BQNE Issue 23

www.bq-magazine.co.uk

ISSUE TWENTY THREE: AUTUMN 2013

in the bag Tea merchant brews up a storm overseas CRASH KING High tech firm soars despite 200 air crashes BIG IN JAPAN How to take your products further DRIVING THE DRILLS Keeping the oilfield talent flow moving ISSUE TWENTY THREE: AUTUMN 2013: NORTH EAST EDITION

GOOD SHOUT Fast-growing digital empire picks up the pace

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

NORTH EAST EDITION

BQ Breakfast - daily insight, news and analysis to help grow your business. Register free at www.bq-magazine.co.uk Business Quarter Magazine

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Grants for business development projects

Up to 40% funding available to help grow your business Funded by the European Regional Development Fund and delivered by the Investment Centre, Investment for Growth has been specifically created to help North East businesses grow.

Deko Flake was awarded over a third of the funding needed for a CRM software, and as a result is already planning to hire two to three extra IT staff after the project’s completion.

“The application process was made very quick, simple and straight forward, nothing was overcomplicated and the level of service and help from our adviser Dianne has been great.”

Keith Wilson, Director, DekoFlake UK

Waymark received funding for the marketing and launch of attro from the Investment for Growth Fund. “It was easy to apply for, and came through very quickly. The money we received has enabled us to launch to the market properly, which was essential as it is a new vertical for us.”

Paul LOFTHOUSE COMMERCIAL DIRECTOR Waymark IT Limited

We received 40% project funding for business planning support from the Investment for Growth Fund.

“I have found the whole process simple – I expected it to be onerous, but it wasn’t. I’ve already recommended it to another business that is looking to grow, as it has worked so well for us.”

John Hopkinson, Managing Director, Express Managed Services

About Investment for Growth The fund is available to SMEs in the North East of England who are planning to improve their business through investing in business growth projects. The fund will provide grants of up to 40% of the total project value, please check our eligibility checklist for further details.

How can Investment for Growth help your business?

It provides: • A direct route to financial assistance to help you improve and grow your business.

• Access to an experienced business adviser, to support and guide you through the whole process.

• Investment for projects which will result in the safeguarding or creating of jobs

Contact us for an appointment on 0191 426 6408

Eligibility Checklist Who can apply?

• Small and medium sized enterprises (SME) actively trading and based in the North East of England • Businesses that provide a business to business product or service

Eligible projects include:

• Business planning • Process improvement • Financial management & planning • Accessing new markets • Design of marketing & branding • Marketing Strategy • Bespoke software development • Development of quality management systems • Improved ergonomics & layout • Environmental/efficiency programmes • Change management programmes • HR policies & procedures • Technical designs • Website design & development

If you think your customers or members would benefit from this fund, please direct them to Investment for Growth team by calling 0191 426 6408 or emailing enquiries@investment4growth.co.uk

www.investment4growth.co.uk @I4G_NE

WELCOME

BUSINESS QUARTER: AUTUMN 13: issue TWENTY THREE Isn’t it ironic that while skilled craftsmen within our region produce some of the world’s finest racing craft Chris Turner, one of the foremost, fears too few of our young people will take the opportunity to follow in the wake of the Olympic gold medallist sailors we are all so proud of? Are the Olympic boats his workforce builds truly in danger of crossing the winning line to the honour of other nations instead of ours?

Emerging from recession, shouldn’t we now make maximum use of our skills and opportunities that arise on our own doorstep?

There’s a great chance as manufacturing and engineering return to favour for us to make many unusual things once more. Made in the North East can be a rewarding brand if we work at it.

We can’t all be great inventors - only a few are around at any given time - but we can all put on thinking caps and try to be innovators, whether we’re employed or employers. One of our brightest innovators just now is Nigel Knight, whose UAV aircraft - don’t call them drones, he pleads - are giving universities and businesses mapping services with qualities that can elude helicopters and satellites. And it all came about accidentally, as bright ideas often do, because he wanted to check how close his clifftop home in Northumberland was to falling into the sea.

Now we can’t all be successful entrepreneurs first time round, but one failure needn’t be disaster. Consider Andrew Ward the once teenage market trader who found himself bankrupt at 21, but now has a thriving workwear factory working round the clock, together with an active property development business, and a Porsche to park outside both.

His initial failure, he says, proved to be one of his most valuable lessons in life.

You can read quite a bit, and hopefully be inspired a bit too, in this BQ. We still need good services. Here you can read how Gary Boon has been able to build a near £3m turnover business in three and a half years because his end to end digital strategy can be tailored to any kind of business. Read too how Helen Smith and her team of

“mobilisers” make big money joining together, to mutual benefit, some of the world’s best known offshore gas and oil extractors and many of the sector’s top earning consultant practitioners, both from here and from across Britain and abroad.

There are also marketing lessons from a company re-inventing itself in its 106th year with great success. Jon Malton, the only non-family board member of the highly popular Ringtons business, explains how management and foot soldiers together are daily uncovering new customers. Family business often differs greatly from what lots of us may imagine, and some striking anecdotes come out in one of our live debates.

We’d also stress, though perhaps we shouldn’t have to, that there’s remarkable support out there for anyone who feels the urge to start up a business, or who needs help to develop an idea. Paul McEldon, chief executive of North East BIC explains to us over lunch the full range of help that his organisation delivers with startling success.

As he would himself admit, the BIC is but one of a number of trustworthy bodies carrying the expertise to get new businesses started, new ideas developed profitably, and young people into work also. Backing is also strong for people who want to run a business or otherwise work from home. There are so many opportunities around us. Read all about it. You won’t regret it.

Brian Nicholls, Editor, BQ

CONTACTS room501 ltd Christopher March Managing Director e: chris@room501.co.uk Bryan Hoare Director e: bryan@room501.co.uk EditorIAL Brian Nicholls e: b.g.nicholls@btinternet.com Andrew Mernin e: andrew@room501.co.uk Design & production room501 e: studio@room501.co.uk Photography Chris Auld e: chris@chrisauldphotography.com Kevin Gibson e: info@kgphotography.co.uk sales Heather Spacey Business Development Manager e: heather@room501.co.uk Richard Binney Business Development Manager e: richard@room501.co.uk or call 0191 426 6300

room501 Publishing Ltd, Spectrum 6, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT www.room501.co.uk room501 was formed from a partnership of directors who, combined, have many years of experience in contract publishing, print, marketing, sales and advertising and distribution. We are a passionate, dedicated company that strives to help you to meet your overall business needs and requirements.

All contents copyright © 2013 room501 Ltd. All rights reserved.

While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All information is correct at time of going to print, October 2013. room501 Publishing Ltd is part of BE Group, the UK’s market leading business improvement specialists. www.be-group.co.uk

NORTH EAST EDITION

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BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

CONTE BUSINESS QUARTER: AUTUMN 13 DRILL DRIVER

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46 RULING THE WAVES

Features

The little craft maker taking up where the shipbuilders left off

50 IN THE BAG Charting the growth and evolution of historic tea merchant Ringtons

24 GOOD SHOUT A digital empire’s decidedly calm take on outstanding success

30 DRILL DRIVER How Helen Smith keeps the world’s oil fields flowing with talent

34 LIVE DEBATE The challenges and opportunities for the North East’s family firms

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66 EXPORT IN FOCUS How to take your business into nontraditional markets

72 CRASH KING Despite almost 200 air crashes, high tech manufacturer soars on

92 CASH CONQUERS ALL Bankruptcy’s role in former market trader’s huge success in textiles

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IN THE BAG

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TENTS NORTH EAST EDITION

42 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

The latest deals and developments from a key regional sector

WHY ENTERPRISE IS PICKING UP

60 BUSINESS LUNCH

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The North East BIC’s Paul McEldon on why enterprise is picking up

Regulars

76 WINE With this quarter’s guest reviewer Chris Scott, a director at Todd & Cue Ltd

78 MOTORS A car of contradictions is put through its paces by one North East exec

08 ON THE RECORD Expansions, movers and a skills revolution starter

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

22 AS I SEE IT Focus on a duty which employers must not let slip

82 FASHION

CRASH KING

Barbour’s journey from fishermen to the world’s fashionistas

88 EQUIPMENT Take a ride in a roller with attitude – and one which bites

104 FRANK TOCK Gripping gossip from our backroom boy

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ON THE RECORD

AUTUMN 13

New chief for NRG, skills revolution on the horizon, Rio Tinto pitches in for the club, transatlantic hops lined up, big names appointed and Northumbrian Water sets out £1bn investment pledge >> Nissan upscales for Infiniti Britain’s biggest carmaker Nissan is pressing ahead with a £250m expansion at its Washington plant and is now to become the largest in British automotive history.

This is despite simultaneous warnings that the British Government should stay in the EU. There is speculation in the industry that it might cut back on future investment there, should Britain be led out of the European grouping by the outcome of a referendum.

The Japanese manufacturer, whose 1986 opening offset the closure of Wearside shipyards, is building a new production plant for the new Infiniti model. It already employs 6,400 and will be recruiting further as it prepares to launch the upmarket Infiniti from 2015. Models already turned out at Washington include the Qashqai, Juke, Note and the all-electric Leaf. The Sunderland site totals 500 acres of which 75 have so far been developed. Other major Japanese firms have told the British Government they need the UK to be in the EU to guarantee further investment. A widespread slump in European construction has plunged Nissan’s fellow Japanese neighbour, the Birtley excavator builder Komatsu UK, deeply into the red.

>> New chief for NRG A former Barclays Bank director is now chief executive of Northern Recruitment Group, succeeding founder Lorna Moran who has become chairman. Chris Rigg, who has been corporate director for Barclays’ North East team responsible for larger corporate clients, earlier worked for Eaga plc, where he was group corporate finance director and managing director of Eaga Clean Energy Ltd. Lorna Moran says the board is confident he and managing director Therese Liddle will drive NRG forward in coming years. She herself says she will remain very active in helping businesses of the region to grow by finding them the right people. “But Chris and Therese will make a great job of running and developing the business for the future,“ she added.

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Leading industrialist Andrew Hodgson who runs SMD

>> Skills revolution ahead Since the publication of Lord Adonis’ North East Economic Review, Business Secretary Vince Cable has chosen the region as the test bed for a new skills model, which gives the North East LEP more say in how skills funding is targeted.

The decision came as September figures showed unemployment still rising throughout the entire North East region while in the rest of the UK it continues to fall. Our region’s figure rose by 5,000 giving a 10.4% average, against a national 7.7%.

LEP board member Andrew Hodgson who, with Sunderland College’s Anne Isherwood, oversees skills development, says: “We are working with the North East Leadership Board of seven councils and the Skills Funding Agency to develop this skills model, with input from employers, colleges and training providers.”

The next steps, including the creation of more and better jobs, the North East’s Strategic Economic Plan and the 2014-2021 European Funding Strategy have been at the heart of discussions. Councillor Mick Henry, who chairs the North East Leadership Board, says the region is making progress in advancing the review’s recommendations, including a speed-up in collaboration among universities, private and voluntary sectors and local authorities, on a shared agenda for economic growth.

A combined authority of councils across the North East LEP area is expected to be operating by next April, this, says Henry, will place the North East prominently for new arrangements that would allow more devolution for local decision-making.

In July the North East LEP was awarded £7.5m in European funding from the fourth round of the Regional Growth Fund to support small and medium size companies. Professor Roy Sandbach is now leading an innovation strategy, and the LEP is one of three chosen by the Government to pilot innovative new approaches to skills development funding.

Further, £25m of loans has been allocated by the LEP to projects in its area in the last 12 months, and £25m more is being considered by the LEP’s investment panel.

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AUTUMN 13

COMPANY PROFILE

PD Ports celebrates f ive decades at the heart of trade PD Ports recently celebrated 50 years of trade through Tees Dock, the main operational hub at Teesport, with a week of events for the local community.

October 4th 1963, saw the official opening of Tees Dock which started operations with a team of around 25 dock workers, two cranes and a warehouse. Over the 50 years Tees Dock has been operating many developments have been made to improve and expand the services on offer.

Today the port employs 650 people and sees over 5,000 vessel calls each year, bringing millions of tonnes of container, ro-ro, steel and bulk cargoes over its quays. Due to the growth seen over the years, Teesport is now the second largest port in the North East and one of the UK’s best connected feeder ports.

During the official anniversary week, PD Ports played host to over 1,000 guests, including many of the region’s stakeholders, former and existing employees, and their families.

The five day programme included the port operator’s annual stakeholder day, a family fun day for employees, three evening dinners for former and existing, long serving employees as well as the delivery of two educational programmes.

Middlesbrough College baked a cake for the annual stakeholder event large enough to serve 300 people. This was cut on the day by Aadil Hassan, a 19 year old dock operations apprentice at Teesport, and one of PD Ports long serving employees Dave Baldam, civil and technical engineering manager.

The educational days saw pupils from two Redcar based schools, Newcomen primary and Rye Hills secondary school, participate in activities supported and delivered by PD Ports as well as ASDA, Cleveland Potash, Kone Cranes and SSI. The programme of activities helped the students gain a better understanding of industry and what jobs are available to them.

David Robinson, PD Ports’ CEO, said: “We have been overwhelmed by the positive response we

PD Ports employees Aadil Hassan and Dave Baldam cut the cake to celebrate 50 years of Tees Dock

We have been overwhelmed by the positive response we have received about the entire week’s activities have received about the entire week’s activities.

The celebrations have been filled with recollections of interesting tales from the last 50 years as well as new stories around the growth of our young people just starting their careers with PD Ports.

Our people are at the heart of our success, so it is vital for the longevity of our business that we invest in their growth and development.

“Tees Dock and the wider Teesport estate is the core of our business. Since opening in 1963 our business has grown to become an international logistics hub handling goods from all over the world as well as one of the largest employers in the North East and a key economic driver for the region.”

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The extraordinary journey the port has taken over the last 50 years has included changes in ownership, people, operations and procedures. Yet throughout, Tees Dock has remained a major asset to the local and national economies.

If you want to know more about PD Ports or the 50th anniversary of Tees Dock celebrations you can visit the website www.pdports.co.uk or call 01642 877000

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

ON THE RECORD

AUTUMN 13

It’s a goal: Rio Tinto’s Joanne Hannay and Ian Lavery, MP and chairman of Ashington Community Football Club.

>> Pitching for the club Rio Tinto has given more than £480,000 to local causes since closing its Lynemouth Smelter in March 2012 - including £38,750 to upgrade Ashington Community FC’s Woodhorn Lane pitch. The Northumberland town bred soccer greats Jackie Milburn, Jimmy Adamson and brothers Bobby and Jack Charlton.

Joanne Hannay, Rio Tinto’s regional economic development assistant, says: “Rio Tinto recognises sport’s role in community life, and the area is lucky to have a football club as historic and deeplyrooted as Ashington.” Club chairman and Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery says the side’s long-term financial viability is now secured.”

Rio Tinto Alcan’s legacy fund has also made £53,000 available to promote entrepreneurial skills at Lynemouth, the village nearest the smelter whose closure after 40 years has cost 500 jobs.

Through Lynemouth Community Trust, support will go to Kenspeckle, a chocolatier and confectionery business, which has already sold its products through Selfridges in London. The trust’s resource centre cafe, which produces jams and preserves to tourist outlets such as the National Trust, will also benefit, as will Weave, a business incubator hub where self-employed textile designers and manufacturers can produce and market their own creations.

Weave will accommodate 25 small businesses, and provide training for up to 300 local people.

Most of the 500 workers who were displaced have found alternative jobs or other opportunities.

Community transport operator WATBus has also added three new buses to its fleet thanks to a £60,000 donation from the Rio Tinto Legacy Fund.

>> Home holidays boost The staycation summer many people chose to spend this year has helped the North East economy. Consumer spending in the region grew by 4.2% in August - the UK’s best spending summer since 2006.

Barclaycard data showed instore spending grew 3.3% compared to August last year and online spending grew 9.9%. By contrast, airlines saw the growth of public spend slow, rising by 2.3% year on year against double figure growth in earlier months. Restaurant spending grew 13.3% on the August before, while cinema and theatre spending grew 8.1%.

Outlays on clothing, groceries, electronics and department store purchases slipped as people shifted their priority.

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>> Transatlantic hops Jet2 Holidays has launched a new city break to Toronto and introduced a New York Easter shopping trip for North East customers flying from Newcastle International Airport. The airline’s package breaks start from £749 return, and direct flights to the destinations are also available from £499.

>> Into key positions Paul Callaghan, chairman of Leighton Group, the Sunderland software and technology group, and former chairman of One North East regional development agency,

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has been appointed chairman of Newcastle Gateshead Initiative, the tourism and inward investment body. Paul Szomoru now heads business tourism at the Initiative after nine months as interim head of its convention bureau. He has been six years with NGI in various roles. Gillian Hall, senior partner of Newcastle based law firm Watson Burton, has been appointed to the board of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership, succeeding Fiona Cruickshank, non-executive chairwoman of SCM Pharma who recently resigned after two years, citing other commitments.

BQ wrongly stated in its previous issue that Lorna Moran of Northern Recruitment Group would succeed Cruickshank. In fact her company had been asked to carry out a recruitment process to find Cruickshank’s replacement. Fiona Standfield, acting chairwoman of Northumberland Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust and chairwoman also of Northern Stage, has been appointed director of Newcastle Science City.

>> £1bn water boost Northumbrian Water is pledging an investment of around £1bn to benefit customers in the North East between 2015 and 2020. The money will go into improving sewers to lower flood risks; cleaning of water pipes; improvements at 12 sewage treatment works to improve the quality of water returned to rivers, and improvements to protect bathing waters from potential pollution. The Durham group says more jobs will result for its suppliers and contractors, and new business will come into the area.

>> As you were Mark Squires, 48, is once more chief executive of the North East focused Benfield motor group, following Nigel McMinn’s departure to Lookers plc, the Manchester based sharelisted group with around 32 franchises at 69 locations. Squires’ re-appointment to the job he previously held for 12 years follows a period as executive chairman. He now resumes day-today running and control of the £500m turnover family business.

AUTUMN 13

COMPANY PROFILE

Unique facility will provide UK with national centre for low carbon vehicle technologies New Future Technology Centre set to build on success of North East’s automotive manufacturing sector A national centre for low carbon vehicle technologies is in development in the heart of Sunderland’s automotive district. Work is now on site to develop the Future Technology Centre which will be owned and managed by a partnership of Gateshead College and Zero Carbon Futures when it opens next year.

The centre aims to build on the region’s reputation as a development region for electric and low carbon vehicle technology.

“The Future Technology Centre is the first of its kind in Europe and will bring together a research and development centre, a unique vehicle testing laboratory, the UK’s only EV performance test track, office and incubator space to develop a low carbon community that promotes knowledge transfer and project collaboration.” says Dr. Colin Herron, Managing Director of Zero Carbon Futures – a subsidiary company of Gateshead College. “A centre such as this provides the right environment to attract and retain low carbon technology companies and will be crucial in helping the industry to flourish and support growth in employment.”

The Centre will be home to academic research and automotive supply chain operations to act as a demonstration location for the real-world adoption of new and emerging technologies. State-of-theart training schemes will be developed on site all with the aim of increasing the skills levels and developing the workforce of the North East in these technologies. The Centre is part-financed by the European Regional Development Fund Programme 2007 - 2013 and supported by the Government’s Regional Growth Fund.

“Having the R&D centre, development and testing laboratories and performance test track all on the same site is a real draw for low carbon technologists,” says Mick Brophy, Managing Director of Business, Innovation and Development at Gateshead College. “Gateshead College recognises a real opportunity in the development

Future Technology Centre artist’s impression

of the curriculum around these new industries, developing the skills needed for the workforce of the future and allowing us to be the dedicated trainer in this sector regionally, nationally and internationally.”

Diverse areas of research will be made possible by the Centre’s range of facilities an on-site expertise, such as propulsion techniques, including induction charging and hydrogen refuelling, as well as smart home technologies such as vehicle to home and battery second life projects.

Councillor Paul Watson, Leader of Sunderland City Council said: “The Future Technology Centre is an exciting development that strengthens Sunderland’s aim of being a globally recognised automotive city for manufacturing and investment.

“We have the UK’s largest car factory and the strongest automotive component supply chain all within our city. With the production of the Nissan LEAF earlier this year we are positioned as a national hub for the low carbon economy.

The Europe-leading credentials of the Future Technology Centre boost the city and region, and augur well for future investment from companies attracted to our excellent infrastructure, resources and outward-looking approach.”

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The facilities The development will have state-of-the art facilities for low carbon technology companies: • Flexible office and workshop space.

• Meeting rooms • Training facilities • Clean room and laboratory space • Home to Effective Transport Solution’s driver training suite with driving simulators.

• A development and testing laboratory with the latest generation of facilities for accurate vehicle testing • Incorporating the 2.8km, oval, mediumspeed Performance Track.

For more information visit www.zerocarbonfutures.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

NEWS

AUTUMN 13

Whisky galore from the North, three-pronged spread at Ebac, a crafty clinch of major contract, solar speed homewards, advice on the move, grounds for progress and shoe firm ups pace

Success together: (Left to right) Paul Whitecross of Investment for Growth, and Deko Flake directors Rob Lowery, Paul Singh and Keith Wilson, also Dianne Barkas of Investment for Growth.

>> Grants for young firms extended Grants of nearly £1m in total are available to North East SMEs via the Investment for Growth project, which has received further funding to continue its work into 2015.

Success of the project already - 800 businesses helped to create and safeguard more than 2,000 jobs - has attracted further investment from the European Regional Development Fund instead of a closure of the project at the end of this year, as earlier planned. Managed by BE Group, IfG aims now to help another 170 businesses. It has had 45 more applications for funding already since July. One firm already benefiting is Deko Flake, a specialist in industrial and commercial grade resin floor and wall finishes, based in Sunderland.

The firm, launched in Q1 this year, has

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

enjoyed rapid growth at home and abroad.

International sales manager Keith Wilson says: “To cope with all the work, we badly needed a centralised system of storage for all our data and communications.”

Now the firm has received more than a third of the funding needed for the CRM software, and plans to hire up to three more IT staff following installation. Wilson says the application process is quick and simple.

So far IfG has helped more than 800 businesses to access £2.5m of funding, and the fund administrators want particularly to hear from other firms in year one of trading, with fewer than 250 employees, a turnover below €50m, and trading business to business. Grants of up to 40% of a total project value will be available.

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To cope with all the work, we badly needed a centralised system of storage for all our data and communications

AUTUMN 13

>>Whisky galore from the North Cumbria’s first whisky business for more than a century, the Lakes Distillery, has launched its initial product - a British Isles blend named The One. Paul Currie, managing director of the distillery near Bassenthwaite, says The One is marketed as the first blend to bring together whiskies from around the UK. It is described as ‘slightly smoky, sweet and fruity, nutty, with hints of spice’. The venture brings work to Teesside too. RSM Solutions, a family business established at Eaglescliffe in 2008, has been appointed as bottlers.

Lakes Distillery is aiming at both national and foreign markets with 300,000 bottles a year equivalent. “We On board: Entrepreneur hope The One and the Lakes Distillery will become Nigel Mills brands synonymous with Cumbria,” he added. “Next step is further development of our site at Setmurthy, and preparation to produce also The Lakes Malt and The Lakes Gin from next spring. It’s very exciting.”

The distillery fills a former Victorian model farm which, from next summer, will also include a visitor centre with distillery tours, a bistro, bar and shop. The business could eventually employ 57, including jobs at a Teesside end of the operation.

Currie earlier co-founded the award-winning Isle of Arran distillery in Scotland. Another key figure in the venture is Nigel Mills, the Tyneside entrepreneur and chairman of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum.

He founded and built the Whitley Bay based Group, which later he sold to Tesco for £20m-plus in 2011. The board, which has some European funding, comprises besides Mills and Currie, Geoff Hodgson, Mills’ former finance director at Mills Group, Martin Stokoe, and Gary Thornton. Currie says: “The water used will be of unparalleled purity, sourced from Sprinkling Tarn. The mountain air and peaty foothills of Scafell Pike will combine to create a lightly peated malt.”

England’s only other whisky distillery is believed to be a much smaller one in Norfolk. Alan Rutherford, former production director at Diageo and council member of the Scotch Whisky Association, is overseeing the operation.

RSM Solutions was started by Richard Marsden, who has 12 years’ experience of the drinks industry. In 2011 the firm took over the Lion’s Den brew and bottle facility at Cameron’s brewery in Hartlepool.

NEWS

>> Three-pronged spread at Ebac Ebac has added a new factory to its Newton Aycliffe operation as it further diversifies its manufacturing. It will begin producing hot taps from January.

Already a strong seller of its dehumidifiers and water coolers, it has also announced its intention to re-introduce the manufacture of washing machines to Britain from next spring. It also recently acquired brands and products of a collapsed Scottish firm, enabling it now to start producing Norfrost freezers.

Up to 200 more jobs initially have been announced. Group managing director Pamela Petty expects the taps alone to add £2m to annual revenues.

The firm is expanding into the former home of Radius Products on the Aycliffe Industrial Park.

>> Craftily clinching Crafter’s Companion has won its best order yet - worth more than £156,000 - by clinching a deal with the largest craft retailer in the USA. The Coundon, County Durham firm founded by Sara Davies has an order from Dallas based Michaels Stores, North America’s top arts and crafts retailer with more than 1,100 stores in the USA and Canada.

Michaels wants thousands of Crafter’s Companion’s patented, 10-in-1 paper-crafting tool, used by craft enthusiasts around the world. M&S Plastics’ at Spennymoor makes it.

BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art has some spectacular spaces available for private parties, conferences, meetings and events.

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Contact the hires team on 0191 440 4972 or email hires@balticmill.com for more information.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

NEWS

AUTUMN 13

Shining lights: Product developer Ron Jamieson (left) and Chris Hylton, business and technical consultant for the Innovation Programme at the North East BIC, are in on the development of a new solar device.

>> Solar speeds homeward A Hexham firm specialising in renewable energy products has developed a solar device plugging a market gap brought about by changes to planning regulations.

Hadrian Electrical Engineering, set up in 2010 to install and service wind turbines and solar products, saw the opportunity for a solar tracking system that could widen its client

>> Advice on the move Brewin Dolphin the investment management and financial planner has expanded its Newcastle operation to cover the entire North East now and closed its Teesside office. William Baker Baker, who headed the Teesside office for more than 12 years, is overseeing the change as newly appointed Northern regional director.

>> Grounds for progress Coffee specialists John Evans and Mark Porteous have gained lucrative positioning for their Durham based Beanies The Flavour Co in 550 Sainsbury stores nationwide. They are backed by the Finance for Business North

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

base. Its directors had previously operated in the dairy and refrigeration services industry.

With support now from the North East BIC’s Innovation Programme, the idea is for a small ground-mounted Solar PV Tracker. This has come about because tracking units of 3m sq and smaller can now be installed in homes and businesses without planning permission.

East Angel Fund, managed by Rivers Capital Partners.

Beanies has varied methods of flavouring coffees, which typically use syrups and coatings, by directly infusing flavours into the coffee itself. Traders already buying from as far away as South Africa and Denmark now choose from 30 flavours.

>> Better late than never Work has started on building the North East’s biggest housing development - 11 years after residents of the area were told the first bricks would be laid at the site which had been demolished in readiness.

Housebuilders Barratt and Keepmoat finally

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Working in partnership with Ron Jamieson, a former chief executive of the Resource Centre for Innovation and Design at Newcastle University, a specialist also in product development, Hadrian Electrical Engineering has the benefit of both support from BIC in accessing funds, and an existing network of distributors.

got under way in August the £265m project for 1,800 homes that will take another 15 years to complete in Newcastle. The delay followed a discovery of old mine shafts under the site that had to be made safe. Then recession brought funding delays. Phase one of the building development will see 377 homes built at Scotswood in Newcastle’s West End. The 60-hectare estate is being overseen by the New Tyne West Development Company, comprising Newcastle City Council and the two building firms. Duncan Bowman, development director with NTWDC, said: “The next few weeks and months will be exciting times as we all see a new part of Scotswood take shape.”

NEWS

AUTUMN 13

>> Miles of funding

Vinay Bedi: On the move

>> Pastures new Vinay Bedi, one of the North East’s most highly regarded and well known client advisers, has joined UBS Wealth Management in Newcastle as an executive director. He previously spent 25 years with Brewin Dolphin.

>> It’s lucky 13 then

>> 75th investment A team from law firm Ward Hadaway in Newcastle has helped a North East venture capital fund reach a landmark, advising Rivers Capital Partners on the 75th investment from the £7.5m Finance For Business North East Angel Fund. A six figure sum is going into Kamaiden Ltd, a specialist in innovative footwear for children.

>> Business in brief • Around 109 jobs have been lost through Wallsend’s David Price Food Services, a specialist in cold storage, going into administration. KPMG’s sale of part of the company saved 29 other jobs.

• A £65,000 Let’s Grow grant is enabling Billingham-based Cambridge Research Biochemicals (CRB) to move from its Belasis Park premises to a nearby location on Tees Valley Enterprise Zone, more than double the size. CRB, the world’s second-oldest peptide manufacturer, is in a market growing at a rate of 15% a year and plans to grow it’s staff.

• More broken record production has been announced at SSI UK in Redcar. The

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

A fund for technology start-ups has been launched in the North East, sharing the hotbed of hi-tech activities existing at Boho One in Middlesbrough.

TwentyThreeMiles, operating amid more than 200 developers, designers and creative talents there, is a fund for tech start-ups. It has been formed by Clicksco, a group headquartered in Dubai, with offices in the Americas, Latin America and mainland Europe. It has partners in Asia also.

Director Paul Callaghan, responsible for the daily management (not the Paul Callaghan of Leighton Group in Sunderland), says: “TwentyThreeMiles wants to invest in talented people, making them into teams that create and grow exciting businesses.”

23milefund.com

firm employing about 1,800 workers says its blast furnace, basic oxygen plant and casting plant during August achieved their highest weekly outputs since work restarted there in April 2012.

Its blast furnace produced 61,210 tonnes of iron, beating the previous highest of 57,676 tonnes. The oxygen plant made 64,152 tonnes of steel, against a previous best of 61,963 tonnes.

>> Boutique bowling Newcastle city centre has the region’s first ‘boutique’ bowling alley, Lane 7 on St James’ Boulevard.

Developer Tom Wilks says if Lane 7 takes off, similar businesses will be opened in other UK cities.The £700,000 club is bringing 30 jobs. Facilities include pool and ping pong tables, a private karaoke booth and dining facilities.

And if the Lane 7 takes off, Wilks plans to open similar businesses in other UK cities. He says;: “Though attractions like this are popular in the USA and Scandinavia, there aren’t many in the UK because few available sites are big enough.”

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Business and financial adviser Grant Thornton, with offices in Newcastle, has recorded a year of turnover up 13% to £471m. Its transaction advisory services team in the North of England completed four private equity deals in July, including one in which ISIS made a “significant” minority investment in Nigel Frank International, a global specialist recruitment group in Newcastle noted for recruiting on behalf of Microsoft Dynamics. The four deals had a combined value of around £90m.

>> Engineers excel Darchem Engineering, working now on a £1.2m deal to supply the Indian Navy with fire protection equipment, has continued its growth with a revenues increase of more than £12m.

The Stillington, Teesside, firm showed sales up now to £75m for the year to October 26. It is building a new £8m plant of 75,000 sq ft and adding 86 new jobs to an existing workforce of 650.

After-tax profits are up from £11.8m to £13.6m.

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NEWS

AUTUMN 13

>> It all adds up Hitachi trains, about to go into production at Newton Aycliffe, will have their passenger counting systems from Gateshead provider Petards. Great Western Main Line will benefit initially.

>> Floating pigments The North East pigments business of US chemical giant Huntsman is to be floated as part of a £904m deal to acquire five businesses from a rival.

Huntsman Corporation set up a £2m centre at Wynyard Business Park two years ago to serve as global base for its pigments business, a move safeguarding 300 jobs of staff who relocated from its previous premises at Wilton and Billingham. The company is a world leading manufacturer of pigments used in food, pharmaceutical and personal care industries, and besides the pigments division it has a manufacturing facility employing 400

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

people at Hartlepool. However, the firm has now committed to buying five Rockwood Holding businesses, including the rival’s own pigment businesses. The outcome would be a £2.25bn player in the sector. To achieve this, Huntsman is to pay around £684m in cash and take on unfunded pension liabilities of perhaps £140m. About £80.8m in cost savings would be expected by the end of 2015. Two years after this deal – due to be finalised in the first half of next year – a public offering of its combined pigments business would be contemplated. This would be Huntsman’s largest acquisition since the firm paid £1.7bn to buy four businesses from ICI in 1999.

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>> Shoe firm ups pace Seven more jobs have been shoehorned it at Clinkard the Teesside based national retailer of footwear as sales have risen 3.9% to £34.3m for the year to last January, taking profits up to £1.56m from £1.1m.

The company, which marks its 90th anniversary next year, operates online and through a network of 32 stores and factory outlets around the UK, including seven stores in the North East. An IT investment of £625,000 was made during the year. Through current managing director Charles Clinkard it is now into a third generation of business and employs 590 staff.

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NEWS

AUTUMN 13

Manufacturing bosses are being asked to help shape the future success of the sector at a major event in the region. The BQ Chief Executive Manufacturing Summit, on Wed 4th December 2013 at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, in Gateshead, is part of a series of events organised by BQ taking place across the UK. It will seek to map out the future strategy of manufacturing while providing an environment in which business leaders can come together to debate and influence decisions in relation to key business issues.

For more information on the event visit www.bqmanufacturingsummit.co.uk.

The Sunderland firm will retain 49% but largely return ownership to a US company. Subject to Snorkel hitting profit targets within five years, Tanfield will be paid £31m

>> Bio-firm on Tees

>> Tanfield sells stake

A biotech manufacturer has opened a new factory - the first of its kind in the UK - at Billingham. Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies now has a purpose-built cell culture facility there under managing director Steve Bagshaw, to grow the firm’s customer base.

To help guard its investment in Smith Electric Vehicles, Tanfield Group has largely disposed of its lossmaking aerial work platforms business, Snorkel. The Sunderland firm will retain 49% but largely return ownership to a US company. Majority ownership will rest with Nevada based Xtreme Manufacturing, a builder of rough terrain fork lifts owned by Don Ahern, also owner of Ahern Rentals in Las Vegas.

Snorkel will be transferred to a new company, Snorkel International Holdings. Subject to Snorkel hitting profit targets within five years Tanfield will be paid £31m.

Tanfield’s share would then fall to 30% with option to sell. Ahern meanwhile will invest up to £31m in a recovery plan. Ahern, until recently a major customer of Snorkel, had stopped buying because Snorkel could not meet order and delivery needs.

>> Manufacturing event

Sarah’s task: Sarah Cross (right) oversees in-house translation and project management at Eclipse

>> Words, words, words

>> £200m of warmth

Eclipse Translations has just translated large volumes of technical data into six languages, including Vietnamese and Korean, for North East marine, protective and offshore coatings specialists Safinah.

The project, done in eight weeks, included translating, editing and typesetting the data sheets also into Norwegian, French, German and Dutch. Eclipse, based in Alnwick and part of the RWS Group, translated 300,000 words in all.

A £200m investment programme has been launched by British Gas, working with nine North East local authorities as part of the UK’s largest energy efficiency project. The Warm Up North scheme based in Newcastle will initially create 75 jobs directly, and up to 500 more jobs in the local supply chain.The goal will be to help lower energy bills and make keeping warm more affordable for thousands of North East homes and businesses. Local SMEs will be contracted to do the work, which could include cavity wall, solid wall and loft insulation, new ‘A-rated’ boilers, and boiler repairs. The nine authorities are Darlington, Durham, Gateshead, Hartlepool, Newcastle, Northumberland, Redcar and Cleveland, South Tyneside and Sunderland, all supported by the Association of North East Councils.

>> Royal tea towels A Redcar firm has met an urgent order to print more than 15,000 royal baby tea towels for a new customer. Top retailers are now selling them across the country.

Class Fundraising Ltd, which also produces personalised fund-raising items for schools, was set up by Simon Fulton and Mark Simpson, and has just grown into a third workshop at UK Steel Enterprise’s Innovation Centre on Kirkleatham Business Park. Its second 10-colour printer recently bought helped the firm cope with the order from West Sussex.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

>> Boro’ sail ahead Middlesbrough FC will be the first UK football club using a wind turbine to be sustainable. Yorkshire businessman Paul Millinder will locate a 136m tall wind turbine in the Riverside Stadium’s overflow car park. Supplied by Empowering Wind Group, it will operate from next May.

ONLINE: Get the latest North East business news delivered to your desk every morning by subscribing to our daily alert, BQ Breakfast. www.bq-magazine.co.uk

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COMPANY PROFILE

So good they won it twice. . .

A SCHEME set to become Europe’s biggest mixed-use sustainable development has won a prestigious national title for the second time.

Anyone who has visited Lingfield Point in Darlington won’t be surprised by this success but across the wider UK the fact that the best offices available are in the North East may raise an eyebrow.

Five years after picking up the British Council of Offices (BCO) best recycled workspace Award, Lingfield Point has won the BCO’s country-wide ‘test of time’ accolade for its impressive Memphis building.

Memphis, home of the Student Loans Company, was created from an old weaving shed on the site of the 1950s former Patons and Baldwin wool

factory.

John Orchard, a Director of Lingfield Point, believes what is happening at Lingfield Point in Darlington, is shining a light on a better way of getting the most out of regional property - and setting a money-making trend for others around the country to follow.

Construction is also now underway on eco-homes to move Lingfield Point closer to the aims of its master-plan by renowned architects FAT. The first residents will move in later this year.

Lingfield Point believes in working with the best people in the industry and John also worked with designer Wayne Hemingway to establish the UK’s first ever Festival of Thrift in September - which was a huge success attracting 27,000 people.

Wayne was impressed with Lingfield Point from

his first visit and he believes the BCO award is well-deserved. “I was taken aback by the attention to detail and couldn’t think of a better example of up-cycling of old industrial buildings in the UK. If it had been in London rather than Darlington it would be being used as an exemplar by Government agencies and the media.” said Wayne.

For more information on Lingfield Point and its continued development, please log onto www.lingfieldpoint.co.uk

NEWS

AUTUMN 13

>> Merger mooted The North East’s two global marine insurers may merge.

Newcastle-based North of England P&I Association (North), the world’s second largest mutual liability insurer for shipowners, and Durham’s Sunderland Marine Mutual Insurance (SMMI) Company, a leading insurer of fishing vessels and the aquaculture industry, have offices throughout the world and have been trading since the 19thC. Their combined premium income tops £350m and they employ over 400 people, more than two-thirds within the region. They say a merger could bring about one of the largest global marine insurance providers, promising considerable financial stability and enhancing significantly the clubs’ competitive position.

They have worked in a strategic alliance since 2012.

Eventual outcome will be subject to satisfactory due diligence from both parties, agreement of relevant legal documentation and regulatory approvals and membership approval. Further announcements were expected as BQ went to press.

>> Digital speed-up High speed fibre broadband is currently being extended to 97% of homes and businesses in Newcastle. The £3.8m Go Digital programme being progressed by Newcastle City Council and BT is building on work completed in West Newcastle, Gosforth, Jesmond, Lemington and Wideopen.

>> Three wheel revival A newly formed Castle Three Motors Company plans to revive a brand of three wheel car that the Castle Motor Company produced into the 1920s.

Castle Three at Alnwick has been working with Xenophya Design, vehicle designer Charles Purvis and engineering and motorsport specialist GTME over the last year to produce concept designs expected to appeal to both the recreational and the sports enthusiast.

The vehicle will have two wheels at the front

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

and one behind. Two V-twin engines and one flat twin engine are being considered. The vehicles will be sold only as a finished product, not in kit form.

Castle Three’s pitch on a crowdfunding

website, Crowdcube.com, is for up to £200,000 - 20% of the investment - to go through with the venture. Crowdfunding allows private investors to invest directly into companies, investing as little as £100.

>> Newsmakers Robert Forrester, chief executive of Vertu Motors has been named Entrepreneur of the Year in the annual AIM awards. Geoff Thompson, founder and chief executive of Utilitywise the South Shields firm of energy advisors, picked up the award for his firm’s best use of the AIM. > Dame Margaret Barbour, head of J Barbour & Sons, has received a lifetime achievement award from the Institute of Directors. > Steve Cook, 42, from Wolviston Village, has been named the North East’s best building site manager for a second year running in NHBC awards. He’s with Yuills. > Angela Foster (above), partner at Tindle’s Chartered Accountants, has been appointed to the chair of Teesside Society of Chartered Accountants, leading its 737 members for the next year. A chartered accountant and chartered tax advisor, she has worked in general practice for more than 12 years on Teesside. She was appointed a partner in 2007. > Professor Simon Hodgson, dean of the School of Science and Engineering at Teesside University, has been made president of the Engineering Professors’ Council, which consists of 78 institutions and nearly 6,000 individuals. Originally from Kent, he joined Teesside University in 2007. > Angus Allan, a corporate finance partner at accountants and business advisers Clive Owen & Co LLP has been named corporate finance adviser of the year in regional dealmaker awards.

Allan, who has been with the Darlington firm for more than 10 years, helped Utilitywise to become the first North East company for five years to list on the AIM, and he and his team advised Utilitywise also on a subsequent £15.5m acquisition, as well as advising Castledene Group in Easington on its acquisition of Property Finders North East.

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COMPANY PROFILE

Further success for regional heavyweight North East law firm Hay & Kilner has once again received a plethora of recommendations in the independently researched, Legal 500 guide Hay & Kilner will continue investing in its future and developing its range of expertise in the coming year as it targets on-going expansion.

The full service law firm ‘maintains a solid reputation’ in sectors such as corporate finance, commercial property, private capital, employment law, insolvency and construction which have all performed strongly at the Newcastleheadquartered business over the last 12 months.

Hay & Kilner’s senior partner Martin Soloman, who leads the firm’s dispute resolution services, is highly regarded by clients as an ‘experienced and thorough litigator’ for his work in commercial dispute resolution, intellectual property, IT and telecoms. He is one of four partners to be named as a leading individual in this year’s Legal 500 guide. He has seen Hay & Kilner double in size and build up a 160-strong workforce over the last decade. He commented: “Our recognition in this year’s Legal 500 once again demonstrates that we have the correct mix of genuinely experienced experts across a large range of work areas. Our strength lies in the diversification of our business.

“Our investment in the future has been the key to the achievement of our goals. We are confident that our plans for the year ahead will play a major role in continuing our successful growth and development on solid foundations.”

Among the areas of Hay & Kilner’s expertise highlighted is its corporate and commercial unit, with recommendations for all 3 partners and the addition of Tom Goodman to the team. Highlights included advising a care home operator in the South East on a substantial business acquisition from administrators.

The success of Hay & Kilner’s HR Key service, which helps employers tackle the ever increasing burden

Martin Soloman, senior partner, Hay & Kilner

Our investment in the future has been the key to the achievement of our goals. We are confident that our plans for the year ahead will play a major role in continuing our successful growth and development on solid foundations of compliance, has led to further expansion.

Following a string of client gains the firm has committed additional resources to its commercial team with the appointment of Mike O’Beirne as business development manager. Hay & Kilner is also poised to launch its new training division known as HR Showcase.

The insolvency, commercial property and

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construction teams have seen a steady year with a spread of interesting assignments for a mix of local, national and international businesses. Work highlights included acting for Pajunk Medical Products on the relocation and expansion of its business premises.

In the field of Health and safety, the three-partner practice continues to act on serious accident prosecutions, with recent matters including advising on a fatal accident at a steel works.

Hay & Kilner’s impressive private client division is active across the full range of services including estate planning, wills, family, residential property, clinical negligence and personal injury. The teams are widely recommended by many other leading professional advisers in the region.

In the rural sector, Hay & Kilner has considerable expertise acting for clients on a range of matters encapsulating estate planning, property, employment and dispute resolution. Plans in the pipeline include an event for professional advisers and rural clients at Kingston Park on 26th November.

With exciting plans ahead for the full service law firm, Hay & Kilner looks set to continue its growth into 2014.

For further information contact Mike O’Beirne at Hay & Kilner Tel. 0191 232 8345 Email: mike.obeirne@hay-kilner.co.uk Visit: www.hay-kilner.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

AS I SEE IT

AUTUMN 13

Let this duty slip at your peril

Though employers have been submitting Real Time Information to Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs since last April, from this quarter businesses must strive to be more vigilant to avoid costly fines, says Claire Priestley Since last April all employers have been required to submit Real Time Information (RTI) to HMRC every time they pay their employees.

However, it's from now (October in fact) that businesses must be more heedful.

This is especially so for companies with 50 employees or more (or those who joined the pilot scheme). They are subject to penalties for incorrect submission and late filing. Employers with fewer than 50 employees have a little longer grace period. Only from next April will they be subject to penalties for errors and late filing. The main change for companies has been that employers must send information to HMRC (Full Payment Submission) about employees’ pay and deductions ahead of them receiving their wage or salary. It may seem extra work at the time. But also it means the laborious year-end process of submitting P14s for all employees, and a P35 summary and employer declaration, is no longer required.

Although HMRC gave businesses a six month grace period to get to grips with this new process and familiarise themselves with the system, it could, without professional help from their accountants, have been tricky for

many business owners. Even up to last April when RTI came into force, according to the Federation of Small Businesses, a staggering 25% of SMEs were still unsure about what RTI is and how to do it. Now, from October, 100% of larger businesses need to be vigilant in submitting correct, real-time information on time to avoid fines and penalties. And these will escalate for repeat offenders.

So, what does it really mean for businesses, long term? More time consuming extra work?

Or is it of greater benefit to the employer? At Clarand we think it’s a mix.

Employers will not need to send new starter forms P45 or P46 to HMRC or prepare the necessary year-end returns. This, as we say, will ease the headache of submitting the correct details from the whole year, and ultimately give them time back for their business.

Fundamentally, though, employers must understand they need to keep on top of employees’ details on a monthly (or even weekly) basis. Also, they must have a new employee’s full details before their first pay date, even if that employee is a temporary member of staff.

Whatever your business, this is one of the biggest changes to payroll since the 1940s.

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As with all new systems, there are bound to be teething problems which could create difficulty for time-poor business owners struggling to run their business, let alone learn (and remember) a new way of reporting payroll.

Although smaller businesses aren't subjected to the penalties yet, we'd recommend all businesses with payroll to ensure they're adhering to HMRC's guidelines, and submitting the FPS (Full Payment Submissions) correctly, and promptly.

Businesses liable to feel the pressure most are those which pay staff weekly with fluctuating wages, and those with a transient workforce.

Many business owners anticipate that using an accountant to prepare their payroll would be expensive. But bear in mind: most charge a reasonable fee given the penalties the owners could incur by getting it wrong.

Whatever your business, remember: This is one of the biggest changes to payroll since the 1940s. So never be scared to ask for help to take that extra burden away and ensure peace of mind in these changing times.

Armed with extra knowledge and support, you can be sure that by your year-end, you can relax knowing you have RTI, and your business, covered. n Claire Priestley writes from Clarand Accountants at Hexham.

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AS I SEE IT

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

ENTREPRENEUR

AUTUMN 13

in association with

A gentle sort of Shout You’d expect a firm called Shout to be bombastic but Gary Boon is taking his digital firm to outstanding success with a decidedly calm approach. Brian Nicholls reports.

It’s Shout Digital’s fourth birthday, and with that name you’d expect a razzamatazz. Instead, a cathedralic calm fills its spacious offices. No balloons. No nostril-tickler of a fizzy drink. Not even enough folk to fill a ballroom. Instead, an air of confidence and concentration - possibly the vital clues to the outstanding success of this digital specialist.

The client list amassed so quickly is remarkable, including as it does Sage the global provider of business management software, Nova International sports management and Bond Dickinson, the 200-year-old law firm 35th in the top 100 UK law firms.

With a £1.1m turnover likely to double this year, and 35% growth in three months recently, how’s such speedy progress achieved?

Gary Boon, founder and chief executive officer, responds as if still curious himself.

“It’s interesting for us,” he says. “We’re not traditional in how we generate growth. We don’t have a dedicated business development function. We’ve grown largely through word of mouth.

“The traditional business development pattern of having people go out or pick up the phone and cold call isn’t something we do. We try to develop through people we’ve come to know and some contacts I’ve been able to make through my limited networking.

“It’s not that I’m no great networker or don’t want to be. It’s just I’m naturally fairly quiet. So

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

growth has come from word of mouth. People knock on our door to talk about projects.

Through that we’ve gone from three people four years ago to 14 last year and 24 today - all specialists, no jacks of all trades.”

The firm at Garth Heads, overlooking the winking eye bridge on Newcastle’s side of the Tyne, builds websites, does online marketing, builds mobile applications and provides digital strategy. Its real value emerges, Boon says, when clients ask how digital can work for their business.

Shout Digital is especially reputable for its expertise with apps. It has devised one for Nova on training for the Great North Run, one for the construction industry, and an alert for Bond Dickinson enabling human resource managers and directors to quickly solve complex calculations surrounding maternity, paternity and adoption leave.

The construction app assembled for 4Projects Construction now has 30,000 customers using a cloud based system for project collaboration. They range from global bluechip clients to regional businesses whose experts and key contributors can work together on documentation and 3D models though physically they may be widely apart and requiring guaranteed confidentiality.

For OK magazine it has provided an app where anyone obsessed with following the footsteps of celebs can dine where they have dined, or

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visit nightclubs they went to. Who was spotted there and when? To some this may sound a sad existence but, as Boon points out, it goes with the whole celeb ethos. “We built that, and through agents, OK can intimate straight away if celebs are about to appear somewhere.”

His deepest admiration seems reserved for Nova, “a fantastic North East organisation, great to work with and iconic for a number of reasons.” Shout Digital likes to sit alongside an organisation like that - “people who show what they stand for and who show the rest of the country that it’s perfect being here.”

All progress to date is organic, the ethos being to grow with quality of work the firm’s spokesman. “Where we are today, I’d like to see us continue a level of growth and even accelerate it,” Boon admits. “But we have to put in a more formal business development function. We’re looking at that. To sustain our present growth level that’s what we must do.”

Intense regional competition is a stimulus already, a launch pad that has led to 52% of the workload being national now. “The North East’s a fantastic region for digital, a fantastic challenge for competition.” he says. “That keeps us on our toes to make sure what we deliver is on a par, if not above, what others are trying to deliver.

“We try to put across a high level of thought over what a client wants from us. When people engage with us, or ask us to pitch on a >>

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BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

ENTREPRENEUR

project, they’re asking a serious question because ultimately what we do digitally is there to affect the client’s business and what revenue they generate. They’re looking for return on investment.

“So it’s about giving confidence that you understand across the whole eclectic mix these days. Be it mobile, smartphone, app development, website, intranet or whatever, you can come with a holistic approach that, even if they only engage on one of those things, you’ll know how that might fit into a wider digital strategy.

“That, I think, is where our difference is. We’re holistic, and from a business with perspective to understand the end aim of a client’s business, and what value we can bring it through digital.

What works for client A may not work for client B. Everything’s bespoke.”

Boon was previously with another digital agency in the North East for several years. He’d worked on global digital strategies for the likes of Bupa and BBC. He’d also previously spent 14 years working with UK banks, devising solutions such as chip and pin security on cash machines.

So his personal background was both highly technical as well as strategic.

Then, the wing-flexing... “We all at some point in our lives, I think, yearn to work for ourselves.

I decided in mid-recession 2009 to do my own thing. Two directors who’d worked with me wanted to be a part of that, and I’ve also

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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We’ve had London based clients for three years. They’d confirm we serve them well. They remain with us. We get them results year on year from the North East shareholders who were involved during the set-up.”

One is Ian Baggett, another impressive entrepreneur, creator of Adderstone Group in property development. Then there’s Paul Walker, ex-chief executive of Sage, and Jason McKay, former head of GLG, Europe’s third largest hedge fund which, in 2010, became a wholly owned subsidiary of British alternative investment manager Man plc, and now as part of that oversees funds of around US$26.2bn.

So contributors to strategy comprise four shareholders including Boon, plus technical director Phil Harvey, creative director Ian Mullen and digital director Andy Brown, people whose talents he’d previously interfaced with for eight years.

Paul Walker’s confident he’s backing a winner.

“Its increasing profile beyond the region and within the industry makes it an excellent North East ambassador, and proves Shout Digital’s at the forefront of this fast moving and competitive industry,” he affirms.

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They’ve got badges up. Shout’s been voted the North East’s best marketing business two years running in awards led by marketing publication The Drum. It’s been shortlisted for Digital Agency of the Year and, in Boon’s case personally, Managing Director of the Year. Now it hopes to penetrate The Drum Digital Top 100 Agencies within two years.

Operations started in the old Jesmond, Newcastle, telephone exchange that Adderstone Group had skilfully converted into modern offices. Expansion since has forced three moves in four years, and a run on space has re-arisen.

Love brought Boon to the North East, and the North East is where he loves to be. He was actually born in Nottingham and lived there for the first 13 of his 42 years. Then he moved with his parents to Dewsbury in Yorkshire, and in his early 20s gained a degree at Huddersfield University in electronics and computer science.

His first job arose in Sheffield then after a year he worked with NCR at Leeds. But he also >>

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COMPANY PROFILE

Chance to tap into the power of mentoring While mentors can play an important role in giving students an insight into the world of work, the mentoring experience can be equally beneficial for businesspeople in sharing their expertise, as a University of Sunderland programme has proved.

In today’s competitive job market, students face an uphill task in understanding what employers really want in an employee and how they can stand out in the graduate talent pool.

For them, the chance to learn vital insights from people within industry can make a major contribution to their ultimate success on their career trajectory.

At the same time, for many people in business, mentoring can be a hugely rewarding experience and also help contribute to solving skills shortages and youth unemployment.

The University of Sunderland’s Professional Mentoring Scheme continues to work with some of the region’s most prominent businesses for the benefit of its students and the mentors on its roster.

And it is now looking to significantly grow its base of successful business people who could serve as mentors in the North East.

Organisations like Arriva, Barclays, The Bridges Retail Management, Caterpillar, The City Council, The Echo, Gentoo, Grundfos Engineering, NECC and SAFC have all taken part in the scheme.

Among the individuals involved has been John Green, centre manager of The Bridges Shopping Centre in Sunderland.

He says: “Businesses need to engage with education and help shape the business people of the future. How can we as business people criticise the education system if we are not prepared to be involved?

“I think the link between education and business is invaluable at any age. It gives students a real idea of what to expect when they enter the world of work.”

Green insists he gained great personal benefits from his work with Sunderland student Rebecca Frances.

John Green Bridges, centre manager of The Bridges Shopping Centre in Sunderland

“I found Rebecca’s enthusiasm for the programme and life in general really refreshing.

“I found it personally rewarding to feel that I had in some way helped prepare Rebecca for her next steps.”

Keith Crossley, Barclays Business northern regional manager, also found mentoring to be just as rewarding for him as it ultimately was for the student he supported.

He helped student and would-be entrepreneur Tom Husmann develop his business idea.

His advice and guidance clearly paid off, with the business studies student winning the university’s Bright Ideas Award this year for his business idea EA-Funding - an online investment platform between China and Europe. Tom is currently in China readying his business for market.

Crossley says: “Tom demonstrated leadership skills and great innovation and those things will set him apart in the future.

“But my questions to him were very simple and he would then go away and look at the things that

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could perhaps go wrong with his business plan.

“A lot of the students when they bring a business plan to you look at everything being an absolute success but there has always got to be a ‘what if’ in there.

“So it was a case of mentoring Tom through the positives and the right ideas but also pointing out what may go wrong with that business plan and for him to have a contingency plan in place to deal with that.”

Crossley says he found the entire mentoring process hugely valuable and he urges others to get involved.

“I was born in Sunderland and giving something back to the community is very important. It’s a minimal commitment of your time, but the satisfaction of seeing someone go from very basic career plans to putting them into place and possibly gaining future employment is extremely satisfying. “I urge anyone that has the time to commit to this programme to do so because the satisfaction of seeing your student at the end of it progressing is an absolutely fantastic experience.”

To get involved in the Professional Mentoring Scheme you will attend an hour’s induction session, following which you’ll be matched with your student/mentee for three one-hour mentoring sessions.

To get started complete a short online application form at www.sunderland.ac.uk/business/ professsionalmentoring

E: professionalmentoring@sunderland.ac.uk T: 0191 515 3388/3527

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

ENTREPRENEUR spent time with the firm in London and Belfast, and lived in Chester while working for a client.

Finally it was the North East. “You know, you get your girl friend and those sorts of things,” he explains. “So I’ve been in this region for about 18 years - a lot longer than elsewhere.

And I’ve no plans to go anywhere else.”

More than that, it’s vital to him that business should support the region. “I don’t just mean Shout Digital, but other organisations too, both in digital and other sectors. We’ve a great opportunity to put the North East back on the map, making sure that from a regenerative aspect after the recession we all work together to make ours a thriving economy. I’ve always intended to create a business for the long term. It’s not just about making money. It’s also about putting jobs and expertise back into the economy. My family live in the North East.

I want something here for my son to be able to aspire to, not having to go further afield to London or wherever. Being here, growing an agency on a national scale but rooted here, is important to me.”

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We all at some point in our lives, I think, yearn to work for ourselves.

I decided in midrecession 2009 to do my own thing Elder son Adam is 21 and a test analyst there.

Younger son Ethan is nine, and the family live at Heaton, which is handy for the office. His wife Sharon is a key figure in the company too - finance manager. “She chases all the hard stuff I’m too lenient on, about getting money into the business.” While Shout Digital has a London office, Boon believes a global business can now be run from a region. He details: “While face to face meetings are still required,

Difficult challenges ahead Shout Digital is a member of W3C alongside the like of Apple, Microsoft and Facebook. It’s an elite international committee led by Britain’s Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the world wide web.

So how does Boon feel about the excesses, corruption, pornography and fraud that were never intended?

“Difficult challenges have to be addressed,” he agrees. “The Government wants phone companies to help prevent people accessing pornography. You can do that to a certain point.

“But people who want it always know how to circumvent the preventive technology put in place.

It’s a constant battle. No easy thing. Everything possible should be done to prevent unsavoury material. But it’s always going to be evolving and ongoing. It will need global corporates such as Google and Microsoft to help build technology.

“On fraud, we’re working on numerous e-commerce projects for clients. One project I previously worked on was the BBC TV licensing website where one challenge was to stop people accessing other people’s accounts online. There are things that from a content perspective can be addressed online. But we must stay vigilant and continue to look at how we build secure systems.

Here we manage all our own servers in our data centre near our office. It’s our servers. We constantly ensure they’re secured and look at what new threats are coming, ensuring our infrastructure, and how we’ve designed our systems, protect our clients’ businesses as much as possible. I can leverage from security I did for banks.” And given Berners-Lee’s belief that the world wide web should traffic universal free communication, are newspapers and magazines ethical when putting some of their material behind pay walls? Boon considers: “I actually think they’re right. What they offer’s of value. Why not charge in the same way that you previously bought a newspaper? If they’re writing great content, why shouldn’t they charge online?”

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you can do that over Skype, conference call and video conferencing.

And while nothing beats meeting around a table on occasions, you can be in London by train in two hours fifty or even forty from Newcastle. Get there by 10am, get a full day’s work in, then do more work coming back on the train than you might in the office.

“We’ve had London based clients for three years. They’d confirm we serve them well. They remain with us. We get them results year on year from the North East. The model works.”

He does admit: “I’d have no problem about seeing the company sold eventually to a WPP or someone like that of this world. I don’t want to stay small. However, I do want us to become a top UK digital agency based in the North East but delivering nationally. We’re on a growth path there.” Boon can recruit appropriate talent within the region too. And that counts for a lot. n

Serious about growing your business?

The Entrepreneurs’ Forum provides inspiration and a helping hand to entrepreneurs from across the region.

This unique group of like-minded people come together through a mentoring programme and a series of world-class events to share best practice, create valuable connections and grow their business.

The Forum is the legitimate voice of growth orientated owner-managed businesses in the North East, with the vision to make it the number one region in the UK for entrepreneurship.

Discover what’s been helping over 300 of the region’s leading entrepreneurs gain a competitive advantage and drive their businesses forward for the last ten years: www.entrepreneursforum.net.

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COMPANY PROFILE

Businesses back NE1 ltd for further five year term The business community of Newcastle say ‘Yes’ to BID renewal.

At 5pm on 24 October 2013, the votes were counted and Newcastle’s business community voted strongly in favour of NE1’s re-election.

Having the vote in the bag, it is now back to business for NE1. We are delighted that we can roll up our sleeves and get to work on phase 2 of our ambitious plans to redevelop parts of the city and improve the environment for business.

The ‘yes’ vote amounts to a huge vote of confidence in NE1, the results we’ve achieved to date and a willingness on the part of the business community to invest in our plans for the future.

This is all the more reassuring when set against the harsh economic climate, times continue to be tough but businesses have not been short sighted: by voting ‘yes’ they have recognised the value-added that NE1 delivers and the long term benefit for Newcastle of having its own Business Improvement District.

NE1’s plans for our 2nd term have not been developed in isolation – over the past 12 months, we have been involved in extensive discussions with the business community of Newcastle to gauge views on what has been delivered to date and business ambitions for the future. Feedback from businesses was resoundingly supportive of all that has been achieved most notably the Alive after Five initiative which was universally welcomed together with the redevelopment of Newcastle Central Station. This process also provided a clear steer from business on the priorities for the future which helped shape NE1’s business plan and secured the ‘yes’ vote in the election.

With the vote and a first term under our belts, we’re ready to hit the ground running and are already mapping out major redevelopment plans for key parts of the city.

Building on the Alive after Five initiative, which extended retail opening until 8pm weekdays supported by free car parking in the council’s multi-storey car parks, we are now focusing

Artist’s impression of one of NE1’s proposed new developments.

With the vote and a first term under our belts, we’re ready to hit the ground running and are already mapping out major redevelopment plans for key parts of the city one of our new capital projects on redeveloping Northumberland Street and strengthening its place as the North East’s premier shopping street.

We’ve already started working with the city council and a group of local and national retailers on detailed plans for the street – taking inspiration from a range of international cities.

This is only one of our capital project plans – others include the redevelopment of the Bigg Market, which we have earmarked for significant investment and are confident of securing match funding. The areas around The Gate and Percy Street are also primed for major redevelopments to improve the connectivity of these areas and to increase their appeal. All our efforts are focused on delivering strategic improvements that deliver commercially, as well as creating environments that help to attract visitors.

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It is by balancing these objectives that real results can be delivered. We are really excited about the prospects for the next five years. Having the backing of business gives us certainty and allows us to map out a plan that will take us to 2019 and hopefully beyond allowing us to embark on even more significant programmes to keep Newcastle on the European ladder.

getintonewcastle.co.uk @NewcastleNE1 facebook.com/GetIntoNewcastle

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

INTERVIEW

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Helen drives the drills Awards and swelling revenues are the spoils Helen Smith and a small team of mobilisers win when placing any of 12,000 much-in-demand oil and gas field specialists in almost any part of the world within hours.

Brian Nicholls reports They used to speak of a woman behind every successful man. Today Helen Smith is herself the successful woman behind some 12,000 successful men - experts in their career and in packing a hold-all and a passport, and heading for any one of 80 countries at the bidding of a phone call.

Chief executive of Oil Consultants Ltd, Helen

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Smith and her core team provide this double battalion strength of skilled technical personnel - both individually and as entire teams - for corporate offshore and onshore clients in the upstream oil and gas industry.

The company, formed in 1999, has widened its services over the years from simply providing well-testing consultants to how

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now supplying both complete project teams and individuals whose competences range from bolting and coiled tubing to welding and well services. They’re dropped in to assist these major operators and service companies, which confidently look to Oil Consultants to solve major needs in their particular project by providing personnel on short, long or

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permanent contracts.

At the firm’s headquarters in Washington, the in-house mobilisation team pair these much-in-demand consultants of more than 90 nationalities with the requirements expressed.

Since Helen Smith’s appointment to chief executive in 2011, business has increased fourfold and Oil Consultants recently won its second Queen’s Award in three years for enterprise in international trade. Oil Consultants, working 24/7, proudly claims it can produce vital human resources globally almost immediately.

Its current record is less than four hours.

This impresses the producers who live under continuous threat that every hour of any delay possibly arising could cost millions of dollars.

“Our primary supply of personnel are highly qualified individuals with very specialised skills.

They’re in real short supply,” Smith says. “Many companies want to offer them work. We try to look after them to the best of our abilities. We build a relationship with them. We take time to understand what they’re after in their job and what the clients are after, then put the two together. We provide them with variety in that they can pick and choose the sort of job they want to go on. We also give them all the backup we can when they are on assignment.”

The company, now turning over £26m a year running this service, knows the ins and outs of both sides. It was, after all, oil industry workers who set up the business.

They saw opportunity to benefit both sides amid a growing skills shortage.

In-house personnel - the “mobilisers” - have amassed vast knowledge and experience of international logistics, which drive their quick responses. They’re well versed in health and safety, a crucial consideration for a sector which, although improved beyond recognition on these matters since the tragedy of Piper Alpha, still must be prepared for any eventuality. That the company board has little changed throughout its 14 years, and that some longer serving staff have upwardly developed their careers, gives the company a consistency, making growth all the easier.

And fast expansion it has been since Helen Smith’s arrival. Earlier this year Oil Consultants opened in Malaysia and Indonesia and now, after another year of record growth, it has

appointed ahead of plan a business delivery and development director to cover the Middle East and Africa, a zone taking in also India, Pakistan and Bangladesh in its provision of both customer support services and new business development. It also expects to beef up its US presence shortly. It has previously established agents and satellite offices in Aberdeen, China, Norway, the UAE, the USA and Trinidad and Tobago, and it has a fully staffed office in Brisbane, Australia.

This spread of supportive presence for its consultants and its clients, Smith believes, is what distinguishes the firm. “Opportunity to meet people face to face is crucial to

INTERVIEW

developing trust and understanding, elements vital in supplying personnel to tackle the tasks they do,” she adds.

Helen Smith, who’s been into recruitment executively since 1995, is the sort of go-getter essential to inspire the expansion through fast international growth that her board envisaged a couple of years back. She brought with her a company-building background, sound knowledge of service, sales, human resource management, and a 16 year record of entrepreneurial flair.

Previous firms she developed operated nationally, one being Education Lecturing Services which provided education staff to >>

Fracking’s definitely a goer Oil Consultants is only slightly involved in renewables as yet. But Helen points out that many skills required there are skills on her company’s books, and while she doesn’t expect renewables to be significant for some time, Oil Consultants will be ready to meet demands as and when.

Fracking, though, is already a goer. “We’re providing people now who undertake the stimulation in fracking,” she says. “It’s particularly active in the USA, of course, so we’re building our supply of consultants in that area. We see it becoming very large.”

Whatever the job, though, clients very often get in touch at short notice. “They usually want from us someone who can travel tomorrow and put skills in place right away. So we only really provide people who are fully experienced,” she explains.

Sometimes a working mentor may be supplied and put alongside someone less experienced. This way, the second individual gains technical finesse from the senior consultant, getting practical experience needed at the same time. “So effectively we provide two people, one tried and tested, and the other that the client company anticipates bringing on to its team longer term.”

Inevitably it’s a business fraught with unforeseens. But Smith’s job is made easier by the board composition at Oil Consultants, having changed little since the firm’s start-up. They’ve been through the hoops themselves, and a number of longer serving staff members have also been able to develop their careers as the company has grown. The operations manager started in accounts some years back. A couple of the team in Australia relocated from Washington to develop the local team there. “That sort of thing gives us strength and consistency,” she observes.

Given the current skills shortage, competition to hire the best is intense. The challenge at Oil Consultants is to satisfy the hirers’ needs while looking after the interests of individuals hired. “We build a relationship with them,” she points out. “We take time to understand what they’re after and what the clients are after, then put the two together. We also offer the individuals being hired variety, since they can pick and choose the sort of job they want to go on.”

Come depths of winter in the North Sea, many consultants understandably prefer to work nearer the equator. “So we can try to find them somewhere warmer, and in that respect we can offer variety of work with some of the best firms in the industry. We also give all the back-up we can.”

That includes organising visa and permit applications, medical insurance, and free insurance, and ensuring they get paid in the right way. “We help them with their travel plans and make them feel that they - and their families - are part of our organisation.

“We are the back-up for their own ambitions.”

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INTERVIEW

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colleges throughout the UK. She launched that business with colleagues in 1995. She then headed an acquisition and merger with another such business, Protocol Teachers, which reached also into Australia, South Africa and New Zealand. She led the outcome as managing director.

Then in 2003 she set up from scratch Construction Learning World, a construction training company and, as chief executive, had it listed on the AIM in 2007. In 2010 she sold it and, the following year, joined Oil Consultants, where she now leads a team of 53, including nine overseas.

“It was absolutely the right time for me to come here,” she says. “And it was the right company in the right set-up. The satisfaction I get now comes from seeing this company develop. In the last three years it has grown fourfold in business it offers. You can only grow a business when you provide really good service and good products. I’m striving to provide the highest quality in what we deliver, and to have a really deep understanding of what our clients need, and what their challenges are so that we can help them find their solutions.”

Consultants are checked rigorously before they’re put forward, and there’s a competence scheme, whereby consultants can demonstrate their knowledge and experience. A panel of industry experts to hand carries out technical interviews and assists in the recruiting.

His presentation of the second Queen’s Award in three years to the firm recently prompted the Lord Lieutenant for Tyne and Wear, Nigel Sherlock, to summarise Oil Consultants as a “remarkable company making steady growth within a very specialised field.” The growth has been 100% organic too.

It’s thriving on a fact that the sector is recovering globally just as many experienced workers are retiring before less experienced successors have had time to come through. “It is impossible to teach in two years what takes 15 years to master,” Smith explains. “So the skilled individuals remaining are increasingly wanted - not only by client companies of ours but also by other agencies that place them.”

That doesn’t explain the progress entirely, though. As she points out: “Our success is also due to the high levels of customer care we demonstrate, and knowledge we hold about

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You can really only grow a business when you provide really good service and good products. I think they hate it when I come in and say: ‘Well, I’ve been thinking in the car...’” the international oil and gas industry.

“My aim,” she adds, “is to provide the highest quality in what we deliver and to have a really deep understanding of what our clients need, and what their challenges are, so that we perhaps can help too.”

Helen Smith, 51, spends half of her week in the North East of England and half in the Midlands. She was born in Charnwood Forest, Leicestershire, and grew up there. For her degree she read geography and education at the Roehampton Institute, part of London University, then returned to the Midlands.

Recently she and her husband Ron, who runs a surveying business, have moved into an old 1700s pub which they’ve converted into a home over the last five years in South Derbyshire.

Her commute between there and Tyne and Wear is no hardship. She explains: “With the Midlands being so central, you get to the North East as easily as elsewhere. I drive up very early on a Monday morning - an early bird at crack of dawn, normally in the office in fact before

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the staff. I think they hate it when I come in and say: ‘Well, I’ve been thinking in the car...’”

I’ll have had a good five hours on the road as part of the commute there and back at a time when you can think really clearly. It gives chance to reflect and be sure that what we’re doing is absolutely right. You can even fix some problems in your head!

“Then I usually go back on a Thursday evening.

I also have a day working from an office in Nottingham or from home. Fridays I may use for meetings with other managers in the business or maybe go to London. Often I’m either in the office working with the team here or perhaps out with our business development team wherever our clients are. That could be in the Middle East or Australia. Or I use Friday to think, prepare reports, catch up on other things and perhaps take time to reflect.” How does she see the sector’s outlook generally? “We envisage continued growth for the company over the next three to five years. We’ve invested heavily over two years and should see results come through. It’s a beginning for us really.” n

Wednesday, 4 December 2013 at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead

Our exclusive manufacturing summit will seek to map out a successful future as well as celebrate our world class capabilities in what is a crucial industry for the North East economy. And we’re calling on business leaders to join us at this invite-only event to ensure it delivers maximum impact in contributing to economic growth and improvement in the sector.

For more information about the Summit you can visit www.bqmanufacturingsummit.co.uk or please contact Kirsty Tarn or Rachael Lasckhe on 0191 426 6300 or email events@room501.co.uk to book your place and we hopefully look forward to seeing you there to help us shape the future of manufacturing in the region.

in association with

keeping it in the family The issue: What key issues do family businesses face in the North East, and how can we support their growth and development to ensure our next generation continues to thrive and contribute to the growth of the North East economy?

Aidan Dunstan said UBS was not a corporate banker but comprises wealth managers working in regional offices, guided by what goes on in each region. Once a business has been sold, UBS advises how to invest their money. “We’re under-represented in this region by quoted companies,” he said. “I conclude this region relies more on private and family owned businesses. We may understand better after this where UBS might offer insights and advice. We’re all here to grow a business. I see two ways - take market share, not necessarily sustainable long term, and/or try to create new wealth, which is what UBS is all about.”

Toby Bridges: “I’m fourth generation in a family firm 105 years old. Under my watch we’ve three parts to the business: one packages for manufacturers, an office products business acquired last year and the core activity, a sticky tape business. I’ve another company in Scotland. I don’t understand the

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difference between a family business and a normal one. But we do have internal issues over how to keep or get rid of family members, and about the many staff who’ve worked for us for a long time. My other key passion is the amount we can give back to the community, and have done throughout. We’re only small, turning over £5m. But I see us as a key part of our community.”

Charlie Hoult: “I run a family business in property. I’m fourth generation. We’ve changed the business. Was it John Cleese who wrote How to Survive the Family Business? I see three circles in family circle textbooks: the family business, the ownership and the family, and it’s how those circles fit together. Our family have always been in flux and moving around over the business needs, family needs and what the business owners need.”

Nigel Mills: “I’m probably a third generation of entrepreneurs. My grandfather set up a newsagent’s. My father worked in it until it

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Taking part Aidan Dunstan, Executive Director, UBS Andrew Elliott, Executive Director, UBS Mark Squires, Managing Director, Benfield Motors Nigel Mills, Chairman, Entrepreneurs’ Forum Charlie Hoult, Managing Director, Hoults Yard Toby Bridges, Managing Director, NBT Group John Adamson, Director, Ramside Group Jodie Barwick-Bell, Director, Vardy Family Office Dan Robinson, Chairman, Gus Robinson Developments Steve Plaskitt, Partner, Tait Walker Chartered Accountant Jonathon Stokes, Head of Dispute Resolution, Gordon Brown Law Firm Stuart Smiles, Director, Alex Smiles Ltd In the chair: Caroline Theobald, managing director, Bridge Club Also present: Brian Nicholls, Editor, BQ Magazine Venue: Malmaison Newcastle 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.

was sold, then I set up a new business with my father in 1986, called Mills. We built that up then sold to Tesco about two years ago.

We also have a portfolio of properties and a hotel shared with investors in the Lake District called The Trout. We had three hotels at one stage. We’re also helping to build and develop a whisky and gin distillery in the Lake District, aiming it to be a major tourist attraction, and a food and beverage operation. Our first product is a whisky called The One, which will call on Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland in its making. It’s being bottled on Teesside. We’ve had a common thread of retail through our business but have also proved adaptable. I’m also chairman of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum, which represents about 400 entrepreneurs in the North East. Family businesses, If they’re to be sustainable may have to be more efficient, more adaptable.”

John Adamson: “I’m third generation. Our

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firm employs about 450 staff and turns over about £20m. As a family business we’re hands on. My mother, sister, nieces and myself, all help. We’re expanding over 18 months. I’m the only person in the British Isles presently building an 18 hole golf course - Donald Trump was the last one. We hope it’ll be in play next year so we’ll have 36 holes. In January we start on a £10m development with 47 new bedrooms, a new restaurant and a 44,000sq ft health club and spa. Over 15 years national and international hotel chains have opened in Durham and Newcastle. The business plan at one proposed to attack our market. But we’ve increased turnover year on year, despite some difficult years. The last two years have been great. Family businesses can adapt and be flexible if run right. They can fight national and international competition. Our business will be 50 next year. I hope and expect we’ll be around another 50 years.”

Jodie Barwick-Bell: Until recently she led private clients’ tax practice at KPMG in Newcastle, advising entrepreneurial families.

She also chairs the Chartered Institute of Taxation in the North East. She found the difference between a multinational and a family business enormous. “A decision can be made by the person sitting next door now instead of being made in London, and family environment is nice to work in. What used to come out for me is that often the patriarch’s the driving force of the business, so how will the next generation transition into running it? How does the patriarch pass over ownership? Will the next generation want to take it forward?.”

DEBATE

Bar difference in size I’m not sure there’s a difference between family businesses and other businesses

Jonathon Stokes: A first generation business owner and entrepreneur, he had earlier merged his business into Gordon Brown. Nothing like that had previously happened in his family’s background. “One of my responsibilities now is to assist start-ups, small businesses and family businesses, positioning the structures needed. Bar difference in size, I’m not sure there’s a difference between family businesses and other businesses. Most larger businesses resolve internal management of their business early on, with shareholders’ agreement, lines of demarcation. Smaller family businesses don’t have that. Here’s where problems can arise - issues over thought and the process.

All businesses can and will survive with a strong leader. Otherwise they’ll struggle because there’s no way to work through problems and find solutions. Could we make generations coming through more responsible within the businesses they’re taking on? My experience in 30 years as a solicitor is that a lot of generations inherit businesses without then adding value. I question whether they value the business as much as if they would having to buy it. In terms of exit strategies for older family members, making the younger ones buy into the business might be practical.

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It might be interesting to create a funding market around such businesses, enabling the next generation to buy in and ensure it goes forward.”

Would it make a difference if the younger generation are made to work in the business beforehand? Stokes felt they’ve much more mobility, more options now. “Neither of my children was interested in becoming lawyers, whether like me in the civil section or their mum who’s a criminal lawyer. So we hadn’t a family successor we could pass on to. There’ll usually be a commitment if the next in line has worked from the bottom up. I can think of one company where the successor to be went off skydiving and doing all sorts of other things, but his plan was always to come back and commit in his mid-20s, having had the opportunity to be away. Had he entered at 18 he’d have kicked himself later not having done things he wanted to do. If you’re going to keep your business a family business you’ll need a plan that has your following generations coming in and wanting to be there, not feeling they had to.”

Mark Squires: A founder member and chairman of the Institute for Family Business in the North East, and eldest of the third >>

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DEBATE

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A family business without some kind of succession plan will peter out...My father recognised that within the family there were shareholders also generation now running Benfield Motors (in business 55 years) got more interested in what family business meant about 11 years ago when the institute was being founded.

It exists to give representation, support and education to family businesses. “We’re up to about 250 members, with about a dozen or so in this region and a lot affiliated. It’s more specific than the like of the CBI or the Chamber of Commerce, and you can join the Entrepreneurs’ Forum if you seem to be more an entrepreneur than a family business person. The biggest sector of commerce in this country are the family firms who get on with their daily business, perhaps unsung heroes of the economy. There seems more focus now on that with the CBI discussing how to focus on medium-size businesses. I guess a family business defines itself by being interested in continuity rather than exit, and wanting to continue from one generation to the next. My interest here lies in how you raise the profile of family businesses and better support them if they have things in mind.”

Stuart Smiles: Second generation in a waste and recycling business his parents set up, he works in partnership. He thinks family business comes down to sustainability and continuity.

“We look for a sale or an exit. We look to

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continue. We look to overcome whatever challenges arise. The family connection has a degree of care to people, facilities and set-up that’s generally lacking in a more corporate culture. I went away and came back. I went to university doing IT and computery stuff then worked away for 10 years or so. I came back about seven years ago because I had a phone call saying my father had cancer and was in hospital but doing well. It made me think about the conversation that might follow ‘can you make it to his funeral?’ I didn’t want to be in that environment and not involved.

But you must have some demarcation in business between who does what. My brother and I, although we talk about things in each other’s area, generally agree ‘this is something under your bit or my bit’. Without ability to cajole each other on what’s important and required you don’t have an easy relationship.

Our ultimate commitment is getting it right.

At the end of the day you must live with consequences of any wrong decision. In a corporate you just get sacked. Or moved. I’ve seen corporate environment and think the vision and methods there are different but applicable. We’ve 100 people. Knowing what they do all the time is impossible. Yet you must find a way of making things work when

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you’re not there. You must engage, have them understand where you’re coming from.”

Andrew Elliott: Always an employee, he’s had many insights into families and their finances, seeing for example who took succession and how difficult that can be, like when people see something they didn’t know was there and have it forced on them. He once worked for a mutual business in London which, on demutualising, brought in university lecturers.

“They got us together to get us better and more effective as managers. They asked us to state the things that mattered to us. Eight of those, we all held. We were then asked about tricky scenarios - ‘you have to get rid of one of those’. So we privately discarded one over time. Then things got more difficult. Finally, just two of us remained to declare the one thing we all held on to. Virtually bar none, it was family.”

Dan Robinson: Second generation, said his firm lost its way and he returned to develop it.

It had an established foundation. He said: “It’s frightening listening to you all. It causes me to reflect. I resisted the family business with every ounce of my being for about 16 years. I loved the business and my dad greatly. But I felt I had to prove myself in my own right. I was an RAF fighter pilot for 10 years, against the background of Iraq. I then flew for the United States Air Force. Then I went to business school in the States and in Europe also, intending to come back to the family business. I finished my MBA, returned, and my dad and I had three months where we almost killed each other. I thought ‘this isn’t working very well. I’d better think of something else to do.’ I went out to the States again and worked there for a number of years, getting involved in a private equity fund along the way, leveraging cutting edge technologies. Sadly a year and a half ago I received a call in New York. My father had taken his own life. Andrew (Elliott) was a fabulous help amid all this. What has been said about how businesses like his add value to a family firm is right. Family business has the power to drive change very quickly. I like to think of myself as a benevolent dictator. I can make something happen very quickly if I want it to. On organisational change, I was faced with difficulty. My life was in the States and I love New York. My business is in Hartlepool.

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I looked at the 150-strong workforce and, painfully, I had to come back. It was the right thing to do. I think of a family company as being a force for good in society. I believe there needs to be more intelligent thought around corporate social responsibility. The key is recognising the intersection between society and business and that it’s not a zero zone game. I’d like to explore a little more strategic thought around long term corporate social responsibility of a business, and how it fundamentally drives the value of a business on, essentially to do good. We’re there to create wealth but also to give back externally as well.”

Mark Squires: “A family business without some kind of succession plan will eventually peter out. I transitioned from my father. If my grandfather was the entrepreneur my father was also very entrepreneurial. He grew the business from a corner shop, if you will. We spent considerable time transitioning. And there was a smooth handover. He recognised he wouldn’t be around forever and that within the family there were other shareholders also.

We got to this position for me where I had uncles working in the business who were also substantial shareholders, and who reported to a non-family member who then reported to me in the family structure. Through the IFB we also moved on from the patriarchal model in which information is very tight. We’ve been through a journey over the last 10 or 11 years, starting with a first ever gathering of family shareholders where the question arose of ‘what do you think of the family business and what’s your relationship with it if any, what do

you want from it and where would you see it going?’ I was surprised to see how engaged were the family who had never even seen the balance sheet and didn’t realise they had a share certificate that might have meaning.

Their ideas also started for us a journey. We’ve sought to educate them as shareholders, getting to understand the difference between a shareholder’s hat and an employee’s hat, and we’ve sought to engage them in the business in various ways. That’s been for the good, and enjoyable. We’ve laid ground rules that seem to work, like a dividend policy and rules around the wealth. I don’t believe family businesses have an exclusive right to giving to community.

But from what I see they do play a big part.”

Toby Bridges: “I’m fourth generation when usually there are lots of family members. We’re not. We’ve bought out extraneous members.

We’ve changed very well with each generation.

To me now it’s about me given a responsibility of wealth management, and it has taken me into my 40s to realise and do something about that.”

Jonathon Stokes: “The historical perspective of family businesses is that they’re not being driven as businesses, but as a means to an end of supporting a lifestyle. Nigel, on the other hand, points out he’s a third generation entrepreneur. Is every business person an entrepreneur? Are family businesses affected by not all being driven by someone entrepreneurial? Does it affect adversely? I don’t know whether that’s partly where family businesses miss out.”

Charlie Hoult: “I like the accident of genetics that succession goes to someone you’ve given

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DEBATE

birth to, or might be related to, but who’s completely different. Many plc businesses seem to fail because the succession is chosen on a ‘people like me’ basis, whereas in our business my dad’s been stuck with me and it’s been quite fiery, but underneath we have done lots of soulsearching about what we have in common. Because we’re a family, despite being very different personalities, we share a lot of values. The soulsearching has been around what we give back to the community, what we want for our workforce, and what opportunities we can give by employing people. I think this more important than just giving cash handouts in charity.”

Dan Robinson: “When my father stepped out of the business he’d had enough. It became apparent the entrepreneurial spirit had essentially disappeared from the business.

You could correlafe that to its performance.

I ask myself daily: what if I suddenly can’t measure up? You must build a team around you that can fill the gap, at least temporarily.

How do you get them to care as much as you do about a family business? You must align incentives, ensure collective efforts are rewarded sufficiently. They have to feel valued, feel an ownership of the business. One issue I’ve come up against is organisational change.

Other people in the business just supported a lifestyle to get them through. They didn’t see change was needed. People like that aren’t just hindrances - they’re fundamentally evil agents working against the business, powerful and damaging forces. So you must select your team carefully, and carefully employ the values and principles you hold into the team, >>

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DEBATE

AUTUMN 13

incentivise them accordingly, then allow them to pursue a career. I see then a much more motivated workforce.”

A family business can go in two directions.

It might not be about sustaining the existing business and passing it on in its current form.

A family business can realise wealth by selling on but then reforming a new family business. The wealth being passed on may manifest itself in one business or it may be a smaller business derived from cashing in the earlier family business. The family business is creating and managing wealth, and the management of that wealth can be passed from generation to generation.

Various views then followed...You have a duty to protect the wealth but also to benefit the community that helped generate it.

Your stakeholders may be not only the family but also the community in which you work.

What is the meaning of a family business in terms of what it gives society?

What you have in a family business is a provider to the family shareholder and the employees. So the business was worth something - that’s the wealth. It’s how you define your stakeholders, and for you your main stockholders were your employees.

A family business is simply a business with a family at the heart of it. The heart is ringed with a community aspect.

The word ‘responsibility’ is the issue. Running the business is basically the management of responsibility or responsible management of stuff and responsibility for its people and the environment, and everyone a stakeholder.

It’s a job you can’t get out of, and you hope you can give it on to another family member in the not too distant future. Meanwhile you’ll be there doing things when sometimes you’d rather be somewhere else, but you’re there because you have to be.

A team built up around the head of a family business 20 years may not be fit for purpose under a succession.

Nigel Mills: “A family business need never be a burden. When I sold Mills group with 2,000 employees they all went to a plc and a pay rise, and with a major plc they have futures. The huge responsibility you have to staff was an issue for me when I considered selling. You also have responsibility to yourself and your family.

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If a business is killing you, sucking the lifeblood out of you, and you feel you have done all you can with it, look after everyone in it and do other things.”

Steve Plaskitt advises SMEs including family businesses and comes from a family business where he was a third generation member, “a farm I didn’t go into. So there was an exception to the tradition that a farm be passed on from father to son. I moved into professional services. First big mistake, yes!

There is that sense that my father, though he’d never say it, thought it a great move for me. Now I’m starting to regret that family business is no longer with me. I would define a family business as something you can pass on to your son or daughter, something you can mention from the time they’re five years old. The most common issue I see in family businesses is how to value equity coming in. Also you have shareholders or stakeholders who are family and when you want to bring in someone external, people find it hard to get to grips with.”

Asked to define the burning issue for family business, participants suggested: • Working in a vacuum.

• Succession planning and treating all affected fairly.

• Why me to run it?

• Guardianship and social responsibility to employees and family members.

• Shareholder communication.

• Maintaining sustainability.

• Sustaining the passion.

• Governance.

• Next generation development.

• Responsibility to make it work for everybody.

• Sustaining the enjoyment.

• Signpost loud and clear when you plan to get out and seek help.

A view was shared that, unlike further education overseas, business studies in England do not widely include family business in the curriculum. Lancaster University is an exception, and John Wilson who has just taken over Newcastle University Business School and is keen on family business is engaged in it both in research and in seeking ways to support it.

Mark Squires encountered five big German family firms, all of which had different models from one of a family member always running the enterprise to another saying they would no longer have a family member running the enterprise. This drew a general conclusion that family businesses, though a category, may need different approaches in their administration, succession and eventual disposal. n

A wealth of support In a region of the UK that is lacking in quoted company representation, the importance of family businesses as part of a growing economy becomes even greater. The debate raised a number of fascinating issues including the definition of a family business and what might differentiate them from other corporate organisations. Great emphasis was put on succession planning whilst at the same time ensuring that there was sufficient incentivisation for non family members to feel highly valued and part of the team. There is also a sense of responsibility to the workforce and perhaps there is a greater complexity to the relationship between employer and employee.

Although it can seem ‘lonely at the top’ running a family business, it is reassuring that there are two excellent local organisations, being the Institute for Family Business and the Entrepreneurs Forum, which help to connect likeminded people to discuss and share issues/problems.

Whilst UBS is well placed to advise on any companies looking to sell their business (and indeed have a specialist group to help maximise potential sale proceeds) there are other areas where we can offer assistance to help existing family businesses grow. This could include accessing our global research (including regional and by sector) and management of cash on the corporate balance sheet. Of course, given our strong local professional networks, we are well placed to facilitate introductions to third parties such as solicitors and accountants, many of whom will have significant experience of dealing with family businesses.

Aidan Dunstan, Executive Director, UBS Wealth Management

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Why your wealth manager should never stop

managing your portfolio.

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

Too often one blinks, and they’ve gone.

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

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

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

But one thing remains constant throughout all of this.

Our commitment to meeting your financial goals.

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

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

Authorised and regulated by Financial Market Supervisory Authority in Switzerland. In the United Kingdom, UBS AG is authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and is subject to regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and limited regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority. Details about the extent of our regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority are available from us on request.

Aidan Dunstan UBS Wealth Management 2 St. James’s Gate Newcastle upon Tyne NE4 7JH Tel: 0191 211 1000

We will not rest www.ubs.com

© UBS 2013. All rights reserved.

COMPANY PROFILE

AUTUMN 13

Newcastle College launches UK’s first ever NALP endorsed Paralegal Practice Foundation Degree A brand new industry designed Paralegal qualification specially tailored for business will be launched at a special event at Live Theatre on Newcastle’s Quayside at 12.30pm on 28 November.

The event will afford legal firms and businesses the opportunity to find how their staff can benefit from studying toward a Paralegal Foundation Degree developed by Newcastle College in conjunction with the National Association of Licensed Paralegals (NALP).

The new Degree will also provide students with NALP’s Level 4 Diploma in Paralegal Studies and all the knowledge and expertise required of a Paralegal working at the cutting edge of the profession.

The new qualification will be of particular benefit to anyone working within financial frameworks including, estate agents, human resources managers, conveyancers, and administrative staff from local authorities and the NHS.

Many organisations, not only law firms, within commerce and industry need and benefit from employees who have a broad knowledge of law and procedure Employers from a variety of industry sectors across the UK will now have the opportunity to train their staff or hire employees that are fully trained in this specialist and highly sought after area, safe in the knowledge that the qualification has been endorsed

by NALP. Paralegals are important fee-earning members of a legal team, playing key roles in the legal process.

Whilst not a qualified solicitor or barrister, a Paralegal is qualified to perform substantive legal work and their duties will take them from office to courtroom, from clients to conferences, from the law library to the negotiating table.

Amanda Hamilton, CEO of NALP, said ‘’Many

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L-R - Partnership - Rita Leat, Consultant Chief Operations Officer from NALP, Robin Ghurbhurun, Deputy Principal, Newcastle College, Helen Hall, Legal Clark, Winn Solicitors, Amanda Hamilton, CEO of NALP, Barbara King, Director of the School of Health and Enterprise at Newcastle College, Katrina Rayne, Solicitor and Team Leader, Winn Solicitors organisations, not only law firms, within commerce and industry need and benefit from employees who have a broad knowledge of law and procedure, together with an expertise applicable to their particular sector.

‘This Foundation Degree is the only NALP endorsed degree in the UK and will open up opportunities for the trained Paralegals to work within many sectors, including Financial Services, Banking, the Retail Sector, Export and the Media. Changing market conditions means there is also an increase in demand for fully qualified Paralegals within debt recovery and personal injury’’.

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Helen Hall, who is a Legal Clark with Winn Solicitors in Byker and is the first learner to sign up to the new course, said : “I am really looking forward to starting the new course in September. It is fantastic that is it NALP endorsed and I feel it will really help me to gain the skills and knowledge I need to have a successful career as a Paralegal.”

Barbara King, Director of the School of Health & Enterprise at Newcastle College, continued, ‘’We are very excited by this exclusive partnership with NALP and this new offering which is not available in any other part of the country.

‘This course will allow students to acquire top

AUTUMN 13

COMPANY PROFILE

ILM LEAN LEADERSHIP AND MANAGEMENT If you are looking to develop your Leadership and Management skills, Newcastle College and TDK Ltd are delivering a new qualification that could help you climb the career ladder.

The ILM Lean Leadership and Management programme is a new and unique qualification, which will enable you to embed the principles of Lean Kaizen, develop your knowledge of what the Lean Leadership and Management concept is and the fundamental way of thinking required to achieve a lasting Lean deployment with the basic requirement of ‘continuous improvement’.

Tool and Die Kaizen Ltd (TDK) is an established management consultancy with experience in embedding Lean Deployment within a range of sectors including Financial Services, Manufacturing, Professional Services, ICT, Health and Care.

The TDK consultants have all trained in Lean philosophy both in Japan and the UK with experience in actually managing operations using Lean tools and techniques which are the cornerstone of the ILM Lean programme. Our consultants take pride in the fact that they are not ‘text book’ experts, their skills being developed in real ‘hands on’ situations.

Course Overview.

The ILM Lean programme will allow you to use work based problems from areas such as the introduction of a new complex work stream, an existing production process or an area of repeated concern.

Participants will develop a series of assignments and reports which will develop their skills and knowledge.

It is important to remember the Lean ILM quality, industry standard training & expertise that will open up doorways into key employers and new careers, whilst at the same time befitting business across the North East and the UK’’.

The college’s bespoke course content has been specifically designed to meet the needs of employers and can be studied in a full or part time capacity. A blended route that incorporates Distance Learning is also being developed and will be available in the new year. The course runs for two years and is worth 240 credits.

Course is different from existing Management training courses. The core learning outcomes are all based within the Lean concept, centred on Policy Deployment, management of the objectives cascade and roles of the Supervisor.

The Lean ILM modules will include the following areas: • Introduction to Lean • The importance of the customer • Data led analysis and use of the Quality Circle approach to problem solving • Management of the Plan, Do, Check, Action management cycle (PDCA) • 5S, philosophy and Management techniques Hoshin Kanri (Policy Deployment) and Nichijo Kanri (work area management) techniques • Kaizen philosophy

• Standardardisation • TQM Techniques and Management methods Process mapping and waste reduction Lean tools and techniques The Lean ILM course will cover all of these areas in detail, teaching participants the principles of lean operational management; it will empower individuals to manage their teams in the most effective and standardised way.

Objectives management will be clear for every level of the organisation to understand, roles and responsibilities will be clearly defined.

The structured introduction of Lean principles into any organisation has proven to deliver significant return on investment for both the company and as importantly the participant.

This course will allow students to acquire top quality, industry standard training & expertise that will open up doorways into key employers To register to attend the launch event on Thursday 28 November at the Live Theatre please visit www.newcastlecollege.co.uk/NALP .For more information on enrolling on Newcastle College’s Foundation Degree in Paralegal Practice visit www.newcastlecollege.co.uk or email paralegal@ncl-coll.ac.uk.

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BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

AUTUMN 13

in association with

Offices filling and selling, stability rules North East markets, golf hotspot gets new owner and new look, £50m resort proposed for the county and why Middlesbrough vetoed its BID opportunity

Plans of promise: Star Paralympian David Weir was guided through plans for South Shields by South Tyneside’s deputy leader Councillor Alan Kerr.

>> A town easier to enjoy Aims to make South Shields town centre one of the most easily accessible for disabled people have been commended by a top Paralympian. David Weir, who won four gold medals at the 2012 London Games, learned of the plans on a visit to compete in the recent Tyne Tunnel 2k wheelchair race and Great North Run. The £100m plan, developed by South Tyneside Council, has been drawn up by urban regeneration specialist Muse Developments, for whom a specialised study is also being prepared to ensure the renewed town centre is as helpful as

possible. Weir, who has also won four Great North Run titles, says: “Almost one year on from the 2012 Paralympics it’s a perfect follow-on by South Tyneside to be part of the legacy. I look forward to South Shields setting an example to others.” The South Shields 365 plan is bringing a new retail quarter to Fowler Street West area.

There will be a new library and community hub on the site of Wouldhave House in the market place, retail and leisure facilities at Barrington Street and Fowler Street West, and a new transport interchange at Keppel Street. The market place and St Hilda’s area will be improved, with a new cinema, shops, restaurants and more parking.

A £16m seafront pool and leisure complex, Haven Point, is about ready and work is also well underway on a new promenade at nearby Littlehaven beach. A £2.3m riverside park, near the ferry landing at Harton Quays, is also nearly complete.

For more about the South Shields 365 masterplan, or to download a copy, visit www.southshields365.co.uk.

>> Offices filling and selling An office property on Blyth Quayside has a new tenant, with Blyth Town Council taking up a 3,072sq ft suite on the first floor.

Steven Reay, developer of the 14,384sq ft Arms Evertyne House says more than a third of the building is now let, the other occupiers including Reay Security. In Gateshead, five office buildings have been sold for Watermark Investments. The purchase of the properties on Watermark Business Park - which is already home to Tyne Tees Television and Carillion - was completed by Jones Lang LaSalle.

DTZ has relocated within Newcastle to Central Square in Forth Street.

>> Silverlink sold The Crown Estate has bought the Silverlink shopping park in North Tyneside for £131m from LaSalle Investment Management. LaSalle bought Silverlink in 2009 for £82m.

>> Stability rules North East markets Lack of grade A industrial space across the North East and, indeed, Yorkshire is slowing the overall take-up. This reduction of stock has led to a fall in investment volumes of 18%, consultant Lambert Smith Hampton says. A review of H1 shows total industrial investment across both regions at £69.59m, against £85m in H1 2012. Notable deals that did take place

Regional coverage from offices in Durham and Sunderland • Chartered Surveyors • Commercial Property Consultants Durham Office

www.lofthouseandpartners.co.uk SERVING THE NORTH EAST PROPERTY SECTOR SINCE 1985

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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0191 375 5777 Sunderland Office

0191 565 8844

AUTUMN 13

included the sale of an industrial unit on Green Lane in Gateshead for £1.6m.

Also, despite a good supply of large, grade A warehouse and logistics facilities over 100,000 sq ft in the region, LSH calculate less than a month’s supply remains of the traditionally more popular smaller sheds.

Knight Frank has recently completed a dozen industrial lettings or property sales.

>> Land prices soar Farmland prices in the North East hit another record peak during H1 and have now trebled in less than a decade, David Coulson on behalf of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors reports.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

creating a restaurant venue and apartments, with backing from Lloyds TSB Commercial Banking. The former retail site now provides three flats and a large basement and ground floor restaurant unit.

Bowson Developments, the firm behind the scheme, has a portfolio of residential and commercial properties in the Newcastle area, and is developing buildings and providing letting agency services for other landlords through Bowson Lettings. Bowson Developments was established 20 years ago by business partners Harvey Bower and Martyn Crinson, directors also of Bowson Lettings.

Bradley Hall chartered surveyors is handling the restaurant lease.

>> New owner, new look >> Flats and food

Hall Garth Hotel Golf and Country Club in Darlington has been sold to North

>> Recruiting solution Expanding Solutions Recruitment has bought and is relocating to the £1.7m five storey Yorkshire Chambers, in Pilgrim Street, Newcastle. Its base was previously in nearby Hood Street.

& AV W OF AI O FIC LA RK E BL SH S E O N PS O W

A Newcastle property firm has refurbished a four-storey building on Mosley Street,

of England Estates Ltd, owner of the Bells Hotel and Forest of Dean Golf Course, in Gloucestershire.

Clive McKeag, chairman of North of England Estates, says: “Plans include a total refurbishment, restoration of the Stables Pub to the thriving place it used to be, with homemade locally sourced food. The Wine Glass Restaurant will also be redecorated and the banqueting and wedding suites updated.”

There are also plans to rejuvenate the golf course and upgrade the leisure and beauty facilities.

EASY IN, EASY OUT

Flexible terms are just one of the benefits on offer at The Innovation Centre Hartlepool

We offer flexible terms and competitive prices in purpose built, thoroughly modern well serviced offices and workshops that leave you free to develop your business without the complex restrictions of a long lease.

• 24 hour access • 3 Fully equipped meeting & conference rooms • High speed broadband internet connection • Network ready Cat 5 intelligent data cabling

• Digital telecom system • Air conditioning (to the majority of offices) • Choice of office workshop units • Ample free parking

For details and availability call Simon Hamilton on:

• Sophisticated security system • Fitness centre • ‘The Mezzanine’ - informl relaxation area

01429 239500

Or send an email to: hartlepool@uksteelenterprise.co.uk The Innovation Centre, Venture Court, Queens Meadow Business Park, Hartlepool TS25 5TG

www.uksteelenterprise.co.uk/hartlepool

UK STEEL ENTERPRISE IS A WHOLLY-OWNED SUBSIDARY OF TATA STEEL EUROPE

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BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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Major leap: A centre of fun promised.

AUTUMN 13

spot, the central hill area for the ski hill, canyoning, mountain biking and rock climbing - once a full detailed planning application for the resort is lodged. Chris Davies, chief executive of Active Leisure Resorts, has been planning the facility for eight years, with his sons Ben and Greg.

The area, presently owned by Harworth Estates, is near Widdrington railway station on the East Coast Main Line, to which stronger bus links are envisaged.

>> £50m resort proposed for county

>> Why Middlesbrough vetoed the BID, by John Irwin

Rural business in Northumberland could benefit by over £7m a year if two major tourism projects come about as envisaged.

Land preparation for a £50m tourism resort promising up to 700 jobs on 800 acres of reclaimed surface mining land near Widdrington in the north of the country has planning permission. It would be the UK’s first Active Lifestyle Resort and a template for further developments elsewhere. And at Once Brewed on the Military Road (B6318) skirting Hadrian’s Wall between Heddon and Greenhead, plans for The Sill, a £10.5m landscape discovery centre and youth hostel in Northumberland National Park, continue to gain support.

Proposals for Widdrington’s short break adventure park include a four star holiday village with 50-acre lake, snow slopes, gorges and canyons, mountain bike trails, off road 4x4 vehicle courses and the UK’s biggest tree house adventure playground.

Up to 100 camping pods for younger guests would feature, as well as a fun pool and a climbing wall. Eating places and shops are also envisaged. The construction industry might benefit by £13m during the two year build. It is then estimated that, after a summer 2016 opening, extra spend to the local economy would top £8m.

Local suppliers might benefit by £4m a year. Members of Northumberland County Council’s Planning and Environment and Public Rights of Way Committee have approved construction of a major activity

In the previous BQ it was stated that central Newcastle had gained greatly from its Business Improvement District, and the same issue interviewed NE1 Ltd’s chief executive Sean Bullick, who extolled the virtues of the BID there while seeking another five year term. The question was then posed to the “good folk of Middlesbrough”: Had they been right to turn down a BID proposition there?

We at Storeys Edward Symmons - commercial property consultants and chartered surveyors in Middlesbrough town centre - successfully voted with many others against the BID in June 2012.

And we certainly feel it was the right decision.

A Middlesbrough BID had been talked about for many years to continue the momentum lost after the successfully run independent Middlesbrough Town Centre Company closed in 2007. Consultations grew in 2010 but there were regular delays and a lack of clarity about the level of council contribution, the legitimacy of the area’s boundary and the strength of private sector involvement. It wasn’t clear until just before the vote as to the exact council contribution in money, staff and a defined service standard for their existing town centre services. It was feared much of the BID money would go to improve a reduced service, and that the real added value was modest. This worry was fuelled by virtually all consultations council officers led, with little obvious real or dedicated support from the private sector.

Middlesbrough’s town centre still has a flat Victorian grid and four large shopping centres in a central square. No co-ordinated enthusiasm from the major retail occupiers or centre owners towards the proposed BID was

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apparent. The occupier mix also gave concern within the boundary. It included many offices with little to gain from the retail orientated proposals - while ignoring an adjoining cinema and restaurant complex.

The real response was one of apathy: of 480 Middlesbrough businesses. Only 186 voted, of which only 90 favoured it while 98 opposed.

There was, however, a majority vote on rateable value - perhaps understandably, as the council had one vote with a value of RV£1.438m.

Therein perhaps is the problem. For a BID to succeed, more than 50% of votes cast must be in favour, and more than 50% of the aggregate rateable value. There’s no limit on total votes received. So a very small number can determine the outcome. Elsewhere, Durham City voted for a BID in 2012 in a low turnout, but with 86% of voters saying yes. In July 2013 Sunderland won a BID with only 165 voting out of a possible 454 businesses, and a mere 108 for it – only 24% of the total but crucially 62% of those actually voting. Darlington is similar.

Its successful 2012 BID had 210 out of a possible 550 businesses vote, of which only 130 were in favour – 24% of the total. Again, crucially, 62% of those who actually voted.

There’s now a much publicised revolt among many small businesses that must pay the extra rates during difficult trading times. They question the worth of work being carried out by the BID. BIDs were started almost ten years ago, and some 150 are in place. The Government recently extenced its remit to enable cross-boundary local authorities to set them up. So they’re not going away. The moral from experience is; to secure a successful BID requires going through the process quickly, having a high profile private sector leadership group, clarifying early on what the local authority will and won’t do, having a logical tight boundary and being clear on what added value will be secured. Many would argue the good business folk of Middlesbrough were right in their answer to the question they got – but it was the wrong question. Who knows what would have happened had it been approached differently? Other areas have shown more acumen and enthusiasm and seem to be working successfully.

John Irwin is a partner of ES Group Ltd and director of Storeys Edward Symmons

AUTUMN 13

COMPANY PROFILE

New challenges on horizon for performance marketing specialist It’s taken little more than three years and one astoundingly good idea for performance marketing specialist Performance Horizon Group (PHG) to become an undisputed leader in its field.

Its fast-growing ExactView online platform, which allows clients to monitor their marketing activities in real time across multiple channels, has revolutionised the sector.

Almost overnight PHG, based in the new high-tech £5.4m One Trinity Green business centre in South Tyneside but with staffed offices around the world, has become a multi-million pound business with a truly impressive global client list.

The firm’s explosive rise saw it named most innovative business and overall business of the year at last month’s prestigious annual South Tyneside Business Awards.

Chief operating officer Paul Fellows, 41, is proud PHG has expanded so fast amid the worldwide recession while helping put environmentallyfriendly business hub One Trinity Green on the map.

He said: “It’s nice that we’ve bucked the trend.

We’re expanding internationally – our business is growing, our team is growing and the sector is growing.

“Winning the business awards validates what a great place South Tyneside is to do business, and indeed the North East. It was a surprise to do so well, but it has helped get our name better known.”

He added: “The region has a very competitive and vibrant technology start-up scene. We benefit from attracting skilled staff and they benefit by working in an incredibly stimulating environment.

“We chose One Trinity Green as it gives us great flexibility in terms of the office space we need to expand and it has delivered on the fast internet and other technological support we require.

“The support we get from the centre’s management team and the council has been excellent. Their help, and the centre’s state-of-the-art facilities, match our ambitions to grow and advance.”

PHG’s directors have proved their ability to create a highly-advanced and successful affiliate marketing business once before.

Paul with members of the PHG team based at One Trinity Green

We’re expanding internationally – our business is growing, our team is growing and the sector is growing In 2002 Paul was one of four founders of the buy.at affiliate marketing network, which they sold just six years later to AOL for $125m.

The seeds of PHG’s success came when Paul and chief executive Malcolm Cowley, who was also a buy.at founder along with Paul Newton, Paul Bulmer, Pete Cheyne and Sean Sewell, recognised that no system existed that gave clients the ability to work closely with their biggest online partners wherever in the world they are PHG has built a sophisticated software platform coupled with a global payment and support infrastructure that has led to many household name firms becoming clients and forcing a revolution within the sector by ushering in powerful and flexible technology and helping companies grow sales and reduce costs.

PHG now has a staff of over 60, of whom 40 work out of One Trinity Green, with the others at offices

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in London, New York, Baltimore, Sydney and Mumbai.

One Trinity Green was developed by South Tyneside Council in partnership with Groundwork South Tyneside & Newcastle, with additional funding from the European Regional Development Fund Competitiveness Programme 2007-2013.

Any business interested in finding out more about One Trinity Green, in Eldon Street, South Shields, should call 0191 481 3310 or email onetrinitygreen@groundwork.org.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

ENTREPRENEUR

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There they blow: Chris Turner (seated) with financial counsellor Michael Smith of accountants Tait Walker, the wind behind the sails of the world famous Tyne-built Ovington Boats.

Ruling the waves as ever Big ships no longer take shape on North East rivers but Chris Turner's nippy little craft are world winners, as Brian Nicholls discovers We still get nostalgic thinking back to those newsreeled, champagne-cracking launches once a regular highlight of our rivers.

Yet today, though you hardly hear about it, prow-priming goes on, with a new craft turned out at a staggering rate of one a week on the Tyne. A tiddler next to a whale perhaps when you measure a racing yacht or dinghy against the liners and warships once gliding down the slipways. But today the skill

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

and craftsmanship of Chris Turner and his workforce of 24 is acknowledged worldwide at a time when, ironically, competitive sailing and rowing in this country - despite remarkable achievements of our many Olympic medal winners - appear to be in decline. In almost 1,000sq m of workshops at Tanners Bank near North Shields Fish Quay, the UK's only Olympic boatbuilder is enjoying growth that Turner hesitates to put down to any single factor.

"Obviously we've a good workforce - some have been with us over 20 years - and we've been here a long time. With all that, we've good continuity of product."

Built to win, is the motto of Ovington Boats and, the good news is it's training more people while it still has experienced builders available and willing to pass on their knowledge, and their little known knacks.

Oddly, though Turner himself is a world champion sailor celebrated in the International

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14 and Scorpion fleets both as a sailor and a builder, he doesn't usually employ sailors. “Comparatively speaking, there aren't that many in the North East," he points out. “But most of our staff got their first moulding job here. The majority have learnt their trade at Ovington boats. People taken on from elsewhere would need retraining because there's quite a difference in what we do, compared with the moulding process elsewhere in this area, such as for wind turbines and caravans.

"We build lightweight racing structures. We look along every avenue to save weight.

Caravans and turbines need quite high health and safety margins. Not that a boat will fall apart. But a turbine blade snapping would make a mess of somebody. We build more a sort of Formula 1 type product, though," he grins, "it doesn't seem like it when you look at the state of things in here."

Ovington Boats' performance, for all that, justifies its claim to be one of the world's most successful businesses engaged in small boatbuilding for the high performance dinghy and sailboat markets. Its range includes the Olympic Class 49er, the ISAF and RYA Youth Asymmetric 29er Class, the new 29erXX, Musto Performance Skiff, Flying Fifteen and International 14. It also builds the Albacore, Byte, Lark and Solution. To landlubbers, these names may mean little. Suffice to say that Ovington boats are the chosen craft for every Olympics from 2000 until 2020 at least, capturing glory for competitive sailors in many other prime international events besides.

Moreover, the firm will develop, design and custom build boats. Turner explains: "We started building for the Olympics in 1996, when our boats were first selected. Boats are chosen in four year cycles by the world governing body. Our boats have been voted through as core equipment until 2020. They're guaranteed to be in the Olympics should the sport stay in the Olympics till then."

Doesn't that sound pessimistic? "No sport is guaranteed for the Games, though I guess 100m running is," Turner says realistically.

"Even Greco-Roman wrestling, stuff of the earliest Olympics, was almost excluded recently. Though Britain excels at sailing and rowing, water sports are generally costlier to

AUTUMN 13

run than other events, whereas 100m running needs only a track, a gun and a timer. We'll see what happens. It's beyond our control."

That would surely damage Britain's future medal aspirations? Turner, again realistically says: "I'm not sure the explosion of public interest in sailing and rowing in light of Britain's outstanding sports successes is popularising the sport, for it's actually in decline. I say that as a committee member of the Royal Yachting Association."

Why? "Largely because there are so many other things to do these days. Unfortunately kids sit in front of Xboxes and the like.

Youngsters aspiring to the sport must be prepared to travel a lot. We're here in the North East, yet most of our UK sales are at the South Coast. Anyhow, there's much more to the sport besides Olympics, although two of our products are at the Olympics, which

does bring kudos.” It would be ironic, again, if some other countries queuing for Ovington Boats - and comprising 60% of total sales today - were to leave tomorrow's British rowers and sailors lengths behind. Germans and Danes are big customers. Last year it was Russia, India and Estonia. The Russians ordered around 30 boats, and the Estonians have returned for a top-up. "Indians were on the phone again this morning. So it's been pretty good," Turner smiles. The UK, by contrast, has been on a recessional course, with emphasis on luxury rather than recreational. Ovington boats appeal with "new age" character.

Turner elaborates: "They're a little more high tech than many. In sailing, you have a piece of equipment and you race the same equipment, competitor against competitor. Many boats in the Olympics were designed in the 1960s. Our equipment is 30 years newer. It's lighter, faster,

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ENTREPRENEUR more attractive, and a lot more fun - more slash and burn.

"It's taken a long time for some emerging nations to grasp this. They've gone for traditional, whereas in the UK and Australia we're a bit more 'out there' in extreme sports.

Now the like of these countries realise the 49er, the Olympic boat particularly, is here to stay. And with it voted as core equipment, they now have to put the infrastructure in place to train today's youngsters to be Olympic athletes of tomorrow.

"They are purchasing the 29er, which is the baby brother - the youth training boat to get to Olympic standard. That's where we get volume. Russia has 30 29ers and four Olympic class boats. We've run a coaching clinic in Russia, Estonia and Portugal this summer."

Last year, of almost 400 craft turned out, 160 were 29ers. Ovington prices range >>

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BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

ENTREPRENEUR between £5,000-plus and £25,000, the 49er being around £20,000. “We're doing a new style one," says Turner, “a larger yacht. We've 10 orders, five to the USA, five to Australia, and some more to Morocco to follow. So we're looking to get into bigger boats. Our builds are more competitive. We don't really have a leisure boat per se, though it depends on the definition of leisure.”

Turner explains that Ovington is the UK's only Olympic boatbuilder, as distinct from Olympic class, because few boatbuilders are left in the UK, though there is Laser Performance in Oxfordshire, now AngloAmerican and claiming in the USA to be the world's largest producer of small sailboats. It was skills shortage that set Turner on a North East course from his business on the South Coast. "You couldn't get anyone to work for you there," he says. He feels fortunate to have worked a few years with Dave ("Ovi") Ovington, the celebrated founder of Ovington Boats who died in 2005. Turner had earlier sub-contracted his manufacturing to Ovi and, in return, provided technical services as a pattern maker - "I made his moulds, he mass produced my boats. That's how I've ended up in the North East."

Their synergy sparked from a passion to boatbuild from an early age. Ovi's father, a contractor, ran his family business from nearby Mariner's Lane. Ovi in his father's shed took to joinery tools and started making boats becoming the elephant in the room eventually.

He launched the business in 1975, building traditional wooden boats initially, and racewinning Enterprises especially. He progressed to glass fibre construction, and was first in the UK to develop on a production basis "vacuum bagged foam sandwich," an application now globally common. When he died, Holy Saviours Church in Tynemouth was packed for the funeral, with another 200 stood outside sharing in the service over a PA system.

"I got into boatbuilding the same way," Turner reflects. "I luckily won national championships.

But when you're 16 or 17 and can't afford a boat you build your own. I sold it, built another the following year and did exactly the same. Dave too had built a boat. Someone wanted to buy it and he grew the business that way.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

AUTUMN 13

Sailing's fun: Princess Anne, president of the Royal Yachting Association, shares a joke with foreman Mark Lashley during her visit to Ovington Boats.

"My son sails. He's four. Age doesn't matter.

I've competed against people into their 70s.

And with some a lot younger than me - that's what's good about the sport. Not all boats rely on physical ability. Obviously the Olympic guys go at it and are really fit. But that's the pinnacle. You can just sail a boat and use your

Salute to the past Working flat out now, the company can muster four teams to produce 10 boats a week - 11 with overtime.

“Sadly we don’t do any wooden boats these days. It’s a shame because I’m traditionally trained. I used to build boats with copper nails in. I can show you my woodworking tools in my toolbox. They’re very traditional - even to the wooden hand planes. But they haven’t seen light of day for five or six years. It’s all composite work now, with a vacuum pump the most specialised tool, I suppose.”

However, he adds, proudly: “We’ve got one of Dave Ovington’s wooden boats from the ‘80s that he built himself. We bought it back out of nostalgia. We’re going to refurbish that and if we ever move we’ll put it in the foyer as a bit of history.”

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mind - a mental game of chess as much as a hard-work-leaning-out type of job. I'm still at the level where I like a bit of the hard work."

Turner, 41, who was 15 years Ovi's junior and joined the firm in 2005, recently became sole owner of Ovington Boats through a secondary management buyout. The empathy he and Ovi shared suggests the latter would have been pleased by the outcome, albeit Turner must now be even more peripatetic, not only delivering orders personally, attending meetings and competing in events, but also keeping up homes both in North Shields and Lyme Regis - "a place not many people hear about, though The French Lieutenant's Woman was filmed there," he adds helpfully, "I've never seen that."

He spent three months on the South Coast working on the Olympics. "We'd three or four events down there, each a week long. Over 12 months I've spent that time on the South Coast while my wife and family were up here.

Now I spend three months on the South Coast with them, and commute back at weekends.

With a good infrastructure here I don't have to worry too much."

He was then about to deliver a boat to Hendon, before going on to Portsmouth and elsewhere for a couple of meetings, then making for a weekend's racing at Brighton, competing in national championships with an Ovington product. "We support or sponsor many events we build products for," he explains. He hopes to have a sales office or holding station on the South Coast eventually.

Michael Smith describes Ovington Boats as a "unique and exciting North East company." He's a corporate finance partner at accountants Tait Walker, which Ovington Boats has worked with since the original MBO in 2006. Funding for a 50% share of the business second time round was raised through HSBC, with Tait Walker's corporate finance team helping to structure the deal.

Looking ahead, Turner says: "We've ambitious plans. Our 49er FX boat is a new class for the 2016 Olympics and we currently sell around 60% of the market for these, worldwide. It's going to be a prime area for growth in the coming years." Let's hope there are young British sailors sufficiently skilled to be first over the line in them. n

AUTUMN 13

COMPANY PROFILE

Driving North East business forward As the UK’s largest independent invoice finance provider Bibby Financial Services remains the only full service offering for invoice finance solutions in the North East. The business is looking to grow both nationally and regionally by harnessing the lack of appetite from other lenders to fund SME businesses. The North East team, based in Sunderland, has made significant progress in a short space of time by achieving some impressive results: • 113 New business transactions since January 2012 • Increased new business income by 54% compared with 2011 • Lending book has increased by more than 45% With an appetite to lend combined with a funding structure that ensures a quick and efficient set-up of new facilities, Bibby Financial Services is able to provide much needed cash flow for large and small businesses alike. It therefore comes as no surprise to find the company is supporting more SME clients in the North East than some of their larger competitors.

In order to build on this success, the sales team has doubled in size since January 2012, and now stands at seven strong. As they continue to grow their presence in the region, former Head of Business, Pulin Trivedi, is joining the Corporate Team this month. The Bibby Financial Services Corporate Team consider all new business opportunities with funding requirements of £750K upwards or a turnover of more than £5M, and the team have successfully completed over 100 transactions nationally in the last 12 months. This appointment will strengthen Bibby Financial Services’ growing appetite to assist SME businesses of all sizes.

As well as offering a full suite of invoice finance solutions which ranges from factoring and invoice discounting through to bad debt protection and full credit control, Bibby Financial Services has specialist knowledge and experience in

Bibby Financial Services North East new business team: L to R Graeme Harrison, Chris Huntington, Julie Ralph, Peter Cromarty, Carly Dove, Michael Horner

With an appetite to lend combined with a funding structure that ensures a quick and efficient set-up of new facilities, Bibby Financial Services is able to provide much needed cash flow for large and small businesses alike supporting niche sectors including recruitment and construction. With a positive trade balance in the North East also, there is opportunity for the team to exploit their international capabilities through the export funding and trade finance facilities available.

The company also offers practical advice for the business community through provision of alternative funding seminars, product master classes and a training course designed specifically for accountants which is accredited by the body for Continuous Professional Development. This contribution to the region was recognised at a recent corporate finance awards dinner held in

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Newcastle in September, where the team received the much coveted Asset Based Lender of the Year award.

For more information contact Peter Cromarty, Head of Sales, Bibby Financial Services North East on 0191 516 5925 or email PCromarty@bibbyfinancialservices.com

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 13

in association with

Tea-ing up to Japan

Ringtons has reached the very gates of tea heaven but there's a lot more than tea behind the 106-year-old doorstep delivery firm's new wave of success, Jon Malton tells Brian Nicholls They've broken down the Citadel gates.

Ringtons sales might now penetrate Japan, where tea drinking's less a custom than historic ritual. It shows how far, literally, the famous North East door-to-door family seller of beverages and fancies now reaches after 106 years of trading.

Ah, the power of e-commerce! Ringtons once tried having high street shops in the like of Exeter, Brighton and Canterbury. But you had to sell 'a hell of a lot of tea and coffee' to cover costs, in the words of one director.

Now its sole shop is electronic, drawing orders not only from home but from overseas too, especially Japan, the Americas and Australia.

No-one at headquarters in Algernon Road, Byker, knows how the Japanese latched onto Ringtons other than by surfing or having children here as students, says Jon Malton, a key figure.

"Japanese used loose tea mainly. But as Western lifestyle spreads I think there's a Japanese appetite for teabags now. Teabags are no longer associated with poor quality.

Consumers In the Tiger economies also want the Englishness of the brand. Great opportunity exists in the Far East for Ringtons."

Online trading's but one in a tea-chestful of advantageous ideas and reforms Ringtons' board have unpacked while announcing recently record £41m turnover. They acknowledge the whole business to be greater than the sum of the parts as they step up: • Franchising • Rebranding, including a new logo • Business to business • A free workplace delivery service • Concentrated focus on a gift market for businesses and individuals • Improved production and delivery

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

• And, to intensify all this, a divisional structure now.

Malton, for example, is divisional director developing doorstep delivery, website and the business-to-business beverage division which has tripled in size in three years to £3m sales. He promotes the brand and brand strategies, ensuring each department can achieve potential. He's from a precious breed, a corporate motivator who's entrepreneurially spirited. He takes his responsibility for protecting a fine old firm's reputation very seriously. His was the delicate task of rebranding. "I've seen brands changed well and badly," he says. "I've seen babies thrown out with bath water. Our key was to understand what customers thought. What does Ringtons stand for? Then modernise and develop its brand to appeal also to a slightly

different demographic, but retaining our rich heritage and personal touch. Trying to change without upsetting our stalwart customers."

It was actually a marriage of four brands. The doorstep brand, raising £27m net of VAT, is bedrock. Its vans historically had operated Monday to Friday, 9am till 5pm, tradition from days before many homes stood empty all day, all their occupants at work or elsewhere. Now deliveries are made up to 6pm or so to reach those workers wanting a delivery on their arrival home.

The daylong customer at home is often of a certain age. But other customers have said their mothers, grandmother and perhaps even great grandmothers had bought tea at the door. Some felt doorstepping an unwanted blast from the past. Hence the brand brush-up retaining heritage but unifying >>

The operation Ringtons’ founder Simon Smith, a former tea merchant’s messenger, came to Newcastle from Leeds and, with a business partner, a horse and cart and £250, set up the business in 1907.

Today, as staffing nears 500, Ringtons is headed by the fourth generation of the Smith family, and three fifth generation members are also with the company. Nigel, great-great grandson of the founder is chairman. Brothers Simon, who’s leading the export drive, and Colin are chief executive and director of tea and coffee packing division respectively.

Ringtons’ main warehouse and factory are at Longbenton, where tea and coffee are blended and packed. There’s a warehouse also in South Kirby, 22 sales offices around the UK, and nine franchises mainly in the South.

Delivery vans (215) call on 260,000 customers between Edinburgh and Peterborough. Ringtons products aren’t sold in supermarkets or retail outlets (bar one product sold in Morrisons for historic reasons). But it does pack and blend for leading supermarkets. It believes doorstep delivery is its best way to interact with customers, and this is its unique selling point.

The Smiths support communities through Tyne and Wear and Northumberland Community Foundation.

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INTERVIEW

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

INTERVIEW

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identity of the diverse products. In beverages division, Ringtons is selling into cafes, hotels and restaurants where the demographic's younger, more mixed in gender, and a bit more contemporary. "We wanted to rebrand in a way the older generation would still recognise Ringtons but we would simultaneously appeal to a younger, more contemporary audience."

Is it working? "Yes, I think people like it. We now have ranges of products that sit together, looking as if a family, not individual items.

Reaction's positive. The beauty of Ringtons is that we routinely come face to face with people so can spend the time explaining the change."

Focus is foremost. Till two years ago production, supply chain, brand and own label customers were all dealt with by the same people, in effect. "We suggested it might be good to divisionalise. Those producing focused on efficiency, the cost of a unit of sale. Others looked to the customers and so on. We've seen the benefits. Under the main board now come separate operating boards. Says Bolton: "The factory has worked very hard and we invested heavily, improving our efficiency and bringing down cost per unit. We've also had a healthy time in terms of new customers. We've taken on prestigious work for the top end of the retail market. And with the rebranding we've expanded our customer base.

"Doorsteps have grown healthily, beverages remarkably. Franchise business is expanding.

Online is starting to boom.

"We've focused on the quality of our doorstep callers, and service levels have improved. We don't necessarily give a lot of sales training.

We like to give customer service training.

We're not into one-hit big sales. We're after a relationship. We train people pretty well on that. We'd rather lots of people buy a little regularly. Gentle relationships can lead to longevity."

This has proved so on Southern doorsteps.

"We found reception there as good as, if not better than, in the North. We started at Sidmouth in Devon."

They hope to go on improving efficiency within the tight production ship. "But we've gone through a period of rapid growth," Malton explains. "The factory's built to put through 2.5m kilos. It's putting through 4m. So >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

9,000 applicants, one job Jon Malton started out a commercial trainee in 1982 with (the now) Lord Haskins at Northern Foods, so disappointing his father, a banker who wanted him to be first in the family to attend university. His father’s mood changed on learning his son had beaten 9,000 applicants to the job!

Malton trained in various departments over two years. At 19 he supervised 36 staff. At 21 he’d worked in 10 towns and, in distribution, became one of the first pioneering a centralised distribution for Sainsbury’s chilled products.

At 22 he was general manager for a dairy division of 250 sales staff and a production site in York with £12m turnover. At 24, he bought a Lincolnshire family business in milk delivery. It had been under the same owner for for 50 years. He introduced himself to all 5,000 customers individually.

Within two years he’d bought out or removed his four competitors, his turnover topping £1m. Having handpicked his staff, he didn’t lose even one for five years.

This company was first in field to offer customers computer-printed receipts at the door. While others suffered against supermarkets, Malton’s dairy thrived. He sold out in 1995. He later learned about a sales manager’s job at Ringtons in Hull. Through this he became Ringtons’ first manager from outside the company for 95 years!

Entrepreneurial fever struck again. One year on, he set up his own Clover Dairies – the first firm using plastic containers that reduced the need to deliver from six times to three weekly. A year later however, his own family commitments prompted him to phone ‘the Smiths’, Ringtons’ owners, who made him a nationwide trouble shooter. He became business development manager for the South, then national sales manager until present role from 2007.

Working for Haskins had told him always to check the competition then do something quite different. Haskins also told him: “We can all make profits tomorrow, but if your reputation’s gone today tomorrow won’t come.”

What aspects of his position at Ringtons is he most conscious of, being the only non-family director? “I don’t get involved with the holding company. It’s 100% Smith owned. What does interest me is to ensure the business is still here 100 years from now. As non-family, I can behave as an executive, not a shareholder. I’m comfortable with that.”

Corbridge born, he and his wife Adele live at Whitley Bay and have two daughters - Jenny 20, and Kate 24, and sons Harvey 12, and Henry 14. His father, a Barclays banker, had raised him in Yorkshire, hence the Yorkshire accent.

A lifelong cricket fan, he loves watching his sons play at Tynemouth Cricket Club and further relaxes cooking French cuisine – “rossini, stroganoff to die for and fish. Anything that stands still for five minutes, pour cream on it.”

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compassion In an ideal world, wouldn't you want to engage with people who respect and actively support the communities in which they live and work – people who care?

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INTERVIEW

AUTUMN 13

Someone’s just contacted us online from Whitby saying they knew us from doorstep delivery, had jumped on our beverages site and liked the cut of our jib we're rejigging layout and expanding the production floor. On branding, we'll continue to do well because people want quality products, personal service and good value.

That's what we offer."

Business to business sales are no longer considered a bolt-on. Malton recalls: "We had a coffee roaster almost as old as the hills. We'd seen ourselves as a tea company - even announced ourselves on the phone as 'Ringtons tea'. Everything we did was about tea. Then we woke up to the size of the coffee market."

The firm brought in Stephen Drysdale.

A customer of Ringtons, he joined from Automatic Retail Vending, ARV, on Team Valley.

"He sat with us to decide what must change to turn a small, fumbling regional business into something highly professional nationally.

"He's done wonders. We drew a pyramid of building blocks, each a statement of what had to change. Staff training, for example. Now when a cafe owner phones with a machine problem, all our girls are barista trained and can talk the same language.

"We also needed a proper machine supply base instead of nine different suppliers existing.

We built great relationships with fewer suppliers and good volume going through. On deliveries, we still deliver locally by van, but also have a next-day courier service. Whether your business is in Cornwall or Byker we can get there in much the same time frame.

"Customers come who'd never been

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

interested before. Someone's just contacted us online from Whitby to say they knew us from doorstep delivery, had jumped on our beverages site and 'like the cut of your jib'.

The company had earlier fretted about the rising emotional popularity of fairtrade tea, and how many young people prefer cold drinks.

Ringtons however is a member of The Ethical Tea Partnership working to improve life for tea workers and their environment.

Malton accepts: "I don't think anyone will quell the power of Coca-Cola. Tea consumption over the years has gone down.

But coffee drinking's up. We produce both.

A major trend demographically is the rise of the grey population - handy for us. So we're not too worried about soft drinks. The tea market will remain big. The coffee market's big and getting bigger. Pubs too now routinely serve tea and coffee. "Their days of serving dishwater as tea have gone," Malton believes.

“Customers having spent lots on a good meal are more demanding. A poor cup of tea would cost 2p to provide. A world class cup will cost three and a half. The cost of a cup of mediocrity is only fractionally less.” Franchises recently introduced in the South are flourishing and more practical than shops would have been. They're also one in the eye for myopic banks. Upfront costs of shop ownership were 'huge'. Now a franchisee invests so risk's shared. They've a vested interest in success.

Though almost everyone drinks tea or coffee, the banks weren't interested.

"Now too," says Malton, "we find the right people. Whether they've enough money for a start-up is secondary. If we believe in them we'll fund them. So a franchisee's launch cost has become £5,000 instead of around £28,000. We'll lend the rest. Who needs a bank? Response to this hands-on man and a van opportunity has been massive.

"Our canvassing teams get customers for them. They enjoy an income from day one.

With this lower entry cost, more women are applying, thus a more balanced gender mix and younger people. We want ambitious people with families who are motivated."

Ringtons To Your Desk, Signature and the corporate gift market are three infants also being weaned. Signature lines give hotel guests and visitors to other places the

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opportunity to buy Ringtons products they may have enjoyed there. The venues get a discount.

Personalised items will be likewise available.

In To Your Desk, people can order online individually at work. Ringtons delivers the collated orders there free of delivery charge.

Tommy Tippee, UNW and Procter & Gamble are already participating. Corporate gift boxes for business contacts and employees are also envisaged. "Days of the bottle of whisky and the cigar across the business desk are gone," Malton suggests, seeing opportunity elsewhere too. "In hospitals, for example, you can't give patients flowers now. Visitors are looking for something different." n

Responsure graduates It’s fascinating to read how a company with such a rich heritage as Ringtons is now using modern technology to expand its global footprint. At the Faculty of Business, Law and Tourism at the University of Sunderland we have a keen interest in how modern technology is changing the way business is done. Of course, future businesses will need staff who have great technical knowledge, whether that’s in marketing finance or HR. But from talking to employers around the region, it’s also clear that that’s not enough. Businesses are also looking for recruits who can be flexible, who are able to respond rapidly and creatively to the changes that the digital revolution is bringing. By working closely with employers, understanding their needs now and in the future, our aim is to provide just those kind of students. If you would like to talk to us about the kind of graduate you think you are going to need in the future, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch.

We look forward to hearing from you.

For further information contact University of Sunderland on 0191 515 2000

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TICKET HOTLINE 0871 226 6060 or buy online at www.newcastlefalcons.co.uk

COMPANY PROFILE

AUTUMN 13

Jobs on the Tyne are all fine With an ambitious new brand and growth strategy to match, the Pertemps Network Group is making huge strides in the North East and across the UK Regardless of your business, finding the right employees is never an easy task.

Step in Pertemps. For more than 50 years, the company has been the first port of call for countless employers looking for permanent or temporary candidates.

A business that started life as a one-off, family run venture back in 1961, Pertemps is now one of the largest independent recruitment firms in the UK. It employs around 25,000 temporary workers at any one time and has placed over 9,000 people in permanent roles.

Pertemps forms part of the wider Pertemps Network Group, made up of over 40 independently run companies with a combined £500m turnover. The group has even loftier ambitions. Within the next few years it hopes to be turning over £1bn and recently launched a company-wide re-brand to drive the business forward.

For decades, Pertemps has been at the heart of the recruitment industry. In 2013, the business has become ‘the face of recruitment.’

That is the slogan emblazoned on the new Pertemps and Pertemps Network Group logos which replace the previously used ‘Jobs@Pertemps’ branding.

The three faces of Pertemps remain; representing the clients, candidates and Pertemps employees.

Explaining the thinking behind the re-brand, Chairperson of Pertemps, Carmen Watson, said: “Pertemps may have started off life predominantly as a high street recruiter but we are also now industry specialists in Master Vendor, Neutral Vendor and Recruitment Process Outsourcing. The Network Group operates across a wide range of specialist and niche markets so whilst we may still be adept at providing work in traditional Pertemps sectors such as admin, customer services, driving and logistics, we also specialise in areas such as education, finance, IT and medical to name a few.

“We therefore wanted a brand that better represents Pertemps and the Network Group in 2013 and moving forward. It is an exciting time for the business and this re-brand will drive our

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

Kathleen Dellow has managed operations at Pertemps Newcastle for more than 12 years

We never take any of our business for granted and we are never complacent - this is key to our continued success ambitious growth strategy that involves acquiring new businesses as well as growing organically.”

The growth strategy has certainly been paying dividends. For the calendar year 2012, Pertemps Ltd reported a rise in turnover of 15% to £357.6m whilst Network Group Holdings saw revenue climb by seven per cent to £68.5m. On top of all that, revenue doubled for the first six months of this year.

The re-branding exercise forms part of a wider strategy to drive the Pertemps Network Group (PNG) forward in the UK. The business already has presence in almost every part of the country and work has already begun to re-brand the company’s national branch network.

That network stretches to the North East where Kathleen Dellow has managed operations at the

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Newcastle branch of Pertemps for over 12 years.

A fellow of the Recruitment and Employment Federation, Kathleen has more than 23 years’ experience in recruitment in the North East and is responsible for managing the recruitment, placement and payment of temporary, permanent and contract staff across a wide range of local businesses.

She believes that retention of her staff is fundamental to the success of Pertemps Newcastle and consistently works to ensure employees enjoy a stable work-life balance.

Kathleen explained: “Our success is due to retaining experienced staff that our clients can trust. This means that the branch enjoys a high volume of repeat business. We never take any of our business for granted and we are never complacent.

This is key to our continued success and we will always look to be innovative for our clients.”

One of those repeat customers of Newcastle Pertemps is a business that is highly regarded in the North East region, Nissan Shipping Agency (NSA).

The global shipping organisation has been relying on the recruitment company for almost ten years.

Explaining why the working relationship has been such a success, Bob Garner, Port Captain of NSA, commented: “Pertemps in Newcastle has managed our temporary labour requirements for the last nine years. Our requirement is reactive to our business needs. Therefore, Pertemps has a bank of workers specifically recruited for us who are available at extremely short notice. We are an operation that works 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. Therefore we are pleased that we benefit from Pertemps’ Night Service which gives us 24-hour cover.

“Pertemps manage the temporary labour efficiently and we are confident that whatever the requirement, it will be fulfilled. We are confident that our requirements will be met and, coupled with a bespoke invoicing system, this has released time to spend on other tasks.”

Pertemps Newcastle provides recruitment solutions for both the industrial and commercial sectors.

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COMPANY PROFILE

The Newcastle Pertemps team provides recruitment solutions for the commercial and industrial sectors

These range from packers, cleaners, drivers and production staff to managers, call centre employees, bi-linguals, legal secretaries and admin professionals. Newcastle is one of Pertemps’ top performing branches in the UK with permanent consultants in the top three consultants in the country for the last nine years.

Temporary consultants at the branch, based at Watson House in New Bridge Street, have an average of 500 plus workers out every week in Newcastle and the surrounding areas across a diverse range of clients.

“Over the years the recruitment market has changed and the success in Newcastle has been based on our ability to adapt to new opportunities and change the way we do business,” said Kathleen; “we can bespoke our service to meet individual client needs. The continuing success of the Newcastle office has been based on strong ethical,

It is the culture of Pertemps that all staff are encouraged to give back to the community and raise money for charity core values of honesty, quality and service.”

She continued: “We also bring added value to businesses who we work closely with in the North East. For example, the Newcastle branch hosts a bi-annual Employment Law Seminar which is free to attend. These events always attract crowds in excess of 100 people, all HR professionals.”

The industrial arm of the Newcastle branch is managed by Craig Sidney who has been with the company for eight years but has 14 years’ experience in the industry. Clients trust his honesty, humour and commitment to offering the highest quality of service. This experience and commitment is shared by all 15 employees at the office where no member of the core team

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has less than six years’ experience in the world of recruitment. It is also a team that is proud of its links with the local communities it serves.

Kathleen said: “It is the culture of Pertemps that all staff are encouraged to give back to the community and raise money for charity. One of our consultants is a qualified therapeutic counsellor and donates six hours every week to a local counselling organisation. Another consultant has qualified as a football coach and donates his time to a junior soccer team.”

In addition to this, the company offers a matchfunding scheme for anyone wishing to take part in a charitable initiative. In Newcastle, some staff have competed in the Great North Run while >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

COMPANY PROFILE one consultant organised a ‘comedy relay’ between two venues. Another collects bi-annually for Marie Curie. Among the charities to benefit from the fundraising efforts of the branch staff in recent years are Cancer Research, Heel and Toe, Kidney Cancer Organisation, Thyroid Association, Poppleton and many more.

Community involvement and participation is a recurring theme across the Pertemps Network Group. Few businesses can clam to have closer links with the local community than The Education Network.

Formed in 1993, this Network Group member continues to develop an unrivalled reputation in not only supplying comprehensive recruitment solutions across the educational sector, but also in supporting community projects.

With two offices in the North East, one in Newcastle the other in Durham, The Education Network covers all sectors of the education world and is renowned for developing long lasting relationships with customers and clients.

Business is currently doing great. In fact, it is at an all-time high, with sales increasing by 400% since September 2011. The company continues to grow and has gone from a team of three when it started to 12 today.

The sole focus for The Education Network is, as the name suggests, the education sector. But what makes the company stand out are its proud links to local communities. In recent months, the company has sponsored the ‘inspirational primary school teacher’ at the North East Teacher Awards.

They have also supported local football teams and provided funding to a martial arts school in Heaton

Kevin Gill, Director of Education at The Education Network

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The Newcastle Pertemps team members are renowned for their honesty and commitment and offer the highest quality of service

The Education Network is committed to driving up standards of education in the classroom across the North East that is raising money to send youngsters to a world championship event in Italy. The Education Network is also a sponsor of this year’s Chronicles Community Champion Teacher Award.

Shaun Porter, Director, said: “The Education Network takes great pride in the close links it enjoys with local communities across the North East, where we regularly sponsor community initiatives and lend support to deserving causes. It is all about giving something back.

“Our region is rife with outstanding and inspiring individuals, many of whom can be found in our schools and communities – this is why we are happy to get involved with award ceremonies and events where school staff are rewarded for the exceptional achievements they make on a daily basis.”

The Education Network is one of more than 40 businesses that make up the Pertemps Network Group (PNG). They all operate independently on a day-to-day basis but also enjoy the benefits of being part of a wider strategic partnership.

Businesses are increasingly demanding specialist expertise, which is where PNG companies are able to help.

Kevin Gill, Director of Education at The Education

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Network, said: “We are committed to driving up the standards of education in the classroom across the North East and take great pride in our knowledge and understanding of the education sector. Only recently did we appoint a new Primary Manager, Steph Davies, who is a qualified primary teacher with almost seven years’ experience as an education recruitment consultant across the region.

“She is the latest member to what is an experienced team who know the world of education inside-out. We work closely with teachers, support staff and schools and tailor services to ensure that we are giving our clients precisely what they want. As well as finding the right jobs for staff we are also committed to ensuring their careers continue to develop and recently held a number of free Continuing Professional Development (CPD) sessions for our teachers and cover supervisors. These included sessions on behaviour management, safeguarding and a full day’s training for cover supervisors presented by a former headteacher and head of Catholic diocese.”

It is certainly an exciting time for everyone involved with the Pertemps Network Group, not just in the North East but also throughout the UK. The business is as passionate about its people

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COMPANY PROFILE

The Education Network team has developed an unrivalled reputation in the North East (l-r) Chris Tarbit, Shaun Porter, Steph Davies, Lewis Price, Kevin Gill

Our ambitious growth strategy is fuelled by acquiring new businesses and growing organically today as it was back in 1961 when it was first established by Connie Watts. For seven consecutive years its employees have voted the company into the higher echelons of the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies to Work For (38th placed in 2012). The company takes pride in its approach to employee engagement. All members of staff were consulted every step of the way along the road to re-launching the new brand. They were asked what they thought the company stands for and feedback helped to shape the brand values for Pertemps.

The roll out of the new brand got underway at the end of September and branches and offices up and down the country are currently benefiting from new signage and merchandise.

Sitting behind the re-brand is a combined strategy for Pertemps and PNG that aims to steer the business towards the holy grail of the £1bn turnover. In keeping with the culture of employee

engagement, all members of the Board of Directors embarked recently on a tour of the country to meet with staff and inform them about what the future has in store for the group.

That future is one that involves a great deal of growth. In the last few weeks, the Pertemps Network Group rocketed 57 places up a league table of Britain’s leading private mid-market companies. It was ranked number 46 in the Sunday Times Grant Thornton Top Track 250.

The business had been listed at number 103 in the 2012 table but leapt up the rankings following last year’s merger between Pertemps and Network Group. The Top Track 250 ranks the biggest companies by sales – PNG’s reported turnover of £411m was an increase of more than £100m on the previous year.

With the new brand in place and a strategy that will bring PNG even closer together in its desired goals,

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the sky is most certainly the limit.

Carmen Watson, Chairperson of Pertemps, said: “Our standing in the Top Track 250 league table is a marvellous achievement for everybody involved with the Pertemps Network Group, especially when considering the current trading environment. The significant climb up the league table is testament to our ambitious growth strategy, fuelled by acquiring new businesses and growing organically, and all the while offering the highest level of services which our clients demand.”

The face of recruitment is coming very soon to the North East.

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

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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AUTUMN 13

BUSINESS LUNCH

in association with

North East

Why enterprise is picking up Paul McEldon tells Brian Nicholls how the North East Business & Innovation Centre is getting the region’s tally of small business launches ever upward It’s the day after the not-for-profit North East Business & Innovation Centre in Sunderland has completed its takeover of Tedco on South Tyneside, a marriage of business support agencies. And lunching with Paul McEldon, BIC’s chief executive, we learn this is just the tip of an iceberg in growth to create more entrepreneurs in the region.

BIC’s contribution now towards driving up self-employment - about 150 self-starters a year already helped - is into spreading digital accomplishment, and into the growing colony of people running businesses from home. It’s the bellows blasting expertise also into infant businesses of graduates and undergraduates.

It’s even into schools, instilling some entrepreneurial understanding.

McEldon, 12 years at the BIC’s helm, believes merging with Tedco will assist Sunderland and South Tyneside’s shared pledge to collaborate on economic growth, especially as the two councils have jointly put a City Deal bid to Government.

“With councils closer, it makes sense the enterprise agencies should be. It gives their work more synergy,” suggests McEldon, who chairs also the National Enterprise Network and has, too, recently joined the board of Sunderland College. The big bid, if successful, would bring on an advanced manufacturing centre north of Nissan’s site at Washington.

Meanwhile a BIC subsidiary set up, Tedco

Business Support, has Carol White, former deputy of Tedco at the head, while Doug Scott, who led Tedco as was, winds it down now. “We already work across the region on various projects of course, mainly helping firms to establish their innovation plans,” McEldon says. “We partner a lot of organisations on this. As always, we’ll look to expand what we do as opportunity arises.”

BIC’s mission statement was changed last year to one of ‘building business success in the region’ to reflect its widening involvements.

And the launch of Tedco Business Support accompanies two other spanking new projects: a joint venture with one Andy Atkins at the Centre for Digital Business in Sunderland, and an Interim Sales Service which the BIC has introduced. Here they put someone with sales savvy into a business, whether germinating or stagnating, who gets paid on results.

The digital centre is posted as the UK’s only vendor-neutral training, consulting and research business in digital being aimed at all businesses. “In the Interim Sales Service,” McEldon explains, “We’re funding an accomplished sales person to go into a business 12 to 20 days a year. We receive a percentage of increase in turnover achieved after a year.

“We take a risk asking for payment by results.

But the company helped takes a risk too,

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though it’s less risky than if a sales manager was employed straight away at £40,000 to £50,00 a year and delivered nothing.”

A pilot runs with four companies already. Early indications? “It has gone quite well. One’s near the end of its first year and the return is good,” says McEldon, obviously satisfied by this programme co-developed with Digital City and David Anderson Associates.

BIC’s benefit to small businesses is extending fast beyond its Sunderland base, where the 93% occupancy rate of its units is a five year peak. About 130 businesses are in premises of 150sq ft to 6,000sq ft, enjoying access also to meeting rooms and bespoke laboratories.

“That occupancy is at the level we want.

Wholly occupied, existing businesses would be unable to expand on site.”

He reckons BIC reflects the economy generally.

“We’re a microcosm,” he says. “Default rates don’t differ from before, and many exciting newish companies are giving faith that things are turning round. Our business survival rates after three years are always around 70%, much above national average.”

Why? “We try to create an environment.

We’re not helping firms with their every decision. But we bring as much support from anywhere as we can, be it the Manufacturing Advisory Service, business clubs or whatever - access to contacts and ensuring firms are getting what they should. Web based >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

BUSINESS LUNCH

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Firms tend to be into their project already. I wish in a way they tended to come with just the concept. It would be nice to start with a blank sheet of paper.

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things are good, but people still like talking to people and getting names of people to go and see.”

Access to cash still eludes many small businesses though, McEldon states. “But you still need a good plan. Sometimes businesses forget that. How you present yourself in any situation for money is vital.

“It’s no good just telling the bank ‘we’re going to grow’. A gap in the market remains about helping businesses to be investment ready, whether for venture capital or bank lending.”

The Government’s announcement of startup loans for the 18 to 30s appears to have gone down well and, says McEldon: “The Government’s looking to extend that to any age. That will help start-ups. People then shouldn’t really have an excuse about funds being unavailable.”

Meanwhile the BIC’s 50 staff are helping more people to work from home, and university types applying newly acquired skills and learning to self-employment. Within six months there’ll be an on site facility for home-workers.

McEldon explains: “Besides tenants on site we help others starting up - about 150 a year, primarily in Sunderland. Of those, over half trade from home. We believe a facility for them to visit will be helpful - a business environment they can pop into, get support from, meet with similar types of organisations, and in an environment out of the house.

“Whether we can turn it into a market remains to be seen. We expect good uptake. It can be lonely running a business from home, also distracting. There’s lots to be said for an environment where people will meet and share thoughts and ideas. Some think working from home offers flexibility. ‘I’m my own boss’, they think. But often you work far longer hours. It’s a shock - the isolation too if you’ve suddenly switched from an organisation.

“To make it work properly, everyone must buy in to it. If it’s your partner or your kids they must realise that just because you’re at home doesn’t mean you’re not running your business, and if you don’t run your business they’ll have no tea on the table.

“If you haven’t a family this may not arise.

And a family can also be very supportive, helping not necessarily with running your

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business, but supporting you as you do it. In most one-person operations, holidays don’t happen for the first three years. People must accept that.”

With University of Sunderland, the BIC helps the graduates and undergraduates to be creative in the varsity incubators, honing their business skills, hopefully to speed viability so they can avail of business support. “The more we can help like this, the greater our chance of keeping them and their businesses in the region,” McEldon concludes.

At an even earlier level, the BIC goes into schools to explain self-employment. “It’s an option more than ever for people coming out of education. People 16 now will hopefully come to us after a few years - our supply chain in a sense,” he laughs.

“The more through the door, the better the chance to develop viable and sensible businesses. We teach youngsters about selfemployment. Many don’t recognise it. You can ask ‘how many of your parents run their own business’? No hands go up. You ask ‘what

BUSINESS LUNCH

Youngsters often don’t realise a business can run without even employing five people

do your mam and dad do’? They’ll say ‘well, they’re a taxi driver’ or ‘a lorry driver’ perhaps, or ‘child minding’.

“You then point out there’s self-employment in the family already. If no-one’s paying them a wage they must go out and earn. Youngsters often don’t realise a business can run without even employing five people.

“A lot involves getting them to see that a personal interest can stimulate their opportunities. If someone’s going to start a business and times get tough, as they will, they’ll stand a better chance of having the drive to get out of bed and keep it going than if it’s a business they don’t have an interest in.” The BIC is also running an apprenticeship

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programme with 10 young people so far.

They work for up to six weeks in BIC’s various departments, exposed to finance, IT, marketing, and business support. They’re also made work ready, made aware they must turn up on time, dress appropriately and accept they cannot have their phone attached to their ear all the time - “one of the big problems, unfortunately. They don’t get that - look at you as if you’re an idiot,” McEldon says.

They afterwards get placements with BIC tenants. “Of the 10 we’ve had with the tenants on 13 week programmes I think nine have been taken on full time. We believe us kicking them round a bit before that gives them advantage. We still keep an eye >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

BUSINESS LUNCH on them. It’s working for them, the tenants and us.” On the innovation front there’s a target of helping 40 businesses by next September, and hopefully creating 60 jobs.

“We’ve signed the 25th business to the programme. We’ll deliver within those businesses at least 80 jobs so we’re on track to exceed our targets, from Teesside to Northumberland,” McEldon reports.

An ERDF programme offers up to 40% funding, and advice and guidance.

“We’ve about 70 innovation specialists who’ll help, whatever the innovation goal,” McEldon says. “There are good people out there and we match companies with specialists.

“The firms tend to be into their project already. I wish in a way they came with the mere concept. It would be nice to start with a blank sheet of paper! But they usually know what they wish to do, just lack skills to do it.

It might be something simple like a software programme to be written.” (The BIC is a cofounder of Sunderland Software City).

Innovative or not, young businesses on site are promised exposure to everything in the North East potentially helpful - every connection, network and funding opportunity available. “If we find something, all companies get to hear about it.

“We host events and support organisations onsite. The Chamber, the Federation of Small Businesses, UKTI - we host as many of their events as we can. Tenants then, hopefully, get something for their business, and needn’t go looking.

“If someone says ‘can you find something out for us?’ we’ll do that, or point the way. We’ve always said success of the businesses is our success. If the businesses aren’t succeeding, the BIC isn’t succeeding. All our PR’s about success of our businesses, not necessarily that of the BIC.” What’s McEldon’s work wish? “Probably

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Top of the league catering Eating’s light, airy and delicious at the National Glass Centre Brasserie in Sunderland. Catering’s now in the hands of Sunderland 1879 Events Management, which is in top form even if the football club behind it isn’t yet (at the time of writing). The glass and girder restaurant has one of the most spacious eating atmospheres to savour anywhere, and growing port activity visible through the panoramic glass frontage onto the River Wear adds interest to breaks between courses, as does the friendly conversation of operations director Kelly Ann Wolfe. Plenty of leaves and greens confirms a healthy approach to the menu and, commendably, as many ingredients as possible are brought from within a 50 mile radius. With the dearest main course £10, lunchtime offer’s a good one.

The diners’ main choices on this occasion - lemon and thyme marinated chicken breast with potato wedges and salad, and a vegetable curry - both went down well. So did respective starters of game terrine and soup. As for puds, both the Viennese apple strudel, with chantilly cream and a maple syrup drizzling, and the bread pudding will challenge anyone wishing to feel lean and hungry back at the office.

something more to provide skills and enterprise awareness in schools. Then pupils could look to set up a business, or use those skills to join an enterprising business. With enterprising skills they’d be invaluable to employers.

“If you know the principles of making money, and sales and marketing - business skills generally - you can’t fail to be more

Academic stuff’s great. But employers look for a spark of entrepreneurial spirit among young people

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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employable. Academic stuff’s great. But most employers look for a spark of entrepreneurial spirit among young people, which isn’t always taught or valued in education.

“Competent literacy and numeracy always help. But when we’re sent less academic kids and we ask them how to make money they know how to make money. They’ll always have money in their pockets.

“It’s probably the academic ones who won’t know. They’ve probably had money from a different route. So entrepreneurial skills aren’t necessarily academic skills.

“However, there’s no point in having all that if you can’t add up properly and read a document.”

The BIC surely won’t relax until it has won over all the young people, streetwise or not. n

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Taking part Dr Marie Willson, deputy regional director, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) Ken Cuthbert, regional operations manager, UK Trade and Investment (UKTI) Nigel King, director, Quest UAV Dr Hamid Seddighi, senior lecturer in business management, University of Sunderland Simon Hanson, development manager, Federation of Small Businesses Alastair MacColl, chief executive, BE Group Eldon Jobe, managing director, Recruitment Force Jarrett Palmer, operations director, Aesica Pharmaceuticals Joe Telford, managing director, AES Digital Solutions Pat Dellow, area commercial director, HSBC Andy Coticelli, tax partner, Deloitte In the chair : Caroline Theobald, Bridge Club North Also present: Andrew Mernin, BQ Venue: The Silk Room, Newcastle

in association with

break for the border The issue: What are the barriers to exporting to non-traditional countries and how can we assist businesses to overcome them?

While the North East prides itself on its positive trade balance, many businesses here have yet to taste overseas success.

At the same time, others in the region want more of it, having already sampled the riches of a foreign land.

BQ brought together a diverse group of business leaders and export champions with the aim of plotting new routes into new markets for North East firms – and overcoming the many barriers towering over their borders.

Here’s how the evening played out: The debate Caroline Theobald: “Before we can volunteer some solutions, what are the perceived barriers to exporting among small businesses?”

Simon Hanson, who explained that Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) members were often deterred from exporting because they view it as something for large corporations only, said: “Firstly it is access to finance. Some of the schemes that have been introduced don’t help the small business. Take the UK Export Finance guarantee [which supports exporters of goods and services], for example. It’s a great scheme but we’ve been told many of our

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

members can’t get access to it. With 99% of businesses in the region being small or micro – that’s 131,000 businesses – it would be great if we could crack that nut. There is also a fear among our members about late payments in overseas markets.”

Such barriers did not stop Eldon Jobe’s relatively young firm – which provides software for the recruitment industry – from breaking into a number of overseas markets including Australia, Hong Kong and even Mongolia.

He said the company’s focus on search engine optimisation (SEO) played a crucial role in its global success. He added some practical advice to growing an online presence which sells.

“If your company supplies ‘X’ and you put out a statement about it, you can use software that will build 10,000 different ways of saying that. And suddenly you’ve got an American guy purchasing recruitment software from you.

What’s worked well for us is that we’ve put images and movies on the website. Basically we’ve knocked down a barrier, and all those customers can now find us.”

Nigel King, whose business makes small unmanned airborne systems for imaging and

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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.

surveying usage, said: “Finance wasn’t an issue for me as I started off with £20,000 and just decided I wasn’t going to borrow a penny and I’m going to stay that way. We’re now turning over about a third of a million in our second year without having borrowed anything. But the concern for us going out to export would be getting paid, being a small company with no larger company behind us to bully beef.”

Eldon Jobe: “We refuse to do any work for anyone unless they pay us upfront. When we started the business people said no-one would do that but I just stuck to my guns. And now they have to pay because they’re already down the line and want the software.”

Nigel King, who at the time of writing was on the verge of a one-man trade mission to Nigeria, added: “We do 50% on delivery, 50% on order and other alternatives to that are universities which tend to give

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purchase orders.”

Joe Telford, whose business develops productivity-based collaborative web applications, said: “We’re pretty much the same as Eldon. As soon as we get the first payment we turn the software on for them.”

Caroline Theobald: “Doesn’t that approach take guts as a small company?”

Simon Hanson: “It is about having guts as a leader and also realising that it’s not a panacea and you can’t just jump into another market because the UK is flat and expect it to pick up quickly. It is a slow burner.

Jarrett Palmer, of Aesica Pharmaceuticals – which has a presence in Newcastle and Cramlington, not to mention Italy, Germany, North America and Asia – said: “We have a way of dealing with the security of getting paid and that’s through a letter of credit. We’ve been forced down that path with places like India, for example, where we physically cannot ship unless we can prove there’s a letter of credit approved by government and that’s a legal way of getting paid.”

Marie Willson: “With issues like this, it’s really valuable for businesses to learn from other businesses and overcome some of the perceptions.”

She added that companies with finance-related issues can tap into support through UKTI and its sister body Export Finance’s financial advisers. “We’re looking to find solutions to those problems.”

Pat Dellow: “But while it would work with Eldon and Joe’s businesses to say you have to pay upfront, that isn’t going to work with the majority of businesses. So how can they make certain they get paid? That’s priority for most businesses.”

Eldon Jobe: “Businesses should definitely try it though. A lot of people don’t believe it’s going to happen or that they’re going to be able to do it. But if you tell them ‘that’s just the way it is’ they may be surprised instead of being scared to try it.”

Comparing Eldon’s three-year-old firm and Joe’s 20+ years of trading - and their mutual exporting success – Caroline Theobald concluded that length of time in business is perhaps irrelevant to overseas achievements.

One crucial aspect, however, as highlighted

by Nigel King, is the quality of a product

or service. And according to Marie Willson this can dictate the markets targeted by small businesses. “There may be markets that are perhaps easier to get into for certain products,” she said.

Returning to the issue of chasing payments abroad, Dr Hamid Seddighi said: “Micro businesses have less than five people working for them. And so their attention is on product development, not on finance, or managing accounts. They are creative people and they want to improve their innovative activity.

So that’s where I think UKTI can be helpful in helping micro businesses manage their finances. It’s not just financial help that micro businesses need, they need management, business and contacts. So you are enabling people in the business to do what they are good at. Their needs are very different from much larger businesses.”

Marie Willson: “There are a host of other organisations that provide business support in different areas that may be required. So for us it’s increasingly important to have the awareness amongst our advisers of the other support services that are available.”

Eldon Jobe: “Another solution for access to finance [in relation to exporting] is venture capital, which a lot of companies are scared to do because they don’t want to give their

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company up. But for a start-up business in the North East, there is access out there to venture capital, and it’s technically why we are based in the North East.”

Pat Dellow: “I believe there still needs to be more education around appropriate funding solutions. We need to be clear about which propositions are suitable for bank finance and which are more suitable for venture capital or a mixture of both - particularly in the start-up market where the risk is greater.”

Alastair MacColl, of multi-faceted business support company BE Group – which has contracts in several overseas markets - said: “When it comes to equity, things are changing in the North East. A number of sectors, like high value manufacturing, digital and new media, are becoming much more ready to talk about equity-based arrangements.”

Simon Hanson: “With venture capital, I think what a lot of small businesses don’t realise is that you do get some real good advice on the back of that investment, from the investors themselves and the mentors that can come into your business and say ‘it’s not just the cash you’re getting, it’s the advice and guidance, and the more we can encourage that the better.”

Alastair MacColl: “I think familiarity, or a lack of it, is a big issue and adds to the fear >>

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factor of exporting. A lot of businesses fall through opportunism in exporting rather than having any strategic plan and then they develop the strategy from there.”

He went on to underline the export opportunities linked to the North East’s universities: “We’ve got a group of universities in the region that are all exporting across a whole range of markets. And I think they are a great way to piggy back and find your way into international markets. We’ve found that it’s quite tough to find a new partner in a new market that you trust and that you’re willing to put your faith in. And we found that you do have to kiss a lot of frogs before you get the prince or princess you’re looking for. I think that’s a barrier – finding in-country partners - so we should be using organisations to take the pain out of some of that exploratory work.”

Andy Coticelli: “One of the key things when you look to export is cost. A number of groups have tested international markets by going online, like retailers. But partnering is another thing we have seen. I absolutely appreciate that you have to get the right partner. But the idea of joint venture doesn’t have to be setting up a legal entity, it can just be having an independent agent. Even in a joint venture arrangement, in some jurisdictions, actually having a legal entity with local investment is a requirement that helps you to bid for certain contracts. You can structure those arrangements so that there’s an ability to get out of them at a later date. So that’s a way of testing that market without having so much capital investment yourself.”

Jarrett Palmer: “Our partnerships are based on a contract manufacturing service so we take the pain out of it and do the hard bit, which

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

is manufacturing the products. But then we also take the pain out of a lot of the peripheral supply chain. We use agents at the other end of the supply chain, where we have to import a raw material from another country. It’s just easier to do it with an agent because they take away the hassle and the pain from us. It simplifies the business.”

Andy Coticelli: “And as a contract manufacturing model, you don’t want to add any uncertainty or risk so having that flexibility is absolutely key for you.”

Jarrett Palmer: “There is a cost of using an agent but if you’re smart you can pass that on to your customer.”

Joe Telford: “We have a network [of support], but not to do things on a daily basis for us, but rather to keep in touch with us and point us in the right direction and give us advice when we need it. That can be in a number of areas from sales and marketing down to finance.”

In building such networks of overseas market experts, what role can the region’s internationally-focused universities play.

Hamid Seddighi: “Universities are among the biggest exporters in terms of transferring knowledge to other countries. Given that we do have a lot of contacts within our communities, that can be used to improve the contacts position that businesses may have regarding customers in the export market. For example, at the moment we have eight Nigerian students doing PhDs here in manufacturing. They are knowledgeable, they are mature students, they’ve worked in Nigeria and they know people. I wondered why we can’t use those contacts that we have within the community. They have a great deal they can tell you. They know about the culture, how

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to do business there etc. So the combination of the two things – businesses need support to export and you also need contacts – the university can provide both quite happily.

Andy Coticelli: “I presume those students are pretty well connected as well, which is great.”

Nigel King: “It would be great to access local knowledge very quickly from people that have lived there in the last few years who just know how it happens.”

Marie Willson: “We do have the commercial offices based in our embassies that do have that knowledge and can set up distributors, agents or give recommendations for a range of companies.”

Hamid Seddighi: “But it is the quickness [that the university] could offer. It’s a very quick, efficient channel.”

Marie Willson: “There are of course Knowledge Transfer Partnerships which encourage interaction between the universities and businesses. They are a structured programme.”

Hamid Seddighi: “But that’s a bit longer term.

What would be useful is for someone to talk to before they go off somewhere at short notice.”

Marie Willson: “That whole culture and language skills area is something that is particularly high up on our agenda at the moment. But also market visits, which can be very powerful in getting businesses together on cross cutting market visits where you get anecdotes from other experienced exporters.

They are multi-sector so there is no sense that they are giving information to competitors if they share their advice.”

Eldon Jobe: “I went on a digital trade mission to America and it was very good, but the big thing I got from UKTI was telling me that ‘it can’t be done’ unless I got people on the ground. And then to do that they introduced me to very expensive law firms and accountancy firms. Whereas if we had mature students I could go and talk to, it would be a lot quicker and a valuable experience. And it’s a very different kind of information.”

Caroline Theobald: “There’s no substitute for market visits, but this could be a way of getting rid of the fear factor before you decide to go out there.”

Andy Coticelli: “With our firm, it’s about opening up our network. We’re not going

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It would be great to access local knowledge very quickly from people that have lived in that market to introduce you to someone in your industry who’ll tell you what it’s like to set up somewhere. But if we’ve got someone in a different industry – maybe CEO to CEO or purchasing director to purchasing director – then it’s amazing how open the conversation is when you get them in a room. I think it a case of sharing our network and some insights with clients we work with.”

Simon Hanson: “With our members it’s about putting them in a room with other business people. Some of them aren’t bothered about embassy receptions, they just want the local networks that we’ve got here. We know who’s in the room, we know what we want to sell, just introduce us to relevant people and we’ll sell it.”

Alastair MacColl: “I find it quite exciting that all these universities across the UK could help businesses access new markets because they are all really well linked to institutions in other markets who are in turn really well linked to the business community. It’s also a fabulous reverse route for inward investment as well. I think universities are an enormously underexploited resource to boost international trade.”

Simon Hanson: “It’s almost about coming up with a service like the legal one [a free legal clinic staffed by law students] at Northumbria but for exports where you’ve got international students to advise on their home markets.”

Customers can also help businesses grow their exporting prowess, as Jarrett Palmer explained: “What we find is that our customers educate us in terms of what needs to happen in exporting. Most of our business models are set up on an ex works supply contract so our customers tell us what needs to happen to export a product to their destination market.

We then manufacture it and they organise all the transporting and everything else.”

Marie Willson: “It’s interesting to see examples of non-traditional routes into markets like that.”

Andy Coticelli: “It also gives you a sense of what your costs are going to be. Export duties are a very good example that you can go into China and get a 15% or 0% tax rate but if you’ve got issues on duties on the way in or out you can lose that benefit. So if your suppliers are going to take care of that position, then you can work out your margins from day one and it takes away that uncertainty.”

And such models that remove risks by outsourcing responsibilities to experts could be applied to other sectors as well as manufacturing. As an example, Eldon Jobe explained how this idea works with software if it is bought in by a customer that then intends to oversee its usage by many more end users in another market.

“They take over the service contract to an extent and then if it goes down, it’s not our fault,” he said.

At this point Alastair MacColl suggested that the idea of exporting perhaps needed to be demystified for businesses by exposing them to specific contract opportunities as opposed to general market overviews.

Marie Willson: “I think it’s also important to understand that through a supply chain you might get a smaller company providing a service or an offer to a company further down the line and one that does export. The commercial offices around the world do put something called ‘business opportunities’ on UKTI’s website and any business can actually register to have access to these business

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opportunities. That’s another route into identifying opportunities.”

A well timed plug for a potentially businessboosting event followed from Ken Cuthbert.

The ExploreExport event, in Gateshead on 11 November gives businesspeople the opportunity to book 1-2-1 appointments with over 70 international commercial officers and hear presentations on key aspects of exporting [see exportweek.ukti.gov.uk for more].

Ken Cuthbert: “It could be the sort of event where a negative becomes a positive. You could see the officer from Colombia who tells you your product is not suited to that market – but that’s good for you to know as a business.

And they might point you in the direction of a different market.”

Pat Dellow: “What our customers tell us they want most is to be connected with someone else who’s traded in that industry or country. If we can connect those people, that’s the best source for information.”

Then Caroline Theobald asked for ideas for actions that would ease the path into new markets for businesses on the part of government agencies.

Hamid Seddighi: “At university, to supervise students we have an experienced supervisor and an associate supervisor. I don’t see why you can’t have the same idea here. So an experienced exporter linked with a less experienced one.”

Jarrett Palmer: “One thing we have found challenging is exporting speciality products.

We have export licenses which are heavily regulated and that’s particularly challenging and we’ve had to go through some really steep learning curves to find mechanisms to allow our supply chains to work. >>

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“That information isn’t readily available and you have to try to find it yourself. You can’t just pick it off the shelf.”

Simon Hanson: “This is often mentioned as something that’s needed, but it’s that onestop shop of support. It’s almost like we need something like the North East access to finance guide, where everybody points you in the direction of totally impartial, export support.

It can be incredibly fragmented and we then struggle to know who’s doing what.”

Marie Willson: “In the North East we do have one single number that any business can contact and for any business our point of contact is the international trade advisor for that post code area.

“We do also look to get our international trade advisors to understand what else is on offer on our programmes and we have monthly meetings to help address that.”

Pat Dellow: “One of the frustrating things for us, and I dare say for UKTI, is that we’ll organise an [export-related] event, we’ll publicise it and make it available for everybody – and take up is not where we would like it to be. What suggestions do you have to make these events more attractive and accessible to small businesses?”

Simon Hanson: “I think it’s a perception issue.

Many small businesses think export is just for bigger companies and that’s why we need more examples of smaller firms that are exporting successfully.”

Joe Telford: “But also, the smaller the

Many small businesses think export is just for bigger companies

business the less time you have to spend working on the business.”

Caroline Theobald: So what advice can be offered to North East firms hoping to tap into non-traditional markets?

Eldon Jobe: “My advice is use Google and search engine optimisation (SEO). Someone commented to me recently about the amount we’re spending on SEO saying ‘surely you can’t be returning on your investment’.

“But we are more than doing so. It’s a very worthwhile investment.”

Alastair MacColl: “We’ve done bits of work in the last year in Canada, Australia and the Baltic, for example, and on almost every occasion it’s been through an existing UK customer to do something with them in a market they were proactive in.

“Or we’ve started to do something in this country and developed partnerships elsewhere.

“We’re at the stage now where we want to move away from opportunism and take a more considered look at how we develop the right

A useful debate UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) valued this highly constructive debate. Discussion highlighted that there are several options to accessing individual export markets, although some common themes apply e.g. access to finance and payment guarantees. The use of expertise and knowledge of our universities was also a theme, which UKTI welcomes and will explore further. UKTI continues to be a resource for business and through its International Trade Hotline in the North East – 0845 0505054 (enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk) - businesses can access valuable advice and support to encourage and assist them with their export aspirations. Our comprehensive range of services and access to our partners provides a comprehensive support network. Though many of UKTI’s strategies are around high value opportunities and high growth markets, we are certainly encouraging of companies to look at less traditional markets. Interestingly, Chile (by export value) is currently a far bigger export market to the North East than India, Saudi Arabia or Switzerland. So, we aim to encourage companies to enter a market that is right for them and at the right time. With such business to business debates we can identify and help to overcome barriers to export that may exist.

Dr Marie Willson, deputy regional director, UKTI

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kind of infrastructure.”

Nigel King: “Because of my website people found me and after a while I realised I had to listen to it. Having sent out as much as we can as cheaply as we can, it’s come back.

Simon Hanson: “What our members forget is that if you’ve got a website you can be a global business.

“And so it is about that SEO to boost their presence.

“Maybe that’s something that UKTI could do to help small businesses.”

Marie Willson: “Social media and digital marketing in terms of promoting businesses is right up there on our list of priorities. I think there’s an issue that lots of businesses have internet but don’t actually use it for trading and that’s a huge missed opportunity. So that’s something we’re interested in.”

Andy Coticelli: “Twitter and social media in general is hugely powerful and that’s where you can find out about partners and new markets.

Seasoned exporter Joe Telford added two pieces of advice on cracking new markets. On SEO strategy, he said: “While Google has most of the western part of the world, in China there are other search engines and even places like Latvia have a preference to use their own and that’s the case in various other parts of the world. So if you were trying to get into China, Chinese don’t use Google and so a different approach is needed.”

And on general business management he explained: “You have to do business ethically because there are so many people out there that think the Brits are there to rip them off.

I get a lot of that in dialogue in the States and in Australia.

“But if you spend a bit of time sitting drinking beer with people, they will see you are ethical.

You almost have to sell a change of mind to the countries you’re going into.”

Hamid Seddighi: “I think the solution is little changes, like bringing universities in more effectively, partnering between smaller and larger companies, treating smaller companies differently because their needs are different, and matching experienced with less experienced people.

“These are the things that are going to make a difference.” n

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Crash King triumphs BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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INNOVATION

What began as a flight test to see if his house was falling into the sea has become, for Nigel King, a high tech manufacturing business of international dimension. He tells Brian Nicholls how it happened Fomer RAF pilot Nigel King has come through almost 200 air crashes unscathed to give Northumberland an edge in innovation.

But the crashes didn’t happen when he flew helicopters for Queen and Country. They came amid his development of a new generation of unoccupied aircraft that lift Britain into the advanced technology of photographic imagery that’s more detailed than that taken from a satellite or a helicopter. These aircraft have sometimes been called drones, which King eschews in favour of “UAVs”, unmanned airborne vehicles. “Drones in the public concept tend to capture this thing about the predator, the wreaker of death and destruction,” he explains. “We try through ‘UAV’ to get across its environmental concept so it hasn’t such a sinister background.”

Unmanned aircraft date back to 1919.

But in the last five or six years advances in technology have raised major new opportunities for building and selling such aircraft, and for taking science forward globally in vital research, such as identifying new sources of water in lands of famine, and in providing new information on global warming. Understandably aerial maps and 3D models have drawn in the European Space Agency, British Antarctic Survey and many UK universities as King’s clients at his business, Quest UAV. Its missions have included photographing Chile’s Atacama Desert from 10,000ft at Nasa’s expense to help develop navigation software for the next generation Mars Rover. As King explains: “Now’s the very time for non-military use of UAVs. In the right hands, they’ve vast potential for improving quality of life and for slashing costs of otherwise expensive aerial surveys.” His aerial photography has won him the coveted Fox Talbot Award, which the British Institute of Professional Photographers presents only occasionally. His work, he says, has been possible through pulling together the benefits from miniaturisation of electronic systems, enabling them to fit into miniature aircraft.

Also, the accuracy of global positioning

satellite navigation (GPS) has been crucial to keep aircraft under the control of their pilots and commanders who remain on the ground. Digital cameras, too, are advancing what can be recorded from a great height and worked on. King says his growing business at Coquetdale Enterprise Park in Amble is unrivalled in Britain. Its main competition comes from a company in Belgium and one in Switzerland. His ingenuity arose with personal desire to measure how fast coastal erosion was threatening his home bought at the fishing village of Low Hauxley around 20 years ago.

He got directly involved after Northumbria University bought a Canadian-built UAV five years ago. University staff, although trained, weren’t totally confident about operating it.

“There was a fear that in their hands it might end up in pieces within the first 10 seconds of flight,” King remembers. An appeal went out: did anyone locally know how to fly them? Nigel’s wife is Dr Helen King, a lecturer in geographical information systems at the university. She volunteered his services.

“I spent six months with the university as their ‘chief pilot’ on the project,” King recounts.

“On examining the aircraft, I thought I could do better. That was in 2008. It has been a long haul but here we are in business five years later.” He knuckled down initially at Blue River Studios, a former business already combining his passions of flying and photography. It took about two and a half years to resolve all the issues. “A major one was to develop a launch system so reliable and easily operable that anyone could launch and recover the UAV. That involved up to 250 crashes. It took out eight or more aircraft, and I invariably rebuilt

aircraft up to five times daily. The launch system works sweetly now and is a hallmark virtually impossible to copy,” he adds gleefully.

“While It looks simple, lots of thought and planning have gone into it.”

Its stubby body has a wingspan tall as a Harlem Globetrotter, likening it to a monstrous bumble bee. King found many limitations to the imported UAV he’d worked with, such as its airframe that made it hard to land. Its high speed was also a drawback, and its large turning circle made it impractical in Britain, due to UK restrictions on UAVs. “The restrictions had good reason. Without them, many unskilled people might by now have been flying UAVs around the sky anywhere and everywhere, risking full-size aircraft, pilots, passengers and other people on the ground. It’s fine to fly small radio controlled aircraft from a recognised flying site. But if it becomes free to operate anywhere in the country, with the aircraft flying out of sight long distances and crashing or going out of control, that wouldn’t be a good scenario.”

Even if a Quest crashes, likelihood of damage is minimised. Its building materials comprise expanded polypropylene and other composites hard to work with but tough. King jumps up and down on a wing to prove his case.

His website, indeed, has shown a car drive over the wing. Quest camera carrying UAVs are controlled on the ground by a pilot and a commander. The commander monitors the aircraft’s ‘heartbeat’ and can predict the aircraft’s next moves. The pilot concentrates on the aircraft itself. A UAV’s bread and butter work lies in creating very high resolution maps.

It flies back and forth, ‘lawnmower’ style. >>

Quest UAVs are incredibly robust too.

Invariably if helicopters come out of the sky that’s it. They’re in pieces. If ours do that it’s pick it up and throw it back up

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INNOVATION The commander can tell the pilot if the aircraft is about to change direction or descend, the programme having been fed into the UAV’s brain long before take-off to follow a route determined by agreement with whoever requires the flight. Both pilot and commander can intervene in the movement during a flight however. On return, the UAV will yield up to 500 very high resolution images. These, pieced together, form an electronic mosaic, more accurate and faster achieved, thanks to their digital nature, than the earlier practice of joining up silver nitrate film. Every picture is stripped to pixels, then pixel matching begins: “Say you have a church on three or four pictures. The process might pinpoint the top of the steeple and say ‘right, I’m going to match that point’. Then it might look for the top of a gate or root of a tree, and from there create a three dimensional image, all automatically.”

The clever camera needs clever software beyond Quest UAV’s abilities. “We use Russian software. There are a number of photographic programmes to serve our purpose too.”

A Quest UAV costs between £12,000 and £40,000 depending on the sensors and cameras carried. With video aboard, data can be transmitted in real time to the ground crew who can intervene if necessary to investigate some aspect more closely. Or infra-red cameras may be required. Some cameras can cost £12,000 and, if doubled up to work with multi-spectral and thermal cameras, that can be a £25,000 payload. Universities tend to get discounts since King considers them to be strapped for cash, and partnerships created there can sometimes help develop better sensors too. In the UK, real helicopters provide the competition: “They’re very good if they stay within their limitations - like remaining close to an object. They can hover, get fairly close in and gather some good data, enabling maybe 100 square metres to be collated. Our strengths come when there’s need to go further afield, gathering larger areas of data.

“Quest UAVs are incredibly robust too.

Invariably if helicopters come out of the sky that’s it. They’re in pieces. If ours do that it’s pick it up and throw it back up.” He makes the point with personal experience, having flown Gazelle, Puma, Wessex and Sea King helicopters during his 16 years in the forces, the final few

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Flying start to jobs recovery Nigel King’s flair for innovation and personal application is exactly the inspiring start that Oxford Innovation wanted in its promotion of start-ups and high growth businesses in Northumberland, following the closure of Alcan’s aluminium smelter at Lynemouth. Mike Jobson, who leads Oxford Innovation’s task in the area to assist 165 businesses and 15 start-ups create 100 new jobs within two years, says: “When I returned to the North East after years away, I hadn’t officially started but attended business awards as a guest of Arch, the Northumberland development company who’d appointed us. Nigel was a winner that night. I thought ‘there’s a business we should work with’. Arch put us in touch. You could sense potential in such a combination of high tech and innovation. I’ve a pilot’s private licence. I love photography. My father was in the RAF. So it’s a particular pleasure to support Nigel.” Knight’s brief to Jobson as programme manager in OI’s delivery of the £1.35m Business Northumberland High Growth Programme, was to support Quest UAV into new markets. “We’ve an incredibly talented technical team. But we must reach new markets - extremely challenging,” King says.

“Mike’s wealth of experience in marketing and ongoing support gives commercial focus we’d lacked.” One senses in Nigel King an archetype entrepreneur all business advisors would love to work with. A 59-year-old father of three, and with five grandchildren, he has retired two or three times before but says when he sees an opportunity he has to go for it. He’s been a holistic therapist, an IT teacher and consultant back at RAF Boulmer - “and a few other things I’d never confess to,” he discloses. With turnover up now to £350,000, he sees major benefits in trying to create more jobs in an area suitably remote for air testing.

years on air sea rescue duty at RAF Boulmer.

Members of two expeditions studying climate change have recently worked in Iceland and Svalbard, in northernmost Norway, using Quest UAVs to measure the rate of change in glaciers.

Both York and Southampton Universities have bought Quests for Polar researches. King says it shows how quickly and competently the aircraft can be used by previously unskilled personnel. These are lecturers, not pilots.

“They fly these aircraft competently, and don’t need a pilot’s licence if they’re not using the aircraft commercially. We provided training for Northumbria University also. One individual did his training then only saw the aircraft again when it was beside him in his tent on the Arctic ice sheet, where he was living for three months.

He unpacked the aircraft from its rugged case and got the data he wanted totally isolated from the outside world. He’d no direct support, only a text about once a week, and couldn’t ring back with problems. “While the weather wasn’t too bad, there was an issue around GPS, latitude and longitude, because the compass couldn’t be relied upon. Everything’s different there. He worked where ice mixes with rock.

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Otherwise on a totally white landscape it could be very hard. But every picture notes its latitude, longitude and height, helping to make the mosaic easier.”

Several new prototypes are currently being worked on including one aimed at getting maximum endurance in bad weather. Another serves as a research vehicle for Newcastle University. Another government funded one being prepared to track and quantify fresh water. A Quest usually takes a month or two to build but it has been assembled within 10 days with all the staff working flat out. So what about those erosion concerns that got him going in the first place? “I’ve since recorded the erosion myself through aerial photography.

I now have what I started out to do five years ago, I have in three dimensional models a good history of what erosion has or hasn’t been happening. I know I’ll be able to live the rest of my days there without any problem. So I’m a happy man. The house will continue to have resale value and I’m sure my kids will take it over. I thought there were only about 15 years left. But it looks there’s at least 100 years left.

That’s my major investment secure.” n

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SCOTT ON WINE

AUTUMN 13

Pepper & vanilla Chris Scott of Todd & Cue Ltd, opts for quality over quantity

When I got the call to ask if I would taste a couple of bottles of wine, I have to say, I was somewhat taken aback. Anyone who knows me would undoubtedly label me as a “quaffer” with a preference for quantity over quality but hey, if someone’s offering you a couple of bottles of decent wine it would have been rude to say no!

I decided it would be much easier if I had some assistance. My wife, Anne, was the obvious choice, as for more than 35 years now, she has maintained that she appreciates decent wine more than yours truly,.

Over the years, I’ve been to innumerable wine tasting evenings and some years ago, even ventured to the vineyards of Bordeaux but I’m not sure any of this has greatly increased my appreciation of the better quality wines.

Tannins, sulphur content and terroire mean nothing to me - my only care is if it tastes nice.

While I do enjoy a good bottle of wine, I frequently struggle to appreciate some of the subtleties of flavour that others with more delicate palates seem to find.

That said, if you’re told what you’re supposed to taste, it makes the detection much easier, so, with that in mind, when the bottles arrived, after reading what it said on the label, I headed straight to the internet to see if someone far more knowledgeable than I had anything to say about them.

CHATEAU LAVILLE BERTOU 2011 MINERVOIS-LA LIVINIERE The label describes it as “a harmonious and full wine with silky tannins, fruity and spicy with a long finish”. On Google it’s “an immensely robust and concentrated wine with a backbone of red and black fruit with heady wafts of heathland shrubs and

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

pepper on the nose”.

Personally, whilst it certainly has a long finish, and was undoubtedly peppery, I found the wine too earthy for my taste and wasn’t anything like as fruity as I expected.

Anne, on the other hand thought it was absolutely delicious and promptly set about finishing the bottle.

MEDALL REAL 2011 SANTA RITA CHARDONNAY I absolutely loved this wine.

It was exactly as described on both the label and the internet. It possesses a beautiful greenish yellow colour, and delightful citrus intensity.

It too has a long finish, but with creamy vanilla texture. I was sure my wife would share my views but how wrong

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I was. She felt that it just didn’t have the mineral quality that the label suggested and overall, wasn’t impressed. So there we have it, I have just one glass of red and my wife finishes the rest, but when it came to the Chardonnay, I not only finished her glass but polished off the bottle into the bargain! All it shows, I suppose, is that it all comes down to personal choice. Of course another conclusion is that maybe, after 35 years of marriage, my wife is a better judge when it comes to wine - and men! n The Chateau Laville Bertrou 2011, Minervois-laLiviniere, France, £14.99 and Santa Rita Medalla Real Chardonnay 2011, £11.24 were supplied by Majestic Wine Warehouse, Gosforth.

MOTORING

AUTUMN 13

green and mean

David Robinson, group chief executive officer, PD Ports, marks a business milestone by hitting the open road in a Lexus IS 300h

As a current Porsche Cayenne driver, I was intrigued to see how the Lexus IS 300h would compare when the people of BQ Magazine asked me to take part in the review. When the photographer arrived with the car, I was pleased that I’d get the chance to drive it.

The driving experience was put on hold, however, for a quick photo shoot followed by

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

a foray back into the office to prepare for Tees Dock’s 50th anniversary celebrations which took place the next day.

When five o’clock arrived it was time to return home, giving me the opportunity to drive the Lexus IS 300h.

From a sideways glance, it’s certainly an elegant looking motor but walk round to the front of

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the vehicle, and it’s a very different story, with a rather aggressive looking frontend. Once in the driver’s seat, I was immediately impressed with how it looked. The interior was very luxurious and housed nothing that looked too complicated to operate.

Starting the car was simple, with a push of a button. But this being a hybrid meant there >>

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*For Business Users only. Initial rental and VAT applies. Available on new sales of IS 300h SE when ordered, registered and financed between 1 October 2013 and 7 January 2014 through Lexus Financial Services on Lexus Connect Contract Hire. At participating Lexus Centres. Advertised rental is based on a 3 year non maintained contract at 10,000 miles per annum with an initial rental of £2,094 + VAT. Excess mileage charges apply. Other finance offers are available but cannot be used in conjunction with this offer. Terms and conditions apply. Indemnities may be required. Finance subject to status to over 18s only. Lexus Financial Services, Great Burgh, Burgh Heath, Epsom, Surrey, KT18 5UZ. Subject to availability. Lexus Centres are independent of Lexus Financial Services. New IS prices start from £26,495 OTR. Model shown is IS 300h SE costing £30,105 including optional metallic paint at £610. Car shown not to UK specification. The mpg figures quoted are sourced from official EU-regulated test results. These are provided for comparability purposes and may not reflect your actual driving experience.

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MOTORING

AUTUMN 13

What Bob says...

was no rumble of the engine.

If you’re gentle with the right foot, it is equally silent as you pull away. I steered onto the A66 for the long jaunt home. It was time to see what this Lexus could do. I put the car into sports mode and watched as the dials turned red and the eco dial changed from the hybrid setting into 8000rpm sports mode. I gave it a little gas and was very impressed with its response; the front lifted slightly and I was cruising at 70mph in no time. The multimedia system in the car was brilliant and very easy to use via the mouse type device mounted next to the arm rest for easy reach. The sound quality out of the speaker surround sound system was crystal clear, with plenty of depth.

The front lifted slightly and I was cruising at 70 mph in no time

To sum the Lexus IS 300h up, it is clearly aimed squarely at competition from BMW, Mercedes, Audi and Jaguar, to name but a few, in a market where performance, quality, and that certain wow factor are paramount. It certainly offers that executive feel with a green edge for those environmentally conscious drivers - as we all should be. But at the same time it gives you a sense of high performance when switched into sports mode. For the moment I am content with my Porsche but having the opportunity to drive this car has made me think about possibly getting a Lexus in the future. n The car David Robinson drove was the Lexus IS 300h Luxury Auto - £35900.00 OTR. Lexus Newcastle, 22 Benton Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, NE7 7EG

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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The IS’s design is all-new from its imposing spindle grille through to its LFA-inspired interior.

Its more interesting exterior design features include separate front lamp units underlined by sweeping, L-shaped daytime running lamps, and a low set bonnet that pops up to meet pedestrian impact regulations. This gives the IS a more avant-garde look than that of its competition.

Visually, it’s striking. Lexus have historically taken an understated approach to design but less so with the IS. From the A-post back it is conventional enough with its sweeping roofline and good proportions.

But the front is highly stylised, the grille in particular.

The car had a large spindle shaped grill and an analogue clock dominated the dash. The car also featured LED running lights and rear tube design lights. Three driving modes are featured from Eco, Sport and Sport+. In Sport+ mode the cars steering, throttle, transmission and suspension settings are much sharper.

I drove the IS 300h luxury, which has a maximum speed of 125mph, the car gets to 62mph in 8.3 secs and its trump card is its amazing CO2 figure of 109g/km considering the size of the car is totally amazing.

Optional extras include head up display, blind spot monitor, lane assist and driver monitoring system; one area where Lexus are beating its German rivals hands down with it standard specification. The SE model comes with leather upholstery, electric front seats and steering wheel adjustment, a rear camera and DAB radio.

Bob Arora is an independent car reviewer and also owns Sachins restaurant on Forth Banks, Newcastle. kulmeeta@hotmail.com

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FASHION

waxing lyrical Barbour’s managing director Steve Buck tells Josh Sims about the iconic clothing brand’s evolution from fishing boats to the world’s fashion hotbeds >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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FASHION

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BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

FASHION “The North East of England is a cold, wet, grey place,” says Gary Janes, doing little for the local tourist industry. “But we love it. That said, it does come with certain demands.” Protective clothing might be one, which is why the area is also home to an icon of menswear: the waxed jacket.

Founded in South Shields by Scotsman John Barbour and 120 years old next year, Barbour is still independent and still making jackets for the horse-and-hound set with which it has come to be most closely associated - “that dream of life in the British countryside that appeals more internationally than it does at home,” offers Steve Buck, the company’s managing director for the last decade.

Yet it might be time for that stereotype of Range Rover, tweed and labrador to hang up its wellingtons. Barbour’s latest incarnation is much more slick, adding to its authorised Steve McQueen and its International biker style (also now set for development next year) to create styles more for bar and boardroom than field and paddock, its Royal Warrants with Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles notwithstanding.

Having appealed to a more fashion-conscious shopper with its Beacon Heritage collaboration with Japanese designer Tokihito Yoshida, now Barbour has teamed up with Savile Row’s ittailors Norton & Son (whose chief is Patrick Grant, lately on the BBC’s ‘Great British Sewing Bee’) on a new, on-going line of sharper, 11oz waxed jackets - including a velvet-collared single-breasted, hunting jacket-style, quilted jacket and calf-length all-weather waxed overcoat - as well as Guernsey and other chunky knits, blazers and shirts. It really takes Barbour where it hasn’t been altogether at home before: onto smart city streets, albeit ones that are as much prone to chilly winds and downpours as country lanes.

“We like collaborations to challenge preconceptions without shocking anyone - besides, I’m not sure that country stereotype with which we’re associated really exists. You’re as likely to see Barbour wearers in Gucci loafers as much as wellies,” explains Buck. “And his collaboration deepens our story as a British brand and aims to show that our normally rugged style can be more refined and tailored. The target here is the aficionado who likes clothes not everybody else has. The thing that has amazed me working for the company is that everybody has a point of view - that can be a strength, but it also >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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FASHION

makes it difficult to do something new.”

But with its Beacon Heritage Norton & Sons line, Barbour has hit that target with what is the most successfully style-conscious collection it has devised in years, albeit one based on considered tweaks of archive pieces. “That’s really the beauty of any Barbour jacket - it’s less designed as evolved, with details added bit by bit,” suggests Janes, its co-creator. It certainly moves the company on from its more traditional, country style and returns it more to its industrial roots outfitting fishermen, dockworkers, later even submariners and, during the Falklands Conflict, the Cowan Commando jacket for special forces. This is a long way from the ‘Horse and Hound’ set.

Not that the country image has not been a beneficial one - it was Dame Margaret Barbour, chairman of the family firm, who designed the benchmark Bedale style of jacket and

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

drove the Sloane Ranger image overhaul that first saw Barbour on the backs of aspirational urban folk 30 years ago. But perhaps that has run its course: time to reappraise the waxed jacket as utilitarian chic - a Swiss Army knife of outerwear with, thanks to a Savile Row injection, a smarter casing.

Indeed, it is not just the jackets that are pushing on. The company is expanding too, which is good news for the region. A fifth line will be added later this year to its four lines of 20 seamstresses - and one solitary, brave seamster - in order to meet growing demand. These are the women - and one man - who together assemble some 140,000 jackets a year, many with those distinctive characteristics: the check lining, bellows pockets, the throat latch, the cord collar, ring-pull zip and, of course, the waxed cotton (the wax prepared, Coca-Cola-like, to a secret

86

formula). And, behind the scenes, its repair service may give new life to well-worn jackets to which their owners are too attached to let go - making the occasional find in the pockets, including, on one occasion, the key to St James Palace. But actually waxed jackets now only account for 30% of Barbour’s sales by value, albeit that still amounting to a hefty chunk of £122m. There is, it seems, good business beyond the wax.

“Without wishing to use cliche we’re half way along that path from being a manufacturing company to being a ‘lifestyle brand’,” says Buck. We try to appeal to more fashion and more mainstream consumers and neither seems put off by the other - all seem happy to be part of the broader brand. We want to keep growth gradual. Besides, there’s no exit for the brand since Dame Margaret wants Barbour to be family-owned forever.” n

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EQUIPMENT

a roller that bites After the Phantom and the Ghost comes the Wraith in Rolls Royce’s drive to remain relevant to the global jet-set, says Josh Sims

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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EQUIPMENT The name is perhaps the first indication of the gap Rolls Royce is seeking to fill in its portfolio with the Wraith, the company’s latest step - after the Phantom and the Ghost - in its renaissance under BMW ownership from ‘Downton Abbey’ threatened irrelevance to contemporary super-brand. It is named after the company’s two-door sports model - yet one with serious coachwork - of 1938. “And certainly the Wraith is following in that heritage,” says Giles Taylor, Rolls Royce’s design director. “The name was actually decided on not long before its launch, but perhaps ‘Wraith’ was always destined to end up on this creation.

It’s a very fast, very comfortable, two-door, true four-seat fastback - which hasn’t been done before. It really is a new kind of car for Rolls Royce, but relevant to our customer.”

That’s a customer who is younger, sportier, more style-conscious, who’s after a more ‘feel

it in the pit of the stomach’ driving experience but without losing Rolls Royce’s celebrated ‘waftability’ - “the power to give great, effortless pace, but also silence in the cabin and a distinctive cushioning,” as Taylor describes it. “A car like the Wraith is all about capturing modernity in a timeless way, without wishing to sound contradictory. It’s what Chanel does in fashion. It’s now but it’s also classic. I’d go so far as to to say it’s my favourite of the new generation of Rolls Royces - it just has ‘it’, that sense of glamour.”

Certainly the Wraith’s stats are impressive: a 624 bhp twin turbo V12 giving 0-60mph in 4.4 seconds, making it Rolls Royce’s most powerful drive-train to date. So too the tech: the debut for Rolls Royce of SAT or Satellite Aided Transmission, for example, which processes GPS data to predict the driver’s next move and automatically select the right gear for the road

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ahead, thus avoiding unnecessary gear changes and giving smoothness of ride. Navigation is voice-activated and can be app-controlled from a smartphone. Speaking of which, it also has an iBrake, a radar/camera-based system that assists in emergency stops.

But the Wraith is no ‘gentleman’s club on wheels’, as Rolls Royces have often been described, though gentlemen may still apply >>

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BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

EQUIPMENT for ownership. Indeed, Taylor doesn’t go so far as to recommend string-backed driving gloves, pipe and cravat, but he does rather reckon his new design is “very much suggestive of the gentleman’s gran tourismo, of the classic GT era of the 50s and 60s, which is perhaps a rather romantic idea, but it does seem just right for getting from Mayfair to Monaco and allowing you to turn up looking the part.”

Of course, passing through Mayfair one would be hard not to at least see some connection between the Wraith and a gentleman’s club after all - and that is both the refinement of the Garrick variety and the sexiness of the Raymond Revuebar kind. Certainly the Wraith’s interior is not short of leather, although the company prefers the comparison of a luxury yacht than an old Chesterfield sofa. And Taylor is enthused by the large door panel in one-piece wood veneer - specifically Rolls Royce’s new open grain wood treatment, Canadel panelling - the largest of its kind in the industry, he suggests.

Even the grain is angled to give a sense of forward momentum.

Such details are to be expected, both from Rolls Royce and at Rolls Royce prices.

More important, for the Wraith and what it represents at least, is that sleek, almost aggressive exterior, which took some inspiration from Taylor favourite classics the likes of the Maserati A6G, Maserati Ghibli, Aston Martin DB4 and DB5. The Wraith is shorter and 50mm lower than the Ghost, enough that the driver feels closer to the ground - although while any other car design looking to suggest speed would reflect light from the under-carriage to further suggest a car hunkering down, the Wraith, Taylor notes, sits up. It floats rather than prowls. The grill looks like a real air intake too - because it is - “and not a decorative touch, which is true for other Rolls Royces,” he adds. The car’s upper and lower halves being in different tones gives it a nautical effect, one emphasised by frameless coach-doors and the lack of a B-pillar (which can make for an exhilarating ride all windows down). And, perhaps most strikingly - and certainly what gets its designer most animated - is the Wraith’s one strong, unbroken line bisecting an already sleek silhouette.

“It has a sense of clean architectural surface language,” as Taylor puts it in designer-speak,

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

meaning, in short, that the whole look hangs together with a minimum of fuss to distract the eye. “Look at the side of the car and there’s a very strong sense of linearity to it - which was actually a real challenge. There’s nothing extraneous. The Wraith is definitely a very modern but crafted contemporary piece of design of the kind that Rolls Royce customers are looking into. As a company we now stand for nicely modern cars - but we can go another step without starting to lose out to the fashionconsciousness there is in car design now.”

Taylor is presumably working on taking that next step now. But he isn’t saying in which direction he’s pointing or how big a stride he may take. n

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A car like the Wraith is all about capturing modernity in a timeless way

AUTUMN 13

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BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

ENTREPRENEUR

AUTUMN 13

Cash the conqueror Andrew Ward, a former market trader who now drives a Porsche and runs thriving textiles and real estate businesses, tells Brian Nicholls the part a bankruptcy played in bringing it all about In his 'naive' younger days, former market trader Andrew Ward found himself living in a rundown caravan with a collapsed business.

Today the gleaming black Porsche 911 Carrera parked outside his factory, where his present business has recently been growing at a rate of 35%, indicates the turnaround in fortunes for a still young man, now a wealthy entrepreneur on two fronts.

Ward, whose Workwear Express is a leading supplier of workwear, uniforms and promotional clothing to top firms at home and abroad, is complementing these activities with a property development firm about to build a business park in Durham City.

And unlike those early, chancy days in business, he has ridden crisis successfully. More than that, Workwear's turnover is climbing from £5m last year to an expected £8m this and £20m three years hence. To meet a customer list growing by 2,000 a month, staffing is being stepped up from 83 to 100

by Christmas, and another £250,000 has just been invested in additional machinery.

Yet, says Ward, when recession took hold in 2008 the firm suffered 'a double whammy'.

The nightmare scenario... "We lost a major client accounting for 35% of our business and effects of the recession meant companies stopped buying workwear and uniforms.

Staffing had to be cut back temporarily. But also: "I re-invented how we do business and invested heavily in online. So we've basically changed how we do a lot of business now.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

We're not beholden to any single customer any more. Our biggest customer now, and it is a big customer, accounts for little more than 5% of our business.

"However, we have more than 40,000 smaller businesses we deal with. People like what we do and how we do it. We've obviously broadened our appeal and it's not just the website. A lot of work we get is through word of mouth. Now we're attracting so much business we're holding back on promoting ourselves.

"We've grown very quickly again and have to be careful because we can't get enough staff in. We're recruiting like mad at the moment."

The need lies across the business: sales staff, production staff, and personnel for the call centre."

He's opening a showroom at the factory and planning similar openings in London and Manchester to give customers there a touch and feel access. He's losing count but the factory in Cathedral Park on Belmont Industrial

Estate that he moved into 18 months ago is the third or fourth site he's worked from to get more space.

Ward expects the present building to cope for perhaps two years more. But as a property developer also, he has just acquired a six acre site nearby which will become a business park, and Express Workwear may either relocate totally again, or run a split operation between the existing site and another on his own park.

"I rely on cash," he says. "Ours is a very price competitive industry. We like to think we compete well on service. That's where we score. A lot of the competition doesn't have the capacity to cope with normal production if they get one big order in. We've been in that situation, whereas we're geared up now to cope.

"We've put extra headroom in, extras shifts on, plus the new machinery, new staff. We try to stay ahead on capacity. We've recently turned out 20,000 polo shirts for a client. We have contract customers also who may >>

We’ve grown very quickly again and have to be very careful because we can’t get enough staff in

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Runaway success: Andrew Ward’s workwear, uniforms and promotional clothing firm Workwear Express has seen its turnover climb sharply from £5m last year to an expected £8m this and £20m in three years time, to meet a customer list which is growing by 2,000 a month.

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BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

ENTREPRENEUR

AUTUMN 13

have up to 20,000 staff, and every so often you get a rollout with 20,000 staff to kit out.

That's a lot. But we even do single orders for any one man band who just wants a uniform for himself. Smaller orders are a speciality of ours. We can turn around more than 1,000 smaller orders a week."

Online orders are coming from Australia, the Middle East, France, Spain, and Scandinavia.

Workwear designs and contracts out the manufacture of bespoke clothing to factories in Europe, China and elsewhere in Asia. It then

embroiders and prints logos as required.

"We're one of the UK's biggest tee shirt printers," Ward claims. "Our machines can print 1,000 t-shirts an hour. We also do bags, baseball caps, scarves, umbrellas, football kits.

We meet needs of universities and schools."

For more than 18 months the firm has been operating round the clock, two shifts of 12 hours on a four day week, with two truckloads of deliveries going out daily. "It's going very well," he says. "The IT system we've also invested is one of the things making us >>

What he never learned at school Andrew Ward, a Weardale lad born in Wolsingham 41 years ago, has been kitting workers out since he was 10. He helped his father, a wagon driver, to sell the workwear at truck shows in his spare time.

He’d attended junior school at Wolsingham then Royal Grammar School in Newcastle, but left at 16 unable to abide school. He also dropped out of Durham Sixth Form Centre during mock A levels. When his father lost interest in retailing, Andrew thought he could continue and make a few quid.

“There was nothing to take over. So I started buying rental garments from laundries, picking out those that could be resold - overalls, jackets and trousers - and that’s what we used to sell on the markets. I was already running that towards the end of my schooling.”

He was also selling schoolmates goods he’d bought at Newcastle Quayside’s Sunday market, like tool boxes he’d converted into pencil cases. “I had four or five friends going to different markets each week.

Each Monday in the school library I’d get all the cash from them, less what they might have pocketed themselves” - a gleam of humour in his eye here - “and I was happy because I knew I was getting a good return on it anyway.

“Sitting in A level sociology one day and looking at the teacher I thought ‘God, I’m probably earning four times what you’re earning.

Why am I here?’ During my mock geography A level exam I fell asleep so tired from working so much. I never went back.”

By 17 he was working the markets, selling work clothing at likes of Catterick (where he was one of the first ever to trade), Newcastle Quayside, Chester le Street and the old Haswell Mart and other auction venues. He toured steam rallies and shows at weekends. Midweek, he hawked boots and jeans door-to-door, and on building and opencast sites. “It was a hard life. I don’t see anyone doing it now.”

He’d bought with £800 of savings a Mercedes Van that he nicknamed Hitler’s Revenge. “It used to break down so much.” Worst was en route to Manchester to buy stock on a snow laden M62. He languished there getting colder and colder, a 17-year-old ignorant about vehicle mechanics, until a good Samaritan of a motorist towed him to a service station.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

By then he’d acquired a garage-like workplace 400sq ft. He got himself a seven and a half ton box truck, then another vehicle for a second participant. He racked up overheads with a better unit at Spennymoor and also got himself a ‘fancy car’ on hire purchase. Shortly after, he learned his most valuable lesson in business, for - ‘young and naive’ he found his business had failed.

Ward today enjoys life cycling roads and mountains, sailing and ski-ing.

But then he lived for six pretty miserable months in the caravan he’d bought for £300. It stood on rough land beside the little hut he’d traded from. “I don’t mind talking about all this because in a strange way I think it’s the best thing that ever happened to me,”he says philosophically, though not wishing it on anyone else.

“I’ll put in a disclaimer here and say I still deal now with every supplier I dealt with then.” The taxman was owed most. “But he’s more than had his money back since - probably a hundred times over.” There were personal repercussions he regretted though, like a fallout within his family.

“I fell out with everybody really. I hadn’t a penny. Somehow - I don’t know how - I got going again. Strangely, a lot of suppliers helped me.

They’d seen something persuading them to give me credit again to get restarted.

“Experience like that teaches you many things - stuff you’ll never learn at school. I buy all my machines with cash now. I don’t take out any finance and I don’t have any overdrafts. Our cash in the bank served us very well during the recession. I’d learned my lesson and was on the up when everyone else was down, bust or struggling. I had the cash to invest in equipment when no-one else did.”

He’s not crowing, simply reflecting on how he came through. “I’ll only buy something now if I’ve got something that will pay for it. I’ve learned only to buy assets, never liabilities. And I especially don’t borrow money to buy liabilities. I just wish I’d had someone around to tell me that when I was 21.”

A quick check via a credit rating firm finds Workwear Express described as a “financially solid” company with consistent year on year growth, and no borrowings.” That’s quite a satisfying way to be seen, really.

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ENTREPRENEUR

AUTUMN 13

Role of the Angel During the recession Andrew Ward started buying property in his own name - a lot he couldn’t have afforded in good times.

“I’ve got some big stuff going on at the moment, a mixture,” he says. “It started as a hobby providing a few student lets around Durham. I also bought six pubs in five years in the city centre, all renovated and leased out now. Pubs and property are an enjoyable two-in-one hobby,” he laughs. A lot of property remains in his own name but he also owns Angel Homes and Angel Developments, named after the Angel, the first pub he bought, and where he had spent many hours in his youth.

“We went there all the time - loved it.

Probably that’s one reason I went bankrupt in the first place,” he quips. There was romantic sentiment behind the purchase too. It’s where he and Angie, the girl later to become his wife, regularly met in Durham City - she living in Brandon, he in Crook. That purchase has paid handsomely and it seemed natural to buy the Elm Tree across the road from the Angel also. “Both are real good old fashioned and excellent pubs,” he says. “We’ve just finished also a £4m mixed residential/commercial block in the centre of Durham with students and Yates’s Wine Lodge and Corals the bookmaker in there. We’ve another £2.5m student block starting in January and the £10m trade park round the corner from here starting next year also. We own this factory lock, stock and barrel. He and Angie, living now in Durham City, have been together 20 years. They have three children - India Angel, 16, Charlie, nine, and Ruby, seven, and Angie also handles the financial side of Workwear Express. She has been in the business throughout. “She helped me get back on my feet,” he says.

“She did all sorts from unpacking boxes to selling and helping with office work.” Well, they do say ‘behind every successful man...’

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

very efficient."

Turning out more than 30,000 garments a week now, Workwear Express provides more than 6,000 off-the-shelf products, and through its bespoke manufactured service, enjoys a lot of repeat business.

Clients present and past include: Aston Martin, 3 Mobile, Tesco, Rolls Royce, Greggs, Little Chef, webuyanycar.com, Sage, Durham County and South Tyneside Councils, Wimpey, Mitie, Scottish Hydro Electricity, Asda and Black & Decker. Also Heathrow, Gatwick

and Stansted Airports, Barclays, the Prince Bishops Shopping Centre in Durham, health trusts, educational institutions, the motor trade, sports organisations, and Cardiff University.

The firm also supplies uniforms to security staff on the X Factor television show as it goes around the country, and recently received an order on behalf of the TV programme Emmerdale.

Really, though, Workwear Express is beginning to look a star in its own right. n

A lot of work we get is through word of mouth. Now we’re attracting so much business we’re holding back on promoting ourselves

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IN ANOTHER LIFE

AUTUMN 13

Farming in the blood Growing up on a livestock farm at Marske in Swaledale, it was feasible that I would become a farmer and as a youngster, I was farming daft. But as I got older I realised it simply wasn’t for me, writes Jonathan Simpson, a chartered surveyor at Sanderson Weatherall’s Teesside office More importantly for my teenaged self, the 24/7, 365 days a year demands were likely to get in the way of my obsession with playing football and cricket. These considerations, and potential complications with the way the partnership established to run the family farm was set up, led me to explore other options. Having spent some time gaining work experience with an estate agent in Richmond,

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

I made my choice. Looking back now, much as I love working in the commercial property market, I suspect farming might not have been a bad option for me. I always envied my parents, the fact that their work allowed them to be in and out of the family environment all day. I see a better balance in life on the farm than you perhaps get in the corporate world.

While it is great that I am out and about a lot,

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meeting people and seeing the North East and North Yorkshire in my current job, the outdoors element of farming appeals greatly. Add to that the ability to live your life without being tied to multiple technological communications devices; it is a simpler life, yet probably a lot harder than the one I live now.

The ability to plan by the demands of the seasons and the weekly Countryfile weather forecast is a very civilised way of doing things.

Being in control of my own destiny also holds strong appeal, knowing the decisions you make are your own and your day is not subject to other people’s whims – only those of the weather. With a family interest still in the 700 acre farm I grew up on, the dream isn’t completely dead.

But I suspect I will remain tied to my phone and the world of commercial property, looking wistfully on as my travels take me past the open fields of my childhood. n

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PRINCE’S TRUST

AUTUMN 13

We believe it’s more important than ever to invest in vocational support and training

with John Wall >> Ann Marie shows what can be done As winter nears, North East Leadership Group (NELG) of The Prince’s Trust will do anything but wind down.

Each of our spectacular fundraising events to help the trust transform lives of disadvantaged young people across our region has been a huge success. May there be many more successes soon. Firstly, though, I’d like to thank everyone who attended our evening with special guest James Timpson, chief executive of Timpsons, the UK’s largest shoe repair, watch retailer and key-cutter.

Timpsons employs more prison leavers than any other company in the UK, one of the trust’s key target groups. Guests attending the gathering at Moot Hall, Castle Garth, Newcastle, had an inspiring evening hearing about why Timpsons is so passionate about giving people a second chance.

Recently also we’ve had one of the biggest fundraisers on the trust’s calendar - the Benfield Golf Day and Gala Dinner in aid of The Prince’s Trust, which included entertaining performances from X Factor’s Amelia Lily and trust Ambassador and award-winning comedian, Omid Djalili.

The golf attracted stars of sport including football legend Alan Shearer, Olympic gold medallist Jonathan Edwards, and Durham and England cricketer, Steve Harmison. Guests also enjoyed fine dining and a trophy presentation at the Hilton Gateshead, where thousands

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

were raised to help young people turn their lives around.

This month we have the annual Ladies Who Rock fundraiser organised by Alison Morgan with designs from Fenwick, Barbour and Love Niche, and held at the Baltic gallery. After last year’s resounding success, we hope to raise even more this time.

Funds raised from such events, and the NELG’s subscription fees, help support 3,600 disadvantaged young people in the North East each year, giving them the skills and confidence to get a job or set up in business.

All members of the NELG continue to give time and money towards this end.

School leavers who didn’t get exam results they hoped for recently will have had their disappointment compounded by having to face one of the toughest job markets in history.

A new report by The Prince’s Trust and HSBC finds thousands of young people have “abandoned their ambitions” in previous years due to their poor qualifications, leaving many expecting to go no further than the dole queue. More than one in six young people in the North East expect to “end up on benefits”.

For UK school leavers with poor grades, the number rose to one in three.

There are numerous reasons why many young people miss out on top grades. The trust finds that many of them lead chaotic lives, often through no fault of theirs. They are left unable to focus on schoolwork and exams. Many who leave with few or no qualifications, doubt themselves and their abilities, lack confidence and are unsure where to turn.

More than half the young people the trust supports left school with few qualifications.

We help them by running innovative

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programmes that encourage them to achieve their qualifications or go on to find work. We believe it’s more important than ever to invest in vocational support and training. Otherwise many thousands will struggle in a flooded labour market.

Ann Marie Patterson, 21, from Seaham, left school at 16 with low grades. But through her interest in working with children and young people, she fancied entering child care.

But lack of work experience held her back.

After two years searching for jobs and taking courses, she lost hope.

When she contacted the trust she was put forward for the Get into Retail programme.

She impressed staff so much on the course that she now has a permanent job with them.

NELG members are proud that, with the right support, the talent of vulnerable young people can be put to good use, saving the economy billions in benefits costs also. www.princes-trust.org.uk

>> Room for more The Prince’s Trust North East Leadership Group generates funds through subscription packages and fundraising activities - offering members attractive networking opportunities within our region. Further benefits include invitations to exclusive events and volunteering opportunities.

If you wish to help disadvantaged young people this way please call me on 0780 291 7615. If you’re interested in taking part in any of our events please call Zoe Mulvenna on 0191 497 3212.

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MEDIA BRIEFS

AUTUMN 13

>> BIZQUIZ How well do you know North East business?

1. Who’s chief executive of Greggs now and which three big organisations did he work for previously?

2. Which Tyneside engineers made electrically powered trains possible and when?

3. Who was the last chairman of One North East regional development agency?

4. What do the initials CPI stand for in industry?

5. What was the original name of Kromek, the Sedgefield provider of digital colour x-ray imaging?

The Scrutator >> Never mind the bosses Funny thing, this leadership. Some whiteboard scribblers swear by it, others among them seem intent on devolving it.

Robin Ryde, an international consultant on leadership, argues that power, information and resources are now out of the hands of relatively few people and institutions and are spread instead across many.

In Never Mind the Bosses (Jossey-Bass £18.99 h’bk and e-bk) he looks at modernising businesses and institutions to ensure energy and talent is not wasted in favour of those empowered. He offers insights into deference spotting, and solutions to engage and fulfil employees more, thereby getting better results.

Until the first decade of the new millennium, he points out, not a single kilometre of high speed rail existed in China. By the end of 2012 it had more railway than Europe. Soon it will have more than the rest of the world put together. His moral: foreign businesses that win contracts must agree to share their technology with a Chinese partner.

He says the strategy is so successful that China has already begun to export the technology required. Fine, but within Chinese business generally will there be great enthusiasm for marginalising of leadership?

Fredrik Arnander, a prominent Swedish entrepreneur, also argues in You Can be a Leader (Wiley £12.99 p’bk and e-bk)

Confidence enables you to speak but to know also when silence is better

that leadership must lie with others besides executives. He tells of the aspiring entrepreneur who thought his bright idea so valuable he couldn’t even divulge it to a friend, because he didn’t want it stolen. Arnander then explains why, despite the precious nature of intellectual property, the attitude was so dangerous.

One hesitates to argue with the chief executive/co-founder of Keybroker, a 2011 Fast 50 winner in Sweden, and in the top 20 of Europe’s Fast 500 that year too. However it should be acknowledged in these arguments that there will always be a good crop of employees who prefer to look for leadership rather than instigating it.

Key qualities Wherever the leadership comes from, confidence and good communication will be essential. Haider Imam was UK Sales Trainer of the Year 2007. Clients he has worked with over three years have seen a $75m return on investments - his cue to write Straight to

Yes (Capstone £10.99, p’bk and e-bk) about getting what you want by asking confidently, and by inspiring positive responses.

In similar vein, Robert Kelsey in Being More Confident (Capstone £10.99, p’bk and e-bk) stresses that even the already confident among us must boost self-esteem. He suggests how in a very easy style, and despite his younger years having been punctuated by academic and career disasters. He tells how confidence enables you to act or not to act, to speak but to know also when silence is better.

A self-help addict, he sold more than 30,000 copies of his first book, What’s Stopping You? Now, that must instil confidence.

On effective communication, Lee Le Fever in The Art of Explanation (Wiley £18.99 p’back and e’bk) tells how to make ideas, products and services easier to understand.

His company Common Craft is acclaimed for inspiring the video explanation industry. He has won numerous awards, and explained things on behalf of Intel, Google, Dropbox and Ford. Le Fever, who lives in Seattle, has the satisfaction of knowing his online videos have been viewed more than 50m times.

Another contributor to the success of giants like Microsoft, Virgin, Sony, Barclays, Vodafone and even the 2012 Olympics is Max McKeown, a speaker on strategy and innovation. In Adaptability (Kegan Paul £14.99) he stresses how adapting faster and smarter makes the difference between adapting to cope and adapting to win. He explores how to increase the adaptability for oneself and for one’s organisation giving sound, real-world examples.

ANSWERS: 1 Roger Whiteside, previously with Marks & Spencer, Threshers and Punch Taverns. 2 Charles Merz and William McLellan in 1903. 3 Paul Callaghan, chairman of the Leighton Group. 4 The Centre for Process Innovation. 5 Durham Scientific Crystals.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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BIT OF A CHAT

AUTUMN 13

If you don’t network you won’t learn but you will put your business at risk with Frank Tock >> Checking out To entrepreneur Nigel Mills I owe thanks for the true tale about two computer programmers who pre-booked into a US hotel, saying they’d not arrive until near midnight, but they had to have rooms for a good night’s sleep before an important meeting. Without that, they said, their business could be put at risk. They arrived at the hotel only for the night porter to say there were no rooms for them. “What do you mean, no rooms?” they demanded. “No-one told me anyone might be checking in late,” he replied. At the alternative hotel they found, the furious pair gave up any idea of sleep and sat up the rest of the night building a website on which to complain about their previous experience. Within a year the neglectful hotel closed. They later cautioned a conference: “Beware the power of the internet.

It will probably change the world.”

That was about 10 years ago and many inadequate businesses have gone a similar journey since. Nigel’s own conclusion: “If you don’t take time out to attend networking groups you won’t learn, won’t hear but will put your own business at risk.”

Another hospitality tale, also told at a recent BQ Live Debate, concerned a disgruntled Devon hotelier who was getting poor reviews on Trip Advisor. Protests to the online guide got him nowhere. So he invented a hotel and got it onto the website. His family and friends added comments. Soon a non-existent hotel was being acclaimed best in Devon.

A final tale, this time about tussles that can arise within a family business, was told by Stuart Smiles, director of Alex Smiles the Sunderland waste management firm. He recalled: “After a minor disagreement my dad said to my wife at a do in Blackpool: ‘Do you like me?’ She replied: ‘Actually, not really.’

He replied: ‘Good, ‘cause he’s going to turn into me!’

>> Piping in a tribute My proud moment during Newcastle Science Festival came during a visit to the GE Oil and Gas factory at Walker Riverside. I was reminded there that the “intelligent pig” which runs through pipelines worldwide, onshore and offshore, is a North East invention.

It was developed more than two decades ago by boffins of British Gas at Killingworth and taken on by PII, now integral to PII Pipeline Solutions, a joint venture of GE Oil and Gas and Al Shaheen arm of Qatar Petroleum.

The metallic beast that scuttles along the tubes remotely sniffing out corrosion has been taken on, carrying the less affectionate name MagneScan. But its contribution over many years to minimising costs and delays for multinationals must make it one of our region’s major high-tech advances post- war. GE Oil and Gas is primarily American. But with support from Newcastle University students, among others, it does considerable R&D in the North East, as a recent funding award from the Government acknowledges. Many other companies could boost income and quality of jobs by doing original R&D here in the North East. It’s a good time to consider it, now engineering and other manufacturing is once more ascendant.

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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>> Being served?

Sean Bullick, who has livened early evening Newcastle no end while running the city’s NE1 business improvement district, is not so bold as to suggest BIDs fully answer the ills of UK high streets. But he certainly thinks they’re part of the answer.

He suggests: “With competition from rival cities, out of town, internet shopping and all the rest of it, a city centre must be about an experience you can’t get elsewhere, one good enough to make you come in and come again. Insofar as it is about a good environment with interesting things happening, we certainly can help even if we can’t pretend we are THE solution. At least we’re part of it. And many a BID innovation, being transferable, can benefit other cities and towns beyond the one inspiring it.”

While it’s exhilarating to learn from a European Commission study that Newcastle has one of the highest quality of life rankings in Europe - above the like of Rome, Paris and Madrid - it’s also challenging that the people questioned to provide the opinion ranked Newcastle a mere 66th out of 83 places for shopping.

Since NE1 has been providing the icing, it must be something in the cake itself that’s wrong.

EVENTS

AUTUMN 13

BQ’s business events diary gives you lots of time to forward plan. If you wish to add your event to the list send it to b.g.nicholls@btinternet.com.

The diary is updated daily online at www.bq-magazine.co.uk

NOVEMBER 2 to 10 UKTI Visit to Changsha and Zhuzhov, China, 0845 0505 054. enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk 4 NOF Trade Mission to Houston and Louisiana 5 Mastering Service Design, How to Build Value Using Service Design Thinking, Service Network event, Muckle LLP offices, Newcasdtle (8.45am). events@service-network.co.uk

20 Willow Wednesday, NECC Local, Willow Farm, Cramlington (8am). www.necc.co.uk 21 Russian Practical Solutions Conference, St James’s Park, Newcastle.

01732 783 555. rps@albionoverseas.com.

27 Return on Innovation conference, Newcastle University Business School and Thinking Digital, central Newcastle (9am-5.15pm inc lunch). info@roiconf.co.uk

5 Ryder Architects Celebrate 60 Years, exhibition opening at Newcastle Central Library. kleightley@ryderarchitecture.com

DECEMBER

7 EEF (NE), Occupational Health Service National Clinics Briefing, EEF House, Gateshead. Contact www.eef.org.uk/event

2 to 6 Export Down Under, Sydney and Melbourne, trade mission. p.meile@uktiwm.co.uk. 0121 607 1821

8 Civil Engineering Contractors Association (North East) Annual Dinner. Newcastle Marriott Hotel, Gosforth.

3 North Tyneside Business of the Year Awards, Village Hotel, Cobalt Business Park. www.northtynesidebusinessforum.org.uk

11 to 15 Export Week, opportunity for North East SMEs to meet 75 overseas commercial officers, plus Women into the Network conference and awards. ebba.mcguigan@uktinortheast.org.uk

4 BQ Executive Manufacturing Summit at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art to book your ticket visit www.bqmanufacturingsummit.co.uk or contact Kirsty or Rachael on 0191 426 6300 or via email events@room501.co.uk

12 Export Week, Prepare to Enter the Global Market, UKTI event, Central Library, South Shields (9.30am). enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk

10 EEF Regional Advisory Board members meeting, EEF Gateshead

12 Export Week, Marketing to Support International Trade, UKTI event, The Wynyard Rooms, Sedgefield (8am). enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk. enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk

18 Willow Wednesday, NECC Local, Willow Farm, Cramlington (8am). www.necc.co.uk

12 Health, Safety Climate, EEF members’ briefing, EEF Gateshead.

0845 293 9850. www.eef.org.uk/events

JAnuary

13 Export Week, The Region’s Top Five Export Markets and Five Offering Greatest Potential, UKTI event, The Wynyard Rooms, Sedgefield. enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk

tbc UKTI Visit to Angola. enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk

13 Export Week, Search Engine Optimisation and Social Media to Support International Trade, UKTI event, Newbiggin Maritime Centre (8.30am). enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk

february

13 Robson Laidler Property Conference, Sage Software Head Office, Gosforth (5.45pm). Free event but advance booking essential. Susan Bowen, 0191 281 8191, sbowen@robson-laidler.co.uk 14 Export Week, Tees Valley Economic Forum, UKTI event, The Wynyard Rooms, Sedgefield (8am). enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk

17 NOF, Aker Solutions Subsea, Oil and Gas Networking Lunch (tbc)

24 Markets visit, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk

1 to 4 Market visit, Midem music event, Palais des Festivals, Cannes.

8045 0505 054 enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk 21 to 23 Traverse Events’ Travel Bloggers Conference, Sage, Gateshead. Delegates include bloggers, PRs, tourist boards and travel companies.

14 Export Week, Digi Destination, UKTI event, Northern Design Centre, Gateshead Business Park (8am). enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk 14 Creativity and Ideas, Food for Thought, CIM NE event, County Durham (6pm) 14 North East Business Executive of the Year Awards 15 Women into the Network, North East Woman Entrepreneur of the Year, conference and awards dinner, Hilton Gateshead. info@womenintothenetwork.co.uk. 0845 269 9862 (10am and 7pm) 15 Export Week, Inspiring Female Confidence, UKTI event, Gateshead College (9.30). enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk.

18 NOF Trade Mission to Australia 19 to 22 UKTI Visit to Medica, Germany’s major medical exhibition, 0845 0505 054. enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk 20 IoD (NE) Seven Secrets of the Successful Sales and Marketing Director, Ward Hadaway, Newcastle (7.30pm). 0207 766 8866. www.iod.com/connecting/events

BUSINESS QUARTER | AUTUMN 13

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

KEY: Acas: Advisory Conciliation and Arbitration Service, CIM: Chartered Institute of Marketing, CECA (NE): Civil Engineering Contractors Association (North-East), HMRC: Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, ICAEW: Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, ICE: Institution of Civil Engineers, IoD: Institute of Directors, NEA2F: North East Access to Finance, NECC: North-East Chamber of Commerce, NSCA: Northern Society of Chartered Accountants, FSB: Federation of Small Business, Tba: to be arranged, Tbc: to be confirmed, Tbf: to be finalised. UKTI: Uk Trade and Investment. EEF: The Manufacturer’s organisation

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