BQ West Midlands Winter 2016

Bosom pal

Ballooning boobs bring booming business

Girls’ best friend Debby Cavill is back in the trade she loves

Grand day out

Denise Sheasby enjoys the sporting life

BUSINESS QUARTER

West Midlands: Winter 2016

Celebrating and inspiring entrepreneurship Business Quarter Magazine

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Royal Mail to Mocha Dalton’s mid-life crisis came better latte than never

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E N T R EP R E N E UR I N T E R V I E W S

B USIN ESS U P DAT E

IN SIGHT

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E VE NT S

Alexandra Rice, regional director for corporate and commercial banking at Santander, shares an insight into the world of corporate banking What’s it like to manage and lead within a corporate bank?

It’s the people I work alongside that make my job so fulfilling; most especially my clients and my team. I run a team of relationship directors (RDs) and relationship managers (RMs) that provides banking to the professional and financial services sector.

One of the great joys of working in my world is the volume of client interaction it enables. My team supports businesses that span from mid-sized enterprises right up to large corporates and partnerships where turnover is more than £1 billion.

Across that range, I’ve met some of the most inspiring and impressive individuals that I could ever hope to meet.

I’ve been doing it for many years but it is still as much of a privilege now as it was on my first ever client visit.

Another part of the job that is very fulfilling is managing the team. RDs and RMs must demonstrate a high level of technical skill. They must combine financial analysis with business acumen and strategic insight.

All of that must be wrapped into a personable individual who knows how to listen to a client, can understand their needs and then combine that with their technical expertise to create options. To complete the skill set, an RD needs to be able to do all that and distinguish themselves from their competition in a compelling and meaningful way.

That’s quite a tall ask for any one individual. Coaching and leading a team that must attain the highest standards in ideally all those areas make it a multi-faceted and highlyfulfilling job to have. I love it.

What are ethics and behaviour like within corporate banking?

In my experience, and across three banks, I have found most corporate bankers to be client-focussed, ethical, highlycapable individuals for whom doing the right thing for the client and the organisation, and achieving personal success, have always been inextricably linked.

Yet pre-2008, right across the banking industry, there were some individuals for whom the need to achieve shareholder and, in some cases, personal returns overtook all other considerations. Perhaps the most damning indictment of this action is that it took a worldwide banking crisis for some institutions to address this issue.

Perhaps the most seismic change that I’ve seen in the past ten years is the focus now placed from the top down on required behaviours. In Santander, we have adopted a framework of nine behaviours: speak up, truly listen, show respect, keep promises, give support, bring passion, talk straight, embrace change, and actively collaborate.

A set of required behaviours is not an end in itself; it must become part of the fabric of how we operate as an organisation. Our performance-rating process has shifted away from what was mostly a set of metrics based on capability to one that still requires that capability but set within the context of a far more holistic and balanced behavioural assessment.

How difficult is it to recruit women and people from different ethnic backgrounds into leadership positions?

Corporate banking naturally attracts a lot of highly-driven and capable people. They come from all countries, especially so in London, where it is very common to have several nationalities represented on any given team.

What continues to surprise me is just how hard it is to recruit a team representative of the UK business community. The most immediately-noticeable gap is an absence of women, especially at senior levels.

One of the things on my to-do list is to go to schools and universities and engage audiences of young women to tempt them into corporate banking. There is absolutely no reason why women should be discouraged from entering the field. The only thing I can think of that might be influencing decision making is perception. Perhaps this is holding back the numbers of non-white entrants as well?

Some people think you need to be a trained accountant to be successful. You must be numerate, but analysing financial statements is not as complex as it might first seem. It’s just a different language; once you have learned how to read it, interpreting what the numbers say becomes progressively easier with practice.

Santander has a brand promise that encapsulates that: everything we do must be “simple, personal, and fair”. Those three words provide an instant litmus test for pretty much everything we do. That is our commitment to our clients, and to all employees too. We encourage everyone to hold us all to that brand promise.

How do you nurture and develop people and retain them in an industry with high churn?

What are some of the challenges with performance management in a sales environment?

My ideal RD would possess outstanding technical capability, an exceptionally-high level of sophistication in their appreciation of client management skills, be an outstanding team player and have a proven and consistent ability to develop business within the top decile of the peer group performance spectrum.

They do exist, but they are not as common as they should be.

One of my top priorities is to ensure my team produces more of these individuals.

The best raw material to start with? Those individuals who are blessed with a high level of personal awareness and have learned how to amplify their strengths and find ways to shore up their capability in other areas. Once you find that, the rest is training and application.

That said, attracting the talented individuals and knowing how to train them is just the start. Organisational culture matters a lot. To be authentic in my commitment to develop my team and facilitate an environment where they can be successful, I have to know I’m in an organisation where “doing the right thing” really matters.

Perhaps the most difficult decisions I’ve had to make are when I’ve run teams in which the star performer can’t be a team player. If the rest of the team is just “OK”, it’s so tempting to keep that person front and centre rather than risk overall performance by reducing the amount of special treatment they invariably demand. I’ve found indulging “star treatment” is usually a bad idea in the long run. Over dependence on one person can completely skew the way the whole team functions in a negative way.

For me to feel happy in my role, I must lead and manage in line with my own code of ethics and principles. That does not allow me to make special exceptions for one individual to the extent that the others in the team feel like second-class citizens. Santander’s nine behaviours provide the cultural reinforcement I need to make the hard decisions. From experience, I have learned that playing the longer game and building the capability of the many, rather than focusing on the few, is always the most fulfilling road to high levels of client satisfaction and overall team success.

BUSINESS UPDATE bqlive.co.uk

EDITOR’S VIEW WEST MIDLANDS ISSUE 16 In the wake of the thumping Trump victory, and with the annoying ‘Brexit means Brexit’ mantra still ringing in our ears, it’s been a pleasurable distraction to put this edition of BQ West Midlands together.

We have, of course, included articles on the two political earthquakes that have shaken the world around us. In our ‘As I see it’ pages, industrial specialist Prof David Bailey has thoroughly analysed Brexit from a trade perspective, a must-read for anyone in the automotive industry. And we’ve carried a short news story on the Dad’s Army-style ‘Don’t panic!’ reaction of West Midlands business leaders to the USA’s new president-elect.

But most of the following pages are instead focused on the much brighter subject of entrepreneurial successes across the West Midlands.

The cover story explores the adventure of former Royal Mail executive Mike Dalton, who from scratch has created a £400,000-a-year coffee chain employing some 25 full and part-time staff in Shropshire. From mid-life crisis to late-life business success, the reasons behind Dalton’s dramatic career change and the way he financed Stop. Coffee Ltd makes for a captivating read.

Another inspiring tale comes from Sarah Tremellen, founder of big bra company Bravissimo, based in Leamington Spa. She felt a gap in the market 20-odd years ago when she couldn’t find comfortable underwear during pregnancy, and now heads a £50m company that’s become a household name.

When we look at most stories, it’s not the companies themselves but the people behind them that offer the fascinating angles. People like Damian Navas, who runs the expanding Haig & Co recruitment firm in Birmingham: he’s only here because his Spanish grandfather jumped ship with the captain’s daughter in South Wales in the early 20th century.

And people like Denise Sheasby, who runs Eventmasters, the corporate hospitality specialist that’s also based in Birmingham: her last job before this was a senior sister at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

These sorts of stories are a delight to research, find, create and publish. With that in mind, here’s a big ‘thank you’ to some of the fine journalists we have writing for us here at BQ West Midlands, because they’re behind many of these great features. Yes, I’m talking about you Ros Dodd, and you Maureen Messent, and I’m referring to you Jon Griffin and Ian Halstead, and I’m even meaning to include you, John Duckers, for your annoying but unmissable quarterly rant on The Big Issues pages.

Any publication is only as good as the people writing for it, and so I’m proud to head a team of people who care so much about the accuracy and readability of their words. Without your assistance, this magazine would just be another one of those boring business reads. But with you on board, it’s as fascinating as GQ, let alone BQ. Meanwhile, BQ readers, what’s your favourite article in this edition? Or what don’t you like? Please tell me via steve.dysonmedia@gmail.com – I always reply to every email. Happy reading!

Steve Dyson, editor, BQ West Midlands

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CONTENTS

Winter 16 XX

RXYXCT XUC UCYXTUCU Xyxtrc tytxrc xyc cytxr cyrxytcr xtycr ycrytxrc xytcr xc

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HIDDEN GEM

HE WOKE UP AND SMELLED THE COFFEE

Debby Cavill is back in jewellery with Rocks & Co

Mike Dalton’s mid-life crisis led to a successful business

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BUSINESS LUNCH

Keith Bradshaw tells his rags-to-riches story

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A CUT ABOVE THE ORDINARY

Something special from Hermes in Paris

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ROLLER COAS TER

Jason Wouhra revels in motoring luxury

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Celebrating and inspir ing entrepreneurship

REGULARS

28 FEATURES 22

SPUN OUT From corporate pr to coffee shop

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UPLIFTING STORY Sarah Tremellen’s bra business is booming

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MOTORHEAD Mark Stanton talks about a life with cars

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DIAMONDS IN THE SKY Debby Cavill sells jewellery on the small screen

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ENERGY IN MOTION Blue Vine’s Amrit Chandan on business, life and music

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BRUM IS MY HOME NOW Nomad Damien Navas settles down in Birmingham

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SPORTING LIFE Denise Sheasby makes a grand day out

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ATOMIC AGE REVOLUTION Craig Illey on a challenge bank

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BIG ISSUES How the West Midlands Combined Authority will support entrepreneurs

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BUSINESS UPDATE Business news from around the region

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AVIAT ON NEW S Let’s not be bashful about Birmingham

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AS I SEE IT Brexit and the automotive sector

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COMMERCIAL PROPERT Y Who’s building what, where and when

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MOTORING A beautiful dawn for Jason Wouhra

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EQUIPMENT Hermes’ cut above the ordinary

SPECIAL FEATURE Legal and Finance Quarter - Wealth Management Edition

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THE BIG ISSUES bqlive.co.uk

We already know the West Midlands is home to some of the most innovative businesses in the UK, supported by the skills and resources of universities, science parks and research institutes. Now the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA) will extend the use of this infrastructure to more businesses, building on the region’s current success in developing manufacturing and engineering excellence.

Currently, the core of our economic strength is in advanced manufacturing and engineering, but a number of growing dynamic sectors – including creative, digital and life sciences – are playing an increasingly significant role.

To maximise these growing benefits, the skill levels of local people must match and then exceed the national average. The WMCA will ensure that employers have the right support so their employees have the skills they need, and people of all ages will have access to the best education and training, along with improved housing.

The region’s economy provides a strong foundation for growth, and is supported by high quality rail, road and air links which will be strengthened by development of Birmingham Airport and the arrival of HS2.

Our task now is to ensure that resources are focused in the right places at the right times to deliver fast, flexible and dynamic change in the areas that matter most to the region’s people and businesses. The WMCA consists of 17 local authorities and three Local Enterprise Partnerships working together to move powers from Whitehall to the locally-elected politicians who know this region best. It’s not a super council, and it’s not going to mean the end of individual councils with proud histories, far from it. Those councils will still deliver services and retain their identities.

But there are some areas which cross civic boundaries, where it makes sense for us to work together rather than as individual authorities.

Transport, mental health, skills and productivity, housing and land, public service reform, driving economic growth locally – these are all areas where we on the ground know what can work and where we will now have the resources to work together to make it happen.

Last November, we signed an agreement with the Government that will see it make an annual contribution worth £40m over the next 30 years to support an overall investment package that

A combined future…

John Clancy explains how the new West Midlands Combined Authority will support the region’s entrepreneurs will unlock £8bn – and that’s just for starters.

We have made it clear to the Government we want more. By 2030 our goal is to have: 2.4 million jobs, 500,000 more than today; a wide choice of housing with more than 1.9 million homes; rail travel to London in 38 minutes and greater capacity on the network thanks to HS2; 2,000 HS2-related apprenticeships; and at least 153,000 fewer people with no formal qualifications, and 156,000 more with Level 4 qualifications or above. It’s crucial that we create the right environment for businesses and entrepreneurs to flourish, and WMCA’s Strategic Economic Plan sets out how we

intend to achieve this. This has been developed and agreed by a wide partnership of people, organisations and businesses who share a pride in the region. It sets the context for the WMCA’s devolution agreement with government and explains how devolved powers and resources will be used. n Councillor John Clancy is the leader of Birmingham City Council and the WMCA portfolio holder for economic growth. Go to www.westmidlandscombinedauthority. org.uk/about/strategic-economic-plan/ for more details.

THE BIG ISSUES bqlive.co.uk

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…but transport’s still hellish John Duckers, the business commentator who West Midlands leaders love to hate, is scathing about the region’s efforts at transport improvements What a mess West Midlands transport is in, and how dependent it is on high speed rail.

HS2 is going ahead under a cloud, condemned as a waste of money in virtually every independent study. It won’t happen for another ten years, is currently costed at £50bn-to-£55bn, but may end up at £80bn. And is it needed?

The Adam Smith Institute slammed claims that the West Coast Main Line is at capacity, maintaining seat occupancy is below 60%. The House of Lords concluded that the expected cost per mile of HS2 was up to nine times higher than that of constructing high-speed lines in France and, far from it being the saviour of the regions, London would most likely be the biggest beneficiary.

All a bit worrying, especially when the hopes of Birmingham Airport are pinned on the line and the speed of onward connections to London, putting itself forward as part of the solution to the capital’s congestion in the skies.

Yet, although he’s been more encouraging in recent months, Howard Davies’s airports review argued there was not a strong case for

building a second runway in Birmingham. His commission predicted Birmingham would not even be operating at capacity until the mid2040s. While passenger numbers are rising and Emirates is a big success, the airport has had two recent blows. American Airlines recently announced it was pulling out for the second time, and Beijing Capital Airlines owner Caissa Touristic withdrew a planned service to China.

At least the airport has responded to its nomenclature critics. Two decades after it was first suggested, it’s now tentatively using the Shakespeare name in its marketing.

And, at last, it’s promised to address customer service deficiencies by pledging a £100m investment to speed up baggage handling, add extra capacity for check in, and improve car parking – including a new drop-off facility free for the first 30 minutes.

But it never merited a mention in the Government’s announcement on the third runway for Heathrow. It has a case, but it’s far from compelling, and it’s a long way from convincing Londoners that there’s substance

to its rhetoric and that it can be anything more than a peripheral player.

What then of much-trumpeted Metro lines?

The new one through the city centre runs less than a mile at just over walking pace – arguably we would have been better off spending the money on reviving old stations like Moseley and Kings Heath. A Metro line will go to the airport – eventually. But these are hardly transformational projects.

Meanwhile, on the roads Birmingham is close to gridlock. There have been some successes such as the active traffic management system on our motorways, yet they remain badly congested, a complete travel lottery.

You would be hard-pressed to invent anything as dysfunctional as the M6/M6 Toll combination, further exacerbated by the regular mayhem at the M5/M6 junction. Meanwhile Birmingham City Council plays the politically-correct card. It stings any motorist foolish enough to want to park in the city centre. And it panders to that tiny minority – the bike brigade, people who are a law unto themselves – jumping red lights, under-cutting cars, dangerously weaving in and out of traffic, and threatening the lives of pedestrians by riding on the footpath.

Our transport network surely doesn’t have to be this flaky. Or maybe it does. Perhaps it’s simply where those poor souls condemned to hell go … not a fiery furnace, but a neverending M6 traffic jam! n

WEBSITE OF THE QUARTER www.greater birmingham chambers.com

BUSINESS UPDATE Why major events matter A leading economist has told Midland business leaders why measuring the impacts of major events is a “crucial” activity.

David Mullen, director for EY’s economic advisory team, explained how such analysis can help progress planning applications, encourage tax and regulation changes, and show the need for investment.

Mullen, speaking at Barclays’ Hospitality, Leisure & Sport Sector dinner at Warwickshire County Cricket Club, Birmingham, this autumn, said: “This is less about demonstrating commercial benefits and more about explaining benefits to a local area.

“For example, showing why one type of land use would benefit the wider economy more than another, or explaining how changes in tax or regulation can stimulate demand in a sector to grow jobs and tax returns.

businessteam@bham.ac.uk www.birmingham.ac.uk/partners

“And infrastructure like the new HS2 rail line, or huge events such as the Olympics, often require public money to get them off the ground.

We therefore need to be able to effectively measure what the public gets in return, and communicate this value to stakeholders – whether that’s shareholders, fans, staff, government or the media.”

Hosting the event was Andy Mayne, relationship director at Barclays, and he had earlier welcomed guests with a general overview of the hospitality sector.

Mayne said: “2016 is continuing to be a great year for many of us, with ‘staycation’ influencing many of these positive trends. We can all benefit from the success of a region in attracting events.”

The audience at Barclays’ dinner heard how EY’s work had included assessing the impact of the Rugby World Cup in 2015, and the potential benefits of the Cricket World Cup in 2019.

David Mullen, director for EY’s economic advisory team

Mullen said his team calculates the “additional value” created by major events, an investment or a company’s or industry’s operations.

For example, measuring the Rugby World Cup’s impact involved multiple questions, including: How many people attended the games and related events, such as the ‘fanzones’? How long did they stay in each city? How much did visitors spend, on what, and where? How much did it cost to host a match? Who were stadiums’ primary suppliers?

Mullen said: “Indirect effects capture the economic activity, jobs and taxes across relevant supply chains. For every £1 of direct spending there are multiplier effects across other industries, from raw material suppliers to logistics “Induced effects capture employees spending wages – additional spending on the housing, transport and retail sectors, all benefiting from the creation of that job.”

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PROFILE EY

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Infrastructure, skills and inward investment should be the focus areas for the Midlands Engine say local businesses Over the coming years, the region’s political and economic landscape will change dramatically. The government’s ambition for the Midlands to grow its economy by £34billion by 2030 will no doubt bring excitement and huge economic benefits to the region, but also some uncertainty The EY Midlands Engine Devolution Survey was conducted to find out the views of executives across the East and West Midlands. We wanted to hear from local businesses what devolution means to them and what should be the region’s focus areas in the long and short term. Almost 22% of respondents felt that more clarification is required on what the term ‘Midlands Engine’ actually means, suggesting that the breadth of the geographical area should be made clearer and how the diverse areas within the Midlands Engine will benefit from investment.

Many are also unsure of the extent of the powers to be devolved to the Midlands region and whether it will have greater responsibility over areas such as jobs, skills, infrastructure and housing. 84% of respondents said inward investment should be a top priority and more should be done to attract FDI. Almost 42% felt that much more is needed to help local businesses expand globally by promoting overseas trade.

The skills gap has been an issue for many years and more needs to be done to help bridge this.

Respondents suggested that more emphasis should

“It’s clear to see from the results that we have some way to go to ensure that the structure and leadership of public sector organisations such as the West Midlands Combined Authority, local authorities and LEPs are streamlined and well-coordinated.“ be placed on improving links between schools, colleges, universities and industry. Infrastructure is key, 88% said that this is an area that requires focus and, in particular, roads is where ‘urgent’ improvement is needed.

It’s clear to see from the results that we have some way to go to ensure that the structure and leadership of the public sector organisations such as the West Midlands Combined Authority, local authorities and LEPs are streamlined and well-coordinated. The region will have to prioritise focus areas and ensure that alignment of resources and integration between cities and towns is strong. Overall, many feel that in order for devolution to work, WMCA, local authorities and government need to continue work with businesses to better understand their needs and to truly set the Midlands region on a global stage.

With Brexit on the horizon, we are operating in a period of prolonged and uncertain change: to

regulations, migration and trade, also to global social and geo-political factors. The Midlands Engine is not only open for business; it remains attractive, competitive and connected. It must seize on the chance of delivering unprecedented growth and prosperity. The UK will continue to be an integral piece of the global jigsaw. New trade deals will provide access to key markets and create opportunities which will benefit UK businesses.

EY is working around the world with businesses, government and industry bodies to help them answer their most challenging questions in order to shape a successful and prosperous future for the UK in the global economy.

Paul Brown T: +44121 535 2917 M: 07827 881480 E: pbrown@uk.ey.com

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BUSINESS UPDATE www.bqlive.co.uk/bq-breakfast

School for engineers

In a Worcestershire lather A Midland business group is looking for successful entrepreneurs to become ‘ambassadors’ to help encourage new companies to grow or relocate in North Worcestershire.

Guest speaker Emma Heathcote-James, the award-winning founder of the locally-based Little Soap Company, launched the project to over 120 businesses at Hogarths Stone Manor Hotel in Kidderminster. Dean Piper, of North Worcestershire Economic Development and Regeneration, said: “Our ambassadors, themselves success stories, will highlight what’s great about North Worcestershire. Businesses are often inspired by other companies who are doing well, and local businesses love to be connected to like-minded neighbours. We’d love to hear from businesses and would urge them to tell us about their successes and developments.”

Meanwhile, Redditch and Bromsgrove is proving a magnet for growth, according to Ashley Gurr, employment partner at Redditch law firm Kerwoods, He said: “North Worcestershire has a vibrant economic base with its concentration of manufacturing, logistics, distribution, service and, increasingly, high technology companies.

Success breeds success and enquiries continue to pour in.”

For more information visit www.nwedr.org.uk/Ambassadors.

Trump hopes and fears West Midlands business leaders discussed their hopes and fears following Donald Trump’s shock victory in the US election. Paul Forrest, from the West Midlands Economic Forum, said Trump’s pledge to focus on manufacturing and aerospace could spell positives for the region, with firms like Jaguar Land Rover leading the drive for business across the Atlantic. He said: “If Trump is going to rebalance the economy and focus on the manufacturing sector, this could have positive implications for the Midlands given the components it exports to the US.” Meanwhile, Tim Emrich, chief executive of

UK Power Reserve and a member of former president Bill Clinton’s team, spelled out his fears for climate change policies and the rights of individuals under the new president.

The business leaders were speaking at a US post-election breakfast at Birmingham Airport, organised by the Midlands Chapter of the British American Business Council.

Paul Faulkner, chief executive of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, said: “Through the BABC and the new Birmingham Chamber International Business Hub we will be working flat out to maintain certainty and stability in trade between the two nations.”

A Birmingham company has launched a pre-apprenticeship scheme in engineering for 14-to-16 year olds, in a bid to help bridge the UK’s skills gap. Alan Lusty, the head of adi Group, the engineering firm behind the scheme, said: “The opportunities that current post-16 apprenticeships offer, especially in the engineering and manufacturing industries, are wholly insufficient according to research.

“Teaching specialised, hands-on skills such as mechanical and electrical engineering is paramount to ensuring there are no gaps in the workforce of the future. Our preapprenticeship scheme is doing just that by introducing young people to the industry at an early age, giving them a head start.”

The scheme involves 12 secondary school students attending a workshop at the Kings Norton firm for half a day each week, learning skills like welding, basic wiring, health and safety, and reading technical drawings. Lusty added: “We believe our pre-apprenticeship scheme will create a comprehensive model which other schools and employers will be able to replicate.” The scheme is run with North Bromsgrove High School, with links through the Business in the Community ‘Business Class’ programme.

PROFILE University of Birmingham

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Spaces that create sustainable entrepreneurs Entrepreneurship is increasingly being emphasised as an important means for bringing about a major change in the way natural resources are consumed and society is preserved on a global scale Sustainable entrepreneurship has recently emerged as a sub field of the research and practice of entrepreneurship. This puts entrepreneurial contributions to the improvement of environmental and social wellbeing in front of a focus on income generation, and views marketbased income only as a conduit to realise these ends.

Professor Kiran Trehan, Professor of Leadership and Enterprise Development, and Dr Vivek

“This project is important in the ongoing development of not only the Birmingham Impact Hub, but Impact Hubs worldwide” Soundararajan, Research Fellow in Management, both at the University of Birmingham Business School, are leading a project with the Impact Hub Birmingham looking at what kind of spaces are needed for creating sustainable entrepreneurs.

To facilitate the discovery and development of opportunities for sustainable entrepreneurs, impactoriented knowledge hubs have recently emerged in major cities worldwide. These hubs are nurturing spaces for sustainable entrepreneurs with high internal and external networking and knowledge sharing capabilities. The hubs act as innovation labs, business incubators and community centres, and offer a unique ecosystem of resources, inspiration and collaboration opportunities. However, there has been very little academic research into their contribution to sustainable entrepreneurship. The University of Birmingham project is pioneering a better understanding of how important impact hubs are to the communities, individuals and partners they work with.

Daniel Zastawny, Co-Founder and Director of Entrepreneurship at the Impact Hub Birmingham

says “This project is important in the ongoing development of not only the Birmingham Impact Hub, but impact hubs worldwide. Through our global network, this project will have a definite influence on practice and policy in many more places than just Birmingham”.

The University of Birmingham project has been funded by a grant obtained from the Institute for Small Business and Entrepreneurship and supported by the leadership team at the Impact Hub in Birmingham. The project will explore the case of the Birmingham hub to understand how impact hubs create opportunities for sustainable entrepreneurship and how entrepreneurs make use of such opportunities. This knowledge will be actionable as well as academically rigorous and will offer evidence-based guidelines for better design and effective implementation of impact-oriented knowledge hubs. The evidence and conclusions gathered through the research will give businesses, policy-makers and academia a clearer picture of how impact hubs can have a positive and sustainable influence.

ABOUT THE RESEARCH TEAM Professor Kiran Trehan is a leading expert on enterprise and diversity in ethnic minority entrepreneurship, shaping policy on supply chain relationships, access to finance and access to markets in ethnic minority businesses. Through a series of projects, her research has led to high-quality outputs casting new light on academic debates on diversity and entrepreneurship amongst disadvantaged groups and is impacting on business

If you are interested in finding out more about social

policy and knowledge transfer. Dr Vivek Soundararajan’s core research interest is understanding the ways in

sciences research or if your business is looking to

which businesses can contribute to social, environmental and economic sustainability, and create value for

partner with a University to explore opportunities

stakeholders. Under this broad theme, he conducts research on corporate responsibility, the political role of

for collaboration and growth, please contact: Andy

business, multi-stakeholder initiatives, sustainable entrepreneurship and stakeholder value creation.

Newnham, Business Engagement Partner, University of Birmingham, 07964 911 458, a.newnham@bham.ac.uk

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BUSINESS UPDATE www.bqlive.co.uk/bq-breakfast

£3m ideas factory The £3.2m Innovation Engine project – partfunded by the European Regional Development Fund – has been given the go-ahead.

The initiative will identify the health, sustainability and transport challenges of larger organisations and then build partnerships between specialist local companies and universities to deliver solutions.

The three-year project will be led by Innovation Birmingham in partnership with Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust, University Hospitals Foundation Trust, Birmingham City University; University of Birmingham; Amey and the new West Midlands Combined Authority.

Out to Africa A West Midlands firm plans to take on ten new staff after winning its first order to supply water treatment plants in Nigeria.

Strut Direct, which specialises in designing and manufacturing flat roof support systems, is also set to double its French sales to £650,000, while in Germany it has eight new projects which could be worth as much as £250,000.

If the sales go as the company expects, it could achieve more than £1m of growth by the end of 2017.

Steve Richards, managing director and founder of the family-run business, said that he now plans to add 10 new staff to his workforce of 25 in Alma Street, Wednesbury.

FACT OF THE QUARTER Birmingham Airport saw 1,074,242 passengers pass through its terminal in October, 16.7% up on the same month last year, and its 20th consecutive month of record-breaking growth.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS Russell Jeans has been appointed chief operating officer of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce. His brief will include the Chambers’ new International Hub, launched to bring together all global operations. Chief executive Paul Faulkner said: “Russell’s wide experience and expertise will now be extended to take in international operations at this important time for global trade as we approach Brexit.”

Terry Michael has been poached to become an investment director at the Birmingham office of Investec Wealth & Investment. Michael, previously at Quilter Cheviot, will join a seven-strong team and report to Gary Callow, senior investment director.

Victoria Tester, the HR director at Birmingham law firm Shakespeare Martineau, has been named ‘Business Services Leader of the Year’ at The Lawyer’s Business Leadership Awards.

The award follows the important role she played during the firm’s recent merger.

Alex Stephenson has succeeded Sir Terry Morgan as chairman of the Manufacturing Technology Centre in Coventry. Former Amey boss Mel Ewell has also joined the board.

BHSF, the Birmingham-based health insurance group, is searching for a new chief executive after announcing the retirement of Peter Maskell. Maskell leaves at the end of August 2017 after 17 years with BHSF, a period which has seen the group grow its turnover to over £43m.

Alejandro Moreno has been appointed as director of the Midland Metro Alliance, the body overseeing the expansion of the Midland Metro tram network. Moreno is currently managing director for Scandinavia for Colas Rail, one of the partners of the alliance, and was previously managing director for central Europe for Colas Rail.

Two new professors have been announced at Warwick University’s WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group). Professor Dr Ralf Speth, boss of Jaguar Land Rover, has been appointed as an Honorary Professor, and Dr Gero Kempf, a chief engineer at JLR, has been appointed as an Industrial Professor.

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BUSINESS UPDATE

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The risks of reliance

BBC switches on talent A group of young people have started a new BBC apprenticeship preparing them for a career in TV and radio engineering.

The youngsters are starting their studies on the BEng (Hons) Broadcast and Communications Engineering course funded by the BBC and run by Birmingham City University.

Students will be sponsored for their studies by the BBC and will also benefit from gaining industry placements with other companies in the sector.

Simon Handley, associate dean at Birmingham City University, said: “Giving young people the education and training they need for a career is one of the most important roles a university serves, and these kind of higher level apprenticeships are a really important way for us to do that.”

Based in Birmingham’s Millennium Point, the course will be delivered by academics in the university’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment.

Huw Davies of the BBC Academy added: “Technology is evolving the digital landscape and the BBC need to be an ‘internet fit’ organisation for our global audiences. Apprenticeships like this will drive the future of technology across the UK creative media industry.”

West Midlands companies are too dependent on single suppliers and customers. The Haines Watts Wealth Survey revealed that 49% of company owners in the region say they have a main supplier that they could not survive without, while 39% have a major customer that they rely on, and 85% say their main customer contributes nearly a third of their revenue. Darren Holdway, managing partner at the Birmingham office of Haines Watts, said: “Business owners are working hard to grow their companies but many face significant risks with suppliers and customers on which they are totally dependent.

“In consequence, the risks they face are significant if they do not have the right contingency plans in place to deal with either the failure of a supplier – or a significant customer.”

Barclays’ animal magic A growing West Midlands vet group has secured more funding from Barclays to support its latest purchase.

Linnaeus Group of Solihull has acquired Cherrydown Vets, a small animal practice based in Essex, which is the fifth transaction that Barclays has assisted.

Linnaeus owns and operates Willows, a leading specialist referral centre for animals, offering orthopaedic surgery, ophthalmology, neurology, internal medicine, soft tissue, oncology and cardiology treatments.

Matthew Porter, relationship director at Barclays said: “We are delighted to assist the Linnaeus Group management team with their latest acquisition, which broadens their geographic reach, adding to their existing first opinion practice network.”

QUOTE OF THE QUARTER “We decided to get every make of bra in a large size we could find and put them under one roof, so that people could see what they liked best.”

Sarah Tremellen, founder of Bravissimo, the large bra company.

See full feature starting on page 28

TOP TWEETS Government hails Heathrow runway decision as “truly momentous.” No mention of @bhx_official. City will not feature in 6 new domestic routes.

– @ChamberlainFile The GBCC’s next annual dinner & awards will take place on 30 March 2017 @ICC_ Birmingham - make sure it’s the first date in your 2017 diary! – @GrBhamChambers #Birmingham has been engaged with China for over 30 years inc Nanjing, Guangzhou, Changchun #MidlandsEngine #MEChina today #ExportingisGREAT ‫‏‬ – @GCSMidlands Business leaders call for ‘period of stability’ after Trump victory www.greaterbirminghamchambers.com latest-news ‫@ –‏‬BABCMidlands Oct saw Birmingham Airport serve over 1m passengers giving +16.7% year-onyear growth & our 20th consecutive record breaking month! ‫@ –‏‏‬bhx_official Fantastic evening celebrating Newly Qualified this year @BPPBirmingham The future is bright! ‫@ –‏‬BhamLawSociety We are very excited to be able to give you an update on our multi-million pound refurb programme! www.bit.ly/2g0KOmC #eventprofs ‫@ –‏‬ICC_Birmingham We’d strongly advise you to follow @Dine_ Birmingham for a fantastic @staying_cool related ‘thing’ coming up soon ;-) #Birmingham #topsecret ‫@ –‏‬staying_cool Congratulations to our Board member David Hardman CEO @ innobham on being listed as #WestMidlands Inspiring Leader ‫@ –‏‏‬ART_BizLoans

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Crochet goes global

GIVING SOMETHING BACK Midlands based marketing agency Gough Bailey Wright has raised over £100 for the Birmingham Children’s Hospital with its annual bake-off. Ten colleagues entered their bakes, which all had to incorporate the theme of Gough Bailey Wright’s 80th anniversary. Scott Jinks was the overall winner.

A West Midlands knitwear and wool company has experienced 500% growth this year – helped by a huge increase in export sales of its DIY crochet kits.

TOFT, which designs and manufactures alpaca, wool yarn and knitwear at its studio in Rugby, has seen overseas sales soar after it began working with an international trade adviser from the Department for International Trade (DIT) in Coventry.

As well as export masterclasses, the company received DIT funding from the DIT to attend an international craft show in Cologne, Germany, which opened up the European market and boosted its exports by about £20,000.

It was also funded to take part in The National NeedleArts Association Trade Show in Washington DC, USA, where it won another £20,000 worth of business.

Kerry Lord, who launched the company in 2006, said: “A lot of our new stockists and customers have come through the shows, which is great, and that’s down to the help our trade adviser gave us.”

TOFT now has about 100 stockists across the continent – many of which are in Germany and the Netherlands – and has the instructions on its crochet kits translated into 12 languages. Even the instructions on the packaging for the USA market, where it has 30 stockists, had to be tweaked for American-English readers.

Birmingham Airport has raised £12,000 for its charity partner, Acorns Children’s Hospice, after its adventurous employees took part in a sponsored abseil. More than 50 employees took the plunge down the 32m Diamond House building, the airport headquarters.

Bosses from Birmingham based Black and White Hospitality, the brand behind the Marco Pierre White restaurant franchise, swapped the office for the saddle last month, as they cycled from London to Paris to raise £20,000 for Cure Leukaemia.

The Higgs & Sons Charity Quiz raised £5,433 for the Stroke Association, the law firm’s charity of the year, with 60 teams from across the West Midlands taking part. The year’s record-breaking running total for the charity has now reached £17,000, with some events still to take place.

A major refurbishment of a West Midland charity’s café has been given a boost thanks to a £1,260 donation from mfg Solicitors. The Onside charity, in Worcester, works with adults who are vulnerable, disadvantaged or at risk of being discriminated against.

A team of 28 property experts at Pennycuick Collins raised £2,500 for Sense by abseiling down the side of their 16-storey Birmingham office block supported by just a rope some 200ft in the air.

Cannock-based air conditioning installation specialist Coolair Equipment Ltd has won a national charity award after raising £90,000 for Challenge Cancer UK. Events included a 300-mile cycle ride through South East Asia.

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PROFILE ART Business Loans

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Who wants to invest in their own back yard?

In the mid 1990s Sir Adrian Cadbury led the development of a pioneering community finance initiative, which resulted in the establishment of Aston Reinvestment Trust (ART) As a mutual society, ART raised money from local individuals and companies to lend to local businesses unable to meet their requirements from the banks. ART’s remit was, in Sir Adrian’s words, “to create local jobs for local people”.

For its investors this was a true ‘social investment’ with no thought of a financial return. It was taken up by companies such as Wesleyan, IMI, Severn Trent and Jaguar in addition to all the major banks and individuals such as Cadbury family members, Lord Digby Jones and many others. The social returns were provided by ART delivering on its mission to ensure viable businesses could access the finance they needed, boost the local economy and help to ‘alleviate poverty through enterprise’.

INVESTMENTS IN ART BUSINESS LOANS QUALIFY FOR CITR Nearly 20 years on and the rebranded ART Business Loans are still going strong, finding that they are needed as much in the post credit crunch landscape as ther ever were. As a Community Development Finance Institution, ART is able to offer Community Investment Tax Relief (CITR) to its investors in addition to a social return.

CITR offers 5% per annum of the amount invested off personal or corporate tax liabilities for five years.

Full CITR offers a return of 6.3% to a standard rate tax payer, more for a higher rate tax payer.

Over the years, ART has retained the value of its social investors’ funds and used them to leverage further private sector, as well as public sector, funding from national and local sources.

DELIVERING SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC VALUE Initially ART’s lending was targeted in Inner City Birmingham, but over time its remit has expanded and it now lends to business across the West Midlands. Since the credit crunch the size of the businesses ART supports has increased, but its average loan size is around £35,000. “This is the size of loan which means so much to small and medium sized enterprises, but which is the hardest to get from many other funders,” says Steve Walker, Chief

Bibsy Bananas

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Executive of ART Business Loans. He sees ART’s role as helping things to happen which otherwise wouldn’t. “Since we started in 1997,” he says, “we have put over £20m into the local economy and enabled around 900 businesses in the West Midlands to create or protect almost 7,000 jobs. They have been able to start up, survive, grow, diversify and meet their objectives, but it’s not just the businesses that have benefited – it’s also employees, who have been able to keep or get a job, and their families, as well as the public sector, which has been able to save money in benefits that might otherwise have been required.”

Borrowers have included businesses in almost every market sector, including: training and business support; design and manufacturing; food and catering; health and wellbeing; IT, digital and media; leisure and entertainment; retail and social enterprise.

LOCALISM IS HIGH ON THE AGENDA “Things have come full circle recently,” says Steve.

“With the end of the Regional Growth Fund, which we have had since 2012, the Government is pushing a devolution agenda and encouraging us to seek primarily local support. We are exploring a number of options, including some that will show our pioneering spirit is still there!”

For more information about investing in, or borrowing from, ART Business Loans see www.artbusinessloans.co.uk or call 0121 359 2444.

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Let’s be proud of the B-word Birmingham Airport chief Paul Kehoe is the new president of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce. Here he shares some of his aspirations for his two-year term – and says it’s time to shout out the B-word My theme as president is going to be geography, scale and our place in the world. I took that decision when I was interviewed for the position three years ago and it seems to have been quite prophetic given what’s happened with Brexit, the Combined Authority and Midlands Engine.

We now have a very different role in the world outside Europe. If you look on a world map you may get four UK cities – London, Edinburgh and Belfast, and possibly that other B-word, Birmingham. So we have to look at the best asset the Midlands has to sell to the world.

Fortunately, whether you like it or not, it’s the ‘Birmingham’ word itself.

That does not mean that Coventry, Wolverhampton or Dudley, or wherever, are less

important than Birmingham, but we need to understand that what people buy on a world stage is a place.

What would be really good would be to get people from around the world saying how good we are and stating the Birmingham city region is the place to do business. And getting the city’s name out there is even more important post-Brexit.

It’s increasingly important connecting ourselves to the world. It’s not just about the airport, it’s about connectivity and promoting Birmingham as the great place to do business.

The bigger the conglomeration the greater the success is likely to be. There will be people whose feathers will get ruffled about the

B-word. But there is now a great opportunity for Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country Chambers to work together.

The West Midlands Combined Authority will bring all of this together. Some people may argue that there’s no accountability in this new authority. However, while business pays an enormous amount of tax it doesn’t get one vote. Rate payers do, so representation and taxation tax should go together and business should work with the authority to make sure its voice is heard and understood.

Government-supported infrastructure projects unlock billions of pounds from the private sector. Great schools and the hospitals come out of the economy.

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Part of this is getting the councillors and an elected mayor to recognise the importance of our place. I’ve got two years to make sure we work in harmony with Coventry, the Black Country and the West Midlands Combined Authority to get things really going and ensure we leave our successors a great legacy.

We have got to get the message clear so that politicians in London take us seriously.

Marketing Birmingham focuses on helping more foreign investment, so that’s going to leave space for the Chambers to come in with business support and massive lobbying.

Marketing Birmingham and the Chambers can work together for the region.

If we believe we are a world-class city region we need world-class infrastructure, world-class education, world-class skills. But we will have a productivity gap of £80bn by 2030 and we should not be accepting that as the norm.

We are only going to improve that by getting companies and industry and business generally to reduce that gap.

During my term of office, HS2 should be underway and we need to make sure that the connections are absolutely first class and make our two new stations – Curzon Street and the Interchange as they are currently called – work.

We can’t afford to cut corners. For instance, if we don’t invest in the airport and build on global connectivity, Manchester and London will grab it.

The Chamber’s role in all of this is key to success because no-one else is going to lobby as powerfully on behalf of business. The Chamber has many members with very different needs and wants.

But the one thing that binds them together is economic success, and the Chamber can articulate that. We need to say: “We are your voice and we are going to speak out loud until you tell us to shut up.” That voice needs to be region-wide.

We all need to get on board with Sir John Peace, chair of the Midlands Engine. And we need to push ourselves to get involved – not wait to be approached.

It is also vital that we get the right person as elected mayor. And, importantly, an elected mayor will be able to say that he or she has the mandate from the whole of the West Midlands – not just Solihull or Burton. We need someone who is charismatic and driven. n

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Birmingham’s focus of future of the UK’s aviation Business leaders in the West Midlands used the government’s Heathrow announcement as an excuse to renew calls for expansion at Birmingham Airport.

When transport secretary Chris Grayling gave the go-ahead for a runway at Heathrow, he made no reference to Birmingham in his statement.

But according to Paul Faulkner, chief executive of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, Birmingham should also be the focus of the future of the UK’s aviation strategy.

Faulkner said: “Greater connectivity for the regions remains a vital priority. National air passenger numbers have already surpassed predictions made by the Davies Commission and it won’t be long before further airport expansion is needed.

“We believe that Birmingham Airport remains ideally placed to service this growing demand.

Once HS2 is complete, Birmingham will sit at the heart of a world-class transport network connecting eight of 10 of Britain’s largest cities.

“Expansion at Birmingham Airport could benefit the nation as well as pushing the accelerator on the growth of the Midlands Engine.”

Steve Hollis, chair of the Greater Birmingham and Solihull LEP, agreed: “With the additional runway not operational until 2025 at the very earliest, it is clear that we now need a strategy to grow major regional airports to the benefit of UK plc.

“The Secretary of State confirmed that regional airports have a vital role to play and Birmingham Airport has already shown significant growth over the past few years, with the potential to further increase passenger numbers.

“Combined with the arrival of HS2 in 2026, the airport is key to the national aviation strategy and crucial to propelling the Midlands Engine. We look forward to working with the Government to explore these opportunities.”

20 months of growth Birmingham Airport saw over a million passengers pass through its terminal in October, its 20th consecutive month of record-breaking growth. A total of 1,074,242 passengers were recorded travelling through the airport, up 16.7% on the same month last year – equivalent to over 154,000 more passengers. Short haul saw the most significant passenger growth rates for the month up by 16.8% year-on-year, with long haul up 14.4%. Paul Kehoe, chief executive at Birmingham Airport, said: “It’s great to see that we are entering the busy winter season still delivering month-on-month passenger records.

“October was our sixth consecutive month in which we have served over a million passengers in a single month. We expect this positive trend to continue as we enter the Christmas holiday period.”

The Caribbean, European and Middle Eastern destinations saw the greatest increase in passengers compared to the same month last year.

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Brexit: the cars dilemma Professor David Bailey considers what ‘Brexit’ means for the UK’s car industry “Death by a thousand cuts” is the risk faced by the UK automotive industry after the Brexit vote, if car firms start investing in other countries rather than the UK. That’s what Mike Hawes, chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, said in recent evidence to a Lords’ Committee.

It’s a view I share – if the UK doesn’t get things ‘right’ when it leaves the EU. Nissan’s decision to invest in building the next generation Qashqai model at Sunderland was, of course, great news and reflects the underlying competitiveness of the UK car industry.

The Qashqai is the UK’s most-produced model, and it’s that success that the UK needs to build on.

But bigger battles in securing investment lie ahead – at Honda, Toyota and Vauxhall, all more at risk of switching production to Europe if uncertainties over trading relationships aren’t clarified sooner rather than later.

There’s particular concern over the possible effects of tariff barriers. With thin margins in the mass volume sector, a ‘hard Brexit’ that falls back on World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules could see tariffs as high as 10% for cars and 4% for components, which would be hugely damaging.

But car-makers and component suppliers also fear non-tariff barriers (things like regulatory differences) as components can cross European borders several times before going into modules like drivelines for final car assembly.

As Hawes noted: “Non-tariff barriers could be as punitive in cost as the tariff barriers. Anything that creates delay creates cost.”

All of which brings us back to Nissan and the Qashqai ‘assurances’ it received. Nissan was going to make its decision in early 2017, but appeared to have pulled this forward to

maximise leverage on the government after the Brexit vote and uncertainty over future EU trading relationships.

The government knew it couldn’t afford to lose the investment and Nissan effectively held a big gun to its head. So what exactly was offered to Nissan, and what does it tell us about the government’s new industrial strategy and, more broadly, its Brexit negotiating stance?

On this we’ve learned a little from the business secretary Greg Clark. Speaking to Andrew Marr’s TV show recently, Clark made it clear that a key UK objective will be avoiding EU tariff barriers.

Clark also made repeated references to industry sectors and their different needs, implying that the UK would seek to negotiate sector-by-

sector deals. That could see the UK trying to avoid non-tariff barriers in certain sectors like automotive, effectively giving those sectors something like access to the Single Market.

All of which suggests the government at least sees access to the EU’s Single Market as a key negotiating objective. Quite whether Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, agrees with

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“The government knew it couldn’t afford to lose the investment and Nissan effectively held a big gun to its head. So what exactly was offered to Nissan, and what does it tell us about the government’s new industrial strategy” that is another matter, of course.

Clark’s revealing interview raised a number of points which the government had previously been pretty vague about. First, Clark seems to be implying that – as a minimum – the UK could remain in a ‘customs union’ with the EU, which goes a long way to reassuring the automotive industry on tariffs.

Second, if the UK really does want to trade

without tariffs and non-tariff barriers, then the EU may well extract a ‘price’ via a contribution to the EU budget, as made by Norway and Switzerland.

Third, some form of ‘referee’ may be needed to determine whether the UK’s playing by the rules of whatever trade deal is agreed – possibly the WTO or an EU-linked body.

Fourth, despite Nissan wanting ‘compensation’ if tariffs are imposed, Clark suggested that may not be possible under WTO rules.

Finally, the government appears to have reiterated its support of the car industry through the industrial strategy it’s now developing, on issues like skills, innovation and reshoring the supply chain.

The latter is welcome, and something of a major U-turn compared with the reign of previous business secretary Sajid Javid, who saw a range of key policy interventions like the Manufacturing Advisory Service axed.

These need to be put back in place – maybe in

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a more ‘place-based’ regional approach – if the government’s serious about rebuilding fractured supply chains.

But let’s be clear that staying in the Single Market is still seen as key by many in the automotive industry if the UK’s to secure future investment.

That means the Brexit vote still leaves considerable uncertainty over the UK’s EU trading relationship, which has the potential to impact on foreign investment in the UK, especially when car firms are replacing models.

Plants and jobs could be at risk if that uncertainty isn’t quickly ‘nailed down’ by clear parameters for a trade deal – preferably one that’s as close as possible to existing Single Market arrangements. n Prof David Bailey is Professor of Industrial Strategy at Aston Business School.

Email d.bailey@aston.ac.uk or visit www.aston.ac.uk/aston-business-school/

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Mike Dalton pulls no punches over his current state of mind: “I am in a better place and happier now than I was 10 years ago. I had a mid-life crisis over my career.

But I can’t imagine not doing this, I can’t imagine ever going back to corporate life.”

‘This’ is Dalton’s Shrewsbury-based mini coffee empire, called stop. coffee Ltd, which has grown in just four years into a three-outlet operation pulling in revenues of up to £400,000, and employing 25 full and part-time staff in the picturesque Shropshire town.

But coffee was one of the last things on Dalton’s mind back in his days as a £60,000-a-year head of regional public relations at the Royal Mail. That was where he spent 14 years at the corporate coalface as a polished PR practitioner, regularly called on by the suits to defend the indefensible, as he now freely admits.

The life and times of this straight-talking Salopian make for cautionary reading for PR types of all shapes and sizes in a world where spin doctors routinely attempt to annex the news agenda for their own political ends across an ever-shifting media landscape, populated by fewer hard-nosed journalists with an unerring eye for the real story.

But Dalton’s story is not simply one of a PR man turned enterprising Shropshire café owner. It’s also a classic example of a career corporate who in his mid-40s ditched the suit to take a gamble and set up on his own, tired of defending other people’s decisions in the public eye and forever dancing to the PR tune.

Today Dalton, now aged 50, is working seven-days-aweek to help meet a wage-bill of more than £2,500 a week and a similar sum on rents for his three outlets in

Shrewsbury – and that’s before all the other overheads of running the business are taken into account.

“Our outgoings are constant,” gasps Dalton. “If you look at my quarterly VAT bill, I could wake up in a cold sweat. You are never off duty, I am never more than 12 hours from a till opening. In the early days, you sat there worrying if you hadn’t seen a customer for an hour or so. I still have doubts, it’s like a treadmill and you have good days and bad days, it feels as if I am in a constant battle.

“But I have developed as a person doing this. Every day, you learn something. As a PR man, I was often defending other people’s decisions, and sometimes you were defending decisions that you knew were wrong.

Now, the decisions are mine to take.”

And that is quite possibly the key lesson of Dalton’s journey from 20-odd years in PR to going it alone. He is now the master of his own fate, a far cry from his days in the eye of the storm at companies like the old Railtrack and then Royal Mail. Back then, he often found himself going head to head with consumer journalists like Ed Doolan on BBC WM radio, publicly fighting the rail and then the postal group’s corner as complaints from a demanding public came thick and fast.

Dalton overcame initial nerves to enjoy his appearances on the regional airwaves – and puts his aptitude for the public arena down to his father, stand-up comedian of 40 years’ standing, Danny Dalton, ‘the cheeky comic’.

Mr Dalton senior, now 78, trod the boards with the likes of Les Dawson and Bernard Manning. “He was not terribly PC,” says Dalton junior. “He was from the working men’s club culture. But he was a personality,

b a y r k i s e t e a h c The

k of the corporate PR world, spinning lines to help save c i h t e h t n i was once n o t l a D Mike

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faces at

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Royal Ma s il. Today h report n i f f e’s cheerfully r i r G unning his own growing chain of cafés. Jon

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a lot of it was based on humour. It made me a show-off – I was the cl lose family and c a m o r f ass clown “I come . he could work a room and maybe some of that rubbed off.

“I come from a close family and a lot of it was based on humour. It made me a show-off – I was the class clown. Making people laugh was ever-present in the house and I found that it gets you friends.”

But a 20-year stint in PR is not necessarily a guaranteed recipe for laughter, and at no stage in his career was Dalton tested more keenly than in dealing with the aftermath of the suicide of black Birmingham postal worker Jermaine Lee in 1999, amid allegations of bullying and racism from fellow Royal Mail workers.

Careers were ruined among senior management staff in Birmingham as the inevitable investigation into the tragedy left no stone unturned.

“The Jermaine Lee incident was horrendous,” remembers Dalton with a frown. “It was a tragedy for the family and awful for everybody involved. I had worked with a lot of the people who were subsequently investigated and penalised.

“It was horrible, there was an investigation and a centre-led line on everything. I think that Royal Mail genuinely learnt a lot from it, to treat people better, to listen to people. I learnt to be

cynical – I was interviewed as part of the inquiry.

“You kept going back to the fact that somebody had died. I had dealt with fatalities in my time at Railtrack but this was a completely different complexion, and there was a lot of fallout from it.”

If the Jermaine Lee suicide was Dalton’s most challenging time in the PR world, there were plenty of other memories from his early days at Inter City trains, then Railtrack. He says: “Management were always at loggerheads with unions and I lost count of the number of times I locked horns with Ed Doolan.” He also had a spell at Stafford Borough Council: “I quickly realized I had made a mistake – they were incredibly conservative with a small c.”

Joining the Royal Mail in 1997 after a short stint in agency PR in Birmingham – “I missed the cut and thrust and the real stuff” – Dalton is candid about the problems he encountered and the difficulties still facing the postal group today in an era of privatisation.

“It was a really difficult management and union relationship on both sides. There were a lot of disputes and the wrong people were in the wrong position on both sides. There was no political will to allow the changes that needed to be made. You didn’t need two deliveries a

day, and there was a massive amount of money being spent on the second delivery, which was such a tiny part of the operation.

“There was no real investment and what there was too little, too late. It was a Rolls Royce service funded on a shoestring.”

After 14 years with the Royal Mail and with the battleground of privatisation looming, Dalton decided to take voluntary redundancy in 2011.

Two fleeting PR appointments at the Consumer Council for Water and train operators London Midland followed. But he says: “It was a climb down from what I was used to, I had no team to manage.”

That was when Dalton hit upon an intriguing route out of his self-confessed mid-life crisis, which began with a marital split and then grew into a desire for a wider change. “Maybe it was the age factor,” he says. “I was in my mid-40s, and was asking: ‘Is this what I want to do for the rest of my career?’”

An impromptu coffee with his new partner Nicola – they’d first met at school as teenagers – at a Shrewsbury hotel proved the catalyst for Dalton’s dramatic career change. “We stopped for a coffee at the hotel and both the service and the product were awful.

“We got thinking: ‘How can it be difficult

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Making pe ople laugh w as ever-present to produce something like a good cup of coffee?’ We felt there were gaps in the market, there were not many good coffee shops in Shrewsbury.“ The Daltons – for the new couple soon married – were pretty busy at their Shrewsbury home too, with five children from previous marriages between them, although they’re all now young adults. But despite these domestic changes, they still poured time into researching the coffee world extensively, with guidance from West Midland entrepreneurial expert Simon Jenner proving invaluable.

“We spoke to a lot of people and Simon was very helpful. He gave us some really good advice about purchasing and equipment – he said: ‘Be careful of short cuts, they can be expensive.’ We maxed out on 0% credit cards, taking £5,000 across a number of them. And we have invested our life savings of £20,000.

“The banks were no help whatsoever. We went to an asset finance company and borrowed another £5,000. Their rates were 4%, with the banks offering 11% for a business loan.”

Dalton estimates expenditure of around £30,000

25

nds.” in the house and I found that it gets you frie on the first stop. coffee outlet (it’s branded with lower case ‘s’ and ‘c’), with rental of a ‘shell’, plumbing, electrics and counter construction all part of the outlay.

He remembers: “We had income from Nicola’s teaching job but the business was slow to build, especially in the depths of winter, when you might only see a handful of customers.

After a year or so, Nicola joined me full-time.

We realised we had something, and we felt confident in what we were doing. If you feel things are going wrong, it drives you, there is nobody else to help you out.

“If you look across the three sites, we now have a workforce of 25 full and part-time. It is a hefty old wage bill, upwards of £2,500 a week, and rents are just under £2,500. We are not making a huge amount of money, but we have a reasonable lifestyle. It fluctuates with the seasons, the weather and the competition.

“But I am enjoying it and am proud of what we have achieved in a relatively short space of time.

The business is making a profit, we are paying off our debts, we are providing employment.”

Typically for an ex-PR man who spent 20 years

Dalton’s top tips DIY: do every role within your business yourself first to learn how it operates. Only then will you truly know how it ticks.

Credit: don’t always look to traditional funding sources, which can be expensive.

Friends, family, crowdfunding, 0% credit cards are all viable options, so be creative and save money on how you raise your start up finance.

Listen to staff: employ good, experienced people and be prepared to learn from them. A 25-year-old barista will be able to teach you things if you’ve never worked in hospitality before.

Listen to customers: yes, have a concept, but listen to what your customers say and be prepared to be flexible, adapting your offering depending on their demands.

Work at it: be prepared to give up lots of your time, as you’ll never stop thinking about your business. If 9-to-5 is your thing, then don’t do it.

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“But I am enjoying it and am proud of what we have achieved in a relatively short space of time.

The business is making a profit, we are paying off our debts, we are providing employment” ‘thinking on his feet’, Dalton foresees further expansion for his stop. coffee chain. “Stop. coffee shop number four is on the way. We’ve just signed an agreement to open it in the newly refurbished Aberystwyth Museum from next May. We want to come up with ideas and the management of things rather than just making coffee and washing up.”

Dalton admits to a frantic working lifestyle, working literally every day of the week and weekend: “It is one day a week in the shop and the rest of the time is spent on admin, paying bills, looking for new suppliers, all manner of things. But it has freed my mind, because you have to be completely open-minded about things.” n

PROFILE Investec Wealth & Investment

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Extraordinary talent Investec Wealth & Investment (IW&I) is delighted to continue its relationship with Performances Birmingham Ltd, which operates two of the country’s leading concert venues: Town Hall and Symphony Hall Over the past eight years IW&I has supported a range of classical concerts that promote extraordinary talent and are commited to being the best in their field, two of our core values.

This has included the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle, and the cutting edge Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in 2011 (a 3D music/ dance performance), as part of Symphony Hall’s 21st anniversary celebrations.

Town Hall and Symphony Hall (THSH) and IW&I have a long-standing and very close working relationship, supporting each other on various projects, including the recent book launch of The Crazy Adventure of the Silly Sixby, by local author and BQ journalist John Duckers. Proceeds from the sale of the book helps to support THSH’s charitable work. This entrepreneurial spark is one that we see in ourselves, as we work with our clients to offer tailored services that are as individual and extraordinary as they are.

Between them, THSH present an exciting and varied programme of around 780 concerts and events a year, connecting people of all ages and backgrounds to music, from jazz, folk, world, roots and classical, to rock and pop. Over 560,000 people visit the venues annually, and almost 15,000 young people and adults participate in the thriving education and community programme.

Widely considered one of the finest concert halls in the world, the Symphony Hall sits in the heart of Birmingham city centre and is home to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. The concert hall plays an important role in the life of the region attracting prestigious artists such as the Kraftwerk and Annoushka Shankar. The Town Hall, re-opened in October 2007 following a £35m renovation, has been a hub of civic and cultural life in Birminghamfor

more than 180 years. From classical to comedy, from rock to pop, it is now one of the city’s most versatile venues having featured artists such as David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, Toni Iommi, Caitlin Moran and many more. Famous classical premieres include Mendelssohn’s Elijah and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, The Apostles, The Kingdom and The Music Makers. Adrian Quin, executive director and head of investec’s Birmingham office, said: “Both venues are nationally and internationally acclaimed for their international programme and high quality acoustic. We are very pleased to be building on our relationship with THSH at a time when our UK-wide cultural sponsorship and engagement strategy is so important to us, particularly outside London”.

Nick Reed, chief executive of Performances Birmingham, added: “Sponsorship is an increasingly important factor in our business model and it’s vital that THSH sustains dynamic relationships with businesses such as IW&I, who have played a strong role in supporting classical music at THSH and the arts around the UK.” A key part of the THSH programme is Birmingham Classical, which offers a distinctive programme of internationally renowned orchestras, recitals and chamber concerts featuring some of the biggest classical music stars in the world today.

Symphony Hall is celebrating its 25th birthday this year – a significant landmark and achievement given the challenging public funding climate. As two of the finest concert halls in the world, THSH, in partnership with IW&I, wants to ensure the classical music ecology for Birmingham remains vibrant and relevant. In Birmingham, IW&I offers a service tailored to the individual needs of our clients. From family wealth planning to portfolio management for entrepreneurs, our specialists get to know your goals and work with you to help make them a reality.

Nick Reed (Chief Executive THSN) Svenja Keller and Adrian Quin from Investec Wealth & Investment and Anita Bhalla OBE (Chair of THSH Board)

“In Birmingham, IW&I offer a service tailored to the individual needs of our clients. From family wealth planning to portfolio management for entrepreneurs, our specialists get to know your goals and work with you to help make them a reality”

For further information please contact Adrian Quin, Head of the Birmingham office for Investec Wealth & Investment, The Colmore Building, Colmore Circus, Birmingham, B4 6AT. Tel: 0121 232 0700 Email: adrian.quin@investecwin.co.uk www.investecwin.co.uk

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

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From bust to boom Sarah Tremellen’s ‘big bra’ business idea came after her boobs ballooned during pregnancy. BQ’s Ros Dodd reports on the £50m business – and gets fitted for an E cup herself The last 21 years have been a “steep learning curve”, says Sarah Tremellen. Bearing in mind her line of business, the words ‘curvy’ or even ‘super curvy’ would be more apt. For Tremellen owns Bravissimo, the lingerie retailer for biggerbusted women. The company recently opened its first shop in Birmingham, selling bras in D to L cup sizes, as well as swimwear, nightwear and strappy tops. But it’s been based in the West Midlands since 2001.

Bravissimo – the name is the superlative of ‘bravo’ in Italian – is an uplifting (sorry about that!) success story. It has grown from a tiny mail order company that Tremellen started in her living room into a company with a £50m turnover, 26 shops, 750 employees and customers across the world. And it’s all been achieved without the help of venture capitalists or shareholders: Bravissimo has grown steadily but organically and remains wholly owned by Tremellen and her husband, Mike.

In the meantime, the couple have also raised three children, now aged between nine and 21, juggling the baby duties and school runs between them.

In fact, it was while she was pregnant with their first child that Tremellen came up with the idea

for Bravissimo. Almost overnight, she recalls, her boobs went up from a C to a DD cup – but she couldn’t find a pretty, fashionable bra to fit her.

After her son, Will, was born, they blossomed again, to a G cup.

Back then, in 1995, well-endowed girls weren’t well catered for in the bra department. An E cup was considered huge, and most manufacturers didn’t make bras bigger than a D cup. Those that did gave scant attention to how they looked. Functional, yes; sexy, most definitely not.

So Tremellen, an Oxford-born Cambridge graduate who was working as a BBC researcher and living in Twickenham, sat down with a friend, Hannah Griffiths, who was also struggling to find the right bra for her curvier figure, and decided to do something about it.

“Back then, in 1995, wellendowed girls weren’t well catered for in the bra department. An E cup was considered huge, and most manufacturers didn’t make bras bigger than a D cup”

They put themselves on an eight-week business course before making a successful pitch to a high street bank for a £10,000 loan. “We’d done some research, which included speaking to manufacturers, and we decided to get every make of bra in a large size we could find and put them under one roof, so that people could see what they liked best,” Tremellen recalls.

The two women designed a catalogue and set up a database, with most of the 75 names on it being friends and family. Yet it soon became clear that bra-makers had boobed (that’s the last pun, honest!) by failing to make lacy, feminine lingerie for the larger-chested lady. After a slow start, the friends managed to get an article in a national newspaper, and the phone started ringing off the hook.

“Over the next three days, we had about 1,300 phone calls from women who were desperate to buy our bras.”

Two years after Bravissimo started, Tremellen bought Griffiths out of the business.

Three years after that the company went online and opened its first store – in Ealing – and in 2000, husband Mike left his job at tea giant Tetley to become business operations director.

In 2001 the company moved its headquarters

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to Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, where it’s been ever since. From here, staff run a phone and online fitting service, allowing customers to buy direct from the website.

Although it hasn’t been all plain sailing, the company has weathered the storms of recession and grown steadily to become the household name it is today. “We have been quite fortunate that we’ve been able to grow the business by financing it ourselves,” says Tremellen. “Maybe we could have grown faster if we’d had more investment, but we were happy with the way we chose to do it, which was focusing on the long-term without the pressure to deliver shortterm profits.”

In the UK, there is now a clothing range in standard 8-18 sizes, but with different boob size options: ‘curvy’, ‘really curvy’ and ‘super curvy’. And Tremellen says there are plans to expand overseas. “We would really like to take it international. At the moment we sell in sterling, so although we can ship all over the world, customers have to buy from the UK website. What we want to do now is to have international websites.”

So what’s the secret of the company’s continued success, especially now there is stiffer competition out there?

“It’s partly the relationship we have with our customers,” says 50-year-old Tremellen. “We are absolutely customer-centred; it’s something I am passionate about. Right from the start we have asked our customers what they want – and we’ve listened to what they’ve said. So we can really say that we know what customers want.

“Also, we offer women a really good choice – we stock bras in about 90 different sizes.

Although there are other retailers that now offer big sizes, their range is limited.

“One of the things we’ve always tried to do is to ensure that customers leave our stores with a smile on their face and want to come back. That is much more of a focus for me than worrying about jumping through hoops to stay ahead of the competition.”

Another reason for Bravissimo’s success is that because it started out as a mail order company, it naturally morphed into an online operation that has remained an integral part of the business.

The Birmingham store, which has 18 fitting consultants, opened in Cannon Street in August, and there are other West Midlands shops in

“A lot of our customers have felt very isolated, although it’s not as bad as it used to be because having big boobs is really normal now” Leamington and Solihull. But why did it take so long to open an outlet in Britain’s second city?

“It’s really hard for us to find shops that are the right size and shape,” says Tremellen. “We need more fitting and stockroom space than shop floor – and in the right location. But we’re really pleased with the Birmingham store.”

On the walls of the shop – as in the other stores – there are printed messages from satisfied customers. One reads: “I found an oasis in a barren desert.” Outside the fitting rooms there’s a comfy waiting area with cushions and magazines. It’s these sorts of touches that make Bravissimo feel different – more like a private members’ club than a shop. One can imagine that women who hitherto have felt

uncomfortable about their bigger boobs feel not only accepted but very much at home.

“From the beginning, Bravissimo was all about celebrating its customers,” says Tremellen, who stresses the company is about big bra sizes, not plus-size clothes. “We wanted it to be a positive thing, and that’s why we called it Bravissimo.

A lot of our customers have felt very isolated, although it’s not as bad as it used to be because having big boobs is really normal now. But by coming into one of our shops or buying online they are part of a shared experience.

“Not everyone who comes to us feels positive about their figures – but that’s how we want them to feel when they leave. So while we are a retailer that sells bras, it’s a bit more than

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that – it’s about inspiring our customers to feel amazing and special. It’s a business, of course, but for me – and everyone who works here – it’s about being proud of the fact we are making a difference to people’s lives and the way they feel about themselves.”

Tremellen, who was awarded an MBE for her services to entrepreneurship and is an enterprise fellow for the Prince’s Trust, has as much drive and spirit now as she did 21 years ago – and that’s because she loves what she does.

“Growing up I was always a bit of a nonconformist; I didn’t know what I wanted to do as a career. After university I did two or three different jobs, including waitressing, but I felt frustrated – nothing I did felt right. It was only when I was sitting in my front room selling bras that I felt ‘this is me’. It was like suddenly being a round peg in a round hole.

“That said, it’s been a steep learning curve: I’ve had to learn as I’ve gone along, and there was a lot to learn. But I just grew in confidence. And of course my husband has helped a lot with certain aspects of the business. But I feel very lucky that I found something I am passionate about and that I really enjoy.

“At the beginning, I didn’t of course know the end of the story – and this isn’t the end now; we’re only halfway on the journey.” n

BQ’s uplifting experience I walked into Bravissimo’s plush fitting room a 36C – and emerged half an hour later a 34E, writes Ros Dodd. I can’t remember the last time I was measured or fitted for a bra, but I do know that over the years – particularly since becoming a mother – my bust shape has changed. So I’ve kind of guessed my size and bought bras accordingly. They’ve felt and looked okay and I’ve been content with that. Until now, that is.

When Bravissimo offered me a fitting, I was a tad reluctant: these days I don’t relish the thought of taking my top off so a stranger can run a tape measure up and over my boobs.

But here’s the thing – there was no tape measure in sight. Instead, fitter Emily simply cast her expert eye over me and was able to see straightaway that I was wearing an ill-fitting bra (as are up to 80% of women, Bravissimo estimates, with about 40% needing a D cup or above).

She sized up that the back of my bra wasn’t close-fitting enough, which meant my boobs weren’t being lifted and supported properly. It’s the back of the bra – not the straps – that should be doing this important job. If it’s too loose, the back will ride up and the front will sag.

There was also a tell-tale bulge out of the sides of my bra: well-fitting cups will fully encase your boobs. It was then that Emily declared me to be a 34-inch, maybe even a 32-inch, back.

As for my cup size, well, I could forget about being a C – I was an E or an F. Without more ado, Emily headed to the stockroom, returning a few minutes later with a few bras in several slightly different cups and sizes. As she explained, even when you know your size, every bra is different, and every make of bra – as with every make of other types of clothing – can be slightly different too.

I loved each of the bras I tried on – from an ivory satin number to a ‘wild blush’-coloured moulded bra with a leopard print. Crucially, I could now appreciate how much better they fitted than my own bra. Eventually, with advice from Emily, I plumped for the Curvy Kate moulded ‘Smoothie’ bra in 34E. As I stood in front of the mirror, even I liked what I saw! I’ll be upfront – it was a very pleasant experience.

PROFILE JLT Speciality

33

What is the cost if your internal supply chain breaks?

If one of your offices, warehouses or plants is rendered inoperative, what happens to the rest of your business? asks Sally Swann Head of Midlands UK Retail, JLT Specialty Supply chain risks have been a hot topic in recent years. But risks relating to corporate interdependencies – internal supply chains – are less often discussed, despite being on the rise.

With more companies taking areas of production back in-house, a failure to map out interdependencies could leave companies with unexpectedly severe business interruption and financial losses following disruption to one of their locations.

An incident at one of your offices, warehouses or plants could affect production at many seemingly unrelated locations.

As operations are brought back in-house they often go from being dual-sourced (sourced from two or more places) to single-sourced (produced in a single site), thereby increasing the concentration of risk, and often reducing risk mitigation.

All too often a company only realises its interdependencies when there’s an incident.

Suddenly damage at one seemingly stand-alone unit has a knock-on effect on the operational viability of other units and the business interruption cost could be huge.

Imagine a manufacturing company that has component parts made on one or many sites and assembled at another. Without the parts, the final product cannot be made, and without the assembly factory, nothing can be made to sell.

A company with two or more interdependent sites should have an interdependency clause in its insurance policy. More generally, companies should conduct a business interruption review

Ideally companies would map out and quantify all of their interdependencies working alongside their insurance adviser.

Companies should also establish disaster scenarios and develop associated business continuity plans, so that key staff know how to manage and respond in the event of knock-on business interruption in the fastest, most favourable manner.

At the least, a business needs to understand: • What interdependencies are critical?

• What quantities flow from one location/unit to another and at what frequency?

• What mitigations are in place if one of these interdependencies is interrupted?

A company is only as strong as its weakest part, so it is important to look more closely at just how interrelated different parts of your company really are.

Sally Swann

with their broker and insurer, to discuss how their insurance policies would deal with a loss involving interdependent locations.

When buying insurance for interdependent units or locations, companies need to consider: 1. How to set sums insured for individual entities within the group.

2. The end-to-end exposure in the event of a loss.

For more information on managing your risk and insurance programme

CRITICAL THINKING So what can companies do to better understand their exposures?

please email sally_swann@jltgroup.com Lloyd’s Broker. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. A member of the Jardine

“All too often a company only realises its interdependencies when there’s an incident”

Lloyd Thompson Group. Registered Office: The St Botolph Building, 138 Houndsditch, London EC3A 7AW. Registered in England No. 01536540.

VAT No. 244 2321 96.

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INSIGHT bqlive.co.uk

Super-car man As director of Special Vehicle Operations for Jaguar Land Rover, Mark Stanton is arguably the UK’s top petrol-head. He chats with Ian Halstead about baby-talk, computer code and the loves of his life

INSIGHT bqlive.co.uk

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Babies babble, burble, burp and coo, then syllables gradually start to form ... the moment of which every parent dreams.

However, when Mark Stanton’s mum was hovering patiently around his cot to hear her cherished toddler’s first utterances, she suddenly stood back in surprise.

“My mum swears my first word was ‘car’,” says Stanton, now aged 56, with a rueful look. “I don’t know if it’s true, of course, but it’s something she’s told us many times over the years.

“I was certainly always into mechanical things, taking them apart, messing about with them and loved drawing cars too. I was short and chubby, but then after a growth spurt in my teens, I really got into sport: squash, badminton and especially rugby.

“I drove before I was 17, as my sister had horses and there was lots of land around the stables. I

used to take my mum’s Mini up and down the farm tracks and occasionally across the fields.”

Stanton intended to study art and technical drawing, but teachers pointed him firmly toward more academic subjects and, given his love of cars, a degree in engineering beckoned.

“I told my careers teacher I wanted to be a nuclear physicist to stop being pestered, but Loughborough looked perfect. It offered engineering and was the place for sport.”

Indeed it was. Clive Woodward was then in Loughborough’s first XV, and Seb Coe was demonstrating what commitment to sporting success required, with punishing training sessions on the university’s running tracks.

Stanton’s dreams of combining his two favourite interests soon ebbed though, when he realised he hadn’t the strength or speed for top-flight rugby. However, he’d wisely chosen a course with industrial placements, and his

favourite tutor arranged two life-changing spells with Ford.

“Dr Lucas was fantastic as I’d left things until the last minute. He was doing work for Ford and got me in. I enjoyed it, they must have seen something they liked, and they sponsored me.

I then did two final-year projects, on hydrogen engines and four-wheel drive. This was back in the early 1980s, so both subjects were very advanced and I stayed on an extra year to gain a BTech and a BEng.” Boosting his engineering qualifications certainly enhanced Stanton’s career prospects, as did meeting Richard Parry-Jones, then rising swiftly within Ford’s sprawling empire and ultimately to climax 38 years of service as its vice-president, chief technical officer and head of global product development. If a new recruit wished to be taken under someone’s corporate wing, it was most assuredly his, especially if they shared

“I am a petrol-head and for me, the most important aspect to any car I drive is its performance�

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his passion for innovation and engineering.

“He guided me and helped me a lot – particularly in my early years,” says Stanton.

“We first crossed paths on one of my placements, and later I came to know him very well.”

The influence of Parry-Jones was most noted when Stanton became frustrated by his work and his sluggish career trajectory.

“Initially, I was in chassis research. It wasn’t at the forefront of Ford thinking, and I felt stuck away at the back of things. Work was going nowhere. I was going nowhere. Ford said I should be in a managerial role in five years, but I wasn’t. Eventually, I decided to resign.

“I’d always had an interest in writing code. I remember doing one of the very early computer languages, Fortran. You’d put hundreds of lines onto blue punch cards, put them in a shoe box and hand them to the computer team. A couple of days later, you’d get the program back.

“I’d been working with a company in Germany through Ford. They knew I was fed-up and offered me a job. I went in to tell Richard, and he was stunned. He said he’d been working on a new project for me, and asked me to wait a while. Two weeks later, he offered me a job in North America, and I accepted.”

This role was something very different; working on the group’s most advanced (fully-active) suspension systems, for Ford’s F1 team, Benetton, alongside the notable presence of triple world champion Jackie Stewart.

Stanton’s destination in 1987 was also Dearborn, still a town of fewer than 100,000 souls, but the historic home of Henry Ford and HQ of the Ford Motor Co empire.

“I was there almost three years, and really enjoyed myself. Their car had lots of problems, including the suspension, and regularly went off the track. The main challenge was to get the computer systems talking to the car and to the electronics.”

There were two notable newcomers to his life in Michigan: his first company car, and Angela, who later became his wife, and mother to their two beloved teenage daughters.

Stanton recalls: “Ford allowed me to choose any car from their leasing business, so I picked a GT Mustang which had a five-litre engine. I must admit, I am a petrol-head and for me, the

“Now I have a much broader role, including purchasing, finance and manufacturing, so there are nice new challenges and more autonomy”

most important aspect to any car I drive is its performance.”

With a whopping 225 horse-power under the bonnet, the Mustang engine was described back in 1987 as “a tower of power” by a besotted US reviewer – but now there’s a far more potent machine on the Stanton driveway, The Jaguar F-Type SVR extracts a remarkable 657 bhp from its supercharged V8, with four-wheel drive and an eight-speed automatic gearbox to help drivers tame this beast of the road.

“I am lucky to drive the SVR. It really is an everyday super-car,” says Stanton … and you sense he really wants to nip out and thrash the F-Type along the leafy lanes around his office in Gaydon, Warwickshire.

“I accept that we’ll gradually see systems which introduce elements of autonomous technology, but they’re not important to me. I still believe it’s all about the driving experience, not about the car driving itself.”

Stanton certainly has ample scope to enjoy his SVR, commuting between Essex and Warwickshire several times a week.

“When I moved here, ten years ago, I thought it would be like my projects at Ford, two or three years somewhere, then on to something different, so we decided to keep the family home where it was. Now I live up here in the week, go back on Friday, back up Monday morning, then probably back once in midweek.”

Stanton’s neighbours are equally aware of his demanding schedule, because there’s no hiding place when the SVR growls into action.

“I live in a five-house close, and the driveway has walls around it, but I still haven’t worked out which way to point the car to stop the noise echoing when I turn the ignition,” he admits.

Stanton’s time in Dearborn had been the start of a lengthy period of commuting on an international scale, as he was then appointed to different Ford Motor Co projects in Belgium,

then Kansas City, back to Detroit, then in the UK and another return to Motor City.

Finally though, the globe-trotting had to stop – as love for his growing family overtook Stanton’s love of cars.

“I met Angela in 1985,” he recalls. “She had not long since graduated as a physiotherapist and wanted to travel. She fancied Australia, but agreed to go to Detroit with me. Finally though, we’d been moving home for years, had two young daughters, and needed to settle down. I told Ford, and after a couple of months of discussions, they mentioned a potential job with Jaguar in the UK, as group chief engineer for vehicle engineering. At the time, Jaguar and Land Rover had huge ambitions, and some very talented people, but were being stifled by Ford and running up huge losses.”

The timing was just right, and once back in the UK, Stanton’s influence could soon be seen in the launch of the Jaguar XF in 2007, the mid-size luxury saloon which replaced its famed S-type, and took on the BMW 5 Series in the brutal race to capture executive hearts, minds and wallets. By then, Stanton had been given a ‘cradle to grave’ brief for Jaguar, and might have been there today had not the now fiercely ambitious – and well-funded – Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) launched its Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) division.

“There had always been a unit for special parts and accessories, in different names and guises, and I’d been closely associated with it at Jaguar,” he says. “The current SVO incarnation happened almost three years ago, and toward the end of 2015, I was offered the chance to become a director.

“I thought about the job carefully over that Christmas, discussed it with Angela and the girls, and decided to take it. In my old job, I had oversight of all JLR products, which was fantastic because I love engineering and development.

“However, although I had a wide remit, I didn’t have responsibility for every aspect of all products. Now I have a much broader role, including purchasing, finance and manufacturing, so there are nice new challenges and more autonomy.

“Essentially, SVO takes the core JLR cars and ‘dials them up’ in three areas: performance, luxury and capability. We’re definitely seeing

“We’re definitely seeing new customers attracted to our performance products.

The luxury ones are slightly different, in that they’re bought by rich people who want something personal which is unique to them”

new customers attracted to our performance products. The luxury ones are slightly different, in that they’re bought by rich people who want something personal which is unique to them.”

The fast-growing and brand-conscious middle strata of Chinese society is a core future target, but in the short-term, there’s a rather more pressing strategic challenge.

“We’re struggling to hire the right talent because we’ve grown so quickly,” admits Stanton. “There are plenty of new engineering graduates, but we need people with experience.

We have a massively diverse workforce here, but everyone is competing for the same pool.”

As he prepares to leave though, another thought is uppermost which brings together all his favourite things: family, technology and rugby.

“Our oldest daughter went to Edinburgh University this year, and sent a WhatsApp pic from Murrayfield,” he recalls, searching his phone for the treasured image. “Their women’s team beat St Andrew’s by 97-0.”

And then he’s off to the car-park, where the sun is glinting on his SVR’s mesmerising, ultra-blue paint job, the sky is a rich autumnal blue and it’s just too much for a devoted petrol-head to resist. n

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For someone who inhabits a seemingly glamorous world where high-end jewellery meets TV broadcasting, Debby Cavill is remarkably down to earth. Her offices occupy a part of Birmingham that would have quite probably been familiar to the Peaky Blinders, amidst a part-Victorian, part-1920s style of buildings in Digbeth. Inside, away from the surrounding inner-city Birmingham where engineering works live next to canalside restoration, it is white walls, roof-light ceilings, minimalist furniture – and television studios.

For 15 hours a day, the jewellery TV shopping channel that Cavill created – Rocks & Co. – broadcasts across the UK on Sky and other satellite stations. But the TV channel’s team of ten presenters are not the stars of the show, important though they are in establishing trust. The ‘star’ accolade goes to the items of jewellery that each day capture the hearts of thousand of viewers looking for something special at prices, the company claims, are ‘below cost’.

It’s a commercial model that professors of business schools might well describe as ‘disruptive innovation’.

Certainly, it’s helping to change a trade that Cavill describes as traditional – where “things are done that way because they have always been done that way”.

And she should know – for she was born into the jewellery trade and it has featured in her life ever since.

“My father was a jewellery agent representing several of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter manufacturers,” she recalls. “He later worked for the family-run business of Centre Jewellery – perhaps best known for their diamond jewellery. My mother also worked in the trade for KE Rowles – a Jewellery Quarter business that sadly, like so many others, is no more.

“From an early age, gemstones, silver and gold were a part of my life which helped fuel my interest in jewellery design and manufacturing techniques.”

Weekends and holidays – when not at Joseph Leckie School, in Walsall – were spent working with her family and friends in the trade within the Jewellery Quarter, concentrated on Caroline Street and Vyse Street. When older, Cavill attended jewellery shows across the country listening to and taking note of what most interested the buyers and which designs were most appealing.

It was to prove a formative experience: “Jewellery design has always fascinated me. I hope I was not too forward – but I was always happy to give an opinion on new designs for jewellery. Indeed, it was the

Diamonds in the Sky Although born into the jewellery trade, Debby Cavill has worked as a model, airline hostess, sandwich maker and radio presenter.

But now she’s back in jewellery with the £20m turnover Rocks & Co. Patrick Dwight reports

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

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seasoned professionals in the trade that really gave me an insight and sparked my interest.”

Whilst jewellery has been central to her life, Cavill has also embarked on several other ventures away from the trade. Her CV reveals time as a British team gymnast, as a model (legs and swimwear), as a member of cabin crew with Britannia Airways – and presenting on Birmingham’s first commercial radio station, BRMB. “I hadn’t actually intended to. A friend entered me into a competition called ‘Search for a Star’ on BRMB with the prize of becoming a host. I ended up presenting travel during the Breakfast Show – ‘Cavill on Travel’ became part of the Les Ross Breakfast Show. It was great fun – and it introduced me to the world of broadcasting and of production. I helped support two outside broadcasts of the hugely-popular Parties in the Park.”

Not that radio presenting was Cavill’s sole ‘other’ job. At the age of 22, she took over what was then a failing gift shop in Sutton

Coldfield. Being self-employed enabled her to accommodate the needs of her young daughter who, more often than not, she took to work with her.

“It taught me many lessons – particularly with money. I shudder when I think of the interview with the bank manager who said firmly to me: ‘You have £5,000 guaranteed by your father; don’t you dare lose it.’ He really hauled me over the coals and made sure I accounted for every penny.”

Once she’d turned the business around, Cavill sold it and instead turned her attention to catering – sandwiches to be precise. “The truth is, I was driven by the needs of my children,” she admits. “I was trying to recover from a marital split and there was the need to look after my children whilst still earning. So I made sandwiches while they slept and sold them to businesses between 11am and 1pm when the children were at school.

“It wasn’t easy – but demand grew and in 1998, after several years of growth, I was able to sell

up. That was the great thing about sandwiches; I had a customer base but the business was not dependent on me.”

The allure of jewellery, however, was never far away, and Cavill recognised that retailing was changing and if she was to return to jewellery, she needed other experience. As a consequence, she got a job with Jungle.com – at the time, the UK’s second largest online retailer.

“It gave me the opportunity to discover how e-commerce could be utilised to develop business ideas – and it led to my co-founding a new venture in conjunction with other entrepreneurs in their field. It was called Gems TV and we launched in 2004.

“We were at the cutting edge of jewellery retailing – the very first specialist jewellery TV channel in the UK. Meanwhile, there were other business challenges that appealed: property development and a wellness retreat – and in due course, I came up with a different jewellery retail formula.”

Perhaps not surprisingly, given her family roots

“By controlling every element of production, we pass substantial savings on to our customers whether on the Rocks & Co. TV shopping channel or online”

and the support they have offered, it was family to whom she turned for advice on her new concept. “I wanted to create a business that was different to other jewellery TV shopping channels, concentrating on retailing high-end jewellery using some of the world’s finest gemstones, and with our own design and manufacturing facilities. It was to be called Rocks & Co. and I first sought the opinions of my mum and dad.”

Rocks & Co. is now part of elumeo SE, a European leader in the electronic retailing of fine jewellery. The company manufactures in Chanthaburi, Thailand, a major hub in the gem trade. And Cavill, now aged 53, is proud that she has “developed close working relationships” with trading partners across the world that gives her access to some of the finest gemstones for her jewellery designs. She also trades gems that don’t quite make the grade her own jewellery requires.

“By controlling every element of production, we pass substantial savings on to our customers whether on the Rocks & Co. TV shopping channel or online. Every item has a certificate of authenticity and all precious metals are assayed independently, normally at Birmingham Assay Office.”

Rocks & Co. first broadcast in 2008, and sales have increased year-on-year. But do consumers really trust buying jewellery online, or from TV? Annual revenues of more than £20m would indicate so – as do the online reviews.

“Our presenters are important. They are the human face of the business but also qualified and highly knowledgeable,” says Cavill, who continues to enjoy her particular passion – jewellery design.

One of the most successful slots in the daily schedule is ‘Creation of the day’ that’s broadcast each evening at 6pm. Cavill, who lives in Stratford-upon-Avon, is personally responsible for the designs: pendants, rings, necklaces and earrings. Her own collection is highly sought

after and is made to order in the gold colour – yellow, rose or white – and the ring-size of the customer’s choice.

Family continues to play a big part. Her son, Toby, is managing director – “Toby speaks fluent Thai, which proves useful with our overseas interests.” Her daughter, Cherry, is the lead presenter and her mum, Dilys, now works in the company’s call centre talking knowledgeably to customers, answering any queries and giving advice. Altogether, Rocks & Co. employs 62 staff.

“In the call centre, you get to speak to customers direct and it’s a great training ground and introduction to the business. It’s where most of our people start – and my mum loves it! But we have a family rule – a pact – we don’t speak business on family occasions.”

Rocks & Co., says Cavill, is helping to break the “jewellery mould”. She says: “There’s nothing wrong with bricks and mortar jewellery retailing, but how many times do you go into a jewellery store? Once, maybe twice a year? TV has made jewellery accessible. It enables consumers to buy impeccable quality at a price that is unachievable elsewhere.

“We still aim to provide a personal service. We speak to a good many customers through our call centre. We monitor and respond to what we read about ourselves online. It’s a competitive sector. You have to win on all fronts if you are going to succeed.

“It’s not all been rosy. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned is that failure of a plan or an idea is not a bad thing. You can learn more from it than you ever can from success. And there’s nothing wrong with adjusting a business plan.

You have to be flexible, dynamic and innovative in this day and age, and when I feel inspired, hopefully that reflects to our customers.” n Rocks & Co. broadcasts on Sky 672 from 8am to 11pm, Freeview 40 from 1pm to 11pm, and Freesat 814 from 8am to 11pm.

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

Energy in motion

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Blue Vine Consultants co-founder Amrit Chandan chats about his life, his studies, his ambitions and his love of music. Ian Halstead reports It’s often said that manners maketh the man, but it seems that mentoring and exam marks are the forces which have most shaped Amrit Chandan’s fledgling career as an entrepreneur.

Like his business partner Scott Hardman, Chandan’s a self-confessed petrol-head. No surprise therefore that when they chose their PhD subjects at the University of Birmingham, the former focused on zero-emission vehicles, and the latter on fuel cell technology.

And Blue Vine, their start-up which operates inside BizzInn, a business incubator scheme on Birmingham Research Park, specialises in providing technical market intelligence about the automotive, energy and technology sectors.

Launched in October 2013 – when both Chandan and Hardman were in the midst of post-graduate studies – it has already established an impressive client list in the UK and overseas, working with major corporations, start-up ventures, universities and business organisations.

To date, around 90% of Blue Vine’s projects have been in automotive, although that dominance is already beginning to change as the consultancy

builds on its early achievements. Tata Motors is its best-known client, and Chandan and Hardman have just signed up with the Morgan Motor Company, but they’re now looking at a project to deliver supplies of clean water in Africa, and are in advanced discussions about potential work with Lloyds Banking Group.

Chandan is also studying wearable technologies and has just co-founded a company focusing on innovative solutions for domestic energy storage.

Project Aceleron is a clean-tech start-up, looking at how lithium batteries might be transformed into safe and efficient power storage units for developing countries, headed by Carlton Cummins, who works in the renewable energy sector in Barbados, and as a battery engineer for a UK-based motorcycle racing team.

It’s an eclectic mix of projects and sectors, as might be expected from someone who enjoys such diverse activities as Thai boxing, cooking, video games (Civilization is his current favourite) and Indian classical music.

On the rare occasions that 27-year-old Chandan finds a quiet moment or two, he’s likely to be

INTERVIEW bqlive.co.uk

“Everything we do is underpinned by rigorous academic discipline and research”

listening spellbound to YouTube videos where Ravi Shankar demonstrates his mastery of the 19 strings of the sitar.

However, although Chandan’s not averse to pushing the boundary rope back a few metres – quoting the late fantasy writer Terry Pratchett in his PhD thesis for example – the principles behind Blue Vine certainly won’t change.

“Everything we do is underpinned by rigorous academic discipline and research, but at the same time, we believe that innovative technologies have to be disruptive,” he says.

“If you look at the automotive sector, it’s the OEMs [original equipment manufacturer] and the major manufacturers who are having to disrupt their own industry, whereas normally it would be the newcomers and the start-ups who’d be generating the disruptive ideas.

“Our first project was working with a small battery manufacturer from Germany. It sounds counter-intuitive, but they couldn’t get much support back home, because the German automotive sector was more focused on developing biofuels. “We also look at how supply chains operate, and did a project for Marketing Birmingham looking at the opportunities for companies in the automotive supply chains, and identifying their barriers to growth.

“We decided from the start that Blue Vine should have four main pillars: market analysis, market entry strategy, technical communications and technical consultancy, but within those categories, we also offer related services, such as identifying sources of potential finance and proposal writing.

“Five years from now, I’d expect us to have doubled in size in terms of personnel, increased our areas of expertise and be more involved in charitable efforts.

“We already give 10% of our profits to charity, and I’m keen to do more with the Prince’s Trust because mentoring has done so much for me. I also plan to become a JP, because I think it’s important to give something back to society.”

As Chandan outlines his vision in passionate fashion, the pathway ahead appears logical and straightforward – but the route by which he reached the concept of Blue Vine was anything but.

Chandan’s grandparents came to Britain from the Punjab when his father was a young child, and he recalls his granddad volunteering for double shifts to provide for his family.

“They worked very hard to create opportunities

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for the next generation, and my parents did likewise. My dad is an optometrist and runs his own opticians, and all his brothers run their own business.”

However, despite such evidence of an entrepreneurial mindset, the teenage Chandan never considered taking the same route to employment. “I chose chemistry as my undergraduate degree because I enjoyed it at school, but didn’t intend to do a PhD. I always thought I’d join a graduate training scheme in a large company, and probably become a lawyer,” he admits.

“Then I started putting my CV online, and found myself being constantly rejected by software, without even getting an interview. I became frustrated, and decided I didn’t want to be the one jumping through hoops, I wanted to be the one setting the hoops.

wall. “I wanted to say ‘yes’ to as many opportunities as possible, even though it wasn’t clear where they might lead, but gradually you learn how to prioritise. During the research, Tata offered me a job in India heading up the fuel cell research, but I’d decided I wanted to set up a consultancy by that stage.” From the outside, the timing appears both ambitious and distinctly brave.

Chandan was still in his third year of post-graduate, and Hardman in his second, but their personal chemistry, and shared love of all things automotive, was critical.

“We saw it as our chance to avoid the rush-hour,” says Chandan. “I didn’t have much in terms of risk or dependency, and we both saw huge scope for transfer technologies. You see so many good ideas in universities which don’t reach the outside

development, Dr James Wilkie, who is the CEO of Birmingham Research Park, has been very generous with his time. I asked him if he could help, and was delighted when he agreed.”

However, Chandan’s evolution – from student to academic researcher to business-focused entrepreneur – also includes influences of a more personal, and deeply felt, nature from his years at Birmingham’s King Edward VI School. “I didn’t have a great time there,” he confesses. “A lot of the pupils came from affluent backgrounds, and I didn’t. I loved being in the choir at primary school, but at King Edward’s I was told I hadn’t got the right ‘image’ for their choir. My dad sent a polite letter of protest to the school, but unfortunately nothing changed.

“I sailed through my exams in the first few years, but then began working less and less,

“The research element in chemical engineering was very lab-based, so even though I got a first-class degree, I knew I wanted to do something more practical if I went into more advanced research, which is how the idea of a hydrogen fuel cells project came up” “The research element in chemical engineering was very lab-based, so even though I got a first-class degree, I knew I wanted to do something more practical if I went into more advanced research, which is how the idea of a hydrogen fuel cells project came up.

“I realised I had to investigate something which was novel, and which the automotive industry wanted to know about. The university was also promoting the concept of entrepreneurship through various events and conferences, and the more I thought about it, I decided that was the pathway to take.”

The four years of study which followed certainly gave Chandan insight into the sheer hard work which running a business would require.

“It was a real roller-coaster,” he admits.

“There were some great openings for travel, and because I was always keen to try anything new, I ended up presenting white papers at ten different academic conferences.

“Getting in at 7.30am and leaving at 6pm was very demanding though. Now, I look back and realise it was character-building, and also taught me the merit of perseverance, but at times I felt as if I was banging my head on a

world. I wanted to do something which would make a positive difference to the world. My family had always encouraged me to be the best I could hope for, and I already knew that I wished to live a life with no regrets, so I went for it.”

Chandan’s conversation is punctuated by references to the support he received from the University of Birmingham, and various mentors who have clearly done much to develop his mature mindset. John McKenzie, the Birmingham-based regional international banking director at the commercial arm of Lloyds Bank, was one major influence.

“The British Banking Association was sending its people out to work with the wider business community, and John was tremendously helpful, about finance, about business and about how everything interacts,” says Chandan.

“Dr Sukhdev Gill, who is a specialist on the aerospace and defence sectors, and spent a considerable time at QinetiQ, has been very influential from a technology perspective. He helped us on a pro-bono basis when we established Blue Vine, and still does.

“On the leadership side of my personal

and when I came to my AS levels, I got Ds and Es. My parents were incredibly supportive, as always, but the school suggested I should consider dropping out.

“Those results were a transforming moment.

Right from the day I received them, I realised I needed to be more driven, more focused and to work harder. I re-sat those exams, got 100%, and from then on, I’ve always given my absolute best to everything.”

Chandan’s determination to help others with their personal journeys is reflected in the presence of several student interns within Blue Vine, and in August, marriage added a new dimension to his life at home in Handsworth Wood, Birmingham. So just about the only topic which remains to discuss is how Blue Vine gained its name. Maybe a favourite tune plucked from Shankar’s long back catalogue?

Or perhaps a reference to an event in Punjabi history? Even the new Mrs Chandan’s favourite flower? The truth though is rather more prosaic. “We chose the Blue as in blue-chip, and Vine because we were looking to transfer technologies, and then grow them, and a vine seemed an appropriate image,” says Chandan. n

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY 200 Centurion jobs Construction has started on a new 153,000 sq ft warehouse facility at St. Modwen’s Centurion Park industrial development in Tamworth, which could create up to 200 jobs. Adjacent to junction 10 of the M42, Centurion Park located for warehouse and distribution operators in the Midlands.

The UK’s leading regeneration specialist was granted detailed planning consent by North Warwickshire Borough Council in June this year and is now bringing forward development on the site, with completion expected in spring 2017. Bowmer & Kirkland is the contractor for the scheme.

Jonathan Green, senior development surveyor at St. Modwen, said: “Following the continued success of the units at Centurion Park, including the 53,000 sq ft unit which we let to DFS and then subsequently sold, we are now pushing forward with construction on the 153,000 sq ft building. There is a clear demand for high quality warehouse space of this size in an accessible, prime location close to the heart of the motorway network and the level of interest shown in the new unit already is extremely promising.”

Thriving pallets Buying and selling pallets is a business which depends on good road connections. And that is one of the reasons why newly re-named Redditch Pallets Ltd, run by Darren Pedley, has relocated to the town with the help of a deal put together by property agents John Truslove.

The expanding business has moved onto a yard off Colemeadow Road. Pedley said: “People seem to forget that goods of all kinds are moved on the humble pallet. We buy and sell pallets on behalf of a huge variety of customers, serving in particular the distribution, manufacturing and logistics sectors. “With easy access to the M42, so we can get to clients and clients can get to us, it is a good place to be. There are opportunities for us to build customers.” Ben Truslove, a director of John Truslove, said: “All kinds of businesses want to be in the centre of the country and the heart of the motorway network, and Redditch fits the bill. Redditch Pallets is a growing and ambitious firm. I am sure they will continue to thrive.”

Avon calling for £3.5m Logistics company Avon Freight Group has announced a £3.5m expansion in Redditch – a deal brokered by property agents John Truslove.

It has agreed a ten-year lease on the 50,000 sq ft Unit 2, Acanthus Park, the town’s first

St. Modwen’s Centurion Park industrial development in Tamworth

speculative Grade A industrial unit to be built since the 2008 recession. Managing director Simon Poole said the move would create ten new jobs – the firm currently employs around 70 staff. The facility will be used to handle food products and is capable of storing 7,000 pallets.

Poole said: “We feel the expansion is key to our progress as our customers’ needs grow.

We have been receiving strong interest from potential new clients wanting to work with us, so we had to take this opportunity. ”The £3.5m investment represents the full rental span of the contract, with fitting out costs on top. The £10m turnover firm hopes to move in early next month once construction is complete.

Edging towards finance Private equity firm NorthEdge Capital has opened an office in Birmingham.

Rob Freer and Andrew Skinner will lead the new team at 20 Colmore Circus Queensway.

Grant Berry, managing partner at NorthEdge Capital, said: “Opening an office in the Midlands has always been a strategic objective for the firm. Rob’s and Andrew’s extensive networks and years of deal-making experience will allow us to expand our reach.”

NorthEdge typically invests between £5m and £45m in lower-mid market buy-out and development capital transactions.

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY bqlive.co.uk

Steel success A booming Staffordshire steel firm has created new jobs and expects to double its turnover after investing £2m to extend its existing manufacturing unit and grow its business.

The news comes after leading property investment firm London & Cambridge Properties (LCP) completed the bespoke extension for the steel processing company at its Burntwood base.

Steel Processing (Midlands) Ltd (SPM) says the 14,500 sq ft extension, of its existing unit at Zone 4, Burntwood Business Park, will enable it to meet increasing demand for its products and put it on target to double its turnover in 12 months. The expansion means that the company has taken on 15 new members of staff, taking it to a total of 60. It is also on target to more than double its turnover to £40m this financial year. Nick Liggins, commercial director of SPM, a privately owned steel stockholding and processing business, said: “We were running at full capacity on three shifts for some time and we had the choice to stay as we were or to put down new capacity. We’ve been at Burntwood Business Park since 1993 and were keen to stay where we were, so we worked with LCP to ensure that the extension was purpose-built to our exact specification.”

there are plenty of buyers for this type of stock.”

The deal follows recent completions on two shops at 46-50 Great Bridge Road, Great Bridge, and five storey 16,875 sq ft office building, 9 Waterloo Road in Wolverhampton, sold for £475,000 and £800,000 respectively.

Bigwood catches fish Sea Products International Ltd has purchased new offices in Birmingham in deal brokered by property agents SDL Bigwood. The seafood supplier is moving to a 4,037 sq ft office in Ravenhurst Street in a move promoted by the impending closure of their current home at Birmingham’s Wholesale Markets.

Planning permission for the £500m Smithfield Scheme has been granted by Birmingham City Council. The consent from the council is to clear the 18-acre Wholesale Markets area

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and regenerate that part of the city into a state of-the-art leisure complex. Sea Products International Ltd distributes an extensive range of high quality frozen seafood such as king prawns and exotic and locally sourced shellfish and fish fillets to the wholesale, hotel, restaurant and manufacturing sectors across the UK and Ireland, and currently employs 23 staff. Paul Pearce, director of Sea Products International, said: “Following the approval of the Smithfield Scheme, we began looking at new areas for relocation and fortunately found this building close to our current operation in a convenient location on the main approach to the city. We are extremely pleased to be moving in to this two story building, and with the excellent help from SDL Bigwood, and the team at Harris Lamb, we know we have found the ideal property for us.”

West Brom booming Property agents Bond Wolfe have sold Victoria House in West Bromwich to an unnamed regional investor. The freehold of the property at 290-292 High Street was purchased for an undisclosed sum off an asking price of £850,000. In a town centre location close to the Tesco-led New Square development, it is fully let to five tenants including national estate agents Connells on a new 10 year lease.

Totalling 6,700 sq ft on three floors and recently refurbished, the rental income is £72,100 per annum. James Mattin, Bond Wolfe managing director, said: “We are experiencing unprecedented demand for freehold incomeproducing assets, and indeed have recently placed a further £5m worth of local investment stock under offer. Investors are clearly attributing good value with the Black Country, as opportunities to buy well in Birmingham and the wider region are diminishing in what is a competitive market.

“Secondary assets such as Victoria House provide solid secure income at a good yield and

Lee Parry of Enigma Recovery (left) and Alex Tross of LSH

Jewel of a home An expanding software developer has moved its headquarters to new offices in the heart of Birmingham’s Jewellery Quarter. Enigma Recovery has taken just under 3,000 sq ft of high quality refurbishment at 30 St Paul’s Square. Previously operating from offices on Caroline Street, less than 100 metres away, Enigma’s move has been motivated by a recent growth in staff. Alex Tross, director of office agency at LSH said: “The Jewellery Quarter remains the perfect environment for a company like Enigma Recovery, with its history of being at the forefront of technological advancement.”

Lee Parry, boss at Enigma Recovery said: “Our recent progress meant that we had outgrown our previous home, 30 St Paul’s Square provides both a professional environment and a striking aesthetic. Its proximity to our old premises is also a huge plus, minimising the disruption for our workforce.”

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BUSINESS FOCUS Special Feature

Managing Director Linda Dean is now in charge of two of the country’s largest training providers, Rathbone and Intraining. She tells Mike Hughes about the impact they have on their communities and her plans for growth

r e l l u f a s d e e n Why training . n o i t a s r e v n o c r and riche The numbers for Linda Dean’s businesses are impressive enough on their own: Intraining and Rathbone exist within NCG, which has four colleges, an annual turnover of £178 million and 3,000 staff across 61 locations. That huge scale enables them to work with more than 133,000 learners and 20,000 businesses each year.

The influence that gives them in so many regions is magnified by the structure of the organisation.

With Rathbone being a charity and Intraining a notfor-profit business, everything they make is invested back for the benefit of customers and communities alike – a central core of the way Linda is running the businesses.

“We made a decision last year to bring them together so that we can give the best value for what is essentially public money,” she explained at Intraining’s Sheffield offices.

“It meant we were able to more easily share key services and best practice, and from a business perspective our employer-facing staff and customerfacing staff would have a single conversation about a range of products and, probably more importantly, can have a single ‘listen’ to what our employers need.”

The logistics of bringing together two key players in the training sector are daunting, but the Vision 2021 programme Linda is leading will make sure the passion of her staff for helping people get jobs

BUSINESS FOCUS Special Feature

remains undiminished.

“Both organisations are centred on employability and increasing the offer to employers who will have a wider range of solutions because we are sharing the benefits of each other’s markets,” she told BQ. “But while we know we are a hugely influential operator on a large scale, for us it all comes down to the passion we have for simply helping people find work – for us it is all about levels of employability.

“I was away with more than 50 of our young people at our youth conference recently and they were telling me how much they understand that what we can do together will give them sustainability and purpose and enable them to have that flat or that family they have always wanted.

“They are realistic, just as we are, about the area where they might find that employability and what first steps they will have to take to get there. We see our role as getting people to that first job and accepting that some people might need two years to get there, while others might make it in eight weeks. We will help them reach the skills level and personal development level to achieve whatever they are capable of.

“We know from years of experience that people don’t move forwards on a nice neat linear path when it comes to fundamentally life-changing experiences, so we need to deliver highly-personalised journeys and have to have the staff in place who can handle such a wide range of sectors and types of people. It can’t be in a typical classroom environment, it has to be done in partnership with employers to give an experience of the workplace.”

Fundamentally, Rathbone’s space is working with young people around 16-24 years old who have not, so far, successfully transitioned into employment because of predominantly socio-economic circumstances. It also delivers apprenticeships in some key areas like youth work and child care and in areas like volunteering, because as a charity it understands that audience.

Intraining delivers apprenticeships to adults aged from 19 onwards in areas such as business management, business and health and social care and

works closely with adults at JobCentres to deliver the Government’s work programme.

“That is the framework in which we operate and it includes regular Ofsted inspections but within that there has to be uniqueness to what we can offer for individual people,” said Linda.

“It is important for us and the people we work with that we are externally tested on that information, advice and guidance and both our organisations have also been through the industry’s Matrix Standard programme to make sure we deliver the very best options to as many people as we can.

“The sectors we work with are also hugely varied and the range of job opportunities within them is equally wide-ranging. This means that there are chances of progress for so many people, but also means our own intimate knowledge of those sectors and the regional situation covering them in each of our 61 locations needs to be impeccable – and we work very hard to make sure that is the case.

“We work in a very competitive training market, but I believe we offer a wider range of solutions than many other organisations which enables us to have a fuller and richer conversation. There are skills specialists out there, and employability

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underline that.

Linda said: “We are confident and realistic enough about its implications to be in a strong position to offer guidance to our customers and clients, so I see it as an opportunity for them and for us rather than a negative – and one that only affects 2% of employers.

“The other 98% are the SMEs that Rathbone works with while Intraining works more with levy-payers, so we have a full picture already forming within our own work.

“We are positive in terms of engagement and working with new and existing customers to deliver what they need as the landscape around them changes – and if our two organisations can’t deliver exactly what they want then we have the experience and the contacts to help them find someone who can. That is a privileged position and we have worked hard to be confident enough to offer that level of service.”

For Linda, not every conversation needs to lead to a transaction – as long as something happens that is of benefit to the customer, she and her staff will take pride in acting as a conduit to help make it happen.

For the future, the Vision 2021 programme will

ve forwards rience that people don’t mo “We know from years of expe on a nice neat linear path” specialists and those who work with adults and those who work with young people, but we cover all those areas and have a really big kit-bag that we can delve into to find the right answers.”

Despite its scale, there is a clarity about the two organisations that will be the envy of many smaller competitors. Rathbone and Intraining are about unlocking potential through learning and passing on strong values to as many people as possible. That work can start with a single phone call, or via the website or even via its Facebook or Instagram accounts.

But no matter how successful, no training organisation can ever sit back and think they have the job covered – the work changes all the time and issues like the Apprenticeship Levy

encourage a ‘past, present, future’ dialogue about the unique values of the organisation and how they can take them forward and develop their offering.

“Whatever we do,” said Linda, “we will always keep employability for jobs as our focus and the key to the trusted collaborations we have with employers and the community – people will always be at the heart of our business.”

With so much experience across so many sectors and regions Intraining and Rathbone are already a trusted driving force in the training sector, influencing and directing policies and strategies that are changing the way young people are trained and apprenticeships delivered. It is a challenging job with a set of responsibilities that can literally be life-changing for its own staff as well as the people it works with. n

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BUSINESS LUNCH bqlive.co.uk

Going back to my roots Keith Bradshaw has a rags-to-riches life story as one of the most successful entrepreneurs in the West Midlands. Now he’s determined to give something back.

Steve Dyson meets him for lunch Keith Bradshaw and his family are worth more that £180m, according to a recent ‘rich list’ publication. Bradshaw himself is still chairman of Listers Group, the largest independent car dealership in England, which he co-founded back in 1979.

He’s also non-executive chairman and coowner of commercial property company Nurton Developments, and deputy chairman and co-owner of Laney Headstock, the music amplification specialists. There are other successful business interests, past and present, the details of which could easily fill this page.

And so why, at the age of 73 and with six grandchildren to dote over in his spare time, did Bradshaw accept an unpaid position as High Sheriff of the West Midlands, which will see him attend around 300 events in the year to April 2017?

It all comes down to a life which has seen him – in his own words – grow from a “raggedy-

arsed schoolboy” to a “velvet-arsed sheriff”.

This has left him “passionate” about his roots in Birmingham and the West Midlands, and he now sees his ceremonial role as a way of “making a difference”, giving something back by helping to bring the region’s diverse communities together.

Bradshaw explains more by drawing a picture of his impoverished childhood in a back-to-back house in central Birmingham: “I was born before the end of the war at number 8, back of 126, Tower Road, Aston. We shared a toilet with neighbours that was a 50-yard walk from the house. There was no electricity.

“There weren’t any social workers in those days.

Often you’d see chaps spending their wages as soon as they’d got them on drink, and then see the resulting black eyes on their wives in the morning. It’s a memory that sticks in my mind and which I’ll never forget.”

Bradshaw escaped this poverty through a

mixture of youthful arrogance and luck. He’d left school without taking any O-levels, but instead of accepting a job as an assistant at the local Co-op he knocked on the door of Russell, Durie Kerr, Watson & Co., an accountancy firm in Birmingham city centre, and somehow caught the eye of Sydney Benbow, one of its partners.

“I don’t know what possessed me to knock on their door,” he recalls, “but Mr Benbow – a Christian socialist who’s sadly now passed on – took one look at me and said: ‘Get in there,’ and I was suddenly on 25 shillings a week.”

Bradshaw’s new employers made him work hard to get his O-levels at night school, and two years later he was taking his ‘articles’ to become a chartered accountant. His confidence quickly grew, and in his mid-20s he landed a job as assistant financial controller of the Mesurado Group in Monrovia, Liberia, an industrial giant which then had operations ranging from fishing to industrial gas, and from soap manufacture to

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“But we really were very, very rash. And we were lucky. Basically, we didn’t know that we couldn’t do it, and so we did it”

BUSINESS LUNCH bqlive.co.uk

farming. By the age of 28 he had become the West African group’s ‘president’, effectively the managing director, leading more than 5,000 staff.

After eight years he returned to the UK, and in 1979 launched a single car dealership and body shop in Coventry, with his business partner Terry Lister. This became the Listers Group, which now has more than 50 dealerships across England, employing more than 2,000 staff and with revenues topping £1bn a year. But the journey to success was far from simple.

“We were flying on a wing and a prayer,” he says. “After Africa, I had a few bob and a reasonable reputation, and so we managed to get some guaranteed loans. But we really were very, very rash. And we were lucky. Basically, we didn’t know that we couldn’t do it, and so we did it.

“After a year, we were more or less insolvent, but not wilfully. You know what they say about banks: owe them £1,000 and you’ve got a problem; owe them a thousand million pounds and they’ve got a problem. We weren’t charlatans and so the bank saw the best way forward was to work with us. We were a bit ballsy and got away with it.”

As well as Listers, Bradshaw set up BP Nursing Homes Ltd, which later became Takare and then Care First. As this business expanded, it went through a troubled time, although it was still worth close on £300m by the time it was sold to BUPA in 1998, a good chunk of those millions going back to its founder.

In short, Bradshaw has made a financial success of whatever he’s turned his entrepreneurial hand

to, so what’s his secret? “Grow your own,” is his first reply. “Many of our senior people at Listers started for us washing cars. So if you find someone who’s good, look after them, and you build a loyal staff. That’s probably one of the major things.

“And no man is an island,” is his second top tip.

“Myself and Terry Lister were two people with complementary skills – he was the motor trader and I was the accountant. We went forward on that basis.”

Thirdly, Bradshaw values completely equal partnerships, 50:50 share-ownership structures that he describes as guaranteeing “mutually assured destruction”. He says: “It means nobody has more power than the other, and so you work in mutual self-interest.”

Finally, Bradshaw insists, entrepreneurs have got to be great at selling themselves. “You’ve got to sell yourself before you can sell an idea, a product or anything,” he says.

And it’s from this standpoint, looking back at a career that has made him a millionaire so many times over, that Bradshaw decided to take on the role of High Sheriff of the West Midlands, officially the Queen’s most senior legal representative in the county.

“I was amazed when I was offered the role, and thought quite carefully before accepting it,” says Bradshaw, who lives in a Staffordshire village just north of Wolverhampton. “My wife and I are quite low profile. I just don’t think having a big profile is a great thing. In business, you can be known to the people you need to be known by without a high profile.

“But I discussed being High Sheriff with my

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wife and family and we agreed I would have to accept a degree of profile. There were personal reasons – I mean, I’m getting older, and if you don’t use it you lose it. And it’s given me something meaningful to do.

“Anybody who knows me knows I’m passionate about this city. When I grew up in Aston, there were no immigrants. Then they came and kept their heads down, growing their own families.

And it started to come apart. But for me, the reality is that we need these people. We need to tackle head on some of the issues that seem to have caused divisions.

“They call it ‘social cohesion’. But whatever it’s called, as High Sheriff I want to work to help accentuate the positive. Whether our youth are Christian or Muslim, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that we’ve got to help them talk to each other, and to understand different cultures.”

Bradshaw talks about many charitable initiatives he’s supporting as High Sheriff, but to mention just a few these include: The Feast, which brings together teenagers from different faiths and cultures, building friendships and changing lives; The Prince’s Trust, which helps young people aged 13 to 30 get into jobs, education and training; and the Heart of England Foundation, which helps local charitiess where grants as little as £500 can make a real difference.

“My role is going out to talk to the volunteers of these organisations, getting out there and thanking them personally, with eye contact, for the way they are providing role models to our youth. If we manage to pull them back, they get a job and pay taxes. If they go over the top

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BUSINESS LUNCH bqlive.co.uk

“I’m not some head-in-the-clouds, namby-pamby liberal. I’m talking with hard-nosed reality” it means the cost of jail, benefits and everything that goes with that.

“But I’m not some head-in-the-clouds, nambypamby liberal. I’m talking with hard-nosed reality. I’m talking about the cost of people.

Unless they’ve got something to lose we’ve got no traction, so we’ve got to try to give them something of value to engage them. If we can intervene, we can get them into work, paying taxes and not becoming a burden. If not, just think of the damage they could do.”

Bradshaw has had a largely happy family life with Pamela, his wife of 50 years, albeit tinged with their own tragedy. Their son, James, sadly died at the early age of 35. Their other two sons now help to run the family businesses: their eldest, David, is managing director of Nurton Developments, while their youngest, Timothy, is group operations director at Listers.

From the way Bradshaw talks, Pamela is the matriarch of the family, and she’s certainly the one who’s driving a third aim during her husband’s term as High Sheriff: to galvanise the whole of the West Midlands to get fully behind Coventry’s bid to become City of Culture in 2021.

“Pamela’s a Wolverhampton girl,” says Bradshaw, “and it’s she who reminds me that being High Sheriff of the West Midlands means it’s not just Birmingham. Because Coventry is where we founded the [Listers] business, I wanted specifically to demonstrate that this role is for the whole of the region by backing their bid for City of Culture.

“Manchester has got its act together by demonstrating its value to the surrounding area.

Birmingham needs to demonstrate what it can do in the same way. It’s a world city, but is it sometimes too big for its boots as far as the other West Midlands areas are concerned?

“When I met Pamela 52 years ago, I remember her Black Country mum not being very happy that I was a Brummie. It was like a ‘Yam Yams’ versus ‘Peaky Blinders’ thing! But joking aside, Birmingham needs to understand. Hull [the UK’s City of Culture in 2017] is set to get £130m. If

we want that, it’s got to be Coventry in 2021.

And what’s good for Coventry is good for Birmingham.”

Bradshaw says that backing the culture bid could also help his wider ‘diversity’ theme: “The more successful we are as a region, the more we can give back to our youth. And we’ve got to give.

We can’t allow our diverse young community to live in silos. We’ve got to deal with them head on. And prosperity will create the environment we need to tackle them.”

Bradshaw takes his role as the Queen’s principal legal representative seriously as well, regularly meeting and engaging with those who work in law and order.

“I’m so impressed with the judiciary,” he says.

“They’re often slagged off for being out of touch, and so it’s a privilege to understand them and act as their ambassador, debunking some of the myths spread by the popular press. Working in the high court is an incredibly difficult job, seeing that fairness is done, and making sure that the jury understands the justice process.

“The same goes for magistrates. The other day, I met a woman who’d been doing it for 35 years, and all for nothing of course. Just imagine if we’d had to pay her £10 an hour throughout that time – we’d owe her £100,000 or more. If we paid her properly, it might be £1m or more.

People talk about philanthropy – but here are people who give us something that’s invaluable.

“The same goes for all the mayors and civic heads that I’m meeting in cities and towns across our region. Whatever their political persuasion, they’re good people. They’re not in it for themselves. They’ve worked their socks off for the community, sometimes giving 20 or 30 years’ service before they become mayor.

It’s another thing I bang on about. We have a lot to do with them, because it’s time to acknowledge them. There are other amazing people too, like those we met at Childline’s 30th birthday, who’d spent all those years working to help really damaged children.

I’m privileged to get out there and just say ‘thank you’ for what they do.” n

To start is to finish Edmunds Bistro de Luxe, Birmingham As we sit down in the recently relaunched Edmunds, Keith Bradshaw warns me that he doesn’t eat much at lunchtime: “Only a starter,” he says.

However, as soon as he reads the delightful new menu, his appetite suddenly nudges up to “maybe two starters”, and once he spots black pudding as a main course his gallant effort at restraint fails.

We both select Isle of Skye king scallops to start (£12 each), served with a good-sized pile of shrimps, and a smooth tomato and fennel sauce. “I do love scallops,” Bradshaw comments, “and these are excellent – perfectly cooked.”

Now enjoying his lunch, the High Sheriff confidently selects French boudin noir for main course (£16), and smiles as his plate arrives with two sizeable portions of black pudding. This comes with caramelised apple, mashed potato and a Dijon mustard sauce, along with beautifully cooked vegetables as shared side dishes, and once again a chuffed review comes from Bradshaw: “Very agreeable, extremely tasty, lovely fresh apple and delicious carrots.”

My main is a noisette of venison saddle (£23), with sweet potato, roasted hazelnuts, my favourite dauphinoise potatoes and venison gravy. The meat’s so tender that I truly don’t want this dish to end.

A glass of Domaine du Haut-Perron Touraine Sauvignon quickly turns into two for me (£4.50 per 125ml glass), while Bradshaw valiantly keeps to still water to avoid too much of a telling off when he gets home.

This refreshed restaurant really does deserve more attention from the gastronomes of the West Midlands’ business sector.

Edmunds Bistro de Luxe is at 6 Brindleyplace, Birmingham B1 2JB. Call 0121 633 4944 or visit opentable.co.uk to book, and research the menu at www.edmundsrestaurant.co.uk

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MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

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n w a D l u f i t u a e b

MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

Here’s a phrase I never thought I’d dream up, let alone commit to print: the Rolls-Royce Dawn: starting at £264,000, surprisingly good value for money.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: how on earth can a car that retails for twice the average price of a house in the West Midlands be hailed as ‘value for money’?

Even if a spell with a Rolls-Royce Dawn makes you realise just how well the super rich live, you clearly can’t make a case for spending that amount of cash on a car unless your income puts you in the highest echelons of society.

And yet, and yet… it is superb. It is grace under pressure, a stunning example of engineering excellence that exudes quality from every pore.

And here’s the nub: never having set foot in a Rolls-Royce before, I was often baffled by how the company could justify its price tags. Yet now, having driven the Dawn for an all-too-brief couple of days, I can see where the money goes.

It is, quite simply, breathtaking. On stepping in, you immediately notice the preposterously thick shagpile carpet lining the floor. It is beautiful to the touch, cosseting your feet in a warm cushioning that’s both welcoming and luxurious, making you glance guiltily down at your footwear to check that they’re not muddy.

The seats are hand-stitched leather. Every push and pull of the needle was guided by a master craftsman steeped in his or her trade. The leather is the finest available, both comfortable

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and buffed up to the highest sheen.

In front, the dashboard features stunning chrome, wood panelling and more leather, offering an opulent cabin more akin to a gentleman’s club than a car.

This combines beautifully with a striking yet elegant exterior design that’s packed with classic Rolls-Royce presence, an effortless and relaxed sensory experience with an underlying exhilaration and dynamism.

Like an athlete on the blocks, the Dawn sits taut and poised, ready to explode into life when the driver commands. From the steeply-raked windscreen to its beautifully finished body panels that curve lustily around from front to rear, wrapping the Dawn in a seemingly

Jason Wouhra, the boss of East End F oods and Institute of Directors, fe chairma els like royal n of the ty behind West M the whee idland l of the s Rolls R oyce D awn

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MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

single sheet of metal, the Dawn is a stunning aerodynamic feat that suggests a fighter jet more than a car. Superb touches abound, from the halo that lights the Spirit of Ecstasy on the bonnet – the statuette itself recesses smoothly into the bonnet when the ignition is off – while a tapered ‘wake channel’ on the bonnet runs from the Spirit’s base, evoking a jet’s vapour trail in a nod to the Dawn’s dynamism.

And to drive: oh, how it wants to be driven. The power of the 6.6-litre engine is breathtaking, yet this is not a car that wants to be hurried.

Instead, it’s whisper-quiet power glides you along the road in a style fit for a king. It’s a hugely satisfying drive: the weight of the Dawn and its state-of-the-art suspension kills all bumps and potholes, offering the smoothest of rides, while there’s a stability and confidence in cornering that demands respect.

It is fast – heart-achingly so if pushed – but the

Dawn does not demand such bad manners or illdiscipline. Instead it cruises gracefully, as smooth as cream poured from a jug.

Everything impresses, but one touch I loved involved the coach doors – that peculiar Rolls Royce quirk that sees its doors open the opposite way to those on conventional cars.

They are hugely heavy – all the panel work on the Dawn is solid beyond belief – but to avoid issues with closing, the coach doors are closed at the touch of a button by the driver, smoothly and silently closing with a satisfying ‘clunk’.

Beautiful. And that’s the word on which to end: beautiful. For this is car-making at its finest, offering driver and up to three passengers a graceful, sensuous experience that ends only when you disembark, feeling like royalty.

There’s little point in me saying ‘buy one’.

Few of us can. But if you can, you should buy this work of art. n

BQ West Midlands would like to thank Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Birmingham in Hockley Heath, Solihull for the use of the new Rolls-Royce Dawn.

The on-the-road price of the car driven

by Jason Wouhra is £307,079, for more information please visit www.rybrook. co.uk/rolls-royce or call the dealership on 01564 787170 Dawn specification included: RR monogram to all headrests, Comfort entry system, driver assistance 3, camera systems, teak deck, 21” forged 10 spoke polished alloy wheels.

Bespoke options include bespoke interior, seat piping navy blue, navy hood, chrome visible exhausts, twin coachline in silver, tread plates ‘Dawn’, up-lit Spirit of Ecstasy, RR inlays to monitor lid, Rolls-Royce bespoke audio and commissioned collection umbrellas.

“It is grace under pressure, a stunning example of engineering excellence that exudes quality from every pore”

MOTORING bqlive.co.uk

“The power of the 6.6-litre engine is breathtaking, yet this is not a car that wants to be hurried�

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CURRIER ON WINE bqlive.co.uk

Real ale drinker tries his hand at wine I really enjoy a glass of wine, which may surprise colleagues and friends who could be forgiven for writing me off as the archetypal real ale, or ever-so-trendy craft ale, drinker. After all, I have the beard, the skinny jeans, and I work in Birmingham’s beer and pizza fuelled start up scene.

Wine for me is a very personal experience, enjoyed in the company of my nearest and dearest over good food, good company and a few good laughs. Nothing quite beats a quiet night in with family, and a good couple of bottles to complement the mood, so I was thrilled when asked to guest as BQ’s wine reviewer for this Winter edition.

Sundays in my house are all about the Sunday roast; a family event which seems to permeate the whole day with evocative aromas of homemade comforting fare. It’s the perfect end to a busy week, and a great way to start the week ahead. So I’m happy to report the first wine I was asked to review, the Louisvale Chavant more than stood up to the shoulder of pork it accompanied.

The Chavant is described as ‘lightly oaked’ and spends only four months in small oak barrels.

On the nose this is surprising as you are almost overwhelmed by citrus and butterscotch, the oakyness is more muted on the palate with luscious vanilla notes and a hint of peachiness, which helped the apple crumble and custard down a treat. A lovely wine, which even the in-laws appreciated.

Sunday evenings are for box-sets and relaxation with my wife. In-laws outlawed, our current favourite is The Wire, and nothing says East/ West Baltimore cartel wars quite like a nice bottle of red and a few slices of cheese and biscuits… Our chosen bottle was the Bodegas

Lee Currier, who works with entrepreneurs for NatWest in the West Midlands, is BQ’s guest wine reviewer for the Winter edition Bleda Pino Doncel 12 Meses – which hails from Jumilla in the South East of Spain.

The 12 Meses is a blend of 30% Syrah and 70% Monastrell – known in France as Mouverde – and turns up all over the Southern Rhone and in Chateauneuf-du-pape. The wine (as the name suggests) spends 12 months ageing in French and American oak barrels giving some sweet vanilla notes and softening the tannins. This was a big wine, with very intense red and dark fruit aromas. Well-balanced in the mouth, with oak spicy hints and dark fruits, leading to smooth tannins and a hint of sweetness at the end.

Perfect for a night in front of the fire.

So to the week ahead, and as I did confess, should you meet me in one of Birmingham’s many quality pubs, it will be a pint in my hand rather than a glass of wine. For this reason I must confess to being more than a little distracted by Connolly’s very respectable craft ale section tucked away underneath the arches, but that’s for another day.

I guess my interest in innovation, the start up spirit of bold adventure and restless dissatisfaction with the status quo, fuels my appetite for big bold flavours in both my beer and my wine and these two bottles really delivered. Luckily my lovely wife and in-laws agreed, a sure sign I married well! n Lee Currier is the entrepreneur development manager at Entrepreneurial Spark, backed by NatWest Bank.

The Louisvale Chavant is priced at £10.49 a bottle (£9.44 as part of a case).

The Bodegas Bleda Pino Doncel 12 Meses is priced at £12.50 a bottle (£11.25 as part of a case). Available from Connolly’s Wine Merchants Ltd, 0121 236 3837. www.connollyswine.co.uk

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EQUIPMENT bqlive.co.uk

y r a n i d r o e h t e v o b a A cut y, Hermés Paris a p to g n li il w ’s o wh For the customer ing a bit special th e m so d n a ip sh offers craftsman

EQUIPMENT bqlive.co.uk

Tucked away behind an anonymous door down a back corridor of Hermés’ corporate headquarters in Paris is where the magic happens. There, in a small, natural light-flooded L-shaped room, just five craftspeople - nearly all women, unusually for the leather goods industry - work on special projects for the French luxury goods maker. From a guitar case in crocodile to canteens for sports cars, cuff-link boxes to photo frames to official gifts from the Elysee Palace to mark state visits, from a basketball to a Bible cover to an apple carrier and, of course, lots of bags - this is where Hermés produces its one-off, never to be repeated, madeto-order pieces.

“It’s a dream product - and often a very personal one - for the people who order something from here,” explains Kerry Hollinger, Hermés’ custom-made projects manager. “It’s something they can’t find, be that with the functionality they require - a pocket in a certain place, or, as we made for one customer, a fully perforated dog bag so she could take her pet into restaurants she wasn’t allowed to take it into - or just an aesthetic idea they want to pursue.”

Such a product, unsurprisingly, does not come cheap - it would be many times the price of a more standard equivalent, should such a thing exist, although Hermés will not talk figures other than to the client. Hermés charges a non-returnable 10% design fee, then a non-returnable 50% on confirmation of the order. Nor is it a fast process. Once a design is agreed on - a back and forth that may in itself take six months - and a mock-up made in canvas and approved, it may be a further six months before a classic leather item is completed, depending on the workshop’s schedule. But then it is made by one craftsperson from start to finish, from

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EQUIPMENT bqlive.co.uk

“All of the workshop’s products are costly - we say that rather than ‘expensive’ because the materials are special and the skills of the craftspeople who make them are very rare now”

classifying and cutting the skins. “And there’s a lot of pride in that,” Hollinger notes. “There’s the sense that: ’This is my project. I made it and it’s a reflection of my skills’.”

Not that Hermés will do anything. Hollinger notes that some customers need a little education - those who, as she puts it, “expect perfection” and don’t immediately appreciate that, for instance, the wrinkles, veins and other characteristics of the leather are natural, and so an important feature of an Hermés product.

Other customers can be overly picky about details - the distance between stitches, for example.

But, Hollinger stresses, this is not a bespoke design service so much as the chance to own a unique but still quintessentially Hermés item.

Yet not too much Hermés - other customers want branding writ large. “And we won’t do that either,” she notes. “Nor will we mess with the classics - the Kelly bag or the Birkin bag, for example. We don’t have an actual list of rules for the projects we will accept and those we won’t but we know which are right for us.

Some of the ideas are off the wall but that doesn’t mean they’re not right for us - we did a beautiful American football for one client as a gift for his father.”

The designs that are approved by Hermés’

artistic director - as each of them has to be are, certainly, often inventive and striking. One customer who wanted her date of birth in large numbers across a bag had to make do with a more subtle, and playful, way of displaying these figures - via the dimensions of exterior pockets.

More recently the workshop has put 200 hours of work into the making of three small, minimalistic trunks in a tin-coloured leather, with delicate drawers and sections and handles made from multiple layers of compressed leather.

Each of the three special trunks is for L’Odyssee d’un Roi - a collaborative project exhibiting also the craft of venerable French silversmiths Puiforcat (a white gold pipette), crystal-makers Saint Louis (four engraved glasses and a carafe) and Remy Martin’s Louis XIII cognac (which produced a special edition). “It’s very unusual for the workshop to work with other companies, so this is a particular kind of one-off,” explains Hollinger. “But it’s also been fascinating for us to work with craftspeople in other disciplines too.”

One trunk each is to be auctioned for The Film Foundation charity in America, Europe and Asia with a starting bid of £70,000. “All of the workshop’s products are costly - we say that rather than ‘expensive’ because the materials are special and the skills of the craftspeople who

make them are very rare now, which is why they’ve been with us for decades in many cases,” explains Hollinger. “The results achieve a standard that the main collection pieces perhaps don’t attain. They’re costly too because we’re making them here amid the rooftops of Paris - but that allows clients to be sent up from our stores, and also allows clients to visit us when they’re next in the city.”

The workshop takes on just a few hundred projects per year, though receives requests for many more - like getting to see the workshops in action, just getting an order successfully placed might seem something of a trial. But Hollinger stresses that to take on many more orders would be to cut against the ethos of the whole operation; to give individual attention and produce Hermés’ highest rung of leather goods, even if the technical reasons behind much of the exhaustive detailing - the use of saddle stitch, the coating of edges with beeswax and dye, for instance - are lost on many customers.

“But since we’re in Paris many customers come to the workshops and see it all happening - and they typically leave with an understanding of everything that goes into the special kinds of things we make here,” she says.

“And why it’s ‘costly’.” n

0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 10 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 10 10 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 00 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 1 0 10 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 10 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 10 0 1 0 0 1 0 10 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 10 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 RECOGNISING THE 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 10 0 10 0 0 0 0 1 1 IN 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 VALUE OF IP 0 1 0 0 0 10 10 0 1 0 0 0 1 10 0 YOUR 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 BUSINESS 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 10BQ Magazine 0 0 is delighted 1 10 to publish 10 0 10 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 the IP100, the UK’s Intellectual 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 10 Property0League 0 compiled 0 0 0 1 10 1 Table in 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0an 0 0 1 1 with Metis Partners, 0 0 0 10 0association 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 award-winning IP solutions firm.10 0 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 THE IP100 0 0 NOW 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 10 0ENTER 1 10 10 0 0 0 0 The IP1001 league table is open for 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 entry to all UK companies for FREE. 0 0 0 0 1 10 Enter now at www.bqlive.co.uk/IP100 10 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 10 0 0 10 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 10 0 10 10 0 10 0 10 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 10 OUT MORE 1AT0 0WWW.BQLIVE.CO.UK/IP100 10 0 0 1 10 0 FIND 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 10 0 10 0 10 0

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PROFILE Rudell The Jewellers

Wolverhampton jeweller dazzles and sparkles with new look showroom Rudell the Jewellers were founded on Darlington Street, Wolverhampton on Valentine’s Day 1938 and the company has grown enormously over the years

Regarded now as the Midlands’ leading jeweller, with an impressive portfolio of luxury timepieces and jewellery brands including Patek Philippe, Rolex, Cartier, Fope, Mikimoto and Chopardto name a few, Rudell showroom has gone through an amazing transformation recently and the results are truly spectacular. The ‘new look’ store is bright, airy and sophisticated and the ‘boutique’ areas are like a sanctuary for those who love the brands that Rudell have the pleasure of representing.

As you enter the showroom, directly ahead is an impressive curved wall with inset display cases which

“The Rudell Mission Statement of ‘Promising to deliver excellence in quality, service and value’ is evident in every detail”

are filled with Rudell’s tasty gems and jewellery.

Rudell’s own jewellery collections are housed to show them off to their absolute best. The LED lighting enhances the diamonds and they really shine at their brightest from these displays. Branded display cases for Tag Heuer, Tudor, Lalique and Chopard are given prominence in this area too and all are crowned majestically by a magnificent crystal chandelier which floods this part of the showroom with light. To the left of the entrance is yet another curved wall with inset display cabinets featuring yet more of Rudell’s creations. A dedicated Fope area houses, quite possibly, the largest selection of Fope gems and jewellery in the UK. Fope and Rudells have a long and cherished past and Rudells are always willing to showcase the brand to its very best.

Adjacent to Fope is the beautiful Patek Philippe boutique - which oozes Swiss style in a simplistic form. The marble floor and walls, the sumptuous

furniture, the decorative wall art and brushed brass display cabinets are simply stunning and sets the scene for the purchase of Patek’s high end watches perfectly. The showroom also boasts a stylish Cartier area in its trademark Burgundy colour which houses a fabulous collection of the Maison’s timepieces.

Mikimoto - the originators of cultured pearls - also have a delightful area adjacent to Rolex allowing them to showcase their finest jewellery. Next to Mikimoto, Rolex have installed a magnificent sales area. The Rolex ‘Wave Wall’ stands proud and the illumination of this wall gives it a real wow factor when clients see it for the first time. Bespoke display cabinets are filled with the most beautiful watches and this area has a real ‘London look’ to it.

The refurbishment also included new window displays and the array of merchandise is now displayed behind security doors which allows more space for the Rudell team to display their high

PROFILE Rudell The Jewellers

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“Rudells managing director, Jon Weston, designed the new look showroom and oversaw the redevelopment closely assisted by store manager, Gary Jones” end jewellery and watches. The window backs now feature beautiful ‘lifestyle’ imagery which shines out across Darlington Street.

The palette of colours used throughout the refurbishment of the showroom is earthy and warm. Creams, beige, warm browns and gold fuse seamlessly to create a welcoming look which exudes quality. The use of natural materials including wood, marble, ceramic and leather is just beautiful. All the Wolverhampton staff are excited and proud of the new showroom and are ensuring that it remains welcoming for clients new and old.

The renovation of the store meant that four staircases had to be removed and this afforded an increase in floor space at ground level and the reconfiguration of the office space on the first floor.

Until the redevelopment of the showroom, the first and second floors were all separate as Rudells premises were originally three different shops which Rudell purchased over the years. Although the ground floor was opened up to create one space, all be it on three levels, the first floors of the three buildings were never merged - until now! A central corridor allowing access to the administration offices, staff room and kitchen area was created.

Not only is the working environment for staff greatly improved but also for clients as a VIP room has now been created on the 1st floor. Beautifully furnished with leather sofas and wooden tables, this space exudes the same level of sophistication as the ground floor.

Rudells managing director, Jon Weston, designed the new look showroom and oversaw the redevelopment closely assisted by store manager, Gary Jones. Jon said “from the initial planning of the refurbishment to the completion of what I believe is a stunning retail store to rival any other, it has been nearly two years. I wanted to create a store filled with luxury where our clients will feel pampered and where they will receive the very best of customer service”.

Work commenced in early July and the Rudell team worked tirelessly until the work was completed in late September. Gary is very proud of what has been achieved and said “All of the staff are

to be commended for the level of hard work and commitment they all showed. There were days when the showroom was noisy and dusty but the team were great and all pulled together because we could all see the amazing transformation taking place before our very eyes. I really feel that we have now given Wolverhampton a luxury store of which it can be very proud”.

Now the transformation is complete, the Rudell mission statement of ‘Promising to deliver excellence in quality, service and value’ is evident in every detail no matter how minute.

Take a trip to Wolverhampton soon to visit the new Rudell showroom. We guarantee that you will be seriously impressed!

97 Darlington Street, Wolverhampton, WV1 4HB Tel: 01902 423 308/427 199 89A High Street, Harborne, Birmingham, B17 9NR Tel: 0121 427 1904 W: www.rudells.com E: info@rudells.com

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

From Spain with love With a swashbuckling family history, Spanish descendant Damian Navas led a nomadic life before deciding to make his fortune in Birmingham. Steve Dyson finds out more

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

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“Recruitment agents have only got a slightly higher reputation than estate agents. There are many out there who give the sector, well, not a great image”

A smartly-dressed Damian Navas rocks back his head and laughs when I ask where his unusual surname comes from. And the reply from the Birmingham recruitment entrepreneur is the perfect ice-breaker.

“My ancestors were from Spain,” he explains, “and my grandfather was in the Spanish merchant navy. He jumped ship with the captain’s daughter in South Wales in the early 20th century, and they made their home in Newport.”

What a back story – and it’s all true! The runaway Spanish lovers ended up with eight children, one of them – Navas’s father – moving to “sunny Doncaster” where he married and had three boys of his own.

One of these lads was Damian Navas, and after a happy childhood in the North he picked up his grandfather’s wanderlust. First he left home to study at Humberside University, dropped out after his first year aged 20, then got himself a job with a cinema chain – initially “scooping popcorn” but soon travelling across the UK. “I never had much direction in my early 20s,” Navas, now aged 42, recalls. “After the university debacle I joined Warner Bros Cinemas and spent a number of years moving around the country opening their new sites for them, ending up in London’s West End at their flagship site.

“I was a bit of a nomad. I stumbled, like most people, into recruitment and spent 15 years or so working for some of the well-recognised brands in the market. I came to Birmingham more or less accidentally: the business I joined was due to open an office in Cambridge and I was training in the centre of Brum. As it turned out, Cambridge never opened and I spent the next few years getting to know Brum.”

Navas reached brand manager level in the West Midlands for a well-known recruitment agency, and went to Manchester for a while to head an information technology specialist. But eventually he felt disillusioned at the sector’s “aggressive sales”, fuelled by the dot.com boom.

“I felt there was a bit of a short term approach and I was stagnating,” he says.

“In 2012 I’d just met my wife, married and my dad died, and it felt like a natural break to go and do something to further my career, which is when I moved to Manchester. It just didn’t work out and at that point my future business partner started telling me to do something.

He said: ‘Come on! You’ve got the brains, I’ve got the money.’”

That business partner was Greg Morrall, and he and Navas spent the next few months back in Birmingham creating the framework of what became the Haig & Co recruitment agency. “It was all very exciting,” says Navas. “We were asking ourselves: ‘What does it feel like?

What will it look like? What are we going to do with it?’”

The resulting business – owned 50:50 by Navas and Morrall – was launched in January 2015, carefully described as a “boutique recruitment and talent firm”, concentrating on the finance, accounting and cyber security sectors, but with an insistent emphasis on people and relationships.

“We wanted Haig & Co to quickly build up a reputation for customer service – both for clients recruiting and for customers we were finding jobs for. You see, recruitment agents have only got a slightly higher reputation than estate agents. There are many out there who give the sector, well, not a great image.

“And so we’re not sales driven, but are more about attracting excellent talent. We focus on social media, brand promotion, marketing and relationship development, as opposed to the traditional cold-call business. Our whole emphasis is on building relationships, which is why even our website – www.haigand.co – is playful, not too serious or corporate.

“We want to make recruitment – from both directions – an enjoyable experience. It can be a daunting task finding another job. For candidates, we’ve tried to make it more accessible, friendly and humane. From a

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ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

Navas’ top tips for entrepreneurs BELIEF. Don’t let your self-doubt drag down what is a good idea. Use advisors, but don’t be put off by too many doubters.

INSTINCT. Have a balance between the head and the gut. Instinct is something to be listened to.

PEOPLE. Surround yourself with very good people. Recognise your weaknesses – the skills you don’t have and the things you can’t do – and hire accordingly.

VISION. Make this what you build as a rock solid statement, and make it the lifeblood of what the business thrives on. Haig & Co’s vision is ‘delivering exceptional talent’ by being an ‘alternative, specialist provider of a service-led recruitment and talent service’.

business point of view, companies are trusting us with business goals by putting ‘talent delivery’ in our hands. We have to make sure our aims and goals are linked to the way clients do things, becoming a partner for talent delivery, rather than just an agency that they have to use.”

Although not a natural Brummie, once he’d arrived Navas never even considered launching the business in any other city. He felt his local connections, knowledge and the access to “great talent” was all provided by Birmingham.

“It’s truly the second city,” he says, “and it’s attracting not only some top tier talent from London but also some exciting businesses that are choosing to set up their head offices, shared service centres and distribution hubs here. Think about it: location, cheaper square footage, lower wages than London and the south east, and the boomerang effect – the return of welleducated, qualified professionals coming home or back to where they were educated to settle down and raise a family, away from the London rat-race.

“Since 1999 when I landed in Birmingham, I’ve felt a change in the pride of the place. Back then, there was no Bullring, no Selfridges or Touchwood, and the Jewellery Quarter was very embryonic, Digbeth was at the point of its regeneration plans, but it was still a vibrant business and social city. Moving swiftly on and Brum still feels that it’s changing and evolving.

“Grand Central [the shopping centre above New Street railway station] is such an advertisement for why Brum should be invested in and returned to. Brum is very much my home.

Coming from up North, it was never anywhere I ever thought I’d live, let alone base myself. But the business life, the social life, the diversity of things to do, and the entrepreneurial nature of the city means it makes total sense to grow a valuable business here.”

According to Navas, Haig & Co made a small profit in year one, “just over break even” on a turnover in the “low-end” of six figures. Year two has seen turnover climb to the “mid-end” of six figures, with “significantly larger” profits, and year three will see revenues grow to the “high-end” of six figures, with even better

profits, mostly reinvested in staff, technology and marketing.

The company, which currently has a staff of six at its offices in Birmingham city centre, has “around 50” active customers, including the likes of Genting, Britvic and Hope Construction.

The big growth area is cyber security, where Navas was shocked to see how even many listed organisations have no internal cyber security teams or strategies.

This area, he predicts, will take off in terms of recruitment in the next few years because of new data protection regulations coming in 2018, which will increase fines from around £20,000 to up to £1.5m for business that don’t respect and protect customers’ data properly.

“Brum should be invested in and returned to. Brum is very much my home”

But while Navas hopes to see Haig & Co quickly grow, he and Morrall don’t want to expand much further than a staff of “around 15”, and will probably seek to keep this on a single office site. “We want to create a valuable business,” he says. “But we want what we’ve created to be manageable. We’d like to stay ‘boutique’ and retain what makes us ‘Haig & Co’ when we get bigger, not to dilute the culture or operations.”

Navas, who lives with his wife, Fidelis, and young children in Moseley, Birmingham, has a clear view of the firm’s future. “We see two options in eight to 10 years time, when we’re aged about 50,” he says. “One, to stay on as owners with a very good management team running things. Or two, selling it at a point when it’s natural.

“But at the moment we’re in our growth stage, building a brand that’s very well-known and very well networked, and that means a slow, steady growth to hit our future goals. I’m very excited about achieving that, and the future options are a very long way off.” n

ENTREPRENEUR bqlive.co.uk

“Although not a natural Brummie, once he’d arrived Navas never even considered launching the business in any other city”

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SUCCESS STORY bqlive.co.uk

SUCCESS STORY bqlive.co.uk

From hospitals to hospitality Have you ever thought about the company behind the corporate hospitality you occasionally enjoy at the races, the rugby or the Premier League? John Duckers meets Denise Sheasby to find out more Once a senior sister at Birmingham’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Denise Sheasby has been managing director of Eventmasters, the Birmingham-based corporate hospitality agency, for the past decade.

This has meant ensuring that corporate clients can experience the thrill of top events including the likes of Royal Ascot, Cheltenham, Twickenham and great football matches.

Sheasby says: “Once I was hands-on with patients and now I am hands-on with clients.

“Clients have their own jobs, stresses and strains to worry about. Our role is to look after them. So much so that all they have to do is choose their guests and distribute the event documentation. We handle everything else.

“Whether larger corporations or SMEs, they all need a return on their investment. We need to provide a high standard of event. They are purchasing packages from us to both impress

and spend time networking with their VIP customers. It is about communicating to them that what we are offering is exactly what is going to happen. That means we must provide very personal attention to detail. It is what singles us out from our rivals – we deliver on our promises.”

Eventmasters, located on St Paul’s Square on the cusp of the Jewellery Quarter, has gone from under £2m turnover in 2007 when Sheasby and her management team secured the business, to a forecast £5m in 2016-17.

The team has risen from nine to 16 and it has all happened as a result of innovative thinking – making the most of social media and thriving in the 2008 recession when most were floundering.

But back to basics... like so many entrepreneurial figures that today’s Birmingham attracts, Sheasby isn’t from the city. It all began in

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Sheffield 52 years ago, when she was born as Denise Blaker. Her father was a hospital administrator and it was a job which meant moving around.

When Denise was aged 11, the family arrived in Derby. Her dad was looking after no less than five hospitals, and her mum was an usher in the local magistrates’ courts. Both their children – Denise and brother Paul – were to end up in medical nursing.

He went into psychiatric nursing and has been latterly working in a secure unit looking after some of the most vulnerable members of society.

Like many of us, little Denise enjoyed an upbringing which she didn’t fully appreciate at the time.

“I had really supportive parents who were not stifling,” she says. “They allowed us to make our own way. A bit naughty I know, but I was going to Derby nightclubs at 15 – so long as I had the money to get a cab home … but Dad was always happy to pick me up if needs be.

Different times, I suppose!”

But there was a downside to this openness: “I did not do as well in school as I should have, because I could get away with it. I had ambitions to be a teacher but at Sixth Form College I realised that my approach to study wasn’t where it needed to be for me to pass my A-levels.”

And she didn’t. The blow came as another potential avenue closed: “My passion was ballet.

I attended ballet school in Derby right up until I was 18, three classes a week, financing it by teaching tap dancing. I had been tap dancing from the age of two. We did performances at the Derby Assembly Rooms and at the Derby

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“It was a huge learning curve. And it came just as the world was heading into financial crisis accompanied by recession” Playhouse, perhaps a couple of times a year.”

Sadly a career in ballet wasn’t to be: “I loved performing and I was asked to audition for the Ballet Rambert, but I knew deep down that I just wasn’t good enough.”

And a role behind the scenes, teaching choreography and dance, was never to materialise either.

“Reality hit hard – I had to earn money,” recalls Sheasby. “The dreams went out of the window.”

However, by then she knew she was a “people person”. She says: “I could always connect with others.”

So, more or less by default, she opted for nursing and a big move to Birmingham.

“In those days to get into nursing you had to sit your A-levels but you didn’t have to pass them, so I got accepted. I knew nothing about Birmingham and it was the first time I had ever been away from home.”

It was November 1982 and she was part of 100 new entrants – all girls; not a male in sight.

Hard work, low pay, but the start of a rewarding career which saw her specialise in oncology – cancer to you and me – and eventually rise to senior sister in the haematology and bone marrow unit at the city’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

And early doors, that dearth of men on the course had to be dealt with as the girls hit the town on nights out. The nightclub of choice was Faces, at Five Ways, one stop away on the train

line, and there were cheap nights on offer for the likes of nurses, police, fire and ambulance staff.

This was where she met her long term partner, Mark Sheasby. Although it was perhaps not the most propitious of introductions. “He asked me to dance and after that if he could put his glasses on so he could see what I looked like.

Hardly a case of being swept off my feet!”

The relationship blossomed, sufficient to get Sheasby thrown out of the nurses’ home after her new boyfriend was found there after what was then a 10pm curfew!

All couples go through ups and downs, and with the Sheasbys this has included spells of marriage, divorce and then getting back together, but more than 30 years on and two children later they are living happily together in the Staffordshire village of Alrewas.

Their sons Elliot arrived in 1991 and then Edward in 1999. The former got an economics degree from York University, followed his ambition to go to London, went into recruitment, and then, to his parents’ joy, asked if he could join the family business. He is now a director of Eventmasters and runs the recently opened London office, targeting the firm’s many clients in the South-East.

Edward is still at school – Repton – and hoping to go on to university, but is already steeped in Eventmasters’ ethos, being voted best glass collector and bottle washer in the northern hemisphere!

Sheasby left the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in 2002 to look after Edward who was then still little, taking a part-time job in St Giles Hospice, Whittington, near Lichfield. If becoming a Sister had removed her somewhat from the sharp end of patient care, the hospice took her back there.

Husband Mark, meanwhile, was in corporate hospitality, had become part of Eventmasters, and also, at the same time, acting for a short period as commercial manager of Moseley Rugby Club. Then in 2007 the opportunity came to buy out the company, and Sheasby left nursing to step up to the plate as managing director. “It was a huge learning curve,” she admits. And it came just as the world was heading into financial crisis accompanied by recession. For many companies across all kinds of sectors it heralded a battle for survival. For Eventmasters it represented a big opportunity.

Sheasby says: “It allowed us to approach venues who were struggling to sell packages directly, who previously had resisted working with agents. It was not a struggle to persuade them to let us take our own exclusive facility with them, which we would promote on their behalf.

“This allowed us control, to add to the package where we could, personally interact with the client attendance and manage the event in our own way.”

Eventmasters works in horse racing, rugby, football, cricket, tennis and other sports. One of the core events is with the Rugby Football Union at Twickenham – set to grow further after

SUCCESS STORY bqlive.co.uk

an exclusive deal with Harlequins to utilise the club’s purpose-built corporate facilities at the Twickenham Stoop on England International match days.

They also operate at Cheltenham, Chester, Royal Ascot, York and, after a successful launch this year, the Henley Royal Regatta, with facilities located directly beside the River Thames. The operation at Henley has allowed Eventmasters to further develop their own independent catering business. In addition there are relationships with Trent Bridge, Headingley, Chelsea, Tottenham Hotspur and the Lawn Tennis Association, providing options around the Aegon British grass court summer series prior to Wimbledon.

This expansion has gone hand-in-hand with Eventmasters’ overall e-commerce strategy; the clever use of social media and search engine optimisation (SEO) expertise, placing the company onto the front page for many relevant Google searches.

Sheasby says: “We have our database of clients who have utilised our services in the past and our account managers keep in close contact with them. But all the time you need new business too.

“Once, it meant cold calling and sending out masses of emails. But people are sick of all that, businesses rarely take that sort of call anymore, and we all delete unsolicited emails, don’t we?

“Instead, our extensively developed website, the recognition via social media and search engine positioning sees people contacting us directly.

We can also identify visitors to our site for our account managers to reach out to.

“We are always looking for fresh ways of getting new customers. We are still selling a product and the bottom line is about bums on seats. This is our preferred way of selling, but as always, if we are providing the customer with a return on both their experience and their investment, not only will they will keep coming back but they will be happy to recommend our services to others.”

“Our extensively developed website, the recognition via social media and search engine positioning sees people contacting us directly”

So successful has Eventmasters’ e-commerce operation been that it has been launched as a spin-off company, Soar Enterprises Online, aimed at helping businesses make the most of their online presence.

As part of the overall promotional effort, the Sheasbys have a passion for horse racing and over the years have had varying degrees of success, the highlight being part of the consortium owning Imperial Commander, winner of the 2010 Cheltenham Gold Cup. Their current racing portfolio includes Turanga Leela, trained in Alvechurch just south of Birmingham by Ian Williams, who won at

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Chester this summer.

For Sheasby, relaxation also involves classical music, and she’s a regular attendee at Symphony Hall with her sons and her mum – although partner Mark is banned for snoring too much!

She says: “It is pure escapism – I can focus and forget everything else.”

And, while we are on the subject of escapism, the eventual aim is to hand over to the kids, if that’s their desire, then buy a house with a bigger garden, still in Alrewas of course.

“I love flowers,” she declares. Which perhaps explains, at least in part, why business is blooming! n

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INTERVIEW

e g a c i m o t a An n o i t u l o rev

bqlive.co.uk

ing and g n a h c s i Banking banks are driving er challeng t change. Peter tha one much of ks to Craig Iley, k tal tom Ban Jackson A f o s r e und of the fo

INTERVIEW Special Feature

Banks have not enjoyed a good press in recent years, having been condemned as either villains or scapegoats.

RBS still seems a long way from repaying the taxpayer and, at the time of writing, Germany’s troubled Deutsche Bank has seen its shares plunge to its lowest ever level.

So, you might think it would call for a high degree of courage - or foolhardiness - to found a new bank in this environment, but there are plenty of shrewd operators who see opportunity amidst the challenges and have set up so-called challenger banks.

Among these is Atom Bank, founded and headquartered in Durham, a city famous for its university and its miners’ gala, but not for financial services.

And the bank, based in the city’s leafy outskirts, is way beyond the stage of being a twinkle in the eye.

It was formally established in April 2014, swiftly raised £135m of capital, gained its banking licence and put in place its key technological infrastructure.

Having been set up with just six people, it now has about 250 full time staff operating from two sites in Durham and a small London office.

It is now in business and is developing a full retail and commercial banking service and will shortly be announcing a new mortgage product.

The citizens of Durham, however, could be forgiven if they remain unaware of this new financial institution.

When I pull up in the carpark at around 8.30am I could have arrived at one of the university’s newer colleges. The Atom staff turning for work look more like students than bankers – young, casually dressed, often riding bikes and sporting a high concentration

of hipster facial hair. It’s banking, but not as we know it.

I met Craig Iley, Atom’s managing director of business banking and one of its founders.

Iley, 52, has a background in traditional banking, having started at TSB in 1983 and reaching the position of regional director for Santander. Like most of the bank’s employees, he wears sweatshirt and casual trousers – it’s all much more Silicon Valley than Threadneedle Street.

He is fully conscious of being part of a Brave New World and it’s something he has clearly thought long and hard about. He explains in a measured, almost academic way, the nature of the changes we are all seeing.

“The world is in the middle of its third revolution and that revolution is a Digital Revolution. Unlike the Agricultural Revolution or the Industrial Revolution, the pace of change is significantly faster and as a population we will probably only get something like 20 years to adjust. This Digital Revolution will affect every aspect of life and it doesn’t really matter where you work, whether it’s in health, education, manufacturing or in banking. For banks in particular, this is going to mean a very painful adjustment.’’

He argues that banks are based on a 17th century model, designed to physically move paper around a local physical environment whereas banking in the 21st century will be a matter of moving data digitally and internationally. He cites a report by management consultancy McKinsey in February which highlighted that the worldwide trade in data is now estimated to be worth more than the economic value of all manufactured goods and associated trade.

It has been against this backdrop that Iley and

igh rting a h o p s d n a we bikes n riding ut not as e b t f , o g , in d k e n dress t’s ba casually ial hair. I c a f r e t “Young, s hip ation of concentr know it”

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his fellow founders analysed trends in financial behaviour, technological developments, the convergence of technological devices and the blurring of the distinction between work and home life.

“We believe that people are more and more seeking to have a relationship with their money rather than a relationship with their bank,’’ he says.

To satisfy that need, they set about creating a new type of bank and for this new model they identified three key elements: low cost; transparency; and innovation.

Iley argues that the cost base of traditional banks is too high leading to the development of complex and expensive products which are often unsuited to their customers’ needs.

“Transparency, I believe is the battleground for the future of banking over the next five to ten

years,’’ he says, adding that banks have been allowed to develop “very opaque’’ business models making it impossible for customers to understand exactly what they are paying for and whether it represents good value. Innovation is crucial in giving consumers greater power.

“This is very much a journey and we have made significant strides in introducing things such as biometric security and access and a very interactive app which is based on gaming technology rather than simply transferring a website to a mobile platform,’’ he says. “We’re developing our systems to be more interactive and able to link with other interfaces and we’ve developed a very slick process to allow us to lend money to SMEs. There remains much to do but we’re excited by the possibilities.’’

a g to have in k e e s e mor with more and n a relationship e r a le p o e er tha ve that p oney rath m ir “We belie e h t hip with relations k” their ban

The app has been developed for Apple and Android devices and Atom has built a deposit product to provide the business’s liquidity and fund its business lending product and it will soon unveil its new mortgage product. It is also working on personal and business current accounts and debit and credit cards.

“While these products will be recognisable as traditional banking products, we have some surprises that we believe will delight the market,’’ says Iley.

For liquidity Atom Bank will rely on depositors and not the interbank market.

“If you look back to the financial crash of 2008, some of the businesses that got caught up in that were actually solvent but because liquidity markets froze around the world they were unable to fund their ongoing business models,’’ he says.

Atom’s deposit product has allowed it to reach the stage where it is now lending to support business growth.

“At the moment we are lending to SMEs which have a requirement to borrow and we are looking to balance that with a sensible credit appetite and sensible security requirements,’’ he says.

Atom will be willing to secure loans against assets other than bricks and mortar, such as an occupational lease or a debtor book.

While the bank will be highly automated and technology driven, it will still place great importance on manual underwriting.

“That is really important. Because of the variation we get in SMEs across the UK no bank has managed to successfully automate the lending process in the sense of the decision making,’’ says Iley.

“But what you can do,’’ he adds, “is improve the process.’’

Traditionally that process would involve visits to the bank, supplying financial records, the relationship manager forwarding an application to Credit who would analyse it and ask their own questions – a process which could take six weeks. Iley says Atom Bank can complete the process in 72 hours.

How? Iley explains that Atom uses its UK-wide network of intermediaries, made up of SMEs’ trusted advisors such as financial advisors and brokers and accountants.

INTERVIEW Special Feature

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al ve region strong a h o t t n a “If you w ou have to have a y, y have to autonom e otherwise you he bas n where t o d financial n o L o ually t d” go contin controlle e r a s g in purse str

“We work with a small group because we have to have confidence in the quality of the information that comes to us and we do extensive due diligence on these partners,’’ he says.

Technology then comes into play with Atom’s Digital Bridge which links to the borrower’s accounting package allowing it to submit information electronically.

“By giving them the opportunity to do it digitally, it takes away a lot of the hassle factor for them,’’ he says. “But it does much more than that behind the scenes, it also helps us understand how the accounts have been compiled and it means we don’t have to keep going back asking for information because the information they submit tends to be more complete.’’

The information can be fed directly into the

underwriter’s analysis tools giving them more information in a more streamlined way.

Iley adds: “What it also allows us to do is to share information back with the client and their advisor who can use this information to help them improve the operation of their business,’’ “We are saying that as part of your banking you can have all this information back for free. In the past banks have taken information from SMEs and have used that to make sure the balance of power in that relationship sat with the bank.’’

He believes this anticipates far-reaching changes which are coming to business, with it becoming increasingly necessary for firms to digitise their accounting, as HMRC, for example, moves increasingly to online and digital processing.

Atom’s ambition is to act as a thought leader and work with businesses in adapting to, and

adopting, the new technology.

If Atom’s vision is realised then it could drive a banking revolution, which will not only be good for consumers but also for regional economies outside London.

Iley says: “We’ve had a huge amount of support because we are creating something different and bringing high quality jobs to the area.

“If you want to have regional autonomy, you have to have a strong financial base otherwise you have to go continually to London where the purse strings are controlled. The idea of having a financial centre isn’t just unique to the North East, it has planted a seed for other areas.

The fact that we can do it here I hope will give confidence to businesses everywhere that in the digital world it’s possible to do things wherever you are.’’ n

BIT OF A CHAT Bill Borde’s examining the news behind the headlines The art of finance It was networking with an arty difference when Smith & Williamson hosted 300-guests to a watercolour viewing at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham.

The accountancy, investment management and tax group showed off one of the UK’s largest collections of contemporary watercolour paintings shortlisted in the 29th Sunday Times Watercolour Competition.

John Hodgson, head of tax and business services at the Birmingham office, added: “What was particularly pleasing was seeing clients from all sides coming together to appreciate, and indeed purchase, the paintings on display.”

Office rebate rumours

Lobsters at the flicks A brand new seafood restaurant is set to breathe new life into Birmingham’s Futurist Cinema following a £700,000 renovation.

The owners of Lobster Peninsula were keen to maintain the historic features of the building’s architecture, which dates back to the early 1900s.

It stopped functioning as a cinema in the 1990s and lay derelict for years, before being transformed into a lap dancing establishment in recent years.

Lobster Peninsula co-owner William Sui revealed that: “The previous lease holders had done a lot of work to hide the original features of the building so when we got the keys earlier this year it was looking very ugly.

“We’ve done a lot of work to restore some of the features such as the high ceilings. We have created a very big restaurant but even so we had to create a partition wall and section off the main cinema auditorium.”

The high end seafood restaurant will serve delectable sharing seafood platters of lobster, crab, creole fish, prawns, calamari, mussels, a catch of the day dish and also steak and chicken dishes.

Rosie’s sweet bubbles One of the region’s leading social entrepreneurs has opened her first macaroon and bubbles bar – and reckons 100 more will follow by 2021.

Rosie Ginday unveiled the UK’s first Miss Macaroon shop in the Great Western Arcade, selling up to 30 different types of macaroons along with glasses of prosecco.

Four new staff have been taken on to run the shop and profits will go towards expanding the organisation’s ‘Macaroons Make a Difference’ course that helps the long-term unemployed, ex-offenders or care leavers to gain vital employment training and jobs. Former BQ cover girl Ginday, who started her macaroon-making business five years ago, said: “We’ve been working towards this moment for some time so I’m genuinely proud that we’ve been able to bring the first Miss Macaroon store to the people of Birmingham… my home city.

“We’ve got ambitious plans to open multiple venues across the UK. Leeds will hopefully be our next destination and we’ll hopefully hit 100 Miss Macaroon shops by 2021.”

The tax man could provide a major boost to Birmingham’s property sector – by taking a huge lump of lettings for its staff.

Justyn Horton, senior branch manager at city centre estate agency Century 21 Bigwood, said: “It is a buoyant market already and this would be another vote of confidence.”

Horton was commenting on speculation that HM Revenue & Customs is looking at taking some or all of the Three Snowhill office development – scheduled for completion in 2018 – to bring together thousands of tax staff from across the West Midlands.

The plan is to consolidate around 170 tax offices nationally into 13 regional hubs.

“We must wait and see whether all this materialises, but as leaks go it sounds as if it is on the right lines,” said Horton. “Such a public sector relocation, on the back of private companies such as HSBC’s new spin-off bank moving into Arena Central, would be another feather in the cap of Colmore Business District and build on Birmingham’s national coverage.”

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EVENTS

BQ’s business diary helps you forward plan

DECEMBER 07

ABS, Fresh Perspectives series. Social Media – is it really working for you? 7.30am to 9.30am, Aston Business School, Birmingham B4 7ET. Free. Details via ABS pages at www.aston.ac.uk

08

Cultiv8 Solutions and BCU present: The Secret Santa Strategy and Networking Event 2016! Birmingham City University, Curzon Building, 4 Cardigan Street, Birmingham B4 7BD. £10 to £20. For details, contact organiser via www.cultiv8solutions.com

08

GBCC, Business Growth Seminar: Leadership, 8.30am to 10.30am, Chamber House, 75 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, B15 3DH. Member: free, Non-member: £25. Details: 0121 454 6171 or email info@birmingham-chamber.com

08

GBCC, Exhibitions Skills Masterclass, 9.30am to 4.30pm, ICentrum, Innovation Birmingham Campus, 6 Holt Street, B7 4BP. Member/Non-Member: Free. Details: 0121 454 6171 or email info@birmingham-chamber.com

08

Women’s Enterprise Hub, Christmas Networking Event, Southside Business Centre, 249 Ladypool Road, Birmingham B12 8LF. Free.

Call 0121 572 0488 for details.

13

GBCC, Business Breakfast with Katie Trout, 7.30am to 10am, IET Birmingham: Austin Court, 80 Cambridge Street, B1 2NP. Member: £15, Non-Member: £30. Details: 0121 454 6171 or email info@birmingham-chamber.com

14

GBCC, Export Documentation, 9.15am to 4.30pm, Chamber House,75 Harborne Road, Edgbaston, B15 3DH. Member: £210, Non-Member: £230. Details: 0121 454 6171 or email info@birmingham-chamber.com

14

ABS, Fresh Perspectives series. How sustainable is your brand?

7.30-9.30am, Aston Business School, Birmingham B4 7ET. Free.

Details via ABS pages at www.aston.ac.uk

21

BBBC, Christmas Breakfast Meeting, Hotel du Vin, Church Street, Birmingham. £20. Book via www.bbbc.biz

JANUARY 12

GBCC, Ecommerce for International Trade Masterclass, 9.30am to 4.30pm, ICentrum, Innovation Birmingham Campus, 6 Holt Street, B7 4BP. Member/Non-Member: Free. Details: 0121 454 6171 or email info@birmingham-chamber.com

18

BBBC, HS2 Update - How is construction going to impact in Birmingham, Hotel du Vin, Church Street, Birmingham. £20.

Book via www.bbbc.biz

19

GBCC, Quarterly Business Report Q4 Briefing Breakfast: Growing Jobs in Greater Birmingham, 7.30am to 9.30am, Birmingham City University, The Curzon Building, 4 Cardigan Street, B4 7BD. Member/Non-Member: Free. Details: 0121 454 6171 or email info@birmingham-chamber.com

19

GBCC, Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Masterclass, 9.30am to 4.30pm, KPMG, One Snowhill, Snow Hill Queensway, B4 6GH. Member/Non-Member: Free. Details: 0121 454 6171 or email info@birmingham-chamber.com

FEBRUARY 19

ABS, Fresh Perspectives series. The changing face of customer loyalty and importance of customer emotions, 7.30am to 9.30am, Aston Business School, Birmingham B4 7ET. Free. Details via ABS pages at www.aston.ac.uk

BQ’s business events diary gives you lots of time to forward plan.

To add your event online, email details to eventsdiary@bqlive.co.uk

Please check with contacts beforehand that arrangements have not changed. Events organisers are also asked to notify us at the above email address of any changes or cancellations as soon as they are known. KEY: ABS, Aston Business School. BBBC, Birmingham Business Breakfast Club. GBCC, Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce. IoD, Institute of Directors. UBBC, University of Birmingham Business Club

The diary is updated daily online at bqlive.co.uk