BQ Scotland issue 13

www.bq-magazine.co.uk

ISSUE THIRTEEN: AUTUMN 2013

the x-port factor Music business raises the tempo globally highland chieftain Water empire with a spring in its step clans that can Getting family businesses over their hurdles frozen seas to peas Riding the waves with an industry legend ISSUE THIRTEEN: AUTUMN 2013: SCOTLAND EDITION

out with the old A fresh approach to recruitment in Scotland

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

SCOTLAND EDITION

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WELCOME

BUSINESS QUARTER: AUTUMN 13: issue THIRTEEN Welcome to BQ Scotland. We hope you enjoy this edition and that you find something interesting, worthwhile and amusing to read.

Congratulations to John Innes, the front cover story of our last magazine, and his team at the Amor Group, headquartered at Inchinnan in Renfrewhsire.

Their Scottish company has been sold to the American aviation giant Lockheed Martin.

In our interview, John talked about scaling up this exciting Scottish business to hit the big time.

He told us he aimed to reach £250m in revenue with £40m profit by 2016. We were all excited by such a great success story based in Scotland. We fully understand that his company’s decision to sell is obviously driven by the need to pull in deeper resources for this ambitious level of global expansion. John also says that the synergies and culture with Lockheed Martin are an ideal fit for the Amor Group. So, good luck to John and his 600 colleagues.

However, while Lena Wilson at Scottish Enterprise and John Swinney, the finance minister from the Scottish Government, were right to applaud the achievements of the Amor Group thus far, I think in their quieter moments they must be reflecting on the inability of Scottish companies, such as the Amor Group with such excellent prospects, to build sustainable, Scottish-headquartered businesses for the long term. We desperately need high-growth companies to remain Scottish for as long as they can. Certainly, Scottish Enterprise, as an investor, will make a healthy return on this particular investment, but only time will tell if this is truly a good deal for Scotland.

Which brings us to something that BQ Scotland will be homing in on over the next few editions: our need to increase exports to the rest of the world. We already have some outstanding businesses, particularly in the food and drink sector, selling their wares around the world.

The Scotch Whisky industry is a truly global player and Johnnie Walker is the number one global drinks brand. Our engineering and

advanced technology sector is still performing strong in the export market – but we now need to encourage more SMEs to think and breathe exports.

Companies such as Rage Music and its creative exporting to LA are future winners.

BQ Scotland will be unveiling some interesting initiatives to help and encourage our ‘Smart Exporters’, but more of that later. In the meantime, let’s keep flying the flag for Scotland overseas – and with our nearest neighbour and our greatest export market… England.

Meanwhile, you might have seen that the Irish singer Sinead O’Connor has had a tattoo inked on her face. On one cheek there is a letter ‘B’ and the other a ‘Q’. We can safely say this has nothing whatsoever to do with her support for Business Quarter.

But if you are reminded of a certain business magazine, then that’s fine with us.

As her hit song goes, Nothing Compares.

Kenny Kemp, Editor of BQ Scotland.

CONTACTS room501 ltd Christopher March Managing Director e: chris@room501.co.uk Bryan Hoare Director e: bryan@room501.co.uk

EditorIAL Kenny Kemp Editor e: editor@bq-scotland.co.uk Andrew Mernin Sub-editor e: andrew@room501.co.uk Karen Peattie Editorial Design & production room501 e: studio@room501.co.uk Photography KG Photography e: info@kgphotography.co.uk advertising David Hughes e: davidh@room501.co.uk t: 07789 397 526 Michelle Farquhar e: michelle@room501.co.uk t: 07551 171 211

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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, September 2013. room501 Publishing Ltd is part of BE Group, the UK’s market leading business improvement specialists. www.be-group.co.uk

THE LIFE AND SOUL OF BUSINESS

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SCOTLAND EDITION BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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CONTE BUSINESS QUARTER: AUTUMN 13 highland chieftain

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Features 26 sitting comfortably?

Betsy Williamson opens the book on a story-telling time for recruitment

34 highland chieftain Inside the UK’s No 1 bottled water brand, based right here in Scotland

38 x-port factor How one music business is raising the tempo with its international outlook

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42 bq live debate Tackling the key issues faced by family businesses in their battle to thrive

48 getting results fast Alastair MacColl on what’s driving the rapid emergence of the BE Group

74 frozen seas to peas Barry Sealey’s remarkable business life before Archangeling

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getting results fast

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TENTS SCOTLAND EDITION

52 commercial property

The key deals and developments shaping Scotland’s skyline

playing better

56 business lunch Helping the good players play better with Frank Docherty

Regulars

62 wine Our guest reviewer, bowled over by Botham, takes on the Aussies

64 motors Driving round Scotland with Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde on board

08 on the record Trapping a Silicon Valley heavyweight and tech trends to watch out for

14 news Who’s doing what, where and when here in Scotland

24 as i see it Five vital steps to ensure IT systems work better for your business

66 equipment

56 from frozen seas to peas

The world is watching as colours and nostalgia dominate timepiece trends

70 fashion Why the old ways are definitely the best when it comes to artisan denim

80 a bit of chat With BQ’s backroom boy Jock Yuler

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ON THE RECORD

AUTUMN 13

>> How to snare a Silicon Valley heavyweight When a major Silicon Valley investor like Heidi Roizen comes to Scotland is pays to sit up and listen. She was in Edinburgh for the ScotSoft 2013 gathering with fellow seasoned investor Ann Winblad, the managing director of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners. The conference also brought to Scotland the likes of Eddie Anderson of Pentech Ventures and Dr Vin Cerf, Google’s brilliant chief internet evangelist. BQ met Heidi to hear what she is looking for in companies “There is an explosion of opportunity.

Advances come in waves. The arrival of social, local, mobile with the rise of the tablet is astounding. This is just consumer and enterprise technology, but when you look at medicine, life science then it is vast.

“Scotland’s entrepreneurs need to think on a global scale. Whether you are starting a company in Edinburgh, Mumbai or Silicon Valley, you have to think that your competition is all over the world.” Of course, she appreciates there are certain companies that are geographically constrained in the service sector, such as cafes, bars and restaurants.

If you are starting an app for mobile, a website and new technologies, you must have an understanding of what else is going on everywhere in your segment.

“That’s critically important.”

Heidi’s Top Tips VC Heidi Roizen keeps up with: • AngelList, for West Coast angel investing • Gust.com, for New York VC’s action.

• CircleUp, for consumer companies and crowdfunding • KickStarter, for creative and artistic start-ups • Dan Primack’s daily Fortune newsfeed called The Term Sheet.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

Heidi has spent her life immersed in Silicon Valley where she is a venture capital partner with Draper Fisher Jurveston. She co-founded T/Maker, a PC software company where she served as CEO until its acquisition by Deluxe Corporation in 1996. She worked at Apple as a vice president of Worldwide Developer, then became a VC with Mobious Venture Capital in 1999, where she worked until 2007. Along with DFJ she has a board position with the Daily Mail Group in London, TiVo, Eventful, TrustedID, ShareThis and XTime.

DFJ, which invested in Skype and Elon Musk’s SolarCity and SpaceX, recently invested in Ground Deploy a system software for drones.

She spent five months living in Edinburgh, where she was entrepreneur-in-residence at Edinburgh University’s business school’s e-club.

“When I was in Scotland three years ago I met with about 50 entrepreneurs and their companies. I got a strong good flavour of the local scene. ”However, time changes very quickly in the entrepreneurial world.

“I’ve seen a lot of increased activity and some excellent things have been happening in terms of Informatic Ventures and the incubators that have been started, plus the self-organising groups. The good news is that it takes very little money to start a company today: the bad news is it takes very little money for your competitor to start a company. I learned from my previous visit that there is no shortage of talent. There are no discrepancies in the ability

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and the talents of the people I have been meeting. There is no shortage of ideas and big thinking in Scotland. The biggest challenge is how to create an ecosystem that ends up supporting entrepreneurs financially. The thing that everyone complains about is the funding gap.” She says that even in Silicon Valley people complain about this gap between angel funding and ‘Series A’ funding, which is where her company operates.

“More people are getting angel funding but there is still the same amount of Series A, so all those who get angel investment but no Series A complain of this gap.”

How should Scottish firms be keeping up to speed with such an overwhelming amount of information?

Heidi says Google, Apple, Microsoft and the other major players put out white papers and road maps about what is going on. “Anyone needs to keep on top of that particularly when most things today are not built in a vacuum.

They are on a platform of Apple or Android. I love to watch what is going on in some of the larger angel funds, such as AngelList and Gust. com, there is one called CircleUp for consumer companies, crowdfunding, and KickStarter, which is popular with consumer hardware.”

She’s also a fan of Fortune’s daily newsfeed from Dan Primack called The Term Sheet.

How should ambitious Scottish firms catch a VC? The conference heard that Instagram, which had 100 million users within two years, was sold to Facebook for US$1bn three years after launch and employed only 18 people at the exit. She cautioned that most deals do not get done this quickly. “You hear the story of the napkin. You hear about the Instagram story but every week someone wins the lottery. The reason it takes time to raise venture funding is because we are getting to know you. We want to see that you do what you say you will do.

She says the goal with every VC should be to get to the next meeting. It is about building a story and showing the excitement.” n

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ON THE RECORD

AUTUMN 13

>> The inspired swing from CEO to caddy When a serious stroke pushed Neil Francis off his chief exec’s pedestal, he found a new path on the fairways of Scotland and gained a fresh perspective on the notion of change, as he explains to BQ Here’s an uplifting and salutary yarn for all ambitious business people. Neil Francis was a successful Scottish business figure. In 1996 he co-founded Company Net and worked with a clutch of the big global brands such as Disney, BP, Microsoft and Coca-Cola. The business built great websites for big companies – it even designed and delivered the Scottish Government’s first website - and Neil and his firm were doing well. Then in October 2006, at the age of 41, he had a serious stroke.

It was caused by a deep vein thrombosis developed during a flight to Boston on business. He couldn’t speak, and couldn’t see out of one eye. For a year after the stroke, he couldn’t communicate. He had to step down as CEO and find a way to recover.

He says: “However, I did have a few things in my favour. I’d had the experience of being a CEO for 11 years – even though I wouldn’t be one again. I had a strong background in marketing and sales and a bit of money to tide me over and I realised that this situation could, potentially, be a fantastic opportunity. Yes, I had some serious limitation, but I’ve always had a positive outlook on life.”

He simply had to accept his health situation and move on. At his wife’s suggestion he decided to think about being a golf caddy as part of his recovery. This would give him the opportunity to meet the types of people he used to work with. He was already a member of North Berwick Golf Club, one of the oldest courses in the world on the shores of the Firth of Forth. This beautiful ‘links’ course is very popular with visitors from around the world.

So in 2008, he began life as a caddy and since then he has caddied for a host of professional people. Through this, he has gained a wealth of experience meeting millionaires, billionaires, investment managers, CEOs, professors, lawyers, doctors and truck drivers and was able to see first-hand how such people tick.

“Since then I’ve accumulated a wealth of

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

Whatever you’re about to embark on, do it because you feel it will make a difference

ideas, methods, thoughts and philosophies on how to change course successfully,” he says.

His book, Changing Course, is a distillation of his outlook and is an easy read full of personal stories of how different people have made significant changes in their lives, often for the better.

It’s an honest portrayal of his love of wearing the badge of a CEO and how it fuelled his ego - and how he has come to terms with a new and very different way of life. Often the word ‘inspirational’ is over-used, but Neil’s book is

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well worth reading – and makes us all grateful for our own pleasures in life. n “Whatever you’re about to embark on, do it because you feel it will make a difference. If you do that, your ‘new’ life will be far more fulfilling and exciting. It really will make you want to ‘jump out of bed’ every day,” he says.

Changing Course, Inspiration, Ideas and Insights for Starting Again from the CEO Who became a Caddie, Neil Francis, Hay House, £12.99. www.ceotocaddie.com

AUTUMN 13

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ON THE RECORD

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

ON THE RECORD

AUTUMN 13

>> Smart stuff we should be keeping in mind Let’s put the Referendum on Scottish independence on hold for a moment. In our quest to keep BQ readers up to speed, here are nine things we should be thinking about in those out-of-the-office, away-day brainstorming sessions The age of proper electric vehicles >> The launch of the new BMW i3 represents a step change in the evolution of the electric car. Here, at last, is a whole system geared to delivering an electric vehicle, from the plug in your garage. Ash Gupta, who has been one of Scotland’s leading proponents for electric vehicles in the last ten years, reckons this BMW is the real deal as an emission-free car for urban motoring. Does this now mean that the petrol engine is on the way out? Not yet, but it now looks as if electric cars are going to be with us in a major way. The costs are said to be around 2p per mile. There are tax incentives too, so this might be the right time for Scottish firms to starting switching.

The growth of 3D printing >> Is this hype – or real game-changing technology? Whatever your view it is already causing a stir. There are now a number of industrial ‘stereolithography’ systems out there. Software builds up a series of digital slices and a light-sensitive liquid is hardened by lasers as each layer is applied until the object is complete. One lower-cost technique is called fused deposition modelling (FDM) which glues thermoplastic layers together to build solid items. Other machines cost tens of thousands and use ABS, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene, which can be costly.

Switching on of Industrial LED >> Our street lights need sorting out to cut down on carbon consumption. The answer is LED which offers massive savings. Dialight is a company that is leading this revolution in LED for industrial users, including the likes of ForthPorts and SSE. LED technology can now be retrofitted into lighting fixtures in hazardous locations, and in traffic and rail signalling. For cash-strapped councils, the bills for streetlighting can be slashed without impacting on safety and security. The UK Green Investment

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

Bank likes the idea and is supporting industrial LED, it is now a priority for the Scottish Government.

The dangers of damage to the power grid >> The celebrity physicist Dr Michio Kaku has been predicting an asteroid apocalypse with asteroid Apophis skimming our atmosphere in 2029. That’s bad enough. But he’s also warning about solar flares reaching a peak in their 11-year cycle. If a flare from the Sun reaches the Earth the electromagenetic pulses could shut down our electrical system. “We’re sitting ducks,” says Dr Kaku. This might appear left field, but massive disruption to the satellite and electrical systems would be damaging for global business. So does your business have this kind of occurrence in its risk plan – and what will you do if all the lights go out?

Mass manufacturing moves to ‘making’ >> A new revolution in ideas and science is converging like never before. Manufacturing, which was once gloried in large industrial mass-production plants looking for economies of scale, is increasingly being replaced with the simpler word of ‘making’. Even car manufacturers can customise vehicles on the production line. ‘Making’ implies more speciality. There is much more as new polymers and advance textiles are introduced.

This is where the creative brains from the likes of Scotland’s art schools can work with engineering companies. At the same time fresh fabrication technologies are fostering a new generation of problem-solvers. This means massive business opportunities in Scotland.

The dawn of synthetic biology >> Grow your own human being might be some time away – but it is getting nearer. There is massive excitement about the ability to work with and invent new biological properties,

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structures and compounds. Leaving the ethical questions aside, we are now firmly in a world way beyond Dolly the Sheep. Scotland was a front-runner, now our strong biotech firms must be able to lead with this.

Working with robots at home >> Robots are common in many high-tech work places. But they have been slower to emerge into the office environment and are non-existent in our homes. But the arrival of co-operative robots is likely to preface massive social change. Robots with the ability to team up with people and perform tasks are on the horizon as the software improves.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation, which is working with University of Strathclyde, now has a CareO-bot. The Care-O-bot, in its third generation, is a mobile robot assistant which can support people in the home environment.

The surge of Crowd-funding >> The recession has been bad for those needing financial support. It is no use bleating about it.

More creative funding models, such as Bloom VC, set up by Michelle Rodger and Amanda Boyle, still need to emerge in Scotland. The Funding Circle, where a lot of investors spread the risk, is a good place to start but this is the tip of an iceberg of a new movement. The best example is the success of BrewDog.

A hunting season for a VC >> Done the angel bit and want to get some US venture capitalists on board? According to Ann Winblad, of Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, for the Silicon Valley VCs, who recently spoke in Edinburgh at ScotSoft2013, there is an actual hunting season for finding venture capital. One starts in September and runs until Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday of November. The second starts in January and finishes on 15 May when everyone starts to think about the summer.

AUTUMN 13

COMPANY PROFILE

Better together - Now is the time for banks and SMEs to get closer With tentative, but positive, murmurings of recovery, could this be an opportune time for SMEs and banks to build stronger relationships, asks Gareth Magee.

News headlines over the past few weeks have signalled, albeit tentatively and with numerous caveats, the end of recession in the Eurozone. George Osborne has signalled that he believes the economy is ‘turning a corner’. Coupled with this, there has been a noted upturn in the line coming from SMEs. Could this mean that things are getting back to normal?

From the SME perspective, the turnaround is marked by their renewed attitude to debt.

A few years ago, businesses were focusing on reducing debt as much as possible, and trying to plough ahead without input from the banks – perhaps a natural reaction to the banking and economic crisis.

Today though, there is a return to an acceptance that gearing is good for business, and is part and parcel of the recovery and growth process.

However, it takes more than a shift in perception, or a more balanced take on debt to get back to business. One only has to look at the current SME lending situation to see that ‘business as usual’ is some way off. Rebuilding lost relationships will be a crucial part of regaining the stability which is important to both the banks and to SMEs. A recent survey (published in July 2013) of the SME sector in Australia showed that confidence in the banking sector had hit a new low, even compared with the height of the crisis – the reason being that the banks had not invested sufficiently in relationships with smaller businesses. Perhaps not close to home, but equally, perhaps not too far

from the truth. open to building new partnerships, The ‘relationship’ in relationship banks need to invest in these banking is going to be key relationships and the people to our recovery. that build them, and That the big lenders had intermediaries need previously embraced to do the legwork on relationship banking both sides to open princples meant the channels of that the pre-crisis negotiation again. relationships between The net result will be banks, SMEs and positive for all. Deep intermediaries, were relationships with vital to getting things customers bring banks done. Trust was built, and better opportunities and businesses and banks worked hence better revenue. For the together as partners.

SME, a good relationship with its Then came the financial crisis, and lender encourages innovation and Gareth Magee, partner virtually nothing and no-one was left growth. and SME specialist untouched. The banks had to react, So, however tentative, good news on and the result was that jobs went, the recession front perhaps means some branches closed, and teams were broken that we can all take a few more steps towards up as operations were rationalised. Inevitably getting back to business, but they’re steps that we many relationships with SMEs and advisers alike will all have to take together. were lost.

The relationship banking approach was personal and proactive, and for us all to recover, this has to be re-established. Many of the familiar faces may have gone, but the new relationship managers are now working hard to get up to speed with an increasingly optimistic market.

It will take work on all sides to regain the position.

Defensive habits that have been formed over the last few years need to be broken. SMEs need to be

For the SME, a good relationship with its lender encourages innovation and growth

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Gareth Magee advises high growth SMEs and has an active involvement in the Scottish investment community.

Gareth.magee@scott-moncrieff.com

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

NEWS

AUTUMN 13

Aberdeen firm makes gas-powered progress, float buoyed by funding boost, Johnnie sails ahead of the competition, a ringing endorsement for licences and ITF joins 200 club >> Gas-powered progress Scottish gas reforming company Gas2 is on track with the development of the next generation of natural gas-to-liquids (GTL) technology with a test programme at its pilot reactor plant. The £5m plant, at the petrochemical research Wilton Centre, Teesside, has been built on time and is on schedule with an extensive test programme that will continue throughout 2013.

Aberdeen-based Gas2 has developed a catalytic ceramic based porous membrane (pMRTM) used in its gas reforming (Syngas) reactors and fluid forming (Fischer Tropsch) reactors to create liquid hydrocarbons.

Mike Fleming, co-founder and managing director of Gas2, said: “The results are encouraging and we are optimistic about continued success as we move through the scale-up process. Operational targets have been met so far and we expect to have completed the test programme and to announce plans for commercialisation later in the year. Gas 2 has a unique technology and process with the potential to fundamentally disrupt the current gas-to-liquids market.”

>> CBI chairman calls for answers

>> BT jobs boost

CBI Scotland chairman Nosheena Mobarik has called on the Scottish Government to answer questions about how an independent nation might operate. In her address to 600 guests at the CBI Scotland annual dinner in Glasgow, Ms Mobarik called on the Scottish Government to provide complete, comprehensive and credible answers to all questions that the CBI has put to the First Minister on independence.

Ms Mobarik says: “On the issue of independence, CBI Scotland has put over 200 questions to the Scottish Government in the expectation that the answers will assist in providing voters with the information that they need in order to make an informed choice in next September’s referendum.

Our questions cover issues such as an independent Scotland’s membership of the EU, currency and financial oversight, the public finances, defence, and costs of full statehood.”

“We, and others, have been advised by the Scottish Government that the answers to our questions will be set out in the white paper due to be published this autumn.

“The white paper will be the Scottish Government’s prospectus on which the referendum question will be predicated and we trust that it will provide complete, comprehensive and credible answers to our many questions. This is essential for business and we look forward to the white paper’s publication.”

BT is to create 150 new posts as part of a major recruitment drive in Scotland for new engineers to help roll out fibre broadband across the country. The company is recruiting in Inverness, Fort William, Oban and Aberdeen as well as Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee, Dumfries and Galashiels. Around 90 of the posts will be in the Highlands and Islands.

The recruitment supports BT’s £2.5bn UK-wide commercial programme and its next generation broadband partnerships in the Highlands and Islands and the rest of Scotland. The jobs are in addition to the 1,000 new UK jobs announced by BT in March.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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AUTUMN 13

>> Float buoyed by funds An Edinburgh-based start-up that aims to help small companies manage their finances has secured £110,000 of investor funding. Float is an application that works with existing accounting software to accurately predict cash flow.

“Our goal is to help small business owners quickly visualise the cash position of their business and explore the effect of both regular and potential income or expenditure,” said Colin Hewitt, Float’s Chief Executive Officer.

Investor Rob Dobson, founder of Actix which recently sold for US$120m, who is putting in money, said: “Float is in a great position to build up a significant market share within the financial industry for small businesses.”

Float will work with accounting software supplier Xero and continue to develop the infrastructure to integrate with other platforms such as Sage and QuickBooks.

Float is already fully integrated with another successful Edinburgh start-up, FreeAgent. The company is based in Edinburgh’s start-up incubator, TechCube, where several successful and growing start-ups, including FanDuel, PlanforCloud, Stipso, Administrate, GoodMark Medical and others, are currently expanding their teams.

>> Levies not fair, CBI warns CBI Scotland’s assistant director David Lonsdale said new levies on large retailers who sell alcohol and tobacco is ‘unreasonable’ and will damage the Scottish economy.

In a speech on business rates delivered to the annual conference of the Institute of Revenues Rating & Valuation, held in Crieff, he said: “There are several significant issues which pose a challenge to the business rates system.

Three in particular are: maintaining confidence in the business rates system, encouraging private sector investment, and Scottish independence. Few business taxes are popular.

However as the third largest tax that firms pay, non-domestic rates do form part of a balanced overall portfolio of taxes on income, labour

and property, and we share the devolved government’s belief that there is no need for wholesale reform.

He said the Scottish Government’s decision to depart from the uniform business rate and levy a discriminatory £95m supplementary levy on larger retailers which sell alcohol and tobacco has risked undermining business confidence in the rates system. “The levy has obviously raised the hackles of those firms directly affected, as well as those who could be affected should the threshold for liability be lowered in due course. However, a number of firms in other sectors have viewed it as unreasonable.”

He said the Holyrood administration has pursued a number of policies which the CBI has welcomed, including the retention of poundage rate parity with England, the expansion of the Small Firms Relief scheme and the new business rates incentivisation scheme.

“However, our members do believe that there needs to be much more predictability and certainty built in to the rates system, with a move away from the often ad hoc introduction of new or additional business rate levies.”

The ‘public health levy’ is “bewildering, coming as it does from an administration that continually professes its commitment to a lower Corporation Tax. The introduction of the levy suggests that if Corporation Tax were to be devolved then the rate applied may well rise rather than fall,” he said.

Also on the business rates, Andy Willox, the Federation of Small Businesses’ Scottish policy convenor, said: “When the Scottish Government introduced the small business Bonus scheme they took an important step in making the Scottish business rates system fairer. The scheme has given thousands of Scottish businesses a real shot in the arm during an incredibly difficult period for small enterprise.

“However, the publication suggests that the Scottish Government understands that our property based taxation system is outdated, based on the economy of the past and under severe pressure. Yet their response to this challenge looks timid. We’re pleased the Small Business Bonus scheme will be retained and

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NEWS

the appeals process will be examined before the next revaluation in 2017, but we’re slightly disappointed a bolder reform plan hasn’t been developed.

“Councils in England have the powers to develop local reliefs but few have done so.

It remains to be seen if Scottish councils will act differently and look to boost their local economies and high streets.”

The scheme has given thousands of businesses a shot in the arm

>> Lord’s farewell to Weir Lord Smith of Kelvin, chair of Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, is to step down as chairman of the Weir Group and from the board at the end of the year.

Lord Smith has been in the role since 1 July 2002. The board has announced the appointment of Charles Berry as deputy chairman, while Mr Berry, who joined the Weir Board on 1 March 2013, will take over as chairman from 1 January 2014.

>> Going for a song Glasgow-based P&R Howard, a supplier of musical instruments, is on the market following work by Metis Partners, the Glasgow-based intellectual property specialists.

The company’s Westfield guitars are used by artists such as Danny Jones, lead singer of McFly, American singer-songwriter Jason Mraz and guitar virtuoso Danny Hepworth, but the firm went into liquidation in June.

P&R Howard, founded by industry veteran Paul Howard in 1989, sells the “Westfield” and “Session Pro” brands. Metis Partners was asked by Blair Nimmo and Gerard Friar of KPMG, joint receivers, to conduct a campaign to find an appropriate buyer for the intellectual property assets.

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In addition to acquiring all of Nokia’s Devices and services business, Microsoft gains a licence to use Nokia’s patents. This arrangement will allow Nokia to maintain ownership of its patent portfolio while providing Microsoft with access to the intellectual property protected by its patents. “Microsoft has entered this sector relatively late, so gaining access to Nokia’s very established patent portfolio through a licensing deal makes real sense. Microsoft also gains the benefit of Nokia’s earlier licensing agreement with Qualcom, which will provide it with access to an even wider pool of patent rights,” he said.

Companies realise they need a robust portfolio of patents

>> ITF joins 200 club

>> Johnnie sails ahead of the competition Diageo’s Johnnie Walker edged out Hennessy, owned by LVMH, to top the IWSR’s 2013 World Class Brands rankings. Jack Daniel’s (Brown-Forman), Jameson and Martell (both Pernod Ricard) round out the top five. The IWSR has ranked these brands using its 2012 volume and value data. Johnnie Walker has seen strong growth, rising by over 100,000 cases in 2012 in countries such as Mexico, Poland, the US, South Africa and Thailand, as well as the duty free/ travel retail market. Overall, the brand grew by 1m cases over the year to reach 18m cases in total. Diageo also has the largest number of World Class Brands, with 28, including four in the top 10 (Johnnie Walker, Cîroc, Buchanan’s and Captain Morgan).

>> Phone deal a ringing endorsement for licences Microsoft’s decision to buy part of Nokia’s mobile phone business for 5.4bn euros shows the importance of bolting down licences, says a leading Scottish patent lawyer.

Dr Tim Hargreaves, patent attorney and partner at Marks & Clerk in Edinburgh, said:

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“This deal shows the huge value that the mobile telecoms sector places on patents. This is an industry that has seen many high-profile patent disputes. Companies realise that they need a robust portfolio of patents if they are to defend themselves and maintain or achieve greater market share, particularly in the high tech sectors in which Scotland excel.”

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ITF, the global technology facilitator, has surpassed more than 200 joint industry projects in its 14 year history. Oil and gas industry leaders and Michael Fallon MP, Minister of State for Business and Enterprise and Minister of State for Energy, joined the organisation at Offshore Europe to congratulate the company.

ITF, which is championing eight technology developers, is working with Oil & Gas UK on the part of the strategy relating to technology development.

Dr Patrick O’Brien, ITF’s CEO, said “Collaboration and investment in technology development and deployment is key to enhancing the UK oil and gas industry.”

ITF is a not-for-profit organisation owned by 32 international oil and gas operator and service companies. It is the only global collaborative R&D funding programme operating across continents. It aims to secure a further £50m for technologies by 2015.

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support the launch of its new SaaS (software as a service) IT analytics platform, Sumerian Workbench®, which is currently in open beta.

“Sumerian has spent the last 10 years working with leading companies doing predictive analytics to make their IT investments generate a better return”, said Bryan Clark, Sumerian CEO.

>> Wood branches out The Wood Group has created a £5m new joint venture company with KazTurboRemont in Kazakhstan.

KTRWG Turbine Services LLP will focus on maintenance services for turbo machinery rotating equipment including compressors and gas turbines used in Caspian Sea projects. The JV is a 50-50 venture involving people, equipment, training and knowledge transfer.

>> Soaring figures

>> TV firm’s dividend repeat STV Productions, which has secured a commission for 12 more episodes of Catchphrase for ITV1 and is launching new city companion sites in Scotland’s four largest cities, has announced the resumption of the dividend for investors.

Rob Woodward, chief executive officer, said: “We have delivered another strong financial performance with a further significant reduction in net debt. We are pleased to announce our intention to return to dividend for the 2013 full year.

“We announce the launch of an innovative range of mobile sites and companion sites targeted at consumers in Scotland’s largest cities. STV Productions continues to secure further returning series commissions with the announcement of a second series ratings success of Catchphrase for ITV.” The board has proposed the resumption of the dividend with a planned 1.5 pence per share final dividend in respect of 2013, to be confirmed in early 2014.

Meanwhile net debt is down 22% at £43.4m with revenues up 8% to £51.2m, an operating profit at £8.2m.

We have delivered another strong financial performance

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>> Breaking new ground Menzies Aviation, the aviation services subsidiary of John Menzies, has completed the takeover of the Aero Handling business at Aberdeen Airport.

Customers include Loganair, British Midland Regional and Atlantic Airlines.

The deal means 50 new colleagues joining the Menzies team. Menzies also won the Loganair contract at Edinburgh for the next five years. Meanwhile, its international expansion continues with two acquisitions to acquire the Australian ground handling business, Skystar from Monadelphous for £7.7m in cash, and the Colombian ground and cargo handling business, Desacol for a maximum consideration of £6.4m in cash.

>> Fortune’s favour Sumerian, a provider of forward-thinking IT analytics to many of the leading Fortune Global 500, has announced a further £2.4M investment as its new SaaS predictive analytics platform gains momentum in open beta.

The investment is being led by Scottish Equity Partners (SEP), alongside the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise. It will help the Edinburghbased company accelerate its growth and

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Glasgow Airport reported another month of growth after 746,000 passengers travelled through its doors in August, representing an increase of 6% compared to the same period last year. Almost 2.4 million passengers used Glasgow Airport during the peak summer months of June, July and August, ensuring the airport enjoyed its busiest summer since 2008. Domestic and international traffic both grew by 6% during August and a number of airlines including Virgin Atlantic, Emirates, KLM and Wizz Air all reported an increase in demand.

>> China connection Rangers football fans need a bit of cheer these days. Scottish WiFi expert 802 Event WiFi has brokered a deal between Rangers and Chinese company Huawei, the world’s largest telecoms equipment maker. The seven-figure investment negotiated by the Lanarkshirebased company will bring the Ibrox fans into a new era of in-depth, WiFi-based engagement.

Using its telecoms and networking infrastructure experience, 802 Event WiFi will deliver one of football’s first fully converged stadium-wide WiFi deployments - and Huawei’s first deployment in a European club.

802 Event WiFi chief executive Felix Gibson said: “This is a major development. It is a transformative deal which will change the way fans interact with their club. We are very proud to have been instrumental in delivering this game-changing technology.” The project, will give every fan seated at Ibrox Stadium - as well as in the approaches, concourse, restaurants and corporate areas - full, instant access to media and allow them to participate in real time interactions with the club.

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bed and breakfast*

*For groups of 10 or more. Specific months only. T&C’s apply.

For further information call 01655 331 996 or email turnberryevents@luxurycollection.com turnberryresort.co.uk

The law on waste is changing for businesses From 1 January 2014 the Waste (Scotland) Regulations mean that all organisations, big or small, will have to recycle their plastic, metal, glass, paper and card or risk a fine. Most food businesses will also have to recycle food waste.

For free advice and support on meeting the new regulations and how to save money, visit: www.resourceefficientscotland.com

enquiries@resourceefficientscotland.com 0808 808 2268

A programme from

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>> Million pound milestone Alienation Digital, set up by Neil Barr in 1997, has broken the £1m turnover mark, with a 256% increase in profits.

The agency, establishing itself as a leader in the international digital field, has moved to new premises in Glasgow, at Somerset Place. The agency has grown by 20-30% year on year with offices in Glasgow, London, Vancouver and clients including Channel 4, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, The Old Vic, Bournemouth University and Gordon & MacPhail.

>> Out from the crowd

>> Spanish fleet comes sailing in Family owned shipping and energy services firm, Craig Group, has ordered six new vessels from the Balenciaga Shipyard in northern Spain in an investment of £70m.

Four D class IMT 950 Emergency Response and Rescue Vessels (ERRVs) and two F class IMT 958 ERRVs will be delivered during 2014 and early 2016.

Douglas Craig, chairman and managing director of Craig Group, said: “This significant investment is part of our continued drive to operate the largest and most modern wholly British owned fleet engaged in the UK offshore industry.

“A new-build programme of this size and scale underlines our commitment to the marine industry and means that we continue to offer our customers an unrivalled service.”

Callum Bruce, managing director, of North Star Shipping which is operated by Craig Group said: “We are constantly looking at ways of expanding and modernising our fleet.

“The new vessels will feature the most up to date technology and designs, meeting our customers’ needs in terms of safety, quality and efficiency.”

Over 160 jobs will be secured as part of the new-build programme which has seen over £230m invested and 22 new vessels since 2003.

>> Spinning into new markets Orenda Energy Solutions, a recent addition to the UK medium wind market, has designed and manufactured a pioneering 51kW wind turbine with simple and safe servicing due to a patented design mechanism.

The turbine has been designed for the farming/agriculture and rural/landowner communities who can optimise financial returns by utilising local “Feed-in Tariff” incentives.

Orenda’s Skye(tm) turbine has a hydraulically hinged tower, designed to be lowered and

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raised by one operator using a wrench.

Iits patented ‘tilt’ mechanism that has been designed to cut extensive and costly maintenance with servicing.

A spin-out company from the University of Edinburgh´s School of Geosciences awarded £141,000 from Scottish Enterprise´s SMART Scotland fund and the University of Edinburgh Technology Fund is to embark on a further round of funding through crowd funding.

Carbomap plans to raise capital through ShareIn, a Scottish-based equity crowd-funding platform to develop its proprietary technology to map and measure the amount of carbon dioxide produced by the world´s forests.

>> Allied’s £250,000 order Automotive specialist Allied Vehicles has won a £250,000 contract to supply wheelchair accessible people carriers to NSL Care Services with its specially adapted Peugeot model, the Peugeot Independence. Established in 1993, the Allied Vehicles Group has grown to become the UK’s leading manufacturer and supplier of adapted and special purpose vehicles, as well as a provider of after-sales services in West Central Scotland.

We are constantly looking at ways of expanding and modernising our fleet.

The new vessels will feature the most up to date technology and designs

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NEWS

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>> Skills blueprint welcomed The FSB and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce have welcomed the interim report from the Wood Commission which is looking at how to develop Scotland’s young workforce.

Andy Willox, the Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) Scottish policy convenor, said: “For too long, many of our decision makers haven’t realised the importance of vocational education to the real economy.

The FSB welcomes the report because we understand a high quality education and training system is vital to the country’s success.

Further, high levels of unemployment and underemployment, even amongst graduates,

suggests we need to change our approach.

“Our members, and the wider small business community, want to see a system which develops skilled individuals ready to deliver on the first day of work.

“We support the Commission’s call for the education system to deliver clearer paths to vocational careers. We must also see better links developed between schools, colleges and industry.”

Scottish Chambers of Commerce chief executive Liz Cameron said: “We recognise that this education focussed interim report only tells half the story, and that the Commission’s focus on business is still to come. However, this interim report contains

much that the business community can welcome enthusiastically. The report is being undertaken by Sir Ian Wood, formerly the chairman of Scottish Enterprise and head of the Wood Group, Scotland’s leading international energy services group.

We want to see a system which develops skilled individuals

>> BQ people on the move Benjamin Turner has been appointed chief operating officer of the PMGC Technology Group, a managed services provider of cloud and unified communications solutions.

The company is also looking to take on a number of specialists across central Scotland to support business growth.

Natalie Maynard has been appointed regional director of Edinburgh headquartered ExecSpace, a conference and business accommodation agent.

Based in Glasgow, Natalie will have specific responsibility for spearheading expansion into the West of Scotland.

Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie LLP has appointed planning expert, Fraser Gillies, to head their renewable energy team. Fraser succeeds Andy McFarlane. Under Andy’s tenure the team retained its position, acting for clients such as RWE Npower Renewables and E.ON Climate and Renewables.

Ian Robertson has been appointed Engineering Manager of Produced Water Absorbents Inc, as it expands its European

operations in Aberdeen. PWA, which has its global headquarters in Wooster, Ohio, provides water treatment solutions for the oil and gas industry.

Ian will direct and co-ordinate engineering activities for the company.

Alison Condie has been appointed managing director at Barratt East Scotland. Alison, based at the house builder’s Edinburgh office, was previously technical director with the division for the past eight years.

Marks & Clerk, the intellectual property firm, has brought two of its attorneys into partnership. Dr Richard Gibbs, based in Glasgow, and Aimee Cawley, based in Manchester, have both been promoted to partners.

DM Hall, the independent chartered surveyors, has appointed two graduate surveyors in its Glasgow and Edinburgh offices. Kenneth Geddes and Omar Khan are both graduates in property management and valuation from Glasgow Caledonian University.

The firm has also strengthened its commercial

presence in the North of Scotland with the appointment of Andy Gray working in the Inverness and Elgin offices.

Meanwhile surveying firm Graham & Sibbald has added four new appointments, including three experienced women to its Scottish team. Kerri McGuire joins as principal planner, Claire Galbraith joins from Deloitte LLP, where she was a senior surveyor, Lesley Goodfellow was previously employed by Colliers International as an associate director, while John Duthie joins the Dundee office as senior surveyor, having worked with Pagan Osborne.

Commercial law firm Maclay Murray & Spens LLP has strengthened its corporate team with the hire of three new partners. Energy lawyer Guy de Speville, currently assistant general counsel with Hess Corporation; and Jonathan Ingram, a restructuring specialist, will be based in MMS’ London office, while Andy Lowe, joins the firm’s Aberdeen team.

The appointments follow the recent internal promotion of 13 lawyers, including two new partners.

If you’d like to include someone on the move, please email editor@bq-scotland.co.uk

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PLAYING MUSIC? MAKE SURE YOU’RE LICENSED.

Music creates a better working atmosphere 77% of businesses say playing music in the workplace increases staff morale and creates a better working environment.* If you play music in your business, it is a legal requirement to obtain the correct music licences.

In most instances, a licence is required from both PPL and PRS for Music. PPL and PRS for Music are two separate companies. PPL collects and distributes money for the use of recorded music on behalf of record companies and performers. PRS for Music collects

and distributes money for the use of the musical composition and lyrics on behalf of authors, songwriters, composers and publishers.

A PPL licence can cost your business as little as 19p per day. For more information on how to obtain your PPL licence visit ppluk.com or call 020 7534 1070.

To find out more about how music can work for your business visit musicworksforyou.com. *MusicWorks survey of 1000 people, conducted May 2012.

ppluk.com

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Five vital steps to make IT systems work better We need to be more realistic about the benefits of so-called ‘transformational’ projects, says Jon Kidd Transformation is an emotive word that conjures up visions of a better world, clear goals, and clean outcomes. Yet surveys conducted over the past 20 years show that IT-based transformation is a high-risk game, with more than 70% of programmes failing to live up to expectations. This is even more worrisome when you consider the advance of specialist management tools needed to implement such change. While methodologies have spawned huge industries and consulting efforts, they have failed to make a noticeable dent in programme failure rates. Why is this? The cynics might say that having all these methods, with their certifications and associated consulting industries, has resulted in a culture that focuses on procedural compliance and ticking boxes. While this is part of the problem, there is a more fundamental issue. All too often, IT alone is relied upon to provide transformation. In my experience, this does not work – whereas by focusing instead on technology as an enabler of transformation, the chances of success are much improved.

Organisations should only implement technology solutions if they add value or improve processes for the benefit of the business. In simple terms – does the technology help to either reduce costs or increase revenue for the organisation? So why are organisations struggling with transformation? There is no single answer or simple combination of factors that can be applied to every transformation initiative. However, a number of themes are often present that must be addressed to minimise the risk of programme failure: Transformation takes too long The days of five-year business strategies are over. Many organisations

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struggle to create and execute annual business plans, and monthly targets are difficult to meet. Delivering a complex, enterprise-wide IT transformation programme over the course of several years quickly becomes irrelevant. Even breaking it down into artificially bite-sized drops of code has had limited success in recent years.

Transformation costs too much In these austere times, the perceived levels of investment in technology exceed the means of most organisations. Also, operational staffing levels have been cut back to the minimum and calls to devote time to initiatives can be met with derision. Big budgets for multi-year programmes with uncertain returns are being challenged - and rightly so; transformation must deliver tangible benefits for all key stakeholders within months, not years.

Transformation leaves unfinished business There is increasing evidence that many transformation programmes are closed down before the original goals have been realised. This can be a result of overspending, changing priorities, or simply ‘battle fatigue’.

Many organisations have amassed a series of programmes that have only partially delivered what they set out to achieve, leading to sub-optimal performance and inefficiencies.

Transformation needs a stable base Standard processes are designed to address the ‘ideal’ way of working. It is often assumed that these standards and methods will be applied to stable, controlled environments.

However, organisations that can truly operate at consistently high and repeatable levels of performance are in the minority. In reality, most are struggling to find and maintain their sweet spots. Applying transformation to fluid and chaotic organisations is fraught with problems.

Transformation activities have been outsourced Many organisations have reaped considerable cost savings through outsourcing and offshoring. While this approach works well for stable operations, there can be a serious disconnect when a client needs to move quickly to meet changing market conditions. Too often, the outsourcing partner that operates

the areas of business to be transformed is not well-positioned to respond to dynamic circumstances further upstream.

How should organisations respond?

In light of these challenges, and with the odds stacked against you, it may seem futile to embark on any future programmes. But transformation is still worthwhile, even essential, in these turbulent times. With simple steps, organisations can significantly boost their delivery of technology enablement programmes: 1. Invest time up front to simplify business processes.

Technology often provides a faster, cheaper way of doing the same thing, with little time or attention paid to finding a better way of working. The result is IT systems being contorted and distorted by illogical,

AS I SEE IT

this has been fuelled by a substantial drop in storage price. By making data more accessible, the Cloud is quickly becoming a game-changer.

But making sense of collected data is another matter. In the world of Business Intelligence (BI), big data is relatively immature—particularly if organisations depend on spreadsheets to run their businesses. BI does bring value to organisations and has the potential to transform the quality and effectiveness of strategy and decision-making processes.

The key is establishing ownership and accountability to ensure that data is complete, accurate, processed effectively, and used for maximum business advantage.

4. Take smaller, incremental steps toward the ultimate goal.

Technology programmes do not have the luxury of extended timelines to deliver benefits. Small,

Too often employees claim that technology stops them from doing the right thing or forces them to do something they feel is inefficient or wrong unnecessary processes and bloated with volumes of irrelevant data. Instead, organisations should invest time early on to build more stable, efficient, and repeatable business processes that can be used as sustainable, flexible blueprints for technology transformation.

2. Challenge the technologists.

Technologists love to have the latest kit and are keen to demonstrate the benefits of upgrading or the perils of doing nothing. This has become one of the biggest traps for businesses. IT departments should provide stable platforms, supply basic functionality, and work closely with business functions to enable strategy and operations. Business managers must push back on technological ‘wants’ or capabilities that are not backed by sound return on investment - and instead invest time in exploiting existing technology more productively.

3. Think—and act—as an enterprise.

Technology allows businesses to capture vast volumes of data from everyday activities, and

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sure-footed steps that can be delivered within realistic budgets and provide tangible benefits in short order are essential. Businesses must develop and then break down their corporate strategies into incremental steps and actions.

Tangible benefits will begin to appear in a regular, repeatable manner, month to month.

5. Get teams on board with new expectations and ways of working.

Employees may associate transformation programmes with changes in the way they work, which can build fear, resistance, and even resentment. The human interface with technology is critical. Too often, employees claim that technology stops them from doing the right thing or forces them to do something they feel is inefficient or wrong. Involve people in transformation programmes and ensure that their needs are understood and accommodated wherever possible. n Jon Kidd is a director of MorganFranklin Consulting and a former head of Global IT Applications Management at Barclays.

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Sitting comfortably?

A story-telling time for recruitment

Tired with the older ways of working, Betsy Williamson set up her own recruitment business in Edinburgh to find the right people for the financial service market. Her company is reaping the benefit of ensuring it delivers on its promise. She speaks to BQ editor Kenny Kemp The battle for the right people in work has never been tougher. And among Scotland’s recruitment professionals there is a heightened expectation to deliver the right people into the workplace first time. In the sphere of high-value, larger income fund management, Betsy Williamson, the managing director of Core-Asset Consulting - shortlisted as Financial Services Company of the Year in the Scottish Business Awards - has been carving out a niche as a premier finder on the preferred supplier lists of some of Scotland’s leading investment houses. She is also emerging as one of the top entrepreneurial business women in Scotland under 40. Sitting in her well-appointed Georgian town-house office in Melville Street in Edinburgh, she is clear that her driven ‘next generation’ approach to the people business is a reflection of these times.

“I’m never fully satisfied with what we achieve.

I always want to do more. It’s the nature of the game that we work in. To be truly driving a business, you can’t be satisfied with it and rest on your laurels. We’re always asking: did we get the best person? Have our clients got someone who adds value? Of course, we enjoy the moments of pleasure in our work. That doesn’t necessarily come from a job well done, it comes from knowing that you’ve done the right thing. Satisfaction comes from knowing we’ve done everything we possibly can to help our clients,” she says.

With Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen city centres brimming with recruitment firms, it is

easy to see why talent management has been identified as the greatest people challenge and investment priority for Scottish businesses in the coming year. In an increasingly global world, Scotland could face another braindrain of its best talent – and fail to present an exciting enough proposition to those who might want to come and live here. A KPMG report shows the issue is more pressing in Scotland than across the UK, possibly reflecting more competition from higher paid positions in southern England. The survey suggests that 58% of businesses polled saw attracting and recruiting the right people as their greatest challenge, with talent management (40%) the second most pressing as opposed to 28% in the UK. Other notable areas included staff motivation (24%), staff retention (23%) and remuneration (18%). Eddie Norrie, a director of people services at KPMG in Scotland, said: “Talented candidates may now be more inclined to be selective when it comes to accepting job offers with areas such as the North East of England facing stiff competition from London. At the same time, Scottish businesses’ need for highly-skilled employees who are able to adapt to significant changes as we emerge from economic difficulties, makes the task of finding the right staff even more challenging.”

If this is true, this is a concern for Scotland. So the best recruiters, such as Betsy Williamson, need to use all their communication skills to find the best people. Just like her illustrious

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fathers Duncan Williamson, Betsy is a natural and effective storyteller. Her background and experience have moulded her unique take on recruiting – and it have been highly successful.

Her mother, Linda, is an American academic who came to Scotland in the early 1970s to undertake a PhD in ethnomusicology at the School of Scottish Studies in Edinburgh University, academic home of the famed song collector Hamish Henderson, writer of the Scottish anthem Freedom Come All Ye. Duncan Williamson was born in a tent on the shores of Loch Fyne in 1928, the seventh of 16 children, and at 15 he began an itinerant life as one of Scotland’s ‘travelling people’.

He became one of Scotland’s story-tellers, especially recounting collected tales of the seal people and the ‘silkies’, a large part of West Highland folklore. Linda Williamson was 20 years younger and Duncan was one of her research topics. They courted, married and a young Betsy, one of two, grew up near St Andrews surrounded by Scottish folklore.

She was steeped in traditional music and storytelling.

“There was almost an expectation that I would fall into the traditional cultural footsteps.

Unfortunately, playing the harp or the fiddle, or singing folksongs never really interested me.

I had aspirations towards the more corporate world. That was where my interests lay. I was something of a black sheep of the family!”

She attended Edinburgh Napier University and took a business and corporate >>

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ENTREPRENEUR hospitality degree. She learned about giant brands such as Hilton and Sheraton, which gave her an appreciation of building culture and customer service. Her practical education also included work in Edinburgh’s hotels and bars, where the relentless reality of long hours and low pay doesn’t engender staff loyalty. When she graduated in 1998 she was hooked on working with people. “I didn’t know anything about recruitment. I’d touched on HR as part of my organisational studies but I noticed an advert in The Scotsman for a recruitment consultant. What appealed to me was that no two days were the same and it was targetorientated towards bonuses.” She persevered after several job rejections and landed a job.

“I’m a determined sort. If someone tells me I can’t do something then inevitably that makes me want to do it even more.”

She landed a job with Hays, the international recruiter, on a basic salary of £6,000 with the remainder made up from commission. She was told she might make £12,000 or £14,000 in year one, instead she hit £25,000. Edinburgh was booming and recruiting for a golden age of expansion in financial services meant there was plenty of work.“I started out at the very bottom finding administrators, receptionists and more junior levels of recruitment.”

The dotcom market in 2000 and 2001 was leaning towards TPAS, third party administrators, with Edinburgh a major centre.

“I muddled my way for the first few months.

The early training was very basic, without much structure. You really did sink or swim.

The attrition rate with young staff was fairly high with recruits lucky to last more than six months,” she says. “Hays was very heavily sales based. You were learning about the evolving financial services industry as well as trying to accumulate the skills you needed to do your job. I was on a steep learning curve - we didn’t have Google as we do now. I had to try and find out what these jobs were and exactly what the companies were looking for.”

She intended to pursue this career path for a few years and perhaps move back into the international hospitality, but the prospects of night-shifts and weekend working as she climbed the ladder encouraged her to stick with the structure of the recruitment business.

“To succeed in this environment, you had to

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make yourself succeed. Nobody was identifying me – or anyone else – as the talent of the future. At this point, Hays was a very Londonstyle macho culture – although I can’t comment on how it is now as a market leader. Back then, everyone was in it for themselves. If your individual performance was better than the team, then this was more rewarding for you.”

She recalls the competitive spirit and that people were not encouraged to help each

In Scotland, where reputations matter, it’s about referral, referral, referral other out because there were targets and company clients for each recruiter. Everyone played their cards close to their chest and made their own things happen. Looking back, how does this compare to her working philosophy now with Core-Asset Consulting?

“It is exactly the opposite. Our way of working is much more collaborative in a team together to deliver for our clients on a wider front.”

Based on her sales figures, Betsy quickly rose

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through the ranks and was sent on the Hays management programme and asked to run the banking and finance team in Charlotte Square in Edinburgh. At 24, she was fast-tracked for a regional director’s role which was more about managing people, delivery and ensuring hitting targets, rather than finding people for clients - something which didn’t interest her.

“I enjoyed the recruitment aspect most and the challenges of trying to understand the assignment: what are the technical aspects of the job and how do we find the person with the qualifications for such a role. I bolted that into my own job. Increasingly, this is what interested me.”

Betsy acknowledges there were a stack of positives about Hays, including its multiple sales training programmes, and, in many ways, she thrived there. But with Core-Asset Consulting she has created a recruitment agency that was driven by finding the right person for the position, rather than filling posts for a bonus.

“Working in that environment didn’t scare me.

It suited my personality at the time and worked for me. What became clear as I got better at my job, and more aware of the environment I was working in, was that while it was fine for me, it wasn’t so good for my clients. I began to see that clients needed an adviser with an understanding of the bigger picture and was more involved with consulting.”

In 2002 she was headhunted to work for a specialist executive search firm. Her initial instinct was to decline the job, but after intensive pester and persuasion, she accepted.

Those early reservations soon became apparent as she was forced to put together a new business from scratch. With restrictive covenants about approaching former clients and an aversion to the industry’s practice of poaching, her assignments soon became difficult as she realised that there was a very small pool of people in specialist fields.

“After six months I realised I’d made a big mistake, but it turned out to be the start of my thinking about how to create my own business,” she says. She saw an advert with the Hay Group, no relation to Hays, and was offered a place as a consultant helping with human capital, talent management and developing executive skills. She was

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interested in joining but was also undertaking a Masters in human resource management at Napier University and had started a longterm relationship with her husband to be, and didn’t want to work outside Scotland. But the Hay Group encounter opened her eyes and a plan was forming. In 2004 she took a step back and decided to spend some time asking her clients and others what they wanted and expected from a recruitment business. Top of the list of complaints was recruitment firms finding people who were simply unsuitable or inexperienced for specialist financial service jobs. Among such frustrations was that recruitment firms were trying to sell rather than service clients.

“The next step was to create my own company. In the Christmas break of 2004 I started to formulate a business plan. In July of 2005, I set up Core-Asset Consulting and in the intervening six months I found serviced office space in St Andrew’s Square, banks, suppliers, an accountant, and looked at recruiting staff.”

She re-mortgaged her flat and took out a business loan for the other half. Everything was in place for her business.

“My first day was 4 July 2005 and the phone started ringing with business leads.

The most exciting thing was coming down in the lift in the MWB business centre and hearing the collective receptionist answer the phone saying: ‘Good morning, Core-Asset Consulting...’” This was the actual realisation for Betsy that her own business was up and running. “It was a definite moment of clarity.

The objective was to take the best bits of a large corporate organisation, such as Hays or any other large recruitment group, which are systems, processes and procedures, functionality and clear objectives and ways of working and bolt them together with what I gleaned from my executive search days, which is that each assignment is a project in essence. You should spend a lot of time researching that project. It is about getting the best possible person as opposed to the ‘best’ person.” Betsy also included the thinking from her brief encounter with the Hay Group. “I’ve taken these three defined ideas and developed a recruitment model that is fit for purpose for my clients. I didn’t create something that I

ENTREPRENEUR

thought was needed, I created something that the clients told me they wanted,” she says.

Her clients want the right person in the job – not someone put in place simply to secure a bonus for the professional job finder. She also recognises that simply sending a pile of CVs through for interviews to make up numbers was becoming counter-productive. But that final decision is not easy.

“The challenges that the UK fund management industry is facing now are increased regulation, around compliance, remuneration and bonus packages, and codes and ethics. The fund management teams are asked to do very tricky things: to identify stocks and companies and segments that are performing well and predict a trend to get a return. It’s a difficult thing to do. I have a lot of respect for the jobs they do. A lot of people stand on the margins of many things and make assumptions or a presumption that is not well considered.”

Working recently for a fund management company, Core-Asset Consulting, after a period of intensive search across the UK, Europe and beyond, presented two people for interview. Normally, three go forward but this highlighted the issues raised by the KPMG review.

“We did that because there weren’t three candidates fit for the purpose. The skillset we are recruiting for in Scotland is very limited, so there might only be six or seven people in the Scottish market place to recruit. Of those, three might be settled in their work, another two might not fit the culture, so we are left with a very short list. Increasingly, we have to look to other regions, bringing them up to Scotland. People will ask me who I think is best and I reply, ‘it’s not about what I think. I can guide you but it’s your decision’.”

Betsy says Core’s job is to facilitate, assist and guide but the final decision must be outside her control. And she sleeps better at night because of this. Her clients include Baillie Gifford, Franklin Templeton, Standard Life Investments, plus the other investment houses attempting to attract specialist fund managers who are always looking for global candidates with connections to Scotland. She enjoys preferred supplier status along with a roster of other firms. She’s also established a contracting

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arm allowing her to place people into positions on short-term contracts where they pay the salaries and undertake HR functions on behalf of clients. “As a group, investment and fund managers are geographically mobile, and the best ones are in demand. They often enjoy travelling and working around the world.

Scotland offers a lot of exceptional things and a quality of life for families. There are trigger points that bring people back to Scotland. But 98% of the time, people will have a strong connection with Scotland, and these are the people we develop relationships with.”

From the start Core-Asset Consulting was created to be scaled, and this includes putting together a recruitment infrastructure and database of prospective candidates and clients.

Discretion in searching for the right person is important and managed in a considerate manner. Her team includes ‘the persistent and tenacious’ operations director Louise Powrie, who has been a work colleague for 14 years, and a director of communications, Richard England, formerly with Standard Life Investments.

So how has she been able to grow from a serviced office to buying a townhouse property in Edinburgh’s most favoured business street and employing 18 people with a £4.4m turnover? “You need to know your market and what you’re doing. We need to know our candidates and we work hard to maintain our reputation. We’ve been successful because we’ve always delivered what we said we would. And we’ve done it in a correct method and manner, following the rules and processes of our clients. If they request things, such as not to contact line managers, we don’t. We’ve consistently delivered.

“And, if you do that, you will get repeat business. In Edinburgh and Scotland, where reputations matter, it’s about referral, referral, referral. ”So what advice was she given when she started up? “I was told to get a good lawyer and a good accountant, which is sound advice. And I would add, have a good relationship with your bank! That’s been essential. We’re set up like a corporate organisation and we’ve ambition about building it up to some scale.” For a storyteller, Betsy still has several long chapters to go. Let’s wish her a happy ending. n

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COMPANY PROFILE

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Business continues to flower in Scotland Like all industries, the recruitment sector has faced many big challenges in recent years but these have never got in the way of growth for the Scottish arm of Pertemps Last year alone saw the company launch new specialist divisions north of the border in fields such as driving, health and social care, technical skills and construction.

When Managing Director of Pertemps (Scotland), Walter Speirs, says that the business has always ensured that it has ‘the capability and capacity to grow with our clients,’ it is fair to say that he means it.

“It is just a given, and part of the fabric of our company culture, that we are the best recruitment provider, in terms of compliance, delivery, candidate care and client satisfaction,” said Walter; “Some competitors are willing to compromise on these things to offer reduced margins to clients.

But these forays are short-term and our clients are forever telling us that no agency can deliver like Pertemps. As an example, we have over 1,200 temporary workers out across the public sector in Scotland, at a fill rate of more than 99% on a 48 hour turnaround.”

Temporary and interim staff supplied by Pertemps can be found in all walks of public life, from the police and other emergency services to education and local and national government. This is largely down to the success of the company in winning distinguished contracts, something Pertemps has done continually in Scotland sine it opened its first branch in Castle Street, Edinburgh back in 1992.

Currently, the business is the sole supplier to 115 of the 160 different bodies that make up Procurement Scotland.

Pertemps as a company started life as a one-off, family run business in Birmingham in 1962. Back then; founder Constance Watts rented a small office in the city before her son Tim joined her in 1970 who offered to help with the second office that had just opened in Wolverhampton on a short-term basis. By the 1990s, and with Mr Watts

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Thomas Courts is leading the new Skills and Technical Division based in Rosyth, Fife.

We live by our mission statement which is to be recognised by our clients and candidates as the very best provider of innovative resourcing solutions still on board, Pertemps had become a national organisation, changing its names to Pertemps Recruitment Partnership. Today, with more than 100 branches across the UK, and with the influence of Tim Watts as life president still a driving force, the business is preparing for an ambitious re-brand that will put the company on course to turnover £1bn within four years.

Pertemps is part of the wider Pertemps Network Group, made up of specialist recruitment agencies, each of which operates independently. The

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combined business has a turnover of £420m, making it one of the UK’s largest independent providers of recruitment solutions. It is an exciting time for the company as it prepares for the ambitious re-brand project, with the modernisation of its UK-wide branches getting underway later this month. Pertemps and the Network Group are undergoing the re-brand to better reflect the shift from being identified primarily as a high street recruiter to that of providing recruitment solutions across all sectors and professions. Indeed, the company is just as capable these days of placing people in positions within specialist and niche markets than it is in supplying drivers and office staff. Its service offering is broad; from local temporary and permanent placements to fully outsourced managed services and Recruitment Process Outsourcing (RPO) solutions.

Pivotal to the success of the group is Pertemps (Scotland). The early success of the company in Edinburgh – when it was known as Pertemps Caledonian Ltd – led to the opening of a second branch, this time in Glasgow, in 1996. The business finally became Pertemps (Scotland) in 2002, the same year that Walter Speirs was brought on-board to manage the industrial division.

The company now has annual revenue of £28m, employing 50 staff across seven branches with around 1,800 temporary workers and contractors on its payroll every single week in Scotland.

“I am so proud of what we have achieved over the last few years,” said Walter; “Our excellent performance has been down to the exceptional staff that we have – consultants, support staff and people managers. They have all remained committed to meeting steadily increasing demands in a really challenging sector.

“We live by our mission statement which is to be recognised by our clients and candidates as

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COMPANY PROFILE

The Pertemps Recruitment Partnership team based in Glasgow.

the very best provider of innovative resourcing solutions. We have a good geographical coverage in Scotland and a broad menu of sector and functional offerings and specialisms. Our managers also have a great deal of Pertemps experience having been with the company for many years.

In the case of Walter, Nicola Barr and Jan McKendry, that Pertemps experience totals more than 40 years when combined. Company Director Nicola oversees the contract side to Pertemps in Scotland and, since 2004, has been influential in regularly securing contracts to supply staff to the likes of Scottish Parliament, Advance Procurement of Universities and Colleges (APUC), Central Government Centre of Procurement Expertise (CGCoPE), Scottish Water and Procurement Scotland.

Notably, the excellent work of Nicola and her team of 17 was recognised by the GO Awards Scotland in 2009/10 when it achieved ‘Highly Commended’

status, only to be bettered in 2010/11 with a ‘Best Service Provider’ award. The GO Awards are the only Scottish awards dedicated to recognising excellence within procurement and showcasing the benefits that smart, effective and sustainable purchasing can deliver. Winning these awards demonstrated the organisation’s reputation as a proven provider of exemplary levels of service and best value.

Nicola said: “During my 15 years working with Pertemps, it has given me great pleasure and satisfaction to still service and deliver to many of the key clients from 15 years ago.

“In the last ten years, we have seen the division grow from £350,000 per annum to circa £17m this year. In addition to this we have received various industry-recognised awards for our continued service in the Scottish marketplace. I am very proud of the whole Pertemps family as we wouldn’t be as successful without their dedication and

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commitment.”

Jan McKendry is responsible for three branches which look after what is classed as the ‘A-Z’ business. She has approximately 425 temporary workers out every week, 95 % of whom can be found in the private sector. This is made up of 30% contact centre, 30% industrial, 25% admin or clerical and 15% driving. To date in 2013, the A-Z Division has supplied 85 new SME clients.

Like Walter and Nicola, Jan has been a loyal member of the wider Pertemps family. In fact, across the whole of Pertemps Ltd, you will find long-serving employees with more than a quarter of the UK workforce having been with the company for between five and ten years whilst nearly a tenth have worked within the business in excess of 15 years. Indeed, the current chairperson of Pertemps, Carmen Watson, began life as a secretary in the 1970s before moving up the ranks.

Despite the longevity of staff, this is a company >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

COMPANY PROFILE that is anything but stuck in the past and the theme of change and growth is one that runs through the business. In 2012, Pertemps (Scotland) expanded its recruitment offering by opening a new Skills and Technical Division, stimulated by the increase in engineering investment in central/North Scotland, including renewables and utilities. Based in Rosyth, Fife, the division provides temporary, contract and permanent staffing solutions and is already starting to reap dividends. It won its first major exclusive contract in April 2013 with Jacobs Engineering Ltd and now has approximately 100 contractors on site.

Leading the operation is Thomas Courts, who said: “Our division was created to leverage the excellent reputation that Pertemps has as a major recruitment supplier throughout the UK and to introduce an exclusive proposition that is perfectly suited to Scotland’s engineering industry.

“We’ve enjoyed a great deal of success in a short timescale; earning a reputation for project delivery on complex assignments and working with industry bodies to address key talent challenges. I believe that our growth aspirations will be realised through increased exposure of the ‘exclusivity model’, as well as the consistent performance levels of our specialist recruiters.”

In addition to the Technical and Skills Division, there was further expansion of the Pertemps brand in Scotland last year in the form of a specialist Driving Division. This became profitable in December 2012 and has two branches. More importantly, it is finding work on the roads for in excess of 120 drivers every week.

The success enjoyed by the Skills and Technical Division and the new Driving Division is being mirrored across the UK by the entire business.

Pertemps Ltd continues to show annual growth, reporting a turnover increase from £310.2m to £357.6m for the calendar year 2012. This was in addition to the increase in gross profit in 2012, which grew to £58.3m on the previous year’s £48.5m profit. This profit rise was reflected in the profits of the wider Network Group. Revenue at Meriden-headquartered Network Group Holdings climbed by 7 per cent to £68.5m in 2012, the year in which a management buyout (MBO) brought the recruitment group back together with Pertemps.

In February 2012, Network Group Holdings delisted from AIM and re-joined the Pertemps family to form the Pertemps Network Group. The MBO brought the two businesses back together after Network

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Managing Director of Pertemps (Scotland), Walter Speirs.

True talent shapes organisations and finding it takes specialist market knowledge, combined with a genuine understanding of a client’s individual needs and culture demerged from Pertemps in 2004. Network is the specialist recruitment agency side of the Pertemps Network Group and comprises more than 40 independently run businesses.

One of those businesses only began life in 2012 following the launch of a new venture between Pertemps (Scotland) and Network Health and Social Care (HSC). Its proposed charter covers social care, nursing and clinical sectors in both the private and public sectors. The business is also about to receive Social Care and Social Work Improvement Scotland (SCWIS) registration that will allow it to provide all categories of nurses as well as full Domiciliary Care provision.

The operation has two offices, in Glasgow and Edinburgh, and Amanda Laing, Business Manager (West), is confident of a bright future, saying: “The start of 2013 was a challenging time for the Health and Social Care Industry within Scotland,

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particularly for a start-up division. However, Preferred Supplier Lists and tenders were won and awarded due to our experience, commitment and knowledge of the market place. Our clients know they will receive a personalised service delivery.”

She added: “True talent shapes organisations and finding it takes specialist market knowledge, combined with a genuine understanding of a client’s individual needs and culture. It is this talent, understanding and approach that have made Network HSC the success that it is today.

“The Healthcare sector is moving towards personalisation; more older adults will receive care in their own homes, resulting in more choice and control over the way they receive care. This move towards personalisation is going to change the way care agencies operate, with staff continuity being a key factor in personalisation.”

The Network Group was further strengthened in the

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COMPANY PROFILE

Pertemps Director Nicola Barr oversees Contracts in Scotland.

We intend to maintain our reputation as the best around and treat our existing clients, temps and candidates as a key part of our history – and our future last year with the formation of Paragon Network, focusing on construction and M&E contractors across the UK. Mary McArdle and John Roberts are managing the business with assistance from Walter Speirs. The business has been profitable from February of this year and is now up to four staff.

Whilst growth and profit is undoubtedly at the forefront of thinking throughout Pertemps and the Network Group in Scotland, equally as important are its close links with Scottish communities and charitable organisations. Employees across the UK business support a ‘Dress Down Friday’ initiative whereby usual attire is swapped for casual clothing in exchange for a £1 donation. In Scotland, this creates around £2,500 per annum for deserving causes. In recent months, Glasgow and Edinburgh Women’s Aid benefited from a sizeable donation to support women and children who are subjected to abuse whilst the Peek Project, which works

with children and young people in the East End of Glasgow, was grateful for a similar donation. Other charities to benefit recently include the Chapellhall Sheltered Home and CCLASP (Children with Cancer and Leukaemia Advice and Support for Parents.)

The company is also happy to double any sponsorship totals collected by employees who participate in charity runs or walks, taking place four or five times a year, whilst many of the temporary workers based at Scotland Gas Network are encouraged to take off one day each year to go out into the community to support local schools, redevelop private or public gardens and to support the annual Poppy Appeal. In 2013, 1,260 hours of community-based activities were donated.

As well as the impending company re-brand, exciting times lie ahead for Pertemps (Scotland) and Walter Speirs will be involved on all fronts.

“It is onwards and upwards for us as a company.

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We will be growing the Driving Division across Scotland, from the current Falkirk and Glasgow bases to potential locations in Aberdeen and Gretna. Aberdeen is key to a lot of what we will be doing as we are aiming to establish it as an important location, supporting all of our business units.

“We are never standing still so we will be continually looking at new businesses who can join the Pertemps family. Areas we are looking at include domiciliary care, particularly linked to the NHSC, the charity and third sector, hospitality and catering, dentistry and opticians and other new areas – watch this space!”

He added: “There will undoubtedly be challenges ahead, one being the anticipated growth in the private sector over the next couple of years as Scotland and the UK comes out of recession, but we are very much prepared for this.

“We need to ensure that we maintain our reputation as the best around and treat our existing clients, temps and candidates as a key part of our history – and our future.”

Tim Watts, Life President of Pertemps, concluded: “Our rise to prominence in Scotland has been nothing short of extraordinary. Head office in Meriden has always provided the Scottish teams with whatever support they have needed but we trust our managers to get on with running their own businesses. The contracts and awards they have won over the years has illustrated that they have been running things professionally and successfully, managing change all the way to improve the company’s standing.

“The Network brand is at quite an early stage in Scotland which puts Walter and his team in a unique position whereby they can grow Pertemps and Pertemps Network Group in a coordinated an integrated way. This will be a big area of growth for the business in Scotland.”

For more information see call 0800 072 3191 or visit www.jobsatpertemps.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 13

Highland Spring is now the UK’s No 1 bottled water brand - the first time a British brand has been the biggest seller in this category. The Perthshire firm sold 200 million litres in 2012 to knock Evian off the top spot. Karen Peattie visited Blackford to meet Les Montgomery, the chief executive It’s sunny again in rural Perthshire so the cool reception area of Highland Spring Group provides welcome relief from the mid-August temperature of 21°C. Les Montgomery is in understandably high spirits having played host to the Ryder Cup earlier that day, the golf enthusiast admitting that the prestigious tournament can’t come quickly enough.

Upstairs in his office, the Falkirk-born chief executive of the UK’s leading bottled water supplier says: “It seems real now. We’re the official water supplier to the 2014 Ryder Cup and that iconic trophy was right here just a few hours ago. I held it. Next year is going to be amazing for the Highland Spring brand.”

Gleneagles and its Jack Nicklaus-created PGA Centenary Course, where the cream of European and American golf will battle it out for the Ryder Cup on Scottish soil for the first time in more than 40 years, is just a few miles up the road from Highland Spring’s Blackfordbased headquarters so this sponsorship is a perfect fit for the company. Come next September, the brand will become familiar to over 250,000 spectators from 75 countries – and a daily global TV audience in the region of half a billion.

High-profile sports sponsorships, of course,

are nothing new for the £86.5m-turnover company. Until 2011, the brand sponsored Wimbledon and Olympic champion Andy Murray and it has a longstanding deal with Sir Chris Hoy, Britain’s most decorated Olympian.

In the past, the company has sponsored Formula 1’s David Coulthard and Stephen Hendry, the seven-times world snooker champion. And as a lifelong Falkirk FC fan, Montgomery has managed to sneak in some low-level sponsorship at his club’s stadium.

“Sports sponsorship is very much part of our history because we have always sought out appropriate connections with sport and individuals,” says Montgomery. “At the moment, our key focus is golf, cycling and tennis. While we no longer sponsor Andy Murray, we still work with Judy and Jamie Murray and are official water supplier to the GB Davis Cup team, plus we sponsor LTA Mini Tennis and support British tennis at grassroots level.”

As far as golf is concerned, there are numerous tie-ups including The Scottish Open.

But it is the Ryder Cup that will dominate Highland Spring’s sponsorship focus in 2014.

Coming on the back of a hugely successful summer for the brand – Highland Spring’s

sales volume in July was up 33% on the same four-week period last year – the opportunities for 2014 are significant, suggests Montgomery.

“There’s definitely a feel-good factor about the business this year,” he says. “The weather has given us a boost but I think last year’s Olympics made us all proud as a nation with so many Scots winning medals – that feeling has stayed with us and Andy Murray’s victory at Wimbledon was the icing on the cake. It’s been good for business but also given consumers something to smile about at a time when they don’t have so much money to spend.”

Add to the equation the fact that Highland Spring is now the UK’s No 1 bottled water brand and there’s even more cause for celebration. It is the first time a British brand has been the biggest in the category, selling 200 million litres in 2012 to take the top spot from Evian in the bottled water market by volume. The news was confirmed by industry expert Zenith International in its 2013 UK Bottled Water Report, heralding a major milestone for Highland Spring and signalling the end of 30 years’ domination by imported multinational brands.

For Les Montgomery, however, the >>

The Highland chieftain BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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INTERVIEW

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

INTERVIEW

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outlook wasn’t always so positive. When he was appointed chief executive in 2008, taking over from the highly respected Joe Beeston who died after a long battle with cancer, it was a “difficult and emotional” time for him and the company. “Joe had been ill and I was being groomed for the job. I lost a friend and at the same time the world went into economic turmoil, so selling a product that was not seen as essential was really tough when we had been experiencing 20-odd years of growth,” he says.

“We had a couple years where our market was dipping, the weather was bad and consumers were being driven towards lower-value products. There was even product coming into the UK market from Turkey so we felt like we were being attacked from all angles.”

Montgomery, married with two children, joined Highland Spring in 1985 when it was a business with a turnover of £3.2m.

Previously with a small accountancy firm, he held a number of finance roles with Highland Spring before becoming finance director. The company, founded in 1979, had already been making a big impression on the market and producing a lot of volume, he explains. But when Joe Beeston arrived, the strategy changed.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

“It became all about the brand,” he says.

“Joe’s vision was to grow the Highland Spring brand and become a business of scale. So in 2008, my vision for the business was to take what Joe had achieved to the next stage. We had a £50m turnover and I had £100m in my sights. I wanted us to be No 1.

“I think as a management team we had all lost a wee bit of focus and, in a way, had a fear of what was coming next,” Montgomery continues.“In 2008, we’d gone backwards.

People here, including myself, were feeling down after Joe’s death, turnover remained flat and profits went down. I had time to reflect over Christmas and when I returned to work I came back with a different attitude.

We immediately set targets and focused on creating a more sustainable business model. I was excited but apprehensive at the same time.”

With his deep-rooted aspiration to grow turnover to £100m by 2013, Montgomery started eyeing acquisition opportunities. The first – Moray-based Speyside Glenlivet – came quickly, in March 2009. “We made a decision to go for it within 24 hours,” he recalls. “It was really exciting and we all knew it was the start of major change for the company.”

The bottled water arm of the Dublin-based

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Greencore Group – for £17.5 m – followed shortly afterwards, in March 2010.

“These acquisitions gave us more credibility within the industry and with Greencore we gained plants at Lennoxtown in East Dunbartonshire and Blaen Twyni, near Swansea,” he says.

“It also put almost £16m extra turnover on our business overnight.”

As well as additional production capacity, the company saw its employee count jump from 280 to over 400. “We underestimated the impact of trying to integrate and manage the new, bigger business,” admits Montgomery. “It was a huge learning curve for us because noone in our management team had experience of something like this. Back in 2001, we acquired The Gleneagles Spring Water Company here in Blackford but Greencore was a completely different ball game.”

The recent acquisitions have also led to management changes with an HR director now in place, plus new operations and finance directors. Simon Oldham, an experienced sales professional in the FMCG sector, has brought valuable commercial expertise in roles with Whyte & Mackay and Procter & Gamble to the table.

“We’re in a strong position,” says

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Montgomery. “We’re a privately owned business with the support and backing of an independent shareholder, but we still need to be self-sufficient and go to traditional funding providers when we need to invest. Lloyds, our bank, has been tremendously supportive.”

Securing the UK No 1 position has been the company’s ambition since it was founded in 1979. Owned by the Dubai-based Al Tajir family, Highland Spring has often been criticised by sceptics who question the company’s Scottish authenticity. “Of course we are Scottish – we’ve been contributing to the Scottish economy for almost 35 years and we’re an important local employer,” he points out.

“But it’s important to send out the message that we’re also a British company. We’re the UK’s No 1 bottled water brand and are proud of that. Our roots will always be in Perthshire and we continue to reflect that through our packaging. But we’re not insular – we can’t afford to be. So what if our owners aren’t Scottish but own land here – is it really that important? We’re concentrating on growing the business and exploring further acquisition opportunities with the support of the Al Tajir family.”

Innovation and new product development (NPD) is also on Montgomery’s radar.

Hydr8, sold via the cash-and-carry and foodservice sectors, was the first new brand to be launched following the creation of the Highland Spring Group in 2010.

Hydr8 Flavours came next, capitalising on consumers’ thirst for sugar-free, flavoured water. Montgomery even hints at possible diversification into categories beyond water but won’t be drawn on the details at this stage.

With a current production capacity of over 700 million litres of water per year and an available resource in excess of 2.2 billion litres a year, Highland Spring is well placed to continue on its present upwards curve. With five plants and 12 production lines, the group produces more than one in every five litres of the unflavoured bottled water consumed in the UK. “That’s quite an achievement for us,” states Montgomery, pointing out that volume in July alone is on a par with the volume produced by the entire UK market in 1979. “It

shows just how far the sector has come in a relatively short time.”

With the UK market now fairly mature, however, is export a big growth opportunity?

“We export to around 30 markets and have good distribution in the Middle East and the Caribbean,” he says. “We’ve recently moved into China and Russia, and have a good shop window for the brand via our links with Costa and Starbucks. There’s scope for growth but water is expensive to ship and we don’t envisage export being more than 5% of our business. That’s not to say that our export business isn’t important and our plan is to grow overseas volume to 16 million litres.”

Back on home turf, Highland Spring is at a stage in its evolution whereby it is not overly reliant on any one customer. “We have a good relationship with the retail multiples, very balanced,” says Montgomery. “Discussions are sophisticated these days and if the deal on the table is not right for us we have the confidence to walk away in the knowledge

INTERVIEW

that we may be taking a risk. Relationships are always important but we will never do anything that compromises the quality of our brand.”

Montgomery recently celebrated a significant birthday. “You know, it wasn’t the ordeal I thought it was going to be and I’m actually quite relaxed about hitting 50 – I’m more surprised that I’ve been here at Highland Spring for 28 years,” he says, savouring the view of the Perthshire countryside from his office window but wishing the factory didn’t block the view of the source of Highland Spring – the Ochil Hills – on the other side.

Montgomery may not be able to secure a view of that land, certified organic by The Soil Association, from his office, but he can be guaranteed some good exposure of the Highland Spring brand at the Ryder Cup next year. And, no doubt, an enviable view of that eagerly awaited golfing action will also go a long way to helping his company achieve that £100m turnover target. n

Our roots will always be in Perthshire and we continue to reflect that through our packaging. But we’re not insular - we can’t afford to be

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BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

EXPORTING IN SCOTLAND

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in association with

Let’s make it the X-port Factor

In the first in our four-part series on Scotland’s exporting, BQ editor Kenny Kemp hears how a Glasgow music business is raising its tempo with an international outlook Scotland needs to make more – and sell more overseas. It’s that simple. Our economic history has been one of exporting: from the tobacco lords of Glasgow who re-exported Virginia tobacco to France in the 18th century, to Tommy Dewar supplying Scotch to America in the 19th century, to the steam engines from Springburn that opened up India, to the leaf-cracking engineering for Malaya’s tea plantations, buses for Hong Kong, Cathcart pumps for clean water to Africa, we have been a supreme exporting nation.

Just as more countries around the globe play soccer, making it harder for Scotland to get to the World Cup, more nations are making and selling than ever before. While Scottish ingenuity and prowess has been at the forefront, more countries are interested in

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

finishing goods themselves rather than purely exporting raw materials. So Scotland needs to keep upping its game. It’s the emerging breed of company - such as Rage Music which is exporting its creative brain power to California and Berlin, that makes the difference. Instead of the X- Factor, perhaps we should be calling it the X-port Factor! BQ Scotland is pleased to support Scotland’s Export Week running from 11-15 November. It is aimed at encouraging more companies across Scotland and from a wider range of sectors to think globally and consider the benefits of trading internationally.

• A programme of activity is taking place with events around the country, including an International Business Clinic where companies can find answers to their trade and export queries and a Smart Exporter

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More countries are interested in finishing goods themselves rather than purely exporting raw materials business breakfast seminar.

• You can find out more and register for events, visit www.sdi.co.uk/campaigns/ export/export-week. BQ certainly hopes to see you there.

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EXPORTING IN SCOTLAND

Inward investors supporting Scottish exporters It isn’t purely home-grown talent that is helping Scotland. Our inward investors are also a significant part of Scotland’s exporting story. For example, R-Biopharm Rhône, one of Scotland’s most successful scientific exporters, has posted record sales and profits in a year of extraordinary growth fuelled by a strong drive into new international markets.

The company, which makes diagnostic test kits for use in the agri-food industry, saw turnover increase to £6.4m in the year to December 2012, up by 21.5% on the same period in 2011. It is projecting sales of £7m by the end of 2013, with an increase in profits of 28%.

Growth in 2013 has already been boosted as a result of a significant increase in lab testing following the horse meat contamination scare, but most of the sales in 2012 and the first quarter of this year have been generated from organic growth and new export opportunities.

Simon Bevis, managing director, said: “We have been very encouraged by continuing successes in markets abroad. Sales in Asia are up by 50% to 60%, in Latin America we have seen a 50% increase and we have significant growth in Eastern Europe too.”

The company, which is based in the West of Scotland Science Park in Glasgow, now has a headcount of more than 50, the highest in its 25-year history.

It is now the biggest and most profitable subsidiary of its parent company, German diagnostics company R-Biopharm AG. The company makes diagnostic test kits and sells more than 75% of its output outside the UK to global food manufacturing businesses.

The remaining sales are mainly in England.

R-Biopharm Rhône is also planning to take on extra capability to generate new business from a unique new patented system, IMMUNOPREP® for online analysis. This automated process will supersede existing methods which involve large amounts of manual work for lab staff, saving labs 25% to 30% of their costs.

The system has already been launched at a series of high profile international events.

The company which achieved Investors In People status at bronze level last year is now going directly for IIP gold level, which it expects to achieve later this year. It is also, unusually for scientific enterprises, a major employer of female scientific and ancillary staff, who comprise 80% of the workforce.

Mr Bevis said: “The whole team at R-Biopharm Rhône has contributed to these excellent results and to our ongoing healthy and sustainable growth patterns. We are continually seeking new opportunities and can look forward confidently to a prosperous future.”

We have been very encouraged by continuing successes in markets abroad

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EXPORTING IN SCOTLAND

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Why exporting is all the Rage The ‘Music Biz’ might conjure up glamorous images of Simon Cowell and Louis Walsh. But, says Caroline Gorman, Rage Music’s head of music, the clue is in the word ‘business’ and she talks to Kenny Kemp from Berlin.

Glasgow has a global reputation as a cool city producing some of the greatest modern bands and musicians – from Simple Minds, Deacon Blue, Del Amitri, Paolo Nutini, through to James MacMillan, Nicola Benedetti. Great music scores are the backdrop for films, television, advertising – and computer games - and this means work for hundreds across the creative industry. One Glasgow-based, Baftaaward winning business, Rage Music, has hit a rich seam and is now opening a recording studio for its work in Santa Monica, Los Angeles. Its head of music, Caroline Gorman, who was in Berlin recording one of Germany’s finest orchestras, took time out to explain.

“The creative industries of music, television and film are normally perceived as being glamorous by those who do not work within it! Especially the “Music Business”, which is a big grey area to most people, or it is associated with television talent competitions such as the X Factor. But, essentially, it is the same as any other business, it is exactly that a business! “ She admits there are some amazing ‘pinch yourself’ moments: when you sit back and see your hard work in the cinema, or being broadcast across the world on television or,

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as she is during this interview, taking a break in front of a 90-piece orchestra in Berlin recording the score for the latest Fox feature film. Rage Music is a team of composers and producers, coordinated by a dynamic officebased duo. The team works across studios in Glasgow, London and Los Angeles. The composers are all multi instrumentalists with their own specialisms and different genres and areas of interest. Most of the composers and producers come from a musician background such as session players or professional bands.

What has been the advantage of setting up in California?

“Setting up a studio in LA has given us the opportunity to increase our feature film work and expand into a new market – videogames.

We had done a lot of advertising work in the US market, but having a base there has helped us to increase these projects.

“Rage Music has moved into overseas markets with the support of SDI. “The US is the natural home of the three main sectors that Rage Music’s international trade lies in; large scale advertising campaigns, soundtracks for feature films and soundtracks for video games.

“Taking our business international, with the opening of our studio in LA, initially grew from the film and advertising work we were doing. After scoring TV advertising campaigns for a number of high-profile clients, such as Chase Manhattan Bank and Absolut vodka, Rage went on to work on a number of major projects, including a multi-million dollar

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advertising campaign for oil giant Chevron which consisted of a short film being shown during the US Superbowl, one of the highest profile sporting events in the world.

“Due to the nature of our business, a lot of new customers contacted us after seeing or hearing about our work, so we saw a natural increase in the number of US-based clients.

Since our initial projects, we’ve had the opportunity to work on many more advertising campaigns, while our film work has moved from the British/indie market to feature films.”

Rage has worked on titles such as Limitless, Dredd, The Numbers Station, Legendary and Walking with Dinosaurs, its current project.

“The international exposure has also given us the opportunity to branch out into other areas - namely the video game market and we have just begun work on a new project with EA Games,” she explains.

How easy is it for a company to set up abroad?

“Working in the US has its challenges, such as long forms to be completed in triplicate (covering banking, finance, visas, tax) and all sorts of exciting paperwork! Also, getting to understand the workings and structure of a new market is initially difficult - we are still very much learning but getting advice and ‘real world’ experience from people in the marketplace is always helpful.”

She says her business has received a great deal of advice and support from SDI. “This has been invaluable to us: from financial support, to more importantly, advice and guidance on a

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number of our different projects and plans.”

SDI appoints an account manager who understands the business and the challenges and offers guidance. Networking is a key element and the account manager is able to put companies in contact with other companies or individuals that can help.

So would she encourage other creative industry businesses to take similar steps?

“The leap into expanding to an international location is, understandably, a scary one; the expense, the unknown, the risk. But with a bit of luck and as much planning as possible, it can be very successful.”

“Our activity in the US marketplace has brought real growth to our business over the last five years. We’ve grown our client list and our own team, and this has enabled us to shape the company in order to deliver the range of music services that we now specialise in,” she says.

“Our plan for the future is to focus on our three main sectors and continue to push towards a better level of recognition within these areas, hopefully bringing even more fantastic projects our way!”

How well is Glasgow perceived when you go abroad?

“We are incredibly proud of our Scottish roots, and have always championed the talent we have here. Glasgow and Scotland seem to be well regarded by the international companies that we work with. It certainly has never been an obstacle to us trading.

If anything, it seems that Scotland punches above its weight when it comes to the creative industries – we may be small, but we are mighty!” n

EXPORTING IN SCOTLAND

• BQ Scotland is pleased to announce it will be holding the inaugural BQ Export Awards, In Association with Scottish Enterprise, on Wednesday 28 May 2014 at the Glasgow Science Centre. Further information will be published within our special 48 page magazine on International Trade in the Winter 2013 edition of BQ Scotland and online through our soon to be released daily digital news service BQ Business Breakfast. In the meantime should you require more information please contact davidh@room501.co.uk

Scottish exports grew by 7% in 2011 and are now worth almost £24bn

We are still increasing our exports – but this needs to continue The export picture looks good. Scottish exports grew by 7% in 2011 and are now worth almost £24billion, according to Global Connections Survey 2013. This survey highlighted that our exports to the European Union rose by 14.7% and those to Asia grew by 8.7%. But this is a result of hard work, commitment and using an established network of international and expertise support. Scotland’s top five export destinations are: • United States of America: This continues to be the top international export destination which accounts for an estimated £3.5bn of exports (14.7% of total exports).

• Netherlands: £2.7bn.

• France: £1.9bn.

• Germany: £1.4bn.

• Belgium: £980m.

Of course, this does not factor in the English market for Scottish-made goods, which is our largest overall, and is often seen as an invisible relationship, while Ireland, Wales and Northern Ireland are also significant starting points for Scottish firms looking to raise their exporting profile. Scottish Development International, the exporting wing of Scottish Enterprise, has been working with more than 2,000 companies to develop their international business in 2012/13.

This includes working with 229 companies on high value international projects that are expected to lead to an increase in export sales of £818m over the next three years. Demand for SDI support to target markets in Asia is up 60 percent. Over 2,200 companies and individuals have benefited from our Smart Exporter programme since its launch in 2010.

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in association with

ensuring clans can succeed The issue: What are the key issues faced by family businesses in Scotland and how can we support their growth and development to ensure our next generation continue to thrive and contribute to the growth of the Scottish economy Family businesses are omnipresent in Scotland.

They are everywhere and in all forms. From the tiniest corner shop to the largest conglomerate.

Yet to policy-makers and our politicians, they are largely invisible. Why should this be – and what can be done about it? This was the essence of a lively and fluid discussion at the BQ live debate in Edinburgh, supported by UBS wealth management.

George Stevenson, chairman of the Scottish Family Business Association, set up in 2006, used the debate to call for the appointment of a Scottish minister for family business.

“We have someone running agriculture because it is important – well family businesses in Scotland are important too. Let’s have a minister in the cabinet and we can provide the tools and knowledge to make a difference.”

The BQ live panel included a mix of first, second and third generation family business people who all enjoyed supper and discussion in the

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Burke and Hare room of the Hotel Du Vin in Edinburgh. In the chair Caroline Theobald introduced the topic and throughout the evening politely prodded and pressed to ensure everyone had their say.

At first there was a definite divide between those who felt more needed to be done to help family businesses with their unique issues of succession planning, while at least three of the gathering felt that family businesses were no different from any other kind of company.

That became an interesting sub-topic for the evening, although all were in agreement by the end that more must be done.

Scott Young spoke briefly about UBS’s wealth management and advisory role in Scotland working with successful family businesses, and thanked everyone for attending, then after the introductions it was down to … family business.

Martin Stepek, the chief executive of the

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Taking part Iain Mercer, managing director of Almondale Investments, based in Edinburgh Jane Wylie-Roberts, managing director of Stafffinder, based in Paisley Colin Aitken, executive director of UBS wealth management Norman Springford, chairman of Apex Hotels, based in Edinburgh Craig Stevenson, managing director of Braehead Foods, based in Kilmarnock Ronnie Muir, director of the JW Muir Group, based in Fife Lewis Dawson, director of Bookspeed, based in Leith, Edinburgh Martin Stepek, chief executive of Scottish Family Business Association, based in Glasgow Scott Young, executive director of UBS wealth management Debbie Houston, managing director of Dales Cycles, based in Glasgow George Stevenson, managing director of Family Business Solutions Ltd and chair of Scottish Family Business Association, based in Glasgow Paul Grant, chairman of Mackays, the marmalade makers, based in Arbroath In the chair: Caroline Theobald Also present: Kenny Kemp, editor of BQ Scotland BQ Live venue: Hotel du Vin, Bristo Place, Edinburgh

BQ is highly regarded as a leading independent commentator on business issues, many of which have a bearing on the current and future success of the country’s business economy. BQ Live is a series of informative debates designed to further contribute to the success and prosperity of our economy through the debate, discussion and feedback of a range of key business topics and issues.

Scottish Family Business Association, set out some the context for discussion. “73% of all the businesses in Scotland are a family business.

That’s one of the very few statistics that the Government has about family businesses. Most of them are small and that is true because the majority of all businesses are small, but 41 of the top 100 businesses in Scotland are family owned. When you think of names like William Grant & Son, Tunnocks, Arnold Clark, Baxters Soup and Walker’s shortbread, DC Thomson, you start to get an idea of their significance.”

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He said that family businesses in Scotland all face the same kind of issues but it is the number of zeros at the end that are at stake in terms of value. He pointed out that Scotland’s family businesses – that is around 85,000 families - create a staggering 45% of our national GDP in Scotland. More amazingly, they employ about 50% of the private sector workforce, which is just short of a million Scots.

Family business is not purely dominant in Scotland. 25 of the top 100 businesses in Europe are family-owned when you consider the names of Ikea, Siemens, BMW, Fiat, Roche and others. It’s the same in the United States with Mars, Ford and Hilton.

George Stevenson, who was managing director of a substantial family bakery business for 30 years, said: “After 20 years, in the midst of a long drawn out succession, I realised we had none of the skills or knowledge needed to negotiate it successfully. I think that’s common.

By the time I had acquired the knowledge and skills it was too late. So I set up the Scottish Family Business Association to help other families do better. I’m still chairman and recruited Martin as chief executive.”

He said the task is to educate, educate and educate, so that within the next generation Scotland will have family businesses and advisers that do understand and are trained to deal with problems in families that have an impact on the business.

Martin Stepek: “The paradox of family businesses is that they are so omnipresent they are invisible. People don’t think of them as a separate sector or type of business.

That is a problem because the economy has been measured by sector or size and family businesses are in every sector and size. That’s a real tragedy because not only are they unique bodies but they have unique issues and a horrific fall-out rate despite the fact that the evidence shows they are very successful forms of business.”

Caroline Theobald: “Looking at some of the policy stuff, what would you like the Scottish Government to do to help this important, yet neglected, part of the economy? What message do you think this group wants to send out to Government?”

It was suggested that if the Government truly

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understood family businesses and understood how important they were to the economy, they might have an inkling about trying to help and support. It was then suggested that a minister for small business should be appointed.

George Stevenson: “Both the UK and Scottish Governments are fixated with start-ups. They are pouring huge amounts of money into startup because it is a good thing – because it is easy to measure but we all know that start-ups are highly dodgy things. The survival rate is very poor. Yet we know that the transition from first generation to second generation is critical but no money is being put into this area. It would be much better to provide support to sustain businesses and avoid collapses.”

Martin Stepek: “The Government has no mental computation that this 73% signifies quite an important dimension and one that they should be dealing with. We have ignorance built on ignorance. This is why the Scottish Family Business Association came into being. It was George’s idea and we exist as a non-profit organisation to bring best practice and understanding to family businesses in Scotland.”

All around the table it was agreed there had not been enough information given to them about running a family business – and taking over from the founders.

Martin Stepek: “There are all sorts of complications that spill out. Even the issue of who do the owners pass their shares onto when they die? Just the ones who are working in the business? It’s one thing to know the unique issues about being in a family business, it’s another to learn how to deal with them. If we don’t learn to deal with them, the statistics are horrific. Only 30% of family businesses make it to the next generation, despite the fact that they all seem to be good, functioning businesses before the fall-out. It’s the >>

The paradox of family businesses is that they are so omnipresent they are invisible. People don’t think of them as a separate sector or type of business

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perfect storm made worse by a lack of knowledge.”

Iain Mercer said more must be done by the Scottish Government to support family businesses because they are an important engine of the economy.

Paul Grant: “Scottish Enterprise is in a good place at the moment and is extremely well run. There is a sub-division called SMAS, Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service, with consultants that go in and advise about leaner manufacturing and processes. It’s been very successful. Maybe we should be looking at encouraging Scottish Enterprise to do a similar thing for family businesses? Instead of looking at marketing and all the other functions, they might have family business sessions and building up the business with some specialist consultants who are involved.”

Norman Springford, of Apex Hotels, which owns four hotels in Scotland and four in London, employing 800 employees, is first generation, started in 1996, and now into the second generation, posed an interesting point that was debated. “Why go to the next generation? There is no inherent requirement of the next generation to be either as good or as committed as the first generation.

Perhaps the reason only 30% go on is not because there is no appetite, it’s because people are not good enough. Just because it is a family business, it doesn’t have to have the family running the thing.”

George Stevenson: “Selling is clearly an option, if it is done in a planned way.

Absolutely, the best decision might be to sell.

We would always advocate that you look at that. There is a misconception that advisers are hell-bent on making sure that the business is transferred to the next generation. If it is looked at objectively and in a structured way then the solution might be to sell.”

Norman Springford: “Another option the family might choose rather than selling is for it to continue and be professionally managed with a non-family management team at the helm.”

George Stevenson: “Yes. There are all sorts of options. There could be a management buyout, and all sorts of ways to ensure that you don’t lose the value by blundering on until the whole things collapses. But it is about getting

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organised and doing it in a structured way.”

Paul Grant: “My son is now the managing director of Mackays and I’m the chairman. One of the key issues for us as a first-generation family business is how you maintain control and ownership in the new financial world we live in, and achieve the growth that we need.”

Ronnie Muir: “You have to know your business. You don’t want to pass the responsibility onto any other consultants for that matter. When it comes to succession planning it’s about the founder looking at the kids and asking if they are able and can they do the job. If they are not, do they have the ability to build a core around them who can do the job? Can they delegate and use managers to support? We use a host of different skills sets, you have to have the basic understanding to run the firm. We’ve seen instances where so-called business gurus have come in and had

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the business bankrupt within a couple of years.

They’ve come in, borrowed a load of money, invested it and got hit with a recession. Family firms, by nature, are more risk averse.”

Norman Springford: “There seems to be an impression that we must try to grow family businesses. My view is that it isn’t about growth but risk aversion. The first generation tends to take high risks, it’s only when you get to the second generation and the pot gets bigger, do you risk that pot.

“Drilling down, there is a raft of emotional dynamics involved with family business.

Normal business only involves shareholders and management, whereas with family business you have wives, husband, partners, children and grandparents all on the sidelines influencing what goes on in the business.”

Martin Stepek explained his family business was a top 500 Scottish business with seven

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There seems to be an impression that we must try to grow family businesses. My view is that it isn’t about growth but risk aversion

brothers and two sisters. “We fell apart because of family issues and although we had the chance to buy some of the business back out of administration, we decided not to. We would rather heal the family, than heal the business and lose the family, which was the right decision for us from our point of view.”

Iain Mercer explained he took over his property development company after the death of his father, Wallace Mercer, in 2006.

“I was 28 at the time. Looking back on it now, we had zero succession planning in place.

What happened overnight was a big change for me. We then went headlong into one of the deepest property recessions. I feel I’ve been on a steep learning curve and one of my biggest challenges has been one of funding – not something that is unique to family businesses, of course. I also think it is really important to have the support network in place

for succession planning.”

In 2006 Jane Wylie-Roberts undertook a management buy-out of her family business which was set up by her father nearly 40 years earlier. Stafffinders is now one of Scotland’s leading recruitment firms and Jane worked with Family Business Solutions to ensure that all family members were happy with the situation.

“Having the knowledge was hugely important because I was trying to keep the business safe and preserve it for future generations. What I’d like to see happening more often is that the next generation coming through can be mentored by other family businesses as well, providing unpaid work experience so that family members can get a flavour of what family business is like – and why it is different.”

Craig Stevenson: “Until tonight I didn’t realise I was working in a family business. I’ve worked all my life in family business and I

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was determined not to fall into some previous traps I’ve seen. My daughter does work for the business: at work I’m Craig and at home I’m Dad and none of the two should meet. She does a good job – the same as everyone else.

Family business: we are there to survive and people are there to do the job, not because they are relations.”

Ronnie Muir of the construction group which includes Muir Construction and Muir Homes and was set up by his father, highlighted several key issues such as succession planning, exit routes, family issues such as the founder not wanting to give up control, and whether the younger generation have the acumen to take the business forward.

“The key issues facing family businesses in Scotland – or anywhere else – are the same that face other businesses. So what’s different about family businesses?”

He said that pre-tender questionnaires from the public sector are slanted in favour of the multinational companies, which is much tougher on private businesses, many of whom are family owned. On scoring processes, it means familyrun businesses are not given the opportunity to tender for work.

Lewis Dawson is a 22-year-old director of Bookspeed and has been involved with the business for five years. Bookspeed, set up 26 years ago by Lewis’s parents, is a wholesaler in the books and heritage market.

The business has non-family directors, including the managing director, in the senior management team.

“My key point is about the lack of information and education for people facing the hurdles >>

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that all family businesses face. That information and knowledge needs to be promoted to universities and incorporated into degree courses and to professional advisers. This included lawyers, bankers, and accountants, so it is great to see UBS supporting something like this. There are thousands working outside in their own little silos not knowing there are others like them out there and there are solutions to similar challenges.”

Debbie Houston: “I’m a third generation family business and this is all new to me.

Through Martin, I’ve been able to get involved with the Family Business Association. Family businesses tend to be full-on, day-to-day, running your business and not even getting to know or meet with other family businesses to

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I did a commercial law degree and family business wasn’t mentioned.

That’s insane...nobody is approching family businesses in the right way share stories and find out where the help is to deal with things like succession planning.”

Jane Wylie-Roberts: “I’m not a great believer in having to go straight into your family business, as happened to me. I think it’s fantastic if you get the chance to work to gain experience working elsewhere. Mentoring is very important.”

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Martin Stepek agreed with Debbie and Lewis: “We’ve asked several Scottish universities to look at students doing business, law and accounting degrees. Roughly half come from the next generation of family business, yet there isn’t a single sentence on family businesses in the text-books. Yet they are going to be inheriting a business. So you don’t get taught it, where you should get taught it and the advisers and academics have not been trained in it. I did a commercial law degree and family business wasn’t mentioned in the course.

That’s insane. Advisers and academics don’t get taught, and the media only home in when it’s a big fall-out, so nobody is approaching family businesses in the right way.”

Debbie Houston: “Where do you start when bringing in advisers to help with the emotional side of family business? Do the accountants and advisers have the necessary experience to guide us? I didn’t know, until I met Martin, that there was help for family business. There’s been no funding for help particularly because we’re in the retail sector.”

Jane Wylie-Roberts: “When I see the money

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for technology companies and start-ups it is frightening. As family businesses, we are not getting access to any of it. This is not right. If we are not teaching people coming through the ranks about the important issues that family businesses face then this is not good news. I often describe it like an old country house – do you keep it going or just sell up and get out. These decisions are important and you need time to make them. Children have to understand that it’s not always nice, there is a down-side because the business comes first.”

Debbie Houston: “I think employees need to be part of this too. A lot of people just see it as family business and think it’s all good for the family members and have little understanding of the tensions and personal family issues.”

Craig Stevenson: “I’m thinking – is there any good news out there? I don’t think that I’m in a family business, I’m just in one that is out there to survive. I’m happy with my lot. I don’t care if it takes 100 years, if we’re happy and paying our bills. To me, it’s a business and we need to run it as a business, although I like the idea of a minister to look after family businesses.”

Debbie Houston: “If you don’t have all the family thinking along the same lines then there can be problems. If family members can’t make decisions, that can have an impact on growing the business. Yes, it’s a business decision, but still you have to involve the family.”

Norman Springford: “I think we’ve finally got there. Are we talking about family businesses

and succession or are we talking about entrepreneurial spirit?”

Martin Stepek: “If we want family businesses to grow and flourish, as we all do, for Scotland’s economy and the wide communities of Scotland, we need to learn how to do family business properly and that requires governance and communication. The two go hand in hand.”

Colin Aitken, of UBS summarised: “I take away from this session that there needs to be much greater communication among family businesses and business in general so they can lean on each other in a supportive manner.

It’s important so they don’t have this feeling of isolation and there is an appreciation of what you are and the special dynamics of the

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DEBATE

business, so you avoid family disputes that spill into public. Risk management matters whether you’re a family business or any other.

Around the room there is a sense that there hasn’t been enough education and a pool of knowledge to tap into. Perhaps we don’t teach our children enough about this in school. The question to take away is, how do you become an important group so that politicians see this as a vote-winner. So the minister for family business seems like a good suggestion.”

He ended with a tongue-in-cheek request that they all keep growing their businesses, then sell them and then come to speak to UBS about how this wealth might be properly managed and looked after. “Our business comes from successful business,” he concluded. n

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Turning ambition into results

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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INTERVIEW

An ambitious young business services group is rapidly building a big domestic and international reputation from its national network of offices. Brian Nicholls speaks to Alastair MacColl to uncover what is driving the BE Group’s emerging success A cleverly designed prospectus currently being picked up across the country carries a five star promise of experience, established infrastructure and a commitment to developing innovative products.

Copies of the publication are going to local enterprise partnerships (LEPs), local authorities and a range of strategic public and private sector partnerships. It sets out a portfolio of services designed to help businesses succeed and grow.

The services are being offered by a group which has quickly carved out a strong track record in fostering business success. It carries with it bags of expertise - in commercial development procurement, supply chain development, investment programmes, business advice and business to business publishing and events. Its methodology is to generate very specific results for particular customers operating in their chosen markets.

It’s an approach that has helped the group expand its reach, enabling it to now work with businesses and organisations of all sizes and that cut across a range of sectors.

Launched in February 2007, the BE Group’s client list now includes the likes of Marks & Spencer, Gatwick Airport, BT, BAE Systems, Santander, Lockheed Martin, Skanska and Network Rail, with more equally big corporate names expected to come on board in the coming months.

Since its inception it has invested heavily in talent, infrastructure and systems - a strategy which chief executive Alastair MacColl says has given the group the ability to make tangible, genuine differences to the businesses it is involved in.

In the public sector, meanwhile, The

Department of Business, Innovation and Skills, Scottish Development International and Scottish Enterprise are among its clients, along with local authorities in places like Westminster, Croydon, Derby and Durham.

Further afield, the company is also working with Sydney Rail Infrastructure in Australia – one of several examples of the group’s increasingly global presence.

The business is now well established across

Our team is creative, energetic and committed.

And we all care passionately about being better at what we do than anybody else the UK - with offices in Glasgow, County Durham, London and Yorkshire.

Since being commissioned to work on behalf of UKTI in England (the UK government department strengthening the foothold of UK businesses in foreign markets) some years ago, BE Group has been running inward and outward international trade missions, operating in about 31 countries during the last 18 months. The group also works globally with Scottish Development International.

BQ meets MacColl as the BE group is

Onwards and upwards: Keen rock climber Alastair MacColl tells how the BE Group is on the up.

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preparing for imminent trade missions in Brazil, China, South Korea, Ghana and Turkey.

Some missions are sector focused, some centred on specific marketing opportunities, while others are more general.

Increasingly though, the BE Group is taking its own services into international markets, recently working on projects in the USA, Australia and France.

MacColl summarises: “We operate what is essentially a comprehensive portfolio of business services designed to help businesses of all shapes and sizes to succeed and grow. We do this partly through business to business information and events. The business information is distributed via magazines (BQ magazine for example is part of the group), and also via websites, emails and through all of the other communication channels people now use to get the information they want, when they want it. We like to think our information and content is unique and adds real value to those that use it. Increasingly we are also producing a great deal of highly specialised sector specific information in the form of commissioned reports.

“Our events activity complements our approach to information with the ability to get your message across online, in print and face to face. We run everything from large conferences and targeted exhibitions to intimate consultation events and everything in between. We specialise in helping businesses get in touch with other businesses to uncover opportunities and build commercial relationships.”

His assured approach to understanding how businesses want to communicate is understandable, given the way the group has chosen to specialise and the fact that before this role at the BE Group, he worked in newspapers and media related businesses across the UK for almost two decades, leading publishing businesses for Trinity Mirror plc, the Daily Mail and General Trust Group. >>

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INTERVIEW

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The BE Group also helps develop and manage domestic and global supply chains. “We focus largely on major infrastructure projects and optimising the impact of particular sectoral, market or event specific opportunities,” he says. “We make sure that supply chains are working as effectively as possible, that they are efficient and sustainable.

“Again it’s about bringing businesses together in a way that provides commercial benefit for all those involved.”

It is on this sort of assignment the group has worked with organisations like Heathrow Airport and Westminster Council, and with big construction firms like Skanska (which Swedish students have recently voted a better place to work than Google, Ikea or Volvo). “We’re working with businesses all over the UK and elsewhere now to ensure they’re properly equipped to seize advantage of supply chain opportunities on particular projects or in particular areas,” says MacColl.

One of the companies in the group, Action Sustainability, operates a supply school for the Construction Industry Training Board and a group of influential construction contractors.

MacColl explains: “We’ve created an online resource to help train and develop a number of key individuals within construction firms to help them to operate sustainably. Top tier contractors can ensure through this their supply chains are as sustainable as possible.

“Procuring large projects is complex and demanding. To supply, say, Skanska, contractors will need to have demonstrated that they can establish how much water they’ll use on a project, how much power, whether or not those working on the project understand how they must behave and operate towards it, and use certain materials.

“When companies pitch for the next major job, like a big football stadium in Rio, or the London Olympics, they need to be able to say with authority that they have an effective and sustainable supply chain that is as carbon efficient as possible and as commercially efficient as possible.

“We also bring together big contractors and small businesses with great products and services that can add value to both new and established supply chains.

“It’s a feature common with other businesses

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We’re working with businesses all over the UK to ensure they’re properly equipped to seize advantage of supply chain opportunities in the group, that they specialise in certain key sectors.

“Our supply chain teams work largely in the UK. But over the last six months we’ve started working in Australia on a large rail project, advising on procurement. Consultancy teams have also been working in the USA and France. Increasingly, our portfolio is starting to internationalise.”

Much of the group’s work outside the UK comes via companies it has worked with at

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home, and which want further support for their international activity. At the same time, the group is building contacts and networks through its own people as they travel, to developing markets in particular.”

The group also has established structures in place to runs programmes, initiatives and projects that bring together public sector sponsors wishing to stimulate private sector growth. The aim of most of this activity is quite simply to help businesses to succeed,

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grow and create more jobs.

In the North East of England, for example, the group operates the Let’s Grow programme, with Trinity Mirror and UNW, Newcastle based chartered accountants.

This involves £30m of regional Growth Fund grants being made available in the form of a competitive process to firms with capital or research and development projects that look likely to spur growth and encourage investment. Another programme in the same region, Investment for Growth, is a £12.5m ERDF funded programme, helping smaller businesses to expand with European support.

And in Yorkshire, the BE Group is helping to roll out superfast broadband on behalf of NY Net, working with a couple of thousand businesses to maximise their potential through the way in which they make the most of the new superfast broadband technology.

Innvisage is another group company that helps clients (mainly private sector) to make best use of data.

“Our portfolio is a complementary blend of products and services that are designed to help businesses to succeed and grow. That’s the golden thread that runs through our business information, events and commercial development activity,” MacColl says.

“We strive to make everything we do uncomplicated and it’s all designed to produce the very best results. There are lots of things that make our business special including our people, products and the level of service we offer. But if I had to pick out one thing that makes us really stand out from the crowd it’s our relentless effort to deliver exceptional results.”

He agrees the transformation of the BE Group has been “remarkable”. Exactly four years after start-up in 2007 it developed from a regional to a national operation almost overnight, buying London headquartered Business-to-Business. He suggests: “We’re still quite young, still developing, still maturing and still experimenting. And we’re still trying new and different things to make us better at what we do, to deliver even better results for our customers.”

Competition in all areas that the group has an interest in is “ferocious”. “In business information, publishing and events I doubt

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If there’s one thing that makes us stand out it’s our relentless effort to deliver exceptional results. That’s what we do best competition has ever been more acute,” he ventures. “It has sharpened even further in what is still a challenging market place.

Businesses are fighting to develop new products and new services that will sustain their market position in an economy less predictable and more volatile, than probably at any time in the last 25 years.

“New technology also means that you need to always be thinking a few moves ahead of a fast paced market.

“We’ve some very accomplished competitors who keep us on our toes, and we constantly and relentlessly re-assess and develop our own products and services. We welcome the competition. We like to think our investment in time, energy and money ensures our products and services, and our people, anticipate where the market’s going, rather than just catching up.

“Our customers are sophisticated. They know what they want. Again, we welcome that.

We think we’re very good at understanding our customers, and we differentiate ourselves as a business by providing exceptional service.

We want to provide such good value that we represent the go-to business for those things that we specialise in.”

The group also has another competitive advantage. “Unlike many competitors, we don’t have shareholders demanding short-term results. Our business is co owned by trusts that have our employees as their beneficiaries. That means that we can choose to prioritise over the longer term and invest accordingly. We’re trying to develop a business that will be great in five, 10 and 15 years’ time. That’s very good news for our employees and our customers”.

So what is BE’s market share? “It’s very difficult

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to judge in the service sector, much harder than in manufacturing for instance, since it’s difficult to measure the absolute output. I think it fair to say that as a relatively young business our market share is significant and growing.

We expect to gain further market share incrementally and steadily. And we want to do it through sustained growth that sticks.

“The best thing about my job is the people I work with and the satisfaction we all get from generating great results for all of our customers.

“Our team is creative, energetic and committed. And we all care passionately about being better at what we do than anybody else.” n

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

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Expert calls for an end to key sector’s barriers, Miller muscles in on campus contracts, Banchory beckons for one opportunist, Granite city growth and Bellair chooses the easy life >> Hurdles must be removed One of Scotland’s leading building company bosses, Ronnie Muir, speaking at a BQ Live Debate, said the housing industry in Scotland is a vital driver for the economy, providing work for a range of people from architects, lawyers through to plumbers and carpenters.

“We must all realise that the housing and construction industry in Scotland plays a central role in our future prosperity. But I see road blocks that must be sorted out more easily.”

He raised the issue of planning and hopes that Scotland’s policy-makers paid heed to his concerns.

“I would like the Scottish Government to change the planning procedure for appeals of refused planning applications. The current situation is that applications are called in by Scottish ministers, as was Donald Trump’s application, then a reporter is appointed, who hears the evidence and then it is put to ministers who determine whether the application is refused or approved.

“If you appeal a refusal against an application, it is a different procedure. A reporter is appointed who is completely independent, so he makes the judgement call and issues the determination whether accepted or rejected.

There is no ministerial input whatsoever in that process, to me that is inherently wrong.

“Planning is never black and white, it is never 100% against. It’s in the balance and you have to weigh up the benefits carefully. Donald Trump was approved in a SSSI because it was such a vast amount of money and declared a good thing for the Scottish economy. If you add up all of the refusals handed out on an annual basis against people who are appealing for their own planning applications, then it would add up to a vast amount of money.

These applications are being rejected without any ministerial input, right in the middle of one of the deepest recessions in history. It costs a lot of money to take an application to appeal, so developers do not do this lightly. It costs them a load of money, employing the people to take that forward. When you speak to ministers they

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>> Miller muscles in on campus contracts Miller Construction has secured a number of projects to deliver learning facilities and living environments for five of the UK universities, with a combined construction value in excess of £57m. Miller Construction will deliver a mixture of design & build, remodelling and refurbishment packages on the campuses across the country, including; Bath Spa University, with the design and construction of 561 residential accommodation units and a new energy centre; Manchester Metropolitan University; delivery of a new Students’ Union building including offices, and recreation studio, the University of Edinburgh; delivery of the second component of phase 2 of the National Avian Research Facility at the University’s Easter Bush campus, completion is due by the end of 2014, University of Leeds; a remodelling and relocation project for the School of Geography, completion is scheduled for the autumn of 2014; and the University of Sheffield; refurbishment of the St George’s Campus buildings, completion is due in early 2014.

say, ‘oh well, we’re not allowed to get involved in that because the procedure is that the reporter is appointed and he makes his decision’. I’m saying to the Scottish Government: why don’t you change the procedure! Take a motion to the Scottish Parliament and say that due to the dire economic state and the recession we are going to change this and ministers will have the final say on all of these applications that come before the reporter. ”Mr Muir said ministers should be able to make a judgement call based on the economics and the creation of jobs.

“I think that would be hugely important for

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Scotland. There’s a lack of understanding that if Scottish businesses are not allowed to make a profit then they cannot employ the staff, pay tax on the salaries, and a business cannot pay tax on its profit. How often have you seen, either councils or politicians with their big shopping lists of things they are going to do with new schools, free school dinners, free travel and no prescription charges. It’s a big spend list but never on the flip side of that are they saying how are we going to support local businesses, or help them thrive and make profit in order to fund the shopping list that the public sector has.”

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>> Taylor-made sale One of Scotland’s largest regeneration projects has signed a second land sale with one of the largest residential developers in Scotland, Taylor Wimpey.

Southdale (formerly Armadale Station Development) in West Lothian, is being undertaken by lead developer, EWP Investments Ltd. The agreement by EWP with Taylor Wimpey for the sale of the site for 85 homes is on the back of the recent sale of land to Arnold Clark for a new 20,000 sq ft dealership, and an agreement with Marston’s Inns and Taverns for a pub restaurant.

Pauline Mills, land and planning director for Taylor Wimpey East Scotland, said: “It is from the evidence of the success we have had to date with our first phase of homes and the confidence we have in the attractiveness of Southdale as a place to live, work and play that we have purchased this additional site.

Southdale is currently one of the most exciting regeneration projects currently taking place in Scotland and we are very pleased to be involved.”

Sandra Carter, from EWP Investments Ltd, said: “We are delighted at Taylor Wimpey’s continued commitment to Southdale and the excellent sales rate they have achieved to date.”

We anticipate keen interest in this rare opportunity

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

>> Shepherd’s delight Shepherd Chartered Surveyors is offering a prominent and well located industrial and office complex for sale or to let. Suitable for a number of industrial uses and redevelopment for office use is possible, subject to planning. The 13,250 sq ft St Bernard’s House is situated within the Bankhead Industrial Estate in the Sighthill district of Edinburgh, just to the east of the Edinburgh city bypass.

Offers in excess of £325,000 are invited.

Alternatively, information on lease terms are available from the agent. Interested parties should contact the sole agent on 0131 225 1234.

>> Square deal Cornelian Asset Managers has secured a ten year lease at 30 Charlotte Square Edinburgh, part of the Charlotte Square Collection. The independent investment management company, which occupies 21 Charlotte Square, will relocate to the newly refurbished townhouse development in November 2013.

The prestigious office space is part of the development underway at 26-31 Charlotte Square, the former HQ for National Trust for Scotland. The Charlotte Square Collection is managed by Corran Properties on behalf of Fordell Estates Limited.

As well as number 30, a further five townhouses and subsidiary properties on the south side of the square, are being redeveloped to create high-quality office accommodation, due for completion this

>> Banchory beckons for one opportunist A public house and nightclub in Banchory, west of Aberdeen, is to let or for sale. The 2,126 sq ft property is located in a set back position to the east side of Dee Street in relatively close proximity to the High Street, the main retailing thoroughfare of the town. James Morrison, surveyor at Shepherd’s Aberdeen office, said: “This substantial public house and nightclub is certain to appeal to a number of licensed trade operators seeking to secure a presence within the popular and affluent Deeside town of Banchory, just 18 miles west of Aberdeen. As such, we anticipate keen interest in this rare opportunity.”

A rental of £31,000 per annum is sought. Alternatively, offers in excess of £340,000 are invited.

Interested parties should contact the selling and letting agent on 01224 202 800.

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autumn. Nick Ball, director of Corran Properties said: “Charlotte Square is one of Edinburgh’s gems and it is a privilege to be able to revitalise this location by creating high-quality office accommodation.

“Our aim is to restore the fortunes of the square and return it to its status as one of the top business addresses in Europe.

“We are pleased to welcome Cornelian as the newest occupier at number 30 and I am sure the company will be very comfortable in its new home.

Jeremy Richardson chief executive of Cornelian, said: “We are delighted to have secured a tenancy within the Charlotte Square Collection.

“We were impressed not just by the specification and the working environment opportunity for our staff but the wider vision for the square.

“As a longstanding resident of the square we already know that clients and contacts welcome the Charlotte Square location.”

Cornelian’s move follows Scoban, the private bank, which agreed terms for number 9 Charlotte Square and who were preparing to take up residence in August.

The latest agreement has been handled by agents for Corran Properties, Cuthbert White and Cushman & Wakefield along with agent for Cornelian, Eric Young & Co.

>> Harbour masters EnQuest will have a new North Sea base in the Granite City after planning permission was granted for a high quality office development on the derelict Aberdeen Seafood Park site in the harbour area. The firm, which is the largest UK independent oil producer in the UK North Sea, employs around 500 people at two locations in Aberdeen. The new building will have the capacity to accommodate up to 800 people and will enable EnQuest to consolidate its workforce under one roof.

The site, which is bounded by Palmerston Road, Raik Road, Poynernook Road and Stell Road will cover approximately 120,000 sq ft over eight storeys and will provide associated car parking on site.

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

AUTUMN 13

>> Granite City growth Maritime Developments, a leading provider of back-deck equipment for the subsea sector of oil and gas industry, has tripled the size of its Aberdeen office. The company has moved from Spademill Lane in the west end to 1,500 sq ft premises on Dee Street in the city centre. The new four-floor office has its own entrance, reception area and car parking.

The move will allow Maritime Developments to expand its team from six to 12 people in the city. In late 2012, Maritime Developments announced it had acquired a workshop, office and yard facility next to its 33,000 sq ft base at Wilson Street, Peterhead. The additional space is being used to house its rapidlyexpanding electrical services division and its testing facilities.

The company is expanding its capability to deliver additional electrical and hydraulic services following the acquisition of the 17,500 sq ft site. This will give 13,500 sq ft of additional yard area and 4,000 sq ft for an electrical workshop facility. Derek Smith, chief executive officer of Maritime Developments, said: “The expansion of the Aberdeen office is the next step in the growth of MDL. We’re looking to add to the design and draughting team as well as increasing the number of office support roles. We’ve put the structure in place with our expansion in Aberdeen and Peterhead with a view to growing the business internationally.”

>> Balmoral parks up Balmoral Group, one of Aberdeen’s largest privately owned companies, has announced the official launch of its multi-million pound business park development at the southern gateway to the city. Balmoral Business Park, spanning 18 acres, is three miles south of Aberdeen city centre adjacent to the Loch of Loirston, and facing the A956, with the proposed Aberdeen Western Peripheral Route running within one mile of the development.

The Park has been designed to accommodate more than 135,000 sq ft of office space and is split into two phases. Balmoral has started work on a speculative three-storey office development of 40,550 sq ft in phase 1 which it says is attracting lots of interest. Completion of the building is scheduled for summer 2014.

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>> Bellair chooses the easy life The £2m Falkirk Business Hub, designed to meet the specific space needs of a wide range of businesses, has opened. With four companies operating already and another six offices set to be occupied by mid-October, developer Bellair (Scotland) Ltd is planning to roll out its “easy in, easy out” model of simplified lease agreements throughout Scotland.

The Hub is a four-storey, 27,000 sq ft, fully-managed business centre community in the former General Post Office, where tenants can pay to work for a matter of hours or for 20 years or more, depending on needs.

A total of 45 serviced offices will occupy three upper floors with Bellair estimating that around 200 people could be based in the building, a mix of small businesses and individuals. The coworking suite is aimed at tenants from ‘external’ companies to new-starts or those based in the serviced offices. Mentoring, advice and facilities tailored to support businesses, regardless of size, are all in the package offered.

The company’s East Gateway Hub in Grangemouth provided the blueprint for Falkirk and now a site in Stirling is being considered.

“We are creating a business environment for a range of different users, from small to large businesses as well as home workers looking for a desk for a couple of hours or days,” said Alistair Campbell, Bellair managing director, who have funded the project having been involved in property development and investments throughout Central Scotland over the past 35 years.

“We are encouraged by the response and the level of interest so far. There is a demand for offices, whatever size, that can be let on short-term licences or longer leases – totally flexible as to what the tenant wants.”

Phase 2 of the development will offer tailored design and build office accommodation to meet occupiers’ requirements with bespoke building solutions available. Jim Milne, chairman and managing director of Balmoral said: “Open vistas over the surrounding lochside area will provide the occupants with an outstanding working environment whilst the setting and design of the park will offer an architectural statement that is sure to

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make a significant and lasting contribution to Aberdeen’s cityscape. The quality, choice, and environmental setting of this development is unprecedented in Aberdeen.”

Gary Gerrard, non-executive director with Balmoral, said: “Demand for quality campustype office accommodation in Aberdeen continues to outstrip supply. Shepherd (01224 202 800) and Ryden (01224 588 866) are joint agents for Balmoral Business Park.

BUSINESS LUNCH

AUTUMN 13

Helping the good players play better Frank Docherty is one of Scotland’s leading business coaches. As he tucks in to a chargrilled feather blade steak in the Galvin Brasserie De Luxe in Edinburgh, he recalls how working with his father taught him how to deal with customers with dignity and respect. Genevieve Robertson finds out what makes him so sought-after What does a business coach say to their high-flying clients to make them perform a bit better? It was a question I was keen to pose to Frank Docherty, the founder of Career Associates but recognised as one of Scotland’s leading executive team-builders. We agree to have lunch in the Galvin Brasserie De Luxe, so I can learn some more about this mystical process.

Surely, those at the top already have the skills to succeed, so how exactly does a coach add value and earn their crust? Frank is rather coy about how he helps his clients, nevertheless, the proof is in the pudding, because he has worked for many years with a top tier of executives in Standard Life, the Miller Group,

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AEGON UK, Scottish Power and SSE. “I think you really have to ask people I’ve worked with for many years what exactly I bring to the table,” he says, sipping a glass of sparkling water.

And, having done my research, I did. I quote Martin Pibworth, managing director for Energy Portfolio Management at SSE, who said: “To paraphrase Churchill, human behaviour is an enigma wrapped in a mystery and wrapped again in a riddle. Frank is like a child on Christmas morning devouring the wrapping paper.”

Or Sandy Begbie, chief operating officer at Standard Life, who said: “Frank is an industry leader in the provision of coaching. Personally,

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he has supported me at ScottishPower, Aegon and Standard Life with great success.”

Then Steve Dunn, the group HR director at Miller Group, who is clear. “Frank continues to deliver after many years what the client wants in the way they want it. He tries to find out exactly what you need and delivers it in a way that delivers real value. He changes people’s lives for the better.”

Or Gregor Alexander, the finance director of SSE, who says: “Great coach and mentor, who really understands the team and business dynamics. His ability to listen and provide sound advice at the right time is his great strength.

His two favourite words are preparation and planning. His good sense of humour helps >>

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him interface strongly with the management team, almost as if he is part of the team.”

But he’s also had reflected success in working with Alistair Phillips-Davies, the chief executive at SSE who has taken over from Ian Marchant.

As I read out these comments, Frank laughs nervously and I can see him squirm a little in his chair as tucks into his crab lasagne. He believes all of the clients he coaches would have reached the zenith of their careers. “Perhaps I’ve been able to help get them there more quickly. People of the calibre of Alastair Phillips-Davies will always land in the top job. I just help people get there.”

He is clear about the role of the coach: “Simply, to make a good player play better. Why does Andy Murray need Ivan Lendl? Andy’s a great tennis player but he needs someone to add that extra something to the performance. I see myself in a similar kind of position.”

Despite living in Edinburgh for over 30 years, he speaks with a distinct Glaswegian accent, remaining a loyal fan of Glasgow Celtic, and playing five-a-side football into his fifties. One of his key weapons is a well turned sense of humour, an appreciation of the ridiculous and an ability to tell a good story. Coupled with this is a love of golfing and you get a sense of the vital ingredients for a coach.

“I can see a lot of metaphors for what I do emerging from the golf course and from sport.

Hard work and practice is what makes great sport people.

“I think it’s how you practice and use your time to best advantage that makes a difference.

Again it’s planning and preparation.”

Iwan Tukalo, the former Scottish rugby winger and part of the Grand Slam winning team in 1990, who has worked with rugby legends Sir Ian McGeechan and Jim Telfer, is another of Frank’s clients. “You have 15 really good players on the park and these coaches got them to play together. Frank is good at telling me what I can achieve rather than what I can’t achieve,” he says.

For Frank, it is all about personal credibility and building a rapport. “I don’t think I should blow my trumpet. It’s a great feeling to know that you can play a part and that it is genuinely appreciated,” he says.

How did he morph from his outplacement into coaching?

BUSINESS LUNCH

Why does Andy Murray need Ivan Lendl? Andy’s a great tennis player but he needs someone to add that extra something to the performance. I see myself in a similar kind of position “My father’s generation had strong Irish roots and he ran a family business in the East End of Glasgow. I worked for him when I was in my early twenties as a chauffeur. What I learned was that it was important to treat your clients with dignity and respect. That’s something that

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has always stuck with me.”

He moved across to Edinburgh running a trendy bar and nightclub in George Street, which taught him how to handle difficult situations. He married Alison, his wife a tapestry restorer who worked with Henry >>

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BUSINESS LUNCH

AUTUMN 13

wonderful,” he says.

Of course, there are trace elements of human psychology in what he is doing. He reminds me that Sir Alex Ferguson didn’t even talk about football when he was trying to motivate his players, he uses nuggets of wisdom that are easily digested.

I’m not hung up on text book theories.

Everyone is an individual with different ways of approaching a subject Moore Institute, with whom he has two grown-up daughters, and then moved into the outplacement business 27 years ago becoming the managing director of national group in Edinburgh. With an entrepreneurial streak, he set up Career Associates in Randolph Crescent 17 years ago, working with many of Scotland’s blue chip organisations. Gradually, he was asked to help with building teams around the boardroom table. It was an easy transition into helping with personal development.

“I was simply trying to make a living but it became so enjoyable listening to what leading business people were doing – and the challenges they face. I’ve always adopted a common sense approach. I’m not hung up on text book theories. Everyone is an individual with different ways of approaching a subject.

But the satisfaction from this has been

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“Preparation and planning are my two favourite words. Busy business people don’t do it enough, yet they have to find the time,” he says.

After lunch, he’s off to prepare for another of his clients. Frank Docherty doesn’t want to take anything by chance. n

A book which should be judged by its cover The Galvin Brasserie De Luxe is part of the exceptional refurbishment of the Caledonian Hotel, which now wears the luxury badge of the Waldorf Astoria.

The Caley has always been one of Scotland’s grand hotels but the iconic Princes Street hotel was looking increasingly tired. Now the £multi-million facelift has been outstanding, with spacious Peacock Alley in the former covered platform area for the old Princes Street station, and now the in-place for afternoon tea, with a plates of scones and cream, and finely-cut sandwiches.

While the entrance to the Galvin Brasserie is in Rutland Street, you can enter from Peacock Alley. Fraser Allan, head chef of the Brasserie, wants diners to savour an hour or so with friends over lunch and the menu is competitively priced for such fine surroundings. He’s proud of the shellfish display and the kitchen’s attention to detail on the plate. Having worked with the team at Ondine, he’s keen to develop the seafood offering which includes langoustines, razor clams, brown crab and Loch Creran oysters. In the Brasserie there are two options. For a quick bite, there is the Prix Fixe, with two courses for £16.50 or three for £19.50, available until 7pm. This might be roast tomato veloute or salad of endive, orange and Milano salami for starters, followed by fillet of Coley, toasted pearl barley, piquillo peppers or confit chicken, salad Lyonnaise, with baked banana parfait, chocolate cremeux or brie de Meux, oatcakes and chutney. A great way to have that rapid city centre lunch. Or for those with more time there is the main menu. For an entree, Frank enjoyed Lasgane of Berwick crab and beurre Nantais, while Genevieve had six Loch Creran oysters in shallot vinegar and rye bread. On the Plats Principaux, Frank had char-grilled feather blade steak, Pommes Anna, haricot vert and beurre de Montpellier, which he declared was ‘finely cooked, fresh and an enjoyable treat’, while Genevieve selected Poulet Roti with Pistou vegetables.

The white wine was a delicate Gruner Veltliner, Weingut Wess, at £36 a bottle or £6 a glass.

Genevieve enjoyed a heavenly and fluffy Oeuf a la Neige, with praline rose. And both finished with coffee. Lunch came in at around £80.

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BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

THOMSON ON WINE

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Bowled over

by Botham David Thomson, a property partner with UK law firm McClure Naismith, is a cricket fan – so it was fair dinkum that he should give an Aussie wine a good shout

It’s been a sensational summer of sunshine and sport. How will we Scots ever forget Andy Murray’s Wimbledon triumph, then there was Chris Froome’s victory in the Tour de France, and of course, England winning the Ashes.

Like many legal eagles north of the Border, I’ve a great interest in cricket and was lucky to be at the fifth Test at Kia Oval to watch England winning the Ashes. Although I’m glad I missed the unofficial watering of the wicket by some euphoric players! When the kind people at BQ found out that I relaxed from the rigours of deal-making by cooking, accompanied by a bit of wine tasting, they invited me to sample a couple of bottles selected by Denis Frucot and his team at Malmaison in Glasgow. There was no hesitation on my part. And I found the wine an ideal way to dull the senses a little after Scotland’s trouncing by Australia at the Grange in Edinburgh. For BQ’s non-cricket fans, it was a one-day international with Scotland all out for 162. Australia had opened and Shaun Marsh and Aaron Finch were excellent in knocking 362 for 3 in 50 overs.

So the pain was certainly eased by a

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bottle of Botham Merrill Willis 2008 Cabernet Sauvignon. The legendary Sir Ian Botham needs no introduction, Bob Willis was another cricketing great as an England captain and fast bowler, and they teamed up with Geoff Merrill, an Australian winemaker of stature.

Winemaking and cricket drew them all together in 1978 and since then they have been making food-friendly wine at Mount Hurtle Estate with a large following. I was keen to taste this cabernet when it was selected.

I took the bottles home and allowed the opened red wine to sit awhile as we prepared supper. Then my wife and I sampled the red. It was extremely good indeed. Full of fruity body – as rounded as a cricket ball with not a trace of Ashes. It was 14% alcohol but didn’t suffer from being slightly lighter. I can now say that I was bowled over by Botham and Willis.

Now the French aren’t as well-known for their cricketing expertise, although there is some suggestion that a bat and ball game similar to cricket was

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invented there in the 15th century. However, they do know about white wines. The Domaine Henry Pellé, 2011 Menetou-Salon Morogues, from an appellation west of Sancerre, was refreshing and delicate sauvignon and one that gives the more popular New Zealand wines a run for the money. It is one I will be looking out for again. In all, a good innings with a pacey performance from Botham and Willis followed by a white which is a good catch. n David Thomson a partner with McClure Naismith is a leading commercial property lawyer in Chambers UK. He acts in the acquisition and disposal of high-value investment properties and is a specialist in enterprise zone and regeneration transactions across the UK. Thanks to Denis Frucot, Niki Roe, and the team at Malmaison Glasgow, West George Street. Winner of the Best Smaller Hotel Chain 2012 at the Business Traveller Awards.

The white is priced at around £38, while the red is around £36 in the Brasserie.

MOTORING

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Driving with Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde When Martin Ewart took the Bentley GT W12 Speed out for a spin he was enthralled by a split personality that evoked the spirit of a classic tale

It was Edinburgh’s finest story-teller RL Stevenson (sorry JK) who penned the Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde while recuperating in Bournemouth.

He had a wonderful fascination with personalities and the battle of good versus bad – or sedate versus rip-roaring. He could have no idea that he might be referring to a rather fine motor car, indeed the Bentley GT W12 Speed. I’m sure these car-making craftsmen from Crewe won’t mind me going all literate about this supercar.

When I picked it up in Edinburgh, it looked great: a gleaming machine glistening in the late summer sunshine.

It is something that always attracts admiring glances, stares even. Inside, it has the classicstyle Bentley trim, coupled with modern touches – a great sound system, touch screen

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media, touch button start and stop. The seats are comfortable and the leather finish is, as expected, high quality.

I wanted to see how the Bentley performed in a busy city environment. Would it be too big to handle in the busier thoroughfares? Around town it was surprisingly easy to drive.

The automatic transmission is comfortable at low speeds and stopping and starting.

The steering is highly reactive but, overall, it doesn't particularly excite you doing this stuff around town.

A car that might have suited the refined and sociable Dr Henry Jekyll, had he lived in the motor car age, needed a bit of pushing.

Out on the open road, it literally transforms into a completely different beast. Firstly the sound. When you put your foot down to accelerate the whole engine sound roars into

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life. The change from a big gentle giant into a growling lion is quite remarkable.

This surely is the automotive equivalent of Mr Edward Hyde. I could feel his malign spirit in the passenger seat, egging me on to go faster.

There is a massive kick as you push down the accelerator and you get slammed back into the seat as it roars off at a sport car type speed. Hitting 70 mph in a few seconds on an open stretch of motorway is exhilarating.

What a wonderful experience! The Bentley has a split personality – and one that really makes it fun to drive.

Of course, you need to have a few extra quid to own a Bentley. There isn’t much change from £130,000 for such as supercar with its handcrafted luxury.

My advice if you do get one of these luxury cars, is don't just parade it around

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MOTORING

town, get out, drive it full on and feel that acceleration. Yes, be Dr Jekyll in the city, but try a touch of Mr Hyde too. n Martin Ewart, a former managing director of Logica, is an IT executive who has had significant success in transforming and growing businesses. His focus is on helping clients secure their business goals through creating high performing teams. He is a specialist focusing on building aligned strategic relationships in large outsourcing deals between client and vendors.

The car Martin drove was the Bentley GT W12 Speed, OTR ÂŁ163,500.

Car supplied by Bentley Edinburgh, 8 Whitehill Road, Fort Kinnaird, Edinburgh, EH15 3HR, 0131 475 2100

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EQUIPMENT

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EQUIPMENT

the world is watching A global gathering of watchmakers held in the industry’s spiritual home this year outlined nostalgia and colour over complication as trends to look out for in the coming months, writes Josh Sims >>

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EQUIPMENT

Baselworld is the inelegant name for a rather elegant show. It is where the watch industry gathers every year to show off its new wares.

And if the exhibition hall in Basel, Switzerland, is anything to go by, the industry is in rude health: it’s a new complex designed by ‘starchitects’ Herzog & de Meuron, housing some 1,460 exhibitors from 40 countries.

Were every watch to tick as audibly as they used to, the sound would be deafening.

And yet, as the latest show’s updated setting looked forward, its most distinctive watches looked back. This is the season of the re-issue.

Take, for example, the latest high-profile model from Tudor, a company itself undergoing what might be called a re-issue, having been in the shadow of big brother Rolex for recent decades but now striking out with more distinctive designs. Its Chrono Blue comes with a 42mm case and a bi-directional rotating bezel. That in itself is a clue to the philosophy behind this watch, since modern bezels (especially on diving watches) typically rotate only in one direction, to reduce error in measuring elapsed time. Indeed, the watch is almost a part-for-part remake of Tudor’s 1973 Monte Carlo chronograph. It even uses the same movement. Small wonder, in fact,

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that the company should call it the Heritage Chrono Blue, a successor to the Black Bay diving watch re-issue of last year that helped reboot the trend.

Heritage - aka making a song and dance about how old your company is, or digging around in the archives to recreate some golden oldies - has become something of a widespread marketing ploy over recent years, used most notably by styleconscious industries as diverse as automotive, fragrance and fashion. But arguably it was the watch industry that assayed the idea first, when in 1996 Tag Heuer made a re-issue of its 1960s/70s Carrera and Monaco models.

Their ‘retro’ appeal and old-time charm made them immediate hits and chimed with the rise of vintage as a credible style category in its own right, but also made the pieces accessible to those without the money or time to find an original.

Baselworld suggests that those brands with the heritage to tap are now doing so. Among

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the bigger names with their own look into the past are the likes of Longines, which made a splash when it re-issued its Legend Diver in 2009, and has now added three military watches based on models from 1938; Vulcain has the honestly-named Nautical Seventies, a limited-edition version of the diving model it introduced in, as suggested, the 1970s; and, with one of the stand-out pieces of Baselworld, Omega, has its Bullhead version of the Seamaster, first issued in 1969. Expect this one to get a lot of attention and for the originals to suddenly rocket in value.

According to Ulrich Herzog, executive chairman of Oris which has based its jazz-inspired Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie and John Coltrane models on watches from the 1960s and 1970s - there are good reasons for the heritage revival, and it’s not lazy watch designers.

One may well be the reassuring nostalgia in such products - the tried and

EQUIPMENT tested that salves the current tough economic climate (providing you can still afford to buy them). These are evocative pieces. But for many brands, also caught in the downturn of course, it is a way of underlining their pedigree. “It’s a way of pointing out that you have the history to explore, which gives credibility,” Herzog says. “If a company like ours has the heritage, we also have the archives that allow for re-issues. And if you don’t have the heritage, that’s not something you can do.”

And even those with it are not always successful in interpreting it. Re-issues, counterintuitively perhaps, are not all that easy to make, often requiring more work than a completely new watch design, in no small part because modern components (which are required to ensure the watch meets today’s production standards) have to be shaped into an old aesthetic - the look and shape of Plexiglass has to be remodelled in crystal glass, for example.

“A re-issue is harder to pull off than it may at

first seem, because its aesthetic may be what really appeals, but the consumer wants it to perform like a modern watch. And as soon as you start applying modern quality standards the watch starts to lose its old look and feel,” Herzog says. Of course, if the re-issue is a dominant theme of this year’s watches, it is not the only one. As the Tudor Chrono Blue might suggest, GMTs are the big complication for 2013, given a sportier makeover. See the likes of Omega’s Seamaster GMT or Rolex’s reworking of its GMT Master II, with lacquered dial and black-and-blue ‘cerachrom’ bezel - that’s the company’s name for its latest, patented super-durable ceramic blend.

But it is more colour than complication that stands out among trends for 2013 - and colour in keeping with the retro theme of the many re-issues. Orange, for instance - not a shade seen on upmarket watches since the 1970s - returns as an accent on Oris’ Prodiver Pointer Moon, for instance, Tag Heuer’s Monaco Calibre 12 ACM (a limited edition but still working that historic seam) or the Tudor

Chrono Blue again. If dials have lent towards conservative classicism in their use of colours over recent years - black, white, cream - then now grey in every tone is explored by the likes of Rado, with its Diamaster Ceramic - a real stylistic move on the company that invented the unscratchable watch - and GirardPerregauz, with its Constant Escapement.

Navy too is a big colour - see, for example, Hublot, with its Big Bang Unico, or Ebel, with its Ebel 100 - bringing the dominant and still sober shade of the male wardrobe to watches while softening the more typically monochromatic options.

Perhaps that is the thinking behind the increased use of rose gold too, especially in conjunction with steel for cases and bracelets. Zenith combines the two for its El Primero Chronomaster Grand Date, but if any guarantee that the upper end of the market sees this unusual combination as having class was needed, then look to Patek Philippe, which uses it for the first time, specifically on its Nautilus 5980. n

It is more colour than complication that stands out among trends for 2013

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FASHION

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FASHION

the old ways are the best

In pockets of craftsmanship across the globe, one man bands are leading a new wave of interest in jeans made the way they used to be. Josh Sims reports on the rise of elite, artisan denim >>

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FASHION To most people Kurabo, Nisshinbo, Kuroki and Kaihara are exotic-sounding but largely meaningless words. To these same people, a pair of jeans is likely to be a non-descript, commodity product, something to do the gardening in, or to wear down the pub ordinary even in this, the 140th anniversary of the creation of the granddaddy of all jeans, Levi’s 501. But then there are other people those who might recognise the names of the four main mills producing denim in Japan, arguably home to the world’s best denim.

And these mills certainly are busy - as unlikely as the idea would have sounded just 15 years ago, denim is now an artisan fabric, with top-spec jeans hand-made by lone makers at their work-bench. And that is no romantic exaggeration. Among the new wave of elite denim are literal one-man-band makers the likes of those behind American labels Roy and White Horse Trading Co, and British label Tender, using homegrown denim from Cone Mills, the last of the US’s pioneering mills, or, more likely, one of the many varieties of Japanese denim - woven on old-fashioned shuttle looms, repeatedly hand-dyed using laborious loop-dyeing techniques, all to create the subtle irregularities of texture and certain properties of fading in the colour that denim-heads so love. The result? Jeans that will set you back anywhere between £300 and £500 a pair.

That Japan should be the source of the best take on a quintessentially American fabric may seem unlikely. But here comes a strange tale of American occupation after World War Two giving rise not to some desire to embrace a more homegrown style, but that of the occupying forces, which saw a youth cult for all things Americana and, a few decades later, a fledgling Japanese fashion industry seeking to recreate American raw blue jeans better than the Americans.

“And the trouble they go through to make jeans now as then is insane,” says Nick Coe, founder of the Rawrdenim.com webzine. “Of course, there is a romance to denim out of Japan. But it’s really in the manufacture that it’s unparalleled, at least until recently.

Japanese denim might not be re-inventing the wheel, but by bringing back in every detail what the makers thought was perfect in jeans

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Material wealth: White Horse Trading Co

many decades ago, but which hadn’t been available for many years, they created a connoisseur market.”

It was a company called Big John, which had been a textiles and uniform manufacturer, that became the first domestic denim brand in 1965. Edwin has a similarly long history. And they have since been joined by a growing plethora of ever more esoteric makers, the likes of Sugar Cane and Real McCoys, Full Count, 45RPM and Samurai, Iron Heart, Flat Head, Studio D’Artisan, Momotaro, the list

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Photo credit: Cory Piehowicz (Bandit Photographer)

goes on, including many yet to sell outside of Japan (which, of course, adds to their cachet).

Each claims their own specialism, be that the precision with which they re-make Levi’s classic styles of the 1930s to 1950s, or the use of natural indigo dyes, or the emphasis on heavy and super-heavyweight denims - perhaps 21 or 25oz as opposed to a more typical 12 or 14oz, this itself being sturdy stuff against the positively flimsy 8 or 9oz mass-market denim.

“You discover Japanese denim and its whole world sucks you in,” suggests

FASHION

Daniel Cizmek, managing director of the Berlin-based DC4, one of the leading retailers of Japanese denim outside of Japan. “The quality is amazing and not just because of the effects possible by using old looms and tailoring machines - it’s because the makers tend to have this deep fascination with American culture and typically have huge, and hugely valuable, vintage denim collections.

They know their subject and that shows in the product. Believe me, it’s addictive.”

But while the Japanese mills and makers may dominate the artisan denim market, they are not alone. There are the aforementioned American makers - joined by the likes of 3x1, 3Sixteen, Stronghold, Imogene & Willie and others. And then, perhaps more unexpectedly still, there are the Swedes. ”What we do well here is dark, clean denim, because that suits the dark winter climate - it’s less expressive of itself and more about your relationship with a pair of jeans and how they age. It’s fashion, but a slower kind of fashion,” argues Maria Erixon, ex of Lee jeans and co-founder/owner of Nudie Jeans, one of the biggest of the new premium denim brands out of Sweden in the last ten years.

“I’m not all that surprised by the development of Swedish denim now - we’re a very denim-oriented people.”

Indeed, recent years have seen a spate of new Swedish denim companies launch perhaps because of the strength of demand here for denim with a difference: it was Nudie, for example, who might well lay claim to having introduced the skinny fit that cut against the straight fit classic to became a staple fashion denim choice; which last year became the industry’s first fully organic denim brand and this year its first fully transparent one, conducting published audits of its suppliers’ working conditions and environmental standards. Nor is Nudie alone in this spate of new names. There are the likes of Denim Demon, Dr. Denim, Neuw and Pace. But a fact little known outside of the country is that Sweden has a denim culture dating back half a century. It was then, in 1966, that the pioneering brand Gul & Bla was formed by Lars and Maria Knutsson, sparking a jeans explosion for a youth market unable to buy Levi’s or Lee, then still a rarity outside of the US. Their first Stockholm shop not only sometimes sold 1,000 pairs a day - notably of their signature wide-legged ‘v-jeans’ - while the company was at the forefront of development of the techniques to allow aged washes and other treatments. The company is bouncing back too: dormant for some 15 years, this spring/summer saw the relaunch of

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Back to basics: The Nudie Jeans repair shop in Soho

Gul & Bla, complete with jeans production in Sweden.

“Sweden actually has a very early denim culture, relative to other European countries, which most people outside of Sweden don’t know about,” explains Mattias Hallencreutz, who works on design for Gul & Bla. “It comes from the fact that Sweden has always looked to the US for inspiration - in fashion, cars, music - perhaps because we have this long story of emigration to the US, so feel this strong link. And the Vikings discovered the US, after all.”

Indeed, according to Peter Lindt, design director of jeans brand Crocker, the national attachment to denim is a reflection of the Swedish democratic approach too.

“Swedes have never looked down on jeans they were something you could wear anywhere,” says Lindt. “Perhaps that is because jeans have never been considered workers’ clothing here either - jeans have always been a fashion item for us. And with artisan denim undergoing something of a reappraisal now, they look set to be entering a whole new phase of appreciation.” n

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ENTREPreneur

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Barry Sealey is well-known in Scotland as one of our foremost angel investors. Yet less well remembered is his successful stint as chief executive of one of Scotland’s great businesses, Christian Salvesen.

Kenny Kemp hears about his remarkable life before Archangeling Two Edinburgh business figures are recognised as the founders of business angeling in Scotland. One is Mike Rutterford, the former estate agent and property tycoon, and the other is his partner, Barry Sealey, CBE who between them have backed dozens of fledgling businesses. In 1992, the pair met in a Colinton restaurant, agreed to pool their resources, shook hands and started a movement of supporting new companies. It was all rather ad hoc.

Today Archangel Informal Investment, which they spawned, is chaired by Gavin Gammell and run by John Waddell and his full-time team of investment professionals in Rutland Square. The syndicate has over 100 investors and invests around £10m a year in its portfolio of companies, which include Bloxx, Arrayjet, Indigo Lighthouse, Reactec, Touch Bionics and others. However, it is often forgotten that Barry Sealey spent 32 years as a dealmaker and innovator rising to the top of Christian Salvesen, one of Scotland’s leading international businesses, and it was his retirement from these duties, at the early age of 55, which gave him the energy, desire and a modest pot of cash to begin a new chapter as an angel investor. Yet in many ways, Sealey’s life was defined by his career path with Christian Salvesen. He was born in Bristol in 1936. His family was bombed-out three times during the war and moved to the Gloucestershire village of Berkeley. His parents, Ted and Queenie, both from North London, encouraged his interest in practical learning and bought him a set of encyclopaedias, which he devoured with his developing sense of inquiry in the physical world. He attended Dursley Grammar School, where the headmaster recognised his potential

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and recommended that head boy Sealey apply for a scholarship to his old college of St John’s in Cambridge. Barry was the first from the school to go to Oxbridge, where he studied two years of natural sciences, then another year of engineering. But before going he spent two years in the RAF on National Service as a wireless fitter. He achieved a First Class Honours in his ‘Part One’ of Natural Sciences within two years and in his final year he switched to the Mechanical Science faculty, where he studied engineering, achieving honours and winning the Hockin prize. He may have continued at university undertaking research, however, when he came down from Cambridge he talked to various people about opportunities in industry.

Barry’s father had recently joined Christian Salvesen, moving north to Grimsby, and Barry was introduced to his father’s new boss, Max Harper-Gow, himself a Cambridge graduate.

Sir Maxwell Harper-Gow was the grandson of Lord Salvesen, a court of session judge, and the great-grandson of the founder, who went on to run the family shipping and whaling business, which spread to Scotland from its Norwegian roots. Christian Salvesen, which first set up an office in Leith in 1853, had interests in whaling, selling whale oil and other products in Scotland, and supplying coal and timber, before making major excursions to the Antarctic whaling

grounds. Barry joined Christian Salvesen in 1958, aged 22, with a £600-a-year salary. His initial months were spent in Grimsby, one of the major fishing ports in England and a centre for seafood processing, and he then worked in Edinburgh as the personal assistant to Max Harper-Gow, managing the fishing boat fleet.

Salvesen’s way of training was to dispatch future managers out around the business, and this meant serving time on the Fairtry factory ships, bringing in their catches of haddock, cod, skate and halibut for the hungry nation, hooked on fish and chips. The Fairtrys caught the fish off Newfoundland and Greenland, filleted and froze them on board, storing them until a return to Grimsby. So Barry Sealey spent nine months at sea, in three spells, between times undertaking administrative work for the ships and learning more about how the business operated. He was also part of a delegation for the International Convention for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, looking at the preservation of fish stocks.

“My time on the fishing boats was of great value for me because of the respect I gained for the rough and dangerous work that people in our business did. Conversely, it also gave people a respect for me when I became a manager.

The guys would say, ‘Well, you know about that piece of equipment on the boat >>

I liked the American attitude then; and I liked it even more when we bought a business headquartered in New York City

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XXXXXXXX

From frozen seas to frozen peas:

The Christian Salvesen years

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ENTREPreneur and how it operates’. They appreciated that I knew about it in a practical way. That was the great Salvesen approach.”

For Barry, the understanding of technical aspects of business – and the engineering and science studies – have been extremely useful throughout his career. “Everything that we do has a technical content. Whether it is IT nowadays or the technologies associated with angel companies. Most are technology businesses and my background has, at least, helped me understand, because I know the language of science,” he says. Barry regularly went to Grimsby to meet the three Fairtry ships as they arrived back in port; checking their cargoes; the conditions of the assets, and working out the profitability of each voyage.

“We ran it like a little business. Each voyage was a business with its own income and expenditure. I would have a broad oversight of the repairs and improvements to machinery.

These were complicated vessels, they were factories that went to sea.”

He had met his wife, Helen Martyn, in Cleethorpes, while working at a seafront hotel during his university vacation and they married in 1960, although Barry recalls his wedding had to fit around Salvesen arrangements and his trips to sea. The next years were spent as a family man, based in Edinburgh. Their two children, Margaret and Andrew, were born on the same February day in 1962 and 1964.

Christian Salvesen was a cash-rich company looking for different things to invest in. The factory whaling ships were no longer viable and sold-off and shortly after Barry’s arrival, the firm opened its first cold storage facility in Grimsby for fish being landed by the Fairtry ships.

“We knew a lot about refrigeration, but this was something new. It was one of the first palletised cold stores in Europe at the time.”

Max Harper-Gow saw the potential in cold storage and Salvesen bought the business of Northern Cold Storage Company, a Swedish firm that had built another new store in Grimsby for Birds Eye. “We agreed to buy the store and rented it back to them for five years while also funding its expansion. Alongside, we were running our own cold store, and then took over the management of the Swedish company in 1964.

I was put in charge. Up until then my father

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had been in charge, and I became his boss.”

The Sealeys returned to live in Grimsby from 1964 until 1968, while the business grew massively. Another cold storage plant was built in Lowestoft for Birds Eye, famed for its fish fingers. In 1968 Barry was offered the opportunity of attending Harvard Business School, supported by Christian Salvesen. “That was fantastic. I have to give great credit to Max Harper-Gow for sending me to Harvard, which was a great compliment. I went to America and was at a top business school, although I didn’t see a lot of the rest of the USA. Two things struck me most: one was that what happens in America has a major impact on us in the UK. I learned to respect America for being an important part of our economic lives.

The other aspect was: we had always looked up to American management training and the business language but, in fact, I was able to cope. What I’d been taught to do naturally and practically with Salvesen’s wasn’t any different

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from what the Americans were telling us.

They were making a science out of business management practices.”

Barry, a young man from an unknown Scottish company, sitting among the management cohort of major US banks and the likes of General Electric and IBM, felt self-confident in his abilities, and returned to Scotland full of ideas and a better grasp of economics.

The case study method of examining real-life businesses and their situations appealed to his thinking.

“I liked the American attitude then; and I liked it even more when I became involved again in 1981 when we bought a business headquartered in New York City.” A British business friend visited Barry at Harvard and confided that he was building a frozen potato chip factory with some American backing, and Barry could see this was a great opportunity for Salvesens. He made a transfer-charge transatlantic call directly to Max Harper-Gow in

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ENTREPRENEUR

Everything that we do has a technical content. Whether it is IT nowadays or the technologies associated with angel companies Scotland urging him to ‘seize the opportunity to build a cold store alongside the frozen chip factory’ and, to his credit, within months, Salvesen bought a site and built another cold store at Easton, near Grantham, on the A1, and close to major Lincolnshire potato producers.

“The frozen chip manufacturing facility was ahead of its time. There were a lot of technical problems with freezing potatoes. It was a few years later that frozen chips took off, but the cold store at Easton was very well situated and it also became a major distribution centre.

After his Harvard awakening, Barry, now in his early 30s, persuaded Max Harper-Gow that he wanted to return to the Edinburgh HQ. He wanted to be where decisions were made, not at an outpost, however much autonomy he might have in running a discrete division.

Ever pragmatic, Max moved the cold-storage division to Edinburgh with Barry and his key staff from Grimsby in charge. At 29, Barry had become a board member. Logistics and distribution was emerging as a key part of Salvesen’s ‘fully integrated supply chain’. A new cold storage plant was built in Dundee to handle the soft berries from fruit growers in the Carse of Gowrie. One day, a casual conversation in a British Rail compartment on the way to Grimsby was a stroke of good fortune. Sitting next to Barry was a food technologist from Marks & Spencer, who told him that the UK’s biggest retailer at the time was planning to go into frozen food. Barry, never one to miss an opportunity, arranged a meeting in Baker Street in London. He met a senior executive who wanted to know how Christian Salvesen could deliver: “The right goods at the right time at the right price to the stores” – which was its motto – and what was their standpoint on food hygiene, because one food poisoning case was unacceptable.

Salvesen’s fleet-footedness landed this gamechanging opportunity to deliver frozen foods

to the hundreds of Marks & Spencer stores on high streets across the UK, using their growing fleet of refrigerated lorries and the new cold store at Easton. M&S was fanatical about quality and hygiene and this paid off because its food sales rose from £24m in 1960 to £97m in 1970, when it had a national system of food depots, and chilled and frozen transportation to ensure produce could reach stores in prime condition within 36 hours. Barry and his team played a major role in this success.

“We took on the retail distribution of Marks & Spencer’s frozen foods. Up until the point I retired I was able to say that every packet of frozen food sold by M&S was distributed by Salvesen. In business, I believe that success is about seeing and seizing opportunities. I loved doing that. Years later, when I was managing director, I would say to visitors: ‘I am the Chief Salesman. I sell the company’s product to the customer. I sell the company to the City [it was a listed business on the London Stock Market by this stage]. And I sell myself to the Team.”

Opening the door with Marks & Spencer, led to J Sainsbury’s seeking Salvesen’s growing expertise in logistics and the distribution of frozen foods. Christian Salvesen became such a major UK player that it was given a contract for M&S’s fresh and chilled food distribution. The company became the largest freezer of food, building the processing factories. Eventually, their special relationship led to building a major storage network for M&S’s hanging garments.

Other brand names, such as Findus and Ross, were also moving business to Salvesen.

“We took the overflow from people like Birds Eye and we built factories to freeze the peas, vegetables and fruits in Grimsby, Lowestoft and then Dundee. For example, we froze thousands of tons of freshly-picked raspberries in Dundee and blackcurrants in Grimsby.”

Barry became immersed in all the major deals, negotiating the terms and ensuring the fleets

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of refrigerated trucks and cold stores were meeting the customers’ expectations. Wage inflation was running high, and he had to keep costs down which meant hard-bargaining with the transport unions, including the Transport & General Workers’ Union. The firm instigated an ‘experiential’ graduate training programme to bring in new talent, making them gain Sealeytype experience working in the fish stores and processing plants, driving fork-lift trucks and undertaking the book-keeping. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the company had been moving out of major commercial shipping.

Instead, the company built specialised ships for oil and gas exploration and drilling ships, and later specific oil service vessels. The company’s growth also gave it the ammunition to buy Croan’s, the herring processor, and Claben, a herring and white fish processor, in Aberdeen.

In 1972, the head office moved to offices in East Fettes Avenue. Succession planning was well rehearsed at Salvesen’s, so when Max Harper-Gow retired in 1981 it was obvious that Gerald Elliot would became the chairman, paving the way for Barry to become the group managing director. The convenience of frozen food for the UK and Europe changed the way most families consumed their meals. There was still fragmentation in this growing industry and Salvesen were in pole position, although there were now several heavyweight competitors.

“I don’t think I ever thought about what we were doing in the context of the wider part in society or changing economic terms. I thought of it in business terms. While I knew what our competitors were up to, I was chiefly concerned with our business. But I was not seeing this part as a global picture.”

In 1981, Christian Salvesen, under Barry’s direction, made a strategic move into the United States. He had become a member of the International Association of Refrigerated Warehouses, set up in 1891, joining the board and making some high-level connections.

Through this grapevine, he met Paul Sullivan, the president of a nationwide New York-based business, who hinted that the parent company, Pet Milk Company, was looking to offload the company to new owners. Pet Milk was owned by the CSX Corporation, one of the leading American rail freight conglomerates. The company, Merchants Refrigerating & >>

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ENTREPreneur Ice Manufacturing Company, was headquartered in Manhattan on East 57th Street, but had a mammoth storage facility, a 15-minute cab ride through the Lincoln Tunnel in Secaucus, New Jersey and other facilities across the USA. “It was too small for Pet Milk and they didn’t like it, so we bought it. I had legal help but because I knew the cold storage business as well as anyone, I did most of the deal myself,” says Barry. It was a modest deal and Salvesen paid cash, which was about four times the cash flow. But it was a toe-hold in a buoyant market for a Scottish company. The board in Edinburgh instructed Barry, newly installed as managing director, to take the lead in running and developing its network across the United States, and he travelled monthly to New York, staying in a hotel a few blocks from the office, to meet Paul Sullivan, who remained in charge.

“But I also sent over my secret weapon. It was a young man who had joined Salvesen called Chris Masters [later to become Barry’s successor as the chief executive of the company], who had come in as an analyst doing business development.”

Chris Masters had joined from Shell, recruited

by Gerald Elliot, and he was to play a central role in running the Merchant operations and maintaining links with the Edinburgh head office, moving his family to the States. Chris, who was involved with business development, would meet Barry from JFK Airport in New York, they would have dinner in Manhattan and discuss the business over a bottle of Californian Zinfandel, and visit the warehouses over the next few days. In 1984, Salvesen bought Aggreko. It had been a Dutch company - from the Dutch word aggregatum meaning generator - and a reverse deal turned it into a Scottish-based company, run by Gordon Tourlamain and David Yorke. “It fitted terribly well with what we were doing at the time.

I was always very keen on capital intensive things such as cold stores, lorries, and ships.

Once you’ve made a capital investment, if you do things right, you get a good return.

Aggreko was using its capital intensive units to generate revenues. Christian Salvesen was cash generative and for Aggreko to grow it needed capital. We pumped a lot of cash into it and grew it substantially.”

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Barry remains very proud of Aggreko’s success as a global business based in Scotland. “I’m still a modest shareholder and look on this with immense pride.”

Salvesen’s expansion overseas included cold stores in Boulogne and Brussels, for many of the major retail chains, and later in the Netherlands, Spain and Germany. The flotation of Christian Salvesen in 1985 was led by chairman Sir Gerald Elliot (he was awarded a knighthood in1986) with all the presentations to analysts and City of London investors undertaken by Barry.

“It was an exciting time and I learned a lot. Sir Gerald Elliot felt it was a good time to float.

He was part of the family. We were successful and making good money. The families were getting older and the shareholding was being broadened. We had introduced staff shareholder schemes, where our colleagues could save the shares from their earnings. It was one of the first save-as-you-earn share option schemes.”

“Salvesen was a well-established company in which I was an employee. I had already borrowed money to buy shares in the company over a number of years while it was a private company because I believed in it.”

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As Managing Director of Salvesen, Barry was asked to sit on other boards as a nonexecutive director, including Scottish Equitable Life Assurance Society in 1984, the Scottish American Investment Company, and was on the Northern advisory board for the National Westminster Bank.

In 1989, Barry Sealey had been with Salvesen for over 30 years. He had introduced early retirement for directors. He was 54, and had spent eight years as managing director.

“I had been extremely happy at Salvesen.

Perhaps I was running out of ideas a bit. We were well set up. We’d floated and I’d done my thing. Gerald had retired and been succeeded by an “outsider” John West. I thought if I’m ever going to do anything else with my life, then I better start doing it now. It was also a good idea to allow other younger people to come through.”

When he retired Christian Salvesen was in a sound state, employing 11,000 people worldwide. Chris Masters became the chief executive. Later, Sir Alick Rankin replaced John West. As the company approached its 150th anniversary, it fought off a proposed acquisition

by Hays plc, as the board felt it was not in the best interest of the shareholders. This set off a chain of events that led to Aggreko being de-merged from Christian Salvesen with Chris Masters as chairman and David Yorke as managing director.

In 1995 Christian Salvesen’s turnover for the half year was £346 million, with operating profits of £45m. For the year ending March 1996, it was £700 million, with profits of £80 million. Increasingly, Aggreko built its worldwide reputation as a major supplier of temporary power. The 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games involved the rental of almost 800 pieces of equipment and the Glasgow-based business would become an outstanding success in terms of profitability and reputation. In 1997, it joined the London Stock Exchange on its own terms. Salvesen’s continued but its own time as an independent listed Scottish firm was coming to an end. In October 2007, it was bought by the international transport and logistics conglomerate Norbert Dentressangle, based in Lyon, which turned over £3.5 billion in 2012. It was the end of an era for a Scottish business in which Barry Sealey played a starring role. n

n y her Eac Brewer c a M d a n Fion Lomo h Loc

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When Fiona and Euan had a thirst to grow the sales and distribution of their hand-crafted, real ales they knew where to find the right advice. With the help and practical support of a Business Gateway adviser you can make your plans for growth happen.

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call or visit www.bgateway.com/growing

Eligibility for one-to-one advice varies, contact 0845 287 4356 to find out if you qualify. Business Gateway services are delivered by Local Authorities, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Government with the support of associated partner organisations. Maximum call charge from BT landline is 3p a minute. Call centre open Monday to Friday 8am to 6pm.

BIT OF A CHAT

with Jock Yuler >> On to a winner The game’s a bogey. There’s an essential item missing from Scotland’s national strategy for golf launched by Tourism minister Fergus Ewing – Deliver A Scottishborn Open Champion? If Andy Murray can win Wimbledon, it’s about time we had a clutch of regular challengers up there at the top. Driving Forward Together is the first national strategy that has been developed by both the golf tourism industry and the public sector, intent on capitalising on major events in Scotland during the next few years, including next year’s 2014 Ryder Cup and the Open Championship in 2015 and 2016.

It is hoped to grow the industry’s £220m annual value to the Scottish economy by 20% to around £300m annually by 2020.

The seven key objectives are: Collectively brand and promote Scotland as The Home of Golf; encourage an evidence-based approach by gathering quality visitor data, sharing market intelligence, best practice and research findings; strengthen industry leadership and engagement; co-ordinated regional golf development groups; improve the quality of the golf tourism experience to increase visitor numbers; maximise the impact and tourism opportunities from hosting major golf events and promote sustainable golf club and course management. But giving us a string of Open winners we can cheer for has to be something we all want.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

AUTUMN 13

>> Shred all over

>> Dave’s done good

My old pal Iain Martin, former editor of The Scotsman, has written a stonkingly good book about the collapse of RBS and the hubris of Fred Goodwin. Considering Iain is ostensibly a political hack, rather than a business one, it’s a pretty decent job. It is gathering some rave reviews and it will be well placed for the Christmas stocking market.

Many of the cast of characters need little introduction to business people in Scotland, but reading about the wheeling and dealing as if it was a racy novel, is compelling stuff.

But what remains unfinished business is the view from Fred Goodwin himself. There have been many attempts to get him to speak to the media, but to date he has remained silent and elusive. With another book by writer and journalist Ian Fraser on the bank also due out soon, the missing piece in this tragic jigsaw is hearing the voice of Fred Goodwin. Surely the man who was once lauded by so many of us, and has fallen so spectacularly from grace, can’t go to his grave without giving his version of the truth. After all, the historians and the biographers will feel the story is incomplete until he recounts the world from his viewpoint.

Making it Happen: Fred Goodwin, RBS and the Men who Blew the British Economy is published by Simon & Schuster UK.

Congratulations to Dave Young, winner of the inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award from WeDo, the Scottish entrepreneurs networking group. Dave created Larosco a software development firm specialising in online marketing technologies using other people’s social networks.

He is one of Scotland’s most successful entrepreneurs having sold several businesses.

All the more remarkable given that Dave was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease five years ago and despite this, he has continued to approach life with his trademark positivity.

All power to your elbow, Dave.

>> A word to the wise When is it going to stop! The abuse of the word entrepreneur, which for all the scholars was first described by an Irish fella from Kerry called Richard Cantillon in his ‘Esai sur la nature du commerce en general’ in 1755, from the French verb ‘entreprende’ to undertake a venture. Now we have an Occupreneur Coach called Lindsay Broder, based in New York. Lindsay, you’re destroying our language.

>> And a Parting Shot

Nearly two-thirds (62%) of all businesses and 85% of multinationals cited domestic transport as a key factor in deciding where and when to invest. Dissatisfaction with domestic transport jumped from 28% in 2011 to 49% in 2013. With few projects underway and no action on long-term road reform, it is expected that local roads (-43%) and motorways (-26%) will deteriorate over the next five years.

80

EVENTS

AUTUMN 13

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-scotland.co.uk and please put ‘BQ events page’ in the subject heading

SEPTEMBER 25 Scottish Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Assocation annual conference, Scottish Government, Victoria Quay. Two-day conference starts at 11am including sessions of grid-gas, low carbon heat and energy storage.

26 Glasgow Chamber of Commerce with Energy Saving Trust, Business transport breakfast briefing at SSE, Waterloo Street, Glasgow, G2 6AY. 9am-12.30pm.

30 The Entrepreneur Country annual forum, 8-5pm, Royal Institution of Great Britain, London, W1S 4BS.

12 Annual meeting of the North East Scotland region of the Federation of Small Businesses. Room H230, Faculty of Health & Social Care, Robert Gordon University, Garthdee Road, Aberdeen, AB10 7QG. 7.30pm.

12 Base Glasgow, the low-carbon built environment and infrastructure event, SECC, Glasgow.

13 Federation of Small Business East of Scotland annual dinner and annual meeting, supported by Edinburgh College, 7pm, Caledonian Hotel. Speaker: Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, MSP. Contact: office.eastscotland@fsb.org.uk or phone 0131 272 2740.

15 ROCCO Business Awards: Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce tenth annual awards. Hosted by Fred MacAulay. 6pm-late. Normandy Hotel, Renfrew.

OCTOBER 1 Geared for Gold, Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, with Scottish Enterprise, breakfast on 2014 and the sporting opportunities. 8.30-11am, Apex House, 99 Haymarket Terrace, Edinburgh.

1 Referendum Consultation Series Dinner, supported by Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce, 5.30-9pm. George Hotel, Edinburgh.

3 Power Lunch Club, with guest speaker, TBC. HSBC Bank, Hobart House, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1EL. 12-2pm.

Contact:info@powerlunchclub.co.uk

18-24 Global Entrepreneurship Week begins. A range of events across the UK to spur on enterprise. Contact: 2013@gew.org.uk or call on 020 3326 2094.

19 Annual Meeting of the West of Scotland region of the Federation of Small Businesses, Hilton Strathclyde Hotel, Phoenix Crescent, Strathclyde Business Park, Motherwell. 6.30pm. Contact jim.ritchie@fsb.org.uk 21 Power Lunch Club, with guest speaker TBC. HSBC Bank. First Floor 141 Bothwell Street Glasgow G2 7EQS. 12-2pm. Contact:info@powerlunchlub.co.uk 21 Interface Excellence Award 2013, Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh, 5.30pm.

The opportunity to reward and celebrate with Scotland’s innovative businesses, academics and individuals who are leading the way in collaborative knowledge exchange.

3 Glasgow Business Awards, Thistle Glasgow Hotel, organised and run by Glasgow Chamber of Commerce. Now in its 16th year.

4 Dumfries and Galloway annual chamber lunch. Speaker Kate Armstrong.

Easterbrook Hall, Dumfries. 11.45 until 2.30pm. www.dgchamber.co.uk 16 Meet the Entrepreneurs: The low carbon entrepreneurship series 2014. In conjunction with Edinburgh University’s Entrepreneurship Club, at Edinburgh Centre for Carbon innovation, 6.30pm.

22. WeDO fifth annual ceremony and dinner, including entrepreneur of the year awards. Sheraton Hotel, Edinburgh. 6.45pm. Contact: hello@wedoscotland.com or call 08708 759 793 or 07805 160 881.

28 Annual meeting of the Highland & Islands region of the Federation of Small Business, venue to be confirmed. Contact David Richardson on 01682 881762.

17 Power Lunch Club, with guest speaker Ron Hamilton, Chairman, Daysoft Limited. HSBC Bank. First Floor 141 Bothwell Street Glasgow G2 7EQ. 12-2pm.

Contact: info@powerlunchlub.co.uk

28 Networking lunch with Renfrewshire Council leader Mark Macmillan, organised by Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce, 12-2pm, Ingliston Country Club.

24 West Lothian Chamber of Commerce breakfast club, 7.30-9.30am, Alba Centre, Alba Business Park, Livingston, EH54 7EG. Contact: 01506 414 808. www.wlchamber.com

DECEMBER

29 CBI Scotland’s Westminster Parliamentary Reception. Scotland Office, Dover House, Whitehall, London, Sponsored by: Shell UK Limited. Contact: Colette. cunningham@cbi.org.uk 30 Midlothian & East Lothian Chamber of Commerce annual awards and dinner, 6-9pm, Eskmills Function Suite, Stuart House Eskmills, Station Road, Musselburgh, EH21 7PQ. Speaker Fergus Ewing MSP, Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism. www.melcc.org.uk

5 Power Lunch Club, with guest speaker, Jane Wood, chief executive for Scottish Business in the Community, Employment and Sustainable Growth. HSBC Bank, Hobart House, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1EL. 12-2PM. Contact: info@ powerlunchclub.co.uk 19 Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce annual meeting, 11.30am at Glynhill, 69 Paisley Rd, Renfrew, Glasgow PA4 8XB

30 Business Skills seminar – social media for the non-geek, organised by West Lothian Chamber of Commerce, 9.30-11.30am. Deer Park Golf and Country Club, Livingston, EH54 8A. Contact: Aileen Ross on 01596 414 808.

31 Networking lunch with Lord Sir Willie Haughey, organised by Renfrewshire Chamber of Commerce, 12-2pm. Lynnhurst Hotel, Johnstone, PA5 8LS.

NOVEMBER 4 CBI annual conference, London Hilton Metropole. Contact, Bernadette Adamic, Commercial Development Manager, on 020 7395 8225 bernadette.adamic@cbi.org.uk 7 Power Lunch Club, with guest speaker Sally-Anne Hunter, CEO of Commando Spirit. HSBC Bank, Hobart House, Hanover Street, Edinburgh, EH2 1EL. 12-2pm.

Contact: info@powerlunchclub.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

The diary is updated daily online at www.bq-magazine.co.uk Please check with contacts beforehand that arrangements have not changed. Events organisers are also asked to notify us at the above email address of any changes or cancellations as soon as they are known.

82

Why your wealth manager should never stop

managing your portfolio.

The issue with investment opportunities is that they rarely stay opportunities for long.

Too often one blinks, and they’ve gone.

Which is why we at UBS believe in proactively managing your portfolio.

It means your client advisor will seek out new investment opportunities, based on the latest market developments.

And regularly review your portfolio, balancing and optimizing it, according to your risk profile.

But one thing remains constant throughout all of this.

Our commitment to meeting your financial goals.

And that’s something we’ll never stop doing.

Colin Aitken UBS Wealth Management Wemyss House Edinburgh EH3 6DH Tel: 0131 247 2921

The price and value of investments and income derived from them can go down as well as up. You may not get back the amount you originally invested. Past performance is not a reliable indicator of future results.

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