BQ Scotland Summer 2017

CANNON AT THE CREASE

THERE’S MONEY IN THE HONEY Warren Bader runs Plan Bee, a buzzing business balancing people, profits and planet

MIND THE APP

Scotland: Summer 2017

Scotland: Summer 2017

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From humble origins in a bedroom, Christian Arno has built Lingo24 into one of the world’s largest translation companies

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BUSINESS QUARTER

Suzanne Mitschke has global ambitions for dementia support app MindMate

Business Quarter Magazine

Celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship

Restructuring expert Malcolm Cannon goes into bat for Cricket Scotland

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WELCOME

“What makes Scotland such an attractive nation for entrepreneurs? That’s the question at the heart of the summer issue of BQ Scotland.

A year on from the Brexit vote, we meet entrepreneurs who have moved here from overseas to call Scotland home. What attracted them to Scotland and why did they choose to set up their businesses here?”

BQ is part of BE Group, the UK’s market leading business improvement specialists. www.be-group.co.uk

BQ, Spectrum 6, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT. www.bqlive.co.uk.

As a dedicated supporter of entrepreneurship, BQ is making a real and tangible contribution to local, regional and national economic growth across the UK. We are unique in what we aim to achieve as a media brand, a brand that has established a loyal audience of high growth SMEs as well as leading business influencers. They wholeheartedly believe in BQ’s focus on people – those individuals that are challenging the traditional ways of doing things. They are our entrepreneurs. BQ reaches entrepreneurs and senior business executives across Scotland, the North East and Cumbria, the North West, Yorkshire, the Midlands, Wales, London and the South, in-print, online and through branded events.

All contents copyright © 2017 BQ. All rights reserved. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents.

All content marked ‘Profile’, ‘Partner’ and ‘Special Report’ is paid for advertising.

All information is correct at time of going to print, June 2017.

SUMMER 2017

Dealing with uncertainty is one of the key skills that all entrepreneurs possess.

Whether it’s the fall-out from a snap election and hung parliament, the unexpected foreign exchange movements that can affect export deals or the nagging doubts that surface while looking at a spreadsheet in the early hours of the morning, entrepreneurs use their creativity, their innovation and their nowse to overcome such challenges each and every day of the year.

And it’s just as well, because uncertainty has become the only certainty since the financial crisis. Yet entrepreneurs have been unfazed by a coalition government, referendums on independence and Brexit, and crippling interest rates being offered to well-established small businesses.

What makes Scotland such an attractive nation for these entrepreneurs? That’s the question at the heart of the summer issue of BQ Scotland.

A year on from the Brexit vote, we meet entrepreneurs who have moved here from overseas to call Scotland home. What attracted them to Scotland and why did they choose to set up their businesses here?

South African entrepreneur Warren Bader, who made music videos for the likes of Boyzone and Tina Turner, explains why he chose Scotland as the home for Plan Bee, which manages hives for companies including Aldi, Kellogg’s and L’Oreal as well as educating the public about pollinators. Susanne Mitschke from Germany is a big fan of Scotland’s support for start-ups, including Mindmate, her team’s app for people with dementia and their families.

As part of the wider BQ brand’s expansion throughout Great Britain, we continue to include interviews in BQ Scotland with entrepreneurs from south of the Border. In this issue, we meet Janan Leo, originally from Thailand, who created Cocorose, a foldable shoe that’s revolutionised the commute for thousands in London and further afield, and former investment banker Anna Frankowska, a Polish businesswoman who created the Nightset app with backing from the Bacardi family.

Scottish winemaker Andy Smith headed in the opposite direction, swapping Edinburgh for California, and explains how he still feels very connected to his homeland while making award-winning bottles in beautiful Sonoma. Meanwhile, Dame Anne Glover, former chief science advisor to European Commission president Jose Manuel-Barroso, is well-placed to share her views on Brexit and entrepreneurship.

Christian Arno of translation firm Lingo24 knows all about the importance of international trade, having built his business into one of the 50 largest in the world in its sector. Cricket Scotland chief executive Malcolm Cannon, who turned around the fortunes of Hunter Boot and the Edinburgh Solicitors’ Property Centre, also has a strong foreign emphasis, both through this summer’s key international matches and promoting the national side overseas to potential supporters and sponsors.

This issue also marks the launch of the HSBC Scottish Export Awards and yearlong international trade campaign in association with Scottish Enterprise. At a time of such political uncertainty, it’s more important than ever for entrepreneurs to consider exporting their products and services, not only to boost their own businesses but also to stimulate our nation’s economy.

Peter Ranscombe, editor

CONTENTS SUMMER 2017 08 BATTING FOR SCOTLAND Malcolm Cannon, who has spent his working life transforming companies from losers into winners, is now leading Cricket Scotland

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CANNON BALL

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TRANSLATED INTO SUCCESS

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HEART AND SOLE

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HIVE OF ACTIVITY

Restructuring expert Malcolm Cannon is bowled over by Cricket Scotland’s potential

From bedroom to boardroom, Christian Arno built a global firm

Janan Leo’s bendy shoes have revolutionised the everyday commute

Warren Bader has turned beekeeping into a business

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YACHT WHAT IT TAKES

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BANKING REVOLUTIONARY

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AHEAD OF THE GAME

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EXPORT ACCOLADES

BQ takes to the high seas with boat restoration company Pendennis

Atom Bank’s Anthony Thomson on signing up will.i.am as an advisor

Susanne Mitschke shares the inside track on dementia support app MindMate

The 2018 Scottish Export Awards and internetional trade campaign begin

Celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship 28 14

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PARTNERING FOR SUCCESS

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ENTREPRENEURIAL EVIDENCE

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PARTY GIRL

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Consortium co-operatives allow firms to share the risks and rewards of exporting

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WEST COAST SCOT Meet Andy Smith, the Scotsman making quality wines in Northern California

Dame Anne Glover has strong views on telling it like it is in a ‘post-truth’ society

How Anna Frankowska’s Nightset app is finding the best parties for its customers

IT’S COMPLICATED Shawbrook Bank likes to take on complex problems and find innovative solutions

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MAN Malcolm Cannon built a career helping companies to restructure and grow, pulling Hunter Boot out of administration and steering Edinburgh Solicitors’ Property Centre through the storms of the financial crisis. Now, he’s going in to bat for Cricket Scotland, writes Peter Ranscombe.

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ricket is just for toffs, right? Isn’t it a game that’s played by public schoolboys called Crispin and Jasper, running around in white pyjamas while the crowd sit in deckchairs on the village green, snoozing after their lunchtime claret?

Malcolm Cannon has been sent to the crease to knock those stereotypes for six.

“People think that cricket’s an English game that’s played by the upper-class, but it’s just as Scottish as football or rugby and it’s a sport that’s diverse and egalitarian,” he says with a firm nod of his head.

“There are more cricket clubs than rugby clubs in Scotland and those clubs have an equal number of members in total – which sounds a bit strange, but it’s because you only need 11 people to play cricket and 15 to play rugby.

Just over half of those members come from an Asian background.

“Many of the football clubs in Scotland emerged from cricket clubs, like Rangers, which grew out of Clydesdale cricket club. The players wanted something to do during the winter, when they couldn’t play cricket, and they chose football.”

As you’d expect from the chief executive of Cricket Scotland, the national governing body, Cannon is an enthusiastic ambassador for the game. But, he admits, it wasn’t his first love.

“I’ve always been sports daft – I still play rugby at the grand old age of 55 and I’ve always been into athletics,” he explains. “All through my career, I’d wanted to work in the sports sector and so, when the chance to apply for the Cricket Scotland job came along, I jumped at it.

“When I was doing my research into cricket before applying, I discovered just how popular

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it is in Scotland and how many people play it.

That really fired my imagination.”

From Cricket Scotland’s point-of-view, Cannon’s application must have stood out from the crowd. He’s been involved in not one, not two, but three major corporate restructurings, which have allowed businesses to grow and flourish.

Since joining the sport’s governing body in September 2015, he’s been busy getting his ducks in a row. “As boring as it is, governance is critical,” explains Cannon.

“The previous structure wasn’t fit for purpose, so we’ve recruited four new nonexecutive directors, which has been extremely positive and well-received, both by the sport and by stakeholders like the Scottish Government’s Sport Scotland agency and the International Cricket Council (ICC).

“We now have a more modern structure, in which the ‘business’ of cricket is taken very seriously, as well as the ‘game’ of cricket. Our two-tier structure means we have a ‘top co’, if you like, that’s made up of representatives from the regional associations, which runs the game of cricket and is its guardian; and then we have a ‘sub co’ that runs the business of cricket, with an independent chair and directors.

“That includes our first two female directors.

It’s slightly embarrassing to admit we hadn’t had any up until now, but at least we’ve done something about it.

“Having female directors reflects the increased emphasis we’re putting on the women’s game. Interestingly, cricket is the only major sport in which men and women can play on the same team – if a woman reached the right standard then she could play Test cricket alongside the men. That happens regularly at club-level in Scotland.”

After studying physiology and pharmacology at the University of St Andrews, Cannon joined the pharmaceuticals industry as a sales representative, before moving into marketing.

“Sales is a great grounding because you have to listen to your customer’s needs – that’s always stuck with me,” he says.

From pharmaceuticals, he made the move into the whisky industry as a business development manager with Highland Distillers, the owner of Famous Grouse. “Whisky is just another drug,” Cannon points out.

“The drinks industry is regarded as the ‘party industry’, so it was great fun. But

highly-regulated industries – whether they’re drugs or alcohol or banking or law – also attract the most-talented people, so I got to work alongside some very smart and serious colleagues too.”

Cannon was thrown in at the deep-end. His task was to launch a joint venture in India with DCM Shriram, a conglomerate run by Bansi Dhar, to import and distribute Scotch whisky, and create “ad mixes” called Blue Blazer and Red Hackle.

“In the mid-1990s, Indian import duty on Scotch was about 420%, which made Famous Grouse almost unaffordable even for rich Indians,” he says. “So, Highland Distillers and its rivals made ‘ad mixes’, which consisted of Scotch whisky blended with a local sugar molasses spirit.”

After the success of the Indian joint venture, Cannon was poached to move “across the corridor” to Robertson & Baxter, another business owned by Highland Distillers’ shareholders. A few months later, Robertson & Baxter took over Highland Distillers and the companies joined what’s now Edrington, Scotland’s fourth-largest whisky maker.

“It could have gone either way – Highland Distillers’ board was also considering a takeover of Robertson & Baxter,” Cannon remembers.

“Some of my colleagues thought I must have known what was coming because I’d switched to the acquirer – but I didn’t.

“Time has shown it was the right move for the companies. But it made for some awkward conversations for a while with friends from work.”

Cannon was also thrilled to work on the purchase of The Macallan, his favourite whisky.

But those uncomfortable conversations with his friends and colleagues were good preparation for other awkward moments lying ahead.

After a short spell as a business development manager at law firm Maclay, Murray & Spens, he was head-hunted in 2006 to become the chief executive of Hunter Boot, the maker of the iconic green wellie, which had been bought out of administration by a consortium consisting of former Conservative party treasurer Lord Marland, clothing brand owner Pentland and Thomas Pink shirts founder Peter Mullen.

Hunter’s revenues went from £6m to £19.5m within two years as Cannon repositioned the

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“The regrets are still there, because it was a rotten thing to have to do and you’re interfering with people’s lives, but it had to be done.”

wellies from an outdoors tool into a fashion accessory. Accounts filed at Companies House show the growth has continued, with turnover now sitting at £113m.

“A lot of it was down to luck,” Cannon laughs. “That first summer was one of the wettest ever. We gave free wellies to 50 celebrities at the Glastonbury music festival – Hello! magazine photographed 26 of them in their boots.

“The business had expanded into the wrong areas, like luggage and leather goods. We bought some excess stock from the administrator and gave it away for free to help build our highstreet credentials.”

Success involved hard decisions though. In 2008, Hunter Boot closed its factory at Heathhall near Dumfries, with the loss of 22 jobs; 48 posts had been lost two years earlier when the firm sank into administration.

“It was horrible,” says Cannon quietly. “It was the worst time.

Laying people off is not pleasant at all.

“Let’s be honest, Dumfries will never erect a statue to me, but the brand needed that closure so it could move on, and it should have been done long before, but I was the one who took it on the chin.

“Even though it was tough at the time, it was the right thing to do. The regrets are still there, because it was a rotten thing to have to do and you’re interfering with people’s lives, but it had to be done.”

Hunter then asked Cannon to relocate from Edinburgh to London, but the move wouldn’t have suited his family, so he left the company. He could have been forgiven for thinking history was repeating itself though when he joined the Edinburgh Solicitors’ Property Centre (ESPC) as its chief executive.

“ESPC had many similar challenges to Hunter – expanding into the wrong areas,” Cannon explains. “It had opened shops in England at great expense, but they didn’t work because estate agents not solicitors sell houses down there.”

Cannon joined in September 2009, just as the full force of the previous year’s financial crash was beginning to hit the property market. His first job was to shore-up support from the 170 law firms that owned the ESPC, visiting 120 of them within his first six weeks.

“I had to stand there and take the brickbats because these people hated the ESPC for having got into such a perilous situation,” he recalls. “There was a feeling that it was a busted flush and people wanted out, but I asked them to give me a year to sort it out – in the end it only needed six months to get the bank back on board with a loan, supported by letters of guarantee from the member firms, which were never used.”

Getting shirty When he’s not running Cricket Scotland, Malcolm Cannon has another trick up his sleeve – he’s the co-owner of the Scottish franchise of Shirt By Hand, a company that – as the name suggests – produces made-to-measure shirts.

“I’m the Victor Kiam of tailoring – I liked the shirts so much, I bought the company,” laughs Cannon. “I’d been mentoring the previous owner and I helped him find a buyer for his business. That buyer asked if I wanted to come in on the deal.

“We sell about 120 shirts each month. We kitted out the Scotland cricket team for last year’s ICC World Twenty20 competition and the Scotland rugby side for the 2015 World Cup. “The prices are somewhere between Marks & Spencer and a Jermyn Street tailor. We have a guy based in Bridge of Allan who comes to your house and measures you for a shirt and then – as long as your shape doesn’t change too much – you can keep reordering them from the internet and they’re delivered within 21 days.”

The shirts are proving especially popular with his misshapen rugby chums; a bulging neck or long arms are no problem when your clothes are made-to-measure. Clients pick the design, the shade and the fabric and then customise their shirts down to the style of the collar and the colour of the buttons.

“People tend to order one for a special occasion and then keep coming back,” Cannon adds. “Some customers now have a whole wardrobe full of our shirts.”

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“I lobbied the Scottish Government to regulate the industry because it’s dealing with such large sums of money.”

Cannon’s turnaround of ESPC included moving into lettings as a property manager and developing and launching a more powerful website. He was head-hunted again to join Lomond Capital, which was consolidating residential property firms under its Braemore brand, but the industry wasn’t the right one for him.

“Having worked in such tightly-regulated sectors, it was a bit of a shock to see how little regulation there was in residential property,” he admits. “I lobbied the Scottish Government to regulate the industry because it’s dealing with such large sums of money – we had £750m-worth of property on our books.

Investment or asset managers handling those sums are heavily-regulated – why should property be any different?”

All the lessons he’s learned along the way now appear to be coalescing at Cricket Scotland. Having ticked off his party-piece with the restructuring, he’s now set his sights on growing the game.

He’s re-established links with the Lord’s

Taverners, a charity that helps poor and disabled children to play cricket and other sports, and the two organisations are working together on projects in Scotland, including an engagement programme for Glasgow’s Asian community.

Next on his hit list is signing up more sponsors. Tom Cross’s Parkmead oil company is on board, while the City Lets property website sponsors the Scottish Cup and Nuffield Health offers free gym use for the Saltires international side. Cannon highlights the overseas opportunities too – Scotland has fans on the Indian subcontinent and in Australasia, as well as at home.

Up first though are the summer matches for the Saltires. After facing Sri Lanka in Kent, Scotland will take on Namibia before two oneday internationals at the Grange in Edinburgh on 15 and 17 June against Zimbabwe.

“Scotland has never won a one-day international against a Test side, but that could happen this summer,” Cannon smiles. “Watch this space.” n

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Christian Arno has built Lingo24 from a bedroom in his parents’ house to the cusp of becoming one of the 50 largest translation companies in the world. Suzy Powell quizzes him on languages, investors and Brexit.

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anguages have built Christian Arno’s translation business into a global success, however the Oxford graduate had no “grand master plan” when he set up Lingo24 in his bedroom at the height of the dot.com boom.

In fact, Arno admits that translating is not his forte – he leaves that to his 180 “Lingoists”, as they are affectionately known, and several thousand freelance translators around the world. He can then focus on running the business, which is currently targeting high-value clients worth £100,000 a year.

Arno set up Lingo24 in 2001 at his parents’ home in Aberdeen after studying French and Italian. He was passionate about languages and e-commerce and wanted to join the dot.com

revolution to earn some “extra cash”.

A posting on Yahoo “amazingly attracted a couple of serious businesses”, and Lingo24 was born. In those days, people were only paid for the work they undertook and the business comprised Arno, a friend and a “tech guy”.

These days, the award-winning 24-hour translation service has offices in Edinburgh, London, Romania, Panama and the Philippines, among other locations, and has customers that include major retailer eBay and brands such as Adidas and Lush. Turnover is expected to reach £10.2m this year, edging the business close to the top 50 translation companies worldwide.

Arno describes what the business offers as a “hybrid service” with “brilliant people”

supported by technology. “In the vast majority of situations, it is a professional translator supported by technology,” he says.

“For our larger customers, we build highlycustomised machine translation engines that make people more productive. We use technology to help our Lingo-ists go faster but it’s not to replace the person.

“We are absolutely punching above our weight in terms of tech, improving the quality and reducing the internal management overhead for clients of the translation service.

We are restless in a sense, which our customers appreciate.”

In 2012, it launched Coach, a computer-aided translation tool that was awarded the Taus

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Excellence Award for Innovation. Two years later, an application program interface (API) was introduced to allow customers direct access to Lingo24’s translation services at multiple quality levels.

The same year an online ordering service, Ease, was introduced, and Lingo24 won two accolades – Scottish Exporter of the Year and International Trade Best Professional Service Advisor – at the inaugural Scottish Export Awards, run by BQ on behalf of Scottish Enterprise.

Lingo24’s motto is “Service beyond words”, but how does that play out in everyday business? “The team really does the best for our customers and values those relationships,” explains Arno. “They go above and beyond to deliver, and offer services beyond translation, such as content creation, strategic technology consultancy and desktop publishing.”

The company translates everything from online customer comments and webchats to instructions for surgical instruments and tomes of product catalogues online and in print. Arno thinks about how he describes the business “a lot”.

“We do some stuff that is a small number of words but is highly creative, to massive catalogues and e-catalogues with a lot of repetition but which need to be correct,” he muses. “Every organisation has a content hierarchy, from its website to user-generated content, and its importance is different from organisation to organisation.”

In some circumstances, a translation can be too polished especially if it has been generated as feedback from a customer and may not be 100% grammatically perfect. The translation is then carried out by someone “on the ground” who can make it as authentic as possible to the original comment made.

The Lingo-ists and a bank of more than 4,000 freelancers have worked in more than 200 languages, and translations are always made into their mother tongue. The majority of translations are between the major European languages as most of the clients are headquartered in Europe and the United States.

The addition of an office in Timisoara in Romania came about when Arno was looking to expand in the early days and sent hundreds of emails to recruitment companies in Eastern Europe and Africa asking a series of questions about the kind of people who were available

“

“Romania was also the most multi-lingual country in Europe, second only to the Netherlands in terms of the number of people able to speak multiple languages.”

for work and employment legislation in each country.

The response from Romania was the most promising with the right technical skills available and lower salaries than in the UK. It turned out that Romania was also the most multi-lingual country in Europe, second only to the Netherlands in terms of the number of people able to speak multiple languages.

The Lingo-ists located in different countries ensure that translations are not only accurate, but culturally and politically correct – particularly important for marketing campaigns, where one word out of place could change the entire meaning and could potentially damage a brand’s reputation.

A small percentage of the company’s business is checking brand names worldwide to

ensure that there are no negative associations in a particular country or language, or that they don’t already exist. Having people on the ground, living in the country with languages as they change, is essential for some clients.

“It’s been a game of two halves,” explains Arno. “I was a student when I started the company and it was very scrappy, very much ‘learning as we did’.

“Until seven year ago, all the staff worked from home. I was learning and meeting incredible people along the way but I had no grand master plan. I just thought that there was an opportunity and little by little other opportunities presented themselves to me.”

One of these opportunities came when his initial business partner decided to move on in 2011. It heralded a new phase for the business,

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“I was a student when I started the company and it was very scrappy, very much ‘learning as we did.’”

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“I am emotionally and personally very upset about Brexit, but on a business level it is more nuanced.”

taking it into its “second half” – and prompted a repositioning for future growth.

A pivotal point in propelling the business into its next stage came in 2014 when Scottish business heavyweight Paul Gregory was brought in as Lingo24’s chairman. The former head of oil and gas consultancy Wood Mackenzie had led a consortium of investors to take a stake in the business, generating a multimillion pound investment allowing expansion and development on a new level.

“That took it from being a business of people with great ideas and enthusiasm to becoming one with real pedigree,” said Arno, who continues to be mentored by Gregory.

“There is much more of a fixed strategy now and I am grateful for Paul and our managing director, Andrew Campbell, for that. We’re now aiming for higher-value accounts, worth over £100,000 a year. In 2012, we had six spending at this level, then 14 by 2015, 21 by 2016 and are aiming for 28 this year.”

Currently none of the high-value clients are in Scotland, however Arno is hopeful that will change soon – “watch this space”. That growth trajectory may continue in the same vein or it may morph into targeting fewer clients of yet higher value.

“We have not come up with a number, but it would be logical to aim for 100,” Arno says. “But it may be that we raise the £100,000 threshold to those spending, say, £200,000-plus.

“Our business is very much about people and building deep relationships. Paul made the point that we have room to grow and we have a nice place in the market where we are punching above our weight.

“The bigger companies don’t have our service and the smaller guys don’t have the bandwidth or tech to deliver what we do. We do well with winning and retaining clients.”

With Europe being the prime market, how will Brexit affect the business? “I am emotionally and personally very upset about Brexit, but on a business level it is more nuanced,” Arno admits.

“We got our financial guys to do some analysis and the positive impact of Brexit is estimated to be £404,000 to the business while the negative impact is £400,000 – so virtually no impact. The business is naturally and fortunately hedged and I have not yet seen any situations where decisions have gone against us because we are a British company.

“People are pragmatic so I’m not too worried. What’s the point of worrying? We are

just working our socks off to help our clients grow quicker internationally and reduce cost.”

Besides, Lingo24’s horizons are broad and there is plenty to look forward to, including plans to hold more peer-to-peer networking dinners under the “Journey to Global” banner where organisations – mainly retail and ecommerce – get together and share their learning journeys, discussing everything from marketing to technology. Arno describes them as the “antithesis to your average business event”.

“They are very informal,” he says. “People circulate and talk about where they are on their business journey.

“We are having our first international one in Amsterdam this year, and a smaller one in Glasgow. There seems to be an appetite for it.”

Arno is also keen to unite the dispersed employees through initiatives like the internal weekly news update, the “Weekly Banter”, a mixture of personal news and hard sales figures, and he wants to continue the more fun elements of employee relations, such as making music videos, which saw the Philippines team record a Gangnam-style video and the Edinburgh team drawing inspiration from Trainspotting to make “Lingo-spotting”.

“We want to be releasing the potential of what is a very gifted team, and get back to the level of growth we had in the early years,” he adds. n

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Partner

Taking Brexit in their stride UBS is on the front line when businesses face uncertainty. Dean Turner from UBS’s investment office and head for Scotland Debjani Raffan tell Mike Hughes about how they are helping to address Brexit concerns.

BY their very nature, entrepreneurs are prepared to face uncertainty. With determination, confidence and the right guidance they can overcome the variety of issues the business world will throw at them.

But it takes a generous helping of Scottish spirit - and the support and guidance of a financial giant like UBS - to look at Brexit and see opportunity rather than focusing on the threats presented.

That combination, developed in a political landscape that has a uniquely independent tone, gives Scotland a powerful way forward as the financial rules are being rewritten.

Dean Turner, Economist in the UK Investment Office at UBS Wealth Management, says the landscape is always changing for Scottish entrepreneurs, and they are skilled at making the right decisions in critical situations.

“Certainly, the feedback I have had is that

there is a very practical attitude towards tackling the many issue that may arise from Brexit,” he said.

“There still seems to be an element of indecision, with firms postponing active decisions until we all have a clearer idea of where the negotiations are going to end up.

This is perhaps more relevant for firms who are exporting. However, even for domestic firms, there are concerns, not just about the domestic economy, but also into what impacts there might be on the labour market. We have seen a tail-off in business investment in terms of the headline numbers, but I don’t think we are yet at a stage where firms are aggressively relocating away from Scotland.All things considered, the Scottish economy does seem to be holding up a lot better than expected.

Likewise, the global economy remains resilient, proving a strong backdrop.

Partner

“

“One of the things that I have noticed across UK regions is that the further you get away from London, the more optimistic clients and firms seem to be about Brexit.”

“My view is that the domestic economy will slow as the year progresses - that seems inevitable looking at the inflation and wage growth numbers. However, I am not overly pessimistic about that because firms in Scotland do not seem to be burdened by a sense of negativity, but have more of a very practical attitude which says, ‘let’s get on with it’.

The spirit of independence that many Scotland businesses have always valued has been magnified by the Brexit vote and the ongoing negotiations and is an ever more valuable element of the region’s economy.

It also makes Scotland a different place to do business and emphasises how agile global companies like UBS must be as they cater for the needs of all their clients, whether they are based in Edinburgh or Dubai.

“One of the things that I have noticed across UK regions is that the further you get away from London, the more optimistic clients and firms seem to be about Brexit. ” explains Dean.

“This is understandable. If we think about the areas of the economy that are likely to feel the largest impact on their trade with the EU, services, in particular financial sector, are thought by many to be most at risk. London is the clear centre of that sector. But there could

be some residual impact in Scotland as both Edinburgh and Glasgow are important financial centres.

“Assessing the different perspectives from a UK regional and global perspective, helps UBS’ CIO with understanding the dynamics driving the economic and investment environment. ” That global feedback now includes a fascinating new UBS survey of more than 2,800 millionaires in the UK, Italy, Switzerland, Japan, Hong Kong, Mexico and Singapore to assess how unpredictability is shaping their attitudes and actions. This included 401 millionaires in the UK. The report, titled “Is unpredictability the new normal?”, found that respondents feel that Brexit will have a positive impact on Britain as a country and on their own financial planning in both the short and the long term.

An impressive 51% of British high net worth individuals expect an improvement in their finances in the next 12 months. Two-thirds are optimistic about reaching their long-term financial goals.

And the trust in Britain as a place to put your money is as strong as ever with 81% of UK respondents seeing Britain as a reassuring place to hold or invest their wealth - more than in any other market.

Such resilience in the face of uncertainty can be a powerful asset. And it could grow if the regional strengths of the UK are allowed to flourish, as Dean explains.

“I think that over the next decade there is an opportunity for the UK government to take a closer look at its regional strategy. Further devolution and transfer of decisions making to the regions could provide a crucial lift to the UK's current poor levels of productivity growth,” he says.

“One of the clearest ways to boost productivity is to decentralise key funding decisions to local authorities who can set policy to support their areas of expertise. Local input on spending, training, and infrastructure, should mean that decisions are made more timely, and crucially more effectively. If that feeds through in the next decade - as we hope it will - that would benefit the whole economy.

The high support for Scottish independence in 2014 laid the foundations for greater devolution, and we expect more concrete steps in the coming years.”

For UBS in Scotland that key analysis and feedback comes from the regional base in Edinburgh where a team of client advisors from diverse backgrounds in corporate finance, corporate banking, wealth planning and asset management provide the gateway to UBS's global network.

Debjani Raffan, the company’s Regional Head in Scotland, agrees that business confidence has not been dampened by the vote to leave the EU. “We are always talking to the entrepreneurs we look after and I know this [Brexit] will not stop them doing business because whatever legislation changes or however the new circumstances affect their business they will find a way around it and continue to grow,” she tells me.

This refreshing opinion is exactly what this country has been saying since the Brexit vote.

While many in the UK may have been swamped by concerns and even misguided information about what might happen, in Scotland sound and sensible advice deeply rooted in the country’s specific needs has produced a more measured and confident approach.

Debjani continues: “This is by no means unique to Scotland, but there is an instinctive

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Partner

Head for Scotland Debjani Raffan explains how UBS is helping Scottish entrepreneurs realise their ambitions in a fast-evolving economy.

Raffan told BQ what she and her team are seeing a year on from Brexit.

Scottish entrepreneurs are pragmatic “Whatever legislation changes or however the new circumstances affect their business our entrepreneurs will find a way around it and continue to grow,” she says.

“There is an instinctive character to them that wants to assess and deal with each issue and then carry on with business.

“We know we have to wait for the Brexit negotiations until we know the full facts, but for our clients it is very much business as usual nothing will stop them doing what they do best.”

UBS’s approach is simple “The way UBS has positioned itself since we set up stall here is that we wanted to be the bank for entrepreneurs,” says Debjani, a graduate from the University of Strathclyde who lives in Edinburgh, at the heart of the economy she is helping to grow.

“What we are completely invested in is the people and the families and the wealth they will be generating, with our preference being to deal with people from an early age and at an early stage in their businesses. For them, Brexit is just another challenge they will have to contend with - with us at their side all the way.”

Some sectors are growing rapidly “We have certainly seen changes in the Scottish business landscape, with huge growth in technology and life sciences, balanced with the continued importance of manufacturing and food & drink, which will always play a big part in our economy, but we are quite agnostic when it comes to sectors because we are dealing with people and their families.

“I see our work here as a lifetime process, and our regional relationships as a huge opportunity because there really isn’t any other global banks that have got this presence. Our clients appreciate the fact that I can be with them in Glasgow, Dundee or Aberdeen, but they are still working with one of the world’s largest wealth managers and having the same emotions and the same ideas that we hear worldwide.

“There is an energy here, which UBS particularly experiences as a real buzz when you get into a room full of entrepreneurs. With their confidence and a good business plan, there will always be wealth generated whatever the environment and that is where we are able to help. Nothing will stop our entrepreneurs and nothing will stop UBS growing our business and making more and more progress in Scotland.”

character to our entrepreneurs that wants to assess and deal with each issue and then carry on with business.

“The entrepreneurial spirit has always been very strong in Scotland and it is evident now that there is absolutely no sign of that changing, no matter what happens.”

With 60,000 people in 54 UBS offices around the world, the extent of its influence is vast, but the company’s reputation as a global leader is well balanced with its experience at the regional level, and the combination of the two is a key attraction for ambitious young companies and an embedded element of the UBS philosophy for Dean and Debjani.

“Our clients have always shown a high level of resilience. The one thing that most of them have said to us is that while it has not always been hugely positive for them - there have been ventures that have failed - but they have picked themselves up and get back on again, which is the very nature of a Scottish entrepreneur who is capable of taking on risk. For them, Brexit is just another risk they will have to contend with.

“Our job as wealth managers is to really get to know our clients and their families so that when the time comes to exit a business, they can focus on that while we can step in and help them manage their own needs.”

Those personal needs will change from MD to MD and the professional needs from sector to sector, and that agility to deal with an ever-changing marketplace is another trademark of the Scottish operation.

“We see that regional relationship as a huge opportunity because there really aren’t any other global banks that have our regional presence. Our clients really like the fact that I can be with them in Glasgow, Dundee or Aberdeen, but they are still working with one of the world’s largest wealth managers.”

Scottish entrepreneurs are embracing change, whether that be political or with regards to what is driving the economy. For Debjani’s clients, the support of Scottish business organisations is invaluable.

“There is a lot of set-up funding here attracting huge businesses like Gareth Williams and his Skyscanner travel company. He made it very clear that he set the business up in Scotland because of the grants from the likes of Scottish Enterprise that were available, which makes it a much easier place to do business, making it so attractive for investors.

“There is an energy here, which UBS particularly experiences as a sponsor of Entrepreneurial Scotland. There is a real buzz when you get into that room full of entrepreneurs.”

Debjani concludes: “It is a really exciting place to be, but challenging as well with the changes coming our way. But as ever, UBS and our Scottish entrepreneurs will be well prepared and ready to get on with business.” n

Debjani Raffan, Regional Head Scotland Email: debjani.raffan@ubs.com Direct Telephone: +44 131 247 5891 Office Telephone: +44 131 247 2923

Is unpredictability the new normal?

UBS Investor Watch.

Discover how hundreds of UK millionaires make decisions in an unpredictable world and how they plan to protect their wealth in our latest investor watch report.

Download your copy now at ubs.com/investorwatch-uk

The value of investments can fall as well as rise.

You may not get back the amount originally invested.

Š UBS 2017. All rights reserved.

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Head over

heels J

anan Leo was both furious and pleased when the issue of women being forced to wear high heels at work hit the news again.

“It’s disgraceful that she was told that,” says Leo, referring to how secretary Nicola Thorp was sent home from work at accountancy firm PwC after refusing to wear stilettos.

“As long as you look smart that should be acceptable. It’s really hard to accept in today’s world that any boss can demand ‘your shoe heels should be this high’ or ‘you must wear make-up’.

“I mean, really – I don’t wear any make up.

So, it’s quite belittling in a way. We’re all grown women, and I’d have thought that at PwC, where you have to have brains to work, people just wouldn’t have had that attitude.”

But anger aside, Leo also has her business head screwed on: in 2007 she created the concept of the foldable but fashionable shoe for women to wear while commuting, enabling them to slip into high heels at work without the crippling pain of wearing them all day. Or because they were so stylish, they could just

wear the flexible shoes all day – and still look good.

The footwear was launched under the brand Cocorose London and ten years later the company is selling tens of thousands of pairs a year to more than 30 countries, with annual revenues topping £1m.

And so back to the high heels debate: “Yes, of course this news is a great opportunity for us – because the subject is exactly what we’re about. Cocorose London is about giving women flexibility and freedom of choice over what shoes they’re going to wear and how they’re going to wear them.

“We offer women the opportunity to say ‘I am going to wear heels to that meeting, but not all day, and I still look good and feel great’.

It’s about comfortable luxury, because it’s important to have that inner confidence and emotional stability in this commercial world.”

Leo was born in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, in 1980, the daughter of a British mum and a Thai dad who’d met at the University of Leeds, before they set up a jewellery factory back in Thailand. This meant Leo grew up and was educated at an international school in

Ten years ago, Janan Leo’s high heels were so painful that she made prototype ‘bendy shoes’ using thick socks and rubber. Today, her foldable footwear sales exceed £1m a year, as Steve Dyson finds out.

Chiang Mai until the age of 18, when she came to the UK to study food science, also at Leeds.

She studied hard and graduated with firstclass honours, before moving to London for a job with luxury sandwich-maker Hazelwood Breadwinner, which supplied everyone from Asda to Concorde flights. Then she moved to Pret a Manger to work in new product development (NPD), where she picked up many of her business skills.

“It was so different at Pret,” Leo recalls. “I went from what was essentially manufacturing to understanding more about retail where the consumer’s always at the heart of it. I remember when lots of cafés started offering the hot panini, but Julian Metcalfe [founder of Pret a Manger] said ‘We’re not doing that’ because he didn’t like the smell or the sound of the panini machine pinging, and he didn’t think his customers would.

“That was quite deep for me. He was always thinking about the end consumer and said ‘It doesn’t matter what anyone else does as long as you do what’s right for you’. I still go into Pret a lot and I think today they have hot sandwiches, but technology’s moved on.

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It wasn’t right at the time, and that was very influential to me.”

Leo spent nearly three years working at Pret, part of a team responsible for everything to do with new products, from the recipe to training staff, and from introducing concepts to rolling the idea out and seeing it on the shelves. Then she joined Oldfields, another sandwich maker, as NPD manager for its Starbucks account.

“It was great experience,” she says. “Working with two big retailers and for such an entrepreneurial company like Oldfields subtly makes you realise ‘maybe one day I can go out on my own’. Meeting those people and seeing the way the high street was going, I realised there was something more than a nine-to-five job for me.”

After a few years at Oldfields, where she met her partner Gareth Austin-Jones, the company was taken over, leading to a restructure, and the new couple took redundancy and went travelling together to South America. When they returned, Leo took what was supposed to be a short-term role at Virgin Trains covering maternity leave, but ended up staying for three years.

Once again, she worked in NPD, introducing what were then new services like wi-fi on trains, and mobile phone charging in first-class lounges. Leo had to dress smartly for her role,

“

“Women instantly got it because it’s about our everyday lifestyles.”

which was when she started to feel the pain of high heels on the tube every day.

“It’s not possible to wear heels all the time,” she explains. “But in flats, I felt really frumpy, because they didn’t give me the confidence of wearing high heels. This feeling built and built and I thought ‘I bet it’s not just me’, and I wanted to find a solution, thinking ‘How can I create one that no-one else needs to make for me?’”

Leo began experimenting, and before long had stitched a pair of Footsie socks to some thin rubber from the cover of a notebook. And that was it – her prototype foldable shoe, and one she believed could be a success if only she could get it made properly.

“I approached so many factories, but they were all saying ‘No’. You have to have confidence in both your product and yourself, and by having that prototype – even though it was basic – it helped. It took a long time trying to develop it, breaking it down and going back

to the ‘concept to launch’ process I’d followed at Pret. Eventually, someone said ‘Yes, I’ll help’.”

Even then, Leo was cautious. The whole idea of her bendy shoe was that it was a fashion accessory, one that folded into a smart and trendy purse. This potentially meant a patent, so she didn’t want to tell the factory exactly what it was in case they just made it for themselves. She went the long way around – getting one factory to make the shoes, and another to make the travel purse.

But the product worked. “Women instantly got it because it’s about our everyday lifestyles,” she says. “Women today are busier than ever before. They’re multitasking jobs, families, and goodness knows what else. As a young professional, you’re out first thing in the morning, then back late at night, so you’re constantly thinking: ‘What is my outfit, how is that going to work, and what can I do to make my life easier?’

“When I started, I launched online and straightaway, day one, I had sales. One customer said ‘This is really cool’, another said ‘I definitely need these, I’ll buy two’. It was striking a chord with the customer, because that was me, and there were a lot more out there like me.”

Back in 2007, the digital world was nothing like it is today, so Leo built her brand physically.

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“

“There are some very loyal people out there.

We’ve made something that makes their lives easier, and they’re coming back again and again.”

She carried on working for Virgin Trains for three years to help fund it, spending weekends on a stand at London’s Brick Lane market in front of her customers. Meanwhile Gareth, her partner, helped drive operations by going fulltime immediately.

In year one, total revenues barely reached £50,000. Now in its tenth year, Cocorose London’s sales are 20 times that level and still growing, with about 70% in exports. The company only has the equivalent of five fulltime members of staff because it out-sources most of its operations, with its products manufactured in China and Italy.

Cocorose London has scores of models in its range – from trainers to boots and slip-ons to sandals – and Leo and her team are constantly developing new designs. The brand not only sells well online, but is also stocked by highend fashion stores across the country, at prices from £50 to £120. Big names like Dame Helen Mirren and Pippa Middleton wear the shoes, and the brand has trend-setting partnerships with the likes of The Royal Ballet and the BAFTA film awards.

It’s not all been simple though, says Leo: “We started in a recession and so business was

a tough old road. We’re big exporters, and so then faced the recession in other countries where we have big markets. Then there’s the brand itself. How do you build it up? That was a challenge.”

The potential patent never materialised, which annoyed Leo. The process was long and drawn out, but her bid to protect the concept and packaging of the foldable shoe was rejected. “They could have said that at the beginning rather than leading us down what was an expensive track,” she laments. Instead, she trademarked Cocorose London, and says this is crucial for any new brand wanting to export, as some countries and distributors won’t accept non-trademarked products.

Leo has just launched a new, bigger website to handle global sales 24-hours a day, and is continually linking up with key customers on social media. “Social media takes time to build up conversations, but it’s also fun, because you instantly know that someone’s really seen them [the shoes],” she says. “There are some very loyal people out there. We’ve made something that makes their lives easier, and they’re coming back again and again.”

Back in 2007 there were no competitors,

but today several similar products are on the market. Yet Leo’s relaxed about competition: “It’s healthy and keeps us on our toes,” she says.

“And it just goes to show it’s a great idea. In this world, there’s space for us, and we just need to focus on our product and make it the best – like the lesson I first learned at Pret – and not worry too much about what others do.

“Trying to remember that is important for me. Otherwise it’s so easy to get caught up in everything. Instead it’s better to come back to your core – this is what we’re about and that’s why people come back to us. And it’s about pushing our boundaries. We were always unconventional, and we’re constantly bending the rules of what shoes can be like.”

Getting up to go, Leo shows me her twoyear-old foldable boots, and adds: “Because I’m wearing them all the time, I can say ‘This is what’s good’ in developing our products.

For example, we’ve added pillowed heels for ultimate comfort, and concealed wedge heels in some designs to give a little height.”

And with that, she heads back into a tube station for another tortuous journey – but one she’s made easier for herself and tens of thousands of other women. n

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WE’RE

IN THE HONEY

Plan Bee not only manages hives for the likes of Aldi, Kellogg’s and L’Oreal but also produces a range of products including honey and mead, and educates the public about the importance of pollinators. Founder Warren Bader tells Peter Ranscombe how he balances people, planet and profit.

T

here’s a buzz in the office at Plan Bee. Despite being tucked away in a quiet corner of an industrial estate in Wishaw near Glasgow, the nine members of staff are busy managing clients from Aberdeen in the north to Cornwall in the south – indeed, cracking a joke about the site being a “hive” of activity wouldn’t be too far off the mark.

At the centre of the dance is Warren Bader, a music industry veteran who launched Plan Bee in 2011. Originally from Cape Town, Bader left South Africa in 1999 to further his career as a producer in London, before spreading his wings for a similar role in Scotland in 2002.

Along the way, he worked with stars including Boyzone and Tina Turner. But what

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prompted him to swap the static hiss of the recording studio for the busy buzz of the beehive?

“The company I worked for went spectacularly tits-up,” explains Bader, 55. “I was at a certain age, so finding work up here was tough, but by that point I’d already got myself an allotment to help relieve the stress of work.

“I was growing heritage fruit trees and came to the realisation about the importance of pollination. That’s what led me to decide that I wanted to train to become a beekeeper and I fell in love with the bees.

“It wasn’t so much the honey, it was the bees. They’re so totemic, they’re so symbolic of industry and hard work – the whole way the beehive works is for the benefit of the colony, not of the individual, and so there are a lot of lessons that we as human beings can learn from that.

“

“She understood that we weren’t just trying to rent out beehives and make honey.”

“The question was then ‘How can I make money from honey?’. That was the very difficult part of it all. I was driving along one day, wondering how I could do it and I suddenly realised I should be ‘selling biodiversity’ – renting out the beehives to companies so we could generate more income.”

Around the same time that Bader was taking his first steps to set up Plan Bee, Jim Duffy was launching Entrepreneurial Spark, which has grown to become the world’s largest free business accelerator programme. “I remember the Friday that they launched Entrepreneurial Spark – I pursued Jim Duffy, I wanted a place on the programme,” Bader remembers. “The format hadn’t been proved at that point, but I wanted to be a part of it.”

Bader and his larval Plan Bee business were accepted into the E-Spark incubator or “hatchery” when it opened in Glasgow in January 2012. Patricia Barclay, founder of specialist life sciences law firm Bonaccord, became his mentor and an early champion for the business.

“Patricia just ‘got it’ straight away,” Bader says. “She understood that we weren’t just trying to rent out beehives and make honey, but also educate companies and the wider public about the importance of bees and other pollinators and about protecting the environment.”

Barclay introduced Plan Bee to Kelvin Capital, the Glasgow-based business angel syndicate, which together with the Scottish Investment Bank (SIB) – the investment arm of Scottish Enterprise – invested a total of £130,000 in the business in 2013 through the Seed Enterprise Investment Scheme (SEIS). The following year, the company raised a further £175,500, with Kelvin and SIB contributing a combined £70,000 and the remainder coming from 177 investors through the Crowdcube crowdfunding website.

“It was a complicated transaction,” Bader says. “To keep the costs down, we had to complete the deal in a single day, with the right amounts of money being in the right bank accounts at the right time.

“There were four legal teams involved – mine, Kelvin’s, the SIB’s and Crowdcube’s. I don’t think people realise how complicated these deals can get sometimes.

“Crowdfunding was great for us because it allowed us to access investment from outside Scotland and it also created ambassadors for our company and the work we do. The business angel scene in Scotland is thriving, but there’s only so much money available, especially compared with places like London.”

Plan Bee is now gearing up to raise between £250,000 and £300,000 through a further crowdfunding campaign. “The money will allow us to move into proper premises, hire more staff, get more bees and buy the equipment for our own meadery,” explains Bader.

Beehive Brae, the company’s sister business, was launched in 2014 and currently makes mead and honey beer at other people’s premises.

Bader wants to bring production in-house so it can form part of a shop window for the firm.

“I want to stay in Lanarkshire if I can,” he says. “When we started out, we won a competition run by North Lanarkshire Council and our prize was a free 50 square metre industrial unit for a year, which was an amazing boost for us.

“It would be great to find a peri-urban site. Perhaps a farm that’s still close to the motorway network. We want people to be

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“

“It wasn’t so much the honey, it was the bees. They’re so totemic, they’re so symbolic of industry and hard work. ”

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able to visit us and see the bees and learn more about what they do.”

While his heart may be firmly settled in Lanarkshire, Bader’s business has spread its wings from its Central Belt origins. Brett Adshead, an experienced beekeeper and urban farmer, is based in Sussex and manages hives from Cornwall to the Midlands.

Bader still gets out to manage the other sites, but is hiring staff to help him look after the bees, freeing him up to concentrate on this year’s fundraising round.

From the earliest days, Plan Bee has worked with highprofile clients, which rent hives as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes. Customers range from household names like Aldi, Kellogg’s and L’Oreal through to Glasgow Housing Association, Scotia Gas Networks and Low Carbon, a renewable energy developer that owns solar farms, complete with wild flower meadows planted under the struts supporting the panels.

“Our first customer was Clyde Munro Dental Group, which was great because if you can convince dentists about the benefits of bees and honey then you can convince anyone,” laughs Bader. “Clyde Munro had about six practices when we started working with them, but we’ve been able to grow with them and they now have around 13 practices.

“Another early client that’s stayed with us is Highland Spring.

Like Patricia, they got it straight away and understood what we were trying to do.

“One of our customers south of the Border is Flowerworld in Derby, which is owned by Morrisons and which supplies all the cut flower bouquets to its supermarkets. That’s obviously a nice connection between the bees and the flowers.

“Our work with Aldi is also important because it’s not just

about selling our honey or our beer through its stores. It also allows us to speak to Aldi’s buyers about the way they source their fruit and vegetables, making sure that their growers don’t use any neonicotinoids, which are chemicals that kill insects.

“Another more unusual client is James M Brown, which is based in Stoke-on-Trent and is the largest manufacturer of cadmium pigments in the world. Working with a company like that making pigments and colourants is really important because it shows how we can have a wider influence on sustainability that goes beyond beehives.”

As well as managing the bees and producing the honey, Plan Bee also carries out community engagement and education projects on behalf of its clients. As the public has become more aware of the decline of honey bees and bumble bees, companies have become more interested in Bader’s work.

“We work in some very deprived areas, where people don’t know about the problems affecting bees,” he says. “Being able to give people their first taste of real honey is amazing too.

“People are becoming much more interested in where their food comes from. We saw a step-change in interest following the horsemeat scandal – it wasn’t that people were concerned with horsemeat as such, they were more concerned that they were being lied to on the packet.”

Back at the BQ Live debate on food and drink in 2015, Bader was the only participant to stick his head above the parapet and declare his support for Brexit. A year on from the vote, have his opinions changed?

“I supported leaving the European Union but not leaving the European single market,” he explains. “It wasn’t made clear during the campaign that the UK would also leave the single market, which I think is a mistake.” n

HIGH LIFE SUMMER 2017 MOTORING

TRAVEL

EQUIPMENT

DRINKS

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HIGH LIFE

I

HIGH LIFE

A NEW

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DAWN A Rolls-Royce has to be a work of art, not just a car, and the new Dawn is no exception as designer Giles Taylor explains to Josh Sims.

I

’d be lynched by Rolls-Royce fans if I messed with it,” laughs a cautious Giles Taylor. “After all, established values are what allows the brand to thrive.” And thriving it most certainly is. Taylor is the head of design at, arguably, the most famous name in British automotive history: that bastion of tradition, of luxury, of hefty, two car-park space-taking vehicles that somehow each seem worthy of the grander name “motor car”. But Taylor is also a designer. And he wants to try new things.

“We can do as much as possible to change how the cars look and reach a wider demographic, as we are,” he says. “Besides, my mandate is to bring more expressiveness to the design, and, looking back over Rolls-Royce’s history, there actually used to be so much flamboyance. Sure, I think the perception of Rolls-Royce being stuffy has already changed, but we could still do with loosening the tie and coming out of the shell a bit.”

That is what he’s done with the marque’s latest offering, the Dawn – perhaps the closest Rolls-Royce has, in recent years, come to making an everyday car, if anything “everyday” can be said to apply to a six layer soft-top with a 122.5-inch wheelbase, 563 horsepower V12 engine and £250,000 price tag. It is, perhaps, one step closer to the “Vision Next” car-of-the-future proposed by Taylor last year – think home-from-home interiors, giant screens, canopy roof, lightweight aluminium structure and wheels and electric powerplant, all very Lady Penelope.

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“

“I like to think of any Rolls-Royce as being the expression of damn good manners – but in metal.”

Certainly Taylor concedes that designing a convertible, notably one that claims to be the most rigid four-seat convertible on the market, does have its challenges, and not just structurally – which is why 80% of the Dawn’s body panels are new – but aesthetically. It has raked lines leading from the recessed grille with the roof up, and an appealingly uncluttered linearity to it with it down. Either way, it’s still – as Taylor suggests the diehards demand – very much a Rolls-Royce.

“I like to think of any Rolls Royce as being the expression of damn good manners – but in metal,” he explains. “Yet whether it’s a design brief for a Citroen or a Rolls-Royce it’s not

about, say, the distinction between taste. Of course, both cars are equally expected to be useable and practical. But ultimately the difference is that at Rolls-Royce we get to do things that other brands on the automotive spectrum can’t, and that’s what makes the cars special – we get to think in terms of transforming a technical object into art. With Rolls-Royce you get more art – I think that’s what people are paying for now.”

It’s an interesting proposition, that Rolls-Royce, among a few other brands, is re-moulding the incentive to buy such a vehicle: away from expressions of status, away – most certainly – from the need to get from A

HIGH LIFE

“

“Cars are private spaces and I think will increasingly give that sense of offering protection from the chaos, climate and traffic outside – the car will offer the driver some mental room, a place to stop and do some thinking.”

to B, and more towards the pleasure in enjoying a craft object for its own sake, much as one might a painting or a piece of jewellery. That, clearly, if embraced, would represent a shift in the perception the layperson may have of Rolls-Royce too – as outsized, ostentatious and out of keeping with the times.

“But there’s a place for a socially-responsible expression of luxury, that’s an expression of the exquisite, of something that beguiles,” Taylor counters. “There are flashy motorcars for flashy people, but I feel the future of Rolls-Royce will be more a focus on that part of it that’s more discreet. I’d love to think of Rolls-Royce cars as connecting with their owners on an almost spiritual level, not them just being big toys for rich people. I think that sense of meaning is the only place in which luxury will be be able to exist in the future.

“Clearly there are now many different ideas of what you might call ‘mobility solutions’ – electric cars, car sharing, the Apple solution of keeping a car minimalistic, utilitarian, connected,” Taylor adds. “But Rolls-Royce is in

the world of luxury, unashamedly, and we’re sure there will still be a place for that. The difference may be that we don’t want to be perceived as designing the kind of luxury for those fat cats who want to consume for its own sake.”

The Dawn, coincidentally or not, has a genuine subtlety to it, a sense of relaxation, especially in comparison to its imposing forebears, the Phantom, Ghost and even the Wraith coupé – of which the Dawn looks somewhat like a decapitated version. Of course, that subtlety is relative. And the Dawn is also, for its size – which is unequivocally big – remarkably drivable. It’s an easy cruiser, rather than a outright battleship, but light on its rubber feet, three tons shifting to 60mph in 4.3 seconds – even if Taylor describes the car as being for the driver more inclined to a leisurely coastal drive out to dinner rather than burning anyone up at the light, who, truth be told, likes the attention, but not too much.

It’s become a cliche among automotive companies to talk of their making “a real driver’s

car” and yet here it is, albeit one that zips through its eight speed automatic transmission almost imperceptibly, albeit one that cossets amid all the usual glossy walnut and buttery leather – quite literally, since there’s some notion that the cows Rolls-Royce stretches over its interiors are fed a butter-rich diet. The build quality, inside and out, is – unimaginatively on Rolls-Royce’s part – second to none.

“Cars are private spaces and I think will increasingly give that sense of offering protection from the chaos, climate and traffic outside – the car will offer the driver some mental room, a place to stop and do some thinking,” Taylor argues. “That said, there’s definitely still a joy to be had through actual driving. While I do think there is sense in having a vehicle so intelligent that it can take over if you get into trouble, I wouldn’t want being in a car to become just a back-seat experience. I still believe in steering wheels. Why am I so sure we’ll still want to drive? It goes back to why the car was invented – the pleasure of the wind in your hair. Driving is just cool.” n

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N I K G A M

WAVES

Josh Sims sets sail with yacht restorer Pendennis.

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ike Carr quietly laments the lack of space in vintage yachts. “Refitting them does come with its technical challenges,” says the joint-managing director of Pendennis, the Falmouth-based restoration firm that specialises in classic sail and motorboats.

“Today that classic exterior still requires all the modern systems – from communications to air conditioning – that the yacht wouldn’t have had back when it was built. You need very skilled people and careful design to make it all fit.”

Which Pendennis does. Certainly, if other companies are wellversed in building yachts from new, Pendennis is fast winning a reputation as the go-to expert in reviving and revamping the yachts of yesteryear, winning international awards for extensive restoration projects such as its work on classic motor yacht Malahne.

There are seven motor yachts on site right now undergoing refit

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“Today that classic exterior still requires all the modern systems – from communications to air conditioning – that the yacht wouldn’t have had back when it was built.”

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work, one of them a whopping 72 metres in length. A number of Pendennis-built or restored yachts will be proving their mettle in the America’s Cup Superyacht Regatta this year, as well as projects that the yard has refitted competing in the J Class Regatta, that gathering of arguably the most beautiful, and among the rarest sailing boats ever made.

“Not many companies around the world can rebuild a yacht from very poor condition and with the same emphasis on style,” suggests Carr, who trained as a naval architect and who oversees the training of many a young apprentice, some 200 having passed through Pendennis’ yard to date. “The fact is that most other companies only look at rebuilds and refits when there’s nothing else to do.”

Indeed, Pendennis might not only be capitalising on its rare expertise – founded in 1988, 19 years ago it launched a progressive apprenticeship scheme that has given the company a competitive advantage when it comes to having the right skillset for what can

“

“Do you want just a big, new white yacht, or do you want a piece of nautical jewellery?”

be extremely delicate work – but also on the zeitgeist. Yes, its clientele have often bought a yacht they want overhauled to meet their taste or their lifestyles. But Carr senses a shift.

“My feeling is that there’s a rising interest in sympathetic yacht restoration over new builds, in keeping with the perceived value in vintage things, as we’re seeing in the car market too,” he argues. “Do you want just a big, new white yacht, or do you want a piece of nautical jewellery?

“Demand for the latter is growing because there are fewer and fewer such boats available in a condition that can be restored. Of course, you can build a new yacht to look old, which we sometimes do, but it’s not the same thing – such yachts lack the originality, the character, the stories…”

This isn’t to say new builds can’t be spectacular. One trend in this market, for example, is for glass-sided and even glassbottomed boats. “The yachting industry is looking ever more to take cues from architecture, and using its materials for a structural role in yacht building,” as Toby Allies, the company’s sales and marketing director notes. “And that means that glass is more and more prominent, within the hull itself. It gives great visual presence for the ocean – to see out through the water if it’s clear enough.”

Functionality is another trend shaping the way such new craft look too: Allies speaks of the desire “to bring the outside inside”, which is seeing, for example, larger tenders and bigger swim platform areas, “for easier use of the toys”.

“We’re seeing more and more modifications

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being requested to improve that water interface,” he adds, “right down to cutting aft sections off vessels”. He cites the design of Hemisphere, the world’s largest privatelyowned sailing catamaran, which Pendennis built, as an example of this blurring of spaces.

But such spectacle and such utility often somehow lacks charm. Pendennis’ re-launch in March 2015 of Malahne is a demonstration of how smaller and older can, in sheer personality – and even in the age of the mega yacht – be better. The 50-metre classic motor yacht was built by Camper & Nicolsons 80 years ago this year, making it one of a very few pre-war motor yachts to have survived into the 21st century. Pendennis’ 30-month restoration is arguably one of the most ambitious seen to date, seeing the recreation of many of the yacht’s original features, including its hull shape, while modernising the workings to meet Lloyd’s Register and other maritime codes.

It’s a bit of history brought back to life: Malahne was commissioned by the chairman

of the Woolworths retail empire, was owned by movie producer Sam Spiegel – who used it as a floating production office while filming Lawrence of Arabia – and was the basis of many a Hollywood A-lister party during the 1960s and 70s. Other notable refits of international acclaim by Pendennis have included: Adela, a 55-metre schooner; Dona Amelia, a 72-metre motor yacht; and Shamrock V, one of the few remaining original J Class yachts. Right now, it’s working on the Odyssey, a 1967-built yacht that arrived at the Pendennis shipyard on the back of a barge last October. It’s a returning customer, having had its interior refitted there a decade or so ago.

While Carr argues that Pendennis’ Britishness is also now playing to the company’s benefit – both the UK’s historic reputation for engineering, and the fact that many classic yachts of that pre-war period were built in Britain, which then dominated the market – it is not resting on its laurels. The growing demand for restoration work is seeing Pendennis expand

too: it has recently completed a three-year rebuilding of its shipyard and has seen a major boost in business having constructed a 7,564sqm, non-tidal basin – effectively its own harbour. The shipyard’s direct access to the Atlantic – competitors in Germany and the Netherlands are more likely river or canal-based – is also helping draw clients.

They are loyal clients too – Pendennis is starting to build something of a reputation through its own Pendennis Cup, a regatta held every other year, initially open to those clients who had worked on their yachts with the company, but now open to all. In 2015 – appealing more to those who like a bit of sun on their spray-kissed faces – it even launched a cruising rally in St Kitts.

“We do that kind of thing first of all because it’s great fun, and we want to make it fun for our clients,” says Carr. “We want to be able to give something back to them, a way to enjoy their yachts. After all, nobody needs a yacht – it’s pure luxury.” n

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Stepping back in time To mark Scotland’s Year of History, Heritage & Archaeology, Peter Ranscombe checks into Old Town Chambers, a set of serviced apartments that includes one of Edinburgh’s oldest inhabited buildings.

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ats off to VisitScotland – the tourism marketing agency has come up with some cracking ideas for its “themed years”. We’ve had the Year of Creative Scotland, the Year of Food & Drink and the all-encompassing Year of Innovation, Architecture & Design.

This year is no exception – 2017 marks the Year of History, Heritage & Archaeology, celebrating everything from Scotland’s battle sites and castles through to our traditional music and tartan. And what better place to mark the occasion than Old Town Chambers in Edinburgh?

The set of 50 serviced apartments is centred around a 15th-century townhouse, one of the oldest inhabited buildings in Scotland’s capital.

Once owned by Lord Advocate Sir James Stewart of Goodtrees (1635-1713) – a political and religious reformer whose adventures would fill a history book on their own – the four-person venue is really special, with its vaulted ceilings, giant stone blocks, massive fireplace and spiral staircase.

Each room sits on a different level, from the master bedroom with its free-standing bath leading up to the open-plan family bathroom and then on again to the living room and

kitchen. The townhouse sits in part of the wider 16th-century Advocate’s Close and Roxburgh’s Court development, with the other apartments spread across a mixture of older and newer buildings.

Old Town Chambers’ operator, Lateral City Apartments, is part of Chris Stewart Group, the property development company that spent £46m revamping the closes in 2013, which the firm’s eponymous owner told Kenny Kemp all about back in issue 12 of BQ Scotland. Next on Stewart’s hit list is the Edinburgh Grand, a former Royal Bank of Scotland office, on St Andrew Square, that’s due to open in the autumn after being transformed into a development that includes 50 apartments, a 200-seat restaurant and shops. After that, he has Glasgow in his sights, having snapped up some former council offices around George Square.

Back to Old Town Chambers and, with the townhouse already booked, I instead checked-in to apartment number 48, one of the single-bed “signature” apartments that mix the ancient with the modern. It boasts the same exposed stonework as the older unit, but instead of sitting along one of the Old Town’s

narrow “closes” or streets, the view from the windows looks north out over the New Town, taking in the towers and spires of the Balmoral Hotel and the Scott Monument, along with the Forsyth Sphere sitting on top of Arcadia’s Top Shop building.

It’s a superb view. Plus, it’s unusual to look from the Old Town to the New Town in this position, adding to the magic.

The apartment consists of a dining kitchen, with the table and two booth seats built into one of the windows. The open-plan layout then leads through to a work area with a desk – although with a view like that it would be hard to get any writing done – that then leads down two steps to a seating area with a sofa, two chairs and a coffee table, plus a massive bed tucked around the corner, with two singles joined together to create a massive super-king.

The only part of the flat that isn’t open plan is the bathroom, which has entrances from the kitchen-diner and the work area, both sealed off using sliding barn-style doors on runners.

Inside, there’s a standalone bath and a separate walk-in shower, complete with Cowshed toiletries, such as the amusingly-named “Dirty Cow” hand wash and “Moody Cow” shower gel.

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It would have been nice to see a Scottish brand in the bathroom, but I must salute Cowshed’s ethos on ingredients, which include no petrochemicals, no animal ingredients and no animal testing.

If guests don’t fancy making the most of the well-equipped kitchen then Old Town Chambers has teamed up with another historic name, Valvona & Crolla, established in 1934 and billed as Scotland’s oldest food and wine specialist. The royal warrant holder offers breakfast boxes consisting of cheese, cured Italian meats, fruit juice, bread, fruit and muesli, or a “quiet night in” box made up of cheese, more meats, olives and a bottle of wine.

Even the surrounding eateries are steeped in history. While for those looking to stretch their legs a bit – but only a bit – there’s a Zizzi’s Italian chain restaurant on site, for those prepared to venture a tiny wee bit further down Advocate’s Close there sits The Devil’s Advocate, a bar and restaurant in a former Victorian pump house run by those clever people behind the Bon Vivant restaurant and its companion wine shop.

I really rate the wines in The Devil’s Advocate – from Spanish Albarino, Italian Grillo and German Riesling through to Australian Grenache, Alsatian Pinot Noir and Barossa Valley Shiraz – and the food has never let me down.

There are also some 200 whiskies behind the bar for those who haven’t been indoctrinated into the wonderful world of Scotch.

Visitors don’t have to venture far from the apartments to get a further taste of history. On the Royal Mile, there are the obvious contenders – like Edinburgh Castle, St Giles’ Cathedral and the Palace of Holyroodhouse – and then there are the sometimes-overlooked options, such as Gladstone’s Land, hailed by owner the National Trust for Scotland as “Edinburgh’s oldest house”, which offers an insight into what life would have once been like in the capital’s tenements.

Yet my favourite historic destination in the city centre is still the National Museum of Scotland on nearby Chambers Street. It’s just got better and better since the £47m redevelopment that was completed in 2011 – although I still miss the goldfish that used to swim in the pools beneath the wrought-iron grandeur of the main hall. n Apartments at Old Town Chambers start from £145. Find out more at www.lateralcity. com/property/old-town-chambers or by calling 0131 510 5499

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Dressing for dinner Sumptuous surroundings and culinary concoctions bring a wee bit of magic to Crossbasket Castle in Blantyre, as Peter Ranscombe discovers.

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don’t often wear a tie to dinner these days.

But, for Albert Roux, I made an exception.

Alongside his younger brother, Michel, Roux opened Le Gavroche – the UK’s first Michelin starred restaurant – in London’s Mayfair in 1967.

In the 1980s, he became a consultant and began working with Inverlochy Castle Management International (ICMI) in 2005.

His name now graces the restaurants at several of the hotels in ICMI’s portfolio, including Sir Andy Murray’s Cromlix, Greywalls in East Lothian, Inver Lodge in Sutherland, Rocpool in Inverness, and now Crossbasket Castle at High Blantyre, near Glasgow, along with that of his son, Michel Junior.

I’m always a bit sceptical when I see a celebrity chef’s name branded onto a restaurant, especially if it’s a chain. How much time can they really spend looking after so many eateries?

Interestingly, Roux receives weekly emails from the general managers, telling him which dishes have sold. He also visits each site once a month for management meetings. So, with my curiosity satisfied and my tie knotted tightly

with a double-Windsor, I slipped into my seat in the Baillie Room at Crossbasket to enjoy dinner.

For starters, a circular “torchon” or smooth pate of duck liver was served with shredded braised pig’s head at its centre, delivering a delicious combination of textures and accompanied by Sauternes jelly and a single slice of truffled brioche.

The lack of brioche was more than made up for by the selection of breads – sourdough, seeded and white baguette plaits – alongside a lava salt butter and a stunning smoked paprika butter. Now, where has that been all my life?

The trio of Orkney beef – consisting of a roast fillet, a short rib and shredded cheek – was a cracking main course, again mixing textures and flavours. It slipped down nicely with a bottle of the 2012 Domaine Drouhin-Laroze Gevrey Chambertin, which had tonnes of red cherry, red plum, violets and wood smoke on the nose and surprisingly fresh acidity, which was flagged up in the excellent tasting notes on the extensive wine list.

Although the delivery of the dark chocolate

soufflé took longer than advertised, it was well worth the wait. Light as you like – to quote Michel Roux Jr’s Masterchef colleague, Greg Wallace – it was simply gorgeous.

If the portion sizes at dinner were sensibly restrained then breakfast headed off in the opposite direction. Possibly the thickest pancake I’ve ever seen was served with crispy bacon and acacia syrup. The homemade pork sausages were also tasty.

While the restaurant is certainly a highlight, it’s by no means the only attraction at Crossbasket. The derelict 17th-century castle was bought in 2011 by Steve Timoney – of Smart Metering Systems fame – who spent £9m renovating it into a five-star hotel. Many of the furnishings in the nine-bedroom facility were chosen by Timoney’s wife, Alison, and the quality of the finish is very impressive.

The mediaeval hall-style events space at the rear of the property looks stunning with its decorative wooden beams, while a ceremony space recently opened for weddings. Equally striking is the tower suite, split over four levels and with a spiral stone staircase.

Crossbasket’s proximity to the transport network is also sadly its only Achilles’ heel. Even with the shutters closed, there’s still a wee bit too much noise from the A725 East Kilbride expressway. It’s a small gripe though – and a delicious meal in stunning surroundings more than made up for a little rumble of traffic. n A superior double room starts from £320 per night. Find out more at www.crossbasketcastle.com

bqlive.co.uk HIGH LIFE

A window on the world

Peter Ranscombe visits Galvin at Windows, a restaurant with a Michelin star and an unrivalled view over the London skyline.

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here aren’t many restaurants in which diners are handed two postcards when they sit down, each showing the view from the windows of the eatery. Then again, there aren’t many restaurants like Galvin at Windows, the Michelin-starred establishment perched on the 28th floor of the London Hilton on Park Lane hotel.

Nor can many rival its view. The British capital lays spread out before patrons in all 360-degrees of its splendour, from Hyde Park to the Post Office Tower.

Opened in 2006 by chef Chris Galvin, the restaurant gained its first Michelin star in 2010.

Chris and his younger brother, Jeff, are also behind the Galvin Brasserie de Luxe and The Pompadour by Galvin outlets at the Walforf Astoria Edinburgh – better known to one and all as “The Caley”.

Dinner began with an amuse-bouche of tuna tartare that delivered a citrusy blast, accompanied by cucumber and dill powder. It was a great indication of the high quality that was to follow.

A starter of soy-marinated Iberico pluma – a cut between the neck and shoulder – was served warm with pickled Japanese cucumber that added freshness and crunch and a tomato and chilli paste. It paired delightfully with a glass of the 2015 Leyda Reserve Pinot Noir from Chile, with its wood smoke and red cherry aromas leading into concentrated strawberry and raspberry fruit on the palate, and enough acidity to match the pork.

The wine was also able to handle the main course, with a rump of soft Cornish lamb that tasted so good it could almost have been

Scotch lamb, served with braised fennel and a shepherd’s pie, delivered to the table in its own tiny copper saucepan. The lamb was good but the pie stole the show with its rich sauce and creamy mash.

I’m a sucker for an apple tatin, and Galvin served its with caramel sauce and rosemary ice cream, making it even more tempting. Before the dessert though, they snuck in a cheeky wee cheese course, featuring four cheeses from both sides of the Channel, including a runny Brie and a Munster from Alsace, with its rind soaked in brandy.

The surprises kept coming, with chocolate petit fours – some filled with passionfruit fondant and some filled with a soft almost liquid-like truffle – followed by stick-to-yourteeth French favourite canelé, made without the rum but with plenty of caramel. It’s worth keeping an eye peeled for the digestif drinks trolley too, packed full of cognac, armagnac and Scotch, featuring Johnnie Walker Blue Label and three Dalmore single malts.

It’s easy to see why Galvin won its Michelin star – and it’s nothing to do with the

guidebook’s assessor having to “step off the beaten track” by taking a 28-floor journey in a lift – yet it’s the atmosphere in the restaurant that really set it apart for me. All pretention has been removed – members of the waiting staff still wear ties but welcome and serve their guests so they feel they’re at a party, not a stuffy dining room.

While the outside of the Hilton hotel’s 1960s Soviet-esque concrete styling won’t appeal to all, there’s no arguing with the quality of its suites. Mine on the 22nd floor almost matched Galvin view-for-view, with different vistas from the sitting room and bedroom, with its giant bed. There are big LG televisions in each of the rooms although, with views like these, no-one’s likely to be buying movies from the pay-perview service. n The prestige menu at Galvin at Windows starts at £79 per person for three courses, find out more at www.galvinatwindows.com, while a junior suite in the London Hilton on Park Lane starts at £569 per night – find out more at www.hilton.com

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M

aking wine is all about finding the right balance: a balance between what goes on in the vineyard and what goes on in the winery; a balance between the science of fermentation and the art of blending; a balance between the fruit flavours of the grapes and the spicy notes of the wooden casks in which the juice can age.

Over the years, Californian winemakers became known for picking grapes when they were over-ripe and being heavy-handed with their use of new oak barrels, resulting in wines with jammy flavours and more vanilla than a tub of ice cream.

Fast-forward to the present day and Northern California is full of talented vintners who want to capture a sense of place in their wines, using the elements that make their vineyards special, to craft drinks that reflect their soils and climates.

Escape from the hot central valley and head north across the Golden Gate Bridge and you’re into the beautiful countryside of Napa and Sonoma, with a wealth of different styles from which to choose.

California isn’t just about full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon or creamy Chardonnay either; the state boasts a wide range of varieties from Riesling and Sauvignon Blanc all the way through to Pinot Noir, Syrah and Zinfandel.

Buried beneath the mountainside above Calistoga in Napa lie the caves of the Schramsberg winery, the first in California to make sparkling wine from the noble Chardonnay grape.

Hugh Davies, the son of founders Jack and Jamie, makes vintage wine to capture some of

2013 Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs (£28, Vineyardcellars.com)

2014 Littorai The Haven Vineyard Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir (£79.62, Fine Wine Company)

California

dreamin’

In the past, California’s wines had a reputation for being over-oaked and over-ripe, but drinks writer Peter Ranscombe finds high-end bottles with a sense of place. the characteristics of each season, rather than blending wines from different years to smooth out variations in a non-vintage bottling.

His 2013 Schramsberg Blanc de Blancs (£28, Vineyardcellars.com) is packed full of green apple, pear and lemon flavours, with the concentration of the fruit standing up to the fresh acidity.

Further south in Carneros, another family descended from German immigrants, the Schugs, are making Pinot Noir in a distinctly European style. The red fruit flavours in the 2014 Schug Carneros Pinot Noir (£30, Wine Treasury) are crisp and clear, with enough refreshing acidity to even pair with an intensely-spicy Mexican lunch.

Pinot Noir is also the order of the day at Littorai, a vineyard and farm founded by Ted Lemon, one of the leading figures in the biodynamic movement.

Farming biodynamically – by not using

2014 Schug Carneros Pinot Noir (£30, Wine Treasury)

factory-made chemicals but instead producing natural alternatives to ward off pests – comes at a price and the 2014 Littorai The Haven Vineyard Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir (£79.62, Fine Wine Company) is by no means cheap, but it does offer oodles of intense red cherry and red plum flavours, along with firm but velvety tannins and a long fruity finish.

For those seeking a red with more body, look no further than the 2013 Seghesio Sonoma County Old Vines Zinfandel (£47.99, The Wine Reserve), with its smoky, roast meat and cherry notes on the nose and velvety vanilla and bramble flavours on the tongue.

And for something lighter and whiter, try the 2013 Ramey Ritchie Vineyard Russian River Valley Chardonnay (£31.99, AG Wines). Back in the 2007 vintage, 65% of this wine was aged in new oak, but that’s now down to 30%, revealing more of the zesty lemon and grapefruit freshness, balanced by creamy butter notes. n

2013 Ramey Ritchie Vineyard Russian River Valley Chardonnay (£31.99, AG Wines)

2013 Seghesio Sonoma County Old Vines Zinfandel (£47.99, The Wine Reserve)

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bqlive.co.uk Partner

ATOM bank is young but it has already established a reputation for springing surprises on a startled financial world.

It first raised eyebrows when it was founded in 2014, a new challenger bank when banking’s reputation was still reeling from the crash. It headquartered itself in Durham, rather than the City of London, and it introduced a new appbased banking model that is proving strikingly popular.

Few would have expected that in just three years it would have grown to the point where it had 300 staff, just shy of 19,000 savings customers and a balance sheet of more than £570m.

Then in April, underlining that it’s far from having exhausted its capacity to surprise, Atom announced that it had signed up the Black Eyed Peas founder/rapper will.i.am as its first strategic board advisor.

It was only a few days after this that I met Anthony Thomson, the bank’s founder and chairman, in Durham’s Flat White Kitchen, a stylish eatery popular with the young and forward thinking – very much in the Atom image.

Thomson, an engaging man, relaxed and informal in dress and manner, explains the appointment.

“I’m a marketer by background and I

MEET THE MAN BEHIND THE BANKING REVOLUTION

Atom bank wants to change the face of banking.

Founder and chairman Anthony Thomson explains to Peter Jackson how the challenger business is going about it. was sitting at home one evening thinking, were Atom a person, what would be its characteristics – an old marketing exercise. It needs to be somebody who is highly digitally literate and has a real grasp of technology,

someone who understands the power and role of social media and how it’s changing how people work, somebody with a real understanding of the popular culture and the zeitgeist.

Partner

“Then will.i.am popped into my head and the more I thought about him and the more I researched him I learnt – what I hadn’t realised – that while he’s been an incredibly successful musician he’s also very active in technology, with his own technology company, employs roughly 150 people around the world in artificial intelligence, and he’s a regular speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos. So, he’s an incredibly well-connected individual, connected both to technology but also to millennial consumers. When we met, he really got what we were trying to do and was very keen to be part of it.’’

The star’s technological knowledge and his understanding of Atom’s target markets will help inform the bank’s strategy.

Thomson adds: “I think he will be particularly helpful in business banking because, above all, he’s an incredibly successful entrepreneur and I think people in business will relate to that.”

Atom bank’s identity is about more than new technology and youth appeal. It is a bank that was born in the wake of the banking crisis and that was conceived as a reaction to the philosophy and ethos that had been prevalent in the banking sector for decades before the Lehman Brothers collapse. It is a bank that declares different and distinct values.”

Thomson recalls how these underlay the foundations of Atom.

“I had the idea for what became Atom in 2012 when I wanted to create a new bank but there are certain things that are very important to me as an individual. First and foremost, I believe that one of the great malaises in UK PLC in general and banks in particular is that they think they exist to make money, whereas I believe absolutely that profit is a by-product of giving the customer a better product, service or experience.’’

With this conviction, he pulled together the original team of Founders: including Mark Mullen, the chief executive; Dave McCarthy, chief financial officer; Edward Twiddy, chief innovations officer; Craig Iley, managing director of business banking; Sophie Haagensen, head of strategy and planning and Paul Hanks, Atom’s first Chief Technology Officer.

“We spent our first few months just talking about what mattered to us, and it was about creating a customer-centric organisation that would do those things.’’

Clearly the new bank had also to make money – to reward its shareholders, to

generate the capital to grow the business and to survive.

“But, it needed to be that way round,’’ he adds. “So, we spent a lot of time talking about values before we started to talk about what the business itself would look like. I wanted to work with people I liked, I wanted to work with people who shared the same belief, with people who were very open and very honest, I didn’t want it to be an organisation of politics and I’m really pleased to say, here we are three years in and it does feel like a values-driven organisation.

“This morning I was addressing a bunch of my colleagues who’ve just joined the bank about what was important to them and why the values and business were important and I said to them, as I say to everybody who joins Atom, ‘If you don’t buy into our values, then you shouldn’t be here, it’s not good for you, it’s not good for us’.’’

This should come as a breath of fresh air to an industry that, in recent years, has had – to put it mildly – an image problem.

“Whenever I’m asked, I say, I’m not a banker, but I don’t know how long I can keep saying that, having been involved for 10 years,’’ jokes Thomson. “But it comes back to this original point, this belief that profit is a by-product of doing something well for your customer. I think we can change banking for good, that is to say, we can change it permanently, for the better.’’

The North East’s last great bank, Northern Rock, collapsed and left a bitter taste for many, but it also left a pool of talented and experienced people that Atom could draw upon. In attracting staff, Thomson, a proud North Easterner, believes that Atom’s location in the region is also an advantage.

He explains: “A lot of people want to move out of London and it’s an area that’s very attractive in terms of education, in terms of quality of life and in terms of what you can get for your money.’’

He also points to the region’s burgeoning technology sector, driven and encouraged by the universities and including a thriving gaming sector. Last year Atom acquired IT business Grasp, headed by North East games pioneer Brian Jobling, who joined Atom as business development director as part of the deal.

Thompson adds: “The region has a fantastic reputation in terms of innovation. If you look at the innovations and inventions that have come out of the North East – from the Davy Lamp, through to the steam train, the turbine

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engine, the windscreen wiper, Lucozade – the area has a fantastic history of innovation and that comes from the entrepreneurial nature of people here and the support that the community has given to businesses that have been built here.’’

It is also the case that by not basing itself in London with the associated high cost base, Atom is better able to offer competitive deals to its customers.

“Because we are a very low-cost operation, both from the advantages that come from being based in the North East, plus the advantages of being a technology-led business, it means we are very efficient and that efficiency is reflected in a couple of major areas – we can give better savings rates and we can give better loan rates, whether that’s business lending or mortgages,’’ says Thomson.

This has allowed Atom to grow its depositor base and its lending base without resorting to wholesale funding.

“Usually for a bank it’s very hard to be attractive on both sides of the balance sheet because in essence it’s depressing your margin, but because we have such an efficient business we can square that particular circle and give good rates to savers and good rates to borrowers.’’

The bank has also been successful in raising capital, having received a total of £219m since incorporation with further raises planned.

Currently Atom offers three primary product lines: a savings account, residential mortgages and business loans.

In the UK 70% of mortgages are bought through an intermediary, which is how Atom bank’s mortgages are distributed through the Digital Mortgages brand.

Industry experts say there is room for new players in the mortgage market, as long as they target a niche. What is Atom bank’s niche?

“People who want to do their mortgage incredibly efficiently, at low cost, through an app,’’ he says. “It comes back to this – can we give our customers a better product, service or experience? Well, customers love the experience of banking with Atom with customers scoring it incredibly highly through tools like Reevoo, with 9.1 out of 10 consistently.’’

In fact, one of Atom bank’s recent deals, which charged just 1.29% fixed for five years – at the time, the UK’s cheapest-ever 5 year fixed rate mortgage deal – was so popular it was pulled after just nine days.

Thomson says: “It was the amount of demand we had for it. We can only lend the money that we’ve taken in in deposits and also we have to ensure we have a balanced mix of products in our portfolio.’’

And current accounts?

“They are on the road map. The whole market, in terms of technology and personal financial management products, the introduction of APIs (application program interfaces) is changing, so we are studying that very closely. We have the advantage of being a very agile business, so, as it becomes clearer where the market is going, we will be able to meet those needs.’’

In business banking, Atom bank, again using the Digital Mortgages brand, is willing to secure loans against assets other than bricks and mortar, such as an occupational lease or plant and equipment. While it is a highly-automated bank, it still places great emphasis on oldfashioned manual underwriting to properly serve the wide variety of small business borrowers.

“

However, the process is still extremely streamlined. The borrower is not required to go through a series of meetings with the bank, meeting demands for more and more financial reports then waiting for the application to jump the various hurdles of the bank’s bureaucracy only to be asked for more information, a process that could take six weeks.

Atom bank aims to give a lending decision within 72 hours of receipt of a completed application form.

It does this using its UK-wide network of intermediaries, made up of small businesses’ trusted advisors such as financial advisors, brokers and accountants and Atom’s “Digital Bridge”, which provides a ‘door’ that the customer opens to send information digitally.

The door then closes, meaning that the customer has full control of what they send.

The information can then be fed directly into the underwriter’s analysis tools. To date, Atom bank has approved £118m of business loans.

“Small businesses are the backbone of

“Small businesses are the backbone of the UK economy and we are really proud to be doing our bit.”

bqlive.co.uk Partner

the UK economy and we are really proud to be doing our bit to support them,’’ says Thomson. “Our customers come from a wide geographical base, which we need because we have to avoid geographical concentration risk and we have to sector concentration risk, so it’s a fairly wide mix of business.’’

He says that the use of intermediaries allowed the bank to gain a nationwide footprint at an early stage but that “at some point” it will be going directly to businesses.

These are Atom’s three initial product areas but – apart from current accounts – it has more offers in development.

“Our intention is to have a complete range of products for business and consumers and a broader range of savings and lending products,’’ says Thomson.

He then indicates that Atom bank will have some more rabbits to pull out of the hat.

“We have a road map for these. I don’t want to say exactly where we are right now, we’d like some of these to come as a pleasant surprise to our customers and perhaps not such a pleasant surprise to our competitors.’’

We meet on a day that ransomware has paralysed much of the NHS and attacked various organisations across Europe, which has to prompt the question of cybersecurity.

“It is an issue, but the reality is, it’s an issue for everybody who uses a computer,’’ he says. “In the so called traditional banks with branches, everything that’s done is done on computers; when you log onto internet banking, it’s all done on computers, so it’s a challenge for everybody in financial services.

“I think we are as well placed as anybody to deal with that threat because Atom is delivered through an app. All of the challenges that have arisen to date have been internet based and we are not internet based, we’re app based, which is an important distinction. But that’s not to say we are complacent, it is a real and present danger to all businesses.’’

Atom uses biometric identification, such as facial and voice recognition. In this, as in other areas, technology is central to Atom bank and Thomson insists the bank will continue to innovate and data, data analytics and artificial intelligence will be the key drivers of the business.

Atom bank is positioning itself for tomorrow’s banking and Thomson is clearly a man with an eye on the future.

He says: “For me Atom is a bit like building a monument, something that will outlive me and, while I had an original idea, there are a lot of people building it and every person who joins the business helps improve Atom. I’m very proud to have been part of it.

“I’d like to think, when I’m gone, my kids and – if I’m lucky enough to have them – my grandchildren, will look at it with pride and say, my dad or my grandad was part of building that.’’ n

atombank.co.uk newsroom@atombank.co.uk

Atom Ant Anthony Thomson grew up in Heaton in Newcastle and his first job was working for the city’s Evening Chronicle newspaper, which first gave him an interest in advertising and marketing. He moved to London in 1983 where he started a marketing services company, City Financial Marketing, which specialised in financial services and over an 11-year period grew to be the largest financial services marketing agency of its kind in Europe.

He sold the business in 1998 and then co-founded the Financial Services Forum, a membership organisation for senior executives, which he ran until 2007 when he became chairman.

In 2010 he founded Metro Bank, the first high street bank to be granted a licence in the UK for 150 years. He chaired Metro for three years before leaving in 2012, when he stepped down to begin work on what became Atom bank.

He is a non-executive director of Agiliti, a software as a service company. He is Goldman visiting professor of innovation and enterprise at Newcastle University Business School and he is the chairman of the National Skills Academy for Financial Services, a nationwide employer-led charity that helps create employment opportunities and apprenticeships in financial services.

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BRAIN POWER Karen Peattie meets Susanne Mitschke, co-founder of dementia support app Mindmate and one of the graduates of New York’s Techstars programme.

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usanne Mitschke looks much younger than 27 but when she starts talking about MindMate, a free app designed and developed in Glasgow to help people affected by dementia live more independent lives, she exudes a maturity beyond her years. Dementia is a serious subject and one the award-winning entrepreneur wants to see more widely discussed.

Mitschke, MindMate’s German-born chief executive, and her co-founders Rogelio Arellano, 29, from Mexico and Patrick Renner, 27, also from Germany – all graduates from the universities of Glasgow and Strathclyde – are quietly focused and ambitious. The fact the

app already has more than 150,000 monthly active users and is ranked in 17 countries as the number one health app in Apple’s store is remarkable given it was only launched last September. It has also claimed a clutch of prestigious awards.

Mindmate won last year’s much-lauded Converge Challenge, the business creation competition open to staff, students and recent graduates from Scotland’s universities and research institutions. The fledgling company won £30,000 in cash and £14,000 in business support, sharing the top prize with Edinburghbased MicroSense Technologies, a company that has developed a sensor system aimed at

reducing waste in the food and drink industry.

Last summer, Mitschke and her co-founders won a place on Techstars, billed as the world’s top tech accelerator programme, in New York.

MindMate was one of only 15 early-stage companies selected for the renowned scheme, which saw the team spend three months receiving mentoring from some of the tech world’s leading entrepreneurs.

According to Techstars, more than 90% of firms accepted onto the programme go on to receive more than US$2m in follow-on funding.

“Techstars really opened our eyes to what is possible,” says Mitschke. “We are building a global brand and an international product so

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exposure to the great contacts we made during our time on the programme was invaluable and has helped us fast-track our entry in the United States market.”

With 850,000 people in the UK suffering from dementia and numbers set to increase to more than one million by 2025, it’s certainly time to talk about the disease for which there is currently no cure. According to the Alzheimer’s Society, one in six people over the age of 80 have dementia and there are more than 40,000 people under 65 with dementia in the UK. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia, affecting 62% of those diagnosed.

“The facts – and the figures – are stark,” says Mitschke, who studied business and economics in Vienna before completing a master’s degree in international management and leadership at the University of Glasgow. “In the US, there are more than five million people suffering from dementia. It’s a very cruel disease that affects families and carers too and it was our own different experiences of cognitive decline that led us to develop MindMate.”

While Renner, the company’s chief operations officer, had experience of working in the care system in Germany and Mitschke developed expertise in both digital health and Alzheimer’s, Arellano’s association with the disease is particularly close to home – his

“

“In the US, there are more than five million people suffering from dementia. It’s a very cruel disease that affects families and carers too.”

grandfather had the condition and he helped care for him for seven years, witnessing firsthand the everyday struggles not just of his grandfather but his family.

“We had a whiteboard on the wall with family pictures on it to help my grandfather remember who everyone was,” explains MindMate’s chief technical officer. “He would sometimes forget who I was, or confuse me with my father. It was very difficult for all of us. He would see that board every time he went into the kitchen and there would be sticky notes reminding him to take pills or eat breakfast – that type of thing.

“So, we thought if we could put all these prompts into an app and make it interactive with games, reminders – things like that – it could be such a valuable tool in stimulating people’s minds and helping them stay active.

We didn’t have anything like that to help my grandfather.”

The trio, which founded the company and started developing its app two years ago, carried out market research and found that, while there were several apps designed to

help people with memory loss, there wasn’t one that provided a one-stop shop solution in a user-friendly way that was also intuitive and medically backed. “That’s our point of difference,” Mitschke points out. “But, in particular, we were determined it had to be easy to use.”

MindMate has several features, including interactive games to stimulate a user’s cognitive abilities, as well as chat and video functions to help family and carers keep in touch with dementia sufferers. “People suffering from dementia can be very lonely and confused,” says Mitschke, “and this leads to isolation.

“We describe MindMate as a guardian angel, a friend who is always there to help you by giving you everything you need at your fingertips. Other apps provide brain games or advice on nutrition and exercise but if you are struggling with memory loss and are using several apps for different things and maybe Spotify for music then it can be overwhelming.

“With MindMate, you don’t have to use different apps for music, games, photographs and so on because you can access it all on our

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“Scotland is the best place to start a business... Scotland’s very innovative when it comes to encouraging start-ups.”

interface. It’s an empowering tool because it helps people manage their lives without having to rely on family, friends or carers all the time – it increases their quality of life and that of the people around them.”

One of its many features is a “My Story” area that allows users to store happy memories – photographs of family, friends and pets, for example. Click on the music button and there’s a host of great tunes going back to the 1930s.

There are also healthy recipes, games designed to improve your brain health and exercise workouts. Reminders to help manage hospital appointments, to-do lists and a notes section are also invaluable tools for people with earlystage memory loss.

While MindMate is targeted predominately at the baby-boomer generation who like the convenience of having everything they need in the one app, it has wider appeal because everyone’s brain health can be boosted by keeping the mind active. Its benefits have also been recognised by the National Health Service, which became its first paying customer after NHS Greater Glasgow & Clyde bought the care home version of the app to run on iPads following a two-month trial with a postdiagnosis dementia support group.

MindMate is currently based at the University of Glasgow’s Thomson Building in the city’s leafy West End, but would Mitschke be tempted to relocate from Scotland – and the UK – in light of Brexit and the wider political uncertainty? “Absolutely not,” she states emphatically.

“Scotland is the best place to start a business,” she believes, pointing to the early support from Enterprise Campus West, linked to the University of Strathclyde. “In Germany, for example, it is very difficult if you don’t have loads of cash but there’s excellent support in Scotland for start-ups and it’s also easy to recruit because of all the talent coming out the universities, and cheaper.

“Scotland’s very innovative when it comes to encouraging start-ups – the University of Glasgow has supported us with premises for two years, which has allowed us to get on with developing the business,” she adds. “There are very high levels of collaboration and that encourages you to think beyond your own ideas and consider going in directions you hadn’t previously thought of.”

Mitschke also points to the many inspiring people here who have started from very small beginnings and now run global organisations.

“Many Scottish businesses are very well respected around the world and that opens doors,” she says.

The trio’s time spent in the US, meanwhile, taught them to be more confident about scaling up. “There’s such a can-do attitude there,” says Mitschke. “The people are so enthusiastic and that helps you believe in yourself and your capabilities. After Techstars we felt that anything was possible.”

Having already raised funding of £1m, Mitschke, Arellano and Renner make no apology for their lofty ambitions. “We’re a high-growth business and we want to see a MindMate app on the iPhone or iPad of every 60-plus person in the world,” says Mitschke.

“We’re collecting a massive amount of data on people who have dementia and Alzheimer’s and the number of sufferers is going to double until 2050.

“People are getting older and living longer so we shouldn’t be surprised,” she says. “It’s not just dementia sufferers our apps can help – older people also need help to live independently and there are people who have been ill and still want to live at home but need help. That’s where we see MindMate developing in the future.” n

Profile

Strength amidst uncertainty With around 99% of Scotland’s companies classed as small or mediumsized (249 or fewer employees) it’s fair to say that Scotland’s economy is driven

by SMEs, argues Gareth Magee.

Gareth Magee is a partner at ScottMoncrieff, leading accountants and business advisers in Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness.

E: gareth.magee@scott-moncrieff.com T: 0131 473 3500 www.scott-moncrieff.com

For the second year running, Scott-Moncrieff has surveyed both the Scottish and UK-wide SME market, and gained valuable insights into how these, mostly owner-managed, businesses are faring and how they rate their prospects for the future.

Since last year’s survey, there has been a decline in business confidence – with 59% of SMEs in the UK and 69% in Scotland expecting their business to perform better this financial year compared to 2016. Last year, 77% expected 2016 to be better than 2015. In line with this assessment, confidence in meeting key performance indicators, such as revenue and profit targets, has fallen.

There are no prizes for guessing that the key concerns of SMEs are those also dominating the headlines. The strength of the UK economy and the potential impact of Brexit were the highestranking anxieties, with a continued shortage of skilled staff and the ability to extract profit from their businesses also affecting levels of optimism.

Despite this, growth is still very much on the agenda for many SMEs and Scott-Moncrieff’s survey reports positive results, with 40% faring better than expected last financial year.

SMEs are well positioned to respond to a changing economic climate. They are generally well run, nimble, businesses that can swiftly capitalise on any opportunities that arise, even in uncertain times. While other, larger businesses may take time to debate their next move, SMEs can seize the opportunity to take swift and decisive action.

Expanding their customer base, investing in staff, developing new products and services and investing in technology are the top priorities for businesses in 2017. So, it seems there are plenty of

organisations out there seeking opportunities for expansion and investment.

While there’s no doubting that the future could test even the most optimistic business, the winners will always be those who respond with positivity and action. Opportunities will arise, and it is those who grasp them that will prosper. While some will experience positive benefits as a direct result of the current climate, others will choose to adjust their business model to create them – whether that means boosting exports, increasing domestic production, adjusting supply chains, or developing new products and services.

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“SMEs are well positioned to respond to a changing economic climate. They are generally well run, nimble, businesses that can swiftly capitalise on any opportunities that arise.”

One thing is for sure – there are bound to be more challenges ahead. If we are pessimistic, there is a danger that we will be defined by that, and it will become our reality. It’s not the surprises that can make or break a business – it’s how you deal with them that counts. n The full results of Scott-Moncrieff’s latest annual UK-wide survey of SMEs can be viewed at www.scott-moncrieff.com/news/publications.

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2017 In association with

Nearly 500 people attended the 2017 HSBC Scottish Export Awards in association with Scottish Enterprise in Glasgow to celebrate the achievements of Scottish entrepreneurs in overseas markets.

Car components manufacturer John McGavigan motors to success at Scottish Export Awards Few companies have a history as varied as that of John McGavigan, the winner of the “exporter of the year” title at the 2017 Scottish Export Awards. Founded in 1861, the business began as a printer of signs and religious materials.

By the 1970s, the Bishopbriggs-based company had established itself as a supplier of printed materials for car manufacturers. Today, it makes printed plastic components for the instrument panels on a wide range of vehicles.

Along the way, the company has created an enviable record when it comes to exports.

Some 80% of its products are shipped overseas and it’s working in some of the world’s fastestgrowing markets, including China.

The firm’s achievements were recognised at the HSBC Scottish Export Awards in association with Scottish Enterprise on 22 March at the Glasgow Hilton Hotel, with the company winning the large exporter of the year title and being crowned as the overall Scottish

exporter of the year. Its double success came a year after receiving a commendation from the judges in the large exporter category at the awards.

“Receiving the 2017 large exporter of the year and overall Scottish exporter of the year awards is excellent, and a tremendous recognition of the efforts and dedication from the entire team that has contributed to the company’s success over recent years,” explains Steve Mathers, director at John McGavigan.

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“Our business continues to grow, helped by our continued international presence and, in particular, the developing markets in Asia. We look forward to the future and to celebrating the success with likeminded businesses that embrace the opportunities exporting can bring.”

More than 470 guests gathered in Glasgow to see John McGavigan carry home its prizes. The event’s organisers hope that the year-round international trade campaign run by BQ in partnership with Scottish Enterprise will encourage other entrepreneurs to follow in the company’s footsteps and begin to export their products and services.

“There’s a real sense of pride amongst Scottish firms when they consider their achievements in export, and we’ve seen that in spades during this year’s competition,” says Bryan Hoare, director of BQ. “As we work to recognise those businesses that lead the way and inspire more to follow in their footsteps, we couldn’t be prouder to work with these exceptional exporters, helping to showcase their stories.”

Alison McGregor, chief executive of HSBC Scotland, adds: “The export awards are always a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the diverse range of exporting successes across Scotland. We are continually witnessing Scottish businesses of all sizes benefitting from international trade opportunities and the number of nominees is testament to Scotland’s exporting strengths.

“All winners and nominees have demonstrated real ambition by expanding overseas and we hope to see more of this trend in the future.”

One of the highlights of the evening was the keynote address by Bob Keiller, the entrepreneur who scaled-up North Sea oil and gas support firm Production Services Network (PSN) before selling it to Wood Group and later becoming the London-listed company’s chief executive. Keiller now serves as chair of Scottish Enterprise and shares his experience and expertise with companies throughout Scotland.

Guests at the dinner were also given a sneak-peek behind the scenes at Scotland House, the shared workspace for Scottish companies that opened at 58 Victoria Embankment in London during April. The new facility offers a home-away-from-home for Scottish firms working in the British capital, including hot-desks, meeting rooms and a programme of events and networking opportunities, with a team of staff on hand to provide business support and guidance.

Scotland House gives businesses the opportunity to have a foothold in London and gives them a platform from which they can begin or develop their export or international trade links. London’s status as a global financial hub and the presence of so many multinational companies and their advisors in the city presents a wealth of opportunities for Scottish entrepreneurs.

The 2017 Scottish Export Awards came just weeks after figures released by the Scottish Government showed that Scotland’s exports rose by 3.6% to £28.7bn during 2015, the most-recent year for which statistics are available. Exports to the European Union (EU) rose by £520m to £12.3bn, driven by an increase in demand for petroleum and chemical products, while exports to countries outside the EU climbed by £485m to £16.4bn.

The United States continued to be Scotland’s largest overseas trading partner, followed by the Netherlands – which acts as an import hub for the rest of Europe – and then France, Germany and Norway. Food and drink manufacturing remained the largest export sector, accounting for £4.8bn of overseas sales, with whisky making up 80% of the total.

“Scotland’s strong track record for exporting goods and services all over the world is testament to the strength of our innovative, ambitious and forward-thinking companies and the awards ceremony was a great opportunity to recognise these strengths and celebrate their achievements,” says Paul Lewis, managing director of Scottish Development International (SDI) and Scottish Enterprise’s international operations.

“Helping to grow exporting from Scotland remains a priority for us and we will continue to work with as many companies as possible to help them open up new opportunities and new markets, in order to achieve their growth ambitions.” n

And the winner is…

E-Commerce Exporter of the Year Award Winner: Trtl Highly commended: Alex Begg & Co Most Entrepreneurial Exporter of the Year Winner: Scotmas Group Highly commended: Trtl Micro Exporter of the Year Winner: Chocolate & Love Highly Commended: Schoolhill Engineering Small Exporter of the Year Winner: M Squared Highly commended: Westeross Fisheries Large Exporter of the Year Winner: John McGavigan Highly commended: Balmoral Offshore Engineering Export Team of the Year Winner: Paragon Inks Highly commended: Ecosse Subsea Systems High Growth Markets Exporter of the Year Winner: Churchill Drilling Tools HSBC Scottish Exporter of the Year in association with Scottish Enterprise Winner: John McGavigan

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Collaboration is unlocking export markets for entrepreneurs Companies are teaming up to enjoy the benefits of international trade, pooling their resources and sharing the risks of doing business abroad.

Trading overseas for the first time can seem like a daunting challenge: which country do you choose? How will you manage currency fluctuations? How easy is it to learn your customers’ language?

With so many questions swirling around, it’s easy to see why some entrepreneurs shy away from exports. With an ever-growing to-do list, the risks sometimes look like they outweigh the rewards.

Yet one of the ways of dealing with any nervousness surrounding international trade and minimising those risks is to team up with other businesses. By collaborating with each

other, companies can spread the risk, pool their resources and find customers overseas.

“The consortium co-operative model is a highly-effective way for businesses to collaborate,” explains Sarah Deas, director of Co-operative Development Scotland, the arm of Scottish Enterprise that supports company growth through collaborative business models.

“Working together allows smaller businesses to achieve scale while reducing the risks associated with growth. I’m delighted to see increasing numbers of Scottish businesses seeking to collaborate to access international markets.”

One collaboration that’s tasting success is Made in Scotland, which brings together 11 companies from throughout the Highlands and islands that are involved in luxury food and drink production. Between them, the businesses have cooked up a virtual larder full of produce, from charcuterie, cheese and salmon all the way through to craft beer, gin and whisky.

“The idea was to create a route to market for high-quality small producers and to give them the resources like what the big boys have, which they could not afford as individual business operators,” says Willie Cameron, one of the founders of Made in Scotland and its international sales director. “The great opportunity is that Scotland as a country is high on the world agenda and that is what we are cashing in on – both general interest and expats.

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“One thing that has been extremely successful in particular is the cross-selling between some of the businesses within the collaboration. In one instance, a partnership has even been created through the purchase of a defunct brewery by two members.”

When the Loch Ness Brewery entered administration last year, the brand and its recipes were bought by Aviemore-based Cairngorm Brewery in partnership with Drumnadrochitbased Cobbs, which operates a bakery and a chain of cafés, hotels and restaurants.

Other companies within the collaboration include A Taste of Bute, Aldomak, Braehead Foods, Bute Island Foods, R&B Distillers, the Scottish Salmon Company, Shetland Reel and Summer Harvest.

“Another venture is the introduction of one of the member’s ice cream products to 17 outlets of another member,” Cameron continues. “None of this would have happened if it was not for the collaboration.

“It also helps to strengthen the bond between the companies. Collaboration on sales and marketing has also led to operational collaboration between member companies resulting in cost saving, new product development and, in one case, an acquisition.

“The Made in Scotland operational and funding model is ground-breaking, not only in Scotland but internationally. It will drive opportunities for small food companies.

“Not only does working together enable us to reach an international customer base as a whole, it also encourages us to support each other by highlighting new opportunities that we think will benefit individual members.

By continuing to collaborate, we aim to further boost Scotland’s global reputation as a producer of some of the finest food and drink in the world, hopefully attracting more of the country’s like-minded, quality producers to join us along the way.”

Glasgow-based Look Team, a graphic design and event branding production collaboration, is also focused on international trade. The collaboration brings together EVM and Tangent Graphic to develop, manage and deliver event branding and “wayfinding”, which involves helping an audience to navigate by showing key information at strategic points within a venue. It has already been involved in the 2014 Commonwealth Games, the 2015 World Gymnastics Championships and the 2016 Track Cycling World Cup. Forming a consortium co-operative has allowed the two companies to pitch together

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“Not only does working together enable us to reach an international customer base as a whole, it also encourages us to support each other.”

for work, offering a project planning and management service for large sporting events.

Overseas expansion is now on the agenda.

“We wish to enter international markets based on our unique set of skills and capabilities, including bid development, project management, risk mitigation and logistics planning, creative and branding development, art working, manufacturing, installation and de-rigging,” reels off Paul Fennon, managing director of EVM and one of the founders of Look Team. “Our offer is different to those of our competitors in that we provide an end-toend service including the branding and creative approach tailored for specific events.

“Forming the consortium enables us to deliver a unique service that is usually provided by two distinct companies. Working so closely together means we can combine our expertise and push creative and technical boundaries in ways that others in our field don’t.

“Having achieved a significant degree of success on a national level, our ambition now is to mirror that success internationally and we look forward to the doors that collaboration will open.”

Look Team and Made in Scotland were

among the six winners of the Collaboration Prize from Scottish Enterprise, which was presented at the HSBC Scottish Export Awards on 22 March at the Glasgow Hilton Hotel. Each of the winners received £5,000 to implement their idea and up to £5,000 in business support and export advice.

“The cash and support will help us achieve a number of goals, beginning with in-depth research of the global sporting events market and investigating the best way to scale our operation internationally,” says Fennon from Look Team.

Cameron from Made in Scotland adds: “The money and support will enable us to access expert advice on marketing food and drink on a global scale, as well as allowing us to develop our brand and create a website with e-commerce functionality. This will help us to really get our name and offering out there on a magnitude that would be far more difficult for us to achieve as individual companies.” n Find out more about the support available to help collaborate and access international markets by visiting: www.scottish-enterprise.com/collaboration

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BQ is delighted to announce the HSBC Scottish Export Awards and International Trade Campaign 2018 in association with Scottish Enterprise & Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

The HSBC Scottish Export Awards and International Trade Campaign in association with Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise bring together businesses from across Scotland to recognise and celebrate their entrepreneurial exporting achievements as well as encourage others to increase their export potential.

Exporting and international trade remain central to the Scottish Government’s economic growth agenda and this campaign and export awards are about recognising those entrepreneurial, wealth-creating companies that are selling their products, services and expertise in scores of overseas markets. It is vital that we appreciate and recognise those exporters who have made the transition from great local companies to potentially world-class exporting businesses based in Scotland.

Exporting continues to present an opportunity for Scotland to bring immediate and sustainable growth to its economy and with this in mind we

need to encourage businesses across the country to consider exporting as a realistic opportunity for growth.

The event in 2017 generated 236 nominations from 125 Scottish exporters with 49 exporters shortlisted representing almost £500m of export turnover from Scotland. The 2017-18 campaign will culminate with the awards evening to be held on 22 March 2018 at the Glasgow Hilton.

The event will be the highlight of the international trade campaign that will see BQ promote exporting across its entire audience in Scotland, in print, online and across social media. Forthcoming editions of BQ magazine in Scotland will carry lead feature sections on international trade and the BQ weekly digital business update service will also reach out to Scotland’s exporters with a range of international trade initiatives including the regular “Around the World in 80 Trades” feature, showcasing the best of Scottish export activity online.

Nominations for the 2018 HSBC Scottish Export Awards in association with Scottish Enterprise & Highlands and Islands Enterprise are now open and you can enter FREE online at www.bqlive.co.uk/ScotExportAwards18

Bryan Hoare, group commercial director at BQ, says: “It’s important to recognise that this international trade campaign isn’t simply about the show-piece Scottish Export Awards. Instead, this is a year-long opportunity for entrepreneurs to talk about the successes of their companies in overseas markets, not only promoting their own businesses in the process but also encouraging fellow entrepreneurs to consider exporting.

“Some of the tales that BQ has uncovered during the international trade campaign have been absolutely incredible. Our entrepreneurs have fantastic stories to share, from current champion John McGavigan, which went from printing religious pamphlets to making components for car dashboards, all the way through to previous winners like Peak Scientific and Think Analytics.

“I can’t wait to find out whose stories we’re going to be able to share this year, whether it’s in our printed BQ Scotland magazine, on our BQ Live website or across our social media channels. BQ’s mission is to celebrate and inspire entrepreneurship and nowhere does that crusade come more to life than during the Scottish Export Awards and the international trade campaign.”

The Scottish Export Awards and international trade campaign include two new categories this year – emerging markets exporter of the year title and the prize for the scale up exporter of the year. The two new trophies come in response to the way in which the competition has grown over the past five years.

Helping to nurture scale-up companies is a big focus not just for the Scottish Government in its “Scotland Can Do” movement but for the whole of our nation’s entrepreneurial support system, from membership bodies like Entrepreneurial Scotland through to training schemes run by institutions such as the University of Strathclyde. As Sir Tom Hunter is so fond of reminding audiences: “Start-ups are good, but scale-ups are great.”

And he has a very valid point: while startups are essential to growing our economy, it’s the scale-ups that will create the jobs for the hundreds and indeed thousands of workers who will never be entrepreneurs and will never

start their own businesses. While debate still exists around the definition of a “scale-up” – a hairdresser’s shop opening a second branch is scaling-up, but not to the same extent as a manufacturing business moving from the prototype to the production stage – all players can agree on the need to recognise and celebrate this important sector of the economy.

That’s why this year’s awards and campaign will include a special scale-up category, acknowledging the effort that goes into scalingup a business so that it can access overseas markets. Many customers abroad want to see evidence of success at home in a supplier’s domestic market and so scaling-up services or production is often key to satisfying consumer demand.

“With these new categories and the existing range of awards, there’s never been a better time to enter the competition,” Hoare adds.

“Over the past five years, we’ve welcomed contestants from throughout Scotland and this year we’re looking forward to receiving an equally broad spread of entries, both geographically and from all the different sectors that make up Scotland’s thriving economy.”

Alison McGregor, chief executive of HSBC in Scotland, said: “Scotland is a thriving business hub, home to many world renowned organisations. Through exporting, these businesses have grown their markets and reaped the rewards of international trade “However, this opportunity is not exclusive to big corporations but open to SMEs across the country. There is great demand for Scotland’s unique offering of goods and services and it is incumbent on business to take advantage of the opportunities available to them and grow beyond Scottish borders.

“However, despite these opportunities abroad, we still encounter a reticence to enter international markets. In fact, an HSBC survey showed that 70% of non-exporting UK businesses think they are unsuitable for overseas trade.

“It is very encouraging to see initiatives such as the Scottish Export Awards and the international trade campaign highlight the appetite and opportunities for Scottish goods and services abroad.” n

THURSDAY 22 MARCH 2018 CATEGORIES ECOMMERCE EXPORTER OF THE YEAR MOST ENTREPRENEURIAL EXPORTER OF THE YEAR MICRO EXPORTER OF THE YEAR SMALL EXPORTER OF THE YEAR LARGE EXPORTER OF THE YEAR EXPORT TEAM OF THE YEAR EMERGING MARKET EXPORTER OF THE YEAR SCALE UP EXPORTER OF THE YEAR HIGH GROWTH MARKET EXPORTER OF THE YEAR SCOTTISH EXPORTER OF THE YEAR

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IN SEARCH OF

EVIDENCE Dame Anne Glover served as the first chief scientific advisor to both the Scottish Government and the president of the European Commission. She shares her views on Brexit, spin-outs and entrepreneurship with Peter Ranscombe.

F

irst there was Brexit. Then there was Trump.

And then, to cap it all off, the Oxford English Dictionary declared its “Word of the Year 2016” to be “post-truth”: an adjective defined as “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief”.

Dame Anne Glover isn’t a fan of the new word though. “Call a lie, a lie,” she says with a shake of her head.

“I’m getting increasingly angry about this post-truth thing because that’s a very sanitised phrase, saying, ‘post-truth’. People are lying.

“I’ve said to fellow scientists that they need to start behaving badly. Call a lie, a lie. Because there’s a taboo about this, where people ask, ‘Are you sure about your facts there?’.

“In the House of Commons, you can’t call somebody a liar. Perhaps that’s because it’s such a shocking thing to call someone. But when someone is clearly lying, I wouldn’t say, ‘Oh you’re going a bit into the post-truth there’, I’d say ‘You’re lying, there’s no evidence to support what you’re saying’.

“People understand what a liar is, whereas this ‘post-truth’ thing sounds very sanitised. It’s

like the difference between saying to someone ‘You’re very well-rounded’ or ‘You’re obese’.

You’re not allowed to call people ‘fat’ because it’s so shocking. And that maybe makes it acceptable for people.

“Words are very powerful indeed and I think we have to be a little more straightforward in our use of language. When people are lying, and we know they’re lying, let’s ask them for the evidence. Because otherwise, we always pat ourselves on the back and say, we’ve got a great democracy here, in the UK. I’m not so sure anymore.”

Lies aren’t the only topic that has angered Glover. The way in which politicians on both sides of the Atlantic have undermined evidence has also struck at the very heart of the scientist’s beliefs.

“Michael Gove said that people in this country have had enough of experts,” she says.

“That was a chilling thing for somebody to say because I think it was deliberately dishonest.

“I imagine that, if Michael Gove had a brain tumour, he’d want a neurosurgeon to treat him, and not a theatre director or clothes salesman. I think his comment was designed to try and undermine people’s openness to

listening to what experts had to say. People with knowledge, people who had depth of experience.

“Jacob Rees-Mogg came out with a very similar phrase later in the year on Newsnight – he said ‘Experts, soothsayers, astrologers are all in much the same category’. No, they’re not.

“Again, a quite cynical – in my view – attempt to try and undermine people’s regard or at least willingness to have an open mind as to what a specialist or an expert might say.”

Glover knows the importance of clear communication and the need to present evidence more than most. She served as Scotland’s first chief scientific advisor between 2006 and 2011 and then fulfilled the same role to the president of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso, from 2012 until 2014.

She now serves as vice-principal for external affairs and dean for Europe at the University of Aberdeen, where she also holds a personal chair as professor of molecular and cell biology.

She became a dame commander of the Order of the British Empire in the new year’s honours list in 2015 for her services to science and she also sits on the boards of Scottish Enterprise and the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult,

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as well as chairing the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.

Her close links with the European Union (EU) made last year’s Brexit vote a particularly bitter blow for Glover. “Before I went to work in Brussels, I would have voted to remain – after working for the commission for three years, if I’d been given ten votes then I would have used them all to vote remain,” she says.

“When I came home every two or three weeks to the UK I realised just how little news about the good things the EU was doing was getting reported back here. The press blamed the EU for blocking the UK, but often it was the UK using its veto to block the EU – people ask why banks aren’t more heavily regulated and it’s because of the UK, for example.

“It was a real eye opener. The whole time I was there, it was clear the UK was not really a very good member state. We were always carping and wanting special treatment, even though we were one of the richest. We were always going cap in hand. In a way, it was a bit embarrassing.”

A year on from the Brexit vote and now that Article 50 has been triggered, Glover is concerned about the impacts on the UK. “If you look at the UK’s contribution to the EU as

a whole then we contribute more than we get back in areas such as social inclusion, because we’re a richer country,” she explains.

“Yet when you look at our contribution to Horizon 2020, the EU’s science funding programme, then we get back a lot more than we contribute. After the whole Brexit campaign was framed around having more money to invest in the health service then it makes it difficult to articulate the case for investing more in science, even though that would boost the health of the nation in the long-term.

“But what’s even more important than the money is the access that the Horizon 2020 structure gives us to seamless partnerships, not just with collaborators in the EU but also in the United States or countries like Israel.

Post Brexit, if I put forward grant applications to collaborate with scientists in the US then there’s the risk that they or me or both may be rejected – with Horizon 2020, there was a framework in place and a much greater chance of getting funding.

“The other key issue is attracting talented scientists – around 20% of our students are from the EU and about 40% of our staff come from outside the UK. If I was one of those scientists then would I come to a country that’s

now seen as being xenophobic, a bit racist, where I might feel uncomfortable that me, my partner and my kids might be somehow picked upon if we’ve got a foreign accent?

“Even if those things didn’t happen, it’s people’s perception. And, if I’ve got the choice of going anywhere in the world, why would I come here? Why would I subject my family to that, or myself?

“The UK will still have great facilities and infrastructure, but it won’t have the best talent – and you need all three to be successful. It won’t happen overnight, but in five or ten years after Brexit, we’ll see the effect.”

Having worked under the Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition and then Scottish National Party (SNP) minority and majority governments, one of Glover’s proudest moments came when she broke down UK data and found that the impact of the research done in Scotland relative to its gross domestic product (GDP) was number one in the world.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” admits Glover.

“I’d been looking for weaknesses, which could spark discussions about where we needed to invest and what we could do better.

“I took the data and showed it to First Minister Alex Salmond and he said ‘What?’. It was totally unexpected.

“Yet the statistic that always got quoted afterwards was that, excluding the adjustment for GDP, the impact of Scotland’s research was the second highest in the world, after Switzerland. It was almost like, people are going to think this is too good to be true, so let’s go for second not for first.”

She feels her other achievement with the Scottish Government was to stimulate more conversations about science among politicians and civil servants. “Evidence-based policy making – that became a mantra,” she says.

While evidence is a key factor for any scientist, Glover recognises that it cannot be the only consideration when deciding public policy. “I was on a working group that was convened by the Royal Society in London on the detection and decontamination of chemical and biological weapons,” she explains.

“We took evidence from a very wide range of people – the security services, but also scientists – talking about different biological or chemical agents that might be released during an attack. We ran various scenarios and one of them looked at a white powder being released in the London Underground.

“All the evidence said, unequivocally, that the way to minimise any risk to the population

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if that happens is seal off the tube. If there are people down there, what you’re saying is, that it’s unfortunate, but that’s what the evidence tells you.

“So, if you had purely evidenced-based policy then that would have been your policy.

But that isn’t our policy, because we’re human, and we find that unacceptable. What’s not legitimate is where you have evidence and the policy completely ignores the evidence and you’re not transparent about it.”

Looking for evidence has been at the very heart of Glover’s career. Born in Arbroath, she was educated at the High School of Dundee before gaining a degree in biochemistry from the University of Edinburgh and a doctorate from the University of Cambridge.

“I think that everybody’s born a scientist because everybody is incredibly curious and they’re interested about their environment and how things work and how things happen,” she explains. “I never grew out of that, I just remained insatiably curious, and still am.

“You might think that’s a nosy trait, but I don’t think I’m a nosy person. I’m just curious.”

That curiosity not only led Glover into a career in science but also to co-found a spinout company from the University of Aberdeen.

“

“You might think that’s a nosy trait, but I don’t think I’m a nosy person. I’m just curious.”

Ian George, her partner of 40 years and now her husband, worked with local councils to help them develop industrial property and suggested using her research to diagnose the contaminants on brownfield sites and suggest remedies.

Excited at the prospect, Glover and her fellow academics – helped again by George – raised business angel funding and launched Remedios in 1999. The company is still going strong today after being bought by ESH Group in 2012.

“It was a really interesting experience,” Glover remembers. “We were an odd company because we had a product from day one, which is unusual for biotech spin-outs.

“But I didn’t want to be a service company.

I wanted to make money so we could invest in developing the technology and it could be used in other areas. The angel investors weren’t so keen on that perhaps because they were from the property world.

“Would I do it again? No. Why not? Because

I’m not good at selling. I find it difficult to go out and tell you why you should buy that bag, and not that bag. I think it’s up to you, you’ll look at the evidence.

“I was keen on explaining to people how the technology worked and why it would give them an advantage, but then I’d leave it up to them to decide for themselves. But that’s not how things are sold in business.

“I was rather naïve. But, as I say, I really did enjoy the experience. And ironically, I know if I did it again, I’d make a much better job of it.

“I’m a real fan of serial entrepreneurship because every time you do it, you do it better.

We were lucky because we didn’t fail first time around, which is what a large proportion of people do.

“As a society, we’re rather unforgiving about failure. And it’s a real pity because, in a way, I’d put my money on the failures because now they really know what works and what doesn’t work, so unless they’re really daft, they won’t make the same mistake twice.” n

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Media Partner

Economic report highlights benefits of Converge Challenge A new study by Biggar Economics has revealed the extent to which Converge Challenge – the company creation competition for students, recent graduates and staff at Scotland’s universities – is having a positive impact on the economy.

Anyone who’s ever attended an event organised by Converge Challenge will have felt the excitement in the room. The company creation contest brings together students, graduates and staff from Scotland’s universities and research institutes to train to become entrepreneurs and turn their ideas into reality.

The atmosphere at the glitzy and glamorous gala dinner is always special, with experienced entrepreneurs sharing their wisdom with the gathered finalists. Participants report that the training sessions they attend with experts are equally as fulfilling.

But, as every entrepreneur knows, excitement and ambition is only part of the

story – you also need the numbers to back up your business too. So, do the figures for Converge Challenge stack up?

According to a new independent report by Biggar Economics, the answer is a resounding “Yes”. Since it was launched in 2011, Converge Challenge has trained budding entrepreneurs from 180 start-ups, 38% or 69 of which have gone on to be incorporated, with 60 still trading six years later, giving an enviable survival rate of 87%.

Together, those Scotland-based businesses have raised £29.7m of additional funding over and above the cash prizes they’ve won from Converge Challenge. The support provided

by the organisation has been responsible for securing £12.5m of that total, meaning that every pound of public money spent on funding the programme allows businesses to raise an extra £7.51 of investment.

“Six years on, we wanted to assess Converge Challenge’s contribution to the Scottish economy and the return on investment delivered for funders and stakeholders,” explains Olga Kozlova, founder and director of Converge Challenge. “This independent report provides us with some hard numbers to show the real impact Converge Challenge is making on the entrepreneurial landscape, amongst the academic community and, of course,

Media Partner

Scotland’s economy; this would not have been possible without our funding from eight Scottish universities and the Scottish Funding Council (SFC).”

Converge Challenge has supported its winners and runners-up with prizes worth £663,000 since it began. Cash accounted for 56% of the total, with support in-kind making up the remainder, from legal and accounting advice through to tips on sales and marketing.

Biggar Economics estimates that the companies supported through the contest added £5.2m of gross value to the Scottish economy last year. It said £3.4m of that total could be attributed to the support received through the competition, meaning that, for every £1 of funding provided by the SFC and universities, £2.07 of gross value was added to the economy.

The assessment also predicted that £21.8m of gross value could be added to the economy each year by Converge Challenge’s companies. At that level, each £1 of funding would generate £13.14.

It’s not simply about the cash either.

The businesses that have taken part in Converge Challenge have created 180 jobs in total, with 100 of those posts directly attributed to the help they have received through the competition.

“Converge Challenge throws the spotlight onto some of the amazing entrepreneurial talent emerging from Scotland’s universities and research institutes,” says John Kemp, chief executive of the SFC. “This report shows just how well this emerging talent is doing in securing investment, marketing successful products and creating great jobs for the Scottish economy.”

One of the many stars of Converge Challenge has been David Hunter, founder and chief executive at Shot Scope, which has developed a performance-tracking wristband for golfers that automatically collects scores, shot statistics and analytics. Hunter, who is a former electronics design engineer, took part in the contest in 2013 and then reached the final six the following year.

“The support from Converge Challenge comes at a time when you’re uncertain about the future and what route to take,” says Hunter, who has gone on to raise £2.6m of investment in two years. “You’re on your own trying to do everything but Converge points you in the right direction, gives you the right skills and allows you to

believe that you can set up and run your own business. It gives you the confidence and belief to say, ‘I can do this’.”

Hunter’s experience echoes that of other participants: 97% of people who have taken part in the competition reported that they were either “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their experience.

The most common words used by participants to describe their experience of the programme were “supportive”, “challenging” and “informative”.

Kozlova adds: “Converge is only as good as our alumni companies and it is fantastic to see the growth in funding, investment, jobs and, most importantly, the ambition and confidence of our programme participants. It is a delight to support the creation of companies like Shot Scope that, within three years, is now employing 20 staff.”

Converge Challenge, for which BQ is the media partner, has three award categories: the “Converge Challenge” itself, for those with an established idea; “KickStart” for early stage ideas; and “Social Enterprise” for ideas that will have a positive impact on social and environmental issues. The contest is open to staff, students and recent graduates and ideas can be for a product, process or a service, at any stage of development and from any industry sector.

The deadline for applications for this year’s competition passed on 10 April, with shortlisted candidates gathering for business training on 30 May and 1 June.

The finalists have until 3 August to submit their business plans before presenting to a panel of judges on 28 September, with the winners being announced during a dinner and awards ceremony that evening at the Glasgow Science Centre.

Last year, Susanne Mitschke – chief executive of Glasgow-based MindMate, an online platform for people with earlystage memory loss to promote and help with healthy and independent ageing, who is interviewed on page 52 of this issue of BQ Scotland – was named as the joint winner of the Converge Challenge, alongside Professor Marc Desmulliez, founder of Microsense Technologies and head of sensors, signals and systems at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh. n Find out more details about Converge Challenge at www.convergechallenge.com

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Brain tumour blood test wins pitching contest A blood test that can detect brain tumours at an earlier stage has won a 60-second pitching competition.

All 30 finalists from the main Converge Challenge award category took part in the contest on 1 June at Royal Bank of Scotland’s head office at Gogarburn in Edinburgh.

Holly Butler, a research associate at the University of Strathclyde, carried off the top prize for her ClinSpec Dx blood test.

Second place went to MycoBiologics, a platform for making antibodies to combat invasive fungal infections with a portable diagnosis test, which was led by Fiona Rudkin, a Royal Society of Edinburgh enterprise fellow at the University of Aberdeen.

Dave Hughes, a fellow at the University of the West of Scotland, took third spot with Novosound, which has developed sensors that can provide highresolution ultrasound imaging at a fraction of the cost of current magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scanners.

Olga Kozlova, director of Converge Challenge, says: “This event is one of the highlights of the Converge calendar and provides an opportunity to see the best projects developed by students, graduates and staff from the country’s universities and research institutes in action.”

Keith Brown, cabinet secretary for economy, jobs and fair work, adds: “The quality of the Converge Challenge Top 30 is quite simply inspiring.”

The winner of the Converge Challenge award category will be announced at the Glasgow Science Centre on 28 September, along with the winners of the “Kickstart” and “Social Enterprise” categories.

For a list of finalists, visit www.convergechallenge.com

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IT’S MY

Ever fancied going out but decided against it because you’re unsure how good the venue might be? The new Nightset app could solve all your problems, as Steve Dyson finds out from the entrepreneur behind it, Anna Frankowska.

A

nna Frankowska had always been a party girl. Even as a child at school in Warsaw, Poland, she was the first one to suggest get-togethers, then outings to social gatherings and discos.

When she arrived in London to study for her degree in economics as a 19 year old, she was soon known as the person to be with if you enjoyed your night life.

“I love going out and went out a lot when I was studying at University College London,” says Frankowska. “And I quickly spotted a gap in

the market – communications.

“I was partying five nights a week, but I soon realised that people didn’t know where to go out, or what’s happening tonight, or which clubs had the best scene. Here was the great, vibrant city of London and there was no immediate way to find out what’s happening in the city right now.

“Communications were fragmented, timeconsuming and old-fashioned, like bill-boards, adverts and listings. This meant people didn’t

know about who was enjoying what and where.

“They didn’t know about each other, so were often missing a great night out. What people wanted was instant information – both ahead of the night and then on the night out itself. Like when they’re in queues in front of a club – should they go in or not? What’s the party like? Is it any good in there?”

On graduation in 2012, Frankowska first focused on earning some money. She turned an internship at Royal Bank of Scotland into

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a graduate job in the bank’s capital portfolio management division, spending two years working in the financial City by day, then partying across London by night.

But the continued lack of real-time information on London’s nightlife inspired her to start thinking about a business solution.

Once her brother, Andrzej Frankowski, graduated in computer science, they combined their skills to come up with a prototype app, initially called Party Hype, now called Nightset.

Frankowska knew she needed some real data on which to base the business, so went undercover for six months working as a club promoter for some of London’s biggest nightclubs, gathering intelligence from venues and partygoers. Meanwhile, her brother put together the technical side of the app.

“The app tells us in real time where the best parties are,” says Frankowska, now aged 26. “Other start-ups had looked into this but they’d approached it from the wrong angle.

They started with bookings, whereas we based

our app on people, engaging that community and then connecting them with business owners. A marketplace based on a social network.”

The app’s trick is being “dynamic”, she says, because the night life sector changes day to day, and year to year. Therefore. the app is based on real-time communications, using comments, pictures and videos, serving the audience by helping them find out what’s going on, what clubs are like inside right now, booking tickets and getting into the right venues.

And once partygoers are inside, the app continues with a dating feature, using heart, drink, dance and discard emoticons to indicate “Do you want to meet?”, “Can I buy you a drink?”, “Let’s dance” or “I’m not interested”.

“People today can be more and more secluded,” says Frankowska, “Nightset allows them to enjoy the moment. And there’s an element of safety, as you’re able to see who the person you’re about to meet is on their app history.”

After much design and testing, the app had a beta test launch in autumn 2015 during London’s Freshers’ Week, when tens of thousands of students were out every night.

It hit a problem with the London School of Economics, which banned the app for “promoting too much of a laddish culture”.

“Every failure presents you with an opportunity for success,” recalls Frankowska, who told the “crazy” story on Facebook and was then spotted by Adrian Clarke, one of the many family members of the Bacardi drinks business. In March 2016, after bidding meetings with a number of potential investors, Frankowska and her brother accepted a seed investment offer of £500,000 from Clarke, and the real business development began.

Clarke is now the main investor and partowner of Nightset, bringing the start-up real credibility, and helping the Polish-born siblings to build a company that they hope will “revolutionise and disrupt” the nightlife industry.

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“

“In five years’ time, my vision is that if you’re in a city anywhere in the world and want to go out, you use Nightset to discover where to go.”

“Thousands were involved in the test, which was excellent,” says Frankowska. “Now, after the angel investor deal, we’re working with top performers on branding and marketing to take Nightset to the next level.”

She says the app has been welcomed by the Night Time Industries Association, which sees its “huge potential” to create a new community for its sector. “It’s going to be disrupted by technology,” she says.

“Club owners were always very old school, focusing on leaflets or at best targeted social media for communications. But Nightset is a one-stop shop.”

The app’s revenues are set to come from the likes of nightclubs, both through specific promotions and a subscription model. Nightset will take commissions on bookings, triggered by

push notifications for events like happy hours.

Then there will be sponsorships and brand partnerships from lifestyle brands and drinks businesses.

“But, at all times, the app will be free to users,” Frankowska says, “because it’s genuine content still curated by real people, improving the whole ecosystem for people who want to socialise. You simply download the Nightset app to find the best places to party, to meet party people like yourself and to instantly share your experiences.”

The potential is huge, according to her figures. She tells me that the nightlife sector is estimated to be worth some £50bn a year across the UK, with London alone worth around £24bn. And more than 250,000 people pass through Leicester Square every weekend,

with nearly every adult in London going out at least once a week.

“We’re now focusing on aggressive growth, brand propulsion and identity,” she says. “In 2017, it’s London, then potentially Barcelona, Paris, New York – because it’s easily replicated in any party city.

“In five years’ time, my vision is that if you’re in a city anywhere in the world and want to go out, you use Nightset to discover where to go.

It makes sense that everyone is connected with one platform wherever you can travel.

“Our priority is a global expansion to become the de facto guide to the world’s nightlife, but we will include cities such as Manchester, Birmingham and Brighton. Basically, anywhere where the good vibes are happening.”

Nightset currently has a staff of ten people – five full-time, five part-time – and a revenue target of up to £1m for year one, after which it plans to seek more seed-funding for faster growth.

“We will be making profit in year one,” says

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Frankowska, “but this app will take investment to enter new markets and sell quicker. It’s a balance between time and equity – proving the concept, getting the investment and scaling the product.

“Choosing your investors is one of the most important parts of a deal – it’s like a marriage.

My background in investment banking has helped to give me a really good understanding and experience of the finance world, which is a real advantage.”

Frankowska comes from a business family.

Her parents, Teresa and Marek, are architects and property developers, working together as entrepreneurs, so it felt natural to set up a business with her brother.

It’s a partnership that she feels will withstand competition: “It’s all in the execution, developing the brand partnerships, and our teamwork. It’s difficult to replicate me and my brother. I am the people person but I also

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love maths, and Andrzej is the technical genius.

Plus, now we have Bacardi involved, and so Nightset’s a very powerful brand.

“And it’s about people, not just finance and tickets. The colours, the identity, the lifestyle brands. Life is a party. I am the brand ambassador. This company and brand is the only life I have. I want to help people celebrate their moment.”

Life certainly is a party for Frankowska. She and her brother live in a four-floor apartment near Marble Arch, where they recently hosted 120 people for her birthday bash. The guests ranged from 18 to 80 years old.

“I’m into my people, my music and my dancing,” she says. “I like many different clubs depending on what my mood is, what the buzz is that particular night and many other factors.

The people also make a night and that can vary from day to day, and that’s why I love Nightset.

I can see what the mood is in a particular venue

on a particular day, which often influences my choice.”

But Frankowska insists that regular clubbing doesn’t mean too much alcohol: “I know who I want to be with, I might have one drink, and then I dance, for four hours a night. That makes it affordable, and there’s no hangover.

“Life is a party and drink is part of the culture. But it can be about tasting, maybe getting a little bit loose but not getting absolutely wasted. Nightset distances itself from too much alcohol. But live for the moment. Let’s enjoy. Explore. Let’s experience but not abuse alcohol.”

Drinks or no drinks, Frankowska must be exhausted if she’s still going out five nights a week, but she quickly corrects the assumption.

“No, these days I party just twice a week, although if you’re talking about restaurants then yes, if that’s going out then I’m out every night.” n

“Life is a party. I am the brand ambassador. This company and brand is the only life I have. I want to help people celebrate their moment.”

Profile

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Profile

The bank that solves complex funding needs Shawbrook Bank focuses on providing financial solutions for complicated businesses, and has already funded tens of thousands of small firms.

Steve Dyson interviews Steve Pateman, the bank’s chief executive.

When top banker Steve Pateman first came across Shawbrook Bank, he was impressed with how it was helping businesses whose complex needs meant larger banks had stopped serving them.

At the time, Patemen was head of UK banking at Santander, but in early 2016 he moved to become Shawbrook chief executive, and he’s very clear on what enticed him to join the challenger bank.

He says: “What I saw at Shawbrook that interested me was a bank that was doing things I’d been doing 15 or 20 years ago but that

mainstream banks were no longer doing. And that’s solving complex financial challenges.

“Today’s mainstream banking has become so technically calibrated, using the least amounts of capital to help support the production of the highest amounts of revenue.

“Basically, all high street banks are after the ‘perfect customer’ because that’s how they get to use the least funds for the greatest growth with the lowest risks.

“But the problem with that approach is that it leaves out all those small and medium-sized enterprises whose borrowing requirements are

not that simple. And there are loads of really good customers who are being left by the wayside because they simply don’t match high street banks’ modern, low-risk strategies.”

What Pateman saw in Shawbrook was a detailed and bespoke approach to risk management, looking into potentially difficult areas served by complex businesses and solving them with the correct financial packages.

“It’s all about the management of risk rather than playing the capital arbitrage game,” says Pateman.

“In short, Shawbrook is paid to provide solutions that other banks are no longer providing, and those are not crowded markets because mainstream banks are all chasing the same safe customers.

“There’s plenty of support for start-ups and large corporates out there, but we’re seeing strong demand from those in the middle – smaller, established, regional and specialist businesses who seem to fall through the cracks.

“They are businesses who might be working in difficult areas, but we can create financial packages that work, which is something we believe the banking industry should be putting money into.”

One example Pateman gives is the work Shawbrook Bank has undertaken to support a group of in vitro-fertilisation (IVF) treatment clinics that were finding it difficult to offer

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a finance package suitable to support their patients wanting to undergo a course of IVF. Shawbrook’s experts carefully worked with the clinics to produce a financial arrangement that was only triggered if patients’ IVF treatment was a success.

“This was all about the morals and ethics of loaning money, and helping people sensibly manage the costs of IVF treatment,” says Pateman. “It was a dilemma the main high street banks shied away from.

“Through careful and considered collaboration, we helped to create a financial package that is only activated if and when the IVF is successful; and if its unsuccessful the debt is written-off.

“That’s what we’re good at – listening to the story, addressing the problems and coming up with solutions that make the economics work.

“This was too complicated for other banks, but I thought: ‘Why shouldn’t people be able to borrow for IVF?’ and ‘How could we make this work?’ It’s these neglected ‘too difficult to do’ areas that Shawbrook Bank excels at.”

Another example Pateman cites is a Scotch whisky company that needed funds but found it difficult to engage with conventional banking because of the demand for short-term repayments.

The whole economics of whisky is based around the age of the product, which means that what’s been produced one year might not be on sale for another 12 years.

“It’s all about looking into the problem and

coming up with a solution that’s not crazy,” says Pateman. “We simply sit down, listen and figure out an answer using our experience from many years of banking.

“In this case the conventional finance model doesn’t work because the company was producing far more Scotch than it was selling, but still needed more finance. We had to work on the long-term plans, and were able to fulfil a market need that commoditisation had left behind.”

Another scenario that Pateman describes is the owner of a tugboat in Hull, wanting new funding to help plans for servicing offshore windfarms.

He says: “Six years ago, any bank would have loved to finance such operations. Today, there’s not a business manager in a main high street bank that could do anything for the tugboat owner except open them an account and refer them to a call centre.

“And there’s not one mainstream call centre that has ‘tugboats’ on their list of products and services, which leaves the business desperately asking: ‘Where do I go?’ That’s when they ask their accountants for advice, and they introduce Shawbrook Bank.

“We’ve got the experts to assess the challenge and to solve such problems. We’re a bank that takes time to understand the needs of our customers and to find the solutions they need.

“It’s what complex businesses need. Mainstream finance is as cheap as chips, but customers that can’t access that need Shawbrook Bank. We grow by providing those solutions for more complicated banking issues that are difficult to understand.

“Our approach is to be seen as a bank that customers go to when they can’t get their needs met elsewhere. After all, if the big banks were still providing credit in these more difficult areas, Shawbrook wouldn’t exist.”

Shawbrook Bank was launched in 2011 as a collection of various finance businesses, and floated on the stock market in 2015. Its profits that year were £49m, a figure that it more than doubled in 2016 when pre-tax adjusted profits reached £104.5m.

The bank is now worth around £840m, with private equity company Pollen Street owning just under 40% of its shares. The bank has already loaned funds to tens of thousands of SMEs across the UK. Shawbrook Bank’s main offices are in the

City of London, with around 100 staff, and in Brentwood, serving the South East, which houses some 500. Another 50-odd staff are spread across current offices in: Glasgow, serving Scotland; Greater Manchester, serving the North West; and Dorking, which serves the Thames Valley.

As it continues to grow, Pateman is keen to build its brand with a new network of business centres in selected locations.

The bank will soon launch new business centres in Edinburgh to help serve Scotland, near Leeds to serve the North East, in Birmingham to serve the Midlands, and near Bristol to serve the South West.

Pateman says: “In the past, Shawbrook built its asset and invoice finance by word-of-mouth and referrals. I felt we needed to move away from being peripatetic by putting down some roots in markets to say: ‘We’re here to stay, we’re not just passing through.’

“We want to work with businesses in communities across the UK, with people on site who know the regions and business sectors.

Until now, we’ve been a bank that does not have a branch network, so our business centres will start to promote our direct business operations for the first time.

“This will come on top of what we already offer through introducers, intermediaries and accountants, and through partnerships as varied as retailers, home improvement companies and the likes of Saga and the RAC. “We’re perfectly happy to work with other distributors to get our product and solutions to the market, and soon we will have offices covering all regions as well.

“We will be targeting niche sectors that still value a superior, bespoke service – particularly where asset classes are highly complex and wouldn’t fit a standard model.

That’s what impressed me, and I’m confident that this approach is what will continue to help us grow.” n

For more information on how Shawbrook Bank can help your business grow please contact Kevin Boyd, Managing Director, Scotland Email: kevin.boyd@shawbrook.co.uk Tel: 0330 123 1740

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nspiration can strike in the strangest of places: sometimes it comes when you’re out for a walk, sometimes it comes when you’re washing the dishes, sometimes it comes when you’re soaking in the bath. For Andy Smith, proprietor of the DuMol winery in the beautiful Sonoma County in Northern California, that flash of inspiration came when he was lugging boxes around the Bruntsfield branch of wine merchant Oddbins in Edinburgh.

“They hired me because I was so fit that I could run up and down the stairs from the cellar carrying two cases of wine at a time, all day,” laughs Smith. “It was the early 1990s, so the real heyday for Oddbins – it was a great place to work.

“I was a really committed swimmer when I was young and I was part of the 1986 Commonwealth Games team, but when I realised I wasn’t going to make the Olympics in 1988, I started looking for other things to do. My childhood had been dominated by swimming almost completely, to the exclusion of nearly everything else, so it was like when a sportsperson retires – what do they do next?

“I went off to Napier University to study publishing because I was interested in arts and culture and music – I wasn’t a science guy at that time, nor was I into business, and I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life. I suddenly had all this time on my hands and I was a student, so I decided to get that job.

“Over the three years that I worked there, I fell in love with wine and so by the time I left Napier I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to work with wine.”

It was a humble start to a career that has seen Smith rise through the ranks of the winemaking world being named “Wine personality of the year” by Wine Advocate magazine in 2005, one of the “World’s most influential wine consultants” in 2008 and one of the “World’s grape gurus” in 2013, both by Food & Wine Magazine. Along the way, his wines have also picked up rave reviews from famous critics including Robert Parker and the writers at Wine Spectator.

His wines have also been served in some very illustrious company too. They were on the

“

“Over the three years that I worked there, I fell in love with wine and so by the time I left Napier I knew what I wanted to do.

I wanted to work with wine.”

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Heard it through the

grapevine A passion that was kindled as a student in Edinburgh has turned into an award-winning business for Andy Smith, the Scotsman behind the renowned DuMol winery in California’s Sonoma County, writes Peter Ranscombe.

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menu when Tony Blair visited George W Bush in the weeks following 9/11, during the Queen’s 2007 engagements at the White House and for the first state visit by a Chinese premier when Hu Jintao met Barack Obama in 2011.

Smith has certainly come a long way since those early days at Oddbins in Edinburgh. After graduating in 1992, he worked for wholesaler Alliance Wine for a couple of years, which allowed him to travel to California for the first time and visit Napa Valley, which was at the centre of the growing American wine industry.

“I looked around and thought ‘This is pretty good’,” he remembers. “I met a lot of winemakers and came back thinking there was no reason why we couldn’t do it too.

“I’d travelled a lot with my swimming, so the idea of going off around the world was exciting, it wasn’t anything to be afraid of.

At that time, the idea of going to France or Germany or somewhere else in Europe was very dull – those were places you went on camping holidays with your parents. I wanted to go to New Zealand, to Australia, to California.

“So, in 1994, me and my wife, Karen, rented

out our flat in Stockbridge and moved to New Zealand. We thought we’d go for a year and see what happened.”

A year turned into two and then three as Smith “followed the vintage”, a well-trodden path that involves budding winemakers swapping hemispheres every six months to work on the harvest. After time with the Matua winery in New Zealand, he returned to Napa, where he harvested grapes for Havens, which had been one of Oddbins’ suppliers, before returning down under to work in Yalumba’s vineyards in the Barossa Valley in Australia.

With three harvests under his belt, Smith realised he needed a formal education to back-up his practical experience if he was to make it as a winemaker. Having turned 28, he didn’t want to spend years tied down to another undergraduate degree and so instead he enrolled on the one-year postgraduate course in “viticulture” – growing grapes – and “oenology” – the study of wine – at Lincoln University in Christchurch, back in New Zealand.

“It was a great degree, a blend of theory and practical, and it set me up – all you need is

that piece of paper that shows you understand phenolic chemistry and plant science,” Smith explains. After graduating, he worked at Dry River Wines at Martinborough in New Zealand – but then America came calling.

“The goal was always to come back here to California,” says Smith as we sit tucking into breakfast at the MacArthur Place Hotel in the town of Sonoma. He’s driven for more than an hour for our early-morning interview, before we head to a ‘speed-tasting’ featuring ten Sonoma County wineries and members of the wine trade and press from the UK and Ireland, including Amelia Singer, one of the presenters on ITV’s The Wine Show, Whisky Quarterly editor Sir Colin Hampden-White and Please Bring Me My Wine blogger Mike Turner.

“I was headhunted to come back to work for Ted Lemon, the founder of the Littorai winery, who had trained in Burgundy and was inspirational,” Smith continues. Lemon is one of the leading lights in the biodynamic movement, using natural remedies in the vineyard instead of harsh synthetic chemicals to control pests.

“I worked for Ted for six months and that opened a lot of doors. With Dry River, with

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Littorai, with my background having worked five harvests and having gained my degree, I was pretty employable. The only problem was getting a visa.

“I met a well-known consultant called Paul Hobbs, who told me he would sponsor me for my visa. He hired me in early 1999 to make his own wines and to manage his clients.

“Suddenly, this whole world opened up and there were a lot of opportunities. He had six or seven clients in Napa and Sonoma and so suddenly I was working with 50 vineyards and winemaking facilities.

“Looking back, you couldn’t have written a better job description. Paul had a lot of knowledge and I was able to learn from him. By the end of 2000, I was ready to do something for myself.”

The opportunity to branch out on his own came at DuMol, a winery founded by two businessmen who were clients of Hobbs and for whom Smith had made wines since 1999. “They told me if I ever wanted to do something for myself then they wanted to partner-up with me. We did that in early 2001,” he remembers. “Paul was a little pissed off.”

“

“We grew slowly, but we made sure we worked with very good farmers and bought very good grapes and we were very uncompromising on the quality.”

Smith continued to make wines for DuMol and also for Larkmead Vineyards, an old Napa brand that he said had fallen on tough times, and for Gemstone Vineyard, which was a highend Cabernet Sauvignon producer. He let go of Gemstone in 2004 and then Larkmead in 2013 – having picked up two perfect 100-point reviews from Parker along the way – leaving him to focus solely on DuMol. “DuMol was a tiny little thing when we started out in 1999, with no facilities, no vineyards, nothing,” he says. “We did what’s called ‘custom crushing’, buying in grapes and renting space in wineries.

“But with very good business partners, we realised that, to be successful, you don’t have to invest early, you can grow your reputation and then invest, which is essentially what we did. We grew slowly, but we made sure we worked with very good farmers and bought very good grapes and we were very

uncompromising on the quality.

“Fortunately, success came relatively quickly.

Parker was very kind to us early on, along with Wine Spectator and the other main critics. But it was more the restaurant business and the customers.

“We were able to build a profitable and successful business quite quickly. We eventually bought our own land in 2004 and planted a vineyard. We built a winery in 2007. This will be my 19th vintage with DuMol this year.”

Smith’s original two partners have now retired from the business, leaving him as the majority shareholder, but backed by two new partners. “One is the ‘money guy’, who doesn’t want to be known as the owner of DuMol because he doesn’t want the focus to be on him,” Smith laughs.

“If I told you his name then you would have read about him in the Wall Street Journal every day. He’s a very high-profile hedge fund guy

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“

“There’s not a day I’m not aware I’m Scottish – it’s very much part of who I am.”

in San Francisco, but he’s been a customer for 15 years, so he came to it through the wine instead of thinking it would be a great investment. Even though our business is very valuable now, it’s at a scale where it’s a weekend project for him.”

That profitability isn’t something winemakers can take for granted in the United States. When prohibition was repealed in 1933, each state was given the powers to control its alcohol industry and most opted for a complicated three-tier system in which producers sell to distributors that in turn sell to customers.

DuMol and other high-end wineries have enjoyed success thanks in part to being able to sell directly to consumers through their own mailing lists and wine clubs. “That’s what drives the profitability of the company, that’s what allows us to buy the best grapes, that’s what allows us to buy the best equipment, buy the best land for vineyards,” Smith says.

“There was a level of entrepreneurship in California that I didn’t see anywhere else during the mid-1990s, neither in New Zealand nor Australia. In California, there was so much opportunity and people were so open and enthusiastic and willing to take a risk. If it didn’t work then they would just start again or do something else.

“Can you imagine a Scotsman in the early nineties going to Burgundy and saying he was going to be a winemaker? They would have laughed at me.

“There’s not a day I live here I’m not aware I’m an immigrant.

And there’s not a day I’m not aware I’m Scottish – it’s very much part of who I am.

“Right now, we primarily work with Mexican immigrants. The crew who farm my vineyard are all Mexicans. We come from

very different cultures but we have that common immigrant bond. They think I’m funny because I’m a guy who walks and talks like an American, but I like football.”

Smith’s accent certainly has an interesting mixture of Scottish and American elements. His intonation and inflection is certainly Northern Californian, but there’s an unmistakable Scottish lilt in there still.

He describes himself as a farmer and is incredibly passionate about capturing the nuances of the different soils in each vineyard and then translating those through to the taste of the 18 wines he produces, allowing the fruit to impart its flavours to the finished wine instead of masking it with the taste of oak barrels or other winemaking techniques.

“Most of my job is farming,” he says. “There’s no magic that happens in the winery – it’s a product of the very good soils, the very good plant material that we originally selected and the very precise farming we practice throughout the season.

That’s why my Mexican guys are so important – they’re the winemakers as well.”

He may have spent 20 years in America, but Smith still regularly crosses the pond to see relatives. “We go back to Scotland every year – we still call it home,” he explains. “I read Scottish Field magazine every month and now it’s all about local produce, local sourcing and there are interviews with farmers about their produce – can you imagine that 20 years ago?

“It feels quite funny to see our wines on the shelves of shops back home or on restaurant wine lists. I don’t put our wines up on a pedestal, but I have a lot of pride in them because I know how hard people have worked to accomplish the quality. That’s what drives me.” n

DEEPER RELATIONSHIPS ARE WORTH EXPLORING At Shawbrook we thrive on working with clients and partners to bring out the very best in businesses with ambition and vision: businesses like R&M Engineering, experts in offshore design, fabrication, survey and inspection services to the Oil and Gas industry based in Huntly, Aberdeenshire.

We are not just another lender, we are specialists in good sense and we take pride in working with businesses to unlock the full value of their assets to fund a productive future.

C O N TA C T U S T O D AY

0330 123 1740 shawbrook.co.uk/abl

SPECIALISTS IN GOOD SENSE

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THERE WHERE YOU NEED US When you need to finance new equipment, re-finance, restructure or invest for growth, find out what Shawbrook could do for your business: Working Capital: funding your next move

Your Shawbrook Bank team

From a management buy-out, merger, acquisition or restructuring, every business will experience events that become major milestones in their growth journey. These events are unique and require a focused, tailored approach to ensure they’re successfully navigated. Our working capital solutions can provide a higher level of finance than traditional methods – unlocking the value of all available assets in your business to provide an immediate injection of cash and a constant supply of working capital.

Based in Glasgow, we’re ideally located to visit customers and partners across the country.

Asset Finance: fuelling your business When you need to replace essential equipment or invest in new machinery, vehicles or technology, we can help manage the cost with a tailored and flexible approach to asset finance. Our asset finance solutions, including hire purchase, leasing, and sale and leaseback facilities, could help to preserve capital and support cash flow as your business expands.

Please get in touch and we would be very happy to discuss your plans and the ways in which Shawbrook Bank can help to make things happen.

Kevin Boyd Managing Director, Scotland Kevin.Boyd@shawbrook.co.uk shawbrook.co.uk/business

Assets we finance include: vehicles, construction machinery, engineering tools and technology, cranes, waste and recycling equipment, as well as specialist offshore equipment for the oil and gas sector. Speak to us about other assets your business depends upon.

Specialist Sectors: fluent in your language Time is a precious commodity. Don’t waste it explaining the terminology and technicalities of your sector to someone who doesn’t understand your business. Our sector specialists have considerable experience and a deep understanding of the markets in which they work, so we can speak your language from Day 1.

Our specialist sector teams include: Agriculture, Aviation and Marine, Healthcare, Pharmacy, Taxis and Technology

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LOGO

REGULAR SHAWB ROOK B ANK LIMITED

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AVAV E REARGAEG E B UBSUI N S I ENSESSESSE S DO T ’ TE XEIXS T DN O ’N IST I NI NS CSO CTOLTALN AD ND Our economy in Scotland is diverse, innovative and resilient.

FromFrom tourism Our economy in Scotland is diverse, innovative and resilient. tourism to technology, energy to engineering, software and shipping, the Scottish to technology, energy to engineering, software and shipping, the Scottish economy is as is unique as every one of the businesses behind it. it. economy as unique as every one ofindividual the individual businesses behind There’s no such thingthing as your ‘average’ business in Scotland.

There’s no such as your ‘average’ business in Scotland.

We like We to celebrate our heritage in this country, but right now thenow business ownersowners I speak Itospeak everytoday areday are like to celebrate our heritage in this country, but right the business every focusedfocused on today, and what ahead. byOnly being pragmatic and prepared will ontomorrow today, tomorrow andlies what lies Only ahead. byprogressive, being progressive, pragmatic and prepared will we havewe something to be proud in theoffuture. have something to beof proud in the future.

These are values embrace at Shawbrook, where we takewe thetake timethe totime understand where your business These are we values we embrace at Shawbrook, where to understand where your business has come and where want take to it next. hasfrom come from and you where youtowant take it next.

And when understand your business and theand journey you’re on, we on, canwe offer the typethe of type support that really Andwe when we understand your business the journey you’re can offer of support that really mattersmatters – sector–specialists who can speak language of your of industry; a team ainteam Glasgow with experience sector specialists who canthe speak the language your industry; in Glasgow with experience across the country; and a human approach to decision making,making, which doesn’t rely on rely anonymous scorecards across the country; and a human approach to decision which doesn’t on anonymous scorecards and automated systems.systems. and automated So if you’re to finance equipment, refinance, restructure or invest growth, and youand want worktowith So iflooking you’re looking to finance equipment, refinance, restructure orfor invest for growth, youtowant work with specialists who understand every business has its own unique story, we’re wesure canwe help. specialists who understand every business has its own unique story,pretty we’resure pretty can help.

Kevin Boyd Kevin Boyd | Shawbrook | Shawbrook Managing Director, Scotland Bank Bank Managing Director, Scotland

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SPECIALISTS IN GOOD SENSE SPECIALISTS IN GOOD SENSE

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They’re not much in isolation, They’re not much in isolation, but combined with with our expertise, but combined our expertise, capabilities and growing product capabilities and growing product portfolio, thesethese smallsmall things portfolio, things demonstrate how how we work: our our demonstrate we work: personal and pragmatic approach personal and pragmatic approach reliesrelies entirely on uson understanding entirely us understanding you and business. you your and your business.

WhenWhen you need finance new equipment, you to need to finance new equipment, re-finance, restructure or invest for growth, re-finance, restructure or invest for growth, and you work who who andwant you to want to with workspecialists with specialists understand that every business is unique, understand that every business is unique, speakspeak to us. to us.

C O NCTA CT ON TAUCST TUOSDTAY O D AY

0330 123 1740 0330 123 1740 shawbrook.co.uk/business shawbrook.co.uk/business

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