BQ Yorkshire Issue 21

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ISSUE TWENTY ONE: SUMMER 2014

RENAISSANCE MAN Lawrence Tomlinson on his race cars and revelations TURNING A PROFIT How wind turbine firm blew red tape away MAKING WAVES Technology maker on the cusp of global success A BRIGHTER FUTURE The drive to create ‘extraordinary growth’ ISSUE TWENTY ONE: SUMMER 2014: YORKSHIRE EDITION

EASTERN PROMISE Water group’s flow from Putin’s office to the desert and beyond

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

YORKSHIRE EDITION

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WELCOME

BUSINESS QUARTER: SUMMER 14: ISSUE TWENTY ONE Regardless of what angle the economy is tilting at the time, some unwritten truths of entrepreneurial success are always applicable.

Among them is the fact that family members can provide a vital source of support, guidance and even financial backing.

And two of our featured entrepreneurs in this issue were well aware of that when they each approached their respective brothers to help kick their start-up ideas into action.

As you’ll see in our features on Michael Howard of HCE and Eric Hawthorn of Radio Design, both moves paid off and were the catalyst for rapid rises to success.

Our cover story, meanwhile, perhaps highlights another golden rule of business; never turn down an opportunity before careful consideration. James Cain, the driving force behind Harrogate Spring Water, has done just that with aplomb, grasping unexpected opportunities and taking a few measured risks along the way to make them real.

Find out how the age-old Yorkshire export is about to enjoy a level of international popularity it has not seen since the height of the British Empire.

Meanwhile, the small matter of the Tour de France’s imminent trip to Yorkshire looms large over the region. Watch out for our unique take on the event involving six motoring nuts, the most expensively filled pub car park perhaps on record and a grand day out in the countryside.

We also catch up with two business leaders who have had governments clamouring for their wealth of expertise in recent years.

LNT Group’s Lawrence Tomlinson – the race car making, all-action entrepreneur who famously exposed allegations of major bank failings last year – finds a rare window of time to chat to BQ about his many activities.

Former Cabinet Office adviser Roger Marsh

also updates us on the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership and tells us why he’s so optimistic about Yorkshire’s economic future.

There’s much more besides, including details of the inaugural BQ Emerging Entrepreneurs awards and an in-depth debate on how SMEs can protect their valuable assets from copycats and fraudsters.

With temperatures rising as we head into the second half of the year, the economy looks to be warming up nicely too.

Talk of gathering momentum and booming order books is getting louder and many of those businesses that buckled down through the recession are now surging ahead.

We hope you too are looking forward optimistically and that you find something useful and inspiring in these pages to help you as you plot your next move.

Those looking for further inspiration before our next issue hits the shelves, meanwhile, may wish to join BQ at Made: The Entrepreneur Festival in Sheffield on 24 and 25 September. Highlights include a special business performance-boosting show from Paul McKenna, as well as insight sharing from Levi Roots, Doug Richard and Wayne Hemingway amongst others.

Have a great summer, hopefully with at least a little time for recharging of batteries, and we look forward to seeing you again in what’s shaping up to be a busy autumn.

Andrew Mernin, editor, BQ Yorkshire

THE LIFE AND SOUL OF BUSINESS

CONTACTS ROOM501 LTD Christopher March Managing Director e: chris@room501.co.uk Bryan Hoare Director e: bryan@room501.co.uk EDITORIAL Andrew Mernin Editor e: andrewm@room501.co.uk DESIGN & PRODUCTION room501 e: studio@room501.co.uk PHOTOGRAPHY KG Photography e: info@kgphotography.co.uk SALES Katie Davies Business development manager e: katie@room501.co.uk t: 0191 426 6182 / 07977 567 478 Hellen Murray Business development manager e: hellen@room501.co.uk t: 0191 426 6182 / 07551 173 428

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BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd. 06/06/2014 15:00

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

CONTE BUSINESS QUARTER: SUMMER 14 FIGHTING FOR A BETTER FUTURE

Features

48 IS YOUR IP AT RISK? Our BQ Live Debate focuses on issues surrounding intellectual property rights

22 EASTERN PROMISE How a deal in the desert has opened Harrogate Spring Water up to the world

30 A BRIGHTER FUTURE The man on a missison to drive ‘extraordinary growth’ in the region

42 TURNING A PROFIT Wind turbine boss reveals how he has overcome red tape to be in the black

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

56 IN THE FAST LANE Lawrence Tomlinson on race cars, banking reform and rallying his troops

68 MAKING WAVES Radio Design boss talks of being on the cusp of major global expansion

76 BUILDING ON SUCCESS Entrepreneur’s journey from builders’ yard to creating a £15m+ empire

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30 TURNING A PROFIT IN GREEN ENERGY

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TENTS YORKSHIRE EDITION

38 COMMERCIAL PROPERETY

raCE CarS anD rEVELaTionS

Behind the region’s biggest deals

60 WINE Business leader steps out of her comfort zone to sample two unfamiliar wines

Regulars

64 MOTORING Six of the best - and their favourite sports cars - celebrate Le Tour in style

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72 FASHION 06 ON THE RECORD A perfect storm of positivity looks set to revive Hull’s fortunes

10 NEWS Who’s doing what, when, where and why across Yorkshire

The much maligned trouser suit is back... but with added femininity

74 EQUIPMENT Attention to detail ensures devotion for fans of audio company Naim

80 BIT OF A CHAT With BQ’s backroom boy Frank Tock

20 AS I SEE IT Media boss talks of the pros – and cons – of the Apprenticeship Scheme

raDio STar MakES waVES

82 EVENTS Key business events for your diary

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68 BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

ON THE RECORD

SUMMER 14

>> Counting down the days to a new dawn Once derided as Britain’s least attractive place to live, Hull is now emerging from the shadows to find the future is looking brighter than ever. Ken Oxley reports on the events contributing to the city’s perfect storm of positivity A decade has passed since Hull was labelled ‘the worst place to live in Britain’ in an internet poll. Dubious and far from scientific in its findings, the unwelcome title bestowed upon the city by The Idler website has nevertheless continued to rankle with many.

Over the past few months, however, there has been a break in the dark clouds of economic and social deprivation and residents, it appears, are of a much sunnier disposition.

It has nothing to do with the weather taking a turn for the better...it’s because Hullensians are now basking in the warmth of a brighter tomorrow. Indeed, at no point in its history has Hull’s future looked so promising with events combining to form a perfect storm of positivity.

Last November it beat off competition from Dundee, Leicester and Swansea Bay to be named UK City of Culture 2017. Then came the news in March that wind turbine giant Siemens is to build a huge factory complex on the Humber north bank in a £310m deal that will create an initial 1,000 jobs and an estimated 10,000 more in the supply chain and related businesses.

The German company will invest £160m across Alexandra Dock in east Hull and nearby Paull. Meanwhile, the dock’s owner, Associated British Ports, is to invest £150m in the Green Port Hull development.

The day we found out we had been successsful was the day this city changed forever

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

The same month saw confirmation from the Government that it is backing plans to electrify the Hull to Selby rail line. Transport secretary Patrick McLoughlin is making £2.5m available to take the project to the next stage on the back of a £94m investment by First Hull Trains.

And then in May, just to cap it all, Steve Bruce achieved what for many football fans must have seemed like a highly improbable feat… he took Hull City to their first FA Cup final in the club’s 110-year history. The result – a heroic 3-2 defeat against Arsenal – was almost irrelevant in terms of the benefits to the local economy.

With an estimated global television audience of half a billion tuning in – many of whom will never have heard of Hull, let alone be able to pinpoint it on a map – it amounted to highprofile exposure you simply couldn’t buy.

It doesn’t end there though. More overseas recognition will follow with the team securing a place in the Europa League thanks to

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Arsenal having already qualified for the Champions League.

However, it is the successful City of Culture bid that has the greatest potential to transform the fortunes of this gritty – and unfairly maligned – city.

That said, there is still much work to do, not least of all the small matter of raising the estimated £22m required to fund around 1,500 cultural events in the city throughout 2017, many of which promise to be spectacular. In the eye of the perfect storm is Jon Pywell, who led the culture bid and is assistant head of service (economic development and regeneration) at Kingston upon Hull City Council.

He believes the importance of securing City of Culture status cannot be overstated.

“The day we found out we had been successful was the day this city changed forever,” he said.

“There has already been an impact in terms >>

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ON THE RECORD of visitor numbers – people want to see what all the fuss is about. And the amount of positive media coverage we have received has been amazing. We have estimated its worth to be just under £10m.

“We keep a close eye on these things and I can tell you that there have been more than 1,200 broadcast and print media items about Hull since the announcement, and who knows how many articles on social media?”

There’s plenty of evidence documenting the benefits of City of Culture status. The accolade – which is only awarded once every four years – is currently held by Derry-Londonderry.

Findings there suggest that for every £1 spent on the bid, £5 has been recouped by the city.

Meanwhile Liverpool – which was European City of Culture in 2008 – estimated its worth to be in excess of £750m.

Pywell is quick to praise the role of the city’s businesses in clinching the deal. After Hull failed in its bid for City of Culture status in 2009, there was an understandable degree of scepticism in some quarters when it was announced that the city was prepared to try again. However, this time some 22 businesses – known collectively as the Angels consortium – were confident that they, like the city’s football team, could punch above their weight. Their efforts – which included raising £374,000 in the run up to the bid process – were recognised in May at the Arts and Business Awards in London, where they received an award in the New Sponsorship category. Judges praised them as “a true example of how collaboration can create a strong and sustainable arts programme for the community.”

At the event, Andy Capes of Baker Tilly, one of the Angels backing the bid, said: “Hosting the City of Culture 2017 will enable Hull to showcase its creative talent on the national and international stage, and contribute to the regeneration and future economic growth of the city and the wider region.”

“The Angels scheme was all about getting businesses engaged in the process because they understand what City of Culture status can do for Hull’s profile,” said Pywell.

“But it hasn’t all been about business interests.

This is very much about people and the amount of goodwill we have been shown has

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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been amazing. Everyone has been right behind us. The truth is, none of this would have been possible without public support.”

Indeed Pywell believes Hull residents – past and present – were a key factor in the bid’s success. A film produced to back the bid featured ordinary folk of all ages talking proudly about their city, intermingled with images taken from its heyday as a fishing port and up-to-date clips of today’s Hull – a modern, vibrant forward-looking city that is acutely aware of its own unique place in the world. It’s a city that gave birth to William Wilberforce, the progressive MP who led

programme of conferences and major broadcasting events.

And organisers are working diligently behind the scenes in a bid to bring the Turner Prize to the city, a three-month celebration of art that would surely be among the cultural highlights of Hull’s year in the spotlight.

But what about considerations beyond culture? Will 2017 make a tangible difference to people’s lives?

Pywell certainly hopes so. The council has plans to make improvements to its city centre and public spaces.

“We’re using 2017 as a catalyst for

This is very much about people and the amount of goodwill we’ve been shown has been amazing. None of this would be possible without public support the movement to abolish slavery; to Amy Johnson, the first woman to fly solo from London to Australia; and to cream-coloured phone boxes, an enduring symbol of the city’s independence. Six months on, the film – This City Belongs to Everyone – has been viewed by more than 110,000 people in over 150 countries on YouTube.

Pywell said: “I believe the film struck the right tone and summed up what Hull is all about – a great port city with an even greater future.

“But now we have it all to do. The decision in our favour was a game changer and we know we will only get one chance to make 2017 count.

“The countdown began immediately and I’ve been counting the days ever since. Right now there are 945 to go and the clock is ticking.

Given the amount of support we are receiving from businesses, I believe our £22m target, which has increased from our original estimate of £14m, is realistic.”

The 2017 programme includes 15 national and international commissions; 12 artists’ residencies; 25 festivals; eight major community participation projects and a

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infrastructure projects,” he explained.

“We’re aware that some of the areas people experience are looking tired, and that some public spaces – Queen’s Gardens for example – are not as accessible as they could be.

He added: “We are entering a wonderful time in Hull’s history. Everything does seem to have come together – the culture bid, the Siemens announcement and rail electrification and, of course, the achievements of the city’s football team.

“There’s definitely a new-found confidence – something we appear to have lost along the way at some point in our past.

“So the challenge now is to turn all of this positive energy into a lasting legacy. That means attracting investment, strengthening the cultural sector, boosting employment opportunities and so on.

“This is a city emerging from the shadows.

In the past we have perhaps been guilty of not shouting loudly enough about our successes. But we are aware that our time is now…we have to make it work. We have to put ourselves back where we belong as a major city.” n

Success is not achieved by chance; it’s the result of people working together.

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SUMMER 14

‘Staycation’ trend boosts regional tourism, calls for new UTC to plug manufacturing skills gap, emerging entrepreneurs win awards at major BQ event, Buy Yorkshire initiative boosts economy by £8m >> Water brand flows east EXCLUSIVE An iconic Yorkshire export is to make its debut on shelves across the Middle East and Asia on the back of a lucrative deal with a multi-billion dollar global empire.

Harrogate Water Brands, the firm behind Harrogate Spring Water, is in the final stages of securing a partnership agreement with LuLu International that will take its product into the Gulf states, India and Egypt later this year.

LuLu is headed up by retail tycoon Yussuff Ali – reportedly the 39th wealthiest Indian - and employs over 30,000 people.

It has 105 outlets in the Gulf and, according to research by Deloitte, is among the world’s 50 fastest growing retailers.

James Cain, managing director of Harrogate Water Brands, said: “We’ve increased the scale of our production to cater for new contracts such as our deal with LuLu International, which require us to significantly increase capacity.

“The bottled water market has grown by 10.5% year-on-year and Harrogate has remained ahead of the curve, with an average annual growth of 30%. We’ve continued our strategy of entering into new export markets and building relationships with new and existing partners and this is something we are keen to do with LuLu.” Read our full interview with James Cain on page 22.

>> Bid to plug skills gap Amid a widening skills gap in manufacturing, employers and academics are bidding to create a new university technical college (UTC) in Yorkshire to specialise in advanced manufacturing and engineering.

Leading employers are spearheading the bid alongside the University of Leeds.

UTCs are a new concept in education, combining traditional teaching for 14 to18year-olds with specialised technical learning to prepare students for the world of work.

There are now 50 approved UTCs in the UK, but very few are in Yorkshire. The region’s first UTC in Sheffield officially opened last autumn and Humber UTC in Scunthorpe has also been given the go-ahead.

The proposal for Leeds UTC is being led by a team comprising key employers Kodak, Siemens, Unilever and Agfa, supported by the Chamber of Commerce and the manufacturers organisation EEF, as well as education specialists from the School of Engineering at the University of Leeds, 14/19 Education at Leeds City Council and Leeds City College, and supported by business adviser Grant Thornton.

>> Frontline pushing ahead Recruitment group Frontline has started its current financial year in expansion mode after seeing annual turnover grow by over a third to £12.25m.

The Bradford firm’s turnover rose 36% to £12.25m in its last financial year, with profits up 45% year on year. And in the first quarter of its current financial year it has recorded a 27% increase in the number of new candidates it has placed in jobs, to 487.

Co-founder Tony Wilmot said the rise showed that the economy is back on track.

>> ‘Staycations’ increasing Yorkshire’s tourism market will surge 26% to £7.6bn by 2017, a new study predicts.

The research, by Barclays, suggests the hospitality and leisure sector will benefit most

over the next four years.

It expects the retail sector to also benefit with a growth in spend of 23%.

The research suggests domestic tourism will largely be driven by continuing pressures on the cost of living, with many cash-strapped consumers opting to bypass overseas travel in favour of domestic locations.

Debbie Mullen, Barclays’ head of corporate banking in Yorkshire, says: “The economy is improving and while this will lead to a rise in the number of consumers looking to holiday abroad again, it is unlikely to precipitate a return to the holidaying habits we were seeing prior to the downturn.”

The hospitality and leisure sector will benefit most from the trend towards ‘staycations’, with Yorkshire’s domestic tourist spend growing to £4.9bn by 2017, up by 27% since 2013. Pubs and restaurants will be the greatest benefactors, with spend expected to rise by 27% to £2.8bn. Hotels and B&Bs will see spend increase by 27% to £1.2bn and leisure attractions by 28% to £926m.

>> Yorkshire holding its own As UK manufacturing enjoys a resurgence, new research reveals that the sector in Yorkshire is showing a stronger recovery than in any other region.

According to R3’s figures for April 2014, only 20% of manufacturing firms in Yorkshire have a higher than normal risk of insolvency, the smallest proportion of any region in England and Wales.

The North East also showed a strong performance (21%) while the poorest performance in the sector was in London (30%) and the South East (25%).

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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SUMMER 14

NEWS DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR BUSINESS IS GOING?

Judges Simon Bollon, left, and Farnaz Khan, right, with award winners Claire Morley-Jones and Lewis Bowen

>> BQ awards Yorkshire’s emerging entrepreneurs Two of Yorkshire’s hottest prospects in business were recognised at the inaugural BQ Emerging Entrepreneur awards.

The BQ Emerging Entrepreneur Dinner at Aspire, in Leeds in May, brought together around 200 entrepreneurs from across the region for a celebration of enterprise and to recognise some of Yorkshire’s rising stars of entrepreneurialism.

During the event, the two regional winners of the BQ Emerging Entrepreneur awards were named and they will now compete nationally for the BQ Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year title later this year.

Lewis Bowen, founder of Sheffield-based Geco Industries – an innovative camping fuel manufacturer – and Claire Morley-Jones, the young entrepreneur behind thriving HR services firm HR180, were the two winners on the night.

But while there were only two winners, all of the shortlisted entrepreneurs were given a platform to share their story with a roomful of influencers, investors, angels and potential mentors.

They joined the BBC’s Mark Easton on stage after serial North East entrepreneur Alastair Waite delivered his keynote speech on the secrets of entrepreneurial success.

BQ had identified 15 up-and-coming Yorkshire entrepreneurs from reader nominations, and the winners were chosen by an esteemed judging panel which included mobile phone shop entrepreneur Zak Patel, Exquisite Handmade Cakes founder Viv Parry, Fit Britches creator Farnaz Khan and Simon Bollon, of fast-growing agency Boutique Media.

The shortlisted entrepreneurs provided a written submission, which judges tested against various criteria linked to what are considered the essential aspects of entrepreneurial success.

Geco Industries’ flagship product, which is manufactured in Sheffield, is a safe and environmentally friendly gel fuel used for cooking and heating in camping. Within two years of launching founder Lewis Bowen has secured orders from major UK retailers, including Blacks, Millets and Go Outdoors, and recently won a £250,000-a-year, six-year deal with a European retailer, with more export markets expected to open up this year.

Claire Morley-Jones set up HR180 in 2006 at the age of 28 and has since grown it into a thriving firm which, from its Garforth base, is fast approaching its initial target of organically becoming a £1m-a-year enterprise. The company is a one-stop-shop for services which deal with a wide range of employee issues including HR, recruitment, mediation, payroll and health and safety.

The two winners will be among eight finalists from around the country who will be invited to attend the MADE 2014 Festival Gala Dinner on 25 September in Sheffield – part of a weeklong festival inspiring entrepreneurship and expected to attract 4,000 delegates from all over the UK. One of the eight entrepreneurs will be recognised as the BQ Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year.

Speakers at MADE 2014 include internationally renowned business experts and entrepreneurs such as Levi Roots, Doug Richards and Paul McKenna.

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For every business with ambitions of growth, its aspirations need to be financially underpinned by a deliverable strategic plan.

However, many business owners particularly family and owner managed businesses find themselves so bogged down by the day to day pressures of running things that they have no time to think about the “what next” scenario and initiatives that need to be put into place to promote growth. Business owners or Directors may not even talk to each other about such matters resulting in disharmony as to where the business is going, the future direction and what is the right form of growth for the business.

What are the timescales and expectations of business owners both individually and collectively? They should spend quality thinking time away from their office discussing these matters; considering where their business is now and where they want it to be; any issues holding back growth, whether further investment is needed in people, marketing, or capital expenditure and how this may be financed? There should be a clear plan of action, with timescales and responsibilities assigned. I still come across many businesses that are not actively planning for the future as they are lacking a business strategy. The input of an experienced third party adviser and consultant can be invaluable in facilitating this process especially in providing analysis on current business objectives to meet sustainable growth and acting as an independent sounding board.

What is an ideal process to ensure you know where your business is going?

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

NEWS

SUMMER 14

>> Deals show NE strength Deals involving two Yorkshire companies were amongst the top 20 largest private equity exits in Western Europe in the first three months of 2014, a study shows.

The report has highlighted the strength of northern England’s corporates and the potential opportunities for mid-market buyout houses in the North of England.

Taken from EY’s newly released Multiple report, data from the EY and Equistone Partners Europe-sponsored Centre for Management Buyout Research (CMBOR) shows that five North of England exits had an aggregate value of €2.6bn, helping to make up the top 20 biggest exits in Western Europe in Q1, which totalled €16.1bn.

The €1.5bn floatation of Handforth-based Pets At Home was the third largest exit in Western Europe and the biggest in the UK, while the sale of Leeds-headquartered Callcredit Information Group was 10th in the table.

Hotter Shoes (Skelmersdale - 16th), Zenith (Leeds - 17th) and Manx Telecom (Isle of Man 20th) were the other North of England exits in Western Europe’s top 20.

>> Investing in expansion Architectural aluminium supplier Eltherington has invested £200,000 in its expansion amid growing customer demand.

The Hull firm, which supplies to the architectural, leisure and stockholding sectors, has invested in six new trucks worth over £200,000, following continued business success.

The trucks were required to meet increased demand at its six-acre manufacturing site at Dansom Lane South.

>> Builder backs projects National construction group Barratt Developments says it has contributed more

Jonathan Priestley, Louise Handley and Tim Stone

>> Evolution forces move at 3volution Yorkshire law firm 3volution has moved into new offices in Leeds. The commercial law firm has relocated from King Street to 10 South Parade, taking up a 3,665 sq ft suite on a 10-yearlease. Louise Handley, partner with 3volution, said: “We now have 19 staff and are looking to expand. We had outgrown our premises at King Street and needed the extra space at 10 South Parade. 3volution was founded in May 2011 by Jonathan Priestley, Louise Handley and Tim Stone.

than £1.6m in support of local projects in East Yorkshire in the last year.

The plc said the funding, which is part of planning agreements with the region’s local authorities, has been put towards such things as: highway improvements, public open spaces, improvements to schools and educational facilities, recreational facilities and boosting local healthcare.

The contributions have come as a result of a number of new home developments across East Yorkshire including in Cayton, Doncaster and Pickering.

>> New funding opens doors North Yorkshire-based H Jarvis Limited has set out expansion plans and purchased machinery on the back of a new funding arrangement with Barclays.

The group, established in 1878 and located at Longbeck Trading Estate, Marske by the Sea, makes doors and windows.

It has upgraded its facility with a specially adapted machine to produce PVC windows, which will significantly increase its production capacity.

The company employs over 70 staff at the two sites in Marske and Glasgow and turnover this year is expected to reach £6m.

>> Networking drive Sheffield Chamber of Commerce plans to increase networking opportunities for members following the results of a citywide business survey. It revealed companies found networking and lobbying continue to be the high priorities for the Chamber, which represents businesses employing more than 106,000 people.

More than 3,500 delegates attended a Chamber event during April 2013 to March 2014, up 700 on the previous year.

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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SUMMER 14

>> DoT to fund £10m rail plan Plans to upgrade the Leeds-Bradford rail line by building two new stations have been backed by almost £10m in new Government funding.

The Department for Transport has agreed to fund up to £9.5m of the £16m Leeds Rail Growth scheme, which aims to improve transport links and support regeneration in the area. One of the new stations will support the development of the Kirkstall Forge site, which will include around 1,000 new homes and extensive commercial buildings.

The development is expected to support 300 jobs during construction. On completion it will create an estimated 1,800 jobs directly linked to the development and 300 more across the wider area.

>> LEPs delivering jobs Around 130 jobs have been created by 13 SMEs in York, North Yorkshire and East Riding on the back of local enterprise partnership (LEP) support.

The LEP’s Business Grant Programme has been launched with money from the Regional Growth Fund to support business growth that creates jobs.

The programme is targeted at small, medium and micro businesses and covers the capital costs of up to 20% of a project in grants ranging from £5,000 to £1m.

Businesses can find out more about the grant programme on the LEP’s website www.businessinspiredgrowth.com/bgp

>> Loan will support growth The Yorkshire-based parent of Ideal Carehomes, LNT Group, has negotiated a £51m, 10-year debt facility to support its ongoing expansion.

Legal & General has handed a new facility to the group as it continues to invest in a range of housing activities across all tenures.

The loan will release capital to support the company’s growth plans, including its aim to build between six and eight new care homes annually, creating about 500 jobs a year nationally.Ideal Carehomes currently operates 36 homes across the UK. Lawrence

NEWS

Tomlinson, chairman of the LNT Group, said: “Having taken time to gather a strong understanding of our business model and develop a partnership for the future, we are confident that L&G share the LNT Group’s long term vision. We were particularly impressed with L&G’s knowledge of the sector and ability to structure terms that are tailored to our maturing business.

“Supporting our future growth, the long term facility not only gives the LNT Group stability but also releases necessary capital to underpin development opportunities and job creation.

“It is wonderful to see L&G expanding in this market and supporting British business in this vital sector.“ Earlier this year, L&G announced it has agreed to forward fund and purchase five high quality care homes in Suffolk with Care UK for £31m.

Read BQ’s business lunch interview with Lawrence Tomlinson on page 56.

>> Backing for new lodges Holiday park and inland marina operator Lakeland Leisure Estates has agreed a new banking facility to support the development of 11 high-end lodges at its Long Ashes Park in the Yorkshire Dales, as well as an acquisition strategy. Work on the lodge development is due to be completed by July.

>> Top law firms merge Global law firm Squire Sanders – which has one of its four UK offices in Leeds – is to merge with Washington DC-based Patton Boggs to form Squire Patton Boggs.

Partners at the two firms agreed to merge yesterday, bringing together 1,600 lawyers in 45 offices across 21 countries.

A statement said the new firm would combine Squire Sanders’ top ranked global legal platform and Patton Boggs’ pre-eminent public policy, white collar and other practices to provide unparalleled geographic reach.

The merger will place the newly formed entity among the top 25 firms globally in terms of lawyer headcount, and eighth by number of countries where they have offices, as per The American Lawyer 2013 Global 100.

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HELP FROM OUT OF THE BLUE The Armstrong Watson team is focused on the performance of a business, understanding every part of the operation, its people, processes, current status and forecasted plans through listening to those who have built it to its current level; you. Our advisory team provides an unbiased view of your plans and goals and by getting to know you we can work with you to uncover questions and issues to help you find the answers.

We have developed our own strategic review process simply called ‘Blue’ to help you with a stage by stage guide from understanding you and your business, the facilitation of a development day with you and your chosen team and the output delivery of an action plan you will be able to implement.

With our process your business will achieve a clear direction with a number of strategic objectives and how to deliver on them. You and your business will know where you’re going and what you are working towards and importantly how success will be measured.

Once agreement has been reached on the right plan of action for your specific goals we stay with you to support the implementation or we can just act as a sounding board through agreed staging dates. So if you want help in planning where your business is going we would be happy to tell you more about our ‘Blue’ advisory process and how it has started to help other businesses with greater focus, discipline, direction and growth.

For more information, visit www.armstrongwatson.co.uk/blue or contact Phil Bailey on 01756 620037 or phil.bailey@armstrongwatson.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

COMPANY PROFILE

SUMMER 14

Getting to grips with Google (and other search engines) How often do you find yourself saying ‘I’ll Google it’? In 2013, an average of just under 6 billion Google searches were completed EVERY DAY! With your customers among those searching, the potential return from maximising your presence on search engines is huge. So, how do you make your business stand out? Getting noticed is all about optimising your website so that the search engines list you first.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) concentrates on your site being relevant and recommended. It’s often not about fancy coding or techy stuff, it’s a case of ensuring that your web pages are relevant and trusted enough to feature in the search results.

The key is to keep it simple. Firstly, make sure your site clearly explains what you do and the products or services that you offer – sounds obvious, right?

You’d be surprised how many sites don’t do this!

Think of what your customers would search for when looking for the products and services that

you provide, then include those keywords in your website copy – easy!

Next, pack your site full of relevant, interesting content – news stories, downloads, advice and tips – and update your site regularly, removing out of date copy and adding new content. Search engines like sites that their owners care about, so keeping your site as current as possible will only help to move it up the rankings.

In terms of reputation, search engines look for proof that other sites trust you – ie. that other quality websites will link to yours. These are called backlinks, and the best way to encourage people to link to your website is to create your own interesting ‘viral’ content. Viral content can be anything worth sharing - from useful tips and checklists to news articles and video guides. Just remember, quality is everything – to rank highly, the search engine must trust the site linking to yours too.

Family Matters “We deliver a highly professional yet personal legal service, employing the depth of expertise and experience that being a part of a top 100 full service law firm brings.”

Jonathan Flower Partner and head oF Family and matrimonial

Call Jonathan on 0113 205 6718 for a free and confidential conversation. www.wardhadaway.com Leeds | Manchester | Newcastle

Find out more about SEO, social media and more at the Superfast Business Success event taking place on Tuesday 8th July at York Racecourse.

Google will also be joining us in the region on 11th July in Harrogate for a Google Juice Bar event – places on both events are completely free for eligible businesses – register yours now via www.sfny.co.uk.

For further information, call 0845 002 0021 or email enquiries@sfny.co.uk.

SUMMER 14

>> Funding secures growth Leeds based house builder Duchy Homes has secured a seven figure funding deal to fuel its ongoing growth across the region through £5m worth of projects. The firm has consolidated its lending requirements with The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) with a seven figure lending package.

It will support a string of new executive housing developments that have a property value of circa £5m.

Earlier this year the firm submitted plans for 14 executive houses in Braithwell, near Doncaster, and has commenced construction on a new site in Park Drive in Sprotbrough following on from the success of its first development in Sprotbrough called Plantation Grove.

>> Parseq expands Yorkshire-headquartered business process outsourcer Parseq has acquired a 1,000 seat call centre and back office facility in the North East as part of its bid to grow turnover from £65m to £100m within three years.

The Rotherham firm has bought Sunderlandbased 2Touch from US parent Acxiom for an undisclosed sum.

Parseq chief executive Derwyn Jones said: “2Touch is a cultural and operational fit for Parseq which gives us the scale and geographical coverage to attract new clients and deepen our relationship with existing clients.

“2Touch’s established client service ethos and great reputation links closely to the Parseq business model and together provides us with a strong sector footprint particularly in utilities, financial services and insurance providers.

“We are delighted to be bringing together two industry leading businesses with the people, processes and operational capabilities to enhance our proposition as the only mid-sized corporate providing end-to-end outsourcing services combining front office, back office and IT.” The combined organisation will employ around 2,700 people.

They will work from five key sites in Sunderland, Glasgow, Rotherham, London and Brighton.

>> Event delivers £8m boost The Buy Yorkshire Conference – enjoyed by 5,000 delegates and 180 exhibitors over two days in May – gave an £8m boost to the regional economy, organisers say.

The b2b conference brought together independent business people and representatives of multinationals to encourage new opportunities in business.

The Billion Pound Panel made a return visit to the stage for a third year. Hosted in a Question Time style format, the panel shared the opinions and thoughts of entrepreneurs that have a collective wealth of more than £1bn.

Speakers including elite athlete Danielle Brown MBE, celebrity TV presenter Janet Street-Porter, President of IBM’s Academy of Technology Rashik Parmar, and CEO of Ella’s Kitchen Paul Lindley appeared at the show, at the Royal Armouries, in Leeds.

>> Bestobell lands major deal Engineering firm Bestobell Marine has won what is potentially a multimillion dollar deal to supply parts to a major liquefied natural

NEWS

gas (LNG) project in the Arctic. The Sheffield firm, part of the President Engineering Group, has secured a contract with South Korean shipbuilding firm DSME to supply its specialist valves for a vessel bound for a landmark project in Siberian Russia.

Bestobell will supply valves to be installed on the first LNG carrier that is part of a larger series of 16 vessels being built for the Yamal LNG project.

Three ship owners have been selected to own and operate the vessels. They are Sovcomflot (SCF); Teekay and Mitsui OSK Line (MOL).

Bestobell said it was well placed to secure contracts with DSME to supply “the cryogenic globe and check valves” for all 16 vessels.

Managing director Mark Henley said: “This order has the potential to be a major gamechanger for us and will see us significantly increase the Bestobell Marine side of the business in the future. Russia is a relatively new area for Bestobell Marine, but one where we see huge potential in developing new business opportunities using our expertise in valves for LNG carriers.”

Valves from Bestobell were specified because the company demonstrated its expertise and ability to meet the client’s demands.

>> Lifeline deal saves jobs Administrators working at a doomed Doncaster manufacturing company have secured a crucial lifeline deal to sell divisions of the business and initially create 14 new jobs.

Following fears that all 98 jobs would be lost at Balby-based Norking Aluminium Limited, Sheffield-based Wilson Field, have sold elements of the business.

Three new independent companies have been formed, two of which are from trading arms of Norking which held sole UK distribution rights.

APCO produce ignage systems and FOGA supply modular exhibition and display systems.

The third Company, Mettech Fabrications Ltd, makes press metal work, aluminium and steel bracketry for the construction industry.

Available to businesses throughout Leeds and Bradford.

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

COMPANY PROFILE

SUMMER 14

Getting customers to fall in love with your brand...

What do falling in love and social media have in common? Might seem like an odd question to ask. But when you are building a business and wanting people to fall in love with your brand, there are some striking similarities between the two! When we think about that perfect partner we want someone who is going to listen and understand us. The same is true with business and customers. We all want that special someone to be kind and authentic.

We don’t want to find out that we’ve fallen for a ‘Negative Nellie’ or a ‘Grumpy Gordon’, totally fooled by the seemingly attractive exterior on the dating website. Yikes! But you might have heard before that stories sell and there is nothing better than a good old story to really find out more about someone or something! So I ask you, wouldn’t it be great if customers were falling over themselves, shouting about your business? Wouldn’t it be nice if customers fell instantly in love with your

brand? Well with Social Media, it’s easier than you might think and much easier than that awkward first date, when you really don’t know how you’re going to split the bill. Beneath all the noise and chatter on social media, what people are actually looking for is human interaction, authenticity, real life stories and that added sparkle. Many businesses are still using social media to just push out products and services but social media when used correctly is a way to listen, engage and to showcase expertise, but figuring out how to do that is easier said than done. So that’s why on Tuesday 24th of June at the Thackray Medical Museum Leeds. The Superfast West Yorkshire business support team will be presenting a full day of interactive digital media masterclasses, so business owners can find out exactly what the business support programme has to offer. Find out about social media, SEO, LinkedIn for Business and more, plus businesses will hear about our web

reviews, networking offer, and have a chance to speak with our specialist business advisors. The Business Support programme is absolutely free for eligible businesses across West Yorkshire, but spaces are limited.

To book a place for your business at the Superfast Success Event visit the Superfast West Yorkshire business support pages at www.superfastwy.co.uk.

Or alternatively phone 0845 144 0040 or email enquiries@superfastwy.co.uk to find out more.

HOTELS GET RENOVATIONS.HILTONS GET MAKEOVERS. Hilton Leeds City has just completed a full meeting centre refurbishment with a spend of £450k on the fourth floor meeting rooms. This includes new & improved features such as built in LCDs & screens, iPod docking stations & speakers, state of the art coffee machines along with a brand new look. The makeover includes full redecoration of the meeting rooms, the addition of a built-in AV & refreshments package, refurbishment of the foyer area and the addition of digital signage outside each room.

To book your show round or make an enquiry please call 0113 2442000 or email events.leedscity@hilton.com

SUMMER 14

>> Promotions at property firm Property firm CBRE has promoted four staff in its Leeds office as the company reports a successful first quarter of 2014 with robust revenue and earnings growth.

CBRE’s Leeds office has promoted Jonathan Shires to senior director and Steve Taylor, Nick Marsden and Lloyd Nicholson all to associate director.

The promotions follow the firm’s recent national announcement that CBRE Group Inc. reported revenue of US$1.9b in the quarter period ending 31 March 2014, which is a 26% increase on the same quarter last year.

>> Tied down by red tape More than a third of businesses in Yorkshire, Humber and the North East believe their regulatory burden has increased under the current Government.

Research by insolvency trade body R3 as part of its regular Business Distress Index found 34% of firms felt more weighed down by red tape than they did back in 2010, with an equal proportion feeling the burden has increased slightly (17%) or increased a lot (17%).

Only 15% felt they were facing a less taxing regulatory environment than four years ago, with 8% saying this pressure had decreased slightly since 2010 and 7% a lot.

A further 49% thought the regulatory burden they now faced had stayed the same.

In January, Prime Minister David Cameron launched a new Red Tape Challenge, designed to save more than £850m a year by dropping or changing up to 3,000 rules viewed as not fit for purpose.

Regulations affecting one specific sector or industry are being published every few weeks with a view to gathering comments on them from the people and businesses they affect.

This feedback is reviewed by the Government to work out which regulations to keep and why, with the default presumption being that burdensome regulations will go unless ministers make a case for keeping them.

NEWS

>> Firm aims to X-Cel

Turn Key founder Nik Entwistle (left) with Phil Dean, head of the firm’s London operation

>> The key to success Creative agency Turn Key is planning to invest more than £500,000 in developing its team ahead of a period of projected growth and following the opening of a new office in London. The Leeds-based marketing firm has also announced the appointment of Phil Dean, formerly of Yorkshire plc Communisis, as the new MD of its London operation.

Over the next 12 months, the agency plans to develop its existing team and bring new talent into the business, both in the Leeds and London offices.

The agency predicts a 45% increase in gross profit in the next 12 months and intends to grow its workforce by 10 to 50 people in that time.

Company founder Nik Entwistle said: “Opening a second office in the south of England, which will act as an extension of the Leeds office, has always been the next natural step for us. Phil is the ideal person to head up our expansion into London. He comes from a strong background of leading some of the biggest creative agencies in the country. I’ve no doubt his expertise and knowledge in this competitive sector will ensure we continue to go beyond boundaries as a business.”

Sheffield-based X-Cel Superturn, which makes components for the oil and gas sector, has acquired fellow Yorkshire business Colson Industries in a £1.75m deal and now aims to grow the firm.

Elland-based Colson manufactures valves, also for the oil and gas industry. It will operate as a 100% subsidiary of X-Cel, which will strengthen the newly acquired company’s management team, with the appointment of a technical director and sales director.

X-Cel plans to quadruple sales at Colson to £10m over the next two years, adding 25 employees, taking staff numbers to 65.

HSBC provided a £2.5m finance package to support the acquisition.

>> Lab leads the way Yorkshire is now home to one of Europe’s best equipped labs for a vital research area linked to the development of new drugs following a £1m investment.

X-ray crystallography – which enables scientists to examine the make-up of molecules in graphic detail – is increasingly vital for research, especially in key fields such as the development of new drugs.

And the University of Huddersfield, after a £1m-plus investment, now has one of Europe’s best-equipped labs.

It consists of six new X-ray diffractometers, all serving different needs and able to produce startling images of the molecules present in a tiny crystal or, in some cases, a powder.

At one time the use of X-rays to produce an analysis of molecules was a complex, timeconsuming process. In some cases it could take years. Now it can be done in less than an hour.“We definitely have one of the best facilities,” says Professor Craig Rice, the chemist who heads Huddersfield’s X-ray Diffraction Laboratory.

www.superconnectedleedsbradford.co.uk

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

ENTREPRENEUR FESTIVAL

Jamal Edwards

Doug Richard

MADE

Geoff Ramm

The Entrepreneur Festival: Sheffield 24- 25 September 2014 madefestival.com

Business attention will be focused on Sheffield this autumn for the UK’s greatest extravaganza of entrepreneurship, as Peter Jackson reports Yorkshire is to play host to the UK’s biggest and most important festival of entrepreneurship this September.

MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival, which is expected to draw around 3,000 business people, will return to Sheffield between 22 and 26 September. It will feature 50 high-profile speakers at venues across the city. Now in its fourth year, MADE has become one of the biggest events in the UK business calendar.

Visitors and speakers will come from all over the country and major international markets.

Big names already confirmed include: • Motivational speaker Nigel Risner; • Entrepreneur, chef, musician and TV personality, Levi Roots; • Serial entrepreneur, founder of School for Start Ups and former “Dragon” Doug Richard; • Bestselling author and world class self

Event Sponsors:

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

improvement Expert, Paul McKenna; • Digital entrepreneur, bestselling author and founder of SMARTA Shaa Wasmund; • Hit film production and technology entrepreneur, Jamal Edwards; • Facebook head of leadership and management, Jeff Turner; • Chief executive and founder of Ultimo, Michelle Mone OBE; • Fashion guru and founder of Red or Dead, Wayne Hemmingway; • OMG Marketing Expert, Geoff Ramm; • BIS Entrepreneur in Residence, Rekha Mehr; • Sheffield Forgemasters chief executive, Graham Honeyman.

A highlight of the festival will be the MADE Conference, Made for Success, held at Sheffield City Hall over Thursday 24 and Friday 25 September, with ‘Building a

The Sheffield College

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Brand’, ‘Managing Growth’ and ‘Leadership Management’ among several of the key topics up for discussion. The conference opens on Wednesday (5.00pm – 7.00pm), with a performance from Paul McKenna who will provide an interactive show demonstrating techniques to increase business performance – an opportunity to hear a powerful message from a world leader in human behaviour.

Paul McKenna says: “Success and happiness are not accidents that happen to some people and not to others. They are created by certain ways of thinking and acting. I will share with you some amazing success strategies.’’

The conference will then run throughout Thursday (9.30am – 5.15pm) with inspirational and education keynotes and panel discussions.

A varied programme of fringe events will also be held throughout the festival week,

ENTREPRENEUR FESTIVAL

Shaa Wasmund

Levi Roots

Partner Sponsors:

with marketing, technology, innovation, skills and accessing funding just a few of the entrepreneurial themes to be addressed.

Panel discussion topics include: ‘What makes a great entrepreneur and how do we make more of them?’ chaired by BBC Home Editor Mark Easton, who will facilitate the debate between Rekha Mehr, entrepreneur in residence at BIS, and founder of Pistachio Rose; Graham Honeyman CBE, chief executive of Sheffield Forgemasters; Jamal Edwards; and Wayne Hemingway, design and fashion icon.

At the MADE 2014 Festival Gala Dinner on 25 September eight budding entrepreneurs will compete for the crown of the BQ Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year. The eight finalists have already been chosen at a series of Entrepreneur Dinners held in each region where BQ magazine is published – Yorkshire, the North East, Scotland and the West Midlands. The MADE festival also includes a Business Exhibition which runs parallel to the conference. Open on 24, 25 and 26 September, it will feature more than 50 local businesses which are full of ideas and advice to help delegates start and grow their business. Exhibition stands cost £750 and delegate places are free of charge.

Brendan Moffett, director of Marketing Sheffield, said: “MADE is the UK’s biggest and best celebration of entrepreneurship and we can’t wait for the buzz of excitement to return this September”. Business services provider BE

Paul Mckenna

Supported by:

Group will operate the festival under licence from Sheffield City Council and Marketing Sheffield. Event sponsors to date include Irwin Mitchell, Sheffield Hallam University, the University of Sheffield, Sheffield College.

Partner sponsors include Sheffield Chamber of Commerce , chartered accountants BHP and the FSB. BE Group chief executive Alastair MacColl said: “MADE is one of the UK’s most important events and this year’s promises to be the best yet. It will be a must-attend event for any entrepreneur. It is an immense honour to have been appointed to deliver it.” * There will also be a full fringe programme of events throughout the week. Details can be found at http:// www.madefestival.com/madefestival2014/ fringe-events-and-festival-planner.

SHEFFIELD CITY HALL

Wednesday 24 September 5.00pm – 7.00pm

Thursday 25 September 9.30am – 5.15pm Tickets £48 / £24 Concessions (price includes VAT)

The Festival Gala Dinner takes place on the evening of 25 September at Cutlers Hall, Sheffield. Tickets for the dinner cost £75, with a table of 10 costing £700. Tickets can be purchased by emailing jill.stewart@ be-group.co.uk

Delivered by:

Words of wisdom from our speakers JAMAL EDWARDS: “If you want to play a game, go to where it’s played and find a way to get in. Things happen when you get in the game.’’

LEVI ROOTS: “Investors are looking for personality and passion. It’s the most important thing.’’

DOUG RICHARD: “Why start a business? Given the choice I’d rather be a failure on my own terms than a success working for someone else.’’

SHAA WASMUND: “To make your thing happen, you have to climb into the ring and move from talking to doing.’’

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

AS I SEE IT

SUMMER 14

YOUNGSTERS LET DOWN BY POOR SERVICE Zeal Media founder Jane Slimming is a fan of apprenticeship schemes... but not of disorganised recruitment firms who mess up the process Writing around 500 words about any subject I have an opinion on is quite a daunting task, especially for someone who has pretty strong opinions and quite often speaks before she thinks. I floated a few topics around the agency that were instantly vetoed, “northern agencies are far superior to London agencies in every possible way” and “my thoughts on female only networking events” but settled on a topic that I’m genuinely passionate about;

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

the Apprenticeship Scheme.

In theory, the Apprenticeship Scheme is a great idea. It allows young people to go straight from school to the work place, gives them job skills and real life experience. Best case scenario is that they come out of the year with a full time job, worst case scenario; they have a qualification they can take with them to another position. Then there’s

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the benefit of actually getting paid and not having that pesky student loan.

On the plus side for the employer it’s all good here too. We get a keen, energetic, eager-to-learn young person who we can mould and grow into the exact right employee. As an employer we dedicate time and resource into training the apprentice but the lower wage and the Government

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subsidiary make that training commercially viable for us as a business.

I’m massively pro the Apprenticeship Scheme. I think it makes perfect sense for both parties and I think it’s a huge opportunity. This is why I get incredibly angry when companies, paid by the government to implement this scheme, get it so badly wrong. Not only do they risk individual placements but also the scheme as a whole by turning people off the whole idea.

We decided to get involved in the scheme and were promised by three different recruitment agencies the following process: They would come and meet us face to face to really get to know our business. We provide a thorough job description. They advertise the job. They

go through the applications, carry out phone interviews, then face-to-face interviews with candidates that they feel are best suited and finally send us four applicants to interview. We then decide out of those candidates who to hire.

Having done some research this process is what most of these recruitment agencies claim to offer.

Our experience and that of many friends and contacts of mine is as follows. Candidates not turning up. Candidates turning up to the wrong place on the wrong date, or either candidates being wildly inappropriate for the role or us being wildly inappropriate for the candidate. We had one candidate that we offered a role to, only to be told

I get incredibly angry when companies paid to implement the scheme get it so badly wrong. If the recruitment agencies don’t do their job properly, then we’ll very quickly be put off

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AS I SEE IT

that he was “too old” for the scheme to then find out later that he wasn’t. It was confusing, frustrating and essentially unpleasant. We persisted with it and now have a great new addition to the team, but our experience left me wondering how many people just thought “sod it…I’ll just get a graduate”.

Companies and candidates embarking on the Apprenticeship Scheme are stepping into the unknown. It’s new and it’s a bit scary. If the ‘recruitment companies’ set up to help place the candidates don’t do their job properly (out of 29 people I interviewed only six had a phone interview prior and only three had met up face to face with the recruitment company) then we’ll very quickly be put off.

In order for the scheme to truly work across all industries we need recruitment agencies who can understand the role and send us suitable people to interview. It’s not rocket science!

This scheme has the potential to help young apprentices as well as companies willing to offer a structured helping hand. The scheme is about encouraging and offering these individuals an environment which is invaluable to them; preparing them for their working life and future.

However, without the basics beforehand we can’t help a sinking ship. n

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

ENTREPRENEUR

SUMMER 14

BRIMFUL OF EASTERN PROMISE Russian success, mass investment and a lucrative new deal with an Asian giant have marked a busy 2014 for Yorkshire’s most famous bottled water brand. Andrew Mernin meets James Cain, the entrepreneur who’s got Harrogate Spring Water flowing into distant lands once more Amid flaring tensions between the Kremlin and the West in recent months, might Vladimir Putin have stayed cool under fire with a bottle or two of Harrogate Spring Water?

Quite probably given that it is reportedly his favourite bottled water – and an ever more popular product in Mother Russia.

Last year its parent, Harrogate Water Brands (HWB), grew sales to Russia by 40%. Through a partnership with distribution firm SVAM, its bottles have spread throughout the vast nation. Locations like Moscow Airport, Costa Coffee outlets, the Sheraton hotel and 50 O’key stores – one of the country’s largest retail chains – all stock the age-old drink.

And the Russian sales surge has continued this year too, says managing director James Cain.

Cain has it on good authority that Putin is a big fan of the Yorkshire export, as well as photographic evidence.

And with the steely resolve of the Russian leader, he bats away BQ’s suggestion that such openly British brands might be vulnerable in Russia if UK-backed sanctions are increased.

“No way,” he says over the clatter of a bustling Harrogate tearoom.

“Our channels are pretty clear and we’ve got a really good relationship with SVAM.”

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

Harrogate Water Brands’ success in Russia is built on the foundations of history. Members of the Russian Royal Family were frequent visitors to Harrogate to ‘take the waters’ up until the early 1900s. The link was re-established through the SVAM tie-up and has flourished in the years since.

Beyond Russia, though, more potentially lucrative markets will open up this year on the back of a deal with Middle East and Asian hypermarket giant, LuLu International.

Cain has just returned from a trip to Abu Dhabi where he has been finalising the details of the agreement that will take HWB into the Gulf States, India and Egypt later this year.

The deal includes exclusive rights to the UAE, Kuwait, Oman and Saudi Arabia – markets which are dominated by desalinated seawater rather than natural spring water. Cain is something of an accidental exporter, however.

“Export never really sat comfortably with me because of what we do and the environmental positioning. We’ve got a big enough market to go at in the UK and it’s a market in growth.

“Overseas markets were never on my radar because they didn’t need to be. But the more I see and the more UKTI are telling us to trade our way out of recession through export, the

22

more I see the benefit. If it creates employment and growth then it’s got to be good.”

The company’s entry into the Middle East and India came after “a rich gentleman on a train” sampled its product. And the firm is bombarded by other such opportunities daily.

“We’re getting phone calls every day from different markets and we just have to choose the right partner. Everybody wants exclusivity but we’ve got to assess whether it’s right. If someone calls from China, for example, that’s a country with a population of 1.2 billion and it doesn’t feel right to be giving your brand to one company in isolation.

“We’re just blinded by opportunity at the moment and we’ve really got to consider how we go about it. There’s enough to go at in the UK and I’d love to own the UK market.”

To do that in its home market the Harrogate brand would need to leapfrog the four labels above it on the best-sellers list.

“We’ve just laid down more capacity now allowing us to improve on that,” says Cain, referring to a £6m investment at its Yorkshire HQ. The outlay was spent on a “groundbreaking” German machine which arrived earlier this year on no less than 34 trucks. It will dramatically increase output >>

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

ENTREPRENEUR

and its installation was accompanied by a 22,000 sq ft extension of the plant and the addition of a second bore hole. In one wizzy motion the machine blows, labels and fills bottles. Before its delivery, the firm and its 40 staff had previously been operating at full capacity, servicing only existing customers.

“For the last two years my sales guys have had to sit on their hands and not take new business but we can now hit the ground running and start chasing business. Unlike previously, when the phone’s been ringing, we can now pick it up and say, ‘let’s talk’. That’s really important.”

A recent rebrand which plays on the product’s heritage has also strengthened its UK foothold, as has the naming in May of Harrogate Spring Water as the official water of England Cricket.

The deal with the England and Wales Cricket Board will see its bottles appear at games beamed around the world.

The company has also signed a deal with Yorkshire County Cricket Club to become its official bottled water partner.

Another weapon in its armoury as it targets UK growth is its independence, which Cain says sets it apart from certain other brands on UK shelves. While some brands are owned by multinationals – like Nestlé’s ownership of Buxton Water – HWB is a standalone firm. “It means we can make decisions quickly.”

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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Cain’s background within the retail giant WalMart has also set the company in good stead as it continues its assault on British territory.

He wanted to be a pilot growing up, but such dreams were eventually grounded and instead, a degree in business studies and computer science led him to Asda’s graduate programme.

Here he learnt valuable lessons about taking products to market, which have undoubtedly shaped the success of HWB. “I was in logistics, which was a pretty new word at the time. Then after the Wal-Mart takeover, I also became PA to the chief executive for three years, which was incredible.

It allowed me to see how big business operates and travel globally. The values and culture of Wal-Mart are just enviable and trying to take that and put it in a small business has helped me an awful lot. We were doing things like reverse logistics in ‘96 that have only just become commonplace

now. There were a lot of practices I’ve been able to put into our business that have been fantastic.”

During a career gap year from 2006 – encouraged as part of the Wal-Mart way – he did some travelling and gained a helicopter licence. He also answered his father’s call to take an objective look at his business. This resulted in the “tough decision” to never go back to the supermarket trade. His father, now chairman, had a bottling/packaging business which won the contract to bottle Harrogate Spring Water following a council decision to allow production to re-start. The water business officially began in 2002. Cain says: “What I realised was, unbeknown to me at the time, just how good the training had been at Asda. I call it the Karate Kid syndrome, like in the movie when he paints the fence and doesn’t understand it until it comes in use later.

So all of a sudden I had a tool kit that was really going to help in a small business. What had really become second nature was perhaps not really existent in my father’s business so I was able to create savings and really create a direction for the business.”

He applied Wal-Mart’s world-leading approach to logistics, productivity and operational efficiency to the business and ensured it was “buying right and economically”.

There were choppy waters too, particularly in 2007 when crisis gripped the industry. “We went through a media storm where bottled water wasn’t the flavour of the month and we came in for a lot of criticism for our environmental credentials. People were asking ‘why drink bottled water when tap water is >>

We were doing things like reverse logistics in ‘96 that have only just become commonplace. There were a lot of practices I’ve been able to put into our business that have been fantastic

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ENTREPRENEUR fine? I used to drive home in an evening and think we were doing something terrible. But we’re not; we’re actually doing a really great job of packaging a product which is as nature intended. Our water is 500 years old; we happen to capture it in the most efficient way, put it in a bottle and allow consumers to have choice on the supermarket shelf or on a train station platform where you might not be able to access tap water. We are providing perhaps the most environmentally sound, ethically correct proposition.”

The drying up of credit in 2008 hit the soft drinks industry hard. But the recession wasn’t all bad.

“We did, ironically, benefit [from the financial crash]. Around 25% of the UK’s bottled water is imported and imports were under question at that time, with fuel costs and currency conversion rates putting pressure on them.”

HWB was able to take advantage of being approximately equidistant from Edinburgh and London. Cain’s mastery of the logistics game also helped.

“We could get anywhere as quickly as anybody and it allowed us to play to our strength which was servicing the UK market.

That has always been our focus. Exports are important, but they came to us through fortune and they found us rather than us looking for them.”

Steps were also taken during the recession to streamline the business, which was done without job losses and with little or no external financial support. “If we’d not made those changes we wouldn’t be here now,” says Cain.

“Our brand back then was 40% of the size it is today and we’ve powered on from there.”

In 2010 Cain made the transition from operations to managing director with relative ease. And he did this without the marketing and sales nouse many business leaders have.

“I’m not a sales guy but I have found that people do trust an operator,” he says. “So when I go out there and tell the story people believe what I’m saying is accurate and true.”

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At 36 he was also pretty young for an MD and still today looks younger than his 40 years. But having been Asda’s youngest general manager at 26 he was used to gentle ribbing from older people under his command.

Now, as head of a £10m-a-year firm with much to be optimistic about, he is focused on growth at home and abroad.

And externally, this is increasingly being aided

a water charity.

“In the eye of the storm in 2007, when we were all under scrutiny, we created Thirsty Planet and decided that we’d give a direct contribution to a charity. The mechanic was really the irony that people in this country get the choice of bottled or tap water whereas some people in the world don’t get any choice at all. So we went out and looked at

by changing trends among consumers.

“A lot of our growth is coming from realignments of shelf space, given the media attention that sugared drinks are getting right now. People are recognising that we’re environmentally sound, ethically strong and we’re winning shelf space. It proves bottled water is here to stay.”

Currently supermarkets aren’t a major part of HWB’s customer base. But Cain has ambitions to change that and build Harrogate Spring Water into a national supermarket brand.

“We’ve created a niche in the food service sector and we’re delighted with it and we continue to see growth from restaurants and catering customers. But I do see an opportunity for us to fly the flag as a national supermarket brand.”

One area of the business that is well represented on supermarket shelves is Thirsty Planet, the other of its two main product lines which donates a share of proceeds to

various organisations and we chose the charity Pump Aid because they’re hugely efficient.

Flatteringly people have copied us since.”

With brand exercises, surging exports, sponsorship deals, two evolving products and major investments all taking place, 2014 looks to be a pivotal year for Cain’s firm. Added to the pressure of carrying the company forward on all fronts, is the recognition that he is also a custodian of a grand old Harrogate industry.

“The local historian told me we are currently responsible for carrying the baton for the hydrogeology of Harrogate right now. The town was built around its hydrogeology in 1571 and we are continuing to carry that tradition and we’re hugely proud and honoured to be doing it.”

Harrogate water was at one time the British Empire’s exported water of choice and was used to fuel parched soldiers in the furthest flung places of the world. Today, with deals opening across Asia and the Middle East, its global star looks to be rising once more. ■

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XXXXXXXX COMPANY PROFILE SUMMER 14

SUMMER 14

Funding offsets expansion risk Grow your business and offset the risk; that’s what veteran porkpie producers, the Vale of Mowbray are doing. The company, based just off the A1 at Leeming Bar, are one of Yorkshire’s great food success stories and with sales of over one and a half million pork pies each week, they demonstrate just how effective Yorkshire is at meeting the nation’s food demands Since it began its new existence in 1995, the company’s expanded to three bakeries with growing factory lines. Now, with sales of 20 million, it’s looking to grow by 50% to safeguard contracts with current suppliers and meet increased demands. The result is a £6million expansion that will open up a new factory unit. But that kind of expansion comes with its own set of risks.

Two years ago, when the business first decided it was going to expand, it looked into the idea of using grant funding to offset its risks. At the time, it found the process to be long, exhausting and ultimately unsuccessful with little feedback to indicate why. Six months afterwards, they lost the market position that had led them to look into expansion opportunities and it wasn’t until another 18 months had passed that they were ready to look at growing their business position again. This time, the business was wary about the idea of using a grant to expand. After the wasted effort of its previous application, it didn’t want to set itself up for failure again. But when the business was discussing its growth plans with Hambleton council’s Business and Community Officer, the idea of applying for the new Business Grant Programme was put forward. Unlike the Vale of Mowbray’s previous grant, the Business Grant Programme is focused on making it easy for businesses to expand if they were creating jobs. The logical application process is clearly signposted to guide businesses and the fund manager is on hand to answer any questions that the business has and can tell them straight away if it’s worth their time to apply. But the £6million project was going to need more than a logical application process to get it off the ground.

Fortunately the Vale of Mowbray is big enough to have its own team members who can look after and manage opportunities like grant funding

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Workers at the Vale of Mowbray producing some of the 1.5million pork pies made each week

Looking back on it, having successfully pulled down 600,000 towards their 6 million expansion, the business felt confident that their application would be a success because they had the opportunity to clearly lay out their aims and how they were going to develop but it was still able to tap into the expertise and support that was available from Hambleton District Council, The Local Enterprise Partnership and at Clive Owen and Co, their accountants.

At Clive Owen and Co, partner Neville Baldry already had experience in putting together grant applications and was able to help the project secure the funding it needed and offset the risk of the expansion enough for it go ahead.

Looking back on it now, having successfully pulled down 600,000 towards their 6 million expansion, the business felt confident that their application would be a success because they had the opportunity to clearly lay out their aims and how they were going to develop. Not only where they going to increase their sales 50% and safeguard existing jobs, they’d also be able to create 63 new ones. Because the Business Grant Programme

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could take a chance on the business, the business could afford to take a chance on expansion and grant funding is still available until the end of the year. The Business Grant Programme can provide grants of up to £1million and cover up to 20% of your expansion’s capital costs. To find out more, visit www.businessinspiredgrowth.com/bgp

To find out more about how the Business Grant Programme can help you, call 01609 533897 www.businessinspiredgrowth.com/bgp

SUMMER 14

XXXXXXXX COMPANY PROFILE SUMMER 14

Save time, make money and grow the business Time is what you’re selling your customers, that’s what Chris Blair over at Thirsk Furniture will tell you. After all, you’ve not got a lot of control over the price of your raw materials but you can affect how much time you’ve spent on your manufacture.

Chris’s company mass-produces wooden tables and stools for some big national names including KFC, Gordon Ramsey’s Restaurants and Waitrose’s restaurants.

Wanting to free up his staff’s time to take on more orders, Chris decided to invest in a CNC router that can cut, finish and drill holes in wood in a fraction

Chris Blair with the new CNC router, part-funded by the Business Grant Programme

Chris’s investment means he can get his products out of the door faster, at higher standards, meet his customers’ demands and take more orders. That’s how Chris grows and our Business Grant Programme can help you grow too

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of the time it would take a human. It means that Chris can process his client’s orders faster, free up his team members, and grow his company by taking on new business.

In fact, having the CNC router meant that Chris was able to take on a new member of staff; that’s why our Business Grant Programme covered part of the router’s cost. It’s not saving him money but it is saving him time. That’s how Chris grows and our Business Grant Programme can help you grow too.

To find out more about how the Business Grant Programme can help you, call 01609 533897 www.businessinspiredgrowth.com/bgp

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INTERVIEW

SUMMER 14

fighting for a future Roger Marsh’s chase to encourage ‘extraordinary growth’ in Leeds City Region is heating up with pivotal decisions looming and plans taking shape. Andrew Mernin talks tactics with the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) chair, and finds out why he’s so optimistic about the region’s future LEP bosses across the country will have more than the expected balmy British weather to get them hot under the collar this summer.

For Whitehall is due to make its Local Growth Fund offers – the moneyed response to the strategic economic plans submitted earlier this year – in July.

These growth deals from a £2bn-a-year pot will dictate how and to what extent the plans set out by LEPs can be acted upon.

Investment will begin next April, with the fund settlement providing additional backing to European, public and private sector funding.

So while many businesses may be experiencing something of a summertime lull, leaders across the 39 LEPs will be working flat out on negotiations before putting plans into motion.

Roger Marsh, the Leeds City Region (LCR) LEP chair, seems pretty calm about the process when BQ catches up with him over coffee.

Perhaps his pressured recovery work during a near 37-year stint at PwC – and his time in the intensity of the Cabinet Office – have well prepared him for such challenges.

But he also draws strength from what he believes is an ambitious and compelling strategic economic plan. And early murmurings from the Treasury are positive.

“It has been commented on that it is perhaps one of the top two or three of the plans that were submitted nationally. But of course, the plan is not just about today, and it will have to be adjusted and refined as new knowledge

comes in and depending on the resources available at the time.”

The plan promises to create 62,000 jobs and £5.2bn in extra economic output by 2021 and save £675m in benefits to the exchequer.

“We’re basically saying to Government that if you do nothing the city region will grow from its [current economic value] of £55bn by about £7bn by 2021/22. You’ll add about 50,000 jobs and that’s OK, but that’s by doing nothing.

“If you then overlay the plan on top of that, you can add a further dimension of growth and employment. By 2021 you can have an

Marsh believes the LEP’s plan will empower the region to help drive down national debt.

“It is laudable and correct that any government seeks to balance the books on an annual basis, but that’s only the beginning of the story for me,” he says.

“It’s actually about how do we deal with the total debt we’ve got? The hope is that the economy will very soon be where it was before the financial crisis. But the country has probably approaching three times the debt it had then.

So how do you tackle that?

The hope is that the economy will soon be where it was before the financial crisis. But the country has probably three times the debt. How do you tackle that? economy that’s nearly a quarter bigger than it is today and employment that, in absolute terms, is 10 or 11% higher. You can also have a benefits bill that’s nearly three quarters of a billion pounds less over the period. Most importantly, you make the transformation from a net taker to a net contributor as a region.”

A prominent strand running through LEP rhetoric is the idea of the city region as ‘the growth engine of the North’ and its potential to help rebalance the UK economy.

“For me it’s about recognising there are places in this country – not just London and the South East – where you can actually deliver and encourage extraordinary growth. I believe genuinely that Leeds City Region is one of those places because of our historical assets.”

This faith in LCR’s growth potential is perhaps a product of Marsh’s many years of access to the inner workings of businesses across all sectors in Yorkshire while at PwC. His three-year tenure as an advisor to the Blair/

Your business is our business Start the conversation today. Call us on 0333 123 7171 or visit www.bhp.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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SUMMER 14

Brown government (see p32), meanwhile, gave him an outsider’s perspective of the region he now represents.

He is particularly upbeat about the role manufacturers might play in LCR’s push for growth – unsurprising for a former British Steel man – as well the medical industry.

“There is real potential to significantly improve inward investment. Look at some of the strengths of the city region in the health arena for example. We’ve got a long history of medical devices, leading research and the big data agenda, particularly around health informatics – and this is just one facet of the economy. If you can build on all of these areas in a cohesive way, the multifaceted nature of our economy can be an advantage to the

country as a whole. Leeds is well known for its financial and professional services, but what’s less known is that this is the largest manufacturing area in the country, with 11% of the working population involved in manufacturing. Why don’t people know this? Part of our plan is to get more people to understand our strengths,” he adds.

While thriving sectors and improving conditions give Marsh confidence in the ability of LEPs to deliver to the demands of the economy, he accepts that significant challenges are ahead.

“When I joined PwC to become an accountant, for the best part of 30 years I was involved in business recovery across the North looking at all sorts of industries. When I reflect back I realise that I was part of that de-industrialisation

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INTERVIEW

process that took place. If we are now going to rebalance the economy south to north and create extraordinary growth in certain areas of the country and begin to attack the debt, having sorted out the national deficit, then we are going to have to re-industrialise the country.

But re-industrialise it in a 22nd century way, not trying to recapture how good we were in the 19th and 20th centuries.”

How successful LEPs are in their pursuit of growth and economic transformation will be measured in numbers – like employment stats and inward investment levels.

But Marsh argues that achievements must also constitute what he calls “good growth”.

“This has to benefit a wider range of the population,” he says. “It’s not just about jobs; it’s about better jobs higher up the value chain.

It is about recognising that there are pockets of deprivation and that that’s just not acceptable.

“Prosperity must be more evenly distributed.

I’m not saying that people shouldn’t be rewarded for working hard or if they’ve risked things. But we shouldn’t be relying on prosperity just trickling down; we should be making sure it does. With some of our business growth programme investments we have tried to consider additional social consequences.

With the relatively modest amount of public money we have had, we have looked at the total impact of our investments.”

The LEP is also aiming to reduce the number of NEETs – not in employment, education or training – within its borders.

Marsh insists this is doable, despite the sheer size of the NEET population currently.

“There were around 32,000 NEETs before we started doing this work over the last two or three years and now that number is certainly starting with a two. So we are on a journey.”

And it is progressing faster in Leeds City Region than in many other areas, Marsh says.

The LEP’s NEET-tackling efforts have an almost 70% success rate, he says, compared to the circa 30% by the equivalent national scheme.

In total, LCR LEP has requested £231m in local growth funding for 2015/16 and £1.2bn in total by 2020/21.

This, it says, will lever in over £750m of investment into the city region in 2015-16, and £5bn over the lifetime of the next Parliament.

Behind the economics, though, is also a >>

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INTERVIEW

SUMMER 14

push for more devolved powers for the region.

Requested measures include a results-driven transport investment programme and a number of conditions that support the creation of a true single pot for investment.

“This country is one of the most centralised in the western world and we are on a journey to release that,” Marsh says.

“Do I think that should be done in a faster way than it is? Yes, but then I would say that. We genuinely believe that local focus, local control, and being properly accountable of public money, will deliver better results.”

Skills shortages dominate LEP doctrine as they do industry debates, white papers and politics.

LCR LEP’s skills-boosting measures including link building between industry and academia and helping businesses to invest in training.

Engineering and manufacturing are particularly hamstrung by a lack of skills, but Marsh takes encouragement from growing numbers of apprenticeship hubs and training academies.

“But there is another part of the equation in terms of the lack of people who have ambitions to go into these sectors,” he says.

“There is an improved role that schools have to make in careers guidance and information.

It’s also about how you tell the story. The word engineering feels a little grubby but mention building aircraft, robotics of working on the space agenda and that’s a different story.”

Infrastructure, like skills, is another key area LEPs are striving to improve.

The high speed rail issue looms large over those regions which will be directly impacted by the scheme, including Marsh’s patch.

The LEP chair has had a front row view of the evolution of HS2 and the ongoing debate.

He was part of the HS2 Growth Taskforce set up to advise Government on how to maximise economic growth and job opportunities.

Anecdotally at least, Marsh reckons Yorkshire is split 50/50 on the issue.

But his mind has been made up – and he believes a dose of context might persuade others to share his views.

An unexpected journey to Westminster and back In the latter months of the Blair era the Government turned to an unassuming accountant from Teesside to help overhaul finances and operations in the Cabinet Office.

“I wondered why they would want a grammar school-educated lad from Stockton to work at the heart of Government with all those people from Eton,” recalls Roger Marsh.

He was originally seconded from PwC to join the Cabinet Office for just six months to become director-general of strategic finance and operations in January 2007.

However, nearly three years, one leadership change and a few “incredible” experiences later he returned to his desk in Leeds. When he arrived in Westminster the Government’s garden was relatively rosy – then came the credit crunch and the onset of recession, with the nation under the stern leadership of Gordon Brown.

“It opened my mind to the public sector and public services and I feel incredibly privileged to have had that opportunity,” Marsh says.

“I got to see what really goes on behind the headlines. For example, you might feel pretty safe sat here right now. But I’ve seen what really goes on around us, above us, to keep a country with a 70 million population safe from threats and it’s incredible.”

He met Gordon Brown on one occasion and reflects: “He very much believed in what he was trying to do and you can only admire people with that conviction. I think the challenge is not why or what you think, but how you portray it.”

When Marsh finally returned to his post as a senior partner at PwC, he “began thinking about a nation which was out of balance economically”.

“The concentration of finance services in the south was great in the good times, but when the top came off, boy did the rest of the country know about it. At the same time there was this latent capability in the regions, but the situation we were in was untenable.”

He went on to head up PwC’s government and public sector practice and worked with a think-tank to produce an influential report on how the economy could be rebalanced. He took up his current post at Leeds City Region LEP last summer.

Beyond Whitehall and the LEP, career highlights include the diversity of his business recovery work.

He says: “Business recovery broadens your mind because you cover industries across the spectrum.

I’ve worked on everything from a power station in insolvency to a cathedral. Eventually you stand back and say ‘what’s left’, which led me to the Cabinet Office.”

Your business is our business Start the conversation today. Call us on 0333 123 7171 or visit www.bhp.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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“Let’s say HS2 will cost about £50bn in round terms. Over a 10 to 15 year period that is a lot of money. But when you match that against the nation’s debt and an annual interest bill that this year will nudge £60bn, and then you start to put it into context. For me this is a must have, not a nice to have.

“I think one of the challenges has been that it was initially launched on the basis that it would reduce journey times. This is true but it never should have been the leading argument. It should have been about connectivity, capacity issues and a must have investment to position the country as a truly global competitor to the developing world.

“China is developing high speed rail at a mindboggling pace. How do we expect to attract the world’s best, who are used to things like high speed rail, if we haven’t got it?”

Speaking on a regional level, he adds: “We

have to make sure that infrastructure is as enabling to business as possible. This isn’t just about high speed rail alone, or roads, airports and housing. It’s a cocktail of all of these things.

“In Leeds, the HS2 station will come right into the heart of the city under current plans and there is a whole urban regeneration agenda.

Once it’s kicked off, it will probably be one of the biggest urban regeneration projects anywhere in Western Europe and will create all sorts of opportunities.”

While Marsh anticipates a busy summer ahead, he has much to fill his time – including his seat on the LEP’s investment panel which hands out grant and loan funding.

“We have supported several hundreds of businesses to date and we have shown that we can invest relatively small amounts of money usefully and meaningfully. The question now is whether we can do that at

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INTERVIEW

scale, and my answer is ‘yes’.”

Marsh also continues to spread the word about exactly what a LEP is and isn’t for and how they should be approached.

“If you did a straw poll of the 106,000 businesses in Leeds City Region and asked them what a LEP is, what it does and how it can help them, I would be pleasantly surprised if 10% knew.

“My aim is that, in the next few years, we are talking about how to capture the last 10%.

“I think there probably is a lack of understanding of why they are relevant regionally and nationally and it is my personal ambition that they are seen as part of the enabling – what can they do to enable business growth. It’s part of our mission to better engage with businesses and we are looking to enable them to grow faster and build on our assets.” n

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

EMERGING ENTREPRENEUR

YORKSHIRE EMERGING ENTREPRENEUR DINNER 2014 The BQ Emerging Entrepreneur Dinner at Aspire, in Leeds, brought together entrepreneurs from across the region for a celebration of enterprise and to recognise some of Yorkshire’s rising stars of entrepreneurialism.

The dinners, taking place across the UK in Scotland, the North East, Yorkshire and the West Midlands are being held in association with MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival 2014. For more details about MADE see pages 18-19

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

Winners: Claire Morley-Jones and Lewis Bowen with judges Simon Bollon, left, and Farnaz Khan, right Lewis Bowen, founder of Sheffield-based Geco Industries – an innovative camping fuel manufacturer – and Claire Morley-Jones, the young entrepreneur behind thriving HR services firm HR180, were the two winners on the night. But while there were only two winners, all of the shortlisted entrepreneurs were given a platform to share their story with a roomful of influencers, investors, angels and potential mentors. What the winners said: CLAIRE MORLEY-JONES, HR180 “After a truly life changing and eventful year, this award is complete recognition for how hard the HR180 team have worked to ensure that we continued to thrive and be successful.

Whilst the award recognises one individual, we have all contributed to an increased turnover of 51% and a fabulous net profit in which we were all able to share earlier in the year.

The hard work though doesn’t stop there and we still have really ambitious goals for the next 12 months! Whilst ensuring that existing clients are still delighted with our quality, service levels and commercialism we hope to add several new skills to our offering, in the form of occupational health and outplacement expertise. Our business is built on HR actually making a positive contribution to the growth and success of other SMEs and to that end

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we continue to train new HR professionals, hiring three new employees in the last month.

We are very excited about the future and the incredible opportunities open to us!”

LEWIS BOWEN, GECO INDUSTRIES “It was a real honour to win the Yorskhire round of BQ emerging entrepreneur and to be nominated alongside some fantastic businesses. It comes at a great time as we approach the height of the camping and festival season with Fuel4. Over the last 12 months we have secured 1,000 new stores and have our sights set on Europe over the coming 12 months with exciting new products. Fuel4 gel has created a real solution to replace harmful fuels that are used during outdoor activities.

As it can be used for cleaner and safer cooking, fire/BBQ lighting and heating, we have seen huge amounts of new customers especially amongst DofE groups and Scout organisations looking for a safer solution to their current options such as methylated spirits. Recently, we were very proud to be recommended by the Scouting Association through a fantastic partnership with AMG Group and Trangia. With the World Cup and a very warm summer, we expect a huge year for Geco Industries and Fuel4.” ■

EMERGING ENTREPRENEUR

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

XXXXXXXX COMPANY PROFILE SUMMER 14

SUMMER 14

Reward Capital: filling the overdraft space left by the banks Reward Capital’s Dave Jones explains how the lender is taking advantage of reluctance from the banks to grant overdrafts to SMEs According to a recent survey, only a third of Britain’s small businesses turned to their banks for financing in the first quarter of 2014. The latest SME finance monitor found that 33 per cent of small firms reported using external finance. The result makes positive reading for Reward Capital. Backed by South African billionaire Christo Wiese and having recently launched an office in Manchester, we forecast further opportunities will continue to come as businesses look for alternative sources of funding to the mainstream banking sector.

Since early 2012, when Reward realised there was a gap in the market, we have completed well over 100 transactions with £35m of our funds being used in situations including acquisition, refinance, cash flow, stock funding, asset purchase, bridging and turnaround.

Our services, with speed often being of the essence, are filling a much needed gap in the lending market and helping businesses to maximise opportunities that they may otherwise miss out on. So what’s driving this success?

Well, one of the key factors is that we are taking advantage of the banking sector’s increasing apathy towards business overdrafts – historically the cornerstone of any business’s short-term funding needs.

REWARD KEY STATS More than 100 transactions completed in the last two years Average lend - £340,000 Average time to pay Reward back - 7 months Largest deal - £1.8m Smallest deal - £50,000 Income for year ended February 2014 - £4.2m, up 30 per cent on 2013 £18m funds available to lend

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

Reward partners Tom Flannery (left) and Dave Jones

In most cases we don’t charge our clients anything. We just make them a little bit less SMEs are continuing to look to alternative sources of funding. It’s fair to say that for the majority of businesses, being able to obtain an overdraft is now very much a thing of the past.

This shift is being driven by a number of factors.

Firstly, banks are being hit by increased costs of capital which will only get worse as lending regulations are tightened further in the near future. Bank capital is tied up whether or not the client goes overdrawn and this is just not cost effective. Also, overdrafts take too much day-to-day monitoring and require annual review, thereby further increasing the costs for the bank.

As a result, banks have been on a mission for the last few years to drive businesses down the invoice finance route and away from overdrafts, with bank managers being aggressively targeted on referrals

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into their invoice finance divisions.

Furthermore, short-term lending in itself does little to help managers to hit their annual lending targets and so isn’t seen as a priority. The income overdrafts generate is also inadequate to make it worth the banks’ while – they would rather concentrate their efforts on driving long term recurring income streams.

Finally, many short-term funding needs come with tight timescales that the banks just cannot react quickly enough to. All these factors have culminated in creating the perfect storm for Reward. Many of the short-term deals we have successfully concluded – and continue to source –have had good security cover and a demonstrable repayment source. But the banks were just not interested or were unable to meet the tight

SUMMER 14

XXXXXXXX COMPANY PROFILE SUMMER 14

REWARD PROVIDES BUILDING BLOCKS FOR TRELANCREST For more than 30 years Trelancrest Developments enjoyed problem free construction, fuelled by easy access to bank finance. However, as Bryan Hargreaves, managing director of the South Yorkshire building contractor, says: “Around five years ago we saw the recession coming and experienced the construction industry just about come to a standstill.” Trelancrest turned to Reward after investing almost £300,000 of its own funds on purchasing and demolishing a building in Rotherham to make way for seven houses, two of which it funded itself, but then being declined further assistance from its long-term banking partner. “We had strong demand for the units and already had buyers lined up for the first two,” says Hargreaves. Reward agreed a deal to provide £255,000 with the minimum of fuss and were repaid from sale proceeds of the first two units within a couple of months. Reward then provided further funds pending the sale proceeds of the third unit, following which they were cleared in full.

“It seems that the banks are happy to get involved if you are a huge national house-builder, but have little or no interest when it is small one off scheme that would see them fully paid back in a short space of time.”

Recent high-profile recruit Calvin Dexter with Reward’s Dave Jones

SNUGPAK MANUFACTURES EXPORT GROWTH From a base in Silsden, West Yorkshire, Snugpak is taking on the world – and winning, having twice won the Queens Award for Enterprise in International Trade. Originally specialising in body warmers, Snugpak has evolved to offer a range of insulated clothing and is now best known for its superior quality, low weight sleeping bags, which continue to be manufactured in the town. The bags are unlike any synthetic sleeping bag on the market and have been used by military forces around the globe including USA, Australia and Europe. Snugpak’s importance to the armed forces resulted in the company requiring the assistance of Reward Capital to fulfil a major $5m contract to supply survival packs to an unnamed foreign military unit. Reward provided £450,000 to enable Snugpak to purchase key components of the packs from abroad.

Having seen its existing funders prevaricate for some time, Snugpak was in danger of missing key deadlines. Susan Parish, managing director of Snugpak, said: “As a growing company and proud UK manufacturer and exporter, we are indebted to Reward for helping us to fulfil our order and providing funding to such tight timescales.”

timescales that the opportunity dictated.

We do, however, continue to work closely with the banks as we often do short-term deals pending a client getting their ducks in a row prior to a mainstream lender providing a refinance. This, along with asset sales or cashflow, is one of our main sources of repayment. Many SMEs have seen their bottom lines grow after securing our help and dozens of one off transactions have taken place where our client may well have had to walk

away from the deal had it not been for Reward.

Yes, there is a price to pay for our flexibility and we are more expensive than the banks. Time and again, however, our clients are happy to acknowledge that we haven’t actually charged them anything. We have just made them a little bit less. As the economic recovery gathers pace, we are predicting a bright future. Cash and the ability to move quickly are driving the marketplace.

We’ve recognised this and are acting on it.

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For further information contact Dave Jones on 0113 246 2700 or email David.Jones@rewardcf.com

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

SUMMER 14

Consultancy’s deal hat-trick leads to full occupancy, Leeds new build exceeds expectations, warehouse renovation includes York’s first £1m apartment, city identified as giving best returns for property investors >> Energy project approved Funding has been secured for a £750m energy project in West Yorkshire which could create around 1,000 construction jobs.

St Paul’s Developments has been awarded £2.45m of funding from the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP) to undertake major remediation and infrastructure works at its 110 acre former chemical works site in Knottingley, Wakefield.

The works will pave the way for a new £750m power station to be built and operated by Irish energy company ESB, which it has said could create the large number construction jobs.

The £2.45m of funding has been allocated from the LEP’s Growing Places Fund which provides loans for projects that will create economic and employment growth in the city region.

The loan will be repaid and so available to the LEP to recycle to other projects.

St Paul’s Developments has already undertaken the demolition and decommissioning of the 25 acre section of the Knottingley site which had been the former home of Oxiris Chemicals for 70 years.

The £750m power station could create a large number of jobs >> Investors target Yorkshire Foreign investors have spent nearly £1bn on commercial property in the Yorkshire region over the last two years, a new report shows.

Figures from Knight Frank’s latest Wealth Report shows that, for 2012 and 2013 combined, overseas investment in the region accounted for more than a third of total investment, with just under

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

An aerial view of Lowmoor Industrial Estate

>> Consultancy scores a hat-trick of deals Property consultancy JLL has secured a hat-trick of deals at Lowmoor Industrial Estate in Bradford meaning it is now fully let.

Hamilton (Building Contractors) Ltd has moved on to the 24,858 sq ft estate, having agreed to take 3,000 sq ft from landlord Alpha Antler.

Jade Logistics Ltd, which specialises in flat pack furniture, has expanded to Unit 5 taking 3,300 sq ft of space whilst exhibition stand contractor, Moda Group, has secured a further 3,000 sq ft industrial unit.

Lowmoor Industrial Estate comprises four terraced single storey and two semi-detached warehouse units located off Cleckheaton Road in Bradford. The three new companies will join existing occupier Resin Drives UK and Guidepost Garage.

£1bn worth of transactions.

The report also discusses how Ultra High Net Worth Individuals (UHNWI), the richest people in the world, have become increasingly interested in investing in commercial property assets, with cities like Sheffield and Leeds often providing the most efficient and cost effective solution for investors.

However, over the past 10 years as a whole, overseas investment accounted for only 12% of total investment into Yorkshire’s commercial property market.

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>> Bank’s Leeds HQ for sale Naylors Chartered Surveyors has been instructed to sell Barclays Bank regional retail headquarters on Albion Street in Leeds city centre. The property is on the market for an asking price of £8.75m and produces an annual rental income of £500,000 secured against two particularly strong PLC covenants in Barclays and Greggs until 2024.

SUMMER 14

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

>> Exceeding expectations The first new build office development in Leeds City centre for more than five years has exceeded expectations in terms of demand. MEPC Wellington Place has announced practical completion of its office development, 10 Wellington Place, with two thirds of the building now fully let.

Companies such as Brown Shipley and Shulmans LLP will take their occupied space next month – leaving just 14,000 sq ft of space available to let over the third and fourth floors.

Andrew Cowell, commercial director at MEPC Wellington Place, said: “There is a sense of real optimism around Leeds that business confidence and performance is growing, and we feel ideally placed to help propel businesses to the next level by providing them with superior office space.”

We feel ideally placed to help propel businesses to the next level

Sheffield’s skyline

>> £31m Pomona deal led the way in first quarter The £31.4m sale of the Pomona Business Centre in Sheffield ranked in the top major regional office investment deals completed nationally in the first quarter of 2014, according to research by Knight Frank.

The 131,000 sq ft business centre on Pear Street, formerly Norwich Union House, was purchased

by American Realty Capital Global Trust from vendors Hudson Advisors UK Ltd in March this year.

It was one of three properties owned by the estate of deceased Irish property tycoon Patrick Rocca and is 100% leased to Aviva Life & Pensions UK Limited until June 2029.

Rob Hepworth, Sheffield-based associate at Knight Frank, said: “Investor appetite for regional offices remains strong with activity being constrained by the scarcity of available stock. The strong weight of money chasing limited product continues to put pricing under pressure.”

>> Pointing the way ahead A landmark building on Sheffield’s Ecclesall Road is being regenerated by an independent Yorkshire restaurant group. Sheffield-based The Pointing Dog Group has been working to restore and refurbish the building formally known as the Polish Ex-Servicemen’s Club.

The owner is spending £1.5m on what will become its third ‘Pointing Dog’ site in the North.

>> Offices given refurb A grade A office building in the heart of Leeds is to undergo a comprehensive multimillion pound refurbishment. 9 Bond Court, which comprises 68,230 sq ft of top-quality office space, is let to a number of professional firms including global property consultancy

Knight Frank, Stewarts Law, Redmayne-Bentley and Begbies Traynor.

The work includes two refurbished office floors of approximately 6,500 sq ft and lobbies; a new reception; a new entrance; new basement shower facilities and floorto-ceiling glazing, with work expected to be completed by spring 2015.

>> CPP expertise in demand The Sheffield-based property agency Commercial Property Partners (CPP) has advised on the acquisition of Grade II landmark offices in the Sheffield suburb of Broomhill.

CPP acted for a local private investor, who bought The Mount in Glossop Road, Broomhill, for an undisclosed seven-figure sum, equating to a yield of 12%.

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The Mount is a well-known office building in Broomhill, having once been the headquarters for General Accident and Norwich Union, before being let to its current tenants the NHS and Voice Marketing.

>> Profits doubled Land Securities Group has doubled its full-year pretax profits in the 12 months to the end of March and it expects to continue performing well.

The UK’s largest real estate investment trust by market capitalisation, which owns Trinity Leeds and the White Rose shopping centres in Leeds, posted a pretax profit of £1.11bn, compared with £533m a year earlier.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY Overland Park

SUMMER 14

Station Business Park in Holgate to 2,500 sq ft of bespoke offices on the ground floor of the listed Victorian warehouse.

The Bonding Warehouse is the latest of the company’s developments, which also includes obtaining planning permission for the Chocolate Factory former Terry’s site in York, and delivery of 1 million sq ft of offices in the North East.

>> Overland newcomers Property agents JLL and Carter Towler have assisted landlord CBRE Global Investors in attracting two new occupiers, in quick succession, at Overland Park, Gelderd Road in Leeds. Brown Brothers Distribution Ltd has taken 6,500 sq ft of warehouse and office space on a ten year lease at Unit 9. In addition, Totally Dynamic Leeds has taken a 4,900 sq ft unit at Unit 5 on the estate.

Ross Dixon from CBRE Global Investors’ appointed asset manager, Charles Dixon Asset Management, said: “We are pleased to have worked closely with our client’s appointed letting agents to dispose of another two units at this great estate. This takes the total space let in the last seven months to 68,000 sq ft and only leaves a couple of units left.”

Lauren O’Toole, senior surveyor in JLL’s Leeds office, said: “This recent success at Overland Park reflects improving economic conditions which is translating in to increasing industrial property demand particularly for smaller sized units.”

>> Warehouse renovated York-based developer Grantside has relocated its head office to the firm’s own Bonding Warehouse development on the south bank of the Ouse at Skeldergate Bridge in the city.

The company, led by managing director Steve Davis, has recently completed a total renovation of the historic former customs warehouse, creating 11,700 sq ft of luxury offices and four exclusive penthouse apartments. The scheme includes York’s first £1m apartment, which was sold off plan.

The move will see Grantside relocate from

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Greg Davison, investment director at DTZ in Leeds

>> A top choice for investors Leeds has been identified as one of the UK’s most attractive cities for prime commercial property investment.

Research published by DTZ based on comparative property prices for each city in the office, industrial and retail markets, puts Leeds and Manchester out on top in terms of cities giving the best returns for investors looking to enter the market now.

The report also shows the UK regions moving strongly ahead of London as property prices in the capital continue to increase. The retail sector of Manchester and Leeds offer the biggest opportunities, driven by capital growth as rents rise over the next four years for these two cities, DTZ says.

As a result Manchester and Leeds are expected to offer very attractive total

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returns for the 2014 -18 period.

Greg Davison, DTZ investment director covering Yorkshire, said: “The opportunity to generate above average returns from commercial property within Leeds is largely unique within the UK insofar as it occurs across all of the key market sectors.

Backed up by the strong local economic growth outlook and market restrictions, due to a limited development pipeline, Leeds offers investors a compelling story.

“We have started to see yield compression take hold for prime assets through pricing readjustment and in anticipation of rental growth for which there is now real evidence, born out of a lack of supply and stronger economic outlook.

Gaining exposure to the best in class remains difficult but as rental growth gains momentum we expect the performance window to increase beyond just prime property; as ever, it is a question of knowing where the best opportunities lie.”

The findings are based on the DTZ UK Fair Value IndexTM, which provides a quarterly insight into the comparative attractiveness of current property pricing in the UK. A score of 100 indicates that all markets are underpriced and zero that all markets are overpriced. A score of 50 indicates fair value. Meanwhile, occupier activity in the Leeds office market rose 30% in the first quarter in terms of the number of deals, compared with Q1 2013.

The figures come from a study by global property consultancy Knight Frank which predicts that rents will come under upward pressure in Leeds in the coming months, with the headline level of £25 per sq ft forecast to increase to £26 per sq ft by the year-end and £26.50 by the end of 2015.

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TURNING A PROFIT IN GREEN ENERGY 42 BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

SUMMER 14

ENTREPRENEUR

in association with

Renewable energy firm Earthmill is thriving in spite of industry red tape, its operations director Mark Woodward tells Andrew Mernin Since the introduction of feed-in tariffs four years ago, an army of green energy companies have tried and failed to take advantage of it.

But a few have succeeded – despite naysayers who prefer nuclear, shale and other grubbier cousins – in driving clean energy profits.

Among them is Earthmill, the Yorkshire-based wind turbine installer which has grown into a £14m turnover business and is now focused on broadening its horizons. Farmers across the land, from rugged Cornwall to remotest Scotland, are plugged into an Earthmill-installed turbine. And their spinning – whether in an Atlantic breeze or North Sea blast – continues to bring earnings for their masters while driving jobs and growth at Earthmill’s Wetherby HQ. The firm’s emergence as one of the fastest growing renewables companies in the North of England has been overseen by investor and operations director Mark Woodward and MD and founder Steve Milner.

“We always say working here is like working in dog years,” says Woodward. “Because everything moves so quickly, one year in this industry is like seven in others.”

This fast forward mode comes, in part, from the rapid development of new technologies making wind evermore viable. But political influence also has the industry in a seemingly constant state of flux.

“The lack of clarity is our biggest challenge and it means we only do a one-year business plan each year. The UK has the windiest conditions in Europe but places like Germany and Denmark have a much more developed industry because our Government will commit to it, and then step back, and so it’s hard for people to make long term investments.

“If you’re building a turbines factory, you need about five years before you get your money back. But if you have short term policies that

keep changing, it’s a real challenge,” he says.

“The danger is we have an industry that’s doing well but most of the manufacture is going on abroad. It’s criminal when we’ve got the best wind resource here.”

Despite such challenges, Earthmill has thrived largely on the back of the feed-in tariff, which pays for electricity generated through renewable or low carbon means. While selling a small amount of turbines, Earthmill increasingly rents the land a turbine stands on for a period of 20 years and handles the planning, buying, installation and maintenance process. It works with Endurance, a leading UK manufacturer of

Lack of clarity is our biggest challenge – we only do a one-year business plan turbines, to fulfil demand.

The 50-250kw turbines typically cost between £270,000 and £600,000 and range in height from 100ft to 160ft.

A recent move to a bigger premises, £4.1m in fresh investment and the gradual opening up of new, non-agricultural markets, have charted a successful last 12 months for the firm.

The company was initially a one man band launched with Steve Milner’s £45,000 redundancy cheque in 2009, offering a range of renewable services.

Then Woodward’s meandering path as an investor – having made his early fortune in software – intervened and the pair decided to put their faith in wind turbines.

A trip to an agricultural show which brought

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them hundreds of enquiries was pivotal in their decision. Once they’d reaped £120,000 in annual turnover, made up largely of the value of two wind turbines, “we binned everything else from the prospect list”.

Woodward started working one day a month with Milner, providing business advice, but eventually became commercial director.

“I was looking at how to build some value into the business. The main challenge with wind energy is that once you sell a turbine there’s no ongoing revenue. So for me this was always going to be a side of the business that I knew needed to be improved.”

He took inspiration from his days in software, where rental and maintenance models were the most lucrative and applied it to Earthmill, through its adoption of its own rental, rather than outright sales model.

And given his success in software, he had good reason to trust a strategy that had served him so well. Woodward played a key role in the growth and circa £20m sale of Leeds software business Solicitec (later Visualfiles), having risen from sales to MD in 14 years at the firm.

The 2006 sale left the computer science graduate with a tidy sum, having held 30% in shares, which led him into investment – after brief thoughts of early retirement.

“My ambition was to play golf and I bought a property and did it up and really just enjoyed life for a while rather than jumping straight back on the saddle. However, I quickly got itchy feet. I was being asked to do all sorts of chores around the house as well as accompanying my wife on way too many shopping trips.”

He joined forces with former Solicitec business partner Neil Ewin to establish angel investment group Ewin Woodward Development.

While Earthmill is Woodward’s most successful investment to date, he and Ewin have a >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

ENTREPRENEUR number of other business interests. These include Halifax-based low carbon lighting firm Carbon Reduction Technology and Derbyshire biotech business Retrogenix, which enables pharmaceutical companies to determine which proteins are targeted by drug molecules.

Bespoke furniture business Neil Jones Furniture, of Clitheroe, Lancashire, is also on the books.

Earthmill is his day-to-day area of focus, however, having helped the business to develop a network of over 150 turbines across the country, with a further 120 planned.

Around 90% are on agricultural land and, with an estimated 300,000 farms in the country, Woodward sees plenty of room for growth.

Wind turbines are an attractive option for farmers keen to offset energy bills amid rising costs and completion from cheaper imports.

The feed-in tariff pays somewhere in the region of £42,000 a year on top of energy savings of more than £20,000 per year, according to a recent FT report. They are also payable for 20 years at the rate that was in effect when the farmer registered.

As well as cutting costs, turbines can also help farmers handle pressure from supermarkets that are seeking to reduce their carbon output.

Woodward says: “Supermarkets are increasingly chasing their carbon footprint down the food chain. So when they’re calculating it, they’re going back to the farmer and putting pressure on them. So a wind turbine is a way of alleviating that.

“We know farmers like being in control of their assets and are desperate for cheaper energy solutions, but we also know that many of them don’t have the money to invest in a turbine themselves. We offer a number of ways in which they can gain access to wind energy, including renting a turbine from us or a joint consortium deal, which sees them own 50% of the turbine and any subsequent revenues, while we own the other half.”

Earthmill today employs around 30 full time staff and, after growing its turnover rapidly to £14m, is now focused on its long term future.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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“We won’t grow our turnover massively over the next few years as it’s the rental side of the business that we want to focus on,” he says. “But there is an opportunity for us based on something we’ve seen gaining ground in Germany where local residents are investing in a wind turbine as a community resource.”

Flourishing in a market which is still playing catch up to its European counterparts is no mean feat, especially given the rigours of the planning process, as Woodward explains.

“Unfortunately the planning process in this country seems to be getting slower. The biggest thing we need from Government is more clarity around planning and regulations.

Our planning applications end up in front of a committee that would usually decide on things like whether homeowners should be allowed to put up an extension and they may have little knowledge of renewables, turbines and the scales at which we work to. This means large numbers of our cases are initially rejected and have to go through the appeal process, adding an extra six or seven months to a project.”

For all the hurdles facing Earthmill, however, Woodward is optimistic about its future – especially as it now has the backing of a heavyweight investment group. Last autumn the firm attracted £4.1m in backing from private equity group Connection Capital, which valued the company at £10m. At the time, Earthmill reported that it had seen a 150% increase in requests for land surveys from farmers looking to reduce energy costs.

The funds will fuel increased capacity to help the company take advantage of such growth opportunities. But Earthmill is also looking beyond farmers’ fields in search of growth.

“Anyone who uses energy in a remote location is an opportunity for us,” he says. “Water companies with pumping stations in the middle of nowhere or distribution centres, for example, could benefit from our turbines.

It would involve a more complex decisionmaking process because we’d be dealing with corporates rather than individuals, but the

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advantage is that the pressure on them to be green and to cut carbon is greater.”

With only 5% of UK farms currnetly taking advantage of wind turbines, and several new markets emerging, Earthmill looks well placed to keep on spinning long into the future. n

An impressive rise Andrew Westhead, a partner in Grant Thornton’s entrepreneurial tax team in Leeds, says: “What Mark has accomplished in his previous businesses as well as what he and his business partner Steve Milner have achieved with Earthmill, building it into a leader in its sector within four years, is hugely impressive.

“Their vision to target the renewables sector with a strategic offering for the farming industry has provided a new revenue stream for many farmers and landowners and has also created jobs within Earthmill in Wetherby and at its other offices across the UK. “The firm has innovated with its finance and business model, selling turbines, securing finance or leasing them to landowners to ensure customers have more choice and can enter the energy generation market without large capital reserves.

This creativity and innovation is evident throughout the business.

“To have become such a respected brand in the renewables sector so quickly and to have gained the trust of leading manufacturers speaks volumes for Earthmill’s quality of service which Mark is so keen to highlight.

“This obsessive attention to delivering products and service of the highest possible standard will ensure the company’s continued success.”

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Santander Corporate & Commercial is a brand name of Santander UK plc, Abbey National Treasury Services plc (which also uses the brand name Santander Global Banking and Markets) and Santander Asset Finance plc, all (with the exception of Santander Asset Finance plc) authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Our Financial Services Register numbers are 106054 and 146003 respectively. In Jersey, Santander UK plc is regulated by the Jersey Financial Services Commission to carry on deposit-taking business under the Banking Business (Jersey) Law 1991.Registered office: 2 Triton Square, Regent’s Place, London NW1 3AN. Company numbers: 2294747, 2338548 and 153312respectively. Registered in England. Santander and the flame logo are registered trademarks. Santander UK plc is a participant in the Jersey Banking Depositor Compensation Scheme. The Scheme offers protection for eligible deposits of up to £50,000. The maximum total amount of compensation is capped at £100,000,000 in any 5 year period. Full details of the scheme and banking groups covered are available on the States of Jersey website (www.gov.je) or on request. *Calls charged at local rate.

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COMPANY PROFILE

SUMMER 14

Responsibility in practice: Launch of the Research Centre for Governance, Leadership and Global Responsibility A centre that aims to integrate ideas, values and practice for governance across all sectors The Research Centre for Governance, Leadership and Global Responsibility (CGLGR) was launched on May 1 2014 as a new Leeds Metropolitan University-wide research centre. The Centre aims to address issues in governance and responsibility, across all sectors.

Mervyn King (www.mervynking.co.za/index.html) has agreed to be the honorary president of the CGLGR. Professor King is one the foremost thinkers on governance and leadership in the world. Mervyn King began his career in the law, becoming Nelson Mandela’s ‘favourite judge’. Hence, he brings a passion for dialogue across all sectors about good governance. He is a regular visitor to the UK and aims to play a part in ongoing dialogue around the Centre. His three Reports on governance for the South African Institute of Directors have been ground breaking, and he now chairs both the Global Reporting Initiative (www.globalreporting. org/Information/about-gri/Pages/default.aspx) and the International Integrated Reporting Council (www.theiirc.org/) The watchword of both organizations is integration: integrated thinking, reporting and leadership.

It is preciseley lack of integrated thinking which has led to the many high profile disasters in governance and leadership in the last two decades.

In the credit crisis we saw leadership of boards and regulators, in the corporate and public service sectors, which systematically took its eye off the ball. This was not because they were bad people, but because of lack of critical thinking about purpose and of broader awareness of the social and environmental context in which they were operating. One bank board was described by a Parliamentary committee (ref.) as a disaster waiting to happen, largely because the majority of the board had great experience in retail but

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

Professor Mervyn King

One of the problems about governance and leadership at present is the proliferation of theory and concepts did not understand banking. The governance of Mid Staffs hospital (www.midstaffspublicinquiry. com.) set the tone for an organization that was aiming to hit targets that would improve its status but could not see the unmet need underneath its collective nose. Examples such as these, say three things of importance. First, it is easy for any board, however well-intentioned, to take its eyes off what they are about and how that relates to the wider environment. Second, failure of leaders and the board to keep their eye on the ball is bad for business, whether that ‘business’ is finance, health, or even religion. Third, regulation is never purely self-regulation. All the governance disasters showed a failure of regulatory bodies beyond the board, and

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failure of the board and such bodies to engage in effective and critical dialogue.

In the light of such issues the CGLGR aims to pursue a three dimensional approach in research about governance, leadership and responsibility: developing ideas, value centred teaching and practice centred research and consultancy.

IDEAS One of the problems about governance and leadership at present is the proliferation of theory and concepts. The Centre has a strong track record in publishing in this area and in drilling down ideas like integrity and responsibility so that they can be owned in practice. We aim to take the intellect out of academic ownership and focus it in practice.

SUMMER 14

COMPANY PROFILE

l-r Professor Christopher Prince, Dean of the Faculty of Business & Law, Professor Susan Price, Vice Chancellor of Leeds Metropolitan University, Professor Anne Gregory of the School of Strategy, Marketing and Communications, and Professor Mervyn King.

Professor Mervyn King and Professor Simon Robinson

Our work with board members and leaders can enable more critical reflection on how values relate to the practice of decision making VALUES AND TEACHING We aim to develop action research in teaching which develops the key attributes of integrated thinking, communication and reporting. The employability of students has tended to focus on instrumental skills, but not the attributes of responsible governance and leadership, such as the capacity to challenge and be challenged, critical thinking, awareness of the social and environmental context. This means developing styles of teaching based on what Oakshott calls the ‘adventure of an unrehearsed critical conversation’- because the practice of critical and practice centred dialogue is what develops the attributes of responsible governance. To this end we are looking for further collaboration with business and the public sector, including involing leaders in this teaching.

PRACTICE CENTRED RESEARCH One aspect of such research is the development of practical tools for effective and responsible leadership behaviours, culture building, and governance policy and practice. This we are doing, and working with the frameworks of integrated reporting. However, whilst tools are important they do not address everything. The danger of tools, like codes, is unthinking application- we have the code in place, the tool developed, so now the job’s done. This is exactly what happened

in other governance disasters, such as the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico (see Simon Robinson and Paula Dowson, Business Ethics in Practice, CIPD 2012). Cut and paste thinking led both regulators and executives to sit back, with all the boxes ticked, including emergency plans. And nobody questioned whether walruses actually lived in the Gulf of Mexico….

Our work with board members and leaders can enable more critical reflection on how values relate to the practice of decision making (deliberative enquiry), and on how they can practice and develop the key attributes of integrated thinkingin effect, how the board takes responsibility and how it enables responsibility to be taken in its organization.

Again this is disciplined and critical exploration, not lecturing.

All these three dimensions will be focused in ongoing dialogue and partnership with business, professions and public bodies, designed to influence and drive governance debate and policy, and enable reflective practice at individual and board level on value-centred leadership and organizational integrity. Hence, we are developing a series of public lectures and events that will bring together different sectors to embody critical debate. Mervyn King’s opening lecture for the Centre and can be found at (www.leedsmet.ac.uk/ research/centre-for-governance-leadership-

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global-responsibility.htm). Michael Woodford, one of the most important examples of professional integrity in practice, when he became the first president of a company to blow the whistle, has also given a lecture for the Centre. The subsequent narrative reads like a thriller (Exposure: From President to Whistleblower at Olympus, Penguin 2012), and embodies the key attributes of leadership, not least the capacity to ask awkward questions and keep coming back with more.

The university’s guest lecture series will commence on Tuesday 28th October, with the opening lecture being delivered by centre advisory board member, Brigadier G.K Bibby CBE. Brigadier Bibby’s lecture will be exploring the areas of Governance, Leadership and Global responsibility, from his experience from his life working in the armed forces.

If you want details about what the Centre might have to offer your organization, how you might get involved in research or how you might get involved in teaching please contact: The Centre Administrator: Nikita McNally, N.McNally@leedsmet.ac.uk Director: Professor Simon Robinson, s.j.robinson@leedsmet.ac.uk Or Deputy Director: Dr. William Sun, X.Sun@leedsmet.ac.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

in association with

is your ip at risk?

The issue: What can we be doing to support entrepreneurs and SMEs in understanding the importance of valuing and protecting their IP for future investment, growth and innovation?

The ability of knowledge economy entrepreneurs to defend their ideas can ultimately dictate whether they fly or flounder.

But amid the rise of free software, content, advice and guidance, the rules of the intellectual property (IP) game may seem blurred, to the uninitiated at least.

Meanwhile, fears about the cost, upheaval and enforcement of IP protection hold many small businesses back from taking the required action.

Act they must, however, if they and information industries in the UK are to compete globally.

In search of clarity and solutions, BQ brought delegates covering all angles of the IP issue to the grand setting of Oulton Hall Hotel in Leeds for an evening of debate.

Before the lively discussion began, Alex Hilton, CEO of the Federation Against Software Theft (FAST), put the importance of information-based industries to the UK economy into context.

He explained that 81% of the UK workforce is employed in the service industry, while the UK software industry is estimated to be worth £9.2bn according to 2012 Government figures.

He added that 95% of the 120,000 enterprises in the information economy sector employ fewer than 10 people, and 26% of these organisations are less than two years old. He said: “The Government aspiration is that 25%

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of central Government procurement will be with SMEs,” he said.

“That’s quite scary. We’re going to put quite a big chunk of our tax pounds into those organisations. How do we ensure they’ve got stability? That’s where IP comes into play. It’s important to raise the issue and [focus on] why we must get out of this environment that [IP theft] is a victimless crime.”

Debate chair Caroline Theobald then kicked off the proceedings by asking how start-ups and SMEs could become more aware of the value of their business and protect their IP. THE DEBATE Kyran Parker, whose employer, Leeds College, is engaged with hundreds of SMEs and microbusinesses, said: “I think it’s our job to tell people that there is support available and it isn’t always expensive. I don’t think that always gets across and we have a responsibility to get that message out there.”

There was an acknowledgment around the table that many small businesses merely presume – often wrongly - that IP is not relevant to them.

Jane Slimming, who runs Leeds-based digital agency Zeal Media, said: “I don’t feel it’s relevant to me. I don’t feel I do anything that is fundamentally different to any other agencies.

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Taking part Katy Hamilton, UK anti-piracy manager, Microsoft Alex Hilton, chief executive, FAST Ajaz Ahmed, founder, Freeserve Jane Slimming, owner, Zeal Media Sharon Jandu, representing Barclays Daniel Langton, UK SMB renewables and annuity manager, Microsoft Julian Heathcote-Hobbins, deputy chairman, FAST Sarah Allison, founder, Social Yorkshire Esther Kirwan, IP partner, Clarion Solicitors Martin Brassell, CEO and co-founder, Inngot Stef Stephenson, Business IP Centre (Leeds) Alastair MacColl, CEO and founder, BE Group Kyran Parker, head of business development, Leeds College Andrew Burton, investment director, Finance Yorkshire / angel investor In the chair: Caroline Theobald Taking notes: Andrew Mernin, editor, BQ Venue: Oulton Hall Hotel 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.

Sometimes just doing a job better is protection enough, that’s our USP [unique selling point].

But Alex Hilton reminded her that services, just like technology, can be defined and commoditised as IP. And Julian Heathcote-Hobbins warned: “It comes home when somebody sets up business next to you or clients rip you off by copying what you’ve taught them.”

Ajaz Ahmed, founder of internet service provider Freeserve and now part of a joint venture law firm LCF, suggested that entrepreneurs don’t think far enough ahead legally when they first start out in business. But he also called on law firms to make themselves more approachable. “Nine out of 10 people don’t seek legal advice, they do without. The legal profession has a big job to do to persuade people that they are approachable. Recently I wanted to write an app, I came up with the name for it, called my lawyer and I heard ‘tap, tap’ before he told me it was free. That was it.

But most people would be scared to do that

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because they would think it’s going to cost them a fortune. The whole thing would have cost a few hundred pounds and that’s going to save us a fortune if someone else wants to challenge us in the future.”

Esther Kirwan: “The legal profession does need to change and certainly where I’m working, it is changing. We offer free meetings with businesses who are starting up to advise them about different aspects of IP that they may need to cover. We’re not focusing on expensive patents, we’re looking at things like copyright, unregistered design rights that arise for free and trademark clearance searching, for example.”

Jane Slimming: “There is a lack of free advice when you are setting something up. There was Business Link when I set up and some of it was really useful. From a legal perspective there really isn’t anything that I know of, even if it’s just someone saying ‘have you considered this or that?’ A lot of the seminars you go to from the legal or banking sector, are just sales courses that you have to sit through and don’t actually help or educate you. Sometimes people are a bit scared to give something away.”

Esther Kirwan: “Certainly we run a series of innovation seminars [but] maybe there’s a feeling that you have to go through the larger law firms. I worked at a larger firm for 10 years and there’s quite a difference in how much they’ll give for free and whether they deal with SMEs. You don’t have to go to a larger firm to get niche experience.”

Sharon Jandu: “What’s come up at a lot of our Barclays events is someone who, when they first set up in business, didn’t do anything about checking names, for example, and then four years down the line, they’ve got a letter saying they can no longer trade under that name. So a lot of times [the support] is retrospective.”

Andrew Burton: “What most businesses don’t understand is what they can do wrong. In my view, as an investor, very few companies have any IP at all for the first three or four years of their life. In terms of valuation, the value of an asset is its ability to generate returns. How many small companies do you know that are two or three years old and have an asset that can generate a return and can prove they can generate a financial return from that asset alone without other resources behind it?

“But what they can do is put a foot wrong,

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What most businesses don’t understand is what they can do wrong. In my view, very few companies have any IP at all for the first three or four years of their life think they are building up an asset of value and actually it’s built on sand because its built on someone else’s territory. A lot of big companies won’t do anything if someone’s contravening their IP rights until three or four years later when the small company has something of value. And it’s really simple stuff, it’s avoidable risk – things they can do at the start.”

Stef Stephenson from the Business IP Centre (Leeds), which runs free council-funded information services from Leeds central library, with the initiative also running in Sheffield, said: “We do cover that and explain things like how to avoid infringing anyone else’s rights, how to do the relevant searches that you can do for free. The IP Office also has various tools on its website explaining what’s available and using real life examples.”

Andrew Burton: “It’s very dependent on the sector. In Jane’s business for example, the only IP it’s going to create is in the ideas, graphics and layouts - the look and feel of stuff.”

Jane Slimming: “It’s a real given in our industry that your ideas are going to be taken at some point, like after a pitch when you didn’t get the

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work, for example.”

Andrew Burton explained that this practice can be stopped by adding phrases like ‘commercial, in confidence’ or ‘intellectual property rights reserved by’ on documentation.

Sarah Allison, who runs social media consultancy Social Yorkshire, said: “I’ve recently streamlined our proposal process and I don’t send proposals that give all the ideas away.

It’s all labelled up with registered details and I don’t send a proposal until the second or third meeting. It is difficult to protect your ideas.

There is information out there but when you’re a small business you have to make time for it.

I think we need to make IP more sexy. When I work with students there are all these things to talk about with a new business and entrepreneurialism is so exciting – but maybe IP’s not as interesting to them.”

Martin Brassell of Inngot, which helps businesses and entrepreneurs identify, value and promote their IP, said: “There is an assumption that ‘this doesn’t apply to me’.“The term ‘intellectual property’ seems to make people think it’s not relevant, it’s >>

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complicated, difficult and potentially expensive, and therefore, ‘can I just park it for the moment and get on with the other stuff?’ But if you have a trademark you’ve got something onto which all of your get-up and the reputation you build up, can accrue and over time that can become the core value of your business. Trademark is the one thing that every business ought to consider.

How do we make that relevant and personal to every business? There is no reason why it shouldn’t be as there’s no significant cost barrier.”

Andrew Burton: “For a lot of businesses these days it’s about their brand. Everyone knows what a brand is, we consume them every day.

When you start a business people are very conscious of what their brand is, so maybe that’s the hook. If we set up a company we don’t think of a company without at least a name and a name signifies who we are. So we have to find a little space on the landscape that could be ours. We understand that that could be the brand and that’s the way of hooking people in at an early stage.”

Sharon Jandu, explaining what role banks might have in encouraging SMEs to focus on IP, said: “When we’ve been running workshops

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with Microsoft, we found educating our business managers about the value of IP worked really well because every small business has to have a bank account. Small businesses are so busy and getting them to come to a seminar is difficult, whereas a bank manager would be talking to them at some point anyway. However you dress up or brand IP, it is a really boring subject, and I think the only way to get across the value and importance of it is with other attractions like good food and good speakers, with a bit of IP wedged in.”

Sarah Allison: “I actually think small business owners are absolutely thirsty for the knowledge.

It’s not that they’re not looking for it.”

Julian Heathcote-Hobbins pointed Sarah and her fellow small business leaders towards FAST, which offers free advice and guidance. “Having access to someone they can talk to without cost and connecting them with the right expert seems to really work. Often we’re dealing with the issue of competition overstepping the line”.

Sarah Allison suggested that considering IP issues should perhaps be added on the to-do list of would-be entrepreneurs when they are at the very start of their journey. Alex Hilton agreed: “It’s about adding it to what you need, like a

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URL, an employee and some funds.”

Jane Slimming said the two parties that startups have no choice but to engage with – banks and HMRC – could do more around IP. Alastair MacColl of BE Group, a multi-faceted business services firm that works with around 15,000 businesses, questioned whether the prospect of access to government contracts would focus SME minds on IP protection. “Is the government willing to invest in things that may not be adequately protected?” he asked, highlighting the value to SMEs of being “protectable, sustainable and supportable”.

Martin Brassell moved on to the issue of how and why businesses should value their protectable assets. While acknowledging how tricky valuing IP can be – especially for something game-changing and unusual in the market – he underlined its importance. “Valuing gives businesses a number they can focus on and gives investors confidence. We need to persuade banks and entrepreneurs that even if you can’t quantify something, its value is not nothing and it is still worth something in the business, so it’s important to take it seriously. It’s worth doing something to protect it.”

Sarah Allison: “It’s only within a couple of years of starting a business that you realise you need to start valuing what you’ve got and thinking about doing something more formal.”

Alex Hilton: “It’s once you’ve got people, a management team, a pipeline of business, non-execs with some credibility and funding. If you put all those things together that leads to a better IP valuation. But if you don’t protect that core of the business in the first place, it’s all a bit of a waste isn’t it?”

Ajaz Ahmed: “When a buyer does their due diligence, if they can’t see something that’s protected they won’t buy it.”

Andrew Burton: “If it’s protected and enforceable and you understand the cost and implications of that, then you have freedom to operate, on a clear piece of landscape and noone can accuse you of being on their territory.

The other thing is the story. A lot of companies generate a lot of great IP but they don’t have a great story about it. There are companies that have fantastic stories and quite honestly, pretty shaky IP. Guess which ones make the money – the ones with stories and the PR.” Martin Brassell: “The motivator for most of the

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spectacular acquisitions that you see is always around intangible assets.”

Katy Hamilton explained how Microsoft was playing its part in tuning small businesses into the importance of IP. Alongside programmes for students and independent software developers, it offers IP advice. “Getting people to listen to advice about IP is very, very difficult. But if you mention how to monetise it, that’s when they listen. We’ve been on a long journey to get people to understand. But whenever we have shown a real life example, they really listen.”

Fellow Microsoft rep Daniel Langton added: “We train around 300,000 businesses a year and for us it’s about looking at what point in the business lifecycle is it relevant to start thinking about IP. A lot of the time it is reactive. So what we’re trying to do is embed that message across the business and in a way that is appealing to small and medium businesses. It’s not a very sexy topic a lot of the time and it’s a question of how we get that message right.”

Andrew Burton and Julian HeathcoteHobbins both highlighted the challenges of protecting IP from threats from overseas.

But Esther Kirwan provided a positive example of affordable small business IP in action on a global scale: “We have a client who’s exporting fabric to China that we gave some basic IP protection to for about £200. The first exhibition they went to in China, there were already counterfeited goods there with their brand on. We wrote very basic letters to the infringers and pushed the point home, and at the next exhibition nobody was using their trademark. Even though we didn’t go to court we got the message out to China that our client is not to be messed with and would enforce its rights if required. It really gave them the protection they needed and that was only a few hundred pounds worth of protection and enforcement across a whole textiles industry in China. So it’s about going in hard and getting the message out.”

Alex Hilton: “There is an inherent fear among small businesses that legal equals expensive and customers can feel intimidated by lawyers. Some of it is down to the language. It’s important to break down those barriers. At FAST we’re working with lawyers that don’t just speak Latin and are actually able to have a human conversation with you and it will cost

a reasonable amount of money.”

Ajaz Ahmed: “We’ve banned legal jargon at my law firm on the website because people are only interested in what we can do for them.

I don’t let lawyers near the website because they want to talk in a different language. We’re opening law retail stores on the High Street and it will be fixed price law. It’s going to take time but as retail law firms like me come into the profession they will change the industry.”

Alastair MacColl agreed that a simplified legal service aimed at time-starved entrepreneurs could play a significant role in making SMEs more aware of the need to protect their IP. As well as misconceptions about upfront legal costs related to IP, concerns over the cost of defending IP are also a barrier to SMEs, said Martin Brassell. “An excuse I hear is ‘there’s no point in protecting this stuff because I can’t afford to defend it’. I perfectly accept that if you make a stonking success out of something and you haven’t protected your position properly you will attract unfavourable attention. But with a trademark you at least create a bargaining chip. Would you rather have that bargaining chip or not? Businesses do think patent protection is very expensive but if you’re making millions from selling these products then it’s

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DEBATE

money well spent in defending them.”

He added: “What concerns me is when people go running down the patenting route with something that clearly has no particular commercial value. That’s just a horrible waste of money and you end up with a patent that’s never going to work and is just going to fall over the first time someone challenges it.”

Andrew Burton: “And they’ve probably gone to a patent agent whose charged them £3,000 for drawing up a patent application when you can do it for free, if you know the language.

You don’t need to spend that on day one, you could do it in month 11. I think it’s about good advice at the right time. If a company is being infringed from somewhere like China, if you write a letter from your company to another company, they will dismiss it. If they get a letter from a law firm, they will think differently. If a large company looks to shut down a smaller one because of some potential infringement, but the small company’s in the right, the best thing they can do is splash out on a big law firm to get a letter back within 24 hours threatening to sue the big company because they’ll back off.

I have a company we invested in which had been threatened with action by a massive plc. We took it on, it took us nine months >>

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and we won. They’ve now signed a license agreement and given us a contract worth £1m. It took a lot of balls to do it and about £100,000.”

Jane Slimming: “But that’s still £100,000 which is a lot for a small business.”

Andrew Burton: “It was 5% of the net asset value of the company, so it’s all relative.”

Esther Kirwan: “And it needn’t cost tens of thousands. A high percentage of threatening letters are try ons or someone putting the best case forward knowing they’ve got weaknesses.

If you fire back a well crafted letter shouting down their arguments, it’s incredible how many times that’s the end of the matter. Also, everyone has said how expensive patents are, but a recent client of ours used registered design rights as an alternative to patents across the EU and it cost about 350 euros. So don’t always assume IP protection is too expensive to attain because, in an innovative, way there are different ways to attain it within your budget.”

Julian Heathcote-Hobbins: “Access to justice at low cost is very important. It’s really important for the small designer or inventor at whatever stage they’re at to know there’s somewhere they can go. The IP Office recently set up a fast access court called the IP Enterprise Court [IPEC] for small IP disputes.”

Stef Stephenson: “There’s also a mediation service at the IP Office which is a cheap way of doing things.”

Esther Kirwan: “Also, with the IPEC there’s now a limit on the costs you would have to pay to the other party if you lost, unlike previously.”

Martin Brassell: “What’s more important is that any business can now make a credible threat to sue, which wasn’t the case before.”

While warning off infringers with force is advised between companies, Julian Heathcote-Hobbins explained why the customer-facing software industry, has to tread more carefully. “We would only push it with users who clearly don’t care and have had to be warned a number of times. Software takes a cautious approach as they could be dealing with potential customers at the end of the day.”

Andrew Burton agreed: “If you’ve got a lot of users, and particularly the well informed users who are very web savvy, if you start taking action against a party anywhere in the world, it could go viral and then you face a damage

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limitation exercise.” Andrew also suggested that more awareness around IP is needed at the start-up phase. He added: “IP has its own niche but I don’t think it’s seen as that important because you don’t cash in on your own IP every week.” Several delegates felt negative campaigning about the dangers of ignoring IP issues might be the best course of action in raising awareness.

Jane Slimming: “If someone told me I could lose everything unless I did something, I would definitely do it.”

Kyran Parker: “IP is not part of the checklist with things like business planning, marketing, finances, and resources. We need to build up the idea that if you don’t have this, this could be the consequence.”

Martin Brassell: “The challenge is to make this stuff look normal and part of the everyday discourse. It is the plumbing of the knowledge economy; you can’t have a knowledge economy without IP. It’s about getting that message out.”

Katy Hamilton: “It’s about relevance. ‘Why is it relevant to my business, why bother?’ We have to demystify it in relevance to that business.”

Andrew Burton: “If you undertake a small amount of research at the beginning you can protect what value you do have in the future.”

Stef Stephenson: “Just be aware of what you can protect. I hope organisations like ours can demystify it and talk in language people understand.”

Esther Kirwan advised small businesses to “make sure you’re very careful in what you want to protect in terms of goods and services.

Don’t narrow it too much as you won’t get the protection you need. But don’t do it too broadly as you’ll be asking for problems from other trademarks that might be out there already.”

Andrew Burton: “You can narrow down a huge amount by spending a few hours on the internet and when it comes to the crunch you then go to a lawyer and pay for an hour or so.”

He added: “The problem with IP is that it [goes against] what young people have grown up with in terms of what you take out of the internet you put back in. It looks almost selfish and a bit corporate but for all the reasons we’ve said tonight, it’s the price of going into business.”

Summarising, Alex Hilton said: “IP is relevant and something businesses should be thinking of, although there maybe some question over whether IP is the right term. We need to break it down, with signposting and awareness. It’s important we get the language right.” n

Federation Against Software Theft FAST has been operating for 30 years this year representing our members across the business software community. As a not-for-profit industry body, we have developed a wealth of knowledge and experience to assist our members across the spectrum of the global software community from the largest to some of the smallest UK software developers.

Deterring software and copyright theft via legal enforcement of our members’ rights is still an important part of what FAST does. But today we increasingly focus on helping technology users, authors, designers and influential policy makers be clear about the importance of valuing and protecting Intellectual Property (IP).

In March 2014 FAST hosted a well-received IP awareness event in London at the House of Commons.

Supported by Lord Younger, the Government’s IP Minister, the event launched FAST’s IP awareness agenda. The Government is committed to developing and supporting the UK information economy, so it is also vital that we protect and value the IP that underpins this creativity. An appreciation and understanding of IP is fundamental to being able to monetise its value and support our entrepreneurs and economy. The more recent event in Leeds is the first step of taking the importance of IP message to key commercial regions across the UK. 81% of the UK workforce is now employed in the service industry. Intellectual Property is at the very heart of this. Businesses must consider how they develop, protect and value their IP, this may vary from brand protection through to enforcing their copyright in the event of it being infringed. FAST will support software businesses through this process.

Alex Hilton, chief executive, FAST

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COMPANY PROFILE

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Cromar: building a sustainable business Managing director Mike Marshall knows that good things come to those that wait, and tells us how taking things slowly has created strong and sustainable growth for Cromar Building Products Yorkshire based Cromar Building Products has smashed its targets, turning over £13.5 million during the last twelve months, up from £10.8 million in the previous year.

The business, founded in 1997, has been carefully built on strong foundations and has ambitions to continue growing, increasing its profitability and developing new products to take to market.

Managing director Mike Marshall said “realistically we expect to achieve turnover of £15 million next year as we continue with our plan of controlled growth. Over the last two years we have added a number of strings to our bow, and we intend to keep going.”

Cromar has been the only start-to-finish UK manufacturer of breathable roof underlays since 2009 and has owned the formula for a fast selling acrylic roof coating since 2002. In 2012 Cromar launched a glass fibre roofing system for flat roofs which they have so much confidence in, it comes with a 25 year guarantee. Mike Marshall tell us the secrets to Cromar’s success.

LEARN FROM YOUR MISTAKES “The first three years were difficult, but they taught me a lot. This has enabled me to build a stronger business than I may have been able to without them.”

USE GOOD ADVISORS “Good advisors are essential, and I really value the advice I get from BHP’s Mike Jackson, who I have worked with since we started out. If I want an opinion, I’ll always ring Mike. As Cromar is a family

Mike Marshall and Mike Jackson

business it can be difficult to see things objectively when discussing the future of the business. Mike has an outside perspective of our company and always offers a realistic point of view, which has aided my decision making no end.”

Don’t grow too fast. If you do, you will leave yourself open to problems. I believe in growing slowly to ensure that you can satisfy demand, keep your staff happy, and take periods of respite to ensure you stay on the right path to success

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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GROW AT A SPEED THAT WILL MAKE YOUR BUSINESS SUSTAINABLE “Don’t grow too fast. If you do, you will leave yourself open to problems. I believe in growing slowly to ensure that you can satisfy demand, keep your staff happy, and take periods of respite to ensure you stay on the right path to success.

“I firmly believe that it is this approach which allowed us to remain strong throughout the recession. When times are tough, people are more likely to refurbish, and through taking our time we were able to focus on products used in both refurbishments and new builds.”

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COMPANY PROFILE

L-R, Mike Jackson, Cheryl Marshall, Mike Marshall and Daniel Marshall

We are able to run the business with low levels of stock, which really helps with cash flow. We have to know our business inside out to be so successful at this and have an excellent team who are tuned in to demand, enabling us to prepare for change and react quickly as necessary PEOPLE ARE YOUR MOST IMPORTANT ASSET “A lot of our products are produced manually, so recruitment is essential as we grow. We always listen to the needs of our staff and work hard to show them that they are appreciated.

For example, we are currently working towards changing shift patterns to be more convenient for the team. I always make an effort to thank our people when they have a done a good job. I think that is very important, as the success of the business is not just a credit to me, but a credit to everyone who works here.”

QUALITY IS ESSENTIAL “Every business person knows that getting the product right is key to a good business. All of our products are covered by the ISO 9001 quality system, so you know you can trust them. I think

delivering high quality products will help to make you a market leader, and I think the fact that one in three roofs in the UK currently uses a Cromar product, is testament to the excellence of the goods we manufacture.”

or worse still, not keeping up with the times. All of our successes to date have been built on the back of innovating and taking measured risks. I will continue to adopt this approach, and we look forward to bringing new products to market in the near future.”

KNOW YOUR BUSINESS “Mike Jackson always tells me that we are exceptional at stock turnover. This is because we are able to run the business with low levels of stock, which really helps with cash flow.

We have to know our business inside out to be so successful at this and have an excellent team who are tuned in to demand, enabling us to prepare for change and react quickly as necessary.”

KEEP AN EYE ON THE FUTURE “If you stand still, you risk missing opportunities,

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Start the conversation today. Call Mike Jackson on 0333 123 7171 or visit www.bhp.co.uk for more information on how BHP can help you.

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BUSINESS LUNCH

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BUSINESS LUNCH

race cars and revelations From car maker and software developer, to catalyst for banking reform, Lawrence Tomlinson is a true renaissance man among Yorkshire’s entrepreneurs. Over lunch with Andrew Mernin he reflects on his landmark bank sector report, his growing empire and life at the wheel of his own race car business Seven months after Lawrence Tomlinson’s damning banking sector report was published, its fallout rumbles on.

But the all-action entrepreneur, just back from motor racing in Marseille when he meets BQ over a pie and pint, has much else to fill his mind besides his banking revelations.

There’s the acceleration of his own race car badge Ginetta, which he races, designs, sells and, as he explains, “breaks so that I can spot things before the customers do”.

Then there are his 2,000 foot soldiers who can each contact him at any time. Every employee has a complimentary iPhone with a ‘contact Lawrence’ app.

While enabling the sharing of good news, it gives Lawrence eyes on the ground in any area of the business. And these could be in care homes, on airport runways or construction sites or under the bonnet of a championship winning machine.

“If there’s some shit going down I want to know so I can fix it,” he says. “I don’t need to insulate myself with layers and layers of management and all that rubbish.”

The formula seems to work. Tomlinson’s LNT Group – N standing for Neil – has a combined annual turnover of about £100m while his reported £500m+ fortune has him hovering around the 150 mark in the Times Rich List.

But he’s perhaps become better known in national newsprint over the past seven months for the Tomlinson Report, which made waves when it was published last November.

“At the time, I said to my family, if I publish this report there’s going to be all sorts of crap written about me, I’ll be crucified in the press and people will find all sorts of horrible stories, so what should I do? My eldest daughter said, ‘just crack on’ and that was that.”

Crack on he did and the result is the independent review currently being led by the Financial Conduct Authority into RBS’s

I said ‘if I publish this report, I’ll be crucified in the press. What should I do?’ My eldest daughter said ‘just crack on’ treatment of business customers.

The report, written while Tomlinson served as adviser to business secretary Vince Cable, claimed RBS pushed businesses into default after moving them into its Global Restructuring Group (GRG). It also alleged that the 81% government-owned bank profited from their struggles as, by moving them into GRG, it could seemingly create more revenue through higher fees and margins.

As a result, the bank’s property division West

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Register could purchase their devalued assets.

Tomlinson says: “I just stumbled upon it. If I hadn’t been there it would still be going on now. I had no intention of what came out of it, the general story was, ‘not only can I not get access to finance but I’m having my existing loan pulled and I’ve been put in this horrendous part of the bank and they’ve done this, this and this to me’. That then snowballed into finding hundreds of businesses that had been through a similar pattern – so much so that it concerned me and I did my report. It suggested there was a system behind it.”

While the FCA’s findings won’t emerge until autumn at the earliest, the law firm Clifford Chance (CC) was enlisted by RBS to conduct its own investigation. It reported in April that it found “no evidence that RBS systematically set out to defraud its business customers”.

Tomlinson reacted by saying it was “unsurprising” CC did not find any clear evidence of fraud, something which he had never accused the bank of. “It’s important to note that Clifford Chance did not investigate or reach conclusions on areas such as the validity of valuations and treatment of businesses,” he said at the time.

The true impact of the report be seen when the FCA concludes its findings – but it may have already contributed to some actions being take which Tomlinson sees as positive.

He points to the sale of West Register, ending the alleged conflict of interest created by the bank’s property division. He adds: “What I >>

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BUSINESS LUNCH am also proud of is that when people go into GRG now they aren’t getting charged penal interest. I’m absolutely certain that would not have happened without me focusing on it. I’m sure it’s helped thousands of UK businesses.

“I think [RBS CEO] Ross McEwan should be really happy that I’ve highlighted this to him and the bank has been able to take action. If someone said to one of my businesses ‘you’re treating your customers abhorrently’, even if it wasn’t true but that was the perception, I would still thank them and say, ‘my God I really need to look at that and find out why.”

Looking forward, Tomlinson would like to see major reformation of RBS. “Will RBS be around in 10 years? I hope not in the way it is now. I’d like to see it as three separate banks and the investment bank sold off.” he says.

Tomlinson’s report came during his year-long sojourn into government as entrepreneur in residence, which he was chosen for from over 100 other candidates. An eye-opener for him at the time was the amount of lobbying that takes place at Whitehall.

“These people who are very bright in the Treasury and in BIS get lobbied every day.

There’s too much lobbying of government departments and ministers by people who have a vested interest in lobbying because they get paid to do it on behalf of their members.”

Particularly worrying, he says, was something of a disparity between the level of lobbying in support of banks and that with the best interests of SMEs in mind.

Generally, though, Tomlinson found his year at Westminster to be “hugely enjoyable”, as he sought to help ease access to finance for his fellow business leaders.

“In BIS and in government you haven’t got many businessmen or women. You’ve got quite a lot of career politicians that tend to become ministers and inside the civil service you have a whole mixture of people from various backgrounds. But generally there aren’t a lot of business men and women. So I spent a lot of time in the Treasury trying to help them understand how hard it is to get access to finance and what the reality is.”

Although his one year tenure in government ended in April, he continues to advise politicians today. But, given the sheer diversity

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of his business empire and his hands-on role within it, Cable and Co. no doubt face a real challenge in pinning him down for any length of time.

The sexy side of his enterprise is Ginetta, which makes up to 300 road and race cars a year in Leeds. It also runs racing championships and provides an affordable route into motorsport for drivers as young as 14.

But drivers of any age – including thrill-seeking business people – are joining the company’s racing driver’s club in increasing number.

“We sell them a car they can race on the road and then have a professional driver take them through our test to get a racing license. Take up’s been great so far, in the first year we’ve had about 15 or 16 join, with more expected.

“It costs £30,000 and you get to keep the car.

Most people in the City would pay £30,000 for a watch and we always get asked what happens with the car. That’s the difference – people up north are saying ‘bloody hell that’s expensive’ and people in the City are thinking ‘that’s cheap, what’s the catch?’”

It’s almost 10 years since Tomlinson bought what was then a faded relic of a glorious racing past. Highlights in that time include “taking a cottage industry employing two people back to where it was in the 60s and

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70s, employing lots of people creating world class products.”

Tomlinson’s victory in the GT2 class at Le Mans 2006 is another standout moment, as are the subsequent multiple British GT championship wins. Tomlinson says: “The original founders of the company were engineers and they wanted to build a car that was affordable, fun to drive and they did it by using fairly standard engines and making the cars very light. We do exactly the same thing, except we added another element to it. So in the the 50s and 60s it was fairly acceptable that people would go to a race track and see multiple deaths. That’s completely unacceptable today obviously, so we go for lightweight, standard engines which are modified, so you have great fun, but we won’t compromise safety.

“When I bought Ginetta in 2005 it was always about a 10-year plan. To take a car company and develop a product for a world market is a seven to 10 year plan. You can’t go into this with short term ideas and hope you’re going to attract funding for it. You need a long term funding plan. No-one’s interested in funding a car development business that’s for sure, which is why it’s funded by myself.” Being a racing driver, a mechanical engineer and the owner of the car company gives Tomlinson and his firm a

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great advantage over its rivals, he says.

“At the minute I’m going back into the racing to do a lot of development work on cars.

Sometimes you struggle to get feedback from drivers to engineers so we can shortcut this process, since I’m an engineer, a driver and the company owner who makes the decisions.”

While Ginetta’s Garforth factory employs around 40 people, the rest of Tomlinson’s 2,000+ workforce is spread across four additional divisions.

Three subsidiaries cover elderly care – operating, building and providing software for care homes. Alongside iPhones, employees also receive shares in the business after six months of service. “We try and run as a family business even though it has 2,000 employees and it’s growing all the time. People like to feel like they’re working for a person rather than a company. For example, you don’t work for Virgin you work for Richard Branson,” he says, before quickly pointing out: “I’m not a Branson wannabe in any way, by the way.

“But that feeling you give to staff of working for someone rather than an organisation is so powerful and to try and keep that alive we have contact with our staff all the time.”

LNT runs 36 care homes across the UK and plans to build an additional six to eight per year. Tomlinson’s involvement in the sector goes back to his teens when he wrote software to help run his parents’ care home company – a business he bought from them in 1988.

Perhaps the biggest change to the industry since then is the impact of technology. LNT’s subsidiary Ideal Care Homes has WiFi in every home, uses tablets to help residents reminisce and has virtual notice-boards which share information like daily menus and staff rotas.The company stops short of CCTV, however.

“I don’t agree with CCTV in homes.

“We want to make it homely, so it’s not just a facility with care, it’s someone’s home. Would you really have CCTV in your own home? We only use technology which will enhance our residents’ lives.”

In terms of staffing, Tomlinson is happy to admit he has a small number of zero hours workers on his books. “Vince [Cable] has

BUSINESS LUNCH

asked me about zero hours contracts. In the retail industry you’ve got loads of people on them and quite clearly that’s wrong. People need to know how much they’re working each week. But if you just want to work the odd Saturday then zero hours contracts are not the worst in world. Sometimes it suits someone to be able to work only when they want to.

Politicians talking about getting rid of zero hours have to be careful not to throw the baby out with the bath water.”

As if a three-pronged care home business,

racing cars and government advising wasn’t enough to keep Tomlinson busy, he also oversees a chemicals business.

Among its successes is a product which has effectively brought an end to the problem of leaves on railway lines and a runway de-icer which, unlike previous products, is kinder to airplane carbon disk brakes.

There’s barely time to talk detail, though, with the gleaming Ginetta parked up outside The Fleece pub in Otley luring Tomlinson on to his next appointment. n

A feast fit for a whippet So slight is Lawrence Tomlinson that the Guardian once described him as whippet thin. It’s perhaps surprising, then, that the wiry entrepreneur immediately points to the meat pie option when our orders are taken. Surely a crisp salad plus a dose of protein is what fuels the driving elite these days?

Then again, racing in the South of France – as Tomlinson was doing a mere 24 hours before our lunch meeting – must be hungry work.

We’re in The Fleece pub, a lamb’s fling from the centre of Otley and, to the delight of its owners, on the route of the Grand Départ.

Lawrence tucks into his impressively portioned beef pie – served with garden peas and fries – with relish. Its towering crust casts a shadow over my entirely healthier smoked trout salad and plate envy ensues.

But my choice doesn’t disappoint, with jersey royals bolstering the attack and lemon dressing providing a zesty antidote to the gloomy skies outside.

We both agree that the food, service and setting are excellent and, with ample parking and its position on Otley’s main strip, The Fleece makes an ideal spot for a business lunch.

The recently refurbished pub affords pretty views across the river Wharfe from inside or in its expansive beer garden. It is also well served for real ales from Wharfe Bank Brewery and the menu is entirely seasonal and filled with locally sourced quality produce. www.fleece-otley.co.uk 01943 465 034 info@fleece-otley.co.uk

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

PAGE ON WINE

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a page that is red all over

Allison Page, a senior Partner at DLA Piper, a Non-Executive Director Leeds NHS Trust and Chairman of the Yorkshire 2% Club steps out of her comfort zone for a tasting After a hectic Monday in the office, it was very nice to unwind in the luxurious surroundings of Oulton Hall, a beautiful 18th century former family mansion. The Champagne Bar located within the Grade II listed building was the setting for the photograph and after holding various different poses with a glass of wine I didn’t drink, it was off home to sample the two wines that had arrived in my office earlier that day. A wine connoisseur is not something I can claim to be but I do enjoy a glass or two of wine after a busy week. My preference is heavy, oaked old world reds; I don’t drink white wine or champagne at

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all. When I informed my husband that I was reviewing wines for BQ Magazine and that not only was one of them white but the other a fruity Australian red, he assumed that I would be delegating responsibility for the entire taste to him. The first wine we sampled was a St Felix, Sauvignon-Vermentino, a very easy drinking white from the Languedoc-Roussillon region in the south of France. A large and diverse wine region, covering an area that stretches from Nimes and Montpellier

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in the east, around the Gulf of Lyon to the Spanish border. The world’s biggest wine region was the first French region to be introduced to vine-growing and wine-making by the Romans. The bottle we sampled was one of a range of wines from the Dardé brothers at Domaine les Yeuses, which are reputed to be exceptionally good wines. The wine was fresh and light with delicate fruit and a bright finish.

Whilst I don’t often drink white wine; the only wine tasting tour I have ever been on happened to be during a visit to Carcassonne, a French town in the region of LanguedocRoussillon. The vineyards within the region are often called ‘Patchwork’ because so many different grape varieties grow together. Most producers, like St Felix, Sauvignon-Vermentino, make blends instead of single varietal wines.

The wine was very nice on its own, which is how we enjoyed it but I imagine it would also work well with salads and fish.

The red wine, we drank over dinner. The Inigo Barbera 2010 is from the Sevenhill vineyard, which was established in 1851 and is the first winery in South Australia’s Clare Valley.

The wine was unusual but pleasant, notes of sage, cinnamon and violets on the nose.

Medium bodied on the palate with a fruit sweetness of blackberries and red berries.

This red was a great accompaniment to the pasta we happened to be eating that evening. Both wines were really drinkable and it was good to step out of my comfort zone and try something new. n

The wines provided were St Felix, Sauvignon Vermentino, priced at £8.80 a bottle and Inigo Barbera 2010, priced at £14 a bottle. Both available at Ake & Humphris, Harrogate, 01423 566 009 www.akeand humphris.co.uk

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BEST OF YORKSHIRE in association with

keeping it local Chef John Topham, from The General Tarleton in Ferrensby has taken on the quest of providing Bowcliffe Hall with his culinary experience and talents for their pending launch. Bowcliffe Hall will be an exclusive private venue offering high end entertainment and events as well as a members only bar and restaurant. John is an avid supporter of sourcing local produce. And at the new £6.5m venture at Bowcliffe Hall (headed up

by Jonathan Turner) 80% of products are local. Here, chef John shares some of the best of Yorkshire’s produce and suppliers in his own recipe showcasing the best of what is in season right now.

Yorkshire Lambs John and his team of chefs take whole lambs still on the bone and carry out the full preparation in-house. R&J source all their lamb for the Signature Range from local farmers, purchased by managing director Robert as live lambs through livestock auctions. This enables him to grade and judge every lamb on its quality and confirmation to ensure he supplies the finest quality and consistency in the end product. R&J only supply Texcel and Beltex lambs which are renowned for the succulent meat and excellent muscle to bone ratio. All their lambs are hung as full carcasses for a finely tuned length of time to ensure tenderness and flavour in the eating.

R&J Butchers in Ripon. 01765 658 611 www.randjyorkshirefinest.co.uk

according to preliminary research, may help slow the aging process.

Spilman Farming in Helperby 01423 360 210. www.spilmanfarming.co.uk

Yorkshire Asparagus Spilman farm grow their asparagus on Lodge Farm in Helperby, York, using three acres for three different varieties of asparagus.

Everything is done by hand; planting the crowns, harvesting the spears and then grading and packing them. Asparagus responds dramatically to higher temperatures – on a hot day you can almost see it growing as you walk down the rows. On a cold day it doesn’t seem to move. Water makes up 93% of asparagus’s composition.

Asparagus is low in calories and is very low in sodium. It is a good source of vitamin B6, calcium, magnesium and zinc. Asparagus is packed with antioxidants, ranking among the top fruits and vegetables for its ability to neutralize cell-damaging free radicals. This,

Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil The Kilby family are third generation farmers who have been in Collingham since the 1960s, adding Oil Seed Rape to the traditional crop rotation in the early 1980s. At Wharfe Valley Farms, the local free draining fertile limestone soil produces a prolific rape crop, from which they make Yorkshire Rapeseed Oil – Extra Virgin because they only press once and do not use heat or chemicals.

Neither do they use chemicals in their harvesting methods, thus taking great care to preserve all the natural, nutritional values of this product.

The plant can grow up to 6ins and when harvested in July yields tiny, jet black seeds.

Wharfe Valley swath their crop, a traditional method, rather than dessicate so as not to use chemicals so close to harvest.

They store the seeds directly behind the press house, from where they are fed straight into the hoppers and very slowly cold pressed to produce oil. This is then filtered and allowed to stand before they bottle it by hand on the premises.

Wharfe Valley Farms 01937 572 084. www.wharfevalleyfarms.co.uk www.bowcliffehall.co.uk

Seasonal summer produce (June – August) Lamb Pork Grouse (August onwards) Crab Halibut Mackerel

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

Salmon Tuna Apple Basil Beans (runner and French) Beetroot Broccoli

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Carrot Cauliflower Celery Courgette Cucumber Fennel Lettuce Onion

Potato Radish Raspberry Red onion Rocket Rhubarb Strawberry

BEST OF YORKSHIRE >> Yorkshire Dales Spring Lamb (serves 4) INgREDIENTS: 1 boneless shoulder of lamb (reserve bones) 1 rack of lamb, French trimmed (reserve bones) 1 litre of duck/goose fat 100g sea salt 2 tbsp finely chopped thyme, rosemary and parsley ½ bulb garlic, finely chopped 500 ml fresh dark chicken stock 1 tbsp rapeseed oil 1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped 2 carrots, roughly chopped 2 sticks celery, roughly chopped 30g diced, chilled unsalted butter 1 bunch asparagus, blanched (cooked in boiling salted water until just tender and chilled in iced water) 1 bunch baby carrots, peeled and blanched 1 bunch baby leeks, trimmed and blanched Grass: 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley 1 tbsp finely chopped thyme 1 tbsp finely chopped mint 100g breadcrumbs Salt and pepper Soil: 100g breadcrumbs 1 tbsp truffle oil

METHoD: To make the grass - add all the ingredients to a food blender, blend until a light green colour and keep in a sealed container until required. To make the soil – in a dry frying pan, toast the breadcrumbs until brown, add the truffle oil, season with salt and pepper. Spread onto a large baking sheet and leave to dry in a warm place.

Shoulder: Mix the sea salt, rosemary, parsley, thyme and garlic together and rub all over the boned shoulder of lamb. Place in a container, cover with cling film and refrigerate for 1012 hours. Wash the cure off the lamb and dry with kitchen paper. Place in a deep sided roasting pan, cover with the goose or duck fat, seal the tin with tin foil and cook at 120˚C for 6-8 hours until very tender. Leave to cool and carefully lift the lamb out of the fat and drain over a wire rack, leave to stand for 10 minutes. Spread layered cling film on a work surface, add the lamb and roll tightly then tie the ends to make a large, even cylinder shape.

Place in the fridge for at least a day before using (will keep up to a week).

Lamb stock: Roast the lamb bones in the oven at 185˚C for 40 minutes. In the meantime in a large pan, cook the chopped onions, carrot

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and celery and a tablespoon of rapeseed oil until golden. Add the roasted bones, cover with the chicken stock and extra water, bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer and cook for 2 hours. Using a ladle, remove any excess fat or sediment as it cooks. Strain through a fine sieve into a clean pan, place over a high heat and reduce to a syrup like consistency. Keep to one side.

Season the rack of lamb with salt and pepper, seal in a hot frying pan, place in a roasting tray and roast for 20 minutes at 180˚C, remove from the oven and keep in a warm place.

Meanwhile, slice 4 x 3cm thick disks from the lamb shoulder, reserving the remaining shoulder for use on another occasion. In a hot frying pan, add the shoulder disks and cook for 5 minutes, turn onto a baking sheet, crisp in the oven for 10-12 minutes to coincide with the cooking of the roast rack. In a pan of boiling water, re-heat the baby vegetables.

On warm plates, arrange the shoulder, carved rack, sprinkle the soil and grass crumbs and arrange with baby vegetables. Re-heat the stock, whisk in knobs of cold butter and serve with a potato of your choice if desired.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

MOTORING

SUMMER 14

Six of the best– and their cars

Take a gang of the biggest car nuts in entrepreneurial Yorkshire. Add a few tonnes of the meanest cuts of metal.

Then throw in a vague excuse for a Monday jaunt into the countryside. The result: A Grand Départ with a BQ twist…

To celebrate the arrival of Yorkshire’s biggest ever sporting event, this quarter we bring you a motors review with a difference. While the idea of wrapping a team of executives in Lycra and sending them hurtling through Brontë country on two wheels was mooted, we ultimately plumbed for piston, not pedal power. We did follow some of the principles of the yellow jerseyed jamboree however, sticking to the route of the Grand Départ and maintaining a sporting theme (ok sports cars rather than sweaty endeavour). Six drivers were plucked from Yorkshire’s business circle and summoned to a high noon appointment at The Fleece

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

pub in Otley. With them they were urged to bring the sportiest vehicles in their collections – or whatever they could get their hands on through favours or otherwise.

Given that our drivers are some of the fiercest petrol heads in all of Yorkshire, the result was possibly the most expensively filled pub car park on record.

After putting the vehicles through their paces along the Leeds to Harrogate leg of Le Tour, they delivered their critiques...

Charles Fawcett Role: Managing director of Thirsk-based

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Twisted Automotive which modifies vehicles including Land Rovers to transform their performance and appearance Car: Twisted Defender 110 The vehicle was built last year to take part in Gumball 3000 and we fitted the LS 520hp V8 – an unknown quantity as the engine had never been used commercially in a Land Rover Defender, with 400hp more than the standard production vehicle. It’s a 6 seat 110 Defender that will cruise at 120 mph, accelerate to 60 in six seconds and romp on to over 130mph.

Having driven it for 14,000 miles in the last year, it just keeps getting better. It has the

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Lawrence Tomlinson Role: Founding chairman of Leeds-based LNT Group, which covers care homes, construction, chemicals, software and Ginetta racing cars.

Car: Ginetta G50. I drive the Ginettas as often as I can. The G60 is my personal car and I love to drive in Yorkshire. Built by the same team which builds our race cars, the model shares the same engine as the Team LNT G55 GT, which I race personally at many European race tracks. This car, however, has been designed with a boot capable of housing two sets of golf clubs.

Under the skin, the carbon fibre shell is bonded to a steel chassis accommodating the

MOTORING

the Leeds headquartered executive search company.

Car: Aston Martin DB9 V12. You’d be hard pushed to find a better GT car. It’s impossible to stop the involuntarily mental images of James Bond and classic GT racing of old when you drive her. I love the Aston brand and the classic lines of the car. It’s blended the best of innovative automotive design with the subtle touches that are an ode to the past and is a combination that just works in an effortless way. The car is at its best on the open countryside, and no better a road could you find than the Pickering to Whitby road A169 and the White Way Heads section past

Racing certainties: clockwise, from top left, Lawrence Tomlinson, Guy Redwood, Adrian Barwick, Charles Fawcett, Kenton Robbins and Ben Riley look, style and status of any other Defender; iconic and timeless. Then you hear it and the sound and look just don’t quite fit together, which is why it works so well. The interior is finished in expresso and parchment soft nappa leather with alcantara roof lining, Italian audio components, tons of sound proofing and buckets full of attitude. It’s just my favourite place to be, whether I am heading up into Wensleydale or across Europe.

On the tour dates, I’ll be up in Hawes, cheering on the riders, probably sat on the roof of the Defender, in a field thinking, ‘couldn’t do this in a Lambo’.

Ginetta engine, and six-speed manual gearbox with limited slip differential. In the tradition of British automotive engineers, we’ve added ‘lightness’ – the only way to get the true feeling of the road beneath you. Production cars have become far too fluffy, and the handling, acceleration, and stopping is compromised. Our Ginetta cars weigh 500kg (or six adults) less than many so called GT cars.

Our engineering has perfected the performance and handling, resulting in a beautiful and addictive sports car.

Kenton Robbins Role: Managing director of Rilwood Associates,

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Fylingdales. The sweeping section of road hugs the contours of the landscape, with elevated sections offering beautiful vistas and tight turns that test the ceramic brakes. At the end of the drive, fish & chips from the Quayside are the winner’s spoils. It’s a shame the Grand Depart couldn’t extend into these awesome roads!

Ben Riley Role: Joint chairman, Combined Selection Group, which covers a group of recruitment businesses. Ben’s other interests include the Wharfe Bank Brewery, which stands on the route of the Grand Depart.

Car: Lamborghini Aventador LP700-4 V12. >>

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MOTORING

SUMMER 14

I’ve owned the Aventador for about 18 months and being a passionate car lover and Lamborghini aficionado it’s the latest in my garage. The Aventador is, in Lamborghini’s eyes, the pinnacle of supercars combining the excitement and fury of the traditional Lamborghini V12 configured engine, with

cutting edge design and comfort that stirs the soul. Although its speed and voracious appetite for acceleration should make it a handful on the county’s roads, it’s so well built it takes the challenge in its stride. The Grassington road stands out as one to enjoy as it encourages you to carve the Dales and head off into the heart

of God’s county. I’ll probably leave the car at home though, when I head to another passion of mine, my pub The Fleece in Otley, to watch the grandest of departs roll by. aDrian BarwiCk Role: Associate partner, Rilwood Associates.

Car: Porsche 911 Carrera 2s. This incarnation of what is undoubtedly the most useable super car of them all, the 911 is a balanced, poised and capable everyday car blended with a wickedly quick point to point weapon! I’ve owned a number of Porsches and I’m currently waiting for the delivery of another new one – a 911 GT3. As a race driver at heart it’s easy to align yourself with a Porsche. The Carrera pulls back from the stance of the hardcore GT3 but still takes its DNA from a thoroughbred and

A grand excuse for a no show Welcome to Yorkshire’s Gary Verity was a notable absentee from BQ’s sports car special – his hectic pre-tour schedule causing his late withdrawal. With the logistics of the most famous cycling event on the planet no doubt spinning through his mind, he did have a decent excuse however. And the man credited with bringing the Grand Départ to these parts, still found time for a quick chat.

When can you relax and start sleeping again? I finish when the race finishes in France on 27 July. Our responsibility as contract holder to the tour is to deliver the riders safely back to France.

Then I present the Grand Départ trophy to the mayor of Uttrecht, which hosts the event in 2015.

Have you been surprised with the level of excitement among businesses and the general public? There’s been this level of positivity for several months now across all sectors and across all the populous of Yorkshire. It’s unbelievable. You only need to drive round and see how communities, villages and towns have turned yellow or French and have fallen in love again with cycling. The momentum has been carried on by them and we just keep stoking the fire.

Are you braced for something to go wrong? No. All the local authorities have been really fired up by this and have got great people working on it. They will do the logistics on the ground but the organisers of the race are ASO – the people who the started race in 1903 – and are the best organisers of cycling races in the world bar none.

What happens in Yorkshire after the event? We’re talking to the cycling authorities for a new race in May. Every year there will be a men and women’s race and it will be a very high profile, international event. The bike banks, which we’ve been talking about introducing, have already started and there’s the cycle loan scheme for underprivileged children. We’ve stated we want to be the first place in the world where every child has access to a bicycle no matter their social background. We want more people cycling more often. You can also see how the leagues of new cycle lanes are now going in all round the county.

What about the tourism legacy? We’ll have 190 countries around the world seeing a 10 hour TV ad for Yorkshire. Many people won’t know much about Yorkshire or will have a preconception in their mind which might not be hugely positive. This will change people’s minds like nothing else can. With TV viewing audience of 150 million per day I’m sure you will see a huge increase in tourism over the next few years.

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this shows when you’re pushing it hard on a country lane. With a car like the Carrera 2 it’s hard to pick a favourite road in these parts, as it dominates all of them with ease, but it’s most at home on tight twisting lanes where its agility and low down torque are assets to be explored. With the Dales on my door step I live in an automotive heaven and as the Tour arrives I’ll find myself up early in my weapon of choice 911, exploring the Dales and finding a pub to stop, have a pint and toast the peloton. gUy rEDwooD Role: Founder, SimpleUsability, a behavioural research consultancy based in Leeds – and driver in the Ginetta Racing Drivers’ Club Car: Ginetta G40R, GRDC edition. I wanted something quicker than my current German load luger – and this got my pulse racing – a fast car, built for abuse on the track that you can drive home afterwards. The car is raw. It’s a lightweight race car that’s been modified for the road. The big brakes have absolutely

SUMMER 14

MOTORING

no assistance, no servos, no ABS, nothing. No power steering, no radio. It rides low to the ground with firm suspension and firm racing seats. I did pick most of the few optional extras available – air conditioning and carpets. The engine likes to be revved – and the reward is both power through the rear wheels and a great noise. It’s very well balanced, something I’ve been able to explore at high speed on the race track as part of the Ginetta Racing Drivers Club. I do enjoy the roads between York and Bridlington, taking in Sledmere. Having been brought up in Manchester and lived in Yorkshire for over 20 years, I really appreciate the access to beautiful countryside from all the region’s cities. You sometimes have to drive a long way in Manchester before you see any fields! It’ll be great to experience the spectacle of the Grand Départ against the backdrop of this great countryside and my beloved York. n

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ENTREPRENEUR

SUMMER 14

RADIO STAR IS MAKING WAVES

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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SUMMER 14

ENTREPRENEUR

The rise of technology firm Radio Design has put Yorkshire ingenuity at the heart of mobile networks around the world and at the forefront of their ongoing evolution. Andrew Mernin meets founder and industry pioneer Eric Hawthorn ahead of his push towards global dominance The canal which once snaked Bradford’s woolly garments to the high seas has long since expired as an export link.

But on its banks, at Shipley, the global trading of Yorkshire wares is alive and well thanks to a thriving technology maker.

In seven years Radio Designs has grown from zero to a 275-staffed international empire.

It made the first filter technology to enable network sharing by major telecom companies and now supplies parts to the industry’s biggest global players.

In the year to March 2014, turnover surged from £14m to £22m and mobile phone users across the globe are now connected by the firm’s innovations and fixes.

The company, with additional facilities in India and China, makes wireless infrastructure ‘sharing solutions’ and RF filter systems. Put simply, they enable mobile phone networks to share infrastructure – as is the growing trend currently – and for new technologies to be overlaid onto existing infrastructure, as is required in the push for 4G capabilities.

“Last year around half of our business was abroad,” says Eric Hawthorn, the engineer turned entrepreneur who founded the business out of the ashes of redundancy in 2007.

“This year it’ll be more like 70%, but also our UK market isn’t shrinking. There are lots of other markets we haven’t even addressed yet, so we’re going to have a good year this year.”

Hawthorn’s confidence looks well placed given that current mobile industry trends are playing directly into Radio Design’s hands.

The roll out of 4G continues apace at home and abroad, and the Shipley firm has a lead role. At the same time capacity-boosting moves by major networks to share infrastructure are

increasingly the norm. Hawthorn says: “We had two or three years where we were stuck at the same [turnover level] partly because our business was more dominated by the UK market. The UK was going through some changes, for example the 4G auctions [which dictated which operators would be involved in 4G]. Also O2 and Vodafone wanted to create a joint venture, which actually was quite good for us in the long term.

“But while they were deciding what they would do they had a sharp intake of breath and stopped spending on existing networks.

So all those factors redoubled our focus on international markets.”

And that shift in focus has since paid dividends for the Scotsman’s business. His navigation of overseas markets has also benefitted local enterprise influencers, with Hawthorn joining the Leeds City Region’s Local Enterprise Partnership board earlier this year. This came after he spent three years on the LEP’s Business Innovation and Growth Panel, and helped spearhead the ‘We are International’ campaign.

We meet at the firm’s HQ which stands within a few feet of the Leeds Liverpool Canal.

We’re on a smart desk-filled floor well away from its manufacturing base down the canal at Salts Mill. But even here there’s a very faint whiff of solder in the air.

This, alongside the chunky metal components piled here and there, perhaps indicates a leadership team whose problem solving is not only done with pens and keyboards.

Certainly Hawthorn, in his company polo shirt, looks to be a boss whose technology engineering days haven’t been killed off by the onset of corporate power.

He struggles to remember exactly what started

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his interest in mobile communications. Perhaps it was formed from a jumble of experiences, he suggests, like playing with phones made from tin cans and string as a kid, a love of physics at school and later dalliances with ham radio.

A young Hawthorn even once took apart his Auntie’s prized radio to put it back together.

The fact that it never worked again is a rare blemish on his rise as the world’s leading radio frequency engineer.

He graduated with an electronics and electrical engineering degree in Aberdeen in 1984 – a time when even breezeblock-sized car phones were in their infancy.

Resisting the pull of engineering work in Aberdeen’s offshore sector, save for a summer assignment developing underwater communications for divers, he took a job in the avionics division of electronics plc Plessey in Havant, on the South coast.

He spent two years working on defencerelated “radio frequency stuff” for use on fighter jets. It was an interesting time, he says, during which he “truly learned” how to be an engineer.

But Hawthorn was troubled by the nature of defence technology development in that “after years of research a project could be cancelled at the stroke of a pen in Whitehall”.

He moved within Plessey onto developing a pioneering system of communications called Transparent Tone-In Band, which was aimed at replacing FM radios in business fleets and taxis.

His Plessey days also took in work to improve radio links between RAF bases.

In a sector which advances quickly from one breakthrough to the next, however, takeovers by rivals were never far away.

And so, with a consortium of giants >>

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ENTREPRENEUR preparing a bid for Plessey, Hawthorn sensed trouble and fled to Ottawa, Canada, to join Bell Northern (which later became part of Nortel).

The company was embroiled in something of a space race to pioneer the infrastructure that would facilitate the looming mobile phone boom in North America.

It was a war between two communications systems each vying to become the first digital cellular standard in a potentially vast market.

But the battleground for Hawthorn was not in white-coated sterility of technology labs, but in the dusty underbelly of urban America.

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the corner, as there’s still a lot to come from 4G, and it may require fundamental changes to the whole network design.”

But does the mass market really need further cranking up of internet velocity on mobile phones? “When 3G first started people asked ‘what’s the point in that?’ But I don’t think anyone with a smart phone asks that anymore,” he says.

After his Canadian posting, Hawthorn was approached by a US firm to head up a team working on amplifier products and technology.

The Boston giant M/A-COM enlisted him to the

5G is just a theory at the moment.

When 3G first started people asked ‘what’s the point in that?’ But I don’t think anyone with a smart phone asks that anymore “We were taking demo equipment out on field trials and setting up trial networks for customers. We’d go round in a big truck with our mobile radio. On one occasion we set up a route in Dallas and put equipment in big Portakabins under the freeway with an armed guard, chainmail fence and chickens outside.”

The hard yards paid off and Hawthorn’s camp won the contest.

“When I started out in Canada, Nortel wasn’t into mobile phone infrastructure at all but then it grew to be a multi-billion dollar business for the company,” he says.

Looking back to that battle of twin technologies, Hawthorn believes a current – if less game-changing – equivalent can be seen in the fight to take 4G connectivity forward.

While 3G made it possible to access the internet more effectively through mobile phones, the fourth generation of mobile telecoms technology has brought with it significantly faster web surfing and higher download speeds. So where next?

Hawthorn says: “5G is still a theory at the moment but there are companies investing heavily in it and there could be another battle in terms of different companies with vested interests trying to show that their way of doing it is the best. It might be five or 10 years round

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helm of a fast-growing start-up division at a time when other sectors within the group were declining and cutting staff.

It was here the path emerged which would take him to Yorkshire, and entrepreneurialism.

Through a joint venture, his employer was linked to Filtronic, the Shipley electronics empire. He proved a good fit with the group in his involvement in the joint venture and eventually was appointed as Filtronic’s global engineering director.

“At the time they were focusing radio frequency filter technology and developing products for and to the specifications of the big OEMs [original equipment manufacturers] like Nokia, Erikson, Siemens, AT&T and Motorola.

So we ended up supplying to all of the major players in the cellular comms world and became the biggest merchant supplier of filter technology into these companies.

“For the first year I was spending two weeks in the US, two in the UK, going backwards and forwards. We then acquired a company in Finland so spent a lot of time there as well.

“I was also quite customer facing so we would spend a lot of time promoting our technology and working with them to get us designed into whatever was coming next. You’re always working with R&D teams to see what they’re

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developing and how we can be involved in it.

When it came to the filter part, they wanted to make it smaller and cheaper, with the same performance as before, but at the same time new frequencies kept coming. So for example you might have done one for European GSM frequency, but because the customers were having success in places like India and China, they needed different regional variants of [the technology].”

After 11 years at Filtronic Hawthorn was made redundant when a US firm acquired the filter technology portion of the business, and shut down its UK engineering capacity.

But he had been planning his own enterprise for some time, having second guessed the American group’s intentions. He left Filtronic on a Friday in the summer of 2007 and the very next Monday, Radio Design was born.

He took 10 of “absolutely the best of the best” colleagues from his Filtronic days, while investment came from his brother Doug’s Scottish company Trac International Ltd, an engineering services provider.

But getting the filter technology to market as a networking sharing solution was a tough sell.

“To begin with, in spite of all the history and relationships we’d had with these big OEMs, they were saying ‘we know you’re a good team but there are only 11 of you and you have no credibility, so we can’t pin our future on you’.”

A breakthrough was made when T Mobile expressed its intention to share its network with fellow mobile operator Three.

“They hadn’t worked out the technology they were going to use to share the antennae.

So we came up with a customised product bespoke to their requirement and within four weeks had developed a prototype. Since then we’ve shipped over 40,000 of them.”

More business came when other operators – including O2 and Vodafone – saw the benefits of sharing networks. And overseas demand from new and existing customers also grew.

Like Hawthorn’s shrewd anticipation of the network sharing trend, he spotted another foreboding challenge for his customers that his team could solve. He found opportunity in the fallout from the years of fractious takeovers in tech land over recent decades, and the general breakneck pace of change that envelops the sector. Since many manufacturing giants had

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ENTREPRENEUR

been felled by their inability to compete, and others crushed by the wheels of acquisition, the components they built were no longer backed up by maintenance and repair services.

“There was a situation where companies who were supplying lots of equipment into the OEMs would acquire other companies and then they’d disappear,” says Hawthorn.

“So it was getting more difficult for firms like Nokia to support equipment they’d bought from third parties. They’d send it back to the

operators that were all government owned.

“India had something like 15 different mobile operators at the time, a rapidly growing population, and is generally a very challenging market for the mobile operators to make money in. Today the average revenue per user for a handset is something like £1.50 to £2 a month – so you need a lot of customers to make money. So I thought that’s got to be a good market for network sharing.”

While the repairs business has thrived in India,

original manufacturer but as a lot disappeared that was getting harder and harder.”

The solution was Radio Design’s repair service which now has operations in China and India, as well as Yorkshire, and contributes around 15% of overall turnover.

“It started with us repairing filter systems but it’s rapidly grown into all sorts of things to do with base stations [a key component of mobile comms infrastructure]. We set up in India at the end of 2008. Our initial customers had previously had to ship products for repair to other parts of the world and then back into India, which was expensive.”

But India is not restricted to repairs for Radio Design and Hawthorn had other motivations for setting his flag there.

“In my Filtronic days I had a lot of experience in China and I had seen it develop very rapidly and starting to become more expensive and more heavily regulated, with only three

Radio Design’s pursuit of product sales there is a slow-burner, admits Hawthorn. But the success on that front is moving ever closer.

India is a tricky market for British firms to crack in any industry. But alongside the usual red tape, Radio Design has also had to contend with a tumultuous period of change.

Hawthorn says: “India’s a place where it takes a long time to develop relationships and grow business particularly when the idea of sharing networks was completely foreign to potential customers. But there have also been all sorts of scandals about how the spectrum’s been allocated to operators.”

The ‘2G spectrum scam’ involved politicians and government officials illegally issuing licenses to private telecoms players at throwaway prices and culminated in all licenses being withdrawn and re-distributed under a new auction.

“There has been a lot of change and shakeup

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in the Indian market and that’s created a lot of instability. But that’s all settled down now and there are less operators and a number of bigger players that are emerging who are recognising the value of sharing infrastructure.”

In this new landscape, Radio Design’s bid for product-based work is paying off.

Indus Towers, a joint-venture which is the world’s largest telecom tower company, is interested in using Radio Design’s technology to share infrastructure on its sites.

“The more tenants they can get on site the more cost-effective it is for everybody. But it’s been a long process of educating that market and demonstrating that our products actually work there. But we’re now just setting up our own manufacturing base in India. We’ve been supplying products in small numbers there and have probably supplied to every operating and tower company in India. There’s still lots to do but the fact that there’s more stability there bodes well. Also there’s pressure on them to roll out 4G now, which suits us.”

Currently the Indian market is worth around £1m-a-year in turnover to the group, with China generating around £750,000 – but Hawthorn expects both to grow quickly once products begin to take flight.

Beyond these vast Asian markets, Radio Design has a strong presence in Europe covering “at least 10” countries in eastern Europe and several other territories including Spain, Belgium and France. Meanwhile, Africa, the Middle East and the Americas are targets.

“We’ve hired someone with experience in Africa and the Middle East. His contacts will get us off the ground and then as each market develops we’ll start to split them out.

“In terms of opening physical bases, what drives us is whether it makes sense to manufacture somewhere or just to offer a repairs service in a particular market. We’re looking at North America at the moment and at some point that will require a physical presence. So we’ll definitely be expanding into other countries as well as exporting.” n

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FASHION “Power”, Giorgio Armani recently announced, “can be feminine.” Look to the catwalks, and power is certainly in play. If the 1980s saw women embracing the sober tailoring of their male counterparts – all the better to play them at their own corporate game – then so-called power dressing is back: the middle line of soft mixed separates, as espoused by Michelle Obama – not an unpowerful woman after all – has given way to a revival of the office style that some women working the greasy pole in big business once felt compelled to wear in order to be treated as equals to the pin-striped men.

Now the likes of Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior and, of course, Armani are back with those trouser suits for women – but this time with a softer, slender, more feminised silhouette than the broad shouldered kind of 30 years ago. The power shades are still there – the black, navy and charcoal that look right around the boardroom table – but now too are more gentle, pastel shades of metallic neutrals, which can carry the look away from the office and into eveningwear. The style is not so rigid either – jacket and trousers may well now be co-ordinated separates rather than stiffly matched.

That the new power suit is a softer affair is just as well – figures suggest that the first women to buy into this more formal style are young enough not to have remembered power dressing the first time around, and are perhaps excited by the crisp air of authority and grownupness that it brings; but of course the big fashion brands also need it to appeal to the wealthier, older customers for whom the power suit – as the makers of 1980s satirical puppet show ‘Spitting Image’ hyped in their Churchillian portrayal of Margaret Thatcher – often suggested a more overt masculinisation that was not always that appealing. Today the power suit may be right for a more serious, post-crash working world, but women are, all the same, not quick to dress with androgyny in mind.

That was not always the case. If the sight of a woman in a trouser suit is unlikely to upset the horses these days, recall that it was enough

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LOOK WHO’S WEARING THE TROUSERS Trouser suits – much maligned during the Thatcherite era – are making a comeback, but not at the expense of femininity, writes Josh Sims

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FASHION

Katharine Hepburn, Annie Lennox, Margaret Thatcher and Madonna knew how to play the power suit fashion game to see women barred from entry into certain private establishments within the last three decades. The first power suits, indeed, very much had in mind the agency of the provocateur.

It was bold for any woman to play with gender stereotypes through their clothing during the 1920s and 30s. The exceptions perhaps were Hollywood stars the likes of Marlene Dietrich, who wore trouser suits by Elsa Schiaparelli, or Josephine Baker – a regular at the Parisian men’s bespoke tailors Cifonelli – or later artists the likes of Frida Kahlo or Lee Miller. Their celebrity and/or avant garde lifestyle somewhat permitted it.

Certainly, society has long held deeply-cultural prohibitions against women dressing as men, sometimes, as in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, even proscribing it in law. It was only from the early 1890s through to late in the

first decade of the 1900s that women were permitted to wear trousers in public for, by turns, horse-riding and bicycle-riding.

This was not, however, an issue for most women. And fewer still would even have considered wearing what was strongly defined as a man’s two-piece suit – the choice of some early women’s rights campaigners during the 1920s precisely because of its scandalousness and bohemianism. This was dressing as politics. In contrast, up until World War Two, most women who did wear trousers did so purely for acceptable reasons of practicality – for ranch or factory work, or because one happened to be an adventurer-aviator the likes of Amelia Earhart. But this was a trend that the War made much more commonplace, such that throughout the 1940s trouserwearing by women became fashionable – again ably assisted by the endorsement of

Certainly, society has long held deeplycultural prohibitions against women dressing as men, sometimes, as in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, even proscribing it in law

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‘slacks’ given by Hollywood stars the likes of Katharine Hepburn (whose characters often played on her supposed ‘mannishness’).

Trousers were worn for sport and leisure. For most the tailored suit, however, remained an outsider proposition – the stuff of theatre and androgynous play, and perceived as such.

It was a perception that would last, as with Julie Andrews in ‘Victor/Victoria’ (1982), The Eurythmics’ Annie Lennox or ‘Vogue’-era Madonna. Certainly the new, more flattering power suit appears to be conscious of one lesson fashion history has offered: what suiting would become accepted by society and fashion alike was a much softer, feminised version popularised through Anton Courreges’ and Yves Saint Laurent’s women’s tailoring of the mid-1960s – most notably the latter’s ‘Le Smoking’ of 1966, a velvet and wool dinner suit reinterpreted for the female physique which both helped revolutionise attitudes to women in trousers, and scandalised society in the process. When singer Francoise Hardy wore it to the Paris Opera, “people screamed and hollered,” she recalled. New York socialite Nan Kempner was refused entry to upscale restaurant La Côte Basque in 1968 wearing hers – so she removed the trousers and wore the jacket alone as a kind of impromptu minidress. She was then admitted.

Through the 1970s the trouser suit was taken on by American designers the likes of Ralph Lauren, Bill Blass and Calvin Klein. The fabrics used may have been traditionally masculine – flannel, tweed – but the cut was more fitted in the body, looser in the leg and altogether less manly. By the end of the decade – and in no small part thanks to the wardrobe of Diane Keaton in Woody Allen’s ‘Annie Hall’ (1977) – the wearing by women of what a few decades perviously would have been considered masculine clothing had entered the mainstream. Power dressing, in its harder edged 1980s incarnation, was just around the corner. What, in 30 years, will women make of this latest round of sharply tailored style? Perhaps, in another three decades, the notion of a woman’s attire seeking to evoke anything perceived to be a masculine trait will have been consigned to history too. A trouser suit on a woman will be no more cause for discussion than one on a man. n

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EQUIPMENT

a naim worth investing in

Attention to detail and a willingness to embrace the digital future of audio delivery has enabled an established, yet little-known, brand to flourish in an increasingly competitive market

Paul Stephenson remembers his first encounter with a company that has gone on to become one of the greats of the largely unsung British audio equipment industry. He ran a hi-fi retail business and was looking for new brands to fill his store. “I came across Naim and it seemed as though it had no real sales or any marketing in place – they were all engineers, beards and weird guys. It was just totally product-oriented, which is fine, but it doesn’t get you much business,” he recalls. So he joined as sales manager and, by 2000, was managing director.

Now, he is proud to say, the company has 1000-plus accounts, even if it remains what Stephenson calls a “fairly unknown brand”.

Indeed, its reach is good going given that Naim is, Stephenson suggests, one of a small band of companies operating in their own small sphere of audio experience. “In fact, I think we’re part of a market of audio specialists that is only just emerging, offering something that

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is very different to, say, the more commercial take of Japanese makers. Theirs is a commodity approach – it’s not about using your ears to decide if something sounds good. The way people listen to music at home is different to what engineers think they’re making out of electronics at a work-bench. It’s about sensitivities and emotional values, not what you see on an oscilloscope.”

The Salisbury-based company has just celebrated its 40th birthday so, beards aside, it must be doing something right. Founded by the late entrepreneur Julian Vereker – who, frustrated by his own experiences of listening to recordings of live performances decided to experiment building his own amplifiers and loud-speakers – Naim can count itself a twotime Queens Award for Enterprise winner, and has the contract to supply stereo systems for Bentley, the “technically challenging, noisy environment that is the inside of a car,”

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as Stephenson notes. In 2011 Naim grew considerably when it merged with French loudspeaker manufacturer Focal. But it has also grown, Stephenson argues, because of people’s increased attentiveness to the audio experience – a surprise perhaps given these so very visual times.

“The internet has provided a platform for >> people to find out about us, and also to be better informed about audio generally,” says Stephenson. “But, more than that, we’re seeing a big change. Typically when people buy their computers and X-Boxes, hi-fi is about no.282 on their list of priorities – but audio is becoming fashionable again. People care about sound.” Indeed, remarkably – given the oft-discussed demise of the CD – it’s not even MP3 where audio is at: already some 35% of Naim’s business is in products to stream music direct from the internet.

“The changing landscape of audio is

EQUIPMENT

challenging. Five years ago we would have been afraid of the idea of streaming, and would have regarded streamed music as the lowest common denominator way to listen,” says Stephenson. “But coming out of that you realise that millions of people are listening that way, millions more are going to, and what they are out there looking for is a way to do that with quality. Thankfully Apple has done a great job. Without their efforts what we do would come across as pure geeksville. But consumers now are much more advanced than their parents in terms of understanding tech and their willingness to invest in it.”

Most of Naim’s products are now connectivityenabled although, Stephenson notes, “you still need speakers and amplifiers – streaming technology has been the carrot to pull people in to buy other products.” That might include CD players, but not often. They now account for just 17% of sales, with much of those going to China, where there is still a preference for what Stephenson calls “the physical manifestation of music. Vinyl has the tendency to sound better than CD and offers a different, mechanical experience. But a CD is this little plastic box with a bit of silver metal in it – it’s just not very sexy.”

Streaming, on the other hand, may be unnervingly intangible to anyone over 30, but it is, Stephenson assures, the future operating with a higher fidelity than CD, with a solid state back-up solution and software

Every man and his dog has tried to out-Zeppelin Zeppelin in the way some systems look...we’re shifting back from such extreme styling upgradable – and a future Naim wants to be a leader in (even, that is, while operating a service department busy looking after machines now older than the first home computers). For anyone under 30, there is another factor that the company must prove itself a leader in. “Style is becoming extremely important,” says Stephenson, “though maybe not for the audio aficionado. The fact is that most people don’t want audio equipment that looks out of fashion in a year, or, for that matter, dominates a room. We’ve always tried to take a form-follows-function approach which doesn’t work for some markets – they want machines that light up like Las Vegas, and every man and his dog has tried to outZeppelin Zeppelin in the way some systems look. But I think we’re shifting back from such extreme styling now.”

There is, in this, also a kind of green thinking, moving away from the consumerist habit of frequent upgrading (and consequent dumping of the perfectly serviceable but now seemingly

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outmoded kit) with audio equipment that lasts, both in use and looks, for perhaps a lifetime. Stephenson concedes that this is probably to cost the company revenue – a quick modification to a stock product remains an easy way for more mass-market manufacturers to make a quick sale. But that is not what he, or Naim, are about. Suffice it to say that the company’s last big launch was in 2008 and the next is due this year, but still under wraps. Its most recent launch was certainly big in scale and sound: this spring it released its Statement speaker, with all of its 746 watts of power – or one horsepower – and projected $200,000 price.

“Well,” says Stephenson, “we’re a British company and we make everything in Britain.

To be able to make here taps into long traditions of engineering and design and craftsmanship and puts your products in a higher league, even if it doesn’t always put them at the higher price point too.” Not always at least. n

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ENTREPRENEUR

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BUILDING ON PAST SUCCESS Having grown his enterprise rapidly out of the builders’ yard into a near £20m-a-year firm, a young Leeds entrepreneur is now taking the bold step of entering the helterskelter world of housing. Andrew Mernin talks to Michael Howard to find out more

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SUMMER 14

While housing market anoraks argue over bubbles and London heat, one thing they all agree on is that Britain needs more affordable homes – and fast.

One former advisory body to Whitehall believes 300,000 new homes a year until 2031 are needed to meet current demand. At the last count only 133,650 were being constructed.

The Government continues to push its Help to Buy scheme and promises eased planning and land-selling processes. Labour, meanwhile, says it will ensure 200,000 homes are built per year by 2020, should it return to power. And on the ground, reinvigorated construction firms are busily propping up the economy. Their sector, at the time of writing, is set for its 13th consecutive month of employment growth.

Watching the situation more avidly than most is Michael Howard, an entrepreneur who is about to make his entrance into the unfurling story of the housing crisis.

“We see this as our next big challenge and adventure to go on as we look to take advantage of the upturn in the housing market,” he says, as he prepares for the summer launch of his new house building company. Howard, 37, is the creator of Leedsbased Howard Civil Engineering (HCE), which he has built into a £15m+ turnover enterprise since 2003. Work on the £90m Monks Cross retail development on the edge of York, a £100m billion-litre dairy plant and a new £40m police training centre are among its recent successes. It employs 140 people – swelling beyond 220 when a big project arises – and in recent years has emerged as a truly national entity. But its most crucial milestone, Howard’s wife and young daughter may argue, is that this year the boss was able to switch his phone off on holiday without fear or distraction.

“I was in Florida for the last couple of weeks and I completely switched off,” he says. “The old me would have been sending emails and in contact with the business every day. That’s a sign things are changing even from last year.”

As well as the company’s maturing into a

ENTREPRENEUR

mid-sized structure that affords the boss some downtime, this year marks the group’s diversification into the housing market.

“Initial schemes will be targeted at the first time buyers’ market and we’ve registered with the Help to Buy scheme. We see that as being a fantastic aid to secure customers and sales for the properties.”

Erris Homes is expected to become a £5m-ayear venture by 2017, operating as a sister to Howard’s existing firm, with its first project being a 16-home site in Barnsley.

Erris is also the latest chapter in the accelerated entrepreneurial rise of Howard – who followed his dad onto the construction site as a schoolboy and never wanted to leave.

“My dad worked in the construction industry all his working life so it’s fair to say that I had

think there was always a desire to start up a construction business.”

After dabbling for a few months as a sole trader, the “trigger point” for company formation in 2003 was a £750,000 groundwork and civil engineering contract win for a project in Uttoxeter in Staffordshire.

A tip-off from an old colleague brought the opportunity to his attention and gave him his big break. Such an early victory in business came despite having barely £3,000 in the company’s coffers – and having his garage as an HQ. He quickly took on his first two employees, including his cousin, and added a few temp workers to his roster.

“My ambition and desire definitely outweighed my financial circumstances,” he says. “It was a pretty sparse start-up but I thought what

I had a desire to create something from nothing. I didn’t believe I’d go on to achieve it, but there was always a desire to start up a construction business quite a lot of exposure to it throughout my childhood. Even as early as middle school, when health and safety wasn’t what it is now, I’d be helping my dad out in school holidays and weekends – albeit getting in the way - and that gave me a lot of exposure to the industry.”

He left school at 16 and headed for Leeds College of Building, eventually forging a career as a site engineer after landing a job in Birmingham and, by age 27, was a contracts manager. His career had moved rapidly but there was a lingering itch to achieve more.

“I just felt wherever I’d worked that there was a better way of being more proactive and collaborating with your clients. I felt the only way to prove that was by doing it on my own. I probably always had a desire to create something from nothing myself. I didn’t actually believe I’d go on to achieve it but I

we’re lacking in cash we’ll make up for with endeavour and hard graft.”

Year one turnover hit £700,000, with a healthy £127,000 profit. By the end of year two, he was up to £2.5m turnover and “I suddenly realised we had the potential to build a bona fide business for the long term”.

Enter Michael’s brother Gerard, who left his high flying career as a chartered accountant at Bank of America in London to join as a finance director and all round numbers man in 2005.

“It wasn’t too plush a role, but Gerard coming in was a big turning point and it enabled us to push on to the next level. The way I was running the company probably wasn’t conducive to anyone other than a family member doing that role. I don’t think many chartered accountants would want to sit in a dingy industrial unit doing everything to >>

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

ENTREPRENEUR assist the day-to-day running of the business.

Getting someone with that ability was crucial, certainly once the recession kicked in.”

The crash, which hit construction harder than most, reached Howard Civil Engineering when it was around the £6m-a-year mark in 2008/09 and “on the cusp of really starting to reap the rewards of our work”.

“But that all came to a shuddering halt when the housing market shut down and the construction industry really contracted.”

Michael’s role swung from enjoying a “fantastic lifestyle” through the huge rewards of his business, to working tirelessly to protect it.

“Margins were through the floor and the confidence that you would get paid was nonexistent. The darkest moment was being left with £340,000 of bad debt after a client went into voluntary administration. We didn’t see a penny of that again.”

But the company survived, and Michael now believes those hard times made the business.

“The recession was perversely probably the best thing to happen to me as a business and the country as a whole. I wish it hadn’t lasted as long but good experiences breed complacency whereas a few bad experiences really make you step up to the plate.

“Anyone can run a business in a boom. When there’s a margin you have to be pretty shoddy to flitter it away.

“In a recession you’re scraping around for little or no margin or trying to be innovative to create margin. That’s the real test.”

The result for Michael’s business is that it now has an “exceptional team” on board which is primed for the return of healthier margins, he says. However tough the recession years may have been, the business has still managed to grow its turnover from £9m at the start of the downturn to £15.2m in its last financial year.

“The hardest thing since the downturn has fundamentally been cash gathering.

Without a steady stream of cash coming in, you don’t have a business. So it’s been about empowering the team to recognise

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Without a steady stream of cash coming in, you don’t have a business the importance of cash gathering and never forgetting it. This focus has been essential to our survival. We were a vulnerable SME at the start of the recession and could have gone the way of thousands of other failed businesses.”

While the company had handled projects from Great Yarmouth to Newcastle, its true arrival as a national outfit came in 2012.

The group outfought firms far bigger than itself to land a £10m-£12m contract for work on Arla Foods’ new £150m dairy at Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. The facility is billed as the first zero carbon milk processing facility in the world and has a capacity to process and package one billion litres of milk each year.

The deal cemented the firm’s post-recession foundations and continues to serve as a calling card when it bids for large-scale contracts.

“It gave us the security we needed. The next challenge was how we were going to fund it, but I’ve always been quite impulsive and had the attitude that I would find a solution.

“It was our springboard which made us believe

we could achieve anything.” In winning such contracts, staff retention has been key, Howard says. “It’s fine to supplement your staff with contractors but what’s not acceptable is winning a contract and thinking ‘we’ll find a project manager and hope for the best’. You have to get your people and culture into every project and you can only do that by having a nucleus of like minded people that you trust.”

While Howard’s new house building entity takes his business empire into a fast growing sector, new opportunities have also been identified in civil engineering.

“Our newest growth markets are reinforced concrete structures and working within the highways sector. We’ve just secured our first Highways Agency project on the A19, worth about £500,000, which is a nice starting point.

It’s [an area of work] that’s government backed and has a huge government pot behind it so we see some real opportunities there.

“With concrete structures we’ve made some good progress recently, building a new bridge in Salford and a concrete frame at Sheffield Children’s Hospital. These areas hopefully should enable us to hit £20m turnover in the next two or three years.”

As HCE has grown, so too has the need for Howard to develop his leadership skills. “A lot of my insight and knowledge came as a result of a Goldman Sachs programme with Leeds business school. We were 24/7 busy at the time and I remember sitting in the first lecture thinking ‘I’ve got a million other things that are ten times more important’, but I can’t speak highly enough of how it changed me.”

“I’d like to think in five years time I’ll be working ON all the businesses instead of IN any of them. That’s something for me to address; to change that philosophy I’ve had all my life of ‘do, do, do’ to delegating more.”

Given the freedom enjoyed on his recent jaunt to Disney World, this shift is perhaps already on track. His venture into the challenging world of house building, however, may test his resolve to be more hands off to the absolute limit. n

A law firm which offers more In life and in business

Expect More www.clarionsolicitors.com 7053_20x175_Clarion_BQ_Magazine_AW01.indd 1

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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06/06/2014 15:00

BIT OF A CHAT

with Frank Tock >> The enemy within Ajaz Ahmed, creator of the internet success story Freeserve, is a glutton for punishment.

“I hate lawyers,” he remarked at a recent business dinner in Leeds. “I really don’t like them,” he continued, before bemoaning even the tendency of law firms to host pictures of “ugly lawyers” on their websites. But hold on, isn’t Ajaz the entrepreneur behind the recently rebranded LCF Law, a law firm staffed, unsurprisingly, by lawyers? Yes, he admits, but he says his firm is different. It will have no pictures of lawyers on its website for a start. It also aims to revolutionise the industry with an approachable, “high street” strategy aimed at small businesses. We watch with interest.

He bemoans firms hosting pictures of ‘ugly lawyers’ on their websites >> More of what matters The award for Finest Example of Straight Talking by a Yorkshireman this quarter goes to...Sir Ken Morrison. Not one to mince his words, the ex-chairman of the Bradford supermarket giant told embattled CEO Dalton Philips at a recent AGM: “When I left work and started working as a hobby, I chose to raise cattle. I have

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

SUMMER 14

>> A multi-tasking day in the life of a cycling supremo An 80 mile cycle ride, a media interview, an awards ceremony in Leeds and a networking dinner in Harrogate is all in a day’s work for Welcome to Yorkshire’s Gary Verity. Any suggestion that the bringer of the Grand Départ to these parts has been relaxing as Le Tour organisers take over are entirely false, BQ can reveal following our recent interview with him.

something like 1,000 bullocks and, having listened to your presentation, Dalton, you’ve got a lot more bulls**t than me.”

In a business world drowning with PR spin and politeness perhaps we’d get more done if we followed Ken’s lead and said what we really thought. It would certainly keep things fresh, as a supermarket might say.

>> Hope in abundance Having had the privilege of sifting through the scores of entrants to our recent BQ Emerging Entrepreneurs awards, we can say confidently that start-up culture in these parts is absolutely thriving. It’s an age-old cliché to say judging processes are tough. It’s perhaps even more clichéd these days to say they were ‘genuinely tough’. But choosing a winner from entrepreneurs who had, for example, found a solution to a debilitating condition, battled back from homelessness to create opportunities for young people, or created entirely new markets from nothing, was nigh on impossible. Well done to the winners but also to the many entrants who will hopefully help drive Yorkshire’s economy in the not too distant future.

>> Not an exact science Influencers desperate to get more people into science to help plug gaping skills

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shortages might have taken a crumb of comfort from a recent British Heart Foundation poll.

Asked what the greatest legacy a person can leave behind after death, the good people of Yorkshire ranked science in 2nd place, behind its not too distant academic relative, medicine.

Their top 10 ‘legacy leavers’ also included the white-coated Albert Einstein, Edward Jenner and Marie Curie.

>> In the knick of time Two BQ issues ago our cover story told how Bradford entrepreneur Farnaz Khan had created a global phenomenon through Fit Britches, her body shaping, heated knickers product.

Women around the world – and TV shows including Good Morning America – have been raving about their amazing weightshifting power.

But BQ can now exclusively reveal that men can soon get in on the act, thanks to Farnaz’s husband’s role as a willing guinea pig. Farnaz told us: “I’ve developed the product for men and tested it on my husband. He’d put on two stone over Christmas and thanks to the product lost it all.” Hopefully they come to market in time for the pre-holiday belly blast.

GOOD FOOD, GREAT WINE...

...AND ALL THAT JAZZ ON FRIDAY AND SATURDAY EVENINGS. Christmas and New Year at

The New Ellington Hotel, Bar & Restaurant 23-25a York Place • Leeds • LS1 2EY www.thenewellington.com • info@thenewellington.com • 0113 204 2150

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EVENTS

SUMMER 14

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

JULY 2 Yorkshire Mafia Women Drinks Evening, 6pm – 9pm, The Botanist – Bar & Restaurant, 67 Boar Lane, Leeds. Visit www.theyorkshiremafia.com 3 Digital Marketing Bootcamp, 9.30am, Woodend Centre, Scarborough, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk http://www.sfny.co.uk 8 Superfast Business Success York Racecourse, York 9:30am, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk http://www.sfny.co.uk 10 The Entrepreneurs Club Leeds Quality Networking Evening Chino Latino, Park Plaza Hotel, Boar Lane, Leeds, West Yorkshire, LS1 5NS 6pm, 0113 288 6898 http://www.TheEntrepreneursClub.com

14 The Met Club networking evening, 5.30pm – 7.30pm, West Park Hotel, Harrogate. Visit www.themetclub.co.uk 21 The Met Club networking evening, 5.30pm – 7.30pm, Cedar Court Grand, Harrogate. Visit www.themetclub.co.uk 21 Search Engine Optimisation Masterclass, 9.30am, Woodend Centre, Scarborough, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk 28 LinkedIn (Online Networking and Lead Generation), 9.30am, Talbot Hotel, Malton, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk

SEPTEMBER

11 Social Media – now you’ve started what’s next? Breakfast seminar, The Met Club, 8.30am - 10.30am, Harrogate (location tbc). Visit www.themetclub.co.uk

2 Bootcamp – Digital Marketing Bootcamp, Mercure Fairfield Manor Hotel, York 9:30am 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk

11 Google Juice Bar Event, 2pm, The Majestic Hotel, Harrogate, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk http://www.sfny.co.uk

9 Masterclass – Search Engine Optimisation, National Railway Museum, York 09:30, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk

15 Introduction to Investors in People, 9.15am – 12.30pm, Wakefield.

Visit www.iipnorth.co.uk

11 Masterclass – Get More Enquiries from your Website Copper Dragon Brewery, Skipton 9:30am, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk

15 Intelligent Cities Conference and Expo, Coral Windows Stadium, Bradford.

Visit www.nextgenevents.co.uk

15 Business lunch with Tom Riodan CEO and Phil Crabtree, head of planning, at Leeds CC, 12 noon – 2.30pm, Aspire, Leeds. Visit www.themetclub.co.uk

16 Social Media on Toast, tips to help you use social media effectively in business, 9.30am - 2pm, £20, The Leeds Club, 3 Albion Place, Leeds.

Visit www.yorkshiremafia.com.

16 LinkedIn (Online Networking and Lead Generation), 9.30am, Innovate Business Centre, near Richmond, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk

16 Masterclass – Preparing to Win (Contracts and Tenders), 9.30am, Mercure Fairfield Manor Hotel, York, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk 17 The Leeds Entrepreneurs Club Lunch 0113 288 6898 www.TheEntrepreneursClub.com 18 Peter McCormick OBE & Simon Kent CEO HIC, business / tourism lunch, 12 noon – 2.30pm, White Hart Hotel, Harrogate. Visit www.themetclub.co.uk 22 Bradford Chamber of Commerce AGM and Networking Lunch, 11.45am – 2.20pm, Cedar Court Hotel, Bradford. Visit www.bradfordchamber.co.uk

18 Making your Website Work Harder for International Markets, 9.30am Cedar Court Hotel, Harrogate, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk 23 Business lunch with John Mothersole CEO and Maria Duffy, head of planning, at Sheffield CC, 12 noon – 2.30pm, Aston Hall Hotel, Sheffield.

Visit www.themetclub.co.uk 24 and 25 MADE: The Entrepreneur Festival, Sheffield City Hall.

Visit www.madefestival.com 25 Meet the Bradford Chamber, 12 noon – 2pm, Devere House, Bradford.

Visit www.bradfordchamber.co.uk

24 The Sheffield Entrepreneurs Club Lunch, 0113 288 6898.

Visit www.TheEntrepreneursClub.com 25 Lunch with Mike Ridgway, 12 noon – 2.30pm, Leeds (venue tbc).

Visit www.themetclub.co.uk

AUGUST 5 Social Media for Business Masterclass, 9.30am, Cedar Court Hotel, Harrogate, 0845 002 0021, enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk 6 The Met Club networking evening, 5.30pm – 7.30pm, Doubletree by Hilton, Leeds. Visit www.themetclub.co.uk 12 Masterclass – Practical PR, 9.30am, Cedar Court Hotel, Harrogate, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk 13 Business Improvement Bootcamp National Railway Museum, York 9:30am, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk 14 Get More Enquiries from your Website, 9.30am, Innovate Business Centre, near Richmond, 0845 002 0021 enquiries@sfny.co.uk www.sfny.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 14

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

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There is plenty to see and do in Sunderland from beautiful beaches and countryside, to theatres, museums and galleries.

Many of the city’s attractions are free and all offer a great family day out, packed with fun.

Sunderland is a welcoming, bustling city set right on the coast and at the mouth of the River Wear. It boasts wide sandy beaches and acres of relaxing and invigorating green spaces. Culturally its offer includes the Empire Theatre, National Glass Centre and Northern Gallery for Contemporary Art, while its underground music scene is considered one of the most vibrant in the UK. This proud city by the sea also has a fascinating history, outstanding sporting attractions and a family-friendly programme of events and festivals.

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• Roker and Seaburn At Roker and Seaburn there are wide, sandy, family-friendly beaches – the ideal place for building sandcastles or to try your hand at one of the many water-sports on offer.

• Empire Theatre Why not take in a show at Sunderland Empire Theatre this summer, its packed programme has something for the whole family, including The Lion King!

• St. Peter’s Church The Anglo-Saxon church of St Peter’s, first built in 674AD is one of the UK’s earliest stone churches. St Peter’s features a craft shop and fascinating interactive displays as well as Bede’s Bakehouse coffee shop serving homemade delicacies.

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• Stadium of Light The Stadium hosted One Direction in May and will welcome North East Live on 22 June. As well as the Premier League fixtures the Stadium runs yearround tours, offering you an exclusive behind-the-scenes experience.

• Sunderland International Airshow 25-27 July 2014 Sunderland’s stunning coastline provides the backdrop to a thrilling line up of flying displays over an action packed weekend. With a massive choice of exciting activities and entertainment on the ground, as well as the action in the sky, there’s something for everyone to see and do at the Sunderland International Airshow.

For more information on these attractions and to find out what other things you can see and do in Sunderland visit

www.sunderland.gov.uk/seeit-doit

BUSINESS YOUR WAY AT OULTON HALL & SPA The flexible conference & leisure facilities include: 152 Bedrooms 9 meeting rooms From 10 - 300 delegates Residential conferences Team building From small butler’s dining experience to large awards banquets 27 hole PGA golf course Corporate golf days Spa & leisure facilities Located 2 minutes from M62 & M1 Business your way. How refreshing.

Oulton Hall, Rothwell Lane, Oulton, Leeds LS26 8HN

TO BOOK 0871 222 4690 calls cost 10p per minute plus network extras www.devere-hotels.co.uk/oultonhall