premises. It now has 2,000sq ft in NTP House at Wansbeck Business Village, Ashington. It delivers a wide range of tailored programmes, from first aid at work to paediatric first aid and food safety.

>> Office block ready A four-storey office block for TM Urban Developments has been completed at George Stephenson Court in Stockton.

It’s the first phase of three at Westland Way Business Park on the outskirts of town and has accommodation both for sale and lease.

>> New look for hotel The Holiday Inn at Washington has had a refurbishment amounting to more than £350,000. The restaurant and bar at the 136-bedroom hotel are among latest areas to benefit in the work carried out over a year. The hotel’s management says the improvements reflect the confidence placed in the hotel off junction 64 of the A1.

Tanfield Lea

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COMPANY PROFILE

AUTUMN 09

Leading North East accountants and business advisors RMT has helped secure funding for brand new luxury lingerie business, Tallulah Love

RMT SUPPORTS LUXURY LINGERIE BUSINESS

R

RMT worked with Michelle Taylor, 34, to help her gain access to investment from the Design and Creative Fund.

The investment will be used to launch the Tallulah Love brand in the UK and also help Michelle to attend a major trade show in Paris in January 2010.

Through the Tallulah Love brand, Michelle is hoping to supply luxury underwear to boutiques and high end department stores. Products include single knickers and camisole sets, as well as bras, corsets, babydolls and bridal underwear.

Stephen Slater, commercial services partner at RMT, said: “Establishing your own business can be daunting, but sound financial advice can help firms get off to the best possible start. RMT is committed to offering clients a high quality service and we worked closely with Michelle on her application for investment from the Design and Creative Fund.

“It has been great to work with such a professional, forward thinking individual like Michelle, who is absolutely focused and committed to developing the business. We’re delighted that Tallulah Love has secured this invaluable financial support and I look forward to seeing the business grow in the future.”

Michelle started her career in retail, designing for brands including Top Shop and Miss Selfridge, before being appointed as creative director for Playboy Intimates.

She said: “It has been extremely rewarding for me to see Tallulah Love get off the ground and I’m currently working on my luxury Christmas lingerie range which will be available to buy from the Tallulah Love website from mid November this year.

“RMT has always been on hand to offer advice and support when I needed it and I would thoroughly

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

Ratur aped eic torporem fugit ipsam, sitecerspel modipsum aut hillatet et occabor uptiis inctium

RMT HAS ALWAYS BEEN ON HAND TO OFFER ADVICE AND SUPPORT WHEN I NEEDED IT AND I WOULD THOROUGHLY RECOMMEND WORKING WITH THE TEAM THERE recommend working with the team there.”

RMT and Michelle worked alongside Matthew Ripon at BHP Law to secure the investment.

For more information on Tallulah Love please visit www.tallulahlove.com If you have a great business idea and would like advice, please contact Stephen Slater at RMT on 0191 256 9500 or stephen.slater@r-m-t.co.uk.

RMT can provide help with everything from business planning to raising finance.

38

COMPANY PROFILE

AUTUMN 08

The fastest man alive is living proof that short course training can have a massive impact

GET UP TO SPEED WITH ACCESS SHORT COURSES

F

OR Usain Bolt training is about preparing to race but the principle of packing power into preparation can be applied in the business world too.

Those who continue learning get greater job satisfaction and self worth, while for the employer it’s about developing a more skilled workforce, leading to better performance.

So with such obvious benefits, what prevents more people and employers from investing in training?

Often it’s time. And that’s why Access is now developing a series of short courses to improve skills without taking a big chunk out of the working week. Kate Shahid has joined the Access team as a skills advisor and part of her role is developing these specialist, one day workshops.

Formerly a training manager with Northern Rock, Kate is helping to provide work based learning for around 600 people across the region in subjects ranging from administration and customer service to leadership and management.

She said: “We have really focused on developing courses that will benefit both the employee and the businesses they return to. They are practical and hands on so I think these Access short courses can provide the skills needed for businesses to progress and grow.”

Established in 1989, Access has become one of the North East’s top training providers. Its three divisions work with local businesses to develop staff and provide effective business solutions through training.

Access Business Solutions provides detailed analysis of employers’ skills needs, advises on training solutions and helps secure funding for training.

Access Apprenticeships focuses on the government’s flagship training programme for 16-24 year olds, providing accounting, business administration, customer service, advice and guidance, call handling, management, learning

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

Kate Shahid and Usain Bolt, the fastest man alive over short courses.

THEY ARE PRACTICAL AND HANDS ON SO I THINK THESE ACCESS TRAINING COURSES CAN PROVIDE THE SKILLS NEEDED FOR BUSINESSES TO PROGRESS AND GROW - KATE SHAHID and development, manufacturing, warehousing and security systems (engineering) courses.

Access Training works with over 160 businesses supporting individuals or teams with NVQ qualifications, professional accreditation and short courses.

Courses on the starting blocks At just £99 per delegate, including refreshments, handouts and certification,these courses are certain to be a great investment. The following is a selection from our short course menu which can be delivered on site or from our Skills Academy training centre.

• Techniques in Assertiveness: Equips participants with the techniques for developing self confidence and increasing their assertiveness in the workplace.

• Coaching for Performance: Introduces the basics of performance coaching to those who would like to use it to manage performance in the workplace.

• Dealing with Conflict: Raises awareness of conflict in the workplace and how to deal with

40

difficult behaviour to reach effective solutions.

• Customer Service: Provides the knowledge and skills to deliver effective customer service.

• Professional Selling Skills: Introduces participants to a structured sales process and equips them with the skills to become a sales professional.

• Leading a Team: Provides the peoplemanagement and self-awareness skills for a first line manager.

For further details, information about alternative courses or to arrange bespoke training please contact Mel or Valerie in our Business Solutions team on 0191 490 4651/2, or email info@accesstraining.org. www.accesstraining.org

AUTUMN 09

COMPANY PROFILE

A series of events, organised by Government Office for the North East, in conjunction with Defra and the UK Climates Impact Programme (UKCIP), will help businesses understand the implications of climate change and help them plan for the future

WORKING TOGETHER IS THE KEY TO TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE NORTH EAST

T

HE ‘Projections in Practice’ seminars, workshops and training sessions, scheduled for November, will showcase new products which allow organisations to find out what the climate will be like in their area over the next few decades.

Understanding climate change is vital to business continuity as Jonathan Blackie, Regional Director at Government Office for the North East said: “Projections in Practice will help organisations assess how their business might be affected by climate related issues such as flooding, storms or extreme temperature changes. It means they can go back and look at their business continuity plans to make sure that they can cope with what might come their way and plan for a successful future, including taking advantage of some of the business opportunities that a changing climate may bring.”

Michael Thompson, Chief Executive, Graphite Resources

Rural, Environment, Climate Change and Energy team, Government Office for the North East

IT’S FANTASTIC THAT THE GOVERNMENT HAS PULLED TOGETHER SUCH A SCIENTIFICALLY ROBUST ANALYSIS OF THE POTENTIAL IMPACTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE UK

Secretary of State at Defra, Hilary Benn said: “Climate change is going to transform the way we live. These projections show us both the future we need to avoid and the future we need to plan for.”

Adrian Hilton from ClimateNE said: “It’s fantastic that the government has pulled together such a scientifically robust analysis of the potential impacts of climate change in the UK. “We are working in partnership with Government Office for the North East to deliver this programme, which aims to equip delegates with the right training and guidance to be able to use

41

the UK Climate Projections.

“I would urge businesses to attend the training sessions and learn how to use the data to assess the risks and opportunities that the changing climate could bring for their organisations.”

Michael Thompson, Chief Executive of waste treatment provider Graphite Resources based in Newcastle, welcomes the opportunity these seminars will bring. He said: “The North East was at the hub of the Industrial Revolution which started the carbonisation of the world and the North East is now leading the way in developing techniques to reduce its impact. These seminars are key to helping North East businesses grasp not just the scale of the challenge which lies ahead, but also the opportunities for a new low carbon economy in the region.”

Sessions will be appropriate for both business leaders and technical staff.

The seminars in Newcastle and Middlesbrough are free and details with booking instructions can be found at www.bookwhen.com/ climatefuturesnortheast

Organisations unable to attend the seminars can get further information from Government Office on 0191 202 3523 or at http://ukcp09.defra. gov.uk. The UK Climate Projections 09 are free and available to everyone.

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

Count us in

More than 70 people representing many sectors of the North East economy took part in a BQ Live debate to get the views of business onto our region’s economic agenda via One North East, the Minister for the North East and Westminster.

Rapporteur Caroline Theobald of The Bridge Club said the parties to whom findings were being addressed had indicated they would welcome seeing suggestions from the event held at Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham.

Previously, BQ had a focus group of 14 business leaders from the region consider the key question: “What are the big priorities for the North East business community, to ensure we sustain the momentum generated over the last decade?”

They made five points: • Businesses must be in the driving seat of the regional agenda.

• The region needs focused and uncomplicated strategies delivered by clear leadership.

• We have to look at collective ways of working; there has to be a new paradigm.

• When the public sector is cut, where will the new working partnerships be?

• And how do we guarantee young people a future and instil in them a work ethic?

The 14 then nominated David Bowles and Brian Manning from within the group to take their views on. Bowles and Manning led the subsequent BQ Live debate, with Theobald chairing. The lively and stimulating discussion summarised below has led to the recommendations listed on page 44.

Our place in strategy David Bowles (Northern Defence Industries and Entrust): “There’s going to be an election next year. Hopefully, regulation on business will be freer, whoever’s returned to power that’s critical. The business community, the wealth creators, must also be at the heart of change.

“They invest in businesses and ideas, provide capital and equipment and create jobs for people who, like the wealth creators, also pay taxes funding public programmes and the

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

public bodies that run these programmes.

“It seems to me that gives us a right to be at the table and part of the debate going forward - discussing with the public sector in early stages of deliberations on what strategy should be, how plans should be defined and implemented and what they will mean.

“We have the highest level of public sector employment in the UK. That’s going to influence our future enormously. Our wealth creators will create and invest more money if they’re confident they’re working in an

42

environment of genuine partnership and collaboration.”

Andy Hatton (Global Anodes): “Where does the Government get money to finance local government? From taxes. The public sector once a year finds money magically on its doorstep. They go out and spend it; isn’t it fantastic? On the other side, you have many businesses desperately struggling to fill that bucket.”

Bowles: “Our region’s a compact economic entity. The way forward is to find ways of building a strategy enabling us all to sit at the same table with an equal vote.

“Often the wider community, including the business sector, gets invited to participate only late on - it might be argued once the tick is in the box. That validates the policy. I think those days have gone, regardless of ideology. We all have the same interests at heart for the North East.

Stewart Watkins (managing director, County Durham Development Company): “CDDC can match the speed of business when necessary and provide a service we believe business deserves. I agree there’s a divide between the public and private sectors.

The new unitary authority in County Durham is about to launch a new economic strategy.

“New unitary authorities are being pushed, by the Audit Commission particularly, to engage with the private sector. We don’t get profits like business. We get rated.

“With four stars we’re the best thing since sliced bread. Once stars slip you find your spending freedoms become very restricted. So staying onside with the Audit Commission is important, and therefore staying onside with the private sector is important.

“So look out for opportunities to engage with us. The new Durham County Council is very concerned that business gets the right kind of service from the public sector. Next year’s budgets will be slashed. We’re not talking about 2% here and 2% there. We’re talking about 10% coming out in lumps.

“So we’re concerned about how we’re going to focus our resources to ensure we maintain our services.”

He went on to describe events currently being held to encourage business.

Bowles: “It would seem sensible to engage

AUTUMN 09

with business when an authority’s policies are being formulated, rather than inviting discussion afterwards. Ultimately, business is going to help in the delivery. If budgets are going to be cut by 10% councils might find businesses, companies, organisations and individuals who could help ameliorate the worst effects.”

Ross Smith (head of policy, North East Chamber of Commerce): “We’ve never had a door as open as now for talking to local authorities. We’re making progress. It needs to happen quicker.”

more and getting more services delivered by the private sector and, sometimes, by the voluntary sector.”

New partnerships in bidding

Reforming procurement Brian Manning (Esh Group): “Construction’s having a dire time. Smaller firms in the region have to compete with national firms in procurement, which often becomes a beauty competition - with national firms thought the more beautiful. Yet a Durham University study shows our company alone contributes more than £400m to the wealth of the region.

“The North East campaign to buy local is good. Though we don’t advocate protectionism, we want to see local companies given a chance alongside national businesses.”

Watkins: “A strong wind of change is blowing through corporate procurement at the county council. The view now is that we should look for it at every opportunity. There are EU and other rules and regulations, but we are looking at how to engage with business.

Durham County Council is about to spend £500m of government money on replacing practically every school in the county. We’re anxious to cascade that money down to the local economy as much as possible. We’re also looking at ways to give business opportunities.

Marion Scooler (MFS Consultancy): “The world and his wife go for every contract now.

Big guys pitch in to pick up the work often at less than cost. Even relatively low value contracts go to companies based outside the region.

“Perhaps in a credit crunch they’re going for contracts they wouldn’t normally go for. I’m not suggesting positive discrimination necessarily, but it is public sector money and if there’s much of a muchness there could be a bit of favouritism, or a genuine effort to buy local.”

DEBATE

Manning: “All we can ask for is a level playing field in procurement. It tends now to go for packages. Whereas a business could probably apply individual skills, schools for example tend to be made one massive contract with one company building 20 schools on a multi-million pound contract that not only involves building them, but also running them, cleaning them and managing them on a PFI contract.

“I’m not sure about PFI. I wonder whether they could be the next banking sector.”

Rhiannon Bearne (Voluntary Organisations Network North East): “Time and again we come up against aggregated contracts. We would like to partner private sector providers.“ Manning: “Something shouldn’t be done just because an Audit Commission wants boxes ticked and the body concerned wants to keep its stars. It should be because it’s good for the region.”

Watkins: “The Audit Commission is urging, not forcing. There’s genuine desire on the part of our new authority to engage with the private sector, not just by ticking boxes, but genuinely to get things done. “ Manning: “New unitary authorities will be reeling from cuts that must be made. They’re up against it: can they actually save the money? I think there’s an opportunity through more outsourcing if only they grasp it.”

Ross Smith: “I think in procurement you can save and also get innovation in by spending

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Bowles: “Canada First is a new Canadian policy looking to ensure Canadian businesses don’t lose the benefit of government procurement even if it goes outside the country. They’ve put in place regulations so that if companies in this country, for example, win an order to build an oil rig or something, a Canadian company must be engaged as part of it.

“There’s no reason why we couldn’t have similar programmes in the North East when pitching for certain contracts. That’s not protectionist; it’s encouraging people to work with us in partnership. We need also to develop thinking and working together as companies. It has happened for some time in defence, but not much in many other sectors.”

The need to export Andy Hatton (Global Anodes, recently voted the region’s best new exporting business of the year, 98% of its business being overseas): “Recovery has to be business led. Money comes into the economy from people making it. We need to generate wealth and businesses through overseas markets.

Adam Parker (Real Wire online public relations): “We aren’t going to get by simply by more local procurement. It’s going to be also by more exports – not only abroad but also to the rest of the UK. But the North East is very bad at communicating sometimes fantastic stories to the rest of the world.”

Richard Exley (North East Equity Investors): “We have to think exports, think globally. Our job is to invest in North East businesses, particularly those with global intent. Happily, many of our local companies do fulfil that ambition.”

Stan Abbott (Gravity Consulting): “One North East and UK Trade and Investment recently came up with a scheme to identify entrepreneurial exporters in the region and support them to go to new markets grant-aided, with no pre-match funding required. Credit where it’s due!”>>

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

DEBATE

AUTUMN 09

Helping the young into work Manning: “We’ve tried in our company to reach young people and raise their aspirations.

A lot of organisations directly involved, such as the Learning and Skills Council, are looking at young people between 14 and 19. That’s too late. We should try to reach junior schools.”

David Howell (North East Business and Innovation Centre): “We’ve been at the coal face setting up innovative companies in the North East. We realised we weren’t going to get everyone wanting to start companies in their early 20s, but others would be needed to help those who did. The danger arises if we don’t keep the kettle boiling.”

Manning: “There’s loads of money available to bring on young people, but organisations seem to have to spend half their time bidding and producing performance indicators, and only half the time doing the work. I’d like fewer organisations and less time spent bidding for so many government initiatives.”

Bowles: “A pal who runs a programme on Team Valley tells me he’s got 72 young people into apprenticeships in one month, which is fantastic. Governments, regardless of their political ideology, lose sight of the enthusiasm young people have for creating their future.

It’s time people engaged in employing influenced governments to encourage young people to get their work skills. The Government wants to put - how many, 50%?

- of school-leavers into university. We can’t supply the loans needed and when they come out they haven’t a job. Perhaps we could return old values when people got higher national diplomas and higher national certificates and later went on to get degrees.”

Louise Wilkinson (Derwentside Enterprise): We recognised early on that business has to be at the table for the education agenda. We ask: ‘What skills do you want for your workforce in future?’ Let’s deliver that within education.”

Manning: “Organisations in the past have had to twist businesses’ arms to get involved.

All concerned should sit at the same table. working out the best way for engagement.

Then businesses will feel more a part of it.”

Parker: “If we are to encourage young people’s new ideas, communication has to come into it all.” n

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

Alastair MacColl, chief executive of Business & Enterprise North East, says of the BQ Live debate findings: “The BQ Live event has been a welcome opportunity for businesses in the region to discuss their challenges together, and help shape the business landscape in the region.

“The recommendations resulting from it are extremely useful in helping us to improve our services further - specifically the Business Link service. The 70 businesses and other bodies represented recognise that, as the region begins to prepare for the upturn, support must be available to give our businesses the best possible chance of securing new contracts.

Compete North East, our newly introduced Business Link service, is a good example of how we are responding. Dedicated to helping businesses become ‘tender-ready’, it’s an appropriate addition to the BE-NE portfolio; one that will soon be helping many businesses.

The recommendations also suggest the Regional International Trade service, delivered on behalf of UKTI, will be an increasingly important resource as firms look to export as a means of growing their business and entering new and lucrative markets.

Crucially, the highlighted need for private and public sectors to work together is something we, at BL-NE, recognise. It is why we see real value in supporting the BQ Live events. They give us an insight into the challenges facing businesses, allowing us to further develop support packages to effectively resolve them.”

What North East business wants: • • • • • • • • • • • •

Business must be at the top table of decision makers administering the region’s economic agenda The region needs focused and uncomplicated strategies delivered by clear leadership The public and private sectors need to work more closely in the region Smaller companies should be given a level playing field in corporate procurement All other things being equal, Buy Local should be the aim Businesses should try to export more Businesses need to consider linking with competitors and overseas partners in bidding for major contracts Business needs to communicate its achievements and its goods, services and facilities better – both at home and abroad Giving young people business awareness should begin in junior schools Administration of training for young people should be slimmed down and resources saved diverted to actual learning Businesses need to be more involved in the training of young people for work Take pressure off student loans and university places by encouraging more school leavers to take up a career, then do relevant university studies later

Government approved!

BQ Live has won the support of Nick Brown, Minister for the North East. He says: “I welcome BQ magazine’s efforts to get to the heart of business in the North East. This event is a great example of business leaders coming together and establishing methods to support our regional economy.”

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COMPANY PROFILE

AUTUMN 09

News headlines may still be reporting that banks are not willing to lend and businesses are going under as a result but that is not a view shared

by Mark Eastwood, Director of Commercial Banking at The Royal Bank of Scotland in the Newcastle.

WE ARE HERE TO SUPPORT YOU

M

ARK, who has over 20 years of banking experience behind him, says that RBS is still lending and has continued to lend throughout the downturn. The criteria RBS and NatWest use for deciding which business to back has certainly not changed either, he says. “To get a loan the bank’s process is to ensure that the loan is right for the business and the individuals behind it. We assess each proposition on a case by case basis with due diligence and financial information. It generally comes down to a simple rule of thumb - can the business afford the repayments. It’s as simple as that.”

Just in the past few months RBS has funded a number of businesses in the North East. It has enabled, for example, 190 jobs to be saved at Northumberland Foods and its plans for expansion to go ahead. RBS provided the company, Amble’s biggest, with a £1million working capital facility under the Government’s Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme (EFG). Northumberland Foods, previously Cheviot Foods, is now advancing it business in frozen vegetable products. The firm was formed early this year when Cheviot was bought from administration by some of Cheviot’s former management with private investor backing.

“While many businesses are of course trying to reduce the amount of debt they are carrying, we are still lending substantial amounts and made new loans totalling £36 billion to UK homeowners and businesses in the first half of this year,” he says.

“We are currently approving 85% of all applications for credit made by businesses and providing new loans to over 5,000 businesses a week. This week we launched Business Hotline to ensure that UK businesses – whether customers of ours or not – get a fair hearing for their lending proposals and free access to expert advice on the issues they face.”

Eastwood says: “Under EFG lending to local firms,

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

Phil Hourigan, director of business and commercial banking in Sunderland and Durham, Mark Eastwood, director commercial banking in Newcastle and Martin Greenwood, director of business banking in Newcastle and specialist sector teams in the North East.

RBS has lent or agreed £241m worth of loans.”

Industry data highlights that RBS and NatWest have provided nearly half of all loans under EFG to date. He reports a “substantial amount” to existing and non-bank clients. Examples of this include providing a £60,000 funding package to On-Net-Communications, a marketing consultancy based in Wear Valley, County Durham to support marketing and equipment upgrading and a £200,000 funding package to Creating Careers to support its expansion.

Mark is one of five RBS directors in the North East region. The others include James Cornell, Director of Business and Commercial Banking in Teeside; Phil Hourigan, Director of Business and Commercial Banking in Sunderland and Durham; Martin Greenwood Director of business banking

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and the specialist sector team for the region which covers the healthcare and property industries - “Customers in those sectors can be assured that they are talking to someone who really understands the sector and the business,” says Eastwood; and Matt Lowe, Regional Director for Corporate Banking.

Additionally, there are local specialists in various services and a business development team. A regional deposit manager deals with deposit products which this year have Government support too. Eastwood says these are attracting many non-bank clients.

RBS is also working with Business Link, One North East and Entrust and the professional community is being briefed on deals and anything good in supporting deals. RBS also employs European Investment Bank (EIB) funding which gives further Government support.

So the message is clear: the prospects are good and the door is open. “We are ready, willing and able to lend to meet creditworthy demand where it exists,” he says. “RBS has had its difficulties but at a local business level we are far removed from that”.

Specific business enquires can be made in the first instance to 0191 269 8700. The Business Hotline launched this week can be reached on: RBS hotline on 0800 092 3087 / businesshotline@rbs.co.uk and the NatWest hotline on 0800 158 5977 / email businesshotline@natwest.com

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

DESIGNS ON SUCCESS There’s a wind of change blowing through the design of North East products. Gordon Ollivere tells Brian Nicholls about the brainstorms required to bring that change about It’s hard to think instantly of anyone in the North East who is more broadly experienced in supporting business than Gordon Ollivere – a key figure in the region’s bid to improve its expertise in product design.

Known in many countries for his consultancy skills, particularly in technology transfer, he chaired over five years an EU group benchmarking EU effectiveness in that area.

Membership of professional boards has taken him to Europe and the USA – and in the North East to NETPark science centre at Sedgefield.

He’s worked with Unesco and the DTI, been a sector specialist in medical and information

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technology, advised on more than 100 innovation projects in small and mid-size firms, and run venture capital for IT start-ups. He has served on university bodies, two Business Links, and has chaired a national network of regional technology centres. Phew!

In between, he’s appended to his BA in geography at Newcastle University an M.Litt in urban studies and an ICL computing diploma.

All that’s but a snippet from a CV he makes no great play about.

His major value to our region to date lies in his activities as chief executive and director of Sunderland-based RTC North, one of the UK’s

AUTUMN 09

most successful independents in technology transfer and innovation. Since 1989, RTC North has helped thousands of organisations to create jobs and build business.

An initial team of four has grown to 55, with offices also in Liverpool and Leeds. This year, RTC North celebrates 20 years of working with industry, education and government. Business invariably has cynics who are sceptical towards anyone in consultancy and board membership overcoats, with phrases like “hot air” and “bums on seats” often bandied about.

But besides leading his company amid fierce competition, Ollivere - in 38 years between teaching abroad and raising RTC North onto its present platform - has indeed worked in the private sector; as a computer systems analyst with Turista Travel in Newcastle, and as a computer training manager with British Shipbuilders at Hebburn.

On switching to consultancy - info technology at Newcastle Technology Centre - he devised the successful tender to install a regional technology centre here. Under his direction now, RTC North enters its third decade chosen to deliver Design Network North, to foster high value, world-class products and services.

The stimulus has already begun, working from RTC North’s Sunderland premises until Design Centre North, a £13m hub of public-private partnership serving creative firms, is built at Gateshead. For Ollivere, at 61, it’s further opportunity, albeit opening only in January 2011 – six years after a government review stressed the need for better design to counter global competition and price cutting.

Ollivere, delighted that regional development agency One North East recognises the importance of business design, says: “Though strictly not a technology, it’s a skill crossing technologies, and it often makes the competitive difference.”

He cites car buying, saying most major makes are reasonably efficient in their construction, fuel efficiency and other engineering attributes. But design often swings a sale.

The challenges facing the North East’s manufacturing and industry differ from when RTC began at the time of shipbuilding and mine closures.

Ollivere recalls: “People were very depressed in the North East and low in confidence. I

remember an organisation that had been working in Glasgow and other deprived areas coming to South Shields. Their man felt that it was the worst area in the country in terms of people’s attitudes, lack of confidence and social deprivation.

“Now it’s transformed, with an ever-growing sense of confidence amid an improved physical environment, more jobs, and a spirit of regeneration. Today, driving through it, I see Liverpool as most in need of regeneration and revitalisation. Yet in terms of regional competitiveness on the UK Index, the North West stands considerably above the North East. So quality of life is probably not built into that.”

Our challenges now, he suggests, are the still relatively low levels of educational attainment,

INTERVIEW

a comparative lack of R&D in business, and social inequalities, still, in pockets of poverty.

There’s the particularly difficult geographic challenge too: the relative lack of critical mass and isolation – far from London and other major centres - can impede.

“Our cities are relatively small urban concentrations, unlike Yorkshire across to Merseyside, Greater Manchester, the Midlands area and so on. So our regional market is limited. We’ve some good big companies and institutions, but not enough together for trading with each other. Banks and large consultancies set up in Leeds, not Newcastle, seeing more customers there.”

This trend is growing, he fears. “Organisations are reducing branches and the North East is suffering. Also, although manufacturing is >>

Survival of the fittest RTC North was among a number of publicly funded technology centres set up in UK and mainland European regions to be one-stop shops helping Europe to match the USA and the Far East in rapid commercialisation of good ideas and innovation.

The priority: knock down ivory towers, make universities and other research bodies more relevant to regional economies, and improve expertise and invention between universities and industry to market new products faster.

There were 12 in the UK alone. All were supported for three years until 1990, when they had to become self-financing.

They had varying success. RTC North got alternative funding from Europe, but its mission had to change. So even before regional development agencies and today’s all-embracing Business Links emerged, RTC set out to make small and mid-size businesses more competitive through technology. Today RTC North thrives, but it is difficult to say how many others survive, though more will be found in France and Germany, where the funding regime has been more generous.

Of RTC North now, Ollivere says: “No outside body controls us. That’s important. We’re limited by guarantee and, while not-for-profit, we have to be fast on our feet to survive. Independence is vital because then we don’t work to anyone’s agenda. Hence we can work on design this year instead of on manufacturing support as we mainly did up to the middle of last year.”

It’s been a close shave though. RTC North actually lost that contract - to PA Consulting - after six years. “No-one would say we did it badly. From the Government’s point of view, we were one of the best deliverers in the country,” he reflects.

Fortunately, the design contract followed, RTC North having stayed up to par since writing a design strategy for the region back in 1999 and its relations with universities remaining firm.

RTC North’s income is triply sourced: applying science (technology), anticipating the future (innovation) and creating wealth (business). A major occupation is lab-to-market innovations for the NHS, for which it not only assists with developing technologies in regional hospitals but also methods of patient treatment. Design comes into this.

One North East classifies design as part of the wider commercial creative sector, worth about £800m to the region’s economy and thought to have a potential for 9,000 more jobs.

So here’s hoping…

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BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

more important here as a percentage of regional GDP than in most other regions, the R&D and product development in support tends to be elsewhere.

“Yorkshire’s similarly affected. But the North West by tradition has quite a lot of big company R&D. Cheshire’s quite rich in it.”

Exceptions exist like Procter and Gamble, Akzo Nobel, Black and Decker, Berghaus and Thorn.

But even Nissan’s “fantastic” car manufacturing in the North East relies on R&D from Milton Keynes. “It’s like bees around a honeypot,” he suggests. “A critical mass of people in research will attract others.

“Otherwise, it’s difficult. So our universities are more important proportionately to R&D than those elsewhere. And they probably work better together in that, too.”

Thus, the urgency for an industrial design centre which, encouragingly, is also backed by business bosses such as Chris Thompson at Express Group in Gateshead and Dr Terry Sheldrake at Wellstream; Newcastle’s frontline designer and maker of offshore flexibles.

This Design Centre North project was initiated last September. The winner of the building tender could be known by Christmas. The switch from Sunderland to the Baltic Business Centre at Gateshead could then take place by January 2011.

BQ hears grumbles from the private sector about the six-year gap between alarm call and completion. But no blame lies with RTC as it temporarily hosts Design Network North. Chief executive Mike Dowson, formerly head designer at Draeger, the international specialist

Help where it’s needed Rather than throw a 20th birthday party, staff at RTC North are out to raise £50,000 for Freetown Children’s Hospital in Sierra Leone.

The African country recently emerged from 10 years of civil war to be second bottom in the UN Human Development Index, with one in four of its children dying before the age of five. “The hospital system there can’t afford equipment and medicine,” says Ollivere.

On its budget of £150,000 a year, Freetown Children’s Hospital can only treat 12,000 children.

RTC North has already sent a £7,700 cheque to buy an electricity generator. Ollivere says: “Electricity is off there most of the time. When power fails, even during operations, the hospital is plunged into darkness and vital equipment like oxygen concentrators become useless. A standby generator should help now.”

The link: Sierra Leone’s only university was once a college of Durham University, and a former pro-vice chancellor who wrote one of the first books about the country, John Clarke, later became RTC North’s chairman. Like much of Africa, Sierra Leone shouldn’t be poor. Its mineral riches include diamonds. But a lot has been pillaged by outsiders, Ollivere says. He and colleagues recently completed a sponsored cycle ride, and RTC North will host a charity dinner and auction at Ramside Hall Hotel in Durham on November 10.

His links with the country go back decades. A 1970 graduate of Newcastle University, Ollivere married the following year. Today, he and his wife Mary live at Lanchester and have two sons: Jamie 34, who is marketing and communications manager with RTC North, and Peter, 30, a planner with Durham County Council. But in 1971, the newly weds went to Sierra Leone, living upcountry with no running water, working as volunteer teachers in a little school building with a corrugated iron roof and low-rise walls. They’ve not been back since 1974, though they did work in Northern Nigeria for some time after.

Sierra Leone was, Ollivere remembers, a colourful, happy little country then, and very musical.

The civil war throughout the 1990s, however, brought child soldiers and amputations – barbarity rather than organised political insurgency, and poverty and suffering continue.

To find out more about RTC North’s charity dinner and auction, see the website at www.rtcnorth.co.uk or email charity.dinner@rtcnorth.co.uk or see more information at www.welbodipartnership.org

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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in safety and medical technology, has been in post since January.

“He’s absolutely great,” says Ollivere. Dowson affirms a focus on new products and services originating from North East SMEs, through an engagement of skilled experts drawn from design and creative services, universities, industry, business support organisations, research institutes and centres of excellence.

Linked in will be the Design Council, the UK’s strategic body in the field, also Network partners and participants such as the universities of Northumbria, Newcastle and Teesside – also individuals such as the designer Wayne Hemingway, formerly of the fahion label Red or Dead.

Ollivere says: “We want to ensure that what is inside the building is worthwhile. Many buildings go up now looking wonderful outside. Then people ask, ‘what are we going to do inside?’ The best containers in the world aren’t very interesting without contents.”

A rooftop globe with panoramic views of the river will provide a national conference venue in the building conceived and detail-designed

by Newcastle’s Red Box Design Group. The design centre occupies two of the four floors.

Besides incubating units there’s commercial space which, it’s hoped, will be filled by empathetic businesses. Terrace Hill property development and investment group is handling this for Gateshead Council.

Inside: a mindblowing “immersion theatre”.

The Royal Mail has one in Rugby, and Hewlett Packard has one in the South East. There’s one in Scotland, and many in America, but probably it’s a first in the North East.

It’s a darkened entrance area where people arriving to brainstorm are intentionally disorientated to stimulate their creative thinking. Loud music, conversations and controversial discussions simultaneously bombard them, divesting even middle aged “suits” of mental inhibition.

They move then to a much brighter “lab” with flipcharts, banks of laptops and the freedom to write on the walls.

A conventional theatre for events is planned, also to showcase precedents of successful North East design. Among all this a new chapter of North East enterprise is expected to be written. ■

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INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

URBAN SPACEMAN Sir Terry Farrell – Newcastle-bred architect of global repute – is thankful for the stop the recession has brought to the rush to develop the urban landscape. It provides time to think, he tells Jane Pikett

The day they re-opened the famous old Hancock Museum in Newcastle, revamped and re-named the Great North Museum, thousands queued down the street to see it.

These scores of families, students, people young and old, came primarily to see not the famed collection within, but the architectural statement created by Sir Terry Farrell, architect of international repute and the name behind the breathtaking transformation - resurrection, indeed - of this historic, much-loved building.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

In these days of the X Factor-inspired quick-fix, it restored one’s faith in human nature to see how important this was to people. Certainly, the crowds were testament to the sense of ownership people have for the re-shaping of our urban landscape.

For Sir Terry, who was brought up in Newcastle and whose stamp is on many of the city’s landmark regeneration projects, it was a pleasure to see how well received his work was. “It was wonderful to see people respond like that. Architecture is a kind of performance, and it’s great to see people turn up. I walked down Northumberland Street, towards the Quayside, and there were crowds of people coming up with their children, on their way to the museum and buzzing about it,” he says, remembering launch day fondly.

The project was a gem, even for a grand thinker whose credits include two of the largest railway stations in the world (Beijing South and New Guangzhou, both in China) and who is now working on the tallest building ever by a British architect (100 storeys, also in China).

These big-bang, grand plans might indicate a

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larger-than-life character, yet Sir Terry is quietly, thoughtfully spoken and I guess his is more a contemplative soul. No surprise then, that he would relish the myriad layers - architectural and historical - he must have discovered when he began work to reinvigorate the Hancock.

“Oh yes, I so enjoyed it,” he says of the project. “It’s a wonderful place; like a time piece, someone’s old dusty store. Rather, one imagines, like Tutankhamun’s cave.”

The collection - archaeology, natural history, geology and Egyptology – has changed little over the generations, yet the arena in which it is now displayed has changed almost beyond recognition, bringing this superb collection which was starting to look as tired as its old surroundings - bang into the 21st Century.

Now, the stuffed birds and animals, fossils, ancient Egyptian relics and findings from Hadrian’s Wall, now joined by works from The Hatton Gallery, are displayed in massive, warehouse-like spaces that are every bit as dramatic as the grand vision of the Victorians who created the collections in the first place.

And big-picture thinking – grand visions, if you like – define the work of Sir Terry and the

AUTUMN 09

practice he founded in 1965 aged 26. At Farrells, with offices in London, Edinburgh and Hong Kong, it appears that no project is too big, none too complex.

One might assume a huge practice, but the team numbers just 120, in contrast to, for instance, [Norman] Foster + Partners, which boasts a team nearing 1,000.

Sir Terry likes his practice the way it is, and while it may be small in number, stellar-scale, multi-million pound projects are its stock in trade. “Of course, you don’t start out with huge projects, but they come gradually over the years,” says Sir Terry, claiming no grand plan when he founded the business in partnership with Nick Grimshaw, who went his own way in 1980 and is now Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, President of the Royal Academy.

The firm’s links with the Far East are strong, and began in the 60s when Sir Terry befriended a Chinese fellow student on his architecture degree course at Newcastle University, where he later taught. As mentioned, Farrells was responsible for the massive Beijing South Railway Station and New Guangzhou Station, the largest new station in Asia. Sir Terry is now working on a 100-storey tower, also in China. “I’ve just come back from Hong Kong and China, and I love the travel my work brings,” he says. “I don’t suppose I had a grand plan when I started out, but I did admire the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, and I thought it would be wonderful to be like him, though I don’t really know where that confidence came from.”

Born in Manchester to Irish Catholic parents, the young Terence moved to Newcastle aged eight, when the family relocated for his father’s clerical job at the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance.

The second of four brothers, he grew up on a council estate called Grange Park north of Gosforth in Newcastle - moving into the first street there and watching as an estate of 2,000 homes gradually covered the fields that had at first surrounded the family home.

“I grew up on the very edge of urbanity with fields and streams, and Hazlerigg Colliery nearby. I remember the little colliery train rumbling past on the line at the bottom of our garden,” he says of his happy childhood years.

“As the estate grew, the fields disappeared

INTERVIEW

Grand designs: Sir Terry Farrell - the architect behind some of the world’s great buildings and I found myself in suburbia. It was wonderful to be on the edge of the city. I used to cycle to Blyth to fish and camp out at Seaton Burn.”

His ambition for architecture originated with an arts master at St Cuthbert’s Grammar School named Maurice McPartlan. “I was no great performer at school apart from in art, but he picked me out at 11 and said I would do great things. He was the one who suggested architecture to me.

“My parents were not keen for me to go to

university - I was the first of the family to go but he backed me all the way. I have always remembered him.”

Indeed, Sir Terry later founded a prize at St Cuthbert’s, and he invited Mr McPartlan’s family (he had 10 children) to the opening of an exhibition of his own work at the Hatton Gallery in Newcastle.

His parents, who tried to persuade their second son to follow his father into the civil service, must have been happy with the way things turned out for him in the end? >>

I love the fact that my buildings are used and that people appreciate them. I’m delighted I’m working as hard as I am

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In with the new: The International Centre for Life, above left, and the new extension to the Great North Museum, above right, both by Farrells “My father died many years ago, but my mother only died 10 or 12 years ago, and I honestly think what I do, the scale of it, terrified her. When I was young, she tried to persuade me that painting and architecture were hobbies I could indulge in the evenings and at weekends, while I should have a ‘proper’ job in the civil service during the day.”

Fortunately, he stuck to making his ‘hobby’ his career - a career marked by multi-million pound landmark projects all over the world.

He is architect first, businessman second, he says. His talent in business, he says, lies in being a highly enthusiastic and effective organiser. “To be in architecture, particularly in large projects, you have to have the ability to marshal people, materials, contractors and so on. Of course, I know what is happening on the financial side of the business, but I have partners who look after that day to day.”

His name is attached to some of the world’s outstanding projects, and more that have never - frustratingly - come to fruition through economic factors; the bane of every architect’s life, no matter how great their reputation.

He can’t name favourite projects, but he does indicate career milestones such as the masterplan which laid the foundations for the regeneration of Newcastle Quayside, and Embankment Place, Charing Cross, the first big landmark to have his name attached.

The building - housing, offices and shops - is built over the station platforms and looks a bit

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

like a massive train shed. Someone wrote that it looked a bit like a jukebox, and its massive arches do have something of a classic 1950s Rock-Ola about them. Sir Terry adds that the building was “particularly nerve-wracking” because of its scale and its landmark location, right opposite the Festival Hall.

He is also particularly proud that in a survey of the people of Beijing, his railway station was voted the most popular building with a staggering near 3.5m votes, knocking the Olympic Bird’s Nest Stadium into second place.

“I know I talk about my buildings like they are my children, and I can’t compare one against another,” he laughs. “I simply love the fact that they are used and that people appreciate them. I’m just delighted I’m working as hard as I am. Architecture is very satisfying.”

Aged 71, he works seven days a week and would, he says, like to work eight. He actually lives above the shop, in a dramatic loft apartment with views over London above the company offices, which are housed in an old factory building near Marylebone Station.

That’s not to say he is a workaholic (he does have an apartment in a Sir Edwin Lutyensdesigned building close to the Kent coast, where he escapes at weekends) - just that he relishes all that he does.

“But I pace myself,” he says. “I graze on it. I used to run with Gosforth Harriers marathons and half marathons - and for that, you have to pace things, and that’s how I

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work. I make time to go swimming and see the children and I travel to wonderful places with work, and take time to visit museums and galleries, which is also work of course, because architecture is everywhere.”

It is, of course, frustrating to work, sometimes for years, on projects that don’t get built in the end, generally because of economic pressures.

“I’ve been working on the proposed new aquarium at London Zoo on and off now since 1996, and have just learned that it won’t be done,” he says. “All that work now abandoned. It is frustrating, but it is in the nature of what we do.”

Of course, in the last few years, there have been many thousands of abandoned building projects nationwide, and I assume it must have been a grim time for Farrells, as it has been generally in the profession.

On the contrary, he says, he believes recession is actually good for architecture because it makes everyone take stock and actually think about what they’re doing, rather than racing to put up things that should never, in reality, be built. Recession, he says, can lead to better design, better planning.

“I find it very stimulating when things slow down. It gives people time to think. It’s a time for innovation and creativity. When everyone is racing to do things and the banks are throwing money at people, there is no time to think and people do things they shouldn’t.” >>

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INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

A passionate advocate of sustainability and conservation since he started out in the 60s long before it was fashionable to care about such things - Sir Terry says his continuing ambition is to conserve and reuse.

“We are committed to a sustainable agenda, to conservation, to re-using buildings and landscapes - building with what is there already. Too much stuff built in the last 10-15 years has been just baubles - it doesn’t change anything, it doesn’t take anything forward.

“It’s a good thing now that people are having to stop and take stock. I’ve been preaching sustainability for 40 years and now, across the world, people are at last beginning to plan, to look at the whole picture - the way things connect.

“The way we plan everything - water and waste and landscape - is a major issue. We

have been planning problems for the future, but at last people are talking about it now, but whether things will happen before we reach a period of crisis, I don’t know.”

At least he has the reputation to influence these matters, and to make his own mark on the world and his home city, where his masterplans for the cultural quarter surrounding Newcastle University and the Quayside will be linked by a proposed promenade, creating a cohesive landscape.

Everything with the Farrell name on it is designed according to its context and place.

Hence, there is no company house style. Take the Inernational Centre for Life in Newcastle. It was designed to respond to place and context, while introducing its own identity.

In the same way, when Sir Terry is working on the fusion of old and new, as in the

contemporary extension at the Hancock, an appreciation of context - setting, location, sense of place - is absolutely key.

So, he not only added a spectacular contemporary extension to the Victorian ashlar-walled, John Dobson-inspired building, but he opened up the site so it better connects physically with the surrounding area, resulting in the old museum being welcomed back into the city, allowing it to make the magnificent physical statement its old and new parts fully deserve.

“Nothing is independent - it must all be in context,” he says. “Working on the Hancock was an opportunity. It gives the classical architecture a new lease of life. It’s about adding extra interest to the story of the building. It’s about layering. I love that – we are just adding more layers.” ■

GET ON TO MOVE ON IN LIFE

R

ECENT research from the Get On campaign shows that shoppers struggle to work out basic shopping discounts.

More than nine out of ten (95%) adults surveyed in the North East could not do the maths behind typical high street special offers. Well over half, (55%) could not work out how much a pack of sausages would cost if it had a third off and nearly half (43%) admitted they often won’t pick up discounts because they don’t understand if it’s a good deal or not.

With nearly half of adults (47%) saying they would buy more discounted products and services if they were more confident with their maths, Get On, the Learning and Skills Council’s (LSC) campaign to encourage adults to improve their basic numeracy and literacy skills, has joined forces

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

‘Sue OHara, LSC North East with Johnny Ball at Sainsbury’s, Team Valley

with Sainsbury’s to help shoppers grab the best bargains on the shelves this Christmas.

Get On teams headed to the Sainsbury’s store in Silksworth Lane, Sunderland, in October to talk to shoppers about how to improve their skills and enrol on a free Get On course at their local college.

This follows the support of the Sainsbury’s Team

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Valley team in July, who helped promote the need for improved skills, especially around numeracy, when Johnny Bally visited the region.

Dorothy Smith, Regional Director (interim), LSC North East, said: “The current economic climate means that people have to make savings that they might not have had to before.”

Justin King, Chief Executive of Sainsbury’s, said, “We are delighted to be partnering with the Get On campaign to encourage shoppers to think about their maths skills whilst doing their shopping. As a major retailer we realise how important good numeracy is, not only in the workplace but also at home.

To find out more about local courses, call free on 0800 66 0800 or go to www.direct.gov.uk/geton

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ENTREPRENEUR

AUTUMN 09

LORNA LEADS THE FIGHTBACK

A major weapon in the region’s fightback to economic recovery will be a new generation of business talent which a former young entrepreneur, Lorna Moran, is doing much to hone. Brian Nicholls explains

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Support: Lorna Moran is working to develop the skills of tomorrow’s entrepreneurs

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

AUTUMN 09

ENTREPRENEUR

Where will the new opportunities be?

What will the supply chains look like in, for example, renewable energy and electric vehicles?

One of the North East’s most promising antidotes in the midst of the recession lies in its determination to combat the symptoms even as they appear.

It is manifest in prescriptions prepared and administered at organisational levels by the likes of One North East, North East Chamber of Commerce, Business and Enterprise North East, and the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

It appears grass-rooted through the likes of the relentless and commendable campaign by employees of Corus, who are vociferous in lobbying to save their steel jobs on Teesside.

And it is evident in contributions by wellplaced individuals in business who are giving time, effort and resources to ensuring the region will emerge from the difficulties stronger than when it went in, particularly in employment.

A major achiever on this floor at the North East’s Department of Recovery is Lorna Moran, chief executive of NRG recruitment group.

Inspirer and co-founder previously of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, which accelerates start-ups for many aspiring entrepreneurs of through one-to-one mentoring by leading business owners, Lorna Moran has now launched through NRG the Leadership Enterprise Opportunity (LEO), which has now developed 18 people through its first course.

The LEO programme, accredited by Northumbria and Teesside Universities, has a twin objective. It is helping to re-settle bright individuals who have lost - or may lose - their jobs in any sector. And through this it is trying to ensure that their talents are not lost to the North East through migration.

In a region fighting to raise its skills levels anyway – and particularly now, for when recession lifts - even leading businesses have had to reduce workforces, losing potential managers as they do. LEO’s programme of three or four weeks helps those hit to analyse

their own skills and realise the full extent of the opportunities open to them by starting a business or moving to a new sector of employment.

The feedback from participants on the first course has exceeded all Moran’s expectations. “Every person has had their own journey,” she says, “but they’ve all had huge benefit. Some are starting their own business, some are taking further education - at least two are applying for MBAs. “Three have found new jobs, each saying LEO gave them much more confidence during the interview process. Several are looking at self-employment and opportunities for consultancy, and all but one are determined to stay in the region – fantastic!”

Among the early venturers into businesses of their own are Northumbrians Clive Grey of Whittingham and Chris Powell of Bedlington.

Clive, a former Royal Marine officer, worked for Sage plc until taking voluntary redundancy earlier this year when the software giant shed 200 jobs. Now he has set up Aln Side, an outdoor teambuilding and networking support for other businesses.

Chris, an engineer, has launched Be Safe Today - a software enterprise enabling firms to design and produce their own safety signs for the workplace.

Does LEO overlap the Entrepreneurs’ Forum?

Moran says: “Because the LEO programme encourages participants to explore all potential opportunities, becoming self-employed or, indeed, starting their own business will always figure highly in their choices.

“Of course, the Entrepreneurs’ Forum is the organisation for entrepreneurs, and I will naturally encourage suitable participants to apply for membership.”

Participants are briefed on the changing nature of the North East economy, and on which sectors are in growth and may offer

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good long-term openings to them.

LEO urges its participants to be flexible and willing to consider new environments in which to get their careers back on track. As Moran explains: “A significant part of the programme brings in experts who look at the landscape of the region for the future. Where will the new opportunities be, and what will the supply chains look like in, for example, renewable energy and electric vehicles?”

Peer group sessions and one-to-one coaching predominate, with course members getting otherwise elusive access to major employers, influencers and decision makers such as Alan Clarke, Mark Henderson, Alastair MacColl, Paul Callaghan and Lucy Armstrong.

Afterwards, the participants gain entry to the LEO Community, which is their own online networking club.

Moran, whose services to employment earned her a millennium MBE, is a sharp networker herself; evident from LEO endorsement by One North East, Business Link, the CBI, the North East Chamber of Commerce and the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

Her intimate access to knowledge of up-to-the-minute opportunity in business and public service, via the nature of work done by NRG group which she founded, has her well-placed to devise and introduce measures ensuring that our region has the potential to emerge from recession better resourced through a new generation of entrepreneurs and prospective corporate talent.

Moran agrees about her advantageous standpoint, but stresses: “We are showing applicants all avenues along which to find new opportunities - not just that of NRG.” She says the recession, having caught everyone off guard, has put too many talented people out of work.

"The region’s economy has drastically changed in a very short time. We are now aiming to >>

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

ENTREPRENEUR show people like the course participants that there are opportunities still, making it worth their while to stay put. This is to the long-term good of the North East also."

The course, which is endorsed by One North East, encourages the consideration of all options, from embarking on a new career to starting a business. For, as Moran warns: “Often, other areas get out of recessions faster than the North East. If that happens again, people will tend to go to those areas to find new jobs, depleting the labour market here.

Moran warms particularly to young people who are ambitious to set up on their own. She was 25 when she did it herself, setting up Geordie Jobfinders, which became the foundation for NRG. She did it with the experience of having worked for Northern Electric, Newcastle Chronicle & Journal and recruitment consultant Hogget Bowers & Partners, for whom she was northern controller.

With 33 years of activity to date – including a switch from private to public ownership and back again - NRG has ridden the crest of waves both good and bad in the regional economy. Throughout, it has been proactive on behalf of both the public and the private sectors, meeting an extensive range of human resource needs, at one end headhunting chief executives while at the other filtering myriad applications for a "gofer".

Its client base includes some of the nation’s biggest employers - Procter & Gamble, British Airways, Royal Mail and HMRC among them, the latter placing NRG’s longest contract requiring more than 10,000 recruits. NRG also provides consultancy in human resources, learning and development.

It has worked in teams of 50 and more on

AUTUMN 09

contracts requiring larger scale recruitment all over the UK - the needs of call centres for example, and employers who require administrative staff for a fixed term.

And it is one of only seven companies in the country on a pan-government framework contract to supply temporary administrative and clerical staff for government offices around the UK. On a personal level, Moran, who is married with five children, is the region’s first woman to have taken a company to a full stock market listing and then a de-listing - and the first woman also to become North East Business Executive of the Year. That was for 1997, and a tribute to her skills in taking NRG to a flotation.

The firm employs about 140 and has a turnover of around £20m. Did she imagine in her own infancy of self-employment her business would spread from a headquarters in Newcastle’s fashionable Grey Street to operations also in London, Edinburgh, York, Middlesbrough and Tees Valley? No, she laughs. "That’s what makes entrepreneurism so interesting. It’s about taking opportunities as they arise, and I have been lucky enough to have plenty of opportunities."

The jobs market has changed remarkably in NRG’s time. High levels of professional unemployment are now liable to appear, and many employers have increasingly had to reassess and redeploy their workforces.

Flexibility and adaptation have become watchwords for employers and employees alike. Flexi-working is more common. So too is the practice of making interim appointments with caution evident prior to the filling of permanent positions.

While supporting clients which are edging forward like this, NRG also prepares candidates

for longer and more detailed selection processes they might encounter. Moran is optimistic. She says tougher times than these have been confronted with success.

NRG and LEO have a key role in One North East’s Talent Challenge, which is also aimed at keeping highly-skilled people living and working in the North East. One North East has set aside £4.65m, with the goal of helping 2,000 people by 2012 – particularly professionals, managers and highly skilled technicians.

Craig Fawcett, 39, of Chester-le-Street, has benefited. He says he now has a range of opportunities and appreciates the guidance he had from an NRG team. “They were great to work with,” he says. “They helped me plan my career path after redundancy.”

Besides having to find a new paymaster, what are the biggest difficulties that talented people in redundancy need to come to terms with?

“Rejection,” Moran says. “Unemployment not only alters your status in the workplace, but often at home and in your social circles, too. It attacks how you perceive yourself being valued. Much of week one of LEO is about getting confidence back and understanding the participants’ value.”

She says of the region’s attainments generally, though: “We’ve made astonishing progress.”

She points to something she can personally vouch for; that besides a growing success in attracting talent from the wider world, the North East can now grow its own more readily too. “That should be a priority for all of us - make sure we can emerge from the current situation even stronger than before.” n For more information on LEO courses, contact Lesley Sabiston, tel 0191 260 4412, email lesleysabiston@nrgplc.com and see www.leoprogramme.co.uk

Entrepreneurism is about taking opportunities as they arise. I have been lucky enough to have plenty of opportunities

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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COMPANY PROFILE

AUTUMN 09

There’s still a bright side to investing and banking, John Duns at Brewin Dolphin explains to Brian Nicholls

BANKING ON THE BRIGHT SIDE

S

TERLING proof of good things still happening in banking and the financial services sector shows from a one-stop , admittedly upmarket , ‘shop’ in the heart of Newcastle.

Brewin Dolphin reports that, over all, its extensive activities are standing up well against the storms of recession, in Newcastle and all 40 of its centres around the country.

Staffing remains at a pre-recessional 300 in Newcastle, where the group has a substantial number of investment managers, its investment banking division and most of its back office.

Recently, the operation relocated within the city to a plusher Time Central development proving its worth near St James’s Park.

“We continue to take pride in our analysts doing such a satisfactory job from here,” says John Duns, marketing and business development director. “With most of the group’s back office business going on here too, Newcastle remains a major financial centre.”

There are 20 staff on Teesside and five in Cumbria, and Brewin Dolphin now sponsors the activities of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum hoping to find the next Sage plc – a goal surely supported throughout the North East.

Of Brewin Dolphin’s entire activity, Duns says: “Despite everything, we remain a cash-rich, resilient business, with more than £30m of cash assets. We are thankful that Newcastle and all our other offices have a very loyal client base.

“That ongoing loyalty and success of our clients underpin Brewin Dolphin’s continuing

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

John Duns, marketing and business development director.

OUR PEOPLE ARE VERY EXPERIENCED AND HAVE BEEN THROUGH DIFFICULT TIMES BEFORE. A GREAT MANY OF OUR CLIENTS, HAVING BEEN WITH US MANY YEARS, RECOGNISE THIS, AND MOST OF OUR CLIENTS HELD TIGHT

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commitment to an all-round service under one roof.”

But surely loyalty only comes through client confidence in service provided – in good times or bad?

“Our people are very experienced and have been through difficult times before. A great many of our clients, having been with us many years, recognise this, and most of our clients held tight when the economy first deteriorated about a year ago.

“We did lose some clients last spring,” he admits.

“But with a successful promotion since, many new clients have joined us.”

Loyalty is a quality you’d expect to be easily engendered by a company founded in 1762 and which had strong links in the North East as Wise Speke since 1903. But experience has recently shown that longevity alone does not guarantee survival. So clearly Brewin Dolphin still offers more than simply a longstanding name; a major asset, it says, is that its culture of longstanding relationships is client-led.

Many companies initiate relations with Brewin Dolphin through its market-leading investment banking division which, under Graeme Summers, has a “material base” in Newcastle, unlike the many other UK investment management firms whose banking divisions are rooted in London.

Companies are advised on their growth plans using capital available in the City. Stock market flotations often result, as in the cases latterly of Hargreaves Services, Eaga and Vertu.

“An enviable track record,” Duns suggests,

AUTUMN 09

especially since Vertu’s flotation raised £35m as storm clouds gathered.

After flotation, the investment banking team continues to advise on subsequent ambitions.

“Usually, Brewin Dolphin and the management teams build understanding and trust, and Brewin Dolphin is asked to advise on the investment of funds flowing from a flotation or to directors,“ Duns explains.

In comes the investment management division, with its people skilled in managing £1.5bn currently to provide income and long-term growth for local and national clients. Here, a bespoke portfolio based on a client’s needs can be composed.

“If the investor chooses the discretionary service, funds are monitored daily and appropriate changes made, giving effective and reassuring service, particularly in volatile times,” Duns explains.

Growth in investment management is up to expectations. Six teams of investment managers, 35 individuals, deal with the portfolios – many of these between £250,000 and £300,000.

A corporate client seeking investment management can, from there, entrust the

COMPANY PROFILE

company’s pension scheme to Brewin Dolphin. In comes the third arm, the financial planning division.

“As the team administers the client company’s scheme, word spreads about our one-to-one service,” Duns explains.

“The client company’s directors and employees can contact the financial planning team - one of the largest in the region - to seek advice about investing their personal pensions or tax, trust and share options issues.”

Duns says the financial planning service in

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particular is attracting new clients, anxious about the long term against the presently low interest rates.

If its sequence of services is taken up throughout, Brewin Dolphin will be looking after many aspects of a client company’s business life - from growth, flotation and beyond to the long-term personal financial management of its staff.

“Our joined-up thinking and interlinking divisions close the loop for companies and individuals, and strengthen the quality of the comprehensive and lifelong service it provides,” Duns declares.

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

STEVE SCORES THE WINNER Middlesbrough football club boss Steve Gibson has netted a vital goal for the region’s tourism with a £50m hotel and recreation complex.

Brian Nicholls takes a look around

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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AUTUMN 09

Even self-effacing tycoons can hide their lights for only so long – and never totally once they pull off the previously unimagined - so let no-one say we’ve no entrepreneurs like the 19th Century venturers who made the North East great in railways and heavy industry.

No-one noticed much when Steve Gibson, by disposing of Teesside heavy industry’s detritus in a little boat, acquired the means at 21 to set up Bulkhaul. Bulk haulage lacks glamour, but even today, as chairman and majority shareholder also of Middlesbrough Football Club with a personal fortune estimated at £82m, Gibson avoids publicity. His latest feat, though, amid a mix of companies, will not pass unnoticed.

The newly developed Rockliffe Hall Hotel, Golf and Spa Resort, a £50m investment in itself, opens on November 23 and promises a rarity in North East tourism - five star status.

It’s Gibson’s foresight again, alongside a separate and simultaneous development of 24 luxury homes for let.

It also complements the Middlesbrough club’s £11m training ground, which is considered one of Europe’s finest and a possible centre for Olympic athletes in 2012.

Fittingly, it’s been spun from the former mansion and estate linked to a family which was especially prominent among 19th Century entrepreneurs through Alfred Backhouse in the founding of Barclays Bank.

Set in 375 of South Durham’s more beautiful acres on the banks of the River Tees bordering Yorkshire, it’s already a big talking point, hoisting North East tourism to a new level with 61 rooms, a championship-class golf course, and one of the most spacious health and fitness spas in the country.

Managing director Nick Holmes, a multiaward-winning operator of some of the UK’s most prestigious golf, hotel and leisure venues, predicts: “This place will, in time, sit alongside the top 10 hotel resorts of its kind in the UK. There’ve been great plaudits for the golf course already. People are talking of it in terms of The Belfry and Celtic Manor.”

Holmes, aged 51 and from the Wirral, has been around a bit and is not given to exaggeration. But he believes it will be the new standard-bearer for quality resort experience in all of Northern England. He’s

especially delighted to be settled there with his wife Liz and daughter Eleanor, 11, after near enough a year of commuting from Bristol.

He was previously MD for Branston Golf and Country Club in the Midlands, and opened Bristol Golf Club, a 250-acre upmarket centre in South Gloucestershire. He also helped start up the five-star Cameron House on Loch Lomond in the 1990s, and has been a consultant for Studley Wood Golf Club in Oxford and Silvermere in Surrey.

His career took off as country club manager at Gleneagles, where he also met his vivacious wife Liz - a fitness professional who is now director of Rockliffe’s 50,000sq ft spa. He entered general management in 1987 at the four-star Craigendarroch Hotel and Country Club in Royal Deeside, which is popular with royalty while at Balmoral, then became the group’s operations director.

Warwick Brindle, director of developer Rockliffe Hall Ltd - part of the Gibson O’Neill group which owns Middlesbrough FC and Bulkhaul - says Holmes is “the best in the business.”

Holmes says of his challenge now at Hurworth village, Darlington: “It’s been my food and drink for more than a year. Rockliffe Hall has become a much talked-about new destination in the UK’s leisure industry already. I feel honoured to run it. Seeing the team and final touches come together is exciting. And having the golf up and running to get us away during the summer was fantastic.”

With more than 100 members already, the club should soon reach its goal of 300. Holmes explains: “We’re not looking for big numbers – this is to be a whole golf experience. Some people like to collect experiences of major courses they’ve played on, and they must be able to get on easily.”

This 18-hole course, a par 72, is at 7,800 yards one of Europe’s longest, and includes practice facilities and a deluxe 18,000sq ft clubhouse.

Marc Westenborg, of renowned course architects Hawtree, designed the course, giving it “super-fast, slick greens” with the superior bent grass more usually found in warmer climates.

A course’s strength lies in its routing, experts say. But wait – isn’t this near Croft and Neasham, places that are notorious for >>

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INTERVIEW

The fantastic location is what appealed to me with my hotelier’s hat on. We’ve work to do with the tourist people to make everyone aware of it

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

Get Carter – or did they?

A question for fans of Michael Caine’s cult classic: did Rockliffe Hall appear in the film Get Carter?

It is widely believed that some scenes in the 1971 film were shot in the Grade II-listed building. But were they? Holmes admits: “Someone told me recently that isn’t true. Something went on round here, but I think it might have been edited out or lost in translation. I’m going to watch the film again, but I may have to play this claim down till then!”

Either way, the conversion of Rockcliffe Hall, architecturally and environmentally, is brilliantly tasteful. The original red brick building with its ashlar dressings, slate roof of ornate ridge tiles and tall decorative chimneystacks remains the focal point. But it is complemented by a grand, yet sympathetic extension.

Even the clubhouse roof is grassed over to maintain a verdant view from the bedroom windows of the hotel over the golf course and on to the Tees.

More than £1m has gone into equipping the hotel’s catering; a nice little earner for Upnorth Group of Blaydon. And more than £500,000 has gone into bathroom furniture, which is contemporary yet fitting for its 18th Century setting.

The architects are Browne Smith Baker of Newcastle and Darlington. The main construction contractor is Shepherd’s of York and Darlington.

Mechanical and electrical design is by White Young Green of Stockton, with Baker Mallet of Stockton project cost consultants. Also involved are Jeff Mason Design Associates for interior design, Taylor Pools and KSL Lighting Design.

On the golf course, master course builders MJ Abbotts worked with Hawtree.

The luxury homes are being developed by Rockliffe Hall and Bussey & Armstrong, the Darlington developer whose spokesman Tony Cooper suggests they match the main development – “discreet, luxurious and contemporary but with traditional touches.”

Some spa treatments and facilities, sourced from abroad, are considered novel to the North East.

Holmes says: “We want every element of Rockliffe Hall to make our guests say ‘wow’. We’ve no weak parts. That’s not always so in a development like this.”

Planning must have been more painstaking than when the original draft for Rockliffe Hall was drawn up in 1774, although the century turned before something emerged.

In the 1820s it was called Pilmore House, the estate belonging to the Durham historian Robert Surtees. Around 1836 his more famous cousin, the landscape painter Thomas Surtees Raine, owned it.

In 1851, Rockliffe Hall fell to Alfred Backhouse of the banking family, and after big changes the estate had three buildings: the hall, Pilmore Farm and Hurworth Grange.

Backhouse got a fellow Quaker and relative, Alfred Waterhouse, to rebuild and re-landscape; the same Waterhouse who designed Darlington’s iconic town clock and covered market and the Natural History Museum in London.

The landscape was neglected by later owners, but work done over 20 years in the late 1800s has enabled the golf course now to make use of old and natural contours and other features in the land.

Lord Southampton, a colonel in the Green Howards, lived there between 1918 and 1948, and as a fervent cricketer formed Rockliffe Park Cricket Club, which still plays nearby.

Brothers of the Holy Order of St John of God bought the estate and in 1950 made the hall a kind and caring hospital for permanent patients. On their departure, Durham County Council compulsorily bought it in 1968. It then stood empty and vandalised until, in 1996, Steve Gibson became owner through Middlesbrough football club.

Twice there were fires there, in 1903 and 1974. And in 1944 an aircraft crashed there. Luckily, it missed the hall.

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flooding? Yes. But areas of wetland habitat have been created as one of several steps in absorption on the estate’s flood plain.

With these, Westenborg not only ensures holes remain playable, but also that a wildlife retreat is preserved and enhanced. That’s a golfer’s view; maybe twitchers will agree.

The course and estate is cared for by Davy Cuthbertson - ex-Slaley Hall - who, the internet reveals, is a fervent Sunderland fan, but we won’t go into that. He’s prepared courses for several PGA Tour and Seniors Tour events, and during 12 years at Slaley – four as course manager – he oversaw the birth of the second Priestman course.

The father of two, a golfer since his schooldays, began with a green-keeping role at his local South Moor course.

Unlike Slaley when it started, Rockliffe plays down any ambitions of hosting top tournaments. Holmes explains: “We do hope before long to have a big - as distinct from a major - tournament. The course is capable of hosting a European Tour event.

“If the opportunity arose, a long way off, it has Ryder Cup potential, too. But venues for really big events are decided far ahead, so it wouldn’t be our immediate priority. It might involve lobbying too, and a question of whether it’s right to do it commercially.

“A top tournament comes with a lot of baggage. Celtic Manor, the next Ryder Cup venue in Newport, effectively offered to rebuild the course to get it. If it gets to that extent I can’t see us doing it. Anything we did might be after a few years, and we’d have to be sure it was of the right quality.”

But it’s not only golfing zealots and their “widows” Rockliffe wants. Holmes says: “The fantastic location is what appealed to me with my hotelier’s hat on. We’ve work to do with the tourist people to make everyone aware.”

Perhaps he’s needled by a travel website declaring, “Rockliffe Hall to open in Newcastle Gateshead this year”.

Today’s 70 staff could become 200 in two years, and Holmes is pleased by the availability of local skills; a strong community element in staffing is the aim. Some key workers are from beyond the region, though for Wendy Benson, sales and marketing director, it’s a return to the North East after stints with the Principal >>

AUTUMN 09

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INTERVIEW

A role to relish: Rockliffe Hall Hotel, Golf and Spa resort MD Nick Holmes

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

Haley Group, InterContinental Hotels and De Vere.

Holmes says: “Once tourists come, especially from abroad, they’ll see how attractive villages here are. I don’t think local people have grasped yet, either, just what a big deal this is for local jobs, investment and opportunity for local suppliers.”

But at least the butcher might who’s just landed a meaty contract. Enquiries are coming in about Christmas events. Talks are on for conferences next year. And 10 weddings are booked, the first in January.

“Quite a feat,” Holmes suggests, “when you can’t really show them round yet. But the old house we’ve built onto really lends itself to ceremonies.”

Residential conferences of up to 80 will be hosted, and there is banqueting for up to 180.

Three restaurants will offer “contemporary

British dining” under head chef Martin Moore, 35, who is also restaurants manager, and sous chef Luke Taylor.

Moore, from Belfast but now living with his wife and daughter in Middlesbrough, was previously with Seaham Hall for more than five years and learned his trade at another distinguished Tees Valley hotel, Judges in Yarm.

Taylor was senior chef earlier at Solberge Hall Hotel and Restaurant in Northallerton.

The hotel’s six apartments are already being occupied, mainly through golf-related bookings, and soon they will be generally available to families or other residents who are inclined to stay just a little bit longer.

If those old Backhouses had still been around they would surely have offered Gibson, a proven master now of magnificence, unlimited credit. ■

There have been great plaudits for the golf course already. People are talking of it in terms of The Belfry and Celtic Manor

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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Packed with history Guests new to the area who don’t golf or lounge in spas will still find plenty to occupy them at the many places of local interest, for instance, that have been under-profiled in the region’s tourism to date. Fishing is good on the Tees, and walks and jogging trails are planned.

Down the road they can cross Croft Bridge (joining Durham and Yorkshire since 1356), which the Duke of Cumberland crossed on his way to indulge in military butchery at Culloden. Bishops crossing for the first time used to be given a sword ceremonially.

Over the bridge, they can see the old rectory where Lewis Carroll lived for 25 years and wrote the stories leading up to Alice in Wonderland.

The picturesque village of Hurworth, once the heart of a linen industry, is noted for eccentrics, like the uncouth but eminent 18th Century mathematician William Emerson, some of whose counting went on as he mustered his means to drink copiously in Darlington.

Old John Tiplady too - Jack Tip - was only ever seen at odd times of night and day, when he voluntarily cleaned and tidied the village, speaking to no-one.

More morbid but fascinating in Hurworth are the remains of more than 1,000 corpses under the village green - victims of the Great Plague in 1665. The only trace of them now is the faint impression of three deep pits where the bodies were piled on top of each other. Nowt to worry about now, though!

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BUSINESS LUNCH

AUTUMN 09

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Some people make for themselves a charmed life. Keith Armstrong, of Kitchenware Records, is one such, making a good living out of his passion for music, as Jane Pikett discovers

It turns out that Andy Hook, who owns Blackfriars Restaurant where Kitchenware Records’ Keith Armstrong and I meet for lunch – once played drums, aged 16, for an 18-year-old Paul Tucker, who went on to find stellar success with The Lighthouse Family.

Small world - The Lighthouse Family being one of the most successful acts to date of Newcastle-based Kitchenware – which is also credited with Prefab Sprout, The Kane Gang, Hurrah! and newer acts The Fatima Mansions, Sirens and Editors (number one in the download chart as I write) and more.

I savour my Wylam Angel ale while Andy and Keith get into an animated conversation about artists and recording studios both have known.

By contrast, I’ve never seen the inside of a recording studio, or been friends with anyone in a proper band. Mind, the Dunn brothers from Martin Stephenson and The Daintees (also on Kitchenware) once came home with my friend Judy and I after a gig in Sheffield and stayed the night in her little brother’s room (we were staying at her vacationing parent’s house in Worksop at the time).

I ponder for a while whether this not-very wild story of mid-1980s debauchery (beer, pizza, and bed; girls in one room, boys in another) will pass muster, and decide to keep schtum, adopt a knowing expression, and start on the pleasingly rustic home-made bread.

“I bumped into Martin Stephenson a couple of years ago,” Armstrong says later, between mouthfuls of “bloody fantastic” mackerel. “He was playing at this Americana day outside The Sage Gateshead. He was still wearing the hat I

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

gave him years ago. He spent the whole gig going, ‘Keith do you remember when we did this?’, and ‘do you remember this?’ It was like the years melted away, but people don’t change, do they?”

Perhaps not, but the music business has changed out of all recognition since Armstrong, Phil Mitchell and Paul Ludford launched Kitchenware in 1982. While many of us yearn for the days when records were made of vinyl, a gatefold sleeve was treasured, and life was altogehter more simple, today download is king, and music is widely assumed to be free. So how do Armstrong and his bands stay in business when half the world, or at least those under 30, seems to believe in a God-given right to nick music off the web?

“People don’t want to pay,” he says. “It’s not just kids either. Paddy McAloon [Prefab Sprout] was in a cab the other day and the driver said he paid for about three quarters of his downloads, so Paddy gave him three quarters of the fare. I don’t blame him.

“I do download - paying for it, obviously. But there’s nothing like vinyl. I’ve got a garage full of it. But I still buy stuff. Paddy [McAloon] is the same – we buy the same records over and

over. I might go into HMV and see What’s Going On by Marvin Gaye in the £2 rack and I’ll buy it again because it’s still a great record.”

But how do bands make money if people nick their music? “It’s a battle ground; figuring out how to monetise the way people receive music now. But it’s part of the journey. We’ve gone from sheet music to 78s, to vinyl to CDs, and from there to downloads; you have to go with it. My job is to make sure the music’s good – good enough to steal.”

Armstrong’s been making records - most of them indeed good enough to steal - for more than 25 years at Kitchenware, the all-genre label whose eclectic mix of artists has provided soundtracks for a generation.

“Our bands have only one thing in common, and that’s a spark; something about them,” he says, with the enthusiasm of a man in the privileged position of earning a living out of his passion. “I look for raw, pure talent.

Karima Francis has had a tough background, but she has this raw talent. How crap would it be if people didn’t hear her? It’s exciting, going out and finding people like her.

“And we have a good strike rate. There are very few things we’ve done that haven’t

We’ve gone from sheet music to 78s, to vinyl to CDs, and from there to downloads. My job’s to make sure the music’s good - good enough to steal

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AUTUMN 09

New musical express: Keith Armstrong is still discovering innovative, fresh bands, 27 years after launching Kitchenware Records

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BUSINESS LUNCH worked. We have a 70% or 80% success rate, in contrast to the big labels which aim for a 10% hit rate.”

Kitchenware has always been a label for acts hovering outside the mainstream; exciting, innovative acts that define and drive music, like Prefab Sprout, now back in business with a new, highly successful album, and Editors; one of the few younger bands in the charts who are actually doing something interesting musically. Kitchenware, by the way, does not make music for people who think The X Factor is at the cutting edge.

The day after our lunch, a package drops through the door. It contains the new Prefab Sprout LP, the mere thought of which is enough to make me burst with a mixture of nostalgia and anticipation of joys rediscovered, the breathtaking - really, breathtaking - new LP from Editors, which hits number one the day I receive it, and The Author by Karima Francis, the strikingly edgy singer songwriter whose emotive musical artistry makes her the new discovery of the year, probably.

There’s a scribbled thank you note from Armstrong, which includes a request that I revise the Desert Island number one I forced him to choose for the purposes of this article from Van Morrison’s Veedon Fleece to Steely Dan’s Aja. I bet he’s been agonising over that all night.

“Here’s some music,” Keith’s note adds.

“That’s what it’s all about!”

And the last 27 years have indeed been all about the music for Armstrong. He was manager of HMV when he, Ludford and Mitchell launched the label in the basement of the store they had revolutionised from dull run-of-the-mill to hip music magnet, crafting their own weekly charts for every genre.

They were young, they were fearless, and they were imaginative. Kitchenware sprang from a club they held in Newcastle at the time called The Soul Kitchen, which featured innovative bands like Orange Juice, Aztec Camera, Parliament, The Velvets, even the mighty New Order. It was an unconventional, arty scene modelled on Andy Warhol’s Factory.

Of course, wanting to make records isn’t the same as knowing how to make records, and they had little idea what they were doing >>

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

BUSINESS LUNCH

AUTUMN 09

Sounds: The raw talent and energy of Editors, above left, and Karima Francis, above right, are qualities that define Kitchenware Records’ acts when they started. “But we created this artistic environment, and people made films, fashion, graphic design and stuff, and we made records,” says Armstrong. “We were all in the one place, and the stuff we made – whether it be a shirt, a record, a film - we called Kitchenware, which is where the daft name came from. When you’re that young and fearless, there are no rules for anything.

“Bands like Prefab Sprout, The Kane Gang, The Daintees, reminded me of older acts I loved. Martin Stephenson and The Daintees were busking outside the shop one day and we just asked them in – the next thing we knew, we were making a record with them.”

The first Kitchenware record was made thanks to the instructions printed within the gatefold sleeve of a Scritti Politti LP. “We just did what it said. We booked the same studio and the same engineer for 24 hours, which was all we could afford, and took the Daintees and Hurrah! to London and stayed up all night recording. We needed percussion, so we got some rice and plastic cups and did it ourselves.

We did our own backing vocals.”

The result was a record of the week in Sound magazine and a record of the week in NME, and then Armstrong got a call at the HMV store from the head of Sony saying he wanted to hear some demo tapes.

“I was like, ‘you’re having a laugh. Do you know how hard it was to make that record? If you want it, you can buy it’. We were fearless.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

We only sent the first Prefab Sprout LP to journalists whose opinions we respected ...We didn’t know we were managing PR

We’d tell people to get lost because we wanted to do it all ourselves, but the more we did that, the more they were interested.”

A big early break came from The Tube. “They wanted Prefab Sprout and I said, ‘no, you’ve got to have all our acts on’, and we only had four bands anyway, so they had a Kitchenware night on The Tube. That was how we were – we just asked for stuff and got it.”

Armstrong is now the only one of the original trio involved, though they remain close. Paul Ludford, whom Keith has known since they were at school in Prudhoe, is now a stage producer credited with major festivals including T in the Park and Bestival.

Phil Mitchell is an author writing fiction about the music business. They still go to the match together. Meanwhile, Kitchenware remains small but perfectly formed, Armstrong heading his small team in Newcastle still.

“When we started, we had no money, but we had credibility,” he says. “The big companies wanted cool and we had that. And self belief - plus some arrogance. We only sent copies of

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the first Prefab Sprout LP to journalists whose opinion we respected - Julie Burchill on NME, and someone on Melody Maker. We didn’t know we were managing PR, but I suppose that’s exactly what we were doing.”

Things might have been very different if he’d taken a job offer gleaned from the Milk Round in his last term at Newcastle Poly, but drunk one night, he decided instead to follow his dream and make records. He got out his record sleeves and wrote to all the companies listed on the backs, asking for a job. The only one to reply was EMI, and they didn’t have an opening in A&R for him, but they did have vacancies at HMV. “I thought they were the worst record shops going and told them why at the interview. They took me on.”

He was in London to start with, and met some people who have since risen to global prominence in the industry and remain supporters of Kitchenware. They include Roger Ames, who was at London Records when they met and is now chairman and CEO of Warner Music Group, and John Kennedy, who was >>

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BUSINESS LUNCH a young music industry lawyer. “He said he’d like to be our company lawyer. He went on to become president and COO of Universal [Music International; the largest record company in the world], was an organiser of Live Aid and produced the Live8 concerts.

“So, despite the fact that we have been determined to stay in Newcastle, we have always had these great people advising us.”

Kitchenware used to put all its records out independently, but it was hugely expensive, so they devised a new business model. Instead of being an independent record company, they became what Armstrong calls “the world’s first ‘dependent’ label”, signing distribution deals with the major labels.

It was a neat model, bringing in the distribution revenue and power of the major labels while allowing Kitchenware to nurture its bands, doing the marketing, the press - the things they were good at. They have managed some, including The Lighthouse Family, the management of whom actually subsumed the record business for a few years.

Kitchenware evolved its own brand identity, so even if its records were put out by Sony, Universal, whoever, they had Kitchenware catalogue numbers and people understood what they were buying.

The model continues to this day. The company ethos is to find exciting acts and develop them, and if one of the majors doesn’t distribute a band’s music, Kitchenware will still do it themselves, fuelled by Armstrong’s passion for every act he signs.

They had a slogan - “Never knowingly wrong” - an arrogance Armstrong acknowledges, but he laughs and says, “it’s a vicious business and you have to have a bit of front!”.

Armstrong adds that when he set out, aged all of about 21, he wanted to create something that would still be around when he was dead, something he would enjoy, and something which would make a name for Newcastle, which at the time was a bit of a joke musically.

He was also determined to stay in Newcastle, though the truth is, when he looks back, that made things harder. “We could have probably done everything about three times faster if we’d been in London,” he admits now, though in today’s world, he can spend regular weekends at his second home in Ibiza and

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

AUTUMN 09

Blackfriars Blackfriars Restaurant is housed in a 13th Century Dominican monks’ refectory in central Newcastle.

Recent restoration work, in consultation with English Heritage and the county archaeologist, has revealed more of its heritage, which is well suited to the robust dishes and gutsy beers on offer. Aged beef, old-breed pork and lamb, North Shields fish and traditional Northumberland cheese all feature, as do heather honey and wild garlic, nettles and blackberries gathered from hedgerows. It’s all made from scratch; traditional sausages, burgers, ice cream, bread, heritage potato crisps and rare-breed pork scratchings, and fabulous, fat homemade chips. Herbs grow in barrels by the kitchen door and the cooks harvest walnuts from the courtyard trees.

Keith Armstrong enjoyed fresh mackerel salad followed by North Sea fishcakes, while Jane Pikett had fantastic smoked salmon, again followed by fishcakes, all washed down with Wylam Angel ale.

See www.blackfriarsrestaurant.co.uk

work just as effectively as from Newcastle.

He says they were lucky to have met the likes of Kennedy and Ames at the start and to still have their backing, and the fact that he is still not readily available down the road in London means people make the time to meet up on the day or two a week he is there.

Kitchenware has also given a few people their first chances, including some notable names who continue to support the label in return,

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two of them renowned names in LA who got their first breaks making Kitchenware videos on a budget.

Kitchenware’s first break came from the manager of New Order, who sent his band to play a Soul Kitchen gig after a phone box call from Armstrong. “I just rang him up,” he says, shaking his head at the cheek of his young self. “They only did stuff they wanted to do, and he said ‘they’ve never played Newcastle and it’ll cost you £2,000 to book us’. I asked him to give me five days to sell the tickets and get the money. Then the pips went, and he said ‘are you calling me from an F-ing call box?’ and I’m like, ‘no, no, honestly’.

“When I look back there was no reason for him to do it, but I think we’d maybe put on a couple of bands, Orange Juice maybe, that made him take a chance. That New Order gig paid for the first recording session.”

Turnover is a couple of million a year now and there are revenue streams in publishing, distribution rights, film soundtracks and adverts. “It’s not a huge business, but considering the size of the company, it is very successful in terms of profit. Also, we are creating value in intellectual rights all the time.

Our publishing company is very valuable.

“It’s a bit like a Robin Hood business, taking money from the rich like the major record companies and giving it to the poor artists to fund their music. Success in this business to me is someone we’ve worked with realising their potential, and we make a damned good living doing something we love.”

Armstrong is on a high right now, feeling the company is emerging from the crunch. “I actually feel I can relax a bit now,” he says, as Editors, Prefab Sprout and Sirens are all doing well. Sony has an option on Karima Francis and there are high hopes for the new Lighthouse Family record to come. For Armstrong, it’s all about the music, and he reckons he has the best job in the world. His favourite band of all time, by the way, is Steely Dan. “No, on second thoughts, The Fatima Mansions,” he says, suddenly and animatedly.

“Because they’re absolutely the most exciting band I’ve ever seen in my life. They supported U2 and every gig they did was amazing. If you go to one gig, go to one of theirs. They’re incredible - pure, raw energy. I love that.” ■

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GARLAND ON WINE

AUTUMN 09

OFF THE WAGON Tanya Garland, MD of Cool Blue Brand Communications, breaks a self-imposed period of abstinence to test two tipples

I felt a sudden rush of elation at being asked to write this wine review. Not because I have an urgent craving for creative writing, but because I’ve had six weeks of abstinence from alcohol - which was as bad as it sounds! It was a self-inflicted penance for massive overindulgence during my recent honeymoon, part of which was spent in the Veneto area of Italy, which, as well as being home to some of the most amazing Palladian architecture, a mass of Tintorettos and Bellinis and the undulating plane-treed landscapes immortalised in Renaissance paintings, is also home to the Prosecco-producing vineyards of Italy.

Needless to say, after ten full nights of ‘Prosecco tasting’ followed by primi, piatti and dolci (and sometimes even formaggi, too) it was time to call a halt. For by the end of this ambrosian interlude, I began to understand the source of the aphorism ‘a moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips’ as I struggled into my work clothes.

There are many other aphorisms alluding to denial and to the pursuit of beauty (or at least attempting to keep the right side of obese) so the next baleful aphoristic truism came to me by the way of ‘no pain, no gain’.

Six weeks of vigorous outdoor walks,

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

tiny suppers and only the dreaded sparkling water as accompaniment (so bad for the planet and our purses ...) has seen me return to fighting weight and a virgin palette all the better to wine-taste with.

I realise my almost complete dedication to white wine is shameful, so I will start with the red, a Musar Jeune 2007, and give you my best description. My wonderful husband cooked a coq au vin, uncorked the bottle, poured a small glass, left it for a few minutes and then I had a little sniff. It had a lovely berry-filled aroma, a wonderful autumnal colour and tasted as it looked - warm, soft, fruity and good. Its mix of Cinsault, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon was gentle on the palette and also held its own with the food.

The biggest surprise was that it was produced in the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, which as a result of this tasting, I have discovered has a burgeoning wine industry. A friend - a committed drinker of red found it ‘intense, spicy and enjoyable’, but not as enjoyable as the offerings of other new wine zones such as California and New Zealand.

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The next night I set about the task of forcing myself (!) to try the white - a honey-hued Spanish Albarino (basically a Chardonnay mix), it has what seems at first to be an aromatic peach and white fruit flavour that subtly lengthens on the tongue.

It’s the kind of white that would be an excellent partner to a garlicky French roast chicken, moules mariniere or smoked fish, though I drank it with spicy couscous and it proved a good partner.

It’s an easy wine, but at 13.5% volume, it packs a real punch and after just one glass I could feel myself thinking, ‘oh just another one isn’t too much’. It was a little less dry and quite a bit more rounded than I would normally choose, but delicious for all that.

If anybody calls you and asks you to review wine, just say yes. It’s an easy and enjoyable job and allows you to break your own tedious rules for a couple of hours. Now it’s off for a vigorous, very virtuous, walk! ■ Both Tanya’s wines were provided

by Lewis and Cooper, Northallerton and Yarm. The white, The Spanish Quarter 2007, is on offer until Christmas at £5.99 (rrp £7.99), and the red, Chateau Musar Jeune 2007, is £8.49

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AUTUMN 09

FASHION

WAXING LYRICAL

Barbour’s famed jackets are as beloved of the fashionista as the country squire these days, and the North East-based company continues to change with the times while retaining his heritage, as Chris Porter reports >>

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FASHION

AUTUMN 09

Barbour is one of those brands that is periodically re-discovered by people you’d least expect to wear it, and that gives it a new aspect

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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FASHION

There are few brands that can claim ownership of a genre: Hoover, Coca Cola, Playstation ... they are a small and exclusive club.

The fashion world is smaller still, but mention Barbour and you immediately conjure images of the definitive waxed jacket, well-heeled country folk, spaniels and black Labradors in picturesque English countryside.

Despite the company finding its origins in the decidedly catwalk-averse South Shields with a history in making outerwear for trawling and farming, it remains associated with the well-to-do thanks to the smart ad campaigns of the 1980s.

Crisp and un-dirtied, the Barbour jacket is the Range Rover of utilitarian clothing, the functionality with which it was designed not always put to the test, but no less appealing for that.

“That strong 80s image had both its benefits and its difficulties,” concedes Claire Saunders, Barbour’s head of marketing. “It gave people the perception of Barbour being part of a posher view of country life.

“It’s an association I think we’ve shaken off now, but Barbour is one of those brands that periodically gets discovered by the kind of people you’d least expect to wear it and that gives its personality a new aspect it didn’t have before.”

Barbour may have benefitted from a re-appreciation of country matters that has spun off growing environmental awareness, interest in food sources and the undoubted attractions of a slower pace of life.

Its gentle revival may also have been assisted in part by the refreshed appreciation for authenticity and heritage that has come with the recession, with long-established brands and makers of classic or long-lasting products - which is to say, those offering better value for money - especially winning new interest.

But it is no less surprising to find that its best-known jackets - the Beaufort and the Bedale; classics, even if they are not that old - are hot property among edgier, metropolitan 20-somethings, who team it with plaid shirts and skinny jeans.

That, as Saunders notes, is a long way from the fuddy-duddy image the brand still had just a few years ago, even if it is still also a long way from making it “the kind of product >>

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that looks best after it’s literally been dragged through the mud,” she adds.

Country life was, however, the intention for Barbour’s jackets. The Bedale, launched in 1980, was short in length, lightweight and thorn-proof and designed for equestrian wear.

It also had many of the marks that have since become brand signatures – the big bellows pockets, the corduroy collar and the brass ring-pull, two-way zip fastening.

The Beaufort, meanwhile, was developed two years later as a shooting jacket which considered the practical needs of the sport rather than its sartorial codes.

Yet many Barbour fans are still far from the Horse & Hound set and while adoption by fashion’s leading edge is typically bestowed rather than won through effort, the company - whose turnover in 2007 (the latest published accounts) was £63m, with a healthy profit on that of £12m - has also been busy widening its appeal, and in June 2009 it won the prestigious Best Brand award at the Profit Track 100 Awards. The runner-up was Virgin Trains.

It has seen its important country sports connections strengthened by the adoption of crack shot Lord James Percy as an ambassador and co-designer of an award-winning range, but it has also launched more contemporary, slimmed-down versions of its classics, and created a more urban spin-off collection in collaboration with Japanese designer Tokihito Yoshida.

In September 2009 it also opened its first store - just off London’s Carnaby Street - which consciously targeted the fashion consumer; the type of consumer, in fact, who until recently might not have considered a brand that has historically been down and dirty.

After all, Barbour made some of the first motorcycle clothing in 1911, and most notably the International jacket launched in 1936. And it created the Ursula foul-weather suit for world war two submariners (it was named after the U-class sub of the same name) and made a name for its Cowan Commando style during the Falklands conflict of 1984.

The trick, says Saunders - one which many British heritage brands are still missing - has been in giving the products wider appeal without losing the regional identity. It is, in >>

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

FASHION

AUTUMN 09

Being apart from London as the fashion hub has allowed it to develop in an idiosyncratic way and meant it has always had to be entrepreneurial

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a nutshell, about making Barbour more of a lifestyle brand without putting off those lucky people whose lifestyle also happens to include mucking out.

“All design, technology, buying and sourcing is still done in South Shields and the area is very much part of what the brand is,” she says.

“The company grew out of supporting the growing sea trade out of South Shields and the South Shields beacon is still on our labelling.

“Being apart from London as the fashion hub has allowed it to develop in an idiosyncratic way also, and meant it has always had to be especially entrepreneurial.”

But the original wax jackets weren’t for everyone, she says, adding that they were heavy, they smelt and they were cut for function rather than form ... things that appealed to some men, but certainly not to many women.

“They needed to be moved on without losing the personality of the brand,” she says. “You can’t chase fashion. But even functional products need to be good looking.”

Over the last five years, the product range has included more womenswear and a growing business in shirts and knitwear - though, as Saunders stresses, Barbour is still fundamentally a jacket company. “We can’t depart too far from what we know,” she says.

It also remains a family business, allowing it to evolve at its own pace and without shareholder pressure.

Dame Margaret Barbour herself designed the Bedale and drove the Sloane Ranger image overhaul that first saw Barbour on the backs of aspirational city folk three decades ago, some no doubt impressed by its royal patronage (the Queen gave her Royal Warrant in 1982, the Prince of Wales gave his in 1987).

And it was Dame Margaret, the company’s chair, who collected the aforementioned Profit Track Award.

“I think we’d have to admit that there was a time when some people thought of Barbour as being a bit naff,” says Saunders. “There’s good and bad in any long heritage a company may have, but now we think in terms of Barbour having wit, grit and glamour. Other companies may have one or two of those elements. But they rarely have all three.” ■

for men who understand the power of a suit

Acorn Rd, Jesmond, Newcastle upon Tyne

.

Finkle St, Kendal, Cumbria

www.julesb.co.uk

MAN

EQUIPMENT

AUTUMN 09

SAILING AWAY

While the super-wealthy enjoy their multi-million pound cruisers, opportunities are increasing for the rest of us to sail in style, as Chris Porter discovers It would cost you £130,000 a week to charter Sir Philip Green’s Benetto Lionheart yacht on which the model Naomi Campbell was seen frolicking this summer.

Beyonce and her husband Jay Z also took to the sea off the coast of Croatia, paying £119,000 a week. Likewise, the new Formula One World Champion Jenson Button, actress Eva Longoria and the ubiquitous Katie Price (aka Jordan) were also snapped on the water.

Small wonder then, with such high-profile figures spending their holidays afloat, that the yacht market is buoyant.

Owning a mega-yacht may be an option only open to billionaire Russian oligarchs, who might perhaps consider the 80-metre Ocean Breeze, which is moored in Nice and is for sale complete with gold taps, pool table, steam room, surgery and sea-to-air missile system; one careful owner - Saddam Hussein.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

But such is typically beyond the pocket of even the very wealthy, though that has not prevented a rising interest in the attraction of smaller fish and increased demand in the pre-owned market.

Cruisers, pleasure and motor boats are all increasing in popularity, and top-spec models, thanks to their manufacturers seeking to broaden their markets, are now being bought for as little as E10,000.

The market is also drawing the attention of brand names historically outside the boating world and the Porsche Design Group recently announced a deal with the Singapore-based yacht builder Royal Falcon Fleet to design and market a new range of catamarans and super-yachts.

The Monaco-based, if unfortunately named boat maker, Wally, has also sparked renewed interest with a bold new aesthetic for its

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yachts and smaller craft that - dark, foreboding and seriously streamlined - is more stealth than steerage. It is now also working with Hermes on some models.

Another leading maker, Aeon, is cornering the eco market with yachts covered in solar panelling, engine systems that recycle waste and hulls sculpted to mimic a whale shark’s body for improved aqua-dynamics.

Small wonder then that the big four of the cruiser and motorboat world - Riva, Sealine, Sunseeker and Fairline - have also upped the ante in terms of design, moving away from the traditional fixtures, classic lines and white hulls typical of such craft in favour of more striking style.

Riva, for example, is best known for its hand-built wooden boats, suggestive of the suave playboy powering from party to party off the shores of Lake Como. Brigitte Bardot,

AUTUMN 09

Sean Connery, Richard Burton and Anita Ekberg were all Riva owners.

It is an evocative, romantic image - but one which, since Riva has been working with part-fibreglass construction for 40 years, has long since been updated by more technically advanced boats.

There is, for example, the electro-hydraulic board on the Sunriva model, which transforms bow sofa into sun deck, or the Venere’s Anti-Rolling Gyro, which actually eliminates rocking motion, thus helping to keep your Martini down.

Sealine’s new F-series, similarly, has an internal layout that, radically in boat design, creates an open-plan area ideal for socialising, while its T60 Aura is a first for the motor yacht industry in being designed by the company in collaboration with Studio Conran under Sebastian Conran, son of the

Motor-yachts are now appealing to a younger, more design-conscious consumer who may not have considered buying before.

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restaurateur and Habitat founder Terence.

It has, as might be expected, a more contemporary interior than is typical of boats of this class, with blond wood, white leather and none of the standard beige vinyl or high-gloss cherry wood.

The design reworks the layout to maximise a small space, following Studio Conran work for the Yotel hotel cabins concept and, prior to that, Concorde.

So, motor-yachts are now appealing to a younger, more design-conscious consumer who may not have considered buying before, hence this is becoming an increasingly brand-oriented market. “The same loyalty to brands in motor boats is there now, as much as it is for cars,” argues Francesco Frediani, Riva’s vice president for sales and marketing.

“Riva is often compared now to the likes of Rolls Royce, as other brands are compared >>

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

EQUIPMENT

AUTUMN 09

to high-performance car brands. There are customers who don’t just want a motorboat, but a Riva - perhaps because they’ve seen one in the movies. Like many motor-yacht companies now, they have to be luxury brands for a luxury market.”

But there is more to the growth in the motor-yacht market - growth which has bucked recessionary trends - than the application of style.

Carsten Astheimer, Sealine’s head of design, suggests that new definitions of luxury favour emphasis less on what money can bring materially as what it can bring in terms of ‘wellness’. And being at sea, in greater contact with nature than city living typically affords, is a rare form of escape.

Frediani agrees. “It is the dream of the motor boat that keeps demand for it alive,” he says.

“Most of our clients are in business and lead busy working lives. Consequently, they place a lot of emphasis on their holiday time and expect it to be especially fulfilling.

“Motor boats or yachts provide not only that experience of the outdoor life, but also offer a tranquil and private environment. It is a niche market of course, but more people are realising that, for perhaps the same money, a motor boat offers more than a sports car. A car will never provide the same sense of getting away from it all as a boat.”

Among the highly commended models lately are the Fountain 48 Express Cruiser (around £500,000), the Chris Craft Corsair 28 (around £84,000) and, for the CEO in search of pure fun, the Ribcraft USA 210 RIB (Rigid Inflatable Boat) at around £45,000.

And there is a huge range of possibilities.

Experts recommend a boat of less than 50ft

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

Motor boats or yachts provide not only that experience of the outdoor life, but also offer a tranquil and private environment.

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for anyone who does not intend to hire a crew. You should also consider that the cost does not stop with the purchase price. Fuel, insurance, maintenance and mooring all add up and are one reason why, for all that super-yachts make for headlines, smaller boats are more popular.

The other key factor is the desired purpose, whether you are charting open seas or sailing more sheltered rivers and lakes, and the nature of your enjoyment - day trips or longer holidays? Cruising in comfort or speeding through the waves?

Most find that anything capable of 25 knots provides economy with more than enough excitement, with slower boats often safer and more stable.

There are gizmos aplenty, but bow thrusters (on any boat over 40ft), echo sounder, chart plotter, radio communications and radar are genuine benefits worth the expenditure.

A combination of factors will combine to make the ideal boat for each owner. It was, for example, less the air con, flat-screen TVs, laundry facilities or even the swanky galley as the superior handling, low sound levels, electronic steering and user-friendly systems monitoring that won Fairline the Motor Boat of the Year Award this year for its Squadron 55 model. But then it is £1.4m. Maybe it’s time to splash out? n

Celebrating 25 years!

Celebration Collection 2009

Richard Sinton proudly unveils nine, limited edition ‘S’-shaped diamond pendants to celebrate 25 successful years of business in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The Celebration Collection is set with 25, D colour diamonds, each weighing a quarter of a carat to represent a quarter of a century.

Individually priced from £1,900 to £5,900.

Each limited edition pendant in the Celebration Collection will come gift wrapped, complete with a valuation certificate and presented with a bottle of Richard Sinton Jewellers champagne.

47-48 Eldon Garden, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RA (0191) 232 0788 www.richardsintonjewellers.com

MOTORING

AUTUMN 09

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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AUTUMN 09

MOTORING

eco champion

Lifelong Volvo driver Duncan Weir allows his head to be turned by the environmental credentials of Lexus’s new hybrid RX 450h I was in the lift at the Hilton Newcastle Gateshead, in my tux on the way down to the Entrepreneurs’ Forum Annual Dinner, when George Cheung (a Director at this magazine’s publisher, Room 501) jumped in. Our conversation led us, unsurprisingly, to the bar, where I mentioned how much I enjoyed reading the motoring pages of BQ - and six months later here I am!

I wouldn’t describe myself as a petrol head, in fact, other than the basics, I don’t really know how an engine works, but I am, and always have been, interested in cars. There’s so much to admire - the design, the speed, the handling, engineering, performance, prestige - and the lack of any one of these qualities just makes it more fun.

I spend a fair bit of time behind the wheel, my day generally starting with a dash down the A19 with a car full of children arguing about the X Factor or practising their spellings while still eating toast.

Once they’re off to school I change from Dad to Technical Director of the family firm, Weir Insurance Brokers, and it’s my job to visit our larger commercial customers and advise them how best to arrange their insurances. My family has been doing this for almost 40 years, and my wife and I are now taking the company forward with a talented and experienced team and a bright future ahead.

So what would you expect an insurance broker with a keen interest in cars to drive? Well, I’m a Volvo Man and have a long history of them.

In fact, my first car at 17 was a Volvo 245 GLE

(estate). This was back in the late 80s when young lads my age all had MK2 Escorts, remember? Now, at the age of 38, I’m on my 10th Volvo, which is a practical XC90, though I have had three V70 T5s ,which are flying machines and great fun - until you meet a corner, but I won’t go into that now, save to say thank God for air bags!

So what does Volvo Man think of the Lexus RX 450h? Well, I had always thought Lexus were, shall we say, driven by men of a certain age, but with its new styling it has masses more road presence, which will certainly be more appealing to a younger generation.

This looks like a quality SUV on the outside, and the quality feel continues inside. I sink into the very comfortable leather seats and shut the door with the reassuring thud you would expect. The dashboard is well thought out and has a contemporary feel. The controls are intuitively placed and the gear lever sticks out

of the dash - a feature I like. I have driven automatic cars for many years now, which has resulted in a lazy driving posture, so I also appreciate the arm rests for both arms.

Once comfortable and ready to go, I’m ready to “fire her up”, only this is a hybrid, so you don’t actually start the engine - you switch it on.

Pop the key in your pocket and press the ‘on’ button and the dash comes to life - but there’s no engine noise - nothing. Pop the gear selector in to D (or S if you’re feeling naughty) and you float off.

The sensation is a completely different experience, which I like, and the hybrid system is supported by a 3.5 litre V6, so after driving silently through town for a while I decide it’s time to see how it performs on the open road.

Now, I’m not sure how I expected the marriage of electric power and the combustion engine to perform, but Lexus >>

The sensation is a completely different experience, and the hybrid system is supported by a 3.5 litre V6 ... so I decide to see how it performs on the open road

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BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

MOTORING

AUTUMN 09

Bob says ...

Going green: Duncan Weir enjoys a day with the Lexus RX 450h

have made it work completely seamlessly.

High speed doesn’t really interest me, but the sensation of powerful acceleration and superior performance make driving great fun (in the right circumstances, of course) and the Lexus offers this in abundance. I head for a country lane known as the Beehive for its many twists, turns and quick changes in attitude, and although an SUV, the Lexus laps it up with almost no pitch or roll.

It handles more like a luxury saloon, but with the added benefit of ground clearance and a 4WD system. I’m not so sure it would perform too well off-road, but I have no doubt it could get you out of a sticky situation.

Heading back into town, I get snarled up in traffic, which gives me the opportunity to play with the toys. There’s an LED display in the centre of the dash controlled by a soft-touch mouse. It’s incredibly intuitive, and even I master it after about five minutes. It effortlessly allows you or your passenger to operate the advanced features such as the entertainment, climate and navigation systems.

Squeezing these SUVs into a tight parking spot can be challenging, but pop the car into reverse and the screen really proves its worth.

Cameras cunningly hidden somewhere in the rear turn the LED screen into a Parking Assist Monitor. The system displays a colour image

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

from the rear and overlays the image with suggested adjustments to guide you to perform the perfect reverse park. I can easily think of a few friends, family and dare I say it - customers who would benefit from this feature!

All in all, this is a very impressive vehicle and a real alternative to the BMW X5 or the Range Rover Sport, especially for those looking for something slightly different.

After reluctantly handing it back, I collect the children from school and head for home.

Having experienced the hybrid system, I find I can’t help noticing the clouds of black smoke pouring out of the back of all those Turbo Diesel engines as they accelerate.

You have to admire the time, effort and risk that Lexus have put into developing this vehicle. It’s almost impossible to believe that, after all the technological advances of the last 50 years, we still rely so heavily on the internal combustion engine, knowing how finite our fuel supply is.

Maybe it’s time for me to look at some of the environmentally friendly alternatives, but would my next car be the Lexus RX 450h?

Time will tell! ■ Lexus RX 450h, priced from £45,830 at Lexus Newcastle, Benton Rd, Newcastle, NE7 7EG, tel 0870 413 7390. To find out more, see www,lexusnewcastle.co.uk

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The latest RX features a 3.5 litre engine producing 245bhp and 62mph in 7.8 seconds with a top speed of 124mph.

Lexus has added three electric motors which each produce 22bhp and take it up to 297bhp. Two motors power the front wheels, the third powers the rear wheels and it switches from electric power to petrol seamlessly.

Wasted energy from braking is stored to recharge the batteries. The engine has been tuned for efficiency and the electric motors are used when extra performance is required. You can drive on electric power at speeds below 25mph for a maximum of 3km and at this speed, there is literally no sound, which is incredibly spooky!

It emits only148g/km of CO2 and averages 44.8 mpg, which is amazing considering its size and weight. It also uses wasted exhaust heat to warm the engine, helping to improve combustion efficiency and fuel consumption and lowering emissions.

This RX is more than 20% more fuel efficient than the outgoing model and sits in group F for road tax. It also has a 14% benefit in kind tax bracket.

Lexus has improved the ride quality, replacing the rear strut suspension with a more sophisticated double wishbone. The RX is also available with active anti-roll bar to reduce body roll by about 40%, or air suspension (you can’t have both together).

It also has a class-leading 10 airbags.

Top of the range models get a head-up display, adaptive cruise control, and a pre-crash system that applies the brakes and puts tension on the seat belts when necessary. Finally, to show how much confidence Lexus have in hybrid technology, no other engine is available.

Bob Aurora is an independent car reviewer and owns Sachins restaurant on Forth Banks, Newcastle. Contact him at bob@bq-magazine.co.uk

A 14% BENEFIT-IN-KIND RATING. SO LOW YOU CAN TAKE THE TAXMAN FOR A RIDE. The new Full Hybrid RX 450h delivers a breakthrough 299 DIN horsepower, with 148g/km CO2 emissions thanks to the advanced Full Hybrid system which switches seamlessly between electric and petrol power.

The electric motors work in tandem with the 3.5 litre V6 engine to deliver maximum efficiency and performance. Together with a luxurious interior with sophisticated Remote Touch technology, this makes the new RX 450h a car to be desired by everyone, even the taxman.

For more information or to arrange a test drive call Lexus Newcastle on 0191 215 0404.

22 Benton Road NE7 7EG www.lexus.co.uk/newcastle

299 DIN hp

148g/km CO2

44.8 mpg

WELCOME TO FORWARD LIVING

THE NEW FULL HYBRID RX 450h RX 450h prices start from £41,600 OTR. Model shown is RX 450h SE-L Premier priced at £56,085 including optional metallic paint at £580. Prices correct at time of going to print and include VAT, delivery, number plates, full tank of fuel, one year’s road fund license and £55 first registration fee. Certain components within the hybrid drive system have a five-year or 60000 mile warranty, whichever comes first.

RX 450h fuel consumption figures: urban 42.8 mpg (6.6 L/100km), extra-urban 47.1 mpg (6.0 L/100km), combined 44.8 mpg (6.3 L/100km). CO2 emissions combined 148g/km.

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

ALL THAT GLITTERS Every cloud, even in recession, has its silver, gold and diamond lining - as the Sinton family shows after 25 years in the jewellery business. Diamond buyer Sarah Sinton tells Brian Nicholls how gems defy downturns 1984 might have been a poor year for a business launch in luxury goods, especially for a couple who were independently inclined.

It was, you may recall, the year of the miners’ strike, and the year the North East, birthplace of the railways, proved no longer able to build rolling stock. The last ships were also about to be launched on the Wear and the Tees, and one town was three years into a major decline following the closure of the steelworks that had provided its livelihood.

It was a year when even Newcastle’s diverse economy resounded like an anvil as one economic blow after another rained down.

Unemployment was nearing 20% - 50% in some places - and anyone but Richard and Sue Sinton might have wondered, ‘who on earth can afford to buy jewellery here?’

They believed, however, that a market existed, and time has proved them right. Today, as Richard Sinton Jewellers celebrates its 25th anniversary, a later recession (albeit less

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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devastating to date) still fails to dispirit them and they’re now putting changes into place that involve their next generation, fully expecting ongoing success.

In 1984, the Sintons spotted a niche for designer-led jewellery in Newcastle; the existing choice looking largely limited to mass-produced or second-hand items. They got married on a Saturday and opened their first shop, a joint venture, almost immediately.

It was at Queen’s Square, off Northumberland Street and close to Eldon Square - a plum location. “But,” Richard recalls, “it was still a scary time.”

Sue had experience of jewellery and self-employment in Birmingham, and she concentrated on the creative side. Richard, previously a “struggling” young lawyer, tackled the paperwork. The buying, they did together. “We started off with one box of diamond rings,” Sue remembers. “Twelve inches by six inches. That was our main stock.”

They must have bought astutely; five years later they relocated to their present upmarket site in Eldon Garden. Cheery hellos greet your entry to the elegant emporium and, amid tasteful lighting, polished glass and a light wood complement to all the sparkle, precious stones and translucent giftware are shown to great effect. You can pay £15 for a bracelet charm, and up to £129,000 for an eight carat diamond solitaire ring.

Nowhere is there a sense of sales pressure.

Perhaps this, and the friendliness of the staff, remain two enduring qualities of family businesses, and long may they be so.

Whatever the appeal, customers come from all over the North East and from Scotland.

North Easterners who have migrated return

AUTUMN 09

too. Some customers call regularly, others when a special occasion arises. Some have become friends.

The Sintons look on their team as part of the family, which may partly explain why store manager Catherine Tait has been with the firm for all but two of its 25 years, and assistant manager Gillian Thornton for all but five.

And now there’s another jeweller in the Sinton family crown to provide expertise. Daughter Sarah Sinton, now a director, has been 14 years full time with the firm, plus seven years gaining work experience during her school holidays.

Richard and Sue didn’t know if Sarah would

enter the business. She went to university, but after two years of politics and international relations felt in need of a change. Back in the family business, she had cheerfully emptied rubbish bins, vacuumed carpets, sorted post, fielded phone calls. Now full-time work shaped her decision.

She was sent to gain the relevant qualifications and with a Gemmology Diploma under her belt, she became a Fellow of the Gemmological Association of Great Britain (Gem-A) - at 100 years-plus, the world’s oldest educator in gems. Her Gem-A diploma affirms her knowledge of physical and chemical properties, and the identification skills in

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gemstones used in jewellery making.

Sarah broadened her experience working for Mappin & Webb, contributing to its 235-yearold history by setting up its shop in Prague over a year.

Today, however, she does all the diamond buying for Richard Sinton Jewellers. She also deals with media because Richard, she explains, wants the firm at this notable time to look 25 years ahead, rather than back. She says they keep their celebration in perspective, mindful that another independent firm, at Hitchin in Hertfordshire, will celebrate 250 years next year. It shows how sustainable you can be in jewellery. >>

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

Richard suggests Sarah knows more than he does now. But she says she had a lot to learn about running a business. Gradually, however, she has taken over most of the stone and precious stock buying. She attends trade fairs, follows the market and prides herself on her ability to get a good deal.

“The more you work with diamonds, the more your eye gets into colours and clarity,” she says. “As with anything else, the more you work with something, the more familiar you become with it – like a surgeon, I suppose, to some extent. You get better as you go along.”

Though only 12 when the business began, she can affirm that people then and now buy jewellery, even when the economy is in pain.

“There’s no point in investing in property,” she explains, “and shares are so far down with no-one knowing how much further down they might go yet. So that’s not a good investment either – too volatile.”

She might have added that savings interest is pitiful, but she concludes that people are mostly buying jewellery to feel better - a treat.

“Plus,” she adds, “there are always birthdays,

anniversaries, engagements and weddings.

Jewellery will appreciate in value, but that’s not why you should buy it. You should buy to mark a happy occasion, or as a token of love.

It’s a thing of beauty.”

Gold jewellery, in particular, can be an investment, and though women in other parts of the world think nothing of having their gold melted and reshaped when they tire of its form, that practice doesn’t seem greatly to have joined Britain’s imports - yet.

Sarah thinks this is because jewellery here is almost always associated with a special occasion. But one discernible trend here is, as in previously hard times, the sale for cash of depleted items such as broken chains, odd earrings and unfashionable pieces.

Newspapers, TV and the web are peppered with buyers now, and gold, having broken through $1,000 an ounce on the commodities market, provides brisk trade. “All our nation’s gold reserves were sold off and now they’re being bought back. Gold is a stable commodity so the price is pushed up. It doesn’t help us very much,” Sarah says wryly.

The more you work with diamonds, the more your eye gets into colours and clarity. As with anything else, the more you work with something the more familiar you become – like a surgeon BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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Coloured stones are less popular now, so Sarah specialises more in diamonds. “I have several dealers I buy from, depending what I’m looking for and the price they’re offering. It goes from there,” she explains.

“I have dealers in Antwerp, Israel and London, some in America too. Most jewellery made up for us is done by British manufacturers. If I’m looking for something specific for a customer, something special, I may look and buy loose, and I’ve a jeweller in Hatton Garden who makes things up. It depends what a buyer wants. If it’s something I don’t have in stock – particularly a bigger piece, and you can’t keep everything in stock - then It’s easier to find the loose stones and go from there.”

Customers call with sheets from glossy magazines and say, ‘I want something like that’. It’s Sarah’s job then to know where she can get it. “Mostly, if it’s a ready-made piece, someone will already have copied it. Or there will be similar designs around, and we cover most things that are popular. It’s rare we won’t have a similar piece in stock if someone has seen a picture. But a bigger piece - we’ll get it made. Finding the stones may take time, but usually it would be eight to 12 weeks to make up a bespoke piece. If it’s run-of-the-mill, with a normal, commercial-sized stone, you’ll be looking at about four weeks.”

Diamond values can be a law to themselves, in Sarah’s words. As they’re not bought as a commodity by governments, a diamond’s value will depend more on the dollar’s value and the rate against sterling. “But you have to weigh up more factors besides,” Sarah says. >>

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INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 09

“Some qualities increase their value faster, depending on how rare they are.”

Diamonds have graced engagement rings at least since Maximilian I, in a Habsburgian burst of gemmological inspiration, married Mary of Burgundy with one such in 1477. But even the most smitten suitor today could probably not afford a diamond matching the Cullinan of the British crown jewels. It forms part of the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found (in 1905), at 3,106.75 carats.

Cubic zirconium - industrial diamonds - appear to have little affected jewellers’ business, though they were predicted to become a threat when they were introduced because of their cheapness. They seem to have remained an industrial benefit, however.

Sarah says it’s the adoption of platinum for many industrial uses - such as catalytic converters on cars - that has distorted the market and determined the quantities mined.

“Platinum is probably used a little less than gold in jewellery but is very popular. It’s 30% harder than gold and a white metal in its own right, so doesn’t need rhodium plating.

“The South Africans who do most of the mining have had an electricity problem.

They’ve been down to a four-day week when they normally mine quite a lot. Platinum production is down and with the car industry buying less I don’t think as much is being mined. That pushes prices up.”

Age, apparently, has no bearing on taste in jewellery. Sarah observes: “If a woman has always liked something a bit flamboyant, she always will. I don’t think age means we have to dumb down - definitely not. Many just go with what’s fashionable. We sell a lot more fashionable and seasonal jewellery now.”

The firm believes it has flourished as an independent for 25 years amid strong competition because it identifies and goes with these trends and is thereby continuously evolving. “We’ve always been known as the shop with something different,” Sarah says.

Young girls are often drawn to jewellery in the first place through charm bracelets and other silver jewellery. Some older people say it doesn’t matter to them anymore. “But find me a woman that wouldn’t like a pair of

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

Jewellery will appreciate in value, but that’s not why you should buy it. You should buy to mark a happy occasion, or as a token of love. It’s a thing of beauty

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diamond studs. She might just tell her husband she doesn’t like jewellery,” Sarah suggests, “but she does like it really.”

While some prefer flamboyance, others opt for simplicity. “I think it’s what you feel comfortable wearing, and what fits your style and personality. I don’t believe anyone doesn’t feel better with a nice necklace on,” Sarah suggests.

Some will buy less expensive pieces to chop and change with outfits, others have two or three special items they wear all the time Richard Sinton caters for all.

The company plan is to continue with one shop, complemented with a revamped website raising the profile and widening the reach to e-shoppers. Sue, who recently gained a law degree (making up for missing out on university earlier), is now re-developing the e-commerce arm, while Sarah feels there will always be diamond shoppers who will still want to try items on in the shop. “Diamonds vary so much,” she says. “Some people think they want a definite style and try it on, only to find it doesn’t suit them.”

Richard says it remains a lovely business. “As a lawyer, I dealt with death and divorce. People come here because they want to be here to mark a special occasion.”

He considers his role now is strategic, likening himself in a recent interview to a restaurant’s maitre d’. About 60% of his time is now taken up by marketing, including customer events and entertaining, as well as seeking new markets. He hopes younger daughter Jess will eventually aspire to this role, given her interest in marketing, and he says Sarah will one day take over the business - and Jess if she wishes.

Jess, 21, thinks she might first like to get some advertising and PR experience in London or serve an apprenticeship in New York.

She’s studying geography and sociology at Sheffield University, and captains the women’s hockey club there.

Clearly, we’ve come far in the thousands of years since our jewellery was fashioned in bone, animal teeth, shell, wood and carved stone, and one senses it was perhaps a little cheaper then - but not nearly so covetable. ■

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ENTREPRENEUR

AUTUMN 09

fortune telling for the noughties

Trend-spotter Joanna Feeley won her first job in New York while she was still a UK student. Still ahead of the game, she now has a prophetic niche business in the North East vying confidently with big-time competition in major capitals of the world, finds Brian Nicholls

Anyone who doubts that three people filling one little upstairs office in central Newcastle can bullseye repeatedly against the big-guns of London, Paris and New York should meet Joanna Feeley.

Feeley and her staff of two at Trend Bible are corporate soothsayers - trend forecasters of lifestyles and consumer inclinations. They predict profitable approaches for retailers and brands, guiding design teams, buyers and merchandisers on which designs and styles of products are likely to appeal to customers in the coming months.

Business is awash today with services that were once unimaginable, but Trend Bible’s activity is far from being mumbo jumbo.

Feeley, the founder and creative director, believes it’s largely a science, in fact.

Remarkably go-ahead, she flew into a job in New York while a UK student, topped the experience with further jobs in London and now has her own company in the North East.

So how do her theories stand up?

At Morrisons supermarket, where Trend Bible has been helping to build a stylish, cohesive selection of goods for next spring, it was allocated space in one of the store’s aisles to identify future lifestyle and trend drivers, create colour palettes and design directions, so building a range.

The profitability of the merchandising bays soared. Says Feeley: “We’re always confident our predictions of what the public will go for

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

are accurate. They’re based on research evidence. Some people think we’re mystical, but what we do is quantifiable. There’s a science to it.”

The core business is trend forecasting for home interior retailers, but Trend Bible also forecasts food, automotive and beauty trends.

She explains: “We collect indicators globally from all sorts of corners in all sorts of places – pointers to what may influence consumers and so affect providers too.

“We collate and distil information we believe could influence what people may want in product design, colour and print material, say 18 months hence.”

Her experience of sitting on the International Authority Colour Panel has enabled Feeley to forecast colours for anything, including Ford cars. The results must impress. Trend Bible’s client list in the UK and the US includes Morrisons, Nokia, Next, Avon, LG, Daihatsu, Pottery Barn, JC Penney, TK Maxx, Tesco, ASDA, Disney and Mothercare.

They are not the sorts to swallow sales talk

unquestioningly - and are catches indeed considering most of the 300 or so trend forecasters in business are indeed in London, Paris and New York.

On a brainstorm wall in Trend Bible’s Westgate Road office, any newspaper cutting, scribbled note or colour sample useful to forecasts is pinned. Objects may be gathered: a piece of plywood, a corner from a carrier bag, an artwork.

Social and cultural information goes into the crucible too: inspiration from exhibitions at the Tate Modern or the Guggenheim Museums in Bilbao and New York perhaps, and other influential places. Books about to be published, films nearing release.

Underpinning it all is evidence of what’s already happening: consumer reports, data; hard facts and figures. That’s the quantifiable.

What follows is the skill derived from experience, and Feeley has 11 years of that in trend forecasting.

Knowing how other brands and companies work helps to define trends, too. The mix is >>

Some people think we’re mystical.

But what we do is quantifiable. There’s a science to it

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ENTREPRENEUR then topped with team instinct, which has also benefited from observant input by a global network of informants built since business began in 2007.

Feeley explains: “We’ve excellent colourists, people experienced in design, other trend forecasters and people who work in retail.

Some have worked for 20 years in fashion.

Some are students, others graduates I’ve met along the way – people full of creative ideas and opinions. They help to form our picture.

“For all we’re in Newcastle, we have continuous information from London and New York – about interesting new shops opened, for example. Our eventual findings are put into straightforward, no-nonsense terms for our clients.”

Even flea markets are combed. “The ones in Paris are amazing, as is London’s Portobello.

Then there’s Sydney’s vintage boutiques.

People running flea markets are switched-on trend forecasters themselves. They have to know what people will be looking for. We’ve noticed lots of nostalgia, with a lot of post-war design coming through from the flea markets.”

So about 18 months ago Trend Bible forecast that consumers would seek items that made them feel nostalgic, safe, and optimistic this coming winter. Research had suggested it and, sure enough, Vera Lynn has returned to the top of the charts. Sales of chocolates have risen 7% as home becomes once more a retreat as people spend more time on interiors and on home entertaining rather than in restaurants and bars.

“Recession makes people think and behave in particular ways,” Feeley says. “Our job is to predict how that consumer behaviour will translate into feelings when they shop. What types of products will they be drawn to?”

Trend Bible distributes answers both by consultancy and through its eponymous bi-annual publication, supported by monthly online trend updates enabling clients to work closely to the season.

Each issue of Trend Bible covers colour palettes, fabric, wallpaper, flooring and trim samples and is accompanied by a CD of imagery. Some companies may have their own planners develop ideas from it; others may seek something specific inside. “It’s one thing

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AUTUMN 09

to know what future trends are, but another to know when exactly to put them in store,” Feeley points out.

Seasons – and even recessions – have their own colour. Recession is working to Trend Bible’s advantage. Although she is having to chase business now rather than simply gather it in, many supermarkets and chain stores, because trend forecasters are often among the first staff paid off in a slump, are finding that

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creative input is sadly lacking in-house.

The chief executives and product managers still have to ask, ‘what’s the next big thing, the next big consumer draw?’ and they need to know what will not sell, also. And they need reliable answers. Their product development managers may attend up to six trade shows a year. Trend Bible will attend maybe 14 in Europe and the US. Feeley says: “We can also add growth by helping them decide how to harness new customers, how to develop their product range. We’re not the only people to do this, but we have a specific target in the people we go for.”

It’s quite a leap from the tiny Northumbrian village of Gunnerton to New York, then on to running your own international business.

But Joanna Feeley is obviously doing it with distinction.

There’s little around Gunnerton to stoke design enthusiasm, bar perhaps the legendary resting place of a dragon and the local church distinctively designed by a priest who, besides becoming a hermit, masterminded other buildings as far off as the US, Australia and the Bahamas.

But Feeley remembers a fantastic childhood in Gunnerton – she, her three sisters and a bike.

It was when the family moved to Corbridge that she, at 12, became enthralled by design.

In Hexham, where she was actually born, two teachers at Queen Elizabeth High School nurtured her interest in graphic design and art.

She did a foundation course in fashion at Newcastle College, went on to Kingston on Thames University – then straight to New York.

“I loved New York straight after university. I was full of energy and had a great time. I was young, though. I don’t think I could do it now,” she says, still only 33. “I had a good job there, which I had secured before I graduated.

“I decided in the Easter holidays of my final year that the best way to spend my student grant would be to book a flight to New York. I didn’t even have my final project in my portfolio. But I went out and met with a recruitment agent who was due to visit our university after we had all graduated and were job hunting.

“My strategy was to get out there first. She said, ‘I love your work and love your >>

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ENTREPRENEUR portfolio – how do you feel about going for an interview this afternoon?’ I was jet-lagged, but said ok. The firm loved my work and said, ‘you’ve got a job. Go back and get your degree and if you get a good enough grade we’ll sort you out a visa and get you back out here quickly’.”

A week after her course ended she was on another New York flight, now to work as a menswear design assistant. “But already, I knew trend forecasting was what I wanted to do, although a careers advisor had told me there were only maybe 300 trend forecasting jobs in the world.

“But in New York every night, when others had gone home, I’d stay late. I’d no money and they used to give me a pizza if I stayed late. I did my trend forecasts and board presentations then. It became a bit of a joke.

People there would say, ‘oh, the trend fairies have been again in the night!’.

“Then they’d ask the future of graphic T-shirts and things like that. ‘Who’s the next big brand?’ They started to use me as a trend forecaster. I built a trend portfolio without a trend forecasting job. New York was so much fun. But you could only live its very fast pace for so long.”

Back she came to the UK after 18 months. She became a designer for Topman in London, which was rebranding and therefore very interested in trends. She then became a design manager for The Bureaux forecasting consultancy in London.

“I often tell students now you have to carve your own opportunities out of things. Jobs at the minute are not there. You have to take what is there, but from that you can create your own opportunities.”

After 10 years in London and New York, which included subsequent freelancing, Feeley decided to set up for herself in the North East.

She started in a spare bedroom at home and was supported by Business Link and UKTI. The workload, which was soon so much she couldn’t service all clients individually, inspired her to create a bi-annual publication with all the information necessary in print. Trend Bible the publication was born.

Today, Joanna Feeley’s network of agents sells Trend Bible in 18 countries, doing especially well in the UK and the USA.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

AUTUMN 09

Fashion Forecasting, the online directory of companies in the field, describes Trend Bible as: “A new generation service using a ‘magpie’ approach to fuse work of up-andcoming designers with unique vintage finds.”

Its third busiest centre is Japan, despite the English text. More remarkably, perhaps, it is being promoted in the French market, where Feeley felt sure translation would be vital. “But one of our agents in this country - who is French and does a lot of business there – says translation won’t be necessary there either.

“I had thought that if ever a market insisted on translation, it would be France. Now we are very excited because a couple of our biggest competitors are based there.”

Does operating from Newcastle have a downside? “Definitely not. Here, for example, we’re able to tap into brilliant talent coming out of the design colleges and universities.

We’ve a good placement scheme and some excellent students have worked with us. One

girl went off to New York herself last year and now she feeds us information.”

Feeley herself gained a Post-graduate Certificate of Education at Northumbria University, enabling her to teach part-time at Cleveland College of Art and Design and supplementing her firm’s income initially.

“It was like building your own raft; Trend Bible was the raft and security was on dry land. I had to build the raft strong enough to float while I kept one foot on the dry land!”

With turnover nearing £200,000 in a three-year target of £559,000, she no longer needs to teach, but she does lecture and join university seminars and workshops at Northumbria, Nottingham and Trent, teaching students the benefits of forecasting.

How though, does she ensure Newcastle can keep up with major capitals of the world?

“I‘ve set up something more personal, more bespoke. Many of our competitors give out generic information and rely on company designers to interpret it.

“Also, particularly in recession, Trend Bible being not quite so big can come in a little less expensive, and with this added value of personal service.”

Feeley, her partner Simon and their one-yearold son Aidan live in Fenham. When the couple go out, she admits, it’s hard to switch off. She’ll look around the restaurant or bar and think how she could make it look better. It even happened at a wedding reception the other week.

Fortunately, Simon is head chef at the Barrasford Arms in Northumberland and, as Feeley explains: “I get lots of nice food cooked for me. Simon is just as happy cooking at home as at work. So there’s hardly any point in dining out now!” n For more information, see www.trendbible.com and http://trendbible.wordpress.com

People running flea markets are switched-on trend forecasters. They have to know what people will be looking for

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The Apprentice :

You’re hired!

FOR small businesses in the construction trade, taking on new staff might be the last thing on your mind right now.

But have you thought about taking on an apprentice? There are many benefits to bringing in an extra pair of hands, not least the prospect of making your business more profitable.

Here we talk to Paul Marshall, Head of Division for Business and Workforce Development at Hartlepool College of Further Education, about the benefits of recruiting an apprentice and how to go about it.

Paul explained: “The construction industry is tough right now, but for smaller businesses and especially the one-man bands there is a lot of work about at the moment on house improvements, renovations and extensions, as people aren’t moving so readily.

“Having someone work with you means you can get through jobs quicker and offer a better service. Simply working smarter, sharing the jobs and tasks out gets them completed quicker.

The satisfaction of passing skills and experience onto younger colleagues is second to none.

“All of this goes into making your business look more efficient and professional, whilst improving relationships with customers to increase your services further. By taking on an apprentice, it all goes towards differentiating your service from your competitors’ and you’re more likely to get your name passed around.”

Apprentice wages are £95 per week but the College offers a placement scheme where employers can ‘try before they buy’ for several months before taking on an apprentice full-time.

Paul explained: “We have a placement scheme where employers can take a trainee for up to six months and decide whether they want a full-time apprentice and it costs them nothing. We just hope that they will be so impressed with our trainees, they will want to offer them a full-time apprenticeship at the end of it.

“Some of our apprentices have been in College for two years so they have a good knowledge of their trade.”

As well as offering training and support throughout the apprenticeship scheme, Hartlepool College can also offer help with potential funding and support with health and safety issues. They will also guide you through the recruitment process.

Paul explained: “We can come out to your business or you can come into the College and we can see what your requirements are.

>>>>

“We can help you write up a job spec, then look at the apprentices we have and put forward several candidates who fit the bill. You can then speak to them all and decide who would fit in best with your business.

“If it turns out that you are not happy with the apprentice you have chosen then you can come back to us and we can look at helping you pick a replacement and there’s no come-back on the employer.

“On the other side of the coin, if you have your own apprentice in mind then you can come to us to help meet their training requirements.”

To find out more about Hartlepool College’s apprentice scheme, call Paul Marshall or Aileen Knight on (01429) 283822 or email Aknight@hartlepoolfe.ac.uk.

Peter Bamford, a Level 3 Mechanical Fitter at Hartlepool College of Further Education, who was awarded the Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association (North East) Most Promising Apprentice Award whilst working at Seymour Civil Engineering Contractors Ltd.

ISSUES

AUTUMN 09

ROCK’N’MAUL Brian Nicholls argues an urgent personal case for more public debate about the futures of Northern Rock and our building societies before irrevocable decisions are made

It’s the final insult to many investors to have learned that Adam Applegarth, once Northern Rock’s man for all seasons, has a nice little earner now to top up his £750,000 pay-off after leading the bank they implicitly trusted into collapse.

His reported £200,000 a year additional income now will also be sticking in craws of many among the 2,000 and more employees who, by contrast, have found, through others’ transgressions, their own salaries plunge, as they were paid off or quit, disillusioned.

Nor will it cheer the taxpayer whose money a well-intentioned Government used to avoid the bank sinking totally and calamitously.

They’ll no doubt wish Applegarth could be compelled to return a monthly portion of his new salary stream towards the £25bn it cost to save the bank.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

But Applegarth committed no crime, and is entitled at age 48 to seek alternative work with anyone prepared to offer it. The Financial Services Authority, unless rules are changed, cannot intervene since Applegarth isn’t a director in his new post.

It’s ironic, though, Apollo Management of New York having centred his part-time consultancy on advising about the purchases of bad loans in Europe such as those that almost killed the Rock under his aegis.

Why is the scandal of a once-great North East financial institution getting so little ongoing analysis and discussion in the region that made it? There’s regular reportage, but given our abundance of bright thinkers in business and academia, and a pool of competence among journalists, why has so disproportionately little come out of our region by way of alternative proposals for the bank’s future?

Why are business, academia and media apparently resigned to leaving the Rock’s future, as if it’s solely a matter for the Government, the Opposition and the bank’s new caretakers to settle?

If government and the reconstituted management have their way, the Rock may be split in two. A retail operation with the 50-branch network and near enough £20bn retail deposits would be sold. The other part would be left with residential mortgages and wholesale lending with assets probably written down – taxpayers remaining its crutch until, hopefully, even it’s sold. Long-suffering

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shareholders might eventually find they are compensated.

Realists see a good bank, bad bank scenario.

That’s disputed by the Government, even though it is reliably reported to be edging towards a disposal of the retail arm in order to polish its reputation as a manager of the nation’s finances.

A Tory election win could mean instant privatisation of the lot. Tesco and Virgin, we know, have been sniffing around, possibly meaning well - but any prospect of assetstripping would be disastrous.

The Rock is still a major employer in the region and has been crucial in enabling the North East economy to diversify more into services after its historic over-dependence on heavy industry.

Keeping it in the North East is sense, not sentimentality. It was - and probably still is the most cost-efficient among UK banks, partly because of its location. It needs to remain here as a role model. Hence the urgency to brainstorm - before it’s too late.

So why is it left to a former businessman from York, now rooted in Twickenham, to be heard throughout the nation and abroad saying things the opinionated classes of this region could have said equally forcefully?

Not for nothing is Vince Cable the main economic spokesman for the Liberal Democrats; he was chief economist for Shell oil company at one time. But eyelids have become shutters in the North East – just as in

AUTUMN 09

the downfall of Dan Smith and friends, some of the fiercest and deserving comment is left to outsiders.

Why retreat into our shells like limpets during our malodorous moments in business and civic affairs? Why a self-defeating ‘us-against-theworld’? Do we have to be so fearful for reputations? Though Applegarth has his defenders, others will endorse Cable’s view of him as, “a guy who destroyed his bank, left his shareholders without a penny, and left the taxpayer high and dry.”

His reappearance advising on the sort of bad loans he helped create is outrageous, as Cable suggests. And yes, you couldn’t make it up.

I attended the Rock meeting in 1997 when its board promised society members something for nothing to accept demutualisation.

Some far-sighted soul who did utter the word “risk” from the floor was told yes, the shares might go down or up.

The prevailing impression, though, was that staying with this chrysalis of a plc mortgage bank would be rewarding, as indeed it was for a while. Had investors ever been let down? A charitable foundation would even be formed to deter nastiness from outside. But it couldn’t, we see now, prevent incompetence from inside.

Understandably, then, 400,000 people in the North East, and more than double that elsewhere, held on to free shares worth up to £2,350 at demutualisation. Chris Sharp wasn’t there to see it. Chief executive during the early planning, he had died prematurely.

It’s a pity that the investors bemoaning their shares’ fate now couldn’t have heard Sharp say, in

confidence, that he strongly opposed the switch but would go with it for fear Northern Rock would drown in a tide of mutual conversions elsewhere.

The rush was partly the chance to escape regulatory restrictions and gain access to cheaper money from the capital markets the high street banks used as they increasingly muscled in on the mutuals’ business. Even the fiercest champion of mutuality, Bradford & Bingley, eventually succumbed.

Bad memories linger of carpet baggers with their token share certificates hijacking annual meetings, destroying perfectly good institutions by persuading that greed was good. Fast growth was fickle in the end, and even the rescued Rock lost £1.4bn last year.

Just before a Northern Rock

Applegarth’s notable thing was to steer to near destruction a previously unblemished business whose roots now go back 159 years

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ISSUES

lunch once, I was urged by a colleague of Applegarth to get to know him; I would be sitting beside him. He’d joined as a graduate trainee in 1983, I was told, and within 10 years was general manager. He would be chief executive by 2000.“He’s one of the brightest,” I was assured, “capable of notable things.”

Yes he was. So was the captain of the Titanic.

Applegarth’s notable thing was to steer to near destruction a previously unblemished business whose roots now go back 159 years.

On his watch, the Rock gave loans up to 125% of the value of some properties. To start putting that and other things right has required a sum equivalent to building maybe 10 aircraft carriers at a time when Britain can hardly afford to buy the two that it urgently needs.

Applegarth of course didn’t make decisions unilaterally; investors should always remember that others were involved.

He has retrieved something from the financial flames though; a secure retreat to his spacious country home at Mitford, and the opportunity to keep enjoying his cricket. Now, too, another job, albeit with a private equity firm noted for its unprofitable UK purchase of the national Countrywide estate agencies.

Mutual societies, meanwhile, have paid for the sins of the banks. Not only were large deposits switched from their accounts to conversions; after the reckless speculators were finally brought to account, local authorities further pulled more than half their £12.7bn invested in them.

Now the City watchdog, the Financial Services Authority, tries after a bolting to close doors on the wrong horse.

Claiming it wants a strong and vibrant mutual sector, it then signals a likely clampdown on societies offering high loan-to-value mortgages. The 53 >>

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

ISSUES

AUTUMN 09

remaining mutual lenders, in a rightful 19-page riposte, say the FSA proposals wouldn’t achieve their goal, and would even restrict the mutuals’ ability to lend to first-time buyers - the customers needing help most.

It’s no surprise - and no help either - that amid this uncertainty the air thickens with rumour and speculation about mergers “vital” for the mutuals’ survival.

Financial commentators pair off names for the sake of a “story”, knowing only brief, often belated denials will follow which will then spark follow-ups.

At Newcastle Building Society, the chief executive Colin Seccombe has had to deny a bid from National Australia Bank and merger talk involving Skipton Building Society.

A recent KPMG report says mutuals must counter three threats. They are: • Lower interest rates, reducing the margins on current accounts to almost nil and turning tracker mortgages into lossmakers.

• Gnawed profits, which are especially punitive to smaller societies, as all face regulatory demands to hold more and safer liquid assets, and as a requirement is made to overhaul risk management and governance structures.

• Structural margin pressures, part of a legacy of past lending policy that may take years to phase out.

Is that it? No - the main societies now have to muster £365m in a levy for a Financial Services compensation scheme. Can they survive all this? Hopefully most will. The remainder may at least be able to merge within mutuality – the traditionally painless solution among the mutuals.

Darlington Building Society recently made its first loss in 150 years - £2.5m - which it blamed partly on the levy.

The Newcastle, which is committed under Seccombe to stay mutual with its 351,000 members and 35 branches, made a £26m loss in 2008, but returned to profit with 20,000 new customers in the first half of this year.

It has benefited from its strategic solutions division. Aldermore Bank, Britain’s newest, employs it, with two more clients likely, Seccombe predicts.

Some of the 150 Newcastle staff who were paid off may be able to return, especially as the Newcastle also hopes to recoup 80% of

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

It is no surprise and no help that amid this uncertainty the air thickens with rumour and speculation about mergers

£43m it had placed with failed Icelandic banks.

This may be one answer to mutuals’ need for economies – share back-offices more, just as newspapers, in consolidation, now share presses. Also, the Government should insist local authorities put a sizable stated minimum of their investments back into the mutuals.

Local authorities and mutuals are in like business – serving communities by providing

homes at minimum risk to buyers. There’s little evidence private banks are anywhere near capturing the community spirit that building societies showed before they, too, got caught up in the money chase.

What’s to become of the Rock meanwhile? We may know even as you read this - a quick fix with insufficient public (as distinct from political) debate?

Why just a split in two?

Building societies, through their national association – like a number of MPs and business people including Bill Midgley, former head of the Newcastle feel the Rock should be a mutual again, helping to stabilise money markets, especially as the Rock’s new management says the existing mortgage book is doing well.

Marriage to an existing society might not be ruled out and a convenient partner would be the Newcastle, though Colin Seccombe might not thank BQ for resuming speculation on his patch. But takeover by the Newcastle is hard to envisage anyway on assets of around £4.5bn.

But are options really limited to a return to mutual or an immediate part sell-off as non-mutual?

Why a two-way split, even? Someone who has aired the matter publicly is the Newcastle academic Paul Benneworth. He suggests it could make it as a commercial bank in entirety, to deal in business traffic only.

Or what about running this idea in tandem with an Islamic bank? They thrive in this country, mainly in London. They’re not exclusive to Muslims and here many young businesses especially might prefer a bank forgoing loan interest in favour of holding some equity.

Or what about, additionally, a bank dedicated to farmers, agri-businesses and the multi-billion green energy industry? A triple-niche approach like this could share back-office operations.

The Government was right to nationalise in the circumstances. Now, exciting new thinking is needed. People’s savings must remain protected, and shareholders fretting about lost share value should finally accept that shares plunge as well as soar.

Where were their awkward questions when the Rock board introduced into annual reports the ugly word “securitisation”? As for financial institutions baying now like the minor shareholders about their investment ... well, they’re big enough to know better.

Sadly, the Northern Rock Foundation is almost certain to be hit. As in life, so in charity – nothing’s forever. But while failed and errant bank executives can’t be expected to starve and should be allowed to work, their energies might be better directed to more therapeutic pastures.

The voluntary sector’s an opportunity for contrition, and Dan Smith saw eventually that life is rewarding, perhaps even more so, when you exercise social conscience. The rewards are different, that’s all.

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Develop your Solar Flair at the National Photovoltaics Conference 18th -19th November Hardwick Hall County Durham

IN ANOTHER LIFE

AUTUMN 09

IN ANOTHER LIFE I WOULD HAVE BEEN ...

In a new series, BQ asks notable business people what they might have done had their careers taken a different turn. This month, Richard Cotter, Berghaus brand president, says that in another life, he would have been ... ... A sportsman or a lawyer! At the age of 16, I treble winner at Manchester United - or indeed turned out for competed in six different sports at representative Hartlepool United reserves on bitter February nights against the level - football, golf, cricket, basketball, likes of Bishop Auckland in competitions like the Northern badminton and swimming. So I always felt my life Combination League. would revolve around playing professional sport On the other hand, I could have been at the Old Bailey defending Mr or being involved in a career in sport through one Smith and his immense personal fortune from the attentions of commercial channel or another. the scorned Mrs Smith as their high-profile divorce case reached However, I was also conscious that in professional sport only a limited judgement day. few ever achieve a high level of success or reward. So through my None of the above would have prepared me for my current role, yet latter years at school I had planned to go to there are strong similarities between playing university to study law. By the age of 17, I was professional sport and leading a successful enjoying a reasonably successful golf career, business. So in a way, the formative years as had reached the fringes of the English a professional golfer did give me something schoolboy football team and had been like a University of Life degree. accepted to study law at a number of Leadership similarities include an absolute universities. So, I had some big choices focus on results, huge commitment to to make. reaching the end goal, belief in your own Eventually, I decided to turn pro at golf, ability, clarity around the need for a team, figuring that if I qualified as a solicitor I might a constant striving for improvement, an always look back at the age of 40 and understanding that there are no quick fixes, wonder how good a professional sportsman I positive mental attitude, the ability to handle might have been. adversity, the need for clarity of Although football at that time was an option, communication, and the need to benchmark I hadn’t signed schoolboy forms with a top yourself against your potential and the club, so I would be destined to enjoy a playing performance of competitors. career in the lower divisions, getting lumps So for me, it’s not so much about, ‘why did I kicked out of me by ageing professionals. This choose what I currently do?’ but more about was a less than appealing prospect. the constant desire to stretch myself with So, in another life, I could have been playing challenges, and to test my conviction that Richard Cotter: a constant desire to at the Bernabau for Real Madrid, or become a with commitment, desire and belief, stretch himself with challenges European Cup winner with Liverpool, or a everything is achievable.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

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/ Title sponsor

09 Thursday 26th November 2009 Gosforth Marriott Hotel Newcastle upon Tyne

marketingawards.org.uk T: 0191 241 4523

Nomination deadline: Friday 23 October 2009 “We were thrilled to win at the inaugural Northern Marketing Awards and to be recognised by our business colleagues.

We have incorporated this success into our marketing communications to help create awareness and interest in our continued development as a leading lifestyle brand.”

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EVENTS

AUTUMN 09

BQ’s business events diary gives you lots of time to forward plan. If you wish to add your event to the list send it to: editor@bq-magazine.co.uk.

The diary is updated online daily at www.nebusinessguide.co.uk

NOVEMBER 3 NOVEMBER Westinghouse Networking Lunch. Hardwick Hall Hotel, Sedgefield (11.15am) . Westinghouse reports on nuclear projects and potential business opportunities. Contact: www.onenortheast.co.uk/page/onene/ submitenquiry.cfm 3 NOVEMBER NSCA Tax Update. Ramside Hall Hotel (9.30). Also Accounts and Audit Update (1.30pm, same venue). marie.rice@icaew.com

12 NOVEMBER Import Procedures and Documentation. NECC briefing, Aykley Heads, Durham (9.30am). Contact: tel 0300 303 6322, or book online www.necc.co.uk 12 NOVEMBER NECC Bank of England Panel. Aykley Heads, Durham (7.45am).

Contact: tel 0300 303 6322, www.necc.co.uk 13 NOVEMBER CECA (NE) Annual Dinner. Marriott Hotel Gosforth Park (7pm) members only. Vicki Munro, tel: 0191 228 0900. kellceca@aol.com

4 NOVEMBER NECC North After Hours (5.30pm). information@necc.co.uk

14-23 NOVEMBER Malaysia and Thailand Trade Mission in partnership with the British High Commission. Kuala Lumpur, and the British Embassy, Bangkok.

Led by Geoff Young, international trade advisor.

Contact: www.onenortheast.co.uk/page/onene/submitenquiry.cfm

5 NOVEMBER Ensuring Your Retirement Sparkles, ICAEW event.

Trinity House, Newcastle (2pm). Contact: Contact: Marie Rice, tel 0191 300 0532, marie.rice@icaew.com

16 NOVEMBER Improving the Region’s Business Peformance, Investors in People working breakfast. Durham County Cricket Ground, Chester le Street (8am). Contact: tel 0191 516 6464, info@iipne.co.uk

7-12 NOVEMBER NOF Energy, Oil and Gas Market Visit to Libya. Contact: tel 0191 384 6464, business@nofenergy.co.uk

16-20 NOVEMBER Market Visit, Australia, in partnership with the British Consulate-General, Melbourne. Led by international trade advisor John Doolan.

Contact: www.onenortheast.co.uk/page/onene/submitenquiry.cfm

4 NOVEMBER Durham MBA Preview Event. Durham Business School (11am).

Contact: Dee Clark, tel 0191 334 5533. pg.bus@durham.ac.uk

9 NOVEMBER NSCA Tax Investigations and Enquiries. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (9.30am). Also Personal Tax Update (2pm, same venue). Contact: Marie Rice, tel 0191 300 0532.marie.rice@icaew.com 10 NOVEMBER IoD North East Dining Club. Speaker: Dr Tony Trapp, md of IHC Engineering Business Ltd, current North East Businessman of the Year and visiting David Goldman Professor in Business Innovation. Northern Counties Club, Newcastle (7pm). Contact: Sukie Ranken, tel 0191 213 1289 10 NOVEMBER Occupational Health Seminar. NECC event, Aykley Heads, Durham (9.30am). Contact: tel 0300 303 6322, www.necc.co.uk 10 NOVEMBER ICAEW Northern Regional workshop: Getting the Very Best from Your People. Pt:2, Managing and improving performances. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (1.30). Contact: Marie Rice, tel 0191 300 0532, marie.rice@icaew.com 10 NOVEMBER RTC North’s 20th Anniversary Dinner and Charity Auction.

Ramside Hall Hotel to support Freetown Children’s Hospital, Sierra Leone. Contact: Jamie Ollivere, tel 0191 516 4400. jamie.ollivere@rtcnorth.co.uk 11 NOVEMBER Think Big Seminar, for executives and managers on how to emulate successful innovators. RMT Offices, Newcastle (4pm).

Contact: www.onenortheast.co.uk/page/onene/submitenquiry.cfm 11 NOVEMBER NECC Northumberland Committee, Ashington College (4pm).

Contact: tel 0300 303 6322, www.necc.co.uk 11 NOVEMBER NECC South Networking Lunch (11am). information@necc.co.uk 12 NOVEMBER AutoCAD training course begins Marine Design Centre, Newcastle. For engineers and designers, held in conjunction with NTC MicroCAD. Contact: www.marinedesigncentre.com/mediacentre/events/autocad-trainingnovember-2009 12 NOVEMBER The Art of Marketing. Business Link event, The Sage, Gatehead.

Contact: tel 0191 241 4523. emma@marketingtheartof.com 12 NOVEMBER NECC Annual Dinner. Civic Centre, Newcastle (6.30pm).

Contact: tel 0300 303 6322, www.necc.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

17 NOVEMBER Rough Guide to Business Breakfast Seminar - Developing Marketing Strategies to Succeed in Turbulent Times. Led by Professor Fraser McLeay, professor of strategic marketing management at Newcastle Business School, and director of Kiwi TB Ltd. Newcastle Business School (7.30am).

Contact Sukie Ranken on 0191 213 1289 17 NOVEMBER Doing Business in Dubai, NECC seminar. Holiday Inn, Newcastle (9am). Contact: tel 0300 303 6322, www.necc.co.uk 18 NOVEMBER NECC Tees Valley Meeting, Centre for Enterprise (4pm).

Contact: tel 0300 303 6322, www.necc.co.uk 19 NOVEMBER North East Business Executive of the Year Awards. Marriott Gosforth Hotel. Organiser: The Journal. Contact: Kirsty Tarn, tel 0191 201 6072 19 NOVEMBER Understanding Letters of Credit, NECC briefing. Aykley Heads, Durham (9.30am). Contact: tel 0300 303 6322, or book online www.necc.co.uk 19 NOVEMBER NECC South Tyneside Meeting. The Little Haven Hotel, South Shields (8am). Contact: tel 0300 303 6322, www.necc.co.uk 20 NOVEMBER NSCA Tax Update for Members in Business. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (9.30am). marie.rice@icaew.com 20 NOVEMBER North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2009.

Hilton, Gateshead (7pm). Contact: tel 0208 255 1660. lisa@womenintothenetwork.co.uk Please check with the contacts beforehand that arrangements have not changed. Events organisers are also asked to notify us at the above e-mail address of any changes or cancellations as soon as they know of them.

KEY:

Acas: Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service, CECA (NE): Civil Engineering Contractors Association (North East), HMRC: Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, ICE: Institution of Civil Engineers, NSCA: Northern Society of Chartered Accountants, FSB: Federation of Small Business, Tbc: to be confirmed.

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AUTUMN 09

COMPANY PROFILE

ENERGY MATTERS WORKSHOP - WEDNESDAY 2ND DEC 2009 9:30AM-4PM

D

URHAM University has won over £36M of funding for energy research in the past 7 years and over 90% of our research has been rated of international quality. The new Durham Energy Institute is providing a one-day FREE workshop to keep you up to date with the latest energy hot topics and cutting–edge research and give you a chance to have your say about regional energy priorities. The day will begin with presentations from: • One North East • New and Renewable Energy Centre • Centre for Process Innovation • National Energy Action • The Carbon Trust • Durham Energy Institute After lunch, delegates will work in breakout

groups to discuss how as a region we can identify and address perceived barriers to Professor Ken Durose maximise our Expert in Photovoltaics, potential for Durham Energy Institute collaborative success in driving the region towards a low carbon economy.

The breakout groups will be followed by a collective feedback and discussion session.

The workshop offers an opportunity to meet those at the forefront of energy research and will provide a setting for informal discussion and knowledge exchange during lunch and coffee sessions. This

free workshop is relevant to a wide range of delegates from business and industry; consultancy companies; Regional Development Authorities and Local Authorities. The course will assume a basic level of understanding of energy concepts and principles.

The workshop will be held at various locations within the Durham University Science Laboratories site, Durham, DH1 3LE.

If you are interested please contact: energy.courses@durham.ac.uk Tel: +44 0191 3342300 Fax: +44 0191 3342301

Are you leading in a changing world?

We cannot predict the future, but we can plan for it.

At PricewaterhouseCoopers we provide leadership in the business community and public sector; leading the debates that shape both business and society.

89 Sandyford Road Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8HW 0191 232 8493 pwc.co.uk/newcastle

© 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved. ‘PricewaterhouseCoopers’ refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (a limited liability partnership in the United Kingdom) or, as the context requires, the PricewaterhouseCoopers global network or other member firms of the network, each of which is a separate and independent legal entity.

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20/03/2009 16:15:41

BUSINESS QUARTER |AUTUMN 09

BIT OF A CHAT

with Frank Tock >> On yer bike Did you know that using motorcycles for business now qualifies for a possible 100% tax write-off?

The tax status of your Harley or other preferred model changed last April. Graham Purvis at local accountant Robson Laidler LLP says: “They’re no longer treated for tax purposes like cars, but as plant and equipment.”

What an insult! However, the effect on tax relief you can claim is significant, he stresses – especially as company cars are now limited to a 20% or 10% annual tax write-down, unless their carbon footprint is below 110g/km.

Only then might your car qualify for a 100% allowance. But for two-wheel broncos, the full tax write-off is available in the year of purchase. Says Graham: “If you could write off the cost of a £10,000 machine and you were a 40% taxpayer, you would possibly carve £4,000 off your tax bill.”

Quite a burn-up. But, being tax planning, the devil’s in the detail. So do check – especially as I’m reliably informed that Graham looks unlikely to avail of the opportunity himself.

>> Come in number 03 Business 03 numbers look set to overtake 0845 as the UK’s most popular

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 09

AUTUMN 09

phone sequence. That’s the verdict of Windsor Telecom, the UK’s second largest provider of 0845 numbers.

It found 03 numbers accounting for more than half of its new connections between March and July this year, with 0845 just under a third.

The still growing use of mobile phones accounting for 40% of all UK calls now, Ofcom says - is thought to be the reason.

Mobile users can call 03 numbers as part of their free minutes.

Neil Sherring, Windsor’s chief exec, says: “0845 numbers have been around for 13 years, but with consumers using their mobile phones more and more, many companies want solutions like 03 to encourage people to phone them.”

The 03 numbers cost the same to call as normal landline numbers and offer the same call features as 08 numbers.

the most likely to be content with the amount of time they spend outdoors. Ah well, when paradise is on your doorstep ...

>> Raising the colours We asked Joanna Feeley, the North East’s trend and design forecaster (interviewed in this issue) whether she thinks the orange and yellow of Newcastle United’s controversial away strip will catch on elsewhere.

“Very interesting,” is her wise reaction. “It wouldn’t have been my first choice of colours, let’s put it that way. I don’t know where they get their inspiration from, but they certainly will stand out.”

And, as they seem to be doing reasonably well whatever colours they wear just now in their lesser life, Joanna agrees that perhaps we’d better not be too critical.

>> Paying the piper’s tune >> Beer and bytes I’ve yet to be convinced of the wisdom of John and Lynne Griffin. They’re giving visitors to their pub the chance to “enjoy the services of the city with a country-style feel”.

In short, The Northumbrian Piper, at Fawdon Close in Gosforth, now offers free wireless internet access for diners and drinkers who want a secluded, tree-surrounded location without feeling cut-off from the rest of the world.

John and Lynne have themselves been regulars in the pub for more than 20 years, and say many customers, while wanting a brief respite, don’t have the option to switch off totally. OK, folks, point taken, but I’d hate the beer and bytes idea to spread – unless it’s to a side room.

>> Paradise gained Nearly half of British men are not spending the time they’d like to on outdoor pursuits and activities, says a survey. Too much work and not enough cash are the main barriers, the check for Redwood Creek wine concludes.

But here’s a funny thing. Men in the North East and the South West of England are

114

I go along with participants in the BQLive Debate who feel business deserves a greater involvement in preparing young people for working life after school.

But I shrink from the CBI’s proposal that businesses should be allowed to influence higher education curricula in return for funding and student support.

It means well, I’m sure. But too much corporate influence could discourage fresh thinking among graduate employees. They might enter business resigned to upholding a status quo in working methods.

Yet how many stories do we hear of students from the present set-up coming away from short-term work attachments having given the boss tips that save the company thousands of pounds?

Totally fresh approaches can be worth their weight in gold – and Sterling, too.

>> Not quite so great Combing the London Gazette, that famous chronicler of glories and disasters, I read that The Really Great Holiday Company is now in the hands of liquidators. Moral: beware hyperbole in choosing your company name!

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IT Professional Services Ltd. Axwell House, Waterside Drive, Metrocentre East Business Park, Gateshead NE11 9HU E: enquiries@it-ps.com

T: 0191 442 8300 www.it-ps.com

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Business Link provides the help and support you need to improve your business, from information on inspirational success stories to everyday useful tips and advice.

Start making positive changes today, visit www.real-innovators.co.uk or call 0845 600 9 006

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