LDP Business Magazine September 2010

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M O N T H L Y R E G I O N A L B U S I N E S S M A G A Z I N E

BUSINESSLDPLDPBUSINESSw w w . l d p b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

TonyCaldeiraoutlineshistransatlanticambitions

From China toNew YorkFrom China toNew York●Breakingbarriers:Women inbusiness ●Lookingahead:StHelensplans for the future ●Education:What’snewthis year?

w w w . l d p b u s i n e s s . c o . u kS e p t e m b e r 2 0 1 0

TonyCaldeiraoutlineshistransatlanticambitions

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I HOPE you had a good summerholiday and took the opportunityto unwind.

It’s all the more important tohave enjoyed some respite,because we have a very toughautumn ahead of us. Many peoplein both the public and privatesector must be returning to theirdesks with a huge sense oftrepidation about what mighthappen in the coming weeks.

The Government’s spendingreview, due in October, is almostupon us. At that point, theCoalition will tell us how andwhere the cuts will fall.

And while the immediateimpact will be felt by the publicsector, it’s going to have animmediate knock-on effect on the

private sector. We already knowthat the Building Schools for theFuture programme has been cut,costing the local constructionindustry hundreds of millions ofpounds in lost contracts. Whileour major hospital rebuildingprojects locally will still proceed,other schemes will be halted.

Budgets for social care, defencework, policing and many otherpublic sector activities will be cutand, with them, various

outsourcing contracts with theprivate sector curtailed orcancelled.

People working in or with thepublic sector have told me thatmany agencies and localauthorities are sitting ontheir hands at themoment, behavingindecisively like theproverbial rabbit in theheadlights. They don’twant to move, eventhough they can see thedanger coming straight forthem.

So, while the nextfew weeks maywell bedifficult formany, at least

the uncertainty will be over soon.The public sector has, after all,been protected through the worstof the recession and the creditcrunch. In contrast, the private

sector has had nowhere tohide. Hundreds of thousands

of jobs have been shed andpay freezes implementedalready. Uncertainty hasbeen blighting theprivate sector for sometime and will continue todo so, without respite, for

many months to come.The sense of

uncertaintywas com-poundedlastmonth

when the Bank of Englanddowngraded its forecasts foreconomic growth.

On the other hand, thoseforecasts were only downgraded abit, from a growth forecast of 3.1%to 2.5% for the coming year.Compared to what went before,the lower forecast still seemsquite chirpy.

In any case, there is plenty ofgood news about. General Motorsis floating, China is boomingagain, manufacturing output isrising, and mergers andacquisitions are increasing. Somemight say the light is very visibleat the end of the tunnel.

4NEWSCity firm’s glossy future

17BIG INTERVIEWTony Caldeira, of Caldeira

27COMMERCIAL PROPERTYFears over industrial space

34TRANSPORTSmart lorries at the port

36EDUCATIONEdge Hill looks east

9BIG FEATUREWomen in business

16PROFESSIONAL SECTORSOff to Shanghai

23ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENTFocus on St Helens

32HOW GREEN IS YOURBUSINESS?New rating for offices

28SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY‘Bench to bedside’ success

30INTERNATIONAL TRADEFive-star boost for company

39THE LIST

42SOCIAL DIARYCarolyn Hughes out on the town

38RESTAURANT REVIEWSakura, in Liverpool

40NETWORKERAlistair Houghton sets sail

EDITOR’SLETTER

BILL GLEESON

INSIDE

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LDPBUSINESS

EDITORBill Gleeson0151 472 [email protected]

DEPUTY BUSINESSEDITORTony McDonough0151 330 [email protected]

BUSINESS WRITERSAlistair [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

HEAD OF IMAGESBarrie Mills

MARKETINGEXECUTIVECath Reeves0151 285 8428

ADVERTISEMENTDIRECTORDebbie McGraw

ADVERTISEMENTMANAGERJackie McMahon0151 330 5077

ADVERTISEMENTSALESJulie Cowley0151 472 2311Neil Johnson0151 472 2705

PHOTOGRAPHYTrinity Mirror

PUBLISHED BYTrinity Mirror NW2,PO Box 48,Old Hall Street,Liverpool,L69 3EB.

TELEPHONE0151 227 2000

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COPYRIGHTLDP Business is printedmonthly and distributed withthe Liverpool Daily Post. Nopart of this publication may bereproduced without permissionof the publisher.

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NEWS

Marketing specialist Jenny Hinds

Tracy Whittaker, founder of 2 Love My Lips

The PwC workers take a breather

City entrepreneur isset for glossy futureA

LIVERPOOL firm thatsupplies essential cosmeticsthrough vending machinesis in line for a top nationalbusiness award.

Entrepreneur Tracy Whittakerstarted 2 Love my Lips in September,2009, after spotting a gap in the market.

She was out on a date when sherealised she’d forgotten her lip gloss.

What women needs, she observed, isstrategically placed vending machinesselling such essential cosmetics.

Her date agreed and suggested sheshould set up her own business.

The idea developed further when MsWhittaker and a girlfriend foundthemselves the target of someunwanted attention in a bar and fled,leaving drinks untouched on the basisthat they might be spiked.

She developed the 2 Love My Lipskits, which contain a lip gloss, a drinktesting kit and a stay-safe guide.

The company has signed agreementswith major names in the retail andtravel industry including Superdrug,Thomas Cook and Thomson Holidays.

She is one of six finalists in theNorth West heat of the HSBC Start-UpStars Awards.

The regional winner will go forwardto the national finals in October with atop prize of £30,000 up for grabs.

Head of business banking for HSBC,Huw Morgan, said: “HSBC Start-UpStars is about demonstrating bypractical example that, with the righthelp and support, there are still greatopportunities out there for people withthe dedication and drive to succeed.”

The HSBC Start-Up Stars Awards,now in their tenth year, recognise theUK’s most promising young businessesless than four years old.

More than £50,000-worth of cash andprizes is given out to the winners ofthe accolades.

SME networkingcomes to HeathNETWORKINGbreakfasts are now onthe menu at TheHeath Business &Technical Park, inRuncorn, for anyoneaiming to cook uptasty new businessleads and contacts.

One of the country’sbiggest networkingorganisations –4networking – will bemeeting fortnightly atThe Heath for“breakfasts with adifference” that aim toprovide inspiration,support and advicefor small tomedium-sizedbusinesses.

Marketing specialistJenny Hinds, who isbased in StocktonHeath, says: “Thesemeetings are partsocial and partbusiness and really dowork. The Heath is agreat venue for a4networking breakfastbecause it is such ahub of enterprise.

“People from a wide

variety of businessesget a chance tonetwork together andoffer mutual support.

“The club is open toanyone outside of TheHeath, as well as thosebased at the park.”

After trying severalother venues, theRuncorn breakfastclub has decided tomeet at The Heath.4networking now hasmore than 30,000members at over 200breakfast clubsthroughout thecountry.

Members can gethelp and advice fromothers on the networkvia the internet andthrough the forums.

Ms Hinds added:“They take place from8am to 10am with thefirst half an hourinformal time foreveryone to mingle.“Then, at 8.30am, wesit down to breakfast.Everyone at themeeting gives a40-second speech.”

City accountants dig in to help Autistic SocietyA TEAM of volunteersfrom accountantsPricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), inLiverpool, swappedtheir suits for spades togive Wirral AutisticSociety a GroundForce-style makeover.

The communitychallenge was arrangedthrough Business in theCommunity.

The team were set thechallenge of assistingthe site staff in relayinga stone path for thebenefit of residents. Theexisting stone pathconsisted of largepieces of rock andstone that presented a

tripping hazard. Theteam’s task was toremove the existingrocks and replace themwith a compacted baseof smaller stones andearth located elsewhereon site.

It was all hands to thepump as everyone gotstuck in with rakes,spades andwheelbarrows in whatturned out to bebackbreaking work.

Jonathan Main, seniorpartner at PwC, said:“As members ofBusiness in theCommunity, we werekeen to get involved inthis challenge.”

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NEWS

ByLIAMFOGARTY, chair of ‘AMayor For Liverpool’

It is vital that the new LEPsare publicly accountable

Liam Fogarty – says we should all be allowed to choose who will run the new Local Enterprise Partnerships

WHEN it comes to dealing withgovernment – central or local –business people tend to adopt theGreta Garbo principle – they wantto be left alone.

But even the most devoted freemarketeer knows that, in areaslike Merseyside, public agenciesand taxpayers’ money do have arole to play in supportingenterprise and growing localbusinesses.

The Coalition Government isscrapping the NorthwestDevelopment Agency.

In its place will be LocalEnterprise Partnerships (LEPs),including one for the Liverpool

city region. Business MinisterMark Prisk told MPs the newLEPs would be “legal, formalentities” whose job would be “toencourage strong local leadershipand promote economic growth”.

LEPs will take the lead in areassuch as employment, planning ,infrastructure and even housing.

In Manchester (first out of theblocks as usual ) the localpartners already have their eyeson control of tourism, inwardinvestment, business support andscience and research.

This is big stuff. And big sumsof public money are involved.Alas, the public is not. These

changes will matter to everybusiness and every citizen. Buttoo few of us have been payingattention.

Membership of LEPs, said MrPrisk, “must be equal betweenbusiness and civic leaders”.

But, if we’re not careful, theLEP for Liverpool and itseconomic hinterland will end uplooking like the old MerseysideCounty Council, minus thedemocracy.

Liverpool doesn't need anothercosy arrangement betweendistrict councillors and self-appointed business leaders. It’svital the new body is accountable

and transparent. The LEP’spriorities should be topics forpublic debate. Its performanceshould be subject to properscrutiny.

It's called democracy and it’spowerful stuff.

Of course, the LEP must be“business-driven” and strive tocreate a vibrant enterpriseculture.

But political leadershipmatters, too. Partnerships can dolots of things but they cannotenthuse, inspire, drive or dream.

You can’t crusade bycommittee. And a crusade is whatwe need right now to create the

smarter, better-trained andbetter-connected Liverpool we allwant. And that crusade will needa standard-bearer.

The Government is alreadycommitted to having an electedmayor in Liverpool by 2012.

The idea floated by, amongothers, city council leader JoeAnderson of a directly-elected“mayor for Merseyside/greaterLiverpool” to lead the LEPdeserves proper consideration.

If the Liverpool LEP is to fulfilits potential then the people itserves must be on board, ideallywith someone we choose at thehelm.

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▲THE BIG FEATURE

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Medicash chief executive Sue Weir – insists it is ‘completely irrelevant’ whether you are a man or a woman when it comes to business success

What glass ceiling?

Can Liverpool become an international beaconfor women’s enterprise? LDP Business finds out– and meets some of the most successful women

in Merseyside’s business community

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THE BIG FEATURE

Julie Jones, left, and KateMorris – have launchedthe Fashion Findswebsite

THE creators of theWICED women’senterprise centre, inLiverpool, hope it will bemore than just an office

space – it will be an internationalbeacon for women in business.

Building work on the £5mWomen’s International Centre forEconomic Development is wellunder way in Liverpool’s BalticTriangle. When it opens inJanuary, it will include officespace, support services and ahome for international researchinto female entrepreneurship.

As well as offering support tolocal women in business, it alsoaims to influence local andnational government policy andprovide a practical example toacademics and researchers.

Women’s enterprise agencyTrain 2000 has big ambitions forthe centre. But that is becauseMerseyside needs more women tostart businesses.

On these pages, we talk to aselection of the region’s leadingbusinesswomen about theirexperiences of starting companiesor rising through the corporateranks.

Now Train 2000 hopes its newcentre will help generate the rolemodels of the future, while at thesame time boosting Merseyside’seconomy.

Nationally, Train 2000 sayswomen are only half as likely tobe involved in business start-upactivities as men.

The 2008 Annual SmallBusiness Survey showed therewere 602,000 female-ownedbusinesses in the UK, representingjust 14% of all businesses.

Regeneration bodies in andaround Liverpool want to boostbusiness start-up levels. For thatto happen, more women will needto start businesses.

Helen Millne, chief operatingofficer at Train 2000, said:“Business start-up rates aresignificantly lower among women.

“There’s an economicimperative to this. As a country,we need our economy to bestronger.

“We need more businesses andmore jobs, and small businessescreate as many or more new jobsthan large enterprises.

“We’ve got a double imperative.We can help the national economyand help women’s prospects.”

Train 2000 looked at similarorganisations around the worldbefore creating the idea forWICED. It worked in partnershipwith Liverpool Vision andLiverpool City Council to developthe project.

“It’s the first city in the worldto have this model,” said MsMillne. “Some of the experts we’reworking with think it may be thebiggest women’s-focused centre ofits kind in the world. It’s acutting-edge centre.

“The message we want to getacross is that Liverpool is the cityfor women in business. If youwant to be entrepreneurial,Liverpool is the city for you. Wewant to be the best in the country,maybe in the world.”

The centre will become a homefor international researchers –who will also be able to learnfrom the businesses onsite.

“We believe there’s a synergybetween practice, research andinfluencing policy,” said MsMillne.

“It will be about using the verybest business research andapplying it so we can learn fromit.

“We can learn from academics,or they can learn from thebusinesswomen here.”

Ms Millne said WICED wasneeded because mainstreamsupport services sometimes failedto meet the needs of women.

She said: “We still live in asociety where, within familyunits, women have the coreresponsibilities.

“That might change in thefuture, but it hasn’t changedfundamentally yet.

“So when women are startingbusinesses, they have differentthings to think about and juggle.

“We want to make sure all thosethings are addressed before theystart.

“It’s all about helping women tosee that there are opportunitiesthere for them.

“If they haven’t had role modelsin their own families, then maybeone role we have is to show that,yes, women can set up successfulbusinesses. Sometimes the workwe do isn’t simply businessdevelopment – it’s inspiration.”

Kate Morris agrees that theinspirational role of anorganisation such as Train 2000 isvital.

She and friend Julie set up theFashion Finds website in April tohelp women find fashioninspiration.

The site features photos ofwomen around the city, withdetails of what they’re wearingand where they bought it.

Neither had any businessexperience before – Ms Jonesworked in schools while Ms

Morris worked in the mentalhealth sector – but they foundinspiration from Train 2000.

Ms Morris, 27, said: “We didn’thave any business experience, andwe didn’t have much funding.

“But it was Train 2000 that said:‘You can do this’.”

When you go into the Train2000 office, you can see theseother businesses that have madeit, and it is quite inspirational. Wethought that, if they could do it,we could do, it too.

“When you think about settingup your own business, you thinkof Richard Branson or Bill Gates.You think you’ll never beanywhere near people like that.

“But then you visit somewherelike Train 2000 and you can seereal people who have succeeded.”

Another Train 2000 “graduate”is former Brookside star RachaelLindsay, who this year set up Face2 Face with her sister, Nikki, toprovide drama therapy workshopsin Merseyside.

The workshops are designed tohelp people with low self-esteem,from the long-term unemployed tothose with learning disabilities.

Nikki Lindsay had run a dramaschool but Rachel, who is alsotraining to be a counsellor, hadnever set up a business before.Now Ms Lindsay is enjoyingtravelling the region winning newbusiness.

“We didn’t have any issues interms of feeling independent andhaving confidence, but thepaperwork side of things was alearning process for me,” shesaid.

“I wanted to deal with that sideof things as my sister has childrenand she’s got her hands full. Iwanted to do the books and theinvoices.”

Networking groups can also bea source of advice and inspirationfor women. One of the largest isWomen in Business forMerseyside, led by Ellen Kerr,Elaine Owen and Jan McDermott.

It organises regular events andworks to promote and raiseawareness of women's enterprise.

It also holds an annual awardsceremony – at which KathrynBurkhill, of Liverpool Vision, wasnamed best networker.

Ms Burkill started holdingnetworking events for women inAintree more than two years ago.Today, the quarterly LadiesLunchtime Group event attract asmany as 80 people from

Merseyside and beyond tonetwork and hear frominspirational speakers includingNatalie Haywood, founder of LeafTea Shop and Bar.

Ms Burkill said: “Our delegatescan look and say ‘She can do it –so can I’. It’s a learningexperience.”

Ms Burkhill’s next meeting willbe held on Wednesday, September29, at the Isla GladstoneConservatory, in Stanley Park.

She said: “We’ve found thatwomen are quicker to open upand speak to other women.

“Someone might say ‘I’ve had abad day’, and another might say‘I’ve never met you before, but I’vehad this problem and this is howI’ve dealt with it.

“Our members are all verysupportive. The trick is to makepeople feel welcome.”

An artist’simpressionof the newWICEDcentre, inLiverpool

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THE BIG FEATURE

Random ideas lead tovery tasty successHowdeli ownermadeher cakeandate itWHEN asked about her businessplan, hotel and cateringentrepreneur Helen Ainscoughlooks baffled.

“Er, we’ve always donerandom things,” she said whensummarising her businesscareer progress, at her busyoffice in the Racquet Club Hoteland Ziba Bar, in Liverpool.

With her brother, Martin, sheis a director of Bispham GreenBrewery Co, and theirAinscough portfolio has becomewell-known for its characterful –but high quality – offer in thehospitality and catering industry.

The Ainscough company nowhas eight up-market hostelriesand hotels, including TheWizard, at Nether Alderley;Eagle & Child, Parbold; and itscrown jewel, Miller Howe,formerly celebrity chef JohnTovey’s country house hotel andrestaurant at Windermere, whichthey bought three years ago.

Having trained as a surveyor,“which I hated and wasappalling at”, Ms Ainscoughturned to her cookery passion.

“It was always my first loveand I thought I’d give workingfor myself a try,” she said.

“I bought a deli shop inFalkner Street for £5,000, when itwas still the red light quarter.

“I worked with chef MartinCooper, who said things like ‘I’vemade every mistake in the book’and ‘don’t worry, it’s unlikelyanyone will rise up from theirseats and murder you’!

“I’m quite hyper and he wasquite calming. The thing about awoman working for oneself isthat there is no glass ceiling.”

The No 7 Falkner Street deliand cafe was sold eight years agoto buy the Racquets, when itfolded as a members’ only club.

The hotel has come throughbeing blighted by huge buildingworks of 20 Chapel Street towerblock across the road and thenthe recession.

“We’ve held up well, especially

with wedding bookings, whichare now much more last minute.

“But I’m waiting to see if thereis a downturn, from people notplanning weddings in 2009.

“Speaking as an ageingmother with a two-year-olddaughter, the hardest thing for awoman is grafting on childcarewhile working and maintainingyour position financially.

“Having to delegate childcareis emotionally stressful and pulls

at your heart-strings. In thisbusiness, you can easily work 14-hour days, but you can’t as aparent.

“But there’s no real reasonwhy women can’t get on inbusiness. They have the sameeducation and the sameopportunities.

“We’ve always done randomthings. My brother is thevisionary, and I’m a terrier whojust keeps on trying.”

Intuitive: Helen Ainscough, at the Racquet Club Hotel

Self-confidence is key to sucessCONFIDENCE is thekey factor for anywoman wanting toget on in thebusiness world, saysElaine Cunningham.

She has worked inthe furniture andinterior designbusiness for manyyears and now ownsthe ElaineCunninghamInteriors store, inAigburth, and theBoConcept outlet, inLiverpool city centre.

She is also set totake a 2,000 sq ft unitin Chapel Street thismonth with theElaine CunninghamHome Store.

Her role involvestravelling all over theworld on buying tripsand negotiatingdeals. It is a sectordominated by men.

She said: “Thingshave moved alongenormously in thelast five to 10 years.

“Today, any woman

who knows her stuffdoesn’t need specialtreatment. I haveonly ever found thatmy colleagues,suppliers, bankmanagers, landlords,etc, have treated mewith the utmost ofrespect.

“I think oftenwomen lack self-confidence and itsonly when you reacha certain age thatyou are less criticalof yourself, allowing

you to focus on whatis important.

“Times havechanged and, morethan ever, I feel equalto any of my peers.”

Elaine Cunningham

Following the announcement earlier thisyear, Rensburg Sheppards are now awholly owned subsidiary of Investec (a

specialist Bank and Asset Manager) and aconstituent of the FTSE 100.

Angela fervently believes that havingInvestec as a parent company enhances thecapacity of Rensburg Sheppards to offergenuinely independent, expert financialadvice and management, rooted in the valuesthat have served the firm so well over the last200 years.Angela works closely and develops

relationships with financial adviserswho are increasingly choosing to workwith investment managers like RensburgSheppards in order that their clients are ableto benefit from the investment managementexpertise that a business with £13 billion ofclient’s assets under management is ableto offer. With the ongoing volatility of assetmarkets, the complexity and sheer numberof investment products available and theimminent arrival of the Retail DistributionReview, Angela is helping many advisersmake the necessary transitions to theirbusiness models thus allowing them to focuson their core strengths. In this area Angelahas seen considerable success in raisingawareness of the Rensburg Sheppard’sBespoke Discretionary ManagementSolutions (BDMS) service.Angela has been instrumental in the

development of the BDMS service group-wide and has seen interest escalate as theincreasingly onerous regulatory requirementslaid down by the FSA become more apparentby the day.As Business Development Director

for Liverpool and the North West Angelais also responsible for the developingrelationships across the broad spectrum ofother professionals with whom RensburgSheppards have long-standing associationswith. These include the legal andaccountancy professions, and increasinglyinclude entrepreneurs and business ownerswho are looking to appoint RensburgSheppards because of their financialplanning, pension and investment expertise,to manage, and more importantly, topreserve and grow their wealth.Angela spends much of her time

travelling nationally and is also involvedin the group-wide strategic businessdevelopment initiatives.

Angela juggles all of these responsibilitieswhilst being the mother of 3 beautifulchildren, and when she gets any spare time,has in the past run both the New York andRome marathons and trekked Machu Picchufor charity in 2008.However, despite her challenging roles

and responsibilities, Angela is a passionatebeliever that the business ethos ofRensburg Sheppards, which puts qualityand excellence of service at the forefrontof its strategy, ensures that her role alwaysremains rewarding.

ollowing the announc

AngelaCruiseAngela Cruiseis the BusinessDevelopmentDirector forRensburg SheppardsInvestmentManagement (RSIM)in the North West.

Longstandingassociations

Expert financialadviceandmanagement

12

THE BIG FEATURE

Climbing the corporate ladderHigh-flying executives showgender neednot beabar to success in theboardroomIT SEEMS that hardly a week goesby without a salacious story inthe national press about sexdiscrimination in the City’sfinancial services sector.

Imelda O’Neill has worked inbanking for 12 years and hasspent some of that time down inLondon.

She has nothing but praise forthe enlightened approach of heremployer for the past four years,Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS).

However, she says she hasworked in other organisations inthe past where moving up thecorporate ladder is more difficultfor a woman than a man.

“It has been the case inprevious roles that I found Iwouldn’t get promotion if therewas a belief that I was planning tohave a family.”

Ms O’Neill is director of theRBS Liverpool-based corporatebanking team, based at the Plazain the city centre. Her clients arebusiness people across Liverpooland Wirral.

Not only, she says, are women

very well represented within RBSin the North West, she has alsonoted a surge in femaleentrepreneurs in the region.

She added: “It does tend to bethe case in the banking industrythat you will find more womenworking as cashiers in corporatebanking departments.

“However, it can varydepending on the make-up of anorganisation and at RBS there ismuch more of a focus on diversity.

“There are seven femaledirectors in RBS in the NorthWest and I don’t think you willfind that anywhere else.

“In my team, there are 19relationship managers and eightof them are women.

“Whether you get on or notshould be down to your ability.Whether you are a man or awoman should not come into it.

“This should really not be anissue any more.”

Ms O’Neill claims the recessionhas led to more women taking theplunge and starting their ownbusinesses.

“We have an initiative at RBScalled ‘Women in Business’ whichis aimed at start-ups or smallfirms with a turnover of up to£1m.

“We assign them a femalerelationship manager and we holdregular events and facilitateaccess to mentoring services.”

Figures from RBS/NatWestshow the group opened more than100,000 start-up business accountsbetween June, 2009, and June,2010, and that a third of theseaccounts were opened by femaleentrepreneurs.

During June, 2010, the groupopened 3,500 start-up accounts forfemale entrepreneurs – 7% up onthe same month last year.

Natwest also does an annualstudy with the British FranchiseAssociation and the latest report,published in April, showed that,in 2009, around 39% of newentrants to the franchise marketin the UK were female. In 2003, thecomparable figure was 21%.

Ms O’Neill said: “The recessionhas led to more redundancies and

I have noticed an increase in thenumber of women using theirredundancy payouts to start uptheir own businesses.

“We have had women setting upfranchises through chains likeSubway or Costa Coffee, andothers who have left law firms tostart up their own personal injurypractices.

“I do like the idea of femalenetworking groups. They can behelpful for women who perhapshave been out of the workplace fora while after bringing up a family.

“They often need to buildconfidence and it can help tospeak to other business women.

“However, in terms of startingup a business, I don’t think itshould matter any more whetheryou are a man or a woman.”■ MEDICASH chief executive SueWeir believes it is “completelyirrelevant” whether you are aman or a woman when it comes tosuccess in the business world.

“I think these days it just comesdown to people’s talent,” she said.

A trained accountant, Ms Weir

oversees a business that offerscash plans to individuals andbusinesses that allows people topay small, regular premiums andthen claim the cost of a trip to thedentist or optician or for stays inhospital and physiotherapy.

Before joining Medicash, MsWeir was finance director atMerseyside Special InvestmentFund. She said: “I didn’t find it aparticular issue being a woman.What was more important was myskill-set.

“I certainly have never treatedanyone working around me anydifferently simply because theywere wearing a skirt.”

However, she acknowledgedthere was a time when thingswere a little less enlightened.

She added: “When I started outas an accountant, I was offered ajob as an articled clerk.

“They asked me to sign acontract stating that I would notget married. I did not take the job.

“I think the business world hasdefinitely moved on from thatkind of thing.”

Imelda O’Neill – progress should be down to your ability

Sue Weir – I was asked to sign acontract stating I would not getmarried; I didn’t take the job

13

THE BIG FEATURE

Keeping the ace of clubs for the future

How your life can bebetter than a TV showConstruction industry no longer amale strongholdMANDI O’SHEA went into theconstruction industry becauseAuf Wiedersehen Pet was herfavourite television programme.

She soon realised that realitywas nothing like the comedydrama series, but her personaldetermination ensured she madea success of a job not renownedfor being female-friendly.

Now working in trainingmanagement, she believesworking in this sector is no moredifficult for a woman than a man.

“Not having been a bloke, Ican’t objectively judge,” laughedMs O’Shea, who is managingdirector of Scientiam,Birkenhead, one of the NorthWest’s biggest training providers.

“It’s down to your personaldetermination and your goals.

“In an industry like training,it’s no harder for a woman than aguy. I spent a long time in theconstruction industry and mensoon got used to you in the team.

“Certain people only wanted todeal with a bloke, but as acustomer they get what theywant. I don’t think it makes muchdifference if they speak to a manor a woman regarding the finaloutcome.

“As a woman, you can’t stampyour feet to get your own way.Tears and tantrums don’t work,but understanding your industryand its value wins hearts.”

Ms O’Shea left school with“average O-levels” and a first-yearof YTS training at a St Helensnewspaper in the 1980s.

“These initial job creationschemes had a reputation of beingslave labour, but I was delightedto be paid to work,” she said.

“I worked inaccounts/administration andpicked up terrific skills. I neverfelt school was the rightenvironment for me as anindividual. Some people learnbetter in the world of work.

“Having an empathy to youngpeople who went through

programmes which were morepractical than academic made memore supportive.

“My mum ran her own toolsand DIY business, and I sat on hermarket stall in St Helens from theage of seven. I learned work isfundamental to the grown-upenvironment.”

Ms O’Shea then worked as asales and training co-ordinator ata Wimpey Homes division,moving to the Training andEnterprise Council funding body(later Skills Funding Agency).

“I was a construction teamleader, but I never became abrick-layer or joiner, but therewas a great emphasis on safetyand teamwork.

“These are transferable skillsand invaluable to other sectorslike retailing, so there are greatopportunities.

“While working in Manchester,I looked at the cultural and socialbenefits of the constructionindustry.

“It was a new concept ofcombining the disparate agendasof employability and skills.”

She joined Scientiam threeyears ago when annual turnoverwas £1.8m, for quality trainingvia apprenticeship schemes basedat Wirral Met College.

“I felt that as a small company,based on Wirral, we needed togrow the nature of what we did.Turnover is now £5m,” she said.

Mandi O’Shea:Determinationand ambitionare women’skeys to success

Positive: Pam Brown

THE issue of womenbeing able to suc-ceed in business is agenerational matter,thinks Pam Brown.

As the chiefexecutive of thevenerable LiverpoolAthenaeum, she hashelped turn aroundthe fortunes of thisclub. Being belovedby the business eliteis not enough tosafeguard the club.

“I’ve always

worked in male-dominated worlds,but what was once abig issue aboutwomen bosses is notone that would worrymy adult children.

“Working womenshould be threeparts strong and onepart keeping theirfemininity.

“You’ve got to earnyour spurs and showthat you can deliver.

“But I think women

of my generationwere some of thebest risk-takers andproblem-solvers.

“In business, youare measured by thebottom line. Thisclub is 213 years oldand has to diversifyand exploit chancesto survive in today’sworld, but withoutlosing its traditions.

“Any women givenchances in businessshould grab them.”

LOUISEFLETCHER

Senior taxmanager forMazars LLP

THE business arena is achallenging place foranyone with constantchallenges to be facedevery day.

Women in the businessplace have come a longway since my firstinvolvement in 1987, whenwomen were generally notallowed to wear trousers inthe workplace!

I entered the financialindustry as a tax junior forTouche Ross, at age 16.

Academic study had notbeen at the top of myagenda at school, as I waslucky enough to representEngland and Great Britainplaying handball. Most ofmy evenings and weekendswere taken up training,travelling around the UKcompeting in the nationalleague and travellingabroad for internationalcompetition.

Following myexperiences as a tax junior,I moved toRathbones in1991 and wasmentored bythe tax director,Ian Taylor, whoencouragedand supportedmy ambitionfor furtherstudies.

After a fewyears workingin the financeindustry, Irealised Ihadn’t achievedmy fullacademic potential and, at23, I enrolled on a BA(Hons) degree in Taxationand Revenue Law atBournemouth University. Iwas later awarded a goldmedal by the CharteredInstitute of Tax for thehighest overall markduring my final year ofstudy.

Following a yeartravelling around theworld, I joined ChadwickLLP (now Mazars LLP) in1999, and embarked on theChartered Tax Adviser(CTA) qualifications. Iqualified as a CTA in 2001.

Studying for the CTAqualifications is generallycarried out bycorrespondence courseand is quite intense,particularly when coupledwith a full-time job.

This has quite an impacton your social life for a few

years, but the later rewardsare worth the sacrifice.

I have progressed withinChadwick/Mazars to mypresent role as senior taxmanager, running asubstantial portfolio ofcorporate, business andpersonal tax clients and ateam of staff.

We are in an excitingperiod at Mazars followingthe merger with Chadwick,in October, 2009.

Every day is different! Ienjoy regular interactionand establishingrelationships with myclients. I particularly enjoyhelping them tounderstand thecomplexities of the ever-changing tax regime.

In my role, it is vital tokeep up to date withchanges to tax legislationand decisions made in taxcases at the courts.

It is also necessary tokeep up to date with the

current affairsin the businessworld.

Communic-ation withclients andcolleagues iskey to under-standing theconstantchanges in thebusiness worldand the impacttax has on ourclients’everydaybusinessdecisions.

Clients are never happypaying tax. A large part ofmy job is to structureindividuals’ and comp-anies’ affairs to ensure taxliabilities are kept as lowas legally possible.

The best advice I couldgive to a prospective clientwould be to choose youradviser based on someoneyou believe you can trustfor the long term, and whois backed by a team whocan service all your needs,not just now, but as yourbusiness grows.

For women, looking tosucceed in a similar role asme, I would recommendgetting as much educationand training as you can,and don’t be afraid to askquestions.

Combine that withdetermination and hardwork and you have a realchance of success.

‘Myjobistoensureclients’ taxliabilitiesareaslowaspossible’

14

THE BIG FEATURE

Can-do Fonseca branches outDelicatessenowner bucks the trend to feedcity’s appetite for high-quality eatingA LIVERPOOL city centre delicatessen isbucking the trading trend and expandingto a second shop in the South Docks.

Delifonseca proprietor Candice Fonsecawill open a new, larger, retail outlet atBrunswick Dock on September 1.

A staff of 20 has been recruited for theopening. It is a larger version of thecurrent award-winning Delifonseca, basedin Stanley Street, which employs 24 people.

Above its basement delicatessen is anup-market restaurant, with acclaimedLiverpool chef Martin Cooper in charge.

The Brunswick Dock property, on theDock Road, started life as HarryRamsden’s Fish and Chip Shop, whichclosed in 2005.

Most recently it was Il Bacino, anup-market delicatessen which had ceasedtrading. However, Ms Fonseca isundaunted by the failure of that business,which was a start-up.

Her plan is to cash-in on commuters,business park workers, local flat-dwellersand drivers unable to park at the originalDelifonseca city centre premises.

She also believes that her main rivalsare up-market farm shops, whosecustomers expect free parking.

The new property’s delicatessen will bethree times larger than the existingStanley Street shop, and it will also boast a60-seater restaurant.

The complex will include Brough’sButchers, a concession taken by thetraditional, high-quality family firm, basedon the Sefton coast.

“This will be a soft opening, without toomuch fanfare,” said Ms Fonseca.

“It’s been a long time in the planningand I look forward to steadily establishingthe business at Brunswick Dock.

“In fact, it could turn out to be biggerbusiness than Stanley Street.

“If the recession had not happened we’dbe in a better position, but every businesswill say that.

“Things like that knock you back, butthe business has come through it betterthan expected.

“Our outside catering business, whichwas an after-thought, has grown and nowaccounts for 20% of our turnover.

“This has compensated for the downturnin the deli and restaurant business overthe last 18 months.”

She opened Delifonseca in 2006, afterworking for 10 years as a feature filmproduction co-ordinator and manager.

She was involved in films such ascomedian Steve Coogan’s The ParoleOfficer and 24 Hour Party People, writtenby Frank Cottrell-Boyce, of Crosby.

“But, eventually, I got sick of all thetravelling and wanted to put down roots,”

said Ms Fonseca. “I moved into the citycentre 12 years ago with my partner, whocomes from Liverpool.

“I was brought up in Bury, northManchester, and have also regularlyworked in Glasgow.

“I was always surprised at how poorlyLiverpool was provisioned with goodquality, fresh food shops compared to theseother two places.

“Bury has amazing markets, whichyou’d expect Liverpool to have, but doesn’t.

“Glasgow resembles Liverpool in manyways as an old port city and one road in itsWest End has six delis on it, whichLiverpool doesn’t.

“I was working in London and Glasgowwhen the whole deli thing took off andrealised how Liverpool was left behind.

“I thought, surely Liverpool can supportone and it got me thinking.

“In a way, it shows how small the middleclass now is in Liverpool and how latterlyit wasn’t serviced.

“I covered this in my thesis for myLiverpool John Moores University degreein cultural studies and film.

“Interestingly, we sell more Spanishproducts in the deli than Italian, whichindicates where people go on holiday.

“My mother was born in Birkenhead,my father is Portuguese, from Shanghai,and they met in Hong Kong.

“Food has always been a great passion inour family and all my part-time jobs havebeen food-related.

“I’m interested in Portuguese and FarEastern food and my life-long ambitionwas to one day own a deli.

“I love working behind the deli counterand still like waiting on tables, talking tocustomers about the food.”

As film production contracts last five orsix months with a few months gaps inbetween, this was ideal for research anddeveloping a business plan.

The Stanley Street area was attractive,as it was sandwiched between the cityshopping area and the business district.

“We need both trades, as the rentals areso high in the main retail area and thebusiness district dies at night,” she said.

“It worked, as our restaurant lunchtrade initially kept us afloat – usuallythat’s a loss leader for evening dinnertrade.

“I feel you only succeed in something ifyou really enjoy it, as you have to work sohard to be successful.

“Probably my biggest mistake has beento be penny-wise and pound-foolish, butthe fit-out of the Stanley Street premiseswas only £100,000.

“Other places spend vastly more tocreate the same effect.” Passionate: Candice Fonseca at her original Delifonseca, in Stanley Street

Early sacrifices were the right move to set up property companySUCCEEDING as awoman in business isall about ability, notgender, said KateHughes, MerseysideProperty Auctionsmanaging director.

“It’s up to what youcan do. It’s down toyour attitude andconfidence, not whatsex you are,” she said.

“I began as an officejunior and audio-typistand went up through

Sutton Kersh’s propertyand auctiondepartment.

“I left to start thisbusiness in 2008. It’sbeen quite difficult, butI’d definitely advise anywomen to give it a go ifthey feel they’ve gotthe ability, but it’sbetter to over-estimatethan under-estimateyour costs.

“It can get lonely asall the problems are on

your shoulders now.There’s only two of us,so we’re a tight team,but any client is goingto get a personalservice from the MD!

“We do knoweverything about aproperty, having dealtwith it from the initialcall to selling it. We’revery hands-on and thebusiness is currentlyperforming above thenational average.

“Other advice I’d giveto women starting outis to know the job firstand I’d recommendgoing the way I did,instead of startingstraight into your ownbusiness.

“Personally,experience counts. Ialways knew I wantedto be successful inbusiness, once Istarted working in theauction business.

“When I was doingmy diploma, there werelots of females on thetechnical surveyingcourse. Not going touniversity didn’t holdme back.

“But I was doing acorrespondencecourse, along withfull-time day andevening jobs. It wastough, but today I’mgrateful I had thatfocus back then.”Kate Hughes

15

16

PROFESSIONAL SECTORS LEGAL SERVICES

Liverpool firmsshow their support at Shangai event

Professionals takingcentre stage at Expo

Neil Sturmey

The Liverpool Pavilion at the World Expo, in Shanghai

SEPTEMBER is “professionalservices month” at the Liverpoolstand, at the Shanghai WorldExpo.

Professional firms fromLiverpool will travel to China toshow their support for the city’sefforts, and to offer support andadvice for companies who areinterested in establishingChinese operations.

Accountancy firm GrantThornton employs more than 400people across offices in Liverpooland Manchester and already hasan active and fast-growingpresence in Shanghai.

Grant Thornton Internationalin the city has grown to employmore than 400 staff.

As one of the official sponsorsof the Expo, the firm is attendingthe Liverpool Pavilion duringProfessional Services month inSeptember, and is hosting anumber of events during thisperiod.

These include a seminar onSeptember 12 targeting UKbusinesses interested in settingup Chinese operations.

Neil Sturmey, office managingpartner of Grant ThorntonLiverpool, said: “No one woulddispute the fact thatglobalisation is here to stay.

“Its influence becomes moreprofound with each passing year,and the World Expo exemplifiesthe reality that the world is nowa much smaller place in which todo business.

“The Liverpool Pavilion hasalready attracted more than400,000 visitors and counting –which is a wonderfulendorsement of trade as atwo-way street.

“China is interested in doingbusiness with us, and now is thetime to capitalise on this andstart building relationships.

“People are bound to ask fortangible evidence of progress –inward investment, trade, jobsand visitors to the UK.

“There needs to be somerealism. Liverpool is alreadydoing business with China andmore will come.

“The city is investing inrelationships and fostering anenvironment for trade.

“We expect to see more localbusinesses following the exampleof companies like RS Clare & Coand EA Technology , who arereaping the benefits ofsuccessfully operating in China.”

Andrew Roberts, a partner inthe litigation and regulatoryteam at law firm DLA Piper inLiverpool, said the growingimportance of internationaltrade made it vital the firmshowed its support.

He added: “The focus ofbusiness in our region isbecoming increasinglyinternational.

“China is one of the world’sfastest-growing economies andoffers massive potential for local

businesses to enter into lucrativenew markets and also forattracting significant investmentinto our region from overseas.

“The Liverpool Pavilion isgiving the city a real opportunityto showcase itself on the worldstage to decision makers in bothlong established and emergingmarkets, which is exactly whywe wanted to ensure that DLAPiper was involved with theExpo.

“Professional services makeup a key part of Liverpool'soffering, not just to those seekingto do business in or from China,but to businesses operating allover the world.

“We will be one of a number ofbusinesses from the region whowill be heading out to the Expoin September for professionalservices month.

“We have organised a series ofbusiness meetings and eventswhilst in Shanghai, one of whichwill focus upon how corporatesocial responsibilityprogrammes are likely tobecome increasingly importantto those businesses operating inChina who want to enhance thevalue of their brands and findways of developing strongerrelationships with government.”

Andrew Roberts

LEGALLYSPEAKING

With MarkMcKeating,employmentsolicitor atHill Dickinson

QAS AN employer,I’m aware that theEquality Act isdue to come intoforce this October.

How will the Act add to theraft of already-existingdiscrimination law? Andwill it address the genderpay gap?

ATHE HomeSecretary andMinister forWomen andEqualities,

Theresa May, confirmed inJuly, 2010, that the EqualityAct will be implemented inaccordance with the“planned timetable”, thatis to say, in stages, startingfrom October 1, 2010.

One of the mainpurposes of the act is toharmonise all the differenttypes of discriminationlaw we currently have.There are nine categoriesthat are protected: age;disability;genderreassignment;marriage andcivilpartnership;pregnancy andmaternity;race; religionor belief; sex;and sexualorientation.

Lookingspecifically atthe gender paygap, it wasintended,before the change ofgovernment, that the Actwould force private andpublic sector employers topublish information aboutdifferences in pay betweenmale and femaleemployees.

It is now under debatewhether the private sectorwill, in fact, be includedunder this requirement. Aban on employers takingaction against employeesfor discussing their pay orbonuses, if the purpose ofthe discussion is to try toestablish if there isdiscrimination in relationto the pay structure, is stillexpected, however.

The Act will introduce aduty to positivelydiscriminate. Theintention is that the

Equality Act will allow(but not require)employers faced with therecruitment or promotionof equally qualifiedcandidates, to take accountof whether they were froma group that was under-represented.

So, if women wereunder-represented in theboardroom of a business,the employer could choosea woman for a vacant post,provided she was asequally qualified as theman, to try to redress thisbalance.

Employers do need to beaware that discriminationrules will now extend topeople who are perceivedto have or are associatedwith someone who has aprotected characteristic.

In practice, this meansthat a person subjected tohomophobic or racistabuse, because she isperceived to be gay or of a

particular race,would beprotected.

Similarly, aperson who isunlawfullydiscriminatedagainst becausethey areassociated withsomeone from aprotected groupwill also beprotected.

In the lattercase, we havealready seen

how this level of protectioncan offer assistance toparents of disabledchildren seeking flexibleworking patterns.

Disability rules will alsobe strengthened andrestrictions will be placedaround pre-employmenthealth enquiries.

Enquiries will bepermitted in certaincircumstances, forexample to establish thatthe prospective employeeis able to carry out anintrinsic function of therole, or to allow forreasonable adjustments tobe made for a disabledapplicant.

We wait with interest tosee how the term “anintrinsic function of therole” will be interpreted.

‘A personsubject toracistabusewould beprotected’

17

THE BIG INTERVIEW

BY BILL GLEESON

▲ ▲

How to crack China

Shanghai one month, New York the next:there’s no time for home comforts forcushion entrepreneur Tony Caldeira

Shanghai one month, New York the next:there’s no time for home comforts forcushion entrepreneur Tony Caldeira

18

THE BIG INTERVIEW TONY CALDEIRA

TONY CALDEIRAdiscovered his taste forthe cushions businesswhile helping at hismother’s homemade

cushion stall at Great HomerStreet market, in Liverpool, as aschoolboy and through hisuniversity years.

After graduating fromuniversity with a degree inEconomics and Politics, he veryquickly decided he wanted to runhis own business and beganmanufacturing cushions on hisown account. He does thisthrough his company, Caldeira.He sells cushions manufactured ata factory near Kirkby toHomebase, Next, BHS and ahandful of other British retailers.

Mr Caldeira said: “We have ahardcore of seven or eight UKretailers. We still make morecushions in the UK than anyother cushion manufacturer.Exchange rates have helpedKnowsley to perform very well.”

The Kirkby factory hasturnover of £6.3m. In addition,Caldeira’s joint venture in China,started in 2004, has grown rapidlyto achieve sales of £7.5m.

Mr Caldeira first met hisChinese joint venture partner, DaiShou Qin, at a textile industryexhibition in Shanghai. He wasimpressed by the quality of theproducts she was displaying.

“The Americans all call herLady Dai now,” he said.

Mr Caldeira spent all of Augustin China looking after the factorythere, while Dai Shou Qin wasaway on maternity leave.

“We now supply a lot ofretailers in the US, Australia andB&Q in China.

“In 2008, we built and openedour own 250,000 sq ft factory. It’sbeen an enormous success.”

The factory is about 2½ hours’drive from Shanghai, on theoutskirts of Hang Zhou, a city of6m people located in the heart ofChina’s textile production region.

Hang Zhou is not well known inthe West, and Mr Caldeiraoccasionally finds himself treatedas a bit of a curiosity whenvisiting it.

“Sometimes, if I’m eating out ina restaurant there, people willstare through the window.

“Kids will run up to you andtouch you. It’s all good natured,”he said.

As for Caldeira’s rapid growthin China, Mr Caldeira said: “It’sstill growing quickly. It grewsteeply in a straight line curve,though it was a bit more difficultlast year because of the globalsituation. But the business is stillsolid and growing in the rightdirection.

“The UK business is going quitewell. It is helped by the weaknessof the pound, a good productrange and good customer servicestandards. We hope all of our fourbusinesses will continue to groworganically.”

Mr Caldeira admits to having tolearn quickly about the differentway business is done in China.

“There’s a big difference inbusiness culture. It takes time toget used to. The Chinese have ashorter-term outlook on tradingthan we do in the West.

“There is almost a paradox –they are looking to build a longterm relationship but focus on thenext deal,” he said.

He also points to the languagebarriers and differences in timezone as potential barriers to

business: “Dai didn’t speakEnglish to start with, but, formany Chinese, learning Englishis key to doing internationalbusiness.

“People back home don’t realisehow lucky we are that English isthe language of the businessworld. It’s taught in Chineseschools as well. It’s compulsory.

“Sometimes, things do get lostin translation. It happens on adaily basis. I know a few hundredwords in Chinese. I try to makemyself understood. But take today,

one of my staff was saying theexhibition was difficult, but theword for difficult and dog are thevery similar, and I thought shewas calling me a dog for amoment. We had a good laughabout it.

“If you try a few words inChinese, they really appreciate it.It really breaks the ice. It’s easyfor Westerners to hide behindtheir English, but you don’t haveto get it right all the time. If youtry, they respect it,” he said.

Mr Caldeira warns that nobody

should come to China expecting tomake a fortune overnight.

He said: “You need to becareful. There have been horrorstories about people being rippedoff, but overall it’s been enjoyableand profitable and I wouldrecommend it to people in ourregion to have a go at trading withChina.

“You have to do it step by step.You have to go carefully – itdoesn’t just happen overnight.

“It’s very important you findthe right people to work with. You

have to build up an element ofmutual trust and focus on sharedgoals and shared objectives.

“It’s the same as in anybusiness, but even more so inChina as the personal nature ofdoing business is even moreimportant in China than it is athome.”

There are a number of ways ofdoing business in China, such assetting up a wholly ownedsubsidiary or trading with anexisting Chinese wholesaler. MrCaldeira decided to set up a joint

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

Caldeira being filmed in2007 for a Channel 4documentary – Brits GetRich In China

19


venture because he thought thathaving a native speaker wouldhelp him deal with local laws,customs and officialdom.

“If I were trying to deal withjunior Chinese officials on a dailybasis with their two-hour lunches,I would go spare,” he explained.“But it is worth doing because, ifthe local officials are on your side,they will do their best to getthings done for you.

“If you invest a lot in China,they will look after you. They liketo see a business succeed. It’s in

their interests to make it workand they take pride in it.

“In certain parts of China,there are some significant taxbreaks. We got the first two yearstax free, then the next three yearsat 50% of the standard rate.

“They will give you the taxbreaks if you employ local labourand build a local factory. They arevery keen to get you on their side.Chinese labour costs one tenth ofa British worker, so many of ourhigh-volume customers wereinsisting we take production to

China or they would lookelsewhere.

“When I saw Dai at theexhibition, the design of hercushions was dreadful but themake-up was superb. So wethought we’d get the design donein the UK and combine Britishdesign with Chinese production.

“It worked so well that we had amuch bigger stand at theexhibition 12 months later. It builtup very quickly. It was clear thatthis was a very mutuallybeneficial arrangement.

“It was step by step, but thesteps were taken quite quickly inhindsight.

“It was clear it was going towork because we had the marketin the UK. We needed a good,solid, loyal business partner.

“Within 50 miles of where weare in China, there is moreweaving capacity than in the restof the world put together. Thatcluster drives down prices andmakes the operations competitivelocally and globally.”

Reflecting on the six years since

he established the joint venture inChina, Mr Caldeira admits that hestruck lucky with his timing.

He explained: “We weremobbed by retailers around theworld.

“Britain leads the globalmarket for home furnishings. Tohave British designed productsmade in China was a dream cometrue for customers.

“We were in the right place atthe right time with the rightproducts.

“It was exactly what a lot of theglobal retailers were looking for.

“A lot of the retailers werelooking to cut out the wholesalersto deal direct with manufacturers,because they wanted to know thatthe quality and ethics would beright.

“Most of the customers we wonin those early days we have keptand our customer base is stillgrowing.”

About 70% of Caldeira’s outputis exported overseas. TheseWestern customers in Britain,America and Australia, havebecome very sensitive to ethicalissues, such as the misuse of childlabour.

Mr Caldeira said: “Ourfactories get audited to death.Every week, there is an auditorsomewhere. And rightly so.

“We find that most people wedeal with are bona fide.

“There are millions of factoriesin China and most of them abideby the rules, but inevitably thereis the odd one that catches the eyefor the wrong reasons and that’sthe one the media go for.

“Retailers do everything theycan to make sure a product ismade legitimately.

“The consequences of not doingso are too great to want to risk it.”

As well as China, Caldeira hasa sales office in New York. Thecompany is trying to build upsales momentum throughoutAmerica. Having spent August inChina, Mr Caldeira will spendmuch of September in New York,where his business is based onFifth Avenue.

He said: “We have a greataddress in New York. It soundsfabulous, but it’s also where thetextile area is in New York.

“Buyers from around the Statescome to New York in September. Itwill be a tough week of back-to-back meetings.

“There have been difficulttimes in the US in the last 12months, but we are now talking tothe right people and we havebroken into some key accounts.

“Very soon, we hope Caldeirawill be a significant operation inthe US and we are already makingwaves.

“It’s expensive to do business inNew York, but if you can get itright the rewards are huge.

“We are making goodprogress.”

There are, however, bigdifferences between doingbusiness in America compared toChina.

“It’s the cost of everything. Youhave to pay New York rents andNew York salaries.

“The salaries are the killer. But,if you want to break into hometextiles in the US, you have to paythem.

“It’s ironic. We pay Chinesesalaries in one part of thebusiness and US salaries inanother, when you could set up awhole production line in Chinafor the cost of one New York

The entrepreneur is looking to expand in the US

Caldeira is heavily involved in local Conservative politics

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

20



salesman. Sales in the US are stillsmall, about £1m a year.

“It takes time to break into themarket there.

“The corporations are so big.They give you little bits here andthere at first, but some UScustomers are so big that theyhave more stores than all our UKcustomers put together, so theycan give big orders and then youcan make serious inroads there.

“Caldeira doesn’t just sell itsChinese products in America,some are from Knowsley.

“The premium range made inKnowsley has been on the frontcovers of US magazines.

“The combination of Britishproducts at Chinese prices workswell in America.”

As with China, there is a bit ofa language barrier to doingbusiness in the US.

“I went over there talking aboutcushions. They looked at me as ifI were mad.

“I quickly learned they callthem decorative pillows.

“Doing business in New York isgreat fun.

“It’s ironic that Liverpool hasgood links with both Shanghaiand New York.

“Being British sells really wellin America. A lot of Americanbuyers will come to London to doa ‘comp shop’ – shop around allthe London stores to see whatthey are doing.

“We use the Union Jack logo inAmerica. It goes down a treat.”

But it’s not just British textiledesign that goes down welloverseas.

“In New York, everybody wantsto talk about The Beatles. InShanghai, it’s Liverpool FC.

“It wouldn’t surprise me ifLiverpool fell into Chinese hands.They are nuts about it over there.They can all name the team,” hesaid.

Two years ago, Caldeirabranched out into retail with theacquisition of a small chain of 14home furnishing stores located inthe south of England. FabricWarehouse was bought out ofadministration just before theworst of the financial crisis hitthe UK.

Mr Caldeira said: “I wasunlucky with the timing.

“With a bit of luck, we will havea good peak season in autumn andwinter, and we will be able to opensome more stores, maybe even inLiverpool some day.

“We lost money for the firstcouple of years while we turned itaround. But this year we arehoping it will break even. We havetaken cost out of the business andintroduced better product ranges.

“We are well on the way tohaving a very successful modelthat we can roll forward as theeconomy and housing marketpicks up.”

Mr Caldeira has a keen interestin politics. He is chairman of theCity of Liverpool ConservativeParty. He was heavily involved inthe recent general election. Wouldhe consider standing as an MP?

“Possibly.“A lot depends on opportunities.I have enjoyed being chairman

of Liverpool Conservatives,” hesaid.

He cites a 52% rise in theConservative vote in Liverpool atthe last election before adding:“They (Conservative voters) arestarting to come back again.

“With David Cameron’s

changes to the party, a lot ofpeople in our region are giving usa second look and giving us achance.

“We have a new office, a newstudent wing, and at LiverpoolUniversity we attracted morestudents than either the LiberalDemocrats or Labour.

“As time progresses, I suspectthe Conservative share of the votein the city will steadily increaseagain.

“But, for the time being, I’menjoying being an entrepreneur.”

Referring to the last Labourgovernment, Mr Caldeira said:“We had a government that wasvery anti-business. It wasborrowing and spending too muchmoney and making businessover-regulated and toocomplicated.”

As well as tackling nationaldebt and red tape, Mr Caldeirabelieves that Britain should learnfrom China’s flourishingenterprise culture.

“If we are going to invest ourway out of the downturn, it’s

going to be business that will getus out of it,” he said.

“Here in China, the mostsought-after career is to be yourown boss. That’s why China’seconomy is growing at 10% a year.

“We need to promote anenterprise culture as a seriousoption for all the people leavingschool and university, and not justsomething you do if you can’t finda job in a big company.

“If the government gets thefundamental economic conditionsright and creates an enterprise

culture, the results will follow andBritain will be once again at thetop of the table in terms ofinternational trading.”

Mr Caldeira gave a ringingendorsement to Liverpool’spresence at Shanghai’s WorldExpo and he intends to take partin the Liverpool day next month.He sees it as a huge opportunityfor Liverpool to attract freshsources of investment to the city.

He said: “Ultimately, Chineseinvestors have a lot of dollars tospend.”

Tony Caldeira, who has become particularly well-connected in Merseyside, and is pictured here with former Minister forMerseyside Michael [now Lord] Heseltine and Downtown Liverpool in Business chairman Frank McKenna

21

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22

For more information about investing in St.Helensplease contact the St.Helens Business Location Team.

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23

ECONOMICDEVELOPMENT

in association with

Town’s clear visionfor a bright futureAlex Turner reports onhowStHelens is emerging from recession

Pilkington’s St Helens sites include CowleyHill, above, and Greengate, right

ST HELENS stillinstantly brings tomind three things:glass, RugbyLeague and

coal.Even today, thosesectors are still at the heartof the town’s agenda.

Pilkington, these daysunder Japanese ownership,has announced 130 newjobs will result from itrestarting a float line in StHelens.

In its shadow is the siteof the new stadium for thetown’s Rugby League clubwhere the development is,finally, under way.

In less good news for theborough, plans for astrategic rail interchangein Newton-le-Willows thatcould have housed up to10,000 jobs have beenderailed, perhapsindefinitely.

Despite that setback, St

Helens Council’s director ofurban regeneration andhousing, Bob Hepworth,believes the impact of therecession on the town hasbeen relatively mild.

“It has been hard but notquite as hard as we hadanticipated,” he said. “Yes,there have been job lossesand closures, but weexpected it would havebeen worse.

“There are encouraging

signs for optimism – that’swhere things are at thepresent time.

“The single thing thathas given me reason to beoptimistic is the decisionby Pilkington to reopenUK5.”

Pilkington’s Greengatesite is home to two floatlines, UK5 and UK6. In 2008,the glassmaker spent £22m


24

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ST HELENS IN ASSOCIATION WITH

£44mdevelopmentunderwayST HELENS RugbyLeague Club expectsto move in to itsnew ground aheadof the 2012 season.

Barr Constructionwas last month app-ointed to build the17,980-capacity stad-ium, which is part ofa £44m developmentalongside a 140,000sq ft Tesco Extrastore, near to thetown centre.

Completion of thestadium will bring toan end more than 10years of planning, aswell as a 120-year att-achment to its cur-rent Knowsley Roadsite – which has beenbought by builderTaylor Wimpey.

HotelandleisureschemestartsAFTER several yearsof uncertainty andinaction, buildingwork has begun onthe £30m West Pointleisure scheme.

The scheme –which first won plan-ning permission in2004 – is on the edgeof the town centreand is being broughtforward by Grant-master Develop-ments.

The 64-roomTravelodge is set tobe completed byspring, by whichtime work on thesecond phase – in-cluding a bowling al-ley and four restaur-ant/bar units – willbe well under way.

InterchangestoppedinitstracksTHE long-awaitedscheme to build astrategic rail freightinterchange in New-ton-le-Willows onthe former ParksideColliery site was fin-ally killed off lastmonth.

The development,which faced a lot oflocal opposition, wasmeant to provide5.5m sq ft of rail-linked warehousingand office space, andhouse up to 10,000jobs.

Simon Jenkins,vice-president of de-velopers ProLogis,blamed the economyfor the failure of thescheme, a decadeafter its launch.

Barr Construction is building the new stadium in St Helens

The planned bowling alley at West Point

The former Parkside Colliery, in October, 1992

To advertise here contact Julie Cowley.Telephone 0151 472 2311 or [email protected] or Neil

Johnson, Telephone 0151 472 2705 oremail [email protected]

ADVERTISEMENT

25

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ST HELENS

refurbishing UK5, which melts250,000 tonnes of glass a year.

But, by the time work wascompleted, the global economicdownturn had begun, which hitits key building and automotivesectors, and the line was notrestarted.

“As recently as three monthsago, they were saying there wasno date for it being switched on,”he added.

“It’s still the employer that ismost closely associated with StHelens. For them to be taking on130 people is fantastic – thathasn’t happened for many years.”

More good job news has comefrom the Somerfield distributioncentre at Lea Green, which isbeing expanded as a result ofCo-operative Group’s takeover ofthe supermarket group.

Since April, it has been taking

staff on, and an extra 600 peoplewill be employed there when itcompletes its recruitment in thecoming weeks.

The number of people claimingjobseeker’s allowance in St Helensis at its lowest point for nearly 18months, although it remainsabout 50% higher than its pre-recession level of 3,400.

Similarly, the retail core in thetown centre, while affected by theeconomy, has not been over-whelmed.

Mr Hepworth said: “We haveseen plenty of examples of towncentres that have been decimatedduring the downturn. People stilllook at Woolworths and see it isstill empty, but that site is muchmore complex than just finding atenant. The Woolworths site willbe occupied at some stage.

“The vacancy level is around12%, but we have got the largeformer Do-It-All store counted

within that and quite a lot ofempty units in Ormskirk Street[on the edge of the town centre].

“We are down to very lownumbers elsewhere.

“We have been monitoringtake-up over the last 15 monthsand, with one slight blip, thevacancies have been going down.

“The retailers tell us that thetown centre is holding up verywell. The centre owners tell usfrom their perspective the centresare performing well, althoughthat isn’t to say that one or tworetailers haven’t been affected.

“We must have been hit in someway by Liverpool One. It has beenvery successful, there must havebeen people from St Helens whoare using it, but we are stillretaining our shoppers here.”

New retailers, includingDunelm Mill, Dreams and Smyths,have been attracted onto out-of-town parks, while the 140,000 sq ft

Tesco that is being built as part ofthe stadium development will sitbetween the existing Ravenheadand St Helens retail parks.

It’s quite a compact retail areaand that’s very important,” headded.

“We have got the dynamicsright in terms of retail.”

The supermarket giant alreadyhas a store in the town centre and,although there are plans for thatsite, it may change.

The proposals had been for aretail development to extend thetown centre offer, which couldattract a major department store,such as Debenhams, to the town.

Mr Hepworth said: “Clearly wehave a challenge with what we aregoing to do with the existingstore. I am not sure that thescheme which has got planningpermission is the right schemenow.

“We will be opening up a

dialogue with the developers onhow that site might move forward.

“The timing is importantbecause things are starting toclarify themselves in the retailsector.”

There may also be possibilitiespresented by the under-developedleisure market in St Helens.

The planned development atWest Point, which includes abowling alley, could be the answer,although that scheme receivedplanning permission in 2004, yetremains largely untouched.

“The West Point site was rightin terms of the family offer, but wehave only seen earthworks but notbuildings there. I am disappointedthat isn’t completed yet.

“That’s a gap we have to look toplug, whether there or the Tescosite or elsewhere. Those are thesort of discussions we must have.”

IN ASSOCIATION WITH



Jon Wilkin, of St Helens, is tackled by Jason Golden, of Harlequins,during their Super League match at Knowsley Road in July

26

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT WEST LANCASHIRE

Proceeding with more alacrityare various housing developmentsaround the town. In Parr, Newton-le-Willows, Wargrave, Lea Greenand Windle, developers havereturned to sites or increased thepace.

“Housing feeds into so manyareas of business activity,” addedMr Hepworth. “It’s an importantbarometer.

“I think that’s sending out animportant message about what’sgoing on in St Helens at themoment. There’s lots going on inthat sector which kicks on into somany areas.”

There are also positive signs inthe commercial property sector,as not so much the green shootsbut the steel frameworks ofrecovery have started appearingon the brownfield sites.

Work has now begun on

Empress Park and Boston Park, a£30m scheme in Haydock that it ishoped will eventually be home to2,000 jobs.

Developer Morley Estatesbought the 20-acre former collierysite from governmentregeneration agency EnglishPartnerships in 2006, and workwill take place in two phases.

The first, to be completed by theend of this year, will see thereclamation of 2.9 hectares ofbrownfield land, construction of49,000 sq ft of office and industrialaccommodation, and theprovision of infrastructure tobring forward 2.25 hectares ofbrownfield land for new officedevelopment.

The first phase is pre-let tothree companies. ChlorideElectronics, which suppliesuninterruptible power supplysystems and services, has taken9,000 sq ft at Empress Park.

At Boston Park, plastic bag

specialists Ardale Internationalwill occupy 25,000 sq ft, andfibreoptic network provider H20Networks has taken 15,000 sq ft.

Phase two will see thespeculative development of 70,000sq ft of high quality new officeand industrial space by October,2011.

By next autumn, Mr Hepworthhopes that the economiclandscape will be much clearer.

“It’s too early to say how thenext five years will look,” he said.“There are some very good signsat the moment. We seem to be inSt Helens holding our own, but weare just at the start.

“It’s too early to say whatimpact the changes in publicspending will have to St Helensand to the North West.

“I hope that, in 12 months’ time,we will be able to predict the fiveyears ahead, but I do think we canbe cautiously optimistic abouthow things are improving.”

IN ASSOCIATION WITH


The new Somerfield distribution centre, at Lea Green

An artist’s impression of theEmpress Park scheme, in Haydock

27

COMMERCIAL PROPERTY

NW industrial supply fearsTake-upof space rises –but agentsbemoan lackof newdevelopmentTAKE-UP of industrial space inthe North West was up 52% in thesecond quarter of the year,bucking the national trend.

However, experts are warningthat a lack of current developmentwill lead to a shortage of availablespace in the future.

The latest DTZ Research UKProperty Times Industrial marketreport has revealed that, acrossthe country, the overall volume ofavailable space of buildings over50,000 sq ft fell in the quarter dueto sustained high levels of GradeA take-up and a reduced rate ofreturn of Grade B and C stock.

Total take-up for the UK fell15%, although the proportion ofGrade A space remained elevatedat 48% of the total.

The report says the outlook forprime headline rents was set toremain stable.

It also predicts that theavailability of large volumes ofGrade B space means the marketwill prove to be a “battleground”for landlords during 2010, withmany looking to customise stockto attract smaller local occupiers.

A slowdown in the return ofsecond-hand buildings over 50,000sq ft back to the market meansDTZ anticipates that availabilitywill peak in 2010.

Annual take-up in 2010 is set toincrease by a third on 2009volumes, driven mainly bytenants taking Grade A or good-quality Grade B space, the firmclaims.

Take-up in the North Westreached 1.85m sq ft in the secondquarter, driven by demand forwell-located distributionwarehouses, including KimberleyClark taking 337,000 sq ft inRevolution Park, Chorley.

Overall availability in theregion fell 5%, reflecting a clutchof large Grade B deals and thelack of new development.

Tony O’Keefe, industrialdirector at DTZ in the North West,said: “Given the large volume ofsecondary space available,landlords will need to continue tooffer keen incentives and developinnovative packages in order todifferentiate their product.

“However, in the medium to

long-term, there is a distinctunder-supply of land allocated forindustrial uses, particularly inthe Manchester area, toaccommodate larger Grade Arequirements.

“The release and supply ofsuitable sites to accommodatefuture demand will be imperativeto maintain Manchester’sreputation as a primarydistribution location.”

Andrew Owen, head of businesspremises at Liverpool agencyMason Owen, also expressedconcern at the lack of newdevelopment.

He said: “Given the relativelypoor levels of demand across thesector, capital values for Grade Astock have fallen.

“While headline rentals haveremained relatively resilient,incentive packages have increaseddramatically. Perhaps notunsurprisingly, due to currentdemand and the economicclimate, there has been little new-build development across theregion for some time, and thereare few signs of this changing.”

Andrew Owen, head of business premises at Mason Owen –capital values for Grade A stock have falen

To Let/May Sell4,550 – 9,000 sq ft

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For more information on these sites pleasecontact us on 01925 273000 or visit ourwebsite www.langtreegroupplc.co.uk/apexcourt

28

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

University develops aLiverpool Biomedical ResearchCentre tobecomeapioneeringbase

THE LiverpoolBiomedical ResearchCentre is presiding overa “bench-to-bedside”success story in its

partnership with industry.The Biomedical Research

Centre (BRC) is a £20m centre,funded by the National Institutefor Health Research, and wasopened as part of theGovernment’s health researchstrategy.

It focuses on four areas:hospital and community acquiredinfections, chest infections, sexualhealth and safety of antimicrobialdrugs.

The “bench-to-bedside” aspectderives from each of the researchprojects having, or needing,industry collaboration in order toget their work into hospitals andto the patients.

The research areas involved arepenicillin allergy, Crohn’s disease,stomach cancer, tuberculosis,sepsis and cystic fibrosis.

Particularly interestingfindings have come to light in theresearch recently for cysticfibrosis and Crohn’s disease.

The Biomedical ResearchCentre (BRC) is a partnershipbetween the University ofLiverpool, Royal LiverpoolUniversity Hospital, LiverpoolSchool of Tropical Medicine,Liverpool Primary Care Trust,Northwest Development Agency(NWDA), NHS Northwest (NWRegional Strategic HealthAuthority) and TrusTECH (theNorth West NHS innovation hub).

BRC Industry collaboratorsinclude leading pharmaceuticalcompanies such as Provexis,Novartis and Gilead.

As a specialist in infection, theBRC is one of 12 in the countryfunded by the NIHR.

The joint venture received£13.5m funding from NIHR and afurther £6.4m from the NWDA,and was officially launched in2009.

When the BRC was announcedin 2006, Maggie Boyle, chiefexecutive of the Royal Liverpooland Broadgreen UniversityHospitals NHS Trust, said it wasan extremely significantdevelopment for the city, the Trustand patients throughout thecountry.

She added: “It means thatLiverpool will become a nationalcentre of excellence and a worldleader in the development of aseries of improvements in patientcare that will touch the lives ofmillions of people.”

The project meant Liverpoolwas one of only eight newnational research anddevelopment centres createdunder the previous government’sBest Research for Best Healthnational health research strategy.

The Centre’s management isrun jointly run by the Universityof Liverpool, the Royal Liverpooland Broadgreen UniversityHospitals NHS Trust and theLiverpool School of TropicalMedicine.

The BRC story actually startedin April, 2007, when these bodieswere awarded a specialistBiomedical Research Centre inMicrobial Disease.

This award was made followinga competitive bidding process. Itwas in recognition of theaccumulated and existingresearch excellence within thefield in the city.

The Trust was also granted£2.5m annually over the next five

years to develop research whichfocuses on microbial disease.

The BRC is based in the RoyalLiverpool Hospital, andresearchers have access to thelatest facilities, such as a newclinical research unit to trial newdrug treatments and a medicalmicrobiology facility for theidentification and safe handling ofbacteria.

Key research projectsundertaken at the BRC includework on penicillin allergy; thecauses of Crohn’s disease;Helicobacter Pylori and its linksto gastric cancer; diagnosis andprognosis of sepsis; drug

treatments for tuberculosis; andidentification of an epidemicstrain of a bacterium whichcauses lung infection in cysticfibrosis patients.

Prof Cheng-Hock Toh, LiverpoolBRC director, said: “The role ofthe BRC in Liverpool is to reducethe burden of infection on theNHS.

“This requires partnershipbetween the Hospital, theUniversity, the School of TropicalMedicine and industry to enableobservations in patients to bedeciphered by scientists andtranslated by industry into newtests and treatments.

“This collaboration withindustry will also enhance theregion’s reputation as a worldleader in cutting-edge microbialbiotechnology.

“We want to actively engagewith patients and the generalpublic to understand theirconcerns about infection, theirpriorities in what we should befocusing on, and to communicatewhat we are doing to improvepatient care and the fight againstinfections.”

The BRC’s achievements willhave a very real effect on millionsof those suffering from long-termor sometimes terminal illnesses.

For example, Crohn's diseaseaffects one in 800 people in the UKand causes chronic intestinalinflammation, leading to pain,bleeding and diarrhoea.

Research has shown that peoplewith Crohn’s disease have morethan usual amounts of E coli(bacteria found in faeces) stuck tothe lining of the gut, and it isthought that this contributes tothe inflammation.

Scientists at the BRC havefound that soluble fibre from theplantain plant (similar to abanana) can stop E coli sticking tothe gut lining.

The team are currently working

The laboratory atLiverpoolBiomedicalResearch Centre

Professor Cheng-Hock Toh, director of the Liverpool Biomedical Research Centre – the role of theBRC in Liverpool is to reduce the burden of infection on the NHS

29

SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

winning bedside mannerfor the treatment andmanagement of someof themost serious illnesseswith biotechnology company,Provexis, in conducting tests tosee whether plantain fibre helpspeople with Crohn’s disease.

Another example of theCentre’s work concerns cysticfibrosis.

Cystic fibrosis affects theinternal organs, particularly thelungs and digestive system, byclogging them with sticky mucus.

This makes it difficult for apatient to breathe and digest food.

The condition, which is aninherited disease, affects morethan 8,000 people in the UK, andmore than 2m carry the cysticfibrosis gene. Around half of the

cystic fibrosis population live foran average of 35 years.

Scientists at the BiomedicalResearch Centre are developing anew test to help hospital workersidentify an epidemic strain of abacterium that commonly causeslung infection in cystic fibrosispatients.

The bacterium, calledPseudomonas aeruginosa, is themost common cause of persistentand fatal lung infections in cysticfibrosis patients.

Scientists at Liverpoolidentified a particular virulentstrain of the bacteria that istransmissible between patients.

The Liverpool Epidemic Strain(LES), referred to as a cysticfibrosis “superbug”, can causeaggressive infection and results inprogressive lung decline.

Patients with LES need to beseparated from others inhospitals, so that infection doesnot spread between cystic fibrosispatients on wards.

The strain, however, is difficultto detect and currently scientistshave to culture the bacteria in alab over one or two days toidentify it.

Researchers at Liverpool arenow working to develop a test,based on DNA from patient

sputum and cough swab samples,to allow doctors to identify theinfection in hospital labs withinhours. The test will also allowmedics to monitor the number ofbacteria in the body so that theycan determine if treatment isworking effectively.

Professor of clinicalpharmacology and consultantphysician at the Royal LiverpoolUniversity Hospital, PeterWinstanley, was the mastermindbehind the plans to develop theBRC.

He led the team which wassuccessful in winning the fundingfrom the Department of Health.

Prof Winstanley said: “This is ahugely significant development,as it secures the city as the UK’sleading centre of excellence inmicrobial diseases.

“But, most importantly, theresults of our work will benefitmillions of people in the UK anduntold numbers throughout therest of the world.

“The city will literally becomea pioneering base for thetreatment and management ofsome of the most serious illnesses.

“It will also become a focus forthe development of newtechniques for detectinginfections and illnesses.”

30

INTERNATIONAL TRADE

Cheshire company Agilysys has sold its software tothe five-star Park Hyatt Paris-Vendôme hotel, in Paris

Five-star deal for AgilysysLuxury hotel in heart of Paris recruitsCheshire hospitality software specialist

Asian visitors discover creative and port sectorsA DELEGATION fromthe Indonesian Embassyin London has visitedLiverpool to learn aboutinvestmentopportunities in thecreative and portssectors.

The delegation visitedeconomic developmentagency Liverpool Visionto find out about the

city’s port and its manymaritime businesses.

The Indonesianvisitors also met KevinMcManus, director ofLiverpool Vision’screative industriessupport agency,Merseyside ACME.

Andy Green, Head ofInvestor Developmentat Liverpool Vision, said:

“It was an excellent andinteresting meeting andis actually a goodreflection of the city’sreputation overseas.

“Indonesia is SouthEast Asia’s third fastestgrowing economy, andthey are looking forexpertise and partnersin certain sectors, twoof which we excel at.

“Our creativeindustries and our portexpertise is well-knownand more advancedthan in Indonesia.

“We were happy tomeet with thedelegation and pass onour knowledge, andhopefully there will befurther meetings in thefuture.”

CHESHIRE hospitality softwareprovider Agilysys has secured thefirst client in France for itsResPAK system, as it bids tocontinue its overseas expansion.

Warrington-based Agilysys hassold the restaurant and diningmanagement software to thefive-star hotel Park HyattParis-Vendôme.

The hotel, which is in the heartof Paris, near the beautiful PlaceVendôme and the Paris Opera, isthe showcase property of theHyatt Group in France.

Tina Stehle, senior vice-president and general manager of

Agilysys Hospitality SolutionsGroup, said: “We are delightedthat ResPAK has been chosen toenhance the already highstandards of service at one of theworld’s great hotels.

“This new contract is furtherevidence of the Agilysys focus onthe French hotel, attractions, foodservice and stadia sectors.”

ResPAK is now installed inthree areas within the hotel: LeBar, the Pur restaurant and LesOrchidées restaurant.

The hotel’s assistant food &beverage manager, Thibault deVries, had previously worked

with the ResPAK system at GrandHyatt Singapore.

Mr de Vries said the hotel coulduse the system to research guests’spending habits so it couldpersonalise its marketing and PRoffering.

He said: “The ability to delivertruly personalised service iscritical to us.

“We will use ResPAK to furthercustomise our offer to the needsand tastes of our guests.”

As an example, Mr de Vriessaid the hotel would be able toresearch sales of its gourmetWagyu beef.

He said: “Thanks to ResPAK,we will be able to record whochooses our Wagyu beef, how theylike it cooked and their preferredwines to accompany it. Not onlywill we be better able to servethem next time they select thisdish, but we can also invite themto special Wagyu beef evenings,for example.

“In Les Orchidées, where weserve up to 60 covers atlunchtime, ResPAK may help us tooptimise table utilisation byanalysing how far in advancepeople book and how many coversthey reserve.

“In Le Bar, we will use ResPAKto track the spend of our manyregular guests.”

Mr de Vries also plans to usethe Agilysys system to help withpromotions.

“In October, we are runningour Masters of Food & Wine Tourof the World event,” he said. “Ourhead chef has invited fiveinternationally famous chefs tocook dinner, to showcase theirregion’s cuisine. We will retrievecustomer data from ResPAK topinpoint our ‘regulars,’ thenmake personal contact to invitethem to this gastronomic event.”

The Indonesian delegation at Liverpool Vision

31

32

HOW GREEN IS YOUR BUSINESS?

Gavin King – says it has been more important than ever to realise the low-carbon potential of a building

IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Mills Media produces green DVD for youngstersMERSEYSIDE creativeproduction house MillsMedia has completed theproduction of a promotionalprogramme highlighting agreen environment for Isleof Anglesey County Council.

Wirral-based MillsMedia’s business TVdepartment produced thefilm to be used as aneducational DVD. The Let’sBe Clean and Green DVDwill be shown at schools,

colleges and communitygroups to promote wastereduction, recycling andhow to keep the island clean.

The film, commissionedby Acer MarketingCommunications for the Isleof Anglesey Council, wasproduced in both Welsh andEnglish with local radiocelebrity Owain Llyrproviding the voice-over.

Barrie Farrell, head ofproduction, said the

involvement of young peoplefrom the area made theproject a real success.

He added: “We have wonthree international awardsfor previous programmescreated specifically foryoung people and have highhopes for this production.

“The film has been 12months in the making andhas a real community feel.

“We worked with AcerMarketing Communications

who organised ‘search for astar’ auditions with a localmedia partner.

“This gave us a goodchoice of young people fromthe region to appear in thefilm. We were able to bringin a vast range of shootingstyles, animation sequencesand pastiches that reallyhelped to deliver themessage of the film. It’sinformative, yetentertaining.”

System to transform office designGAVINKING, associate at ID:SR, part of SheppardRobson, onanewenvironmental ratingSINCE it came to the fore 20 yearsago, the BREEAM rating systemhas become a key considerationfor developers in the UK, theirclients and for occupiers.

Never before has it been moreimportant to realise thelow-carbon potential of a building– not only in terms of reducing itsimpact on the environment, butalso in terms of achieving theclear cost-saving benefits.

While systems such asBREEAM and LEED have provedeffective standards for base-buildconstruction, there has been noreason for developers to lookbeyond to the fit-out of the officespace itself.

Now, however, Skansen Group,an interior construction company,has developed a new system thatcould have a real impact on the

way office fit-out is designed, builtand managed in the UK.

The Ska Rating system wasintended from the start to be openaccess and free to use (a rarepiece of altruism) and wasformally adopted by the RICS inNovember.

It aims to be the standardmeasure of sustainability of officefit-out in the UK.

The system comprises 99 bestpractice measures across energyand carbon, waste, water,pollution, transport, materialsand wellbeing – even officefurniture is taken intoconsideration – and deliversratings of gold, silver or bronze.

Future development proposedincludes the addition ofpost-occupancy measures whichwould require modification of the

rating achieved based on theoccupiers management of thefit-out during the 12 months afteroccupation. There is clearreasoning behind assigning sucha certification to fit-outs.

Most fit-outs are altered orrefitted on a seven-year cycle,whereas new buildings are lessfrequently created, so there is anobvious gap in the market and inthe measurement of sustainabilityin the construction industry.

Since the scheme was adopted,only a few projects have appliedfor and been awarded a Skaclassification.

This presents a realopportunity for landlords – a Skacertification can set your offeringabove its competitors by enablingtenants to demonstrate theirgreen credentials.

This is particularly true ofrefurbished space, which may notbe able to compete with newbuilds when it comes toenvironmental sustainability interms of construction.

A Ska Rating is a great dealmore accessible – and lessexpensive – than undertakingmajor construction work to bringan older building up to aBREEAM Excellent orOutstanding rating – and, in theabsence of new-build space and adearth of development activity,competition in the market ofsecond-hand space will be tough.

Ska also works well forout-of-town locations, since thosewould likely fail to satisfyBREEAM requirements due topublic transport limitations.

The process itself is relatively

quick. Once the handover stagehas been considered by anaccredited assessor and thesupporting information has beenadded to an online tool, thecertificate is automaticallyproduced and the standard notedat the RICS.

The assessors have alreadybeen trained – it is now time fordevelopers to take the plunge.

As Ska becomes more widelyadopted, developers and landlordsmay come under more pressure togo for Gold.

For the vast majority oftenants, environmentalsustainability is still at the heartof CSR – and they want thecertificate to prove it.

Ska looks set to be the next bigthing in office design, and earlyadopters will reap the rewards.

The Mills Media team filming the DVD

33

HOW GREEN IS YOUR BUSINESS?IN ASSOCIATION WITH

Windtex secures NW Small Loans investment

Phil Turnerand BradleyHickman

Sun shines on new ventureDemand for solar panels soaring ascustomers take advantageof government incentivesMERSEYSIDE businessman PeterBladen is celebrating after asuccessful five months since helaunched his new company.

Mr Bladen, of establishedrenewable energy specialistsBladen Consulting, launched solarpanel firm BSOLAR in April.

He has says he has beenoverwhelmed by the response tothe business.

Since starting the firm inHalsall, he has been carrying outan average of eight to 10 solarpanel installations per month,more than triple what he wasexpecting in the first six monthsof the business.

National figures also supportthe growth in popularity of solarpanels, as 3,700 have beeninstalled in the UK since April,compared to 350 last year.

The increase in installations ismainly due to governmentincentives. The Clean EnergyCash Back scheme isincentivising people to have solarpanels installed in their home.

The scheme applies to anyonewho has or is having panelsinstalled between July 15, 2009,and March 31, 2012.

Energy providers payhomeowners 41.3p per kWh(kilowatt-hour) of electricity theygenerate from renewable sources,which is about four times themarket cost of electricity.

This means homeowners aregetting a guaranteed incomeevery year from the solar panels,in addition to getting freeelectricity during the day whenthe solar panels are generatingpower.

Mr Bladen said: “I am over themoon with the progress thecompany has made.

“Business has been so good thatwe are looking to expand intoother areas across the countryand bring on new staff.”

He said the governmentincentives had been a real boost,as people were financiallyencouraged to install solar panelson their properties.

“More and more people are alsomore aware of beingenvironmentally friendly, andinstalling solar panels is a greatway of being green,” he added.

“I can only envisage continuedgrowth as word spreads. It justmakes sound financial sense to bemore green.” Peter Bladen – says business has taken off since he launched BSOLAR in April

A MERSEYSIDEcompany whichspecialises in theservice andmaintenance of windturbines has been setup with a £42,000investment through theNorthwest Small Loansfor BusinessInvestment Fund.

Windtex, which is

based in Kirkby, wasset up by BradleyHickman and PhilTurner.

The company hasbeen secured aspreferred contractor toNordex, a leadinginternational developerof wind turbines.

The businessemploys six staff, all of

whom have engineeringbackgrounds.

Windtex is currentlyworking on a number ofjobs throughout the UKincluding the windturbines at the Nordexsite at Liverpool docks.

Bradley Hickmansaid: “Wind energy isone of the largestsources of renewable

energy in the UK, andthere are an ever-grow-ing number of windfarms beingdeveloped.”■ SMALL Loans forBusiness is beingmanaged by AllianceFund Managers (AFM)in Merseyside, and issupported by theERDF and the NWDA.

34

TRANSPORTCan the train take the future strain?Hugegrowthpredicted for passenger and freight train loads in thenext quarter-centuryA DOUBLING of train passengers andfreight usage by 2035 is the prediction in anew document, Planning Ahead, looking atlong-term planning for the rail industry.

The demand for passenger and railtransport will grow as roads get morecongested and Britain increases moves tostimulate a “carbon- friendly” economy,said rail chief Paul Plummer.

“In spite of the tough economic times, wemust continue to plan and look to how weaffordably expand the railway to meet bigincreases in passengers and freight,” saidMr Plummer, Network Rail's director ofplanning and development.

“The railway is presently too expensiveand must reduce costs to ensure the moneyit invests delivers best value for Britain."

Over the next 25 years, the Londoncommuter market, already very well servedby rail, is likely to see growth of up to 35%.

In contrast, regional urban commuting,to cities such as Liverpool, Manchester,Leeds and Glasgow, is expected to seegrowth of over 100%. Some routes couldgrow in excess of 115%.

Rail freight is similarly predicted todouble demand to 45bn tonnes kilometresof goods moved by 2030.

Alec McTavish, the Association of TrainOperating Companies’ director of policyand operations, said: “Rail makes a vitalcontribution to the UK economy,supporting jobs and businesses and helpingmillions of people to get round the countryquickly and easily every day.

“Train operators and Network Rail areworking increasingly closely together tohelp plan the railway and identify ways toimprove cost effectiveness.

“Allowing Network Rail and operatorsgreater freedom to determine the mostefficient way of delivering for passengersand making Britain’s railway morefinancially self-sufficient would be to thebenefit of the nation as a whole.”

Lindsay Durham, chair of the RailFreight Operators' Association, said: “Railfreight contributes to the success of the UKeconomy by reliably and sustainablymoving goods for consumers and industrywithin the UK and as a conduit for importsand exports. Freight trains are part of thelogistics chain that stocks our shops, keepsthe lights on and moves materials to buildour infrastructure.”

Merseytravel kicks off new season of football match bus link servicesTHE Merseytravelfootball season,congestion-bustingSoccerbus service –the match-day directbus link from SandhillsStation to GoodisonPark and Anfield - isonce again operating.

The sport special busservice will runthroughout the 2010/11season, linkingMerseyrail passengersfrom Sandhills Station,

on a dedicated shuttlebus to Everton andLiverpool’s homePremier League,domestic and EuropeanCup matches.

Cllr Mark Dowd,Merseytravel chairmanand a lifelong Evertonfan, said: “In the pastSoccerbus proved areal winner with fans.”

Merseytravel claimsSoccerbus helps tomake life a little easier

for those residentsliving around thestadiums, as well asthe fans going to thegames.

Cllr Dowd added:“Fans see it as one ofthe best options to getto the grounds and wewant people to makefull use of the service.”

The Soccerbusservice runs for twohours before eachLiverpool and Everton

match up to 15 minutesbefore kick-off and for50 minutes after thefinal whistle.

A Soccerbus ticketcosts £1 when bookedin advance with a trainticket or £1.50 single orreturn on the bus and isfree with MerseytravelTrio, Solo andSaveaway tickets or forEnglish nationalconcessionary travelpass holders.

The Soccerbus ink service to Anfield and GoodisonPark, from Sandhills station, has begun again thisseason

Will rail traffic rise in a switch from road transport over the next 25 years?

35

TRANSPORT

Port’s smarter turnaroundLiverpool’s Peel Ports in-house IT team rolls out first phaseof vehicle booking systemA NEW vehicle booking system(VBS), developed in-house by thePort of Liverpool, is reducing theturnaround times of hauliersvisiting the port’s containerterminal operations.

The Port of Liverpool claims itsvehicle turnaround times are theUK’s best, with 95% of hauliersserviced in less than 60 minutesand 65% less than 30 minutes.

SMART VBS, designed by theLiverpool-based Peel Ports GroupIT team, is being rolled out acrossoperations in two phases during2010.

Phase one, which began in July,covers haulier demandrequirements notification, whilethe second phase will be hauliernomination of containers fordelivery and collection.

The new system is alreadyreducing booking rejections anddelivering a consistentturnaround time at the terminal,allowing hauliers to plan theirdeliveries more accurately.

David Huck, Peel Ports’ Merseyhead of port operations, said:

“The coming months will see theport implementing the two phasesof its SMART VBS which wasdeveloped thanks to the expertiseof our in-house IT team.

“It’s SMART because it focusesupon the voice of the customerfrom booking, to arrival and allthe way through to departurefrom the terminal.

“Right from the system’sconcept, we wanted to differen-tiate our service within theindustry and not become a ‘metoo’, by capping slots to stabilisedemand like other terminals.

“We knew that a ‘me too’solution wouldn’t work for thePort of Liverpool’s growingcustomer base, so we designed thesystem to flex capacity withdemand, and thus only in extremedemand circumstances would anycapping be undertaken.

“The more timely the bookinginformation, the smarter we canalign the yard and resources tothat demand, in essence givingour customers a more predictable,repeatable and stable level of

service. We spent considerabletime talking to the shipping linesand haulage community toachieve a system which offeredsomething unique within theindustry.”

The investment complementsthe Port’s recent introduction of anew £1.1m Terminal OperatingSystem (TOS), which has led toimmediate improvements incustomer service since its launch,which the Mersey port sayssurpasses the performance ofother major UK ports.

Also this year, Peel Portsincreased capacity on the bargeservice provided along theManchester Ship Canal, withadditional services into the Portof Liverpool’s container terminal.

This has integrated Liverpooland Manchester’s offer, creating a44-mile working waterway.

This combined operation nowhandles more than 40m tonnes ofcargo and 16,500 ship movementsa year, making the Mersey thethird busiest estuary in thecountry.

The Port of Liverpool’s new SMART computer programme will help speed lorry turnarounds and move containers more quickly

The new port booking system will cut transit times

36

EDUCATION

Universities preparePublic spendingcuts andbusinesscutbacks are to the fore this

HIGHER educationproviders acrossMerseyside are all tooaware of shiftingrequirements in this

new era of austerity, and aretailoring their programmesaccordingly.

George Osborne’s emergencyBudget laid the groundwork, andthe forthcoming October spendingreview will confirm the changinglandscape for education andbusinesses alike.

But Merseyside’s fouruniversities have respondedswiftly and will offer students,businesses and post-graduates aprospectus aimed at addressingthe needs of post-downturnBritain in the new academic year.

Liverpool Hope University hasalready felt the chill wind of cutsafter regeneration organisationthe Northwest DevelopmentAgency (NWDA) withdrewfunding earlier than anticipatedfor special leadership andmentoring training.

The university ran fourbusiness recovery programmeslast year, including two for blackand ethnic minority communities.

But those courses have beenimpacted by the early withdrawalof NWDA funding that wassupposed to be in place until nextMarch, said Hope spokeswomanJane Davies.

She said: “We are seeing asignificant reduction in fundingfor business owners to come onprogrammes. Last year it wasfree, but this year people will haveto pay for it, but we will try andoffer it again this year.”

The funding cut could affectfledgling businesses which theGovernment hopes will drive aprivate sector jobs recovery, andshe said it is vital to help themthrough the difficult first fewyears: “We don’t know what effectthat will have, but the message is,if you work on your own you canbe isolated, so the businessrecovery programme is where wecan get business owners togetherand help form ‘buddying’networks and help them to helpeach other on an ongoing basis.”

Ironically, as people’s concernsgrow about the economicsituation, demand has increased:“We’re not seeing a decline inpeople taking programmes.

“People in uncertain jobcircumstances are taking trainingbecause they are worried theymight be out of work and theywant qualifications.”

This year, Hope is offering avaried programme, includingpart-time courses at evenings orweekends in management andleadership skills accredited by theChartered Management Institute.

Training and consultancyservices include tailored bespokecourses covering personaldevelopment skills, leadershipand management, IT, humanresource management and healthand safety.

Health and safety is also astrong feature of Hope’s coachingand mentoring courses, which canbe tailored for individualcompanies.

Jane Davies explains: “We runprogrammes for companies tohelp with expansion.

“If someone opens a newwarehouse or is expanding,companies want somethingspecifically tailored, for example,to achieve ‘behaviouralmodifications’ in terms of health

and safety, so companies aren’t ina reactive situation whensomething goes wrong.”

She added: “People’s needs arediverse, but sometimes businessesdon’t realise what they need. Wetalk to some companies aboutwhat they want and it turns outthey need something completelydifferent.”

Edge Hill University, inOrmskirk, is developing apioneering course offering a newMSc in Information Security andIT Management as part of itswork-relevant programmes.

The university has establishedseveral partnerships in China andIndia and business schoolassociate director ChrisBeaumont said: “We conductedmarket analysis to identifypotential demand in the UK andIndia after several visits to Indiafor promotional purposesattracted a large level of interest

in an MSc that incorporatesinformation security.”

Research in India found an“acute shortage of informationsecurity personnel” andworldwide market growth of 24%in information security systemsduring 2006.

“Other research has indicatedthat the market for informationsecurity consulting in China andIndia will grow 23% annuallythrough to 2012.”

UK statistics also showed theaverage salary rate of growth forinformation security jobs to be12.5%, with job prospectsimproving in relation to other ITpositions.

The business school has nowdeveloped a new postgraduatecourse, and it is anticipated thatdemand will be high because ofthe shortage of trained people inthis area and its increasingimportance to society.

The course is aimed primarilyat IT managers and aspiringsecurity and IT managementprofessionals at home and abroad.

Mr Beaumont said: “We havedesigned the course around smallgroups so that students can besure of plenty of individualdiscussion and support by theirtutors.

“Also, every student is allocateda personal tutor to make sure theyreceive a high level of individualguidance.”

The business school describesthe MSc as a “world leader in itsfield”, but is also confident thatits part-time undergraduatebusiness degree and its part- andfull-time Masters in business andin computing courses will proveextremely popular with students.

Liverpool John MooresUniversity is continuing todevelop its unique WoW – Worldof Work – package which aims to

offer students workplaceexperience through programmesdeveloped with business partnersto make them much moreemployable in the eyes ofprospective employers.

It seeks to impart the essentialskills of self-awareness andemotional intelligence, businessunderstanding and the ability toget things done, and more than3,000 students are now workingtowards their WoW certificate.

An international Doctorate inBusiness Administration is aimedat key corporate figures in theMiddle East, heads of banks,major corporations andgovernment figures, and theuniversity is establishing aFoundation Degree in Leadershipand Management with St HelensChamber of Commerce which willbe competence based, starting inJanuary.

But JMU has also introduced

Prof Murray Dalziel, left, picturedwelcoming former FA chief executiveBrian Barwick to the University ofLiverpool’s Management School

37

EDUCATION

for a new era of austerityautumn.Neil Hodgson reports onhowhigher education in the region intends to respondseveral new programmes to meetcurrent and developing needs,including a focus on governance,growth, social capital andsustainability in the third sector.

A recent development includesa Masters in Social Enterprise, anew post-graduate certificate inThird Sector Management inpartnership with LiverpoolCommunity and VoluntaryServices (LCVS) due to go livenext April.

The qualification is in responseto a call from the sector for a needto develop management skills.

JMU sees the third sector as agrowing area, and one that is veryactive in the Merseyside andNorth West region, and says thepressures of public sector cutsand the Government’s Big Societyinitiative has increased theimportance of supporting thedevelopment and sustainability ofthese businesses and encouraging

new social enterprise. Anotherrecent initiative is a modularSustainable Built EnvironmentMSc, believed to be the only one ofits kind delivered over theinternet, which targetsprofessionals in the constructionindustry.

It will be delivered by seniorlecturer Larry Wilkinson, formermanaging director at constructioncompany Kier Northwest, and DrAndy Ross, head of post-graduateand collaborative programmes atJMU’s School of the BuiltEnvironment.

Mr Wilkinson explained thecourse has been developed againsta backdrop of a growing raft ofnew environmental laws backedby hefty fines that are making allcompanies think about theirsustainability credentials.

“The legislation which isalready in place is pretty onerousand I do not expect that to change

– if anything, it is going to gettougher.

“Whether the industry as awhole will get there or not, I amnot sure, but there is acommercial edge to thinkingsustainably, it is not just a case ofdoing it purely for environmentalreasons.

“If you can demonstrate to aclient that you can includesustainable measures in yourdesign, that is going to give youone-up over a rival bidder.”

The University of Liverpoollaunches the first UK onlineDoctorate in BusinessAdministration this September, asrevealed in July’s LDP Business.

It marks 10 years of onlinedegrees at the university and willbuild on the success of its onlineMasters in BusinessAdministration (MBA) which hasgraduated 1,500 students aroundthe globe since its 2000 launch.

Another key facet of theuniversity’s Management Schoolis its LEAD leadershipprogramme, catering for ownersof small firms with up to 50 staff,which aims to improveproductivity and businessprocesses by addressing thepersonal development of theowner-manager.

A women in leadership “taster”will run on September 7, followedby a LEAD preview on September16 (phone Richard Holloway on0151-795 3333 for details).

Perhaps more pertinent to theforthcoming upheaval in thepublic sector is a LiverpoolMasters in Public Administration(Public Management) programme.

Working in partnership withtransport authority Merseytravel,Liverpool City CouncilCommunity Services and healthbody Liverpool PCT, the course isan in-company programme to

help organisations andindividuals address the changestaking place in the public andvoluntary sectors.

Graduates of the programmewill be “more effective leadersand managers in a changing andincreasingly complexenvironment”, says theuniversity’s Management School.

It said the MPA (PM) will drawon the strengths and reputation ofthe Liverpool Masters in PublicAdministration, which is thelongest running MPA in the UK.

Management School director,Prof Murray Dalziel, said: “This iscentral to our approach toexecutive education. Theexecutive role is broad, oftenoperating on varied time horizonswithin complex and changingsituations.

“We aim to make a difference inthese unprecedented times forboth global and local economies.”

The legislation which is already in place is pretty onerous – Larry Wilkinson, senior lecturer atLiverpool JMU’s School of the Built Environment

38

SakuraUnit 8, Walker House,Exchange Flags,Liverpool L2 3YLTel: 0151 236 2113sakuraliverpool.com

THE NETWORKER

BUSINESS LUNCH

DETAILS

Lloyd Whitely

Sakura has brought al fresco dining to Exchange Flags, in Liverpool city centre

Bill Gleeson finds aconvenientvenue tomeet EdwardBillington&SonbossLloydWhitely for lunch

PASSING throughExchange Flagsrecently, I becamevery impressedby how the areahas been broughtback to life.

Ever since the officecomplex was bought by

Simon Parker’s UK Land &Property, it has made greatstrides. A law firm and Ministryof Defence civil servants occupymuch of the office space, while theground floor now has coffee andsandwich shops, as well as anewsagents.

UK Land harbours an ambitionto fill the remaining ground floorspace with several restaurants,and last April the developersecured its first restaurant tenant.

Sakura Restaurant and Bardescribes itself as an authenticJapanese restaurant and, whenwe ate there recently, dinersincluded half a dozen Japanesepeople, which is a good sign.

Given its location in the heartof the city’s business district,Sakura is a convenient place foraccountants, lawyers, bankers andthe likes to visit for lunch. I metLloyd Whitely, chairman ofEdward Billington & Son, theCunard Building headquarteredfirm that trades in agriculturalcommodities and food ingredientssuch as spices. Billington brandsinclude the English ProvenderCompany range of condimentssold through Britishsupermarkets. It also owns asugar business in the UnitedStates.

Sakura offers a Lunch Expressmenu served between 12 noon and3pm. The same menu is alsooffered as its Early Bird Dinner,from 5pm to 7pm throughout theweek. Offering a broad choice fora fixed-price menu, it seemedgood value at £7.95 for two coursesor £10.95 for three.

We chose to be seated in one ofthe booths, which offer a quieter,more private venue for talkingbusiness undisturbed, but guestsmay also choose to experiencethe theatre of the Teppanyakiseating, where dishes areprepared by the table on asizzling hot-plate. On sunnydays, there are also plentiful,covered, outdoor tables onExchange Flags. There is anextensive and mouthwateringa la carte menu for thosewho want a biggermeal, but we stuck tothe Express menu.

For his starter, Lloydopted for Shime SabaNo Sarada, which was

helpfully translated as marinatedmackerel salad. I chose the Ika NoChiri Maki, spicy squid rolls,while my wife and sighted guide,Frances, selected the Hirame NoTempura, white fish tempura,schichimi and ponzu.

While we ate, Lloyd offered ushis outlook on the state of theworld economy. That morning, thefinancial press was full of theusual doom and gloom aboutdouble dip recessions andstuttering recoveries, and theBank of England had published itsquarterly inflation report, whichcontained forecasts for UKeconomic growth, saying it hadbeen revised downwards.

Lloyd said: "I am pessimistic bynature.

"I can see the economy dippingagain. It's all the public sectorjobs cuts – it's going to have a bigimpact. If it does dip again, it willgrow back slowly."

However, Lloyd was lesspessimistic about the prospectsfor his own company, Billington,which he said was not so badlyaffected by the vagaries of theeconomic cycle.

"We're in food, and everybodyneeds to eat. Our main customersare the food retailers and the bigfood manufacturers. Worlddemand for food is growing fast,particularly as places like Chinaand India grow.

"We are in agriculture and Ithink farming has a great future.We have very high labour costs inUK farming, but we're also veryefficient in terms of utilisingmachinery and land," he said.

Lloyd also pointed out thatagricultural products are nowincreasingly being used asbiofuels, as well as for food.Indeed, Billington has recentlydiversified into biofuels,distributing wood pellets used inlarge boilers found in hospitals,

factories andoffices.

"Land isbeingused tomake

both food and fuel, so there will bebig demand for land," he added.

About his mackerel salad, Lloydsaid: "I enjoyed it. It was not toospicy. It's quite dry for mackerel,not too oily.”

Frances's white fish tempurawas served hot, and it was agenerous portion, so she sharedsome with Lloyd and me. The fishhad a very light, non-greasybatter and it went together verywell with the spices, which were aspecial Japanese mixturecontaining seven ingredientsincluding chilli, hemp, ginger androasted orange peel.

I liked my raw squid rolls,which were very flavoursome andnicely spiced.

For his main course, Lloydchose Natsu ryori – beef sukiyakiand prawn yaki. I had Ebi no Yakisoba – teppan fried egg noodleswith prawns, garlic and greenonion, while Frances choseHaruryori – teriyaki chicken filletand salmon teriyaki.

While I was attempting towrap some noodles around achop stick, Lloyd commented onhow Russia's devastating

heatwave and widespread fireshave been affecting business inthe agricultural sector. Heexplained that grain yields wouldbe 20m to 30m tonnes lower thisyear. As a result, the country'sgovernment has banned theexport of grain overseas, leavingsome countries, including Egypt,short.

"Next year's crop could alsosuffer because the land is too dryfor them to plant fresh seeds. SoI'm bullish about food prices,which will go up as a result.

"Grains have already jumpedfrom about £100 per tonne to £150in the last six to eight weeks. It'sthe biggest jump I can rememberin so short a space of time. Graingoes into everything – biscuits,bread, starch, pasta – and all theworld's commodities have gone upin price. All you need is a fewscary stories and the marketsjump, creating massive volatility.

"Volatility is good for ourbusiness because it gives us atrading opportunity to buy andsell," he said.

Lloyd said that his main coursewas very good.

"It makes you feel it is healthyto eat. It's satisfying, but not over

filling, and I like the sauce," hesaid. My noodles were nicelyspiced and the mushrooms, inparticular, were excellentlyflavoured.

Frances said her Teriyakichicken was delicious, with a goodbalance of sweetness and spice inthe sauce. The service was promptand friendly. Our waiter was verywilling to explain the dishes to us.A busy banker, eating from theExpress menu, would have notrouble getting back in time for anearly afternoon meeting.

Our bill came to £32.29, whichincluded soft drinks and mineralwater and service charge.

As I left, I felt converted toJapanese food. Sakura brings aninteresting dimension to the citycentre’s lunchtime offering.

39

THE NETWORKER

THE BUSINESS LISTTHURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 2/ THE MARY PORTAS GUIDE TO SUCCESSFUL RETAILING

Wednesday, September 8SAFELY dealing with the nuclearlegacy is the subject of aCheshire, Warrington & WirralConstruction Best Practiceevent. John Vieth, the supplychain relationship manager atMagnox will share details ofprojects under way and futureMagnox plans. It is free toConstructing ExcellenceMembers and £10 for others. It isat Lymm Services, Poplar 2000,WA13 0SP. For more information,e-mail Jan Daniel [email protected].

Monday, September 20Business Secretary Vince Cablewill be joining Liverpool Chamberof Commerce members for abreakfast meeting to discuss theGovernment’s economicpolicies. His visit coincides withthe Liberal Democrats’ autumnconference in Liverpool. Themeeting starts at 10am. To booka place at the free event, visitwww.liverpoolchamber.org.uk

Monday, September 20The Federation of SmallBusinesses (FSB) is hopingbusiness leaders will be inspiredby a networking event in theLady Chapel at Liverpool’sAnglican Cathedral. TheInspirational Networking session,organised by the FSB’sMerseyside, West Cheshire andWigan region, will include apresentation by business thinkerand “corporate soul woman”Molly Harvey. The BritishGas-sponsored event is open tonon-members and is free toattend. For information, visitwww.fsb.org.uk/inspirational

Thursday, September 23Knowsley Chamber ofCommerce is hosting aworkshop on the implications ofsocial media in the workplace.The event will discuss thebenefits that companies can gainfrom using sites such asFacebook and Twitter – and willalso look at the problems thatcan result from unsuccessfulsocial media policies. The event

starts at 4pm at the Suites HotelConference Centre, in RibblersLane, Knowsley. For moreinformation, visit www.knowsleychamber.org.uk

Wednesday,September 29West Cheshire and North WalesChamber of Commerce isholding its next Ellesmere PortBusiness breakfast at theInglewood Manor, in nearbyLedsham. The Chamber’sbreakfast meetings are designedto allow business owners andmanagers to meet each otherand forge business connect-ions. The event starts at 7.30am.To book, call (01244) 669988.

Tuesday, October 12Creative industries supportagency Vision + Media isholding a business supportsurgery to help people who

want to hold film festivals.

Deborah Parker, the agency’shead of audience development,will host the event at theBluecoat from 10.30am to

1.15pm. Anyone interested insigning up for a 45-minutemeeting with her should [email protected]

TRAINING bodyAcademy ONE isholding a series ofretail masterclasses inLiverpool forindependent retailerswho want to learnsome of the secretsfrom hit TV show MaryQueen of Shops.

Academy ONE – a

retail trainingpartnership betweenLiverpool One,Birkenhead trainingfirm Scientiam, and theNational SkillsAcademy for Retail –has organised seven“Mary Portas Guide toSuccessful Retailing”masterclasses, with

the first being held onSeptember 2 in theconference suite atLiverpool restaurant 60Hope Street.

The sessions willcover issues includingfinance, marketing,visual merchandisingand customer service.

The masterclasses

were created by MsPortas and will behosted by retailconsultant ShalinaAlabaksh.

She said: “I amlooking forward toworking in Liverpool –where shopping issuch a massive part ofpeople’s lives – and

working with theretailers to give them abetter understandingof the way theircustomers think.”

Each masterclasscosts £200+VAT. Tobook, visitwww.nsaforretail.comor e-mail [email protected]

Mary Portas, star of BBC TV show Mary Queen of Shops, has created a series of retail masterclasses

InglewoodManor,Ledsham,which willhost a WestCheshire andNorth WalesChamber ofCommercebreakfastmeeting

Business Secretary Vince Cable

40

ALISTAIRHOUGHTON

THE NETWORKER

. . . in which we set sail on the river ofnetworking before searching for thesecrets of the spirit world

HAVING got myholidays out of theway early, I’vetried to infuse myrecent “businessengagements”with the holidayspirit. I returnedfrom the US in

early June for a summer of work, onlyto see the office regularly denuded ofstaff as they flew off to various exoticdestinations – or, in one case, wetWales.

But there’s no need to go on holidaywhen business reporting can send youon a cruise or on an exploration of themysteries of the spirit world.

First up, it was time for the annualRensburg Sheppards river cruise.Setting sail on one of the world’s mostfamous waterways with a glass ofChampers or bottle of beer always tohand? Sounds like holidays to me.

Admittedly, my dream holidayprobably wouldn’t boast quite as manybankers and lawyers, but why be pickywhen there’s a free bar?

The night started at the new MerseyFerries terminal, so handy for thecity’s Suit Quarter – sorry,“commercial district.”

The city’s best, in their workdayfinest, swamped the bar before theRensburg team politely circulated totake us to the boat. The partygoersambled to the boat in polite and orderlyfashion, almost like a school party.

Though real schoolkids wouldn’t benecking beer and Champagne, ofcourse. They’d be on the vodka jellies.

It reminded me briefly of my onevisit to the School Disco night at theHammersmith Palais. Up close,everyone was dressed in white shirtsand wonky school ties in thatnow-traditional and oh-so-tired “wackyschoolkid” look.

But, from above, all those ageingadults, who were after all dressed inshirts and ties, merely resembled thedelegates at an accountancy conventionliving it up at the mobile disco. And theLondon drinks prices would have givenany accountants a useful andimpromptu lesson in profit margins.

BACK at the Rensburg do, thenetworking began in earnest,even before the boat slippedoff the pontoon and began itsleisurely journey up and

down the Mersey.Being on a boat presents its own

challenges. You can’t leave early, ofcourse, unless you have a Bond villain-style folding submarine beneath yourtoupee.

And woe betide anyone who suffersmotion sickness. It’s hard to imagineanyone wrapping up a multimillion-pound contract in dignity whileleaning over the side of the boat withdinner dribbling down their chin.

I also found myself distracted fromconversations by the perpetually

changing views from the boat – not, it’sfair to say, a problem you’d have in themeeting room of a chain hotel.

Many locals think the very idea ofgetting a ferry is too cheesy for words.And, yes, some of the frippery aroundthe journey – particularly the incessantuse of That Song – is annoying.

But the views from the ferry remainwonderful. Yes, the view from the PierHead up to the cathedrals remains thehigh point, whatever you might thinkof the new buildings that have poppedup around the Three Graces.

But there are other highlights – theview over New Brighton and out to sea,say, or the views into the derelict andbrooding Stanley Dock warehouse. Orthe view back to the new towers ofLiverpool city centre, a futuristic andunfamiliar skyline.

Taking to the water is also the onlyway to grasp the scale of the scrapmountains at Langton Dock.

Blots on the landscape? Perhaps.Let’s face it, you wouldn’t want yourcruise liner terminal there so the scrapmountains were the first things seen bywealthy foreign tourists – oops – butthey are strangely impressive and amust-see part of Liverpool’sstill-bustling dockscape.

I always take visitors on the ferrywhen they visit – fitted with a GerryMarsden filter first, of course.

Rensburg uses its cruise to showcasethe city to staff from elsewhere in thecountry. It’s a boozy office night out, ofcourse, but it’s also a shop window forthe city. Long may it continue.

AND the spirits? Well, lastmonth I found myselfpassing judgment on theskills of some of Britain’sbest bartenders as a judge at

a rum tasting competition.I’d been invited by Halewood

International to the event at Alma deCuba – another Liverpool venuebeloved of visitors.

It would be a stretch to call itnetworking, if I’m honest. But I did getto meet one new “contact” – the UK’s“rum ambassador”, Ian Burrell.

Ian gets to travel the UK and beyondextolling the virtues of rum. In hisspare time, he organises London’sannual Rumfest.

Between rounds – the first a test of 11cocktails, the second a series of potentrum blends – we talked about rum.Golden rums are making a comeback,he enthusiastically insisted, whileBritons are more knowledgeable thanever about their drinks.

Touring the world, sharing yourpassion with all and sundry, inglamorous venues with a drink almostto hand? Now there’s a job that’s almosta holiday in itself.

So, if anybody wants a “realale, The Smiths and Wimpyambassador”, call me.

Gerry Marsden found ‘Networking ’Cross The Mersey’ justdidn’t scan. Luckily, he soon found an alternative title

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42

CAROLYNHUGHES

SOCIAL DIARY THE NETWORKER

Neil Byrne, BTG Tax; Catherine Pye, Smart Storage; John Haynes, International CoachingAcademy; and Jenny Stewart, Liverpool Chamber, at the Novotel platform lunch

Paul Quinn (Living Room), Emmallene McGloughlin, Julie Duffy andBryan Foy at the Mosquito preview evening

Geraldine Lawler, Elizabeth Nelson, Jane Josephand Christine Fitzsimmons at the Ladies’ lunch

Chantelle Nolan (St Helens Theatre Royal) andLouise Darcey-Kemp (Kangaroo Media), at theLadies Networking Lunch

Geraldine Lawler, Andy Wigger (general manager,Restaurant Bar and Grill) and Jane Joseph (CrownProductions) at the Restaurant Bar and Grill event

Louise Doran, Andy Duckworth (general manager,Mosquito) and Kayleigh Winters, at the preview evening

Khalid Khan and Sandra Khan, among the guestsat the Mosquito preview evening

Rachel Guy Jones, Irivine Larrier and HelenRaghu, enjoying their night at the Mosquito

ONE of Liverpool’spremiere night spots hasundergone a substantialmake-over over the pastcouple of weeks.

Orchid-owned Mosquito,underneath the LivingRoom, hosted a previewevening for clients toshowcase the newlydesigned popular club.

Guests enjoyed a fab-ulous burlesque routinewhile sampling someexquisite canapés andsuperb cocktails. Thepreview evening was achance for regular cust-omers to enjoy the changesthat Orchid have made toone of Liverpool’s mostpopular venues.■ August’s platform

lunch at Novotel servedup an excellent lunch andnetworking opportunity.Guests enjoyed herbbrioche coated salmonfillet followed by a trulybar raising three-partchocolate pudding, basedon a best seller from thehotel’s restaurant.■ The stylish RestaurantBar and Grill, inBrunswick Street, heldtheir latest LadiesNetworking Lunch lastweek. A fabulous three-course lunch anddelicious wines wereenjoyed by some ofLiverpool’s mostglamorous ladies, toppedoff by some stunningcocktails.

43

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44

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LDP Business Magazine September 2010

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