Contents: Business News Sure - fixed line services IoD - DED, John Spellman
RELATIVE VALUES
Relative Values Franklins Cars Ltd & Erin Bike Hut
WORDS: Les Able
Father & Son - Paul Franklin & Steve Franklin
Male testosterone is all apparent when in the company of father and son Paul and Steve Franklin. While Paul at the age of 66 may describe himself as being “retired” there is little doubt he still enjoys the adrenalin surge of selling cars in a company created by his son who is very definitely in the driving seat of Franklin’s Cars.
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Consummate salesman and businessman, Paul and wife Carol moved to the Isle of Man from London in 1973. Paul helped set up Whitestone Garage Ltd and was there for the next 25 years until he retired, something which lasted all of 18 months. “We came to the island as a bit of a trial but liked it so much we stayed and both our two children were born here,” says Paul, whose interest in motor bikes saw him become chief marshal for the Manx Two Day Trial and also a senior representative for the Isle of Man. While he and Steve, 32, are both directors of Port Erin-based Franklin’s Cars Ltd, it’s Steve who has the slightly higher stake in the company. “Everything you see here is all down to Steve,” says Paul of a business which has always prided itself on supplying rare and unusual, previously owned high performance cars. Paul admits that retirement wasn’t and isn’t for him and he now runs the cars and commercial vehicles side of the business while Steve, ever the ambitious entrepreneur, has moved over into selling bikes, push bikes that is, under the banner of Erin Bike Hut, a soaraway success story and which is based at the rear of Franklin’s Cars. Steve alone owns that side of the business with no involvement from Dad. Steve, however, is overall supremo but above all else it is a family business. There is a genuine rapport between father and son along with a healthy sense of humour, each one looking at any opportunity to poke fun at the other. Between them they would make something of a comedy duo.
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Steve was 23 when he set up his own online business working from home. “It was just me, dad gave me a loan, selling cars, trucks, and vans over the internet,” says Steve. Then came the time when the business had grown so much that Steve leased a 1,000 sq ft building at Balthane...
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“I just went ahead and did it without telling dad,” he didn’t speak to me for a week, laughs Steve while Paul, only minutes earlier, declared that any differences they had were minor and few and far between. “He said that, in fact he hit the roof when I told him about Balthane,” exclaimed Steve, while Paul looked on with a grin. Nor it seems was Paul much involved when Steve decided to go ahead with
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leasing the Port Erin site, previously carpet showrooms. “Dad will always look at the negatives, I just go ahead and do it,” declares Steve. “I always wanted to do my own thing and have set up the business from scratch, yes dad has helped financially, but from the word ‘go’ everything has been my idea. As for dad coming to work in the business, it just evolved, he looks after the cars and I look after the bikes.” Steve, a keen mountain biker and road racer, goes on: “When I set up Erin Bike Hut I never told him about it until I had everything in place, his reaction was then similar to what I got when I told him about Balthane... Yes, of course, we have our moments. Dad is 100 per cent honest, perhaps too honest.
“He’s hard working and just can’t keep still. Age has mellowed him a bit, he’s more relaxed then he used to be. When I was a child he was certainly very strict, I was not so much naughty as cheeky and could expect a bollicking from him when I did something he thought I shouldn’t have done. I still expect that from him, even though I’m 32.”
Paul is clearly proud of what his son has achieved. “Steve has get up and go, he always wants to do the best. I consider him to be a good business man, even perhaps slightly harder than what I was, he certainly doesn’t suffer fools gladly and a few years ago I was like him.” Laughing, he declares: “You could say I’m a mushroom. Kept in the dark and fed lots of s**t.” When there is a rift between them then caught up in the middle of it is Carol who has to endeavour to deal with the egos of both men in her life without being seen to take sides. “They can both have their moods, one more so than the other, but I’ll say no more than that,” is her diplomatic and enigmatic response.
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MANX STARTISAN
Manx Startisan with Shoprite Relative Values David Butterworth -Skanco Systems Ltd Movers & Shakers
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Follow in the footsteps of some great MANX STARTISANS A ‘Startisan’ movement is clearly developing on the Isle of Man. Shoprite’s Manx ‘Startisans’ programme, looking to identify the potential in a local food entrepreneur who wants to get their idea off the ground, has already received a number of ideas and it’s not too late to submit your own before the closing deadline of Thursday 10th September.
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The entrants that we have had so far are at different stages of de elopment some ha e already established a product that they sell on sland while others are still at the drawing board, fuelled by passion, entrepreneur spirit and a determination to ma e their own mar on the sle of an’s food industry ge isn’t pro ing a barrier either with raduates fresh from ni ersity and e perienced professionals loo ing for a ‘late stage’ career change hoprite has already helped a number of local producers to de elop their proposition to a stage where a ma or food retailer can stoc it he company’s team wor s with local producers to help them with branding, pac aging, mar eting, pricing any of the companies that started out as home based operations ha e now gone on to reach the stage where they can now be e ported to and international mar ets
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CAN YOU BECOME A MANX STARTISAN AND JOIN THE LOCAL FOOD REVOLUTION? he sle of an has a large number of well established local food producers, particularly in ol ed with meat and dairy industries, that allow large food retailers li e hoprite to operate ‘import substitution’ where they can support local producers by offering local alternati es
“We experiment with traditional childhood favourites and locally grown produce to create revolutionary, natural soft drinks with a fruity Manx twist.”
owe er, the sland can always support more niche pro iders which not only benefit the local economy but also pro ide premium uality, healthy alternati es to well nown brands with pro enance that can be trac ed bac directly to local sources
APPLE ORPHANAGE
ew businesses are being set up by local people who are passionate about food and drin who are creating products that re ect those premium uality alues with delicious, home spun products that are far superior to the mass produced, well established alternati es
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he latest hoprite an tartisan pple rphanage is already well nown on the sle of an for their fruit e change ser ice which swaps your fresh fruit for a share of the drin s that they ma e
This month we turn our focus onto two local drinks producers who are both producing a range of healthy drinks using local ingredients.
ill aulds and harlotte raynor are passionate about eeping things natural and free from chemicals and ha e now e tended their offering with a new line of drin s ‘ an ruit ress s’
The winning entrepreneur will receive a guaranteed listing in Shoprite’s stores for six months as well as receiving start-up operations marketing support, packaging, product development and presentation advice including one to one sessions from the panel of experts. The retailer’s parent company Isle of Man Enterprises will also make available free of charge one of its retail units in Village Walk, Onchan for a six month period. The winning entrant will be revealed at the 2015 Isle of Man Food and Drink Festival at the Villa Marina which takes place on the 19th and 20th September. The winning entrant will also be given a free stand at the exhibition to promote their product.
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heir new ‘ an ruit ress s ange’ range includes an hubarb ress and an ooseberry emonade as well as seasonal press s including herry, an lderberry cinnamon edcurrant, an elder ower rosehip an spiced lac currant an ear inger an rape an lum asparilla and an inny i a wild nettle cola s harlotte e plains, the inspiration for the range is in uenced by ingredients found on the sle of an “We experiment with traditional childhood favourites and locally grown produce to create revolutionary, natural soft drinks with a fruity Manx twist. To make our Manx Fruit Pressés we combine freshly pressed Manx fruit with the finest, local, Green Mann Spring water. The mineral rich waters of Green Mann Spring in Ballabrooie near St John’s have been renowned for centuries as the purest, most natural waters known to Mann, which we are very proud to use in our Manx Fruit Pressés.”
he continued “We have relished the challenge of using unused, Manx fruit to create our drinks and look forward to creating new beverages using more fantastic local produce. We know buying local is not only healthy but important for our Island’s future and we are thrilled to be developing relationships with local farmers to grow more fruits and vegetables for us to press so we can keep making delicious, natural drinks out of the freshest, Manx-grown ingredients.”
GROOVIE SMOOTHIES
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roo ie moothies, a company set up by husband and wife team igel and awn aymes, ha e also been inspired to create a drin s company by the uality of local ingredients
awn aymes o ercame serious illness eight years ago which dro e her to de elop a greater understanding of nutrition and healthy food ow she’s put what she learnt to good practice with her range of nutritious drin s including a ‘ uper reen’ smoothie with ale that gi es you all fi e of your traditional ‘fi e a day’ riginally awn ust blended for herself but after ad ice from friends and family including her sister ngela she was encouraged to de elop them for some of the sland’s healthy outlets and they will shortly be appearing in the li es of oa a ehouse so many of the sland’s residents can benefit from the healthy ingredients that grow naturally on our island
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TELECOMS NEWS
Sure offers fixed line services As of 1st September the final barrier to true competition within the island’s telecommunications sector has been removed by the Communications Commission as the fixed line market is now fully open. This decision means that the island has a fully competitive telecoms marketplace for the first time; a decision that benefits all consumers. Sarah Jarvis, Marketing Manager of Sure in the Isle of Man, explores Sure’s history in the island and what this latest development means for islanders.
SARAH JARVIS MARKETING MANAGER
It’s been a long time coming but this
he effect of opening the fi ed line telecoms mar et to competition could be e ual to that which followed the introduction of competition to the mobile mar et when ure arri ed in o ernment statistics show that call charges dropped by up to in the months following the commencement of mobile competition fantastic news for customers
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hen ure first arri ed in the sland in its aim was to pro ide a iable choice to the island’s consumers in the pre iously monopolised telecommunications mar et ince that time ure has gone from strength to strength and now pro ides oice, broadband and mobile ser ices to the island hese established ser ices will now be oined by fi ed line connections to complete a full set of consumer products
What this means in practice is that customers can now have Sure broadband provided through a Sure landline, a combination of services that will yield savings in the form of bundles. Obtaining mobile, broadband and fixed line services from one provider in a bundle can save money, time and effort. A bundle means that there is no need to have three separate bills and customers can take advantage of great savings in the process.
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owe er, the impact of an open, competiti e mar etplace e tends far beyond prices pen mar ets help to impro e the ser ice customers recei e and enable businesses to compete with each other to pro ide the best alue and latest products for consumers he dynamic nature of the sector means that inno ation is ne er far away and no company, no matter how established, is able to rest on their laurels ompetition dri es businesses li e ure to eep e ploring new products and ser ices and staying ahead of the cur e is always a priority he roll out of ure’s mobile networ earlier this year was an e ample of a significant in estment in infrastructure that enabled the company and the sland to eep pace with industry standards ontinued in estment in the telecommunications infrastructure in the sle of an is absolutely essential to maintain the island’s status as an attracti e centre for international business n estment also benefits the e eryday telecoms consumer as
they get to benefit from state of the art technological impro ements represents a ma or pro ect but ure is also ma ing smaller impro ements all the time to pro ide the best ser ice it possibly can he newly opened fi ed line mar et will see the spirit of competition e tended to the final realm of telecommunications on the island and should lead to similar le els of inno ation to those witnessed in the mobile and broadband mar ets in recent times ure has always aimed to pro ide customers with choice and alue in the sle of an and the fact that we can now include landline products in our offering means that customers can ta e ad antage of more choice than e er before undled telecoms ser ices are a growing industry trend which sle of an consumers can now ta e ad antage of than s to competition in the fi ed line mar et and ure is e cited to be able to offer these great alue bundles to our customers T
Sure has always aimed to provide customers with choice and value in the Isle of Man and the fact that we can now include landline products in our offering means that customers can take advantage of more choice than ever before.
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