Ulster Business January 2021

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Contents 06 News

69 Ones to Watch

94 Photocall

The latest news and exclusives from across the world of Northern Ireland business

We profile some of the entrepreneurs and talents with a bright future

We look at what’s been happening across the world of Northern Ireland business

16 Cover story

79 Business recovery

100 Podcast

Britt Megahey of Barclay Communications on securing its highest profile deal to date

Ulster Business speaks to the experts about getting the right advice and building back

A look back at highlights of the Ulster Business Podcast with Bank of Ireland UK

23 Outlook 2021

83 Entrepreneur of the Month

102 Travel

We hear from a host of top business experts about what’s around the corner for us

We speak to Melanie Harrison of Belfast’s latest boutique hotel The Harrison

Giant trees, icy lakes and rugged mountains are soul food for Nicola Brady

49 Leaders in Business

87 Motoring

104 Technology

John Mulgrew speaks to a who’s who of Northern Ireland business chiefs

Pat Burns takes on a classic compact and the latest in hybrid motoring technology

Is Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max the best smartphone on the market?

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JANUARY 2021

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EDITOR’S COMMENTS

Let’s put 2020 in the rearview mirror

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t’s felt like a half a decade, but checking back on the calendar it was just 10 months.

From a societal and economic perspective, let’s hope we can write last year off as an unwanted bump in the road. With vaccines being rolled out across Northern Ireland, there’s a definitely air of positivity about 2021. As businessman Noel Brady told me, ‘the only way is up’.

We have also been down to the wire (how many times have we been here?) on securing some form of last minute deal to ensure a degree of fluidity in trade between the UK and the EU, and movement of goods and services between Northern Ireland and GB. At the time of writing, it was looking like a 50/50 call to get it over the line.

This edition spends a lot of its time looking forward, and not back. We hear from a host of top business leaders and economists about what they think the landscape will look like in 2021.

This is also our Leaders in Business edition, which focuses on a series of one-on-one interviews with a selection of the best and brightest right across the sectors in Northern Ireland.

contact – the meetings, catch ups over coffee, dinners and grand black tie dinners have largely been removed from our social calendar.

But there’s now a close eye on the future, and a future which is now months away, thanks to the rapid work on crucial vaccines which would otherwise have taken years to develop.

And there’s also the chance for some of the leaders of the future to shine through as part of our Ones to Watch section – from beauty and skincare entrepreneurs through to high-end tech and hospitality business owners.

It goes without saying, but your support and contributions to Ulster Business have been even more important than ever. And as we head in to a positive new year, we’ll continue to be here alongside the Northern Ireland business community, each step of the way. ■

We’ve all had a year of limited human

John Mulgrew

Publisher Ulster Business c/o Independent News & Media Ltd Belfast Telegraph House 33 Clarendon Road, Clarendon Dock, Belfast BT1 3BG

Editor John Mulgrew Magazine sales manager Mark Glover Sales executive Sarah-Ann Gamble Sales executive Judith Martin Production manager Irene Fitzsimmons

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www.ulsterbusiness.com

Graphic design Susan McClean, INM Design Studio Contact: s.gamble@independentmagazinesni.co.uk j.martin@independentmagazinesni.co.uk Cover photo: Matt Mackey/Press Eye

@ulsterbusiness

Ulster Business Magazine

Independent News & Media Ltd © 2021. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of Independent News & Media Ltd.

JANUARY 2021

5

NEWS

month IN numbers A

45.6

The business activity index for Northern Ireland in November, according to the Ulster Bank purchasing managers’ index, where 50 means no change.

£3m

The value of a major new contract Barclay Communications has secured with the University of Cambridge.

£66m

A huge deal which will see 145 zero and low emission buses for Translink which will be built by Ballymena’s Wrightbus.

£24m

The value of a now complete house-building contract in London

by Banbridge-based contractor Kane.

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NI gears up for posttransition disruption

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usinesses across Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK are gearing up for the start of major disruption in trade as the Brexit transition period comes to an end.

At the time of writing, a trade deal with the EU had yet to be formally agreed.

But aside from that, concerns remain over how GB to Northern Ireland trade will be impacted from January onwards, amid fears of backlogs, tailbacks and difficulties moving goods from east to west.

checks on goods travelling between GB and Northern Ireland.

Speaking about plans for an emergency lorry park in Dumfries and Galloway, a Transport Scotland spokeswoman said: “While we still need clarity from the UK Government on the terms of exit, including the requirements for checks on goods moving from GB to NI, at this stage we do not expect a significant increase in traffic or delays at Cairnryan.

“Nevertheless we have been engaging with ferry operators who have assured us that they have capacity to cover increased demand on the Cairnryan/Larne routes.

Preparations were already under way for a series of stop gaps to deal with potential backlogs. That includes turning a former military airfield in Scotland into an emergency lorry park to cope with post-Brexit delays at Cairnryan.

“We have worked with local resilience partners to develop a contingency plan in case of traffic disruption at Cairnryan and are now moving to test that plan.”

That could be used to park lorries waiting to cross from Scotland to Northern Ireland.

A lack of a deal with the EU would mean reverting to World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

Meanwhile, up to 23,000 jobs are at risk as a result of the Northern Ireland Protocol and consumer choices and prices would also be harmed by the arrangement, a report by the Department for the Economy (DfE) has claimed.

But separately, because of the implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol, which will mean there should be no checks between here and the Republic, there will be some

The report was published in December, but written before the announcements on the protocol, agreed between the UK and EU, to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland.

NEWS

Cirdan ‘ready to list by 2022’

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he founder of a leading medical imaging firm says it’s aiming to be ready to float on a stock exchange as early as next year, Ulster Business can reveal.

Dr Hugh Cormican, founder of Cirdan, said: “It’s part of our corporate goal to be IPO (initial public offering) ready in 2022… if you want to play at the highest level, you need to play in right league.”

He’s also the founder of Andor Technology – a Queen’s University spin-out which was later listed before being bought over.

“With Andor, I started off as the first employee and rose to the top as there weren’t that many other people,” he said.

“We brought the company on, oversaw

JANUARY 2021

development growth and then the IPO, bringing the company to the public market.

“Too many companies sell out early. With the likes of Cirdan, I would like to grow and be a player as global entity – a Ryanair or Kerry Group of these worlds. There are too few public companies.”

He believes there’s still a lack of experience and expertise in Northern Ireland in turning successful limited companies into those listed on stock exchanges. “It’s a mixture of uncertainty and fear… a lack of grounding,” he says.

“Too often people sell to a larger entity. They sell out too early and don’t let it develop and grow. The infrastructure is not there in Northern Ireland to support businesses (to list).”

Dr Hugh Cormican

Read the full interview on page 52-53

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NEWS

Quotes OF THE month “In what has been a difficult trading environment in 2020, this significant investment will enhance the city centre retail offer as a whole and will reinforce Foyleside as the top regional shopping destination in the north west.”

Fergal Rafferty, Foyleside Shopping Centre, speaking after it was revealed Frasers Group has agreed a deal to take over the Debenhams store.

New McDonald’s ‘will create 65 new jobs’

“The news of a vaccine brings with it great hope and optimism to bring some normality back to peoples’ lives and rebuild the economy. If we really want to ‘build back better’, then we must build back diverse.”

Roseann Kelly, chief executive of Women in Business writing in this edition of Ulster Business.

“The pandemic has forced our theatres, music venues and organisations to close at a time when our communities needed us the most, so we hope that as we reopen, we can bring some muchneeded colour and light to our visitors’ lives.”

Anne McReynolds, chief executive of The MAC, speaking after the theatre and venue reopened following Covidrelated closure.

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ore than 65 new jobs look set to be created with a new McDonald’s restaurant in south Belfast, Ulster Business can reveal.

Plans are now under way to build the new ‘drive-thru’ restaurant close to Tesco Extra on the Newtownbreda Road.

It would include a 5,600 sq ft location, car parking, landscaping and play area, as part of a section of the existing Tesco car park.

According to a design statement supporting the planning application, around 65 new fulltime and part-time roles could be created.

McDonald’s has expanded its footprint across Northern Ireland over the last few years, with a series of new restaurants. It also saw significant queues for some of its ‘drive-thru’ locations as customers flocked to restaurants at the beginning of lockdown in March last year.

In August last year, it filed a planning application to open a second new outlet in west Belfast. The application for the new site in the grounds of Ballygomartin Tesco will feature two customer order displays with canopies, electricity substation and play space.

And in October, McDonald’s said it created

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around 120 jobs with the opening of a new 24 hour dual-lane ‘drive-thru’ restaurant at McKinstry Road in Derriaghy.

Speaking about the investment, franchisee John McCollum said: “McDonald’s is committed to growing its business in Northern Ireland and this major investment has created significant direct and indirect employment including a boost to the manufacturing, construction and service sectors.

“Since we started to reopen our restaurants our priority has been to ensure that our people and customers are kept safe. We have changed our operations and together with our suppliers, restaurant teams and delivery partners we have been able to continue serving the communities in which we operate.

“Throughout my time as a franchisee I have been committed to serving and supporting the local communities in which we serve and I am really looking forward to welcoming people from the local area and beyond to the new restaurant to enjoy a treat at McDonald’s.”

The new restaurant is located at the McKinstry Road roundabout between Lisburn and Belfast and brings the number of McDonald’s restaurants to 32 here.

NEWS

Economic strategy ‘essential’ to rebuild NI business

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n overarching economic strategy will be essential for helping to rebuild the Northern Ireland economy in 2021, a leading business group has said.

Angela McGowan, CBI NI director, says company chiefs across Northern Ireland have “probably never faced a more challenging year than 2020”.

“Ultimately an overarching economic strategy with cross-cutting themes will be essential for delivering successful economic outcomes in 2021,” she told Ulster Business.

“For many companies preparations are underway. But for all firms, 2021 will be a year of changing how they do business, how they reach out to customers, how they make the most of AI and machine learning and how they adopt new digital solutions.

Angela McGowan

and private sector in rising to the Covid challenge; hopefully 2021 will also be a year of great collaboration to deliver much needed economic growth.

“And of course, we cannot forget that on top of these Brexit, Covid and digital-driven adjustments; firms will be transitioning to a low-carbon

“Partnerships between national and local government, business and educators will be critical. But success in the year ahead will also be highly dependent on building great business to business networks

way of working.” But she says probably the most striking thing for the economy this year will be the scale of adjustment.

so that the success of our exemplar large and global players can be replicated across the wider economy.”

“We saw in 2020 the power of good collaboration between the public

Read the full interview on page 24-25

JANUARY 2021

9

NEWS

Positivity returns to NI business following start of pandemic

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positive business outlook has returned to the Northern Ireland private sector for the first time in nine months, a survey has revealed.

Amid the Covid-19, business output, sales and sentiment had fallen to record lows.

And while lockdown saw a drop in overall average output in November, business sentiment turned positive for the first time since the beginning of the crisis, according to the Ulster Bank purchasing managers’ index.

But overall output and orders among firms here fell at the fastest and joint-fastest rates of all the UK regions.

“Demand from export markets (notably the Republic of Ireland) continues to weaken at a much faster pace than the domestic market,” Ulster Bank chief economist, Richard Ramsey, said.

Meanwhile, employment levels also fell during November, while inflationary pressures increased.

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“This year has been characterised by imposing and lifting lockdown restrictions. As a result, private sector activity has been switched off and on to a greater or lesser degree,” he said.

“Not surprisingly, renewed containment measures in November saw local private sector output contract at a significant rate, albeit not on the scale witnessed between March and June.

from construction’s recent spurt of activity.

Local construction firms continue to experience the steepest rises in input costs and as a result are raising prices at their fastest pace since January 2019.”

45.6

Business activity index in November

“The deterioration in business conditions was most marked within services and retail. Both sectors were particularly impacted by Covid-19 restrictions and recorded rapid rates of decline in output, orders and employment.

51.9

Future activity index

“Once again construction posted the fastest rate of output growth of all the sectors, marginally ahead of manufacturing.

“However, the rates of expansion were modest and represented a marked slowing

But he says while business conditions remain challenging the latest survey “highlighted that there is some optimism returning”.

“The arrival of a range of vaccines, which are now being rolled out, suggests that there is some light at the end of the tunnel.

“Indeed, business sentiment turned positive for the first time since February. Manufacturing firms are the most bullish about output growth in 12 months’ time, followed by construction.

“However, services and retail remain pessimistic about the year ahead. With the end of the Brexit transition rapidly approaching, the implications of a UK-EU deal/no deal will have a major bearing on business performance and confidence in 2021 and beyond.”

NEWS

Flight demand ‘could exceed supply’ as travel increases

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emand for flights could exceed supply when international travel begins to pick up later this year, it’s been claimed.

“It’s all about getting confidence back. It’s also about what it will be like at your destination.

Eimer Hannon, founder of Hannon Travel, says while demand is growing, it remains gradual.

“It’s a trickle at the moment, but we are expecting it to pick up in April. It will really be down to whether governments of different countries lift their restrictions.

Hannon Travel worked through the crisis, alongside the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Republic to repatriate more than 1,000

“We are going to be at the mercy of that. We are probably going to go back to where we were in the 1980s. The supply has always been

Irish citizens, stranded abroad. She said that included flights coming in from as far afield as Australia, South America and the Philippines.

there for demand.

“Demand is growing, gradually,” she says.

“But when we do open our skies, that demand will be exceeding supply, until we get everything back into sync. We will have fewer

Eimer Hannon

airlines, and more consolidation. It will be a completely different landscape as to what we had before.”

Read the full interview on page 50-51

Part of city ‘could be pedestrianised with bar and outdoor seating’

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lans are under way to turn a chunk of Belfast city centre into a pedestrianised area to include a cafe and bar, it can be revealed.

The area, which is based in and around Brunswick Street, could see a temporary cafe, bar, seating areas and a performance stage developed, if plans get approval

It’s been proposed by the Linen Quarter BID for a temporary period.

It’s understood the organisation has applied to the Department for Infrastructure for a two-year road closure for the area.

The city centre has been hit hard due to the impact of coronavirus, with footfall dropping significantly as a large number of staff work from home.

A number of other businesses in the

JANUARY 2021

city have adapted to the restrictions and limitations brought about by Covid-19, including extending and developing outdoor

seating areas, or in the case of the Boneyard and Cargo, have built entirely new outdoor bars to cope with social distancing.

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PROFILE

GVA NI becomes part of Avison Young global network

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leading firm of chartered surveyors and commercial property consultants has joined the fastgrowing Avison Young global network.

GVA NI, together with their counterparts at Dublin based GVA Donal O’Buachalla are now known as Avison Young. Mark Rose, chairman and chief executive of the Torontobased company announced the new affiliation recently in what is the latest strategic step forward by the global group.

Avison Young now has 5,000 members of staff spread across 120 offices in 20 countries.

In Belfast the team is led by Jago Bret and his fellow directors Gavin Weir and Scott Adam along with associate directors Liam McAuley and Barry McNally.

“We are delighted to have finalised this affiliation which compliments the global scale and expertise of the Avison Young business with the local knowledge that we have on the ground here in Northern Ireland,” Jago Bret says.

The ‘challenger’ mentality that runs through the Avison Young organisation, fits well into the Belfast office where the team have built a reputation in excelling in some of the more specialist commercial property sectors.

Gavin Weir, Scott Adam and Jago Bret

healthcare, dental and doctors’ surgeries, convenience retail and pharmacies.

“The expertise is self-fulfilling in that the evidence base and market data is constantly updated when providing our valuation advice to a range of financial institutions and this in turn puts us into a perfect position to advise vendors or purchasers when they are looking at buying or selling a going concern.

Gavin Weir, director in charge of hotels and leisure, said: “We have built an unrivalled reputation in the NI marketplace for advising the trading business sectors taking us into both the financial underwriting and transactional market sectors.

“The specialist sectors are no different than the more conventional markets where again, information is key. Knowing who is active and what values are achievable shape our transactional consultancy and make sure operators are getting up to date honest and realistic advice to help inform their decisionmaking process.”

“These niche areas of the business, are difficult to cover unless you are constantly engaging with operators, updating data and market sentiment and this makes it very difficult for competitors to break into the fields where we are so strong.

What started as a pub and hotel specialism for Gavin and a healthcare involvement for Scott, has grown substantially to the point where the firm are now widely regarded by the industry as the premier advisory practice to the trading business sector in Northern Ireland.

“We have invested significant time and resource into sectors such as pubs, hotels,

“There are synergies in the various types of businesses that we deal with and it is

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interesting to compare and contrast the performance of various sectors,” he said. “This has been particularly relevant through the Covid-19 crisis where it is very clear that there have been winners and losers.

“Some analysts like to over complicate matters but at the end of the day you have a turnover, cost of sales, operating expenses and a profit!

The skill set is really applied in checking profit margins, standardising industry costs and calculating net profit/EBITDA before sense checking turnover or profit multipliers in line with market evidence.”

This line of work takes the business into an often more colourful world but it is not to the detriment of our core sectors where Avison Young advise developers, investors, landlords and tenants across the office, industrial and retail sectors as well as providing development consultancy advice across all the commercial sectors along with new private and social housing schemes. ■ Contact Avison Young on 028 9031 6121 or visit www.avisonyoung.co.uk/ni. You can also follow Avison Young on Twitter @AvisonYoungNI and on LinkedIn @AvisonYoung-NI

RECRUITMENT

Employee wellbeing must not be sidelined in recovering economy

By John Moore, managing director, Hays NI

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he expression “a smooth sea never made a skilled sailor” will have taken on new, personal significance for many of us this year. Coronavirus pandemic restrictions have been hard to anticipate and leaders in all businesses have been put under pressure to make prompt, reactive decisions without a clear line of sight on what the future holds.

It might be tempting at the start of a new year, with a Covid-19 vaccine on the horizon, to hope that you can go back to doing things the way you were doing them at the start of 2020. But it is likely that some of the changes forced on us this year will be permanent changes, and some of them are changes for good.

One key change I’ve noticed is in the way employers are treating their employees. With so many people furloughed and working from home for the first time, the wellbeing of employees has perhaps never been in the spotlight as much as it is now. Many employers we work with have responded admirably, realising how important it is to provide support and make sure staff are in a good place mentally and physically in what have been challenging circumstances.

But it is not an issue that will just go away the moment more of us are allowed back into our physical places of work. The evidence shows that wellbeing needs to remain a top management priority.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Hays’ latest survey from professionals in Northern Ireland has found that wellbeing has plummeted since the onset of the virus. Responses from over 450 employers and employees in Northern Ireland at the end of October found that only 41% of professionals rate their wellbeing positively. This has dropped significantly since the first lockdown in March, when 59% gave a positive rating.

It matters to employees that employers take their duty of care seriously.

In our survey 86% of people said it is important to them that their organisation supports their mental health and wellbeing but less than half thought the support available is adequate.

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic continue to change the way we work. As those restrictions have evolved, the support employees need will change as well. Now is the time to make use of any employee assistance programmes you have available – everything from financial or legal advice to the provision of mental health support services, which allow your team to reach out for help in their own time.

Despite the reported drop in wellbeing, three quarters of respondents (75%) say that their organisation offers some support for their wellbeing and mental health. That’s a really positive number but the challenge now

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is to make sure the support on offer is relevant and reaching all parts of the workforce. For example, fewer professionals (32%) in Generation Z rated their wellbeing positively than other age groups in our survey, so specific initiatives for them may be needed.

A one-size-fits-all approach is unlikely to be effective when it comes to managing a team through change, putting the onus on working with team members on an individual basis to understand their needs.

Work-life balance was also revealed to be an issue for professionals across Northern Ireland and has shown no improvement since the onset of the pandemic. Nearly half (48%) rate their work-life balance between average and very poor, comparable to what they felt in July (49%) and when the first national lockdown commenced in March (51%).

It will continue to be an issue in 2021 and in a world where hybrid working will become more prevalent, we need to make sure there’s clear guidance in place to enable employees to switch off from work.

If wellbeing initiatives are properly implemented and embedded now, then the workplace that emerges will be stronger than ever and better equipped to meet the needs of the business in the future. ■

COVER STORY

The Covid-19 pandemic has fast-tracked something of a digital revolution as the working world was forced to operate in increasingly remote environments. It was a change that demanded even more reliable communication solutions and one that saw Britt Megahey’s Barclay Communications step up to the challenge, delivering communications’ services to some of the most recognisable names in business, education and more around the globe.

The surge in demand also saw the firm welcome another of its biggest contracts to date, a deal with the University of Cambridge to the tune of £3m.

Here, Britt speaks to Ulster Business about securing the contract and building on the firm’s excellent reputation, soaring demand and what 2021 ambitions he and the team have

Britt Megahey pictured at the University of Cambridge

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COVER STORY

A prestigious and ringing endorsement T

here are few institutions across the globe as widely recognised

and respected as the University of Cambridge. It has spawned some of the greatest minds in history, including Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking.

Its contract with Northern Ireland’s Barclay Communications has reinforced the fact that the company is one of the best in the business when it comes to being a trusted communications’ supplier and for founder Britt Megahey, it’s yet another endorsement of the successes his company has achieved over the last few years.

Barclay Communications continues to pave the way for business-to-business telecommunications with its range of top-end products throughout the UK and Ireland.

Mobile is the heartbeat of its offering, but its service portfolio extends well beyond that. As Britt emphasises that mobile is what gels all of its other services together, including workforce management through its WorkPal software, both traditional landline and VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services along with IT products and management.

“The University of Cambridge contract is very high profile for us, and we are delighted to have formed such a distinguished partnership,” Britt says.

JANUARY 2021

Barclay Communications fought off competition from some of the UK’s largest

know every intricacy of a customer’s account and this helps us become more like an

telecoms companies and Networks direct to win the contract.

extension to the customer rather than merely support. We complete a weekly call with the university to get ahead of projects and needs whilst reviewing current usage trends.”

“I think for us it was about ensuring the University could trust in our capability.

Providing evidence of how we would manage the estate, showing detail in the transition of the accounts, movement of services, bespoke reporting and ongoing management.”

The contract sees it supply the university with sharper, more agile and reliable communication solutions for its 31 constituent colleges and 150 departments. As one of its biggest and most prestigious contracts in its 24-year history the Barclay team will deliver a multitude of bespoke products originating with 5,000 mobile connections, across 37 countries that will be accessed by all colleges and departments ensuring a seamless migration.

“For them, it started as a substantial commercial advantage. We were much more cost effective.

“This was achieved via detailed planning, intense needs analysis and bespoke pricing.

Being adaptable was important, as the pandemic hit the university’s needs drastically changed and we needed to be quick to support.

“The team we have is unrivalled; they really

In the case of this latest addition, Britt says there is now a team dedicated to dealing with the University of Cambridge account – providing 24/7 support with the ability to resolve any query, from the small to the very large while ensuring all time zones are covered and requirements are met.

It’s this unique and attentive service that Britt believes is paramount to Barclay’s success.

“Contracts like this and the demand for our services means we can plan into 2021 to help grow our teams and portfolio,” Britt says.

“We have been very busy over the last few months as we see businesses react to a more flexible working environment. We have seen a surge in not only mobile but huge demand for our WorkPal software as many companies seek to streamline their workflow and an increase in the uptake for our fixed line VoIP services.

“Many businesses have moved their operations to remote working and have expressed that this is likely to continue. We have been at the forefront of helping businesses stay connected whether it be ensuring someone can use >

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TITLE STORY COVER

their landline services from home, have strong connectivity, raise and assign jobs remotely to simply providing more data to allow functionality such as video calls.

“We have been lucky to operate in such an important space, however we remain firmly focused on supporting customers through any requirement.”

Britt is not alone in the communications’ sphere competing for that intense new custom but 2020 has allowed the company to rise through the ranks and garner such prestigious contracts.

“The industry is one of the most competitive,” he says. “With so many firms coming and going, we always want to give customers security and confidence in choosing us. I’m excited about the future and how technology continues to be integral.”

He also remains positive about the outlook and growth for the business over the

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coming months. The 24-year-old firm is headquartered in Belfast with offices in Dublin and Glasgow.

“Confidence is definitely growing in the business community here,” Britt says.

“There’s no doubt about it. While it hasn’t been easy, it has been wonderful to watch many businesses remain upbeat and opportunistic.”

Continuing to look to 2021, buoyed by the roll-out of vaccinations across Northern Ireland and beyond, Britt is firmly focused on both the continued success of Barclay Communications, but also general business sentiment and overall economic performance as we all try to put Covid-19 firmly in our rear-view mirror.

“I do think we will see a sharp improvement and that normality will return to a certain degree,” he says.

“The team and I are planning for further

growth, which is great. We are also taking a suite of products to Dublin, including our WorkPal and VoIP, which we will continue to sell in the Republic.

“I believe the demand we have experienced in 2020 will continue. The work from home setup that has become commonplace, something of a legacy of this pandemic which prompts businesses and individuals to ensure they have the best communication solutions in place.

“And we will be there to service those new needs. I really do believe our team is exceptional. Their attitudes through this pandemic and beyond has been remarkable.

As customers demanded more they rose to every challenge. Their passion continues to drive my ambition that we are the right choice for any size of business.

“Therefore, one thing will always remain, our service will be as reliable and impeccable as it’s always been, and the client will be at the heart of everything we do.” ■

BUSINESS SHOWCASE WITH ULSTER BANK

Accelerating a new green tech innovation Christine Boyle, chief executive of Senergy, is working at the forefront of breakthrough solar thermal technology which could significantly improve the green credentials of homes and businesses across the globe. She speaks to Ulster Business about getting off the ground and why working with Ulster Bank and its Entrepreneur Accelerator has been a key part of that business jigsaw puzzle

T

here are few sectors which are as important to the future of how we

Christine Boyle

work and live than clean and green energy.

And for Senergy chief executive, Christine Boyle, she’s combined more than 20 years in the commercial roofing sector with specialised expertise, advice, technology and development, to revamp and revolutionise solar power here.

Along with securing £1m between angel investment and the Government’s Innovate UK, working with Ulster University on development and manufacturing with Warwick Manufacturing Group, she’s helped her business take its next steps through Ulster Bank’s Entrepreneur Accelerator, along with NatWest’s new Climate Accelerator, to help turn an idea into a thriving company.

“My background is commercial roofing and I saw that there was an opportunity between solar and roofing – looking to a future in which we would be using our roofs for both electricity and heating,” she said.

The company has turned its attention to creating new Senergy Panels – modernising and improving on the existing solar thermal technology which exists. According to Christine, solar thermal is around three to four times more efficient than the more common solar PV technology.

“I saw the problems with existing solar thermal, and then began working with Ulster University alongside the aerospace engineering

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department and the polymer research sector.

“About a year ago we received £1m in funding between angel investors and Innovate UK to begin working with the Warwick Manufacturing Group – it is high value

manufacturing, and companies such as Rolls Royce, Boeing and Bombardier have all used the centre.

“It’s about how we can economically produce these panels and then get them to market. For

Gemma Jordan

BUSINESS SHOWCASE WITH ULSTER BANK

climate culture into all areas of decision making within the business. For example by 2025 all company owned cars will be electronic vehicles and all energy used within our UK operations is now renewable energy.

Schemes have been introduced to encourage employees, partners and suppliers to be aware of their operational footprint and to engage with our drive to adopt more environmentally friendly activities.

Why a commitment to climate change must be top of the agenda for 2021

By Gemma Jordan, climate lead with Ulster Bank

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ike many organisations across Northern Ireland, Ulster Bank began 2020 with a firm commitment to become a more sustainable business. While we got off to a strong start, once the pandemic struck our focus was rightly shifted and dealing with implications of Covid-19 was the priority.

For this reason I’m struck by a sense of deja vu as my to do list for 2021 looks a lot like it did 12 months ago. Ulster Bank has identified the many ways through which our organisation might transition to a low carbon economy but now it’s time to put these measures in place.

As part of our purpose-led strategy, we have pledged to be climate positive from our own operations by 2025. We plan to achieve this by eliminating single-use plastics from all Ulster Bank buildings, reducing the overall paper consumption by 70% and keeping waste to a minimum through improved recycling systems.

These are just some examples of the practical steps we are taking as part of our green strategy but we’re also working to embed a better

me, my job is early piloting and demonstrating to customers. It’s about how we can really transform the heating industry as we look to move away from gas and oil.”

Along the journey, Ulster Bank’s Entrepreneur Accelerator has played a key part in helping Christine develop and get the business off the ground.

“I started off with Ulster Bank when it was just a proof of concept. When you are doing something innovative, serendipity plays a big part in it. It’s about who you meet.

“That’s why I got involved with the incubator.

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Part of our mission is to bring our people on this journey with us and as such we have been pleased to offer climate change transition training from the University of Edinburgh to 800 colleagues. We’re seeing more and more demand from customers for sustainability-linked products so it’s only right that our colleagues develop their skills and learning in this area.

This year we will make more funding available to business customers who are improving their green credentials and we have reserved 25% of places within our entrepreneurial hubs for companies whose core offering supports sustainable environmental activities.

Christine and her team at Senergy Innovations are a great example of the forward-thinking, dynamic business we’re keen to support. They understand the need to protect our planet and have used this to drive innovation which has in turn generated opportunity.

Working with companies like Senergy and others has given us a renewed sense of determination and we feel more committed than ever to lead the way in the transition to a low carbon economy. The key to this is collaboration and I am looking forward to working with our partners and stakeholders throughout this year to meet the targets we have set.

Like all resolutions – whether they’re made in the new year or otherwise – taking the first step can be the most difficult but if you are thinking about joining in the fight against climate change then talk to our teams and see if the lessons we have learned can help your business become more sustainable and more successful in the process.

It’s about how we can really transform the heating industry as we look to move away from gas and oil “It’s frighting to think you are going to accelerate something that was just in your head, to then creating, hopefully, a global company. You have to start somewhere.

That early incubation was crucial for me as an innovator to keep going. It gave me the support network to keep pushing on – the

knowledge, experience and everything you needed to learn to grow a business, from scale and getting funding, to building a team.”

Senergy has also just jumped on the latest venture from NatWest and Ulster Bank – the new Climate Accelerator.

“We are seeing the situation now where clean tech and renewable companies have massive opportunities. We have goals, globally, to meet, and governments are under pressure to find new ways of doing things and developing new innovations. We have to find new ways of doing things, and Ulster Bank has been one of the key parts of the jigsaw for me.” ■

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PROFILE

Peter McMullan, director, Thomas McMullan, founder and chairman, Philip McMullan, managing director, Mark McMullan, director

Antrim Construction Company: family firm with more than 50 years in NI

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ntrim Construction Company Limited is one of the largest and most established private housing developers in Northern Ireland.

This family business was founded by its current Chairman Mr Thomas McMullan in 1966 and has been successfully trading for 54 years.

Three successful generations of the McMullan family have been committed to building new homes. Known locally as ACC, it is the principal company in the Ladyhill Holdings Group which includes Boville McMullan Ltd/Quarrystore – a quarry and specialist aggregate company near Ballymena and Prospect Private Nursing Home on Ballymena’s prestigious Old Galgorm Road. The company’s headquarters is in a selfbuilt office block off Holywood’s High Street – Ladyhill House.

ACC initially worked on private builds and government housing projects before switching focus to larger residential developments. As it evolved it noticed a gap in the local industry for industrial and agricultural projects.

An agricultural and industrial department was established and they specialised in this area for 25 years. As the demand for quality private housing increased, the company decided to concentrate its efforts on residential development resulting in the acquisition of the Holywoodbased John Mowlem Homes NI Division.

Customer focused with a leadership ethos to match its core business remains acquiring the most suitable land, obtaining planning and building the highest quality homes where people aspire to live. This is supported by an experienced team of professionals in design, construction and sales and marketing.

It is fitting testimony to a quality driven company that their team of site managers are regular National House Building Council award winners.

ACC can look back with pride at completed residential schemes

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Allan Davison, general manager, being presented with a gift from the directors to mark 40 years of service. He’s pictured with Philip McMullan, managing director and director Peter McMullan

providing some 16,000 homes across Northern Ireland. The company routinely manages five to six major private developments at any given time.

Progressive thinking is encouraged with the average length of service for its 33 staff in support of over 150 sub-contractors sitting around 20 years.

Allan Davison was recently presented with a gift from the directors marking 40 years’ service. He began his career as a junior surveyor with Unit Construction, part of the London owned Alfred Booth group.

He was the senior surveyor when the company transferred to the John Mowlem Group and was promoted to general manager at Antrim Construction following the merger of Down and Antrim Construction in 2005. He said his biggest change was managing the transition from public to private housing. He recommends a career in construction and enjoys the variety of work; one week is never the same as the next. ■

Outlook 2021

OUTLOOK 2021

It’s going to be a year of adjustment ANGELA McGOWAN

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ompany chiefs across Northern Ireland have probably never faced a more challenging year than 2020.

So, in some regards, 2021 brings with it an air of optimism and sense of a fresh start. Although the pandemic may not have ended; companies have found ways to keep employees and customers safe and will be hoping for business continuity as the economy learns to live with Covid-19.

At the time of writing, we have not yet seen that much awaited (and promised) UK-EU trade deal. Hopefully by January 2021 the UK will have settled on a new trading relationship with our neighbours in Europe and business will have more information on the direction of travel. By just knowing what is expected of them in terms of tariffs, quotas and trading arrangements, firms can start to properly plan and invest. But there is no doubt that in quarter one and quarter two in 2021, they will be very busy adjusting to the new normal.

Getting IT systems changed, adapting to a new administrative burden not faced before and if necessary, re-adjusting supply chains or capital allocations.

After a sharp economic contraction in 2020, the Northern Ireland economy is expected to see growth of around 7% in 2021.

But probably the most striking thing for the economy this year will be the scale of adjustment.

For many companies preparations are underway. But for all firms, 2021 will be a year of changing how they do business, how they reach out to customers, how they make the

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most of AI and machine learning and how they adopt new digital solutions. And of course, we cannot forget that on top of these Brexit, Covid and digital-driven adjustments; firms will be transitioning to a low-carbon way of working.

We saw in 2020 the power of good collaboration between the public and private sector in rising to the Covid challenge; hopefully 2021 will also be a year of great collaboration to deliver much needed economic growth. Partnerships between national and local government, business and educators will be critical. But success in the year ahead will also be highly dependent on building great business to business networks so that the success of our exemplar large and global players can be replicated across the wider economy.

Last year was all about job protection, but in the year ahead we need to shift the focus to job creation. There will undoubtedly be jobs lost because of Covid-19 and Brexit pressures.

This year we will also be dealing with a cohort of graduates and school leavers that have been unable to undertake work experience or successfully pursue job opportunities due to sluggish economic growth.

For this reason, our focus must be on upskilling and reskilling. NI’s forthcoming Skills Strategy must remain firmly fixed on the long-term and the future economy. This year will be a period for gearing up our future workers with the skills that they need for a digital world and a greener world. But developing the skills of the existing labour market alone will not be sufficient for sustainable economic growth and

in 2021 Northern Ireland must think about how we attract new talent to the region.

A key pillar of economic growth is investment in infrastructure. In the year ahead, interest rates will be low, and we have a great opportunity to allocate both private and public resources into delivering the infrastructure that is needed for a modern high-growth economy. That private and the public sector collaboration will be key and together we must ensure that the UK Government’s promise to ‘level-up’ is applied to all corners of the UK. We also need an agile planning system and reduced departmental silos to ensure the delivery our priority infrastructure projects.

Ultimately an overarching Economic Strategy with cross-cutting themes will be essential for delivering successful economic outcomes in 2021. For example, infrastructure delivery such as ultrafast broadband, electric vehicle chargers and the retrofitting of housing to ensure heat efficiency and reduced carbon, cannot be built without the appropriate skills base.

But the burden of developing high-level strategic economic policy cannot be done in isolation; nor can the burden of strategy delivery be placed solely with the public sector.

In 2021, the CBI will be working collaboratively with our partners in national and local government and the education sector to help develop and deliver that ambitious road map to successful and sustainable economic growth. ■ Angela McGowan is CBI NI director

OUTLOOK 2021

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OUTLOOK 2021

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OUTLOOK 2021

Our economic strategy must have inclusive innovation as its foundation STEVE ORR

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on the clusters where NI can be a world leader. We are a small region so we can’t be the best at everything but looking at the

decade, so I’d argue that we need to focus on those big, long term issues facing society, the things that might take 10 years to solve, such as narrowing the life expectancy gap between the rich and poor in Northern Ireland.

But digital is not just a tool for recovery or part of the future landscape, it is, in my view, going to be the very foundation of our economy. The degree to which we get it right will determine the success of the whole region.

capabilities in our universities, business sector and significant City Deal investments, our belief is that health tech and fintech are the sectoral clusters that can really put Northern Ireland on the map by leveraging the growth we’ve already seen in our capabilities in cyber security and artificial intelligence. This is in addition to green tech, which covers the advanced manufacturing expertise that exists here.

As such I changed the theme of that talk to ‘the four key ingredients for Northern Ireland to compete and win in a digital world’ because I do truly believe that Northern Ireland has the opportunity to lead the world if we focus on a small number of clusters that are already thriving.

Alignment is about moving away from the old command and control approach to economic strategy to a distributed model of responsibility which is all aligned to maximise the impact different organisations in government, industry and education can have. It shouldn’t be about one body

The time to do all this is now, that’s why speed is my fourth ingredient. In a world where consumers expect everything on demand, right away, changes in consumer behaviour have already accelerated to the point where instant delivery at the click of a button is the norm.

claiming credit if we are all working as one team towards the same goal, speaking with one voice.

We need decisions to be made at a similar pace, but as a post-conflict society, speed will likely be our greatest challenge.

Inclusivity is the next key ingredient, because we need to know that the things we commit to doing will benefit the people here. There is some excellent work on ‘Levelling Up’ being done by Belfast City Council and digital innovation commissioner Jayne Brady and there has been a lot of good work done on skills by various government departments and the private sector. The problem is that in the past they haven’t all fitted together.

Northern Ireland’s response to this new reality is less about coming up with clever tech – although we do need to do that – it is about how we work together to push forward and start making an impact immediately. Covid has forced us to find new ways of doing things, some of which have worked really well, so we need to maintain that agility and momentum.

was asked to speak at an economic conference recently on the theme of ‘putting digital at the centre of the

recovery’ alongside speakers from other sectors which will have an important role to play in building the economy back from the shocks of the coronavirus pandemic.

And far from compromising on ambition because of the current economic environment, I think we can actually be more ambitious and should put our collective energy into solving some of the world’s really big, meaningful problems. When Covid-19 is eventually behind us, it is fair to assume that public and private money isn’t going to be invested in things that are ‘nice to have’ it is going to have go into things that will clearly benefit citizens and society.

The four ingredients needed for if Northern Ireland is to respond to the opportunity that offers are focus, alignment, inclusivity and speed.

By focus, I mean concentrating our energy

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‘Inclusive innovation’ needs to be at the centre of any new economic strategy. Local and national government intend to spend significantly more on R&D here in the next

And when new exciting jobs are created off the back of that sort of ground breaking research and more of our startups and SMEs are able to scale up by being part of those opportunities, we have to do more to make those roles accessible and demystify them to a wider audience, with the ultimate goal of helping lift more of our people out of poverty.

If all those ingredients are brought together, 2021 can be a year where we see real, meaningful progress towards Northern Ireland competing and winning on a global stage. ■ Steve Orr is chief executive of Catalyst

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OUTLOOK 2021

This year is about leadership to deliver long term strategies ROSEANN KELLY

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s we close the door on 2020 we do so with a sigh of relief. It began so promisingly for Northern Ireland as the ‘New Decade New Approach’ agreement took shape under the new Executive, with women holding some of the key ministerial roles in Justice,

the priority given to working women that is has taken a pandemic for the desire for family flexibility to be met.

Economy, Infrastructure and the Executive Office itself.

in NI have been exacerbated by Covid-19.

Despite unprecedented levels of employment support, it is expected that there will be job losses across many sectors as a result of the pandemic.

Optimism was quickly overshadowed when the pandemic began to escalate here towards the end of March. Businesses were forced to close indefinitely and much of civic society in Northern Ireland came to a standstill. The furlough scheme was a lifeline for many businesses and preliminary figures from the Treasury indicate that 54,100 people in Northern Ireland remained on furlough as of September 30 – more women than men.

However, the effectiveness of female leaders in handling the Covid-19 crisis and grappling with its catastrophic effects are widely recognised, with evidence showing that outcomes are systematically better in countries led by women – Jacinda Ardern is a case in point.

Covid-19 has driven a number of societal changes, many to the detriment of women – it interrupted conventional schooling with school closures still ongoing, and parents, and more often than not mums, forced to take on an additional role of ‘teacher’ as home schooling became another new norm of 2020.

However, an enforced, accelerated uptake of remote and flexible working structures helped open society’s eyes to the contribution of stay-at-home parents. Technology combined with new recommendations for working from home where possible has allowed modern women the empowerment of joining tradition with innovation. Only, it is quintessential of

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Undoubtedly, the pandemic has left the economy in a precarious position as we enter 2021. Poverty and the economic divide

We know that tourism, hospitality, arts and entertainment sectors have been hardest hit, and 2021 will be a year when the businesses that gained will need to reach out to those who need support. As consumers, we must support the ‘shop local’ campaigns which are being rolled out across the country and make it a priority in 2021 to support our smaller independent, local businesses to bounce back.

With the new year upon us, we must seek to take positive steps forward, with economic recovery and the end of the Brexit transition period at the forefront for decision makers in Northern Ireland. Crucial to our success going forward will be the retraining and upskilling of those who have been so unfortunate to have lost their jobs, recognising a shift in employment patterns that are likely to result from a reconfiguring of the suburbs and regional towns and a collapse of the commercial rental property.

We have a young, hardworking, and talented population – women and men – and it is incumbent upon decision makers and business leaders in the coming year to provide the best circumstances to allow them to flourish in a new, altered economy.

What’s more, the undervaluing of caring

roles must stop. For our economy to move forward and to ‘build back better’, we must value the caring roles in our society, and one positive thing to come out of this pandemic for parents, and particularly, women in business is the increased appreciation for those who nurture our children. There is no doubt that our future is dependent on how we care for and educate our them, and we need to commit to developing a world class educations system that leaves no one behind.

In the same vein, a new female returners programme launched by Women in Business, Department for the Economy and Belfast Met – Press Refresh – was created with the aim of encouraging women to Press Refresh on their careers and equip them with new skills needed to return to, or build their career in the expanding IT sector. Press Refresh, which will focus on upskilling up to 20 women returners, is an encouraging prospect for women and the booming tech industry in Northern Ireland, which will be key to bolstering the economy and the job market as we emerge from the Covid-19 crisis and enter a new post-Brexit era.

Ultimately, the pace of recovery in Northern Ireland will be intrinsically tied to the deal brokered between the EU and UK. Businesses have already suffered enough throughout the pandemic and a comprehensive trade agreement which allows for parity and gives business leaders and employers consistency of correspondence would come as a big relief to many.

After all, businesses in Northern Ireland are already facing challenging times without further uncertainty brought by precariousness of Brexit. For 2021 we need strong leadership to deliver long term progressive strategies and, my fear is that the 2022 election will bring us back to the divided point scoring of old, not

OUTLOOK 2021

what the people of NI deserve and not what the electorate want.

But to end on a positive note, the news of a vaccine brings with it great hope and optimism to bring some normality back to peoples’ lives

JANUARY 2021

and rebuild the economy. If we really want to ‘build back better’, then we must build back diverse. We have a diverse range of political decision makers with women accounting for more than half of the Executive, but the onus

must be on them to lay the foundations for future generations. ■ Roseann Kelly is chief executive of Women in Business

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OUTLOOK 2021

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t has been said that this New Year’s Eve people will stay up until midnight – not to see in 2021, but to make sure 2020 leaves. It truly has been a year like no other, with some of my more experienced colleagues noting that throughout their many decades of running businesses they have witnessed oil shocks; currency devaluations; civil unrest, but nothing that can compare with the current global pandemic. In the spirit of ‘new year, new start’ let us not look back at the year which has almost passed, and let’s look ahead to what we can expect in 2021.

It is likely that further progress rolling out a vaccine for Covid-19 which enables a return to more normal life, perhaps in the spring or summer of the year. The likely advances in public health can only be positive for the economy, particularly for sectors like hospitality which have borne the brunt of restrictions, but also for businesses generally, with increases in business and consumer confidence.

With the Northern Ireland Protocol coming into force in January, there is a hope that we can put the Brexit saga behind us, which has plagued businesses for more than four years as they have been unsure about what the trading landscape and future market access will look like. That said, there is still a great deal of work to be done to ensure that trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland is as frictionless as possible and that Northern Ireland businesses have unfettered access to the wider UK market in 2021.

In an ideal world, with Covid-19 and Brexit behind us, we can begin to look ahead to the medium and long-term issues and how we can create the best environment for the economy to flourish. With NI having the highest proportion of school leavers in the UK without five good GCSEs including English and Maths, addressing educational achievement should be high on our agenda.

TINA McKENZIE

Businesses hope for a more peaceful prosperous year business stories feature in the middle rather than the front pages of newspapers.

Improving our built and digital infrastructure will also be key, particularly in a world where people are spending more time working from home, and the economic concentration around greater Belfast may lessen somewhat.

It might seem foolish to make any firm predictions for 2021 but there are a number of emerging global trends that will impact business here. In the recruitment sector for example, despite the dual pressures of Covid-19 and Brexit, there are exciting prospects in growth areas including fintech, cyber-security, pharma, life sciences, agri-food and manufacturing.

Above all, businesses will be forgiven for wanting 2021 to be one of stability, where

The lasting impact of the global pandemic will shape the way we work, but I firmly believe the

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workplace will continue to be the focal point.

A physical space for colleagues to work in is essential to building staff cohesion, a common sense of purpose, as well as good physical and mental health.

This year will see us work with greater flexibility and I envision people and businesses discovering the benefits of working in a new way, which might challenge traditional business norms in the short term, but ultimately will revolutionise and modernise the way we work and live. ■ Tina McKenzie is FSB NI policy chairperson

OUTLOOK 2021

We can find solutions to our business challenges

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conomists take a lot of stick for the old ‘on the one hand… and on the other’ routine but surely it is forgivable as we try to look forward to what sort of economic performance we might see in 2021.

On one hand, we could have a trade deal with the EU: on the other hand, we might not. On one hand, the vaccination programme could roll out quickly, enabling a return to normal life early in the year; on the other hand, we could be in and out of restrictions for some time to come, which will create a stop-start economy resulting in increasing numbers of firms unable to remain viable without continued, significant support from Government.

When lockdowns began, I considered the over-riding influence for how we emerged from lockdown to be the fragility of consumer and business confidence and how we might feel a sense of trepidation about re-engaging in the economy. We have some evidence from the lifting of the initial lockdown and initiatives such as the ‘eat out to help out’ scheme that consumers are willing to re-engage.

While ever mindful of the devastating consequences of the pandemic, I am now convinced that society has reached such a point of fatigue and frustration with restrictions that the vaccine will release a wave of euphoria and ‘revenge spend’ that will kick the consumer economy into much needed overdrive.

Imagine overflowing bars, restaurants and hotels and tills ringing in shops across bustling town and city centres. Now, add to that, a Brexit deal that secures free flowing trade between all our key trading partners. Both those factors combined could set us up for a buoyant economy that sees a recovery take hold and get us back to pre-pandemic within 18 months.

I write 18 months for a recovery because even in this optimistic scenario, there are firms that aren’t going to make it through the crisis

JANUARY 2021

ANDREW WEBB and firms who will emerge with many fewer employees.

A more likely scenario into 2021 is more downbeat and assumes a vaccine doesn’t reach full roll out until mid/late 2021 and that we end up with a messy Brexit that hinders trade.

In this case, it is not difficult to envisage an economy that not so much roars but whimpers back to health and a labour market that sheds a considerable number of jobs.

Claimant unemployment numbers close to or worse than 100,000 are not unrealistic given that they have more than doubled since the start of lockdown restrictions.

It is obvious that our economic path is uncertain and challenging but there are reasons to be hopeful. Elements of the economy, such as lifesciences, IT, cyber-security have come through the lockdown restrictions well and are expected to continue posting growth in 2021.

Finally, the potential for our firms to become more innovative offers hope for a more productive post-Covid economy. The speed at which many firms have adapted to new ways of working should be the proof point to remind us, we can find solutions to business challenges. ■ Andrew Webb is chief economist with Grant Thornton NI

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OUTLOOK 2021

Shocks to continue into 2021

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he shocks that the NI economy has faced in 2020 and will continue to loom large in 2021 vindicate John Kenneth Galbraith’s quip that economic forecasting exists merely to make astrology look intellectually respectable.

Indeed in terms of thinking about the region’s economic prospects into 2021 and beyond, trying to predict precise outcomes is perhaps a less fruitful way to think about the issues relative to thinking critically about possible scenarios which may unfold.

In a situation where uncertainty concerning Covid-19 may very well interact with the way Brexit evolves, uncertainty will only continue to influence commercial decisions as both supply and demand side need to continually readjust.

What we can say with some degree of certainty is that the Northern Ireland economy has very longstanding weaknesses and while dealing with the urgent issues arising out of the public health crisis are entirely understandable, a consequence of prioritising short-term stabilisation is that attempts at addressing underlying ‘competitiveness’ problems, which place a ceiling on economic performance, are postponed.

To some degree this might seem unavoidable but it is worth remembering that during 19401945 the UK civil service and machinery of government managed to lay the ground work for the post-war welfare state as well as fight the war. In the discussion that follows we will

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DR GRAHAM BROWNLOW DR ESMOND BIRNIE speculate regarding output, employment and longer term prospects.

In terms of output, despite the data limitations, it is fair to observe that NI has broadly tracked the UK trend during 2020 and this pattern may well continue into 2021. However, we need to caveat any speculation on the future direction of output by noting that the renewed restrictions on business activity, which (at the time of writing) came into place in midOctober, has increased the likelihood is that the overall decline in NI GDP over the course of the whole year will be worse than could have been predicted earlier in the Covid-19 crisis.

Indeed, the shock to the system could equate to a 10-12% decline in 2020. With a NI economy heavily dependent on retail and the high street more generally plus a large aerospace sector, the degree of output recovery may not be either strong or durable.

With output growth prospects fragile, the growth of employment cannot but remain a problem. Again at the time of writing we cannot know how many of those furloughed will become unemployed when the Job Retention Scheme (JRS) ends.

The number of unemployed claimants by midOctober has already increased to above 60,000

(more than doubled compared to March 2020). There was speculation that figure could reach about 100,000 by the end of the year. Again a lot of uncertainty in involved in thinking about the direction of future employment levels. The related issues of how wage levels and job quality will develop in 2021 is a further complication.

Returning to less urgent but perhaps more profound economic issues, in terms of policy the urgent may have sometimes crowded out the important. The NI Executive is behind some of its targets as set by the January 2020 ‘New Decade New Approach Agreement’.

The Department for the Economy did publish a document about rebuilding the economy in June – this did stress that priority was being given to short term responses.

Likewise, the policy machinery intended to deal with addressing long-term weaknesses, such as the creation of a fiscal council, have been delayed. A threat in 2021 is that dilution compounds delay in the area of policy reform. ■

Dr Graham Brownlow is senior lecturer at Queen’s University Management School and Dr Esmond Birnie is senior economist at Economic Policy Centre at Ulster University

RECOVERY

Colin Johnston

Specialist task force embraces hospitality and tourism recovery for 2021

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s the hospitality and tourism sector across Northern Ireland continues to react and respond to evolving Covid-19 restrictions, one local council is embracing the recovery challenge head on through its specialist new task force.

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Established by Mid and East Antrim Borough Council (MEABC) chief executive Anne Donaghy OBE, the Hospitality and Tourism Task Force includes Tourism Northern Ireland, Tourism Ireland, the Northern Ireland Hotels Federation and a range of local businesses from across the sector. Its aim is to provide

a platform for key players and influencers to work together to deliver a clear action plan focused on recovery, and to raise the profile of the local tourism economy within Mid and East Antrim.

The task force is chaired by Colin Johnston,

RECOVERY

managing director of Galgorm Collection – which includes Galgorm Spa and Golf Resort, The Rabbit (formerly The Templeton Hotel), the Castle Kitchen and Bar at Galgorm Castle, and Belfast’s Café Parisien and Fratelli restaurants.

Appointed in September 2020, Mr Johnston said that the work of the group would be critical to the recovery of the hospitality and tourism sector in Mid and East Antrim in 2021 and beyond.

“Having been involved in one of the borough’s primary hospitality and tourism businesses for almost 20 years, I have witnessed first-hand the crucial contribution the sector makes to the wider culture and lifestyle offering of Mid and East Antrim and its local economy,” he said.

“This included the delivery of a programme of political and stakeholder lobbying activity, together with the roll out of skills interventions, operational guidance and enforcement support, and provision of PPE – all of which played an important role in preparing the sector for safe re-opening following the first lockdown period.

“In phase two we have been focusing on a number of strategic levers, including sustaining our sector, collaboration, innovation, skills and growth. This phase sets out how we plan to move forward over the next 12 months, with the flexibility to adapt and evolve as it becomes clearer on how the local economy is likely to recover.”

The action plan is supported by a robust

“Accounting for around 10% of GVA (gross value added) in the borough, hospitality and tourism is one of our key growth sectors as we aim to drive economic recovery in the immediate term and strive for sustainable economic growth in the medium to longer term.

“However, the challenges and threats posed

by Covid-19 are among the greatest that our industry has ever experienced, and the impact will be felt by our local hospitality and tourism businesses for some time to come.

“That’s why the development of a practical and tangible strategy that will drive recovery and sustainable growth has been so important.

The strategy puts the safety of our visitors and our teams at the forefront whilst securing livelihoods for our colleagues.”

Led by the Task Force in partnership with MEABC, this Integrated Tourism Strategy centres on the rebuilding of a vibrant tourism economy that not only serves as an attractive draw for international and domestic visitors to the borough, but also continues to enhance the lives of its citizens.

The delivery of the strategy is underpinned by a two-phased action plan, with the group now taking forward phase two.

“Phase one of the action plan was naturally very reactive and focused on response-driven initiatives necessitating from the first few months of Covid-19,” Mr Johnston said.

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communications and marketing plan.

Focused on continuing to position Mid and East Antrim as an attractive visitor destination for NI, the Republic of Ireland and GB markets, in recent months this has included the successful execution of a number of multi-channel PR and advertising campaigns across online, print and broadcast platforms.

“In June 2020 we launched our #RediscoverMEA campaign to promote the borough’s compelling hospitality and retail offering,” Mr Johnston said. “This generated over 10,000 news articles and individual social media engagements, reaching almost one million potential visitors across Facebook, Twitter and Europe and a further 850,000 through radio and television advertising.

“Combined with our outdoor digital and billboard campaigns, this led to a surge in interest in Mid and East Antrim as day trip or short stay destination – evidenced through our online analytics, which showed that unique daily Google searches for Mid and East Antrim soared by more than 400%.”

MEABC subsequently launched its ‘Spirit of MEA’ campaign to support the sector which, like #RediscoverMEA, focused on shop local, eat local, stay local and safe spending.

Throughout December this included a highprofile radio competition to win voucher prizes to spend in the borough’s shops, hotels and restaurants, together with a twoweek television advertising campaign on UTV.

In the run up to the festive period the council also incepted its ‘Covid Confidence Scheme’ – which, according to Mr Johnston, brought much-needed reassurance to shoppers, diners and visitors to the borough.

“Given the constantly-evolving Covid-19 restrictions that challenged the hospitality and tourism sector throughout November and December, we knew visitor and consumer confidence would be key to maintaining a steady footfall and demand for local businesses throughout the Christmas period,” he said.

“Our Covid Confidence Scheme promotes local businesses as safe, welcoming and ready to trade – aimed at assuring shoppers, diners and visitors that all necessary steps have been take to control and mitigate the spread of coronavirus in our towns and villages.

“Through the Scheme, all local businesses have been receiving a Covid-19 Business Support Pack, with follow-up visits by offices ensuring that all appropriate measures are in place before they are awarded the Covid-19 Confidence Mark – bringing that continued confidence as we enter into 2021.”

With the early stages of a mass Covid-19 vaccination programme now in place, Mr Johnston said that hospitality and tourism businesses in Mid and East Antrim are desperately hoping for a more positive 2021.

“With the vaccine bringing hope of a return to even some semblance of normality in 2021, local businesses are now very much dialling up their recovery strategies and tentatively making ambitious plans for this year.

“Bold and forward-thinking decisions have already by taken by MEABC and the Tourism and Hospitality Task Force and it’s our job to ensure that the sector is supported in every way possible going forward in the coming 12 months and beyond.” ■

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RETAIL

SPAR NI at 60: A diamond in every community This year marks 60 years of SPAR in Northern Ireland. The Dutch brand that has revolutionised community retailing around the world, with more than 13,300 stores in 48 countries. William Agnew officially launched the brand here in April 1961, alongside his son John. Here, John Agnew of the Henderson Group which continues to own the franchise in Northern Ireland, reflects on the impact of SPAR here, how its Dutch roots and ethos of collaborative working are still strong today, and what’s next for the brand

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n the 1960s, the backdrop of Northern Ireland could be unrecognisable to many today, however there was one shop front that has become synonymous with every community.

When my father brought the SPAR brand to Northern Ireland, it was already established in six European countries, most recently in GB. I had completed a couple of years of management training with one of the

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Welsh SPAR wholesalers in the late 50s, and I returned home in 1957 to join the family business.

The business model of the SPAR Guild operated successfully on a regional, national and international level, and still does today.

It supports the exchange of knowledge and information between retailers, as well as a structure to work together to grow the business. That is why SPAR is such a formidable

force both globally and within our local communities; not only is our local SPAR Guild collaborating and driving the business forward, but we are learning and developing with our international retail colleagues too.

Hendersons established the Ulster SPAR Guild in the 60s, which was made up of 10 retailers from the 100 stores here. Peter Hurn, who many local retailers will know of, was one of the founding members and had a store in

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Ballyhackamore near the site of the current EUROSPAR on the Upper Newtownards Road in Belfast.

We had a sales team dedicated to bringing retailers on board through competitive pricing and promotions in exchange for SPAR trading and while such incentives might seem the natural way of things now, it was quite unique at that time. We were the only brand offering this to retailers.

Today we have independents with whole networks of SPAR stores such as the Kelly Group and The McBride Group, which run 22 stores between them; local retailers providing support to local suppliers and their community with employment and investment.

It was John Irish CBE, former retail director of SPAR in the 70s and 80s, who pioneered the ‘eight ‘til late’ concept, urging retailers to adopt longer hours to gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace against the growth of the multiples.

The first company-owned SPAR opened in the late 70s. Developing our own stores was strategic as we needed to have our own, hands-on retail experience to be able to offer credible advice and advancements to our retailers. Henderson Retail now operates 59 SPAR stores in Northern Ireland.

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Growth in the 80s saw us start to sell our own brand petrol, so those out on the road would also be able to pick up a snack, their lunch, or essentials for tonight’s tea. But it was as recent as 2005 that we established partnerships with our fuel partners BP, Maxol and Texaco. The 80s was also when my sons, Martin and Geoffrey, joined the business and they now sit as joint managing directors.

Post Good Friday Agreement and throughout the 90s and 00s, was when the growth of the SPAR brand really excelled. There are now 293 SPARs in Northern Ireland, the majority of which are operated by some of our most successful independent retailers. It has been an honour to see the brand grow to its full potential, and those retailers that have invested everything into it, to make their own successful family businesses.

Many of our retailers have built entire local networks under the SPAR brand and have been a real hub of their local communities.

They trade independently but work with us through our wholesale business to gain access to promotions and our successful own-brand fresh and ambient ranges, a majority of which are sourced and developed with local farmers, growers and suppliers.

SPAR has also become synonymous with community outreach, and over the years, the brand has supported the NI arms of the NSPCC, Tearfund, British Heart Foundation and most recently, Marie Curie. Our independent retailers provide funding and support for their local food banks, football teams and community groups. This is an integral part of our business and has grown substantially since my father kept note of charitable support in a little black book, which I still have.

It is incredible to look back over the past 60 years and see the impact the brand has had on retailing in Northern Ireland. We know that strong investment and innovation has really driven that impact, but the success lies with the great people and entrepreneurs we have had working for the business. This has been our true success, and the backbone to the future of SPAR, especially following on from a year which has proven just how important community retailing is.

If 2020 was the year for challenge and learning, we hope 2021 will be the year for implementation of innovation from those learnings, alongside celebration of SPAR and the continued success of those who trade under it. ■

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ENERGY

McCulla: developing a cleaner energy future with Phoenix With more than 50 years under its belt, logistics business McCulla has become one of the most forward-thinking firms in terms of how it deals with its energy needs. Its chairman, Ashley McCulla, takes a look at the journey and progress the company has made, most recently working with partners such as Phoenix Natural Gas to further deliver carbon savings across its operations If you can talk me through the current company, its customers and the markets in

Ashley McCulla

which it operates?

McCulla Ireland started over 50 years ago by my father, initially to transport his own cattle to Smithfield Market, but while he was doing this, he spotted the opportunity to move into refrigerated transport. Since then we have diversified from the original core business of refrigerated haulage to a fully integrated cold supply chain, which now includes cold storage and bespoke logistics solutions. We can collect, store and deliver temperature-controlled goods by the box, pallet or full load to anywhere in the UK, Ireland and the rest of continental Europe. We now also have a specialist division, called Certa, that focuses on pharmaceuticals and tech goods logistics.

In the last few years, we have opened our own energy division, called Alternity Biogas Energy, which allows us to produce all of our own energy for our cold stores and soon-to-be delivered compressed gas fuelled trucks. The new trucks will be powered by biomethane gas, which will be generated from food waste on site at our Lisburn anaerobic digester power plant. They will be the first of their kind in operation, locally.

Finally, our latest development is in response to Brexit. We have opened a customs brokerage business to help with customs formalities for goods moving across the Irish Sea – either from GB to the island of Ireland or from Ireland to GB. Today we turn over around £28m, operate 100 trucks and 180 fridge trailers and employ around 225 staff.

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How have the last few months been for the business?

It’s probably an understatement to say that it has been challenging. With the pandemic hitting right when businesses should have been preparing for Brexit, the logistics industry has definitely felt the pressures.

But we have spent months modelling our customers through the constraints of Brexit to assist them with preparations and to try to plan ourselves. We are preparing for every eventuality, including introducing our own customs brokerage service, so that we and our

customers can be ready whatever happens.

Despite these external factors, we’ve continued to invest in our business and in particular our Alternity Biogas Energy division which will play a significant part in enabling us to make carbon emission reductions right across the business. The next phase in our waste circular economy is just about to launch.

How has your relationship with Phoenix Natural Gas developed and how important is both energy to your business, and trying to look towards greener solutions?

ENERGY

An unfortunate consequence of being in the logistics industry is the environmental impact of running trucks. We are currently working towards a full circular economy in the wasteto-energy generation model. I believe we will be the first private company in the UK and Ireland to achieve this in conjunction with a major supermarket at an affordable level.

In 2017, we installed an anaerobic digester (AD) plant at our site in Lisburn which has allowed us to produce all of our own electricity, but our ultimate goal was always to use energy produced by the AD plant to power our trucks as well. Until now we have been restricted by the lack of availability of trucks, but our goal will become reality early next year when we take delivery of our first gas-powered trucks which can be powered using the compressed biomethane gas produced from our plant. Compressed gas has been proven as an effective lower carbon

JANUARY 2021

form of fuel for trucks and we are delighted to be the first to introduce these efficiencies in our fleet.

How do you see your business heading in to 2021 in terms of positives, growth, but also challenges?

We are also working with a major supermarket currently to collect its food waste, which we then use as feedstock in our AD plant.

We can’t talk about 2021 without mentioning Brexit. It’s shocking that the uncertainty remains even now at the eleventh hour, but there will undoubtedly be changes to the way that we and our customers do business. Brexit will make it very difficult for ‘just-in-time delivery’ or ‘multiple product groupage’, which much of our business is built on, to be viable because of the time constraints and cost of the customs clearance process and the requirement of health certificates for products of animal origin.

More positively, having the first gas-powered trucks entering our fleet in quarter one is an exciting milestone for us and our first circular economy initiative will be the proof of concept that we need to roll this out further in future.

Our ability to make our own biomethane gas, in conjunction with the increasing availability of the Phoenix Natural Gas network, means we will be at the forefront of alternative fuel vehicle usage within the UK and Irish industry and we hope to reduce our diesel reliance completely within five years. With the help of Phoenix Natural Gas, and maximising the opportunities to further increase the green credentials of natural gas, we are looking at the potential to inject biomethane into the natural gas infrastructure grid which will enable even more companies, to avail of a lower carbon energy source.

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EU EXIT

Do you employ EU citizens?

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he UK has left the EU and EU citizens living in Northern Ireland can now apply to the EU Settlement Scheme to continue to live, work and study here.

Citizens from Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland can also apply. Irish citizens do not need to apply to the Scheme – but may apply if they wish – as there are separate arrangements for Irish citizens, who will continue to benefit from the Common Travel Area.

The EU Settlement Scheme is designed to offer EU and other affected citizens – and their eligible family members – the opportunity to protect their residency in the UK after the transition period ends on December 31, 2020.

The deadline for applying is June 30, 2021.

Given the valuable contribution EU citizens make to businesses and organisations in Northern Ireland, local employers may wish to communicate with their EU staff about the EU Settlement Scheme.

While there is no legal obligation for businesses to highlight the EU Settlement Scheme to employees, it is worth being aware of who in your workforce will be impacted and consider directing employees to information on how to apply.

of EU citizens currently living in the UK until June 30, 2021.

checklist at www.gov.uk/government/ publications/right-to-work-checklist

Employers are under a duty not to discriminate against EU citizens in light of the UK’s decision to leave the EU, both as a prospective and current employer.

If an EU national has lived in the UK for five continuous years, they will be able to apply for ‘settled status’ which will ensure they can continue to live and work here.

You cannot make an offer of employment, or continued employment, dependent on an individual having made an application.

If an EU national hasn’t yet lived here for five continuous years, they will receive ‘pre-settled status’ which will mean that they can continue to live and work in the UK and then apply

There will be no change to right to work checks for EU citizens until after June 30, 2021, and you will not be required to undertake retrospective checks on existing EU employees.

for ‘settled status’ when they do have five continuous years of residence.

For employers, it is important to note that there will be no change to the rights and status

For more information, read the right to work

If you need advice and support you can contact support services at: Email the EU Settlement Scheme adviser at advice@adviceni.net Call the freephone helpline 0800 915 4604 Monday to Friday 9am to 5pm To request a phone call about the EU

Settlement Scheme text: ACTION to 81025.

You will receive an automated reply from Advice NI who will contact you within two working days Contact Stronger Together EUSS Support Project by phone 028 8775 0211 or email info@strongertogetherni.org

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For many of those affected, the application process is straightforward and can be accessed at www.gov.uk/settled-status-eu-citizensfamilies Further information on the scheme is available at nidirect www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/ staying-northern-ireland-if-youre-eucitizen

E-COMMERCE

IRP Commerce: building on exponential growth Belfast’s IRP Commerce built its early success and reputation on helping a bike retailer grow in to a £160m a year business. But the last few months have seen rapid expansion and growth for the platform, with clients across the sectors witnessing a more than doubling of sales amid a changing retail landscape, according to chief commercial officer, Philip Macartney

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he last few weeks and months have been a rollercoaster for the world of online retail.

And as millions across the globe turn their attention towards digital shopping solutions, one of those companies which has been right at the forefront continues to be Belfast’s IRP Commerce.

The e-commerce platform, which helps ambitious SMEs maximise profits online, has seen the majority of its clients doubling sales in the last few months – right across the sectors.

“We are success-based model. We work on a percentage of the success which our customers have and don’t focus on license fees – if the customer does well, we do well,” IRP Commerce’s chief commercial officer, Philip Macartney, said.

“In the last few months, the exceptional demand has been there but we have continued to prove our value with a lot of our clients outperforming their sectors online growth, some seeing growth of over 125% year-on-year.

“We are seeing very steady growth. It’s been a great year for IRP Commerce and our

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customers. There have been some tremendous success stories.”

IRP Commerce is now a team of 25, based at Catalyst in Belfast. It was founded by entrepreneur Daniel Loughlin around 15 years ago, and built its name on turning homegrown success story Chain Reaction Cycles into one of the world’s largest bike retailers.

Since then, it’s gone on to work with the likes of Northern Ireland jewellery business Argento and pet grooming company Christie’s Direct.

“Following the success with firms such as Chain Reaction we developed the IRP Commerce platform – focusing on sales and profit. It’s for companies which are looking at that exponential growth, using that structure and the insights which we offer.”

The last year has seen it help companies such as Ireland’s Best Menswear and UK surf shop chain Ann’s Cottage, in building and developing their online offering.

“One of our big successes this year has been Best Menswear – a well-known brand in the Republic of Ireland with several retail locations. It had tried e-commerce a couple of

times with little success.

“Now, it’s gone tremendously. They would compare the success online to one of their topperforming high street stores.

“Another success has been Ann’s Cottage, which has around 14 locations and specialises in surf and paddle-boarding. That company has now internationalised its opportunities and has seen growth of 350%, year-on-year.”

It’s also marking another milestone this year – being named as one of the Deloitte Fast 50 firms. “It’s incredibly important to us,” Philip says. “The Deloitte brand and the nature of the award is important from a consumer and client trust perspective.”

And looking ahead, based on the strong performance in 2020, Philip says this year will see a fresh and renewed focus in growing its client base across the UK and Ireland.

“We are ready to get serious about getting more clients on board,” Philip said. “And in 2021, that will be a key focus. The clients we are looking for are firms which recognise the importance of e-commerce and are ready to invest in that growth.” ■

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ECONOMIC STRATEGY

The Mid South West Region How the business world is critical in helping the Mid South West Regional Economic Strategy reach its aim of supercharging the region’s economy

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ompanies have an important role to play in supercharging the Mid South West’s (MSW) economy as part of a unique collaboration between three of Northern Ireland’s most dynamic councils.

That’s the conclusion of the Mid South West Regional Economic Strategy which has been developed with the aim of boosting productivity across the three council areas of Armagh City, Banbridge and Craigavon Borough Council, Fermanagh and Omagh District Council and Mid Ulster District Council.

The input from businesses across a range of sectors has been instrumental in helping to shape the strategy by identifying areas where investment is needed to allow them to grow unimpeded and their continued input will be vital as the strategy is rolled out in the coming

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months and years, according to councillor Robert Irvine, chairman of the Mid South West Region Governance Steering Group.

“Business sits at the heart of this strategy and will be fundamental in ensuring that the Mid South West’s economy flourishes in the future,” he said. “We have geared the actions identified in the strategy towards addressing business needs and areas of deficit in order to provide businesses, that are already proficient, with the optimum conditions for them to maximise their potential, not just locally but internationally. By targeting investment we will reinforce the region’s sectoral strengths in manufacturing, engineering, agri-food, health and life sciences, tourism and construction as well as in a fast-growing digital tech sector.

“The Mid South West Business Reference Group has provided invaluable insight into the

development of the strategy and will continue to play an important roll in its delivery. Our ambitions for the Mid South West economy are far reaching, but we are confident that with the support of businesses and all stakeholders in the region they are wholly achievable.”

The Mid South West Regional Economic Strategy identifies challenges and opportunities and sets out four pillars to guide investment and grow the collective economy. The pillars are: future proofing the skills base, enabling infrastructure, boosting innovation and digital capacity and building a high performing tourism economy.

By focusing on those areas, the overriding goals of increasing productivity, driving business growth and competitiveness, fully realising sectoral strengths and opportunities, creating more and better-paid jobs and

ECONOMIC STRATEGY ensuring the ongoing internationalisation of MSW can be achieved.

The strategy will enable the Mid South West Region to leverage financial investment from a range of sources – such as the £250m Growth Deal funding committed by the UK Government and Northern Ireland Executive,

the PEACE PLUS Programme, the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, Innovate UK and other central government funding.

The strategy was launched by First Minister Arlene Foster MLA and deputy First Minister Michelle O’Neill MLA at a socially-distanced event held near Dungannon at the premises

of EDGE Innovate, one of the companies represented on the Business Reference Group.

For further information: Email: info@ midsouthwestregion.org, visit the website at midsouthwestregion.org or check out Twitter @ MSW_Region

THE MSW PILLARS ‘Future proofing’ the skills base Future proofing the skills base is becoming ever more important and was a top priority emerging from engagements with businesses during the development of the regional economic strategy. MSW wants to ensure the requisite skills are available in scale and profile to underpin the region’s ambitions and those of the successful businesses which already exist there.

As well as requiring significant financial investment, the strategy seeks to drive change in four policy areas: • access to labour/lobbying for a differentiated migration policy; • policy changes to ‘off-the-shelf’ apprenticeships; • extending the range of higher-level apprenticeships and degree apprenticeships available in the region; and • a greater focus on shared apprenticeship schemes.

Enabling infrastructure Investment in infrastructure is critical to drive economic growth across MSW. Strategic road infrastructure enables businesses in the region to access all areas including ports and distribution points. The strategy has pinpointed where improvements are needed: the Armagh East Link; the A29 Cookstown bypass, the A4 Enniskillen Southern bypass, as well as the development of the A3 Armagh North & West Link, the A29 Dungannon bypass and the A32 Omagh to Enniskillen.

Investment will also be targeted at: •addressing broadband, mobile coverage and reliability; •transforming our high streets to be places of choice for our local communities; •enabling access to available industrial land; •driving investment in electricity supply; and

JANUARY 2021

•supporting opportunities for regeneration and site development.

Boosting innovation and digital capacity Advanced manufacturing is one of MSW’s big success stories and has enormous potential.

The region is placing its ambitions in this area into the Northern Ireland-wide ‘ecosystem’ and at the centre of what is being discussed within the wider City/Growth Deals (ie the Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Centre in the Belfast Region City Deal and the Centre for Industrial Digitalisation, Robotics and Automation in Derry/Londonderry City Region). The ambition is to create an innovation and skills academy delivered by the South West College in Dungannon. In relation to agri-food, the impact of the strategy is global. The RES will support CAFRE in the development of a Northern Ireland Agri-food Robotics Centre at the Loughry Campus and work in collaboration with AFBI to develop a centre for Agri-Tech Innovation. It will develop agri-food incubation space to support food development for smaller SMEs, an area currently being explored by the Southern Regional College. The strategy also sets out plans to develop a network of Digi-Hubs to support the sector’s growth. In addition to exploring a number of potential health innovation proposals with the region’s two leading and acute teaching hospitals, MSW is also exploring a new-build Health and Care Centre in Cookstown.

Building a high-performing tourism economy The MSW has a host of tourism offerings: the Fermanagh Lakes, the Sperrins, our literary heritage, the cultural significance of Ireland’s oldest city, Armagh, where Patrick established his first church, the Ulster American Folk Park, Marble Arch Caves UNESCO Global Geopark

and more besides, including the recent announcement of the commitment to the Game of Thrones Legacy Project.

MSW’s aim is to invest in the development of its tourism product, including cross-border, in actions that stimulate/de-risk and expedite quality hotel investment as well as improving infrastructure for routing/signposting and visitor engagement.

The future MSW has already engaged extensively with businesses and key sectors, with politicians locally, regionally and nationally, with central government, with education and the wider stakeholder community, and that will continue.

“We will continue to work closely with the other Northern Ireland City/Growth Deal regions to ensure complementarity and to take advantage of any synergies which may exist and continue to welcome the input and guidance of our industry/business base,” councillor Irvine explains. “We need their continued engagement with this initiative as we move through the next stages in development.

“The collaboration of our three councils to develop the Mid South West Regional Economic Strategy is a model of what can be achieved by people working together for the common good. We are living in truly life-changing times. In years to come, people will look back on 2020 and the Coronavirus pandemic and see it as a challenging experience for us all.

“We want to make it a positive moment in our history. The beginning of something transformative which builds on the region’s creativity and innovation.”

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DELOITTE FAST 50

Catagen is top NI company again in Deloitte Technology Fast 50

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leven Northern Ireland companies have made it into the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 listing for 2020, with Belfast-based Catagen the highest placed of the local firms.

The Fast 50 awards, now in their 21st year, rank Ireland’s fastest growing technology companies and recognise the indigenous technology companies that have demonstrated outstanding growth in turnover over the previous four years.

This year’s awards were announced at a virtual event on Wednesday, December 16, and featured companies from all parts of Ireland’s growing technology sector, including software, hardware, communications, media, clean-tech, and life sciences.

Cork-based software company Everseen Ltd topped the ranking for the first time with growth of 2,879% over the four-year period. Catagen, which describes itself as an independent technology-based clean air and emissions data company, came in fourth on the list to become the highest ranked Northern Ireland company for the second year running.

There were three first time entrants to the Fast 50 programme from Northern Ireland: Derry-based supply chain software provider Foods Connected, Newry-based sports analytics company STATSports Group and Belfast-based IT services business Precept IT. The other NI winners were AquaQ Analytics, Datactics, Decision Time, IRP Commerce, Made to Engage, Repstor and Learning Pool, all of whom have previously appeared on the Fast 50.

Pictured launching the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Awards at Catagen’s premises in Titanic Quarter are Dr Andrew Woods, chief executive of Catagen, and Peter Allen, partner at Deloitte

tech businesses across Ireland. The pandemic has presented huge challenges to the way we work and live, and technology has responded to provide innovative solutions. Although the economy has come under severe pressure, this crisis has presented unprecedented opportunities for NI tech businesses to shine.

“We think it is important to recognise the innovation and entrepreneurship they have shown, and I am delighted to see a strong representation from Northern Ireland on this year’s ranking.

Company (MNC) awards presented by senior executives from Google, Vodafone and Facebook.

SilverCloud Health was named the winner of the MNC Impact Award in association with Facebook. Top ranking company, Everseen was also awarded the MNC Innovative New Technology Award in association with Google.

Vicki Reynolds of i3PT Certification was awarded the MNC Women in Technology Advocate Award in association with Vodafone.

An award celebrating growth of previous Fast 50 winners, the Deloitte Alumni Award, was presented to ESHOPWORLD.

Cumulatively, the 2020 Fast 50 winners generated approximately €3.3 billion in total annual revenues last year, with average revenues of €90 million and an average growth rate over the last four years of almost 400%.

“Deloitte is proud to have assisted previous and current winners to grow rapidly and attract investment. We have noticed a significant increase in the appetite to invest in our indigenous tech companies as the global marketplace becomes aware of Northern Ireland’s reputation as a fast-growing tech hub of the future.”

Peter Allen, partner at Deloitte said: “The Fast 50 awards are a celebration of entrepreneurial

The Fast 50 programme also included a number of special category Multinational

More information on all of the winners can be found at www.fast50.ie

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The event also heard from An Tánaiste, Leo Varadkar who sent a special congratulatory message to all of the winners. ■

RETAIL

Major retail park is sold to UK investor for £18m Holywood Exchange is the second acquisition for David Samuel Properties here after the UK firm bought Crescent Link Retail Park in Derry for a reported sum of £30m, writes John Mulgrew

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major Northern Ireland retail park has been sold for £18m, Ulster Business can reveal.

The Holywood Exchange retail park on the outskirts of Belfast is home to a range of businesses, including Decathlon, Next Home and a new Lidl superstore, which opened its doors at the end of 2020.

The 150,000 sq ft shopping spot, which was formerly owned by Aviva Investors, has been bought by UK-based David Samuel Properties.

It’s the second major acquisition David Samuel Properties has made here, after buying Crescent Link Retail Park in Londonderry in 2019.

The deal is of the biggest commercial property deals to take place in 2020, amid a year of turmoil for the economy and the retail sector, due to the impact of Covid-19.

Holywood Exchange’s new owner says it’s “very confident about the economic prospects for Belfast and Northern Ireland as a whole” and says the latest purchase “very much builds on this confidence in the Northern Ireland economy”.

It says it’s also planning to announce a new tenant for the retail destination in the coming weeks. “The impact of the pandemic has affected all businesses and the retail sector has been no exception to this,” Matthew Beddow, spokesman for David Samuel Asset Management, he said.

“However, Holywood Exchange is a proven and popular retail destination and the stores have worked very hard to implement social distancing measures and procedures to provide a safe place for people to shop.

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Pictured launching Lidl’s new store at Holywood Exchange are Sophie Kingston, Eoin Doherty and Isla Parkes

“We are delighted that Lidl has opened very successfully in the last 10 days with their offer complementing the likes of Home Bargains, Decathlon, EZ Living, Harvey Norman and Next Home that can already be found at Holywood Exchange.

“We purchased Crescent Link Retail Park in Derry in October 2019 and our acquisition of Holywood Exchange very much builds on this confidence in the Northern Ireland economy.

“We are very confident that we will be able to build on the success of Holywood Exchange and we are hoping to announce a new addition to the store line-up in the coming weeks to complement the Costa Coffee, Subway and Burger King stores already at the retail park.

“We believe strongly in local partnerships and continue to work with a very experienced Belfast-based team of consultants and contractors who have advised us throughout the acquisition process.”

The company bought Crescent Link Retail Park in Derry for a reported sum of £30m. Since the purchase, it’s revealed plans for a £5m investment which will include the expansion of the M&S Foodhall, and a new retailer, The Food Warehouse by Iceland.

David Samuel Properties has bought a range of properties across the UK over the last couple of years, including a prominent Gloucester office scheme and a collection of eight industrial assets. ■

PROFILE

The only way is up With more than 45 years of experience under his belt, Noel Brady has both had to pivot and re-examine how he operates his own business, Consult Nb 1, as well as assisting in the journeys of others. And while he says everyone has had to adapt, the only way is now up and 2021 brings an air of positivity about the future

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ne of the first things businessman Noel Brady did as the pandemic gripped Northern Ireland’s economy was just reach out to clients, and past clients, to see how they were coping in such unpredictable times.

Noel Brady

And in the last few months he’s worked with a host of companies and organisations around areas such as restructuring, applications for government funding, additional opportunities and repositioning, in order to deal with a changing dynamic.

“Once you realise that things have changed dramatically, you just need to adapt to that.

I then had to think quickly about how do I change and react,” Noel says.

“The first thing I did was go through my existing clients, anyone who I had worked with in the last few years, just to check in and say ‘I’m here if you want to me to help in any way I can’. That could be anything from sales and marketing to structural issues – anything which would need executive support. I see myself as being the spare director the company can hire to deal with difficult situations.”

Noel has worked across a wide mixture of sectors and industries, with his firm Consult Nb1 specialising in a range of both public and private business consultancy.

His CV is a lengthy and varied mixture of work across a range of sectors. That includes 17 years in the public sector, before heading senior outsourcing roles in IT. Noel is chairman of the Continu Group of companies which has pitched him in to a front line role during the Covid crisis. He has also been a non-executive director with DVA, a Belfast Harbour Commissioner for eight years,

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and four years ago become the financial nonexecutive director of the South Eastern Health and Social Services Trust.

“I found that connecting with businesses was very fortuitous,” Noel says. “People were glad for someone to take the trouble and ask them how things were going.

“A chairman or non-executive director can be helpful in these situations, if you have someone good, who has the experience and can be brought in to help with operational issues, it can be of real help to firms in situations like we have now.”

Noel says he’s found himself busier in some of the roles which he holds – assisting in a range of company issues.

“In some roles I’ve been asked to come on

board and be part of the team to bring some experience and breadth to the team. When someone comes from outside, it can help businesses form a new way of working and a way of dealing with challenges.”

Noel’s also looking to 2021 with an air of positivity, and while he says it won’t be easy for many that “the only way is up”.

“It’s about taking a positive approach, but it won’t be easy,” he said. “We have to take the punches on the chin. But the best thing we can do is be ready to push on as hard as we can.

People are positive when there is activity in the market. We need to see some investment from the public sector – let’s get those tenders back to the market. And for me, this pandemic has also shown you can teach an old dog new tricks. It’s about looking forward, and not back.” ■

Leaders in Business John Mulgrew speaks to some of the leading business minds in Northern Ireland

LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Eimer Hannon HANNON TRAVEL

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a physical ticket. You were hand delivering tickets, on the phone and calling airlines directly. It was a very different relationship.”

But while almost all but essential travel came to an abrupt halt – approaching a year ago

Her lightbulb moment came back in 1999 when she saw the opportunity to create a

now – Eimer Hannon has continued to keep her successful corporate business alive in a sector which has already seen the loss of once industry stalwarts, and a trickle down effect to related industries.

corporate travel agency with emphasis on a seamless personal service for travellers – setting up Hannon Travel.

t would be a massive understatement to say the travel sector has been hit hard in the last few months.

The founder of Hannon Travel has worked within the travel sector throughout her career, and despite the unprecedented challenges that 2020 brought, she’s already seen an uplift in both demand, and positivity, heading into what everyone hopes, and believes, will be a much brighter year for us all.

“My first job was in travel and I finished school and did a course, before going to work at UCD’s travel office, where I worked for nine years,” she told Ulster Business.

“That is where I met a lot of my current clients.

“I got into the sector as I saw the needs of the corporate traveller – a person needing to travel, but not going away on holidays. A businessperson. They need support and they needed a person who was knowledgable “Someone who understood how businesses worked and could offer flexibility, someone who they could partner with to take care of that side of the business. I left dealing with students and then went in to a corporate travel management company.

“At that time the internet was just starting.

Everything was still a telephone call and

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Eimer is one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the travel business with more than 30 years’ experience of working in the global industry.

“After I had my son Ronan, I was due to go back after maternity. But I basically decided to try and do this myself. That’s how I started,” she said.

“I started with the support of clients, which have been really loyal to me. I’ve built the business on reputation. Hard work – it’s really based on that, building a reputation and getting the job done.”

Starting out with just a couple of staff, Eimer has grown the company to a business working across the globe. The company has offices in Belfast and the Republic of Ireland.

“It has grown in stages – growth and then a plateau.” But she says, Covid-19 aside, the industry has faced similarly huge challenges in the recent past. That includes September 11 and the huge impact an ash cloud, caused by eruptions from the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, had on air travel.

“Every year, every month, there is some form a crisis,” she says. “Many of these things go unmentioned. Things like flight cancellations, weather, people forgetting passwords.”

Of course, coronavirus has had a full brakes on impact to the sector here. That’s meant Hannon Travel cutting its workforce considerably over the last few months.

But Eimer remains confident of a return to business, and thus, a rehiring of staff when demand returns.

“In March we had all the staff in from our offices. We had said, ‘take you laptops home’ – hopefully we’ll all be back in May. But business hit a brick wall and stopped. There was a sense of panic with borders closing – looking at what was going to close next. It was quite scary, not knowing.”

Hannon Travel worked through the crisis, alongside the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Republic to repatriate more than 1,000 Irish citizens, stranded abroad. Eimer said that included flights coming in from as far afield as Australia, South America and the Philippines.

“Demand is growing, gradually,” she says.

“It’s all about getting confidence back. It’s also about what it will be like at your destination.

“It’s a trickle a the moment, but we are expecting it to pick up in April. It will really be down to whether governments of different countries lift their restrictions.

“We are going to be at the mercy of that. We are probably going to go back to where we were in the 1980s. The supply has always been there for demand.

“But when we do open our skies, that demand will be exceeding supply, until we get everything back into sync. We will have fewer airlines, and more consolidation. It will be a completely different landscape as to what we had before.” ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Dr Hugh Cormican CIRDAN

D

r Hugh Cormican has already taken one industry-leading scientific business to the lofty heights of listed status, and he’s well on his way to doing the same with his latest venture.

“We also saw the importance of machine learning,” Hugh said. “How it can revolutionise how work is carried out in a lab. We developed the product, working with customers, moving the product on.”

The Queen’s University graduate, who studied

The company also recently made an

a PhD in laser physics, heads up medical imaging firm Cirdan – a thriving business which develops imaging technology and products which support and help speed up diagnosis.

acquisition. It took on another Queen’s spinout, Path XL, which was bought out by Philips in 2016 – a firm which was working on similar technology to that of Cirdan.

It’s the second major success story in his career.

He was also behind Queen’s spinout Andor Technology – a business which Hugh helped bring to a market value of almost £180m when it was bought out in 2013 by Oxford Instruments.

The company works across both the public and private sectors, and counts a number of NHS trusts among its customers.

That includes working with around five labs across Coventry, covering a similar footprint to the whole of Northern Ireland.

And he now tells Ulster Business of his intention of making Cirdan, currently based in Lisburn, ready to be publicly listed as early as 2022.

Of course, working in the field of medicine and medical diagnosis the last few months has impacted on Cirdan like it has on thousands of other businesses here.

“We formed Cirdan in 2010, and have been growing steadily since then,” he says. “It’s very much focused on imaging for healthcare, particularly around pathology.”

“We didn’t furlough any staff and kept at full tilt,” Hugh says. “The market on Covid-19 is double-edged sword.”

He believes there’s still a lack of experience and expertise in Northern Ireland in turning successful limited companies into those listed on stock exchanges. “It’s a mixture of uncertainty and fear… a lack of grounding.”

He said that’s meant providing support for customers, especially those which are directly involved in Covid-19 testing.

But it’s also meant a pausing of contracts elsewhere, according to Hugh.

“Too often people sell to a larger entity. They sell out too early and don’t let it develop and grow. The infrastructure is not there in Northern Ireland to support businesses (to list).

“It’s great to see (progress on vaccinations) and by spring we should see some return to normality.”

“It’s part of our corporate goal to be IPO ready in 2022… if you want to play at the highest level, you need to play in right league.

He said some of its customers are now gearing up for a post-Covid business demand – providing certificates for people who have been vaccinated as proof to allow them to travel and fly much more freely.

“We are fortunate with the ability of our staff, and having people with the right skills in Northern Ireland. (Leadership) is about helping them to make sure you are following and engaging with customers, and listening to them intently.”■

He says the company then pivoted in 2013, focusing on the workflow and developed technology and systems which support and streamline operations within clinical labs.

“Pathology is where 70% of diagnosis is done – it is diagnosis-based. In terms of things like tissues and cultures on a plate, looking down the microscope. That requires imaging. (A lot of it) wasn’t integrated into their workflow.”

Cirdan developed and acquired the product it now calls Ultra, which was originally developed in Australia. That’s been rolled out across its customer base.

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Aside from its base here, Cirdan also has offices in Melbourne, Australia and Toronto, Canada. It now has a workforce of around 100 staff, of which around 60 are based in Northern Ireland. And Hugh’s keen to push towards a goal of launching an IPO (initial public offering) for the firm as soon as it’s ready.

“With Andor, I started off as the first employee and rose to the top as there weren’t that many other people. We brought the company on, oversaw development growth and then the IPO, bringing the company to the public market.

“Too many companies sell out early. With the likes of Cirdan, I would like to grow and be a player as a global entity – a Ryanair or Kerry Group of these worlds. There are too few public companies.”

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Emma Meehan DOWN ROYAL

D

ealing with horse racing amid a global pandemic presents its own unique set of problems for the boss of a racecourse.

“It was greyhounds and the bones of a business plan. I came on to assist that. The track was built and a stadium developed.

“I’m not necessarily a horse person but I

“We have been gravely impacted. We are operating at a loss, which is not tenable, long term. We were happy to stand united with Horse Racing Ireland – operating at the highest level of restrictions.

Newry-born Emma Meehan took over the reins at Down Royal in 2019. But after little over a year of trading, bringing back a name and a business with a strong legacy, Covid-19 slowed progress down a walk.

love the industry. It’s very hard to replicate that sector. Then, this opportunity presented itself. I was ready for the next step. It was challenging taking over Down Royal – I inherited nothing.

“Down Royal has capacity for more than 10,000 people. We need to get ahead of it.

The forecast for ‘behind closed doors’ racing is frightening without hospitality.

Emma was recruited from a 14-year stint with Dundalk Stadium, taking over from the Down Royal Corporation of Horse Breeders, which had long been associated with the track.

“It was shocking. They were difficult circumstances and there had been negative headlines. I took over in 2019. We really only had 14 months of trading before Covid hit.

It was a stressful first tenure, taking over and having to hire a new fleet of staff.”

“I employ people because of their skillsets,” Emma says. “A lot of decisions had to be reactionary. The team didn’t know each other when they arrived here. We were like a family by the end of the year.

“PR was needed to convince people that we meant business. There was a big push through that year and we did that successfully. You have to play the long game and take a lot on the chin. We are confident of the longevity of business. People seem to like the new way of doing things at Down Royal.”

Her first stint in racing began at Dundalk Stadium, following her degree and postgraduate study at Queen’s and Ulster University. That’s where she spent 14 years of her career, following a time working as a marketing manager in telecoms.

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Emma says the business enjoyed “tremendous success” in its first year, with turnover growing. “We did extremely well from a standing start… we had massive aspirations for 2020. Then Covid hit.”

The first hit came in March when it called off a race meeting, prior to significant subsequent government guidelines coming into effect.

“We got ahead of the curve. We had 3,500 people due to descend, so we were grateful for that foresight.

“Then everyone went on furlough and I continued to operate the business in terms of accounts, from home. My head groundsman worked heroically.

“We haven’t receive a penny. I am fighting hard to make sure the Department for Communities doesn’t forget Down Royal and Downpatrick Racecourse.

“We have media rights which is keeping the show on the road. We garner income from streaming on the day.”

In terms of what impact not welcoming visitors through the doors and enjoying the hospitality on offer is having, Emma says it brought in around £500,000 in hospitality in 2019 alone, with a further £220,000 through ticket sales.

“Carrying forward, it is paramount to communicate to staff. It has been important to keep staff abreast of where we are. Our affordability and what our plans are.

“The jobs are here, and they will remain here, and they haven’t seen any real financial impact – making sure they have been topped up throughout this. That’s an important part of my commitment to them. This wasn’t anyone’s fault.” ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Conal Henry

FIBRUS

A

stint under the wing of Michael O’Leary, selling off companies and rolling out broadband across an island has certainly helped pave the way for Conal Henry’s current venture, and it

He spent two years working with Michael O’Leary, and in that time the company grew from handling 6.5 million passengers, to 22 million. “It became a serious player… and that’s something I have in my head

“We have a range of highly experienced executives. We have been lucky enough to pick the best talent and create the dream team. We were able to access Infracapital as an investor and I knew them well. We were

securing a huge £165m deal for Northern Ireland connectivity.

for Fibrus. Taking something from niche to mainstream,” he said.

both keen to do business. It has invested billions in this market – it is a very significant investor.

The Fibrus co-founder and chairman has been working across industry, with a focus on telecoms, for decades. And the firm, which has only been in existence for little over two years, has just been awarded the Department for the Economy’s Project Stratum contract – a four-year build to improve regional broadband connectivity to almost 80,000 homes here.

Following that, he ended up as chief executive of Enet, taking it from start up to its £200m acquisition by the Irish Infrastructure Fund in 2017. He also led what is now known as National Broadband Ireland (NBI) to become the winning bidder for the €2bn Irish National Broadband Plan.

But Conal says Fibrus is improving broadband connectivity to as many as 300,000 homes and businesses here, as part of its roll-out and rapid growth.

“I have worked in telecoms, airlines, banks and soap powder markets,” Conal tells Ulster Business. “I did a law degree at Queen’s University and qualified as an accountant. I was going to be a barrister and took a year out… I’m still on it.”

He worked for Proctor and Gamble, before moving to Asda’s head office at the age of 26 – a time when he said the grocery giant went from almost going to the wall, to being sold to US-giant Wallmart for almost £7bn in 1999.

“I was commercial director of George clothing in my 20s, and then moved back to Ireland, working at one of the banks, before becoming commercial director at Ryanair.”

JANUARY 2021

“That takes me up until 2018,” he said.

Fibrus is now his focus, rolling out full-fibre broadband across the vast majority of homes outside Belfast and Derry.

“We are up to 116 people, with around 136

by Christmas, and close to 200 by March,” he says. There’s also a further significant workforce at its subcontractor Charles Brand, which it has begun a five-year partnership with.

And having secured the huge long-awaited £165m Project Stratum deal here, how does a firm only operating for a couple of years land such a big fish.

“In order to be convincing to win a project like that, you have to have two things – access to capital and expertise. In terms of expertise, we have assembled a highly expert team with centuries of combined experience.

“Then, you are ‘doing the exam paper’ and answering the questions correctly.

We did very well. Not being a big legacy organisation means starting with a blank sheet of paper.

“We wanted to fundraise the whole programme. Infracapital came in and backed us from the start.”

In terms of how he runs a business, Conal says: “I don’t think people work for me, they work with me. The most important thing by far, is the quality of the people you bring in.

Avoid the muppet, and bring in great people – make clear what is expected out of them, and then get out of the way.

“If you bring in a lot of office politics, you spend your time clearing messes and brokering peace. Make clear what it is you want to have done.

“You can’t take yourself too seriously. We do this because we can. But you can’t start obsessing about it. In terms of my own job, I never work weekends and I take all my holidays. You can’t be working all the time.

People make business so complicated, it’s not.” ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Clare Guinness

MONTREAUX

O

ver the last couple of decades, Northern Ireland businesswoman Clare Guinness has been in the thick of the transformation of several different companies, across very different

Clare also achieved qualifications in areas such as health and safety. “You can lead, but with something like that it’s important to lead by example. Rather than just encourage people across Fane Valley, I thought I should

and Michael Gove. I was over in Downing Street, lobbying with the Prime Minister and supporting being within the customs union and trying to avoid borders in the sea, or the land. It was a tremendously challenging and

areas of industry.

do it myself.”

rewarding role.”

The daughter of a fruit and vegetable trader, a former pupil of St Dominic’s Grammar School on the Falls Road in Belfast, Clare has traversed the worlds of agri-business, banking and harbours, before directing attention to her current role in high-end residential property, with Montreaux in London.

She’s carried out her senior roles alongside a young family, with her husband, Gary, a stayat-home dad for the couple’s two children.

But just a year or so later, it was time for another role, and another sector. This time, real estate and property.

“That was one of the toughest parts of my career – two young kids, studying and a massive work pressure,” she says.

Her career began with a finance degree at Loughborough, starting off with NatWest and then moving on to work with Bank of Ireland in Dublin, before a five-year stint in London as regional business manager for Northern Ireland.

But perhaps her highest profile role to date was when she took over at the helm of Warrenpoint Harbour – a job she took on at the start of 2018. During that time, the port recorded its highest ever level of activity.

“I had kept in touch with David Burke, who owns Montreaux and he wanted someone to come in run the company. I had loved working in London so thought it was a good opportunity. I left the port with a heavy heart.”

“It was 2014 and I just wanted to try something different,” she told Ulster Business.

“I was approaching 40, and some people have a bit of a mid-life crisis. I went to Fane Valley as director of corporate services. That was terrific thing to do – it was a big agri-food group and they needed someone to come in and help.”

During her time there, Clare was involved in some major changes within the farm supply giant, including selling off its dairy business to Lakeland.

“At that stage I realised I didn’t do much in terms of external qualifications,” Clare says.

“I realised I need to support the move into the industry with some experience.” That led Clare to undertake the Institute of Directors’ (IoD) diploma in company direction.

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“The job came up in harbour as we had just completed the deal with Linden Foods.

I thought it was maybe time to move on.

By that time I was a bit more seasoned. No matter what the sector, the key fundamentals are the same.

“The challenges including the large level of modernisation required. That was right up my street. It was changing and progressing.

Any role that improves that sort of thing makes me sit up – it’s fulfilling and rewarding work.”

That included a masterplan and strategic review of the business, and a modernisation of the port in the run-up to Brexit.

“I had to get media training – I was dealing with people like Leo Varadkar, Dominic Raab

But what started off in October 2019 as a long back-and-forth commute from Belfast to London, soon was transformed into remote-working, as the pandemic hit.

“The commute was exhausting, and much harder than I thought. I wouldn’t see the kids much Monday to Thursday.

“Then the wheels stopped. From March 12 I was working from home and the business was hit hard.” She says that included some stalling initially in works and sales being on hold in the initial months.

But as far as Clare’s approach to leading a team and a business, she says her style is “transformational”. “I like giving people responsibilities and collaborating. I like bringing about change,” she says. “And empathy. It wouldn’t have been a core value 10 years ago but over time and experience you learn.” ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Colin Johnston

GALGORM COLLECTION

A

weekend job collecting glasses was the seed which led to a more than 20-year career, which has seen Colin Johnston reach the very top of the hospitality profession here.

“I try and be accessibly as possible, and have an open door policy”, Colin tells Ulster Business. “I sit in an open plan office. I like being among teams. I genuinely believe answers predominately come from your team.

It’s very much a bottom up, rather than top down approach.”

Colin’s helped lead the success of the Galgorm Collection here – the mainstay of the company, Galgorm Resort and Spa outside Ballymena, alongside the company’s restaurant businesses, and soon-to-be city hotel offering.

“I have been lucky to work hand-in-hand with the two owners for 20 years,” Colin says.

“Nicky and Paul (Hill) have been great.”

Following his time as a glass-collector, Colin continued the pursuit of a career in the hospitality sector here.

Most of his career has been with Tullymore House – the company which owns and runs the Galgorm Collection. That includes managing Ten Square Hotel in Belfast, when it was owned by the group, as well as running hotels in Limerick.

“I came back to Galgorm in early 2009 and I’ve been here ever since,” Colin says.

That included roles as assistant operations manager, before progressing over the years to

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become managing director – a role he’s held for around three years.

great achievement – at least you aren’t losing money. Our financial year has just finished and we have more or less done that.”

“The success of Galgorm has, and myself, has been driven around, first and foremost, the

It’s also taken the time during lockdown to

team and the people, and that we invested in great product,” he says.

invest and develop the business further, to get ready for reopening.

“It’s been a fantastic journey. When I started at Galgorm, the spa and first phase of rooms had just been competed. It’s been great to be a part of that.

“We had a lot of space to manoeuvre in terms of financial investment, doing a lot of spa extensions and other internal changes we couldn’t have done while the hotel was open.

“When I started in 2009, turnover was £4.5m – then take that to 2019 of around £25m.

Now we have two Belfast restaurants, and The Rabbit (hotel in Templepatrick) well-developed and opening in February.

“I do think we are going be sitting under a level of restrictions into March and April, and then an easing. (I think it will be) summer or slightly after before you go back to no restrictions. Life is life, you have to deal with it.

“We aren’t a company that stands still. There has been work every year – some kind of development.” That’s meant staff numbers have also soared at the business.

“I have enjoyed the journey. Having done the majority of jobs in the hotel, it gives you a good insight. I enjoy people development.

People have been here a long time and it’s nice to watch them grow alongside you.

When Colin joined, there were around 100120 staff. Now, that number has grown to 750 at the main site, and likely to head towards the 900 mark into next year.

The business was well-prepared in terms of the financial hit it was going to take, due to Covid-19. It looked ahead to two years, and designed a plan around that.

“We wrote a plan, opened the hotel and took the decision not to open the Belfast sites.

“From a financial point of view, we were trying to break even for the financial year – that was the best-case scenario, and would be a

“I believe we have managed Covid quite well.

It’s a young workforce with around 76% under 40. They tend to be adaptable, versatile and tend to take things in their stride.

“I started in industry around the time of the Good Friday Agreement. I had that journey of seeing hospitality and tourism grow, and all the excitement that comes with that.

“Then there was ‘Our Time Our Place’ in 2012, and we have had big golf events, including the Irish Open, along with royal visits. We’ve had far more good days than bad.” ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Joanne Wilson

ULSTER BANK & ROYAL BANK

J

oanne Wilson is very much a lifer when it comes to her more than 30 years working across Ulster Bank and its related arms.

looking to next position – not always up, but sideways. It has always had the customer and the colleagues at the heart “I like being close to the customers and

In that time period, she says she’s held around 18 different roles. But now, is responsible for around 600 staff in both Belfast and Edinburgh, across the organisation’s contact centres.

It’s an area of the business which has had to adapt and develop, like many others, with the advent of Covid-19. But it’s pivoted and evolved – moving around 70% of the workforce to home-working in a role which would normally have been considered officebased only.

“I have responsibility for the centres in Belfast and Edinburgh,” she says. “We look after customers and their everyday banking needs, covering all of the brands.

“I’m a bit of an Ulster Bank lifer – I’ve been here for 31 years, and started here after school. This is my 18th role here. It has given me a lot of variety and lot of different skills. It’s been a real partnership between the employer and the employee.”

When Joanne first joined, she began working in personnel, then across a variety of areas within the business, including front-facing roles at a branch level.

“I worked my way through the ranks,

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the team. I would feel helpless without the team.”

Joanne’s been in her current role for almost two years, and says it remains a fast-paced working environment. Much of the focus is managing the teams and monitoring the number of customers who are waiting in the queue to speak to a member of staff.

“It’s that fast paced environment and anything can throw it off – from Martin Lewis saying something, or the technical side, seasonality and economic factors that can change on a daily basis.

“It’s very much a growing area. One sector during Covid-19 was setting up a new line for vulnerable people and we increased capacity.” She said with retail branches on reduced hours, that meant many choosing the call centre customer service route for the first time.

financial services queries outside a traditional office environment.

“Take the Belfast centre, which deals with the UK and Ireland – it’s about a 70/30 split.

Some staff who may be living on their own like the social element – we have good social distancing in place – or those which just don’t have the physical space at home.

“There were a few different groups (of those affected most by Covid-19). One is those who are vulnerable. Those who are not as digitally savvy. That can take time – using the system and assuring people that it is safe.

“It’s also not underestimating the conversations that our agents have with people. They are emotive. Customers may be in hardship, and many have lost jobs. We are connecting emotionally with customers around the difficult times going on.”

And looking towards her leadership roles across the years, Joanne says it’s about working through problems and acting as a role model for your workforce.

It also rolled out home-working quickly and now operates on a blended model. Joanne says around 70% of its workers in Belfast are now based at home.

“It’s about working through a problem, sorting that and trying to examine it. Being a role model and giving the assurance that you are in control.

The process saw desks, chairs and equipment being ordered and delivered across the country, and adapting to dealing with

“We have so many people that can support others and we have always had that supportive approach.” ■

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

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LEADERS IN BUSINESS

Simon Campbell

PORTVIEW

L

ike countless other companies across Northern Ireland, the rest of the UK and Ireland, and, essentially, the globe, the impact of coronavirus has hit specialist fit-out firm

He then left banking to one side and became a chartered accountant, working with EY (then known as Ernst & Young). It was then on to a position with Deramore Developments – the property firm founded in Belfast in 1975 which

Stadium and Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, along with some high end office work, hotels and restaurants.

Portview’s top line as trade and business slowed to a crawl amid lockdown.

would later become Portview.

focus on quality projects – we have learned and developed strong skillsets for complicated projects, and we are respected for that type of work.

But the firm’s managing director, Simon Campbell, remains optimistic about how business will once again take off, following the end of the Brexit transition period and once vaccinations are rolled out across the UK. “In 2019 the company had around £52m turnover… it will be probably £25-26m in 2020,” Simon said. “We have still retained a workforce of around 100 and have just secured large projects.”

That includes a deal to work on a London university’s new College of Fashion as part of a £24m contract, which begins in January.

“That’s much bigger than the PC World/ Curry’s work we started out with,” he said.

Portview has pivoted and specialised over the years, initially focused on shop fitting here during the mid 1990s.

After studying in Bristol, Simon was due to come back to Northern Ireland to work for the then Northern Bank, but instead took a year out to travel.

Simon then started work with Midland Bank in Bristol, at its head office in London. “I really enjoyed it and it was great experience, but I always wanted to come back to Northern Ireland.”

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“I came in to a very recent management buyout from a successful property group and I was given a lot of freedom and responsible for anything not site-related. The company developed and we began getting in to shop fitting – we did the first Curry’s/PC World in Northern Ireland.”

His role developed further within the company, which was a mixture of construction, fit-out and reactive maintenance, with work across the UK and Ireland.

But it wasn’t all smooth sailing. “We acquired a couple of firms in England which turned out not be a clever move,” he said. “That almost put our lights out, but fortunately we were able to shut it down before that happened.

“We had to be come very lean and move strategically to pure shop fitting, away from construction. There is less risk, better margins and cash flow.”

That work included a raft of big name retail – including groups such as Arcadia. But it subsequently pivoted towards high-end work in places such as London. “When the last recession hit we were fortunate to step away from (some of the big high street retailers). We moved to Harrods, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Bond Street work.”

The company has also diversified into working on major stadiums, including Arsenal’s Emirates

“It’s been quite a journey and there is the

“The reputation has grown with people.

London is a big place – the fit-out market isn’t massive. We have had to be very proactive about opportunities and moving in to new areas. Never rest on your laurels – you are only as good as your last job.”

As a leader in business, Simon says it’s about relying on people with the right skills. “We work in the construction sector and I’m a trained accountant, and not particularly good with tools.

“Building a strong team and having a strong team ethos. Sticking to your values on how you want to work. By doing that you can build a reputation for what you do.”

And regarding Covid, Simon says it’s been a challenging period for the firm. “The immediate concern was for our staff – making sure people got home safely when lockdown came. The office was able to cope well working from home.

“Lots of time and effort has gone in to safeworking practices. We have been back on site since May. But obviously we limit exposure and travel to the absolutely necessary. It’s going to cast a long shadow into 2021… but I think once Brexit is resolved and the vaccine comes out, there is some optimism.” ■

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BREXIT

The pluses of the NI Protocol remain to be seen This year should be less fraught than 2020. In January 2020 there was no firm evidence of the possible arrival of Covid-19 and little suspicion that a ‘no deal’ Brexit would become a threat to firms in Northern Ireland, writes John Simpson

T

he combination of Brexit and Covid-19, reaching a peak as 2020, makes an overview of prospects for 2021 unusually difficult.

John Simpson

Standing on the dockside in Belfast, Larne, Londonderry and Warrenpoint, observers might be forgiven if they have only belatedly appreciated the logic of the EU Withdrawal Agreement, which struggled to find mechanisms to allow NI to have a more favourable outcome.

Leaving the EU might have resulted in a reintroduction of the land border stretching from Carlingford to Muff.

With some reservations, the agreed objective was that a hard border should be avoided.

There was no ambition to have commercial businesses crossing a land frontier of the kind that disappeared in the late 1960s.

After the result of the EU referendum was known, the search began for a continuing more open border arrangement.

to implement than the ill-conceived backstop.

If the Withdrawal Agreement operates to NI’s advantage, then the outcome will have met the objectives of the political designers.

In late 2020 the immediate implementation difficulties have placed a question over the potential success of the final outcome.

Every suggestion about an unfettered border appealed readily to local businesses. The snag for local businesses was that an outcome with no border between north and south created the prospect that, for other (international) commercial traders, no Irish border meant that there would be an open door for other traders to enter the EU through NI or to enter the UK from the southern side of the border.

An unregulated border was not an acceptable result.

Most critically, imports of everyday supplies for shops here must be allowed, using ‘trusted trader status’ to move freely.

Various ‘backstops’ were designed but, ultimately, found to be unacceptable or too expensive. Now, the border problem has been settled by arrangements that should be cheaper

However, to avoid any potential breaches of duty (if goods are going on to places outside NI) some degree of supervisory checking will be needed.

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Tariffs must be charged on goods from Britain to here where the goods are ‘at risk’ of onward shipment into the Republic of Ireland (subject to refunds if there is no onward shipment, along with the necessary documentation).

Customs checks may be needed at ports such as Stranraer and Liverpool. Into this more complicated setting, border checking arrangements must be added. Customs controlled areas in the ports (and possibly airports) must be defined. Drawing 2020 to a close, the immediate difficulties of developing agreed working arrangements and minimising the introduction of new formal paperwork have created the impression of a labour intensive obstacle course.

The advantages for us remaining linked to the trading conditions of the EU are not strongly in evidence. An adjustment period to new arrangements was inevitable. Selling Northern Ireland as having the advantages of being part of the UK, as well as enjoying trading arrangements as a continuing part of the EU, is a challenge for the business community.

It remains to be proven. ■

Ones to Watch We showcase some of our up-and-coming entrepreneurs and business leaders

ONES TO WATCH

Louise Brogan SOCIAL BEE NI

What does your company do and what role do you play?

We specialise in LinkedIn consultancy and training, and work with companies and individuals to develop and grow their business LinkedIn accounts. We also deliver a weekly podcast and YouTube video, and I speak at events, globally.

How did the business start and how has it grown?

I began Social Bee NI 2013 by helping small businesses with social media management.

I later specialised in LinkedIn and since then have been invited to speak on stages in London, Dublin and Los Angeles and work with consumer and corporate clients in the EU, US, Australia, and Canada. Being recognised as a Top 100 Small Business in the UK in 2017 has led to opportunities including representing small business at a Downing Street Brexit roundtable and being named a Small Business Local Hero in 2019 and 2020.

What is your background?

I graduated with a degree in geography and then did a conversion MSc in computing and information systems. This lead to two years as a software engineer in BT and 10 years in IT project management in the health service.

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What do you do differently from your competition and what are your strengths?

I am constantly trying new approaches and learning new skills. I focus solely on LinkedIn which has enabled me to develop in-depth, specialist skills. In the health service, I worked with all levels of staff which helped me approach social media training for a wide audience. My background in IT formed my understanding of how social media platforms, algorithms and analytics work.

Who are your main customers?

At least 75% of my clients are based in the US. Many are corporate clients within professional services, membership organisations, and chartered associations. I also consult for B2B sales and marketing teams and entrepreneurs seeking new clients and customers through LinkedIn. Do you have a target in mind in terms of where you want the business to grow?

Last year was to be the year of speaking engagements. Due to coronavirus this didn’t happen, but I did speak at two global conferences on Zoom. In 2021 I would like to build a team to support my clients with the ‘Done-for-You’ LinkedIn Lead Generation service and expand my online training modules.

What challenges have you faced?

Balancing client work and expanding the team has been a challenge. The pandemic led to a disappearance of some corporate bookings, and I changed my approach to focus on individuals until business confidence returned. In early 2020 I began a monthly LinkedIn ‘Business Breakfast’ which I will relaunch when the time is right.

Breaking into larger speaking events was a motivation for co-creating Social Media Bootcamp Belfast in 2019. This helped to open doors and prepared me for larger events.

Who most inspires you?

My late dad, Ronnie McCay is my biggest inspiration. He ran his own business, McCay Cars, in north Belfast during the 70s and 80s. When I think of the challenges he faced, running an online consultancy is relatively easy in comparison.

Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

Hosting more corporate workshops, speaking at more events, and further expanding Social Bee NI. I would love to write a book that explores my entrepreneurial endeavours and the power of social media in business in the future. ■

ONES TO WATCH

What does your company do and what role do you play?

The Mango Girl manufactures and sells handmade natural skincare products that are ingredient and vegan savvy, using my Jamaican grandma’s rustic recipes.

How did the business start and how has it grown?

The business started with me winning ‘Back Her Business’ funding from Ulster Bank a little over a year ago. We have grown exponentially moving from selling just body butters to having a range of products, as well as selling to customers across Europe and other parts of the world.

What is your background?

My background is as colourful and diverse as I am tropical of course, it includes careers including working in telecoms, being a banker, retail manager, sales manager, author, speaker and trainer coach. I have spoken on stages with some of the biggest names there are, and a keynote at Google. I’ve had audiences of up to 15,000 at one go. I have lived and have taken the transferable skills over to The Mango Girl.

What do you do differently from your competition and what are your strengths?

I am very present in my business. We are nimble, and we realise our clients love that, so customer service is a key for us. We also listen to our clients – that way our products are client-led and developed. My strengths are that I am very resilient, and I visualise what I want daily, I have carried over empowerment into the brand, so I send empowering messages to our clients.

Who are your main customers?

Our main customers are women and families who are ingredient savvy and want chemical free products, but also want fewer products in their bathroom cabinets. Our signature body butter line is ‘top-to-toe’, a one stop shop for all occasions.

Do you have a target in mind in terms of where you want the business to grow?

I most certainly would like to attract an angel investor to grow the business to become that household name that one comes to for skincare and hair products that are rustic and

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Dr Ava Brown THE MANGO GIRL

clean. We have some amazing products in the lab – one range around menopause, a natural way. If all goes well this should be a game changer.

What challenges have you faced?

If you have seen the reports by the British Business Bank then you will know that funding is the hardest thing for women, then doubly so for BAME women where I fall. I also struggle with networks here in business in my own community.

Who most inspires you?

My inspiration comes from many avenues, it could be the person who never gives up and keeps on going, but to add a famous name as that is what we associate with these types

of questions, it would be the likes of Oprah Winfrey, my good friend and Hollywood director Tanya Hamilton, who happens to be Jamaican, and lastly Ursula Burns, former chief executive of Xerox.

Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

I see myself as an avid and serial entrepreneur who is heavily in philanthropy. With the business and products empowering other women to be brave, work hard, start and grow their own business.

On a personal note I hope and I would like to become an investor as I want to be part of the solution to the challenges someone like myself has faced in trying to level up. ■

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ONES TO WATCH

What does your company do and what role do you play?

Ilimex Ltd manufactures a unique air sterilising unit that kills airborne pathogens including Covid-19, instantly and continuously on the first pass through the unit, and I’m the chief executive.

How did the business start and how has it grown?

Several people with relevant backgrounds had seen their businesses suffer due to the Covid-19 outbreak. We decided to combine our expertise and explore evaluating current technologies and developing new technologies that would help not just our companies but industry as a whole function. We considered a few technologies, all of which had their limitations before deciding to develop our own technology. A technology that would be effective, efficient and competitively priced.

A technology that people could trust, so that once it was plugged in and switched on it would be working in the background to keep both the staff and the customers of a business safe. Providing peace of mind.

What is your background?

I spent many years working in construction and more lately doing consultancy work for green energy projects all over Europe.

What do you do differently from your competition and what are your strengths?

Because our company was formed to meet an existential business threat, we are very much in tune with what the business community requires. If people do not feel safe coming into your business, then in lots of cases businesses grind to a halt. What we have developed and proven to be effective after rigorous independent testing by Ulster University, provides businesses and their customers confidence that everything possible is being done to ensure their safety and the safety of those they come into contact with.

Who are your main customers?

Our customers are across many different sectors. Basically, anywhere that people

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Gerry Corrigan ILIMEX

congregate indoors or in enclosed spaces.

There are very few businesses that would not have any requirement for a unit that sterilises indoor air either for staff or customers or both.

for a while, which made the development of this product even more remarkable and something we are all enormously proud of.

Do you have a target in mind in terms of where you want the business to grow?

We have not set any limit on our potential growth. This product is a game changer for many businesses on a global scale. We hope to see in the coming years our products available to businesses everywhere.

Who most inspires you?

The usual business titans do not inspire me particularly. I find the Dalai Lama inspiring, his attitude to others, his altruism and wisdom are all inspiring. One of my more favourite of the many things he has said is “in order to carry a positive action, we must develop a positive vision”. Something that seems apt considering what we have done with Ilimex.

What challenges have you faced?

Trying to develop a product in the era of lockdowns made meetings difficult. It made sourcing supplies a logistical headache.

Even getting our independent testing completed was not straightforward. So many parts of the global economy were frozen

Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

I intend to stay in charge of Ilimex Ltd for a few years to grow the business, to add further products that will help businesses cope. We may well have put the current crisis behind us in the next 18 months to two years. ■

ONES TO WATCH

fraction of the cost and has none of the associated side effects. Our product offers a solution to the mounting costs and huge toxicities for patients.

Who are your main customers?

Fundamentally our beneficiaries will be sufferers of melanoma. However, from a business perspective, our customer will be major pharma who will ultimately be involved in co-development of KLAS-PDT. The global sales from melanoma treatment is estimated to be in the region of $3.7bn (£2.8bn) by 2022.

How do you want the business to grow?

Melanoma treatment has been evolving since the first introduction of immunotherapies and targeted therapies in 2011. As such, clinicians and patients are open to new treatments and solutions to this disease. Recently this field has expanded to include combination therapies of immunotherapies and virial vectors to improve efficacy. We would anticipate KLAS-PDT following a similar route, with a joint venture or licensing agreement.

Bridgeen Callan KLAS-PDT

What does your company do and what role do you play?

KLAS-PDT technology provides an innovative new therapy for the treatment of melanoma skin cancer. We have a unique product that allows photodynamic therapy (PDT) to be used successfully against melanoma skin cancer for the first time. PDT is an FDA approved first line treatment for non-melanoma skin cancer but due to the highly pigmented nature of melanoma cancer it has never been effective, until now. I am founder and chief scientific officer, responsible for the pre-clinical data and formulation.

How did the business start?

The science started six years ago, when we uncovered some fascinating results during laboratory experiments that far exceeded our expectations. Once we discovered the technology, we set about investigating it in

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various cancer cell lines and optimising its efficacy. We are using the momentum of winning Catalyst’s Invent 2020 competition to secure funds to support a first in human clinical trial.

What is your own background?

I have a PhD in physical organic chemistry and have been working in academia for 15 years.

I have always had a passion for science, and as an academic, I have the freedom to explore and indulge my curiosities.

What do you do differently from your competition and what are your strengths?

We have shown for the first time, that using our patented technology, PDT can be used effectively in the treatment of melanoma.

We have a product, that can be used in combination with the current leading therapies to improve survival prospects. But this is a

What challenges have you faced so far?

So far, the main challenges have been to understand what it is that I don’t know and surround myself with people that do. As a scientist, I rely heavily on the evidence, as such my business acumen is not what it should be, but we have a great team made up of multidisciplinary experts that can lend their unique perspective to the company.

Who most inspires you?

I have always been inspired by science. When I doubt myself, I’ll have a look at the data.

On a more personal level, my family are my daily inspiration, without the joy in the everyday life, I would certainly not be as motivated as I am. If I am working too long, my daughter will point out that I still ‘owe’ her a story.

Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

In five years’ time we expect to be nearing completion of our phase two clinical trial and would anticipate that discussions will be underway on how to take the company to the next level, either as trade sale, IPO or alternatively secure further financing to continue development and expansion of products. ■

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ONES TO WATCH

What does your company do and what role do you play?

We are a community bar and restaurant on Cavehill, north Belfast. I am the owner and responsible for the strategic growth of the business and work with the management team on a daily basis to ensure standards are maintained and excelled.

How did the business start and how has it grown?

I took over the Cavehill Inn in summer 2019 and immediately started planning a major refurbishment of the ground floor and outside areas. The building had become very run and it wasn’t somewhere that the local community had felt belonged to them. We completely rebranded the venue as Ben Madigan’s Bar & Kitchen and relaunched in November 2019.

What is your background?

I came to Belfast from Derry in 1995 and attended Queen’s University, I completed a degree in environmental planning and while studying for my postgrad I started working in the bar at the Student’s Union. I’ve been in the hospitality industry since then. I’ve held numerous roles across several venues which gave me a great grounding in the industry and from there I managed independent bars throughout Belfast.

What do you do differently from your competition and what are your strengths?

At Ben Madigan’s we have a simple ethos – great food at a great price, comfortable surroundings and first class service. I always say that out staff are our biggest asset and this really shows in feedback from our customers.

Who are your main customers?

They are our local community in north Belfast.

For a long time this part of the city has been lacking in quality hospitality venues and it’s great to be able to socialise without having to go into the city centre or further afield. I’ve always said that I want to provide a city centre experience with city centre standards in the suburbs.

Do you have a target in mind in terms of where you want the business to grow?

During the first enforced lockdown I took the opportunity to refurbish the first floor of the venue to provide a separate private hire area.

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Kelvin Collins

BEN MADIGAN’S We got all the dusty, noisy dirty work out of the way while the customers were gone.

When we are able to reopen again the plan is to build on the strength of the main bar/ restaurant and develop this area – for private parties and functions but also providing meeting space for different groups mid week.

What challenges have you faced?

Without doubt the biggest challenge this year has been Covid-19. We have just passed our first anniversary and we have been closed for five of the first 12 months trading.

That has been difficult. But in our industry we learn to adapt and pivot. During the first lockdown we provided 135 meals every day to the elderly and vulnerable in the north

Belfast area and during this current lockdown We launched our ‘Ben Madigan’s to go’ – restaurant quality food at home.

Who most inspires you?

People that take risks and aren’t afraid to take chances.

Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

In a few years, once we have had a proper few years trading post-Covid, I would hope to have venue number two under my belt or in the planning stages. Somewhere with a similar ethos to Ben Madigan’s but in a different part of the city. However it would need to be the right venue with the right location. I’m not going to rush into anything. The last year has taught me that nothing can be taken for granted. ■

ONES TO WATCH

Who are your main customers?

HSL primarily supplies goods and services to public and private hospitals and other healthcare settings across the UK and Ireland.

We work with every acute hospital across the island of Ireland and support a growing number in GB with large medical equipment installations, video conferencing solutions, surgical instruments, and implants.

Do you have a target in mind in terms of where you want the business to grow?

As with any company backed by private equity there is an expectation of growth.

We extended our workforce from 32 people in 2015 to over 80 today and have more than tripled our revenues. I look forward to continued growth over the coming years in Ireland and GB as we aim to become one of the most important supply partners for the health service.

Graham Stewart

HOSPITAL SERVICES LIMITED What does your company do and what role do you play?

I am the commercial and finance director at Hospital Services Limited (HSL). Based in Dublin, Belfast and Nottingham, HSL is a specialist distributor of medical supplies, surgical equipment and healthcare IT

accountant by profession. Having completed the training programme at PwC, I was asked to join their corporate finance team. As this was an opportunity to work with a variety of dynamic companies, I was keen to make the move. I was involved in some interesting projects ranging from business strategy

solutions. As well as supplying market leading technologies and solutions, we provide ongoing technical and clinical support to the healthcare sector.

development and finance raising for SMEs to business case analysis for large public sector investment programmes.

How did the business start and how has it grown?

HSL was founded in 1962 by John Elliott and was under family ownership and management until 2015 when it was acquired with buyout capital from Foresight VCT and a new management team led by Dominic Walsh.

What is your background?

Originally from Donegal, I am a chartered

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What do you do differently from your competition and what are your strengths?

HSL is not another ‘box dropper,’ but a fullservice provider. We focus on finding the right solutions which exceed our clients’ needs and partner with some of the most innovative global manufacturers to deliver cutting-edge technologies to the health services on these islands. The healthcare sector is constantly evolving; we ensure we evolve with it.

What challenges have you faced?

Our sector is dealing with an increased level of regulatory compliance requirements including the new EU medical devices regulations and the impact of Brexit. We are fortunate to have some highly skilled and talented individuals at HSL who help face these challenges. In 2020 the challenge faced by the healthcare sector with PPE shortages enabled us to leverage our relationships to deliver a solution to hospitals across the UK and Ireland and provide muchneeded PPE to keep our healthcare workers safe as they battled the Covid-19 pandemic.

Who most inspires you?

From a young age, my father influenced my work ethic and determination to succeed. This has stuck with me to this day, and I would still not ask someone else to do anything that I would not do myself.

Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

I’d love to continue my development in the healthcare sector. I really enjoy learning about the development of technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence, which HSL brings to the market and I believe there is going to be a lot a consolidation in this sector over the next few years. I’m keen to be on that journey. ■

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ONES TO WATCH

What does your company do and what role do you play?

We have been in the art business for over 13 years now and currently have an art gallery and gift shop in Lismachan Courtyard in east Belfast. As an artist and art teacher, my main role is to lead on the development of creative concepts and delivery of our art classes and workshops. I deliver these to children, adults and corporate clients ‘in person’ in our art school and virtually using Zoom.

How did the business start and how has it grown?

My husband and I are both artists and opened our first gallery in the High Street in Holywood in 2008, where we represented over 30 different artists. Over the years, we added a coffee shop and retail offering, before moving to much larger premises at Lismachan Courtyard.

We have gradually designed and developed our own bespoke product range ever since we started the business, but our move to expanded premises has enabled us to move into the wholesale of our range to over 50 stores in the UK and Ireland. We have now over 400 different product lines alongside the art school, which is growing rapidly both physically and online.

What is your background?

I grew up on the Shore Road in north Belfast and always had an artistic side to me. I did a foundation degree in art and design at Castlereagh College, before going to Ulster University to study fine art – however I left to start own business one year into the course after I discovered I loved to paint.

What do you do differently from your competition and what are your strengths?

My original artwork now has a very large following locally and internationally, but that was very much a labour of love – it took a huge amount of effort and determination to build our customer base. Our art classes are unique in many ways and have been a real passion of mine for many years. Just being as engaging as possible and welcoming people of all ages into my studio has proven to be a real strength in the business.

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Dawn Crothers Who are your main customers?

My customers are mainly families and children, but in recent years I have developed an art class offering for corporate clients across the private, public and third sectors. This has seen me work with a wide variety of clients that demonstrate a fantastic commitment to the health and wellbeing of their employees, such as the NHS and corporate law firm A&L Goodbody.

What challenges have you faced?

Change has been my biggest challenge, but I have learned to embrace this, especially in 2020. Being prepared to be agile and respond positively to change has seen my business grow and develop for the better.

Do you have a target in mind in terms of where you want the business to grow?

I would love to exhibit work in more art galleries and stores abroad, as well as continuing to expand our online art classes into new, international markets.

Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

I would love to have more galleries in the UK and in the Republic of Ireland to sell my artwork and products. I also hope to have expanded the global footprint of my art classes and workshops even further. ■

Who most inspires you?

The children that take my classes really inspire me every day. I love to see them grow in terms of their skill and ability and their confidence.

ONES TO WATCH

and implementing finance solutions aligned to organisational strategic business goals of a FTSE 100 company.

What do you do differently from your competition and what are your strengths?

TriMedika is passionate about developing smart, innovative medical devices from hospital healthcare teams’ feedback to deliver better patient care. New technology should challenge current hospital workflows and deliver savings on time, cost and most importantly today – eliminate infection spread in our hospitals.

Who are your main customers?

Our main customers are hospitals and clinics all over the world and the end users are predominantly nurses and doctors delivering frontline medical treatment to patients.

Dr Roisin Molloy TRIMEDIKA

What does your company do and what role do you play?

TriMedika Ltd is company which designs, develops, manufactures and distributes innovative medical devices to hospitals all over the world. Our first device to market is Tritemp, a non-contact, medical grade thermometer, available to healthcare professionals, to deliver greater efficiencies that will benefit patients, by reducing infection spread, lowering costs and eliminating plastic waste in hospitals.

them, which could be fatal.

How did the business start and how has it grown?

More than five years ago while working in hospitals, we recognised an opportunity to bring improvements to reduce hospital spend by eliminating single use plastics for routine devices. Feedback from nurses revealed that disposal of bags of plastic waste from ‘used’ thermometer covers represented a significant infection risk as thousands are used in hospitals every day. Nurses reported finding ‘used’ plastics in patients’ beds, food trays and other hazards such as dementia patients swallowing

What is your background?

TriMedika has three founders. Dr Roisin Molloy, is chief executive and a biochemist with over 25 years’ experience in product research & development, sales and marketing of medical products into international hospital markets.

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As 80% of hospital infections are spread through contact, the solution was a medicalgrade thermometer that was non-contact and required no plastic covers which would reduce costs, infection risk and eliminate plastic waste.

We fast tracked this idea to a market ready, CE marked device in 2017 which is now on NHS frameworks across the UK and used in hospitals and clinics in over 21 countries.

Julie Brien, chief operating officer was an export sales and distributor manager for leading NI manufacturers and start-ups.

Paul Molloy, chief financial officer, has around 20 years in financial management providing

Do you have a target in mind in terms of where you want the business to grow?

Product development is a focus and our first prototypes are already in early trials for our ‘connected’ thermometer which will enable transfer of the data into the patient electronic record. Connected health solutions will benefit not just hospitals, but people at home who’ll be able to monitor their conditions without the upheaval of going to hospital.

What challenges have you faced?

Establishing credibility has been the biggest challenge in a market sector that does not embrace change. However we approached this with every confidence in our device’s superior design, technology and application, and proven through clinical trial comparisons in hospitals.

Who most inspires you?

Technology. As it can overcome any problem and it is in determining the question that we will find the solution.

Where do you see yourself in the next few years?

Building TriMedika with the team – continuing to invest in and develop our people and processes to make a world class organisation that will make a difference to medical technology, bettering patient experience and eliminating plastic waste from our hospitals and environment. ■

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ANALYSIS

A year like no other

By Martin Agnew, joint managing director, Henderson Group

I

t is safe to say that the unpredictability of 2020 was entirely unpredictable. Every challenge was thrown at the world as the Covid-19 pandemic took hold in the first quarter of the year, and alongside our incredible NHS key workers, it was left to front line retail workers to show leadership and navigate these uncharted waters as best we could.

Great learnings have been made; not only were we experiencing a huge surge in bulk buying affecting our supply chain, but our community retailers had to make their stores Covid compliant overnight, and we developed new ways to be there for our neighbours to ensure everybody got what they needed.

As the biggest network of community stores and supermarkets in Northern Ireland, we knew we had to set the standard for safety, customer care and service.

After a successful 2019, where turnover grew to £918m for Henderson Group, with sales up 7.6% year-on-year, we were in the fortunate

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position to heavily invest in the two areas that shoppers told us were most important to them during the pandemic – value and safety.

We invested an extra £1.5m in our value proposition for the year, and in quarter four we delivered even more deals across our network of SPAR, EUROSPAR and VIVO branded stores and supermarkets.

We also invested over £1m in safety measures ranging from store navigation stickers, Perspex screens at checkout, hand sanitiser stations and social distancing markers to give shoppers peace of mind when they’re shopping with us.

Henderson Technology has implemented retail technology solutions to make stores safer and more efficient. Recently, we announced the integration of the Glory Cash Infinity solution in a number of stores, eliminating the handling of cash but retaining human interaction.

Henderson Retail now operates 97 stores and supermarkets, including our first VIVOXTRA Supermarket on Newry Road, Banbridge which opened last month. Post-Covid restrictions, we

opened three new stores, investing £7.5m in these new builds, providing over 80 new jobs in total. We also celebrated a milestone 100th ViVO branded store opening here, making it the fastest growing retail brand in Northern Ireland.

There have been big challenges with our Foodservice company having to make redundancies due to the effect of the pandemic, alongside a negative impact on fuel sales, as a result of fewer cars on the road due to lockdowns and restrictions.

However, as we move into 2021, we’re remaining cautiously optimistic as we continue to negotiate Covid alongside Brexit. We have pledged our continued support to our local farmers to protect welfare standards, and while it is imperative we get an acceptable free trade agreement and avoid a no-deal Brexit to ensure minimal disruption to the supply chain and potential increase in food prices, we will continue to invest with our local retailers and dedicate our support to our local agrifood industry. ■

Business recovery Sponsored by

BUSINESS RECOVERY

Getting the right advice and building back With the end of Government support measures and a moratorium on a range of actions, some companies may find themselves in difficulty at the start of 2021. Ulster Business asks the experts within the field about what actions can be taken, what the next few months have in store, and why seeking that crucial advice is the key first step in keeping a business alive Joan Rice, director of insolvency, Harbinson Mulholland There is no magic wand that easily gets rid of creditor debt, and anyone that makes that claim is ignoring the difficult and painful process for a business owner who has to tell creditors that they are not going to be paid.

The biggest challenge is that the Covid crisis is one we have never seen before. Advising directors in the event of insolvency is what we do – it is generally straightforward. However, insolvency practitioners are now being asked to provide advice to solvent and historically thriving businesses who overnight have lost all of their revenue stream.

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However, dependent on the specific circumstances of each business entity, and their existing relationship with their creditors, there are insolvency procedures which can help to alleviate creditor pressure and allow the business to continue to trade. There are a number of insolvency procedures which can be used and the best option will be specific to the needs of the particular business under consideration.

Key financial information is so important. Once you have your balance sheet analysed and your business model sorted the forecasting will become easier. No one has been able to predict when the Covid crisis will end but at least now

there is a vaccine there is some visibility of a return to normality. If your business has been left facing creditor debt it can’t deal with then it’s time to seek some help from the specialists.

It’s about taking the first step and coming to speak to a licensed insolvency practitioner.

Stuart Irwin, partner, deal advisory, restructuring and forensic team, KPMG As the world awaits the roll out of the

BUSINESS RECOVERY

Covid vaccines, the impact and damage to businesses caused by the pandemic will begin to appear. On top of this, many businesses face additional uncertainty due to Brexit and the continued lack of clarity over future trading arrangements.

JANUARY 2021

While government and banks have been supportive, whether through the furlough scheme or government backed loans, we know the next few months will see businesses being weaned off this support – a transition which will be painful for many businesses.

There is no doubt that underlying demand for many goods, services, and even people, will increase as life returns to normal. However, the post-pandemic legacy, whether this is market adjustment increased debt or additional costs and deferred liabilities, will need to >

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BUSINESS RECOVERY

be dealt with by many businesses. Ultimately this may leave some businesses requiring turnaround expertise, and as a first step, we would encourage business leaders to consider carrying out an early stage business review to identify potential problems.

Being alert to the micro and macro issues, and staying ahead of potential challenges, will ensure businesses have time to analyse options and implement solutions. We have a strong track record in supporting companies implement the right turnaround strategy, and we can help business achieve the resilience needed to recover, reboot and grow in 2021 and beyond.

Sam Corbett, corporate restructuring and insolvency partner at A&L Goodbody The recession we are facing is unique because the financial distress is particularly deep and it pervades such a wide variety of businesses.

Over the last 20 years, we have had a known, stable and familiar insolvency law – but that landscape has suddenly changed given the acceleration of insolvency reform in 2020.

Government policy has been incredibly successful in terms of helping businesses

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during the pandemic. Whether it be the Job Retention Scheme, Government backed lending schemes, grants or taxes deferral, these support schemes have been very effective. This is borne out by statistics which show that insolvency activity is actually substantially down compared to the same period last year. In fact, some sectors have seen as much as a 50% fall in insolvencies.

The issue now facing us in 2021 is what will happen when the support mechanisms fall away. While the consensus across the UK is that there will be a severe downturn, the first thought of a restructuring professional is what we can do to try and save a business. This is particularly important because an otherwise good business doesn’t become a bad business just because of the indiscriminate nature of the Covid-19 pandemic. If it can be saved, our job is to do all we can to help save it.

Anne O’Dwyer, managing director and co-head of Duff & Phelps Ireland As a direct consequence of Covid-19, many businesses, especially in the retail, hospitality and tourism sectors, continue to face considerable uncertainty over their ongoing

viability. Over several months these firms have seen an erosion of their revenue and profitability, and many are encumbered by fixed costs, debts and liabilities that will not magically vanish. As a result, many businesses are facing liquidity and potential insolvency issues.

Several businesses have been sustained by government support and stimulus packages but, invariably, when these are ultimately withdrawn, exposure to insolvency may unfortunately be inevitable for many.

For company directors and business owners facing financial difficulties, we would recommend the following areas. Assess in a realistic and pragmatic manner the financial position of the business and devise a business plan on how best to achieve ongoing viability, implement rigorous cash controls and ensure regular monitoring of the business’ cash position, carry out a detailed review of costs and expenses to determine if any savings can be achieved, consult with key stakeholders such as banks, landlords, trade creditors and employees, and obtain independent advice from trusted professionals at an early stage. ■

MELANIE HARRISON THE HARRISON

How is business?

My business plan is well and truly ripped up and rewritten now since the pandemic. It would have seemed madness to open up a hospitality business in the eye of the pandemic but here we are. I’m taking this time to focus on marketing and snagging anything that needs a tweak. This is as soft an opening as you can get.

However I am thrilled with the media coverage I have attracted and anyone who has visited loves the place. I am excited about the potential next year. This difficult time really forces you go be creative and dig deep to really think about ways to drive business.

How did you get started in the industry?

I travelled a lot myself over the years and when I returned to Belfast I was excited to see what the city had become. I was excited about the vibrant arts scene and I love the various colourful, interesting characters of Belfast.

I wanted to create somewhere my friends and I would like to stay. I fell in love with the building straight away. The design, the history the craftsmanship and detail are incredible.

Every room is designed with passion and has its own story and personality. I think my love for the project and authenticity shines through.

I am very interested in the arts so rooms like

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Entrepreneur of the Month Bronte, Swift, Lavery, Beckett and Ruby Murray and their stories bring interest and character to The Harrison

worthwhile. So yes, I absolutely love what I do and couldn’t think of anything I would rather do.

Typically, who are your clients or customers?

I have three types of rooms. The Aristocrat, which has huge bay windows, free-standing bath and four poster beds. These attract the romantic break crowd. The Bohemians are small doubles and attract academics from Queen’s, some corporates and medical professionals as I am near four hospitals. The Gallivanters attract younger people as they are quirkier and a bit of an edgier design. Perhaps those in town to watch some live music or catch a show.

What is the most difficult part of your job?

For me it is saying no. I always want to go over and above people’s expectations and i really have to force myself to hold back some times.

I find myself working long long hours. But I am slightly obsessed and really when your passion is my business I count as my socialising time to as guests turn into friends very quickly.

Do you enjoy what you do, and what in particular?

I love talking to people as I find almost everyone will have an interesting story once you scratch the surface. I get a real kick when guests really appreciate the detail I put into the rooms to tell their unique stories and they just get it. When people love their stay and are delighted there is no better feeling for me. That’s what makes all the hard work

What are the challenges facing your sector, and the economy in general?

The lockdown. People want to come and stay but they just can’t. I need to keep holding until the spring and hopefully get some trade then.

What’s worse than the actual lockdown is the stop-start nature. We keep gearing up for guests and then winding it down again. I have started a great young manager, Aoife, who is full of drive, ideas and enthusiasm and it’s frustrating she can’t work to her potential but we are focusing on upskilling in certain areas and she has just started a higher level graduate management programme so we can hit the ground running.

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BUSINESS RECOVERY

Recovery: what can you do to help your business?

The beginning of this year will be another challenging period for businesses here, with the ending of the furlough system and a moratorium on debts. However, there is optimism on the horizon, thanks to the roll-out of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Ulster Business asks Joan Rice and Barry O’Donnell, both licensed insolvency practitioners with Harbinson Mulholland, about what a company can do if it finds itself in difficulties What do you do in your role as licensed insolvency practitioners?

Barry: It’s a very wide and varied role. We typically get our clients referred to us by their own accountant. We would give them an initial consultation to find out as much information as possible. We would then review and assess their financial position and set out a range of options appropriate for that business.

What are the main issues facing businesses in difficulty as we head into 2021?

Joan: Taking a simple way of looking at it – you can’t pay four months of outgoings with one month of income. Revenue streams have been erratic, with the lockdowns and reopenings, and it will be difficult for some businesses to deal with a backlog of creditor debt. The businesses which are going to survive are those which are proactive, and those which plan ahead.

Joan Rice Joan is a qualified chartered accountant and experienced insolvency practitioner licensed to advise on, and undertake appointments in, formal insolvency procedures including liquidations, company voluntary arrangements, administrations, receiverships, bankruptcy and individual voluntary arrangements.

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BUSINESS RECOVERY

Barry O’Donnell Barry is a chartered accountant and licensed insolvency practitioner. Having trained in Dublin he has worked for Harbinson Mulholland since 2003. Barry has held an insolvency licence for over 10 years and is licensed to act in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and England and Wales.

Barry: One of the main issues affecting most firms will be the end of the Government’s furlough system in March. There will be things such as deferred tax and VAT payments, which will come home to roost. Although there has been a moratorium on those debts, they are still there – they have been pushed back a while. There also remains the uncertainty facing businesses – when will we return to some form of ‘normality’?

What can a business facing difficulties do to face up to these issues and what are their options?

Joan: Having the right information to hand is key. When you have clarity on the figures, you will be ready to hit the ground running once restrictions are lifted. It’s the same in dealing with creditor debt. Stay engaged with the key stakeholders in your business as communication is vital to any turnaround situation. They will also be more likely to listen if you have a clear strategy. Regardless of how bad things appear, there are always alternative courses of action – we can help a business to consider those options.

Barry: The past is the past. For any business coming to us, facing difficulties, you need to know what your current balance sheet looks like and what your forecast will look like. That has been very difficult over recent months given the uncertainty.

your head in the sand. Seek advice sooner rather than later.

What issues are companies facing regarding their workforces?

Barry: Staffing levels may be an issue going forward. For example, a company may feel it doesn’t need its entire workforce and may have to look at laying off some of its workers.

Joan: It’s probably going to be one of the reasons which prompts people to seek advice early in 2021. The process of selection/ consultation regarding staff redundancies requires a lead in time, which needs to begin long before the end of March when furlough finishes. There will be some difficult decisions to be made in coming months.

What could businesses be doing now to put them in better shape when the restrictions begin to lift?

Joan: Hopefully 2021, and the vaccine, will allow us to look forward again. Forecasting will become more feasible. Businesses don’t have to come in to us with their strategy already mapped out. Providing pre-insolvency and turnaround advice is our bread and butter – it’s what we do. We can act as a sounding board and point them in the right direction.

Joan: If you have the right information, you make better decisions. Not just updating financial records, but also getting valuations of the business assets. Know your balance sheet; know your business model. What would your business be worth in the event of a break-up?

If you had a viable business pre-Covid, then you will have one after Covid. It just may take some hard work and restructuring to get there.

Barry: And always be proactive. Don’t stick

Barry: Again, it’s about being proactive. There

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may be scope in a business for restructuring.

If you have a large entity, some parts of the business could be doing well, and bouncing back, and others not.

How do you go about rescuing a company?

Barry: You start off by looking at where it currently is – getting an up-to-date financial position. In many scenarios, cash is king – can you open your doors tomorrow? What does the short-term future look like? Do you have liquidity? We would examine what the best outcome could be – would an administration give a business enough time to restructure? Would a CVA (company voluntary arrangement) give them a chance?

These are some of the options.

Joan: Just prior to the hit of Covid, there were a number of high-profile CVAs in the retail sector – many of them didn’t go down well. They were perceived to be biased against the interests of the landlords. That may make the hill a bit higher to climb for SMEs looking to ask their creditors to accept less than 100 pence to the pound. There will be a tranche of CVAs in 2021. Whether they are accepted by creditors depends if they are seen to be a fair balance between the interests of all the stakeholders. The pain needs to be shared across all the stakeholders of a business – not just the creditors. ■

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The column with an ear for experience...

How did you start out in your business?

I actually started out on a sporting pathway. I played a lot of hockey, and my goal at the time was to play at the Olympic Games. As a result, most of the decisions I made at that earlier stage in life were about getting me there. I studied sports science at university but quickly realised that I might need something more.

I always had an interest in marketing and advertising, and my post-graduate business course had the opportunity of a 12-week placement. I worked with a well-known local firm, Fire IMC, and had an excellent mentor there who really believed in me and took me on after I finished my studies. I quickly developed a passion for media planning, and, in 2005, I was approached by John Keane to join Ardmore and I’m now really delighted to be leading a team of around 60 people.

What have you found the most challenging during your years of business, so far?

The nature of what we do in our industry means that you need to be comfortable with constant, innovative change. When you work in marketing and advertising, and you’re striving to be the best at what you do, external factors which constantly influence your work are par for the course. This isn’t always easy, and it definitely creates occasional challenges.

Getting comfortable with this, and actually embracing it, has been tough at times but, more importantly, getting your team feeling

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Name: Mark Irwin Position: Managing director, Ardmore comfortable with continual evolution is something that takes trust, investment and time. Last year was a stark demonstration of that, and our team here really surpassed themselves.

How would you describe your management style?

My own experience of high-performance sport has fundamentally shaped my views on running an organisation or a business – the principles of making constant incremental improvements to what you do and embracing the challenges and learning of continuous improvement. A team is only as good as the sum of its parts, with each player contributing something different but vitally important. The type of success we’re striving for can’t be achieved by one person. So, I hope my team would say that my style emanates from a highperformance coach, but you might be better asking them.

What would you change if you could go back and do it all again?

I would change my internal monologue to that of a supportive and inspirational team captain rather than a disgruntled supporter. I think the moment in your career when you recognise that it’s your responsibility to act when things

get difficult and seek to get the best out of the people around you, you realise you could have saved yourself and others a lot of time and energy over the years.

Have you done it all on your own?

Absolutely not. Any success I have had personally is the product of working hard and the benefit of having a team around me – brilliant family, friends, teammates, coaches, mentors and colleagues.

How would you like your business to be remembered?

I want Ardmore to be thought of as a place where amazing people and brilliant clients really want to be. A place with a world class mindset where we push each other to be a small bit better every single day. Most of all, I want our people, and the organisations we’re privileged to work with, to know it was worth the effort and that we had some fun along the way.

What piece of advice would you give to a 20-year-old you?

Get comfortable with the fact that success in life isn’t some end destination you suddenly arrive at, it’s something you do a little better every day.

Motoring

By Pat Burns

MOTORING

Mazda CX-5 continues winning formula

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ever one to rest on its laurels, Mazda has given its mid-size SUV, the CX-5, some upgrades.

The multi-award-winning CX-5 range has been updated with revised engines, safety equipment and styling to make a great SUV even better.

Since the launch of the original CX-5 in 2012, this model has always been carefully updated without changing the successful formula that has won so many customers over.

The second-generation CX-5 was last updated in the summer of 2018 with additional standard safety equipment and a power increase for the high-output 2.2-litre Skyactiv-D diesel engine, while last year saw the introduction of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto as standard across the range and a revised climate control panel.

Now the latest CX-5 continues this gentle evolution with the introduction of cylinder

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deactivation on manual 165ps Skyactiv-G petrol models, which delivers a reduction of 8g/km of C02 when measured on the WLTP cycle. Inside, this SUV is marked out by changes to the central command screen, which now sees the mapping extend to the full extent of the physical monitor to give a larger and clearer colour touchscreen.

Always an SUV praised for its dynamic ability, Mazda’s unremitting commitment to driver engagement saw subtle tweaks to the CX-5’s suspension set-up last year, which further refined the CX-5’s well-regarded balance of agile handling and comfortable ride quality. In addition, the updates saw the introduction of Mazda’s G-Vectoring Control system – GVC Plus, which now features direct yaw control to enhance stability at speed.

and eight diesel models. Matched exclusively to front-wheel drive with a choice of automatic and manual transmission across all petrol models, the 165ps Skyactiv-G petrol is available in all three trim grades: SE-L, Sport and GT Sport.

As before, the 2.2-litre Skyactiv-D diesel is offered in 150ps and 184ps outputs. The popular 150ps engine is matched to SE-L and Sport grade with front-wheel drive, while the 184ps version is paired with all-wheel drive in Sport and GT Sport grades. As with petrol CX5s there’s a choice of automatic and manual gearbox across all diesel models.

The latest CX-5’s dynamic set-up is unchanged, although improvements to sound insulation have further enhanced cabin refinement.

The CX-5 Sport features 19-inch silver alloy wheels, a reversing camera and a power-lift tailgate, while inside it features an eight-way power adjustable drivers’ seat, black leather, heated front seats, heated steering wheel and a windscreen projecting colour head-up display, plus a Bose 10-speaker audio system.

The 14-model range features six petrol models

Prices for the CX-5 range start at £27,030. ■

MOTORING

Of Corsa can

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he Corsa has been Vauxhall’s best-selling car for many years, with over 2.1 million Corsas sold in the UK since it launched in 1993. The Corsa has a very diverse customer profile appealing to people from all areas of society, male and female, young and old.

This new, fifth generation model is a very important model for the company and Vauxhall have made a great new car that offers more specification and increased safety equipment for less money as well as launching a new electric model.

The Corsa offers reduced fuel consumption, flexibility and refinement as key characteristics of all powertrain options, with every variant of the new model emitting less CO2 than the most efficient versions of the previous model.

Despite losing around 10% of its weight, the Corsa retains similar dimensions to the outgoing model at 4.06m and comes with five doors as standard.

As well as high-efficiency petrol and diesel models, an all-electric Corsa-e, the first-

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ever electric Corsa, is now available. With an engine range that’s more efficient and more advanced than ever before, the fifthgeneration Corsa strikes a good balance between low fuel consumption and driving pleasure.

For the first time in this segment, the popular hatchback offers an eight-speed automatic transmission which features three modes (eco, normal and sport).

Compared with the current powertrains of the Corsa range, the new engines have significantly reduced fuel consumption and emissions while retaining similar power outputs to the outgoing model. The engine line-up begins with an entry-level 1.2-litre (75PS) petrol unit, fitted with a five-speed manual gearbox as standard (combined 47.8mpg to 53.3mpg according to WLTP, 93g/ km CO2,). The 1.2-litre (75PS) can achieve a top speed of 108mph and 0-60mph in 12.4 seconds.

This is complemented by a three-cylinder, direct-injection, all-aluminium, turbocharged 1.2-litre engine with 100PS (combined 47.9mpg to 52.3mpg, 96g/km CO2). The

engine has a maximum torque rating of 205Nm. The 1.2-litre (100PS) can achieve a top speed of 121mph and 0-60mph in 9.3 seconds. A new 1.2 Turbo 130PS eight-speed automatic engine with Normal, Eco and Sport modes is available on SRi and Ultimate Nav models. Featuring a twin exhaust for a sportier look, the eight-speed unit is capable of 0-60mph in just 8.2 seconds.

The two petrol engines are joined by a threecylinder, turbocharged 1.5-litre diesel unit with 102PS and maximum torque of 250Nm (combined 62.8mpg to 70.6mpg, 85g/km CO2). The engine is paired with a six-speed manual gearbox as standard. The diesel model can achieve a top speed of 117mph and 0-60mph in 9.6 seconds.

The Corsa-e offers a range of 205 miles, maximum power output of 136PS and maximum torque of 260Nm. Thanks to the instant torque provided by an electric motor, drivers can accelerate from 0 to 60mph in just 7.6 seconds.

Prices for the Corsa start from £16,440 in SE trim, while the all-electric Corsa-e starts from £26,640 in SE Nav Premium trim. ■

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MOTORING

Audi Q3 takes the hybrid route

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he all new Audi Q3 45 TFSI e stakes its claim as the first ever plug-in hybrid Audi model in the compact SUV class.

The eighth member of the flourishing electrified TFSI e family will soon be available to order in Q3 and coupe-inspired Q3 Sportback forms, the former featuring Technik, S line, Black Edition and particularly sumptuous Vorsprung specification options and the latter starting at S line level. In both a 1.4-litre TFSI petrol engine and an 85 kW electric motor generate a system output of 245PS to enable travel without tailpipe emissions for up to 31 miles between charges.

TFSI e models are a stepping stone on the path to electrification for Audi customers who are keen to play their part for the environment, but who are perhaps delaying making the leap of faith to a full EV due to genuine concerns about charging and range.

Northern Ireland’s infrastructure needs to invest in more rapid charging points across

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the country if it wants to be ready for the banning of petrol and diesel models in 2030.

The four-cylinder 1.4 TFSI petrol engine powering both new Q3 models contributes a healthy 150PS output, and this is supplemented by the 85 kW of power delivered by the electric motor. Together, they generate 245PS of power and torque of 400 Nm on the strength of which both variants can reach 62mph from a standing start in 7.3 seconds and top out at 130mph.

The high-voltage battery is located under the vehicle floor in front of the rear axle and belongs to a new generation of compact and relatively lightweight units with enhanced storage capacity.

Both new SUVs are always started in electric mode, except in extremely cold conditions. At low speeds, their AVAS (Acoustic Vehicle Alert System) emits an e-sound to warn other road users of their presence. Both versions can cover up to 31 miles at speeds of up to 87mph in electric-only mode with zero local emissions

according to the WLTP test.

In auto-hybrid mode, the main operating mode, the drive management system divides the tasks between the 1.4 TFSI and the electric motor. The electric motor supports the fourcylinder engine in a wide range of situations, such as when overtaking or when accelerating rapidly.

Drivers can prioritise electric drive at a touch of the EV button. The drive management system constantly evaluates data from numerous sources, including the route information from the navigation system and feedback on the immediate surroundings from the vehicle sensors, to enable it to identify when the car is approaching a town sign, a speed limit or a roundabout, or is getting too close to the vehicle ahead.

When the accelerator pedal is released, the TFSI start to coast with the engine switched off in most situations to maximise fuel consumption and keep emissions to a minimum. â–

MOTORING

Slowdown in UK new car market

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he number of new cars sold has dropped across the UK – but Northern Ireland has avoided the worst of the slowdown in the market.

Sales of new cars in Northern Ireland were down 7% to around 2,942 in November compared to the month before, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

And over the first 11 months of the year sales of new cars both here and across the UK as a whole were down by 30% on 2019.

In the UK as a whole, there had been 663,761 fewer units sold throughout 2020 compared to the year before. The Volkswagen Golf was the top selling car in November, while across the year the Ford Focus has been the most popular new car locally, with 973 sold.

In a chart of the best-selling vehicles of 2020, the Focus was closely followed by Ford sister the Fiesta, with 972 sold. However, the Focus only scraped to ninth place in November, while the Fiesta was sixth.

The Nissan Qashqai was the second-highest

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seller in November, followed by the Renault Captur. The Hyundai Tucson was at number four, and the Peugeot 3008 at number five.

The Tucson is also the third-best seller over the year so far, with the Volkswagen Golf at number four, and the Nissan Qashqai at number five.

Lockdowns throughout 2020 that brought the closure of non-essential retail have hit the car sales market.

Ulster Bank chief economist Richard Ramsey said the month had marked the weakest November in eight years, and the weakest month for sales during 2020, apart from April and May when showrooms were shut during the spring lockdown. And he added that next year was unlikely to bring improvements.

“With unemployment set to surge in 2021, next year is set to be challenging for dealers of new cars, and consumer sensitive sectors in general,” he said.

SMMT said that, overall, the market had suffered a £1.3bn revenue hit in November,

with showrooms in England affected by the closure of non-essential retail throughout the month. And sales in November were at levels last seen during the economic downturn of 2008.

Mike Hawes, SMMT chief executive, said: “Compared with the spring lockdown, manufacturers, dealers and consumers were all better prepared to adjust to constrained trading conditions.

“But with £1.3bn worth of new car revenue lost in November alone, the importance of showroom trading to the UK economy is evident and we must ensure they remain open in any future Covid restrictions.

“More positively, with a vaccine now approved, the business and consumer confidence on which this sector depends can only improve, giving the industry more optimism for the turn of the year.”

UK-wide, market share had grown for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid vehicles (PHEVs). BEV sales had more than doubled year-on-year, while plug-in sales grew by more than three-quarters. ■

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APPOINTMENTS

Former head of the Northern Ireland Civil Service, Sir David Sterling has joined the board of Women in Business.

ABP Food Group has appointed Dawn Speers to head up the technical division of its pet food business based in Denmark.

ABP UK has appointed Simon Dowey as technical manager for its Newry operation.

Mr Downey began his career at ABP as a placement student in 2016.

Kaisa Hietala has been appointed to the Smurfit Kappa Group plc board as an independent, non-executive director.

Mark Hicks has been appointed to lead a new London brokerage, Arden Insurance Brokers. Having worked in the industry for over 30 years, he has held a number of senior roles.

Lauretta McGeown has been appointed associate director, tax at Grant Thornton in Belfast. She will deliver private client tax advisory solutions to clients.

Clare Fitzgerald has been appointed associate director of tax at Grant Thornton in Belfast. She will focus on corporate tax compliance and tax advisory.

Marie Martel has been appointed associate director of tax at Grant Thornton in Belfast.

She will focus on corporate tax advisory and compliance, with a particular emphasis on transaction work.

Community Finance Ireland has appointed Dónal Traynor as the organisation’s new chief executive. He replaces Harry McDaid.

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PHOTOCALL

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1. Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon welcomes completion of work at the NorthWest Transport Hub in Derry. She is pictured with Gary McCluskey and Veronica Woods from Translink and the Mayor of Derry City and Strabane, Brian Tierney.

2. Co Antrim electronic test equipment manufacturer YELO is the latest company to sign up to the Equality Commission’s STEM Charter. Pictured is Judith Bell, electrical engineer at YELO. 3. Yvonne McIlree and Adrian McNally of Titanic Hotel celebrate being named ‘Northern Ireland’s Leading Hotel’ for the third year in a row at the World Travel Awards 2020.

4. Brand and digital agency, Mammoth, has won four new contracts totalling £9.6m which will create 20 new jobs over the next 18 months. Pictured are co-founders Paul Martin and Jeremy Poots.

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5. Northern Ireland company GenoME Diagnostics has been named the Best New Start winner of the InterTradeIreland Seedcorn competition. Pictured are Dr Paul Mullan and Shannon Beattie of GenoME Diagnostics.

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PHOTOCALL

6. Businesses at Innovation Factory in west Belfast have created more than 60 jobs since April. Pictured are Majella Barkley, Innovation Factory with Julie Brien and Roisin Molloy of TriMedika.

7. Dale Farm mascot Bella and Genevieve, Cancer Focus NI’s healthy goat, call on businesses across Northern Ireland to support the charity’s 12 Days of Christmas Giveaways to raise funds for its vital counselling service.

8. Diageo has announced it will become net carbon neutral by 2030. Pictured is John Kennedy, Diageo’s president of Europe, Turkey and India at St James’s Gate, Dublin.

9. Law firm Mills Selig has appointed Chris Guy (right) as managing partner and John Kearns as senior partner. Both have extensive corporate law experience.

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10. Dennis Bree from Helen’s Bay, elbow bumps Edmund Aruofor of Life Hub NI, after completing his penultimate one mile swim to raise funds for the food bank charity based in Townsend Street, Belfast.

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PHOTOCALL

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11. Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon is pictured with Joan Devlin, Belfast Healthy Cities, Cara O’Kane, Youth Education Health Advice and Sean Devlin as the minister announced £87,000 for local road safety initiatives.

12. Lidl Northern Ireland celebrates milestone 40th store opening in Holywood Exchange Retail Park. Pictured opening the store are Sophie Kingston, Eoin Doherty, Holywood Exchange store manager and Isla Parkes.

13. Ferry company Stena Line has officially taken ownership of its newest ferry, Stena Embla following a handover ceremony in Weihai, China. Pictured is senior master Neil Whittaker.

14. Mark Linton, centre, manager of Ulster Bank’s Culmore Road branch, gets the partnership underway. He is with James McMenamin, manager, Foyle Foodbank and Louise Kane, project worker, Foyle Foodbank.

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15. Shelbourne Motors has overhauled its communications network thanks to Rainbow Communications. Pictured with Rainbow Communications’s sales and marketing director Stuart Carson are Shelbourne Motors’ directors Richard Ward, Caroline Willis and Paul Ward.

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PHOTOCALL

16. Derry & Strabane Rural Partnership is investing £1.8m of funding in 13 village projects to boost regeneration. Pictured is Brian Tierney, Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council and Mary Hunter, chairperson of Derry and Strabane Rural Partnership.

17. James and Sophie Waide help launch the Stuff a Bus Virtual Toy Appeal. Translink, along with partners u105 and Belfast Live, launched a virtual toy appeal and had called for donations.

18. Naomhan McCrory, Viberoptix managing director at the company’s new premises in Coalisland with Aidan Kennedy and Emma McAliskey. The firm now employs more than 125 people.

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19. Luxury bed linen company Linenbundle has secured a £1m funding boost from the Growth Finance Fund. Pictured are Jenna Mairs, Whiterock Finance with Paul Nesbitt and Thomas Glackin of Linenbundle.

20. Dominic McClements, managing director North West News Group (NWNG), Martin and Connor McAuley, Kaizen, and Austin Currie, pictured after the completion of the deal which saw the Omagh-based publisher take over Kaizen Print.

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PHOTOCALL

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21. Danske Bank has appointed a new dedicated head of climate risk and strategy.

Pictured with the new Climate Action Pledge are Geraldine Noe, Business in the Community and Chris Martin, head of climate risk and strategy at Danske Bank.

22. Ballyclare-based Simpson Developments is helping to pioneer smart housing in Northern Ireland during the construction of its development in Dunadry. Pictured are Clive Backus and David Simpson.

23. Sisters Jessica and Lucia Barr with the children’s grief support book available from James Brown & Sons Funeral Directors.

24. Terry Woods and Darren Curran of Mount Charles outside Miesian Plaza on Baggot Street in Dublin. It has secured a new contract with the Department of Health in the Republic.

25. Lidl is investing ÂŁ32m in five new stores.

Pictures are Alan Barry, executive director, Lidl Ireland and Northern Ireland, Conor Boyle, regional director of Lidl Northern Ireland and Drew McIvor, Invest NI.

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26. Law firm DWF has taken on eight trainees and newly qualified solicitors. Pictured are Ben Palmer, Kerry Murphy, Rebecca Polley, Beth Garrett, Paul Stelges, Emma McCammon and James McKittrick.

27. Telecoms firm Barclay Communications has donated £20,000 to the children’s Lapland charity. Pictured are Gerry Kelly, Northern Ireland Children to Lapland and Days to Remember Trust and Britt Megahey, Barclay Communications.

28. Northern Ireland will get 145 zero and low emission buses as part of a £66m investment.

Pictured announcing the new contract are Infrastructure Minister Nichola Mallon, Buta Atwal, Wrightbus and Chris Conway, Translink.

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29. Power NI will donate £17,000 to three foodbanks located close to the company’s operational sites in Northern Ireland. Pictured are Bruce Gardiner-Crehan from South Belfast Foodbank with Ian Thom, chief executive of Energia Group.

30. Darren Nickels, retail technology operations director at Henderson Technology with Frank Kilpatrick, Blu Dot Technologies, which has created the new home delivery and click and collect app called Appetite.

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PODCAST

The Ulster Business

Podcast with

The Ulster Business Podcast with Bank of Ireland UK has now marked more than 30 episodes, after launching last year. We take a look back at some of the recent highlights EPISODE 30 – TINA MCKENZIE, FSB NI

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long-term plan must be established to help businesses here prepare and deal with on and off restrictions around opening and closing amid the pandemic, it’s been claimed.

Tina McKenzie, FSB NI policy chair and country managing director for recruitment firm Staffline, said: “It’s obviously been very challenging for politicians. Is fair to say some have managed it better than others. When you look around the world at countries like New Zealand and South Korea.

“We didn’t operate as an island, so we didn’t close off our island borders and have the advantage that New Zealand had.

“I think one of things people in business have to have is resilience. Through the Troubles, the main investment in Northern Ireland was small businesses. The big companies did not come here. They weren’t interested.

“A lot of those smaller businesses are resilient and they will continue. But they aren’t magicians. They can’t go without cash.

If you don’t keep your cash coming in, you can’t continue to pay your businesses, and you are in trouble.”

She said that many of the measures around locking down or restricting business opening have been “blunt instruments”.

“We didn’t get ahead from a political point of view,” she said. “You have to have a plan of action… to say, if X happens, you can then expect us to do Y. “There is absolutely no rhyme nor reason why we are opening and closing at the moment.”

As far as the jobs market goes, she says it’s a mixed picture, but some sectors are seeing a huge surge amid changing demands.

“I think there is a perception, wrongly, that the jobs market is on its knees,” she said. “We work across NI, here were have hundreds of jobs available – both permanent and temporary

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PODCAST

“The areas which were somewhat more difficult (was with) perhaps our less experienced graduates.”

He said the firm continued to deal with its customers, many of which use highly secure and complex bank systems around the world.

Speaking about the passing of Brian Conlon, he said: “Of course it was difficult – Brian’s loss was a great sadness for those close to him, family, and for the many friends in the business – right across the world.

“But the strength of the company and teams really came through – being motivated and continuing the success of First Derivatives.”

EPISODE 31 – SEAMUS KEATING, FIRST DERIVATIVES

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he passing of the founder of one of Northern Ireland’s most successful technology firms was a huge loss for the business but its strength and teamwork has ensured it’s continued to thrive, it’s been claimed.

Seamus Keating, chief executive of First Derivatives was speaking on the Ulster Business Podcast. He took over at the helm of the Newry-based firm, which has offices across the globe, from founder Brian Conlon, who passed away in 2019 following a short battle with cancer.

“In the Republic of Ireland it is the same. We are seeing the permanent market holding up well. There are talented people being let go by companies and other companies are seeing the opportunity to get out into a good market and pick up that talent.

First Derivatives has seen strong sales of £119.6m for the six months to August 31, while posting pre-tax profits of £7.4m.

“We’ve seen a huge number of people that we need to put into the NHS and councils.

The food industry is much busier, two-fold” But she said demand for many so-called white collar and commercial roles has slowed significantly.

Ms McKenzie also says there is a lack of understanding of how many people on the poverty line live day-to-day.

“When you look at how (some) people work on a day-to-day basis, and what poverty actually means, some people have never been down the road of the ‘have nots’. They don’t understand. They have never walked in their shoes.”

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It works across a range of areas, particularly around finance, but also reaches out to everything from Formula One to Nasa.

He said the firm, which now employs more than 2,400 staff across the globe, aims to increase its market share over the next three to five years.

Speaking about taking up the role as chief executive, Mr Keating – who was previously the firm’s chairman – said: “There is always some level of apprehension, but I had the advantage of knowing the business well, and having worked in the tech industry for more than 25 years. It’s an enormous opportunity to take First Derivatives from where we are today and maintain the trajectory of success and growth.”

as capital markets seeing a surge in business during the first half of the year.

Writing in the firm’s latest results, it says “while the impact of Covid-19 meant that sales cycles were longer than in previous periods, we did sign a deal with a major European bank which has made a significant commitment to use Kx within its capital markets trading operation”.

“There was some positive and some negative,” Mr Keating said. “In the capital markets, those customers had extremely busy first quarters in 2020 – needing additional software licensing to deal with spikes in volume.

“We continue to engage with existing and potential clients across our range of products and geographies, including areas such as surveillance and market analytics where our pipeline remains strong.”

The last few months has seen a change in demands for its software – with areas such

Listen to the podcast at www.ulsterbusiness.com/interview, on Spotify, SoundCloud and iTunes

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TRAVEL

Getting blown away by the windy north west Giant trees, icy lakes and rugged mountains are soul food for Nicola Brady who clears her head with a visit to Sligo and Donegal

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t’s easy to forget your worries when

you plunge into the depths of Lough Gill. As I forced my body into the lake, the icy slwap of the water hit me like a truck, vanquishing my ability to think of anything other than how bloody cold I was.

There’s a reason wild swimming is pegged as a form of therapy – it’s pretty much impossible to feel anything, good or bad, when you’re so cold you can barely remember your own name.

But then, just as my extremities went numb, I looked around and remembered just how beautiful Lough Gill really is. The rugged Sligo mountains rising from each side. The tiny, treefilled islands scattered along its surface. The reeds that sway and cling to the edge of the shore. The whole damn thing is like a visual Valium.

Dooney Rock countless times, I only recently discovered an alternative route, to the right of the car park, that leads you up a steep thicket of towering tree trunks to two little benches that overlook Cottage Island.

I thought I knew that stretch of lakeshore like the back of my hand, but this little patch was completely new.

It felt like Yosemite, the thick tree trunks wizened like mammoth legs, blanketed in swathes of bright green bracken. When I reached the lake below, I happened upon tiny little private bays, with crumbling, mosscovered jetties and fine pebbles lapped at by gin-clear water.

Sligo is where I’ve gone to clear my head. It was my backyard until I moved to Dublin.

For a long time, Sligo was short of accommodation with an element of cool.

But that’s all changing. In Rosses Point, for example, a new arrival set up shop in 2017, combining a seafood restaurant with some bedrooms upstairs.

Whenever times are rough, I’ve drawn solace from the smell of the cold, damp air, the forests filled with giant trees, the dependable pounding of the surf. Which is why, when Dublin was released from Lockdown 1.0, it was one of the first places I went. And Lough Gill was top of the hitlist. And why, while we’re in Level 5, my mind keeps going back there.

The Driftwood (www.thedriftwood.ie) brought a sense of boutique charm that was lacking from the (rather stuffy) village of Rosses Point.

The main restaurant is flooded with light and undeniably chic – think exposed brick walls, marble tables and plush green banquettes – but the rooms upstairs are even better, with roll-top baths in the bedroom and quirky art.

You don’t have to risk hypothermia to experience it, though – the numerous forest trails around its edges give all the views with none of the frostbite. Though I’ve walked

If you’re talking baths in Sligo, you can’t ignore the Voya Seaweed Baths (due to reopen December; www.voyaseaweedbaths. com).

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Sure, I’ve gone dozens of times over the years, but the appeal of sinking into a scorching hot bath that oozes with seaweed never gets old.

And the walk afterwards, along the blustery shoreline of Strandhill, is like a wake-up call for every cell in your body, which leaves you aching for a hearty feed.

As much as I adore Strandhill’s Shells Cafe (and frequently go to sleep dreaming of its garlicky lemon chicken burger), it’s often impossible to get a table on busy days. Its new-ish brother cafe Baker Boys (www.bakerboys.ie), however, is right on the edge of Sligo town. Blissfully spacious and calm even when it’s hopping, this spot is just what Sligo needed. The menu is filled with things like towering, citrusy fish burgers and avocado toast alongside glossy, lacquered Danish pastries and sugar-dusted cronuts the size of a baby’s head.

The handiest thing? Its Finisklin location means that you can get straight out on the road again when you’re done, rather than tackle the

TRAVEL

Lough Gill in Co Sligo

hellscape that is the one-way system in Sligo town. Donegal is just a few miles north, and you can be up in Lough Mardal Lodge (www. loughmardalglamping.ie) within the hour, hugging the coastline along Mullaghmore and Grange, passing by the dramatic ridges of Benbulben.

If you close your eyes and picture the perfect winter wonderland, the yurts at Lough Mardal would tick every box. Thick, faux-fur throws top the beds, twinkling fairy lights weave among the lattice walls, and a wood-burning stove fills the dome with warmth and a flickering amber glow. The day I arrived was Baltic, but within seconds I was as toasty as a marshmallow, plonked by the fire with a glass of wine in my hand.

Between Bundoran and Donegal town, Lough Mardal is the gatekeeper for the rest of the county. From there, you weave through countless gorgeous sights as you make your way to the very tip of Ireland. Glenveagh

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National Park has the kind of otherworldly charm that makes you want to throw on an Aran jumper and Dubarry boots, and stomp around the rocky peaks and serene lakes like you’re modelling for the tourist board.

Driving through it, even in the pounding rain, you’re met with the kind of beauty that makes you endlessly proud to live on these shores.

There’s no doubt that Donegal has plenty working in its favour. The sprawling, desolate beauty of this county is as magical as it is beguiling. But one thing it lacks? Enough decent places to eat. All the good restaurants are out-the-door popular – which makes reservations frustratingly tough to get.

I spent an evening further north making call after call to try and snag a table for dinner – with no joy. The few places that were open midweek (and off-season) were booked solid, and so I ended up in my pyjamas with a Chinese takeaway.

But a disappointing meal is soon forgotten when you’re at the top of Horn Head. The colour of the heather-strewn clifftops was changing by the second as the grey clouds approached, turning what was green mere seconds ago into a sludgy, slatey brown.

I’m far from dainty – but mere moments after I reached the peak I was lifted clean off my feet and dumped back to earth a few inches away. The strength of the wind was incredible, as were the sheets of sharp rain as they swept over the sea and pelted down on my head.

As I raced back to the car, the clouds passed over me once more. Seven minutes later, the sky was such a glorious shade of blue that the heather was glowing in the sunshine, and the only memory of the rain came from my sodden jacket. The sea that swirled against the bottom of the cliffs was impossibly blue, and the storm that passed was just a memory. ■

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TECHNOLOGY

Pixel power: iPhone 12 Pro Max the pick of the year 104

TECHNOLOGY

Adrian Weckler has been hands on with one of the biggest releases in the phone world in 2020. So, is Apple’s iPhone 12 Pro Max the best choice on the market?

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rate of 60hz than Android rivals, but it still moves very fluently. One advantage of 60hz is that it doesn’t draw as much on battery life as 90hz or 120hz displays.

this is the first iPhone that you can stand up, by itself, for FaceTime or Zoom calls. It’s a little tougher with the 12 Pro Max, because of its extra weight, but I’ve done it several times.

I am what one might think of as the typical audience for a phone like this. I’ve always been a ‘large phone’ guy (from Samsung’s original

Speaking of battery, it’s generally very good.

I usually finish a day with between 20% and 25% of power left. That has included camera testing, social media, email, Google and some video. The battery in the 12 Pro Max is slightly smaller than that in the 11 Pro Max, but Apple usually compensates with power

That leaves the other big selling point of the 12 Pro Max – the camera. The 12 Pro Max is unique in having a sensor that’s 47% bigger than other iPhones. It also has a slightly longer optical zoom, at 2.5x. And it has a new sensor-shift stabilisation feature which essentially makes it a professional video

efficiencies from its updated processor (in this case, the new A14 Bionic).

camera, smoothing out any effects from your shaky hand or jitters when mounted on a bike or a car. Its Lidar (also available on the 12 Pro but not on the 12 or 12 mini) helps autofocus and some measurement-sensitive apps, including augmented reality apps.

’ve now been using the iPhone 12 Pro Max for about a month. There is one main reason to get it over the iPhone 12 Pro, 12 or 12 mini — bigger screen size.

A secondary, though not as compelling as first thought, reason is a more advanced camera. A third one might be its slightly longer battery life.

Galaxy Note on) and I’m a huge camera user.

So in some ways, this is my perfect handset.

Because of its 6.7-inch (high-end Oled) display, this is the iPhone where you can access the most amount of information in the quickest period of time. A bonus is that the display material is now significantly more shatter-proof than previous iPhones (although it’s not any more scratch-proof).

Might it be ‘too’ big for some people? I don’t think it will be for anyone who regarded previous ‘Plus’ or ‘Max’ phones from Apple to be acceptable. For example, last year’s 6.5-inch 11 Pro Max is very marginally smaller in height and width, but it was thicker and almost exactly the same weight.

Indeed, for anyone coming from one of Apple’s older ‘Plus’ models (6, 7 or 8), the 12 Pro Max is almost exactly the same length and width (although it’s a fair bit heavier).

So when it comes to your pocket, your bag or your jacket, there won’t be much difference.

There’s about the same stretch for your thumb, too. This is not a phone that can comfortably be used one-handed, unless you’re Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. I’m already feeling that familiar ache at the base of my thumb from straining to reach up to the top of the display.

The display is a lovely, very bright Oled (or ‘Super Retina XDR’ in Apple’s parlance) screen that looks and feels great. There is some grumbling about it having a ‘slower’ refresh

JANUARY 2021

In terms of the phone’s engine, this is – as you’d expert – a blazingly zippy phone.

I’ve written at length about the A14 Bionic processor in my iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro reviews, so if you want to know more about it, you’ll find information there.

This is, of course, a 5G-compatible phone, too. The model we get in Europe doesn’t have the rectangular window on the side of the device that you might have seen in some US coverage of the iPhone 12 models.

This is because we don’t have ‘millimetre wave’ 5G here. What we do have is a fairly sparse, patchy network – with all three main operators building out some coverage – so far. I’ve written at length about 5G availability and coverage in Ireland, but for now, unless you literally live within a few hundred yards of a mast and are gaming intensively, you won’t notice it much.

As I wrote last month about the 12 and the 12 Pro, one of the most understated selling points of this is its physical redesign.

Reimagining the iPhone in the flat-sided aesthetic that represented the iPhone 4 and 5 models has been broadly welcomed and 12 Pro Max reminds you of why. The flat, steel sides are visually stunning. Yes, you’ll probably put a case on it, but it’s still worth pointing out: people like nice-looking things.

One small perk to that flat-sided design is that

All of these make a difference, albeit a modest one. Sensors are just one element of what makes for great, effective photography. Apple has other parts of the equation down almost perfectly.

For example, its ‘Smart HDR’ and neural ‘Deep Fusion’ engine power features bring out some beautifully balanced results that are generally very pleasing to the eye. It applies lightning quick, intelligent editing that picks the best elements from a shot and subtly enhances them in a way that you probably would do yourself if you were au fait with postprocessing software or apps.

So is the iPhone 12 Pro Max camera the best around? It’s competing for that title with Huawei’s P40 Pro. It’s marginally better, overall, than Samsung’s S20 Ultra.

As for its extended zoom (it can go to 2.5x rather than 2x on the 12 Pro or no zoom on the 12 and 12 mini), it’s definitely welcome but marginal.

It comes in four colours: graphite, silver, gold and blue. It costs £1,099 for 128GB of storage, £1,199 for 256GB and £1,399 for 512GB. ■

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Uncovering the 9-5 NAME: Richard Greenwood POSITION: Search consultant, 7twenty Professional Search

6.45am I bounce out of bed and make my way to the gym. Currently all classes are being held on Zoom but that doesn’t make a burpee any easier. Once I am finished, it’s a quick turnaround to catch the bus at 8.15am. While commuting into the office, I’ll check out the local news and start responding to emails.

8.30am I am in the 7twenty office, I get the coffee machine on and have a quick bowl of cereal while I continue to work through my emails.

9.30am As my role is multi-faceted, I can often be tasked with various duties in the morning.

These can be anything from carrying out research in relation to projects, updating clients on the progress of projects, calls with candidates or a meeting with the team. Many of my meetings are now held on Microsoft Teams which has become a very practical way to meet people in my line of work. Although I do prefer to meet in person, I can definitely see the benefits of being able to meet our team, clients and candidates using the platform in the long term.

1.00pm Lunch time. I usually bring my lunch with me and more often than not its leftovers from the night before. Recently I have been meeting with friends once a week to go for a walk towards the Waterfront and over the Lagan – this has been a great way to catch up.

2.00pm By now I am back to my desk and have worked through emails that have been coming in throughout the morning. Usually, I will have scheduled Microsoft Teams meetings for the afternoon. These might be with current clients

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to discuss ongoing projects, also potential clients who we are in discussions with about partnering with 7twenty Professional Search.

Launched back in February 7twenty is a new specialist service and a division of 4c which focuses exclusively on middle-level management appointments within the core business services in our client companies.

5.00pm Communication is key for my role, and I am in constant contact with individuals using many different platforms whether that’s online, email, phone and video call. Frequently, I would have phone calls scheduled with candidates at this time of day because they haven’t been able to speak during their working day. With the many 7twenty assignments currently ongoing it is very important that I plan out the days ahead and scheduling meetings for later in the week. Depending on the above will usually determine the time I leave the office for the day.

6.00pm I am home after a productive day in the office, and pre-pandemic I would have been getting

ready for rugby training at Malone RFC twice a week or occasionally seven-a-side football at Stormont Playball with friends. Currently that’s not the case so I usually just relax, and watch the BBC news until it’s time to make dinner.

7.30pm Dinner time. I really enjoy cooking and with more time in the evenings at the moment, my girlfriend and I have been working our way through the new Jamie Oliver. For anyone who finds themselves buying the same groceries every week like me, this book is definitely one to check out.

8.00pm After dinner, if it’s not raining, I will go for a walk around the local park. If the weather isn’t so good, then I will be watching whatever sport is on the TV that night or occasionally reading. If I am in front of the television then I’ll usually be responding to emails and messages that have come through.

10.30pm That’s the day over. I’m in bed and fast asleep by 11pm.