BQ North East Issue 01

www.bq-magazine.co.uk

ISSUE ONE: APRIL 2008

ENTER THE CYBER WOMAN Janice Webster, the Queen of digital, on what makes a 21st Century business tick

ONWARD AND UPWARD Entrepreneur Keith Miller just can’t stop

DOING THE RIGHT THING

City analyst Justin Urquhart Stewart on how the Government did the wrong thing at the Rock

TO THE MANOR BORN Young entrepreneur James Allison’s very big house in the country

BUSINESS NEWS: COMMERCE: FASHION: INTERVIEWS: MOTORS: EVENTS

ISSUE ONE: APRIL 2008

Kari BQ ad:Layout 1

7/4/08

10:21

Page 1

‘‘ Who says you

can’t have it all?”

Kari Owers, O Communications, Newcastle.

Becoming a mother doesn’t stifle your ambition, and running your own business gives you more freedom to make choices about how you spend your time.

People had been telling me for years that I should do my own thing so when I had my daughter, I took the plunge and started my own PR company. In the beginning I worked from home so I could work until midnight if I wanted to, but still be there for the kids. Now I split my time between our city centre offices and working from home. It’s just fantastic to be your own boss, having full control over every decision and creating something great. I really appreciate all the encouragement I had starting the business and I’d like to see far more women having a go.

Kari is just one of a community of North East entrepreneurs who believe that if they can succeed in business, you can do it too. To be inspired to realise your own potential visit www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk Inspired by

WELCOME

BUSINESS QUARTER: APRIL 08: ISSUE ONE

CONTACTS ADVERTISING e: sales@room501.co.uk t: 0191 419 3221 EDITORIAL Brian Nicholls e: b.g.nicholls@btinternet.com Jane Pikett e: jane@thecreationgroup.co.uk Josh Sims e: joshcsims@aol.com DESIGN & PRODUCTION Room501 Ltd e: studio@room501.co.uk PHOTOGRAPHY

Welcome to the first edition of Business Quarter, the new quarterly business and lifestyle magazine for the North East brought to you by the region’s hottest new publishing group; Room501 Publishing.

Providing the inside track on what drives the life and soul of some of our region’s leading businesses and entrepreneurs, BQ is a refreshing mix of business news, entrepreneur profiles and business commentary.

With novel and often challenging attitudes to business and lifestyle, BQ is no ordinary business publication. Our aim is to enlighten, empower and embrace regional business success and be an inspiration to others.

With features and views from some of the leading lights in the North East’s business community, we get under the skin of successful business men and women to find out what really drives their ambitions.

BQ is an exciting and vibrant new addition to

the already competitive market of business publications. It will reach an affluent audience of regional business owners, entrepreneurs and other key business personalities in the region via its specialised distribution.

We hope you enjoy reading BQ as much as we have enjoyed creating it. In addition, we want to hear your views and comments and we welcome editorial contributions from readers and their companies. News items and suggestions for content should be sent to editor@bq-magazine.co.uk We look forward to hearing from you.

KG Photography e: info@kgphotography.co.uk 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

Room501 Contract Publishing Ltd, Unit 4 Baird Close, Stephenson Ind Est, Washington, Tyne & Wear NE37 3HL www.room501.co.uk

THE LIFE AND SOUL OF BUSINESS

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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 © 2008 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, April 2008.

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

CONTE BUSINESS QUARTER: APRIL 08 36 IT’S BREWIN DOLPHIN

Wise Speke expertise by another name

ONWARD AND UPWARD

38 CYBER WOMAN Janice Webster, the Queen of digital, on what makes a 21st Century business tick

Features

44 SHY OF RETIRING? We’re all living longer, so we need better pensions. Time to try a SIPP

66 WRIST ACTION How Bell & Ross watches fuse form and functionality beautifully

74 LAND OF PROMISE

16 ENTER THE CYBER WOMAN

Berghaus … a brand extreme fully equipped for life on top of the world

16 ONWARD, UPWARD Entrepreneur Keith Miller just can’t stop

28 TO THE MANOR BORN Young entrepreneur James Allison’s very big house in the country

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

80 BUILD STRENGTH Alan Clarke reflects a confident region

82 END & BEGINNING Fast forward with Alastair MacColl’s newly re-energised Business Link

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TENTS 24 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

DOING THE RIGHT THING

The landmark developments now building today’s new North East

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46 BUSINESS LUNCH

Regulars 06 ON THE RECORD Did you make the news in Q1/08?

Check out who did; here and now

10 NEWS Who’s doing what, when, where and why; it’s your business barometer

22 AS I SEE IT Eaga’s John Clough offers the key to creating a low-carbon economy

Investment guru Justin Urquhart Stewart does the right thing … over breakfast

54 WINE PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP’s Paul Woolston taste tests two of the best

56 FASHION So you think you look hot? But do you know what smart-casual really means?

WINE

70 MOTORS KPMG’s Chris Stott relishes science fiction-turned-fact with the Audi R8

85 EVENTS All dressed up and nowhere to go?

Check out our events diary for news of all the right places to see and be seen

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54 BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

ON THE RECORD

APRIL 08

In the industrious North East, business news flows in a daily torrent.

Here, Business Quarter gives ongoing consideration to some of the more significant developments during the first quarter of 2008 >> 8,500 jobs in Teesside’s double breakthrough

WHAT a whopping first quarter Teesside business has enjoyed – and what a boom to the North East economy.

Around 8,500 new jobs are promised with the winning of Government approval for a massive new freight container terminal and with the re-opening of a riverside yard to part-build up to three new oil platforms.

That offsets the region’s bad luck story 2,000 likely job losses at troubled mortgage bank Northern Rock - by more than four to one. The jobs will be vastly different, obviously, but the two major developments should do much to help the region’s economy counter effects of the credit crunch in other areas of activity.

Approval for building a Northern Gateway Container Terminal at Teesport could create 5,500-plus jobs. And nearby, the £250m contract for Teesside Alliance Group to build the platforms at a former Swan Hunter shipyard promises 3,000 more.

With a £300m investment now in Teesport, owner PD Ports will develop a deep-sea facility enabling the port’s present container capacity of around 250,000 a year to rise sixfold to nearer 1.5m.

Bigger vessels will dock there, instead of unloading onto smaller vessels for relay from

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

mainland European ports. It is estimated that up to £500m could swell the region’s annual economic output as greater benefits are felt from the upsurge of business brought by a larger flow of container ships importing from India and the Far East, especially China.

“A really significant advance for the North, and for supply chains of many UK companies,” says PD Ports chief executive David Robinson.

Teesside Alliance Group (TAG), which is breathing life back into Haverton Hill’s waterfront with an order from Cayman Islands-registered SeaDragon Offshore, is a consortium of Darlington-based Cleveland Bridge, McGill Services, now part of Hertel Group, and K-Home Engineering, of Thornaby.

TAG chairman David Eason has no doubt about it. “We are definitely back in business,” he says.

Indeed, he says several companies worldwide have made enquiries about other possible Teesside builds capable of withstanding fierce working conditions. TAG will fabricate and add topsides to hulls built in Russia. The first of the new builds, the Oban B, is due to work the Gulf of Mexico in two years.

The Teesside jobs bonanza could even reach 9,700 if forecasts are fulfilled, objections satisfactorily met (or over-ruled) and planning

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approved for a business park at Durham Tees Valley Airport. Developer Sven Investments wants to build 11 twin-storey blocks of offices to suit smaller start-up firms linked to the expanding airport.

THE bigger Teesport terminal will transform the way in which freight is distributed in much of the UK. Millions of lorry miles should be cut, and congestion eased on roads and ports in the South of England.

But more rail investment will be needed to enable the larger containers arriving to be moved on by train.

PD Ports is already the UK’s second biggest port. Australian group Babcock and Brown bought it for £260m in 2006, and now also plans an import centre at Tees Dock in Redcar.

TAG’s 85 acre Haverton Hill yard, meanwhile, will be back in a big way for the first time since Swan Hunter closed it in 1980. It has had spasmodic contracts since, and at one point was owned by Haverton Hill Engineering, but that business collapsed in 2000. TAG bought the site recently from regeneration agency English Partnerships.

APRIL 08

>> Knight of the snacks table steps down SIR Michael Darrington is leaving the helm of leading bakery chain Greggs after 20 years. He goes out in a blaze of record profits.

Pre-tax gains last year rose 27.1% to £51.1m, against a 19.8% drop in 2006.

The sharelisted company now has more than 1,350 UK shops and £586m turnover - against the 1,700 shops and £1bn he has said he would like to see achieved by 2010.

Greggs has 141 of its shops in its North East homeland, where 2,300 of its 19,000 staff work. This year a net gain of 40 openings is expected throughout the country, and further rising profits are hoped for.

Now 66, Sir Michael became managing director in 1984.

>> Gee, but it’s bonjour at Teesside Power THE Government says Britain’s energy needs are strategically vital, yet many suppliers remain foreign owned.

Teesside Power Station, which provides up to 3% of the UK’s electricity, has been sold

by US group Cargill and US investment bank Goldman Sachs.

But under its new owner, utility firm Suez and merger partner Gaz de France, it will stay in foreign hands.

The 23-acre plant employing 200 at Wilton International Chemical Complex opened in 1993, and there are ambitions for a £500m upgrade to give another 25 years’ service.

This is now in doubt until the new buyers’ intentions are announced.

Gaz de France is owned 80% by the French Government.

>> Stanley steps on the juice for growth TEACHER-turned-entrepreneur Roy Stanley is in talks for a new factory in the North East - part of a £10m expansion to speed production of his group’s zero-emission electrical vans to more than 3,000 next year.

Growing orders overseas would allow him to create 300 more jobs in the region this year, and perhaps 200 more later, he says. His AIM-

ON THE RECORD

quoted Tanfield Group currently has 1,300 employees, about half of them in the North.

The present manufacturing site at Washington in Sunderland can put out only 1,500 vehicles, but a new factory could be up and running within four months of a goahead, Stanley says.

A break through the £120m sales barrier is forecast for this year.

Tanfield is also into building platform vehicles and buses, and Roy Stanley manufactures in the USA.

>> High society makes its comeback IT’S an ill wind that blows no mortgage lender any good, and while Northern Rock investors nurse their financial wounds and employees of the bank fear for their jobs, that quaint old institution, the building society, has come back to favour.

The Newcastle and the Darlington building societies are among many to have picked up business recently as Rock savers switch their trust – and their money – to less adventurous guardians.

At the Newcastle, profits jumped 52% to £17.6m in its financial year to December 31 2007. Profits at the Darlington rose 19% with new lending 10% up. A threefold increase in savings accounts was seen there during the last four months of 2007 as Rock customers re-invested.

The Newcastle, also benefiting from a merger with the Universal Society, is not only taking on Rock customers, but Rock employees too, including some management. With a workforce already up 200 to 1,200 during the past year, it now plans to hire 500 more, longer term, as it relocates much of its work from central Newcastle to Cobalt Business Park in North Tyneside.

Darlington’s chief executive Peter Rowley says: “By focusing on core markets and sticking to what we know, we can do well

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and we can thrive where some others falter.” If only some others had done that!

Perhaps more societies will spring up, making good the losses in their numbers felt when big ones, like the Rock, became plcs. The business is simple. You pay dividends to attract investors, and lend from their placements to home buyers but never more than the deposits entrusted to you, and always to someone you know.

Perhaps the Rock shareholders wrathful towards the Government (that was caught between the Rock and a hard place), and the Rock management (that let the shareholders down), should divert some ire now instead to the carpet-baggers who undermined the building societies movement in the first place. They were the ones who initially replaced security with risk.

>> Biofuels boom beckons to the region THE North East could become the biggest producer of biofuels in Europe, some forecasts suggest.

Four biofuels companies are staking out Teesside, home to nine operations already.

Interest is growing despite some teething troubles at Biofuels Corporation in Billingham, and the resignation from D1 Oils’ board of Karl Watkin, even though the firm, based in Middlesbrough, was his brainchild.

Dr Stan Higgins, head of the North East Process Industries Cluster, believes that within a few years up to 5,000 people in the North East will work at biofuel plants and in the supply chain.

Stockton-based Vireol wants to have plants Stan Higgins at Teesside and Grimsby.

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

COMPANY PROFILE

APRIL 08

Room501, the hottest new publishing company in the region, is responsible for Business Quarter and the North East Business Guide; two of the team’s fledgling products. Brian Nicholls talks to the talent behind Room501 and discovers they believe in doing things differently

INSPIRATIONAL IDEAS AND A PASSION FOR PUBLISHING

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YOUNG executive team of four have come together to form Room501 and provide the North East with a genuinely refreshing, informative and entertaining portfolio of business publications.

With inspirational ideas and a passion for publishing, the team is now enabling business people across the North East to benefit from a fresh new approach to covering the regional business scene.

Managing director Chris March and fellow directors George Cheung, Euan Underwood and Bryan Hoare bring to the business a wealth of publishing, design, and sales and marketing experience, together with a passion for business.

Chris says: “George, Euan and I gained a wealth of knowledge and experience of publishing and sales working within the region’s leading newspaper group, ncjMedia. I knew our experience could be effectively harnessed to create a genuinely innovative and exciting new publishing group, and that’s how Room501 came about.”

Euan, one of the brightest designers in the region, worked alongside Chris and George on a series of successful new product launches for ncjMedia prior to joining the team. Bryan, on the other hand, brings a flare for entrepreneurial thinking to the business with his background in marketing and business development for one of the region’s leading law firms.

Chris said: “We are bringing new thinking and inspirational publications to the North East business community. Room501 is already recognised for its fresh approach following the successful launch of our first product, The North East Business Guide 2008 and its parent website

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

Above: Euan Underwood, George Cheung, Chris March and Bryan Hoare, Directors at room501

WE WANT TO BRING NEW THINKING AND INSPIRATIONAL PRODUCTS TO THE NORTH EAST BUSINESS COMMUNITY

www.nebusinessguide.co.uk at the beginning of 2008. We knew there was a gap in the market for a region wide publication recognising business leaders and the movers and shakers in our region.

The region has a lot to shout about, and we are encouraging everyone to get involved. That’s why we launched the NEBG website, as it provides a regional platform for businesses to profile their leading lights while also meeting market demand for a central hub of business information everyone can access. We encourage every business in the region to visit the site and add their own news.”

In addition, Business Quarter gives the Room501 team the opportunity to build on the success of

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the North East Business Guide with an innovative business publication.

“We are well aware that there is a plethora of business-to-business publications out there, but we also knew there was a gap in the market for a quarterly publication that really got under the skin of the region’s entrepreneurs, discovering what drives their ambition and what makes them, and their businesses, successful,” Chris asserts.

“BQ is a celebration of business achievment in the North East and an inspiration for all of us working in the region.

“Even prior to going to print, we have had fantastic feedback from our target audience and our advertisers. We will build on this support to ensure that BQ is recognised as the region’s leading business and lifestyle magazine.”

t : 0191 419 3221 e: sales@room501.co.uk www.room501.co.uk Room501 Ltd Unit 4 , Baird Close Stephenson Industrial Estate Washington NE37 3HL

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NEWS

APRIL 08

What’s happening? Where is it happening? Who is it happening to?

Business Quarter brings you news of the many activities, happenings, trends and opportunities in the North East region today >> Debra shows just how to get on FIRMS with staff keen to advance their careers can profit from a new £365,000 fund for priority businesses in the North East. The cash is enabling Northumbria University to develop employee training and education in areas where employer needs are high.

Take Debra Young, 34, the manager of Children’s Choice nursery in Monkseaton, North Tyneside. Soon she could have an honours degree and early years professional status.

Now in her second year, she attends university one day a month while continuing to work. She says: “The programme fits my lifestyle brilliantly.’’

Other sectors where employees like Debra can benefit include knowledge-intensive business, defence and marine, energy, health and social care, automotive and food and drink.

>> Road costs rise with red fuel clampdown COSTS of building and repairing roads are up following new restrictions on the use of lower duty “red” vehicle fuel by civil contractors.

HM Revenue and Customs imposed the limit from April 1 2008.

Since most of the work is done for the public sector – via local authorities, county councils and the Highways Agency – the public purse may be expected to meet any costs higher than contractors can absorb themselves.

Private clients such as housebuiders, developers of commercial property, airport managements and owners of private estates could be similarly hit.

Douglas Kell, director of Civil Engineering Contractors Association (North East), says: “Company use of red fuel on highways to get

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

equipment to and from sites, and to do the necessary work, has been a grey area in the past. Firms often used this cheaper fuel where it was permissible.

“Anyone not complying with the new regulation now will be liable to prosecution and a fine. With conventional white diesel costing around 50p a litre more, the additional tax exacted is not going to be tiny.”

Under HMRC’s redefinition of road surfacing vehicles eligible to use red fuel, roadmarking vehicles, road sweepers and crash barrier repair vehicles no longer qualify.

Tar sprayers, used only for that purpose, will be eligible where speed does not exceed 20kph (12.5mph).

Red fuel otherwise will be largely restricted to farm vehicles.

>> Sales reports in a flash FEEDBACK on progress by sales teams in the field can be relayed back in a flash - thanks to an “i snapshot” product developed in the North East.

Sales progress is reported back in code and real time by mobile phone, becoming visible online within 20 seconds.

This eliminates the bane of every sales person’s life; the dreaded end-of-day report which uses up valuable time they could be using to see customers.

The data analysis firm behind the innovation is Rocket Science of Middlesbrough, set up in 1992 after a management buyout by its chief scientist

Alan Timothy. Among 35 businesses already using “i snapshot” are Sony, Nestle, JT Dove and Jewson.

Rocket Science has a workforce of 50 serving customers in eight countries. It expects its sales of under half a million pounds last year to soar to £17m next year.

>> Region sets a cracking pace with exports EXPORTERS in the North East are setting a scintillating pace for the rest of the country with their sales abroad.

Their firms exported £9.5bn worth of goods last year - £1bn up on the previous year.

Economists say the 13% jump cannot simply be put down to inflation.

By contrast, the national trend shows exports down 10% from £244bn to £219bn, according to HM Revenue and Customs figures.

Most of the region’s industries also send more products outside the region, to other parts of Britain and abroad, than they bring in.

Outstanding sectors include automotives (much credit to Nissan) showing exports up 38% at £2.5bn compared with 2006; and pharmaceutical and medical products up 45% at £1.7bn.

These activities, along with process chemicals, make up 60% of the region’s exports.

Burgeoning markets for the North East include Japan (up 289%), Russia (133%), Brazil (62%), South Africa (59%), USA (32%), China (30%) and the Netherlands (29%) Yet only about 1,000 of the region’s 46,000

It bears out the growing strength of the North East economy. For five years now, our business stock has grown faster than the UK average

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APRIL 08

firms are classed as regular exporters. The North East Regional Information Partnership (NERIP) says regional market share of exports for firms in some private service sectors could be raised – especially in computer services, accounting, legal and consultancy services, real estate, transport, distribution and banking and finance.

A NERIP report says this is despite private services industries having a bigger share of

“Clearly, 2007 was a very tough year for UK exporters in general. So the rise in export value recorded in the North East reflects huge credit on the companies involved,” he added.

Jon Carling, head of NERIP, believes that even within this country some private service sectors in the region with similar or lower costs than their UK competitors could raise their share of markets, not only in the North East, but also elsewhere in the UK.

BURGEONING MARKETS FOR THE NORTH EAST

NEWS

>> Meat and drink to Northumbria PRODUCERS of food and drink in the North East have a new group to promote their industry.

North East England Food and Drink Group, under chairman Jack Jeffery, aims to create or safeguard 250 jobs and help train 900 employees in the sector.

Using the brand Taste North East, the group is led by Northumbria Larder, partnering North East Chamber of Commerce and Improve, the food and drinks manufacturing sector skills council.

Contact Peter Jackson, tel 0191 516 6235.

>> Business as usual RELATIONS between business academics in the North East and a Russian university are developing, despite a chill in Britain’s political relations with Russia.

A delegation from Nizhni Novgorod, a major industrial centre east of Moscow (and birthplace of the Russian author Maxim Gorky), has been looking at how academics of Teesside University work with business and handle technology and knowledge transfer.

North East markets than manufacturers – about 46% compared to a 10% average for manufacturing. The report adds: • Manufacturers sell a lot more of their production outside the region – around 92% of output, against 64% exported by private service.

• There may be opportunities to step up prosperity of manufacturing in the region – mostly through investment and further growth of exports.

Ian Williams, director for business and industry at regional development agency One NorthEast, says of the export achievement: “It bears out the growing strength of the North East economy. For five years now our business stock has grown faster than UK average.”

David Coppock, UK Trade & Investment’s international trade director in the North East, says efforts will continue with businesses of all sizes, and in all sectors, to ease access and give support to firms wishing to trade overseas.

The export surge is helping North East employment to grow at the third highest rate in the UK, bringing down unemployment faster than anywhere else in the country over the past 12 months.

But will the economy stay favourable to exporters? Inflation and reduced spending by consumers have some North East manufacturers showing some of the UK’s lowest levels of growth during the first quarter of this year. And that’s from the Engineering Employers’ Federation.

The question is whether overseas sales can be maintained, let alone stepped up, in this year’s tighter David Coppock global economy.

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>> £2m opportunity to go for growth FIRMS after capital to grow have a chance until May 19 to try for £5m worth of funding interest-free for three years. The offer to companies in the North East with turnover of £2m or more comes through Bank of Scotland Corporate’s annual Entrepreneur Challenge.

A company from each of seven regions throughout the country will benefit - a £35m shared package in all. Judges decide winners on their skills in creativity and vision. A national winner will also be chosen.

Funding is free of arrangement fees, but subject to status and terms to be agreed.

Some security may also be required.

For information, tel 0845 603 6044.

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

NEWS

APRIL 08

The biggest contact centre company in the North East has a new centre coming to South Shields which may eventually employ 1,000 >> Qashqai races to a double success NISSAN’s new Qashqai model is showing a major contribution to Britain’s car export business and to its maker’s global profits.

It helped Britain to trade cars overseas at record levels last year, and is sure to stand out even in the more difficult current climate for the industry.

Nissan has stepped up production at Sunderland, the birthplace of Qashqai, and had to halt exports to Japan at one point to cope with demand from Europe.

It has also had to launch a recruitment drive for 800 workers to introduce a third production shift for the Qashqai from June, and is hiring 50 in a £5m expansion of its axle shop, partly to meet Qashqai demand.

The Qashqai featured in Nissan’s announcement of global profits 20% up for the last quarter of 2007.

>> Contact workers in demand A SUCCESSFUL first year is prompting Fusion group to recruit 400 more workers for its Peterlee contact call centre.

Fusion, which works with motor and home insurance firms nationwide, opened in Peterlee in March 2007 and already had 200 on the payroll as it announced its expansion.

It employs 350 more at Hylton Riverside in Sunderland. Part of BGL group, it took over a building vacated by Orange at Bracken Hill in Peterlee.

In another expansion, Chey Garland, who employs more than 3,200 in the biggest contact centre company in the North East, has a new centre coming

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

to South Shields, which may eventually employ 1,000 people.

The group’s other nine operations are on Teesside. There are plans to create 3,000 more jobs over the next three years, but mostly outside the region now – including a back-office business in South Africa.

>> Charles Clinkard tries it for size CHARLES Clinkard is stepping out at the grand old age of 84.

With a recent purchase of 12 stores from Leicester-based national chain Stead & Simpson, the Teesside shoe retailer’s managing director Charles Clinkard says: “This expansion is taking our presence into untapped areas of the country.”

The Clinkard Group - the md is the grandson of the founders - claims to be the leading Independent of its kind in the North East, and one of the largest independents in the UK. Based at Preston Farm Business Park in Stockton, Charles Clinkard is the group’s retail arm. Another arm, Intershoe, operates wholesale.

The group, which employs more than 450 people, expects with the buy-up to build on its sales already more than £30m.

>> Smooth progress for Onyx x2 ONYX, they say, promises good luck, and it certainly seems to work for two North East firms who were named after the smooth gemstone.

Indeed, Onyx Scientific is doing so well in its ninth year that it is going for a stock market listing. The directors, who bought

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the drug-developing company for £2.5m, aspire to acquire both in the UK and the USA. Their goal; to get sales of £4.5m up to £6.5m within two years. Already the firm, which employs 50, services seven of the world’s top 10 pharmaceutical companies. Chief executive Tony Flinn says an expansion at Enterprise Park is also in the offing.

Meanwhile, Onyx Group, the technology solutions firm with four operations on Teesside and Tyneside, has taken its workforce up from 50 to 85 with the buy-up of a Scottish IT company aimed to take sales on to £12m.

It has launched a new range of managed IT services following a £2m investment in a specialist unit to offer business disaster recovery service from Gateshead.

>> Hay & Kilner appoints leading local figure A well-known figure in legal and higher education circles has joined the corporate team at leading Newcastle law firm, Hay & Kilner.

Jim Lowe has been appointed as a consultant in the company commercial team to lend his considerable experience advising businesses on corporate compliance issues, including the introduction of the Companies Act 2006.

APRIL 08

He will also advise Hay & Kilner’s diverse commercial client base on other company law matters.

Nick James, partner and head of commercial at Hay & Kilner, said: “Jim’s considerable expertise and inside knowledge developed as a university law lecturer and business entrepreneur are going to prove extremely beneficial for our clients.”

Jim Lowe previously educated a generation of budding legal brains at Northumbria University from 1970 until 2006, while also running a successful business providing electronic company registrations and company secretarial support. He also set up the Company Law Club; a website providing free information on company law.

Jim Lowe said: “I am delighted to have the opportunity to work with Nick James and the company commercial team at Hay & Kilner. The new Companies Act, which is the most radical and far-reaching legislation on company law in my lifetime, is both a challenge and an opportunity for anyone working in this field, and I look forward to working more closely with my new colleagues on the many areas of practice that have been affected by the new Act.”

>> Benfield gears up on 50th anniversary BENFIELD motor group is to open six new dealerships in the North East and Yorkshire as it celebrates 50 years in business with revenues of £310m from 25 existing sites throughout the North.

The new dealerships could bring 300 more names on the payroll.

Managing director Nigel McMinn says the Tyneside-based group is feeling the credit crunch less than some in the business.

Price growth in Spain was 5.31%, a study by the Global Property Guide suggests. But things could look different this year – especially in Britain as markets deflate.

>> Admast going from strength to strength Newcastle-based advertising agency Admast has strengthened its team with three recent appointments.

Gary Ramsay (above left) joins as Director with a remit to develop new business, particularly on the media and creative front. He was previously sales director at ncjMedia, publisher of the Journal and Evening Chronicle.

Studio Manager Stuart Blackie (above right) was also previously with ncjMedia and, during his seven years with the company, received several industry accolades for advertising creativity. He is a graduate of Sunderland University where he gained a degree in Photography, Video and Digital Imagery.

Alex Lundy (centre) makes up the trio and joins as IT Technician. He gained his firstclass honours degree from Northumbria University last year and was acknowledged for outstanding achievement by an undergraduate student. Alex is working on Admast’s unique media planning, buying and reporting software.

>> House price rises – it’s a Euro thing

>> Second coming to save a plant

IT’S not only the UK where house prices soar. The prices rose in most countries of Europe last year – none more so than in Bulgaria. There, a 30.6% surge put Britain’s 9.7% in the shade. Norway’s rise at 11.6% also topped Britain’s.

HOPES are rising that a second coming will do a bit more to fill a jobs void that Fujitsu left at Newton Aycliffe nine years ago.

Around 570 posts disappeared when the Japanese chipmaker abandoned a shortlived activity in the North East. Initial efforts to find

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NEWS

a replacement brought Filtronic of Yorkshire into the empty plant a year later, and it has since made mobile phone transmitters and chips for handsets.

But during the past two years Filtronic losses leapt from £5.1m to £29m and 162 jobs at Newton Aycliffe had to be cut and part of the business sold off. Now US-based RF Micro Devices (RFMD) has bought the remainder of the new town’s operation for £12.5m.

The new firm, globally recognised for wireless technology and mobile phone parts, has Motorola, Nokia and Samsung among its clients. It had already been buying parts from the factory it is acquiring.

Executive vice-president Jerry Neal is confident RFMD will regrow the existing 200-strong workforce left there. Their jobs are protected under the deal struck on condition the plant is given at least three more years.

RFMD expects parts made there to be shipped to many countries, in Asia especially.

>> Customers step up online shopping GIFT firms not yet e-trading might consider now is the right time to start.

Increasing numbers of shoppers in the North East are choosing the computer over the high street as their Christmas shopping destination. Almost 42% went online last Christmas.

Figures from www.imrg.org Interactive Media in Retail Group (IMRG) show the UK’s online spending last Christmas was 106% up on the previous year, with shoppers in the North East mirroring the trend.

Almost 7% of people questioned separately in the region claimed they did all their Christmas shopping online.

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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INTERVIEW

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

APRIL 08

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APRIL 08

INTERVIEW

ONWARD AND UPWARD Always on the move as he built his North East business into global leadership, entrepreneur Keith Miller is now even more like a bird on the wing. Brian Nicholls finds out why

TRYING to chat with entrepreneur extraordinaire Keith Miller almost threatens suffocation beneath flight timetables.

Only a quarter or so of the year gone, yet Keith, king of the groundbreaking bucket, has already notched up 25 mostly long-haul flights. We finally catch up in Cramlington somewhere between trips to India, Spain and the USA - and even then conversation in his compact office is disrupted by calls from India and Spain. That leaves just the USA to come, we guess.

Wasn’t Keith, as the 30th anniversary of the Miller Group he founded approaches, expected to step back from day-to-day hassle?

Did he not hand over some responsibility in 2006 to John Lines who, as the newly appointed managing director, became the first non-Miller entrusted with a lead role in

17

running the family firm Keith has taken to global leadership in manufacturing?

Well of course. But being non-executive group chairman now does not mean Keith’s 6ft 4in frame will recline for days on end on a sofa at the Spanish apartment where he occasionally allows himself to unwind.

He admits the new role created a quandary.

“I found myself wondering; what does group chairman mean? After years of starting at seven o’clock every morning and working till seven, eight, or ten o’clock at night, and having God knows how many meetings and travelling and doing all sorts of things – enjoying it all – when you hand over the reins you cannot take them back.

“An entrepreneur is not necessarily the best person to run a business day to day, indefinitely. When you employ senior

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

INTERVIEW

APRIL 08

professional people you have to let them get on with the job, and everyone is different in how they manage.”

The quandary was resolved almost immediately by the need to go at the enlarged focus on strategy. As Keith explains: “I soon found myself working as hard as before on wholly new activities vital to the greater growth of the company as we envisage it.”

He and John sat down and agreed a division of responsibilities in this critical and highly competitive worldwide business at the sharp end of excavating – the making and selling of market-leading buckets and grabber quick couplers for earthmovers.

“The new arrangement was a learning curve for both of us and has proved an excellent move. We have some ambitious plans,” Keith says.

Hence his clocking up of air miles. “The management decided after much discussion to focus on planning and managing for the next 10 years. How to make our products even better, more cost effective, increasing throughput in the factories and investing in improving our suppliers? You need time to do all this.”

Mind, Keith, brother Gary and sister Jacqueline have done pretty well already. It all began when Keith, at 21, was told bluntly at the company where he then worked that he was second rate as a welder and unfit for purpose as a manager.

“I had a Sweeney-type Ford Granada, the in-thing at the time. I sold my precious car for £895, which gave me the capital to buy a second-hand Ford Escort Estate and my own welding set,” he says.

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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APRIL 08

I soon found myself working as hard as before on wholly new activities vital to the greater growth of the company as we envisage it

He drove his mobile welding and repair service around the quarries, mines and opencast sites of the North East. Business rolled in from the National Coal Board, plant hire firms, coking plant owners and the consortium behind the Kielder reservoir and dam then being built. Keith Miller was in business on his own account - so successfully that Gary joined the following year.

In 1981, the Millers exhibited for the first time – at Birmingham NEC. They persuaded Jacqueline, then 17, to sales pitch from their stand. That was Jacqueline hooked into the business too. She has led sales and marketing since, though Dad initially had to drive her to sites around the country for orders because she had yet to pass her driving test.

Soon the firm was turning out buckets for major UK suppliers of most earthmoving machinery. Today, it not only makes buckets, couplers and other attachments, but also provides a ‘custom built’ service of specialised and one-off products.

Sir Digby Jones, when director-general of the CBI, called it “one of the North East’s biggest success stories.” It could hardly be otherwise with a client list that includes Komatsu, Volvo,

Hitachi, JCB, CAT, Caterpillar, Case and New Holland – and when it can claim to hold more than half the market share in the USA alone.

Keith’s workshop on wheels gave way to an allotment site at Springwell, Gateshead; monthly rental £5. As work mushroomed, bringing diversification into refurbishment of equipment for manufacturers, the company moved regularly around Blaydon and Newcastle in hunger for space.

The big breakthrough, leading to global number one in grabber quick couplers – the device connecting buckets to machines more efficiently - came with the licensing, further development and patenting of an idea spotted at a construction show in New Zealand in 1987.

Today, Miller Group has two factories at Cramlington, a headquarters in Gibraltar, factories in China and North America, offices in Japan and the USA and dealers worldwide.

It employs around 1,000 people – about 320 in the UK, another 100 or so dotted around the world, and the balance in China with the firm’s joint venture and supplier.

It was an early British firm into China, Keith first visiting in 1995. “When I came back I

At the double: Kieth Miller’s North East workforce has doubled since the group moved into China

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INTERVIEW

wrote a report. I said China was an interesting country, but not for us. I said that if we were in the puncture repair outfit business we would have a great opportunity. I saw China being of no great interest to us during our business lifetime. How wrong I was!”

Eighteen months later, when China was being heavily promoted as a place of opportunity, a friend persuaded him to look again. By then, he had difficulty finding anyone in Britain who could make castings to the price, quality and delivery dates he required.

For another 18 months he found China’s business atmosphere hot and cold – “a roller coaster of emotions. While there you got lots of promises. But as soon as you turned your back things would fall apart.”

He got nowhere with big state corporations.

Progress came when he went into “the real China” – to a town three hours north of Beijing on the edge of the Gobi Desert. There, he found a privately owned business whose owner had the necessary synergy.

“I warned them that without a Western toilet in their factory they had no chance of doing business with us, or anyone else from the West.” After a discomfiting experience he had felt better for that! But the company proved it could respond and move fast. Three months later Keith returned and saw not only a brand new Western toilet block and shower facility, but a whole new office block.

Their joint venture is now prospering and, far from spiriting jobs away, it has actually helped to create more work in the North East of England. Through finding a suitable Chinese manufacturer Miller was able to switch from steel fabrication to make products faster

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

INTERVIEW

APRIL 08

Market troubles: Each market abroad requires a different strategy, says Keith Miller as he looks further afield for growth that are also lighter and stronger, and also costing less.

Key control and decision-making remains in Europe. Strategic decisions are made in Gibraltar, manufacturing ones in the North East, where 25 staff research and develop.

Without the Chinese factor, requiring an investment of about £2.5m, a factory four times bigger would have been necessary and probably unviable here.

As it is, the North East workforce has doubled since Miller moved into China, an additional factory at Cramlington looks likely and the firm previously reliant on organic growth alone is considering two acquisitions.

With the Millers in more of a strategic role non-executive directors but still owning the company - the search is on for senior sales people, and for a senior engineer to take over Gary and Jacqueline’s daily workload. It looks a happy ship to join, many staff having been there all 27 years since recruitment first got under way.

“My role now is to search for new markets,

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

new growth potential, calculating how business will look like in five years’ time.

Where are the opportunities, where are the threats?” says Keith.

The opportunities appear to lie in India, Russia, Eastern Europe and South America, but also in established markets like Japan. Each market requires a different strategy, a different plan.

Miller prices may sometimes be up to 15% higher than rivals’. But, says Keith: “We are the most cost-effective, considering the accompanying service, support and back-up.

Our product is reliable, parts and services are available. With our product on your machinery, your capital investment is secure.”

With a current output of about 23,000 couplers a year, sales are running according to plan at about £52m, and group profits this year could be about £6-£8m, despite the economic slowdown in the USA. And with year-on-year growth since day one averaging 23%, it looks as if Miller Group continues to grapple every bit as well with its strategies as with its buckets and couplers. ■

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KEITH’S 10 TIPS FOR WOULD-BE ENTREPRENEURS Show passion Show vision Be truly dedicated Be resilient Enjoy every day Keep No off the agenda Work hard, play hard Give something back Get a good team round you Share the company’s information with your staff

“Hay & Kilner score highly with me. They are approachable, friendly and technically very competent.�

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Lawyers must earn the trust of clients. Ours rely on us for our professional service, expert advice and personal touch. Our reputation speaks for itself.

Contact: Martin Soloman or Nick James. Tel: 0191 232 8345 email: nick.james@hay-kilner.co.uk www.hay-kilner.co.uk

AS I SEE IT

APRIL 08

IT’S THE TURN OF GREEN COLLAR WORKERS John Clough, chief executive of Eaga, believes that developing a ‘green collar workforce’ will be vital if businesses are to adapt and compete in a low-carbon economy

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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APRIL 08

THE overwhelming consensus among scientists is that the environmental challenges facing us are immense - and failure to address that will be catastrophic.

Quite simply, the prospect of dangerous and irreversible climate change is now more real, has a greater level of scientific consensus and is more widely understood than before.

The good news? We have it in our grasp to halt the damage – if we all act now.

Shifting to a low-carbon economy will present many opportunities for companies which can offer solutions both sustainable and commercially viable.

Our development at Eaga has been based upon engaging with our 4,000 employees to build a green collar workforce which is able and ready to understand and embrace all these opportunities.

In my view, the traditional notion of blue collar manual workers and office-based white collar staff is becoming outdated; not just in the emerging environmental protection and renewable energy sectors but across all market sectors.

Indeed, in a recent address to the CBI, Business Secretary John Hutton championed the growth of the green collar sector and encouraged industry to respond positively to its development.

Our green collar staff visit more than 1,000 homes a day, installing insulation, central heating and renewable technologies which can cut the average annual carbon emissions from a typical household by up to a tonne, and reduce fuel bills by more than £200 a year.

But even if your business is not directly involved in environmental concerns, the need to engage with your staff about both their own, and the company’s, green credentials is becoming vital.

Environmental issues need to be switched from the periphery of business operations to the core of activity – not only to show responsible corporate citizenship, but also to reduce costs and strengthen efficiencies across the board.

The Government has made it clear that businesses should give carbon emissions the same level of priority as profitability. If you are part of a supply chain, measures you take to minimise your impact on the environment will

AS I SEE IT

In my view, the traditional notion of blue collar manual workers and office-based white collar staff is becoming outdated

also lose or win you orders, while retailers and service providers are also finding their own environmental credentials scrutinised like never before by an increasingly environmentally aware and discerning public.

This may simply be good housekeeping to meet obligations of corporate governance, but it also reflects the emergence of so-called triple bottom-line accounting, which has expanded traditional reporting frameworks to include environmental and social responsibility issues.

Putting effective corporate governance into practice can also be difficult.

The first step must be to engage fully and openly with your most important stakeholders – your staff. Success and growth for any organisation is not possible without motivated staff who share the same values and ethos as the company they work for, and who feel their efforts make a genuine difference.

At Eaga, we have worked extremely hard to achieve this by remaining true to the principles of employee ownership which have served us so well over the years.

Eaga became an entirely employee-owned Partnership in 2000, adopting a similar business model to the John Lewis Partnership.

In 2006 we restructured the Partnership to take account of recent acquisitions and to ensure everyone working for the organisation – whether for Eaga itself or for a company we had acquired - enjoyed the same Partner rights and responsibilities.

Last June Eaga floated on the London Stock Exchange, primarily to help build a platform for continuing and sustainable growth, and to provide the right access to capital so that we could diversify into new markets.

We were, however, determined to take the ethos of Partnership into the plc environment.

So, at flotation we were able to offer a financial bonus to every Partner within the

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company; a move I believe engendered a real feeling of inclusiveness and equity among all our employees.

It is also crucial to us that more than 50% of the shares in Eaga are still in the hands of its employees, our Partners. Some 37% of these shares are held in trust on behalf of all Partners by the Eaga Partnership Trust, making it the largest single shareholder in the company.

As a co-owned business with a substantial employee shareholding, we refer to our employees as Partners, as each has a clear stake in the future of the business. As with our customers and the communities in which we operate, we pride ourselves on treating our Partners with integrity, respect and enthusiasm.

I have no doubt it is this commitment to our Partners which is helping us shape a “green collar workforce”, ready to understand, grasp and realise the opportunities that will present themselves through the ongoing development and growth of a low-carbon economy.

Solutions that address environmental challenges must, however, be delivered in tandem with solutions that address social justice issues. For example, lowering the carbon footprint from the UK’s domestic housing stock can only succeed if all households, including the poorest and most vulnerable, can see the benefit.

Globally, we have already seen how the poorest and most vulnerable social groups are least equipped to cope with impacts of climate change. There is a real equity issue we must keep at the forefront of any discussion around environmental policy and its impacts.

As I see it, a low-carbon economy must therefore be equitable, balanced and reflect the differing needs of all social groups – and a “green collar workforce” needs to be ready to do the same.

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

APRIL 08

The demand for quality business premises continues to rise. BQ highlights new landmark developments making an impact on the new North East’s commercial landscape >> Building boost for SMEs of County Durham

>> Gateway to beating the credit crunch SPEEDY occupation is expected at Gateway West, 12 industrial units and two office buildings going up at Newburn Riverside.

Not only will the £26m development form the gateway to one of the North East’s biggest modern business parks, but its timing seems fortuitous too.

It is rare just now to find an upmarket place beside the much-in-demand A1 corridor, west of Newcastle – even more so soon, since the credit crunch may temporarily limit further development.

Sustainability features in the build, which hopes for a BREEAM Excellent rating, effectively the industry’s gold standard for sustainable development.

Features include solar thermal hot water heating, rainwater harvesting, high thermal insulation, energy-saving lights/heating and solar shading.

Robert Patterson, agency and development director at Sanderson Weatherall, calls

the scheme, “cutting edge, both in ideas and design”. His firm, with joint agent GVA Lamb and Edge, is advising Caddick Developments, the developer based in Weatherby, Yorkshire.

Both office buildings have three floors. One block gives 31,095sq ft, the other 21,375sq ft. All industrial units – ranging from 5,288sq ft to 49,967sq ft – have integral offices and internal eaves height of at least 7 metres.

Unit 1 clearance is 10 metres.

Gateway West, jointly funded by the global CBRE Investors, is near the long-successful Team Valley, where opportunities to locate are also fewer now.

Phased completion is expected from September with the first industrial units.

The offices, available by floor or in their entirety, should be available a year from now.

Gateway West may accommodate 500 people, 10% of the 5,000 eventually expected to work at Newburn Riverside.

Where it is: an aerial view of where the new £26m Gateway West office and industrial development, now being built at Newburn Riverside Park on Tyneside, will stand

OFFICE needs of small businesses are getting attention in West Durham.

A three-storey building to take up to 36 firms is going up at Derwentside, where lettings in the ROK-built block will suit young entrepreneurs.

There could be up to 200 jobs there, and it is hoped more private investment will also be attracted to the estate as a whole.

Completion is expected by next March.

Meanwhile, eco-friendly offices which are suited to start-ups and move-out occupancy have been completed at Low Willington, near Crook. County Durham Development Company is letting the 14 offices of St Stephen’s Court flexibly.

Some £6.8m is being pumped into the Derwentside premises from regional development agency One NorthEast, Derwentside Council and the European Regional Development Fund. County Durham Economic Partnership is also in support.

Additional funding for St Stephen’s has come, again, from One NorthEast and the European Regional Development Fund - and also a Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.

>> Baggett pays a call ENTREPRENEUR Ian Baggett has paid £2m for an old telephone exchange which he proposes to turn into offices in Jesmond, Newcastle.

His development firm Adderstone will take the middle floor of the building, lease the top floor and leave BT with some of the ground floor on lease.

>> Borderline business takes off

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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A CENTRE for business start-ups opens in Berwick-upon-Tweed in May. Berwick WorkSpace, 35 incubator offices

APRIL 08

(10 to 59sq metres) and conference facilities, is managed by Tyneside Economic Development Company (Tedco), which runs three other centres in the North East.

The border town’s facility, beside the library, is a joint venture between the Northumberland and Berwick Councils.

Funding has also come from Northumberland Strategic Partnership, the European Regional Development Fund and One NorthEast.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

>> Signing of a decade THE Co-operative Wholesale Society has been signed up for the biggest North East industrial letting of a decade. It has taken 271,000sq ft at Drum Industrial Estate, Birtley, where it already has a site, at a rental of £1.15m a year.

>> Heigh-ho, heigh-ho, it’s on to work we go A £2m Atrium Business Park going up at Guisborough will accommodate about seven firms and 100 jobs.

>> Cinder-ella site becomes an office attraction UP to 3,500 jobs may come to Spectrum Business Park, to be completed by year end on the 34-acre site of the former Dawdon Colliery in Seaham, East Durham.

Hillford Group’s development will have eight office blocks to complement wider regeneration going on in the area.

The flexible office buildings, Spectrum 1 to 8, are available to let whole or as individual floors.

Paul Wellstead, managing director of Hillford, says: “We are now into the final phase of the park, which is already proving attractive to companies.”

Business Link North East and the Pensions Service are already there.

Buildings at 47,398sq ft and 30,010sq ft are available to rent at £11.95psf.

Jomast Developments of Stockton is building phase two of its industrial park also at the former colliery site.

>> Room to work and room to sleep in Gateshead ANOTHER new hotel, complementing the recently opened Hilton and the Tulip Inn, will give unprecedented choice of hospitality in Gateshead – and open doors to new office options too.

Starboard Hotels is to develop and run under franchise a 202-bedroom Holiday Inn Express near the Sage Gateshead and Gateshead Millennium Bridge. And, along with this hotel behind Baltic Quay flats, developer Priority Sites will build 40,000sq ft of offices.

The £18m development on Hawks Road will form part of Gateshead Quays development area. Subject to planning approval, both hotel and offices will be ready by 2010.

Mick Henry, leader of Gateshead Council, says: “Our Baltic Business Quarter, which will ultimately provide 1.5m square feet of quality office space, is already attracting interest.”

Terrace Hill, the council’s development partner, is already fielding enquiries.

Paul Callingham, managing director of Starboard, says: “We invested a lot of time in finding an ideal for this key site, and we are delighted.”

The new hotel envisaged for Newburn

>> New hotels for Tyneside NEW hotels proposed for Tyneside include a 155-room Holiday Inn at Newburn and a 40-room development beside the Foxhunters pub at North Shields.

The £15m Holiday Inn could open early in 2010 at Newburn Riverside business park, by the A1 Western Bypass.

Business support and environmental friendliness will feature significantly in the four-star, six-storey premises.

Bropar, a UK developer and manager which has already built £400m worth of other hotels worldwide over 20 years, won a competition to be preferred developer, with Bridge Ventures its equity partner.

About £116m of private investment in all may have come to Newburn Riverside once the entire regeneration there is complete, and 5,000 jobs could be based there.

Spirit Group’s £1m three-storey hotel will replace a children’s play area near Whitley Bay Ice Rink.

In addition to the £2m funding from Derwentside District Council, One NorthEast has provided £3m to fund the development, while the European Regional Development Fund has contributed £1.8m

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BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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ENTREPRENEUR

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

APRIL 08

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APRIL 08

ENTREPRENEUR

TO THE MANOR BORN James Allison loved his childhood home so much, he bought it and turned it into a business.

Jane Pikett meets an entrepreneur for whom the phrase ‘working from home’ might have been invented

HOW many new business ideas are there?

Truly new ideas? I don’t know. Alan Sugar has had a few. And Peter Jones. Branson, of course. Much of the time though, the old ones are the best, and James Allison has taken an old idea – opening a grand country home to the public to help make it pay – and put a refreshing spin on it.

At Middleton Lodge, you get to take over James’s home and make it your own; whether it’s for a house party, wedding or corporate function. Yes, you can hire other properties, but Middleton Lodge is different in that it is a home first and foremost, with the comfortable, lived-in feeling that a home brings.

Tabitha the friendly house cat isn’t a designer feline; she’s a daft, fat moggy who’s here because she’s at home. There are no locks on the bedroom doors because, once you are here, it’s your home too. There are no tea and coffee trays in the bedrooms because, well, you wouldn’t have them at home would you?

The Lodge, a Georgian Palladian country house near Darlington, is grand, though comfortably sized. It is beautiful, but also lived in. The corner of one of the old, exquisitely upholstered sofas has been clawed to shreds

by Tabitha. You can curl up in an old armchair and hide behind one of James’s many climbing books without fear of a snooty waiter looking

29

down his nose at you. You can get up late on Sunday morning and shuffle into the kitchen, where James will happily make you a fortifying pile of bacon and eggs. Or a Bloody Mary, should that be more appropriate. Life at Middleton is easy.

“I run it this way because it fits the house,” says James. “This is my home, and it absolutely always will be. That will never change. I’m very flexible and we accommodate people’s needs, whether it’s a wedding, a party or a corporate function. Importantly, we don’t offer set packages. That wouldn’t work for the sort of people who come here and I don’t want to work like that. This is a home and it should feel like that when you’re here.”

James’s business ethic is refreshingly simple.

He accommodates clients by offering them what they want, rather than a set package. His business also enables him personal flexibility.

He works extremely hard, but also allows time for climbing, skiing, sailing and, recently, a couple of expeditions. Infact, he has a section headed ‘Recent Expeditions’ on his CV, which is novel.

He joined his father (an intrepid adventurer currently sailing the world’s seas) to become the first Brits to sail the Northwest passage (Greenland to Alaska via the Arctic Ocean) last year, and also completed the Plymouth-Dakar rally across the Sahara Desert.

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

ENTREPRENEUR “It’s busy and you have to make sure everything is just right when people are here, but this is a great way of working,” he says.

“I’m going ice climbing next week in France.

Okay, so I’ve got tonight to do first [a dinner, wine tasting and overnight stay for 30], then 30 people coming for a weekend house party tomorrow, for which I’m doing all the cooking.

Mind you, I’ll enjoy it, but it will be hard work, then I have to get myself organised to get out to France. That’s the pay off though isn’t it?

You work for that level of flexibility.”

James’s parents bought Middleton Lodge in 1980 and he grew up there, the youngest, now aged 29, of six.

In those days, it was, he says, a bit run down (“well, the roof leaked quite a lot ...”) but of course it was a magical place to grow up, with its 200 acres of parkland and countless hidey

APRIL 08

holes around the house and grounds.

James bought it from his parents in 2005 and, to make it ship-shape for guests, he’s re-decorated throughout with help from his sister Fiona, who lives on the estate and is the Lodge’s events co-ordinator.

He can’t tell you off the top of his head how many rooms there are, though there are 16 bedrooms, many bathrooms and several reception rooms. All of it is beautifully done out. It’s very comfortable, very beautiful; not flash or too immaculate. Just very relaxed and easy to be around – like James.

He genuinely enjoys hosting regular parties and functions in his home, just as former incumbents of this grand mansion might once have done for their own friends and business associates. Corporate away days and weekends, house parties and weddings – Middleton Lodge is yours, complete with the owner playing host / butler / chief cook and bottle washer if you desire.

The black-tie dinner that evening puts me in mind of Ian McEwan’s novel Atonement; the early chapters set in the 1930s in the big house, cosseted from the outside world; endless parties and dinners following long, languid days in the grounds.

“We had to change it from a family home to somewhere people can come, but it hasn’t changed at all really,” says James who, quite simply, loves this old house and actually suits it rather well. “It’s just the same now as it has always been for me. One of the main things was to ensure it remained my home. I don’t

want that to change at all and see no reason why I should.” Which is why, I guess, I wander into the kitchen later to find his mother Prue making cheese and salad rolls for us all – ‘all’ being me, our photographer, James’s sister Fiona, a brother helping to build a new bar, plus various others who emerge from the woodwork when the food appears.

I’ve been there all morning and toured the house, yet I had no idea they were all there.

God knows where they were all hiding, but then, in a house this big, I guess it’s easy to lose yourself.

But does he really let the paying guests treat the house as their own? Don’t they take advantage? “Honestly, we’ve had no problems,” he says. “I think it’s because I meet everyone here and they know it’s my home.

I’m also reasonably relaxed about it. Obviously, people get drunk and things are going to happen, but it hasn’t been that bad.”

The comedian Steve Coogan – who has a reputation for, shall we say, liking a party – celebrated his 40th here with absolute decorum. At a wedding party, a mahogany dining table was injured when a bridesmaid fell on it (she said she was leaning against it; but the damage pointed to some pretty vigorous leaning). Whatever, James is pretty relaxed. “It’s okay, these things happen. The damage wasn’t too bad.”

His mother used to open the doors for cream teas and cater for parties back in the 80s and James has inherited her excellent catering skills. “It’s nice to be able to fill it with people

But does he really let the paying guests treat the house as their own? Don’t they take advantage? “Honestly, we’ve had no problems,” he says. “I think it’s because I meet everyone here and they know it’s my home. I’m also reasonably relaxed about it

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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At home: James Allison, right, in the drawing room and, left, the hall at Middleton Lodge

APRIL 08

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ENTREPRENEUR

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

ENTREPRENEUR

APRIL 08

Country mansion: The Palladian grandeur of Middleton Lodge, above, is a fine setting for artworks, right, by James Allison’s mother, Prue and everyone enjoys it,” he says, simply. “If I didn’t enjoy doing it, I wouldn’t do it.”

The house was begun around 1780 by the architect John Carr. It remained in the same family ownership, though largely rented out, until 1947, when it was sold for the first time.

Then, it was sold to James’s parents in 1980 and from them to him in 2005.

In addition to Middleton Lodge, James also runs three mixed arable and livestock farms in the area and, with his brother Paul, a quarrying company, Sherburn Stone. There are plans to create conference facilities in the stable block at the Lodge, plus a restaurant and farm shop stocked with quality produce from the farms and the walled garden.

James has submitted a planning application to restore the rest of the estate and create an ambitious garden attraction, complete with an amphitheatre, a 50-metre high fountain and

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

a quarry garden. “I want to create fantastic facilities within the estate without affecting the house,” he says, “so I can still just close the door and it’s still my house.”

He travelled and did some voluntary work in Chile in 2000, during which time he had a short, 24-hour period on his own in the middle of nowhere and wrote a list of jobs to do at home. “The estate needs a lot of money spent on it and I need an enabling development. I don’t want to do a housing project because that would ruin it. A big garden project is high risk, but it’s more fitting,” he says.

“It’s taken a long time to work out what would be right and I think this is it. People have a problem with the idea of mineral extraction on a country estate, but the garden will be spectacular, with a meadow, a yin yang-design pool, fountains and a quarry garden. It will all be done in stages. It’s all

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worked out in here,” he says, tapping his forehead thoughfully.

The house is fascinating; the rooms radiate from an oval, double-height hall marked by a magnificent stairway which coils round the wall like a snake slithering towards the dome above. “Someone had a corporate training event here and told his colleagues that Cleudo, the board game, was modelled on the house,” says James. “I liked that. It might have been though, don’t you think?“ James’s boyhood bedroom, now a guest room named Willow, is hexagonal, exquisitely decorated in shades of gold, with endless views over the North York Moors. Looking at the view, you could confidently declare yourself slap, bang in the middle of nowhere, though you’re actually just a couple of miles from the A1, which makes life very easy for the visiting company execs and party goers.

APRIL 08

ENTREPRENEUR

The children in the painting are polished up and in Sunday best, presumably off to a party. The photo from which it is painted is stuck on the wall beneath it

Sleeping 32 (plus eight children), you can sit 45 in the dining room, have 120 at an evening party and a 200-guest marquee on the lawn.

There’s a snooker room, a hot tub, tennis court, cricket pitch, barbecue area and clay pigeon shooting. For corporate events, the main hall serves as an auditorium, with plenty of break-out rooms leading off it and a good audio system. “None of it is too much trouble; I just like providing what people want,” James says. “I did engineering at university [Oxford], and being an engineer is about solving problems; that’s how I approach it. It’s all logical.”

It’s the same logical approach, one supposes, that found him negotiating the Northwest passage last year. “Well, Dad was in Greenland and he rang to say the ice was right and he needed crew. That was the Thursday and I flew out with a friend on the Tuesday. The sail itself was actually pretty monotonous, though of course the landscape was spectacular.

“There were three of us on the boat; Dad navigating, us two crewing. It was full on, 24 hours a day, six weeks in total. When we had done it, we left Dad there and he lost his boat, which was just terrible. He was in the Baring Sea, where there are very big waves, and he had to be rescued by a fishing boat.

“The strange thing was, he had a suit on board, and why he saved it I don’t know, but he carried it off the boat in a bag. When he came back on land, he had a black eye and was wearing this suit. He’s quite a guy. He’s sailing now somewhere between Mexico and Hawaii. He’s just sailing round the world; not easy sailing you understand – he’s doing the big stuff.”

James has clearly inherited a penchant for doing things the hard way and completed the Plymouth-Dakar rally last year for a Mali-based

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charity. “I bought a car for £250; a G-Reg Land Rover Vogue. The engine was spot on.

I did a lot of welding work on it before we went, so it was immaculate. It was an excellent car actually. When we finished, we had to leave it there for the charity, and that was a bit of a blow to be honest. I’d got quite fond of it.

The landscapes, again, were just amazing. The sand dunes were stunning; a rolling landscape, just bare, but incredible.”

Back to Middleton Lodge, and the house is full of striking sculptures by mum Prue, a sculptor and painter. There is also a painting on the drawing room wall of the hall, which James found in an antique shop in Darlington. And a striking portrait of a young James, his sister and his best friend Guy and his sister, painted from a photo by the artist Francesca Hudson.

The children in it are all polished up and in Sunday best, presumably off to a party. The photo from which it is painted is stuck on the wall just beneath it.

The kitchen mantelpiece supports a signed cast and crew photo from a film made here, ‘Perfect Day’ starring a few telly faces, including a girl who used to be in ‘Casualty’ I think. There was also a Bollywood film made here called, would you believe, Hari Putter. “I’d love to see that, but I’m not sure it’s surfaced yet,” James says, laughing.

These mementoes mix with family photos, bits and bobs and bookshelves heaving with battered reading matter, much of it about sailing and climbing. Its host is, as mentioned, pretty relaxed. Prices depend upon what you want, but you can reckon on a very reasonable £150 per person for a 24-hour hire including food midweek, while the corporate day rate starts at £40 per person per day including food. You can hire it for £4,000 for the weekend, self catering. Everything is flexible, which is how James likes it.

“It’s a lot of work, but it’s not hard. I love it. I really enjoy it. The sort of people who come – it’s just fun really. So it’s a very nice way of doing business.” n Middleton Lodge, Middleton Tyas, Richmond, North Yorkshire, DL10 6NJ, tel 01325 377 977, www.middletonlodge.co.uk Prices start at £40 per delegate for day conferences

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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INSIGHT

APRIL 08

GOODBYE WISE SPEKE, HELLO BREWIN DOLPHIN What’s in a name? Undoubtedly a lot, says a North East firm taking a lead in proving that the misfortunes of Northern Rock are not typical of financial service performance in the region. Brian Nicholls reports

Left to right: John Duns, Business Development and Marketing Director; Charles May, Head of Newcastle Office; Graeme Summers, Head of Investment Banking; Don Robson, Head of Brewin Dolphin Financial Services IT’S far from being all bad news about financial services in the North East. Yes, there’s Northern Rock. But there’s also the like of Brewin Dolphin, moving to bigger and better premises in Newcastle and recruiting 15 more staff to take the force there up to 315 - as befits its growing business.

Questions asked of this group arise out of curiosity, not concern. Like, why change a successful brand? Wise Speke, which joined the Brewin Dolphin Group 10 years ago, has traded successfully under its name for 105 years, but now comes wholly under Brewin Dolphin’s name.

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

The decision must intrigue the facetious.

Spoken aloud, the words Wise Speke imply a fount of knowledge, whereas Brewin Dolphin might conjure images of a grizzly bear and a playful fish. Lots of advisers in other sectors would surely love a name like Wise Speke. So what’s in a name, as Shakespeare asked?

Charles May, head of office at Brewin Dolphin in Newcastle, smiles at the imagery. “I know.

It took a lot of thinking about. Initially I was against it and, when asked to be head of office, I went away and thought about it, talked to everybody here, and we realised it was the way forward.

36

“We believe all activities under one name safeguards the future and helps us grow from our existing very strong base. We believe Brewin Dolphin to be an excellent organisation, and it seems to make sense as we move forward. Other Wise Speke offices are changing also.”

Have clients reacted? “Inevitably. But an awful lot when we made the announcement said: ‘We’re terribly sorry but totally understand.’

Inherent within Wise Speke are about six or seven North East names, so they are used to it. My connections go back ore than 50 years.

My father was senior partner here, and I am certain he would have approved of the name change. He was forward thinking, as we must all be.”

Indeed, Brewin Dolphin is even older, dating from 1762. Many firms south and north of the Scottish border have since merged into Brewin Dolphin. Today, besides being investment managers and investment bankers, the firm has a major financial service divison.

It is the largest private client investment manager in the UK, with more than £21bn of funds under its wing, and 39 offices in the UK that include 20 staff on Teesside and five in Cumbria.

Newcastle is its third largest operation, and includes Brewin Dolphin’s investment banking business for the entire group – “a huge fillip for the region,” says Charles.

The 15 new jobs are just the sort the North East wants, he points out. And out of Newcastle’s existing 300 people, 200 worked for Brewin Dolphin anyway, since the investment banking is branded as Brewin Dolphin, and all middle office and support staff are Brewin Dolphin.

As you read this, total relocation has been taking place within central Newcastle to the upmarket Time Central development, near St James’s Park. This also gives 41,000sq ft, about a third more space for growth than

APRIL 08

FINANCE, like journalism and showbusiness, has often thrown up eccentrics. as Brewin Dolphin and Wise Speke have shown over the years. John Dawes, a lead pilot at the launch of Brewin Dolphin, though he resembled more a cross between a topperless John Bull and the honest-to-goodness George Washington, was an attorney from an affluent Lake District family who turned up in London, and opened accounts from 1751.

He held a share in an Anglesey copper mine and earned enough from broking to develop Highbury from a village to a London suburb that one day would be home to one of the world’s great football teams.

When he died at 64 he did so auspiciously – of an apoplectic fit in the Stock Exchange coffee house, a mere two days after showing the foresight to sign his will.

One partner during the 1960s and 1970s could not extend his expertise in controlling staff to that of organising his holidays. So, when he invariably announced last minute that he was going off, everyone else who had earlier picked the same time had to cancel.

Wise Speke too had its extroverts. A son of the then Lord Ravensworth, who served as an ‘attaché’ paid on commission, arrived and departed at the Newcastle office daily in a carriage, complete with footmen.

And Robert Allen, a usually mackintoshed senior partner who was with the firm 43 years, never lost the habits of two world wars he had served in, so insisted on calling his colleagues ‘troops’.

Among support staff, Sidney Armstrong, an office manager, rapped juniors’ knuckles with a ruler when they made a mistake or hung out their tongues in concentration. Ernie Boal, a commissionaire responsible for stationery, never gave out a new pencil until the stub of an old one was down to two inches.

Does modern investment management allow eccentrics now? “Of course there are still eccentrics,” Charles says, offering no names. “But we also lay huge emphasis on training now, and set exams. We recruit only the best graduates, and put them through a rigorous and intensive training programme, initially for two years.

“That may or may not,” he adds with a chuckle, “iron out some of the eccentricities.”

Under a new scheme they will continue to have intensive one-to-one training in Newcastle, but will also visit other offices, particularly London, for specialised training.

“Inevitably young recruits will become individual because they offer personal service. We train them on best advice, and as they mature they have to realise that it’s the customer who is the priority. Some do fall at the first hurdle. But there’s no point in having someone not qualified to give advice,” adds Charles.

the evacuated three and a half floors of Commercial Union House that was home for around 30 years.

Investment management will remain the main activity: more than £2bn to grow for local, national and international clients. “Almost all the money is run on discretionary basis, with decisions made on the client’s behalf,” says Charles, indicating perhaps the extent of public confidence in a financial company that has stood a 255-year test of time.

Charles explains: “It’s not just buying stocks and shares. All sorts of products are involved.

The variety of things we can buy has grown enormously. We also work very closely with the financial services side, who help plan

people’s pensions and retirement schemes.

We have more than 35 people working on financial services – the biggest force of its kind, we think, in the North East.”

Investment banking also flourished last year, notably with flotation of the Eaga Group, another North East success story with its market capitalisation of £450m, 4,000 employees and a contract of more then £500m just won to help the BBC achieve a total digital switchover in broadcasting.

“This is local business and we are proud to have been with Eaga from its start and through its continuation and expansion.

I say, let’s concentrate on some of those local successes, rather than some of the

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INSIGHT

We believe all activities under one name safeguards the future and helps us grow from our existing very strong base other stories,” Charles suggests, alluding to Northern Rock.

He has met scepticism in the City recently about capabilities in the North East. “It’s not just the immediacy of the matter,” he says of the Government’s controversial and enforced takeover of the Rock. “It’s the bad image it has given this whole region. So it’s not direct harm, but indirect harm we are up against. The direct harm is clear to see. The indirect harm will take some time to get into a perspective.”

At Brewin Dolphin, a campaign is planned to tell more people what the group can do for them. “In some ways, our successes have been a best-kept secret in the North East,” Charles says.

The entire group is tightly knit. Clients everywhere, for example, can benefit alongside institutional investors from flotations that Brewin Dolphin is directly involved in, and staff are very proud of the award recently for its performance in the Alternative Investment Market.

Meanwhile, the financial services team can advise employers on pensions and, with an administration team in place, offer a one-stop shop. “One of our great strengths throughout is that clients are treated as individuals and given a tailor-made service for their portfolios. Unlike some competitors, ours is not a one-size-fits-all approach,” says Charles. “Competition is always strong in every aspect of our business. But every good business thrives on strong competition.”

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

INTERVIEW

APRIL 08

Snowball effect: Janice Webster’s spadework at DigitalCity will encourage a snowball of attainment

ENTER THE CYBER WOMAN BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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APRIL 08

INTERVIEW

Brian Nicholls talks to Janice Webster, the North East’s ‘Cyber Woman’, and highlights some top achievers of digital technology in the region TO call Janice Webster the North East’s “Cyber Woman”, in truth, suggests an automaton, whereas she’s real flesh and blood – dynamic, flexible, highly personable and, away from the keyboards, much into home entertaining, gardening and sewing.

Janice, however, has also been acclaimed

39

the UK’s most enterprising academic. She is founding director of DigitalCity, her pet project over 15 years and one promising to be a major generator of new technologies in the region.

Through Teesside University, Tees Valley is growing a reputation for creativity in digital design. Who designed the starring creatures

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

INTERVIEW

APRIL 08

Next challenge: Janice is exploring new avenues as a consultant in BBC TV’s Walking with Dinosaurs, special effects for The Matrix films, Lost in Space, Alice in Wonderland and Jason and the Argonauts? Who designed the Aston Martin DBS for Daniel Craig’s debut as James Bond in Casino Royale? Say: “Teesside-inspired people.” You’ll be spot on.

A film by two lecturers there won an international award, too, for best animated film of 2005, beating the Wallace and Gromit blockbuster, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit. Judges said their Emily and the Baba Yaga, based on a Russian folk tale, was made meticulously.

From now on, Janice’s spadework at DigitalCity will encourage a snowball of attainment not only in entertainment, but many sciences, technologies and businesses. If Tees Valley has yet to equate with Silicon Valley, it is at least enabling the words “computer science” to stand closer to “process industries” in the lexicon of achievements there.

DigitalCity encourages digital imagery in any business, cultural or medical activity. Janice explains: “It helps you to use very ‘rich’ digital tools for profit and competitive advantage. It is also about innovation and pushing your own boundaries and expectations.”

Janice, accomplished in business also, gained her national honour out of 150 nominees considered by the benchmarkers backed by the Higher Education Funding Council for England. She took the glory back to Teesside University not only as a top academic there, but also as an ex-student of Teesside Poly, as it was then.

Born in Ilkeston, Derbyshire, Janice is one of a growing and vital breed in the North East: accomplished both in business and academia.

The DigitalCity she has fostered supports and encourages the electronic ambition of students and young businesses alike.

It is expected to enhance the North East’s standing internationally, and especially in innovative uses of computer tools for any discipline – be it design, medicine, sport, therapy, rehabilitation, arts or learning. Her associations with Teesside date from 1974 when she studied 3D and interior architecture to graduate, with first-class honours.

Husband Graeme was first head of computing there. He also ran the CAD unit and, in 1978, rose to assistant director of the polytechnic, then deputy. In 1989, after the reorganisation, he left to spend five years on European Union projects and consultancy.

With three PhD students, he researched the development of new visualisation software, especially for computer graphic animation.

Janice recalls: “He was also keen to create graphics on the new Apple II computer. So in 1979, while I was an interior design student, he started to create a new programme to help me ‘draw in 3D’.

“This was the start to us designing tools. There were none on the market - only 2D draughting and some research in a handful of universities.

Ours was a husband-and-wife team with a common desire to create something new.”

Janice had been a mature student from 1978.

In 1982 the entrepreneur within sprang out and she set up in business. “I was sole trader,

It helps you to use very ‘rich’ digital tools for profit and competitive advantage.

It is also about innovation and pushing your own boundaries and expectations

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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APRIL 08

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INTERVIEW

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

INTERVIEW

APRIL 08

We aim to rekindle the spirit of enterprise that made Middlesbrough a powerhouse of innovation in the 19th and early 20th Centuries

but with technical direction - the essential element – from my husband.”

It was fulfilling, but a conflict of commitment – extensive company travel versus parental caring – obliged her to cease running it full-time in 1986. She returned to the poly.

However, one career had furthered the other: “My client base and knowledge was converted into an MSc. I could use my industry contacts for live projects.”

It also planted seeds for DigitalCity. As a senior lecturer, meanwhile, she helped set up Teesside’s MSc in computer-aided graphical technology applications (CAGTA). She headed the Institute of Design then, in 1997, went on to direct the Virtual Reality Centre. From 2002 she was founding director of DigitalCity.

Janice also credits the university’s Academic Enterprise team and her own DigitalCity team. But everyone we have spoken to is adamant Janice was prime mover in a varsity/ commercial venture, whose partners include regional development agency One NorthEast, Middlesbrough Council and Tees Valley Unlimited.

Colleagues and associates think Janice “larger than life” and “a joy to meet on campus” – eager to enter the spirit of things as when, just a few years ago, she cut a fine figure at the uni’s May Ball in skin-tight leather.

She and Graeme are long-settled residents of Yarm, the university having given both “a

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

great career”. Janice is also a trustee of BALTIC Contemporary Arts Centre and Tees Valley Dance, and a Fellow and committee member of the Royal Society of Arts.

Today’s university is five times bigger than the poly she remembers, but, she says: “It is the same friendly place, still innovative to stay up the league tables, still nurturing innovation.”

So what motivates her? “The will to succeed, not giving up when times are tough, and seeing young talents grow and flourish beyond any place I could ever go... as, for example, Andy Lomas. I am also motivated by new products. As a designer, I am interested in inventing the future.”

Andy Lomas? He’s the Cambridge graduate who holds from Teesside an MA and one of his MScs. He, besides working in Hollywood, rose to head computer graphics at Europe’s largest visual effects and computer animation studio, created the BBC’s dinosaurs and continues to visit Teesside.

“I was his course leader,” Janice recalls. “We keep in touch. He lectured part-time for me, has helped me find student placements and generally supported Teesside. He’s a friend.”

Marek Reichman, 41, design director of Aston Martin, is the alumnus who researched the latest James Bond car with David Craig.

Janice’s successor as institute director, Jim TerKeurst (an American), says: “We aim to rekindle the spirit of enterprise that made Middlesbrough a powerhouse of innovation in the 19th and early 20th Centuries.”

Meanwhile, Janice explores new avenues as a consultant with the university. Still linking talent to DigitalCity Fellowships, she has also brought NHS Innovations and a medical consultant together with the graduate business unit firm Animmersion, run by Sam Harrison and Dominic Lusardi, DigitalCity Fellows in their mid-20s.

At a Royal Society of Arts event in February Janice and they presented a new training tool, potentially a world-first.

“I still use my network to bring talent together and grow digital companies,” Janice says.

“A cyber education product also allows me to try to reach also young people finding it hard to engage.”

When relaxing at their house in central France,

42

the Websters’ only concession to computers is a laptop with no internet access; merely a means to process old slides and help sort and upgrade the best 100 perhaps of 4,000 holiday photos.

But Janice, at 66, finds work too interesting to retire. Might she yet spin off a business from her consultancies? “Now there’s an idea...who knows? Maybe I should start a new company.” ■ A PRIME aim of DigitalCity is to turn graduates into North East entrepreneurs.

Crucial to this is its £12m Institute of Digital Innovation (IDI). It has four floors in the new five-storey £12m Phoenix block.

IDI is a brainstorm barn, blending research and business.

The goal: to create 300 jobs and 130 new firms in two years. It has offices for lease, studio space, specialist software support in flexible labs, and sound stage, conference and innovation rooms.

Alan Clarke, chief executive of One NorthEast, thinks DigitalCity “important to the region’s economic strategy.” Professor Graham Henderson, the university vicechancellor, says Janice’s accolade raises the university’s profile, and its engagement with the digital world.

And Janice? She feels she has just got all the truffles after the digging.

The £10m Athena Building houses the Centre of Creative Technologies, for teaching digital technology and media.

Janice hopes to see women more digitally inclined in choosing careers. “I feel many still regard anything ‘digital’ as mathematical and technical. But in graphics, fine art and 3D interior design the trend is now biased towards females.

Schools segregate, however, and computer graphics is still thought of there as computing.”

For information on an IDI tenancy, contact Neil Hannah, tel 01642 384 646, email n.hannah@tees.ac.uk

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COMPANY PROFILE

APRIL 08

Brewin Dolphin offers a wide range of investment products and services to its clients and understands that many people are still wary about pensions.

Fergus Westwood, assistant director at Brewin Dolphin’s Newcastle office, explains why this should not be the case

SIPP- “RETIREMENT PLANNING DON’T PUT IT OFF FOR LATER”

A

LTHOUGH planning for retirement is among the most important financial decisions an individual will ever make, it is probably the one that is put off

most often.

Many people are clearly reluctant to deduct a portion of their salary to fund pension contributions. In view of the ever-increasing cost of living, this is understandable but the complexity of pensions must also shoulder some of the blame. So why should you consider saving in a pension fund?

One of the strongest reasons is the tax efficiency of a pension. All pension contributions are deducted from your taxable earnings, reducing the amount of income tax payable. Also, if pension contributions are deducted by an employer at source via salary sacrifice, you avoid paying national insurance on the amount contributed.

Pension funds are also very broad ranging and enable you to invest in a larger number of different assets including stocks, shares and commercial property. This can be done directly or through collective investments such as unit or investment trusts and, back to the tax issue, any capital gains within a pension are free of capital gains tax.

So how can you invest in a pension? You can contribute to pensions managed by large financial institutions or you are also able to invest via Self Invested Personal Pensions, or SIPPs. It is through these SIPPs that you can benefit from greater investment flexibility.

SIPPs allow you to appoint your own investment manager. To some this may appear daunting, but it is easy to understand that individuals

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

Above: Fergus Westwood, assistant director, Newcastle office, Brewin Dolphin

Many individuals also find it difficult to unravel the charging structure behind the pensions offered by big institutions and another advantage SIPPs offer is that they have transparent fees, which are agreed at the outset.

At Brewin Dolphin, we act as investment manager to many clients investing for their retirement through SIPPs. We also have one of the most experienced financial services teams in the region who are able to offer independent advice to any individuals considering planning for their retirement.

Whilst it is important to make financial provisions for retirement, SIPPs may not be appropriate for all individuals and before deciding on the route to take, professional advice should be sought.

INDIVIDUALS WOULD FAR RATHER HAVE THEIR HARD-EARNED PENSION CONTRIBUTIONS MANAGED BY SOMEONE THEY KNOW would far rather have their hard-earned pension contributions managed by someone they know and trust and who knows their personal and financial circumstances than by a faceless institution.

By appointing an independent investment manager to manage the assets, the pension will not be restricted to a prescribed list of funds, as is the case with the pension offerings of many large institutions. This choice of underlying funds will be much greater, meaning that the pension can hold the “best of the best” at all times.

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To find out how Brewin Dolphin can help you plan for retirement,contact: Fergus Westwood, tel 0845 213 1020 email Fergus.westwood@brewin.co.uk www.brewin.co.uk Brewin Dolphin Ltd Time Central Gallowgate Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 4SR

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BUSINESS LUNCH

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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DOING THE RIGHT THING City analyst Justin Urquhart Stewart entertaining breakfast date, enlightening speaker and an investor driven by a desire to do right by his clients - allows Jane Pikett to discover what makes a thoroughly decent businessman tick

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“WHY did I leave the law? Because I was a useless barrister, heh, heh, heh,” chortles Justin Urquhart Stewart, quietly and conspiratorially (here, in the stately dining room of Matfen Hall Hotel, there’s a fair chance some of our fellow diners are lawyers ...)

“It was so dull! You’ve got to be a ‘certain’ type (he’s whispering now, as he adorns a piece of toast with a generous dollop of butter) and it really wasn’t me. You know what it is? You can’t get involved with anything; you’re not creating anything, you have to be removed from what you do.”

A renowned city analyst, media money expert, investor and part-time amateur archaeologist; Justin doesn’t do ‘removed’. He gets very involved in everything; one of life’s great enthusiasts and someone, I suspect, who would even invest enthusiasm and energy into being utterly p****d off; though it’s hard to imagine he ever really is.

The idea seems preposterous, probably because he applies a drily humorous sheen to stories of life’s more challenging episodes which, while it might not convince you that he’s unaffected by these things, clearly allows him to dissociate from them.

Biggest career mistake? “Getting shot ... ha, ha!” For he began – and almost ended – life with Barclays Bank’s then-quaintly entitled Dominion, Colonial and Overseas Division. Its dangerously autocratic and ill-informed pinstriped regime despatching the 20-something Urquhart Stewart to Idi Amin’s war-torn Uganda where, in common with many others,

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business lunch

APRIL 08

Wise investment: For Justin Urquhart Stewart, diversity is the key to sound money management he found himself at the wrong end of a gun.

“A colleague and I were driving home in Kampala when we were attacked. Amazingly, the car (a VW Beetle) kept going, as did my colleague Alan, who drove on having been shot in the knee and the neck. I was just a dumpling on the floor of the car, but he managed to get us to hospital where they basically took a Black and Decker to my leg; there were no proper drugs.”

Barclays’ hapless young execs spent two months in a Kampala hospital which was attacked during their stay and where the treatment was basic, to say the least.

It was there, as he languished in a Morphineinduced haze, that Justin found a source of

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inspiration which stays with him now; a nurse who risked life and limb to walk into the heart of Kampala and return to her patient with a gift from the city – a single potato.

“She came to me and held up this potato and said ‘I have brought you an Irish potato. It is yours’,” he says. “That’s quite a thing, isn’t it?

It was awful inside the hospital, but the people outside had no food, nothing at all. It’s people like that nurse who inspire me more than anything.”

He’s still got shrapnel in his body and he ended up losing three inches off one leg; a loss reduced by half after a further three months in hospital in London. He recounts the story in typically understated, dry fashion, with an air

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of bewilderment that it actually took place.

He returns to it later, when asked if the humour is a protective front. “Well, I am an optimist by nature, but I suppose there is also a dark side. It doesn’t come through, though.”

Of Barclays Dominion, Colonial and Overseas Division, he says: “It was like something out of Blackadder. They gave me a pat on the back, told me I was off to Uganda at a time, I was to discover, when there was an attempted coup every Tuesday evening, and gave me a huge manual which was supposed to tell you how to run a bank in whatever far-flung corner of the earth they decided to send you. They didn’t seem to mind that there was a war on.”

After a long convalescence in London he accepted another posting, this time to the safer outpost of Singapore where Justin built a croquet pitch in the garden and had a thoroughly jolly time. And very jolly he is now, enjoying a very excellent poached haddock and egg at Matfen Hall, dapper in red tie with white spots, red braces and – produced from his pocket with not a hint of irony – a red and white spotted handkerchief which is deftly positioned at his collar to protect his immaculate front from the threat of dribbled egg.

His socks are a disappointingly sober black (perhaps he thought red might be overdoing it?), he sports silver cufflinks embossed with the logo of the company he co-founded, Seven Investment Management, and his classically cut navy blue suit has a scarlet lining in keeping with the braces etc. Rather smart.

Not flash. And he has impeccable manners, scurrying off to fetch me more fresh orange juice from the breakfast buffet, ensuring my coffee cup is kept filled (I get caffeine shakes) and enquiring after the quality of my haddock (it’s fantastic). I am charmed.

Unsurprisingly, the Ugandan experience which marked in his early 20s has left an indelible mark, plus a driving licence which is only good in Uganda and some minor African states including Tanganica. In London, he drives the three miles to his Mayfair office on an old BMW motorbike. A vintage classic?

No, he says, just old, employed specifically because no-one would dream of stealing it, which is useful.

After a superb breakfast at Matfen, we’re

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off to Hexham, where Justin delivers a presentation for clients of his friend Kim Addavide, managing director of AYP Financial; the independent financial advisers. Justin calls his presentation ‘Pushing on a piece of string’; an indication of how he views the global economy.

He’s a relaxed and engaging speaker; charismatic and entertaining, keeping this audience of businesspeople and informed individuals rapt with a presentation which is both laugh-out-loud funny and offers a darkly sinister view of the global economy and influence of China, the US and the like on our pockets here in the North East.

“We are in a situation where, if the Waltons don’t pay their mortgage in West Virginia, the Northern Rock falls over in Newcastle,” he says. “We used to have a proper banking regulatory system run by the Bank of England.

Now we don’t, and that’s why Northern Rock got into trouble. The Rock didn’t cause the credit crunch – it was a victim of it.“ A world greedy for money has built over confidence and complacency, he says, resulting in a global economic downturn. “This is a train wreck in slow motion and there will,” he says, “be blood.

“People have stopped saving. If they want something, they borrow the money to get it.

There needs to be a balance between saving, spending and borrowing to bring economic stability. The level of debt is a real concern.”

He is concerned about the effect of the economy on ordinary people, and the influence of the financial services industry on people’s lives.

“My business partner Tom Sheridan and I set up Seven Investment Management because we didn’t like the industry in which we were working,” he had explained as we drove up to Matfen early that morning. “We didn’t like the way investment was so focused on stocks and we wanted a way of running our own money properly.

“I want a financial planner and an investment adviser who will invest according to performance. That is what we do.”

They launched the company in 2002 and now have 70 staff managing £2bn of assets. “The first line of our business plan said Do the Right Thing,” Justin explains. “That’s because there

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I was just a dumpling on the floor of the car, but he managed to get us to hospital where they basically took a Black and Decker to my leg; there were no proper drugs

is a right way of doing things, and a way in which people should be treated, and the industry wasn’t offering that.

“We work on a fee basis which is measured on success, simple as that. This year’s fashion fad is next year’s tank top, so we spread investments in stocks, private equity, property, hedge funds etc. The key is in diversity of investment.”

So, is there a crystal ball into which he gazes each morning? “God no; no-one knows what is going to happen. You have a range of different assets, you know how they have behaved to date and you know what the risks are. You work out the risk profile and you let your clients know that investment is a five-year process.”

Later, the AYP audience is advised strongly to keep their golden eggs in several different baskets. “Have a range of different asset classes. Lower growth economy means that the returns you are getting will be lower and you need to get the costs down. You need to shop around very carefully. Investment is a three to five-year issue and there will be good times and bad.

“The key is to keep dripping your investment in and to ensure your assets are managed carefully and according to risk. It is vital that you have proper financial planning.

The benefit of diversification is that you can de-risk as risks build. Be alive to change. You can enjoy a less volatile journey if you use process, structure and discipline to build asset classes according to consistency to improve predictability and returns.”

Justin recommends, where possible, that investors create a family financial DNA, ensuring that all the generations’ monies are

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being managed effectively for the good of the whole, even if Aunt Shirley and cousin Hugo haven’t exchanged a civil word since 1976.

“We’re living longer and we need proper financial planning. Yet so many people find their own version of financial planning hidden away in the third desk drawer on the left, where there might be a few premium bonds, an endowment and a couple of pensions which they have no idea what they’re worth.

This is the magpie version of financial planning and it doesn’t function.

“The average dysfunctional middle class family has 33 members, including steps and halves, and is worth about £3m - £5m.

Within the family, there are generally two or three mortgages, yet they are not planned together. With some sensible planning, the value of the family can increase significantly by co-ordinating assets. We don’t have to talk to each other; we just have to talk to the same financial planner. “ So, what has been his biggest surprise in his financial career? “Being shot. I wasn’t expecting that one!” Okay, his biggest mistake then? “Being shot! Oh, and there may be more, but you don’t have enough pages.”

He went to Bryanston School in Dorset, which was very arty and where his first qualification was, unusually, in make-up. “It was a Junior RADA certificate. Should I be telling you that?

God no, I wasn’t terribly studious. They used to punish you there by making you run.

Oddly enough, I ended up a very good longdistance runner.

“I loved history and I’d actually like to go back to university and do archaeology. I write stories about a centurion who lives in fort at Wallsend, but that’s just for fun.

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BUSINESS LUNCH They worked because they needed the money, but they also enjoyed it. We have to learn to be more optimistic in this country

“And I collect old uniforms. Memorabilia?

No, I wear them! Honestly. I have a fantastic Russian Special Forces coat and hat. I wore it skiing in Courchevel. You know, you put a uniform on and people see treat you in a completely different way.

“School was very arty and lots of people went from there to work in telly. By contrast, most of the people I know in the City are clones. I fear sometimes that one of the things the meritocracy has built is people who are focused on money rather than who they are.

You’re supposed to be there to serve your client; it’s a privilege to look after your clients’ money, but the investment industry doesn’t communicate. You have to talk to clients and enjoy the face-to-face contact, that’s what it should be about.

“We have to tell clients that there are times they will not make money. You should know what they need to achieve, by when and at what risk. There will be good times and bad.”

So what formed Justin? His childhood?

Barclays Dominion, Colonial and Overseas Division? Student jobs as a labourer on the London Underground, or long summers spent working in Champagne’s vineyards when breakfast comprised an ‘accidentally’ damaged bottle of fizz?

“Childhood is always the thing isn’t it? My father was always ill. He became ill when he was in Malaya, during the Malayan Emergency, and he was always ill when I was young, so I never really knew him very well.

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APRIL 08

My mother was very dominant and still is.

She’s been through three husbands; divorced, died and died. I suppose she is a big influence.

She’s very focused and quite cold. That can be a good thing and a bad thing.”

Justin has a mixture of half, step and full siblings; one of them, Simon (a half) lives near Hexham and comes along for the AYP Financial event, saying he’s never heard his brother do a talk, despite the fact that he gives many. He seems very proud.

So what’s Justin’s criteria for a satisfying work life? “I get a kick out of visiting businesses I have helped start and seeing people working there. You have created a world that was not there before. I get a buzz out of Seven Investment Management because it has a life of its own. That gets me up in the morning.”

And his worst investment? “A technology company in 1998 which made a widget thing that didn’t work. Now I’m involved with a little company which makes a device to manage noise. It’s a tiny business in Hull. They have a great product and I’m excited about it.”

He enjoys people and likes to see the people in Hull making something they believe in. He worked as a labourer at Southampton docks while enduring a degree in European Law at university in the city and became, under his then-work name of Jon Stewart (“let’s face it, someone called Justin double barrelled wasn’t going to survive ...”) was a shop steward for the union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians. Later, while he was studying for his Bar exams in London, he was a labourer on what was then the Fleet Line (it became the Jubilee), digging the tunnels where “it stank something rotten, but it was well paid”.

Back to the people who inspire him. “The people I’ve seen in Uganda who walk three miles to work and arrive beautifully dressed.

The girls in the banks wore nylon dresses and they had the energy and enthusiasm to do it every day, even during a war. And of course, that nurse in Kampala.

“They worked because they needed the money, but they also enjoyed it. We have to learn to be more optimistic in this country.”

Which brings us nicely on to Northern Rock.

Any room for optimism there? “Northern Rock is about 20 years of building up debt.

There has been complacency, and there will be

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others like it. It shouldn’t have been funding itself in the way it did, but the Government has done very little about the situation.

“When a rogue trader cost the Societe Generale Bank in France £3.6bn, President Sarkozy acted quickly and decisively to stabilise the bank within 72 hours. In contrast, our Government has dithered over Northern Rock and the UK has ended up looking stupid. The Government could have acted swiftly and at far less cost. It’s absolutely pathetic.”

And then his phone rings and he’s into a corner, being interviewed for the tea-time news, this time about the Rock. I hear him on Radio 4’s Today programme a few days later; an interviewer’s dream; well-informed, succinct and interesting, even when he’s talking about the dullest budget for years.

Now there’s a thought; Urquhart Stewart for Chancellor. And why not? At least it would never be dull ... ■

BREAKFAST JUST THE BUSINESS Jane Pikett and Justin Urquhart Stewart enjoyed breakfast at Matfen Hall Hotel, which serves a choice of local produce in the comfortable surroundings of the Library Restaurant.

Jane and Justin both enjoyed fresh fruit and cereal followed by perfectly poached haddock and egg served with toast and preserves.

Matfen Hall, the ancestral home of the Blackett family, has been carefully restored

by Sir Hugh and Lady Blackett and holds two AA Rosettes, two golf courses, a golf academy, driving range, luxurious spa and award-winning leisure facilities. For information, see www.matfenhall.co.uk

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PAUL’S TASTING NOTES Mont du Toit 2003 Wellington, £15.99 a bottle, £95.94 case x 6 This is a powerful blend of Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc with Merlot and Shiraz which spends 23 months in oak. The result is actually a bit too big for me. The alcohol content is very high and the flavour is big, fruity and spicy with an almost raisin / port like flavour. It definitely needs food – a good roast beef or lamb.

BQ selects two special wines for Paul Woolston, senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Newcastle, to taste test MY love of wine is inextricably linked with my love of food, quality time with friends and family and my first wine-tasting course with my father many years ago.

I’m interested in the tradition and technique of wine making and I love to taste wine in the country it was made. Hence, I have fond memories of holidays in Burgundy, Italy and even a memorable trip to Austria, where I was pleasantly surprised by the bottles on offer.

But the highlight of my journey with wine was learning to be a sommelier at Tom Aikins Michelin-starred restaurant in London.

It’s easy to get carried away buying expensive bottles, but you can buy some fine varieties quite modestly. Waitrose and Majestic are

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

among the best suppliers and some of their bottles end up in my home cellar – the major selling point for our house in Corbridge when we bought it!

I particularly admire the wine producer Anne Leflaive for her bold approach in going organic and biodynamic and I was delighted to find one of her wines on the table for the tasting session (see right).

Paul’s wine best: Best wine list: Romano’s Restaurant, Cleadon Favourite supplier in Newcastle: Michael, Jobling Wines Favourite warehouse/ supermarket supplier: Majestic Wines and Waitrose

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Macon-Verze 2006 Domaines Leflaive, £15.99 bottle, £191.88 case x 12 This is a beautiful wine from my favourite producer of white burgundy, Anne Leflaive of Domaine Leflaive, who I have actually had the pleasure of meeting. Her wines are organic and biodynamic and this is one of her very excellent entry-level bottles which is elegant and top quality. Crisp, clean, lemony and great with fish.

Wines supplied by the independent wine merchant Corney & Barrow.

For information, tasting notes and to buy, see www. corneyandbarrow.com

L I N T H O R P E R O A D M I D D L E S B R O U G H

FASHION

APRIL 08

Bewildered by dress-down, dress-up and smart-casual?

What does it all mean, and are there any circumstances when a Hawaiian shirt is right for work?

BQ attempts to make some sense of the non-sensical world of work dress

IF the last decade brought a new comfort to corporate dressing, aiming to take the weight of formality from those wide, padded shoulders, inevitably for many men Dress Down, as the American phenomenon was termed, caused more consternation on a Friday morning than was perhaps intended.

The dull uniform of the dark two-piece - like the archetypal office clone that was Gregory Peck in 1967s The Man in the Grey Flannel Suit - was simply and hastily replaced by another copycat uniform, with a flurry of starch and steam, of pressed chinos and packet-fresh polo-shirts. Monday to Thursday the boss may have had a better suit than the office junior, but on Friday everybody got to look equally terrible. Studies since have questioned the founding Productivity Through Relaxation theory too. Indeed, dressing business-like seems to make some workers think business-like, quite aside from the issue of presentation when client-facing. Anyone

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who envisages dealing happily with a solicitor or bank manager dressed in Hawaiian shirt will get the picture. Famously, studies have shown that only 7% of human communication is verbal - or, in other words, what you wear really counts.

“It’s true that dress-down has been bewildering at times because it’s been so open to interpretation, to the extent that some businessmen have had to keep several outfits at work,” suggests Andrea Pesaresi, managing director for Zegna Europe. “They’ve had to think more about their clothes than business.

But, at the end of the day, dress-down has been, and will continue to be, a positive step: it has given men a freedom of expression in clothing that wasn’t there before.”

Yet while tough years are typically echoed in a smartening up, recent years have seen many men’s confusion worsen as the Dress Down policy has spread, from business to business, from media to banking, property to even accountancy, from Friday to every day of the week. Some men have consequently looked too done-up for the newly relaxed environment or have, worse still, donned their weekend gear - whatever they’d wash the car in - without regard for the need to maintain some degree of formality in the workplace.

Either way, the concern remains: a survey by Reed, the recruitment company, shows that British employees now spend almost a fifth of their salaries trying to look good at the office.

“I joined a new company and wore a shortsleeved shirt with long shorts on the first Dress Down day, and that would have been fine at my old company,” explains an account manager for a London advertising agency.

“I wasn’t meeting any client but still it was jokes about Bondi Beach all day. I didn’t do that again.”

“Confusion is partly a result of employers not providing unambiguous guidelines, because one man’s casual is another man’s smart,” suggests Lawrence Levy, head of specialist recruitment consultants Levy Associates.

“But it’s not dress per se that may spoil an employee’s chances of advancement, but a failure to appreciate that particular dress codes are part of the culture of the organisation they work for.”

The ‘smart-casual’ enigma needs rules,

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It’s true that dress-down has been bewildering at times because it’s been so open to interpretation, to the extent that some businessmen have had to keep several outfits at work

much as there are (albeit evolving ones) for corporate dress for the rest of the week. Keep it classic: go overtly fashionable and you begin to look not only inappropriate – your attire should never outshine your product – but your colleagues will start to think you are more dandy than deal-maker. Keep it simple: no workwear, no pub-wear, no residue of Dress-Up stiffness. And keep it high quality.

“A standard suit can hide average quality but casualwear won’t,” suggests Jan Borghardt, creative director of shirt brand Eton, which has just launched a new slim-fit line for more casual dressing. “Dress Down doesn’t mean going down in style or quality. Dress Down is really about dressing up casual.”

Darker colours better allow for repeated wear, while the traditional menswear palette - charcoal, navy, white - retains a degree of presentability should an emergency meeting arise. For the same reason, although ties are left at home, tops should have collars, jeans, if permissable, be indigo and undistressed.

You may have a fine eye for the character of

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vintage, but in the professional world a hole is a hole.

Certainly, anything bright or athletic, obviously hi-tech fabrics, neon colours, graphics or billboard-sized branding are appropriate for track and field, but not the fast track. Trainers are fine if you’re a runner, in the office junior sense, not if you’re in charge, or want to be try clean loafers or suede shoes or ankle boots instead. And, yes, shorts are almost definitely out.

There is, however, also a middle line to Dress Down. Soft tailoring, from the likes of Savile Row tailors Kilgour, Steven Hitchcock and Charlie Allen, is the latest old thing made new in suiting. Essentially, it is classic tailoring with all the stuffing removed and cleverly cut to be cardigan soft, yet retaining the formal structure. The result? Business smartness with casual comfort, a smart layer that works in over-heated office and doesn’t weight heavily across the back, a look that works as well in bar as boardroom. It could not be more timely.

“Although Dress Down does help relax an employee, to be reasonably smart is good for everybody in terms of creating a generally positive work culture, and smartness is generally always advisable when you’re clientfacing,” suggests Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology at Lancaster University Management School. “The fact is that smart-casual is open to a plethora of interpretations, so inevitably we try to create an alternative uniform. And as in school, uniforms serve a purpose: they serve to make a group cohesive.”

So if you find yourself wearing similar kit to your colleagues, don’t feel as though you have failed to take full advantage of Dress Down’s welcome opportunity for more self-expression.

Rather, congratulate yourself on having conducted successful negotiations - through the minefield of style, personality, comfort and unspoken corporate expectations that is Dress Down. n

Images: Ermenegildo Zegna, Upper Casual Collection, Spring/Summer 08 www.zegna.com

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Matching your image to a client’s expectations is vital, says Ian Scott-Bell, marketing director at Nigel Wright Recruitment in Grey Street, Newcastle.

“It’s very much a case of doing your research and dressing appropriately,” says Ian. “My style is pretty formal and I’m always in a suit and tie, but I used to work for Procter and Gamble where all the men were in chinos and polo shirts.

“Different clients do have different expectations. If you’re selling a high-value service where professionalism is a high priority, the person delivering that service needs to be visually appropriate and well turned out.

“But if you are recruiting for a creative agency something a little more unconventional, even dynamic and eyecatching, could be just the thing.

“It’s a case of knowing your client and matching their needs, values and aspirations.”

Peter Wagstaff, senior private banker at Coutts Bank, Newcastle, says a consistent, professional image is vital when working with clients.

“Coutts has always prided itself on its professional image. Indeed, a few years ago, there was a strict dress code of white shirts, no facial hair and frock coats.

Things are a little more relaxed now and people like to look modern, smart, relaxed and fashionable.

“Suits and ties are the order of the day in subdued colours – blue, black, grey or pin stripe - but some people tend to make a little more of a statement with the colour of their shirt or tie.

“I do think men are more aware of fashion these days and they look to look, and feel, good.”

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BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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EQUIPMENT

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

APRIL 08

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WRIST ACTION If your impression is that a global watch brand is the product of generations of family horolophiles slowly building an international company, or of a lone and aging individual making exquisite one-offs in a backroom, then Bell & Ross should give pause for thought

THE little-known name of Bell & Ross may only be a teenager against the brand giants of the watch world, but it is already ranked highly among watch aficionados both for its products’ design and craftsmanship, already worn by the discreet for their stealth wealth understatement and already has its own benchmark innovations, including timepiece ‘complications’; those totems of haute horlogerie.

What is more unexpected is that its founder and CEO is only just passing 40: Carlo Rosillo (of the ‘Ross’ in the brandname) studied business at a French university, and within four years of leaving had followed his love of watches and joined up with design manager Bruno Belamich (of the ‘Bell’) to launch the company.

“It was just a passion,” says Rosillo. “And you can’t really resist that. And although it was risky, now I’m very glad that I did it.”

Indeed, Bell & Ross has established an enviable position in the watch world: young, it has so far been able to follow its philosophy without wavering, giving its collections a coherent, signature style and unadorned good looks.

Unadorned because that is the essence of these watches: stripped down and functional.

They are classic rather than fashionable and have exceptionally clear, large dials - their beefy size something other brands have embraced recently more as a trend, which, in turn, has already given Bell & Ross’ BR01 something of a cult status. More than that,

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their watches’ legibility has given Bell & Ross, Rosillo half-jokes, a particular popularity among the 60 to 80-year-old bracket.

“Fashion watches are in and out in six months,” says Rosillo. “Like Jeeps in the car world, technical watches last in terms of looks as well as make. For us it’s all about not having superfluous detail. There’s nothing on these watches that is useless. You might say there’s not much colour to them, for instance. But until we find that colour has a real function, there won’t be.”

This Bauhausian form-follows-function aesthetic stems from the company’s origins.

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EQUIPMENT

APRIL 08

Form and function: Bell & Ross watches fuse form and function to create an unusual blend of the aesthetic and the specialist

In 1992 it began by collaborating with the Sinn company to design and make instrument panels and clocks for the aeronautic and space industries, its products finding a warm reception from professionals who depended on clear time-keeping: astronauts, pilots and divers. (In fact, the BR01, a big, square watch based on an aircraft instrument panel, is something of a nod to the company’s heritage). Two years later, Bell & Ross decided there was room to turn this into a watch business. It began by launching its Space 1, a re-edition of the first automatic chronograph worn in space - in 1983 by the German astronaut Reinhart Furrer on SpaceLab. Indeed, such was its growing reputation among adventurous types that two years later Bell & Ross was asked by the French Security Service to create the Type Demineur for its bomb disposal teams. With its non- and anti-magnetic case (a magnetic one might, inconveniently, explode the bomb), this not only gave Bell & Ross some expertise in making exceptionally good value watches (government agencies being keen not to spend too much on their personnel - Bell & Ross watches retail from E1,000 to E20,000) - but was the company’s first watch innovation.

“We even like to think that, while heritage is held in high esteem by much of the watch industry for some reason, a lack of heritage is actually an advantage for us,” adds Rosillo.

“Heritage can be a burden, especially if you have a back catalogue with a few crap designs. It can create an approach you feel compelled to follow. We’ve been free to start with a clean product and a clean operation.

This gives room for innovation.”

There has been plenty of that out of Bell & Ross’ hi-tech manufacturing plant in La Chaux de Fonds in Switzerland: aside from watches beautiful for their simplicity, such as the Vintage 123 - part of the company’s best-selling collection - there is the first watch with a jumping hour and power reserve (the Vintage JH), designed in collaboration with master watchmaker Vincent Calabrese, and

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a telescopic crown system, by which the screw-down crown descends entirely into the thickness of the watchcase. The brand has also created a diver’s watch (the Diver TE) with a capsule that shows the amount of moisture absorbed by the intensity of its colour; and the Hydro Challenger and Max models ingeniously have cases filled with a special oil-based liquid

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EQUIPMENT

Like Jeeps in the car world, technical watches last in terms of looks as well as make. For us, it’s about not having superfluous detail.

There’s nothing on these watches that is useless

that not only makes these divers’ watches completely water-resistant, but prevents refraction, allowing them to be read accurately at any angle underwater. And that, by the way, is a long way underwater: unintentionally, the Hydromax now has the world record for a deep-sea watch, at 11,100m.

While recent years have seen the launch of

military watches, as well as the BR01 in various versions (including an unexpectedly bling, diamond-covered version), further innovations are promised. The latest hot ticket? The BR02 carbon-finished diving watch, another icon in the making, from a company that seems to take delight in bucking expectations.

“The launch of Bell & Ross was difficult for much of the industry to understand I think,” Rosillo says. “What were we about? Where had we come from? But we managed to capture the interest of people who really love watches very quickly, and that has always been motivating. I mean, does the tradition of a watch brand really depend on how long you’ve been around, or how quickly you consolidate your philosophy?

“I don’t know the answer,” he adds. “But I do know that we’re often thought of as being much older than we are. And then you look a lot of other companies that have been around for decades and you wonder where they’re going. In troubled times you have to keep your direction, whether it seems to suit those times or not.” ■

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MOTORS

APRIL 08

IF HAN SOLO DROVE A CAR IT WOULD BE AN R8

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MOTORS

Fancy an afternoon in the country with a great-looking model?

KPMG’s Chris Stott clears his diary to experience a spinetingling Friday afternoon out with the new Audi R8

THINGS you don’t often hear in the office: “How big a bonus would you like and, while we’re at it, do you need a pay rise?” Or, how about: “Take Friday afternoon off; we need you to test drive the new 187 mph, 4.2 litre V8 Audi R8.”

Oddly enough, it didn’t take me long to re-arrange Friday’s meetings. That said, I knew very little about this car before driving it and in fact, my initial reaction was, “it’s no big deal, an Audi isn’t a Porsche or an Aston right?” Wrong! This was the best car I have ever driven by some margin, and it will be a long time before I forget turning off the A1 for Warkworth Castle, dropping a couple of gears and enjoying some of Northumberland’s finest country roads in a car that I was too scared to drive to its full potential.

I knew I was driving something special when half the office followed me to where it was parked by the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, already surrounded by a bevy of passers-by expecting a Shearer, an Owen or a McPartlin, but ending up with me!

At the risk of upsetting the German architects of this wonderful machine, its visual impact is akin to the Sarkozy pairing of statesmanship and model looks; a potent cocktail of power and elegance. You can see the V8 through the back window, the wheels look like they have been lifted from Lewis Hamilton’s garage, and the sweeping sideblades as if they have been borrowed from an RAF Typhoon.

At 100 head turns per block, and hidden behind tinted glass for the first, and probably

Great match: Chris Stott, head of KPMG’s transaction services team in Newcastle, and the R8 the last time in my life, I felt like Brad Pitt; albeit a bit cuddlier round the midriff. This car was getting some serious attention everywhere we went.

Surprisingly, it’s a quiet and airy cabin (no room for the kids though...) and while it drives like a jet fighter, the dashboard lacks the intimidation of the cockpit.

The flat-bottomed steering wheel is a subtle reminder of its Le Mans victory and the Bang & Olufsen sound system is a quality touch.

Having said that, the radio was the least of my worries; I was too busy focusing on the aluminium-toothed snarling gear box and its satisfying thump as I moved between gears.

This driving experience had me as excited, and as scared, as the time I drove my dad’s new Ford Escort, on my own, the day I passed my driving test. I consider myself a decent driver, but when you get in a car like this there are no excuses; you can’t blame a lack of power, a need for new brake pads, or sloppy suspension - in the R8 the only limiting factor is you.

So, having suitably psyched myself up and familiarised myself with the car’s capabilities, at least as far as you can in only 20 minutes, I found myself looking down a half-mile stretch of clear straight road, Warkworth Castle in my rear view mirror, the gentle throb of the engine behind me and 20 years of driving second-hand Ford Fiestas under my belt, I felt

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ready to take on the drive of my life; my Carpe Diem. So I did what all self-respecting middleaged wannabes do; I stalled it!

Having broken the ice with this roadworthy ‘Millennium Falcon,’ for the next 10 miles I had a smile so wide that Kermit would have been hard pushed to beat it. There was no corner too severe, no gear could in any way be deemed pedestrian, and the brakes were clearly capable of stopping an angry rhino; it was nothing short of a driver’s dream.

That said, the seat was a little uncomfortable and I found the rear visibility more limited than it should be, but let’s face it, this driver needs a diet and at 420 bhp you rarely have the time to look behind you.

An afternoon in the Northumberland countryside wasn’t going to allow me to take full advantage of its capabilities and I’m slightly disappointed that I wasn’t braver, but there’s always next time… right?

So it’s a diet and a re-mortgage for me and I’ll see you in the rear view mirror... just!

The Audi R8 starts at £78,195. The car Chris tested was provided by Teesside Audi, www.northeastaudi.co.uk If you’re a petrolhead and would like to test drive a car for BQ magazine, please email us at editor@BQ-magazine.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

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INTERVIEW

APRIL 08

LAND OF PROMISE Richard Cotter has no doubt where the Chinese stand on the environment, and he intends to take the outdoor clothing and equipment firm Berghaus to global leadership on the back of it. Brian Nicholls explains OPINION differs remarkably between the administrations of George Bush and Richard Cotter over Chinese attitudes to the green environment.

Whereas the US President’s administration alleges Chinese indifference, using it as a pretext for its own obduracy, Richard Cotter, brand president (chief executive) of Berghaus in Sunderland, sees China as receptive and a big potential market for his company’s environmentally friendly goods.

Comparing the current eco-performance of the United States with that of Berghaus - relatively speaking of course! - one might incline more at this point towards Richard’s hunch, particularly as Berghaus thrives in almost 30 countries already.

Richard was just four years old when Berghaus was set up in 1966, initially as an importer and distributor of outdoor performance clothing and equipment. Later, as a teenager, he was still more interested in golf and football than hiking, walking and climbing.

But now he has the exciting goal of leading

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

Berghaus; now designing, manufacturing and selling its own products with 120 staff, as part of Pentland Group - through one of its most exciting and telling periods.

The market leader in Britain, and a foremost brand in Europe already, it is going flat out to be a global brand leader with turnover almost doubled to £100m by 2012. That means thrusting into the Far East, Australia and the United States.

Having completed a second deal in Japan to have 180 outlets there by the end of next year – besides nine already established – Richard expects to be into China within two or three months. “That, along with our presence in Korea, will give us a considerable hold on the Far East,” he points out.

He has no misgiving about China and sustainability: “The Chinese recognise the implications of global warming. They recognise the environmental story is going to change.

So, from our point of view, we believe China is about to make a major thrust into the brand market.”

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That comes from a firm already holding a Queen’s Award for Enterprise. It suggests China to be a land of promise indeed for its new 365Life range of clothing, now being promoted heavily in Britain and the other markets.

Notable in earlier years as a European pioneer in use of Gore-Tex, and one of the first creators of a back pack with an internal frame, Berghaus has also been environmentally aware for some time now in its manufacture of outdoor wear; recycling plastic to make fleeces, and polyesters to make rucksacks.

Environment is to be a long-term key word in its ranges, and it is optimistic about this in its vision for growth. “Our ranges will tend to be environmentally friendly, partly because we feel it right and partly because our customers are looking that way anyway,” he explains.

The 365Life collection of free-range clothing - cotton wear totally organic and accessories of 55% recycled polyester - enters this category, designed (as the marketing prose puts it) to keep you and the outdoors looking great.

“Cool” and “stylish” are the adjectives used, and approving nods have already been seen from Chinese connections.

Whereas Berghaus reckons the average cotton t-shirt requires about 17 teaspoons of pesticides to cultivate, its own 365Life is using 100% organic.

Richard says: “We shall know by the end of summer how successful the range will be. But we are heartened to date by the response of retailers. They are usually wary of claims made for new products.

“In this case they have been encouraging. We foresee good sales growth for at least five or 10 years,” he added.

Fortunes of 365Life fit a context of general progress as consumers become more health and fitness conscious. Richard suggests: “Over the next 10 or 20 years what we call outdoor activities will mushroom. There has already been a big sports boom globally.

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INTERVIEW

Our ranges will tend to be environmentally friendly, partly because we feel it is right and partly because our customers are looking that way anyway

“Now we have evidence of the outdoor activities taking off, not only from Britain but from the like of Germany, Sweden, Korea and Japan. Many more people of different nationalities are looking to the outdoors for exercise.

“They are not into high-altitude climbing necessarily. They are not looking to scale an Alpine peak or even Snowdonia or Ben Nevis.

But they do want to get out into places like the Lake District and Kielder, for which they also want functional wear – warm, dry and hooded.”

If this is true, and family participation is the in thing, as Richard thinks, prospects are even better. For, as he points out: “Parents who have already tried it will say: ‘We trust this brand.’ Berghaus is bought for the children too. It is then family-endorsed.”

Many bosses use golf courses to seal deals and poach rivals’ key executives. Does Richard, a former golf professional, employ past experiences on links and greens to advance Berghaus? He does seem to keep his eye on

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APRIL 08

We try to provide things matching up to their greatest expectations. We constantly ask: why do consumers buy our products? the ball over objectives, and certainly follows through in chasing new business, as witness Japan.

“I haven’t quite got my personal check-in desk at Schiphol Airport yet, but it’s starting to look that way,” he laughs when asked the extent of his travelling. As for golf’s influence, he admits: “I always to carry a scorecard, something we can measure against in performance. I am not interested in our competitors. We measure ourselves against what we feel we can be.”

What else motivates him? “Enhancing the brand - especially through people around me. I get great pleasure watching our people develop and contribute to the good of the business, so that the brand grows and succeeds. That gives a huge sense of reward.

“I also have a sense of legacy – when eventually I walk away, what legacy will I leave? Will Berghaus be stronger, more effective and more profitable than before I arrived? For me it is never about numbers. It is about how good you can be.”

Berghaus develops two new ranges a year of proven global lines. Richard explains: “We examine all the markets, and the different regions select what they see as likely to sell where they are. Apparel for Japan and Korea will vary in size from that sold elsewhere.

Otherwise, items are much the same everywhere – same stitching, same style and same panelling for example.”

How, then, does Berghaus chalk up success at the rate it does? “We are clear about what our consumers are buying. We identify with what they are buying. Many branded businesses promote what they hope to see accepted, rather than providing what consumers would like.

“We try to provide things matching up to their greatest expectations. We constantly ask: why

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

do consumers buy our products? Then we must continue to deliver that ahead of anyone else. We are good at this, and at delivering quality products. We are strong.”

Many of the firm’s employees are consumers in the outdoor market themselves, while out and about, watching and listening to what others want. “This way, we bring perspective to our products,” Richard says.

What he says, he does. During a recent ski-ing visit to Cortina with his wife he wore the same cotton t-shirt five days running. No complaint from Mrs Cotter. That was because it contains a “silver iron” technology which takes any smell out.

Such a garment can be worn for up to seven days – ideal for bachelors, Richard agrees.

“And even more so if it was self-ironing,” he laughs.

Describing Berghaus as an outdoor specialist does not tell all, since activities like indoor rock climbing, the quickest growing participation sport, now enter the reckoning too.

But Berghaus products basically divide into four groups: a top mountain line for serious climbers, outdoor action for the like of walking and ski-ing, the Ator group for mountain biking and similar activities, and the 365Line lifestyle for sitting round the camp fire or other relaxation after activities.

About 50 Berghaus stores will have been created by the end of this year. Because Berghaus operates a licensing arrangement and brand-manages, the flagship premises at Seoul - and some elsewhere - look identical to the Berghaus recently opened at the MetroCentre in Gateshead.

With such an intensive expansion drive already under way, credit ratings exemplary and considerable scope seen yet for organic growth, any likelihood of acquisitions seems faint. ■

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PERHAPS when so much emphasis is being laid in top management on good school results, degrees and MBAs it is helpful to record here that Richard Cotter has reached the top without formal qualifications in business, though he has attended Ashridge Business School.

At 17, while at Bridley Moor High School, Redditch in Worcestershire, he had a choice: to be a professional in golf or football. He golfed almost a decade for money, including two years on the European Tour. At South Hertfordshire Golf Club he coached Des O’Connor, Selina Scott, Barry Took and Arsenal footballers.

But recognising, realistically, he would not achieve the competitive level he had set himself, he swung into the world of business.

First, he joined House of Fraser as a buyer of sports equipment – “It was Christmas every day,” he says – then he was divisional director of Head Sports before he reached the age of 30.

He then ran a Scottish rival to Berghaus called AMG, and later, at Aga food service group, he ran a big manufacturing plant called Falcon Foodservice Equipment.

That was his third managing directorship and another would follow at Brasher before he took the lead at Berghaus in 2006. He can also say that, among other things, he has climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania with Sir Chris Bonington, conqueror of Everest and Annapurna.

Š 2008 KPMG LLP, a UK limited liability partnership, is a subsidiary of KPMG Europe LLP and a member firm of the KPMG network of independent member firms affiliated with KPMG International, a Swiss cooperative.

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ALAN CLARKE

APRIL 08

BUILDING FROM A POSITION OF STRENGTH The best barometer of an economy’s business climate is investment and reinvestment, and we have recently seen a real vote of confidence from indigenous firms and inward investors in the North East as a base offering growth, says Alan Clarke

THE North East - like every other area of the UK - is adapting to the rapid pace of change in the global economy and the challenges it presents.

Demands and pressures placed upon firms to compete in the global environment are becoming ever greater.

It is easy to lose sight of the fact that behind a wealth of national headlines suggesting otherwise, our economy continues to grow at a rate outstripping the UK average.

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

Unemployment stands at a low level not seen for decades, while employment continues to grow.

Of course, for those workers affected by recent job losses at companies like Electrolux, Atmel and Stadium Plastics, the underlying strength of the regional economy is small comfort when bills have to be paid and the future is uncertain.

However, there are many alternative job prospects in the region and with the right

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support, many of those affected should find new jobs.

And the North East economy has been thrust into the national limelight in recent months with the temporary public ownership of Northern Rock. The future of its workforce remains our primary concern moving forward, and we are looking for the bank to move successfully back into the private sector ultimately.

The robust and broad business base which now underpins business activity in the region means that our economy is now better able to absorb economic setbacks and seize opportunities as they arise.

Creating new business, stimulating the growth of existing firms and bringing more people into employment remains a key priority for One NorthEast.

Latest statistics from the Government reveal that the size of the regional economy stood at £38.8bn in 2006 - that’s £2bn more than the previous year.

And, for the past three years, North East economic growth outstripped the UK average.

This is proof positive that the course charted for sustained economic growth in the Regional

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ALAN CLARKE

The robust and broad business base which now underpins business activity in the region means our economy is better able to absorb economic setbacks

Economic Strategy (RES) is the right one.

But there is still a long way to go if the North East is to reach its goal of attaining 90% of national GVA per head by 2016.

That would mean creating an extra 22,500 new businesses, and bringing 70,000 extra people into employment over the next eight years.

Ambitious targets, but I believe achievable given the unprecedented support for the RES from private, public and voluntary sector partners.

Aligning their resources to the key aims of the RES - business, people and place - will add real weight to sustainable economic growth.

One NorthEast has a central leadership role to play in driving this new growth.

In the last financial year, One NorthEast created 17,110 new jobs in the region, created or attracted 3,432 new businesses and attracted £246m worth of investment to regenerate deprived areas.

On behalf of the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform we run the Selective Finance for Investment grant, to help finance growing companies looking to create new jobs and safeguard existing posts.

During 2007, One NorthEast invested nearly £20m into more than 110 companies with the potential to create up to 4,000 new jobs and protect 1,400 posts.

We are aiding company competitiveness through our continued support for the North East Productivity Alliance and Energy Resource Efficiency schemes, to embed the latest productivity techniques into firms and introduce measures to cut energy usage and slash rising fuel bills.

Of course, the best barometer of an economy’s business climate is investment and reinvestment.

The past few months have seen a real vote of confidence from indigenous firms and inward investors in the North East as a base from which to build and grow.

Nissan’s decision to create a third shift at its Sunderland plant, and 800 new jobs to cope with demand for its stunningly successful Qashqai model, is tremendous news for the local area and wider North East economy.

So is the Government’s decision to give formal planning approval to PD Ports’ commitment to develop a £300m Northern Gateway Container Terminal at Teesport - with the huge

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boost this will bring both as a job creator in itself and as a key hub for the transporting of goods across the North East.

Haverton Hill shipyard at Billingham is being brought back to life with the beginning of steel cutting work to build massive oil platforms bound for some of the harshest environments on earth.

The 800 skilled jobs integral to this project prove that the North East not only has the prime business sites for investors but also the skilled workforce to complete the most complex of contracts.

One NorthEast has backed fully these three crucial schemes, and will continue to work with partners across the region to attract more new investment and opportunities.

The North East is home to nearly 600 overseas companies and continues to attract more to the region through its unparalleled combination of world class commercial property, financial support, skilled workforce and R and D and innovation activities - all combined with a fantastic quality of life.

Alan Clarke is chief executive of regional development agency One NorthEast

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

ALASTAIR MacCOLL

APRIL 08

THE END OF THE BEGINNING FOR BUSINESS LINK

April 2008 marks the anniversary of the launch of the North East’s first regional Business Link organisation. Business Quarter talks with Alastair MacColl, who has left the world of newspapers to lead the company as chief executive through its formative years and on to a dynamic new business support system for the region’s entrepreneurs

Q

New premises, staff, systems and access points – it’s been 12 busy months for Business Link North East. How has it felt being in the driving seat?

Enormously positive and progressive - I really feel this anniversary marks the end of the beginning for Business Link North East.

We have largely put in place the infrastructure, systems and processes to fundamentally

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improve business support in the North East by offering a streamlined, consistent and high-quality service that has absolute clarity; no confusion, no duplication, and ruthless intolerance of anything that prevents us communicating with the people we are here to serve.

I’ve been delighted by the quality and energy of original members of staff who transferred from earlier operations to this one. We have also recruited many new staff, largely from the private sector, and our new team is now formidable, with skills, experience and enthusiasm to ensure the region’s business community receives gold standard support. Results we are beginning to record show we are very much open for business, and working with companies of all sizes in all sectors. So, altogether, very challenging and very exciting.

Q

Any surprises (pleasant or unpleasant) along the way?

The most surprising thing about this first year in business is that there have been very few surprises!

The business community has embraced the changes we have put in place, and I’ve been delighted by how much support we’ve had. We’ve also enjoyed some very happy coincidences. There have long been calls for simplification to business support and the establishment of a regional Business Link organisation is aimed at addressing these calls. However, the Government’s move over the past 12 months to make business support easier to access, and to employ a more common sense, joined-up approach to avoid duplicated effort, has assisted our endeavours.

Businesses are getting the message that we

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ALASTAIR MacCOLL

are the primary access channel to support the development of their business, and we are taking our service to them instead of waiting for them to come to us.

Our close working partnerships with the Learning and Skills Council, One NorthEast, the Confederation of British Industry, Federation of Small Businesses, North East Chamber of Commerce, local authorities and the Institute of Directors is helping to simplify the route to support for our new and existing companies.

Q

How have you found the radical job swap from managing director of Gazette Media Company to your current role?

I’d hesitate to say it’s been a completely seamless transition from my old job to my new one.

I’ve had to learn many new things and explore a number of new areas, but many principles employed are the same. Moving from an established business to a new business, I’ve found much of my experience of working in the world of media is just as relevant to my new world of business support.

I hope I’m right in thinking that many of my colleagues consider my private sector background has helped deliver a fresh perspective to our approach. There is definitely something very helpful about coming from a completely different background in terms of looking at problems in a different way and challenging preconceptions.

The fact that I had been running a business that faced many of the same challenges and opportunities that are faced by our own customers on a daily basis has, I hope,

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provided me with credibility in the business community, and customers I am lucky enough to have dealt with personally appreciate the fact that I approach problems and solutions from their point of view.

Q A

What’s been the highlight of your first year in the job?

I try to see as many of the businesses we work with as possible, to ensure I have real exposure to what’s happening on the front line. I’m not exaggerating when I say that this is the best part of my job. Hearing first hand the ambitions, and experiencing the enthusiasm, of promising individuals that this region has to offer has been both fascinating and rewarding. The more talented people I meet, the more confidence I have about the future our region has. I feel fortunate to have been appointed to this role at this point, when the North East is making so much progress, has so much confidence and such incredible ambition.

Business Link’s expert brokers operate across the region in local access points and on a mobile basis. For further information about Business Link, see www.businesslinknortheast.co.uk or call 0845 600 9006.

Business Link North East has two principal aims: to provide information and advice to existing and potential businesses and broker additional, high-quality support from professional advisers. Support offered includes workforce development and training under the Learning and Skills Council’s Train to Gain programme.

BLNE is funded by One NorthEast and the Learning and Skills Council. Its services are supported by the European Regional Development Fund, through the Government Office for the North East.

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

Give your business an unfair advantage It’s a competitive world out there, and the only way to stay ahead in business is to break new ground.

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SHOW THE WORLD YOU MEAN BUSINESS

APRIL 08

EVENTS DIARY

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

APRIL

240 6045, k.robinson@entrust.co.uk Going Green, Grow your own action plan, Service Network event. Quadrus Centre, Boldon Business Park. Contact: Margaret Tweedy, 0191 519 7373

10 APRIL Durham MBA Preview Event. Durham Business School (11am) Contact: Dee Clark, 0191 334 5533, pg.bus@durham.ac.uk

25 APRIL

NSCA Students’ Society annual dinner. Newcastle Civic Centre (7pm). Contact: Pamela Rule, pmrule@yahoo.com

Closing date for nominations in Forum of Private Business awards for business-friendly MPs and MEPs. See www.fpb.org/award Tyne & Wear Society of Chartered Accountants’ Chairman’s Supper. (time/ venue/speaker tbc). Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

14 APRIL

28 APRIL

11 APRIL

Developments in the Port of Blyth, Alan Todd, the port’s technical operations director addresses ICE Northumbria. Newcastle (6.15pm). Contact: jason.boddy@arup.com

16 APRIL Tax Update, Bob Trunchion addresses NSCA seminar. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (9.30am). Contact Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com Accounts/Audit Update, Stephanie Barber addresses NSCA seminar. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (2pm). Contact Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com ICE President’s Teesside visit. Middlesbrough (6.15pm). Contact: Katerina.

Fytopoulou, fytopoulouK@pbworld.com

17 APRIL ICE North East Dinner with President David Orr. Newcastle (7.45pm). Contact: john.jeffrey@colas.co.uk Motivation, Interpersonal Skills, Body Language. Hartlepool Business Forum, Hartlepool Maritime Experience, (5.15pm). Contact: John Megson, 01429 867 677 Construction and Housing Association Seminar, by IT consultant Waterstons. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (9.30am). Contact: Ed Waterston, 0845 094 0945, edward.waterston@waterstons.com

18 APRIL FSB Conference and Dinner (optional). Newcastle Marriott Hotel, Gosforth Park.

Contact: Julie Bowron, 01642 561 845 and 07917 628 916 NSCA Lakes weekend conference. Lakeside Hotel, Windermere. Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

18 APRIL UNTIL 23 APRIL Trade Visit to Saudi Arabia, NOF Energy. Contact: Kristie Leng, 0191 471 4257,kleng@nofenergy.co.uk.

Tax Investigations and Enquiries, Andrew Gotch addresses NSCA seminar.

Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (2pm). Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

29 APRIL INCA Conference, North East Processing Industries Cluster hosting. Wynyard Rooms nr Sedgefield.

Managing Workplace Dermatitis – 1 (selecting the right skin care products).

Phil Lockheed addresses Teesside Safety Group. Marton Hotel and Country Club (1pm). Contact: Maurice Adamson, 01642 295 174. maurice.adamson@ btinternet.com NEC/ICE Compensation. Roddy Gordon explains the claims processs and the difference between NEC/ICE at Watson Burton breakfast briefing for CECA (NE). Durham County Cricket Club, Chester le Street (8am). Contact: Douglas Kell, 0191 228 0900

MAY 1 MAY North East Business Awards. Hardwick Hall Hotel, Sedgefield. Contact: Claire Evans, claire.evans@ncjmedia.co.uk

2 MAY UNTIL 9 MAY UK Trade & Investment market visit to Offshore Technology Conference.

Houston, USA. www.nofenergy.co.uk

8 MAY Enterprise Challenge, Newcastle University Business Plan Awards. Civic Centre, Newcastle. Contact: Kate Moore, kate.moore@ncl.ac.uk Business Awards Dinner. Hartlepool Business Forum, Borough Hall, Hartlepool.

Contact: John Megson, 01429 867 677

12 MAY

21 APRIL AND 22 APRIL Introduction to Project Management, NOF Energy workshop. Washington.

Contact: Kristie Leng, 0191 471 4257, kleng@nofenergy.co.uk.

22 APRIL NOF Energy Supplier Forum. Sedgefield Sites (8am). Contact: via www. sellafieldsites.com.

Managing Money, NStar course. Wellington House, Wynyard Park, nr Sedgefield.

Contact: via nstarfinanceandbusiness.com

24 APRIL Designing Demand Workshop. A free workshops to explore the opportunities available through design. RTC North, Sunderland (8.30am – 2.30pm with lunch and refreshments included). Contact: Karen Robinson, 0191

Property Tax Issues, including Stamp Duty Land Tax, Brian Ogilvie addresses NSCA seminar. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (2pm). Contact: Marie Rice, marie. rice@icaew.com

14 MAY Designing Demand Workshop. A free workshops to explore the opportunities available through design. Newcastle Racecourse, Gosforth (8.30am – 2.30pm with lunch and refreshments included). Contact Karen Robinson, 0191 240 6045, k.robinson@entrust.co.uk Durham MBA Preview Event. Durham Business School (11am). Contact: Dee Clark, 0191 334 5533.

Solicitors’ Accounts Rules, Janet Taylor addresses NSCA seminar. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (2pm). Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

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BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

EVENTS DIARY

APRIL 08

19 MAY Closing date for North East region entries to Bank of Scotland Corporate’s £35m Entrepreneur Challenge. See www.theboschallenge.co.uk.

20 MAY Designing Demand Workshop. A free workshops to explore the opportunities available through design. Dickinson Dees, Newcastle (8.30am – 2.30pm with lunch and refreshments included). Contact: Karen Robinson, 0191 240 6045, k.robinson@entrust.co.uk Teesside Safety Group AGM with Neshep and NCSG. Marton Hotel and Country Club (1pm). Contact: Maurice Adamson, 01642 295 174, maurice. adamson@btinternet.com Double Resolution Update: Mediation, does it work? Adjudication, how it works. Sarah Lawson reviews key case law and explains mediation process at Watson Burton breakfast briefing for CECA (NE). Durham County Cricket Club, Chester le Street (8am). Contact: Douglas Kell, 0191 228 0900 Teesside Society of Chartered Accountants’ AGM. Anderson Barrowcliff, Thornaby (4.30pm). Contact: Craig McBride, email CMcBride@gilchristtash.co.uk

NSCA tax seminar, part 2 briefing by Rebecca Benneyworth. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (2pm). Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

12 JUNE Jobs4Energy Recruitment Fair. St James’s Park, Newcastle (1.30pm). Contact: Jamie Collis, 01325 363 436

17 JUNE Designing Demand Workshop. A free workshops to explore the opportunities available through design. Newcastle Racecourse, Gosforth Park (8.30am – 2.30pm with lunch and refreshments included). Contact: Karen Robinson, 0191 240 6045, k.robinson@entrust.co.uk

19 JUNE Durham MBA Preview Event. Durham Business School (11am). Contact: Dee Clark, 0191 334 5533, pg.bus@durham.ac.uk

20 JUNE

Celebration of Learning and Skills Awards 2008. The Sage, Gateshead.

Contact: Andy Thevarokiam, 0191 240 7007, andy@fawthropclanders.com

23 JUNE

21 MAY How Much is Your Business Worth? HW Chartered Accountants seminar on maximising a business, led by Paul Duncan, HW corporate finance director, and David Maultby, tax partner. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (8.30am). Contact: Carole Lackenby, tel 01325 254 700, e-mail clakenby@hwca.com Funding Your Business Needs, NStar course. Wellington House, Wynyard Park, nr Sedgefield. Contact: via nstarfinanceandbusiness.com Tyne & Wear Society of Chartered Accountants’ AGM. Northern Counties Club, Newcastle (12.30pm). Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com NSCA AGM. Northern Counties Club, Newcastle (12.45pm). Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

VAT Issues for the SME, Neil Owen addresses NSCA seminar. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (2pm). Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

24 JUNE

21 MAY UNTIL 23 MAY

Young Enterprise Awards, Newcastle Marriott Hotel, Gosforth.Designing Demand Workshop. A free workshops to explore the opportunities available through design. Ward Hadaway, Newcastle (8.30am – 2.30pm with lunch and refreshments included). Contact: Karen Robinson, 191 240 6045, k.robinson@entrust.co.uk Scaffold Safety Awareness, Dave Palmer addresses Teesside Safety Group.

Marton Hotel and Country Club (1pm) Contact: Maurice Adamson, 01642 295 174, maurice.adamson@btinternet.com

Thinking Digital Conference, Codeworks event. The Sage, Gateshead. Contact: enquiries@codeworks.net

The Journal/Watson Burton Deal Awards. Hilton, Gateshead.

26 JUNE

22 MAY Bank of England’s Economic Review, Service Network and the Bank of England event. David Buffham, the bank’s Agent for the North East explains the Bank’s inflation report and forecast for growth and inflation. Wynyard Rooms, Teesside. Contact: Anna Brown, 0191 244 4031

26 MAY UNTIL JUNE 6 NOF Energy Visit to China. Contact: Kristie Leng, 0191 471 4257

1 JULY Employment Update. Christopher Graham on new legislation and cases at Watson Burton breakfast briefing for CECA (NE). Durham County Cricket Club, Chester le Street (8am). Durham County Cricket Club, Cheater le Street (8am-8.45).

Contact: Douglas Kell, 0191 228 0900

7 JULY

JUNE

Corporate Tax Update, Ross Martin briefs NSCA seminar. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (2pm). Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

4 JUNE Money Laundering, Stephanie Barber briefs NSCA seminar. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (9.30am). Contact Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com Designing Demand Workshop. A free workshops to explore the opportunities available through design. NETPark, Sedgefield (8.30am – 2.30pm with lunch and refreshments included). Contact: Karen Robinson, 0191 240 6045, k.robinson@entrust.co.uk Companies Act, Stkephanie Barber addresses NSCA seminar. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (2pm). Contact Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

5 JUNE Nigel Wright Accountancy Awards 2008. Hilton Hotel, Gateshead. Nominations to www.accountancyawards.co.uk

10 JUNE NSCA tax seminar, part 1, briefing by Rebecca Benneyworth. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham (9.30am). Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

BUSINESS QUARTER | APRIL 08

JULY

8 JULY Durham MBA Preview Event. Durham Business School (11am). Contact: Dee Clark, 0191 334 5533, pg.bus@durham.ac.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.

86

trees acorns

We’ve grown.

We’ve grown from humble beginnings, with offices across the region and a range of specialist services that are unrivalled. So our business has evolved and we’ve changed the way we look, but not the way we do business with you, we are still the regions leading multi-disciplinary law firm.

BHP Law, the new name of Blackett Hart & Pratt LLP. To find out more call us on 0191 2210898.

www.bhplaw.co.uk

Inspired publishing.

sales@room501.co.uk 0191 419 3221