BQ North East Issue 03

www.bq-magazine.co.uk

ISSUE THREE: OCTOBER 2008

FUN AND GAMES How Mere Mortals’ global approach reaps dividends in the gaming market

PRIME TIMES TV producer Tom Gutteridge on London, LA and making a date with Cilla

BUILDING BRIDGES Caroline Theobald’s mission to get business talking

THE WAY WE LIVE NOW Alan J Smith on the living hell that is modern house design

VIZ ‘N’ FIZZ Fentimans Drinks’ Eldon Robson’s refreshing approach to tickling the nation’s taste buds

BUSINESS NEWS: COMMERCE: FASHION: INTERVIEWS: MOTORS: EVENTS ISSUE THREE: OCTOBER 2008

promoting sustainable business growth...

County Durham Development Company promotes innovation and strategic investment on behalf of Durham County Council.

And we are the driving force behind the development of NETPark – the North East’s premier science & technology park.

If you’re interested in doing business in County Durham, it’s our business to help. To find out more about opportunities in County Durham, visit www.wherebusinessgrows.com or telephone: 0191 370 8680.

County Durham Development Company The Rivergreen Centre Aykley Heads Durham DH1 5TS Tel: 0191 370 8680 E-mail: enquiries@wherebusinessgrows.com

www.wherebusinessgrows.com

WELCOME

BUSINESS QUARTER: OCTOBER 08: ISSUE THREE Much fun has been had at BQ lately thanks to Eldon Robson, the brains behind Fentimans Drinks and surely the man most deserving of the Couldn’t Give A Toss What Anyone Thinks Award 2008 … if only such a thing existed, that is.

Eldon’s a genius businessman and the brains behind the revival of a family business his elders squandered a few years back.

In these days of much po-faced navel-gazing and credit crunchinspired doom mongering, we thank him for his zinging ginger ale, his irreverent approach to business and his highly refreshing seaside postcard-style marketing campaign.

Find out about him and the Fentimans’ beer mat ad campaign which, unusually, revives the Victorian tradition of ‘furtling’ (it’s something to do with erotic hand manipulation – we don’t want to know …) on page 36.

We also feature pearls of wisdom from such innovative business brains as: Tom Gutteridge, one of the world’s most influential TV producers and the man responsible for putting Cilla Black back on TV with a new dating show (okay, we know … is that really a good thing?); Alan J Smith, an architect of international repute who is calling for an end to contemporary rabbit hutch housing; and Bridge Club’s Caroline Theobald, the woman who was once in the unenviable (if fascinating) position of being at Robert Maxwell’s right hand.

Remember please that we’re available both in print and on the web, so if someone nicks your precious copy of BQ, just visit us at www.bq-magazine.co.uk and remember also to keep an eye on our other website, www.nebusinessguide.co.uk for our daily

news and events update. WRITE IN STYLE …

Whatever happened to the art of letter writing? We’d like to know, so we’ve got two luxurious writing instruments, courtesy of prestige pen maker Montegrappa, to give away to our most sparkling correspondents.

We want to start a lively letters / email page and all we need is the odd 100–200 words from you to get it going. Send us your thoughts on the state of the nation, the state of the region, or anything else you would like to bring to our attention, so long as it’s interesting. You choose the subject matter, we’ll decide if it’s good enough to print. You can even have a pop at us if you like.

Aw go on, go on, you know you want to … these pens – a ball pen and a fountain pen in uber-stylish black lacquer finish - are worth about £250 each, so imagine how good you’d look signing your next deal with one, eh?

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

CONTACTS 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 DESIGN & PRODUCTION Room501 Ltd e: studio@room501.co.uk PHOTOGRAPHY 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 Mark Anderson Business Development e: mark@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, October 2008.

BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

CONTE BUSINESS QUARTER: OCTOBER 08 QUALITY OF LIFE

44 PRIME TIMES

32

TV producer Tom Gutteridge’s dates with Cilla, queen of primetime

Features

58 FINE VINTAGE Robert Cook’s very hospitable business plan for Hotel du Vin and Malmaison

74 ROYAL APPOINTMENT Enter now for a Queen’s Award

16 HOUSE BEAUTIFUL Alan Smith’s wish for a credit crunchinspired re-think of housing policy

28 FUN AND GAMES Mere Mortals’ global operation makes it a winner every time

36 VIZ FIZZ Fentimans’ Eldon Robson’s highly irreverent approach to business

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

78 FIGHTING BACK

VIZ FIZZ

Sunderland business bounces back in the face of adversity

82 GOOD HEALTH Spire healthcare’s prescription for the health of the region

93 DURHAM GOLD How a once-struggling county fought back from its darkest days

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TENTS 32 AS I SEE IT

IN CONVERSATION

Estelle Chatard’s new North East

50 WINE Jonathan Gold tests two best bottles

52 BUSINESS LUNCH

Regulars

Bridge Club’s Caroline Theobald on business ethics and Robert Maxwell

62 FASHION Fokke de Jong’s affordable suiting

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ON THE RECORD Who’s making the news in Q4/08

10 NEWS Who’s doing what, when, where and why, here in the North East

20 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY The landmark developments building the region’s industrial landscape

68 KIT Meridian’s sound of music

52 SUITS YOU

72 MOTORS Michael Jopling is seduced by Bentley’s Continental GTC

86 FRANK TOCK Gripping gossip from our backroom boy

98 EVENTS The best events this coming quarter

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62 BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

ON THE RECORD

OCTOBER 08

The credit crunch is biting into the region’s new order books, but exports have hit a record with the highest growth anywhere in the country. Brian Nicholls sums up the last business quarter 60

Rising

Order Books

55 50 45 40

Falling

further show the 12 months to the end of the second quarter of 2008 were £10.92bn, or 26% plus up against the £8.65bn of goods exported in the previous 12 month period.

David Coppock, UK Trade & Investment’s international trade director, said: “When you add exports of services to the figures for goods the total now exceeds £13bn a year.”

Sectors providing most exports for the region remain automotive, biotech and pharmaceutical, says Ian Williams, One NorthEast’s director of business and industry.

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>> What a month that was August 2008 will probably be remembered as the time when the credit crunch and a faltering global economy really began to bite in the region.

New orders fell sharply and output fell for the third month running. Meanwhile, cost pressures intensified, jobs dwindled, and output contracted for a third month (though the fall was slightly lower than the previous four weeks). The rate of decline in new business in the region fell faster than the UK average, however.

Manufacturers had to raise prices to meet higher input costs partly caused by a weaker sterling and climbing charges for raw materials and energy, all of which could affect sales in the months ahead.

These trends were recorded in the North East report of the Purchasing Managers’ Index produced for the Royal Bank of Scotland by Markit Economics. The chart above plots the seasonally adjusted indicators of business conditions in the North East. Index ratings above 50 signal an increase on the previous month, while readings below 50 signal a fall.

>> Newcastle Building success Newcastle Building Society is creating 50 jobs after winning a five-year multi-million pound contract from a national financial services firm.

Last September, the building society pledged to create 500 new jobs in five years. It is already ahead of schedule, increasing the 116 posts already filled by another 50. About 50 further vacancies exist across other areas of the business.

The new contract involves supporting the

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

unnamed financial business in launching and developing a new savings account brand. Many job applications were expected from Northern Rock staff threatened with redundancy.

>> Record exports Exports have hit a record in the North East, showing the highest growth anywhere in the UK. During the second quarter of 2008, exports of goods from the region equated to £2.94bn, against £2.296bn at the same time last year.

The figures from HM Revenue and Customs

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Headhunting: Maxine Pott

>> RMT top dealmaker The corporate finance team of RMT Accountants and Business Advisors is the region’s top dealmaker for the last half of 2008, a report says.

The team at the Gosforth firm dealt with £40m in deals over 12 months, according to Corpfin, part of the Experian Group. Martin Stephenson, the firm’s corporate finance director, emerged as the region’s top individual dealmaker.

Maxine Pott, the corporate finance partner heading the team, says: “We are looking at recruiting an additional manager in corporate finance.”

IT’S ALL ABOUT THE PEOPLE. www.nigelwright.com

ON THE RECORD >> Jobs on the Tyne Ship repair and conversion work is thriving at Hebburn, where A&P Tyne is working for the next five years on a £53m Defence Ministry contract to maintain five Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships, safeguarding 250 jobs.

The good news follows the creation of 200 jobs in a £30m nine-month contract to turn the icebreaker Ice Maiden I into a flotel for offshore energy support work, bringing the workforce up to 500. A&P Tyne is also likely to help build two new aircraft carriers which have been commissioned for the Royal Navy.

>> Come fly with me Eastern Airways is again Newcastle International Airport’s most punctual scheduled airline. It was more punctual than the likes of KLM, British Airways, EasyJet, Ryanair and Flybe in the first half of the year, the Civil Aviation Authority says, and was number one throughout 2006 and 2007.

OCTOBER 08

expectations of the project.” The programme was set up after Chris Thompson, head of Express Engineering Group in Gateshead, co-authored a paper while he was visiting professor of innovation at Newcastle University’s business school.

The paper set the challenges of worklessness, one of which was to re-train many long-term unemployed in receipt of sick benefit and guide them back into work.

The paper said some families in the North East, largely through the rundown of traditional industries, had members of up to three generations out of work long term, and some members who had never been employed.

Workshop: Joanne Taylor from Pots 4 Fun helps with the artwork at a children’s party

>> Pots of fun >> Work scheme gains ground A pilot project to help people move off incapacity benefit and into work is to be expanded in County Durham after an initial trial saw more than 150 people into employment in Easington.

Aim High Routeback was launched in Easington in 2005, involving local GPs and other health professionals. Clients were offered one-to-one and group support and the project has now worked with almost 400 people, of whom 151 have already moved into jobs. Another 73 are likely to start work by the end of this year.

More than half of the success stories involved people with mental health issues, around 41% reduced their medication and 55% used primary care services less. Everyone involved, even those not yet in employment, say they are more confident and employable now.

County Durham and Darlington Primary Care Trusts now plan to launch a new county-wide programme with JobCentre Plus. Joanne Benson, the pilot co-ordinator, says: “Most remarkable were the changes clients were able to make to their lives. These surpassed the

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

Joanne Taylor was keen to combine her skills as an art teacher with business, so she has now launched a design-your-ownceramics business which teaches new skills in a workshop environment.

Joanne, of Hexham, taught art and design in a Newcastle secondary school for six years before setting up Pots for Fun. “The great thing is that you don’t have to be artistic. Anyone can do it. And it suits any age group from toddlers to care home residents, schoolchildren to business executives,” she says.

Joanne has her own kiln at her home studio, provides all materials and tuition, and takes the decorated work to be fired and glazed before returning it to its owners. See www.potsforfun.co.uk

>> Climate an issue Businesses in the North East are showing a greater commitment to environmental issues than their counterparts across the country, a survey of more than 3,000 firms nationwide suggests.

The survey, by the North East Chamber of

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Commerce, suggests more than half of all North East businesses consider climate change to be significant issue for their businesses now, and more than 63% think it will be significant in the next five years.

>> Berghaus exports MetroCentre model Berghaus has confirmed its entry to the vast Chinese market from next year, as predicted in BQ magazine last April.

The company has signed a six-year deal to get its North East outdoor brand into 200 dedicated Berghaus stores, as well as selling the range through specialised retail across China.

Brand president Richard Cotter says: “As Berghaus continues to develop into one of the world’s top five outdoor brands, Asia will be a key territory. We have already made great progress in Japan and South Korea, and have also created Berghaus Asia, a self-sufficient division in Hong Kong.” Berghaus, which is aiming for 400 outlets throughout Asia, is also opening a second UK flagship store in London’s Covent Garden. It is based largely on the store at the MetroCentre in Gateshead.

The MetroCentre outlet has also beaten expectations in its first year of trading.

Cotter says: “The flagship store at the MetroCentre has allowed us to introduce new retailing concepts and test-market new products and merchandising techniques. It has also given us a better understanding of retail in general.

“Designs and merchandising methods used there have already been adapted successfully around the world, particularly in South Korea and Japan.”

>> Awards for RBS Royal Bank of Scotland’s North East team has won three awards at this year’s North East Business Insider Dealmakers Awards. RBS was named corporate bank of the year, regional director for corporate banking Matt Lowe was named corporate banker of the year, and RBS Invoice Finance won the specialist finance team of the year category.

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For more information visit www.hay-kilner.co.uk or call 0191 232 8345

NEWS

OCTOBER 08

A teenage entrepreneur is filling Christmas stockings for free, the Pen Shop is opening a new luxury branch and, for Bill Ward, it really is the time to buy Volvo. See? It’s not all grim up North... >> Project escapes bank collapse One of the world’s biggest recycling operations will go ahead in the North East, despite its dependence on Lehman Brothers’ failed bank for its lead capital in the £50m investment.

Brothers Michael and William Thompson and fellow director Richard Mair are erecting the world’s largest steam-driven recycling plant on the banks of the Tyne at Gateshead.

Derwenthaugh EcoParc and its recycling plant, run by the Thompsons’ company Graphite Resources Ltd, will be a first of its type in the UK. Due to be running with 70 jobs towards the end of 2009, it will recycle an equivalent of waste from 500,000 homes at an unprecedented rate of more than 75%.

News of the fall of Lehman Brothers’ investment bank in September, four months after the main contractor Clugston started building, raised speculation about whether the autoclave plant would be aborted.

But a spokesman for Graphite Resources said: “While it may be the last project in the region that Lehman Brothers will invest in, its contribution has been paid in. The money has been transferred.”

Steam autoclaving, which is already common in Australia and the USA, is used on a small scale here to sterilise equipment in some hospitals and surgeries. Under the process, steam is used to sterilise municipal and household waste in autoclaves – large, enclosed vessels the length of a fuel tanker, taking up to 30 tonnes of (black bag) waste for an hour at a time.

In annual terms, the plant will treat up to 320,000 tonnes of municipal solid waste, 60,000 tonnes of light waste (kerbside, commercial and industrial) and 20,000 tonnes of green and skip waste. Through steam treatment, waste normally sent to landfill will no longer create carbon emissions caused by initial burning.

Besides Lehman Brothers, the management

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

team and a group led by Lord Baker, the former Conservative Secretary of State for the Environment, will finance it. Debt facilities are being provided by Allied Irish Bank and Alliance & Leicester Commercial Bank.

The Thompsons left their family’s building demolition firm Thompsons of Prudhoe in 2002 to plan the new project. Lord Baker, who is non-executive chairman, said: “The Thompsons are pioneers. The North East should be proud of leading the way to a more eco-friendly future.”

>> Figuring globally Durham Business School features in a new world listing of Masters in Finance degree programmes drawn up by the Financial Times.

The school’s seven MSc finance programmes attract thousands of applicants. It has 331 students in the current academic year, the second largest cohort in Europe and the third largest globally.

>> Jonathan fills stockings Young entrepreneur Jonathan Grubin has launched a website to help parents choose their most wanted Christmas presents for their children for free.

Jonathan, 17, of Gosforth, who attends Newcastle’s Royal Grammar School has introduced the service on FreeXmas.co.uk Items on offer include many on youngsters’ seasonal wish lists. Members need only complete sponsors’ offers and recommend friends to do the same. FreeXmas.co.uk is the newest of four online networks that A-level student Jonathan owns.

He set up his first business, which gives away free mobile phone accessories, when he was 12.

>> Gathering bluebells Expanding Newcastle firm Bluebell Telecommunications has bought two business-to-business telecoms companies in Scotland and Yorkshire.

Bluebell has now made four acquisitions in three years, the latest purchases coming through a war chest of £2m funding in partnership with NatWest and NEL Fund Managers Ltd. Annual revenue is expected to hit £3.5m, thanks in part to NEL’s official 500th fund injection since it was established in 1988.

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>> On your Marks Mark Anderson has joined Room501, creators of BQ magazine, as business development manager with special responsibility for growing the business in the region.

Mark brings some 20 years’ commercial media experience with him, most recently as business development manager with ncjMedia, publisher of The Journal and the Evening Chronicle in Newcastle.

Mark joins the experienced sales team which underpins BQ magazine, the North East Business Guide and Room501’s online businesses at a crucial stage of growth for Room501, a leading media and contract publishing group whose services also include design and web development.

OCTOBER 08

NEWS

>> Pen Shop expands The Pen Shop, Europe’s biggest supplier of luxury writing instruments, has opened its 33rd outlet at Brent Cross Shopping Centre in London.

Pens sold by the company range in price from £5 to £65,000 and the first Pen Shop opened in Newcastle in 1946. The chain is owned by Gateshead-based T&G Allan, a stationer whose Tyneside roots date back to 1858.

Managing director Colin McClymont says: “As in all our shops, we offer something to suit everyone. We have products that reveal all aspects of personality and allow for every personal expression.”

>> Hotels take a hit A slowdown in UK hotel performance during the first half of 2008 shows Newcastle had one of the slowest rates of revenue per available room.

Revenue per available room at hotels in the city rose by just 2% against 3.5% nationally, the study from Deloitte says. That was more than three percentage points lower than the 6.7% achieved nationally in 2007. Aberdeen, a star performer in previous years, has also seen a slowdown, but Hull and Liverpool, which pipped Newcastle to the City of Culture award, both show increases.

>> EU storms barriers The European Commission wants barriers holding back innovative research in Europe to be removed. It is responding to a report which noted that EU-funded research programmes have helped make Europe a world leader in nano-technology and high-speed networking. But the EU notes major barriers still apply, and it has made 23 recommendations for improvements.

>> Mark’s resources grow Mark Ions’ one-man recruitment firm in human resources is entering its second year with three additional staff.

Successful MBO team: (l-r) Robert Thompson, Ward Hadaway, Chris Appleby, BTG McInnes Corporate Finance, Bill Ward, Mill, Jeff Fryer, Co-operative Bank and Bob Nicholson, Mill

>> Mill Garages under new owners Motor dealer Mill Garages is under new ownership. Bill Ward, known throughout the region for his TV ads promoting the group, has acquired the five Mill dealerships with Bob Nicholson in a deal worth almost £7m.

Inchcape plc was the seller and the sites at Newcastle, Hexham, Sunderland, Stockton and Harrogate will still trade as Mill Garages, a brand name since 1947. The company has a £60m-plus turnover and employs more than 140 people.

Exclusive Human Resources, at Design Works in Gateshead, is recruiting at all levels and consulting on issues ranging from mediation and arbitration to process improvements and coaching. The company is a member of the Service Network and the Entrepreneurs Forum.

>> Tied pubs want equal terms The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) is calling time on the beer that tied pub companies impose on landlords. Some 94% of pub trade members of the federation say exclusive buying obligations should be scrapped.

Colin Stratton, FSB regional chairman for the North East, says: “At a time when 27 pubs a week are closing, pub landlords often pay up to double the price for beer and cider than they would if they were buying in a free market. If the ties were

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eradicated, the pub landlords would be able to compete fairly with those who are not tied.”

>> Seeing the light Design Right Solutions (DRS), a product development firm in Sunderland, has developed a new low-cost light secured to skips with a virtually unbreakable noose in association with entrepreneur George Main.

Simon Spencer, product designer at DRS, says: “Because it uses a low-voltage LED, the new light will cost less than a third of the price of the usual ones. Their robust design should also prevent breakage and theft.”

>> Did you know?

The 6,000 ships using Teesport every year puts it in the UK’s top three busiest ports.

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

NEWS

OCTOBER 08

Dramatic: One of Graeme’s winning images

has a turnover of around £146m from wholesale exporting and importing of fashion.

This company, established for 27 years, now stands 52nd among the North-East’s Top 250 Companies.

>> Sintons crosses borders Sintons law firm has joined International Jurists (IJ) - a network of mid-sized commercial law firms located across the world. It enables its member firms to get legal advice for clients in all their crossborder transactions.

Chris Welch, partner and joint head of the Newcastle firm’s company and commercial department, says: “We are finding that a growing number of our clients need advice on matters in other countries.”

>> Graeme’s a top toggy Graeme Rowatt is the North East’s top commercial photographer this year, according to the British Institute of Professional Photographers.

It has named Graeme, MD of GR Visual Communication in Darlington, the winner of its award highlighting work of the region’s leading photographers in the commercial field.

>> Team goes Dutch

>> Jarrow’s in fashion

Creative agency Bgroup is on a European high with a new office opened on the Continent and another planned for the end the year.

The Newcastle firm, which already has an office in London’s Covent Garden, is now up and running in the Dutch city of Maastricht and has plans for a third European office, probably in Berlin, to grow work for clients across the EU. The company already works directly for the European Commission and Future Europe and MD Siobhan Bales has for two years been UK representative on an EU panel researching the most effective methods of communicating entrepreneurship across Europe.

Larsen Ltd, a specialist in making and distributing quality outdoor clothing for sailing, ocean racing, hunting and shooting, is expanding in Jarrow.

The company went into business at Hanlon Court in Jarrow in May, when Aussie businessman Dave Cooper set his machinery rolling with 13 staff. He hopes to build the workforce to 35 in the coming months.

Of course, Larsen is working on the same patch as J Barbour & Sons and Dave, 51, a Sydney resident for 25 years before moving to the North East to set up Larsen, said: “The staff here are fantastic, very specialised in what they do. There are very few places around the world where you can manufacture such high quality clothing.”

Dave, widely experienced in exporting products worldwide, has also worked in Russia, America and Europe and partly financed his purchase of machinery through a South Tyneside Means Business fund.

Another long-established firm in the borough, Visage, employs more than 400 people and

>> Did you know?

North East England is home to a £4 billion healthcare and life science sector with 5,000 related organisations employing more than 170,000 people.

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

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>> Beefing up apprentices Strong business performance and a skills shortage within the engineering industry has led Express Engineering to beef up its apprentice programme.

Its latest recruits at Team Valley, Gateshead, include weightlifter Kristofer Herring, 18, one of four engineering apprentices recently taken on by the company whose contracts include the new military aircraft programme and a £1m deal to supply specialist sub-sea drilling components to the US.

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There is a better way kpmg.co.uk/winwin Making the right decisions for your business is not easy, particularly if your organisation is feeling the impact of the current economic turmoil.

To discuss how KPMG can help, contact Mark Firmin on 0191 401 3755 or Duncan Mackenzie on 0191 401 3768.

NEWS

OCTOBER 08

>> Passion for business

>> Secrets of success

One NorthEast, which is leading the push to improve perceptions of the region, is stressing the benefits of investing in the North East and its skilled workforce.

Using images of well-known firms and the faces behind their success, the campaign also aims to step up business done in the region.

The North East regional image campaign featured in the EU’s biggest annual event on regional policy in Brussels recently, when 218 regions and cities were represented.

Award-winning North East entrepreneur Kay Cooke is featured in a new audiobook revealing the success secrets of world-class business people, sports stars and motivators.

Kay, a partner in the Hexham-based Me Group (Managing Excellence) professional development consultancy, has been interviewed by best-selling author, motivator and TV sports presenter Tony Wrighton for the latest in his audio book series entitled How to be Successful.

Tony, who has also interviewed international CEOs, entrepreneurs and sports stars for the new audio book, is a leading personal development coach and currently the UK’s number one motivational author on the internet download site iTunes.

“I interviewed many highly successful people for the book, talking to them about what they consider to be the secrets of success,” said Tony. “I wanted to interview Kay because not only is she a successful business woman in her own right, she also coaches and trains others to be successful also.”

As an award-winning entrepreneur, Kay develops training courses for many industries through her company, the Me Group, and also

>> Dealer steps up a gear Davidsons car dealership is making its biggest investment in its 17 year-history with a £2m expansion at Morpeth.

The family-owned Vauxhall stockist is relocating from Bridge End in the town to bigger premises on nearby Coopies Lane Industrial Estate.

Managing director Harry Davidson, who started the business with his brother Peter, says: “The move improves access for our customers and means we can provide better services and display our product range more effectively.” Staff have grown from 20 to 45, and further jobs will follow.

works as a one-to-one coach. “Like Tony, I use a science called NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), known throughout the world as the technology of excellence in human behaviour and communication,” she said.

Motivator: Kay Cooke

>> Pharmacy deal

>> Tyne-Tees law link

>> Anti-fraud award

Studio Products of Hartlepool now has its natural health supplements sold in Norchem Healthcare pharmacies across the North East.

Its sales with Holland and Barrett health food shops on high streets have also trebled, and it has clinched a deal to have its products sold in 1,200 pharmacies across Ireland. Its products include the supplements Hoodia Mint, used by Hollywood celebrity Angelina Jolie and sports teams, plus Actislim Ultra.

Commercial law firms Mincoffs of Tyneside and Jacksons of Tees Valley are now operating together as Mincoff Jacksons LLP and staking a claim to be among the top five major players in the region’s legal market. The 21 partners and more than 160 staff will operate as a two-centre practice from Newcastle and Tees Valley.

Programmes at Teesside University’s business school are in the running for Outstanding Employer Engagement Initiative at this year’s Times Higher Education Awards.

A foundation degree in fraud management and an MA in financial investigation and financial crime were introduced to meet requests for education and staff development from fraud prevention bodies, including government bodies, police agencies and the private sector.

Fred Hutchinson, director of Teesside’s Centre for Fraud and Financial Crime, says: “In these turbulent economic times, fraud is likely to be more prevalent than ever before, as people try to maintain their businesses and reputation.”

>> Did you know?

Sage, Greggs, Nissan, P&G, Siemens, Orange, Maersk and Nike - some of the world’s biggest business names - are thriving in North East England.

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

>> Clean-up message An award-winning campaign urging health workers, patients and visitors to ‘scrub up’ and help reduce infection was the work of Newcastle advertising agency Martin Tait Redheads (MTR) - the only North East agency shortlisted in the Best of Health awards run by the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

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To find out more, or arrange a test drive call Lexus Newcastle today.

Model shown is IS 220d with optional metallic paint at £23,702. The IS Series comprises petrol and diesel powertrains and prices start from £23,192 to £51,995 OTR. Prices correct at time of going to press and include VAT, delivery, number plates, full tank of fuel, one year’s road fund license and £55 first registration fee. *Advertised offer available on a limited number of vehicles from Lexus Newcastle. Terms and conditions apply.

IS 220d fuel economy figures: extra-urban 52.3mpg (5.4L/100km), urban 35.8mpg (7.9L/100km), combined 44.8mpg (6.3L/100km).

CO2 emissions 168g/km.

260x205_IS220d_CanYouCarCompare_1 1

2/10/08 12:43:45

ENTREPRENEUR

OCTOBER 08

HOUSING CRISIS COULD BE GOOD FOR US Having to re-think our approach to housing should be one of the few good things to emerge from the economic crisis, the internationally acclaimed architect Alan J Smith tells Brian Nicholls

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We ask people today to live in flats that are the smallest in Europe, we’ve let the nation’s stock of council houses dwindle from 6.1 million to 2.5 million since 1981 and we are facing an economic crisis more complex than any before.

Why? The internationally renowned North East architect Alan J Smith argues it’s because we treat houses and flats as something largely to profit from. “We haven’t been building homes and treating them as part of the community.

Without community, you have no social cohesion. Then people go out and start >>

Gloom street: There’s no happiness in housing now, says Alan J. Smith

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ENTREPRENEUR

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ENTREPRENEUR

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Sustainable housing If you want to irritate Alan J Smith, start throwing around the word ‘sustainability’.

Everyone, he says, simplifies the term to refer to low-voltage light fittings, green roofs, all those things.

“At the end of the day, architects will do all those things. We aren’t stupid. Solar panels and ground source heat equate today to double glazing in the 1960s. They will put them in. They must.

“Sustainable to me is about adaptability and sustainable communities, not just sustainable buildings. The best sustainable building, housing or otherwise, is an adaptable building that can last years then be converted into other things.

“We should think harder about building communities for a mix of people – pensioners, young persons, middle-aged permanents, young mobiles. A rich mix is what makes housing schemes vibrant and energetic.

“Many schemes have lost that energy.

They’ve become little entities of two bedroom flats. That’s not housing, it’s just flats, piled up. We must be more realistic.

A developer will whack up as many as he can on a site, provided he knows he will get rid of them because people are getting 125 per cent mortgages.

“If they’re not, he’s going to have to build fewer and be more realistic about his return. But it starts with government.

Government must be the guardian of our community. It has to work out how we’re going to avoid financial entanglements that surround homemaking.

“We don’t need police on every street corner if the balance in communities is right. Housing’s the cornerstone of society.

Get that right, then we’ve got retail as society’s glue, industry, its backbone, and leisure. It’s going back to when you bought houses with a 25 per cent deposit.

You wanted that house. You saved for it.

What’s wrong with that?”

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

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OCTOBER 08

stabbing and cheating each other.” You don’t hear your estate agent, bank manager or many politicians talk like this, but Alan Smith OBE is adamant. Over the last 20 years, his Newcastle practice, Red Box Design, has designed and built more than £2 billion-worth of buildings - more than 3,000 homes, 2.25 million sq ft of leisure and retail, and 6 million sq ft of commercial space.

He cites a ‘catastrophic’ link between housing policy and anti-social attitudes and suggests: “There’s no happiness in housing now. We don’t build communities. If people are happy in their communities, if they love living there, anti-social elements are reduced.”

He explains: “I was weaned on Parker Morris [a housing standard used from 1968-1982] in the early days at Washington New Town. It was a bible that the public and private sectors both adhered to.

“If you look at housing, pre-war and post-war up until 1982, space went up and up. Yet post-1982, standards have, in the main, gone right down. We now build, in many cases, flats smaller than the living rooms Parker Morris recommended.”

This is not simply nostalgia. Smith is an architect of international repute who is at present designing a £50 million nanotechnology centre in Moscow - his second big Russian commission in four years.

Yet he continues to concern himself about the lack of direction in housing at home.

Many people, he says, have to buy property they don’t intend to stay in for very long, yet Parker Morris urged that residents should have the opportunity to enjoy their homes for years. “You show me someone who can enjoy

ENTREPRENEUR

a 240sq ft flat – 12ft by 20ft? That’s what people are building. Where do you store the vacuum cleaner? The ironing board? Where do you store a suitcase?

“People don’t deserve that. I don’t think they can be happy. I accept some people do treat their houses differently now, sometimes almost like a hotel room, but that doesn’t negate my point. A sense of community is lacking.

“Two years ago, we could guess a financial crisis in housing was near. So we need to ask, what are we going to do now, and not just in financial terms. We need to realise we’ve been doing some things wrong. Give someone a 105 per cent mortgage and you put them 5 per cent into negative equity instantly. How crazy is that?

“Equally, in socio-economic terms, we haven’t been doing punters any favours. Maybe we ought to be providing better homes, better environments where people can feel a greater sense of community. Builders may say I’m a dreamer, but why can’t pension funds and commercial banks that fund only commercial property be persuaded or enabled to fund major housing developments?

“Lots of schemes in London are being mothballed by the likes of Taylor Wimpey because they can’t afford to finish them. It would be lovely if a pension fund walked in, bought all the flats and let them. Actuarially, over a period, nobody’s going to make money out of those flats. And there’s nothing wrong with rented housing, nothing wrong with living in council housing. We have lost the whole concept of council housing.”

A fortnight before this interview, a junior government minister calling on the North >>

New learning The new Gateshead College for 1,600 students was designed

by Alan J Smith and his team, not as a new college, but as a college built in a new way.

Already well received, this spacious, glassroofed, five-storey building looks like a modern office block and is integral to Baltic Business Park.

It occupies a triangular site sloping 11 metres south to north and five metres west to east, and it neighbours a railway station.

It is also socially interwoven and workers on the park can use college services. They can lunch there, have their hair done and have spa and beauty therapies. They can use a travel agency, a crèche, a nursery, and a theatre too, run by people planning careers in these services. The students, in return, can use the park’s facilities.

If the college, 20 years on, wants to move to something else, the building could be sold ready made for offices. It has the essentials - raised floors included – and is already on a business park.

Smith’s sad PS is that the old college building in Low Fell is being demolished to make way for a new housing scheme. “A waste of energy and resources,” he calls it, “for the sake at that point of probably a financial imperative to pull down and build new. That building could have been cleverly converted.”

All our efforts and endeavours must be geared towards creating better places, majoring on happiness in our new housing developments to restore our faith in a sense of belonging to a community

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Lost tradition: We’ve lost the values behind council housing, says Alan Smith

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

ENTREPRENEUR East had tapped into Alan’s mind. The day after this interview, it leaked from Westminster that the Government was contemplating a new era of council housing by helping local authorities to buy repossessed and unsold properties to offer struggling borrowers, in return for a small stake or outright ownership.

It also emerged that Newcastle City Council was working on just this idea, at a time when house values in the North East were down by up to 20 per cent. Is all this coincidence?

Discussions with Smith may have been a verbal cold shower. When the minister mentioned ‘social housing’, Smith asked what he meant.

“Social housing is just a buzz phrase, a sound byte, a tag line,” he says. “There’s nothing wrong with people living in council housing.

Some couples on joint incomes of £18,000£20,000 will never really be able to afford to buy their own house.

“What’s wrong with that? They’re probably lovely people, making a great contribution to society, happy in what they are doing, not jealous of anyone who has bought their house. At the moment, if they rent they seem to be provided for by Jack the Lad who gets a buy-to-let mortgage then rips them off.

“It also goes on in an institutionalised way.

Housing associations try their best, but they tend to veer towards the private sector model: shared ownership and all that. Very laudable, but they ape the private sector rather than

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speaking with their core values by providing quality housing to a good standard, with a nice sense of space.”

He adds: “Not everybody truly aspires to personal property. Many have been conned into that. People like living in good environments, happy environments. I’m certain lots of people would trade life in their own property for life in a safe community.”

Hopes of the three major political parties accepting his assessment seem in vain, for now at least, despite the depressing prospect that money which could have been spent on creating better communities looks likely to be spent on more policing instead.

He observes: “While the Government seems to have made some gestures towards the house-buying public in an attempt to ease the burden on first-time buyers and on vulnerable families careering towards repossession, and indeed has also pledged £400 million of funds from existing budgets for social housing, none of the three parties in their recent annual conferences seems prepared to acknowledge that the focus still appears to incline towards the quantity of new housing stock, rather than quality of new homes and communities.

“All our efforts and endeavours must be geared towards creating better places, majoring on happiness in our new housing developments, to restore our faith in a sense of belonging to a community.” ■

You show me someone who can enjoy a 240sq ft flat – 12ft by 20ft? That’s what people are building. Where do you store the vacuum cleaner?

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Grand designs Among the vast array of buildings Alan J Smith and his partners are associated with, and of which he is particularly proud, are: Nissan’s technology centre in Cranfield, Bedfordshire – one of only three such centres in the world, won against stiff competition and now festooned with awards.

Sunderland Aquatic Centre – newly opened and attracting 1,600 people daily.

“It’s architecture doing its work in the community,” he says.

Masthouse Terrace, Docklands, London - a major mix of rented and privately owned property, courtyard housing and a tower block looking across the Thames to Tower Bridge, built when many developers were building only yuppie flats.

Red Box Design, opposite St Nicholas Cathedral in Newcastle - once the city’s central post office and threatened until Smith adapted it to serve education, offices, an art gallery, studios, and homes.

“A proper multi-layer mix, not just vertical slices,” he says of it. “The notion of pulling that building down was madness when you can create something like this out of it.”

Home of one of the UK’s first telegraph offices, information was sent from there all over the world. Today, information from Smith’s Red Box Design Group, drawings and other data, goes all over the world by computer. There is a thread of continuity...

The mark of property professionalism worldwide | www.rics.org

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

OCTOBER 08

The demand for quality business premises continues to rise. Here, BQ highlights new landmark developments making an impact on the new North East’s commercial landscape

Artists’s impression: Sunderland arc’s proposed multi-use development

>> Battle fades over city transformation – or does it?

The seemingly interminable wrangling over the development of Sunderland’s former Vaux Brewery site goes on, but at last there are hopes of an end in sight, reports Brian Nicholls

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

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A developer is being sought to transform the key Vaux site in Sunderland and put an end to the wrangling over its future that is costing the taxpayer millions.

The scheme is led by urban regeneration company Sunderland arc, but the land is still held by supermarket giant Tesco, which had battled to develop a scheme of its own there and now wants to be arc’s chosen developer.

It looks certain to have competition. Some 80 developers have expressed initial interest and unofficial estimates suggest anything up to £33 million – much of it from the taxpayer -

OCTOBER 08

has already been spent in legal and other costs surrounding the very lengthy dispute over the controversial development.

Sunderland arc’s proposal has had outline planning approval since March 2007, and the redevelopment, when it finally goes ahead, will be one of the North East’s largest regeneration projects.

Now arc and its partners - Sunderland City Council, One NorthEast and English Partnerships - are seeking a developer to bring a new business district to the city centre with offices, homes and hotels. A new justice centre is also envisaged.

Michael Kissman, corporate affairs manager for Tesco, is quoted as saying that, as owner

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

of the site, it is the only developer in a position to deliver.

David Walker, chief executive of Sunderland arc, says there is no prospect of Tesco building a store on the land under Government policy and the planning framework for the city, whereas Tesco schemes elsewhere in the country have always been underpinned by a large supermarket.

“We and our partners are now in a prime position to regenerate this crucial site.

The new jobs it will bring will diversify the economy of the city centre,” he added.

Interested developers are invited to contact Michael Black at Sunderland arc, tel 0191 568 9880 or email michaelb@sunderlandarc.co.uk

Six years and not a brick laid The controversial former Vaux Brewery site is crucial to the regeneration of Sunderland, hit by the closure and loss of jobs at Vaux Brewery and at the neighbouring Grove Cranes.

Tesco bought the Vaux site in 2001 and put in an initial application the following year for a supermarket, further retail and some residential development. Sunderland arc submitted alternative plans in 2002, after which Tesco submitted a revised scheme in 2004 expanding the mixed-use element. This was appealed in 2005.

Sunderland arc’s plans, aiming to create 3,200 jobs, were called in by the Government in 2006. In 2007, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government approved arc’s plans. Tesco has challenged this decision.

Alterations to Sunderland City Council’s Unitary Development Plan for central Sunderland were called in and a public inquiry held in 2006. In 2007, an independently appointed government inspector endorsed these alterations and concluded that major retail development should be confined to a central retail core excluding the Vaux site.

The UDP was formally adopted by the council. A month later, Tesco announced it would launch a legal challenge.

If negotiations between Sunderland arc and Tesco fail, One NorthEast has the statutory power to issue a compulsory purchase order to acquire the former Vaux Brewery site in support of Sunderland Arc’s scheme.

Hopes have since grown that Tesco would agree instead to develop at Sunderland Retail Park off Newcastle Road, a mile or so from the Vaux site. Mountview Securities is applying to transform this park to include a supermarket - with Tesco the preferred occupant.

It sounded like a possible solution to a prolonged and costly saga – but remains fraught with complications. There is speculation that compulsory purchase orders might have to be sought if any existing occupant at the retail park resisted the plans there. And that still leaves the question of who is to develop the Vaux site.

Meanwhile, the story offers powerful ammunition for critics of the time and expense involved in Britain’s planning procedures, and of Tesco’s influence over local development generally, which has been questioned in other parts of the country.

Hardly a voice has been raised in defence of the taxpayer’s burden at Sunderland. But some lawyers must be feeling well off.

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>> City stores revamp Famous old department store buildings are getting a new lease of life in Newcastle and Sunderland.

The former Blundell’s store opposite St Mary’s Church in Clayton Street West, Newcastle, is to be redeveloped behind its Georgian façade, and on Shields Road, Byker, the distinctive 1910 block that once housed Beavans will also get a makeover.

The Blundell premises, vacant for more than 25 years, will be extended on the upper floors to create office space.

Property consultant Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH) is handling the property for Trafalgar, and Stewart Thomson, new head of agency at LSH in Newcastle, says: “This will be one of the most sought-after HQ office locations in the city.”

Newcastle Council has approved a bid

by Byker Bridge Housing Association to develop shops on the ground floor of the former Beavans building and flats above.

The cost could be £3.2m.

Sunderland seems to have the future of one of its more romantic buildings guaranteed also. Courting couples for years have met under the front-door clock of the former Joplings department store.

Vergo Retail of Liverpool has retail on the ground floor and three upper floors may become a much-needed city-centre hotel with 120 bedrooms.

The building’s owner, Sunderland Turton of Blackburn, says Vergo backs the proposal, which would also improve the retail level.

>> All Saints facelift A £1.8m transformation of the Commercial Estates Group’s All Saints development in the heart of Newcastle is complete.

Common areas and the main receptions have been upgraded in the 134,527sq ft of office space spread over three buildings, which have been repainted and refurbished inside and out. Aidan Baker, associate director of Atisreal, says: “All Saints enjoys a distinctive position as a high-profile office address. It has views across the river and the city centre, and access to the Quayside.” >>

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY Quantity surveyors Turner Townsend have doubled their office space there and space still available includes 13,000 sq ft in Bede House and 23,000 sq ft in Cuthbert House.

OCTOBER 08

(270,000sq ft), Baltic Business Park (130,000sq ft) and Lighthouse View Dawdon Business Park (75,000sq ft).

>> Home for skills The former office building of departed microchip makers Siemens and Atmel continues to provide jobs for a highly skilled workforce in the North East.

Business tenants at Fabriam Centre now include itCampus and Lexica Communications. They have helped the region retain specialised skills by recruiting former Atmel staff paid off earlier this year following the microchip manufacturer’s closure on Tyneside.

John Williams, general manager of Fabriam, says: ‘’The centre was born out of a desire to create world-class facilities for technology businesses. Prestigious office premises with modern ICT infrastructure, meeting and conference facilities are generally not available for smaller or start up companies.

“This environment helps Fabriam tenants to portray a highly professional image which helps them to attract business from major companies worldwide.’’

The centre in the Cobalt Business Exchange has offices vacant from 21sq m to 81sq m.

Short-term tenancies are available. For details, tel 0191 516 9099 or email locations@tyne-wear.co.uk

>> Demand for park life The North East is the only UK region where take up on business parks rose during the first half of this year.

Nationally, demand showed the lowest recorded levels of six-monthly take-up since the first half of 2004, with 2m sq ft let compared with 3msq ft for the same time last year.

GVA Grimley, which made the assessment, says good demand and strong enquiries in the North East may be due to scarcity of space within Newcastle city centre.

Most business park space being provided in the North East is at Cobalt Business Park

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

electronics will have 3,000sq m of clean rooms, lab space, offices and seminar rooms, giving the region the opportunity to be a globally innovative leader in plastic electronics.

Tom Taylor, PETEC’s project director, says: “The printed electronics industry can revolutionise consumer electronics and will impact on a host of other technologies.”

For more information about NETPark, see our feature on page 92.

>> Buildings pull in crowds Creators: (l-r) Richard Wiley, Andrew Bulmer, James Wiley

>> A glass act Yet another figurative sculpture appears on the North East skyline. Creative Glass, on North Tees Industrial Estate at Stockton, has provided the glass faces for The Delegation, representing seven towering figures at Rainton Bridge South Business Park by the A690 near HoughtonLe-Spring.

The Delegation, designed by Swedish artist and former Sunderland University MA student Tord Kjellstrom, is 7.9m tall at its highest point. Its figures are capped with glass light boxes that Creative Glass made using water jet cutting, polishing and UV glue.

Tony Campbell, managing director of Creative Glass, says: “The sculpture comes into its own at night when the light boxes illuminate the eyes on the faces.”

Sunderland Council commissioned the work by competition. Creative Glass’s James Wiley, 21, Richard Wiley, 24, and Andrew Bulmer 25, all from Stockton, contributed using skills gained through glass process training with North East Chamber of Commerce.

>> Electronics take off Work is on track to have the North East’s Printable Electronics Technology Centre (PETEC) built, equipped and working by early next year. Based at NETPark, Sedgefield, the centre developing and commercialising printed

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Plans for an expanded showcase of North East architectural talent and innovation have been confirmed following the success of an inaugural event this year.

The first North East Festival of Architecture at Gateshead and Newcastle in June proved so popular that organisers Northern Architecture are now expanding it to cover the whole of the region.

Next year’s festival will celebrate the best of new and coming architecture on Teesside, Wearside and Tyneside, in addition to work in more rural areas like Northumberland and Durham. It will again include free activities.

More than 2,200 people attended 22 events this year.

>> Packager relocates Scholle Europe, a global supplier of liquid packaging solutions to food, beverage and industrial customers, is relocating after 70 years, from Team Valley to Follingsby Park in Gateshead.

>> Grainger Games expands Award-winning software retailer Grainger Games, which has 18 stores across the north of England and Scotland, is planning further openings over the next 12 months.

The Newcastle firm fended off fierce national competition to win this year’s MCV Industry Excellence award as Continued on page 26 >>

OCTOBER 08

COMPANY PROFILE

Over in Sunderland’s historic Sunniside area, a creative and business quarter is already starting to take shape. Businesses can enjoy a very different type of commercial offer, from offices housed in beautiful Georgian buildings to the modern surroundings of the new £6m arts and business centre, thePlace

AN EXCITING NEW COMMERCIAL DISTRICT IS COMING TO LIFE IN SUNDERLAND CITY CENTRE thePlace is a fantastic new venture, accommodating performance space, art gallery/ exhibition spaces, a café, meeting rooms and a range of offices overlooking the multi award-winning Sunniside Gardens. It is the latest addition to Sunniside’s exciting regeneration programme.

Spearheading the area’s transformation is Sunniside Partnership, set up by Sunderland Council, Sunderland arc, English Partnerships and One NorthEast, with additional support from TyneWear Partnership and the European Regional Development Fund. thePlace comprises a new-build complex and six refurbished grade II listed buildings. The rich history and character of Sunniside is commemorated in stunning glass louvers installed on the outside of the building.

Ben Hall, director of Sunniside Partnership, said: “thePlace provides high quality, modern business and artistic space in a beautiful, traditional setting.”

With so much already achieved in this historic core of Sunniside, the Partnership is hoping to build upon this success with ambitious plans for the east side, which include an additional 30,000 m2 of office space.

While Sunniside Partnership addresses the needs of the smaller business, its parent company Sunderland arc is tackling the necessity for large floor plan offices in the city centre.

At the heart of its plans is the former Vaux brewery site, which is one of the North East’s largest employment-led regeneration projects and will underpin the future economic prosperity of the city. The arc and its partners (Sunderland City Council, English Partnerships and One NorthEast) are now looking to appoint a developer to create a new business district in the city centre with new

with stunning views over the river. Sunderland arc has been working with Manchester-based developer CTP Ltd on progressing phase one of the site, which has secured planning permission for 6,500m2 of offices, a new 124-bed hotel and 124 new homes, creating up to 450 jobs.

Mr Walker added: “The reformation has already begun in Sunniside and on the former Benedict building site where Vico Properties is also creating new offices. Our office-led scheme on Farringdon Row will soon follow and it is encouraging for everyone in Sunderland to see high quality developers pushing to make things happen in this area of the city centre.”

Top: thePlace arts & business centre, Sunniside Bottom: An artist’s impression of the arc’s vision for Vaux offices, homes, shops, hotels and a potential new courts complex.

David Walker, chief executive of Sunderland arc, said: “We already have an impressive commercial offer at business districts such as Doxford International Business Park and Rainton Bridge, but what we are trying to do is expand this offer into the city centre and diversify the economy.

We are looking to build upon the labour pool and bring new employers into the city.

“The Vaux scheme will deliver the first significant provision of high quality office space in the city centre with the ability to create at least 3,000 jobs.”

New offices are also planned for the neighbouring Farringdon Row site, a major gateway into the city

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Supported by:

Any business owners interested in moving into offices at thePlace should contact centre manager Tracy Fairlie on 0191 565 8317. Grant support may be available to prospective tenants through Sunderland City Council’s Business Investment Team on 0191 561 1194.

For further information on opportunities in Sunderland visit www.sunderlandarc.co.uk or www.sunnisidepartnership.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY Independent Retailer of the Year and in 11 years it has grown from its single outlet in Newcastle’s Grainger Market to become the UK’s largest independent computer games retailer. Its next openings will be at Berwick and Stockton, followed by Redcar, Bishop Auckland and Thornaby.

David Bowden, property partner at law firm Watson Burton, says: “Grainger Games has a well-thought out, effective business model. The pace of development is fast.”

>> Meadow grows Successful lettings of new developments at Darlington’s Lingfield Point Business Park have enabled Meadow, a new office scheme with space for up to 3,000 workers, to be launched at the former wool manufacturing site, offering around 47,000sq ft of groundfloor open-plan space, plus 50,000 expansion if needed.

The new Darlington Eastern Transport Corridor provides easy access to the site from the A66, Durham Tees Valley Airport and the East Coast main railway line.

Up to 2,500 people could soon be working at Lingfield Point, a flagship regeneration scheme for the area.

>> 1,000 jobs at Eldon Square About 1,000 more jobs are likely to be created at Newcastle’s Eldon Square when the current £170m revamp is completed in 2010.

New features planned for the extra 410,000sq ft of space will include a four-floor Debenhams, a two-storey New Look and a River Island store.

>> Making space Sibling developers Elliott Ward and Catherine Cannon have almost fully let two business parks built on land owned by regional development agency One NorthEast.

The brother and sister team, who trade as City and Northern Commercial Property Developers, leased almost six acres at

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

OCTOBER 08

Simonside Industrial Estate in South Shields from the agency last year.

Their Gateshead company has now used the land, spread over the final two vacant sites on the estate, to create speculative industrial space suited to new and expanding SMEs or established regional firms.

The developments, estimated to be worth almost £4m, have been created in partnership with Whelan Developments UK, a recently launched development arm of Whelan. Only three units remain.

Other projects they have been involved in include the Watermark in Gateshead, home of Tyne Tees Television, Keel Row at Metro Riverside Park, and Market Dock at South Shields. Later this year, the firm will complete Baltic Place - 171,000sq ft of office and industrial space on Gateshead Quays. This will be the first joint venture between City and Northern and Whelan.

Elliott is managing director of City and Northern, Catherine the marketing director, tel 0191 461 0909.

likely to be separated from the main shipyard when a link road is built to serve the new £100m bridge proposed across the Wear.

>> Banking on success The Royal Bank of Scotland has expanded in Tees Valley, taking all the first floor of Dunedin House at Stockton’s Forsyth Business Centre and increasing its floor space by 500% to 5,385sq ft.

James Cornell, director of commercial banking, says: “The region is enormously important to RBS. We have now brought together staff from across the RBS Group to enable us also to work more closely and create more bespoke financial solutions.”

The new headquarters houses, besides Tees Valley’s commercial banking team, Lombard – the asset finance arm of RBS - RBS Invoice Finance, Independent Financial Services, Business Banking, Global Transaction Services and Coutts.

>> Smart suites Two out of six office suites remain at Metier Property’s Lime Square, a quality mixed-use scheme that has extended the development of Newcastle Quayside at up-and-coming Ouseburn.

Original brick-clad buildings feature in the £25m scheme by developer Howard Eurocape. Parking and the use of a gym are among the facilities, and G-Cap Media is among the present occupants. Agent Karen Shorten at Storeys:SSP says: “Accommodation of this quality for smaller requirements is rare.”

>> Bridging opportunity Taking a cue from shipbuilding’s past perhaps, Pallion Engineering is putting its eggs in more than one basket and its new 120,000sq ft building planned near Queen Alexandra Bridge in Sunderland will have offices, apartments and maybe a restaurant.

This is one of the firms in line to share in the £5bn contract for two aircraft carriers on order for the Royal Navy, but the new building is

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Vacant: Princes Park, Team Valley

>> Valley views Spacious industrial units in Gateshead’s Team Valley are not always readily found, but a 35,000sq ft property has fallen vacant at 1 Princes Park.

The unit, with a rental value of £200,000 a year, offers office space over two floors and a warehouse. Details are available from Tyne and Wear Development Company, tel 0191 516 9099 and Naylors Chartered Surveyors, tel 0191 232 7030.

Tanfield Lea Business Centre inspiring business space

Derwentside’s New £6.8m Office Development Opening March 2009 To be inspired call (01207) 693902 or e-mail: development@derwentside.gov.uk web: www.tanfieldleabusinesscentre.com

INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

MORTALS GO GLOBAL The day shift works in Newcastle, the night shift in New Zealand. A crazy way to run a company? Not at all, Mere Mortals MD Steve Walmsley tells Brian Nicholls Above a preserved forge that once fired Maling pottery, a modern chrome and stripped timber suite of offices and studios is today a womb of media products with global appeal.

The creativity in the refurbished building illustrates perfectly technology’s march of time in the region. For, 45 years after the last Maling workshift ended, software is now shaped, refined and distributed to eager buyers here, just as crockery and decorative goods once were.

On the ground floor of the old riverside workshops at Ouseburn in Newcastle, the preserved forge now serves as a showcase displaying the commercial aesthetics of centuries gone by.

Upstairs in the Hoults Estate buildings (of which the old Maling factory forms part), the nine-year-old and already market-leading Mere Mortals is a frenzy of creativity, a crossover of diverse skills, from the games industry, to television advertising, merchandise and diverse digital content.

Its best games success to date - the top seller in the Christmas pre-order tables last year – is PDC Championship Darts. This features all seven major tournaments from the professional darts championship calendar, with virtual players drawn from 16 of the world’s top professionals, plus the commentary of the

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

great Geordie enthusiast Sid Waddell.

Hollywood credibility, meanwhile, comes with Mere Mortals’ film graphics for director Danny Boyle’s adventures in sci-fi and horror, 28 Days Later and Sunshine. TV viewers will have also seen Mere Mortals animation on Channel 4’s 100 Greatest series, BBC’s Grumpy Old Men and Jools Holland’s Piano. It was recently named Moving Image Company of the Year by the Royal Television Society.

That’s the glam. But the firm produces not only games, special effects and motion graphics, but also content management, e-commerce and online promotion.

The web arm benefits businesses such as the newly merged Mincoffs Jacksons law firm, the Bowes Museum, and a niche firm specialising in clothes and furnishings for the clergy.

A major asset is Smoke - £80,000 worth of apparatus Steve Walmsley describes as ‘a nippy video finishing tool to bring together seamlessly graphic design and photography’. It is the only example in the North, the company believes, boosting internal workflow and generating revenue from other agencies and production companies.

The offices and studios at Mere Mortals ring with laughter – sign of a happy and productive office – and everyone, though beavering away, seems laid back, in the manner of Walmsley,

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the managing director, who is 53 going on 29.

It takes maybe nine or 12 months to turn out a new game, three years in some cases. Some might long to be paid for playing computer games all day, but as Walmsley points out, playing the same game over and over in search of flaws or improvements can pall.

It may be common in multinational businesses, but is probably less so in £2 million turnover companies like Mere Mortals to have your day shifters working in Britain and a ‘night shift’ on the other side of the world.

“A management that likes one place for everything and everything in its one place might question the wisdom of splitting the workload between Newcastle and Auckland, New Zealand, but it works for us,” says Walmsley who, in an earlier career, helped shape the sounds of bands like Genesis, Dr Hook and various punk outfits.

The twin-team route was taken after one of the two original business partners, David Jeffries, decided to move to New Zealand.

“We were considering a second operation on the Pacific Rim and thought about China. But we foresaw a culture barrier, and while labour costs might be lower there, the management costs could be greater,” Walmsley explains.

“New Zealand excels in creativity and cost-effectiveness. Costs are about 30 per cent lower than here. Now Dave can call me at six in the morning to give a rundown on developments there, and I give him an account at six in the evening of progress here. A 12-hour difference works ideally.”

Staff appreciate the regular visits between the two far-flung centres. And the separation >>

OCTOBER 08

INTERVIEW

Bright young things Sadly, and surprisingly, Mere Mortals has difficulty tracing suitable young talent. Surprisingly because there is much talk about the emphasis North East universities now put on games technology and its privileged position in the regional aspirations set by One NorthEast.

But Walmsley says: “There are too few school leavers in this region with maths good enough to become games developers. Anecdotal evidence suggests that universities are actually closing specialist courses due to lack of demand.”

Walmsley would like universities to take a longer-term view of the industry’s needs, and course tutors to spend more time in studios to keep them up to date in an industry where techniques can change within months.

Mere Mortals finds relations with academia better in New Zealand. “The attitude towards the industry there seems more open,” Walmsley says.

Will every new job in New Zealand be one potentially lost here? One hopes not, and Steve is turning to further education colleges at a time when Mere Mortals is looking at downloading games directly to the customer.

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Fun and games: Steve Walmsley runs a happy office at Mere Mortals

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

Relations with academia are better in New Zealand. The attitude towards the industry there seems more open

In synch: Mere Mortals’ Steve Walmsley says his teams, separated by 12,000 miles, work well by 12,000 or so miles might also minimise the chances of the company’s directors getting in each other’s hair.

The first time I called on Mere Mortals, shortly after its 1999 launch by David and Graeme Love - now technical director – the firm occupied a tiny incubator unit in Newcastle’s Pink Lane and comprised just a handful of talented individuals.

Today, the talent has exploded. The firm employs 46 people (average age 30-ish) with seven more working Down Under, and is currently recruiting in New Zealand.

Mere Mortals has just won a £1.2 million deal with an international publisher to develop a

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

title for early 2009. Another top global games publisher is considering a game that young developer Richard Edwards designed in a recent in-house competition.

These competitions are held to sharpen the cutting edge. Staff - editors, graphic and special effects designers, sound engineers – table their ideas. Their input is evaluated, short listed and conceptualised, the best being worked up to show prospective publishers.

“It’s not as complex as it sounds,” says Walmsley. “Games publishers work like book publishers. So, in a way, you submit your game as an author would submit a book. We visit three international trade fairs a year, in Leipzig,

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Lyon and San Francisco, for this purpose.”

Convergence is now a goal for the business, crossing over all their creative concepts in games, television, advertising, merchandising and digital content. Flexibility in this way can maximise the impact of a brand or product, delivering more for a client’s spend.

And that works well for this business at least - on both sides of the world. ■

And opera too Mere Mortals has grown its business by 60-70 per cent in two years, and Steve’s previous experience in television helps its push for convergence.

Walmsley, originally from West Yorkshire, moved into TV production after his rock’n’roll years. The independent company he worked for regularly had slots on Yorkshire TV, BBC and TVAM, where he met David Jeffries fresh from university He then ran his own TV production firm.

Cable Tel (later NTL) had him set up an educational channel, which he ran for a couple of years. He also managed special projects, again in education, for four years, gathering an MBA to advance his own management skills. Then he ran a technoloy-based firm, spun out from Huddersfield University.

One of his most satisfying artistic feats was his key involvement in producing an opera, Lullaby Tunnel, with the Yorkshire actors Brian Blessed and Keith Barron as patrons, and professional singers as principals.

It played open air in the Dearne Valley for three nights in 1994 to a picnicking audience of about 1,000. Reliving a controversial pit disaster of the 1940s, its pull was understandable, and its profits went to the Dearne Valley Trust to help young children culturally. Walmsley renewed links with David Jeffries on joining Mere Mortals as business development director in 2006, then last year he became managing director.

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AS I SEE IT

OCTOBER 08

A QUALITY OF LIFE When Estelle Chatard left the sunny climes of her native South of France 11 years ago, she had no idea she would play a key part in helping to regenerate her adopted homeland here in the North East

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

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Estelle Chatard, business development manager of Newcastle Science City, is actively promoting our scientific expertise throughout Europe, and she believes many businesses and organisations in the region could benefit by promoting themselves likewise.

“It was sheer fluke coming to Newcastle. I had applied for a grant to study in any of 30 places in England for a year, to improve my spoken English. I was randomly allocated a place at Newcastle University, looked up where it was in my atlas, and the rest is history.

“I saw the benefits of close links with Europe in my first role after graduating. I worked for the French Business Council in Newcastle, running Club Sophia UK in partnership with Europe’s first Science and Technology park, Sophia Antipolis, in the South of France.

“As a region, we can learn from it. Club Sophia was the networking arm of Sophia Antipolis. As the main Newcastle contact for the park, I helped with trade missions there, organised events and worked on international venture capital summits. I also explored European funding for science and technology.

“Club Sophia, which was far ahead of the game, had clubs networking worldwide to promote its science and attract partners for its economic development. I saw how this work paid off, especially in providing European funding for policy work, not just research.

“All this has stayed with me during my various other roles in Newcastle. More than ever, I see how their example can help Newcastle Science City and other organisations and businesses here to prosper.”

OCTOBER 08

Q: Is linking more closely with Europe merely a useful tool for funding?

A: “This is a frequent perception, but opportunities exist for growth at many different levels. If businesses take a more strategic approach, getting involved in their sector’s European networks, they will get enhanced profile, greater influence and access to skills, people, research ideas and training opportunities - often at the cutting edge.

“Newcastle University has a great reputation on the European stage and is active in shaping the international agenda. If you are serious about what you do, you will be expected to be there, within your sector’s European network, where you share experiences and learn.”

Q: Can you give an example where benefits other than funding are found?

A: “With Newcastle Science City we have learnt, and still learn, a lot from our involvement with the network of European Science Cities. It has particularly helped our plans for Science Central where, with our partners One NorthEast, Newcastle City Council and Newcastle University, we plan to create a science quarter on the former Newcastle Brewery site in the city.

“Major research with seven European science cities, of which we are the only one from the UK, is looking at maximising the regeneration of cities through science. We are being tracked with other cities - some at slightly more advanced stage - to enable us all to benefit from each other’s experience. Magdeburg in Germany has a plan like Science Central. We shall study their progress.”

Q: Does the North East region do well for funding?

A: “We are getting better as a region in attracting European funding to support our economic growth. Yet still a lot of organisations and businesses don’t bother with Europe.”

Q: Isn’t it all a bit of a hassle?

A: “I understand why people can find the mere thought of engaging with Europe, let alone the European Commission, a daunting and potentially unproductive use of time. But it needs to be a two-way process. European

help will not necessarily come to your door just when you need it; you do need to do some research yourself in the first place.”

Q: What goes on?

A: “Anyone wishing to know more about European issues, and what various programmes can do for them, has options.

They can, for example, attend open days held every year in Brussels. It is the biggest annual event on EU regional policy, expected to attract over 4,000 international participants this year.

“There are presentations from all the EU regions around specific themes, with North East England promoting its successful Regional Image Strategy.

“Regional partners also use the dedicated permanent North East England Office to achieve efficiency gains and a return on their investment by shaping EU policy and spending priorities. It’s first port of call for many regional organisations, giving a wealth of information and opportunities to network.”

Q: What if specific expertise is needed?

A: “A team at the Enterprise Europe Network (EEN), based in Gateshead, can help with funding and expertise to enable business owners to trawl a Europe-wide network for solutions to a wide variety of problems.

“These range from a practical manufacturing issue to a search for a particular type of skills training.”

Q: What about for academics and others?

A: “Their own institution will have resources and contacts in house, and for people’s own general interest there are websites with information at www.europa.eu and www.cordis.europa.eu

AS I SEE IT

Q: How does Science City benefit from Europe?

A: “There is recognition and raised profile for our own unique proposition, which will help attract private research and development investment to Newcastle. Denmark and Sweden – through the Medicon Valley have an interesting approach we can learn from. They are specific in promoting themselves, rather than trying to be all things to all men.

“We need to see the best on offer in fields of science and economic regeneration fields in Europe, linking up with best practice in research centres to learn from them.

“Then, there is access to funding for our vision to create growth through scientific excellence.

These benefits are listed in an order some might find odd, but there is logic to that.

“The successful regions are the ones which approach Europe in this order. They warm up their audience via a positive profile, learn from the best then combine the two to pitch for their investment.”

Q: What does the North East mean to you?

A: “Where I come from, in the French Alps, the lifestyle is fantastic. In the winter you can ski on your doorstep, and in the summer you can go out and find a swimming pool and lie in the sun. But I would still rather be in North East England.

“My passion is regional economic development and the challenge of delivering it. In Newcastle, I feel I can help to make a real difference. It seems that people really put down roots in the North East even if, like me, they don’t come from here.

“The region offers a rewarding and excellent quality of life.”

In winter you can ski on your doorstep and in summer find a swimming pool and lie in the sun. But I would still rather be in North East England

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BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

COMPANY PROFILE

OCTOBER 08

Every business – no matter how small – can influence tomorrow’s workforce

CHANGING THE FUTURE IN ONE GENERATION

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USINESSES large and small can change the future in one generation by supporting the new school Diploma programme in Newcastle.

Newcastle Education Business Partnership (EBP) is facilitating employer engagement in the Diplomas and, whatever the size of your business, you can have a direct involvement in your children’s schooling and benefit from PR, staff development and CSR opportunities by getting involved.

New Diplomas in Construction and the Built Environment, Engineering, ICT, Creative and Media and Society Health and Development have been introduced in schools in Newcastle - one of only 10 cities to be involved in the initial roll-out - and your involvement is key to the success of these new qualifications.

Remember, if you have children aged 16 or under now, they will probably undertake Diplomas - the biggest change in education since the introduction of the O-Level.

Diplomas cannot be implemented without industry support. Whether you are a multi-national or an SME, your input is vital in adding a crucial enterprising edge to this revolution in education Supporters in the North East already include Microsoft, Rolls Royce and IBM, and there are many opportunities for SMEs to be involved.

Toyota UK’s chairman emeritus Sir Alan Jones recently predicted that companies in the North East could “change the future in one generation”.

Speaking to more than 200 business leaders and educationalists who met at St James’s Park at an event to encourage backing for the Diplomas, he said: “Diplomas give people the skills employers want and also improve young people’s approach to work.”

Sir Alan, who is also chair of SEMTA, the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing technologies added: “The Diplomas introduce young people to the world of work and

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

Businesses benefit from their part in the new Diplomas, says Gillian Bulman of NEBP

COMPANIES OF ALL SIZES CAN INFLUENCE THE SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE OF YOUNG PEOPLE IN THE REGION

allow them to learn about business to make the right career choices and have a career head start.”

He said that companies supporting the new Diplomas could benefit from staff development, access effective recruitment routes and expect to find better prepared, more knowledgeable young people as employees.

“Diploma graduates will have the ability to plan independently, manage time effectively and work with others,” he added. “Diplomas offer the right balance between study and practical experience.”

Companies involved in the Diploma roll-out can offer work experience and training through the Diplomas, which are supported by businesses including Vodafone and BT, and also have a direct

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input in their ongoing development.

“The advent of the new Diplomas provides new opportunities for companies of all sizes to influence the skills and knowledge of young people in the region,” said Newcastle EBP chief executive Gillian Bulman.

“At the same time, they have the chance to develop new recruitment channels, contribute to the local community and economy, and enhance their image and reputation.

“Employers can lend their expertise and influence the curriculum in several different ways to suit them, from delivering interactive sessions in schools about their industry to setting business challenges for students or hosting them on workbased placements.”

More than 5,000 employers have been involved in the development of the Diplomas, which are designed to equip students with the skills to progress successfully from school, either into employment or on to university.

For more information about the 14-19 Diplomas, please contact Peter Mawer, employment engagement officer, Newcastle EBP, tel 0191 277 4444 or email peter.mawer@newcastle.gov.uk

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ENTREPRENEUR

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

OCTOBER 08

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OCTOBER 08

ENTREPRENEUR

The Viz of fizz sharpens its sparkle Eldon Robson bows to no-one as he tickles the taste buds of German and American drinkers with botanic beverages as unashamedly evocative of the North East as whippets and flat caps once were. The man behind Fentimans drinks tells Brian Nicholls how a revival in taste has been achieved

It’s refreshing as his ginger beer to encounter a business boss giving not a toss about political correctness - swearing at will and demonstrating in public the Victorian art of, ahem, erotic hand manipulation.

Eldon Robson’s irreverence gives Fentimans’ botanic beverages a Viz fizz. And his company, which he runs from a former antiques showroom tucked away in one of Hexham’s little alleyways, is now stepping up its activities in the US and Germany.

Fentimans’ bracing drinks have been selling in the USA for nearly seven years, but adverse exchange rates and a lack of sales staff to market the product has made growth there elusive to date.

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However, a licensing agreement signed in April means manufacturing starts at a brewery in Pennsylvania this month.“Cost and selling price will come down to a more realistic level and there will be a team to market and sell it,” Robson says.“The US market is six times the UK’s in size and in a few years it should develop into something very nice indeed.”

Meanwhile, Fentimans’ mixers, which German customers have been buying despite their English labels, are getting a fillip with a new label printed in German. And both tonic water and ginger beer will be repackaged into 124ml bottles. If the pound continues to slide, sales to Japan may also grow in 2009, their sixth year there. >>

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

ENTREPRENEUR

OCTOBER 08

Uncompromising: Eldon Robson (right) is content to plough his own furrow when it comes to business

Aggressive development for next year includes a small organic range here next spring and the launch of a larger 750ml bottle. Altogether, six additional products will take the stable of ginger beer, tonic water, mixers and shandy - the only brewed shandy on the market - up to 17.

This should add a few million a year to the £4 million already earned through a recent 20 per cent growth. Not bad for a workforce of 12 and a business that not only wasted to nothing in 1970, but very nearly died a death a second time, shortly after Robson first revived it in 1994.

But venture capitalists storming the Battle Hill stronghold recently have been repulsed. “I’m not interested,” says Robson, sole proprietor and great grandson of the founder. “I don’t want anyone telling me what to do, trying to dilute the image and the product quality.

Quality for me is the essence, and that comes before price.”

Fentimans is a remarkable tale of the reincarnation of a family business, whose drinks are made from 100 per cent natural ingredients, mainly herb and plant roots, and were once sold door to door in the North East and Yorkshire.

The company, set up on Robson’s mother’s side of the family in 1905, had peaked in the 1950s, its 250 workers making drinks ranging from orangeade to vinegar and selling them from company wagons.

Most popular then, as now at 40 per cent of sales, was their secretly prepared ginger beer, which is ‘live’, like real ale. It was sold in grey hens – substantial stone jars that are now collectors’ items. The liquid inside fermented, with carbon dioxide a by-product.

Glass bottles in those days couldn’t withstand such pressure, and on warm days even a grey hen might blow up. “I’d be sitting on the back of a lorry when something would go off bang, and ginger beer would spurt all over,” Robson

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

recalls with boyish glee. “I used to go to the factory as a little lad with my grandfather. I played on big bags of sugar and took the tops off flavourings to smell them. The most evocative smell was at the far end of the factory, coming from two great copper kettles where the ginger and hops were brewed.

“An old-fashioned machine which looked something like a wash day wringer crushed the ginger. I loved the smell of that ginger being cranked through the rollers. You’d sneeze, but it was great fun. Later, in school holidays, I worked as a delivery boy.

“When I got my driving licence I got my own round on a Sunday morning and got £3 for it - enough to fill the car and take a girl out at the weekend.”

In the 40s and 50s, Fentimans had five factories in Durham, Leeds, Sheffield, Middlesbrough and Gateshead, the latter temporarily requisitioned as a wartime munitions factory. The last factory, which was in Durham, closed in 1970.

“There were quite a number of old Fentiman relatives taking the cream from the pot.

Nobody put a great deal of work in,” Robson recalls. “It was left to one uncle, who was really an academic, to try to sort things out.

“Door-to-door trade was going out, supermarkets were opening up. Plastic bottles were replacing glass. Investment was needed in plant, but nobody moved with the times so the whole thing closed.”

Robson, now 57, has had assorted livelihoods including tree felling, clearing quarries and running a launderette. But mainly he has been in licensing and catering.

“One day I wondered how to make a few quid,” he says, and memories of the family business came flooding back. Though the term ‘low alcohol’ sounded like a kiss of death, Eldon felt another term – ‘adult soft drink’ might springboard ginger beer’s comeback.

“Kids wouldn’t drink it - the ginger and hops

38

were too robust for them. I thought, if I repackage this stuff and rekindle some of the old recipes, we have these wonderful things behind us and something genuine to put our hand to.”

His grandmother, the oldest surviving member of the family, lived at Whickham in Gateshead at the time. He visited her at her council house – she, like the others, had gained little from the business – and asked her if she’d mind if he re-started Fentimans after a gap of more than 20 years. “Aye bonnie lad, grand idea,” she replied.

That was Robson’s signal. He then had to trace Joe, another elderly relative who had run the Leeds operation and lived there still. Joe agreed to share the secret recipe. “He had this old recipe which had been pencilled on a piece of paper about 50 years earlier with words like molasses, brown sugar, Irish moss and other wonderful names,” he says.

“We went to Hereford to consult a chemist and master brewer called Phil Ashurst. He had written loads of books and was highly qualified. When we showed him the recipe, he set off laughing. Uncle Joe sat there with his cloth cap on and, after about half an hour of us talking round it, Joe took his cap off, scratched his head and said in his Geordie accent that living in Yorkshire had never bent, ‘Howay, man, gis a bucket o’watter an ah’ll show ye how tae make it’.

“I thought we’d get our marching orders, but Phil chuckled and said he thought we could do something with it, and that’s how I started the business. Call it entrepreneurial spirit or whatever you like; it was hands on and I didn’t realise what I was getting myself into.

“After years of plodding, sleepless nights, and near bankruptcy, I can only really say we’ve made it now.”

The new Fentimans began production with ginger beer in 1995. Robson realised the big old stone jars were going to have to be >>

OCTOBER 08

ENTREPRENEUR

I used to go to the factory as a little lad with my grandfather.

I played on big bags of sugar and took the tops off flavourings to smell them. The most evocative smell was at the far end of the factory, coming from two great copper kettles where the ginger and hops were brewed

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BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

ENTREPRENEUR replaced with packaging that evoked the brand’s heritage and bygone times.

“A friend with a pub at West Pelton, Stanley, Co Durham, had lots of old-fashioned bottles with heavily embossed lettering, because in those days they didn’t have paper labels. So, we exaggerated the neck of our bottle, and got raised lettering round the collar to recapture our history.”

Today, Fentimans ginger beer and its stable mates sell steadily in gastro pubs and major brewery outlets. They also sell in supermarkets including Tesco, the biggest customer, which took it up within a year of it being relaunched. It took nearly six years to win over Waitrose, but business there is good now too.

“But we are a relatively small player in supermarkets. Our exposure is limited by larger brands paying big money to get the best shelf display,” says Robson.

Places befitting an old-fashioned image are good sales points though. The Tower of London, for example, stocks it, as does The British Museum and English Heritage and National Trust venues. Having said that, The Tate Modern is also partial.

Initially, the ginger beer attracted mainly the 40-45 plus age group. “They could remember the good ginger beer,” Robson says. “So our biggest task was persuading younger people they weren’t being offered an equivalent of the stuff in their local fish and chip shop.”

Today’s growing customer base is aged 25 and up, often professional, and getting younger.

Students now buy it, and the South East, Yorkshire and the South West are now the best for sales.

Things could have gone differently. “We got

OCTOBER 08

there by hook or by crook,” Robson says. “But one week I had five people employed, the next I had to sack them all because sales weren’t coming in. There’s a thing in business called instinct though, and many people will tell you it has been their strongest guiding force. My instinct has never been far off the radar, despite my lack of professional training.”

At his first factory in Tanfield Lea, Co Durham, everything was made in a 4,000-litre tank.

Now, the monthly batch is a more substantial 228,200 litres. Fentimans now has 10 products in 11 different types of package. Two breweries manufacture, package and distribute the range - Robinsons of Stockport and Cains, Liverpool’s oldest brewer.

Robson is under no illusion that Fentimans is now on easy street, however. While it makes good gross margins and expects to advance quite strongly, the effects of higher material and energy costs are likely to show through next year, hence the export drive.

But there is also product development here, and the firm can now afford a brandorientated advertising budget of £100,000. It also has connections with some good food writers through a PR company in London.

One customer described the ginger beer’s taste as three-dimensional. “The 3D refers to so much going on, like in a decent bottle of wine tickling the taste buds, that sort of thing,” says Robson.

“Many soft drinks are pretty bland. That’s the last thing you can say about Fentimans.

Fentimans delivers. Some may not like that, but then it’s not for wimps. We promote the fact that we are strong and distinctive.

I like that.” ■

I don’t want anyone telling me what to do, trying to dilute the image and the product quality. Quality for me is the essence, and that comes before price

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

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A little of what you fancy…

Fentimans mixers are botanically brewed, so they carry a trace of alcohol that blends with spirits, instead of diluting them.

The ginger beer is a recommended hair of the dog because of its 0.5 per cent alcohol content. Pregnant women say the ginger helps fight morning sickness. One Irish lady was temporarily distressed by the closure of her supplier’s business. Being asthmatic, she reckoned the ginger cleared her tubes and eased her breathing.

One thing as likely to survive as the kick in the drinks is what operations director Tiffany McKirdy calls Robson’s maverick approach to business. “Well, I can’t stand this politically correct nonsense,” he says.

“I’m in a good position now. Good people run the business for me, and I argue the things I want to. If I dealt direct with a supermarket chain, I’d probably lose the business because I’d tell them what to do with theirs!”

Nowhere is the Viz vein clearer than in Eldon’s marketing ploy of ‘furtling’ – his revival of an erotic hand manipulation.

Drinks mats the firm distributes show saucy Victorians in suggestive poses with a gap in the mat where a posterior should be. Skilful placing of a crooked index finger against said aperture fills the gap realistically, so to speak. Well, as Robson says, political correctness isn’t quite his thing …

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COMPANY PROFILE

OCTOBER 08

City of Sunderland College has announced the appointment of Shirley Gelder to Director of Employer Engagement

DIRECTOR OF EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT APPOINTED

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HIRLEY will spearhead a major drive to demonstrate to employers across the region the quality and flexibility of learning provision that is available from the College and its ability to provide bespoke solutions for the development of the skills of the workforce.

Shirley, who has been with the College since 1992, and has held a number of senior posts, including Project Manager for the Doxford Contact Centre, now a Centre of Vocational Excellence (CoVE), will initially concentrate efforts in the following areas - care, hospitality, contact centres, leadership and management and construction.

Shirley takes up her new position at a time when the College is about to trailblaze a new employer-endorsed mark of quality in delivering flexible and responsive training provision.

It is one of only 22 providers in the country and one of only two in the North East to be accredited with the Training Quality Standard, reflecting its commitment to the business sector.

Introduced by the Learning and Skills Council, the standard is a voluntary assessment framework for training providers. It highlights excellence in the two areas that employers say are most important to them; namely provider-responsiveness to employer needs and provider-excellence in a particular vocational area.

The College has attained the standard with flying colours for both responsiveness to employer needs and for excellence in the vocational area of ICT Networking, for which it already has CoVE status. The College will also be applying to attain the standard in the near

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

AT A MORE LOCAL LEVEL, THERE IS CURRENTLY A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF INVESTMENT BEING PUT INTO REGENERATING THE CITIES AND TOWNS OF THE NORTH EAST

Left: Shirley Gelder, the new Director of Employer Engagement

future for its two other CoVEs for Building Services and for its North East Contact Centre Academy.

Shirley, said: “Ensuring that the country has a modern, progressive workforce is very high on the national agenda and with it is the need for all training providers to be truly responsive to the needs of employers.

“At a more local level, there is currently a tremendous amount of investment being put into regenerating the cities and towns of the North East. For that regeneration to be sustainable and for those communities to move forward, it is vital that we have a skilled and adaptable workforce.”

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To find out more about the range of training programmes available at City of Sunderland College please call 0191 511 6759 or email solutions@citysun.ac.uk

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INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

PRIME TIMES

Tom Gutteridge, one of the world’s most influential TV producers and co-creator of Loveland – the dating show which will herald Cilla Black’s return to primetime telly – talks domestic bliss and mind-boggling business risks with Jane Pikett

Tom Gutteridge is on the phone. “Remember, there’s Cilla’s dress to sort out as well,” he says just a tad wearily to whoever is on the other end of the line, referring presumably to the wardrobe of the acclaimed Ms Black, presenter of his new TV dating show, Loveland.

I settle down in the waiting area of the Standing Stone Productions office in Newcastle with a couple of back copies of Grazia magazine while he takes another couple of calls, wrestles with the fax machine and apologises profusely.

“So sorry, so sorry, Jess [his amiable assistant] is off sick. Never had a day off before, and she’s off today when everyone’s in London filming... Did you say coffee? Oh hell, I’m not sure how you work it.”

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

By contrast, I am relaxed and relishing the prospect of a full-colour celeb fest courtesy of Standing Stone’s well-stocked magazine table while Gutteridge struggles to answer all the phones, work the fax machine (in vain) and keep an eye on his email.

I’m proud to announce that by the time he joins me, I am able to inform him, with the air of a woman who knows exactly what she is talking about, that Jennifer Aniston has lost ten pounds (how do they know?), Cameron Diaz is to marry Ms Aniston’s ex (gosh!) and Angelina Jolie is in hiding after having twins.

Obviously, this is all absolutely fascinating, at least for about five minutes, but as a man who once made his own salacious headlines (he was caught in an LA hotel with a married TV

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presenter many years ago) I wonder what he thinks of the celebrity culture which his own medium, entertainment TV, has done so much to perpetuate?

“Celebrity culture’s fine; I’ve built a large chunk of my career on it,” he says, adding that celebrities have to take the rough with the smooth. “At my former production company, Mentorn, we were the first to seriously get into entertainment news programmes. We were totally immersed in it until the mid 90s, when magazines like OK! and Hello! started and the world was swamped. That’s when I got bored with it.”

Celeb news also works far better in print, he asserts. “Look at that picture of Jennifer Aniston,” he says, picking up the copy of Grazia I have been coveting. “They’re picking up on her looking miserable, but for all we know she might have been perfectly happy, it’s just the way the camera’s got her.

“I have no problem with the cult of celebrity, so long as they know what they are doing. It’s not so good when the press intrudes into lives just for the sake of prurience.”

It’s a philosophical view from a man whose dalliance in LA all those years ago was interrupted by a 3am phone call from Nigel Dempster, gossip monger of the Daily Mail, who told Gutteridge, ‘we know whom you’re with and, thanks to our front page this morning, so does all of Britain. Just look out of your hotel window’.

Gutteridge peered round the curtains to find the massed ranks of the Paparazzi outside. He was forced to make an immediate call home to his wife, before sneaking out of the hotel’s back door to make a shamefaced flight home.

He avoided the Paparazzi that time, but they camped outside his family home for days and he was, he wrote on his Blog recently, absolutely shattered by the experience.

Gutteridge’s Blog in the North (you can find it through www.tomgutteridge.com) is written with a light touch and a searing honesty which had me in tears recently, when he shared his desperate sadness on the occasion of his much-loved dog’s demise.

His readers have also lived through some of the angst Gutteridge and his partner Joanna (Jo) have suffered through IVF, and their joy at her current pregnancy. We are treated weekly

OCTOBER 08

to his deeply personal observations of life with an openness and an honesty that is delightfully beguiling and fully in tune with the gentle, charming soul he is in person.

Having said that, we all have our limits and the day of our interview is clearly a fraught one.

“You should have cancelled me,” I tell him, as the clock ticks to close to 5.30pm (three hours after my arrival) and he asks, ever so gently, if he might be left to get on with things now as Jess is off and the team are all away and, well, he has to go to London tomorrow, and then on to LA, and he is so busy, and …well.

The trip to London the next day is for lunch with Cilla (as you do) and then to catch a plane to LA (ditto). “Cilla is the queen of dating shows,” he says. “Probably the best woman presenter there has been in the last 30 years. She’s personable, she’s great live, she listens to people and she’s professional.”

But is TV in general any good these days? “Yes of course, it’s never been better in terms of quality,” he asserts. “Whether it’s as important as it used to be I don’t know, but it’s still a driver of popular culture, and it still unites the family and the nation.”

So what does he watch? “I watch the news most of the time on BBC News 24 and Sky. Jo and I also love American comedies. They’re so well made. We’ve also got a massive feature film library at home because, as a member of the Bafta voting panel, I have to watch just about every film that’s released. I also watch lots of British TV, if only to see what other people are doing.”

He has such a zest for his professional life that he can’t fix on only one highlight in his 35-year career, though winning an Emmy for The Bullion Boys starring David Jason (the biggest award in the world for drama) comes pretty high up the long list of great moments.

At the other end of the scale, he loved doing Space Precinct with Gerry Anderson which, as

he says, was never going to win any awards, but was huge fun to do.

“Robot Wars also became massive worldwide, and I loved doing that. To go past every playground in the country for a while and see all the kids playing it and using the 3, 2, 1 Activate catchphrase, was just brilliant.

“I directed the General Election coverage in 1983 and was in the studio in 1979 when Thatcher got in. News and current affairs is very important to me. Somewhere amongst all of this, I directed opera and ballet, and an ice ballet with Torvill and Dean which won a Golden Rose of Montreaux.

“I loved the day that my company, Mentorn, first went into profit, and I loved the day that I sold it. The high points in my career are many and yes, I am an optimist - you have to be in this industry.”

Certainly, it is an industry which demands huge investments of time and money with minimal chance of actually getting your programme to the screen. “Normally, about one in 50 pitches are shortlisted,” Gutteridge explains. “Of the shortlist, one in 50 get to the controller. Of those, 1 in 30 get commissioned and of those, only one in 30 are series and of those, one in five pilots get to series (one in 60 in the US).

“There are 1,700 proper production companies in Great Britain and the BBC works with 276 of them. Of those 276, only 17 work in entertainment and of those 17, only four, including Standing Stone, are outside London.

Getting any programme to TV is a long and expensive process. We’re doing well. We have sold a game show in the US and are making the pilot in LA now, and we’re making the Loveland pilot in London now also.

“The US pilot is small, but the rewards are great because it’s a daily show. Since we formed Standing Stone in April 2007, I have made a seven-figure investment to get to >>

The high points in my career are many and yes, I am an optimist - you have to be in this industry

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INTERVIEW

A life in TV Tom Gutteridge was born in London, but grew up in the North East, attending Newcastle’s Royal Grammar School before leaving to attend York University.

He has spent most of the last 35 years in London and Los Angeles and now lives in Northumberland with his partner Joanna (Jo), also a TV producer, and retains homes in London and LA. He has four children aged 10 to 27, with another due in January 09. He is a gourmet cook, grows his own vegetables, is a talented writer and has a regular blog: Blog from the North.

He began his career at the BBC, becoming a producer and director in current affairs where his credits included Panorama and Nationwide, and then an award-winning producer/director of comedy, talk, dance, music, documentaries and drama before leaving to found Mentorn in 1985, which became the UK’s largest independent production company.

In 2000, he sold Mentorn to The Television Corporation plc where he became Group Creative Director. In 2003 he left to become CEO of FremantleMedia North America Inc, which was responsible for American Idol and The Price Is Right. He left FremantleMedia in 2005 and founded Vine Media in London and LA, opening the Vine Media subsidiary, Standing Stone Productions in Newcastle in 2007.

His TV production credits include Robot Wars, Robot Wars Extreme Warriors and Robot Wars USA, Britain’s Worst Driver, Star For A Night, Before They Were Famous, Today’s The Day, Scratchy & Co, The Bullion Boys, and Challenge Anneka (Anneka Rice is the mother of his youngest son). His awards include an International Emmy (best drama) for The Bullion Boys, an Emmy for Mentorn when it was under his leadership, a bronze Rose of Montreux for best director on Fire & Ice for ITV, the Prix Italia, and several Bafta nominations.

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

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INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

this point, and it is totally high risk. But I didn’t want to follow the conventional approach and start small here, so we immediately went for a couple of major shows and, if they take off, they will become global brands. Assuming we get it right, you will see Loveland, or a version of it, on TV throughout the world.”

The inspiration for Loveland, a dating show on which contestants are depicted as avatars (animated versions of themselves), came from Tom’s partner Jo, a TV producer originally from LA who now lives with Tom in rural Northumberland. “She is very good at spotting the next big thing,” he says. “We were talking about Second Life [the online world where users connect through avatars] and she said that it was, in reality, just a huge dating thing and wouldn’t it be great to do a dating show that used avatars. At the time I was looking for a studio dating format and we decided to go for it. Now, after a lot of searching, we have a company in Belgium who can do the technical side and we’ve invested a lot of money in it. Sky made us the best offer for it, and we own the rights worldwide.”

Gutteridge is used to handling a global TV brand, as evidenced by Robot Wars, which at its height was shown in 26 countries simultaneously, including the US and countries throughout Western Europe. “Once you’ve had the idea, you just make sure you have the paying-in book handy when the cheques start coming in, the rewards are so great,” he says.

“But the risks are huge, and this is a really nerve-wracking business.”

Robot Wars took four years to take off, the pilot having cost £95,000 from Gutteridge’s own pocket. “It was presented to the controller of BBC2 and it took three years to get to the point where they commissioned six episodes,” he says. “The controller, Mark Thompson, eventually rang me in ’98 and told me he wanted as many as we could make. We did 26 a year for three years and we made £8 million, which is a good return on that £95,000 investment, but it took a long time to get there.”

With that, he jumps up to take another call, which requires him to send a fax, which takes a very long time and several attempts punctuated by much swearing. “Can you tell that I don’t normally operate this thing?” he

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

My son said, quite simply, ‘why on earth do you live in Hampstead when you could live here?

says. “Did I tell you Jess is off. I’m so sorry…”

So what’s been his best decision of his career, I ask, as he dots from phone to fax to email inbox. “Moving to Northumberland with Jo,” he says without hesitation, another aborted fax in hand, “because from the date of that decision almost everything has gone right. Of nine projects we have pitched, we have had two successes, which is a fantastic success.”

But what brought him back? A Tynemouth lad and a former Newcastle RGS boy, he had been away for more than 30 years and one might

Cilla’s new date Loveland, the new Standing Stone production, will see Cilla Black back on a dating show, this time helping people find love with the aid of animation technology, allowing contestants to hide behind their avatar – their animated alter ego.

Contestants will answer questions under the guise of their virtual persona, though once picked, they do have to appear in reality and go on a date with their wouldbe partner.

Cilla Black said: “Loveland captivated me with its modern-day twist on the dating format, bringing something new and exciting to the genre. Standing Stone’s unique animation may help couples find love - and me the perfect hat!” The tenpart show will be shown on Sky One.

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imagine that the bright lights of London and LA (where he retains homes) might have more of a pull to a man who has lived his life in the bright lights of television.

“The summer before last, I took Jo and my youngest son to Scotland for a holiday. We were driving back and Jo just said, ‘this is the most beautiful place in the world, you come from here and you’ve never brought me here before’. My son then said, quite simply, ‘why on earth do you live in Hampstead when you could live here?’ Actually, I was rather proud of our house in Hampstead, which is right by the Heath, but it really is wonderful to be in Northumberland and we have now settled here very happily.”

So settled indeed, that Jo is expecting a baby in January (her first, his fifth) and Tom is effusive about his domestic bliss. “It’s been great professionally and great personally. It’s all working very well,” he says, his broad grin lighting up his wide, boyish face. In fact, he says, domestically at least, he wants for absolutely nothing.

“And professionally, if it all ended now I’d be quite satisfied. Having said that, there’s always more I want to do, and I still enjoy it all so much so I’ll keep on going.”

His biggest mistake? “Getting married last time around! It ended up costing me a fortune. It cost me more money than most people should ever expect to make in a life time,” he says, with the openness that readers of his blog will recognise.

Is he sure of himself? “I’m too confident. It’s the glass is always half full mentality. If you thought what you have to do to achieve here you wouldn’t be here. Robson Green’s drama production company, Coastal Productions, is in Newcastle, but there is not a single entertainment production company in the North East. In fact, there are virtually no network companies in the whole of the North East.

“There is little production talent here and it’s basically the worst place to set up a production company in the country. Whether it shows huge misjudgement or a ridiculous faith in my own self, I don’t yet know, but the lifestyle is wonderful and I’m more creative here than I ever was in London.

“Now, I really must get on. Will that do?” ■

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COMPANY PROFILE

OCTOBER 08

Piramal Healthcare, the North East global drug manufacturer, has made a major advance that promises to take its successful business even further ahead

PIRAMAL WINS CLINICAL TRIALS FIRST ORDER

I

T HAS won its first contract in clinical trial services, a lucrative additional line of activity which it expects will now significantly raise revenue growth on its Morpeth site - and add to the 336-strong workforce there.

The site is moving into new opportunities in pharmaceuticals as major multinational pharma groups, in a changing environment of their business, increasingly outsource their activities and look to establish alliances and partnerships with service providers.

Clinical trials are the vital studies that help to decide whether or not a new drug will be satisfactory, medically accepted and safe for humans. There are three stages of devlopment.

First, they are tried on normally healthy patients to gather a safety profile. Then, for efficacy, they are tried on a wider population who could benefit.

Finally they enter a global area where they may be tested on thousands of patients before submission to the relevant regulatory agency for approval and future marketing applications.

Trials normally run for anything from a month to several years, depending on the nature of the illness they address, and involve a combined distribution of the actual product under review, a placebo and a commercially available product.

Only specific people know which type is being administered to the patient.

Piramal Healthcare has been operating at Morpeth for two years although, to the firm’s benefit, the origins of pharmaceutical production on the site go back nearly 40 years, and many Piramal Healthcare staff have worked on the site for a long period of time.

It manufactures active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), produces tablets, packages finished

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

I EXPECT THIS FIRST ORDER TO BE THE ACORN FROM WHICH A GREAT OAK WILL GROW - IAN MORGAN products and manages product distribution.

Richard Packer, director of new business and programme management, says: “Our move into clinical trial services business, which we have been planning for some time, enables us offer a one-stop shop for clients’ drug development, early phase manufacturing, clinical trial management and potentially right through to product commercialisation and distribution. Due to our global offering, we also have options within our manufacturing network that give our clients further choices depending on their own specific requirements.

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“We have already been manufacturing clinical trial materials and commercial product. What we offer now through the additional skills we have bought in is the very important link in the chain of clinical trials packaging and distribution.

Ian Morgan, Clinical Trials Service Lead who joined the company in February, bringing extensive experience of clinical trial packaging and distribution from two leaders in the field, says: “I expect this first order to be the acorn from which a great oak will grow.

“This market is customer service-driven and has become very vibrant, and while we recognise an abundance of intense rivalry out there from small and medium-size competition, we are confident that Piramal Healthcare will deliver its fully integrated service satisfactorily and profitably.”

A team of six will drive the sales offering of this business to potential clients, the promotion of which began at an international trade fair in Frankfurt recently.

Piramal Healthcare Whalton Road, Morpeth, Northumberland, NE61 3YA, United Kingdom t: +44 (0)1670 562 400 f: +44 (0)1670 562 401 e: clinicaltrials@piramal.com w: www.piramalhealthcare.com

h c r a e s Our re ing e g a o t in today Joan Hughes, Research Nurse, Institute for Ageing and Health, Newcastle upon Tyne.

Means keepin g Tom healthy tomorr ow Tom Stonely, Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne.

We have been running an 85+ study for 2 years through our research at the Institute for Ageing and Health. This study has taken all those born in 1921, sampling their DNA and identifying biological markers to see what sort of shape they’re in. Armed with this knowledge, we can apply science to help us counteract health issues associated with ageing and do more to address the factors associated with the disease of growing old with the fastest growing demographic group in the country. It’s a healthy advancement in science for the future. The future is happening right here in Newcastle Science City.

Science is the future. The future is here.

www.newcastlesciencecity.com

GOLD ON WINE

OCTOBER 08

COOK’S TOURS Superior is scarlet purple in hue with, at first sniff, only a gentle cherry on the nose.

I also confess to using some in the chilli. Forgive me, the wine grower who slaved over the bottle in my hand, but I did leave plenty to drink and I have to say it stood up very well to the resulting dinner, and it improved the chilli too.

Back to the wine, and although I’m assured it will drink on to 2015 (if you have the patience, and I don’t…) it is certainly very fine now.

It’s hard to find a drinkable claret representative of the breed from France these days for under a tenner, and having opened the bottle an hour before drinking it (which is only fair on most wines of any age), I was hit with fresh autumn fruit of some intensity, blackcurrant and earthy strawberries.

There is also a long, warm aftertaste that suits a cold wet evening and makes you want to open a second bottle.

There are some soft tannins in there, but it’s already very drinkable and I can believe it will last a few years more. It may even develop with age (hope for us all then…).

I came to the white the next day, stir frying chicken this time and yes, I did try adding a bit to the dish.

I’m not a fan of Pinot Blanc in Alsace as it can be a bit austere and thin. However, this 2005

Jonathan Gold, chief executive of Finance Tree, samples two contrasting wines from across the Channel Tasting wine is like investing in or buying a company; you don’t always get what you expect from reading the label.

Having spent more time tasting wine than buying companies (despite my day job) it was a pleasant surprise to open this red Bordeaux and discover a straight-down-the-line claret that lives up to its name and delivers above its price tag of £9.40.

It was a wet Saturday night and I had decided to cook a beef chilli while tasting the wine.

Not perhaps a classic way to sample it, but I like cooking chilli. It’s simple, I get peace and quiet the few times I volunteer to cook, plus I get to start the wine before dinner.

The 2004 Chateau Grand Village, Bordeaux

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

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Pinot Blanc from Domaine Jean Sipp from the Ribeauville in Alsace priced at £8.52 might change my mind.

A classic straw colour, it was a bit withdrawn and hard to sense any aroma because I’d kept it in the fridge too long. It’s a common mistake, as most whites need to be served at a chill, but not so modern-fridge-cold that you can hardly hold the bottle without frostbite.

But it opened up as it warmed up a bit, and I let my daughter Emily take a sniff. “Lemons” she proclaimed. She’s rather good at this, but we don’t let her drink the stuff. There is a lemon grass smell to it which turns into peaches and apricots when you get to drinking it.

The texture is buttery smooth with a hint of acidity, which is a nice balance, and it proved strong enough to hold its own alongside the lightly spiced chicken stir fry.

All in all, two easy drinking and good value wines to enjoy.

The facts: Jonathan Gold tasted: 2004 Chateau Grand Village Rouge, Bordeaux Superieur priced £9.40 2005 Pinot Blanc, Domaine Jean Sipp, Ribeauville, Alsace priced £8.52 Jonathan’s wine was selected by Michael Jobling Wines of Ponteland. Contact Michael Jobling or Vickie Jackson, tel 0191 378 4554, or see the website at www.michaeljoblingwines

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BUSINESS LUNCH

OCTOBER 08

IN CONVERSATION Getting into conversation with Caroline Theobald - expert networker, introducer, business matchmaker and brilliant conversationalist – could reap dividends for your business, discovers Jane Pikett

Terry Laybourne will be delighted to learn that the grilled black pudding and poached egg salad with honey and mustard dressing at Bistro 21 is, according to Caroline Theobald, ‘amazing’. “Go on, have a taste. It’s amazing.

Look at that gorgeous egg! Oooh, and this dressing is fan-tas-tic..!”

It is praise any restaurateur – even one with an international reputation and a Michelin star – would be gratified to hear, but coming from Theobald, it could also translate into a rush of custom. For she is the consummate networker; supremely well-connected and unfailingly generous in her information sharing. I’ve no doubt that scores of people will have heard about that black pudding within the week.

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

Theobald, for the few who don’t know her (where have you been?), is endlessly curious, always enthused. A pocket rocket with a winning smile and always little tips to share.

‘Lovely to see you. Now then, have you met …?’ And, ‘did you know ..?’ are her stocks in trade, and many business deals have been done on the back of one of her tips.

For Theobald, getting people together for their mutual benefit is just what she does, and she delights in it. Her black book is enviable, but her real talent is in spotting good connections and making them happen, something she’d do for the sheer love of it if only she could.

She and the team at her company, Bridge Club, made referrals last year that resulted in £5.6 million-worth of business, yet Bridge Club had a difficult 12 months which culminated in it coming close to collapse.

“I didn’t set out to be a philanthropist, but I do think that’s how people see me,” she says. “I honestly thought I could build a business from mutually beneficial business connections. Lack of focus got in the way, but my pig headedness has kept me going.”

Despite the several million pounds worth of business created through Bridge Club connections, come the end of 2007, she had to lay staff off (a “nightmare” situation which challenged her deeply held ethics) and she almost had to put the business into voluntary

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liquidation. Now, she says, it’s time to focus on the bottom line. “BC has always been about a £250k business, though it dipped by £100k when I left to set up the Forum,” she says, referring to the period, a year after the launch of Bridge Club, when she allowed herself to be distracted by an offer from NRG’s Lorna Moran and Sir Peter Vardy to help form the Entrepreneurs’ Forum; an experience which was not altogether happy, but was a great learning curve.

“We stretched Bridge Club up to £340k last year before things went awry - too many people, not enough work, too much public sector competition,” she says, adding, with characteristic openness, that she sold her house the year before to allow her to invest in the team and in trying to move the brand into the business and away from herself (part of her succession planning). Now, she is focusing on getting that money back.

“I invested a lot of money in it as a result of selling my house. It was very much a commercial decision. I wanted to invest in the future. I’ve done lots of things wrong, I’ve made lots of mistakes, and I’ve learned from them. Now, I’ve found my higher purpose and have found a financial focus, which is important, and I’m having lots of fun. It’s about having alignment.”

She is bright, engaging company; >>

OCTOBER 08

BUSINESS LUNCH

I’ve done lots of things wrong, I’ve made lots of mistakes, and I’ve learned from them.

Now, I’ve found my higher purpose and have found a financial focus

Engaging company: Caroline Theobald is an influential and accomplished networker

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BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

BUSINESS LUNCH

OCTOBER 08

Enthusiast: Caroline Theobald, armed with a financial focus and well-formed goals, is having fun and always has brilliant little nuggets to share. Have I heard, for instance, of the gynaecological oncologist from the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Gateshead who’s opened the Gastronomy Spot (G-Spot … get it?) restaurant in Durham? He’s so interesting, I must interview him.

How many nuggets like that lead to fantastic commercial deals? Lots of them, I can tell you, and she gives most of them away for free.

Bridge Club started on April 17 2000 (the day the Stock Market crashed) as a partnership with Theobald, Jim Lawler, Charles Hoult and

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

There is a real need for early-stage businesses to have huggers, but someone needs to pay for the hugging. I would do it for nothing if I could though

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OCTOBER 08

Lorraine Surtees, its aim to bring early-stage businesses, mainly in the tech fields, together with useful partners and funders.

The first year was sponsored by Eversheds, Merill Lynch and KPMG, but the partnership was dissolved after 12 months and Theobald took on the business single-handed. The second year heralded a £250k turnover and a good profit, but Theobald allowed herself to be distracted, as mentioned, by the invitation to help form the Enterpreneurs’ Forum.

“I was attracted by the offer to help set up the Entrepreneurs’ Forum and yes, I was flattered by it. I should have stayed focused on Bridge Club, but I thought I could do everything.

“Having said that, we’ve made fantastic connections for so many businesses, and supported so many young business people, such as Tarek Nseir at TH_NK, Steven and George at Student Mobiles, Nick Bell at QuickTV, Arnab Basu at Kromek, Si and Di at bgroup, Andy and Pete at Fresh Element, Jim Mann at Bedsearcher, Anthony Coxon at Soundbite Learning. They come in all shapes and sizes and, like all businesses, they need connections to do what they do.”

Bridge Club is also a private-sector leader in delivering business connections throughout the UK for the likes of the National Council of Graduate Entrepreneurship, Enterprise Insight, The Mando Group/Hotshots Academy, NPower and Unilever.

Theobald’s great talent, as mentioned, is for people. In another life, she even charmed Robert Maxwell, who asked her to be his press officer after being impressed by her tenacity in getting an interview with him when she was news editor of Printing World.

“I was after a story about some packaging licences,” she explains, of a period in the early 80s when Maxwell, pre his newspaper days, was proprietor of the British Printing & Communications Corporation (BPCC). “The national press was sniffing around this story, but I must have been quite sharp, because he let me into his office and I got the story.”

A few months later, she saw an advert for the press officer of the BPCC and applied, only to get a rejection letter by return. Then, a few days later, the recruitment company called and said that Maxwell had demanded to interview her. It seemed he remembered her.

BUSINESS LUNCH

“I boned up all night, but he just sat me down and said did I have a nice childhood. I said yes, it was fantastic, and I had enjoyed playing football with my brothers. Then he said, did I want the job, and that was that.”

Her time with Maxwell was fun, if extremely demanding, during a period when he was trying to buy newspapers and squaring up to the unions. “He was having meetings with people like Tiny Rowland about buying papers.

My brother was PA to Tiny Rowland in Africa, which made it all very interesting, but Maxwell loved the whole family thing. I come from a large Catholic family and he came from a large Jewish family, and he relished that.

“He was very human. He sent my mother flowers on her birthday. Sometimes, he actually seemed scared of things. I remember a time he went to a big conference, full of lawyers, and unusually for him, he didn’t know anyone there, and he was so nervous.

“He was also a bully though, and those sort of people are always a bit frightened themselves, don’t you think?

“Having said that, he never bullied me. I think that at that time of my life, in my late 20s, I was more confident than I had ever been before or since. I worked incredibly hard and I had all the trappings of success, though I remember one evening, I went out and missed a phone call from him, and he was furious the next day. But when you’re 26, you work endless hours and just put up with it.”

Theobald is a highly ethical businesswoman – something she learned from her father, a successful tea importer, developer of Thamesside warehouses, investor in early-stage businesses and one-time Sunday Times Young Entrepreneur of the Year who remains, at 77, an enormous influence on her life.

As her what she believes in life and she will tell you, quite simply, ‘that you should do the right things for the right reasons because there is absolutely no conflict between being entrepreneurial and being ethical’. Robert Maxwell knew how deeply held her ethics were and would send her out of the office (her desk was outside his office door, fully in his line of sight) if he thought she might not like to hear the details of some deal.

“I can only speak as I find,” she says, “and he was charming with me. There was a mutual

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respect. He kept me away from the things he knew I wouldn’t like and though I know he was a crook now, I certainly didn’t then.”

Towards Theobald, Maxwell was a kindly and protective boss who respected her integrity and abilities, perhaps the latter more than she.

When he bought the Mirror, he offered her a very senior position, but she said no, she felt under-qualified for the task, something which exposes the chinks in her own armour sharply.

“We all have our weaknesses,” she says, and it’s taken her until the last year, in the wake of the business low point in 2007, to build up her confidence in pursuing more secure revenue streams for Bridge Club. She can still do what she loves – networking, introducing, making business happen – but she must be focused to claw back the huge personal investment she has made in the business.

“I should have focused on Bridge Club from the start and not been distracted by other things,” she says. “I know that now and we are concentrating on the revenue streams that ‘In Conversation’ gives us [highly >>

The facts Caroline Theobald grew up in the Surrey village of Gomshall, near Guildford, and attended a Catholic boarding school.

She is MD of Bridge Club Ltd and is known as one of the region’s most accomplished networkers and business introducers.

She was awarded a Queen’s Award for Business Promotion last year and is the Entrepreneur in Residence at Newcastle University.

She is honorary consul for Sweden in the North East (she was nominated for the role by her partner’s father, the last holder of the post) and works to foster business and cultural links between the region and Sweden.

She is the public face of Connect North East, the newest branch of the highly successful Connect technology network.

She has a gorgeous black cocker spaniel called Jarvis.

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

BUSINESS LUNCH entertaining chat show-style interview events with business leaders and entrepreneurs], our work facilitating Action Learning Sets [a powerful form of work-based learning] for various clients, partnership contracts with companies like the Ideas Mine and contract delivery such as Connect North East – an access to finance network for early-stage technology businesses.

“I have to keep my eye on my success criteria, and that has to include making money. We know there is huge value in what we do.

Buiness-to-business connections we made for our clients were valued at £5.6 million by them last year and I hope that in 12 months I am still doing this successfully, and making money for my own business out of it.”

Her background has trained her to be nothing if not fantastically versatile. Her CV between working for Maxwell and founding Bridge Club includes a stint as a self-employed communications consultant for the likes of Coopers & Lybrand and the Inner City Trust (a Prince of Wales initiative). She came North in the late 80s with Freeform Arts Trust and met her husband, Alan, for whom she experienced the lightning strike of love at first sight.

“He was 6ft 8 to my 5ft 4, and I was in this room setting up an event and I turned round to find this enormous man filling the door and that was it – bang! - love at first sight,” she says, with a broad grin.

Alan, a North Shields trawler owner, chairman of the North Shields Fishermen’s Association and a businessman with a determined entrepreneurial spirit, had a highly lucrative business and an irresistible pull. She was smitten and they married. Tragically however, he had a heart attack one night aboard his trawler and died, aged just 45, leaving the then 39-year-old Caroline devastated and with

OCTOBER 08

two children, Ashlie, 13, and Philip, nine, to bring up alone. “My faith got me through that,” she says of the Catholicism that informs her life. “I received hundreds of cards and I always remember one from a friend, which said very simply, ‘wrap your arms round the children, fix your eyes on the light of the future and we will pray to God that you will survive’, and I have.”

Theobald, now 50, now lives happily with her partner Justin (a senior business consultant with Fujitsu) and their lovely, bouncy cocker spaniel Jarvis (named for the Pulp frontman) in the Tyne Valley. Ashlie, meanwhile, is 25 now and recently married, while Philip is 21 and about to go travelling.

So what does she want now? “I want a legacy I suppose, to know some of the stuff I have done has worked for people. I have given people employment opportunities and people have set up businesses. There is something there that’s lasting.”

And if she had a magic wand? “I would love to do what I do and not worry about money.

There is a real need for early-stage businesses to have huggers, but someone needs to pay for the hugging. I would do it for nothing if I could though.”

But more important than any of that is family; the most important thing on the planet to Theobald, who benefits from a big family that is close knit and caring.

One of five siblings with numerous nephews and nieces and her mother and father still very much around, all the family are entrepreneurs and they all look out for each other. “The whole family goes on holiday every year. This year, in Cornwall, we were 50, aged from 77 down to nine months. It was wonderful, just wonderful,” she says. “And that’s what’s really important … isn’t it?” ■

You should do the right things for the right reasons because there is absolutely no conflict between being entrepreneurial and being ethical

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Lunch!

Bistro 21, Aykley Heads, Durham City, offers a two-course set lunch for £15, three courses for £18, or you can choose from the a la carte menu. We mixed and matched, Caroline enjoying the black pudding salad to start and then a huge helping of moules frites, which went down extremely well. Jane started with zingy pickled herring from the set lunch (gorgeous) followed with an a la carte starter of fried squid (fresh, non-rubbery, with a pleasingly crisp, light coating), served with well-matched dollops of crème fraiche and chilli jam.

We didn’t have time for pudding, which we both regretted, as Jane had set her heart on the Pimms jelly with spearmint ice cream and Caroline was coveting the crème brûlée. Coffee and coffee bean chocs sufficed, but pudding will be ours next time! We did, however, enjoy a glass each of crisp sauvignon blanc and we appreciated the easy-going, attentive staff, who were not at all fazed by our dotting around the menus and the arrival of BQ’s photographer Kev, whom we now like to call Caroline’s personal photographer, seeing as BQ despatched him to see her twice, causing a bit of a stir on both occasions. The price of fame!

Bistro 21, Aykely Heads, Durham, DH1 5TS, tel 0191 384 4354. For menus, see www.bistrotwentyone.co.uk

INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

I knew of this building from my days at Malmaison and, to be honest, I always fancied doing it privately for myself. I was a general manager then though, and didn’t realise I’d get to the giddy heights of being the group chief executive

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

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OCTOBER 08

INTERVIEW

A FINE VINTAGE The opening of the biggest Hotel du Vin yet offers the opportunity to soak in the atmosphere of a great North East maritime tradition. Robert Cook, Hotel du Vin and Malmaison group chief executive, gives Brian Nicholls the grand tour By the time you read this, a unique hotel will have opened in Newcastle. At every turn, it will remind visitors that this region was once a world-leading maritime centre - in fact it still is, when you consider the marine insurers thriving in Newcastle and Sunderland.

Simultaneously, the hotel will consciously aim to raise its visitors’ knowledge and appreciation of wine.

Newcastle’s new Hotel du Vin occupies what was an Edwardian-built maintenance depot and store for the Tyne Tees Steam

Shipping Company. The 100-year-old building overlooking the Tyne has been extensively renovated and refurbished, but it retains the character given to it by its first owner, a firm which was established in 1864.

Robert Cook, chief executive of the Malmaison and Hotel du Vin group, has no anxieties about its appeal. “Frankly, I think this is the best Hotel du Vin we have done yet,” he says, going on to explain that there will be 14 carrying the name in England and Scotland by the end of 2008.

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Throughout its 13 years, the group has been rescuing old buildings for hotel conversions: a former eye hospital in Birmingham, an old brewery in Henley, a one-time mental asylum in Edinburgh, a former mansion house in Poole, a disused sugar warehouse in Bristol. Now it’s the turn of Allan House on Newcastle’s City Road, close to the former Tyne Tees TV studios.

It has 42 guest rooms and will be the biggest Hotel du Vin in the country. Cook says they are all individuals, but why a building just five >>

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

minutes’ walk from the group’s Malmaison, where he was the first general manager 11 years ago?

“I knew about this building from my days at the Malmaison and to be honest, I always fancied doing it privately for myself. I was a general manager then though, and didn’t realise I’d get to the giddy heights of being the group chief executive.

“When I got board approval to look for a second building in Newcastle, I felt this place could make something really smart.

Newcastle’s Malmaison has been one of the most successful of that brand and I think this city is still lacking quality hotel rooms.

“Had the building allowed, I would have given Malmaison an extension, adding perhaps 50 bedrooms to the existing 122, so it’s sensible for us to provide rooms here. Also, we’re giving the city a bistro restaurant of considerable character with a huge wine list.”

The open-air eating area in the horseshoe courtyard will be well used, he says. “Al fresco eating is enjoyable and, contrary to popular belief, apart from the pouring rain today, you do get pleasant weather in Newcastle.”

He says this with authority, for despite his gruelling week-day travels visiting hotels throughout the country, weekends are spent at home in Eglingham, Northumberland, with his wife Debbie and one-year-old son Andrew.

His accent affirms his early years in Aberdeen, but of the North East he says: “I love the people’s attitude. They’re full of enthusiasm.

Geordies are probably the best in the UK for hospitality. That’s partly why I have every confidence that both Malmaison and Hotel du Vin will do well together.”

They are, he says, different animals. “I run the Hotel du Vin business as a bistro with bedrooms,” he explains. “For a financial model, it’s not typical. It’s not a cookie cutter business. It’s individual. It revolves around whichever interesting building it fills. If a building isn’t interesting or not important to a city historically, I won’t touch it.”

At Newcastle’s Hotel du Vin, the setting is also breathtaking. Below it stands the Sailors’ Bethel (similarly red bricked, built in 1877 and now offices) and the Tyne snakes by. To the right, you can see the Tyne’s bridges and around the river’s bend to the left, the sailing

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Bricks matter: “A building must be important to a city,” says Robert Cook and boating community of St Peter’s Basin.

Some distance behind Hotel du Vin, stands the architecturally renowned Byker Wall.

Cook considered the recovery implied by the rebirth of the Ouseburn district and further Quayside development in his decision to house the hotel here. The Ouseburn behind the hotel is being dredged, new cultural venues are opening, new businesses and new residents are moving in.

“As at Malmaison, we probably got here a little ahead of time,” Robert says. “If we can help catalyse this area, then that’s great. This

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could be Bohemian Newcastle.” He is also praiseworthy of Newcastle’s planners. “They were great,” he says. “I think they knew from Malmaison that we would convert Allan House sensitively. They were supportive and when a couple of glitches or changes of planning ideas arose, they accommodated us. Unlike some cities elsewhere, Newcastle is very good about development.”

A roof fire in the original wing set the project back four months, but Metnor Construction and 165 able bodies made up the leeway, completing the job in a year and a half.

OCTOBER 08

Outside the building, the cobble stones have been re-laid. Replicas of the old shipping company’s gates are being fitted and the old office sign is being reinstated. A new wing, reminiscent of a lighthouse, was built with a special frame.

“There was a weight issue,” Cook explains.

“Underneath it there’s a tunnel and to safeguard against collapses, and because of the historic significance, we had to use lightweight timber frames. It was a challenge, but it’s worked.”

The 1.5 mile tunnel to which he refers, which is in some parts 26 metres underground, is Grade II listed and one of the Victorian coal industry’s most important relics. Wagons drawn through it carried coal to port from Spital Tongues colliery.

“With these old buildings, we regenerate and re-invigorate,” says Cook. “It’s not what we do to them, so much as what we don’t do.” Hence, interior brick, girders, struts, beams and stone are exposed. Old fireplaces are preserved, as are a number of staircases, skirtings and mouldings.

In the air-conditioned guest rooms, full use has been made of the high ceilings. Bathrooms with under-floor heating sit on mezzanines and the floors are laid in oak.

Almost half the rooms are suites, some have balconies, many have two baths, and all have a suitably period feel. Showers, or drenchers, are about the size of a bus shelter. Wash stands sometimes back onto the bed head, some baths offer a panoramic view over the Tyne. “Hotels by rivers always work nicely.

People love the views,” Cook says.

Baths are clad in Northumbrian plaid – something the Cooks tried on their own bath at home and liked. Some windows are tiny ovals, some are portholes and some are large picture windows. Reproductions of ship’s guard rails help the building to meet health and safety standards in fitting style.

You may even find the toilet in a room within a room; reminiscent of a Tyneside nettie and fitting the historic structure. Yet old also mixes with the very new, with TV screens at 42 inches or, in the de luxe loft suite, 52 inches in addition to a nine foot bed.

Room prices start at £135 and rise to £395, the management paying the VAT for the latter.

In public areas, large murals have turn-of-thecentury shipbuilding themes with Geordie humour to set party moods. Spittoons are back - not amid sawdust, but resting on a Laroche tasting table for wine dinners and wine schools. The wine stores are glass fronted and there is a champagne room, all of which rather conveys a message.

“Three of our 50 sommeliers, who are the cornerstone of our service philosophy, will work here,” says Cook. “Their knowledge and way of educating and selling wine is important to the brand. We’ll have about 350 wines. We start at £18 and go up to £100. But about 75 per cent are below £50.”

Cigars are also a speciality. The Hotel du Vin and Malmaison group is the UK’s biggest customer of Havana cigars: annual outlay, £250,000. Smokers are not pariahs at Hotel du Vin, where a smokers’ bothy in the courtyard resembles a very elegant bandstand.

“You can sit in there with under-floor heating, leather seats and a nice roaring fire, and smoke a cigar with your Cognac or Armagnac after dinner,” Cook says. “The bothys are popular at other Hotels du Vin.” Inverted wine glasses hang from the chandeliers, and in the lounge and bar a potbellied stove features. The bistro will have no table cloths, but will have a clear view into the kitchen. Pictures will alternate between old shipyard scenes and vineyards, and rooms will be named after wines.

The architect, Michael Phillips Design of Henley, and the in-house interior designer, Matt Hulme, who is just 24, must be proud. ■

With these old buildings, we regenerate and re-invigorate. It’s not what we do to them, so much as what we don’t do

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INTERVIEW

Hands on Robert Cook, a fitlooking 42, shows no wear and tear from his hands-on approach to running 30 hotels and overseeing the creation of two Hotels du Vin in Poole and Edinburgh and a new Malmaison in Aberdeen. He is also about to secure a building in Durham, he reveals.

In Newcastle, there are eight managers at the new hotel, serving under the general manager Andrew Creese. It is a young team. “Giving a £10 million toy to a young management team is a big risk, but we have confidence in their enthusiasm and attention to detail,” Cook says.

Newcastle will be one of four cities with both of the group’s brands represented, offering 164 guest rooms in total. Hotel du Vin will offer small conferences and weddings (wedding parties can book the entire hotel). Its private dining and conference rooms seat between eight and 20, and 40 can be accommodated for theatre-style meetings.

“The way I run hotels is to be in them,” Cook says of his management approach.

“An ivory tower in London is no place to run a business,” and the week we meet, he has been in London, Southampton, Bournemouth, Newcastle, Glasgow and Leeds. Both hotel brands are still expanding and the first Pub du Vin opens in November in Brighton.

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

FASHION

OCTOBER 08

Fokke de Jong is out to take over the world with his affordable suit business Suit Supply. Quirky, edgy and very affordable, he may just be onto the biggest fashion story in decades, concludes Chris Porter

Fashion forward: Fokke de Jong is revolutionising the men’s suit market

Suits you, sir “We’ve made some nightmare decisions on collections over the years, and we’ll probably make more,” says Fokke de Jong, as he recalls the occasion he ordered 20,000 of what he terms “the wrong jacket”.

Almost none sold and the cost had to be written off. “But that’s how business works; you can wait and wait until you’ve done 100 per cent of your homework and you’ll still face the unexpected,” he says. “Still, if you never make a move, you always stay a virgin.”

That’s not a reflection, by the way, of one of his early revenue-raising escapades, as an affable doorman at one of Amsterdam’s notorious red light establishments, of which he says, simply, “My girlfriend’s parents didn’t really approve.”

Fortunately, de Jong’s work now is considerably more respectable. He is the founder and managing director of Suit Supply, a Dutch suit company on the international expansion path with a business model that is overturning the conventional wisdom of the tailoring sector.

In many ways, Suit Supply has been a left-field enterprise from the outset. The Dutch, after

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

all, are not known for their fashion sense.

“It’s true that the Dutch are awful dressers,” de Jong admits. “But then, that only made it easier to stand out.

“We were able to practise on a market that wasn’t high-brow about fashion. And it was at the height of the move into dress down and a terrible time to launch a suit business.

“I thought I’d only be doing it for a year, but I’m making money and the idea that suits are dying out is a question I’ve been asking myself for seven years now. I’m sure there will always be demand for a formal menswear. There will always be the urge for people to have some kind of conformist dress.”

De Jong wandered into this line of work after dabbling in enterprises. By the time he started at law school, he had developed a knack for buying and selling - everything from pinball machines to jeans, with a couple of helicopters along the way.

He had once been celebrated for being the first teenager in Holland to own a mobile phone, back when they were bricks costing megabucks. Unsurprisingly, he did not complete his studies.

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“It all seemed very academic to me,” he says.

“You didn’t really do anything. They only teach you what you can be examined on, and the really relevant stuff in life can’t be examined.”

Nor did he fare well as an employee. He lasted a week in his first job as a management trainee with Proctor & Gamble, though his early experiences did give him a good business idea and through his law school he launched and ran a sales business in graduation gowns, something he never got to wear himself.

Spotting that the tailoring business was riddled with agency middle men, he struck a long-term deal with a manufacturer to supply suits direct to his first store. But crucially, not just any suits. By cutting out distribution inefficiencies, he found he could buy craftsmanship, and Suit Supply suits are in the tradition of tailoring - hand-pressed and finished, stitched rather than fused, with traditional interlinings.

High-volume production allows them to retail from just £200 upwards and still be profitable.

While de Jong pays a higher cost price for his suits than some better-known brands, he is able to keep retail prices in check by

OCTOBER 08

controlling the supply chain. He has also found the benefit of dividing specialist labour, and today his suits are made in Tunisia and pressed and finished in Italy.

The business is also focused, so Suit Supply only sells suits plus the occasional shirt and tie. At 33, he is still young and, he concedes, “a bit cocky”, and the image he has cultivated for the brand is edgy and arty, the promo material decorated with naked ladies.

“You certainly won’t see pictures of a man leaning against a BMW with a champagne glass in hand,” he says. “It’s amazing that the cliched idea of success is still used in the tailoring world. Our image is a little bit provocative, which it needs to be to claim space in the fashion market. But it also reflects the company culture - we have fun doing what we do.”

De Jong launched with £4,000 of saved capital and Suit Supply is now turning over E40 million with 30 per cent year on year growth.

It now has more than 20 stores across Europe and de Jong is fielding many offers for his business. >>

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EQUIPMENT

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

Being excited by what I do is important to me. If I sold up, I’d have to sit on a boat in the Mediterranean all day and I’d be terribly bored

”Being excited by what I do is important to me,” he says. “If I sold up, I’d have to sit on a boat in the Mediterranean all day and I’d be terribly bored. And this is an interesting business to be in because, on the one hand you have the business practice of dealing with cash, inventory and so on, and on the other it’s a very creative business. You have to stand out, add value and style. There is a theatrical element to this.

“I think good fashion companies are a balance between the left and right sides of the brain.

You start doing it well and you get hooked.”

The result is a fresh, edgy brand image and a product that focuses attention where other affordable brands cut corners: on quality and service. Certainly, in de Jong’s eyes, and contrary to the fashion industry norm, it is not designers that are king, but salespeople. He is not a fan of hierarchy.

“One of my biggest early mistakes was to assume that it was necessary to build an organisation for the business to work,” he says. “But all that does is create unnecessary layers. You then spend all your time managing them, and they distance people from the company’s goals.

“I was also very impressed by CVs and hired the wrong people. Résumés are dangerous weapons. To me what counts now is a lack of experience, and an eagerness to find out.”

That may seem a risky philosophy in today’s business climate, but Suit Supply seems to have prospered by making what de Jong concedes are often instinctive rather than considered, strategic moves. >>

Stores were opened in Vilnius and Riga, for instance, just because of a chance encounter with the right retail partners, and a store was opened in London because the right retail space became available just off the tailoring Mecca that is Savile Row, basking in some reflected glory perhaps, but equally thumbing its nose at the suit’s grand pioneers.

Yet this is precisely what gives the company an edge in an otherwise conservative world.

While others contemplate whether moving from a two-button to a one-button singlebreasted suit is a radical departure, de Jong is convinced his progressive company will have close on 500 Suit Supply stores across Europe within a decade, and he is ready to raise his game accordingly.

“We know we have to gear up for international expansion. We’ve had very sophisticated collections for the Dutch market, but they wouldn’t stand out in Milan - they’re just not sophisticated enough yet. But they will be, we’re improving them all the time,” he says. “Besides, even in Milan they would stand out price-wise, so either way I think we would still win.” ■ www.suitsupply.com

I think good fashion companies are a balance between the left and right sides of the brain. You start doing it well and you get hooked

EQUIPMENT

OCTOBER 08

WIRED FOR SOUND The sound of music played through Meridian Audio equipment is famously pure, while the kit itself has won design plaudits around the world. So why, asks Chris Porter, is this connoisseur brand such a well-kept secret?

In perhaps the most-quoted scene from the rockumentary pastiche This is Spinal Tap, a battle of amps is won by a long-haired muso who announces that his dial does not stop at 10, but can, in fact, be turned all the way up to 11.

The joke is at the expense not only of male competitiveness, but also audio nerdiness. But

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

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in business terms, the joke is taken rather more seriously. Bob Stuart, for one, regularly sells hi-fi systems at £40,000 a pop and at anything up to £200,000 from a company that few outside stereo nerd circles will have heard of - Meridian Audio.

But that may be about to change. As Stuart, Meridian’s co-founder, notes, the audio market

OCTOBER 08

It’s a lifelong investment to improve the quality of the sound of the music you listen to

is increasingly brand-conscious. “After all, most people have heard of Bang & Olufsen, which is what I would recommend buying after Meridian,” he says. “But the fact is that there is always room in even a brandconscious market for a company with a new idea. That said, if someone wants to buy Meridian equipment just because it’s Meridian, or because it’s the most expensive, that’s fine too, because they will learn to love it for the sound it produces.”

It was precisely out of developing new ideas to improve sound reproduction that the Cambridge-based Meridian was born just over 30 years ago.

Stuart, an expert in psycho-acoustics (the science of understanding the way sound is perceived and the difference between the way it is produced and the way it is heard) worked for style-driven audio brand Lecson before deciding to go it alone with industrial designer Allen Boothroyd to form Meridian.

Their idea was simple - they had already seen their striking designs selected for the New York Museum of Modern Art’s permanent collection; now they would produce audio equipment that sounded as good as it looked.

Industrial design was, at the time, ‘big, offensive and quite crude’, Stuart notes. With Meridian, hi-fi as lifestyle object was born, and within a decade they had notched up three Design Council awards.

But Meridian’s edge came through its ground-breaking technology – if hi-fi geeks preferred to mix components, preferring amp and loudspeakers to be separated at the cost of output and clarity (as the signal is fed to the speakers), Meridian’s ‘active speakers’ incorporated the amp, also allowing them to function over a range a whole octave lower than other speakers of a comparable size.

EQUIPMENT

Bold and beautiful: The unrivalled sound quality provided by Meridian equipment is matched by its looks

Meridian followed up with a digital version, a world-first. It gave them a 10-year head start over the competition. That was the good news. And the bad?

Well, although active speaker technology is still rare - some 95 per cent of speakers on the market remain ‘passive’ - the company did not patent its invention, ‘probably because we just didn’t think of it’, admits a very philosophical Stuart.

That, in part, means Meridian has to keep pushing new technology to stay ahead and, without the research and development budgets of competitors like Bang & Olufsen or the more mass market-focused Sony, it must rely on instinct to pursue to the right projects.

Among these new projects is automotive and aircraft audio, the launch of what is probably the world’s most advanced home theatre projection system, and a yet to be unveiled product for the burgeoning download market.

“But we can’t afford many false starts,” concedes Stuart. “At this end of the market, the volumes are low and the margins are not outrageous by any means.”

It’s not been the only stumbling block facing this connoisseur brand. For once it has a customer, it typically has one for life, which initially dissuaded many distributors from stocking the brand at all, reliant as they are on customers who have to return for regular upgrades.

As a result, Meridian still has only 30 or so accounts in the UK. On top of this, the audio market is, >>

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BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

EQUIPMENT

OCTOBER 08

Stuart stresses, ‘a very reactionary one’.

Recently, there has been yet another shift in formats to contend with, this time resulting in more and more music being downloaded from the internet and consumed via computer or MP3 player, neither of which, Stuart laments, can possibly reproduce sound with the same quality as CD, which in turn is inferior to audio DVD. “There is a general trend downwards in audio in terms of quality expectations, and unless you get an understanding of what sound reproduction can be like, you don’t know what you’re missing,” he says.

There is also the difficult issue of reaching those customers who do want a better listening experience. Meridian may be big with musicians, but few outside the music business realise that it is a provider of top-spec audio equipment, semi-bespoke and hand-built in the UK from British components.

“It’s a big challenge,” Stuart says. “We’re a small company and we don’t always reach the people who would really appreciate the product – those who can afford it, but just don’t know we exist, or those who are intimidated by specialist hi-fi stores, or those who simply don’t know that sound quality like this is possible. This is close to sounding like the real thing.”

But the company is taking steps that are likely to see its profile grow considerably over the coming years. Last year, it sold a minority stake to a subsidiary of Richemont - the first time a luxury goods giant has invested in a technology brand - and its expertise in brand building has, Stuart says, been a boon.

Meridian has also launched a range of more accessibly priced products, notably the F80, its first compact table-top unit, albeit a £1,500 one. It has also created a model for the British top-end menswear label Dunhill, which again will help to spread the name. It seems Meridian will not remain the best-kept secret in audio for much longer, it seems.

“The way ahead,” Stuart says, “is to be perceived as not just specialist, but rather as extremely good. Audio enthusiasts have built Meridian’s reputation for equipment that is the

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

Brand building: Meridian’s Bob Stuart is building awareness for the company’s niche product range equivalent to an automotive company’s work in Formula One. “Now, it’s a question of making products that can equally well be appreciated by more mainstream music lovers.

“A good audio system can give so much enjoyment. It’s a lifelong investment to improve the quality of the sound of the music you listen to.”

Stuart’s taste is for classical music, though he notes that a Meridian system is perfect for hardcore jazz lovers too because layered, sonically rich music especially benefits from the Meridian touch.

Not that Stuart is elitist, even if his product has tended to be. He insists that his units wouldn’t be wasted, even on those who only play pop.

For further information and dealers, see www.meridian-audio.com ■

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Unless you get an understanding of what sound reproduction can be like, you don’t know what you’re missing

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MOTORING

OCTOBER 08

Sublime experience

ITPS’s Michael Jopling is seduced by the style, sophistication and sheer excellence of Bentley’s Continental GTC My passion for cars is reflected in the history of my personal collection, which includes my current Audi S8 and past purchases of a BMW M3 and an Audi TT. While I am only prepared to go back as far the Audi TT for fear of showing my age, being asked to test drive a Bentley Continental GTC gave me a fantastic opportunity to put my knowledge of cars to the test and enjoy a piece of sheer luxury.

As I cruised through Newcastle city centre, I think I disappointed the many spectators >>

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It’s an amazing piece of engineering and ticks so many boxes beyond the needs of a car lover that it is also a declaration of style and sophistication

OCTOBER 08

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MOTORING

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MOTORING

OCTOBER 08

expecting to see a premiership footballer, but I was totally focused on the driving experience.

Then my journey took me out to the open roads of the North East, where the real test drive began and where I will start by stating the obvious; I was driving a Bentley Continental GTC! The looks and style of the car speak for themselves, the cabin interior in particular reflecting what everyone loves about Bentley design. The cockpit is highly technical, but not overwhelming; it’s simply functional and very easy to use.

I’ve read numerous reviews about this car and Bentley’s focus on the roof design, which involved a complete redesign of the rear

The BQ writing team will soon be joined by our new car expert Bob Arora. Here’s a little taste of what he has to offer ...

Bob Arora should, by rights, be gracing our TV screens every Sunday night alongside the likes of Clarkson, Hammond and May – so close was he to becoming one of the presenters on BBC’s Top Gear programme.

Their loss is Newcastle’s culinary gain, however, because his failure by a hair’s breadth to make it to a presenter’s slot on the programme (he got to the last four in the auditions …) leaves him free to run Sachins Indian restaurant, which he owns and which happens to be one of the best in Newcastle, and to write independent car reviews for a host of magazines nationwide.

And that’s where Business Quarter comes in. Bob will join our writing team in time for our January 09 edition, offering his verdict on the best executive models on the market.

Bob’s fascination with cars began as a child, when his father worked on the production line at Ford Dagenham alongside, bizarrely enough, the 80s chart topper Billy Ocean. Arora Snr passed on all his knowledge and passion for cars to his young son and took him to car shows around the country. Bob’s uncle was also a car enthusiast and took the teenage Bob for his first drive – a day he’ll never forget.

Bob still enjoys buying and selling cars and, when he saw an advert in Top Gear magazine six years ago, he applied to become a presenter on the show.

His audition video was made with the help of the renowned TV director Geoff Wonfor (cocreator of The Tube), Geoff’s late wife and creative director of Granada, Andrea Wonfor and Ray Laidlaw of Lindisfarne, all of whom were regulars at Sachins. Unfortunately, despite his fantastic audition tape, Bob was narrowly pipped at the post, but he did make it to the last four, out of whom James May and Richard Hammond made the cut.

Bob now writes independent car reviews for 14 publications across the country and his first review will appear in the next edition of BQ, out mid-January 2009. Feel free to seek him out at Sachins on Forth Banks where he’s usually on hand with a warm welcome, except on Sundays when the restaurant is closed (presumably so he can watch Top Gear?)

Meanwhile, we want you to write to Bob with your questions and suggestions. So please email him at bob@bq-magazine.co.uk

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suspension from the GT coupe to GTC. The challenge was to eradicate the scuttle shake, and I’m confident in saying that I think the team at Bentley got it right.

My only criticism would be that the rear seat space could be more generous, as four adults would struggle to travel comfortably for any length of time. Having said that, I am convinced young children would be fine.

I also feel the need to make an important point at this stage for those keen golfers out there, who will be relieved to learn that the boot space will accommodate a set of golf clubs perfectly.

With statistics of 0-60mph in 4.8 seconds, a topless top speed of 190mph and a massive V12 engine, it’s hard to believe that you’re not driving a sports car.

These figures outperform the BMW M3 and Audi S8, even with the top down. The engine has a certain roar, so even with your eyes closed you know there is an extreme amount of power behind this car.

The handling is agile and seamless for a car of its size and weight and the continuous allwheel drive is excellent when cornering hard.

The drive overall is also smooth and polished.

The Bentley Continental GTC is top of its class in terms of luxury, performance and price, but it really accelerates to a new level when driving with the top down.

It’s an amazing piece of engineering and ticks so many boxes beyond the needs of a car lover that it is also a declaration of style and sophistication.

The price tag of £130,000 is substantial in anyone’s language, but I think you do have to look beyond the price and focus on the Bentley design and performance.

Overall, I set out on this experience with extremely high expectations and feared I might be disappointed. So believe me when I say that my enthusiasm and total excitement towards this car is hard to put into words. ■ Michael Jopling, FD of IT Professional Services Ltd, test drove a Bentley Continental GTC, list price £132,500, provided by Bentley Newcastle, Elliot House, Silverlink, Wallsend, NE28 9ND, tel 0191 259 8155, website: www.bentleynewcastle.com

QUEEN’S AWARDS

OCTOBER 08

WINNING WAYS Winning a coveted Queen’s Award boosts any business. Act before the end of October, and you could be in the running

You’ve a little time yet – but only just - to bid for a booster that could energise your company in these leaner times.

A few days remain in which to make your bid for the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise. They’re a recognised badge of quality, success and reliability in foreign markets, while here in the UK, they are widely regarded as indicators of business excellence.

You needn’t be a big wheel. Any commercially successful firm in the country, even with only two full-time employees or part-time equivalent can be considered.

Awards in this free contest are given for

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achievement in one, two, or all three categories - exporting, innovation and sustainable development. “Standard-bearers for the very best of British business,” is what Prime Minister Gordon Brown calls award holders to date.

Walker Filtration of Washington holds three Queen’s Awards for overseas performance.

The latest accolade in 2006 marked its 85 per cent export of all products.

Brian Walker, chairman and owner of the business, who received the MBE for services to international trade in 2001, says: “Receiving these awards has proved our belief that a manufacturing company in the North East can compete successfully in an international market place.

“It is one of the highest accolades and we are delighted to have received it three times. We feel it recognises our continuing >>

where business and pleasure come together Situated only 25 minutes from Newcastle upon Tyne, Matfen Hall’s unique 27 hole course offers a challenging environment for all golfers. Perfect for corporate parties and society days, the management team can easily tailor packages to your exacting requirements to include on-course refreshments, dining and evening presentations. 2009 Corporate Membership is now available to include at least one fourball per day 365 days per year, nominated bearers, unlimited use of the course and acclaimed facilities. Take advantage of our Winter Warmer, mid-week offer; Coffee and bacons rolls, one round of golf, soup and sandwiches and FREE use of the par 3 course at only £22.50 per person. Valid until March 2009.

Matfen Hall, Matfen, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE20 ORH. Golf tel: 01661 886 400, Hotel: 01661 886 500 Email: golf@matfenhall.com

Discover more at www.matfenhall.com

H O T E L . G O L F . S P A

Decisions on strategic direction can be difficult to make, particularly in the current environment. When you have experts with many years of experience working with businesses like yours, alongside you, they become easier.

For further information, please contact:

At Grant Thornton, we can help you see beyond short-term obstacles by providing well-rounded and considered solutions to get you back on track. Explore your options with us.

Simon McIntosh, Director T +44 (0)191 203 7792 / +44 (0)113 200 1687 E simon.a.mcintosh@gtuk.com

Joe McLean, Partner T +44 (0)191 203 7790 / +44 (0)113 200 1506 E joe.mclean@gtuk.com

www.grant-thornton.co.uk © 2008 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.

‘Grant Thornton’ means Grant Thornton UK LLP, a limited liability partnership. Grant Thornton UK LLP is a member firm within Grant Thornton International Ltd (‘Grant Thornton International’). Grant Thornton International and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. Services are delivered by the member firms independently.

QUEEN’S AWARDS ambition to be a world leader in our field, and the real strides we have made in export levels over recent years.”

The company, which employs 104 staff, is built on Brian’s knowledge and expertise in filtration. Its products include an acclaimed range of medical laser smoke extraction products which go into operating rooms, clinics and theatres.

Walker Filtration also has operations in Australia, Singapore and the USA, and a global network of distributors. Its main markets are the USA, Belgium and Germany.

Last year, there were five winners of Queen’s Awards in the North East. Three awards were given for exports, to Cummins, the Darlington manufacturer of diesel engines, to Duco the Newcastle designer and manufacturer of subsea umbilical systems, and to TRW Occupant Safety Systems, the Peterlee manufacturer of car seat belts, airbags, electronic control units and remote crash sensors.

An innovation award went to DuPont Teijin Films, the Middlesbrough maker of polyester films for portable banner stands at exhibitions and conferences. And Shared Interest Society Ltd, the Newcastle provider of ethical financial services to fair trade producers, received an award for sustainability.

Over the 40 years or so that the Queen’s Awards have been in existence, some companies have won several times, including ICI, GEC and JCB, which have each won in excess of 20 awards.

Stephen Brice, Secretary to The Queen’s Awards Office, says: “Winners affirm that a powerful marketing tool can be created by combining the award with energy and creativity. It gives businesses - especially small ones - instant credibility, and is an independent endorsement of a product, service or innovation.

“Raised staff morale and motivation, greater media coverage and encouragement in recruiting are other benefits. It can also give a competitive edge, opening doors to difficult markets at home or overseas, and to new business and raising capital.

“Over the years, many deserving winners have come from the North East region. We are sure many more companies in the region also deserve recognition.” ■

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OCTOBER 08

Award: The Walker family with Her Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear, Nigel Sherlock OBE

How to win The application form for the Queen’s Awards comprises just four A4 sides and can be submitted online.

There is no set number of awards made yearly, and much depends on the strength of the competition. Each award is held for five years, and winners can apply for further awards in different categories within this period.

Besides the coveted insignia, winners receive hand-made crystal bowls presented by Lords Lieutenant. Presentations take place on winners’ main premises, where staff, key suppliers and customers can share in the celebrations.

An award for individuals, for enterprise promotion, has also been made since 2004. Anyone excelling in promoting enterprise - such as working with young people, inspiring young entrepreneurs, or giving much-needed mentoring, investment, skills training and encouragement of innovation - may be nominated.

Individual award winners last year included John Eversley, director and vice-chairman of Tyne and Wear Enterprise Trust, and Michael Leithrow, executive director of Northern Pinetree Trust at Birtley.

Applications can be made until midnight on October 31. See the website at www.queensawards.org.uk for further information

Winners affirm that a powerful marketing tool can be created by combining the award with energy and creativity. It gives businesses, especially small ones, instant credibility and independent endorsement of a product, service or innovation

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Could you be an entrepreneur?

“It’s an honour to be involved in a campaign that can help people reach their potential.”

Greg Phillips, North East Bakery.

“I’ve dreamt of owning my own business for years now I am ready for the challenge.”

Michelle Taylor, Design by Bluebird.

Some people start their own businesses straight from school or university, some when their life changes through having children or being made redundant, some don’t get started until they have already had lengthy careers. Some are highly qualified and some have no qualifications at all.

You don’t have to have a unique idea, you don't have to be a genius and you don’t have to be a born risk taker. It’s about having the vision to see how you could do something better, the passion about what you do and the determination to make it work.

And that’s what Greg Phillips and Michelle Taylor showed they have as “If we can, you can” Challenge winners.

Only five years after graduating and joining his uncle's sandwich business to gain some experience, Greg’s business is flying. North East Bakery was born in 2004

when business partner Andrew and Greg bought Andrew’s family business.

Now they are successfully rolling out their upmarket sandwich shop brand Nichols across the region.

Michelle recently left her position as Head of Design at Playboy Intimates to set up her own business - Design by Bluebird. She’s spotted a gap in the market and aims to create a 50s inspired lingerie range for the younger market. And she’s making the most of the contacts she’s made around the world to make it happen.

Be inspired by the experiences of Greg, Michelle and others who’ve already done it at www.ifwecanyoucan.co.uk today. It could be the first step you take towards writing the story of your own entrepreneurial journey.

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Inspired by

INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

A recent think-tank report made devastating observations about the economic future of the North East, Sunderland in particular. Brian Nicholls asks John Anderson, chair of North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) in the city, what’s being done to get the region on track

IN THE FACE OF ADVERSITY BN: Do you expect long-term damage to result from the recent damning report by the Policy Exchange Group?

JA: I hope and expect the failings of parts of the report will be forgotten quickly. But underneath some ill-advised suggestions, the report does carry some interesting information and asks some pertinent questions of our regeneration chiefs. Perhaps, as the furore dies down, some other positive uses can be drawn from it, other than proving how well people in the North East can rally and fight our corner in the face of adversity.

BN: What was your reaction to the report’s suggestion that investment in the city was money wasted, and that people in Sunderland should move south?

JA: Disappointment and anger over what seemed a narrow view of regeneration efforts in the North East. However, my next move was to look beyond the understandably defensive reaction from the media and investigate the study further, to try to fully understand the findings. My initial reaction held true for the most part, but the study was not all nonsense.

We do need to look at how we have spent money in the region, at what has worked and what hasn’t.

BN: Do the findings threaten long-term

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

damage to the work done by support organisations like BIC, or has this report been a five-minute sensation?

JA: I don’t think there will be significant implications, no. These only come from real development and the actions of elected representatives. I suspect people who have worked hard to make a difference at organisations like ours may have felt hurt by the report, but I’d be surprised if they hadn’t shaken this off and got on with their day within five minutes. We’re made of tougher stuff than that.

BN: Do you think there’s any likelihood of this Government or the next adopting the policy suggested?

JA: Again, if they strip away the ‘barminess’ - to use the author’s own word in describing his study - there are valid lines of investigation into regeneration policies for either our current Government or its successor.

BN: How does Sunderland’s rate of producing entrepreneurs compare with other parts of the region, and how could it be stepped up?

JA: Historically, the region has a low business start-up rate, but it does have a better-thanaverage survival rate. Additional support from public bodies is helping to stimulate interest in

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entrepreneurship in areas like South Tyneside, and a variety of organisations are addressing this issue across the region.

In Sunderland, there was around a 15 per cent increase in the number of SMEs registering for VAT and while this is slighter than other parts of the region, it is encouraging to see it moving in the right direction. Also, I am encouraged by the positive growth in attitudes to, and interest in, self-employment.

BN: Are there any ways in which the North East generally could be a more fertile ground for entrepreneurs and start ups?

JA: It is vital that the region has a viable infrastructure in place to support fledgling businesses. The regional economic strategy has done much to highlight areas we must focus on, but organisations must continue to work together to communicate the region’s common goals.

BN: How many jobs has the BIC helped to create in the North East since it was launched in 1994, and how many businesses is it home to?

JA: To date, the North East BIC has helped to create around 7,000 jobs; an achievement I am incredibly proud of, particularly as the jobs have been created in a wide range of industries and across the region. The occupancy rate at the centre is currently at 92 per cent - approximately 148 businesses - but this does not include clients who operate more than one business from the BIC site, of which there are around 20.

BN: Some examples?

JA: Complement Genomics is perhaps one of best-known tenants and a great asset to the region. Specialising in providing molecular biology services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, healthcare and academic sectors, the company offers a range of services, including DNA sequencing, microarrays, gene cloning, gene expression studies, genotyping and a host of other molecular biology services.

Another unusual business is Viper RF, which is an excellent example of one of the software companies emerging from the region. It’s an independent FABless

OCTOBER 08

INTERVIEW Positive outcomes: Positive uses might arise from a damning report, says John Anderson

design house providing monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) based solutions for the wireless industry.

BN: Do you advise aspiring entrepreneurs to study successful models of entrepreneurship?

JA: I would advise everyone to look at the world around them and take inspiration from it. Everyone learns in a different way. For some people it will be an academic route, for others it will mean just going for it. The important thing is that entrepreneurs take advantage of all that’s available to them.

BN: BIC has been described as an £11.5 million development of seven phases.

Is that figure still accurate?

JA: The £11.5 million is accurate, yes. But the value of the premises is now estimated to be £16 million. >>

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BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

We do need to look at how we have spent money in the region, at what has worked and what hasn’t

BN: What is the largest size workforce of any company that BIC can accommodate?

JA: The largest number of staff a tenant currently has on site is 50.

BN: How long do start-ups generally occupy an incubator before they move up?

JA: BIC’s incubator facilities were designed specifically to provide a supportive environment for start-up businesses, and by offering additional support at the very early stages we hope to encourage sustainable growth. Typically, tenants stay at the facility for up to 12 months, giving ample time to establish themselves before moving on to larger premises, either here at BIC or elsewhere in the region.

BN: Who are BIC’s main partners in job creation and entrepreneurial development?

JA: BIC is an independent organisation and a lot of our programmes have been created by our in-house team of advisers, in response to customer feedback. For example, Marketing Magic is a programme designed to offer businesses insight into different aspects of marketing. However, we also feel it is important to work in partnership with likeminded organisations, and we work closely with the regional development agency One NorthEast, as well as other business support agencies like Tedco and Entrust.

BN: What is BIC’s philosophy?

JA: Enterprise is at the core of all BIC activities, and we are dedicated to helping businesses succeed at every stage of their development. BICs mission is to ‘support the development of an innovation culture in the North East’. That’s why all our facilities and programmes are geared towards supporting businesses, not only in the short term but also in years to come, by offering viable solutions to enable our clients to progress and grow.

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

BN: How can BIC help companies located beyond its own premises?

JA: BIC is part of the European Business and Innovation Centre Network, so it can help clients tap into a wide range of international opportunities. Also, we have our own IT, marketing and design facilities that offer commercial business and design services.

BN: What’s the scope of BIC facilities in Sunderland? Is there a waiting list for space?

JA: BIC’s extensive facilities range from bio-science labs to 6,000sq ft industrial units.

Waiting lists vary depending on the type of accommodation required. The current occupancy rate of 92 per cent is slightly down on previous years, largely due a dip in needs for medium-sized office space.

BN: What are BIC’s links with the region’s universities?

JA: BIC has strong links with all the universities, in particular Sunderland, which is also a partner in the Sunderland Software City and Science Park initiatives. We also work with the colleges and have recently completed a market research project for Cleveland College.

BN: Is the Big Ideas project still running and, if so, what is it achieving?

JA: Big Ideas is BIC’s education arm and is about to celebrate its fifth birthday. Its main aim is to inspire young people and open their minds to new employment and business opportunities. To date, the Big Ideas team has worked with more than 4,000 students and some 380 teachers.

BN: And the annual Spirit of Innovation?

JA: The Spirit of Innovation competition was a platform from which innovators could launch or progress their ideas. As such, it provides a valuable stepping stone for a number of applicants. An excellent concept, it focuses solely on innovation - largely because other competitions didn’t. But as other organisations

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began to incorporate the category into their own awards, we were happy to withdraw it.

BN: In terms of BIC start-ups surviving beyond three years, does the performance still outstrip the national and regional averages, and can you give percentage comparisons?

JA: Yes – 75 per cent of businesses helped

by BIC are still operating after their third year of trading. However, we can’t afford to be complacent and we must continue to work with our clients and other organisations to help maintain these excellent statistics. ■

Entrepreneurial spirit A proven entrepreneur, John Anderson is committed to developing enterprise activity, having been at the forefront of the campaign to encourage an entrepreneurial North East for more than 15 years.

He was appointed chairman of Sunderland City Training and Enterprise Council (TEC) in 1989. Part of a national network, it was to become one of the country’s topperforming TECs. It was also the only one to develop a Business and Innovation Centre, providing small business units allowing companies to start small and expand into larger units as they grew and prospered.

John Anderson has been a driving force, persuading numerous bodies to support and invest in the concept, and today it is a private not-for-profit business. He remains its voluntary chairman.

Under his direction, BIC has developed into a multi-million pound focal point for enterprise activities in the region.

He is also involved with many voluntary and educational initiatives both nationally and regionally, and is always looking for new opportunities to help promote enterprise in the region.

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

INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

More treatment: A £4m investment will bring in more outpatients, says Spire’s Silvie Adams

Health of the REGION

More employers are giving staff private medical insurance and increasing numbers of patients are exercising their right to request private treatment under the NHS. Brian Nicholls asks Silvie Adams, director of Spire Washington Hospital, about the impact on her business

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OCTOBER 08

No cause for concern about Silvie Adams’ health; she’s a keen runner and about to jog a quick 5km along Newcastle’s Quayside in readiness for the Great North Run. Her health considerations are for the patients of Spire Washington Hospital, where she arrived as director in February. Last year, the hospital treated 29,000 outpatients and clocked up 3,500 surgical procedures. This year, with £4 million invested in a new ward and operating theatre, there will be about 6,000 more outpatients and 1,000 more surgical procedures.

The private facility is moving deeper into its five-year contract work with the NHS, which should create greater demand as more patients exercise their right, effective since last April, to be considered for private treatment.

Spire Washington - modern, just 20 years old, recently upgraded and within a shout of the A1 - has the setting of a cottage hospital, tucked away in picturesque Rickleton village.

Silvie’s frequent laughter as she chats is a tonic in itself as she tells how she, a Londoner, opted for the Spire Washington job over other opportunities in the group because she wanted to get closer to her beloved Sunderland AFC. “My brother-in-law, who’s from South Shields, took me to football from when I was very young, and he’s a Sunderland supporter,” she explains. To her delight, Sunderland players use the hospital’s sports injury clinic, as do others from Newcastle United and Berwick Rangers, Newcastle Falcons rugby players and Durham cricketers.

About 250 contracted staff and 100 ‘bank’ staff work here, and some 250 consultants and anaesthetists are on the books. “It’s a large number for a hospital this size,” she suggests. “We don’t have to persuade doctors to work at this hospital.”

Its range of treatments is extensive. It’s a Bupa-designated centre of excellence for bowel cancer and it’s equipped to carry out joint surgery including hip replacement, hip resurfacing and knee replacement.

In addition, consultants at the hospital treat patients suffering from gynaecological problems to thyroid malfunction. Operations such as vasectomy reversal and hernia repair are carried out on a day-care basis, and the

INTERVIEW

The likelihood of catching a hospitalacquired infection in a private hospital is less. That’s not making any aspersions about NHS standards; a lot is to do with the fact that in a private hospital you have single rooms and the propensity for transfer of bacteria is significantly less

radiology service includes mobile MRI scan and CT scan facilities.

There is also cosmetic surgery, which, at present, appears to be withstanding the credit crunch. “Anecdotally, I’ve heard that last year it was the third major reason for taking out a loan, after a mortgage and a car,” says Adams. “We don’t see many men yet, though it is becoming more common for them.

“There are two communities in the main; young women who primarily want breast enlargement or nose reshaping, and women in their mid to late 40s, early 50s and older who have facial treatment where Botox may already have been tried.”

The breast enlargement market is very competitive, and Washington is not the cheapest provider. “Some people do go to Manchester, Leeds or even overseas, where they might get it done quite cheaply, but if there’s a problem post operatively then what do they do?” asks Adams.

“Here, your entire treatment is on the doorstep. A number of companies have a lower-cost model, but their surgeons may not be consultant surgeons like ours.”

Weight loss surgery, gastric banding, is also gathering impetus and the local NHS is putting resources into it. Public interest is stimulated by reports of celebrities such as Fern Britton and Sharon Osbourne undergoing the treatment.

“People who have tried to lose weight and can’t are raising money to have it done because they don’t want to wait for the NHS.

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It costs about £7,500, which includes the services of a dietician and psychological and other support,” she says.

About 50 patients a month pass through for cosmetic work, though post-accident cosmetic surgery is more likely the NHS domain. “Our consultants follow a strict code of conduct if they see a patient on the NHS and have to advise whether the work can be done on the NHS or not – ie, whether public money can justifiably be spent on it, or whether the motive is vanity, when the patient should pay.

“We have good relations with the local Primary Care Trusts and the Department of Health. What we need to do now is grow the awareness of patient choice, and that’s a dual effort between us and the PCTs.” Speed of treatment and cleanliness are key.

“I think the speed is an advantage of private attention generally. But cleanliness - in terms of infections – is another.

“The likelihood of catching a hospitalacquired infection in a private hospital is less.

That’s not making any aspersions about NHS standards; a lot is to do with the fact that in a private hospital you have single rooms and the propensity for transfer of bacteria is significantly less.

“Of course, we also screen rigorously. We don’t admit patients who have had surgery in an NHS hospital within the previous six months and we also have very robust cleaning regimes. We have never had an instance of MRSA here.”

The hospital has 47 single private rooms, >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

10 consulting rooms and four operating theatres. In wholly private treatment, fixed prices are agreed in advance.

A majority, some 67 per cent, of patients are insured, most of them their cover paid by employers, and about 20 per cent (mainly cosmetic) are self-paying. The remainder tend to be NHS referrals.

A few years ago, Adams recalls, half of private patients were insured and half paid themselves. The scales have been largely tipped by big employers like Nissan and the pharmaceutical firms moving into the region.

Despite a contract with the Department of Health to undertake surgery here, people with a history of illness and perhaps a number of different problems will be treated by the NHS. “We do selective procedures rather than emergency, whereby you can choose when you want to come in and have something done,” Adams explains.

“In terms of our NHS contract, our role is to take pressure off what might be seen as routine procedures. The contract is about 60 per cent utilised at the moment, but we expect the opportunity to be increasingly used as more people ask their GP to be referred to the likes of ourselves.”

A recent customer check showed 83 per cent describing Spire Washington as ‘excellent’ or ‘very good’. Include ‘quite good’ and it was more like 95 per cent.

She observes: “I consider there’s room for improvement and staff will actually get a bonus if 90 per cent of our patients say we are excellent or very good on an overall bundle of things.”

The chances of that look promising. “At the time of the survey we had just had £4 million

worth of major building carried out, and any complaints tended to be about noise, or words to the effect that the place wasn’t looking as good as usual. It looks better and sounds quieter now.”

Her earlier career was in supply chain and logistics, managing warehouses for a number of companies and latterly BMI Healthcare, another major private health undertaking.

She replied to an advert in a logistics journal for Bupa, which was looking for someone with private health care experience to set up their own warehouses.

“I thought this job must be made for me,” she says. “There can only be one person in the country with this experience, so I got the job and joined Bupa. During the first three years there, I set up three warehouses across the country and remodelled the supplies network.

“After three years, 15 in all in warehousing, I felt I had come to the end of the road. I asked if there was anything else I could do and went into a range of project management roles looking at efficiency across hospitals and IT, and last year I managed our customer contact centre in Manchester. Then I was appointed here in Washington.”

Difficulties she faces? “The availability of clinical staff is a growing problem across the country, but we are looking at retention strategies. Free parking and plenty of it for a start makes us attractive to staff, patients and visitors alike.

“Our aim is to be better known beyond the immediate community. We would like to hear of people all over the region walking into their GP surgery and saying, ‘I want my surgery done at Spire Washington’. That would be very good.” ■

Here, your entire treatment is on the doorstep. A number of companies have a lower-cost model, but their surgeons may be less qualified and not consultant surgeons like ours

BUSINESS QUARTER |OCTOBER 08

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All in a name?

The Spire Washington hospital has had various management identities in its two decades. A property development group working with medical consultants built it, then after some years Goldsborough bought it. They sold it to Bupa about 10 years ago, and Bupa sold it in October 07, along with some 25 other hospitals, to a venture capital company called Cinven, allowing Bupa to reinvest the proceeds into care homes and other projects.

Cinven, which has health interests beyond Britain, came up with the name Spire. “All the Bupa staff here transferred across, and I had worked for Bupa myself for eight years, so actually the hospital running is pretty much the same,” says Adams.

“We have been impacted by the Bupa brand because everyone knows Bupa, so we have work to do to raise awareness of Spire Healthcare.”

In fact, among the big three private health care providers, Spire ranks second in the number of hospitals, with 37, and hospital beds. In the Health Care Commission’s league table of standards, Spire is placed top in matters like risk management and clinical protocol.

stylish hotels...

for business and leisure

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conferences accommodation dining celebrations leisure weddings conferences accommodation dining celebrations leisure weddings The Manor House Hotel County Durham 01388 834834 The Manor House Hotel County Durham 01388 834834 www.manorhousehotelcountydurham.co.uk www.manorhousehotelcountydurham.co.uk The Victoria Hotel Bamburgh 01668 214431 www.thevictoriahotelbamburgh.co.uk

The Victoria Hotel Bamburgh 01668 214431 The Honest Lawyer Hotel Durham 0191 378 3780 www.thevictoriahotelbamburgh.co.uk www.honestlawyerhotel.com

The Honest Lawyer Hotel Durham 0191 378 3780 www.honestlawyerhotel.com

BIT OF A CHAT

OCTOBER 08

email addresses were being introduced as the agency celebrates its 20th birthday.

That’s ok then. But I do wonder at the thinking behind firms of all kinds that seem to want a branding change every two or three years, and who will pay up to half a million in some cases to get it done. Memories of British Airways come to mind.

What about, instead, Patum Peperium, The Gentlemen’s Relish? I don’t think its branding has changed since start-up in 1828 and it still looks to me to be going strong down at the deli. As for Marmite, another old stager, I suppose you either love it or you hate it.

to ‘reflect accurately the expanding role of its business support activity’. Perhaps they won’t mind, though, if some of us simpletons just keep referring to Business Link.

>> Something crunchy Experts at Explain Research, peeping from their hide in Newcastle, say they have known for three years the internet would start around now to have a marked effect on the way people shop.

We can tell them about something else that’s making an even greater impact. It’s called the credit crunch.

>> Big gas turn-on

with Frank Tock >> Something to remember us by You could knock me down with a feather over this branding and re-branding malarky.

Like you, probably, I’ve been through a list of Britain’s Top 500 brands and I find myself at odds with the opinions of the 2,200 consumers who passed verdict on nominations made by a panel of independent experts.

Take number 87, Wembley Stadium: instant impression, gross overspend. No.152, ITV: betrayal of regional roots. No.267, Newcastle Brown Ale: should now read Gateshead Brown Ale. No 487, Brylcreem: cricketers of the 1940s.

You could knock me down with a feather because, when I turned up for a Newcastle PR celebration recently, the room was decorated in feathers. Some poor turkey’s shivering somewhere, I thought.

But actually they were red feathers. And as there were also two ladies in what looked like Dali-esque versions of a hula-hula skirt, I then thought it might all be an anniversary tribute evening to Guy Mitchell’s hit record of the 1950s – red feathers, hula-hula skirt... remember? ‘Course not. You’re far too young.

Anyway, it turned out to be a jolly, marking a re-branding of Fawthrop McLanders. Why fix what ain’t broke, I asked myself? Managing director Angus McLanders did explain in good time, however, that a new website and

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

It’s bad enough getting a soaring gas bill through your letter box, but when you start getting a more insistent tap at your door as well, then you realise we poor consumers are on a hiding to nothing.

The higher energy charges prevalent must be encouraging to AccuRead, and to its 300 staff at Killingworth head office, leading 2,500 meter readers nationwide.

With turnover already at £72 million, it has now launched a venture to get that up to £90 million. No, not through a team of missionaries to convert non-users away from oil and electricity, but rather through a debt collection business working from Cobalt on North Tyneside.

What’s that – another 100 jobs? Hope we can find them in the dark...

>> What’s in a name Here’s a funny thing though, talking about names. Business Link North East has changed its name after only a year or so to Business and Enterprise North East. Or BENE if you prefer.

BIEN, but I would have thought one of the first things a body like that would advise companies under its tutelage would be: fix on your name and, barring damage limitation exigence, stick to it.

As it is, a lot of the public, I bet, hadn’t realised the Business Link now is not the Business Link that used to be. They did say the change of trading name is driven by desire

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>> Four-to-one chance Did you know that Team Valley once stood only a four-to-one chance of becoming the massive workplace it is now? Jarrow, Wallsend and East Boldon were equally considered for the great industrial transformation before a decision was taken in Gateshead’s favour in 1936.

I only learned this listening to Don Bowman who, for 30 years until his recent retirement, was associated with the Valley’s management.

Don gives compelling slide talks if any business groups are interested. He is 0191 410 4325.

>> Bit of a millstone Feeling the day job is more than enough to cope with? Spare a thought for Tony Trapp, boss of the offshore IHC Engineering Business. He lives in a watermill in the Tyne Valley, where a lot of his leisure time has to go on maintaining not only the grounds but the mill as well.

By any other name...

>> By any other name...

Advertisers: be sure to research thoroughly every area of your intended market before launch. An international beauty firm’s commercial tells on TV currently of a “plumper” quality in its skin preservative.

Anyone from Glasgow on its creative team would surely have pointed out what a plumper is in street talk there...

CONFERENCE, TRAINING AND EVENTS BUSINESS, ADVENTURE, TRANQUILLITY Longhirst Hall, Morpeth, Northumberland, NE61 3LL Telephone: 01670 795 000 Email: enquiries@longhirst.co.uk www.longhirst.co.uk

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www.nebusinessguide.co.uk BUSINESS QUARTER | JULY 08

90

Looking for the cutting edge?

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Photo by

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A development by:

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INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

NO MORE The County Durham that once suffered one economic blow after another is now a hothouse for technology, development expert Stewart Watkins tells Brian Nicholls New dynamic: County Durham’s economy is now more robust, says Stewart Watkins

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

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OCTOBER 08

INTERVIEW

North West Durham Consett’s recovery from the steelworks closure has been based on new small and medium-sized businesses. Many will succeed. “Some may not. But people there will not find themselves now in an entire community thrown out of work by the collapse of one big industry,” Stewart Watkins points out.

“And if some smaller firms do fail, other small companies will be able to absorb those displaced.”

Among the newer firms are Millipore, the chromatography specialist, and Derwent Valley Foods, one of a crop of food firms now that include International Cuisine, which employs 500, and Intersnack, which makes pretzels for airline passengers.

Roger McKechnie and Keith Gill, following their success with Derwent Valley Foods, have now launched Tanfield Foods, making ready meals that can be stored at room temperature in their attractive pouches.

A range of manufacturers now includes CAV Aerospace, Romag making photovoltaic glass, and Explorer, building caravans and caravan homes.

TEARS The tough times are back, but County Durham has grounds to believe the hardships it once suffered will not return.

In 1986, unemployment in some areas was officially put at 20 per cent, though known pockets of male unemployment actually touched 50 per cent. Now, unemployment in the county is about national average or just

under, and Stewart Watkins, chief executive of County Durham Development Company (CDDC) is confident.

“We’ll face the challenges of the present downturn, just as we have faced the challenges of the past 20 or 30 years,” he says. “Ours has been a county in transition since the 1970s, with coal’s decline, the

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disappearance of the steelworks at Consett and a wagon works at Shildon.”

The Consett closure in 1981, after 146 years, cost 9,000 jobs and resulted in 36 per cent local unemployment - more than double the national average. The Shildon demise four years later, after 151 years, cost 2,000 jobs.

In collieries and coke works, the 150,000 jobs of the 1920s had all but vanished by 1993.

Nor did it end there.

“Throughout the 1990s we faced losses of manufacturing jobs brought about by threats from globalisation,” says Watkins.

“We absorbed all that and also addressed the scars of heavy and extractive industries, restoring rolling green countryside. The >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

East Durham Recovery has been difficult, but East Durham is developing and Enterprise Zone status has led to developments in commercial property that give space to diversify the economy.

Bracken Hall confounded the cynics.

“Experts suggested a traditional coalmining area would not take to services such as contact centres and back office support.

Yet here we have EDS from the USA, NPower and the Department of Work and Pensions accounting for 3,500 jobs,” says Stewart Watkins.

“While call centres are often said to employ low-level skills, some jobs in East Durham’s centres are held by highly skilled and qualified technical operators, and there is a broad range of opportunities.

“Peterlee is strong in manufacturing, with automotive parts makers such as GT, NSK and TRW all growing well. We are helping TRW to raise its workforce to 750.

“Seaham’s regeneration has been remarkable. Witness the revived town centre and other improvements. Some of Britain’s highest house price rises recently have been there. That shows this is not the Seaham of 40 years ago.”

Seaham Hall Hotel is the region’s only fivestar hotel, and the area is known also as Billy Elliot country after the film and stage show of that name, though some locals dislike reminders of the raw social scars that the film scratched.

“We have every confidence now that a much-publicised film and TV studios project, designed to introduce a cultural industry, will come about,” Stewart Watkins says. “This will be a knowledge centre with up to 2,000 jobs in practical skills such as hairdressing, bricklaying and carpentry as applied to film and TV productions. Full planning permission is expected at any time, and we could be on site early next year. That shows how the area’s economy is diversifying.”

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

Opportunity NETpark: Science and technology have a high priority

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OCTOBER 08

county council put immense effort into an environmental redemption, making it attractive. It introduced a more robust and driven economy, and encouraged more small and medium-sized business.”

This encouragement has created about 2,000 new jobs a year. Nearly three decades ago, the county owned nine industrial estates which were almost empty. Now it has interests in 13 and they are almost full.

“Through the efforts of the county council and its partners, we have been involved in creating almost 50,000 jobs, mainly in manufacturing,” says Watkins. “In the early 1990s recession, we weathered low-cost competition from the likes of Poland, Romania, Hungary and China.

Our manufacturing base today is smaller, but much more resilient amid change.

“Business will be difficult again now for some time, but we are confident it will still grow and develop here.”

Science and technology have a higher priority today. The Incubator at NETpark, Sedgefield’s new science and tech park, is full to overflowing.

Did you know?

Durham has been named the UK’s ‘most competitive city’ outside London by the Centre for International Competitiveness, following a poll of readers of Conde Nast Traveller magazine.

Kromek is the flagship, spun out from Durham University and developing semi-conductor materials for three-dimensional x-ray imaging in digital colour. Other groundbreakers there include ANTnano, which is active biochemically in enzymes, estrogen, dioxins and furans, and Roar Particles, specialising in nanoand biotechnology.

PETEC, the Printable Electronics Technology Centre, is advancing research commercially relevant to this and the next century for new materials to make roll-up computers and flexible displays. “Durham will also be the UK’s national centre for printable electronics in due course - one of only four such centres in the world,” Watkins says.

“The county can take advanced initiatives thanks to a world-class university which is particularly accomplished in physics, chemistry and engineering. These all play a major part in the new, highly specialised economy the entire North East wants.”

It is one of the world’s top four institutions in space sciences and the top in Europe. The university, England’s third oldest, has already been a palliative, not least via its highly rated business school, and now its role in responding to new global challenges is crucial.

“We use the university’s strengths in NETpark’s encouragement of spin-out companies. These, in turn, enhance other firms throughout the country,” Watkins says. “Strengths in biotechnology and electronics, for example, lead to new companies at NETpark and >>

People will not find themselves now in an entire community thrown out of work by the collapse of one big industry. If some smaller firms do fail, other small firms around will be able to absorb those displaced

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INTERVIEW

South West Durham Almost 10,000 people are in work on Aycliffe Industrial Estate. TKA Tallent automotives firm has more than 1,000 workers supplying chassis frames for every major motor manufacturer, while outstanding innovators there include Senstronics, which uses thin-film technology for products measuring the pressure of liquids and gases in diverse industries.

A 150-acre Amazon Park is to be developed at nearby Heighington Lane, using local road, rail, air and sea communications to attract logistics, distribution and warehousing.

Newton Aycliffe will be notable for theory as well as practice in business with the opening of an Xcel Centre, whose 1,200 capacity will make it one of the region’s biggest conference venues, which is good news also for hotels now working closely in the county.

Recruitment boons include The Work Place set up by Jane Ritchie. She has channelled more than half her £9 million inheritance from a distant cousin into building a youth training centre that she tried for 15 years in vain to get funding for when she was a careers advisor.

At Bishop Auckland, the greenfield South Church Enterprise Park built in the 1980s is effectively full, and businesses there include precision specialist Teescraft Engineering, solenoid manufacturer Mechetronics and MRB Schumag engineers.

Meanwhile, at Barnard Castle, GSK’s pharmaceutical manufacturing, present since 1946, largely avoids the sector’s rationalisations apparent elsewhere.

An outstanding challenge remains to revive Stanhope in Weardale, which lost 147 jobs with the closure of Lafarge cement works.

There is confidence that if a proposed Eastgate Renewable Energy Programme goes ahead, it will more than compensate.

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

INTERVIEW

OCTOBER 08

Lure for inward investors

Stylishly new: County Durham is building on a new economic foundation inject skills and intelligence to the business knowledge economy.”

While even high-tech businesses come and go at times, skills remain to be deployed in new ventures. Example: the factory built for Fujitsu’s introduction of a sunrise industry to Durham through the microchip. Ten years later, sunrise became sunset as the market for silicon chips changed.

Filtronic replaced it because adaptable skills and experience were on tap. Now, with the market against Filtronic too, the American

Did you know?

Tourism is now worth £589 million to County Durham’s economy. It supports more than 12,000 jobs and around 10 per cent of the county economy.

group RFMD has taken the site for semiconductor manufacture.“That companies may come and go need not be important if the basic skills remaining are relevant to others,” Watkins suggests.

While massive multinational inward investments from the likes of Nissan and Komatsu may be a closed chapter for the North East’s foreseeable future, County Durham still looks overseas to develop local business.

Excellent flights between Newcastle and Dubai enable the county to target the Gulf region with local goods and services, working with UK Trade and Investment, the Regional International Trade Office and the North East Chamber of Commerce. Six businesses from County Durham – 10 per cent of the mission will be among a UK trade delegation in Dubai next month. ■

Durham will also be the UK’s national centre for printable electronics in due course - one of only four such centres in the world

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

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How does County Durham feel about being below Tyne and Wear and Tees Valley in the pecking order for major development, as set out in the North East’s official economic strategy?

“We recognise city regions as growth points are a government strategy,” Watkins says. “Durham, however, will retain many advantages to bring into play.”

Given its close links to Durham County Council, the future of the 20-strong CDDC can’t be separated from the current reorganisation of local government, under which one unitary authority will emerge next April. But CDDC’s strong performance over 21 years should represent a strong case for an ongoing role.

Has the county enough entrepreneurial spirit to ride out present difficulties and drive the county economy towards the next century? “Yes indeed,” says Watkins. “Our rate of start-ups is rising yearly, particularly from the university.”

The county’s selling points as a business location are sites, infrastructure and labour.

“The landscape and quality of life give us tremendous advantages. They make this one of the best places in Britain for a start-up.

“It is more competitive than many parts of the country, it is close to industrial giants such as Nissan at Sunderland and the leisure and retail attractions of Newcastle.

It is near two airports and is only two and a half hours’ train ride from London. Those are great selling points. “Being so close for leisure in the Lake District, Edinburgh, York and the North Yorkshire Moors is sometimes under-rated. And house prices compare well against those in the South.”

Of course, the county lacks an industrial city, but that helps foster the green, ‘good life’ image, which must surely be yet another incentive.

EVENTS DIARY

OCTOBER 08

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

OCTOBER

12 NOVEMBER

15 OCTOBER How Female Business Owners Can Turn Ideas into Money. Spark, the Women’s Enterprise Ambassador Network, and Make Your Mark seminar featuring some leading female entrepreneurs of the region. National Glass Centre, Sunderland. Contact: www.sparkambassadors.org.uk to register.

16 OCTOBER Service Network Annual Conference. Speaker: Ray Mears, bushcraft and survival expert. Northern Stage, Newcastle, noon.

20 OCTOBER Audit Emerging Issues and Common Problems, David Potts addresses NSCA seminar. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham, 2pm. Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@ icaew.com

21 OCTOBER Anything is Possible. Entrepreneurs’ Forum open event. Speaker Charan Gill MBE, of Harlequin Leisure Group. Jesmond Dene House, Newcastle, 6.30pm.

Contact: 0870 850 2233, info@entrepreneursforum.net

VAT Update, speaker at NSCA seminar Rebecca Benneyworth. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham, 2pm. Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

14 NOVEMBER Chartered Institute of Public Relations PRide Awards. Hilton Hotel, Gateshead.

Contact: www.cipr.co.uk/awards

21 NOVEMBER Teesside Society of Chartered Accountants’ annual dinner. 6.45pm (venue tbc). Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

24,25 NOVEMBER ICIS Bioresources Summit, Hardwick Hall, Sedgefield. NEPIC, Northeast Biofuels and ABB joint conference.

25 NOVEMBER Managing Discipline and Grievance, Acas seminar, Newcastle, 9.30am.

Contact: 08457 383 736, events@acas.org.uk.

DECEMBER 2 DECEMBER

23 OCTOBER Northern Marketing Awards. Contact: 0191241 4523, www.marketingawards. org.uk

Employing People, Acas seminar. Newcastle, 9.30am. Contact: 08457 383 736, events@acas.org.uk.

29 OCTOBER

4 DECEMBER

Adapting through Innovation, meeting challenges of climate change, CBI panel discussion. Northumbrian Water HQ, Pity Me, Durham, 12.30pm. Contact: Ruth Askey, 0191 255 4415, ruth.askey@cbi.org.uk

Essentials of Supervision, Acas seminar. Newcastle, 9.30am. Contact: 08457 383 736, events@acas.org.uk.

8 DECEMBER

31 OCTOBER

Employment Taxation Issues, including Tax Efficient Remuneration Planning, NSCA briefing by Neil Insull. Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham, 2pm. Contact: Marie Rice, marie.rice@icaew.com

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

NOVEMBER

9 DECEMBER CBI Regional Council Meeting. Groundworks, Greencroft Estate, Stanley, 10am

16 DECEMBER

4 NOVEMBER CBI North East annual dinner. Speaker: Martin Broughton, chairman, British Airways, and president, CBI. Marriott Gosforth Park, 6.30pm for 7. Contact: Hilary Nichols, 0191 255 4413, www.whymangroup.com/registration

CBI Christmas Debate. details to be finalised.

5 NOVEMBER

12 JANUARY

Handling Difficult Situations, Acas seminar. Newcastle, 9.30am. Contact: 08457 383 736. events@acas.org.uk

Durham MBA Preview Event. Durham Business School. Contact: Dee Clark, 0191 334 5533, pg.bus@durham.ac.uk

6 NOVEMBER NECC Annual Dinner. Civic Centre, Newcastle, 7pm. Contact: Tracey Worrall, 0191 386 1133

6 NOVEMBER North East Fraud Forum (NEFF) credit crunch seminar, Literary and Philosophical Society. 9am. Contact: www.northeastfraudforum.co.uk

11 NOVEMBER Investment Training for Charities, Dickinson Dees seminar. Newcastle.

Contact: Sarah Hazeldine, 0191 279 9986

BUSINESS QUARTER | OCTOBER 08

JANUARY

Please check with the contacts beforehand that arrangements have not changed. Events organisers are also asked to notify us at the above e-mail address of any changes or cancellations as soon as they know of them.

KEY:

Acas: Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service, CECA (NE): Civil Engineering Contractors Association (North East), HMRC: Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, ICE: Institution of Civil Engineers, NSCA: Northern Society of Chartered Accountants, FSB: Federation of Small Business, Tbc: to be confirmed.

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