BQ North East Issue 21

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ISSUE TWENTY ONE: SPRING 2013

WHY LOYALTY PAYS Career building champion shares his secrets PASS THE PARCEL Inside the region’s booming treasure trade SUNRISE INDUSTRY Winning the race to a lucrative offshore market THE IN CROWD How fund seekers have found a new lifeline

RIPE FOR RECOVERY

The multi-millionaire and lifetime City achiever who believes the North East is truly on the up BUSINESS NEWS: COMMERCE: FASHION: INTERVIEWS: MOTORS: EVENTS

NORTH EAST EDITION

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WELCOME

BUSINESS QUARTER: SPRING 13: ISSUE TWENTY ONE It’s a promising yet tantalising and challenging time for North East business. Great positives are apparent in motor manufacturing, offshore energy, steel and potash industries, as this BQ issue shows. There are robust proposals from independent analysts also. Their North East Independent Economic Review rightly calls for urgent government action. The North East is now the only UK region whose rising unemployment tops 10%.

Some of the review’s conclusions are hardly new, the failing infrastructure for example, which the Government seems unwilling to address for another two years. But the review’s great strength lies in its statistical evidence.

Doubling youth apprenticeships, raising school standards and entries to higher education have long been advocated.

A North East Innovation Board is deemed necessary to develop strong “innovation and growth clusters”.

But will that guarantee to sharpen, not impede, good work already done by the like of Nepic, CPI and NOF? Another body advocated, North East International group, to brand the region home and away, carries echoes of One North East, and the quaint practice also of our friends north of the border who stick the word Scottish in front of company names and products. Such branding would have to be specific. “Made in the North East” to German customers in Dusseldorf could mean Potsdam, to Chinese customers in Hengyang it could mean Beijing. It would clearly have to be Made in the North East of England. Try selling that to Scots and Aussies!

Proposals for a Transport North East body to improve communication would be justified even if it only restored true integration of buses and trains to what existed before deregulation. Stronger public institutions in the North East - especially key national ones such as the new British Business Bank – is a recommendation all our MPs must battle for.

We’d be fortunate indeed to get more banking, given Northern Rock’s incompetent management in its previous life, and our recent parochial squabbling that led to a

national “green” bank going elsewhere than here. But we do have Virgin and Tesco banks here now, also competitive building societies and complementary financial services. We deserve another chance.

Numerous examples in this BQ demonstrate North East enterprise existing: The crowdfunding proposal to support our growing businesses.

The company that’s the first in the UK to successfully tackle the foreign competition in offshore renewables.

The company whose auctioneering expertise and foresight is breaking new export ground, and the Sunderland businesses determined to invest and join Newcastle and Darlington in upgrading their retail offering.

The review experts see a need of leadership in the region. Heaven save us from the politically motivated. Better surely would be more philanthropists in the Victorian mould, like Jonathan Ruffer interviewed here, whose vision of a £50m uplift for South West Durham accompanies his conviction that the North East is ripe for recovery. Plenty more in our region who are comfortably off could follow suit.

Meanwhile the review team’s vision needs immediate action. A General Election could be on us while many recommendations still wait to be effected.

Beyond the team’s remit possibly was acknowledgement of reality - the real North East is too small to remain two entities indefinitely. Meanwhile, memo to the Government: The gap between North East unemployment and the British average has widened from 0.6% in 2006 to 2% plus now.

What’s your immediate remedy, given the new information before you?

Brian Nicholls Editor

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: andrewm@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 Senior Sales Executive e: heather@room501.co.uk Richard Binney Senior Sales Executive e: richard@room501.co.uk or call 0191 426 6300

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BUSINESS QUARTER |SPRING 13

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CONTE BUSINESS QUARTER: SPRING 13 PASS THE PARCEL

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Features 28 A PLACE OF PROGRESS Jonathan Ruffer on art, Asian potential and his new life in the North East

42 PASS THE PARCEL Inside the global market for ancient treasures that’s thriving in the region

48 SUNRISE INDUSTRY Winning the UK race to the first hefty renewables order in British waters

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

54 BUSINESS BREAKFAST BQ meets a leader bringing a new school of thought to higher education

78 IN WITH THE CROWD Opening the door into the expanding world of crowdfunding

84 PUTTING IN THEIR BID Could Sunderland soon reap the city centre rewards enjoyed elsewhere?

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SUNRISE INDUSTRY

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TENTS NORTH EAST EDITION

36 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

Behind biggest the new deals and developments here in the North East

IN WITH THE CROWD

60 WINE A pardon for Pinot from a guest reviewer challenging her old prejudices

Regulars

62 MOTORS An electric vehicles champion puts the Nissan Leaf through its paces

66 EQUIPMENT A return to old ways leads to a voyage of rediscovery among luxury seafarers

08 ON THE RECORD Sharper reduction in business activity and a call for action after the words

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

26 AS I SEE IT Mario Jaconelli on why loyalty still pays in career building

72 FASHION

78 PUTTING IN THEIR BID

How high end fashion and yachting are becoming increasingly intertwined

96 BIT OF CHAT With BQ’s backroom boy Frank Tock

98 EVENTS Key business events for your diary happening across the North East

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84 BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

ON THE RECORD

SPRING 13

Sharper reduction in business activity, economy boosted on land and sea, after the words: action please, lift for county firms, slow burners, and plant closes but jobs stay

>> Sharper reduction in business activity Key points: • New orders decline at marginal pace • Quickest rate of input price inflation since last September • Employment levels increase at fastest pace since February 2012 Summary: The North East private sector registered a decreased level of business activity for the fourth month in a row in March.

Furthermore, the rate of reduction accelerated to a solid pace. New business also declined for the third month in a row, though only slightly.

Employment levels increased at a modest pace, as backlogs of work fell moderately. Input costs rose solidly, but output charges rose slightly.

Output and demand: The headline Lloyds TSB North East Business Activity Index – a seasonally adjusted index that measures the combined output of the region’s manufacturing and service sectors – posted 47.3 in March, down from 48.7 in February.

This signalled a solid reduction in activity that was the fastest out of all 12 UK regions.

New business also decreased in March, albeit only marginally. Sector data indicated that the overall decline in new orders in the region was broad-based across manufacturing and

services. Meanwhile, at the UK level, new business rose at a solid pace.

Employment and backlogs: Employment at North East private sector firms increased during March. Although modest, the rate of job creation was nevertheless the fastest since February 2012. Workforce numbers also expanded across the UK private sector economy as a whole, albeit marginally.

Volumes of outstanding business declined in March, following broadly no change in February. The UK as a whole also saw a decline in work-in-hand, and at a slightly quicker pace than in the North East.

Input and output prices: Input costs increased for the eighth month in a row in March. The rate of input price inflation accelerated since February to the fastest pace since last September. The UK private sector economy also registered a sharp rate of inflation, which was slightly above that recorded in the North East. North East private sector firms increased their output charges in March, albeit marginally. The rate of increase in the UK private sector economy as a whole was quicker than in the North East, with average tariffs increasing modestly.

>> Achievers Ramside Hall Hotel near Durham City has gained three awards for service and dining. It won top rated luxury hotel award through the hotel reservation website Laterooms.com, based on guests’ praise for its friendliness, attention to detail and clean, comfortable rooms. Its Rib Room Steakhouse and Grill has been awarded an AA Rosette. And the hotel has further won an Enjoy England award for accommodation and service.

SITS Group, which provides cloud computing solutions across the UK from Cramlington, beat the likes of global computer giant Dell to scoop one of 13 awards VMware Inc put up for a shortlist of 30 from its 3,000 corporate UK partners to compete for. SITS won small business partner of the UK award and was a shortlisted rising star.

Sleeperz Hotel Newcastle in year one has had 34,000 guests and scored a triple success under chief executive David Myers: a RIBA Hadrian award for architectural excellence, LateRooms.com award for family friendliness and a TripAdvisor certificate of excellence.

Fentimans the Hexham botanical brewer has been voted best drinks brand in the annual best brands survey of Fine Food Digest readers from across the UK.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

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>> Boosted on land and sea Industry in the region has had a Q1 four star boost: ● Nissan’s launch of the Leaf electric car at Sunderland. ● Confirmation of North Tyneside as an extreme engineering research centre of excellence in subsea and advanced offshore energy. ● Redcar’s steel plant reportedly “running exceptionally well”, a year after its revival. ● Extension of Cleveland’s potash mine creating 270 more jobs for an assured 40 year future.

Nissan now has a 6,100 strong workforce, and the offshore project is predicted to offer up to 4,000 prestart and permanent jobs. Around £7m of state support is promised, enabling Newcastle University to lead development of a Neptune National Centre for Subsea and Offshore Engineering at Neptune Energy Park, part of Shepherd Offshore. The centre, the first of its kind in the UK and seeking global status, will be vital to national oil and gas strategy, harnessing the ocean’s potential also as a source of food, medicine and commercially valuable minerals. At Sunderland, every Leaf produced is for Europe, and features more than 100 updates over earlier launches in Japan and the USA. The car’s range without recharge is stepped up to 124 miles from 109 and the advanced lithium-ion batteries, made at Nissan’s new neighbouring UK battery plant, cut recharging time by half.

SPRING 13

COMPANY PROFILE

An old face returns to drive new business The North East branch of Allied Irish Bank (GB) has a new man at the helm and a renewed focus on supporting growing businesses in the region, as BQ reports.

Earlier this year, more than a few familiar faces greeted Andrew Love when he returned to lead the Allied Irish Bank (GB) Newcastle branch he last worked at over a decade ago. In fact, out of the 16 staff members working at the branch on Collingwood Street today, 12 of them were there during his first stint at the bank from 2000 to 2002.

And the Irishman, who took up the post of Senior Branch Manager in February, also found a few old friends among the bank’s business clients – many of which have grown rapidly since he last worked in the region. But given that the bank prides itself on its ability to build lasting customer relationships through a team of long standing staff, the fact that little had changed in his time away came as no surprise to Andrew. “It’s an exciting time to be here and I think it’s a fantastic opportunity for our business. It’s great to be back,” he says.

“There are a number of long standing relationships that have remained from my previous time here and it was lovely meeting those companies again and seeing how they’ve grown.”

After spending his early career in the North East, Andrew continued his rise through the Allied Irish Bank (GB) ranks in the Midlands and Scotland, before coming back to head up the branch which services the entire North East and Cumbria region.

His return comes at a time when the bank is truly open for business, having lessened its exposure to some of the high risk areas that have impacted on many other UK banks in recent years. “Our message is that we’re open for business in the North East and we believe there are some fantastic opportunities for local businesses. “A lot of the small and medium sized owner managed businesses have come through the recession very strongly so we’re particularly interested in looking at niche manufacturing, precision engineering, leisure, hospitality, distribution, medical and professional

Andrew Love, Senior Branch Manager Allied Irish Bank (GB)

We are open for business in the North East sector opportunities amongst others.

“We have a very strong open for business agenda, we are fully capitalised, and we have a large amount of capital to lend to the right businesses.”

Part of the bank’s appeal to businesses in the North East has been its focus on traditional banking practices – a quality which most banks champion but few are truly offering, according to Andrew.

“We are primarily a business relationship bank,” he says. “Our belief is that there is a real desire to return to good old fashioned business banking.”

Such traditional practices include the bank’s partnership approach to its customer relationships, which thrive on its short reporting lines, enabling a very quick decision making process. Andrew also cites the desire of his team members to “get out and about and meet their clients on a regular basis” as a major attraction. He adds: “In the banking sector

XX 09

it’s certainly unusual today to have a bank that’s saying we’ve got money to lend and we want to go out and develop new business.” As the only Irish bank operating a full service in Britain, Allied Irish (GB) also has a strong proportion of North East clients that enjoy trading links with Ireland.

“We have a strong drive to develop that British/ Irish trade sector, and that involves helping Irish businesses that come over here wanting to set up and likewise helping firms from here set up in Ireland.” Primarily, Andrew’s focus is on encouraging growth-hungry North East businesses to take advantage of the bank’s relationship-driven approach.

The bank’s recently commissioned Brunswick Research survey indicates extremely high levels of customer satisfaction. Indeed, 93 per cent of customers expressed strong satisfaction and more than two thirds said they would recommend Allied Irish Bank (GB) to others, while half of those had already done so.

Andrew concludes “It is a full service business bank with the capability and desire to develop its presence in the North East and I firmly believe we will continue to build real and traditional banking relationships aiming to exceed customer expectations.”

For more information contact Andrew Love, Senior Branch Manager, Allied Irish Bank (GB) Newcastle on 0191 2303000 or email andrew.j.love@aib.ie

BUSINESS SPRING 13 BUSINESS QUARTER QUARTER ||SPRING

ON THE RECORD >> Bootcamp boost for e-firms A 12 week “bootcamp” is offering up to 10 internet start-ups investment and intensive mentoring at Teesside University.

Companies selected to take part in Searchcamp - entry deadline, midnight May 5 - will live and work at the university’s Middlesbrough campus, between June and August, while they undergo the immersive accelerator programme.

Each company is promised up to £15,000 of seed capital, for which Searchcamp will get a stake of 6% to 10% in the business.

Once the bootcamp is over, the companies will be invited to pitch their product or service to venture capitalists and angel investors.

There could also be follow-on funding (up to £150,000) and a place within Searchcamp’s incubator in Middlesbrough’s Boho zone.

Besides mentoring from academics of the university, there will be weekly masterclasses led by internationally recognised speakers including authors, start-up founders and experts from the USA, Europe and Asia.

Lean start-ups will be adopted to develop market-ready products of the early-stage internet, software and technology firms from the North East and beyond.

Searchcamp Ltd is a partnership between Teesside University and North East entrepreneurs Alastair Waite, Andy Preston and Bobby Paterson.

Andy Preston, back in the North East after a career in international finance, building businesses for banks and running a large hedge fund, says: “I’ve been involved in many projects and businesses. This is the best.” www.searchcamp.co.uk

>> First of the year In the North East’s first public offer since recession set in, other shareholders have accepted chief executive Stephen Rankin’s acquisition of Newcastle construction and property firm Metnor.

Newcastle law firm Mincoffs acted for the independent directors.

>> Changing sides Rathbone Investment Management has opened its 12th office in Newcastle.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

SPRING 13

>> After the words: action please A conference will shortly bring together North East business, the public sector, universities and voluntary organisations for final reaction to the newly published North East Independent Economic Review.

Suggestions that 60,000 new jobs might result if the report is wholly acted on have been expressed within the review team that worked under Lord Andrew Adonis.

The team has already drawn on contributions from the various sectors. Responses by business organisations so far are generally warm. Both Lord Adonis (former Minister of Transport and Education) and the team will attend the invitation-only summer hearing.

The review’s main priorities are: • Champion “North East International”, promoting the region at home and abroad in attracting trade, talent, tourism and inward investment.

• Doubling youth apprenticeships, raise school standards and the proportion of young people going on to higher education.

• A North East Innovation Board to develop strong “innovation and growth clusters”.

• Massively improve transport infrastructure and services to overcome the North East’s relative national and international isolation, and enable people to get to and from work easier and more cheaply.

• Create stronger public institutions, including the location of key national institutions – such as the new British Business

Bank – in the North East.

Among proposals to be acted upon by the North East LEP, its partners and, hopefully, the Government, is a creation of three managed entities: North East International, Transport North East and Skills North East.

The combined authority of all seven local authorities in the North East LEP area and NELEP would, again hopefully, work in partnership to deliver these from next April.

Three open innovation and growth centres (Bionow, Neptune and AMAP) will be established, bringing together companies and angel investor networks to boost commercialisation of innovation. The centres will break down boundaries between firms.

Smartcard ticketing – “a single transport delivery agency” - will bring together airports, ports and public transport to improve connectivity and boost growth.

Full broadband connectivity across rural Northumberland, Durham and Tyne and Wear is to be achieved by 2016. Greg Clark, Financial Secretary to the Treasury, said: “The Government will devolve resources and responsibility to places that can demonstrate credible and compelling economic leadership.

This report shows how the North East can do that.” Lord Michael Heseltine, a champion of regional enablement, said the Government now has a “unique opportunity” to unleash the energy across 39 LEPs in England.

Full report: www.nelep.co.uk

>> Lift for county firms

>> New market

A new £1.35m scheme aims to boost start-ups and high growth firms in Northumberland by offering them support and coaching. It is financed by development group The Arch, Northumberland County Council and ERDF.

>> Slow burners The North East has the lowest proportion of self-employed workers in the UK, the Office of National Statistics reports - 11% of the workforce.

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The London Stock Exchange is launching a new segment of the main market for high growth companies.

They will be able to list by making 10% of their company public.

>> Plant closes, jobs stay Biofuels producer Ensus has temporarily closed its bio-ethanol plant at Yarm, due to a poor wheat harvest and soaring energy bills in production. 100 employees were being kept on at full pay.

SPRING 13

COMPANY PROFILE

Hay & Kilner’s lawyers take to the stage Hollywood could be beckoning for some north east based legal eagles Lawyers from Hay & Kilner’s employment and litigation teams have recently scripted and featured in a number of training films for NBS. NBS is part of RIBA Enterprises Ltd, the commercial arm of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

NBS approached Hay & Kilner because they’d attended a number of the solicitor’s employment ‘role play’ seminars. They realised that they weren’t your run of the mill legal presentation of the facts. These were real life situations faced by businesses brought to life on the stage.

Sarah Hall, an employment partner at Newcastle based Hay & Kilner, commented: ‘We decided a few years ago that our commercial clients needed us to demonstrate how they should tackle the challenges presented by complex, ever-changing legislation in a straight forward and understandable manner. By filming these staged situations, we show managers and business owners a number of scenarios such as how to conduct disciplinary meetings and how to deal with difficult employees.’

The Hay & Kilner video approach has also been used by its litigation team to show businesses how to handle problem commercial debts. Neil Harrold, Insolvency partner at Hay & Kilner, commented: ‘Unpaid overdue bills are a major headache for all businesses. They play havoc with their cash flow and, if not addressed, can undermine the health and even the survival of the business. In the video, we examine a number of commonly encountered problems, based on real life experiences and give tips on how to deal with them.’

Feedback from Hay & Kilner’s clients has been very positive. Norvil McClurg, Managing Director of Care Management Services, a client of Hay & Kilner’s employment and litigation departments, commented: ‘I’ve just viewed the latest training video offering on Hay & Kilner’s website on the subject of commercial debt recovery and have enjoyed watching & listening to the approaches discussed and advice given. It was an excellent piece of work and extremely apposite to the times for most small businesses.’

Hay & Kilner’s employment team: L to R Sarah Hall, Neil Dwyer and Sarah Furness

By filming these staged situations, we show managers and business owners a number of scenarios such as how to conduct disciplinary meetings and how to deal with difficult employees The videos are also used by NBS, expert providers of technical information for construction industry professionals, as an educational tool on their website.

Hay & Kilner’s constant quest for improving the services offered to clients resulted in the launch of HR Key last year. The service transforms the way its business clients gain legal advice when managing their workforce. Businesses of all sizes, from SMEs to plcs, can sign up for the fixed fee service which gives them unlimited telephone support from Hay & Kilner’s experienced employment solicitors. Subscribers to the service are also given generous insurance protection and online access to an extensive range of HR documents aimed at preventing and resolving employment issues.

All of the documents in the databank were also personally prepared and are regularly updated by Hay & Kilner’s employment law team.

XX 11

To view the commercial debt recovery video please visit: www.hay-kilner.co.uk/ what-we-do/business/debtrecovery/ or scan To view the employment videos please visit: www. hay-kilner.co.uk/what-wedo/business/employment/ or scan For more information on any of Hay & Kilner’s services visit: www.hay-kilner.co.uk or call 0191 232 8345

BUSINESS SPRING 13 BUSINESSQUARTER QUARTER||SPRING

NEWS

SPRING 13

Boom time at the ports, last orders for SME growth support, guru Sandbach says rivals can consort, building centres saved, Phil figures it out, and Sevcon drives into Europe >> Sage sheds for speed PD Ports boss David Robinson with (right) visiting Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin

Sage Group is selling seven non-core products for £93.4m - £81.9m of that being cash on completion. Shareholders are enjoying the proceeds, with Sage making a loss on the deal. Three of the operations are managed from the USA with four from France and Spain.

Chief executive Guy Berruyer says the deal allows faster core growth, and streamlines the portfolio. KPMG’s Northern Corporate Finance and Transaction Services division advised Sage on what it described as a “fantastic example of the regional advisory base helping a global FTSE business deliver on strategy to create shareholder value”.

>> Nissan cars switched Nissan will not now make its new passenger car in Sunderland as previously thought. Production has switched to Barcelona, following a £93.1m investment in the Spanish plant.

A further £11.9m investment will enable the Barcelona workforce to build 24,000 extra units of its “1 ton” pickup model, while £5.1m will go into producing electric vehicle gear boxes. About 4,000 Spanish jobs will have been created, 1,000 of them directly, by the time production starts in July next year. The Sunderland plant’s £250m of investment received to build a new Inifiniti small car from 2015, will be the alternative to the work assigned to job-strapped Spain.

Meanwhile, car parts maker ElringKlinger (GB) has a £10m contract to supply General Motors from Redcar. A new £1.5m assembly line has been installed. Production starts later this year.

>> Pyeroy takes AIM Strong trading in marine, offshore, and process and energy sectors has persuaded Gateshead industrial services firm Pyeroy to consider an AIM flotation this summer.

Turnover rose 20% from £73.8m to £88.9m in 2012, and the business has more than 1,500 people working across the UK and Ireland.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

>> Boom time at the ports Ports go from strength to strength in the region. Improvements are planned at Teesport to handle growing volumes of containerised goods, while Port of Tyne has reported its highest cargo volumes for 20 years. Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin, who got an on-the-spot briefing about raised logistics capabilities at Teesport, said: “Cargo centres such as Teesport and Clipper at Wynyard Park are crucial to the UK economy.”

Besides visiting PD Ports, owner and operator of Teesport, he saw Wynyard Clipper’s new 840,000sq ft centre, which handles consumer goods shifted direct from dockside. Imported clothes for Asda are distributed on to three George UK regional distribution centres around the country, under a 10 year contract. Road miles, handling costs and CO2 emissions are all being reduced by the sorting of imported goods at or near port of entry. Other Teesport users distributing onwards include Tesco and Taylors of Harrogate. The minister saw how the container terminal has benefited from a £16.7m investment, and the steel slab handling operation serving the SSI UK revived steel plant at Redcar. At Port of Tyne, cargo volumes for the newly named Tyneside and Northumberland Company of the Year have shown a 22% jump on year in 2012 - at 6.5m tonnes the best performance since 1989. Ongoing investment, including £5m to deepen berths and the river channel, enables the port to handle fully laden panamax-sized ships. Coal imports are up to 3.7m tonnes, against a previous best of 3m tonnes in 2008, while imports of wood pellets were maintained and logistics business was “steady”, the port says. Cars handled at three car terminals there equalled the 2011 record of 667,000 and now Port of Tyne has won a tender to be Renault’s exclusive northern UK entry point, instead of Teesport. Vehicles will come to the Tyne under a 14year alliance that has Renault and Nissan, jointly cutting logistics and shipping costs. Nissan uses the Tyne already. Customers using the Tyne’s International Passenger Terminal rose to 598,000, partly because cruise vessels calling rose from 20 to 36 ships. This year 32 cruise calls are expected.

Chief executive Andrew Moffat says: “The port can now take 83% of the world’s largest cargo ships and 95% of cruise ships.”Some £180m is to be invested in expanding the port’s wood pellet handling, storage and transport operations on the south bank, creating 900 jobs in construction and 300 full time equivalent jobs thereafter. Meanwhile at Port of Sunderland space to expand is being created through fresh demolitions. Clearance of the Cemex UK site at Junction Wharf (formerly No 31 berth) between Hendon and Hudson Docks by Hellens Group of Washington will provide new investment opportunities. Rumours persist that Nissan may use Sunderland in addition to Port of Tyne.

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NEWS

SPRING 13

>> The drivers’ friend Ex-traffic copper Billy Campbell (above) is using past experience to help drivers fight unfair speeding and other traffic violations. He says his company Speed Camera Expert at Billingham was set up to help motorists who have received speeding or red light tickets through the post, and with a to view levelling the playing field to let people appeal against speeding and other traffic violations. “We do not condone violations. But we want to ensure they are handled within rules and guidelines,” he said.

>> Last orders for SME growth support Small businesses requiring up to 40% investment in their ambitions to grow in the North East are being advised to apply to the Investment for Growth Fund immediately.

BE Group warns that the fund will shortly run out, indeed may close to new applicants around June. Launched in 2012, it has supported more than 600 businesses to date with more than £2.4m of funding. This has helped projects ranging from product to website development which prove able to

create and safeguard jobs.

Cheryl Blakey, the fund's senior project manager, says: “Response to date has been phenomenal. The fund is making a real impact. There's still more to do, and funding is still available if people apply quickly.”

One business that got the full 40% is Newcastle-based The Holsta Group, an office furniture and stationary supply company. It is using its funding to develop a new website and marketing strategy. It is also hiring more staff to expand its newly formed partnership with Scottish firm HCS. Another firm, Express Managed Services of

Sunderland, got similar support to underpin its growth in providing technical infrastructure design, installation and turnkey support for commercial organisations.

Jobs expected to be created to date total 202, with a further 281 likely to be safeguarded.

The Investment for Growth project is delivered by the Investment Centre and managed by the BE Group on behalf of public funding organisations. The project is partly financed by the European Regional Development Fund.

To learn more, contact 0191 426 6408 or enquiries@investment4growth.co.uk Ongoing success of a separate £110m government scheme to boost UK entrepreneurialism – which has already supported over 1,000 individuals – is also being delivered with expertise from BE Group at Seaham. The group is working in partnership with business services firm GLE, enabling young people setting up to apply for a support loan towards meeting expenses such as marketing, equipment and stock.

Applications for loans starting from £500 (repayable over three years) can be registered on www.18-24startuploans.co.uk

>> Cup that cheers Turnover at Ringtons tea and coffee firm has topped £41m, a record for its 106 year existence.

The Newcastle family firm’s workforce is up from 460 to 483 too. The home delivery specialist is intensifying sales through supermarkets and groceries.

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

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

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

Ap

Leading the way In constructing communities Esh Construction Limited is the multi-disciplined “one stop shop” construction division of Esh Group. We have delivery arms for new build, refurbishment, historic restoration, housing & regeneration, civil engineering and facility solutions.

Our vision is clear. We see construction as dynamic, exciting and rewarding.

Our business directly employs around 900 people and Esh Group’s turnover in 2012 exceeded £170m. We have regional offices in Leeds, Durham, Northumberland and Kendal.

The communities in which we work are supported through our ‘Added Value’ approach. Our people are our strength; we succeed and achieve through their experience, commitment and training. In short, Esh Construcion delivers.

To find out more please visit: www.eshconstruction.co.uk

Apr 2013.indd 1

3/25/2013 8:45:44 AM

NEWS

SPRING 13

>> Surveyors surveyed

>> 11% ‘pay rise’ drive

Despite challenging markets, salaries of northern members of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) have risen over 12 months. The level of annual bonuses has also increased. Average salary of a chartered surveyor in the North rose from £42,454 to £43,779, while 39% of respondents received an annual bonus (up from 32% the previous year), the average payout being £8,579.

Accountants and business advisors UNW have linked with Benfield to launch a tax efficient car benefit scheme for employers and businesses.

Employees make savings equivalent to an 11% pay rise, potentially saving the employer money at the same time.

UNW has also recruited two new partners as the firm expands within Citygate, Newcastle.

The arrival of audit partner Dave Redhead from KPMG and tax partner David Ward from PwC takes UNW’s partner total under managing partner Andrew Wilson up to 13 in a workforce up from 25 to 85 in recent years.

>> Rivals can consort, says guru Sandbach Even arch-rivals in business can innovate together to an extent - both for their own and society’s benefit, says business guru Professor Roy Sandbach.

He’s the new David Goldman Visiting Professor of Innovation and Enterprise at Newcastle University Business School.

Sandbach says from experience that the multinational giants and rivals Procter & Gamble (P&G) and Unilever have already proved it together. He is using his year long tenure at the school to stress the value of moving business innovation away from simply internal business activity, to open innovation using external, collaborative partnerships. Outlining his theory as he gave the annual David Goldman Lecture, he said in today’s highly connected world corporations are into an “innovation revolution”, adopting open collaboration to gain successful results that include, more and more, social benefits.

Sunderland born himself, he believes such policies could benefit North East communities especially. He headed leading global innovation programmes during his career of 30-plus years at P&G. He now applies his global skills in business, science, design and education throughout the UK. Sandbach says: “There is an increasing sense we can build open, vibrant partnerships that go beyond business development and into community wellbeing, almost creating a sense of philanthropy through innovation.” He succeeds James Timpson, chief executive of Timpson Group, in his appointment.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

>> £19.5m subsea win Subsea trenching firm DeepOcean UK in Darlington has won a £19.5m contract to help install fibre optic cable in the North Sea off Norway. DeepOcean recently got a £108m credit facility. The firm, formerly CTC Marine, recieved the backing through ABN AMRO Bank, Barclays, Sparebank 1 SR-Bank, NIBC Bank and RB International Finance (USA). In the same sector, Body Engineering at Bishop Auckland has secured a £100,000 grant through HSBC for new machinery to target the oil and gas market.

Sarah Pittendrigh: building business

>> Even more promising Award-winning entrepreneur Sarah Pittendrigh is taking on new franchisees for her business at Unthank on the Northumberland-Durham border. Simply Bows and Chair Covers now has 12 franchises all over the UK, specialising in chair covers and linen for weddings, balls and corporate events. Latest franchises are in Essex and North Northumberland. Former part-timer Janine Robinson has taken over the latter. The company has been named Most Promising New Business by the British Chamber of Commerce.

>> Odds-on opening

>> In pursuit of wealth

Chisholm Bookmakers has added to its 49 betting offices in the North East and Yorkshire its first branch on a business park. It joins Tesco, Greggs and Navaho Coffee already trading at Cobalt Central, where 11,000 people work on North Tyneside.

Accountancy firm Tait Walker has doubled its wealth management service team to 18 in 12 months and is recruiting further on Teesside. The firm marked its 75th anniversary last year, when it was also named Employer of the Year in Accounting and Finance Awards.

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

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SPRING 13

COMPANY PROFILE

Driving low carbon from North East England As Nissan launched the production of the new and improved 100% electric Nissan LEAF in Sunderland last month, the North East confirms its position as a world leader for low carbon technology.

Driving low carbon from North East England As Nissan launched the production of the new and improved 100% electric Nissan LEAF in Sunderland last month, the North East confirms its position as a world leader for low carbon technology.

A bold new era in European car manufacturing was celebrated in Sunderland this March as the new and improved, 100% electric Nissan LEAF rolled off the production line for the first time at the company’s Sunderland plant.

The launch marked an important milestone for the region and cemented the results of an economic masterplan for the low carbon vehicle sector which is now in its fifth year. Nissan’s flagship EV, which will be manufactured in Sunderland and sold across Europe, joins a growing number of low carbon technologies that are being developed in the North East as part of a growing sector dedicated to this new and emerging technology.

“What we’re witnessing right now is one of the greatest transformations of the automotive industry in its entire history. The launch of the new Nissan LEAF model is the result of the region’s firm commitment to the development of low carbon vehicle technologies and for the last five years we have looked ahead to understand the opportunities for businesses and the implications for society of changing to Electric Vehicles,” said Dr Colin Herron, managing director of Zero Carbon Futures, the organisation set up to support the development of the low carbon vehicle sector within the North East.

“This includes the development of a comprehensive network for charging electric vehicles. One of the biggest barriers to electric driving is the ability to charge a car at a driver’s convenience and the North East has worked hard over the last three years to install the largest regional recharging network in

Zzxrt Chris Bayliss, Hyperdrive Innovation with Dr Colin Herron, Zero Carbon Futures.

What we’re witnessing right now is one of the greatest transformations of the automotive industry in its entire history the UK. The Charge Your Car network is now made up of over 550 standard charge points and an additional network of quick-charge points which can charge a car in 25 minutes, proving invaluable in allaying people’s concerns over EV ownership.”

Regional Growth Fund support The low carbon vehicle sector in North East England recently received £6.3 million from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund to support the development of the industry. One of the major aspects of this bid is the development of a new technology park dedicated to low carbon technologies. The development, overseen by a partnership of Zero Carbon Futures and Gateshead College, will become a centre of excellence for EV and LCV technology providing a world-class

XX 17

environment for testing, charging, research, development and training in the automotive sector.

The fund also has a remit to create an environment of entrepreneurship, helping businesses in the region to develop new technologies, products and services as well as creating jobs through a Collaborative Projects Fund. Companies that have benefitted to date have included Inova Power who are developing an on-vehicle hydrogen generator; Hyperdrive for work into producing a diesel product which will extend the distance of electric vehicles; Smiles Engineering for the design of a retrofit a conversion system for buses and Air Fuel Synthesis who are developing technology to create carbon-neutral liquid fuels using C02 air-capture technologies.

Dr Colin Herron, continues: “The North East has developed an environment where regional companies are really thriving in this area. The future of transportation is undoubtedly low carbon vehicles. These technologies could be the next breakthrough in the sector, putting the North East at the centre of what will become a key industry for the UK. There are many companies in this region producing pioneering work, for which there is worldwide commercial demand,” said Herron.

“That’s good for the North East and good for Britain.”

For more information please visit www.zerocarbonfutures.co.uk or email zerocarbonfutures@gateshead.ac.uk 0191 490 2474

BUSINESS SPRING 13 BUSINESSQUARTER QUARTER||SPRING

NEWS

SPRING 13

>> Students start-up boost Students in the North East from September can work towards a new entrepreneurship degree based on a Finnish system that produces many more successful graduate start-ups than the UK. Second and third year students on the course Northumbria University’s Newcastle Business School will run at the Northern Design Centre in Gateshead, get seed funding to launch there, with the university holding a stake temporarily too.

Existing entrepreneurs and other business leaders will help mentor. Surviving ventures can later be sold or extended. Read more on the course on P54.

>> New designs on success Michael Vassallo of FW Capital, with Chris Duffy and Sue Fortune-Duffy of Fendor, which FW Capital is backing

>> Clear support Glazing manufacturer Fendor has secured a £400,000 investment to back growth of its recently opened new factory - a 50,000 sq ft plant at Washington, Sunderland. FW Capital made the investment from the North East Growth Plus Fund.

>> Bank backs store A £240,000 finance package from Santander Corporate and Commercial banking is enabling Adnan Awan to buy a Premier grocery store at Oak Terrace, Stanley, whose owners are retiring after 12 years.

He and his brother previously ran a store in Seaton Sluice for four years.

Their family has run local stores for more than 50 years.

>> Building centres saved Troubled Wearside firms Thompson Building Centres and TAPS Plumbing & Heating Supplies have been partly rescued, raising hopes of saving 70 jobs. An Oxford firm of plumbers’ merchants, Grafton Merchanting GB, has bought the trade and certain assets out of administration, taking five Thompson stores and one TAPs North East store into its Buildbase division.

The businesses, previously led by

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

managing director Anne Ganley, go back 60 years. Two years’ losses and pressure from banks and trade credit insurance were disclosed.

>> Uniform success Workwear Express, the Durham supplier of uniforms to the like of Aston Martin, Greggs PLC, 3 Mobile, Tesco and clients overseas, is adding 20 more staff to the existing 55 behind its 24 hour operation.

Managing director Andrew Ward plans 30% more growth this year.

>> Fashionable growth Trend Bible, the Newcastle trend forecaster agency, now gets 40% of its business from 17 countries overseas. Joanna Feeley, who started sole trading in 2007, will have seven staff shortly.

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RTC North has launched new support for industry design projects in the North East. Design for Growth will be run by the technology and innovation service Design Network North (DNN) team financially supporting other firms that want to work with local designers and grow their business by investing in new products and services.

DNN will benefit from £688,620 of European Union investment, and through Design for Growth there will be start-up advice and incubator space available in Gateshead’s Northern Design Centre.

Help will also be available in identifying new markets, customers or products.

Network membership now stands at 650 companies. DNN said that since its launch in February 2012 it has added £10m-plus to the regional economy and supported the design of 30 new products.

>> Exports clean-up Following investment from the Finance for Business North East Technology Fund (managed by IP Group), Newcastle-based Continuous Retorts Ltd now has European patents and a US patent to follow as it secures initial foreign sales. Its Continuous Retorts allow plastic containers, tin cans and glass jars to be sterilised or pasteurised faster - and with energy use down 60%, plus almost 100% reduction in water wastage.

Hurry!

Time is running out to apply for funding Up to 40% funding available to help grow your business

Find out more Call: 0191 426 6408

EUROPEAN UNION Investing in Your Future

European Regional Development Fund 2007-13

See: www.investment4growth.co.uk T @i4g_ne

NEWS

SPRING 13

>> QUOTE OF THE QUARTER

Sports Direct is not made for browsers. It is made for those who know exactly what they want so they can smash and grab the cheapest product they can possibly find. For this reason, it serves a purpose. But my overall feeling is that it makes sport feel grim and commodity focused, not the fun and life-affirming pursuit it is. Where is the expertise, joy and service?

- Shopping guru Mary Portas, on Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley’s flagship Sports Direct store, in Telegraph Magazine.

>> Designers spread Design 365, run from Newton Aycliffe since 2004, has opened an additional office at Gateshead International Business Centre. The specialist in web design and development, e-commerce and search engine optimisation is the creation of Alan Foster, who has been in the industry for more than 15 years. New clients include The Corbridge Larder, D-line in Whitley Bay and ESP in Newcastle.

>> Taking the plunge Undersea vehicle builder Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD of Tyneside) has secured a £2.7m asset finance facility to help meet a £3m order from Cyprus on behalf of Senaxell Shipping for its oil and gas exploration, seen as vital to the island’s economic recovery. The facility was arranged by Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, and underwritten by the UK Export Finance.

>> Money at a price A high charging firm of moneylenders expects to create 100 jobs on opening a UK HQ in the North East next year. The UK subsidiary of unsecured lending business 4Finance Group has opened initially in Stockton. Lending under the Vivus brand in the controversial ‘payday loans’ sector, it was formed in Latvia in 2008 and

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

already employs 550 people. It advertises a first loan at 0% interest, but later loans give a representative APR rate of 791.6%.

Some UK operators extract even more.

Market leader Wonga advertises a rate of 4,214%.

>> Phil figures it out Global engineer Subsea Innovation has recently won £5m of orders, grown the workforce from 30 to 42 in a year and aspires to double turnover to £15m during the next three years. Phil Heathcock will work on the figures. He has joined the Darlington firm as finance director after four years with Whessoe Oil and Gas. He has also worked with Henderson Campbell and Tekmar Energy

>> Going, going, gone James Sutherland & Co, the 94-yearold Newcastle auctioneers specialising in machinery, vehicles and stock, has been acquired by H&H of Carlisle.

>> Jackets-on jobs Wax jacket manufacturer Barbour now has an additional production line, adding 60 jobs at South Shields and Gateshead to 700 existing.

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>> Newsmakers Helen Ager (above), a partner at business law firm DWF in Newcastle has been elected president of Newcastle Law Society.

Ben Quigley, who heads the Newcastle creative agency Different, has been appointed one of four new city heads around the country to strengthen the national presence of the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising.

John Dickson, chairman of Owen Pugh Group and of the Civil Engineering Contractors Association (North East), has been appointed a board member and trustee of the Construction Industry Training Board. He has previously chaired the Regional Skills for Growth Forum of Construction Skills North East.

>>Live and earning A new company has been formed to run some of the North East’s biggest events and boost their commercial potential.

Sunderland Live, a spin-out from Sunderland City Council has taken over organising Sunderland International Airshow, the Sunderland Festival and the Marathon of the North. Chris Alexander, who was head of culture and tourism at the council, is chief operating officer, leading a team of 18. www.sunderlandlive.co.uk.

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NEWS

SPRING 13

>> Looking into business David Standish of KPMG and Nick Wood of Grant Thornton are joint trustees in the bankruptcy of former North East Business Executive of the Year, Karl Watkin. Standish said they would initially establish the extent of all personal claims. They were also identifying Watkin’s assets in the UK and internationally, which may include getting back those given away or transferred.

Muckle associate Philip Clare, Paul Windle director Keith Opie, UNW partner Simon Richards and Paul Windle director John Dyer

>> Truckers move south Scotland’s European Haulier of the Year 2012 has invested £70,000 in a Bedlington base to complement its offices in Holland and Italy, expand trade lanes and hook up with ferry links to mainland Europe. Grampian Continental of Aberdeen aims to raise turnover from £15m to £20m over five years.

The firm’s fleet transports loads ranging from 1kg up to 80 tonnes. Started in 2009, it has more than 500 customers in the oil and gas sector, and employs 26 staff plus drivers. Kenny Haddock of North Shields heads the Bedlington operation.

>> Focused on IT MC Ware Mechanical, a Stokesley welding, fabrication and IT services firm, has sold its mechanical and fabrication business to GST Offshore Ltd, allowing MC Ware to focus on its core IT business serving the offshore and marine sector. GST Offshore Ltd will now be known as MC Ware Mechanical Ltd. The Endeavour Partnership law firm advised MC Ware Ltd on the deal.

>> Housing go-ahead Housebuilder Barratt expects to work on six new projects in its native North East this year, providing 1,100 new homes at Spennymoor, Nunthorpe, Killingworth and Hebburn.

It also plans 80 homes in regeneration work at Scotswood, Newcastle, and 56 properties at Burnopfield Cricket Club in County Durham.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

>> Creative change at the top A North East creative studio that has Disney, Tomy and Lego among its key clients, has undergone a seamless change of its ownership team with help from dealmakers at business advisers UNW and law firm Muckle LLP. The Sandyford, Newcastle, based Paul Windle Creative Studio was founded in 1989 by internationally renowned artist and designer Paul Windle, who died in 2004 aged just 43. The business was then bought out by three of the management team, including directors Keith Opie and John Dyer. The third member was bought out on deciding to leave. The deal, giving Opie and Dyer equal stakes, will see the firm, which also works for movie giant Warner Bros, diversify into new markets - including maybe gaming.

>> Cheaper flying

>> Going Dutch

A new route pass offering 25% discount for travellers booking four return flights has been launched by Eastern Airways for services from Newcastle and elsewhere. The new 4-4-3 Route Pass enables commuters to buy their four flights at a cost of three on any of the airline’s routes.

ICE Renewables, the Northallerton firm providing services in wind turbines, has secured a multi-million pound deal with Dutch manufacturer Lagerwey to be its exclusive commercial broker and service integration partner, handling megawatt turbines across the UK.

>> Back to civvy street

>> Action stations

Teesside based TTE Technical Training Group, on behalf of oil and gas services giant Wood Group PSN, now trains and assesses ex-armed forces personnel for careers in the energy industries.

Solar Solve, the South Shields manufacturer of anti-glare windows for ships, has fitted screens to a Brazilian warship built by BAE systems. It has also won an order from Anglo-Eastern to equip a new fleet of eight bulk carriers with its anti-glare sun screens.

>> Broadband boost A new superfast broadband project to benefit 2,600 businesses by 2015 is going ahead in Northumberland. The iNorthumberland Digital Economy Programme is being financed by the European Regional Development Fund with match funding from the county council.

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>> Travel cutback Travel firm Thomas Cook is expected to close its centres in Spennymoor, Ashington, Hexham, Low Fell, Gateshead town centre, Northallerton and Middlesbrough Parkway in cutbacks around the country.

SPRING 13

COMPANY PROFILE

NE1 delivers the goods

..having one company, like NE1, fighting the city’s corner can ensure that great things can be delivered” Return on investment is key to the success of any business venture. At NE1 Ltd, this has been the driving principle underpinning everything the business improvement district company has done in Newcastle City Centre, since it was established in 2009 following a positive vote by the city’s businesses in 2008.

NE1’s guiding principle has always been to question the ROI on all of its projects and the timeframe in which they can be delivered. Being a small, commercially focused company, has given NE1 the flexibility to work quickly and maintain a continuous programme of projects to improve the city centre.

Bigger picture projects are easy to define and the results and economic benefits delivered are easily identified and quantifiable. Take for example NE1’s role in the Newcastle Central Gateway Project which will see the whole of the central station in Newcastle modernised, updated and the entrance to the station and the surrounding area completely redesigned and improved. NE1 identified the need to make the most of this magnificent asset and for the past three years has worked with Newcastle City Council, Network Rail and East Coast to develop a coordinated plan to invest in the station and its environs. Following NE1’s successful £5m Regional Growth Fund application, the combined value of the project is now worth in the region of £20m.

This collaborative approach and NE1’s facilitating role has levered in funds that would otherwise not have been secured for the city and has highlighted how having one company, like NE1 fighting the city’s corner can ensure that great things can be delivered.

It is this role that enabled NE1 to deliver the Alive after Five initiative in Newcastle city centre, a key example of the positive, practical and economic benefits that can be delivered through business lobbying. Alive after Five delivered the biggest change in retail opening hours since the launch of Sunday trading and has had a huge impact on the look and feel of the city, keeping it open and

vibrant after 5pm, where previously the shutters would come down and the streets would be quiet until the city’s evening trade picked up . Now shops and restaurants across the city are open and doing business, free car parking after 5pm in council run multi-storeys has added greatly to the success of the initiative and the city feels better for it, so too do the coffers.

To date, the value of the Alive after five hours have been estimated at £220m, with 4.3 million extra visitors into Eldon Square alone after 5pm, accounting for over 17% of the day’s footfall. In 2012, footfall in Newcastle city centre increased by 5% against a national average of 2.9% decline.

By articulating a clear vision, highlighting the commercial opportunities and working with the council, retailers and other city centre businesses, NE1 was able to deliver this transformational change and secure a solid foundation for future growth.

The same can be said of NE1’s Restaurant Week and NE1’s Newcastle Fashion Week initiatives – by working collaboratively within different industry sectors – NE1 has been able to galvanise city centre businesses to play their part – the results are events that create a tremendous buzz in the city and deliver major returns for participating

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businesses. NE1 is currently in the throes of planning this year’s NE1’s Newcastle Fashion Week which runs from the 11-18 May. Last year, the event delivered an average 52% increase in footfall and 33% increase in sales for participating businesses.

The impact of NE1 projects such as the Rapid Response Clean Team, Street Rangers and Pocket Parks programme might be slightly more difficult to measure, but no one doubts the economic value of having a cleaner, safer and more attractive city centre.

In the current economic climate much still remains to be done in, and for, the city but NE1 has put its flag firmly in the ground and has set out its plans for the next five years.

NE1’s consultation document on their plans for the next five years has just been published. For further information visit www.newcastlene1ltd.com or contact Sean Bullick, Chief Executive, NE1 ltd on 0191 235 7091 or by email at sean.bullick@newcastlene1ltd.com

BUSINESS QUARTER |SPRING 13

THE GOLDEN TRIANGLE IT MIGHT BE AT THE CENTRE OF THE COUNTRY, BUT IT’S NOT AT THE CENTRE OF LOGISTICS. PD PORTCENTRIC LOGISTICS

IGNORE ALL THE COMPLEX JARGON AND CONFUSION. IT’S TIME TO CHANGE AND GET BACK TO BASICS. IT’S TIME TO MAKE LOGISTICS, LOGICAL. With project P, we’re championing the case for portcentric logistics, a solution that seeks to get products from a to b simply, taking a common sense, straight talking approach to logistics.

As the UK’s number 1 provider of portcentric logistics we’re well placed to talk about the commercial and environmental benefits it can deliver, and how it can be a viable alternative to the ‘Golden Triangle’.

Every year in total we save our customers over £15m in supply chain costs, 5m road miles and reduce their carbon emissions by 12,000 tonnes.

PD Ports_BQ Mag_205x260_AW.indd 2

We’ve a proven track record in a range of sectors and are the UK’s only port operator to offer integrated portcentric logistics solutions in both North and South locations.

We also operate the UK’s best connected feeder port, which delivers unrivalled connectivity to Europe and the world.

All of which means we’re committed to the future of portcentric logistics.

So let’s take a new look, and make your logistics logical. For further information on our portcentric logistics solutions please call: +44 (0) 1642 877 000 or visit www.pdportcentriclogistics.co.uk

16/04/2013 13:55

COMPANY PROFILE

COMPANY PROFILE

SPRING SPRING1313

Logistics Made Logical Increasingly, businesses are finding out the true value of an integrated logistics operation, by working with PD Portcentric Logistics, part of the PD Ports Group.

With household names such as Asda and Tesco listed as customers, international brands are bringing investment to the North East.

Portcentric Logistics is a well known phrase in supply chain circles, but one that might not be so meaningful to businesses at large. Effectively, it means processing your goods at or near to their port of entry.

It sounds so simple.

Traditional distribution models however, have seen goods imported, hauled to the ‘logistics golden triangle’ in the Midlands, and processed there for onward distribution. This model works for some, but can be more costly, time consuming and have a greater environmental impact. For example, if a product arrives on the dockside in Southampton, is transported to the Midlands to be unpacked and then shipped to the North of England to go on the supermarket shelves – you can see the issue.

With excellent links to the rest of the UK by road and rail, Teesport is one such import / export hub whereby the benefits of portcentric logistics can be fully realised. PD Ports has invested heavily in the Teesport facility, and have just completed a £16.7m infrastructure investment to upgrade the container handling facilities, which will support growing volumes. PD Ports is helping the region to become a serious contender in the national transport strategy – a point that was highlighted

by Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, who visited Teesport in February. In an area that has a strong industrial heritage, it is important that the economy finds a balance to both support growth and investment for the future.

In the last seven years around 3,500 direct and indirect jobs are estimated to have been created as a result of PD Portcentric Logistic’s activity at Teesport and this is expected to grow by a further 1,000 over the next five years.

The benefits to importers of all sizes, and the associated numbers really are compelling. Every year PD Portcentric Logistics customers, in total, save millions of pounds in supply chain costs,

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13 13:55

Every year PD Portcentric Logistics customers, in total, save millions of pounds in supply chain costs, whilst significantly reducing road miles and their carbon emissions. whilst significantly reducing road miles and their carbon emissions.

David Robinson, Chief Executive of the PD Ports Group is keen to stress the capabilities of the port, and portcentric logistics. “We have the capacity to handle half a million containers every year, and have been investing heavily to meet the growing demand from overseas and domestic traffic. Our customers are seeing the unique benefits of our operation, which can offer portcentric logistics capabilities at northern and southern locations – the only port operator to offer this.”

“As businesses look to streamline their supply chain, portcentric logistics is becoming a more important part of the solution. Our facilities at Teesport offer real flexibility with 4m sq ft of developed warehousing footprint, such as the

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facility owned by Asda.”

The Asda case is an interesting one. In addition to the general merchandise import deconsolidation centre at Teesport, the company operates some domestic haulage for the supermarket and continue to handle the import of Asda George clothing.

PD Ports has seen a consistent growth in the business and a diversification of the work being carried out.

Portcentric logistics isn’t right for every business, but every business does owe it to themselves to ensure they’re doing right by their stakeholders.

With a greener, leaner supply chain becoming a priority for many companies, portcentric logistics is one route to achieving carbon reductions, and the commercial case cannot be ignored.

For further information on our portcentric logistics solutions, please call: +44 (0) 1642 877 000 or visit www.pdportcentriclogistics.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER |SPRING 13

AS I SEE IT

SPRING 13

There’s no shame in loyalty Mario Jaconelli tells Brian Nicholls why loyalty still pays in career building Company director Mario Jaconelli, who’s celebrating 25 years of business fulfilment with the same firm, has proved loyalty still reaps rewards in business - and certainly in chartered surveying and property consultancy.

He began with Lofthouse and Partners four weeks after leaving St Aidan’s School in Sunderland in 1988, initially as a valuation assistant to the then senior partner Chris Lofthouse, who’d established the business three years before.

It was a steep learning curve for a young lad, being tasked for example to organise a change of locks on a suburban shop for a landlord client whose tenant there had defaulted.

Jaconelli recalls: “Late in the day a rather irate gentleman turned up at the office asking why the locks had been changed on his flat. I only then realised I’d put the incorrect property address on the instruction to the locksmith, who’d locked the guy out of his flat.

“As he actually owned the flat he, rightly, wasn’t best amused!”

At the front end of the memory album, though, is the e-mail received out of the blue a few years ago from the head of an international organisation wanting urgent help in acquiring a regional headquarters.

Jaconelli remembers: “They were in a pickle.

They had to vacate their existing building within two months. They’d left it until the last minute. I met with the chief executive and his team members two days later who’d flown in from various parts of the world.

“We came up with a shortlist of available properties which had to be inspected the following week with a view to agreeing a deal almost immediately. Working round the clock, we pulled it off in an almost impossible timescale, which was very rewarding.”

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

Jaconelli has never worked in residential and domestic surveying but enthusiastically advises young people to consider commercial property surveying as a career. Apart from its rewards and challenges, he points out: “It’s made up of a small community of professionals who regularly help out competitors with local market advice when working out of area. I have some very good reliable friends who are actually direct competitors. In that sense ours is probably unlike many businesses.”

Every day can be different too when, as with Lofthouse operating from both Sunderland and Durham, operations extend from Northumberland down to North Yorkshire and into Lancashire. “One day you can be looking at a retail unit, the next an office or industrial building or development site. No two days are identical,” he says. “After 25 years I still love what I do. Work’s never a chore. I consider myself very lucky.”

He has worked with co-director Marc Weaver since 1996 when Weaver joined from university. “Because we equally co-own the business outright we’ve no interference or red tape to cut through in decision making.

“I value his opinion and we work extremely well together.”

They bought the firm when the founding owner retired in 2006. Their loyal staff, who’ve

been with them for up to 17 years, are indispensable, Jaconelli says. “I must confess I don’t tell them this as often as I should!”

The Budget has affected the sector little.

Small businesses still need more help and bank funding streams need to flow.

“However,” he says, “I don’t see us ever again seeing the earlier reckless and risky levels of lending by financial institutions. Long term, this will make the commercial property market stronger, albeit with some continuing pain along the way.”

With a few exceptions L&P finds Wearside affected by recession like most major conurbations. “We’ve seen a decline in values.

But on the flipside this has created activity in the market.

“Whereas the office market has been hit badly, advances in technology - through Blackberries, iPhones etc - mean firms which perhaps had discounted Wearside as a business base before have downsized, enabling some of our business parks to compete massively now with non-Wearside locations in cases where companies are cost, not location, driven.”

Indeed, in the first four months of 2013 L&P has seen more activity in the office market than in all of 2012 in terms of deals in solicitors’ hands or completed. n

I have some very good reliable friends who are actually direct competitors.

In that sense ours is probably unlike many businesses

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BUSINESS QUARTER |SPRING 13

ENTREPRENEUR

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in association with

No better place for progress

Multi-millionaire Jonathan Ruffer, a lifetime achiever in the City, tells Brian Nicholls why he sees great potential in Japan for the North East as he sets up home in the region The future that North East multi-millionaire Jonathan Ruffer visualises for South West Durham could become as remarkable in a way, perhaps, as the ÂŁ15m worth of 17th Century paintings he's rescued for the region.

Before succeeding the Rt Revd Justin Welby on the economic review team of the North East Local Economic Partnership (following the latter's meteoric elevation from Bishop of Durham to Archbishop of Canterbury), Ruffer felt he knew the North East well - but not its individual people whom you really must know, he says, truly to know a place.

Now, in helping assemble the North East Economic Review for government action, he has pondered: what makes the region special? "I say, as a Southerner, how cheap everything is. If you can buy infrastructure as cheaply as other things here, who needs China or Sri Lanka? We might just as well make things here.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

"I think we'll find looking back that relocating industry to the Far East has proved a dead end, great for a decade or two, but with many disadvantages - great distances and cultural differences, for example.

"Now I didn't come here wearing my investment hat saying the North East will be on the up. But that's what I believe. I think South East England will be dead in the water in 25 years' time. Its skills are in the wrong places. Its pricing of wages and property is wrong. I don't think the advantage has been appreciated of being able to buy in the North East a nice three bedroom Victorian house for 85 grand.

"And we have a world class university at Durham. Why shouldn't graduates, instead of going to London where they can't afford to live, stay here and set up here if they're entrepreneurial. It's much easier."

Ruffer's struck by Japan's 48 businesses in the

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North East. "My guess is, no other place in the Western Hemisphere has that concentration.

I'd like the North East LEP to see this area through Japanese eyes. If you're the 49th business looking here what would you say?

What do incomers look for in us? If your business sells tea towels, you need to make the tea towel as nice as possible but also know the sort of people who buy them. What pictures do they like on them?"

He's fascinated when BQ tells how the region's manufacturing links with Japan go back to Tyneside-built warships and guns that helped the Japanese to defeat the Russians at war in 1905. He wants to learn more.

Don't dismiss Ruffer's assessment as infected optimism picked up while relocating here permanently. Winner of a lifetime achiever award for his City astuteness, he predicted the 2008 banking crisis and ensuing misfortunes.

He knows what he's about and, >>

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XXXXXXXX

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ENTREPRENEUR

encouragingly for the North East, he's wholeheartedly into the consequences of buying the Zurbaran paintings, such as refurbishing Auckland Castle where they hang.

He chairs Auckland Castle Trust, current owner of the castle with the largest private chapel in Europe, and which has been a home to Durham bishops for 900 years.

With eight trustee members drawn locally and from arts and heritage sources, he plans to turn the building into a major visitor and study centre, and a venue for weddings, concerts and festivals, while promoting its religious significance besides simply restoring it.

Furthermore, he envisages a £50m regeneration can make Bishop Auckland an outstanding revenue-earning tourist destination, benefiting South West Durham generally. He has the support of Durham

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Money’s meant to pass through you.

If you eat food and it doesn’t pass through it will poison you. That’s what money does County and Bishop Auckland Town Councils, as well as voluntary sector partners, and looks for business-minded people to play their part.

Described once as "the most modest man in the City", he founded Ruffer LLP investment managers which, with the Japanese market coming right for it recently, now nurtures £15bn of investments from London, Edinburgh and Hong Kong.

A whimsical, self-effacing evangelical Christian

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whose gentle demeanour would match that of any bishop, Ruffer has little regard for money despite his personal wealth. He likens it to food. "It's meant to pass through you," he explains. "If you eat food and it doesn't pass through it will poison you. That's what money does. I don't give money away because I'm selfless. I give money away because I'm selfish.

I don't want to be poisoned. I look at a lot of rich people and see shackles. I think, not >>

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?

Welcome to our world.

To experience our world call 0191 211 7777 or visit WINNER Regional Law Firm of the Year

ENTREPRENEUR for me thanks."

Again, why the North East? One of his recreations listed in Debrett's is sleeping. He chuckles. He used to list namedropping. "I got over that. I lost that social drive." However, he admits he's a dreamer - not practical. "The trouble is, you need to earth dreams to something specific. In a sense it doesn't matter much what."

For Ruffer it's South West Durham. "This dream will have the practical effect of reviving the north end of Bishop Auckland. Here's a town of 25,000 people, whose catchment area includes the Dales. We've all the big retailers here, but at the expense of old Bishop Auckland - this end.

"So we've an area that’s run out of steam.

Three years ago, when I first became involved, there was a problem with underage binge drinking in the market place. Now the place is so out of cash it can't even afford that. Even vice has been driven out of the town! I thought if we can get 100,000 people here, and we jolly well should because the whole project will be northwards of £50m by the time we have finished, fortunes can change."

Ruffer, the region’s fourth wealthiest individual with a personal fortune of £330m according to the latest Sunday Times Rich List, says the money will be found by others as well as himself. “If any of your readers, bonkers as I am, wish to participate I’ll willingly send an account number to which payment may be made. If we do get that figure it will create something of a cathedral close effect in the market place of a fine Georgian town.”

Other influential participants include Diarmaid MacCulloch, professor of the history of the Church at Oxford University, a knight and a deacon also, who considers the castle and its environs the most important working episcopal complex outside the Vatican and Avignon seats of the Pope.

"This word complex is interesting," Ruffer remarks. "It says don't think just of the castle, but of town parts integral to the castle, and the park adjoining which is Grade 1 Listed mediaeval. One's not looking at a building alone but interlocking parts also.

"We must give the overgrown park back its extraordinary visual drama it presented in the 18th Century. If we can bring back views you

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were meant to see at the deer house there, and the follies and grand rock formations, that would be great. We have walled gardens where I think the most northerly pineapples were grown, for there are greenhouses called the Pinery and the Vinery. There was a belvedere where bishops could put their thumbs in their waistcoats and survey all around them."

There could also be a picnickers paradise to come. In 1894 a slice of parkland was turned into an existing golf course. But on the 150 acres remaining there's a farm and failed golf course. "This could be used for leisure

activities," Ruffer remarks. "We've ambitious plans there, but it's too early to talk about that. Hopefully the castle will be at the centre of a full day people will enjoy indoors and outside."

Again, why the North East when Ruffer could have revived almost anywhere else? It has been widely and inaccurately reported he was born at Stokesley. He was born in London, and though describing himself as a Southerner, his parents brought him to Stokesley in 1954 as a two-year-old.

His mother's family were Constantines, whose eponymous Middlesbrough business was >>

He who would true valour see If a Heritage Lottery grant of £10m appears within a couple of months, national exhibitions could be held at the castle by 2017. Meanwhile, he says, Bishop Auckland needs eating places and accommodation.

With the Lindisfarne Gospels visiting the region this year and the Cuthbert Gospel next, he says he’d like the North East Local Enterprise Partnership to encourage in tourism the return of an English sense of pilgrimage such as Romans and Spanish absolutely understand. “Even visitors who only like hiking boots could still enjoy the walkways.”

There remains, however, a hurdle for us all. Ruffer predicted the financial crisis of 2008, finds it extraordinary it wasn’t foreseen otherwise, and now can’t see the national debt ever being repaid. He expects a 1970s repetition: very low interest rates, high inflation, many businesses going bust and 12% of money lost every year in a transfer from savers to borrowers “on an easy ride”. By the mid 1980s Britain was debt free and heading for boom again, and Ruffer expects the same on the backs of savers. Fortunately, Ruffer’s proposals for South West Durham needn’t be profitable, only viable.

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ENTREPRENEUR I think we’ll find looking back that relocating industry to the Far East has proved a dead end, great for a decade or two, but with many disadvantages great distances and cultural differences, for example shipping. Constantine Technical College, with which they were associated, was the seedling of Teesside University. Ruffer's grandfather, Robert Willam of Shincliffe, was a professor of medicine at Durham University and ran the Royal Victoria Infirmary in Newcastle.

Ruffer's mother during the Second World War was a Wren, his father a Royal Marine gunnery officer on Arctic convoys. They met when his ship was in for repair. "That was that," says Ruffer. "A great cry in those days was 'up with the lark and to bed with the wren'!

“Father after the war had a travel agency on Teesside and never spotted that a travel agency called Ruffer Travels probably drew a lot of business from customers who found the name hard to believe."

Young Ruffer attended Marlborough and Cambridge then, he claims, spent his 20s being useless at all he did. This is his self-demeaning sense of humour. He was called to the Bar. A distinguished legal career might have followed had inclinations not turned him to finance, and numerous institutions including Dunbar Group and Rathbone (which has recently opened a Newcastle office).

In 1994 he set up Ruffer hoping (according to

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Josh Spero, editor of Spear's wealth magazine) to change an industry in which measuring yourself against indices was everything. On receiving his lifetime achiever award in 2011, he pointed out that when others had doubled and trebled investments during dotcom year 1999, his company "achieved" -0.2%. It was someone else who mentioned that in 2008 he'd gone up 14% while the FTSE fell 31%.

Ruffer, 62 and now repositioned from chief executive to chairman of Ruffer LLP, has re-affirmed his North East commitment by setting up a new home within a shout of the castle, a "dungeon with the front door painted the colour of a sick parrot". He'll work in London only early in the week, freeing time to share the pleasures of his art purchase for the people of the North East, and with them.

His wife Jane, who was a pathologist, is taking up palliative care at Butterwick Hospice. "It's a happy place up here and very easy to get stuck in really," says Ruffer. Jane's mother, who's from Sunderland, is migrating north too and is delighted to come home. Remarkably in the Zurbaran purchase, Ruffer lashed out £15m without seeing the goods. Given their acknowledged artistic blemishes, does he still feel he paid the right price?

A self-confessed risk taker, and admirer of the religious tolerance behind the original purchase, Ruffer replies: "I don't think there's a right price for something like that. I've always bought pictures without seeing. I collect 17th Century religious art. I had a Zurbaran postcard and I've an 18th Century copy of a Zurbaran painted about the time these came to the castle. We think it's a copy

by Gainsborough. That was one thing that made me think perhaps I ought to be doing this.

"There are three sets like this. The other two, simply beastly, are in South America. This set is wonderful, painted I think by a mixture of him and his workshop. The workshop have a simplicity and directness which in a way has qualities the master doesn't have. So even if I could wave a wand, so every brush stroke was Zurbaran's, I think I'd keep them as they are. I suspect the other two sets have no Zurbaran in them at all.

"When the Church Commissioners threatened to sell these pictures I thought it extremely

discouraging and it set people against one another. I thought if I could solve that it would be a start. I did it without quite understanding what I was doing. I just felt it was a way of saying to people of the North East 'these belong to you and they've been given back to you'. One thing led to another. That got us onto the castle.

"I thought then I'd like to come back to where I was brought up and try to revive a part of the world that needs that sort of thing. I didn't really know what that would entail."

Jane's reaction to his £15m outlay from a personal fortune assessed then at £100m? "I think she was all for it really. Money's a much over-rated commodity." n Auckland Castle will be open six days a week (closed Tuesdays) from May till September. See www.aucklandcastle.org.

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ENTREPRENEURS’ FORUM Together we can take on the world.

Nominations are now open for the North East Entrepreneurial Awards 2013 As the leading organisation for entrepreneurs in the region, the Entrepreneurs’ Forum are champions of the North East entrepreneurial community and we’re looking to find our most talented entrepreneurs.

For each of the last eleven years we’ve celebrated the success of the region’s finest business minds at our annual awards dinner, with awards including: • Emerging Talent • Entrepreneur of the Year • Lifetime Achievement Award ...and we’re looking for your nominations.

Let us know who has inspired you and should be recognised for their outstanding business achievements. Send your nominations by 1st July 2013, including name, company & contact details to: Nicola Short, Chief Executive, Entrepreneurs’ Forum. nicola@entrepreneursforum.net To discuss sponsorship opportunities or to purchase tickets to attend the North East Entrepreneurial Awards dinner on Thursday 19th September, contact the team on 0191 500 7780 or info@entrepreneursforum.net

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Join in the conversation:

BUSINESS QUARTER |SPRING 13

another creative communication by Hedley McEwan

19/04/2013 17:07

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

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Polishing a Pearl of a city, rising times for bakery, retail park’s £35m boost, lower rents to win tenants, all change at Consett, North East leads EU quest for smarter parks, and call centre has the magic touch >> Growing locally

>> Bus depots combine

AMS Asbestos Management Services has relocated within Cramlington, from Crosland Park to premises about three times larger at Astley Business Park. The £1.3m turnover firm is also opening offices in Doncaster and Warrington, and recruiting 13 employees across all three offices.

Work is under way on a new £7.7m bus depot for Go North East bus company.

Part of Go-Ahead Group, the firm is merging existing facilities at Winlaton and Sunderland Road, Gateshead, into the new premises at Handy Drive, Metro Riverside, Gateshead.

>> Property firm spreads

Pearl: A 1960s transformation nears

Property consultancy Robertson Simpson, which has offices in Gateshead and Sunderland, is opening in Stockton too.

>> Centre time check The clock is ticking on plans for a major North East conference centre beside The Sage at Gateshead. Under an initial-stage funding approval from the Arts Council England, Gateshead Council with Newcastle and Gateshead Initiative and The Sage have until September to provide a detailed study, on which the Arts Council’s £10m depends.

The original £80m concept has had to be scaled back to £30m.

>> Pearl of a city

>> Organic growth

Work is starting on the first big office refurbishment seen in Newcastle city centre for over three years. Pearl Assurance House, at the corner of Northumberland Street and New Bridge Street, is being remodelled in a £3m project for Hermes Real Estate Investment Management.

Brims Construction of Sunderland will carry out the refit at the 37,600sq ft, eight storey building where floors two to eight will be refurbished.

The building will be rebranded as The Pearl. Chris Pearson, partner at Gavin Black & Partners, joint agent with Knight Frank, says the 1960s building will be transformed.

Three-year-old organic specialist Clervaux Artisan Bakery & Cafe has taken a ground floor unit at 127 High Street, Northallerton, in its first expansion out of Darlington.

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>> Industry drives the market Planning measures have been relaxed to attract businesses and jobs around Blyth Estuary. Northumberland County Council has adopted orders for three sites north and south of the estuary with government approval. Developers must still satisfy some pre-conditions though. Agents note a marked uptake of modern industrial units in the North East - particularly when less than 20 years old,

36

says Simon Haggie at Knight Frank. Because of funding difficulties and current rental levels, little movement to develop stock levels is evident. Modern units in Tyne and Wear and South East Northumberland are clearly evident, particularly at 10,000 sq ft plus. The sole speculative scheme nearing is from UK Land, due on site at Team Valley, Gateshead, this summer. It will offer three units: 11,000sq ft, 18,000sq ft and 24,000sq ft.

UK Land’s aspirations to be planning similar size developments in North Shields and Cramlington will depend on securing European grant assistance. Headline rents remain flat.

But growing shortage of quality floorspace is reducing incentive packages.

Team Valley has traditionally attracted some of the highest rents of £6psf but UK Land may seek £6.50 and £6.75 for its new development.

Pressure on some “tired” estates may spur landlords to refurbish. UK Land’s Tyne Tunnel Estate, for example, dating to the early 1970s, has enjoyed a higher volume of lettings following a refurb, with an investment of almost £1m in the 100,000sq ft former Marks & Spencer warehouse, now nearing completion. The Tyne Tunnel enlargement has also helped.

Overall last year, investment in retail and leisure helped offset a 95% plunge in the region’s offices market. Total value of commercial property investment stayed largely static at £233m (£234m in 2011), Lambert Smith Hampton reports. But office investment has brightened. In 2012 it fell from £47.5m in 2011 to £2.5m, giving just 1% of the market, whereas leisure and retail accounted for two thirds (£153m). Three deals stood out then: Osprey Equity Partners’ purchase of Sainsbury’s at Riverside Road in Sunderland for £35m in Q2, the Crown Estate’s acquisition of The Gate in Newcastle for £60m in Q3, and Westmont Hospitality Group’s buy of the long leasehold in the Staybridge Suites in Newcastle for £12.5m in Q4. Now in Q1 take-up has risen 48% plus.

Newcastle city centre saw 13 deals, out of town there were 41.

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>> M&S moves in A two-storey Marks & Spencer Simply Food store and restaurant set to open in Gosforth - on the corner of the Great North Road and Hollywood Avenue - will have a staff of 60.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

The hub over the next 15 years will combine sustainable commercial, residential, retail and leisure space.

>> Retail park’s £35m boost A £35m expansion of Dalton Park retail outlet at Seaham will bring 500 more jobs and a supermarket, cinema, restaurants, petrol station, hotel and pub by the end of 2014. Durham County Council has over-ridden objections, including one from Salford Estates, which owns Castle Dene Shopping Centre in neighbouring Peterlee.

>> Clawback force

>> Lower rents win tenants

Stephen Rose, who lost his job after three years, now has his own venture, helping property owners claim back money from the Government. Formerly with developer Mandale, he has now launched Finch Capital at Stockton with chartered accountant Rob Tindle and Angela Foster, a chartered tax advisor.

Marketing a commercial property scheme at North Tyneside on lease or sale with reduced rental levels has paid off for Green Lane Capital. It has let one building at its Orion Business Park, renewed a lease on another and sold one building too.

Through Gavin Black & Partners it has agreed terms with the NHS for a renewed lease on its 5,250sq ft building, sold a 2,288sq ft building to The Salvation Army for an undisclosed sum and leased another 2,288sq ft property to TLW Solicitors.

Asking rent on the park near the Tyne Tunnels was reduced to £4.95psf.

Reducing rents is also bringing results for Jones Lang LaSalle, recently appointed to let vacant office space at Benton House in Sandyford, Newcastle (above). The £8psf figure represents a significant lowering, the agency says. Tenants on the four storeys include NHS and ID Training. Open plan office suites of 3,702sq ft to 8,159sq ft are available.

Simon Taylor at Jones Lang LaSalle, says total occupational costs run at under £16psf with flexible leases.

The same firm has let about 10,000sq ft at Wallington House, also in Sandyford, to a national charity.

>> Science advances Sir Robert McAlpine is getting initial building and infrastructure under way at Science Central, Newcastle’s science hub development.

Phase one, expected to cost around £15m, involves a 50,000 sq ft office building with its earthworks, drainage and utility supplies to serve as support to science companies, both small start-ups and ventures by inward investors. McAlpine pipped rivals Miller, Bam Construction and Graham Construction to this initial contract launching a new urban quarter on the site of the former Scottish and Newcastle brewery.

The design team includes architect Faulkner Browns, engineer Mott MacDonald and landscape architect Land Use Consultants.

The city council and Newcastle University are behind what will be the city centre’s biggest project for more than a decade.

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>> Amazon in full flow now Two agencies have been appointed to help market the 105 acre Amazon Park development at Newton Aycliffe, where Hitachi’s train assembly operation will shortly get under way.

Merchant Place Developments (MPD) has appointed the Newcastle office of DTZ as regional consultant and CBRE as national consultant working from London, Leeds and Sheffield. Chris Noyes, MPD’s development director, says the development plan for the 460,000 sq ft Hitachi Rail Europe (HRE) project is ready to start this year.

Amazon Park can take almost a further 1m sq ft of industrial or warehousing buildings to sit alongside Hitachi. Firms selected for Hitachi’s supply chain are likely to be among the early takers.

>> Fading Voice Five HMV stores in the North East were among 66 lossmakers being closed, the group’s administrators confirmed.

>> Retail park opposed The North East Chamber of Commerce is challenging plans for a new out of town retail park in Middlesbrough. It questions the need for and scale of the £120m Wester Gateway project in Cannon Park area.

>> Agency contract met Esh Construction has fulfilled a £1.6m contract for the Environment Agency to refurbish offices in Leeds city centre.

>> Business in ruins English Heritage is having Stone Technical Services of Darlington run condition surveys in Yorkshire to two historic mills, and preservation works at a ruin associated with the artist JMW Turner. Stone has to do structural safety work at Dob Park Lodge, the ruin of an early 17th Century building near Otley. The lodge reputedly inspired Turner and is now part of the Turner Trail tourist attraction. >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY The company is also restoring Dale End Mill in Lothersdale on the Pennine Way, home of what may be the world’s largest indoor waterwheel, dating to the 1800s. Stone’s third assignment is protection work at Turnbridge Mill, Huddersfield, also a key textiles relic.

>> Notable neighbours A search is on for firms to fill 300,000 sq ft of new space at the 1m sq ft Quorum office park on North Tyneside. It is already home to the like of IBM, Tesco Bank and Balfour Beatty. Agents Jones Lang LaSalle and Knight Frank have won a marketing instruction.

NCFE, an expanding awards body, is relocating to the Q6 building there from Citygate in Newcastle. GVA and Quorum Development Partners secured the sale for J Pitt and B Moon, fixed charge receivers of the Property. Gavin Black and Partners acted for NCFE.

>> What a whopper One of the largest recent commercial lettings in the region has been finalised - a 166,734 sq ft occupation of Stead House at Faverdale, Darlington.

Capita Business Services the national customer management outsourcing firm is taking the property home to earlier Clipper Logistics before it switched to Wynyard on Teesside.

Knight Frank, for the landlord Savers Health and Beauty, secured a 10 year lease with a break option after seven years.

>> Retail for Hexham A new retail park has been approved for the former railway goods yard at Hexham.

Its 34,757 sq ft area will include retail warehousing, office and industrial space, and more parking and disabled access at Hexham station. A former engine shed, designed by Thomas Prosser, the first full-time architect with the historic North Eastern Railway, will be refurbished too. Rokeby Developments and Network Rail are behind the development, first mooted in 2006. Terms have been agreed with Homebase, Pets At Home and Majestic Wine, one 7,500 sq ft unit remains available to let.

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>> All change at Consett Main building work on a £43m academy, swimpool and leisure complex at Consett could start in August. Carillion is tipped to be handed the £43m plans County Durham councillors have now approved. The facility at Belle Vue will replace Moorside Community Technology College and Consett Community Sports College. On the newbuild’s completion, the town’s existing leisure centre will be demolished. Consett’s football club is being relocated to a new site at Crookhall too.

Space for SMEs: At Spaceworks

The scheme includes a new town square, 45 shops, offices, a 990-bed student village, town centre underground parking, a cinema and a Tesco Extra store. The transformation has been carried out jointly by Gateshead Council and Tesco’s development arm Spenhill.

A spokesman says the council considers it a prime example of how public and private sectors can work in partnership to add value to a development. He added: “The fact it is on the site of the former town centre multi-storey car park – previously referred to as the Get Carter car park due to its starring role in that film – makes it highly visible, too.“It’s the end of a long journey for Gateshead, dating back to our redevelopment of Gateshead Quays.”

>> The Magic touch

>> Business hub grows As small businesses are increasingly identified as the key to improving the UK’s economy, North East architecture and technology business _space group encourages SMEs to use their smart office facilities to grow.

Transformation of its Spaceworks headquarters in Gosforth now enables _space group to accommodate more small businesses there. The business hub has completed renovation on one of its ground floor suites to open up further flexible office space. Flexible occupancy is offered on accommodation varying from 125 to 2,500 sq ft, suitable for one to 30 staff.

>> Carter’s cop-out Phase 1 of Gateshead ’s £150m town centre redevelopment - reckoned to be one of the biggest redevelopment projects outside London presently - opens to the public in May.

The Sunderland call centre 2Touch is considering a second site following a recruitment drive bringing the workforce up to 1,200 at Doxford Business Park.

Turnover there in three years is up from £14.4m to around £20m.

>> Howzat for retail Durham County cricket club is getting £2.8m of loan finance from the North East Local Enterprise Partnership to improve seating and step up the retail offer at its Chester-le-Street ground. It has been allotted £2.8m of funding by Durham County Council, which learned the club expects to generate £60m a year by 2016. A £10m Hilton hotel is among developments taking shape.

>> School into homes The 28 acre site where Wellesley Nautical School at Blyth once stood has been sold to housebuilder Persimmon for an undisclosed sum. Agents Knight Frank acted for the Wellesley Trust and Northumberland County Council.

ONLINE: For breaking commercial property news and other business stories and insight from the North East visit: www.bq-magazine.co.uk/north-east

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

>> The places to be

>> Spreading the pints

North Tyneside has been named as one of the best locations for business and industry in the country - and top district for inward investment, based on its environment and infrastructure - following analysis by the Local Futures Group and the Municipal Journal.

Sunderland has been named best city in the UK to do business in.

Pub chain JD Wetherspoon continues to expand in the North East with openings in converted shops at Seaham and Byker in Newcastle, as well as at a former bingo hall in Spennymoor, a site at Cramlington, and a former pub in Stockton. It is also creating three more bars in a former cinema at Blyth. And it has identified sites at Alnwick, Whickham, Billingham, Newton Aycliffe, Guisborough, Tynemouth, North Shields and Wallsend.

>> Low carbon EZ A low carbon enterprise zone beside Nissan at Sunderland is going ahead thanks to a £5.4m EU cash injection, match funding £4.8m from Sunderland City Council and a £4m loan from North East Local Enterprise Partnership’s Growing Places Fund.

>> 11,000 on a winner The 11,000 workers at the UK’s largest office park, Cobalt at North Tyneside, can now have an easy bet. Bookmaker Chisholm has opened its first business park shop there.

>> North East leads EU quest for smarter parks An EU-wide low carbon industrial manufacturing parks project (Locimap) has been launched - led and managed largely through the North East Process Industry Cluster (Nepic) to bring together leading parks and manufacturers within the union. The European funded scheme seeks closer integration in manufacturing complexes, to raise efficiency both of energy and material use, and with lower emissions. Stan Higgins, Nepic’s chief executive, says: “A park with 20 industrial units may presently have 20 steam raising boilers, 20 heating systems 20 electrical sub-stations, 20 warehouses, 20 security systems and so on.” www.nepic.co.uk.

>> Airport take-off Newcastle is the first location for a roll-out of Scandinavian brand-led Airport Fashion stores at key UK airports. Airport Retail Group’s stores already thrive in Oslo and Stockholm. They serve both executive travellers and families. Steven Fallon, a former Marks and Spencer manager and Northumbria University graduate, is business development manager at Newcastle.

>> Hotels in limbo The re-opening of the reputedly haunted Lord Crewe Arms Hotel at Blanchland, bordering Northumberland and Durham, has been deferred despite a £1m refurbishment to allow for archaeological checks of the 12thC building. Calcot Hotels of Gloucestershire and the Lord Crewe Trust plan to revive the hotel closed in December 2011 after the previous operator, J&G Inns, went into administration. The 16thC George Hotel at Piercebridge near Darlington, famous for a grandfather clock featured in a well known folk song, has been put on the market with an asking price of £1.5m.

Another picturesque hotel on the market is the Hadrian at Wall, near Hexham. Christie & Co is handling both the George and the Hadrian. A 10th anniversary revamp of £1.5m is under way on the 274 bedroom Jurys Inn on Scotswood Road, Newcastle.

>> New name, new options The site of the former Rio Tinto smelter at Lynemouth in Northumberland is being renamed Northumberland Coastal Enterprise Centre as part of a major marketing plan to draw investors.

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

MANAGED OFFICE SPACE

SPRING 13

Openings at historic home for small firms, triple chance for One Trinity Green, serviced accommodation to the rescue, park’s new retail centre officially opens, and workspace shows far reaching appeal >> Openings at historic home for small firms Currently offering managed office space on a flexible basis is Alderman Fenwick’s Business Centre on Pilgrim Street in Newcastle.

The building dates from the latter part of the 17th Century and is one of the most important heritage buildings in Newcastle, having been restored in 1997 by the Tyne & Wear Building Preservation Trust.

It offers a range of room sizes but agents Storeys Edward Symmons say they would suit a company of one to four persons, while the building can accommodate a range of meeting styles, from a seminar of up to 50, a formal meeting in the Great Room for 20 or a smaller business meeting for eight people.

Tenants can also enjoy lengthy lunches or after work gatherings in the nearby Popolo, Paradiso and Alvinos venues.

>> Triple chance for Trinity The £5.2m One Trinity Green office development in South Tyneside is in line for three top construction awards.

The site, offering managed workspace for new and growing companies, has caught the eye of the industry’s regional support and championing organisation Constructing Excellence in the North East (CENE) and is included in three of its annual award categories.

The building, on Eldon Street, South Shields, will compete in the Sustainability, Innovation and Project of the Year categories at CENE’s 2013 Awards.

The development was opened by South Tyneside Council in partnership with Groundwork South Tyneside & Newcastle.

It will go on to compete in the National Constructing Excellence Awards, held annually in autumn, should it be successful at the regional awards ceremony which takes place in mid May.

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>> Serviced accommodation to the rescue While the recent narrow escape from a triple-dip recession may have lifted the spirits slightly in the region, most occupiers remain cautious about their future.

And so, according to Knight Frank associate Patrick Matheson, the answer for many is serviced accommodation and the flexibility it offers.

He says: “The serviced office format is very attractive to a wide range of occupiers clearly including smaller companies but also bigger companies needing space to manage a specific contract for example that has a known ‘life’ or for marketing testing.

“The range of space can be from the 150 sq ft office to over 2,000sq ft depending on location.

“The advantage is a control on costs, short term commitment in terms of months rather than years and staff costs with the services of a receptionist often part of the agreement. As a result a starter business for example has the immediate benefit of a good address and a professional receptionist. Its looks the part.”

Newcastle’s office market is in good heart with very nearly a 50% leap in take-up of space for the first quarter of this year.

Behind this statistic is the fact that only three deals exceeded 4,000sq ft in the city centre in Q1 of this year. So the emphasis does appear to continue to be on smaller office suites.

>> Park’s new retail centre officially opens North Tyneside’s elected mayor Linda Arkley officially opened the new retail heart of the vast Cobalt business park.

The 26,000 sq ft Cobalt Central development on what is the UK’s biggest business park

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comprises 10,500sq ft of retail space, 13,700sq ft of serviced offices at first floor level and is also home to management and marketing suites. The retail development opened for business last November and includes six retail units, feature meeting places, electric charging points, free car parking and a landscaped environment. Mrs Arkley said “Cobalt Central is a valuable addition to the highly successful Cobalt Business Park, adding extra value to what is already on offer here for businesses looking to locate and invest in North Tyneside.” Adrian Hill, director of Highbridge – developers of Cobalt - said: “Cobalt has a workforce of 11,000 employees, that retail catchment, together with the surrounding residential areas, has proved to be highly attractive to the nation’s retailers.

“We are delighted to have secured the range and quality of retailers now successfully trading within Cobalt Central. The development is a great addition to Cobalt and adds significantly to the attractiveness of the overall development.”

>> Far reaching appeal A business incubation centre set up to support trade and drive economic growth in Northumberland is exceeding expectations. The Berwick WorkSpace business centre owned and Managed by Arch, the Northumberland development company that helps high-growth service businesses progress, is attracting interest as far afield as Europe and the south of England with businesses moving into the centre from outside the region.

Peter McIntyre, Arch Group managing director said: “We are really pleased with the continued uptake and churn at the centre with 70% occupancy.

“We have exceeded expectations for the centre which is approaching its 5th anniversary and is an integral and interactive part of the business community in Berwick.”

The incubation centre has 35 units and a 50seat conference room.

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SUCCESS STORY

SPRING 13

PASS THE £270,000 PARCEL The airport passenger leaving with a bundle worth a fortune after only a few hours in Newcastle personifies a little recognised example of a thriving new market in the North East. Andrew McCoull tells Brian Nicholls what it’s all about No-one paid attention to the Chinese gentleman with the bubble-wrapped bundle stepping gingerly through the departure lounge of Newcastle Airport.

After only a few hours in the city, he was off back to Beijing. The bundle, had anyone known it, was worth £270,000.

The wrapping contained the costliest art work sold in the North East then, an Imperial Kangxi celadon water pot (circa 1750).

It was going home to mainland China from Westerhope after an Anderson and Garland auction. This, even for a firm in its 173rd year, highlights the global revolution which television and the internet have created in valuation and auctioneering. And, with such cases, its clear to see why regional airports need connectivity.

Twenty years ago no such Newcastle-Beijing transaction would have been likely.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

How a Chinese porcelain dealer lashed out on a piece expected to fetch at most £90,000 bears retelling. Anderson and Garland's porcelain specialist, Steven Moore - "a Wallsend lad with respected expertise in ceramics and glass" - had appeared on BBC TV's Antiques Road Show. A Daily Mail journalist watching, who'd previously reported how the firm had sold a Chinese bowl for £36,000, remembered a Chinese artefact her mother had. She talked to her mother, then told Moore of her mum's "nice vase with a bit of history". Moore, visited them at Richmond, Surrey, and took the business from under the noses of big London auction houses.

The Chinese dealer, spotting it on A&G's website, flew twice to Newcastle via Amsterdam - firstly to view, then after phoning top price on auction day, to pay for and collect it personally.

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Senior partner Andrew McCoull recalls: "He was on the next plane back. We thought he'd like a box for it. No, he said, just a bit of bubble wrap." A&G's foresight had paid off again.

It was the only North Eastern party among 10 co-founders of Asia’s sole online live bidding portal www.epailive.com, working with Chinese associates who put out online catalogues to more than 100,000 registered collectors in China. Now 22 UK auctioneers participate. The risk of long distance defaulting is minimised by an independently run escrow system, which guarantees payments. Money comes to an auctioneer within 48 hours of hammer fall.

With combined annual revenues topping £200m, the 22 now form a growing attraction to distant big buyers, and increased competition overseas to the like of >>

He was on the next plane back. We thought he’d like a box for it. No, he said, just a bit of bubble wrap

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Bids invited: Andrew McCoull with a little piece that might create a wave of interest in China

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SUCCESS STORY

Most people from abroad, whether here to view or to view and buy, just want to fly

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

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Christie's and Sotheby's.

Other Chinese recent purchases from Westerhope have included a white jade pendant (18thC) £15,500, vases varying from £3,000 to £70,000, and a tea service (circa 1900). China's easing of currency restrictions at home is encouraging a repatriation of items Europeans earlier acquired there, one way or another. Face to face being also important, McCoull's managing partner and expert valuer Julian Thomson recently ran a stand at a big antiques fair in China.

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Chinese dealers and buyers are also going for some European pieces, preferring ornamental French furniture. They also buy hundreds of pounds' worth of French vintage wine at a time. But McCoull reveals: "They don't like its taste. They mix it with Coca Cola. It's all about status. They don't like losing face among neighbours and friends who've maybe paid out to offer them Chateau Lafite '79. They have to offer Chateau Lafite '78!"

Might the market one day take off for vintage Coca Cola? McCoull's been too long familiar

SPRING 13

SUCCESS STORY

Drivers of success Andrew McCoull and Julian Thomson are today’s drivers of the firm dating back to when Britain’s Penny Black became the world’s first adhesive stamp for mail. George Hedley, a removal man, and William Anderson, a timber trader with interests in Burma, formed Anderson, Son & Hedley in 1840 in Newcastle to auction, store goods and provide removals.

Trading from Pilgrim Street, they merged with another local business, Atkinson & Garland, to form Anderson and Garland Ltd in 1913.

Anderson House, one of the UK’s first purpose built auction rooms, was opened in Market Street, beside the central police station. In 1988, its 4,000sq ft of space outgrown, the firm relocated to Marlborough House near the Central Station. When the firm relocated to its present suburban premises in 2005, the name Anderson House was revived. McCoull’s father Fin previously ran the business, bringing in a partner. “My father took the business out of a backwater at the end of the War,” Andrew says. He himself, born at Corbridge in 1956 and raised at Stocksfield, didn’t enter the firm immediately he left Newcastle Cathedral School or after A-levels at Haydon Bridge Technical School.

Instead he worked on his uncle’s farm near Stamfordham, then with the Inland Revenue in Newcastle. However, after spending six months with the family firm, he found himself going, going, gone on antiques. His father felt, though, he should train formally elsewhere. At 19 he was training with King & Chasemore in West Sussex. Two years later his experience was enhanced when Sotheby’s acquired the firm and took him in. In 1981, he returned to Anderson and Garland, now a junior partner. His father retired around 2000 and his other partner, Nick Stawart, in 2007. “I thought it sensible to bring in a new partner,” McCoull explains.

Enter Julian Thomson. He’d gained work experience there after university, then worked for Bonhams in London for about five years.

“We always kept in touch,” McCoull recalls. “His parents lived at North Shields. Whenever he was up he called in. When the suitable position arose 15 years or so ago, he came back. His experience filled a void.”

Julian became McCoull’s new partner in 2007. The business became a limited company in 2010. Now the two of them hold the shares. The

with changing public taste to rule outw even facetious suggestions. Among bidders at home, A&G's team of 20 find good highvalue things sell readily as ever. He observes: "Some of the very niche collectors' items and anything quirky, unusual and rare, will generally sell very well.

“Some Victorian art and Victorian furniture is considered less fashionable now. Younger people especially want something different.

Victorian furniture tends to be dark and heavy, whereas they want lighter, more designer-type

Westerhope move is proving “fantastically successful”. Ample parking, proximity to the A1 and A69 - and a coffee room about to be revamped - make viewing days a pleasant outing before the fortnightly sales downstairs and quarterly ones upstairs, the latter accommodating the more valuable lots. Significantly for growing numbers of overseas visitors, the airport is just a short taxi ride away. “Most people from abroad, whether here to view or to view and buy depending on their time available, just want to fly,” McCoull says. “Our presence 10 minutes from the airport suits. They study the website. If something catches their eye they’ll fly in and fly out.”

Andrew and his wife Liz are settled at Barrasford in Northumberland, and he says the company doesn’t want to lose its regional roots, which provide the bulk of business. “But we certainly want to be known as a national or international player too. I think we’re succeeding,” he adds with a smile of satisfaction. The website is being updated and may soon be multilingual. And the auctioneer now, instead of upping bids with a clerk’s support wholly from within one room as before, must now interface instantly with the clerk, the room’s audience, foreign participants on a computer screen or two, and a bank of telephone bidders. McCoull explains: “Interbidders coming in on big screens are treated as if in the room.

“So you have your computer screen telling you what’s happening, internet bidders live on screen, telephone bidders and people signalling in the room. While I can’t see the bidders overseas they see me. Where items carry a reserve you must ensure in the heat of bidding that increments don’t land on the wrong side of that reserve. So you’re doing mental arithmetic on top of everything else to ensure bidding ends up where it has to be, and hopefully exceeding the reserve. Everyone must know what’s going on. Lose concentration for a second and you’re up the creek. So you’re conducting the sale, telling the guy on the screen it’s his bid in case they’ve lost concentration. I must talk to him though I can’t see him and don’t know him. Where there are several internet bidders I can only see which country they’re from by the country code coming up. Some bids are internet only, the screens changing colour from white to red as bids come in. It’s exciting for people attending. For us, however, it’s a lot more taxing than it once was.”

furniture. Many of my friends are not into antiques, but even so, like Victorian pictures and have mixed them successfully.

A 19th Century picture can actually stand out more in modern surroundings." And everywhere now globalism applies. McCoull recalls: "When I started in the 1970s what was not fashionable in one country would be in another. Now the internet has made fashions global.

“Like the Beckhams, antiques have

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become a global brand. Something suddenly popular in one country is soon in demand everywhere.Auctioneers, however, have to sell what comes in, even if we have to tell vendors sometimes their carved oak furniture isn't worth what it was earlier.

"Nothing goes to the incinerator though." ■

The £27,000 water pot

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SUCCESS STORY

SPRING 13

How the ceiling didn’t fall in under the weight of the pictures, I don’t know

It shouldn’t happen to an auctioneer Andrew McCoull’s pleased television almost daily popularises auctions now, but is dismissive of some so called experts appearing, and a front man especially who publicly and unjustly ridiculed a colleague of his. He finds disruption without recompense during filming unacceptable, as well as the excuse of “a poor day at the auction” claimed for programmes’ own bad buying. He stresses: “Here, we have well attended sales and get people, we hope, the best possible price.”

A&G specialists do appear on the Antiques Road Show, whose experts are respected and experienced. Auctioneers tell fascinating stories yet these seldom feature.

Recently in a bank, Julian Thomson spotted an old vase, green ringed from flowers it had held, during a probate valuation of a safe deposit’s contents. The vase had belonged to a Whalton, Northumberland, woman, later resident in a Morpeth care home. It was one of only four of a kind personally made by Rene Jules Lalique the famous French glass designer in the early 1920s, a period US collectors favour.

Initially valued at maybe £30,000, it eventually made £280,000 (plus 19.5% buyer’s premium) after a telephone battle between rival US bidders - a record for any 20thC art work sold at any UK auction outside London.

Once McCoull was asked to value in a Denton Burn bungalow, again for estate purposes. A few things stood out that the solicitor thought valuable. At first only a Robert Jobling painting worth thousands impressed. But, later, paintings were found down the back of a settee, under beds, in wardrobes, in the kitchen, in the greenhouse in a trunk, and in the attic.

“How the ceiling didn’t fall in under the weight of the pictures, I don’t know,” he says. And the paintings were good - “by Carmichael, Ralph Hedley, and the like, a massive collection neither hung nor seen for decades. There were 30 violins, and more than a score of fishing rods -

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

the most extraordinary collection I’ve ever seen.” A bric-a-brac shop seller had lived there. The contents sold for more than treble what the house did. A&G also sells “entire contents”. It did this in Slaley Hall’s pre-hotel days, at Elsdon Tower in north Northumberland - also on a family’s behalf some content of Chesters House at Humshaugh before its purchase and renovation by local multi-millionaire Graham Wylie, who later sold it on.

One celebrated sale it ran at Lambton Castle lasted 14 days.

But McCoull’s most bizarre experience came valuing an island off Shetland, together with the home and contents of its owner there, a Faroese trawler boss. McCoull went where Scots auctioneers had been reluctant. He was met from his flight to Dingwall by a salmon and sheep farmer, driven in a pick-up van to a boathouse, and taken across the bay to the island where a “huge baronial mansion” loomed out of the mist.

No mains electricity. Only a generator that wasn’t working. Shown his bedroom, he was then left entirely alone. He recalls: “By nightfall I’d had nothing to eat... had been offered nothing. By 8pm no-one had turned up. There was only candle power. I found some cereal and had a bowl of cornflakes.” Eventually he was rejoined at 9pm, when he and his erstwhile host feasted on salmon, home-made bread and whisky. He then did the hardest two days’ work in his life. Time was limited by scarcity of flights back. But the house, built in 1890 by a Lancashire mill owner, was choc a bloc with furniture, pictures and silver of the period.

Some anecdotes are tinged with sadness, like that of the former debutante who became reclusive as years passed until even neighbours who brought her a daily meal couldn’t persuade her to open the door of her neglected Northumbrian home. Only after the food was left outside untouched one day was the tragedy of her life and death revealed. Her wardrobe was packed with all the beautiful dresses she had worn as a society beauty - material memories of a happier time.

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SPRING 13

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

ENTREPENEUR

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

SPRING 13

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SPRING 13

ENTREPRENEUR

Sunrise on the waters

Undeterred by the 2009 recession in offshore oil and gas, Alex Dawson re-applied his expertise. He now leads the first UK firm to win a hefty renewables order in British waters, and has mainland Europe as his treasure island in view. He explains the prospect to Brian Nicholls What bigger business blow could you suffer than have a £300m contract snatched away 30% into completion? That’s the frustration and anguish Alex Dawson and his management and shopfloor teams suffered when the Sea Dragon contract in 2009 was switched suddenly from Teesside to Singapore.

Reportedly, the project had become “too risky for North East industry” - a view even government of the day subscribed to, despite the ambiguous implication that Teesside’s centuries of experience in shipbuilding, rig and platform construction no longer met up to the job!

But as Dawson details now, Sea Dragon was a recession victim. He explains: “We had 30% constructed when banks pulled the plug. We were contracted to the company Sea Dragon, which was still trying to raise funds to finish the contract. It had a massive loan from Lloyds Bank but during that period, I understand, they were supposed to be raising equity in support of that loan also.

“Again, recession hit. They couldn’t raise the equity. I think Lehmann Brothers got involved before they went pop. I think the bank simply said that in the situation it couldn’t continue to fund the debt. I’ve no inside knowledge, but I understand when KPMG got to represent Sea Dragon they’d had an offer from a Singapore company that was prepared to finish the project and only get paid at the very end. We couldn’t compete with that.”

Sea Dragon Offshore was then a new owner and operator of semi-submersible rigs. The one it wanted Teesside Alliance Group to undertake

at Haverton Hill, with a hull bought from the Sevmarsh shipyard in Russia, represented the UK’s biggest drilling rig construction project for more than a generation. Indeed, it was projected as one of the world’s largest semi-submersible rigs and a forerunner of two further.

“In the end,” says Dawson, “we had to regroup here and decide what to do. We completed the work available, settled with all our creditors and emerged in a reasonable position ready to start again.”

Now four years on, as TAG Energy Solutions, it’s a project management and construction

We don’t want the lights switched off. Here’s a great opportunity for UK energy to have its own security and be in charge of its own destiny manufacturer of bed-to-surface foundations for offshore turbines - and the first UK manufacturer to secure a really substantial renewables project in British waters. Its tubular production facility is state-of-the-art quality that could eventually earn billions.

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With its automated facility, rolling and welding the large diameter tubulars, and building solid foundations, it will now tailor to order monopiles, tripods, jackets and transition pieces – for renewables or oil and gas purposes.

On 42 acres of windswept industrial coastland where 6,000 early 20thC Teessiders once built ships, TAG is raising its workforce to 150 to turn out 16 monopiles and transition pieces for E.ON’s offshore wind farm, Humber Gateway.

TAG Energy Solutions thus has clinched the big one, helping plant 73 turbines on the £736m farm off the Humber Estuary, generating from 2015 up to 219MW of electricity - enough to power up to 170,000 homes.

Chief executive Dawson says: “We’re the first UK manufacturer with this kind of set-up in a perfect location, beside where all offshore renewable developments are taking place off the east coast of Britain. We’ve converted our idea on paper into the UK’s best facility for our kind of workload, competing now with well established companies in Europe.

“No other company in Britain has a riverside set-up like this, or a production rolling facility like this. There are other companies in the renewables market. But the nearest facility to ours is on mainland Europe.”

Are there more big opportunities then? “I really think so. The market’s extremely large right across Europe, particularly in Germany.

We haven’t been sitting around waiting for Round 3 (the UK Crown Estate’s most recent list of bidders chosen to develop up to 32GW of offshore wind farms). When you >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

ENTREPRENEUR

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No other company in Britain has a riverside set-up like this, or a rolling production facility like this. There are other companies in the renewables market. But the nearest facility to ours is on mainland Europe

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

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look at developments necessary over the next decade, the existing manufacturing capability is insufficient.”

E.ON has given TAG the opportunity to prove it’s a key British manufacturer in the European industry, where main competition in Germany, Denmark and Holland has been in renewables for many years. Could TAG break into the German market, then?

“Absolutely. German manufacturers are good.

They have a headstart. But we were the first UK company last year to deliver a product into the German market, a project for the Riffgat development. We had to achieve all the necessary German standards, particularly in welding. Our quality was very high, our delivery prompt.

“That was our proving. We’d done small contracts. Riffgat was the next step up. This year is about building and expanding on the

ENTREPRENEUR

like of Humber Gateway - a strong foundation of quality going for bigger and more valuable workloads.” So did it take courage to enter the renewables ring?

“After Sea Dragon, oil and gas business was thin in 2009. We had the option to close up or look elsewhere. I looked into renewables. I felt we could move into this.”

To get backing for a new venture took determination as steely as those titans TAG now produces.

The firm did raise £17m in the private equity market as starters, then got £1.5m from what was One North East and £1.5m grant support from the Department of Energy and Climate Change. Platina Partners, an independent European investor focused on renewable and energy infrastructure, and the Environmental Technologies Fund (ETF) committed too.

“With that early £20m we built this new

state-of-the-art rolling facility, and a new painting facility. It took all of 2010 to raise the cash. You circulate with a power-point presentation saying: ‘This is a great idea. Give me 20 million.’ It took some convincing, being the worst possible time to raise funds. We’d entered the recession by the time we had this bright idea,” he laughs as he remembers.

“But we managed. We put up new buildings, put in the equipment. Then 2012 was proving time. We did a series of small contracts leading to this major one.”

He holds Churchillian conviction about the renewables breakthrough nearing not only for TAG but for an entire North East cluster beavering between Berwick and Saltburn.

“The North East has potential to become a global hub for offshore renewables.

“It’s a unique region in geography, experience, infrastructure and technical capabilities,” >>

No keeping him away from water Outside of work, Dawson relaxes by playing guitar, a skill begun through pub-busking days with friends of his youth. He also gardens at home in Thimbleby village edging on North Yorkshire’s Moors, where he lives with his partner Carolyn, a retired teacher, and daughter Anna, 25, an actress who besides TV work looks forward to doing some touring Shakespeare this summer.

Dawson tells: “Years ago I bought an old farmhouse and converted it. I was working offshore, coming home for a couple of weeks then returning offshore and leaving my good lady in disarray over windows missing and that sort of thing. While I travelled the world Carolyn held the base. In this industry you either drag your family around with you or you maintain a base. I chose the latter.”

He also sails on the Mediterranean - can’t stay away from water!

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ENTREPRENEUR he insists. With about 80% of work on offshore wind farms in the North Sea done presently by non-UK resource, he and George Rafferty, chief executive of the sector body NOF Energy, created Energi Coast, the region’s renewables group and supply chain now led by a steering group of more than 20 firms, with Dawson chairing.

“With One North East’s demise no-one was really promoting this region and its capabilities,” he recollects.

“One reason so much on renewables was done externally was because of perceptions that no suitable infrastructure existed in the UK. LEPs and councils do a great job. But we wanted our profile up to a global level.

“Besides manufacturing, many firms do design and geology work - all sorts of things. In the North East about 6,000 people work in renewables, mainly in offshore. About £400m of private development has gone into it. So a lot’s going on.”

Of TAG he says: “For me it’s very much long term, sustainable and offering to create a new manufacturing base for the future generation.

People entering now could expect a 30 year career at least.

“For me, it replaces the oil and gas industry I remember as a young engineer.”

But the businesses will have to run on a long-term volume production basis to meet UK power needs.

“This isn’t like an oil and gas yard, where you do a job then nothing until another job comes.

We want to leave cyclical activity for something more like Nissan, producing thousand ton lumps weekly, working seven days a week, three shifts round the clock.

“That will enable the vast quantity of units needed to be delivered.”

As to bringing on the workforce of tomorrow, TAG has five apprentices already, and has taken on two qualified engineers in their late 20s. “What’s interesting,” he observes, “is that this is engineering, heavy steel and all, but because it’s renewables with a green and environmentally friendly label, it becomes more than just engineering.”

“Young people who might have avoided oil and gas thinking it a dirty non-environmental old industry will come into this industry. We’re gaining interest, which is good.”

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TAG also works presently with Principle Power (Europe) and the Department of Energy and Climate Change to develop innovative floating support structures for offshore turbines, tantamount to mini sub-submersibles, to work in depths of up to 60m compared to the 30m of a monopile.

Proving its ongoing prowess in carbons, TAG recently completed an initial offshore foundation piles contract for Saipem, to support a jacket construction in Elgin B Oil & Gas field. This involved structures 100m long, justifying the retention on site of one of the UK’s longest remaining construction halls at 174m.

While the past year hasn’t boomed for offshore renewables - “projects haven’t failed to materialise but still face hurdles, particularly in finance” - Dawson suspects 2014 and 15 will be key years, with a good 50 years’ work after, including operation and maintenance.

“There’s traction already,” he suggests, “in the Government’s proposal now to have 50% of UK developments made at home. That will encourage investors towards something far from old fashioned steel bashing.”

The strong commitment needed from government, in terms of targets in carbon reduction and the like, is approaching as the Energy Bill nears adoption. “Then the industry will know where it’s going. There’ll be more market confidence projects come forward,” Dawson predicts.

He’s certain too: the UK’s future energy provision will be a balanced mix, with fossil fuels, renewables and nuclear. “We don’t want the lights switched off. Here’s a great opportunity for UK energy to have its own security and be in charge of its own destiny.”

Oh, and whereas it will take up to 20 years for a new nuclear plant to produce, wind structures can produce within 12 months. ■

Here, there and everywhere Alex Dawson, 61, has 30 years plus experience across a broad spectrum of the international offshore energy industry. He began as a trainee engineer in 1968. Darlington born, he started with local firm Whessoe whose origins date to 1790 (and which has just been sold to Samsung amid talk of a workforce tripling to 180 within five years in its manufacture of energy storage tanks).

Dawson’s five year apprenticeship led to the oil and gas business in 1972. He became a field construction engineer, entered project management then in 1976 went offshore in Southern Ireland building, installing and commissioning a gas rig. Globetrotting followed: Brazil, Korea, Singapore and South Africa in diverse roles.

In the mid 80s he became managing director of Redpath Offshore and Cleveland Offshore on the Tees, and later director of several companies, including Kvaerner’s gas division. After oil and gas markets declined around the millennium he entered consultancy, doing expert witness work and other activities, and spending two years with the Ministry of Defence as programme director, bringing the aircraft carrier Reliance project to fruition for construction.

In 2006 he and David Eason, whom he’d known many years, set up TAG with Sea Dragon in view. In 2009 they diversified into renewables. Dawson now works with a new chairman, Mike Foster, an experienced engineering professional who was chief executive of FTSE 250 firm Charter International from 2006 until 2011.

Eason has stepped down to pursue other interests, but remains a shareholder and, of course, founder. “It was always part of David’s strategy to be in for 18 months then, as it progressed, he had other things he wanted to move into,” Dawson explains. “Now Mike’s wealth of operational and board-level experience will be a huge asset.”

Besides chairing listed companies in India and South Africa, Foster, a Cambridge University graduate in engineering and electrical sciences, is also a qualified lawyer. He has worked with GKN, Trafalgar House and Kvaerner. Dawson continues to run both the renewables and the oil and gas activities.

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

BUSINESS BREAKFAST

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SPRING 13

Kevin Kerrigan is a man of many identities, from scribe and human rights crusader to teacher and corporate boss. But, as Andrew Mernin discovers, his most prominent role is in driving one of the region’s biggest business and law faculties into new pastures

BUSINESS BREAKFAST

A NEW SCHooL oF THoUGHT A raid on a Post office van in 1990 started a chain of events that not only threatened to ruin an innocent man’s life, but also delivered unshakable proof in the power of young minds working together.

“I owe everything to a group of students who believed in me when others didn’t,” said Alex Allan, a Tyneside shipyard welder after his conviction for robbery was finally quashed, but only after serving six years of an eight year sentence.

The eight students he passionately thanked, who later helped him win a £170,000 government compensation payout, were from Northumbria University’s groundbreaking Student Law office, headed up at the time by course tutor Kevin Kerrigan.

“It was the first time a group of students had ever done anything like it,” recalls Kerrigan over a plate of pancakes, syrup and eggs at Newcastle’s Sandman Signature hotel.

“What they did, which was amazing, is reconstruct the case from start to finish and found things that all the lawyers involved in the case had missed, and some really major errors on the part of the police.”

Today Kerrigan serves as executive dean for Northumbria University’s faculty of business and law – his role having been expanded to incorporate business last September following restructuring at the university. But he remains an active force at the law clinic, which employs 20 people, involves 170 students each year and has won a clutch of industry awards and accolades. other landmark cases for the clinic, that offers free advice to anyone in the North East who

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needs it, include the challenging of imbalances that previously existed between widow’s and widower’s benefits.

“We took on the case of a widower who couldn’t get access to benefits that widows receive. This was clearly sexually discriminatory on the part of the UK government and we helped to clarify that law so you now have equality in terms of widows and widowers.”

The satisfaction of taking on such breaches of human rights is perhaps what has kept Kerrigan involved in the law clinic and in continuing to teach law to students despite his now lofty position.

But the law which underpins some of this type of work, the UK human rights act, is currently drawing fire from all angles.

Home secretary Theresa May proposed recently to scrap the act and even go further by pulling the nation out of European obligations on rights altogether.

In the meantime, cases of disgruntled armed robbers and burglars crying foul for impingements of their rights have become common fare in regional newsprint, turning the volume up on the act’s vocal opposition.

But Kerrigan, who offers pro-bono human rights consultancy services on behalf of former employer David Gray Solicitors in Newcastle, is a staunch defender of the act.

“The Government says the human rights act doesn’t work but in my view it does. It’s been a major step forward and means that people don’t have to wait up to seven years to get their case in court in Strasbourg.

“The act has enabled our judges to contribute extensively to the development of >>

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BUSINESS BREAKFAST human rights law. If you take the act away then our judges are deprived of the opportunity of having that influence on the way the European human rights law develops.

I think it’s been used as a political football because it’s been associated with Europe in some way.

“I think it would be a big mistake to pull out of the human rights act and I don’t think, if they look at it seriously, they will see much benefit of doing so.”

When he’s not crusading under the human rights flag, Kerrigan has much to contend with in his day job at the university. And, under his watch, Newcastle Business School in particular has big plans for the coming months; this as Kerrigan still adjusts to his new role that now encompasses business as well as law.

“The big challenge has been coming to terms with the different needs of our students from the business side, compared to the law side.

But also spotting the opportunities that there are to do more as a unit than we were able to do separately.

“Top of my remit is, from a student experience perspective, to encourage learning by doing and getting students engaging with the world

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of professionals.” Kerrigan has wasted no time in attempting to emulate the success of Northumbria’s globally renowned law clinic in the business world.

Plans driven by him will see the launch of a business clinic staffed by business school students and offering free advice and support to the public.

“We’ll have a clinic where the students will, under the supervision of our professional members of staff, offer free branding, marketing, business development and strategy development advice to start up enterprises, charities and not-for-profits.

“We’re taking the experience we’ve developed in law and bringing it into the business school.

It’s the leading law clinic in the country and one of the leading ones in the world, and that would be my vision for the business clinic.”

A pilot of the business clinic will be carried out in September, with a view to fully rolling it out next year.

Also in the university’s pipeline is a revitalised MBA programme, with a new director of MBA programmes soon to be appointed.

And there is also the creation of a school for entrepreneurs on Tyneside. Northumbria has

I think it would be a big mistake to pull out of the Human Rights Act...It’s been used as a political football because it’s associated with Europe in some way

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taken up two floors of Gateshead’s Northern Design Centre (NDC), part of which will form the centre point of its new entrepreneurship degree to be launched in September.

Second and third year students on the course will be provided with a small amount of seed funding to set up and run their own businesses at the NDC, with the university owning a stake in their enterprises.

The course aims to harness the expertise of regional entrepreneurs and business leaders, and students will be encouraged to learn from their mistakes as they get their businesses off the ground.

Should they still be in business by the end of the course, decisions will be taken to sell the businesses or – perhaps most beneficially for the region’s economy – to buy the university’s share and grow them into fully fledged success stories.

“The traditional approach towards business education is that the professor tells the students how to run business organisations.

This will be radical and is based on an approach that’s been successful in Finland for many years.”

In Finland, Kerrigan says, 49% of students on entrepreneurship programmes go on to set up businesses after they leave university, compared to just 4% in the UK. Northumbria is part of a consortium of three UK universities which is bringing the Nordic concept of entrepreneurial degrees to these shores alongside the University of the West of England (Bristol) and the University of Westminster.

The university will provide funding to students on the course – understood to be around the £5,000 mark to cover costs like stock, transport and logistical services.

“You can’t teach the passion and drive needed to be a successful entrepreneur, but you can teach how to hone that passion and drive and how to develop the knowledge and expertise you need to make the right strategic decisions and avoid some of the pitfalls,” says Kerrigan.

“You can’t teach how to successfully run a business. Somebody needs to do it and the traditional approach is to teach theory to students at university before they leave and then learn through practice. That is an old fashioned model.

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“This course will enable students to develop their skills and make mistakes, but in a protected environment that allows them to learn from their mistakes so when they go out into the real world, they will be much more effective as business people.”

Aside from its office take up in the NDC, the school’s footprint south of the Tyne is growing in other ways too.

Ways, in fact, which could threaten culture clashes among the stalls, aisles and bus stops of Gateshead’s shopping heartland.

“It’ll be a shock to the system – for students and the good people of Gateshead,” Kerrigan says of the 1,000 new student digs which his university is currently painting into the skyline near the former ‘Get Carter’ car park site.

“Imagine students turning the wrong way on Gateshead High Street and ending up in Curley’s Bar,” he says with clear affection

BUSINESS BREAKFAST

for the rougher edges of the town the Yorkshireman has called home for the last 12 years. The influx of students will undoubtedly provide a much needed economic lift to a high street, which in the depths of the consumer spending slump in 2009 was found

by Experian to have almost 60% of its retail premises standing empty.

But of course bodies are needed to fill the hundreds of new student beds being created in the region by Kerrigan’s organisation.

Despite the speculated impact of rising costs on the appetite of UK school leavers to go into higher education, Kerrigan says applications for business and law places at Northumbria are up 10% this year.

“There’s been no drop off in demand at all [as a result of rising fees].

“In fact, we’ve seen a rise and I think students are thinking much more about their future

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career when applying for university. When they are considering which course to do, they are questioning whether they should do something that might develop them as a person but not necessarily help them get a specific type of job.”

As well as more career conscious UK undergraduates, individuals from all over the world continue to flock to study in the UK and the chase for international students is fierce.

Kerrigan says there are currently around 111,000 students in the North East, of which 19,000 (or approximately 17%) are from overseas.

Although their annual influx to these shores adds wealth to public and private regional coffers, Kerrigan says their true value is being missed because of a governmental oversight.

“International students are a huge >>

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BUSINESS BREAKFAST benefit to this region but, after studying here for three or four years, they’re not allowed to set up businesses because the Government has stopped the post-study work visa.

“So on a national scale, students from India actually fell for the first time this year and that was a direct consequence of the demise of the post-study visa.

“Prior to the changes, you could stay for a further two years after you graduated.

“The UK higher education sector is with one voice on this and believes that it’s really important that it is re-introduced, giving graduates the opportunity to contribute to the economy and bring those ideas that we’ve helped to develop, into the market place before they return to their home country.”

Increasingly, students abroad are taking UK university-affiliated courses in their homeland.

Significant areas of growth in recent years for Newcastle Business School include China, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka.

“I spend much more time jetting around the world than I used to. Since September I’ve been to Moscow, Hong Kong, Sri Lanka, Texas, the Czech Republic and I’m going to Grenada and Indonesia later this term,” Kerrigan says.

“When I was in Sri Lanka we were talking not just to universities there but also to HSBC about running leadership programmes for their management staff.

“So we’re not just looking at research opportunities and student exchanges but also corporate work as well.

“Increasingly students can remain in their home country and be taught by a mixture

I really enjoy getting under the skin of law and education and thinking about new ideas

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of e-learning and from our staff who we fly out to teach, as well as our local support partners.”

Back at its Newcastle HQ, the business school will be taking on 30 new employees this academic year, as it rolls out its expansion plans. Kerrigan, the man driving the plans at the helm of the school is a prolific scribe of

legal text books, papers and journals too, and still finds time to squeeze in a day a week of research. “I really enjoy getting under the skin of the law and education and thinking about new ideas.

“And when I have new ideas I want the world to know about them. I also want students to learn from my experiences,” he adds. n

Sandman delivers a feast fit for a mountie Where once a Geordie giant stood, it is now a Canadian empire that has its flag firmly planted in the ground.

The Sandman Signature hotel, which comes close to matching, in height, the towering glass and steel of neighbouring St James’ Park, occupies the former office HQ of Newcastle Breweries. our interview takes place on the ground floor - maybe where brown ale execs would have thrashed out deals taking ‘the dog’ into its next global territory.

Kevin and I have been ushered into our own private dining room; a secluded and plush affair with ample room for many more than just the two of us.

But this is not a priviledge that’s been set up just for our benefit. The Canadian hotelier now hires out meeting and function room facilities for all occasions and our room would certainly make for a well situated and suitably classy backdrop for a small to medium corporate gathering.

As it’s only 11am, we’re served up a substantial ‘Canadian brunch’.

The main event is a huge plate stacked with pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs and syrup.

We both admit that the novelty of the sweet and salty combination caused by the syrup and butter is a delicious alternative to the traditional British fare of brown and red sauce that usually accompanies cooked breakfasts.

Perhaps stereotypically of one so active in the field of protecting the rights of individuals, Kerrigan declines his bacon telling me he doesn’t eat meat.

But even without it, the pancakes, eggs and fresh coffee are a hearty enough start to the day even for the busiest of business leaders.

A plate of smoked salmon and a selection of cheeses also appears on our table, making this a breakfast certain to keep us both going right through until teatime - at least.

For more information visit www.sandmansignature.co.uk.

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THOMPSON ON WINE

SPRING 13

a pardon for pinot

Victoria Thompson, head of communications at the North East Business and Innovation Centre, toasts the end of her old wine prejudices I would like to begin this piece with a confession...I am a Chardonnay fan and I firmly believe people miss out by classing all Chardonnays the same, however before I get too pious I have to admit to having my own nemesis; Pinot Grigio.

Hypocritical I know but I can’t even hear the name without conjuring up images of Terry Wogan presenting the Radio 2 Breakfast Show making jokes about the middle classes and their penchant for Pinot Grigio.

I loved the programme but I have never been able to get on board with the wine so my heart did sink a little when I was presented with the Masi Masianco Pinot Grigio & Verduzzo 2012.

I was however slightly comforted by the fact that it was a blend of Pinot Grigio & Verduzzo and as recompense for the numerous occasions I have turned my nose up I asked my friend and my cousin, both of whom are whole hearted advocates, to join me for the tasting.

Patience has ever been a virtue of mine and I eagerly opened the bottle straight from the fridge.

But whilst that first sip did instantly highlight the crisp citrus flavours, the recommended serving temperature is 8 – 10 degrees so rather than drink on we left it a while to come up to temperature whilst I finished off the marinated chicken skewers I had made to accompany it.

This was definitely the right choice as those few degrees made a world of difference.

The balance of the spices in the food and crispness of the Pinot Grigio & Verduzzo really did make for a winning combination.

My guests also felt that the Verduzzo (which my cousin assured me is often associated with dessert wines) gave the wine an edge they hadn’t tasted before and very much enjoyed

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its smooth yet fruity flavour.

So far so good and as our meal progressed we moved onto our second wine, a Claudius Morand Fleurie 2010.

I needed no encouragement to try this one as I am a true advocate of old world red wines.

I really enjoy meaty reds whose flavours come to the fore when served with hearty casseroles but this elegant Beaujolais was a great match to the salads I’d prepared.

The description on the label says ‘Fleurie is often regarded as the Queen of Beaujolais, our Fleurie is characterised by fine and elegant red fruit notes, accompanied by floral aromas and violet.’

Light and fruity, this wine is very moreish and an absolute pleasure to drink.

Unfortunately our untrained noses couldn’t pick up on the violet but the red fruit and floral scents certainly did come through and there is no disputing that this wine deserves its crown.

Both wines are ideal for spring evenings but for me the biggest surprise was just how much I liked the Masi Masianco Pinot Grigio & Verduzzo 2012 (and it has certainly encouraged me to put my own wine prejudice to one side). It is a light, refreshing wine and at £10 - £12 per bottle I really do think it is one that works equally well with food or served as an aperitif as a refreshing change to fizz. So as the weather changes I would recommend you take the opportunity to try this little burst of sunshine - it is guaranteed to make you smile. n The wines Victoria tasted were Fleurie Morand £12.49 and Masi Masianco.

Wine supplied by Majestic Wine Warehouse, Gosforth.

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Fleurie Morand Fleurie is sometimes referred to as the ‘Queen of Beaujolais’, and is known for producing some of the region’s most intensely flavoured and aromatic wines. Claudius Morand’s vines are trained in the traditional ‘gobelet’ style and average 50 years of age. An inviting bouquet of roses and violets, mingling with raspberry and peach. Plump and mouth-filling, with a hint of fruit sweetness on the palate, supported by fine, smooth tannin.

Grape: Gamay Drink with: Rack of lamb, roasted with herbs.

Masi Masianco Masi have come to be at the forefront of winemaking around Verona, creating attractive modern wines from the region’s traditional grapes. Here, Pinot Grigio has been blended with 25% Verduzzo, which has been barrelaged for three months, to create a unique white. A bright and inviting golden colour, this wine is alive with notes of peach, apricot, pear and pineapple. A lush, generous palate offering good ripeness and a dry, citrussy finish.

Grapes: Pinot Grigio & Verduzzo Drink with: Seafood linguine

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MOTORING

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CHARGED UP AND READY To Go

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SPRING 13

Dr Colin Herron steps out from the engine room of the region’s low carbon vehicles sector to test drive the car that promises to bring electrically charged driving to the masses – the Wearside-made Nissan Leaf Having worked in the automotive industry for over 40 years, i find, cars have become more work than play for me, and I would certainly not class myself as an expert car reviewer.

However, as managing director of Zero Carbon Futures, I’m heavily involved in training, research and development around low carbon vehicles and proud to be working in an industry which is witnessing massive changes to the way people think about driving.

We’re slowly seeing a shift from the reliance on internal combustion engines to electric driving so it was with great excitement that I was asked to test drive and review the world’s first mass-produced electric vehicle.

In terms of appearance, the car certainly catches the eye, especially when charging up.

A common first impression among people passing is just how much bigger the car is than they previously thought.

But after all, it is a five door, family hatchback.

The smart interior is just as you would expect from a vehicle billed as the car of the future.

It is extremely well equipped and the rear view camera is better than I’ve seen in any other vehicle.

The futuristic display is accompanied by an

excellent sat nav which even shows drivers where their nearest charge point is.

I put this to the test when driving through Newcastle city centre and it passed with flying colours.

No car of the future would be complete without an array of toys and gadgets, and the Leaf didn’t disappoint. one of the most exciting things for me was the ability to control the car with my smart phone. The Leaf is supported by an app which enables the driver to control things like the start and stop of the charge and to even turn the heating on and off.

I also had an alarm on my phone that reminded me to put the heater on ten minutes before I left the house in the morning –

MOTORING

no more scraping windscreens on winter mornings for Leaf drivers. ok, now for the important question; how does it drive?

The battery pack’s position directly under the car seems to bring down its centre of gravity, giving it exceptional road holding for this class of car. It was absolutely smooth and silent which somehow felt like I was driving a much bigger car. It was also incredibly fast in acceleration and I believe (although not tested) that it can do a top speed of 90mph. of course, the car’s biggest selling point is its non-fuel dependency and one of the best things about the test drive was not having to visit a petrol station.

In actual fact it gave me a real kick driving past petrol stations knowing that I’d been out and about – including a trip up to Northumberland – without having to pay for petrol costs.

The average cost for a 90 mile charge is around £3.00 and, with over 550 public charge points in the region, charging is as easy as it can be. Just plug in and go.

But for me one of the most interesting things about electric vehicles is the link with >>

It gave me a real kick driving past petrol stations knowing that I’d been out and about without having to pay for petrol costs

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MOTORING

SPRING 13

What Bob says...

renewable technologies. If you’re someone who has solar panels on your roof then the Leaf could be a viable green alternative to getting around – imagine generating your own electricity and then using that to make your daily journeys?

That said, I will be careful to say that electric driving isn’t for everyone just yet.

The Leaf has a top range of 109 miles and for some at the moment that is a major limitation.

If you drive regular long journeys then the car

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

is obviously not for you.

However given that the average commute is less than 25 miles a day, it clearly can work for some people. If you’re a low mileage driver, the Leaf can pay off. n The car Dr Colin Herron drove was priced from £23,495 otr and was supplied by Benfield Nissan/Renault Business Centre, Stoneygate Close, Gateshead, NE10 0AZ Tel: +44 (0191) 495 4444

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The Nissan Leaf was introduced in 2010, and has since become the biggest selling electric car ever. Over 50,000 cars have been sold worldwide, with the biggest market being America and Japan. The Leaf has gone on to win a raft of awards from the Car of the Year to the prestigious World car of the Year. Prior to driving the Leaf, my image of electric vehicles has always been either mobility scooters or milk floats. When you start the car you hear some chimes to let you know the car has started, however the car is eerily quiet. At low speeds the car is silent and Nissan has fitted a warning sound which works at low speed to alert pedestrians.

From standstill to 50mph the car has head jerking performance. Each car has 192 cells that are located underneath the seats and the rear foot space, giving it a low centre of gravity and increasing the structural rigidity of the car. When designing the Leaf, Nissan gave the car quite a quirky hatchback look rather than going all out with a futuristic shape. The cars headlights redirect airflow away from the wing mirrors to cut down wind noise, and they have LED headlights fitted to consume less energy than halogen lights. The car’s trump card is that it has amazing economy and low running costs.

Charging the car at off peak rates would cost 1.75p per mile and the car would have a combined economy of 99mpg. There are two ways of charging the car; the first option is a fast charge which gives the car an 80% charge in 30 minutes, and the second option is to use the standard charge which takes eight hours to fully charge the car. The Leaf is an amazing car and drivers doing less than 70 miles per day should seriously consider buying one.

Bob Arora is an independent car reviewer and also owns Sachins restaurant on Forth Banks, Newcastle. kulmeeta@hotmail.com

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EQUIPMENT

VOYAGE OF REDISCOVERY

New thinking around ancient technology has seen sails making a welcome return to prominence in the seafaring market “Raise your sail one foot, and you get ten feet of wind”, as an old Chinese proverb has it. What might be more remarkable today, in the era of the mega-yacht, is that anyone anymore raises sail at all, aside from on learner dinghies.

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The motorised vessel has, on first sight, so overtaken demand for sails in the luxury market - despite luxury brands’ association with major events the likes of the America’s Cup, the Tall Ships’ Race and even Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez - that the sail might

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seem anachronistic.

True sailors, of course, know that it is precisely the quality of being an ancient technology that makes mastering a sailed yacht to best utilise available wind that is at the heart of sailing’s pleasure. >>

EQUIPMENT

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EQUIPMENT While one part of the luxury yacht world may look to yesteryear for inspiration, another is decidedly steering towards tomorrow’s

Indeed, even at the very top of the market, some kind of battle is at hand between classic sail boats and their proposed equivalents of tomorrow.

Take, for example, the renaissance of the J-Class yacht.

The J-Class belonged to an era of the wealthy gentleman adventurer, and were sailed by the likes of Harold Vanderbilt, whose surname speaks for itself, and Sir Thomas Lipton, then owner of the grocery chain and the Lipton Tea brand. In fact, it was Lipton who had the first J-Class commissioned to race in the America’s Cup. It was a revolutionary design: long, with a waterline of between around 23 and 27m (the size of a yacht being ascribed a letter of the alphabet), sleek, agile and aqua-dynamic being almost triangular in profile - and with impressive speed, thanks to a mast that allowed the carrying of huge sails, one at a gargantuan 18,000sq ft.

Up until the end of the 1930s only 10 J-Class vessels were ever built but by then it had arguably come to define the look and lines of the definitive classic yacht in the public imagination, one that has held right up to modern times.

Certainly the class still evokes that romance, which may be why Hanuman, a modern

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recreation of the J-Class, built by the Royal Huisman shipyard complete with a period interior and currently for sale, is garnering so many interested parties.

Or why Spirit Yachts has this year announced an historic collaboration with Sparkman & Stephens yacht-builders to build a new J-Class.

But then perhaps it is no wonder at all: a decade ago boatbuilders put the J-Class’ dimensions through aqua-dynamic computer analysis and found that the balance of the design could hardly be improved on. But could the sails themselves?

While one part of the luxury yacht world may look to yesteryear for inspiration, another is decidedly steering towards tomorrow’s - in no part driven by the ecological and financial benefits afforded by new sail or hybrid power technology. Huisman, for example, also has for sale the Athena - inspired by the J-Class style yachts of the 1930s, but made entirely of aluminium, making it extremely light.

It is, in fact, the largest all aluminium sail yacht ever built.

Of course, as with the floating palaces beloved of Russian oligarchs, in sailing yachts size increasingly matters too. Lila-Lou, a Londonbased yacht-brokers, is building the Ankida, at 73m long, while Sparkman & Stephens is building a 75m Bermuda-rigged schooner - to

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put that in perspective, both yachts will on completion be bigger than Nelson’s HMS Victory (and these are minnows against proposed motor yachts concepts the likes of that from Donald Starkey or Emocean’s 200m Project 1000).

And certainly one key trend in big sailing yachts now are designs that reconfigure the interior to make more space.

In fact, UltraLuxum’s CXL concept somehow makes room for an on-board garage, ostensibly built to house a McLaren supercar.

But such concerns are secondary to J-Class levels of style, with the advantages of science too. Enter the likes of Igor Lobanov’s Phoenicia sailing yacht concept, with, for example, a hi-tech version of a bow design dating to the Greek triremes of 2000 years ago.

Or the Maltese Falcon, at 88m long currently the world’s second largest sailing yacht, built for venture capitalist Tom Perkins and, again, while looking to be a classic schooner, operating three hollow masts that rotate to unfurl a huge 2,400sqm of sail that can be extended out along the yard.

Indeed, it is precisely because even the very rich want to save on fuel that sails could prove the future of yachting rather than consigned to its past.

Or, at least, sails of a kind. Christoph >>

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EQUIPMENT As with the floating palaces beloved of Russian oligarchs, in sailing yachts, size increasingly matters

Behling’s SolarLab Research Company has proven the efficacy of solar-powered craft through the 40 passenger, solar-energy powered boat it designed for London’s Serpentine in 2006, then with another - the world’s largest solar-powered boat - for Hamburg, and, most recently, in a ferry for Hong Kong harbour. In 2009 Behling received a private commission from a client in Dubai to build a solar-powered yacht, complete with a solar-powered desalination unit.

And 2010 saw the launch of the Turanor PlanetSolar catamaran, the world’s largest solar-powered boat to date, using so-called solar sails. These, as they suggest, use their

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huge surface area to collect solar energy for conversion into electricity to power engines.

Sauter Carbon Offset Design’s Emax E-Volution schooner takes the idea a step further, being a solar hybrid model, able to run on solar power (which, though panels embedded in the hull,

also powers all the of yacht’s amenities, from refrigeration to jacuzzis), diesel or wind-power. Of course, such super-sails come at a price. Lipton’s first J-Class yacht cost him US$1m. The E-Volution will cost you US$40m. n

It is precisely because even the very rich want to save on fuel that sails could prove the future of yachting

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FASHION

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FASHION

HIGH FASHION ON THE HIGH SEAS The once disparate worlds of luxury fashion and yachting are becoming increasingly intertwined, writes Josh Sims

When Monaco-based yacht-builders Wally launched its acclaimed triangular hull concept, proposing something akin to a floating apartment, its partner in the project was no mistake. Wally’s co-creator was French fashion brand Hermes. Certainly, if high fashion and yachting used to go together like oil and water, now private commissions and sponsorship deals have seen the likes of Giorgio Armani devise yacht interiors, Louis Vuitton launch the Louis Vuitton Trophy and, more recently, the Trophy Auckland regatta, and Prada pour money into its own America’s Cup racing team.

Small wonder then that such brands have followed with a new breed of style-driven sailing clothing: Prada’s Luna Rossa line named after the yacht and including replicas of the sailing team’s clothes - alone has annual sales of over 20m. Puma has now set sail for the first time, Italian luxury textiles company Loro Piana has launched its Regatta clothing collection and Porsche Design its Marina Collection, its first specialist sailing clothing line, developed in conjunction with three-times Olympic gold medal sailor Jochen Schuemann.

“Sailing has become much more a topic of media and public interest than it was, say, a decade ago,” says its CEO Juergen Gessler, “and that is driving demand for stylish, new products. And while boat-shoes have long been a fashion must-have, of course, you >>

Sailing has become much more a topic of media and public interest than it was a decade ago

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FASHION

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FASHION

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can see other types of sailing clothes increasingly making the transition to being worn casually too.” Indeed, the interest of fashion brands in the sport, as well as that of a younger consumer, is now also prompting a reassessment of the place of style among the marine clothing brands who have traditionally placed functionality well to the fore - with issues of weight, waterproofing, articulation, corrosion, layering and storage all deemed priority. Visitors to such famed sailing events as the Round the Island Race on the Isle of Wight this June, or the Tall Ships Race in St. Malo and Lisbon in July or Les Voiles de Saint-Tropez in September might expect a more stylish line-up from the sea-dogs.

Boat shoe companies are already deep into the style market: Sperry Top-Sider has launched its new lifestyle stores in the US, while competitor Sebago has created a limited-distribution fashion line. But now Gill Clothing, for example, the official technical clothing sponsor for Cowes Week, has also created its Race Collection, a co-ordinated 12-piece range aimed at providing the teams in match races - the F1 of yachting - with a distinctive look: in an unusual silver-grey with hi-vis colour flashes. “Fashion brands might develop a capsule line for what is now a highlyaspirational sport before moving onto something else, while marine brands have to be careful not to dilute their perception in the rather insular marine market. But there is no question that that market is developing an appreciation that a technical garment should look as good as it possibly can,” says Matt Gill, Gill’s product development manager.

“Now consumers don’t just want red, yellow or navy, for example. Up until just a few years ago you would never see black. It might be low-visibility in the water but it looks good and has seen real demand.”

Nor is Gill Clothing alone in pursuing the likes of Hugo Boss and Tommy Hilfiger in bringing such fashion names’ more pleasing aesthetics to their specialised clothing.

Norwegian brand Helly Hansen has sought to blur the fashion/function boundary with its new Ask advanced sportswear line “because there’s a readiness to buy new sailing kit in line with changes in fashion >>

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FASHION Newbies typically wore either inappropriate clothing or the unnecessarily hi-tech

now,” suggests its watersports manager Tor Jenssen. “People used to buy new every decade. Now it can be very other year.”

Application of the latest manufacturing technology - in which the marine brands are ahead - has resulted in attractive but utilitarian detailing too.

Henri Lloyd has teamed up with Japanese fabric and chemical manufacturer Teijin to launch Blue Eco, sailing’s first fully recyclable, waterproof/breathable collection.

“We’re aware that the same people who sail

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often ski or climb and are influenced by the style of those sports too, and as the market gets more competitive bringing aesthetics to the technology is what’s giving an edge,” argues David O’Mahoney, Henri Lloyd’s technical design manager. “Now it’s about using that technology to create more stripped-back, streamlined style which is its own look. Ugly garments won’t cut it on the water anymore.”

But when kitting yourself out for sailing, be cautious not to go overboard either. After all,

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one conclusion of a study paper in consumer research entitled ‘The Consumption of Clothing in the Sailing Community’ by the Universities of Strathclyde and Stirling, was that the close-knit subculture of the sailing world was quick to identify and dismiss neophytes by their style.

Newbies typically wore either inappropriate clothing or the unnecessarily hi-tech. ‘True’ yachtsmen and women, on the other hand, expressed their experience by simply donning the rather careworn and mis-matched. n

Northumberland Street, Newcastle upon Tyne

ENTREPRENEUR When Norman Peterson was construction director for an American cable company, he had to supervise the digging-up of Leeds pavements to lay 3,600km of underground network for the internet in less than four years. "Imagine the logistics," he reflects on his 1994 task for Bell Canada. "Like a military operation. One of my jobs was to meet interest groups to detail what we were doing and why, standing up in a packed church hall perhaps and explaining the internet to maybe 100 people.

"They'd say: 'We don't want the internet.

We're happy with our telephone from BT.' I explained how they'd be able to shop online, plan holidays and all that. They'd reply: 'We don't want to do that.'

"I'd dearly love to ask them now what the internet has done for them. It has done so much, it's one of the wonders of the world. In future history, it'll be seen as one of humanity's main events. It's transformational...and constructive. There are one or two negatives.

But it won't go away. So we can do everything streamlined, using technology to connect people." Right now, significantly for Norman, brother Craig and anyone anxiously seeking funds to grow a business, or struggling to buy

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a house, the internet looks like a friend indeed.

In the US, crowdfunding has been triggered on the internet by legislation that's stepping up job creation and economic growth through better access to public capital markets for emerging growth companies. Centred previously on New York, crowdfunding is now globally mainstream via the first Silicon Valley crowdfunding conference. Independent monitors of subsequent web traffic describe the interest as exploding at a rate rivalling anything before.

In the UK, where Business Secretary Vince Cable sees it as "a very important new initiative", platforms such as Crowdcube and Seedrs have already been officially accredited by regulatory authorities. Global business consultant Deloitte predicts that crowdfunding portals - putting people with money in touch with people who need money to accelerate business - will raise £1.9bn this year, more than double the 2011 total. Nesta, the UK's innovation foundation, believes within five years crowdfunding could provide up to £15bn of finance a year in the UK alone.

It even suggests it may eventually capture a hefty slice of the £115bn financial services cake. So in Newton Aycliffe the Petersons are

combining personal expertise, intensively honed over two years, with a crowdfunding launch enabling their company Carlton & Co to collate gap funding for growth-hungry firms - as well as for housebuilding and public sector projects.

It's an electronic leap for the award-winning firm started in 2000 simply to regenerate housing and commercial property, and which has also emerged since as a one-stop facilitator for young and growing businesses. Its crowdfunding will go along two avenues - one for straightforward financing, the other for growth funding.

About growth funding, they explain: "Bank lending for large capital projects such as housing, commercial property and infrastructure projects is scarce. But funding solutions are available if we think differently, and consider alternative sources of private sector finance to match the reduced levels of public sector funding now available."

They've more than 50 years' experience between them in commercial and residential property and infrastructure, and 13 awards in five years affirming their competence. They also run a successful workspace hub on Aycliffe Business Park for a score of small >>

Norman and Craig Peterson see their entry to crowdfunding as helpful in gap-funding promising firms, and providing some means for housing associations to tackle the national homes shortage. They tell Brian Nicholls how

Money? Yes, there's money BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

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ENTREPRENEUR

businesses, where they not only represent the developers Gladman Group in an agency role, but are also strategic advisers, funding partners and development specialists in support of the tenants.

Before Carlin & Co, Norman had enjoyed building homes for his family. Craig was regional production director at Bryant Homes.

Craig suggested they should themselves design and build quality homes for sale. While they couldn't compete against volume players, for eight years they built distinctive upmarket homes, their awards including best luxury home, best small builder, best town house and even reaching national finals out of 18,000 projects.

They remediated land, building on sites such as a defunct petrol filling station. Every project won a National House Building Council award, and Craig himself lives in a house developed

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beside Aycliffe Village green. Town houses at Eaglescliffe gained regional acclaim. Glebe Farm Court, at West Boldon, was converted into nine distinguished homes from a derelict farm steading.

Houses developed there from existing buildings slightly resembled courtyard stables, while the main farmhouse fronting became a Georgian residence that quickly sold for nearly a million in 2007. The sum of the parts won a "best in the North" award for the company, then with a workforce of 85.

When the market turned the brothers were well prepared and switched to a commercial portfolio. Craig also gained an MBA studying alternative sources of finance, particularly long term investing via pension funds. Norman at Oxford did a course on private equity, met fund managers there and in London, and assimilated what drives them. "We've stitched

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all that now into an offer, looking at 30 to 45 year funding for housing," says Norman.

They fitted out a workspace hub at Chester le Street for Gladman, then from the same client got the chance to build up the hub at Aycliffe.

They offered to turn it into one of the "buzziest" places and fill it - which they did, and now operate it also on the client's behalf.

Tenants increasingly asked for ideas on raising finance, and also now get advice on strategy and growth. "We now offer anything upward from a virtual office and an address - plus service, planning, strategy, training workshops, support, finance systems and a funding platform. That's what differentiates us from businesses simply offering space to let," they point out.

They also now have housing associations in their sights, a sector eager for long term finance. With banks short-term orientated,

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Carlton & Co intends to crowdfund a bridge linking association with institutional pension funds looking, as ever, for havens where their considerable investments can lie safely for up to 45 years.

Norman explains: "Banks previously lent on 30 year terms and a housing association could develop confidently. Now banks must match liabilities so really only want to lend for two to five years, leaving a big gap. And whereas pension funds previously invested in long-term government gilts, values there have come down. "So pension funds and housing investment can make a perfect marriage.

The pension funds need their safe haven and housing needs long-term investment.

“Despite the critical housing shortage, you can't rely on housebuilders now to deliver volume. Associations, such a powerful player, are the biggest opportunity to get

ENTREPRENEUR

us out of the difficulties.

"There are billions in pension funds looking for a home. Associations provide such a home in the USA and Europe, but there was never such need before in the UK because housing associations got government grants. With grants severely depleted the associations have lost their two main inputs.

"A platform like ours will help pension funds enable associations to refinance their portfolios. There's a pyramid of about 1,400 associations in the UK. Maybe the top 20 or 30 are big enough to raise finances for themselves in the bond market. Among the rest, many may only need £10m. You can't go to the bond market at that size.

“On our private placement platform they'll be able to send out their requirements quickly without bond documentation. Also, we'll offer with a private placement the knowledge of

Commercial property already provides a home for pension fund investing. Housing's the last big asset class yet to be tapped in the UK what the deal is before they commit. If they don't like it they don't need to do it. On the bond market they don't know what the deal is until the deal's done. So they don't know the rate until it's all bid up. >>

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ENTREPRENEUR "You wouldn't want to do a commercial scheme like this because you don't have the guaranteed income," Norman points out. "But housing's so much in demand. If we could drop a million houses onto the UK today we'd only be realising demand. The Labour government planned to build 250,000 a year.

We're nowhere near that and getting worse off with every passing year.

"Housing associations appeal to pension funds since they're almost like a quasi-government operator. The associations have waiting lists.

The minimum offering from a fund manager will probably be £10m, but that's 100 homes.

Commercial property already provides a home for pension fund investing.

Housing's the last big asset class yet to be tapped in the UK." Carlton will similarly proposition local authorities and other asset developers. Schools and hospitals need finance and offer a good revenue stream.

In growth funding, Carlton will look to present local opportunities initially, with Newton Aycliffe already a promising launch point. "You can imagine the need for smaller companies around here to support Hitachi's train factory opening here soon. Job numbers are already rising at this hub, and we'll aim to get supply chain companies in on a full service one-stop offer."

Existing occupiers at the hub, currently full but capable of expansion to 900 jobs, include a web design firm and a software specialist in steel stockholding.

A recent crowdfunding seminar Carlton held drew two "really good" leads from an attendance of 30. Two investor presentations are now planned.

"If we can make this work in Newton Aycliffe we can then make it work around the UK," Norman suggests.

"We'd like to open hubs like this in London, Manchester and Newcastle. We can help with the business plan and we've the experience needed to draw financial support from banks and elsewhere."

The firm's already working with a local entrepreneur who's opening a five-a-side indoor soccer-drome nearby. "But planning in ones doesn't always excite outside investors," the Petersons say.

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So now we're working towards opening up to five more in 10 years. We have potential sites in the North East."

For equity stakes in growth businesses, fund managers can consider Carlton's platform for private sector investment, see what they like and perhaps make a heads of terms offer. The internet should attract interest far beyond the North East. The online Investors will put up £1,000 upwards initially and, as a platform member, exercise their own judgment with investments of £100 upwards.

Encouraged by recent Budget incentives, and the fact that crowdfunding's already at work in Poland and India, Carlton & Co is now entering its official request for regulatory permission, and talks are being held with

three parties with a view to finding a strategic partner. The firm is also creating pre-marketing awareness, building a customer base and working with four companies that will raise funds. To be close to fund managers it has opened a London office, in Berkeley Square no less, and if response matches enthusiasm a nightingale should sing there before long.

Norman says: "There are crowdfunding platforms already out there that will let anyone list anything. But that can be damaging for a platform. Our view's that anything on our platform will be fundable. and we should close the deal.

“We'd rather have two to four good investable opportunities than a whole load, some of which just won't get going." n

The Petersons in person Chief executive Norman and managing director Craig Peterson are from Sunderland originally.

Their parents had a business buying pubs from big brewers, which they closed, refurbished then re-opened to higher standard. Norman, who lives at Bramham near Wetherby, got involved in 1984. After working for seven years in the Middle East, he bought a 3.5 acre site where the Bridge Inn at Walshford stands, also near Wetherby.

While working for a US firm, he’d been placed under house arrest for three months during the Iranian revolution of 1979. When finally evacuated to Athens, he had to abandon all belongings bar the t-shirt, shorts and flip flops he was wearing. He later worked for Cleveland Bridge in Saudi Arabia then had two years in Qatar, where he worked on a shopping mall and luxurious houses for members of the ruling family.

Norman, 57, through his senior positions also at Jarvis Rail and Bell Canada is thus experienced in telecoms, infrastructure, construction and property. He served on a merger board creating CWC, a £5bn telecoms company. He has a RICS post-graduate diploma in project management, an MBA and has completed a business school private equity programme at Oxford University.

Craig, 43, also bases entrepreneurial expertise on work done in several sectors, including housing and regeneration, with activities in operations, finance, sales and marketing, business planning and strategy. In housebuilding, he held senior positions with both Wheel of fortune: Carlton & Co’s Wimpey and Bryant. He has an MBA (enterprise) circle of support available to and plans further postgraduate studies in finance, growing businesses strategy and corporate valuation.

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COMPANY PROFILE

Open for Business Budget Stephen Hall, tax partner at Deloitte in the North East reviews the changes introduced in the budget and the steps companies need to take next…

In line with his previous Budgets and the Government’s aims of making the UK one of the most attractive locations in the world to do business, the Chancellor once again took further steps towards building his vision of a competitive tax system so that “Britain is open for business”.

The headline is the announcement that corporation tax rates will be harmonised for the first time since 1973, with the Chancellor further reducing the main rate of corporation to 20% with effect from April 2015, making it the lowest rate in the G20.

Whilst the corporation tax saving is focused on larger businesses, the Chancellor supported small business and his desire for increased private sector employment through an employment allowance.

This will be available to all businesses, charities and community amateur sports clubs through a reduction of £2,000 against national insurance costs from 1 April 2014. This will mean 450,000 small businesses will pay no NIC and 98% of the total benefit will be provided to small and medium sized businesses.

The lower rate of corporation tax and changes to the rules around partnerships mean businesses need to carefully consider whether they have the right structure in place for their business, although this decision should be driven first by what is right for the business, rather than the tax implications of your decision.

The Government’s focus on innovations and technology also continued with the new “patent box” regime to be introduced at the end of April, being accompanied by an increase in R&D tax credits for large business. The previously announced incentives to the video games and other creative industries will be further expanded to include tax support for the visual effects industry. EU approval is needed; this is still outstanding for video games relief. All this should

Stephen Hall, tax partner at Deloitte

Whilst the corporation tax saving is focused on larger businesses, the Chancellor supported small business and his desire for increased private sector employment through an employment allowance. be good news for business but unfortunately the benefits will only be passed on to businesses who claim the reliefs they’re entitled to. Too many firms in the North East fail to appreciate the value of these allowances; the above-the-line tax credit alone is worth more than £1bn over the next five years. Deloitte can draw on engineers and

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technical experts to work with companies to help them understand the reliefs applicable to their businesses.

To help investors in business, the Chancellor announced a number of measures to reduce the associated costs, including the abolition of Stamp Duty on investments in shares listed on growth markets such as AIM. For start-ups the capital gains relief for investing in qualifying Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme businesses has been extended for a further 12 months.

In tax raising measures, the Chancellor announced a broad range of anti-avoidance and anti-evasion measures. Automatic information exchange will apply to the Crown territories with possible extension to the overseas territories. There will be specific changes on company loss-buying and some partnership planning. The General Anti-Abuse Rule (GAAR), which will apply to all of the main taxes, comes into force from Royal Assent to the Finance Bill – expected by the end of July 2013. Increasingly tax advice isn’t just about finding the right structure for your business, the consequences of getting things wrong can be serious, from a consumer backlash to being locked out of bidding for government contracts.

Deloitte has the largest tax team in the North East with the 45 strong team including two partners, R&D specialists, 12 owner managed business advisors and the UK’s only land remediation specialist ready to help North East businesses make the right choices for their business.

For more information please contact Stephen Hall on 0191 202 5229 or visit www.deloitte.co.uk

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INITIATIVE

Putting in their BID Newcastle has one thriving. Darlington and Durham each has one richly promising. Middlesbrough said no. So which way will city centre firms of Sunderland jump in the ballot for a business improvement district? Harry Collinson tells Brian Nicholls why he feels only gains could result

Harry Collinson's eyes will twinkle like tanzanite in his shop if it is soon agreed to pump £2.7m into quickening the heart of his native city.

As chairman of recently formed Sunderland City Centre Traders Association, already 200 members strong, he's a key figure in Sunderland Business Ltd. This new not-for-profit company set up by leading businesses and organisations aims to better the city and spur trade with a business improvement district (BID).

Blessed by city council and Julie Elliott, MP for Sunderland Central, the BID team's on a gospel mission to convince other traders to join who could benefit, subscribe to the operation and raise ideas.

Collinson, joint owner, Collinson Jewellers, is fervent. “I'm proud of my city," he declares.

"But it could be even better. Improvements shouldn’t just be down to the council or individual groups but to us all. Here's our chance to move it forward."

Toronto launched the first BID 43 years ago.

Now BIDs liven cities and towns worldwide.

Collinson commends Newcastle's BID, biggest in the country and formed in 2009. "It's

among the best of 170 already in the UK," says Collinson, mindful however that Middlesbrough rejected the idea by just three votes. Look here though: • It's Sunderland's 21st year as a city • It is the established home of Europe's biggest free air show • It is one of the UK's safest cities after dark • It’s home to the National Glass Centre now being reinvigorated • It is also a longstanding host to Premiership football and a recognised venue for star-name stadium concerts.

"Look how much traffic big-name artists bring to this city. Coldplay, Rihanna, Bruce Springsteen - 50,000 people at a time. When

Coldplay came Metro staff were on strike. Yet the 50,000 got to the Stadium of Light in pouring rain by hook or by crook - taxis, buses, any way they could. Sunderland's a good place for business."

So what does a BID offer?

• Increased city centre footfall • A livelier evening economy and visitor interest • Events, festivals, markets, celebrations • Improved marketing and promotion • Better signage, access and media information for visitors • A leadership voice for city centre businesses • A cleaner, greener, safer city centre Collinson observes: “All city centres have >>

All city centres have been struggling.

If you aren’t competitive you’ll have tumbleweed rolling through your city instead of vibrancy

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INITIATIVE

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been struggling. If you aren’t competitive you’ll have tumbleweed rolling through your city instead of vibrancy.”

Support comes already from police, pubs, taxi drivers, street pastors, landlords, church representatives and the professional services, and from the city’s events and parking teams.

“A Sunderland lad through and through, I’ve long felt we should step things up. Our motto is: We’re One City. It’s amazing how a jigsaw is coming together now.”

Sunderland Business Network, now five years old, is in there, Sunderland Business Group too, chaired by Gary Hutchinson, also chairman of North East Chamber of Commerce in Sunderland who, as a former waiter he’s risen to commercial director of Sunderland AFC, brings on the show stars.

Chairman of BID’s steering group is Andy Bradley, director of The Bridges Shopping Centre, where footfall has held up and new high street names appeared during the past year. Mindful of Middlesbrough’s outcome, Collinson says: “Business people want to understand the BID fully and be consulted.

We’ve 30 voluntary ambassadors explaining one to one.

“We’ve done workshops. We can’t sit on our laurels. What will enable a go-ahead is giving out right information, and reacting to views.”

Hotels and B&Bs, essential to success, are in the loop.

Hilton Group proposes an opening where Joplings department store stood, and Collinson believes more quality hotels will follow. He’s encouraged by the city council’s current attitude to the private sector.

His father Harry Snr, he says, who chairs the family business, sees many changes at the council. Once approaches brought no answers.

Business waited months for a reply to issues about vandalism, graffiti, and addicts’ needles in back lanes. “With cuts the council faces, it’s up to us as partners now to do a lot,” says Collinson Jnr, hence intentions to recruit, like other BIDS, a response team to tackle urgent tasks. The soon-to-be-improved seafront and new mixed development planned for the Vaux site nearby are complementary, and there are consultations with the Seafront Traders group. As for the Vaux site, where 400 jobs vanished in 1999 with the >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

Courting Mary Portas - and the shopper Collinson Jewellers is the sort of independent retailer Mary Portas and many more want back on high streets to improve variety and personal service.

Harry, turning 40 soon, is hardly BID-ding only on behalf of his family’s business. Collinsons already has a prime site at Crowtree Road, cheek by jowl with bustling Debenhams and The Bridges. Its awards as a jeweller and retailer are numerous, thanks to Harry, his parents, sister Rachel and 14 valued staff. His wife Nicola, too, has only recently receded to their Sunderland home to spend more time with their growing children.

Besides that shop it has a Pandora outlet inside The Bridges, now into its third year and run by Rachel. The essence of the firm is in its Blandford Street workshop for timepieces and jewellery.

Harry Collinson Snr was head watchmaker for SL Witten, another local jeweller, then grew a customer base for House of Fraser (Binns) until 1981, when he himself took the plunge - “a huge step for him,” son Harry says. “He begged and borrowed benches and equipment, and about £180 temporarily from friends to get a till, then built from there. His first employee, another watchmaker at House of Fraser, is still with us - at 84.”

Here’s clearest evidence of customer and employee loyalty that a small family business can command. Harry Snr’s title, chairman, is more patriarchal; the family, despite individual responsibilities, don’t relish titles. Harry Snr remains very much head repairer. “That’s his passion - his life,” Harry Jnr explains. “He’s always first into work, where there’s about 140 years of experience among his other watchmakers. They even repair mechanical watches passed down generations. Many jewellers farm out that work.

“Expats across Europe - even in Australia - send him repairs. Customers of 80 and 90 still climb to that upstairs workshop where we’ve been since 1981, even though we’ve groundfloor premises elsewhere because they’ve forever gone there. You can’t buy that loyalty.”

Young Harry worked there a month at 16 before attending Gateshead Technical College and working three and a half years at Nissan - “great to work for”. He did engine assembly, injection moulding and painting. The Primera was rolling out when he finally accepted his dad’s repeated invitations to rejoin the family. “Retail’s in our blood,” he agrees. His parents had branched into retail at Waterloo Place, where Harry then 19 and Rachel, 17, received monthly budgets of £300 and £400 to buy stock. “That’s how I learned to get returns on investments. Business grew, and eight years ago we came to Crowtree Road.”

To them a customer’s shopping experience is paramount, whether they spend £10 or £20,000.

Four multiple jewellers almost next door (in The Bridges) are the main competition. Collins admits:”We secret-shop and check their knowledge about products, then step it up. Multiples may have 150 stores in the UK but they’ve only one in Sunderland and we’ve five top brands giving us an edge.” They go the extra mile too. On her wedding eve, a bride will receive a bouquet, champagne and promise of a lifetime’s free cleaning of their bands. Customer birthdays are remembered. “Personal touch goes far in today’s climate,” Collinson explains.

In-store events like pink tea parties entertain. Charity support runs into thousands a year. “On Sundays, screens in our shop show films for the very young while their parents inspect items.

Sweets are on the counter. At Easter it was 432 cream eggs. We also want our young charm collectors, the next generation, to talk in the school yard about Collinson...we especially love when people who were once little kids buying charms come back later for engagement and wedding rings.” Out-store events include visiting call centres, banners up, on pay days.

Collinsons’ salesgirls are on merit payments. “We gave the team a Christmas target. We said ‘hit that and you get a tax-free bonus on Christmas Eve. Anything above gets you 10% in your pay packet. One girl got three grand plus £600 bonus.”

The firm’s “18 jewel” apprentice watchmaker is on an eight year apprenticeship. “His first six month project is to make a clock from scratch. It took him one day to cut a wheel from a brass plate. There’s a lot of skill and mathematics in that. He loves it...seems to be thriving.”

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INITIATIVE

SPRING 13

Spend trend discerned Sales at Collinson Jewellers are withstanding pressure on wallets and credit cards amid stock ranging from £11 for crystal set earrings by Tresor Paris up to rings for £18,000 and bespoke offered beyond. Diamond values have risen and buyers have been trading up generally.

Collinson is now a privileged stockist of Hearts on Fire, claimed by the American creators to be the world’s “most perfect” diamonds, cut by hand not laser. globally, only 300 cutters are considered up to it. “unique yet still affordable here,” says Collinson.”It’s called the 10 table diamond - you can see it from 10 tables away in a restaurant. Just because we’re in Sunderland doesn’t mean I can’t tell my customers ‘this is the best cut diamond in the world’”.

Likewise Collinson provides tanzanite, 1,000 times rarer than diamonds, only discovered in 1967 and still only found in Tanzanian foothills of Mount Kilimanjaro. Its shimmering blues, particularly in 10 carats plus, must be seen to be believed. A widow, who’s now 86, got from them an £18,000 tanzanite pendant - her husband’s gift marking a special anniversary.

Collinson asked her recently if she wears it much. “All the time,” she replied. “Even when I wash up the dishes flash its reflection. My husband always promised me it.” That, Collinson suggests, is what jewellery’s about. “If you invest in it you must wear it. You can imagine her washing those dishes with her little marigolds on, enjoying reflections from the window.

“These last two years we’ve noticed people who’ve worked all their lives and now make nothing from the banks thinking: ‘I’ve worked hard so sod it. I’m going to have one and I’m going to wear it.’ Whether a better watch or a better diamond, it’s pointless having it sit in a safe or a drawer.”

With more than 6,000 weddings a year registered at Sunderland’s Civic Centre alone, that amounts to quite a few rings too.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

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eponymous brewery’s closure, 4,000 jobs are now predicted.

Millions were lost in potential revenue as the site stood idle while the now disbanded regeneration body Sunderland Arc wrestled with site owner Tesco over redevelopment principles. Now, Tesco is at Sunderland retail Park instead. So the development of 66,000sq m of commercial space and riverside homes is grinding ahead, as well as a new Wear road bridge nearby.

Collinson says: “I’ve had many conversations with the council’s chief executive. The Vaux site must get right the mix of first tenants, encouraging more people into the city centre.

I hope to see professional offices there and specialist businesses, started perhaps by Sunderland graduates who now go to places like Manchester and Leeds to start up.

“A new square at the magistrates’ courts will look directly across. And three courts are planned where the old Cowie premises were.

Access to all this needs to benefit our existing city centre.”

Of shopping campaigner Mary Portas’s 28 suggestions to revive high streets, Collinson pinpoints easy parking and good indoor and outdoor markets.

He feels while Sunderland has the car parks, including one named safest in the country, they’re underused and need highlighting.

He considers Darlington has a model market - “one of the best in the North East with quality produce.

“We could attract people from beyond Sunderland with something like that.”

BIDs are funded by a 1.5% levy on the rateable value of eligible businesses within the BID area. A firm on the entry threshold of £15,000 would contribute £225 yearly (£18.75 monthly). The biggest firms would pay £2,250.

Businesses rateably valued below £15,000 would be exempt from the levy and while voteless would still benefit, be kept informed and be welcome to make suggestions.

A ballot of businesses will be held soon, hopefully for a Spring 2014 launch. Collinson stresses: “This is about bringing new business in and enjoying your city.

“We don’t market Sunderland and its good things enough. Hopefully in 10 years you’ll see a huge change.” ■

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IN ANOTHER LIFE

SPRING 13

David Cliff is a trainer, manager and therapist. In Another Life, he says, he’d like to have been a GP. After training as a legal executive, he became a psychiatric social worker, commended by the Social Services Inspectorate for innovative practices in “change work” with clients.

Experienced in the public and private sector, he achieved an MBA in 1994. He has senior management experience within the NHS and in 1984 became one of the first nationally accredited counsellors and psychotherapists with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy. A full member of the Association for Coaching, he’s managing director of Gedanken Ltd, a Houghton le Spring specialist in coaching-based support and personal development.

David Cliff: admires the good old-fashioned style GP

A STETHOSCOPE OF DrEAMS I'm passionate about quality of service in every aspect of life. Always have been. I believe that consistency is often a key driver in ensuring this is achieved.

So it's sad for me to have witnessed the decline in consistency of relationships in general Practice in recent years. So many families have lost personal connection with

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

their gP or, as is now more often the case, their gPs. If I had my time again, I'd love to be a good, old fashioned-style gP. I long for a return to those reassuring days when most people knew their gP, and he knew not only each of his patients, but also their children and grandchildren. People interest me so much. To

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be a part of family life and seeing generations of families grow and develop would be hugely enjoyable and rewarding, to my mind.

A family doctor might not only have been involved when a person was delivered into this world; he or she might also have shepherded them through childhood illness, their own transition into parenthood and more, possibly even an entire lifespan.

Medical problems at one time were seen more in the context of a clear knowledge of patients’ lives, gained over perhaps years, and could be understood better.

In stark contrast, ask most people today for details of their doctor and the gP’s name will be left blank, with only the practice’s details filled in.

They know their surgery, but increasingly people rarely cite a single doctor’s name.

There have been massive improvements in the NHS over the decades since it was founded, no doubt. Healthcare is more accessible. There are higher professional standards and greater accountability. People live longer and enjoy better health over all. Even so, I wonder if the loss of this lifelong personal relationship of doctor-patient is part of the price we have to pay. That intimate personal doctor-patient relationship, built over years, seemed of great value to the community.

To have played that role in life must have been a huge honour. I envy those who experienced it, and those, including my own gP of 25 years, who still do. ■

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PRINCE’S TRUST

with John Wall

A FLYINg STArT TO 2013 One of the uK’s most popular broadcasters, Jeremy Vine, has been entertaining members and guests of the North East Leadership group at Auckland Castle. The group, business men and women committed to raising funds for young people creating businesses and careers through The Prince's Trust, enjoyed the occasion immensely. The ex-Newsnight presenter now with his own daily programme on BBC radio 2 gave his views on leadership, and told amusing and thought provoking anecdotes from his time as a BBC political commentator. Earlier, the audience enjoyed a private viewing of the Zurbaran paintings, and a slide commentary by Dr robert McManners, who's had a book published on the collection.

These 17th century paintings, by the Spanish artist Francisco Zurbaran, are considered a significant treasure of European religious art, and have hung in Auckland Castle for 250 years. Special events like these give Leadership group members unique access to influential people. We hope this year to do even more to help change young lives. So don’t miss our September 4 event with special guest James Timpson. retailer Timpsons employs more

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

SPRING 13

prison leavers than any other company in the uK. This event will be held in another exclusive North East venue. Watch this space...

On May 24 we have an annual clay shoot, which raised over £30,000 for the Trust when more than 200 guests attended last year. The shoot then was hosted by law firm Dickinson Dees and John Holland, in glorious sunshine at Lambton Estate, near Durham. guest of honour was Ambassador for The Trust, North East actor Kevin Whately. Our first ever Croft Supercar Track Day in aid of the Trust will be on July 18. It's being organised by Nigel McMinn, CEO of Benfield Motors and Andrew Maidwell, with direct support from the prestige vehicle manufacturers Ferrari, Maserati, Bentley, Lamborghini and Audi. This "money can’t buy" event will feature motoring exotica for guests to see and play with. The 48 places will go to those who sign up first! Money raised from such events and by the Leadership group helps the Trust support 3,700 young people each year in the North East, giving

them skills and confidence to get a job or set up in business. We're also celebrating the 30th birthday of the Trust’s Enterprise programme.

This has helped 80,000 disadvantaged and hard-to-reach young people across the uK become entrepreneurs since 1983. It has helped create businesses for a wide range of individuals, from artists to plumbers and jewellers to carpenters. Many of these young entrepreneurs then recruit others, often providing jobs in areas where jobs are few.

Take David Clayton, 29, from Newcastle. He recovered from redundancy to set up Northern garden Sheds, producing quality, custom-made garden sheds and summer houses. He tripled his projected turnover in his first three months and is now looking for bigger premises and a showroom. He's a great example of just what young people can achieve with the right support. The Leadership group is committed to tackling youth unemployment and supporting even more young people like David into enterprise in the future. ■

Man from Auntie: Jeremy Vine

Come join us You can see some of the businesses the Trust has helped set up over 30 years at www.princes-trust.org.uk. If you’d like to get involved with the North East Leadership Group, whose money raised makes a difference directly to disadvantaged young people across the region, please call me on 0780 291 7615. If you wish to take part in any of our events please call Zoe Mulvenna on 0191 497 3212.

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JEWELLERY

VALUATION DAY

EXPERTLY VALUED

MEDIA BRIEFS

The Scrutator >> Architects at the double A book about ryder Architecture is doubly appropriate this year. The firm whose beginnings helped speed the North East's post-war recovery can justifiably celebrate on its 60th anniversary - especially as it appears also now in The Sunday Times 100 Best Companies to Work For. Managing partner Mark Thompson says of the Best 100 recognition: “To be one of only two national architectural practices included is fitting, and very rewarding, on our anniversary." And Dominic O'Connell, The Sunday Times business editor, observes: “Their leaders are making a canny investment in their workforce, which will show bottom line results.” It could have been a different story and no book. The firm a few years ago had to shed many jobs. "Devastating," Thompson recalls. "But we worked very hard to secure new work, and to create strategic ventures.

These enabled us to build on our strong reputation for innovative design and operation at the forefront of technology." The firm even restored the job numbers. This would have

SPRING 13

delighted the 1953 founders gordon ryder and Peter Yates. They'd met as Young Turks helping to shape Peterlee new town. Yates had previously worked under Le Corbusier in Paris. ryder had been a student room-mate of Peter Smithson, patriarch of the Brutalism movement. Later they parted professionally. But a chance encounter at a London Tube station convinced them to set up practice in Newcastle.

When Yates died in 1982 ryder was joined by Ted Nicklin. ryder retired in 1990 and Nicklin died in 1994, leading to the reign of Thompson and senior partner Peter Buchan. The company changed its name slightly over the years but not its high standards. With operations today also in glasgow, Liverpool and London, it continues to excel both in Britain and overseas.

With a £7m turnover and 100 staff, it is now proudly presenting a touring exhibition, visiting glasgow in May, London in June, then Newcastle and Liverpool. You realise from the book's illustrations the remarkable impact on our region by multi-award winner ryder.

Written by rutter Carroll, an architect and academic, the book (ryder, rIBA Publishing) promises more again for the future. Think Newcastle: think Sandgate, rotterdam and Keel row on the Quayside, Citygate at St James, and 55° North. Think North Tyneside: think Cobalt Business Park. Further south think New College and Durham Johnston School in Durham, Elementis Chromium headquarters, Stockton, and Education Village, Darlington. recent landmarks include the children’s heart facility at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle, paint giant AkzoNobel's uK flagship factory at Ashington, and the new pathology laboratories and the emergency care centre at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in gateshead.

Some performance, that.

A Ryder icon: Newcastle City Library

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>> Footie to film We hope the former Newcastle united and England star who had the world at his feet but now has demons in his head recovers.

Meanwhile, what about the former united and England star fulfilled in retirement? robbie Elliott the 40-year-old whose 257 senior club appearances took in united, Sunderland and Hartlepool has, since 2009, been a youth national team performance expert for the uS Soccer Federation. Now he’s also an Angel - a major backer of the £1.3m new film Hannigan, shot in Newcastle, gateshead and Hartlepool, and shown pre-release at the Tyneside Cinema recently.

Director Vince Woods persuaded gifted Stockton-born actor Stephen Tompkinson (DCI Banks, Ballykissangel, Brassed Off) to play Hannigan, a detective sergeant back from gritty crimefighting in Hong Kong only to find Newcastle’s West End, in 1974, a paradise for criminal gangs during the power cuts and miners’ strike, with his old force too byzantine to cope.

“A Mucky Harry rather than a Dirty Harry,” Tompkinson jests.

It’s based on Arthur McKenzie’s 31 years as a Tyneside copper, like his earlier scripts for TV episodes of Wycliffe and The Bill.

His producer daughter, Kirsty McKenzie, convinced Elliott to take a punt.

Critic’s view: Action packed, crunchingly cruel and compulsive. Not quite get Carter but in the mould.

>> Sourcing finance Looking for business backing? A website helping SMEs identify sources is now on phones and iPads. It’s an online version of the Access to Finance guide already in its fourth year of publication. Commissioned by North East Access to Finance (NEA2F), it’s available at www.nea2fguide.co.uk. It lists 150 sources, with funding options for social enterprises too.

It advises on raising finance, tax incentives for businesses and investors, and legal issues.

Law firm Ward Hadaway sponsored.

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BIT OF A CHAT

SPRING 13

easily accommodated, and the priors’ hall is a dining venue of character. The NHS has been there, done it, with a conference of 150. And if the marketing team at gateshead Council look saintly now that could be a side effect of their away day there.

with Frank Tock >> Holy smoke and mirrors If networking lifts the soul, where better than Durham Cathedral as a corporate venue? The opening of its magnificent doors now for conferences, away days and seminars comes as the cathedral, commendably, pledges to maintain free entry to visitors generally, despite annual running costs now at £1m-plus. raising income in other ways will also facilitate its Open Treasure venture to present travelling exhibitions of rare and precious artefacts - including the Lindisfarne gospels appearing there from July 1 to September 30. Many of the cathedral’s own precious possessions, previously lacking space, are getting it now. There’ll be empathy towards cathedral and hirers alike, no doubt, since head of property there is John Holmes, who was director for regeneration and tourism at One North East, and with Tyne and Wear Development Corporation before. Today he’s also a non-executive director of Coast & Country Developments, and a director of both County Durham Tourism Partnership and urban Matters (his own company), as well as a governor of Sunderland university. Areas of hire in the cathedral include the priors’ hall, chapter house, galilee chapel and the monks’ dormitory. I’m told the entire cathedral is open to appropriate proposal. ruth robson, heading marketing and events, says conferences for up to 70 are

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 13

A cross from Durham Cathedral

>> It’s a gas Mention of One North East reminds me how, more than a decade ago, it championed hydrogen as a coming fuel for home heating and vehicle propulsion. Now reports circulate of a hydrogen famine so severe that even hydrogen-filled party balloons may become a thing of the past. Can this be?

Nigel Perry, chief executive of the Centre for Process Innovation at Wilton, is intrigued too.

Hydrogen’s still exported from Teesside as a byproduct of numerous commercial processes.

And, he points out: “You can make it fairly easily in various ways anyway.”

Its disadvantage lies in the transporting. It’s highly flammable. Not an ideal fuel on its own, then. But you can combine hydrogen with another chemical to produce a liquid, feed that into a car, and the hydrogen can then be stripped off. This combination can be safely relayed in pipelines, tankers and fuel stations.

Says Nigel: “Technology to produce it sensibly relies heavily on renewable fuel or nuclear fuel.

It’s not something you’d necessarily choose to do.” So here’s Teesside, despite scaremongers, still producing ample hydrogen as a sideproduct of cracking natural gas into carbon dioxide and hydrogen.

Should you need more, you can even crack water into hydrogen and oxygen, as happens at Billingham’s ammonia plant, where it’s also a powerful reducing compound in producing anoline dyes.

You’ll have to search hard to find hydrogen

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heated homes though. And we still await global breakthrough in One North East’s £314,000 sponsorship of an ECO2Trans project. The Institute of Automotive and Manufacturing Advanced Practice at Sunderland university had been working with experts from Shanghai and Cramlington-based AVID Vehicles on converting two electric buses to hydrogen. But the buses are no longer in fit condition.

The fuel cells now form part of a fuel maintenance research programme instead.

I realise why an expert at the Institution of gas Engineers and Managers reckons there’s only about 25 metres of pure hydrogen pipeline in the entire uK, despite the vast hydrogen reserves Sabic stores on Teesside.

Teesside, despite scaremongers, is producing ample hydrogen >> Deja vu ONE of the dullest hours ever of my working life was spent walking round Newton Aycliffe with Baron Stevenson of Coddenham. He was plain Dennis Stevenson then. As chairman of a quango running the new town he failed to convince me the newspaper I was then with was wrong, and that the quango was in fact living up to promises given to townspeople about the provision of amenities. Baron Stevenson is also he who told the FSA as chairman of HBOS that, without being the slightest bit complacent, HBOS management felt the bank was as safe a harbour as possible; it was in fact about to require a £28bn taxpayers’ bailout. The commission, recently calling for regulators to ban him and two colleagues from running any financial company, has described Lord Stevenson in its report as incapable of facing realities.

I could have told them that.

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EVENTS

SPRING 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.

MAY

ebba.mcguigan@uktinortheast.org.uk, 0191 516 4400 17-25 UKTI Market Visit to Wuhan, China, with £750 grant for North East firms. enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk

7 Deadline for entries to Services Network Culture for Success Awards. talk@service-network.co.uk. 0191 244 4031

20 Bank of England Inflation Report, Royal Station Hotel, Newcastle (noon). louise.parreira@bankofengland.co.uk

7 Newcastle University Business School’s Herbert Loebl Export Academy Workshop 2, Going Global with Biosciences (9am). 0191 208 1500

20-24 Nepic/Wiintech Visit to Brazil. john.brady@nepic.co.uk. 01642 442 560

8 NECC Meets at Newcastle, Lloyd Newcastle BMW and Mini, Barrack Rd, Newcastle (5.30pm). Preregister 8 NECC Export Preference Seminar, NECC Durham (1pm). jacqui.tulip@necc.co.uk.

0300 303 6322 9 Great Expectations, Hay & Kilner seminar on how to avoid costly employment claims, legal fees, lost management time and insomnia. Centre for Life, Newcastle (8.30am). jennysimon@hay-kilner.co.uk, 0191 232 8345 9 EEF (NE), Occupational Health Service National Clinics Briefing, EEF House, Gateshead 10 Construction Excellence North East Awards Dinner, Gosforth Park Hotel, Newcastle

21 IoD (NE) Dining Group, with Vera Baird, Northumbrian Police and Crime Commissioner, Northern Counties Club, Newcastle (7pm). 0207 766 8866. www.iod.com/connecting/events 21-23 Thinking Digital Conference, Sage, Gateshead. 0191 490 9192. info@thinkingdigital.co.uk 22 EEF NE members’ briefing, Health and Safety, Climate and Environment, EEF House, Gateshead 22 NECC Networking Brunch, Briefing on Business Car Taxation by Richard Netwon (Toyota), Riverside Stadium, Middlesbrough (10am). Preregister 22 EEF (NE) Employee Engagement, Making a Difference, EEF House, Gateshead

11 to 17 Newcastle Fashion Week, www.getintonewcastle.co.uk.nfw

24 North East Building Trades Federation agm, Newcastle Gosforth Park Hotel (12.30)

13 UKTI Export Week for High Growth Markets, introductory event, ebba. mcguigan@uktinortheast.org.uk, 0191 516 4400 14 UKTI Export Week for High Growth Markets, New to Export? High Growth Markets are Open to You. ebba.mcguigan@uktinortheast.org.uk, 0191 516 4400 15 NECC Making Sense of Online Marketing, Quality Hotel, Boldon (8am).

Preregister 15 UKTI Export Week for High Growth Markets, Business Security - How to Protect Your Business, Employees and IP. ebba.mcguigan@uktinortheast.org.uk, 0191 516 4400 15 NECC Coffee and Connections (women only), County Hotel by Thistle, Newcastle (10am). Preregister

24 - NCBF agm Gosforth Park Hotel, Newcastle (12.30) 25 -Nine North East finalists contest Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards at Hilton Hotel, Manchester 26 - Service Network’s Culture for Success Awards, Boulevard Show Bar, Newcastle (7pm). events@service-network.co.uk. 0191 244 4031 27-29 UKTI Food and Drinks Sector Visit to Amsterdam with £200 grant for North East firms. enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk

JUNE

16 Bank of England Inflation Report, Wynyard Park House, Billingham (8am). louise.parreira@bankofengland.co.uk 16 Persuasion or the Art of Shutting up, Service Network and Ark Associates seminar, Muckle LLP, Newcastle. events@service-network.org.uk, 00191 244 4031 16 National Women’s Network (NE), What You Don’t Know about Social Media, Copthorne Hotel, Newcastle (6pm) 16 CIM, Meet a Mentor, NECC Middlesbrough (6pm). cimevents@cim.co.uk.

01628 427 340

4 Meet the Nepic Members, Rainton Meadows Arena, Houghton le Spring (8.30am). 01642 442 560. www.nepic.co.uk 4 National Women’s Network (NE), Evening at Shepherd’s Dene 4-7 UKTI Trade Visit to Ireland with £200 grant for North East firms. enquiries@uktinortheast.org.uk 6 Building Momentum for Innovation, agreeing the next steps. Joint seminar at Newcastle University Business School, being held by the business school and Herb Kim (Thinking Digital and Codeworks) ahead of a September conference. ruth.warwick@ncl.ac.uk

16 UKTI Export Week for High Growth Markets, North East Exporters’ Dinner. ebba.mcguigan@uktinortheast.org.uk, 0191 516 4400 16 North East Exporters’ Awards, Stadium of Light, Sunderland. Sue Coulson 0191 201 6072, Andy Forster 0191 201 6430 16 NECC Member to Member Afternoon Tea, Kirklee Hall, Ponteland (3.30pm). Preregister 16 NOF Annual Suppliers’ Day, St James’ Park, Newcastle 16 CIM National Mentoring Scheme, an Introduction. NECC Middlesbrough (6pm) cinevents@cim.co.uk. 01628 427 340 16 CBI: Meet a Marketing Mentor, Middlesbrough. Durham. 01628 427 340, www.cim.co.uk/northeastengland 17 UKTI Export Week for High Growth Markets - How UKTI North East Can Help Your Business Maximise These Opportunities.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SPRING 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.

98

AUF WIEDERSEHEN PET. BE A REBEL.

The award winning Volvo V40 D2 R-Design in ‘Rebel Blue’ of course

CREDIT EXAMPLE

Sure, you can drive the car that everyone else thinks is the ‘must have’ car. That’s fine if you like to follow the crowd. If you like to blend in. However, why not stand out, be different, be a Rebel.

JOIN THEREBELUTION.

Special Mill Price Deposit or Part Ex Balance to Finance 36 Monthly payments of GMEV* Total Amount Repayable

APR

£21,400 £5,725 £15,675 £199.70 £10,842.50 £23,756.70

5.9%

VOLVO CARS NORTH EAST Mill Newcastle

Mill Sunderland

Mill Stockton

Mill Harrogate

Scotswood Road, Newcastle NE15 6BZ

Wessington Way, Sunderland SR5 3HR

Preston Farm Business Park, Stockton TS18 3SG

St James Retail Park, Knaresborough HG5 8PY

millvolvo

@millvolvo

www.millnortheast.co.uk

Tel: 0800 612 4715

The price is based on a V40 D2 R-Design FUEL CONSUMPTION IN MPG (L/100km) Urban 70.6/4.0, Extra Urban 83.1/3.4, Combined 78.5/3.6, CO2 94g/km. Finance subject to status. Terms and conditions apply. Personal Contract Purchase based on customer deposit of £5725.00, followed by 36 monthly payments of £199.70. Annual mileage of 10,000 miles, *excess mileage cost of 14.9p per mile applies. Applicant must be 18 or over. Guarantees/ indemnities may be required. At the end of the Personal Contract Purchase there are three options: (1) Part exchange the vehicle, where equity is available (2) Pay the GFV (Guaranteed Future Value) to own the vehicle or (3) Return the vehicle. Further charges may be made subject to the condition of the vehicle. Santander Consumer (UK) plc T/A Volvo Car Credit RH1 1SR. Car featured for illustration purposes only. Offer ends 30th April 2013.

PERFECT BALANCE

The New MaseraTi GraNTurisMo sporT The new GranTurismo Sport features a number of subtle revisions to further enhance and improve the performance of this outstanding car.

Available with either 6-speed, paddle-operated MC Shift manual or MC Shift Auto fully automatic transmission, the engine has been uprated to 460 horsepower. Suspension revisions improve the ride quality without affecting the superb handling balance. Inside the GranTurismo Sport features new front seats which not only improve comfort and support, but also allow for increased rear legroom. The GranTurismo Sport offers the optimum balance between performance and comfort and perfectly expresses Maserati’s Grand Touring philosophy.

The Maserati GranTurismo Sport MC Shift Auto is priced at £90,785 on the road. The Maserati GranTurismo Sport MC Shift is priced at £94,115 on the road. On the road prices include 3 year/unlimited mileage warranty.

For more information on the Maserati range, call 0843 658 9111 or email maseratisales@benfieldmotorgroup.com

Car shown Maserati GranTurismo Sport MC Shift Auto with metallic paint at £564 and 20-inch Anthracite Grey Astro design alloy wheels at £480. Official fuel consumption for the Maserati GranTurismo Sport MC Shift Auto in mpg (litres/100 km): urban 12.9 (21.9), extra urban 28.8 (9.8), combined 19.7 (14.3). CO2 emissions on combined cycle: 331 g/km.

Benfield Maserati Warwick Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 1BB Tel: 0843 658 9111 www.maserati.co.uk maseratisales@benfieldmotorgroup.com

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19/04/2013 16:01