BS Scotland Winter 2015

BUSINESS QUARTER

BUSINESS QUARTER

Scotland: Winter 2015

Celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship

Shining bright

Laura and Rebecca Pagan bring pizzazz to lighting

Just the tonic

Talking gin, whisky and marriage with Jane and Alex Nicol

That’s my girl Stephen and Kirsten O’Neill on their similarities and differences

£4.95 Business Quarter Magazine

Scotland: Winter 2015

View from the top Chris Tiso combines family ethics with stock market clout

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EDITOR’S VIEW SCOTLAND ISSUE 22 Family businesses are often dismissed as being inconsequential and twee. In this issue, we aim to set the record straight and dispel some of those myths. These are exciting companies, none of which have one foot stuck in the past.

To open, Chris Tiso explains how he has managed to retain the ethos of a family business after selling a majority stake in his outdoor clothing and equipment retailer to stock market giant JD Sports Fashion. Chris is well-known for having taken over the firm when he was just 21 after his father, Graham, had died in a boating accident; here he contrasts his own leadership style with that of his dad and explains how his mother supported the growth of the company. Wife and husband team Jane and Alex Nicol lift the lid on what it’s like not just to live together but to work together too and how they balance life at home with the needs of their highprofile Edinburgh Gin brand and their whisky labels, including the evocatively-named Pig’s Nose and Sheep Dip. When it comes to two generations working together, Stephen and Kirsten O’Neill seem to have it all in hand at Newton Property Management, which recently spread its wings from its home turf in Glasgow to expand into Aberdeen. It’s interesting to compare their story with that of Laura and Rebecca Pagan at Newton Mearns-based Pagazzi Lighting, whose sense of fun is simply infectious.

Martin Stepek, chief executive of the Scottish Family Business Association grabs a bite to eat with journalist Karen Peattie to explain why his members need particular forms of support, while Professor Sarah Dodd from the University of Strathclyde examines what makes family firms special.

Finally, Diane Harbison – managing director of the BioCity Scotland life sciences incubation centre at Newhouse and the newly-opened MediCity Scotland – reveals how she is building a family atmosphere on the site of a former drugs factory, with businesses forming their own relationships and feeding off each other’s successes. No look at family businesses would be complete without a godfather figure and Sandy Finlayson fits the bill nicely; he was there at the birth of Scotland’s tech ecosystem and he has a story or two to tell about the characters he’s met along the way.

Thank you to everyone who gave me feedback on BQ Scotland’s new look, which was introduced in the autumn edition. The magazine’s re-design has certainly turned a few heads, including those of the judges at the Scottish Magazine Awards, who have shortlisted our head of design, Sarah McNeil, in the business and professional magazine designer category. Congratulations to Sarah on this welldeserve accolade and best of luck for the final.

Peter Ranscombe, Editor, BQ Scotland

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CONTENTS 72

Winter 15 26

MOTORING

Anna Renton outs the new Range Rover Sport Hybrid through its paces

38 FACTORING IN SUCCESS Stephen and Kirsten O’Neill make a winning combination

64

A F A M I LY A F F A I R Business lunch with Martin Stepek

BIO TECH’S NEW HOME Combining science and business brought Diane to Lanarkshire

Celebrating and inspir ing entrepreneurship

FEATURES

REGULARS

18

SCALING THE HEIGHTS Chris Tiso’s business is in the big league but remains rooted

08

ON THE RECORD Should the BBC be forced to charge for its website?

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NEW HOME FOR BIO TECH Bio City Scotland: Lanarkshire’s expanding life sciences centre

10

BUSINESS UPDATE Who’s doing what, when, where and why in Scotland?

38

WINNING COMBINATION O’Neill family duo complement each other

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GIN IT TOGETHER Alex and Jane Nicol’s recipe for success

AS I SEE IT Professor Sarah Dodd on the strengths and weaknesses of family business

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C E L E B R A T I N G I P 10 0 IP100 report results

COMMERCIAL PROPERT Y A look at Scotland’s latest deals

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BUSINESS LUNCH Meeting Martin Stepek of Scotland’s Family Business Association

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MOTORING Country girl Anna Renton drives the Range Rover Sport Hybrid

76

STRINGER ON WINE Esther Stringer tries old and new reds

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BIT OF A CHAT With BQ’s backroom boy Jock Yuler

SPECIAL FEATURES EXPORT OPPORTUNITIES 30

NEW HORIZONS Overseas opportunities for Scottish Business

FOOD AND DRINK 58

FOOD FOR THOUGHT BQ Live Debate on Scotland’s food and drink sector

42 80 STEERING BY A M O R A L CO M PA S S

Sandy Finlayson reflects on a long and distinguished career

FORGING NEW LINK S

BQ Live Debate on Scotland’s transport and logistics infrastructure

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ON THE RECORD bqlive.co.uk/breakfast

The price of news Should the BBC be forced to charge readers for access to its news website in order to allow newspapers to do the same? Peter Ranscombe reports The British Broadcasting Company began transmitting radio signals from London in 1922. Under the watchful eye of John Reith, its 33-year-old, Scots-born general manager, the company received its royal charter five years later and became the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). Fellow Scot, John Logie Baird, used the BBC’s frequencies in 1929 for some of the earliest experiments with his mechanical television sets and regular TV broadcasts were introduced in 1936, before being curtailed by the outbreak of the Second World War. Now the media landscape has changed beyond all recognition and the BBC has grown arms and legs and now delivers text-based news stories through its website and on mobile phones. During an age in which newspapers are under pressure through falling circulation and advertisers shifting online, should the BBC be forced to charge readers for access to its news website so that newspapers have the opportunity to do the same? Could public libraries be granted free access to the website to make sure poorer members of our communities wouldn’t miss out?

“From the newspaper industry’s perspective, it’s the expansion of online services that’s the problem because the BBC is providing information and material that goes way beyond the remit of a broadcaster,” explains John McLellan, director of the Scottish Newspaper Society and a former editor-in-chief at The Scotsman Publications.

“What that means is you get the BBC news website going head-to-head with the print media’s online services. Top-quality writers are now being recruited to the BBC to do a bit of punditry but a lot of writing. The BBC is competing in markets in which it was traditionally never present. The divisions between broadcast and the written word used to be very clear – now that’s not the case.”

In November, the BBC Trust – the corporation’s governing body – launched its final service review as part of the ongoing deliberations over

“The BBC is competing in markets in which it was traditionally never present” renewal of the broadcaster’s royal charter. The consultation covers radio, TV, online and current affairs in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

“It would be very easy just to say ‘Stick a paywall on the BBC news website’ and you’d see the traffic drop overnight,” says McLellan, who is also professor of journalism at the University of Stirling. “That’s not feasible without a review of the whole way the BBC is funded and I’m not persuaded that scrapping the licence fee and turning the BBC into a purely commercial service is the right way to go. I’d rather they reined in their online content.

“It’s about a fairer landscape brought about by sensible reform and not about smashing something we all hold dear. But it has to change – even people within the BBC recognise that.”

James Blake, director of the Centre for Media &

Culture at Edinburgh Napier University, thinks charges are unlikely to be introduced for the BBC news website.

“Clearly the size and scope of BBC news content, particularly online services, has a significant negative impact on its commercial rivals,” he says. “Over the past few years, the BBC has been in a privileged position – and relatively recession-proof – as a result of the licence fee, whereas commercial news organisations, particularly in regional and local press, have been going to the wall financially.

After all, who can compete with the juggernaut of the BBC news website?

“This is one thing that charter renewal is designed to tackle. However, I am sure the BBC will resist any attempt to make it charge for news services. In its submission to the public consultation, the BBC reaffirms its public service ‘mission’ to provide content ‘free at the point of use’. Charging for BBC news goes against the original ethos of the corporation. It’s much more likely that the scope of online BBC news services will be scaled back to some extent.”

Julian Calvert, 13 years a newspaper editor and now assistant head at the Department of Social Sciences, Media & Journalism at Glasgow Caledonian University, points out that the BBC news website isn’t the only challenge for newspapers.

“The BBC website having free content is an issue for newspapers, especially in areas where the content is localised,” he admits. “I don’t know if charging for BBC news content would solve the problem in itself though, since the culture of news being free at the point of consumption is now very firmly established.

“The importance of the Metro, which distributes 1.3 million copies a day, has always been underestimated in this regard, as well as in its impact on the sales of paid-for newspapers.

In essence, the genie is out of the bottle – the public expect most news and sport content to be free, and the ubiquity of social media has only enhanced this situation.” n

ON THE RECORD bqlive.co.uk/breakfast

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Scottish Friendly spins a good yarn The Scottish Book Trust is celebrating its long-running partnership with Scottish Friendly, which has led to more than 70,000 children falling in love with stories, finds Peter Ranscombe Scottish Friendly, founded in 1862, is Scotland’s biggest mutual society, meaning that its profits are used for the benefit of its 415,000 members who buy its insurance and investments. It started life as the City of Glasgow Friendly Society, before widening its name and scope in 1992.

The latest chapter in its story began in June when it took over the business of Marine & General Mutual, doubling its assets to more than £2bn.

Yet Scottish Friendly also has another story to tell. Since 1998, the mutual has sponsored the Scottish Book Trust’s children’s book tour, which has brought authors into the classroom to share their love of reading, writing and illustrating with more than 70,000 pupils.

Calum Bennie, Scottish Friendly’s communications manager says: “We’ve continued to support the tour because it’s become more successful as the years have gone on – leading authors have heard about the tour and want to go on it. The turning point came about ten years ago when Michael Morpurgo, who at the time was the children’s laureate, came on the tour. His War Horse book has gone on to be a stage show and a Steven Spielberg film.”

Six tours are held each year, with four visiting

Scottish venues and two heading south of the Border, reflecting the fact that the majority of the mutual’s business now comes from outside Scotland. Writers travel everywhere, from rural schools with only eight pupils like Mouswald near Dumfries through to 400-seat theatres in Glasgow. Scottish Friendly’s involvement in the project stems back to a time when there were major changes underway in the financial services industry throughout the UK. “We used to have a direct sales force that used to go door-todoor round people’s houses – like the famous ‘man from the Pru’, except he was the man from Scottish Friendly,” Bennie explains. “But the whole financial landscape was changing in the 1980s and 1990s because customers were out at work instead of being at home and technology meant people could deal with

“The turning point came about ten years ago when Michael Morpurgo, who at the time was the children’s laureate, came on the tour”

you first by phone and then over the internet.

“With the end of our direct sales force, there was a risk that we wouldn’t be seen as part of the community anymore. So we wanted to make sure that we were still engaged with our communities and still giving something back because of our roots as a friendly society and so that’s how the partnership began.”

Bennie remembers visiting Hull last year with the tour and seeing how well it went down with the children. Scottish Book Trust staff received a similarly-positive reception in Birmingham earlier this year. “The success of the programme is that it brings authors to places that wouldn’t normally get these opportunities,” Bennie adds.

“Some of them are remote and others are in deprived communities.

“Although it’s not the be-all and end-all, from our point of view we have been able to increase our brand awareness. Parents going along to the tours find out about us and our saving plans for children, plus they hear about us through the publicity that comes from the tour. But direct sales were never the focus – it’s always been about brand awareness and giving something back to the community.” n

BUSINESS UPDATE Nappy firm expands Washable nappy brand Tots Bots is expanding into larger premises in the East End of Glasgow after signing a five-figure finance deal with UK Steel Enterprise.

The company, which was founded by husband and wife team Magnus and Fiona Smyth in 2001 and which lists Boots and Tesco among its clients, is moving into a 20,000 sq ft facility, which is double the size of its previous site. Magnus said: “We now have working capital to activate our growth plans which will see us expand the business and recruit local talent. The boost to our workforce will put us in a prime position to compete in the global market. It has always been important to us to be made in Scotland and the backing of UK Steel Enterprise has helped us stay here and nurture the business.” Tots Bots designs, manufactures, distributes and sells its own brand of re-usable cloth nappies.

Scotland’s first ‘PR’ festival Edinburgh is to gain another festival next summer with the launch of “The PRofessionals”, which is billed as Scotland’s first public relations festival. Speakers lined up for the inaugural festival, which takes place on 16-17 June, include: Linked-In marketing consultant Jaime

Pham; Stephen Waddington, chief engagement officer at Ketchum Worldwide; Frederik Vincx, founder of Prezly from Belgium; and Claus Boden, chief executive of Jung Relations in Sweden. Laura Sutherland, founder of Glasgow-based Aura PR and board director at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, is organising the event. She said: “Lines aren’t blurred about what PR is; it is still about ‘public relations’ but modern two-way engagement has meant taking a fresh look at best practice.

Technology has brought us new tools to help modernise workflow and help us do our jobs more efficiently and creatively. It’s about coming away from the ‘let’s write a press release’mentality and actually thinking about engaging audiences on platforms and media they use, in their language. That’s not to say traditional media doesn’t play a part in that, but it’s no longer the sole focus of any PR campaign. In order to directly engage some audiences, we might have to pay to reach some of them.”

Partnership to help stroke victims PAL Technologies, a Glasgow-based life sciences firm, has formed a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) with Glasgow Caledonian University and the University of Strathclyde to help stroke victims and amputees to walk again.

The company already makes devices for measuring people’s movements. Now PAL has teamed up with the universities through the

Nappy brand Tots Bots expanding into larger premises in the East End of Glasgow

Ambulatory Guidance for Interactive Locomotion Enhancement (Agile) project to develop a device that will wireless transmit real-time information about patients’ movements. Chief executive Douglas Maxwell said: Our expectation is that the new technology will enable us to launch a new range of products, initially in the UK and United States markets.”

Milne backs tech firm Aberdeen football club chairman Stewart Milne has joined the board of ScramCard after investing a seven-figure sum in the technology company. ScramCard offers an alternative to chip-and-pin systems using a credit card-sized device that includes a built-in keypad and which can store the details of multiple bank accounts. Milne, who is chairman of his eponymous construction group, said: “It is an incredibly exciting technology with boundless opportunity and exactly the kind of business that I look to invest in. The business was founded by Simon Hewitt, a former chief security officer at Australian bank Westpac, in Hong Kong and is now based in West Sussex. The company is eyeing expansion in Australia, the UK and the US, and is already working with partners including Mastercard, France-based Alcineo and Netherlands-based Gemalto.

BUSINESS UPDATE

11

bqlive.co.uk

IT firms turn to alternative finance

FACT OF THE QUARTER

Companies working in the information technology (IT) or the communications sectors are most likely to turn to alternative sources of finance like equity funding or peer-to-peer lending in order to grow their businesses, Interface, which helps according to a new survey. The Business Banking Insight businesses find university (BBI) project, which was setup by Chancellor George partners, brokered Osborne, commissioned a poll of 5,000 British small 179 collaborations and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The survey found in 2014-15 that a third of IT and communications businesses would consider alternative finance, compared with a national average of 23%. Selling an equity stake in their business was an option considered by a quarter of communications and IT firms compared with a national average of just 16%. Manufacturing, professional services, science and technology, and property firms were also more likely than average to consider selling equity, while agricultural firms were much less likely, with only 8% considering the option. Mike Cherry, policy director at the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “Investment is a vital element of business growth, and finding the right finance for your businesses needs is critical.

Today, there are increasingly diverse and innovative ways to secure business finance. However more traditional bank-sourced lending continues to dominate the market for SMEs. The BBI report gives small businesses an important tool to find the best product that’s right for them.” John Longworth, director-general of the British Chambers of Commerce, added: “The best financial guidance will be specific to each business, which is one of the reasons why accountants, banks and independent financial advisors (IFAs) that offer personal interaction with customers score the highest among businesses. However, many firms are learning that there is a plethora of detailed and intelligent advice that is easily accessible online, which makes it important for banks and financial services providers to continue to adapt their services to support the changing needs of business customers.”

QUOTE OF THE QUARTER “Business For Punks is a book for people who hate business. It is about adopting a DIY ‘punk’ approach, and encouraging the next generation to break free from the mundane, risk-averse, colourless template they’ve picked up in business school. The old principles no longer apply.”

BrewDog co-founder James Watt promoting his new business book £450,000 for sports business project Sporting Chance Initiative (SCI), the team that helps sports-related businesses to access expertise from universities, has been awarded a £450,000 grant from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).

The Stirling-based project has worked with a wide variety of businesses, from tour companies and mountain bike repair firms through to food and drink manufacturers and clothing companies. John Rogers, director of research and enterprise at the University of Stirling and chair of the university’s innovation park, where SCI is based, said: “I am extremely proud to say that, in our first four years, we have been able to add an estimated £10 million to the turnover of the 723 small to medium-sized sports-related businesses that we have worked with, thus contributing successfully to the Scottish economy.”

SFC chief executive Lawrence Howells added: “We’re delighted to support SCI; its unique support helps sports businesses work with universities on projects from helping young people in disadvantaged areas get into football to developing wearable technology to improve your golf skills.”

TOP TWEETS Re-live #SBA2015 with our official event photography – visit www. scottishbusinessawards.co.uk/2015photos/ for Clooney, winners, Festival – @ScotBizAwards A final thank to all the attendees of today’s #SUS15 from the team of WeAreTheFuture.

See you all very soon! – @WATF_ #FestivalofEntrepreneurship @EuroBiotix and @kitschdrinks both receiving £12.5k from #YoungEDGE @ScottishEDGE worthy winners! Great pitches! – @Janie_Kennedy Sky is the limit-encouragement from Sir Jim McDonald @UniStrathclyde Principal @SENStrathclyde #GEW2015 #COEStrath – @OlgaUK Develop or adapt your offering for #export. Curious? We’ve got funding plus expert advice to support you: ow.ly/UKKlg – @ScotEnt SWA assesses benefits of #EU membership in evidence to Treasury Select Committee http://bit.ly/1iWv292 – @ScotchWhiskySWA Check out our latest case study featuring @IvanWoodandSons & @AbertayUni http: //bit.ly/1NZelHl #KTP – @InterfaceOnline I am thinking that the combination of entrepreneurs plus a craft Brewer @drygate for @CanDoPlaces will be irresistible to @PeterRanscombe1 – @EnterpriseIain Sir Ian Wood cites @DiscoverKelpies as an #economic #gamechanger which #ABZdeal could hitch itself to #diversify – @SCDIchief

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BUSINESS UPDATE bqlive.co.uk/breakfast

MOVERS AND SHAKERS Bob Keiller, chief executive at Aberdeenbased oil and gas services giant Wood Group, is to replace Crawford Gillies as chairman of economic development agency Scottish Enterprise. Keiller, who will serve in his new role for three years, is best known for creating Production Services Network before selling the business to Wood Group.

Former Scottish Executive minister and MSP Susan Deacon has been named as the new chair of the Institute of Directors Scotland. Deacon, who is assistant principal for external relations and a professorial fellow at the University of Edinburgh, succeeds former Royal Mail stalwart Ian McKay.

Computing giant Microsoft has unveiled Steven Grier as its new country manager for Scotland. Grier, who has been with the company for 15 years, will also continue to lead its government team north of the Border. He takes over from Chris Forrest, whose achievements in the role included launching the Gaelic language pack for Microsoft Office and who will now concentrate on his role in Microsoft’s UK financial services team.

Sheila Murray, an arts management student at Queen Margaret University in Musselburgh, near Edinburgh, has been appointed to the board of Creative Scotland, the Scottish Government agency responsible for promoting the arts, screen and creative industries.

Murray had previously spent 25 years with the British Council, including roles in Scotland, London, Israel and Spain.

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£80m innovation hub Queen Margaret University (QMU) has unveiled plans for an £80 million innovation and commercial hub surrounding its campus on the edge of Musselburgh.

The university thinks that businesses based at the hub could employ up to 13,000 people.

Principal Petra Wend said: “A £1bn city region deal bid has been submitted by Edinburgh and the south east area of Scotland, which concentrates on the region’s strengths of knowledge culture and technology. Although still in its early stage, we are confident that if the deal progresses that our proposals would be relevant for inclusion.

“QMU has a key role as a catalyst to attract high-growth small and medium-sized enterprises to East Lothian and to work with them to achieve Scotland’s economic aspirations in partnership with industry bodies, other learning institutions and government agencies. To achieve this potential, the land adjacent to our campus must be retained for the development of specialist facilities needed to support business growth.”

QMU submitted a planning application notice to East Lothian Council and held a public consultation on its plans during September.

East Lothian Council’s Business Gateway centre is already located on QMU’s campus, making it the only university in Scotland that houses such a facility.

A sense of place Students from West College Scotland – the further education institution created in 2013 through the merger of Clydebank, James Watt and Reid Kerr colleges – are taking part in a challenge to redesign Clydebank, Greenock and Paisley as ‘enterprising towns’.

The students have been set the challenge by Can Do Places, a project funded by the Scottish Government. Can Do Places said: “They will create a range of art displays, including photography and installations, to challenge the way we look at our places.

“Ultimately, they will be able to visualise a better way of using community landmarks, such as old shipyards and empty stores, to create hundreds

of jobs for people working for themselves.”

Audrey Cumberford, principal of West College Scotland, said: “We are very proud of our students’ creative and enterprising abilities, so this is an excellent opportunity to put them into practice.

“We need to find new ways of helping our students make the most of themselves and recognise the role and importance of enterprise, of all kinds, in their community. By looking at their area from an enterprise perspective they will identify opportunities as well as develop pride in their place.” The artwork and projects will be displayed at West College Scotland and at the Place Matters show on 3 March at Drygate brewery in Glasgow.

PROFILE Scott-Moncrieff

13

Freelance nation In today’s DIY economy, the UK’s army of freelance consultants and solo operators is growing rapidly - a fact that hasn’t escaped the notice of HMRC. Amid changes to the tax regime, is independence still worth it?

The UK was famously a nation of shopkeepers. Now it seems we are a nation of freelancers, with 4.6m working solo last year – around 11% of the working population. With almost half of graduates considering self-employment as a career, freelancing is set to explode.

Which is perhaps why some of the tax advantages of going it alone are being neutralised. With such a proportion of the workforce flying solo, the Government will be keen to maintain equity with the rest of the workforce.

Deciding on incorporation is one of the biggest issues that someone starting out in business will face and now the freelance conundrum of self-employment or incorporation is a thorny issue - is it still worth becoming a limited company?

The incorporation bandwagon took off after 1 April 2000, when the first £10,000 of profits attracted tax at just 10%, later reducing to 0%.

From 1 April 2006, the 0% rate was abolished.

Suddenly many people found themselves left with a company which no longer served its purpose, having fallen into the trap of incorporating for tax, rather than commercial reasons. Recently, incorporation became attractive again because of its tax benefits. These included Entrepreneurs’

Relief, allowing the sale of the goodwill from their business to the new limited company – where appropriate conditions were met, the rate of capital gains tax was only 10%. In addition, the sum due to the proprietor for the sale of the goodwill could be left on the director’s loan account and be repaid without any further tax consequences.

Then there were the sole directors and shareholders and who paid themselves a small salary, taking the rest of their pay in dividends. In many cases, the individual did not need to extract money from the company, and so it could build up at a much lower rate of corporation tax. At a later stage, there were ways in which this money could be extracted tax-efficiently, and treated as a capital gain, so Entrepreneurs’ Relief and a 10% tax rate would be available, again as long as certain conditions were met.

It was no wonder that so many plumped for incorporation when a sole trader, for example, might be subject to tax on their profits of up to 47%. Now the tax landscape has changed, and tax advisers are having to think carefully about incorporation on behalf of their clients. Last December, Entrepreneurs’ Relief on the disposal of goodwill on incorporation was abolished, as was the corporation tax relief which had been available to the company on writing off the goodwill – a double blow to individuals considering incorporation.

The Summer Budget contained

“Suddenly many people found themselves left with a company which no longer served its purpose, having fallen into the trap of incorporating for tax, rather than commercial reasons” another ‘double whammy’, the first being the removal of the allowance for employer’s Class 1 National Insurance Contributions – going up to £3,000 next April – from those companies where the director is the sole employee. The second blow will be the scrapping from next April of the 10% tax credit on dividends. Every individual will have a £5,000 dividend allowance, and any dividends received over and above this will be taxed at 7.5% for a basic rate taxpayer, 32.5% for a higher rate taxpayer and 38.1% for an additional rate taxpayer – taking a small salary and topping up with dividends is suddenly looking much more expensive, particularly where those dividends are in excess of £5,000.

It would appear that the tax advantages of an incorporation are being steadily eroded, but as long as we have relatively high rates of personal taxation, then incorporation is still an option. It may be less advantageous than before, but there may still be very good reasons, both tax and non-tax, for making such a choice.

Morag Watson is a partner and tax specialist at Scott-Moncrieff, leading accountants and business advisors. Morag.watson@scott-moncrieff.com

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BUSINESS UPDATE bqlive.co.uk/breakfast

WEBSITE OF THE QUARTER www.cuvva.co.uk is the UK’s first short-term car insurance website

Wood wants to be ‘leader of the pack’ A property entrepreneur turned online retailer has unveiled plans to open five high street shops dedicated to man’s best friend. Chris Wood, 41, sold his Edinburgh-based property letting company, Woodstar Properties, in 2013 and launched Ruff IT, a website selling products for dogs. Wood is now using £20,000 of his own start-up capital to give the website a high street presence. The first branch is due to open at Morningside, in Edinburgh, in December, with a further four stores planned over the next five years. Wood wants the Morningside store to bring in revenues of £90,000 during its first year, with all five shops forecast to turn over a combined £1m by 2021. He said: “We decided having ‘real’ retail shops across Scotland was the way forward in building our business.

“We want to create a real community for dog owners across our shops and online; providing a comfortable space to shop, learn and discuss all things dog related with our very friendly and knowledgeable staff.

“We believe we’ll be able to provide dog owners with much more than any other retailer, in terms of our variety of products instore coupled with online.

“We hope to become the ‘leader of the pack’ in Scotland’s dog retail market.”

Dundee total tops £600m The £1bn redevelopment of Dundee’s waterfront has already secured £600m of investment as the city council begins to attract developers and tenants for new commercial facilities. Council officials are working with a number of institutional investors to bring businesses to the shopping and recreation areas that have been created between the city centre and the Firth of Tay. Officials are looking for a mixture of high-end boutique brands and local retailers and restaurateurs that will complement the existing businesses in the city centre rather than competing with them.

Mike Galloway, director of city development at Dundee City Council, said: “We are keen to encourage sustainable, design-led development that reflects Dundee’s status as the UK’s first Unesco City of Design. Most of the land in the central waterfront is owned by Dundee City Council, so we can work in partnership with investors and take a long-term holistic approach to development. We are also open to joint ventures so would encourage businesses and entrepreneurs to contact us with their concepts.” The waterfront is being redeveloped ahead of the arrival of the Victoria & Albert (V&A) Museum.

Aircraft Medical lands US$110m takeover deal Medtronic, the New York-listed technology outfit, has bought Edinburgh-based Aircraft Medical for US$110 million (£73m). The Scottish company makes video laryngoscopes – devices to help medics put breathing tubes down patients’ throats – at its facility in Dalgety Bay in Fife.

Matt McGrath, chief executive at Aircraft Medical, founded the company in 2001, two years after starting work on his medical device in response to a design brief issued by the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in London. McGrath said: “We are pleased to be joining the Medtronic team as we strive to provide the McGrath video laryngoscope platform to many more patients around the world.”

Steve Blazejewski, senior vice president at Dublin-based Medtronic, added: “Aircraft Medical’s offerings complement our portfolio, helping us further our commitment to reducing incidents and potential complications from respiratory compromise globally.”

McGrath was born in Benbecula and – unlike many life sciences entrepreneurs in Scotland, who come from a medical or biology background – studied industrial design at the University of Northumbria in Newcastle. He is one of only three people to have won the RSA student design award twice, sharing the distinction with fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and Jonathan Ive, head of design at American consumer electronics firm Apple.

“Aircraft Medical’s offerings complement our portfolio, helping us further our commitment to reducing incidents and potential complications from respiratory compromise globally.”

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AS I SEE IT bqlive.co.uk

Family firms: our past, Professor Sarah Dodd examines the strengths and weaknesses of family businesses, and dispels the myths about them being amateur, conservative, homely and old-fashioned Working alongside your family is an ancient tradition – perhaps it’s even a ‘natural’ activity, given that we evolved as social animals, sharing the tasks of farming, gathering and hunting, of making clothes, weapons, jewellery and shelter.

Yet modern separation of private and public lives, of the professional and domestic, has helped create and sustain a myth that there is something old-fashioned, conservative, amateur and homely about the family firm. Nothing could be further from the truth.

By combining the worlds of the family and

business, these firms are indeed different from other companies. Whilst some of the differences are potentially very positive, others present more of a challenge. Family-owned companies that rise to these challenges – and build on their substantial strengths – are amongst the oldest, biggest, best known and most innovative firms.

The world’s oldest businesses are all family firms, like Venetian glassmakers Barovia & Toso, with more than 1,000 years of experience, or Japan’s Houshi Inn & Spa, founded in 718, where the 46th generation is now in charge. Scotland’s oldest family business, John White & Sons, this year celebrates its 300th anniversary, with the eighth generation at the helm.

As well as longevity, family-owned and -managed businesses dominate the economy,

questioning stereotypes about their competence and potential. Even in the developed world, family enterprises account for between 80% and 98% of all businesses, generate 50-75% of gross domestic product, and provide at least 60% of all private-sector employment, reaching 85% in some countries. The largest firm in the world, according to Fortune’s 2014 calculations, is a family business: Walmart. Other Fortune 500 Global family companies include Samsung (13th), Ford (27th), and Hewlett Packard (53rd).

Many top brands are also squarely in the sector: Benetton, Estee Lauder, Fiat, Heineken, Ikea, L’Oreal, McCain… the list could continue for pages. From Johnstons of Elgin to Walkers Shortbread, from four generations of Baxters to five generations of Grants, a large proportion of our most treasured Scottish brands are family owned and run, and continue to act as crucial drivers of the economy.

AS I SEE IT bqlive.co.uk

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present and future Research published in the 2014 Global Entrepreneurship Monitor report showed that, in Scotland, a family business background can double your chances of starting your own company. Today’s family firms also act as natural incubators for spin-offs or start-ups, with a quarter of all early-stage entrepreneurs developing their new ventures from the launch-pad of their family’s existing companies.

These family spin-offs are also much more growth-focused – and twice as well-resourced financially – than their counterparts. A great example is Jennifer Hope, whose The Wee House Company was spun out from her father’s construction business, and whose success has recently been recognised by the Association of Scottish Businesswomen’s 2015 Young Inspiring Businesswoman Award.

The point is well made: big firms – really big firms – as well as firms that have been successful over the very long term, can be family owned, and often are. So too are many of Scotland’s most dynamic young start-ups. There must surely be advantages, as well as drawbacks, to being a family business?

Among the clear advantages are how the overlapping responsibilities of owners and managers enable rapid speed to market, and easier organisational renewal, due to the lack of dominant external owners. Concentrated ownership structures also demonstrably lead to higher returns on investment.

Similarly, a desire to protect the family name and reputation often translates into high product quality and a heightened commitment to the enterprise. The family’s ability to take a long-term perspective creates so-called ‘patient capital’, which can accept lesser returns in the short-run, and generally is associated with much lower financial administration costs.

Families are able to communicate well with each other, so that skills and specialised knowledge are rapidly transferred, and a common vision both built and maintained around their shared values. Longer chief executive tenure – up to 20 years, for family firm leaders, compared to an average of three years in other firms – means that these values are sustained.

The down-side is largely generated by the difficulties in keeping ‘family’ and ‘business’ within reasonable and mutually-agreed boundaries. Nepotism is a potential failing, and the confusion caused by dual roles, such as that of ‘mother’ on the one hand and ‘chief executive’ on the other, can make this still worse.

Conversely, expectations placed on younger family members can appear as much a burden as an opportunity, and too often the dependence on relatives as a low-cost resource can slip into exploitation, especially of women and children. Youngsters who enter the family business, and never study or work elsewhere, can experience real difficulty in developing

“Big firms – really big firms – as well as firms that have been successful over the very long term, can be family owned, and often are. So too are many of Scotland’s most dynamic young start-ups”

a strong sense of self-worth, remaining in a comfort zone.

These challenges may explain why only 30% of family firms are successfully transferred to the second generation of owners, and only 12% survive to the third generation of family ownership. The core task for owners and managers, and the enterprise ecosystem that aims to support them, is to build, celebrate and draw upon these strengths, whilst facing up to and tackling their specific challenges. Specialised education and training, well-informed advisers, and specific policies should all be founded on appreciation of both the strengths and weaknesses, and draw on cutting-edge research and practice that sets out optimum strategies and practices for addressing these. Family firms are too crucial for our national economic and entrepreneurial wellbeing to be overlooked, or underestimated. n Sarah Drakopoulou Dodd is a professor in the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow.

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Peak performance Chris Tiso has kept the ethos of his family business alive after teaming up with a stock market giant to secure its future, finds BQ editor Peter Ranscombe

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Climbing the stairs of the head office of Tiso at Leith in Edinburgh is like stepping back through time. On the walls, photographs record the outdoor clothing and equipment retailer’s achievements, from stores opening through to taxis carrying its livery. At the top of the stairs, a cabinet displays some of the family’s historic climbing equipment.

It’s a sharp contrast to the shop that occupies the ground floor of the head office. Customers are greeted with a broad range of bright and modern equipment, from jackets and boots through to tents and camping stoves. Whether you want specialist gear to tackle a Munro or just a new pair of shoelaces for your approach shoes, the store’s staff know each and every product inside and out and are ready to offer the legendary levels of advice that have come to define Tiso’s shops and set them apart from their competitors.

That contrast between the old and the new feels like it’s at the very heart of chief executive Chris Tiso’s business. The company was founded in 1962 by Graham and Maude, Chris’s mother and father, in the back room of a boat shop on Dundas Street in Edinburgh before moving to its own premises later that year on Rodney Street.

By the time it celebrated its 50th anniversary as a family business, Tiso had grown to encompass 16 stores throughout Scotland and the north of England, with around 300 staff working for the core business and its sister brands Alpine Bikes, Blues ski shop and fellow outdoor specialist George Fisher in the Lake District.

Then in November 2013 a controlling stake in the company was sold to Bury-based JD Sports Fashion, the FTSE 250 listed company that owns outlets including JD, Scott and Size and which had bought outdoor chains Blacks and Millets out of administration in January 2012. Tiso’s sale of

a controlling interest came as a surprise to many in the Scottish business community and sparked fears that the brand and the levels of service for which its staff were famous would be eaten up by the stock market giant.

Jump forward two years and those concerns haven’t come to pass. Tiso is still a formidable presence on many Scottish high streets and retail parks and it all appears to be business as usual.

So how has Chris managed to retain the ethos of a family business after becoming part of a much bigger operation?

“It’s difficult to put your finger on what makes something special – but this business is special,” he explains. “Our customers feel that, our suppliers feel that and the people who work here feel that. It’s slightly intangible because it’s made up of so many different things, but it could be summarised by saying ‘We are a Scottish family business’ and we felt it was important to our suppliers and our customers and our team that we continued to operate on that basis – but just with a big, rich, elder brother down in Bury.

“I know that was important to JD too. Peter Cowgill, JD’s executive chairman, could see and identify with the values and the DNA of Tiso and he was keen to see that preserved too. Frankly, I don’t think the deal would have been done if there hadn’t been a meeting of minds.”

That meeting of minds came against the backdrop of seismic shifts in the outdoor retail market, with companies such as stock marketlisted Blacks Leisure and its Millets subsidiary falling into the hands of administrators after struggling against increased competition. Online sales also sent shockwaves through the industry, as a younger generation of customers emerged.

“The outdoor retail landscape has changed beyond all recognition in the past ten years,”

“We are a Scottish family business and we felt it was important to our suppliers and our customers and our team that we continued to operate on that basis – but just with a big, rich, elder brother down in Bury”

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explains Chris. “I’ve been sitting in this chair for 22 years. So I’ve seen it go through phenomenal change in my adult lifetime, but none more so than in the past decade.

“Ten years ago, very clear polarisation took place in the market, but what’s followed on from that is the market becoming more crowded and fiercely competitive, leading to some very aggressive discounting – which is inevitable in a market that’s over-supplied – and that in turn has led to consolidation. There came a point where I had to choose whether I was going to be a part of that or not. If I’d chosen to continue to go it alone then I would have had to accept the risks that would have come with that – consolidation would have continued around us and eventually we would have been squeezed out or not able to do a deal on our own terms because we would have run out of options and time. I didn’t want that to happen to this business on my watch.

“So we brought in KPMG Corporate Finance to help us find a strategic partner and we looked at a number of options – including venture capital and private equity – but I didn’t feel they were right for us. An introduction to JD was effected.

They had already bought Blacks and Millets out of administration, which I thought demonstrated an enormous commitment to outdoor, and that gave us confidence and reassurance that they were taking a strategic approach. I met with Peter Cowgill and we established an immediate rapport. We quickly determined that there was a deal to be done and actually it was pretty straight forward.”

While Tiso has firmly planted its flag at the premium end of the market, Millets and – latterly – Blacks had been operating in the high-volume

space. Yet Chris saw this as an advantage.

“It would be fair to say JD was looking for a high-end business,” he explains. “You need fascias that are strategically placed within the marketplace to complement each other and not compete with each other. It’s not fair to look at how Blacks and Millets were being run or performing prior to JD’s ownership because I think that business had been in terminal decline and indeed it probably went to the best home. I think JD has taken a very responsible approach to working through the turnaround of Blacks and Millets, which is now very much well underway.

“JD is very open and honest about its lack of experience in the outdoor space. We share information all the time. I spend a fair amount of time down in Bury with its senior team.

“Part of the attraction wasn’t just that JD is a profitable multinational company with sales north of a £bn – which obviously brought us financial security and recapitalised the business – but that it also values our combined knowledge and experience.

“JD saw the value in that and we saw that it had a phenomenal well of resources that we could tap into in terms of IT, multichannel and harmonising terms with Blacks and Millets.”

JD Sports Fashion was founded in Bury, near Manchester, in 1981 and listed on the stock market in 1996. The company, which has been led by Cowgill since 2004, has grown to include nearly 18,000 staff working at more than 800 shops, and in April 2015 headline profit broke through the £100m barrier for the first time.

The company may be listed on the stock market but an important part of its story also involves a family business. Pentland Group bought a 57%

“Consolidation would have continued around us and eventually we would have been squeezed out or not able to do a deal on our own terms because we would have run out of options and time”

stake in JD in 2005, giving it a controlling interest in the company. Pentland is a London-based global brand management firm that owns sports labels including Berghaus, Mitre and Speedo.

The business started life in 1932 as The Liverpool Shoe Company and was floated on the stock market in 1964 by founders Berko and Minnie Rubin and their son, Stephen. The turning point for the group came in 1991 when it sold its stake in Reebok for US$770m, ten times what it had paid for the shares in 1981. Stephen and his family took Pentland private again in 1999.

Making a success of the link-up with such a large company is certainly a feather in Chris’s cap. But then again overcoming challenges is nothing new to him. After attending The Edinburgh Academy and then Rannoch School – a private institution on the banks of Loch Rannoch in Highland Perthshire that included large elements of educationalist Kurt Hahn’s outward-bound philosophy and which closed in 2002 – Chris spent a year working on charter boats in the Caribbean before starting a degree in maritime business and law at what is now Plymouth University.

“To put it bluntly, I didn’t engage with the course,” laughs Chris. “Perhaps the course wasn’t what I expected or perhaps a year spent sailing on the high seas made classrooms in Plymouth seem a bit dull or bland by comparison, but I came back up to Edinburgh, quite frankly at a loss for what I was going to do next.”

Chris drifted into the family business, working first for six months as a sales assistant in the busy Rose Street branch in Edinburgh before spending another six months as a floor manager at the Buchanan Street store in Glasgow. “So I’d completed a year of retail training when my father died and everything changed,” he reflects. Graham was killed in a boating accident in the Caribbean in 1992, which thrust the then 21-year-old Chris into the limelight. “At that point my mother came back into the business as the chairman, with a fairly light touch on the tiller,” he explains. “Looking back, it was quite interesting to see just how much confidence she must have had to allow me to be there with my hands on the wheel aged 21 and with absolutely no relevant experience, knowledge or qualifications. So I really have learned on the job.

“I had returned to Edinburgh in 1991 with nothing else obvious presenting itself and had gravitated towards the family business. I think

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

“JD saw the value in that and we saw that it had a phenomenal well of resources that we could tap into in terms of IT, multichannel and harmonising terms with Blacks and Millets�

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perhaps there had been an underlying interest there that I hadn’t fully embraced – or perhaps hadn’t acknowledged – because I did find myself drawn towards it in almost a subconscious way.

It wasn’t a conscious decision – I didn’t suddenly say ‘I’m going to join the family business and this is going to be my career path for the next 20 years’.”

By stepping up to the responsibility of running the family business, Chris had big shoes to fill.

Birmingham-born Graham had been a salesman for Cadbury in Scotland and had fallen in love with the country and with the outdoors. He and Maude wanted to run their own company and identified a gap in the market for quality clothing and equipment. They swapped their Turner kit car for a van so they could bring back specialist climbing and skiing stock from Europe to sell in their fledgling Edinburgh shop. Early supporters included Sir Chris Bonington, who Graham helped to prepare for his Everest expedition in 1972.

“My father had a tremendous eye for product and was commercially very astute,” Chris remembers. “I don’t think he was necessarily the best leader though because he relied too much on a culture of fear, which can work up to an extent but doesn’t necessarily bring out the best in people.

“So I adopted a very different approach to communication and encouraged people to have a view and not be afraid to express it. I was more inclined to give people responsibility so they had a sense of ownership – in some cases that worked and in some cases that didn’t.” Chris recognises three distinct phases in Tiso’s growth. Initially when he took over the business, organic growth came one store at a time through opportunities rather than a set expansion strategy. “That started to change, as much as anything, because I’m impatient and I have a restless spirit,” laughs Chris. “I get bored quickly. I was always wanting to be on to the next challenge and doing something new and bigger and better. Initially it was opportunity-led, and then that gave way to my personal ambition becoming the driver.

“As the business became bigger and more sophisticated and I became more experienced then it became more strategic. So there were three distinct drivers to growth – being opportunity-led, then my personal ambition, and finally the more strategic approach.”

“My father had a tremendous eye for product and was commercially very astute. I don’t think he was necessarily the best leader though because he relied too much on a culture of fear” That strategic approach brought with it the acquisitions of Alpine Bikes, outdoor specialist George Fisher and the Blues ski shop. From the six shops that made up the chain when Chris took over the business, Tiso has expanded to 17 branches today, with JD shelling out £2m for its 60% stake in 2013 and paying off £5.3m of debt. Yet just weeks after the deal was unveiled, tragedy again struck the Tiso family. Chris’s elder brother, Donald, who had served as a director of the company for 22 years, died in a climbing accident on Ben Starav near Oban in January 2014. “As a family, we’ve had our fair share of tragedy,” says Chris, who had earlier lost another brother. “My mother always has been and remains my inspiration. She would be anyway, but not least because she remains so positive and optimistic despite losing two sons, which as a father of two children myself is just incomprehensible.

“Donald was a very quiet man, very considered and understated, but widely respected. He preferred to be in the background – that suited

his personality – but he was an enormous source of strength for me and at various different times over the course of the past 20 years when we’ve been through some very challenging periods he always gave me tremendous support and wise counsel.”

Despite his family’s tragedies, Chris certainly still has a sense of adventure. He has participated in and led expeditions to the Arctic, Antarctic, South America and even Mount Everest. Nowadays, he enjoys camping, sailing and skiing with his ten-year-old son and eight-year-old daughter, as well as running around Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh when he can. He’s also looking to inspire the next generation of outdoor enthusiasts after being elected as honorary president of Scouts Scotland, a position he took up in November 2014.

“An old friend who had been involved in Scouting for donkey’s years called me up and we had a coffee and he asked me if I’d be willing to have my name put forward for election – recklessly I said yes,” he laughs. “Joking aside, I was hugely honoured to be asked and hugely honoured to be elected. It’s a terrific movement.

It’s as relevant today as ever and it gives a huge number of children the opportunity to do a range of outdoor activities. It opens up a whole new world for them. What’s not to like about that?

“The official bit is presiding over the annual general meeting, but I also get asked to give speeches and present awards, which is a huge privilege and I thoroughly enjoy it. I’m slowly also making my own expeditions around Scotland to meet different Scout Groups and attend camps. I will continue to do as much as I possibly can to support them.

“I wasn’t a Scout at school – boarding school didn’t leave much room for activities like that, although we did take part in the Duke of Edinburgh Awards scheme, bronze, silver and gold. I was lucky enough to go to a school that embodied the essence of many of the same values as the Scouting Movement, such as serving your community and enjoying the outdoors.”

The passion that has taken Chris on adventures around the world is still burning bright. “I’m really lucky because I get to do a job in which I spend every day working with and talking to people who share my love, passion and interest for the outdoors,” he says. “We get to handle product, which is exciting. It’s not detracted in any way shape or form from my interest in the outdoors – it’s simply an extension of it.” n

PROFILE

University of Strathclyde Business School

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An MBA for innovative business Leadership and innovation are the focus of this customised MBA programme designed

by Strathclyde Business School and William Grant & Sons

Strathclyde Business School is widely acknowledged for its innovation in business and management education Strathclyde Business School and William Grant & Sons have been partners in a customised MBA programme since 2011.

Launched at Grant’s Dufftown distillery, the family distillers has led the MBA25 programme – so-named because of its limit of 25 participants - with other handpicked companies invited on to the programme.

As part of this consortium, William Grant & Sons has invited those businesses they believe have DNA in common with their organisation onto the programme. These have been companies with global ambitions; family or owner managed businesses; or those with luxury brands and entrepreneurial flair, who are truly committed to the development of people as a key element of their business strategy.

Companies such as Alliance Trust, Craneware, Wolfson Microelectronics and Johnstons of Elgin have all taken part, along with a number of suitable entrepreneurs and not-for-profit companies. The programme is aimed at creating global leaders of the future: taking experienced executives from a variety of backgrounds within the participating companies, and equipping them with the knowhow, skills and strategic orientation to sustain and scale business in today’s global markets. As you would expect, established Strathclyde MBA subjects such as strategy and strategic management are part of the curriculum, and there is a strong

“The programme differs from other MBAs in that it has been tailored to promote innovation, family business and luxury brands” focus on leadership and innovation to address the organisational needs of both William Grant & Sons and the other member companies. Several distinctive elective classes have been created specifically for the MBA 25 programme on subjects such as luxury brand marketing, entrepreneurship and owner operated business.

An international and experiential dimension to the MBA25 has been achieved via partnerships with the Stockholm School of Economics; Ca’ Foscari University of Venice; and Milan for Strathclyde Business School academic sessions. Current participants have enjoyed engagement with organisations such as Cartier, Patek Philippe, the concept of Meta-Luxury and the Chinese luxury market. There have also been visits to Maserati and Fratelli Rossetti.

Alan McIntyre, Director, Centre for Corporate Connections, Strathclyde Business School, said, “Up to now, William Grant & Sons has picked the companies to work alongside them on the

programme but for the next cohort, there may be an opportunity for the right companies to put themselves forward to be involved. We would be happy to hear from companies who fit the highvalue/entrepreneurial mould, who have clear global ambitions, and who would benefit from taking part in this programme.”

MBA25 recognises that delegates will have already achieved significant positions within business, and will have corresponding expectations about this learning opportunity. Individual development coaches, real-time projects, and guest visits from a wide range of business leaders will maximise the learning experience.

George McNeil, Managing Director, Retail Division, Johnstons of Elgin, took part in the first cohort of the programme and said of his experience, “I was approached by Strathclyde Business School and William Grant & Sons who wanted the MBA25 cohort to contain a mix of professionals from certain industries. I saw the MBA25 as a chance to stretch myself and learn about other areas of business, areas where I didn’t already have influence. Johnstons is still owned by the same family after 215 years, it’s a luxury brand manufacturing for luxury brands, so the MBA25 was a perfect fit.

“The programme differs from other MBAs in that it has been tailored to promote innovation, family business and luxury brands. It caters to the audience and the audience has been handpicked. The modules have been designed so the cohort gets as much out of it as it possibly can.”

If your company fits the bill and could benefit from the MBA25 programme, please get in touch with Alan McIntyre in the first instance alan.w.mcintyre@strath.ac.uk.

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Breathing fresh life into a sleeping giant Combining science and business has led Diane Harbison to become managing director of BioCity Scotland, the Lanarkshire life sciences incubation centre that’s expanding into healthcare, writes BQ editor Peter Ranscombe Few sights as you drive along the M8 motorway between Glasgow and Edinburgh draw as many quizzical looks as the odd-shaped building that sits on the north side of the road at Newhouse, with the name ‘BioCity Scotland’ emblazoned on its side.

“It’s supposed to look like a Dutch hat,” explains Diane Harbison, managing director of the life sciences incubation centre that occupies the stylish building and its bedfellows on the 20acre site. The Dutch influence in the curve of the bulbous roof is a throwback to Netherlands-

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

based Organon, which owned the factory in the 1960s and produced some of the UK’s first contraceptive pills on the premises.

Seeing weird and wonderful sights while traveling is nothing new to Harbison. Although she was born in Glasgow, her parents moved to Africa when she was six months old while her father was working as a telecommunications engineer. Returning to the UK with her family when she was eleven, Harbison completed her schooling at Falkirk before studying the emerging subject of molecular biology at the University of Glasgow.

“I’ve always been interested in science for as long as I can remember,” explains Harbison.

Following her undergraduate degree, Harbison stayed in Glasgow to complete her doctorate in molecular biology, which involved studying the genes of fruit flies. The research led her on to a job at the University of Edinburgh, looking at the genes in fruit flies that play a role in development and in the control of diabetes in humans.

After heading south to Cambridge and working on the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) database at the European Bioinformatics Centre, Harbison was recruited to drug developer Pfizer’s bioinformatics team, where she spent four years and rose to become head of e-biology, the field that brings together biology and computer science.

Harbison took the step from science into enterprise in 2004 when she moved across to Pfizer’s business development unit. “I’d worked closely with the business development team and thought it looked like a really exciting job and so when a vacancy opened up I applied

for it,” she remembers. “Business development involved researching opportunities, negotiating contracts and then managing alliances, such as partnerships with universities. I was lucky to work on some fantastic projects – like the stem cell work involving Professor Pete Coffey at University College London into age-related macular degeneration, which is one of the biggest causes of blindness.”

Having worked for Pfizer at Sandwich in Kent, Harbison decided it was time to head home to Scotland and, when she saw the role of head of business development at Edinburgh BioQuarter being advertised, she jumped at the chance to apply. She got the job and started in November 2010.

The BioQuarter is a joint venture between NHS Lothian, Scottish Enterprise and the University of Edinburgh and is arguably best known for the science park of the same name, which sits next to the new Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh at Little France and includes ‘Nine’, the futuristic-looking incubation centre for spin-out companies and firms that want to form links with academics and clinicians.

Harbison and her team were involved in a lesser-known part of the project that had been set up to commercialise the intellectual property (IP) being developed by NHS Lothian and the university’s medical school, which had also moved out to Little France when the hospital left its Victorian home on Lauriston Place in 2003. Her greatest hits at the BioQuarter included signing two partnerships with drug development giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), which involved scientists from the company working with academics at the university on liver

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disease and pancreatitis. The combination of her background in cutting-edge scientific research and her experience in business development at Pfizer gave Harbison the credibility needed to broker such deals between big pharmaceutical companies and universities. Yet, after enjoying success at the Edinburgh BioQuarter, what made Harbison head down to the other end of the M8 to run BioCity Scotland? “When I came to visit, I appreciated that the site presented an opportunity to do something completely different,” she explains. “It felt like a very exciting and challenging opportunity.”

While the Edinburgh BioQuarter is a distinctly public-sector project, BioCity Scotland is a completely different beast. The Newhouse factory opened in 1948 and, after expansion under Dutch firm Organon, eventually passed into the hands of MSD, part of US drug developer Merck. MSD closed the Lanarkshire facility in 2010 with the loss of 250 jobs following its £30 billion takeover of Schering-Plough.

But in January 2013 Roslin BioCentre, which already ran a science park on the edge of Edinburgh, teamed up with BioCity Nottingham to open BioCity Scotland on the Lanarkshire site. Harbison took over as managing director at BioCity Scotland in August 2014 from Fraser Black, the site’s first boss. Under his stewardship, the University of Dundee and BioCity had won a share of the European Union’s £169m European Lead Factory project, which brought around 500,000 chemical compounds to be stored on the site and analysed to see if they could be turned into new medicines.

Since taking over, Harbison has worked to

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make the site more attractive to companies.

Some of her innovations have been simple steps, such as opening a small café.

Other changes have been more dramatic, such as campaigning for BioCity to be awarded enterprise area (EA) status. Edinburgh BioQuarter had become an EA after finance secretary John Swinney announced the business rates tax break back in 2012, sparking anger from private sector property developers, which said such incentives gave the public sectorbacked site an unfair competitive advantage.

Lobbying to level the playing field bore fruit at the start of September this year, when First Minister Nicola Sturgeon announced that BioCity Scotland would also be granted EA status. “Becoming an EA in 2016 will remove one of the biggest barriers to bringing more companies to the site,” Harbison explains. “In the past, if one of our companies expanded out of a small laboratory space into a bigger space then we would be left paying business rates on that smaller space until we could find a new occupant. That wasn’t the case for the BioQuarter, for example.”

In the meantime, companies have continued to setup home in BioCity. The latest was Alfacyte, a pharmaceuticals company that moved to Newhouse from its base in Glasgow after securing a £350,000 funding package from St Andrews-based business angel syndicate Eos and the Scottish Investment Bank to develop its peanut allergy vaccine. Another company to have recently moved into the facility was Scientific Laboratory Supplies (SLS), which marked its arrival at BioCity by holding the inaugural Scottish Laboratory Show trade fair at the end of October. Having such companies on hand to supply scientific equipment, chemicals and consumables has been a big part of Harbison’s strategy to make Newhouse more attractive to tenants.

“On day one, I was taken on a tour of the site and saw every nook and cranny,” says Harbison.

“I think that was a real eye-opener for me because, like most people, I didn’t appreciate the size and the scale of the site. Most people are familiar with the pharmacology building that faces onto the M8, but what they don’t appreciate is that there are 20 acres of land behind that building and 130,000 square feet of laboratories and offices.”

There are now 18 companies based at BioCity,

“So MediCity has been created to work with the med tech community – which is often a hidden community compared with other life science companies, buried in the basement of a hospital” which together employ about 120 people, with the total expected to rise, by the close of the financial year, to 22 firms and up to 150 staff. By the end of March, Harbison expects Newhouse will reach a milestone when occupancy rates pass 50% for the first time.

The next step in the expansion is MediCity Scotland, the healthcare incubation centre that has opened in one of the other buildings on the site. While the entire BioCity complex is focused on life sciences – from drug discovery through to ingredient manufacturing – the MediCity incubator will focus specifically on businesses that involve medical technology, whether through devices, imaging or digital health.

“Scotland has been very strong on med tech, with companies like Optos and Touch Bionics,” says Harbison. “With our connection with Nottingham – which has its own MediCity on the Boots site – we have a focus on health and wellness. So MediCity has been created to work with the med tech community – which is often a hidden community compared with other life

science companies, buried in the basement of a hospital – to create a place where people can come together and get the type of peer-to-peer mentoring and access to business support such as finance that they can’t get elsewhere.”

Chancellor George Osborne unveiled £1m of funding for MediCity Scotland during the Commonwealth Games Business Conference in July 2014 as part of an £18m life sciences package in the Glasgow & Clyde Valley City Deal. The facility was opened in November 2015 and is now up and running.

Another achievement of which Harbison is proud is the facility’s innovation hub. “It’s the first of its kind in Scotland and has formed a unique partnership between BioCity Scotland, Scottish universities, NHS Scotland, innovation centres, bio-pharmaceutical and big data companies,” she says. “This collaborative approach is helping to foster the success of more start-up and spin-out companies by giving them exceptional opportunities to learn from and work together with major healthcare practitioners, entrepreneurs and scientists.”

Though her working life is now centred on Lanarkshire, Harbison still lives in Edinburgh.

“My house is in the perfect location for commuting to the BioQuarter but sadly not BioCity,” she jokes. “But really the commute isn’t that bad on the M8. I used to commute between Canterbury and Cambridge, so this doesn’t feel that long. It gives me time to prepare myself for the working day and then to switch off again on the way home.”

When it comes to de-stressing and relaxing, yoga plays a big role in Harbison’s routine, as does swimming. Reading is another way that she unwinds, but science obviously still plays a role, as she lists Patricia Cornwell’s novels about forensic pathologist Kay Scarpetta as among her favourites. The apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree either when it comes to science and medicine. Harbison’s son, Sean, is in the final stages of his medical degree at Imperial College London and recently completed a three-week placement with a general practitioners’ clinic at Stockbridge in Edinburgh. “I’m trying to encourage him to move up here when he finishes,” Harbison laughs. With so many enterprising medics and scientists making their way to BioCity Scotland, he’s unlikely to be alone if he decides to make a move north of the Border. n

EXPORTING SCOTLAND

SPECIAL FEATURE

Overseas opportunities for Scottish business

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NEW HORIZONS

Scotland is exporting its goods and services in record amounts, with key markets such as the United States and Europe now being joined by many emerging economies Exports have been at the heart of the Scottish economy for generations. Whether it’s through the mighty ocean liners that slipped down the causeways into the River Clyde or the barrels of pale ale that eased the thirst of workers in hotter climes, our nation can be rightly proud of the goods that it has sent around the world.

That rich heritage continues to this day.

Equipment and techniques developed for the North Sea oil and gas industry are now being used on rigs as far afield as Azerbaijan, Brazil and the Gulf of Mexico. Beef, salmon and whisky are being served at tables on five continents, while Harris tweed is not just keeping fashion-lovers on-trend but also warm and dry as well.

Overseas sales of goods and services soared by £1.9 billion to a record high of £27.9bn in 2013, according to the most recent official figures, and that’s excluding sales of oil and gas as raw commodities. Manufacturers exported £16.8bn of goods, up 8.2% year-on-year, while the service sector grew its contribution by 6.8% to £9.2bn.

It’s not just the usual suspects that are proving popular either. While whisky and other food and drink accounted for £5bn of exports, lesserknown areas such as professional services – which encompasses accounting, legal and management – chalked up £1.7bn, while computer, electronic and optical products contributed £1.6bn.

The United States continued its run as Scotland’s most-important export partner, as it has done for the past 11 years, buying £3.9bn of goods and services. The Netherlands – with its large seaports, which act as conduits for sales on to other countries – was our second-largest buyer

with £2bn, while Germany followed in third place with £1.9bn.

Exporters are now turning their attention to other markets too. Accountancy firm EY analysed official data from HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and found Scotland accounted for 7% of all UK exports in the 12 months to 30 June, with the US and Europe remaining the country’s two biggest overseas trading partners.

The practice now thinks that Scotland should concentrate its focus on America, China and Europe – the so-called “ACE” economies – as these are expected to deliver the best returns between 2020 and 2030. India should be Scotland’s “development bet”, the accountancy firm added, marking a refinement of the more general strategy of targeting the “BRICs” – Brazil, Russia, India and China – that many countries and companies have employed.

“Scotland’s exporters should target ACE economies to boost business,” explains Mark Harvey, EY partner and market leader for Scotland. “In recent years there has been a push towards the BRIC economies but these are not necessarily the best fit for Scottish, and UK, companies. Our analysis shows we should focus on and cater for our capabilities through a mix of high growth and high value markets.

“Scottish companies already have a strong footing in some of the key markets for export expansion. The nation’s leaders and businesses need to focus on maximising these relationships and exploring new opportunities for exporting to China, which is not currently amongst our top export partners but remains our second-highest

EXPORTING SCOTLAND bqlive.co.uk

source of imports after the US. “EY’s latest Scotland Attractiveness Survey also highlighted the ongoing need to develop relationships with growth territories like Asia to secure a bigger share of their foreign direct investment (FDI) projects. China is the fifthbiggest source of projects for the UK as a whole in 2014 but does not even rank in the top ten origins for FDI into Scotland.

“By building stronger ties in China and, in the longer-term, India, companies can help Scotland and the wider UK strike the right balance to compete globally in terms of exports.”

The whisky industry has already been targeting emerging markets in Asia and beyond. In 2014, 444 million bottles of Scotch were exported to Europe, followed by 173 million to North America. Asian countries imported 239 million bottles, while South America and Central America together took a further 142 million bottles, highlighting the importance that the industry already places on emerging economies.

Industry body Scotland Food & Drink’s export strategy – which aims to grow overseas sales from £5.1bn at present to £7.1bn by 2017, as part of wider aims to increase the industry as a whole from £13.9bn of revenues to £16.5bn over the same period – is also targeting emerging markets. Sales of salmon and seafood to China have already been highlighted as one success story, with the demand for dairy from the Communist state also increasing.

Scotland Food & Drink has designated the ‘first fifteen’ markets that companies should target, with the top seven featuring: North America; France; Germany; the Middle East, including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; China and Hong Kong; Japan; and South-East

Asia, including Singapore and Thailand.

Exports are also at the heart of government strategy on both sides of the Border. One of the nine elements that form the Scottish Government’s “Scottish business pledge” is “pursuing international business opportunities”, alongside paying the living wage, not using zero-hours contracts and committing to prompt payment.

‘Internationalisation’ was also one of the four ‘I’s unveiled in First Minister Nicola Sturgeon’s economic strategy in March – accompanying ‘investment’, ‘innovation’ and ‘inclusive growth’ – while Prime Minister David Cameron’s highprofile trade missions to countries including India and Singapore have underlined the UK Government’s focus on exports. With exports riding so high up the political agenda, the Scottish Parliament Economy, Energy & Tourism Committee’s report, ‘Internationalising Scottish Business’, in May highlighted the need for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to be encouraged to export their goods and services.

MSPs on the committee pointed out that just 100 companies currently account for about 60% of Scotland’s export, drawing attention to the size of the opportunity available to the nation if more firms could be encouraged to trade overseas.

Encouraging a larger number of SMEs has already been a key focus for economic development agencies Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise, along with the agencies’ overseas arm, Scottish Development International (SDI) and UK Trade & Investment, which operates at a UK-wide level. The Business Gateway service delivered by local councils and their partners is also highlighting the importance of overseas trade to companies throughout Scotland. n

“Scottish companies already have a strong footing in some of the key markets for export expansion. The nation’s leaders and businesses need to focus on maximising these relationships and exploring new opportunities for exporting to China”

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Playing the ‘ACE’ card Scottish Enterprise is helping businesses to export by raising their Ambition and Awareness, building their Capacity and Capability, and aiding their Engagement and Entry to market It’s a scenario that will be familiar to so many entrepreneurs: you start out selling your product or service locally then expand throughout your region and finally you go national, serving customers throughout the country. For a growing number of businesses, the next step is to trade overseas.

“Scotland is a small country, with around 5.3 million people, and so international trade is important not just for individual companies but also for the nation as a whole,” explains Neil Francis, international trade and investment operations director at Scottish Enterprise.

“From a company’s point-of-view, trading internationally gives you access to larger and faster-growing markets that can complement the domestic marketplace.

“From the nation’s point-of-view, internationalisation is important in order to continue with sustainable economic growth. We know that companies that trade internationally tend to be more productive, innovative and competitive and this in turn helps with Scotland’s overall productivity and growth.”

The benefits of exporting aren’t just about growing your sales either. “There’s wellestablished research that shows there’s a strong link between being innovative and trading internationally,” Francis points out. “If you trade internationally then there’s often a requirement for ‘localisation’ of your product. You need to understand the specific requirements of the marketplace such as customer preferences and local regulation and you need to ensure your product is customised to meet those needs.

“That might be around packaging, the performance of your product or branding.

Neil Francis, Director of International Trade and Investment Operations for Scottish Enterprise For food and drink products, there might be the requirement to slightly alter the taste or portion size to meet the exact requirement of a particular market.”

Scotland’s exports are already growing, up by £1.9 billion in 2013 to a record £27.9bn. Yet only about 100 companies account for around 60% of those exports and so more businesses are being encouraged to trade internationally.

“We’ve established a model that represents the international journey for companies – ACE,” says Francis. “A is all around ambition and awareness, C is around capacity and capability, and E is around market entry.

“One of the most important things we have to do in Scotland – and it’s not just a job for

Scottish Enterprise or Highlands and Islands Enterprise but across the range of partners from Business Gateway and Chambers of Commerce through to industry groups like Scotland Food & Drink – is to raise the ambition to trade internationally and the awareness of the benefits. Companies tend to overestimate the challenges and underestimate the benefits.

“Obviously Scotland’s enterprise agencies have a big role to play, but we need everyone in Scotland to play their part in helping to raise the ambition and awareness of becoming increasingly internationally competitive. The Scottish Export Awards are a significant opportunity to do this and allowing companies to see what their peers have achieved already is hugely effective.”

Francis adds: “There are specific skills that are required to trade internationally and it takes time, so companies need to build their capability and capacity. Companies need to have a clear and coherent strategy that can drive activities needed to become successful in the international marketplace.

It’s all about going to market – selecting your market, determining how best to enter that market and then going to that market, which is incredibly important, getting companies out to the market so they can see the dynamics of that market for themselves. They can meet potential customers or potential partners, like agents or distributors.”

Peer-to-peer learning is very powerful so hearing stories of people who have been through the process and are successful is an important way of supporting and encouraging businesses to

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Rising to the challenge

“Most tourism businesses wouldn’t count themselves as international businesses but when you service international visitors, you are an international business” internationalise. “Having Scots overseas who can open doors is very important,” says Francis.

We have the GlobalScot network, we have SDI staff in 29 international offices, we have the Saltire Fellowship, we have alumni from our universities, and we work very closely with UK Trade & Investment, which is in more than 100 markets worldwide. Being able to leverage all of these resources to support our companies is absolutely critical.” Francis also highlights the need to continue to support those companies that are already exporting, both through helping them to enter new markets and increase the range of products that they’re selling overseas.

The food and drink sector has been hailed as one of the nation’s biggest success stories, with exports already reaching £5.1bn and industry body Scotland Food & Drink setting an ambitious target of growing that figure to £7.1bn in 2017. Exporting is about more than just bottles of whisky or tins of shortbread though. Francis points to other sectors that are also enjoying success, including chemicals companies based around Grangemouth, financial services firms, and engineering businesses, both in the oil and gas sector and beyond. He says that the twin messages about provenance and premiumisation apply not just to food and drink producers, but also to textile companies, tourism operators and even universities and other educational institutions.

Francis also highlights the fact that a sector doesn’t have to be large to enjoy exports success. “Our textiles industry is small but it is highly internationalised,” he says. “A lot of its products are sold abroad.”

While products such as beef, salmon and Harris

Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne, Genius Foods tweeds clearly lend themselves to exporting, Francis also thinks that Scotland needs to have a change of mind-set when it comes to trading internationally. “We need to think differently around tourism – most tourism businesses wouldn’t count themselves as international businesses but when you service international visitors, you are an international business because they are bringing with them spending power from out-with Scotland,” he points out.

The importance of bringing tourists to Scotland – whether as leisure travellers or for business meetings and conferences – also ties in with the role that internationalisation plays in attracting foreign direct investment (FDI). “When it comes to access to markets, we’re not really selling Scotland on the size of the Scottish marketplace; instead, we’re telling companies that, by coming to Scotland, they will have access to the largest single market in the world – the European Union,” says Francis. “A large number of our foreign direct investors export, so they’re a very important piece of that overall exporting picture.” n

Since Lucinda Bruce-Gardyne developed her first gluten-free recipes on her kitchen table in Edinburgh, Genius Foods has grown to employ more than 600 people and sell in excess of £50 million-worth of bread, sweet treats and pastry products each year. Bruce-Gardyne launched the company in 2009 with help from Cairn Energy founder and former Scotland rugby player Sir Bill Gammell, who is also coeliac.

Very quickly, the company established itself as a best-selling brand in British supermarkets, but realised it also needed to spread its wings overseas.

The company’s products are now sold in more than 20,000 shops throughout Australia, Europe, North America and the United Arab Emirates. In France, Genius sells bread, brioche and bloomers in four of the largest hypermarket chains, including Carrefour and Casino, while the company also controls 37% of the freefrom bakery market in the Netherlands.

“More than 25% of Genius’s branded sales come from overseas markets,” explains commercial director David Shaw.

“Genius has certainly established its presence internationally and we hope to further replicate the success we have enjoyed in the UK on an international scale. Scottish Enterprise has been of huge value by introducing us to new networks, offering valuable market information and providing various funding opportunities.

It’s made our business journey so much smoother. There is no quick-fix that will automatically deliver international markets; it’s all about having the right product, the right plan and the right people.” Shaw’s top tips for exporting are to remember the three “R”s – research the market, respect local cultures and form strong relationships with local partners. “You also need to recognise that things take time,” he adds. “Introducing new products and exporting into other markets is exciting, but it’s important not to underestimate the time it takes to do thorough research and develop strong relationships, which will be beneficial to your long-term goals.”

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EXPORTING SCOTLAND bqlive.co.uk

As he sailed along the South China coast in 1864 on board the steamer SS Manila, Thomas Sutherland suddenly had an idea. Sutherland – who was the Hong Kong superintendent for the Peninsular & Oriental (P&O) Steam Navigation Company and a proud Scotsman – had been reading an article in Blackwood’s Magazine about the strengths of the Scottish banking system.

And that’s when the idea hit him. Sutherland decided to launch a bank in Hong Kong that would be founded on sound Scottish banking principles and which would serve the growing number of businesses being set up all along the Chinese coast. A year later, the Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) was born, with offices in its two eponymous cities and a mission to fuel the increasing trade between Asia, Europe and North America.

Fast-forward more than 150 years and Sutherland’s bank is still going strong. Today, HSBC has 48 million customers served by around 6,100 offices in 72 countries and territories. The bank’s footprint gives it access to 87% of the world’s trade routes and in 2013 the lender helped facilitate more than US$500 billion of trade.

With such huge numbers involved, trading internationally can seem daunting for many small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Scotland. Breaking down the complexities of global trade into bite-sized chunks – “What should I export?”, “Which countries should I choose?”, “Do I sell direct or use an agent?” – is a challenge for many companies.

It’s a problem that’s all too familiar to Leigh Briggs, director of global trade and receivables finance (GTRF) for HSBC in Scotland, but one that her bank has worked hard to solve.

“You could be in a remote part of Scotland, wondering how on earth you’re going to get your product to market, but we have staff who can meet you and talk about the help you need,” she explains.

“If a customer from Scotland wants to go out to visit Dubai or France or the United States then we can organise for an HSBC representative to meet them and even introduce them to local companies. That person-to-person contact can be really powerful and can help lots of businesses to take their first steps in exporting or help others to expand their existing international trade.”

Face-toface service throughout the world With more than 6,100 offices spread throughout 72 countries, HSBC understands the importance of helping Scottish companies to access overseas markets Meeting customers in Scotland to talk to them about exports and then putting them in touch with its network of contacts around the world are only two of the ways that HSBC can help companies to trade internationally. The lender’s trade specialists can also speak to clients about what support they might need to finance and support their overseas trade.

“We offer financial services that can help customers of all sizes and sectors,” Briggs says.

“We sit down with them and put together a bespoke package to fit their specific needs, whether they’re a small business turning over less than £10 million or a big company turning over £200m. It’s not about telling our customers to tick boxes A, B and C on a form – it’s about working out which are the financial solutions that will best suit their business.

“One of the challenges that companies face is ensuring they can protect each transaction, making sure they insure their goods while they’re in transit and then get paid for them. We can help mitigate those risks and we can also assist when it comes to financing those sales, because often an export sale has a much longer trade cycle than if you’re selling a product to a

customer who’s just down the road.

“Nowadays, with the increase in financial crime, it’s also becoming even more important to understand who the person is that you’re doing business with at the other end. You need to know that they are who they say they are. By helping to do that, we’re making sure that we protect our customers’ reputations overseas too.”

As well as the help that HSBC can provide, Briggs also points to the range of advice and information on offer from government agencies such as Scottish Development International (SDI) – which is the overseas arm of Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise – and UK Trade & Investment (UKTI), along with credit agency UK Export Finance, which can provide insurance policies to exporters and guarantees to banks to share the risks of providing export finance.

Targeting overseas markets is becoming a focus for an increasing number of companies. HSBC’s UK small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) survey found that a third of SMEs already trade or operate internationally with a further 9% likely to start doing so in the next 12 months.

EXPORTING SCOTLAND bqlive.co.uk

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Top tips for exporters When it comes to taking those first steps towards exporting, Leigh Briggs has five top tips for businesses:

Do your research: both desk- and field-based research have important roles to play. Make sure you understand the culture of your target markets, along with regulations and taxes;

Choose the best route: you could fulfil orders for products and services from the UK or you could use a local agent, distributor, franchisee or licensee – no matter which route you choose, you need to make sure you have the right legal agreements in place to protect your business;

Protect your property: intellectual property (IP) rights are territorial, so you need to make sure you protect your brand, copyright, designs and trademarks in each jurisdiction in which you operate;

Get your finances in order: making sure that you have the right trade credit insurance in place can help to minimise the risks of doing business internationally, but exports also need to consider the effects of foreign currency fluctuations and also the length of time it can take to ship an order and then receive payment;

“Person-to-person contact can be really powerful and can help lots of businesses to take their first steps in exporting or help others to expand their existing international trade.”

Spread the word: an international marketing campaign can pay huge dividends, but it’s worth remembering that online 25% of internet searches are carried out in English, or accessing expertise in foreign languages can be a big help when targeting overseas markets.

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EXPORTING SCOTLAND bqlive.co.uk

BQ Scotland Magazine is delighted to announce the third annual Scottish Export Awards will take place on Wednesday 23 March 2016, at the Hilton Hotel in Glasgow.

Exporting and international trade remain high on the Scottish Government’s economic growth agenda and these awards are about recognising the excellence in those emerging, wealth-creating companies that are selling their products, services and expertise in scores of overseas markets.

It is vital that we appreciate and recognise the emerging Scottish companies who have made the transition from being great local companies to potentially world class exporting businesses based in Scotland.

Exporting continues to present an opportunity for Scotland to bring immediate and sustainable growth to its economy and with this in mind we need to continue to lay down the baton to SMEs across Scotland to consider exporting as a realistic opportunity for growth.

2016

Celebrating export success across Scotland Join us at the HSBC Scottish Export Awards 2016 in association with Scottish Enterprise to celebrate the entrepreneurial exporting achievements of businesses across Scotland LOOKING BACK AT 2015’S AWARDS

Jonathan Golby, Peak Scientific, Winner of Scottish Exporter of the Year 2015

Winner of Large Exporter of the Year and BQ Scottish Exporter of the Year was Peak Scientific.

Jonathan Golby, Peak Scientific, sales and marketing director said: “Peak was absolutely delighted to win the ‘Scottish Exporter of the Year’ and ‘Large Exporter of the Year’ titles at the BQ Scottish Export awards. All at Peak are proud of the company’s Scottish heritage; the calibre of the award nominees really showed the impact that Scotland can have on the global stage.

The recognition of winning these awards are a testament to the collective efforts, hard work and passion of all staff at Peak Scientific Instruments.”

The other categories and winners were: E-COMMERCE EXPORTER OF THE YEAR Fine Coffee Club, an e-commerce provider of

In association with

Nespresso(r) compatible coffee capsules; MOST ENTREPRENEURIAL EXPORTER OF THE YEAR (sponsored by Heathrow) PG Paper, an industrial solution organisation connecting overcapacity and obsolete stock to demands from local end-users in developing and emerging markets; EMERGING START-UP EXPORTER OF THE YEAR Stevenson Astrosat, one of the UK’s fastest growing space technology companies; SME EXPORTER OF THE YEAR (sponsored by Santander) Harris Tweed Hebrides, manufacturer of the finest hand-woven Harris Tweed cloth; SCOTTISH EXPORT TEAM OF THE YEAR Bute Fabrics, renowned contemporary fabric designer and manufacturer of wool and wool rich upholstery fabrics.

ARE YOU CURRENTLY EXPORTING? If you are currently exporting from Scotland entering the export awards will raise your brand profile and build brand awareness. Winning or being shortlisted for an award can also profile your company locally and internationally to attract new business. To find out more about the benefits of entering visit www.bqlive.co.uk/exportawards

This years categories include: E-Commerce exporter of the year Most entrepreneurial exporter of the year Emerging start up exporter of the year Small exporter of the year Large exporter of the year Scottish export team of the year Professional service adviser of the year* Logistics partner of the year* * New categories for 2016

2016 The 2016 judging panel includes: JOHN ANDERSON Director - Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at Strathclyde Business School NEIL FRANCIS Director of International Trade and Investment Operations for Scottish Enterprise SUSAN ROWAND HSBC Head of Business Banking, Scotland JONATHAN GOLBY Sales & Marketing Director, Peak Scientific PETER RANSCOMBE Editor, BQ Scotland

The simple online application is quick and easy to complete

enter now at www.bqlive.co.uk/exportawards Initial closing date Friday 15th January 201

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Factoring in success One is flamboyant and outgoing, the other is more measured and organised.

Together Stephen and Kirsten O’Neill make for a winning combination, writes BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe “I know you’ll find this hard to believe, but I’m a bit of a show-off,” admits Stephen O’Neill as his face lights up with his trademark smile and he roars with laughter. Sitting in the office of the managing director of Newton Property Management, it’s hard to argue with him.

His room feels more like the lounge in a modern city centre flat than a workplace, with the glass desk pushed up against one wall and the space instead dominated by a two-seater sofa and chair, both with dark wooden frames and bright red upholstery. In the corner, three brightlycolour heads – made by his daughter Rachel, who runs an art gallery in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam, and cast using her boyfriend’s skull as a model – sit on three shelves, one above the offer. His Porsche is parked out back.

While his office may feel like an art gallery, the rest of Newton’s Glasgow headquarters live up to the same standard. In reception, modern lighting dangles from the ceiling at odd angles, while the biggest wall is covered by a huge collage of black-and-white photographs

depicting rubble and ruins on derelict sites, along with a gunmetal grey ship listing at sea.

The whole setup oozes modernity and style; perhaps as a physical embodiment of the boss.

To describe Stephen as “flamboyant” would be an understatement. When we meet, he’s wearing a grey and black checked suit, with a classic white shirt and a thin black tie. If I bumped into him on the street then I’d be more likely to think he was a fashion designer or graphic artist than the head of a residential letting and property factoring business that turns over more than £2m and has just expanded from its Glasgow heartland into Aberdeen. It’s fascinating to contrast 59-year-old Stephen’s Austin Powers-like exuberance with that of Kirsten O’Neill, 28, his eldest daughter, who joined Newton as a director in the autumn of 2014. While her workwear is in more traditional colours than those of her father, she still shares the same stylish appearance and infectious smile and laughter. Though Kirsten comes across as perhaps more thoughtful and

reflective than her old man, it’s clear that she shares his entrepreneurialism.

After studying design and applied arts at Edinburgh College of Art, Kirsten became a brand manager at Harvey Nichols department store in Edinburgh, before taking on the role of a general manager with fashion chain French Connection. “I would be sent into under-performing stores to turn them around and make them more profitable,” Kirsten explains. Her retail operations job took her to Nottingham, where her dad was impressed with her work. “I could see the difference that Kirsten was making in the shop,” Stephen says.

Her dad had his own turnaround plan in mind.

“We’d had an issue in the business,” he admits.

“We had growing pains as many businesses have and we needed to grow up a wee bit, in the way we handled holidays, in the way we laid out the office, in the way we structured the business.” To solve the problem, he called his daughter. “It was all very tentative,” Stephen says. “I asked her, ‘Kirsten, what would you

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say if your dad was thinking about asking you to come and work with him?’.”

“And I said, ‘Dad, I’ve always wanted to work with you, but I’ve never wanted to ask just in case you said no’,” replies Kirsten. “I’d always aspired to join the business at some point but I wanted there to be a value to me being here – I didn’t want to be invited to join just for the sake of it.”

The story brings a tear to Stephen’s eye and it’s easy to see the pride he feels for his daughter.

When she arrived at Newton, Kirsten spent time getting to know the staff and learning about how the business worked before starting to put the systems in place to make its operations run more smoothly. “I used to just let people sit where they wanted in the office, but Kirsten has organised it so the right people are sitting next to each other,” says Stephen.

“You get the best out of people that way,” Kirsten explains. “If you’re sitting next to the wrong person then it can be a big distraction.”

The drive for organisation and streamlining even extends to the ‘key rooms’. One security-locked room contains all the keys to the properties that the company rents out on behalf of

“And I said, ‘Dad, I’ve always wanted to work with you, but I’ve never wanted to ask just in case you said no’.” landlords, while the other houses the keys to the properties for which Newton provides factoring services, such as looking after communal areas and gardens. Kirsten’s influence has not only extended into where members of staff sit but also into the roles that they play within the firm. “We had one guy who had reached as far as he was going to go in his current role,” Stephen explains. “But Kirsten called me up one Thursday night and suggested moving him sideways into a new role. Since then he’s flourished.”

Her training in design is also apparent in the look of the company’s website, and in the styling of the head office. Having a younger pair of eyes around has also helped with digital marketing. It’s all a far cry from the Dickensian factors’ offices of the 1970s, which Stephen remembers from when he was starting out in the game.

Bringing the next generation into the family business is a familiar path for Stephen. William

O’Neill, his father, was a chartered surveyor who opened what was only the second estate agency in Glasgow in 1960 and then the first in the West End a few years later. Growing up, talk over the dinner table was always about business, about shares, about partners, about opening offices, about new ideas.

Hearing about his father’s work gave Stephen a taste of the excitement of business and he enrolled at what was then Paisley College of Technology – and is now the University of the West of Scotland – to study surveying. Although he didn’t qualify, Stephen joined the family firm, which grew to have ten offices throughout Scotland.

When his dad retired and his business closed, it seemed only natural that Stephen would set up his own company, which he did in 1994. He kept the name ‘O’Neill’s’ for his new lettings agency, which struck a chord with clients, especially those who remembered his father’s operations. Stephen sold the company in 2001

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to Ralph Weir in Edinburgh for £700,000.

“I sold it because I think my dad regretted never selling his business,” he says. “It was at its peak and so I decided to capitalise on it. The way I went about it was very deliberate. In the year running up to the sale, I built up quite a high profile for myself in the media, commenting on things. It was all about getting the message out there. I wasn’t quite saying ‘There’s a “for sale” sign up’ but it was about raising awareness among the people who I thought might buy it.

“There’s a slightly apocryphal story about what happened after the sale. I went to Adam & Co, which was my bank, and I said to them that I wanted to take all of the money out in cash.

They looked at me askance and said ‘Ok, but it will take five days’. So I went back to their office and there was this big pile of money on the manager’s table. And I said ‘That’s great, you can put it back now’. So he asked what I was up to and I told him that I just wanted to see what all that money looked like.’

It wasn’t long before Stephen, who was then only 45, was back in business though. He kept the factoring side of O’Neill Letting and two of his clients, Sean Robinson and Brian Clarke, joint managing directors at Glasgow-based property investment company Park Lane, approached him about making an investment and Newton was born. Initially the firm focused solely on factoring – which still accounts for 80% of its turnover – due to a three-year restrictive covenant with Weir, before then expanding into residential letting. Now the company has 25 staff in Glasgow and a further five workers in Aberdeen after taking over Watt & Co from Ross Watt, who has become one of Newton’s shareholders and a director.

“It’s very much a merger because I wouldn’t have bought Watt & Co without Ross Watt,” explains Stephen. “He’s very much in my big plan. I’m not just saying that to make him feel better. He comes from a project management background in the oil industry and he has director-level potential that I want to develop.”

Watt joins a board that already includes Stephen, Kirsten and Derek MacDonald, who joined the business in 2003, as well as finance director William Cowie, who isn’t a shareholder.

While Clarke and Robinson from Park Lane are shareholders rather than directors, Stephen feels they fill the role of non-executive directors by offering advice and sharing their experience. “It

just goes to show that it’s not all the Stephen O’Neill show,” laughs Stephen.

“There’s a fine line to tread, because we want to retain dad’s personality in the business, which he’s used to build it up, but at the same time – when you get to a certain size – you need to streamline and structure the business slightly differently,” Kirsten explains.

Following the acquisitions this year of Watt & Co and Glasgow-based Greenhome Property Management, Newton’s turnover next year is expected to exceed £2.5m and the O’Neills have ambitious plans for further expansion.

“We’re not trying to take over the world,” says Stephen. “But we now have more director-level mouths to feed. All of our expansion so far has come from cash reserves within the business.

We have a sensible profits policy in that 40% is retained by the business, 30% goes to the taxman and 30% is paid in dividends. We don’t want to be beholden to the banks, but we also recognise that, in the next few years, I would

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still do a 180-degree turn on the flying trapeze,” Stephen smiles. “I still do the travelling rings above the pool at the Western Baths too.”

Kirsten is also competent on the trapeze and the pair share passions for eating out and for cars.

“There was a great photo of me sitting on the trapeze at the Western Baths reading a copy of Le Monde that was taken for The Herald newspaper a number of years ago,” remembers Stephen, who may be a show-off, but knows to temper it with a put-down. “I got a copy of it printed and they put it up at the bar at the baths. So I took some clients in one day to show them it, but someone had got drunk the night before and had scribbled a rude word on the bottom of the picture with a marker pen. So I signed it ‘You’re correct’. Cruel but fair.”

So what’s it like for a father and daughter working together? “The best bit is getting to see dad all the time after living away in Nottingham,” says Kirsten. “Also being able to suck up as much of his knowledge and

“Obviously Edinburgh is in our sights – but it’s got to be a perfect fit.

I want to continue to get a bloody good income from the business, almost like an endowment” like to see further considered growth.

“Obviously Edinburgh is in our sights – but it’s got to be a perfect fit. I want to continue to get a bloody good income from the business, almost like an endowment. But, unlike a lot of people when they approach retirement, I don’t have to sell my stake in the business and then try to earn an income from that capital. I don’t have to do that – I can let her work for me,” he laughs, pointing to Kirsten.

“I have a slightly different exit strategy,” he adds. “I want to continue to grow the business.

I’d like to see our earnings go north of a couple of million quid – then we’d all be doing very nicely thank you. I might give up and live abroad. I quite fancy Bali.”

The Far East appears to appeal to the family.

While Rachel, 26, continues to work in Vietnam, Stephen could also see her joining the family business one day. There’s also a creative streak that also runs through their DNA. While Rachel sells art and Kirsten puts her design skills to use in the office, Stephen has a more unusual outlet for his creativity – he is a trapeze artist. “I can

experience as possible while he’s still here and not on a beach.

“The worst bit is that we’ve got distinctly different personalities – my dad is quite ad-hoc and makes decisions very quickly, which can be hugely beneficial. Whereas I’m much more measured and planned, but that can mean that I plan things too much. So we get on quite well together; what I lack my dad brings, and vice versa.”

Stephen adds: “When Kirsten first joined, there were a few times when she voiced alternative ideas to mine and I went off in a huff because I was so used to getting my own way. There were a few times when the hairs on the back of my neck would stand on end and I would say ‘You cheeky besom’. But quite quickly, I accepted it because I could understand the value of what she was suggesting. Seeing her shine is the best bit. Kirsten’s the kind of person who could give you a kicking and you’d feel like you’d had a cuddle. Seeing her dealing with staff and then dealing with the directors at board level I think ‘That’s my girl’.” n

LIVE DEBATE

In association with

THE VOICE FOR BUSINESS DEBATE

The issue: How can Scotland develop a world-class multi-modal transport and logistics infrastructure?

Caroline Theobald, managing director of Bridge Club and the chair of many of BQ magazine’s live debates, welcomed guests to Dundas Castle and asked each participant to introduce themselves and explain why they were taking part in the event.

Colin Ferguson, chief executive at Livingstonbased Route Monkey, which has developed software to optimise performance, including organisations such as Shell and Iceland, added his welcome. He explained how his company’s algorithms could help infrastructure to be linked up.

Mark Bonnor-Morris explained that he is responsible for Siemen’s electro-mobility business in the UK, which covers electric vehicle charging infrastructure and services. “Scotland has probably the most comprehensive vehiclecharging network in the UK,” he said. “For me, the question is how do you develop that further and increase the use of electric vehicles?”

Musselburgh-based Astrosat sources, analyses and deploys satellite data and its chief

technology officer, Alan McLarney, said the company’s work included monitoring the resilience of infrastructure, such as how flooding and landslides affect countries like Malaysia and Vietnam and how their infrastructure could be adapted to cope with climate change. “We use Scotland as a Petri dish,” he said. “We’ve got everything here from islands to mountains to valleys to experiment with data.”

John Murray said Scottish Enterprise wanted to present an opportunity to the technology and engineering sector. “We’re not looking at this as a transport industry problem, we’re seeing it as an opportunity for technology and engineering companies to create innovative products to address the growing challenges caused by the shift away from operational, vehicle-centric models towards people and services,” he said.

“The big automotive companies have recognised this trend and the significance disruption it’s causing. In the past, their model involved 80% of revenues coming from the sale of vehicles and 20% from servicing those vehicles; now, their

new model involves 80% of revenues coming from servicing and only 20% coming from the sale of vehicles, because of the shift towards customers demanding personalised, seamless vehicle services.”

Finlay MacRae, area operations manager at ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne, said his company had won a contract to manage the Marchwood military port at Southampton.

“We’re bidding for the next Scottish Government contract to run the ferries for the next eight years,” he said. “As part of that, we’re looking at developments and innovations that touch on what’s being discussed here tonight. There has been some resistance to innovation within our area due to geography and distance, but there’s a new world coming and so I’m keen to be involved in any discussions that we can help with.”

George Hazel, director of his eponymous Edinburgh-based consultancy firm, said: “Over the past 12 years, particularly with Siemens, I’ve been looking at global trends in terms of

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TAKING PART

“Scotland has the resources – through wind and tidal, particularly in remote communities – to use that renewable energy to generate hydrogen and then use that as a transport fuel.”

Bill Ireland, managing director, Logan Energy cities and mobility. I’ve never seen anything so exciting and so disruptive. I’m also working as a consultant with Scottish Enterprise. There are two parallel universes going on at the moment: the first is the universe I’ve known and loved for 40 years, with a top-down strategic view of transport that’s operationally based, which we still need to have; but going in parallel to that is a whole new world of personalised services that the market wants, funded by smart technology linked to the cloud, which is promising to give people door-to-door service for all their mobility needs under one account. What’s disruptive is that’s being led by non-transport companies – energy companies, IT companies, retailers, car companies and mobile phone companies.”

Route Monkey projects and strategy director Kate Armitage comes from a background in electric vehicles with an energy company. “I understand the relationship between energy and transport and so I understand new models of thinking about travel from a low-carbon point-ofview,” she said. “My experience is in challenging perceptions about how people choose to travel, how people choose to move things around, and redefining travel and needs.”

Simon Tricker is chief digital officer at Urban Tide, an Edinburgh-based start-up formed from the team that won £24 million from the-then Technology Strategy Board (TSB), now Innovate UK, to use Glasgow as a future cities demonstration project. He said: “I’m interested in the idea of building ‘info-structure’. We’re

very good at building infrastructure, but ‘infostructure’ involves uses sensors to capture data.

The second part is then opening up that data.

Commercially, there’s friction there, but with open data you can create great things. Transport for London (TfL) is a great example. It opened up its data and along came City Mapper, which is a great app that allows you to navigate the streets of London in a much better way.”

Bill Ireland, managing director at Edinburghbased Logan Energy, works with hydrogen fuel cells (HFCs), including a project looking at the feasibility and business case for converting a rollon, roll-off (RORO) ferry from being an electricdiesel hybrid to being an HFC-electric hybrid.

“Our role not only involves the use of hydrogen on board but also the infrastructure,” he said.

“You can’t just pop along the road in most locations in the UK and fill up with hydrogen.

Scotland has the resources – through wind and tidal, particularly in remote communities – to use that renewable energy to generate hydrogen and then use that as a transport fuel.” He also pointed out that energy could be stored in HFCs in vehicles and then pumped into the national grid to help meet peaks in demand.

Stuart Garrett, managing director at Serco Northlink Ferries, which serves Orkney and Shetland, asked whether Scotland could become an “enabling environment” from a planning perspective to stimulate economic development.

He pointed to the lengthy delays in building the Aberdeen western peripheral route.

Kate Armitage, projects and strategy director, Route Monkey David Beeton, managing director, Urban Foresight Mark Bonnor-Morris, business development manager, Siemens Andrew Everett, chief strategy officer, Transport Systems Catapult Colin Ferguson, chief executive, Route Monkey Stuart Garrett, managing director, Serco NorthLink Ferries George Hazel, director, George Hazel Consultancy Bill Ireland, managing director, Logan Energy Finlay MacRae, area operations manager, Calmac Alan McLarney, chief technology officer, Astrosat John Murray, business development manager, Scottish Enterprise Keith Stark, manager, City Car Club Simon Tricker, chief digital officer, Also taking part: Dave Townsley, group account director, BQ Magazine In the chair: Caroline Theobald, managing director of Bridge Club Taking notes: Peter Ranscombe, editor, BQ Scotland Venue: Dundas Castle, South Queensferry, Edinburgh, EH30 9SP

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 region’s business economy. BQ Live is a series of informative debates designed to further contribute to the success and prosperity of our regional economy through the debate, discussion and feedback of a range of key business topics and issues.

#bqlivedebate Join in the debate online and have your say on the issues raised. If you would like us to organise a BQ round table dinner debate call 0191 389 8468 or email info@bqlive.co.uk

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Keith Stark, Scotland manager for City Car Club, which operates short-term self-service car hire in Edinburgh and Glasgow, said his company wanted to offer people an alternative to car ownership. “We’re treating cars more as a commodity to break that link between car usage and car ownership,” he said. “If you want to use a car then you don’t have to own a car. We were bought by Enterprise Rent-a-Car in April. We have 20 electric cars in Scotland and we also use low-emission vehicles.”

Urban Foresight managing director David Beeton explained that his Newcastle-based consultancy was focused on future cities. “We work globally with intergovernmental groups under the framework of the International Energy Agency, which gives us access to other people’s good ideas,” he said. He highlighted work his firm is doing in Dundee and Orkney.

Theobald suggested guests could use the Traveller Needs & UK Capability Study, a report produced by the Transport Systems Catapult, as a canvas for the debate.

Andrew Everett, chief strategy officer at the Transport Systems Catapult, said: “The catapult is here to create an environment that allows businesses to come up with new ideas and test things out. Alan mentioned using Scotland as a Petri dish and David spoke about ‘living laboratories’. There is an opportunity for Scotland to use itself as a testbed. It’s important that we do a lot of really quick testing, learning from that testing, stopping that testing if it’s not working, and failing a lot, because we learn through failure. We’ve done a lot of things that are long-term demonstrators and trials, but I think we need to change the pace when it comes to

“There is an opportunity for Scotland to use itself as a testbed.

It’s important that we do a lot of really quick testing, learning from that testing, stopping that testing if it’s not working” Andrew Everett, chief strategy officer, Transport Systems Catapult mobility and get some really short things going and throw them out there and see what happens.

“For Traveller Needs, we put the traveller at the heart of the conversation. We interviewed 10,000 people throughout the UK to understand how they travelled and what their ‘pain points’ were. From that, you can identify where the ‘value opportunities’ are for people to come up with things that will make their journey easier.

Nearly 80% of people have a smartphone and about two-thirds of those users said they would be happy to give up their personal data if that made their transport better. Nearly 40% said they would use driverless cars.

“The link to logistics is through an army phrase – people are just ‘self-loading freight’. I live in a little village in Kent and there’s a little commuter bus that goes from our village to the local train station three times in the morning. It works if you’re catching one of those particular trains, but it’s a bugger if you’re not. It’s a 40-seater bus and only five people get on it. That’s bonkers. The bus is sized for the peak use.”

Everett added: “If there was an opportunity where you could have either a freight solution or a personal-mobility solution that’s exactly fit for purpose, consistently available at the time you want it, clean, and at a price you want to pay then wouldn’t that be great? Why would we do

anything else? Why would we own a car that sits on our drive for 90% of the time losing money?

“Freight is moved around the place all the time. How many empty lorries are there in the country? It should be fewer and it could quite easily be fewer if everybody worked together.”

Garrett highlighted the situation in Caithness, where he said there had been no effort to use the railhead that serves the former Dounreay nuclear reprocessing plant to take freight off the roads. Instead, a massive infrastructure investment would be made on the A9 road at Berriedale Braes. “That’s a classic example of existing infrastructure not being used because there’s no joined-up thinking,” he said. “It could also tie-up with the opportunities to harness the world-class renewable energy resources in the Pentland Firth.”

Everett pointed out that often the people who have to make the big investment in infrastructure don’t get the return on their investment. “The business proposition is all messed up,” he said.

“So we need to unpick that – how do we get the business value back to the people who are putting the investment in.”

Ferguson added: “There are a lot of quickwins that we overlook. Around 60% of freight vehicles run empty – they make a delivery and then go back and make a collection. They do that because each individual company wants to

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maximise its revenues – it’s better for them to send their lorries to do their own collection and delivery and earn them money rather than get them to take a load from a subcontractor, which pays them a lot less.

“Load-matching as a concept is already out there. The bigger concept for me is freight share.

For example, we can optimise operations at a micro level for our clients by zooming out to the macro level, in which we look at different vehicles across different depots. You can get a big efficiency, sometimes around 20%. If you were to zoom out again to a country level and say that company A should be dealing with company B then you could get similar efficiencies. You could save a country millions if not billions of pounds in costs and infrastructure spending and lower carbon dioxide emissions too.”

“That then opens up the question around data,” Tricker interjected. “That’s the big challenge – moving from an individual organisation owning data to data that is collectively owned. That’s the bigger shift that needs to happen.”

If 80% of commuters are prepared to share their personal data if it meant their mobility would improve then would 80% of companies be prepared to share their data to improve freight?

Theobold asked.

“Freight share is different to load matching,” Ferguson replied. “In freight share, companies opt-in to share their freight and tell other people what they’re prepared to do. Then you can put that information into a shared data source, which other people can also contribute to. It’s more about utilising space on vehicles. The end result is you minimise the amount of travel and maximise

utilisation, which in turn maximises profits for those people involved. If people don’t want to do it then they simply don’t opt in.”

“When you want to test something out it’s important to find the people within an organisation who have the ability to say ‘I’m going to give it a go’,” explained Everett. “At the TSB, we had a great project where we had Jaguar-Landrover, Nissan and Lotus working together with small companies to develop electric motors. That wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t had the three people in the big companies who had understood what we were trying to do and were willing to give it a go.”

“Another aspect to this is that the model is changing,” added Hazel. “For example, Xerox runs the public transit system in Montreal.

There are 12-15 operators, but the customer knows nothing about the partnerships Xerox has with the operators; all the customer knows is that there’s one ticket system. The commercial advantage has been worked out between the mobility service provider and the operators – there’s an advantage to the operators being in there, otherwise they’ll lose out to their competitors.”

Everett agreed: “We need to use that example to go to companies that won’t share their data.”

“It comes down to how they award those contracts to operators,” added Bonnor-Morris.

“Many contracts are awarded for the short-term, which does not motivate operators to have a

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long-term view.”

McLarney said: “As a company, we’ve had to deal with larger companies that control satellites and they want to use their data to create all of the possible products and services themselves. So we’ve created business models involving profit share and other formats to convince the big companies that they will benefit.”

Hazel pointed out: “There’s a double-whammy that’s going to make this all happen: the first is competitive advantage; and the second is the new companies that are coming through, which are a threat to local bus companies. The first guy to see this in Scotland is Sir Brian Souter. If you look at his speech this year to the Association of Local Bus Companies (ALBUM) conference he delivered a real warning to the bus companies that the last place you guys want to be is a service provider at the end of the value chain because Uber’s fare is now getting perilously close to a bus fare. All sorts of models are coming along – like car clubs and community car share – to solve your problem and having a double-decker trundling round a housing estate isn’t the solution.”

Stark explained that bus companies saw City Car Club and similar schemes as rivals. “We’ve been trying to talk to Lothian Buses for years about using their Ridacard to access our cars, but they’re so protective,” he explained. “In Glasgow, with Strathclyde Passenger Transport (SPT), its card isn’t compatible with our cars,

“The last place you guys want to be is a service provider at the end of the value chain because Uber’s fare is now getting perilously close to a bus fare” George Hazel, director, George Hazel Consultancy

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so there’s a different problem there. There’s a big problem because all the organisations don’t have a common goal of joining up that last mile of the journey.”

Armitage pointed out that the open data available from TfL was static rather than dynamic.

“TfL knows where people swipe in and swipe out, but they don’t know where they start their journey or where they end their journey,” she said. “They don’t know if it’s a 300-mile journey or if there’s a ten-metre walk at the end of it. So I would question the quality of data and – having worked on the Nectar loyalty card programme in a previous life – I think the opportunity for Scotland is to ask people to give more information about their lives so we can build up a picture of what that end-to-end journey is.”

Ferguson agreed: “I don’t see the issue being the availability of the data or the data itself.

It’s there. It’s about willingness to share, and private organisations won’t share if there’s no commercial advantage for them.”

Theobald pointed out that, for people in rural areas, it wasn’t just a question of “Why should I share my data?” but also “How can I share my data?” if they don’t have internet access.

Ferguson explained that he had recently moved to the North-West Highlands. “I live on one side of a big hill and there are lots of different delivery companies coming over from the other side of that big hill to make online deliveries to our village,” he said. “Now, if there was a little consolidation centre where the delivery drivers could drop off their parcels and then an electric bus or HFC vehicle to bring those parcels over the hill together then it would cut down on the number of journeys. People in the village would be willing to share their data to make

“There’s a big problem because all the organisations don’t have a common goal of joining up that last mile of the journey.”

Keith Stark, manager, City Car Club that happen.”

Everett added: “The population is growing, but the volume of freight is growing at a much faster rate due to the growth of internet sales.

That’s a massive challenge for the transport system, which is separate from the individual’s use of the transport system. We need to look at it holistically. We get hung up on ‘personal transport’ verses ‘freight’ when actually it all goes on the same stuff.”

Hazel agreed: “One of things that Scotland could contribute to this area is solving the business model and the governance model because people are coming at this from totally different ways. We’ve visited the Mobile World Conference in Barcelona and heard from the chief executives of all the major mobile phone companies. Every one of them describes themselves as a ‘lifestyle service provider’ – the word ‘phone’ hasn’t been used for the past two years. They want to use the phone and the cloud to provide all of their customers’ lifestyle services.

They’re interested in mobility but only because they need it to provide those lifestyle services.

“That’s a totally different way of coming at it from the traditional transport way. So companies don’t know how to join in. The public sector is stuck with the old legacy model so it doesn’t know how to join in. Uber is coming to Scotland and it’s looking at having 24/7 utility of its drivers. If they’re not taking passengers then why not take a parcel? Suddenly passenger transport

has crossed with logistics and there’s another disruption.”

“It’s very interesting that we’re talking about mobility around cars and vehicles to carry us around and we’re forgetting that we can cycle or walk especially for that final mile,” mused Tricker. “Our infrastructure across Scotland is woefully inadequate for that.”

“Perhaps it’s about nudging behaviour,” responded Everett. “The concept of ‘mobility as a service’ is that you pay X amount of money and you get Y miles of car use, Z miles of train use and however many flights per month.

Then you could offset that by giving bonus points for walking or cycling. You can drive different behaviours by profiling individuals and personalising it. If you walk ten miles this week then you can get £5 off your oranges at Tesco.”

“The cycle infrastructure in Glasgow is disjointed because the routes were planned based on a wee man standing there with a counter waiting for cyclists to go past,” Tricker explained. “So we developed an app that cyclists can use to map their journeys and then anonymise the data. Over a number of years, we will build up a picture of which routes are really being used.”

Armitage said: “A lot of effort goes into deriving where the start of the journey was.

Why not just ask customers? They’ve all got smartphones.”

Ireland pointed out that, when users sign up for an account to run their Android phones, they

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have to opt-in to share data about their location and so Google already has all this information.

“We’ve already given that up,” he said.

Armitage said: “Perhaps we’re scared to use that information.”

Ferguson added: “Or perhaps there’s nothing in it for the user to make them switch that location option on.”

Armitage said: “I think it’s also to do with business culture – businesses are more comfortable creating computer models and deriving data rather than getting into individuals.”

“The Travellers’ Needs actually went through that business value opportunity and so there are masses of data that our catapult holds,” Everett explained. “So come and have a play with our data. People have told us what frustrates them about their journeys and what they’d be willing to pay to overcome that challenge.”

“One of the answers to the question about how Scotland can develop a world-class multi-modal transport and logistics infrastructure system has to be ‘Don’t travel’,” Ferguson stated. “By not travelling, you’re reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Knowing when not to travel rather than travelling for the sake of it is part of having a world-class multi-modal transport system.

“It’s a brave fleet manager who tells one of his van drivers not to go out on the road but instead to stay in the depot and wash their van. But if you zoom out and look at it holistically then that might be the most efficient thing to do and might make the company more money. Nobody takes those decisions because they’re starting from the wrong point; they just assume that they need to keep everyone on the road.”

“I totally agree with Colin’s comment about

not travelling,” said Beeton. “And as a cyclist I also agree with Simon’s point about the need for better cycling infrastructure. Yet the overwhelming majority of journeys that are made today are made in cars and so if we’re serious about tackling climate change then we need to improve those journeys.

“The other point is that we seem to be forgetting about those people who most need mobility.

The solutions we’ve talked about today are the solutions that people sitting round this table would use – white people in ties. Mobility isn’t just about getting a taxi as quickly as possible to take you home from the wine bar or getting your internet shopping to you as quickly as possible.

It’s about all members of society. It’s about connecting people to health services, it’s about connecting them to employment, it’s about moving them around cities safely. There are real challenges we face in helping people who don’t have smartphones and who live outside the

47

banking system. How do you engage with those people and give them opportunities?”

“It’s just a different business case,” Armitage offered. “It’s built around the savings that could be made around delivering healthcare, benefits and welfare payments.”

Hazel added: “It comes back to the business model and the governance model. Could this be a public-private partnership? If a company has won a 20-year contract to provide the mobility services for Perth then there will be a range of value-added services that it can offer to customers but one of the conditions of that franchise will be that it has to provide free transport to the unemployed. Is that a model that will hit both targets?”

MacRae pointed out: “The supply chain has got to the stage where if there are two or three days of disruption then commodities are running out at the extremities. That’s important when we’re talking about logistics. That’s where Scotland still has some issues to work through, whereas our neighbours in Scandinavia or maritime America or Canada have already found solutions.”

Bringing the debate to its conclusion, Ferguson said: “If this was a board meeting and we’d discussed all of these ideas then there’s one acronym that we’d have to end with – JDI or ‘Just do it’. If Scotland was our business and we were responsible for making it successful then we wouldn’t just talk about it but we’d get on and do it. That’s what we need; we need Scotland’s leaders to get on and do it rather than just have people sitting around talking about it.” n

Optimising transport and logistics infrastructure Route Monkey Ltd brought together relevant stakeholders from Scotland’s energy, mobility and transport industries, as well as NGOs working in these sectors for this BQ Live Debate.

The issue before them was how technology available today could help create an optimised transport and logistics infrastructure, serving everyone from individual travellers and commuters through to multinational freight companies. The convergence of smart phone technology, Big Data and the Internet of Things is creating exciting new opportunities to optimise “mobility” – the movement of people and goods. Connectivity can enable us to revolutionise transport, from apps providing personal mobility on demand for individual travellers, through to freight sharing platforms that will ensure trucks and vans never run empty again.

Investment and collaborative working to build these systems could deliver enormous economic, societal and environmental benefits to Scotland, providing a blueprint for other nations, cities and regions to follow.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY Whisky trade body toasts office The Scotch Whisky Association (SWA) has blended the traditional with the modern at its new offices in Edinburgh’s Quartermile development. The trade body has built a display of Scotch bottles in the reception of its modernist glass and steel tower to remind visitors of the whisky industry’s heritage. The SWA moved from Atholl Crescent in Edinburgh’s New Town to the site of the former Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh on Lauriston Place in the Old Town. Kenny Myles, director at Jones Lang LaSalle, which acted on behalf of the SWA, said: “The association’s new space is bright, energetic, sustainable and well located. Most importantly, it is fit for the demands of a modern business and to successfully protect and promote the interests of the association’s members.”

Office market growth threatened The growth of Edinburgh’s office market is under threat from a lack of available space, property firm Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) has told its clients. Speaking after a seminar in Edinburgh, Cameron Stott, director at JLL said: “We’ve witnessed sustained levels of occupier demand throughout 2015 and, with another anticipated

drop in the availability of Grade A office supply in Edinburgh, demand looks set to outstrip supply. The development pipeline is becoming increasingly restricted, with new developments being pre-let well in advance of occupation.

Coupled with increasing trends to convert cat B properties into hotels and residential developments, we’ve seen a significant drop in the levels of quality office space available in Edinburgh. JLL research suggests there is strong occupier demand for accommodation in the next two to four years which will be in line with the next wave of development, not expected to reach practical completion until late 2017.”

Post-referendum jump continues The total amount invested in Scotland’s commercial property jumped by 11% yearon-year to £726m, according to commercial property consultancy Lambert Smith Hampton’s quarterly report.

Some of the key deals during the period included: Ennismore Capital’s acquisition of Gleneagles resort near Auchterarder for £150m; Harbert European Real Estate Fund’s acquisition of the Eastgate shopping centre in Inverness for £116m; and the purchase of the Forge retail park in Glasgow by EPISO4 Luxembourg for £83.6m. Ewen White, director in capital markets with LSH in Glasgow, said: “Scotland continues to trade at a significant discount to the English

Scotch Whisky Association’s new offices in Edinburgh’s Quartermile development

regions, despite the fact we have the strongest office occupational market fundamentals since pre-recession times.

“The Q3 2015 stat is slightly misleading as 12 months ago we were in the run up to the Scottish independence referendum and, as a result, there was limited transactional activity.

Therefore we would expect an increase in the total volume invested.”

HSBC expands in Edinburgh HSBC is expanding its presence in the Scottish capital by taking over a third office block on the Edinburgh Park development.

The bank is due to move into its new office at 6 Lochside Avenue in January, with space for 400 staff. HSBC already has offices at 2 Lochside Way and 11-12 Lochside Place.

Alison McGregor, chief executive of HSBC in Scotland, who was interviewed in the autumn 2015 issue of BQ Scotland, said: “Edinburgh is a dynamic city with a strong financial services industry and a highlyskilled workforce. We are delighted to be expanding our presence in Edinburgh with the opening of our Lochside Avenue office.

“We are committed to helping businesses of all sizes grow both internationally and domestically.”

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY bqlive.co.uk

Hanover Scotland’s £40m deal

Law firm picks 1 West Regent Street

Social housing provider Hanover Scotland has sealed a £40m finance deal with Bank of Scotland and an unnamed institutional investor.

The Edinburgh-based company has secured a five-year £20m revolving credit facility (RCF) from the bank, along with a £20m private placement from the institutional investor.

The finance will be drawn down between 2018 and 2048 and will be used to repay the RCF, which will be reduced to £5m in 2018.

Marc Ward, relationship manager in the social housing team at Bank of Scotland, said: “This is a tailored, innovative solution that meets the long-term funding needs of Hanover Scotland while also providing short-term liquidity to support its development goals.

“We believe the structure – combining a conventional revolving credit facility with a private placement – is the first of its kind in the sector.” Hanover was founded in 1979 and now also has offices in Elgin and Glasgow.

CMS, the global law firm that took over Scotland’s largest legal practice, Dundas & Wilson, in 2014, is taking 22,000 square feet over two floors at 1 West Regent Street, the newly completed-Grade A office block in Glasgow, which was developed by M&G Real Estate and a fund managed by Clearbell.

The firm, which will move into the offices from its present location at 191 West George Street, has taken a ten-year lease on the space, which it expects to occupy in May 2016.

CMS has 59 offices in 33 countries across Europe, the Middle East, North America and Asia, and employs more than 3,500 lawyers.

Engineering firm Weir Group, media company Global and professional services firms Arup and FDM Group are poised to move into the development. Restaurant chain Giraffe opened on the ground floor in July 2015.

More than 60% of the building has already been let, with three-and-a-half floors still available.

Edinburgh posts biggest rent rise outside London Rents in Edinburgh have risen at a faster pace than anywhere else in the UK outside London, according to a new report. Property consultancy Cushman & Wakefield’s Main Streets Across the World report found that Edinburgh’s Princes Street posted a 5.3% rise to £200 per square foot for Zone A retail space over the course of the past year. Buchanan Street in Glasgow remains the most expensive shopping thoroughfare in the UK outside London, with rents rising by 2% over the past year to £260 per sq ft. Stuart Moncur, a partner at Cushman & Wakefield, said: “Princes Street has continued to perform strongly over the past 12 months or so. The completion of the tram works last year has assisted significantly with the performance of many retailers on not only Princes Street, but across the city centre. The disruption due to the laying of the tracks resulted in many retailers holding back on committing to new stores on Princes Street; however, the thoroughfare is a much more appealing proposition to them now.

With few units currently available within prime spots, rents are being pushed up.

“We are also seeing a move towards the East End of Princes Street thanks to the arrival of heavyweights like Apple, Barclay’s and the larger H&M store. With retailers from the St

49

James Shopping Centre jostling to find other stores in advance of the redevelopment work, it is all good news for landlords.” The firm also highlighted the arrival of American designer Michael Kors and Hawes & Curtis in Glasgow over the past year. Moncur added: “We are now seeing transactions generating rents up to and potentially beyond £270 per sq ft for Zone A, which is an all-time high for Buchanan Street.

“We anticipate the demand will continue to drive rents up as the predicted delay to the Buchanan Galleries extension is forcing many retailers to focus their attention on opportunities along Buchanan Street.” The latest clothing retailer to make the move to Glasgow is Massimo Dutti, which is opening its first shop outside London on Buchanan Street.

CBRE represented TH Real Estate on behalf of the landlord, Warburg-HIH Invest, in the transaction whilst Eric Young & Co acted for Massimo Dutti. Massimo Dutti – part of the Inditex Group, which also includes Zara and Pull & Bear – has taken over the former USC outlet at 71-77 Buchanan Street, extending to 11,000 sq ft over three floors.

Kevin Sims, senior director and head of retail at

CBRE Scotland, said: “The property offers one of the few true flagship store opportunities on Buchanan Street and serves only to reinforce the importance of Glasgow’s position in the UK retail hierarchy for both domestic and international retailers.”

Historic water ski chalets for sale The son of a water skiing pioneer has put the remainder of his family’s business at Loch Earn on the market for £1 million. Angus Cameron’s father, Ewan, began developing the loch as a watersports destination in 1955, with the European water skiing championships taking place at Loch Earn in 1969. Cameron has already sold a hotel and self-catering facilities and is has now put his chalet lodge development up for sale through Edinburgh-based property firm DJ Alexander. Cameron said: “I don’t know what today’s health and safety people would have made of equipment back in the 1950s. “Rather than wet suits, participants wore several layers of old woolly jumpers and life jackets were heavy and cumbersome, having been obtained from passenger and merchant ships being scrapped at Rosyth.”

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Still game Husband and wife team Alex and Jane Nicol have come up with a winning recipe for working together, as BQ editor Peter Ranscombe finds out Spending a morning with Alex and Jane Nicol is to be caught up in a whirlwind of activity.

Spencerfield is the family-run firm that owns a range of whiskies – namely The Feathery, Pig’s Nose and Sheep Dip – along with Edinburgh Gin, the award-winning spirit that has proved so popular on both sides of the Atlantic. When we first met back in 2009 it was at the family’s farm near Inverkeithing in Fife, where Alex and Jane explained how working side-by-side had brought them closer together.

They launched Spencerfield in 2005 after Alex had left whisky giant Whyte & Mackay, where he had been chief operating officer. Before he departed, Alex bought two ‘orphan’ brands – Pig’s Nose and Sheep Dip – which he felt hadn’t received the attention they deserved. These two whiskies became the building blocks for

the couple’s new business. We rendezvous at the Edinburgh Gin Distillery, which sits in the basement of the Rutland Hotel at the West End of the capital’s Princes Street. It may be early morning, but the distillery’s Heads & Tails Bar and visitor centre are already a hive of activity.

Spencerfield launched Edinburgh Gin in June 2010 and opened the distillery in the summer of 2014. “We have gin makers coming round our distillery most weeks for tours to find out how we’ve done it,” explains Alex, 61. As if on cue, when we sit down for a coffee in the bar at the Rutland Hotel, Alex pops over to another table to say hello to a fellow distiller who will be having a tour around the distillery later in the morning. Gin had always featured highly in their plans. Alex had worked as marketing manager for Beefeater gin in Plymouth before

coming back to Scotland in 1990 to become marketing director at Glenmorangie. While at Glenmorangie, Alex also had access to the archive of Crabbie’s, one of the historic brands that the company owned, and he was able to read about the firm’s production of gin in Edinburgh.

“Gin was in our thinking right from the very start,” Alex remembers. “We were interviewed for the very first issue of Jamie Oliver Magazine back in 2008, which was great fun. Back then we were talking about the gap in the market for a high-quality artisan gin – and that proved to be the case. It felt like we had been talking about doing it for ever.

“When you’re starting a business, it’s good to stick to something that you know,” Alex adds.

“When I started a business, I didn’t start doing

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“But I do know a little bit about spirits distillation and I know what the pitfalls are and how to develop the product. Do what you know; don’t start making jewellery if you’re an organ player” painting and decorating because I’m not very good at that, as Jane will attest to. But I do know a little bit about spirits distillation and I know what the pitfalls are and how to develop the product. Do what you know; don’t start making jewellery if you’re an organ player.”

“And once you start a business and want to expand it, look at doing things that are similar to what you’re already doing,” interjects Jane, 57. “Don’t rush off over there to try something new, because it’s unlikely to work because it’s so different to what you’re already doing.”

Gin production in Scotland has soared over the past decade. For some small distilleries, gin is a stepping stone to whisky production. To make Scotch, your spirit needs to sit ageing in oak barrels for at least three years – and a quick glance at the whisky shelf in any bottle shop or supermarket aisle will tell you that five, ten or twelve years are far more common ages for our national drink. While all of your stock is sitting there ageing, gin can provide some much-needed cash flow, as it can be made one day and sold the next, without the need for any extended ageing.

For other producers though, gin is reward enough. Yet the number of new gin distilleries springing up throughout the UK does set alarm

bells ringing for Alex. “Making gin is a science, not an art,” he explains. “It all sounds very romantic making your own gin, but a distillery is really just a giant chemistry set and you either do it well or you don’t.

“It worries me sometimes when you have people who are property developers one day and then gin makers the next. We know a lot about making gin and we know a lot of distillers, who have come in and given us advice.

But we still employ a distiller to make sure we get it right and we’ve spent a considerable sum on a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) with Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh to increase our understanding of the process.”

As well as making the core Edinburgh Gin, Spencerfield has also created Cannonball, a navy-strength gin designed to be mixed in cocktails, and a range of special edition gins, including: Christmas Gin with frankincense and myrrh; Valentine’s; and Seaside, which included botanicals such as seaweed, scurvy grass and ground ivy to give it a mineral twang. Another popular brand extension has been its range of gin liqueurs, which have so far included elderflower, raspberry, and rhubarb and ginger, and which use fresh ingredients.

Adding the word “liqueur” is important

because, although gin can be made one day and sold the next without the need for any ageing, it still needs to taste primarily of juniper berries in order to legally be called a gin and must contain more than 37.5% alcohol by volume, as opposed to the 20% strength of the liqueurs.

Alex had a clear idea how he wanted Edinburgh Gin to taste from the very start. “I like my gin to be old fashioned,” he explains. “I wanted it to taste of juniper and I wanted to be able to taste the citrus flavours too. It’s a London gin with a Scottish twist.

“That’s the fun about working with a small company – if you think something is a good idea then you can develop it within a month. If you worked for a big company then you’d be sitting on your hands for five years while an idea goes through committees.”

Spencerfield turned over £3m last year and is on course to bring in £4m of revenues during the current year. Having growth at 30% a year for the past ten years has allowed the company to expand without the need to go cap-in-hand to the banks.

“It’s a bizarre little family business,” smiles Alex. “We’ve never run on debt. We’re very Thatcherite in a way. If we couldn’t afford it then we haven’t done it. The whole

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ENTREPRENEUR

development of Edinburgh Gin has been funded by our whisky sales – whisky is the backbone of our business.”

The company’s growth is now starting to stepup a gear. The headcount has expanded from seven full-time staff last year to 19 this year, freeing up Alex and Jane to concentrate on the next big project.

With any family business, it’s always interesting to look at the division of labour. “Jane does all the hard work – dealing with HM Revenue & Customs, the accounts, the back office and the shipping – while I fanny about with the marketing and the sales,” laughs Alex.

All of the Nicols’ children are also now working in the family business. Finlay, 30, who trained as a chef, is studying for his master’s degree in brewing and distilling at Heriot-Watt while working at the Edinburgh Gin Distillery, putting his skills to good use through flavour matching.

Harriet, 28, has been with the company since day one and is now using her events management degree to grow the business, while Hannah, 26, also helps out at events when required.

“It’s interesting having our children working with us because our conversations are less about peripheral things like rugby and more about business,” muses Alex. “You just can’t help it.

We’ll be sitting around having lunch and there will be questions about the products, about who’s doing what, about why we’re making such a small margin on certain products.”

“It’s like we’re having meetings all the time, but we’re not having meetings in the office,” laughs Jane. “When Alex was working for big multi-national companies, I never used to see him. Now I get to see him all the time. That’s probably the best thing about working together.

The worst thing is trying to keep him focused on any one thing for longer than five minutes.”

Alex laughs and joins in the joke. “We have to have separate offices,” he nods. “The best thing about working with Jane is that she’ll worry for the both of us and then nag me into getting things done. The worst thing is that, after being married for 30 years, she knows all my foibles.”

Once our coffees are finished, we speed off to the next location in the story of Edinburgh Gin – a former biscuit factory in Leith. Built by Crawfords Biscuits in 1947, the site was empty for eight years but has recently been turned into an arts and fashion hub, with plans to

“It’s interesting having our children working with us because our conversations are less about peripheral things like rugby and more about business” house twenty studios over two floors. That still leaves plenty of space on the ground floor for Spencerfield to build its second distillery and the first to operate in Leith since 1974.

As we walk around the construction site, Alex’s and Jane’s eyes light up and their arms start to whirl as they point out where the new spirit still will sit and where the bar and events space will be put. They have exciting plans for the facility and, in the space of just a few short months, their business will have gone from having no distillery to having two. When Edinburgh Gin was launched, critics were quick to point out that it was distilled under contract at Broxburn – technically outside Edinburgh in West Lothian.

“For a long time, the whole marketing stance for some other people was that they would go around all of the bars in Edinburgh telling

them that Edinburgh Gin wasn’t really made in Edinburgh,” Alex shakes his head.

“Some of the new entrants to the industry don’t understand how the industry works,” Jane adds. “You don’t go around slagging off other people’s products – you just get on with what you’re doing.” Such disparaging comments are now water under the bridge and Alex is enthusiastic about the new venture in Leith. “What’s exciting about the bigger site is that it will offer an experience for visitors,” he says. “We will be able to have bands playing at events or bring in guest micro-brewers to serve drinks or chefs to serve street food. Anyone can name a gin after their town or city, but to make it a success you’ve got to put in the work. It’s got to be about much more than just putting a label on a bottle.” n

SPECIAL FEATURE

Eat, drink and be merry

SCOTLAND’S FOOD AND DRINK

SPECIAL FEATURE bqlive.co.uk

55

Serving up a financial feast Scotland is in high spirits following the success of the 2015 Year of Food & Drink, with producers already gearing up to hit their ambitious £16.5bn revenue target for 2017 Whether it’s the rich caramel tones of a single malt or the buttery texture of a shortbread round, Scotland has a rich history of high-quality food and drink. Scotland’s rich larder isn’t just a source of immense national pride though – food and drink mean big business too. The industry is worth £14bn to the nation’s economy each year and trade body Scotland Food & Drink has set an ambitious target of raising that total to £16.5bn by 2017. Exports of food and drink already bring in £5.1bn to our shores each year and a target of £7.1bn has been set for 2017.

Scottish produce is currently exported to 100 countries, with connoisseurs from as far afield as America and Australia buying £3.95bn of Scotch whisky and £600m of salmon and seafood.

Yet the figures only tell half the story. The food and drink industry supports jobs in some of Scotland’s most remote areas. In total, the industry supports 360,000 jobs, many of them in rural locations.

In order to hit those financial targets, producers don’t just need to sell their goods overseas but they also need to capitalise on opportunities in the home market. That’s why the 2015 Year of Food & Drink has been so important to the economy, helping to introduce visitors and locals to Scotland’s bountiful produce and build on the success of the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and the Ryder Cup at Gleneagles, when thousands of tourists enjoyed a taste of what the nation had to offer.

“The Year of Food & Drink has been a great success, helping to raise the profile of Scotland’s outstanding natural larder on the world stage through extensive events, marketing and public relations (PR) activity,” explained Malcolm Roughead, chief executive at national tourism agency VisitScotland. “Scotland’s tourism industry – from cafes and restaurants to B&Bs and hotels – has been eager to get involved, demonstrated by the fact that nearly 1,000

businesses are accredited under VisitScotland’s Taste Our Best scheme – something that recognises and celebrates locally-sourced produce.

Each month, a different theme has been used to promote Scotland’s food and drink. In January ‘Traditional Foods’ were rolled out, including New Year’s steak pies and Burns’ Night’s haggis, neaps and tatties, while February brought oysters, seafood, steak, and chocolates to celebrate ‘The Food of Love’ for St Valentine’s Day. ‘Brewing and Distilling’ were marked in March, with April trumpeting ‘Award-Winning Food’ and May toasting ‘Whisky Month’.

June saw the Royal Highland Show and the end of the school year being used to explore ‘The Future of Food’ and led into the start of the pick-your-own season in July to promote ‘Summer Berries and Fruits’.

‘Delicious Dairy’ was the order of the day in August, while September marked the ‘Celebration’ theme for Scottish Food & Drink Fortnight. Fishing, seafood and salmon took centre stage in October for ‘Sustainable Shores’, with a ‘Hearty and Heart-Warming’ November featuring meat, vegetables and grains in broths and stews.

The ‘Grand Finale’ came in December, with premium goods such as cheeses, pâté and relishes being promoted in the run-up to Christmas and Hogmanay. There were certainly no excuses when it came to ideas for festive treats this year. James Withers, chief executive of Scotland Food & Drink, added: “Across the entire country, we have been using these

themes to celebrate Scotland’s phenomenal larder in countless different ways.

As well as engaging with consumers, food and drink manufacturers and distributors have also been busy strengthening their links with the retailers and food service companies throughout the world that will help to grow the industry.

In October, the second Showcasing Scotland event took place at Gleneagles Hotel, with 150 buyers from the UK and overseas holding more than 1,200 meetings with around 100 Scottish producers over the course of three days.

The industry isn’t without its challenges – the introduction of the national living wage will force many companies to reconsider the pay they offer their workers. Margins have always been tight among growers and producers, with auto-enrolment pensions and fluctuations in foreign currencies adding to concerns.

Yet the size of the prize is worth the risk. Not only do Scotland’s food and drink producers have the chance to grow their industry but they also have the added opportunity to improve the health of the nation, educating the next generation of school pupils about the benefits of eating healthily and taking exercise so that they can enjoy the occasional sweet or savoury treat. The turnover of the industry has already increased from £10bn in 2008 to £14bn this year, putting companies on target to hit their £16.5bn aim in 2017. With the successful Year of Food & Drink tucked under their belts, few would bet against Scotland’s growers and manufacturers from going on to smash their target. n

“The Year of Food & Drink has been a great success, helping to raise the profile of Scotland’s outstanding natural larder on the world stage through extensive events, marketing and public relations (PR) activity” Malcolm Roughead, chief executive VisitScotland

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SPECIAL FEATURE bqlive.co.uk

TOP TEN FACTS ABOUT SCOTTISH FOOD AND DRINK The food and drink industry is worth £13.9bn to Scotland’s economy

By 2017, the industry aims to be worth £16.5bn 360,000 people are employed in Scotland’s food and drink industry

Food and drink exports are worth £5.1bn to the Scottish economy

The industry aims to generate £7.1bn of exports by 2017

Scottish food is exported to 100 countries

£600m of salmon and seafood is exported each year

517 million bottles of Scotch whisky were exported in the first half of 2015 543 entries in all categories at the World Scotch Pie Championships More than 2 million meals were served at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow Sources: Scottish Bakers; Scotland Food & Drink; Scotch Whisky Association

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04/12/2015 10:09

LIVE DEBATE

In association with

THE VOICE FOR BUSINESS DEBATE

The issue: How does the Scottish food and drink sector build on the legacy of the 2015 Year of Food & Drink and what do we need to do to support them?

From the health of the nation through to growing exports and building greater collaboration between businesses and universities, there were plenty of topics on the menu for debate at The Bonham Hotel in Edinburgh. As VisitScotland’s Year of Food & Drink drew to a close, a group of entrepreneurial businesses and other key players from the sector gathered to discuss how they could build on the legacy of the campaign and reach the ambitious goal of growing their sector’s turnover from £10 billion in 2007 to £16.5bn in 2017.

The 2015 Year of Food & Drink hasn’t just inspired tourism businesses but has been embraced by producers from throughout the sector, giving them a focus for holding events and introducing their goods to potential customers. The businesses gathered for the BQ Live Debate wanted to explore how they could build on their successes in 2015 and help the nation smash the stretching target set by industry body Scotland Food & Drink to increase exports from (£5.1bn to £7.1bn by 2017).

Kevin Boyd, managing director of Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking in Scotland, welcomed guests to the debate. “Food and drink for us is a key sector that, as a young entrepreneurial bank, we’re keen to grow,” he explained. “The food and drink sector in Scotland contains lots of young entrepreneurial businesses, so there’s a great fit for us there.

Scotland exported a record £5bn-worth of food and drink last year, which again is a good match for us because of our own footprint overseas.”

Laura Gordon, Scotland group director at Vistage UK and the chair for the evening’s debate, immediately challenged the participants to identify which areas required work to develop the sector.

Lynn Mann, managing director of Supernature, a Midlothian-based producer of coldpressed rapeseed oil, wanted to see greater collaboration. “The key for me is to build on the ‘Brand Scotland’ idea – whisky, beef and salmon producers have all been brilliant at that and so I think other smaller producers can learn lessons

from them,” she said. “Our sectors need to be better joined up – Scotch beef and salmon are still telling people to use olive oil in their recipes when they’ve got a Scottish oil on their doorstep. Likewise, we could specify Scotch beef instead of just beef in our recipes.”

Santander’s business development director, Steve Hand, echoed Boyd’s comments about the bank’s desire to help grow the food and drink industry. He highlighted the strength of the infrastructure in Scotland, including trade body Scotland Food & Drink. “We’ve been lucky to support many diverse sectors already – from gin to tea,” he said. “One of the talents that Santander can bring to the party is our international focus. The industry has the perfect recipe, if you’ll excuse the pun – great businesses and well-respected brands.”

Following senior roles at United Biscuits and Diageo, Andrew Richardson is now a director at Stirling-based VC2 Brands, which owns the Black Wolf Brewery, Boe gin, and Stivvys vodka liqueurs and ciders. He noted the large number

LIVE DEBATE

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TAKING PART

“My company wouldn’t be here without the help of Scottish Enterprise, we’re so lucky because they’ve got nothing like it in England.”

Warren Bader, managing director at Wishaw-based Plan Bee of small Scottish food and drink companies, but the lack of big businesses. “We’re very good at producing small, entrepreneurial businesses, but not very good at then becoming world-beaters,” he said. “That seems to be an issue.”

He added: “I recently attended an export seminar at which we were encouraged to think about whether we wanted to promote ourselves as being Scottish or British,” he said. “If you go to parts of China then no-one has heard of Scotland, but they have heard of Britain. So it depends on which market you’re selling into – if it’s Germany then Scotland would probably be the brand to use, but if it’s Asia then Britain might be the brand.”

Two weeks before the debate, Alastair Clark had sold Clarks Speciality Foods, a distribution business he founded 23 years ago. “Smaller producers are often seen as the poorer relations to the beef, salmon and whisky industries, but I think support is growing through Scotland Food & Drink and Scottish Development International (SDI),” he pointed out.

Provenance and expansion were two key themes for Yin Fei, who told the story of how his mother, Jian Wang, arrived in Edinburgh from Changchun in North Eastern China in 1997 and founded Jian’s Dumplings. The family now also has Chop Chop restaurants in Edinburgh and Glasgow. “We produce our dumplings using local ingredients, with no mono-sodium glutamate (MSG) or other additives,” he explained. “I’m very proud of my mother’s

achievements and I hope to help grow the business. We started selling our dumplings in Aldi’s supermarkets last year and we hope to target other supermarkets next year.”

Warren Bader, managing director at Wishawbased Plan Bee, which rents beehives to companies and then produces honey, beeswax candles and recently its first mead, highlighted the need for confidence. “My company wouldn’t be here without the help of Scottish Enterprise,” he declared. “We’re so lucky because they’ve got nothing like it in England. We have a fantastic industry and we need to be more confident – I’m South African and naturally we’re very forward, whereas the Scots are more reserved. I believe small is good and niche is where it’s at, that’s where my heart is.”

Bader, who has been in Scotland for 17 years, also stressed the need for more bottling facilities in the Central Belt, which could perhaps be run as a co-operative. His point about a lack of facilities was echoed by Fiona Houston, founder and chief executive at Mara Seaweed, which makes dried and milled seaweed flakes.

“We’re making condiments sexy,” she explained.

She couldn’t find a company to package her goods so Mara had ended up doing the job itself. She also called for more to be done to help companies to access the research carried out by universities, which prompted Mann to mention the work being done by Interface, the dating service that matches businesses to academic expertise. “I’d also love to piggy-back

Warren Bader, managing director, Plan Bee Kevin Boyd, divisional managing director, Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking Alastair Clark, former managing director, Clarks Speciality Foods Gina Cleife, relationship director, Santander Yin Fei, owner’s son and business partner, Jian’s Dumplings Riddell Graham, director of partnerships, VisitScotland Steve Hand, regional business development director, Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking Adam Hardie, head of food and drink, Johnston Carmichael Fiona Houston, managing director, Mara Seaweed Lynn Mann, managing director, Supernature Andrew Richardson, director, VC2 Brands Graham Silcock, regional director, Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking Denise Walton, director, Peelham Farm Also taking part: Bryan Hoare, managing director, BQ In the chair: Laura Gordon, Scotland group chair, Vistage UK Taking notes: Peter Ranscombe, editor, BQ Scotland Venue: The Bonham Hotel, 35 Drumsheugh Gardens, Edinburgh, EH3 7RN

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 region’s business economy. BQ Live is a series of informative debates designed to further contribute to the success and prosperity of our regional economy through the debate, discussion and feedback of a range of key business topics and issues.

#bqlivedebate Join in the debate online and have your say on the issues raised. If you would like us to organise a BQ round table dinner debate call 0191 389 8468 or email info@bqlive.co.uk

Join in the debate at #bqlivedebat e bqlive.co.uk

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on Diageo’s knowledge,” Houston added.

“They’ve already done it – we don’t need to reinvent the wheel.”

Having raised two lots of investment, Houston said she was now going down the path outlined

by Richardson for growing her business, especially through expanding her exports. “You don’t have to have a saltire on your packaging to be a Scottish brand,” she added. “The Chinese associate Scotland with honesty, integrity and high standards of food safety.”

Gina Cleife explained how her work as a relationship manager at Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking complemented that of Boyd and Hand. “We always get asked by food and drink companies about exports,” she explained. “They ask how to do it and we give them tools to help them do that, as well as working capital, which is the finance that they need to make it happen.”

Riddell Graham, director of partnerships at VisitScotland, reminded guests that the tourism agency had held its first ‘year of food and drink’ five years ago and that there had been a very strong food and drink thread running through the 2014 Year of Homecoming, the

Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup. “I remember criticism that the only beer that you could buy at the rugby internationals was not produced in Scotland,” he said. “So we’ve had a big focus on using events to shine a spotlight on Scotland’s food and drink.”

Adam Hardie, head of food and drink at Johnston Carmichael, Scotland’s largest accountancy firm, agreed with Mann.

“Collaboration is fundamental,” he said.

“It’s worked really well for the rapeseed oil companies, craft brewers, craft distillers and chocolatiers. This ‘Brand Scotland’ idea needs to take it further because it’s premiumisation that we need to address next as a nation. The world knows us for whisky and that’s an industry that’s been so successful through premiumisation.

It’s also about taking premiumisation beyond food and drink, and into cashmere, golf and jewellery.”

HEALTH OF THE NATION Health proved to be an engaging topic for many of the participants in the debate. Peelham Farm director Denise Walton highlighted the balance between growing the industry and

producing nutritious food and drink. “The Scottish Government published its ‘Good Food Nation’ policy, but I believe we have a ‘bad food economy’ that produces a lot of sugary drinks and confectionery,” she said. “Making the shift from a ‘Bad Food Economy’ to a ‘Good Food Nation’ will provide small niche healthy food producers with quite exciting business opportunities and we have to sensitively explore how we can make the most of those opportunities.”

Graham Silcock, regional director at Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking, pointed out that poor food education over the past 20 years had resulted in the nation’s bad diet.

“The provenance point is hugely important,” he added. “People want to buy quality and food that they know is safe. We have the debate around whether there’s too much regulation and too much red tape, but does that actually help us sell in parts of the world where that quality assurance has resonance, like in China?”

Graham said: “When I started in tourism 30 years ago, the food offering wasn’t nearly as good as it is now. There’s now an expectation among visitors that the quality of the food will

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“So we have a ‘Good Food Nation’ versus a ‘Bad Food Economy’. Making the shift will provide small niche healthy food producers with quite exciting business opportunities” Denise Walton, director, Peelham Farm

be high. The deep-fried Mars Bar is a cliché and one that’s a lot less prevalent than it has been in previous years.”

“There’s a dichotomy there,” Walton interjected.

“There’s what the tourist sees and then there’s what our residents see. If we want to bring those two viewpoints together we’ve got to make good food more accessible to a wider group of people – there is a social-justice issue there that we need to address but there’s also a business opportunity. We need to consider how we can actually make that happen.”

Houston agreed. She asked: “How does it filter down from what the visitor gets to what the average school pupil gets? I would love for our products to be on the table of every school canteen, but we can’t afford to do that. If we have a premium product then right now we can’t afford to be in that public sector sphere.

But the other way that we can make a difference is through education. I recently met the man who developed the curriculum for the Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) and he’s asked me to speak at a conference for catering college tutors.”

“You need to start with the parents because

they don’t know any better,” Bader said. “Most people don’t even know how to roast a chicken anymore.”

Silcock highlighted the changes being made by businesses including Irn Bru-maker AG Barr, which introduced sugar-free variants and moved into markets including bottled water and fruit juice-based drinks.

“A client of ours recently met with a soft drinks buyer from Tesco, who said he wasn’t interested in any soft drinks that have sugar in them,” Hardie mentioned. “The health kicker is pushing into the buyers at the multiples.”

“Food has got better, but it’s in terms of its calorific value,” said Walton. “We have more calories than we had 30 or 40 years ago, but the nutritional content has dropped dramatically.

Obesity is a sign that we’ve got unhealthier. The issue isn’t about poverty; it’s about education. It astonishes me at the farmers’ markets now – 15 years ago you just got the professionals, now it’s single mums, the elderly, and students. They don’t have a lot of money, so we’re selling cuts of meat that are less expensive.”

Mann said: “It sounds like there are two things going on here – there’s the premium products

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that we’re making that happen to be healthy that we’re selling to people who can afford them, and then there’s the message about trying to get people to eat healthily. But that’s the same message that people have been trying to get across for decades. I think what’s going to change that is that the government and the health service are beginning to recognise the high cost to the economy of people getting diabetes or being hugely obese. Those are the drivers that will put pressure onto supermarkets and foodservice companies supplying schools.”

“We’ve never used MSG or additives or colours in our food because that’s what we believe in,” explained Fei. “Even though there have been other business advisors who have come along and said that if we change this or that then we could sell more, mother has told them to ‘Get lost’. In Saudi Arabia, I believe they are giving away an ounce of gold if you lose weight – so perhaps we could try something like that.”

Bader goes into schools to talk to children about honey being an alternative to sugar and to raise awareness about the importance of bees. “Some children have never tried honey,” he said. “That’s the small contribution that I can make.”

BUILDING BRIDGES Considering the links between education and health led on to a discussion about the need for greater collaborations, both between businesses and universities, and also between individual companies. Sharing experiences also stoked the debate about the size of companies and whether Scotland has a lack of bigger businesses.

“I was in Arran this summer and there’s a lot of cross-selling going on,” Gordon said. “To me, that was an example of great collaboration.”

Bader highlighted the need for greater collaboration when it comes to beer, cider and mead in the Central Belt, and he also reiterated Houston’s point about the lack of packaging specialists. “For me, it’s better that we have a 100 small companies all doing well and employing ten people than have huge conglomerates. Small is good, small is agile.

When you become a huge company it becomes like an oil tanker, you can’t turn it.”“Arran is a great example,” agreed Boyd. “I’ve listened to and I’ve spoken to Alastair Dobson, who’s the managing director of a Taste of Arran, which is a co-operative in effect that brings together a diverse range of businesses.”

Houston agreed: “I’m on the export

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collaboration programme and it does work better when you work together with other artisan products. But that’s marketing. What Warren is talking about is far more fundamental – how you reduce the cost of production. I’m all for marketing, but it’s far more difficult to find production collaborations.”

“Will that not come as demand grows?” Clark asked. Bader and Houston both argued that the demand is already here, but that the facilities still weren’t available.

Hardie pointed to the example set by the whisky industry, large parts of which use bottling facilities in Broxburn, on the outskirts of Edinburgh, as well as collaborations between distillers and barley farmers. Richardson spoke about his work with the Society of Independent Brewers (SIBA) and the difficulties that small businesses had in finding the time to collaborate.

When it comes to oilseed rape, producers are already working together as a marketing group, Mann explained. “We’re applying for protected geographical indication (PGI) together, which will be an 18-month or two-year process, and we’ve had research done by academics, which has compared Scottish oil to that from other countries, which is important when applying for PGI status,” she added.

“Can you sell together as well?” Hardie asked.

“That might be a bridge too far,” Mann replied.

“We’ve never talked about that – but there have been rumblings when we’ve looked at the size of markets like China. I would never rule it out.”

Hardie pointed out that meeting expectations was one of the biggest challenges when dealing with a market like China.

Clark said he had seen associations come and go over the past 23 years and that many had fallen apart because of conflicts between the producers. He also pointed out that Taste of Arran was more of a distribution business than a co-operative and so didn’t share production.

“That’s why it works really well,” he said.

The discussion around sharing expertise to cut production costs developed into a broader look at how small companies could grow by targeting export markets and what help they need.

Gordon asked whether collaboration between small producers would be enough on its own to hit Scotland Food & Drink’s export targets, or whether a greater number of large-scale businesses were needed.

“I was at an event and one of the senior figures

“Scotland doesn’t have scaled production. If you’re going to make it big in export markets then you have to take your idea or brand and then find a local partner.”

Fiona Houston, managing director, Mara Seaweed from Kantar was there,” Houston said. “He said Scotland is very good at expertise and really good at producing products, but it doesn’t have scaled production. If you’re going to make it big in export markets then you have to take your idea or brand and then find a local partner. For us, that’s part of our business model. We could partner with, say, local people in Argentina to support fragile coast economies using our marketing nous and expertise. That’s where you get the scalability – but it’s not necessarily about it all being based right here, right now.”

“It’s a very crowded marketplace,” Walton added. “Our unique selling point is that we just use our own livestock – so there’s a natural limit to what we can do. I’m faced with an interesting situation because we have London stores selling our products. They’re selling well and the shops are getting repeat business, but they’re not selling fast enough. Commercial property is so expensive in London that each product has to justify its space on the shelf.”

Clark suggested that organisations like Scotland Food & Drink and SDI could do more to share details about buyers or put businesses in touch with buyers. Several of the business around the table agreed that they had been faced with situations in which organisations wouldn’t give out buyers’ contact details.

Silcock drew their attention to Santander’s Trade Portal, which is designed to help clients and prospective clients to access overseas markets.

“You can type in a harmonised system (HS) code

and get a list of importers and exporters working with that product,” he explained. “I was in a meeting with the First Minister last week and she wanted to know all about Trade Portal. That was the major topic that she wanted to talk about.”

Cleife pointed out that Trade Portal can also supply information about taxation and other paperwork that goes with shipping overseas.

“It’s a bit of a one-stop-shop,” she said.

THE EUROPEAN PROJECT A straw poll by Gordon found that only one out of the 13 participants in the debate was in favour of the UK leaving the European Union (EU). “The sun will still rise and business will still go on,” said Bader. “Demand for British or Scottish goods will still be there. We’d be better off out. We’d still do business and it would still be good.”

Other diners disagreed, arguing that remaining inside the EU would be preferable. What struck a bigger chord was the idea voiced by Silcock that the UK consisted of two tiers – inside and outside London. Bader highlighted the need to grow the “powerhouses of the north” in Glasgow and Manchester. “I don’t think we should blame other people,” said Richardson.

“We should look at ourselves. Just because London is successful doesn’t stop Scotland from being successful.”

Gordon argued: “Some people would say that London drains all the best talent away.”

“If we were Americans and we were more interested in starting our own businesses and

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being entrepreneurial then that wouldn’t bother us,” countered Richardson. “I don’t have the answer to why we don’t have more home-grown companies but I think we’ll find the answer by looking at ourselves rather than others.”

Boyd suggested: “I think we have a higher proportion of home-grown businesses in Scotland, but I think we sell them. I think London does attract more investment, so I’d be interested to hear Fiona’s experience of raising funding.”

“It was hard and took a long time – I think it’s harder as a woman because you’re always pitching to a room full of men,” Houston replied. “I wasn’t giving away 50% of the company; I was giving away a relatively small percentage for a relatively small amount of money.”

“Fundraising is always difficult,” agreed Hardie.

“If you look at scalability, Scotland has two companies with perceived valuations of more than US$1bn – FanDuel and Skyscanner – and they’re getting a lot of attention globally. As a nation, we need to get better at uncovering funding from further afield. Distillers have got good at that. But there’s no magic pill.”

“If I was to do it all again then I would probably start by going to the States,” added Houston.

“They just get it or they don’t get it. I got quite frustrated towards the end of the process because it was clear some potential investors just didn’t understand what we were trying to do.

But we got there – 40% came from Scotland, 30% came from CrowdCube and the rest came from English private investors. We ended up over-subscribed by 30%, so we raised more than we intended to, which was great.”

PAYING A LIVING WAGE Another topic that engaged participants was the introduction of the national living wage on 1 April, which will force employers to pay workers aged 25 and over a minimum of £7.20 per hour. Food and drink is often a labour-intensive industry and so the increase in the minimum wage – along with the introduction of autoenrolment pensions – is a hot issue for many businesses.

“Margins are always fragile in the food and farming industries,” said Walton. “So the living wage will have an impact.”

Fei agreed: “There are a lot of expenses in the restaurant industry. It’s very competitive at the

moment.”

“It’s slightly different for us at this stage because we only have four employees,” said Mann.

“It’s been our policy to pay more than the living wage, but I don’t know whether that would become more difficult for us if we got larger.”

Clark said: “I think most businesses always want to be able to pay the best possible wage that your business can pay. You’re always striving to improve where you can. But in the food industry the margins are not great and they’re getting squeezed all the time. I’ve always been frustrated that you never get any benefit coming back from the government for employing people. It would be great if there was a reward – if you employ ten people then you get a certain level of tax relief or if you employ 20 people then you get a higher level of tax relief.”

“As a lender, the living wage has a massive focus for us,” said Boyd. “We will look at the implications of the living wage being introduced and how it will effect a company’s forecast position and its ability to repay its debt. From a personal point of view, I’m conflicted, because should we be lending money to a company that can’t repay that debt unless it pays people less than a living wage. As a society, I think we should be saying it’s a good thing and if it means slightly less profit for people who are employing other people then so be it.”

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Hardie said it was an issue for growers and food producers, such as those in Angus and Fife, who wouldn’t be able to run their businesses without the use of Eastern European labourers, with a knock-on effect up the food chain to retailers and restaurants.

Richardson argued that owner-managed companies would feel the effect of the living wage more than larger companies. Boyd pointed out that larger businesses would also feel the pinch if introducing the living wage meant that they would have to shed staff or not increase wages for other workers. “It’s not a black and white issue,” Richardson added. “I think there are some businesses that will employ fewer people as a result. I don’t think it should be mandatory.”

During the closing comments, Graham highlighted the benefits of showing your customers how you make your food and drink products. He pointed to the examples from Arran, where tourists could watch cheese, chocolate or beer being made, as well as the development of many whisky distillery visitors’ centres.

Boyd brought the debate to a close by thanking the participants: “Internationalisation is very important, whether we shout about Scotland the brand or Britain the brand, whichever is appropriate in any given market.” n

Opening the trade portal One of the most interesting questions raised by the BQ Live Debate was how food and drink companies can be put in touch with potential customers, whether they’re distributors in the UK or importers working abroad. Some of the producers said that they had struggled to gain access to supermarket buyers and other potential customers through the public agencies and other bodies that were charged with helping companies to gain access to markets.

A solution to the problem came from Santander Corporate and Commercial Bank, which took part in the debate. The bank pointed to the popularity of Trade Portal, a service it had created to give online banking clients access to information including global databases of importers and exporters, analysis of market trends, and data about foreign currencies.

Graham Silcock, Santander regional director for Scotland, said: “Santander is established in 14 countries and so we’re ideally placed to introduce companies to potential business partners in new markets.” Another hot topic during the debate was the need to improve the nation’s health through education. Santander recently sponsored a cook book written by the parents and pupils at St Peter’s Roman Catholic Primary School in Edinburgh, which featured healthy recipes. Steve Hand, regional business development director at Santander Corporate & Commercial Banking, added: “Little things like this can make a big difference and every organisation can play its part.”

Find out more about the Santander Trade Portal at santandercb.co.uk/tradeportal

It’s a family affair Family firms may account for more than 60% of all companies in Scotland but politicians need to do more to understand their dynamics, as Scottish Family Business Association chief executive Martin Stepek tells Karen Peattie Anyone who knows Martin Stepek will already be familiar with his story – his many and varied business activities, his deep-rooted involvement with the influential Scottish Family Business Association (SFBA) and his family history, which can be traced back to Podkarpacie in southeastern Poland and is, at times, harrowing when he talks about his relatives who were deported to Soviet labour camps by Stalin in 1940.

Today his task is to shed light on the many challenges facing Scotland’s band of family businesses. First though, he takes pleasure in perusing the lunch menu in Gamba, Glasgow’s premier fish restaurant. As a first-time visitor and vegetarian, he’s not disappointed, opting for the barley, asparagus, garden peas, parmesan and pesto risotto. It sends him down memory lane and he can’t resist reminiscing about growing up in a household with its own vegetable garden, where the fresh peas “rarely made it to the table because we ate them out of their pods while we were picking them”.

Returning to the reality of a dreich November day, Stepek – dressed in his trademark casual attire – gets down to the business in hand. He is, of course, chief executive of the SFBA, a highly-respected trade organisation that serves a very specific market and which he co-founded in 2006 to bring global best practice to the sector. “Consider this – 63% of all businesses in Scotland, or around 60,000, are family-owned, yet the Scottish Government has no direct plan for this,” he points out.

“So the idea that you can create policy on how to help family businesses progress when you don’t understand the dynamics of how they operate or the challenges they face around the boardroom table just isn’t sustainable. Family businesses have a unique quality because you may have what on the surface is a successful business yet behind the scenes there is chaos.

“If your son or daughter doesn’t come in to work until after lunchtime because they’ve been out partying then you’re not going to sack

them, so what do you do? How do you address that? If you behave like that when you’re an employee of another firm then there are clearly going to be serious consequences and strict procedures in place to deal with it, but for many family businesses that’s just not the case.”

So does the Scottish Government recognise that family businesses play such a key role in the economy? “Yes, but they just haven’t quite worked out how best to collaborate with us,” he continues. “I think the greatest problem is that no-one really fully understands the role of the family business in society and that is something we must address. The Scottish Government needs to recognise the family business sector and consider its needs when thinking about policy.”

Asked if there is sufficient help and advice out there for family businesses, Stepek’s answer is straight and to the point. “No,” he states. “I accept that Scottish Enterprise and Business Gateway do a great job, but they don’t employ

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family business experts – there’s a big difference between a small and medium-enterprise (SME) expert and family business expert. The advice an SME expert can provide won’t be wrong, but it won’t be targeted at the diverse and very specific range of problems faced by a family business.”

Again, Stepek doesn’t knock the general services available to small businesses. “On the whole they’re very good,” he says. “What I’m highlighting is the lack of specialist advice.

Mainstream consultancy is widely available but that doesn’t offer a specialist skill in dealing with family businesses. If you are a Scottish Enterprise-managed account then it can help you with general business issues but not necessarily family issues – and those can be the core underlying issues holding you back in business.”

Stepek stresses, however, that family businesses need to do much more to help themselves.

“They can’t just sit there waiting for a knight on a white horse to gallop to the rescue,” he says.

“There’s never going to be a fairytale ending for any business – and I know that myself from my own experiences. We all have to work at it and find solutions.”

Growing to become one of Scotland’s top 500 companies, Stepek was a Hamilton-based chain of 20-plus electrical appliances stores that diversified into the travel agency sector. A household name, the firm – founded by Stepek’s father Jan and Scots mum Teresa – achieved fame across central Scotland with its legendary TV adverts with fellow retailers Glens, Hutchison and Robertson.

Stepek himself eventually became co-owner.

But, in 2002, it succumbed to the same afflictions that destroy many family businesses.

“There are many issues that can lead to paralysis in decision-making,” he points out. “A family business is a very difficult place to be when things are not going well but what I have learned is that there are ways to resolve any problem – and that is why the SFBA exists.

“If you look at a lot of family businesses, they’re like Dallas or Dynasty, with big egos, dynamic personalities, quiet ones doing great work behind the scenes and those who want the rewards but aren’t prepared to put in the hard graft,” says Stepek. “Every family business has to decide what everyone wants from it – do you want to come into work every day, what role to do you want to play, where do your individual

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“The greatest problem is that no-one really fully understands the role of the family business in society and that is something we must address.” strengths lie?”

For Stepek, the solution for Scotland would be to have a pool of experts specialising in family business to go into individual companies and work through their issues, or help them move on to the next stage of their development if there are no significant family-related problems.

“There are only around 50 specialist family business consultants in the UK,” he points out, “and they have the skills and processes in place to go into a business and explore the underlying issues that are holding it back.

“It’s not rocket science. Every family business is unique. You might have mum and dad and three children – the parents want to slow down in their later years but are concerned their kids aren’t up to the job. You might have a business where there are three or four branches of the family involved with varying abilities – that’s a real challenge. Over half of family businesses in Scotland are still controlled by the founding generation so they need to be looking at succession planning, too.

“Not one family business possesses the same dynamics because there are different generations and therefore different views on life.

A twenty-something will likely be a technical whizz-kid yet the managing director may still be struggling with the TV remote control, then there could be a branch of the family that doesn’t speak to another because of something Auntie Jessie said back in 1963. And when you bring in-laws and spouses into the equation…”

Stepek believes that some of the most successful family businesses are those in which the upand-coming directors have gone out into the workplace and learned other skills then returned to the fold armed with new ideas and a very different perspective on life and business. But getting to that stage can be a challenge in itself, he says, with an individual often resenting the suggestion that he or she needs to gain broader experience in order to help them be better at their job.

For Stepek, the solution is often to go back to basics. “Sometimes all you need to do is talk to each other,” he says. “You might have found yourself in a marketing role and absolutely hate it yet have you told anyone this? Have you admitted to yourself and your family that you’re a useless sales person? They might know that you lack the skills but haven’t been brave enough to tell you. It’s all about honesty and relationships and looking after each other.

“With the right advice and guidance you can quickly focus on the issues and move your business to a better place. It’s about reconnecting with what is most important.”

Stepek quickly moves on to how it can be “almost a revolution” for a family business when someone with specialist experience goes in as a consultant. “It’s a brave thing for a business to do because they aren’t necessarily going to like what they hear,” he says. “It can be hard for the consultant too when they have to tell the owner’s son or daughter that they’re

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‘“Some family businesses just don’t know who to turn to and that’s a problem for our sector.”

Gamba In 1998, chef Derek Marshall had a concept for a restaurant that would let produce speak for itself. So he cofounded Gamba. Fast-forward almost 17 years and he is now the sole owner of what is one of Glasgow’s most popular fine-dining restaurants. Gamba, hiding away in a basement in West George Street, is one of those restaurants where the service is friendly and attentive but not overbearing. Simple décor with tables that allow plenty of privacy are always welcome but it’s the food that does the talking here. Elegant yet unpretentious, the award-winning fish soup is legendary and Marshall’s passion for sourcing and delivering the best produce – with his fish sourced direct from sustainable stocks and then cooked using the freshest, seasonal ingredients – keeps people coming back again and again. Menus are updated every six weeks or so, yet staples such as Isle of Gigha halibut, lemon sole, monkfish and Marrbury Scottish smoked salmon can always be found on the a la carte menu, along with a good choice of vegetarian options. The lunch menu is priced, at £19 for two courses and £22 for three. Gamba was the first Glasgow member of the Sustainable Restaurant Association and supports charities including The Fishermen’s Mission, Cancer Support Scotland and the Marine Conservation Society.

Gamba, 225A West George Street, Glasgow G2 2ND, 0141 572 0899, www.gamba.co.uk

not fit for the job or not of adequate calibre to take over the running of the company. But there are ways round it if the individual is prepared to get out there and experience life outside the business for a spell.”

Happily, Stepek is in a position to report on many incidences in which he and his colleagues at the SFBA persuaded members to do just that. “When your parents have built up a very successful business, there is obviously pressure on you to meet their achievements and expectations,” he points out. “But that pressure can be a millstone around your neck and it takes a very special and committed individual to rise to that challenge.

“Some family businesses just don’t know who to turn to and that’s a problem for our sector.

They might go to their bank or accountant for advice and there’s nothing wrong with that approach because they have a trusted relationship with them but they are not family business specialists.”

While Stepek’s own business philosophy dictates that he would only work with someone who shares the same business and moral values as himself, he appreciates that not every business is in that position. “There are a lot of egos in family business, a lot of people who don’t or won’t accept that they have failings – even small

ones,” he says. “That’s one of the reasons I only want to work with people who share the same values as me.”

He points to Wright, Johnston & Mackenzie.

In another string to his bow, Stepek joined the Glasgow-based law firm in 2014 as director of culture and communications with responsibility for overseeing a sustained, agile and holistic approach to the company’s culture, people and priorities.

Stepek is an acknowledged expert on “mindfulness” and a qualified practitioner of the ancient Buddhist practice, which focuses on ways to clear the mind and help us go about our daily lives without feeling so stressed or tired. “It’s not always easy to explain what mindfulness is but it’s easy to stop noticing the world around us,” he says.

“It’s easy to lose touch with the simple things like enjoying a nice lunch like this – if you’re constantly checking your mobile phone or your watch, you’re not going to appreciate the food and the company.”

On that note, this fascinating and inspirational University of Strathclyde law graduate who never stops learning and writes every day – he is a published author and poet – moves on to the next appointment in what is surely one of the most packed diaries in Scottish business. n

Thinking about your business is a big part of ours.

PUT OUR TAILORED INSIGHTS TO WORK FOR YOU To make confident decisions about the future, an entrepreneurial, growing business needs a different kind of adviser. One who starts by understanding where you want to go and then brings the ideas and insights of an experienced global team to help get you there.

rsmuk.com

The UK group of companies and LLPs trading as RSM is a member of the RSM network. RSM is the trading name used by the members of the RSM network. Each member of the RSM network is an independent accounting and consulting firm each of which practises in its own right. The RSM network is not itself a separate legal entity of any description in any jurisdiction.

The RSM network is administered by RSM International Limited, a company registered in England and Wales (company number 4040598) whose registered office is at 11 Old Jewry, London EC2R 8DU. The brand and trademark RSM and other intellectual property rights used by members of the network are owned by RSM International Association, an association governed by article 60 et seq of the Civil Code of Switzerland whose seat is in Zug.

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IP100 INSIGHT

bqlive.co.uk

Let us celebrate your IP Stephen Robertson, founder of the award winning commercial intellectual property firm Metis Partners, explains how and why the IP League Table has been created and why IP can offer significant advantages to both large and small businesses For most companies, Intellectual Property (IP) doesn’t make it onto the balance sheet and as a result is never properly managed as an asset of the business. Most companies see the creation of IP assets as just another cost of doing business.

By creating the IP League Table, we wanted people to recognise that IP can be viewed differently: it can be protected and managed as an asset, and can provide a business with a significant competitive advantage, thereby increasing the value of the business overall.

FanDuel and Skyscanner are IP-rich companies they have received recognition for the significant IP assets they’ve created and as a result have attracted tens of millions of pounds of investment. There are also a number of traditional manufacturing and engineering companies that have been integrating IP value into their business models, making profits and so monetising IP for years. We wanted to create a platform to give companies at every stage in the business lifecycle, across a range of sectors, the recognition they deserve.

Managing your IP and recognising it as one of your business’s core assets is becoming increasingly important and lenders already recognise its significance in underpinning a robust and scalable business model. This allows IP-rich companies to expand their business by raising debt finance secured against their IP assets, which otherwise may only be available to companies with tangible assets, such as plant and machinery. Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, headline sponsors of the IP League Table, have been lending to IP-rich businesses for many years and have often asked us to carry out IP due diligence on target companies. This has been so successful that they are launching a new product, focused on IP-rich SMEs with turnover less than £1.5m.

“The IP League Table gives SMEs recognition for the IP they’ve created.

This is a unique opportunity to benchmark your company as IP-savvy and demonstrate to the world how IP-rich your company is.”

IP100 INSIGHT bqlive.co.uk

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Five IP asset classes BRAND AND REPUTATION IP is also incredibly important when it comes to selling a business or bringing an equity partner on board. When carrying out due diligence, they usually ask about what IP has been created, how it’s been managed, whether it’s been well protected, how well it underpins the competitive advantage of the business and how much it’s worth.

Through our methodology, the IP League Table celebrates companies that have created IP and developed effective IP management strategies.

The ranking process we have developed for the IP League Table relies on proprietary scorecards we have created for each of the five IP asset classes that are most commonly linked to revenue generation: (1) brand and reputation; (2) patents; (3) software; (4) critical databases; and (5) trade secrets. Our methodology looks at IP asset management without companies having to reveal critical details about each IP asset and therefore compromise their competitive advantage. We do our own initial due diligence on each entrant, followed by an intensive questions and answers session focused on the five IP asset classes, the results of which are then put into our scorecards.

Our discussions centre on what IP has been created and whether there are processes and strategies in place to build IP value. Some companies don’t have patents and some companies don’t have software, but that isn’t an issue. Our scoring process accounts for these differing entrant profiles in order to fully reflect the diversity of business models. Therefore, companies that have neither patents nor software are not disadvantaged in the process.

Qualifying for the IP League Table is a huge achievement in itself, no matter where your company appears within the rankings. For entrants, this is just the start of the process because, as we perform our regular updates and reviews, improvements in relevant IP management processes will be updated in future scorecards and so will be reflected in their future

IP League Table position.

If you are looking to raise money and have entered the IP League Table, your company will now be recognised as an IP-rich business. It’s widely known that such companies demonstrate higher barriers to entry and more robust and scalable business models. Being in the IP League Table also enhances reputational status amongst other industry players, thereby building brand value. So, if you are looking to exit your business, entering the IP League Table is a great way to demonstrate the importance of IP to the business, which should help gain recognition amongst potential buyers and will certainly differentiate you from your competitors, with the newly recognised IP value resulting in a higher exit valuation.

Companies are always looking for ways to differentiate themselves, and demonstrating a focus on IP is another way to do that. Big companies have been doing this for a long time; in the United States, Apple, Facebook and Google constantly flex their muscles, talking about the value of their brands, patents, or software and technology.

The IP League Table gives SMEs recognition for the IP they’ve created and this is a unique opportunity to benchmark your company as IP-savvy. Benefits to entering the IP League Table are numerous: it will get your company noticed by potential acquirers or investors, help gain valuable new exposure for your brand as well as establishing your company as an innovator.

“Quite simply, the IP League Table aims to assist SMEs across the UK to realise the true potential and value of their intellectual property.” Bryan Hoare, managing director BQ Magazine and co founder of IP100. n

We begin our proprietary ranking process by discussing brand and reputation. Examples of some of the areas in our scorecard which we touch on during the phone calls include their trade mark filing strategy, whether a company has a social media strategy to enhance the brand, and whether there are processes in place to measure customer loyalty and customer feedback.

PATENTS If the entrants have patents, our scorecard and questions cover patent landscaping prior to filing, and the links between the patent claims, products / services, and revenue generation. We also assess if an invention disclosure process has been implemented, and whether the company is the sole named applicant on critical patents.

SOFTWARE As the conversation moves onto software, our scorecard focuses on the company’s software development strategy, processes, and methodologies, version controls, the integration of third-party code, and the link between software and revenue generation.

CRITICAL DATABASES When we talk about databases, we discuss database management, the types of records / fields around which data is collected, the link between databases and revenue generation, and what type of analytics are carried out on the back of the database

Entries for the February deadline focused on the rest of the UK are still open.

Stephen Robertson is the founder of Metis Partners. Find out more at www.metispartners.com/ ip-league-table-2/

“Quite simply the IP100 aims to assist SMEs across the UK to realise the true potential and value of their Intellectual Property” Bryan Hoare, managing director of BQ Magazine and co-founder of the IP100

content.

TRADE SECRETS The final part of the IP League Table ranking process covers trade secrets and their management. Our scorecard includes questions on what trade secrets exist and we discuss trade secret policies, registers and the link between trade secrets and the revenues they underpin.

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IP LEAGUE TABLE

bqlive.co.uk

IP100 - THE RESULTS Metis Partners and BQ have been delighted at the uptake of IP-rich companies into the IP League Table. We are pleased to present our findings from the first IP League Table project, along with some analysis broken down per industry sector Our IP League Table assessment covered five IP asset classes – Brand & Reputation, Patents, Critical Databases, Software and Trade Secrets.

Our ranking process is focused on entrants’ IP management activities which drive IP value. Such management processes create a strong business model with sustainable barriers to entry which, in turn, help create a scalable business, capable of expansion both nationally and internationally.

There is a clear and direct link between improving the IP assets in a business and increasing the overall business valuation. From these results, we found that the spread between the top performing entrants was small, indicating that IP strategy is an integral part of the business model for each of these companies. B2B Software companies feature most prominently in the top 20, followed by entrants providing Business Services, Manufacturing and Distribution.

Data Conversion Systems, a high-end digital audio company, came out as the leader, having performed consistently well across all of the relevant IP Asset classes. David J Steven,

managing director of Data Conversion Systems, says “IP is important to us because it sets us apart from the competition and makes us the company we are today.”

Metis Partners was able to gain interesting insights as to the performance by industry sector of the entrant companies. The spread between the Business Services, Consumer Services and B2B Software sectors was relatively even and considerably higher than the O&G, Biotech/ Biochemical and B2C Software sectors, possibly due to the higher recognition of intellectual property assets within these sectors.

A strong correlation was found between average IP score and year of incorporation.

From our results, it can be seen that companies incorporated between 2000 and 2009 obtained the highest overall average scores. A conclusion that may be drawn from these results is the effect that the economic downturn has had on businesses throughout the UK, with new businesses not investing so heavily in intellectual property management processes. Additionally,

the rise of the overall % scores from the period 1986-1999 to 2000-2009 could potentially show an increase in awareness around intellectual property during this time period.

It’s also worth noting that newer companies scored lower than older companies, perhaps suggesting that implementing effective IP management strategies is worthwhile but it may take a period of time for material results to be harvested from these efforts.

The IP League Table offers a real insight into how IP assets are viewed and managed across a range of companies and industries. Our proprietary ranking process against which all entrants have been measured has proven to be a valuable and constructive benchmark which determines the effectiveness of IP management techniques within a company, and a reliable indicator of the likely IP wealth of that company.

We are still accepting entries for our February IP League Table supplement.

Should you wish to enter, please visit www.bqlive.co.uk/ip100

“Intellectual Property matters. Firms that own IP assets grow faster, innovate more and create more and better jobs than others. They are more productive and more likely to survive and grow, even when times are tough. These businesses are at the core of our long term economic well-being. The IP 100 celebrates the achievements of the best of them. I hope others will look to emulate their success through focused innovation and excellent management and exploitation of the intellectual property assets they produce.”

Rosa Wilkinson, director of innovation and strategic communications, IPO

IP LEAGUE TABLE bqlive.co.uk

IP

Top 20 entrants

Overall score (Scores out of 100)

1

Data Conversion Systems

63.5

2

LUX Assure

62.4

3

Speech Graphics

62.3

4

SwiftKey

59.8

5

CC Technology

58.0

6

Standard Life

57.8

7

WheelRight

57.6

8

Pacifica Group

57.2

9

Exmos

57.0

10

Connect-In

57.0

11

Anatom

56.2

12

Sphere Fluidics

56.0

13

Syrinix

55.0

14

2020 Business Insight

54.1

15

Bio ID Security

52.2

16

Sodash

52.1

17

Redu Group

51.4

18

Swipiicard

50.8

19

WeeWorld

50.8

20

BrightOffice

50.5

Other entrants in the top 50 Affective Logic

eeGeo

R & G Associates LLP

Altia Solutions

Emotional Sciences

Smith & Sinclair

Bad Idea Organization

Hard Hood Clothing

So To Company

C.I.C

Hermes Apps

Biogelx BrandFour

KEY

Industry %

Consumer services/ Consumer manufacturing/ Distribution & retail

27%

Soapurity

Oil and Gas

KB Group (UK)

Spedian

B2B Software

Koolmill Systems

Totseat

B2C Software

Breaking Free Online

Lexus International

TTS Pharma

Deep Tek Winch IP

Malinkey

Wearable Technologies

Dmist Research

Mevgen Technologies

WFS Technologies

Business Services/ Business manufacturing & distribution

8% 25% 14% 20%

Downhole Energy

Opinurate

Worldteachers

Biotech/Biochem

6%

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MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

Queen of the road Having been raised on a farm, Anna Renton from Grant Property was the ideal candidate to put the new Range Rover Sport Hybrid through its paces

Growing up in East Lothian, I spent most of my youth and early adulthood running around farms, driving tractors and pick-ups. I realised from an early age that I had a passion for speed and, after learning to drive at the age of nine, I accepted every opportunity to develop my skills behind the wheel – including several summers of driving grain during the harvest season. Not the most glamorous of jobs, but it allowed me to do two things I loved – driving and listening to music.

When I was asked to drive the newest Range Rover Sport Hybrid, I jumped at the chance.

Range Rover has always been seen as the ultimate in terms of luxury and class, especially within the farming community.

When I arrived at Pentland Range Rover in Edinburgh, I was presented with the keys to what was going to be my ride for the day. The Sport Hybrid was imposing, with extravagance inside and out. The magnificent exterior was sleek and sexy with blacked-out windows for additional privacy. The monochrome interior

MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

was made up of leather and suede, giving an opulent feel that was exaggerated by the panoramic glass roof. This was going to be a good day.

Turning the key, the electric-only drive kicked in and I made my way out of the dealership towards Edinburgh city centre, which is when I was able to experience the full power of the V6 engine that this machine had to offer. Towering over all of the other road users, I felt like I was queen of the road.

Admittedly, you also get that feeling while you’re driving a tractor. When you’re driving a Range Rover, you’re viewing the world from on high and getting envious glances from drivers who wish they were in your driving seat. But when you’re driving a tractor on the road, the only looks you get are those of frustrated annoyance from other road users. They only wish you could get your clumbering vehicle out of their way so they could get to their destinations on time… and you can’t go any

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faster. Range Rover ensures your regal status by offering quality, style and attention to luxury detail. For a large vehicle, it handled really well in and around town and didn’t feel too bulky for the urban lifestyle.

I then got a chance to test how well I could handle this car when I drove it to my home village of Garvald, in East Lothian, and that’s when I really fell in love with it. The route is made up of B-class roads for most of the way, which gave me the chance to experience the

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MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

true handling of the Range Rover’s terrain response system as I made sure I hit every muddy puddle on my way.

There was very little body lean and it was surprisingly agile around the corners. The airsuspension responded to every bump along the way with confidence. It was ultra-responsive on the accelerator and the steering was light and reactive. The driving experience felt like sheer simplicity. With the United Nations climate change talks taking place in Paris over the winter, the environment has seldom been far from the headlines during the past few weeks.

Having grown up on and around farms, the countryside and the environment are really important to me and are a big part of my life, having studied for a business degree in agriculture at the Scottish Agricultural College.

So it was really interesting to read some of the stats about this hybrid, which combines a three-litre V6 diesel engine with a 35kW electric motor. Together, the two produce 700nm of torque, the same performance as Land Rover’s V8 diesel engine, but with its carbon dioxide emissions being 13% lower.

‘Range Rover ensures your regal status by offering quality, style and attention to luxury detail.’

Having lower emissions doesn’t mean you have to compromise on performance either. While you can get a shade over 44 miles per gallon when you combine its urban and open-road figures, the hybrid still boasts 340 horsepower and can get from nought to sixty in just 6.5 seconds. Not something you can match in a tractor sadly.

I’m a self-confessed lover of Formula 1 and was lucky enough to attend the recent Singapore race. Seeing the drivers at close range and hearing the noise of the engines leaves your heart pumping with excitement. But I’m also left feeling great admiration for the drivers’ skills and how they handle their cars.

While I’ve never sat in the driver’s seat of a Formula 1 racing car, I imagine it to be small and cramped. Not so with the Range Rover Sport Hybrid.

I had such fun exploring the inside of this palatial cabin. Range Rover has literally thought

of everything, including a fridge for cooling drinks on those long summer drives and heated steering wheel for those dark winter mornings.

The ergonomics throughout the car are spot on and leave the driver and passengers wanting for nothing, with adjustable front and rear seats, individual climate control, drinks holders and plenty of foot and leg space.

Handing the car back was like prising an ice cream from a child – the worst part of the day.

I thoroughly enjoyed the stress-free driving and was able to relax in to the car. n Anna Renton is group investment director at Edinburgh-based Grant Property.

The car Anna was driving was a Range Rover Sport Hybrid, starting from £84,350. Supplied by Pentland Land Rover, Newbridge, Edinburgh, EH28 8TH, 0131 202 5431. www.john-clark.co.uk/land-rover

RANGE ROVER SPORT

CAMP OUT UNDER THE STARS OR JUST RUB SHOULDERS WITH THEM landrover.co.uk

When your social life is truly unlimited, your vehicle should be just as fearless. Range Rover Sport is extremely comfortable whether you’re on a motorway or up a mountain. The first choice for the world’s more ambitious people, it’s famous for its intuitive, engaging drive.

What you might not know is just how attainable it is.

With our latest finance offer – from only £599 a month, plus deposit and final payment – Range Rover Sport is closer than you might have thought possible.

Range Rover Sport 3.0 SDV6 HSE Auto Representative example On the Road Price*

£61,950.00

Customer Deposit

£15,640.00

Total Amount of Credit

£46,310.00

Purchase Fee (included in final payment) 36 Monthly Payments

£10.00 £599.00

Final Payment

£33,019.00

See how it could find its way into your life – take a look at the finance table.

Total Amount Payable

£70,223.00

Duration of Agreement

37 Months

Call today and find out more.

Representative APR

Pentland Land Rover

Newbridge, Edinburgh, EH28 8TH

Tel: 0131 202 5440 www.pentland.edinburgh.landrover.co.uk Locations also at: Cupar Perth Elgin

Interest Rate (Fixed) %

6.9% APR 6.73%

* The model pictured is a Range Rover Sport SDV6 HSE Auto with optional 22 inch five split-spoke ‘Style 504’ alloy wheels (£2,000) at an on-the-road price of £63,950 Pentland Land Rover is a trading style of John Clark Motor Group who is acting as a credit broker and not a lender.

Official Fuel Consumption Figures for the Range Rover Sport range in mpg (l/100km): Urban 15.4 (18.3) – 41.5 (6.8), Extra Urban 28.5 (9.9) – 47.9 (5.9), Combined 21.7 (13.0) – 45.6 (6.2). CO2 emissions 298 – 164 g/km.

The figures provided are as a result of official manufacturer’s tests in accordance with EU legislation. A vehicle’s actual fuel consumption may differ from that achieved in such tests and these figures are for comparative purposes only. Representative Example relates to a Range Rover Sport 3.0 SDV6 HSE. Representative 6.9% APR available on new Range Rover Sport 3.0 SDV6 HSE models registered between 1st October to the 31st December at participating Retailers only. With Land Rover Freedom Personal Contract Purchase you have the option at the end of the agreement to: (1) return the vehicle and not pay the Final Payment. If the vehicle has exceeded the allowed mileage a charge per excess mile will apply. In this example, 14p per excess mile up to 4,999, or for excess mileage of 5,000 or more, a charge of 28p will apply to each excess mile above the allowed mileage. If the vehicle is in good condition and has not exceeded the allowed mileage you will have nothing further to pay; (2) pay the Final Payment to own the vehicle or (3) part exchange the vehicle subject to settlement of your existing credit agreement; new credit agreements are subject to status. Representative example is based upon an annual mileage of 10,000 miles. Credit is subject to status and only available to applicants aged 18 and over resident in Mainland UK and N.Ireland. This credit offer is only available through Black Horse Limited trading as Land Rover Financial Services, St William House, Tresillian Terrace, Cardiff CF10 5BH. We can introduce you to Land Rover Financial Services and a limited number of other lenders to provide funding for your vehicle. We may receive commission or other benefits for introducing you to such lenders.

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PROFILE Startup Summit

Working with the right people We Are The Future’s 2015 Edinburgh Startup Summit highlighted the importance of finding the right staff and partners, as Suzy Powell discovered Passport problems and a sore throat may have caused last-minute programme changes but they did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of 500 delegates at the 2015 Edinburgh Startup Summit. From those with an inkling of an idea to others with fully-fledged businesses, the summit offered the chance to share stories of triumphs and tribulations at the capital’s Assembly Rooms.

Bruce Walker, the event’s 21-year-old organiser, said: “It was fantastic to bring the Startup Summit back to Edinburgh for a fourth time, following summits in Glasgow, London, New York, San Francisco and Chicago earlier this year.

The atmosphere in the room was amazing, with close to 500 entrepreneurs attending from across the UK and beyond – it’s a real privilege to stand on that stage among so many inspiring business leaders and ignite that spark that might create the next billiondollar business.”

Walker spied a gap in the market for “non-stuffy and engaging” events for entrepreneurs when he was 17. The first – held at his school, Wallace High – attracted 135 pupils and was the start of We Are The Future, a social enterprise inspiring global youth entrepreneurship that has been hailed as a “worldwide phenomenon”.

Walker dropped out of an international business course after signing a deal with partner Virgin Atlantic and, with his team, has staged 12 events in eight cities attended by more than 4,000 entrepreneurs.

Success and failure were key themes running through the Edinburgh summit in November, with many speakers being self-confessed serial

“There is absolutely nothing to stop you becoming an entrepreneur if you have an idea. I would like to think that the support is here to help you in Scotland.”

John Swinney, Deputy First Minister

entrepreneurs who have seen several businesses hatched and dispatched.

Deputy First Minister John Swinney kicked off the event with his key message: the Scottish Government is supporting entrepreneurialism in a number of ways, but let him know if he can do more.

“We must encourage a culture of perpetual innovation, create and develop new ideas on a constant basis,” Swinney said. “There is absolutely nothing to stop you becoming an entrepreneur if you have an idea. I would like to think that the support is here to help you in Scotland.”

Through financial initiatives like Scottish Edge and by creating the right climate through the “Can Do” policy, Swinney said the Scottish Government is funding resources to turn “ideas into reality”.

For the first speaker, Amina Nabi, who describes herself as the “maverick founder and chief executive of Kinnect2”, a social network linking brands to consumers, support came in the shape of the Saltire Foundation, Entrepreneurial Spark and friends and family.

With 90% of her funding coming from those friends and family – meaning the wider Scottish business community – Nabi warned budding businesses not to “sleep with the first person that you see”.

“Give them a trial of three months, whether investing or another relationship – try before you buy,” she advised. “Creating and finding the best team is really hard. You need someone who shares the same vision and values.”

“Passport problems” kept New York-based high flier Stacey Ferreira grounded, but in a pre-recorded message she echoed Nabi’s advice on finding people with shared values and aspirations.

Ferreira co-founded My Social Cloud when she was just 18, secured investment from Sir Richard Branson, sold the business two years later, and set up her latest venture, a retail recruitment company, after penning a book about the unique potential of the world’s two billion under-20s.

“Hire slow, fire fast,” was her advice about team building. “Hiring is the most important thing that you will ever do,” she told delegates.

Find people who have the right motivation and skills and who fit with your culture, she advised – although expertise is important, it can be developed, she added. And when it doesn’t work out, help people find another job and “cut your losses”.

Four workshops followed, covering selling, branding, investors and pitching, before a pit stop for lunch and networking among the stands of business

PROFILE Startup Summit

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Startup Summit stage support organisations and start-up successes.

A last-minute switch of speaker due to a sore throat saw the first afternoon session being filled by Edward Taylor, technical lead for corporate travel at flight comparison giant Skyscanner.

Taylor shared his journey from aerospace engineer to self-taught coding expert – whilst living on tuna in cheap digs – and on to co-founder of an online travel tool that was taken over by Skyscanner. He urged delegates to learn to code: “There is nobody in this room who can’t do coding. Tech is almost another revolution so it doesn’t matter what sector you go into.”

Next came a Dragons’ Den-style pitching competition for three tech companies looking to clinch the top prize of joining a We Are The Future programme in Sillicon Valley next spring.

The pitch saw Comcarde’s Stuart Jamieson and Sam Jackson take on Callum Murray of Amiqus and Sam Coley of Tick X, the latter impressing the judges the most.

KPMG partner Bivek Sharma was joined by an expert panel of business minds: Bill Dobbie, a serial entrepreneur and investor; Julia Groves, chief

“The atmosphere in the room was amazing, with close to 500 entrepreneurs attending from across the UK and beyond” Bruce Walker, event organiser executive of Trillion Fund; Cally Russell, founder of Mallzee; and Rory Stirling of investment firm BFG Ventures.

Key messages – or “knowledge bombs” as one delegated tweeted – included: partner early and with the right person; be politely persistent; don’t get hung up on one version of an idea; and entrepreneurs want to help other entrepreneurs.

Good news then for the group of Bishopbriggs Academy pupils studying higher business who attended for free under the WeAreTheFuture schools programme. The 15 and 16 year olds were keen to learn how to run a business from people in the know, network and get ideas.

Delegate June Guthrie, a self-employed social

media marketer for online shopping site Mōdere, said: “Some of my biggest ‘takeaways’ from the day include: Stacey Ferreira’s advice to work with people who share your vision, values, aspirations, and motivation; it’s ok to fail as it’s a way to learn; and find a mentor.

“Also, John Swinney’s assurance that the Scottish Government wants to support its entrepreneurs and Virgin Unite’s Anna Jones’ advice to share your profits and skills, even in small increments, for the good of other people and the planet. And from the pitching workshop, keep it simple, tell your story, be passionate and focused. It was an inspirational day.”

For more information please contact Joanna Reynolds Events Director on Joanna@wearethefuture.org.uk

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STRINGER ON WINE bqlive.co.uk

SEEING RED

She may have cut her teeth on classic French wines but Esther Stringer now enjoys the full spectrum of reds that both the Old and New Worlds produce

STRINGER ON WINE bqlive.co.uk

My whole life I have been brought up around wine. Whilst neither of my parents would call themselves ‘wine buffs’, for as long as I can remember their cellar has been the envy of many a guest to our house. As a child, every holiday to France involved at least one trip to a vineyard and when travelling home it was not uncommon for my sister and I to be packed into the car surrounded by, and sometimes sitting on top of, boxes of wine. Thirty-odd years later, I get to reap the rewards of their forward thinking; as what was once young, cheap wine bought in bulk is now well matured and delicious to drink.

So, all in all, I was ‘wine-spoilt’ as a child and learnt about wine through a very French lens. I love a smooth yet robust red and from an early age would often declare that Chateauneuf du Pape is by far my favourite. To be honest, you wouldn’t see me turn down a St Emilion or a classic Margaux but there has always been something about the nearly black wine and the complexity when it hits your tongue that has always placed it at the top of my personal wine chart. It was only really when I went to university that I started to venture out into wine from other regions. At first it was the South American wines, where I learnt that actually New World wine could be just as tasty as the Old, and for a fraction of the price. Then into Spain and Italy when budget could afford an Amarone or Barolo. I can clearly remember the first time I had Amarone as it was on special offer at Sainsbury’s when my parents were staying with me. It was my first foray into good Italian wine and not cheap Chianti. In fact it was so good that, when my Dad accidently threw away six bottles of it in the middle of Marchmont along with the rubbish, I had no qualms about climbing in the bin to rescue my bounty.

When my friends introduced me to the Californian Zinfandels and Pinot Noirs I soon discovered that America could also produce great wine. I had always thought of it as a maker of poor Chardonnay and, as a nonwhite lover, the idea of Californian wine was hugely unpalatable. But the wine that they

are producing right now is exceptional and is currently my go-to when I hit the local wine shop. So when I was asked to review two bottles of wine I was delighted to receive a pair of reds that I could have seen myself purchasing when I pop into Majestic. Both from its new Definition range, I was asked to review its Malbec and Cotes de Rhone.

I took both bottles to a friend who was cooking me dinner and, as he is not a big drinker, asked which he thought would go with the dinner: pot-roasted pheasant with chorizo. After some debate and much poring over the labels, we decided to go with the Malbec as it should be quite punchy and stand up to the smoky game.

The Malbec was a rich dark plum in colour and looked thick but sumptuous and so I was somewhat disappointed when the first taste was rather tart. We decided it clearly needed to air as it was a young wine, 2014, and so we left

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it for 30 minutes or so to have with the food.

Whilst it was better with food, this is certainly not a wine I would call easy-drinking. It has a taste of blackberries and a touch of cocoa with an aniseed after taste but there is nothing sweet about it. In the words of Nick Offerman, it was a bit “cheek and jowls” with heavy tannins but not enough flavour to stand up to it. Only when we got to the chocolate cheesecake did it became more pleasant to drink. In short, as a lover of Malbec, I would say that there are plenty of other Malbecs available that are better and cheaper on the market so I probably wouldn’t purchase this one again myself. That said, I wouldn’t turn it down if offered at dinner or a party. Gladly the Cotes de Rhone was much better. Again, it was plum in colour but not as black or thick as the Malbec. It was fruity on the nose and incredibly easy to drink. The autumnal berries and damson flavours really came through and I can see that it would accompany cheese perfectly. I drank it along with a roast chicken and it was perfect as a warm, comforting companion to a traditional Sunday roast. It is not a complex wine but it certainly warms your cockles and was velvety on the tongue. This is a wine that I would definitely purchase and would happily enjoy after a day at the office or catching up with friends over a simple supper. n

Esther Stringer is managing director at user experience design agency Border Crossing Media. Find out more at www.bordercrossingmedia.com. Thanks to Majestic Wine Warehouses for supplying the Definition Malbec 2014 (£8.99) and Definition Cotes du Rhone 2014 (£8.99).

Find out more at www.majestic.co.uk

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SCO TTISH BUSINESS AWARDS bqlive.co.uk

The 2015 Scottish Business Awards not only brought George Clooney to Edinburgh but also included the first Festival of Entrepreneurship, with Sir Tom Hunter highlighting the need to support ‘scale-up’ companies.

Hunter hails ‘scale-ups’ as Clooney brings tinsel town magic to Scottish Business Awards There may have been 21 companies and individuals celebrating their successes at the Scottish Business Awards but there was only one name on everyone’s lips – George Clooney. The Hollywood actor had diners mesmerised as he regaled them with stories about his big screen career, his humanitarian work in Africa and his recent marriage to lawyer Amal Alamuddin.

The dinner and awards ceremony at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) marked the end of a busy day for Clooney, who had braved a media scrum in the morning to visit the Social Bite sandwich shop on Rose Street before enjoying lunch at upmarket restaurant TigerLily. Scottish Business Awards chairman Sir Tom Hunter roped in BBC Radio 2 breakfast show host Chris Evans to interview Clooney on stage at the awards, for which BQ magazine was one of the partner organisations. Even without Clooney’s involvement, the night was already set to go down in the history books. More than 2,000 guests attended the dinner, making it the largest ever business award ceremony in the UK and the biggest meal ever served in Scotland, eclipsing a record that had stood since the coronation of King James VI, when 2,000 people attended a banquet. An epic achievement for catering company Leith’s.

Guests at the dinner included: First Minister Nicola Sturgeon; Donald Wilson, Lord Provost of the City of Edinburgh; and Matthew Barzun, the United States’ ambassador to the UK.

Welsh comedian Rob Brydon hosted the awards ceremony, with celebrities including cyclist Sir Chris Hoy and tennis coach Judy Murray also taking to the stage to speak to the audience and present awards.

Highlights of the evening included Edinburghbased flight comparison website operator Skyscanner scooping the overall company award, Lord Robert Smith of Kelvin being presented with the Outstanding Contribution prize, and engineering contractor QTS Group scooping the BQ Growth Strategy of the Year award, which was presented by Bryan Hoare, managing director of Room 501 Publishing, the company behind BQ magazine.

“By being here tonight, you’re not only being recognised for your contributions to your own companies, but also your contribution to Scotland’s economy and Scotland’s communities,” Josh Littlejohn, founder of the Scottish Business Awards, told the assembled finalists and their guests.

As well as presenting prizes, the event also raised money for charities including: Not On Our Watch, the humanitarian charity setup by Clooney and fellow actors Don Cheadle, Matt Damon, and Brad Pitt; the Scottish Edge Fund (Scot Edge), which offers grants to budding entrepreneurs; and Social Bite, the chain of sandwich shops opened by Littlejohn that supports homeless

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

Fair Work Employer of the Year

FES Group

PwC Commitment to Company Values

First Mortgage

RBS Customer Focus

Adopt An Intern

KPMG Large Business of the Year

Cala Homes

People's Postcode Lottery Green Business of the Year

Albert Bartlett

Chivas Brothers Entrepreneur of the Year

John Watson OBE

Johnson and Johnson CSR Award

Harper McLeod

Itison Female Business Leader of the Year

Allison Sellar, activpayroll

BQ Growth Strategy of the Year

QTS Group

Anderson Strathern CEO of the Year

Gordon Dewar, Edinburgh Airport

Made Brave Financial Services Company of the Year

Green Investment Bank

CKGSB International Business of the Year

Balmoral Group

Investor in Scotland

JP Morgan

Family Business of the Year

GAP Group

Tech Company of the Year

FanDuel

Emerging Business of the Year

Celtic Renewables

Frame PR Marketing & PR strategy

Lane Agency

RBS Business Innovation of the Year

Route Monkey

Sunday Times SME of the Year

ECS Group

Outstanding Contribution

Lord Robert Smith of Kelvin

Overall Company

Skyscanner

people. More than £500,000 was raised through ticket sales ahead of the dinner, with the total expected to exceed £1m.

“Start-ups are good, but scale-ups are great,” Hunter told the audience.

“Scale-up businesses grow their employee numbers by at least 20% every year. And 100% of net new jobs are created by businesses that are less than five years old.

“Silicon Valley – population seven million people – has created 150 unicorns, or technology businesses valued at more than $1m. In Scotland – population five million people – we have created two unicorns, FanDuel and Skyscanner. Both are here tonight, and we’re very proud of of you, but we need many, many more of you. Hunter added: “Scale-ups need finance, they need talent and they need ambition. On finance, we really are making progress, with funds such as Scot Edge. But I think talent is our biggest challenge. There are currently 990,000 job vacancies in the UK and the skills gap is growing – 50% of these scaleup businesses said they could grow quicker if only they could find the right people.

“And so to ambition – did Sir Chris Hoy or Andy Murray want to be the best in Britain? I don’t think so. The best in Europe?

Definitely not. They simply wanted to be the best in the world. That’s what I want for Scotland – I want us to be the best in the world for scaling businesses. Let’s create a world-class education system that prepares our young people to work in and lead these scale-up businesses.” Earlier in the day at the Festival of Entrepreneurship, which was also supported by BQ magazine, Hunter had led a panel session that featured: Hamid Guedroudj, founder and chief executive at engineering software company Petroleum Experts; David Sibbald, executive chairman at bio-informatics firm Aridhia; and Chris van der Kuyl, chairman of both Entrepreneurial Scotland and Dundeebased computer games computer 4J Studios.

The Festival of Entrepreneurship also included the finalists in Scot Edge’s Young Edge competition presenting their winning pitches in a Dragons’ Den-style battle for more than £100,000 of funding for their business ideas.

Hoy was the main speaker at the festival, delivering a talk about his journey from the BMX cycle track at Danderhall in Edinburgh all the way through to becoming Great Britain’s most successful Olympian of all time. The athlete also highlighted the need for business people to set goals and pointed to the use of techniques such as cognitive displacement. n For more pictures see www.flickr.com/photos/organize/

Supported By

Raising funds for

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Keeping everything ship shape As he hands over the reins at law firm MBM Commercial, Sandy Finlayson reflects on the need to look over the horizon for ‘the next big thing’ while still maintaining a firm hand on the tiller, writes BQ editor Peter Ranscombe A quick glance at the CV of lawyer Sandy Finlayson reveals his links to a veritable Who’s Who of the Scottish technology ecosystem. He introduced Mike Rutterford to Barry Sealey, which led to the creation of the Archangels business angel syndicate, and then brought the investors together with inventor Douglas Anderson to finance the foundation of eye scanner maker Optos.

Finlayson’s greatest hits also include being present at the births of both Business Forum Scotland and Connect, the role of which has since been taken over by Informatics Ventures, as well as introducing Sandy McKinnon to Edward Pickard to finance the expansion of energy consultancy McKinnon & Clarke. More recently, he has also been involved in the creation of six of the UK’s 17 enterprise capital funds, including Seraphim Capital, which was the first to launch.

Yet for a man who has forged a reputation as something of a godfather figure in Scotland’s cutting-edge technology sector, Finlayson clearly finds inspiration from some very traditional sources. Whether through serving on a minesweeper with the naval reserves or teaching his grandson how to play the bagpipes, he clearly hasn’t forgotten his roots, despite spending a career operating at the top levels of corporate finance for tech companies. Those roots have also influenced his ethos for business.

“We frequently talk about our moral compass – ‘doing the right thing’ is more important to us than ‘doing things right’ and there’s a big difference between the two,” explains Finlayson,

who stood down as senior partner at MBM Commercial over the summer to make way for Stuart Hendry, with whom he founded the law firm in 2005. To illustrate what he means, Finlayson points to “Repo 105”, the nownotorious accounting trick that Lehman Brothers used to make its balance sheet look stronger than it truly was in the months and years leading up to the 2008 global financial crisis.

“Repo 105 was an example of ‘doing things right’ because it didn’t break any rules but it’s wasn’t ‘doing the right thing’,” he says, highlighting that his firm also doesn’t deal with alcohol, firearms or tobacco. “We play the game according to the rules – the tax breaks in this area are so generous that there’s no need to break the rules. All we’ve got is our reputation.”

Born and brought up in the village of Aberfeldy in Highland Perthshire and educated at Morrison’s Academy in Crieff, Finlayson’s father was a chartered survey and land agent working with estates, instilling in him the values of hard work and integrity.

“I remember my father telling me that the life of a writer to the signet in Charlotte Square was probably a bit easier than the life of a chartered surveyor so maybe I should try a law degree – and so that’s what I did,” laughs Finlayson. “I am sure I made the right choice because life in the country has changed out of all recognition.

Writers to the signet have also had to work much harder, but I have enjoyed every minute.”

Finlayson studied law at the University of Edinburgh, but he believes that his “holiday jobs”

also had a big influence on his development.

He worked as a labourer on building sites and busked as a bagpiper in the South of France, as well as serving at sea with the naval reserves, first on the lower decks as an ordinary seaman and then later as a junior officer.

“Looking back on it, the environment of being part of the crew of a minesweeper taught me the importance of discipline and teamwork and the need to be positive,” he remembers. “I still regularly – to the annoyance of my partners – using nautical analogies when it comes to our business planning.”

Joining the naval reserves and learning to play the pipes both meant following in the footsteps of his father, who had served in the navy during the Second World War and continued to be part of the naval reserve after he was demobbed.

Sailing with the reserves and playing the pipes in the South of France instilled a love of travel into Finlayson, an interest that subsequently spawned family trips to many far-flung corners of the world, including Australia, the Caribbean, Kenya, Peru and Tibet.

“I’m endlessly curious,” he admits. “I get enormous pleasure from being in the company of other people. I enjoy meeting new people and going to new places and doing new things.”

That desire to do new things is reflected in his career. After graduation, Finlayson undertook his apprenticeship with Ketchen & Stevens. “There I met a wonderful guy called David Pearson who was a trainee with me and who was a big influence on me,” he says. “He was also very

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

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much a businessman as well as a lawyer and so it was through David that I learned about the world of business.

“I qualified and decided that I wanted to learn more about commercial law and so I spent a year at McGrigor Donald in Glasgow, where by the time I had paid my mortgage and my train fare from Edinburgh, I only had a one pound left over – so what I earned over the weekend from the naval reserves became very important.”

After a year in Glasgow, Finlayson transferred to J & R A Robertson, which was the Edinburgh court correspondent of McGrigor Donald, where he met lifelong friend John Stewart, a lawyer in Campbeltown and coxswain of the local lifeboat.

The pair still enjoy sailing together in Argyll.

By now Finlayson was married and had a young family and so he needed to “start earning a living and get ambitious”. He became a partner at Fyfe Ireland, a boutique law firm that specialised in commercial property. “Looking back over the threads of my career, I’ve always been involved in new things: at Fyfe Ireland I got involved in out-of-town retailing,” remembers Finlayson.

“Through the offices of another very old university friend – Robin Finlayson, who was a partner at EY in Edinburgh – I was introduced to Mike Rutterford. Robin and I spent several months working with Mike to raise a modest amount of money for his company, Stuart Wyse Ogilvie, which grew very quickly and was sold 18 months later and gave a 19-times return to its investors.”

The sale of estate agency chain Stuart Wyse Ogilvie to General Accident in 1981 for £16m marked a sea change in not just Finlayson’s story but also in the creation of Scotland’s thriving tech ecosystem.

“Because I learned how to play the bagpipes,

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I met a chap called Professor Stuart Hamilton, who was the secretary of the Royal Scottish Pipers’ Society. Through Stuart, I got to meet people at the Industrial & Commercial Financial Corporation (ICFC) as it was then – and is now 3i – and I got involved in the management buyout of the Dundee part of Ferranti, which became a company called Albacom. It appointed Barry Sealey as a non-executive director and so I got to know him as well. For my sins, I introduced Barry Sealey and Mike Rutterford to each other.”

Rutterford and Sealey founded the Archangels business angel syndicate in Edinburgh in 1992, which has gone on to invest more than £90m in 80 Scottish companies, which have together turned over at least £1.3bn and created nearly 3,000 jobs. This summer’s Archangels impact evaluation report compiled by the Hunter Centre for Entrepreneurship at the University of Strathclyde painted a fascinating and very honest portrait of the syndicate’s activities, not shying away from the 36 businesses that have failed as well as celebrating the 22 companies that are still active and the 18 that have moved on through trade sales, initial public offerings (IPOs) or a management buyout.

“David Simpson, who brought Hewlett Packard to South Queensferry, was the one who told me what a business angel was,” explains Finlayson.

“He had come across them in America, where he had turned Gould Electronics from a US$100m company into a US$1bn company over a period of about nine years and then came home to Scotland because he wanted to give something back. Barry and Mike had both wanted to be business angels but they hadn’t expressed it in those terms because that phrase didn’t exist in Scotland up until that point. Then it all came together with Douglas Anderson.”

Finlayson had met Anderson at a Scottish Enterprise networking event in Fife and had been struck by his story. His five-year-old son had become blind in one eye after his detached retina was spotted too late to save his sight, and so Anderson invented a patient-friendly machine that could spot such eye problems.

“Douglas told me that he had this great business idea, which had been rejected by 200 venture capitalists,” Finlayson says. “I told him that he needed a business angel and so he phoned me the next day and asked me to find him a business angel. So I introduced Barry and Mike to Douglas and he got his money within a month. That led

to the start of the Archangels business angel syndicate. That was a lucky break for me. Mike and Barry got on like a house on fire. I had the great good fortune to introduce them to some of their early transactions because the market had begun to hear about this and the syndicate had been good enough to credit me with coming up with the name ‘Archangels’.”

Anderson’s business was launched in 1992 as Optos, which floated on the stock market in 2006 and delisted earlier this year when Japanese camera giant Nikon bought the company in a £259m takeover deal.

Through the offices of Murray Burns, another university friend, Finlayson found himself doing part-time tutoring on the legal diploma course at the University of Edinburgh, Finlayson met fellow lawyer Ruthven Gemmell. Finlayson’s firm, Fyfe Ireland, had been amalgamated with Bird Semple and Gemmell invited him to build up a commercial division at Murray Beith Murray in 1993.

“While Ruthven set up a very successful private client investment management business, I was given complete latitude by my partners to build up the commercial division,” says Finlayson. “The firm was also a founder shareholder in a private client stockbroker firm called Law Share, which was successfully sold in 2003.”

Finlayson was also involved in two key conversations triggered by Scottish Enterprise chief executive Crawford Beveridge. The first concerned the birth-rate for businesses and led to the formation of Business Forum Scotland to help ambitious entrepreneurs to meet potential mentors and customers. The second asked how

the nation could commercialise its science base, from which emerged a body called Connect, the role of which has now been taken over and greatly expanded by Informatics Ventures.

The energy sector supplied another of Finlayson’s best-known successes, “In 1995, I had the good fortune to meet Sandy McKinnon, who set-up a company called MacKinnon & Clarke,” he says.

“I introduced him to an old friend called Edward Pickard, who had just cashed-out as finance director of Invergordon Distillers. That enabled us to do a financing, which allowed MacKinnon & Clarke to grow from 50 people to 350 people, prior to a very successful exit.

“Then the dot com boom came along and I can’t think how many dot com companies we got involved with starting up,” adds Finlayson.

The ensuing dot com bust made Murray Beith Murray start to re-evaluate its strategy, which in turn led to Finlayson and Hendry spinningout the commercial department in 2005 as MBM Commercial. Hendry and Finlayson set the business up with David Calder, who suggested having an out-sourced information technology (IT) system and cash room, the facility in a law firm that handles financial functions. Out-sourcing its IT function has given MBM Commercial a “cost advantage” over its competitors.”

Since 2005, Finlayson has been involved in setting up enterprise capital funds, which are a major initiative of the British Business Bank. His work has taken him to London, Milan and other exotic climes, and has helped him to appreciate what Scotland has developed in its tech ecosystem.

While Finlayson plans to remain as a partner at MBM Commercial until the end of its current financial year on 31 July 2016, he still aims to play a role with both the firm and the wider tech ecosystem. “I certainly won’t be retiring,” he laughs. “I just love working in this whole area and I’m keen to continue to be involved in it for as long as I can make a positive contribution.”

Having been married to Helen for 40 years and being surrounded by three children and six grandchildren means there’s “never a dull moment”. Although he’s clearly still on the lookout for “the next big thing” on the horizon, there’s also a project closer to home that Finlayson plans to begin. “My grandson has just started playing his first chanter,” he smiles. “So hopefully I’ll be able to teach him how to play the bagpipes too.” n

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

“I still regularly – to the annoyance of my partners – use nautical analogies when it comes to our business planning”

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The light fantastic Laura and Rebecca Pagan shine a light on what it’s like for a mother and daughter to work so closely together, writes BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Walk into a room where Laura and Rebecca Pagan are sitting and it’s almost guaranteed to be full of laughter. Smiles are seldom far from the faces of the mother-and-daughter team behind Pagazzi Lighting, the Newton Mearnsbased business that has a network of 14 shops throughout Scotland and the North of England.

“If we’re getting on each other’s nerves then we just come out and say it,” smiles Rebecca, 28.

“I think that’s the secret to why we get along so well.”

Honesty like that certainly appears to have been the best policy for the pair, who travel the world together to visit their suppliers and to source lights, lamps and mirrors for their shops and for their thriving website. Their family business now has around 150 staff and turns over some £12m a year. It’s come a long way since Laura founded the company in 1980.

Laura was brought up at Muirend on the Southside of Glasgow and joined the Royal Bank of Scotland when she left school at 16. She met her future husband, Alan Pagan, the following year and, after they got married, the pair soon knew that they wanted to launch their own company.

“We had decided that we wanted to have our own business but we didn’t know what kind of business,” explains Laura, now 58.

“Then we got the site for our first shop in the city centre on West George Street in Glasgow and it was just around the corner from the Greeting Card Centre on Hope Street, which had banked with us. It was run by such a lovely couple that I couldn’t have set up in competition with them, so I decided to go into lighting. It was as simple as that.”

With the products chosen, all that there was left to do was to come up with a name. The snazzy-sounding “Pagazzi” came from an amalgamation of Laura and Alan’s surname and that of their business partner, Emilio Fazzi, part of the Scots-Italian family that ran the famous Fazzi delicatessen shops in Glasgow. The Pagans bought out Fazzi after two years, but the name lives on.

Pagazzi’s city centre branch moved to Glasgow’s landmark Sauchiehall Street after the Royal Bank decided to knock down the building on West George Street and the company soon opened a branch in nearby Hamilton. A big change came in

2002, when Laura detected the winds of change blowing through Scotland’s city centres.

“I felt there wasn’t much for retailers on the high street,” remembers Laura. “In the city centre, there were traffic wardens galore, you couldn’t park, and you couldn’t get space to take goods out to customers’ cars. So I decided that retail parks were the way to go.

“So we opened our first out-of-town store, in Uddingston, in 2002 and it took off really well.

Alan was still working in the computer industry, but I couldn’t get out of the lease on my shop on Sauchiehall Street until the following year. So Alan came into the business for three months to help me with the transition and here he is, still with me 13 years later.”

Alan joining the company was a real turning point. With his experience from the corporate world, he has had a keen eye on business development and investment. His involvement has seen the firm grow from having just ten staff back in 2002 to the present complement of about 150 workers.

Pagazzi’s growth was accelerated by external finance that was brought into the business in February 2006 from Ashleybank Investments, Douglas Needham joined the lighting company’s board to offer advice on further developing the business. Scottish Enterprise’s Co-Investment Fund also pumped £100,000 into the business alongside Ashleybank.

Needham’s isn’t the only experienced brain that

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the Pagans can pick. Vince Gunn, who took over as chief executive of Sofa.com in October, is also a shareholder and director at Pagazzi.

“Vince has been a friend of my family for a long time,” explains Laura.

He invested money for some shares and so he’s now a non-executive director and comes to all of our board meetings.

“We’re very structured for the size of business that we are. I could open the diary and show you the dates for all of next year’s board meetings.

I’m the only female amongst all these men.”

“Don’t worry – she gets her voice heard,” chips in Rebecca. Laura’s other daughter, Lyndsay, is a fashion designer and helps out at Pagazzi each Monday to process the weekend’s orders. While Lyndsay has pursued her own career in the arts, Rebecca always knew that business was the right area for her.

“Because my dad had always been in the computer industry and my mum had always been in business, I knew that I wanted to work in business but I didn’t know what aspect of business,” she explains. “I was quite young when I went to university, I was 17, and I knew I didn’t want to work with numbers or accountancy, so I chose marketing.”

After graduating with a marketing degree in 2008 from the University of Strathclyde, Rebecca flew out to British Columbia in Canada to work for a ski season in Whistler. “The economy was booming then, so there was no sense of urgency

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

to immediately go out and get a job,” she remembers. “I thought I’d spend a season out there and then perhaps join a graduate training scheme when I got back.”

But then a telephone call home changed Rebecca’s plans. “I phoned my mum one day and she told me ‘Don’t bother coming home anytime soon – the recession’s kicked in and everyone’s losing their jobs, so just stay there and enjoy yourself for a few more months’.

“When I came back in September 2009, I started working in the office at Pagazzi, just doing whatever needed to be done.

“Then in 2011, I managed the project to get our e-commerce website up-and-running, which involved four of us sitting in our boardroom and working on nothing else. We were uploading stock and getting it all under control. I ran the website for a couple of years and then, through conversations with my mum and dad, we decided that we would get someone else in to run the website and I would become a buyer and work alongside mum.”

While it’s far from unusual for children to follow their parents into the family business, did existing members of staff resent Rebecca for simply walking into a job with the company? “We have a lot of people in the office who have been working for us for a long time, so they’ve seen me grow up,” explains Rebecca. “So they knew me anyway.”

Laura adds: “At first, I think a lot of the staff were a bit apprehensive, because Rebecca sat out in the main office, and so I don’t think they wanted to say anything negative in front of her.”

“But in fact I was the one who was making all the noise and being a distraction,” laughs Rebecca. “When I worked in the main office, if my mum was being demanding and a pain then I would make sure that I said so, because I wanted people to know it was ok to think that she was being a pain that day.”

Having such a loyal and supportive team is one of the hallmarks of many family businesses.

Members of staff at Pagazzi receive a bottle of Champagne as a gift to mark ten years’ service and Alan has just been out to buy seven bottles of Moët & Chandon for just such occasions.

Some workers have been with the firm for more than 20 years.

“I think some of my friends from university probably were jealous when I first started working here, but it wasn’t until I became a buyer

“When I worked in the main office, if my mum was being demanding and a pain then I would make sure that I said so” that my job became more important – up until that point I was really just doing a normal day job,” says Rebecca. “On the other hand, some of my friends who didn’t go travelling after uni walked into graduate training schemes and I was jealous of them to begin with, because they got to move to London and work for big corporates and have the fancy salaries. But looking back I’m so thankful that I didn’t go down that route.

“I’m so grateful for the opportunity that I’ve had to work here and I love working with my mum and dad. Working with my mum is the best bit of the job because we get to spend time together.

“I also enjoy the amount of responsibility that I get. I wouldn’t be given access to the information I have or be involved in the decisions that I make if I was just another person working for just another company.

“The hardest part is that you never get to have a day off. We go out for family dinners and we end up talking about Pagazzi. In fact, we were driving down to Birmingham together the other day and by eight o’clock in the morning we’d already had 12 really important business conversations – so I said ‘Dad, can we have an hour’s break’. My boyfriend tells me all the time that I’m turning into my mum.”

Spending so much time with her daughter and having someone to travel with to the Far East are among the highlights for Laura. “Seeing Rebecca mature has been the best thing about

working together,” she adds. “She’s always been very confident but over the past year she’s really matured and now handles business meetings really well. I know that she’s not going to leave – she’s going to stay and hopefully I’ll be able to go part-time one day, even just five days a week would be great.”

One of the biggest challenges for family businesses is making the transition in ownership from one generation to the next. While Pagazzi is different to many family enterprises – having already brought on board external investment to accelerate its growth – could Rebecca see herself taking over the business one day?

“If you’d asked me that six years ago then I would definitely have said ‘No’,” she says emphatically. “I never, ever wanted to work for my parents when I was younger. I never wanted to be in lighting, I never wanted to be part of the lighting industry.

“But now it feels so natural – it’s feels like I was supposed to do it all along. If that’s the path that the company goes down then I could certainly see myself running the business one day – but I’ve got a long way to go yet.

“The lighting industry is full of family businesses, including the suppliers and the manufacturers.

So, when I go into meetings with the directors of some of the biggest lighting businesses in the UK, I think they like the fact that I’m part of the family and they know I’m here for the long-haul.” n

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BIT OF A CHAT Jock Yuler examining the news behind the headlines The handbags and the glad rags For some, she was the saviour of the country who turned around the economy and repaired the damage done by Harold Wilson’s and James Callaghan’s Labour governments in the 1970s.

For the rest of us, she was the one-woman army who closed the coal mines, delivered the Sermon on the Mound, and gave us the poll tax a year earlier than the rest of the country.

Thanks a lot, Maggie. Now everyone has a chance to bid for memorabilia associated with Margaret Thatcher. Christie’s, the auction house in London, is selling off 150 lots on 15 December and a further 200 bits of personal property in an auction on the interweb that runs on 3-16 December. My money man tells me that the most valuable lot is likely to be an Art Deco emerald and diamond necklace by Chaumet, which carries an estimate of between £120,000 and £180,000. If you fancy one of those red shiny dispatch boxes then that’s likely to set you back somewhere between £3,000 and £5,000, while you’ll have to part with £5,000 to £8,000 to own that rather kitsch-looking Kaiser bisque figure of an American bald eagle, modelled by Gerd Pitterkoff and given as a gift to the ‘Iron Lady’ by US President Ronald Reagan in 1984 “for staunch and spirited support of the market economy principle”. And as for those legendary handbags, well there’s a “classic navy blue leather” one by “Launer, London” that I’ve got my eye on.

Cooking up a storm Mrs Yuler was obsessed over the autumn with something on the gogglebox called The Great British Bake Off, which apparently featured 12 folk in a tent trying to cook cakes. Whatever next? Anyway, looks like there might be more to this baking malarkey than meets the eye.

Flora Sneddon, the youngest baker in the tent at 19 and a proud Perthshire-ite, has taken a leave of absence from the first year of her history of art degree at St Andrews to write a cook book. According to the muck-raking tabloids, that could net her £150,000. She turned up in Edinburgh in November to open the Foodies Festival Christmas too. Nice work if you can get it.

Jock’s antisocial network Technology may well have left me behind somewhere between Betamax and the Laserdisc, but I cannae make head nor tail of these social networks. I have to keep getting the grandkids to hit the delete key when I get invitations on my ZX Spectrum to join Instagram or Twitter or something weird called Google-Plus. Looks like those fellas in financial services don’t share my trepidation. No sooner had Royal Bank of Scotland signed up to let its staff use ‘Facebook at Work’ than Ernst & Young – oh no, sorry, we’re meant to call them EY now aren’t we – had formed an ‘alliance’ with Linked-In. All very Star Wars-sounding. The Royal reckons that the 100,000 members of staff who have been given access to the network will be able to swap ideas and information faster than they would be able to using slow-coach methods like email.

Meanwhile, EY and Linked-In say they will “jointly offer services to help more companies around the world use technology, social networks and innovative sales techniques to empower their goto-market efforts”. And nope, I havenae got a scoobie what “go-to-market efforts” are either.

Whatever happened to good ol’ fashioned social networking with a pint of heavy in one hand and a cheeky wee sharpener in the other? Three pints at lunchtime and then back to the office for a quick nap before the boss got back from his club. Those were the days – and still are for certain skiving journalists in Edinburgh I hear.

Game for a laugh So who said accountants are boring? Turns out that the bean counters at French Duncan and Henderson Loggie are all “hip” and “down with the kids” after both firms were shortlisted for a computer games award. Aye, The nomination wasnae for playing Pong or Lemmings while they were meant to be filling in tax returns though – they were both up for a prize in the tax and accountancy firm category at industry body Tiga’s annual games industry awards. The two Scottish firms were shortlisted alongside the big boys from Grant Thornton and KPMG, but they all lost out at the awards ceremony in November to London-based MMP Tax. Never mind, there’s always next year. Meanwhile, put those joysticks away and get back to work – those FRS102 accounting standards aren’t going to implement themselves, you know.

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Providing the inside track on what drives leading businesses and business people, BQ offers a unique and refreshing mix of business news, commentary and profiles of the most inspirational entrepreneurs across the West Midlands, the North East & Cumbria, Yorkshire and Scotland. Published in four separate editions with content unique to each area, BQ aims to get to the heart and soul of business people to find out what drives, inspires and motivates them towards their ambitions.

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MADE 2015 bqlive.co.uk

MADE - a festival business Hundreds of businesses showed how strong the BQ entrepreneurial spirit is at this year’s MADE Festival in Sheffield. Set in the stunning surroundings of City Hall at the heart of the city, MADE is now in its sixth year as the UK’s largest festival of enterprise and was again supported by a range of sponsors including Irwin Mitchell, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Sheffield, Sheffield College, Microsoft, JCT600, UK Steel Enterprise as well as Business Sheffield and Sheffield City Region. With presentations throughout the day, entrepreneurs from all over the country came to be inspired by the guidance and experiences of high-profile names such as Paul Lindley from Ella’s Kitchen, Joe McEwan from innocent, Kevin Byrne founder of Checkatrade.com and JB Gill of JLS. A range of masterclass presentations were also delivered by the likes of Geoff Ramm and Anthony Stears with the audience also hearing from a number of BQ featured entrepreneurs including Petra Wetzel from WEST Brewery. There was also a series of fringe events throughout the city covering everything a new business needs to know - from marketing and branding to start-

Sheffield saw the UK’s entrepreneurial spirit at its strongest at this year’s MADE festival, celebrating new business and showcasing some stars as Mike Hughes reports ups, intellectual property and social media.

One of the highlights was the naming of BQ’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year for 2015 in partnership with Gateshead College.

“We spent 12 months searching the UK and eventually narrowed it down to four worthy shortlisted finalists from the North East, West Midlands, Scotland and Yorkshire,” said Bryan Hoare, managing director of BQ. “We were delighted to crown Richard Kirk, founder and CEO of PolyPhotonix in Sedgefield, as BQ’s national emerging entrepreneur of the year, who was up against stiff competition including Fiona Houston from Mara Seaweed, the shortlisted Scotland finalist.”

When we talked to Richard in BQ North East, he told us how the company’s phototherapy eye mask, which is worn during sleep, uses light

therapy to treat diabetic retinopathy and could save the NHS more than £1bn a year.

Richard told us: “We use our expertise to bridge the gap between research and commercialisation and often we meet with academics in unrelated fields to try to create a culture of ‘organised serendipity.’

“It’s great to get physicists, medics and biologists – all at the top of their game – together in one room to spark ideas off each other.”

If you have been inspired by this year’s MADE festival and want to find out more about the country’s leading entrepreneurs, follow what’s going on at www.bqlive.co.uk, where you can also sign up for our BQ Breakfast morning email and discover how easy it is to get a subscription to BQ magazines throughout the year. n

MADE 2015

A MAJOR EVENT TO INSPIRE, MOTIVATE & SHARE BUSINESS SUCCESS bqlive.co.uk

93

National Emerging Entrepreneur Dinner 2016 In association with

THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2016, LEEDS BQ Magazine is delighted to announce that nominations are now open for the BQ National Emerging Entrepreneur Dinner 2016 sponsored by Irwin Mitchell.

Celebrate the legacy of MADE by supporting emerging entrepreneurs across the UK. The search now begins once again to identify some of the UK’s leading emerging entrepreneurs. We are seeking nominations across Scotland, the North East and Cumbria, Yorkshire and the West Midlands to find the best in emerging entrepreneurial talent.

The BQ National Emerging Entrepreneur dinner brings together established entrepreneurs with the challenge of being accompanied by individuals who in their view are representative of a next generation entrepreneur. The 2016 dinner is being held in Leeds on Thursday 25 February 2016 where we will celebrate and acknowledge entrepreneurship across the UK. If you would like to nominate an emerging entrepreneur for consideration then visit www.bqlive.co.uk/EED2016

Richard Kirk receiving his award (left) from Bryan Hoare, managing director BQ with Nigel Risner, MADE festival host

“It’s a great honour to win this award. Whilst it is recognising entrepreneurship it is also recognition for the whole company that have put in the hours of work to enable me to stand up and receive it” Richard Kirk, founder and CEO of PolyPhotonix

For more information about joining us at the dinner and to enter see www.bqlive.co.uk/EED2016

94

XY TXCRXYX

EVENTS

bqlive.co.uk

BQ’s business diary helps you forward plan

DECEMBER 09

Clansman Dynamics employee ownership event, James Watt Conference Centre, East Kilbride, 10am to 12pm. www.scottish-enterprise.com/events/

10

Edinburgh Chamber of Commerce Christmas Party, Hilton Edinburgh Grosvenor Hotel, 6.30pm to 9.30pm. www.edinburghchamber.co.uk

14

Institute of Directors Scotland Young Directors’ Forum Christmas Drinks, Edinburgh Gin Distillery, 7pm to 9.30pm. www.iodscotland.com/event/

JANUARY 10-12 14 16 25-26

UK Trade & Investment export insight visit to Iberia, Lisbon and Madrid. www.gov.uk/guidance/export-insight-visits/ Law Society of Scotland London flagship event on the UK’s membership of the European Union, 6.15pm to 9.30pm, Vintners’ Hall. www.lawscot.org.uk/events/ Deadline for entries to the HSBC Scottish Export Awards in association with Scottish Enterprise. www.bqlive.co.uk/scottish-export-awards-2016/ Scottish Renewables Offshore Wind Conference, Exhibition & Dinner, University of Strathclyde Technology & Innovation Centre, Glasgow. www.scottishrenewables.com/ events/

FEBRUARY 16-18 23

UK Trade & Investment export insight visit to Benelux. www.gov.uk/guidance/export-insight-visits International 2016 Low Carbon Heat & Water Conference and Showcase, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. Free entry. www.heatandwater2016.co.uk

23

The Usual Suspects, Informatics Ventures, Skyscanner chief executive Gareth Williams, Informatics Forum, Edinburgh, 6pm to 8.30pm. www.informatics-ventures.com/events-calendar/

23-25

Sixth International Conference on Ocean Energy, Edinburgh International Conference Centre. www.renewableuk.com/events/

24

Jim McColl, Glasgow Talks, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, Blythswood Hotel, Glasgow, 9am to 11am. www.glasgowchamberofcommerce.com

25

BQ National Emerging Entrepreneur Dinner 2016, Leeds.

For more information about joining us at the dinner and how to enter, see www.bqlive.co.uk/EED2016

25

Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards, Royal Bank of Scotland global head office, Gogarburn, Edinburgh, 12.45pm to 6pm. www.interface-online.org.uk/events/ scottish-knowledge-exchange-awards/

MARCH 1-2

Scottish Renewables Annual Conference, Sheraton Hotel, Edinburgh. www.scottishrenewables.com/events/

04

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, Glasgow Talks, Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, IET Teacher Building, Glasgow, 11am to 12.30pm. www.glasgowchamberofcommerce.com

17

Institute of Directors Scotland Director of the Year Awards, Crowne Plaza Hotel, Glasgow. www.iodscotland.com/ events-listings/director-of-the-year/

17-18

Scottish Council for Development & Industry Forum on The Emerging Economy, Fairmount St Andrews Hotel. www. scdi.org.uk/events/

23

The HSBC Scottish Export Awards in association with Scottish Enterprise, Hilton Hotel, Glasgow. www.bqlive.co.uk/scottish-export-awards-2016/

BQ’s business events diary gives you lots of time to forward plan. If you wish to add your event to the list send it to editor@bq-magazine.co.uk and please put ‘BQ events page’ in the subject heading

The diary is updated daily online at bqlive.co.uk

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