Post Business - 23rd May 2013

postbusiness

Flying highSpirit of Pegasus inspires college entrepreneurs

P18&19

Creative11

thisweek

Thumbs-upforcityfromproducer

ExchangeisrightontrackLocation17

Lawfirmshonoured

Legal14-15

RBAspeakerisrevealedNews3

FeatheredfriendswhocanprovidestaffmotivationNetworker21

2 Thursday, May 23, 2013

Advertising Feature Accountants: Giving business advice

Aiming to offer you advicethat’s worth paying for

AT DuftonKellner, thefirm’s solepurpose is toprovide owner-

managed businesses inthe North West with theadvice and services theyneed in these challengingeconomic times andbeyond.

The company aims toprovide the quality andbreadth of advice of the verylargest firms, but deliveredwith the sensational servicethat only a regional firmcan deliver.

Their clients operateacross a wide range ofindustries and sectors, andvary in size from individu-als up to multi-million-pound turnover groups.

Every DK client is treatedas an individual. The firmwill meet with you on a reg-ular basis so that you can

receive personalised advicespecific to your businessand your sector.

Dufton Kellner want tobecome your most trustedadvisers, and the only waythey can dothis is tospend timewith you,learningabout yourbusiness andwhat youwant it tobecome.

You can beconfidentthat you’ll bereceivingadvice of thehighest cal-ibre from ateam that has won a mul-titude of awards and isrecognised as one of themost forward-thinking inthe UK.

And because most ofDufton Kellner’s clients aresimilar in size to them-selves, you can be sure thatthey will both understandand value your business.

You’llbenefit fromfixed feescoveringeverythingthey do –there is noclock tick-ing, and theynever sendsurprisebills. Theyguaranteethe value ofevery ser-viceprovided; if

you don’t value it, you don’tpay.

If they can’t answer yourquestion immediately, you’llget a guaranteed call back

within two hours, andaccounts are always pro-duced in less than 30 days sothat the essential informa-tion they contain about theperformance of your busi-ness is fresh and useful.

Dufton Kellner will doeverything legally possibleto slash your tax bill. Andtheir very stable teammeans that you’ll deal withthe same people on each andevery occasion.

So whatever your busi-ness needs, from building aplan for growth or improvedprofitability, planning aroute to retirement or busi-ness sale, reducing your taxbill or simply preparation ofaccounts or tax returns,Dufton Kellner will bedelighted to help.■ For more informationcontact 0151 342 6405 or seethe website www.duftonkell-ner.co.uk.

Not just another accountancy firmM

ITCHELLCharlesworthhas beenadvising adiverse

selection of clients, rangingfrom large organisations tosmaller, owner-managedbusinesses and individualsfrom their offices inLiverpool and fourother North Westoffices for more than125 years.

These clients havecome to trust that thefirm’s locally basedteam of financialexperts will provide acomplete financial solu-tion that dramatically reducesthe constraints, jargon andbureaucracy holding theirbusinesses back.

There are two main reasonswhy Mitchell Charlesworthcan be more than ‘just’ your

accountants. The first is theirability to offer a large port-folio of services under oneroof, including: accounts pre-paration and audit work, busi-ness insurance, tax planning,corporate finance (MC Van-guard), corporate recovery

and insolvency services, anoutsourced payroll bureau,wealth management, pensionsand investments, trusts andestates services and a special-ist VAT advisory service.

Their excellent team is thesecond reason why businesses

choose Mitchell Charlesworth.They pride themselves onoffering partner-led servicesbased on personal relation-ships. They are not a large,faceless corporation. A num-ber of Mitchell Charlesworth’semployees are experts in par-

ticular business sectors,enabling them to offerindustry-specific busi-ness advice which ulti-mately gives their clientspeace of mind andgreater profitability.

This is why MitchellCharlesworth can bemore than ‘just’ youraccountants.■ For more information,

call 0151 255 2300 or visit thewebsite: www.mitchellcharles-worth.co.uk.

The firm can also be fol-lowed on Twitter @MitChar-lesworth and via its LinkedInCompany Page.

Stuart Kellner, Managing Director at Dufton Kellner

The team at Mitchell Charlesworth

Don’t miss out, buy the Liverpool Post every Thursday.

THE POSTL I V E R P O O L

3Thursday, May 23, 2013 post businessnews

Renewablespreadingthe wordBROMBOROUGH greenenergy companyRenewable Solutions istaking its energy effi-ciency messagesaround the country in a10-strong fleet ofhybrid vehicles.

Its fleet of Hondahybrids has clocked uphalf a million milessince they first hit theroad three years ago.

Managing directorMike Lowes said:“Honda hybrids are aperfect fit for our busi-ness with the efficiencyof battery power andthe many environ-mental and financialbenefits this brings.”

The firm employsmore than 40 staff.

Top internetentrepreneurto speak atRBA dinnerARIADNE CAPITAL founder JulieMeyer will be the keynote speaker atThe Liverpool Post’s Regional Busi-ness Awards next month.

One of the early backers of Last-minute.com, Ms Meyer believes thatindividual capitalism releases people'singenuity for the solving of the world'sproblems at the macro and microlevels as well as accelerating thefuture.

Educated at a university nearChicago, she is now a leading cham-pion for entrepreneurship in Europeand the UK. Since arriving in Paris in1988, where she studied at top Frenchbusiness school Insead, Ms Meyer hasadvised technology firms and backedentrepreneurs in Paris and London.

She founded Ariadne Capital in 2000“to create a new model for the fin-ancing of entrepreneurship – entre-preneurs backing entrepreneurs”.

In 1998, Ms Meyer founded FirstTuesday, the network of entrepreneurs,which many credit for igniting theInternet generation in Europe.

First Tuesday was sold in July 2000for $50m.

Ms Meyer has been named one ofInsead's top 50 alumni, Ernst & YoungEntrepreneur of the Year, World Eco-nomic Forum Global Leader of Tomor-row, appeared in Time MagazineDigital 50, was dubbed one of London's1,000 most influential people in 2010 &2011 and one of the Wall StreetJournal’s top 30 most influentialwomen in Europe.

Ms Meyer was one of the BBC'sdragons in the award-winning

Dragon's Den Online, and is currentlysetting up a “Dads and Daughters”foundation to support and extend herthesis that women's identities areshaped - for good or bad - by the mes-sages they receive from their fathersas children and young adults.

She is on the board of VestergaardFrandsen, Insead and Medikidz.

She graduated with a Bachelor ofArts degree in Humanities and Eng-lish Literature from Valparaiso Uni-versity, near Chicago, in 1988, havingspent her junior year in CambridgeUniversity.

It’s essential that you act quickly ifyou want be sure of securing yourplace to hear Ms Meyer speak at theRegional Business Awards gala dinnerbefore all of the tickets are snapped up.

Tickets have traditionally been instrong demand in the days followingthe publication of the shortlist.

This year’s awards final will takeplace in the grand setting of StGeorge’s Hall. Some 500 guests will bepresent at the black-tie dinner thattakes place on the evening of June 13.

Hosted by former BBC broadcasterPeter Sissons, the night will seeawards handed out to the winners of 11categories.

Now in their third decade, theawards are an established part of theregion’s annual social calendar and isone of the local business community’sprincipal networking opportunities.

To see this year’s shortlist and tobuy tickets for the awards dinner, visitour special awards website at region-albusinessawards.co.uk.

Alternatively, you can [email protected] or call 0151 4722570. Internet generation founder Julie Meyer

Trust seeks new blood to boost Sefton businesses and jobsTHE organisation thatbrought Antony Gormley’sIron Men to Crosby beach islooking for more trustees tohelp oversee the next stage ofits development.

Bootle-based South SeftonDevelopment Trust’s mainfocus is supporting new busi-nesses, including social enter-prises, pre-employment train-

ing, professional developmentand business skills training.

One of its business trainingprogrammes has been adoptedas an example of best practiceby the European Union and isbeing replicated as far afieldas Germany, Sweden,Lithuania, Bulgaria andCyprus.

Against this background,

the Trust is looking to recruitextra board members who canhelp create businesses andjobs in the area.

Chief executive CateMurphy said: “In the currenteconomic climate our work ismore important than ever,which is why we’re looking tostrengthen our team of trust-ees who play a vital role in the

work of the organisation.“We’re particularly looking

for people with experience ofcommercial operations, newproject development or mar-keting skills. People with aninterest in South Sefton’s com-munities, and young people,would be especially welcome.”

She added: “Applicants withgood links to the key strategic

players in Merseyside’s public,private and community sec-tors would also be very usefulto the organisation.

“We’re hoping for a goodresponse to this appeal.

“The new board memberswill have the satisfaction ofknowing that they are makingan important contribution tothe regeneration of our area.”

Halton Housing Trust £11m upgradeHALTON Housing Trust isinvesting £11m in improve-ments to its homes in Run-corn and Widnes.

The Trust owns and man-ages 6,150 homes in the bor-ough and will take a year toupgrades its homes and flats.

Investment delivery man-ager Chris Gibbins said: “Weare committed to improvingcustomers’ lives and our £11minvestment is testament tothat. Our improvement pro-gramme is ambitious and bold– we are really looking for-

ward to seeing the end resultin April 2014.

“We’re already way aheadin terms of delivery and withthe warmer months ahead wecan really move forward withsome of the major improve-ment works.”

Solicitors on airHAMPSON Hughes Solicitors has embarked onits first TV advertising campaign across theNorth West.

The campaign will run for three months topromote the personal injury claims service,from accidental injury to road traffic accidents,for the national solicitors with their headoffice in Liverpool.

[email protected]

REGIONALBUSINESSAWARDS2013

THEPOSTL I V E R P O O L

For News,Sport andBusinesson yourphoneText LDPto 67800

‘It's anattitude - ifyou go to apartywanting tohave fun,you’ll havefun. If you goto a partysaying‘entertainme’ you'llfind fault’

STEPINTOMY

OFFICE

Full videointerview,at www.

ldpbusiness.co.uk

CharlotteWinby,

director ofOrion PartyArchitects

FRAMELINECOMPOSITE DOORSTRADE, UPVC WINDOWS

DOORS, CONSERVATORIES.

5 Day Turnaround

Tel: 0151 546 5577Fax: 0151 546 5588Accredited with BS7412 & BS7950

BUSINESSto BUSINESSBUILDING TRADE


GleesonBill

Is RSA Insurance’sdividend policyexcessively prudent?WHAT has gone wrong atRSA Insurance?

For many years follow-ing the merger betweenLiverpool based RoyalInsurance and Sussexbased Sun Alliance thatcreated the present dayRSA, the companystruggled to find its feet.In fact, it went through aperiod of transition,divesting itself of its over-seas subsidiaries inplaces like North Amer-ica and Australia and its“non-core” businesses.

It struggled to make aworthwhile profit andhad to close its life assur-ance business in Liver-pool.

Then under the man-agement of its previouschief executive AndyHaste, the businessseemed to make good pro-gress over the past eightyears.

So it came as a deepdisappointment and sur-prise to some powerfulshareholders when,earlier this year, RSAannounced it was cuttingdividend payments inresponse to weak invest-ment returns.

Standard Life, in par-ticular, has objected tothe dividend cut. Stand-ard Life has, for manyyears now, been one ofthe City’s more vocal andactive institutional share-holders.

The Edinburgh basedfirm’s head of corporategovernance Guy Jubbspoke out at last week’sRSA annual meetingagainst the new dividendpolicy, saying “excessiveprudence was brought tobear”.

While Standard Lifehas a relatively smallholding (about 2.5%) inRSA Insurance, it is nev-ertheless very influentialwhen it comes to corpor-ate governance issues.

RSA is still a majoremployer in this town,however it isn’t quite theforce it used to be withinthe local business com-munity. That’s becausemuch of its senior man-agement is now locatedin London.

SOME commentators aresuggesting that there aretentative signs of recov-ery in the US.

The New York stockmarket has risen sharplyin recent months, as hasLondon’s FTSE-100 index,which earlier this weekreached levels last seen atthe peak of the dot.comboom.

If recovery is on the

way, this is great news forBritain’s beleagueredmanufacturers.

There is much I don’tlike about American soci-ety. It places the rights ofthe individual too farahead of the needs ofsociety as a whole. As aresult, it has no nationalhealth service and itsbenefits system is patchybetween states andungenerous.

But America is resili-ent, possibly preciselybecause Americans areoften thrown back ontotheir own enterprise andendeavours rather than abenefits system. You haveto fend for yourself there,if you’re able to.

As a result, the US eco-nomy tends to pick upmore quickly and more ofits people run their ownbusinesses.

We are very keen topromote enterprise inBritain. Our politiciansoften tell us how we havefewer small firms com-pared to the US.

However, it seems thatthe recent recessionshave begun to changethat balance.

One reason UK unem-ployment has not risenby as much as previouslyfeared is that more Bri-tons have chosen to runtheir own small, evenmicro, businesses ratherthan sign on. I have citeda few examples in my art-icle on Liverpool Com-munity College on pages18 and 19 of thismagazine.

However, small andyoung businesses areunlikely to be as econom-ically efficient as bigfirms. Yet, on the otherhand, a significant smallfirms sector has got to bebetter than an even lar-ger number of claimants.

Without doubt, some ofthese new businesses willthrive in the years tocome and will be themaking of the next gen-eration of high profileentrepreneurs. On theother hand, it will beinteresting to seewhether this sectorproves to be a new sourceof dynamic growth orwhether a great many ofthem fall by the waysideonce the economy picksup and big employersstart to recruit again.While many might thinkbeing your own bosswould be great, otherswill fear the con-sequences of erratic andlow profits and mercilessbankers.

ENTERPRISE Zones were firstcreated by the chancellor ofthe exchequer GeorgeOsborne in the Budget of2010.

They were in part set up to counter theeffects of the Coalition government’sdecision to abolish regional developmentagencies, which had been instrumental inthe economic development of Britain’sregions during Labour’s 13 year tenure.

The chancellor’s aim was to developthe economies of deprived regions out-side London and to stimulate small firms’growth.

Two enterprise zones were created inthe Merseyside area, one at Sci-TechDaresbury near Runcorn and anotherstraddling the River Mersey and takingin Peel’s proposed massive £10bn devel-opments at Liverpool Waters and WirralWaters. Three years on, however, thereare mixed signs when it comes to gaugingprogress at the region’s enterprise zones.

Enterprise zones give business ratesreliefs and tax breaks to companies set-ting up in them. These tax breaks include100% capital allowances on investment inplant and equipment. The zones are alsoreceiving priority treatment when itcomes to such things as broadband infra-structure investment.

While the Daresbury scheme, whichwas in the second wave of enterprisezones announced by the government in2011, can point to some early concreteachievements in the form of a new build-ing and new tenants, the Liverpool andWirral zone has still to come off the draw-ing board.

Daresbury has the advantage of being along-standing science and technologybusiness park with a considerableamount of science businesses and otherorganisations, including universitydepartments, already based there.

Daresbury is engaged in the knowledgesector and is seen as offering strong pro-spects for growth in the future. As a res-ult, it has attracted considerable supportfrom government, including a visit by thePrime Minister David Cameron.

The science and innovation campus,which celebrated its 50th anniversary lastyear, was launched as one of the gov-ernment’s flagship enterprise zones inApril last year and quickly attracted£10m of Regional Growth Fund (RGF)money to support development.

As well as supporting the zone, theRGF grant will help with the wider devel-opment of the Daresbury site.

The money will be used toconstruct a 60,000 sq ft officeand laboratory building withinthe enterprise zone which willbe known as Techspace. Thecash will also be used toupgrade Daresbury’s mainpower supply system, improvepublic transport links to andfrom the campus and enable anumber of environmental andinfrastructure improvements totake place.

At 36,000 sq ft, Vanguard House isalready open for business and is morethan half let to 13 companies.

However, while all of these businesseswill benefit from business rates relief, it’snot clear that some of the technologyfirms will necessarily benefit from theavailable capital allowances if they arenot all that capital intensive.

Indeed, those firms that do require

some manufacturing may prefer to out-source that activity to contract manufac-turers located outside of the zone.

However, the site is attractive to sci-ence based firms because of the big sci-ence projects located on it.

Daresbury’s reputation and profilemeans companies will be attracted to it.

Its immediate environment andthe presence of like mindedentrepreneurs are also attract-ive to knowledge companies.The fact that rural parts ofCheshire are within easy com-muting distance should alsomake it attractive to potentialinward investors.

The business tenants are act-ively encouraged to mingle withthe scientists and to use the sci-

entific research facilities on offer.The enterprise zone status at Dares-

bury is seen as an important steppingstone in the longer term development ofthe area.

A total of 30 high-tech companies relo-cated to the wider campus during 2012,including specialists in advanced engin-eering and materials, biomedical, digitalICT and mobile, and energy and envir-onmental technology.

In the longer term, it is hoped to build1m sq ft of office and research space andto house 15,000 jobs.

John Downes, group chief executive ofproperty developer Langtree Group,which is developing the enterprise zone,said: “The Sci-Tech Daresbury EnterpriseZone is thriving.

“We’re witnessing a strong pipeline ofhigh-calibre international and domesticcompanies looking to relocate to the site’sflagship enterprise zone development atVanguard House.

“Businesses have been keen to capit-alise on the benefits associated withenterprise zone status and VanguardHouse has now reached 60% occupancysince opening 18 months ago, with 13 ten-ant companies employing circa 150people.

“It’s especially encouraging to us thataround half of the companies in Van-guard House are existing tenants whohave moved over from the site’s Innov-ation Centre due to the high levels ofgrowth and expansion they’ve experi-enced.

“The fact that these expanding busi-nesses are choosing to relocate to Van-guard House is testament to the successof the innovative, collaborative working

While Sci-TechDaresbury racesahead, Merseyscheme lags behindBill Gleeson reports

‘Zone is akeyelementof widervision’

Mixed progresspost business big feature

5Thursday, May 23, 2013

environment at the campus, which allowscompanies to thrive.

“The enterprise zone is a key elementof our wider vision to continue the rapidgrowth already seen over the last twoyears, creating new high quality commer-cial and laboratory space and hundredsof high value jobs on site.”

In contrast, the combined Liv-erpool and Wirral enterprisezone has not shown similarsigns of progress yet.

The zone, which includesPeel’s dockland regenerationschemes on both sides of theMersey known as LiverpoolWater and Wirral Waters, hasyet to see any tangible develop-ment.

The disused docks areundoubtedly a harder sell than the greenfields of Cheshire.

Unlike Daresbury, much of the land haslain idle for many decades, particularlyon the Liverpool side of the river.

Both the Liverpool and Wirral schemeshave also been subject to planning pro-cesses, with Liverpool only relativelyrecently hearing that the proposed £5bndevelopment will not be called in by thesecretary of state for a planning review.

Enterprise zone incentives include a100% business rate discount worth up to£275,000 over a five-year period, for busi-nesses that move into an enterprise zoneduring the course of this Parliament.That time restriction means that any fur-ther delays to the Peel schemes couldcause this benefit to expire before many

businesses are able to availthemselves of the benefit.

Another benefit is that allbusiness rates growth withinthe zone for a period of at least25-years will be retained andshared by the local authoritiesin the Local Enterprise Partner-ship area to support their eco-nomic priorities.

Government and localauthority help will be available

to develop radically simplified planningapproaches in the zone and there will beGovernment support to ensure super-fastbroadband is rolled out in the zone. Thiswill be achieved through public fundingif necessary. Firms within some of the 22zones would qualify for enhanced capitalallowances. This would mean 100% allow-ances would be available for plant andmachinery investment incurred betweenApril, 2012, and March, 2017.

Should we be worried by the relative lack ofprogress at Liverpool and Wirral Waters zone?

THOSE promoting the Liver-pool Waters and Wirral Watersenterprise zones argue thatwe should not be too con-cerned with the relative lackof progress to date.

A single enterprise zonestraddles the River Mersey toencompass Port of Liverpoolowner Peel Holdings’ develop-ments on Liverpool’s northshore and at Birkenheaddocks.

Peel’s ambitious schemes,with a combined value of£10bn, envisage a series of tallcommercial and residentialbuildings to be built over sev-eral decades on what is mostlyidle dock estate.

A Liverpool City Councilspokesperson said: “The Mer-sey Waters Enterprise Zone is along-term initiative based onPeel’s 30 year vision.

“Working with Wirral Coun-cil and Peel Developments, weare making good progress inpreparing sites and puttingmeasures in place for futuredevelopment.

“In March, the Governmentannounced it was giving thego-ahead to the £5.5bn Liver-

pool Waters scheme withoutthe need for a Public Inquiry,which was a major step for-ward.

“We’re now working withPeel to drive forward thescheme, which will result in20,000 jobs, 3m sq ft of com-mercial development and hun-dreds of offices, hotels, shopsand leisure facilities.”

A Wirral Council spokesper-son added: “A lot of work hasbeen going on behind thescenes alongside LiverpoolCity Council and Peel to put inplace robust and innovativeplans to drive Mersey Watersforward, realising the signific-ant benefits that EnterpriseZone status brings.”

The Wirral spokespersoninsisted that there had beensome literal and metaphoricalgroundwork completed, inparticular he pointed to thepreparations for Peel’s newInternational Trade Centre,which is designed to stimulateBritain’s trade with China andother emerging countries.

The spokesperson added:“The site of the Peel Interna-tional Trade Centre has now

been fully remediated and isnow ready for the ITC devel-opment.

“The West Float site wasdesignated as an area withenhanced capital allowanceslast year, the only area in theNorth West to have this, andwe have a strategy in place toattract investment from theautomotive industry into thispart of the site, working withcentral government, UK Trade& Investment (UKTI), GeneralMotors and a number of othertop UK-based vehicle manufac-turers to progress this.

“In the coming months weexpect to see a number ofother specific projects all mov-ing forward, enabling newinvestment and creating newemployment opportunities inthe region.”

The availability of enhancedcapital allowances shouldmake the zone one of themost competitive in the UK. Itwill include a new cruise linerfacility alongside Princes Dockand the new Leeds to Liver-pool canal link extension.Plans include offices and threeluxury apartment towers.

John Leake, businessdevelopment manager atSci-Tech Daresbury outside thefast-letting Vanguard House

Peel’s futuristic vision for Merseyside’s old docklands

‘Docks area hardersell thangreenfields’

at enterprise zonespost businessbig feature


notes

byWillRobertsLIVERPOOLOFFICEOFCHARLESSTANLEY

marketanalysis

IN ASSOCIATIONWITH

■ THE pressure onhousehold fin-

ances has eased to itsweakest levels in threeyears, in a sign thatthe “gloom is lifting”,a report has found.

Hopes that families’budgets may be enter-ing “a period of relat-ive calm”, came froma renewed increase inpeople’s take-homepay as well as a per-ception that the risein living costs is eas-ing, according to fin-ancial informationcompany Markit,which compiled theresearch.

Some 9% of peoplesurveyed said theirfinances improved inMay, while almost 28%said that theyworsened.

The overall readingof the latest monthlysurvey into people’sfinances was 40.4,marking the slowestdeterioration inhousehold financessince May 2010.

■ HOUSE sellers’asking prices

have soared to a newhigh, in further signsof confidence return-ing to the market, aproperty websitereported.

A 2.1%month-on-month risepushed average pricesto £249,841 this month,with new recordprices set in London,the South East andEast Anglia, accord-ing to Rightmove.

This has been thestrongest start to theyear since 2004 interms of askingprices, with averageprices rising by 9.1%or more than £20,000in 2013 so far, the web-site said.

London askingprices surged past thehalf a million poundmilestone for the firsttime this month,standing at £509,870typically.

As well as beingmore than double thenational average, ask-ing prices in Londonwere 8.6% higher thana year ago.

US shifts stance on EuropeanUnion financial integration

LAST week provided evidence that theoptimism surrounding any sort ofrecovery in the eurozone in the nearfuture was misplaced, as several coun-tries reported GDP figures for the firstquarter.

While the German economy showeda rise in activity, thereby avoiding atechnical recession, the figure wasonly an increase of 0.1% which rep-resented a year-on-year decline of0.2%.

This annual drop is not encouragingfor the eurozone, although a harshwinter will have had a significanteffect on performance, especially inconstruction.

What was interesting was the com-ment that this “growth” in the firstquarter was led by household con-sumption which suggests headwindsremain in the broader economy andnot just the construction sector.

Meanwhile, French GDP fell for thesecond quarter running and is down0.5% on the year.

This has been blamed on a declinein fixed capital investment and a neg-ative contribution from foreign trade.

There was some comfort from thefact that the French figure was not asfar off the German figure. but it is stillhardly encouraging.

Estimates for other countries’ GDPperformance year-on-year are as fol-lows: Belgium -0.5%; Italy -2.3%; Neth-erlands -1.7%; Portugal -3.9%; Spain

-2.0%; and UK +0.6%.Our government may well be

encouraged by these estimates, but theUK’s performance was relatively poorin the three-year period from 2009 to2012 compared to several other coun-tries. While it remains debatable thatthe UK is on the right track, the evid-ence suggests most of the eurozone isgoing the wrong way in terms of GDPgrowth.

The disadvantages of an inflexibleUnion are being increasingly high-lighted. This has been made even moreapparent by the recent observation bythe well regarded Pew Research Centrein Washington that “the EuropeanUnion is now the sick man of Europe”,noting a decline over the past year inpublic support for the EU project in allthe major members of the EU.

When Pew conducted its 2012 survey,the median proportion, among thesestates, of respondents taking a favour-able view of the EU, was 60%, with amedian of 34% believing that EU integ-ration had strengthened the economy.

Those proportions dropped to 45%and 20%, respectively, in this year’ssurvey. Most significantly, approval ofthe EU in France had fallen from 60%last year to 41% this year.

By contrast, the EU still received a60% approval rating in Germanywhere, this year, 54% believed eco-nomic integration was strengtheningthe economy, only slightly down from59% in 2012. By contrast, in France,those taking a positive view of eco-nomic integration had fallen from 38%last year to a mere 22% in the latestsurvey. These observations are notencouraging for the EU and are notgoing to go unnoticed in the US.

Of more interest, however, is thechange in stance taken by the UStowards the UK relating to our involve-ment with the EU.

President Barack Obama now seemsto be endorsing the line the UK Gov-ernment is taking towards its EUmembership, whereas previously theUS suggested the UK would miss out ifit left the EU.

The proposed US-EU trade agree-ment seems a rich, prize but discus-sions relating to it could open up gapsin relations between the bigger playersin the EU, especially France and Ger-many, as their governments take dif-fering views over what should be puton the table during negotiations.

Over the coming months we couldbe set for yet more interesting devel-opments revolving around the EU.Will Roberts US President Barack Obama now seems to be backing the UK

Ofcom to clamp down on PPI ‘nuisance’ UK rents are on the riseTENANTS are facing further pres-sure on their finances as rentshave increased in every regionacross England and Wales for thefirst time in 18 months, a lettingsnetwork has reported.

Private rents rose by 0.2%month-on-month in April to reach£736 on average – and for first timesince November 2011 rents wereup year-on-year across the wholecountry – according to LSL Prop-erty Services, which owns chainsYour Move and Reeds Rains.

Rents started edging back up

again month-on-month in March,following a period of falls amid theseasonal winter slowdown.

The further push up in Aprilmeans average rents havereturned to levels not seen sinceNovember last year and they are3.9% higher typically than a yearago.

London saw the biggest annualincrease in rents, with a 7.6% risepushing average rents to £1,110 amonth. Wales recorded the secondhighest spike, with a 5% rise tak-ing rents to £566 typically.

A FRESH clampdown on claimsmanagement firms has beenlaunched by Ofcom after it foundevidence of people being plaguedwith “annoying” and “distressing”nuisance phone calls.

Research carried out by the reg-ulator over a month found that fourout of five consumers received nuis-ance calls, averaging two a week.

A quarter of people who took partreported receiving more than 10nuisance calls over the period.

Those who took part in the surveywere designed to reflect the generalUK population and they were asked

to make a diary of the calls theyreceived.

The bulk of nuisance calls relatedto payment protection insurance(PPI), which made up more than half(51%) of unwanted sales calls.

Ofcom said complaints figureshave indicated that large numbers ofnuisance calls are being generatedby some claims management com-panies.

A spokeswoman for Ofcom saidthe regulator is gathering furtherevidence and if its suspicions areconfirmed it will launch full-blownformal investigations against these

firms. Ofcom has also written to theMinistry of Justice (MoJ) to drawattention to the extent to which PPIclaims appear to be driving nuisancecalls.

Claudio Pollack, Ofcom’s con-sumer group director, said: “Twonuisance calls a week is too manyand this detailed research will helpus understand the root cause of theproblem.

“We will use the full range of ourpowers to tackle abandoned andsilent calls, but this is a complexarea that requires joint action froma number of different agencies.”

post business wealth management

7Thursday, May 23, 2013 post businessnews

Fund celebratesits 100th new job

Wirral Council leader Phil Davies, left,with Chris Kelly of Thirsty Horses

Chester lawyer’s investment and jobs pledge for acquisitionCHESTER-based commer-cial law firm Aaron & Part-ners announced its latestacquisition and pledgedinvestment and new jobs.

It has acquired nicheemployment firm Bennett’sLegal in Shrewsbury aspart of its expansionstrategy.

The acquisition will berebranded Aaron & Part-ners and become the firm’sthird office after Chesterand Manchester.

It is expected to generatefees of more than £1m ayear within the next threeyears.

Aaron & Partners chiefexecutive Andy Duxburysaid: “This acquisition willgive us a presence inShrewsbury where our cli-ent base has been growingfor some time.

“In addition it providesus with a platform toexpand into new marketsand deliver specialist legalservices across Shropshire.

“Above all, though, wewant to grow the office bymeans of local recruitmentof specialists in our keymarket sectors.”

All Bennett’s Legal staffwill join Aaron & Partners,including managing dir-ector Paul Bennett, whofounded the practice in2009.

He will join as a partnerand said: “By joining Aaron& Partners I can now offermy clients a broader rangeof legal services.”

LFC offersinsight toworld ofbusinessLIVERPOOL FootballClub has teamed upwith the London Schoolof Business & Financeto form LFC ELITES,an initiative deliveringglobal training andeducation exploring thetransferable skills andstrategies betweensport and business.

The five-day CPDManagement and Lead-ership programme isfor business leaders ofany sector.

Designed by a teamof LFC coaches andLSBF management aca-demics, and supportedby guest lecturers andLFC legends like IanRush, the programmeincludes modules inleading and managingself, high performanceteams, strategic designand growth, and lead-ership in organisa-tions.

The first five-daymanagement and lead-ership programmesbegin at Liverpool FCAcademy in Kirkby onMonday June 3 withfurther dates availablethroughout June, Julyand August.Paul Bennett (centre) with Andy Duxbury (left) and Bethan Evans and Emily Price of Bennett's

THE North West Fund for Venture Capital hascreated its 100th job.

Chris Kelly, from Wirral, has become ITimplementation manager at Liverpool-basedsoftware specialist Thirsty Horses.

That company won a £500,000 investmentfrom the fund in February to enable it torecruit staff to develop its performance man-agement software system, Inspire.

Mr Kelly is the sixth employee at Thirsty-Horses – and the company’s founder RayPendleton hopes to create more than 20 jobs inthe next three years.

Mr Kelly, who served in the RAF beforestudying for an IT degree, said: “I’m reallypleased to have landed a position that makesuse of my IT skills.”

The North West Fund for Venture Capital, ismanaged by Enterprise Ventures and providesfinance to help businesses start up and grow.

Since 2010 it has invested £11.4m, in 30firms, and attracted £1.6m in extra funding.

It is part of the wider £155m North WestFund, which is financed jointly by theEuropean Regional Development Fund (ERDF)and the European Investment Bank.

The fund has in total invested £55m intoover 180 businesses, creating or safeguardingsome 1,800 jobs.

Councillor Phil Davies, leader of WirralCouncil and a member of the managementcommittee which oversees the delivery of theNorth West ERDF programme, said: “I amdelighted the North West Fund for VentureCapital has secured its 100th job.

“I hope this success will lead to other com-panies accessing the Fund and creating evenmore employment opportunities in the Cityregion.”

Richard Young, of Enterprise Ventures, said:“The North West Fund for Venture Capital isplaying a crucial role in providing investmentfor businesses at a time when finance is veryhard to come by.

“We are delighted to see the companies wehave supported creating much-needed employ-ment in the North West.”

byAlistairHoughtonPOSTBUSINESSSTAFFalistair.houghton@liverpool.com

· Bright and airy conference rooms

· Excellent AV facilities

· Quality in-house catering

· On-site exeacutive style accommodationavailable year round

· On-site car parking

· AIM accredited

Need space to think? Chooseour Hope Park Campus for yournext meeting or away day.

You can enjoy our stunning45-acre landscaped location,as well as the EDEN Building’soutstanding business facilities.

Our inspiring location.

www.hope.ac.uk/conferences l 0151 291 2147Your great meeting.


Hollyoaks maker encounterstough TV advertising market

Lime Pictures managing directorClaire Poyser on the Hollyoaksset in Childwall

TalkTalk shrugs off fears about BT’s plan to televise football

HOLLYOAKS producer Lime Picturessuffered a small dip in profits last yeardespite enjoying a sharp rise inturnover.

According to the Childwall basedoperation’s latest accounts, filed atCompanies House earlier this month,profit on ordinary activities before taxwas £10.9m in the 53 week period toAugust 2012, down on the £11.4m recor-ded during the previous 52-weekaccounting period.

The 2012 corporation tax charge was£2.7m, less than the £3.1m paid in 2011.As a result, profit for the financialperiod ending in 2012 was £8.1m com-pared to £8.3m in 2011.

Lime Pictures turnover was £58.7m,substantially up on the £48.8m in 2011.

However the gain in top line saleswas more than matched by a sharprise in the cost of sales, which was£47.1m compared to £36.7m in 2011.

Gross profit of £11.6m in 2012 com-pares to £12.1m in the year before.

Administrative expenses were£776,000, up from £694,000. That pro-duced an operating profit of £10.8mcompared to 2011’s £11.4m.

Lime Picture’s balance sheetshows tangible assets of £770,000as at 31 August 2012, up on the£626,000 recorded 12 monthsearlier. The assets were fixturesand fittings, technical equipment,computer equipment and motorvehicles. The accounts show nosign of the land at Childwall.

Debtors were £14.5m versus£9.9m and cash in the bank was£12.4m versus last year’s £13.4m.

Creditors due within one yearwere £24.5m, higher than the£18m 12 months earlier.

Net current assets were £2.3m,down on £5.4m while total assetsless current liabilities were £3.1mversus £6m. There were no longterm liabilities.

Lime Pictures directors reportoffers very little narrative ana-lysis. However the company ispart of UK based All3Media,which recently published its ownconsolidated figures that showrecord revenues of £473m for theyear to August 2012. The figure com-pares to £464.3m in the previous year.The UK’s largest independent televi-sion producer, All3Media’s earningsbefore interest, tax, depreciation andamortisation (EBITDA) also hit recordlevels of £65m, up from £63m. Thegroup made more than 300 pro-grammes a year distributed in 200countries. Owned by private equityhouse Permira, All3Media’s librarycomprises 8,000 hours of programming

available for sale.At the year end, it had a cash bal-

ance of £57.2m, down on the £69m theyear before.

Its debt net of cash was £230m.In All3Media’s directors’ report, the

company states: “The economic recov-ery we benefited from in 2011 wasshort-lived. The global economicrecovery faltered, the eurozone slippedback into recession and the UK exper-ienced its longest recessionary period

in over 50 years.“These pressures have been evident

in the independent production sectorwhere the volume of UK primary com-missions has fallen, although revenuesfrom the sale of UK programmes inter-nationally has risen.

“In this context, the group signific-antly outperformed its UK industryaverage as a result of both its scale andstrong growth in its internationalactivities, particularly primary com-

missions in the US and internationaldistribution sales.

“The commercial environment inwhich the group operates remainscompetitive. However the directorsbelieve that its status as one of theleading independent multiplatformproduction groups will enable it tomaintain its market position bothwithin the broadcaster sector and foremerging digital platforms wherequality content is needed to build andsustain new audiences.

“The strategy of the group is toachieve sustainable growth both byacquisition and organically.”

Among the key risks faced by thegroup, the report cites the weakness ofthe television advertising market,which has caused the group to focusits sales efforts on broadcasters suchas the BBC and pay TV channels thatare less dependent on adverts.All3Media says it also faces fierce com-petition from rival television produc-tion firms for both new commissionsand to sign up acting talent.

TELECOMS group TalkTalk saw rev-enues and profits decline slightly in itslatest financial year, although it saidits business is in a better shape now.

The firm employs about 1,000 staff atits Birchwood business park callcentre in Warrington.

It unveiled revenues of £1.67bn forthe year to March 31 recently, com-pared with £1.68bn in 2012.

Pre-tax profits came in at £122m,down from £127m.

Chief executive Dido Harding said:“This has been a momentous year forTalkTalk, which is now a fundament-ally better business than it was threeyears ago.

“In the year we have returned ourcustomer base to growth, successfullylaunched TV and mobile handsets,grown TalkTalk Business, andreturned to year-on-year revenuegrowth in the final quarter.

“We have the UK’s fastest growing

new TV business and our customersclearly appreciate its comprehensivecontent and value for money pricing.”

She added: “We will continue toinvest in growth and remain confidentthat having more customers who buymore products and who stay with uslonger, puts us firmly on track toachieve our medium term financialtargets.”

The group also said that it hasentered its new financial year with

growing revenues, a higher gross mar-gin, lower overheads and significantheadroom to invest further in growth.It said it expects 2014 financial yearrevenues to grow by at least 2%.

TalkTalk shrugged off fears over theimpact of its larger rival BT’s immin-ent sports channel launch of freePremier League TV for subscribers,saying it was firmly focused on“value-seeking customers who want alittle more TV, not a lot”.

notes■ FIRSTGROUP

has announced a£615m fundraisingdrive and cancelled itsdividend after plans toturn around the busi-ness were derailed bythe West Coast main-line fiasco.

The company,which is planning topour £1.6bn into afour year investmentprogramme and tackledebts of nearly £2bn,told shareholders theywould have to waitanother year beforeseeing any pay-out.

It also announcedthat founder MartinGilbert was steppingdown as chairmanafter leading the firmfor 27 years.

The Aber-deen-based company,which operates FirstGreat Western, FirstCapital Connect andFirst ScotRail, hasbeen hit by thebotched bidding pro-cess surrounding theWest Coast mainline.

After initially win-ning the bid, a reviewfound flaws in the pro-cess, causing thetakeover of the fran-chise from Virgin tobe put on hold as wellas delaying decisionson three other railoperations it alreadyholds.

Underlying pre-taxoperating profits forthe group - which alsohas interests in USstudent and Grey-hound buses as wellas the UK bus network- fell in line withexpectations from£271.4m to £172.4m.

■ LOW-COST air-line Ryanair

boosted annual profitsby 13% but warnedthis week that therecession across muchof Europe willdampen growth thisyear.

The Dublin-basedcompany, which oper-ates on more than1,600 routes, carried79.3m passengers inthe year to March 31,an increase of 5% on ayear earlier as reven-ues improved 13% to4.8bn euros.

Post-tax profits roseto 569m euros and theairline is hopeful ofanother rise this year,albeit at a slower rateof growth as economicconditions put pres-sure on average faresacross the industry.

Ryanair expectstraffic to grow byanother 2m passen-gers to 81.5m in thecurrent year, helpedby this summer’saddition of more than200 routes and sevennew bases, includingat Eindhoven, Krakowand Marrakech.

It said costs willcontinue to rise, withhigher oil pricesagain the culprit afterits fuel bill increasedby 290m euros.

[email protected]

post business the bottom line


smallbusiness

weekofthe

Energising renewableenergy technologies

BIG business has beenquick to recognise thebenefits of renewableenergy – but the appetite,generally, is cautious.

That’s the view of Patrick Richard-son, founder of Liverpool-basedConcept LHP (Light, Heat, Power).

His firm, on Derby Road’s ConnectBusiness Village, works with manufac-turers to provide lighting, heating andpower solutions for clients using thelatest renewable technologies.

Lighting comprises the latest LEDsystems; heating is generated, says MrRichardson, from “a very sophistic-ated infra red source which we believeis state-of-the-art”, while power is gen-erated from solar pv (photovoltaic)panels and wood-burning biomass.

The firm was set up in 2005 inSouthport before relocating to Liver-pool, and Mr Richardson said: “Biggercommercial organisations like super-markets are targeting green solutionsand making sure people in their sup-ply chains are acting in a responsibleway in terms of their energy usage.”

But he said these are the exceptionand the UK lags behind nations likeGermany in its use of renewableenergy, despite Government subsidies.

Concept’s clients are split betweendomestic and commercial, but MrRichardson said businesses are cur-rently caught in a Catch 22 situation.

“The problem for business is gettingfinance. They want to make savings,but they can’t get the finance.

“Until business confidence returnsto the levels of four or five years ago, itis tough for everybody, although wecan provide finance to customers.”

He said the savings from renewableenergy are a no-brainer for clients.

The Government is offering a20-year subsidy under its RHI (renew-able heat incentive) scheme for anyoneinstalling renewable energy systems.

Solar panels, for example, offer an18% return on investment, so afterabout six years the RHI subsidy candeliver free energy for 14 years.

Mr Richardson says there is talk ofa subsidy for biomass: “The return oninvestment from biomass is phenom-enal with payback in three to fiveyears, then it becomes a cash cow.”

The energy saving capabilities arealso hugely attractive. He said LEDlighting can save 80% on costs, whileinfra red heating is almost as efficient:“We have heating systems that looklike roof panels in a false ceiling.

“We can replace one of those tileswith a unit which would reduce theheating costs for the room by 60%.”

These are areas Mr Richardson iskeen to develop: “We have fundingavailable to carry out large scaleinstallations which should be ofinterest to housing associations andlocal authorities on Merseyside.

“One of the big issues this localauthority is facing is people in fuelpoverty. There is a lot of people insocial housing in Merseyside who arein fuel poverty, and that ain’t going toget any better because fuel prices areonly going one way.”

Mr Richardson previously workedin finance and property developmentin Ireland and moved into renewableenergy systems after recognising howthe sector was evolving.

The firm now employs 10 staff anduses sub-contractors, including anapprenticeship scheme, on its install-ations which cover most of England.

He said the LED market is already

competitive, but sees opportunities forsolar and biomass: “Solar will start tocome back as electricity pricesincrease. Biomass is such an attractiveproduct, with its return on invest-ment, and I can’t see any other wayother than it being a big element ofgrowth in the market.”

Mr Richardson said he is hopeful ofachieving turnover of £2m in the fin-ancial year to April 2014, and is tar-geting further growth in the region:“We are hoping in the future todevelop our own manufacturing orassembly facilities here on Mersey-side.”

He added: “If the policy is properlymanaged, people will start movingmore and more to renewable techno-logies and they will become the rulerather than the exception.”

Patrick Richardson, chief executive of Combined LHP which specialises in renewable energy

notes

■ MORE than half(62%) of North West

business owners lackunderstanding ofasset-based lending,according to the latestClose Brothers BusinessBarometer.

The survey, whichaims to canvass the opin-ions of small firm ownermanagers, furtherrevealed that of thosebusinesses that areaware, less than a fifthwould consider using it.

Asset-based lendingallows businesses to usea combination of assetssuch as invoices, equip-ment, stock or propertyas security for funding.

Andrew Metcalf, CloseBrothers Invoice Fin-ance in the North Westregional sales directorsaid: “The barometershowed that many SMEsare anticipating growthwithin the next year, butmany are unaware of thefull range of financialoptions that are avail-able to fund their plans.”

The survey alsoshowed that cash flow isthe main day-to-day con-cern for more than afifth of North West busi-ness owners; and a fur-ther 23% claim to haveproblems accessing fin-ance.

Mr Metcalf added:“With so many SMEsstruggling to maintainhealthy cash flow, it ismore important thanever that businessescarefully review theirfinancial strategy on aregular basis.”

■ LIVERPOOL’SWheelchair Service

is hosting a communityfun day to celebrate thelaunch of its ‘Children’sWheelchair in a Day’Scheme and is appealingto other businesses andorganisations to getinvolved.

Under the schemeyoung wheelchair userswill be able to beassessed and providedwith a wheelchair to fittheir needs, all on thesame day.

The event, hosted byLiverpool CommunityHealth, will take place atthe Lifehouse Centre onBrunswick Dock from10am-2pm on FridayJuly 5, and will be atten-ded by youngsters fromacross the city with dis-abilities, as well as theirteachers and their par-ents.

Young wheelchairusers will also have theopportunity to take partin a wide range of wheel-chair-based sports,games and activities andthere will be a ‘marketstall’ area offeringadvice about the manydifferent organisations,support services, andleisure/recreationalactivities in the area.

To find out moreplease contact the Com-munications Team on:0151-295 3179 or email:[email protected] pv panels can provide a quick return on investment

post businesssmall business

[email protected]


IN ASSOCIATIONWITH

Move to Central Village suitsUniform’s plans for growthBRAND communications agency Uni-form has moved into a new home inBold Street as part of the £100m Cent-ral Village redevelopment.

Uniform, whose clients include Bac-ardi and the Football Association,moved from its previous base in FleetStreet to give it more room for growth.

The office in Bold Street forms partof the Bold Street entrance to Mere-park’s Central Village development. Itis more than twice the size of theagency’s previous home.

As well as its nationally-recogniseddesign work, Uniform is also pioneer-ing work on the “internet of things”.Its Postcard Player, which uses “digitalpostcards” to play music, has beennominated for this year’s Big Chipawards.

Nick Howe, managing director atUniform, said: “We were determined toremain within the Ropewalks area if atall possible.

“This was one of the few spaces thatfitted the bill, giving us additionalmeeting rooms, a prototyping work-shop and a proper canteen for staff.

“We are expanding rapidly as part ofour long term growth strategy, so weneeded a studio that fitted our ambi-tions. It’s a fantastic space for staff towork and relax, and also to bring cli-ents.”

The Central Village units in BoldStreet were completed in 2009 and areoccupied by leisure and retail oper-ators including That’s Entertainment.

Two units are still available.The six-acre Central Village scheme,

on the site of the former LiverpoolCentral high-level station, will include

three new hotels, offices, shops andrestaurants, a six-screen Odeoncinema and landscaped public space.

Merepark says the scheme will con-tribute £100m to the city’s economywhen it is complete and will supportsome 3,000 jobs.

Neal Hunter associate director atMerepark, said: “We’re delighted towelcome Uniform to Bold Street. TheRopewalks is the creative core of thecity and is a perfect fit for a dynamicagency like Uniform which has such astrong connection to the city.

Pupils willlearn frominternetpioneersA PARTNERSHIP of cut-ting-edge technologycompanies is going intolocal schools to showpupils how exciting“internet of things” tech-nology can be.

Hi-tech workspaceDoES Liverpool housesseveral start-up compan-ies working on ways tolink objects to the inter-net. DoES projectsinclude a clock showingwhere Mersey ferries areand a blue machine, Bub-blino, that blows bubbleswhenever certain wordsare used on Twitter.

Bubblino’s inventorAdrian McEwen is nowjoining a project led byscience education special-ists Imagication to take“internet of things”workshops to schools thissummer. Children will bebuilding a weather sta-tion computer fromscratch.

Kirsty Sparrow, dir-ector of Imagication,said: “Children lovebeing able to build andtake things apart andelectronics and makerskills make the most ofthat. Electronics and pro-gramming really are apart of everyday life now,and this lets children seehow easy it is to get star-ted, and gain a passionfor digital making.”

Mr McEwen said: “TheInternet of Things freestechnology from beingtrapped behind screensand keyboard, and lets itenhance everyday objectsto give them new capab-ilities and behaviours tomake them more usefuland playful.”

The project has beenbacked by “innovationfoundation Nesta”, theDigital Makers Fundfrom the Mozilla andNominet Trust, and Liv-erpool John Moores Uni-versity’s Open Labs pro-ject.

Lindsay Sharples, fromOpen Labs, said: “Liver-pool has a thriving com-munity of creative andinnovative businessesand as one of only ahandful of projectsapproved by NESTAthroughout the UK, thisis a further endorsementof the creativity in ourlocal community.”

Neal Hunter of Merepark, left, with Nick Howe of Uniform at the agency’s Central Village home

“Central Village is continuing toattract a good blend of high-calibrecompanies to this area of the city andwe’re seeing a strong pipeline ofnames coming forward to expressinterest in our two existing units inBold Street.”

PR firm Kenyon Fraser merging with two Mersey agencies

The management team at the expanded Kenyon Fraser, from left, Nick Holland of Edian, Richard Kenyon ofKenyon Fraser, Ben O’Brien of Kenyon Fraser and Margaret Tarpey of Concept PR


post business creative & digital

Bubblino

KENYON FRASER has mergedwith two fellow Merseysidemarketing agencies.

The growing Liverpoolagency says it is “business asusual” at its new sister agen-cies, Southport-based ConceptPR and Liverpool digital spe-cialist Edian.

The combined outfit hasmore than 100 clients andemploys more than 30 people.

Kenyon Fraser managingdirector, Richard Kenyon, willbecome group chief executive,with Ben O’Brien succeedinghim as managing director.Edian and Concept’s MDs,Nick Holland and MargaretTarpey, will continue in theirroles.

Mr Kenyon said: “Conceptand Edian are going abouttheir business in their usualway, it’s just now as part ofthe Kenyon Fraser family.

“There are obvious benefitsin having a larger team interms of experience andstrength in depth, but therewill be no noticeable changefor clients or staff across thethree firms. All three are suc-cessful in their own right andprovide excellent services toour clients, so we aren’t look-ing to change much at all.”


www.ldpcreative.co.uk

HattonBen

■ INTERNET entrepren-eur Ben Hatton isfounder and managingdirector of digital agencyRippleffect. FollowRippleffect on Twitter@rippleffected

Bolland & Lowe bringing new look to historic city attraction

Peter Cronin, left, of Albert Dock Estates, with John Lowe of Bolland & Lowe

Time fora couponcomebackSOMETIMES the oldmethods of marketing arethe best. Nothing grabsthe attention of a poten-tial customer like a free-bie or money off aproduct.

Coupons, traditionallyprinted in newspapersand magazines, are awell-worn way of gener-ating interest in productsand creating brand loy-alty. Consumer brandsare now catching up withtechnology and begin-ning to roll out thismethod to mobiledevices.

One company to trial itis organic food businessYeo Valley, which hasannounced plans to boostits use of mobile coupons– not only to persuadenew consumers but alsoto better target youngercustomers as they are akey demographic for thebrand and also frequentlyuse their smartphones.

A handful of brandshave recently made head-way into developingcoupons for mobiles.Whilst supermarketshave been reluctant to geton board with the ideaand accept them for now,companies such as Kel-logg’s and United Bis-cuits have been workingwith Google to lobbyshops into acceptingmobile coupons acrossEurope as standard.

A tie-up between Niveaand Tesco earlier thisyear to offer mobilecoupons to customerscould lead the way formore such partnerships.

The beauty of themobile coupon is that theidea is something cus-tomers are already famil-iar and comfortable with,and so are willing to use.This allows brands toaccess data and personal-ise coupons to individu-als using details such astheir location and whatthey usually buy.

It is clear that the bestdirection for smartbrands to take is to createconvenient experiencesthat benefit consumerswhile reflecting the mes-sage of the brand.

Theatre firm’s high hopes forNorthern base in Liverpool

Eric Woollard-White,left, and ScotWilliams, of Thirty7Productions


post businesscreative & digital

THEATRE and film production com-pany Thirty7 Productions has chosenLiverpool over Manchester for its newNorth West base.

The Soho-based company’s play Hope,which was written by Liverpool-bornScot Williams and starred SamanthaWomack, was staged at the Royal CourtTheatre in March.

Following that success and discus-sions with Liverpool’s London“embassy”, It’s Liverpool in London,Thirty7 decided to open a base hererather than in Manchester or inSalford’s MediaCity.

Thirty7 was founded by Mr Williamsand Eric Woollard-White, who first metWilliams at the Global Entrepreneur-ship Congress in Liverpool last year.

And Mr Woollard-White said nextyear’s International Festival for Busi-ness was another factor that attractedhim to Liverpool.

Mr Woollard-White said: “It was clearfrom meeting with the It’s Liverpool inLondon team that Liverpool is a citywith bold ambitions, a city that was notafraid to take risks and is keen todevelop exciting, fresh ideas to ensurebusiness growth.

“World class events such as EuropeanCapital of Culture 2008 and the GlobalEntrepreneurship Congress 2012 haveshone a light on the great energy, peopleand prospects in Liverpool. It’s Liver-pool in London itself is a ground-break-ing initiative and shows a level of com-mitment to developing business thatdrew us to Liverpool.

“We initially approached the It’s Liv-erpool in London team to help usdevelop relationships with Liverpool’screative institutions like LIPA andFACT. But were very interested to learnhow forthcoming major events such asthe International Festival for Business2014 will help businesses access new

markets, which is a fundamentalstrategy for us.

“The scale of IFB is immense and itdemonstrates the city’s fierce ambition.Liverpool presented us with a range ofsupport and initiatives which was cent-ral in our decision to establish a per-manent base in the city and it is only 45minutes away from Media City and BBCNorth.

“Liverpool has been very welcomingand has helped us to establish a fant-astic relationship with the Royal Court,where we staged Hope in March. Liv-erpool works to help businesses suc-ceed. When you couple that with theastounding amount of creative talent inthe city it was clear that Liverpool wasthe ideal location for us to base ourNorth West operation.”

Thirty7 also has bases in Cardiff andLos Angeles.

Chris Heyes, head of It’s Liverpool inLondon, said he was pleased theembassy was encouraging investmentin Merseyside.

She said: “Initially our goal was helpLiverpool businesses access markets inthe South. But we have also been act-ively promoting Liverpool to Londonbased businesses that are looking toexplore opportunities outside the cap-ital and take advantage of what theNorth of the UK has to offer.

“As expected Thirty7 Productions hasreally flourished in Liverpool. Hope gotamazing reviews. I can’t wait to seewhat is in store for them next and I amvery pleased that Liverpool Vision’s ini-tiatives have been instrumental ininspiring this development

“I am proud to say that Liverpoolmeets the requirements of a huge rangeof businesses looking to expand in theNorth. Liverpool is an amazing city asit suits businesses of all sizes and sec-tors.

“Ensuring that Liverpool is at theforefront of re-locators or expandingbusinesses minds is one of the mostenjoyable aspects of my job.”

DESIGN agency Bolland &Lowe is working on a new “cre-ative direction” and marketingstrategy for iconic destinationthe Albert Dock after winninga three-way pitch.

The Liverpool agency hascreated a series of mixedmedia dioramas of the dock,which will be used to promotethe dock across print anddigital platforms.

A website celebrating thedock’s history launched lastweek. More design work willbe launched in late spring,while Bolland & Lowe’s digitaland marketing strategy will belaunched in early summer.

Bolland & Lowe’s managingdirector, John Lowe, said:“Albert Dock is iconic acrossthe world – it is undoubtedlyone of the most photographedtourist attractions in the UKand encapsulates the veryessence of Liverpool.

“We are delighted to beworking on such a compre-hensive project which willenable us to forge a clear path-

way for the Albert Dock’sengagement with its visitors.

“We believe we have createda concept that is unique andgets under the skin of theAlbert Dock.”

Peter Cronin, director ofdevelopment and marketingfor Albert Dock Estates said:“This is a diverse visitorattraction that has a numberof different audiences thatneed to be catered for andengaged. The work Bollandand Lowe presented at thepitch tackled this in a reallycreative way and we look for-ward to starting work with theteam.”

Jeremy Roberts, chairmanof the Albert Dock TenantsAssociation, added: “Bolland &Lowe’s pitch brought a freshand innovative direction tohow the dock is branded andhow it communicates to visit-ors. This, combined with theirexperience of leisure and tour-ism means they are a greatchoice to represent thisaward-winning attraction.”


q&a

Telecoms companyfounder not afraidto make tough calls

hTHERE are few thingsSteve Swift likes betterthan proving thenaysayers wrong. Hesays: “If someone tells

me I can’t do something then I’llalways look to prove otherwise.”

Swift is managing director ofAerelink, a Widnes-based businesswhich provides engineering servicesto the telecommunications andmobile network operator markets.

He started the company in 2004and enjoyed steady growth until theglobal financial crisis hit towards theend of the decade.

In 2010, Aerelink came close tobankruptcy and when Swift askedthe bank for help, he was told hisbest course of action was to go intoadministration.

“When we asked the bank for helpthey just said ‘sorry, that is just notpossible’,” said Swift.

“It was very satisfying to provethem wrong.”

In order to turn the businessaround, Swift had to implement aroot and branch reform.

“We had to get back to basics,” headded.

This centred around a process hecalled “optimisation”, the main res-ult of which was a clearing out of themanagement team.

Swift explained: “The team we hadhad been great in growing the busi-ness but we needed a new team totake us forward.

“Difficult decisions had to betaken in the best interests of theorganisation.”

Three years on and Aerelink isnow in a much healthier position. Inthe last few weeks it has secured anundisclosed funding package fromMerseyside Special Investment Fund(MSIF).

The business employs 30 people,both in Widnes and at another officein Fife in Scotland.

The MSIF funding will provideworking capital to take on more staffand expand its UK operations.

Aerelink provides installation,commissioning and decommission-ing of masts and line of sight sur-veys.

The company also offers wirelessservices including network design,supply, implementation and remotemanagement.

It has two separate operating divi-sions – Network Integration and Ser-vice (NI&S) and Network DeliveryServices (NDS) which address differ-ent markets.

NI&S functions within public sec-tor and enterprise sectors, whileNDS focuses on the telecommunic-ations market.

Customers include the Mobile Net-work Operators, Lancashire Con-stabulary, Dundee City Council, SIAEMicroelectronica, Aviat Networksand Kingston Communications.

Swift, who is about to turn 41 atthe end of this month, said: “Themobile operator market has exper-ienced rapid growth with emergenceof 3G and more recently 4G LTE tech-nologies following the recentOFCOM 4G spectrum auctions.

“There is a continued need toimprove the UK’s communicationnetworks.

“As a result of an increasingdemand for data and telecom, oper-ators constantly need to upgrade andrefresh their networks to provide bet-ter broadband and mobile connectiv-ity.

“We have the opportunity to growwith this market and the fundingfrom MSIF will enable us to be ableto do this.

“There is an abundance of work

out there at the moment but we needworking capital to be able to take iton.

“It can take 150 days to get paidafter completing a job and that canimpact on revenues.

“We are on target to increase therevenue of the business from £2m to£5m during the next three years.

“We are also looking to recruit aminimum of 15 employees over thesame period.”

Swift heads the business alongwith two other senior directors –both also called Steve.

Steve Leicester is finance directorand he joined following the shake-upin 2010. Steve Morgan is operationsdirector and has only come on boardin the last few weeks.

Swift outlined the division ofresponsibilities between the trio: “Iwill go out and develop the business– winning and negotiating contracts.

“The analogy I use is that I plantthe beans, Steve Morgan tends andgrows the crops and Steve Leicesterthen counts the proceeds.

“We never consider a job is doneuntil the proceeds are in the bank.”

SWIFT was born and broughtup on a council estate inStockport. As a teenager he

developed a keen interest in

computers and decided he wantedto pursue a career in technology.

He left school at 16 with “a handfulof GCSEs” and enrolled on a Gov-ernment Youth Training Scheme(YTS).

“I did it through the YMCA andthey put me on a 12-week coursewhere I gained a City & Guilds cer-tificate in information technology,”he said.

From there he went to work for acompany in Stockport, working onthe installation of IT systems forblue-chip companies.

He took on a variety of specialistroles within the IT sector over thefollowing years and eventuallymoved into telecommunications.

“In 2001, I was headhunted to workfor a company that was a distributorof wireless products,” he said.

“I built a great team but I wasn’t

Tony McDonoughmeets STEVESWIFT, managingdirector of Aerelink

Aerelink managing director, Steve Swift. Inset from left, Steve Morgan,Swift, Steve Leicester and Malcolm Jones of MSIF Main Picture: TAKEASHOT.CO.UK

Age: 40Highest educational qualifica-tion: A handful of GCSEsBiggest achievement in busi-ness: Turned around the businessafter it had come close to goingunderBiggest regret: Not going to col-lege or university – I feel like Imissed out on a big area of life

Best advice received: My firstboss said to me ‘there’s no suchthing as a free lunch’Still to achieve: To become a busi-ness strategy consultantHobbies/interests: Ice-skatingwith the family and helping youngpeople with their educationaldevelopment – they are the leadersof tomorrow

post business big feature


TurnerAlex

■ Alex Turner is the generalmanager of financial trainingfirm Ambitious Minds

happy with the way it was run and Icould see there was a niche marketfor providing professional services inthe sector.”

Swift started Aerelink in 2004 andhis success in getting funding illus-trates how very different the creditenvironment was prior to the 2008financial crash.

He explained: “There was a loanscompany called Cahoot around thattime.

“I put in my details and applied forthe maximum unsecured personalloan – £20,0000.

“Within two minutes it was accep-ted and that was the money I used tostart the business.

“In the first year we turned overmore than £200,000 and made aprofit.

“It was a huge learning curve andwe had some fun times.”

FOR the past 15 years, Swifthas been married toSuzanne, who runs

Aerelink’s administration andfinance functions.

The couple were childhood sweet-hearts who met at 15 while they wereboth on foreign exchange trips toFrance.

They have a 12-year-old son andthe family passion is ice skating,which they practice to a high level.

Swift said: “We do figures skating– the kind of thing you see on Dan-cing on Ice.

“We practice twice during theweek and take lessons at the week-end.”

Swift also has a passion for per-sonal development. Both his own andothers. He is a Master Practitioner inNeuro-Linguistic Programming(NLP) as well as a fully-qualified

time line therapist and hypnother-apist.

He is particularly keen on usingthose skills to help young people.

He works with the KnowsleyEnterprise Academy, Young Enter-prise, Business Gateway team at Liv-erpool Hope University, and theWinsford E-ACT Academy.

“I do quite a bit of voluntary workin the education sector,” he said.

“I am passionate about workingwith 14 to 19-year-olds and helpingthem with their development.”

Swift says he has learned to stepback from the early days of Aerelinkwhen micro-management was thename of the game.

He said: “We now have a phenom-enal management team here.

“When the business first started Imicro-managed everything but wenow have a middle management

team in place and people are nowself-sufficient.

“People can come to me with anidea and and I will ask them ‘what isthe outcome you want to achieve?’.

“We will then bounce a few ideasaround. My role these days is morestrategic than tactical.”

The mezzanine investment fromMSIF will help Aerelink move on tothe next level of its growth strategy.

Swift himself is targeting an exitfrom the business in three to fiveyears but for the moment he is fullyfocused on its progress.

“The roll-out of 4G has reinvigor-ated the mobile sector,” he said.

“There are now a lot of opportun-ities out there that the company isready to capitalise on.

“We are working on a couple ofreally big deals right now and theycould be game-changers.”

Steve Swift’s Aerelink is benfiting from the roll-out ofthe 4G mobile network across the UK Picture: ANDREW TEEBAY

Making themost of thecity’s assetsLIGHT NIGHT was a greatreminder of how valuableLiverpool’s cultural assets are.

The buzz across the city, bothin anticipation of the event andafterwards, was palpable, helpingto create a great display of civicpride.

It is exactly the sort of eventwhich Liverpool does so well andwhich showcases the city at itsvery best.

The reopening of CentralLibrary generated significantamounts of positive mediacoverage, which is alwayswelcome, but it is really what itrepresents – as an investment ineducation, heritage, communityand aspiration – and what it candeliver for people living acrossthe region which make it soexciting.

For the same price as acontroversial Uruguayan striker,Liverpool has an asset that willbe maintain its value for decades.

This month also sees the 25thanniversary of Tate Liverpool,

which hasconsistentlydelivered such ahigh standard ofartists andexhibitions thatit is easy tooverlook what acultural jewelthis is.

The culturalrenaissance can be dated back toLiverpool ’08, and its legacy hasseveral threads.

The creation of momentumand a deadline gave a focal pointto infrastructure and buildingdevelopments, which we havesince reaped the benefits of,while the success of the yearmoved the city into an elitegroup of places which are bothwilling and able to host events ofnational and internationalsignificance.

Equally important, though,was the wide-ranging celebrationof culture gave a voice to theoften-silent majority’s love ofeverything other than “theBeatles and football”.

Light Night is definitely afantastic continuation of thatenjoyment.

The only complaint I haveheard was that people didn’t getto see all of the things theywanted to

One evening was perhapsjustnot long enough, and it would begreat if it could either beextended or held more often.

The cultural activities whichso brilliantly commemorate thehistory and commend thepresent are a key part of thelong-term, and alreadywell-progressed, repositioning ofbrand Liverpool.

It is a fantastic evolution thatwe should all support andencourage.

‘This isanevolutionthatweshouldallsupport’

post businessbig feature


Mersey legal firms gather at awards night tohonour the cream of the region’s law sector

www.ldplegal.co.uk

post business legal

MORE than 240 lawyers gatheredat Liverpool’s Crowne PlazaHotel for the biennial LiverpoolLaw Society Legal Awards 2013,in association with the LiverpoolPost.

Guests attended the black-tiedinner to see 13 awards givenout.

And the entire room rose to itsfeet when Elkan Abrahamson, alawyer at Jackson & Canter, wasgiven the Special RecognitionAward for his work with theHillsborough Justice Campaign.

He accepted the accolade fromAlistair Fletcher, president of

Liverpool Law Society.Mr Abrahamson said: “This

award is not for me but for thefamilies of the Hillsboroughcampaign and is a recognition oftheir fight.”

The other winners were■ Family Law Award: More-crofts.■ Employment Law Award: EADSolicitors■ Private Client Award:More-crofts.■ Dispute Resolution LawAward: Hill Dickinson■ Property Law Award: Rowlin-sons.

■ Commercial Law Award: HillDickinson.■ Niche Law Firm Award: JohnPickering & Partners.■ Work in the CommunityAward: DWF.■ Solicitor of the Year Award:Jonathan Berkson, Hill Dickin-son.■ Small Law Firm Award: TheKeith Jones Partnership.■ Medium Law Firm Award:Jackson & Canter■ Large Law Firm Award: DWF.

Alistair Fletcher praised thework that had been undertaken

by each of the winners.He said: “There was a record

number of entries for this year’scompetition from a broad rangeof member firms and thisreflects the status of our city andregion as a centre of excellencein the provision of legal services.

“Congratulations to the win-ners on achieving their very welldeserved awards.”

An eminent panel of judgesdecided upon the shortlist andultimately the winners.

The judging panel, chaired byPeter Rhodes, past president ofLiverpool Law Society

legalquality

In Business for your Business

IF you are a start-up business or first timeemployer, you may be uncertain of the respons-ibilities and legal obligations this entails. Hereare some helpful basic tips.

A contract of employment must be providedwithin two months, including informationsuch as the name of employer and employee,the date employment began/begins, whetherthere is a probationary period, their place ofwork, pay, working hours, holiday entitlementand notice period. A sample contract ofemployment can be found at www.acas.org.uk.

You must pay all employees at least the min-imum wage. This changes each year – currentrates can be found at www.gov.uk. You willagree the hours you would like your employeeto work. By law, you cannot ask them to workan average of more than 48 hours per week,unless they have given their consent in writ-ing. Your employee is entitled to regular restbreaks and a minimum of 11 consecutivehours’ rest in any 24-hour period, a minimum20-minute rest break for every six hoursworked and one day off each week.

For young people (under 18) the maximumworking hours is 40 and their entitlement torest breaks is increased.

Your employee will be entitled to a minimumof one week’s notice if you wish to end their

employment with you.This goes up to two weeksafter two years’ employ-ment and will increase byone week per year up to amaximum of 12 weeks.

All employees areentitled to a minimum of5.6 weeks’ paid holiday peryear (including bank hol-idays) and the statutorypaid holiday entitlement iscapped at 28 days.

Employees are also entitled to maternity,paternity and adoption leave and pay. All preg-nant employees are entitled to paid time off forante-natal care and 52 weeks’ maternity leave,which is made up of 26 weeks’ ordinary mater-nity leave and a further 26 weeks’ additionalmaternity leave. Fathers and partners (includ-ing same sex and civil partners) may beentitled to two weeks’ paid leave.

It is important that you have disciplinaryand grievance procedures in place to deal withany problems which might arise during theemployment relationship.

You must always have good reason to dismissan employee, and show that you have been fairin the way you have acted. This means:■ Informing your employee of any problemsyou have with their conduct or performance■ Holding a meeting to discuss the problem■ Allowing them the right to be accompaniedat the meeting■ Deciding on appropriate action to take,providing the employee with an opportunity toappeal

Some reasons for dismissal, such as preg-nancy, are automatically unfair and employeescan claim unfair dismissal on these groundsregardless of how long they have worked.

For more advice on any aspect of employ-ment law, whether you are an employer oremployee, contact Michael Sandys on 0151 7028760 or e-mail [email protected].

In association with

Michael Sandys,Partner at Jackson &Canter QualitySolicitors,on employment law

Youmusthavegoodreasontodismissanemployee

Mike Cowburn from Alpha Biolabs, third left, andthe Morecrofts team with the Family Law Award

Glenys Hunt, fifth from left, with the team fromEAD and their Employment Law Award

Left, Alistair Fletcher, presidentof Liverpool Law Society withvice-president, Glenys Hunt


Mersey legal firms gather at awards night tohonour the cream of the region’s law sector

post businesslegal

www.ldplegal.co.uk

(1998-1999), included HH JudgeGoldstone QC, the HonoraryRecorder of Liverpool; ProfessorFiona Beveridge, Head of theSchool of Law and Social Justiceat the University of Liverpool,and Jenny Stewart, chief oper-ating officer of the LiverpoolChamber of Commerce.

Mike Cowburn fromAlpha Biolabs, third left,with the The Keith JonesPartnership team and theSmall Law Firm Award

Dominic Richmond from Towry with the team fromMorecrofts and the Private Client Award

Dominic Richmond from Towry, left, withJonathan Berkson from Hill Dickinson withhis Solicitor of the Year Award

Simon Hewitt from First Title, second left,with the team from Rowlinsons and theProperty Law Firm Award

Joanne McLeod from the Law Society, secondleft, with the team from John Pickering &Partners and the Niche Law Firm Award Tony McDonough from the Liverpool Post,

left, with Simon Price, associate at DWF,and the Work in the Community Award

Joanna Swash from Moneypenny, secondleft, with the team from Jackson & Canterand the Medium Law Firm Award

Paul Sharpe from Barlcays, left, with PaulRimmer, executive partner at DWF and theLarge Firm Award

Richard Grayson of QPI, left, with GregPlunkett of Hill Dickinson and the DisputeResolution Award

Simon Hewitt from First Title, left, withMatt Noon from Hill Dickinson and theCommercial Law Award

Above, AlistairFletcher, right,with ElkanAbrahamson ofJackson &Canter, winnerof the SpecialRecognitionAward


by Himanshu Wani, aneconomist at the RICS

viewpoint

POST Text LDPto 67800MOBILE

post business location

Changing consumer habits are putting the UK high street under pressure

EMPTY shops – that’s the biggestsight on many high streets aroundthe country, including the NorthWest.

The latest result from the RICS UKCommercial Market Survey bearsthis out, highlighting the continuingmalaise in the retail commercialproperty space, which in turn comesfrom our ailing high streets.

Vacancy rates stand at aneye-watering 14%, compared to just4% in 2008.

This all points to one conclusion –the dynamics of our high streetshave changed structurally

And this is not just a cyclicalissue, as real wages (inflation adjus-ted) have been shrinking almost con-tinuously over the past five years.

Under-pressure households cannotbe expected to increase consumptionsignificantly in the near future.

The harsh reality is thathigh street retailers arebeing squeezed from mul-tiple directions, includingout of town shoppingcentres, coupled with theinternet and an aging pop-ulation.

According to the Officefor National Statistics, overthe next 10 years around37%of the population will be over 50,while the proportion of 15-29 year

olds will shrink to 17%t.Online shopping has also come to

the fore, and is becoming more wide-spread amongst the olderpopulation.

Over the next five years,almost one pound in everyfour spent online will bethrough a mobile device,and total online sales, notjust restricted to retailers,will see a fourfold rise overthe same period.

This does not mean ourhigh streets have to be left to decay,but rather transformed.

One such reform that would helpis the immediate revaluation of busi-ness rates, which the governmentrecently postponed until 2017.

This would greatly help businessesin Liverpool and the North West cutcosts, as they continue to pay busi-ness rates based on 2008 values,when commercial property rentswere more than 30% higher.

Industrial and logistics dealsboost market in Cheshire

Jaguar Land Rover has agreed a letting inEllesmere Port. Left, Peter Crompton

Business parks attracting office occupiers

Smithssees salesof £1.5mWIRRAL-BASED Smithand Sons has generatedsales of £1.5m at itslatest property auction.

The event, at the Vil-lage Hotel in Brombor-ough, saw 21 lots sold –more than 70% of thoseon offer.

The volume of prop-erties on offer hadincreased significantlyfrom previous auctionsyet still managed tosustain a high percent-age of sales. AuctioneerChris Johnson said:“This catalogue wasfuller, showing arenewed confidence.”

‘Retailerssqueezedfrommultipledirections’

WARRINGTON and Cheshire’s indus-trial and distribution property marketsaw 3.2m sq ft of take-up in 2012 – aquarter of the total for the North West.

The figure, a small uplift on 2011,was published in the latest Cheshireand Warrington Property Report, com-missioned by Marketing Cheshire

Although just a small rise, it buckedthe trend across the North West wheretake-up was at a five-year low.

The national picture also reveals avery different story with the lowestlevel in a decade, the report adds.

The study was prepared by BEGroup and the firm’s director, PeterCrompton, said: “Our property reportfindings clearly reinforce Cheshireand Warrington’s position as thepowerhouse of the North West eco-nomy. Both office and industrial areup on the previous year.

“Looking ahead, prospects for 2013suggest a continuing upward trend inindustrial, investment and office sec-tors. Industrial deals already signed in

Warrington and Winsford alone equateto half the business generated lastyear.”

In Ellesmere Port Jaguar LandRover and horticultural products com-pany, William Sinclair, each tookbuildings in excess of 400,000 sq ft.

William Sinclair’s move ended itsnational search for the relocation ofits headquarters and consolidation ofexisting operations into a single site.

The first deal secured at Omeganear Warrington played a key part in2012’s performance and, subsequently,three more deals have been completedsince, with a total of 1.45m sq ft taken.

Manufacturing played an importantrole in the year with large commit-ments within Cheshire West andChester.

These included The Box Works andMorrison’s who took buildings inWinsford totalling 307,300 sq ft, as wellas engineering firm Cygnet Group, inNorthwich, Meadow Foods in Chesterand vacuum pump manufacturerBusch Group’s move to Crewe.

The office market saw a 20%increase in the level of take-up andnumber of deals from 2011 and thiswas experienced in all three local

authority areas covered by the study.Headline rents reached £18.50 per sq

ft for a letting in Wilmslow towncentre but office deals in thesub-region were mainly dominated byout-of-town locations such as Birch-wood and Chester Business Park.

The most significant scheme to startduring the year was Waters Corpor-ation Mass Spectrometry HQ at Stam-ford Lodge, Wilmslow.

This will deliver 208,000 sq ft ofoffice, research & development andmanufacturing space.

It was also announced that JodrellBank will be the headquarters for theinternational Square Kilometre Arrayradio telescope programme with the13,500 sq ft headquarters to be locatednear Holmes Chapel.

The retail sector was more subduedin town centres, the report said, butCheshire Oaks, the UK’s largestdesigner outlet, continued to prosperrecording double-digit sales growth forthe third successive year and thehighest single day trading figure in its18-year existence.

Debenhams also announced itwould be opening a 60,000 sq ft storethere in 2013.

TAKE-UP at UK businessparks has reached itshighest point in five years,a report by GVA says.

And its findings werewelcomed by the director ofMEPC Birchwood Park,

near Warrington, who saysthe findings reflect theincreasing attraction ofout-of-town parks to officeoccupiers.

Carl Potter, senior dir-ector and national head of

offices at GVA, said:“Take-up is largely beingfuelled by demand fromhigh-growth sectors.

“Deals are being encour-aged by a very flexibleapproach from most land-

lords with very flexiblelease terms.”

Birchwood’s JonathanWalsh added: “In Birch-wood, specifically, we haveattracted a number of newcompanies.”

[email protected]

FOR SALE / MAY LETFreestandingChester City CentreOffice Building

14,000 sq ft with car parkingPotential for Re-Development

Further information please contact Neil Dryburgh or Euan Ross at

BUSINESS to BUSINESS

COMMERCIAL PREMISES

T J THOMAS0151 708 6544

ERSKINE ST close to City centreBusiness units 850sqft

£550pcmwww.tjthomas.co.uk

INDUSTRIAL UNITS To Let.South L’pool 500 to 4000 sqft,monthly tenancy, competitiverents. From £50pw Tel: 0151427 5051

BUSINESS FORSALE

INDUSTRIALPROPERTY

CHIP SHOP FOR SALE ORRENT Breck Rd, rent £250p/w+ £5k dep, Sale £10k 07770595950

CHEAP STORAGE Space3,600 sqft. £125pw. 486 0004

INDUSTRIAL UNITS 3,000−20,000 sqft. 0151 486 0004

17Thursday, May 23, 2013 post businesslocation

Interest is soaring inExchange Station

ENQUIRIES for office space at Liv-erpool’s Exchange Station complexhave gone from zero to double figuressince work started on a £5m refur-bishment of the site.

Developer and building owner,Ashtenne Space Northwest, hasalready completed one office suite andit says the 18,000 sq ft first phase willbe complete by the end of September.

It is believed negotiations arealready under way with potentialoccupiers and Ashtenne director,Wayne Locke, told Post Business thathe hoped a further 50-60,000 sq ftwould be ready to occupy by the endof the year.

“We are talking about four suitesand their completion will be on theback of deals being completed withoccupiers.”

The site, in Tithebarn Street, wasone of the biggest mainline railwaystations in the North West for 150years until its closure in 1977.

In 1985, the main station buildingwas converted into an office complexand renamed Mercury Court.

It has now reverted back to theExchange Station name.

Mr Locke said that conversion wascarried out to a high standard by1980s standards but that the bar inLiverpool had now been raised andenquiries for the space had started todry up.

He added: “What we had here was adated product and it got to the pointwhere we had no enquiries.

“However, since we started doingthis work we have had around a dozenlive enquiries ranging from 800 sq ftup to 25,000 sq ft.

“What we are looking to create hereis more than just a box which you putyour office in.

“One of the biggest challengesoffice occupiers face is recruiting andretaining the right staff and offeringthem an attractive environment inwhich to work is a big part of that.”

To this end, Mr Locke saysAshtenne Space Northwest, whichalso owns and operates LiverpoolInnovation Park, is creatingsomething at Exchange Station moreakin to a boutique hotel than an officebuilding.

Exchange Station will offer meetingrooms, a break-out area, an upmarketcoffee shop, a fitness facility and aconcierge service.

“We want the concierge to be ableto organise things like picking up drycleaning, calling taxis for people andrecommending or booking restaur-ants and hotels,” said Mr Locke.

Ashtenne has set up a marketingsuite on the ground floor of the build-ing and last week it held a launch forNorth West property agents.

The availability of grade A officespace in Liverpool’s central businessdistrict is limited – an ongoing con-cern for agents.

However, landlords such as Down-ing and Bruntwood offer refurbishedspace which they claim is as good asnew-build.

Mr Locke makes similar claimsabout Exchange Station where head-line rents will be around £15-16 per sq

ft – about £4-5 cheaper than grade Arates in nearby St Paul’s Square.

He said: “We can’t call it grade Abut we believe what we are offeringhere is at least the equivalent andmaybe better.

“One of the things that is vital foroccupiers these days is connectivity.

“Unlike some office buildingswhere the steel frames can interferewith mobile phone signals, we areinstalling equipment that will giveclear coverage through the building.

“We are also offering superfastbroadband with connections goingright back to AIMES Grid Services atLiverpool Innovation Park.”

[email protected]

Wayne Locke of Ashtenne

A computer-generatedimage of how therefurbished ExchangeStation will look

01244 280 011 quoting code 056

www.mistralholidays.co.uk/056

Spain

Barcelona - Majorca - Andalucia - GranadaPrices from just £619pp

Flying from 20 regional airports

2013An inspired collection ofescorted holidays by air

readertravelholidays.com

Save £100per couple!*

was £639.008 days from

£589.00

Includes £190of excursions!

ESCORTED HOLIDAY

Organised by Newmarket Air Holidays Ltd. ABTA V7812. ATOL protected 2325.Subject to availability. Single supplement applies. Calls cost 4p per minute.

www.newmarket.travel/lpe15016

0151 559 1590 quoting code LPE

8 days from

£999.00

Exciting cities, breathtaking scenery, ‘big skies’ and one of theworld’s most awe-inspiring natural wonders!

Price includes● Return transatlantic flights from Manchester to Toronto● Six nights’ four-star accommodation at comfortable touring hotels in Toronto

(3 nights) and Montréal (3 nights)● A full day visit to the spectacular Niagara Falls● A full day visit to Québec City● Scenic drive on the ‘Maple Leaf Trail’ from Toronto to Montréal and Québec,

via Ottawa● Comfortable coach travel throughout● The services of a Tour Manager

Four-star Canada’sMaple Leaf TrailFlying direct from ManchesterDeparts Sept & Oct 2013, May, Sept & Oct 2014


growthfocus

on

Learning companies are

LIVERPOOL CommunityCollege is attempting toturn itself into anincubator for new smallbusinesses in Merseyside.

Students of all ages and back-grounds have not only been helpedwith the basic skill sets they need fortheir chosen field of work, but alsothe business skills they required toset up on their own account.

In addition, the college uses whatit calls “learning companies” to givestudents experience of coping withreal life problems.

Jayne Worthington, assistant prin-cipal commercial and business devel-opment, points to the example ofbakery business Bread & More basedat St George’s Hall. As well as bakingthe bread, Liverpool Community Col-lege students run a cafe business,serving meals to visitors to the hall.One of their specialities is a scoopedout cottage loaf that forms a “bowl”inside which is served soup or stew.

Ms Worthington said: “The Bread& More concept is a learning com-pany. It’s a business and a classroom.

“Over Christmas we had a floodthrough the ceiling.

“St George’s Hall is a listed build-ing, so the students had to deal withthe flood and how we continue toserve customers and deal with loss ofbusiness, as well as repair a listedbuilding and they had to deal withpeople who came in looking for hotfood but found we could only servesandwiches to them. You couldn’tteach that in a classroom.”

Business support is an importantpart of the syllabus at the college.

“You have your vocational stuff,bread baking, for example,” Ms Wor-thington said.

“Instead of working in the busi-ness, they also work on the business.

“For example, they get to knowwhat a business plan looks like,what’s a profit and loss account andhow to deal with things like wastageand stock attrition.

“It should give them a goodgrounding. They can choose to workon their own business or be an entre-preneur in somebody else’s business.

“The feedback we get from employ-ers is that this understanding is crit-ical.

“The learning companies incul-cate this far more effectively thananything we could do in aclassroom.”

The Bread & More idea is new tothe college with about 15 studentsdirectly employed in it through thelearning company. Another 70,though, could obtain occasional paidwork through Bread & More.

Ms Worthington said: “When theygo out to interviews when askedabout experience, it gives them tan-gible things to talk about and that’s aunique selling point that sets themapart from other young people andour plan is to expand that exponen-tially over the next three years.”

The cafe is open every day sevendays a week.

Bread & More also tenders forevent contracts such as weddings,dinners, champagne receptions.

As well as catering, one of theCommunity College’s strengths iscar repair, so it has just acquired agarage to house a learning companybusiness on Commercial Road.

Ms Worthington said: “We areabout to invest more in that businessand grow it.”

There is also a digital marketingcompany that is a joint venture withpublic relations firm Kenyon Fraser.

Ms Worthington added: “It’s aboutsocial media and digital marketing.It’s not just print based.

“We are the only provider in theNorth West doing social mediaapprenticeships.”

Another type of learning companyis in fashion design and small scalefashion related manufacturing.

Learning companies are a relat-

ively new phenomena at LiverpoolCommunity College. However therehas been a long tradition of collegegraduates starting up their own busi-nesses.

Nickie Smith and Elaine Lavellestarted their own recruitment andhuman resources consultancy aftercompleting a six week course.

The two women took redundancyfrom the Speke based motor insur-ance operation of Lloyds BankingGroup, formerly part of Bank of Scot-land. They joined the college’sResponse to Redundancy Programmeand accessed the PTTLS course.They now run a business calledSmith Lavelle Training.

Ms Lavelle said: “We made adecision to start our own businessrather than go back to employment.

“As part of the response to redund-ancy course, we took a level fourqualification called Preparing toTeach in the Life-long Learning Sec-tor.

“We do a mixture of recruitmentand development work and con-sultancy work. We are doing present-ation skills next week and we workwith smaller companies to put instaff appraisal systems, working withboth management and staff so theyunderstand and know how to use it.”

They completed the communitycollege course to obtain a recognisedqualification. Ms Lavelle added: “Wehad worked with BoS for such a longtime, but the credible qualificationhelped for teaching adults.”

Anybody can do the course, irre-spective of background. It’s possible,

for example, to do an NVQ in taxidriving. The taxi driver teaching thecourse would benefit from complet-ing a PTTLS course first.

Business has largely gone well inthe three years Smith Lavelle hasbeen up and running.

Ms Lavelle said: “The first twoyears were really good and reallybusy. Last year was tough, but wehave now noticed an upturn again,so we are quite busy.”

Clients include Speedy Hire andMerseyside Police and they are work-ing with BT at the moment.

Ms Lavelle said: “Obviously thereare some days you think ‘Oh mygoodness’ because you haven’t gotthat crystal ball. But I’m definitelyglad I did it.

“We both are.”

Tony Evans next to his Pegasus sculpture Inspiration outside Liverpool Community College

post business economic development

[email protected]


diaryentrepreneur

ofanset to expand

Assistant principal Jayne Worthington

Bread & More students at St George’s Hall

Life begins at 55 for former insurance salesman

IT is commonly thoughtthat community collegesand enterprise are forthe young. However,that’s not true.

For many people, cir-cumstances at a laterstage of life can beamenable to starting abusiness.

Born and brought upin Wavertree but now liv-ing in Frodsham, TonyEvans was 55 when hestarted attending Liver-

pool Community Collegehaving quit his job as aninsurance salesman.After studying Art &Design at GCSE andA-level, he went on toobtain a degree fromWirral Metropolitan Col-lege and has sincebecome a leading Britishsculptor. One of his sculp-tures is Inspiration,inspired by mythologicalflying horse, Pegasus,erected outside the com-

munity college's ArtsCentre building. It repres-ents the impact the col-lege has made on thelives of Mr Evans andother students.

Sculpture has becomea steady source of workand income for Mr Evans,now 68, who said: "Ideveloped that myselfafter I left college.

"I just applied foreverything that wasgoing and got picked up

by an agent in the Mid-lands. I have had a showat the Atkinson Galleryin Southport. Theybought one of my sculp-tures to add to their col-lection. That collectionalso includes HenryMoore, Elizabeth Frinkand Sir Alfred Williams.

"It’s not too strong tosay I spent nearly all ofmy working life doing ajob I disliked. Now I amdoing a job I love."

I FIRST arrived in Liverpool back in1992. The idea for the businessfirst came about in the latenineties having watched thegrowth in apartments that werebeing built and developed.

During the same period I’d beenworking away a lot in the filmbusiness and encountered a lot ofnew successful delis, so I was con-vinced Delifonseca would work.

I’m a passionate foodie.Before we opened, I had always

been frustrated by the dominationof the supermarkets and the lackof specialist food retailers, giventhe size of the city.

I’d grown up in Bury with a bigfood market so was surprised thatsomewhere of Liverpool’s size hadnothing similar.

I’m a bit old fashioned in termsof what I view as ‘good service’.

As a customer, I like beingserved by knowledgeable staff andgetting to know them a little moreeach time.

I wanted to open a food businessthat not only had specialistproducts, but also had specialistfood knowledge.

Even now I’m happiest servingbehind the cheese counter gettingcustomers to try new products.

I constantly get a buzz lookingat what we’ve created so far, butafter seven years it still feels likewe’re a young company and we’vestill got room to grow, expand andimprove.

Food retail is constantlyevolving with new trends andinterests with accompanyingproducts coming to market.

We use and stock products withknown good provenance, many ofthem traditionally made, but atthe same time there are newartisan producers coming to mar-ket.

That still excites me, sourcingand selling new and deliciousproducts and supporting new inde-pendent producers.

The recession has clearlyimpacted on how people spend,though.

Not just the amount, but onwhat and when and how much,and the business has had to adaptto those changes.

For Delifonseca and for myselfthe biggest change was the open-ing of Dockside.

My hands-on managementapproach that works on a singlesite had to change and I had todelegate a huge amount to themanagement team down at Brun-swick who, thankfully, more thanrose to the challenge.

Just last week Delifonseca Dock-side was crowned The Good FoodGuide Readers’ Restaurant of theYear for the North West.

It is a privilege to be evenentered into The Good Food Guide,so it’s amazing to have been votedReaders’ Restaurant of the Yearfor the North West by our cus-tomers; the whole team is abso-lutely over the moon.

It’s great when their enthusi-asm, passion and skills are recog-nised formally.

I have a fantastic team thatspends every day working hard tospread the word of great food andequally good service.

I’m really proud of them all.Having your own business

means that the time goes far tooquickly and you learn new thingsevery day.

Nothing is worth getting overlystressed about and problems areonly just another hurdle to jumpover in the day.

Candice Fonseca is founder ofrestaurant business Delifonseca

post businesseconomic development

Candice Fonseca


AA Projects continues itsexpansion in South East

Paul Allen of AA Projects

onthemove■ EEF, the manufac-

turers’ organisation,has appointed specialistmanufacturing consult-ant Linda Harrison tohead up its new Manu-facturing Growth unit,covering the North West.

The unit is aimed athelping manufacturingcompanies in the regiongrow by improving theirefficiency and effective-ness and is focused onmanufacturers that can-not gain Manufacturing

Advisory Service fundingdue to their size or con-nections with a largergroup, but the team willalso deliver MAS-fundedofferings.

Ms Harrison has 20years’ experience in lead-ership and productionand operations manage-ment.

David Ost EEF’s NorthWest director, said: “I amdelighted to have such askilled lean practitionerand trainer as Linda in

our team. Every manu-facturing company canbe more efficient in someway and Linda willprovide significantexpertise to companies tohelp them on their con-tinuous improvementjourney.”

■ JANE Moss hasbeen appointed as

general manager of therecently opened Z Liver-pool located on NorthJohn Street.

Part of the Z Hotelsportfolio, Z Liverpool isthe third property in theUK hotel chain and joinsits sister properties inLondon: Z Soho and ZVictoria.

Ms Moss has held avariety of senior manage-ment positions in thehospitality sector. Priorto joining Z Liverpool,she was conferencing andfinance manager at TheLife Conferencing Centrein Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

Linda Harrison –heads new EEF unit

Riverview Law extends reach with strategic allianceRIVERVIEW Law, theBromborough-basedfixed-priced legal ser-vices business, hassigned a strategic alli-ance with South Eastcommercial law firmDMH Stallard.

It is designed to satisfythe changing legal needsof business customersand, says Riverview,reflects the growingdemand for its services,such as its legal advisoryoutsourcing model.

The alliance will covera variety of areas includ-ing dispute resolution,mergers and acquisi-tions, and property.

In the coming monthsa number of newfixed-fee services andproducts will belaunched to the commer-cial market which com-bine the expertise of bothbusinesses.

Riverview chief execut-ive Karl Chapman said:“Signing this alliancereflects the huge poten-tial we see in the legalmarket, particularly forour legal advisory out-sourcing solutions.”

post business professionals

AA PROJECTS, the Prescot-based management and propertyconsultancy, has announced theacquisition of Fitton Associatesin central London.

The takeover is part of AA’sexpansion drive to strengthen itsposition in the London andSouthern market.

Fitton Associates is an estab-lished and highly regarded pro-ject management and buildingsurveying practice and its teamwill join AA Projects and con-tinue to work with its existingclients, while supporting thegrowing workload that AA hasdeveloped with clients in Lon-don and across the South of Eng-land.

AA Projects has an expandingteam of 20 staff based at itsPrescot office and the new Lon-don office brings its regionaloffice count to six, includingBirmingham, Leeds, Manchesterand Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

It says further expansion isplanned this year to extend itsnational coverage for its projectdelivery.

The company says it contin-ues to buck the trend across theindustry, with growth in all of itsoffices, together with therecruitment of more than 30 newstaff members over a 12 monthperiod.

AA Projects managing dir-ector Paul Allen said: “These areexciting times.

“Our move to Soho Squareopens up tremendous opportun-ities and allows us to strengthenour London-based team and

build on our existing client basein the region.”

AA Projects specialises inproviding bespoke solutions ran-ging from strategic consultancyto project management, propertystrategies, facilities manage-ment, cost consultancy, buildingsurveying, environmental con-sultancy and health and safetyexpertise.

Its client base is spread acrossa diverse range of sectors whichinclude commercial, education,health, heritage, regeneration,industrial and manufacturing,arts and leisure, governmentagencies, residential, retail andtransport and infrastructure.

It has also established a trackrecord for providing specialistconsultancy services for a num-ber of international projects thatspan Europe and the MiddleEast.

Tim Aspinall, DMH managing partner, left, and Karl Chapman, CEO of Riverview Law

[email protected]

askthe

expert

QAS an employer, a largeproportion of my workforcedrives as part of their job. Howdo I make sure that myemployees are kept as safe as

possible on the roads on a day-to-day basis?

AFOR employers that rely onmeetings at clients’ respectiveplaces of business, having a mobileworkforce is absolutely essential.However, with benefits of employees

with their own cars, also comes liability.The Health and Safety Executive states that

health and safety law applies to driving inexactly the same way as all other work activ-ities and, statistically, driving is the most dan-gerous business activity that employees canundertake, with 220 people killed every week asa result.

Companies are responsible for all workerswhile they are driving for business purposes,whether they are in a company car or theirown vehicle. This means employers must man-age the risks associated with driving within acomprehensive health and safety system.

In order to ensure therisk to your employees isminimised, there are anumber of recommendedactions companies shouldundertake. The employer isultimately accountable forensuring the cars used areroadworthy and that theemployee has sufficientinsurance coverage, whichmeans making sure eachvehicle is properly taxed,has a valid MOT, validinsurance for business useand is serviced accordingto manufacturing recommendations.

It is also beneficial to have agreed minimumsafety features and conditions for use. Theminimum conditions for use can include anagreement for drivers to show documentaryproof of the roadworthiness of their vehicleand insurance on request, to conduct regularvehicle safety checks and to not carry unsuit-able or hazardous loads. If any employee suf-fers a collision while on business, howeverminor, it is important that you have a pro-cedure in place for them to report it to thecompany.

A major issue is mobile phone use whiledriving; 39% of car drivers admit to using amobile phone on the road, rising to 55% ofcompany car drivers. But research indicatesmobile phone users are four times more likelyto crash, regardless of whether or not they usea hands-free device.

The law says it is an offence to ‘cause orpermit’ a driver to use a mobile phone whiledriving, which means as an employer, you canbe held liable if your policy requires employeesto use a phone on the road.

Even hands-free devices do not completelyresolve the issue, as the driver could still becharged with ‘failing to have proper control oftheir vehicle’ while using them in certain cir-cumstances.

Make sure the dangers associated withmobile phone useare properly com-municated in thesame manner asother driving risks,and your mobilephone policy isfully compliantwith the law.

Wayne Dunning, leadhealth and safetyconsultant at ELAS, onhow to keep drivers safe

It isalsobeneficialtohaveagreedminimumsafetyfeatures

In association with


Keith Perryman and Dan Kirkham and, below, Anita Morris with Aaron, a white tailed sea eagle

Trainers whohappily ditchthe flipcharts

MENTION the phrase“team-building day”to people in youroffice and you maywell get a roll of the

eyes as they contemplate eighthours cooped up in a function roomin a hotel with a flipchart and abloke spouting corporate nonsense.

However, some companies like to bea little more adventurous in the waysthey choose to get theirteams “bonding”.

Action Adventures wasset up near the waterfrontin south Liverpool justover a year ago and spe-cialises in pushing peopleout of their comfort zones.

The business was estab-lished by Dan Kirkhamand Keith Perryman andtheir 2.5-acre site oasiscomprises a high-ropescourse, one of the largestmilitary-style obstaclecourses in Europe, bootcamp sessionsand zipwires.

It caters for school parties, youthgroups, corporate team building ses-sions and even stag and hen parties.

It is also the culmination of aneight-year mission by former RoyalMarines physical training instructorKeith Perryman, 38, who saw potential

on the council-owned land.Having met business partner Dan

Kirkham, 31, a former restaurant man-ager and personal trainer, throughfamily friends, they succeeded inclinching the site just over a year ago.

Mr Kirkham says companies find adat at the centre invaluable for teach-ing their employees the importance ofworking as a team.

“When people arrive here at thestart of the day they can be initiallyapprehensive,” he said.

“But when they manage to completetasks they thought at first would beinsurmountable then they feel a tre-mendous sense of achievement.”

The facility includes the “PI Area”,so-called because it is shaped like a theGreek symbol PI.

Here, team members are given prob-lems to solve that are best achievedusing teamwork.

Mr Kirkham added:“They learn that the bestway to achieve results is byworking together.

“We have research thatsays that companies under-taking these types of activ-ities can reduce their rate ofabsenteeism by 40% andincrease productivity by upto 45%. We are now workingwith an organisation calledSelf Smart so we can meas-ure the result more clearly.”

Psychologist Anita Mor-ris, visiting lecturer in psychology atLiverpool John Moores University,offers another very different alternat-ive to the usual motivational away day.

Last year, she launched a Knows-ley-based Community Interest Com-pany called Hack Back.

She uses birds of prey in therapy,education and training for corporates.

Tony McDonoughlooks at some of themore unusual wayscompanies try tomotivate their staff

‘Researchshows firmscan raisetheirproductivityby as muchas 45%’

pastbusiness–nostalgiaHallowed status of city’s ‘store number one’ couldn’t save it from the axe

WHEN recession-hit Woolworthsclosed its doors in 2009, it was thesecond time the city had been leftwithout a “Woolies”.

Woolworths’ founder Frank Win-field Woolworth opened his first UKstore in Church Street, Liverpool inNovember 1909. The store was aninstant success, and dozens moreopened around the country.

In 1923, Woolworths moved to alarger store across the road, whereit stayed for 60 years.

In 1928 the sales area was exten-ded to include a basement, and in1935 a cafe was opened.

Online archive the WoolworthsMuseum (www.woolworthsmu-seum.co.uk) says the shop wasknown as “store number one” andwas considered “hallowed ground”by staff.

But that could not save it when, in1982, investment consortium Pater-noster took over the Woolworthschain from its US parent.

Paternoster soon decided to selloff some of its less profitable UKstores so it could pay off debt andinvest elsewhere in the business.

In total, six of the first ten storesto open in Britain were closed dur-ing the reorganisation, includingstores in Hull, Leeds, Bristol – andLiverpool. Woolworths also pulledout of the Republic of Ireland.

Staff in Merseyside launched acampaign against the closure, withthousands of shoppers signing apetition against the decision.

Helen Langley, the store’slongest-serving assistant, told theECHO: “It’s impossible to think ofLiverpool without a Woolies.”

But those protests were to noavail and, on June 4, 1983, the storewas closed. Today, the space housesTop Shop and serves as an entranceto Liverpool One.

But the restructure programmehelped breathe new life into theWoolworths group, which alreadyowned B&Q and went on to buyComet and Superdrug.

And, in 1990, the renamed King-fisher group opened a new Wool-worths store in St John’s ShoppingCentre.

ALISTAIR HOUGHTONStaff battling the 1983 closure ofWoolworths in Church Street Woolworths, in Church Street, shortly before it shut in 1983

post businessstyle

She has been using birds of prey inleadership and management develop-ment for a number of years.

Since Hack Back’s launch it hasbeen commissioned by KnowsleyCouncil to take part in a project aimedat reducing crime in the borough –worked with a homeless charity; andwith a young ex-forces man withacquired brain injury.

In a recent interview, Ms Morrissaid: “If you look at the over 4,000 yearhistory of falconry, it was used todevelop leadership skills in differentcultures around the world.

“Often royalty were trained in fal-conry not only because it was con-sidered a sport of Kings, but alsobecause Kings and Princes were lead-ers of armies as well as countries andneeded to develop leadership skills.”

22 Thursday, May 23, 2013post business end piece

tradinggossip

mydayoff

City solicitor with abrief to be on the ball

Mark Pollard is asolicitor and themanaging directorof Liverpool-basedVantage Law. In hisspare time he is aqualified FA coachfor local footballclub Woodstreet FC

■ MORE than a hintof irony in the latest

conquest by the seem-ingly world-devouringCosta Coffee chain.

Its latest expansion isthe former Brew Tea Cotearooms in the city’s St

Paul’s Square, fromwhere co-founder PhilKirby had plotted thefightback against the cor-porate coffee set beforeswapping bricks forclicks last year.

Not content with thehigh street, railway sta-tions and petrol stations,where next will the per-vasive brand turn up?

It doesn’t seem thatlong ago that parent com-pany Whitbread was aleading operator of pubs

nationwide, but nowfocuses on coffee shopsand, until recently,health clubs – and theycall that progress.

■ THE Liverpool-Manchester train

line may be historic butit’s hardly picturesque.

Luckily, a guard on oneservice last weekendlivened up the journeywith his commentary.

In Widnes, he said: “Ifyou're leaving the train

here, please mind the gapbetween your expecta-tions and reality.”

Warrington wasdubbed “the jewel inCheshire’s crown”. Andfinally, in Manchester, hemused: “Please remem-ber any baggage – wives,children, mothers-in-law,alpacas, zebras, live-stock...”

It all brought smiles tothe whole train on a greyday – customer servicemanagers, take note.

WE SET up VantageLaw just over twoyears ago and it hasbeen hard work butultimately, it has

been very rewarding.We are delighted with how far we

have come and have just moved for thethird time to larger offices and takenon a full time member of staff.

Having a passion outside of work isreally important to help stay focusedand enthusiastic in the office.

I love football. I am from Leeds ori-ginally and, for my sins I’m an avidLeeds United supporter.

But it goes beyond just supportingleague football. I love playing the

game but injury has gotten the betterof me and has limited my time on thefield.

I had to find a way of redirectingmy love for the game and found I amreally passionate about encouragingyoung people to play and make themost of their skills.

My time at Woodstreet FC began in2006. I’d contacted the Liverpool FA torecommend a club and they put me intouch and I’ve never looked back.

The club was founded in 2004 whena group of BT employees decided totake the nucleus of their successfulfive-a-side team and enter an 11-a-sideleague.

We are an FA Chartered Standardwhich means it has met strict criteriato carry the mark of excel-lence for grassroots footballand now have three teamswho play at differing stand-ards.

I started coaching in 2011and as well as my coachingrole I am also on the club’scommittee and get involvedwith grant applications,club sponsorship, competi-tions and social media,which is vital to keep the club goingand broaden our offering.

Vantage Law is sponsor of the cluband it has worked well both ways – wehave raised our profile locally andwon new business on the back of it.

Local children’s hospice, Zoe’sPlace, is our affiliated charity and aswell as raising its profile by exposingthem to our 500+ weekly website vis-itors and 1,700+ social media follow-ers, we help raise money by makingdonations to their clothes recyclingcampaign, attending events as well asdonating money from funds raisedthrough competitions and club events.

We find out in April 2013 if we have

been successful in our latest grantapplication and if we are, the inten-tion is to fund the further develop ourexisting coaches.

The age of the players range from 17to 48 and we are hoping to introducean under-14s side next season.

After that we want to introduce anacademy team, specifically aimed at16-21 year olds. There is a huge gapbetween open age football and U16’s,which is when most leagues seem tostop and young people lose interest.

This setup would bridge the gapand allow young players to take thestep up when they feel comfortableand not because it is the only option.

I firmly believe that encouragingyoungsters into a sport and, in par-

ticular, a team sport haspositive benefits for themin later life.

It also gives them con-fidence and a sense of pur-pose and belonging whichis very important.

We get lads from allwalks of life and nation-alities here. We have hadScandinavians, SouthAfricans and Spanish

players to name but a few – usuallyforeign students – who have played forus which is fantastic for introducingdifferent cultures and playing styles.

Many will never have had thechance to mix with people from suchdifferent backgrounds, particularly insuch familiar surroundings so it’s agreat benefit to everyone.

We have had players go on to playfor larger non-league clubs such asMarine FC in Crosby and Bootle FC.

Others have spent time abroaddoing football scholarships and manyhave at one time or another been partof Liverpool, Everton or Tranmere’sacademy.

‘We haveraised ourprofile andwon newbusiness’

Mark Pollard ispassionateabout his workand his football

LIVERPOOL POSTBUSINESS LUNCH

DIRECTORY

To promote your locationplease email :

[email protected]

Extra Extra! Find out what Sundays arereally about with the delicious 4 courseSunday Brunch menu at Malmaison.Including our renowned hors d’oeuvrebuffet, eggs and pancake station, theincredible Mal Roast and a deliciousselection of desserts from £19.95 or

£7.95 for children under 12.

William Jessop WayPrinces Dock, Liverpool, L3 0BG

Call the brasserie0151 299 5000

to book and quote‘The Daily Post’.

The award-winning Viva Brazil restaurantis situated in the heart of the businessdistrict in Liverpool’s Castle Street. Itis a firm favourite for business lunchesproviding fast and efficient service. Witha menu to suit all tastes, including morethan 15 cuts of meat and 20 salads, you

are guaranteed not to go hungry.

Liverpool Restaurant: 36 Castle Street,Liverpool. L2 0NR Tel: 0151 236 8080

www.vivabrazilrestaurants.com

£10 full rodizio lunchbetween 12 noon and 4pm,Monday to Friday. Termsand Conditions apply.

Radisson Blu Hotel Liverpool launchesbrand new Lightning

Lunch menu. Indulge in a main courseand a drink for just £6.95.

Best of all is the guarantee: if the mealhas not been served within

15 minutes, it is completely free!

Radisson Blu Hotel LiverpoolTel, 0151 966 1500

Email: [email protected] Old Hall Street, Liverpool, L3 9BD

Lightning Lunch Offer£6.95 per person

CROWN PLAZA BRASSERIEOur Chef and his team have a passion

for food and offer a wide varietyof dishes that draw on modern

international flavours and ingredients.The Hotel Restaurant is very stylishand recently refurbished. Bar Loungeserving a mouth-watering range offood, speciality coffees and teas anda huge variety of cocktails, wines andbeers, the lounge provides a stylish,

comfortable environment in which to dobusiness or simply to relax

CROWNE PLAZAPrinces DockPier Head

T: +44 (0) 151 243 [email protected]

Thistle Liverpool City CentreThe Vista Bar & Restaurant is the ideal

location for any gathering.Displaying spectacular views over theRiver Mersey and Liver Building,

the restaurant offers a widechoice of dishes to suit all palates.Your experience here will be an

unforgettable one

Enquiries/Reservations,please call:

0871 376 9025

Marco in Minutes - Express Lunch MenuTime may be of the essence butthat shouldn’t mean you have to

compromise on quality. With the newExpress Lunch Menu, you can feast onthe finest cuisine using the freshest ofingredients, and still have time to meetall those deadlines! With two coursesfor £10 or a main meal and a drink for£10 It’s a menu with little fuss - just

good, honest, simple food for those whohave very little time to stop.

Hotel Indigo

Radisson Blu

Viva Brasil

please callTel: 0151 559 0111

Malmaison


businessdiaryMONDAY, MAY 27THE Employability and Skills

Group of companies isholding a series of opendays at its Liverpool oper-ation. It invites schoolsand pupils, parents, teach-ers, heads of departmentsand careers advisors, train-ing providers, job centres,and employers to itsevents, from 10am to4pm, on the second floorof Link 19 in Bold Street’sCentral Village. It says theopen days will provide anopportunity to find outhow to obtain full timejobs via the apprenticeshipprogramme. Contact JulesWestbrook or Pauline

O’Brien on 0151-702 6111.

THURSDAY, MAY 30SOUTH Liverpool Business

Network’s breakfast brief-ing at Enterprise SouthLiverpool Academy, Gar-ston, features Cllr NickSmall, cabinet member foremployment and skills, asguest speaker. The eventstarts at 8am and costs £5for members, or £10 fornon-members, whichincludes breakfast. To con-firm your place ring0151-203 3429.

THURSDAY, MAY 30EXPORT Sales – winning

orders overseas, is a courseoffered by LiverpoolChamber of Commercethat is aimed at companiesinvolved in the manufac-turing or services sectors;business development orsales managers and seniorpersonnel responsible foridentifying and winninginternational business;and those new or inexper-ienced in internationalmarketing as well as moreestablished exporterslooking to develop theirsales techniques and learnpractical new skills.Examples and exercises areused throughout theworkshop to illustrate thekey elements, and consid-eration is given to theindividual objectives ofparticipating companies

with delegates encouragedto share their own exper-iences. The course takesplace from 9.30am to 4pmat the chamber’s Old HallStreet offices and costs£200 for chamber mem-bers, or £250 for non-mem-bers. For more informationvisit www.liverpoolchamber.org.uk/eventitem.aspx/ show/473 or toattend email [email protected]

TUESDAY, JUNE 4ST HELENS Chamber of Com-

merce is staging anadvanced online marketingworkshop aimed at peoplewho already possess a basicunderstanding of onlinemarketing and wish tobuild on it. It will help

attendees understand howto design and build a trulysearch engine optimised(SEO) website and discoverhow to maximise the num-ber of relevant website vis-itors through advancedSEO techniques and prac-tices. It costs £49 (excl VAT)for chamber members or£99 (excl VAT) for non-members. Visit www.sthelenschamber.com/booking to book.

THURSDAY, JUNE 6PRIORY Business Forum is a

free monthly businessbreakfast event for entre-preneurs and busi-nesspeople and has beenrunning on the Wirral fornine years. The event takesplace at MEC North West,

Monks Ferry, Birkenheadand starts with registrationand networking at 8am,with the presentation start-ing at 8.30am. Visit http://priorybusinessforum.eventbrite.co.uk/ to register.

THURSDAY, JUNE 6LIVERPOOL Hope University

has organised a businessbreakfast event, from7.30am to 9.30am, on theimpact of the AtlanticGateway. Aimed at the con-struction, charity, creative,international trade, envir-onment, retail, tourism,manufacturing, profes-sional, and transport sec-tors, it will feature as key-note speaker Susan Willi-ams, executive director ofAtlantic Gateway, who will

talk on “The Potential ofAtlantic Gateway”. Forfurther information pleasecontact Becky Rawlinsonat [email protected] or0151-291 3005.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19ENTERPRISING Merseyside is

staging a free workshopaimed at helping peoplebecome their own boss .Be Your Own Boss is beinghosted at the St HelensChamber of Commerceoffices, in Salisbury Street,from 6pm to 8pm. For fur-ther information call: 0845340 9980.

■ Send your diaryevents to [email protected]

Going greenLIVERPOOL’S businesscommunity attended theECHO EnvironmentAwards 2013, organisedby the Post’s sisterpaper, the LiverpoolECHO.

Above from left, city

councillor, Gary Millar,BBC presenter DianneOxberry and Jack Stop-forth from the Big Part-nership. And left, LauraFurlong, Wirral Counciland Maresa Molloy, Liv-erpool Chamber.

City food festivalTHE Liverpool CommercialDistrict BID organised afood festival in ExchangeFlags.

The area was buzzing,with produce from some ofthe best restaurants, bars,

hotels and coffee shops inthe city. Pictured are, fromleft, Paul Dixon, LiverpoolCity Region LEP, KevinWhittaker, Commercial Dis-trict BID and DuncanFrazer, from the LEP.

Carol Head, a director atlaw firm Maxwell HodgeQ What is your favourite

lunch venue?A APiccolino, located on Cook

Street in Liverpool’s commer-cial district.

Q Why is this your favouritevenue?

A It has a welcoming atmo-sphere from the moment youstep through the door and isan ideal venue for spendingtime over lunch swappingideas with colleagues andentertaining business associ-ates. It somehow seems to lib-erate the thought processes.

Q What is your favouritedish and why?

A There is a lot to choose fromon the menu, both modernand classic Italian dishes but Imust admit to usually revert-ing to a good fillet steak fol-lowed by chocolate fondantand salted ice cream. Notgood for the waistline but todie for!

Q What is the best bit ofbusiness you have doneover lunch?

A We cover lots of legal ser-vices from inheritance plan-ning, to clinical negligenceand personal injury but it’sthe commercial law, our fast-est growing department,

where business lunches havepaid dividends. Recentlywe’ve won some big businessclients over a nice bite to eat.

Q Who would you most liketo have lunch with?

A It would have to be JudiDench or Maggie Smith.What an inspiration they areto us older ladies.

Q Where else do you like togo for lunch?

A For a quick catch up and justenough time to keep thewheels of business moving,McGuffie’s on Castle Street isthe answer. It has a friendly,informal atmosphere and thesandwiches and cake are ser-iously good.

my favourite lunch

networking

end piece post business

Gusto has faith in RobGUSTO Heswall hosted a din-ner last week with entertain-ment provided by one ofEurope’s leading tributeartists, Rob Lamberti.

Since winning Stars inTheir Eyes in 1994, Lamberti

has become one of the UK’sbest-known George Michaeltribute acts.

From left, Laura JaneHall, of Gusto, RebeccaFoster, of Olive Liverpool,and Jasmine Jackson.

Piccolino in Liverpool city centre

Carol Head


ESCORTED HOLIDAYS

These holidays are organised & operated by Newmarket Air Holidays Ltd. ABTA V7812, ATOL Protected 2325. Subject to availability. Calls cost 4p per minute.Information shown is taken from our India, China & the Far East 2013-2014 (September 2012 edition brochure). Please contact us for the latest prices and availability.Feb v2 2013

www.newmarket.travel/lpe11372 0151 559 1590 quoting code LPE

readertravelholidays.com Great Value EscortedTouring Holiday

Delhi

GeejgarhJaipur

Ranthambhore

India

✈✈

This classic tour of northern India features the great cities of Delhi, Agra andJaipur, and Ranthambhore Park, one-time hunting ground of Indian princes,and standing atop a landscape of grasslands, streams and lakes. The park ishome to the legendary ‘Tigers of Ranthambhore’ and you’ll enjoy two half-day‘safaris’, hoping for sightings of these beautiful endangered creatures.

In Delhi, ancient and modern worlds collide, the grandeur of the colonial Raj in thecity’s centre literally sandwiched between the past of Old Delhi to the north, andthe future – fast-growing south Delhi. All over the teeming, colourful, enthrallingmetropolis are reminders, in the shape of great monuments, of the six cities thatpredated the present Indian capital.

Agra is known as the ‘City of Love’, its greatest treasure the world-renowned TajMahal, one of the planet’s most recognisable landmarks. Other highlights includeAgra Fort, the onion-domed Jama Masjid mosque and the nearby tomb of Akbarthe Great at Sikandra.

Explore Jaipur, the fabled ‘Pink City’, with its ‘Palace of the Winds’, its colourfulbazaars and famous Amber Fort, the latter reached atop an elephant’s back orby jeep. Ranthambhore is, of course, a highlight of the tour and said to be aninspiration for some of Rudyard Kipling’s ‘Jungle Book’ stories.

This is a perfect introduction to one of the world’s most fascinating, alluring andexotic destinations.

India – Tigers & the Taj MahalPrice includes● A city tour of Old Delhi● A tour of New Delhi● An elephant or jeep ride to the Amber Fort● A guided city tour of Jaipur● Two safaris at Ranthambhore

National Park● Visit to Abhaneri● Lodge accommodation in Geejgarh with

an included cookery demonstration● A city tour of Agra● A visit to the Taj Mahal● Eight nights’ half-board accommodation

plus four included lunches staying in Delhi,Jaipur, Ranthambhore, Geejgarh and Agra

● Return scheduled flights to Delhi● One suitcase allowance per person● Air-conditioned coach travel throughout● The services of a Tour Manager upon

arrival at your destination

Optional Excursions● Ranthambhore Fort – £12 per person● Taj Mahal at Sunrise – £19 per person

10 days from

£1,279

Excellent hotels with names you can trust...Equivalent to at least Europeanfour-star standard, all hotels providemodern conveniences, a choice ofregional or international cuisine, andwell-equipped, comfortable bedrooms.

Radisson Blu Dwarka – Delhi(nights 2 & 3) Enjoy a relaxingswim in the hotel pool. Four PointsSheraton – Jaipur (nights 4 & 5)This city centre hotel boasts spa roomsand outdoor pool. RanthambhoreRegency – Ranthambhore (nights

6 & 7) This hotel also has lovely gardens and a pool. Geejgarh Village Retreat –Geejgarh (night 8) Lodge accommodation with a modern twist – and proper beds!Radisson – Agra (night 9) Close to the Taj Mahal, with pool and fitness centre.

Tour Highlights● Discover the historic Red Fort and Jama Masjid

Mosque, the India Gate war memorial and theruins of the Quwwat-ul-Islam in Delhi

● Enjoy a rickshaw ride through Old Delhi

● See ‘Pink City’ Jaipur’s ‘Palace of the Winds’

● Climb to Amber Fort –by elephant or jeep!

● Go in search of Ranthambhore’s tigers

● See Chand Baori, Abhaneri’s stepwell

● Enjoy a cookery demonstration

● Marvel at the incomparable Taj Mahalon two unforgettable visits

Regional connectionsConnecting flights are available to London Heathrow from the followingairports, for a supplement: Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Newcastle

BIRMINGHAM AIRPORTDeparture Date Per Person

19 Nov 2013, 11 Mar 2014 £1,399Outbound: 14:15/09:15 • Return: 04:15/12:35

GLASGOW AIRPORT12 Nov 2013, 11 Mar 2014 £1,399Outbound: 17:15/09:15 • Return: 04:15/21:40

LONDON HEATHROW AIRPORTDeparture Date Per Person10 Sep 2013 £1,249

1, 9 Oct, 5, 12, 19 Nov 2013 £1,39914, 21 Jan, 11 Feb, 4, 11 Mar 2014 £1,349

13, 20 May 2014 £1,299Outbound: 21:50/11:50 • Return: 13:50/17:55

MANCHESTER AIRPORTDeparture Date Per Person10 Sep 2013 £1,279

1, 9 Oct, 5 Nov 2013 £1,46912 Nov 2013, 11 Mar 2014 £1,399

19 Nov 2013 £1,42914, 21 Jan, 11 Feb 2014 £1,379

13, 20 May 2014 £1,329Outbound: 14:10/09:15 • Return: 04:15/12:25

For your FREE India, China & the far East 2013-14 brochure, completethis coupon and send to: Newmarket Promotions Ltd, FREEPOST KT2720,Worcester Park, KT4 8BR (NO STAMP REQUIRED)

Name Tel

Address

Postcode Email LPE

Radisson Blue Dwarka – Delhi

Post Business - 23rd May 2013

Documents

Transcript of Post Business - 23rd May 2013