BQ West Midlands Winter 2015 by We Are UMi

BUSINESS QUARTER

West Midlands: Winter 2015

Celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship

Man about the Jam House Meeting the man behind a pillar of Birmingham’s music scene

Thai’s the limit for Juree Entrepreneur of the Year Juree Chidwick

Lusty’s Formula 1 for success

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EN T R E P R EN EU R I NT E R V I E W S

Business Quarter Magazine

West Midlands: Winter 2015

From break up to black and white

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Learning by mistakes has led to a £70m business

How the end of a marriage led to an eating empire

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IN SIGHT

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EDITOR’S VIEW WEST MIDLANDS ISSUE 12 STOP PRESS. Now that’s phrase I never thought I’d be using as editor of a quarterly business journal. But as anyone who remembers the days of live evening papers will know, those words once alerted readers to late news inserted into an edition either at the last moment before printing or after printing had begun. And that’s what I’m doing today, nearly three weeks after BQ’s editorial deadline, with all pages laid out, subbed and proof read, and with our production manager and head of design breathing down my neck. Why? Because this week (ending 20 November) saw the beginning of the most important project in recent history for this region: the proposed devolution deal signed by chancellor George Osborne and West Midlands council leaders. If it succeeds, this will decentralise crucial powers to be overseen by a powerful elected regional mayor, leading the new West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA). This will take control of an annual contribution of some £40m for the next 30 years from Whitehall to invest in public transport, HS2, education, business support services and housing. It’s all pretty exciting stuff, until you read the above few sentences again and see the words ‘elected mayor’. Then it gets serious. Not because a democratically elected leader is a bad idea, but because there are precious few individuals in the region’s political arena who can be imagined as any good in such a huge job. Because of the importance of this role, it doesn’t have to be filled by a traditional politician. There will, of course, be a push for candidates from Labour, the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. But do we really want the whole of the West Midlands to be run by one local politician of the ilk that are currently making such a mess of cities like Birmingham, a council under government review? That’s where the business community might come to the fore. I can quickly name several proven business leaders who could be trusted to manage the West Midlands: Jerry Blackett, the former chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce; Paul Thandhi, the chief executive of the NEC Group; Neil Rami, the chief executive of Marketing Birmingham; Paul Faulkner, the former Aston Villa chief and now heading the Chamber. I’ve spoken to none of the above about whether they’d even consider facing the regional electorate for such a role. But I know they are the sort of experienced people we need in such a contest to make the new WMCA work. Hopefully you can now see why I decided to stop the presses: to note such a momentous development, and to trigger discussions on who might stand for elected mayor of the West Midlands. Steve Dyson, editor, BQ West Midlands

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CONTENTS

Winter 15

30 JUREE’S VERDICT

Entrepreneur of the Year Juree Chidwick talks to Maureen Messent

34 70

L U S T Y ’ S W AY Learning by mistakes led to a £70m business

HARD OF HEARING Car audio is growing increasingly sophisticated at all levels

EATING EMPIRE

Working with a chef genius across 23 franchises

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Celebrating and inspir ing entrepreneurship

FEATURES

REGULARS

EATING EMPIRE Working with a chef genius across 23 francises

BUSINESS UPDATE Latest developments in the West Midlands business world

JAM HOUSE ROCK Meeting the man behind a pillar of Birmingam’s music scene

AS I SEE IT Anthony Tattum on social media for small businesses

JUREE’S VERDICT Entrepreneur of the Year Juree Chidwick talks to Maureen Messent

BUSINESS LUNCH Dining out with a man with a mission

L U S T Y ’ S W AY Learning by mistakes has led to a £70m a year business

COMMERCIAL PROPERT Y Who’s building what and where

ON WINE Dr Chris Parker samples a Scillian and an Australian tipple

MOTORING Rob Hallmark puts Maserati’s new Quattroporte GTS through its paces

CONTROLLING MIND John Shermer’s devices that transform lives

GOOD GOVERNANCE, GOOD BUSINESS Interview with the IoD’s Jason Wouhra

RETAIL THERAPY Jewellery entrepreneur Jo Stroud

SPECIAL FEATURE 47

LEGAL AND FINANCE QUARTER Wealth management special feature

38 CONTROLLING MIND

John Shermer’s devices that transform lives

42 MAN WITH A MISSION Dining out with Mushtaq Khan

AVIATION UPDATE Build HS2 and cut APD for take off Birmingham Airport could help create tens of thousands of jobs if benefits from the new high speed train link (HS2) were combined with cutting air passenger duty and new longhaul routes. That’s the summary of ‘The West Midlands aviation opportunity’ report, published by York Aviation, a specialist firm of air transport consultants. Key findings include: • HS2 can help attract 750,000 additional passengers to Birmingham Airport, delivering £52m per year and 1,300 jobs across the UK. • Cutting air passenger duty by 100% at Birmingham Airport would attract 2.9 million additional passengers, delivering £521m per year and 12,000 jobs across the UK. • Expansion of long-haul connections from Birmingham could deliver another £425m per year and 8,000 jobs across the UK. Paul Kehoe, chief executive of Birmingham Airport, said: “This clearly demonstrates the vast potential of Birmingham Airport as an economic driver, not only to the West Midlands, but to the UK as a whole. It’s in the same bracket as the positive impact HS2 will have on our region and, as a region, we need to do everything we can to make as many of these scenarios become a reality.” Paul Faulkner, chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce said: “Birmingham Airport is a vital cog in driving the Midlands’ Engine for Growth, providing the

connectivity that our thriving businesses need to trade, export and secure investment. “Now is the time to work together to make the most of HS2, reform air passenger duty and support the continued growth of new routes to destinations around the world, to enable us to play our full part in rebalancing the economy.” And Andy Street, chair of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP added: “We are currently working closely with Birmingham Airport and other partners across the region to maximise the benefits of HS2. We call on the Government to invest in the new transport connectivity we need to make the most of this opportunity. This report shows how important getting this right is for our economy.”

From left, Paul Faulkner, James Brass, of York Aviation, Paul Kehoe and Andy Street

The report found that Birmingham Airport currently contributed £1.7bn in GVA and 39,850 jobs to the UK in 2014. Across the West Midlands, its contribution was around £1.1bn and 25,300 jobs. A full copy of the report can be downloaded at www.balancedaviationdebate.com

“Now is the time to work together to make the most of HS2, reform Air Passenger Duty and support the continued growth of new routes to destinations around the world”

More links for Birmingham Qatar Airways has announced direct flights to Birmingham from next spring, operating eight times a week. The new service to the city of Doha starts on 30 March 2016, creating new links between Birmingham and the airline’s 152 worldwide destinations, including South East Asia, China, Africa and Australasia. The airline said it had been attracted by the Birmingham area having the largest concentration of businesses outside of London, including more than 700 international firms. The route will be flown by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner with 22 business class and 232 economy class seats. Every business class seat is an ‘aisle seat’ where passengers can sleep in a fully-flat bed or use large work areas, while Wi-Fi is available throughout the aircraft. Paul Kehoe, chief executive of Birmingham Airport, said: “This is fantastic news for both Birmingham Airport and the region, and is our tenth new airline to announce or launch this year.”

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By Blue Air to Bucharest Romania’s Blue Air carrier is to start flights from Birmingham to Bucharest in 2016. The airline’s Boeing 737 aircraft will serve the Romanian capital city twice weekly from 29 March. William Pearson, aviation development director at Birmingham Airport, said: “We are excited to be part of Blue Air’s expansion programme for 2016 and pleased they have chosen Birmingham.” Gheorghe Racaru, of Blue Air, said: “We’re happy to bring Birmingham closer to Romanian’s largest city and capital and are sure this new route will be popular with both our business and leisure travellers.”

More Ryanair next summer Ryanair has launched its Birmingham summer 2016 schedule with 21 routes and 112 weekly flights, including two new bi-weekly links to Corfu and Vilnius. The airline says the programme will deliver 1.75 million customers a year as Ryanair grows by 25%. Extra flight frequencies include Alicante (twice daily),

Barcelona (nine times weekly), Dublin (six times daily), Malaga (nine times weekly), Malta (three times weekly) and Palma (nine times weekly). Carol Anne O’Neill, head of sales and marketing for Ryanair, said: “Ryanair will continue to connect Birmingham with Europe’s key centres of business. Customers can look forward to improvements, including our new personalised website and real customer destination reviews.”

Czech in for Prague Czech Airlines will launch flights from Birmingham to Prague five times a week from April 2016. William Pearson, aviation development director at Birmingham Airport, said: “Prague is a brand new route and will introduce this key destination for both business and leisure travel, and connect onwards beyond Prague to Czech Airlines’ network. We know that 30% of the passengers travelling to Prague from our one - hour catchment travel for business reasons, so we’re pleased that Czech Airlines will offer business class on the route.”

Two more for Norwegian Norwegian has become the fastest growing airline at Birmingham Airport with the launch of two new routes. Norwegian, Europe’s third largest low cost airline, began flying from Birmingham in March 2015 and has since introduced flights to Madrid, Barcelona and Malaga – with year round services to Tenerife and Gran Canaria starting soon. The airline will offer two flights per week to Tenerife and a weekly flight to Gran Canaria, with fares from £49.90 one way. All passengers travelling from Birmingham will fly on Boeing 737 aircraft with free Wi-Fi throughout their journey. The new destinations mean that Norwegian has introduced more routes to Birmingham Airport than any other airline this year, and has carried over 70,000 passengers since it began flying from the West Midlands.

Poised for first China link From left, William Pearson, of Birmingham Airport, Alix De Weerdt, of VLM Airlines, and HE Guy Trouveroy, Belgium Ambassador

Fly to Antwerp direct for business or pleasure European regional carrier VLM Airlines has launched a direct service from Birmingham to Antwerp in Belgium. Steve Blair, chief operating officer of VLM, said: “This new route not only serves many businesses in the area, but is also ideal for travellers looking for a city break. “Antwerp is a magnificent place, home to one of Europe’s oldest and richest ports, with a bold and diverse arts, fashion and culinary scene. A short train ride takes you to other popular Belgian cities including Bruges, Ghent and Brussels.” William Pearson, aviation development director of Birmingham Airport, added: “This is great news for the Birmingham catchment area, providing a fast, practical connection to one of the most creative and cosmopolitan cities in Europe.” Flights are operating three times a week, with one-way fares starting from £39.

Rumours are flying that Birmingham could beat Manchester to become the first UK regional city with a regular air link to China. Papers reportedly filed with China’s aviation authority show that Beijing Capital Airlines wants permission to launch regular scheduled services between Birmingham and the Chinese cities of Beijing and Hangzhou as early as next April. That would be two months before Manchester is due to start its regular flights to China. Beijing Capital is said to have filed its plans with the Civil Aviation Administration of China at the beginning of November. As BQ West Midlands went to press, Birmingham Airport was remaining tight lipped, as negotiations with the airline were still under way. An airport spokesperson said: “Birmingham Airport continues to work with its partners to operate flights to China again next year to meet the enormous demand there is for direct connectivity to and from the Midlands.”

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BUSINESS UPDATE Car makers drive to China A West Midlands luxury sports car maker has secured its first contract in China, with help from the UK Trade and Investment (UKTI). Westfield Sportscars, based at Gibbons Industrial Park, Dudley, has won an initial contract from GD Aero Technology of Shanghai for more than 100 hand-built vehicles to be distributed across Asia. Julian Turner, managing director of Westfield, singled out Paul Keeling, international trade adviser at UKTI in the West Midlands, for praise, saying he played a vital role in helping it to access the Chinese market. He added that securing export trade in the country had also helped to safeguard the 20 jobs at the Black Country headquarters. Turner said: “We’ve worked with UKTI since 2007, when we signed up to the Passport to Export scheme. I really don’t think we would be here if it wasn’t for UKTI. Exporting cars comes with the strictest of regulations – it’s the toughest market to be in for exporting – but the advice and support we have had has been invaluable.”

Shout more loudly The West Midlands must shout more loudly and positively so it’s not passed over for future

businessteam@bham.ac.uk www.birmingham.ac.uk/partners

opportunities coming from HS2 high-speed trains. That was the message from Paul Faulkner, chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, when he addressed business leaders at a Chamber dinner for its Premier members. Faulkner said: “HS2 will bring a generation change to the Midlands. It will fuel new developments and drive new areas for regeneration, housing and business growth across the entire region. “It’s estimated it will create over 100,000 new jobs by 2027 – with 10% earmarked for local residents who are currently unemployed – and add about £14bn a year to the regional economy.” But he warned: “One major failing we have had in the past is that we haven’t done enough to promote ourselves and what’s great about the city and wider region. We’ve been too humble or hard on ourselves and bought into the general negative stereotypes of Birmingham. “Right now we can all see the Northern Powerhouse agenda being driven hard by the Chancellor – highlighted again with Chinese Premier Xi being steered to Manchester ahead of Birmingham.

Paul Keeling, UKTI (back), and Julian Turner

“I think there is a real risk that if we don’t shout more loudly and positively about what is good in Birmingham and the wider West Midlands, and do that collectively, then we may end up being passed over for future opportunities.”

It grew from the garden A furniture restoration business which started life in a garden shed has taken on two new apprentices as part of a six-figure investment. Furniture Clinic Birmingham, started by restoration specialist Alan Tudor two years ago, is now experiencing such demand that not only has it moved to bigger premises in Tipton, it’s also taken on two new apprentices. Jake Barton, 18, and Charlotte Church, 28, will be trained onthe-job at the Bloomfield Road workshop in methods of leather, fabric and wood restoration. Alan said: “It’s incredible to think that just a couple of years ago, I was restoring furniture from a workshop in the garden and now we employ five people and are growing to such an extent that we are offering opportunities to young people.”

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Warwick becomes a centre for steel Tata Steel has opened its new UK research centre at the University of Warwick’s Science Park. Engineers and researchers will be working on new steel coatings, including graphene, at the company’s new advanced coatings research laboratories. The opening marks the first phase of Tata Steel’s relocation of its UK research and development work to the Warwick campus. Professor Lord Kumar Bhattacharyya, chairman of Warwick Manufacturing Group, said: “Advanced steels research is crucial for the nation, and for manufacturing. This move shows Tata Steel’s long term commitment to research and development within the UK.” Hans Fischer, chief technical officer of Tata Steel’s European operation, www.flashsticks.com … said: “We’re investing in research to develop new kinds for quickly learning of steel that will help transform sectors like transport and energy.” The new centre will house metallurgists, product a foreign language engineers, data scientists, researchers and technicians. with sticky notes

WEBSITE OF THE QUARTER

TOP TWEETS Lively and interesting Devo discussion with @CentreforCities @BrumChamber this morning. Lot of support, but also pressure to get it right – @GBChamberBoss Major milestone as design for National College for High Speed Rail in Birmingham is unveiled – @business_bham Woooo! Go #Birmingham for winning ‘City of the Year’ at the #MIPIMUK Awards! We’re so proud to be based in #Brum. – ‫@‏‬BigCatGroup Good summary from Mike Carr @GBSLEP around business engagement and working with #LEPs @THEBSASSOC workshop w/ @PwC_UK & @BevanBrittanLLP – @tm_davenportBB Excellent event @ProspectsGroup today. Great respect for our region’s LEPs & their role in driving economic growth & job creation #WMCA –‫@ ‏‬WestMids_CA So @qatarairways yesterday @CzechAirlines today - new flights everywhere from @bhx_official - great for Brum business – @mccomb

Breakfast in style A networking group held an unusual black tie breakfast at Villa Park in Birmingham to celebrate being rated as one of the best in the world. BNI Sunrise has passed more than £3.46m over the last 12 months between its members and has now gained ‘Platinum’ status and entered the ‘BNI Hall of Fame.’ BNI is the world’s largest business networking organisation with over 180,000 members in more than 60 countries, generating more than US$8.6bn of business worldwide in the last 12 months. Lisa Gregory, the chapter director of BNI Sunrise said: “To see everybody dressed for success at 6am in the morning for a breakfast meeting was quite a sight, but this networking group is always worth getting up early for. “Birmingham’s a great place to do business and with the profile of the city on the up and up, it’s great to see we’re making such an impact on the world stage.”

Michael Fabricant MP raises Northern Powerhouse, noting West Midlands proud export performance with markets such as China. #PMQs – @Portcullis_says WOW! It’s official! #BIRMINGHAM is the UK’s fastest growing regional tourist destination! –@WhatsOnBrum Wouter Schuitemaker to leave Marketing Birmingham at year end (sorry to see him go - he’s done an excellent job) – @dgbailey

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FACT OF THE QUARTER

Carbon cash share out

More than £70,000 of initial investment cash is being shared HS2 will create 100,000 new jobs across seven start-ups on Innovation Birmingham’s Low Carbon in the West Midlands by 2027 – with Accelerator programme. The 10% earmarked for local residents $100,000 is part of the Europeanwho are currently unemployed – funded Climate-KIC initiative, and and add about £14bn a will be used to pay for research and year to the regional development, and other activity to help economy. speed up the development of low carbon products and services. Four Birmingham start-ups will each receive the maximum amount $20,000 (£14,482). They are: Intesys, developing the i-Magine predictive heating controller, Borroclub. co.uk, a marketplace for people to rent out idle household items to others who live locally; SPICA Technologies, developing a risk management tool to control Legionella; and Truckulus, a transport management system. Katharine Fuller, Innovation Birmingham’s senior EU project manager, said: “Early stage grant funding makes such a difference, as the timetable required for an entrepreneur to launch their product or service to market is critical.”

Entrepreneurs honoured Three leading entrepreneurs from the West Midlands were honoured at EY’s Entrepreneur of the Year 2015 awards. Mark Payton of Mercia Technologies, Jim McCarthy of Poundland Group and Mark Egerton of Quotient Clinical all received regional trophies.

Gruhme makes Delicious choice Entrepreneur Robert Hallmark – the cover story in BQ’s Spring edition – has increased his investment in communications for Gruhme, his men’s fragrance business. Birmingham-based Delicious PR will now handle its brand communications across consumer, trade, events and regional. The larger brief follows Delicious PR’s word on business-to-business PR for the past year. Hallmark said: “We love Delicious PR’s passion and their thorough and engaging approach. The team demonstrated an understanding of our business and how we would like to take the brand forward.” Delicious PR founder Anita Champaneri said: “We’re delighted to be working with such a great Birmingham-born business. Gruhme is at an exciting turning point with a new partnership with a British motoring icon about to be announced.”

businessteam@bham.ac.uk www.birmingham.ac.uk/partners

Deal to sell a bigger FiB Families in Business (FiB), the Birmingham-based support organisation for family firms founded by Dani Saveker in 2012, has been bought by the Shirlaws Group. Saveker, who remains as FiB’s chief executive and becomes a shareholder and global partner of Shirlaws Group, said: “This provides the resource and global network to enable FiB to grow faster in the UK and to realise its international expansion plans.”

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New board banking on Birmingham The new Banking Standards Board (BSB) came to Birmingham in late October to hear about banking from the West Midlands perspective. The day of events included meetings with local banks and building societies, businesses, students and the wider community. The BSB was set up to help the industry help itself by raising standards of behaviour and competence and chose Birmingham as its first regional destination. It includes David Urquhart, Bishop of Birmingham, among its members, and he said: “Birmingham’s developing as a financial services hub, both supporting local banks and building societies and attracting global players such as HSBC and Deutsche Bank because of the huge talent pool, good transport connections and rich commercial heritage of the city. As Birmingham’s banking grows at all levels, we on the BSB wanted to bring diverse audiences together to discuss what Birmingham needs from its banks and building societies and what the banks and building societies can deliver for Birmingham. What did we learn? I for one learned a lot more about Birmingham’s banks and building societies, their rich heritage in the area and what they are already doing to embed themselves in the community, such as offering advice to local entrepreneurs seeking to become exporters. What did the banks learn? I think they learned about the extent of talent on offer in Birmingham, the value of connecting with the local community and getting an alternative perspective and of sharing best practice, advice and contacts.”

QUOTE OF THE QUARTER “Retail is the perfect place for anyone who wants to run their own business to start. Everything from the proposition to the product, and from the customer to communications, all are covered in retail.” Jo Stroud, founder of West Midlands jewellery chain, Fabulous A dozen new staff for Guykat Learning technology specialist GuyKat Solutions is to double its staffing to 12 after receiving a £50,000 grant towards a £200,000 expansion plan. The company – based at the Innovation Birmingham Campus – produces tailored corporate training for delivery online. Three-quarters of the investment will come from retained profits and director loans, with the extra grant awarded from a local growth fund administered by Bournville College. Guy McEvoy, managing director at GuyKat, said: “We’re creating roles for specialists in instructional design, creative media and web technologies, as well as recruiting our first apprentices. We’re also going to be far more aggressive in our marketing in the coming year.”

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A classic acquisition

MOVERS AND SHAKERS Deloitte has poached experienced dealmaker Kevin O’Loughlin as a corporate finance manager in its Midlands lead advisory team. He joins the Birmingham office of Deloitte, having spent four years with EY, and will have a focus on deals across the Midlands. Melanie Palmer, director of Solihull’s Business Improvement District, was named ‘Solihull Business Person of the Year’ at the town’s Chamber awards. Chamber director Jane Jackson said Palmer had a ‘passion’ for Solihull and that “if she was a stick of rock, she would have Solihull written all the way through her”.

“There’s a real resurgence of interest in the classic marketplace, with lower insurance rates than most modern cars and rapidly appreciating values

Dr Sharon Redrobe, chief executive of Twycross Zoo in Atherstone, Warwickshire, has been named ‘Businesswoman of the Year 2015’. She won the title at the 33rd Women of the Year Luncheon and Awards at the Birmingham Hilton Metropole Hotel. The awards celebrate the outstanding achievements of women across the UK.

International accountancy firm Mazars has rewarded two of its Birmingham colleagues with promotion to partner. James Hurst and David Preston join ten partners at the firm’s Midlands head office at 45 Church Street, in the heart of the city’s professional quarter.

Clare Maio has been appointed head of diversity at PwC in the Midlands, to head the firm’s progressive employer programme in the region. Maio is already a director in the assurance team at PwC, providing specialist technology assurance and advice. She said: “PwC’s leading market position depends on unlocking the innovation and potential of all employees.”

Marks & Clerk, the patent and trademark attorneys, has promoted electronics patent specialist Dr Stephen Blake to partner in its Birmingham office. Blake works across the fields of telecommunications, software, electronic engineering and mechanical engineering.

Christine Hamilton has become the UKTI’s regional director for the West Midlands. She replaces Paul Noon, who has taken up a new position as Pro-Vice Chancellor for Enterprise and Innovation at Coventry University.

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Birmingham-based Leacy Classics has bought Min-its, a local Mini classic parts specialist, as part of a three-year expansion to deliver a £10m turnover and 20 new jobs. Leacy will use the purchase of Min-its to expand its range to over 50,000 parts, including 5,000 Mini spares and engine components. The deal will create a complete one-stop shop for enthusiasts and individuals looking to maintain or restore cars manufactured by MG, Triumph, Morris Minor, Jaguar and Land Rover. David Keene, the chief executive of Leacy Classics, said: “There’s a real resurgence of interest in the classic marketplace, with lower insurance rates than most modern cars and rapidly appreciating values.”

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US trade deal to fuel car industry A new transatlantic agreement could boost the region’s car industry, according to the British American Business Council in the Midlands (BABC). The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) being negotiated between the EU and the USA – not expected to be finalised before next year – was explored at a BABC seminar in early November, supported by Jaguar Land Rover and Europe Direct Birmingham. The deal discussed is one of the most prominent topics on the political trade and investment agenda and completed the 11th round of negotiations in Miami in October. Helen Melville, BABC’s Birmingham-based manager, said: “Independent studies already suggest that TTIP would create jobs and generate growth across the EU. Tariff reduction and greater regulatory alignment will help European automakers to win the lion’s share of TTIP gains. Whatever the size of a company – big or small – this proposed agreement will have a noticeable impact.”

PROFILE University of Birmingham

Staff-led sustainability Operating more sustainably is a pressing imperative for most businesses, and yet we know that a huge gulf – a ‘sustainability gap’ – exists between sustainability aspirations and achievements, both for individual businesses, and for society as a whole. Government data indicates that even in relation to high-profile issues such as reducing carbon emissions, the underlying rate of reduction due to low-carbon measures is less than 1% per year. The failure to close the sustainability gap is a missed opportunity to leverage the win-win opportunities that stem from integrating sustainability more effectively in business. We suggest that the failure to realise the full benefits of operating more sustainably arises from the ways in which most firms manage sustainability. In most organisations, sustainability initiatives happen to staff rather than originating with, or actively including them. High-level commitments are made, goals are set and translated into policies that are communicated to staff via newsletters, intranet pages, and emails. Often, ‘top-down’ initiatives are met with ambivalence, confusion, or indifference and sometimes with hostility and anxiety because of

their perceived impacts on day-to-day work. Within the Birmingham Business School, at the University of Birmingham our research proposes that in most organisations, current ways of thinking about and managing sustainability miss the opportunity to harness the energy, creativity, and commitment of staff, and that greater emphasis on including staff could pay significant dividends. In short, we suggest that placing frontline staff at the heart of a firm’s sustainability strategy, practicing what we call staff-led sustainability, offers the potential to transform both firms’ sustainability performance and their levels of staff engagement, satisfaction and commitment. Staff-led sustainability is about more than appointing employee ‘champions’ to promote sustainability, it is about building a set of authentic processes by which the knowledge and experience of staff at the coal-face is leveraged to shape firms’ sustainability programmes and practices. Supporting employees to operate as internal entrepreneurs – or ‘intrapreneurs’ – leads to more innovative, actionable, and proactive sustainability initiatives and also to reduced levels of staff turnover.

“Staff-led sustainability is about more than appointing employee ‘champions’ to promote sustainability, it is about building a set of authentic processes by which the knowledge and experience of staff at the coal-face is leveraged to shape firms’ sustainability programmes and practices”

Moreover, staff-led sustainability initiatives are, by design, more business appropriate and stimulate increases in the number and range of activities and greater learning and knowledge transfer within organisations. If, as a society, we are to achieve government targets for sustainability - such as the goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% (from the 1990 baseline) by 2050 – then business has to play a more significant role in delivering on its sustainability commitments. In combination with high-level commitments, we advocate that organisations need to pay greater attention to the role that their staff can play in achieving this transition and in creating and leveraging win-win opportunities.

If your business is looking to develop its strategy towards sustainability and if you’d like to explore how your organisation might benefit from being involved with our research, please contact us. For further information contact, Tim Yates, Business Engagement, University of Birmingham, 0121 414 8635, t.yates.1@bham.ac.uk

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Take-off for Webmoco Two Midlands entrepreneurs plan to double the size of their business after their new software platform got off to a flying start at Birmingham Airport. The Share-Realtime Knowledge workflow system was created by Webmoco, a company headed by Matthew Pearson and Carl Berisford-Murray and based in the heart of Leamington’s ‘Silicon Spa’ business hotspot. The platform shares real-time information across a business or organisation live as it happens, replacing paper-based systems with desktops, tablets and mobile devices, and providing workflow and task management solutions. Pearson said: “We’ve doubled our workforce in 18 months since we’ve been working on the system and we anticipate a further 100% growth by 2018.” Further trials at other airports are due to start within weeks and the pair are now targeting other industries with a product they say can transform the way businesses work.

Technology contract Bromsgrove-based HME Technology which manufactures and installs design and technology equipment, has completed a £125,000 contract for the new University of Birmingham School. The firm secured the work through main contractor Willmott Dixon which won the £19m order to build the UK’s first university-linked school. Julian Davis, managing director at HME, said: “This is a very significant piece of business and shows what we are capable of delivering. We believe it will help us significantly when others look at who supplies the best design and technology equipment.” The University of Birmingham School is on Weoley Park Road, Selly Oak and will accommodate 750 pupils aged between 11-16, with a further 400 places in the sixth form.

“This is a very significant piece of business and shows what we are capable of delivering”

Family Law

GIVING SOMETHING BACK Warwickshire-based accountancy firm Burgis & Bullock raised £1,000 for Mary Ann Evans Hospice in Nuneaton at its 11th annual quiz night. The company, with offices in Leamington Spa, Nuneaton, Rugby, Leicester and London, attracted more than 200 guests to the event at The Ricoh Arena in Coventry.

PwC in the Midlands has raised £3,000 for property industry charity LandAid, which supports projects working with disadvantaged children and young people. Three teams from PwC’s Birmingham real estate team set off on a two-hour ‘Apprentice-style’ mission to use their powers of persuasion to secure as many prizes as possible - and were overwhelmed by the support from local businesses.

Glynn Purnell’s Friday Night Kitchen raised £60,000 for local charity Cure Leukaemia. More than 400 foodies helped the Birmingham restaurateur raise the money, along with Masterchef judge Gregg Wallace and TV personality chef Rustie Lee at the Villa Park event in October. Redditch law firm Kerwoods raised £377.58 for Macmillan Cancer Support at its recent coffee and cake morning. Staff baked cakes and quiches, made jam and poured teas and coffees, producing £188.79 for the charity, a sum the firm matched.

More than 500 guests helped Birmingham’s East End Foods raise around £70,000 for Macmillan Cancer Care at its gala charity dinner. The event, held at Vox Resorts World at the NEC, was hosted by Ed James and Bobby Davro.

The BBC’s economics editor Robert Peston helped raise more than £17,000 when he spoke at the Journalists Charity’s annual celebrity lunch at Edgbaston cricket ground in Birmingham. Peston also raised a laugh by telling Lord Digby Jones – who’d moaned at his “negative” news-making – that he was talking “bollocks”.

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Anthony Tattum, managing director of Big Cat media agency, explains how small businesses should approach social media For many small businesses, social media tends to get put on the backburner, often deemed too time-consuming and questionable in terms of return on investment. But there’s real power in committing to a presence online and communicating through social platforms. From experience, I’m convinced that constructing an effective social strategy is essential to building brand awareness, loyalty and reputation. So here’s how to kick-start your social media engagement in just six simple steps: 1. Stop thinking ‘campaigns’, start thinking ‘conversations’. Small businesses often don’t know who their audience is, or what their voice should be online. Social media is really good

for finding other people who are interested in what you’re interested in. By using keywords you can search for similar conversations or similar organisations and join in. Whenever you create a piece of content, think about the situation as if it were happening in a pub. Would you join an existing conversation and simply state what services or products you sell? You wouldn’t. Instead, you would try to add value, an opinion that is useful or relevant to the topic. Apply this notion to your social media approach to make your content humorous, useful or educational – otherwise no one will listen! 2. Good marketing needs a plan. Social media is often treated like an add-on: little resource, no

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consistency or in-depth planning. The key thing to remember is that content and social media go hand in hand, and without engaging content your efforts won’t be effective. What’s your tone of voice? Is your audience the general public, or is it businesses? For business to consumer, think Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. For business to business, think LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+. And when thinking of a plan, consider what existing content you can already promote. What are your business’s strengths that you can do thought-leadership pieces on? What other industry-relevant content can you share? 3. Free tools to make social media much easier. The thought of how time-consuming and resource-heavy social media might be can appear daunting for small businesses. Luckily, there are a whole host of tools on the web that can help schedule content, monitor engagement and listen to conversations taking place online. My favourites include Social Mention, TweetDeck and Hootsuite. 4. Why content is key. Social media is nothing without engaging content. A tweet or status is often just a headline that leads us to something else – a link or hashtag that directs us to a wider conversation – which is why it’s more important to be an active talker within these conversations. For an SME, it’s better to just get your social media started and not worry too much about trying to nail your tone of voice immediately. It’s more beneficial to research, listen and test initially, to find out the types of content your audience responds the best to. Research, listen, test, refine.

5. Getting the balance right. Once you’ve established which platforms are the most relevant for you, it’s good to have one profile per channel, tailoring content to suit each one. There’s no harm in being corporate when necessary, but also throw some creativity and personality into your posts. If someone follows you you’ll look at them and evaluate how many followers they have and if they have a profile picture. You’ll also look at the quality of the content (people look at the first 10 tweets on average) and if there is a nice balance of self-promotion and industry news. 6. Use social media to invest in the future. Good social media will inevitably become part of what customers are searching for in a business. Therefore social media engagement should be seen as a means to an end, rather than the end itself. It should be used as a way to raise your brand and marketing objectives, as well as your profile within your industry profession. By reviewing and analysing your social media activity weekly, you’ll be able to monitor and track how much engagement and how many impressions each post receives. Once you’ve established the best-performing content, consider how you can produce more of the same. Most importantly, remember that social media is not just a channel for telling customers things. It’s a way to get them involved and engage with them. Social media should therefore be looked at in the same way as any other marketing channel: with a plan, a structure and an ‘audience-first’ approach. n Visit www.bigcatgroup.co.uk to find out more.

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From break-up to black and white

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As Marco Pierre White restaurants quickly spread across the UK, BQ editor Steve Dyson meets Nick Taplin, the man who heads the Birmingham-based franchise operation It was when his first marriage was breaking up that Nick Taplin was tipped headlong into the swirling world of owning his own business. Until then, he’d proved himself as a successful manager of bars, nightclubs and hotels, and was only beginning to think about becoming his own boss. At first, the marital split pulled the rug from under what he felt had been a stable life, but instead of foundering he somehow managed to turn his tumultuous emotions into a focused drive for success. “It was a massive turning point for me,” says Taplin, recalling the moment his first wife, Karen, left him in 2003. “At the time, it knocked everything out of me. But then I decided I was just going to make a success of what I was going to do.” Taplin had recently met businessman Simon Matthews-Williams, and together they started raising the capital needed to buy and develop what became Cadbury House Hotel and Country Club, now a four-star boutique hotel and spa near Bristol. “Simon had also just split up,” remembers Taplin, “And so it was the two of us let loose, and we were determined to succeed. We threw everything we had into the business. But we knew where we were going.” The new business raised some £4m in equity from venture capitalists Shore Capital, plus what began as a £10m loan from Allied Irish Bank, soon increasing to £11m, then £13m and finally £14.75m to finance the three-year project. “This was ahead of the crash,” explains Taplin, “and we traded all the way through the redevelopment which helped. It was a purpose-built, 35,000 sq ft club and spa, and we travelled the world looking at the ‘leisure experience’ to make sure we got it right.

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“We wanted the latest gym equipment, and were determined to find out what was new, and what was just a fad. In Holland, we even came across volley ball courts where the players were all naked! We didn’t adopt that! But we did find so much of what we needed. “Dutch designers showed us how you needed a focal point to be different, almost a bit naughty, edgy. Orange and lime green bright colours, an industrial feel to the décor, comfortable, oversized furniture and imagery, open kitchens.” When Taplin and Matthews-Williams bought Cadbury House, it had an existing gym with 1,054 members. When they opened the new health club in 2006 it had 2,100 pre-sold members, and today has well over 4,000. The 72-bedroom hotel opened in 2007 and is now a multi-million operation, half-owned by the Double Tree by Hilton group. “Everyone said we were nuts,” says Taplin, “but we just went at it. I didn’t need to set the alarm because I was just jumping out of bed every morning, there was so much to do. You woke up thinking you’re going to make the difference that day. I was even thinking in the shower and writing stuff down when I came out. And once it opened, we beat every target we set ourselves.” Taplin’s love of food, drink and hospitality started in childhood. Born in Rugby, Warwickshire, his mother ran food and beverages at a local management college, which regularly saw him hanging around bars and kitchens after school and during holidays. He says: “I was always often bottling up, or putting the empties out, or working with the chef peeling potatoes, or out picking herbs from the garden.” Taplin took Business Studies and Home Economics at GCSE, then studied for a National Diploma in Hotel and Catering Management at Stratford-upon-Avon College. Next came a HND in the same subject at South Devon College, with a year’s placement at The Langham hotel in Portland Place, London. Taplin’s career took off when he became assistant manager at Judy’s nightclub in Torquay, where he’d had a part-time job. Six months later, the manager left and he got the main job – but because he was only aged 20 he couldn’t ‘hold’ the licence, so someone else had to have their name above the door. Next up was transforming a run-down pub called

“You woke up thinking you’re going to make the difference that day. I was even thinking in the shower and writing stuff down when I came out. And once it opened, we beat every target we set ourselves”

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The Seahorse Inn, in Bampton, near Taunton. Then the Surrey Free Inns group (SFI) asked him to take on The Ostrich Inn, in Colnbrook, near Windsor, which had fallen into disrepair with a poor client base. Explaining his approach, Taplin says: “We just put the price of everything up by £1. It meant we had the windows smashed in the first week, but we turned it on its head and quadrupled sales in two years.” Hotels came next, and SFI gave him The Bridge Inn at Yatton, near Bristol, where he led a 50% expansion project. His enthusiasm drove sales, and he was asked to become an area manager for SFI, running three hotels. Then, still aged only 27, he was poached by the Slug and Lettuce group to run 15 bars across Southern England. “I went to pick up my company car and it was a brand new Jaguar worth £80,000. I had to pinch myself and ask: ‘Is this really me?’” Once again, sales were successful, until a director queried his tactics after spotting bar staff serving flavoured vodka for £1 a shot. Taplin explained they were making the product themselves, using Skittles sweets, and had created record sales of 22 bottles the previous weekend. This wasn’t liked, a “kind of warning” was given, and Taplin realised he no longer wanted to run bars for someone else. Instead, he returned to SFI group and started negotiations to buy The Bridge Inn, the hotel he’d developed. That’s when the happenstance of his marital break-up and meeting MatthewsWilliams drove the multi-million pound Cadbury House project. The pair invested in more hotels including one in Chester, which is where they met Marco Pierre White – the celebrity chef and restaurateur – who already had a couple of London venues. “We were looking for solutions for hotel restaurants because they were empty,” explains Taplin. “And Marco said: ‘I like you guys, maybe you can take the brand to the regions.” From that conversation the franchise was born, and by 2010 the first Marco Pierre White (MPW) Steakhouse Bar & Grill opened in what is now the Double Tree by Hilton in Chester. A franchise at their Bristol hotel soon followed, and in 2011 and 2012 the Steakhouse was taken to hotels in Liverpool, Birmingham and Newcastle, while MPW’s New York Italian restaurants opened at hotels in Exeter and Hoylake. In 2014, franchises opened at hotels in

“Marco says the brand is a fine line between ‘genius’ and ‘unhinged’ – he’s the genius and me, I’m unhinged! I know some genius people, but Marco’s the cleverest person I’ve ever met. He’s got a brain the size of the planet. Sheffield, Cambridge, Brentford, Stratford-uponAvon, Glasgow and Manchester. And this year they’ve spread to Leicester, Oxford, Kenilworth, London, Derby, Birmingham Airport, Hinckley, Nottingham, Camberley and Belfast. There are now 23 franchises at hotels across the UK, all operated by Black and White Hospitality Management, a company headed by Taplin, who wants 40 by the end of 2016. His business is complex: Matthews-Williams has now departed, and Taplin’s been joined by “financial wizard” Caroline Wilce. Together they own the parent company, which owns 50% of the Cadbury House hotel, and also manages the Double Tree by Hilton in Chester and the Hotel Indigo hotel and health spa at The Cube in Birmingham. A Black and White subsidiary then runs the franchises, split three ways between Taplin, Wilce and White, with its headquarters in Granville Street, Birmingham. Black and White has 18 staff and a £2m turnover from the franchises, on top of separate turnovers from Cadbury House and the hotel management side. “It’s all hospitality,” says Taplin, now aged 43, “making sure people have a good time. Looking after them so they leave happy, enjoying what you’re providing. It’s simple, but we make it complicated sometimes. People want a night out. It’s the premises, the atmosphere, the kudos of where they’re going. People love brands and want the whole experience. “The recession changed a lot of things. People aren’t as tolerant anymore. If it’s not up to scratch they just say: ‘We won’t go there again.’” Taplin says MPW’s venues provide that experience: “Marco says the brand is a fine line between ‘genius’ and ‘unhinged’ – he’s the genius and me, I’m unhinged! I know some genius people, but Marco’s the cleverest

person I’ve ever met. He’s got a brain the size of the planet. He’s the creative one – I just seize opportunities. He says: ‘I can’t do what you do.’ I say: ‘Well I can’t cook three-star Michelin quality food.’” Taplin’s in constant touch with Pierre White – by phone and in person – and says he’s become “one of my best friends”. Days before our meeting, the pair were out sampling steaks and “the finest wines” together, then touring reclamation yards, buying colonnades, giants lead pots and other feature pieces for their venues. “Marco’s like a whirlwind,” says Taplin. “We trial menus, even testing new crockery before venues use it. It’s like that old Remington shaver advert: ‘I liked the idea so much I bought the company.’ We like to prove things, to know it’s worked.” Now remarried to Rachel, and with four teenage children between them at their home in North Somerset, Taplin’s never been busier. How does he organise his time around the hotel in Bristol, the Black and White headquarters in Birmingham, the other hotels’ management and the swift MPW expansion? “I just see opportunities,” he says. “And I keep control by putting people in place with better skills than me. Like my chef director [Andrew Bennett] who worked at MPW for nine years, and does the menu with Marco. The same with marketing, purchasing and finance. And Ros Harwood, my PA, she runs the company – don’t tell her that! She knows all the detail! “The challenge is prioritising – working out what to do next when there are loads of opportunities around. I’m a control freak – we’re going at 100mph and you only need to be five degrees off to be heading in completely different directions. So I insist on management meetings every Wednesday for two hours, and a full day once a month. “Communications are also hard. People send me emails and are then phoning me before I’ve had a chance to read them. That’s where Marco’s clever – he has no email and a crap old phone. You either speak to him or meet him to get things done, and have to physically show him what you’re after. He gets a lot more done that way.” As for his own success, Taplin still regards that divorce as the key: “In a way, my ex-wife did me the best favour ever, because that split was what made me go.” n

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“Birmingham’s got such a great musical heritage, so it’s nice to see the old musos popping in to support young performers. And people do go on to great things from here”

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Man about the Jam House Opened by Jools Holland in 1999, The Jam House in Birmingham is still packing them in and will soon double in size. BQ editor Steve Dyson meets general manager John Bunce It was a scene John Bunce will never forget: a line of renowned rock stars all queuing outside The Jam House, in Birmingham, waiting to pay on the door to see soul legend Ben E. King. There was Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin fame, Ray Wood from The Move, ELO and Wizzard, and Steve Gibbons, whose band once toured with The Who, and a few other recognisable faces. “I know Robert – first name terms – and so I quizzed him on why he was here,” says Bunce. “Why was he paying, why was he so keen to get in? He told me: ‘We owe Ben E. King. When we were on tour in the 1980s, we shared the same record company and he insisted Led Zeppelin support him on his world tour. That’s what kicked off our whole career.” This is just one of the stories that Bunce recounts from his 11-plus years as general manager at The Jam House, a venue that’s attracted more than 10,000 performances since

it was launched in 1999 by Jools Holland. The list is endless, but among the pictures on the walls of the venue in St Paul’s Square are Chaka Khan, The Stylistics, The Specials, The Beat, Edwin Starr, Bill Wyman, Ocean Colour Scene, Westlife and Buddy Greco. The Jam House regularly supports new talent, and with live performances five nights a week, Tuesdays to Saturdays, it’s during the early week that the “old guard” often come to see upcoming local bands. Bunce says: “Birmingham’s got such a great musical heritage, so it’s nice to see the old musos popping in to support young performers. And people do go on to great things from here. Reuben James, who now supports Sam Smith, was a keyboard player back in his early days. And Lawrence Jones, the blues guitarist, played here several times when he was breaking through. “And a lot of the bands who play here at the

weekend are made up of musos who have another life. We have Stuart Trotman, keyboard player with Up 4 The Downstroke – he’s also Peter Andre’s musical director. And Paul Reid, he plays the guitar here with Tru Groove, but his real job is musical director for Beverley Knight.” The names roll off Bunce’s tongue. But where did this nightclub life all start for him? Born in Brighton in the 1950s, Bunce moved to London in his late teens, getting his first job as a barman in the Empire Ballroom, Leicester Square. He must have made an impression, because the owners, Trusthouse Forte Leisure, picked him out for management training. The company became First Leisure, and he soon found himself working around the country at a variety of night-time venues: theatres, restaurants, discos, cabaret clubs – and even up at Blackpool Pier. “I’d be working in one place for six months and then move on,” recalls Bunce, smiling at the memory of Blackpool

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Pier days which ended at 3am and started again at 6am for the arcades. He first came to Birmingham in 1982 to work at The Night Out as assistant manager, where he met his future wife, Mary, a city girl. Then he opened The Dome in Birmingham in 1985 as general manager, staying for 18 months, before becoming what he described as an “itinerant fixer” at venues across the UK. More names flood the conversation, this time classic venues and English locations: Regals, Uxbridge; Krystals, Leicester; then Milton Keynes, Croydon, Sheffield – each for three or four months in his ‘special projects’ role, before returning to The Dome in Birmingham in 1990. By the mid-1990s, Bunce’s reputation was such that he became a regional manager for First Leisure, looking after 15 clubs in the Midlands and north, with his base at The Dome until 2000. Then First Leisure’s clubs were bought by Luminar Leisure, who returned Bunce to his special projects role. In 2004, his boss said: “We’d like you to take a look at The Jam House – it’s got a new general manager and he could do with some help.” After two weeks, that general manager left, and Bunce was asked to pick up the role. And despite changes in ownership, he’s been there ever since. The most recent owner is The Jam House Entertainments Ltd, with a second venue of the same name now open in Edinburgh. In Birmingham, The Jam House has eight full-time staff, and turns over an average of nearly £55,000 a week, or £2.7m a year. The maximum audience is 605, but Bunce prefers to limit numbers to 500 “for comfort and the ability to see the show”, with around 90 in the restaurant and 400-plus in the bar downstairs. “Jools Holland still has a personal link, which is great,” says Bunce. “He was part of the initiation of the entertainment strategy, and was very active in the first year, but became backseat when the business was sold.” The former Squeeze star now performs as the Jools Holland Rhythm ’n’ and Blues Orchestra, which is a 29-piece band. “You can imagine the ‘squeeze’ on stage when he’s playing here,” quips Bunce, pointing out the fairly compact stage and floor space. “That was one of the first challenges,” he says, “as I was so used to large venues with capacities of 2,000 and 3,000. When I came here there was an obvious need to increase revenue levels,

but it needed to be done in a person-to-person, customer-facing way. It was right that The Jam House was a more mature crowd, which understood the value of live performances and enjoyed what we did. So the challenge was to increase business without changing the audience dynamic too much. Rather than big advertising campaigns, it meant going out and trying to attract the kind of people who would enjoy what The Jam House had to offer. This was physical, personal stuff, going into companies, attending network meetings and business breakfasts, and slowly bringing people across and showing them who we were. “That worked, but the next challenge was keeping them regular. You see in the club world, three weeks out of four is regular. At The Jam House, a regular might come two or three times a year. So it was all about trying to improve that

return rate and, at the same time, increase the pool of customers we were dealing with. “Today, we have more than 32,000 on our database, and only 50% have Birmingham post codes. The others are from Gloucestershire, Warwickshire, Leicestershire and anywhere else within a 50-mile radius. “The other challenge is being here such a long time! Before The Jam House, I was usually a couple of years at the most at any venue, and that’s all about creating an initial business and then letting someone else maintain it. But here it was not just bringing trading up to profitable levels, it was striving to maintain that year after year after year. Yet since 2004, we only wobbled during the recession, and even then we still made a profit.” Now aged 56, Bunce lives in Barnt Green, just south of Birmingham, where he and Mary

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“If you’re coming to experience a night at The Jam House it has to be as good as the last time you came in. The challenge is to make sure it’s a little bit better”

brought up six children, now all in their mid-20s and 30s. It sounds like a busy home life, so why has he stayed at The Jam House – with all its late nights – for so long? “Because I enjoy the sociability of this live entertainments environment,” he says. “I enjoy working with the people here and the majority of customers. And I’ve enjoyed not only maintaining what we do, so that those regulars who return after three, six and nine months get what they’re expecting, but also bringing the offering up so we exceed that expectation. “I do get criticised sometimes that it’s all a bit repetitive or formulaic. But with the sort of audience I’m dealing with it has to have the stability of offering. If you’re coming to experience a night at The Jam House it has to be as good as the last time you came in. The challenge is to make sure it’s a little bit better.

“We do that by keeping the music as varied as possible. Yes, jazz and blues, but also soul, reggae, rock. And we move the restaurant menu around, review the drinks offering – but nothing so profound that people feel it’s changing too much.” Bunce reveals that things are due to change in a big way in the next year, with plans being hatched to more than double the size of The Jam House into space next door and above. “We are going to grow the physical size for a secondary performance area and to create opportunities for private dining. The engine house is the main stage, but we get a lot of customers who’ll appreciate getting away from the hubbub. Now we’re just waiting for the investment to refit.” Meanwhile, the show goes on as Bunce and his staff gear up for the Christmas season, when

huge chunks of The Jam House’s revenue comes through the door. “The first three weeks of December bring us more revenue than we’ll take in June, July and August put together.” We pause as Bunce takes a call, and then again as a member of staff comes to ask about a booking, and I watch the relaxed but experienced hand at work. I can understand why this works for his mature audience, which range from music fans in their late 20s to those in their 50s and 60s. Bunce agrees, although he’s keen to include his staff: “We’re particularly friendly, not just at the front door but at the bar, in the restaurant. And yes, I suppose I come into that equation. Because I’m there. I’m the recognisable face. Problems with your steak? I’m there to sort it. I know the clientele because I’ve been here so long, and people know me. That personal touch works.” n

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Thaiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the limit for Juree

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Juree Chidwick, whose Thai restaurants delight diners in Birmingham’s poshest suburbs, has just won an ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ award. Maureen Messent finds out all about her

Go back 27 years to suck the marrow of this foodie folk saga, to when a little girl twigged that selling banana leaves twisted into boat shapes and stuffed with savoury rice could be sold to raise her sweetie money. Seven-year-old Jureerat wasn’t tall enough to trade across her mother’s stall, so she’d pop her head round its corner to cajole customers in a small southern Thailand town, a 14-hour train ride from Bangkok. Another of her early bestsellers were pumpkin slices in a fragrant syrup that her clientele carried home in little clay pots. Her family were well-known for their cooking skills, ran restaurants in the town and beyond, often watched by the child and her evenyounger sister until they could cater for their own parents. Juree – her shortened name – had copied every culinary move her mother made, knew every spice, every wheeze. And never ran out of her sweetie money. That little girl’s aged 34 now, and still cooking up typhoons among Thai food fans, but it’s in Moseley and Harborne these days, with a third restaurant perhaps in the planning. She arrives to meet me at Sabai Sabai (the words mean ‘relax and enjoy’ and are never to be described as the ghastly English slang ‘chillax’) in Harborne in gales of laughter. Aspen-slender despite two babies, a mane of black satin hair and a waft of fragrance, she’s trying to explain that she gets moments when her confidence evaporates. “I have to run to my mum or my husband for reassurance,” she says. When Juree was nine,

her mother remarried to a Welsh IT wizard working in Thailand who was so proud of his new wife and step-daughters that he couldn’t wait to whisk them to slate-grey Bagillt, a small town overlooking the Dee Estuary, near Holywell in Flintshire, Wales. There, says Juree, they were the local attraction as the only Thais in the town. And from being top of her primary class in Thailand, she was suddenly in the bottom set, relegated by her lack of English. “Not only that,” she says, “but the children all round me were often cheeky to their teachers. In Thailand, where education is highly prized, that’s unthinkable”. Mum, as often before, waded in. Her little daughter went home after school to another two hours’ English lesson at the kitchen table. “You’re here now and you’ve got to fit in. Learning the language is the only way.” Not quite in Juree’s case. The friends she made were soon following her home from school for Thai food tasters: coconut soup on a wet Welsh

Mum, as often before, waded in. Her little daughter went home after school to another two hours’ English lesson at the kitchen table. “You’re here now and you’ve got to fit in. Learning the language is the only way”

winter night was a great leveller. And Juree triumphed over her mother by being quicker to learn how to turn out pizzas, By the time she reached Holywell High School, a teacher had been found to polish off Juree’s English. Play-time meant extra lessons. But it all paid off when she sailed through to Bradford University’s Business School where she knew she wanted a career in commerce, but was unsure about what kind of commerce. She was learning all the time, though. Red wine left her with hang-overs, and that lovely chap in Media Studies – who’d been reared in a Birmingham suburb called Moseley – was utterly gorgeous. He was called Torquil Chidwick, and after graduating the young couple had to start earning their livings. Juree, by now swept up in Moseley’s cosmopolitan buzz, knew exactly what to do: she and her beloved Torq must open a small restaurant there, the sort of place that felt less a commercial enterprise, more like dropping into a neighbour’s home for a meal. At which point they came across an empty cafe in Woodbridge Road, closed following a bankruptcy but up for rent again. Moneyman Torq raced round to raise cash, only for the landlord to announce he’d had a better offer. Good old Torq knew he had to top it and – bingo! – he did. With a £15,000 loan from Juree’s parents, £10,000 and a lot of goodwill from Torquil’s mother, who let them move into her Selly Park home while they prepared to open, and help

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from a chap who advised them on the design. Then they found a small flat opposite their restaurant – already known as Sabai Sabai – and guess who moved in to cook for its early days? “It was one big room, one small room,” says Juree. “We had no heating. Either we shivered or sweated. Torquil shouldered everything. Mum and I cooked. We offered four starters and six mains to 25 diners at 12 tables when we opened a couple of days before Christmas 2003. We couldn’t afford to advertise, so we told everyone we were in business.” And everyone turned up, stunning Torquil and his brother front of house. In the kitchen, mum and Juree had occasional differences of opinion but no tantrums. The Thai way is a couple of hours of frosty silence. Customers told them as they left after that first night that the food was great – but easier on the spices, eh? Soon they needed to expand to 44 covers. The Chidwicks succeeded by working

Motherhood and work can tear you apart, she says, but Torquil is a diamond, the man who keeps both restaurants on the straight and narrow and Juree sane. 18-hour days, spurred on by their realisation that Brummies of cultivated palates loved the subtleties of Thai food. They’d decided to open this first restaurant straight after university in 2003, “before we had any commitments that might put us off”. And then, in 2008, with 70 family and close friends they flew to Thailand for an island wedding, finally becoming the Chidwicks. Back home, it wasn’t long before they thought ‘why stop in Moseley?’ when there was a huge shell of a building in nearby Harborne’s wellheeled High Street begging for adoption. Back they went for a loan from HSBC and family members. The second Sabai Sabai was soon on the way. So was Oliver, their first child, and both parents were out on their feet most of the time. There was the baby to rear, the bank to pay off, chefs weren’t always the smiling people portrayed. Supposing Thai went out of fashion? They opened in Harborne in October 2011,

traded mightily over the festive season, and raised the rafters with a New Year party to toast Sabai Sabai success in 2012. But nobody knew the heroics of the glamorous barmaid dishing out pints, tots, and snifters as midnight approached. The ‘sod’s law’ of seasonal staffing hiccups meant Juree stepped in exactly 12 hours before the due date of little Lily. Somehow she kept smiling, reached home in the not-so-small hours, snatched some sleep, and then joined her family for a carvery meal, leaving young Lily to slide into the world a considerate day late. “Motherhood and work can tear you apart,” she says, but Torquil is a diamond, the man who keeps both restaurants on the straight and narrow and Juree sane. Oliver and Lily, by the way, now five and almost four, already lecture their mother when they see her popping sweets, and after being hurried past all those large ‘family’ fast food dives they already know that chips should be an occasional treat, not a daily staple. Juree’s constantly juggling her life’s compartments. When she heard she had won Entrepreneur of the Year at the respected

West Midlands Woman of the Year awards last summer, she was “knocked backwards with pleasure”. And then totally unruffled that she had to fly back from her family holiday in Majorca to collect it, then returning to her resort early the next morning. “You choose your path, then stick to it,” she says. “Soon you thrive on your daily effort. And yes, you do talk shop when your husband takes you out to dinner. You learn every job you want staff to tackle, and you don’t stop until you get it absolutely right. I knew every inch of the Woodbridge Road loos...” You can’t miss Sabai Sabai in Harborne. It floats on night-time pavements like a liner, its tables redolent of pleasures ahead, its wine glasses a-glint, its heavy linen napery for those of us yet to distinguish our Boo Nim Tord (soft-shell crab) from our Ped Makam Jarn Ron (duck in palm sugar flavoured with tamarind, onions ,and dried shallots). The Chidwicks were warned that their latest restaurant could prove too near their Moseley starting-point. Wrong. When food’s as memorable as this, the discerning will hound it down, again and again. n

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Alan Lusty set up adi Group 25 years ago, and it’s now well over the £70m turnover mark with corporates like JLR, Cadbury and BAE Systems among its clients. Ian Halstead reports

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Lusty’s Formula 1 for engineering success British society has long been bedevilled by the belief – perpetuated most stridently by politicians, pushy parents and providers of expensive education – in a direct correlation between academic achievements and success. We may be in an era of apparent social mobility, but the perception lingers that one can only rise to singular heights by attending the right school and university... hardly surprising when the present prime minister, chancellor and education secretary were all privately educated and graduated from Oxford. So it’s a telling moment when Alan Lusty – asked casually about his childhood – readily admits flunking his 11-plus. “I wasn’t very academic,” says the chief executive of adi Group. “And I didn’t do very well in my GCSEs. I did a four-year apprenticeship, but have never had formal business training. I learn by my mistakes, and if something fails, or I was wrong, I’ll change and adapt. I will never fall out with a director who takes a decision which turns out to be wrong. We might fall out though, if they have failed to take a decision.” Adi Group’s headquarters in Kings Norton, Birmingham provides an array of engineering services and solutions, across five industrial sectors, so touring its 25,000 sq ft building is a surprise. There’s no dust on the floors of the engineering work-spaces or fabrication shops, the changing-rooms are spotless, and throughout the open-plan offices, there’s not one overflowing in-tray in sight. “We do aim for a paperless work-place,” admits Lusty. “It’s not always possible, some paper is generated by clients or suppliers, but we invested £1m in fitting out this place and I’m

very proud of it.” Even adi’s software designers tap away silently on their keyboards, not in the solitary cubicles beloved by so many IT folk. Each meeting room bears the name of a famous British Formula 1 driver. “I love everything about F1,” says Lusty. “As a sport and an industry, it’s got the ‘right first time’ approach, a tremendous team ethic, it’s incredibly competitive, and focuses on innovation and advanced engineering. Their business model is dedicated to continuous improvement, and so is ours.” The company – ‘adi’ is its branded acronym name for ‘automation, design and installation’ – has just celebrated its 25th year. In that time, the group has swelled to 450 staff, running 22 separate service divisions throughout the UK, with annual revenue north of £70m, and BAE Systems, Cadbury and JLR among its clients. Focusing on diverse business sectors – aerospace, automotive, defence, food and beverages and petro-chemical – enabled growth to continue during recession, and its rolling five-year business plan targets £110m turnover by 2018. “In the last ten years, we’ve quadrupled sales, and although automotive, our most successful division, has been trading for less than four years, it already works for most [top names] in the UK, so we’re very optimistic. “The breadth and scope of our activities is often

crucial in winning business, as being able to deliver across so many disciplines really opens doors.” Nor do the group’s challenging targets ever deflect Lusty from the belief that slow and steady is the way to go: “We aim to develop one or two new blue-chip clients every year, so we have an in-house team researching and identifying potential targets up to two years in advance. “Around 60% of clients are international companies operating from multiple sites, but we also work with a lot of small and mediumsized companies. I don’t think we’re the type of company suitable for flotation, but that’s not something we’ve considered as we’re very happy with our current structure.” His journey, from 11-plus reject to successful entrepreneur, makes an inspiring tale, not least for those youngsters who don’t embrace the academic world. “I was lucky. I knew what I wanted to be from the age of 10,” says Lusty. “I had an older brother who used to bring mates home from the pub. One day, I talked to one who was an instrument technician, and it just sounded amazing. I thought: ‘Wow. That is the job for me.’” However, things didn’t go quite so smoothly when some years later, he sought rather more formal career advice at school in Wednesbury.

“I love everything about F1. As a sport and an industry, it’s got the ‘right first time’ approach, a tremendous team ethic, it’s incredibly competitive, and focuses on innovation and advanced engineering. Their business model is dedicated to continuous improvement, and so is ours”

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“I was told I had no chance, because no nearby companies did instrumentation,” he recalls. “Then I was sent for one interview by the careers advisor, but that was for a toolmaker. They did offer me the job, but I turned it down, and the head called me in to find out why.” In his mid-teens, and still determined to pursue the job of his dreams, he applied to several firms – all within push-bike distance of home. Lusty’s single-minded approach finally earned him work with Oldbury-based chemical manufacturer, Albright & Wilson on an ‘instrument’ apprenticeship, where he became a qualified technician, and by the age of just 22 he’d become an engineer with the group’s petro-chemical operations. “To be honest, I was in at the deep end and it was a steep learning curve,” Lusty says. But four years on, he was hungry to work on ever bigger projects, which drove him to apply for a group engineer’s position at the company’s Cumbria base – but without telling his line manager. With his frustration evident, he joined an engineering consultancy called Lan-Dec, but although this gave him useful experience in new sectors, including water, waste, food and nuclear, his desire to become his own boss was evident. Finally, he quit, persuaded his wife Tina, also an engineer, to leave her job, and adi was born in 1990. “I didn’t want to run just another consultancy, I wanted to set up a one-stop shop for engineering, delivering services across as many business sectors as possible,” says Lusty. “My plan was to set up a new division, or enter a new discipline, every 18 months or so. I realised not everything would succeed, but I’ve always adhered to the 80-20 rule. If 80% of what you try works, you have to live with the other 20%.” Their first employee was Andy Rowberry, an electrician and supervisor who the Lustys got on well with. “He had a good temperament, so I wanted him to run our first ‘discipline’, which was electrical installations,” says Lusty. “He’s still with us, as contracts director for adi Electrical.” Honesty and relentless drive are his two most evident qualities, but loyalty completes a virtuous hat-trick, and not just at the personal level. The Birmingham-based arm of Barclays Corporate has been with adi since its formation, although Lusty confesses the bank was on a shortlist of one when the fledgling business

“I didn’t want to run just another consultancy, I wanted to set up a one-stop shop for engineering, delivering services across as many business sectors as possible” needed start-up finance. “I researched a business plan, decided we’d need £15,000 to get off the ground, and went to meet all four High Street banks in Redditch. Two refused, another was very belittling about my proposals, but Barclays agreed to lend me the money and we’ve stayed with them,” he says. However, the various individuals who’ve handled adi’s corporate overdraft facility over the years have really had it easy as the money’s never been touched. “Tina and myself have got two great children, a lovely house and a nice car, but we’re not people who’d go out and spend fifteen grand on a flashy watch, or throw money at possessions,” says Lusty. “The money we make goes right back into the business. Succession planning has been a particular focus, so we have a strong senior management team in place, and the divisional MDs drive the business forward. “We also have a disaster plan, so if I wasn’t here tomorrow the company would be fine, because the branding, structure, systems and processes are all in place.” However, lightning bolts aside, Lusty will definitely be in place for many tomorrows,

and his desire to take the business toward its 30th anniversary and beyond is evident as he outlines adi’s corporate social responsibility commitments. The group’s been active within the Business in the Community charity for a decade, but its most ambitious project is being carried out with North Bromsgrove High School. “I’m an avid believer in apprenticeships, and in 2014 we launched our own academy with the aim to build the best-quality apprenticeship programme in the UK,” Lusty says. “I think it was a retrograde step, for pupils, teachers and industry, when schools took out all their workshops, so we’re setting up a preapprenticeship academy so youngsters can learn about and use the tools and equipment they’d see in an engineering environment. “From the age of 14, we’ll bring pupils in, ten at a time, for one day a week over two years, and then we’ll link them into the apprenticeship programme. Kids will learn about manufacturing as a core element of studies, and employers will finally be able to get youngsters with the correct skillset.” Which would certainly be a wonderful and longlasting legacy for Lusty to leave. n

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In the 1980s, he adapted the earliest computers to help teach violent juveniles. Today, John Shermerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dashboard devices for tablets and smartphones are transforming energy consumption. Steve Dyson reports

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It sounds like a nightmare: trying to teach illiterate, violent teenagers to read when they’re likely to throw a chair across the classroom if they get anything wrong. That was the challenge a young John Shermer faced in the early 1980s, with a classroom of young offenders at what used to be known as the ‘borstal’ secure unit in Erdington, Birmingham. “I was trying to teach what must have been the worst set of pupils in the city – child rapists and murderers among them,” recalls Shermer, now aged 59. “One kid was a double murderer, with a Romany background, who couldn’t read or write. You posed a question to this guy and, if he didn’t know the answer, rather than suffer humiliation he’d just pick up a chair and chuck it across the room. “Do you remember those early, basic BBC Micro computers? Well, we had a couple of those, and I found that in front of a computer screen this kid could sweat his frustration off, because the computer didn’t judge him, and he just wiped the screen if he got anything wrong. “It transformed his attitude, and he told me he wanted to learn to read. So we devised a simple, reward-based word game. If you spell a word, you get to play a game. But he could fail privately, and so not lose his temper. “Over time, he started to succeed and build his

confidence. His crimes were so bad that he’ll never leave prison, but he was motivated and did learn to read and write.” This was a ‘lightbulb’ experience for Shermer. Fast-forward 30-odd years and he’s the cofounder and chief technical officer of AIMlisted LightwaveRF, pioneering technology that allows businesses and homeowners to control

“They asked if we could replicate it in other schools, so we did. Then we moved it into day centres for the mentally and physically handicapped. These people were as good as written off. But within weeks, they were queueing up outside the room just before I arrived, because technology got them excited. Once again, the computer wasn’t judging them.

“You posed a question to this guy and, if he didn’t know the answer, rather than suffer humiliation he’d just pick up a chair and chuck it across the room” power, lighting and heating from smartphones or tablets. But back then, Shermer was just a teacher – although one who’d always loved electronics, building his own hi-fi system at the age of 11. And he had the confidence to find the right people to tell about his ideas. Once he realised how a basic computer could motivate young offenders, Shermer wrote to Adrianne Jones, then head of social services at Birmingham City Council, explaining: “We’ve got some opportunities here.” She agreed to meet him. “Once the council saw what we were doing they gave me a budget to buy another ten computers and train other teachers. We went from not putting any kids in for exams to putting all kids in for exams.

We humans make all kinds of assumptions on what these people can do. Technology doesn’t, so they were learning.” Shermer frowns as he remembers how Birmingham threw away what he says was a “massive chance” to lead the UK in this new form of education. Camden Council had asked if the system could be rolled out for its special schools and homes, and Shermer went to his council bosses with an idea. He recalls: “I told Adrianne how this could take the burden away from Birmingham tax-payers, how we could make it into a self-sustaining organisation. But she lost heart, and the council dropped the chance. “For them, I think it all got a bit too commercial, but I didn’t mean it in a profit sense. I just

Building tech that puts us in control

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thought it was unreasonable to ask Birmingham to build something that Camden used. For me, Camden should have paid – and were willing to. It should have been the start of something huge, but was an opportunity missed, and I left.” Instead, Shermer started investigating how technology could make level playing fields for disabled kids playing computer games. He was inspired by an Atari joystick adapted with a simple straw mechanism to allow disabled players to ‘press’ a virtual fire button by blowing. On the back was a sticker saying the joystick was developed by a software engineer called John Sinclair, and so he called him up. Before long, the two Johns were designing and developing all sorts of appliances for profoundly disabled children.

Before long, the two Johns were designing and developing all sorts of appliances for profoundly disabled children. “It was hugely satisfying, we must have changed the lives of thousands of people over the years”

“It was hugely satisfying,” Shermer remembers. “We must have changed the lives of thousands of people over the years. We were working with children who’d been in serious road traffic accidents, with smashed vertebrae, where they can do little more than bat an eyelid. We were getting them to use Play Stations again, and developed a train that a kid drove with his chin. “There were chin controls to work things like TVs, video recorders, turn lights on and off and make phone calls. It created big savings for the NHS, moving patients from intensive care into

slightly less intensive care, less expensive but also restoring some self-esteem and privacy.” The two Johns realised they needed to go mass market to make a serious business. In the late 1990s, they developed their first product: a textbased, touch-screen handset that used infrared radio commands to change TV channels and switch lights on and off. Their company was called JSJS Designs – the acronym spelling out both their names – based in Willenhall, in the Black Country. The entrepreneurs soon got talking to a Taiwanese

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business to help produce radio-frequency devices for every light and mains switch in the home. “Our skill was in making the technology not only easy but also retrofitable,” says Shermer. “We had to devise ways to work with all these different remote controls – sometimes reverseengineering to control them.” Before long, the company was re-launched as LightwaveRF, raising £2m in funding by floating on the AIM stock market in 2007. It developed warehouse, distribution, branding and sales deals with the likes of Siemens, B&Q, Maplin and Megaman. Not everything went smoothly, says Shermer: “The hoops Siemens had to jump through before they decided anything were quite extraordinary. Once they said we’d have to wait six weeks because one person was away on holiday. So we sacked them! They said: ‘You can’t do that – we’re Siemens!’ But we just couldn’t work like that. Now we do it all on our own, negotiating with manufacturers, distributors and sales outlets directly.” Sinclair left the business a couple of years ago, and Shermer recruited expertise at different levels of LightwaveRF. “We’re a technical business,” he says. “We weren’t great at things like chasing invoices and transportation. So I pulled other people into the business, because I’m a great believer in getting people in who are better than me.” Shermer is now LightwaveRF’s chief technical officer with his “gifted team”, while experienced businessmen Mike Lord and Barry Gamble work as chief executive and chairman respectively, looking after operations and City perspectives. “This frees us up to get on with our products,” Shermer says, describing how LightwaveRF now sells more than 60 lines in 230 Maplin and 300 B&Q stores, as well to the electrical wholesale sector and the new-build trade. After various venture capital investments, Shermer himself owns less than 10% of the company, but is unconcerned: “I’d rather own 10% of something worth a fortune than 100% of something worth nothing!” LightwaveRF, now based on the Innovation Campus at Faraday Wharf in Birmingham city centre, reached a turnover of £3m in 2014, and plans to reach £30m by 2018. Its leading products are sockets, light switches and radiator valves that can be retrofitted into homes

“Now all the big household names are approaching us. It’s close to becoming a dot.com thing. People are almost competing to own it. It’s about to explode” and controlled by remote devices. But its real expertise is developing one device to control all these different switches from a single tablet or phone, from anywhere in the world. “Our systems can save individual homes hundreds of pounds a year,” says Shermer, “because they completely change the way you heat your house. You can control each room’s temperature individually from a virtual control centre – a dashboard for your home. “It’s the same with lighting. Using the same device, you can make lights go on and off in each room so it looks like you’re in if you’re away. Basically anything electrically powered – like all those switches behind your TV – can be controlled from one handset. And this means you can reduce the amount of energy used. “Our slogan could be ‘One home, one app’, because you can already do those things with your suppliers, like British Gas, but they’re all in silos. We’re the only ones doing that joinedupness, all in one place. Now we’re applying this to offices as well.” LightwaveRF’s success is not only in its products, it’s also in the type of radio frequency used. As the company’s title suggests, it uses ‘lightwave’ radio frequencies, much better at penetrating buildings than those currently used by the sector, and with simpler electronic

language. Industry giants are slowly accepting that this approach is both more practical and less expensive. Shermer, who’s married with four grown up children, says: “We used to be chasing the market’s interest, but now all the big household names are approaching us. It’s close to becoming a dot.com thing. People are almost competing to own it. It’s about to explode.” But it’s not just financial success that Shermer’s after. Unsurprisingly, given his borstal teaching days, he also wants LightwaveRF’s technology to help society. He says: “The iPad has destigmatised products that the disabled and elderly need for independence. And you can use remote control centres to monitor the elderly, for instance warning you if ‘Doris’ is not moving around as normal. “I’ve been speaking to the NHS and they’ve told me they have 104,000 vulnerable people in Birmingham alone. So how can they use our technology to make that more manageable? We need to put our products in front of people who need it, because we all live in the same world. “It’s about taking the medical badge off this kind of stuff. And in doing that, you can take 75% of the cost off. This technology should be mainstream, and the elderly and disabled should benefit.” n

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Mushtaq Khan wants Greater Birmingham’s professional business services sector to have a

Man with a mission to change our world Within half an hour of meeting Mushtaq Khan, I realise that he’s a driven man with a mission to change the world. Or at least to change the corner of our world that’s increasingly called Greater Birmingham. The original reason for sitting down with Khan is to ask how his year as president of Birmingham Law Society is going. But we’ll come to that later, as it’s clear he’s got something much more important to tell me. By the end of this year, he hopes to launch Greater Birmingham One Voice, a new lobbying group made up of representatives from organisations representing the region’s legal, financial and professional business services sector. He wants this group – let’s abbreviate it to GBOV for now – to quickly assert itself as a

major influencer of local government policy, helping to attract inward investment and grow the region to its full potential. And he’s already got some of the big names on board: his own Birmingham Law Society; the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce; the Royal Institute of British Architects; the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales; the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors; and the Birmingham Insurance Institute. “A lot of those organisations currently work in silos,” says Khan, aged 49. “What we need now is joined-up thinking to create a collective, much stronger and more coherent voice.” But what gives GBOV the right to demand such a role? He reminds me that the legal, financial and professional business services sector is

worth some £23bn across the Midlands region, with 21,000 companies employing 220,000 people – one fifth of the working population. He says: “One of the problems in the past has been organisations who claim to ‘represent’ the region but have no mandate. Our sector, however, employs so many people, which means we’re already contributing in major ways both economically and socially. And we have a mandate from all those organisations’ members. Now we need to make sure our voice is being heard, and that it’s a constructive but powerful voice. “Greater Birmingham is in an incredibly competitive market in terms of attracting business and inward investment to this region. We don’t only need people to start up here, we also need to attract what’s known as ‘onshoring’

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big say in regional affairs. BQ editor Steve Dyson finds out more over lunch

– where companies such as HSBC are moving large chunks of offices to Birmingham. “With property costs so high in London, there are many big corporates considering moving offices to the regions, and you can bet they’re checking out all the cities. Why should they come here? We as a region have to put forward a strong case, and I believe [GBOV] can help the region to do this.” Khan reckons he’s already got the ear of the likes of Neil Rami, chief executive of Marketing Birmingham, whose Business Birmingham arm is charged with inward investment. “He [Rami] sees the importance of trying to attract businesses with our young population, our university graduates, our talent pool. And we have the property, the infrastructure – the roads, rail, and growing airport – to talk about, as well as the food and the culture.” But there’s so much more that needs to be done, according to Khan, and that’s where he feels GBOV can help. “We’re just not very good at promoting ourselves,” he says. “Manchester is already the so-called ‘northern powerhouse’, and they’ve got the ear of the Chancellor. We even saw President Xi Jinping from China sidestep Birmingham to go to Manchester, so the writing is on the wall. We have a lot of catching up to do or we’ll end up losing out. “It always surprises me that we’re the ‘first city’

“It always surprises me that we’re the ‘first city’ outside of London but we’re just not great at promoting ourselves. That has to come from the business sector”

outside of London but we’re just not great at promoting ourselves. That has to come from the business sector. In legal services alone, we’re encouraging more growth – for example, Hogan Lovells has just opened a Birmingham office. But we can’t rest on our laurels. “We’ve got to make sure people are convinced that Greater Birmingham is the best place for law, for financial and professional business services. The politicians will have their views, but we businesses have to roll up our sleeves and help the region improve, to help it face the new challenges of devolution, the forthcoming EU referendum and whatever else.” The GBOV lobbying group is Khan’s own idea, and so once it’s up and running he’s happy to initially chair it, meeting with the heads of all partner organisations “at least quarterly” to address key issues, releasing joint statements to influence decision-makers, and holding joint events. “I’m passionate about law,” says Khan, “but I’m equally passionate about Birmingham. It’s incredible how it’s changed in the last 20 years.

But I think there’s still a lot more to do. And I’ve realised that I may not get this opportunity again, so if I can play a role in shaping Birmingham in a positive way, that’s what I want to achieve.” It’s a fine ambition for a lad born in Hay Mills, Birmingham, and schooled at local state schools before taking Law at York University. His career started at the Equality and Human Rights Commission before he worked for a series of Birmingham solicitors: Sydney Mitchell, McGrath & Co, Lee Crowder and Gateleys. He started in legal aid, assisting tenants in disputes with councils and housing associations, before switching sides and representing landlords. In 2010 he became a partner at Freeth Cartwright – now rebranded as Freeths – where he’s national head of housing. “Law firms used to deal with all sorts of issues,” says Khan. “Family law, conveyancing, legal disputes, criminal cases – all under one roof. That’s changed nowadays, and firms are more focused in niche areas and specialities. “It’s an expectation from clients that you’ll give

BUSINESS LUNCH bqlive.co.uk

“Housing inflation caused by the lack of housing has become a big crisis, especially when you’re trying to attract and retain quality workforces, because not enough people can afford their own homes”

them good legal advice. But now they’re looking for solutions to their problems, and in order to do that you need to know not only the law but also your client’s business and where they’re trying to get. You have to immerse yourself in the sector, or your advice won’t be complete in terms of a client’s business needs.” Khan is certainly immersed, spending a sizeable chunk of his time as a board member of Acclaim Housing Group. And he believes there’s a “significant” housing problem in the UK, driven by a lack of affordable homes. He says: “They’re [the Government] talking about encouraging first-time buyers, but housing inflation caused by the lack of housing

has become a big crisis, especially when you’re trying to attract and retain quality workforces, because not enough people can afford their own homes. “In the 1960s – I remember my late father telling me – it was perfectly possible for the average working man to buy his own house and, if he was careful, to pay off the mortgage within ten years. That’s almost impossible now in great swathes of the country. Instead there’s significant amounts of debt that will pass from one generation to another.” As well as Freeths and Acclaim, Khan’s other focus in recent years has been Birmingham Law Society, the largest outside of London in England

and Wales with more than 4,400 members. Khan describes it as “incredibly active”, with 12 committees working in various practice areas to “represent, support and promote” members. He cites the employment law committee which this year has provided detailed feedback to seven consultation papers from the Government and national bodies. Khan, who’s been a Birmingham Law Society council member for six years, is now more than half way through his year as president. He’s already helped raise more than £33,000 for his chosen charity – the ‘Tiny Babies, Big Appeal’, for premature babies at Birmingham Women’s Hospital. What else does he want to achieve?

BUSINESS LUNCH bqlive.co.uk

“Firstly, to make sure I leave it in a better place than I found it – stronger and more successful,” says Khan. “Secondly, making sure we’re promoting Birmingham and the region as a centre of legal excellence to capture inward investment and growth. “Thirdly, to help raise the profile of the economic and social value provided by the legal profession to the city and region. And fourthly, to improve the connectivity between the city’s legal, financial and professional business services to speak with one voice to better promote the sector and the city [where GBOV comes in].” Khan lives in Hall Green, Birmingham, with his wife Samina, a primary school teacher, and describes himself as a man of many layers: “I’m a Brummie. I’m English. I’m British. I’m a European. I’m of Pakistani heritage. Not necessarily all in that order, but that gives you an idea.” It’s this eclectic background that’s driving Khan to make a success of the soon-to-be-launched GBOV lobbying group: “These are such exciting times for the region, but it will be so easy to get left behind. That’s why I want [GBOV] to be playing a part in driving the city. Members of all our organisations will be feeding in ideas about what we’re facing as a city. We’ll make statements, exert influence and suggest positive ideas – and we’ll be able to say this is based on what our members are saying. “It needs to be brave and have traction so it gets people sitting up and listening. But I don’t want it to be a barrier. I want it to be an enabler. We’ll be saying: ‘Have you thought about this, and this?’ They will be powerful suggestions, based on what our members think, and what we think as a collective. This sort of influence is key to the city that I love, the city that deserves better.” Although Greater Birmingham One Voice is the working title, Khan admits this detail may change. But whatever its final name, he’s determined to launch it: “We have the mandate. We want our unified, powerful voice to help the region grow. It’s not going to happen if we leave it in the hands of politicians.” n

Simpsons Restaurant We’re excited to be at Simpsons, because neither of us have visited the renowned Michelin Star-holder since its major refurbishment this summer. It’s a Tuesday, and so chef owner Andreas Antona is away, as is chef director Luke Tipping. But we’re more than capably looked after by sous chef Leo Kattou. We each choose the £65 five-course lunch – mine for carnivores: crab with avocado, cucumber and radishes; chunks of monkfish grilled with cauliflowers, seaweed and dill; a warm, crispy duck egg with Jerusalem artichokes, hazelnut and truffle pesto; loin of venison with lingonberries and rutabaga (a tasty cross between turnips and cabbage); and a honey parfait, with fennel and yoghurt sorbet, and lemon and poppy seedcake. Khan is vegetarian so also has the duck egg and honey dessert, but then enjoys salt-baked beetroot, wild mushroom risotto and roasted pumpkin. And that’s not to mention the delightful hors d’oeuvres (including, for me, a braised ox cheek medallion), palate cleansers and posh sweets with coffee. Khan says: “Great food. That was the best risotto ever! Wonderful presentation. Delightful flavours. I love relaxed dining, the open, spacious room and views. They have done a top job of refurbishing, and yet it’s not at all pompous.” I couldn’t have put it better, other than to say the tender venison’s to die for. Simpsons Restaurant, 20 Highfield Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham B15 3DU. To book, email info@simpsonsrestaurant.co.uk or call 0121 454 3434. More details at www.simpsonsrestaurant.co.uk

London 2 Paris 19th – 23rd May 2016 www.L2Prevolution.com

PROFILE Aston Business School

How the latest thinking in behavioural science is helping to give MBAs the ‘Aston Edge’ In his new book, The Social Brain: How Diversity Made the Modern Mind, Richard Crisp, Professor of Psychology at Aston Business School, argues that diversity is a ‘social ecology’ that is critical to our very survival as a species; that contact with different cultures was, and is, the essential element that fuels our creativity, innovation and growth. The book asserts that diversity was the key to our intellectual evolution and will be integral to helping us tackle the most pressing social, political and economic concerns of our time. DIVERSITY AND CREATIVITY The book explains the scientific studies that reveal a previously unexplored but critical component of the creativity puzzle – our social relationships. All of this evidence suggests that to maximise individual and creative potential we must embrace diversity both in our social and cultural relations and in our personal and professional lives. It shows how, when our social environments and social relations take us beyond our comfort zone, when they challenge norms, expectations, ideologies and beliefs, they can awaken our creative potential. The Social Brain ties the origins of the modern mind to the evolution of human society, and provides an entirely new insight into how we can harness the ingenuity and invention that reside within us all. THE ASTON EDGE Richard Crisp is established as one of the UK’s most dynamic, distinctive and distinguished behavioural scientists. His scientific contributions have provided new insights into how society shapes our behaviour, beliefs, attitudes and values. He is director of the Aston Behavioural Science Laboratory, a unique initiative amongst European business schools, which is developing a range of techniques that free the mind to innovate, explore, and maximise potential. This latest thinking in behavioural science is behind the Aston Edge, the new personal and professional development programme on the Aston MBA. Through a mix of workshops, team challenges, reflective learning, mentoring, networking, speaker events and other activities, the programme is designed to improve confidence, creativity, productivity and performance.

“The brain is like a muscle – you can train it, to help you perform better in the future.” Richard Crisp, Professor of Psychology, Aston Business School COMBINE STUDY WITH A FULL-TIME CAREER The Aston MBA is an intensive programme for professionals who have already made their mark in business and are ready to take their careers to the next level. It draws on our world-leading research and our global connections to create dynamic and agile business leaders. The Aston Executive Part-time MBA 30-month programme, updated for September 2016, is specifically designed for people who want to combine a full-time career with study. It offers flexibility, combining online learning with weekend study days at Aston Business School. This gives you the opportunity to enrich your learning through discussion of current business issues and applying your new skills and knowledge straight away in your professional practice. The newly redesigned course core modules will equip you with a thorough knowledge of the key business and management issues needed in modern business, while the MBA

project enables you to apply theory and method to real managerial issues in real organisations. STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD The Aston Edge professional development programme will help you develop your skills and make sure that you stand out from the crowd. Its flexible structure enables you to choose which areas of personal and professional development you wish to focus on.

To find out more about the Aston Executive Part-time MBA, visit our website www.astonmba.com/executive or contact our MBA recruitment manager by email to mba@aston.ac.uk or phone 0121 204 3100.

LEGAL AND FINANCE QUARTER Wealth Management Edition IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

SPECIAL FEATURE

Kleinwort Benson targets West Midlands growth Paul Bentley, head of entrepreneurs for Kleinwort Benson, meets with the region’s business leaders

(l-r) Jeremy Harrison, partner, Catalyst Corporate Finance, Paul Faulkner, chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, and Paul Bentley, head of entrepreneurs for Kleinwort Benson

INSIDE FOCUS: REGION OVERVIEW KLEINWORT BENSON INTERVIEW FINANCIAL PLANNING

Very Private & Client focused Lodders is a law firm built around outstanding legal advice and exceptional service to regional, national and international private clients. From business owners through to wealthy families, landowners, farmers and successful individuals, clients choose Lodders for our renowned technical expertise and our friendly, partner-led service. Our Private Client team is ranked top by both Legal 500 and Chambers, as well as being the first choice for many of the Midlands most successful individuals. You’ll find us away from the city lights. You’ll also find us discreet, friendly and very effective – always supporting your big decisions with our proven combination of technical innovation and thoughtful legal advice. We would welcome the opportunity to advise you. To begin the process simply contact your nearest Lodders office. We look forward to hearing from you. Martin P Green Senior Partner and head of the Private Client team Lodders Solicitors LLP

Stratford upon Avon office 01789 293259 Henley in Arden office 01564 792261 Cheltenham office 01242 228370

www.lodders.co.uk

@lodderslawyers

s o l ic it o r s

OVERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Financial services sector boosts growth prospects Ian Bailey Chartered MCSI President of the CISI Birmingham and West Midlands branch looks at the sectors power to increase wealth and employment The West Midlands is rightly famous around the globe for its quality engineering but the past few years have also seen a dramatic increase in the importance of the financial services sector within the region. The move into Birmingham by well-established City names is now creating career opportunities in the region with enhanced potential for further growth over the coming decade. In a recent paper prepared for the House of Commons (26 February 2015) the sector was identified as contributing nationally £126.9bn to the UK Economy in 2013/14, with the banking sector alone providing £21.4 bn in UK tax receipts over the fiscal year. Recent estimates suggest that approximately 50% of this is produced within the ‘Square Mile’. The West Midlands remains an attractive place to relocate business units, particularly with the spiralling labour costs in London. Deutsche Bank’s recent re-location to Brindley Place is estimated to have created circa 1,000 jobs and the recent announcement by HSBC is conservatively estimated to ultimately create a similar number of opportunities. A combination of significantly lower housing costs and cheap and effective public transport (compared to the London commute!) are seen as being attractive to the large financial institutions. In addition they see in the West Midlands a young and vibrant work force looking for quality employment. This growth and vibrancy is further encouraged by the proposed HS2 project. The region’s attractions could further be enhanced by developments in the financial markets over the coming few years. Serious economic forecasting is always a perilous exercise, attempted only by the foolish or the brave it seems, but the significant falls we have seen in commodity prices indicate that the global investment markets perceive a noticeable drop in demand over the next few years. If

this is correct then whilst it may mean that we avoid any further significant recessions it also, potentially, indicates that we could be entering a period of relatively slow economic growth. In this scenario it would be realistic to expect both inflation and interest rates to remain subdued, not far from current levels. It could also mean lower overall investment returns of circa 5% a year, rather less than the 7-10% investors have been encouraged to anticipate over the last three decades. If (a big “if”!) this situation develops then the financial services sector is likely to come under renewed pressure. Most organisations have priced their services around a base figure of 1% per annum of the funds managed. When investments were growing at 10% per annum this was competitive and acceptable to the market place but at 5% this becomes a very big slice of the overall return. The pressure will be on the institutions to reduce their charges and they, correspondingly, will seek to reduce their costs to maintain their margins. Legal and insurance costs are unlikely to reduce (not least because the financial services sector has still got a long way to go to win back the trust lost during the excesses before the 2008/9 credit crunch) so reduced operational costs are one of the only viable ways of achieving this. In this scenario relocating as many functions as possible away from the expensive Square Mile looks increasingly attractive and offers a huge opportunity to our region we must be ready to grasp. Underlying this is the need within the Financial Services sector for increased integrity to regain the trust of the general public. A move into the regions may be

“The West Midlands has huge potential to increase its importance in this vital sector to the UK economy bringing wealth and employment to our region”

a useful part of this process helping the sector to seem less ‘South East’ orientated and more relevant to the wider country. In this respect practitioner membership of financial services sector bodies, such as the Chartered Institute for Securities & Investment (CISI), is an important mark of professionalism. The CISI believes integrity is a key component of professionalism, defined as the effective combination of knowledge, skills and behaviour. None of this will alter the basic fact that London will remain a global, international financial services centre. However, the West Midlands has huge potential to increase its importance in this vital sector to the UK economy bringing wealth and employment to our region. This is not an occasion where we can be found wanting. The potential is exciting! n

Ian Bailey Chartered MCSI President of the CISI Birmingham and West Midlands branch and senior investment director at Investec Wealth and Investment

SPECIAL FEATURE bqlive.co.uk

The private bank Kleinwort Benson wants to help Greater Birmingham’s successful entrepreneurs plan their future financial security. BQ finds out more

Getting to know you - for better business and security As the UK’s economic recovery picks up speed, more and more privately-owned businesses are experiencing rapid growth. And this success is happening faster in Greater Birmingham than anywhere else outside of London, according to Kleinwort Benson. The private bank’s recent research has found that 381 private businesses in the region had annual profits of at least £2m, and of these 32% were growing at more than 50% per

year. As a result, Kleinwort Benson’s own business in the area has grown by 30% in the last 12 months. Paul Bentley, head of entrepreneurs at Kleinwort Benson, said: “Greater Birmingham is really showing its mettle as the UK’s second city, and entrepreneurialism is really flourishing there. Because of that, we’re meeting and helping more of the region’s successful entrepreneurs who need advice on what to do with their

wealth. And it’s often useful for this relationship to start at an early stage. “Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely place, as you are the person making day-to-day decisions on virtually everything. And so having conversations with those business leaders while their companies are still growing can be really useful – sitting down and asking them what it is they need. “That’s when Kleinwort Benson can start to

SPECIAL FEATURE bqlive.co.uk

(l-r) Jeremy Harrison, partner, Catalyst Corporate Finance, Paul Faulkner, chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, and Paul Bentley head of entrepreneurs for Kleinwort Benson

share its experience and ideas with business leaders. We can find out where they are heading with their businesses. And we can ask if they have the right team: do they have the right person giving them legal advice? Do they have the right person giving them corporate finance advice? “By getting to know entrepreneurs, it might be that we can open our contacts book and give them two or three names, perhaps local to them, people who have experience of working with entrepreneurs, and who might be able to help their business. “We’re not wanting to trample over existing relationships, but sometimes it’s good for entrepreneurs to have some outside input, even if they end up sticking with the same people. It’s all about making sure people they have the right teams around them to make the best

choices for their growing businesses and their eventual wealth.” To build its relationships with local entrepreneurs, Kleinwort Benson is organising a series of exclusive dinners in the Greater Birmingham area, each one with an interesting speaker. Paul Faulkner, the former chief executive at Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest football clubs, was the speaker at Kleinwort Benson’s dinner in October, held at Hotel du Vin, in Birmingham. He told guests about his time on the business management side of football, and contrasted it with his new career as chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce. Bentley said: “Paul Faulkner was a really impressive, eloquent speaker. We had around 15 guests attending the dinner who were entrepreneurs – successful owner-managers – and they were able to listen to his experiences and find out how things had gone in Paul’s professional life. “We find that having a private dinner, with Chatham House rules, is a really good way of introducing ourselves to entrepreneurs. People are relaxed and find it useful both listening and sharing their own experiences, learning from each other. It’s amazing how receptive people are. It also gives Kleinwort Benson the

Benson can really start assisting, by talking people through what they need to consider. He said: “Selling a business might, for example, result in proceeds of £20m. That’s all well and good, but it’s also a huge amount of responsibility for someone to suddenly have. Until that stage, they would often have been used to receiving dividends and a salary – whereas now they have a large amount of money in the bank and need to do something with it. “That’s when we take them through a stepby-step approach. Step one is to take a deep breath, and to let the dust settle, especially when a business has been such a large part of their life for a long time. So many people have loads of plans only for those to change entirely over the next six months, so it’s important to take things steadily. “Then they need to use their money to secure both their own and their family’s future. What we often explain is that for every pound of annual income they want, they are going to need £30 of capital to secure that. This tends to give them an idea of what they need to do to secure their futures. “Then they can start enjoying themselves. They might want to buy a boat, a smart car or a

“Being an entrepreneur can be a lonely place, as you are the person making day-to-day decisions on virtually everything” chance to find out about people. It’s not about saying: ‘We’re Kleinwort Benson and we have something to sell you.’ Instead, it’s very much about saying: ‘What is it that you might need help or advice with?’ “The time when we’re actually going to start working with these entrepreneurs is during their approach to sell the business, helping them to manage their wealth afterwards. Even then, we don’t expect to be the only call people make when they sell their business. But we do want to be the first call they make. And we’re aiming to be the first by helping them at an earlier stage when they’re building their business – helping them to make connections, and getting involved by sharing experiences and advice.” Bentley explained that it’s once entrepreneurs are at a ‘post-exit’ stage that he and Kleinwort

luxury holiday, and having secured the family’s future that’s when they can start having fun. And finally, for many people, there will still be money left over. That’s when we can start talking about how to give the money away, perhaps via charitable organisations, or by providing finance for their children. “But at all times at Kleinwort Benson we apply a logical way to deal with this process. Over the years we have advised a large number of people who have sold their businesses, and our guidance starts by sharing experiences with other entrepreneurs.” Bentley entered the industry after studying a finance degree at university, initially working at Prudential and then as a consultant at Mercer, before moving to Kleinwort Benson in 2003. He has always believed in and acted upon the principle of never giving financial advice that

SPECIAL FEATURE bqlive.co.uk

“It is the very nature of a private banker’s role to work closely with a family. I get a lot out of knowing that I have had an impact on the security of future generations, or calming the sort of financial worries that we all go through from time to time.” he himself wouldn’t act upon. He said: “Working with businesses as they grow is a fascinating part of my work. I particularly enjoy guiding them when selling their businesses, but am also pleased if I can accompany them through the early stages, providing instructions around funding and working as a team with their lawyers and other advisers. “Another rewarding aspect is the close work with families. It is the very nature of a private banker’s role to work closely with a family. I get a lot out of knowing that I have had an impact on the security of future generations, or calming the sort of financial worries that we all go through from time to time.” According to Bentley, entrepreneurs often differ from other clients because they are often what might be called “the first generation of wealth”, in that their financial success is self-made as a result of their businesses. He said: “Funny though it sounds, this period of life which is essentially the first time a person or family has had a significant amount of money

Paul Bentley head of entrepreneurs for Kleinwort Benson poses its own problems. It’s a huge responsibility to take on. Having worked 24-hours a day, seven days a week to realise this situation, once the ultimate goal has been achieved, it can often take a bit of adjustment. “There’s the impression that entrepreneurs are born risk-takers who, if they sell the business, are going to want to be as aggressive in their financial affairs as they have had to be in building their businesses.

Two centres of wealth management Kleinwort Benson has offered private banking and wealth management services to private clients, families, business owners and entrepreneurs, and to institutions including pension funds, endowments and charities, for over 200 years. The private bank has a strong belief in building long-term relationships and aims to look at the whole spectrum of clients’ interests – both personal and corporate – to create, conserve and grow clients’ wealth. As an independently-owned company, Kleinwort Benson has no ties to any investment or retail bank. Its total focus is on achieving clients’ objectives. You can read more about entrepreneurs’ experiences at www.thehub.kleinwortbenson.com. And to find out more about what Kleinwort Benson can offer, you can contact Paul Bentley on 0203 207 7120 or at paul.bentley@kleinwortbenson.com.

“In my experience, the opposite is true: having worked so hard to build and realise the value of their business, entrepreneurs are often very conscious of the importance of conserving their wealth. In many cases, rather than putting aside money for the next venture as you might expect, the bulk of their capital is used to provide them and their families with financial security for the rest of their lives.” Bentley said that another difference with entrepreneurs is their initial wariness at handing over the responsibility for their wealth to a financial advisor. “An entrepreneur has invested so much of their time creating their own business, which includes running a team,” he said. “So handing over the responsibility to a financial adviser does not feel like the natural thing to do. “By working closely with my clients for many years before they sell their business, I have found that I am able to build up the sort of rapport and trust that is required for them to have that confidence in me and my team.” Whatever the challenges, Bentley said his overarching emphasis is to put the client first: “Being a private banker requires you to be one step ahead of your client at every point: think ahead, second guess the future, and, above all, never give advice that you yourself would not act upon with your own money.” Kleinwort Benson is planning more private dinners in Greater Birmingham in 2016, because it wants to continue to get to know more of the region’s successful entrepreneurs. Bentley added: “I’m really keen to get to meet those entrepreneurs – both when they’re ready to sell but also at earlier stages so that we can get to know and understand them and their businesses. “Kleinwort Benson has a wealth of knowledge and experience in providing the advice and direction which enables individuals to meet their new financial goals. The steps to achieving this involves the securing the cash proceeds, timely disposal of vested stock, establishing tax efficient vehicles and the maintenance of a regular and consistent income to replace salary. “We have guided numerous entrepreneurs and business owners in this way through the sale of their businesses, helping them to plan the next phase of their lives. And I hope we can continue doing the same for more and more successful entrepreneurs across Greater Birmingham.” n

Building Family Wealth John Hodgson, head of tax and business services at the Birmingham office of Smith & Williamson, the accountancy, investment management and tax group, explores ways to protect and grow your familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s wealth. Pensions and ISAâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s allow wealth to steadily compound in a tax free environment; in a family context the multiple use of such arrangements can allow significant funds to be efficiently managed. There are annual caps on the tax free amounts that can be invested in such arrangements so it can take time to build up significant sums. For larger amounts there are alternative vehicles that offer different tax and administrative advantages. The modern alternative to the traditional family trust is the use of the standard company as a family investment company, particularly in conjunction with a family trading business. The essential point is that a company only suffers corporation tax at rates of 20% (reducing incrementally down to 18% by 2020) on its income and capital gains and does, typically, not pay any tax on dividends received. Property and investment portfolios can consequently accumulate value much more quickly than personal ownership. Value can then be returned to the individual/family members in a number of ways depending on the company structure and personal circumstances.

A further variant for wealthier individuals or families is to use an Open Ended Investment Company (OEIC) (most commonly used by investment houses for massmarket retail investors) as a core vehicle for investment purposes. Whilst running costs are higher, any gains realised on underlying investments are not subject to any capital gains tax; such tax is effectively deferred until shares in the OEIC itself are realised. We have advised, implemented and managed the above, family trusts and a range of other wealth management arrangements; more important than our technical expertise however, is the time we invest in ensuring we understand our clients thinking. John Hodgson t: 0121 710 5200 e: john.hodgson@smith.williamson.co.uk w: smith.williamson.co.uk

By necessity, this briefing can only provide a short overview and it is essential to seek professional advice before applying the contents of this article. No responsibility can be taken for any loss arising from action taken or refrained from on the basis of this publication. Details correct at time of writing. The tax treatment depends on the individual circumstances of each client and may be subject to change in future. Smith & Williamson LLP Regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales for a range of investment business activities. A member of Nexia International Smith & Williamson Financial Services Limited Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. The Financial Conduct Authority does not regulate all of the products and services referred to here.

PROFILE Personal Finance Society

Financial planning for high net-worth individuals (HNWIs) Robin Melley FPFS, chair of the Financial Planning Practitioner Panel for the Personal Finance Society assesses the opportunities and the risks High net-worth individuals come from all walks of life and have acquired wealth in a variety of ways; some have inherited wealth, others have won large amounts and many have earned it by building a successful business or professional careers. In my experience, they all expect the highest standards in terms of advice and service – they place a high value on professionalism and a bespoke service delivered with the personal touch. From a financial planning point of view, despite the investment adage “don’t let the tax tail wag the investment dog,” tax is often a key driver for seeking advice – typically including income tax, capital gains tax, corporation tax and inheritance tax. That said, the basic planning opportunities, such as pension contributions, ISAs, CGT Allowances and gift exemptions should not be overlooked. However, I have covered below some of the opportunities available to HNWIs: INHERITANCE TAX PLANNING (IHT) Pensions have recently become very interesting when providing estate-planning advice. This is principally because of the removal of the ‘55% Recovery Charge’ and the introduction of ‘Flexiaccess Drawdown’ in the Spring Budget 2015. This effectively means that a client’s pension fund is now outside of his/her estate for IHT purposes; allowing the client to nominate future generations to be paid cash from the pension fund, who will pay income tax at their marginal rate – for example, a nontaxpaying grandchild may receive tax-free income from the grand-parent’s pension fund to help fund university fees. DISCOUNTED GIFT TRUSTS (DGTS) AND WEALTH PRESERVATION ACCOUNTS (WPA’S) Preservation Accounts (WPAs) are a well-trodden path for HNWIs seeking to place capital into trust, outside of their estates for IHT purposes, whilst retaining control and access to their wealth. Gifting is often an effective way of planning a client’s affair to mitigate IHT. Careful planning is necessary with gifts during the lifetime of the client, particularly where there is a gift into

Robin Melley FPFS

“In my experience generational planning with affluent clients is far more effective, however, it does require a greater degree of transparency between family members, which can sometimes be a stumbling block” a discretionary trust. For example, a gift to a discretionary trust followed by an outright gift to either a bare trust or to a family member may extend the 7yr rule to the ‘14yr leapfrog’ rule, bringing the gift to the discretionary trust back into charge. INCOME TAX AND CAPITAL GAINS TAX (CGT) Enterprise Investment Schemes (EISs) offer 30% income tax relief and CGT deferral. There is an upper

limit of £1m and should only be contemplated by investors that fully understand and accept the risks and are able to cope with the lack of liquidity. Venture Capital Trusts (VCTs) also offer 30% income tax relief, but with a maximum of £200,000. Pension contributions offer income tax relief at your marginal rate (or Corporation Tax rates if made by your company) and grow in a tax-efficient environment. The maximum contribution for individuals is 100% of ‘UK relevant earnings’ or the Annual Allowance of £40,000 in 2015/16; but the member’s earnings do not restrict Company contributions though. Bear in mind that unused Annual Allowances for the previous three years may be brought forward for contributions in excess of this year’s limits. CGT Annual Exemptions (£11,100 – 2015/16) may be used each year to help ensure that your investment portfolio is not ‘pregnant with gain’ in the future when you may wish to sell down some or all of your portfolio. Many of our affluent clients use the concept of their money split between, “in play or out of play”. What they mean is that they want to ring-fence enough of their wealth to ensure that they never run out of money – even if they lost all of their money “in play”. In order to plan this properly, lifetime cash flow forecasting is invaluable because it is the only way in which precision may be applied to the decision-making process by modeling different scenarios. In my experience generational planning with affluent clients is far more effective, however, it does require a greater degree of transparency between family members, which can sometimes be a stumbling block. n Robin Melley FPFS is a Chartered Financial Planner with Matrix Capital Limited, which is a leading firm of Chartered Financial Planners. He chairs the Financial Planning Practitioner Panel for the Personal Finance Society; and is a strong advocate in the profession, encouraging his peers to achieve the highest standards in terms of technical competence and ethical behaviour. For him, it’s about “standards, professionalism and trust.”

PROFILE Higgs & Sons

The summer budget – wealth management for all seasons Peter Gosling, a partner at Higgs & Sons and an expert in estate planning considers the impact

Peter Gosling The first budget after an election is always hotly anticipated and this year’s post-election ‘Summer’ budget, the first by a chancellor in a majority Conservative government for 19 years, was no exception. “The details of the summer budget set out some key long term measures that are pertinent to all aspects of personal wealth management,” explains Peter Gosling, a partner at Higgs & Sons and an expert in estate planning. “Inheritance tax was a key focus for the budget and it is important that individuals are aware of

“The details of the summer budget set out some key long term measures that are pertinent to all aspects of personal wealth management”

the changes announced by the Chancellor as the implications are far reaching.” The announced changes include a new relief from inheritance tax (IHT) applicable to the main residence. The residence nil-rate-band (RNRB) relief will eventually reach a maximum of £175,000 on top of the ordinary nil-rate-band (NRB) of £325,000. “This will be introduced in stages,” continues Peter, “starting at £100,000 in April 2017 and increasing in annual £25,000 increments until it reaches the maximum in 2020/21. NRB was frozen at its April 2009 level until April 2021.” “Like the existing NRB, the RNRB will be transferable between spouses and civil partners. This brings the total amount that can be passed on death free of IHT by a couple with a family home to £1m from April 2020.” The new RNRB will be tapered for those estates exceeding £2m, so that if the total value of the estate exceeds £2m, the additional allowance is reduced by £1 for every £2 of excess. “Individuals should also note that the additional allowance can only be used against a dwelling house that is bequeathed to what the Chancellor has termed ‘linear descendants’,” continues Peter. “Broadly that means children, step-children, grandchildren, adopted children and foster children. It is an interesting definition as many consider it to be discriminatory against those who are childless and those who do not own their own property.” The latest figures available from HMRC show that the IHT take on death has been increasing steadily, with £3,659m being paid on estates in 2014/15, an increase of 11 per cent on 2013/14. “The increase in IHT is attributable to the rise in house prices and the freezing of the NRB, so there is a need to take action to prevent the estates of ‘ordinary’ families becoming liable to IHT simply because of the rise in house prices,” explains Peter. “These new proposals introducing the new RNRB, rather than extending the existing NRB, add even more complexity and will force many people to

engage professionals just to calculate the available allowances. It would have been much simpler to increase the NRB to £500,000, while retaining a taper on the extra £175,000 for estates over £2m.” The summer budget also introduced a package of measures to reduce the advantages and tax benefits enjoyed by non-UK domiciled individuals. Legislation is set to follow a consultation that will introduce UK ‘deemed domiciled’ status for all UK taxes for those non-domiciled persons who have been resident in the UK for 15 out of the last 20 tax years. There was also long awaited clarification on pilot trusts after three separate consultations failed to produce a simplification of the tax rules. “It will no longer be possible to set up pilot trusts to receive a lump sum from a will in order to give each trust its own NRB for IHT relevant property purposes.” “The budget had far reaching implications across a range of key areas. Anyone who is concerned about wealth protection should consider a review of wills and their estate planning strategies to take into account the Chancellor’s summer budget and this continually evolving area of law,” concludes Peter. n Peter Gosling is a member of STEP, Solicitors for the Elderly and the Law Society Private Client Section. He acts for many families, trusts and high net worth individuals and has extensive experience working with other professional advisers in matters of tax and estate planning.

Contact Peter on 01384 327215 or via peter.gosling@higgsandsons.co.uk www.higgsandsons.co.uk

PROFILE Irwin Mitchell

Should I make a will or not? Gavin Faber a Partner in the Wills, Trust & Estate Disputes team at Irwin Mitchell Solicitors explains why you should Most people will have had sight of the recent press coverage on the Ilott v Mitson case which is a Court of Appeal decision awarding an estranged adult daughter, one third of her mother’s estate, despite the mother’s wishes for this not to happen. The Will left the entire estate to charity and this was vigorously defended by them at a great cost. This has led to a number of people questioning whether they should make a Will at all and whether they really have a choice in what happens to their money once they have passed away. To put this into context, it is important to highlight that most Wills are regular and valid wills that are not contested and allow us to leave details of our last wishes for our friends and family to follow through. This can extend to whether we wish to be buried or cremated, who gets the family heirlooms and who receives the money, property and investments. This is the best attempt to speak from the grave and explain to our loved ones what we want to happen on our death, without this, there is no guidance and everyone will have their own view on how assets should be treated and divided up. My advice would always be to prepare a Will and to review and update it every five years or after a change in the family circumstances, such as a marriage, divorce, birth of children, retirement, change of job, buying of property or relocating, especially if this it to another jurisdiction. In addition to this prepare a letter of wishes explaining what you want to happen and why, talk to family members and friends to make sure that your wishes are made clear and are understood. If you decide to leave money to charity, explain why and highlight your rationale for the gift – this could extend to their particular cause or a regular donation of funds to them during lifetime, so that it can be established that there is a link to the charity or organisation. Over 60% of us still do not have Wills in place and most of us do not know what will happen on our death or are under what turns out to be a misapprehension that our loved ones will be provided for and looked after in the way we would expect on our death. If there is no will at the time of death, then the law decides who will inherit. Spouses, children, parents and siblings are included in that list but interestingly, cohabitees are not

Gavin Faber, partner at Irwin Mitchell

My advice would always be to prepare a Will and to review and update it every five years included and have no form of automatic protection available to them if there is no Will in place. In those circumstances, cohabitees would have to seek advice and consider bringing a claim for financial provision under The Inheritance (Provision for Family and Dependants) Act 1975. In the recent reported case, the mother effectively disowned her daughter who had eloped with her boyfriend when she was 17 years old. That boyfriend later became the husband and father to their five children and they remained married some 25 years later. The mother’s estate was worth around £500,000, in the main because of a substantial death in service benefit from her husband’s premature death. There were no other children or

family members and the mother left everything to charities, with whom she had no connection during her lifetime. The Court of Appeal awarded the daughter one third of the estate which the judges felt allowed her to purchase her local authority house and have some capital to supplement her benefits. The Court took a practical view of this case and highlighted the importance of family relations. It is also important in this case that the financial circumstances of the daughter were fairly modest and this was probably a main factor for the Court in making this decision. There are a number of cases where children are successfully disinherited from their parent’s estates for whatever reason and where Wills are not challenged. We do not have a system of forced heir ship in this country and so other than a moral obligation to children and an expectation on their part what they might inherit from parents, there is no obligation to provide for them and we have a freedom of choice to leave our money to whoever we like. However, this recent case highlight how risky it is for a parent to completely disinherit a child and in these circumstances, it might be worth considering leaving them something in order to prevent future litigation. For those bringing these claims, this is certainly a helpful case which demonstrates how the courts are viewing such claims. For those defending; this is something to be very wary of and needs to be considered carefully before becoming embroiled in litigation and trying to defend such claims.

If you are concerned about a will dispute or would like to talk to our team about any of the topics raised please contact Gavin Faber T: 0121 203 5366 E: Gavin.Faber@IrwinMitchell.com W: www.irwinmitchell.com/our-people/gavin-faber

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY DS Smith on the move Packaging specialist DS Smith is to move into a 98,000 sq ft industrial unit at Summit Crescent Industrial Estate, Smethwick after a £1.3m refurbishment. The move, planned for the beginning of 2016, comes after Johnson Fellows, acting on behalf of the landlords, Industrious, agreed a 10-year lease with DS Smith, represented by Granby Martin Vine. Mike Price, partner at Johnson Fellows and head of the industrial team said “DS Smith is one of the leading packaging companies in Europe and is going through a period of expansion, so I’m very happy that we’ve been able to provide the perfect new home not far from their existing facility in Oldbury. Adam Anderson, managing director of the heavy duty division of DS Smith, said: “We are a growing business and needed a high quality space that can accommodate us for the foreseeable future.” DS Smith employs 22,000 people across 20 countries and specialises in paper and plastic packaging.

Upgrade for fifteen Hortons’ Estate is investing £1m in an upgrade of Fifteen Colmore Row, Birmingham. Plans include cleaning the exterior to match the

adjacent Grand, where the wraps are coming off the listed building following Hortons’ four-year project to restore the façade overlooking St Philip’s cathedral. The common areas are also being upgraded and a 7,227 sq ft office suite on the second floor will be refurbished to include new toilet and shower facilities and a new heating and cooling system. Richard Norgrove, property director at Hortons’ Estate, said: “Our investment in both Fifteen Colmore Row and The Grand will considerably enhance the street scene along Colmore Row, Birmingham’s premier business address.”

Office for the future Deloitte, the business advisor which employs more than 750 people across its West Midlands practice, has signed a new 10-year lease on its

From left, Mike Price of Johnson Fellows, Peter Vine of Granby Martin Vine, Adam Anderson of DS Smith and Richard Phillips of Industrious

offices in Birmingham’s Brindleyplace. The new tenancy will involve a 12 month, multimillion pound refurbishment of its three floors of office space in the heart of the city’s Westside Business District. Pauline Biddle, practice senior partner for Deloitte in the Midlands, said: “Deloitte has a thriving and exciting practice here in the Midlands, and it is time for us to ensure we have an office not just fit-for-purpose but fit-for-the future. The Deloitte UK Board has recognised this and supported us with significant investment that will benefit our clients and our people.” The announcement comes as the firm, which has been based in Brindleyplace for 14 years, has just welcomed more than 70 new starters to its Midlands practice via its graduate and BrightStart programmes.

Trade park acquisition A West Midlands trade park has been purchased for just over £1.5m. Stokesy & Co Estates Ltd has bought Junction 1 Trade Park – so called because of its location just off Junction 1 of the M5 motorway. Shortland Penn + Moore’s Jonathan Moore acted on behalf of Stokesy & Co in the deal for the trade park which features two single storey warehouse units with attached two storey offices. A 14,981 sq ft unit is let to Howden Joinery Properties, while a 16,981 sq ft unit is let to RAK Ceramics UK Ltd. The purchase from Antler Property Investments Plc, represented by Knight Frank, reflects a net initial yield of 8%. Jonathan said: “This is Stokesy & Co’s largest investment to date and, with the quality of tenants and the outstanding location, this represents a very good deal.”

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY bqlive.co.uk

Kings heath revival

Jam House preserved The building that houses The Jam House, Birmingham’s renowned live music venue, has been put up for sale for more than £3m. The Jam House, located on St Paul’s Square, is being sold by Birmingham Properties Group (BPG), although it’s been stressed that the sale will not affect the running of the venue. The fully let freehold three-storey Georgian property, which includes The Jam House plus adjoining offices at 3 and 5 St Paul’s Square, comprises a total of 13,336 sq ft of space and 16 car parking spaces. The music venue, which has had a long association with the musician Jools Holland since he helped to launch it in 1999, will continue to operate there, with 18 years remaining on its lease. John Bunce, general manager of The Jam House, said: “We want to assure our customers that it will be business as usual during and after the sale of the building in which we are housed. We remain committed to providing people with a great night out with live music, good food, and dancing at our Jewellery Quarter premises.” Offers are sought in excess of £3.26m, reflecting a net initial yield of 7.25% and a unit capital value of £244.50 per square foot. The property currently attracts rent of £250,120 per annum, or £18.04 per square foot.

“We remain committed to providing people with a great night out with live music, good food, and dancing at our Jewellery Quarter premises”

The suburb of Kings Heath in Birmingham – economically challenged in recent times – is fighting back as shop units prove popular again. That’s the view of James Mattin, managing partner of Bond Wolfe. His comments came as the property agency revealed three stores on Alcester Road South had either been let or were under offer. “After a difficult trading period for some in Kings Heath, the demand for retail units appears to have returned,” he noted. Parkan Group has signed a five year lease on No 30 and plan to open a high-end jewellers

following refurbishment of the former cosmetics outlet. A two storey property, with the ground floor retail/sales area extending to 884 sq ft, it occupies a prominent mid-parade position close to other occupiers including Lloyds Pharmacy, Lloyds TSB and Sainsbury’s. Meanwhile, the former Post Office at 6/8 Alcester Road South and a store at No 53 are also under offer, which Mattin said was due to excellent passing trade, the prominent high street location and the availability of flexible terms.

Doubling up at MarchantCain Design engineer MarchantCain has doubled production capacity to over 2,500 square feet at its site in Allesley, Coventry, to meet increased demand. Pamela Cain, director at MarchantCain, which works with car makers like Porsche, Bentley and JLR, said: “We’ve been able to successfully maximise our existing capacity, which will enable us to significantly increase the number of projects we work on at any one time.”

PROFILE Barclays

Women’s appetite for growth A recent report from the Centre for Entrepreneurs, published in partnership with Barclays, found women are just as ambitious as men, but that they dislike the title ‘entrepreneur’ Women entrepreneurs are equally or more ambitious than men when it comes to starting and scaling-up businesses, despite encountering more barriers. Many women, however, shun the ‘entrepreneur’ title, describing it as too “blokey” and “masculine”. These are just some of the findings in a report by the Centre for Entrepreneurs, published in partnership with Barclays, which unravells how gender influences entrepreneurial ambitions and risk taking. It found that women entrepreneurs are also less likely than men to display overconfidence when evaluating the track record of their business. Almost two thirds of the male entrepreneurs surveyed (62%) are more likely than women (42%) to state that their business is prospering, despite the fact that the women-led businesses studied report higher profits in comparison. The report, called Shattering Stereotypes: Women in Entrepreneurship, was based on Barclays’ research of over 500 C-suite executives and entrepreneurs operating businesses with annual turnover in excess of £2m. The business owners surveyed were highly growth-oriented, with upwards of 80% stating they were ‘very’ or ‘extremely interested’ in scaling their business. The research examined the differences in how men and women think about risk and found that typical gender differences reverse in this sample of successful executives and entrepreneurs. Women on average self-report as financial risk takers (87%, compared to 73% of men) while 80% of women say they see opportunities where others might see risk, compared to 67% of men. However, a high number of women say they are concerned about taking “fool-hardy” risks that may endanger the livelihood

Sarah Offland, relationship director for Barclays corporate banking in Shropshire of their employees, or their own financial situation. In addition to a perceived lack of technical expertise and network reach, the reluctance to take such risks are seen by these women as a significant barrier to their business growth. The research also finds that a large majority (69%) of women in C-suite executive roles are interested in starting their own business

“As women increasingly embrace entrepreneurship they are pioneering different business cultures and models of entrepreneurial growth. Our research reveals women-led businesses inject diversity at the firm-level as well, and this variation in business strategy will be beneficial to the economy as a whole”

in the coming three years, compared to only 29% of their male counterparts. Of those interviewed, former executives-turned-entrepreneurs were found to have the most ambitious growth Sarah Fink, head of research of the Centre for Entrepreneurs said: “The economic empowerment of women and the rise of the entrepreneurial economy are two defining trends of our time. Women entrepreneurs are more likely to work towards controlled, profitable growth with relatively little interest in merely positioning themselves for lucrative exit. They often prefer to re-invest business profits over equity investment to scale sustainably.” Shalini Khemka, a corporate employee-turnedentrepreneur, and founder of entrepreneur organisation E2Exchange, said: “Given so many c-suite women have the ambition, skills and confidence to start their own business, this could indicate a coming surge of experienced women entrepreneurs as they escape the boardroom to start their own ventures.” Sarah Offland, relationship director for Barclays corporate banking in Shropshire, said: “Entrepreneurship brings huge value to the UK economy, driving growth, jobs, innovation and helping to foster the kind of export mentality the UK needs to succeed on a world trade stage. “As women increasingly embrace entrepreneurship they are pioneering different business cultures and models of entrepreneurial growth. Our research reveals women-led businesses inject diversity at the firm-level as well, and this variation in business strategy will be beneficial to the economy as a whole.”

● To find out more about how Barclays can support your growth aspirations, please visit www.barclays.com/ corporatebanking

MADE 2015 bqlive.co.uk

MADE - a festival business Hundreds of businesses showed how strong the BQ entrepreneurial spirit is at this year’s MADE Festival in Sheffield. Set in the stunning surroundings of City Hall at the heart of the city, MADE is now in its sixth year as the UK’s largest festival of enterprise and was again supported by a range of sponsors including Irwin Mitchell, Sheffield Hallam University, University of Sheffield, Sheffield College, Microsoft, JCT600, UK Steel Enterprise as well as Business Sheffield and Sheffield City Region. With presentations throughout the day, entrepreneurs from all over the country came to be inspired by the guidance and experiences of high-profile names such as Paul Lindley from Ella’s Kitchen, Joe McEwan from innocent, Kevin Byrne founder of Checkatrade.com and JB Gill of JLS. A range of masterclass presentations were also delivered by the likes of Geoff Ramm and Anthony Stears with the audience also hearing from a number of BQ featured entrepreneurs including Petra Wetzel from WEST Brewery. There was also a series of fringe events throughout the city covering everything a new business needs to know from marketing and branding to start-ups, intellectual property and social media. One of the highlights was the naming of BQ’s Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year for 2015 in partnership with Gateshead College.

Sheffield saw the UK’s entrepreneurial spirit at its strongest at this year’s MADE festival, celebrating new business and showcasing some stars as Mike Hughes reports “We spent 12 months searching the UK and eventually narrowed it down to four worthy shortlisted finalists from the North East, West Midlands, Scotland and Yorkshire,” said Bryan Hoare, managing director of BQ. “We were delighted to crown Richard Kirk, founder and CEO of PolyPhotonix in Sedgefield, as BQ’s national emerging entrepreneur of the year. It is a remarkable company that we will continue to cover in BQ and we wish him all the best for the future.” When we talked to Richard in BQ North East, he told us how the company’s phototherapy eye mask, which is worn during sleep, uses light therapy to treat diabetic retinopathy and could save the NHS more than £1bn a year. Richard told us: “We use our expertise to bridge the gap between research and commercialisation and often we meet with academics in unrelated fields to try to create a culture of ‘organised serendipity.’ “It’s great to get physicists, medics and biologists

– all at the top of their game – together in one room to spark ideas off each other.” If you have been inspired by this year’s MADE festival and want to find out more about the country’s leading entrepreneurs, follow what’s going on at www.bqlive.co.uk, where you can also sign up for our BQ Breakfast morning email and discover how easy it is to get a subscription to BQ magazines throughout the year. n

Entrepreneurs from all over the country came to be inspired by the guidance and experiences of high-profile names such as Paul Lindley from Ella’s Kitchen, Joe McEwan from innocent, Kevin Byrne founder of Checkatrade.com and JB Gill of JLS

MADE 2015

A MAJOR EVENT TO INSPIRE, MOTIVATE & SHARE BUSINESS SUCCESS bqlive.co.uk

National Emerging Entrepreneur Dinner 2016 In association with

THURSDAY 25 FEBRUARY 2016, LEEDS BQ Magazine is delighted to announce that nominations are now open for the BQ National Emerging Entrepreneur Dinner 2016 sponsored by Irwin Mitchell. Celebrate the legacy of MADE by supporting emerging entrepreneurs across the UK. The search now begins once again to identify some of the UK’s leading emerging entrepreneurs. We are seeking nominations across Scotland, the North East and Cumbria, Yorkshire and the West Midlands to find the best in emerging entrepreneurial talent. The BQ National Emerging Entrepreneur dinner brings together established entrepreneurs with the challenge of being accompanied by individuals who in their view are representative of a next generation entrepreneur. The 2016 dinner is being in Leeds on Thursday 25 February 2016 where we will celebrate and acknowledge entrepreneurship across the UK. If you would like to nominate an emerging entrepreneur for consideration then visit www.bqlive.co.uk/events/bq-events/

Richard Kirk receiving his award (left) from Bryan Hoare, managing director BQ with Nigel Risner, MADE festival host

“It’s a great honour to win this award. Whilst it is recognising entrepreneurship it is also recognition for the whole company that have put in the hours of work to enable me to stand up and receive it” Richard Kirk, founder and CEO of PolyPhotonix

For more information about joining us at the dinner and to enter see www.bqlive.co.uk/events/bq-events/

PARKER ON WINE bqlive.co.uk

A taste of apples and an Oz wonder Dr Chris Parker, managing director of the West Midlands Academic Health Science Network, reviews a Sicilian white and an Australian red

My wife and two daughters helped me appreciate these two wines over BBC1’s Strictly Come Dancing on a Sunday evening. I needed their assistance because I’d come down with the office cold and was never going to do justice alone to the task I’d been given! First off was the 2014 Ciello Bianco from Sicily. This organic white is unfiltered and so has plenty of visible particles. I’d been tipped off to give it a good shake before opening, which I did, and we weren’t put off by its cloudy look. However, if you prefer to let it settle before pouring you’ll be rewarded with a truly crystal clear, light appearance. Despite having withheld the identity of the wine from the family, all three ladies immediately discerned scents and tastes of ‘orchards’ and ‘apples’ and that it hinted of ‘still cider’, so it was with interest that I subsequently read on the internet that others have described it as being ‘rich with apple and pear infusions’. We all agreed that this would be a good choice to help while away a summer’s afternoon, but I also wondered if it might be a good way of introducing youngsters to white wine, given its distinct taste, as so many grow up on apple juice and often move on through a cider phase. Put to one side to enjoy later in the week, we turned to the red. This was a 2013 McLaren Vale

Touriga Nacional. I’d opened the bottle slightly earlier and, on pouring some glasses to breathe, had immediately been taken by the extremely deep, intense red colour. There was a strong hue right to the edge of the wine. With an earthy, slightly oaky nose, we proceeded to sample it and, as far as we were concerned, this wine was a corker! The Australians have taken this Portuguese grape and done wonders with it. Mediumbodied and pleasantly smooth, despite its youthfulness I noticed good legs on the glass. We all agreed this was one we’d have again. Probably not quite full or heavy enough for a rich venison stew, it would be a great accompaniment to a Sunday roast, be that beef, lamb, pork or even chicken, and it would also be good with less strong game. I’d happily sit with a glass or two of this and some cheese, or indeed take a glass on its own in the company of friends. The Australians can take pride in the great wines with which they keep satisfying our palates. n The Ciello is priced at £7.99 a bottle, and the Nacional from New School Wines at £16 per bottle. Enjoy! Available from Connolly’s Wine Merchants Ltd, call 0121 236 3837. www.connollyswine.co.uk

PARKER ON WINE bqlive.co.uk

“I’d happily sit with a glass or two of this and some cheese, or indeed take a glass on its own in the company of friends”

MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

Elegant and unmistakeable but not overpowering

MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

Rob Hallmark, the founder of Gruhme, the British menâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s fragrance brand, gets a real power kick from taking Maseratiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s new Quattroporte GTS for a spin

MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

Without doubt there are some things in life that don’t need to be made more powerful (and sure enough the EU have gone and placed a limit on the wattage for imported vacuum cleaners!). So is putting an all-snarling, fire-breathing 530bhp, 3.0 litre V8 engine inside a four-door saloon a case of completely overpowering an otherwise functional item? Well, not if you are Maserati and their new Quattroporte GTS. And it’s lucky for us they have gone and done it too, because the end result is simply superb. With its stunning driving experience and the awe-inspiring luxury of its spacious interior, this elegant and unmistakable Maserati is a perfect buy for those wanting functional sophistication alongside class leading performance. The GTS can still be bold and brash when you want it to be though (taking just 5.1 seconds to propel to 60mph) but the car does not need to be driven in a fast manner to be appreciated. Just a gentle application of the accelerator will still give you those wonderfully subtle rumbling

“Whilst the car does have the handling and acceleration to devour asphalt on the open highway it is equally happy being made to sit quietly, elegantly and unassumingly outside your family home, office or favourite restaurant awaiting your return”

exhaust tones, especially with the sports mode activated. And the GTS is certainly no clumsy musclebound brute either. Whilst the car does have the handling and acceleration to devour asphalt on the open highway it is equally happy being made to sit quietly, elegantly and unassumingly outside your family home, office or favourite restaurant awaiting your return. Perhaps the finest pleasure yet though is when you first sit inside the GTS (whether as a driver or passenger). Seated inside that sumptuous leather interior and its cockpit filled with the finest craftwork and materials there is no

escaping the sense that the marque is of the finest motoring pedigree. There is really nothing about the GTS that feels like it was left to second best. Every detail has been deliberately orchestrated to provide that distinctive Maserati super car status: raw, exciting, precise, powerful yet intelligently and elegantly understated too. An all-wheel drive system is also a good option on offer. Handling all 530bhp takes some conviction in the standard rear-wheel drive set up, particularly in wet conditions, but feeling those rear tyres fighting back control under full acceleration is certainly good entertainment (depending on your passenger’s nerves and your

own driving ability that is!). However, whatever interior or engine option you decide upon the underlying focus from Maserati is clearly on getting you the best performance and experience from a super-car capable of taking at least four adults in comfort. If a steady Sunday afternoon family drive is the plan then you can rest assured that the 8-speed gearing is going to be impeccably smooth throughout. Of course, combining those distinctive looks, gritty performance, impressive comfort and modern gadgetry with such infamous brand prowess is not going to be cheap but the GTS is undeniably worth every penny of the £80,000 UK asking price (albeit without any optional extras). So if the inevitable fuel consumption and spending the children’s inheritance to purchase the GTS does not cause a single hair to stir on your skin then you, my good man or lady or other, may just have found yourself the ultimate addition to your driveway. Can any fault be found? Not easily. The

gearstick is perhaps the only item not living up to the otherwise impeccable blend of leading engineering and aesthetics found elsewhere throughout the GTS. The plastic gearstick buttons feel a bit more ‘arcade game’ than super-car, and the sports button would be better placed atop the gearstick or on the steering wheel rather than among the other regular buttons. After all, no-one wants to be taking their eyes off the road in this car if you’re about to go to into warp-driving mode. But none of those factors change the fact that the GTS is still the car to have right now for those with discerning taste and for a very long time to come too is my guess. n BQ West Midlands would like to thank Maserati North Europe for the use of the Maserati Quattroporte GTS. The on the road price of the car driven by Robert Hallmark is £115,862.00. For more information please visit www.maserati.com

EXECUTIVE TRAVEL bqlive.co.uk

From historical university halls-style accommodation in Cambridge to a former art deco cinema in Shepherds Bush, BQ editor Steve Dyson finds some great places to stay when away on business

Dorsett Shepherds Bush, London If you’re an admirer of historical buildings, you’ll just love staying at the Dorsett Shepherds Bush. This modern hotel was originally an art deco cinema built in 1923, when it used to house nearly 2,700 filmgoers at a time. The Dorsett group is big in the Far East, and this is its first UK venture. It’s a stunning one, the careful, multi-million pound restoration cleverly bringing the beautiful architecture back to life, especially in the Jin Bar where cinema-style balconies stretch endlessly to the roof. My ‘deluxe’ room felt quite compact, but was extremely comfortable, and the subtle Chinese décor reminded you that this was a hotel with a difference. If you fancy continuing the theme with a

Chinese meal, the Shikumen is in the same building, a fine-dining restaurant serving Asian cuisine. But we were happy eating in Pictures, the hotel’s own aptly-named restaurant, where we enjoyed perfectly cooked steaks. The same room hosted a decent breakfast, although there was a little delay with the single ‘egg chef’ overwhelmed by omelette orders. An assistant at peak times would have helped, and I found the dining chairs too low – although in fairness I am quite tall. Those tiny quibbles aside, this was a memorable stay in a building of history, with the latest business facilities. And Shepherds Bush itself is an exciting location, especially convenient for journeys to and from Heathrow Airport. n Dorsett Shepherds Bush is at 8 Shepherds Bush Green, London W12 8QE, where double rooms start from £160, including breakfast. To book, call 0203 262 1026, email reservations. shepherdsbush@dorsetthotels.com or visit www.dorsetthotels.com

EXECUTIVE TRAVEL bqlive.co.uk

Madingley Hall, near Cambridge Madingley Hall is an unusual venue to review for ‘Executive travel’, as it’s effectively a halls of residence-style conference centre owned and run by the University of Cambridge. But if you have business in or near Cambridge – just four miles away – it’s more than worth staying here to experience the magnificent gardens and elegant buildings that date back to the 16th century. While it does have that ‘halls’ feel about it, I found the basic bedrooms were as clean as any top hotel. And the spacious dining hall with its huge fireplace, where you take breakfast with other guests sitting at long tables, is reminiscent of Harry Potter’s Hogwarts. Evening meals feel a little institutional, but there’s a gastro pub in the nearby village serving some very decent food. There was a problem with the hot water during my stay, which meant boiling kettles in the morning for a decent wash, but I was assured this was a rare occurrence. What does get top marks at Madingley are the quiet, dark grounds and natural air conditioning – all of which help to blank the world out for a deep, solid sleep. Another plus if you’re arranging meetings are 14 well-equipped rooms capable of accommodating up to 100 delegates. And the room prices are very good value. Madingley Hall is in Madingley, near Cambridge, CB23 8AQ, where rooms start at £70 for a standard single and £99 for a double or twin. To book, call 01223 746222, email enquiry@madingleyhall.co.uk or visit www. madingleyhall.co.uk/accommodation

London Marriott Hotel Regents Park, London Sometimes, when you’re travelling to London from the North or Midlands, the last thing you want is a busy, soulless hotel in the very centre of the city that costs an arm and a leg. So let me tell you a secret: just 20 minutes north of Euston and Kings Cross, and a few minutes from Swiss Cottage tube station, is the London Marriott Hotel Regents Park. As you walk up to the hotel itself, its somewhat dated concrete exterior feels a little abrupt, but once inside you’ll find that the team have kept the décor and fittings in pristine condition. Its rooms are spacious, there’s complimentary Wi-Fi, a well-equipped leisure club and a refreshing indoor swimming pool. On a nice day, you’ll enjoy the nearby markets of Camden Town, and the chic shops and quaint cafes of Primrose Hill, with its panoramic views across London. But the real treat is the hotel’s own curry house. Called Zaike NW3, I was told that this has become a favourite with locals as well as hotel guests. And we weren’t let down, enjoying an array of sizzling starters and a filling, spicy biryani. They even served Cobra beer, a must for any fan of decent Indian cuisine. All so much better than the usual hotel fodder. Things are set to get even better in 2016, when the Marriott’s investing in a major refurbishment. But even now, I’d highly rate this hotel in terms of its food, comfort and location away from the usual hubbub you face in London. London Marriott Hotel Regents Park is at 128 King Henry’s Road, London, NW3 3ST, where double rooms starts at £199. To book, call 0207 722 7711 or visit www.marriott.co.uk

EQUIPMENT bqlive.co.uk

So me

Next time you consider the stereo system in a car, look around the exterior. “In just a couple of years we can expect to see microphones around the car,” reckons Rene Ronning, product manager automotive for Dynaudio, the Danish audio company, which has recently launched a 12 speaker system for the new Volkswagen Passat Alltrack. “They’ll be analysing the sound environment outside the car and adapting the audio inside the car accordingly. It’s basically about taking the active noise cancellation technology from hearing aids and using them in car audio systems.” If the booming bass of cars stopped at traffic lights makes you wonder if the driver might well require a hearing aid, that too will be addressed. At the premium end of the market it already

d n u o s deas i

Car audio systems are becoming increasingly complex and are likely to be increasingly tailored to the market as Josh Simms reports

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has been: Bentley requested that Naim, the British audio company with which it has had an exclusive contract since 2008, tackle what the industry calls ‘bass leak’ - a product in part of how the speakers are mounted, but right down to how a door is constructed and out of what. “There are so many areas of refinement now being investigated for the future of car audio,” says Naim’s electronic design director Steve Sells. “And they’re going to require an enormous amount of multi-disciplinary design.” Indeed, if for decades car audio has been something of an after-thought for many automobile manufacturers, that attitude is rapidly falling by the wayside: “Decision-making about what car to go for is increasingly about what you can do in a car as much as factors like fuel economy, ride, performance,” argues John Buchanan, CEO of Meridian Audio, which develops systems for cars by Jaguar, Land Rover and McLaren. “For a lot of us it is in the car that we listen to more and more music. And, remember, audio quality is not just for music, but phone conversations, sat-nav, warning sounds...” Certainly the car audio industry is moving towards ever higher levels of complexity and subtlety, perhaps well beyond what might be expected for the average listener to distinguish, although Ronning argues that “people are sensitive to sound only when it’s bad - but poor sound quality is actually stressful to listen to, subliminally. So sound quality while driving is more important than might at first be imagined.” On the one hand designing car audio seems simpler than designing audio for the home: a car is an enclosed space, and designers know where people will be sitting. But on the other sound has to be designed to work in an environment of mixed materials that reflect and absorb it in

“Certainly the car audio industry is moving towards ever higher levels of complexity and subtlety, perhaps well beyond what might be expected for the average listener to distinguish” very different ways. “Then there’s road noise and turbulence, the fact that there will be a varying number of people in the car,” adds Buchanan. And even the audio system’s weight can be a factor in a high-performance sports-car. According to Sells, a few psycho-acoustic tricks - working with the science of how the human auditory system processes and interprets sound - are required. Intricate timing is one: given that speakers are typically set at or below chest level, setting the tweater sound slightly ahead of the other speakers can give a sense of one complete sound at ear-level. Even how sound responds to different speeds on the road, and how drowning out road noise affects the driver’s sense of speed, are now being investigated to improve safety. Small wonder those aforementioned refinements are coming ever faster, and trickling down from the premium end of the car market to the economy ever faster too. Streaming from smartphones is becoming increasingly important - and, as with home audio, getting the best sound out of a digital format (often hardcore audiophiles’ bete noire). Active speaker systems give the impression of more power without the distortion. Today’s car audio systems are, in effect, audio computers. Meridian’s Buchanan suggests that the next key advance will be from surround sound - now commonplace in car audio systems at the top end - to what he calls 3D audio. “This adds a heightened sense of atmosphere, so rather than sense the sound coming at you from certain places, you get a sense of scale, of

being in the music,” he explains. “It’s this kind of development that is making audio one of the key battlegrounds in the auto industry now.” Looking further into the future we’re likely to see a much more bespoke approach, as the top-end of the market is already adopting - car manufacturers will work with audio specialists from a vehicle’s conception, “so, for example, you’re not trying to pack a system into a car using whatever space is left,” suggests Buchanan, with different systems designed for different cars: even a long wheelbase Land Rover, for instance, will have a different system to a short wheelbase model. “The dream scenario for me would be to have a car designed from the outset to be dedicated to sound and speed,” says Sells. Even cultural difference will be taken into consideration: in the west, for example, an expensive premium car is likely to be proudly driven by its owner; in China, it is still more likely to be driven by a chauffeur, and a system needs to be able to recognise the location of the most relevant person in the cabin: equalizers that can optimise sound in a specific part of the interior are likely to become more commonplace. “We can expect systems to be made with much more focus on where that system will be sold, according perhaps to the different materials used in a model from market to market,” says Ronning. “It’s going to get very complex. But the next few years are going to be very exciting times in car audio.” n

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

A man for whom good governance means good business

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Jason Wouhra is the main face of the Institute of Directors in the West Midlands. He’s also busy shaking his family’s traditional business up for major expansion. Steve Dyson reports Just fifteen years ago, the last thing on Jason Wouhra’s mind was a career with East End Foods, his family’s ethnic spices and cash and carry business. “I’d just graduated with a Law degree from Stafford University and wanted to be a barrister,” recalls Wouhra, now aged 37. “But my dad said: ‘Why? I’ve been working all my life and have built this business up, and now you’re going to go off and have your own career somewhere else?’” The father-son discussion intensified when East End Foods lost an important salesman and a cousin had to move to the ethnic foods side. Wouhra was persuaded to manage the firm’s cash and carry depot in Highgate, Birmingham, on what he initially thought was a temporary basis. He says. “I’d been stacking shelves in school holidays from the age of eight or nine. It becomes part of your blood, and I understood my dad wanted to build a legacy. But I was still thinking I’d become a barrister, and for a while had a place on hold at Lincoln’s Inn. I even took a part-time Masters in Law.” He eventually gave up on his barrister dream, but realised the importance of his “external” activities. He says: “Education broadened my horizons and gave me a different way of thinking.” This led to Wouhra studying to become a Chartered Director of the Institute of Directors (IoD) – “I thought if I’m having a career here, I’ve got to get a bit of business nous” – and he achieved that status aged just 26, the IoD’s youngest ever. His role at East End Foods was growing, and the company’s turnovers were exceeding £100m by 2009. Meanwhile, his links with the IoD continued, and he soon became vice-chair of the Young Directors’ Forum. Then, nearly three years ago, Wouhra agreed to become chair of the IoD’s West Midlands region? Wouhra

“I’ve been working all my life and have built this business up, and now you’re going to go off and have your own career somewhere else?”

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“Manchester’s far smaller, way smaller than Birmingham,” he says, “but they got their act together and saw the big picture, helped by a strong leader”

has improved the profile of the IoD, with membership growing to more than 2,000. His term ends in April 2016, but he’s already been asked – and is seriously considering – staying on for another three years. Wouhra says: “The networking and friendships I’ve made at the IoD have been really important professionally. It’s a learning organisation, teaching people about governance, professional development, what it takes to be a good director, and how boards can ensure things are hunky-dory. Good governance equals good business. “We’ve also brought the IoD’s Chartered Directors courses back to Birmingham [Wouhra had to go to Loughborough for his], and we’ve moved into the new Library of Birmingham, because it’s important that we’re seen to be part of the city, and being in that iconic building reinforces that.” Wouhra doesn’t baulk at criticising local government for its “lack of vision” which has seen the West Midlands come second to Greater Manchester in the race for devolutionary funding. “Manchester’s far smaller, way smaller than Birmingham,” he says, “but they got their act together and saw the big picture, helped by a strong leader. Leadership is not necessarily about

detail, it’s about bringing people together to see the vision – then firing people up about it. “That’s the issue for some in greater Birmingham – like the Black Country, and Coventry and Warwickshire – who just don’t seem to understand that if we all get together the power of the region is huge. London’s a country within a country. Birmingham’s warmer, more friendly, and easier to network. There’s a lot to be said for this city, but we’re going to fail if the leadership, the politicians on the councils, don’t pull together. “Whatever the terminology, whether it’s Greater Birmingham, the West Midlands or whatever, do foreign investors wanting to build factories and employ our people really care? Of course not. To them, they just see it as Birmingham, and they’re not bothered what it’s called. And that is where the leadership becomes quite weak, caught up in the small stuff. “The people from India and China wanting to invest millions care about the skills available, people’s employability and the region’s work ethic.” Wouhra describes how until recently “historical figures like Matthew Boulton and James Watt were still celebrated as Birmingham’s transformational, industrious leaders”. But now he feels new names are finally coming

to the fore: Paul Faulkner, chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce; Paul Thandi, chief executive of NEC Group; Sara Fowler, EY’s senior partner in the Midlands; Andy Street, John Lewis’ managing director and chair of the Greater Birmingham LEP; and Stuart Towe, chair of the Black Country LEP. “The important thing is that we’re all friends,” says Wouhra, “we all get on very well, and there’s no ego thing. We can help with this new age, and it does help to say we’re all speaking with one voice. It gives the region more influence. “The IoD has a pretty powerful voice. And with all those partners, in the next 10 years we can make this city a powerhouse, creating a formula where we can push for the best for the region. That will come from devolution, but we’ll have to work for it, and the councils will have to come together.” Wouhra warns that now Sir Albert Bore, Birmingham’s city leader, is standing down, Labour’s local councillors need to “quickly but carefully” elect a replacement. “Hopefully they’ll choose the right leader,” he says. “Someone who’s powerful and strong. I don’t want to knock Albert Bore – he’s done a lot for the city, and I feel bad he’s been pushed. But whoever the next leader is, they

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

need to really think about our city and region, the massive growth we’re seeing, the need to increase the profile and make it world class.” Meanwhile, Wouhra’s also pushing for change at East End Foods. The business was formed in the late 1960s when his uncle, Tony Wouhra, came to Wolverhampton from Delhi, India, soon followed by brothers Trilok, Jasbir (Jason Wouhra’s father), David and Don. The Sikh siblings started a basic grocery business, selling eggs and chickens door-to-door to other Indian immigrants. They initially came to the UK for their education, paying for that by delivering to customers in the evenings. But when their own father passed away, the young men realised they needed to work full-time to send money home to support their family. By 1972, they incorporated their growing wholesale business as East End Foods, and moved to Birmingham’s “more lively market” with its growing ethnic customer base. The company’s headquarters now stands on the former HP Sauce factory site in Aston Cross, Birmingham, from where annual turnovers have doubled to £200m since 2009. Employing nearly 400 staff, the company is owned equally by the five Wouhra brothers’ families, with various sons forming a second generation of operational management. Jason – the IoD’s Wouhra – is now operations director of the Aston and Highgate cash and carry depots, and company secretary overseeing all HR and legal issues. Wouhra says that “family respect, hard work and some really good staff” has helped things run smoothly for 40-plus years, but he says: “We’re at the stage where we’ve got to look at the company as a corporate entity, and consider bringing in some external strands. There’ll be some resistance from the family, but I think it’s time to move on.” His ideas have been prompted by what he’s seen in the outside world. As well as the IoD,

Wouhra warns that now Sir Albert Bore, Birmingham’s city leader, is standing down, Labour’s local councillors need to “quickly but carefully” elect a replacement”

he’s on Aston University’s development board, is a non-executive director at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital NHS Trust and ran the Library of Birmingham’s advisory board. He’s also on Birmingham City Council’s Child Poverty Commission, and in October raised nearly £70,000 for MacMillan Cancer Support at a charity gala dinner. Wouhra, who lives in Sutton Coldfield with Daali, his chartered accountant wife, says: “You carve out little chunks of time for these things, because if you’re inward-looking you can only achieve so much. It’s helped my thinking on how we should be developing to push East End Foods forward. “We need a succession plan. Already the second generation is operationally leading the business. The first generation’s still there, and very active. But we need to move on and up. The export

market for ethnic foods is huge. We’re already in 40-ish countries and have even sent small amounts of spices to India! “Globalising the brand is an aspiration. On the cash and carry side, our three depots are all in Birmingham. We need to expand to London, East Midlands, Manchester, Bradford – wherever there’s a good ethnic retail conurbation. There are mergers and acquisitions opportunities as well. We could double in size again in the next five years. But that will take a different strategy. We’re very much hands on, which is good at this level. But we’re starting to stretch. We might have to bring people in at a senior level. It’s the family’s decision to make, but that’s my view.” And reading between the lines, that means there are going to be some interesting boardroom meetings at East End Foods in the next few months. n

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The first thing I notice as I arrive outside Fabulous in Touchwood Shopping Centre, Solihull, is that it doesn’t look or feel anything like a traditional jewellers. There’s no window display jam-packed with row upon row of expensive watches, gold necklaces and diamond rings, the prices of which can often make shoppers feel unwelcome. And there’s no security grill, no black curtains blocking any inside view, and no double-locked front door which has to be released via ringing a musty old bell. Instead, the huge windows are clear of nearly everything except six or seven display boards carrying pictures of trendy women enjoying what seem to be classy lifestyles, all subtly wearing what appear to be pretty snazzy necklaces or bracelets. Those boards aside, 90% of the very, very clean windows provide an uncluttered view of the shop’s bright interior – quite a bright pink, actually, set off against a dazzling white décor – and the door is wide open. All this, especially for the female shopper (I know, I know, but I’m in imagining mode), imbues an immediate calm, warm and friendly feeling that makes you want to smile. I’m not normally much of a shopper, so I put my initial observations to Jo Stroud, owner of Fabulous. “Absolutely,” says the 47-year-old. “One of the key things we’ve set out to be is a really engaging, woman-friendly store.” Stroud then goes on to list all the other aspects of Fabulous that she feels makes it a place where a woman wants to be and wants to treat herself. “All our prices are on full show, so that shoppers don’t have to ask how much everything costs. None of our staff wear uniforms, instead choosing what they want to wear themselves, which again makes everything feel less formal. “And we don’t pay our staff on commission, and so there’s no incentive for them to go in

A love affair with retail In a rare trip to a shopping centre, BQ editor Steve Dyson meets jewellery entrepreneur Jo Stroud for a touch of female retail therapy for the hard sell, which makes our shops a more browsable, female-friendly environment, encouraging people to wander around, knowing that we’re not going to jump out on them.” This sounds like a sensible approach.But does it work? “Yes, it works very well,” says Stroud, who opened her first Fabulous store in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, ten years ago, her second here in Solihull in 2007 and now has a third in Bath. “Our best customers might pop in every three or four weeks, keeping their eyes on what’s new, and making it very much part of their shopping.” The price range at Fabulous is lower than the average jewellers, from £20 to £500, with the average single item costing between £50 and £75. “We see ourselves as high-end, High Street shopping,” says Stroud. “We’re targeting women who want to buy themselves a nice handbag, nice clothes and nice shoes, and therefore people who might want to treat themselves to a piece of nice jewellery. That’s both jewellery for wearing every day and for

special occasions, and what might be a personal purchase or for a gift.” The most popular items at Fabulous are charm bracelets and what Stroud calls the ‘composable’ necklace – a chain that can carry different-shaped pendants, depending on what a woman is wearing, or where she’s going. “A lot of our jewellery has meaning,” she says, and I must be looking like I don’t know what she means because she quickly explains. “We always try to communicate the message of the design or brand we’re selling, telling people about the person who made the jewellery, and the story behind it.” I’m still struggling to grasp this so Stroud shows me a Fabulous brochure, and I see how personal and meaningful many of the designs have become in recent years. There’s the ChloBo bracelet at £85, for example, depicting tree images, its description explaining how this “represents the relationship of all life on earth”. Then there’s the Alex and Ani collection, with the ‘Unexpected miracles’ bangles at £24 and bracelets at £59. Stroud says: “It was about bringing together

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“We’re targeting women who want to buy themselves a nice handbag, nice clothes and nice shoes, and therefore people who might want to treat themselves to a piece of nice jewellery.”

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

these really exciting designs and brands in one place, trying to be the first store in the UK to stock lots of different international designers. We were the first to stock Alex and Ani, and the only place in the UK for ‘The Giving Keys’ [an American collection where profits fund schemes for the homeless].” Fabulous has even developed its own brand of personalised jewellery called ‘Mantra’, a gift-style purchase which carries a message on a card, and ‘My mantra’, where the message is on the jewellery itself. When Stroud launched her business back in 2005, this style of jewellery was relatively new, but by spotting the growing trend she quickly made it the focus of Fabulous. “We aim very much at the woman, typically in her 30s or 40s, and likely to be in a professional career, the type of person who likes to treat themselves. But we also want her daughter to feel comfortable and her mother to find something as well, and for their husband or partner or son to know this is the perfect place to buy their gifts.” This target market has certainly responded to Fabulous: the company turned over £4.3m last year, each of its three stores contributing between £700,000 to £800,000, another £300,000 or so coming from online sales, and the balance coming from a separate franchise store for the coveted Pandora brand of jewellery, also in Bath. Stroud, who lives near Stratford-upon-Avon, “fell in love” with retail by accident when she started working in a bookshop after leaving university. She eventually became manager of a number of what were then Dillons’ bookstores across the country. Then she moved into marketing, working for a top agency managing accounts for companies like Aston Martin, Hewlett Packard, B&Q and BMW. She had the idea for Fabulous back in 2004, after a really poor experience when she was shopping at a jewellery store in the Lake District: “There was no mirror, so I couldn’t see how anything looked when I was wearing it. And the staff didn’t seem to want to open the cabinets to let me try anything on anyway. “It felt like a gallery – I even found myself whispering. The products were fine, but the experience was not great, and I thought: ‘There must be a better way.’ After all, jewellery is a fun product, and it should be an enjoyable

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

“Everything from the proposition to the product, and from the customer to communications, all are covered in retail. It’s the perfect place for anyone who wants to run their own business to start.”

purchasing experience.” Over the next six months, Stroud worked on a business plan, and by 2005 she was ready to launch Fabulous. But it nearly never happened. Her husband, Paul Stroud, worked as European commercial director for MG Rover, and on the day before she was due to resign the UK car maker collapsed. Stroud recalls: “For a moment it didn’t feel like the right time for us both to be out of work. It was: ‘Do I go ahead or stay in my safe job?’ But we just decided that you have to take a risk in life, and we did. I had a clear business plan. I was confident. And I felt it was the right thing to do. And if the worst thing happened, I could always just get another job.” The risk was evidently worth it. Paul, headhunted by Harley Davison, is now global sales and marketing director for Triumph motorcycles in Hinckley, Leicestershire. Meanwhile, Fabulous has succeeded, which Stroud puts down to her previous experience in retail and marketing. She says. “It’s all about marketing. At the start of Fabulous, I was leafleting door-to-door, attending breakfast meetings and networking groups, all to tell people about my new store. I took stands at school fairs and Christmas fairs, personally getting the name of the business out there.” But once the customers are coming in, Stroud says it’s the way they’re treated that makes a shop sell products or not. And what’s worked for her, she believes, can work for any business, because of the wide and varied experiences that retail can provide. She says: “Retail, for me, is one of the most exciting industries to be in, and it gave me all the experience I needed to run Fabulous. Retail’s constantly changing and is such a great place to get a real understanding of people – both the customers and the teams you manage. Stroud believes that a lot of the skills needed when starting your own business can be learned from retail. From commercial skills like customer behaviour to problem-solving skills like blocked toilets. From financial skills like buying, selling and margins, to people management skills like recruitment, training and team motivation. She adds: “Everything from the proposition to the product, and from the customer to communications, all are covered in retail. It’s the perfect place for anyone who wants to run their own business to start.” n

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John Duckers, the Birmingham business journalist that the city hates to love, is raising charity funds again with his second children’s book. The Crazy Adventures of the Silly Six follows on from The Amazing Adventures of the Silly Six and features the antics of friends Angus McMonty, a snake who’s really a softie, Felicity, the upmarket dog, Suzi, the almost sensible cat, Percy, the timid parrot, Nasher, the fearless hamster, and slightly quirky Mole. Duckers’ first book raised £2,000 for a local leukaemia charity, while this one will benefit Performances Birmingham, the charity that manages Town Hall Symphony Hall, providing opportunities for thousands of children to experience music. The book, sponsored by Investec Wealth & Investment, is priced at £7.99 and can be bought from the Symphony Hall Gift Shop in the ICC, or via email giftshop@thsh.co.uk.

Rumour has it that Premiership star Wayne Rooney has been seen tiptoeing around the streets of Redditch, of all places. And it’s no wonder now that I’m told that hair transplant and restoration company Ziering Medical has moved into Meadows Barns at the Worcestershire town’s Brockhill Court. The firm will have 20 sales and accounts staff based at the new site, while its medical staff will continue to work out of Dolan Park Hospital, Stoney Lane, Bromsgrove.

One of the most annoying things about city centres is the vast carpets of chewing gum spread all over the pavements. And so it was a delight to spot a hit squad on Birmingham’s New Street, near Union Passage, spraying brightlycoloured circles to highlight the disgusting habit. It’s all part of a campaign launched by Retail Birmingham BID to reduce gum litter in the local area, working with The Chewing Gum Action Group, funded by the chewing gum industry. The BID’s clean team circled every single piece of discarded gum in the area using water soluble fluorescent chalk, and the public reaction

An extravagant Bollywood Dreams dance duo thrilled the crowd at the opening of Vivaanta, the new Indian fine dining restaurant in Birmingham. The venue, over the canal bridge from The Cube, specialises in fresh seafood – including monkfish, king prawns, scallops, seabass, crab and lobster – but it’s also going down well as a cocktail bar. Head chef and co-owner Shah Alam told me: “Birmingham’s already well known for its curries and balti belt, but we want to up the offering with a really classy dining experience. “My philosophy on food is simple. If I love it, I believe others will love it too. Secondly, all ingredients must be the very best available.” Vivaanti means “to live well gracefully”, and from mine and Mrs B’s experience that’s exactly what you feel like when you’re dining at this venue.

created one of the busiest streets in Birmingham. Jonathan Cheetham, chair of Retail Birmingham BID, said: “Chewing gum litter is costly and difficult to remove, so we hope this campaign will persuade folk to bin their gum the right way.”

Here’s one to get all you JCB-fans excited: Diggerland is planning to open a site at The

Valley, formerly known as Evesham Country Park, in Worcestershire. Wychavon District Council has given the planning nod for what will be the fifth UK Diggerland theme park – joining others in Kent, Devon, Durham and Yorkshire. Diggerland will open at The Valley next year with rides and attractions in more than five acres of land, enabling both children and adults to drive and operate real, full-size construction machinery.

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EVENTS

bqlive.co.uk

BQ’s business diary helps you forward plan

DECEMBER 01

IoD West Midlands Annual Christmas Drinks: 18.00-20.00, members free. Shakespeare Memorial Room, Library of Birmingham. 0121 643 7801, Carly Cline.

UBBC, Breakfast Briefing: Employment Issues for SMEs, 7.309.30. Birmingham Research Park, University of Birmingham.

GBCC, Successful Sales Techniques: 9.30-16.30, members £215 non-members £240. Birmingham Chamber of Commerce 75 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3DH 0121 607 1772, events@birmingham-chamber.com

GBCC Burton, Understanding the Procurement Process, 7.309, members free, non-members £10. The Lecture Theatre at the MEC, Burton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Belvedere Road Burton on Trent, Staffordshire, DE13 0RB, 01283 535640, c.plant@chase-chamber.com

Mazars/Business Growth Fund, Grab the chance to grow: 8.30-11am, free. Mazars, 45 Church St, B3 2RT, 0121 232 9618 lucy.hogg@mazars.co.uk

GBCC Lichfield Business Connect Breakfast: 7-9.30, £8.33. Lichfield Rugby Club, Cooke Fields, Tamworth Road, Lichfield Staffordshire, WS14 9JE, 08450 710 191, c.plant@chasechamber.com

BBBC Christmas special, Phill Innes - Lokki Wines: 7-9 am, £20. Hotel du Vin, 25 Church St, Birmingham, West Midlands B3 2NR. £20. Book at www.bbbc.biz

GBCC Export Documentation: 9.15-16.30, members £210 non-members £230. Birmingham Chamber of Commerce 75 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3DH, 0121 607 1772, events@birmingham-chamber.com

JANUARY

UBBC, Andy Street: ‘Regional renaissance, origins, opportunities and lessons,’ 17.30-19.00. Birmingham Business School Main Lecture Theatre, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston Birmingham B15 2TT.

GBCC Business Breakfast with Paul Faulkner, chief executive: 7.30-10.00 members £15, non-members £22.50. The Studio, 7 Canon Street, Birmingham, B2 5EP, 0121 607 1772, events@birmingham-chamber.com

Solihull Chamber, Solihull President Drinks Reception: 16.30-19.30, members free, Solihull College, Blossomfield Road, Solihull, B91 1SB. 0121 678 7488, solevents@solihull-chamber.com

GBCC Motivating the Team: 9.30-12.30, members £95, non-members £120. Birmingham Chamber of Commerce 75 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3DH 0121 607 1772, events@birmingham-chamber.com

GBCC Burton, Speed Networking: 12.00-14.00, members £15, non-members £20. Branston Golf & Country Club, Burton Road, Branston, Burton on Trent Staffordshire, DE14 3DP, 01283 535640, c.plant@chase-chamber.com

GBCC Understanding Discipline in the Workplace: 13.30-16.30, members £95, non-members £120. Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, 75 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3DH 0121 607 1772, events@birmingham-chamber.com

GBCC Business Breakfast with Lisa Williams, general manager, John Lewis Birmingham: 7.30-10.00, members £15, non-members £22.50. Birmingham TBC, 0121 607 1772, events@birmingham-chamber.com

IoD West Midlands Women as Leader Annual Lunch: 12.0014.00, £33. Royal Shakespeare Memorial Room, Library of Birmingham. 0121 643 7801, Carly Cline.

GBCC Effective Networking: 9.30-16.30, members £240, nonmembers £215. Birmingham Chamber of Commerce 75 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 3DH 0121 607 1772, events@birmingham-chamber.com

BQ’s business events diary gives you lots of time to forward plan. To add your event, email details to steve.dysonmedia@gmail.com, with ‘BQ events page’ as the email subject heading KEY: BBBC, Birmingham Business Breakfast Club. GBCC, Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce. IoD, Institute of Directors. UBBC, University of Birmingham Business Club

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

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R&D tax Credits are for Small & Medium Enterprise (SMEs) and Large Companies Many costs of research and development can be recovered with generous uplifts Patent Box is designed to be applied in conjunction with R&D Tax Credits. It is a new incentive that all companies should consider MCS operates confidently across the UK and Northern Ireland All work is completed in-house on success fees MCS works with your accountants and liaises with HMRC throughout. References and case studies are given. Support is ongoing, confidential and secure with a solid company with strict ethics and operational standards

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