BQ North East Spring 2016

Bags of quality

Daniel Chamier likes Chapman Bags so much he bought the company

Bread and butter business Profile of sandwich giant On a Roll

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North East & Cumbria: Summer 2016

Break down language barriers and win business

Celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship ÂŁ4.95 Business Quarter Magazine

North East & Cumbria: Summer 2016

Craig flies high Craig McLeod’s aviation business has weathered recession and is now cruising

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EDITOR’S VIEW NOR TH EAS T & CUMBRIA, ISSUE 33 It’s sheer coincidence, but salutary even so, that many of our enterprising personalities of business featured in this BQ have inspiring export stories to tell.

Craig McLeod’s international jet charter and pilot training businesses, Naljets and PTT Aviation, could have been set up near Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick or Luton. But he stays loyal to North East aviation and its proud history, running his operations from Northumberland, Teesside and Yorkshire.

Our Business Lunch guest, chairman John Reece of Reece Group, is not only significant in rehoisting an ensign internationally for North East engineering but is doing it from a revitalised Armstrong Works in Newcastle, inspired by its history as “the workshop of the world”. The impressive diversification of work going on there carries, he admits, calculated risk. But a national honour he recently received for his contribution to engineering, accompanied by his determination and resource to see young people of the region enthused by industry once more, suggest further success ahead. Then there’s NBS, a North East “engine under the bonnet” provider of solutions taking construction technology forward. Under chief executive Richard Waterhouse it is promoting its services far beyond our shores now, at the same time safeguarding the future of one of the region’s finer buildings.

In Carlisle, Daniel Chamier is a former City high flyer who converted to manufacturing rather as Viktor Kiam did, famously, to Remington razors. Daniel too liked the brand of safari bag that he bought so much that he bought the business. Now Chapman luggage and sports bags are in demand worldwide.

Andrea Freeman, meanwhile, is enjoying further export success with her recent successful relaunch in Darlington of knitwear fashions, all British manufactured and based on the town’s famous and historic Beehive brand. Underlining this chain of overseas sales successes, North East linguist Aidan Stradling explains how you needn’t spend four years studying a language to sell successfully abroad - and he says that as someone who can do more than simply pass the time of day in 24 different languages. You may be interested to read, also, of a bank’s plan to support the creation of a whole new legion of exporters in the North East. Staying close to home, we shall know soon whether the best sandwich in Britain comes from our region. James and Helen Stoddart are carrying the colours - and a product - of their new factory to a London final. This issue also includes a 24-page Entrepreneurs’ Guide to Finance.

We hope you get a taste of enjoyment - and inspiration maybe - from some of the achievements served up here also…

Brian Nicholls, Editor

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CONTENTS FEATURES 22 28 36 44 70 74

WINGING IT TO SUCCESS How Craig McLeod built his aviation business B A G S T H A T F LY T H E F L A G Daniel Chamier champions regional manufacturing TEACHING THE WORLD TO BUILD Newcastle based NBS sets the standards BEEHIVE IS BACK Reviving a famous Darlington brand S WEET TALK Aiden Stradling explains how language skills win business FILLING WITH SUCCESS A sandwich business that’s feeding the nation

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MOTORING Paul Stonebanks puts the DB9 GT through its paces

Summer 16 REGULARS 08

BUSINESS UPDATE Latest news from the business world

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AS I SEE IT Andrew Mitchell argues that social enterprises can relieve pressure on public services

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COMMERCIAL PROPERT Y Who’s building what and where

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BUSINESS LUNCH Who dares (and dines) wins

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ON WINE Paul Champion harnesses friendship and technology

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EQUIPMENT Swiss watches make a statement

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IN ANOTHER LIFE Paul Abbott water treatment specialist on what might have been

SPECIAL FEATURE ENTREPRENEURS’ GUIDE TO FINANCE An examination of sourcing funding to allow businesses to grow

Celebrating and inspir ing entrepreneurship

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CRAIG FLIES HIGH

How Craig Mcleod built his aviation business

36 A PL ACE TO BE PROUD OF

Newcastle, home of great architecture, is still setting standards

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WATCHES FOR OUR TIME

Swiss watches find new ways to make a statement

70 SWEET TALKING

Break down language barriers and win business

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BAGS OF QUALIT Y

Daniel Chamier likes Chapman Bags so much he bought the company

BUSINESS UPDATE Flourishing energy Future Energy, an independent Newcastlebased electricity and gas supply company, has signed its 1,000th customer, is set to establish a new headquarters and has recruited 20 staff since it started trading around six months ago.

The business is the North East’s new challenger to the six biggest energy suppliers – promising domestic users cheaper bills and free smart meters in the future. Behind the company championing fairness and transparency is entrepreneur Tim Cantle-Jones.

Firms see investors face to face Ambitious firms chasing cash to grow in the North East have a major opportunity to meet potential investors face to face. Leading business organisations of the region are building a programme of investment support to fill a gap that abolition of the Government’s Business Growth Service leaves.

An initiative in Durham on 21 June will bring together companies of all sizes and sectors with dozens of funders - including venture capital fund managers, angel investors, social investment funders, banks and crowdfunding platforms.

Whether a firm needs a £1,000 start-up loan or a multi-million pound equity funding round, the new facility will aim to raise the prospects. Organisers behind Venturefest North East, an annual innovation conference, are working with the North East Local Enterprise Partnership (Nelep) and North East Finance on the programme, expected to become a major annual event.

The Business Growth Service ended its national business support programme following the Spending Review of 2015. The programme planned now has been devised with business output from the outset.

Networks involved include the North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC), the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and the Entrepreneurs’ Forum. They are being joined by Innovate UK, and North East BIC, Transmit Enterprise, Blu Sky

Six months in: Entrepreneur Tim Cantle-Jones and his team enjoy an energy boost

Tax Ltd chartered accountants, Agora Bay Ltd growth finance consultants and NatWest. Also involved is the Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN), and the function will be part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

Hans Möller, innovation director at Nelep, says it’s “a positive, collaborative move by the region to solve an issue shared by the whole business community.”

He added: “It demonstrates how the North East is designing a solution to challenges faced. This will really help widen access to funding and help SMEs to develop and grow.”

Simon Hanson, North East development manager at the FSB, agreed. He said: “Without access to funding, our members and smaller businesses cannot achieve the potential to grow their businesses, create new jobs and new wealth for the region. This programme responds to this need. It will also simplify the investment process for many businesses.”

Firms will also receive expert advice on finetuning their propositions to investors. The North East through North East Access to Finance (NEA2F) at Gateshead has for some time been

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a leader in steering SMEs towards appropriate investment funds. Through a £142m Finance for Business North East (FBNE) programme of seven investment funds it has redeployed capital into new funds for firms, with match funding from the European Regional Development Fund and elsewhere.

NEA2F’s facilities have included an online guide.

The FBNE fund will be investing until later this year, and NEA2F has been working with funding partners and the North East’s two local enterprise partnerships to develop successor funds.

The Durham meeting will be at Ramside Hall Hotel on 21 June.

Contact: hello@venturefestnortheast.com

£128m fillip to economy Loans totalling £10m from a fund set up by Tees Valley Unlimited in 2013 have helped boost the economy in the North East by £128m over twoand-a-half years.

Businesses are using short term loans (typically up to 24 months) from Tees Valley Catalyst

Fund, managed by FW Capital, to secure the advanced payment guarantees, performance and warranty bonds they need to win larger contracts. Fifteen firms have been assisted in winning new contracts creating or safeguarding 645 jobs.

ACHIEVERS

Hair care heightens North East entrepreneurs Geoff and Colette Bell are enjoying further incentive with their Shampooheads business – claimed to be the UK’s first ever professional hair care range aimed at ‘tweenagers’. It has secured a £200,000 investment via the Finance For Business North East Growth Fund. Shampoos, conditioners and detangler products are aimed at six to 15-year- olds. The Bells together have more than 30 years of hair care industry and educational experience.

Family healthcare expert Dr Miriam Stoppard is brand ambassador.

Jobs barometer GAINS 1,000 jobs promised directly and indirectly through the building of a £30m national data centre at Science Central, Newcastle.

700 in Sunderland through the expansion of Parseq at Doxford International Business Park, with expansion of its B2B service, helping organisations to acquire customers, retain market share and improve operational efficiency. Parseq employs more than 2,500 people nationally and has offices also in Glasgow, Rotherham, London and Brighton.

250 jobs at Go North East bus company.

200 jobs at North Tyneside through mobile operator.

100 with the opening of a new Virgin Trains call centre in Newcastle.

100 more as Accenture the global strategy and solutions company at North Tyneside grows its workforce to 700.

60 with the conversion of the Grade II listed Shire Hall, Durham, to a new Hotel Indigo, with a Marco Pierre White steakhouse bar and grill.

LOSSES 97 lost with the closure of Wavin flexible piping factory at Brandon.

GAINS AND LOSSES 132 lost with closure of drug firm Covance at Alnwick but 50 of those jobs retained by replacement firm ARC Trinova.

SAFEGUARDED 720 with EDF Energy’s extension of Hartlepool’s nuclear power station for five more years.

50 saved throughout the North East with the rescue from administration of some stores in the Brantano shoe chain.

Realsafe Technologies of Newcastle has had its Realrider motor-cycle app officially recognised by the Government as the first app in the UK to be 999 certified to connect users directly and automatically to the emergency services.

Four North East firms – Able Group, Esh, Hays Travel and Mech-Tool Engineering have made it into the latest list showing the UK’s fastest growing firms. The Sunday Times Profit Track 100 ranks private companies with the fastest growing profits over the last three years.

Tomlinson Hall & Co the Billingham pump distributor and manufacturer won distributor of the year award at the Pump Industry Awards – a fifth success in this category.

Visualsoft the Stockton based digital firm with four UK offices has broken into the Prolific North Top 50 Digital Agencies table at fifth and is the only North East based agency in the top 10 rankings.

Connect Property North East in its first year of trading is named most active industrial agent across the region in Estates Gazette awards. The Stockton practice sealed 70 deals in 12 months and shared first place with an For frequen t business international practice.

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Atom supports SMEs

QUOTE OF THE QUARTER

Durham-based Atom, the UK’s first bank focused on digital and optimised for mobile, is in business with regulatory approval. It will shortly be offering secured lending to SME businesses, available through a number of specialist business intermediaries.

Already it has opened its fixed savings offering, looking for a new site to relocate to eventually, and its banking app has been launched, with as it outgrows its launch premises leased from iPhone and iPad facilities live and an Android Durham County Council. It has already: version to follow. It is open to all who preraised more than £135m in capital through register interest through the Atom website. the support of a group of over 100 By year end customers should have private and institutional investors, access to fixed savings, current including BBVA, Woodford accounts, overdrafts, debit Investment Management and credit cards, instant and Toscafund access savings and home Asset Management; mortgages, all via the app. built a team of 160 Anthony Thomson, Atom’s Profit warnings by plcs in the permanent employees founding chairman believes North East and Yorks are down with 100 more to be the Aykley Heads, Durham, in Q1 to the lowest Q1 total recruited by next summer; bank has been built in record since 2008, EY business been ranked eighth in time. The bank is already

“We need to shout about the North of England’s technology sector a lot more.”

Martin Bryant, first community editor of Tech North

FACT OF THE QUARTER

advisors say

KPMG’s Global Fintech 100 listing and first in Tech World’s Digital Challengers list; established a global network of partners and suppliers biased towards the North of England.

Atom Bank has also acquired games master Brian Jobling’s IT development firm Grasp (UK) as part of the Durham bank’s plan to “create the most engaging user experience in banking.” Jobling has joined the bank as business development director and is a board member. He remains non-executive chairman of the board at computer games firm Eutechnyx. Grasp’s six staff have also integrated into the bank.

Big guides, little learners A business development scheme recently launched by Newcastle University Business School is being spread to benefit small firms throughout the North East. The firms through the Captured programme get a chance to develop with direct support from experienced managers of larger private sector organisations. More than 20 businesses are already benefiting. Mentoring support is coming from the like of hi-tech specialist Sage, engineering giant Siemens and automotive parts supplier Calsonic Kansei.

Orange Bus boarded Moving in: Janet Todd, NETPark manager with Stuart Wilson, Ascarii’s chief executive, Ian Chandler and fellow Ascarii executives Steve Welsh, Gareth Lewis, Sarah Palmer and Mark Innes

Cloud burst abroad Ascarii, the newest tenant at the North East Technology Park (NETPark) in Sedgefield, has Australia and the US East Coast in its sights as it targets a £10m turnover within three years – and a tripling of staff. A provider of Cloud-based business management software founded four years ago, it presently has a £2m turnover and 10 employees.

The Newcastle based digital agency Orange Bus could speed up growth following its acquisition by the business process outsourcing giant Capita. G2G3 Digital, Capita’s existing digital design agency, is being merged with Orange Bus. Orange Bus employs 75 people in Newcastle and London, and serves both public and private sectors. The firm’s client list includes Joules, Barbour, and HM Revenue and Customs. No job losses are expected.

Julian Leighton, Orange’s chief executive, says: “Besides added scope for growth, we’ll be able to offer a broader range of services.”

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Flame of hope for steel

Crossing the water: Mead is expected to grow in popularity among American drinkers

Mead sales in the pink A new pink mead in demand at wedding receptions has helped Northumberland’s unique Lindisfarne range of the honey liqueur to raise sales by 20% over the past year. Lindisfarne Mead now has three different varieties, all turned out on Holy Island where mediaeval monks first made it. The other two are the original version and a spiced mead, the latter proving popular in summer iced. Market demand is being met despite the island being regularly cut off by tides. The mead range, and a growing number of other products developed by the company, is selling in notable retail hot spots such as Fortnum & Mason, Harvey Nichols, Edinburgh Castle, Fenwick department store and the Port of Tyne’s International Passenger Terminal.

Licensing is now in place too for the USA. Lindisfarne Mead is now part of Harry Hotspur Holdings Group that includes Alnwick Brewery & Alnwick Rum Co, both of which have also had a successful year.

The group’s Taste of Northumbria shop in Alnwick, opened in 2015, is recording strong sales of its own products and also showcasing locally sourced goods to promote the region.

Director Ian Robinson says: “A new white rum is coming on at Alnwick Rum, following the success last year.

Hopes of better prospects for Teesside steel are flaring with a quality, value added commercial steel operation which the Materials Processing Institute (MPI) has launched with an initial workforce of eight, all experienced. MPI’s Normanton Steel plant, previously used for new product development and process refinement, now also delivers commercial manufacturing across a range of steel types. It is meeting customer needs in smaller orders that cannot be produced economically at larger plants. Testing and development laboratories can also support its commercial offer. A not-for-profit organisation, MPI supports businesses working across a range of sectors, from steel and chemicals to energy and mining. Chris McDonald, MPI’s chief executive, said: “Thirty years ago many doubted the British automotive and aerospace makers would still be around today, but they are now among the world’s best and underpin our economy. Those who dismiss steel and other materials as ‘sunset’ industries now risk creating a self-fulfilling prophecy despite their current difficulties. Instead, industry-led responses like the Materials Catapult proposal we are discussing with the Government, offer immediate and targeted support to increase their long-term productivity.”

Fishy enterprise

George is putting firms on course

Work has begun on a new enterprise at Teesside to develop a fish feed ingredient expected to transform the industry by reducing its use of fishmeal and soya protein. Located at Wilton beside the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), with which it is collaborating, the US company Calysta (UK) chose Teesside for development over Scotland and Norway due to the “commercial attractiveness, technical skills and research and development expertise in the area”.

An ex-Royal Navy petty officer who helped turn a Newcastle University spinout into a thriving commercial business now steers other firms on the right course. After working round the world for 18 years as a weapons engineer, George King arrived on Tyneside in 1994 to work on naval behalf upon Swan Hunter-built HMS Richmond, the last warship built on the Tyne.

Now based in Gateshead, George uses solutions skills learned at sea to the good of small and medium-size firms in the North East. His firm Glengyle specialises in unpicking issues deterring businesses, and helping entrepreneurs to access grants and finance. After leaving the navy, George worked initially for Joyce-Loebl in Gateshead, then with the contracts organisation at Newcastle University.

He got involved in INEX, which specialises in producing micro technology, sensors and miniaturised systems for business.

As commercial manager there, he helped spin it into the private sector. George said: “I’ve always enjoyed a challenge.”

Ten catch the eye Ten North East firms are performing with national distinction, according to recent league tables.

Kromek the Sedgefield radiation detection specialist has been named the most innovative firm in the country for intellectual property in an IP Top 100 table sponsored by Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks, Murgitroyd and Jumpstart in association with Metis Partners and BE Group. Nine other firms have been listed by the London Stock Exchange as being among 1,000 companies to inspire Britain. They are: engineers ADM Pressings and Atkinson Northern, food specialist Kavli UK, furniture retailer Barker and Stonehouse, Power Wholesale, recruitment firm Gem Partnership, Automotive Group (Newcastle) Ltd and Litter Boss and Premier Ina Holdings. To find out more visit www.bqlive.co.uk/ip100/

Northern spread A four-year-old Peterlee firm of trainers is now spreading its business-focused skills programmes and consultancies into Yorkshire and Cumbria. KF, under managing director Kelly Lee, is also confident of striking deals in Greater Manchester and Lancashire. The firm employs 52 people.

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‘When, oh when?’ on roads boost

Plain sailing: Ten new cruises are planned from Port of Tyne

Business booms on rail, sea and air Communication for passengers and goods continues to grow on rail, sea and air in the North East. Ryanair has brought in its biggest ever Newcastle seasonal air schedule with two new routes to Lanzarote and Tenerife, a new service to Malaga, and more flights to Alicante and Dublin (double daily from June). Further growth to deliver 330,000 customers yearly will see Ryanair double its Newcastle traffic and support 250 jobs at Newcastle Airport.

Newcastle Airport’s chief executive David Laws (who is stepping down after 37 years’ service, 10 of them in the top role) doubly welcomed the moves, promising a boom in winter sunshine holiday travel, and further growth for the Dublin link, already one of the airport’s most popular routes. Thomson Cruises meanwhile is re-introducing cruises from the UK, with sails out of Port of Tyne from summer 2017. Ten new itineraries of four to 14 nights have been announced.

These will visit key ports in the Norwegian Fjords, Scandinavia and the Baltics, including Copenhagen, Stockholm, St Petersburg and Reykjavik on board Thomson Celebration.

On rail, Virgin Trains, having marked its first anniversary running the East Coast Main Line franchise, is adding 42 more services a week between Edinburgh and London from May – giving more than 22,000 extra seats a day. The company says new routes from Sunderland and Stirling have been well received. It is to invest more than £40m on fleet improvements, £18m of it in the first year, That tops the amount its predecessor, Directly Operated Railways (trading as East Coast) spent in its last three years. But Virgin Trains will also have to match its predecessor’s outstanding punctuality during its tenure of the franchise, which will see £140m invested over the duration. Sir Richard Branson has unveiled personally the first of the new Virgin trains that will cut journey times on the East Coast Main Line by up to 22 minutes. The 65 new inter-city trains will be built by Hitachi at Newton Aycliffe.

The journey between London and Edinburgh will take four hours from 2018, since the trains will accelerate from 0-125mph in about a minute faster than the current fleet. While the trains will initially reach speeds of up to 125mph, a cross-industry working group, including Network Rail, is investigating the potential for 140mph services on the East Coast route.

“But Virgin Trains will also have to match its predecessor’s outstanding punctuality during its tenure of the franchise, which will see £140m invested over the duration”

The Government’s “Northern Powerhouse” plans to boost the North East economy through better road connections with the west side of the country are meeting limited enthusiasm in the absence of a time scale. Full dualling of the A69 (Newcastle-Carlisle) and the A66 (Scotch Corner-Penrith) is being “looked at” this year.

But Richard Threlfall, partner at KPMG and spokesperson for Business North organisation, said that while creation of infrastructure to provide one interconnected job market across the North (including a £6bn Pennine tunnel to cut M62 journey times between Manchester and Sheffield) is welcomed, none of the projects will be delivered by the end of the present parliament. There is no movement towards dualling the entire A1 between Morpeth and Berwick, as campaigners want. But a government report agrees the present A66 and A69 routes are unreliable and suffer from above average numbers of crashes. Transport Minister Andrew Jones said the Government was also “very sympathetic” to extending the Tyne and Wear Metro to other parts of the North East. But again, no date. Sarah Green, director for nations and regions at the CBI, said now was really the time to move from planning to delivery in the region’s infrastructure. The Civil Engineering Contractors’ Association had hoped by now to see a starting date on further A69 and A66 improvement, and flood defence schemes prioritised. North East director Douglas Kell said that while a £600m commitment was made to North-East roads last July, much of that was repetition of previous announcements. He was also concerned that North East connectivity will lag in any HS2 rail building. However, 13 contractors now would have places on a £96m highways construction framework agreed with the North East Procurement Organisation (NEPO) and the North East Highways Alliance. The four-year deal covers 16 specialist lots, ranging from carriageway resurfacing to road markings.

The framework, with an estimated annual spend of £24m across the region, will cover all regular planned maintenance. The agreement was led for NEPO by Darlington Borough Council. Jeff Alexander, chairman of Construction Alliance Northeast (CAN), said: “By using local firms with local knowledge, a greater range of value added benefits can be added - good news for the client and the regional economy.”

PROFILE Great Annual Savings

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GAS Group on a mission to cut your bills As firms across the region battle rising costs at every turn - from energy to insurance a team of experts has been assembled to examine outgoings and help businesses operate more efficiently and focus on growth The Great Annual Savings Group (GAS) was set up just four years ago with the specific aim of helping firms operating regionally, nationally and internationally to cut their bills and grow their prospects.

GAS has prioritised recruitment with a yearlong drive, bringing in expert staff in a range of disciplines to make sure each client has someone they can trust to help them manage costs from energy to insurance and IT to fire safety.

Chief Executive and Chairman Bradley Groves has now built a team of 108 staff to look after a rapidlyexpanding client base and has recently moved to larger offices at Spectrum Business Park in Seaham, County Durham, where he is aiming to bring the total number of jobs up to 161 by the end of June.

As costs across so many sectors continue to soar, more and more firms are looking for cost-saving experts like GAS who operate outside their business specialising in procurement and addressing inefficiencies with a fresh eye.

Its list of services where it now employs experts covers just about every cost-saving possibility for firms of all sizes in any location. It has always looked after energy procurement and management; water; telecoms; insurance and fire safety and only last month added security; IT; waste; office equipment; private medical insurance and a package covering heating ventilation and air conditioning.

Before GAS, that list would have taken any firm

GAS Group Chief Executive and Chairman Bradley Groves at Ramside Hall with Ramside Estates MD John Adamson months to navigate in order to find trusted and suitable skilled people to actually make a difference to their bottom line. Now it is one phone call away.

GAS Group’s reputation is growing almost as fast as its staff – with recent highlights including slicing more than £2,000 from the energy bills at gas detection manufacturers GDS Technologies based in Leeds.

GDS has been leading the way in the manufacture of gas monitoring and gas detection systems for more than 25 years. Working with GAS has already saved them £2,123.10 on their gas and electricity contracts and Managing Director Steven Utley says the two companies work together seamlessly.

“We have a lot in common - including a drive to be the best in our fields at the same time as setting an example to our customers by being as energyefficient as possible. GAS is already using its experience to save us money that will help us plan our costs as far ahead as possible.”

Over at luxury destination Ramside Hall, energy bills were topping an eye-watering £800,000 a year.

But now a long-term contract with GAS has already

saved £60,000 on electricity and gas contracts and is on course to hit more than £250,000 in savings, which is more great news for Ramside as a stunning expansion and investment package costing more than £16m keeps it at the top of the luxury hotel market.

Ramside Estates Managing Director John Adamson said: “We’re well on the way to establishing the hotel as one of the most exciting leisure destinations in the region. However, we’re always conscious of the need to keep costs under control, so Great Annual Savings Group has helped give us extra security and cashflow visibility at a time when energy prices are quite volatile.”

But life at GAS is not just about winning contracts.

The camaraderie and culture at the Group reaches deep into the community, with the company’s strong record of supporting local sports clubs.

The latest of which featured cash for the Houghton and District Fitness and Youth Boxing Club, which is open to males and females over the age of ten.

GAS also bought tickets for the club’s recent boxing show at Ramside, boosting its total contribution to £1,000.

Other beneficiaries have included Hetton Lyons Cricket Club, Castle Eden Cricket Club, Mixed Martial arts show ‘Made 4 The Cage’, Spennymoor Town FC – where Bradley is also Chairman - and a list of other schools and sports teams.

GAS clearly believes in delivering the whole package – whether that is saving six figure sums for highprofile companies nationally and globally or helping local youngsters improve their outlook.

Great Annual Savings Group, 6 Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, County Durham SR7 7TT Phone: 0191 500 5610

Website: www.greatannualsavings.com

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LEGAL BRIEF

In association with

Ward Hadaway

Selling up - without selling yourself short Martin Hulls, partner and head of corporate at Ward Hadaway, looks at some of the essential do’s and don’ts of selling a business Most business owners will sell their company at some stage – but how should you best go about this and, in a climate where unsolicited offers to buy businesses are on the rise, how should you cope with an unexpected approach?

Unless you want to reject all approaches out of hand, a sensible first step would be to conduct some due diligence on the potential acquirer – have they bought businesses before? Do they look like they can afford to buy your company? What kind of reputation do they have in the marketplace?

Acquisition approaches often come from people and organisations you may already have a relationship with, such as a customer, supplier or competitor.

If this is the case, be careful how you handle their enquiry and what you tell them about your company especially in the initial stages as this could just be a fishing trip to find out more about your business.

If you decide you want to move the process forward, talking to your professional advisers is a must.

Ensure they are experienced in selling companies not all accountants and lawyers are. They will give you advice on the approach, help to manage the process and give you the benefit of their experience in evaluating any offer.

Some basics: • Do put in place a confidentiality agreement; • Don’t disclose very confidential information too early; • Don’t let the buyer talk to your employees and customers, at least until a deal has been agreed and documentation well advanced; • Do focus on the business; • Do talk to your advisers before agreeing a deal.

Although many businesses are sold after an unsolicited offer it is often not the best way of achieving the best deal - would you just sell your house to someone who knocked on your door?

I’ve set out below some rules for those looking to plan a sale: • Plan early; • Think about what would encourage you to buy the business; • Do some due diligence on your business is it fit for purpose? Will it stand up to the due diligence process?

“You should engage with your professional advisers early on so they can help you identify potential buyers, such as private equity houses and your own management team as well as trade buyers” • Take tax advice to get yourself in the best tax position; • Look at ways to improve the key drivers to value, often a combination of profit net of tax, interest and depreciation and the level of cash/indebtedness ; • Keep control of any process.

You should engage with your professional advisers early on so they can help you identify potential buyers, such as private equity houses and your own management team as well as trade buyers. A shortlist should be drawn up and a plan on how to communicate with potential buyers agreed. Using your advisers in the early stages can enable progress to be made without your identity being disclosed.

Then things often begin to develop their own momentum but remember; ‘keep control’, not just because you want to but because it can and often does add real value to the deal.

Key areas to help get and keep the best deal: • Be clear at the outset as to terms that are important to you and get the buyer to set out their approval to such terms before you agree to a deal; • Keep competitive tension between potential buyers for as long as possible;

• Reduce the time between agreeing to deal with one buyer and completion.

There are other matters that are important over and above the headline price: does the buyer want you to stay on? Is some of the price dependent on future results? What’s your potential exposure if something goes wrong?

Following the ‘rules’ and keeping in mind the ‘key areas’ should enable the best offer to be negotiated and reduce the risks of this being chipped away.

The likelihood of nasty shocks should be reduced if proper planning has been undertaken and the process has been designed to maximise value.

Last stages of a sale require patience – there can be many final hours of a deal. Bear in mind that everyone will be doing their best to get things completed as soon as they can and sometimes patience is the best way of achieving that.

For more information on the issues raised by this article, please contact Martin Hulls at martin.hulls@wardhadaway.com or on 0191 204 4215.

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Train with Industry Experts Middlesbrough College’s £20m STEM Training Centre is a leading provider of technical training, skills, behaviours and competency solutions for a range of industries and specialises in Process, Oil and Gas, Supply Chain Solutions, Advanced Manufacturing, Engineering, Design and Manufacture and Business Improvement.

Our specialist team of industry trained experts have extensive knowledge and experience in delivering learning and training. We work with leading employers to ensure that we offer training in the very latest techniques and processes to match your business needs.

A small selection of courses running May / June 2016 - over 50 courses available, contact the STEM Centre for more details Electrical 17th Edition (full and refresher) Inspection and Testing On Site Vocational Qualification Level 3 Assessments

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PLC’s and Robotics PLC’s (beginner and intermediate) FARO Arm Principles and Operation Robotics for Beginner and Intermediate (Kuka & ABB) Process & Instrumentation Separation Operations (live plant) Distillation Operations (live plant) DCS Operation (Emerson Delta V Systems)

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18

AS I SEE IT bqlive.co.uk

Devolution could boost social investment market

AS I SEE IT bqlive.co.uk

19

Andrew Mitchell, chairman of the North East Social Investment Company, explains how social enterprises can ease pressures that have been growing on key public services The devolution agenda and pressure on public sector budgets could offer real opportunities for social enterprises in the North East - businesses that in fact could provide an engine for growth in the region.

How? The social investment market is growing across the UK. It has increased by 25% over 12 months. Social enterprises can provide innovative ways of delivering crucial services to society. They generate economic benefits, create jobs and make profits while also delivering social impact and outcomes. It’s this marriage of economic and social benefits that’s now being hailed as an exciting solution to some of the challenges faced through the contraction of funding for local authorities. North East Social Investment Company (NESIC) has been set up to help stimulate the market for social investment within our region, to create social change and help create a climate in which it can thrive.

NESIC has appointed Northstar Ventures to manage its first fund, the £9m North East Social Investment Fund, which has already supported two social investments in the region. The first was the Fair Chance Fund, focused on providing accommodation, training and counselling for vulnerable young people. It has so far helped 160 youngsters through the project operated

by Home Group. The second provides funding for the Sunderland based Substance Misuse Recovery Service, which has a project to prevent offenders relapsing into drug and alcohol misuse. This is being run through the charity Achieve with North East Engagement into Recovery from Addiction.

The North East Social Investment Fund was established in partnership with Northern Rock Foundation, Big Society Capital and the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation. The financial input being made in social investments isn’t just about social enterprises scaling up; it’s also about how social

investment can play a part in the delivery of central and local government services.

In the face of challenges to funding and the devolution agenda, we need to be innovative and intelligent in the delivery of services in fields such as health and social care. Social enterprises are well placed to do this; we want social enterprises to help transform the landscape.

There’s huge opportunity to shift how public services are delivered - through a different ownership models that the public will trust.

We’re looking at businesses that are experts and specialise in particular services, but that are also entrepreneurial while maintaining their commitment to delivering social benefit.

Social enterprises owned by the public sector, in general, are subject to too much red tape, and they aren’t able to be enterprising enough. If they’re passed to the private sector the pressures on them to make a profit can at times mitigate against their social objectives. Social investment models can offer the best of both worlds, with ownership structures which reflect the interests of all stakeholders and cannot be bought out by large multinationals.

Social enterprises are set up in a number of different ways, including co-operatives and mutuals. But the themes underpinning the businesses remain the same. They’re not private companies that can be bought or sold; they’re

the property of the staff and the stakeholders.

While delivering social impact, they’re also established on a sound entrepreneurial foundation. Staff are rewarded and profits generated to plough back into the business.

The North East Social Investment Company will be lobbying to raise awareness of the benefits of social investment. It will work to ensure organisations understand how they can benefit from funding through the North East Social Investment Fund, and will give information or mentoring about how to become social enterprises.

In many cases social enterprises could achieve greater social impact if they were able to expand existing goods and services, take up new opportunities and reach scale. To do this, they need access to the finance they require. Social investment – that’s what NESIF can provide, and that’s what we believe will help transform the delivery of services in the next 10 years.

Northstar Ventures is a North East venture capital company investing in successful high-growth SMEs and social sector organisations across the North East. It is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The North East Social Investment Fund is one of the funds it manages. This fund invests in social enterprises with individual investments ranging from £100,000 to £1m. n

“Social investment models can offer the best of both worlds, with ownership structures which reflect the interests of all stakeholders and cannot be bought out by large multinationals.”

20

PROFILE BIC

BIC Cloud Launched The North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) has expanded its state of the art IT infrastructure with the launch of a Cloud Solution.

BIC Cloud Solutions

ARC Adoption – director Terry Fitzpatrick and the team are enjoying the benefits the BIC Cloud offers BIC Cloud Solutions is now available to all businesses in the North East. It allows for the centralised storage and access of company data over the Internet instead of an individual’s computer hard drive. IT manager, Colin Turnbull explains: “The Cloud allows a flexible, cost effective approach to working. Some businesses have peak seasons or ever changing staffing demands, the BIC Cloud ensures that businesses only pay for what they use and can scale up or down when needed.

“We understand that the working environment is changing, people are no longer confined to the desk. BIC Cloud allows businesses access to their data wherever they need it via smartphones, tablet, laptop and desktop.

“A secure solution providing a managed firewall, email and web spam filter with offsite data backup.

“It gives peace of mind and keeps you in the know whilst on the go.”

BIC Cloud Solutions proves to be the perfect answer for one business, ARC Adoption North East Limited.

The company works with highly sensitive information and needed a reliable solution to their IT, director Terry Fitzpatrick explains: “There are many reasons the BIC Cloud works for us. We work with confidential matters and have a responsibility to maintain records for a considerable period of time therefore knowing that our systems are backed up and maintained by security experts gives us peace of mind.

“The nature of our work and our geographical spread means that we often need to work remotely, the Cloud has enabled colleagues to access our system and still maintain data security, which is vital.

“The BIC team were beyond helpful in the lead up to the implementation of our Cloud Solution and have continued to provide high quality support throughout.

“We would highly recommend the BIC team.”

· On demand – you only pay for what you use, scale up and down as your business requires · Managed – focus on your business and let the BIC provide your technology solutions · Secure – peace of mind, knowing your systems are backed up off site and maintained by security and network experts · On the move – BIC Cloud Solutions will be with you, on your desktop smartphone, tablet or laptop, wherever you are

To find out how the BIC Cloud Solutions can benefit your business contact 0191 516 6100 thecloud@ne-bic.co.uk

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EX NY T RX EC PR RX EY NX E U R bqlive.co.uk

Craig wings it well

“Our clients are all international.

Little seeds and dots we have laid are joining up, helping each other to make the business ever more robust�

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Recession could have grounded Craig McLeod’s aviation services for good. But his resourcefulness has him flying higher than ever, and now with another asset purchase.

Brian Nicholls reports

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No point in putting the kettle on for Craig McLeod yet. In his jetstreamed business he might say he’ll be back in a couple of days but end up many more away instead. Such is the unpredictable line of winged duty in his mini Northern Powerhouse of a business.

His company Naljets specialises internationally in aircraft and aviation asset management.

This includes worldwide charter availability, consultancy on engineering, company structuring, procuring aircraft and upgrading or working on entry of service for clients and pilots.

And under a separate company comes training and testing of flight crews and operational personnel.

You might have expected Naljets to be rooted nearer Luton, Stansted, Heathrow or Gatwick.

Instead, it’s firmly in the North of England.

Headquartered at Apex Business Village, Annitsford, off the A19 near Gosforth, its livery is familiar to ground staff at Durham Tees Valley, Newcastle and Leeds Bradford airports, as elsewhere.

It manages and operates anything from a small piston single engine and twin engine, light jet to a wide body long-range aircraft. Services range from turnkey aircraft management to individual help on acquisition and entry to service of an aircraft, or any task required, plus provision of crewing, trip planning, regulatory requirements and project consultancy. It also offers placement of aircraft on its worldwide air operator’s certificate, through which aircraft owners can enjoy income generation, efficient offset of ownership costs and tax advantages.

For over a decade Craig and his team have travelled most of the world’s busiest airspace, also remote and challenging destinations.

“We’ve extensive experience in managing and operating aircraft globally for clients in many parts of the world, and have strong relations with multiple regulators in various jurisdictions,” he explains.

Uncertainties of an assignment’s duration arise when clients stay over longer than expected on their visit. Returning early is less likely – in contrast to Craig’s earlier steady routine as a goldsmith with his own jewellery manufacturing business.

His gem of a career change began in 1994.

He’d decided he’d like to fly, just a pilot’s private licence. The businessman in him became

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

fascinated by the aircraft themselves.

By 2000 he was aspiring to a commercial licence. “In six years of flying privately I’d not intended to become a commercial pilot. But I thought I’d see if I could do the necessary theory exams. Most people do these 14 exams in around a year. Still running my jewellery business, it took me two years.

“Elizabeth McLeod my wife and I hadn’t long had our daughter Bethany. Doing a correspondence course was difficult. I studied between 11.30pm and 4am while my wife was in bed – I’m still married! – then I’d later get up and help with our baby before going to work.”

He qualified and could now start his first flying business, Northern Aviation, with a partner Terry Harrison. Initial aircraft purchase cost £40,000 because Terry, a successful Washington manufacturer of pumps, set up the firm 70/30.

A former mining engineer from Bowburn, Terry also worked for Scottish Land Developments before moving into plant and pump hire in semi-

retirement. Craig was his flying chauffeur “he got a free pilot, I got flying hours I needed.” After a couple of winters flying, sometimes amid snow, Terry rightly rubbished the aircraft’s heaters.”

After selling his jewellery business and some property, he and Terry invested in the Cessna 421c Golden Eagle – “a beautiful aeroplane” – cost, around £255,000. “I thought I’d finally accomplished all I wanted from flying. It was a complicated piston twin high performance plane, but with a pressurised cabin and a very good heater.”

It was too advanced for schools’ use, though.

Terry seldom needed it, and it was too expensive for Craig to use alone. As it sat in the hangar, Craig realised they needed an air operator’s certificate, to operate it as an air taxi. Terry agreed but, sadly, died following illness before that service started. The Harrison link is retained today, thoug, through Kay Aitkin, Terry’s daughter who is company secretary.

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

25

“When something suddenly appears different, as then, an alarm bell rings or a red light flashes in your mind and you must slow down and question”

Along the way, Craig and Terry had bought two of Teesside’s flying schools, Cleveland Flying School and Teesside Aero Club, gaining office space in so doing to fly 421 charters from. “I’m a Newcastle boy and want to be in Newcastle.”

But Teesside proved more accommodating.

Only private training had gone on in the region before. “I brought commercial flight teaching there,” he recalls. “No-one had previously trained in commercial pilot’s licence and instrument ratings for commercial pilots or flying instructors’ courses.”

The schools were consolidated, their existing aircraft replaced by the purchase of a fleet of Cessna 152s from Marshall’s of Cambridge.

He also acquired: an ex-RAF Bulldog, a little helicopter and a Slingsby Firefly for aerobatics.

“While the school thrived, and we thrived upward of 60 PPLs a year – and all the Leeds University students – annual charter business peaked at around 250 hours on the C421.

Piston engine twins, though quiet, fast and

comfortable, lost popularity.”

Besides ferrying parts for just-in-time car production, the business for some years indirectly helped save lives, mercy-dashing hearts and other organs between various hospitals for transplants with a four hour deadline. You had to be ever alert. Once in his aircraft, registration letters G-OSCH, Craig was flying to collect a baby’s heart from Ireland to return to Newcastle.

Blue-light ambulance and police deliverers handed him a big box. Craig said he expected a small box. They said: “This is for you. It’s got GOSCH written on the box”.

But not only was the box bigger than expected; never previously had a hospital or ambulance crew appeared to know the registration of his aircraft. “I insisted on ringing the hospital and co-ordinators to check,” Craig recalls. “I described the box and was told ‘that’s not for you. GOSCH stands for Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital. Another ambulance is on its way with the organ for a baby.’ My box when

26

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Where North beats South

it came had Freeman (Newcastle Hospital) written on.” That box was delivered safely.

Aviation, having many standard operating procedures, is very repetitive, Craig maintains.

“When something suddenly appears different, as then, an alarm bell rings or a red light flashes in your mind, and you must slow down and question before proceeding.”

Recession has been tough for all businesses.

Craig had mortgaged his house to pay a deposit on a large turbo prop aircraft - a Beechcraft King Air. The day both engines had to be overhauled - due to time expiry - coincided with the 2008 crisis, and banks raising drawbridges. When the firm tried to draw on a loan earlier agreed, the finance company said it couldn’t provide the US$1m.

“That ran us right down,” Craig tells. “We sold everything. But we started Naljets in 2009.

Instead of selling charters, doing medical work and pushing here or there, we switched to acquiring and managing aircraft - for clients who needed and could afford aeroplanes but lacked expertise and required an aviation department to handle complexities of the industry.”

Today, while the aircraft are mostly owned by others, Naljets sets up and manages a suitable operating structure for them. “We’re now a rent-a-flight department for other aircraft owners. They want them flown safely and compliant without a crew of their own. Why employ 10-plus staff to do a few flights on one aircraft as and when required?

“We’ve extensive experience in managing and operating aircraft globally for clients in many parts of the world” “Their aircraft are accountancy driven. When not flying for the companies’ own use, good solutions are needed. We’ve become a management company selling our skills. We know how to fly the aeroplanes, ensure their maintenance, provide compliance and expertise, without letting costs run away. We also know which aircraft best suit jobs required.”

Craig, who lives at Wynyard near Stockton, has no regrets about the change of direction. “We now manage very expensive assets. Previously, by the time we bought aircraft, maintained them, kept the staff and met all other outlays we were always driving hard to get cashflow and turnover up. We were profitable but it was very tight.”

The switch was helped by Craig’s involvement in procuring an aircraft for a big company into the oil and gas industry. Word of mouth brought another aircraft for Naljets to manage from energy trading firms in Geneva. Companies into car racing wanted their aircraft managed.

George Davies of Asda’s plane came under Naljets’ wing too. “We’re now service driven, providing expertise in many areas of aviation, a team of highly skilled professionals, experienced flight crews and labour,” he explains. n

Naljets has now acquired a new flight training facility - from Multiflight, a private aviation company based at Leeds Bradford Airport. Following a rebrand and marketing, the pilot training school, now called PTT Aviation - pilot training and testing - will add to the current training offer of a private pilot’s licence a commercial pilot’s licence also, and instrument rating necessary to fly under visually restricted conditions. A £500,000 investment in the school will bring new aircraft. While locating the entire business in the South might have promised even more opportunities, Craig maintains: “We’ve many loyal, driven and intelligent people in this area. Employing someone here’s much more reasonable than in a hotspot like London. I never was attracted there and live happily with the amount of business we have.

“Besides, our clients are all international.

Little seeds and dots we’ve laid are joining up, helping each other to make the business ever more robust.”

His personnel total around 35. Turnover from asset management is about £3m against £200,000 a few years ago, with around £8m from other sources.

Training continues at Durham Tees Valley Airport. At Leeds Bradford, Naljets is based and works with Multiflight. Other services to hand there include hangarage, towing, stock replenishment, aircraft cleaning, lounge and other passenger facilities.

As the region’s largest jet-equipped charter firm, Naljets also enables clients so wishing to use Newcastle Airport, providing door to aircraft service. Clients needn’t come to Leeds, Teesside or Newcastle though.

Naljets will start and finish from and to anywhere preferred.

But because of the holding that goes on over London it’s often cheaper and faster to fly from Europe directly into, say, Leeds from abroad. “In the North we can fly straight in, whereas often descending, and the track miles and time getting down into a London airport, can take longer. You could be circling over London half an hour or more,” Craig explains.

PROFILE Sedbergh School

27

The confidence to fail Andrew Fleck, Headmaster of Sedbergh School, explains why only by challenging children to do truly difficult things can they ever achieve their very best

Andrew Fleck, Headmaster of Sedbergh School

Education is a complex web of opportunities and priorities yet one question stands out above everything else. “How does a school get the best from its pupils?” No matter what the school, we all claim to enable pupils to “fulfil their potential” or “realise their ambitions.” Yet how many schools can articulate how they do so in a coherent manner?

Try the question.

Creating success is about more than offering opportunity and more than managing performance.

Opportunity and talent may be good places to start but the question must be how do schools generate a success mind-set in a teenager who may lack direction or even ambition?

Teenagers are rapidly developing adults in every respect and whether it be academic, emotional or physical, they develop fastest when they are exposed to real challenge and a genuine risk of failure. Only by persuading them to step outside their comfort zone can we get the very best from them and enable them to achieve standards beyond their imagination. Yet whilst teenagers are risktakers in certain respects, they are conservative unless they feel confident of a positive response from their peers around them. Herein lies the greatest challenge for schools, to create an environment

“The importance of failure has nothing to do with building resilience and getting used to disappointment, but everything to do with creating success.” in which their pupils are willing, or even inspired, to take intellectual and educational risks. Only by challenging children to do truly difficult things can they ever achieve their very best.

It’s strange how fads come and go in education.

In recent years we have seen resilience morph into mindfulness, now the current fad seems to be the need to fail. The subject is cropping up everywhere; Tony Little, erstwhile headmaster of Eton, was quoted as saying “gilded youths need to learn to fail” on 12th March. Most commentators argue that in order to become ready for the harsh realities of life, pupils should experience failure in the structured and supportive environment of their school. This is a recent iteration of the rather contrived “Failure Week” initiated by a high performing London school in 2012 when pupils were set tasks to fail and thereby learn about failure. It was not continued.

The importance of failure has nothing to do with building resilience and getting used to disappointment, but everything to do with creating success. Matthew Syed has written about the paradox of success being the need to fail in Black Box Thinking, but whilst businesses might embrace failure in a structured manner as a means to improve, teenagers are more driven by emotion than rational thought. The key to getting teenagers to embrace the risk of embarrassing failure in front of their peers is managing the response of those around them. Quite simply, a pupil who is laughed at and called names for getting a question wrong in class, running slowly or singing out of key will avoid such a situation in the future. By contrast, the pupil whose peers celebrate his contribution to the team effort will go back for more, try even harder and learn to excel alongside his peers. Shared experience of that nature is life-changing.

How can schools achieve that? By celebrating the success of teams in every sphere of school life.

Instead of celebrating an individual’s academic results, we celebrate the performance of the whole class; it is the team on the pitch which counts not the star athlete and the performance of the orchestra is more important than the soloist. Then we set the teams the biggest challenge we can find.

Schools which celebrate collective success in every sphere will get more from their pupils. Their pupils will take risks, confront failure and ultimately excel.

Sedbergh School is a co-educational boarding school.

It comprises a junior school for children aged 4 to 13 and a senior school for children 13 to 18.

A: Sedbergh School, Sedbergh, Cumbria, LA10 5HG. T: 015396 20535 E: admissions@sedberghschool.org W: www.sedberghschool.org

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

The imprint on the label discloses a major reason for its success – Made in England. That, says Daniel Chamier, is what makes Chapman bags so popular abroad. It may surprise theorists who suggest England, indeed Britain, is entering a post-manufacturing economy.

But John Chapman Ltd exemplifies remarkably how quality of manufacture can command its price at home and abroad. Daniel himself, owner and chief executive, is a convert from high-powered finance executive in the City to manufacturing boss in the regions – painstaking and enthusiastic, but convinced also that the true value of manufacturing to this country needs better recognition and encouragement. To him it has become a cause.

Step inside his firm’s small and tasteful redbrick premises in Carlisle. A remarkable display of product immediately

impresses. Hand crafted Chapman bags, originally made for anglers and shooters, today are diversified, serving not only other sports and recreations but also the needs of holiday travellers and business commuters.

All the briefcases and bags, be the latter shoulder or luggage, canvas, leather or tweed, are made at the firm’s factory on genteel Harraby Green Business Park – a site that has hosted tanning and other skills over some 300 years.

Just as Chapman products for men and women have moved with the times – they now even include fishing bags with laptop space, if pleasure has to mix with business - so too has the workplace itself. The traditional exterior of the firm’s building houses a modern interior, where contemporary needs are met with no sacrifice to time-honoured craftsmanship.

In the past year or so Chapman bags have been made for Pierce Brosnan, Stephen Fry, Bear Grylls, Sir Chris Hoy, Andy Murray and Sir Roger Moore, following earlier notable customers who

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

include royals, Margaret Thatcher and Robert Plant. Beyond Britain many Germans, Japanese and Australians in particular value Chapman bags for their quality components and materials: gaff rings of solid brass, dyed and waterproofed cotton canvas multi-layered, webbing totally cotton and of military grade, quick release fastenings. And the design: holdalls with wide openings for easy packing and unpacking, sizes suiting both weekends away and longer trips, variety of colour and a versatility that enables the rucksacks, for example, to serve hikers, cyclists and commuters alike.

“Our unique selling point is our authenticity,” Daniel declares. “We’re British made and high quality.”

Striking online promotion has drawn customers also from the USA, France, Scandinavia, South Korea, Singapore, China and Russia.

Like a bespoke suit, as the company catalogue suggests, material for each bag is hand cut on the premises and assembled using traditional methods. Years of experience go into the handstitching, and you’ll search hard to find another British brand whose bags are assembled wholly in its own British factory.

No wonder Daniel, in chorus with three directors and private investors, describes Chapman as a “great little British brand”. The company, settled

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in Carlisle since the early 1980s, has been on its present site for around 25 years. Over the past decade the pace has risen from that of an underinvested virtual cottage industry through to the opening of a factory extension and general makeover in 2013, which has doubled capacity and accommodated new machinery.

Investment in extending and renovating, not only the works but also the offices and factory shop, enables the company to welcome more

Manufacturing isn’t doomed in this country, only in need of urgent attention, says Daniel Chamier, a convert from the City. His company is to bagmaking what Dyson is to vacuum cleaners and Roger Smith to watchmaking

England forever

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

comfortably face to face trade and retail clients, visiting parties too who enjoy seeing manufacturing first hand. It’s a confidence booster for bagmaking in the UK generally, Daniel thinks.

“It’s certainly enabling us to manufacture a wider range of bags and increase our offer to the public,” he explains, stressing that the machinery is only for certain jobs, not for reducing the application of manual skills. “The bags are still hand crafted by dexterous artisans,” he affirms.

Most of the firm’s 25 employees there are Cumbrian born and bred. Some are long serving, but young people too will increasingly benefit through three new apprentice schemes being launched, a commitment felt vital to sustain the skills levels. “We’re investing in the future of British bag making this way, and through student placements from Carlisle College,” Daniel explains.

Even the city’s recent devastating floods failed to numb ladies’ fingers, though business was disrupted by the city’s watery divide impeding get-to-work routines, and vehicle shipments.

An embankment, emplaced as if by foresight, coddled Chapman and neighbouring small businesses.

The company remit takes in designers of numerous clothing and accessories, as well as brands and corporate needs. It offers a full design, sampling, sourcing and production service. Hence the stream of British and international designers, brand representatives and retailers now seeking a personal service and local sourcing which Daniel believes is beyond the ability of mass market suppliers to provide.

Daniel, aged 52, is to Chapman as Viktor Kiam famously was to Remington razors. He too liked the brand so much he bought it. He was looking for a suitable bag to carry on a safari trip in 2005. A Cambridge MA in law, Daniel in his career up to then had been an associate with Lazard Brothers for eight years, then managing director at JP Morgan, where he’d been from 1994 until 2003.

From then until 2007, he would be a partner with Lipworth Capital. Mergers and acquisitions, financial sponsorship in Europe and UK corporate coverage were his thing.

“I particularly wanted to buy a British made canvas rucksack,” he recalls. “I could only find something from a brand called Chapman. But I liked the product. I liked its character. I don’t like

“Too much of our human and physical material is London centric - fine for London, but not enough human and physical capital enters the nation’s economy from businesses like ours”

branding that says one thing but proves to be another. I was so pleased with what Chapman showed and gave that in the following year I invested in the business. That began a 10 year journey which still grips me every day.

“I passionately believe that manufacturing is still vital to our society and our economy here in Britain,” he declares. “Chapman enables me to put that perspective into practice.”

More than that, he has lobbied successive governments on the matter. “Too much of our human and physical material is London centric today - fine for London, but not enough human and physical capital enters the nation’s economy from businesses like ours.

“Over 400 years we’ve always in this country been good at making things. This skill requires

reinvesting. Germany, Italy and France still make things profitably. We seem, by contrast, too ready to accept we can’t make things profitably any more. It’s hard work and it takes time, but we should accept that.”

He suggests supporters of a post-manufacturing economy are influenced by London’s present position in the economy. “We’re indeed lucky to have a capital city so magnificent for international business services,” he agrees.

“There’s probably no other city in the world like that. But London’s different from the rest of this country, having so many of those businesses.

“The further you are away from London the more important our other industries in manufacturing and construction become. It’s a huge mistake to think we can survive without

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Out from little acorns big Lakes trees grow Quirk of circumstance governed Chapman’s location in Cumbria rather than in Northumberland or on South Tyneside.

John Chapman, the company founder born in 1943 the son of a Nottinghamshire farmer, was a policeman initially. But he fancied being a salesman and switched to selling print equipment in the Midlands for an American firm. Further ambition took him to the North East as sales director at House of Hardy in Alnwick. He was eventually lured from Hardy (so to speak) by the chance to direct Liddesdale Fishing Bag Company, a small manufacturer of sporting bags over the Scottish border in Newcastleton, Roxburghshire. After Liddesdale was acquired and taken in house by one of its biggest customers, Barbour on South Tyneside. John now started his own bagmaking business on the kitchen table of his home at Burgh-bySands in Cumbria. His first contract came from House of Hardy – displacing Hardy’s previously long established UK bag supplier.

Even then, in 1984, John had no workshop but had spread into the garage. A local machinist stitched there, while he cut the material and hand riveted with Jo, his wife. He traded profitably in his first year on turnover of £21,000. Customers were gained worldwide through agents, and retail customers at home included Harrods and Liberty. From subsequent rented workshops, Chapman in the early 1990s relocated to its present premises and, shortly after, House of Hardy re-entered the picture as Chapman’s acquirer. This acquirer, which became Hardy and Greys following another purchase, itself landed on the American hook of Pure Fishing in 2013. By 2006, when present ownership took effect, John and Jo Chapman had already retired. They live near Carlisle still, and Daniel says: “Their achievement in building a successful branded manufacturing business from scratch, with limited resources and in a notoriously difficult sector, inspires us even now.”

“We seem too ready to accept we can’t make things profitably any more. It’s hard work and it takes time, but we should accept that” manufacturing skills, and we have to consider the other places.

“If we condemn these places by relying wholly on London services we’re heading for a very, very disappointing future with large parts of the country turned into theme parks and supermarkets. That’s not what we need.

We have to apply our skills – get serious about making things. Look at the madness surrounding steel.”

Daniel sees five reforms necessary. Ultimate customers, he finds, want quality and value for money, not necessarily cheapness. “We discuss their wants with them directly, whether they’re paying £250 or £1,500. The way many manufactures are sold, brands can be marked up five times to give intermediaries margins they want. Seven times out of 10, I’d say, that’s the business model. So things are being Chinese made. It’s happening globally - not just in this country.”

Online helps counter this. But there’s the labelling hurdle too. Daniel explains: “There’s no labelling law in this country to state where something is made, unlike in the USA, Japan and China. For me, this is a fundamental. I’ve made

representations to successive governments but the common attitude is ‘laissez faire’. They won’t do anything.

“Apparently it’s considered important to encourage global supply chains. But without a labelling law, manufacturing is discouraged. They think it’s better to source in China.”

Then comes the education lament.“The system isn’t fit for purpose on skills,” he argues. “It doesn’t deal with it, merely badges it. Yet where there are skills there are jobs for young people.”

Finally there are the restricted and restrictive practices in this country’s retail industry, where, unlike in other countries’ shops, too little on-thespot variety of choice in brands is available to customers.

Daniel believes local decision making, through regional devolution, could tackle some of the issues through closer proximity to the workplaces - provided adequate funding accompanies the step. It all brings to mind a prediction made in BQ magazine three years ago when another City convert, Jonathan Ruffer, now transforming County Durham’s tourism with a multi-million pound resuscitation of Auckland Castle, suggested: “ 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.”

Daniel himself speaks with a foot still in both camps physically. He and his family live in London, where he also works, Chapman having a showroom there. But regularly also he leaves home in Clapham at 7.30am, catches a train and is at his desk in Carlisle by noon.

“Our turnover is now about four times what it was, creating at compound rates of 15% a year for 10 years. Our best sellers presently are our own-label traditional canvas bags and luggage for men, also the original fishing bags the company first made many years ago.”

Chapman sells wholesale to shops worldwide.

Further sales support complements its London showroom presence now, and it regularly appears in overseas trade shows. “We also work with other brands,” Daniel points out. “We provide, for instance, the bags for the front of the frame of folding bicycles that Brompton Bicycle makes.”

Quite a steady ride, that, given that Brompton is the UK’s largest volume manufacturer of bicycles. n

PROFILE Crathorne Hall Hotel

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Newly refurbished versatile meeting space Following a £4million restoration the historic Crathorne Hall Hotel, situated just one mile from the A19 in Crathorne near Yarm, offers the perfect setting for your business meeting or conference In consultation with English Heritage and Hambleton District Council’s planning and conservation officer, a team of specialist craftsmen worked on refurbishing and restoring grand architectural features, discovering gems such as a splendid archway uncovered in the County Suite corridor in the east wing. This has been restored and the detail repeated to create a grand colonnade.

Specialist structural techniques were employed to extend doorways and openings to create more space.

In the former nursery, an old stove was discovered which nannies would have used to heat the iron for pressing clothes. This has also been preserved and incorporated as a feature.

The York and Ormesby bedroom wings have been rebuilt, using traditional lath and plaster to restore the ceilings. Fireplaces were uncovered and restored within some of the bedrooms. As part of the

“Crathorne Hall has a range of versatile meeting and conference facilities include the newly refurbished County Suite” exterior restoration, slate was hand cut to match the existing roof and installed by tilers, one section at a time to ensure the coursing was aligned. IT connectivity has also been improved as part of the refurbishment work.

Crathorne Hall has a range of versatile meeting and conference facilities include the newly refurbished County Suite hosting three stunning meeting rooms, each named after a local region. These rooms are interconnecting to provide a larger meeting area perfect for conferences or private functions. The main Hall provides a further three function rooms offering a more traditional setting; the Drawing Room, with capacity for 100 people, the Edwardian

Room, with room for 90 people, and the Presidents’ Lounge, suitable for boardroom or dining events for up to 28 delegates. In addition, the property is situated on 15 acres of land, ideal for team building activities.

To make a booking or for more information, call Crathorne Hall Hotel on 01642 700398

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PROFILE Sunderland College

Apprenticeships that deliver real bite!

Apprenticeships have changed – no longer viewed as education’s poor relation, they are now seen as essential by blue chip business and a way to earn and learn by many young people “The experience of working with Sunderland College has been fantastic and we have been impressed with the apprentices recruited.”

Sean Thompson (centre) of Ashford Orthodontics with the four apprentices Whether it’s dental disciplines or digger design, crunching numbers or crunching abdominal muscles, the variety open to enthusiastic youngsters and forward-thinking employers is vast.

Apprentices receive practical on the job training with classroom-based theory and the range on offer is growing all the time.

Ashford Orthodontics is a Sunderland-based business that is experiencing real benefit from exploring the potential of apprenticeships, recently recruiting four from Sunderland College.

Established in 2001 by one of the UK’s most experienced and successful orthodontic technicians, Sean Thompson, Ashford offers specialist orthodontic technical services to orthodontic and dental professionals throughout the UK and abroad.

Sean said: “A successful business always has an eye on what’s coming next, and ensuring we have a motivated, talented and experienced young workforce helps ensure we remain fit for the future.

“The experience of working with Sunderland College

has been fantastic and we have been impressed with the apprentices recruited. The combination of our specialised teaching providing the workplace experience and guidance along with the college’s training team supplying the theory, works wonderfully.”

Ashford Orthodontics, which recently moved from its Sunniside base to a much larger, state of the art lab in Southwick, to accommodate the growing business, signed up apprentices Daniel Ormston, 23, as a digital dental technical assistant, Lois Scott, 17, and Ryan Sowerby, 24, and Paul Craggs, 23, as dental technical assistants, with the intention of providing long term, sustainable future employment within the company.

Daniel, who started his apprenticeship in 2015, said: “I love working here, and it’s great that I’m lucky enough with my job to say that. The apprenticeship is a brilliant opportunity for me to learn at the same time as earn – I love learning because I find everything we do here so interesting.”

The business has built a strong reputation for

specialised orthodontic technical services, with customer service and quality that is second to none.

Its mix of experienced employees alongside keen young apprentices helps make Ashford one of the most progressive orthodontic laboratory’s in the country.

Sean added: “These are bespoke apprenticeships, with a strong emphasis on building up and enhancing skills in the STEM subjects, which are highly desirable for most businesses.

“Ashford has always adopted a ‘personalised’ approach to our technical services, with the quality of the staff we employ being directly reflected in the quality of the work we produce. Our apprentices only enhance that further.”

Sunderland College executive director of commercial activity, Iain Nixon, added: “It is fantastic to see our talented young apprentices making a positive impact in their roles at an excellent local, sector leading business like Ashford Orthodontics.

“Ashford is a Sunderland success story – a local firm operating on both a national and international scale, embracing both traditional and cutting edge digital technology. Sean’s team has displayed a real desire to underpin its success with quality apprentices and I am certain they will play a hugely beneficial role in Ashford’s ongoing success.”

To find out more call 0191 511 6000 or email apprenticeships@sunderlandcollege.ac.uk

Sunderland College has supported 1,300 apprentices on their programme in this year to date.

92% of Sunderland College apprentices remain employed at the end of their apprenticeship.

Apprentices bring new ideas to a business.

An increased level of motivation and satisfaction was reported by 92% of employers who have apprentices.

Apprenticeships help businesses develop a motivated, skilled and qualified workforce. Firms that offer apprenticeships recognise them as beneficial to their longterm development, and provide the opportunity to attract new talent and offer progression.

80% of companies reported an increase in staff retention.

Over 250,000 workplaces in England now offer apprenticeships.

75% of apprentice employers say the programme has helped reduce recruitment costs, and 80% included apprentices in their longterm recruitment plans.

ÂŁ5k average net benefit afforded to companies per apprentice.

89% of those who employ an apprentice say that their business is more productive.Â

To find out more call 0191 511 6000 or email apprenticeships@sunderlandcollege.ac.uk

A place to be proud of Too few people are aware that the North East of England is a global fount of advanced building expertise. But that could change as a famous old building undergoes a transformation. Brian Nicholls reports

INSIGHT bqlive.co.uk

Even within Newcastle itself the fact that the city is the “engine under the bonnet” of advances for construction technology under way in many parts of the world comes as a surprise.

The head of a major recruitment group in the North East, for example, apparently never knew before chatting at an Entrepreneurs’ Forum gathering that a solutions provider called NBS not only exists, but operates from Newcastle - and that the knowledge it compounds, distils and distributes employs almost 180 people there.

Its existence surprised even the folk from Newcastle City Council at one point. Yet NBS for more than 40 years has produced the specification system for the recognised national standards of construction in the UK. Indeed, it’s the prime source. Beyond that, it provides innovative products and services for architecture, construction, design and engineering.

New build, refurbishment, retrofit, landscaping and domestic products for construction professionals are all covered. So too is contract administration and management of project information. Crucially, its NBS Create saves time and money by ensuring that all documentation works together intelligently for a project, from concept to completion and beyond.

As a technical publisher, NBS also turns out the UK’s building regulations for the Government.

There must be few newer buildings of importance it has not had an effect on now, because 98% of architectural practices in the country use it and the other 2% will be using a consultant who does, Richard Waterhouse reckons. Manufacturing industries are guided by it too. “Like the engine under the bonnet, we keep things going in the right direction,” he says.

Richard is chief executive of both NBS and RIBA Enterprises, a knowledge management business of the Royal Institute of British Architects for which NBS is a brand. Richard, who lives near Hexham, works two days a week in London but is increasingly abroad now promoting NBS services in English-speaking countries such as New Zealand, Dubai, Australia and Singapore. NBS is contributing also to the advance of expertise on mainland Europe.

“British architects are recognised leaders of their profession. We want to ensure that whatever tools they use here may be used wherever their products are made in the future,” Richard explains.

A key NBS asset is its leadership in Building Information Modelling (BIM), digital representation of buildings in 3D enabling architects, surveyors, engineers and contractors to collaborate more

“We’ve seen changes in methods of delivery in publishing, music and film. Organisations in the construction industry will change as well. Presently, its computers are still effectively just a digital drawing board yet to change.”

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“British architects are recognised leaders of their profession.

We want to ensure that whatever tools they use here may be used wherever their products are made in the future”

efficiently and avoid costly mistakes. It has developed this since 2007, and in 2010 the Government said from 2016 it will be compulsory in all public sector construction projects.

“We were naturally very happy about that,” Richard declares. “The technology is now being looked at worldwide. Since 2011 it has been saving huge amounts of money in the UK on the original capital phase of a building at design stage.”

Example: in the last financial year the Government spent £3.6bn on projects using BIM and saved £155m. “Suddenly governments around the world have got very interested,” Richards reports. “Efforts are also being made to push forward a European standards agenda for BIM too.”

Kim van Rooyen, director of global construction consultancy Turner & Townsend, has predicted that within a decade it will be as integral to the construction industry as computer aided design is now.

NBS’s advantages also include the fastest growing library in the UK, a Cloud based repository of its BIM knowledge. This award winning library is a prime source of free-to-use BIM content in the UK. Many bodies set standards in pursuit of best product, Richard explains – in fire safety for example. “We try to make sense of all the standards existing, then make it easy for customers to specify building products and materials. They save time and, as experts, hopefully we get it right. It makes them more profitable.”

“Having dealt with structure product information for many years, we describe that information rigorously ,” Richard says. “When you start pulling it into 3D models to be interrogated by different systems you can find the right information quickly. BIM has required us to add geometry to all our other data and regulatory standards.

“Our information web is simple to use, and we

aim to get that library into many more places.

The Government is keen also to push building expertise here into other countries. It helps designers’ work abroad, also contractors and manufacturers of building products looking for new markets.”

All this is hugely exciting, Richard avers, since one rarely gets to be part of a fundamental change in an industry, and construction is one of the last major sectors to be turning into a truly digital industry. “We’ve seen changes in methods of delivery in publishing, music and film,” he points out. “Organisations in the construction industry will change as well.

Presently, however, even though we work in computers it’s still effectively just a digital drawing board yet to change. BIM is changing it.”

It will, he warns, bring rationalisation as in other industries, especially as construction is a fragmented sector that involves thousands of organisations.

But Newcastle, he affirms, will be NBS’s headquarters and innovation centre throughout, heart of its intellectual property, its drive to make better things, and its transmission thereof to many parts of the world. How has that come about? After all, RIBA Enterprises also works from London and Newark.

In the 1960s construction institutions realised the quality of buildings was poor and needed a national specification system. Only RIBA volunteered for the task. It was started in 1970, took three years to assemble and was published in 1973. “It was a disaster,” Richard recalls.

“While everyone thought ‘we need this’, few were prepared to pay at first to change an industry.

“Yet there were some very strong proponents in the North East – FaulknerBrowns being one.

After a couple of years RIBA cut its losses and sold NBS to directors of the business then, both from Newcastle. They had to reduce cost, so they brought NBS from Marylebone High Street in London to Newcastle.”

Now NBS, already a sometime occupier of Newcastle’s old central Post Office, has bought the Grade II listed building and is converting it at a cost of £5.8m into a creative citadel to fortify further Newcastle’s standing as an architectural centre of significance.

Some people still remember warmly the building in its first existence. Passing through the entrance’s doric columns to the massive ground floor hall was like entering an adjunct of St Nicholas Cathedral across the road.

Smartly uniformed telegram boys outside, leaping astride their cycles to deliver news, good or bad, bred excitement. On an upper floor, hidden from public eye, a battery of earphoned lady telephonists, connected the city to the outside world, for this was both general telephone exchange and central posting point.

This spirit of times past excites Richard. He points out: “The technology then was to get people working together and that’s what we’re doing now in the 21st Century. Taking the best of technology and getting people to work together on it.”

NBS, which occupies almost three quarters of RIBA Enterprises complement now, was situated above Julie’s nightclub on the Quayside when it first relocated. The five floor post office, come its last post (so to speak), fell into disrepair in the 1990s. Fortunately, it was taken into Grainger Town conservation area.

The North East architect Alan Smith, through Red Box Developments, reconfigured the building into four viable parts in 1999 – apartments, offices for the North East Chamber of Commerce, architects’ studios for his own business, and the front area, taken up by NBS in 2000.

Last year RIBA Enterprises had chance to acquire the whole building from the Duke of Northumberland. “We laser scanned the building, creating a virtual model of it for designer and contractor alike. The building will be an exemplar for our products, a centre for architecture.”

NBS will now have the basement, ground, first and second floors. The third floor will provide incubator space for architectural start-ups. There will be big open work spaces, meeting rooms, classrooms, and exhibition area. Extension of the roof gardens and terraces will allow for entertaining, and with a gym and catering installed the building should be alive beyond

INSIGHT bqlive.co.uk

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They build on greatness

“Our design is, in essence, to return the building to its unified state, and to create work space for some 210 staff as teams, who are currently located across different parts of the building”

nine to five. Visitors from the business and academic communities, and the public generally, will be invited to enjoy the gallery and exhibition space, a lecture theatre and facilities for other events. Whether the original “beautiful and iconic” building (architect unknown) is 1870s or early 20th Century is being researched. But Richard says everyone concerned is passionate about its renaissance. “We hope the work under way will please current and future generations – as a working environment inspiring and motivating both staff and visitors, and involving people across the region.“ Surgo, the Newcastle builder back to prerecessionary revenues with a 55% rise in annual turnover to £35m, is refurbishing the interior.

Newcastle architects JDDK are overseeing the project. Adam Vaughan the project architect says: “Our design is, in essence, to return the building to its unified state, and to create work space for some 210 staff as teams, who are currently located across different parts of the building.”

Although NBS serves the entire country the majority of designers and constructors tend to be in the South East and London.

But Richard says: “We realise that to attract brilliant people for our business we need to raise our profile in the North East. We’re looking to do that so that people will know what we’re about when we advertise for more staff. We’re growing like mad.” n

Newcastle’s status as a centre of architectural interest starts on neoclassical Grey Street, popularly acclaimed as Britain’s finest street, and it continues along a line of outstanding work by architects associated with the city. These include: John Dobson, of course, designer of Grey Street and many magnificent country homes around the North East; Peter and Alison Smithson, noted for their post-war functional approach of ‘new brutalism’; Gordon Ryder and Peter Yates who set new-town standards at Killingworth; and Sir Terry Farrell, post modernist creator in London of the MI6 headquarters and Charing Cross Station, and in Newcastle of the new Quayside area and the International Centre for Life - and who in Shenzhen, China, designed KK100, the tallest building ever by a British architect. Richard Waterhouse, 49 and from Bingley, has now lived 31 years in the North East. His enthusiasm for the region and its architectural heritage flared as he studied architecture at Newcastle University.

“The North East is alive in architecture and model building,” he says. He notes how Sir Terry would like to see permanent exhibitions bringing the architectural heritage of outstanding areas closer to the public, and he hopes the new exhibition space in the Old Post Office will enable the region’s architects to draw the public closer to architecture in the 21st Century, and indeed heritage of the past.

An early practitioner of CAD and construction information, he worked in numerous architectural practices after graduating as a chartered architect.

Later, following sales and training roles within NBS, he led development of its product range. He has been chief executive of RIBA Enterprises since 2004.

He says “Maybe we’ll get the public back in later to see what we’ve done now.

We’ve a fantastic architectural heritage of all the different eras. Who knows what we might be able to do in the future?

All things are possible.”

PROFILE Hay & Kilner

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The Consumer Rights Act 2015: Simplifying the Law for Businesses and Consumers The Consumer Rights Act came into force fairly recently on 1 October 2015 to consolidate and modernise the law relating to the purchase of goods and services by consumers, while improving the benefits for consumers and businesses. The Act applies exclusively to consumers; private sellers and buyers who are not acting in the course of a business are not covered by the Act. The theory behind this Act is that the law will become clearer and more understandable; consumers are more likely to buy and businesses can sell to them with confidence. Should a problem arise, both parties will be able to resolve disputes quickly and cheaply. The intention is that both businesses and consumers who understand their rights and responsibilities will save time and money.

WHAT ABOUT OTHER CONSUMER LAWS? The Consumer Rights Act largely replaces and consolidates the three major pieces of consumer legislation: the Sale of Goods Act, the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations and the Supply of Goods and Services Act. HOW HAS THE LAW DEVELOPED? The Consumer Rights Act introduces or refines the following principles: • 30 day decision period – The consumer has 30 days to ‘reject’ goods and obtain a full refund if goods are faulty; • Tiered remedy system – There is now a tiered remedy system in place for faulty goods, digital content and services.

Whether a consumer is entitled to a refund depends on how much time has passed since the purchase; • Refund eligibility – If the business fails to repair or replace a faulty item, the consumer is entitled to ask for a refund or price reduction; • Alternative options to a refund/reduction – If the consumer does not want a refund or price reduction, the consumer is entitled to a

service, whether with or without goods, must adhere to the following: • The service must be performed with reasonable care and skill; • Information which is said or written is binding where the consumer relies upon it; • Where the price is not agreed beforehand, the service must be provided for a reasonable sum; and • The service must be carried out in a reasonable time.

Jan Rzedzian

second repair or replacement at no cost; • Refund value – No deduction is allowed from a refund in the first 6 months after purchase, except where the purchase is a motor vehicle; • Digital products – Consumers have rights in relation to online digital content that is paid for, digital content supplied free with paid-for items and digital content supplied on a physical medium; and • Contract negotiations – Consumers can challenge key terms of a contract, including price, on the basis that they are unfair unless they are prominent and transparent.

NOTABLE SIMILARITIES Those with knowledge of the Sale of Goods Act will find the ‘product quality’ provisions of the Act familiar, as the Consumer Rights Act requires that goods (whether physical or digital) must be of satisfactory quality, fit for purpose and as described.

Likewise for services, the general principles in the Supply of Goods and Services Act live on in the Consumer Rights Act; any supplier of a

If the service provided doesn’t satisfy the above criteria, the consumer is entitled to rectification of the element of the service which is inadequate or performance of the whole service again at no extra cost, within a reasonable time and without causing significant inconvenience.

Or, where that is not possible, a price reduction.

MORE OPTIONS FOR RESOLVING CONSUMER DISPUTES In those rare occasions where a dispute does arise, Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) is now available to all businesses when it cannot be settled directly. A business should make the consumer aware of a relevant certified ADR provider and whether or not they are prepared to use the ADR provider to deal with the dispute.

Please note that a business is not forced to use ADR unless it operates in a sector where existing legislation makes it mandatory.

For further information, please contact Jan Rzedzian Call: 0191 232 8345 Email: Jan.Rzedzian@hay-kilner.co.uk

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PROFILE NE LEP

The region’s first Enterprise Adviser helps to shape the North East future workforce The North East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) is spearheading the formation of a network of Enterprise Advisers who will work in partnership with the region’s secondary schools to help shape careers provision for pupils Denis Heaney, Enterprise Co-ordinator at the North East LEP, is leading the project.

Here, he explains how the region’s business sector can help to bridge the gap between education and the world of work.

“Enterprise Advisers are leading figures from the North East business community who work on a voluntary basis with schools to ensure that all our young people can successfully identify routes into working life,” explained Denis.

“Our Enterprise Advisers will offer their expertise and work in partnership with an individual secondary school, making close links between education and industry and helping to make sure that careers provision in our schools fits with what businesses really need from their future employees,” he added.

The first North East Enterprise Adviser to be paired with a school is Gary Burton, Managing Director at specialist engineering firm Arefco. Gary is offering his industry expertise as part of the team at the Northumberland Church of England (C of E) Academy’s Ashington campus. He will bring extensive industry knowledge to the school to ensure careers provision for pupils meets business need.

The close working relationship between Arefco – which is based on the Jubilee Industrial Estate in Ashington - and Northumberland C of E Academy is part of the North East LEP’s wider work to boost economic growth through educational achievement.

“If you are a passionate, successful leader and believe you could inspire the young people of our region, you should absolutely get involved with this project”

(L-r) Denis Heaney, school teacher Mark Fox, Gary Burton, school pupils Declan Stoker, Daniel Hume and Kai Thompson, and school principal Steve Gibson, pictured at Arefco’s factory Gary said: “We have a very specific need for technical skills and the type of people we need are just not in the shop window for us to employ.

“Through the partnership with the academy, we can identify the right attitude, aptitude and approach pupils will need to successfully develop and progress into sustainable employment – it’s a win win opportunity.

“Arefco is involved in the project as a business that cares passionately about putting our combined hundreds of years’ worth of knowledge into giving young people a chance to follow their career of choice.”

Steve Gibson, Northumberland C of E Academy Secondary School Principal, accompanied pupils on a tour of Arefco’s factory. He said: “It is vital for schools to work in partnership with employers to ensure that our young people are fully prepared for their future education and careers.”

“The world of work is changing and this unique programme is an opportunity for businesses like Arefco to be embedded within a school and make a massive difference to students and their future prospects,” said Denis.

“For the first time, business leaders like Gary will sit alongside head teachers and their senior leadership team, to embed careers development, enterprise and employer engagement into the curriculum from Year 7 onwards so it is taught on a daily basis.”

Arefco employs 65 people at its Jubilee Industrial Estate base, having recently expanded with the acquisition of Stephenson Precision Components of Blyth as the next stage in its growth plans.

It manufactures high precision components for the oil and gas, aerospace, defence and renewables sectors, for blue chip companies such as Halliburton, Aker Solutions and GE. The North East LEP is now seeking more Enterprise

PROFILE NE LEP

Advisers to work with schools and colleges located all across the North East, from Berwick to Durham.

A total of 24 schools and colleges have signed up to the Enterprise Adviser Network, each to be allocated a volunteer business leader in their area to work with them on careers development. Together, they are looking to refine the way schools and businesses interact, examine their enterprise strategies and fill any gaps.

The North East project is part of the national voluntary Enterprise Advisor Network which reflects new Government careers policy. The programme is being co-ordinated at a national level through the Careers and Enterprise Company.

“The Enterprise Advisors are a key part of this and we are excited to see the value that they bring”

“This is an opportunity for companies to make a real difference to young people’s lives by helping to guide their career prospects,” said Denis. “We want people to bring their industry knowledge into our schools and really put it to use, helping young people make a successful transition into the world of work.”

“We’ve already matched a number of Enterprise Advisers with schools and we are seeking more people to sign up to the scheme. We’ve had a fantastic response from schools who are keen to forge strong links with businesses in their local areas so there are opportunities ready and waiting for business leaders to get involved with.

“The potential benefits on both sides are immense,” said Denis. “We know that by strengthening links between schools and businesses we can make sure pupils are better prepared to enter the workplace and that their prospects are bright. We also know that the scheme can result in a future workforce which has the skills and knowledge our industries

require and we can also make students aware of the job opportunities which await them in the North East.

“Our ambition is to ensure that every young person in the North East is able to identify routes to a successful working life – with the opportunity from an early age to have exposure to the world of work and meet people along the way who can inspire and motivate them.

More details on the Enterprise Adviser scheme and how to get involved are available at nelep.co.uk If you think you have what it takes to be an Enterprise Adviser, or to find out more, contact North East LEP Enterprise Co-ordinator Denis Heaney on (0191) 338 7420

What would you say to a young person about the world of work?

A:

Be punctual

B:

Be enthusiastic

C:

Be willing to learn

D:

All of the above

Can you inspire the next generation?

We’re looking for leading North East business-people to offer their time to become an Enterprise Adviser and make a real difference to a local school.

For more information visit nelep.co.uk

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

A near 50% leap in online business, likely this quarter, is a trend many firms of any size would love. For Andrea Freeman’s micro-operation, just over two years old, it’s reassurance indeed.

This entrepreneurial fashion designer and her tiny team in Darlington are driving sales of an historic brand both at home and abroad with her knitwear range being turned out for men and women - made from British wool and manufactured in Britain too.

Having revived the famous Beehive brand that once spread the name of her native Darlington worldwide, Andrea now works with three manufacturers - in Nottingham, the Scottish Borders and Manchester. And she looks forward this autumn and winter to launching a Nordic collection of woollens, with styles available from this summer direct to consumers - as well as to extending her already successful Men of Action range.

Men of Action, the initial production run of her collection, is inspired by a wartime brand of heroes promoted in the original brand. It has sold out online. And, says Andrea: “There’s now a movement among big brands towards bucking the fixed season trend. The likes of Burberry and Tom Ford, among others, are asking why everyone should have to wait six months for products to land, by which time they’re almost out of date.

“This will affect wholesalers quite dramatically.

So it’ll be an interesting agenda. Being a small company allows us to be flexible in our retail model. We can offer our core customer base in-season promotions and pre-order functions exclusively. This helps build loyalty.

“We can test things and ultimately depend less on the seasonal cycle, bring product forward and alter runs depending on the weather. Take this recent February for example.

The cold then kept the winter range still very much in demand.”

The Men of Action autumn and winter collection includes Great British Fairisles taken from the Beehive emblem. Argyle and cable knit jumpers sit comfortably alongside Beehive

Woolly but winning the business Wool’s return to popularity is promising fashion designer Andrea Freeman a 50% leap in business with her revived brand – not bad for an enterprise barely two years old. She tells Brian Nicholls what’s selling and where

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

pointelle and fine gauge twinsets.

Key wholesale partners will be offered the ranges of this year and next to step up Beehive’s presence in the UK and Ireland, and Andrea proposes further export trials. “The Men of Action collection has drawn immense interest in Japan,” she reveals. “The ‘English gentleman’ look is very popular. So it’s important to capitalise on this and strengthen our new partnerships in Europe and Asia.”

Business so far in 2016 discloses new interest in Germany and Scandinavia from wholesale partners looking to supply Northern Europe.

Beehive is also into its second season of trials with Japanese retailer Journal Standard.

However it is the direct-to-consumer sales, web orders, that show most growth.

Andrea says: “To keep up momentum, that’s a key objective. We’re getting lots of engagement on our digital platforms and more enquiries off the back of our e-newsletters. The latest one received a 25% open-rate.”

That’s considerably higher than average for e-commerce – reportedly 16.8% according to Mailchimp. An illustrated appearance in the Daily Telegraph’s weekend magazine boosted traffic to the website more than expected, including many enquiries about sizes being re-stocked. More than 300 hits resulted.

Beehive was of course the famous brand of Patons and Baldwins, for which many of Andrea’s family once worked, as did thousands more in the Darlington area. Though she, during her career, worked with the Barbour clothing company, she never lost her fascination for Patons and Baldwins’ knitting wool factory in Darlington.

“This is part of the challenge. It felt natural to come home to the North-East after 15 years in the industry to start a label of my own”

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Inside the Beehive

“We can test things out and ultimately depend less on the seasonal cycle, bringing product forward and altering runs depending on the weather” She collected a range of Beehive memorabilia, ranging from knitting patterns and shade cards for wool shops, then on to original adverts from the 1940s and 1950s, when home knitting in the war effort and beyond was extensive.

Discovering an opportunity near the close of 2013 to revive the Beehive trademark and the 230-year-old brand, she seized it. Knitting is coming back into fashion among younger people, we’re told, and she has reinvented the brand by bringing mid-20th Century knitting patterns into the contemporary range now selling worldwide.

Andrea creates the designs in her Darlington studio. “Shapes need to be adapted a little from the original Beehive patterns to fit the modern figure. Our grandparents were slighter than we are,” she explains.

“But this is part of the challenge. It felt natural

to come home to the North-East after 15 years in the industry to start a label of my own.

Northern Powerhouse is high on my agenda – I’m passionate about doing business here and proving fashion doesn’t belong to London.

We’ve many plans ahead, recruitment included, as the Men of Action range expands and the Nordic collection comes in.”

Andrea is also an associate lecture at Teesside University. Earlier she was for seven years design and development manager at Barbour, South Tyneside’s globally renowned outdoor brand.

On turning entrepreneur, Andrea launched her Redana Studio label, selling scarves made from recycled materials. “I’ve worn many hats,” she reflects. “But being able to create a new chapter in the Beehive story is a highlight indeed.”

She’s now thinking about designing children’s knitwear under the Beehive brand too. n

The Beehive business so inspiring Andrea began in 1785. James Baldwin of Halifax and his Scottish counterpart John Paton had set up individual companies to use the spinningmule developed by Samuel Compton, and which revolutionised the manufacturing industry and textile trade.

In 1920 the two companies, J. and J. Baldwin’s Wool and Paton’s Yarns, noted individually for their commercial wool, merged. Patons and Baldwins was born. It diversified from commercial yarn spinning into producing wool for home knitters and publishing knitting patterns. These went under the trademarks Patons Rose and Baldwins Beehive. During the 1930s the company expanded in Scotland and the North of England, including at Billingham and Jarrow. Operations were also set up in Canada and New Zealand. Then In 1951 headquarters of the business was relocated from Halifax, in West Yorkshire to Darlington. Building had begun for the Darlington move in 1945, six years before, and the cost on completion was £7.5m.

This, however, became home to Europe’s largest wool manufacturing plant – indeed was recognised as the world’s most modern and largest single storey plant of its kind upon opening. It had its own railway sidings. It was also Darlington’s first major post-war industrial development, so Andrea believes. At peak, the firm employed more than 4,000 people and was an original member of the FT 30 index of leading companies on London’s stock exchange. Its diversifications included an angora rabbit farm in Staffordshire and involvements in nylon and Terylene development. In 1961, however, the company merged with J & P Coats Ltd, and today Lingfield Point, a thriving business park, marks the site of 107 acres once occupied by Patons and Baldwins.

With the arrival there of Capita and its 450 staff last November, more than 3,000 people are working at 60 businesses there. A £100m masterplan envisages a mixed community to surround the existing business core, providing up to 1,300 homes, green open space and sports, school and healthcare facilities.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY bqlive.co.uk

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY Surveyors prosper Solomons Europe, chartered quantity surveyors specialising in the process and energy sectors, have outgrown their satellite office in the Innovation Centre at Hartlepool run by UK Steel Enterprise. After three years, with 11 qualified surveyors and a trainee they continue to recruit and have quadrupled space occupied with a move into the centre’s Hub Two.

Hotel beds mounting up New hotel plans for the North East include one considered crucial in a £36m plan to revive Whitley Bay’s attraction to visitors.

A 68 bed Premier Inn employing 69 staff, and giving a Brewers Fayre restaurant on Whitley’s seafront, will be built beside the iconic Grade II listed Spanish City Dome. Confirmation has coincided with news of a second new hotel for Sunderland, another hotel for Newcastle - and improvements to hotels at North Shields and Durham City. The dome and its former Edwardian pleasure building at Whitley Bay is to be restored and re-occupied, partly by a £3.47m grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund. This, with further contributions from North Tyneside Council and Coastal Communities Fund, ensures the £10m needed for the restoration, and opportunities for shops, restaurants and facilities for cultural and community activities. It’s all part of the £36m

ambition to see Whitley Bay once more popular with visitors. Restoration is being managed by Boldon based Kymel Trading. Birmingham based architects ADP, who also operate from Newcastle, are in the team Mott MacDonald leads to revive the building once visited by thousands of holidaymakers yearly. Original 1910 features lost in the 1970s, before the building finally closed in the 1990s, will be reinstated. An existing Premier Inn at nearby Royal Quays is also being extended to serve an increase in ferry passengers coming to North Shields. In Sunderland the former Joplings department store in the city centre, empty since 2010, is to be turned into a hotel. Sanguine Hospitality Ltd has council approval for a 122-bedroom venue. Joplings went into administration in 2010 and 100 jobs were lost. The building’s landmark blueface clock, a popular meeting point, is likely to be lost in the transformation. Meanwhile Hilton Garden Inn, beside Sunderland football club’s Stadium of Light, is due to open with 141 en-suite rooms. The project is being managed by Turner and Townsend, and led by Tolent Construction of Gateshead. Redbox Design Group are the architects. On Newcastle Quayside, beside the Copthorne Hotel, the former Bridge Court offices of BT are to become a 160-bed hotel, with restaurant and business and conference facilities. This is part of a wider development on the Quayside by Union Retail Properties of North Tyneside, a venture of the Sehgal family, whose fashion and clothing business Visage in South

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Joan Cook of UK Steel Enterprise, Ian Hedley, Michelle Harcourt, directors of Solomons and members of the growing team in their new offices at Hartlepool

Shields, especially notable in the 1980s, was sold later to a Hong Kong buyer for £175m. In Durham City, the Kingslodge Hotel, now owned

by The Inn Collection Group, is starting 25 more staff. The same group owns the Lindisfarne Inn near Holy Island, Bamburgh Castle Inn at Seahouses and The Hog’s Head at Alnwick, Seaton Lane Inn near Seaham, The King’s Head Newton under Roseberry in North Yorkshire, and a new Commissioners Quay Inn at Blyth.

Boost for town centre Darlington’s town centre shopping venue the Cornmill is being revamped over summer by its new owner, NewRiver Retail.

Opened in 1992, Cornmill was previously in the Neptune Portfolio, which included shopping centres in Wakefield and Cardiff.

NewRiver bought all three properties last January for £92.3m in total, Cornmill being dearest. Cornmill’s design uplift promised, raises hopes the entire town centre will benefit. Presently futures of the nearby covered market and the elegant central library building – 150 years old and 131 years old respectively – are uncertain under local council decisions to achieve spending cuts by relocating library stock to the modern Dolphin Leisure Centre. It would then dispose of the present library building, and close or sell the covered market.

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY bqlive.co.uk

500 450 400

England and Wales average

350 300 250

Teesside markets pick up

200 150 100 50 0 North East North West

Yorkshire and the Humber

East Midlands

West Midlands

East

London

South East South West

Year’s wait for a decision Businesses in the North East that query rates they must pay have to wait around 369 days to get clarification of their appeal from the Government’s Valuation Office Agency. Newcastle comes off best in the North East with an average wait of 332.5 days, Hartlepool worst at 443 days.

In contrast, businesses in South Oxfordshire can wait up to 526 days. Paul Easton, director of Lambert Smith Hamptons business rates team in Newcastle - and national head of business rates - says: “Over seven years, the system has worsened almost to meltdown. The Valuation Office Agency is struggling to get enough qualified staff and cannot cope.

“So businesses that query their rateable value may have to pay significantly more than they should for more than a year, which could drive some businesses under. With the Government planning to implement new regulations soon, businesses may have to wait even longer.”

Trade parks rosier

Bustling in business

Well located trade parks on Tyneside are securing rental levels ahead of pre-recession level, Mark Proudlock, a partner at Knight Frank agency, reports. Two national firms, Toolstation and City Plumbing Supplies, have committed to Tyne Tunnel Trade Park, North Tyneside, taking together nearly 11,000sq ft.

At Team Valley, Gateshead, SBC Beds - part of Stanley-based Quality Discount Furniture - has taken a 2,668sq ft unit on Tenth Avenue Trade Park. And at Kingsway Interchange Naylors agency has concluded lets including an 8,500sq ft unit for plastics firm Pro Fix Installations, which is relocating from Blaydon.

Naylors has also been appointed by UK Land Estates to refurbish and upgrade Kingsway Interchange, where three of the 23 units ranging from 5,000sq ft to 10,000sq ft are still available.

Business Central, after just a year, is a bustling Darlington location with 28 companies settled there and eight clients currently holding business lounge membership, plus a number that attend site for events and business support. “It’s hard to believe it has been a whole year since Business Central first opened its doors for business and we’re very proud of its achievement,” says Vanessa Wood. “With many current tenants renewing their leases, it’s reassuring that we have more than achieved the targets set for our first year. We’re looking forward to building on that success in the coming year.” Business Central, in Darlington’s Central Park Enterprise Zone, is a £6.6m project that the North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) and Darlington Borough Council are working together on, with funding support from the European Regional Development Fund and the Homes and Communities Agency.

A pick-up in Teesside’s commercial property is evident, led through an acquisition of the pioneering Wilton research Centre. This has come within a £95m portfolio sale of UK science parks. US investment manager Angelo Gordon and Trinity Investment Management have bought Mars Pension Fund’s Business Environments for Science and Technology (BEST) – five science parks in all, the others being at Edinburgh, Manchester, Kent and Havant. Their 348 acres in total comprise the UK’s largest private network of science and technology parks.

The outlook for Wilton remains bright too.

Kaleigh Haeg, life sciences specialist at Colliers International, which advised the buyers’ joint venture, says: “While science capabilities in the UK have long been recognised as among the world’s best, the science parks have too often lacked the necessary strategic thinking to support and deliver a limitless potential offered by advancing life science sectors.”

Colliers’ new life sciences team, alongside lease advisory experts, will advise on the capitalising of growth for the joint venture.

Over at Darlington, rents at Morton Park in Darlington are rising following a £4m-plus purchase by Rockspring in partnership with Caisson. Rents have hit £5.50psf on smaller units for the first time. Darlington’s biggest letting for some years was seen there - 25,000sq ft to JLM Foods at Lingfield Point, itself acquired by Clearbell in 2014. On Teesside, occupancy levels reportedly continue their rise with significant investment in industrial stock by larger stakeholders such as Mandale and UK Land Estates. The trends are noted

by Connect Property North East (CPNE). On Teesside Industrial Estate alone CPNE concluded 14 separate deals and saw rents rise to £6psf.

Activity has mainly centred on the expansion and relocation of smaller SMEs. But Cooper BMW also expanded and A-Plant acquired new

APPLY NOW A grant scheme for businesses based in the North East.

The projects we can support are those which: Involve expenditure of £200,000 or more on capital assets or R&D and, where appropriate, training costs as part of a capital investment project Haven’t yet started Will be complete by March 2017 Will create or safeguard permanent, sustainable jobs Offer good value for money in terms of value of grant per job created Make a clear case for needing grant support Have adequate private sector funding for the project Comply with State Aid regulations

For further information and to apply visit www.be-group.co.uk or call 0191 389 8434 or email letsgrow@be-group.co.uk

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Natio ging Emer preneur Mike Hughes @mikehughes l a n o Entre rtells Nati gi@WEBMART 2016 boss Simon Biltcliffe ng r inne @BQLive e D r u Em pand e ren#BQEntrepreneur contestants how he did it.

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bqlive.co.uk

T O P T nWal E E T S

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FIND OUT MORE

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For more images of the event visit bqlive.co.uk

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Feeling very inspired by all the talented entrepreneurs this evening. #BQEntrepreneur

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54

PROFILE Creative North

The North creates 90 apprenticeship placements Creative North boosts the North’s creative, digital and tech sector for employers and for young people with a strict ambition to move 5000 young people into work by 2022 The well anticipated and exceptionally well attended GetDigital North East event in March showcased 60 of the region’s top creative and digital businesses, with those and attendees pledging 60 apprenticeship placements.

GetDigital North East; an initiative that was born over a few beers with Rob Earnshaw, founder of Creative North and Ruth Watson, Events Manager for Creative North - a wacky discussion of which included a bouncy castle obstacle course entrance, wooden crates and chalk boards as exhibition stands and bubbles, then evolved into the most anticipated event of 2016 for the creative and digital sector.

GetDigital North East which launched on the 17th of March, was an event for the regions creative and digital sector to come together to celebrate and collaborate. We constantly hear that we northerners don’t shout about the fantastic work we produce and just ‘get on with it’. 97% of businesses outside of the region have a negative perception of the North East, a shocking statistic that Creative North was and

is determined to change. GetDigital saw business owners and freelancers from across the country attend to meet with our sector in the North to see first-hand the quality of work they produce, and to understand the causes behind the North being one of the fastest growing regions.

Creative North invited investors, freelancers, collaborators, schools and colleges, business owners and non-digital businesses to GetDigital ensuring there was something for everyone.

During the day GetDigital saw almost 600 young people attend the event all looking to understand more about the sector; they wanted to know about roles in the industry, businesses in the industry and what the world of creative and digital looks like.

Schools and colleges from Newcastle, Gateshead, Sunderland, and South Tyneside were entertained by a magician prior to entering the event, and we even saw a school from Leeds. Feedback from exhibitors was that the young adults asked all of the right questions, they had a genuine interest and strived to be a part of the industry when the time comes for them to begin their career. On the evening we entertained 300 delegates for businesses to essentially get more business.

As well as ensuring the experience for our businesses was invaluable, we wanted to stress the very real problem that we have a growing skills shortage in the North and in this sector. GetDigital was an opportunity for Creative North and for the exhibitors to lock down the North’s talent and stop

PROFILE Creative North

them moving to London and the likes by promoting the opportunities, more so to young people and to professionals. Newcastle and Gateshead have the second highest growth in salaries at 27% in the UK in this sector; this is just one of the benefits we need to be demonstrating to young people as well as low living costs and a better standard of living.

Rob Earnshaw reinforced to our exhibitors that apprenticeships are the way forward for businesses to mould, train and upskill their workforce. There are around 23,000 digital tech jobs on offer in Newcastle and Gateshead alone; employers are telling us they can’t fill these positions for a number of reasons therefore GetDigital was an ideal opportunity for young talent to be introduced to employers.

On the day we asked exhibitors to pledge to support the Creative North Campaign; to create 5000 jobs for young people by 2022. Staggering figures of 60 apprenticeship placements were pledged on the day which means that sixty businesses will hire an apprentice or apprentices’ in 2016 and 2017, and since GetDigital we have had a further 30 apprenticeship vacancies pledged. Just some of the businesses include Mooshoo Labs, Smart Money People, Always Wear Red, Hedgehog Labs, Hewlett Packard Enterprises, Visualsoft, Gospelware, TH_NK and Orange Bus. Rob Earnshaw said, “The response and engagement from the regions employers and young people was unprecedented, and the fact that we have 90 apprenticeship placements pledged from GetDigital demonstrates how forward thinking businesses are in the North and clearly indicates that our region is on board with and acting upon current agendas.”

Historically creative and digital employers have had limited engagement in apprenticeships however following a shift in industry and economic development there has been a strong growth in the number of employers hiring apprentices - this is a testament to the fantastic work our region is doing.

We are urging as many businesses as possible to support the campaign and to consider an apprentice.

For more information about apprenticeships and how they can support your business, call us on 0845 301 0041 or email apprenticeships@creativenorth.org.

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Employers in our region who have taken the chance on a young person Every month Creative North likes to celebrate the latest employers who have taken apprentices.

Here are just a few for you.

ALWAYS WEAR RED Hannah Stokes (pictured right), an aspiring marketer approached Creative North looking for hands-on experience in the ever-growing creative sector. Hannah was looking to work somewhere she could learn from industry professionals to become the best she could be in her desired career field whilst studying a sort-after qualification. Around the same time, exclusive fashion brand Always Wear Red spoke with Creative North on the hunt to find an ambitious young adult they could train, develop and pass their expertise onto while also growing their business and maximising on all opportunities to boost productivity. Michael Owen, MD and founder of Always Wear Red, said: “At Always Wear Red we understand the importance of apprenticeships and how they contribute massively to businesses. We believe in providing budding professionals with the knowledge they need to grow as individuals. “Hannah will be in Scotland next week visiting one of the best cashmere knitters in the world and is already liaising with Always Wear Red Co-owners, TV personality Ralf Little and successful businesswoman/ TV and Film producer, Zoë Roch.

“Hannah has been contributing live to our social media platforms and that was only in her first week.

“She is being helped by Lisa, former North East Businesswoman of the Year, with digital marketing expertise. “Hannah will be helping us at a ‘Women in Ties’ photoshoot in March, themed to highlight strong, successful women dressing for themselves, and will be alongside me delivering a talk in London in May at the biggest annual congregation of elite British manufacturers.”

ROUNDHOUSE DIGITAL Roundhouse Digital has a long-standing commitment to nurture talent in the North East. Building on the successful placement of students from computing and design degrees over the past few years, the agency has now taken on an apprentice to work with the team on social media initiatives and project management activities. Creative North put apprenticeships on our radar through their Creative Pioneers programme. Following a series of interviews, Adam Nisbet (pictured right) was selected to help with the enhancement of the social media initiatives and to get involved in day-to-day project management activities.

“Adam has not only fitted seamlessly into our busy studio but his work rate and initiative means he’s delivered real, tangible value to the business already, and also means we’ve been able to involve him in a wide range of digital activities. Already his knowledge of digital is really strong,” said account director, Jason Longworth. “Although most of our team are under 30, having someone significantly younger in the studio is a real benefit as digital moves so quickly and Adam has really kept us on our toes in terms of social media platforms we could use as a company and to push out to our clients including universities which have a real focus on harnessing digital products for measurable impact on student recruitment activities.” Michael Armstrong, Digital Director, added: “The business is thriving and we’re looking to grow the team with like-minded people who bring intelligence, creativity and innovation to the work we do. “Our first experience of apprenticeships has been overwhelmingly positive and we’d encourage any business with the capacity to invest in young people to do so as the benefits to both parties are significant.”

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BUSINESS LUNCH bqlive.co.uk

John Reece, chairman of rapidly growing Reece Group, gives Brian Nicholls his table talk recipe for risk, be it on mountains or in management

John Reece admits he’s a risk taker – correction, a calculated risk taker – and from a house he has in Chamonix he can see a prospect in the French Alps as tasty as the garlic prawns he’s tucking into now. It’s Aiguille Verte – the Green Needle – in the Mont Blanc massif that’s tempting him.

“It’s so impressive, an absolutely white tower one of the Alps’ loveliest peaks. I’d like to climb up there. I hope I’ve got that in me still. Mont Blanc has a nice big dome you can walk up but this hasn’t.”

First climbed in 1865, it’s much lower than Mont Blanc at 4,122 metres (13,524ft). But it has taken lives for all that. “I don’t know. We’ll have to see,” says Reece Group’s chairman over lunch at Bonbar in Newcastle.

Last summer’s completion of the Munro, the

Always another mountain

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“We hope by the end of the year we’ll get a production order. Then I hope one of the big players like Heinz or Nestle and companies that make food for major brands like Marks & Spencer will follow”

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282 Scottish ascents of more than 910 metres (over 3,000ft) are even lower, but weren’t without risk. So has he had dangerous moments in climbing?

“A few,” he confesses. “In the Alps you’re in a totally different world. Britons go there not realising what it’s going to be like. I did.

I went to a few places with my brother and suddenly found myself thinking ‘I’m out of my depth here. I’m in a dangerous place far off the ground.’ So I’ve had a few little scrapes. But I’ve come through them all – that’s the main thing.”

Coming through unscathed is the main thing in his business life too. Already an MBE, John now also has a Fellowship of the Royal Academy of Engineering for his contribution to industry, joining names like jet engine developer Sir Frank Whittle, radar pioneer Sir George MacFarlane, bouncing bomb inventor Sir Barnes Wallace and Sir Maurice Wilkes, father of the UK computer industry.

But without taking calculated risks, a business can stagnate, he agrees. The secret is to try to avoid danger, especially in his case where it might jeopardise 400 jobs. He proved himself in 2001 when the ceiling fell in on the telecoms bubble which had been providing some 95% of the work for undersea vehicles being turned out by Soil Machine Dynamics (SMD), an initial enterprise leading to the Reece Group. In a year turnover plunged from £60m to £5m and 220 staff fell to 30.

John had taken over running of SMD, started in the early 1980s by his father, the late Dr Alan Reece as a spinout from Newcastle University where he’d been a reader in engineering. Amid forebodings John took a chance, committing SMD to a switch of sector – from telecoms to offshore energy – and risking family assets.

This calculated risk, oiled by innovation, paid off.

It also reaped an eight-figure sum when John sold SMD on, and despite everything, it never suffered a loss. Today Reece Group umbrellas a range of innovative firms developed at home and abroad: defence, oil and gas, subsea, power generation, road construction, healthcare and food – all in an engineering context.

The group is on the front line of businesses showing the North East of England’s prowess in advancing its engineering tradition. John cites two calculated risks recently taken: the acquisition of a company – one of two in quick succession – and the other the bold relocation

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“With a new offshore field development you would have to think that when it comes onstream in four or five years’ time the price will be back to about US$90. We’re looking for other markets”

into the massive and historic Armstrong Works at Scotswood in Newcastle, representing a £20m investment to bring all activities under one roof.

This new business, seen as still something of a gamble, is Continuous Retorts (CRL) – only because its first machine promising revolution in food safety processing has yet to be built. A five strong team had been developing it for five years at Gosforth, and portents are good.

John explains: “It’s chicken and egg. Food firms are very conservative. They won’t buy machines until you’ve actually built one. We’re focused now on producing a prototype to demonstrate with real food its capabilities. I think once we’ve done that…well, there’s already a huge amount

of interest. I think it’s a good prospect.

While machines already pasteurise or heat treat food for the shops, this machine should do it better and more evenly, improving the taste and reducing sugar content, which the Government and many of the public want.

We’re eating more and more of the type of food under consideration, and if it’s not done right it doesn’t taste as good. The masses of sugar used to preserve it are also the exact opposite of what everybody in fact wants.”

Until now parts going into the prototypes have been outsourced; now Reece Group will provide both support and infrastructure necessary.

“If you’re a tiny company of five trying to sell a multi-million pound machine to someone

like Heinz they’ll probably say ‘you haven’t built a machine yet. You’re tiny and have no balance sheet. We’re not going to give you a £2m order’, whereas they might give us one – hopefully.

“We hope that by June a machine will be processing food and by the end of the year we’ll get a production order. Then I hope one of the big players like Heinz or Nestle and companies that make food for major brands like Marks & Spencer will follow.”

Investing £20m to occupy Armstrong Works amid oil and gas recession is a calculated risk but it’s a fantastic facility and he’s optimistic good money will be made out of it. Its near. Work once carried on there, by Lord Armstrong and

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latterly Vickers and BAE, ranged from cranes, hydraulic machines, ships, locomotives, cars and the first breech-loading gun to parts for Spitfire aircraft, the Dambusters’ ‘bouncing bombs’, tanks and armoured cars.

Would the so called “workshop of the world” still be vacant but for Reece Group? “I don’t know for sure but the factory at Leeds, where Vickers also built tanks, has been demolished.

We have room for ambition.”

The other big recent purchase, MineWolf AG, looks an odds-on winner. It perfectly complements Reece Group’s own product range defending soldiers and civilians in troubled parts of the world from perils of minefields and booby traps. MineWolf’s machines till, dig and smash suspicious ground. Pearson’s devices are fitted to the front of combat vehicles leading a convoy such as tanks and armoured personnel carriers. Any time now the new asset will be officially relocated to Tyneside from Germany and Switzerland, and first lives to be saved as a result may be in Sudan, through a demining action group. Defence is still Reece Group’s best market in its £51m turnover, and MineWolf promises £7m more at least. The threat from booby traps (improvised explosive devices) will still be huge if there is need to enter Libya, Syria, Iraq or Afghanistan, and it exists also in areas less headlined, such as Korea and India near the Pakistani and Chinese borders.

Attention is also being given to suicide bombers. “Most trouble spots are not front line any more,” John reasons. “Make a road in Afghanistan safe one day and next day you don’t know whether it’s still safe. You have to do something all over again. The weapon of choice in Syria and Iraq is the truck suicide with masses of explosives aboard. You can’t put mines down for that because a civilian might drive over them.”

How many soldiers’ lives were saved in Afghanistan and Iraq with help from his group’s roller kit? “The military aren’t very good at imparting information from there, but I think in Afghanistan alone we’ve had hundreds of IED strikes (improvised explosive devices). Each would otherwise have gone off under a vehicle carrying at least two, probably four, people.

“Some would probably have been killed but the vehicles are good. More would have been wounded. The mine plough is more of a combat thing suited to conventional war. You

need a tank for that - something heavy enough to push it.”

The group’s innovation business has around a dozen researchers and developers working towards technology that can be commercially exploited. “We thought oil and gas was where we’d get success. Meanwhile the offshore oil and gas market has imploded. Hopefully that sector will pick up but I think it will be quite a while before it sees investment return.”

Rising prices at the pumps don’t fool John. “A new offshore field’s breakeven is about US$60 a barrel. It’s nowhere near that,” he points out. “Marginal cost is about US$30 when it’s only just about worth keeping your platforms running, but not worth exploiting a new one. With a new offshore field development you would have to think that when it comes onstream in four or five years’ time the price will be back to about US$90. We’re looking for other markets.”

Nuclear? John has some background in atomic energy. Sponsored by the Atomic Energy Authority (AEE), he studied engineering for three years at Cambridge University, then worked for a year at the AEE research station in Harwell, Oxfordshire. He left in 1984 and joined his father in building SMD. Now the group’s Responsive Engineering has been bidding for work at Sellafield in Cumbria.

“That’s very close so we are hopeful we’ll get work. We’re looking at nuclear, aerospace, and military opportunities. But so is everybody else.”

One certainty is Reece Group’s determination to maintain the region’s engineering talent. It’s taking on apprentices and has launched its first graduate programme. The Reece Foundation isn’t company owned but the company funds its encouragement of technical education, working with schools to encourage knowledge and interest in engineering.

In Newcastle alone the foundation, which John’s sister Anne Reece runs, and of which he’s a trustee, helped Dame Allan’s Schools to build a science block, and has funded a science building for St Cuthbert’s High School. It has paid for teaching initiatives and sponsors events such as Maker Faire at the International Centre for Life.

Now - that Alpine climb… “I’ve had three significant operations in the last two and a half years, two to my ankle, one on my neck.

But I aim to get properly fit.” And off he goes to the gym… n

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Bonbar, Newcastle The Assembly Rooms has received the Duke of Wellington and one of the Strausses in the past, and its spacious Bonbar restaurant is welcoming now.

Georgian aspects there are genuine, and the shimmering island bar feature blends beautifully with history.

A reasonably priced menu offers 11 starters and 11 mains plus a choice of bites and sharing boards for up to nine.

Booths give privacy and the background music that would have bemused Strauss will prevent eavesdropping on business talk. Service is attentive and unobtrusive.

Vegetable and cream soup of the day can be recommended, so too green vegetable linguine with mint pesto and crumbled feta, and the garlic prawns on toasted focaccia and garlic and parsley butter. There’s a wide choice of wines and cocktails. John’s verdict: “Very nice - never thought to lunch here. Very convenient for a meeting.”

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Standing up to further inspection Paul Champion, CEO of Profound Group, finds a better choice of dining wines with a little help from his friends No-one was more surprised and excited than I was when asked to contribute to BQ Magazine - the top business magazine in the region.

Flattered and with a sense of achievement, I started to wonder which of my leadership skills they wanted me to write about.

Would it be around strategy, managing change or my evangelical belief in developing skills through apprenticeships? I was excited to find out more. Being in the midst of an Ofsted inspection, I didn’t immediately follow up the request. But every now and then it would cross my mind, and the sense of being published in some way was satisfying.

After a good first day of inspection, I was keen to see what our marketing team at Profound HQ had signed me up for. Approaching the beaming smiles of our marketers, I got even more excited about the prospect. But what did they have in their hands? Wine…what’s all that about? It’s only the first day of inspection, and to be fair it’s a bit premature to start the celebrations surely!

Then it became clear. I was being asked to share my wisdom and knowledge through the medium of wine tasting.

I feel it would be unfair at this point not to make clear that “wine tasting” isn’t one of the strengths on my CV, nor is it even one of my hobbies. But what I do have on the CV is that “I like trying new things and socialising” so that’s close enough for me. Something else that does

appear on my CV under hobbies and pastimes is technology. I’m a bit of a geek!

My first thoughts as I sat in my kitchen staring at the Tasca, Sicilian Regaleali Case Vecchie 2015 White, and the Les Yeuses Les Epices Syrah 2013 Red was “there must be an app for that.”

A quick search showed, thankfully, there was.

Vivino, available on both IOS and Android.

So my strategy went something like this… Invite friends who do know something about wine to help taste both and share our thoughts, scan the label with the app and see if we could come to an agreement. We decided if we couldn’t agree, technology should win the day - as it seems to be doing in our everyday business lives these days.

We first sampled the white, a 2015 Tasca Regaleali Bianco Di Sicilia. We all agree this is crisp and refreshing. Made from local grape varieties such as Inzolia, Greciano, Catarratto and Chardonnay, on an estate owned by the noble Tasca family since the 1830s, it’s very delicate without being bland. And it has some complex flavours of apple, peach and, to one of the more educated pallets, pink grapefruit.

Vivino also agreed with our findings, getting five star ratings and some reviewers calling it “amazing and superb”. We all felt this would be a great wine with shellfish or vegetable dishes.

The next wine, a 2013 Domaine Les Yeuses Les Epices, made with Syrah grapes, was spicy,

perfumed, but still quite soft on the palate.

Produced not far from the Mediterranean, and near Meze in the Languedoc region by Jean-Paul and Michel Darade, it’s clearly enjoying the best of the local climate and soil. It has a roundness, marking it as a wine of quality. The finish is long, with a very intriguing bitter-sweet pepper note, making it the perfect companion for all manner of meat dishes. Again, we all managed to agree with Vivino, giving it five stars. Most of the online reviewers agreed they’d buy it again.

Thanks to BQ Magazine and as per my CV, I have tried new things, socialised and used technology. At first it seemed daunting being asked to do something new and, to be fair, out of my comfort zone. It felt a bit like the first day of my apprenticeship back in 1980. I’ve carried those skills from my apprenticeship throughout my career, and hopefully I’ll use the skills picked up reviewing these wines to make better choices when dining. n

Tasca, ‘Regaleali’ Bianco Di Sicilia 2015 £8.99 (mix six £7.99), and Les Yeuses “Les Epices” Syriah 2013 £8.99 (mix six £7.99). Wine supplied by Majestic Wine Warehouse, Gosforth

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I put 150 miles on the clock of this Aston Martin DB9 GT over the course of an early April weekend, and it was easy to see why it was deemed a modern classic – to be driven at alarmingly higher speeds than I managed around the roads of North East England, I’m sure. It took no more than five minutes for me to become addicted to its sound, aggression and head-turning capability. It’s an outstandingly beautiful piece of machinery, to say the very least. When you’re behind the wheel, people take notice; they stop and stare, attracted first by what they hear and then by what they see.

It wasn’t completely love-at-first-sight on that

Turning heads and changing minds Paul Stonebanks, managing director of AIS Training on North Tyneside, samples life in the Aston Martin DB9 GT and finds himself addicted

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“I’m sure the people twitching their curtains, scowling and cursing, would all forgive me if they too had the chance to drive this car.” wet Saturday, though, as on drenched roads I felt the car twitch beneath me. But as the clouds lifted and I settled in for the weekend, this car made me want to drive it again and again.

I thought it would be rude not to leave the car in sport mode, and exploit the engine for everything it had for every mile I could enjoy in it. I climbed in on the much drier Sunday morning, as excited as a small child on Christmas morning.

My neighbours might not have really appreciated the noise first thing that morning; like cutting your grass at 7am on a Sunday, it felt quite socially unacceptable.

But I did it, and loved it, and I’m sure the people twitching their curtains, scowling and cursing, would all forgive me if they too had the chance to drive this car. So, it’s an exciting car to drive, with a sound that electrifies you, but does it manage to be practical too? Perhaps not for my lifestyle; I’m not sure I’d ask anyone to become a regular back seat passenger, and golf players aren’t likely to find it suits them either, though

there is definitely some room in the boot.

And therefore, if you’re single or the kids have upped and left home, and you love a good, fast car, then this is the one for you. Personally, I’d plump for the Rapide purely from a practicality point of view, because you still get that addiction-factor that comes from this range of fabulously well-finished vehicles.

Just before I had the chance to step into the DB9 GT, I bought a Range Rover supercharged.

I love it... but the Aston Martin has turned my head. So I suppose ideally, I’d get myself a sensible car, AND a DB9 GT. Just for fun. n The car Paul drove was an Aston Martin DB9 GT, priced at £139,995.

The car was supplied by: Paul Thursby, Dealer Principal. Aston Martin Newcastle, Cobalt Park Way, Silverlink,Wallsend, Newcastle, NE28 9NZ Tel: +44 (0)191 6910333 Email:paul.thursby@astonmartinnewcastle.co.uk www.astonmartinnewcastle.co.uk

Aston Martin DB9 GT The GT model takes the DB9 of old, and gives it a modern makeover of the face and the body. Adorned now with a black splitter at the front, black brake callipers and a new set of lights, it retains the sleek and graceful bodywork that has been turning heads since the original model debuted in 2003. Vital statistics: the 6.0l, V12 engine offers 30bhp more than the standard model, making it the most powerful DB9 ever. 0-62mph can be done in 4.5 seconds and maxing it will take you all the way to 183mph. There’s little about this car that you can’t configure to your exact desires, but even just a la mode, the interior of this car is art. Few harsh angles, the whole of the dash is one big handstitched curve, and you can control – well, everything. Those controls are laid out intuitively, and the AMi II touch sensitive infotainment system is outstanding.

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In an age of digital innovation swiss watch makers are finding new ways to make a statement and grab the consumers attention, as we report

Watches for our time

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“In this often gloomy world I think it’s important to put a smile on the customer’s face,” says Jean-Marc Pontrou, the CEO of Roger Dubuis. “We’re here to provide emotions. We’re in the love business, the gift business - even if that gift is to yourself.”

Many in the Swiss watch industry will acknowledge the functional outdatedness of the mechanical watch in the light of smart-phones. Few will stress just how much success in that industry is about getting people excited. “The fact is that you need to make a statement,” Pontrou adds. “People may like it.

They might not like it. But they remember it.”

That may be all the more important seeing as, Pontrou predicts, there is something of a cull among watch brands on the way: Switzerland has some 700 of them, relative to just 12 major car manufacturing groups, he notes. “We can’t forget that the last 10 years have been exceptional ones for the business,” he adds.

Perhaps this is why Roger Dubuis, like many of the companies unveiling wares at this year’s Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva - the high-end watch world’s catwalk shows - has taken such distinctive position: in its case by focusing on watches for women. And not the usual scaleddown men’s watches: dials with flowers and leaves in laser-cut enamel, models inspired by the Chanel-owned shoemaker Massaro, even ones with the first diamonds set in carbon and super-rare Paraiba diamonds at that - all feature in the collection.

Certainly, while SIHH offered up some trends, as far as watches

at this end of the market follow trends - yellow gold and skeleton dials most notably - many watchmakers have gone out of their way to be stylistically or mechanically inventive. Richard Mille’s RM 50-02, for example, sees the company team up with Airbus to make, fittingly, its most streamlined model to date, with the case made from the same alloy used to make Airbus’s turbine blades and screws holding the watch together the same as those used to hold the airframe together.

Audemars Piguet, meanwhile, has now launched a production version of its patented Royal Oak Super Sonniere minute repeater, just a year after it unveiled the concept: it uses the science of instrument making, including a sound board, to produce a watch with a chime 10 times louder than anything on the market to date and cleverly circumventing the typical problems suffered by minute repeaters, notably a tinny sound deadened by being on someone’s wrist.

“We have historic legitimacy in the making of minute repeaters - lots of companies have introduced one over the last five years - but still we knew we had to make a strong statement in this area to really re-think how a modern minute repeater might work,” explains Olivier Audemars, head of the company’s R&D. “We spent a lot of time talking with physicists and musicians about harmonics...”

The show even revealed what could prove a genuine gamechanger for anyone really fixated on the notion of cogs and wheels being in some way a superior form of timekeeping to circuits and batteries. Parmigiani Fleurier, at 20 years old this

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year still a young brand, has made a major splash with an innovation called Senfine - that’s ‘eternally’ in Esperanto.

It is still in concept, though the company says it will have a production model on the market by 2018. The big idea? It replaces the usual classic watch regulator - the several parts of which burn through energy as a consequence of friction with a virtually frictionless silicon oscillator that combines balance, balance spring and pallet fork.

If that all still sounds like technical gobbledegook, the upshot is a mechanical watch with a power reserve measured not in the usual few days, but in months. Or at least one-and-a-half of them. Perhaps the most curious - and telling - aspect of the innovation is that it’s the brainchild of Pierre Genequand, a scientist who never trained as a watchmaker. In that is a lesson perhaps for the closeted and insular Swiss watchmaking industry to think outside the case more often.

Indeed, SIHH - usually a showcase for the long established and internationally known brands - seems to be embracing this notion itself: for 2016’s show the organisation opened a new area for the expanding generation of young, progressive niche players the likes of Urwerk, MB&F and H.Moser. These are the companies making waves by placing innovation over refinement, and successfully charging big bucks for the results.

Hautlence, for example, has produced a watch with stained glass panels, designed in conjunction with, of all people, Eric

Cantona; Urwerk has its T-rex, the dial of which is almost entirely covered by a bronze carapace, cut into tiny jags to mimic, what else, but dinosaur skin. It is not your usual Swiss conservatism, and yet it is not without craft: the metal cover - which will develop a patina, thus itself becoming a more poetic expression of passing time - was painstakingly hand-cut using sandblasting and acid washes.

Of course, SIHH also offered the less adventurous, if no less technically sophisticated or well-crafted. Cartier’s new men’s model, the Drive, for example, is pure classicism - with its cushion case, guilloche dial, blue hands and Roman numerals.

IWC’s stand-out piece is the Timezoner Chronograph, the kind of high function, higher machismo watch that the company specialises in: it’s the only pilot’s watch that enables the user to set another time zone, together with the date and the 24-hour hand, in a single movement.

“Something like the Timezoner is simple to use but very hard to pull off, mechanically-speaking. But it’s always hard to find something technically new to do with a pilot’s watch and I’m rather worried about the next collection,” as IWC’s technical director Stefan Ihnen jokes, “because I’m not sure what else we can do. So far I have no ideas...”

Perhaps the answer, even for a brand regarded as a master of minimalism, is to nod to the aesthetically extreme. That may make the guardians of brand values shudder to think on, but the fight for consumer attention seems to be what the watch market is increasingly about these days. n

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Goodbye to bawlers Bawling at Johnny Foreigners in English, John Cleese style, to make them understand is passé now in the selling game, expert linguist Aidan Stradling suggests.

Having instead someone who speaks Johnny Foreigner’s own language like a native can score remarkably by contrast, as the young firm Valued Accountancy finds. This North East financial service, set up in 2011, decided two years ago to hire a Chinese-speaking accountant and introduce marketing literature in Chinese.

In 12 months its client base has grown 60%, largely through an influx of Chinese clients.

“That’s a perfect example,” says Aidan Stradling who himself, astoundingly, speaks four foreign languages fluently and another 20 to greater or lesser extent. “If a Chinese company only produces its literature in Chinese it’s not going to win business here.”

“But if it uses services of a competent English speaker, preferably a native speaker, the tone of its literature will be just right in English to attract

business here. It’s not only a matter of speaking a language; it’s also important to understand the culture and context wherein that language is spoken.”

Stephen Paul, owner of Valued Accountancy, explains: “There’s a big Chinese population in the North East now, and with the number of Chinese business owners growing and requiring our accountancy and business support, we have adapted.”

Accountant Gavin Ng, Valued’s sino-catalyst, advises the Chinese clients not only on year-end accounts and personal returns but also payslips, P60s and VAT returns. Valued, operating from Consett, Newcastle and London, also trains and implements for Xero – Cloud-based accounting software for SMEs. Stephen says: “We spread the idea among some existing Chinese clients of a bespoke accountancy package, priced competitively. It revealed a gap in the market.”

Chi Kwong Yeung and Koon Lam, to name two, are thankful clients. Mr Chi at his Consett

Companies hesitating to benefit from a new incentive to win foreign markets because of communication issues have the advice here of Aidan Stradling, who can speak in 24 languages. Brian Nicholls talks with him in English

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“When I’m bound for a new country and need to learn some business language I can normally learn all I need to know for that purpose within about half a day” takeaway says: “I found it hard to keep up with all the paperwork. I’ve been relieved of a major worry.” Mr Koon at Blaydon concurs: “Gavin and the team have my best interests at heart.”

On opportunity abroad, Aidan says speaking a language helps you to travel around a country better and learn a lot more about it. “Many of us in Britain are scared of languages unnecessarily. If we have to take a four year university course to be qualified to speak a foreign language many of us, understandably, will be put off. But when I’m bound for a new country and need to learn some business language I can normally learn all I need to know for that purpose within about half a day.”

Aidan is so skilled at learning other tongues that he has built a business from it, as founder and director of the Anglo-Russian Centre in the North East, operated from Whitley Bay. It’s picking your foreign words carefully that enables you to do business in someone else’s language in a short time, he explains.

“If you’re an accountant you need to be quite

good at maths. But for business accountancy you needn’t know everything about every branch of mathematics. And when learning a language you needn’t be able to say everything.

I only learn what I need to use.

“I may only speak a few words of Hungarian but they’re key words I need to meet and greet and say thanks, and to respond to pleasantries and set the tone and wind up at the end of a business meeting. You then stand out from the crowd. A lot of my business contacts abroad appreciate one has gone to the trouble of learning even a few words of their language.”

Previously he worked in several departments of central government that had departments and sections dealing with international activities. “I spent a lot of time shuttling back and fore to Brussels,” he says. “Working with colleagues in the EU, you have opportunity straight away to speak 20 different languages. Like companies, they appreciate it if you communicate in their own language. Like an onion ring, it gets you into the next level.”

His primary languages are Russian, Dutch, German and French, and among the other score he can even include Manx, related to Scots and Irish Gaelic, because Isle of Man is where he grew up. Is it advantageous? “If you can say hello to someone in the Isle of Man, why not?”

This language consideration is all part of good business preparation. But often, Aidan recounts, it’s forgotten about until right at the end, then there’s panic in seeking a solution. “Building it into preparation from the start can work to your benefit, and if you’re uncertain it’s best to have an interpreter who’s trusted by both sides, a professional, to undertake any serious negotiations.”

He set up the Anglo-Russian Centre on noting how many companies and organisations selling in many other countries felt reticent about entering the Russian market. “It was perceived as a difficult market. Having worked across Eastern Europe and Russia, I decided it wasn’t that hard if you knew where to go and what to do. That knowledge, skill and information I

INSIGHT bqlive.co.uk

share with businesses here now.

“I do seminars and workshops here. I can have a phone chat or face to face with a company to explain about the context. I can accompany firms to trade fairs and use my networks and contacts to link people up.”

Countries of the former Soviet Union are all different, he cautions; you shouldn’t assume you can just go anywhere there and speak Russian.

“It’s that sort of preparation that’s vital to business success,” he adds.

Similarly there’s often confusion about political sanctions currently applied to Russia. “They’re individually targeted at people in the close circle around President Putin and companies they’re involved in,” he advises.

“For me sanctions have improved business.

More British companies are coming for advice about whether the sanctions will affect them, and whether it’s still worth their while to enter the market. I did a seminar recently for the Northern Offshore Federation in Durham.

Offshore energy is an area targeted by some sanctions, but not all companies are involved and not all types of goods and services involved.”

The Anglo-Russian Centre has been cultivating in particular the Kaliningrad area of Russia, the part nearest the UK. “If you head east from our region at 55o you cross a bit of Scandinavia then hit Kaliningrad region. Like the North East, it has a maritime history and remains Russia’s only year-round ice-free port on the Baltic.

“It’s somewhere everyone flies over between London and Moscow. I wanted to cut out the London and Moscow sectors. All big firms operate in London and Moscow and for smaller companies in the regions it’s difficult to get a foothold. But Kaliningrad is well off the tourist track, and while there’s a nice beach holiday resort there, being in the Baltic it’s only well utilised at certain times of year, and it can take some time to get a visa.”

However, it produces 90% of the world’s amber, valued as a gemstone, and has a huge opencast amber mine. Most of Aidan’s contacts, though, are with small companies and organisations that offer services. “I tend to shy away from anything that goes in a box,” he says. “I mainly work with knowledge transfer, ideas, processes and procedures. People are receptive to this.

There are fewer opportunities there than in St Petersburg or Moscow. But if you’re almost

the only person accessing those opportunities you’re likely to do better than in the melee of big cities.”

Wherever your sales target, using the right form of communication as well as the right words is important. Face to face, wherever you negotiate, becomes important in Aidan’s view. Sales teams trying, for example, to break into Arab markets, where personal acquaintance and confidence in relationships is a priority, are likely to find they don’t get very far simply sending emails.

Daniel Chamier, whose successful selling abroad of Carlisle-manufactured bags you can read about on other pages in this BQ, suggests

71

you must visit places where you want to sell.

“Markets there will be different from your local markets,” he points out.

And consider Aidan’s calculation: “There might be 100m people living in a particular country but you’ll want to connect with those who can see a direct link with you. If you get to know one relevant person, they probably have 30 or 40 connections themselves. Then they have another 30 or 40 they could also introduce you to. Soon you’re linked with hundreds of people - far more useful, that, than cold door knocking.

And I always ask my connections the questions that businesses here ask me.” n

There’s talent to cope with a cosmopolitan trend Having access to linguists is increasingly important now. For example, at Quorum Business Park on Tyneside 32 languages are being spoken. Fergus Trim, the park’s development director, says: “There’s been a feeling for some time that Newcastle in particular is becoming more cosmopolitan – not just in student, leisure and creative terms, but also in business.”

Quorum’s a case in point. A survey there has confirmed considerable diversity in the workforce.

“It’s been a significant factor as a growing number of international firms have created new jobs in the region,” Fergus tells. Many of the 16 businesses there work in international markets and have needs in a variety of languages. Ebiquity and the US firm Convergys are two.

Ebiquity monitor publications and brands worldwide for international clients. In 2010 it “North shored” a function to Quorum, where it now has 250 staff. Convergys works on big international contracts from Quorum. The availability of graduate linguists for employment in the North East is considerable and comprises not only UK students who have learned a language or two. Newcastle University, for example, has more than 4,000 international students who’d obviously have needed good English to go with the proficiencies in their native tongue, and Newcastle’s two universities are among the most successful at retaining foreign graduates for entry to the local workforce. At Quorum there are staff from more than 65 countries employed.

Lisa Scott at Equity says: “Quality of life and affordable living standards persuade many foreign students to apply for jobs here.”

Fergus Trim expects demand for good linguists to continue. He points out: “The North East is raising its profile as an inward investment destination. Many companies likely to come in will work internationally.”

Focus on selling overseas comes as Lloyds banking group proposes to help 5,000 firms to export for the first time – 25,000 in total by 2020, thousands of which are expected to be small and medium size, and in the North East. It’s part of government efforts to help 100,000 businesses export in total for the first time. Leigh Taylor, the group’s head of SME banking in the North East, says: “We want to support a new legion of North East exporters, and help the UK economy to prosper. For the past year we’ve been working with UKTI, looking at ways to boost UK exports.”

To that end, the group will invest £450m in digital technology and training over three years.

Businesses will be able to monitor opportunities through a new international trade Portal, and there will be a new internet banking portal for businesses. Lloyds reckons a third of North East SMEs now sell goods or services abroad. Eurozone remains a key target for North East firms, with 52% increasing exports to the territory. Sales to the USA, Canada, Asia and the Pacific are expected to increase by 18 to 27% by the end of this year.

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ENTREPRENEURS bqlive.co.uk

Are Britain’s best sandwiches made in the North East of England? They could be. And we’ll know for certain very soon if James Stoddart wins a national award to prove it.

The venison filled entry from new product development chef Nathan Baker, that has taken James’s company to the London final proved strong meat indeed for other bidders of the region to contend with. An over-all victory now for the title, to be bestowed by the British Sandwich Association, would add prestige indeed to a silver-sheen new factory called The Pantry. That’s where James and his wife Helen have just moved in and expanded their business, called cleverly and appropriately (in light of a £7m turnover and growing) On a Roll.

A six month resettlement period into the 35,000sq ft pristine premises from a smaller site next door but one at Riverside Park, Middlesbrough, enables the Billingham couple now to take the workforce onward and upward to almost 200, and to run three production lines with another to follow soon and perhaps a fifth eventually, all building on a 10 hours daily operation seven days a week.

The business sourced from local produce, and with everything bar egg mayonnaise made on site, and with the ingredients delivered fresh every day, began as a bet on a ski-ing holiday, when a baker friend joshed James, a chef, over a couple of beers. “Bakers are very controlled in their work,” James explains. “Everything for them has to be measured, weighed precisely.

A challenge was made because chefs weigh nothing. Nothing is consistent. We chefs just keep adding ingredients and if it doesn’t taste right you just change it.”

James said: “You can’t buy a good quality sandwich.”

“Well, a chef wouldn’t be able to do it anyway,” came the reply.

James replied: “OK, we’ll see.”

The challenge was to make one million sandwiches in a year. As James had nowhere to do it the baker made a room of 1,000sq ft available to let. “Use that room and we’ll see what you can do if you’re so clever - and that was it,” James recalls. “He was laughing

Filling with success Whether or not Britain’s best sandwich proves soon to come from the North East of England, the enterprise of James and Helen Stoddart will be an ongoing cause for pride. Brian Nicholls tells their story because I was paying rent on a room he wasn’t using.”

But James got the last laugh because On a Roll was on the move and today the business to business operation makes seven million sandwiches a year in about 80 different varieties, having enabled James to win his £10 bet some considerable time back. On a Roll sandwiches, produced at more than 10 times the first year’s output, are sold so extensively nationwide it surprises even James sometimes.

Holidaying in Devon, the couple pulled into a filling station. “You know what it’s like when something catches your eye?” James recalls.

“It happened as I glanced at the food shelves. I suddenly thought ‘God, somebody’s copied our packaging.’ I went over and picked it up. It was my own packaging. On another occasion he happened to be in Essex when one of On a Roll’s 21 flamboyantly liveried delivery vehicles flashed past on a delivery run he was unaware of.

On a Roll product may be bought anywhere between Devon and Scotland because Nisa is a major customer, along with other retailers, various hospitals (through NHS bodies), workplaces, schools and Teesside University.

About a third of current orders go to the schools and higher education destinations, and hospital sandwiches meet NHS nutritional guidelines of being at least 300 calories and with 18g of protein or more.

Now, with a diversification into gluten free, the firm’s sandwiches are being sold also into Sweden and Norway, and though the Stoddarts weren’t allowed to shout it at the time, they supplied sandwiches for the recent UK Olympics.

Many challenges there were successfully met, such as an order for 8,000 sandwiches suddenly being whipped up to 19,000 later the same day.

James, 52 this year, trained as a chef at Darlington College, had a variety of job experiences initially – in a fish shop, as a fork lift driver and even as a butler. From college he initially worked at Gisborough Hall Hotel, now a four star Macdonald but privately run then. It was made clear to James the management then had little faith in college education, but a belief that ability came with working one’s way up through on-job experience. James took that in his stride. From starting as a pot washer he found himself banqueting manager within nine months.

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ENTREPRENEURS bqlive.co.uk

ENTREPRENEURS bqlive.co.uk

He later took over the kitchen of the squash club at the old Stockton racecourse, now buried beneath Teesside Retail Park, then in 1987 opened a hotel and restaurant, James’s, in Stockton. “The food there was too far ahead of its time,” Helen says.

‘Food on the go’ at which On a Roll now excels, business to business, has proved a different prospect altogether – as results of mega-participants like Greggs, Subway and McDonald’s confirm. On a Roll’s early customers included a local NHS body and a vending company. But even when growth compelled them to relocate to a second factory they were still a workforce only 12 strong. Since recently moving to their

latest location the workforce has risen from 90 to more than 150 with 12 agency staff in addition, and the target of 200 still stands.

An interesting sidelight on recruitment shows a continuing value in print media despite a lot of pessimistic talk that surrounds it. Helen explains: “We’ve had a lot of job applications at production level, especially after an editorial article about us appeared in the local newspaper – a better result than any advertisement or a dotcom would have done.”

Finding suitable applicants at management level is harder. One would-be quality manager for example suggested: “I have no quality experience but I have a good eye for quality.”

And the lady who suggested in all sincerity “I make good sandwiches for my children so I will be ok” probably had no idea of the precision now involved in sandwich making. The entire activity is heavily computerised.

As James explains: “When someone places an order for bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches

75

we have all the ingredients going into them recorded, details of the products’ storage, all the costings involved, the nutrition involved for the labelling, and stock requirements and stock availability. That’s all generated from one order put in.

“So if you bought a tuna sandwich today then rang and said you weren’t sure about the tuna in it, we’d ask for the date on the pack and be able to tell you within five or 10 minutes when it was made, how many were made and where they were sent, which mayonnaise accompanied, which butter, which bread, what time it ran down the line and when it was out of the fridge.

“In other words, full traceability. We’re just in time onto line. That’s why we invested so heavily in due diligence and traceability systems.”

The data processing employed controls weights, stocks and recipes. If you went downstairs now I could put you on a mixing terminal and you could mix a filling like someone who has been

“You know what it’s like when something catches your eye? It happened as I glanced at the food shelves. I suddenly thought ‘God, somebody’s copied our packaging.’ I picked it up. It was my own packaging”

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ENTREPRENEURS bqlive.co.uk

“If I’d known better I would most probably have done a course in change management”

Tuna by the ton, please Most popular filling? Chicken tikka wraps, Helen says, though tuna mayos are massively popular.

They must be. The firm gets through just over a ton of tuna a week. Bacon, lettuce and tomato are also well up the chart and the vegetarian market is growing but not expected in the near future to match tuna mayo or egg mayo.

Even so, having felt a lack of creativity existed in this sector, On a Roll Choice has gained custom with offerings such as coronation egg with mango chutney and coriander, spicy chick peas and roast vegetable with spicy tomato and onion chutney.

Any fillings losing popularity? “Not unless there’s a scare,” James says. “There’s always something. Someone will say there’s more salt or sugar in a BLT than there is in a McDonald’s.

You get a fall in sale there for two or three weeks, then people come back from what they’ve switched to.

You can take the fat, sugar and salt out of a sandwich. But if you take all the fat out there’s no flavour left. So you have to replace the flavouring. Nine times out of 10 you’re replacing it with a sauce or something like that, so you are back to where you started.”

Here it should be mentioned that emphasis in design of the new factory has been placed on hygiene standards to ensure excellent microbiological testing results.

With the products locally sourced, On a Roll is out now to get the Soil Association Charter Mark which is heavily geared towards British products. It guarantees that what’s being sold or served is freshly prepared, free from undesirable additives, better for animal welfare, free from controversial e-numbers and does not contain artificial trans-fats or ingredients that are genetically modified. The fourth Earl of Sandwich, whose call amid a poker game for meat between two slices of toast on 3 November, 1762 (toast preferred not to smear the cards) cannot in truth be said to have invented the snack named after him. Arabs had been wrapping their meat in pitta bread centuries before. But even he, and perhaps those early Arabs, would have been impressed going around On a Roll and seeing just how many different fillings they could call for now.

“Someone will say there’s more salt or sugar in a BLT than there is in a McDonald’s. You get a fall in sale there for two or three weeks, then people come back from what they’ve switched to”

here for three years. The terminals tell you what you’re doing. You can’t pass go until you hit the tolerance on scales. And if something goes forward that hasn’t the requisite life span the system won’t accept it. It won’t let a later batch of tuna, for example, overtake an earlier batch.”

The 13 terminals in the production are complemented upstairs by a bank of computers processing delivery notes, invoices and other administrative requirements. A particularly remarkable feat recently was the firm’s ability to continue production amid the “massive changeover”, as Helen describes it, for three production lines had to be resited.

“If I’d known better I would most probably have done a course in change management,” James laughs. “Everybody assumed more space, better equipment, better facilities and more staff would make it easier. Actually it made the move harder. You wouldn’t believe that, would you? “ Support came financially from Tees Valley’s Business Growth Investment Scheme and Middlesbrough Council’s economic development team, through which land was bought from the local authority with the backing of a £640,000 grant. Councillor Charles Rooney, the council’s executive member for regeneration, has described On a Roll’s progress as “a real local success story showing what can be achieved through hard work and commitment.”

Now the firm is bringing in a new product development chef who, at 28, will be tickling the public’s taste buds further from inside the gleaming experimental kitchen where this interview has taken place. “He’ll have the best job in the building,” James reckons. “He gets to play with food, and I get to play with rubbish bags. Hands-on James, in corporate overalls, had just seen to it that the most fundamental job in hygiene is carried out thoroughly. “This is the biggest investment I’ll ever do in my life,” he says, looking round – then admits he’s holding onto the building just vacated while he looks into a further sandwich project. You can’t keep a good man down, after all. Or a woman. n

PROFILE Lowes

77

Lowes on path to expansion with move to Gregg’s HQ May marks a pivotal point in the Lowes company history as we move into larger premises from those that have served us well for over 30 years. Only two ‘doors’ down on Clayton Road, in Jesmond, Fernwood House is designed by the same architect and built in the same year as our old home, Holmwood House, in the same Italianate villa style popular in the Victorian period.

Lowes Financial Management was founded by my father, Ken Lowes, in 1971 with the business starting life in Pilgrim Street. The business moved to 10 Market Street a couple years later, where the office space was shared with accountant Len Gatoff and his firm Spicer and Pegler. Lowes gradually expanded, taking on more offices above and between Lloyds Bank and Northern Rock Building Society. When we moved to Holmwood House in 1984, there were just 12 people working with the company.

Over its 45-year history, Lowes has grown its clients and staff and now more than 70 individuals work for, or are associated with organisation to the extent that Holmwood House became a little overcrowded and we had finished all possible extending.

I’ve always had designs on Fernwood and in reality, it was the only property we would have considered moving from Holmwood House for. The move gives Lowes almost 10,000 square foot of additional space, providing more client meeting rooms and room for us to expand further, and appoint high quality individuals that can deliver on our promise to “care for personal finances personally.”

Coincidentally, our new home, Fernwood House, was at one point a maternity hospital which was the birthplace of not only the aforementioned Len Gatoff, who subsequently became the company’s non-executive chairman, but also our senior consultant Peter Collins.

The more functional office space will further integrate the different teams at Lowes, with spacious and some open-plan offices allowing them to work more efficiently together with better communication facilitated. At Holmwood, it’s a split site, as Consultants are based in the Mews at the rear of Holmwood House. Now they will be more integrated with the rest of the organisation with their headquarters in the main building at Fernwood.

We currently have 15 Consultants at Lowes and over

Greggs Chief Executive Roger Whiteside (left) congratulates Lowes Managing Director Ian Lowes on the acquisition of Fernwood House

the longer-term, we expect to grow these clientfacing representatives, alongside other teams, in a comfortable environment. However, here at Lowes, we don’t want to expand too fast, as our aim always is to build a business that constantly seeks to improve the service delivered to clients and wherever possible exceed expectations.

Unlike some other larger financial services firms, we don’t view a client as a number. Good financial planning isn’t a short-term process, but instead it’s about building and maintaining relationships, constantly tailoring the planning as the individual gets older and ultimately looking after subsequent generations.

Towards this aim, Lowes will utilise the office space at Fernwood to build partnerships with other professional services firms, such as accountancies or solicitors, whether that is through sharing office space and/or joint events. For example, our first professional connections event at Fernwood will take place in June with solicitors and accountants.

This will further help us provide a single point for clients for financial matters, making their lives

easier. For example, many people who have never done a tax return will now have to or risk fines, as a consequence of the changes to the way bank interest is paid and dividend tax rules. Another area we looking to develop is probate services. Watch this space and please do get in touch if you think your business can benefit from building a partnership with Lowes or if you’re seeking the highest quality financial advice from friendly, approachable people.

For more information contact Lowes Financial Management, Clayton Road, Jesmond, NE2 1TL Tel 0191 281 8811 or visit www.Lowes.co.uk enquiry@Lowes.co.uk

PRINCE’S TRUST

Inspiring young lives Shannon glides through

A remarkable story of courage emerged when Shannon Davison (below) from Durham was crowned a runner-up at The Prince’s Trust and Samsung Celebrate Success Awards held at London Palladium. HRH the Prince of Wales, founder and president of the Trust, joined 2,000 guests - including Tom Hardy, Geri Horner, Rita Ora, Alesha Dixon, Bear Grylls and Dynamo - at a ceremony hosted by Ant & Dec. Shannon, who’s 20, said being there felt surreal. “I can’t thank the Prince’s Trust enough for what they’ve done for me. I hope Prince Charles knows about the difference his charity has made for so many young people.”

The awards, now in their 12th year, recognise disadvantaged young people who have overcome issues such as abuse, drug addiction, homelessness, depression and unemployment.

Tom Hardy, a Trust ambassador, presented Shannon with her trophy. She is now one of three young people nominated for HSBC’s Breakthrough Award, recognising the progress of young people who have developed skills enabling them to face their challenges and stabilise their lives. Ice skater Shannon was hospitalised after a cruel attack, aimed to destroy her career and leave her with horrific injuries. Following a year of mental and physical abuse, Shannon was in despair about her future.

She resorted to prescription drugs and alcohol, growing isolated and unwilling to accept help.

She recalls: “I didn’t know how to deal with what had happened. I didn’t dare to care.”

Through her mother she joined a 12-week course the Trust runs to build confidence and

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employability. Getting up in the morning was a struggle – a side effect of medication. But Shannon felt inspired and enjoyed meeting other participants. She then enrolled on another Trust programme to build confidence and motivation through dance. It relit her passion for skating. A film she posted of herself skating on Facebook brought the offer of an ice-skating performance job in Spain. With her passport expired, she nearly turned down the chance.

But the Trust supported her to secure a grant helping young people to pay for equipment or training they need to get a job. This led to her fast-track passport renewal. Shannon flew to Spain alone and skated in daily shows before large crowds. Now she’s hoping to land a skating job in Mexico. Simon C Martin of HSBC says: “Shannon can be extremely proud. She’s shown extraordinary resolve.”

Support pours in Altogether 300 guests attended this year’s Prince’s Trust business dinner at the Hilton Gateshead, featuring as headline speaker Sir Vince Cable, former Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills. The event, supported by Newcastle University Business School, PwC and Bond Dickinson, raised £40,000 to support disadvantaged young people in the North East and Prince’s Trust Young Ambassador Shannon Davison shared her story. And you can read it here…

Centre of attraction Currently in the North East there are an estimated 50,000 young people not in education, training or employment - the highest rate in the country at 16.1%. The North East also has the UK’s highest level of youth unemployment: 4.2% of 18-24 years olds claim Jobseeker’s Allowance. The Prince’s Trust has identified an opportunity to change the lives of young people through the creation of a ground-breaking young people’s centre and charity headquarters in Newcastle. The centre will allow the Trust to develop a leading youth employment and enterprise hub in the city, consolidating activity, strengthening relations across public and third sector partners, and providing a service to young people. The new centre will also be more accessible for young people and will help the Trust to grow incrementally in delivery and quality of its core programmes.

For more information, please contact Laura Rose: laura.rose@princes-trust.org.uk visit www.princes-trust.org.uk, or call us on 0845 177 0099

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Paul revs up in a hectic lifestyle

Paul Abbott might have been a world class speedway rider or a celebrity DJ if he hadn’t taken chemistry so seriously Paul Abbott has never been one to put his feet up and reach for the TV remote. The 44-yearold earlier this year linked with Hydrochem – the North East water treatment specialist and, as its water treatment sales manager, is enthusiastically moving the business forward.

Hydrochem is one of the region’s oldest water treatment firms, checking office blocks, care homes, schools and factories to ensure their water and heating supplies are both safe and compliant with health and safety laws. They make heating systems work efficiently, too.

And while Paul’s CV shows he’s worked across the UK and Europe for a number of similar businesses, life in the lab is a far cry from his hobbies. Off duty, he swaps mixing chemicals for mixing music – with a spot of speedway riding too.

“I always fancied a career in music when I left school,” he explains. “In the rave scene of the late 1980s, I used my wages from a job in a record shop to buy equipment. I started DJ-ing in places like warehouses, and it grew from there - all the latest house and techno stuff. I ended up DJ-ing in London.

“I got plenty of work, had some crazy nights and was resident DJ at the Arena in Middlesbrough. I also played the Hacienda in Manchester. I had a proper job as well in London, again in water treatment. It was hard getting up on a Monday morning when I’d been DJ-ing at all-nighters all weekend. So I put it on a backburner and came back North after I met my partner Romina. I still do some DJ sets at festivals - I’ve one planned for this summer - but not as much as I used to.”

Now instead Paul, who lives at Yarm, may be seen in his racing leathers heading to Teesside Motorsports Park to pursue his other passion – speedway. “I went to see Middlesbrough Tigers in 1985 and got hooked. My mam thought it too dangerous so she never let me buy a bike when I was younger.

“But when I got a good company bonus a few years ago I bought my own bike. Most riders

Paul Abbott: never one to put his feet up

“I think I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie, but life’s too short to reach a stage where you look back and think ‘I wish I’d done that’” taking up speedway are aged between 15 and 21. So at 44 I’ve left it late. But I spend a lot of time on the track practising and getting better.

I’m taking it seriously. I’ve lost over a stone since January as the lighter you are the faster you can ride. So I’m committed. I think I’m a bit of an adrenaline junkie, but life’s too short to reach a stage where you look back and think ‘I wish I’d done that’.”

Whether or not a career in speedway takes off, Paul is focused on helping Hydrochem grow.

He also finds time for family life. He has a 22-year-old daughter from a previous relationship, and is dad also to a six-year-old daughter and twin girls – the latter making big arrival a few months ago. They’re proving not so easy to handle as tight bends on a sliding machine!

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LUXURY IN THE HEART OF NEWCASTLE

MEDIA BRIEFS Second take on what they tell us

Dan’s the man for me If I were organising a seminar on family ownership and managing change I’d ask Dan Robinson to lead it. It’s a hot topic now as Baby Boomers near retirement. Business founders and entrepreneurs worldwide are handing over to their offspring in record numbers.

Dan is Hartlepool’s shining business star who, after a 13 year military career that had him flying fighter aircraft for both the RAF and United States Air Force, and a New York entry into private wealth management, returned home to revive Gus Robinson Developments.

The building and civil engineering firm was in crisis after the untimely death of Dan’s father Gus. Now Dan has the company prosperous again. With Steve Bell as his handpicked managing director, it’s currently working on one of the firm’s biggest housing projects yet, a £4.8m scheme at Great Park, in Newcastle, and putting up more homes elsewhere in the city, and at Sacriston in County Durham.

The recovery required not only insights into family business, which Dan acquired working for his father earlier, but mastery also of change management. He has explained how to members of the Entrepreneurs’ Forum. However, until he commits to a book, helpful insights will also be found in Engaged Ownership: A Guide for Owners of Family Businesses. This book (Wiley, £23.99, hardcover and e-book) tells how to build dynamic and effective partnerships with trustees, board, and management, and how to succeed as stewards of the family’s financial, human, and enterprise capital. The author, consultant and advisor Amelia Renkert-Thomas, who has worked with diverse family enterprises on strategy, governance and ownership, trains and educates family members and family advisors also. A trained lawyer, she deflates and manages conflicts arising through structures of ownership, such as voting and non-voting shares, trusts, partnerships, and foundations. She herself is the former president of Ironrock Inc., her family’s fifth generation manufacturing business.

Dan Robinson: the transformer

Change must come Most studies show a 60-70% failure rate for organisational change projects, according to Harvard Business Review.

The Little Black Book of Change by Paul Adams and Mike Straw (Capstone, £12.99, hardback and e-book) outlines seven steps towards delivering organisational change. These range from improving service levels to cost reductions, innovation or increasing market share, and gaining energy from setbacks. Straw has worked with Roche, Novartis, PepsiCo, Diageo, Heineken, Microsoft, Amex and large, acute NHS hospitals. Adams heads the global management team of a leading technology firm. He’s guided leadership and organisational change at Diageo, the Co-op and Smith & Nephew.

Biz Quiz 1, When did the Metrocentre first open at Gateshead?

2, Where in the North East is the latest Business Improvement District to be situated?

3, Sunderland has been rated England’s best city for inward business investment in respect of growth in commercial and industrial floorspace, connectivity, cost base and quality of life. Source of these findings?

4, How many pairs of shoes can be fitted into Charles Clinkard’s new £3m headquarters at Cannon Park, Middlesbrough? Is it 25,000, 250,000 or 2,500,000?

5, Which North East firm has won a slice of the contract to build the white water canoe course for the coming Rio Olympics?

highlighted in the Municipal Journal. 4, 250,000. 5, Cundall in Newcastle.

ANSWERS: 1, 1986. 2, Hexham. 3, Research in a Local Futures inward investment report

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BIT OF A CHAT Frank Tock’s examining the news behind the headlines The voice of business Prime time television actress Elizabeth Carling is giving voice to North East businesses. She’s doing voiceovers for their advertising and other promotions.

Elizabeth, from Middlesbrough, has appeared on screen in George Gently, Vera, Casualty, to name a few - and on stage too. She’s also narrating the new series of Bear Grylls’ Mission Survive on ITV. Last autumn she provided commentary for The Money Pit on Dave, and found crowdfunding a learning curve. “I’m really excited about helping North East businesses to promote their services and products,” she says. She divides her time between Stokesley, where her family live, and Brighton where she’s based.

Just fancy (t)hat In the mists of advertising history there was once a slogan ‘if you want to get ahead get a hat’. Neil Cook has shown that today if you want to get ahead it’s good to get another hat. Neil, surface mine manager of The Banks Group’s Shotton surface mine near Cramlington, has swapped his hard hat and high-vis jacket for a mortarboard and gown. He has graduated from Derby University with a diploma in quarry technology, a three-year course offered by the Institute of Quarrying to keep folk up with the latest technology. Neil, from Langley Park, joined the firm in 1980 at the age of 20, and today is responsible for the operations and wellbeing of a 140-strong workforce. “My graduation outfit was a bit different to what I normally wear out on site,” he says. “But being able to collect my diploma in front of my family and fellow students was a very enjoyable experience.”

And of course the change of titfer was only temporary.

I say, I say, I say…

Popular pantomimes can now be performed by amateur societies free from paying royalties. They still won’t be a patch on pantomimes that already go on daily in our offices and workshops.

So far, so good: Andrew Skelton (centre) keeps up with Mark “Run Geordie Run” Allison, helped by personal trainer Michelle Wilkinson

Stone me, it’s Andrew May’s when many a business exec tries to shake off winter pounds collected from the corporate dinners and heavy diaries. Who’ll match Andrew Skelton in effort?

Andrew, director of office technology and services group SOS at Team Valley, Gateshead, plans to run with Mark ‘Run Geordie Run’ Allison, the astounding endurance runner and charity fundraiser, on the current leg of his Around the World challenge. This segment stretches from Lisbon in Portugal to Istanbul in Turkey - 3,400 punishing miles taking in the Pyrenees and the Alps, with only snatches of sleep in a motor home. Andrew, 46, of Newcastle, is so impressed he’s joining Mark’s support team of unpaid volunteers, with SOS headline sponsor. “I weighed 19 stones last year,” Andrew admits. “Recently I’ve lost two and a half stones, and I’m working hard to lose more.” He did the Great North Run for the first time in 27 years last year, and aims now to drive and cook for Mark, and run alongside at times. Father of three Andrew says he put on beef working long hours, travelling and neglecting exercise and healthy eating. Since then he’s been sweating and straining with David Fairlamb Fitness and Mineral House, the luxury gym at Newcastle’s Crowne Plaza Hotel. “To be able to run five or six miles with Mark over a day would be great,” he says. He’s joining Mark for nine days starting in Vigo, Spain, and for eight days starting in Belgrade. Mark, who lives in Bedlington, has raised £244,103 for charity since 1994, running in the UK, Australia and the USA. His chosen charities are The Children’s Foundation and the Sir Bobby Robson Foundation. Sponsors besides SOS include Fresh Freight Group, Chapman Ventilation, Cherry Active, Virgin Money and Sport Newcastle.

Sports therapists, fitness instructors and training partners are in there assisting. Sponsors are also helping to kit Mark with specialist equipment, dietary supplements and footwear. At Mineral House, supporting Andrew gratis, spa and leisure manager Susan Hall says: “We’re delighted to support Andrew for such a fantastic cause.”

No early final outcome can be expected. It will take Mark until at least 2022 to finish the challenge over eight segments as family life, work and finances permit. He has to cover 20,000 miles in all, over four continents and through 23 countries. Expected duration: 608 days.

“I weighed 19 stones last year. Recently I’ve lost two and a half stones, and I’m working hard to lose more.”

PROFILE The Biscuit Factory

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The art of hospitality Tom Gostling, events manager at The Biscuit Factory, gives us a guided tour of the Newcastle-based cultural venue…

The Biscuit Factory is something of a unique venue. Located in the everevolving cultural hub of the Ouseburn, first and foremost, it is a commercial gallery exhibiting the largest collection of contemporary art, craft and design work in the UK. The business has, however, diversified in recent years and now boasts an a la carte restaurant and café, plus beautiful event spaces; the most recent addition being our purpose-built Biscuit Room.

A truly versatile venue – we can cater for small soirees, networking events, black tie dinners and award ceremonies, and so much more in between.

ARTISTIC FLAIR The gallery (which indeed operated as a biscuit factory in the Victorian era) is an inspiring space that delivers that sought-after ‘wow’ factor.

Set over two floors, it is characterised by original brickwork, wooden beams and displays of contemporary artwork, encompassing paintings, prints, textiles, glass, ceramics and jewellery. Our first floor space is showered in natural light, too, thanks to our large Victorian-style windows.

Up to 350 people can enjoy an informal drinks reception in the gallery’s stylish surroundings and it can also make the perfect preamble to events hosted in the Biscuit Room next door.

Along with private access to our upper gallery, we can offer a full bar and canapes crafted by our a la carte restaurant, artisan.

A PURPOSE-BUILT SPACE The adjoining Biscuit Room is a self-contained venue that opened its doors in 2014. It’s one of the largest venues in Newcastle, accommodating up to 300 guests.

This is an adaptable design-led space, which can be transformed into everything from glitzy awards nights and lavish dinners through to fashion shows and Christmas parties. Most recently, a national entertainment brand filmed a television advert here, creating a mesmerising winter wonderland emporium in the space – proof, if any was needed, that clients can get creative in our venue and make their event a memorable one for colleagues and clients alike.

Available to hire seven days a week - the Biscuit Room comes complete with a bar, lounge, stage, dance floor, PA and spectacular lighting system that can be programmed to suit every mood.

WHERE FOOD MEETS ART For something altogether more intimate – entertaining clients or hosting a retirement party perhaps - artisan makes the perfect backdrop.

The restaurant is headed up by former North East Chef of the Year winner Andrew Wilkinson and can cater for up to 80 people. For larger bookings, our chef will even work with you to devise a menu that features your favourite ingredients and flavour combinations. Alternatively, our private dining space, The Drawing Room, is ideal for smaller parties of between eight and 22 guests.

“The Biscuit Factory is a stylish and contemporary space, blending heritage and creativity with multi-purpose functionality and a personalised service”

A CULTURAL TWIST The Biscuit Factory is a stylish and contemporary space, blending heritage and creativity with multi-purpose functionality and a personalised service to create a venue that, we think, is like no other in Newcastle.

We attract businesses of all sizes across a diverse range of sectors and what we enjoy most is working with our clients to create events that are truly unique and unforgettable. Hopefully, this gives you a little inspiration and insight into what we can do!

To talk to our events team about hosting your next event at The Biscuit Factory, email events@thebiscuitfactory.com or call 0191 261 0015. www.biscuitfactoryevents.com @TBFevents

The Biscuit Room is one of the largest venues in Newcastle.

Photo courtesy of Scott Spock Photography.

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EVENTS

BQ’s business diary helps you forward plan

M AY

15

FSB Women’s North East Event, Staiths Café, Gateshead 12 noon

17

North East Employee of the Year Awards, Wynyard Hall Hotel, www.northeastemployeeoftheyear.co.uk

21

Inaugural meeting of new North East organisation bringing together fund providers and fund seekers, supported by Nelep, Innovate UK, Knowledge Transfer Network and Venturefest, Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham. hello@venturefestnortheast.com

22

NECC AGM, Stadium of Light Sunderland 10.30am

22

Dynamo event to help careers advisors and teachers get young people interested in IT careers ahead of a Big Band North East careers fair on 28 and 29 June.

23

Dynamo’s third IT conference, North East Tech – Strength in Depth, focused on women’s role in the North East sector, with Dame Stephanie Shirley the entrepreneur/philanthropist as headline speaker. Northumbria University.

Human Relations Knowledge: Ending the Employment Relationship, Durham CCC 9am

12

Solicitors’ Accounts Rules (NSCA), Gateshead Marriott 1.30pm

12

Together We Take on the World, Entrepreneurs’ Forum conference, Crowne Plaza, Newcastle 5pm

16

ICE 125th Anniversary Dinner, Newcastle

17

Customs Compliances, Processes and Documents, NECC briefing, Durham CCC 9am

17

Entrepreneurs’ Forum Focus Dinner, with David Kerfoot of the Kerfoot Organisation, Crathorne Hall Hotel, Yarm

18

Meet the Buyer, NOF event, Hardwick Hall Hotel, Sedgefield

19

An HS2 Ltd briefing on supply chain opportunities for North East firms, Hilton Gateshead 8.30am www.hs2roadshows2016.co.uk

20

NCBF annual lunch, Marriott Gosforth Park

24

Life after FRSSE: new UK GAAP for small and micro-entities, Ramside Hall Hotel, Durham 2pm

23

26

Late Payment and Backdating, FSB event, Hexham Enterprise Hub 1pm

J U LY

27

Late Payment and Backdating, FSB event, North Tyneside Business Centre, North Shields 9.30am

27

HSCE briefing (EEF) Gateshead

06

Inspiring Females Conference, NECC event, Lumley Castle, Chester le Street 9.30am

29

Introduction to marketing planning: CIM workshop for members and non-members, North East Sales and Marketing Academy, Gosforth. www.cim.co.uk/events, 01628 427 340

JUNE 09

International Payments Methods and Letters of Credit, NECC event, Durham CCC 9am

BQ’s business events diary gives you lots of time to forward plan. If you wish to add your event to the list send it to editor@bq-magazine.co.uk and please put ‘BQ events page’ in the subject heading

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). EF Entrepreneurs’ Forum 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. NCBF Northern Counties Building Federation. NEA2F North East Access to Finance. NECC North-East Chamber of Commerce. Nepic The North East of England Process Industry Cluster. NorSCA Northern Society of Chartered Accountants. NTBF North Tyneside Business Forum. FSB Federation of Small Business. Tba to be arranged Tbc to be confirmed. Tbf to be finalised. Vtbc venue to be confirmed.

The diary is updated daily online at bqlive.co.uk

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