4 minute read
Finance with its roots in the soil
Matt Falla of the finance company, Smith & Williamson, was interviewed by Alasdair Crosby about his sponsorship of Genuine Jersey and his own interest in Jersey agriculture and rural life
Not exactly a typical location for a RURAL magazine interview: part of the old Southampton Hotel site in the
Advertisement
Weighbridge, now an office block in which are located the offices of finance company Smith & Williamson. This is the company, however, that sponsored the Jersey Farming Conference last
November; it is the first patron of
Genuine Jersey; it offers favourable terms to agricultural businesses.
So why, its Jersey director, Matt Falla was asked, this interest in the Island’s rural economy?
He replied: ‘Our landed estates team works out of Salisbury and has strong credentials in supporting the agricultural and horticultural world. The sponsorship of the Jersey Farming Conference was an amazing opportunity to use some of the expertise that we have, and also to showcase things that are being tested in Jersey, such as carbon farming and pushing ahead into cannabis production. So, we want to help advance all that with our own expertise.’
Was his contact with Genuine Jersey and local agriculture because of his own special interest in this sector?
‘In my own family history, my paternal grandfather (Arthur Falla, Snr) came from Guernsey (hence the Falla surname, rather than Falle). ‘He had a number of jobs, including being a cobbler, working on the docks and in greenhouses and driving the potato lorries. My mother’s father, Frank Crumpton, was born in Jersey. He was employed as the chief soil analyst at the States Farm. He used to cycle from the States Analyst’s Office in Halkett Street to the YMCA at 16 New Street, where he was a member and where he met my grandmother. During the Occupation he carried transcripts of the BBC news rolled up in his handlebars; these came from the wireless that he had secreted somewhere in his office to read to the other YMCA Members, an act that could have put him at risk of death. So, my fingers have been in the soil of the Island – although indirectly through both my grandfathers’ work – for a number of years.’ Matt grew up in Jersey. After his school years, in his words, he ‘managed to avoid university’ and went straight into banking and financial services, where he has spent his whole career, although with Smith & Williamson he is now focussed on investment management rather than just wearing a banking hat. He has worked in the Middle East, Southern Europe and Africa, and until October 2020 was in Guernsey for two and a half years – going back to at least a quarter of his roots!
“So often
Smith & Williamson are the first patrons of Genuine Jersey and this is something that Matt feels is very important for his company.
‘We are very pleased to be able to support an organisation that has done so much good in the Island over the last 20 years, to become its first patron and to lend financial support to enable members to produce the videos that we are now seeing online, and which really do showcase Genuine Jersey in quite an amazing way.*
‘Also, we feel it is a great opportunity to be able to offer our services – be it investment management, tax, accounting, business services etc – at a discount to farmers and Genuine Jersey members.’
Smith & Williamson is predominantly a UK company, which in September 2020 merged with a firm called Tilney – so now it has the long title of Tilney, Smith & Williamson.
Matt rather hopes that it might be rebranded sometime soon to prevent the name getting any longer! It is now the third largest asset manager in the UK, with almost £60billion of assets under management.
But despite its size (and long name), Matt feels that perhaps it is less wellknown in the Island than it should be. He intends to expand its Corporate Social Responsibility activities; they support the GROW project at Sion, providing manpower for weeding and hoeing, planting and whatever else they can do to help. Recently, they launched their sustainable range of investment products and have agreed that for every £10,000 of investment into that they will donate one hour of time at the GROW project. They have also worked alongside another trust company, Zedra, supporting Jersey Trees for Life’s tree planting.
Matt continued: ‘There are other things in the charitable sector that are also of interest to us. At the moment, I am designing a charitable giving portfolio that will enable our clients to opt to donate money to their chosen charity or to the sector of charitable activity in which they are interested. ‘We work with the Jersey Community Partnership, Jersey Community Foundation and the Association of Jersey Charities and we support local sport, such as the recently launched Futsal League.
“We are very
‘So often businesses can look as if they were external to the local life of the Island. We always ask ourselves: what else can we do locally to support the Island community?’
