SBT June 2013

SBT S SUSSEX BUSINESS TIMES

ISSUE 370 FREE

PLUS

THE BATTLE FOR BETTER BROADBAND PAGE 17

NEW BANKS ON THE BLOCK PAGE 22

REVIEW OF THE RANGE ROVER EVOQUE AND JAGUAR XFR PAGE 38

Make a Splash Morgan Sindall has successfully delivered an iconic leisure centre on the south coast for Worthing PAGE 54

SITTING COMFORTABLY? First Sussex, now the world for Posturite PAGE 12

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Tailor-made solutions Our success is based on offering a high quality service to both corporate and individual customers, coupled with a flexible and innovative approach. We start from a blank canvas and build a bespoke solution, with all key decisions made locally by the branch.

Crawley branch Simon Briggs - Branch Manager Tel: 01293 525895, email: sibr01@handelsbanken.co.uk www.handelsbanken.co.uk/crawley Brighton branch Simon Howe - Branch Manager Tel: 01273 749014, email: siho03@handelsbanken.co.uk www.handelsbanken.co.uk/brighton Chichester branch Chris Golding - Branch Manager Tel: 01243 781380, email: chgo06@handelsbanken.co.uk www.handelsbanken.co.uk/chichester

www.handelsbanken.co.uk Registered Office: Svenska Handelsbanken AB (publ), 3 Thomas More Square, London, E1W 1WY. VAT Registration No. GB524 9824 25. Registered in England and Wales No. BR 000589.

Incorporated in Sweden with limited liability. Registered in Sweden No. 502 007-7862. Head Office in Stockholm. Authorised by the Swedish Financial Supervisory Authority (Finansinspektionen) and the 2 Prudential Regulation Authority and subject to limited regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority. Details about the extent of our authorisation and www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk regulation by the Prudential Regulation Authority, and regulation by the Financial Conduct Authority are available from us on request.

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SBT Welcome Lee Mansfield, Managing Director/ Publisher

Laura Knight, Editor

Luke Mould, Commercial Business Manager

Graham Carn, Financial Editor

Maarten Hoffman, Motoring Correspondent

Tim Cobb, Contributing Feature Writer

“A frank and candid discussion in which those whose responsibility and ambition it is to grow Sussex businesses, debate how that can best be achieved in today’s climate”

In this issue, we are proud to present the inaugural Sussex Business Times Round Table, in association with the Platinum Club. We invited Robert Clare, Regional Director NATWEST; Alistair Aird, Business Development Director SANTANDER; and David Eagle, Lead Partner BDO to lend their expertise to issues facing companies in Sussex and the business community as a whole. The result, as you will read on page 30, is a frank and candid discussion in which those whose responsibility and ambition it is to grow Sussex businesses, debate how that can best be achieved in today’s climate; what the obstacles facing this growth are, and how we can work together to overcome them. In this first of many round tables, we found that time flew and there’s plenty more to be discussed, so look out for subsequent updates. Of course if you have topics you would like to see discussed at a future round table, you are welcome to send them in to the usual address.

Some have expressed a sense of lethargy that seems to come in the summer months, but it appears that Sussex is not on holiday or even ready for a siesta just yet... with a host of festivals, airshows and fairs on throughout the county, Sussex has not slowed for 2013 and is ready to capitalise fully on tourism in the coming months. It’s no time for non-seasonal businesses to rest on their laurels either, with a number of new practices and concepts being implemented in the next few months.

Before the end of the year, we are likely to see important changes to the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill which may have a major impact on employment, and the introduction of TIDAL Hubs which could totally revolutionise the workforce.

Laura Knight Editor

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Contents SBT Issue 370

SBT S SUSSEX BUSINESS TIMES

ISSUE 370 FREE

PLUS

THE BATTLE FOR BETTER BROADBAND PAGE 17

NEW BANKS ON THE BLOCK PAGE 22

SBT ROUND TABLE PAGE 30

REVIEW OF THE RANGE ROVER EVOQUE AND JAGUAR XFR PAGE 38

Make a Splash Morgan Sindall has successfully delivered an iconic leisure centre on the south coast for Worthing PAGE 54

SITTING COMFORTABLY? First Sussex, now the world for Posturite PAGE 12

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Splashpoint Leisure Centre - Worthing.

Insert: Ian Fletcher-Price from Posutrite.

Sussex Business Times Managing Director/Publisher: Lee Mansfield lee@lifemediagroup.co.uk Commercial Director: Simon Skinner simon@lifemediagroup.co.uk Commercial Business Manager: Luke Mould luke@lifemediagroup.co.uk Editor: Laura Knight laura@lifemediagroup.co.uk Financial Editor Graham Carn Subscriptions subs@lifemediagroup.co.uk Design: Harriet Weston harriet@lifemediagroup.co.uk Media Director Linda Grace linda@lifemediagroup.co.uk Accounts: Clare Fermor/Amelia Wellings clare@lifemediagroup.co.uk amelia@lifemediagroup.co.uk Published by LMG SE LTD Park View House 19 The Avenue, Eastbourne, East Sussex BN21 3YD 01323 411 601 Printed by Gemini Press, Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex, BN43 6NZ All material in this publication is strictly copyright and all rights reserved. Reproduction without permission is prohibited. The views expressed in Sussex Business Times Magazine do not necessarily represent the view of Life Media Group LTD. Every care is taken in compiling the contents but the publishers of Sussex Business Times Magazine assume no responsibility for any damage, loss or injury arising from the participation in any offers, competitions or advertisement contained within Sussex Business Times Magazine. All prices featured in Sussex Business Times Magazine are correct at the time of going to press.

Copyright Life Media Group LTD 2013 ©

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Welcome

Roll up roll up for another great issue of SBT – your essential guide to business brilliance in Sussex.

Spending It! Must-have equipment, innovative gadgetry and cool toys for the Sussex professional.

Company Profile Posturite make Sussex stand up and take notice.

The Battle for Better Broadband Join the fight to get Sussex better connected.

A New Wave of Education Be inspired by the TIDAL Hub concept.

Finance Challenger banks - The new kids on the lending block.

The Eco Profit Maker Be inspired by an unconventional business model and discover Infinity Foods, the highly successful Brighton based co-operative that runs on profit and strongly held beliefs.

Motoring Up close and personal with the Range Rover Evoque and Jaguar XFR.

You’re Fired Employment law experts say watch your step with dismissals right now, and here’s why.

SBT Ask the Experts Your questioned answered by those in the know locally.

Commercial Property Morgen Sindell Make a Splash.

Made In Susex Maid Simple - Injecting glamour into cleaning.

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When it comes to Mercedes-Benz, Lookers Mercedes-Benz are the business.

Excellence redefined with these exclusive spring offers.

At Lookers Mercedes-Benz, we pride ourselves on putting you first. It’s a philosophy which has seen us win awards in the past and means that we continually improve the services we offer to the public and to other local businesses.

Being part of Lookers plc, one of the largest motor retail groups in the UK with retailers spanning across the country in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, has enabled us to develop our unique state of the art, 250 vehicle, pre-delivery inspection centre, so you can be assured your new purchase is of the very highest quality.

From vehicle funding through to fleet management, you will have the peace of mind that we can provide you with the most efficient and economical service in the area. We have local expertly trained Business Managers on site who strive for perfection and will tailor any financial requirements you may have specifically to meet your needs.

We are sure you can experience the luxury of a Mercedes-Benz for significantly less than what you may think this spring with Lookers Mercedes-Benz.

See overleaf for a selection of our fantastic business user offers available this spring.

Call one of our retailers today on 0844 947 3649 to book a test drive in any of these models.

Lookers plc Mercedes-Benz of Brighton Victoria Road, Portslade, Brighton BN41 1DY

Mercedes-Benz of Eastbourne Eastbourne Road, Westham, East Sussex BN24 5NH

Mercedes-Benz of Gatwick County Oak Way, Crawley, West Sussex RH11 7ST

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Official government fuel consumption figures in mpg (litres per 100km) for the Mercedes-Benz range: urban 13.0(21.7)-68.9(4.1), extr

Business Users only. Advance payment applies. All payments subject to VAT: Finance based on a Contract Hire agreement, 10,000 miles per annum. Excess mileage charges may apply. Rental includes Road Fund Licence for the contract duration (6 months+35 months for all models excluding G-Clas 2013. Subject to availability, offers cannot be used in conjunction with any other. Some combinations of features/options may not be available. Credit provided subject to status by Mercedes-Benz Financial Services UK Limited, MK15 8BA. †Based on an A-Class manual. Prices subject to change. You

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s.

Head turning style and luxurious comfort.

The New Mercedes-Benz E-Class makes the ultimate business statement.

New Model

E-Class Saloon.

E-Class

From just

£339 Per Month*

New Model

E-Class Estate.

From just

£349 Per Month*

E-Class

Or simply visit www.leaseamercedesbenz.co.uk for more information.

Mercedes-Benz of Redhill 12 Brighton Road, Redhill, Surrey RH1 6QL www.leaseamercedesbenz.co.uk

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9(4.1), extra urban 23.9(11.8)-85.6(3.3), combined 19.8(14.3)-74.3(3.8). CO2 emissions 334-98 g/km.

odels excluding G-Class – 3 months +35 months). Guarantees and indemnities may be required. Orders/credit approved between 1 April and 30 June 2013 and registered by 30 September s subject to change. You are receiving this e-mail as you have previously agreed to receive emails from Lookers Mercedes-Benz.

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7 – 9 august 2013

Ladies daY THURSDAY 8 AUGUST What will you be wearing?

www.brighton-racecourse.co.uk 8 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk For race times and full details please visit our website.

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Gadgets

Spending It Must-have equipment, innovative gadgetry and cool toys for the Sussex professional

COFFEE MUG The Morgan coffee mug has the shape of a classic coffee mug with all Autoseal benefits. The lid is leak-proof and spill-proof. Makes drinking made easy. The lid pivots open for easy cleaning. Durable thermo-plastic is double-walled for thermal insulation. 1 hour hot & 4 hours cold.

Contigo, $9.99. www.gocontigo.com

LADIES WATCH This stunning ladies Raymond Weil Jasmine watch has a stainless steel case and is fitted with a quartz movement. It fastens a silver metal bracelet and has a mother of pearl dial. The watch also has a date function.

Watch Warehouse, £995. www.watchwarehouse.co.uk

MESSENGER BAG Bearing the names of some of the South Coast’s most treasured seaside towns, Simon Carter’s collection of work and casual bags apply classic masculine styling to 21st century living. The Hastings messenger bag in tough cotton canvas with leather trim, is for the modern minimalist - simple, pared-down work wear. Simon Carter, £100. www.simoncarter.net

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BLUETOOTH IN-CAR SPEAKERPHONE The Jabra FREEWAY in-car speakerphone makes hands-free calls sound better than ever and makes controlling them effortless.

Jabra, £74.95. www.mobilefun.co.uk

POCKET BALLPOINT PEN

USB FLASH DRIVE The Ice London elegant silverplated largest 8GB capacity USB flash drive is perfect for keeping important files, documents, music or even photos with you at all times. Ideal for students, business people or anyone that uses a computer, your Ice London USB flash drive is presented in a luxurious draw string pouch and a fabulous gift box, with the option to engrave with a wording of your choice.

Ice London, £65. www.ice.co.uk

The Aspinal pocket ballpoint pen in 925 hallmarked sterling silver is unique, as the refill is gas pressurised, which means that the pen writes upside down or underwater! Aspinal of London, £125. www.aspinaloflondon.com

PAGEPLUS X7 Perfect for small businesses, the latest version gives people with basic office skills the power to create and print eye catching marketing materials and stationery, edit PDF’s, produce business plans, make interactive multimedia brochures and publish e-books. Serif, £81.69. www.serif.com

COFFEE MAKER By using hand-powered pressure coffee making becomes a more involving pleasure. As you become more experienced you can fine-tune how you use the ROK espresso maker to produce espressos to your personal taste. ROK, £129. www.rokkitchentools.com

IPHONE 4S CASE This iPhone 4S wallet is handmade by experienced leather craftsmen in first quality cowskin. This case allows you to sync the device through travel cable. The cases have 3 credit card slots, 1 window for documents and 1 money pocket. Soft leather lining. Foamy material inside the case to enlarge the protection of the iPhone 4S. Piel Frama, €85. www.pielframa.com

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Gadgets

BOC N ROLL Hygienic, convenient, endlessly reusable and machine-washable (wipe clean too), the Boc N Roll is a clever wrap designed to help you transport sandwiches and baguettes with ease.

Doubling up as a place mat and folding away for simple storage after use, the Boc N Roll is an eco-friendly choice.

Top Gourmet, £7.95. www.topgourmet.co.uk

STORAGE DEVICE

NECKLACE Fabulous sterling silver necklace with alternating peacock, peach and dove white freshwater pearls. Great to spruce up the office look or a black tie event.

Georgiana Scott, £89. www.georgianascott.co.uk

COPILOT APP

The Drobo Mini is easy to use, has cuttingedge Thunderbolt and USB 3.0 connectivity and innovative use of solid state drives (SSDs). Now you can take and access your valuable digital assets wherever you go.

Easiest, fastest, safest, smallest - Drobo Mini is unique and unexpected. Drobo, £549.99. www.drobo.co.uk

CARD READER MobileLite Wireless works as a portable card reader to give you unlimited access to all of your data, anywhere you are. Use it with your USB Flash drive or SD storage devices to access your videos, music, photos, files and more.

Kingston, £55. www.kingston.com

The CoPilot app is a leading mobile navigational app. Its maps are offline, meaning that you can use it abroad without it eating into your data allowance. Also, if the phone loses its signal, it doesn’t matter and the maps keep working. It includes real-time traffic routing, high quality NAVTEQ street maps, lane-assist, improved battery life for navigating on foot and much more. Compatible on both iOS and over 250 Google-certified Android smartphones and tablets.

CoPilot, from £24.99. www.copilotlive.com/uk

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Business Profile

Stand Up and Take Notice After 23 years, Posturite aren’t doing too badly for a company that started in a garden shed. In fact today, with a turnover of £15 million, the well known Sussex workplace heroes are currently the UK’s largest ergonomics company

CEO Ian FletcherPrice is the man who had the foresight Profile to target the office ergonomics market at a time when it was almost unheard of.

“It’s something of a niche market which has seen us through three recessions and we’ve continued growth steadily, year on year.

“In that time, what I’ve noticed most is that awareness of the value of ergonomics by employers has increased hugely. When we started out, this area was very much seen as a cost that occasionally became necessary, whereas today, businesses are increasingly seeing potential for a return on their investment.

“Ergonomic intervention can pay what you have spent on it back very quickly in terms of presenteeism. Workforces are being reduced, putting employees under pressure. They’re working long hours at their desks and they need to be healthy, productive and motivated. A comfortable working environment which actively prevents many of the injuries that cause distracting discomfort during the work day and eventually

cause employees to take time off work, whether it’s the odd afternoon or in some cases much longer periods of absence.

“That’s something that businesses now appreciate to a far greater extent than they once did. What’s coming to the fore now is an awareness of the dangers of static posture. Technology is increasing our tools, but when you analyse the postures we adopt when using them, it leaves a lot to be desired!

“So many people now spend eight hours in the office on a computer, then go home and spend some of their evening using computers or other devices for shopping, home businesses and entertainment. The devices are getting smaller, and the way we sit to use them is getting worse.

A Lesson from the Posture Police “Our field sales team of sixty are out there, seeing five or six companies a day, and people call us the posture police!

“The first thing I usually say to people is that their back should be in contact with the back of the chair… it’s so simple, but the moment I mention it, everybody in the office grows by a few

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Ian Fletcher-Price using a Penguin Vertical Mouse

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December 1990 at the Occupational Health conference. Ian’s first ever Trade show with Posturite. All Ian had with him was the small Posturite sign and his notebook which he says he still has to do this day.

“As we expand, we’re looking not only for growth, but for diversity.

Increasing our spread globally hopefully protects us from the inevitable wobbling of the economy” inches! It’s very simple for me because, when I look around, I see people like an x-ray machine does, as a musculoskeletal system and it’s fairly clear when you’re putting undue stress on it. So, sit with your back against your chair, and you will likely find that you need to bring your keyboard towards you, and perhaps raise your screen.

“We are creatures of habit and until an individual experiences pain, they’re not inclined to change those bad habits that they’ve had all their life. My passion is prevention of this problem: the preemptive move that stops the pain or injury developing in the first place, but that’s a harder sale. In that change of mindset is a huge amount of potential growth for Posturite.

“Of our £15m a year, 75% is curative rather than preventative. I’d like to see that statistic reversed, so that we can prevent more people from ever experiencing workplace related pain, rather than simply helping them when it occurs.”

With the experts to hand, SBT thought we’d ask how we all should be sitting.

“Movement is key. It’s ‘static posture’ which is dangerous, so we recommend alternately sitting and standing at your desk. Of course, stooping over is not ideal, hence specific desks which allow you to easily adjust the height of your entire workstation are recommended.

It may sound odd if you’re not familiar with it, but where this is provided

people do use it and it works very well for them.

“Mice are important. Put your hand by your side and bring it up – it’s in the handshake position, which is natural, and this is the pose your mouse should allow your arm and hand to be in.

Hence, we have invented the Penguin mouse.”

With such a broad array of products – both your own and other distributed brands - the Posturite offering is already comprehensive. What are you doing in order to continue the company’s growth and expansion?

“The team’s success means that I can now focus on the areas where I feel I can make the most difference, and that’s innovating new products.

I’m working on 4 right now including a UK designed and manufactured chair which I hope will revolutionise the ergonomic seating market by taking away the expensive mystery surrounding good ergonomics and making a solution affordable to everybody. It’s part of pursuing that quest for the preventative sale.

“We have and still do manufacture abroad, but increasingly we’re

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Business Profile

“We’ll be staying in Sussex. We’re bursting at the seams at the Mill, where we have been for ten years, but I’d like for us to stay there. Our customers like it; we like it” Ian Fletcher-Price at his office

looking to move that back to the UK as minimum order quantities in the Far East increase and Chinese manufacturing looks more inward than outward. It seems the right thing to do, and we receive support and assistance from the Manufacturing Advisory Service. They’ve been extremely helpful.

“I’m also focusing on opening up the export market. When you’re already the dominant player in your domestic market, it’s hard to sustain growth so we’re setting up, through distribution, in Europe, America, and the Far East. In the UK of course we sell direct, but we have to look at these areas for growth a little differently and very carefully. It’s earned me lots of air miles but not many brownie points at home!

“As we expand, we’re looking not only for growth, but for diversity.

Increasing our spread globally hopefully protects us from the inevitable wobbling of the economy. Like all business people, I’ve had knocks and negative experiences and I also see others struggling, and all of that learning increases my desire to insulate the business as much as possible.

“So, I have flights booked to set up the business in new territories as far away as Japan. As far as new products are concerned, I’m aiming for that revolutionary chair to be launched early next year and that’s really going to give the big boys a run for their money.

“We’ll be staying in Sussex. We’re bursting at the seams at the Mill, where we have been for ten years, but I’d like for us to stay there. Our customers like it; we like it; it’s a good place to

Ian Fletcher-Price with his mother receiving the Sussex Businessman of the Year Award

work and live and it contributes to our fantastic team spirit.

In fact, this summer a group of us will be travelling to Anfield to defend our title as world six-a-side corporate football champions… we won beating Google in the final last year!

“I’m very proud of the development we give our employees. Most of the field sales are recruited as Sports Science graduates or similar, with no sales experience. I always look out to see what sport they play – team sport players are generally in! It’s stood us in really good stead. We have a very low staff turnover as many of our employees have been with us for a decade or more… it’s exceptionally rewarding to offer people a platform on which they can make a career for themselves.

“The team are amazing, and

without the dedication and impressive achievements of both our sales and customer service teams working together, the company would not be where it is today.

I’m not afraid to tackle something that isn’t my own area of expertise as long as I have the right people around me. If I had one tip for small business owners, it would be to always employ the best people you can. They will drive your company forwards. If you have a focus – ours is to be the best ergonomics company in the world – don’t be afraid to be the best and you will need to employ the best in order to do that.

www.posturite.co.uk

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Chestnut Tree House 10th birthday

We are looking for companies across East and West Sussex to take part in our special 10th birthday £50 Challenge for Chestnut Tree House. We will give you £50 and 4 months to organise some fundraising events and activities and grow this money to provide vital funds to help children with life-limiting illnesses.

Sign up today and celebrate Chestnut Tree House’s 10th Birthday.

Call Terrina Barnes on 01903 871846 or email terrina.barnes@chestnut-tree-house.org.uk 16 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk

Registered charity no. 256789

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Better Broadband

Businesses Need to Say Yes to Better Broadband

David Rogers, Cllr Chris Dowling and Quentin King

However, it is too costly for broadband providers to invest Advice unless they know that there is a strong demand for superfast broadband.

With the ‘go e-sussex’ campaign, ESCC is encouraging thousands of residents and businesses across the county who are disadvantaged by slow or lack of broadband access to sign up.

Almost 12,000 homes and businesses to date have registered their support through our ‘go e-sussex’ campaign and ESCC still needs more. A significant number of registrations will demonstrate high levels of demand to the telecoms industry, ultimately helping home and businesses in the county who are suffering from poor internet access and speed.

One business owner who is backing the campaign is Quentin Harwood of Harwood King Fine Art Studios in Newhaven.

Harwood King produces high quality prints from original artwork, using classic silk-screening methods as well as high definition digital printing. But, as Quentin explained, the business is severely hampered by the poor broadband service to the premises: “The digital printing side of the business is itching to expand but we just haven’t got the capability to send

A campaign urging the public to register its support for a better broadband service across East Sussex is calling for support from the business community. ‘Go e-sussex’ is an initiative led by East Sussex County Council (ESCC) to give everyone in the county access to faster, more reliable broadband. ESCC has secured funding to work with a telecoms partner to install the necessary infrastructure across the county

and receive large image files. We are managing to get around the problem by using a remote server but this means that we cannot work on large files in-house. We work with artists all over the world, many in countries that are supposedly less developed than ours, but it always seems to be me who has problems up and downloading.

Newhaven is an industrial area of East Sussex, so we should have a decent broadband service.

“However, I am encouraged that someone now seems to be tackling the problem and I’m really pleased that East Sussex County Council is putting in so much effort to help businesses and households get the broadband service that we need to be able to compete with the rest of the world.”

Enhancing the digital provision will make East Sussex a far more accessible place to live and work. It will mean having a fast, reliable internet service regardless of where you live; the ability to access online services quickly and easily, being able to work from home without worrying about losing your connection to your

colleagues and clients. It will attract new business into the county and boost the local economy.

Registering your interest does not mean you will have to subscribe to the service when it’s launched, but saying “Yes to superfast broadband” will directly help everyone in East Sussex receive a faster, more reliable service.

Visit www.goesussex.co.uk to complete the online registration form (phone on 01273 335991 if you require a paper copy). This website also features information and news updates about the project and Frequently Asked Questions about broadband.

If you have already registered, tell your colleagues, clients and suppliers about ‘go e-sussex’ so they can also register their interest for faster broadband.

Quentin King

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Better Broadband

About ‘go e-sussex’ Cllr Chris Dowling, David Rogers and Quentin King

‘Go e-sussex’ is an East Sussex County Council initiative to bring superfast broadband to East Sussex.

The project will deliver the infrastructure needed to provide faster broadband to at least 90% of the county, whilst ensuring a minimum broadband speed of 2 Mbps to everyone in East Sussex. This uses funding available from central Government now, together with £15m from the County Council.

The project needs to prove current demand for superfast broadband in East Sussex and to keep showing that people and businesses want it and will use it. Without this evidence, telecoms companies will not take the risk on investing in an area where they believe there is little demand.

Every registration will count and will help demonstrate that East Sussex is serious about getting faster, more reliable broadband.

Some of the Ways Superfast Broadband Will Help Businesses:

Quentin King

Provide increased efficiency, saving both time and money • Download large file sizes, heavy/multi-media content • Access multiple applications • Access to video conferencing / webinars and VoIP services • On-demand access to applications and software through cloud - based services

Why Businesses Should Say Yes to Superfast Broadband Broadband is increasingly becoming essential to business growth. While most organisations have a presence online, the internet offers a wealth of opportunities for e-commerce and meaningful customer engagement which will lead to increased sales.

Faster broadband provides a more flexible and cost-effective way of working and gives businesses of all sizes an advantage - be they micro-businesses, SMEs or larger organisations.

Provide administrative efficiency through: • Online banking • Invoicing and ordering online • Paying salaries and suppliers Offer the choice to work flexibly from home • reducing carbon footprint • controlling real estate expenditure when expanding workforce

Superfast broadband will also give East Sussex the competitive edge it needs to attract outside investors and businesses looking to set up or relocate. This will create further opportunities for existing businesses, boost employment and strengthen the local economy.

Increase sales by engaging with customers through social media platforms • targeted campaigns • instant promotions • trend spotting

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12/06/2013 10:23

Decision-Making Tool Wins Excellence prize A new decision-making tool designed by researchers at the University of Portsmouth Business School has been praised as outstanding for its potential contribution to business.

Dr Alessio Ishizaka, Dr Philippe Nemery and colleagues won the Outstanding Paper Award for the Literati Network Awards for Excellence 2013.

Their research on sorting methods, used by decision makers in all sectors including finance, the environment, marketing and medical diagnosis, has the potential to help improve the results of complex decisions.

Dr Ishizaka is an expert in decision analysis in Portsmouth Business School and Dr Nemery is a mathematician.

In their study, they examined 20 small and medium sized businesses in France to assess the quality of their decisions and the success of each business.

They found existing decision-making tools, widely used by businesses, give results which are too broad to be meaningful and, as a result, are unable to help a decision maker make radical improvements.

Instead, the researchers developed and tested a finer detailed and visually graphic model, which they say will make it much easier for businesses learn and grow.

Dr Ishizaka said: “Companies prosper or fail as a direct result of decisions taken by managers or stakeholders, so it’s vital the way they make decisions is examined.

“Several decision-making tools exist but they provide raw, quantitative data rather than richer qualitative results which give decision makers true insight into multi-criteria problems.”

The new model allows decision makers to compare different actions and outcomes on a visual scale.

When the model was tested it gave a huge degree of detail about each companies’ strengths and weaknesses, which no previous models had been able to do.

Dr Ishizaka said: “This new model allows us to understand each company compared to its competitors. We could see, for example, that a company was good at project management but weak at human resource management, while a second was good at

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Sharper businessdecisions: Dr Alessio Ishizaka

knowledge management but poor at product development, giving a much fuller measure of each companies’ capabilities.

“Existing models give flatter results, for example, ranking companies from best to worst, even if all the companies are performing poorly, and with no detail on which aspects were needing attention and which were being managed well.

“In our case study we could see immediately, once analysis was done, that even the best-ranked company still had room for improvement. That sort of detailed information is of significant help to anyone whose job is to make the best decisions, whether they are in finance, medicine or any other sector.”

Their research is published in the latest edition of the Journal of Modelling Management.

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www.port.ac.uk P 16-19 Broadband SBT June 2013.indd 19

For more information or to apply: T: +44 (0)23 9284 4888 E: mba.admissions@ www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk port.ac.uk 19 W: www.port.ac.uk/mba

12/06/2013 10:25

A New Wave of Talent The Technology, Innovation, Design and Learning Hub - ‘TIDAL Hub’ has been conceptually established to help both employers and employees by kitting people out with the skills employers really need.

SBT speaks to Stephen Mason, philanthropist and CEO of Mason International Group about the project and filling that skills gap.

“57% of employers in US and UK cannot find enough skilled entry level workers (27 vacancies per large employer)”; “Educators and Employers operating in different spheres, each needs to understand and step into the others sphere and students to move between the two” - Economist

December 2012

“It’s obvious that universities and other educational facilities Insight are not, as it stands, providing the right skills for the jobs that are currently out there. Unemployment levels are high, yet employers have jobs open that they’re struggling to fill with correctly skilled staff.

“It became clear to me that we need the captains of industry to specify what they want, so that we can then ensure that our educational facilities are turning out the right product: properly, appropriately skilled people.

“The UK currently leads the world in innovation and design, but jobs are going abroad because that’s where the people with the right abilities are.

“Our vision for the TIDAL hub is to pull together Business, Higher Education and the Government to provide targeted education that closes the skills and innovation gap in the UK and matches students to job vacancies across business, creative and digital sectors.

“We want to create the UKs future employees, managers, business owners and entrepreneurs, who will contribute to the financial and social economy, create jobs and businesses, and generate tax revenues. It’s a ‘win win’ situation - students will

gain employment, Universities will generate revenue through attracting new students by offering employment on completion of study and employers are provided with those hard-to-find employees.

The aim of the TIDAL hubs, then, is to develop creative, innovative technology hubs in the heart of the UK’s foremost cities, working with higher education, senior local businesses and local government. We have great opportunities to capitalise on, especially in Brighton, where the culture of the city attracts really bright creative minds. The UK in general is very strong in design, technology, creativity, innovation, arts, education and environment, so it’s a very exciting prospect and a perfect fit for Brighton, particularly. The hubs need to be located in trendy, appealing places in order to attract the right people, and by looking at it from a student’s perspective you can see why somewhere cool like Brighton would be the right place for this.

So how will it work?

A Master Community Interest Company (CIC) will be created and granted licence to the IP, branding and business contacts of Stephen Mason, which will allow a national ‘roll out’ program, where regional CICs will be created and be granted assignment licences from the master CIC. Like-minded

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Tidal Hub

high profile philanthropists will own the Master CIC, and the regional CIC’s will be owned between local Business champions, University, local Government and recognised philanthropists.

The regional infrastructure will be a combination of local University (providing buildings, infrastructure, education, gravitas and budget), local

and commit to how many qualifying students they will employ per year from the hub. Essentially, they are putting an order in for a given number of people with specific skills, which the TIDAL hub will produce.

“It’s not just a business matter – it’s the beginning of a new era in creative education. Universities will be creating learning opportunities that educate

employers on how to include disabled people in the workforce. Scholarships will be awarded to 10% of students who are deemed underprivileged or disadvantaged and 10% of students who are considered exceptionally talented, entrepreneurial, highly motivated and hard working, ensuring a diverse range of opportunities open to all, and a chance for businesses to

“This year we will have a deficit of 60,000 engineering graduates.

Who will develop our future technologies?”

- James Dyson, Interview 15th Jan 2013.

Business Champions (providing jobs, reality, and sponsorship) and local Government (providing buildings, contacts, budget and politics).

To stay contemporary and fashionable it is imperative the regional hubs have independence over local providers.

This will enable the Hubs to hold onto their vision and remain ‘cutting edge’, delivering a focused and relevant education that is attractive to the students.

How will businesses be involved?

The TIDAL hubs will produce students who are innovative, creative thinkers.

They’ll be ‘fit for purpose’ and highly employable to industry, so it’s very beneficial for businesses. Those involved directly will work together with the University in advance to identify the key skills required by Industry. The sponsoring business will then determine

the students in the relevant hard and soft skills identified by the diverse business sectors, from employment in high street technology shops, to fashion and product designers, and software and hardware engineers.

Students can attain credits that build towards varying levels of qualification including short courses, undergraduate, postgraduate and doctoral studies, and can match this to the career they want as appropriate so that they’re doing exactly the right amount of studying in the right subjects.

“Students become educated and trained and achieve empowerment, feel a purpose, gain respect, contribute to the UK economy and become socially responsible. In turn, TIDAL Hubs aim to offer 10% of their places to disabled students, thus ensuring education and employment for disabled people and experience and training for

access the employees that will be right for them, whatever their background.

Capital expenditure from Universities, local and national government will provide the buildings suitably equipped.

In addition there will be on-going revenue from students fees and business sponsorship.

TidalHub is really going to reinvigorate the UK market by turning out people with versatile skills, so they can become contributors to the UK economy rather than adding to the unemployment figures when they finish their further education. As well as helping to solve unemployment, this will help companies that are currently sourcing their talent abroad to locate in the UK, further contributing to the economy. With each regional hub building to an output of 1,000 skilled people per year, we’re ready for a revolution in education.

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12/06/2013 10:02

Challenger Banks – The New Boys on the Lending Block?

SME’s frustrated at risk-averse traditional high street lenders, reluctant to take on growing companies, are seeking alternative sources of finance via the new breed of Challenger banks.

“An “economically damaging” shortage of lending to small and medium-sized companies cannot be blamed on weak demand or the poor quality of applicants”

Many of the familiar banking names – Finance despite the vital role Insight they are being asked to play in getting the economy back on its feet by the government and Bank of England - are still seen as risk-averse by SME owners, take too long to make decisions and, when they do lend, impose stringent terms. As a consequence, growing companies are starting to turn either to equity investors, raise asset-backed finance, or increasingly alternative lenders such as the Challenger banks, which are looking to expand and are therefore less risk-averse.

According to a recent London summit attended by businessmen the belief is still that mainstream lenders are extremely cautious and typically want onerous terms and when you sit down with the relationship manager - who doesn’t have any decision-making powers. But there are other banks, not the top four or five, that are willing and are concentrating on small and mid-sized companies where a more equal dialogue can be had where it was felt you were not coming in with your begging bowl and having to make your case at the high altar.

David Ascott corporate finance partner with Grant Thornton, who coorganised the summit with the Daily

Telegraph, agreed that banks were not doing enough to support SME’s. He said: “It’s a really strange market – for good propositions, there is lots of finance chasing those opportunities and providing good terms. But for businesses in the middle, it’s difficult, and for businesses in unloved sectors or who don’t have great growth plans, it’s very difficult – the doors are closed.”

Around 85% of all business loans are currently handled by Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Lloyds.

Independent research commissioned by the Government has also recently rejected banks’ claims that their consistently weak lending to small businesses is simply down to a lack of desire for credit. In findings that will put more pressure on lenders, the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) said that there is clear evidence of on-going tight credit supply conditions, well after the height of the economic crisis.

The researchers blamed a combination of banks’ attitude to risk, pressure to improve their capital positions and the negative impact of the stranglehold that four giant high street banks have on SME lending. The report, presented to ministers last month at the Business Department, warns that the lack of credit supply will have “adverse effects on economic performance in the long term as well as the short

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term”. NIESR said output, investment and employment will all be “lower than would otherwise be the case” if the problem is not resolved.

The report does accept that demand for credit from small businesses is also “probably” subdued. However, it says this is partly down to a “high level of discouragement from application” for loans as well as the continued high cost of borrowing for small businesses, as cuts in interest rates by the Bank of England have not been not passed on.

NIESR, which analysed SME lending data from between 2001 and 2012, found, that small and medium-sized companies that pose a low or average credit risk have been hit hardest by the credit squeeze which followed the financial crisis. This is “suggestive of a partial withdrawal from SME lending” as an asset class, it said. Economic uncertainty has seen a shift away from small business lending in favour of larger businesses, the study said.

It also found that regulatory requirements for banks to hold more capital are hitting smaller companies much harder than big business.

These rules, designed to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis, “could disproportionately restrict access to finance for SMEs”, NIESR said.

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, is hoping to tackle the issue through the state Business Bank which is being set up in an attempt to stimulate a range of alternative finance providers and so-called “Challenger banks” with cheap wholesale finance to bring more competition into the market. Around 85% of all business loans are currently handled by Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Lloyds.

Who are the ‘Challenger banks’ and what do they offer differently?

The new so-called Challenger banks such as Handelsbanken, Aldermore, Shawbrook Bank and Metro, are riding high at the moment, hailed as saviours of small and medium-sized businesses with their promise of better customer

service, faster loan decisions, and none of the baggage or toxic debt problems of the main banks.

Aldermore for example recorded its first full year profit as it grew its loans to home owners and small businesses by more than 77% last year.

The four year-old bank said it has now lent more than £1bn to small companies and a further £1bn to mortgage borrowers – and that it intends to expand its balance sheet by £1.5bn this year.

Aldermore’s balance sheet grew to £2.5bn in 2012, with retail deposits growing by 60% and it made a net profit of £800,000 compared with a £900,000 loss in the previous year. Phillip Monks, Aldermore’s chief executive, said: “We started with just 30 people and now we have 600 – that’s comes from doing what our customers want. They come to us because we’ve got a straightforward banking model in a marketplace that is hungry for change.”

The bank largely relies on deposits from retail savers and deposits from small businesses for its lending and offers only a very limited number of products to its 15,000 SME customers and 7000 mortgage borrowers. Mr Monks said while there is untapped demand from high quality borrowers they are not simply offering loans to customers “that established lenders have turned away. There is an element that people are hacked off with their bank, from mis-selling scandals to million pound bonuses.”

Aldermore is one of a small group of new banks trying to challenge Britain’s high street banks. These include others such as Metro, Handlesbanken and Shawbrook Bank whose names are appearing more as genuine alternatives for funding – faster and with more simple products than the traditional banks can seemingly deliver. The Challenger’s will also entertain interest only facilities, against certain criteria, whereas interest only is virtually extinct in the high street. They are also prepared to discuss and accept minor

ABOVE: Around 85% of all business loans are currently handled by Barclays, Royal Bank of Scotland, HSBC and Lloyds.

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credit misdemeanours such as genuine late payment errors rather than any adverse credit issue being an automatic show stopper.

The Challengers have offices around the country but no branch network and no plans to establish them - the refreshing return of lenders visiting customers and kicking the tyres rather than dragging them into the high street! The lack of the branch network means also that there is no requirement for a new borrower to ‘switch’ their banking, causing administrative issues and inconvenience for suppliers and customers. The Challenger’s therefore offer stand-alone facilities for commercial loans, similar to residential mortgages, but their range of products are more limited and terms have very little flexibility. The key point though is that they can process applications seemingly much quicker and availability of funds thereafter is faster also.

The Challengers also do not have call centres! When it emerged recently that Bank of England Governor, Sir Mervyn King, had advised a disgruntled small business owner to seek a loan from a new bank such as Handelsbanken, after he was turned down by his existing bank, the phones at Handelsbanken started ringing off the hook because the Swedish-owned bank has no call centre and all phone calls go through to local branches, causing an unexpected frenzy of activity.

Not all attempts to enter the Challenger banking world however have worked – the Co-op recently had to pull

out of its £750M deal to buy 630 Lloyds Bank branches. Its chief executive, Peter Marks, explained that “the juice wasn’t worth the squeeze” but leaving aside his choice of liquid refreshment, the mouse, it seemed, had also been unable to swallow the whale.

Mr Marks’ vision for the Co-op was of a retail operation with a very nice bank attached. Co-op food stores, boosted by the purchase of Somerfield, would work seamlessly with what would become the sixth-largest high street bank in the UK. Acquiring Britannia in 2009 provided the pastry. Lloyds was the meaty filling.

The filling proved toxic as risk appetite at board level at the Co-op declined markedly after the group announced dismal annual results in March. There were concerns over how long the economic recovery in the UK would take and finally endless regulatory uncertainty added a layer of unnecessary complexity.

Are Challenger banks the answer for higher-risk SME’s ?

The Challenger banks are not going to be the conduit to a return to the pre 2008 days where banks lent with less diligence around serviceability than they should have, and acted often more either as pawnbroker’s looking primarily at their security position, or venture capitalists taking a punt, without the possibility of suitable equity rewards.

Although the Challengers are more approachable to discuss and fashion a proposition, they are still looking at

quality propositions and are not going to be the source of funding that a business itself should be finding or its main beneficiaries should be putting down as their stake.

Not all is lost however, Vernon Hill, the American boss of Metro Bank, has called for the Government to overhaul the Enterprise Finance Guarantee scheme as the “only way” to get vital lending to small firms. Metro, which was in 2010 the first bank to set up in Britain in more than 100 years, has urged the Government to boost the size of the scheme and radically relax the collateral rules so that the EFG can grow like a similar scheme in the US. Mr Hill has described the EFG as “small, ineffective and nobody uses it.”

Mr Hill said of the ‘Small Business Administration’ government programme in America. “It’s a massive government guarantee system for small business lending. It’s designed to guarantee loans that fit in that gap between those companies who are strong enough not to need it and those that are so weak we shouldn’t be giving them loans no matter what. There’s a gap. He added: “If I were to do one thing to spur lending, I would dramatically overhaul the EFG, make it bigger, more robust, more authority in the banks, modernise the collateral rules. It’s the mechanics.

EFG is the one specific area that I can see would help.”

Mr Hill has been awarded the Institute of Economic Affair’s Free Enterprise Award whose previous winners include Baroness Thatcher and Sir Richard Branson. The IEA says that Hill is a “remarkable entrepreneur who has identified a clear opportunity and entered the UK banking scene at a time when the sector has been under constant fire.” He has shown “incredible perseverance and imagination,” the IEA said. As one of the new leaders of the Challenger banks it is refreshing and welcome that there is not just fresh blood but also willingness for a fresh outlook and approach. Anything that adds to competition and makes the commercial funding market work better is to be encouraged.

Graham Carn, Senior Partner, Blackstones Consulting [If you have any comments or queries on this article please email: blackstones@btinternet.com

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A Recovery in Sight

“A recovery is in sight” says Mervyn King as he departs the Bank of England - is he right and what will it look like?

According to Sir Mervyn King, the Finance outgoing Governor of Insight the Bank of England, the UK now has recovery in sight.

An interesting and bold statement perfectly timed as it was almost his last before he retires and hands over to Mark Carney, the Canadian central banking super-hero from which much is expected in radical thought and “monetary activism”. It occurs to me that King’s retirement report could be slightly influenced by his wanting to associate credit to his having steered the way through the longest and worst recession in modern times and laid the foundations for better times ahead – but that may be just too cynical?

In fairness what King said has been consistent with previous recent comments. In February, for instance, he said: “The UK economy is therefore set for a recovery……” basing those comments on the steady growth of the services and manufacturing sectors, which grew by 1.2% over 2012, which he likened to the “headline” growth rate of 1.5% seen in the US, and the weakness in overall output, which then were largely attributed to sharp falls in construction, were not expected to be repeated in 2013.

What are the UK ‘recovery’ facts?

In King’s final inflation report press conference the key, and no doubt very well considered, quote was “Today’s projections are for growth to be a little stronger and inflation a little weaker than we expected three months ago.” I noted the ‘today’s projections’ qualifier but the news nonetheless was positive, and further encouragement for business coming off the fact that the UK had avoided the technical tripledip. However it’s all relative. Even on the Bank’s newly revised forecasts, GDP won’t be above its pre-crisis peak

Sir Mervyn King

until halfway through 2014 and as King also noted, the rebalancing of the UK economy will be a slow process.

The statistics: Output at the end of this year is now expected to be 1.5% higher than at the start, rather better than the 1.2% the Bank was expecting in February, and inflation less of a problem with the new forecast for it to hit 3% later this year before falling close to the 2% target by the end of 2014. That’s fully a year earlier than was previously projected. But King, on behalf of the Monetary Policy Committee, also underlined just how dependant this forecast is on events elsewhere. It named a sustained global recovery as its top key judgement and sustaining a recovery in the Euro area, which is proving as difficult as ever.

As far as UK employment was concerned the rate fell to 71.4% in Q1 2013 but the recent strong run of job creation appears to be spluttering. That weakness is showing up in people’s pay packets with average wages in Q1 growing by just 0.4% year on year. In fact taking just the month of March on its own, wages are now fractionally less than they were a year ago. With inflation at 2.8% this means that the squeeze on consumer spending continues.

For businesses selling to individuals, whether goods or services, this is of concern.

“The European Central Bank believes the Eurozone will return to growth before the end of the year, but weak business surveys challenge that forecast”

ABOVE: Sir Marvtn King

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UK Economic Recoveries

What is the biggest threat to sustained growth?

Assuming we can put our own house in order – and that is still quite a big

116 Real GDP, Quarter of trough = 100

What sort of recovery is likely?

The post 2008 recession was a lot deeper and a lot longer than recessions in our recent memories and we should therefore not optimistically expect that the recovery will be as we have been used to either. There is a danger that we see things a bit too much in black and white – we are in recession, and things are bad, or we are experiencing growth and things are good! The ‘boom and bust’ mentality is well ingrained and although, of course, business would like a return to trading conditions more associated with ‘boom’ going forward, recovery is very much less likely to involve the more rapid growth seen following recessions in the past but more a very gradual growth. If the economy is now indeed on the verge of recovery, what is that recovery going to look like - as our recession bumped along, flat-lining between very weak positive growth and falling back into negative figures, is our recovery likely to be similar?

We must remember that the recession in the UK, and elsewhere, was triggered by the credit crisis in 2007 which then compounded the subsequent realisation that both sovereign debt positions and the balance between income and expenditure commitments were unsustainable. These major imbalances very largely still exist, and are only beginning to be addressed, so when recovery comes it will be against this background and three other key factors which affect demand for goods and services: • As with public sector debt there is still significant private debt.

• Lower income growth within both the public sector and private is threatened further by inflationary pressures.

• Continuing problems with availability of credit to spark growth.

The main integral element to speed of recovery is confidence and against these background conditions confidence will be limited so a more gradual recovery, in much lower growth numbers, is the more likely outcome. The worry will also remain that something can easily blow things off track.

114 112 110 106 104 102 100 0

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Q1 1981

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EURO ZONE PMI & GDP GROWTH Euro zone GDP QoQ% change (right-axis) Euro Zone Services PMI* - Latest: 47 Euro Zone Manufacturing PMI* - Latest: 46.7

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Reuters Graphic/Scott Barber 5/6/2013

assumption - one of the strongest potential threats to UK recovery is events within the Eurozone. Their recession is now 18 months long and Eurostat’s Q1 GDP estimate made for grim reading across the continent.

France was told that it’s in another recession as output shrank by 0.2% for the second quarter in a row. Whilst Italy saw a contraction of 0.5% quarter on quarter making almost two years of falling output. The Spanish economy was 0.5% smaller in Q1 than in Q4 2012 while output in Cyprus shrank by 1.3% quarter on quarter. Even Germany got disappointing news.

Growth was positive in Q1, at just 0.1%, but the previous quarter’s results were revised down to a fall of 0.7%.

08

09

10

11

-3

12

Source: Thomson Reuters Datastream, Markit

Overall this gloomy set of figures means that the Eurozone stayed in recession, contracting by 0.2% in Q1 and extending the slump into its sixth quarter.

Not all is doom and gloom however - industrial production showed signs of improvement as it rose by 1% in March, the strongest month-to-month increase since July 2011. But despite this monthly rise, industrial production was still 1.7% lower than it was last year.

The pace of decline slowed in many countries of the monetary bloc and over the first quarter of the year production rose by 0.3%, rebounding from a sharp decline of 2.1% in Q4 2012. Prospects for Q2 haven’t started well though. The ZEW index which measures economic

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sentiment in Germany remained depressed in May at 36.4, a substantial fall from the 48.6 recorded as recently as March.

Europe is clearly our nearest and biggest trading partner so for businesses trading there, in the wider global arena such as America, China, Japan etc. what is happening in those individual countries will very directly affect them. All businesses however, directly involved abroad or not, will be touched by events that are out of our control. A new flare up in the Eurozone certainly appears to be our biggest worry but there are concerns too that in the US recent tax rises and spending cuts will have a negative effect on their previously improving figures – GDP Growth of 2.5% in Q1 2013, for China the sustainability or speed of decline their recent growth is under the spotlight, and for Japan whether its export-led growth can be sustained – 3.5% in Q1 2013.

The majority stance at the European Central Bank (ECB) is that the region

will return to growth before the end of the year, but weak business surveys do challenge that forecast and there is little to suggest yet that fiscal austerity and institutional reforms are working.

Efforts to reduce interest rates to historic lows, providing liquidity to banks, and pledging to back Eurozone government bonds have helped resolve past sovereign-debt panics and there is now less worry of a Eurozone breakup and regional stock markets have rallied in recent months, but the GDP numbers don’t back up investors’ confidence.

What can and should SME’s do?

So what is happening abroad has much potential to blow us off course but as an island trading nation that was ever the case. We are receiving much advice, of course, some of which is conflicting. The IMF, for example, in its recent report is now suggesting the government do more for growth, whilst not turning its back on the austerity measures it initially supported.

Whatever balance between getting our

“There is much hard work ahead to build upon green shoots, but the fact that we can now talk about seeing recovery happening is a good and positive step” Quarterly Change to Confidence Index 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 -5 -10

Q1 2013

Q3 2012

Q1 2012

Q3 2011

Q1 2011

Q3 2010

Q1 2010

Q3 2009

Q1 2009

Q3 2008

Q1 2008

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-20

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-15

spending back in order and selectively investing and encouraging growth via house building stimuli, infrastructure projects, or whatever is going to be a difficult one. The truth is no-one has a definitive answer or timescale for action.

What we mustn’t do is become rabbits in the headlights. Constant press coverage and analysis of the pro’s and con’s and conflicting views does little to help build the confidence we need and make us feel there are solid foundations once more upon which we can base positive business decisions and behaviours. I believe Mervyn King is right to say that our recovery is in sight but I think what is really important is that we now need a discussion to manage our expectations as to what that recovery will look like and feel like for SME’s and other businesses around the country.

It is likely that we will continue to be in unsettled financial times for the foreseeable future and that will impact on sustainable and worthwhile growth. The confidence and increased certainties we need will only come as we reach national consensus on how to deal with the macro financial issues within our society that will include addressing the major social spending problems surrounding health and retirement. The solutions to those and their impact on individuals and businesses are not for this article but they are the elephant in the room and the iceberg that we know is out there.

Business by its nature wants to prosper and grow, and individuals within businesses are focused towards that goal. I see that determination every day and above all that is what will determine the speed and rate of UK recovery fuelled by confidence we are dealing with our major financial imbalances.

All the time we remain shackled to uncertainty as to how we address our historic debts and balance our budgets going forward growth will be limited. “A recovery is in sight” quotation from the Governor of the BoE does not mean it is all over, there is much hard work ahead to build upon green shoots, but the fact that we can now talk about seeing recovery happening is a good and positive step.

Graham Carn, Senior Partner, Blackstones Consulting blackstones@btinternet.com

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Peter, a co-op member waters the green roof of the Brighton shop

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The Eco The ProfiIndustry t Maker Inside

THERE’S NO ‘I’ IN TEAM

They’re Brighton’s biggest independent employer. Their profits are above inflation year after year. They’ve won the accolade of Best Food Shop in the Brighton Foodie Awards for three years running, and are one of the UKs leading wholesale distributors of organic, natural foods. They are also a workers co-operative founded upon strong beliefs. SBT looks at the unconventional success of Infinity Foods.

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“I think its really helped us that food prices have had to go up whereas ours have stayed the same because they never were over-inflated.”

- Dexter Bailey

When Infinity Foods was launched in the late 1960s by a small Profile group of people with big beliefs, it would have been difficult for them to have predicted its enduring success.

Originally a small shop on Church Road in Brighton in 1971, Infinity was set up to serve healthy foods in their raw state - whole foods as they have become known today - with unadulterated ingredients. It was soon operating along the lines of a cooperative and by 1974 it had moved to its North Road location, where the shop and its in-store bakery remains today. The founders, by this time had left, but the original concept remains and today the workers co-operative is 100 members strong. So what has been the secret of its success? How has the co-operative maintained their strong beliefs and reconciled them with building a successful business? We spoke to Dexter Bailey at Infinity Foods to find out.

Firstly, it is evident that like all good

businesses, Infinity has responded and adapted to the mood of the moment.

Whilst it would have once been a niche area, “there became a bigger and bigger demand for wholesale during the 1980s and so a group of people moved away from the shop to set up a wholesale business. In the 1990s, we opened a cafe.” The 90s, he explains was also a time when people’s awareness of where their food came from increased.

“This has always been a subject at the very core of our business. A lot of our fresh organic produce has always come from local farms and people can meet our suppliers and growers. Then eight years ago, there were a lot of television programmes such as ‘You Are What You Eat’ and people became aware of what’s behind the food they are eating as well as exactly what they are putting into their mouths.

Around the same time, on the retail side, the co-operative took on “a group of people with a lot of experience who introduced a stock ordering system for the majority of our foods and that was a big turnaround, being able to use modern technology to see at a glance

A group shot of some of the workers taken soon after the shop extension

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The Eco Profit Maker

what is popular and what is not” claims Bailey. This leads him on to the second point - that the co-operative has a very simple yet effective sales philosophy.

“We sell what people want, and what people don’t want, we don’t have on the shelf. We always try to experiment with new products, especially if its a local company, or supporting the organic movement, but if something’s not popular we try something new and try and keep up with demand that way.

It’s a combination of customer requests and our knowledge of what’s available from our suppliers.”

Whilst ensuring that they stock what customers really want, on a wider level the ethical approach behind Infinity Foods resonates with their customers’ wider beliefs and this is a group of people which has undoubtedly grown in recent years. “In the 70s and 80s it was really a labour of love” Bailey claims of what would have been a niche business “but the general cynicism of the public of other forms of business has been on our side since. I think people are cynical of the supermarkets when they put their prices up and there are a small group of shareholders reaping the profits.”

This, of course taps into the fact that Infinity is an alternative shopping experience to the big supermarket chains. But how do they compete with their prices? After all, even the most ethical of shoppers are demanding cheaper food that’s still high quality.

“A lot of our local farm produce hasn’t risen in price, and food prices have risen generally, but because the chain of supply of a lot of our produce is already negotiated on a fair basis, the supermarkets aren’t able to offer cheap prices on many things anymore in comparison” Bailey explains. “When I look around a supermarket, I’m shocked at how expensive some things are. I look and I say, we’re cheaper on that, that and that.” So, whilst public perception is still that organic is more expensive, the reality, today bucks this misconception.

“That’s the reputation it has” agrees Bailey “and at the beginning it was more expensive. Organic food has a lower yield because the levels of pest control don’t exist. The movement itself has gained momentum and its learnt a lot, and there is a method of growing to produce a better yield from organic crops and that makes a big difference

Ian, a co-op member and baker making the sourdough bread sold in the artisan in-store bakery

to the price. When I looked at nonorganic baking potatoes they were £1.50 a kilo in the supermarket and ours are 99p and they’re organic. I think its really helped us that food prices have had to go up whereas ours have stayed the same because they never were over-inflated.”

Infinity have built a reputation as an ethical supplier of Fairtrade and Organic foods in which these customers trust.

“We have guidelines on the ethics we work with which have been agreed upon by everyone in the co-operative” explains Bailey. The co-operative, he goes on to elaborate, are also guided by their customer’s concerns. In times

when an issue arises of public concern, such as the recent concerns about palm oil, Infinity Foods takes it upon themselves to do their research. In this case “it was a difficult area to research as it was an unmapped path and process but it was a concern to enough of our customers that we want to respond to that and we did our research to ensure that to our best ability we weren’t supporting a massive palm oil industry who were chopping down the rainforest to exist. A lot of the people who work here were once customers, so they have that mindset, they are aware of food production and are aware of the pros and cons of food production

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The Eco Profit Maker

are, what’s acceptable and what isn’t so that we can remain in an ethical place.

Its what makes us happy about our job.

A lot of people here have taken pay cuts to be here.” It’s a different agenda and of course the dedication that comes from upholding strong beliefs adds value to the business and is what their reputation is built on. The research is not structured, there are quite often that one of the co-operative has an interest are in a certain area and they undertake it. “And on the wholesale side, they always look into where their food is coming from and they are selling it on to people who expect a standard from them for their customers” says Bailey.

“1 in 4 UK shoppers now regularly buy several products carrying the Fairtrade mark and retail sales of Fairtrade products increased by 72% in 2007” claims the Infinity Foods website and there is no doubt that the store is busy. The store, in the heart of the North Laines, is thriving, even with its relatively new expansion. “It was such a relief when the shop next door let us know that they were moving on. We were so pleased! On Saturdays it was impossible, we couldn’t stock the shop because the queues went up every aisle and it was impossible to get round the shop. Being able to extend was an enormous advantage, there was a real need for it, it was almost like it exploded next door anyway. It’s made for a much more pleasant shopping experience for everyone”, says Bailey.

Of course, for a workers co-operative, it could have been a tough decision to take. “We all took a pay cut to extend the shop, and we had to employ a lot more staff to make it work and that meant we all took a cut in profit share to allow that to happen, so we’d only want to do that occasionally” says Bailey, “but we all knew we needed a bigger shop and it was what we had to do.” However, it transpired that the cooperative are “also in the lucky position that we bought a chunk of the shop years ago, and we own it. We lease the bit at the back from the council and we lease next door, but we own the central building and the flats above it and that makes a difference because we don’t have to pay rent for that section” he continues.

So whilst Infinity are enjoying success, they are, arguably, no longer unique, but that doesn’t seem to have

Ivan, a co-op member in the vegetable section

“There is a method of growing to produce a better yield from organic crops and that makes a big difference to the price.”

- Dexter Bailey

affected their profits. “We’ve never really been threatened by other businesses that have opened locally. ‘Bills’ hasn’t affected us, and neither did ‘Thornes’ when it opened and sold organic meat” claims Bailey. “I didn’t think that was going to stick around when it opened - there was a lot of floor space and not enough products and the quantity of sales that would be needed to pay the rent just didn’t stack up. When Bills opened down the road people said “don’t you think that will be a threat?” but it hasn’t, its been complimentary.

We send people down there if they have stuff we don’t, but they’ve closed most of the retail side down. I have a friend who worked there and they just weren’t doing that well with that side, so they adapted, which is the clever thing to do in business” he notes. “There was a definite increase in our sales when Taj

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The Eco Profit Maker

closed, though, we got a lot busier.”

So it seems that Infinity’s retail and wholesale business are thriving, despite the recession. “Increases in profits have been above inflation each year” claims Bailey “which has been wonderful because we have had to employ more staff, and because we share out profits we’ve been able to do that.”

Of course, like any business right now, there is work behind the scenes to maintain profile. Our PR team (which is in house and made up of co-op members) makes sure we know what competitions are going on and we like to get our name in the right places. I like our name to be in the Sussex and Brighton Business Awards - I like our name to be there to keep our profile up in the city.” As a result, Infinity Foods were shortlisted in the most responsible business in the Sussex Business Awards and have won the Best Food Shop in the Brighton Foodie Awards for three years running. They have also won a handful of national awards and set aside money each year to donate to local charities and projects. They really are what they preach.

With things going so well, its tempting to imagine that there is room for growth with this business, but this is not their aim. “At the moment, the concept of expanding feels unwise” says Bailey.

“We’re keeping our focus on what’s going on. The wholesale business are looking for new premises to expand, because they need to, to service demand, but we wouldn’t jump off into new ventures.” Is the key to the success of Infinity Foods steady growth. “In some ways yes” agrees Bailey “we don’t need an empire - its not about a handful of individuals becoming rich, if we opened up a shop in Hove, it would be beneficial to our suppliers but not to us, as we’d probably then be quieter here. When co-operatives become too big, they can become too impersonal, gentle, steady growth is the ideal. It’s not our way to bully our way into other towns where there is likely to be a shop selling organic foods and there are many co-operatives, we’ve cornered a market in Brighton and we’re happy with that. But of course, we’re probably supplying some of them anyway” and this, it seems is how they have struck just the right balance of building a business that is both ethical as well as a resounding success.

Inside the Workers Co-operative Dexter Bailey tells SBT how the Infinity Foods co-operative operates.

Recruiting New Members They have to demonstrate that they’re likely to be a good member of the team. People are assessed for their first year working with us, they get feedback from all of the members and after the year, if they are seen to be a good co-operative member, they spend a year on trial to become a member. They need to demonstrate that they are interested in the long term running of the co-op, which some people aren’t. That’s fine, but it means that its not for them.

Day To Day Running & Decision Making The co-operative is broken down into 4 departments - cafe, shop, bakery and wholesale. There are meetings for each and there are big general meetings, but they happen occasionally, like the annual AGM for all of us. There no other meetings unless there is something very big regarding expenditure or change in which case we all meet to discuss. In the shop there are sub groups with the main ambient section, chilled, body care... there are teams and on a day to day basis people are elected to be on the teams and decisions are taken by those teams.

There are no team leaders.

The Challenges There are challenges with any business model. The main challenge with the co-operative model is that there are times when there are split opinions over decisions for the future. Discussions are never particularly intense, but it can take a long time to resolve if there is a level of conflict, and things generally stay as they are until we chip away at that. We go to meetings after work when everyone is tired and we don’t give each other a hard time about things, and if anything is very urgent, we are quick to compromise over what is vital. In the shop meetings there are at least 20 people and that’s 20 people

with very different opinions. We have similar beliefs, it is usually down to the semantics of how to go about doing something if people have different ideas. If that divides people into groups then we usually elect a sub group to present ideas, rather than us all get involved in battling it out.

How They Work With Their Suppliers We negotiate a price between us all, there’s a general discussion with all of our suppliers about what their mark up is, and what ours is - which is a basic retail mark up. We wouldn’t want to squeeze any of them out of business so there is a negotiation between our suppliers and what prices they are all supplying, so they are all making sure they’re doing alright but not undercutting each other. Sometimes there is a glut, say of tomatoes, and they all communicate about what to do about it. In short, there is an ethic of working together that doesn’t really happen in shareholder corporations.

What Would Happen In Tough Times If we hit tough times we would follow the kind of model that Mondragon a huge co-operative in Spain - have agreed - they agreed to go down to a four day week because the money wasn’t coming in. We would see if anyone wanted to take early retirement, but no one would be forced into anything, but the first thing to go would be our profit share, but if we weren’t busy, we wouldn’t take on as many staff as we do now, so if everyone wanted to stay, we’d go down a day. To get someone from the outside to give support, we wouldn’t do it. Our treasurer is very frugal and holds back profits

www.infinityfoods.co.uk

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21/06/2013 17:36 17:01 06/06/2013

Test Drive Maarten Hoffmann, SBT’s Motoring Editor, reviews the Range Rover Evoque and Jaguar XFR.

Photography Robert Griffin ©

Review

RANGE ROVER EVOQUE

The Evoque had been long awaited and the Jaguar Land Rover PR machine has been working overtime letting us know of its imminent arrival, even informing us that Victoria Beckham helped design the interior. Therefore, l was quite keen to get my hands on one to see what all the fuss is about. It took me a day or two to come to terms with the fact that although it carries the famous and iconic Range Rover badge, this is not really a Range Rover but rather a Freelander in a fancy frock. That said it is a very good car with

bags of style and road presence and although l originally thought the exterior styling to be a little suspect, l have now totally changed my mind. It is a great looking car with excellent lines. My review car had the SD4 2.2 litre diesel engine with a 6 speed auto box, capable of 121 mph. It was certainly quick enough with good pulling power and plenty of oomph when required with 0-60 in a none too shabby 8 seconds and a combined mpg of 44.1.

The entire roof is made of panoramic glass and really brightens up the interior and offers the rear seats passengers so much more to see - well lots of clouds with the odd highlight of a low bridge and the leather seats are excellent quality.

Leave it parked in Brighton for too long and the low bridge experience is replaced with the seagull poop experience but we are all used to that l guess.

The handling is very impressive and it has a good solid feel on the road but why they have given it a paddle shift alongside the auto box is beyond me as you just don’t need it in a car like this but perhaps that’s just my personal view. One of the things l really like is the warning on the dash if one of the passengers in the rear does not have their seatbelt on which when you have kids in the back, is a great way to save on the chiropractors bills caused from all the twisting turning, and the occasional shouting, to get the little blighters to buckle up. I also like the

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Motoring

Rottingdean Windmill, East Sussex

television, which when stationary can be seen by all but as soon as you move, the drivers view is obscured – which is bloody annoying if you are in the middle of watching a rugby match that leaves you, oddly, wishing for more traffic or eyeing up the hard shoulder.

I was impressed with the interior styling but struggled to see the influence of Posh in its design untill l learnt that to get the Beckham version, you need to double your budget to £80,000 and then mug a movie star as they were all snapped up within a day of launch by Posh’s mates. That said, l have no problem with this interior – it’s stylish, well laid out and comfortable. The Terrain Response System is also to be admired – just press

the mud, sand, or rock button and the entire suspension set up changes to cope with the conditons. I wonder if there should there be a Tesco car park button or run over a traffic warden knob.

This is also one of those cars where your colour choice is very important. Seeing them on the road, there are certain colours that look stunning, and others that look a tad drab.

Do l have a gripe? Well of course l do.

As a long standing admirer of the Range Rover, and having owned many over the years, the one feature above all that l love is the split tail gate that gives you half up and half down therefore a great seat to put your wellies on or clean off the dog.

Why have they left it off the Evoque? I think they missed a trick.

The Sport doesn’t have it either and it is much missed but here was an opportunity to make this a ‘real’ Range Rover. But having just seen the photo of the concept convertible, which is gorgeous beyond belief, all might be forgiven. Small failings aside, the Evoque is a great well-built car that you would be remiss in ignoring if you were looking for a car with a high driving position that will go almost anywhere. It looks good, feels solid and drives very well.

The Details Price: From £28,695 Like: Panoramic roof, great leather, handling, interior and exterior design.

Loathe: No split tailgate Alternatives: Mercedes M Class; Ford Kuga; BMW X3 Technical stuff: 2.2 diesel engine or 2.0 litre petrol (CO2 174 g/km) 0-60 in 8.0 seconds.

Top speed 121 mph 2 or 4 wheel drive www.landrover.com Rottingdean Windmill, East Sussex www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk 39

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JAGUAR XFR

Review

I am sure it won’t be long before l am accused of working for Jaguar Land Rover!

They keep sending me cars that are startlingly good and yet we all expected the opposite to be the case when Tata of India got hold of the company. We have no experience of India being able to build or design cars and with the standard of the driving and the state of the roads in the country, we were wise to be skeptical. But all those negative thoughts can be banished as, so far, they are turning out world class cars and for that l am eternally grateful, as l have had a long affair with Jaguars in my miss-spent youth and would of silently wept if they had screwed up.

So we turn to their executive cruiser/ brute the XFR that has just been delivered to my driveway. It has all the expected Jaguar refinements and a few more besides.

The drive is quite soft on first impression but hit a few buttons and the XFR opens up a whole range of previously veiled ability. It’s not as precise

as the BMW M5, but the XFR has its own character and is very easy to hustle.

It can be a hooligan and you have to poke it a bit to get it angry - after that, it’s sublime. But do get it angry, as l can assure you that the experience will ruin you for many other cars.

The XFR is certainly a decent road car

overtake a Skoda - enough to make your eyes widen. There’s a limiter at 155mph, though rumours abound that an unrestricted XFR would hit around 198mph. And there is an even quicker S version which will make you think you have died and gone to heaven.

On the inside, there’s not a great

The XFR is very easy to like as it is very easy to drive, easy to park, easy to get five adults in, good size boot and of course, your right foot can unleash Armageddon first and a petrol heads dream second, so the ride is firm but not intrusive, the auto box almost totally unfelt and the ambience one of determined progression.

It can be very docile which is a nice surprise for something with 510bhp.

The performance is impressive from the all-new 5.0-litre supercharged V8 with 510bhp and a 0-62mph time of 4.7 seconds. A more impressive figure is a 50-70mph time of just 1.9 seconds - that’s devastating when you use it to

deal that sets the XFR apart from the standard XF, so the quality seems as per the standard version. There are a few extra badges, some nice bolstered seats, a speedo that is forced to read much higher, but otherwise this is an XF. That means no really bad problems have arisen quite yet and that Jaguar seems to have a handle on what makes a car feel just a little bit special.

And we now come to that word ‘character’. So few cars have it in these

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days of automotive perfection and one tin box feels much like another. Except for the Jag, which brings memories flooding back of the days when cars had real personality and you actually felt a human affection for them. The XFR is very easy to like as it is very easy to drive, easy to park, easy to get five adults in, good size boot and of course, your right foot can unleash Armageddon. The only real nod to what this car can do is the deeply bolstered seats that hint at the G forces to come. It turns in brilliantly, has almost endless grip and the electronics allow you to get on the gas really early in a corner – easily making it the equal of the BMW M5 through both fast and slow corners.

You’ll be struggling if you want really decent mpg from a supercharged 5.0, and my test returned just 14.8mpg, although l do have quite a heavy right foot but l am sure with care, you could get this up to 14.9.

If you want the best all-round highperformance saloon, the Jaguar XFR is the answer. It’s the equal of the BMW M5 dynamically and for sheer performance; yet is far easier to live with day-to-day and far more compliant when you’re not in the mood for maximum attack.

Although the competition, in the shape of the BMW M5 and Audi RS6, are mighty fine cars, the XFR has a finesse that the other lack and unlike these cars, could be safely driven by your granny and then handed over to Schumacher for a very impressive lap of Silverstone.

In other words, the XFR is an everyday car that can be driven every day regardless of conditions, traffic or driver ability. It is simply a great all-rounder with a top end that can only be really tested on an autobahn – or the A27 at 3am (152 in case you wondered, allegedly!)

The Details: Price: £65,415 Fuel Consumption: 24.4mpg Performance 0-62mph 4.7 seconds Top Speed: 155 limited Like: Refinement, Power, Character Dislike: I can’t afford it!

www.jaguar.co.uk

Alternatives: BMW M5, Audi RS6, Mercedes C63

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12/06/2013 10:29

You’re Fired

City sackings and suspensions reach five year high, contentious exits up 76% in financial services sector and the number of sackings and suspensions of staff at financial institutions has reached its highest level in 5 years Data obtained by Pinsent Masons through a Freedom Legal of Information request shows that 1373 financial services employees were dismissed or suspended in 2012 - representing a 76% increase in dismissals and suspensions compared to the previous twelve months.

Pinsent Masons says that changes to the employment status of individuals who require FSA authorisation to carry out their function must be registered with the regulator. FSA-regulated businesses are also expected to indicate where employees have been sacked or suspended, most commonly as a result of suspected wrongdoing.

In addition to sackings and suspensions, the data suggests that the number of job losses in the sector has reached its highest level since the peak of the financial crisis in 2008.

36,868 people in the sector lost their jobs in 2012, bringing the total number of people to have left their posts in the past 5 years to 177,697.

Helen Farr, a London-based Partner in the Financial Services team at Pinsent Masons, says: “The FSA has increasingly shown that it is cracking down on financial crime and market abuse. Financial services firms are operating under increased scrutiny and as a result employers are imposing industry rules more strictly.

“FSA enforcement activity has clearly had an impact on firms’ willingness to tolerate wrongdoing. Firms now appear much more likely to discipline employees for offences. The rise in number of staff dismissed from 778 to 1373 in a twelve month period suggests that the threat of enforcement and reputational damage associated with rogue traders such as Kweku Adoboli

are clearly having an impact.

“The total number of job losses in the sector is striking. While it should be kept in mind that many of these people may have been re-employed and some will have simply transferred internally, the numbers certainly tell a story.

“It will be interesting to see the impact that further reforms around ring fencing or formal separation of business divisions, as foreseen by the Vickers and Liikanen Reports, will have on the banking sector.” www.pinsentmasons.com Helen Farr, Partner Pinsent Masons

Dismissing an Employee The dismissal of an employee without a fair reason and without following a fair procedure, may lead to a claim for unfair dismissal. Dismissing an employee without giving the required period of notice may lead to a wrongful dismissal claim.

In order to comply with the law, and to avoid any claims surrounding dismissal, employers must ensure that they: • Have a fair reason for dismissal, such as conduct, capability, redundancy or some other substantial reason; • Follow a fair procedure and act fairly and reasonably throughout the dismissal process; • Comply with the terms of the employment contract, particularly with regards to any notice periods; and • Do not discriminate against employees due to age, disability, marital status, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Sarah Krause is a Trainee Solicitor at Adams & Remers LLP and can be reached at (01273) 403239 sarah.krause@adams-remers.co.uk *This article is not intended to be a full summary of the law and advice should be sought on all issues.

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Employment Law

Dos and Don’ts of Dismissal

Susan Belgrave, a myBarrister employment law specialist gives us some advice on the dos and don’ts of dismissal

There are generally five different grounds for dismissal: Legal redundancy, gross misconduct, some other substantial reason, ill health and capability - are they simply not up to the job. Deciding on what grounds you are dismissing someone in the first instance is crucial, as the procedure will change.

Of paramount importance across the board is the need for clear communication. Throughout the process you need to comply with procedure to the letter and clearly explain the steps you are taking and most importantly why. Similarly the employee needs to be given the chance to respond to your concerns; we call this ‘natural justice’ in the industry, which gives an indication of the need to keep fairness in the forefront of your mind.

Nevertheless from my experience in employment law providing representation as well as independent advice, there are a few top tips which are worth following to avoid facing tribunal – or help you if faced with one. And while clear communication and keeping a paper trail is universally important, there are also good rules for each of the main types of dismissal: Gross misconduct: • Before an internal disciplinary hearing make sure to undertake a thorough investigation, taking into account different versions of events.

• Keep written minutes of each meeting and have the employee sign-off on each as a record of what was said.

• Share all information gathered with the employee and give them at least a week’s notice to prepare for the disciplinary hearing.

• Decide on company sanctions and

investing in appropriate software to assist them in undertaking tasks.

Similarly if the period of ill health is under 3 months you would be expected to keep them on and then justify your case if unable to keep them on the payroll beyond this timeframe.

Susan Belgrave, Employment Law, myBarrister

keep consistency. You shouldn’t fire someone for an offence that another employee only received a final warning for unless there are clear differences between the two cases – personal bias cannot come into play.

Capability: • Key to issues around capability (competence) is the need to give the employee a chance to improve. Clearly set out where they are falling short – are they too slow, are they lacking key skills – and decide on fair targets to be met following a 3-6 month review period.

• Remember to consult the employee’s original contract to make sure your demands are in line with their actual job requirements.

Ill health: • In instances where someone’s health is restricting them from performing their job you need to refer to their doctor and occupational health and refer to up-todate medical reports.

• Consider whether their condition amounts to a disability. As a general guide you are expected to make reasonable adjustments to accommodate the employee wherever possible, be it reducing hours or

Redundancy: • You need to demonstrate that the employee’s job will no longer exist, for example if your company no longer carries out the business they undertake.

• You also need to ensure that fair selection criteria are met when selecting an individual for redundancy and that they are consulted about these reasons.

• In the event of a genuine redundancy, employees must be offered suitable alternative employment, a trial period in the alternative role without losing their right to redundancy pay, and finally reasonable time off to find a new job or retrain.

With employment tribunals often taking 6 months between the claim and the hearing, and the cost falling to businesses themselves, it’s important to do all you can to avoid employees contesting dismissal. Nevertheless in spite of following guidelines, you may one day face a tribunal and my best advice is to take them seriously, even if you think the claim is without merit. You need to respond within the 28 day timeframe and then put in the time to build your case and set out the facts – which is where your earlier due diligence will become invaluable.

Consulting with an expert barrister directly can also provide a great steer on the merits of your case and provide you with the best options to pursue.

www.thisismybarrister.com

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12/06/2013 10:59

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I want to resolve an employment dispute cheaply and quickly what are my options?

Brendan and Harry Rimmer, Dispute Resolution Associates at Stephen Rimmer LLP explains: With a view to improving working conditions for private sector growth and future economic prosperity, the Government launched a Growth Review (Review) on 29th November 2010. That review recognised that businesses generally felt that employment legislation was restricting their growth.

In January 2011 the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills opened a consultation examining both the measures to achieve earlier resolution of issues and also to ensure that the tribunal system proved swift and effective when used.

The Government’s response in November 2011 led to some reforms being enforced on the 6th April 2012 with more expected to follow.

In particular, the reforms focus on the early resolution of disputes in the workplace, more specifically relating to the use of mediation, compromise agreements and protected conversations as well as improving aspects of Employment Tribunal efficiency.

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They believed that parties required more support and encouragement to resolve their disputes at an earlier stage with the aim of maintaining workplace relationships, keeping employees in their jobs and so that employers continued to benefit from the investment they had made in their employees.

Two areas that should interest both employers and employees are the use of mediation and compromise agreements.

Mediation is when an independent third party assists the parties involved in a dispute or negotiation to achieve a mutually acceptable resolution of the points of conflict. The mediator does not have decision-making powers and cannot force the parties to accept a settlement. It is designed to avoid formal proceedings in the tribunal.

Often parties are more likely to reach a swift resolution with the assistance of an impartial third party. Mediation is often a cheaper and quicker method of resolving a dispute, often taking just one day and at a cost of around £1,000 per party whilst resolving a dispute in the tribunal can take some 26 weeks and costs of thousands of pounds.

Mediation is particularly useful when there is a breakdown in communication as well as when resolving issues such as bullying, discrimination and perceived injustice and is most effective before formal discipline/grievance procedures, termination of employment and/or litigation is instigated. In situations of basic monetary disputes and gross misconduct it may not be appropriate however.

In situations where a working

relationship has broken down irretrievably and where ending an employment contract seems inevitable it might be better to consider using a compromise agreement (soon to be called a settlement agreement).

These are written contracts between an employer and an employee where both parties agree to ‘part ways’. They are legally binding and give certainty that the matters covered will not be the subject of a later tribunal claim.

They are swift, can protect confidential business information and they are useful for termination/redundancy situations as well as the departure of senior executives (where extra conditions, such as confidentiality, share option treatment and communications on the departure could be agreed).

There are however problems with compromise agreements which the government are looking to review, the main one being that it is not possible to have a compromise agreement in ‘full and final settlement’ or to have blanket waivers. This results in the need to expressly state what the agreement covers and requires precise drafting of the contract.

Both methods of resolution can lead to successful, early and cheap resolution to disputes whilst still maintaining good relations. For that reason they should both be seriously considered where there is a workplace dispute.

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5 easy steps to losing an employment tribunal and equal opportunities are legally compliant and that you follow them.

Joanne Kavanagh, Head of Employment at Morrisons Solicitors LLP sets out some sure-fire ways for employers to end up in the Employment Tribunal. This article is essential reading for those not wishing to end up in the Respondent’s waiting room!

1. Delay in dealing with an employment issue If you are concerned about an employee’s conduct or performance, or have received a grievance from an employee, you should ensure that the nettle is grasped and the matter dealt with promptly. If steps are taken at the outset to deal with a potential dispute either by informal discussions or escalating the matter to the relevant procedure, it is far more likely to be resolved internally. If you do delay by weeks or months you are more likely to lose at tribunal.

2. Procedural failings If you do not follow a fair employment law procedure you will lose an unfair dismissal or unlawful discrimination claim and can receive a tribunal penalty of up to 25% on top of any award.

Therefore you must ensure your internal policies such as disciplinary, grievance

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3. Reason for dismissal There are 5 potentially fair reasons for dismissal i.e. capability, redundancy, conduct, statutory illegality, and some other substantial reason - a catchall for reasons that are not covered in the other categories such as business restructuring or third party pressure.

You must choose the appropriate category when taking the decision to dismiss otherwise the dismissal could be deemed unfair. For example, dismissing an employee for redundancy is risky if the genuine reason for dismissal is their performance. If it becomes obvious to a Tribunal that the communicated reason for dismissal is a sham, and the employee has been kept in the dark as to the true reason, or that there isn’t sufficient evidence to support the pleaded reason for dismissal, the Tribunal is likely to find against you.

4. Inconsistency An Employment Tribunal will take account of whether an employer’s decision was proportionate and consistent with the approach to other employees in the same situation and whether you unlawfully discriminated by treating an employee differently e.g. because of their age or gender. Therefore, for example, if you are dismissing an employee by reason of redundancy, you must ensure that the same selection criteria are applied to all employees in the pool from which selection is being made and that employees are marked consistently. If dismissing an employee on grounds of misconduct, consider how other employees, who have committed similar misconduct, have been dealt with in the past, and act consistently with previous decisions; unless there are material differences in the circumstances or offence.

5. Insufficient records When defending an Employment Tribunal claim you will need evidence to support any assertions that you are making. Keeping thorough attendance notes of conversations and minutes of meetings will assist a Tribunal Judge to findings of fact that support your defence. Your contemporaneous notes will also help rebut claims by the claimant for example about your conduct in a dismissal interview.

There are a number of other steps that can be taken to maximise protection from a successful Tribunal claim.

Employers are advised to consider the possibility of a claim at the outset of any dispute and to take legal advice before dismissing an employee.

If you would like advice on the lead up to a dismissal or any other dispute at work, call Joanne Kavanagh on: 01737 854573 or email: joanne.kavanagh@morrlaw.com or speak to your usual adviser in the Employment team.

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17/06/2013 17:00

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What do the new ‘settlement agreement’ regulations mean for our businesses?

Frances Strickley, Employment Law Specialist at Outset explains new Government measures being implemented to make it easier for businesses to create jobs, and how they will affect professionals in Sussex.

In simple terms, the Government is trying to create a better employment tribunal system by encouraging parties to come together to settle their dispute before an employment tribunal claim is lodged. This in turn should make it easier for businesses to exit employees and open new jobs up, helping businesses to grow. These measures are particularly relevant to small businesses who might not have a member of staff or department dedicated to dealing with HR issues and have to negotiate complex legislation whilst doing other work. However, it’s this very situation that means employers need to be extra careful.

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 came out of a review of employment law that is intended to relieve economic pressure and assist in the creation and filling of jobs, by giving employers greater freedom to

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end working relationships more easily and therefore open up roles to more suitable people.

These measures aren’t in place yet, but they have been approved, so we can expect them to be active later in the summer or autumn this year.

The aim of settlement agreements is to give employers a way to talk confidentially about terminating an employment relationship and reaching a settlement without that conversation then being used as evidence in any subsequent action, such as a claim for unfair dismissal.

Businesses with effective HR capabilities and practices in place may already feel capable of ending employment, by way of compromise agreements, which is the current name for settlement agreements. Where these new measures might help is in businesses which are not au fait with exiting employees and don’t do it often, including smaller businesses. The Government will also be issuing a Code of Practice and guidance with the new legislation, so there will be templates and letters that businesses can use to help them go about the procedure correctly.

That being said, it remains to be seen how much difference this measure will make in real terms.

Settlement agreements only offer protection in the event of an unfair dismissal claim. For example it may be possible for an employee to draw a settlement agreement to a tribunal’s attention in the case of a discrimination claim.

The Government is also considering capping the award for an unfair dismissal claim, so employee perceptions may lower anyway, which might decrease the likelihood of claims being made.

There are some factors to be wary of: the Government may have tried to make the process simple but inevitably it still involves bureaucracy and businesses can and will be in trouble if they don’t tick all the right boxes. It’s also not in place yet, so businesses should keep an eye on when the legislation comes in so as not to act prematurely.

As with all legal and sensitive matters, businesses should seek expert advice before taking action, in order to avoid putting themselves at risk and save money in the long run. If you’re thinking about exiting an employee and want to talk things through, contact me on the details below.

For more information please contact us on: Tel: +44 (0)1622 759900 Email: enquiries@outsetuk.com Address: Outset (UK) Ltd / Outset Legal LLP Vinters Business Park, New Cut Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 5NZ.

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12/06/2013 09:28 17:08 07/06/2013

Eastbourne Next After Record Number Visit Brighton Over 1000 business people attended the Let’s Do Business exhibition at Brighton Racecourse on May 16th. The record 1038 attendees made the most of the opportunity to discuss new business and opportunities with over 120 exhibitors and enjoy the five very popular seminars on the growth and power of social media.

And the ever popular show moves on to Eastbourne’s Winter Garden on Thursday 27th June – when hundreds of business people from Sussex and beyond will pack out the Floral Hall and Congress Suite.

The one-day event – sponsored by Identity Signage & Printing and organised by the Let’s Do Business Group - hosts over a hundred exhibitors and offers everyone in business, whether starting up or long established, the opportunity to source dozens of products, services and supplies from a diverse range of quality companies. Everyone, from sole traders, start-ups, retailers, professional services or manufacturers up to the largest employers will benefit from a visit to the show.

“We have always ensured that Let’s Do Business represents excellent value for both exhibitors and visitors alike as it is a fantastic opportunity to make contact with hundreds of people.” says organiser Jonathan Dolding. “The Eastbourne show is now in its sixth year and is going from strength to strength.”

One of the show’s Brighton exhibitors commented, “We were delighted with Let’s Do Business 2013… every year this

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event just gets better and better! We generated more sales leads than ever before. This was helped by a consistent level of footfall throughout the day and we will definitely be involved again next year!”

“With well over 100 exhibitors spread throughout the Winter Garden, there’s no better opportunity to network with such a significant number of businesses from in and around Eastbourne. The show is a real time-saver, offering a perfect opportunity to source products & services from the leading businesses in the area,” continues Jonathan.

Let’s Do Business takes place at Eastbourne’s Winter Garden and is open from 10am through to 4pm. The show is organised by the Let’s Do Business Group and is supported by The Eastbourne Herald and South East Business Magazine.

Full information about the show and pre-registration can be found at www.letsdobusiness.org/eastbourne

Cobb PR Launches New Healthcare Agency Cobb PR has teamed up with local commercial healthcare expert James Dempster to launch Cobb Healthcare.

Cobb Healthcare is a full service marketing and PR agency focused on helping the medical sector achieve their commercial goals.

The business is launched at a critical time with dramatic changes being introduced into both the NHS and private healthcare sector. With this in mind it is important that clinicians and other healthcare professionals protect their share of the market.

Cobb Healthcare will help businesses ranging from individual doctors to large healthcare enterprises and everything in between.

James Dempster who is Managing Director of Cobb Healthcare was formerly Commercial Manager of the Montefiore Hospital, a private hospital based in Brighton offering patients state of the art facilities and treatments. He was a key member of the team that set up the Montefiore, responsible for business development and marketing the hospital to a wide audience.

James said: “This is a pivotal time for the healthcare

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industry which is why I’m really excited about the launch of Cobb Healthcare. With our experience we are well positioned to help practitioners raise their profiles and build their reputations in an increasingly challenging environment.

Cobb Healthcare’s services range from full branding, including design and integration of logos; James Dempster, Managing website building; production of Director of Cobb Healthcare information leaflets and ongoing marketing and PR support.

David Redfern, consultant orthopaedic surgeon, said: “For the NHS and private healthcare professionals alike Cobb Healthcare could not be launching at a better time. Having worked closely with James at the Montefiore Hospital I am in no doubt that this business will flourish.

“James is highly experienced in this field with a passion for delivering results and I for one will be taking advantage of his commercial expertise to market my niche clinical services.”

For further information about Cobb Healthcare please contact James Dempster on 48 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk 01273 208913 or 07921587609 or visit www.cobbpr.com/healthcare

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17/06/2013 17:06

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How is Lingfield Park changing to reflect the opportunities open to local businesses today?

As you will see very quickly if you visit our brand new website, Lingfield Park’s business has undergone an extensive rebrand.

From a business point of view, my remit is to make sure Lingfield Park becomes a resort rather than a chain of separate facilities in one place, hence the need to pull the four elements together and work on packages for customers that encompass all of the facilities and work with the synergy between them.

Within the resort, there are four businesses. There’s the racecourse, obviously; the spa; the golf course and the hotel. This is really a perfect blend of offerings for both recreation and corporate entertainment, as it allows a group to come for some afternoon activities – perhaps a spa treatment or a round of golf – before spending the night at the hotel, then in the morning there’s time for a conference or meeting before an afternoon at the races!

Of course that’s only one option, we’re offering and formulating lots of different packages to suit groups and individuals for business or leisure. All have categories and tiers, making our offering truly flexible to allow our customers to get what they truly want!

As for memberships, quite logically we now have a resort package that allows access to all of the resort’s facilities. We’ve priced it so that it’s not much more to upgrade from, say, a golf-only membership to an accessall-areas membership that will entitle you to access the whole resort. We really want to offer our members a sense of belonging in the whole resort, not just being confined to the part they have membership to. It also means they might be able to treat themselves to entertainment that they might not have bought individually but will make the most of if it’s part of their

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Lingfield Park Resort is the perfect venue for meetings, conferences, exhibitions and other business events

membership. It also might offer them a saving by allowing them to consolidate memberships they may already have.

Corporate entertaining is definitely important during a recession. It may seem tough to justify spending the money, but those who do will be remembered when we come out on the other side, and with affordable packages it’s easier to make a great impression on clients or boost staff morale by combining your business activity with a day out.

We’d really like to make fun, luxury activities affordable. People see racing as elitist and prohibitively expensive, thinking that it’s huge sums for a race or two but really, it’s a whole afternoon or evening out. Our private hospitality starts from £85 per head, and of course there are lower budget options all the way down to £14 if you book in advance!

We also have conference facilities to suit from five to four hundred people, with great rooms and a lovely location which I have always felt is inclined help delegates keep a memory of the event, rather than just looking at a Powerpoint presentation for three hours!

As part of our latest package, you can have a hospitality box for an event, and we allow access to that beforehand at no extra cost, so that it can be used for team meetings, small presentations etc and you’re paying nothing for the room hire, then have entertainment on tap when you finish!

You don’t have to spend a fortune, but there is always value in entertaining and cutting all the way back on this in a tough financial climate is short sighted.

Making people happy – that’s your clients and staff! – pays off in the long term, and we’re here to help you do that, whatever your budget.

For more informaiton contact us on: 01342 834 800 info@lingfieldpark.co.uk www.lingfieldpark.co.uk

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12/06/2013 17:08

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When is a holiday not a holiday?

Sarah Evans from SMR Solicitors Explains: In January 2009, the European Court of Justice (the “ECJ”) ruled on the meaning of the Working Time Directive and held that employees accrue working time holidays while off sick.

The case (Stringer v HMRC) went back to the House of Lords to determine how the rules work in practice under UK law. Unfortunately, the House of Lords’ decision failed to address most of the questions on holiday rules for employees on sick leave that employers were hoping for some clarity on.

Until recently the UK’s Working Time Regulations required employees to use all holiday leave within a year or lose it.

However recent cases have shown that this is not now correct. The European Court of Justice has ruled that an employee has the right, to reschedule their holiday, even if this means carrying it forward to the following holiday year, even if they do not request to do this.

The European ruling does not stipulate any time at which an illness could trigger the right to alter holidays, but this could be interpreted as giving workers the right to claim extra holiday time even if they have been taken ill after their holiday has begun. It also follows that an employee who returns to work from a year of illness would legally be entitled to four weeks’ holiday immediately upon their return.

Following other cases, it has now also been accepted that workers continue to accrue annual leave entitlement during sickness absence. If an Employee

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chooses to take their holiday leave entitlement while on sick leave they would be paid normal holiday pay rather than company or statutory sick pay (which may be less or none depending on how long they have been off sick) for the days they treat as annual leave. If you qualify for SSP you would continue to receive this during any annual leave pay period.

The House of Lords has ruled that people who are denied to accrue holiday pay while on sick leave can make a claim to an Employment Tribunal for an ‘unauthorised deduction from wages‘ (with claims possibly being able to be back-dated as far back as 6 years).

The UK Court of Appeal in the summer of 2012 ruled that employees are entitled to be paid for any outstanding leave if their employment is terminated. The case in question was NHS Leeds v Larner. The Judges in this case commented that they considered that it was possible for all UK workers to take the same position, not just public sector workers - this does not mean a precedent for private sector workers to have similar treatment has been set,

but the Judges’ comments are seen as highly ‘persuasive’ that this should be the case.

This decision, however, only deals with the 4 weeks statutory leave entitlement that is provided by the original EU Directive and not the additional 1.6 weeks that is provided by the UK Regulations. It remains unclear whether all workers are entitled to rollover the additional 1.6 weeks leave.

It is also unclear how many years of leave this can continue for – it is clear that they carry-over of untaken leave cannot be for an indefinite period but the actual period needs to be defined, hopefully by the Government.

50 Westgate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 3HE Telephone 01243 780211 Fax 01243 782619 Email: rogerstone@smrsolicitors.co.uk

Sarah Evans tells SBT about becoming members of Checkaprofessional “Many of us use the Checkatrade and Checkaprofessional.com websites, and had noted that there weren’t many solicitors registered in the area so we saw a brilliant opportunity for SMR. We are acredited with come other programmes that have provided benefit to SMR’s business, so joining Checkaprofessional seemed like a logcal step. So far it’s stood us in very good stead, helping to increase traffic to our website and resulting in additional customers. Consumers are very conscious of who they give their business to now, so it’s reassuring for anyone who stumbles upon our website to see the Checkaprofessional logo there.We’ve been part of Checkaprofessional for around six months now and it’s already proving to have been a good decision for our business”.

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12/06/2013 17:08

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Corporate and Public Safety Ltd is an International Safety Award winning Sussex based company specialising in Health, Safety, Risk Management and Business Continuity.

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We are aware that a need exists to provide guidance and support for health and safety and risk management. The Directors recent achievements include International Safety Award with Merit, being a finalist as Risk Manager of the Year for UK and being Highly Commended for his work in the development of Corporate and Public Safety in local government.

Corporate and Public Safety provides a service to over 20 local businesses to ensure that they have competent advice relating to risk management, health and safety and business continuity. The businesses range from County Cricket, Rugby Super League and major Nursing Homes, through to gymnasiums, office based media and web companies, electrical contractors and data installers If you are running a successful business and using valuable staff time and money on health and safety in the hope that you will get it right – it might be time to consider change.

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in 10 clearly defined areas. This will be done with you and your managers at your company to identify safety issues and make cost-effective recommendations for improvement.

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SAFEC has been developed by Corporate and Public Safety Ltd to support companies that do not have or cannot afford to pay for an in-house competent person, but want to have easy and ready access to a local safety advisor.

The basic SAFE-C package offers: • advice on the telephone or by email • an annual meeting to review your health and safety arrangements • review and adjustment of your health and safety policy • review of your fire safety risk assessment • use of Corporate and Public Safety Ltd as your nominated health and safety advisors SAFE-C plus.

The SAFE-C package can be supplemented to meet additional needs of your business. With access to qualified environmental health professionals, former senior fire officers and qualified health and safety professionals, you will know that assistance is close at hand including regular inspections, safety audits and attendance at health & safety committee meetings. This package can include membership of the British Safety Council http://www.britsafe.org/ with on line access to health and safety advice, regular safety briefings and delivery of a monthly safety magazine.

If you are a small business with a small workforce and in need of good advice to help you comply, then Corporate and Public Safety is the service for you.

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17/06/2013 17:15

Health and Safety

No Blame, No Claim

‘Common sense’ approach to health and safety welcomed by lobby group and local businesses.

The Forum of Private Business has described Health & changes to workplace health as a landmark Safety moment for SMEs and a longawaited victory for common sense.

The not-for-profit business support organisation says the removal of strict liability for employers, finally agreed by the Lords last month, not only means health and safety (H&S) becomes a less burdensome task for employers, but should help make workplaces across the country safer.

Removal of strict liability means businesses cannot be held responsible for accidents that are either not their fault, or unavoidable.

It said the new focus on making employees more aware of and responsible for their own actions was something its own research had shown strong support for from small business owners.

The new measures had been due to come into being on 6th April as part of the common commencement date (CCD), but was held up by the House of Lords which asked MPs to reconsider the changes, part of the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill. But Parliament rejected these calls, and on Tuesday the Lords finally agreed the measures, which will now take effect on the next CCD, 1st October.

“This is a deregulatory measure which means as long as an employer takes reasonable steps on H&S then they shouldn’t be subject to prosecution for things they couldn’t possibly have predicted or prevented,” said the Forum’s Head of Policy, Alex Jackman.

“It’s a fact of life that accidents, unfortunately, sometimes do just happen with nothing that can be done to prevent them. This new approach to H&S goes a long way to recognising this.

“For too long the entire onus has been on the employer as part of a blame-game approach that has cost business millions, and has also tarnished people’s view of what’s a very serious and important subject.

“People have lost faith in health and safety, with organisations such as the Health and Safety Executive pilloried in the media, but along the way that’s dangerously undermined the issue in the eyes of the nation.

“We hope this new approach can help rebuild and restore faith and trust in workplace health and safety, while at the same time freeing businesses to get on with trading during difficult economic times.”

Twice a year the Forum updates its Health and Safety Guide to help business remain legally compliant. But it’s warned that while the new changes come in to effect in October, businesses still have a duty of care, much the same as now.

“While these changes are welcome, business owners must not be lulled into a false mindset that they are no longer governed by H&S requirements, or that their duty as an employer has ended. It hasn’t – and this is a dangerous way of thinking. The average cost of a H&S investigation after a breach of regulations is £20,000, so it’s very much the case of prevention always being better than cure.”

People have lost faith in health and safety, with organisations such as the Health and Safety Executive pilloried in the media

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12/06/2013 11:16

Splashpoint Leisure Centre – Worthing

National construction giant Morgan Sindall has successfully delivered an iconic leisure centre on the south coast for Worthing Borough Council Known as Splashpoint Leisure Property Centre, the name incidentally coming as the result of a competition won by sisters Caitlin and Lois Hedger of Durrington opened its doors to the public on the 1st May. Once known for their Regency grandeur, many of Britain’s seasides’ have fallen into decline, with tired architecture and lack of modern facilities however these resorts are staging a comeback. Worthing is at the forefront of this by upgrading its seafront to create an attractive and welcoming public space.

A key element of the rejuvenation of the town’s coastline is the newly completed Splashpoint Leisure Centre.

Situated right on the seafront next to the 1960’s Aquarena which will eventually be demolished, the stunning structure sits on the promenade creating a striking focal point injecting new life into the town’s seafront and pier.

Morgan Sindall, whose local Sussex office is in Brighton, was the principal contractor on this ambitious project for Worthing Borough Council which is part of a wider master plan to regenerate the area.

Award-winning architects Wilkinson Eyre were appointed to design the

scheme in 2009 after winning a hard fought RIBA competition that attracted over 400 entries. The structure is clad in copper and Western Red Cedar, self-finished natural materials selected to age gracefully in the maritime conditions. The importance of the building’s connection to its seafront location is emphasised by its design, which mimics the fluidity of the sea, with two sinuous copper-clad slivers of roof stretching out towards the beach.

Paul Yallop, leader of Worthing Borough Council, said: “I am so pleased to see this stunning leisure facility delivered on time and within budget.

We are grateful to every member of the

team which has delivered this wonderful asset for Worthing residents and visitors. It has been a pleasure to work with the Morgan Sindall team who have always gone the extra mile to involve our community in the project.”

The leisure centre includes a sixlane 25m pool, a diving pool, both with movable floors, indoor and outdoor leisure pools, steam and sauna rooms, and a health and fitness centre. The development also features fun activity areas for children, with shallow pools, a flume, a partially sunken pirate ship, the Captain Yallop which incidentally is named after Council Leader Paul Yallop and spurting water features.

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Commercial Property

The leisure pool has its own terrace with doors that open up towards the beach front and an outdoor pool area and external terrace, while floor to ceiling windows in the exercise suites on the upper floors provide breath-taking views to the south of the sea the promenade and the pier.

Also included is a gym with 100 exercise stations, many of which overlook the sea or the pool, two multi use studios, two treatment rooms and ancillary staff and admin spaces. A large lobby with reception area and a café welcomes visitors into the facility from the landscaped entry piazza.

Lawrence Wilson, Senior Project Manager from Morgan Sindall said: “It’s been fantastic to be a part of the development of this truly world-class centre. I have been on site since day one and Splashpoint Leisure Centre is an amazing facility and we’re delighted to have reached the completion of construction work on time and on budget.

The development is targeting a BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) rating of Very Good and a number of sustainable elements have been included both in the finished building and during the construction process.

The Morgan Sindall team took advantage of their location during the project and used seawater instead of potable water in the commissioning and testing of the swimming pools. This created cost savings of around £6,000 and also saved circa 4000m3 of potable water being transported to site and then removed again.

This provided further carbon savings and preventing any street interference along the busy seafront road. Water stored in an attenuation tank was used during the landscaping process creating further water savings.

The development also includes a number of sustainable features. The pool’s water will be kept clean through the use of regenerative media filters which will also prevent wastage.

Through the use of this advanced filtration method, the pool only uses a quarter of the water used by the old Aquarena.

The grey water which results from this filtering process is used to flush the centre’s toilets.

The main pools have movable floors which also act as covers, maintaining water temperature, creating energy savings, while ground-source heat pumps are installed in the adjacent Beach House Grounds will use renewable energy to heat the building in winter and keep it cool in summer.

The building also features a combined heating and power generator.

Lawrence Wilson said: “This project includes a number of sustainable elements and my team has shown real initiative and innovation in developing and utilising methods – such as the use of seawater in testing the pools - to increase the project’s sustainability levels.

“We have worked closely with the

council and project partners throughout the project and have a built a close relationship with people in the local community during our time on site here.

It’s satisfying to see this outstanding building now complete and being enjoyed by people from the area.”

Many local companies were involved in the construction of the project.

One of the firms involved was local company, Kingsley Roofing who are based in Ferring, which provided Splashpoints’ copper roof. One of the building’s most striking design features, the copper roof will develop a beautiful turquoise patina over time, enhancing the building’s visual connection to the sea.

The project team included architect

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A record of achievement Splashpoint Leisure Centre, Worthing

We are delighted to support the Sussex Business Awards 2013, proud sponsor of:

The Sussex Company of the Year Morgan Sindall is a UK construction, infrastructure and design business with a network of local offices. The company works for private and public sector customers on projects from ÂŁ50,000 to over ÂŁ500 million. The company operates across the commercial, defence, education, energy, healthcare, industrial, leisure, retail, transport, waste and water sectors.

Ian Pinington, Business Development Manager ian.pinington@morgansindall.com T 01737 228750 M 07808 920303 Morgan Sindall 4th Floor London Gate 72 Dyke Road Drive Brighton East Sussex BN1 6AJ

morgansindall.com @morgansindallci 56 www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk A part of Morgan Sindall Group plc

Boundless possibilities MS4394

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Commercial Property

Wilkinson Eyre, Quantity Surveyors Davis Langdon, Project Manager Deloitte Real Estate and M&E and structural engineer AECOM. All had to deal with a number of challenges during the lifetime of the project, many connected to the site’s location on the windy and wet Worthing shoreline.

One of these challenges was lifting the main pool hall’s huge steel roof beams into place. During the operation, one of the UK’s largest mobile cranes was used. The 800-tonne telescopic crane was used to lift the 50-tonne steel roof beams into place on the centre’s main pool hall. This was a delicate operation which required careful planning and clement weather.

Lawrence Wilson added: “This was a complex phase of a major project which required meticulous planning and site management. The competence of our site team ensured that the operation went smoothly.

“The placing of the roof beams was the most complex part of the installation of the structural steel framework to the main pool hall. The development’s location on Worthing’s seafront meant that careful planning was needed to ensure that inclement weather conditions did not affect the lifting of the beam.”

Involving the local community was

The Morgan Sindall team took advantage of their location during the project and used sea water instead of potable water in the commissioning and testing of the swimming pools a key area of focus during the lifetime of the project and the Morgan Sindall project team worked closely with schools, colleges and groups from the local area, hosting site visits and competitions with local schools during the construction process to encourage enthusiasm and interest in the development. It was also the subject of site visits from other construction professionals in and around Sussex.

One of the last events to be held on the site prior to the leisure centre opening was the burial of a time capsule in the reception area. Worthing Borough Council called on residents, schools and businesses to donate items associated with modern day living. Many suggestions were offered, however, in the end the final selection included a computer keyboard and mouse, NOW 84 music CD, buttons, a can ring pull, ball point pen, coins,

a mobile phone, hand painted pebble from Worthing Beach, baseball cap, letter from council leader Paul Yallop and postcards. The items chosen were ones considered unlikely to be used in 60 years’ time when the capsule is planned to be opened. Those items that were not selected will be crafted into a public sculpture which will be placed on show in Splashpoint, Worthing Museum and the town hall.

The team also held a number of community events during the project, including a celebratory topping out ceremony which included a BBQ and afternoon of beach volleyball. The centre was officially opened by four times Paralympic Champion, Ellie Simmonds on the 20th June at a special ceremony. www.morgansindall.com

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SBT Recommends

SBTBook Club in partnership with

.co.uk

In each issue, we will be searching out and offering you the cream from the latest, business relevant titles at the very best prices. Choose from a host of titles, including our featured books from any issue and join us online at www.hive.co.uk/sbt to view more SBT recommends at your leisure.

You can order these to be delivered to your door or, alternatively, select your favourite bookshop and pick up from there. Enjoy...

Killer Presentations With Your Ipad: How To Engage Your Audience And Win More Business With The World’s Greatest Gadget Create powerful presentations with the world’s greatest communication tool “Killer Presentations With Your iPad” provides presenters of all levels with a vibrant alternative to tired old slides and bullet points.

Publisher: McGraw-Hill Education Publication Date: 01 November 2013 ISBN: 9780071816625 £13.59

First 90 Days, Updated And Expanded: Proven Strategies For Getting Up To Speed Faster And Smarter The First 90 Days, Michael D. Watkins offers proven strategies for conquering the challenges of transitionsno matter where you are in your career.

Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press Publication Date: 23 April 2013 ISBN: 9781422191392 £17.98

Daily Telegraph Tax Guide 2013 Understanding The Tax System, Completing Your Tax Return And Planning How To Become More Tax Efficient. The Tax Guide contains everything you need to know about completing a Self-Assessment Return Form, revised and updated to include all budgetary changes announced in March 2013 Publisher: Kogan Page Publication Date: 03 May 2013 ISBN: 9780749468699 £13.48

Bread: The Story of Greggs Ian Gregg led the family firm as it grew, employing generations of families from around Newcastle and then becoming a public company with bakeries in Scotland and across the North, and now with shops on every high street. This is a story of extraordinary success, but it is also a triumphant tale of how doing right by your people makes for great business.

Publisher: Transworld Publishers Ltd Publication Date: 09 May 2013 ISBN: 9780552169493 £6.39

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Postu

Local Innovation, Global Ergonomics The UK’s leading ergonomics company is based in Berwick, East Sussex.

Ergonomic solutions, office design and furniture, training and consultancy, workstation accessories and Health and Safety E-learning.

t. 0845 345 0010

www.posturite.co.uk www.sussexbusinesstimes.co.uk 61

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14/06/2012 17:17:24 12/06/2013 11:41

Home Grown Hero

Made In Sussex: Maid Simple

Injecting glamour into cleaning – these ‘Sussex beauties’ push all the right buttons

The mere mention of cleaning is enough to Brand send most people’s eyes rolling back Focus in their heads – all those plastic buckets, garish cleaning products, disinfectant smells – urghhh, the thought...

This scenario perfectly encapsulates the reason that Maid Simple – a quirky new brand of cleaning products, with its head office in Bexhill - was born.

The idea for the Maid Simple product range was the brainchild of the girls at the Maid Simple office, owned by Sussex entrepreneur Mark Scheldt.

Mark already has Tableau a wellestablished niche cleaning product range for antiques and chandeliers, which is sold in John Lewis and selected hardware stores nationally.

The girls at Tableau explained one day while sitting in the office in Bexhill, that most cleaning products are quite ugly and uninspiring. Given that people spend many hours designing their home interiors it seemed bizarre to keep bottles of washing up liquid and shower cleaner with ‘violent’ primary coloured labels on full display on window sills. They agreed it was a pity that a more aesthetically pleasing product range to fit with todays décor didn’t exist.

Mark, said that he immediately took the ideas of his staff onboard and thoroughly investigated the cleaning product market further.

“You cannot escape the need to clean and we felt we had hit upon a real gap in the market. Statistics show that women still do the lion’s share of the house cleaning, and after conducting our market

research we found the vast majority welcomed anything that made the task more enjoyable and less boring,” said Mark.

“Obviously we were in the ideal position to take this idea forward as we already have some great pedigree products in Tableau. This family business started in 1980 and that experience together with my background in marketing enabled us to develop the range.

He explained: “I could see that many people would prefer to use an appealing looking product, but again I understood that the formulations had to be excellent too. We put our heads together and came up with the perfect combination.

We would have liked the products to be fully eco but our experience has shown that those types of product are often less effective. Instead we settled on a compromise in that they are not completely eco but they do not require orange hazard boxes on the labels. The products all smell wonderful and of course are all made here in the UK – so they tick a lot of boxes.”

Mark, who has lived in Bexhill for the past 40 years and has a team of 6, said everyone these days seems to just love anything vintage in their homes so it was the obvious conclusion that the style and packaging would show a nod to the nostalgic era of the 1950’s.

“The girls are all fans of the TV series Mad Men, love Cath Kidson and anything glamorous,” he said smiling.

So, Maid Simple in all its unique and vintage glory was born in April 2013. Each product has an unusual and fun name such as Rinse and Run Shower Cleaner

and Lavish Lustre Marble and Granite Polish. Plus, each product has a ‘tongue in cheek’ tip of how to give yourself a treat when you have finished scrubbing and polishing, such as ‘bake a cake and invite the girls round’ or ‘go for a walk in the sunshine with a friend or ‘run a scented bubble bath’ - all simple pleasures from a bygone age that it’s easy to forget.

Since launching Maid Simple this year, Mark has been delighted with response. He has initially launched the product online at www. maidsimpleproducts.co.uk “We decided on a low-key debut, but already hits to our website are coming thick and fast. We’ve had publicity in leading national media as well as national magazines and local press,” said Mark.

He added: “ New retail stockists are coming on board almost every day at the moment and these are listed on the website. Many consumers will be able to buy directly from local independent stores.”

For more information visit: www. maidsimpleproducts.co.uk

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Friends of the Albion Networking Group

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Join the Friends of the Albion Networking Group today and promote your business to over 130 other Member companies.

Enjoy monthly breakfast meetings with superb facilities at the Amex stadium and the chance to belong to the most interesting and enjoyable affinity group in the area.

Your business will also have a Member listing in every Albion home matchday programme.

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Call Albion Commercial on or email commercial@bhafc.co.uk for more information.

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funding the supply chain to help your business grow

T

rade Finance, commonly referred to as Supply Chain Finance or Purchase Order Finance offers a funding solution to growing businesses that are unable to access traditional sources of finance such as bank finance.

Often businesses fail to access finance because they are relatively new businesses and frequently lack the balance sheet strength to support borrowings to fund a growing order book.

TFP provides trade finance through a trading model. TFP physically buys goods on behalf of its client against confirmed orders from end customers. The buyers and suppliers can be based (within reason) anywhere in the world.

Trade Finance Partners your partner in trade

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