BQ Yorkshire Issue 26 Autumn 2015

BUSINESS QUARTER

BUSINESS QUARTER

Yorkshire: Autumn 2015

Celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship

It’s personal and it’s business BQ meets the Karate black belt who is a personal brand creator

Holding the baby The entrepreneur brothers who are nursing their infant business

Country life

Our editor chews the fat with a man whose heart is in the land

£4.95 Business Quarter Magazine

Yorkshire: Autumn 2015

Beer’s looking at you We shine the spotlight on Allan Rice and the Atom Beers brewery

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

B U SIN ESS U P DAT E

IN SIGHT

LIFES T YLE

E VE NT S

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BUSINESS UPDATE bqlive.co.uk

EDITOR’S VIEW YORKSHIRE ISSUE 26 Just as I expected, the main challenge with this job is to fit it all in - in this edition of BQ Yorkshire we bring you 17 in-depth interviews over more than 100 pages! There is inspirational thinking and ‘only in Yorkshire’ enthusiasm in here, from people at the very start of their journeys, to people who can, at last, see some clear blue sky ahead, to the people at the very top of their game, who have grown their businesses and are now huge influencers on the whole region. Every page needs to add something to the story of Yorkshire’s entrepreneurs, to help us understand the deep traditions of the region and the heights that our new businesses can take it to. Yorkshire is getting a taste for growth and those at the centre of the action know that this region will not be the same in five, four or even three years because it will have thrown away the script and through sheer hard graft will have written a bright future for itself. Here at BQ we are also always ready for change, so you will notice a fresh new look for your magazine in this edition. Our designers are always looking for ways to help make the most of our content and BQ Yorkshire now has some subtle improvements in typography and design to make it clearer and easier to read for the people who matter. I hope you like it as much as we do. In the new-look pages that follow, we have a special section on how Yorkshire is leading the way in medical technology and we preview one of the region’s biggest business events, Leeds Business Week. Also, meet the entrepreneurs: a brewery with big plans and a big reputation; three brothers who are building a safer and better world for babies and parents; the scientists making trillions of products every day; and the 72-year-old proving there is no age limit to having an entrepreneurial spirit. Among the experts sharing their views and experience is the karate master who is redefining the world of accountancy; the CEO who turned around a utilities company and the managing partner who left his first interview with a note saying “Works in a bar. Says he gets on with people. Offer him a job.”

That’s a pretty broad snapshot of what this part of the country has to offer. It’s only part of the content of one magazine, and there have been 25 before it and will be many more after it, but it is a chance to look into the hearts and minds of people who are the engine of the Yorkshire machine. Once again, I hope you enjoy it and gain something from it. Please keep in touch and let me know who you think I should be talking to next time.

Mike Hughes, Editor, BQ Yorkshire

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room501 Publishing Ltd, Spectrum 6, Spectrum Business Park, Seaham, SR7 7TT. www.bqlive.co.uk. Business Quarter (BQ) is a leading national business brand recognised for celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship.

The multi-platform brand currently reaches entrepreneurs and senior business executives across the North East, Scotland, Yorkshire and the West Midlands. BQ has established a UK wide regional approach to business engagement reaching a highly targeted audience of entrepreneurs and senior executives in high growth businesses both in-print, online and through branded events. All contents copyright Š 2015 room501 Ltd. All rights reserved. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, no responsibility can be accepted for inaccuracies, howsoever caused. No liability can be accepted for illustrations, photographs, artwork or advertising materials while in transmission or with the publisher or their agents. All profiles are paid for advertising. All information is correct at time of going to print, September 2015.

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CONTENTS 60

Autumn 15 X28X

OPEN-TOPPED LUXURY

Test driving two Bentley classics from different eras

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COUNTRY LIFE

BQ chews the fat with a man whose heart is in the land

RXYXCT XUC UCYXTUCU Entrepreneur brothers nursing Xyxtrc tytxrc xyc cytxr cyrxytcr their baby business xtycr ycrytxrc xytcr xc

IT’S PERSONAL AND IT’S BUSINESS BQ meets the black belt personal brand creator

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HOLDING THE BABY

A PIPELINE OF GROW TH

Profiling the CEO who turned his business around

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Celebrating and inspir ing entrepreneurship

REGULARS

FEATURES

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BUSINESS UPDATE Who’s doing what, when, where and why in Yorkshire

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BEER’S LOOKING AT YOU Spotlight on Allan Rice and the Atom Beers business

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AS I SEE IT Mark Ambler explains how to build those vital networks

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STEAMING AHEAD Bradford College’s home for digital technology

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COMMERCIAL PROPERT Y Look at the market and the latest deals

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GOLF’S LOSS IS BHP’S GAIN Mike Hughes meets John Warner of BHP

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FASHION Celebrating dad style

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BELL A ITALIA Pride and passion of San Carlos

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KINI ON WINE Wine first; food second

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REACHING OUT Helping those left behind

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

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MAN WITH A PLAN How Andrew Richardson built his career

SPECIAL FEATURES LEEDS BUSINESS WEEK Presented by the Yorkshire Mafia, 12 page special report

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FASHION Celebrating dad style

THE HEALTHC ARE PIONEERS Cutting edge life science research, 16 page report

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FACT OF THE QUARTER SMEs in the UK turn over around £1.2trillion, which is just below a half of the UK’s total economy

BUSINESS UPDATE LEP helps J Marr save energy A grant from the Leeds City Region LEP has helped Wakefield based The J Marr Group, which includes an international ice supplier and storage and logistics business, to implement green energy systems within the business and create new jobs. The business has been awarded a £164,000 grant from the LEP towards the purchase of a wind turbine which has reduced costs and consequently allowed for 38 new employees to meet increasing demand.

The grant is part of a £368,000 investment made

by J Marr which promotes savings in electricity through green energy. The nature of the business means that large amounts of electricity are used to keep the product frozen and J Marr is constantly striving to find ways to reduce this.

The cold stores consume every bit of electricity the new wind turbine produces, cutting costs at its site in South Kirkby, which includes the largest ice factory in Europe. Malcolm Dufton, a director of J Marr, said: “Our ice products are seasonal and as a business we have to be flexible. The grant has allowed a vital investment to take place to reduce costs and increase output. There are future plans to further reduce the electricity the business uses, with the introduction of

solar panels throughout the site and fast doors with air curtains installed in our cold stores. We are also looking to expand further with plans to increase our European exports.”

Roger Marsh, Chair of the Leeds City Region

Production at The J Marr Group

Enterprise Partnership, said: “J Marr is a well-established Wakefield company and a really innovative business. We are delighted to have been able to assist in bit.ly/majestictweeters creating a significant number of jobs in the region as well A very smart way of as supporting a company finding the most useful become more energy efficient Twitter users on loads in their day to day business.” of subjects

WEBSITE OF THE QUARTER

Azzure goes to top of the class A Sheffield-based IT company that was named amongst the top four providers in the world in its specialism by Microsoft has launched its own training academy for graduates and school leavers.

Azzure IT, which provides firms with Microsoft software tools to improve business processes, productivity and profitability, has developed the Azzure Dynamics Academy. The company is a specialist in providing Microsoft Dynamics NAV – Microsoft’s business management system.

The Azzure Dynamics Academy will help young people at both graduate and apprenticeship level, establish their IT careers in a range of areas, including development, customer support, consultancy and office-based sales. Craig Such, MD at Azzure IT, explains: “IT is an industry that constantly needs more skills so rather than be at the mercy of others, we thought the time was right to secure our future by investing in the next generation of IT specialists. We’re looking for talented people from a range of backgrounds and skillsets to join us, and not necessarily people who already have extensive knowledge in IT. We want bright, ambitious people with the desire and potential to develop a successful career.”

The Forge is the place to come for innovative businesses with big ideas and ambitions.

HGF goes dutch HGF Limited, Intellectual Property specialist, has opened a new office in The Hague, Netherlands.

This latest expansion activity is the first in Continental Europe and becomes the 11th office in this growing firm’s portfolio. The office is centrally located in the heart of The Hague and is led

by Dr Achim Krebs who joins the firm as a partner. The new office provides a base for HGF in the Netherlands, the third largest patent filing nation in Europe, with facilities close to the expanding European Patent Office, which already houses 40% of its staff in The Hague.

George F. White’s Property Consultancy service thrives in Yorkshire

Killian Gallagher, Planning Consultant, George F. White

Land and property consultancy George F. White is experiencing steady growth across the region.

The firm has two offices in Yorkshire - one in Shiptonthorpe and one in Bedale.

Killian Gallagher, a planning consultant who heads up the planning team at George F. White’s Shiptonthorpe office, said: “As the UK economy recovers, we have been able to diversify our planning services and provide planning advice to a range of different clients. Historically, we mostly worked with landowners and farmers but, in the last few years, we have broadened our offering and now work with a wide range of clients from housing, retail and hospitality developers to agricultural machinery dealerships.

As a result, our planning services are going from strength to strength, and we hope to expand the planning team in the not so distant future.”

George F. White Shiptonthorpe has been running a series of planning clinics, where those seeking planning advice can drop in at no cost to discuss their current projects. This has enabled the team to develop new relationships with developers in the region and advise them on their planning journey.

Speak to Killian and the team on 01430 876 016.

Corporate venue is advised it is excellent

Owners Martin and Sandra Johnson at Rudby Hall

Despite only opening last September, corporate events venue Rudby Hall, in Hutton Rudby near Stokesley, has been named as a Service Excellence Winner for 2015 by TripAdvisor. Rudby Hall, a popular venue for corporate events, weddings, private parties and accommodation, received its Certificate of Excellence award for continually delivering a superior customer experience. The award is based on the reviews provided by guests giving top ratings for service standards. In order to qualify, a business must maintain an overall TripAdvisor bubble rating of at least four out of five and have a minimum number of reviews.

Rudby Hall is now home to thirteen luxury suites, having opened another seven earlier this year.

Owners, Martin and Sandra Johnson, were recently given permission to more than double Rudby Hall’s table service capacity for meals from 72 to 150.

The increase in table service numbers.

SO, WHAT’S IT ALL FOR? You’ve probably asked yourself that a few times over the last six or seven years.

Weekends in the office, emails in front of the TV, iPad by the hotel pool – more stress for less reward. For many, the recession saw little or no growth in sales and profit which, with margins squeezed from all directions, meant shareholder values being wiped out and exit plans shelved - long term goals making way for short term firefighting. However, Grexits and Black Monday’s notwithstanding, the business world has, to a large extent, regained a sense of stability, allowing businesses and business owners to view the medium to longer term with a greater degree of certainty. Confidence even. So what now?

With lenders willing to lend and consumer confidence returning, the time has never been better to step back, refocus and work to build some value back into your business. However, with enquiries increasing and order books filling up, often the pattern is the opposite – the day to day once more overtaking the bigger picture. Which is why it’s important to have a plan, a written path to your end goal, a manifesto that underpins every business decision you make and ensures that every action you take in your business life is aligned with achieving your ultimate objective. So the next time the daily minutiae threatens to overwhelm you, you’ll have in your hands, on paper, a definitive response to that nagging question - ‘what’s it all for?’.

Visit www.armstrongwatson.co.uk/blue or contact Matthew Osbourne on 0113 2211300 / 07793 621967 or email: matthew.osbourne@armstrongwatson.co.uk

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TOP TWEETS

Earthmill MD Steve Milner

“Our survey shows more companies are #exporting - 15% compared to 12% in 2011. Main destinations are EU, North America + Middle East” @LeedsCityRegion “Great to see one of Sheffield’s business success stories @kitlocker sponsoring #SheffieldBoxingCentre @ShowboatRhodes” - @James_ HopeGill “It’s only 80 days until the doors open at The Broadway! Will you be joining us for the launch? #BroadwayBradford” - @ TheBroadwayBrad “Congratulations to Doncasters @ OriginBroadband on their recent investment from @FinanceYorks, bright future ahead!” - @BusinessDN “Thank you @hollybanktrust for having us on Friday for our @hirscheauto community initiative day #TownTaskTeam (VRH)” @HTAFCBusiness “We agree, developing #DigitalSkills is a major part of the #NorthernPowerhouse Fortunately @EIABusiness and @ntiLeeds can help @vmbusiness” For frequen t business @franparkinson1 chat at your

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Earthmill is full of energy The UK’s leading farm-scale wind turbine firm, Wetherby-based Earthmill, has diversified into the rapidly growing combined heat and power (CHP) renewable energy market.

The £13m turnover Earthmill business was launched in 2009 by managing director Steve Milner and has grown to become the UK’s biggest supplier of wind turbines to farmers and landowners. The firm now has over 200 turbines across the UK, with offices in Yorkshire and service and technical teams throughout the country. The low carbon technology uses a specially designed reactor which heats sustainable fuel such as woodchip to produce a flammable gas. The clean-burning ‘biogas’ is then used as fuel in a gas engine to drive a generator and produce electricity. A large amount of heat is produced in the process but unlike conventional power stations, it is not wasted. The thermal or heat energy is transferred into water which can then be used on farms to heat dairies, or pig or poultry sheds making the process over 88% efficient. “We were one of the pioneers of farm-scale wind power in the UK, and since then we have been staying close to all emerging technologies. This is the first time we have seen a clean power technology that is sustainable and proven to deliver the same long-term returns on investment and operational benefits we saw in the wind sector several years ago,” said Milner.

Texans move for Sheffield’s steel stalwarts A Texas-based company has purchased one of Sheffield’s oldest steel wire manufacturers, with help from business experts at local solicitors, Taylor&Emmet LLP. Specialists from the firm’s corporate and commercial team negotiated the acquisition of the recycling wires division of Penistone Wire on behalf of clients, the Accent Wire Group. Taylor&Emmet’s advisers worked with their client’s UK subsidiary in Bradford to complete the transaction and make Accent the country’s largest supplier of specialist machinery and wires to the waste and recycling industries.

Rob Moore, head of business legal services at

The Forge is the place to come for innovative businesses with big ideas and ambitions.

Taylor&Emmet, said: “Bringing this acquisition to its successful conclusion has been a real collaborative effort by the team, requiring expertise in employment and commercial property law, as well as deal making. Our knowledge of the South Yorkshire business community was also beneficial for Accent and we are pleased to have played such a crucial role in the firm’s rise to UK market leader.”

Penistone Wire, founded in the 1950s as Ward Brothers, operates from two sites in Penistone on the Sheffield/Barnsley border. The seller was represented in the acquisition by Kuits Solicitors in Manchester. Funding was provided to Accent

by Shawbrook Bank.

QUOTE OF THE QUARTER

Going, going, gone to the top Sales of more than £12.5m have seen Sheffield-based Mark Jenkinson and Son record the best results in the whole of Yorkshire to date this year. It beat off competition from more than 20 other firms across the region to achieve both the best sales and market share results in Yorkshire for the first half of 2015, according to analysis by Essential Information Group (EIG). EIG, which analyses UK-wide auction data and is recognised as the industry standard, found Mark Jenkinson and Son achieved sales between January and June of at least a third higher - nearly £4m - than its nearest rival. The latest statistics also gives the firm, which has offices in Sheffield and Chesterfield, the highest market share in the region to date with 17.6%– six percentage points higher than the next best performing auctioneer. Adrian Little, head of the Auction Department, said: “EIG analyse all auction data and are held in high regard amongst the country’s auctioneers so these figures are very welcome news indeed. “We are thrilled to have reached sales of £12,543,850 - a success rate so far this year that puts us among the highest performing top 30 auctioneers in the UK – plus our July auction has since pushed sales up to £17m to date. “In times of recession, auctions can be seen as a method of last resort but I believe it to be the first option for selling any ‘property with potential’ - regardless of the prevailing market conditions - and our EIG results for the first half of 2015 very much bear out that view.”

“If you take your eye off the ball you will be history in a very short space of time” Linda Pollard, chair of Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust

Deloitte £1m charity triumph More than 230 Deloitte staff, including five from Yorkshire, took part in four challenges across four continents to raise £1m for its charity partners, Alzheimer’s Society, Mind and Prostate Cancer UK. The challenges included climbing Kilimanjaro, completing a tri-x in Borneo, climbing Mulhacén in mainland Spain and scaling one of the world’s most active volcanoes, Cotopaxi in Ecuador. The £1m target was reached by more than 10,543 sponsors and includes over £250,000 matched funding by Deloitte, the largest the firm has ever provided.

The Charity Challenge has been Deloitte’s biggest fundraising event to date and brings the total raised for its national charity partners to £2.5m, exceeding the £2m target set in 2013.

From the Leeds office of Deloitte, Fay Bordbar, Richard Flyde and Jack Meddings climbed Mount Kilimanjaro - Africa’s iconic and tallest peak, which came with extreme altitude at 5,895m, and Steve Roberts and Alex Crossley took part in the Borneo Tri-X, which consisted of a two days trek up Mount Kinabalu, two days cycling and one day rafting. Martin Jenkins, practice senior partner at Deloitte in Yorkshire and the North East, said: “We are immensely proud of everyone, especially those from the Leeds office, who undertook extreme personal challenges to support Alzheimer’s Society, Prostate Cancer UK and Mind. The funds raised will have a huge impact in helping our charity partners to expand on the excellent work they are already doing across the UK.”

THE PATH IS BLUE For many business owners their end goal is unclear and, as a result, a number of transactions are unplanned and opportunistic – a reactionary response to an unexpected offer, departure or opportunity.

However, with many businesses sold on a multiple of net profits, every pound saved, every percentile added to margin, every new sales account gained, can be earned several times over upon an exit.

There are also other, less measurable, factors that impact upon a company’s worth – how stable is my sales base, how good are my management team, how strong are my internal controls, how accurate is my management information?

We help you answer the big questions – what are my personal goals (what do I want and when?), how is this aligned with the business performance and, ultimately, how am I going to get there? Then we will help you manage your plan, by giving you the time and structure to step back and look forward; the challenge to ensure that you’re taking the tough decisions; the information, so that you know how your business is performing against the plan; and the focus, so that every decision you make is made with your end goal in mind.

Your eventual exit may be imminent. It may be many years into the future. But, until that time – and with our help - you’ll be running a growing, profitable business with a strong customer base, expert management team and robust internal processes, perfectly positioned to respond to unexpected opportunities, but always with a clear end goal in mind.

Visit www.armstrongwatson.co.uk/blue or contact Matthew Osbourne on 0113 2211300 / 07793 621967 or email: matthew.osbourne@armstrongwatson.co.uk

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Third sector growth for Garbutt + Elliott

NEWS MAKERS Leeds-based investment firm Myddleton Croft is continuing to expand with the appointment of Carolyn Black as associate director. She has over 15 years’ experience in investment management, managing a range of investments for private clients, pensions, trusts and charities, and is a chartered fellow of the Chartered Institute for Securities and Investment.

Carolyn Black with managing director Julie Jones

Yorkshire law firm Gordons has added to its employment team by recruiting experienced solicitor Tim Gooder from national practice DWF in Leeds. He has a strong background in all aspects of employment law. His contentious tribunal litigation work includes contractual dispute, dismissal, whistleblowing and discrimination cases.

Will Hellewell has joined Grant Thornton’s Sheffield team as business development manager. He started his career with Virgin Media Business in Sheffield, working as a business development executive for two years before moving to sales training and recruitment firm Pareto Law and then WSI Yorkshire.

LCF Law has appointed two solicitors bolstering its personal law team at its Bradford, Leeds, Ilkley and Harrogate offices. Deborah Kay has been appointed as an associate solicitor, having previously worked for Ramsdens, while Amjed Zaman has been appointed as a solicitor. He previously worked for The Co-operative’s Legal Services division.

Wilma Teviotdale, the head of accountancy and Finance at University of Huddersfield, who is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, has become a member of the ICAEW’s learning and professional development board, and will be closely involved in policy over issues such as student training.

Deloitte has promoted five of its senior staff in Yorkshire to director. Richard Bolton, Matt Clarke, Darren Hattersley, Joanna Herschell-Smith and Gavin Quantock are all based in the firm’s Leeds office, where practice senior partner Martin Jenkins said: “The five promotions are a reflection of our continued investment in our people.”

FIND MORE BUSINESS NEWS AT BQLIVE.CO.UK The Forge is the place to come for innovative businesses with big ideas and ambitions.

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The specialist charities team at Yorkshire chartered accountants, Garbutt + Elliott, is hailing the success of the past 12 months after seeing its number of clients double.

Launched less than three years ago, the team has seen year-on year-growth and expanded its client base across the North of England to 50. Fee growth in the 12 months to the end of June was more than 25% – an increase of nine per cent on the previous year.

Instructions have been received from a variety of charities and not-for-profit organisations.

The nine-strong team is spread across Garbutt + Elliott’s offices in Leeds and York and offers a wide range of services such as auditing, VAT compliance, payroll, taxation, cloud accounting and Gift Aid procedures.

The team is set to expand with a series of new appointments expected before the end of this year. Garbutt + Elliott was established in York over 150 years ago. Today, the firm has offices in York and Leeds and employs 104 people, including eight partners.

Free marketing training SMEs are being offered free digital marketing training as part of Leeds Business Week 2015, which we are covering in detail in this edition of BQ Yorkshire. Business owners looking to develop their digital presence are invited to attend a free workshop hosted by digital marketing expert Jonny Ross. After managing a chain of optician stores for a number of years, Jonny Ross started selling sunglasses online in 1998. His ecommerce site had the highest turnover of any UK sunglasses e-tailer for six years running. He now helps other businesses sell online through websites and social media. His training course at the Google Digital Garage at Leeds Dock at 9.30am on the Thursday covers all the major social media platforms, including Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. It also examines the importance of blogging as part of an overall strategy.

PROFILE clarion

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Diversification sees Leeds windows business expand into retail Yorkshire-based windows and doors company HWL Group is continuing to grow its business following an ambitious programme of diversification which has culminated in a move into the retail sector following two acquisitions Founded in 2003 by current owner Mark Haley, the company has evolved from its original business of manufacturing and selling PVC window frames to the construction trade. Five years ago, Mark, working with his advisers, devised a plan to adapt the existing business model resulting in 76% growth for the group. As well as expanding from a single 9,000 sq ft unit 15 years ago to today’s 28,000sq ft of manufacturing space, the group has seen its original staff of four increase to a workforce of almost 100 people.

“During the recession, while the market in general struggled, we found that consumers were actually choosing to buy from the type of reputable, wellestablished windows retailers which make up much of our customer base,” explains Mark. “As a result, our core business remained profitable, however, given the vagaries of the sector, we felt exposed and looked for ways to diversify.

“We began by adding aluminium bi-folding doors and window frames to our manufacturing portfolio in 2012, which led to us forming a new company within the group called Nordic Aluminium. With the move into premium aluminium products, we benefited from becoming an indispensable supplier to many window retailers.

“However, given the inherently precarious nature of the windows industry with the absence of contracts with trade customers, we felt the ideal would be for us to gain more control by having direct access to the end-user,” continues Mark. “We, therefore, sought to acquire established retailers with ‘high street’ showrooms which we believed would flourish as part of a larger group.”

RETAIL ACQUISITIONS In 2013, HWL Group bought Ilkley Windows, followed the next year by the acquisition of National Windows Systems in Darlington. The group is currently in the process of acquiring two new retail businesses.

“The move from purely B2B has been a very positive decision enabling us to offer a one-stop-shop to customers. We are now on the look out to acquire

Jonathan Simms (left) of Clarion with HWL Group managing director Mark Haley further complementary windows businesses with retail outlets,” said Mark. “The turnover of our manufacturing business is currently around £8m and we expect the retail side to add another £6m this year. We’ve been able to finance our expansion from cash flow and will continue to invest in the development of the business – we’ve ploughed back £500,000 in new digital CNC equipment over the last year and Nordic Aluminium has recently moved into its own 8,000sq ft facility.”

For the last ten years, HWL has been supported by Jonathan Simms of law firm Clarion and by Justin Smith of accountants Kirk Newsholme.

“Throughout our development, Jonathan Simms and the Clarion team have been an invaluable support.

During the decade we’ve worked with the firm, as well as benefitting from Jonathan’s advisory role, we’ve used most of Clarion’s other services from litigation and employment to commercial, debt recovery and property.

“Jonathan in particular has become a trusted adviser and a sounding board for our business ideas. Being a Yorkshireman, I like dealing with someone who is straightforward and tells it how it is. There’s always an element of risk as you expand which makes it vital to have a reputable, trusted firm like Clarion working with you.”

Jonathan Simms of Clarion’s corporate team adds,

“It’s inspiring to see a well-established company like HWL not just resting on its laurels, but seeking new opportunities and re-designing its business.

Its diversification tactics over the last five years are now starting to pay off with the move into retail in particular proving successful and further acquisitions now being sought. The group has flourished in a tough market place largely because it is a well-run, forward-thinking business and one which is prepared to explore new markets.”

HWL also launched another new venture in 2012, the Door and Window Fixer – a stand-alone business offering a call out repair service locally for broken and damaged doors and windows. Last year, HWL Self Build was added to the group, a new company offering bespoke door and window fixings and new lines aimed at customers building their own homes.

Can we help you? Call Jonathan Simms on 0113 336 3387 or email jonathan.simms@clarionsolicitors. com. Please visit www.clarionsolicitors.com for more information.

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AS I SEE IT bqlive.co.uk

It’s who Building the right relationships are crucial to business as Mark

“You only win when you help others to win” Someone much wiser than me once said; ‘Opportunities do not float like clouds in the sky – they are attached to people.’ An astute observation, considering that the people we spend time with determine the opportunities personal and professional - that are open to us.

Over the course of my career, I have pondered on the changing concept of networking, and, in the increasingly digitised landscape of modern business, whether it still retains the same relevance that it once had. I have made a variety of contacts and business deals through networking. Most significantly, this involved meeting a now long-term business

associate through an organised event. Years spent nurturing this relationship eventually led to the acquisition of a competitor. Whilst this example is the exception rather than the norm, I still believe that a wise business pays significant attention to networking.

According to figures published by the Business Networking Organisation, 98% of businesses rely on word of mouth to gain new business, yet only 3% have a strategy for doing so.

Networking is an underestimated way to win new clients, but undertaking it efficiently can bring success. There can be a tendency to employ a ‘scattergun’ approach to making new contacts, landing contracts and exploiting new

markets. This can entail spending a great deal of time and money on social media and business networking, which often results in disappointing outcomes. Whilst these areas should be given due time and consideration, try to aim to spend 90% of your networking time with 10% or less of your current network. By being more selective, and targeting those who represent the ‘right’ type of business, you are likely to reap the commercial rewards. The other benefit gained from operating this way is the likelihood of building stronger business relationships.

Forming relationships with businesses that operate in a similar market, but don’t directly compete for the same customers, is another

AS I SEE IT bqlive.co.uk

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you know Ambler MD of Yorkshire Technology Business Blue Logic explains

excellent way to network. At Blue Logic, we have built relationships with carefully selected businesses; which offer complementary services to ours. Working in partnership with Ben Johnson, NGC Networks and Synergy Technology means we not only generate further exposure, but also enhance our ability to provide end-to-end technology solutions.

Social media also represents a great avenue for businesses looking to initiate networking. It can, if managed well, be an efficient and costeffective way to measure businesses visibility in the market. Tracking activity is essential, as every Twitter and Facebook follower could be a potential customer, partner, or even competitor.

Despite the rise of social media, I still believe in the value of personal networking – there’s no substitute for meeting and building relationships in person. However, it is important to retain a balance between digital and face to face interaction. A good strategy that I personally use is initially meeting contacts face to face, and then following up via phone and email.

For young people just starting out in business, the omnipresence of the digital world is hard to ignore, and it can be easier to garner an introduction online, and then request to follow up in person. Most people will be flattered to be asked for their time and wisdom, so be prepared to maximise the window of opportunity that

they offer. Overall, whilst networking has become more of a commercially recognised operation over the years, the real key to doing it successfully is to stay genuine. It is also important to be patient – building up a network of good contacts takes time and perseverance.

Try to remember that helping others to ‘win’ will also ultimately aid your own agenda – be selfless when necessary. Also, try to network with people that it doesn’t feel like a chore to spend time with. Ultimately, the best strategy is to approach everything; from organised networking events to spontaneous introductions; with positivity and enthusiasm, as this will bring great rewards. n

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

BQ editor Mike Hughes goes to a brewery - and has a coffee - with Allan Rice of Atom Beers

Hav ing the bottle When Malmo Park, the £4m Food Innovation and Technology cluster was opened in Hull, Lord Haskins, the former Chairman of Northern Foods, said: “The start of this project marks the region’s commitment to supporting those Yorkshire & Humber food and drink producers that want to strengthen and expand. Food and drinks businesses are extremely important to the local economy.”

Eight years later the park is a thriving and busy corner of the county, with constant ‘imports’ of supplies to the small units matched only by the constant ‘exporting’ of products out of the gates.

Allan Rice only set up Atom Beers in 2013, and the first beer didn’t come out until 2014, but unlike the rest of us, I reckon he is about 95% hops and water.

The timescale for the previous few years is quite a tale: with a degree in physiology from Glasgow, he and partner Sarah were living in Edinburgh in 2005 while Sarah studied for a

PhD. Allan got a part-time job selling mini kegs for a new brewery in the city and soon became sales manager.

Having travelled the world before all this, he was already familiar with beer although didn’t share Sarah’s passion for it, but this job helped move that to another level and further developed his personality. He admits to being a quiet young man, but the travelling changed that.

“When my dad passed away in 2008 I decided to move on and earn a bit more money, so got into renewable energy selling building-mounted wind turbines. That helped me learn about franchising, managing teams and working internationally.

“Then Sarah got an offer to do post-doctorate work in Canada, so we decided to move out in 2010. While we were out there I decided to set up a porridge pots business. But setting up a company there was really difficult, with lots of hurdles, and Sarah wasn’t enjoying her work so....”

This is a rich history which has clearly shaped the two of them and gives us a peek inside the brain of an entrepreneur. If it sounds right – do it. It may be a very different direction, but this is where transferrable skills kick in.

If you are a manager, a designer, a manufacturer, a teacher or any one of a hundred other passions, you can take your core skills and remove the context. Manage anyone, anywhere.

Design anything you want and manufacture it.

Teach anyone anything.

Allan also shows that entrepreneurialism itself can also be a profession. You can make a living and a reputation out of setting up the right business in the right place – and then moving on to the next one when the first one is established.

“Back in our home town of Beverley, Sarah trained to be a chemistry teacher, which she had always wanted to do, and I took on the general manager role at Tempest Brewery in Kelso, commuting back and forwards every weekend.

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

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They were basically just selling at their own bar, so my brief was to get it out to other places and we went from one bar to 200 in six months.

“After a while, there came the realisation that we could do our own thing and that Tempest possibly wasn’t going in the direction we would like to be going. When we went out down here we thought the beers were a bit bland. We thought ‘we could do this – so why don’t we’.

“Then we were walking along a beach in Scotland and Sarah said ‘wouldn’t it be cool to have a business called Atom’. “ With a ‘brew’ of financing, from their own savings, a £15,000 bank loan, some RGF money and help from Sarah’s dad, the business was born.

“I have always been in a better position than my parents were, but it was always instilled into me that if you put in the hard work, then something will come of it” For Allan, the entrepreneurial gene that makes that multi-directional journey acceptable and even desirable grew from his upbringing in Greenock, a few miles from Glasgow.

“My parents never had a lot of money, so they worked two or three jobs to make ends meet.

We bought a house when I was five. But my mum lost her job, so we couldn’t afford to keep it. But they continuously worked and worked and worked.

“My dad had countless jobs at a time, but had the capability to do lots of other exciting and different things. Then he retired at 65 and three years later died of cancer, so he never really got the opportunity to do anything.

“I have always been in a better position than my parents were, but it was always instilled into me that if you put in the hard work, then something will come of it. When you grow up without much money you realise you don’t actually need that much money to live.

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

“Now we know that we put down a business plan – or business guess – and have exceeded it. But conservatively and not by overstretching ourselves. But when we are in a position to pare our life savings back from the company we’re not going to head off on exotic holidays, we’re going to pay off our mortgage.”

Like any growing business, it needs staff who need their mortgages paying as well. There are six now, including head brewer Marko Karjalainen and assistant brewer Jack Walker, who also does the beer tasting for you in his Bear Beer reviews on YouTube.

Lessons again for any entrepreneur – don’t be afraid to get very good people working for you.

If they believe in what you are doing and you respect and involve them, they won’t want to take over, they’ll want to take part.

“For the first three months, I was paying Marko out of my savings. But we wouldn’t be here doing this without him – and I hope he might take some equity at some stage.”

Atom began at Malmo Park with four brews, with recipes tested at North Riding Brewpub in Scarborough and released in some of the bars to see what reaction there would be.

“You don’t really know what recipes you have created until you have your brewkit installed,” says Allan.

“In essence, 19 months in we are still learning with this brewkit, so our beer is improving as we understand the kit more. You can only do that with regular brewing and experimenting and trying to push forwards.“ The company is happy to share that learning process with its eight-week beer schools, led by Jack, where the whole process is laid out. They also do regular brewery tours and have plans for a laboratory and teaching facilities. The science behind it all is key and it is a clearly stated priority for Allan and Sarah to use the business to promote interest in the subject.

“One of our primary KPIs for Atom is how many people have we influenced in science. For now that means how many brewery tours have we had and how many people have left after a tour and been excited to learn more.”

Depending on what is being created, a new

“One of our primary KPIs for Atom is how many people have we influenced in science.

For now that means how many brewery tours have we had and how many people have left after a tour and been excited to learn more.”

Your business is our business Start the conversation today. Call us on 0333 123 7171 or visit www.bhp.co.uk

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

brew can be talked about on the Monday, brewed on the Tuesday and ready for drinking four weeks later, which allows a remarkable range of tastes and styles to be offered. The naming process is almost as much fun as the brewing, with labels like Schrodinger’s Cat (“..a beer that utilises different mashing mechanisms to create a full bodied, low abv hop bomb”); Uncertainty Principle (“always evolving”); Phobos & Deimos (“Hoppy, hoppy, HOPPY!!!”) and Sea Of Tranquillity (“Very light, fruity and slightly floral with a slight mead-like character”) all seeing off the lager boys.

“Our brief is that we want to brew interesting complex beers – but they have to be very drinkable. We want people to have one of our beers, get to the end of the glass and think ‘I really enjoyed that’. We want to have complexity in an enjoyable beer. Which is partly down to our creativity, which Jack is great at, and one of the things Marko has a brilliance for is that he can take an idea and make it drinkable.

“We have four fermenters, so effectively we can ferment four times in a week and we can condition four times, but because brews take different times they are not always in sync. Last week we brewed three times, but two of those won’t appear for six weeks and one will appear in two weeks.

“The hard part is managing it and making sure you have the correct amount of the right beers available.”

It is no surprise that Atom should soon be expanding into the adjacent unit. With more fermenters already delivered, it is a science in itself to fit all the gear into this one small space. And with a new brewery setting up somewhere every five days this is no time to delay expansion.

“You have to build up a reputation so that bars will wait for your brew to come through. So I need to manage those expectations.

“And on the other side of the coin, we will check who is selling our beer to make sure it is being kept well. Which is why we don’t do too many festivals, because you can lose control of the brew. If we nip into a bar selling Atom and it isn’t right, we will stop supplying them, but we

“The hard part is managing it and making sure you have the correct amount of the right beers available” will offer to work with them in the future and discuss how best to keep it.”

That pride and attention to detail is the lifeblood of any small business, and starts with your suppliers. Who do you choose to give you the basic building blocks for your product? Atom’s needs are very particular and come from a wide variety of trusted sources, as Allan explains.

“Our malts come from all across the UK, all from key suppliers. We also source malts from places like Germany, because some of our beers have 17 different malts in them, to give them that complexity. We get hops from Australia, America, New Zealand – but our water is straight out of the tap!

“The rise of craft beers means there is a great demand for hops, so you have to order well in advance. We have hops contracts running right through to the end of next year. So we have to plan our hops bills for where we want to be in 18 months’ time. That’s one reason we like to

experiment with non-hops beer like camomile, coriander and jasmine.”

For the future, as well as the teaching aspect of the trade, there is talk of a franchise brewery in Australia to be set up and monitored with Marko’s guidance. The expansion into next door should be in place and a Twitter storm of support has encouraged the team to look at their first bar. Add to that an idea for a cloudbased brewery management programme, a plan for a gluten-free beer and the growth of Atom Distribution it is clear that the Rice family work ethic is still thriving. The sector is settled, but the potential to be entrepreneurial within it has great appeal. “My advice is just to take the leap.

The standard comment is that an entrepreneur is someone who is willing to take a chance. But I think that’s not entirely true. Everyone takes a chance, but for entrepreneurs it is a bigger leap.

“Do your sums and be pessimistic. And then do it.” n

Your business is our business Start the conversation today. Call us on 0333 123 7171 or visit www.bhp.co.uk

PROFILE BHP

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Growing fast With growth of 117.9% over the last two years, Navartis is one of the fastest growing companies in the region. Managing Director Jim Sloan gives us an insight into the company’s success Jim Sloan is dynamic. He has a sense of urgency which shows in all he does, so it is no wonder his business is growing quickly.

Jim largely attributes the success of Navartis to its people, “people are our driving force and investing in their training and development is essential to seeing the business grow. Having a clear plan is important, but you need the right people to execute it really well. Director Justyn Faulkner and I set out what we wanted to do in 2006 and the essence of that hasn’t really changed.”

Having a vision is important, as is knowing how to get there. Jim says he believes “you need to focus on things you can impact on and not to worry about things which are out of your control.” He also believes in the importance of learning through the examples of others. He is an avid reader of autobiographies written by business people, citing those by Jack Welch and Howard Schultz as two of his favourites.

He also listens closely to the business leaders he knows, noting “if someone’s got all of that experience and they’ve done all these great things, there’s got to be something you can take out of that.” Not only that, but he watches successful businesses and learns what he can from watching them grow – evaluating their business models and tactics and looking at how he can apply that to Navartis.

Jim notes that consulting professional advisors is important to growing a business, saying “we need them for their expertise. Particularly as we plan to set up overseas operations, which will make tax advice and ensuring our compliance abroad increasingly important. Legal advice is also really important – especially with regard to reviewing commercial contracts and employment law.”

Navartis was originally a subsidiary company of Kinetic plc, where Jim began his career in 1999.

Jim set the company up with Kinetic’s backing and in October last year led a management buy-out.

Six months post deal, Navartis’ funders told Jim, who was advised by BHP Corporate Finance and hlw Keeble Hawson, that this deal was a benchmark

Jim Sloan (Navartis), David Forrest and Matt Scott (BHP Corporate Finance)

“I would recommend BHP without hesitation. BHP give good, honest advice. They are perfect for us. They have a nice balance of expertise, knowledge and the right approach to communications.” Jim Sloan on BHP example of how a good deal should go.

So, what next? Jim says “We’re expecting to hit £30 million in turnover this coming year and we’re aiming to grow it to £50 million over the next three years, so we’ll need to increase our staff levels to make sure we are able to keep up our quality of service. Within the next 8 years, I anticipate hitting the £100 million mark. Part of our strategy is built around our overseas work, and to enhance this we are planning international expansion.”

Definitely not a man to rest on his laurels, Jim added “I think in business, it’s important to always strive to be the best in your market by working out what real value looks like for your clients and making sure you achieve it.”

Start the conversation today. Call David Forrest or Lisa Leighton on 0333 123 7171 or visit www.bhp.co.uk for more information on how BHP can help you.

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Mike Hughes finds lots of reasons to respect Armstrong Watson’s Dave Clarkson. The 4th Dan black belt in Karate is only one of them

It’s personal and it’s business

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Dave Clarkson’s admission that creativity is one of his driving forces is a little unexpected.

It’s not the first pre-requisite you may think of for someone in the accountancy business. But as business development director Dave specialises in accountants rather than accountancy, coaching and mentoring partners, directors, managers and clients.

He has a clear and calm voice, as if he has taken several minutes to consider and then compose his answers, when in fact they are instant. A lot of that approach comes from his dedication to karate, which he now teaches. But his marketing background gives him a unique view of the business and has helped him change how it views its operation and where its focus should be.

“I have a very creative mind, so my whole background is coming from design and advertising,” he tells me at Armstrong Watson’s offices on South Parade in Leeds.

“I worked my way through from direct marketing and on to Poulters agency. I learned my craft and creative side there, where you were given a blank piece of paper, provided with a brief and you created an idea for everything from campaigns for a new car to a software device or retail outlet.

“I had done pretty well and had the house the car and the holidays, but I became more interested in how you got a client in the first place and working directly with them rather than sitting in a room coming up with ideas all day.

“You get to the point where you reach a wall and you are ‘idea-d out’. So I walked out without a job to go to.”

That might suggest a reckless streak, but is more likely to be a wide band of confidence that the truckload of ideas in his head could be put to better use. When a friend asked him to help grow his business, Dave says he went “from wearing a jeans and t-shirt creative costume to a suit and a very large mobile phone”.

But Marketing by Design grew from £800,000

to around £4m and Dave’s future direction was set with the essential skills of finding a client, understanding the business and then growing it, managing a team and recruitment – when the company asked Dave to “find more people like you.”

“I’m not a believer in qualifications. What I look for are common sense and enthusiasm – if you have those two traits I can work with you.”

It was also at this stage that Dave walked into a martial arts academy to learn more about fitness. He became hooked on the art and the ethos and went on to earn a black belt and then to teach. Twelve years ago he set up his own school which is still teaching adults and youngsters.

The ethos that appealed so much is still very much a part of the way he conducts business and develops a brand. It’s all about how people look, act and behave and making that a genuine part of their character rather than just something that is tagged on to a personality.

Dave left Marketing by Design when a plan to take shares in the business didn’t work out as he wanted.

“I walked out with no job to go to but, again, had absolute belief in myself. I joined up with John Hammond, a former BBC presenter, because I wanted to learn more about influencing an audience and the art of communication.”

After 12 months Dave was looking for a business to invest in, joined Leeds-based Osmosis and for five years developed his skills in building a brand, with a particular interest in

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personal brands.

He was then targeted by people working with former CBI chief and Trade Minister Lord Digby Jones, who had left the Government and was preparing for media appearances.

Dave believes Lord Jones appreciated the strong Yorkshire honesty of the conversation. Rather than just finding another yes-man, Digby was offered his own brand, which relied on such fine details as a British-made business card, screen printed by a British business and then sent to Scotland to have the flipside made. Expensive, but part of the brand and a powerful statement for someone whose job was backing Britain.

Through Osmosis, he became a consultant to Armstrong Watson for about a day a week, and soon realised that there was great scope for the business to grow and change.

“I remember a conversation with its new managing partner Paul Dickson, who said ‘the only way you can really get involved in a business is if you step in’. In my mind, it was ‘don’t be ridiculous – you’re an accountancy practice and I’m a creative person’, but the more I thought about it the more the challenge appealed to me to bring my skills into a professional services firm. Friends and family tell me there was real excitement about me when I talked through the idea.

“To win another day’s work a week with Armstrong Watson, I had written an A4 sheet for Paul covering five points that the business needed to address – brand, marketing, culture, coaching and development and going out to get clients.

“I learned my craft and creative side there, where you were given a blank piece of paper, provided with a brief and you created an idea for everything from campaigns for a new car to a software device or retail outlet”

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

“It’s a language of government and I have not come across any business at all that will proudly call themselves an SME. It’s a dreadful badge to put on to businesses. They are owner-managed businesses.”

“Then I met with the board, who wanted me, but there was no way the work could be done just with an extra day a week.

“So I left Osmosis about four and a half years ago and joined them, and it has been the best period of my working life to date. I get to work with all the senior team coaching and developing them into how to go out and develop the business. I also get to develop the growth of the business and Armstrong Watson allows me to work directly with clients

using a strategic business tool we developed called Blue.

“That has benefited the business in a number of ways and kept me interested in all aspects of it.

“I think I have exuded a confidence that the business now shares in me and the ideas I have. We have a corporate brochure called ‘With’. I didn’t have to fight for that, it was accepted that it was part of a holisitic approach through the group that clients who are going through a difficult time would know that we’re

with them.” The approach, which must have raised some eyebrows inside the 148-year-old business when it was first outlined, stretches to walls decorated with inspirational words like humanity, knowledge, strength which have been carefully selected to promote the company’s beliefs as well as suggesting that there is a depth to the business that you might not have expected. “People presume brand is the physical, the logo devices and the marketing material. But that’s the ten per cent on top.

Brand defines the culture of a business, its action and behaviour. The words and colours are just a descriptor.” That returns to Dave’s principle of surface and substance. In his line of work, you have to have both working together.

There has to be a presentable image, but it is pointless if there isn’t some substance behind it.

I was just going to emphasise what lessons there are here for SMEs. But Dave won’t allow that: “I can’t accept SMEs as a phrase – it’s not in my vocabulary.

“It’s a language of government and I have not come across any business at all that will proudly call themselves an SME. It’s a dreadful badge to put on to businesses. They are owner-managed businesses.”

There are lessons here for owner-managed businesses about the importance of brand, even when you are swamped with orders, staffing or rents, and the importance of not just nailing it on to the front of your business, but thinking about it so carefully that you believe in it.

“Many businesses will go out thinking everybody is a potential customer. That’s wrong.

A business has to identify a particular niche or customer to market to.

“In order for that customer to understand you, you have to pigeonhole yourself and create a brand. The stronger that brand is the better chance you have of the customer understanding you and working with you. It becomes a good fit and a very cost-effective way of communicating.

“It’s not enough for an entrepreneur to be the brand. The only way that a business will grow beyond a person is to nurture a brand and educate others in to it so they can go out and grow it with you.”n

PROFILE Blue Logic

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Pushing the boundaries of technical customer service Customer expectations in business are constantly evolving and increasing, whilst consumer choice is expanding. This has resulted in firms constantly attempting to anticipate and react to their customers’ changing needs. A recent IT survey reported that up to 66% of customers would strongly consider switching their IT support provider if they experienced poor customer service and communication. A high level of service, particularly in the IT industry, is therefore of paramount importance when it comes to not only retaining customers, but also attracting new business.

Blue Logic, the market-leading Yorkshire IT firm, has turned the traditional customer service model on its head, introducing a pioneering new structure for the way it provides IT support for customers.

Leapfrogging its competitors in the innovation stakes, the company looks set to transform the traditional support team; commonly comprised of 1st, 2nd and 3rd line technicians. Staff are commonly grouped together, and support issues are escalated up the ranks accordingly.

Breaking with the conventional structure, Blue Logic have chosen to organise their existing support team into three individual pods – comprising of six or more members per pod, and made up of a mixture of 1st, 2nd and 3rd line technicians. Named after the team’s favourite old computer systems (Commodore,

We also strive to reduce the technology jargon that other IT companies tend to speak in – the pods are helping the technicians to build up real relationships with their customers Spectrum and Atari), each pod has been assigned a certain number of customers, based on set criteria including: the distance between the customer location and the technician’s homes, the synergy between the technology each customer has and the pod team expertise, and the ability of each pod to attend on-site customer days (OCD’s) as well as providing day-to-day remote support.

Simon Heafield, Blue Logic’s technical support

Simon Heafield, Blue Logic’s Technical Support Manager

manager, explains the rationale behind the pod creation: “As the company continues to grow, we want to ensure we retain our focus on excellent customer service. By moving our support staff from the traditional team structure to a pod, we can concentrate on enhancing and developing their technical skills both as individuals and as a team.

Developing our staff in this way enhances their drive and determination to aid our customers in every way they can.

“We also strive to reduce the technology jargon that other IT companies tend to speak in – the pods are helping the technicians to build up real relationships with their customers, ensuring that they feel comfortable speaking to us about any IT issues they have, and instilling confidence that they will receive friendly and easy to understand advice in turn.”

The new system has not only helped to reinforce Blue Logic’s ‘personal service’ approach to IT support, but has already had a positive impact on customer satisfaction rates across the business, which have increased by an extra 10%, as well as aiding quicker issue resolution times for Support calls.

Simon adds: “Since the initial introduction of the pod system in late June this year, we’re now not only consistently meeting our targeted response times every week as before, but bettering them!

We’ve seen our average response time for businesscritical issues dramatically reduce from 25 minutes

to just 14, and our average ticket resolution time improve by more than 60%. The statistical time improvements also mean that technicians are freed up to spend more time remotely monitoring customers’ systems; this ensures that they detect many issues before they have an impact. Alongside leading to further improvements in identifying and resolving reoccurring issues, this has allowed for them to continuously improve their skillsets.”

Whilst Simon candidly admits the change was not without some stumbling blocks, inevitably considering the sheer number of customers that needed to be absorbed into the appropriate pod; after a three month adjustment period it’s now become such a success that Blue Logic are investing in a targeted marketing campaign to promote the solution to existing customers, and to prospective ones.

For more information visit www.bluelogic.co.uk or call us on 01132739040.

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

BQ Editor Mike Hughes meets three brothers on a mission – to make life better for parents and children

Brothers working for those left holding the baby There are no signs to point a wandering magazine editor towards the base of Bababing!, the Keighley nursery product designers.

The sat nav says it’s right here, but not until you ring Jamie Robinson and his two brothers are you guided across a haulage yard and to the door of their ‘compact’ offices.

The three brothers run their business from here, designing and selling baby accessories like baby bouncers, bottle warmers and the award-winning DayTripper range bags, popular with mums and dads alike because they look like designer satchels or laptop cases, but actually conceal roll-out changing mats, bottle holders and even dummy hangers.

The boys do not look like baby-changing mat designers, but then they weren’t until designer Ashley – who was working for Mamas and Papas at the time – came up with the logo and company name, while Nick was an engineer making keyhole surgery equipment and Jamie was a national accounts manager involved in licensing with Umbro.

So the product could have been keyhole surgery equipment, or sports shoes, but the market research told them otherwise and the brand name clicked as soon as they saw it.

“We had no real idea of what we were going to do with it at the time, but we thought we should register it and shelve it for now,” said Jamie.

“Then I was doing some work with bag manufacturers and it came back to the front of our minds again.”

This route into entrepreneurship will be familiar

to many Yorkshire businesses. It starts with a single idea over a cup of coffee (and how many of those ‘I could do that better myself’ moments are left to wither away?) and then hopefully, becomes a few notes and then a talk with someone in the business and then a trial run and then....you’re a business.

But for the brothers, their first thought for a unisex changing bag (losing the butterflies and the cupcakes and going more for the laptop look) was a good start.

“The world is changing and dads are so involved in parenting now, often as stay-at-home parents, and there was nothing there for them,” said Jamie.

“Product development costs can be high, so we thought of the most cost-effective item we could start with and we all put a few thousand in and didn’t have the fear of losing our houses if it didn’t work out.

“A lot of the other products we had seen were really poor – small changing mat size and paperthin. So we started to develop the DayTripper bag with some nice features like a super-sized mat and some good detail to make it different to the rest.

“It took us 18 months to reinvent a product that basically hadn’t been touched for forty years. They were still similar to the ones I had been sat on.

“I then had contact with an agent to help us find a manufacturer in the Far East. The guy we found agreed to us using his factories as the most timeeffective and cost-effective route.

“We got the first container from China with 1,000 pieces on board, and were fortunate enough to get a listing with John Lewis after I found out who their nursery buyer was and talked to her to explain what we were doing.

“They ordered 125, but that meant we still had the best part of 1,000 bags in our garage.”

Now the matter of scale becomes important.

There is interest in your new product, but if it’s just a pallet-full, then that might not be enough to cover your costs and if it is for 15,000, then you have to ramp up your production pretty dramatically.

So you need either guaranteed capacity to produce or you need to have done your sums and be able to survive an early shortfall in your cashflow – or have a decent-sized garage for leftover goods with a decent shelflife.

“If they hadn’t sold we would have been either having a fire sale or going round every market stall we could find,” said Jamie.

“But we had already talked about whether we would go down the supermarket route for volume or try to build a brand and go more premium. And we decided to go premium and build an asset.

“But at that stage, after John Lewis, there was no Plan B. We just wanted them to sell out of the bags. Then two weeks after we gave them the 125 bags, Nick got home one day and there was a letter from John Lewis with a repeat order.

“They saw in it what we saw – a bag that looks as good on him as on her. We weren’t trying to be something we’re not, making designer

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

handbags, we were being very functional. So after that we rolled the profit into more stock and then started looking at other nursery product categories like hardware.”

Nick went back to the 1920s for another project they have been working on, a baby bouncer that worked with long automobile-like leaf springs rather than the wire which supports the chair in many rival products.

“I needed to see if it was practical, so I worked with Airedale Springs, who are based locally, and sent them engineering drawings I had done and asked them to prototype it and test it out for safety standards,” Nick explains.

“It has taken about 12 months, but we have sent it to China to be made and have sent it John Lewis again and they like the design because it is unusual.

“What we are doing with each of our products is designing the whole thing ourselves, with full engineering drawings. A lot of manufacturers will buy their items off the shelves in China and dress them up, but we wanted to be responsible for the whole product and have the IP, as we do with our bouncers and high chairs.

“That means we can also provide everything in one box. You don’t have to buy all the add-ons like feeding trays, cushions, harnesses. It’s just one box you walk away with, take home and everything is in there.”

The brothers know they need to be different, to have a USP against the big suppliers. The days are gone when it was almost enough just to be ‘an independent trader’. There are a lot of outlets that are more than happy to settle for the safer option rather than risk anything on yours.

“At best, there are a couple of dozen options for us to sell to. After that, you are twiddling your thumbs.” explains Jamie.

“We have our key national retailers, and then what I like to call our key regional national retailers and some really strong independents that we want to support and help.”

Jamie, Nick and Ashley want to retain control over as many aspects of their business as possible.

“As soon as you start hiving off money to someone else to spend on your behalf, they are never going to spend it as well as you would spend it,” says Nick.

“Our eyes have been opened, certainly over the last 12 months, that we should do more of this ourselves, perhaps through social media, to let people know what we are doing.

“As soon as you start hiving off money to someone else to spend on your behalf, they are never going to spend it as well as you would spend it” Designer Ashley says the approach has worked for Bababing:“With our initial bag we created demand on a product that people wanted. If you can create that interest every time, you have a built-in market.”

The firm now has 14 lines, and has just sealed a landmark deal with Boots, which will be stocking the DayTripper bags, which have since won a Mother & Baby Magazine gold award, Flipout changing mats and the HotPOC rechargeable bottle warmer. John Lewis and Boots are the sort of clients an entrepreneur dreams of, yet the boys are level-headed enough to be very pleased, but immediately very aware that they have to secure a long-term relationship and look as hard as ever for the next client.

The idea of building a career with your family might not appeal to everyone. Relationships that work during weekly Sunday roast get-togethers are not the same as sharing 12-hour working days and relying on the other’s success to help

pay your wages.

But there is a bond here that is made of blood and ideas. Ashley knows the creative work, Nick does the engineering and Jamie handles sales.

Those lines have to cross a lot, but each one is the lead in their own sector.

The fourth member, silent partner and Bababing! director Toby Dalton, is a branding expert who has helped build that strategy, which is now being used at trade shows to open up an exports market building in North America, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Poland.

There is already interest, but the brothers know there is much more to be had, with Japan a key target. Jamie tells me: “You still need the break – the rub of the green, to be successful.”

True enough – but you always need the right product and business plan to put yourself in the position where that stroke of luck is of use. The Bababing! brothers deserve their exclamation mark. n

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WELCOME Leeds Business Week

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Making a week that counts BQ Editor Mike Hughes meets Geoff Shepherd, the driving force behind Leeds Business Week For the last seven years, Yorkshire Mafia has been a pivotal part of the region’s business scene.

Founded by Geoff Shepherd and his business partner Sat Mann, it proudly says its thousands of members “reflect Yorkshire’s pride, its energy, drive and refusal to be beaten by adversity”.

Geoff sees the same energy and pride having the same remarkable success with Leeds Business Week. He is the captain of the ship. Making sure everyone is on board, mingling with happy passengers and crew and setting a course for the whole city. But the unique thing about LBW is that it is run by the city itself – under one banner more than 100 speakers will present their ideas, share their knowledge and inspire thousands of delegates at more than 100 events across the city. “Yorkshire Mafia does one day of events itself, but the rest is down to the business community out there. They put events forward and are largely responsible for populating them,” says Geoff. “Some events are designed to be quite small and focused and some have 300-400 people attending. Last year we gave away 5,800 seminar seats – if you put a commercial value on that it would be an astronomical figure and the economic impact is quite substantial.”

“The number of delegates is increasing year on year and it is now the region’s second-largest business event, after our own conference. There are 750,000 people in the wider city region and it is an important place – an economically powerful region,” says Geoff.

“It’s our third one, so there is still a learning curve here, but I can’t see why everyone isn’t involved in it. We have a lot of headroom left and we are an ambitious organisation, so there’s no reason why we shouldn’t have a thousand businesses taking part. For the first time this year, LBW is having its own board, which reflects the need for large-scale organisation of such a major event. The principle of ‘we are stronger

together’ has run through the core of the Yorkshire Mafia since it was set up in 2008, and now the principle is gaining traction in many business-focused cities. The Leeds Business Week model would lift any city’s prospects and with a watching brief on the possibility of devolution, could play a key part in their futures. Perhaps those regional models might even come together under one UK-wide banner and Britain could be truly open for business. “I think we will see more and more of this collaborative approach – and it all starts with trust,” Geoff adds.

“I think that is the way the country is growing – we all know it is the smaller businesses that pull the country out of recession. Larger organisations growing by 2% a year isn’t going to do it, but a lot of smaller companies getting over the VAT threshold and starting to hire people in their hundreds and thousands makes a massive difference.

“Events like this help those firms gain the advantage they need. Markets and business will always find a way and this time it happens to be us and, lo and behold, there happens to be a growing appetite. Leeds Business Week is here, it’s growing and it’s not going away.”

Geoff’s complete immersion in the business community gives him a unique insight into how it is operating and events like LBW magnify that. For him, the networking opportunities for both new and established businesses are a clear highlight. “I love watching people meet each other. They haven’t met before, but they can carry on meeting outside our infrastructure and those relationships flourish into good friendships

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as well as business arrangements. We have some great content and some outstanding partners, but if we bring a few thousand people together, what does that mean? I would love to see the economic impact of that mapped. We want the week to be about people sharing ideas and getting together to make things happen. Once you get a room full of people talking about something, you should get a solution to it.”

There are big, complex and serious issues to be tackled, but there is no need for it all to be too heavy-duty and there will be smiles all around the venues, not only at the lunches and dinners. The modular structure of the event means delegates can tailor what is going on to their own needs and build their own LBW – what Geoff describes as “a giant business buffet, where you walk up and choose whatever suits your particular dietary needs”. Events like this are crucial to Leeds, and therefore to the wider region. Alongside official avenues of support, businesses have to show that they are an aware and coherent group as well as thriving individuals. Strength in numbers is a simple phrase, but it speaks volumes. Geoff Shepherd’s work in bringing Leeds Business week so far in such a short time is vital in helping prove that sectors representing many thousands of workers hold an extraordinary level of influence, so a willing combination of those sectors – even just for one week a year – can change a whole city. n

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34

INTERVIEW Leeds Business Week

Jonathan Kini tells BQ Yorkshire editor Mike Hughes how communications giant Vodafone UK is helping Yorkshire SMEs

Changing the way we work

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Saying that new businesses need all the help they can get doesn’t detract from their drive and ambition.

They’ve come up with the idea that will change their lives and want to earn their living from it.

But to do that well, and securely, they need to quickly build a structure of support and advice.

Organisations like Vodafone UK have a huge responsibility to help small companies become successful companies that grow and play an important part in the regional economy. That’s a commitment that is now led by Jonathan Kini – its Head of Small and SME Business for the last year – who says he ‘passionately believes that as communications converge the products and services that Vodafone UK are developing will help change the way Britain works’.

“We’re really starting to drive it now, with the products and services being developed for the market,” said Jonathan – known throughout the sector as JK. “I love the work - listening every day to entrepreneurs who have taken the risk and are running their own businesses. I find their stories and their drive and ambition fascinating and it gives me a lot of inspiration.

“There is a huge amount of confidence and ambition as well, with a recent survey saying eight out of ten new businesses believe they will grow in the next year. That will be a challenge with the economic growth rate at the moment, but to have that ambition is awesome.”

Vodafone UK is one of those instantly recognisable brands – a multi-national giant whose speechmark logo designed by Saatchi and Saatchi translates around the world. So building lasting and trusted relationships with very small regionally-focussed firms could be a challenge. But that’s where JK comes in.

“SMEs in the UK turn over £1.6trillion, which is about half the UK economy. That is brilliant for Britain, and includes a spend on communications and technology. But where to spend and on what is where the confusion and trepidation comes into the market. They

are quite rightly asking ‘how will that help my business?’”.

“It is for us corporations to demonstrate how products and services can bring that growth, not only in reducing bills, but increasing productivity, lowering operating costs and improving their employee and customer engagement.”

This is all about having the right skills in the right places. BQ entrepreneurs know their goals, and have a clear vision of where they want to be. But that includes having the right people around them who have different skillsets to them, but make up one team.

“Unlike the corporates which have an IT department and a HR office, you have to be cautious as an SME because sometimes people want an extremely high level of detail in a lot of areas. We can provide that knowledge in a language that people understand and appreciate.

“Vodafone UK has always aligned itself with enterprise, and we know SMEs are a massive growth area, so want to be the brand of choice for them” “But we also want to congratulate and celebrate so many businesses who are adopting the cloud and using communications in the best way. They are seeing incredible growth in their businesses and, of course, we want to show how they are using our products for that.”

Vodafone UK call these Ready Businesses because of their open-minded approach to ICT. To take them to the next stage Vodafone UK has to provide an organic product line which will grow with its clients’ needs.

Top of the list for Jonathan is a group of systems called One Net, which integrates fixed and mobile communications. Not surprisingly, he’s a big fan, describing it as ‘a hero product’.

“One Net can help small companies achieve

35

business goals, bringing their systems together and converging them on the cloud so they never miss a call and get full productivity benefits.

“For the SOHO (small office/home office) businesses and really fledgling ideas, we have an express version that allows a landline to be put on a mobile so they can market themselves with a geographically local number.

“But these businesses can scale up and scale down very quickly, so we have a full portfolio of products to bring in whatever stage a business is at.”

This early investment to future-proof a business is important enough to at least consider, so it’s worth a little bit of self-promotion if at least adds to an entrepreneur’s knowledge and perhaps triggers an enquiry that pays off down the line.

“Vodafone UK has always aligned itself with enterprise, and we know SMEs are a massive growth area, so want to be the brand of choice for them, and know they need a different set of services and operate around different regions.

“We have a team based in Leeds, focusing only on the city and the surrounding area. Partnering with groups like Yorkshire Mafia and events like Leeds Business Week helps us as part of that business community.

“We’re not taking part just to hit commercial targets, we want to tell our story to the markets and are offering bootcamps teaching business how to reap the opportunities in digital at very little cost and how to utilise social media.

“We see Leeds as a place where we are going to do a lot of innovation, with trials and pilot schemes, including working with the council and the chamber of commerce and hopefully with the universities. It can’t be a one size fits all approach when there are so many different entrepreneurs here.”

Jonathan Kini is an influential man with gamechanging ideas, part of a global company with a focus on Leeds - a Yorkshire powerhouse.

That’s a potent combination.

Watch this space. n

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LEEDS BUSINESS WEEK bqlive.co.uk

So much choice, so BQ editor Mike Hughes takes a look at some key events in a packed agenda for Leeds Business Week If we presume even the city’s business bosses have to sleep sometime, this year’s Leeds Business Week has an average of an event about every half-hour.

More than 100 events over five days should satisfy even the busiest exec.

Whether you have assembled your own timetable from the list of speakers and will be switching from workshop to speech and back to workshop or prefer the broad brush approach of just turning up and grazing for the day, you will find something of interest.

And the networking opportunities are endless, from the chance meeting in one room to organised dinners and breakout sessions, it’s a one-week Masters course in business success!

The list of events on leedsbizweek.com covers every aspect of every sector, but let me take

you on a brief BQ guide to some recommended slots, from the biggest events to the smaller essential dates. Let’s start our tour with events run by the people behind the week, Yorkshire Mafia. You could start your week with them by putting your questions to a top panel at the Leeds City Summit, a Q&A discussion on the Monday in Salem Chapel on Hunslet Lane from 11am to 12.30. This is very much in the style of BBC Question Time, with a panel of leaders from both the private and public sectors.

The next day they are centre-stage again, with the customer conference from 9am-4pm at the Leeds Club on Albion Place. This is a hugely useful series of seminars and workshops for business owners, executives and not-for-profit organisations to improve their knowledge in how to generate, target, funnel, grow and

engage with their customers.

Still want more? Then on the Wednesday is the Festival of Business back at the Leeds Club, which is packed, featuring such big-hitters as Leeds Beckett University and Blacks Solicitors.

From the first event starting at 10am to the last one finishing around 5pm, you can hear the latest thinking and gain valuable advice on everything from the Internet of Things to wealth management and from digital comms to leadership lessons.

You’ll also notice some sessions with titles you can’t resist. How about ‘You haven’t got a hope in hell’, ‘The Hidden Truths; 10 Key Things Small Businesses Overlook’, or Armstrong Watson offering ‘22 and a half ways to increase your profits and improve cash flow’.

But it wouldn’t be a Mafia event without the chance to relax and unwind, and there are two prime chances to do just that on the Thursday.

Sponsored by IT consultancy BJSS Limited, Bibis

LEEDS BUSINESS WEEK bqlive.co.uk

37

much to discover Italianissimo on Criterion Place is the venue for the Leeds Business Lunch from 12pm to 3pm.

It’s one of the most popular events of the week, and last year more than 200 business people were networking over fantastic food, with guest speakers. This year, the sales-free conversation will continue over the road with a drinks evening from 6pm to 11pm at Chaophraya on Swinegate. There are plenty of other key events through the week. Look out for Vodafone UK, one of the members of the inaugural LBW board, who will be at the Leeds Club on Tuesday from 11am to 11.45am and at 2pm until 2.45pm where Head of Small and SME Business, Jonathan Kini will talk candidly about paths to business growth, with ‘take them away and use them’ tips to help unlock potential.

On Wednesday there is a double helping of Vodafone UK, back at the Leeds Club on Albion Place. From 11am-11.45am digital transformation wizards Freeformers will be

helping run a digital-training bootcamp to help SMEs connect and engage with customers and from 3pm to 5pm they will be looking at the Internet of Things, wearables and how the rules of game playing can have lessons for businesses.

People management experts Tomorrow’s Future, based in Wakefield, are also worth checking out.

On Wednesday at the Leeds Club (that’s going to be a busy place from the 12th to the 16th!)

Samantha Brook will host an interactive session called ‘What makes You You’, which will help you explore and discover more about yourself.

You’ll learn how to recognise and appreciate differences in others and adapt your behaviour

to interact more effectively. Ripon-based Supporting SME Leaders has a team of highly experienced business owners and professionals each with over 30 years of experience in their areas of expertise. The company offers advice on everything from markets to branding and cashflow to accounts. Join them on the Wednesday when MD Mark Deere will be running ‘The Hidden Truths; 10 Key Things Small Businesses Overlook’. That’s only a taste of what is on offer at LBW2015. BQ’s advice?

Plan ahead, scan the timetables.... and make the most of every connection. These five days could change your business. n

“Whether you have assembled your own timetable from the list of speakers and will be switching from workshop to speech and back to workshop or prefer the broad brush approach of just turning up and grazing for the day, you will find something of interest

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LEEDS BUSINESS WEEK bqlive.co.uk

The juxtaposition is undeniably striking. Fine food, laughter and enjoyment in splendid surroundings with successful business leaders... next to the most severely challenged victims of social deprivation.

In many places, the former would literally cross the road to avoid the latter, but not in Yorkshire. Here Aissa Gallie knows this is a good news story. As development manager for homelessness charity Simon on the Streets, she is constantly searching for supporters to help throw the next lifeline to an organisation which has always got more work than it can handle.

They have been helped on many occasions by Yorkshire Mafia, and are one of the charities which will benefit from Leeds Business Week. As well as taking part in events, the organisation will receive the proceeds of a ‘Come Dine with Simon’ competition hosted and supported by The Novotel, which pitches two West Yorkshire businesses against each other in a cook off for a group of very brave paying guests.

For the last 15 years, as Aissa explains, SOTS has helped those in Leeds, Bradford and Huddersfield that almost everyone has crossed the road to avoid.

“We work with people who have multiple and complex needs who aren’t receiving meaningful support elsewhere. They will have issues around addiction, mental health and alcoholism. When you have all those things together, the odds are you will be rough sleeping or at least at risk of it.

“We have the resources to work with around 100 people across the region, but we do not meet the full need because the numbers in Leeds are growing. We are an independent charity, so we do not take any government funding.

“But that is completely deliberate because we want to be able to offer unlimited opportunities to change and funding often has a set target to achieve and some people just don’t fit into that.

“They might need a year of support to build up a relationship, or we might help someone for five or ten years to take those big steps forward, because at the root of their problems there is often a childhood trauma that has remained unresolved and has been a trigger and the start of a downward spiral and a very chaotic lifestyle.

The work of Simon on the Streets, whose name is taken from Simon of Cyrene, who walked alongside Jesus as he carried his cross, is necessarily confrontational. That is its job out on the dark, wet and threatening streets, but Aissa says Leeds businesses appreciate that role and

Helping the other side of the street BQ editor Mike Hughes hears from Aissa Gallie how Leeds businesses are helping the homeless are helping people make the changes they need.

“We simply wouldn’t exist without the help we get from Leeds businesses. We used to get the majority of our income from trusts and foundations, but as Government funding has affected them, last year we only got 18 per cent from them. The rest is private donations and events and we are absolutely indebted to Leeds businesses.

“Yorkshire Mafia has been the key relationship that has kept SOTS afloat over the last couple of years. In the future, we would at least like to be able to meet the need here and in Bradford and Huddersfield. But we also want to influence the

work done at higher levels so that needs are met.”

This eloquent woman is a champion of a largely forgotten group of people wandering our streets. I am sure that at some stage in their lives it would have been inconceivable to them that things would go so badly wrong. Just as inconceivable as the idea would be to anyone taking part in Leeds Business Week.

But a common thread here is relationships. The business ones that make up Yorkshire Mafia and LBW can make possible the lifesaving ones happening just around the corner every night.

That’s the power of business. n

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40

PROFILE Vodafone UK

Diamond Logistics is a ready business Diamond Logistics is the UK’s fastest growing logistics provider. The company has opened 14 new locations in the last two years, and plans a further 25 in the next year. Its success is built on rapid response and a can-do attitude.

Incoming calls are the lifeblood of the business.

As Diamond grows it needs a communications infrastructure linking its landline and mobile calls.

It wants to cut down customer call waiting times and make it easier for staff to work out of hours, out of the office.

CHALLENGE • Upgrade the communications estate to ensure business continuity • Eliminate missed calls and improve response times • Create out of hours remote working • Find a telephony system that can support the business as it grows SOLUTION • Vodafone One Net Business provides landlines, mobiles and desktop communication all on one system BENEFITS • Continuity across the business. Supports the business operations with continuity, underpinning Diamond’s same-day service • Better, quicker response to calls. Enables remote working with free call routing from landline to mobile; as a result, Diamond is answering 10 percent more calls than previous • New technology, same cost. Upgrades entire communications estate at no additional cost to previous systems in place • Telephony system flexible to grow as they do. Delivers a telephony system that can support the business as it continues to grow from 15 to 40 sites by the end of 2015 CHALLENGE Rethinking logistics Diamond Logistics has a straightforward mission, and CEO Kate Lester has a direct way of expressing it: “We want to liberate British business from bad couriers.”It’s well on its way. The company, formed in 1992, is now the UK’s fastest growing logistics provider. It has expanded from one office in Guildford to fifteen franchised operations in the past two years.

Diamond’s landline, mobile and desktop phones in one, cloud-based system. It means calls to landlines are automatically directed to mobiles, or diverted to a personal mobile. Drivers have an individual four-digit number, allowing head office to direct calls quicker.The system can intelligently route calls, helping customers choose the service they want first time. For the caller, it’s just one number, regardless of whether they’re calling the Guildford head office or any of the franchise offices.

It plans to open a further twenty five sites in the next twelve months.“In terms of same day delivery, we’re already the third largest provider,” says Kate.

“We’re doing some pretty special stuff.”Kate’s new business strategy is proving it can take on jobs no one else can manage: “We make a lot of gains when people are desperate for change, where their regular courier has let them down. We’re a logistics trouble shooter. Ninety per cent of our larger contracts come through word of mouth recommendations.”Recent jobs include rushing legal documents to a barrister on the courthouse steps, emergency blood supplies, and Fernando Alonso’s passport to the airport ahead of the Chinese Grand Prix. “We’re doing a job for one client in London, making 762 deliveries in one night.

They gave us three days’ notice. Those are the kind of hoops we like jumping through.”The business relies on the phone. “You might book a standard logistics job online, but for same day you want to speak to someone. You wouldn’t email for an ambulance, would you?” says Kate. “Our skill is being able to react quickly.”Stung by the disruption of winter’s snowfall in 2013, and the difficulties of getting into the office to answer non-diverted phones, Diamond began the search for an alternative telephony system. It wanted one that could knit its landline and mobile communication needs together, and have the flexibility to grow as the business grows.

BENEFIT Delivering a great service, whatever the weather “Forget the occasional heavy snowfall, disaster recovery is a reality. We’re based on a large industrial estate and we’ve had four power cuts in four years.

No power means no incoming calls,” says Kate.

“Incoming calls are paramount to our business.

Without phone lines we’d lose same day work – and there is plenty of competition out there.”Vodafone One Net Business ensures Diamond can alter their incoming call routing without the need to be in the office. So they can continue to operate from any location. Customers only ever have to use one central number. “We’re a 24/7 business, with operations on going all round the country,” says Kate. “Vodafone provide the infrastructure we need to operate effectively. I know we’re answering 10 per cent more calls than previous.”Kate says Vodafone One Net Business comes in cheaper than the previous solution and brings added value with a far greater flexibility to improve their service. It is easily scalable to cope with future expansion as the business grows. Now able to work remotely, staff say it’s improved their work-life balance. “I tend to work 14-hour days,” says Kate. “This solution helps make my life a little easier.”

Diamond Logistics CEO, Kate Lester, will be appearing at the two Vodafone UK workshops at the Leeds Club on

SOLUTION Improving response with one central number Vodafone One Net Business provides and integrates

Tuesday October 13th – to secure your place call Jason Bullock - your local Vodafone UK Business Development Executive on 01134 260000 or 07825116961

PROFILE Leeds Beckett University

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Business graduates key to region We spoke to the Dean of Leeds Business School, Professor Chris Prince, about why regional businesses are so vitally important to the university, and to Leeds Business School in particular Leeds Beckett University is one of the UK’s biggest providers of professional education, training, research and development, transforming the lives and prospects of thousands of individuals and organisations every day. Leeds Business School, part of Leeds Beckett University, is proud to be launching a partnership with Leeds Business Week for the next three years. “As a business school, we are in the heart of the thriving city of Leeds. What better location could there be?”

Leeds is the second largest financial centre outside of London and has all of the major sectors represented - so it’s easy to see why so many graduates stay in Leeds.

Leeds Business School is the largest provider of graduates at the university with more than 1,300 enrolling on business or law courses every year.

“We are proud to be part of Leeds Beckett University, and proud of our passion for nurturing not just great graduates, but innovative thinkers, exceptional business people, dynamic postgraduates, and enterprising professionals,” says Professor Prince.

A graduate of the university himself and born and bred in Leeds, Professor Prince studied Economics and Public Policy and has been Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor now for 18 months, joining the university from Birmingham City.

“I can’t move in this city without running into a graduate of ours in a senior position in a big organisation in the city, which is great! It really is testament to the calibre of our graduates and the currency of our programmes,” he said.

Leeds Business School is already intertwined with many sectors and businesses in the region in many ways, such as modules being co-designed by employers to ensure they are fit for purpose and relevant. “It’s vital that we provide courses and graduates that employers want and that is why we work so closely with industry and the professions on designing the courses. In my experience, businesses find that our placement students or graduates have a great deal to offer; a fresh approach, a different way of looking at things. That is invaluable in ensuring businesses and our region continues to thrive and grow. It’s about embracing a dynamic city and being part of a regional business success

Left, Professor Chris Prince, Dean and Pro Vice Chancellor, Leeds Business School. Right, Rose Bowl, home of Leeds Business School story, one that provides meaningful experiences and opportunities that will be valued on both a national and international stage.”

Professor Prince’s strategy for the Business School is to increase these collaborations with businesses in the region even further, and become even more integral to the business life of the city.

“There are so many different ways that we as a university and a business school can work with businesses of all sizes – by offering CPD, consultancy/research, undergraduate and postgraduate courses, bespoke education, placements, coaching, mentoring, live projects.

The university – and Leeds Business School in particular - offers a range of services to businesses of all sizes to work with us for the benefit of their own organisations, our students, and the wider city region.

“Businesses in our region need great graduates with the relevant skills and experience to help to drive the growth of our city region and cement our position as a real powerhouse of the north. When business and universities come together, you get a really unique combination of skills and expertise which can be very powerful.”

The Business School is always looking ahead and

one of the upcoming developments is developing a framework for in-company degrees.

“It’s vital that we work hand in hand with businesses and being such an integral part of Leeds Business Week will help us to reach out to an even bigger audience, ” said Professor Prince.

• Leeds Business School has origins dating back to 1898 • Leeds Beckett University contributes £500m to the economy every year • Leeds Beckett University employs more than 3,100 staff • The university has more than 32,000 students on courses in Leeds and on overseas programmes.

For more information please contact the Leadership Centre at Leeds Business School: Email: leadershipcentre@leedsbeckett.ac.uk Call: 0113 812 4813 www.leedsbeckett.ac.uk/leadershipcentre

opportunities for Ready Businesses to really move themselves to the next level.

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PROFILE York St John Business School

43

Ready to face the changing nature of management education The view from the City Wall at the North Transept of York Minster looks over towards the multi-million pound campus of York St John University.

The eleven-acre site boasts an impressive array of buildings –from its inception in 1841 as a Church of England teaching college to the more modern structures, including De Grey Court. This £15.5m development - which scooped a prestigious architecture prize at the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Awards – houses a major player in management education in Yorkshire and the North East - York St John Business School.

Formed in 2008 the Business School is currently home to over 1,800 students from more than 60 countries - a figure representing a growth rate of fifty percent over the last five years. This monumental growth is testament to both the Business School’s development of its educational quality and the impact of consolidation of industry links. Comprised of two departments, the Department of Management and the Department of Languages and Linguistics, York St John Business School offers a broad portfolio of management, languages and linguistics programmes.

Embedded within the methods of the Business School’s management education is the ever increasing importance of the role of business in a contemporary society. York St John Business School demonstrates its commitment to this need as a signatory of the United Nations Global Compact initiative – Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME). Noel Dennis, Associate Dean, encapsulates this obligation saying: “Taking the PRME Six Principles as a guiding framework, the Business School integrates responsible management

Novotel York has been privileged to sponsor and attend some valuable business events, assisted students with various projects, delivered some presentations and also hosted some meetings at our premises

State of the art campus at York St John University education and sustainability throughout our academic programmes and research, our dialogue with external stakeholders and through our operational practice”.

The Business School has recently validated a new and progressive suite of postgraduate programmes that effectively facilitate development of learners to meet the challenging agendas presented in business and society today. Courses range from MSc International Business, through to more specialised programmes such as the MSc Digital Marketing, the MA Leading Innovation and Change and the Postgraduate Certificate in Coaching and Mentoring.

Recent partnership with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) offers students studying a Master’s in Business Administration the opportunity to achieve a professional qualification (CMI accredited Level 7 Diploma in Leadership and Management) alongside their postgraduate degree. This September, a cohort of 15 Managers will begin their CMI Level 5 in Leadership and Management Development programme; a programme that we are offering to organisations, tailoring it to their requirements.

York St John Business School is strongly rooted

within the region and continues to develop strong progressive relationships and partnerships with local, regional and international businesses and educational institutions.

Examples of collaborations within this extensive community include: partnerships with educational institutions in Singapore and Vietnam; a research project with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation; student projects with companies such as Cooper MINI York and Novotel York amongst many others.

Christophe Ughetto, General Manager at Novotel York comments: “Novotel York has been privileged to sponsor and attend some valuable business events, assisted students with various projects, delivered some presentations and also hosted some meetings at our premises”.

The Business School presents a stimulating and diverse programme of events all year round.

Particularly our Business Masterclass Series, delivered by the region’s top business leaders, entrepreneurs, industry experts and leading academics. Past speakers include Catherine Wilcox (Brand MINI’s Regional Sales Manager), Professor Malcolm McDonald (a world expert in Strategic Marketing) and Professor Bob Garvey (internationally acclaimed Coaching and Mentoring expert).

Business engagement within the Business School is supported by a dedicated business development team under the leadership of the Associate Dean.

For all enquiries for professional development, training, consultancy, research and events please contact the Business Development Team at York St John Business School. business.school@yorksj.ac.uk 01904 876487

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

A home for digital technology in the STEAM age Mike Hughes talks to Rónán O’Beirne, who has just led a £10m project at Bradford College Rónán O’Beirne got the keys to his new front door on 8 June, 42 weeks after the first brick was laid. That might seem like quite a wait, and perhaps you would be on the phone to the builder if you were hoping for a quick move.

But this was no ordinary build, and the wait was well worth it. Rónán, director of learning development and research at Bradford College can now walk proudly around the new £10m Advanced Technology Centre, just a few steps from the college campus on the site of a former council car park.

It is STEAM-powered – serving the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics sectors, but very much of the digital age, largely paid for with a Skills Funding Agency grant, with huge help from the council and including incubator space for new businesses.

Rónán often seems like a mild-mannered academic - enthusiastic, but softly spoken. But as we tour the new building, his attention to detail is remarkable. As he tests which radiators are on and which furniture has been delivered,

it is easy to imagine the drive and proprietorial dedication that has brought this project to fruition.

This was a big dream – bold and almost out of reach for a college like Bradford. But here it sits, striking in design and approach and there sits Rónán, happy and proud.

“We realised there was a skills gap, particularly in light engineering and manufacturing at technician level – and that was the main driver for the building.

“We are putting in equipment that will allow students to learn how to use manufacturing techniques, particularly in areas like additive layer manufacturing, which we know as 3D printing, and metrology, the science of measuring, which is important for precision 3D printing.

“There will also be automation, around robotic use. We are very interested to see how that will be treated in terms of skills requirements in the future, with drone use and robotic arms.”

That’s quite a lot to pack into 3,600m² spread

over three floors – along with ten of the very latest 3D printers. But the case was made over a year ago and already the skills needed and sectors being supplied are changing.

“Technology has progressed very rapidly over the last three years, and certainly with 3D printing many of the original patents for the technology have expired and so a lot of technology has come to market and the prices have come down.

“It’s quite likely there will be a personal 3D printer on the market by next Christmas, which shows how fast the market is changing.

“Businesses have been slower to change their processes because for them it is a big thing and a heavy investment to get to the scale they would need. So we see an opportunity for us to be able to share the burden of that investment and perhaps upskill their staff.”

This is business-facing taken to another level.

The role of universities and colleges was to first educate their students and send them on their way. The game-changer then was to work

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

with potential employers to straighten out the line between education and employment.

Now the game is changing again and Bradford is showing that those same colleges and universities are now offering their more advanced services to those same potential employers, forging an even more secure bond to help students become wage earners.

“The businesses we have been in contact with have been very positive,” says Rónán.

“Most of them are keen to get involved with technologies that are on the horizon for their sector and develop the right skills. The average age of a welder in Bradford is 53, so the approach taken in training these people is very interesting to us. One of the pieces of equipment in the ATC is an augmentedreality welder, which uses a headset to make the person who uses it think they are actually welding. There are huge advantages there with wastage of materials and health and safety.

“One of the key things in the building is this simulated learning, for instance using technology to put someone at the scene of a fire or car accident. We have invested quite a bit of technology in recording people’s reaction to situations created in augmented reality.”

This far-sighted approach to a need only just beginning to exist will future-proof the building, as will its actual design, including double-height spaces to facilitate training in new construction techniques – or to allow drones to be flown inside. Rónán also plans to open the building to the public at weekends, to allow them to interact with the technology and help demystify what goes on inside a cutting edge college and enable hackerspaces and makerspaces where communities of enthusiasts can work together.

“It’s been important from the start to allow students to get their hands on the technology and interact with it. If their learning is too theory-based they tend to disengage from it.

The £10m ATC and the main £50m David Hockney campus are both examples of the commitment of the college to its ambition of supporting employability, enterprise and innovation within its community. Rónán is a librarian by profession, in Dublin, London

“It’s been important from the start to allow students to get their hands on the technology and interact with it. If their learning is too theory-based they tend to disengage from it and Bradford, but with a passion for learning technologies and how they can help students and influence and enable new teaching practices. “That’s what I find interesting. The buildings themselves are just the infrastructure you need to deliver those different types of learning. My motivation for doing all this is from the learner’s perspective, delivering and enhancing a learning environment.

“So having entrepreneurs working in incubator units alongside our students will be particularly beneficial. And we will be ‘sweating the assets’ by having the equipment available as long as possible each day and over the weekends to help those businesses.” How that mix of entrepreneurs is brought together will be a skill in itself. The council is helping select the right people and the right sectors. To an extent Rónán will be able to control that for the benefit of his students as much as his tenants. All the time he will be retaining the flexibility to move quickly and bringing in the latest innovation or brightest mind. “Things are changing. Students are no longer happy to be taught in a square room, having someone at the front teach them in a didactic style.

“The previous building to the Hockney was very cellular, and you couldn’t get wi-fi and you couldn’t fit enough computers in and it didn’t have enough power. So a new building was needed. Now we seem to have that environment where we have that happy buzz of people busy working.” That buzz also comes from a cutting-edge curriculum to match the equipment. The college staff are challenged all the time to bring to the fore the flexibility they have to adapt to changing demands from new sectors that didn’t even exist a few years ago – like drones and 3D printing.

“When you are moving in such a fast-paced world one of the challenges is the curriculum side of things,” says Rónán.

“Trying to get things like robotics into the FE curriculum can be quite difficult because of the process and bureaucracy involved in getting courses validated. That takes time and can take some of the edge off the innovation.”

The attributes that make him a perfect fit for his job were being developed in his own schooldays. He describes himself as “an impatient and strategic learner” only progressing in subjects that interested him. Until he found the right way of learning – building his own enhanced learning environment – and then he moved more quickly.

That journey allows him to have a great deal of empathy with his students, and a degree of pride that he is helping them find their own way forwards, a pride that was enhanced by conversations with his architect father as the project was progressing. He never lived to see the finished building, but father and son talked many times about it and you sense there is more than a little of the O’Beirne gene coursing through the ATC. Now that it is up and running, Rónán has already moved on to the next job, as head of library and learning services at Southampton Solent University. His progress, guidance and foresight mark him out as another successful alumni from a college growing in reputation and aspiration. It will be fascinating to see how the ATC will change the perception of the college from outside as well as its own view of its potential. n

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Move in to the future

Based in heart of the City’s Learning Quarter, Bradford College’s Advanced Technology Centre offers established small businesses and start-ups the opportunity to be based in an exceptional working environment, which innovative and creative businesses can flourish.

Bradford College

The Advanced Technology Centre can offer your business: First Class Open Plan Offices • Conference and Events Facilities • Meeting Rooms ● Virtual Offices • Business Networking • Wi-Fi Access • Business Advice • Access to High Specification IT Equipment & Advanced Technology • Opportunities for Student Work Placements ●

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Interested? Contact us now: 01274 436120 atc@bradfordcollege.ac.uk and/or t.jennings@bradfordcollege.ac.uk www.bradfordcollege.ac.uk/atc/info-businesses

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

“We want to be able to add value to an SME and feeling that we can work with them on a wider range of services than just an audit. Our target market is established SMEs looking to grow and both sides of the table will look at how they can get on and have empathy�

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Golf’s loss was firm’s gain Mike Hughes meets John Warner, managing partner at chartered accountants BHP It was a small matter of 38 years ago that John Warner joined BHP as a chartered accountant.

But those first steps on the ladder were not what I would expect from the immaculately dressed polite, almost reserved, gentleman in front of me. After university he spent a year “playing golf and working in a pub” before a “significant” number of job interviews followed.

“Ending up in accountancy was not necessarily by choice” he admits. “But once I was in I thoroughly enjoyed it - I certainly wasn’t good enough to stick with the golf.

“I’m a Sheffielder, so was looking around for something in this area, having been away for three years studying Law at Warwick University.

That wasn’t a degree I particularly enjoyed.

“But I did very well in my accountancy exams and, reasonably quickly, was given a career path to partner, working with SMEs and getting to know clients.”

The practice was very different then, operating only in Sheffield with 46 staff. It now operates in Sheffield, Leeds, Chesterfield, York, Harrogate and Cleckheaton with 280 staff.

Growth generally has been confident since the 1970s when it was Barber, Harrison and Platt. There have been significant mergers since then in 1991, 1996, 1998, 2006, 2011, 2013 and this year with Clough & Company. Not a

company to sit back on its laurels then.

“The size and quality of the client base has also increased significantly as the region has changed,” says John, who has just marked his 60th birthday.

“It was one of the main aims of growth to have the resources to work with bigger and more ambitious companies and individuals and to attract the best talent. It is a very competitive landscape for recruiting staff and the size of the business now is such that we can give people the opportunity to grow.

“The brand is very strong in South Yorkshire, and getting stronger in the North and West. It is important that the standard of the BHP offering is the same at all our offices, which is down to our recruitment and internal culture and values.

“The whole partner group shares those values and is embedding them across all our offices.”

The company is just coming to the end of a fiveyear plan, triggered by a change in the line-up of partners back in 2010, with three longservers retiring and five new partners appointed.

That push was to make the firm a more regional player, so it is on to the next five-year plan, which has just started with the Clough merger and the setting up of a consulting arm to make BHP more advisory-centric. The next step will be an advisory arm called BHP Prosper to again

expand what it offers across Yorkshire and now internationally with the firm joining accountancy network Kreston which works in more than 100 countries.

Alongside long-standing and constantly developing specialisms in sectors like charities, manufacturing and academies, the newcomers are always a key strata for BHP. “SMEs are an important part of the plan – we have a good market share in the region and with exporting playing an earlier role in business plans than it used to do, the international side of things is really positive.

“We want to be able to add value to an SME and feeling that we can work with them on a wider range of services than just an audit. Our target market is established SMEs looking to grow and both sides of the table will look at how they can get on and have empathy.

“It is about building trust and confidence and understanding a business “Given what we have achieved in the last five years, clients will look at us as a business and see how we have grown and that we try to be alert to all opportunities and have the skillsets in place to help.”

Perfecting that set of skills relies on astute recruitment. BHP has taken on eight schoolleavers and eight graduates in the last year,

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who go through different training regimes at the company. Once they have the qualifications, personal and commercial skills are developed as part of a structured programme.

“It’s important that we are not just seen as technocrats. We need to see in our incoming staff the ability to go beyond just being an accountant and be more commercial than we have been in the past.”

The flexibility to look at people closely and encourage their personal side to be a key factor in whether you give them a chance may go back to John’s own interview, with director Graham Stuart-Harris. Graham, who is still a regular face at BHP’s offices, summed up the young man facing him with a single line note on his CV: “Works in a bar. Says he gets on with people.

Offer him a job.” While that reference may be less used in today’s jobs market, the principle cannot be beaten – it’s the person who matters most, not the paper he or she may have in their briefcase. “We have a business game that candidates have to go through now and we often think ‘would we have ever got a job if we had this 30-odd years ago. But things have changed and businesses have become more complex, instead of a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) there is now VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous) to look at a situation.

“But thankfully, there are good graduates and good school-leavers out there.”

His view is that the SME sector across Yorkshire is working well and building into a vibrant foundation as the region aims for more devolved powers.

“Both Sheffield and Leeds got very good City Deals and have already started to get devolution. The Government is supportive of what is happening.

“We do top 100 surveys of SMEs in our regions and they are growing nicely, taking on employees and securing growth. There is a real feeling of confidence.

“There are always ups and downs – I think retail continues to be very difficult – but the Advanced Manufacturing Park is a fantastic beacon for the sector and I see that as a real leading light for

“It’s important that we are not just seen as technocrats. We need to see in our incoming staff the ability to go beyond just being an accountant and be more commercial than we have been in the past.”

the South Yorkshire area.”

Out of the office, he and his wife take their dog walking on the North York Moors and the Dales to blow away any lingering cobwebs. The golf is still a hobby as well, with an aim to play the top 100 courses, as well as a season-ticket passion for Sheffield Wednesday. John is a fascinating mix. He has deep knowledge and understanding

of the older traditions - which firms lose track of at their peril – and of the 21st Century needs of an accountancy business.

And he shows the value of experience while also being a living example of how character mixed with an open-minded boss can take you down a route you had never considered into a lifelong career. n

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COMMERCIAL PROPERTY £50m transformation for Meadowhall WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff has been appointed to provide multidisciplinary engineering services to transform leading Sheffield shopping and leisure complex Meadowhall, as part of a £50m interior design refurbishment. This is the latest in a number of retail and commercial projects the combined company has worked on for property investment company British Land, and adds to the growing portfolio of retail projects in the UK and overseas for the professional services consultancy. It is providing building services, structural, fire engineering, vertical transportation and acoustic services. BDP is the architect. The refurbishment marks the 25th anniversary of Meadowhall, which attracts more than 25 million shoppers a year. The mall’s vision is to create a modern environment where some retailers benefit from double height shop fronts that create additional retail space. This will be achieved by a design that allows the relocation of major service gantries away from their current location above shops into the roof without compromising vital fire escapes. In addition existing ventilation has been removed so that the mall could be naturally ventilated for both fresh air and smoke ventilation, which will save future energy and operational costs.

Extensive phasing and sequencing of the works has been undertaken to ensure that when construction starts on site this year, customers

will remain unaffected. The refurbishment is due to be completed by the end of 2017 on the UK’s fourth largest shopping centre, which comprises 310 shops, 50 restaurants and cafes and a multiscreen cinema. WSP Parsons Brinckerhoff, which employs more than 270 in its Leeds office, has a history of retail expertise having worked on Trinity Leeds, Birmingham’s Bullring, New Street and Grand Central Station and Liverpool ONE in the UK, as well as internationally in Dubai, Azerbaijan and currently on the Mall of Egypt in Cairo.

“In the past couple of years we have seen confidence return to the industrial property market in Yorkshire

An image of the refurbished Meadowhall Shopping Centre

Grant & Bowman moves to LBA estate The Leeds office of global property consultancy Knight Frank has advised on a 100,000 sq ft warehouse letting at the Leeds-Bradford Airport Industrial Estate at Yeadon. Grant & Bowman, the leading UK discounted toy and games company, has signed a three-year lease on Unit 9 at the business park. Nick Prescott, industrial property specialist at Knight Frank, who advised Grant & Bowman, said: “In the past couple of years we have seen confidence return to the industrial property market in Yorkshire - and the letting of a 100,000 sq ft warehouse at Leeds-Bradford Airport Industrial Estate Business Park is a telling demonstration of this”.

BT goes high-tech at Hull centre BT Wholesale has chosen to locate a state-of-the art network management and operations centre at new offices on the Willerby Hill Business Park in Hull. The centre has been fitted out to allow BT to provide network monitoring, planning, provisioning and engineering to communications companies, including KCOM Group. Kevin Murphy, managing director of BT Wholesale customer service, said: “We have a longstanding relationship with KCOM having provided services and support for their network for the past six years. The time was right to establish a dedicated centre to continue supporting KCOM’s business needs and also the needs of some of our other customers. Not only was this an opportunity to expand and enhance the services we already provide to KCOM but also to potentially grow our business”. Sean Royce, managing director of technology, service and operations at KCOM Group, said: “BT Wholesale’s investment in its Willerby Hill offices is great news, not just for us as a customer but for the East Riding more generally, as it will lead to more high-quality employment opportunities for local people”.

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£10m STEM boost for SHU students

Sheffield Hallam University’s Sheaf and Eric Mensforth buildings are set to benefit from a £10m refurbishment to support highquality science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) teaching and research. The redevelopment will provide staff and students with learning and teaching spaces, alongside a new atrium which will create an entranceway to the University’s City Campus. Improvements include the creation of a new atrium linking the two buildings, with opportunities for galleries, collaborative spaces and social learning, a chemistry lab, and a new engineering area.

Stephen Hustler, assistant director of estates development and sustainability at the University, said: “This refurbishment follows a decade of investment which has delivered state-of-the-art facilities as part of our commitment to provide the very best learning, teaching and research experience for our students and staff.” Work on the buildings, which involves closing off the main concourse access between the Sheaf and Eric Mensforth buildings, is set to be completed in 2017.

“This refurbishment follows a decade of investment which has delivered state-of-the-art facilities”

The distinctive East Parade building in Sheffield

Turreted, castellated and let Professional services specialist, Turner and Townsend has snapped up a ten year city-centre lease on a listed office building in Sheffield. 1 East Parade on Sheffield High Street, located next to the Cathedral and Fargate shopping district, is well known for its Victorian turreted and castellated red-brick frontage, which has been preserved through a full refurbishment of the inner space. The project to renovate, and subsequently market the property, has been undertaken by building consultancy and agency teams from the Sheffield office of Knight Frank to create two floors of Grade A offices, marketed on behalf of Square Metre Properties Limited. Turner and Townsend will occupy 5,000 sq ft of the building’s 10,000 sq ft of refurbished space in the ten year deal.

Last orders for Swarcliffe Drive pub The Wakefield office of building and civil engineering contractor Britcon has secured a £2m design and build contract to transform the site of a former derelict pub into council homes. The new scheme on Swarcliffe Drive forms part of Leeds City Council’s Housing Growth Programme to deliver nearly 1,000 new council homes. The development includes 12 two-bedroom apartments and six one-bedroom apartments, with communal garden space, a lift and private parking. All units are planned on a two-bedroom footprint, with the flexibility to enable a one-bedroom to be converted into two. Ian Chapman, regional contracts manager at Britcon, said: “The objective of this project is to produce affordable, low maintenance, energy efficient and sustainable homes. We proposed a timber frame construction to meet the high energy, thermal, acoustic and air tight requirements to deliver well-engineered and comfortable accommodation. Public engagement is critical given the high density residential location and we will aim to meet key employment and skills social responsibility targets that we exceeded during the Tropical World Project.” Britcon will start works on the project next month for completion by summer 2016. Britcon opened its West Yorkshire office in Wakefield a year ago and has since secured some major contracts in the Yorkshire region.

These include a new £4.2m technical centre at the Advanced Manufacturing Park in Sheffield and extension works for Queen Ethelberga’s Collegiate, University of Bradford and University of York.

Lawnswood agents appointed Centurion Properties has appointed the Leeds offices of JLL and WSB as letting agents on Lawnswood Business Park, a modern, highquality business park in North West Leeds.

Fronting the Leeds Outer Ring Road, Lawnswood Business Park comprises eight detached office buildings, totalling 147,355 sq ft, and is currently let to 14 tenants including BHP Accountants and The Fuel Card Business Group.

Centurion Properties acquired the park from Canmoor for £17.25 million last month in its second UK business park acquisition this year.

“We aim to meet key employment and skills social responsibility targets that we exceeded during the Tropical World Project”

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BUSINESS LUNCH bqlive.co.uk

Mike Hughes drops into the General Tarleton for a spot of lunch with Robyn Peat of land and estate agents George F White

BUSINESS LUNCH bqlive.co.uk

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Hand on the land Robyn Peat looks like he would choose outdoors over indoors any day of the week.

He has the look of the gentleman farmer and keeps 17 Shetland sheep on four acres near his home so perhaps – stereotypically – a picnic with some good chunks of bread, cheese and pickle would be a suitable menu over which to talk. But thankfully, Robyn is completely at home in the excellent General Tarleton at Ferrensby, a few miles from Knaresborough .

As the managing partner at George F White, he oversees offices at Alnwick, Bedale, Wolsingham, Shiptonthorpe, Duns, and just down the road from where he lives, in Barnard Castle.

Backed by founding partner George, who still works in the business, Robyn will be spearheading a push deeper into Yorkshire as business builds, with diversification, green belt and windfarms coming more to the fore.

“I see my job in three areas: the technical work that I do when I am surveying, business development and then leadership,” he tells me as we settle in at our table.

“I sort out my days between those three roles and have to get the balance right for each to work. The first role involves advising landowners on valuations, management of their assets, planning and development and dispute resolution.

“I think it is a mistake if the managing partner just manages, you can become disconnected from the work your business does and what the needs are of your clients and colleagues.”

The company has a strategic board alongside the management board, a structure which supports Robyn as well as letting him get out and about. It obviously works for him, as this year will be his 26th with the firm partner.

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“I see my job in three areas: the technical work that I do when I am surveying, business development and then leadership”

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BUSINESS LUNCH bqlive.co.uk

“When I joined there was only one other partner and six people. George told me taking on a partner was, in some ways, more important than taking on a spouse. It is a kind of marriage, because there has to be absolute trust, you have to get on together really well and be happy spending lot of time together. Personally, my long relationship with the company is more than loyalty, it’s a commitment to growing a business.

“There is also an excitement about building the business and being able to bring people on within it and empowering them to take responsibility.”

Robyn, now 52, has all the basic credentials for his job. His father farmed, he doesn’t like being “stuck inside” and he likes working with people.

In his early days, he was at the Royal Agricultural University at Cirencester where he got his diploma in estate management and rural estate management. Then he went to work in Bournemouth and Oxford, before George called.

The Oxford business only had four clients,

but the fact that they were All Souls College, Queen’s College, Lord Jersey and Lord Bournmouth meant there wasn’t much time to put his feet up and his experience of dealing with large estates grew rapidly.

“When you’re young you don’t definitely know what you will be doing, but working in the countryside and not in an office was one of the things I decided I wanted from my career. My son likes the countryside and is at Harper Adams College in Shropshire doing pretty much the course I did at Cirencester. That can lead to my sort of job, but he has choices and has yet to choose exactly where he will go.”

The reputation of the firm is critical to its stability and future plans and great care has been taken in putting the right people in the right roles. When it comes to recruiting, perhaps from Cirencester or Shropshire, Robyn is there to make sure the candidates ‘get’ the business and understand its aims under the four headings of agriculture, residential, commercial and leisure.

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“We are not a lifestyle business, we are a commercial consultancy, and while we expect the commercial rewards that go with that, you can only get them by being absolutely focused on the business. You look after the clients and their needs and also anticipating those needs – it all comes with the territory.

“As a consultancy, getting the right people to join the business is a priority. Although people do business with people, ensuring the brand and values are protected by our staff is the most important thing.”

Whoever is welcomed on board will be joining a different business to the one Robyn joined in 1989. Times have changed in the great outdoors, with growth and diversification seeming to battle for top spot.

The limits of what can be done with Yorkshire’s agricultural heritage can seem harsh when it is a family farm trying everything it can to make money. It’s their land, let them do what they need to. But there have to be limits because

09/06/2015 14:51

BUSINESS LUNCH bqlive.co.uk

their hopes – or the aspirations of a huge agricultural investment group - mean changing the very nature of the county.

Perhaps there has to be an extreme point set that must never be reached – a theme park in Grade 1 rolling dales. Then work back from that to set an unwanted, but possible, level of development and take it from there. But that is not the expert view, of course. This is: “Our landowners have become more sophisticated and have diversified their businesses and we have diversified our business as their problems have become more varied.

“The planning system has become more commercial and more realistic over the last few years. It is there to serve an economic need, so not to stop, but to encourage what is needed in the right places. It is a matter of identifying what the opportunity is. If you have a field with an agricultural value and you turn it to housing, there is a massive windfall. Land values generally have increased dramatically, driven by reinvestment from farmers who want to have longevity and want to expand, and from economies of scale – bigger farms can make better money than smaller ones.

“But there is also an element of lifestyle. It’s what people know and what they want to

stay in and it is also a dream for others to have that space.” There are now seven planners and an architect working for George F White, which illustrates that change in planning and development work. Energy is another big issue, from siting commercial windfarms to allowing a single farm to have a single half-megawatt turbine. From tariffs and grants to take care of as well as planning laws and construction and then potentially the sale of the energy produced, George F White now has staff who can handle the lot from start to finish. It has an enviable agility that I have seen in many compact operations, which means it can switch strategies or absorb a new market sector almost at will. This huge benefit is making competition with big businesses a lot more manageable. It’s turning a speedboat around as opposed to a tanker. Firms like George F White which have people like Robyn Peat leading them, empowering his staff, are changing the geography of Yorkshire for the better. Theirs is the task of allowing development and aspiration to flourish, while keeping the county whole and apparently untouched. Having shared a meal with him and two hours of good company, I would trust Robyn to do that well. Our county and its future prosperity is safe in his hands. n

“The planning system is there to serve an economic need, so not to stop, but to encourage what is needed in the right places

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A tasteful balance The General Tarleton is a restaurant with 13 bedrooms about three miles from the A1 and about five from Harrogate. Head Chef Marc Williams and award winning Chef Patron John Topham – who is also the signature chef at Bowliffe Hall - are the creative force behind the wonderful food that Robyn and I enjoyed. The pub is warm and welcoming, with a well-balanced mix of history, tradition and modern taste in its furnishings as well as its food. I started with Queenie Scallops cooked in a garlic and lemon butter with gruyere and cheddar cheese. The texture was perfect and the presentation delicate – the ideal starter as we got talking. Robyn was particularly impressed with his sardines. They were served on roasted pepper bruschetta, with capers and olives and a pine nut pesto. This was looking good... For mains I went for cornfed Goosnargh duckling. The breast was poached and roasted with a confit leg salad, gravy and... savour the moment....thrice cooked chips in duck fat. Thank you Mr Topham. Robyn, perhaps keen to compare it to his own flock, chose the duo of lamb.

This was a spring lamb rack with pressed confit shoulder served with mint gel, Savoy cabbage and thyme jus. He diplomatically avoided dessert, but I felt honour-bound to try the ‘Taste of Yorkshire Rhubarb’, which gave me crumble, compote and pannacotta.

Light and refreshing and a reminder of what marvellous goods we have on our own doorstep. The General Tarleton, when mixed with good company, will be hard to beat.

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MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

With the wind in her hair and power to command There may be 86 years between them but these two Bentleys are both thoroughbreds as Polly Staveley, director T L Dallas & Co Ltd discovers on a dual test drive

MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

‘…Are you around on 13 August, I have arranged for you to drive a new Bentley Continental for a few days, oh and by the way you can also drive my 1929 Bentley?’

That was the text I received from my great friend Jonathan Turner, obviously I ‘hummed & aahhed’ and begrudgingly agreed to drive the cars and review them both for BQ Magazine.

So it was I turned up at JCT 600 Bentley in Leeds on a sunny afternoon in August to pick up the new Bentley. My trusty BMW looked rather dishevelled amongst the gleaming Bentleys on the forecourt, but on seeing the prices on the windscreens the Yorkshire girl in me thought to myself, ‘who would pay THAT for a car’?!’.

Mike Carr of JCT did the paperwork and took me to the car: a navy blue Bentley Continental GT Speed Convertible, with a hand stitched cream leather interior…heartstoppingly beautiful! Mike explained Bentley’s heritage of building ‘Grand Tourers’:- well built, comfortable cars with a huge amount of horsepower and this one is the cream of the crop, with a 6 litre W12 twin turbo engine, churning

“But on seeing the prices on the windscreens the Yorkshire girl in me thought to myself, ‘who would pay THAT for a car’?!”

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MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

“I climbed into the driving seat I felt as if this was a seat from which many adventures had been enjoyed” out a whopping 626 horsepower and a top speed of 200mph. After Mike had pointed out the necessary driving controls and, more importantly, I had shown him how to sync my Iphone with the bespoke ‘Naim’ sound system, I set off into the sunshine, roof down, music pumping. I have to admit that my perception of Bentleys was that I was the wrong sex and about 30 years too young to be driving one, and that it would be rather like manoeuvring a high powered tank, but as I pulled out into the rush hour Leeds traffic, I was very pleasantly surprised. The car felt smaller and more nimble than I expected and the great big engine purred quietly below the bonnet as we negotiated the city traffic. Some blue lights approaching rapidly behind me on the dual carriage way caused brief panic and a check of my speedo, but all was well and he whizzed past.

Opening the car up on the M1 was astonishing, it is blisteringly quick, but also so well balanced and thanks to the clever wind deflector it was possible to drive at high speed with the roof down without disturbing my hairstyle.

Negotiating the country lanes towards my home was exhilarating, and the car certainly turned heads in Ripon. Usually it is only tractor engines that break the peace in the sleepy market town! On arrival at home my teenage sons rushed straight out and had the bonnet up and declared it to be ‘quite cool, but couldn’t you have got a Bugatti Veyron?’

The next day I couldn’t wait to get back in the car, and thankfully the English summer was holding out, so I could continue to pose with the roof down. I set off to meet Jonathan at

Bowcliffe Hall, where his 1929 4.5 Litre Bentley awaited me. It is hard to believe that the same manufacturer had built these two cars 86 years apart. The badge on the front is really where the similarities end: Jonathan’s vintage Bentley is also stunning, but in a completely different way – it represents a bygone era when men were gentlemen and ladies wore pearls. This type of car was raced at LeMans - winning four times in the late ‘20s, and as I climbed into the driving seat I felt as if this was a seat from which many adventures had been enjoyed. Indeed this particular car is one of the most travelled in the world - Jonathan has driven from Peking to Paris (through China, Tibet, Nepal, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and into Europe), around New Zealand, Iceland and much of Europe competing in racing and rallying events.

This engine was noisy too, but much less refined, no powered steering, gear changes were a challenge and there was certainly no clever wind deflector, or in fact roof at all. But it was enormous fun to drive: much faster than I expected and you really felt like you were driving, as opposed to being a mere passenger.

Who needs a swanky sound system when you can listen to the wind in your ears and the 4,500cc engine revving?

So after a whizz round the Wetherby bypass and a certain amount of gear crunching, I returned Jonathan to the driving seat, and he showed me how to drive it properly! This car turns heads too, and I can now understand Jonathan’s passion for these beautiful vintage cars. After some photography of the old and new and a delicious lunch at Jonathan’s new, appropriately

named, Driver’s Club, it was back into the seat of the GT. This is the type of car that you feel excited about getting in to, it is also the type of car that you could very quickly lose your licence in, as without any apparent effort on the part of the car, the speedo is reading speeds in excess of 100mph.

I had to return the car the next day, and perhaps appropriately the Yorkshire summer had reverted to type and it was pelting it down. Roof up at the flick of a switch, and I was surprised at how quiet the interior of the cabin was with a ‘soft top’. Back at JCT and Mike had very kindly had my BMW valeted, perhaps he anticipated my reluctance to swap back from the beautiful GT and was trying to soften the blow. I drove away heavy hearted, this is a genuinely awesome car, and even the Yorkshire lass in me would part with the required sum of money to bag one.

Perhaps I will have to have a word with Father Christmas. n My huge thanks go to Mike at JCT and Jonathan Turner for organising this test drive. Polly was driving a Bentley GTC Speed finished in Dark Sapphire Blue with Linen coloured hide interior. It’s the fastest production Bentley convertible ever produced and prices start at £185,200 for this W12 cylinder, 6.0litre model with a top speed in the region of 200mph.

JCT 600, 102 Gelderd Rd, Leeds, West Yorkshire LS12 6BY. 0113 244 0600.

Bowcliffe Hall is a spectacular events and conference venue located near Wetherby. See www.bowcliffehall.co.uk for more information

Turning Japanese You can act your age with some timeless classics, explains Josh Sims In Japan, Nick Clements notes, they call it ‘dad’s style’. It has also been referred to as ‘revival’ style, or ‘heritage’ style. None of these terms sound especially complimentary, but they are apt summaries of what draws a man towards a particular clothing aesthetic - one, in fact, which has all the in-crowd knowingness of a sartorial sub-culture akin to that of Mod or Teddy Boy, albeit without the underpinning shared love of a certain type of music. Rather, what fans of heritage style are perhaps most drawn to is the authenticity that the many clothing brands and manufacturing companies which fall under this wide umbrella term are founded in, even if many of them have little authenticity in themselves, having been established over more recent years.

But what they all at least aspire - even those that lack much history - is a respect for the menswear of the past, by which most probably mean after

the early 1900s and before the 1960s.

This, after all, was the golden age of menswear, during which its canon was formed - all of those iconic garments that have come to form the basis of the entire men’s casual wardrobe, some of them originating in a single maker, all of them endlessly copied ever since. ‘Heritage’ says it all in its appreciation of both those brands and those styles of clothing that have a long past.

But ‘dad’s style’? Clements is the founder and editor of ‘Men’s File’, arguably the leading journal of heritage and revival style, as likely to be found in the right kind of menswear store as in a newsagent’s. A photographer by trade, he began shooting this burgeoning sub-culture before it really had a name. But, as a middle-aged man, he liked what he saw. “There’s a reason why revival clothing is so appealing: it works, it’s so comfortable, and it’s not childish. That’s why

the Japanese call it ‘dad’s style’. It’s not being a 50-year-old dressed as a 15-year-old. It’s claiming an area of style that, thankfully, has nothing to do with fashion trends.”

Indeed, heritage style looks to the past not only because, as its exponents will vouchsafe, the clothes are so timeless, operating at a level that is supra-fashion - some of the founding makers will be well-known to many, but many of the modern makers will be known to just the few - but because period designs tend to be highly functional, even excessively so given most 21st century men’s actual needs. “That’s a very male thing - we just love over-specced things that go on and on,” says Hitoshi Tsujimoto, the founder of Real McCoy’s, one of the most eminent of new heritage brands, specialising in both reproductions and gently improved versions of menswear classics. “We’re not really going to go

FASHION bqlive.co.uk

“There’s a reason why revival clothing is so appealing: it works, it’s so comfortable, and it’s not childish. That’s why the Japanese call it ‘dad’s style’”

down 300m under the water, even if our watches can. Professional cameras, four-wheel drive cars they’re all a bit of dreaming for men. Most of it is so tough, it will outlast us. Still, at least that way we’re making good presents for our sons one day. Well, it’s a good excuse anyway...”

Tell-tale characteristics of heritage pieces might include a high prevalence of reinforced seams and pockets, for example, of easy fits - it is rare to find a pair of trousers, for instance, that is tight or has a low rise - and of hard-wearing fabrics the likes of leather, duck, chambray, cotton drill and, above all, denim. These are not only fabrics that one can live in, actively, without fear that they cannot take the abuse, they are

fabrics that actually get better the older they get.

“The important thing is that this is not just a fashion to these people - often it’s a way of life,” notes Horst Friedrichs, a photographer who has won a reputation for his documentary approach to charting clothing culture, including denimheads. “You get a feeling for these cultures.

Talk to stylists - by which I mean people who really style themselves - and they’re recognising something shared with others. And when you’re dealing with a community brought together by the love of a particular fabric, then of course you meet some very geeky people. Certainly one might say it’s odd to be obsessed with one fabric - there’s no music to go with it, no cars. But these

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people absolutely love it, the colour, the craft...”

The workmanship certainly is there in heritage style - not least because the market has, until recently, been driven by makers in Japan, with its culturally-ingrained focus on detail and, yes, authenticity, and its perhaps surprising postWorld War Two enthusiasm for Americana. But also because - especially with younger heritage brands - one standard they typically all work to is to ensure that their products are as well made as the historic originals to which they are paying homage. Those on the outside might wonder why anyone might pay what can seem an exorbitant amount for, say, a simple grey marl sweatshirt when, superficially at least, the same garment can be had for a fraction of the price.

“Food is a good comparison here,” argues Roy Slaper, a leading figure among the breed of artisanal denim makers who have found their niche over the last decade. “To the person who survives on a diet of fast food, the discussion of organic or ethical food is abstract and suspect.

He points to the hamburger he likes costing $3 and says only a fool would pay more. But you could get a $15 hamburger on the same street.

And our jeans are the $15 hamburger. The machines I use are special. The methods I use are special. The materials I use are special.

These aren’t even perceivable to the fastclothing customer.”

That isn’t to say that, at the heart of heritage, there isn’t a love of dressing up. Quite the contrary. It is for this reason maybe that many of its fans truly are devoted, adhering to their style not only regardless of the changes of fashion, but also the changes of season. The heritage dresser who favours heavy denims, engineer’s boots, white cap-sleeved t-shirts and a biker jacket is likely to wear the same whatever the weather.

There are limits to this appreciation for the old time feeling, “It’s why an old Rolex can just feel better than a new one, but you don’t want a pocket watch, why an old Mercedes has a certain essence to it, but you don’t want a horse and cart,” says Tsujimoto. And there is the risk of one’s wardrobe looking more akin to costume than to everyday, tough menswear.

“You can overdo it. You become a pastiche of a pastiche of a pastiche,” as Clements warns.

“There are times when I’ve looked like a lost extra from a period movie, which for some people is perhaps a way of saying ‘leave me alone’, even while attracting attention to yourself.” n

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KINI ON WINE bqlive.co.uk

“The late, hazy afternoon was a perfect backdrop for this light dry floral white, which is long on the palate but without real depth”

KINI ON WINE bqlive.co.uk

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Let the wine choose the food Jonathan Kini, Head of Small and SME Business, Vodafone UK wonders if letting wine lead the seasoning is the way forward It was a sunny bank holiday – there was at least one this year, I promise – when I settled down to the pleasure of tasting a couple of wines for BQ Magazine. Now, I’ve sampled a fair number of vintages in my time (more than I’d care to admit) but I’m far from an expert – so I decided to call in some outside help. And, if you need help with consuming alcohol, who better to contact than a couple of hard working doctors. Luckily, I just happened to have two in the wings, lured by the promise of a glass or two of premium vino.

As an added bonus, because this particular wine tasting was technically for ‘work’, there was no excuse needed for cracking open the first bottle at 4pm on a Sunday afternoon.

The first wine we sampled was a 2014 Grant Burge Semillon Sauvignon Blanc. The late, hazy afternoon was a perfect backdrop for this light dry floral white, which is long on the palate but without real depth. It has tones of melon, citrus fruits, peach and even gooseberry, meaning it’s refreshing and not overpowering. All of which make it ideal for relaxing in the sun while the BBQ is heating up. Just a shame I hadn’t prepared any prawns in lemon and garlic for us to nibble on, they would have gone down a treat with this fruity, acidic number.

And, boy did I need those pre-BBQ prawns!

After receiving the usual torrent of abuse over the length of time it takes for the BBQ to heat up (a fire is like a fine vintage I replied, worth the wait!), I decided I’d had enough and cracked open the second bottle. But on reflection, this might have been an unwise move before the steaks were even ready.

The next wine - a 2012 Argentinian Blue Melosa Flores blend was deep, intense, complex and threw a literal punch to the mouth. But its smoky nose with plum and smooth vanilla on the palate was an absolute joy - and, it definitely needs to be accompanied by steak. No, more than that, it needs heat. It immediately conjured up thoughts of South American spice, and so, with my taste buds well and truly stimulated I reached for the piri-piri seasoning and doused the steaks. No longer am I choosing the bottle to accompany the food - this delicious evocative wine very much led the way. The doctors left suitably impressed with the fruity/spicy combination of wine and meat, leaving me to wonder if this isn’t the way forward?

Open the wine and then decide on the flavours to accompany it. At the very least this means you are cooking with a glass of wine in your hand - if you think about it, a plan with no drawbacks! n

Australian 5th Generation 2014 Semillon Sauvignon, Grant Burge, priced at £9.99 Argentinian Blue Melosa Flores Blend 2012 Gouguenheim, Mendoza, priced at £14.95 Wine was supplied by Firth & Co Wine Merchant. www.firthandco.com 01677 451 952. Newton Bank, Newton-leWillows, Bedale, North Yorkshire, DL8 1TE

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Turned around and set for growth

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

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BQ editor Mike Hughes talks to Martin Donnachie, whose company is well connected around the country Martin Donnachie’s summary of Fulcrum’s success is ‘so far, so good’.

That is a polite understatement of the remarkable turnaround he has led at the Sheffield-based utilities company, which is the only independent utility infrastructure provider operating across the whole of Britain.

Fulcrum’s aim is to be the leading energy connections provider in the UK – and Martin’s leadership to bring it to that point has been high-profile and widely admired.

The company has won headline-grabbing contracts like providing the gas supply to the Olympic Cauldron for London 2012 and has provided gas to ridiculously inaccessible places like the restaurant on the 40th floor of Heron Tower in the middle of London (when the meter was in the basement, six metres below ground level) and four distilleries via a 16-mile pipeline through some of Scotland’s most beautiful and remote countryside.

So Martin is up for a challenge. Which is just as well. “Looking at what the company has achieved over the last couple of years, the key was to establish credibility with investors again and I think us moving into profit last year – and on the timeline promised – was really important,” Martin tells me.

“That got us past quite a significant milestone but, of course, once you have delivered your first profit, the investors want to know how you are going to make even more next time – and then the time after.

“Winning things like the distilleries contract gives confidence to investors that we will achieve the figure we set out to achieve. We are

projecting growth and winning contracts like that is very much a part of that.”

Martin’s rejuvenation of Fulcrum was always built on a complete confidence in its potential in the market for what it does. Historically, that has been gas connections, but is now moving into electricity and water.

That potential led to a group of investors taking it from National Grid five years ago and floating on the AIM market.

“Three years in, that management team had done a lot of good things, moved the business on and reduced the cost base. But unfortunately a combination of that cost base still being too high and not enough sales coming in, meant that it wasn’t in profit as planned and had spent all of the cash it had raised from the float.

“So there was a management change and I was brought in initially for a six-month interim role. But over the last two years we have been working on what was initially a very urgent turnaround plan. That then became a transition model and then moved towards profit and growth.”

Fulcrum owns a lot of the pipelines it installs, so some of those were sold to rebalance the books with a healthy £5m injection back into the business. The cost base came down again with three ‘waves of downsizing’ and the

foundations were in place.

“I came with a pretty open mind because you never quite know what is required to move a business on until you arrive. The cost base reduction was clear, but the company wasn’t delivering for customers in the way that it needed to do, so we had to put measures in place and create some drive.

“There were also people in the business who weren’t able to deliver their potential. One of the things I am very pleased about is that we have worked with people already in place. There was a management layer that wasn’t required, so that went and allowed a lot of people to fulfil that potential and drive the company on.

“I didn’t have a formula from day one, but over that first six months I realised it wasn’t like a normal turnaround. There was a chance here to take something that had lost its way, save it, get it delivering for its customers and then grow it as well.

“I saw that it was something I could also be fulfilled in for a number of years.”

After getting his Maths degree at Oxford, Martin became a chartered accountant, and had been working in science and technology businesses and then with construction companies as MD for George Wimpy and divisional MD for Rok. The housebuilding experience was valuable.

“Over the last two years we have been working on what was initially a very urgent turnaround plan. That then became a transition model and then moved towards profit and growth.”

Want to grow and develop your business?

Professional Development – Training – Consultancy & Research – Recruitment – Conference Facilities Contact us to learn more: business.school@yorksj.ac.uk www.yorksj.ac.uk/businessschool

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

“You can’t just be the big ‘I am’ when you are running a business. I have always embraced bringing in the best possible people”

Having bought in utilities services as a customer, he was now on the other side, knowing how high customer expectations were.

“I could relate to them. When something went wrong, you realise what a big impact utilities have on a contract, so it was great to be able to go somewhere like Fulcrum that has the potential to be the standout player because of its heritage and the way it operated.”

That involves the calibre of the people you work with, and it is clear this is a passion for Martin.

There was no need to bring in a completely new team when he arrived. People came and went, but the core was skilled and supportive and keen to grasp any opportunities that came their way.

There will always need to be the Olympic Cauldrons, Heron Towers and the Speyside distilleries, but I imagine Martin is equally energised by the confident progress of a young team member within his company, which now has 200 staff.

Clarity has been a key concern as Fulcrum has

changed. Staff have been kept fully advised of what was happening. They might not have agreed with it all, but they knew what was coming and Martin needed the right people to have a chance to stay and others to have the chance to leave.

The changes will keep on coming. While 90% of the work is still gas connections, there is a potentially game-changing move into electricity as well, and biomass, solar and windpower could all be natural extensions for Fulcrum.

“We have trained up a number of our team to deliver gas and electricity connections to the house-building sector initially, so we see that as an area of growth. It will take some time to establish scale on that, but that is really exciting as a lot of our customers really want to give utilities in their entirety to an outside organisation, so we are taking our first steps to deliver with our own people.”

Fulcrum’s capacity for large-scale projects puts it in a strong position as work with other utilities starts to grow. Its success with the Speyside

pipeline has just led to it securing a second contract with four other distilleries. This time the £3.95m work – running until May 2016 – will connect Tamdhu, Dalmunach, Cardhu and Knockando to Scotland’s main gas network via a 13-kilometre pipeline.

But one of the things that sets it apart from its competitors is that it is also structured to handle much smaller contracts, sometimes a single building and for just a few thousand pounds.

Martin says he has ‘always aspired to leadership’ and wanted to work with a group of people to ‘determine the destiny of an organisation’. But he also has a sense of duty to see a job through.

“You can’t just be the big ‘I am’ when you are running a business. I have always embraced bringing in the best possible people. You need to bring people with you and if you are prepared to sacrifice yourself to some degree, then you have a better chance of achieving things.”

With thinking like that – a combination of driving force and supportive boss – the rebuilt reputation is clearly intact and in good hands. n

Want to grow and develop your business?

Professional Development – Training – Consultancy & Research – Recruitment – Conference Facilities Contact us to learn more: business.school@yorksj.ac.uk www.yorksj.ac.uk/businessschool

PROFILE Irwin Mitchell

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Once bitten twice shy Marrying for the second time (or subsequent occasion) might suggest you could be ‘older’ but it does not mean you are necessarily ‘wiser’“ states Peter Morris, Partner,in the family team at Irwin Mitchell We are experiencing a significant increase in the number of clients seeking advice in connection with second or third marriages/cohabiting relationships.

Statistics show that the majority of people leaving one spouse/partner will go on to cohabit and/or remarry. Whilst many are now very familiar with the concept of the preparation of pre-nuptial/postnuptial agreements to seek to protect assets in the event of a further divorce, many do not address their minds as to what should/could happen in the event of their death.

There is still a surprising lack of understanding, amongst the general public, that marriage revokes a will and divorce affects provisions in a will in favour of a former spouse. This may be what you want but it may not.

“It is imperative that, when entering or exiting a marriage or relationship you consider the terms of your will,” advises Paula Myers, Head of the Will, Trust and Estate Disputes team at Irwin Mitchell.

“You can find that children from prior marriages or relationships are left out in the cold and current or former partners are provided for in a way you would not expect”.

The recently reported case of Chekov v Fryer (June 2015) dealt with the not uncommon situation where a couple had divorced, pursuant to which they had had obtained a ‘clean break’ order in respect of their finances. This on the face of it, prevented them from making any further claims against one another in the event of their subsequent death. Following the husband’s death some years later, however, his former wife made a claim against his estate. They had resumed a relationship post decree absolute.

The High Court has allowed Mrs Chekov to proceed with her claim for provision from her former spouse’s estate on the basis that they were co-habiting at the date of his death.

This issue could be exacerbated further following

There may be more to the saying “once bitten twice shy” than meets the eye

Paula Myers, Head of the Will, Trust and Estate Disputes team at Irwin Mitchell

the widely reported decision in Ilott v Mitson (July 2015) where the Court of Appeal awarded an estranged adult daughter, one third of her mother’s estate, despite the mother’s wishes for this not to happen. This was an extreme case but we have seen a significant surge in the number of enquiries from children wishing to challenge a parent’s will.

Similar exposure may occur following the making of an order upon divorce, which provides for maintenance/capital provision for a former spouse.

If you then, voluntarily, make payments in excess of that provision (as many people might particularly where children are involved) you could leave yourself exposed to further financial claims notwithstanding your belief that you had secured finality in any financial agreement, court order or will.

may not be enough to protect you. In circumstances where your career may have progressed since you separated, early legal advice is essential. The relaxation of the pensions regime might not be the only demon facing the more mature divorcee. There may be more to the saying “once bitten twice shy” than meets the eye.

If you would like more information about family law advice, please contact Peter Morris on 0113 218 6418 or email peter.morris@irwinmitchell.com. If you are

With the rights of co-habitants only set to strengthen in the future - simply failing to “take the plunge and tie the knot” for the second time,

concerned about a will and trust dispute and would like more advice, please contact Paula Myers on 0113 394 6832 or email paula.myers@Irwinmitchell.com.

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Pride and passion and a taste of Italy Mike Hughes has an excellent cappuccino and an entertaining meeting with the family behind San Carlo restaurants

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

It soon became clear I had made a big mistake interviewing San Carlos founder Carlo Distefano and his MD son Marcello.

Not the interview itself – that was an entirely enjoyable hour at their Leeds restaurant. But after 36 years in journalism, you would think by now I would know that if you are interviewing people whose lives revolve around food, do it over lunch.

Don’t book them in at 2.30 in the afternoon just after they have walked off their own meal and you have grabbed a bowl of muesli before you left home. Within a few minutes of meeting this family double act I was dreaming of Capesante Con Spinaci, followed by Tagliolini Lobster and then Crostata Al Frutti Di Bosco and one of the outstanding cappuccinos I enjoyed during the interview.

Still, I was served a varied menu of observations, passion and humour from Carlo and Marcello in their South Parade restaurant, where their regular Belgian architect had again worked his magic. Food critic Jay Rayner said it was “just what the city needed” to waken up its foodie focus and the surroundings and atmosphere have as much to do with that as the legendary portions and lengthy menu.

“After having a restaurant on Fountain Street in Manchester called Coco’s, we started San Carlo in 1992 in Birmingham,” said 71-year-old Carlo.“Not everyone thought it was a good idea, but for me it has always been about food and family.”

Marcelo says back home in Sicily, the textbook Italian family kitchen was everyday life for the Distefanos.

“We always came together over meals. The morning was spent planning the afternoon meal and the afternoon spent planning the evening meal. Now we still make sure we are eating by 1pm and then again by 6pm.

“So we wanted our first restaurant to be the sort of place we would want to eat at. People told us it was a ballsy approach to go so big in Manchester, but my father knew what he was doing.”

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“So we wanted our first restaurant to be the sort of place we would want to eat at. People told us it was a ballsy approach to go so big in Manchester, but my father knew what he was doing” Obviously so, as the chain now has city centre sites in Leeds, Bristol, Leicester, Manchester, Liverpool and London, with Qatar opening in the next few weeks and Bahrain planned for 2016.

The Leeds building was bought before Manchester, but the family released the lease to another restaurant so they could concentrate on Manchester. But 14 years ago they knew it was the right place to be and took the lease back.

The Italian ethos has a worldwide appeal and Carlo’s vision, enthusiasm and confidence have given the chain a seemingly unassailable head start over any potential rivals.

His influence has not waned – fuelled by his passion to make sure no single detail lets them down. As Marcello tells me how carefully he sources the chairs for their diners (no one likes to be shuffling uncomfortably after the first half-hour in a good restaurant), his father is misty-eyed about his obsession.

“I come to one of my restaurants every day, and if I hear someone saying they have enjoyed their meal and yet there is food left on the plate, I

wait until they have gone and go over to see if anything was wrong with the meal.

“If I am at home a little bored, I will come to one of the restaurants and when I see the plates full of fine food I feel better. It’s a passion – I feel it in my heart. Why would I want to retire or take a holiday when I love my work so much?”

Marcello politely interrupts (‘my father likes to talk...’ ) to say that as the company has evolved, so has the taste of its customers and of Britain as a whole.

“There is so much diversity here. In Paris you get French food, but in our big cities now there are so many to choose from. Thirty years ago, eating out was something you did on Saturday night, but now there is such a breadth and array of foods to bring people out. Not every customer will want Veal Tuscany.

“It is about value creation. If you want a longevity in your business, you get good suppliers and good recipes and you will last for decades and develop.”

The suppliers are one of Carlo’s specialities, with equal passion for the right veal, olive oil

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“If you want to be a restaurateur, you have to have the passion to work a 15 hour day.”

or tomatoes to be brought in from Italy.

“We could do it all for less money, but money has never interested me that way. Not too many ingredients, but good ingredients. Sometimes there is nothing better than simple fish well cooked.”

The staff – there are now around 1,000 of them – are selected with equal care and educated in the ways of the family. There is a San Carlo instinct that has to be obvious or achievable, a warmth that makes them fit into the ethos of the company.

Carlo still gets regular phone calls from aspiring chefs and waiters in Italy who want to start their careers at San Carlo.

“I tell them not to get into it if they are doing it for money,” says Carlo. “If you want to be a restaurateur, you have to have the passion to work a 15 hour day.”

Marcello himself realised he had that passion after he left Bath University with his sights set on a banking job alongside many of his friends.

“I was cocky and headstrong,” he admits, “but as I was going to interviews I realised this wasn’t what I wanted. I had grown up with my father’s business and I knew it and shared his ideas.”

The lure of a life with San Carlo now also includes Carlo’s other son Alessandro and renowned chef Aldo Zilli, who is Chef Consilere to the group, advising them on menus and

adding his own touch to the restaurants.

San Carlo is a key ingredient in Leeds and in business quarters around the country for two main reasons.

As well as the obvious – authentic food very well cooked and presented – there is a way of doing business that is appreciated by seasoned executives and entrepreneurs alike.

Years of experience and a complete belief in what they do; market research on every stroll around the city every day; passion for the end product; pride in what is being achieved; teamwork at every level and – enjoy it all.

That’s a recipe we can all use. Adapt where necessary, but stick to the basic ingredients.n

PROFILE PD Ports

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On the right track for the future PD Ports positions Teesport as the Northern gateway for containerised goods destined for the north of the UK. ‘We are delighted to be working with PD Ports on this innovative and dynamic offering to the Intermodal market’ Les Morris, Head of Sales at DB Schenker Rail UK

Geoff Lippitt, PD Ports’ Business Development Director PD Ports’ vision for a fully joined up freight and logistics strategy took a big leap forward in March as the government pledged to back a truly multi-modal future for the UK freight sector.

The recent Whitehall announcement regarding the establishment of Transport for the North (TfN) is a welcome commitment to the future of freight and logistics strategy across the proposed ‘Northern Powerhouse’.

It is also particularly welcome for PD Ports as it reinforces the Company’s growth strategy to enhance Teesport’s transport infrastructure network and position the Port as the northern gateway for containerised goods destined for the north of the UK. PD Ports’ recent investments to further improve freight movements include an investment of £3M in Teesport’s new intermodal rail terminal that became fully operational in November 2014. This follows on from the £16.7M container terminal expansion in 2011. Promoting a more joined up and coherent approach to road and rail freight has long been a core principle of PD Ports, focusing on intelligent transport solutions for customers via its tried and tested portcentric logistics model. In simple terms portcentric logistics means bringing goods into the country closest to their final destination.

PD Ports recently collaborated with DB Schenker Rail UK in a completely new offering for the market, believed to be the first time that a port and rail freight operator have partnered to serve the Intermodal sector. From August 2015 DB Schenker Rail UK will run a direct daily containerised traffic service (Mon to Fri) from PD Ports base in Teesport to Mossend and Grangemouth in Scotland.

Les Morris, Head of Sales at DB Schenker Rail UK, said: “We are delighted to be working with PD Ports on this innovative and dynamic offering to the Intermodal market. We have worked closely with PD Ports to bring this service to fruition which will transport goods directly from Teesport to Scotland.

This is an excellent example of how logistics companies can come together to provide bespoke solutions for our customers.”

For PD Ports this direct connection to Scotland is a major boost to the Company’s transport infrastructure network, with direct benefit to shipping lines and intermodal customers, the deal is a clear statement of intent for its continued investment in intermodal logistics, with rail a key priority. Having rail at the heart of a modern portcentric approach, not only does the ‘heavy lifting’ for distribution cross country, it also brings

measurable socio-environmental as well as economic benefits. The new rail terminal also operates services between Felixstowe and Southampton with rail freight provider, Freightliner. Opportunities for the establishment of further new routes to the Midlands and the North West are expected in line with market demand. Geoff Lippitt, PD Ports’ Business Development Director, says: “We have invested significantly in expanding the intermodal services available at the Port which enables us to provide a greater level of service options, as well as improving our portcentric capability for our customers.

“There has been a significant amount of press coverage lately centred round a better connected north including greater use of our rail network and waterways to move goods around the country. Our facility at Teesport has the potential to further attract logistics activity to sites with efficient low cost transport networks and we will continue to work hard to see this come to fruition.

“We will continue to put freight and logistics at the core of the PD Ports offering and look forward to ongoing government focus and backing for a more interconnected transport infrastructure continuing to support our vision,” concluded Mr Lippitt.

For more information call 01642 877000 email enquiries@pdports.co.uk, visit our website www.pdports.co.uk or follow us on twitter @pdports

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Reaching out to lend a hand up BQ Yorkshire editor Mike Hughes meets the loan arranger, Sam Tarff, who holds the key to a strong future for social enterprises in Yorkshire

“In 2002, the idea developed of a blended product, basically loans alongside grants”

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Across communities in Yorkshire, there is a cost attached to doing nothing.

If banks turn down an idea that could offer employment to local families and help them earn their way out of a dead-end, and that could give hope to an area that presumed it would always be ignored, then there is a price to be paid.

If no one does anything to help these projects, the families lose aspiration, the local economy loses money coming into its shops, taxes fall and the region loses any chance of communities supporting plans for its future, because they feel they are being clearly told they are not part of it.

Whole tracts of potential are ignored and we may never know what could have been achieved. But at least they can turn to Sam Tarff.

Now in his second year as CEO of Key Fund, Sam approves lending others wouldn’t. And as a social enterprise itself, its money goes back into the next project.

“When South Yorkshire was given Objective One status because of the coalfields legacy pushing its GDP below the average, the region got about £750m of European money,” Sam told me at Key Fund’s offices in Leeds Road in Sheffield.

“Key Fund started back in 2000 as a group of concerned individuals who identified this economic opportunity, but recognised there was a problem in our communities. We needed to make sure the not-for-profit was able to take advantage as well.”

The beaureaucracy and administration around such an enormous slice of funding was an obstacle – and a fear – for the smaller enterprises, and an intermediary was needed to bring David and Goliath together.

“We got money to distribute as grants to small groups and organisations, but also for capacitybuilding and job creation. We worked with the partnerships that were actually on the ground, through delegated panels and funds and gained a good reputation as a distributor of funds.

“In 2002, the idea developed from CLG Communities and Local Government - of a blended product, basically loans alongside grants. They said this would help with the economic impact of what we were doing.

“The groups we were giving money to would be able to become more entrepreneurial and develop their trading abilities. The region

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INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

was rich with those sorts of organisations that formed out of area-based regeneration.”

This determination by disenfranchised communities to climb clear of the coal legacy and make something of themselves was a key element. People were knocking on the door of Key Fund with supportable ideas for their immediate areas.

Sometimes they had nothing more than an in idea, so sometimes there was a plan to be supported and sometimes there was a plan to

“I came from a pit village next to Grimethorpe, the youngest of nine children.

My dad died when I was six, so mum was a single parent, working as a primary school teacher”

be created from scratch. But at least they now had a door to knock on.

Sam was brought up in Barnsley, and had early experience of hardship and the ways to deal with it. “I came from a pit village next to Grimethorpe, the youngest of nine children. My dad died when I was six, so mum was a single parent, working as a primary school teacher.

“So I saw a lot of deprivation and the way I was brought up was about tackling problems and helping people. Mum was pretty much a social worker at her school, so when I had hand-medowns from my brothers and had finished with them they went to kids at the school.”

It is crystal-clear that those memories still play a huge part in what he does and what his aims are for his own community to help it grow and live up to its potential.

“The combination of loan and grant we now offer imposes a different set of disciplines and behaviour and people become more focused on the bottom line, while still delivering massive social impact,” he says.

“We see it as doing work that no one else wants to do, because of the risk of unsecured lending at an early stage to groups that just don’t have a massive balance sheet. They are not cash-rich, but they are doing really good things with people that others can’t reach.”

The model was just too good to sit in one place, so it was rolled out across Yorkshire and the Humber, with grants and loans of up to £150,000 - unsecured and only to organisations that couldn’t get money anywhere else.

“We are not here to distort or compete with the mainstream market, but we will work with them if they want to do part of a package, perhaps for a mortgage. We are able to take the extra risk, and have a different description of what a viable business is, because we have a greater margin to be able to lose.

“If we get money back, we are able to keep it as long as we reinvest it and then can lend it out again, which enables us to lever in more money.

We don’t want to lose any money, but it is high risk because of the nature of the people we are lending to and where they are at.

“One reason our loss rate is still low is that we help people become investment ready, with the ultimate aim that they can be in a position to go to the banks and be investable.”

That pleases the banks, because they get new customers from an area that they had been avoiding – high risk micro-businesses. But Key

Fund’s retrieving of lost causes also appeals to the various funding streams they have access to because it addresses social blight.

There will be less disorder, fewer benefits paid and more taxes paid and the return of aspiration, which all makes communities more approachable and more likely to be seen as worthy of investment and means they won’t need as much money spent tackling their former issues.

Sam has been involved with Key Fund for more than 15 years, starting as a volunteer member of one of its grant panels when he was working for a development trust in Barnsley. Then he moved to an investment panel and then as a non-exec on the board before applying for the top job.

With a staff of 26 including seven “rehabilitated bankers” and a head of investment with 30 years’ top-flight experience, Key Fund understands the banking system – where it works and where it doesn’t – and understands social and financial investment.

But the broad spread of skills also means that when they get out and meet every business, they can look them in the eyes and see the character and determination that will make the best use of Key Fund’s money and make a difference in their own square mile, not just their own household.

Its Yorkshire and the Humber Patch is maturing as businesses succeed, develop and move to mainstream financing, but Key Fund operations in the North West, North East, East Midlands and West Midlands, basically everywhere from Watford Gap up to the borders, are its biggest areas of growth. More people need help, financing is as multi-stranded and complex as ever and changes to the achievable levels of public service provisions are opening up more opportunities for others to step in.

Sam has built an organisation that has gained respect from all sides. From the people it gives the money to, because it trusted them; from the banks because it did a job they didn’t want to do and provided an eventual revenue stream and from the people who give Sam his money in the first place, because Key Fund gets results and has made a difference.

That respect now means that bigger businesses, institutions and local authorities want to work with Sam and learn from him.

He’s a happy and fulfilled CEO because he is now helping the old school learn and develop as much as the new intake. n

PROFILE Grant Thornton

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Dealing with the Revenue

With over 25 years’ experience in tax investigation, John Norman, senior tax manager at Grant Thornton in Leeds, gives some enduring advice.

The latest Budget resurrected the previously criticised idea of allowing HMRC to raid the bank accounts of taxpayers who have not paid the tax that they should have done.

To many people, such a level of HMRC power may be surprising, but it is just the latest in a series of measures in HMRC’s ‘drive for cash’.

Perhaps the biggest recent shift we have seen is the clamp down on the use of tax planning schemes. This has included the introduction of powers allowing HMRC to force those who have used such schemes to pay up the tax at stake before it has actually been decided by the tribunal or court system whether the tax planning in question actually works or not. However, contrary to popular opinion, tax planning schemes have not just been used by the uber rich. HMRC is examining schemes used by those with much lower incomes, for example IT consultants and health care professionals. In fact HMRC has already issued payment orders to over 10,000 scheme users with a total tax value of £1.7bn, with many more expected in the next 12 months.

But this attack on tax planning schemes does not mean that HMRC has lost focus on more traditional investigation work.

PREFERENTIAL TERMS FOR VOLUNTARY DISCLOSURE In recent years, HMRC has relied heavily on specific campaigns offering preferential terms to those who step forward and voluntarily disclose irregularities in their tax affairs. For example, the recent ‘Credit Card Sales Campaign’ offered an opportunity for businesses accepting credit and debit card payments and which have not disclosed all of their income to HMRC to bring their tax affairs up to date.

Many of these campaigns are based around information already gathered by HMRC, but there has been concern that HMRC has offered the carrot

“If you have, or think that you might have, an issue with HMRC, do not bury your head in the sand. Take a proactive stance and tackle the situation” John Norman, senior tax manager

John Norman, senior tax manager at Grant Thornton to those who step forward, but not really wielded the stick to those who do not.

However, this seems to be changing. In fact, HMRC recently brought forward the closure date of its most widely used campaign, the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility (LDF), which allows those who have held undeclared funds offshore to make disclosure to HMRC in return for reduced penalties and immunity from prosecution. Since its introduction in 2009, over 5,000 cases have been concluded under the LDF with an average yield of £174,000 per case.

The LDF will close on 31 December 2015 and, although HMRC says that it will offer those who have hidden money overseas ‘one last chance’ to come forward, harsh sanctions are being proposed for those who do not. This will include significantly tougher penalties, a new simpler criminal offence to make prosecution of offshore evaders easier, and wider ‘naming and shaming’ powers to publicise details of those who do not comply.

My advice would be that if you have, or think that you might have, an issue with HMRC, do not bury your head in the sand. Take a proactive stance and tackle the situation. Not only is this likely to produce a significantly better outcome than waiting for HMRC to attack, it makes the problem much easier to control.

Enlisting specialist professional advice is also essential. With complex legislative issues involved, it is vital to check that inspectors are working within the tax legislation.

What’s more, it is not unknown for inspectors working under pressure to get their figures wrong, so a careful assessment of your situation to provide alternative figures, together with a strong case to back them up, really is the most sensible option and will deliver value.

One final word of advice – rather than waiting for the spotlight to fall on you before taking action to rectify inadequate procedures, be proactive and make sure your house is in order. Undertaking an ongoing programme to ensure that your business records are up to date and accurate will put you in the best possible position should the dreaded letter from the inspector ever arrive.

Can we help you? Call John Norman on 0113 200 1673 or john.p.norman@uk.gt.com. Please visit www.grantthornton.co.uk for more information.

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Building walls, houses and a career Mike Hughes learns about the anatomy of growing a company, from BATA Group chief exec Andrew Richardson

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

You get the sense that Andrew Richardson always had a plan for his career.

The movement between his jobs and between roles within those companies seems logical at every stage and he seems to have built up just enough experience each time to make him the perfect choice for the next role.

The ‘Richardson Route’ led to him leading an MBO of the company he was working for, which led to it being sold, which led to him being MD of the newly merged firm. All very logical.

The firms in question are animal feed producer William Thompson and agricultural supplies business Brandsby Agricultural Trading Association, better known as BATA. Andrew had joined William Thompson in 1987.

By the time the company started discussing long-term plans, there was no obvious contender to lead the company within the Thompson family. Perhaps the time had come for the entrepreneurial ‘new boy’ to take the reins. By 2007 he had bought the business in an MBO, with WPCreers and Harrowells Solicitors looking after William Thompson and Hamish Morrison of BHP and Jonathan Simms and Paul King of Clarion advising BATA. “There were other choices for the family, but I think I had showed me mettle by then,” said Andrew.

“I was talking strongly with the banks, who wanted to keep hold of the assets and let me purchase the trading arm, but my colleague John Drury and myself looked at it and knew we wanted to take it lock, stock and barrel.

“We had a ten year strategic plan which we managed to build in seven. I had brought in five independent shareholders to the business and we had made a decision to come out and look for other opportunities.

“There was an element of cashing in, but also of trying to find a way forward.

“Three or four years ago we had been talking in a strategic way with BATA – although whether they knew it or not I don’t know – and were looking to do a contract with them and get to know them a little bit.

“The CEO Steven Clarke was looking at ways to bolster his business with some new

management ideas.”

Andrew had assembled a good team of staff, a strong supply line and good customers – the three boxes to tick for a potential buyer. His aim was to retain all that and find a buyer in the same business. Also, that carefully composed career plan was by no means complete. Andrew wanted to stay on and take his experience to another level.

In July last year BATA purchased William Thompson, with Andrew heading up the group.

The brand was strong enough for the William Thompson name to continue.

“BATA knew they had bought a brand, so to devalue that or do something different with it would strategically damage it. There is no need or reason to do that.

“It was important to me to find the time to stand back and look at the ethics of what we are doing for both sides of the merger. It was also important to the customer and supply base that we focused on certain parts of the business.

“The customers are very happy because they didn’t want to see us getting drawn out by a big national.”

So now he sits in the boss’s chair looking after 200 workers, some of whom took longer to bring on board than others. There are two different cultures here, including a traditional element that would rather nothing changed.

But Andrew’s open management style means

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there have been no secrets, which has brought out the true colours of many workers. Bluntly, it becomes fairly clear in such a deal who is really up for a challenge, who is running for the exit door and who wants to keep their heads down and see out their time.

Being on top of this combination and knowing what to expect leaves a good manager free to deal with the unpredictable curve balls that will inevitably come his or her way.

“Times do change and I’m a firm believer that looking at the past is not a true reflection of how the future is going to turn out. These firms have been around for a long time and you can’t just wipe that away. But you have to project into the future and think about what’s coming.”

That approach started to be embedded when Andrew left college, where he had studied engineering and worked with metal and wood for about a year. An uncle who ran a building business offered him the chance of a change of direction, which suited Andrew’s manual skills, and so for the next four years he built houses – often ‘walling’ 1,000 bricks a day.

The skills are still keen now, and it is a very good antidote to the pressures of being a CEO to go out and build a wall. “There are some very good disciplines in the building industry - I’ve built my own home since then and am in the process of building another,” he says.

The next move was courtesy of a friend who

“There are two different cultures here, including a traditional element that would rather nothing changed”

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

had gone to work with Thompsons, and tipped Andrew off that they were looking for someone to handle their logistics. Even at that early stage, when he was 22, Andrew got the idea that the business was quite deep and that it might be the next challenge – and it was about a mile down the road from the family home.

“When I joined I was very much the young guy in the white socks and the paisley tie, but after a while I think they saw that I wanted to get on, and when I had the chance to work in the mill I told them that, actually, I was more interested in the management side. “It didn’t happen that time, but as I mastered the logistics operation I was looking at the family and thinking that perhaps they should be having more of a strategic view. “I thought that if I took some work off them they would be free to look at other aspects of the business.

I was interested in the purchasing side and after a few conversations I managed to push Mike Thompson out of that area and let him get on with other things. I always had the family’s interests at heart.” Andrew uses the phrase “it whetted my appetite” several times, which gives an interesting insight into how he has progressed. On the occasions when he hasn’t logically planned his next step, but an opportunity appears in front of him, he sits back for just a short while and listens to the details.

But his mind quickly goes beyond the initial offer to what it might lead to. He has a sharp business sense that can do that quickly and give him a clear picture of the future prospects. If he takes a job, or a project, it is because he likes the idea of what will come next.

So when Mike, as they were getting out of a cab at a London event, asked Andrew what he

wanted to do next, the answer was instinctive – I want your job. This was a big step for the family, the first time someone outside their number might become their MD, so the shuffle took a little time, but it happened and Andrew took full control and got first refusal when a sale was being considered. The future direction of the new firm will be guided by Andrew’s character, built of farming, bricks, mortar and experience – and rugby. The value of teamwork and camaraderie he has spotlighted working with young players at Pocklington, where his son plays with the senior colts, mirrors his work closely. Different levels of skill in different positions, but all needed to be worked with and developed to bring out the best.“If you brought them all into this room, you’d see me,” says Andrew.

That would indeed be formidable team. n

THE IP100 - RECOGNISING THE VALUE OF IP IN YOUR BUSINESS BQ Magazine is delighted to announce the launch of the Intellectual Property (“IP”) League Table and the IP100, compiled in association with Metis Partners, an award-winning IP solutions firm The IP League Table will profile and rank innovative companies within the UK’s private sector, highlighting those businesses which have significantly invested in their IP in the form of IP creation, IP management policies, R&D activities and IP commercialisation. The top-scoring companies will be published in the IP100, an annual ranking of companies that are considered to be the most effective at commercialising their IP assets. The ranking process involves an assessment of IP-specific data linked to the following IP asset classes: brands, software, patents, trade secrets and critical databases. A proprietary scorecard will be applied to calculate an IP score, and the IP100 team will rank companies based on the results.

The IP League Table will give companies the platform to get recognition for the value of their IP, whether using IP to: • Boost the exit valuation of a business • Improve access to new markets • Protect existing market share • Create new barriers to entry IP also has the ability to play an important role in transforming funding options available to businesses. The IP League Table will enable companies to showcase their investment in intellectual property and potentially leverage the associated value to raise finance and restructure debt.The IP League Table is open to all UK companies and is FREE TO ENTER.

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BIT OF A CHAT

Frank Tock’s examining the news behind the headlines Bahrain? That’s really cool

University draws the line

The York office of engineering firm Aqua Cooling is obviously not afraid of a challenge. Its latest contract has taken it to one of the world’s hottest countries – to install data centre cooling systems. Supplied to the Bahrain offices of a major Middle Eastern finance group, the job of Aqua’s ColdLogik Rear Door Coolers will be to keep the bank’s computer room cool despite the region’s searing desert heat. The cooling system can also use the local chiller water supply if the community’s distribution network fails in the face of summer air temperatures that can often soar above 50 degrees centigrade. Designed to revolutionise traditional data centre cooling methods, ColdLogik heat exchangers are fitted as back doors to computer cabinets that cool the heat at source before passing the air back into the data centre at the correct temperature.

Cooling Products Manager Mike West said: “It’s great to see our award-winning systems installed in such an exciting location, and an added bonus that they are capable of benefitting the local community as well as our new banking client.”

Now, if that York office could just do something about the rainstorms in the middle of August over here, they could be on to something.....

Still on a sporting theme, sports engineering experts at Sheffield Hallam University have been drafted in to help test goal line technology for League 1 in France, Serie A in Italy as well as the English Premier League. Since 2013 Sheffield Hallam experts have tested the accuracy of goal line technology installations at every English Premier League ground prior to the start of the season. They were also involved in testing the system for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

However, this season the team have expanded their operation to help with the introduction of goal line technology in France and Italy.

Staff and students from the Centre for Sports Engineering Research tested in 60 stadiums over the Summer, including in iconic stadiums like the San Siro in Milan and the Parc des Princes in Paris. Working in partnership with Labosport UK, one of the experiments includes using high speed video techniques to determine if the ball passed the plane of the goal during an event that the human eye is too slow to see.

Impressive technology, but I suspect it may still not be enough for Blades or Owls fans. If they say that ball crossed the line, no amount of shiny computer gadgetry is going to persuade them otherwise!

Have you heard the one about the skateboarding lecturer?

Finally, one of the more unusual intros I will be writing in this magazine: A lecturer from Sheffield Hallam University is taking her skateboard to Palestine to help teach children how to learn the popular hobby. Dani Abulhawa, a senior lecturer in performance, is going to see how the work of the SkatePAL charity is benefitting children and young people in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. As if that wasn’t challenging enough, Dani will also help build skate parks in the war-torn country during her trip.

Dani, who is a skateboarder herself and half Palestinian, is travelling as part of SkatePAL’s fourth visit and will be researching how the children use skateboarding to explore the urban environment and make friends.

“Skateboarding is such a positive activity - it’s

Skateboarders Dani Abulhawa and Doug Mascarenhas-Keyes

non-competitive, creative and exploratory.

I know, for me, gliding along can also have a meditative effect, letting me forget, at least for a while, my problems and worries,” she explains very eloquently. Last week Dani organised a fundraiser and Skate Palestine documentary screening with the help of fellow SkatePAL volunteer Doug Mascarenhas-Keyes.

Tony Miller at the XBlades store in Doncaster

When Harry met Rugby Having a Royal use your product is always good for sales – and one Yorkshire based sports brand is celebrating its best year to date after Prince Harry tried some of its rugby boots on for size. XBlades was originally established in Australia in 1989 and only came to the UK three years ago. It already works with some of the biggest names in Rugby including Jonny May, Richard Hibbard, and Gavin Henson and when Harry used their boots during a documentary the brand received a significant boost. Based in Doncaster, the company is headed up by a team of rugby professionals including retired England International and World Cup Winner Jason Robinson OBE, and has doubled turnover every year. The XBlades team has created a partnership with international brand Superdry to produce a rugby fashion range and is working with other big sports clubs including Castleford Tigers, Leeds Rhinos and Cronulla Sharks. Shane Miller, managing director of XBlades, former Doncaster Rugby Club owner and one part of a trio of directors including renowned rugby professional Tony Miller, said: “It’s a very exciting time for XBlades as we take on the longer established brands over here in the UK and teaming up with Superdry who are leaders in fashion linked with our expertise in performance apparel creates a dream partnership!”

Together with business

The Forge is the place to come for innovative businesses with big ideas and ambitions.

01642 384068 theforge@tees.ac.uk tees.ac.uk/theforge

EVENTS

BQ’s business diary helps you forward plan

OCTOBER

30 12am-2pm. York construction lunch at Hazlewood Castle,

1 9.30-11am. Connections Count at The Rapid Solicitors

Paradise Lane, Hazlewood, Tadcaster, LS24 9NJ. Contact

Stadium, Belle Vue, Doncaster Road, Wakefield, WF1 5EY.

01904 567838

Contact 01924 311600

2 12-2pm. Business lunch with York MPs at The Grand Hotel

& Spa, Station Rise, York, YO1 6GD. 01904 567 838

6 9.30am -12.30pm. Incoterms course at John Smith’s

Stadium, Huddersfield, HD1 6PG. 01484 483 660

6 5-7pm. Leeds property forum at Irwin Mitchell, 2

Wellington Place, Leeds, LS1 4BZ. Contact 08455 240 240

12-16 Various times and venues. Leeds Business Week.

Contact 0113 331 4873

15 All day. Heathrow Business Summit North at Aql, 11-15

Hunslet Road, Leeds, LS10 1JQ. Contact 0113 247 0000

16 7.45-9.30am. YM Women’s Breakfast. At The Leeds Club, 3

Albion Place, Leeds, LS16JL. Contact Yorkshire Mafia on

0113 331 4873

16 8-10am. Local business forum on Calderdale at Elsie

Whiteley Innovation Centre, Hopwood Lane, Halifax,

HX1 5ER. Contact 01422 399422

19 5.30-7pm. Business start-up workshop at Sheards

Accountants, Vernon House, New North Road, Huddersfield,

HD1 5LS. Contact 01484 541 155

21 9.30am - 4.30pm. Public speaking bootcamp at The John

Smith’s Stadium, Stadium Way, Huddersfield, HD1 6PG.

Contact 01484 483660

22 9am-6pm. MADE The Entrepreneur Festival: Sheffield.

City Hall, Sheffield. Contact 0191 389 8502.

NOVEMBER

3 9am-4pm. British Chambers of Commerce International

Trade Conference at Grand Connaught Rooms, London,

WC2B 5DA. Contact 020 7654 5800

10 8-9.30am. Marketing on a Shoestring at Doncaster

Racecourse, Leger Way, Doncaster, DN2 6BB. Contact

01302 640 132

11-12 9.30am-4pm. Launch of York Resilience Programme for

critical occupations at Heslington East Campus, University of

York, York, YO10 5GE. Contact 01904 435213

11 9.15am-3.30pm. SEO strategy workshop at Arkom Creative

Technology, Aizelwoods Mill, Sheffield, S3 8GG. Contact

0844 375 0742

15 11.30am-3pm. Sheffield Together 5k/10k at Ecclesall

Woods, Limb Ln, Sheffield S17 3ES. Contact 0114 201 8888

20 Evening. Bradford annual chamber dinner at Cedar Court

Hotel, Mayo Avenue, Rooley Lane, Bradford, BD5 8HW.

Contact 08455 240 240

24 5.30pm-8pm. Buy Doncaster business club, venue TBC.

Contact 01302 640132

DECEMBER

1 York Property Forum at Royal York, Station Road, York,

www.madefestival.com

22 10.45am-9pm. West and North Yorkshire Chamber Golf

1 7.30am-9am. City region business breakfast at Tankersley

Day at York Golf Club, Lords Moor Lane, Strensall, York,

YO32 5XF. Contact 01904 567838

YO24 1AA. Contact 01904 567838 Manor Hotel, Church Lane, Tankersley, Barnsley S75 3DQ.

BQ’s business events diary gives you lots of time to forward plan.

If you wish to add your event to the list send it to mikehughes@bqlive.co.uk and please put ‘BQ events page’ in the subject heading Please check with contacts beforehand that arrangements have not changed. Events organisers are also asked to notify us at the above email address of any changes or cancellations as soon as they are known.

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

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BOWCLIFFE

Terms and conditions apply and offer subject to availability. Offer cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer or promotion. Offer includes 1 x ESPA gift per guest worth £28, subject to availability on arrival at the spa. 60 minutes of spa treatments includes 10 minutes for client care and consultation. Offer valid Monday – Friday. Offer is excluded during half term dates. For full terms and conditions visit QHotels.co.uk/Autumnglow.