Liverpool city region business post january 2017

december/ january 2016/17

how city region has put itself at the centre of a visitor boom – report pages 22-25

Window on the WORLD ASSOCIATE PARTNER

WHY I’M BRINGING WORLD-CLASS SHOWJUMPING TO LIVERPOOL – PAGES 6-8

2 liverpool city region business post†TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 3

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LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST

Contents 5 a coffee with: David Huck, Port Director - UK and Ireland, Peel Ports Group 5-8 BIG INTERVIEW: Nina Barbour, Director of the Liverpool International Horse Show 10-11 what happens inside: The Heath, Runcorn

12 DIGITAL, MEDIA AND CREATIVE: City

agency putting Unity Theatre back on centre stage

13 opinion: Alistair Houghton, Liverpool ECHO City Editor

15 opinion: Bill Gleeson, Liverpool ECHO Comment & Analysis Writer

18 opinion: Cllr Phil Davies, Leader of

Wirral Council and Lead Member – Economic Development & Energy, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

19 what’s new/appointments: Two old

favourites return to the city centre pub scene

5-8

22-25 special report: How visitor

wheel of fortune is turning in city region’s favour

28 news: Hospice benefits from high-tech partnership

29 opinion: Cllr Gary Millar, Assistant Mayor and Mayoral Lead for Business & Enterprise

31 commercial property: Firm hoping new factory has the domino effect

33 science and technology: Life

through the Lens is giving firms a fresh perspective

35-38 special rePORT: How city region business leaders reacted to the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement

40-41 news special: How early figures are promising a happy Christmas for the retail sector

42 networking/appointments: Key

arrival at Shop Direct while two companies show off new HQ

44 news: Business leaders join forces to

provide new charitable trust for the region

46 business diary: What’s on where to help your business development

35-38

10-11 xx-xx

CONTACT US

Do you have a story for Business Post?

Alistair Houghton City Editor 0151 472 2449 alistair.houghton @trinitymirror.com

Your advertising options Tom Belger City Centre beat blogger (Economy) 0151 472 2449 tom.belger@trinitymirror.com

For Agenda listings email: business@trinitymirror.com Published by Trinity Mirror Merseyside, PO Box 48, Old Hall Street, Liverpool, L69 3EB.

Frank Notton Advertising Manager 0151 472 2759 frank.notton@trinitymirror.com Neil Johnson Business Partnership Manager 0151 472 2718 neil.johnson@trinitymirror.com

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4 liverpool city region business post†TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

With thanks to our business partners and sponsors

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For details of our partnership and sponsorship packages please call

NEIL JOHNSON on 0151 472 2718

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 5

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

a coffee with . . .

Liverpool2 will transform how ports carry out their business – I’m proud to be a part of it What is your proudest achievement in business?

The new Liverpool2 container terminal and, specifically, the transformational change that this will bring to the UK logistics sector.

I find LinkedIn a useful business tool. To that end I’ m constantly expanding and growing my network of contacts and relationships. I find the personal touch is very important in every aspect of business.

Do you dress up or down for business?

Up or otherwise as appropriate. Working on the port sometimes means donning a life jacket or other personal protective equipment.

What is your firm’ s biggest asset?

Our leadership team and our people. A business is only ever as good as its people.

What is a tip that is invaluable in life or business?

Richard Branson said: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don’t want to.”

Do you have a motto that guides the way you do business?

Challenge and grow.

Who has inspired you in your business life and why?

John Whittaker (Chairman of Peel Holdings Management Limited) for his vision, energy and zest for delivering transformational change.

What do you always carry with you?

A multi-plug/USB charger. Keeping my laptop and mobile phone permanently charged is essential!

How do you make contacts that are useful for business?

What would you be doing if you hadn’t followed your current career path?

Industrial engineering.

What is your favourite film?

Captain Phillips.

What is the most inspirational book you have ever read?

It’s so long since I read a book, it’s usually now only ever on holiday. I am inspired by books that journey through adversity to success. My most inspirational business book would be‘ The Toyota Way’ .

When are you most creative or inspired?

When challenged and when I see the achievements of our teams.

When do you take your coffee break?

At 7.30am and it’s tea!

Americano, latte, cappuccino - what’s your coffee break favourite?

Yorkshire tea.

David HUCK, 41,is the Port Director for Peel Ports. He is married to Natalie and has two children – Emily, 12 and Ewan, 10.

In his spare time he follows international rugby and cricket and can often be found watching his son play rugby with Preston Grasshoppers. Based in Liverpool, David oversees the largest operating ports cluster in the Peel Ports Group, with

operations in Dublin, Heysham, Liverpool and Manchester, including the newly-opened Liverpool2 deep water container terminal. David has worked in the logistics solutions sector for more than 20 years, initially within the vehicle supply chain and for the last 12 years with Hutchison Port Holdings and Peel Ports Group.

A graduate holding a BSc (Hons) in Industrial Engineering and an MBA in Industrial Management, David shares his time between rural Lancashire and the Peel Ports Group Head Office in Liverpool.

6 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

She’s got a ticket to ride

●● Nina Barbour with nine-year-old showjumper Douglas Delight at the launch event for the Liverpool International Horse Show in October

Nina Barbour is Director of the Liverpool International Horse Show, which returns to the city from New Year’s Eve. J OHN THOMPSON meets the showjumper-turnedbusinesswoman who took a leap of faith

D

etailed planning and thorough market research are of course among the cornerstones of any sound business plan prior to its launch. But a bit of luck always helps too.

When Nina Barbour approached the Liverpool ECHO Arena two years ago telling them she wanted to put on a top- class indoor horse show, there were no obvious dates she could slot into. Apart, that is, from a few apparently ‘dead zone’ days right after the Christmas holiday and before the New Year return to work.

But she gambled on instinct – and took them.

Twenty thousand ticket sales later, the Liverpool International Horse Show was born. And it is growing up fast, with a five-year plan designed to see it take root in the city region.

The show is now back, bigger and better, for the 2016/17 festive period, opening up for three days on New Year’s Eve. Said Nina: “Friends were worried and the industry was a bit sceptical really – ‘Oh is this just going to be another event that comes along and doesn’t work’.

“They were the only dates that the Arena had free. Yet they worked perfectly – it was almost a happy accident, if you like.

“It was difficult to get the traders there for our retail shopping village.

But from a public point of view, it is a

great time of year. I think by Boxing Day people are a bit sick of Christmas and are looking for something else to do. They have got Christmas money to spend and they haven’t yet gone back to work. So it is a perfect time.”

So just how was a major equestrian show – featuring top riders, world ranking points and £200,000 in prize money – conceived for Liverpool?

The story begins in Bolesworth Castle, a 6,000-acre dairy farm estate in mid-Cheshire and home, since 2008, to its own major horse show, the Bolesworth International.

Nina Barbour took over the running of the family estate almost a decade ago from her late father Anthony, who had diversified and transitioned it for the modern era, changing the portfolio to a balanced mix of farming but also developing commercial and residential property.

The Bolesworth event now attracts more than 30,000 people over four summer days every year.

Nina, a talented former showjumper

and eventer herself, said she was inspired by the success of the outdoor event, and by shows she had attended in Europe, to organise an indoor event of her own.

She said: “Liverpool was the first place that came to mind – geographically, of course, but I also knew that a lot of money had been spent on the Arena and the whole Albert Dock area.

“I went to see the ECHO Arena and knew straight away that my concept would work there.

“I met with Tim Banfield (then Commercial Director) and John Moore (Sports Manager).

“Tim had had experience in Birmingham running the Horse of the Year Show. But bringing horses into the Arena, and using the multi-storey car park to stable them, had never happened before.

“They have been fantastic all the way through and very supportive.”

Apart from the show at the Arena last year, and a concrete car park for a

Ticket details Tickets for the three-day Liverpool International Horse Show can be purchased from the Liverpool ECHO Arena website or ​via the ​ TicketQuarter website.

Prices start from £11.50 for children and range up to £255 for a three-day

pass. Tickets are for afternoon or evening showings.

Groups of 15 or more people receive a 20% discount on adult prices and there is also a family ticket available for groups of two adults and two children.

stableyard, Nina and the Arena staff deployed the new Exhibition Centre as a warm-up area for the animals and riders, building a shopping village around it to add to the public appeal.

That has allowed people to get up close and personal with the horses and riders before seeing them in action later in the Arena itself.

Explained Nina: “What I wanted to achieve was having that warm-up arena as the centrepiece for the shopping area, as part of the experience.

“We have achieved that and we have a champagne bar and a restaurant and shops all the way round it.

“I suppose it could have happened without the Exhibition Centre – but we wouldn’t have been able to achieve that level, making that difference to the layout.”

Nina confesses also to being bowledover by the city itself and the waterfront area in general.

She said: “I didn’t know Liverpool that well before, although I live fairly locally. But since then I’m a real convert. It’s absolutely on the radar now.

“You do get that sense of newness and rebirth. And the great thing that has really been noticeable is that everybody is so very proud of the city; the area is very friendly and welcoming, which is not always the same in some cities in the UK or TURN TO PAGE 8

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 7

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

Pictures: IAN COOPER, JAMES MALONEY, JASON ROBERTS & ANDREW TEEBAY

●●Racing legend Bob Champion helped launch the 2016/17 Liverpool International Horse Show

●●Showjumper Robert Whitaker clears the Liver Building fence at the 2015/16 event

Celebrate New Year’s Eve at The Liverpool International Horse Show!

●●The Shetland Pony ‘Grand National’ is one of the most popular events at the show

8 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

FROM PAGES 6/7

●●Robert Smith on anywhere else. That’s a real, unique Cimano jumping the benefit of going to Liverpool.”

Nina is investing heavily in the future Liver Building during of the event. But the truth is, it is yet to the final day of the turn the profit that it must.

2015/16 event She continued: “There was a big risk PICTURE: jason roberts in the first year and we were in a lucky position that we were able to stand that risk for the first couple of years.

“But still it was uncharted territory really. All I knew was that in Year One we had to make an impact and we had to get it right.

“I knew we could get the show right.

The difficulty was ensuring we got the people there – to a new venue, to something completely new to the north of England.

“So we really went to town on the marketing budget and had to throw everything at it. And put a lot of effort in – both within the industry and outside it – for awareness. Luckily, it came off.

“We’ve got a small team here that is intrinsic to both events. Alan Beaumont is our show director and basically organises the sport. Alan started life in Liverpool, so it is quite close to his heart.

“Then we have a small, in-house marketing team who deal with all of our events and do a great job. Also, we have had to bring in a whole production team, because we have brought live music and other entertainment to the Liverpool Show.”

“The logistics are a big challenge but everybody is used to that. They produce big shows in those environments where they have three days to fit in – and everybody wants to be in at the same time. So it’s about putting together a very detailed to 30,000 actual sales this year and top production schedule. the arena up with our charity partners “I do get involved in that to a certain filling the seats up, then that would be extent, definitely. But I focus more on great. I think we’ll definitely see an the content of the show and the uplift – I hope it gets close to that marketing side of it. Those guys know figure.” what they are doing!”

The medium-to-long-term plan is to Growing real ticket sales remains a develop the Liverpool show into an big target now – and one Nina is official five-star equestrian event. confident of hitting.

That will ultimately depend on “Last year we did boost our numbers bigger sponsorship deals. And they in with complimentary tickets through turn will only follow bigger live good causes, like Tickets for Troops. audiences – and perhaps growing TV And we reached 30,000 people over or live digital audience figures the six sessions of the three days, with (it was soft-streamed last two performances each day, which year, attracting​100,000 was brilliant.

Youtube viewers).

“So from that point of view it was Encouragingly, the UK’s fantastic and I think everybody, top male rider, Scott especially from the industry, was amazed that there were so Liverpool was the obvious choice many people there. One because it is by far the nicest session was a arena and the nicest setting in total sell-out, and our part of the UK. the atmosphere was brilliant.

“If we could get Show director Nina Barbour

●●The Champagne Bar is always popular

●●Musical theatre boy band Collabro will provide entertainment this year PICTURE: jason roberts

●●Action from the 2015/16 event

Brash, is among the big names signed up, as is the country’s leading female show jumper, Laura Renwick.

Corporate audiences are currently accommodated at tables on a raised platform in front of the stage – the best seats in the house, if you like. They were sold out for New Year’s Eve weeks ago, for a show complete with music acts Collabro (of Britain’s Got Talent TV success) and the ABBA tribute band Revival, indoor fireworks and more. If the show grows as hoped, the Arena’s executive boxes will likely be brought into play in future years, developing the corporate offering.

Said Nina: “Our event is the level below the very top. So this is a four-star event, the highest level in the sport is five-star. Olympia down in London, for example, is a five-star event.

“But the only difference is the prize money. The jumps are just as big, it’s just that they aren’t winning quite so much prize money. So that

would be an ambition of ours, to upgrade to that level.

“And we are absolutely in it for the medium to long term. We think it’s a great venue, and it’s a great city and location to be in.

“There is an equestrian heritage in the north west but also a huge equestrian population. I think the Wirral has got one of the highest percentages of horse owners in the country – it is significant. And with the event at Bolesworth and now Liverpool, we are the highest-profile events of this type north of London.

“We’ve gone in at a level above the Horse of the Year Show at the NEC, which is a three-star even​t​. That’s very significant for the north of England because for decades everybody has had to travel all the way down to London or Hickstead or Windsor.”

She added: “Liverpool was the obvious choice because it is by far the nicest arena and the nicest setting in our part of the UK. “I hope that we can stay here with it – and create a legacy for the city.”

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 9

TUESDAY, 13, 2016 BUSINESSDECEMBER POST PARTNER

Kitchen sink or realistic expectations?

As we approach the end of a turbulent year for the global economy, a year that has been typified by market uncertainty and polldefying political outcomes; Quilter Cheviot’s Head of Liverpool office, Simon Walker considers the UK’s economic outlook in light of the recent Autumn Statement and explores the potential impact on investors.

M

IDNOVEMBER saw the first comprehensive economic statement of the May era, when the Chancellor presented his first and, as it turned out, the last Autumn statement.

Policy wise, there was little to grab headlines. This was probably just as well, as headlines and airwaves have been overwhelmed by the chorus of Brexiteers complaining that the forecasts unveiled by the Chancellor (and provided by the Office for Budget Responsibility, or OBR) were unreasonably pessimistic.

In short order, growth forecasts were reduced and borrowing projections elevated. Growth for 2017 is now anticipated to be 1.4 per cent rather than 2.2 per cent, and the total reduction in growth projections over the next few years is around 2.4 per cent. Having consigned George Osborne’s balanced budget plan to

the dustbin, the scale of additional borrowing anticipated over this Parliament was eye-watering. An additional £122bn of borrowing is scheduled, and the final year of the Parliament will see a budget deficit of around £20bn.

Cutting away the politics here – not an easy task – what should we make of these numbers? ‘Kitchen sinking’ is not uncommon practice in the corporate world - where new CEOs will try to rebase investors’ expectations at a low enough level to ensure future performance can be presented positively. The Chancellor is clearly aware that the UK faces a greater level of uncertainty than at any time since the financial crisis – the course of Brexit negotiations is unclear, and the response of business and consumers is equally difficult to predict. Better surely to err to the side of caution, than to face a torrent of future pressure if events do work against the UK? Equally, such a cautious outlook provides meaningful

● The EU referendum result has added to market uncertainty

● Simon Walker, Head of Liverpool Office, Quilter Cheviot

support to the Treasury’s approach of keeping some economic powder dry, and focusing spending on investment such as infrastructure and innovation.

Plenty of time for tax cuts later in the Parliament, if needed.

However, there is a plethora of other commentators who hold an even more pessimistic view of the UK’s immediate prospects – including the Bank of England. The nature of uncertain times is that forecasting becomes more difficult than normal, and projections will therefore tend to diverge. The economy’s performance since the referendum has been surprisingly strong, but few can realistically anticipate this to continue uninterrupted through the period of negotiation and disconnection with the EU. So, overall, we can understand why the Chancellor has aligned himself with this picture of softening growth and challenging fiscal position. Against this background, the announcement

of significant investment in the UK’s infrastructure, support for the regions where productivity often struggles, and a reiteration of the planned reduction in business tax can all be seen to be sensible. International investors will need to be reassured if they are to continue financing our government debt – it was interesting to note that UK government bonds were trading slightly higher in the immediate aftermath of the Autumn Statement, in spite of the likelihood of greater supply.

As we have said here before, the UK stock market retains a very international focus and little has changed as a result of the Autumn Statement. More domestically oriented companies involved in building, construction and infrastructure may receive a welcome boost.

Meanwhile, cyclical and financial sectors ought to benefit from the Trump growth dividend as the President elect has made it clear that he wishes to see the all-important US economy moving up a gear. This could be helpful to the UK through this next challenging period. There are still unknown waters to navigate as we enter into 2017 and, Supreme Court allowing, the triggering of Article 50.

For more information, contact Simon Walker: simon.walker@ quiltercheviot.com 0151 243 2161.

Investors should remember that the value of investments, and the income from them, can go down as well as up. Investors may not recover what they invest. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

10 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

WHAT HAPPENS INSIDE . . .

Revival keeps old ICI site at cutting edge of technology W

HEN chemicals giant ICI announced in 1999 that it was closing its base at the Heath in Runcorn, it was widely feared it would be the death knell for the Cheshire town.

In its heyday, ICI employed 1,600 people on the 50-acre site and Runcorn’s economy relied massively on those jobs.

But remarkably, 17 years on, the buildings remain a hotbed of scientific innovation, a major centre for the local community, and now provide a workplace for more than 2,000 people.

Back in the 1950s, ICI employed thousands of people in Halton, with departments scattered across Runcorn and Widnes, and the board decided it needed a main headquarters for its heavy chemicals division, so The Heath was commissioned.

The complex was designed by Sir Frederick Gibberd, the renowned architect behind Liverpool’s Roman Catholic Cathedral, the first three terminals at Heathrow Airport and the new town of Harlow.

The Heath was in an ideal location for the company, as it sat close to the ICI manufacturing sites at Caster-Kellner, which produced chlorine and sodium hydroxide, and the adjacent Rocksavage works, which produced numerous chlorine-based chemicals.

As well as being the HQ site for chemicals administration, ICI also established laboratories, technical support and research and development facilities at The Heath for ICI products.

Despite its illustrious architect, The Heath is not a place of beauty. Its buildings are functional, sturdy, flexible, and cleverly designed to serve the

MARK THOMAS finds that chemicals HQ has found a new formula for sustained success complex needs of the workforce and, in particular, the research scientists and technicians who worked in its laboratories. And it was that functionality that would prove the key to its survival and growth into a flourishing science park where groundbreaking research and development is still being carried out in 2016.

The Site Operations Group (SOG) was a division of ICI which managed The Heath and other sites. When the closure was announced by ICI, a group of managers in the division formed a limited company and linked up with Liverpool-based businessman John Lewis – now SOG’s managing director – to develop a business plan to buy the site. John knew the Heath intimately.

He had worked for his father’s floorlaying business, helping to install and maintain the floors in its offices and laboratories, before going on to become an ICI manager for a time.

He understood what made The Heath tick and the SOG group saw its potential.

In 2000 SOG became the owner and operator and set about transforming it from a single-occupancy site with an uncertain future into a thriving business and scientific centre. Since its inception more than 500 companies from a broad spectrum of sectors have been based at The Heath. “ They don’t build facilities like this anymore,” enthuses John.

“The infrastructure of the site is fantastic. We

stripped out all the old teak tops and landlords, a platform for talent, and we bunsen burners and created clinical adapt the platform to meet the open spaces. We call it blue-box-space requirements of the talent.”

Entry level office and laboratory because of the blue vinyl floors.

“You can adapt any lab for anything space is kept deliberately accessible, and we have companies doing offering short-term leases to fledgling everything from chemical research to science businesses, many of them spinnano technology. All these science outs from universities. One of their businesses rub shoulders with each proudest boasts is that they have never had to rely on a grant. other and network here, too.”

“Our model is based on reinvestment John and his colleagues realised it and flexibility, and it has become a was vital to hold onto key scouting ground for talent,” said John. technical skills that had been That flexibility was ably developed by the ICI team, so demonstrated in SOG’s early days as they made sure to retain a it tried to establish The Heath. The core of specialists. It proved to company had plenty of space, but be a masterstoke and a real was still building up its client USP. base and its revenues.

Said John: “We have a So it allowed The Heath team of about ten with to be used for filming these core skills, locations. Popular TV precision glassblowers, shows like Two Pints of mechanics, precision Lager and Grange Hill engineers and would shoot there. technicians. When a “It was a lifeline for a R&D firm sets up here, while,” said John. “Then all these specialist skills we started filling up with that it needs are literally business tenants and down the corridor. ●●John Lewis that was the end of that.”

“We are scientific

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 11

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

THE HEATH, runcorn TODAY’S TENANTS

Arvia

integrating analytical instruments with Laboratory Information Management Arvia’s technology removes and Systems destroys organic contaminants from a wide range of aqueous effluents, ranging from low and trace levels of difficult-to-treat and non-biodegradable organics to radioactive oils.

Polymorph Ltd is an IT software and services company with a track record of providing consultancy, innovative solutions, products and support services SpheriTech specialises in consultancy to meet a wide range of business needs. and laboratory-based contract R&D, supporting a range of industries including peptide synthesis, oligonucleotide synthesis, polymer synthesis, biocatalysis, cell culture and Medical Access Ltd is a distributor of all aspects of chromatography. medical products

Polymorph

Spheritech

Medical Access Ltd

●●A variety of businesses rub shoulders at The Heath

Exactly the same idea has been used

by SOG at its new site, the former Sanofi plant in Dagenham, east London, where it has created the Londoneast-uk Business and Technical Park applying the pioneering model that worked so well at The Heath. SOG has hired space out at Dagenham for TV shows like Humans, Lucky Man and New Blood, and movies like Marvel’s Dr Strange and Code for a Killer.

“It has brought us hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of income,” said John.

He believes that by relaxing regulation for the film industry, the government could unlock a lot more income potential from disused and developing industrial sites. But if The Heath’s ethos is all about ground-breaking science, it is a place that confounds expectations.

It is open to the local community, and there is a friendliness about the people that goes well beyond the superficial. The family tone is largely set by the boss. A warm, smiling, avuncular man with a sense of humour clearly inherited from his illustrious uncle, the Squire of Knotty Ash Ken Dodd, John Lewis exudes a genuine

enthusiasm and passion for The Heath and its work. As we meet in the The Heath’s canteen, he is on first name terms with everyone from the kitchen staff to the local pensioners who are made to feel at home as they call in for a chat and a cup of tea.

“A site like this has to be a centre for the community or it defeats the object,” he says. “There are so many people coming and going every day. It really is bustling.”

The older members of the Runcorn community are catered for with events like the twice-weekly tea dances, organised by a 75-year-old and with the oldest participant a sprightly 95. An indoor bowling programme is being launched, there is a community police station, a hairdressers, and even a dressmaking shop called “Love Frocks”.

The gymnasium facilities are state of the art – but none of this would be possible without the science that is at The Heath’s heart. And SOG has plans to continue to expand.

“I am very confident about the future as long as our politicians can look at things in a systematic and logical fashion,” said John.

Mexichem

Money Carer

Mexichem is a leading fully integrated fluorochemicals business. It is the largest producer of fluorspar in the world, accounting for more than 20% of global supply, and also produces around 10% of the global hydrofluoric acid supply.

The Money Carer Foundation is a Social Enterprise providing a daily money management service to safeguard vulnerable adults who are not able to manage their own financial affairs.

BioTech Energy Services Biotech Energy Services and Biotech Lab Services are unique in providing a comprehensive and fully-integrated laboratory and engineering service to AD owners and operators.

Wood Group PSN Wood Group PSN, a division of Wood Group, are the largest provider of brownfield services to the oil and gas industry.

Manchester Organics Manchester Organics specialises in laboratory-scale multi-step synthesis of a wide variety of organic compounds.

Nanoco Nanoco is a world leader in the development and manufacture of commercial quantities of quantum dots, solar inks and other nano-materials for use in multiple applications including lighting, solar cells and biological imaging.

Gravitate Consulting Gravitate Consulting LLP is today establishing itself as one of the north west’s leading firms of consulting structural engineers

●●The Heath as it was

CSOLS CSols supplies a new generation of software, Links for LIMS, for

COPYRIGHT: Frederick Gibberd Partnership

12 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

Digital, media and creative

Email: alistair.houghton@trinitymirror.co.uk

City agency helping put Unity Theatre back on centre stage L

iverpool–based creative agency Nonconform is redeveloping the brand for the city’s Unity Theatre, which is to reopen in April next year after a £790,000 refurbishment.

Nonconform specialises in the arts sector, with a 25-year record of developing brands for venues including Liverpool’s Bluecoat, the Everyman Theatre, and Royal Court, Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music and London’s Cecil Sharp House.

The agency is seeking to help cement the well-loved theatre’s position as a sustainable 21st Century venue, and as an organisation that is future-facing, with a historic creative legacy that stretches back to the Left Theatre movement of the 1930s.

The redevelopment of the Hope Place venue is driven by the needs of Unity’s artists and audiences and is the first major work to be carried out since the previous redevelopment in 1998.

It will also ensure that Unity Theatre has a strong digital profile and is an environmentally sustainable venue.

Core-funded by the Arts Council England and Liverpool council, Unity won the Best Performing Venue award at the Mersey Partnership Tourism Awards. The theatre has two performance spaces, Unity One, with an audience capacity of 182, and Unity Two, which can accommodate 100

●●(left to right) Jonny Biggs (Nonconform - Director), Anthony Proctor (Unity Theatre - Marketing Manager), Andrew Weatherstone (Nonconform - Director) and Matthew Linley (Unity Theatre - Artistic Director and CEO)

people. The theatre works extensively throughout the local community, offering bespoke workshops and access to the arts, providing opportunities for people interested in developing or establishing themselves creatively.

Artistic Director and CEO of Unity Theatre, Matthew Linley, said “Nonconform have been working alongside our in-house marketing and artistic team to establish a strong and fitting sense of identity for Unity

Theatre, one that works both for us and for our audiences. We are enjoying working with the team to develop a solution that remains authentic to our legacy of staging radical but accessible work, and helps us to achieve our vision of a strong and resilient organisation for the future.”

Director of Nonconform, Andrew Weatherstone, said “We are delighted to be working with Unity Theatre and their creative partners K2 Architects at this

exciting time. From the moment we entered into initial conversations we were invigorated by both the physical plans for the venue, and the endless ideas and possibilities they open up.

“We have a passion for working within the arts and cultural sector, and its fantastic that we have the chance to contribute to helping a brilliant organisation play an even bigger, more ambitious role in Liverpool, the region and beyond.”

Designer Oliver steers Dock to top award

●●(left to right) George Bond, Interior Design, award winner Oliver Steer and fashion designer Wayne Hemingway

Liverpool-born interior designer, Oliver Steer, has won a Northern Design Award for his work on the world-famous Albert Dock Grade 1 listed building on Liverpool’ s historic waterfront.

The only Liverpool business to take an award on the evening, Oliver fought off tough competition to win ‘Best Residential Interior Design Project Under 200k’ at the ceremony, which was held at The Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. The Northern Design Awards, the largest of its

kind outside London, brings together designers, retailers and property developers to celebrate excellence in northern design and style.

It is the second year that Oliver has been recognised at the awards.

In 2015 he won the ‘ Room of the Year’ category for his work on an Orangery that was the final element in the refurbishment of a client’s home in Formby. Oliver founded Oliver Steer Interior Design in 2005 and has recently launched his latest

venture, Timber & Tweed in Birkdale, Southport.

Oliver said: “Working on such an iconic building which forms an integral part of one of the most recognisable waterfronts in the world was a real privilege.

“As a Liverpool born and educated designer, I feel incredibly proud to have brought home two awards for projects based in Merseyside, showcasing both design excellence in the region and its architectural prestige.”

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 13

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

Opinion ALISTAIR HOUGHTON, Liverpool ECHO City Editor

I

had two rather contrasting meetings that, in their different ways, told me that Liverpool is still a city on the up.

One cold Friday morning, I wandered down to the Cunard Building to meet former Chancellor George Osborne. And then later that day I was wined and dined at the new Sugar Hut venue in Victoria Street, alongside Sugar Hut CEO Terry Pullen.

Mr Osborne was here to speak about his Northern Powerhouse Partnership, which he hopes will continue the idea he created when he was in government.

The former Chancellor wants the cities of the north to work more closely together. And in Liverpool he brought together local leaders, including the city’s Mayor Joe Anderson, so they could share their ideas.

“The first thing I wanted to do was go round and listen to people,” said a relaxed Mr Osborne. And he was

upbeat about exactly what the Powerhouse could do for Liverpool and the other cities of the north – it will, he says, mean “more jobs, higher quality of life, and rising living standards”.

Speaking about his visits to cities such as Leeds and Sheffield, he said: “If you put them all together and working together, without losing their individual identity, then the whole will be bigger than the individual parts and you’ll get new investment in things like transport links, in science, in the universities, in skills and schools here – and the whole of the north will do well.”

Mr Osborne acknowledged that closing the north-south gap would take some time. But, crucially, he also insisted that the new Government was backing the Powerhouse plans, despite earlier fears. Now I don’t know if George Osborne is a fan of The Only Way Is Essex. But I’m sure he’d have welcomed Terry Pullen and co’s decision to invest in the city. The Sugar

Hut is the glitzy Brentwood club that’s a favourite with cast members of reality show TOWIE. The company chose Liverpool as the home of its first venue outside Essex, with the chatty Mr Pullen describing the city as “the natural choice” for a Sugar Hut. The former Living Room has been given a refit and is now lined with mirrors and pink leather couches. It’s actually classier than that sounds, and it should be a hit, And whether it’s your type of place or not, the Sugar Hut represents investment in Liverpool. Mr Pullen chose Liverpool because of its sense of style.

It’s the same sense of style that saw The Clothes Show decide to relocate to Liverpool and that will bring thousands of new visitors here next year.

So we need that kind of investment, as well as the spending on infrastructure and science that Mr Osborne is promoting.

For Liverpool, the only way is up.

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14 liverpool city region business post†TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016 LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 15

Opinion BILL GLEESON, Liverpool ECHO Comment & Analysis Writer

I

s the Conservative Party still serious about the Northern Powerhouse?

When she first took over as Prime Minister in July, Theresa May seemed to step back from the idea.

She demoted its chief proponent, the former Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne, to the back benches and gave the task of co-ordinating the Northern Powerhouse initiative to a junior minister, Andrew Percy. Not a good sign.

At the time of last month’s Autumn Statement, the government published its Northern Powerhouse strategy, a document that pretty comprehensively sets out their plans to develop the economy of the north of England.

When I first heard the new Chancellor, Philip Hammond, refer to the document, it sounded promising, but even a quick read reveals that there is nothing new in it – nothing that wasn’t on the cards before Osborne got the chop.

One of the defining principles of the Northern Powerhouse was to capitalise on the region’s unique advantage of its cluster of large-scale urban centres and develop them into an agglomeration that could become an economic motor in its own right, thereby easing Britain’s traditional over-reliance on London for economic growth.

That, however, will not be happening now. Indeed, the government seems intent on having similar powerhouse initiatives for most of England’s other regions too, including the Midlands and the south west.

The broader geographical scope of these economic development initiatives will have the effect of spreading the government’s existing economic investment resources too thinly.

The government did find some money for new road and rail links to speed up connections between the ancient university towns of Oxford and Cambridge. It is claimed the proposals will help fuel the nation’s knowledge economy, but cynics might think the only advantage it might bring is to dons and fellows who want to get to each other’s colleges in time for high table.

Such an idea will further strengthen what Britain’s other universities already ruefully dub ‘the Golden Triangle’ of Oxford, Cambridge and London.

Indeed, the new road and rail links almost literally draw in the third side of

BUSINESS POST PARTNER

MSB confirms move to No. 4 St Paul’s Square

M

SB Solicitors, which has three offices in Allerton, Wavertree and the city centre, has moved its commercial headquarters to No. 4 St Paul’s Square in Liverpool.

The move comes after staff numbers at MSB have risen by more than ten percent since January. The firm now employs 100 people across three sites and has announced five new partners will be appointed in March 2017.

Managing partner Paul Bibby established MSB in 1988 with head of crime Sean Sexton. Since then, the firm has expanded significantly and in 2010, MSB moved into premises in Silkhouse Court to accommodate its growing private client and commercial teams.

MSB’s new office, on the first floor of No. 4 St Paul’s, boasts more than 5,500 sq ft in the heart of Liverpool’s commercial district. St Paul’s Square has become the essential address for professional services firms in the city.

Mr Bibby said: “Silkhouse Court has been a fantastic home for us over the past six years and has allowed us the space to grow, put plans into practice, and achieve some of our objectives as a firm. However, when the building was sold to residential developers in June, it prompted a move that was probably overdue. We’re delighted to be moving into St Paul’s Square. We really feel this is the ideal address for us, putting us among a number of our peers and strategic partners and offering all the facilities we need to continue

to develop and offer an exceptional service to our clients.”

Mark Worthington of Worthington Owen negotiated terms, on behalf of MSB, with Neil Kirkham of CBRE who represents the current landlords Muse Developments.

Mr Bibby added: “Mark Worthington negotiated a great deal for us and I can’t thank him enough. He has listened to us, understood our objectives and helped secure our ideal premises, which I’m sure will allow MSB the stability we need to continue to grow. Mark is an engaging character and it has been a genuine pleasure working with him.”

MSB has signed a 10-year lease with Muse Developments from December this year. Meanwhile, interiors and refurbishment specialists Aztec have been working with partner Jo Dalton on the look of the new offices.

Founder Neal Maxwell said: “It’s been a pleasure supporting MSB through this latest expansion. Our team have worked closely with Jo throughout the move in order to understand their requirements and offer guidance and advice to find the best solutions. We’ve created a space that meets MSB’s current needs and offers room to grow.”

Bill Addy, chairman of the Liverpool BID Company added: “A thriving commercial district in the centre is critical to Liverpool’s success. In order to thrive we need to encourage businesses to invest and grow. MSB’s relocation is a perfect example.”

For more information visit msbsolicitors.co.uk

that triangle onto the map.

Furthermore, the strengthening of that triangle specifically competes with the original plans for the Northern Powerhouse, which had been founded on huge investment in science and technology.

The lack of impetus about the Northern Powerhouse was in line with the whole tone of the Autumn Statement, which lacked imagination generally. It was very much about holding the ship steady in case we should run into the choppy economic waters forecast to lie ahead.

The Autumn Statement can be summed up by reference to two facts, one that was and one that wasn’t included in Philip Hammond’s speech.

He made a great play of abolishing letting fees. This made him seem as if he was doing something important, yet letting fees have no public spending or tax-raising implications, so why was the initiative mentioned in the Autumn Statement at all?

The one that was not mentioned was the £360m for Buckingham Palace.

This was announced a week before the Autumn Statement, even though it’s very definitely a government spending commitment. Some might think Mr Hammond was hoping to avoid comparisons between his largesse to the Queen and his tightfistedness towards the NHS, the social ● Mark Worthington, Neal Maxwell, Jo Dalton and Paul Bibby care budget and single mums’ tax have all worked on the move credits.

16 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

Inspired by yesterday to invest for tomorrow

(Image: Top; Liverpool John Lennon Airport) (Image: Bottom; Artist Impression, Maritime Knowledge Hub, Birkenhead)

(Image: Peel Tower, Holcombe Hill, Bury)

How The Peel Group’s strategy of recycling capital for long-term benefits is creating sustainable environments where people and businesses can flourish ver the last forty years, The Peel Group has grown to become one of the most significant private investment companies in the UK. With interests in infrastructure, transport and real estate, it has an extensive portfolio of owned and managed assets including MediaCityUK, John Lennon Airport and the Liverpool2 container terminal.

Although the company as it stands today is less than half a century old, it draws heavily for inspiration on the achievements of the North West’s great entrepreneurs, including Francis Egerton, John Bright, the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater and, of course, Sir Robert Peel.

The strong sense of heritage and place both drive Peel Group’s strategy. These have led the company to a long-term approach to recycling capital, with profits reinvested into businesses, local communities and the environment.

Over the past 25 years, The Peel Group and its partners, such as Legal and General Capital at MediaCityUK,

have invested over £5 billion, supporting 70,000 jobs. Today, the Group remains firmly committed to investing in the North, with over £1 billion of investment underway.

With an inland connection via the Manchester Ship Canal, as well as road and rail links, the terminal connects global shippers with the heart of the UK economy.

A new logistics powerhouse

Indeed, at the other end of the canal from Liverpool lies the Port Salford warehousing and distribution centre, which was developed as a result of a partnership with Peel Ports and Peel Land and Property, along with customers Culina and General Mills.

One of the company’s biggest investments, and the most obvious symbol of the continued renaissance of the Mersey area, is Liverpool2.

Developed by Peel Ports, one of the UK’s biggest and most important port operators, the £400m project was opened at the beginning of November by the Secretary of State for International Trade, underlining the Port of Liverpool’s huge potential as a national cargo gateway for the UK economy.

Marked out by its five, giant ship-to-shore cranes, Liverpool2 is a ‘future-proof’ facility that will allow the port to once again handle the biggest container ships in the world, supported by world-class technology to provide cargo owners with exceptional levels of efficiency.

The investment reinforces the company’s integrated strategy, bringing together new and existing assets to maximise their collective strengths and facilitate business growth.

The strategy also helps to address the evolving requirements of the whole supply chain, with growing demand for joined-up solutions that will help transform the efficiencies available to firms looking to thrive in challenging and highly competitive markets.

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 17

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

A blue and green transformation Liverpool2 is not the only indication of the city’s evolving waterfront. One of Peel’s current flagship projects is Wirral Waters, the largest regeneration initiative in the UK, which will transform 500 acres of derelict docks in Birkenhead into a world class waterfront that is alive with activity – on land and in the water.

Its scale is visionary, again taking inspiration from the past, including John Laird’s 19th century vision for ‘the City of the Future’ located at what is now Birkenhead. But it is also looking ahead, with the ambition for Wirral Waters to be an outstanding example of sustainability.

The scheme is also jobs driven and the aim is to create well over 20,000 permanent new jobs for the Liverpool City Region, providing a catalyst for training and skills to give future generations a brighter future right on their doorstep.

Fresh start for a historic waterfront Across the River Mersey, in the heart of the city, is a similar scheme to regenerate a 60 hectare dockland site to create a worldclass, high-quality, mixed use waterfront quarter that will compete with the likes of Hamburg, Boston, Toronto and Barcelona.

(Image: Top; Artist Impression, Liverpool Waters) (Image: Bottom; Artist Impression, Wirral Waters)

Liverpool Waters will take advantage of the sites’ cultural heritage and integrate this with exciting and sustainable new development. Phase 1, Princes Dock, is already home to an array of world renowned businesses including Coutts, KMPG and PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The scheme is part of the ambitious 30-year vision for the Mersey Waters Enterprise Zone, one of the city region’s most important regeneration and investment opportunities, and one element of The Peel Group’s wider ‘Ocean Gateway’ strategy.

From water to air Peel’s aviation interests include four airports across the North of England and a heliport. One of these, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, is a key driver of the economies of both Merseyside and the wider North West of England.

Peel Group has invested more than £100m over the last fifteen years, which has helped to grow passenger numbers 10-fold from 450,000 in the mid-1990s.

New routes and airlines have continued this upsurge in business and to support further growth there will be a five-year investment programme to provide improvements to the passenger experience, through terminal refurbishment works and expanded facilities.

(Image: Liverpool2 Container Terminal)

Fuelling the northern economy The Peel Group views the Northern Powerhouse as an exciting opportunity to create a shared agenda of improving northern connectivity, prosperity, wellbeing and quality of life. It already works in partnership with a wide range of organisations in the public, private and voluntary sectors to deliver growth and innovation across many sectors in different parts of the North.

However, it sees even greater potential for the region, with The Peel Group contributing as a long term champion thanks to its perspective as a strategic investor. Indeed, although the public sector is critical for creating a positive economic and social environment, strong collaboration between private business and public bodies will ultimately deliver growth.

Accordingly, Peel’s commitment to Liverpool and the North West remains as strong as ever, with the area continuing to act as the foundation of our recent and future successes, from which it aims to build further, providing more jobs, investment and delivering prosperity for the region.

To find out more, contact Peel Ports: marketing@peelports.com | peelports.com

18 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

Opinion

Are you running a business?

CLLR PHIL DAVIES, Leader of Wirral Council and Lead Member – Economic Development & Energy, Liverpool City Region Combined Authority

A

s we look back on a remarkable year for politics watchers, it wasn’t just the pollsters who were We can give you the guidance you need surprised.

Political commentators were gobsmacked by Theresa May’s easy Services for Your Business: Corporate & Commercial accession to Number 10, the EU referendum result made the Dispute Resolution Alcohol Licensing bookmakers even richer and, most Employment Law & HR Business Sales & Purchases recently, Donald Trump’s surprise victory made him the most powerful Franchising Commercial Property man on Earth.

Back in the Spring, when the Brexit Land Development Company Law referendum campaign kicked off in Landlord & Tenant Contract Law earnest, no-one foresaw the outcome, least of all Prime Minister David Corporate Insolvency Partnerships Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne, who are both ending the year out of office as a consequence of their political miscalculation.

Find out about our FREE business MOT which we The loss of Osborne from the front bench probably didn’t cause many offer to all independent business owners in the tears to be shed on Merseyside, but he Liverpool City Region – no strings attached. had been the Government’s most prominent supporter of two projects Call us to book yours with a commercial solicitor. designed to rebalance the UK economy in favour of the North rather than an over reliance on the square mile of the HA City of London.

ND For more information call: R BOOKSadly, the Northern Powerhouse H ECRseemed EM O to have slipped down the list of P P L UI for the new Prime Minister in T TU OLICILEOYERIDpriorities M AY Chancellor’s Autumn Statement.

M PE S her E or email info@morecrofts.co.uk N AN W PA T new Expressways between While EM A O H Y and Cambridge were in the REANDBPOLOOKYEE GEMRKIOxford announcement, nothing new was N CR ST G ENpromised to support the vital UI RA T TM TE infrastructure improvements in the EN GY North West.

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action immediately. In his latest correspondence, Andrew Percy MP, the minister responsible for Local Growth and Northern Powerhouse, does little to reassure us that this commitment remains.

On adult education, he first bullishly says the target of Easter 2017 – days before the Metro mayor election – is ‘on track’, but then goes on to explain that in fact the ‘transferred functions need not come into force until 2018’ – a year after the election of the Metro Mayor.

And on the devolution of power and budget to help the most vulnerable and needy back into employment, a key priority for the City Region, the story is no better. The minister writes ‘I can confirm that there are no associated powers required at this stage’ before telling the combined authority councils that if they don’t agree to these slipping timelines, then ‘your devolution agreement would be off the table.’

Even though these powers remain to be delivered, it is important the City Region gets on with delivering the other important elements of the deal.

So it seems that while many changes and surprises occurred in 2016, there is one thing that remains the same for 2017. Liverpool City Region While many changes and surprises can’t depend on this occurred in 2016, one thing Government. remains. Liverpool City Region can’t A happy, healthy and prosperous Christmas and depend on this Government.

New Year to all.

S

F

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 19

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

WHAT’S NEW

APPOINTMENTS

Email: catherine.murphy@trinitymirror.com

Old favourites make return to the pub scene A look at some of the latest arrivals among region’s restaurants, bars and clubs

T

wo of the commercial district’s most popular pubs are back in business.

The historic Lion Tavern has reopened after being mothballed for months.

The Cross Keys on Earle Street has also reopened under new landlord, Anfield-born Neil Langfield, and his team. Both pubs closed in June following a dispute over rent between the previous landlords and building owner Punch taverns.

The Lion is one of England’s finest historic pubs and was renowned for its real ales and pork pies. New landlord Dave Hardman says those traditions will be carrying on: “There’s two things you need in a good pub – good staff and good beer. Oh yes – and good pies. The pies are staying. The pub is going to be done up slightly. The choice of bottled beers will be a bit more upmarket. We’re trying to keep the place the same, but move it a little bit forward.”

The Cross Keys will close again for 10 days in February for a full refurbishment.

At the Cross Keys, Neil said: “We’re adding a disabled toilet and a hot counter at the end of the bar. That means we can have a super express service for office workers. We’ve got a brand new wine menu, new ale menu and we’re starting to serve teapot cocktails. Those are hot or cold cocktails served in teapots.

“We’ll also be bringing bands in and there are plans for a wedding venue upstairs.”

The Cross Keys’ new lease of life will create 10 new jobs, including staff taken on at GNVQ level and trained up using real-life experience. Even though Neil’s new place is very much part of the city centre, he’s still been able to call on his Anfield roots to help him out. He explained: “We’re using Homebaked

●●The Lion pub

●●Morecrofts Solicitors has recruited six new young lawyers across its Liverpool and Wirral offices to further strengthen the law firm’s employment, commercial and family law departments.

Solicitor Josh Makin has joined the commercial law team following a two-year spell at DDE Law; Michael Gossage has been appointed to the firm’s litigation team; Kelly Faulkner has been appointed as a paralegal in the employment law team and is joined by Ryan McAvoy. The family law team has been boosted with the appointments of Eleanor Slater and Rebecca Dobbs, who will both be based at the firm’s Wirral office.

bakery in Anfield as our local pie supplier. They’re lovely people and their pies are doing really well. We’ll start the full menu in February.”

Other openings include: Ghetto Golf The new 18-hole crazy golf venue is now open in the Baltic Triangle in the former Cains Brewery building and also has a cocktail bar and street food stand.

The adult-only venue is the brainchild of business partners Danny Bolger and Kip Piper. Danny, 31, from Birkdale, explained: “We wanted to create a place that when you come into, it feels like you’re at a festival and which is not like any other night out. It’s all about the experience.”

Mowgli Mowgli’s popularity on Bold Street in Liverpool has grown so much that they’re opening a new restaurant on Water Street. The Indian street food restaurant is opening in the former Optimax Laser Eye Surgery site.

Customers can expect the same flavoursome meals that includes chat bombs, bombay chip butties, tiffin boxes and cocktails.

COSY CLUB There’s a new restaurant in Liverpool ONE - Cosy Club. The restaurant describes itself as ‘mansion splendour meets village hall eccentricity’ and

the Paradise Street venue can seat up to 300 people.

The menu covers all areas of food from breakfast to tapas and cocktails.

Customers can expect special offers such as Marvellous Mondays and Tapas Tuesdays.

Maray Another popular Bold Street restaurant is expanding with Maray opening on Allerton Road. The small-plate restaurant serves a wide range of dishes with a Middle Eastern and Parisian influence.

Director Thomas White said: “The restaurant will not be an exact replica of our Bold Street site, but you can expect the same exciting approach to food and drink, the same level of service and the same intimate atmosphere.”

Yard & Coop Yard & Coop is coming to Hanover Street.

The eatery specialises in buttermilk fried chicken and booze with a menu that features a mixture of burgers , large plates, sides and ‘tings’ and light bites. They also have an extensive selection of dips and sauces.

●●Stagecoach has appointed Rob Jones as Managing Director of its bus operations in Merseyside and South Lancashire. He steps up from his role as Operations Director of Stagecoach Merseyside and South Lancashire.

Rob began his career in the bus industry 26 years ago as a cleaner with a local bus company aged just 15. He won the Young Manager of the Year Award at the 2008 UK Bus Awards. ●●The ACC Liverpool Group, home to BT Convention Centre, Echo Arena and Exhibition Centre Liverpool, has expanded its sales team with five new members of staff to reflect the diversity of its events portfolio. Vikki Langan joins as exhibition account manager and Maaike Houtenbos as corporate and agency sales manager.

Gemma Swain, Samantha Shannon and Debbie Watson have been recruited as data co-ordinator, sales support executive and contracts executive respectively.

20 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

CHINA TRADE MISSION OPENS DOORS As you may have read in the report on the Liverpool city region’s China activity in the first edition of the Business Post, a major trade mission from Liverpool and Wirral went to Southwest China last month. The mission’s aim was to further develop existing relationships in the region while identifying potential new investment opportunities.

Led by Joe Anderson (Mayor of Liverpool) and Cllr Phil Davies (leader of Wirral Council), the delegation brought together 16 businesses and organisations across sectors as diverse as technology, sport, education and manufacturing.

The visit was organised by Invest Liverpool, a part of Liverpool Vision.

One of the main goals was to introduce more Liverpool businesses to Chinese markets. On this front, city region businesses will now be given three great opportunities to showcase their services and products in the next couple years; at the South East Asia Expo in Kunming in 2017, the Tianjin European Trade Centre and the UK-China Innovation Zone in Qingdao. Details of the opportunities will be announced in the new year.

Another highlight was around Sensor City, Liverpool’s global hub for the development of sensor technologies, which signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tianjin-based Zhengxin Group which could see a sister centre open in China and pave the way for a new fund to invest in UK businesses operating in the field.

These were just some of the productive meetings and outcomes from the visit. Below are some of the reports from businesses who attended.

Martyn McDonald, Hill Dickinson: “It really was a great experience. So much hard work went into the planning and I do hope that we are able to follow up all the connections made and build upon the relationships that have been established.”

“Following my visit to China a number of high profile contacts have been made with companies both in China and the UK as a direct result of the delegation. Throughout the period the delegation were travelling in China there was a real openness and willingness to make connections. One to one business meetings were organised which gave me the opportunity to explain how as a firm we are able to assist with the whole process of property acquisition in the UK supported by team members from all legal disciplines.”

Phil Gibbs, Gibbs Investment: “The amazing appetite for real estate investment we received on the China mission and the development opportunities in Liverpool and the north west will keep us busy for the foreseeable future.”

Cllr. Phil Davies and Mayor Joe Anderson meet officials from Tianjin

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 21

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016 Ed Cappabianca, EnXray: “I just want to echo the sentiments of everyone else and to thank the entire team for organizing such a productive two-week visit. It was truly eye-opening, and I can see so much potential for growth, both for my own company, as well as for so many others. I have already been exchanging messages with many of the new contacts that I made, and hope to be able to report some concrete developments in the not too distant future.”

Dr. Julia Wang, Liverpool John Moores University: “This was a terrific opportunity to showcase the close relationship between the university and the city and demonstrate how working in partnership can have a positive impact internationally. As a modern civic university, LJMU grows with the city and many of our academic strengths are closely linked with the development of the city. This message was effectively conveyed to partners with the Mayor standing with us and supporting us in China.”

Andy Snell, Liverpool & Sefton Chamber of Commerce: “I was delighted to join the mission, having been invited to return to Guangzhou to speak at the second annual ‘One Belt One Road’ conference.

I was able to participate in a series of workshops and now have an agreement to go live with a web platform which will allow our companies to bid in for OBOR tender opportunities from February.

“This of course coincides with Chinese new year and to mark this Liverpool Chamber will be hosting the next Liverpool China partnership meeting, followed by an event that reaches out with Liverpool Vision, CBBC and to other companies interested in getting a foothold in China. This will be on 31st January, I would encourage all the interested in trading with China to please come along to find out more about this and the opportunity to participate in China outbound missions to exhibit your products and services in 2017.”

businesses. We’ve signed an MOU to collaborate with Chongqing Hechuan District and identified a number of potential investors who are keen to create jobs in Wirral.”

John Bullock, City Sales & Lettings: “China is a big country with big opportunities; I have positioned my business to develop big possibilities.”

Paul Grover, Arup: “Participating in a mission led by the Mayor and city region leaders has opened doors previously unavailable to our business in China. We believe that opportunities created through this mission will improve our China-UK relationships on a city level.’’

Dominic Schiller, Equipped 4 Limited: “I got a lot more out of this visit than I expected.

Participating in a trade mission allowed me to meet with leading companies who I simply wouldn’t have access to independently. The business landscape is very different in China, so having political leaders from Liverpool and Wirral, as well as recognised organisations like the Chamber of Commerce with us, meant the business delegates truly had a foot in the door.”

Cllr. Gary Millar, Assistant Mayor & Mayoral Lead for Business & International Trade gives a speech Eric Masaba, Texxi: “The only thing grander than the scale of China is the scale of business opportunity there.

After a gruelling though amazing, packed 2 weeks travelling across an area larger than the continental United States, I feel energised and awakened to the vast potential of the world’s largest potential consumer market.

“Twenty years ago, the Shanghai waterfront looked much the same as Liverpool does today.

The potential of business to transform a city, an economy and a country is unparalleled.”

“I was matched with a number of Chinese businesses and investors who were absolutely relevant to my business and I’m working hard to turn these opportunities into real investments. It is clear that the Liverpool city region has a unique relationship with, and presence in China. For my business to be able to tap into that is fantastic.”

Paula Basnett, Wirral Chamber of Commerce: “China is a key market for many Wirral-based businesses and the Liverpool city region is a recognised and trusted brand out there.

Participating in the mission has allowed the chamber and its members to meet high quality Chinese businesses and investors. We’ve forged new relationships with a number of Chinese cities and regions, raising awareness of Wirral and the Liverpool city region as a place to do

Kunming, one of the destinations of the trade mission

22 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

Wheel of fortune

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iverpool’s rise to its position as one of Europe’s most popular and successful convention cities has been spectacular.

Thousands of delegates from nations around the world descend on the city’s waterfront on a regular basis, and push millions of pounds into the local economy while they are here.

In September this year, for example, Liverpool welcomed the European Association for International Education (EAIE), with 5,200 delegates from more than 80 countries for a four-day visit.

No sooner had this conference left town than the Labour Party bandwagon rolled in from September 25 to 28 with 11,000 delegates and a massive media contingent.

All of these delegates occupy hotel rooms, spend money in the city’s bars, restaurants and shops, and

The visitor economy to the city region is booming. In the first of a two-part series MARK THOMAS looks at how the transformation has been achieved, what the future holds and what it all means for those who live here many of them come away with impressions of our dynamic 21st -century city that will see them spread the word to their friends and colleagues, and frequently bring them back with their families as leisure tourists.

But there is constant awareness from the architects of this achievement that we cannot be complacent.

Other cities we have leapfrogged along the way are onto Liverpool’s success as a convention city and working hard to fight back.

The major catalyst for the explosion in business tourism to Liverpool and the city region was the opening of the Liverpool Arena and Convention Centre in its dramatic waterfront setting in 2008.

If it was the Echo Arena that held the glamorous popular appeal, bringing superstar entertainers to the city in their droves as Liverpool staged its stunning year as European Capital of Culture, it was the adjoining convention centre that gave the opportunity for the city to tap into the business

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 23

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

turning our way ●●The Liverpool City Region has enjoyed a spectacular rise to the pinnacle of the visitor economy with high-profile events, like Jeremy Corbyn’s Labour Party holding its annual conference in the city (below) putting the area in the national media spotlight MAIN PICTURE: McCOY WYNNE

tourism market on a scale that had never been possible before.

And the ambitious development of the Liverpool Exhibition Centre, which opened in September 2015, doubled the event space available, and paved the way for a new generation of bigger and more lucrative international conventions and exhibitions.

Bob Prattey, the chief executive of ACC Liverpool, is only too aware of the cut-throat nature of the business in which he is operating.

Poaching Midlands-born Bob from his role as boss of the

Birmingham NEC to launch and run ACC Liverpool was a terrific coup for the city, and he knows there will be much gnashing of teeth amongst his former employers after Liverpool stepped into steal The Clothes Show from under their noses after 27 years.

“Since we opened in 2008 we have brought in £1.2 billion to the city regional economy.

That’s real spend – delegates coming, spending money in hotels, restaurants, taxis, enjoying themselves and spending money in Liverpool,” says Bob.

“That creates wealth and jobs, and hopefully continues to lift Liverpool in terms of regeneration.

“And that £1.2 billion figure doesn’t put any value on the publicity or brand values or advertising value, because we could argue we have generated millions more.

“The Labour Party conference in September alone was wall-to-wall national and international television presenting Liverpool in a very positive light.

“I can only reflect on how quickly it’s gone since 2008. Miraculous would be overstating it, but it’s been a hell of a ride.”

He says the support the city has given to ACC Liverpool has been fundamental to its success.

“Marketing Liverpool, the city council itself, proactive and supportive individual councillors, the CONTINUED ON PAGE 24

24 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

fROM PAGE 23 ground with the delegates who are

media, Downtown Liverpool, the Chamber of Commerce – all that Liverpool family – have got behind us and understood what we are doing,” he explained.

“A really good bellwether is the Liverpool taxi driver. They have an opinion on everything and one of the things that delights me is that they get the story of ACC Liverpool.

“When we are busy, they are busy, and very often they say one of the best things Liverpool has ever done as a city is to build the arena, the conference centre and the exhibition centre. It brings income to them, of course, but they get the wider picture too.”

The facilities Liverpool can offer for international conventions are impressive, particularly since the launch of the Exhibition Centre.

But convention organisers take such superb facilities as a given – something that is available in many other cities in Europe and around the world.

“Our facilities are kind of taken for granted – they are the price of entry,” says Bob. “You’ve got to have a good exhibition and conference centre to qualify.

“What we are able to turn around is the total offer of the city – the friendliness, the hotels. It’s quite a compact city so delegates can walk around, go from conference and go on the Albert Dock and enjoy the shops, the restaurants and the bars there.

“They can go across to Liverpool One for the quality retail experience. They can go a bit further afield to the cultural offerings in Hope Street and so on, and it’s just a totally immersive experience.

“When they are in conference, they don’t get that much free time. But they see that there is all this culture and architecture, sporting facilities and so on.

There’s kind of something for everyone.

“People go home and say what a fantastic city Liverpool is. The hidden advantage of that is that they come back with their spouses and their families.”

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here is no doubt that having the convention centre so conveniently positioned so close to the heart of the city and to so many hotels and leisure facilities gives Liverpool a big advantage over many of its competitor cities.

But the other X-factor that gives Liverpool an edge is something you really can’t buy or construct – the natural warmth of the welcome.

“Liverpool has this huge, really friendly persona as a city,” says Bob. “It comes across all the time in things like the Conde Nast verdict that this is the most friendly city in the world.

“But it comes out time and again on the

coming into Liverpool. Some of them don’t have great expectations or aspirations for what the city might deliver, but are absolutely blown away by what they find.”

Winning a bid to land a convention is hard work, and a specialist team at the ACC works relentlessly, focusing on winning new events to bring to Liverpool. It is a constant process, because however good the experience, the team knows that international events like the EAIE or the Lung conference that brought another 3,000 delegates to Liverpool in October are unlikely to return for many years.

“They are international conferences and although they take place annually they won’t come to the UK annually,” says Bob. “So many of them are one-offs in that sense – we probably won’t see them again in the short term because they will go off on a European or world tour.

“We are constantly market researching, finding events that might want to come to Liverpool. The churn rate is such that we have to be bidding all the time to end up with these five, six or seven international events we will do in a year.”

Potential Liverpool events go into what Bob describes as “a huge hopper”, into which information is fed about what is needed to bring the event to the city.

A key element is the city’s Club Liverpool programme. They look out potential Liverpool ambassadors, frequently professors at the city’s universities, who can champion the bid in their field of expertise, and help handle the internal politics of the organisation arranging it.

The actual bids are often very sophisticated, with pitches, video presentations, glossy brochures and detailed budgets.

“When we first started we were winning something like one in ten of the bids we did,” says Bob. “Since we’ve revisited the ambassadors’ programme and really homed in on it, we are now actually being successful in one in four of the bids we do. Our success rate has

●●Bob Prattey, chief executive of ACC Liverpool, who has been in on the success story since the beginning and (inset) with Rod Stewart, one of the big-name stars to play the Arena

dramatically improved as we get smarter and more sophisticated in our bidding.

“But it’s a constant – we have to keep feeding that hopper. We need those six or seven international events to kick out every year. Very often they are much bigger than our normal conferences, the annual UK ones that we do.

“The delegate numbers are amazing really, when you think about bringing 5,000 or 3,000 people here for a week.”

Big and lucrative as these one-off events are, however, there is no questioning the benefits of the regular annual events which, once won, take some of the pressure off the relentless bidding process. So the coup of taking the Clothes Show from its 27-year home in Birmingham is The nature of our business is that you get one celebrated for the chance to get it right. If you lose that moment, huge prestige it but also for if the technical things don’t work at the right brings, the fact that it time, if the sausages are cold, if, if, if.... should mean a r e g u l a r , BOB PRATTEY, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OF ACC LIVERPOOL sustainable week’s

business. And the same goes for the BBC Worldwide exhibition, which was in Bournemouth for 25 years but now regularly brings 1,000 delegates to Liverpool each February. And many of the almost 2,000 events the ACC has now hosted are much smaller-scale, conferences for 30 or 40 people.

“At one point we had seven different conferences going on in the convention centre, and they weren’t linked to each other in any way,” says Bob. “That brings a whole raft of different challenges about moving people around, keeping them separate, making sure they don’t get mixed up and get in the wrong conference room.”

But whether it is a one-off showpiece for 11,000 delegates, or an annual conference for 40 people, there can be no room for complacency, and the effort that goes into ensuring that each event meets the expectations of its organisers and delegates is massive and unrelenting.

“Whatever the scale, very often it will be one of the most important events that

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 25

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

A WELCOMING CITY The annual conference of the European Association for International Education, which took place in Liverpool in t September, was the first such even to take place across the whole ACC Liverpool campus.

It brought more than 5,000 international higher education professionals from more than 90 countries to the city for an event which addressed key issues affecting the field of internationald, higher education across the worl such as the refugee crisis and Brexit.

In addition to the use of all the ACC’s facilities, a series of networking events took place across Liverpool, including a to reception at Liverpool Cathedral open the conference.

Executive director of the EAIE : Leonard Engel told Business Post “Our delegates were delighted to find that Liverpool is a modern, welcoming, and easy-to-travel-in city.

“Everything that a visitor could want and need is in walking distance from ACC Liverpool.”

the people who are coming here will be involved with in the year. So every one of these events has got to be right, and absolutely spot on every time, and that is something we work really hard to generate,” says Bob. “The nature of our business is that you get one chance to get it right. If you lose that moment, if the technical things don’t work at the right time, if the sausages are cold, if, if, if....

O

ne chance...we’ve bred that into our team. We brought a lot of people in from different parts of the country so we’ve got experience of that, but what we’ve now done, I think successfully but others must judge that, is that we’ve blended that with the local friendliness that is innate in Liverpool.”

ACC Liverpool Ltd employs 164 staff -– many of them “08ers” who have been with the organisation from the start. But there are also 500 people working for

outsource organisations providing things like catering, security and cleaning.

“On site, when we are really busy, we can have five to six hundred people, but only 164 of them work for ACC Liverpool,” says Bob. “So we have to get the service partners to buy into what we are doing to maintain that level of consistency of delivery right across the piece.

“One night you are doing a Rod Stewart concert, the next you are doing the Clothes Show, and then a medical conference or a public exhibition. It’s an exciting business to be in, but it doesn’t work for everybody.

“It’s seven days a week and it’s evenings and early mornings so it’s a hard business in terms of personal commitment. So if you are standing in the arena during a Rod Stewart concert and you’re not getting hairs on the back of your neck standing up you might as well go and do something else.”

Bob and his senior team constantly prowl the ACC complex, checking that

●●Leonard Engel, executive director of the EAIE PICTURE: EAIE

the standards of the building match the standard of the welcome.

“One of the mantras we’ve got as an organisation is that we want the building looking better after ten years of occupancy than it did on Day One. “We can only do that by reinvesting right across the piece, changing things, reinvesting in technology, having the right technological equipment in place.

“We have undergone a massive investment where we’ve gone from paper signs to electronic signage everywhere.

“But it’s also at the mundane level. It’s replacement of the carpet, painting the walls, repairing chips in woodwork.

“When people come into these buildings they are really up against a timetable.

“They’ve got two or three days to build, five days of conference, two days to get out. They don’t take much notice of the damage they may be causing to the building.

“It’s the difference between going to what I’d call a tired hotel and a hotel that’s on it. You just notice it.

“A lot of that must come from the senior management team, and we are on it all the time. It’s a task, because keeping on top of it is a major investment.

“We get a lot of visits from other venues,

because the client base which moves around all the venues is telling them to go and look at Liverpool if you want to see a facility. It’ s a great vote of confidence from the clients but it’s also a real badge of honour for us that other venues are coming round to say ‘what are you doing, how are you doing it?’.

“They say their clients are telling them we are top of the league. For the last four years the ACC has won the Meetings and Incentive Travel magazine’s Best Convention Centre award for the UK. “One of the things that gets my head off the pillow in the morning is the knowledge that we mustn’t get complacent. We have no God-given right to the business we’ve got.

“The other cities, European and UK cities, are waking up to what is happening in Liverpool. They are seeing the goals of better profile, economic impact, as a major catalyst for regeneration, and they want a piece of the action.

“So the sleeping giants of Birmingham and Manchester and Glasgow and Edinburgh are all looking at us and thinking ‘ What are you doing in Liverpool so you are getting all this business?’ And they will come back at us strongly, because we have taken a lot of this business from them.”

NEXT MONTH: In the second part of this special report on Liverpool’s business tourism boom, Marketing Liverpool chief Chris Brown talks about the communications challenge, and hoteliers’ association chairman Marcus Magee discusses the part the hospitality industry has to play.

BUSINESS POST PARTNER LIVERPOOL CITYTUESDAY, REGIONDECEMBER CHAMBERS 26 liverpool city region business post 13,NEWS 2016

Showcasing dynamic young businesses Growing businesses and talented young trainees were showcased at the Liverpool and Sefton Chambers of Commerce annual dinner and awards

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UNDREDS of business people gathered for the black tie event at the new main stand at Liverpool Football Club.

There were more than 100 nominations for this year’s awards - a record number - which were divided into four main categories; Strive, Ignite, Reach and Aspire.

They in turn were split into sub-categories and the biggest cheers of the night came for Elkie Durkan and Raja Pitalia who were named winners in the Aspire category, sponsored by BT. Elkie, who works at transcription specialist,

● The judges with Elkie Durkan

Document Direct, was revealed as the winner in the apprentice category.

The judges said she had come across as “very professional and more mature for her years and experience” during the interview.

Raja, who works for Pall Mall Medical, triumphed in the graduate category. The judges said that he had displayed “great business acumen for someone so young”.

The Strive category, which recognised exceptional growth in city region firms, was sponsored by SP Energy Networks and was split into three with separate awards for micro, small-medium and medium-large businesses.

Winner of the micro accolade was Meet & Potato, a venture that organises events for corporate clients.

Recruitment consultancy Kingsley scooped the small-medium accolade, with M&Y Construction named the medium-large winner.

Sponsored by NatWest, the Ignite Award aimed to celebrate the successes of entrepreneurs from The Chambers’ Spark Up programme and the winner was Franklin Energy, which installs and maintains changing points for electric vehicles.

Specialist hygiene equipment manufacturer Dan Tech UK was the winner of the Reach Award, sponsored by Liverpool John Lennon Airport, which

● The judges with Raja Pitalia

looked to celebrate success in exports and growing into new markets.

Chief executive of Liverpool and Sefton Chamber of Commerce, Jenny Stewart, said: “Such was the standard of nominations that the judges had a fiendishly difficult task.

“In particular, I am pleased with the success of the businesses that have graduated from the chamber’s own accelerator programme, Spark Up, who have demonstrated the entrepreneurial spirit is is alive and thriving across the city region.”

Merchant Rentals staff are flying high With the help of training given by St Helens Chamber Business School, many people are progressing and excelling at work, including many of the staff at Merchant Rentals

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HEN you picture an apprentice what do you see?

A sixteen year old taking their first step on the ladder or a senior manager at the top of their game?

Thanks to St Helen’s Chamber Business School the answer could now be either, as Haydock-based Merchant Rentals have recently discovered.

Training from the Chamber is helping Tina Hawkins and her team progress at Merchant Rentals, an asset finance company providing finance to retailers for point of sale equipment.

promoted upwards, members of my team have also taken on more responsibility because of their training with the Chamber.”

Joanne Abraham, Workforce Development Manager at St Helens Chamber, said: “It’s fantastic to see how our training has helped Tina progress at the company. Merchant Rentals is a great example of a company that is investing in its people. Tina’s qualifications have had a knock-on effect within the organisation and it’s great to see.

● Tina Hawkins (middle) and her team Merchant Rentals Ltd

ensure their contribution gives them the most value for their money and makes a real impact in their business.”

THE APPRENTICESHIP LEVY

The apprenticeship levy will come into place in April 2017 and will affect all businesses with an annual payroll of more than £3 million, across all industries.

Business who pay the apprenticeship levy and offer apprenticeship training to their staff will be able to allocate their levy contributions as digital vouchers to use to train their apprentices.

STUDENTS OF ALL AGES Joanne adds: “Although the levy will only affect a “Businesses often think that apprenticeships are only minority of businesses, we want to ensure that all available for new young recruits, but in fact we are businesses are well prepared. We will be holding a currently delivering programmes to students of all SECOND QUALIFICATION briefing event for any businesses who think they will ages, from entry level right through to middle and Tina is currently undertaking her second senior management, and across all business sectors. be affected by the levy on the 20th qualification with St Helens Chamber, having been December at St Helens Chamber.”

“Our range of higher apprenticeships is an ideal promoted to Customer Retention and Administration way for employees in more senior positions to obtain Manager as a direct result of her training. Tina has To find out more or to register the qualifications and we find that even the most been at the company for eight years, having experienced staff can be surprised by how much they your attendance please call the progressed from Lease Administrator to Customer Workforce Development team on learn.

Retentions Team Leader, through to her current “Currently we are working to make sure that when 01744 742333 or email managerial position. the new apprenticeship levy comes into place we can workforce@sthelenschamber.

She commented: “Nearly every member of my com. provide all the training local businesses need to team is doing a qualification and, as I have been

LIVERPOOL POST 27 LIVERPOOLCITY CITYREGION REGIONBUSINESS CHAMBERS NEWS

TUESDAY, 13, 2016 BUSINESSDECEMBER POST PARTNER

Let’s put an end to the ‘accidental’ manager Speaking as Wirral Chamber unveils it’s new Chartered Management Institute accreditation, Steven Butler, Director of Wirral’s Paragon Scientific, says management is an overlooked profession

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irral Chamber of Commerce has joined forces with the Chartered Management Institute (CMI) to bring world class leadership and management development opportunities to businesses in the Liverpool city region.

The focus on management and leadership development follows a recent study by The Commission on the Future of Management and Leadership, which identified that the quality of managers and leaders plays a crucial role in company performance, productivity and growth – something that probably doesn’t come as much of a surprise.

However, the study also reported some worrying statistics. 64% of employers think that a lack of leadership and management skills are holding back growth; poor management could be costing UK businesses over £19.3bn a year in lost working hours; and low levels of employee engagament are damaging productivity, output per hour is 21% lower than the average across the G7.

INADEQUATE TRAINING

It is not surprising then to learn that over two-thirds of employers fail to invest in training and development and give either no training or inadequate training to new managers. In fact the average age at which managers receive their first leadership training is 42; about 10 years after they start supervising people.

There appears to be a misconception that leadership and management is a skill we either have or we don’t have – something dismissed by Steven Butler, Director of Paragon Scientific. “This is just not true. Very few people are natural born leaders – most

successful leaders and managers today are successful because they and their employers have committed to training, coaching and developing themselves to be the best they can be. They recognise the impact they have on the people they work with and understand how they can make or break people’s day.”

Steven, a Chartered Manager, recruits managers from within but only having trained staff in how to manage people. “We employ highly skilled people, including chemists with years of lab experience.

But the skills that make them great at their job, aren’t necessarily the same attributes that would make them great managers. There’s a real danger in taking your best staff out of production and into management without equipping them with the tools to ensure they are successful. I view management as a profession in exactly the same way that I view chemists or logistics managers.”

CAN MANAGEMENT BE TAUGHT?

There are many examples within our business community of great leaders and managers. “I think that one of the things these people have in common is that they see leadership and management as a skill that can be learned. Just as you train a new starter how to do their job, these companies train their managers on how to manage and lead. And it can’t be just a one off – it has to be an ongoing process of continual professional development.”

“To be successful in competitive markets, everyone at Paragon needs to be on top of their game. I need an engaged, productive workforce and to get the best out of people, I need managers and leaders to be able to manage and lead people - not just processes. Our employees don’t become managers by accident and I think this has been a key element in Paragon’s business growth.”

● Steven Butler, Director of Paragon Scientific

Wirral Chamber’s Chartered Management Institute training programme offers internationally recognised management and leadership qualifications to help you, your managers and leaders to be the best they can be.

If you would like to have a chat about this or any other development needs, please get in touch with Jane Hayes: janehayes@wirralchamber.co.uk or 0151 650 6940.

Professional management in context •

64% of employees think that a lack of leadership and management skills are holding back growth

•

Poor management could be costing UK businesses over £19.3 billion a year in lost working hours

•

Chartered managers add an average of £391,443 additional value to their organisation

•

Management and leadership development accounts for 23% improvement in organisational performance and 32% improvement in people performance Source: www.management.org.uk/insights

28 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

in the news

Email: tom.belger@trinitymirror.com

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HOP Direct is backing Claire House’s plans to develop a world class ‘digital’ hospice in Liverpool.

The Children’s Hospice has been announced as the charity partner for the multi-brand online retailer, which is based in Speke.

The aim is to raise £400,000 in the next 12 months to underpin the expansion of the support provided by Claire House.

Claire House Children’s Hospice is developing plans to convert an old monastery in West Derby, Liverpool into a new facility to support hundreds more seriously and terminally ill children in the north west.

Shop Direct will by aiming to raise the funds through activities and events for their staff.

They will also be providing industryleading knowledge to help Claire House develop the Liverpool hospice.

The new site will support the charity’s existing Wirral hospice, which helps more than 200 children and their families each year.

The new link-up represents the charity’s biggest corporate partnership to date and will help Claire House put in place a future-proof digital infrastructure at the new site as well as helping support more families in their own homes.

This will include cabling, wi-fi and server technology at the new site, and modernising its paper-based systems to enable its teams to deliver a more personalised service while caring for children in their own homes, as well as at the new site.

The team at Shop Direct will also help to fund and design an interactive multimedia suite for use by the children and families who visit the centre. This will include innovative sensory treatments.

As part of the partnership, Shop Direct will form a new innovation board with Claire House, which will be briefed to help define what the world class digital site will look like and deliver plans that will create a lasting legacy for the north west.

David Pastor, CEO at Claire House, said: “We’re hugely excited to be

●● Claire House’s Tony Langan is pictured at the Shop Direct announcement of their new charity partners – and (inset) the West Derby development site

Hospice benefits from high-tech partnership partnering with Shop Direct. The funds they will raise make a massive difference to the seriously and terminally ill children we help.

“As digital innovators, the team at Shop Direct will be able to use their skills to help us design a hospice for the future that will help us reach more families who desperately need our support.”

More than 80% of Shop Direct colleagues across its sites voted for

Claire House to be the firm’s new charity for 2016/17. The staff raised more than £210,000 to support the development of a ground-breaking digital app for Alder Hey Children’s Hospital in 2015/16.

Alex Baldock, CEO at Shop Direct commented: “Claire House’s work has a massive impact on seriously ill children and their families right across the north west and I’m delighted we’ve selected them as our new charity.

“This partnership gives us an

opportunity not just to support our communities, but to deploy our digital expertise to help Claire House build one of the most advanced centres of its kind in the country – leaving a valuable and lasting legacy. “£400,000 is the biggest charity target we’ve ever set as a business. It’s hugely ambitious, but I know our people will rise to the challenge and I’m confident that together we’ll get there – and make a real difference.”

Maritime awards setting sail for 2017 date Plans are underway for the Mersey Maritime Industry Awards (MMIA) 2017 with the four ‘Diamond Sponsors’ and the drinks sponsor already secured for the third annual event.

The MMIAs are organised by Mersey Maritime and recognise the excellence and diversity that exists across all sectors of the maritime industry in the region.

The ‘Diamond Sponsors’ are demolition and remediation experts Beech Group,

Liverpool John Moores University, port operator Peel Ports Group, and training provider Stream Marine Training.

For the third year running, law firm Hill Dickinson will be the drinks sponsor.

Chris Shirling-Rooke, Mersey Maritime CEO, said: “Following the success of the two previous years, all the signs are that 2017 will be our best awards yet.

“We have already taken steps to move the awards dinner on March 9 to a larger

venue and we will have a larger number of categories that organisations can compete in.

“Between our first two events there was a 60 per cent increase in applications. “ We are always particularly keen to encourage applications from the SME business community, as these make up around 85% of the sector.”

The deadline for applications to enter ●●Mersey Maritime chief executive Chris the 11 categories is January 6, 2017.

Shirling Rooke

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 29

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

Opinion CLLR GARY MILLAR, Assistant Mayor and Mayoral Lead for Business & Enterprise

Budget offering fails to address the digital divide

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s the UK digitally divided?

Over at Liverpool City Council I work with Cllr James Noakes (Mayoral Lead for Energy and Smart Cities) and, in particular, in the area of doing business digitally.

Therefore, when Chancellor Philip Hammond delivered his Autumn Statement on the eve of what our friends in the US call “thanksgiving” I was hoping for smart digital news and something to be excited and thankful for – hopefully news that helped everyone benefit from access to better speeds, better technology and better resources.

I wanted to hear how the government was going to help us be smarter, reduce costs, use intelligent technology to increase our skills and give us access to higher-paid jobs.

I also wanted to hear a statement about digital incentives in areas of elderly and adult care, improved health systems and also within our education systems including schools and colleges.

But alas, in my opinion, it’s perhaps ironic that the Chancellor’s sombre announcements also happened to fall in the same week that included the US shopping craze called Black Friday. Oh, and as the darkened winter clouds had descended upon us it didn’t feel like a shopping frenzy to me! In fact, it appeared to be one where the UK economy was being taken on a slow death march out of Europe whilst rushing towards an even greater digital divide!

Although, on the face of it, the Chancellor’s announcement appeared to cover all the right things, I for one felt it lacked depth, grit, substance, ambition and unfortunately groundbreaking innovation! So, in a week where we have little to be thankful for, we certainly have much to be gloomy about!

But to be fair let’s first understand some of the good news. In his Autumn Statement it was reported that the Chancellor’s new measures to boost British infrastructure and innovation

●●A mobile phone mast – Chancellor Philip Hammond promised investment of £1 billion in high-speed fibre broadband across the country and 5G mobile data trials

include:

●● A new £23 billion National Productivity Investment Fund to pump capital and boost productivity in Britain over the next five years. ●●£450m scheme for transport to trial digital signalling on UK railways ●● £390m to bankroll low-emission and autonomous vehicle projects ●●£1bn to ensure Britain becomes a world leader in digital infrastructure (£740m will go towards the roll out of full-fibre connections and 5G across the country). ●●Tax breaks for broadband suppliers.

This will see companies receive 100 per cent business rate relief for new full-fibre infrastructure for a five-year period from April 1, 2017. ●●£400m into venture capital funds through the British Business Bank to boost exports ●●Cut Corporation Tax to 17% by 2020 ●●Share £1.8bn from the Local Growth Fund across the English regions – £556m of which will go to Local Enterprise Partnerships in the north ●●His commitment to the Northern Powerhouse concept, vowing to “address productivity barriers” that are holding it back and will green light major road schemes in the north

needs to understand that some core city business districts (including in Liverpool City Centre) still lack lowcost fibre, and further afield, in some rural areas and islands, they lack both fibre and 4G. Therefore, it’s all very well teasing us with 5G (that won’t even be available until at least 2020), but let’s get the local digital backbone right first.

In addition, let’s allow smaller providers the opportunity to compete in a fair and open market against (in some areas) existing snail-paced supposedly super-fast broadband provision.

It is also disappointing that we will have to wait until the 2017 budget to hear the full extent of the Chancellor’s Yet, now for some bad news! Any investment in the UK digital backbone digital connectivity plans.

Perhaps, the government might then is, of course, welcome – and every little consider a golden opportunity to help bit helps. introduce the UK’s first 1Gb cities and But, when some regions need to also make it easier for local authorities leapfrog old technology this announcement only offers a small step across the UK to enable businesses, residents, social enterprises and in the right direction. It also needs to communities access to public sector be understood that the full cost of fibre networks via lower cost “investdeploying the digital networks to-earn” schemes. suggested would be “many times There again, as Liverpool is already greater” than the £1bn announced.

When it comes to digital connectivity one of the fastest-growing creative and and the backing of trials for integrated digital economies in the UK, perhaps becoming the UK’s first 1Gb Digital fibre and 5G, the government itself City is an ambition It’s all very well teasing us with 5G (that Mayor Anderson actually won’t even be available until at least and his team can deliver with or 2020), but let’s get the local digital without the backbone right first.

Chancellor’s help.

30 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016 BUSINESS POST PARTNER

LJMU scoops trio of UK and European accolades for enterprise and engagement Liverpool John Moores University has been rewarded with three prestigous awards, including the national Times Higher Education Award for Outstanding Employer Initiative

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IVERPOOL John Moores University is celebrating success after receiving three prestigious awards including the national Times Higher Education (THE) Award for Outstanding Employer Initiative, beating off competition from other UK universities.

LJMU won the accolade at the 12th annual THE awards – the UK’s ‘Oscars’ of the higher education sector.

LJMU’s World of Work Career Centre was heralded for the employability impact it brought to students during Liverpool’s Sound City conference in 2015. Judges were most impressed by how the students involved “gained invaluable practical experience to enrich their academic study and gain rare insights into an important industry”. ● L-R: Rebecca Ayers, Chief Operations Officer, Sound City; Richard E Grant; Deborah Pownall, Employer Engagement Manager, World of Work The Sound City conference, Careers Centre, LJMU (collecting award); Joanna Newman, Vice-Principal (International), King’s College London brought together 2,000 music LJMU joined 12,000 guests from the achievement for the university and London, as the University’s industry professionals from 29 for the city of Liverpool. These countries to discuss best practice and Astrophysics Research Institute (ARI) great and the good of the higher awards are testament to our education sector, at a glittering was also Highly Commended for to develop new business models. ceremony hosted by British acting Students from 11 degree programmes Research Project of the Year, for its commitment to making Liverpool one star Richard E. Grant at the EAGLE project at the THE awards from six schools at Liverpool John of the great entrepreneurial cities in Grosvenor House Hotel in London, 2016. The EAGLE submission Moores worked on the conference the world and equipping our students last night. and festival either via a funded intern demonstrated that the project is with acumen to graduate job-ready Over in Bratislava on the same highly innovative, and the research scheme or as part of the work-based and become the entrepreneurs of the evening, the University came top in has far-reaching academic impact learning required by their course. In future. “ Europe, scooping the Investing In within its field, in addition to all, 55 students gained a total of 240 This is the second win this year for Entrepreneurial Skills Award, at the catching the imagination of the days’ work experience.

LJMU’s Enterprise Educators’ 10th European Enterprise Promotion Academe which received a national public.

It was a double whammy in Awards (EEPA).

‘Building Enterprise Skills’ award at LJMU beat off competition from the Government’s Enterprising nine other European countries Britain Awards, in September. including Italy and Latvia to win the The Academe, set up just two years award which recognized the ago has trained and supported over university’s Enterprise Educators 300 academic staff across all subject Academe for its innovative and areas, ensuring ‘enterprise skills’ impactful approach to embedding competencies are embedded across enterprise skills across the teaching the LJMU curriculum. curriculum to improve student Enterprise skills are now embedded entrepreneurialism. in more than 150 degree programme LJMU’s Professor David Gibson pathways, reaching more than 17,000 OBE, who conducted extensive students. Due to the success of the research to identify the enterprise model, it is now being rolled out to skills required to become an several other educational institutions entrepreneur or innovator, was on within Liverpool. hand to collect the prestigious award.

Vice Chancellor, Professor Nigel If you’d like to find out more, please ● LJMU’s Professor David Gibson (middle) received the Investing in Enterprise Skills Award Weatherill, said: “This is fantastic visit www.ljmu.ac.uk at the European Enterprise Promotion Awards

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 31

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

Commercial property

by MARK THOMAS

Domino’s new factory to help knock spots off their rivals . . .

W

ork has begun on a new stateof-the-art factory on Bootle’s Senate Business Park for global coding and marking technologies manufacturer, Domino UK Ltd. The Cambridgeshire-based company makes fluids products, shipping them directly to major customers, sales channels and more than 200 distributors worldwide from its factory in the town.

Domino UK has been in Bootle for 35 years. Its new 170,000 sq ft factory will be between two and three times the size of its existing facility.

The new factory is scheduled to be completed in the middle of next year.

The company says it will safeguard their 75 Bootle staff and it is anticipated that new jobs will be created when it is fully operational.

The company is expanding its fluids manufacturing capability in line with strong business demand for wider ranges of fluids, at greater volumes, with new technologies. The site will allow for expansion of its production lines as well as investment in the latest equipment.

The company worked with local developers to secure and purchase a suitable site in conjunction with Sefton Council.

Greg Summers, Domino’s Bootlebased Fluids Group Operations Director, said: “This is very good news for our Sefton site and for our workforce.

We have both a committed and motivated workforce and local suppliers, so remaining within the vicinity is an important factor in our decision-making process.

“We are particularly pleased with the sanction and approval for the development of a new manufacturing

●●(left to right) Rachel Hurst (Group Operations Manager), Cllr Ian Maher, MP Peter Dowd, Dave Jenkinson (Manager), and Cllr Marion Atkinson at the Domino ground-breaking event at Senate Business Park in Bootle

site to meet our growing demands here in the Liverpool City Region.”

Sefton Council leader, Cllr Ian Maher, said: “I am delighted Domino has decided to expand their operation within Sefton, investing in the borough’s economy and creating new job opportunities. As a council we have worked very closely and positively with Domino to help them secure a suitable site.

“Part of our ambitious economic and regeneration plan is working closely with industry to provide quality business space and I believe this deal demonstrates our commitment to making this a reality.”

BILFINGER REVEALS IDENTITY RE-BRAND Leading UK real estate advisory business Bilfinger GVA has rebranded itself as GVA. The company, which has a Liverpool office in St Paul’s Square, announced it was dropping Bilfinger from its name last month. Chief Executive Gerry Hughes (right) said: “We’re delighted to present our new name for our UK business.

Importantly for us, retaining our historic name as the cornerstone of our identity going forward maintains the heritage and significant commercial value associated with GVA.”

Tea for two new tenants as refresh pays off

●●One of the new tea break areas at Urban Splash’s Tea Factory in Liverpool

Urban Splash has announced two new tenants for The Tea Factory in Liverpool since carrying out transformation work.

New breakout spaces and a ‘ tea break’ area have been created, with further refurbishment work planned in the next few months.

Regus Spaces has taken more than 10,000 sq ft over two floors, while cloud-hosting company VLDB has

up-sized from Vanilla Factory to take just under 3,000 sq ft.

The regeneration company has also let space at its Slater Street Studios scheme to small businesses including music tutor Gareth Elliot and hypnotherapist Linda Bibby.

At the Matchworks in Speke, a new education business and pension advisor, Pension Reports, have moved into Mersey

House. Urban Splash commercial manager, Nicky Harries, said: “We continue to welcome interesting businesses of all sizes and disciplines into our space.

“I am delighted so many great companies have joined us in Liverpool this month where, thanks to our investment in the Tea Factory, we are seeing a surge in interest.”

32 liverpool city region business post†TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

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LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 33

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

Email: alistair.houghton@trinitymirror.co.uk

Mark Thomas highlights a video revolution

A

small technology company, based in Liverpool, is helping some of the world’s leading businesses unlock the data buried in thousands of hours of online video.

And with a massive upsurge in the use of video – forecast to make up almost 70% of all internet content by the end of next year – Living Lens believe they are in on the ground floor of what is soon to become a multi-billion dollar industry.

Based at Baltic Creative, Living Lens have just celebrated their third birthday, but already work with 16 of the world’s top 25 consumer experience research agencies and a string of major world brands like Unilever.

Co-founder Carl Wong set up research company Curiosity in 2007, after running the market research function for Royal Sun Alliance at its Old Hall Street, Liverpool, offices.

“Curiosity focused on trying to tell engaging stories from a market research perspective and we were working with more and more video,” says Carl, 41.

“You would capture a massive amount of video, from interviews, focus groups, video diaries and soon – but to get from that mass of video to the killer three or four minutes you need is agony.

“You would charge a lot for that but there’s not very much margin in it because you need a hell of a lot of resource to get from a lot to a little.

“The problem we set out to solve was how to get to meaningful content and meaningful data from within mass video efficiently. It became clear that it wasn’t just a problem for us but for the whole industry.”

Carl says it would take 40 to 50 hours to go through 10 hours of footage and edit it down to the short story you wanted to tell. He says that with Living Lens’s technology, the same process would take two hours.

Living Lens employs just ten people, though Carl expects that number to double in the next 12 months. Seven of the team, including their four engineers, are based in Liverpool, with the marketing work done by a team of three in London. Plans to establish an office in New York or Chicago are in the pipeline for 2017.

“Our business is based in Liverpool but we do our business in London and other cities around the world,” said Carl.

“Liverpool is a hotbed of talent in the area of coding and development. The quality of engineering skill here is absolutely top drawer and that is to our advantage.”

Living Lens clients essentially have access to a secure, web-based platform on which they can ingest and analyse

●●The Living Lens team and their website

Life through Lens gives firms fresh perspective

huge quantities of video. It works across multiple languages, so you can search in English and it will find video results in languages like French, German, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese and translate it back for you.

“The main solution our clients have bought to date is the ability to get to meaningful content very quickly to enable them to build stories and showreels – it gives them faster, better insight,” added Carl. “We’ve had significant investment funding and built a very sophisticated, complex technology platform that is very difficult to replicate.”

As to how it works, Carl says some of the magic comes from the technical team, led by company co-founder David Woods and head of technology Adam Cooper, adapting web technologies that already exist.

For example, Google’s voice recognition tools and Facebook’s system for recognising objects within images, form part of the package,

alongside their own innovations. Carl explains: “It would be ridiculous for us to try to replicate that level of expertise and sophistication from scratch, so we don’t. We stand on the shoulders of giants and then we apply that to our user needs and the world of video.”

Over the last six months Living Lens has been developing a new product utilising the same technology, creating video-based consumer experience surveys.

“Surveys are exploding in the marketing industry, but the surveys are all about text and are often dull and difficult for the consumer,” said Carl.

“We are changing that so instead of writing the answers to questions you just press a button and share your video, telling the brand how you feel about what you’ve experienced. More than a quarter of people who answer these surveys want to do it that way – and it isn’t just young people. All ●●Carl the demographics are covered.

Wong We’ve seen a

real surge in clients who are interested in that area.

“There is a recognition by the market research industry and the leading brands of the world that they need to be able to unlock the value of video because it is so rich from a consumer insight perspective.”

Living Lens won a Northern Stars competition conducted by governmentfunded agency Tech North and their prize includes funding to take part in the Tech Crunch exhibition in London, and the South by South West event in Austin, Texas next March.

“We have such talent and so many exciting companies in Liverpool.

“Some of them are mind-blowing in what they are doing, not just on the Liverpool scene but on a global scene and we need to celebrate that more and use it and acknowledge it more,’ said Carl. “We are too concerned with being the best in Liverpool or the best in the north west because we’ve got this Manchester thing going on, but I think that sets the bar far too low. I want us to be the best in the world by a country mile.”

34 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

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LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 35

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

The devil is in the detail Mark Thomas listens in as business leaders from around the city region debate the merits of the Autumn Statement and its impact on the area

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ew Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond’s first Autumn Statement had been hotly anticipated by Liverpool’s business community.

But the response, once he had delivered it, was lukewarm at best.

On the face of it, the statement delivered some benefits for business – but the devil was feared by many to be lurking in the detail.

A group of the city region’s most influential business thinkers gathered in the conference room at Liverpool and Sefton Chamber of Commerce’s headquarters at One Old Hall Street to hear Mr Hammond’s performance.

They watched on a giant projection screen as Mr Hammond delivered his statement in the House of Commons, confounding his reputation for worthiness with some well-turned quips that drew a few laughs.

His description of shadow chancellor John McDonnell’s “financial incontinence” was a highlight.

The new Chancellor even teased us that he might be about to quit – gravely announcing that his first Autumn

Statement would also be his last – before revealing that he was shaking up the tradition by introducing a once-ayear Budget in November, with an update statement to the House in the spring.

Mr Hammond insisted the Government remained committed to the “Northern Powerhouse”policy developed by his predecessor, George

Osborne. He said: “Delivering this vision is not only crucial for the North, but for the whole of the UK’s success.

“The North is home to15 million people and over one million private sector businesses. If the Northern Powerhouse were a country, it would be amongst the biggest economies in CONTINUED ON PAGE 37

36 liverpool city region business post†TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 37

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

FROM PAGE 35

Europe. If we can make this region an economic powerhouse, the whole of the UK will benefit.”

He announced a further £556m for local enterprise partnerships in the north in the third round of the growth deals programme.

A breakdown of how much would go to each LEP was still awaited as Business Post went to press, but northern powerhouse minister Andrew Percy has said those areas with elected mayors can expect greater funding.

The Chancellor also announced a £400m northern powerhouse investment fund to invest in SMEs, as well as a number of less-costly schemes. But when Mr Hammond sat down, to the usual bear-pit cheers and jeers in the Commons, it was to a palpable sense of anti-climax back in Liverpool.

Chamber chief executive Jenny Stewart said: “I was waiting for the chancellor to either tell us something we hadn’t heard or really give us a commitment to the future to take away some of the uncertainty that we have around Brexit - but I didn’t particularly feel that was there.

“It was a very conservative budget. I didn’t think there were any big headliners there that we could get positive about. But apart from the hike in insurance premium tax I didn’t think there were any massive negatives either. It was fairly balanced.”

Jerry Scriven, of MC Vanguard Corporate Finance, welcomed the continued support from the Chancellor for R&D, and the £400m fund and investments in 5G digital research, all of which he said should help small technology companies.

But he was not as convinced about the benefits for more mature businesses. He was also concerned at the chancellor’s comments regarding employee share schemes, warning that ending such schemes would risk stifling people’s first steps into entrepreneurship.

“I wouldn’t agree with him that it’s predominantly used as a tax planning vehicle,” he said. “It is a major benefit when a business is growing in terms of incentivising management teams.

“It is very attractive to people when we explain to them the benefits of becoming business owners rather than employees. We need to understand exactly what the chancellor is going to do there but it doesn’t sound like it’s going to be helpful.”

Mr Hammond talked during his speech about the need to make the UK workforce more productive, given how far the nation lagged behind European competitors.

Sue Weir, chief executive of Liverpool-based health insurance

‘MODEST’ BUDGET The Federation of Small Businesses dubbed the Autumn Statement “modest and medium term”.

Chris Burgess, FSB regional chairman for Merseyside, West Cheshireand Wigan, said: “Small businesses need a real support now and a vision for the future to combat the uncertainty they face.

“It did not go far enough on many of the pro-enterprise policies we wanted to encourage growth, particularly over tax.

“Increasing the Annual Investment Allowance, which we called for, would have been a shot in the arm for productivity and growth but it did not happen. Much more needs to be done to remove the restrictions holding businesses back, risking economic growth and job creation. There will need to be stronger fiscal interventions to boost the economy next year, with the prospect of weaker longer-term growth looming.

“In addition to continued commitment to devolution and the Northern Powerhouse, it is good news that Local Enterprise Partnerships in the north will benefit from an additional £556 million in funding. We will work with the Liverpool City Region LEP and others to ensure supporting small business growth and encouraging enterprise is prioritised.

“Small firms want to grow, export, innovate, recruit and be more productive.”

company Medicash, said the move to set up a national productivity investment fund was an important positive from the Autumn Statement, as was the extra money he has earmarked for research and development. We have a great base of technology in this country and it is in that sector that we will see more jobs in the future So by investing in that we will see benefits.”

Liverpool Labour councillor and cabinet member for employment and skills Nick Small was concerned that the emphasis from Mr Hammond seemed to be on a national industrial strategy.

“What is really significant is that there was more talk around the productivity gap as a whole between

the UK and France and Germany and Italy than around the productivity gap within the UK itself.

“I think there is a real shift there from George Osborne, who had a genuine commitment to the northern powerhouse and to reducing some of those gaps within the UK to benefit the whole of the UK plc.”

Dean Currall, of Verb Marketing, said: “There is widespread recognition finally that we can’t run Britain as a service economy. Manufacturing with high-level skilled workers getting highly paid for their work is what Germany has been doing for a long time and what Britain must do, too.”

He attacked the long hours British workers were expected to put in compared to their European counterparts as I think there is a real shift there from George damaging the Osborne, who had a genuine commitment nation’s productivity. He to the northern powerhouse Cllr NICK SMALL argued: “We still

●●Chancellor Philip Hammond delivers his Autumn Statement

have that very British mentality that the longer you work the better worker you are. That is a ridiculous attitude, and the rest of Europe has altered and changed.

“We only offer 33-hour working weeks to our staff,and they come in and blitz it and are very efficient.

“People are killing themselves working 40 to 50-hour weeks, and it’s about time that is recognised by the government. We have to come to terms with the fact that a lot of the skilled workforce in Britain is underpaid and overworked “Some businesses may not like that but the truth is that we are losing a lot of very brilliant people to the Middle East, Australia and America in particular because of their pay and working conditions.

“It is bordering on the ridiculous now that we are continuing to persist with TURN TO PAGE 38

38 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

What the Chancellor promised . . . at a glance Public borrowing/deficit/ spending ●●Government finances forecast to be £122bn worse off in the period until 2021 than forecast in March’s Budget ●●Debt will rise from 84.2% of GDP last year to 87.3% this year, peaking at 90.2% in 2017-18 ●●Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecasts borrowing of £68.2bn this year, then £59bn in 2017-18, £46.5bn in 2018-19, £21.9bn in 2019-20 and £20.7bn in 2020-21 ●●Public spending this year to be 40% of GDP - down from 45% in 2010 ●●Government to meet commitments to protect budgets for key public services, defence, overseas aid and the pension “triple lock” until end of this Parliament The state of the economy ●●OBR growth forecast upgraded to 2.1% in 2016 - from 2.0% - then downgraded to 1.4% in 2017, from 2.2% ●●Forecast growth of 1.7% in 2018, 2.1% in 2019 and 2020 and 2% in 2021. ●●Government no longer seeking a budget surplus in 2019-20 - committed to returning public finances to balance “as soon as practicable” Taxation/pay

●●Income tax threshold to be raised to £11,500 in April, from £11,000 now ●●Higher rate income tax threshold to rise to £50,000 by the end of Parliament ●●Tax savings on salary sacrifice and benefits in kind to be stopped, with exceptions for ultra-low emission cars, pensions, childcare and cycling ●●National Living Wage to rise from £7.20 an hour to £7.50 from April next year ●●Employee and employer National Insurance thresholds to be equalised at £157 per week from April 2017 ●●Insurance premium tax to rise from 10% to 12% next June

Welfare

●●Universal Credit taper rate to be cut from 65% to 63% from April at a cost of £700m

Housing

●●Ban on up front fees charged by letting agents in England “as soon as possible” ●●£2.3bn housing infrastructure fund to help provide 100,000 new homes in high-demand areas ●●£1.4bn to deliver 40,000 extra affordable homes

Fuel

●●Fuel duty rise cancelled for seventh year in succession

Transport/infrastructure/ regions ●●£1.1bn extra investment in English local transport networks ●●£220m to reduce traffic pinch points ●●£23bn to be spent on innovation and infrastructure over five years ●●£2bn per year by 2020 for research and development funding ●●More than £1bn for digital infrastructure and 100% business rates relief on new fibre infrastructure ●●£1.8bn from Local Growth Fund to English regions ●●Rural Rate Relief to be increased to 100%, “giving small businesses a tax break worth up to £2,900” Business ●●Doubling UK Export Finance capacity ●●£400m into venture capital funds through the British Business Bank to unlock £1bn in finance for growing firms Other ●●Funding for 2,500 more prison officers ●●Reforms to compensation for whiplash to cut the cost of motor insurance

●●The round table discussion and (left) Donal Bannon and Cllr Nick Small, with Jenny Stewart (right) FROM PAGE 37 at the same time,” was the Autumn

this age-old, Victorian idea of how British people should work.”

Douglas Paver, managing director of Merrion Strategy, welcomed the emphasis on manufacturing, pointing to the manufacturing strength in parts of the city region like Halton and east Wirral, and predicting: “There is a lot more to come in the city region.

“If Wirral can get the land supply cracked for Unilever and for General Motors they can have a lot more of their supply chain based around them which is an ambition both for them as companies and the government Likewise for Jaguar Land Rover in south Liverpool. Overall I thought it was a classic budget – give with one hand, take away with the other. Depending on where you are sitting you either get battered, you get prodded, or you get away with it.

“I am underwhelmed and concerned

Statement verdict from Donal Bannon, of Morecrofts solicitors. “The R&D commitment sounded positive, but he mentioned high value, so I wonder if he’s talking about supporting Japanese car development rather than extending more generally to SMEs.” He also expressed concern about plans by Mr Hammond to retrospectively prosecute professional advisors who recommended tax avoidance schemes which were later overturned by HMRC. “That’s completely out of order,” he said. “Unless he’s actually saying that’s a fraud, professional firms are entitled to advise people to take advantage of the existing tax legislation. It is for the government to change the legislation, so if anything they should concentrate on the legislative side. They were talking about making it retrospective, and I just think it is wrong in principle.”

Mr Bannon described the clampdown on car insurance whiplash claims as“a wholesale attack on solicitors.” He said: “He is perpetuating this compensation myth around whiplash claims. Supposedly insurers have guaranteed there will be a £40 premium rebate for motorists – they have promised this before but they’ve never delivered on it.”

Jonathan Berkson, of Bermans solicitors, agreed.

“Seeking to make it harder for victims to claim compensation for somebody else’s wrong-doing is culturally significant. Why should people who have been harmed not through their own fault not have it easy to get compensation? It will make people get reckless in the way they go about their lives. It’s giveaway to the insurance companies, but a takeaway from those who are getting harmed and injured through no fault of their own.”

MY PLEAS FELL ON DEAF EARS – WEIR Sue Weir, chief executive of Liverpool-based Medicash, fears that Chancellor Phillip Hammond aims to gradually push Insurance Premium Tax up to 20% to mirror VAT. Her frustration was clear when Mr Hammond announced an increase in IPT from 10% to 12%,weeks after she had lobbied him in London to make the case for exempting health insurance from the tax.

“Mr Hammond has just dealt a huge blow to my industry,” she said.

“It is misleading and disingenuous to say that is how it is applied in Europe - because in Europe, health insurance is exempt.

“Our premiums are very modest and our profitability is so slim that we can’t afford to absorb that 2% so we will have to pass it on.

“It’s the administrative burden of writing to our 200,000 policy holders and the impact on them as well because this is the third increase they will have had in a matter of months.

It’s very disappointing, especially at a time when the NHS is under great pressure as well. ●●Sue Weir We actually protect the NHS by enabling people to go to private physiotherapists and so forth but otherwise they will go to the NHS and join the queue. When I met him I was pleading with him not to increase it but it clearly fell on deaf ears. I got no hint whatever from him that this increase was planned.

“I didn’t get any sympathy from him that it had risen from 6% to 10% in 15 months, but neither did he intimate that it was going to increase again. I have been talking to treasury on a fairly regular basis over the last 12 months and I think I will just step up that conversation now. My worry is that he was saying in his statement that VAT is at 20% and then he went on immediately to talk about IPT only being at 10% rising to 12%.The huge worry is that he will keep putting increases in until it hits 20%.

“That would be hugely crippling and the impact of doing it as a very slow creep means we have to keep having those awkward conversations with people about charges going up, which is very difficult.”

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 39

TUESDAY, 13, 2016 BUSINESSDECEMBER POST PARTNER

College’s new £3m STEM lab opens City of Liverpool College launch drive to recruit lab technicians of the future

T

HE new state-of-the-art £3m science labs at the City of Liverpool College have been officially opened as a drive to recruit lab technicians of the future was launched.

Cllr Nick Small, the Cabinet Member for Education, Employment and Skills at Liverpool City Council, unveiled the laboratories at the Clarence Street campus.

The opening was attended by members of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and All About STEM, an organisation who promote science, technology, engineering and maths in schools, businesses and communities, the University of Liverpool, Mersey Maritime and employers from the STEM sector.

The attendees took a tour of the new facility and discussed how The City of Liverpool College continues to work with the STEM industry and employers, with the new labs providing specialist training facilities that benefit businesses looking to employ graduates with STEM skills and close the skills gap in the city region.

Cllr Nick Small, Assistant Mayor of Liverpool and Cabinet Member for Education, Employment & Skills, said: “STEM skills are vital for the Liverpool City Region.

“Young people will benefit, as will

adults who want to upskill or change careers. This investment shows what we can achieve when the government devolves more decision making on skills locally.”

The college now has the capability to offer bespoke courses to local industry for their staff development in the chemical, physical and biological sciences, as well as the possibility of growing the apprenticeship offer for laboratory technicians.

Speaking about the shortage of lab technicians that are the “grassroots” of scientific research, Curriculum Leader Lynn Borthwick said: “If we don’t strive to close this skills gap there are not going to be enough technicians in the future.

“There are too many lab technicians coming up to retirement age and not enough young people coming through to feed into that area.

“We need lab technicians to further the work in the scientific community, whether that be cancer, AIDS, malaria or other research, and these facilities will enable us to provide world-class teaching to produce world-class scientists.”

The labs were funded with £3m from the £232m Growth Deal secured by Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and through proving employer links.

In 2014 the Liverpool City Region

● Business leaders taking a science lesson at City of Liverpool College

LEP secured a total of £232m of Local Growth Fund from Government. The funding will help to grow the economy and create new jobs in the Liverpool City Region and includes a ring-fenced £41m allocation for skills funding.

In the last 10 years, STEM jobs have grown three times faster than any other sector and it is predicted there will be 500,000 new STEM jobs in the UK in the next five years.Earlier this month, three college students were invited to the Royal Society of Chemistry in London to receive their RSciTech awards, which means they are now on the professional register as qualified technicians.

Councillor Ian Maher, portfolio lead for Employment and Skills for

the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, said: “Skills is a clear priority for the Combined Authority and I’m delighted to see this investment in science and technology learning, particularly as skills in these areas are in demand from employers and will play a critical role in future economic growth.”

Welcoming the announcement Asif Hamid, Interim Chair of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “The Growth Deal funding secured will help unlock the region’s potential as an economic powerhouse and this investment in new science facilities will help our young people acquire the right skills for the future.”

College Students learn from Pullman Liverpool’s elite team STUDENTS from The City of Liverpool College have been training with Pullman Liverpool’s elite hospitality and chef team.

In a first for students studying on the Hospitality Management programme, staff at the luxury four-star waterfront hotel gave a masterclass in how to run a hotel, from the bar and the kitchen to marketing and financial matters.

The course is to train Liverpool college students aspiring to become managers in the hospitality industry.

The HNC Level 4 in Hospitality Management qualification covers all areas, including food and beverage operations, marketing, finance, contemporary gastronomy, world food and customer service.

Students were given a tour of the hotel, shown the Monscierge Board, an interactive tool, the exclusive Vinoteca, which has an exquisite selection of wines from France, Italy and Argentina, shown around

the kitchen and open-plan Dukes Restaurant.

General Manager Neil Brailsford gave an insightful talk to the future of hospitality in Liverpool, which is one of the most popular city break destinations in the UK, and the highs – and lows – of his education and career.

Neil said: “Since opening in February, Pullman Liverpool has been hugely popular with visitors and we recently welcomed our 50,000th guest Jeff Waine, who is from Wigan and in the city to celebrate his 70th birthday, and we have been named in The Sunday Times Ultimate 100 British Hotels List.

“This hotel is ever growing in popularity because of the commitment of the staff to ensuring the guest experience is paramount and we are very proud to have welcomed The City of Liverpool College students to the hotel to teach them the secrets to our success.”

The college is renowned for its links with employers in the Liverpool City Region to ensure the workforce needed to boost the economy in the area and North West is trained and experienced for employment or further education.

Curriculum Leader Mike Perry said: “This is the first time our students have been given expert advice and

guidance from Pullman Liverpool, and the first hotel we have visited as part of the course.

“The students really enjoyed seeing what their job roles would be when they graduate from the course and it is hugely important to their learning that businesses welcome them to define their careers and excite them for the future.”

● Neil Brailsford gives City of Liverpool College students a masterclass in being a hotelier

40 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

Awards will salute our top retailers THE Liverpool ECHO has joined forces with Liverpool’s Retail Awards 2017 to find the BEST shops in the city.

The newly-named ‘Liverpool Echo Retail Awards’ will take place on March 23, 2017, and will be celebrating the city’s vibrant retail offering.

Nominations for the awards feature a mixture of local businesses and big brands who have opened stores in the city.

“The Liverpool ECHO is delighted to be joining forces with the Retail Awards,” said Managing Director Carl Wood. “We have an unrivalled audience both online and in print and, coupled with the strength of the ECHO’s brand, we look forward to continuing to support the city’s retailers as we move forward into 2017.

“We already know we live in one of the most stylish cities in the UK. Now we want to help make it the premier retail destination. The Retail Awards is the perfect vehicle for showcasing what an exciting place Liverpool really is when it comes to living and shopping.”

The awards, which are new to the city, will recognise businesses both big and small who have gone the extra mile to deliver outstanding customer service and innovation. Nominees so far include Victoria’s Secret, who are up for best new store, John Lewis for best national retailer and Lush Spa for the customer service award.

Bill Addy, chief executive of the Liverpool BID Company, said: “Retail underpins our thriving city centre and we thought it was about time we celebrated the heroes in this sector.

“With more than 60 million shoppers visiting the city each year, Liverpool has a rich retail heritage and much to shout about in terms of big-name brands and a wealth of independents.

“It is fantastic to be able to reward our retailers who work tirelessly to provide this excellent shopping experience.”

There are 12 categories in total which include Best Independent Retailer, Social Impact Award and the Best Employer Award. The Customer Service and Retail Icon Awards will be left to a public vote to decide the winners.

The majority of the categories will be reviewed by an independent panel of judges who include Leon Rossiter from Independent Liverpool and Mr Addy.

The awards will be held at Liverpool Cathedral on March 23 next year.

Tickets details from www. retailawardsliverpool.co.uk

●●Crowds flocked to Liverpool One for the switch-on of the shopping centre’s unique Christmas tree

M

Jingle

ORE shoppers than ever before are flocking to Liverpool City Centre to do their Christmas shopping.

Figures from Liverpool City Central Business Improvement District (BID) show that footfall rose sharply in early Christmas trading in the city’s traditional shopping streets.

Liverpool One also enjoyed a rise in shopper numbers. The figures for Liverpool seem to defy some national trends, which show the overall number of shoppers visiting retail destinations up and down the country is falling as more of us turn to online shopping.

The BID’s figures show that footfall in Liverpool city centre rose 6.9% in mid-November compared to the same week last year, with around one million shoppers using the city’s shops in a single week. Liverpool BID manages

Shoppers have not yet deserted the High Street to do all their Christmas buying online, as BILL GLEESON discovers the city centre’s traditional shopping streets, including Church Street, Bold Street, Whitechapel and Lord Street.

Bold Street’s independent retailers have enjoyed exceptional growth, with footfall up 50% year-on-year.

The BID’s figures also show that Liverpool city centre has had a good 2016 so far, with the number of visitors up 5.5% on the previous year.

Liverpool One says it has seen a 2% rise in footfall so far this festive season.

Donna Howitt, marketing director at Liverpool One, said; “We’re seeing more people visiting Liverpool for shopping than ever before.

“With new brands like The White

Company, Jack Wolfskin and Victoria’s Secret joining Liverpool One recently, the offer is exceptionally strong.

“Both stores and restaurants are trading well and we do expect strong results through to the end of the year.”

Other parts of the country have not fared as well.

Yorkshire has suffered a 0.8% drop in footfall for the year so far, while the national figure is down 1.4%.

The figures are good news for local retailers and their landlords and confirm the city’s status as one of the busiest shopping locations in Britain.

BID chief executive Bill Addy put the city’s success down to the mix of major

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 41

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

tills

stores, such as Marks & Spencer and Primark, alongside a healthy number of independent retailers such as Utility and Rex. Mr Addy told Business Post: “The offer in Liverpool is more attractive now than it has been before and it’s more attractive than other cities. That’s not just retail, it’s leisure and tourism generally.”

He said the footfall figures suggest that Christmas shopping in Liverpool got underway as early as mid-October.

Mr Addy continued: “Primarily, they are coming here to shop and our shopping offer is better – from Hugo Boss and Armani to Primark and Forever 21, we have got the balance right. Online shopping is convenient but people also want an experience – they want to come and touch and feel things before they buy them.”

Dick Mawdsley owns two Utility stores on Bold Street and another in

Liverpool One. Referring to Bold Street trading, he said: “There have been some strong figures from both stores in Bold Street.”

Mr Mawdsley had once feared that the arrival of so many new restaurants and coffee shops would damage retail outlets like Utility, but that worry proved unfounded. On the contrary, Mr Mawdsley says the new restaurants have brought in more trade for the street’s retailers.

He said: “Because there are so many strong independent food operators it’s attracting a new audience. Every couple of weeks there is a new boy on the block and that makes it interesting and that makes people come back.”

He said the street has faced tough competition from Metquarter and Liverpool One, adding: “We were concerned retail would disappear completely but that’s not the case. It’s been pretty good.”

STAY ON THE MOVE

The figures are a bit more mixed outside Liverpool city centre.

Warrington’s Golden Square has seen a 1% rise in footfall: modest, but still bucking the national trend.

Golden Square centre director Ian Cox says: “Our strong performance in November is really encouraging and is continuing the positive trend for the year of footfall being 2% up, to date.

We’ve welcomed lots of new stores to the centre, these include boutique jeweller Mococo and British children’s clothing retailer Minoti.”

Footfall was slightly down at Birkenhead’s Pyramids shopping centre. A spokeswoman said: “We don’t know exactly why. Next and Marks & Spencer don’t do any Black Friday sales now and online sales were reported to be 12% up.”

She added that many people are using the centre’s shops to collect items they have already bought online.

Breakfast clubs to flexible working hours … businesses and organisations have started to share the measures they are putting in place during the Wirral loop line track renewal works.

The case studies by Merseytravel and Liverpool and Sefton Chambers of Commerce aim to give other employers ideas so they can play their part in keeping the City Region moving when work starts from January 3, 2017.

They have been developed alongside a ‘checklist’ that employers can use to open discussions about the impact of the work on staff, contractors and service users.

The key advice to businesses is to encourage their staff to stick to public transport.

It is recognised that an increase in car journeys, particularly cross-river and at peak times, will cause significant congestion in the Mersey Tunnels and surrounding routes.

Other hints and tips in the checklist include: ●●establishing how many staff will be affected ●●considering ways to reduce cross-river travel, such as opportunities for homeworking or hot-desking at other sites ●●Jan Chaudhry-van ●●flexible der Velde working patterns ●●giving consideration to the start and finish times of meetings ●●ensuring staff know all the travel options available to them ●● Seeing if suppliers may be able to make deliveries outside peak times Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, Merseyrail’s managing director, said: “We appreciate that the work taking place will inconvenience our passengers in the short term, but the renewal of the track in the tunnels is essential and will give us a more reliable infrastructure for decades to come.

“We have worked hard to ensure that the alternative travel arrangements enable people to continue getting around and cause as little disruption as possible. This goes not just for our own passengers, but also the travelling public throughout the city region.”

Further details can be found at www.merseyrail.org/trackrenewal

42 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

NETWORKING

APPOINTMENTS

Email: neil.johnson@trinitymirror.com Digital agency Mando has unveiled its imaginative new offices at their flagship headquarters in Liverpool.

Mando have linked the re-design to their brand values of Curious; Collaborative; and Momentum Makers.

The Curious room, a Sherlock Holmes-inspired 1920s style lounge with antiques and artefacts, is designed to pique the natural curiosity of visitors to the offices on the fourth floor at No 5 St Paul’s Square.

Ian Finch, MD of Mando, said: “It’s exciting to have now grown the business to a size where we need more space and are ready to take things to the next level.”

●●Picture shows (left to right) Dan Prior – Commercial Director Mando; Stuart Bond – Tetris-bluu; Alice Mansell – Tetris-bluu; Craig Sanderson – Tetris-bluu; Deanne Walsh – HR Manager - Mando; Dave Bradley – Tetris-bluu; Ian Finch – Managing Director – Mando

●●(left to right) Paul Hogarth, John Porter, Lee Carroll, Mike Rogan, Laura Bates, Engage Solutions Group; Rod Bulmer, CEO, Consumer Services, The Co-operative Group Software business Engage Solutions Group welcomed dozens of guests to toast its new office at Queen Insurance Buildings in Liverpool city centre.

The firm has relocated to support its rapid expansion following the success of its Employee Engage App, which has

attracted clients including DHL, One Stop Stores, TrustFord, Regatta and the Atlantis Paradise Resort in the Bahamas.

Founder Lee Carroll said: “We have been delighted to start working with many leading brands.”

●●The RCMA 175th Cotton Celebration . . . Jonathan Drake, owner of Fazenda and co-owner of RCMA, and Felipe Ferraz with representatives from the Commodity Trade Finance Team from Rabbo Bank, Netherlands

●●Catherine Kelly and Shaun Williams from Asbestos Control & Treatment Ltd

●●The Professional Liverpool Social Stock Exchange Networking lunch event in the Old Hall at the Cotton Exchange (left to right) Alex Clark , Professional Liverpool , with Debbie Ryan and Lesley Beattie, Social Stock Exchange

●●Shop Direct has appointed Jon Rudoe to its executive board as retail and technology director.

Rudoe will join in April 2017 from Sainsbury’s. Under his leadership, Shop Direct will bring together its retail teams with IT for the first time.

Alex Baldock, group CEO of Shop Direct, said: “With four consecutive years of sales and profit growth under our belts, his vast experience and expertise in digital, technology and trading will help us further accelerate our ambitious plans to become a world-class digital retailer.”

Jon Rudoe (right) said: “As a pureplay etailer with a clear, proven strategy and a hunger to be at the forefront of customercentred technological change, Shop Direct is arguably the most exciting place to be in UK retail right now.” ●●Bruntwood has appointed highly-experienced property agent Tony Reed as its new head of sales in Liverpool.

Reed joins the family-owned property business following a 12-year career at Keppie Massie, where he was an associate partner. He will take up his new position in January.

Reed (right) said: “Bruntwood’s portfolio in the Liverpool city region is an incredible blend of historic and purpose-built Liverpool landmarks, all refurbished and maintained to a very high standard. This is a wonderful opportunity for me to further enhance the great occupancy rates achieved over the past few years.”

Colin Forshaw, head of property at Bruntwood, said: “Tony is a wellknown and successful figure in the city region’s property sector and his network is second-to-none.” ●●MSIF has further expanded its investment team. George Wright (right) joins as an investment manager from Nat West in Southport to provide support to MSIF’s loans team. He has 31 years’ experience in the banking sector.

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 43

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

KNOWSLEY KNOWSLEY

BUSINESS & REGENERATION AWARDS 2016 BUSINESS & REGENERATION Once again, all nominations were judged by Knowsley welcomed almost 600 guests from across the region to a AWARDS spectacular evening of celebration and success.

members of the Knowsley Place Board, made

2016 up of senior figures from across the north west

The annual awards ceremony showcased the achievements and dedication of the global businesses, smaller organisations, entrepreneurs and major regeneration projects that are transforming Knowsley and contributing towards the economic success of the area.

It is an opportunity to recognise the creativity, ingenuity and commitment of the individuals and organisations of all sizes and all sectors.

Cllr Mike Murphy, Knowsley’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Economic Development said: “It’s always a really positive evening as the awards celebrate and showcase some of the amazing talent, dedication and passion that we have here in Knowsley.”

including representatives from Knowsley Hall & Safari, Knowsley Chamber, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, The Dean Trust and db symmetry.

Edward Perry, Chair of the Knowsley Place Board and Director of Operations at Knowsley Safari and Hall, said: “The quality of nominations is always really high and this year has been no different. The calibre of the business and regeneration community here in Knowsley is exceptional and the awards really do provide the opportunity to recognise and celebrate this together.”

Julien Uhlig, CEO of Green Growth Power who was named Newcomer of the Year said “We’ve worked hard during our first year in Knowsley to establish a sustainable and profitable business that contributes to the local economy and creates jobs for residents. Receiving the award of “Newcomer of the Year” was a thrill for me and was recognition of the achievements of all of the staff at Green Growth Power.”

Precision Pneumatics was shortlisted for Medium Business of the Year and Managing Director Phil Hood was delighted; “Simply being on the shortlist was a major achievement for the company, as this was one of the most competitive of the award categories. We’ve been based in Knowsley since the company was set up and events like this showcase what a fantastic place it is to work and do business.”

The Knowsley Business and Regeneration Awards are organised by the private sector led Knowsley Place Board and Knowsley Council and funded through business sponsorship.

Winners of Knowsley Business and Regeneration Awards 2016

Retailer of the Year Renaissance Skincare & Beauty

Manufacturer of the Year Jaguar Land Rover

Green Award Villages Housing Association

Medium Business of the Year Standard Fuel Oils Ltd

Housing Deal/Investment of the Year Countryside Properties (UK) Limited

Commercial Deal/Investment of the Year - Geraud Markets (UK) Limited

Team of the Year - Rösler UK

Transport and Logistics Business of the Year - JMD (Haulage Contractors) Ltd

Excellence in Export Getrag Ford Transmissions

Corporate Social Responsibility Roberts Recycling Ltd

Highly Commended Medium Business of the Year - Minta Group Deal/Investment of the Year - db symmetry ltd Team of the Year - Knowsley Community College Excellence in Export - Clarke Energy Small Business of the Year - Seacon UK Newcomer of the Year - WJB Training & Consultancy Small Business of the Year LiverPrint Limited

Newcomer of the Year Green Growth Power Ltd

Developer of the Year Barratt Homes (Manchester Division)

Visit www.knowsleybusinessawards.com to view all photos from the evening and films of the shortlisted businesses.

44 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

in the news

Email: tom.belger@trinitymirror.com

Region can put trust in new charity group M

eet Liverpool’s newest charity The Big Trust.

The charity will create a new network of influential business leaders from across the city to help businesses to make a difference by sharing their skills, offering training or helping to tackle social problems.

Ged Fitzgerald, chief executive of Liverpool council, will chair the Big Trust.

Trustees include Carl Wood, managing director of Trinity Mirror North West; Paul Corcoran, managing director of Agent Marketing; and Andrew Cornish, chief executive of Liverpool John Lennon Airport.

More than 70 senior business leaders attended the charity’s launch event at Williamson Tunnels, which included a talk by an ex-offender encouraging employers to give people like her a chance, and a performance by a group of girls from the Scotland Road-based Vogue Dance Academy.

The charity’s priorities will include supporting young and older people from deprived backgrounds to find sustainable jobs, providing employees with chances to volunteer outside work and campaigning for change.

Mr Fitzgerald said: “As business leaders, it’s crucial that we do what we can for our great city region and work together to help others.

“The Big Trust is all about coming

●●Peel Ports has been recognised as Seaport of the Year at the North of England Transport Awards thanks to its Liverpool2 container terminal project. Judges of the inaugural event acknowledged the significant supply chain opportunities the new £400million terminal will open up, helping to strengthen the regional economy. ●●A company director from Liverpool has won the UK Young Surveyor of the Year title. Matthew Fedigan, 29, director at Domec Ltd, took the top title and the award for the most talented surveyor in the Asset & Facilities Management category at the 2016 RICS Matrics Young Surveyor of the Year Awards. Pictured are (left to right) Amy Leader (RICS Matrics Chair), Chris Holmes MBE (ceremony host and Paralympic swimmer), Matthew Fedigan (UK Young Surveyor of the Year), Fiona Grant (Chair of the RICS UK & Ireland World Regional Board) and Amanda Clack (RICS President).

●●Founder members of the new “Ethical Business” network/charity The Big Trust at the Williamson Tunnels Heritage centre in Smithdown Lane, Liverpool.

together, sharing our resources and collaborating to improve the life chances of absolutely everybody living in the region. That’s exactly what happened at the launch – everyone was eagerly discussing new ways of creating meaningful, life-enhancing opportunities for the people of Liverpool city region.

“Those opportunities are endless: it could be creating job opportunities, access to training and development, or

finding new ways of getting influential people out of the boardroom and more involved in the real issues facing our city. I’m looking forward to getting deeper and deeper into the beating heart of the communities that make us who we are as a city and doing all we can to brighten the futures of everyone.”

If you or your business would like to get involved with The Big Trust, visit its website www.thebigtrust.org/ or get in touch at @BigTrustCharity on Twitter.

●●AINTREE-BASED Sovini Trade Supplies (STS) has been crowned Supplier of the Year at the Builder & Engineer Awards. World Cup winner Sir Geoff Hurst presented the award at Anfield. The supplies store firm beat off competition from national names.

Chamber scores a hat-trick

Developers land travellers’ award

Signature Living has landed first place in Trivago’s Best Rooms category in The Top Hotels in the north west.

The awards use more than 175 million aggregated hotel reviews to determine the best-rated regional venues. The serviced apartments that shone for Signature included the Masonic, on Bold Street in Liverpool, which sleeps up to 12 and has been designed with a modern twist on what was originally the Masons boardroom, dating back to the early 19th century.

The New York penthouse and the Iconic penthouse were also praised.

IN BRIEF

●●(left to right) Steve Charles, Head of Business Partnerships at Qdos Consulting; Kath Boullen, Chief Executive at St Helens Chamber; event host, Gethin Jones

St Helens Chamber has been named ‘Chamber of the Year’ 2016 at the British Chambers of Commerce Annual Awards.

The Chamber takes the prestigious title for the third time in the last 10 years – the only one in the country to have achieved the hat-trick.

Graham Worsley, Chairman of St Helens Chamber, said: “I am immensely proud of the work of St Helens Chamber

and the contribution we make to improve the local economy. To have this recognised nationally is wonderful.”

St Helens beat off stiff competition from Chambers around the country. It supports more than 1,000 businesses.

Last year they secured a Government contract to enable the network of Chambers to deliver career fairs across the UK, providing a new income

stream for 35 Chambers of Commerce and creating opportunities for 40,000 school children to explore their career options.

Steve Charles, from category sponsor Qdos Consulting, said: “St Helens Chamber are worthy winners, not only for their continued focus on membership but also because they have played a significant part in the national network by securing contracts.”

LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 45

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

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46 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

BusinessDiary DECEMBER 16 MEET THE APPRENTICE Are you looking for extra help at your business? Have you considered taking on an apprentice? St Helens Chamber specialises in helping you to recruit young people through our Apprenticeship Programme and we are always looking to increase the range of vacancies available. All apprentices will have completed our ‘Chamber Approved – Work Ready’ course to ensure they are high-calibre candidates who are well prepared for the world of work. Taking on an apprentice can increase efficiency, introduce new skills and provide a hassle-free,costeffective way to grow your business. This informal event will provide an efficient and convenient way for you to meet some of the best local young job seekers.

Cost: Free ●●Venue: St Helens Chamber ●●8.30am - 11.00am ●●Online registration is not available for this event – for information call 01744 742028 JANUARY 4 MONTHLY BUSINESS CLINIC (First Wednesday of every month) A new monthly business clinic has launched offering SMEs and start-ups in Liverpool’s Commercial District bespoke help and advice. Run by Cllr Gary Millar, in partnership with Hotel Indigo Liverpool, the drop-in event is the latest addition to the Liverpool BID Company’s business support programme. The growing team of mentors will support businesses in a variety of ways, including developing business ideas, making connections, exploring patents and trademarks, solving business problems and growing their businesses. ●●Venue: Hotel Indigo ●●12.30pm - 1.30pm ●●For more information visit www.liverpoolbidcompany. com JANUARY 10 BUSINESS BREAKFAST

Membership of the Chamber is all about helping your business grow and what better way to make new contacts than at the Business Breakfast?

Cost: Non-members: £20 (excl.

VAT) ●●Venue: St Helens Chamber ●●7:45am - 9:00am ●●To book this event: https:// www.sthelenschamber.com/ booking JANUARY 12 GENERATE BUSINESS VIA ONLINE MARKETING This session is ideal for anyone with nothing more than a very basic understanding of search optimisation who wants to enhance and improve website visibility in the search listings.

Cost: Members: £49.00 (excl.

VAT), Non-members: £99.00 (excl. VAT) ●●Venue: St Helens Chamber ●●9:30am - 13:00pm ●●To book this event visit https://www.sthelenschamber. com/booking MINDFULNESS IN THE WORKPLACE – IMPROVE EMPLOYEE FOCUS, RESILIENCE AND HAPPINESS Mindfit is a health and well being company, based in Liverpool City Centre. We would like to invite people to our breakfast event where Nicola Forshaw, Director of Mindfit, will provide a onehour introduction to mindfulness session. Breakfast served from 8.30am, presentations from 9am.

Cost: Free ●●Venue: The Old Hall, Cotton Exchange, Bixteth Street, L39LQ ●●8.30am - 10.00am ●●Enquiries: Nicola Forshaw or Alex Clark on 07950 497 992 or 0151 236 6084 or email alexclark@professionalliverpool. com JANUARY 13 ANNUAL DINNER DANCE Join us at Langtree Park for our networking event of the year, with guest speaker snooker legend Steve Davis.

Cost: Memebers only Ticket price includes a welcome drink, three-course meal, entertainment, music and dancing. £70+VAT per ticket or

JANUARY 18 FOOD GLORIOUS FOOD Tomas Maunier, Sales and Marketing Director of the hugely-successful Fazenda restaurant group, will share his experiences of creating and growing a brand in a notoriously challenging sector.

Fazenda Rodizio Bar & Grill in Exchange Flags, Liverpool, serves up to 15 different cuts of meat carved at the table which are accompanied by traditional Brazilian sides such as cured meats, artisan cheeses and sushi, offering guests a unique dining experience.

Canapes and drinks will be served during the event so you will have the opportunity to sample some of this exceptional traditional South American fare.

Cost: Member: Free, Studying member: Free, Student: £15, Nonmember: £15. This event is free for CIM members and studying members, the price shown for students and non-members includes VAT with canapes and drinks provided. To notify us of any special requirements, please contact the Network Support team. ●●Venue: Fazenda, Exchange Flags, Liverpool ●●18.00 (registration) 18:00pm - 19:30pm (event) ●●Contact: Network Support team Contact e-mail: cimevents@cim.co.uk Contact phone: +44 (0)1628 427340

Is there an event you think should be included on this page? Let us know by sending details to business@ trinitymirror.com. Please include the name of the event, a brief description, the time and date, the venue, and the contact information.

PROCEDURES AND RULES OF PREFERENCE This course will teach delegates how to comply with customs regimes, the regimes available to help you save money (IPR/OPR) and the JANUARY 18 rules determining preference LUNCH & LEARN – IMPROVING rules of origin.

Cost: £200 for members, £250 YOUR SALES STRATEGY for non members Back by popular demand!

Wirral Chamber of Commerce ●●Venue: Liverpool Chamber of Commerce and Industry, is continuing with its highlyNumber One Old Hall Street, esteemed Lunch and Learn Liverpool, L3 9HG sessions. The sessions offer ●●9.30am-4.30pm exceptional value for money and provide you with ●●To register: http://www. informative updates over a mychamber.co.uk/liverpool/ working lunch. event/view/id/4544#book Cost: From £24 ●●Venue: The Lauries, 142 JANUARY 26 Claughton Road, Birkenhead, Wirral, CH41 6EY LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT ●●12.00 SKILLS This seminar has been ●●To Register: www.eventbrite. designed to provide a wellco.uk rounded introduction to Leadership& Management.

BE YOUR OWN BOSS Whether you have a great idea The course will provide an insight into leading a team for a business or are tired of with effective management the day-to-day grind, at some and coaching tools: point many of us think of Cost: Members: £65.00 (excl. becoming our own boss. Our ‘Be Your Own Boss’ events are VAT), Non-members: £130.00 (excl. VAT) designed to give you the ●●Venue: St Helens Chamber information you need to ●●9:30am - 16:30pm decide whether starting and running a business is for you. ●●To register for this event visit Cost: Free https://www.sthelenschamber. ●●Venue St Helens Chamber com/booking ●●18:00pm - 20:00pm ●●Online registration is not JANUARY 27 available – for more information please call us on 01744 742028 MEET THE APPRENTICE St Helens Chamber specialises in helping you to recruit young JANUARY 19 people through our GETTING TO GRIPS WITH THE Apprenticeship Programme and we are always looking to COMPETITION increase the range of Love them or hate them, they are with us all the time. So how vacancies.

Cost: Free do we get to grips with the competition? What do we need ●●Venue: St Helens Chamber ●●8.30-11am to know and how do we use that information. An ●●To register: Online registration informative one-hour session is not available for this event - for lifts the lid on this subject. more information call Cost: Members: £5.00 (excl.

01744742028 VAT), Non-members: £10.00 (excl. VAT) JANAURY 31 ●●Venue: St Helens Chamber ●●12:00pm - 13:00pm ●●MARKET YOUR BUSINESS Cost: Members £65 (excluding ●●To register for this event visit VAT), Non-members: £130 https://www.sthelenschamber. (excluding VAT) com/booking ●●Venue: St Helens Chamber ●●9.30am-4.30pm.

JANUARY 24 ●●To register: https://www.

BCC ACCREDITED – CUSTOMS sthelenschamber.com/booking

£650+VAT for a table of ten. ●●Venue: Langtree Park ●●7:00pm ●●For details visit https://www. sthelenschamber.com/booking

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

THIS CHRISTMAS GIVE

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LIVERPOOL CITY REGION BUSINESS POST 47

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48 liverpool city region business post TUESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2016

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