BQ Scotland Issue 27 by We Are UMi

£4.95 Business Quarter Magazine

Celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship

BUSINESS QUARTER Scotland: Spring 2017

TEETHING TROUBLES? NOT FOR CHEEKY CHOMPERS

Two mums who built a business round babies

BY APPOINTMENT

Leah Hutcheon’s invention is proving to be a worldbeater

BUILDING THE BARÇA WAY Atom Consultants uses football giant’s playbook to build factories

Brewdog’s a Scotland: Spring 2017

millionaire How a microbrewery has grown to be a global multi-million pound business while remaining true to its roots

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Business Quarter, 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 West Midlands, Wales, London and the South, in-print, online and through branded events. All contents copyright © 2017 Business Quarter. 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 ‘Promotion’ and ‘Partner’ is paid for advertising. All information is correct at time of going to print, March 2017.

SPRING 2017

NEW ideas are the lifeblood of entrepreneurs. Spotting gaps in the market and filling them with innovative products and services is at the very heart of what sets entrepreneurs apart from the rest of the business community. In this spring issue of BQ Scotland magazine, we share stories of entrepreneurs from around the nation who have put new ideas into practice and are reaping the benefits. From the drinks industry through to digital technology, Scots are continuing to prove that our innovative streak is alive and kicking. Think you know BrewDog? Think again. Co-founder James Watt lifts the lid on the Ellon-based brewery and talks about the solid financial base that underpins its rapid expansion and irreverent marketing stunts. Necessity was – literally – the mother of invention for Amy Livingstone and Julie Wilson, who founded baby products brand Cheeky Chompers after becoming frustrated that their children kept dropping and losing their teethers. That same use of real-world experience led Leah Hutcheon to create Appointedd, which began life as an online appointment booking app but which is scaling-up into a wider software suite that’s securing international deals. Sandy Manson is also embracing new technology at Johnston Carmichael and explains how he’s trying to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive at Scotland’s largest indigenous accountancy firm. Meanwhile, Solutions Driven chief executive Gavin Speirs is bringing digital technology into his recruitment business, while Philip Thomson, the boss at Atom Consultants, is using lessons learned from Barcelona football club to help design food and drink factories. You may have noticed some new ideas from BQ too. Entrepreneurialism knows no boundaries and doesn’t stop at the Border, so I’m proud to announce that BQ Scotland will now also carry interviews with entrepreneurs from England and Wales, while still retaining interviews from throughout Scotland. In this issue, Fred Story reveals how he created a housebuilding empire that spans the North of England and Southern Scotland, while Layla Bennett reflects on launching Hawksdrift Falconry in Mid-Wales after securing £50,000 from Duncan Bannatyne on Dragons’ Den back in 2010. Including interviews with entrepreneurs from further afield within BQ Scotland reflects BQ’s exciting wider expansion. Thanks to the strength of the team of contributing editors it has assembled, BQ is launching a magazine south of the Border that will share the stories of entrepreneurs from England, Scotland and Wales, bringing together the best elements of its former English regional titles. BQ Scotland will continue to celebrate and inspire entrepreneurship alongside its new sister title, offering our readers a broader range of stories. An entrepreneur is an entrepreneur, whether they’re based in Shetland or Surrey. It’s also worth exploring the new ideas that have led to the launch of the new-look BQ Live website at www.bqlive.co.uk, which is bursting at the seams with exciting stories from entrepreneurs throughout England, Scotland and Wales. Plus, sign-up for the new BQ Weekly email newsletter, which brings together interviews written by the talented online journalists who work on the BQ Live website. Peter Ranscombe, editor

CONTENTS SPRING 2017 66

A DOG’S TALE How Brewdog retained its punk

DIGITAL DRIVES GLOBAL GROWTH

INSPIRATION STRIKES

RIGHT ON TIME

TAX AND BREXIT

LUXURY ADDED TO UTILITY

ethos while going global

TEETHING - NO TROUBLE Amy Livingstone and Julie Wilson on their Cheeky Chompers business

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THE WINNERS ARE... Scotland’s Life Sciences Dinner and Awards

SUCCESS STORY The remarkable career of housebuilder Fred Story

Gavin Spiers on how technology is driving his recruitment business

The 2017 Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards

Spotlight on Appointedd, which is now winning international deals

Planning for the tax implications of Brexit

Review of the new Bentley Bentayga

Celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship 08 14

22 50

WATCH LIST

NOT SO GREY GRANITE

Striking picks from a Geneva watch festival

Chester Hotel adds a splash of colour to Aberdeen

HIDING IN THE BULL

VILLAGE PEOPLE

EXPORTING LANDSCAPE

MORE THAN NUMBERS

FOOTBALL LESSONS

Interview with Sandy Manson of accountants Johnston Carmichael

Philip Thomson on how his firm uses lessons from Barcelona Football Club

Review of a home from home in London’s Bishopgate

HIGH LIFE

Sampling a hotel on Glasgow’s Pacific Quay

Alison McGregor CEO of HSBC Scotland makes the case for SMEs

Living it up with motoring, equipment and drinks

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BrewDog has grown from a microbrewer into one of the most dynamic drinks businesses in the UK. James Watt tells Peter Ranscombe how the brewer has managed to retain its punk ethos while employing more than 1,000 people

HERE can’t be many beer drinkers who haven’t heard of BrewDog: it’s the company that threw taxidermy cats out of a helicopter above the Bank of England; it’s the company that drove a tank through the Square Mile; it’s the company that satirised Russia’s “anti-gay” laws by making a protest beer called “Hello, my name is Vladimir”. But away from the eye-catching publicity stunts, there’s another side to BrewDog: it’s the company that’s posted record-breaking growth to turn over £72m in 2016; it’s the company that’s a living wage employer and shares 10% of its profits with its staff; and it’s the company that teamed up with social entrepreneurs to create Brewgooder, a lager that funds clean water projects in developing countries. Nowhere are those two sides to the business more apparent than at its brewery in Ellon, to the north-east of Aberdeen. The

company was founded on an industrial estate in nearby Fraserburgh in 2007 and moved to its current base in 2012, growing rapidly to expand not once but twice, with the third incarnation of its brewery opening last summer. On one hand, the site is just what you’d expect from BrewDog – an attractive bar for visitors, the grooviest canteen in the world complete with pictures of every member of staff on the wall, and lots of exposed brick and polished metal fixtures and fittings that scream the word “cool”. Yet step inside the brewery itself and it’s the pinnacle of modern manufacturing; immaculately clean, with a quality control laboratory bristling with scientific apparatus and even a machine that taught itself how to make the packaging process more efficient. Cult film series Star Wars is clearly an important reference point for BrewDog. Stride along one of the metal walkways that connects phase two and phase three of the brewery and

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Darth Vader’s Imperial March starts to play, while reception has a giant Lego model of the site, complete with a Cantina-style bar room, and a version of the Episode VII: The Force Awakens poster is framed on one of the boss’ walls. While the appearance of the operation may draw comparisons with the evil Galactic Empire’s Death Star or the cutting-edge technology of the clone makers on Kamino, the company and its staff would probably prefer to think of themselves as the Rebel Alliance. That’s because one word has epitomised BrewDog right from the very start: “punk”. The firm’s flagship India pale ale, which accounts for some 60% of production at the new £20m brewery, is called Punk IPA, its crowdfunding scheme was Christened “Equity for Punks” and at its very core is its punk rocker-style mission to break the rules so it can make the public as enthusiastic about beer as its staff. But how do you retain that notion of being “punk” when you’ve raised in excess of £30m from more than 50,000 shareholder-fans, featured in the Sunday Times’ Fast Track 100 listing five times in a row and employ 1,000 people, with the total expected to rise to nearly 1,500 before the end of the year? “We focus on two things – beer and people,” says James Watt, who founded the brewery with his best friend, Martin Dickie, in 2007 and who has the rather unusual job title of “captain”, with Dickie acting as “beer pirate”. “Beer is our first, second, third and millionth priority. “We have a sensory lab that allows us to test every beer to make sure it’s as good as we can make it. We listen to the feedback we get from our customers. “The stand-out highlight for me of running the business came in 2014 when we had 4,000 shareholders in Aberdeen for our annual general meeting (AGM). We announced that we had become a living wage employer and we got a standing ovation from the audience – no other company’s investors would applaud when they’ve increased their costs, but our investors share our point-of-view that we need to look after our staff to retain the best people.” As well as being an early-adopter of the living wage, BrewDog also puts 10% of its profits into a “unicorn” fund, which shares the surplus out equally among each and every

“

“BrewDog also puts 10% of its profits into a ‘unicorn’ fund, which shares the surplus out equally among each and every member of its staff, regardless of their job title”

member of its staff, regardless of their job title. The profit-sharing fund paid out around £1,500 per employee last year and is projected to award £4,000 to each employee this year. Cash isn’t the only incentive for workers, who each receive a free case of beer every month and a four-week sabbatical after five years’ service. They also get the chance to study for Cicerone qualifications, the beer industry’s equivalent of the Master of Wine scheme, with only 11 people globally holding the highest “Master Cicerone” level, including Watt and his head of product marketing, Rob MacKay. Those who pass the exams get an automatic pay rise. Members of staff share in the responsibility of running the business too – the company practises “open book management” by giving a copy of its full profit and loss account to every member of staff each month so they can see how their role fits into the profitability of the wider operation and can suggest improvements to increase efficiency. That punk ethos is about to be tested to the limit. The company is opening a brewery at Columbus in Ohio, so it can supply fresh beer to the United States faster than it can from its existing operations in Ellon and cut both its transport costs and its carbon dioxide emissions. Building a brewery on the other side of the Atlantic has involved raising US$3.5m (£2.8m) through an “Equity for Punks USA” crowdfunding scheme, along with £10m through a mini-bond on the Crowdcube platform in just 24 days, setting a fresh record

and adding to BrewDog’s total of raising £40m directly from investors. Watt’s punk attitude was alive and well when choosing the site for the firm’s American adventure. “Whenever I land in a city, I send out a tweet asking for recommendations of where to go to have a beer,” he explains. “When I landed in Columbus and sent that tweet my phone exploded with replies. That’s how I knew that our brand was known in Columbus. “When I got back and met with Martin and Neil Simpson, our finance director, I told them ‘Look guys, I know I was only there for 24 hours and I know we haven’t done our in-depth market research, but Columbus is where we should open our brewery’ and they said ‘Yeah, ok’.” While taking risks and trusting your gut is all part of being an entrepreneur, you need firm foundations in order to make those choices. While BrewDog is known for its punk ethos and for wanting to break the rules, Watt is very clear that you need to know the rules – and especially the financial rules – before you even begin to think about breaking them. His book, Business for Punks: Break All the Rules, was published in 2015 and gives an insight into how Watt and Dickie wanted to create a new category of beer in the UK, away from “real ale” or mass-produced lager. But it’s also filled with solid business advice about knowing your customers, listening to them and, above all, how cash is king. Watt’s wife, Johanna Basford, is an illustrator who’s best known for producing Secret Garden in 2013, one of the first colouring books for adults, which led to a bit of friendly rivalry when their work hit the shelves. “My book was published at the same time as Johanna’s second book and so we had a bet that whoever sold the least books on Amazon that week would have to take the bins out for a month – Johanna sold so many more books than me that I think I’ll be taking the bins out for the rest of the millennium,” he laughs. Watt wrote the book while on paternity leave with his first child. Reaching into one of the cupboards below the windows in his corner office in phase three of the brewery, he produces the hand-written first draft in a ring-binder. With paternity leave for baby number two looming, perhaps there’s a sequel in the making.

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That firm grasp of the financial figures behind the business has allowed BrewDog to grow its revenues from £29.6m in 2014 to £44.7m in 2015, with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) holding steady at £4.9m despite major expansion, according to accounts filed at Companies House. Watt reveals that turnover soared to £72m last year, with EBITDA remaining at around 10% of sales. It’s a long way from where BrewDog started. Dickie and Watt had been making homebrew when they got the chance to go to London; after tasting their tipples, beer writer Michael Jackson told them to quit their day jobs and open a brewery, which they duly did. Dickie was working in brewers and distilleries after training at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh, while Watt had studied law but quit his first job after just a few weeks when he realised all he would be doing was “glorified admin”. Instead, he became a deepsea fisherman, sailing from Fraserburgh and becoming a fully-qualified captain. In the early days, they moved back in with their parents to save money, often sleeping on malt sacks at the brewery and turning their hand to everything from digging trenches to fixing machinery. Despite the phenomenal growth, the division of labour remains roughly the same, with Dickie responsible for the making of the beer, while Watt runs the business side; perhaps those job titles aren’t so weird after all. Growth is forecast to continue in each part of the business. As well as producing beer in Ellon and Columbus, the company also sells its wares through its 31 craft beers bars in the UK and 19 overseas, including Copenhagen, Sao Paulo and Tokyo. Building work continues in Ellon, where the company is constructing a sour beer brewery next to its existing facilities. Also on the horizon is a distillery, with test batches of its LoneWolf gin and vodka having gone on sale just before Christmas and its first spirit being laid down in casks to make whisky. “We’ve bought that site and that site, and that land over there for expansion,” says Watt, pointing out of the windows behind him. “We’re not setting up a distillery for the sake of it, we’re in it for real.” The marketing stunts haven’t been the only time that BrewDog has hit the headlines over the years. The brewery has been criticised on several occasions by the Portman Group, the body set up in 1989 by the alcohol industry to promote responsible drinking.

BrewDog has produced a series of highstrength beers, from Tokyo at the original ABV of 18.2% and Tactical Nuclear Penguin at 32% through to Sink the Bismark at 41% and The End of History at 55%. It responded to the criticisms with Nanny State, a 0.5% brew that’s become a mainstay of the low-alcohol supermarket shelves. Yet each of the strong beers has been made in small batches, not as session ales designed to be drunk every night. Watt highlights that each of the marketing stunts wasn’t done simply for the sake of it but had a purpose behind it, like “Hello, my name is Vladimir”, half of the profits from which were “donated directly to charities that represent oppressed minorities around the world”. Last year some commentators took to Twitter to ask why two punks were accepting awards from the establishment after Watt and Dickie were made Members of the Order of the British Empire (MBEs) in the Queen’s birthday honour list for “services to the brewing industry”– at the same time that Basford, Watt’s wife, became an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for her “services to art and entrepreneurship”. “I think the people who made those comparisons forget who the godmother of punk was in the UK,” Watt counters with a

“

“I think my Gran was the most excited about the MBE. When the envelope arrived, my wife thought it was just going to be another speeding fine.”

smile. “Most of them will have been a lot less punk than her.” In a world where even Vivienne Westwood is a dame, there’s no arguing against the tremendous boost BrewDog has given not just to Scottish brewing but also to exports. With more and more of the new generation of craft brewers tipping their hats to Dickie and Watt, their services to the industry are clear. “I think my Gran was the most excited about the MBE,” Watt laughs. “When the envelop arrived, my wife thought it was just going to be another speeding fine.” n

Starting Up in Scotland Richard Myers from Transmit Start-Ups answers the most common questions about starting up in business

Transmit Start-Ups has helped hundreds of businesses start up over the last few years but, for every application for support they receive, many more would-be entrepreneurs are held back from turning their business idea into a reality. We asked Richard Myers, Commercial Director at Transmit Start-Ups to answer some of the most common questions asked by people thinking about embarking on their own start-up journey: Q: Is now a good time to start my own business? A: If you have the right idea, it’s always a good time to start your business. That said, although plenty of successful businesses were founded during recessions, a positive economic environment can make things that bit better for most of us! There has never been more support available to start-up businesses than there is today. From finance and grants to advice and mentoring, financial resources and mentors are out there and available to those that need them. Many of these schemes are committed to run for a number of years too, so this start-up-friendly environment doesn’t look ready to change any time soon. Q: How do I know if my business idea is good enough? A: Rather than success hinging on the idea, it usually comes down to having a solid business plan, understanding your market and the execution of the idea. Not every new start-up has to be the next top-selling mobile app. Retail is the most popular sector-of-choice for those we help start up in Scotland, followed by food & drink, creative services, web services and professional services. A lack of confidence is the number one thing that

holds people back from starting up their own business, so overcoming this is usually the first hurdle! Q: I need cash to get my idea off the ground. How can I afford it? A: There are many finance options available to those looking to start their own business. We’re a delivery partner of the Government’s Start-Up Loan programme, providing unsecured loans and mentoring to individuals in the UK with a viable business idea but no access to finance.

‘Start outlining a business plan and have a business adviser or mentor look over it. But, remember, the process of putting a business plan together is as important as the finished document itself.’ Many entrepreneurs come to us when they’ve been turned down by the bank or because they feel uncomfortable taking loans that need security. We also provide free mentoring and, arguably, mentoring is the most valuable part of our service. We help loan applicants with their business plans and mentor them for 12 months, helping them lay the foundation for their future business. Q: If you had one tip for people starting up, what would it be? A: Understand your target market. It’s amazing how many people get so caught up with perfecting their business idea that they forget who their customers are and what they really want. Make sure there is demand for your product and

service and that you understand what it is that will differentiate you from your competition and, importantly, how to effectively communicate that to your market. Q: Where do I start? A: Try and give your idea some structure. Most people have a clear idea of what their business will look like in the end, but it’s important to be able to map out how you can get to that point. Start outlining a business plan and have a business adviser or mentor look over it. But, remember, the process of putting a business plan together is as important as the finished document itself. Start Up Loans delivery partner Transmit Start-Ups has helped over 1,600 entrepreneurs start-up their own businesses by providing finance, free business support and mentoring. Twenty per cent of these entrepreneurs are based in Scotland, but a recent upsurge in new business starts, particularly from Glasgow and Edinburgh, has resulted in one in every three entrepreneurs approved for funding being from Scotland. If you’re interested in starting your own businesses, find out more about Transmit StartUps and the work they do across Scotland at www.transmitstartups.co.uk, call 0191 490 9328 or email info@transmitstartups.co.uk.

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Baby talk Amy Livingstone and Julie Wilson explain how starting their families also led to them launching their Cheeky Chompers business, writes Peter Ranscombe

NTREPRENEURS can meet their business partners in the most unusual of places. For Julie Wilson and Amy Livingstone, the founders of baby products brand Cheeky Chompers, that unusual place was an antenatal class when they were each eight-months pregnant with their first children. When their babies were teething, they were frustrated at constantly picking up or losing teethers. Livingstone and Wilson hit on the idea for the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Neckerchewâ&#x20AC;?, their debut product, a dribble bib that both attaches to the baby

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and has a built-in teether. “We thought that someone else must have come up with an idea like that before because it was so simple but, as we did our research, we got more and more excited because we realised that no-one else had,” explains Livingstone. “The more we looked, the more we realised that we’d hit on a gap in the market.” “Both of us have always been entrepreneurial,” Wilson says. “I’ve had a number of small businesses over the years and Amy has always had plans to run her own business.

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“Babies throw their teethers and comforters around, so we want our Neckerchew and Comfortchew to be attachable to buggies or car seats. We sell the two of them together in a ‘chew-pack.’”

“When you have a baby and you’re taken a long way out of your normality there’s something in you that changes and makes you reflect. There’s always been a fire in our bellies, independently, to go and do our own thing and so when we saw this gap in the market we decided to fill it.” “So many mothers say ‘I wish I had this’ or ‘I wish I had that’, but we said, rather than just talk about it, let’s go out there and do it,” adds Livingstone. “We decided to take it a month at a time to begin with, because neither of us had been involved in manufacturing or retail or textile design, but nothing held us back.” Wilson was on maternity leave from Scottish Enterprise, where she’d spent 20 years as first an account manager and then tourism innovation manager, but had also explored her creative side as an artist, exhibiting in her native Edinburgh and even collaborating with Michelin-starred chef Martin Wishart for the “Art on a Plate” exhibition. Livingstone was working in sales and marketing at Hotel du Vin when her first child was born. The pair raised money from their families to start the business in 2012 and launched the Neckerchew in February 2013. Both had returned to work in the second half of 2012 and

were initially running the business part-time, but then Livingstone was made redundant from her job, which allowed her to spend more time on the start-up, while also having her second baby. Wilson carried on working at Scottish Enterprise until 2014, but then left to focus on Cheeky Chompers full-time. “Both of us felt it was much more exciting to run our own business than to be doing our normal day jobs,” explains Wilson. “The business became our baby and why would we want to give our baby away to someone else to run?” The company won a £50,000 Scottish Edge Award in 2013 and Livingstone and Wilson quickly set about extending their product range of blankets, comforters and teething products, with the “Comfortchew’ – which combines a comforter and a teether – following in 2014. A whole family of brand extensions has since been added to the range, from the “Neckerbib” – a dribble bib without the teether, “for the days your little one dribbles but doesn’t chew” – through to the most recent additions: the “Cheeky Blanket”, which includes straps for attaching it to a buggy or car seat; and “Chewy”, a “sensory” hippopotamus-shaped teether with a strap.

“All the products have features in common,” Livingstone explains. “They are all attachable, helpful, stylish and high-quality. “Being mums ourselves, we really understand it’s the little things that can make the biggest difference in design and practicality for busy parents. Our products are all designed with an intuitive twist to help make parents lives that little bit easier. “Babies throw their teethers and comforters around, so we want our Neckerchew and Comfortchew to be attachable to buggies or car seats. We sell the two of them together in a ‘chew-pack’,” she adds with a groan at the play-on-words. “We wanted to make the most out of what was innovative about our product,” says Wilson. “We protected the intellectual property (IP) very early on and we knew we had to be the first to market in each country because other people would try to copy us. “There were lots of dribble bibs on the market, so we made ours reversible, we gave it an absorbent middle layer, we made it out of softer cotton and we created a teether that was made from silicon instead of plastic and had a design that allowed it to get to the back teeth, not just the front teeth, and massage the

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gums. The innovative part wasn’t just adding a teether to a dribble bib but making it the best in the market. To start with, we thought we’d just do the UK for the first year and then start to export, but it caught on overseas really quickly.” By the end of its first year in business, Cheeky Chompers was selling the Neckerchew in eight overseas markets. The company now has distributors in 35 countries, including the United States, and also sells its products to other countries via its website. Exports now account for nearly 70% of the firm’s £1.5m sales, with the company launching a big push into China this spring after signing up two distributors. “We didn’t just want to trickle into China, we wanted to go in all guns blazing,” says Wilson. “These two distributors give us great coverage. We’ve had perhaps 15 distributors approach us in China, but they’ve not been at the premium level or had the right coverage.” Taiwan is the firm’s second largest overseas market after the US and its distributor on the island got in touch after reading about the business in an article on a UK newspaper’s website. “She became one of our first distributors and she managed to get a big Taiwanese pop star and television presenter – who’s married to an equally big Japanese pop star – to use our products,” Wilson says. “Whatever design their children wear or use sells out straight away.” Success in overseas markets led to Cheeky Chompers being crowned “Emerging Start-Up Exporter of the Year” at the 2016 HSBC Scottish Export Award, run by BQ in association with Scottish Enterprise. The award was the latest in a series of prizes to be added to the company’s

trophy cabinet: Livingstone and Wilson had been crowned “Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year” at membership body Entrepreneurial Scotland’s 2015 awards and were winners in the Scottish finals of the 2016 EY Entrepreneur of the Year competition. “The product awards are great, especially when parents and buyers both get a say in who wins,” says Wilson. “They give the product credibility and give parents reassurance when they’re looking to buy them. “The business awards are really good too because they open up lots of opportunities for networking. You get to meet a lot of people and I’m always amazed by how generous they are with their time and advice.” An early appearance on BBC2 programme Dragons’ Den, which was first aired in March 2014, also gave the entrepreneurs a boost. Although none of the dragons invested in their company – with their targets branded as “delusional” – the publicity led to a spike in sales and the pair smashed through the targets presented on the show.

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“An innovative way to expand our brand was through partnership and one of the brands we’d identified was Joules,” says Wilson. “After we were on Dragons’ Den, Tom Joules called us.” The company has gone on to form a partnership with the Tiny Tatty Teddy brand and has grown by building relationships with retailers including Boots, John Lewis, JoJo Maman Bébé, Marks & Spencer, Ocado and Toys R Us. Protecting the firm’s IP has been an important part of the process, especially in overseas markets. “We’ve had a lot of success in having copycat products taken down off the internet in China, Europe and the US,” Wilson notes. “If we had our time again then we’d reflect on the amount we’ve spent protecting and defending our IP and probably pick our fights a little more carefully. But being the first to market and protecting your IP is definitely a winning combination.” The company works with SnapDragon, a fellow Edinburgh-based firm founded by Rachel Jones, the entrepreneur behind the Totseat chair harness. Jones spent so much time defending her IP that she created SnapDragon as a spin-out company to monitor e-commerce sites on behalf of clients for copycat products and then have them removed. Cheeky Chompers has grown to employ ten staff, with all its fabric products made in Glasgow by reusable nappy manufacturer TotsBots. “TotsBots has been brilliant – it’s grown with us at each step of the journey,” says Livingstone. “It’s gone from having about 26 staff to about 46 now.” As well as breaking into China, the company is preparing to launch a new range of products. Given the strength of their partnership – they’re like an old married couple, even finishing each other’s sentences – Livingstone and Wilson look set to bring Cheeky Chompers to an even wider audience. n

“An innovative way to expand our brand was through partnership and one of the brands we’d identified was Joules,” says Wilson. “After we were on Dragons’ Den, Tom Joules called us.”

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When is the right time to sell your business? You have built up a successful business but, with your exit strategy in place, how do you know exactly when to cash in and move out?

To attend the event, please visit www.bcms.co.uk/edinburgh

YOU have built up a successful business but, with your exit strategy in place, how do you know exactly when to cash in and move out? There are plenty of reasons why entrepreneurs sell up, ranging from predictable events like retirement to the unforeseen, such as ill-health or divorce. Using data gleaned from more than 500 company sales over the last decade, sale advisor BCMS has identified six key reasons today’s entrepreneurs are selling up in record numbers. •Retirement – one or all shareholders wish to retire •Lifestyle change – a health-scare, exhaustion, and family commitments •Capital investment – scaling-up may be too big a challenge for the founder •Changing roles – the evolution from agile start-up to growing company demands different managerial skills. Some entrepreneurs struggle with this transition •Realise investment – many entrepreneurs get bored and sell up to start up something new •Market conditions – competitors being acquired, new entrants, or major regulatory changes point to a good time to exit a venture Whatever the reason that drives an owner to seek a buyer, the big questions are the same – how to ensure you get the best price, and is there a right time to sell? In both cases, laying the groundwork is increasingly essential. “Business owners are increasingly preparing their exit in more detail,” says Jonathan Dunn, Executive Director at corporate finance advisor BCMS. “In practice, they are busy tying up contracts, building their sales pipeline, and reducing dependency on the owners, long before their company goes to market.” When entrepreneur Neil Needham and his coshareholders sold windscreen repair business Autowindshields to the AA, they were the fifth biggest in the market. “The other four companies were huge in comparison to us,” Neil says. “We wanted to get to that next level with the business. We had a turnover of around £5m, while our competitors were turning over £80m-plus.” Conversely, for Tom Woodard – who sold his event

registration software business to Canada’s Jonas Software, the right time to sell for him was more personal. “I’d had enough,” Tom recalls, “I was running my own business and had acquired another one en route. I was ready for a change. Events are very tiring, and I didn’t have the same level of energy I had 20 plus years ago.” A SELLERS’ MARKET With UK corporate acquisition activity approaching an all-time high, there is no doubt that now is a good time to sell. BCMS’ Jonathan Dunn continues: “Larger firms are under pressure from their shareholders to improve margins, and for many the best way to achieve this is by acquiring high-growth smaller players. “When you add in private equity investors keen to back ambitious management teams, and the growing number of overseas players acquiring in the UK, it still feels very much like a sellers’ market.” Serial entrepreneur John Ward sold his Linlithgow aerospace components supplier Fasteq to US giant Haas. Although he and his fellow shareholder were ready to sell, the process required a significant time commitment. “We realised that we would have to take time out of the business,” John says, “It was like speed-dating, meeting all these different potential buyers. But we found a buyer who we knew was a great fit for Fasteq.” Of course, for every entrepreneur ready to exit, there are others who perhaps can’t see a way out. The latter – particularly in multi-generational family businesses – see selling up as final, rather than an opportunity to renew the business to safeguard its future. With this in mind, BCMS has teamed up with Investec Wealth and Investment to discuss the right time to sell and explore what business owners go on to do afterwards at an evening panel event on May 10, 2017, in central Edinburgh. Speakers include entrepreneurs with firsthand experience of selling multiple businesses, including Neil Needham (ex-Autowindshields) and John Ward (ex-Fasteq).

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Scotland eyes £8bn life sciences target as awards are presented The achievements of individuals and organisations were celebrated at Scotland’s Life Sciences Dinner and Awards, while the industry laid out its new strategy, writes Peter Ranscombe SCOTLAND’S life sciences industry has set itself the ambitious target of nearly doubling its turnover to £8bn by 2025 as part of its 2017 Life Sciences Strategy. The goal was unveiled at Scotland’s Life Sciences Dinner and Awards, which took place at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh on 2 February. Data released to accompany the publication of the updated strategy showed that the industry’s turnover grew by 29% between 2010 and 2014 to more than £4.2bn, with the gross value it adds to the economy rising by 24% to around £2bn and its number of employees climbing by 13% to in excess of 37,000 people in some 700 organisations. “This is an exciting time for life sciences businesses in Scotland,” said Dave Tudor, co-chair of the Life Sciences Scotland Industry Leadership Group and vice president of primary supply chain at FTSE100 drug maker GlaxoSmithKline (GSK). “I am delighted with the shape of our refreshed strategy and the strategic themes that have been identified.

“We now need focus and alignment from across the sector as we create the working groups that will plan and coordinate the delivery of this strategy. I look forward to working with everyone to ensure success in the future.” Paul Wheelhouse, minister for business, innovation and energy and co-chair of the group, added: “I welcome the publication of this ambitious industry-led strategy for the life sciences. “The sector has delivered a strong performance in recent years and is a key driver of innovation in Scotland with a particularly strong employment impact in and around Scotland’s cities, and that is why it is vital we continue to provide a supportive environment for business growth and fulfil our ambitions to be a world-leading entrepreneurial and innovative nation. “European Union nationals living in Scotland and working in the life sciences sector greatly enrich our culture, strengthen our society and boost our economy and the Scottish

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Government recognises the very welcome contribution they make to our country.” More than 700 people attended the 17th annual awards ceremony, which included an uplifting keynote speech by Sir Andrew Witty, chief executive at GSK. Witty spoke about the need to entice more people with the digital skills that will be needed to handle big data into the life sciences industry and he suggested that companies and organisations should speak more about the work they do to improve people’s lives. John Brown, who Tudor succeeded as co-chair of the industry leadership group, was presented with a special recognition award to thank him for his services to the industry. Economic development agency Scottish Enterprise estimates that £300m has been invested in the sector over the past three years by companies including Capsugel, GSK, Johnson Matthey, Piramal Healthcare, Quotient and ThermoFisher Scientific. Julia Brown, senior director of healthcare, life and chemical sciences at Scottish Enterprise, said: “I am delighted to see the impressive expansion of the sector over the past few years, which is the result of concerted collaborative efforts from the Scottish life sciences community. Scottish Enterprise will continue to work with the Life Science Scotland Industry Leadership Group, industry and all life sciences sector stakeholders to keep the momentum and achieve the ambitious growth targets outlined in this strategy.” Scottish Enterprise also highlighted the number of significant international investments that have been made in Scotland over the past two years through overseas companies acquiring Scottish businesses: Japanese camera giant Nikon bought medical technology company Optos, which will become the cornerstone of its new medical group; Biopta was acquired by Reprocell, a Japanese stem cell specialist; technology giant Medtronic purchased anaesthesia specialist Aircraft Medical; Merck bought IOmet Pharma; French firm Sartorius Stedim acquired BioOutsource; and Icelandic prosthetics specialist Ossur acquired Touch Bionics. The agency also pointed to the number of companies that have located in Scotland, including Cellexus, Dexcom and Janssen Pharmaceuticals, HCi Viocare, Orion Health, Sinovet and Greengage. Investment will also be a key ingredient in growing Scotland’s life sciences sector. The Scottish Investment Bank (SIB), the investment arm of Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise, is one of the most active life science investors in the UK. The SIB has invested £39m in life science companies over the past five years, which in turn has triggered £98.6m of private sector funding. Life science businesses account for about 30% of the bank’s portfolio. As well as its own investments, the SIB is also a cornerstone investor in Epidarex’s £47.5m venture fund. Other investors consist of United States-based drugs maker Eli Lilly, the European Investment Fund and the Strathclyde Pension Fund, along with Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow universities and King’s College, London. n

And the winner is… LIFE SCIENCE BUSINESS LEADERSHIP AWARD SPONSORED BY THE COLLEGE OF MEDICAL, VETERINARY & LIFE SCIENCES, UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW Winner: Ian Stevens, chief executive, Touch Bionics Finalist: David Bunton, chief executive, Reprocell Europe Finalist: Ken Sutherland, president, Toshiba Medical Visualisation Systems LIFE SCIENCE ENTREPRENEURIAL BUSINESS LEADERSHIP AWARD SPONSORED BY COMPLETE RESOURCING Winner: Michael Leek, chief executive, TC Biopharm Finalist: Adam Christie, chief executive, Calcivis Finalist: Chris McCann, chief executive, Snap40 INNOVATION AWARD SPONSORED BY MARKS & CLERK Winner: Inside Biometrics Finalist: Calcivis Finalist: Touch Bionics INVESTMENT OF THE YEAR AWARD SPONSORED BY CONCEPT LIFE SCIENCES Winner: Touch Bionics Finalist: IOmet Pharma Finalist: TC Biopharm INNOVATIVE COLLABORATION AWARD SPONSORED BY IP PRAGMATICS Winner: Emblation and Covidien Finalist: University of Edinburgh and GlaxoSmithKline Finalist: Lamellar Biomedical and The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre Finalist: University of Edinburgh and Janssen EXPORT & INTERNATIONAL TRADE AWARD SPONSORED BY KLEBOE JARDINE Winner: BASF Pharma Callanish Finalist: Clintec International Finalist: Fios Genomics COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT AWARD SPONSORED BY CAPSUGEL Winner: Merck/Bioreliance Finalist: STEM Pilot – Ayrshire Special Recognition Award: John Brown

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Thirty years ago, Fred Story built his first house. Since then he has expanded his businesses, owned a football club, won countless awards and given thousands of pounds back to communities. Paul Robertson charts his remarkable career

S Fred Story reflects on being one of Northern England’s most successful entrepreneurs, he says: “I strongly believe that ‘doing the right thing’ – whatever that means – is the most effective and successful way to do business.” We are sitting in the head office of Story Homes and Story Contracting in his beloved Carlisle, a converted RAF complex made as good as new by the contracting arm of his business, just a few miles from where it all began. “My dad was a small farmer and market gardener with cattle and sheep,” says Story. “I grew up there learning practical skills with my brothers, Billy and David. We all had a bullock to look after and then sell it to make money. We also grew vegetables and sold produce at the door so I was making good money at 12. “When I went to Nottingham polytechnic, I dabbled in the stock market and made quite a bit of money investing what I made from the farm. I never gave it a thought until recent years, but it was all a great grounding as far as running a business is concerned.” On graduating, Story had no interest in taking on the family farm – “I wanted to be an architect but wasn’t clever enough, so became an engineer.” He had watched his brother, Billy, a plumber, buying houses, doing them up with the help of improvement grants and selling them on. Having married childhood sweetheart Vivien and while working for John Laing construction,

then Thomas Armstrong, in Cumbria for eight years, he spent his spare hours following Billy’s example. By the time he was 30, Story had bought a small farmstead and set about converting the barn into a family home, with four plots of land behind it – all mortgage-free, such had been the success of his investments. “My wife insisted that this project was finished before we moved in,” he says. “Previously we had lived in caravans while conversions took place and one time a mouse jumped out of the Cornflakes packet during my daughter’s breakfast time – that was the last straw.” It was also to be the catalyst for a business that 30 years later is about to see the number of employees pass the 1,000 mark and turnover hit £290m. He was hands-on, labouring on site, as the small plot became the first four Story Homes – the very first of which is still occupied by the family who bought it. “My passion was civil engineering but housebuilding was a route to get there while I got on tender lists,” says Story. “In the first year, we made £130,000 profit and Vivien was teaching in the local junior school. We were selling people houses in our back garden and their children were going to that school so it made us very accountable. That accountability has been a real driver for the business to deliver a quality product. “Our motto is ‘Do it right’ – sounds very straightforward, but it means all the decisions

Success

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“I have given real responsibility to people I have confidence in rather than me thinking I know best on everything.”

people make. We only employ sub-contractors who go above and beyond to provide a high-quality finish using the best materials. We pay them on time and they do a great job. It is important the people who work for and with us have the right culture and values as well as the skills.” Story Homes now has 30 schemes in Cumbria, the North East and the North West of England, as well as Southern Scotland, with regional offices in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Chorley in Lancashire. It is aiming to build more than 800 homes this year and sell 1,000, with its sights firmly set on becoming the best quality house builder in the UK. The past six years have seen the biggest growth and Story is refreshingly honest as to the reasons – the business had outgrown his capacity, while owning Carlisle United became a huge distraction. “Like many family businesses we had a flat structure,” says Story. “Business had plateaued at £60m turnover over seven years, coinciding with the fact I had bought Carlisle. I was making every decision and the business had reached my capacity.” Story brought in non-executive director Peter Stybelski, who put a structure in place, improving the recruitment process and leading to the appointment of Steve Errington as Story Homes’ financial director in 2012 then chief executive in 2014, with the owner becoming chairman. He was keen the transition maintained the traditional strengths of a family business while encompassing the best parts of the corporate world – without what he sees as the

madness displayed by many highly-profitable companies that damage the business by driving profit to reward shareholders rather than deal with making a little less money in tough times. “I have given real responsibility to people I have confidence in rather than me thinking I know best on everything,” says Story. “When Steve came, there was a massive land bank because I had always invested in the business, we saw explosive growth, we had the brand and then a facility with Lloyds Bank for the first time, which has also been invested. “We demerged Homes and Contracting. Story Homes’ model is about family houses at the quality end on a volume basis. I am an entrepreneur and always thought I could buy the land, get planning, build, make profit and reinvest but we had six or seven sites that didn’t fit the new model. “We tried to dispose of them but three quarters of housebuilders got wiped out after 2008 due to the difficulty of getting finance and the domination of the big builders – there was nobody to buy the sites. So, we set up another company – Reiver Homes – to develop them. “We are totally committed to creating a quality product and to the satisfaction of our customers. We are all proud of the homes we create and we attract staff that share a sense of pride in what they do, something that can’t always be found easily in the industry. I am very proud of the fact houses are still advertised for sale in local papers as Story-built houses 15 years after they were built and that we were recently awarded five-star builder status for the third year running.”

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Fred on the site of the first house he built and sold Story Contracting is also experiencing rapid growth. The business has three areas of operation: construction, rail and plant. The plant division provides diggers and machinery to the business as well as the wider rail industry from bases in Edinburgh, Cumbria and Yorkshire and is growing by approximately 25% every year. The construction division carries out works in Cumbria and South-West Scotland. Projects vary from factory extensions to bridge and road works, infrastructure and maintenance of industrial and commercial properties. The rail division has grown rapidly to £35m of revenues, with projected growth of 25% a year. The company has a five-year framework agreement with Network Rail, providing secured work streams in North-West England and Scotland, facilitated by delivery teams based in Glasgow and Cumbria. All employees will be invited to a 30th anniversary family fun day at Carlisle racecourse in September, which will include Story in the stocks. The company is also setting up a special anniversary fund planning to give £1,000 to 30 charities, on top of an existing fund where organisations in the communities in which Story operates can apply for sponsorship. At six-foot eight, Story is an imposing figure, having honed his talents and competitive spirit on the rugby field, but family is the most important thing in his life. Having been married to Vivien for 36 years, they have three children. The eldest, Emma, is head of operations in his construction division, currently on maternity leave expecting their fifth grandchild, while Ruth runs a holiday lettings business and son John celebrates his 30th birthday in this anniversary year and is currently financial director in the contracting unit. Story is delighted that two of his children have followed him into the business but says there is no pressure on any of them. “As for me, I am just learning to be chairman and the company likes the fact I put all the profits back into the business. We all want a business that grows and to be proud of.” What of the future? “There has never been a masterplan, it’s a case of we do that well so let’s do more of that,” says Story. “It is about continually pushing that flywheel and making it go faster. There are landmarks along the way but they are not the difference between success and failure – it’s about focusing on driving the business forward, making all the sacrifices and ensuring our customers are happy. I wouldn’t do anything else.” n

A funny old game IN 2004, Fred Story took ownership of his local football club, Carlisle United, in its “hour of need” after being relegated from the football league for the first time in its 100-year history. He oversaw the club’s most successful four-year period, taking it from the Conference League to the Division One play offs, and transformed it from a loss-making business to a stable profit-making entity before passing the club on to fellow directors in 2008. Yet it is something that brought him little pleasure and caused a short-term dip in what until then had been a stellar growth. “We had been in The Times Fast Track 100 for three years running having gone from £2m to £8m,” explains Story. “The last entry said we had just bought the local football club – and my son said there would be no more entries after that. “I watched Carlisle United as a fan when Michael Knighton owned it – he was very successful for the first five years then it turned sour. I went to see him and effectively said I would give him some money if he cleared off. “Then an Irishman, John Courtney, who was a great guy, became owner and I sent him a cheque because he had saved me money by buying it. Of course, he then spent a year trying to get me on the board.” Eventually he agreed, along with other new directors, and began the task of putting structures in place to run it as a business but the club was in dire straits and went bust before plans could be implemented. “I should have let it go into administration but my ego took over,” he says. “I did one important thing in paying off the debts as it had daft loans that were draining the blood out of the club. I kept out of the football side, made sure my job was the same as it is in business – provide people with the right environment – in this case manager Paul Simpson. “I focused on getting the commercial department right and improving the fans’ experience. We did really well and made profit, but I hated owning it – I was just two thinskinned. It doesn’t matter how well you are doing there was always abuse. People told me not to buy it. You learn from mistakes and I learned to listen to other people. I don’t regret anything but football is a tough gig.” It made Story an even bigger name in Cumbria and there are not many fans who wouldn’t welcome him back as owner – but the chapter in that particular story is complete.

PREPARING FOR A BUSINESS SALE Alistair Dickson, partner at RSM For many entrepreneurs, a business sale can often feel like a distant goal. When objectives are met, strategies delivered and growth secured year after year, few think about changing the status quo. But not all disposals are expected: often an offer arises that is too attractive to ignore or a life-changing event leads to a shift of perspective. Whatever the transaction trigger, businesses that have taken steps to prepare will reap the biggest rewards. By laying the groundwork, entrepreneurs can expedite a future sales process, improve value and ensure they’re in the right shape to drive up the potential sale price. It can also maximise the chances of business survival following a change of ownership. There are important steps businesses should take to prepare. Not dealing with these issues in advance could constrain the value generated by a sale, whether that’s the sale price or the legacy left behind. What’s the next step? It’s important entrepreneurs consider their future beyond the business sale, including how lifestyles will be sustained. Sometimes a dripping succession strategy can be a good interim measure; when owners ease themselves out over time by retaining chairperson or consultant roles, they often better adapt to post-sale realities. Consider your emotional attachments Entrepreneurs should think about their ties to the business and its customers, suppliers and staff. Understanding this helps owners define what success looks like and select an appropriate buyer. If attachments are strong, steps should be taken to secure the legacy of the business.

Rethink relationships Relationships are often integral to the success of a business. In the months ahead of a disposal, owners should take a step back and start introducing key contacts to other staff members. This helps mitigate risks during the transaction and maximises the chances of business success post-sale. Is money the driver? The size of the sale cheque will likely be a combination of the business’ net asset value, a multiple of profitability and sustainable positive cash flow. Ahead of the sale, streamlining efforts can maximise value. This may include profitability improvement, asset utilisation enhancement and the best use of working capital or external funding. Think about legal issues All legal disputes, employee issues, customer contracts and IP considerations should be resolved ahead of a sale. To facilitate a smooth disposal process, businesses may also have to update their legal structure: often it is more cost-effective to sell a streamlined business than one with sprawling subsidiaries. Put your tax affairs in order If a business has not carried out proper tax planning ahead of a sale, it could be faced with significantly higher liabilities on the sale gains. The right tax structure depends on the individual circumstances: businesses must understand all options.

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The UK group of companies and LLPs trading as RSM is a member of the RSM network. RSM is the trading name used by the members of the RSM network. separate legal entity of any description in any jurisdiction. The RSM network is administered by RSM International Limited, a company registered in England a property rights used by members of the network are owned by RSM International Association, an association governed by article 60 et seq of the Civil Code

. Each member of the RSM network is an independent accounting and consulting firm, each of which practices in its own right. The RSM network is not itself a and Wales (company number 4040598) whose registered office is at 50 Cannon Street, London EC4N 6JJ. The brand and trademark RSM and other intellectual e of Switzerland whose seat is in Zug.

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s e v i r d l a t i g i D h t w o r g l a b o l g With a new office and international growth on the agenda, Karen Peattie finds out how Solutions Driven chief executive Gavin Speirs is bringing digital technology into his recruitment business

T’S a bright, crisp morning and Gavin Speirs – a fervent mushroom-hater, gadget-lover and football fan – displays an equally sunny disposition as he settles down to talk about his Glasgow-based recruitment business and how its approach differs to that of other firms in this highly competitive marketplace. First, however, the chief executive of Solutions Driven has something to get off his chest. His biography on the company’s website alludes to the mushroom issue. “I think it’s the feel and texture of them,” he explains. “I just can’t abide them – never have.” With that question answered, it’s over to Speirs to explain why he moved his team from the city centre to Buchanan Business Park in Stepps, on the outskirts of Glasgow. “It’s nothing to do with the fact that I live just five minutes’ drive away,” he laughs. “It wasn’t planned that way but I must admit it’s very

handy. We needed more space and somewhere that could accommodate future expansion. “As much of our work is outwith the UK we don’t need a city-centre office with big overheads and this ticks all the boxes – easy car parking and a train station nearby. It’s nice to be in a location that feels semi-rural yet is still close to the city.” Solutions Driven moved into the new premises at the beginning of June – three weeks before the Brexit vote – taking over an entire floor previously occupied by North Lanarkshire Council. “We’ve got a team of 48 now and room for 70 so we’re well-placed for future expansion,” Speirs explains. The firm’s gross profit currently sits at £2.8m with that figure on target to rise to £3.6m this year. In 2018, Speirs is chasing £4.5m. “Yes, we’re ambitious and I make no apology for that,” he says. “I’m enjoying the business and I’m

enjoying seeing our people grow and develop with us. It’s important to have goals and targets that challenge you.” Has he noticed a downturn in business post-Brexit? “Some clients have slowed down the pace and put things on hold but we’re still small enough not to feel the impact of certain events,” says Speirs. “We have a major project in the pipeline in the Middle East and if this comes to fruition it will have a positive impact on revenue. “Since 2014, businesses in Scotland have gone through an independence referendum, general election and Brexit so there’s been a lot of uncertainty and I think people get used to that. Despite downturns in sectors such as oil and gas, we’ve experienced significant growth in recent years and we also factor in the fact that hiring and recruitment trends can be cyclical.”

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“We have a major project in the pipeline in the Middle East and if this comes to fruition it will have a positive impact on revenue.”

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“If we want to exceed our clients’ expectations then the company needs to exceed the staff’s expectations.”

Solutions Driven – which specialises predominately in the manufacturing, engineering, technology and healthcare sectors – was established 15 years ago by Speirs’s father, Walter. Speirs senior spent his career working for American tech multinationals – including Motorola, Wang Laboratories and Compaq – before moving into the recruitment business after decades in the corporate fast lane. Born in Ayrshire and brought up in Dunblane, Speirs junior’s entrepreneurial streak started to shine through early in his career. “I worked part-time with Solutions Driven then went full-time when I sold the recycling business I set up after I left university,” he explains. “I went to Glasgow University to study maths and physics and hated it so I did a master’s degree in management with marketing instead. “I think it’s OK to change your mind. There’s a lot of pressure on young people to choose a career path when they don’t necessarily

know what they want to with their lives – I never expected to end up in recruitment and I absolutely love it. “It’s important to do your own thing before joining a family business – you need to experience different working cultures – so when I joined the company full-time I was ready for the variables and complexities a family business can often have. “A father-and-son dynamic is always going to be interesting. In my case, dad has been a fantastic mentor and allowed me to grow in my way, not by dictating how I should do things. I’ve made mistakes when I probably should have listened to his advice but equally I’ve proved him wrong – it’s a good relationship and a healthy one.” Father and son also share a love of football – Airdrie FC, to be precise. “Yes, we’re both passionate Airdrie fans,” he smiles. So passionate, in fact, that at one stage they

actually co-owned the club. “At the age of 21, I was the youngest director in British football,” says Speirs. “We’re both still shareholders and football will always play a big part in my life.” Now company chairman, Walter founded the Glasgow-based business to fill a gap in the recruitment market for a company that not only delivered great service levels to clients but, crucially, understood its clients’ needs. It made sense to tap in to his global contacts and within three years the company had clients in the Far East and Eastern Europe. “Our aim was always to be a very clientfocused recruitment agency and we set up offices in countries such as the Czech Republic and Romania so we could give a really personal service to clients in specialist markets,” says Speirs. “However, with advances in technology opening up fast, easy and efficient ways to communicate with clients all over the world we took the decision four years ago to consolidate

bqlive.co.uk

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“We have a strong point of difference and areas of expertise that set us apart from other recruiters and that’s what will keep the business moving on an upwards trajectory.”

in Glasgow. “We’re still as client-focused as ever but we can manage the bulk of our overseas business from here without the cost of setting up an office in another country. More than 60% of our turnover comes from our international business – we have delivered projects in more than 50 countries now and collectively our staff speak 14 different languages. “We were awarded a regional selective assistance grant by Scottish Enterprise and that will help us target further international growth.” As well as moving into its new offices, Solutions Driven has also launched its own talent analytics tool, an interactive online system that saves time and money by enabling the recruiter or hiring manager to agree from the offset what skills and requirements they want for the role. “Talenytics” simplifies the recruitment process and enables better collaboration between both parties, explains Speirs. “At Solutions Driven we want to develop measured and accountable partnerships – it’s all about measurement and quality,” he continues. “We like to put our head above the parapet so in Talenytics we’ve developed a system that makes the whole process much more transparent for our clients.

“Recruitment can be challenging so this platform is another step towards helping our clients attract the best talent in a way that allows us to work collaboratively. Solutions Driven is all about measurement – it’s quality we want to be known for because that is what helps us retain clients and engage with new ones. It’s about forging great relationships with your clients on the back of mutual trust because in recruitment you are only as good as your last placement.” But how does a recruitment company recruit its own people? “That’s a very good question,” says Speirs, taking the opportunity to point out that Solutions Driven holds both Investors in People Gold and Young People accreditation. “There is no formal qualification required to be a recruiter and we’re not unlike many other companies in that we want good team players and someone who goes that extra mile. “We have our own training processes in place and offer flexible working to accommodate staff who have to juggle childcare requirements or other situations at home. I have a young daughter myself and I’m well aware of the challenges having a family can pose. “Home working is also something we support when appropriate because we want to do everything we can to empower our

people. We want people to look forward to coming to work and be passionate about what they do, so it’s important to provide a pleasant working environment with appealing benefits, incentives and bonus structure.” The office itself has a games room, relaxing areas to sit and have lunch, a well-equipped kitchen, funky breakout areas, and more formal training and meeting rooms. It’s a spacious environment designed to be comfortable as well as practical. “If we want to exceed our clients’ expectations then the company needs to exceed the staff’s expectations,” he points out. “Staff tend to work in pairs rather than alone or in a bigger group and we have quite a wide age range, too, which means we have a lot of interesting ideas coming through that can be really helpful.” Unlike many other recruitment consultancies Solutions Driven separates the recruitment role from the selling role. “In many firms you have the same person doing the recruiting and the selling – that’s not our approach,” says Speirs. “So we’ve separated the two and have a dedicated team working on securing new business. “We have a strong point of difference and areas of expertise that set us apart from other recruiters and that’s what will keep the business moving on an upwards trajectory.” n

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EDUCATE GIRLS

MORE than 90% of UBS clients are now active philanthropists. Having worked with hundreds in his UBS career and before, Tom Hall has been watching the rise of the sector for years and sums it up with great clarity: “The focus of this new breed of philanthropists is to solve the social and environmental problems they are passionate about. They are willing to take big risks, including no financial return, in pursuit of those goals.” Thankfully, the desire of HNW individuals to direct some of their wealth to good causes is growing, with around $1trillion already placed with foundations or funds worldwide. UBS is very much the innovator here, setting new benchmarks for the scope of its carefullytargeted impact across the world, and for the span of its network of leading experts who place money where it will have the longestlasting effects. Tom is part of a team of 40 philanthropy, academic and social investment experts working at UBS to help in what is becoming one of the financial world’s most influential areas. One of the issues UBS is tackling is that for decades it has been fashionable for philanthropists to attempt to address global problems on a small scale, perhaps building their own schools or hospitals in developing economies, often with very little chance of

UBS and the new philanthropy Tom Hall, executive director and head of philanthropy services in the UK for UBS, tells Mike Hughes about the innovative ways in which the company is reinventing philanthropy reaching scale or sustainability. UBS guides and redirects that ethical mission to make it more innovative and able to sustain more risk, a strategy backed by the pioneering Bill Gates who said philanthropists need to find more effective ways of solving problems by collaborating extensively with other philanthropists and governments to explore the scale necessary to achieve significant results. “It’s an exciting time to be working in philanthropy. The industry is being led by ‘new wealth’. Spearheaded by hero philanthropists such as Bill Gates and Mark Zuckerberg, those who have made their money through

entrepreneurialism are not satisfied to rest on their laurels but are instead seeking new, better ways to create social impact,” said Tom. “As the biggest wealth manager in the world, we have taken the time to ask ourselves what the purpose of wealth is once the family is taken care of and there is more than enough left to spend. Increasingly, philanthropy is placed high on the priority list. “In the next 30 years, there will be around $2trillion ring-fenced for social purpose. Philanthropy has grown to become a fundamental part of wealth management, but one insight we gained a few years ago was that only about 20 per cent of

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our clients thought their giving was effective. So on the one hand there is a huge amount of money, but on the other, a sense that it is not delivering the right results.” UBS recognises the important role of purpose and fulfilment in philanthropy. It is no longer enough to only give large amounts away to good causes: clients are now looking to achieve societal impact first and foremost, with financial considerations secondary for many. With its ‘band of brokers’ around the world, UBS is in a position to deeply analyse data and target the money where it can be the most life-changing. “If you are a client service business, you try to solve clients’ problems. We have found that clients welcome as much support and advice in how to ‘give’ effectively as they do in how to invest,” Tom told me. “The philanthropy industry is less regulated so it is quite easy to end up making mistakes and wasting your money, and at UBS we know that poorly thought out funding can actually make problems worse. In Malawi I saw malaria nets just hanging up outside fishermen’s huts because, although there had been wellmeaning funds, no one had invested in a distribution strategy. And because the nets were impregnated to treat the malaria, they poisoned the fish. As a result, thousands of people got sick and many died.” This unique level of hands-on experience and insight is a powerful weapon for UBS clients as the role of the financial adviser grows to become an essential link in the philanthropy chain: accumulate the wealth; decide that philanthropy is a priority; focus on an area you want to help; seek advice from the experts; see the life-changing benefits. Tom said: “For some philanthropists, just giving is enough, but for us that is just the start of the process. We need to be innovating all the time, and products like our Donor-Advised Foundation shows how that innovation leads to practical solutions. “People who have the wealth have in the past often been encouraged to set up a foundation, which has a lot of costs attached in creating and running it. DAFs are innovative because they can give people the same functionality as their own foundation at a fraction of the cost – or in our case, zero cost. “Instead of spending £30,000 a year running the structure, that money becomes another grant. When put into context alongside the national budget being spent on education, healthcare and infrastructure, philanthropy

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“With just $200,000 and a nurse employed to mentor the women, a 76% reduction in infant and child mortality was achieved.” LAST MILE HEALTH

won’t go very far if it isn’t spent well, so it’s important that giving is done in the most efficient way. “From our perspective as wealth managers we are now hearing the right question – ‘how do I get the best risk-adjusted social return on my investment?’. “I see it as being all about sustainability and layering up what you are aiming to do to possibly change a whole economy. Through our Optimus Foundation we talked to our clients who really wanted to address health issues and knew we needed to look at ways of scaling the impact they could have. “We looked at places in the world where people had the least access to healthcare and we came to Liberia, where funding doctors and nurses was pointless because the economy couldn’t sustain them. So we funded a small organisation to train women, who have never had a job, to diagnose and treat the top ten killer diseases. With just $200,000 and a nurse employed to mentor the women, a 76% reduction in infant and child mortality was achieved. “Then, when Ebola hit, we invested a couple of million dollars and worked with our partner Last Mile Health to scale it up to cover half of the country. Within six months, the spread of Ebola had been contained. By reducing mortality rates in places like this, you offer the chance of increasing educational attainment and growing the GDP.” The Liberian government has now made the women key advisers on their health policy, which underlines to a remarkable extent the value of philanthropy being painstakingly targeted and the far-reaching effects it can have when the usual routes are side-stepped in favour of innovation and imagination.

This makes you think what Tom and his team will achieve with $100m or $1billion – and all starting with the first knock on the door from a UBS customer wanting to start a new financial journey. Tom explains: “The really exciting thing for us is that, at the macro level, UBS manages about $2trillion of wealth and about one per cent goes in to philanthropy already. This amounts to around $20billion - more than all the major US foundations put together. But our analysis would be that, while a lot of that is project-focused and having a direct impact, it is not having what we would call a market-level impact creating new ways of doing things. “So we will tell those clients that we want to support them on their journey wherever they are. At the front end of that, they need to think how much they want to give and then we can help them plan how to give that efficiently. “This is where the DAF might come in. If you were giving £20million of your £40million fortune and yet you only had an annual income of £500,000, then giving it all in one go might not be as efficient a route as giving that £20million over 20 years and effectively doubling your giving capacity. Products like the UBS Donor-Advised Foundation can help with that because it allows you to take advantage of current potential tax benefits of giving to charity and gives you the option of making grants now or building a long-term fund to create a lasting legacy. “We would also advise clients not to be too concerned in the early stages about where to direct the money; trust that we will help work that out. Then we will look at the areas our clients are passionate about and where we can maximise its effect; you can’t separate passion and philanthropy. We want our clients

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LAST MILE HEALTH

to see that passion alone or good intentions alone are absolutely not enough – you need to give with your head and your heart. We offer this as a high-level consultancy, but where we differ from other banks is that we then also have the Optimus Foundation where we can do extensive due diligence to organisations and programmes and find that really scalable, system-changing impact that can be sustained. “Optimus can connect clients with inspiring entrepreneurs, new technologies, and models that have proven effect. “That very fine targeting or strategic philanthropy that we have been doing in many forms since 1999 is achieved by leveraging a global database of research. In that time, there has been a proliferation of data. We have hired an expert team in-house, who have a keen sense of both what is going on in their clients’ universe and what the very latest research is. “Our clients can then build on that knowledge base. We have a clear process whereby whenever we do something new, we need to create feedback and learn from it. This ensures we never pile money into something that people are passionate about but which is not going to be successful. “To help that, we also pay for a team of academic experts to audit the recommendations and assess them to add yet another level of credibility and rigour.” UBS is pioneering a new freedom in the way their clients look at their philanthropy, and Tom has innovative ideas about any future regulation of the sector. “I think we are better off educating rather

than regulating,” he says. “And if people are better educated about what ‘good’ looks like then at a very simple level they come to know about the core elements around what creates impact: input - when the money goes in; output – what is done with the money; and the crucial third one which is outcome – you have to be able to see a change. “Our message is that philanthropy is a great thing and more and more people want to do it. We can help you maximise the impact - but it is not simple. People who understand UBS understand that having the resources to invest does not make you an expert in investing. We are the experts and working so closely with our clients gives both sides the very best chance of significant success.” One of the most innovative areas of philanthropy in which UBS is a market leader is the idea of outcome purchasing. This means that you are spending money with the expectation of a particular result, as Tom explains. “In our view governments could spend their money more effectively to get the outcome they want to achieve. In education, for example, directly commissioning things is an inefficient way of spending public money and it would be better to buy results, like a young person being educated and therefore staying out of prison or a child being adopted and being able to come out of the care system. “These outcomes have good impact for the individual and good social impact in terms of costs saved or long-term productivity being

increased, so we see an outcome-purchasing market developing which is already worth about £120million worldwide. “One way of doing this is through social impact bonds, where private capital takes the risk based on an outcome that government or foundations are paying for. We really like these concepts because you are taking capital and using it in a much more effective and cyclical way.” UBS is, of course, putting its money where its mouth is. The Optimus Foundation has put up the initial investment to launch the world’s first Development Impact Bond (DIB). Focused on closing the gender gap in enrolment and improving children’s learning levels in Rajasthan, India, the DIB is already on track to meet ambitious three-year targets for increasing the numbers of girls enrolled into primary education and furthering students’ progress in English, Hindi and maths. UBS has always been an innovator closer to home as well, developing a network of local funds making smaller loans (less than £250,000) using Social Investment Tax Relief, introduced by the government to encourage private investors to fund social services and community projects. Working with impact investment specialist Resonance, UBS became a mainstream pioneer of this type of social investment in the UK, starting with a number of enterprises in Bristol. The agility on show here is both essential and admirable. Philanthropy is fast-moving and growing in importance all the time. The combination of individuals like Tom Hall, his team of advisers and experts and the reach of UBS itself is what is keeping it at the top of the sector. It has grown to become an instinctive innovator and influencer in every sector, working with its clients to help make the world a better place by tackling the most pressing economic, social and environmental problems. “I love my work and always feel immensely privileged to do what I do,” says Tom. “I will probably always be a little bit impatient to do more because we now pretty much know how to ensure a billion people have access to healthcare – it is now just a function of time and capital. We must continue to get the message out there that people can give in such a compelling way.” n

www.ubs.com/philanthropy-uk

Passing on my values. How will I be remembered? You’ve always wanted to make a real difference. But if you don’t know where to start, we can offer our expertise. With a dedicated Philanthropy Advisory team to support, advise and guide you when implementing social investments. For some of life’s questions, you’re not alone. Together we can find an answer. The value of investments can fall as well as rise. You may not get back the amount originally invested.

UBS Wealth Management Debjani Raffan, Regional Head, Scotland debjani.raffan@ubs.com Tel: 0131 247 5891 ubs.com/philanthropy-uk ubs.com/scotland-uk

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Managing the indirect tax implications of Brexit Tanya Mcilwain, VAT director at Scott-Moncrieff outlines some of the indirect tax implications Brexit could have on businesses and suggests what can be done now to manage them

If you have any questions about the potential impact of Brexit on your organisation, or if you would like to discuss your position, please contact Scott-Moncrieff’s VAT Director, Tanya Mcilwain. E: tanya.mcilwain@scott-moncrieff.com T: 0141 567 4500 www.scott-moncrieff.com

FOLLOWING the Prime Minister’s January speech on the Government’s approach to Brexit, businesses can now start to consider what it means for them. In terms of indirect tax, businesses that buy from, or sell to, EU countries could be significantly affected. Theresa May confirmed the intention to leave the single market and the customs union, and said she hopes to come to an arrangement on customs issues. She indicated that EU law would be implemented into UK law (to the extent it is not already). This means that the VAT and customs rules that are already in place will remain, unless Parliament decides otherwise. With this in mind, businesses transacting with other EU countries should consider the following postBrexit points: •The movement of goods between EU countries is likely to be classified as imports and exports rather than intra-EU movements. This could result in extra administration, delays and cost. While customs agents expect to clear goods within an hour or two of them arriving at a border, the import/export procedure can sometimes add days to the process. Negatives could be mitigated if the Government negotiates a beneficial customs agreement, however, it is still an issue businesses should be aware of. •In theory, customs duties will need to be charged on goods coming into the UK from EU countries (and when UK goods arrive in other EU countries). This will add an extra cost as customs duties are irrecoverable. The UK Government will be hoping for successful trade negotiations that result in low, or no, custom

duties. Again, this is another area for businesses to look out for. •At present, the impact on cross-border services is expected to be minimised, except for certain activities. •Businesses with VAT registrations in other EU countries may need to appoint a fiscal representative in those countries, rather than carrying out compliance completely by themselves. From a practical point of view, businesses that buy and sell goods with EU countries should: •Review their supply chain and confirm what the potential impact will be for them. Could changes be made to provide savings or efficiencies? •Review the set-up of their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Does it capture data such as commodity codes and country of origin for each product and is this information readily available? This data is important as it determines the rate of customs duty and indicates whether any preferential treatment is available. Invoice templates will need to be amended. •Take into account extra costs. Customs duty is irrecoverable and will affect sales prices and profit margins. As VAT is charged on duty-inclusive amounts, businesses that cannot recover all of the VAT incurred on imported goods will suffer an extra VAT cost. •Consider cash flow. In principle, import taxes must be paid before goods are cleared for import, however you could use one of the available customs reliefs to suspend or defer it.

HIGH LIFE SPRING 2017 MOTORING

TRAVEL

EQUIPMENT

DRINKS

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BENTAYGA adds luxury to utility I

N the future there will be only two kinds of car. For those who like languorous lines and driving hard, there will be sports cars. Much as horses used to plough fields and pull carts, but are now ridden for pleasure, so sports cars, redundant on congested streets, will be driven on tracks, these toys then put away until the next time. And all other cars will be SUVs – comfortable, practical and functional, the workhorses of the road. We live more active lives. We sometimes really just need a van. An SUV is the answer, with – let’s face it – more emphasis for most of us on the U rather than the S. If this dismays those who love their cars – SUVs have something of a reputation for being just a little bit dull – then two words might change their mind: Bentley and Bentayga. If the top-end car marques have, over recent years, dabbled with producing

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“The Bentayga is right on time. It shows just what’s possible if you’re prepared to spend £200,000-plus.”

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something SUVish, and certainly outside of their comfort zones – the likes of the Porsche Cayenne and Macan spring to mind – few of the results have seemed truly committed to the idea so successfully championed by the likes of Volvo, BMW and Land Rover. Launches new and in the pipeline may yet rectify this – the Maserati Levante, Jaguar’s planned CX17, even SUVs from Aston Martin and Lamborghini, with its Urus. And then there’s Rolls-Royce’s Project Culcullen, an SUV due for launch in 2018. And small wonder even the least SUVish of brands are set to enter the market – in the US they’re already the dominant car type, accounting for roughly a third of the

market, SUV sales (qualms over diesel pollution notwithstanding) are expected to surge 30% by 2020, while in China and India rough road conditions make the SUV an obvious choice over any low-slung sports car. Add in the fact that in many emerging economies the very wealthy have chauffeurs and don’t actually know how to handle an out-and-out performance car, and such new SUVs give them the opportunity to buy into these motoring super brands. Perhaps SUVs even offer the chance for a kind of guilt-free driving in austerity economies - if a sports car seems frivolous, an SUV is multi-tasking. Value is inherent. It’s one argument - maybe.

But before all that has come the Bentayga, doing now what Lamborghini didn’t quite pull off with its preemptive LM002, the four-wheel drive “Rambo Lambo” it launched way back in 1986. As they say, it’s as bad to be too soon as too late – and the Bentayga is right on time. It shows just what’s possible if you’re prepared to spend £200,000-plus on something that diehard speed freaks might dismiss as looking like a well-appointed London taxi – at least until they depress the accelerator to discover quite what this kind of London taxi is capable of. Well, all hail the Bentayga: this car takes the SUV rulebook and rips it up by effectively cramming everything one might expect from

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one of those big Bentley tourers into a shorter, higher body. It still looks like a Bentley too – losing brand identity being precisely the fear that has put so many car manufacturers off trying to make their own for so long. Indeed, if a Bentley might typically have been a second car – blissfully free of the clutter and bits of stale crisp liberally scattered over the more everyday well-heeled family car – then now it seems to have accepted its parental responsibility, right down to offering the chance for spiking blood pressure and in-car screaming matches as one gets to grips with playing the aptly-named “Frozen” on the initially impenetrable tablet-based entertainment system. When it comes, enjoy that song, yet again, from - count ‘em - no fewer than 20 speakers. Yet if so many other markets – clothing, cellphones – have embraced the fact that utility and high style need not be uneasy bedfellows, Bentley reveals that it can be done in a car too. It’s clear why the Crewe-based

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company has called this car its most significant launch in a decade. More than that, in defining a new market, it is one of the wider industry’s most significant launches too. Almost everything on the Bentayga is new: the body is made from a lightweight but rigid aluminium/steel mix; the engine is a new 12-cylinder petrol one, offering, the company claims, the best power, torque and economy combination of any SUV. And then, amid the quilted leatherwork – more creases in which to catch that small person detritus – there’s all the gadgetry: night vision, head-up display, driver assistance... Certainly the dashboard’s pick ‘n’ mix of buttons can be bewildering and would have benefited from being more tidied away as a page on the touchscreen. And there are other touches that, while they may have sounded luxurious in the management meeting, are frustrating in reality. The centre console, for example, has what one can only assume is a beautifully-crafted spectacles case – which

only speaks to the likely age of the Bentayga’s myopic driver, or to the fact that they’re the kind who always wears sunglasses. It’s a nice idea, until you want to put your coffee down, when it’s revealed that the cup holders are under the glasses case, a home for which now has to be found before you can put your drink down, by which time it’s likely scalding your lap. But this is a minor quibble in an otherwise excellent all-rounder with luxuriousness to spare. And luxury, as much as practicality, is what this is about. Refreshingly, Bentley makes no claims to off-road capabilities, an honest assessment perhaps that a Bentayga is unlikely ever to go where no mega-bucks car has gone before, and is more likely to be found in just the same gridlock as the next, rather less well-appointed vehicle. Indeed, the Bentayga’s traffic assist system means that, up to speeds of 3km per hour, the car can progress completely autonomously - leaving you with the chance to wipe spilled yoghurt from the buttery upholstery one more time. n

“The Crewe, UK-based company has called this car it’s most significant launch in a decade.”

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Ones to

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T’S a diving watch – but then not quite a diving watch of the familiar kind. MB&F’s HM7 Aquapod is an almost entirely transparent glass case suspended in a “floating” bezel, with a winding rotor said to echo the tentacles of some undersea creature. Like a jellyfish, the makers note, it glows in the dark. But then this kind of watch – detailed, dynamic and, above all, different – set the tenor for this year’s recent Salon International de la Haute Horlogerie in Geneva, the watch trade show that, given the multimillion pound stands and rivers of champagne, is nothing like a trade show. Here is where the watch world first unveils its new ideas – and if there is one over-arching idea for 2017, and, many have suggested, going forward, it’s that disruption is the new normal. Rather than follow trends, each brand is seeking to make ever more distinctive watches, either in aesthetics, mechanics, materials or all three. The result is a refreshing challenge to notions of refinement, taste and even what a watch should be. Here is the most striking pick of the bold crop. ROMAINE JEROME DONKEY KONG LE To a younger generation, the reference this watch makes to the classic video game may well be lost. Those older folk who remember it, however, may well be nostalgic about it. Whether you’re so nostalgic you’d want to wear a take on Donkey Kong on your wrist is another matter. Romain Jerome has won a deserved reputation for leading the way in the bold use of graphics and unusual materials alike in its watches: and this piece, made in collaboration with Nintendo, is no exception. The video game saw the Japanese tech giant sell 696m units worldwide. There are only 81 of these watches, marking the year that Donkey Kong was released. MONTBLANC HERITAGE CHRONOMETRIE EXO TOURBILLON RATTRAPANTE Just what do all those fancy foreign words mean? As far as it goes for Montblanc – a company that shows that, with the right impetus, you can move from pens to very serious watches, and get taken very seriously for them, in just a few years – it means the company’s first watch to combine two complications notoriously hard to combine. Here find the exo tourbillon - which means the balance

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“Rather than follow trends, each brand is seeking to make ever more distinctive watches.”

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wheel is positioned outside the tourbillon’s cage - together with a monopusher splitsecond chronograph. Any the wiser? Trust us. That is not easy. URWERK UR-T8 Marking the 20th anniversary of this boutique brand – and it says much that Urwerk is one of a small clutch of well-established progressive watch brands that most people will never have heard of – is the launch of its first transformable watch. With a carousel configuration for the time display (it’s read of a rotating ring of three discs of numerals, each of these discs also rotating), the whole case can be flipped over to reveal a titanium shield, thus protecting the dial. It’s a nod to Jaeger LeCoultre’s legendary Reverso, of course, and then some. IWC DAVINCI AUTOMATIC A glance at the IWC Davinci hardly suggests anything radical is afoot. But, given the general move to distinction, if not outright outlandishness, the Davinci’s pared back styling – something akin to how a child might draw a watch - is something of a statement. At 40mm is it positively dainty too – at least relative to the often outsized pieces around – and deliberately so: IWC sees this as being a unisex model, an idea that could well catch on for

future products. The gold plated numbers and hour and minute hands are nicely contrasted with that blue seconds hand.

also guarantees for 50 years.

ZENITH HERITAGE 146 Digging in the crates, as DJs call going back through their forgotten records, has become something of a knee-jerk action among watchmakers: when in doubt, re-issue. So when it happens it has got to be good: and Zenith’s 60s watch is that. With its dial in a “tropical” brown or blue, the piece is not only 38mm – suggesting a shift towards smaller watches better suited to the all important Far Eastern market – but it comes with that historic El Primero movement too.

HUBLOT BIG BANG UNICO MAGIC SAPPHIRE The Big Bang may long have been a staple product for Hublot but the company keeps finding new ways to reinvent it. At first this edition looks to be all black, until you realise that you are looking through it directly on to the black skeleton movement, and that everything else about the watch – the bezel, middle, back, 45mm case - is made of transparent crystal. That might not be magic – though making fully crystal cases remains hugely complex, and thus expensive – but it does at least make the watch virtually scratch-proof.

PANERAI LAB-ID The use of carbon in watchmaking isn’t new: for years more advanced companies have used it for their cases, for example, benefiting from the material’s strength and scratchresistance while also taking advantage of it being relatively lightweight. But now Panerai has used it to get a step closer to a holy grail of watchmaking: the lubricant-free movement. Lubricant is vital to keep a watch running accurately - the lack of it is also why it needs regular servicing. The LAB-ID replaces this oil with carbon nano-tubes – providing an alternative greasing of the wheels the company

BAUME & MERCIER CLIFTON CLUB SHELBY COBRA 10344 There are collaborations and then there are collaborations – indeed, if you’re designing a watch to commemorate the classic car that is the Shelby Daytona Coupe, it would be impressive to actually get the car’s designer involved. Hence Peter Brock – who also designed the legendary Corvette Stingray – bringing touches from the car to the watch, such as the shape of its foot pedals, here re-worked as the watch’s push buttons, or the colour arranagement on the tail of the car, here clearly in the half blue, half white dial. n

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“The result is a refreshing challenge to notions of refinement, taste and even what a watch should be”

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Not so grey granite From the eye-catching dishes in the restaurant to the clever use of space in the club bedrooms, the Chester Hotel is adding a splash of colour to Aberdeen, writes BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe

HE view from the top floor of the Chester Hotel in Aberdeen is a sight to behold. Standing in the ‘club’ bedrooms, you get a vista across the south, including Shell’s office at Altens, which – when the low winter’s sun catches the orange-tinted glazing – looks even more like an alien spaceship that’s landed on the edge of the Granite City. The designers of the 50-bedroom boutique hotel on Queens Road have managed a very clever trick in the club rooms. Despite being built into the sloping ceilings of the original 19th century townhouse at the core of the hotel, the rooms don’t feel cramped. In fact, they feel very spacious, which is a neat piece of magic. In the bathroom, the giant standalone bath – complete with television screen – sits in the window, while the walk-in

shower is tucked into the eaves. Clever stuff. The bedroom itself has a super king-sized bed, a sofa and armchair and a massive desk if you need to catch-up on work during your stay. Overall, a really superb room – bright and airy, but tucked away from the hustle and bustle of other guests, allowing you to relax in comfort. The giant television was also interesting: as a smart TV, it allowed guests to bring their Netflix or Apple TV passwords with them and sign-in to enjoy their services as if they were at home. It’s an interesting idea and one that I’m sure is spreading to lots of hotels, but I’m not convinced the internet connection is up to it at the moment, as my evening’s browsing was very stop-start. The minibar tucked into one of the wall cupboards would have benefited from local beers and spirits given the rich food and drink heritage in the North-East. Yet the issues

with internet access and the mini-bar are tiny compared to the plus points about the room. Downstairs in the bar, there were plenty of Scottish drinks on show to make up for the lack in the room. Beers from Black Isle, BrewDog and Harviestoun sat alongside Estrella Damm and Modelo Especial, while the mind-boggling array of cocktails means there’s something to suit every taste. Dining at the Chester is a real treat. Executive chef Kevin Dalgleish, who trained at The Savoy in London, was awarded two AA rosettes in 2015. Dalgleish’s IX restaurant at the hotel uses suppliers including Campbells Prime Meat, Burnside Farm for roe deer and St Brides Farm for chicken. The eatery can seat 96 but the layout is split over several levels and rooms, so no-one feels cramped or crowded. A couple of evening meals in the hotel allowed me to put the menu through its paces.

HIGH LIFE

A starter of seared Shetland hand-dived scallops with a chicken wing and chorizo sausage was a delicious balance between salty and buttery, while a butternut squash soup of the day was rich and creamy. I’m not a huge fan of the Josper charcoal grill and so I was suitably awkward and asked for my T-bone steak to be cooked under a standard grill instead. No problem, and the result was still perfectly cooked. The star of the show though was a chateaubriand shared with a fellow steakloving former colleague. The oven-roasted beef fillet melted in the mouth, cooked rare to retain all its flavour. Yum. It’s fantastic to see apple making a comeback on menus and the Granny Smith parfait with cinnamon sable and malted caramel certainly didn’t disappoint. A 64% Valrhona chocolate mousse also caught my eye – worth a return visit to try that alone. Hotel restaurants of this high quality are sometimes let down by unimaginative wine lists, but the IX has a selection of bottles to match the creativity in the kitchen. There are ten reds

and ten whites available by the glass too, which should be applauded – diners traveling on their own deserve fantastic selections like this wherever they go. The 2014 Prieuré Saint Côme Chablis had the refreshing acidity and dry minerality I wanted to pair with the scallops, while a glass of the 2013 Pencarrow Pinot Noir could have fooled me into thinking it was from the Bourgogne instead of New Zealand, with such well-integrated vanilla and sweet spice from the oak harmonising with the crunchy red berry fruity flavours. There were some classic producers further down the wine list too – including Australian trio Tim Adams, Jim Barry and Yalumba – before wine buffs arrived at the first-growths from Bordeaux, with a selection of vintages from Château Mouton Rothschild and a Château Angélus from across the estuary in Saint-Emilion. Top marks for offering such a wide range of wines to suit so many pockets. Top marks also for the staff. I’m not sure if I’m just really unlucky, but I always need to query at least one stray item on a hotel bill.

Not at the Chester – the staff were on top of everything, working out what was included and not included during a rather complicated stay that included meeting guests for dinner and breakfast. After all those delicious meals, I ventured down to the basement to visit the gym, which was small but perfectly-formed. The hotel also has two beauty treatment rooms and two nail bars too. Graham and Gillian Wood, who own the Chester Residence in Edinburgh as well, bought Simpson’s Hotel in Aberdeen in April 2012 before closing it for a £5m refurbishment. Since reopening as the Chester in 2014, the hotel and restaurant have together won a slew of accolades, from the new hotel of the year title at the Scottish Hotel Awards through to the overall chef of the year prize at the North East of Scotland Hotel and Restaurant Awards. From my stay, it was easy to see why. n Find out more at www.chester-hotel.com or by calling 01224 327777.

HIGH LIFE

Taking the bull by the horns A relaxing train ride and home-away-from-home hotel off London’s Bishopsgate make for an enjoyable trip south for BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe

NE of the oldest clichés about hotels is that they always lie just a “stone’s throw” from a railway station – but if I had a rock in my hand then I think that even me with my lack of hand-eye coordination would have a fair chance of hitting The Bull & The Hide from London’s Liverpool Street terminus. After a relaxing journey from Waverley to Kings Cross in one of Virgin Trains East Coast’s first-class carriages – complete with new leather seats and a menu developed by television chef James Martin – and then a short hop on the tube to Liverpool Street, staying at The Bull & The Hide puts you in the heart of the action in the City, with the Bank of England, the Gherkin and Lloyd’s of London all within striking distance. Staying at the hotel isn’t all about business though. If you’re down in the big smoke for any length of time then you’ll want somewhere you can properly relax and unwind, and often the big chain hotels just don’t tick those boxes. Tucked away off Bishopsgate on Devonshire Row, the hotel consists of The Bull pub on the ground floor, with The Hide dining room on

the first floor and seven boutique bedrooms above. The accommodation includes two suites – the Devonshire and the Hush Heath – each with its own balcony, with table and chairs to soak up the hubbub of the City. The Hush Heath suite has a giant bed, with the branch of a tree suspended from the ceiling as a clothes-rail-cum-wardrobe. It has a separate lounge, while the en-suite bathroom has underfloor heating, as well as a doubleended bath and a separate rainwater shower. The Bull & The Hide is billed as a homeaway-from-home and part of the attraction is the pantry to which guests have access to make tea and coffee or help themselves to soft drinks from the fridge or crisps or biscuits from the cupboard. Sadly, the beer on offer in the fridge was a dull European lager and not one of the scores of British craft beers, but that’s a small complaint when the pantry is complimentary. That home-away-from-home feeling is helped by the selection of Sky channels available on the massive televisions in the suite’s bedroom and lounge. Although it’s in the centre of the City, Devonshire Row was

surprisingly quiet. What impressed me most about The Bull & The Hide was the food. The menu is split into three, featuring dishes inspired by the Smithfield meat market, fish and seafood from Billingsgate and fruit and vegetables from Spitalfields. It’s a concept that works really well and the classic British fayre is delicious, from a homemade sausage roll with thin pastry and plenty of meat through to whitebait served in a paper bag. Game pie and a trio of desserts that included apple crumble were other culinary highlights. The hotel is owned by Hush Heath Estate, the vineyard in Kent that makes Balfour sparkling wine, along with still wine, cider and apple juice. That means there’s a superb selection of English wines available by the glass – a real treat, and it means you can try different tipples without splashing out on a whole bottle. n Rooms at The Bull & The Hide start from £150 per night. Find out more at www.thebullandthehide.com or by calling 020 7655 4805. Details about Virgin Trains East Coast’s first class tickets are available at www.virgintrainseastcoast.com

HIGH LIFE

It takes a Village to raise an entrepreneur BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe checks into Village, the ‘black box’ hotel on Glasgow’s Pacific Quay

T’S always interesting to see how hotels describe themselves in their “meta-data”, the list of words and phrases on their websites that are harvested by internet search engines. “Modern” is the word that crops up to describe Village, the hotel and leisure club sitting behind the new BBC Scotland and STV buildings at Pacific Quay in Glasgow. And ‘modern’ it certainly is. With its black metal cladding and the purple lettering of its neon sign, Village. The hotel is laid out as if it’s a “village”, with a coffee shop, pub, spa and leisure centre leading off from reception. To reinforce the feeling of an urban village, there’s exposed brick – a lot of exposed brick – along with metal fixtures and fittings. The “club room” in which I stayed was spacious, with ample space for the incredibly comfortable super-kingsized bed and the massive LG flat-screen TV, complete with a full Sky package. Working in a hotel room is normally an absolute pain, but Village provided a full-sized desk, a comfortable swing chair and working wi-fi. Little touches, like having a local taxi firm as the first speed-dial code on the room phones, were very welcome. Even more impressive was the Bose Soundlink Mini Bluetooth speaker, which produced a rich room-filling sound from within its tiny frame. Each piano key, each drumbeat, was rendered beautifully. The menu in the Verve Grill restaurant, was split into “naughty” and “nice” sections. Lots of eateries list low-calorie dishes these days but they’re usually uninspiring, so it was refreshing to see tasty-sounding treats like black pepper-crusted fillet steak, herb-marinated char-grilled chicken breast and teriyaki salmon on the “nice” side of the menu. Needless to say, I opted for the “naughty” half, tucking into creamy stuffed mushrooms followed by a perfectlycooked sirloin steak and rounded off with a chocolate mousse. The size of the gym was a surprise – the fitness suite was bigger than those found in many commercial city centre gyms. Not to be outdone, the swimming pool was also the full 25-metres. If I were to have one gripe then it would be the thinness of the towels in the bedrooms. Yet that’s a small moan – Village offers an interesting and enjoyable alternative to entrepreneurs who don’t want to spend yet another night in a faceless copycat hotel. n Rooms at Glasgow Village start from £65 per night. Find out more at www.village-hotels.co.uk/hotels/glasgow/ or by calling 0141 375 9266.

HIGH LIFE 2014 Bolney Estate Pinot Noir. £14.50, Justerini & Brooks

Hush Heath Estate’s 2015 Skye’s English Chardonnay. £16.50, Hush heath.com

Lamberhurst Estate Bacchus Reserve. £14, Marks & Spencer

2014 Lyme Bay Bacchus, £13.50, Oddbins

The Limes Home Grown English Dry White. £8.99, Waitrose

Stopham Estate Pinot Blanc. £15, M&S

Beyond bubbles England has a growing reputation for its sparkling wines, but what about its other offerings? Drinks writer Peter Ranscombe explores how English still wine is developing

EW drinkers can argue with the quality of England’s sparkling wine. Having started out as something of an oddity and the butt of many jokes, English fizz has won a trophy cabinet full of awards and earned its place among the world’s best sparklers. Yet not all of England’s tipples are effervescent and if you look beyond the bubbles then you may be surprised by the rising quality of the country’s still wines. As the climate warms, the same soils that produce world-beating sparkling wines are also turning out credible still tipples too. England is on the northern cusp of the wine-producing belt that encircles the equator and so less-familiar specialist varieties have been the mainstay of the country’s vineyards for many years. Black grape varieties such as Dornfelder and the hybrid Rondo – along with whites like Ortega and Müller-Thurgau – may not have the same brand-recognition as best-selling international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon, Pinot Grigio and Shiraz, but they’re better suited to England’s cooler temperatures. Bacchus is one variety that’s really come into its own. The 2014 Lyme Bay Bacchus (£13.50, Oddbins) from Devon has plenty of lemon and lime citrusy notes on the nose, along with an elderflower aroma that reminds me of

Sauvignon Blanc. On the palate, it’s off-dry, with the slight roundness from the residual sugar helping to balance to refreshing acidity. Elderflower and grassy aromas are even further to the fore with the Lamberhurst Estate Bacchus Reserve (£14, M&S), made by Chapel Down in Kent. It’s drier on the palate, with the lemon and grapefruit flavours giving way to richer lime curd notes. Another stand-out white is the Stopham Estate Pinot Blanc (£15, M&S) from Sussex, an organic wine that performs an excellent balancing act between its rounder ripe pear and guava flavours and its fresher lemon and grapefruit notes. Given the success of English fizz, it’s perhaps not surprising that the same varieties used to make sparkling wines are also shining as still wines. Chardonnay and Pinot Noir form the backbone of sparkling wine production and together account for nearly half of all the vines planted in England. Hush Heath Estate’s 2015 Skye’s English Chardonnay (£16.50, Hushheath. com) from Kent may look pale and water-white, but it packs a stone-fruit punch, with apricot and nectarine aromas on the nose giving way to peach and lemon flavours on the tongue. It’s dry, yet strikes a fine balance between its acidity and its long fruity finish. On the red side, the 2014 Bolney Estate Pinot Noir (£14.50, Justerini & Brooks) can hold its

own against any similarly-priced cool climate pinot. Its crunchy cranberry and fresh raspberry flavours are paired with well-integrated vanilla from its ageing in oak, producing a rounded feeling in the mouth. English still wine remains a minority sport and so its prices reflect its niche production. A top tip is to look for bottles labelled as “English regional wine” – these wines are the equivalent of the old French “vin de pays” country wines, both falling under the current “protected geographical indication” (PGI) or “indication géographique protégée” (IGP) designation. English regional wines have different rules to the protected designation of origin (PDO) regulations covering “English quality wines” – the equivalent of France’s appellation d’origine controlee (AOC) or Spain’s denominación de origen (DOC) – and allow the use of easier-togrow hybrid vines, which is usually reflected in the bottle price. Waitrose has been a champion of English sparklers and so it’s natural that the chain stocks a wide range of still wines too. Its 2014 The Limes Home Grown English Dry White (£8.99, Waitrose) is a great introduction to Blighty’s bottles without breaking the bank. Made by Denbies in Surrey, it has warmer lemon aromas on the nose, leading into concentrated lemon and lime flavours on the palate. n

International Trade

2017 In association with

BQ is delighted to host the fourth HSBC Scottish Export Awards in association with Scottish Enterprise

RT #SCOTEXPO vent follow the e on 22 March

THE HSBC Scottish Export Awards in association with Scottish 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 pass the baton to SMEs across the country to consider exporting

as a realistic opportunity for growth. The event has generated 236 nominations from 125 Scottish exporters with 49 exporters shortlisted representing £470million of export turnover from Scotland. The 2017 campaign culminates with the awards evening to be held on 22 March 2017 at the Glasgow Hilton. The event is a key highlight of the international trade campaign that sees 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 continue to reach out to Scotland’s exporters with a range of international trade initiatives including the ‘Around the World in 80 Trades’ feature, showcasing the best of Scottish export activity online. n www.bqlive.co.uk/scotexportawards17

International Trade

COLLABORATION PRIZE - INTERNATIONAL AWARD The Collaboration Prize – International Award will be presented to companies that are coming together to form consortium co-operatives, which will help those firms to begin their international journey. The winners of this Scottish Enterprise initiative will receive £5,000 to implement their collaborative idea and up to £5,000 of business support to set up as their consortium co-operative, including export advice. Consortium co-operatives can be an effective way for groups of companies to come together to pool resources. They are run on an equal basis for their members, and may be used for buying, selling, marketing, sharing facilities or bidding jointly for contracts. Businesses that collaborate can raise their profile, access bigger contracts and innovate in new and existing markets. This allows smaller businesses to achieve scale, while reducing the risks associated with business growth. The Collaboration Prize is delivered by Co-operative Development Scotland (CDS) on behalf of Scottish Enterprise and Highlands & Island Enterprise, in partnership with Business Gateway and the Scottish Chambers of Commerce. E-COMMERCE EXPORTER OF THE YEAR The winner of this award will be a company that through e-commerce has increased brand awareness and recognition, expanded into new markets, increased sales and efficiency and improved customer service. The winner of this category must be able to demonstrate how they have used e-commerce and trading online to significantly enhance their export growth or potential for growth. The shortlist is: Alex Begg & Co TEFL Org UK The Lead Generation Company TRTL Unified FX MOST ENTREPRENEURIAL EXPORTER OF THE YEAR A company that has demonstrated entrepreneurial flair within their export strategy. This will be shown through an extraordinary approach to reaching new markets where creativity, innovation and tenacity has resulted in success. Chocolate and Love Churchill Drilling Tools Clintec Global Voices M Squared Schoolhill Engineering Scotmas Group Sports Labs St James Smokehouse The Lead Generation Company TRTL MICRO EXPORTER OF THE YEAR Recognising outstanding achievements in export growth by a company in any industry with a turnover up to £2m. This success will be measured by growth in sales and market penetration together with the application of innovative market strategies to extend export potential. The shortlist is: Alan White Design Articulate Scotland Big Mouth Audio Chocolate and Love Cobra Simulation Eden Mill Keith Brewery Rushbrook Consultants

Schoolhill Engineering TAG Digital TEFL Org UK The Lead Generation Company Tempest Brewing Co TRTL Unified FX Vehnet SMALL EXPORTER OF THE YEAR Recognising outstanding achievements by a company in any industry with a turnover of between £2-£15m. The small exporter award will recognise a company that has demonstrated outstanding achievements in export growth. The shortlist is: Churchill Drilling Tools Edesix Exchange Communications Fathom Systems Global Pipe Components Global Voices M Squared Mackies Mrs Tillys Online Valves Sephra Europe TES Electronic Solutions Trig Avionics Westerross Fisheries LARGE EXPORTER OF THE YEAR Recognising outstanding achievements by a company in any industry with a turnover greater than £15m. This success will be measured by growth in sales and market penetration together with the application of innovative market strategies to extend export potential. The shortlist is: Balmoral Offshore Engineering JFD John McGavigan Loch Duart PG Paper Quiz

SCOTTISH EXPORT TEAM OF THE YEAR The export team of the year award will recognise a team who can demonstrate significant added value to their business through adopting innovative techniques, personnel development measures, and successful implementation of the company's export sales strategy. It should be clear how the company has developed a team wide approach to exporting which may well extend beyond the company to distributors, agents and other third parties who will have contributed to export success. The shortlist is: Cooke Aquaculture Scotland Ecosse Subsea Systems Exchange Communications Fathom Systems Loch Duart MADE IN SCOTLAND - Collaborative Export Solutions Online Valves Paragon Inks Holdings Ltd PG Paper Summerhall Distillery Ltd Suez Purification and Disinfestcion Systems HIGH GROWTH EXPORTER OF THE YEAR This accolade will be awarded to a company demonstrating impressive export growth in high growth markets (including India, China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia or Oman). This success will be measured by growth in sales and high growth market penetration together with the application of innovative market strategies to extend export potential. The shortlist is: Churchill Drilling Tools Clyde Space Keith Brewery Online Valves PG Paper

SCOTTISH EXPORTER OF THE YEAR The overall HSBC Scottish export of the year award will be presented to a company that has made an outstanding contribution to Scotland's export profile and success. Companies must have demonstrated how they have overcome their barriers when entering new markets. The winner of this award will be selected from the winners of the above categories and announced on the evening of the awards.

International Trade

Bright Signals has created successful online and offline content for clients such as Beam Suntory, MacSween and Tennent’s. Now the Glasgow-based agency is preparing to weave its magic overseas, as Scott Rinning and Jordan McKenna explain

An nine-foot 800can Twitter-powered guitar for Magners

HAT do a Twitter-powered ninefoot guitar, a robotic barman and a video about the natural history of the haggis have in common? They’ve all emerged from the minds of the creative team at Bright Signals, a Glasgow-based content agency that comes up with innovative and exciting ways to help its clients engage with their audiences. The agency was founded by David Craik in 2009 and initially focused on creating content for clients’ social media platforms, like Facebook and Twitter. Then the company began to produce installations and other experiences for its customers – and that’s where the magic really started to happen. Bright Signals used 800 cans of cider to create a nine-foot Twitter-powered guitar for Magners and produced an over-sized robotic barman nicknamed “RoboCock-Tail” for Dram magazine’s 2016 Scottish Bar and Pub Awards, with its spoof voice recognition algorithm and fake artificial intelligence brain deliberately mixing the wrong cocktails for customers and

Sending out a clear signal on exports dispensing them through a unit in it crotch. But perhaps the company’s most impressive invention is a time machine. Created for Tennent’s lager, the T5 system allows users to “rewind time” to capture “live” video highlights from five-a-side football pitches – after the action has happened. The system involves two cameras at either end of the pitch set to record 24 hours a day. When a player wants to record a highlight of the match, all they need to do is hit a big button on the side of the pitch and T5s will produce a 20-second highlights video. “When we created T5, it was designed to let amateur footballers record their best goals – but players wanted to use it to record

the funny moments instead, like when their teammates fell over trying to kick the ball,” laughs Jordan McKenna, a product manager at Bright Signals. “The videos have been viewed more than 60 million times.” The T5s system could now open the door for Bright Signals to begin exporting its expertise around the world. “We realised that T5s could be used in other sports too,” explains McKenna. “We took the technology behind T5s and created EchoCam, a system that can be used in other sports anywhere around the world. It’s become a standalone product for us.” Bright Signals got in touch with Scottish Enterprise to help work out how the company

International Trade

could begin to export EchoCam. Members of staff from the company attended workshops to learn how to start trading internationally. “Scottish Enterprise helped us to come up with our strategy and also explained the importance of focus,” says product director Scott Rinning. “We have received lots of inquiries – especially from markets like the United States – but we decided we should focus on the immediate markets surrounding us, like Ireland, Belgium, France and the Netherlands, where they still play amateur football as often as we do in the UK. “Focusing on our strategy in those markets instead of being dragged in lots of different directions by inquiries has really helped us. Exports are more straightforward for us because our whole world is digital and online, but one of the challenges is the different time zones. “We were attracted to exporting because we recognised that Bright Signals and EchoCam could become global brands. We already work with a lot of international companies that have a presence in Scotland and so trading internationally was the natural next step.” As well as working with Magners and Tennent’s – which are both owned by Dublinbased C&C Group – Bright Signals also lists whisky brands Ardmore, Auchentoshan, Bowmore and Glen Garioch among its clients, all part of Beam Suntory, the spirits firm created in 2014 when Japanese conglomerate Suntory took over American drinks outfit Beam. It also works with Whyte & Mackay’s Dalmore and Jura whisky brands, owned by Philippines-based Emperador. It’s not just drinks labels that have benefited from Bright Signals’ services either. Its customer base has also included the BBC, Creative Scotland, the Green Investment Bank, National Galleries Scotland and travel search website Skyscanner. As well as creating online content and coming up with ideas for weird and wonderful installations, the company’s innovation laboratory can also help its clients to build prototypes of digital products, so they can test

Free export advice for all Scottish SMEs

The spoof 'RoboCocktail' barman

them out on customers and quickly decide if they want to scale them up to full production or scrap the idea and move onto something else instead. The “fail small, win big” attitude is at the heart of Bright Signals’ operations. The agency has adopted an “agile” strategy – instead of having separate “creatives” and “account directors”, the content team works in pairs, with each duo generating ideas, liaising directly with clients and producing content. While some of its ideas clearly come from way off in left-field, the agency’s work is underpinned by hard numbers. The firm developed its own piece of software to measure the response to social media content in real time and then optimise which pieces of content should be used; in-keeping with the company’s tongue-in-cheek ethos, the program was named “Steffi Graph” after the German tennis player. The strategy has helped the agency to grow from just two members of staff in 2014 to its present complement of 16 full-time employees and a further four part-time workers at its office in Glasgow’s trendy Finnieston district. Along the way, Bright Signals has won the gold

To help Scottish companies like yours grow internationally and overcome potential challenges, Scottish Enterprise’s enhanced export advisory service offers an unrivalled breadth of expertise across key sectors and global markets. It also offers an international market research service that can help you scope out potential partners, distributors and agents in your chosen market, while connecting you with up-to-date market intelligence. The export advisory service will help you: • Identify the best opportunities • Understand what's involved • Develop the resources and skills you need to trade abroad • Prepare an export plan Dedicated advisers will provide tailored guidance on what your business needs to do next to export successfully. From ecommerce solutions and market entry to cultural intelligence, export finance and logistics – they’ve got the answers. Get in touch with their experts today at: www.scottish-enterprise.com/export advice or call 0800 019 1953.

digital prize in the communications category at the Marketing Society Star Awards for the past two years running and is now turning over about £1.2 million. And the video about the haggis? “That was a spoof version of BBC2’s Springwatch programme, which we made for MacSween, the haggis maker, for Burns night,” chuckles Rinning. “We recorded an actor playing the role of a game keeper, who spoke about the haggis as if it was a real animal out on the hills. “It was really popular and reached more than one million people online. We think it’s the most successful piece of haggis-related social media content that the world has ever seen.” n

International Trade

Scotland’s exporting landscape Alison McGregor, CEO of HSBC in Scotland, argues that Scotland’s food and drink exports are a success story but encouragement and support is needed for SMEs

N international thirst for Scotch whisky has buoyed exports in both Scotland and the UK, bucking a three-year downward trend. Unsurprisingly, the booming food and drink sector remains the country’s central exporting engine adding £5bn to the economy each year making it the UK’s largest net contributor to the balance of trade in goods. January also brought welcome results of wider economic prosperity as Scottish crosssector exports rose from £27.7bn in 2014 to £28.7bn in 2015 turning the previous year’s trend on its head.

Exporting fears Despite these positive exporting figures, there still remains a hesitancy amongst Scottish SMEs to dip their toes into international waters. Exporting may seem second nature for medium sized and large businesses but, for smaller organisations, the prospect of overseas trade can seem impossible. The whisky industry is unique in that it is the driving force behind the country’s strongest

International Trade

exporting figures but bucks the perception that it is large corporate firms operating from the central belt which have the capacity to expand their markets internationally. In fact, the reality is that you’ll find a Bruichladdich whisky distilled in Islay available in over 400 locations in Taiwan. Yet, there is still cross-sector work to be done to encourage Scotland’s small businesses to ship their products and services abroad. The exporting figures point to a prosperous landscape for international trade in Scotland as a whole but the further you drill into the information, the more revealing it is. For example, there was a 9.6% fall in international exports by small businesses in the same timeframe between 2014 and 2015. Worryingly, this perception of big businesses driving exports is fulfilled by the statistics in other sectors. When considering the Scottish economy there are five conditions Scotland requires to grow in business. These are: a stable tax and regulatory regime; improving our skilled labour force; building our digital infrastructure; support in innovation and in internationalisation. The latter two pillars of innovation and internationalisation rely on a symbiotic relationship between government and industry.

Micro multinationals The rise of so-called ‘micro multinational’ businesses shows the potential for change: lean, home-grown firms using overseas markets to achieve success, whether that’s by accessing talent and skills, reducing production costs, or researching new products. ‘Micro multis’ are far more likely to export ‘from birth’ – they understand the fluidity of global markets and know to enter earlier rather than later. These nimble mid-sized firms are taking on new markets earlier in their business cycle, helping to change the face of global commerce. But if this fluidity is not intrinsically understood, and therefore second nature, it is incumbent upon government and industry to encourage, educate and engage the SME community to stimulate more internationalisation. Examples of this support comes from the

Scottish and UK governments’ Exporting is GREAT campaign. Exporting is GREAT is designed specifically to inspire and help firsttime UK exporters and aims to have 100,000 extra UK businesses exporting by 2020. The programme demonstrates to exporters that demand exists by hosting hundreds of live export opportunities on its site. The total potential value equates to over £300m.

Exporting success Scotland continues to generate fantastic success stories, many of which show how innovation can come from overcoming economic challenges. For example, a number of exporting success have emerged from Aberdeen’s downtrodden oil and gas economy. Online Valves is a distributer of equipment to the sector, servicing clients both at home and abroad. As specialists in pipeline valves, the Aberdeen-headquartered company, provides both product and services to 37 countries across the world. The company’s ambition and internationalisation has gone a long way to future-proof their business and to weather tough trading conditions faced by the city and sector. Knowing the oil and gas sector intrinsically, Online Valves now has operations in Houston, Trinidad and Dubai with sights set even further afield. However, for Scottish businesses, exporting as close to home as England can provide significant expansion and new markets. Take another Aberdeen company, Run4It. The specialised running retailer uses a combination of hands-on customer service offerings and digital platforms to engage with and expand into new markets. The digital platforms have bolstered an international strategy where Run4It has identified it can take its personalised approach and transfer this online with good effect. By implementing a fit-for-purpose website and employing highly knowledgeable staff the retailer can take the expertise received by customers in-store and deliver it online. As well as upgrading its online sales platform, the retailer is also planning to expand its footprint into the North of England.

Encouragement and support Yet, despite these success stories and in particularly harsh trading environments, there

is still a reticence amongst SMEs. A recent HSBC survey, Exporting for Growth: the SME Perspective, found only 45% of businesses factored overseas trade into the growth of the business and that 73% of would-be exporters feel held back by a lack of international business experience and knowledge. Following the UK’s vote to leave the European Union, HSBC canvassed 1,000 UK SMEs about their future plans for business and export. Based on the findings, the bank has identified three areas for government, business and the financial sector to consider in order to encourage more SMEs to take their business global: Work together Encourage a symbiotic relationship between banks, business groups and support services to share best practice. Almost three quarters of future exporters surveyed said that having the opportunity to learn from businesses currently exporting would encourage them to do so. Demystifying the process Ninety-three per cent of would-be exporters surveyed know that help is available but find many online and governmental resources baffling. Our survey showed that it’s not a lack of information which is an issue but the type of information, with many SMEs wishing for more tailored, on-the-ground support. By providing user-friendly information sources such as HSBC’s Connections HuB or Export Resource Centre, it helps to demystify the process and foster better understanding of international trade amongst SMEs. Give exporters a voice In a time of uncertainty policy makers would benefit from setting up and taking counsel from an advisory group of SME exporters. They can help advise on how to tailor trading arrangements to get the best for their businesses. Our survey showed that SMEs feared tariff increases as a result of Brexit. Non-tariff barriers such as legal and regulatory requirements and customs co-operation have stoked concern in 55% of surveyed SMEs who fear delays in the UK reaching new trade deals. In giving these businesses a seat at the table, they can help better inform decisions with more positive outcomes for all. n

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Rising to the challenge Students, graduates and staff from Scotland’s universities and other higher education institutions are busy preparing their entries for Converge Challenge, the business creation competition MORE than £150,000 of funding is up for grabs in the 2017 Converge Challenge, the business creation competition that’s open to staff, students and recent graduates from Scotland’s universities and research institutions. As well as cash, the winners will receive a selection of in-kind business support, including financial advice, mentoring and help with branding and marketing. Between 2011 and 2015, the initiative – for which BQ is the media partner – has trained 240 emerging entrepreneurs who have formed a total of 62 companies, 80% of which were still running after three years. Those companies have created 175 jobs, with four out of five of the businesses securing follow-on funding, which now totals more than £39m. Highlights of this year’s support package for the winners includes: automatic eligibility to pitch in May 2018 at Engage Invest Exploit (EIE18), the annual investment event run by technology accelerator programme Informatics Ventures; a ‘money can’t buy’ package from Royal Bank of Scotland that includes a place on its innovation gateway programme, access to its open innovation centre in Edinburgh, a range of free cloud-computing services and access to its global technology partner network; and support for social entrepreneurs from Firstport, a charity that’s been helping social enterprises to grow since 2007. Olga Kozlova, director of Converge Challenge, is setting a very specific challenge for participants. “This year every Scottish university is tasked with uncovering the next big idea and, as a female entrepreneur, I would like to personally encourage more

women to apply in 2017,” she says. “Following an increase in applicants for both the KickStart and Social Enterprise award categories, both prize funds have been increased to £10,000 encouraging entrepreneurship at every stage. “Converge Challenge remains committed to developing ambitious entrepreneurs and helping them build a valuable network of contacts that helps them to grow their business on a global stage. We are delighted to have the continued support of our entrepreneurial partners including Entrepreneurial Scotland, which is providing broader networking opportunities for our winners.” Converge Challenge alumni launched the 2017 programme at the University of St Andrews to mark the Year of History, Heritage & Archaeology. St Andrews is Scotland’s first university and the third-oldest in the UK, tracing its foundation to 1413. One of the companies that has progressed up through the stages of the competition is Glasgow-based MindMate, an online platform for people with early-stage memory loss to promote and help with healthy and independent ageing. Last year, Susanne Mitschke – Mindmate’s chief executive and a graduate from the University of Glasgow – 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. “In 2015, Patrick, Roger and I had an idea and we entered the Converge Challenge KickStart

category,” explains Mitschke. “We were young, optimistic and thought that starting a business would be easy. “We quickly learned there was a lot to consider and you can easily get distracted from what is really important and what makes a difference. The Converge training helped us to focus on what matters to our business. “When we entered Converge in 2016 for the second time, we had come a long way, with funding from Ignite in the UK and Techstars NYC in the United States. Our Converge prize has made a meaningful difference; not only from a cash-perspective, but from the in-kind business services we’ve received. “We are now getting expert branding advice from the awesome agency Morton Ward, as well as legal advice and intellectual property services. Whether you are a start-up or you just have an idea Converge can support you.” Desmulliez, whose company developed FoodSense, a sensor system aimed at reducing waste and improving monitoring on processing lines in the food and drink industries, adds: “The Converge Challenge has allowed MicroSense Technologies to benefit from a vast range of experts in entrepreneurship and commercialisation. The advice and training we

received throughout the programme was of the highest quality and we have further made use of the in-kind business services offered, especially in legal and marketing matters.” Second prize in last year’s Converge Challenge went to Chris Hughes of the University of Strathclyde for Estendio, which is developing technology for help people with dyslexia, while the Design & Creativity Award was scooped by Alexander Enoch of the University of Edinburgh for Robotical, a company that creates robots to inspire and engage the next generation of engineers and scientists. The KickStart prize for early stage ideas was awarded to David Harris-Birtill of the University of St Andrews for Beyond Medics, which has developed an automated remote pulse oximetry, a camera-based system that remotely measures patients’ vital signs. Second prize in the KickStart competition went to Yuri Belotti of the University of Dundee for an automated time-resolved cell stretcher. An additional prize for the KickStart finalists was the KickStart Digital Entrepreneur Award, which recognised internet entrepreneurialism and the online marketing talent of the finalists’ early-stage ideas, with the winner chosen by an online vote that was open to the public in the

weeks leading up to the final. The prize went to Richard McAdam from Edinburgh Napier University for Regenerative Shock Absorber, an innovative shock absorber that generates electricity and reduces fuel consumption and harmful emissions, which also marked Napier’s first victory in the contest. The Social Enterprise category focused on ideas that will have a positive impact on social and environmental issues. First prize was awarded to Erika Grant of the University of Aberdeen for Project TurnKey, a social enterprise that empowers people to see a life beyond prostitution. Christopher Murray of the University of Dundee took the second prize for The Comics Studio. The Entrepreneurial Spirit Award was designed to recognise a participant who demonstrated drive, focus and determination. The prize was awarded to Anna Renouf of the University of the Highlands & Islands for Orrin Equestrian, a company that is developing a saddle produced from composite materials. n The deadline for entering the 2017 Converge Challenge is 5pm on Monday 10 April. Find out more details or enter at www.convergechallenge.com

This year’s categories CONVERGE CHALLENGE For those with an established idea. The winner will receive a cash prize of £43,000, along with more than £28,000 of in-kind support, while a second prize of £15,000 in cash and £17,000 of in-kind support will also be awarded. DESIGN & CREATIVITY AWARD Consists of £10,000 and at least £16,000 of in-kind support. KICKSTART For early stage ideas. The winner will take home £6,000, with £4,000 for second place. KICKSTART DIGITAL ENTREPRENEUR An iPad Air will be presented to the winner. SOCIAL ENTERPRISE For ideas that will have a positive impact on social and environmental issues. The first prize is £5,000, while the second prize is £3,500. In-kind branding and public relations support worth an estimated £3,000 is also up for grabs. ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT The winner will receive £1,000 in cash and a support package from membership body Entrepreneurial Scotland.

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INSPIRATION STRIKES FOR WINNERS IN KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE COMPETITION Partnerships between businesses and universities were celebrated at the 2017 Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards AS an entrepreneur, you never know when inspiration will strike. For Malcolm Wood, director of Fife-based fruit and vegetable wholesaler Ivan Wood & Sons, that “eureka moment” came in the middle of the night. New legislation designed to protect the environment is now preventing fast food outlets from disposing of food and starch waste in public drains. Wood has helped to solve the problem with PeelTech, a compact system for filtering out starch. He developed the system in partnership with Abertay University in Dundee. The collaboration was arranged through Interface, the organisation that acts as a “dating agency” for businesses that want to tap into academic expertise. Wood’s idea has been recognised with not one but two prizes at the 2017 Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards, which were presented at Royal Bank of Scotland’s conference centre at Gogarburn on 21 February. The first was the Innovation of the Year Award, with the judges noting the clear commercial opportunity in the UK and overseas – especially among fish and chip shops. Lee-Anne McGee, a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP) associate from Abertay University, also won the Building Skills Through Knowledge Exchange Award for her work on the project. McGee redesigned and validated the filtration system, reducing waste materials and generating sales within the UK and Europe. McGee implemented a food quality management system, which reduced the company’s costs. She also impressed the judges by developing a high-quality vegetable stock from the recovered starch to be sold to the food service industry. The multiparty collaboration award was presented to the Flow Assurance & Scale Team, a collaboration between Nalco Champion, Shell UK and Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh. The group came together in 2015 to improve “Squeeze”, game-

changing software used extensively by the oil and gas industry all over the world to prevent scale from forming in wells. The Sustained Partnership Award – which was sponsored by the Society of Chemical Industry (SCI) – was won by Midlothian-based marine engineering firm MacTaggart Scott and Heriot Watt University in Edinburgh, which began working together in 2011 with an undergraduate mechanical engineering design project and expanded to electrical and mechanical projects, including a KTP and studentships. The sustained partnership, which continues today, spanned several schools at the university including the Institute of Sensors, Signals & Systems. Renfrewshire-based medical device manufacturer Vascutek and the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow received a “Special Commendation” in the sustained partnership category. Their work together has included research and development through three doctoral students and two KTPs, and has resulted in improved product design and new knowledge embedded in the company. Professor Lee Innes of the Moredun Research Institute in Midlothian received the outstanding contribution to knowledge exchange award to celebrate her career, which has been built around knowledge exchange between scientific researchers and a broad range of stakeholders, including the livestock industry, Scottish Government and primary schools. Siobhán Jordan, director at Interface, said: “We had some truly inspirational individuals and collaborations celebrated at the awards ceremony. The day was a fantastic showcase of what can be achieved when business and academia come together. “The standard of entries was incredibly high and the judges had some tough decisions to make. Each of the finalists really demonstrated how collaborations can boost innovation, drive

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“These are truly innovative projects between our businesses and academia from all disciplines and are crucial for improving productivity and creating sustainable economic growth, whilst playing a vital role in shaping Scotland’s future.” company growth to support the economy and position Scotland as a ‘Can Do’ nation.” Paul Wheelhouse, Scottish Government minister for business, Innovation & Energy, added: “I would like to congratulate all the nominees and winners who have been recognised for their outstanding work at the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards. “The awards celebrate the knowledge exchange activities and projects that happen all over Scotland, bringing people together to further forge new partnerships and collaborations. These are truly innovative projects between our businesses and academia from all disciplines and are crucial for improving productivity and creating sustainable economic growth, whilst playing a vital role in shaping Scotland’s future.” As well as the presentation of the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards, the gathering at Gogarburn included an inspirational speech by Brigadier David Allfrey, chief executive and producer at the Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo. Allfrey spoke passionately about the need for invention, innovation and entrepreneurship, and explained how lessons he learned in the army could be used in civilian life, while also pointing out how business people had taught him new tricks in his current career. The event included a series of workshops led by Care Monitoring 2000, Eurobiotix, Marks & Clerk, Scottish Ballet and Sunamp. Each company and organisation spoke about the benefits of exchanging knowledge. A panel of experts debated the state of the knowledge exchange landscape in Scotland and compared the nation’s drive for entrepreneurialism with that of emerging economies such as China. The panel consisted of: Pete Downes, principal of the University of Dundee; John Fuller, president and chief executive at Perthshire-based engineer and manufacturer LoadFast Systems; Alicia Greated, director of research and enterprise services at Heriot Watt University; and Martin Ruck, head of research and development at Aberdeenshire-based food ingredients maker Macphie of Glenbervie; Two representatives from Reg Lab, a Danish regional economic development “laboratory” created in 2004, also attended the event. Reg Lab is studying Interface as one of five international best practice case studies. n

And the winner is… INNOVATION Winner: Ivan Wood & Sons and Abertay University Finalist: Bon Accord Soft Drinks and Abertay University BUILDING SKILLS THROUGH KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AWARD Winner: Lee-Anne McGee of Ivan Wood & Sons and Abertay University Finalists: Hassan Al-Budairi of QTS and the University of Glasgow; Dan Mulqueen of Scottish Shellfish Marketing Group and the University of Stirling SUSTAINED PARTNERSHIP AWARD Winner: MacTaggart Scott and Heriot-Watt University Finalists: M Squared Lasers and the University of St Andrews; Vascutek and the University of Strathclyde MULTI-PARTY COLLABORATION AWARD Winner: Flow Assurance & Scale Team – Nalco Champion, Shell and Heriot-Watt University Finalists: Mosaicing for Automated Pipe Scanning – Inspectahire, National Nuclear Laboratory, Sellafield, Wideblue and the University of Strathclyde; Campbeltown Milk Quality Improvement Project – Campbeltown Dairy Farmers, First Milk, SAC Consulting and SRUC Dairy Research & Innovation Centre OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AWARD Winner: Professor Lee Innes, Moredun Research Institute Finalists: Professor Bill Buchanan, Edinburgh Napier University; Professor William Ion, University of Strathclyde

For further information and imgaes of the Scottish Knowledge Exchange Awards see www.bqlive.co.uk

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Right on time

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Leah Hutcheon couldn’t find time to book a haircut and so she invented Appointedd, a piece of software that’s helped scores of small businesses to book appointments for their customers and which is now securing international deals, as Peter Ranscombe finds out

arrive late for my interview with Leah Hutcheon. Not by much – I got lost in the building when I realised I didn’t know which floor her office was on – but it’s a bad start when I’m meeting someone who’s forged her career by helping customers to book appointments online with small businesses through her Appointedd software. I needn’t have worried though. As I step inside the company’s shared offices – complete with multi-coloured beanbags and a stunning view over the west of Edinburgh – Hutcheon’s massive grin tells me I’m forgiven for my tardiness. Perhaps I should have used Appointedd to arrange the meeting instead of relying on email. Since Hutcheon launched it five years ago, the software has grown arms and legs and does much more than simply booking appointments. Originally intended to help small hair salons to take online bookings, the program has now expanded into a whole suite of software-asa-service (SaaS) that not only allows online bookings “for any business, on any device, in any time zone” but which also gives users access to services including email and text message marketing, online payments and staff management tools. “People always think I must come from a techie background – so they’re a bit surprised when they find out I studied English and drama at university,” chuckles Hutcheon. She cut her teeth as a producer at Cowgate Central Theatre, which ran performance spaces at Wilkie House during the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s biggest arts festival. During her time at Cowgate Central, she helped give stand-up comedian Russell Howard his first gig and staged the first 24-hour performance by Mark Watson. The theatre eventually closed, but the excitement of

working for a start-up stuck with her. Wanting to further explore her creative side, Hutcheon joined Home Plus Scotland magazine as an advertising sales executive. The magazine’s editor, former Scotsman newspaper journalist Rick Wilson, helped Hutcheon to develop her writing skills by encouraging her to attend events and interviewing interior designers in her spare time. It’s an unusual route into journalism – and it always feels odd interviewing journalists who have morphed into entrepreneurs – but the switch from advertising sales into editorial allowed Hutcheon to take over as the magazine’s editor in 2007. That’s when the hair problem raised its head. “It was a very busy role, working at evenings and weekends as well as during the week, so I was doing more and more through the internet, like ordering my Tesco shopping or doing my online banking,” she remembers. “But one thing I couldn’t do was book a hair appointment on the internet and that got me thinking about how many salons were missing out because they didn’t offer online booking.” The idea stuck with Hutcheon and when the magazine was closed in 2010 she had the opportunity to develop it. While working for herself as a freelance copywriter – handling a range of briefs from penning text for the public consultations for Sainsbury’s latest supermarket sites through to working with a variety of small businesses – she began scoping out what her Appointedd software could look like and what functions it could offer. The coding behind the original version of Appointedd was written by Edinburgh-based app developer xDesign, with Hutcheon carrying out copywriting work for the firm as payment, showing that the bartering system is alive and well. Later, winning £30,000 from the Scottish

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“One thing I couldn’t do was book a hair appointment on the internet and that got me thinking about how many salons were missing out.”

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Edge Fund allowed her to recruit her first member of staff, developer Billy Jones, who is still with the company. “I was really lucky because, although my job had been made redundant, working as a journalist had helped me to build up a lot of contacts,” she explains. “Working with small businesses as a copywriter also gave me an insight into what they needed from online booking software.” Hutcheon became one of the “chiclets” in the first cohort at the Glasgow “hatchery” of Entrepreneurial Spark, which has grown to become the world’s largest free business incubator. Her fellow entrepreneurs in the initial intake included Cally Russell, chief executive at retail app Mallzee and winner of BQ Scotland’s emerging entrepreneur of the year title back in 2014, and Victoria Arnold, who founded Desk Union, an online marketing place for renting work space. During her time at E-Spark, Hutcheon

was one of the stars of the BBC Scotland documentary The Entrepreneurs. On the back of the television programme, dozens of small businesses got in touch to ask if her software would only work for hair salons or if it could work for their businesses too? “That was a real turning point,” she says. “I had focused really heavily on hair salons

but then we had everyone from skip hire companies to language schools getting in touch and I realised that we had a much bigger market opportunity. “It also helped when it came to raising investment. Business angels were really interested in the ideas behind Appointedd – it was cloud-based, it was globally scalable – but when I started talking about hair salons I could tell that they were losing interest so, when we realised we could offer the service to other businesses too, that’s when everything clicked.” Equity Gap, the business angel network, led a £160,000 fundraising round for the business in 2014, with a top-up round taking the total up to £220,000. The Edinburgh-based syndicate has invested in a broad range of start-ups, from product design company Safetray through to golf analysis specialist Shot Scope. Last year Equity Gap led a further £595,000 fundraising round to allow Appointedd to scale its business, with investors taking part in the round including Gareth Williams, who later

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sold flight comparison website Skyscanner to Chinese peer Ctrip for £1.4bn, and Marie Macklin, who was named BQ female business leader of the year at the 2016 Scottish Business Awards. The Scottish Investment Bank – the investment arm of economic development agencies Highlands & Islands Enterprise and Scottish Enterprise – has also provided matchfunding during each of the investment rounds. “Gareth and Marie have been brilliant because they’ve not just invested in the business but have also offered advice too,” says Hutcheon. “Gareth is very pro-active about reaching out to see how I’m getting on – when the news of his deal with Ctrip broke it really made me smile because he was still making the time to get in touch even when all that was going on. “Marie joined our board as a nonexecutive director and has been invaluable. We have a very strong board because our chair is Kenny Fraser, who was a partner at PWC and specialised in technology companies. “We also tap into the experience of the other companies in Equity Gap’s portfolio, like Qikserve and My1login. It’s the same with E-Spark – we still share an office with Cally from Mallzee and I met up with Vic this morning for coffee.

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“We’re very lucky in Scotland – the entrepreneurial ecosystem is really strong and everyone looks out for each other. I love doing business in London, but if we’d started the company down there then I don’t think we would have got the same support.” After Desk Union closed, Arnold worked as a consultant with Appointedd and put the company in touch with Frank Cottle, founder and chief executive of Alliance Business Centers Network (ABCN), which bills itself as the largest global network of serviced offices, covering more than 650 locations in 40 countries. In September, Appointedd unveiled a contract with ABCN to offer its services to the network’s 500,000 customers, the start-up’s largest deal to date, which could be worth US$15-20m (£12-16m) over the next three years. The deal with ABCN is one in a series of international agreements for Appointedd. In January, signed an agreement to offer its services to another 500,000 companies through global payment transaction provider AEVI. The business is now firmly in its scale-up phase, with 12 staff on the books and further members being recruited to its sales team. Its global deals will no doubt bring Appointedd to

the attention of multinationals, so is Hutcheon worried that bigger technology companies could simply create their own versions of her company’s services and incorporate them into their own software, squeezing her out of the market? “The best way for us to defend our position is to be innovative and be the first-tomarket,” Hutcheon counters. “We just worry about continually improving and innovating – like with our cross-time zone functions – those are the things that we have control over, we don’t have control over how any big tech companies may behave. One of the strengths of our software is that it can be integrated into all the major packages like Eposnow and Freeagent and calendars such as Gmail, Office 365 and Outlook. That’s a great way to defend our products. “Ultimately, I think it’s flattering that big tech companies might be interested in us one day. Our aim is to build a global business, so we need to work with those companies.” Time’s up. As Hutcheon walks me back to the lift so I don’t get lost again, I reflect on how the word “lucky” comes up so many times in conversation with her: she was “lucky” to get into E-Spark, she was “lucky” to secure funding, she was “lucky” to win big contracts. But we all know that true entrepreneurs make their own luck. n

“When we realised we could offer the service to other businesses too, that’s when everything clicked.”

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“I always loved animals. My mum tells this story of me being three looking up and saying ‘There’s a red kite’. I was only just about able to walk and talk.”

SPRE ADING HER

W I N G S Watching a sparrow hawk on her bird table as a child inspired Layla Bennett to launch Hawksdrift, which uses birds of prey to manage gulls. Maria McGeoghan finds out more about her plans to grow the business

AYLA Bennett’s face lights up at the mere mention of birds of prey. It’s a love affair that goes back to when she was just three, and has been a big part of her life ever since. She’s now a successful business woman with a growing company and a team of 39 falcons trained to deter gulls from buildings up and down the UK. Based in Powys, Hawksdrift offers a wide range of bird scaring, proofing and cleaning techniques and it all started with just one falcon – and a lot of ambition. After leaving home at 16 to make her way in the world, Bennett’s story is one of triumph over adversity, sheer determination and unshakable belief in herself. She was born and brought up in the Dernol Valley in Mid Wales with her elder sister. “I always loved animals,” admits Bennett, 32. “My mum tells this story of me being three looking up and saying ‘There’s a red kite’. I was only just about able to walk and talk.” When she was 11 or 12 she built a bird table with her dad and used to look out of the front window to see who was flying in and feeding while she was waiting for the school bus. “I made a note of every bird,” she

remembers. “I think I once saw a green woodpecker. “Every now and then one particular bird would come to the table from behind the house. It was a sparrow hawk and I always thought ‘She’s here’. “Sometimes she would get another bird and sometimes she wouldn’t. I once saw her tear a sparrow apart. “She was brutal but beautiful. She had bright orange eyes, which means she was an older bird. They start out yellow. “I suppose she became a role model for me. She was brutal, efficient, successful, powerful and feared by the other birds. Everyone else had the Spice Girls. “She came for two years and then stopped, and by then I was beginning to think that boys were a bit more interesting.” After a falling out with her parents, Bennett quit school at 16 and left home. “I ran away from home and stayed away for ten years,” she says reflectively. “We’re talking again now. I got a falconry job in the summer holidays and loved it so much I realised I wanted to be a falconer.

“My parents wanted me to be vet. I worked as a barmaid, a waitress, cleaning, shearing and lambing just to get by.” She got her first gull job using one hawk at a British steel plant. “Everyone wanted to see the bird, and I was a young girl, so people remembered me,” she recalls. Growing in confidence and experience, Bennett was just 17 when she applied for a contract at a BP plant even though she was too young. “I should have been 18, and I looked 12,” she says. “I got the contract even though I wasn’t old enough to be on the site. Those were the days when photo ID wasn’t that important.” The contract lasted for a year before the site was shut down and she carried on doing shows with her falcon, children’s parties and was still waitressing and working as a barmaid to make ends meet. Bennett then started to make enough money to call it a ‘proper job’ and her best friend, Mike Brown, came up with the name ‘Hawksdrift’ for her company as a nod to the Welsh involvement in the famous battle of Rorke’s Drift featured in the film Zulu.

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“You don’t need money to start a business. I’m lucky that I didn’t have money. It would have gone on posh vans, uniforms and business cards.”

“I wanted the name to have a Welsh element that was more than a red dragon,” she says. “I love the name.” Slowly but surely her business grew by word of mouth and in 2009 she had two employees – one based in North Wales. And then, out of the blue, Bennett was nominated for, and won, the Powys Young Entrepreneurship Award. “I was 25 and I really didn’t expect it,” she says. “I had a lot of competition because Mid Wales is very diverse. There are a lot of entrepreneurs here. I think it’s something to do with the space and beauty.” To enjoy that rural beauty to the full, Bennett decided to buy a field in Powys where she was allowed to pitch a caravan and run her business. “Remember when banks used to lend money?” she laughs. “The deposit was £4,500 – I used my credit card to pay it – and the land was £40,000. I’ll never forget that it was £479 a month that I just had to find. I was allowed to live there in a caravan. Powys County Council has always been really supportive of business.” But living in a caravan with no water,

electricity, or phone brought its own special kind of problems. “Everything was miles away,” she says. “I went to bed in all my clothes as I couldn’t afford gas bottles at first and the cost of installing electricity was thousands and thousands. I used to take my toothpaste to bed to stop it freezing.” She’s still there 10 years on – even though it now features a flat screen telly and a log burner – while she is having a house built on her own patch of land. She shows me a picture of it on her phone, proud and excited that she will soon be living under a proper roof. “It’s all watertight now and I can’t wait to get in,” she grins. “I wander around it and I still can’t believe that it’s all going to be mine.” Another out-of-the-blue incident helped Bennett on the road to success when she was called by production staff on the BBC Dragons’ Den show and invited to appear. “I was working on a job at BAE Systems in Wharton when I got the call,” she recalls. “I didn’t believe it was the BBC at first. “I didn’t think I was doing anything unique.

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Birds have been used in this way since 2,000BC. I thought it might be a competitor trying to find out more about my business numbers so I asked them to email me back.” Auditions in Manchester followed and a few months later she found herself in front of the imposing row of Dragons with her mantra “Don’t argue and don’t cry” running around in her head. “It was tough,” Bennett admits. “I thought they would be all smiles until the cameras started rolling but they were really serious. “It’s not really an old warehouse, it’s a studio. And the stairs you come up are different to the ones you go down “I didn’t think for one minute that I would get any investment.” But that determination to succeed must have shone through and Bennett was one of the few entrepreneurs to get a cash award when Duncan Bannatyne offered her £50,000 for a 25% stake in her company. “He was really charming,” she says. “We bought some new vehicles with the money, and got an accountant, but it didn’t go that far really. I paid it back two-and-a-half years later.”

Bennett is passionate about looking after working animals and part of her profits got to the Brooke Foundation, a charity for working horses, donkeys and mules in some of the poorest communities in the world. “I want to have an effect on working animals’ welfare,” she explains. “Animals that work for us deserve a great deal of respect. “People have tried to replicate what a hawk can do but none of the methods work. You can’t kid a gull. And whatever you read, birds of prey are exceptionally hard to look after. “I think it is appropriate that my working animals can help working animals around the world. It makes me happy. Any bird that comes to me has a home for life.” And what a home it is. Her 39 birds – soon to be 40 – live in the lap of luxury with a colour TV for company and a penchant for watching David Attenborough wildlife programmes. “They live for 20 to 25 years,” Bennett explains. “They all have names and I’ve just got a new one who is called Tom after Tom Jones. He’s gorgeous, just like Tom Jones.” Hawksdrift now has a forecast annual

turnover of £500,000, and eight employees around the UK, from Somerset to North Wales, with more plans for growth. The company has expanded its services to include bird proofing, netting, abseiling and cleaning up bird fouling as well as the traditional hawk business. More awards have followed for Bennett, including a young entrepreneur award and woman of achievement prize, and she started the new year being named ‘Business Wales Mentee of the Year’ working with her mentor Adrian May who was named ‘Business Mentor of the Year’. Bennett’s advice for anyone wanting to start their own business is typically down to earth and borne of experience. “You don’t need money to start a business,” she says. “I’m lucky that I didn’t have money. It would have gone on posh vans, uniforms and business cards. “A penny makes a pound. Be as honest as the day is long and you’ll have very long days. “And always answer the phone with a happy voice. No-one wants to work with a misery.” And the future? “Well, I’ve got a new boyfriend,” she says. “He’s called Falconer…” n

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NTREPRENEURIAL is a word that’s seldom used to describe accountants. With nicknames like “bean counters” or “number crunchers”, these professional advisors have a reputation for being dull and dependable – but stuck in a rut. Sandy Manson has a different idea. As he celebrates his tenth year as chief executive of Johnston Carmichael, Scotland’s largest indigenous accountancy firm, Manson wants to fan the entrepreneurial spirit that he believes has seen the business weather the past 80 years. By the time Manson joined the firm in 1991 from Arthur Andersen, Johnston Carmichael had already grown from its origins in Elgin to open branches in Aberdeen, Banff, Buckie, Huntly, Inverurie, Nairn and Turriff, expanding from its native Moray into neighbouring Nairnshire and Aberdeenshire. As North Sea oil boomed, the firm grew to encompass offices in Fraserburgh, Inverness and Peterhead, cementing its position across the North of Scotland. The new millennium brought branches in Edinburgh, Forfar, Glasgow and Perth, pushing the firm into the Central Belt for the first time. When Manson took over the hot seat in 2007, the business had 350 staff and revenues of £20 million. In December, the firm revealed that

its turnover had passed the £40m mark for the first time, with revenues edging up by 3% in the year to 31 May to £40.8m and pre-tax profits rising by 5% to £11.6m. Following the takeovers of Duncan Young & Co in Edinburgh in 2009 and Ritson Smith in Aberdeen in 2012, along with the opening of an office in Stirling, the company now has almost 650 staff and 55 partners spread across 11 branches, making it one of the 20 largest accountancy practices in the UK. “In years gone by, you could fit all the partners into a single car – now we’d need a double-decker bus,” laughs Manson, who was born and bred in Aberdeenshire and who studied accountancy and economics at the University of Edinburgh. “But we’re not finished yet. This is a £40m business, but I’d like to see it grow into a £100m business.” The practice now has 14,000 clients ranging from FTSE250 infrastructure firm Galliford Try and property developer Chris Stewart Group, all the way through to Edinburgh-based Stewart Brewing and educational charity Inspire. With so many staff working for so many clients in so many offices, how does Manson try to keep the firm’s long-standing entrepreneurial spirit alive? “We want clients to get the same quality of experience whether they’re in Huntly or

Johnston Carmichael chief executive Sandy Manson and his team have built their firm into one of the 20 largest in the UK while retaining its entrepreneurial spirit, as BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe reports

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“In years gone by, you could fit all the partners into a single car – now we’d need a doubledecker bus.”

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“We want a quality business that we can pass on to the next generation.”

Inverness or Stirling,” he says. “When Bill Johnston and John Carmichael founded the practice in 1936 they had a vision for the firm, and myself and my predecessors have inherited that vision. “We want a quality business that we can pass on to the next generation. There are two deal breakers for us when members join the partnership – they need to know that we will invest a large chunk of our profits every year in our staff and offices and technology, and they need to be prepared to be managed rather than doing their own thing.

“We want to offer clients that consistency in our services. If people want to act like sole traders then that’s perfectly fine, but Johnston Carmichael isn’t the place to do it.” Keeping that entrepreneurial spirit alive also takes on a personal dimension for Manson. As the eighth generation of his family to have farmed at Old Meldrum in Aberdeenshire, he admits to feeling a responsibility to make the most out of his career. “My father had inherited the farm after his brother had been killed when he was a fighter pilot during the Second World War,” Manson

explains. “My father wasn’t given a choice – he needed to take over the family farm – but he wanted me to have that choice and so I feel that was a great privilege and I need to make the most of it.” Manson still lives on the farm and works with a contractor to manage the growing of barley, oil seed rape and wheat. While the business genes needed for farming are alive and well and coursing through Manson’s veins, there is also some other entrepreneurial nowse in his genetic makeup. His great uncle, Sir Patrick Manson, not

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only founded the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine and was hailed as the ‘father of tropical medicine’ for theorising the connection between mosquitos and malaria, but also launched the company Dairy Farm in Hong Kong in 1886, importing cows from his native Scotland to ensure a supply of healthy milk – the business is now owned by the Jardine Matheson Group and has annual sales exceeding US$17 bn (£14bn). In Manson’s native village of Oldmeldrum sits Glen Garioch distillery, founded in 1797 by his ancestors, John and Alexander Manson, and now owned by Japanese drinks giant Suntory. Even closer to home, Manson’s own father pioneered the indoor feeding of barley to cattle in the 1960s. As a farmer’s son, Manson could have been expected to follow in his father’s welly-clad footsteps, but instead he ploughed a different furrow. “I went through school without falling in love with any of the subjects until my sixth year when I studied accountancy for the first time,” he remembers. “I was hooked. I really enjoyed how accountancy allows you to measure the success of a business and gives you a real insight into how a business works. “I started out as an auditor, but the more and more I learned about businesses and entrepreneurs, the more and more I became fascinated by how accountants could help entrepreneurs to run their companies.” It’s become something of a cliché for every accountancy firm to describe itself as ‘accountants and business advisors’, but Manson is proud to wave the flag for the broad range of services that his practice offers to its clients. Among the nine ‘business lines’ that the firm offers, more unusual and exotic services like corporate finance and wealth management sit alongside the predictable auditing and tax advice. “When we sit down with a client to offer them business advice then the first thing we ask them is about their own personal aims,” Manson explains. “There’s no point in having a business if it’s not going to help you to fulfil the goals in your personal life.” That theory led to Manson writing a book with American management consultant Jay Nisberg and Gary Shamis, managing director of United States accountancy firm SS&G. Stratagem was published by Smart Business Network in 2013, laying out details of business and life planning. While Johnston Carmichael has its roots

in the service of agricultural businesses in Moray and Aberdeenshire, the firm has gone from being a generalist to a specialist across 14 niches, ranging from food and drink through tourism to oil and gas and renewable energy. Its geographical and sectoral spread has allowed it to reduce its reliance on the North Sea and weather the drop in the price of oil over the past two years. Even choppier waters lie ahead though – not just for Johnston Carmichael but for all accountancy firms. The march of digital technology – and financial technology or ‘fintech’ in particular – is poised to further revolutionise the accountancy profession. “The way to face up to the challenge of new technology is to embrace it and form partnerships with fintech companies,” counters Manson. “That’s what we’ve done with Xero, which offers cloud computing-based accountancy software for our clients to use. “When Bill Johnston, one of our founders, retired in 1977, he said ‘The future is computers – and I want nothing to do with them’. But, fortunately, not everyone shared his view.” With a smile and a twinkle in his eye, Manson says he wouldn’t rule out opening an office south of the Border if there was enough demand from clients. Johnston Carmichael is a member of the PKF network of independent firms, allowing it to tap into the expertise of more than 400 offices in 150 countries, but

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he similarly “wouldn’t rule out” setting up an overseas branch. It’s rare to find someone who speaks with such passion about accountancy – Manson and his managing partner and chairman, Andrew Shepherd, were recently invited to enthuse the post-graduate accountancy students at the University of Edinburgh about the Johnston Carmichael story. His enthusiasm also extends to his work with the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland, for which he currently serves as vice president and – if elections continue to follow the current pattern – is poised to serve as president in 2018-19. Away from work, he speaks with a similar passion for his service as a deputy lieutenant of Aberdeenshire, chair of the University of Aberdeen Development Trust and honorary Dutch consul in Aberdeen. But there’s perhaps one passion that’s fallen by the wayside. Having stood for the Conservatives against former Scottish National Party leader Alex Salmond in the Banff and Buchan seat during the 1992 General Election and lost by 18,000 votes to 22,000, Manson is unlikely to dip his toe into the political waters again. “It’s not on the horizon,” he laughs. “I get on well with Alex and we’ve spoken on many occasions. No matter their political leanings, I take my hat off to people who choose to serve in that way.” n

“There’s no point in having a business if it’s not going to help you to fulfil the goals in your personal life.”

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Celebrating young entrepreneurs

BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe catches up with Young Enterprise Scotland chief executive Geoff Leask to find out about the organisation’s Festival of Youth Enterprise MOST people will remember Young Enterprise Scotland from their school days. Back at Nairn Academy, our company produced “Carnival”, an album of tracks recorded by “Salsa Charanga”, the school’s samba band, which was accompanied by bagpipes. Each track was sponsored by local businesses to raise money for the recording session and the album was sold to the fans who flocked to hear the band playing at concerts near and far. The spine of its day-glow green sleeve still stares out at me from my CD collection. The experience taught our team a range of very valuable lessons and helped us to practice our entrepreneurial skills, from winning a prize for the best-dressed stall at a Young Enterprise Scotland market through to calling a music publisher in Denmark to check that its tracks were covered by the rather complicated-sounding Mechanical Copyright

Protection Society (MCPS) royalties scheme. Geoff Leask didn’t get to setup a young enterprise company at school, but instead cut his teeth on the other side of the fence, spending a decade as one of the organisation’s volunteers in the Borders. Now, as chief executive at Young Enterprise Scotland, Leask is not simply in charge of inspiring children on his local patch, but motivating budding entrepreneurs throughout the country. Leask and his team are busy preparing for the Festival of Youth Enterprise, which will take place at Hampden Park in Glasgow on 5 and 6 June. The event will be the culmination of Young Enterprise Scotland’s year, bringing together school pupils and college students from throughout Scotland. “We want the festival to showcase the very best of the broad range of enterprise activities that young people get involved in,” explains Leask. “Young Enterprise Scotland is

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well-known for its company programme awards – there are about 2,500 pupils taking part this year and together they’ve launched about 200 companies. “We’ve always celebrated that secondary school programme in June each year. Now that Young Enterprise Scotland is doing more work in primary schools, local communities and further education colleges through our ‘Bridge 2 Business’ programme, we wanted an opportunity to tell the story of the enterprise journey young people are going on. “Enterprise and entrepreneurship is more important than ever. The young people who come along to this event are likely to have between 15 and 20 jobs during their career and their technical skills will need to evolve. “Whether they’re setting up their own businesses or working for other people, the core skills they need will remain the same though – like resilience, team building, communication and confronting difficult situations. All this experience is developed by taking part in practical enterprise activities.” The first day of the festival is aimed at pupils in their initial three years at secondary school, with around 400 children expected to attend the event. After breakfast at Hampden Park, they’ll have the chance to visit a marketplace where they’ll meet potential employers, entrepreneurs and some of the partner organisations with which Young Enterprise Scotland works. “They’ll each be given a passport, which they’ll have to get stamped by each of the people they speak to in the marketplace,” Leask explains. “There’ll be a prize draw for young people who have completed their passports. “The young people will also be able to visit workshops throughout the day and we’ll have panel sessions on the stage, which won’t just involve entrepreneurs but also pupils from primary and secondary schools and colleges.” Continuing professional development (CPD) sessions will also be offered for the teachers and lecturers who will accompany the young people to the event. On the second day, the regional finalists from the company programme will come together to compete for the national title. They’ll face a series of interviews, they’ll have to give presentations and they’ll have to set up market stalls to sell their products and services. During the evening, the results of the competition will be announced at the awards dinner. Looking further ahead, Leask highlights the range of topics with which Young Enterprise Scotland is becoming involved. “We’ve been doing a lot of work around the circular economy and recently held workshops to get input from pupils at primary schools and early secondary,” he says. “We’ll be laying down a challenge to the audience at this year’s event because 2018 is going to be the Scottish Government’s ‘Year of Young People’. We want to challenge everyone to do more in 2018 to make this festival even more inclusive, perhaps with events in different parts of the country on the same day.” n To find out more information about the Festival of Youth Enterprise or to book a space, visit www.yes.org.uk/events/festival-of-enterprise-2017/

Host and keynote speakers RACHEL MCTAVISH STV news presenter and entrepreneur Rachel McTavish will be the host for the Festival of Youth Enterprise. As well as presenting programmes for the BBC, Five and ITV, McTavish has her own range of jewellery, the McTavish Collection, which she launched in 2008. She also regularly hosts events for Business Women Scotland magazine and the Women in Banking & Finance organisation. “Rachel is an entrepreneur in her own right, but also has hundreds of thousands of hours of presenting experience,” says Geoff Leask, chief executive at Young Enterprise Scotland. JAMIE HUTCHEON Luxury chocolate producer Cocoa Ooze was founded by Jamie Hutcheon in 2008 when he was just 17. The Aberdeenbased company now employs 25 staff and has more than 200 corporate clients, including BP, East Midland Trains and Town & Country Apartments. “I remember Jamie was the runner-up at the Prince’s Scottish Youth Business Trust awards in Grampian – he wasn’t the happiest on the day, but Jimmy Milne from Balmoral Group, who was presenting the awards, told Jamie ‘You might not have won today, laddie, but you’ll go on and become a star because you’ve got that spark and flair inside you that you need to succeed’,” remembers Leask. Hutcheon will deliver the keynote speech at the end of the event’s first day. SYLVIA DOUGLAS Social entrepreneur Sylvia Douglas will deliver the keynote address during the dinner and awards ceremony on day two of the event. Douglas launched MsMissMrs in 2013 as a community interest company to support female empowerment. “Sylvia has opened an ‘empowerment centre’ in Glasgow to help build confidence among women of all ages,” Leask explains.

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Where next for

SCOTLAND’S SPACE SECTOR? Following the success of the Data.Space 2017 conference in Glasgow in February, BQ Scotland editor Peter Ranscombe asks what the future holds for Scotland’s fledgling space sector and looks ahead to next year’s event M ENTION the word ‘space’ to most entrepreneurs and they’ll immediately think of Tim Peake orbiting the Earth in the International Space Station. Ask them how they could use space to enhance their business and they’ll most likely give you a very blank look. Yet companies and organisations from throughout Scotland are already starting to use space data. From more accurate weather forecasts to tracking aircraft and ships, the information being gathered by satellites is helping Scottish businesses to grow sales and save money. The importance of satellite information was highlighted at the inaugural ‘Data.Space’ conference, which took place at the Technology & Innovation Centre (TIC) at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow on 1 and 2 February. The event attracted 174 delegates over the two days. “The event really put Scotland on the map,” says Hina Bacai, innovation director at the Scottish Centre of Excellence in Satellite Applications (SoXSA). “It made people sit up and look to see what’s going on. That happened with people from around the UK but also on an international scale. “More than 50% of those delegates came from outside Scotland and 20% came from outside the UK. As well as delegates from the four home nations, we also had a further 11 countries represented at the conference. “The international delegates said that they

were very impressed that we had brought together people from businesses and organisations that are already using satellite data, as well as people from Scotland’s space sector. The conference allowed a lot of people to come together and meet others who they may not necessarily have otherwise met. “The speakers we had from Silicon Valley were very interested in how we had put together the conference, but also how we had brought everyone together to have conversations between space and non-space people.” Andrew Macdonald, senior innovation manager at the Offshore Renewable Energy Catapult (OREC) in Glasgow, took to the stage at the conference in a panel session alongside: Gordon Burrows, head of delivery for the Borders at ScottishPower Energy Networks; Joe Thompson, data manager at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC) on Orkney; and Moody Alam, lead data scientist at the Energy Systems Catapult and an artificial intelligence researcher at the University of Oxford. “From an offshore wind perspective, I was hearing some very exciting prospects through improved weather forecasting and wave forecasting, which are both hugely important for the operation and maintenance of turbines,” Macdonald says. “Understanding and being able to forecast wave heights is crucial when it comes to reducing the cost of

accessing turbines. Some of the positioning stuff is really exciting because if we can learn more about the how the structure of a wind turbine is behaving then we can potentially reduce costs by using less steel and other materials in their construction. “We’ll be working with the sector to do demonstration work. We have a 7MW research and development turbine in Fife so we’d be delighted to be involved in putting sensors on it and comparing their readings against data from space to prove to the sector that space data can have a beneficial effect on the industry.” Peter Morton is chair of Morton Manufacturing, which is based at Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire and which is setting up a new company, Tactical Wireless, at Forres in Moray. Morton has developed the Omni Hub, a communications device that latches onto satellite links, mobile phone networks or even wireless broadband signals to let it transmit data from remote areas. He plans to open a factory in Forres to manufacture Omni Hub, once he has secured orders from the health boards in the North of Scotland. His company has already been involved in demonstration projects with NHS Highland and the universities of Aberdeen and the Highlands & Islands to help improve the care of diabetes and stroke patients. The company is launching a distributor in

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Australia in partnership with an agency and has already appointed a distributor to cover Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. It also has sales inquiries from Chile and the United States. “I got the impression from the conference that Scotland already has a well-developed space sector,” says Morton, who was also one of the speakers at the event. “Glasgow appears to be building more satellites than any other city in Europe. “I don’t really accept the distinction between ‘old space’ and ‘new space’, but Glasgow seems to have had a big impact on the ‘new space’ market with all the nano-satellites it builds. The conference was well attended and it was very useful for me because it’s led to some potential new business leads.” Following the success of this year’s conference – which was created and developed by SoXSA and delivered by BE Group, BQ’s parent company – attention is already turning to next year’s event. “We had a significant amount of interest from the international delegates in supporting and being involved in organising next year’s conference,” Bacai explains. “They found it very refreshing that Scotland’s space sector is positioning itself to be accessible to the nonspace community. “They were impressed that it wasn’t just space people talking to space people. They liked the fact that much of the content was accessible to the non-space delegates – we want to continue and develop that theme next year. “There are many very good companies working in the space sector in Scotland, but their drive is to engage with and deliver services for the non-space community. We want to harness that desire and move it forward. That may also encourage other companies to come and set up in Scotland.” n

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“They found it very refreshing that Scotland’s space sector is positioning itself to be accessible to the non-space community.”

The next Data.Space conference will take place in Glasgow on 1 and 2 February 2018 – find out more at www.dataspace.xyz

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From ‘total football’ to ‘total project management’ Suzy Powell meets Philip Thomson, chief executive at Atom Consultants, who uses lessons learned from Barcelona football club to help design food and drink factories

HILIP Thomson has been described as a “spinner of plates”, however the engineer’s management mode is based on a tried a tested football strategy rather than circus performance. Having worked with the biggest names in Scotland’s food and drink industry – from Marine Harvest to Browns Food Group – he has created a thriving engineering and project management company, yet few outwith the food industry will have heard of Atom Consultants. The company has evolved in parallel with the burgeoning food and drink industry as growing demand for Scottish produce from the major UK retailers has led to expanded premises, more sophisticated processing factories and facilities to house increasing workforces. Since 1995, the firm has undertaken £250m-worth of projects in the UK, £150m of which are food-related, and the team has grown to 56 people in four locations throughout Britain. Thomson has also honed a management method called “total project management” inspired by Barcelona football

club, which means that projects are handled in-house with all professional skills available to give their “one touch”. Thomson wanted to reflect the larger business that was developing internationally from its Scottish base with expansion into England via offices in Leeds and Canterbury, which are headed by partners he has worked with for many years. To reinforce this message, the company changed its name last year from Thomson & Partners to the punchier Atom Consultants. A strategy was adopted to make each office a centre of excellence for one aspect of the business: Edinburgh focusing on food and drink projects, Leeds on building information modelling and Canterbury on timber frame design. A recently relaunched website reflects the repositioning and Thomson described the change as a “great success”: 98% of the food business is in Scotland, however clients include Canadian-owned Cooke Aquaculture and Polish salmon processor Morpol, while overseas contracts range from a power plant in Egypt to a hospital in Abu Dhabi.

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“We halved in size, made redundancies and went down to a three-day week. We had to write off £75,000 of bad debt. The challenge to me was to keep going.”

Thomson studied civil engineering 38 years ago, and first worked for the former Central Regional Council designing sewage treatment works. He joined Kirkpatrick & Partners in Edinburgh as a project manager, then associate director, and became the youngest divisional director at the age of 34 for the Carl Bro Group when the Danish engineering consultancy took over. However, he quickly realised that his new management role meant he was less involved in projects, which he missed. “It was a challenge still being very hands on and running projects and it was clear I was going to spend more time in management meetings, so I decided to leave,” he explains. In 1995, he set up his own business. “I started with a brass plaque, a phone and a desk on my own – it was the right decision for me,” he explained and Thomson & Partners was established in a listed building on Edinburgh’s Forth Street, which is still the company’s head office. Hard work and long hours kept business ticking over and buoyant enough to expand. Three years on, Thomson bought the ground floor and then the labyrinthian basement, which was the former recording studio of Scottish folk duo The Corries. A sign above the meeting room door reads: “Quiet please recording in progress”, a reminder of the activity of the previous occupants, along with a rectangular glass window from the meeting room to the former sound engineer’s room. Thomson is keen to show visitors the “wall of achievement” in the basement, which displays a value he adheres to: offering value for money. A quote from 19th century author John Ruskin is pinned to the wall: “It’s unwise to

pay too much, but worse to pay too little”. “It’s been a great reference point for me,” Thomson points out. At the time he left Carl Bro Group, Thomson recalls a recruitment consultant saying that directors could not be unproductive – a sentiment that he still firmly believes today. In the early days, contracts included work for Scot Trout & Salmon and Stockan’s Oatcakes in Orkney. “However it took around ten years to get back to the level of projects I had been working on in the larger company,” Thomson admits. The breakthrough into the big league was when Thomson & Partners won a twophase £3.45m project with biscuit maker Simmers of Edinburgh for a factory extension in 2005, which led to a steady flow of business with parent company Nairn’s Oatcakes, which continues today. From 2000 to 2008 was a growth period for the company, with 50% of the business in the food and drink industry and the other half a mixture of traditional structural engineering projects, including a £26m refurbishment of the Grade B listed Blythswood Hotel and twostorey spa extension. Then the recession took hold. Thomson explains: “In June 2008, I went to meetings with three clients and all the projects were put on hold. The real impact came in 2010 as existing projects continued until then, but there were no new projects coming in. We halved in size, made redundancies and went down to a threeday week. We had to write off £75,000 of bad debt. The challenge to me was to keep going.” Around the same time, the company was invited to be part of a project to build a

factory and visitor experience for Taste of Arran, which represents several artisan food producers on the island. When the funding was withdrawn, the proposals were shelved. However, it led to Thomson’s “eureka moment”. “Our experience was so strong in the food and drink sector and I really enjoyed it, so I decided that would be the new focus, working less with sectors such as house-building, which were not as stable,” Thomson said. These days, business is flourishing: 95% of the work is for food and drink companies, most of which are fish and seafood producers – 72% of smoked salmon in Scotland is processed in factories with which Atom Consultants has been involved – with a significant number of meat producers, bakery and biscuit manufacturers. Some 82% of new projects are repeat business or referrals and last year the company was involved in designing and project managing more than £30m-worth of projects. The highest value project the company has won was constructing the largest fish processing facility in the UK for Marine Harvest after it won the contract to supply fresh and smoked salmon to Sainsbury’s – it was the supermarket’s single biggest order at the time. Work started in 2014 on a £5.4m processing factory and offices, followed by a £7.25m extension in 2015, and last year a smaller project to improve production efficiency. With the news that Scotland’s food manufacturing turnover increased by 43% between 2008 and 2014, there is plenty more in the pipeline for companies like Atom, and Thomson sees food trends such as gluten-free and artisan gin driving his business for some time to come.

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“We have several disciplines under one roof – project management, quantity surveying, architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical engineers – and that is effective to clients as they are only dealing with one firm and one person” “When I was in the States in the summer of 2013, a supermarket I was in had a huge range of gluten-free produce taking up a whole aisle – a few years ago it was hard to find gluten-free at all in the UK,” he says. However, in recent years this has been expanding in the UK and is illustrated by the completion of a £6.3m gluten-free factory and cereal production unit completed for Nairn’s Oatcakes. The revival of artisan gin distilling is another sector where Thomson sees potential – a small distillery in the grounds of Dornoch Castle Hotel is nearing completion; a property in Dornoch doubles up as an office for Thomson’s employees working in the Highlands for clients such as Loch Duart Salmon and ESCO. The only cloud on the horizon is the uncertainty of Brexit and Thomson is concerned about the future of Scottish Government funding through Food, Manufacturing & Processing Grants, which have helped companies expand, along with equivalent grants for the fishing industry. “A lot of small to medium-sized food processors rely on the grant system and if not getting grants they may not make a product in Scotland,” he warns. He also agreed that the industry is fragmented and that there is not enough collaboration between the different professions, however he has come up with his own solution: “total project management”, which has made outsourcing a thing of the past. Over time, he realised that clients preferred to deal with one person in one company, rather than multiple consultants. “I came up with it from watching Barcelona, where they talk about ‘total football’ – no-one else touches the ball,” he says. “We have several disciplines under one roof – project management, quantity surveying, architectural, structural, mechanical and electrical engineers – and that is effective to clients as they are only dealing with one firm and one person.” Thomson’s holistic approach to delivering projects from start to finish leaves no room for the ball to be dropped and would seem to have the food and drink industry hungry for more. n

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