BQ Yorkshire Issue 09

www.bq-yorkshire.co.uk

ISSUE NINE: SUMMER 2011

after-sales and HP Computer giant’s service contracts are big earners turning the tide Scarborough Spa opens up a whole new outlook market conditions The stalls that gave us Marks & Spencer are facing

an uncertain future – is it upmarket food or curtains?

ballet’s big steps Claire O’Connor is serious about dancers having fun

hotel lobbyist Lone business traveller Carolyn Pearson put her experience to bed and developed maiden-voyage.com

BUSINESS NEWS: COMMERCE: FASHION: INTERVIEWS: MOTORS: EVENTS

YORKSHIRE EDITION

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Our clients state our case: “We have a great deal of confidence in Gordons.

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WELCOME

BUSINESS QUARTER: SUMMER 11: ISSUE NINE Two venerable old buildings make their appearances in our pages in this issue. The two could hardly be more different, or have more different futures ahead.

On the one hand there is the Scarborough Spa, reopening this spring after a £6.5m facelift. But in case you think a story about a grand old resort spa on the east coast of Yorkshire sounds familiar, you would be right: the Spa at Bridlington had the same treatment, for a much higher cost of £20.5m, just three years ago.

Can the two exist together? We aim to find out.

On the other hand there is Leeds Kirkgate Market. Its Europe’s biggest covered market, and, as everyone probably knows, the place where Marks & Spencer started out. Earlier this year the council was once again asking customers about how they feel the market could be improved. From our research it seems the stallholders themselves might have a lot to say on the matter too, especially now the Eastgate project right next to the market is once again going forward.

Just to show how far our geographical reach can stretch, this month while we are in Scarborough we are also right at the other end of North Yorkshire in Skipton. We’re finding out from Chris Brooks why his firm, Integrated Results, has become the darling of HewlettPackard, the world’s largest computer manufacturer. It’s all to do with how he has helped them sell add-on services.

Other entrepreneurs this month include Peter Brook, who runs two very successful car-related businesses out of sleepy Knaresborough – one a luxury car dealer, the other a car finance company. He believes success in business is all down to good relationships.

Some people in the national press have been claiming that ballet is dead. If it is, Claire O’Connor, owner of the Babyballet franchise, has yet to realise it. Her company has just

signed up its 30th franchisee. She tells us why she believes pressing budding ballet stars less hard can actually achieve better results in the end. And she speaks from personal experience.

It was a personal and very lonely experience that Carolyn Pearson had in Los Angeles that persuaded her to come home, ditch her job at ITV Yorkshire and launch a website for women business travellers. She tells us where she is taking the site now.

Then for those of you with more need for news, we also take a look at the latest developments in the emergence of local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) as a focus for growth. We find that Barry Dodd, head of the LEP for the northern part of our region, has very strong ideas about where they could go.

And we meet up with Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, to find out how he sees his organisation going in a post-Yorkshire Forward world. Just to keep things tidy, we do the interview in another venerable Yorkshire building – Bettys in Harrogate.

CONTACTS ROOM501 LTD Christopher March Managing Director e: chris@room501.co.uk George Cheung Director e: george@room501.co.uk Euan Underwood Director e: euan@room501.co.uk Bryan Hoare Director e: bryan@room501.co.uk Mark Anderson Director e: mark@room501.co.uk EDITORIAL Peter Baber Editor e: peterb@room501.co.uk Alastair Gilmour e: communicate@pressboxmedia.co.uk DESIGN & PRODUCTION room501 e: studio@room501.co.uk PHOTOGRAPHY KG Photography e: info@kgphotography.co.uk

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YORKSHIRE EDITION

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BQ Magazine is published quarterly by room501 Ltd.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

CONTE BUSINESS QUARTER: SUMMER 11

A FUTURE WITH LEP

Features

42 AFTER-SALES SUCCESS Warranties and service contracts are big business, according to Chris Brooks

18 ENTREPRENEUR Carolyn Pearson tells how a lonely hotel stay sparked off the idea for a business

30 RELATIONSHIPS They’re what do the work and get results says Peter Brook

36 FROM RDA TO LEP Will it be a case of: “You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone”?

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

68 SCARBOROUGH’S FAIR

36 BABY STEPS

Has the new Spa given the old place a much-needed new lease of life?

72 BABY BALLET STEPS Claire O’Connor is really serious about youngsters having fun dancing

76 MARKET CONDITION Kirkgate Market is a shadow of its former self, but friends can see the light

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72

TENTS YORKSHIRE EDITION

BUSINESS LUNCH

26 COMMERCIAL PROPERTY The landmark developments creating our industrial landscape

Regulars

46 BUSINESS LUNCH Gary Verity takes tea at Bettys, a reminder of a real Yorkshire welcome

52 WINE

46

Match of the day

54 FASHION

EQUIPMENT

Gentlemen prefer... a Zilli shirt

06 ON THE RECORD Doing the positives in business

60 MOTORS Jaguar and the amazing XKR convertible

08 NEWS Who’s doing what, when, where and why, here in Yorkshire

24 AS I SEE IT Sam Hoste’s new way of thinking

62 EQUIPMENT The watches that will become icons

80 FRANK TOCK Gripping gossip from our backroom boy

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62 BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

ON THE RECORD

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Teenagers prove you can win things with kids, the bus arrives after 40 years, enterprise zones are chosen, international business convention announces new move, two become one, and a £197m takeover >> Greenhead team top A team from Greenhead College in Huddersfield has become the first winners of the Umph! Awards, a day-long competition involving entrepreneurial computer game Sim Venture which is aimed at encouraging entrepreneurialism among students.

Teams from across the Leeds city region battled it out in the event at the Galpharm Stadium in Huddersfield which was sponsored

by Grant Thornton. The winning team was made up of 16-year-old Liam Grogan plus Danielle Hughes, Luke Robertshaw and Pashupati Rai, who are all 17.

All who took part were inspired by a talk during the day by Dean Hoyle, the Huddersfield Town FC chairman who sold his Card Factory business for around £350m last year and beat the Beckhams and Ringo Starr in the Sunday Times Rich List. He told the students how he left school with few formal qualifications and started off as an apprentice.

“You have to have desire, desire and determination,” he said. “It’s not the easy option. You need to put in the hours and the effort, there’s lots of heartache and a lot of tears. I had the urge to be my own boss, be in charge of my own destiny. I didn’t want to work for 40 years and get a gold watch at the end of it. There’s more to life than that.”

>> Scarborough and Aire Valley win through Scarborough and the Aire Valley in Leeds look set to benefit most from the Government’s enterprise zone programme after two of the region’s three local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) chose them as sites to take forward.

The Leeds City Region LEP chose the Aire Valley after considering a shortlist of four areas that also included Bradford city centre, Selby, and Wakefield and the M62 corridor.

The day before, the York and North Yorkshire LEP announced that Scarborough Business Park would be the location it would be taking

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

>> Optare opts for Sherburn

Optare’s chief executive Jim Sumner, left, shaking hands with DTZ’s Paul Mack outside the new facility Bus manufactuer Optare is to build a new factory in Sherburn in Elmet in North Yorkshire – the first new bus assembly plant to be built in the UK for nearly four decades.

The firm, which following a merger is still headquartered in Blackburn, despite having its largest current factory in Leeds and another smaller unit in Rotherham, wants to consolidate onto one site to boost efficiency.

It has taken out a 17-year lease on an 140,000 sq ft site at the Sherburn Distribution Park in a deal negotiated by DTZ. The factory should be open by the end of this year.

forward. The 175ha site won out over York Central, Heslington East, and the Selby bypass.

The Leeds LEP said Aire Valley was chosen after a detailed economic analysis was carried out over all four sites to determine which could generate the most economic benefits for the city region as a whole. The study claims Aire Valley could deliver £550m of additional economic output and could create 9,500 jobs by 2025 – all of which would be accessible to 630,000 households in the city region.

However, Leeds LEP chairman Neil McLean said the other three sites would not be overlooked.

“Bradford city centre is a clear regeneration priority for the city region and has the LEP’s full support,” he said. “Next steps include examining which funds and financial

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mechanisms can best support the delivery of major investments that Bradford needs.”

Neil McLean revealed the LEP was also supporting the bid that Selby was submitting to win money from round two of the Government’s Regional Growth Fund.

“And we have made a commitment to work with Wakefield to broaden the district’s employment base,” he said.

York and North Yorkshire chairman Barry Dodd said the Scarborough site “pushed all the right buttons”. It is already home to more than 100 businesses, including McCain Foods, bus manufacturer Plaxton and printing company Pindar.

In recent years, Scarborough Borough Council and Caddick Developments have jointly

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invested £50m to extend the site by a further 50ha.

The Sheffield City Region LEP, meanwhile, has drawn up a list of seven potential sites, including the Robin Hood Airport Business Park, which was recently given a boost by the proposed Robin Hood link road winning funding in the first round of central Government’s Regional Growth Fund.

However, Sheffield LEP chairman James Newman said the board would not be making public recommendations on which of the seven would be best, nor would it necessarily be defining just where the borders of the sites should be.

“We want to be innovative,” he said, “particularly on the basis that you don’t sell the last corner.”

The two successful sites will now be submitted to the Government for possible inclusion as one of ten enterprise zones that have yet to be decided. Four “vanguard” zones have already been selected in Liverpool, Manchester, Nottingham, and Docklands in London.

Following a second round of bidding, the Government hopes that in the end there will be 21 enterprise zones around the country, each benefiting from simplified planning rules, tax breaks and superfast broadband in a bid to encourage business growth.

When the coalition’s enterprise zone programme was first unveiled, there was criticism those in the past had not proved as successful at generating employment and economic growth as had first been maintained. However, Gary Lumby from Yorkshire Bank, who sits on the Leeds LEP board, said the new enterprise zones would be areas best suited for economic growth, rather than areas most in need of regeneration, as they were in the past.

>> YIBC seeks new venue The organiser of the Yorkshire International Business Convention has confirmed that he will be moving the venue away from the Harrogate International Centre next year after admitting that this year’s keynote speaker, Tim Berners-Lee, failed to produce what

ON THE RECORD

he called the “wow” factor. Mike Firth said the separate eastern part of what is one of Yorkshire’s biggest business conventions would remain at the Spa Bridlington, where it has now been for three years.

But he said he is currently in discussions about moving the Harrogate element to a new venue, although he would not reveal where this is.

This year for the first time the audience at Bridlington exceeded the audience in Harrogate – at 590 compared with 560.

But the overall figure is a considerable drop from the 1500-plus people who came to hear Bill Clinton speak at the event in 2001, only months after he had stepped down from being US president.

“I think we did a great job in difficult times,” said Firth. “Our corporate sales were not what we had in previous years.”

He insisted that Berners-Lee, who is widely considered to be the man who invented the world wide web, is a genius and that his speech was interesting – although he admitted it was one you had to “concentrate on” to understand.

“He really had the foresight to come up with all of the web and more importantly to make sure it was free to use,” he said.

Firth was more impressed with England cricket captain Andrew Strauss and TV adventurer Monty Halls.

“They both did a great job,” he said.

>> GT becomes one in Yorkshire Grant Thornton is merging its Leeds and Sheffield offices to become one operation based in Leeds.

The move will ensure the accountancy firm’s practice in Yorkshire remains the largest outside the Big Four, with more than 300 staff and a £27m turnover.

Jonathan Riley, managing partner of Grant Thornton’s Leeds office, will become senior practice partner of the Yorkshire-wide offering. Garry Meakin, current managing partner at Grant Thornton’s Sheffield office, will take on the managing partner role of the merged practice.

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>> JLS takes over King Sturge Jones Lang LaSalle has taken over rival property agency King Sturge in a deal that could in the end be worth £197m to King Sturge’s existing partners.

The deal will see all 43 of King Sturge’s offices in Europe – including 24 in the UK – become part of the Jones Lang LaSalle network.

Jones Lang LaSalle has already paid out £98m in cash as part of the deal with the remainder being paid out, also in cash, over five years.

Colin Fell, partner in charge at King Sturge in Leeds, said: “The combined business has substantially increased its strength and potency not only in Leeds, but in Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Manchester, while Jones Lang LaSalle gains new offices in Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Exeter, Liverpool, Newcastle upon Tyne, Nottingham, Southampton and Plymouth.”

Jeff Pearey, head of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Leeds office, said: “This merger is very exciting and positive news for our clients and our business in Leeds. Bringing our two firms together is a highly complementary strategic and cultural fit.”

>> Output pace slackens Fears of a double dip recession have been heightened by a survey suggesting output in the Yorkshire and Humber region in May increased at the slowest pace for nearly two years.

The Lloyds TSB Purchasing Manager’s Index (PMI) also suggested that new business growth in the same month was at a five-month low.

Martyn Kendrick, area director for Lloyds TSB Commercial in Yorkshire, said: “Yorkshire and Humber’s regional economy continued to grow in May, but the rate of expansion was much slower than that registered at the beginning of the year. The manufacturing sector also failed to sustain the performance seen in earlier months.

“Subdued output growth resulted in only a modest rise in employment, with the rate of private sector job creation the weakest since last August.”

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NEWS

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A brewing firm finds grant no small beer, companies missing out on sustainables, more visitors for York, Harrogate’s next arrival, a celebrity chef cooks in his roots, and an eye firm sees clear growth >> Terry’s designer in top post

Joy Irving of Walker Morris, Richard Feltham of Garbutt and Elliott, Finance Yorkshire Investment Director Ash Chopra and Microdat’s Stephen Midgley

>> Microdat gets £500k Brewery equipment manufacturer Microdat has received a £500,000 equity linked investment from Finance Yorkshire to help it fulfil a string of new orders.

The Leeds-based company is the second company to win such an investment from the £90m seedcorn and loan fund backed by Yorkshire Forward and the European Union.

The company makes cask and keg handling systems and also provides spares, ongoing service and maintenance to a wide range of customers ranging from to larger industry players such as Inbev to the likes of Timothy Taylor.

Microdat founder and managing director Stephen Midgley said the company saw its turnover dip in 2009 from £3.6m to £1.7m, purely because a lack of working capital meant it had to defer orders to 2010, when it actually made £4.2m.

“2010 could have been even better had we had the financial resources now provided by Finance Yorkshire,” he said.

The investment will also let the business recruit new staff and develop existing products for new and related sectors. Microdat will seek to expand its knowledge base and product set into Europe and the US. Finance Yorkshire investment director Ash Chopra said: “Microdat’s case highlights the funding issues impacting SMEs in the region, namely the lack of incremental finance. However, the business has an excellent order book, a recently developed product range, and a fantastic market reputation.”

Garbutt and Elliott advised Microdat on the deal, with legal advice coming from Irwin Mitchell and Walker Morris.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

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Leeds planning and urban design consultancy Turley Associates has promoted Matt Quayle to head of urban design.

Quayle is an award-winning designer who joined Turley Associates in February 2007.

He leads a team of 25 qualified urban designers and masterplanners across 10 offices.

Quayle has won awards from the Civic Trust, Building for Life, the Royal Town Planning Institute and the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister.

More recently, he has led the production of the masterplan and design code for the £150m redevelopment of the former Terry’s chocolate factory in York.

He said: “Urban design and masterplanning continues to playing an increasingly important role in delivering high quality and sustainable development in a landscape of challenging market conditions and evolving planning policy.

“Integrating urban design and planning can facilitate development opportunities and add significant value to projects through the creation of a genuine sense of place along with the key attributes of sustainability.”

>> Missing out on greening Small firms in Yorkshire and Humber that have yet to grasp the business opportunities created by the environmental sustainability agenda are missing out on a potential £5.7bn of economic growth in the next three years, a survey suggests.

Lloyds TSB Commercial surveyed 125 Yorkshire and Humber businesses with a turnover of less than £15m and discovered that 91% of them have taken some steps towards becoming more environmentally sustainable.

Almost a third (30%) have already seen their business grow by an average of

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13.25% over a three-year period, solely as a result of these initiatives.

But the research also indicates that the 9% of respondents who haven’t embraced the sustainability agenda could have contributed £5.7bn of economic growth had they taken steps to become more environmentally responsible.

John Robson, regional director for Lloyds TSB Commercial in Midlands and North, said: “It’s no secret that smaller, private sector firms will be one of the main drivers of the economic recovery this year.

However, many Yorkshire and Humber businesses may not have realised the wealth of opportunities open to them by becoming a more sustainable business.

“As well as reducing overheads and operating costs, becoming more sustainable will give many firms in Yorkshire and Humber a competitive edge, enable them to pitch for contracts with strict environmental criteria and enhance their reputation. It may also mean they can target new markets and consumers, or develop new products and services.”

The most popular steps taken by those who had looked at sustainability were a review of energy usage, a review of company policy to make it more sustainable, and offering employee training in sustainability.

>> Muddybums gets to business An outdoor fanatic who turned to cycling after injury ended his hill-walking days has launched a digital firm which promotes North Yorkshire to the nation’s mountain biking enthusiasts.

Tony Harker began working on his website not long after he started having knee problems in his thirties. But since being contracted to write a guide to mountain bike trails in the county which was published in 2009, he has now revamped his website muddybums.org.uk as a fully-fledged business which now also sells biking accessories and clothing to the world.

He also hopes to add a Muddybums app where users can take pictures while out on a

route and upload them direct to the website with comments. He may also add routes for other areas.

Muddybums is a subsidiary of performance and casual wear retailer Fanatic Sport and Leisure which Harker runs with help from his wife and daughters in Billingham.

>> Still time to enter Yorkshire businesses with a track record for innovation or sustainability are being encouraged to enter two awards at the North of England Excellence Awards 2011.

NEWS

The innovation award and the Urenco sustainability award are open to businesses of all types in the manufacturing and service sectors.

The top three entries of the innovation award will each win a day’s consulting from Brooklands Consulting Group, while the top two entries in sustainability will win a day’s consulting from C-Tech Innovation. Each prize is worth over £1,000.

Innovation and sustainability are among six special awards introduced this year; others include customer service, >>

First visitor of the day, Nora Stead from Sowerby Bridge, Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of Visit York, and Barbara Kopytek, waitress at Bettys Café Tea Rooms

>> Visitor centre sets new record Visit York’s new information centre in Museum Street is celebrating after visitor numbers in its first year rose by a record 60%.

Some 240,000 people have used the centre over the last year from as far afield as China and Costa Rica.

Gillian Cruddas, chief executive of Visit York, said: “Our aim is to make this centre a flagship for Yorkshire and the very best information service in the country. We set ourselves an ambitious target to increase visits to the centre by 40% and we’ve actually increased visitor numbers by 60%, so we’re delighted.”

Sandra Bahndorf, visitor centre manager, said: “By providing better information on what there is to see and do in York and the wider region, we are encouraging our visitors to stay longer and spend more, boosting our regional economy.”

The success comes as Visit York launches My York, an online and social media marketing campaign aimed at getting visitors to say what they like about the city, and to recommend to other visitors where to go.

The city has also been named the UK’s favourite small city in a poll run by travel guides company the Rough Guide.

History, stunning architecture, friendly people and the general feel of the city were listed as the things the British public liked the most about York.

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BUSINESS QUARTER |SUMMER 11

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leadership and learning and development.

The deadline for all of them is Friday July 29.

The awards, now in their 18th year, are organised by North of England Excellence and supported by the British Quality Foundation and Chartered Quality Institute. For further details and applications, contact Suzanne House on 01925 715242 or visit www.northofenglandexcellence.co.uk

>> App for employment

>> JCT600 shows off Mini More than 100 people came to the reopening of car dealership JCT600 Bradford Mini dealership to watch stunt driver Russ Swift put the Mini through its paces – with four customers as passengers.

The revamped dealership also now features a Mini suspended 30ft up on the outside wall.

Representing a £700,000 investment, the revamped new showroom is now double its size and boasts a black décor with orange and lime green accent walls and furniture, synonymous with the Mini brand.

Penny Darragh, Dickinson Dees

positioned at departure gates and as passengers are entering the aircraft.

The metal and plastic units have been created in the BMI corporate colours and are capable of holding a total volume of 300 newspapers.

Bartuf managing director Steve Davenport said: “Our units are now in Heathrow and Manchester airports, with further roll-outs scheduled to take place over the coming months.”

>> New link for Harrogate

>> Bartuf for BMI Retail display manufacturer Bartuf Systems has won a contract to design a newspaper display system for BMI passengers.

Bartuf was awarded the contract through Dawson Media Direct (DMD), which specialises in supplying newspapers and magazines to airlines.

As part of the brief, Bartuf has designed, built and delivered a four-bin, spring-loaded newspaper display unit on castors to be

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

Businesses in Harrogate have welcomed the introduction of a new daily direct rail service between the town and London Kings Cross.

The new direct link, which started in May, is the first new rail service to come to the North Yorkshire town for over 25 years.

Harrogate Chamber of Commerce chief executive Brian Dunsby said he was particularly pleased to see the once-a-day link continue over the weekend.

This would encourage more people to spend a long weekend in the town and would be good for people arriving early for a conference, he said.

However the Chamber is campaigning to have the service increased to two services a day by 2013 and seven services a day by 2016.

Chamber president Simon Cotton said that while there are now frequent fast services

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Dickinson Dees has launched a specialist employment law iPhone app.

The app, named HR Alert, is aimed at informing human resources professionals about the latest developments in employment law affecting their companies.

Free to download from iTunes, the main features of the app include a news section with cases of interest and changes in the law, and a tool which calculates maternity, paternity and adoption leave dates.

Penny Darragh, solicitor in the employment team at Dickinson Dees’ York office, said: “We understand that the way in which people want to access information is changing. It is important to us to react to these changes.” from Kings Cross to Leeds and York, connections to Harrogate were often poor quality and ill-timed.

“Changing trains is seen as risky, inconvenient, and time consuming, while the rolling stock falls significantly below most customer expectations,” he said. “There are about two million passenger journeys a year to and from the Harrogate district stations, confirming the local propensity for rail travel.”

>> Evoco looks for partners Turbine technology company Evoco Energy has opened a renewable centre of excellence in Brighouse and is offering space to local companies looking to grow their business in the renewables sector.

The hub at St Peg’s Mill is designed to inform all those interested in renewable technologies about the different options available.

Disbributor Zenex Solar has already set up shop at the 70,000sq ft mill conversion.

It will bring more than 300 solar products to the renewables hub.

Solar installer Ploughcroft Solar is also on site, as is Q-Gen Heatpumps, a Microgeneration Certification Schemeaccredited ground and air source heat pump provider. But there are >>

eastcoast.co.uk

Good things taste even better when they’re on the house Complimentary meal available in First Class on journeys over 70 minutes

NEWS

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units still available, and Evoco is keen to hear from any clean-tech players who might be interested, as it looks to create a one-stop-shop for renewables innovation and education.

St Peg’s Mill will also be hosting a series of conferences with guest speakers invited to discuss the wide range of issues and trends shaping developments in the energy industry. The first such event, a Renewables Evening with Andrew Miller MP, chairman of the Science and Technology select committee, was held in June 2010 and attracted a diverse cross-section of visitors drawn from across the various renewables communities.

The next event planned is a technical solar training day.

Ryan Gill, managing director, Evoco Energy, said: “Combining our experience, knowledge and passion for renewable energy and clean tech, with that of other renewable pioneers not only supports our ongoing campaign to raise awareness of alternative energy solutions both locally and nationally, but strengthens the overall competitiveness of the renewables and clean tech industry.”

The centre also strives to be an environmentally friendly site. Evoco has planted a rain irrigated vertical green wall which acts as a habitat for biodiversity and improves insulation.

Martin told BQ that he had already been impressed by the popularity of the Clarence Dock development.

“The footfall going past here has been amazing,” he said.

He had also been carrying out extensive market research with other newly opened establishments in the city – in particular Jamie Oliver’s Italian – to make sure the menu was competitively priced. Main courses range from £11.50 to £17.50, while an extensive menu of desserts – something Martin is famous for – are all priced at £5.75.

Left to right: Awards presenter Damian Johnson from the BBC, Vickly Godliman, Chris Pennington, and Chris Sharp from Sharp Consultancy

>> James Martin returns TV chef James Martin has returned to his home roots by opening a new restaurant in Leeds, his first new restaurant opening in the UK for more than a decade.

Martin, who made his name by appearing on BBC cookery programmes, including Saturday Kitchen, has personally supervised the décor and menu of The Leeds Kitchen, an extension of the Alea Casino in Clarence Dock.

He enthused diners at one of the restaurant’s opening nights in April by promising to be running the kitchen personally every night for at least a month after opening.

“The only commitment I have down south is on Saturday morning on the TV,” he said.

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

Given the restaurant’s location next to the casino, bar snacks are also available at £6.50.

The restaurant is currently only accessible through the casino, which means children are not permitted, but Martin said they were looking at ways to open up another entrance.

Michael Silberling, chief executive of London Clubs International which owns the Alea, said: “The reaction to James’ restaurant opening has been huge, and our phones are ringing non-stop with bookings and enquiries.”

>> SSP man wins Chris Pennington, financial controller at insurance software house SSP, was this year’s overall winner at the Yorkshire Rising Star Awards.

The event – now in its second year – held at De Vere Oulton Hall, seeks to celebrate the achievements of many of the region’s young finance professionals.

Other winners included Catherine Barraclough at Morrison’s, Lisa Cork of Crawford Ltd and Andrew Copley of Airedale NHS Foundation Trust.

Pennington, who was presented with the award by last year’s winner Vicky Godliman, said: “Our key to success has been an appetite to embrace change and as a team we are ready for growth. I aim to lead by example and show that we can all do things that we thought we couldn’t.”

The event is sponsored by Barclays Corporate, Grant Thornton, Cobbetts and Sharp Consultancy. >>

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Reap the benefits of First Class travel with the unbeatable new complimentary East Coast menu

What do business passengers travelling from Yorkshire appreciate the most?

Speed, frequency and value—all of which our new First Class service now offers The new East Coast First Class offer, part of our dramatic new timetable, is just the ticket.

We’re shaving time off many of our journeys and introducing more services. These include 11 extra non-stop trains between York and London; a new morning express train that speeds from Leeds to London in under two hours, arriving into London King’s Cross at 08.59; and a new direct weekday return service between Harrogate and London.

Business travellers now have bags more choice, with

two trains running every hour between York and London, and a train every half hour between Leeds and London, on weekdays.

Passengers from Doncaster also benefit as there are now 107 trains every weekday between Doncaster and London King’s Cross with an average journey time of around 1 hour 40 minutes. This means it’s as quick to travel from Sheffield via Doncaster to London as it is to travel from Sheffield to London St Pancras direct.

Even better, we’ve greatly improved the value of our First

Class ticket. Now passengers can look forward to a delicious complimentary meal, served atseat on real crockery with real cutlery, and hot and cold drinks.

Depending on the time of day, passengers can enjoy a Great British Breakfast early in the morning; a hot bacon sandwich (or granola and yoghurt for the health conscious) before 11am; and during the day, dishes such as risotto, quiche or crayfish salad. In the evening peak, on selected services from London, an evening meal, complete

with dessert or cheese and biscuits will be served. Imagine relaxing with a succulent beef carbonnade and a nice glass of red after a busy day of meetings!

In fact, the benefits are so great for business travellers— with new complimentary food and drink, hours of uninterrupted work time, extra leg room, free newspapers and Wi-Fi, and all for the same price as before—that we believe the difference between a First Class ticket and a Standard ticket can be pretty much negligible.

Budget-conscious prices We’re aware that organisations need to keep costs and expenses down but still need to travel for business. So, even though we’re now offering First Class passengers so much more, we’ve kept our prices the same. For example, by booking ahead with us online, you can travel one way between Leeds or York and London for

as little as £39.50 on an East Coast First Advance ticket. As this price includes complimentary food and drink, we believe that it definitely pays to travel First Class.

Complimentary meals available on journeys over 70 minutes.

With these improvements, there really is no better time to give East Coast a try—we are convinced you will be won over. And we can’t wait to welcome you on board!

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>> £1.5M wins for Digital Plus Large format printers Digital Plus has won more than £1.5m worth of new contracts over the last year.

The Leeds firm’s new orders have come from a diverse range of customers who include Ripon Cathedral, Meadowhall, The Yorkshire Sculpture Park, the new Hepworth Gallery, and UK General Insurance.

The company specialises in complex displays and has a particular focus on printing on a grand scale, on imaginative new surfaces – from furniture to giant display graphics – and in locations as diverse as schools, colleges, museums and in-house gyms.

>> Graduates in line for less in region Graduates in Yorkshire should expect a starting salary of between £15,000 and £18,000 this year, a survey suggests.

The Graduate Employer Survey 2011 has revealed that more than three-quarters of employers in Yorkshire pitch starting salaries for university leavers at this level, compared with a UK average of £25,000 – which includes London.

The inaugural survey of national employers, carried out by Graduates Yorkshire and West Midlands-based Graduate Advantage, set out to establish realistic salary benchmarks and industry trends in the regional graduate recruitment market.

Previous research had focused on graduate recruitment in London which the organisations felt failed to reflect the market outside of the capital.

Martin Edmondson, chief executive of Graduates Yorkshire, said he was not surprised by the disparity.

“The survey focused on SMEs across a number of different industries in the regions, and explored businesses’ perceptions of graduates and graduate opportunities outside London, where the job market, cost of living and overall quality of life differs quite significantly,” he said.

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The survey found that more than 80% of the Yorkshire employers polled have recruited a graduate over the last 12 months, with two-thirds of them being offered permanent positions and a quarter paid internships.

A similar number are expecting to recruit a graduate over the next 12 months in permanent roles and both paid and unpaid internships. Elsewhere in the survey, only 1.5% believe a graduate’s degree result is the most important factor when recruiting at graduate level. Instead, three-quarters believe that a positive attitude and employability skills are the most important attributes.

>> Law firm with a silver conscience Irwin Mitchell has achieved a silver rating in a national social responsibility league table only three years after it joined the scheme.

Assessors for Business in the Community’s Top 100 Corporate Responsibility Index raised the law firm’s rating up from bronze – placing it alongside the likes of Marks &

Spencer, Tesco, Barclays and Centrica in the standings and making it one of only a handful of UK law firms to appear on the list at all.

Group chief executive John Pickering said: “As a firm we have always recognised the importance of embracing and making a positive impact on all of the communities we serve across the UK. However, the hard work is unlikely to stop here, as we are of course keen to make even further leaps forward over the coming year.

>> Skopes sees benefits in stock investment Leeds based tailoring specialist Skopes has seen sales increase by 33% in the first quarter of 2011 after investing an extra £1.2m in stock.

The Leeds company has also seen its corporate wear division – one of three within the company, along with retail and wholesale – perform particularly well, with an increase in sales of 30% against an exceptionally high figure in the same period in 2010.

The company says the success shows

Shaun Harratt at the site

>> New home for Harratts Family-run motor dealer Harratts has won planning permission to build a new £3m showroom and headquarters in Wakefield that could create an extra 25 jobs.

The company, which operates 14 dealerships across Yorkshire and is the second-largest Volvo dealer in the UK, plans to build a two-storey, purpose-built Honda dealership of 12,000sq ft at Calder Park with a new headquarters and suite of offices built adjacent.

It will be the largest construction project in the group’s 45-year history.

Construction work started in June and the new building should be ready by December.

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customers want the security and guarantee that when they place an order it will reach them in a certain time.

Skopes director Bob Siswick said: “We’ve got lots of projects in the pipeline for the rest of 2011.”

NEWS

Alison Batty, from Clarion’s property team, with Simon Spinks, managing director of Harrison Spinks Beds

>> More Ison Harrison in Wharfedale Leeds-based Ison Harrison Solicitors is to open an office in Guiseley, less than a year after it first came into Wharfedale by opening an office in Ilkley.

The new office will be managed by partner Stephen Flint, who joined the firm in 1988 and worked his way up to be head of the conveyancing department.

Last year the firm, which has offices in Garforth, Crossgates and Chapeltown as well as Leeds city centre, merged with Bowmans Family Law and Susan Cuthbertson & Co. Managing partner Jonathan Wearing said: “We strongly believe that our 150-strong team delivers just what families, individuals and businesses are looking for.”

>> Sports website gets a million visitors Pitchero, the online sports network which powers more than 4,000 club and league websites, has breached the million unique user mark.

The Leeds-based company has updated its branding and has launched an accompanying sales website to help drum up even more business.

The website, which launched only three years ago, now powers close to 50% of all UK amateur rugby club websites.

The company has already signed up advertising sponsorships for the Rugby World Cup later this year, and has a target to reach 70% of all UK amateur rugby clubs before the first game is played.

Football, meanwhile, remains Pitchero’s most popular sport, although it is continuing to expand within other sports too – specifically cricket, hockey and netball – by forming links with governing bodies and key stakeholders.

>> Bed firm takes on woods Leeds-based bed company Harrison Spinks has bought 56 acres of North Yorkshire woodland from which it will harvest timber for use in its custom-built beds.

The plots at Sand Hutton Woods near York – Whey Carr Plantation and Scrogs Bottom Wood – were previously managed by the Forestry Commission.

They include a mixture of crop types and include significant reserves of timber and areas of young replanting.

The family firm, which dates back to the 1840s, has purchased a long leasehold over the woodland with the aim of using as much British timber as possible in the manufacture of its divan bases.

Local timber will also be used as fuel at the company’s factory in Beeston where it plans to generate part of its own power.

The company, which supplies beds to many high street names – including John Lewis and Barker and Stonehouse – launched a sustainability strategy with its acquisition of the 300-acre Hornington Manor farm in 2009 from where it produces wool for its mattresses and flax to use for the fabric.

It was advised on both the woodlands and the farm purchase by Leeds-based Clarion Solicitors.

Simon Spinks, managing director of Harrison Spinks Beds, said: “Our brand has evolved to become synonymous not only with quality, but also with sustainability.

“The demand from responsible consumers for components to be sourced locally and to be renewable wherever possible has led to our commitment to sourcing our own materials.”

In the last six months brands including Nike and RBS have invested five-figure advertising budgets on the network, looking to engage with Pitchero’s amateur online sports audience which includes players, parents, coaches and supporters.

The new website offers more case studies and

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club statistics. The sign-up process has been redesigned and new products that include a county platform and features specifically designed for governing bodies, have been added.

Chief executive officer and co-founder Mark Fletcher said: “Reaching the milestone of >>

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one million visitors has cemented our number one position within the UK online sports sector. Pitchero’s rapid growth in recent months has shown the ambition and determination of grassroots clubs to adapt and take advantage of new and exciting trends.

Further upgrades will take place in the coming months and we look to attract more clubs across different sports and countries.”

of our competitors remains strong and is testimony to our growth strategy and continued investment in our clinical team and advanced technology.”

>> Profits up at Datong Security surveillance equipment manufacturer Datong has seen its half-year pre-tax profits more than triple to £762,000 as it sees a recovery in its key US market.

But a slowing in the rest of the world has also led to turnover dropping from £7.41m to £6.33m over the same period.

Chief executive Dean Blood said: “Operating profits have increased and Datong has a healthy sales pipeline with good visibility over the potential order intake for the rest of the year.

“We do recognise that risks in protracted sales cycles remain in the short term.

However, we are confident that the Group’s strategy of diversification of its customer groups, broadening and integration of its technology base and service provision will continue to drive the business forward.”

>> Ultralase grows again Leeds-based laser eye surgery specialist Ultralase has seen its turnover grow by 5% as it celebrates its 20th anniversary this year.

The company, which in 1991 was the first to offer laser eye surgery in the UK, saw turnover grow to £42.3m in 2010, compared with £40.3m in 2009. Sales were also up 8% in the company’s core refractive business. And since the year close, the company has also seen sales in its intra ocular lens business rise by 70% in the first quarter.

Chief executive Tony Veverka said: “While market conditions remain challenging, our latest figures are a clear indication that the group continues to increase market share. Our performance year-on-year and in the context

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Brewfitt’s newly appointed sales manager, Ed Turner

>> New man at Brewfitt Drinks dispense supplier Brewfitt has appointed Ed Turner to the newlycreated role of sales manager at the company.

His primary function will be to head up the sales team and activities for the Huddersfield company, specifically within the UK drinks and beverage market.

Turner has been involved at various levels of the drinks dispense market for 25 years, both technically and commercially, starting initially as a trainee at Whitbread’s technical services department, now known globally as AB Inbev.

Turner said: “What attracted me to Brewfitt was the company’s reputation within the industry for operating in the niche products sector. This allows the flexibility to offer a more bespoke product or service solution.”

Curtis Paxman, Brewfitt’s managing director, said: “Ed brings with him some valuable skills and knowledge which will enhance and grow the sales division of the company.”

>> Finding a new route to business A business that traces long-lost relatives and friends is expanding into the business sector after investment in new technology and taking on more staff.

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FinderMonkey currently traces more than 5,000 people a year and its move into the business to business market has already seen it working with Burnley Borough Council.

The business, which is based in Oulton, near Leeds, was established in 2008 by John Arko and Ryan Shaw who both had extensive backgrounds in people finding but wanted to offer a more in-depth and personable service.

FinderMonkey says it is different from other search companies because it does not rely entirely on computer systems, but also backs up its searches by using real people.

Arko said: “Businesses cannot afford, or be seen, to let debts go uncollected just because someone has changed their address, and this is especially important in the current economic climate.”

But he said people finding was not just about tracing debtors. Other interested parties might include investment companies wanting to find someone who has a policy that has matured that they have forgotten about.

“We can also find landowners on behalf of developers and clean databases for organisations that want to reconnect with existing clients or sell to prospective ones,” he said.

>> Scottish link at law firm Leeds-based divorce and family law firm Jones Myers has promoted Fiona Kendall to partner. She was one of the first UK solicitors to train as a collaborative family lawyer and is a former vice-chair of the Scottish Family Law Association.

She specialises in financial remedies, pre- and post-nuptial agreements and cohabitation – on which subject she has co-authored two books.

As the first family lawyer practising in Scotland to be dually qualified in English and Scots law, she also regularly advises clients and fellow professionals on cross-border issues.

Partner Peter Jones who founded Jones Myers in 1992, said: “Fiona’s combination of outstanding legal expertise and her sensitive approach to clients’ problems make her a real asset.”

Mad

Advice that’s made to measure.

Because one size doesn’t fit all.

At Grant Thornton, we’ve always gone about our business in a very different way. Delivering a bespoke service to all our clients is our primary concern and we won’t offer you or your clients an ‘off the shelf’ financial and tax solution. Far from it. Our advisers take the time to understand a client’s individual circumstances and aspirations. We believe it’s important to provide flexibility to meet our clients’ needs, to tailor our solutions accordingly and to dedicate the right people to the job in hand.

For further information on our services or to arrange an initial consultation, please contact: Jonathan Riley Office Managing Partner T 0113 200 1542 @uk.gt.com E johnathan.riley jonathan.c.riley@gtuk.com

www.grant-thornton.co.uk © 2010 Grant Thornton UK LLP. All rights reserved.

‘Grant Thornton’ means Grant Thornton UK LLP, a limited liability partnership. Grant Thornton UK LLP is a member firm within Grant Thornton International Ltd (‘Grant Thornton International’).

Grant Thornton International and the member firms are not a worldwide partnership. Services are delivered by the member firms independently.

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in association with

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HOTEL LOBBYIST Women travelling on their own on business have particular obstacles to overcome, but it was when she saw how many and how obvious they were that prompted Carolyn Pearson into action, as she tells Peter Baber Amsterdam, Australia, and finished up being head of IT for ITV productions. We were managing systems for big productions with ITV, such as the scripting systems at the back of Emmerdale or Corrie.”

But it was on a lonely business trip to Los Angeles some years ago where she had an experience that finally convinced her to completely change tack. The results was maiden-voyage.com, a website and social network she runs for women business travellers that could soon be checking out a hotel near you.

“I love to travel, and I had planned a weekend in LA prior to my meetings there,” says Carolyn Pearson is not a business woman who shies away from the world of men. Far from it.

For the first 22 years of her career she worked in the hugely male-dominated world of IT. It’s an experience she laughs off with a shrug.

“There’s never a queue for the ladies in the IT world,” she says.

“I started right at the bottom in data entry,” she says, “and worked up to be head of IT for KLM City Hopper, then the Coach Holiday Group which also owned Wallace Arnold. I then worked in a similar role for KLM in

Pearson. “But then I thought: ‘Ooh, I’m in LA, might I get kidnapped? Is it safe to go to places like Santa Monica and Venice Beach on my own?’ I thought it would be nice to meet up with another lady who was also visiting on business, but there was no chance of that. In fact downtown LA, which was where the hotel was, was pretty dead on a Sunday night. I thought: ‘I have Hollywood out there and I am not going to see any of that.’”

Determined never to repeat such an experience, she had the germ of an idea for a website where business women travelling abroad who might be nervous about going to new places could compare notes, make >>

It went global. There are lots of websites for lone female travellers, not specifically for business travellers

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ENTREPRENEUR recommendations and, if they want to, meet up. The more she thought about it, the more she thought it would be a fulfilling new move for her.

“I had come up with ideas in the past and not acted on them,” she says. “But I thought this time I will act on this. I was very comfortable in my job at ITV, but creatively I wasn’t being stretched. I thought if I start this business I can test myself.”

Pearson had in fact already been helping women as a mentor, both through Forward Ladies and through MentorSET, an organisation set up to encourage more women into science and engineering careers.

Maiden-voyage.com aims to be equally welcoming and membership of the site is free.

“I decided really early on that I would never charge, because I wanted a mass of ladies,” says Pearson. “Ladies register, and they get basic access, but then we call them and make sure they are genuinely ladies. Once we have done that we can give access to the networking.

“It’s like Friends Reunited – they can’t see each other’s contact details but they can contact each other through the site. Ladies can see, for example, who is going to London, what such a lady likes to do, and perhaps they can meet each other and do something nice together.”

Clearly with membership being free, revenue has to be generated elsewhere, and in maiden-voyage.com’s case it’s through advertising, particularly from hotels who think they could appeal to lone women business travellers. But their say-so alone isn’t enough.

“We are really picky,” she says. “We don’t just sell to any hotel that wants to be on site. We go and inspect them and only allow them on the site when I feel they will meet the criteria.

Thanks to the site, I now have a network of members who will inspect hotels for me.”

Things have certainly grown. The site now has more than 660 members worldwide and is getting 2,000 visitors each month. Some 50 hotels are already advertising on it, with another five in the pipeline, and there is a telemarketing campaign about to get under way to attract some more. These are not just hotels in the UK either.

“We have hotels in Dubai, Spain, Indonesia, one in the US coming on board, and one in

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Striding out: Carolyn Pearson’s website recommending female-friendly hotels is taking off

They have got to have 24/7 reception, a friendly entrance that is not down a back street, and we like spy holes and two locks on room doors

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Amsterdam,” says Pearson, who was fortunate because the site generated a lot of media interest fairly early on, first with the Guardian and a clutch of magazines, but more particularly when CNN did a feature on it.

“The website went global after that,” she says. “We had enquiries from ladies in Kosovo, Yemen and Dubai – and we had lots of ladies from the US. I initially wanted to launch in the UK and then maybe in Holland because I speak Dutch and had worked there, but the site went international quickly. There isn’t really anything else like it. There are lots of websites for lone female travellers, not specifically for business travellers.”

The site’s success certainly confounded her husband, an IT project manager, back home in Huddersfield.

“He just thinks it’s a hobby,” she says. “But it’s not really his bag.”

In fact the business is getting more serious now, because in partnership with training company Welcome Training, Pearson has started offering hotels training programmes in how to become more female-friendly.

The training was piloted at the Crowne Plaza Thorpe Park Hotel in Leeds and Pearson says the hotel industry has taken to it warmly.

When any hotel wants to take part, for a month before the training starts, maidenvoyage.com gives its female customers access to an online survey when they check out which asks such questions as where their room was in the hotel, did they feel safe there, and were menu options in the restaurant suitably weighted towards a diet-conscious woman traveller?

“We then do a mystery shop,” says Pearson.

“One of our members checks into the hotel to see what it’s really like. After that the hotel staff get a training course that is all about customer service, but feminised. We also give them a bit of knowledge about female consumers; how to sell to them, why as women we buy, why we don’t buy, and particularly how we recommend and the power of that recommendation. After all, women are problem-solvers. They are more than likely to say to someone who is going to a hotel they have experience of: ‘Don’t go there because XYZ happened to me when I was there’.

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“We have also made a film with women about the experiences they have had which we show to those on the course. Then they do a hotel walkabout to see how they can make a more female-friendly product and how they can capitalise on that.”

Any hotel general manager is deliberately left out of such training.

“That’s so that staff become empowered to make changes,” she says. “We also appoint a female-friendly champion and they and the trainer put together an action plan.”

But what kind of issues does such training raise? Pearson insists that even a brief survey of members on her site and of the research she has undertaken has shown that in general in the industry there have been, and still are, major failings.

“A lot of members have contacted us to say they have been travelling for 20 years, and had this site been there it would have raised awareness and they would not have been treated as an embarrassment in the hotel restaurant, and so on,” she says.

She certainly has stringent criteria when it comes to picking hotels that are suitable to advertise on her site.

“They have got to have 24/7 reception, a friendly entrance that is not down a back street and we like spy holes and two locks on room doors. The rooms also need to have decent hair driers, not vacuum pumps, and decent toiletries – we are looking for high-class brands – and cotton wool tips. It’s also nice if the hotel puts decent magazines in the room.”

There are major issues on service too. Pearson says a really common failing is for reception staff to tell a woman checking in what her room number is, right in front of the queue of men behind her. She says some hotel reception staff do this even though the hotel itself has a policy not to. They just need better training.

And her own experience has told her that such concerns are not a fuss about nothing.

She says: “I was in one hotel in Paddington in London at teatime, and a guy was leering at me in the lift, practically stalking me. You have to remember that a hotel is a public place. In many ways it’s no different to a train station.”

Another really common horror story, she says, is when women are asleep in bed at night and

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are disturbed by a man coming to the door because the reception staff have mistakenly believed the room is empty. She says this can be as much of an issue for the man as it can be for the woman, as he would not be expecting anyone behind that door.

So does she not think the issues the site has raised would be of equal interest to men then?

Yes, she says – for example, men today can be just as health-conscious as women. But there are differences which mean she wants to keep the site for ladies only.

“When you bring men into the mix it has a different dynamic,” she says. “Men want to watch sports on telly, and are also more aggressive in networking. Men decide whether they want to network with you based on who you work for, rather than whether you like art galleries.”

For a similar reason, although she admits the kind of hotels she inspects would no doubt pass muster for families as well, Pearson – who has no children herself – has no intention of including such information on the site. She wants to keep it niche.

So what is a really good example of a female-friendly hotel? Pearson mentions the Marylebone Hotel in London first.

“It’s in a nice area – Welbeck Street.

The swimming pool and gym are on site.

And Marylebone is a little village, close to Selfridges.”

There does seem to be a common theme here, however – almost all the hotels she mentions are in the expensive, five-star category. Does that mean if you have to go cheap you have to forego women’s issues? Pearson thinks it’s a fair point.

“We are speaking to a very large budget group at the moment about potentially doing a brand extension which would mean trialling a certain number of rooms as Maiden Voyage rooms. They would have extra goodies such as a quality toiletry provider, and so on. We have already sourced a ladies magazine that would want to participate in that.”

That’s not the only plan for the future either.

Pearson is also speaking to large corporates about getting memberships. Many multinational organisations, she says, send women all around the world to stay in the same hotels where they may not >>

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even realise they work together.

But most of all she thinks, thanks to its niche potential, the site could attract a sponsor or two, particularly from a brand that has struggled to market to women before. That’s why she is currently speaking to finance companies and car manufacturers.

“I was invited to take some of my members the other week to a drive-in day with Maserati,” she says. “Those ladies had never considered a Maserati before, but none of us have stopped talking about it since, and should the money fall into our purses we would all go out and buy one. There’s huge potential to work with a client like that.”

Because sure enough, the female-friendly message does seem to be spreading far and wide. The latest destination Pearson has been to for an inspection visit is Marrakech.

“Again I was looking at higher class hotels,” she says, “but I inspected three hotels, and all of them passed.”

If such attitudes are recognised in a supposedly conservative Islamic country like Morocco, then hotels back home in Blighty should certainly be listening. n

Lee & Priestley’s specialist Entrepreneur Team works with clients as a strategic partner, offering a unique blend of legal, business and entrepreneurial expertise.

We are speaking to a very large budget group about potentially doing a brand extension which would mean trialling a certain number of rooms as Maiden Voyage rooms BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

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Lee & Priestley acts for businesses across a broad range of industries and has a particular reputation for entrepreneurial expertise in the new media, media, internet, technology, creative, leisure, entertainment and healthcare sectors.

Jonathan Oxley, Senior Partner, Lee & Priestley LLP Tel: 0845 129 2300 10-12 East Parade, Leeds, LS1 2AJ www.leepriestley.com

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COMPANY PROFILE

KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER HEADS FOR NORTH YORKSHIRE

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ORTH Yorkshire businesses can grab a slice of the action from Teesside University’s ever-growing support service.

The University’s Knowledge Transfer programme helps businesses to increase their profitability and competitiveness by improving performance.

Now the University is focusing on North Yorkshire companies to ensure they don’t miss out.

Knowledge Transfer Manager Dr Geoff Archer explains how the programme works. “Through a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP), we set up a three-way partnership between the University, a talented graduate and the company. It’s focused entirely on addressing a specific need – such as

driving strategic change, entering new markets or developing new technologies. We help the company recruit the right graduate for the job and provide specialist academic expertise throughout the project. They are great for embedding new knowledge and skills in a business.”

One business already reaping the benefits from Teesside’s KTP programme is pork pie manufacturer Vale of Mowbray, based in Leeming Bar. Since Science and Nutrition graduate Liberty Horner was taken on as a KTP Associate, she has helped the company make £100,000 worth of savings through waste reduction and improved quality control and has now been taken on permanently as

product improvement co-ordinator.

Managing Director John Gattenby says: “Having access to the wide range of resources at the University has been an enormous help. Liberty’s been a great addition to the team. She’s got a really creative approach and is always looking for ways we can improve the business.”

KTPs are flexible in duration to meet company needs, lasting anything from six months to three years.

To get involved in a KTP with Teesside University, or simply to find out more about its services to business, call 01642 384068 or email business@tees.ac.uk.

LINK WITH TEESSIDE JUST GETS BETTER A young brand agency launched as the economic recession was starting to bite in the North of England doubled in size last year – and its close links with Teesside University are playing a key part in the company’s success.

North Yorkshire-based Better is run by Mark Easby, a graduate from the University’s media technology degree in the mid-90s.

Mark got his first entrepreneurial experience helping a fellow student establish a web-based company through Teesside’s graduate business start-up scheme. That convinced him he wanted to Pictured left to right, the Better team of Teesside be his own boss and so the Better Brand Agency University graduates: Ryan Crawford, Paul Bell, was born in 2008 from offices in Stokesley.

Peter Jones, Mark Easby and Simon Scarfe.

Now the eight-strong team includes five Teesside graduates – the latest being Ryan Crawford, who gained a first-class honours degree in graphic “Ryan’s skills were ideal for a graphic designer design last summer. He started with the company opening we had and we have used his skills to help through a graduate internship organised by the refashion our own website and taken him on Spark BQ mag band:Layout 1 21/12/10 09:55 Page 1 University. “It was a perfect match”, said Mark. full-time.”

A spark of inspiration

www.tees.ac.uk/spark

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Better is now forging ahead and picking up new clients all over Yorkshire and the North East including MPI Offshore and Leeds-based Freshfayre chilled foods, as well as creating a website for the historical novelist and honorary Teesside graduate Philippa Gregory.

“Business is brilliant at the moment”, said Mark.

“We see the North East and Yorkshire as one region, probably helped by our central location in Stokesley. We can be with all our clients within an hour whether they are in Leeds or Newcastle.

“Part of our success is down to a close working relationship with Teesside University – which has a very strong reputation for producing top-quality computing, design and media graduates who now make up more than half our staff.

“We’ve kept on expanding throughout the recession and our partnership with the University works both ways as we’ve just re-designed the website for their Institute for Digital Innovation.”

The University for BUSINESS

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EVERYONE CAN BE OPEN An exciting new trend in business thinking need not only apply to large corporations, says Sam Hoste. Read this at your peril – it may change how you manage your business.

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The term open innovation (OI) was defined by Henry Chesbrough of the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley, and it describes an exciting way to develop innovation in business. These ideas have been developed over the years and are now being embraced by many different businesses. The OI culture encourages companies to make much greater use of ideas and technologies from outside their company.

Once you have embraced this concept you may also start to offer unused or underexploited internal ideas or processes to other companies.

There are some great examples of large

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companies that have premises in Yorkshire that are exemplars of OI practices. Reckitt Benckiser in Hull, for example, and Nestlé in York. These large companies find OI attractive to generate new ideas and combine technologies that may even arise from totally different sectors. This can help some companies realise that they don’t have a monopoly on ideas. But it is not just large companies that undertake OI – they are probably just the ones that have the resources to work with university business schools and publish papers on these initiatives.

I suggest that sectors that are relatively cash poor – and smaller companies with fewer resources – are those who should embrace OI. For the many companies in Yorkshire and elsewhere these “inside-out” and “outside-in” perspectives provide enormous opportunities to collaborate with customers, suppliers and also companies in other sectors. Huge regional benefits can arise from collaboration and fusion between local companies, thereby creating employment through innovation.

Isn’t this much better than inventing here and exporting jobs overseas? OI can also provide greater combined resources and an increase in new ideas to develop new and larger markets.

It is not about losing your own in-house skilled personnel. They are required as much and probably even more to source, filter and combine external ideas with internal ways of doing things. Another enormous plus is that OI doesn’t necessarily require a massive financial investment – a fact that Government and local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) are emphasising in their efforts to encourage growth.

So why aren’t we all doing it? Well there are additional people and social skills that are required to collaborate successfully with others. There may also be some additional politics and negotiation involved and there will be contractual and IP issues to be resolved.

There are some risks around the uncertainty of new practices, opening up to others and building trust between collaborators. However,

the latter risks can be mitigated by, for example, starting collaborations with firms or people where you have already built up a degree of trust. Working with higher education establishments is another good way to start; with the knowledge that they will want to exploit any outputs through you rather than in competition with you. You can develop more collaborative relationships with your customers around their needs, perhaps with “lead users” – people who are intense users of your products. There may be other customers who use your goods and services for specific needs which can provide opportunities for engagement and OI. The “inside-out” perspective is probably the least exploited area of OI. What do we have inside our company that we could exploit by some reciprocal licensing, alliance or joint venture? Are there any assets that other companies would find valuable, such as a business unit, or a patent which has not been exploited? Could your business provide external consulting and training – or even move to a different business model? Instead of selling products, perhaps you could provide services for your product through its life cycle.

It could be as simple as exploiting your back office expertise in accounts and offering this as a service for other businesses.

Are there any assets that other companies would find valuable, such as a business unit?

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AS I SEE IT

In practice there will be different issues which have to be dealt with for different types of companies. For any collaboration it is obviously important for each party to be clear about what their initial contribution is. For the growing new media and IT digital sectors the income streams are largely derived from assets which attract copyright. Here it will be important to define clearly who owns what at the outset and whether any necessary external licences are in place to allow the collaboration to happen.

Particular challenges arise from the use of open source software. Large businesses such as IBM have different strategies for separating their internal R&D from their OI projects which utilise some open source code.

In some ways companies which rely heavily on registered intellectual property rights such as patents have more easily defined rights.

However for any successful OI project one of the key ingredients is flexibility. It is not always easy or desirable to split intellectual property and have shared ownership. That is why the ability to negotiate effective but creative licence agreements can provide a real solution and successful outcome from collaboration.

This can work even where there is a huge difference in the size of the companies involved. This will usually only be achieved where the parties have clearly defined goals at the outset.

However, things can change along the collaboration journey so a degree of flexibility is necessary to avoid stifling creativity.

In short, just do it: OI provides Yorkshire with the means to grow the regional economy and generate employment. We can accelerate the move out of recession by imaginative collaboration involving the region’s hugely innovative technology businesses. n Dr Sam Hoste is co-founder with Dr Eileen McMorrow of This Little Piggy which provides innovation consultancy, training, workshops and open innovation brokerage across all sectors.

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A holiday park lodges an offer, Bradford’s Midpoint is close to 100% occupancy, charity begins at The Gateway, the Malt Shovel sups up, pipe firms make a good fit, and a creche stands on its own two feet >> Business centre sees Leeds as No 1

>> Bradford building refit An imposing period property in the Little Germany area of Bradford has just been refurbished to provide modern office accommodation.

The property at 66-70 Vicar Lane provides open-plan space over five floors and includes basement parking for up to 16 vehicles.

The accommodation, including a specification to include raised access floor and cooling, is available to let from 6,014sq ft for a single floor up to 39,309sq ft for the whole building.

The quoting rental equates to £11 per sq ft pa.

Alongside Vicar Lane, the building also has frontages to both Currer Street and Burnett Street.

Jonathan McGrael at agents Colliers’ in the Leeds office said: “The space includes a modern reception and two, 13-person passenger lifts. The property is ideal for occupiers who require a good quality, well located city centre building with secure on-site parking.”

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Business centre operator i2 Office has taken a lease for 14,647sq ft in IVG’s No 1 Leeds property on Whitehall Road in Leeds city centre.

The new centre is the firm’s first presence in Yorkshire.

The building has 122,000sq ft of office space, is nine minutes walk from Leeds station, and is rated as BREAAM ‘Excellent’ with what are claimed to be very up-to-date security features.

Chief executive Philip Grace said: “Leeds represents an important step for i2 Office, expanding our network and increasing our UK geographic coverage. No 1 Leeds fits the i2 Office mould perfectly, offering prestigious premises in a prime city centre location.”

Elizabeth Ridler, partner with Knight Frank in Leeds, who market No 1 Leeds alongside King Sturge, said: “i2 chose this special building above all others in Leeds because it contains so many desirable, hi-spec features in a bright working environment. It is also one of the most energy-efficient buildings in Leeds with a higher-than-normal occupational density, so the occupier saves money from the outset.”

Jones Lang LaSalle advised i2 Office.

>> Lodges sold for £1.65m Paradise Lake Lodges, a holiday letting business comprising 10 timber lodges spread across 15 acres in Storwood, south of York, has been sold by its retiring owners off a guide price of £1.65m. The site already has permission for a further 11 lodges.

Former owners Simon and Valerie Cranmer Gordon also included a detached house and two coarse fishing ponds in the sale to new owners Anthony and Fiona Ellis.

The site operates year round, and has an annual income of around £130,000.

Richard Moss, head of parks at Colliers International in Leeds, who negotiated the deal on behalf of the vendors, said: “Unsurprisingly, we received a lot of interest in the site because it is extremely well located as well as being a profitable business. UK holiday lets are currently thriving as more and more people take the decision not to travel abroad.

Find business premises in Leeds www.locateinleeds.co.uk

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>> Sale allows consolidation Cromwell Polythene has sold one of its properties to a Chinese manufacturer, enabling it to acquire new premises in Sherburn in Elmet so that it can consolidate two sites into one.

The 17,534sq ft Vickers Building was sold to Chinese manufacturer Power Link Machine.

Following the deal, Cromwell Polythene has acquired and relocated to the 28,482sq ft Orion Building at Cosmic Park.

DTZ negotiated both deals, selling the Orion Building on behalf of Cosmic Park’s owner, Gladman Developments.

Paul Mack, associate director at DTZ in Leeds, said: “The Sherburn Industrial Estate benefits from a huge power supply, which is key to the manufacturing sector, as well as uncongested access to the national motorway network.

“For these reasons Sherburn has attracted companies such as Cranswick Country Foods, Kingspan, Sainsbury’s and Debenhams over the past five years.”

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success of Midpoint is encouraging given the challenging time the out of town office market is experiencing.

“With lettings to Redress Claims, the Driving Standards Association (DSA) and one of the final two units under offer, the commercial element of the Midpoint development is now almost fully occupied.”

James Smithies, development consultant at Keyland Developments, said: “Midpoint has always been seen as a key element of the Leeds-Bradford corridor and with the majority of the leisure and commercial space

now occupied and Taylor Wimpey progressing their development of the final residential phase, the final two units represent the last opportunity for businesses to relocate to this prestigious location.”

Redress Claims’ operations director Naman Hussain said his business had grown rapidly since it located at the Park.

“We now employ 65 people at The Courtyard,” he said. “The flexible office space has allowed our organisation to grow without the need to relocate to Bradford.”

The letting agents and some of the White Rose Office Park employees bring their children to the Park for the day

>> Midpoint well past mid point Midpoint Business Park in Bradford, West Yorkshire, is close to 100% let after a flurry of recent lettings.

Most of Aquarius House, a 33,000sq ft grade A office building on the site, has been let by DTZ and Jones Lang Lasalle, acting jointly on behalf of owner Keyland Developments.

Only 2,500sq ft of the property now remains unoccupied.

Separately, the Courtyard, a development of purpose-built, self-contained office units providing space totalling 15,200sq ft, is now almost fully occupied. Carter Towler are also joint agents on that scheme.

Maria Laird, assistant surveyor in DTZ’s office agency team in Leeds, said: “The

>> Park seeks crèche The developer of White Rose Office Park in Leeds is looking for a crèche operator to run an operation at the 580,000sq ft site, which it plans to expand by another 7,000sq ft.

Owner David Aspin claims the timing is perfect.

“Following a post-recession baby boom and with market conditions on the up, we are confident that now is the time to move forward with our plans,” he said.

“The chosen company will play a strategic part in the working lives of the people that work here at White Rose and therefore it is important that we get it right. Companies are currently being invited and, in fact, head-hunted to operate the crèche.’’

A recent poll carried out at the park found that 78% of people who work there would welcome and where appropriate use an on-site crèche.

Some 85% of employees at DePuy – one of the Park’s key occupiers – have children under five who they would consider enrolling in on-site daycare. If this panned out, it would be enough to fill the 6,700sq ft crèche to full capacity on its own. >>

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Locate in Leeds BUSINESS QUARTER |SUMMER 11

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>> 1 Whitehall Quay sold Legal & General has bought 1 Whitehall Quay from Danmerc for £14.38m.

The deal, negotiated by Jones Lang LaSalle, reflects an initial yield of 7.88% on the office block.

The 51,182sq ft office building is currently let to Mercer and MWB Business Exchange Centres for a further unexpired lease term of 6.25 years.

The passing rent equates to £21 per sq ft. That reflects a 20% discount to prime rents.

Mathew Atkinson, associate director in Jones Lang LaSalle’s national investment team in Leeds, said: “1 Whitehall Quay represents an excellent opportunity to reposition the property through refurbishment to create one of the key grade A offices in Leeds city centre, given its undoubted position within the prime core and proximity to the station.”

Knight Frank and MP2 advised Danmerc.

>> Charity takes out freehold Charity Breast Cancer Haven has bought the freehold of the 6,132sq ft building it currently leases at The Gateway in Leeds, following a £1.5m deal with scheme developers, Scotfield.

The charity has rented the space within the £150m mixed use development since 2008.

The deal follows on from recent lettings at the prominent turquoise building to FCM Travel Solutions, Corporate Traveller and the newly re-opened Tyke Bar. The Breast Cancer Haven unit comprises six individual therapy rooms as well as an additional group therapy room and is the only centre of its kind in the north of England.

Other Breast Cancer Haven sites are in London and Hereford.

Locate in Leeds

>> DTZ gets blue DTZ’s office agency team in Leeds has been appointed jointly with BNP Paribas Real Estate as letting agent for BAM’s Latitude Blue office development on the edge of Leeds city centre.

Located on Whitehall Road in Leeds, Latitude Blue will offer 115,000sq ft of grade A space across seven storeys. Detailed planning consent has been granted and construction will begin following agreement with a prospective occupier. When completed, the scheme will represent one of the greenest office developments in the city, with a BREEAM rating of “Excellent” and the ability to occupy one person per eight square metres.

Latitude Blue is the second part of BAM’s Latitude development, which already includes Latitude Red. Adam Cockroft, director of DTZ’s Leeds office agency, said: “Latitude Blue represents a superb opportunity for a number of occupiers seeking to pursue a greener footprint. We can also cater for a number of other size requirements on the balance of the site.”

>> MPSE moves into Hunslet Mitsubishi Power Systems Europe Limited (MPSE) has bought a 35,035sq ft unit off Lockside Road in Hunslet for its expanded service and parts facility.

The company was advised on the acquisition by the Leeds-based industrial property specialists, Gent Visick.

MPSE procures and designs gas and steam turbines and solar and wind power generation systems. The company, which was established in 2007, employs more than 500 staff in eight offices across Europe. It is part of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries which operates globally employing over 60,000 staff and manufacturing everything from fuel cells through to super-tankers.

Juergen Richter, service director in the Leeds centre, said: “This property will assist us in the expansion of our business. With the ever-growing requirement to source more efficient means of power generation MPSE needs to be able to offer our customers innovative alternatives for power generation as well as increased level of service and shorter response time.”

Andrew Gent of Gent Visick, who advised MPSE, said: “MPSE had a number of specific requirements, not least being the availability of a high office content within the property. We used our market knowledge to identify a range of options and then to negotiate the acquisition of this property on their behalf.”

Knight Frank and Dove Haigh Phillips advised the vendor Chromogene.

>> JLS takes Fleurets man Jones Lang LaSalle has recruited Alastair Jack as an associate director in its licensed leisure and hotels team based in Leeds.

Jack, formerly at Fleurets, has more than 10 years’ experience during which he has been responsible for a wide range of instructions, including estate valuations and lease renewals for Yorkshire-based pub companies and breweries, rental negotiations for the top two UK pub companies, and high value agency instructions including the acquisition of The

Free commercial property search service www.locateinleeds.co.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

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Viaduct, Lower Briggate in Leeds.

He will work closely with Harry Hawksby, head of the firm’s national licensed leisure and hotels team, to continue to grow this niche area of firm’s business across Yorkshire and the North East.

>> Historic pub on market The Malt Shovel public house in Burley in Wharfedale has been put on the market with a guide price of £695,000 freehold.

The grade II listed, three-storey property fronts onto the main High Street and is steeped in history, having been home to the Burley Pudding tradition in the 1700s.

It features two bars, three trading areas, a conservatory and kitchen as well as a function room with its own bar and facilities on the first floor.

Managers’ accommodation is also on the first floor with five currently unused rooms on the second floor.

Externally, there are 57 car parking spaces.

The freehold property is being sold by the Leeds office of Colliers International.

Earlier this year the same office sold Bridgefoot Guest House, an eight-bedroom guesthouse with walled garden in Thornton le Dale, which had an asking price of £495,000.

>> App for property hunt Colliers has developed an iPhone app that allows busy business executives to find the nearest vacant office, shop or industrial premises whenever they are in Yorkshire.

The app, free to download on iTunes, uses GPS to detect your current location and displays available properties nearby.

Available properties can be browsed through using a map interface, or you can be directed straight there using augmented reality.

The database includes offices, pubs, industrial,

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retail, leisure and land. These can be searched by type, location and size, and the searches can be stored for later use.

Andrew Watt, director at the Colliers Leeds office said: “We think the system will be particularly useful for business people where location is the key – such as in retail or logistics. It enables someone to drive to a location and, using their iPhone, find the

nearest unit that meets their requirements or find the ideal industrial location and check immediately what space is available nearby.

“They can see a photograph of the property and all the details about it and if they are interested they can source floor plans and brochures and the contact telephone number of the Colliers agent dealing with that property.”

>> Pipe firm comes together

Left to right: Nick Prescott, Gent Visick; Steve Lund, GS Hydro, and Gidon Amar, Gent Visick Piping supplier GS Hydro has relocated its Yorkshire base to an 11,605sq ft unit at Silkwood Park in Wakefield that has been specially fitted out to meet the company’s requirements.

The company, which operates globally and was established in 2001, has brought together its Rotherham and Leeds operations, pooling resources together at a new location in the M1 corridor.

Steve Lund, branch manager for GS Hydro, said: “The key factor for us in selecting Silkwood Park was its location. From our new facility we can serve our customer base across Yorkshire with easy access to the M1 and M62 motorways.”

The unit has been let by Gent Visick, acting on behalf of the St James Group, on a 10-year term at a headline rent equating to £5.25 per sq ft.

The estate is already home to Days Hotel, Bezier, Severn Trent Laboratories and a recentlycompleted Driving Standards Agency test facility.

St James Group’s Richard Gee said: “This was the last remaining void unit on the estate and the 100% occupancy clearly demonstrates the popularity of this development.”

However Nick Prescott of Gent Visick said that while the existing units are now fully occupied, “we are able to offer bespoke design and build solutions from 20,000 to 80,000sq ft to industrial or warehouse occupiers on a leasehold or freehold basis on the remaining 18 acres of consented land”.

Find offices, retail and industrial premises www.locateinleeds.co.uk

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Locate in Leeds

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RELATIONSHIPS DO THE WORK Peter Brook has built his car dealership and his vehicle finance company in the same way, he tells Peter Baber – by fostering relationships

Lawton Brook is a high-end, single-site prestige car dealer based in Knaresborough selling Bentleys, Aston Martins, Ferraris and so on, and regularly turning over close to £20m.

Its sister company, Oracle Asset Finance, provides finance for a range of such dealerships all over the country and, despite being only five years old, already underwrites £250m a year.

So what makes both companies such a success? After spending an hour or so with Peter Brook, their founder, or “owner driver” as he prefers to call it, I think I have a pretty fair idea.

It’s not any flash presentation. Lawton Brook is actually one of the more low-key car dealerships I have visited. Nor is it particularly big-spend advertising. Oracle does advertise in the usual Sunday newspapers, but Brook himself has a more unusual choice for the place he thinks his advertising works best.

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It’s not down to IT either – at least not on its own, but Oracle does make very sophisticated use of its database records.

No, the real ingredient that seems to underlie much of Brook’s way of doing business is the relationships he says must first define every successful transaction.

“In most things, but especially in our kind of market,” he says, “people buy things from people. They interact with people. If your whole business strategy revolves around the product, people will only deal with you if they view you as the cheapest.”

Getting this right, says the 47-year-old, who has been selling cars for well over two decades, is the reason why he now thinks he has the best job in the world.

“Even when we were starting out,” he says, “working 14-hour days were nothing, because if you were enjoying every minute of it, it didn’t seem like a job. It was more like a

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hobby, but you were earning a decent living on the back of it.”

And that, he says, had a definite effect on his selling success.

“People gravitate towards people who are enjoying what they are doing,” he says. “I certainly was.”

Making the most of relationships helped get Lawton Brook off to a flying start in the early 1990s when Brook, who up until then had managed a BMW dealership, teamed up with Jeremy Saville, another former BMW dealer, to launch the company.

“He had got a bit disillusioned about working for a main agent in a franchise,” says Brook.

It also helped when, many years later in 2006, as they came to set up Oracle, Brook looked for someone from the finance industry to run it.

They found someone when, owing to their growing size, their bank RBS said they >>

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would have to move from the local Harrogate branch to RBS Corporate in Leeds.

“RBS Corporate’s vehicle finance arm was Lombard, run in Leeds by one Andrew King,” says Brook. “We hit it off from day one. He was very enthusiastic, and always ready to go that extra mile. When you come across people like that, you always gravitate towards them.

So when he said: ‘I am thinking of going on my own. Would you support me?’ I said: ‘We can do better.’”

In fact, Brook had already been thinking about setting up a dedicated vehicle finance company, mainly because he had been so unimpressed with what was out there.

“There were a couple around,” he says, “but they were very much lifestyle businesses. With them, a broker would find the name of someone in the market for a motor vehicle, try and extract as much profit as possible from that person, and then farm their name out to every lender in the market place. That has a lot of negatives against it, because the chap has a lot of credit searches against his name.”

Once again, Brook felt the problem with such a deal was also the skewed relationship with lenders further down the line.

“It doesn’t add any value to the lender,” he says, “because they are processing deals but never actually get to write the business.

They have a cost there, but are never making any profit.

“We thought we could add value to the

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If you get the right people in it is much easier to manage.

Success is all down to how well individuals communicate

lender, because we have a level of loyalty to them. We weren’t giving customers to them and ten others. Instead we would think who would do the best deal.

“So we showed Andrew what our ideas were and he started in a tiny office. We were very keen on keeping the overheads low until we knew it would work. But from day one it was a great success.”

Making sure relationships gel remains a key

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consideration today too, in the way Oracle goes about recruiting. In the last round of recruiting, the company only needed three more people to add to its existing staff, but it nonetheless asked 60 to come individually into the office and all of them were interviewed by Brook personally. He has no regrets.

“If you get the right people in,” he says, “it is so much easier to manage.”

He is so determined to make sure they get the right person – that in fact on more than one occasion he has paid the successful candidate’s rent for their first few months in Yorkshire while they relocate. Above all, he is looking for people who can get their message across in a concise but understandable way. It’s why, he says – unusually for a finance firm – almost all the sales staff are educated to degree level.

“Success is all down to how well individuals communicate,” he says.

But much of this is also a result of the way the company chooses to view what they do. Brook says it is much more, once again, about nurturing a relationship than might be the case with conventional finance companies.

“When we were first thinking about this business we looked at different markets, and the one we want to model most closely was the insurance market,” he says. “If you have your vehicle insured with a customer, they will write to you, and you feel like you have a long-term relationship. There just wasn’t that relationship in the vehicle finance market as it

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was. We wanted to write to them on a regular basis. As a result we have a lot of repeat business. Most of these guys change their vehicles every three years, so we are always already talking to a customer at a time when they are thinking of changing a vehicle.”

It stands to reason that, despite being based in Knaresborough, many of the company’s clients are based in the South East and the city in particular. But talking to these customers has led to changes in the way the finance the company offers is structured.

“We balance their finance package so they have a large payment in March when they have just received their annual bonus,” he says.

It’s a result of doing this customer research too, that has affected Oracle’s preferred choice of advertising. Brook says one of their most successful channels has been JetAway, the Jet2 in-flight magazine. It’s not hard to see why.

“How many phone calls have we had from people sitting on the beach in Marbella?,” he says. “I’ve lost count. These guys run very intense lifestyles, and never have time to do the personal stuff they need to.

“They love their holidays for two to three days, but four days in they get kind of bored.

That’s when they ring and say, ‘I’ve seen your advert’. It always makes me laugh when I am on a Jet2 plane and see our advert torn out.”

The cause for building better business through warmer relationships hasn’t always gone smoothly – Brook had originally intended to launch Oracle several years earlier than 2006, but the man they had chosen to lead the new venture got cold feet when his wife became pregnant. Curiously enough, it was exactly the same thing happening to Brook that made him decide to launch out on his own back at the start of the 1990s.

“He was then in a different position to us financially,” he says. “He

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thought, ‘I need to be careful here, and can’t take the risk right now’.

It was the opposite reaction to me. So we parked the idea for a few years.”

Because of the nature of the cars Oracle finances – generally only those costing in excess of £25,000 – there have inevitably been some disappointed customers as well.

“You always have to remember that from a lender’s point of view the main thing is getting their money back,” he says. “We quite often say to a potential customer, ‘With the greatest respect, I am afraid you are just not right. You don’t fit the profile of what our banks are

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looking for.’ We also couldn’t fund a Citroen Saxo, say, because we spend a lot of time finding out about the customer, and it wouldn’t be worth it for a car like that. So in the nicest possible way let them down, always keeping in the back of your mind that in five years they might be needing a Porsche.”

They might indeed, and they might be needing much more than a Porsche. Brook finds the Sunday Times Rich List interesting reading from a personal point of view, because of the number of people he recognises.

“I look at it and say, ‘He’s a customer of ours, and he’s a customer of ours’.” >>

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We have expensive software that allows us to look into the future. So we have a pretty good idea what that car will be worth in a year

But why should people who are already worth so much need the services of vehicle finance company? Couldn’t they afford to buy their dream cars outright? Brook says it’s a question he is often asked.

“Why do Premier League footballers need us?” he says. “The answer is that normally, at the rates we offer, rather than buy the vehicle outright they can get a much better outlay for money by putting their cash somewhere else to have it working for them.

“The rates in UK are at the lowest they have ever been. You clearly want to maximise how you make your money go to work for you, and the one thing about high net worth individuals is that they have very, very good advisers. Always remember that the cost of owning your car isn’t just the price – the hidden cost is depreciation. A car that costs £50,000 today may still be worth £50,000 in

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two years, so you would buy it, even though it seems an incredible sum. But if you buy one for £25,000, it may be only worth £15,000 in two years, so it’s not as good a deal as a more expensive vehicle. But the only way you can maximise that kind of benefit is to use car finance.

“We can look at future values. We have expensive software that allows us to look into the future. So we have a pretty good idea what that car will be worth in a year.”

That is why at Lawton Brook they often persuade customers to go for cars which are different from the ones they may have initially set their heart on, because the other car has a much better resale potential.

So what, then, of plans for the future? “We have started funding classic cars,” he says.

But at the moment his eyes are beginning to focus on taking Oracle into Europe.

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“In a couple of months we are meeting with one of our lenders in Germany, as we see that as a market.

“The high-end vehicle side in Germany is a very buoyant market. In fact it’s the second biggest market in the world outside the US. “China is just coming online too. We wouldn’t go there now, although I would never say never.”

Germans do, however, have a much more cautious attitude to debt.

“But that’s not to say you can’t put a model in there that works for you, and a lot of our lenders are pan-European now. Could we sit there as a niche player? It’s always worth exploring.” n

REPORT

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PARED DOWN THINKING A lack of funding, compared with the days of the regional development agencies, is concentrating the minds of those involved in the new local enterprise partnerships (LEPs). Peter Baber finds out if this is a good or bad thing

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We need a long-term plan. It is the art of the impossible with local enterprise partnerships – they are not regional development agencies and they never will be

Barry Dodd, chairman of the York and North Yorkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has a pet project he is working on at the moment, which he likes to call a certificate of business administration.

It would be aimed at start-ups, and would be a way of demonstrating that their directors do at least have the basic skills needed to run a business, so that, for example, if they go to a bank to arrange an overdraft, the bank manager can be confident that their loan will be handled professionally.

“I am having a meeting with the bank to agree on ideas on how it should run in the next few weeks,” he says.

It is a pilot project he hopes will generate enough interest in other parts of the country to spread further. It is certainly a radical idea. Nothing like that was ever tried under the old regional development agency (RDA) system with Yorkshire Forward, but Dodd, who founded GSM Group in Thirsk and has since grown it to be the largest producer of industrial graphics products in Europe, is quick to point out that we are now in a “different world”, with RDAs a thing of the past.

“Yorkshire Forward employed 450 people and had a budget of £340m,” he says. “You can’t get that when you only have at most 30 people working in any sense for the LEP right now.”

So instead he wants to focus on things that are small scale enough to be delivered quickly, and he thinks the certificate is a good example of that.

The LEP Dodd is chairman of was only approved by central Government in February this year. It was one of three that the Government has so far approved in the region, the others being centred around the Leeds

and Sheffield city regions. The development of a LEP for the eastern part of the region has been delayed by an internal squabble about whether it should cover both sides of the Humber that only looked to have been settled in favour of a pan-Humber LEP in June this year. Perhaps wisely, East Riding District Council, the more affluent part of the north bank of the Humber, has opted to join Dodd’s LEP as well.

As their name implies, LEPs are meant to be a public/private partnership that encourages enterprise and economic growth. But what their precise role is is still being determined as the Government enacts more legislation and as Yorkshire Forward is gradually wound up.

In fact, Gary Lumby from Yorkshire Bank who sits on the board of the Leeds City Region LEP, thinks it unlikely that we will know the full scope of any of the LEPs’ responsibilities until the RDA is fully wound up next year.

“With the RDAs you often don’t know what you have got till it’s gone,” he says. “We will have to see how we fill the gaps, particularly on things like business support.”

At the moment both the York and Leeds LEPs are involved in putting forward possible enterprise zones for approval by central Government. The zones, which have to be at least 50 hectares, will have special tax breaks to encourage enterprise.

The Leeds City Region LEP chose the Aire Valley after considering a shortlist of four that also included Bradford city centre, Selby, and Wakefield and the M62 corridor. And the York and North Yorkshire LEP announced that Scarborough Business Park would be the location it would be taking forward.

Dodd is determined that in other areas he will start with a small list that can be delivered

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quickly. The strategy took just an hour and a half to decide on at the board’s first meeting, he says.

“And I am determined it will be written out in full on only one sheet of A4.”

There are, if nothing else, personal reasons for this, he points out. All of the board, he says – including himself – have theoretically only been appointed for a year.

Lumby agrees too that deliverability will be the key, although perhaps not in such extreme terms. The LEP is looking for some quick wins, which is why it is helping many private companies to put in their bids for round two of the Regional Growth Fund, a special Government fund aimed at boosting the English regions. But he stresses these will not be “short-term fixes”.

“Things can’t be decided overnight,” he says.

“We need a long-term plan. It is the art of the possible with LEPs – they are not RDAs and they never will be.”

It is a different world indeed, when you consider the reams of strategy paperwork that used to come out of regional public sector bodies in the past before any decisions were made. But the consensus from many observers is that this situation is one of necessity, rather than choice, primarily because of the virtual complete drying up of funding.

“Just look at resources,” says Stuart Howie, a director in the public service team at PricewaterhouseCoopers in Leeds. “The RDAs as a whole had in effect £2.7bn. The LEPs don’t really have any funding. The Government has said it might allow £5m to be shared out among the LEPs, but at that scale to think that LEPs will be a copy of RDAs is unrealistic.”

Amanda Beresford, legal director in the >>

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REPORT

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Standard issue: Many observers feel that regional development has always been held back to some extent by local politics planning and environment group at lawyers Addleshaw Goddard, thinks the recentlyannounced extra funding almost amounts to a U-turn. Certainly Dodd detects that central Government has put a lot of “political capital” into the LEPs project and so would not want to see it fail.

There is probably some specific Yorkshire capital too, as Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government is one Eric Pickles. He might be MP for Brentwood and Ongar in Essex now, but he was born in Keighley and cut his political teeth as de facto leader of Bradford City Council in the late 1980s, during which time he oversaw a programme of stringent and very controversial cuts. Might he not want the LEPs to be a vindication of such an approach?

James Newman, chairman of the Sheffield City Region LEP board, says he believes central Government believed the private sector would just step in to bankroll the work of the LEPs. “This has not happened,” he says, “at least not to any significant extent.”

The local authorities haven’t been willing to bankroll them either, he says – for obvious reasons – so there have been “more nods” from ministers to the idea of Government funding.

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But Beresford says £5m is hardly going to go a long way, especially at it is being billed as only a one-off payment to get the LEPs on their feet.

“How helpful is this going to be as a oneoff?” she says. “You can’t, for example, rent out any office space for an LEP if you can’t do the same thing next year. There are enterprise

zones too, of course. The LEPs could take on management roles there. But it’s still not much.”

In any case, she says, the work central Government is steering LEPs to concentrate on at the moment is heavily concentrated on physical development in specific locations. So when it comes to the other areas that RDAs

Who’s on the board – Leeds City Region LEP Neil McLean, DLA Piper (chairman) Councillor James Alexander, City of York Council Councillor Janet Battye, Calderdale Council Councillor Peter Box, Wakefield Council Stephanie Burras, chief executive, Leeds Ahead

Councillor Don Mackenzie, Harrogate Borough Council Stephen Kennedy, chief operating officer, CPP Group Gary Lumby, director of small business banking, Yorkshire and Clydesdale Banks

Brian Cantor, vice chancellor, University of York

John Parkin, chief executive, Leeds Bradford International Airport

Councillor Ian Greenwood, Bradford Metropolitan District Council

Mark Ridgeway, managing director, Group Rhodes

Paul Hamer, chief executive, WYG Group

Councillor Keith Wakefield, Leeds City Council

Gary Jones, chairman, MSA Engineering Systems and Heights Group

Councillor John Weighell, North Yorkshire County Council

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used to touch – particularly things like the skills issues, which Dodd is so keen to address with his certificate of business administration – people are going to have to be “imaginative”.

It is why, she thinks, the next few months are going to involve a lot of private sector individuals, and local authority councillors, giving up their time to the project on a voluntary basis – almost like David Cameron’s Big Society project.

She herself is heavily involved in a planning reform group, which feeds into the Leeds and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, which in turn, she believes, would influence what the Leeds City Region LEP is thinking.

Lumby certainly agrees that voluntary contributions are going to be crucial. He says there is no more than a handful of people working full-time at the Leeds City Region LEP secretariat – all of whom have been seconded from elsewhere. They include Ian Williams, policy director at the Leeds and North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce.

“This is not Business Link,” he says. “There are a lot of volunteers, including myself and most of the board.”

But, apart from funding issues, what are likely to be the key problems facing such an arrangement?

Iain Hasdell, head of local and regional government at KPMG in Leeds, believes one key issue will be the need to overcome local politics – a tricky issue, he says, particularly when each LEP board contains local councillors from virtually every district council included in the area. This has always been an issue dogging regional development, he says.

“I was involved in setting up eight of the nine English RDAs,” he says, “and there was always a myth about how they operated. They always operated sub-regionally, never regionally. They spread the cash to make sure each sub-region got a fair share of it.

“No-one ever looked at projects for Yorkshire as a whole, for example. In the last 10 years the most important project for Yorkshire in terms of the amount of value added it would have brought to the economy would have been the creation of a rail link to Immingham Dock. But because of the representiation on the RDA board this never happened. I suspect it will be a similar story with the LEPs.”

REPORT

Who’s on the board – York and North Yorkshire LEP Barry Dodd, chairman, GSM Group (chair)

Robert Miller, managing director, Bluebird Vehicles

Councillor James Alexander, City of York Council

Councillor Stephen Parnaby, East Riding of Yorkshire Council

David Bruce, business services director, Nestlé UK Councillor Tom Fox, Scarborough Borough Council

Nigel Pulling, chief executive, Yorkshire Agricultural Society

David Kerfoot, chief executive, The Kerfoot Group

Ruth Smith, chief executive, PM Management Consultants

Councillor Keith Knaggs, Ryedale District Council

Neil Warman, deputy chief executive, HML

Councillor Chris Knowles-Fitton, Craven District Council

Shaun Watts, managing director, Chameleon Business Interiors

Colin Mellors, Pro vice-chancellor, University of York

Councillor John Weighell, North Yorkshire County Council

Both Lumby and Dodd are keen to defend the behaviour of their own councillors from such an attack.

“I have been to two board meetings so far,” says Lumby, “and they have been functioning very nicely. These meetings are very much private sector led, with Neil Mclean (the chair man and former managing partner of DLA Piper in Leeds) carrying the casting vote.”

There is, however, the potential problem of the three Yorkshire LEPs, together with the Humber LEP when it is up and running, pulling in different directions.

Dodd, who had been active in various public sector and funding committees in the Yorkshire Forward days, was initially in favour of a pan-Yorkshire LEP when the LEPs were first mooted, precisely to overcome such a problem.

“We realised we wouldn’t get backing for it,” he says. “But we put together a list of things we wanted doing on a pan-Yorkshire level and at each of their first board meetings I am glad to say that the three LEPs have incorporated a statement based on those ideas. I am already meeting informally as well with Neil Mclean and James Newman (chairman of the Sheffield City Region LEP).”

He is also hopeful that the amount of overlap there is between the LEPs, particularly with York being in both organisations, could encourage collaboration.

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The smaller business sector might also wonder what part it can play. The projects that won funding in the first round of the Regional Growth Fund, including an extension of sweet maker Haribo’s factory in Pontefract and more investment for David Brown’s in Huddersfield, seem distinctly aimed at larger businesses.

Lumby says that was inevitable, because the first round was all focused on deliverability.

“We have spent a great deal of time working with the private sector in bringing things forward for Round 2,” he says. “The minimum bid has to be £1m, so we are looking at small companies working together.”

What about representation? Both Lumby and Dodd insist that applications to join their LEP boards were oversubscribed, and many applicants went away disappointed. So some might wonder why, four months into the project, the York and North Yorkshire LEP is still looking for a representative from the tourism sector to join the board.

Dodd, who was himself appointed by a panel made up of the chief executives of SeverfieldRowen and Nestle UK and the leader of North Yorkshire County Council, says that is only because three successful applicants in a row turned out not to be suitable because of conflicts with their day-to-day business. He is currently looking to “co-opt someone”.

In all, Beresford thinks that the LEPs have between six and 12 months to make a >>

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difference, before people start to lose interest.

Howie agrees that the “honeymoon” is coming to an end.

If nothing is achieved, says Beresford, it will be “tragedy of a missed opportunity”. “There will only be ad hoc proposals coming forward with no view to long-term strategic thinking,” she says.

She is already worried about clauses in the localism bill that might encourage separate councils to opt for elected mayors.

She claims this would inevitably lead to a clash of interests and personalities with the LEPs. It has to be said that the recent history of elected mayors in Yorkshire has not been good. Most of the first and second terms of Martin Winter, the first directly-elected mayor of Doncaster, were mired in controversy and infighting with his own local Labour party – to such an extent that he served out the last two years of his second and final term as an independent.

However Peter Davies, English Democrat mayor of Doncaster since 2010, is on the Sheffield City Region LEP board, and Newman says he has made a useful contribution in its five meetings so far. He commends the councillors on his board for their professionalism.

“The larger LEPS from metropolitan boroughs will have councillors who have had much more responsibility in the past than the likes of Oxfordshire or Peterborough, for example,” he says.

Dodd, however, says it will be “terrific” if in a year’s time people can look back and say his LEP made a difference. In the meantime, he thinks this idea of pared-down government might be catching on.

“I was discussing with Richard Flinton, the chief executive of North Yorkshire County Council, that this may be a better way of working for a public/private interface,” he says. “North Yorkshire is totally aligned with the LEP.” If that sounds alarming for people who are used to big government, Dodd is not bothered. “Success is normally measured by business growth,” he says. “That can but doesn’t always have to mean jobs growth.

People worry too much about size. Let’s look at content and collaboration instead.” n

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Who’s on the board – Sheffield City Region LEP James Newman, chairman, Finance Yorkshire (chair)

David Grey, group managing director, OSL Group

Philip Bartley, group chief executive, Adsetts Partnership

Councillor Stephen Houghton, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

Councillor Graham Baxter, North East Derbyshire District Council Nigel Brewster, managing director, Sewell Moorhouse Councillor John Burrows, Chesterfield Borough Council Simon Carr, managing director, Henry Boot Construction

Philip Jones, vice chancellor, Sheffield Hallam University Councillor Graham Oxby, Bassetlaw District Council Chris Scholey, chairman, Doncaster and Bassetlaw NHS Foundation Trust

Peter Davies, mayor of Doncaster

Councillor Roger Stone, Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council

Councillor Julie Dore, Sheffield City Council

Lee Strafford, co-founder and chief executive, PlusNet

Deborah Egan, director, The Electric Village

Councillor Eion Watts, Bolsover District Council

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after-sales a cast-iron guarantee Computers still form a vibrant retail sector, but so too does the bit we don’t see, the warranties and service contracts business, as Peter Baber discovers from the enterprising Chris Brooks

Alors monsieur, un moment, s’il vous plaît. Just imagine you are a well-established IT reseller in la belle France, mais vous avez un problème with your account with Hewlett Packard. You ring the contact number – mais oui, it is a Paris number. The person at the other end picks up the phone, and you imagine him or her in La Defense, looking down the Champs Elysée, with the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame also in view, oh la la. You do, don’t you?

Mais non, monsieur, vous n’avez pas raison.

It may be a Paris phone number you are ringing, but the person you are speaking to – while they are speaking perfect French – is sitting in a nondescript block in an office park in Skipton in Yorkshire. Zut alors! Encore les anglais!

That’s just one striking example of the inroads that Integrated Results, a marketing agency in Skipton, has made to the point where it is punching way above its £10m turnover.

Founded by Chris Brooks ten years ago, the agency still has only 34 members of staff. Yet it is already managing a crucial services sales channel for HP (or Hewlett-Packard, the world’s biggest computer manufacturer) for

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distributors and resellers across the whole of the UK – and in France for the past two years, and the Netherlands for the past six months.

The company was admittedly given a considerable boost some four years ago when Christophe Bouquet, HP’s worldwide vice-president for the services channel, announced that he viewed it as a best practice model that the rest of Europe should follow.

That’s one of the main reasons why the company has since taken over the French and Dutch markets, with other possibilities in the pipeline.

But Brooks is very clear on why warranties and service contracts are now so crucial.

“People will probably kill me for saying this,” he says, “but pretty much all computers are the same. The big manufacturers buy their components largely from the same factories.

So what is the point of differentiation, and where can I take cost out? The easiest place to save costs is to strip out the standard warranty.

That is why over the past few years you have seen warranties on laptops, desk-top models and even servers move from three years to one. All that service element was moved to >>

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Warranted: Chris Brooks has built a

successful business on the back of computer service contracts

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Enterprise: Chris Brooks has some refreshing ideas for taking Integrated Results forward hit a price point. So now, at the point where you buy, you can add service back in.”

The trouble for HP was that, even though service contracts offer resellers a much higher margin than products themselves, many resellers were either reluctant to spend time selling such contracts, or just plain couldn’t.

“The area is slightly complex,” says Brooks, “and it requires a little bit of knowledge to sell it comfortably, so some of the guys just weren’t doing that.”

Seven years ago HP asked Integrated Results to put together an integrated programme of communications and support to help more resellers to sell service contracts. When this proved successful, this work was extended to include managing the sale of HP’s Carepack, a post-warranty service contract that allows customers to extend their warranty by an extra 12 months.

“We started all this in March 2005,” says Brooks, “and in the first month we brought in slightly less than £50,000 in sales. We now do between £300,000 and £350,000. We have got much better at what we do.”

He thinks the success of this operation – now hived off into a subsidiary company called Support Warehouse – is down to very sophisticated data mining and continually improving the company’s in-house IT system to

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make sales easier. But it’s clear there has been some well-thought out diplomacy as well. The process of selling the Carepack services had to be carefully managed, for example, so as not to annoy those resellers who had taken selling such products to heart.

The ongoing success of this work has now seen the company move into being a distributor for HP, through its subsidiary TSD, launched in November last year. TSD, which focuses only on really high value customers, has already become an HP service contract specialist (SCS) provider.

Brooks claims that’s an accreditation that only four other companies in the UK have – and all of them are offshoots of multibillion pound multinational IT companies. For a £10m, single-site Yorkshire firm, it’s quite an achievement “It was a really interesting departure for HP as well,” says Brooks, “but they liked the idea that we were an organisation totally focused on services and wouldn’t be distracted by major hardware issues.

“We reckon the services contract business in the UK is probably worth about £40m,” he says, “and it would be good if we can get a nice slice of that.”

He hopes Support Warehouse can soon take over more overseas operations,

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particularly in Eastern Europe.

“We could certainly manage Poland from here,” he says, “and we could probably manage Russia from here as well.”

That’s one of the reasons why the company is in the process of changing banks to HSBC, which has a high street presence in all of those countries, rather than just a partner bank. The cost of transferring money between such partner banks in the past, says Brooks, has been a burden.

But isn’t there an underlying problem with all this success, in the shape of too much reliance on HP? Brooks insists that they do plenty of work for others. They have run a similar sales support service for Trend Micro, a security software company, and they also do occasional projects for the likes of Xerox and Apple.

Nevertheless, HP does account for around 80% of Integrated Results’ work. Surely he must be concerned at having so many eggs in one basket? After all, many companies start worrying when one client takes up more than a third of their turnover.

Brooks, however, seems strangely unconcerned. They have had discussions about working for another big vendor – it is the kind of subject that gets raised at their quarterly strategy meetings with their advisers Grant Thornton – but Brooks has his doubts.

“There is nothing in the contract that says we can’t have a conflicted client,” he says, “but I would be uncomfortable with that idea. Such a move changes our focus, our dedication and the commitment to finding the best solution to our client. As it is, within the HP basket we are dealing with six or seven entities inside HP, all of which are independent. So if we lost the UK account, we wouldn’t necessarily lose France or Holland.”

It would be different, he thinks, if Integrated Results had stayed as a marketing agency only – which is what he intended the company to be when he started it. In marketing, he says, you are lucky if you manage to stay with a major client for three years. But the move into managing selling, he says, has made the relationship much more sticky.

And that is mainly because of the way both he and commercial director Adrian Corns chose

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We reckon the services contract business in the UK is worth about £40m and it would be good to get a nice slice of that

to run the business from the start – without any retainers.

“Adey and I were never very comfortable with the idea of retainers,” he says. “Once you are paid a retainer, your next focus is to try and get another retainer from another big company, and then it becomes a matter of deciding how little you can get away with and still get paid a retainer. We have always put a performance-related element into everything we do. If we are successful in this we stand to win. If we are not successful we will come back to see if the approach can be modified, and if not we will walk away.”

He admits that approach is more uncomfortable for them as a business. But it also means they get to know much more about their client’s business because they have to.

“Because we have skin in the game,” he says, “we go back to our clients and say, ‘This one’s not working’. If you were on a retainer you wouldn’t stop. So we end up getting associated with stuff that is successful.”

He knew this approach was working when several years ago one client, a brusque South African, told him: “You know what I like about you guys? We don’t have to pay your school fees. You already know our industry and our channel so well.”And it’s true, says Brooks.

“The £10m speaks for itself,” he says. “It would be quite tough for someone to pick that up straight away, particularly when we have made very sure that HP understands all systems are bespoke.”

There again, being nonchalant about something that would give other business owners sleepless nights isn’t the only thing that marks out Brooks and Integrated Results.

Every customer, for example, is initially contacted by snail mail. Why? Because in-house research has confirmed that nowadays such letters are four times more likely to generate a response than an email, which can so easily fall victim to spam filters.

These letters are also franked by an oldfashioned franking machine.

Again, Brooks says his own research has led him to believe that customers are more likely to disregard anything that comes in a pre-paid envelope.

He has also built up a healthy sideline in doing admin tasks that other larger companies chose not to do.

One example is filling in HP product registration forms; a fiddly job, and one which resellers initially cited as a reason for not selling service contracts. HP itself wouldn’t take on the work, partly because of the employment costs of doing so, but Brooks was happy to oblige.

But this, he says, is also a vivid illustration of why he is glad he is not in a publiclylisted company with investors breathing down his neck.

“Like all publicly quoted companies, HP is obsessed with ratios,” he says. “They are always wanting to know, ‘What’s my profitability per head?’ And then: ‘Let’s reduce heads to make the ratio higher.’ I am not concerned about whether it’s a 15% margin or 1% margin, all I want to know is how many pound notes do I make. HP can’t take heads

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on to do this kind of admin work, because it dilutes profitability per head. But I will take it on, and if I can charge HP twice what it’s costing me, super.”

For a similar reason, he has never been inclined to invite private equity in, even if it would accelerate the company’s growth by at least two years.

“We could move much faster,” he says. “But then we would be having board meetings talking about ratios, and do I want to exit bigger or quicker? That’s not what it’s about.

It would affect our culture, and most of all the above and beyond way we manage our clients.”

So is there an exit planned? Yes, he and Corns are putting together a management team, and he thinks the next two years will see considerable merger activity in his market.

Someone who does not have the kind of accreditation Integrated Results has might see them as an interesting target. But he insists he is not a “typical businessman” in the way he thinks about this.

“If I was I would be talking to you about private equity and so on, and how do we get £750,000 and give nothing away? But Adey and I are clear: if we exit it will be about comfortable early retirement, not yachts and Ferraris. What a massive privilege that would be, to stop work before I’m 60 and still have a couple of nice holidays every year.

With other people almost the first thing is lease a Porsche.”

As it happens, Brooks is a bit of a petrolhead himself. He drives as Jaguar XF as his work car and also has a Lotus which he has souped up to take part in hill climb racing.

But perhaps we can allow him that as his hobby. He says pulling cars apart “taxes your brain in a different way” and is relaxing. Just the thing you need when you own a small company with so much to live up to. n

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SO MUCH SO NEAR SO FAR He initially signed up for three years, but Gary Verity’s term at the helm of Welcome to Yorkshire is open-ended and has been branded an unparalled success, as Peter Baber reports It is Monday morning in Harrogate and Gary Verity, chief executive of Welcome to Yorkshire, is recovering from having been to two rock concerts over the weekend. First there was Rod Stewart at Elland Road, and then Elton John on Sunday night at the Scarborough Open Air Theatre.

While he enjoyed those, there are two other concerts later in the year he is looking forward to even more – the Kaiser Chiefs’ homecoming gig in Leeds, and the Arctic Monkeys playing their home town again in Sheffield.

In case anyone thinks this is an example of people in high places benefiting from freebies we mere mortals have to pay for, only one of these concerts – the Rod Stewart one – was by invitation. Verity paid for all the rest.

And you never know, they might have been good research for work, particularly Elton John.

Because the singer revealed during his concert that, despite having a career that stretches right back to the late 1960s when he was just a jobbing musician, he had never actually

played in Scarborough. It wasn’t on his radar.

The concert, which opened the theatre’s 2011 season, has been a real boon for a town that is currently going through a renaissance, and for a venue that, before last year’s opening season, had been closed for nearly a quarter of a century.

Verity says Welcome to Yorkshire has not yet heard back from the superstar’s management

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company to see what they made of the 6,500-seat venue – now the biggest open-air theatre in Europe – but he says the vibes Elton John was giving off during his show suggest that he for one was impressed, not least with the additional 2,000 seats that had been brought in.

Nor is the bard of Pinner the only one to change his views about what the region has to offer. Verity says the successful changing of impressions is what he is most proud of bringing about in his three-year tenure as chief executive of what was the Yorkshire Tourist Board. He’s more proud of that than his organisation’s success in winning the World’s Leading Marketing Campaign at the World Travel Awards last November, or in persuading ITV to splash out on an early evening TV show all about the Dales.

But that’s not surprising, because changing people’s impressions about Yorkshire is all about branding, and Verity – now aged 46 – says brands are what he has been involved in all his career. >>

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Whatever I do in the future, I will want it to be something that has a brand and wants its profile raised – maybe the shine has come off it

“My background is as a chief executive turning around businesses,” he says. “That includes turning around Bradford and Bingley’s property business. It was losing a fortune when I arrived and it made a profit within a year. I also turned around Johnsons Dry Cleaners, and at the start of my career I managed Royal Insurance’s Hong Kong office, which was – and still is – its most successful overseas office.

“The theme running through all of these is the brand. They all had a strong brand image, and Yorkshire has that. Whatever I do in the future, I will want it to be something that has a brand and wants its profile raised – maybe the shine has come off it a bit.”

The shine, he says, has definitely come back to Yorkshire.

“You talk to businesses now and they say it is quite common to get young professionals coming here for their leisure breaks. Two years ago that wasn’t the case. At least such visits were certainly not as widespread as they are now.”

The key to that, he says, has been largely about making Yorkshire seem contemporary again. (You do have to wonder just how contemporary Elton John is, but then when you discover that the last person to perform at the Open Air Theatre before it closed in 1986 was James Last, there may be a point here.)

“We are helping to change perceptions,” says

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Verity. “What businesses tell me is that we are helping them sell, because when they are having conversations with suppliers or potential customers in other parts of the country, they have an image of Yorkshire as contemporary, rather than somewhere that is stuck in 1973. It’s not just about Dickie Bird.”

All this talk about making Yorkshire contemporary seems striking when we are sitting having this discussion over tea and sandwiches at Betty’s in Harrogate. Isn’t Betty’s an example of Yorkshire tradition, rather than Yorkshire contemporary?

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“Ah yes,” he says, “but Betty’s does tradition in a contemporary way. They are reinventing, but importantly they are not throwing the baby out with the bath water.

“One thing you should always know when you come to Yorkshire is that you are going to get a really good Yorkshire welcome. And nowhere is there a better example of that than here.”

One thing that might surprise some in the industry about such contemporising is Verity’s apparent relaxed attitude to the demise of the star-based hotel grading system. The whole

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issue of stars has been the subject of some debate in Yorkshire in recent years, not least with the rollercoaster history of the Ellington Hotel, now the New Ellington, in Leeds.

The Cedar Court Grand in York has also been trying to position itself as five-star.

Verity is pleased to see that the Government’s tourism policy – the first tourism policy that has ever been produced, he is keen to tell you – dispenses with star grading altogether.

“They see star ratings as a thing of the past,” he says. “With TripAdvisor and other social networks, you can see there isn’t a need for a compulsory system.

“I can tell you we get many more complaints from people who have stayed in inspected properties than from properties that weren’t inspected.”

So does that mean Cedar Court is wasting it’s time searching for those five stars? The answer seems to be no, not really – because the effort of getting there is worth it.

“By anybody’s definition Cedar Court is five-star standard,” says Verity. “But for large hotels the whole star system debate is interesting. Malmaison in Leeds, for example, is actually only three-star. But most people you mention that to are really surprised.

“Rudding Park has twice won the TripAdvisor Traveller’s Choice award for Best Hotel in UK. It’s an excellent hotel run by Peter Banks – one of the best hoteliers in the UK. But it is only four-star. How can that be? You have got to be really careful that people don’t get carried away by such gradings.

“How often have you been to a big hotel that might be five-star and the food has been really underwhelming? The real issue is the level of service, and your willingness to go back and tell others about it.”

So back to raising and keeping raised people’s impressions again. Few people would argue that Welcome to Yorkshire hasn’t done that, with its eye-catching TV adverts featuring the large “Y”. There are new items to promote as well, such as the recently opened Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield.

Recent history of regional arts-based projects has not always been positive. The Public in West Bromwich remains partially empty two years after its delayed opening. And there is an ongoing scandal in the South West about

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the escalating costs of Exeter Museum’s renovations. But Verity is adamant that the Hepworth will be a success.

“Bear in mind that we have form when it comes to sculpture in Yorkshire,” he says.

“There is the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, a phenomenal success story run by Peter Murray, an amazing man; the Henry Moore Institute in Leeds, and the work Harewood House does around sculpture. The Hepworth is the missing piece of the jigsaw.”

On the sporting side, he is particularly excited about the prospect of the Tour de France staging its Grand Depart in Yorkshire in 2016.

The famous cycle race likes to stage its opening two days in a foreign country every other year, and will be opening in Belgium in 2014.

Verity is pleased that, although discussions are still ongoing about the event, it was the race organisers themselves who chose to leak the news to the press. He was >>

Betty’s Harrogate The Café at No 1 Parliament Street in Harrogate may not always have been branded as Betty’s. It started off life as another Taylors of Harrogate-branded café in 1919. But it has been serving incredibly civilised teas, cakes and pastries to the genteel folk of Harrogate ever since then.

It’s easy to see why the name Betty’s has in the past few decades become synonymous with everything that is truly wonderful about Yorkshire. It’s very democratic for one thing – everyone, right up to the company’s chairman, has to wait in line to be seated. And while the place’s popularity might mean you have to hang around at peak times, when you get inside you quickly find it is worth the wait. You can be sure of tea and coffees of your choice being perfectly served in silver teapots and little nibbles arriving upon traditional three-tier cake stands.

If you are after something a little more substantial, the Montpellier Café Bar at the back serves dinners with a full wine selection too. Both sections are open from 9am to 9pm, and best of all, you can be sure that when you are settled at your table you won’t be disturbed by someone on the next table yak-yaking away on their mobile – a strict no-mobiles policy is in place.

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My background is as a chief executive turning around businesses.

That included Bradford and Bingley’s property business and Johnson’s Dry Cleaners

initially more inclined to stay quiet.

“But since then we have been approached by all sorts of different organisations who are saying, ‘What can we do to get behind this?’”

And that, he says should be the main aim of Welcome to Yorkshire.

“Our role must always remain as an economic driver within the county,” he says.

He dismisses as the argument that boosting tourism ultimately only boosts low-paid, low-skill jobs as lazy.

“Tourism gives people an opportunity, particularly now, when many young people are knocking around saying, ‘Where are the jobs going to be?’ The leisure sector is on the up, and there is a demand for good quality, hard-working staff. There are people making a good living in the tourism sector.”

He is heartened that all three chairmen of the emerging local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) have said they want Welcome to Yorkshire to continue promoting tourism.

He says: “At times like this, with the demise of Yorkshire Forward, two things could happen.

People could either club together or they could fragment.

“The danger for us is that Scotland and Wales have come together, so that if we fragment over the next two years and end up looking after each of our own little fiefdoms, while that may be entertaining in the short term, it

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

Five-star: Gary Verity’s insistent that Welcome to Yorkshire represents value for money will be hugely detrimental to the economic capacity of Yorkshire.”

But the demise of Yorkshire Forward is having an impact in more ways than just what each individual town or city decides to do. It will have a huge impact on funding, too.

Earlier this year, Welcome to Yorkshire secured a budget of £10m to take it up to next April, but after that it will be left on its own. So the organisation is currently going through the process of changing from being almost entirely publicly funded to being largely privately funded – something Verity admits

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is a challenge, and not only when it comes to money.

The main source of the new funding will be members – individual tourism businesses – paying a monthly membership.

“We aim to get as close to 6,000 members as we can,” he says. “That will be challenging, but not impossible.”

The problem with such privately-funded organisations, of course, is that small players always fear that they will have to pay the same to take part as the big boys, but will not have anything like as big a say. Verity insists that this

SUMMER 11

will not be the case with the new-look Welcome to Yorkshire.

“The fees will be proportionate to the size of your business,” he says, “and if you are a small business the monthly fee will be equivalent to the cost of the Daily Mail, and you can offset it against tax. But we have to avoid the freeriders – the people who think, ‘I am going to get all the benefits of profile raising, but I am not that interested in paying for it.’

“If you really are proud to be in Yorkshire, but you are not prepared to put the cost of the Daily Mail into this, that’s a really poor show.”

Such arrangements, he thinks, will bring their budget for the following year close to £5m.

On top of that, they are exploring the option of European Regional Development Funding, and are still in discussions with central

BUSINESS LUNCH

Government about some form of transition funding.

In these discussions he is focusing on how Welcome to Yorkshire provides excellent value for money.

“For every £1 invested in us, £40 goes into the Yorkshire economy, and £18 back to the Exchequer,” he says.

He believes that even without the devolved Government that Scotland might benefit from, Welcome to Yorkshire’s track record which stands up well to that of VisitScotland.

“They have £68m a year – we have £10m,” he says. “But I would argue that the profile we get is certainly as good as theirs. We are not running a poor second, we are certainly level pegging and are possibly slightly ahead.”

Yet he admits the current arrangement is very different from what it was when he started this job, his first-ever in the public sector. Then

the organisation was largely publicly funded with little sign of that changing.

So looking back, if he had known where he would be now, would he have taken it on? “Three years ago, quite a long time,” he says.

Yet if you think that is ducking the question, you would be wrong. Halfway through those three years, it turns out, Verity’s wife died, leaving him with an eight-year-old daughter to bring up. Understandably, he says the two of them now have different challenges.

“Life seems a lot more fragile,” he says, “and I find I do things a lot more on a day-to-day basis.”

That said, his contract has no official end date.

“It’s been a fantastic honour and privilege to have this role,” he says. “Whether it’s me or someone else who takes it forward, it has been a fantastic thing to have.” n

Let’s geteach to other know

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BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

MARSH ON WINE

SUMMER 11

MATCH OF THE DAY – ENGLAND AND SPAIN Two sparkling wines – one with bubbles – take the eye of Roger Marsh, Leeds office senior partner, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP To be asked to critique two very different but acclaimed wines – one of which I know and enjoy and the other a newer arrival – is both a challenge and a pleasure.

Turning first to the one with bubbles, the award-winning 2006 Gusbourne Estate Blanc de Blancs, is made from 100% chardonnay grapes – grown in Kent. A sparkling wine from Britain, I hear you say; how can that be up to much when compared to the well-established new world alternatives like Cloudy Bay’s Pelorus and to the grand champagne houses?

Well, it is nice, although with sharp yeasty aromas. Whilst creamy, the classic paleness throws out a thin apple-like fruit colour.

For me the dilemma is being amazed that such a wine can be produced from grapes grown in the Garden of England – and to become an award winner in its first outing – put alongside

the better value-for-money (due to the volumes produced) new world sparklers. To support Methode Anglaise bubbles at the price of the real thing is the challenge.

Nonetheless, Andrew Weeber, the South African-born orthopaedic surgeon who owns the estate, has challenged successfully that when it comes to champagne viniculture, ‘Made in Britain’ is to be taken seriously.

Now to one of my favourite wines, the quintessential Marques de Murrieta Castillo Ygay Gran Reserve Cosecha Especial Rioja 2001 – a mouthful in more ways than one.

I first tasted these wines nearly 20 years ago – including the 1964 vintage. Since then they have remained a favourite of mine from the many excellent red wines from Spain, such as Muga and La Rioja Alta 904. Unlike the newer Gusbourne Estate, the Ygay Bodega, located

When it comes to champagne viniculture, ‘Made in Britain’ is to be taken seriously

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

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in La Rioja Alta, dates back to 1852. Marques de Murrieta is one of the few Spanish wineries whose wines are made from 100% of its own grapes.

My sample is made principally from the tempranillo grape – Spain’s answer to cabernet sauvignon – to produce deepcoloured and long-lasting wines. The grape is indigenous to the Rioja region, the name coming from the Spanish word “temprano” which means early, given its propensity to ripen earlier than most others.

This wine is only made in stellar vintages – as it was in Rioja in 2001. It is very complex with the boldness of the best from Bordeaux but with the cherry, chocolate spiciness of those from the Rhone. It is a wine that will develop from many, many years to come, benefitting from its long barrel ageing in American oak casks which befit its “gran reserve” status.

So there we are, two sparkling wines, old and new – one with bubbles – that demonstrate the ever-expanding quality that is available to oenologists and bon viveurs alike. ■ Wines supplied by Lewis & Cooper of Northallerton and Yarm, www.lewisandcooper.co.uk

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MARSH ON WINE

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

FASHION

SUMMER 11

FEEL THE QUALITY

They’re worn by those who know that superb quality and

meticulous detail are all-important. Chris Porter gets into a Zilli shirt

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

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SUMMER 11

FASHION

There is still a customer concerned with getting fewer, better products.

They’re a minority.

But gentlemen have always been a minority

“The shirt is still a key part of the male wardrobe because it is one of the most adaptable elements. With the same suit you can have many different looks via different shirts.

“Certainly dress policies are changing the feel of the shirt – it’s softer, for example – but that has also given men more freedom to choose the kind of shirt they wear and the more

Bespoke: Zilli shirts are among the best – and the most expensive – in the world, but what a shirt it is

interesting patterns they want to display.

They don’t have to go for the standard plain blue or white, which no man really wants to spend much money on because it’s just not that exciting.”

Laurent Negrin, sales director and head of the Italian shirt-making operation bought by the French luxury menswear brand Zilli two years ago and now back at capacity, sits back and surveys the clinical production line below – part old-fashioned hand-craft, part hi-tech, laser-guided machinery of the firm’s own invention. That Negrin should mention the readiness to spend is apposite; but that he should speak of his customer as though they perhaps have only a couple of suits is rather misleading. After all, the price of a bespoke

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Zilli shirt starts at around £600. Even one of its ready-to-wear shirts is upwards of £350. That’s right – just for a shirt.

It is, admittedly, some shirt. Indeed, Zilli likes to think that it now makes one of the best shirts in the world, beloved of presidents, oil tycoons and Russian oligarchs; men who might well buy a Zilli shirt just because it is so expensive.

A regard for the details might not come into it.

And details there are. Once you have selected from dozens of collar and cuff styles, and from over 450 fabrics, decided whether to have the buttons monogrammed, apply the quality benchmark of shirts and note, for example, how the striped or patterned cloth of each part of the shirt is meticulously matched. Or how each cuff is finished so that the edge >>

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

FASHION

SUMMER 11

ends on the lighter stripe of the fabric. Why? Any wear through abrasion is less likely to show that way.

“And, as for losing a button,” says Negrin, “that is just not acceptable on a shirt of this price. I’ve experienced that after a couple of wears of shirts from others who claim to be among the best makers around. It doesn’t happen here.” Once a button is stitched on,

Secure: The mother-of-pearl buttons on a Zilli shirt are specially stitched and raised from the material to help fastening

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

the holding thread is wrapped with a coil of more thread that not only makes the button doubly secure, but raises it slightly from the shirt to make fastening less fiddly. The mother-of-pearl buttons, naturally, are what the Italians call “nuno volato” (without any cloud). Pure, flawless white, in other words.

Still, a £350 shirt, let alone a £600 one, remains a tough call for all but the Forbes Top 100 – even one that, following the planned launch of a unique service, will see Zilli offering all of its bespoke customers a lifetime MoT for your purchase – send it back and they will replace worn collars or cuffs.

Negrin argues that this is a consequence of the gradual devaluation of the shirtmaker’s skill. This has come as a result of shirts of

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average quality being overpriced (“when you see a white poplin designer shirt on sale for £250 and know that the fabric cost three euros a metre, well...” he says with a sigh).

But it is also a consequence of de-valuation of the perceived worth of a shirt following even Jermyn Street’s pursuit of volume over quality. “‘Three shirts for £100’ type deals have ruined the image of the shirt,” Negrin says, “though at least that has allowed the real shirtmakers, with traditional quality, to shine. Lots of brands have, of course, been bothered about margins. But by definition such deals mean you can’t be getting a great product.

“Fortunately there is still a customer concerned with getting fewer, better products.

They’re a minority. But then gentlemen >>

Admittedly, it is some shirt. Zilli likes to think it now makes one of the best shirts in the world, beloved of presidents, oil tycoons and Russian oligarchs

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FASHION

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As for losing a button, that is just not acceptable on a shirt of this price. It doesn’t happen here

have always been a minority. Do the changes to the industry make it harder to sell? Not really. It’s a different world. It’s comparing a Fiat with a Ferrari.”

Negrin is confident in his boast. And the somewhat anal obsessiveness employed in producing a Zilli shirt is extensive – one unique, labour-intensive operation, for example, the thread attaches the cuff to sleeve and is fed back into the cuff’s hem, hidden but left loose – the lack of tension in the thread means your cuffs won’t pucker when washed.

Of course, you will no doubt want to avoid shrinkage of your bank-breaking shirt, should you dare to wash it at all. Zilli has considered that too – the fabric is laundered to remove shrinkage and, as though exhausted by the

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

experience, is allowed to “rest” before it is hand cut. Even some thread is washed for the same effect. Not that you can really see the thread – your shirt is crafted using minuscule stitches, between nine and 12 per centimetre, against an industry standard of just six.

“It’s a process of education for a man to understand what makes a truly good shirt these days,” says Negrin. “You need someone to draw your attention to the details, because details are what luxury is all about. That takes both the media to get that message across – because what any brand says is just a point of view – and personal experience. It really pays to spend some time with a couple of shirts and compare them. Really look at how

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they are put together. It’s amazing how even some shirtmakers with great reputations are making shirts that on close inspection are not always great.”

Still unconvinced that several hundred pounds on a single shirt can ever be justified?

Put it this way. One could argue that, if one had unlimited funds, one would have the pick of the world’s shirts. One would probably have tried all the shirts that promised to be the best.

So consider the unnamed Russian businessman who contacted Zilli this spring requesting 50 of their bespoke shirts “as a trial”. Coolly, Negrin offered to make him one, to try that out first.

This done, a few weeks later he called them back. He would take the full 50. And another 350 please. n

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MOTORING

SUMMER 11

ROCKET MAN

James V Vincent took the Jaguar XKR on the motorway to Newcastle – “an absolute pleasure”

James V Vincent, managing director at Royal Armouries International, drives the Jaguar XKR convertible BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

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SUMMER 11

MOTORING

The Jaguar XKR upholds the classic XK tradition of superb styling and amazing performance that aficionados love All you want for Christmas? You’d better believe it… a supercharged version of the standard XK. When BQ handed over the keys from Appleyard Jaguar I was immediately struck by its out-and-out beauty. If Leeds Royal Armouries did cars, this would certainly be on display. Perhaps I could swing it for the James Bond version with the rocket launchers? The interior, too, is absolutely breathtaking with yards of leather and all the gadgets and controls coming easily to hand.

I really enjoyed the touch screen that allowed me to control everything – including the mightily impressive sound system – with the tap of a finger.

The XKR really sets itself apart from other cars both in its appearance and manner. But a car like this is meant for speed and when the supercharger kicks in, the power hikes and you quite simply feel like you’re floating along in a road version of a high-tech rocket – unexpectedly smooth with seamless delivery of power and imperceptible gear changes.

It was an absolute pleasure to drive. It eats up the road and, travelling up the A1M to Newcastle, the slightest blip of the accelerator brought in the thrilling sound of the

supercharger and the “we have lift off” acceleration. I couldn’t help wondering just what is this engine really capable of and speculated if a quick jaunt to Germany and a blast down the autobahns might be possible.

Maybe next time. Perhaps.

With the arrival of the undeniably fantastic new XF and XJ model range, there’s a tendency to forget the importance of what to me remains the quintessential Jaguar model – the XK. It has, after all, been the touchstone for so much of the cross-range development work that has come downstream of it. OK, so you get two fewer usable seats, but to my mind it’s still more of a headturner than the

newcomers and remains the poster boy for Jaguar’s sporting personality.

It’s a little lighter, a little louder under hard throttle, and more responsive – throttle, steering, brakes – than even the XFR. In cold figures, the power/weight ratio jumps from the XFR’s 270bhp/ton to 291bhp/ton and the 4.6sec 0-62mph time shaves a tenth from the saloon’s performance.

It shares the amazing new 5-litre supercharged V8 (503bhp at 6000-6500rpm, 461lb ft at 2500-5500rpm) with the XK and the exterior and cabin have been treated to a similar R-style makeover.

I know there is a new version of the XK on the drawing board, but I’m delighted that the early pictures and information I’ve received show that it will be tweaked, sharpened and improved rather than completely rewritten. Good news for lovers of this iconic British sportscar. ■ The model driven was the XKR 5.0 S/C Convertible OTR £84,550 with the XK range starting from £65,000.

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Supplied by Appleyard Jaguar, Bradford, 01274 514 400

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

EQUIPMENT

SUMMER 11

icons in the making Watch design is going through a period of enormous upheaval. Chris Porter checks out the innovation and style going into what are essentially works of art

With its bold yellow dial alone it would be a strikingly different watch design. The fact that it is shaped like an asterisk, and that the time is told by a series of overlapping tape measurestyle read-outs, makes it positively unique.

The concept piece, called the Ora, is the brainchild of award-winning product designer Alexandros Stasinopoulos, who follows in the footsteps of design maestros Philippe Starck and Marc Newson in creating watches that look anything but classical.

“No matter how much you spend on a watch, you may have an innovative mechanism but invariably it will look much like any other watch,” says Stasinopoulos. “In fact, the more connoisseur the market, the more conservative it seems to become.

There is a hesitancy to experiment, that is a product of the industry using more watchmakers than watch designers.”

That has been all the more true in recent years, with the recession prompting a

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

retrenchment in not only historic brands but classical styles of watch – all white dials and Roman numerals.

“The game has changed and the watch industry has broken in two,” notes Mikael Bourgeois, founder of MB Watches, which has recently launched the industry’s first semi-bespoke range. “On the one side are the major brands that will come out of the crisis thanks to their reputation and on the other are small but much more innovative brands attracting the attention of collectors.“ The collection offers seven unique models, each styled after the seven deadly sins; each made to order with some customisation.

While that more specialist market may be niche, increasingly Stasinopoulos and Bourgeois are not alone in seeking to push the limits of our expectations as to what a watch can look like or how it might work. As watch expert and founder of dealers/makers Watchismo.com Mitch Greenblatt observes, >>

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EQUIPMENT

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EQUIPMENT

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Who wants a watch inspired by those first made a couple of centuries ago?

Create something new

the famed Swiss watch industry is revealing a new seam of avant garde haute horlogerie which is marking a period of innovation not seen since the 1960s – when the bold styles produced by boutique brands reflected the future-thinking of the space race.

“There are many cool watch designs now that may not make it beyond concept stage but are paving the way for new, independent watchmakers with new styles down the line,” says Gleenblatt. “They may not be to mainstream tastes but they at least challenge them.”

He cites the likes of the experimental Quantum Gravity C-1 from Concord – which, radically, fitted the tourbillon cage outside of the movement and case, making it winner of the Best Design award from the Grand Prix d’Horlogerie de Geneve – or the watches from Swiss-trained Finnish designer-maker Stepan Sarpaneva.

Indeed, arguably there should be an increasing demand for difference – in times of the ubiquitous cellphone, watches are no longer required as functional devices but rather as expressions of status, craft or creativity. They

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

may be wonders of mechanics in miniature, but they may even be artworks too – one design from Romain Jerome, for example, is made out of untreated steel and will eventually irreparably rust and seize up – a more philosophical comment on the nature of time perhaps. It is, as the company’s visionary founder Yvan Arpa put it, “a crazy idea”.

One whose time has come perhaps.

Maximillian Busser founded MB & F, a project launched three years ago to create “horological machines” with some of the industry’s leading watchmakers, with three models so far pushing boundaries of movement design but also introducing a Jules Verne aesthetic.

One of its best known models is the HM4 Thunderbolt, in which the mechanism, three years in development, is positioned to allow the read out through what looks to be two tint jet engines.

“When they launched not everyone understood such watches and sales were pitiful (compared with mainstream brands),” says Busser. “But that’s changing. Just as painting returned after the impact of photography, but did so with the abstract and impressionist, so now the mechanical watch industry, which was almost destroyed by the advent of quartz, is getting abstract too.”

Even esteemed jeweller Harry Winston, of which Busser was CEO, is getting in on the new style with its acclaimed Opus series.

Urwerk, one of the pioneers of this new market, recently launched its equally arresting CC1. Its linear design is a reminder of how historically humankind has perceived time, not as endlessly circular, as most watches present it, but as following a single line of direction.

“It’s important to me that a watch should still

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tell the time, or show an aspect of time, but not necessarily in the traditional way,” says Martin Frei, Urwerk’s chief engineer, who tellingly trained not as a watchmaker but an artist and counts Duchamp, Mies van der Rohe and Star Wars among his influences.

“Who wants a watch inspired by those first made a couple of centuries ago? Create something new and demand follows.”

Jean-Francois Ruchonnet, however, is not so sure. He believes such avant garde designs will remain a particular taste, due less to a limited demand as an institutional lack of adventurousness in the Swiss watch industry.

He says: “No question designing watches like these are a risk – you’re often not just making a watch that looks different but starting with a blank piece of paper and spending four years developing a new movement, to make something people will either love or hate.”

And he should know; Ruchonnet is the designer of Tag Heuer’s V4 – of which only 100 were made, selling out but only recouping the company its research and development costs – and founder-designer of the boutique brand Cabestan. That is the brand behind the icon-in-the-making Winch Tourbillon Vertical – a watch powered not by typical cogs or springs, but by a tiny chain and a miniscule winch of the kind used to wind up ropes on yachts.

“Unfortunately, most watch companies are run by financial people now and don’t see any value in risk,” he says. “It’s a big mistake, because increasingly the internet allows people to discover the true value of what they’re making. People increasingly see value in difference. That leaves those few companies making original designs as outsiders. We’re the Robin Hoods of the watch industry.” n

SUMMER 11

COMPANY PROFILE

Eddie Brown Tours secures £200,000 of new funding from Yorkshire Bank

SUPPORTING CUSTOMERS SPEAKS FOR ITSELF

N

EW or old, customers are at the heart of everything we do at Yorkshire Bank.

The Small Business service we launched in February is no different; products, services and people aligned to help customers. Already businesses across the region are benefiting from Yorkshire Bank’s support.

Pegasus Décor has been operating in Halifax for over 20 years, providing ready made curtains and soft furnishing, plus a bespoke design service, across Calderdale and Kirklees. Since taking over the interior furnishings business on Skircoat Road 2 years ago, owner Edvin Vaz has breathed new life in to it and was looking to expand the number of lines he can offer and improve tooling.

We were able to provide the loan Mr Vaz needed under the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme: the Government backed scheme that allows banks, like Yorkshire, to offer loans to help small businesses grow and develop where it may not otherwise be available due to a lack of security.

Mr Vaz also took merchant acquirer services from the Bank, ensuring he can efficiently process card payments.

Mr Vaz said, “With the funding from Yorkshire Bank, I am very happy that I have been able to put plans to grow my business in to effect. This should also give customers confidence that we are planning for a long-term future.”

A Gateshead business centre which provides serviced office space for several other small businesses, secured its immediate future by purchasing the premises with funding from Yorkshire Bank.

Aone Business Centre had planned to fund the purchase through another lender, however, funding was withdrawn at the last minute and they stood to lose their investment. With just 3 weeks until the option lapsed they turned to Yorkshire Bank’s small business manager, Jane Gibson.

Philip Brown (left) of Eddie Brown Tours and David Wright of Yorkshire Bank

THEY CHOSE US BECAUSE THE SUCCESS OF THEIR BUSINESS IS IMPORTANT TO THEM David Phillips, operations director at Aone Business Centre, said: “We were let down very late in the day and thought that we would lose the option to buy the site at Summerhill and the £50,000 we’ve invested in refurbishing it.

However, Jane and the Yorkshire Bank team could not have been more helpful and efficient. It is

thanks to their ability to look at the business on its merits and turn it around quickly that we have secured not just our immediate future but those of the other small businesses that use the centre.”

Family run business, Eddie Brown Tours, has been in operation for over 60 years and is based at Thorp Arch in Wetherby. The firm secured £200,000 of new funding from Yorkshire Bank for the purchase of a top-of-the-range coach. Their new coach added to their 47-strong luxury fleet, which ranges from 7 to 70 seats; providing coach hire, coach trips around the UK and Europe and local bus services in North Yorkshire.

The business prides itself on investing in its fleet and turned to Yorkshire Bank for the first time to secure funding for this new addition. Eddie Brown Tours Director, Philip Brown, was very pleased by the Bank’s pricing and the availability of funding.

Philip said: “This is the first time we have worked with Yorkshire Bank and we have found them to be very accessible and competitive. David Wright from the Bank was very professional in our dealings and I am very pleased with the outcome. This new luxury coach will ensure that we maintain the high standard of vehicle that customers expect of Eddie Brown Tours.”

These are just some of the small businesses customers Yorkshire Bank have helped in the last few months. They chose us because the success of their business is important to them. And it is important to us too, that’s why we are always thinking about ways to support them.

More information about the products and service from Yorkshire Bank is available by calling 0800 032 3971 or online at: www.ybonline.co.uk/smallbusiness

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SUCCESS STORY

SUMMER 11

MAKING SCARBOROUGH FAIR A much neglected building could be a boost for Scarborough’s tourism industry. Only not so long ago that was a promise made at nearby Bridlington too. Peter Baber reports

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Arriving at Scarborough South Bay is spectacular. Coming down the steep hill you have a sweeping view of the sea as you go under the Victorian Cliff Bridge with the Cliff Tram and the imposing presence of the Grand Hotel – like the Carlton at Cannes, only Yorkshire-style – to the left of you.

At the bottom of the hill, you come to a roundabout that faces straight onto the beach front. A great many people arriving (once they have parked their car in the underground car park) would then probably take a turn to the left, to access the amusement arcades and donkey rides that Scarborough is famous for – not to mention Lunar Park at the end of the beach and imposing Scarborough Castle beyond it.

This year, however, a fair few people in the town and in the council are hoping that instead, increasing numbers will turn to the right. Because there, after a walk of a hundred yards or so, you come to a building that in many ways was the start of what Scarborough is all about.

After many years of dilapidation, the Scarborough Spa, as the building is called, has had a £6.5m facelift. It’s part of a programme of redevelopment that has also seen £3.5m going to the newly-opened Open Air Theatre.

Only unlike that venue, the Spa is hoping to attract the conference trade as well as entertainment acts – and all around the year, not just for six weeks in the summer.

If the current team behind the plan is successful, it will certainly bring a new lease of life to a complex that is already steeped in history.

SUCCESS STORY

The reason why the Spa can claim to be the foundation of the town is that it was here in the 1620s, long before the town became a seaside resort, that a certain Mrs Farrer first discovered a natural spring whose waters were said to be medicinal. People flocked to take the waters, even if at the time that involved climbing down the cliff, and even as the town opened up as a seaside resort as well (the first bathing machines appeared in the 1730s), the waters remained an attraction.

By the 19th century the Spa had gained a reputation for music as well. The present Grand Hall opened in 1886 after the previous version designed by Joseph Paxton, the man responsible for London’s Crystal Palace, had burned down in a fire.

Sadly, as with many English seaside resorts, things began to change in the 1960s. People stopped taking the waters, and in fact the only evidence of there ever having been an actual spa on the site today is a well underneath the shops on the Spa frontage. Sadly, current health and safety rules prohibit the general public going to see that.

But even as recently as the 1980s Nick Taylor, who then worked at the Crown Spa Hotel up above the Spa itself, remembers older people coming to the hotel and staying for a fortnight to go and listen to the then legendary Max Jaffa and his Palm Court Orchestra playing in the Sun Court, a sheltered terrace at the Spa that looks straight out onto the sea.

Jaffa died in 1991, although music at the Spa lives on. The permanent orchestra there is now the longest-surviving seaside orchestra in the country, celebrating its 99th birthday this year.

But as far as the building went, in the years that followed, even on the conference side, things took a turn for the worse. A lack of

investment and more competition from other destinations meant fewer people came. In the end, what had been a dedicated Scarboroughonly conference desk merged with a more diffuse organisation covering York and Scarborough.

“I would say that in the 1980s, 35% of our business was Spa business,” says Taylor.

“That went down to 10% as short breaks and day breaks took over. The level of investment was poor.”

Richard Frank, who bought the Crown Spa Hotel with his brother in February 2000 when it had just been downgraded to two-star, remembers the old days too.

“The Spa certainly had its heyday in the 1980s and early 1990s when Maggie Thatcher came for the Tory conference,” he says. “She stayed at the Crown Spa when it was then owned by Trusthouse Forte.”

It is to redress this decline that the investment in the Spa as a conference centre has been made. The £6.5m is considerably less than the £20.5m that Yorkshire Forward, the European Regional Development Fund and East Riding Council spent on refurbishing a similar venue in Bridlington just down the coast, confusingly also called the Spa. It opened in 2008. But Frank thinks the Spa Bridlington benefited from an opportunity that is unlikely to be repeated.

“By the time we were applying for money that kind of largesse was drying out,” he says.

He still thinks it is wise of Scarborough Council to have spent the money on more than one venue.

In any case, says Jo Ager, sales development manager for the Scarborough Spa, the Bridlington project was to all intents and purposes a rebuild. In Scarborough, the >>

If the team behind the plan is successful, it will bring a new lease of life to a complex already steeped in history

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Adaptable: Scarborough Spa has been designed with flexibility very much in mind

team – including Swanky Haden Connell Architects, engineering companies Charles Andrew and Scott Hughes Design, and led

by Drivers Jonas Deloitte – has just modified the building.

Chief among the alterations were excavations beneath the floor. This has opened space out in the basement to allow for more rehearsal and break-out rooms. A former caretaker’s flat, abandoned since the 1950s, has also been converted to serve a similar purpose. But the excavations also mean that the stalls seats in the Grand Hall, which now benefits from a new floor, can be rolled forward and into the orchestra pit to clear the space if it is needed, for example, for a banquet.

“Clearing the chairs used to take the best part of a day,” says Ager. “Now this area can be transformed in two hours.”

The hall itself, a grand Victorian affair, can sit

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1,700 people, or around 700 for a banquet.

The Spa also benefits from an in-house catering team.

Elsewhere, the renovations have eased access to a smaller Victorian theatre upstairs in the building – the perfect place for a small seminar while the main conference is going on. In an unusual move, the Spa has opted not to have a permanent bar, but to have different areas where a temporary bar can be set up instead.

Ager says this allows for maximum flexibility.

Investment hasn’t just gone into the structure either. Before Ager – who worked in events for local printers Pindar – arrived two years ago, the Spa had no dedicated sales team. Things had been allowed to run down that much.

“It was very much repeat business,” she says.

Now the team behind her is 10-strong.

Despite the improvements, she is not sure yet whether Scarborough as a conference

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destination is ready to compete with the likes of Blackpool. She prefers to compare the town with Southport, and is tentatively exploring the possibility of partnering with the Merseyside resort to go out and offer a package to conference organisers of one venue one year, the other venue the next.

“We would be a good destination for sub-groups, and for associations,” she says. “It would be good to get a political conference, but of course they are much bigger these days.

We would probably try to go for something like the Tory Spring Conference.”

But Frank says she is being unnecessarily modest. He himself has managed to fund all the improvements at his hotel to bring it back to four-star status out of revenue earned.

“I now think Scarborough is definitely better than Southport,” he says. “And as for the Winter Gardens in Blackpool, the last time I went there I thought they were in dire need of investment. We are fortunate in that the hotels here are clustered around the conference centre. In Southport everything is under ground, whereas in the Spa you are looking straight out at the sea.”

That may not be a totally unmixed blessing.

Ager says that even in the time she has been here, during winter conferences the waves from the turbulent North Sea have been known to crash in right over the terrace, spraying the windows. Exhilarating for some, unnerving for others.

In fact Frank, who sees Scarborough as the natural end of a line of prime conference locations based along what he loosely defines

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The theatre was wonderful. It was super, a really idyllic setting.

People didn’t have a bad word to say as the M62 corridor, believes the trend in recent years for some inland towns to poach the conference trade away from traditional seaside resorts may be coming to an end.

“A lot of those councils have been subsidising conferences,” he says, “and now the public sector funding is being cut back, that might change.”

As it happens, the first organisation to have held a conference at Scarborough Spa following its refurbishment was a political party – although not the Conservatives or Labour. UKIP held its national conference at the Spa in March, and organiser Emma Lund says that, although some scaffolding was still up, it was an impressive achievement.

“I had only ever been to the Spa before for a for a hunt ball,” says Lund, who lives on a farm near Malton. “But the theatre was wonderful. It was super, a really idyllic setting.

It can take 700 people and we were nearly full. People didn’t have a bad word to say, although to be fair I don’t actually think they

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had too many preconceptions about Scarborough. I would book again.”

It has to be said, however, that in trying to attract new conferences, the Scarborough Spa is bound to be competing in some people’s eyes with its counterpart just 20 miles down the road in Bridlington. Andrew Aldis, general manager of the Spa Bridlington, says the two are not rivals.

“There would be no point in our two towns competing,” he says.

He says he is in regular consultation with Jeremy Harthill, the general manager at the Scarborough Spa, who previously worked at the Spa Bridlington, to make sure they do not put on conflicting events. And the Spa Bridlington’s diary is mainly full of entertainment acts.

Nevertheless, in June this year the Spa Bridlington held the eastern half of the Yorkshire International Business Convention, one of the biggest events on the Yorkshire conference calendar. Aldis says his venue has the edge over Scarborough in that it can hold up to 3,800 – as long as they are standing. No wonder Alexandra Burke chose to play there.

In return, Ager says what Scarborough can offer that Bridlington cannot is four-star hotel accommodation – not just the Crown Spa, but for example, the five-star Sands Resort on the North Bay too. That can often be the clincher for large conferences.

Aldis agrees that accommodation in Bridlington has been an issue.

“It’s not so much the quality of accommodation as the size,” he says.

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“Conference organisers frequently want everybody in one hotel. But we do have a venue desk which can arrange bookings, and if they want to eat together we can arrange that at the Spa.” He is also looking forward to a long-term plan East Riding council is putting forward to demolish a swathe of buildings to make way for a marina and retail park that, once sold, will in turn pay for a hotel. But that, of course, is some way off. And the public funding environment has changed.

So what can the likes of Scarborough and Bridlington do to boost what they have even further?

Frank thinks interested parties in Scarborough should revisit Kissing Sleeping Beauty, a programme Scarborough put together under Yorkshire Forward’s Renaissance programme that did lead to a number of improvements, including the refurbishment and reopening of Scarborough’s Rotunda Museum.

“We need to look back over the 10 years, work out what we have done and what still needs to be done,” he says.

Taylor was actually responsible for implementing Kissing Sleeping Beauty as renaissance manager, and following Yorkshire Forward’s demise, is now employed full-time

by Scarborough Borough Council as an investment manager. He sees possibilities for the town in the growth of offshore windfarms and mining company Sirius’s plans to explore the potential of mining potash between Scarborough and Whitby.

Going out to the community is also something Aldis is keen to do in Bridlington.

“When we first opened the community loved the building and were proud of it,” he says.

“But now they want to know what is happening inside, so we are doing more things like offering free venue tours.”

It’s a sign of the times, however, that these tours are being conducted by himself and two colleagues as volunteers. Just as 15 staff are coming in on a voluntary basis later this month to put together garden packs to send out to local schoolchildren to promote Jack and the Beanstalk, the Christmas panto, starring Charlie Dimmock. After so much funding, a little volunteering seems necessary. n

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ENTREPRENEUR

GETTING SERIOUS ABOUT FUN A new way of getting little girls into ballet has proved more successful than its founder could ever have imagined, Claire O’Connor tells Peter Baber

All little girls like to learn ballet, don’t they, just as all little girls have dreams that one day they might just be a ballerina. But of course training to become such a thing in real life takes many, many hours, days and weeks of exhausting and often painful bar work.

And, what happens to those little girls who don’t quite make it?

If Claire O’Connor has anything to do with it, they go to Babyballet, and will probably have more of a fun time anyway.

O’Connor founded her dance school for mainly pre-school children in Halifax six years ago. It wasn’t necessarily for ballet school rejects, but for anyone who wanted their little girl – or boy – to take initial steps in learning to dance without feeling they are in some sort of competition where they are always being judged.

She was clearly onto something, because in May this year Babyballet signed up its 30th franchisee in Mansfield. And there is clearly an appetite for more – O’Connor says she is currently getting around five enquiries from would-be franchisees every single day.

She came up with the idea because of her own experience as a girl.

“My mum had a very traditional ballet school in Huddersfield,” she says, “so I grew up in the world of dance. I went until I was 14, but the way it was taught didn’t particularly suit

my outgoing personality. I went to the classes but didn’t really respond to them. I suppose it was my personality and the discipline, but it was always based on the thinnest and the best. I had a lot of confidence knocked out of me. That kind of teaching still happens today.”

The Babyballet approach is different. Children are allowed to progress under their own terms, and they aren’t necessarily taught strict ballet from the start. Most of all, a sense of fun is brought into the whole business and that’s something you immediately notice as soon as you come into Babyballet’s headquarters in a converted mill next to the Eureka! Museum in Halifax. You go from a dreary grey and heavily-gated exterior into one that is full of pink, cartoon characters and fluffy furniture.

O’Connor says she now loves ballet, but it just wasn’t the right fit for someone who was always the clown in class at school.

“Ballet is all focused on the best,” she says.

“The ballet industry is still fantastic, but I felt there was something missing – the huge fun element. When you get down to it, little daughters just want to have fun.”

But Babyballet isn’t one of those places that actively encourages young children not to be competitive. Far from it. Although O’Connor has devised her own syllabus for all the

children who come to the classes – and in Halifax alone there are more than 800 children every week – the classes are designed to blend with other programmes so that children have something to move on to by the time they become too old to carry on with Babyballet.

“We have grown our reputation through standards we are achieving,” she says.

“Feeding into other schools is benefiting the ballet world. I read somewhere that the numbers entering the Royal Academy of Dance are down. Well, ours are up. We had 80 children in one exam set, all between five and seven, but we are still feeding them in with this attitude that ballet is great fun.”

Nor is it just the children who are benefiting from the experience; O’Connor says the franchised business is ideally suited for working mothers – and she should know, being a mother of two herself. There are actually 34 franchisees now, because five franchises are a partnership. But of those 34, 27 are mothers.

“It generally suits the lifestyle of women who are very career-minded,” she says. “Quite a few of our working mums have come from very corporate backgrounds. They still wanted to do something for themselves, but wanted to be more of an at-home mum.”

Such women are also often very good >>

The ballet industry is still fantastic, but I felt there was something missing – the huge fun element

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business is run. Although five enquiries a day might sound a lot, O’Connor says it’s only a “low percentage” of those enquiries who actually get taken on.

“We do have very tight contracts focused on brand standards,” she says. “This business is my baby that has now grown, and I want to keep it that way. The franchisees run their own business and we want to give them support, but I want to keep it that way.”

Initially each franchise cost £10,000 for three years, although now that the first batch of franchise contracts has run through O’Connor has introduced new ones costing £4,500 for a much smaller area. So far it’s only the Halifax

networkers at mothers’ groups and similar events. The office O’Connor works in at the Halifax branch has a large map on the wall showing where the current franchisees are located. It’s certainly testimony to the power of word-of-mouth recommendation, as there are three clear clusters around the country, where one franchisee has set up, and others have followed suit nearby. There’s obviously quite a few around West Yorkshire, then a bunch in the southern Home Counties, and a few in central Scotland.

“Livingston, our first franchise in Scotland, was someone I met through a contact,” says O’Connor. “She then met someone else in Edinburgh who carried it on. My initial franchisee down south was someone I met at a baby show. We could be creating another cluster now, because we recently got a franchisee in Nottingham who was the result of an email enquiry. Where you get one they spread, so from Nottingham we now have Mansfield.”

Women who want to become franchisees can choose to do so either as an owner-operator, where they run the business and run classes, or as business managers, where they employ teachers themselves. Either way, every potential franchisee first has to come to Halifax for a vetting, and to see how the

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branch itself that has its own permanent site.

O’Connor says the business is structured in such a way that the franchisees – even the best of whom are usually handling nearer to 400 children a week rather than the 800 at Halifax – can make do with church halls and community centres to keep the costs down.

They usually don’t have to bother too much with advertising either – her franchisees are the perfect age group and background to make use of social networks like Twitter and Facebook to spread the word.

Babyballet’s success is all the more inspiring when you discover that O’Connor, who is now

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37, gave up business studies A-Level at school after just two weeks because she found it too difficult. Events that happened after that have moulded her path.

“I went to university to do Spanish and Media at Leeds,” she says. “But I got pregnant in my final year and I left with a baby, but not a degree. On top of that I got post-natal depression. I was a single parent, and initially I couldn’t get a job.”

Even when she did get a job with a local estate agent, she found that no matter how hard she worked and how successful she was, the company would only ever put her on a temporary contract because she was a mother.

“So even though I quite enjoyed the job, I got disheartened because of that,” she says.

“Eventually my mum said, ‘I’m fed up with you putting everything in and getting nothing back. Why don’t you come and help me manage my school? We’ll pay you by the month, and I’ll look after the baby.’”

It was when she went back to work with her mum that she realised that she did love ballet, even though the strict regime was largely the same. And as she also went to more mothers’ and toddlers’ groups, slowly an idea began to germinate of producing a range of ballet classes that was a cross between the two. She began the classes – which were initially just an

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offshoot of what her mother was doing – at a local pub which also featured a play area. The toddlers could have their dance class, and then go and play afterwards.

“We were full within weeks,” she says.

Shortly after she got married in 2005 and had her second child her mother threw down the gauntlet. She told her that she was happy for her to take on full responsibility for running these new classes, but here was the big challenge – she was no longer going to pay her for anything.

“So I did some more research, remortgaged the house, and sold the car,” says O’Connor.

And Babyballet was born – with a little bit of financial help from mum as well. Although her husband, a fireman, has been supportive, he has not become involved in the business.

There has, however, been another man working in the background, one with a relation to O’Connor that is fraught with the usual kind of tensions that apply when husbands and wives go into business together.

O’Connor’s brother Matt Peters is a professional business adviser with a string of successes under his belt. Having initially worked for Ernst & Young and Barclays Bank, he went on to be finance director of Daisy Communications, overseeing 15 acquisitions during his time there and also helping Daisy to win the inaugural Bank of Scotland’s Entrepeneur Challenge in 2007. That netted the company £5m in interest-free funding for three years. (How times have changed.)

He is currently a partner at Max AIM, a small group of business advisers headquartered in Wakefield. O’Connor says he also advises her on the business. Given that other people the practice advises include listed company Fenner, you can probably see how valuable such advice is.

“Matt looks after all the finance side,” she

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says. “I know I can trust him, and we don’t clash with each other, because our skill set is completely different. It’s not like being a husband and wife. I respect him, and he respects me. It’s probably unique.”

As it happens, the family must be particularly business-minded, because O’Connor’s other brother runs a successful vegetarian café in Hull. But that is one thing she has found since the business took off, that being a successful entrepreneur and going out to put yourself forward is nowhere near as scary as she thought it was going to be.

“When I started out I was scared to death of networking,” she says, “I didn’t have any experience, and I saw it as being in Leeds, with everyone suited and booted. Matt was very

When I started out I was scared to death of networking. It was never my place to be. Now I realise it is not like that at all

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much in the corporate world, but it was never my place to be. Now I have realised it is not like that at all. Everyone is fantastic, and I had really underestimated who I was. I am not just talking about women’s networking either.

The network I go to in Halifax is all men in suits, and I get on with them absolutely brilliantly.”

It’s not surprising that, on the back of that, O’Connor has made several TV appearances, and is now mentoring a young woman also in Halifax – perhaps at the stage she was at five years ago – who wants to set up a baby sign language and massage business.

But what of the future for Babyballet?

International expansion is one thing. It seems hard to believe, but there is allegedly no similar franchise network anywhere else in the world – not even the US, where you might have thought they would lap up this sort of thing.

“Australia will probably be our first choice,” she says, “but we are also getting strong interest from the US and Spain. Clearly we would have to use a master franchisee.”

Then there are the other sides to the business as well. Along with the dance classes, Babyballet does birthday parties, and a line in products. There are ballet costumes and little boys’ costumes and special Babyballet characters which O’Connor says are “Disneyesque, but to our own design”. They are sold largely through the shop, although also via mail order, with franchisees getting a cut if someone orders who goes to their class.

And they currently make up around 10% of turnover, but O’Connor wants to expand this.

“We are looking into books and animation,” she says. “We have in fact been approached by a producer in Hollywood, one of Matt’s friends, to do something animated. But we have to be careful what goes out, because someone could grab it and do something like this out there, so we are just going through all the trademark issues.”

Whatever happens, however, she is clear about one thing. “Despite how quick it goes, I don’t want any of my original ideas to be diluted. There is a serious side to what it’s all about.”

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FULL MARKS FOR THE MARKET?

A long history, one phenomenal former tenant.

But is Kirkgate Market in Leeds now just a shadow of its former self? Peter Baber reports

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Stephen Myers is, as far as a market trader has the ability to be, a contented man. He owns one of a row of large and impressive fishmonger stands on the southern edge of Kirkgate Market in Leeds. His display is impressive. It includes cockles, sea bass, sea bream and raw tiger prawns, produce that you would be unlikely to find in any of Leeds city centre’s more regular food stores, no matter how hard they may try to persuade you otherwise.

“Yes, people say the fish stalls are what brings people in here,” he says. “And what we have is much more comprehensive than the supermarket. You can’t get this online either.

People like to see fresh.”

Myers, who has run his stall for 22 years, takes pride in the market hall itself. It is, after all, Europe’s largest covered market, with more than 600 stallholders. It is also where what is possibly Britain’s best known store chain was founded.

In 1884, a Russian-born Polish refugee called Michael Marks set up a penny bazaar stall here. Although it would be another 10 years before he joined Thomas Spencer, the cashier of a business friend in Manchester, the corporation that is now Marks & Spencer has not forgotten its history. That was why it marked the centenary of its founding in 1984 with a commemorative clock in Kirkgate Market.

So, are there other stallholder similarly starry-eyed in the hall today? Sadly not. In fact, anyone visiting the market today can’t help but notice the growing number of empty stalls, particularly towards the back of the market in what are called the temporary sheds. (History runs at a different speed in markets. These “temporary” sheds were actually put up in the 1970s following a fire and have been there ever since.)

The figures bear such an impression. Between March 2005 and March 2009, the number of units effectively empty on an annual basis (bearing in mind fluctuations through the year) went up from 45 to 70.

And the attitude of a good many of the stallholders is equally desolate. Peter Whitley, for example, has run a stall in the market for 37 years, first selling textiles, and more recently cut-price CDs and DVDs. Now aged

It is shocking.

There used to be 30 or 40 buses coming down here from as far away as Newcastle at Christmas time.

Not any more

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61, he says he is just hanging on another year until he feels ready to retire. Speaking to him in the week leading up to Father’s Day, he says trade at his shop, Too Damn Loud, has been disappointing.

“I thought that at least this would be a time when even today people would be buying CDs and DVDs because fathers are not keen on downloading,” he says. “But we had just a handful of people in.”

John Hetherington, meanwhile, is manning the Biscuit Box stall his son Simon set up, because, he says, Simon has already given up to go back and work in the trade he originally trained – an electrician.

“It is absolutely shocking,” he says. “There used to be 30 to 40 buses coming down here from as far away as Newcastle at Christmas time. Not any more. There are traders closing down all the time.”

Richard Bates, who owns Whitakers Eggs, a stall selling eggs of every variety, says he is really only staying on because he has been offered a small amount of help with the rent by a business support organisation. He has had to rely more and more on his wholesale business to make ends meet.

“That has been suffering too in the downturn,” he says, “but not as much as the market stall. At least it is still making a profit.

They shouldn’t let the market get like this. It is the jewel in Leeds’ crown.”

Even Myers is annoyed that, in its attempt to fill vacated premises, the council – which owns the market – has allowed what is “in effect a job centre” to take a space directly opposite him.

And there is the common theme. Many of the stallholders see a variety of reasons for the downturn. With Whitley its the obvious impact of the internet. Hetherington and Bates both says it’s the expensive parking nearby. And all three mention the impact of the supermarkets and the chain stores.

But they also claim the council and market management is doing them no favours with the rents.

“The rents are currently far too high,” says Hetherington. “When will they ever listen?

Instead of going for a rent reduction, three years ago rents went up 100%.”

Whitley has had to move stalls to bring his >>

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REPORT

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We looked at what might persuade people to come. We were not meeting the 21st century customer experience

rent down by £1,000 a month, but in doing so he had to forego the advantage of a stall that opened onto two different alleyways.

“The market needs to change the policy,” he says, “at least until there is an upturn.”

Sarah Worthington, who has been selling handbags at the market for 27 years, is also annoyed because other shopkeepers she knows in privately-run shopping centres in the city have been offered some rent relief.

“There have been rent freezes at some places such as JJB Sports,” she says. When I point out that in JJB’s case, given its parlous current financial position, the chain might have won such an arrangement because otherwise it might go under, she has a simple answer – “so might we”.

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Megan Waugh, of Friends of Leeds Kirkgate Market, a pressure group with 300 members made up of traders, customers, and other interested parties, agrees that relations at the moment are not good.

“The stallholders are pretty angry,” she says.

“The relationship between traders and management is really poor.”

So poor, in fact, that 18 months ago the then market manager Chris Sanderson lost a vote of no confidence among stallholders and left shortly afterwards.

That is something new manager Sue Burgess will not discuss. But while she agrees the adjacent NCP car park is “expensive”, she insists relations have improved since she took over.

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“You have to remember that there are 600 traders on site,” she says, “and some are more vocal than others.

“We are taking the market out to people with, for example, a page of special offers in the Yorkshire Evening Post. We are spending tens of thousands of pounds on marketing.”

To be fair there are some stallholders who are still relatively content. Lee, aged 34, who wouldn’t give his surname but runs a pet food stall, said he wasn’t doing too badly.

“People are quite a bit down,” he said, “but it depends on what you are selling. And you need a good location.”

What Burgess thinks the stallholders need to have more sense of is the need to be commercial, particularly about the need to collect rent. That is why the job shop that Myers has noticed had to come in – as a source of much-needed income.

“An independent rent review we carried out in 2010 actually suggested we put the rents up,” she says.

“We decided not to, and took a hit of £18,000 a year as a result. There hasn’t been a rent rise for two years. But we cannot get to the point where the market is not viable.”

The stallholders and Waugh insist that the market is in fact still very viable. Figures released by the council in 2010 under Freedom of Information laws show that the revenue it received in 2009/10 stood at just over £3.6m, from which it made a profit of around £1.6m.

That revenue figure is a drop of half-a-million from a decade high of £4.1m in 2006/7, but the same amount ahead of the £3.1m it received in 2000/1.

Burgess says that, roughly speaking, the council spends half of what it makes on all the markets in the city, among other things, to cover the cost of a staff that is 45-strong, including part-timers.

But she still believes the market could be improved commercially in other ways, and that is why earlier this year Leeds Markets commissioned a customer survey that for the first time sought the opinions not just of regular shoppers but of occasional shoppers too. The results suggest that many improvements could be made – such as evening openings. This is an anathema to Lee at the pet food store.

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“Ninety five per cent of the people who come in here only come in because they are looking for a bargain,” he says.

“Evening opening wouldn’t make any difference to them.”

Megan Waugh points out that many sole traders start work at 3am.

“If they were still there at 7pm or 8pm it would be a really long day,” she says.

To Burgess that is a clear illustration of why it was important to get the views of outsiders.

“We wanted to look at what might persuade people who don’t shop there to come,” she says. “The over-riding intention was to look at improving the customer experience, and what jumped out was that we were not meeting the 21st century customer experience.”

As for hours worked, she points out that In Barcelona market they stagger their opening times. “We could look at that.”

Waugh says her organisation and many of the traders were suspicious of the report, and felt particularly that the questions had been phrased to encourage people to say what was wrong with the market.

She disputes claims that city markets like Kirkgate are necessarily doomed if they don’t change, referring to a 2009 House of Commons Commnunities and Local Government Committee Report which she claims said they did have a future.

In fact, this report did acknowledge that councils have to consider whether markets are “sustainable”, but also claimed that markets have a much better fighting chance if they have a “champion” at a senior management level within the council.

Waugh is also suspicious that the report might be a prelude to something. Above all, her group is concerned that the council might be hatching plans to turn Kirkgate Market into an upmarket food emporium like Borough Market in London. This, they say, would be a disaster. “Leeds City Council does not have a good track record in doing this kind of thing,” she says.

“Just look at what happened to the Corn Exchange next door.”

Indeed, some two years after the council gave permission for that building – which it does not own – to be refurbished in a similar way, the former fashion stalls on the top floor

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Life in real market towns “Supermarkets show there has been a change in people’s shopping habits,” says John Walker, markets manager for Calderdale Council.

“And there is a lack of flexibility in the average market trader.”

So is there another way to look at covered markets in Yorkshire? Walker, who is responsible for Halifax and Todmorden covered markets, thinks there is.

Halifax market was actually built by John and Joseph Leeming, the same pair who built the first part of Kirkgate Market 12 years later.

But a decade ago it was faced with occupancy levels of only 89% and falling, so the council decided to take a much more lenient approach to rent levels.

“We decided we could not keep running the markets purely for the benefit of the authority,” he says. “The market wants vibrancy. In fact, between 1992 and 2004 we had no rent increase. And we currently have a rent freeze until 2013, but that is because there are major works on Halifax’s main car park. We are 100% occupied.

Still, he thinks he is more fortunate than Leeds because “we are a more marketoriented area”.

“Halifax is known as a market town,” he says.

And although late opening at Christmas was a “flop”, Todmorden market, which is only a short walk away from the town’s railway station, had more success in opening an hour later at 10am and closing an hour later

that were intended to be food shops lie mostly vacant.

Burgess will only say that they are looking at all options, including management and even owners, but insists nothing has been decided and will not comment further until a strategy report goes to full council in July.

But of course in a way, the report is a prelude to something. At the same time the council is also considering the Eastgate development application which would see a large new shopping centre go up right next to the market.

79

at 6pm, to catch the commuters. Certainly traders in Todmorden seem much less unhappy than their counterparts in Kirkgate – even though the council has recently approved the building of a Netto superstore just across the road.

Adam Wolstenholme, who runs a café in the market, says the two hours’ free parking Netto would be offering might entice more customers into the market itself.

Pat Raybould, who sells cards in the market, points out that the building that Netto is replacing is an eyesore anyway.

There are, however, more concerns about an application Sainsbury’s has put in to build a much larger store at the other end of town.

“We have been told that with Netto coming in and Morrison’s already here, that would be enough,” says Wolstenholme.

Raybould, however, is concerned that the medical centre, which used to be next to the market, has already been moved next to where Sainsbury’s would be. That means the key pensioner market is already moving across to the other side.

Walker is adamant. “If they let Sainsbury’s in we may as well all put the lights out and lock the door,” he says. “Some 95% of tenants in Todmorden market live in Todmorden. Halifax market employs 500 people. It’s important for the town.”

Yet at the same time you feel this is a community that is resistant to change.

“I’m only a newcomer,” said Raybould when I first approach her. “I have only been here 11 years.”

Because this was still in discussion as we went to press, Burgess would not comment on it, except to say that “by dragging people over to a multi-million pound new shopping centre next door there is bound to be some benefit by association.”

As you might expect, however, Megan Waugh, who has shopped at Kirkgate for 15 years, thinks differently.

“It won’t be a pull if half the market is empty,” she says.

The Friends have lodged their objections. n

BUSINESS QUARTER |SUMMER 11

BIT OF A CHAT

with Frank Tock >> Billy fewer mates Sad news for all of those who thought the success of Billy Elliot – the film and the musical – would lead to a huge surge in young boys wanting to take up ballet. The film might have done so when it first came out in 2000, and the musical might have added to this when it opened in 2005, but according to Claire O’Connor, one of our interviewees this issue, the effect has tailed off. She saw the proportion of boys coming to her classes rise from 1% to 10% in the wake of the musical, but she says it has stayed level at that rate since then, and is now beginning to drop again.

She blames the attitude of fathers, who don’t want their sons to do ballet.

“They change their minds as soon as they see what our classes are like,” she says.

But I can’t say I entirely blame the fathers for not being inspired. I went to see the musical myself not so long ago, and five minutes after I left the show could not recall one number from it. A friend of mine tells me that this is because I don’t understand that the musical was really about dance, not music – a pronouncement which I have to say left me somewhat bemused.

>> Bradford is cheap Bradford may have lost out on some potential funding in Round 1 of the Government’s Regional Growth Fund, but it can take solace in coming top in something else.

According to consumer magazine Which?,

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

SUMMER 11

the West Yorkshire city is the cheapest city in the UK to park in. The city charges just £3.50 for four hours in a car park, and just 70p an hour for on-street parking. That compares with Soho in London, where parking your car for four hours will cost you a whopping £18.

Nicola Lockwood, proud northern lass and conference manager for Conference Leeds, which, despite the name, covers Bradford too, says that this an excellent reason why anyone trying to organise a meeting should do so in Bradford.

“Conference organisers and delegates can now come to a conference or event in the city of Bradford and know they are getting the best rates for parking, ease of access and value for money,” she says.

“Yah,” I can hear those fashionistas down in Soho saying, “but is there a Westfield centre we can shop till we drop at afterwards, like there is at White City, dahling? Well, is there?”

that us Yorkshire folk (well, Di hales from South Africa actually, but never mind) might no longer spin the cloth, but we can still, as they say, spin.

>> Worthy tribute Congratulations to all the members of the Paxman family from Paxman Coolers who took part in Walk the Walk’s sponsored 26.2-mile moonwalk around London in May and have so far managed to raise over £1,300 for the charity.

As anyone who read last issue’s BQ Live debate in which Richard Paxman took part will recall, Huddersfield-based Paxman Coolers was set up by his father Glenn Paxman who was already running drinks dispensing company Brewfitt after he developed a scalp cooling machine to alleviate the nastier effects of his wife Sue’s chemotherapy treatment. Although Sue has since sadly passed away, the company itself has gone on to great success at home and abroad.

Richard and his sisters Claire and Antoinette took part in the walk partly to raise awareness of scalp cooling as a treatment. Well done to them! If you want to support them, go to www.justgiving.com/paxmanmoonwalk

>> An hour a day

>> Di wins through Hush everyone, put those BlackBerries away, down your Stoli and Bolly, and listen a minute. There is a lady within this hallowed region of ours who for the second year running has been named by her industry bible as being among the most powerful in an industry that employs well over 50,000 people nationwide.

Yes, Di Burton of Cicada Communications in Harrogate – for it is she – has been named for the second year running in PR Week’s Power Book list of the most influential PR people in the country. Well done to her. Di is living proof

80

Email might have liberated the world, but it, and its even more frenetic cousins Twitter, Facebook and text messaging, are now taking up so much of an average employee’s time that they are costing the economy £57.8bn in productivity.

That’s according to a survey of 500 international organisations carried out by online market research firm uSamp. The survey also revealed that the average employee will also only spend around 15 minutes doing work before being distracted by such interruptions, with 53% of them wasting at least one hour a day because of this. Assuming an average salary of £14.25 an hour, the survey’s compilers reckon that translates to £3,277.50 of wasted productivity per person per annum. Shocking stuff indeed.

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ISSUE NINE: SUMMER 2011

after-sales and HP Computer giant’s service contracts are big earners turning tHe tide Scarborough Spa opens up a whole new outlook market conditions The stalls that gave us Marks & Spencer are facing

an uncertain future – is it upmarket food or curtains?

ballet’s big stePs Claire O’Connor is serious about dancers having fun

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ISSUE FOUR: SUMMER 2011

drama of a dram man

LIGHT TOUCH

aye aye captain

Wallowing in single malt – and lapping up every drop of it

high-flier found success the other way round

The man involved in building the world’s most stylish boats

How designer Kristina Simpson flicked the switch on an illuminating career

the boy’s got talent Dance champion now leading in a different direction

ACTING ON BRIBERY Sir Michael Darrington answers the

you’ve had your ‘delice’ Basketball supremo talks Rocks and rolls out his ambitions

questions on new legislation

200 YEARS YOUNG

music, man

Watson Burton’s bicentenary encourages the law firm to look forward

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TRUE ALCHEMY North to south is the normal career path, but one

Hotel lobbyist Lone business traveller Carolyn Pearson put her experience to bed and developed maiden-voyage.com

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EVENTS DIARY

SUMMER 11

BQ’s business events diary gives you lots of time to forward-plan. If you wish to add your event to the list send it to: editor@bq-magazine.co.uk

JULY

10 The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club. Mint Hotel, Leeds, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622.

5 The Met Club Twitter Seminar. Crown Hotel, Harrogate, 8.30-10.30am. For more details ring 01423 525622.

11 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Ladies Lunch, Devonshire Arms, Bolton Abbey, 12.00-2.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

5 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Construction Lunch, Weetwood Hall, Leeds, 12.00-2.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

16 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Networking Evening, The Living Room, York, 5.00-7.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

6 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Business Lunch, Park Inn, York, 12.00-2.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

17 Bradford Chamber of Commerce Keighley Business Network, Steeton Hall, Steeton, 7.30am onwards. For more details ring 01274 354750.

7 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Networking Breakfast, Leeds United Football Ground, 7.30-9.30am. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

18 The Met Club – Ebor Races Day, York, 11.30am onwards. For more details ring 01423 525622.

7 The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club. Hotel du Vin, Harrogate, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622.

8 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Business Lunch with Robert Goodwill MP, Weetwood Hall, Leeds, 12.00-2.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

SEPTEMBER 1 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Networking Breakfast, Leeds United Football Ground, 7.30-9.30am. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

11 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Property Forum, Royal York Hotel, York, 5.00-7.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

6 The Met Club LinkedIn Seminar. Crown Hotel, Harrogate, 8.30-10.30am.

For more details ring 01423 525622.

13 The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club. Mint Hotel, Leeds, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622.

7 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Business Lunch with David dSouza, CPP, Quarks Restaurant, University of York, 12.00-2.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

14 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Business Forum, HSBC, York, 4.00-6.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 15 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Business Lunch with Andrew Baker, chief executive of Bettys, Rudding Park, Harrogate, 12.002.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 19 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Networking Breakfast, Dean Court Hotel, York, 7.30-9.00am. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 19 Bradford Chamber of Commerce AGM and Networking Lunch, Cedar Court, Bradford, 12.00-2.00pm. For more details ring 01274 354750.

20 The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club. Yo Yo Restaurant, Bradford, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622.

27 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Bank of England Breakfast with Mervyn King, Northern Ballet, Leeds, 7.30-9.15am. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 28 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Business Forum, DWF, Leeds, 4.00-6.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 29 Bradford Chamber of Commerce Cereal Networking, Great Victoria Hotel, Bradford, 7.30am onwards. For more details ring 01274 354750.

AUGUST 4 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Networking Breakfast, Leeds United Football Ground, 7.30-9.30am. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

BUSINESS QUARTER | SUMMER 11

8 The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club. Hotel du Vin, Harrogate, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622.

13 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Networking Breakfast, Middlethorpe Hall, York, 7.30-9.30am. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 13 The Met Club Twitter Facebook Seminar. Malmaison, Leeds, 8.3010.30am. For more details ring 01423 525622.

14 The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club. Brasserie Blanc, Leeds, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622.

15 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Golf Day, York Golf Club, 12.00-9.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 22 The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club. Cedar Court Grand Hotel, York, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622.

23 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Annual Lunch, Queens Hotel, Leeds, 12.00-3.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk 29 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Ladies Lunch, Burn Hall, York, 12.00-2.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

3 Leeds, York and North Yorkshire Chamber Business Lunch, Hilton, York, 12.00-2.00pm. For details visit www.yourchamber.org.uk

4 The Met Club – Yorkshire’s own networking club. Hotel du Vin, Harrogate, 5.30-7.30pm. For more details ring 01423 525622.

7 Bradford Chamber of Commerce Members Lunch, Bradford Chamber, Bradford 12.00-2.00pm. For more details ring 01274 354750.

30 Bradford Chamber of Commerce Cereal Networking, Great Victoria Hotel, Bradford, 7.30am onwards. For more details ring 01274 354750.

Please check with the 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 know of them.

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UBS Wealth Management is a business division of UBS AG which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority. © UBS 2011. All rights reserved.

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