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2 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 3We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

� Imetrum has developed a video gauge that measures movement of structures to a tiny level. They are using it toassess flood damage to bridges and embankments. Above, the team in Flax Bourton; below left, MD John Brewster

A BRISTOL company believesit can help the country over-come the devastation causedby flooding in future. Therecent onslaught of wind and

rain has caused millions of pounds ofdamage in the South West and bey-ond, such as the collapse of the rail-way line at Dawlish, Devon, after abattering from the sea.

The team at Imetrum, a high-techspin-off from the University of Bris-tol, has been developing a device tomeasure how much damage has beencaused to buildings, bridges and em-bankments using a simple video cam-era.

The technique involves setting up acamera, then the firm’s computerprogramme looks at movementbetween each frame – with around 400frames taken per second.

Engineers can then use the inform-ation to judge whether the movementis more than it should be and ifsomething needs to be done.

Managing director, John Brewster,said the equipment was very precise.

“We could be a mile away from theSevern Bridge focused on a 100-metresection in the middle and measuremovement down to 0.25mm,” hesaid.

“Being able to quickly ascertain thedegradation in performance of astructure after flood damage couldpotentially have huge knock-on be-nefits to both the economy and thecommunity at large.”

The technology could also be usedto highlight weaknesses in advance –for example, that a particular bridgecould be at risk and needs strength-ening to prevent future problems.

Engineers can use it when loadtesting – for example, measuring howmuch a bridge moves when a lorry-load of sand is driven over it andcomparing that with informationabout how much the bridge shouldmove based on the design.

Mr Brewster said: “With theImetrum technology we are easilyable to understand the real time dy-

namic performance of any type ofcivil engineering structure underload without typically getting directaccess to the structure.

“We can therefore quickly under-stand the performance of the struc-ture over its operational life or after a

particular event that puts a questionmark over its performance.”

The company, based in Flax Bour-ton, was founded in 2003 and spe-cialises in precision measurementusing cameras, without needing totouch whatever is being measured.

� Helen Sanders set up 2S recruitment so she could work from home

C o n st r u c t i o nRe c r u i t m e n t

M ot h e rs ’ pride F l ex i b l efirm on awards shortlist

RECRUITMENT firm 2S wasset up because its founderswanted to use their skillsand experience without hav-ing to be based in an office.

Now the business is made of 11professionals scattered around thecountry – all mothers who work fromhome because it suits their lifestylen e e d s.

For founder Helen Sanders, 38, thechange in her life was when her sonLeo survived a brain tumour.

“After that I realised I couldn’t go

and get a traditional job,” she said.“My business partner didn’t want towork in an office while someone elseraised her kids.”

So the business model developed ofhiring experienced recruiters whohad the same wish – to have flexibilityto work from home, do the school runand earn well using skills they haddeveloped over years in the industry.

It’s the flexible approach that hasmade the firm a finalist in the Bristoland Bath Women in Business Awardsin the Women in the Workplace cat-e gory.

Helen, from Southville, said: “W h atwe have found is that people who arebrilliant recruiters love what they dowith a real passion and what they aredoing, but want that flexibility ofbeing a parent as well as being areally great recruiter.

“When we visit customers we meet

in a coffee shop, a Regus office or to gotheir place of work.”

She said managing remote workersprovoked challenges.

“As a manager, you need to be ableto engage with people and know whenthey are maybe going off track or arenot happy,”

The finalists

Israeli firm to invest� AN ISREALI firm that treats kneeosteoarthritis is planning to invest inBristol after a recent trade visit tothe country.

Apos Therapy intends to open abranch in the city as part of a£10 million investment in the UK.

The plan was announced among araft of Israeli investments after the17-company delegation went to theMiddle East, led by Prime MinisterDavid Cameron and Trade MinisterLord Livingston.

Medical

Firms among the bestin Britain to work for� TWO Bristol businesses havebeen named among the best 100small companies to work for.

Business Environment, a servicedoffice operator with offices in Bristol,is in the Sunday Times poll for theseventh year running, at 77.

Stacey McCarthy, Temple Meadscentre manager with BusinessEnvironment, said: “We are thrilled.”

And The Gym, in Quakers Friars,was one stop higher, at 76th.

Chief executive, John Treharne,said: “It’s a great achievement forthe company to receive thisaccolade for the second yearrunning and reflects the continuedcommitment and dedication fromemployees.”

Ra t i n g s

Damage limitation Device checksthe impact of weather battering

� Woman of the Year, s p o n s o re dby PPC.Finalists: Romy Gill, of Romy’sKitchen, Thornbury; Susie Hewson,managing director of Natracare,Kingswood; Michelle Michael, ofWe s t o n ’s Grand Pier; RachelDemuth, of Demuth’s CookerySchool, Bath; Suzanne Baxter,group finance director of Mitie,Emersons Green

� Young Entrepreneur of the Year,sponsored by bclearCommunications.Finalists: Rebecca Kench, ofPropertECO, Bath; AmyMcCormack, ETM Recycling,Ashton Vale; Grazziella Pinto,Fashion Bloodhound, LongwellG re e n

� Mentor of the Year, sponsoredby Lloyds Banking Group.Finalists: Debs Eden, of Debs Eden& Associates, Southville; JoniFarthing, Women Outside The Box,Bristol; Emma Sparks, Geometry

PR, Bath

� Business of the Year, sponsoredby City of Bristol College.Finalists: 1pm, Bath; Fabuloustrading as Pandora, Bath; Mitie,Emersons Green

� Contribution to the CommunityAw a rd , sponsored by SouthgateShopping Centre.Finalists: Low Carbon South WestCIC, Queen Square, Bristol; JennyFoster, of Bristol Fairtrade;Geometry PR, Bath� Women in the Workplace,sponsored by Crest Nicholson.Finalists: 2S Recruitment,Bedminster; Brunelcare, Whitehall;The HR Dept, Henfield, SouthG l o u c e s t e r s h i re

� Female Apprentice, sponsoredby the West of England LocalEnterprise Partnership.Finalists: Emma Sparks, ofGeometry PR, Bath; JessicaDocherty, PES Consulting,

Rudgeway, South Gloucestershire

� Innovation Award, sponsored byA s h f o rd s .Finalists: YourStreet Ltd, AshleyDown; LiteTile Ltd, Rooksbridge; InTouch Studios, Bedminster

� New Business of the Year,sponsored by HSBC CommercialBanking.Finalists: YourStreet Ltd; Granny’sSecret, Chipping Sodbury

� Marketing Campaign of theYe a rFinalists: Hancock Communications,Bath; Merlin Housing Society,Chipping Sodbury; Rapport Digital,Brislington

� Outstanding Contribution toBusiness in Bristol or Bath,sponsored by UWE Bristol.Will be announced on the night.

� Overall awards sponsors: UWEBristol

Sign uphere forbusinessnews directto yourinboxevery day

Assistant Editor (Business)Gavin Thompson

Call 0117 934 3336Email gavin.thompson

@b-nm.co.ukTwitter @gavin_thompson1

Get in touch

Writer Rupert JanischEmail business@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising RobertRodgerson

Call07828 941469Email ro b e r t . ro d g e r s o n

@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising JaneChapmanCall 01179 343025Email jane.chapman@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising SimonCoy, Media Sales

Executive - BusinessCall 07736 900 705.

Email simon.coy@b-nm.co.uk

Best deals - How the numbers stack up

Business currentaccounts

Petrol prices

1.01%£10,000 deposit

0.05%£1 deposit

0.25%£1 deposit

State Bankof India

0.05%£500 deposit

Co-operativeBank

0.12%£1 deposit

Unity TrustBank

0.10%£25,000 deposit

Corporation tax

Employer NI rates

23 %

20 %Main rate

Small profitsrate – below

£300,000

13 . 8%Standard rate on

earnings above£148 per week

10 .4%Employees ins a l a r y - re l a t e d

pension schemeearning up £770 p/w

129 .36pUnleaded

136 . 47 pDiesel

138 .1 1 pSuperunleaded

70 .1 0 pLPG

Source: PetrolPrices.com

Business savingsaccounts

1.25%£1,000 deposit

1.49%£10,000 deposit

1.70%£10,000 deposit

State Bankof India

1.36%£1,000 deposit

Bank ofCyprus UK

1.53%£1,000 deposit

Cambridge& CountiesBank

1.45%£10,000 deposit

Inflation (CPI)

1.9 %Weekly earnings

1.6 %Base interest rate

0.5 %Ave mortgage rate

3.99 %Source: BusinessMoneyfacts -moneyfacts.co.uk

Allied IrishBank (GB)

Cambridge &CountiesBank

HanleyEconomic BS

NationalCounties BS

Advertising ShamaAbokor, RegionalBusiness AccountExecutiveCall 0117 934 3426Emailshama.abokor@b-nm.co.uk

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

It was founded as a spin-off fromBristol University, which still has a 30per cent stake, and has grown rapidly,breaking the £1m mark for turnoverlast year. It employs 17 people andplans to hire three more this year,predicting 50 per cent growth in 2014.

� AT City of Bristol College we’recommitted to creating lifetimeopportunities through outstandingeducation and training.

We ’re one of the largest furtherand higher education colleges inthe UK, offering the widest rangeof academic and vocationalqualificationsin thea re a ,withm o rethan2,000coursesavailable,from entry to degree level.

Nearly 30,000 adults choose tostudy with us each year at one ofour five main centres acrossBristol and South Gloucestershireat Ashley Down, College Green,AEC at Parkway, Soundwell andSouth Bristol Skills Academy.Each centre offers excellentfacilities, including purpose-built,well-equipped classrooms andworkshops. Students can alsostudy at one of our localcommunity partner venues or intheir own workplace.

We also provide apprenticeshipsto around 3,000 of our studentsaged 16-plus. We are the mainprovider of post-16 education inBristol with around 7,00016-18-year-olds attending thecollege.

In addition to supporting our30,000 learners, we also work witha wide range of employers, largeand small, through Partners inBusiness. As well as providingeducation and training, Partners inBusiness also offers employers arange of high value andeasy-to-access business supportservices.

For more information visitw w w. c i t y o f b r i s t o l . a c . u k .

Thousands benefitfrom college offering

Sponsor profile

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

But she added: “T here’s no reasonwhy, if your systems are right, peoplec a n’t work at home.”

The Bristol and Bath Women inBusiness Awards take place on April2 at the Bristol City Centre Marriott.Book your tickets at w w w. b r i s t o lp o s t . c o. u k / w i b a .

Olympic heroes urgefirms to do their bit� GOLD medal-winners from theLondon Olympics are working with aBristol-based initiative to encouragebusinesses to help raise money forgood causes.

Legacy 300, a project created byTeam GB Olympians andParalympians, organises individualand team experiences.

A pilot scheme in London raised£110,000 selling these experiencesat auctions. A reserve price providesdirect funding to the athletes andanything above that figure goes tothe nominated good cause.

Winscombe-born rower andBeijing Olympic medallist, SteveRowbotham, said: “If your companyor members of staff receive requeststo donate auction items to help withthe fundraising of good causes,please can you consider maximisingthe impact of this donation and helpGB athletes raise £200,000 for goodcauses in 2014.”

Bristol will be hosting severalexperience days in June as part ofThe Harbourside Games. Theyinclude rowing with GB Olympians,meet-and-greets with goldmedallists such as Gloucestershire’sPete Reed and Alex Gregory, andtrack cycling with GB cyclists.

C h a r i ty

� SOLICITORS’ firm GreggLatchams has appointed Dr HartleyBooth, formerly lawyer to MargaretThatcher, as a strategic adviser.

Dr Booth’s first commission will beto help the Queen Square firmdevelop its business in China, wherehe will be presenting a series ofseminars this month as part of theRed Dragon Advisors initiative. Heflew to China on Saturday withGregg Latchamspartners PaulHardman andKen McEwan.

Red DragonAdvisors is aChinainvestmentservicesconsortium, ofwhich GreggLatchams arefounder members.

In addition to this role, Dr Boothwill also help develop the servicesthe firm is beginning to offer from itsLondon base in Berkeley Square.

Dr Booth was a policy adviser onlaw and the environment to MrsThatcher when she was PrimeMinister, and he held ministerialposts in the Foreign Office andDepartment of Education when anMP from 1992 to 1997. He was aGovernment trade envoy in centralAsia from 1998 to 2012, for whichthe Queen awarded him an OBE. Heis a barrister at law, having studiedlaw at Bristol University andCambridge University, where he wasgiven a doctorate.

Richard Hill, managing partner atGregg Latchams, said: “We see theappointment of Dr Booth as anexcellent opportunity for GreggLatchams to raise its profile,particularly in London and the SouthEast, and to help develop our newservices.”

Dr Booth said: “I am delighted tobe joining Gregg Latchams. I hopeto play a part in promoting Anglo-Chinese and other internationalbusiness, which is so important.”

Former lawyerto Thatcher willadvise solicitors

Le g a l

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

E01-

S3

2 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 3We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

� Imetrum has developed a video gauge that measures movement of structures to a tiny level. They are using it toassess flood damage to bridges and embankments. Above, the team in Flax Bourton; below left, MD John Brewster

A BRISTOL company believesit can help the country over-come the devastation causedby flooding in future. Therecent onslaught of wind and

rain has caused millions of pounds ofdamage in the South West and bey-ond, such as the collapse of the rail-way line at Dawlish, Devon, after abattering from the sea.

The team at Imetrum, a high-techspin-off from the University of Bris-tol, has been developing a device tomeasure how much damage has beencaused to buildings, bridges and em-bankments using a simple video cam-era.

The technique involves setting up acamera, then the firm’s computerprogramme looks at movementbetween each frame – with around 400frames taken per second.

Engineers can then use the inform-ation to judge whether the movementis more than it should be and ifsomething needs to be done.

Managing director, John Brewster,said the equipment was very precise.

“We could be a mile away from theSevern Bridge focused on a 100-metresection in the middle and measuremovement down to 0.25mm,” hesaid.

“Being able to quickly ascertain thedegradation in performance of astructure after flood damage couldpotentially have huge knock-on be-nefits to both the economy and thecommunity at large.”

The technology could also be usedto highlight weaknesses in advance –for example, that a particular bridgecould be at risk and needs strength-ening to prevent future problems.

Engineers can use it when loadtesting – for example, measuring howmuch a bridge moves when a lorry-load of sand is driven over it andcomparing that with informationabout how much the bridge shouldmove based on the design.

Mr Brewster said: “With theImetrum technology we are easilyable to understand the real time dy-

namic performance of any type ofcivil engineering structure underload without typically getting directaccess to the structure.

“We can therefore quickly under-stand the performance of the struc-ture over its operational life or after a

particular event that puts a questionmark over its performance.”

The company, based in Flax Bour-ton, was founded in 2003 and spe-cialises in precision measurementusing cameras, without needing totouch whatever is being measured.

� Helen Sanders set up 2S recruitment so she could work from home

C o n st r u c t i o nRe c r u i t m e n t

M ot h e rs ’ pride F l ex i b l efirm on awards shortlist

RECRUITMENT firm 2S wasset up because its founderswanted to use their skillsand experience without hav-ing to be based in an office.

Now the business is made of 11professionals scattered around thecountry – all mothers who work fromhome because it suits their lifestylen e e d s.

For founder Helen Sanders, 38, thechange in her life was when her sonLeo survived a brain tumour.

“After that I realised I couldn’t go

and get a traditional job,” she said.“My business partner didn’t want towork in an office while someone elseraised her kids.”

So the business model developed ofhiring experienced recruiters whohad the same wish – to have flexibilityto work from home, do the school runand earn well using skills they haddeveloped over years in the industry.

It’s the flexible approach that hasmade the firm a finalist in the Bristoland Bath Women in Business Awardsin the Women in the Workplace cat-e gory.

Helen, from Southville, said: “W h atwe have found is that people who arebrilliant recruiters love what they dowith a real passion and what they aredoing, but want that flexibility ofbeing a parent as well as being areally great recruiter.

“When we visit customers we meet

in a coffee shop, a Regus office or to gotheir place of work.”

She said managing remote workersprovoked challenges.

“As a manager, you need to be ableto engage with people and know whenthey are maybe going off track or arenot happy,”

The finalists

Israeli firm to invest� AN ISREALI firm that treats kneeosteoarthritis is planning to invest inBristol after a recent trade visit tothe country.

Apos Therapy intends to open abranch in the city as part of a£10 million investment in the UK.

The plan was announced among araft of Israeli investments after the17-company delegation went to theMiddle East, led by Prime MinisterDavid Cameron and Trade MinisterLord Livingston.

Medical

Firms among the bestin Britain to work for� TWO Bristol businesses havebeen named among the best 100small companies to work for.

Business Environment, a servicedoffice operator with offices in Bristol,is in the Sunday Times poll for theseventh year running, at 77.

Stacey McCarthy, Temple Meadscentre manager with BusinessEnvironment, said: “We are thrilled.”

And The Gym, in Quakers Friars,was one stop higher, at 76th.

Chief executive, John Treharne,said: “It’s a great achievement forthe company to receive thisaccolade for the second yearrunning and reflects the continuedcommitment and dedication fromemployees.”

Ra t i n g s

Damage limitation Device checksthe impact of weather battering

� Woman of the Year, s p o n s o re dby PPC.Finalists: Romy Gill, of Romy’sKitchen, Thornbury; Susie Hewson,managing director of Natracare,Kingswood; Michelle Michael, ofWe s t o n ’s Grand Pier; RachelDemuth, of Demuth’s CookerySchool, Bath; Suzanne Baxter,group finance director of Mitie,Emersons Green

� Young Entrepreneur of the Year,sponsored by bclearCommunications.Finalists: Rebecca Kench, ofPropertECO, Bath; AmyMcCormack, ETM Recycling,Ashton Vale; Grazziella Pinto,Fashion Bloodhound, LongwellG re e n

� Mentor of the Year, sponsoredby Lloyds Banking Group.Finalists: Debs Eden, of Debs Eden& Associates, Southville; JoniFarthing, Women Outside The Box,Bristol; Emma Sparks, Geometry

PR, Bath

� Business of the Year, sponsoredby City of Bristol College.Finalists: 1pm, Bath; Fabuloustrading as Pandora, Bath; Mitie,Emersons Green

� Contribution to the CommunityAw a rd , sponsored by SouthgateShopping Centre.Finalists: Low Carbon South WestCIC, Queen Square, Bristol; JennyFoster, of Bristol Fairtrade;Geometry PR, Bath� Women in the Workplace,sponsored by Crest Nicholson.Finalists: 2S Recruitment,Bedminster; Brunelcare, Whitehall;The HR Dept, Henfield, SouthG l o u c e s t e r s h i re

� Female Apprentice, sponsoredby the West of England LocalEnterprise Partnership.Finalists: Emma Sparks, ofGeometry PR, Bath; JessicaDocherty, PES Consulting,

Rudgeway, South Gloucestershire

� Innovation Award, sponsored byA s h f o rd s .Finalists: YourStreet Ltd, AshleyDown; LiteTile Ltd, Rooksbridge; InTouch Studios, Bedminster

� New Business of the Year,sponsored by HSBC CommercialBanking.Finalists: YourStreet Ltd; Granny’sSecret, Chipping Sodbury

� Marketing Campaign of theYe a rFinalists: Hancock Communications,Bath; Merlin Housing Society,Chipping Sodbury; Rapport Digital,Brislington

� Outstanding Contribution toBusiness in Bristol or Bath,sponsored by UWE Bristol.Will be announced on the night.

� Overall awards sponsors: UWEBristol

Sign uphere forbusinessnews directto yourinboxevery day

Assistant Editor (Business)Gavin Thompson

Call 0117 934 3336Email gavin.thompson

@b-nm.co.ukTwitter @gavin_thompson1

Get in touch

Writer Rupert JanischEmail business@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising RobertRodgerson

Call07828 941469Email ro b e r t . ro d g e r s o n

@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising JaneChapmanCall 01179 343025Email jane.chapman@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising SimonCoy, Media Sales

Executive - BusinessCall 07736 900 705.

Email simon.coy@b-nm.co.uk

Best deals - How the numbers stack up

Business currentaccounts

Petrol prices

1.01%£10,000 deposit

0.05%£1 deposit

0.25%£1 deposit

State Bankof India

0.05%£500 deposit

Co-operativeBank

0.12%£1 deposit

Unity TrustBank

0.10%£25,000 deposit

Corporation tax

Employer NI rates

23 %

20 %Main rate

Small profitsrate – below

£300,000

13 . 8%Standard rate on

earnings above£148 per week

10 .4%Employees ins a l a r y - re l a t e d

pension schemeearning up £770 p/w

129 .36pUnleaded

136 . 47 pDiesel

138 .1 1 pSuperunleaded

70 .1 0 pLPG

Source: PetrolPrices.com

Business savingsaccounts

1.25%£1,000 deposit

1.49%£10,000 deposit

1.70%£10,000 deposit

State Bankof India

1.36%£1,000 deposit

Bank ofCyprus UK

1.53%£1,000 deposit

Cambridge& CountiesBank

1.45%£10,000 deposit

Inflation (CPI)

1.9 %Weekly earnings

1.6 %Base interest rate

0.5 %Ave mortgage rate

3.99 %Source: BusinessMoneyfacts -moneyfacts.co.uk

Allied IrishBank (GB)

Cambridge &CountiesBank

HanleyEconomic BS

NationalCounties BS

Advertising ShamaAbokor, RegionalBusiness AccountExecutiveCall 0117 934 3426Emailshama.abokor@b-nm.co.uk

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

It was founded as a spin-off fromBristol University, which still has a 30per cent stake, and has grown rapidly,breaking the £1m mark for turnoverlast year. It employs 17 people andplans to hire three more this year,predicting 50 per cent growth in 2014.

� AT City of Bristol College we’recommitted to creating lifetimeopportunities through outstandingeducation and training.

We ’re one of the largest furtherand higher education colleges inthe UK, offering the widest rangeof academic and vocationalqualificationsin thea re a ,withm o rethan2,000coursesavailable,from entry to degree level.

Nearly 30,000 adults choose tostudy with us each year at one ofour five main centres acrossBristol and South Gloucestershireat Ashley Down, College Green,AEC at Parkway, Soundwell andSouth Bristol Skills Academy.Each centre offers excellentfacilities, including purpose-built,well-equipped classrooms andworkshops. Students can alsostudy at one of our localcommunity partner venues or intheir own workplace.

We also provide apprenticeshipsto around 3,000 of our studentsaged 16-plus. We are the mainprovider of post-16 education inBristol with around 7,00016-18-year-olds attending thecollege.

In addition to supporting our30,000 learners, we also work witha wide range of employers, largeand small, through Partners inBusiness. As well as providingeducation and training, Partners inBusiness also offers employers arange of high value andeasy-to-access business supportservices.

For more information visitw w w. c i t y o f b r i s t o l . a c . u k .

Thousands benefitfrom college offering

Sponsor profile

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

But she added: “T here’s no reasonwhy, if your systems are right, peoplec a n’t work at home.”

The Bristol and Bath Women inBusiness Awards take place on April2 at the Bristol City Centre Marriott.Book your tickets at w w w. b r i s t o lp o s t . c o. u k / w i b a .

Olympic heroes urgefirms to do their bit� GOLD medal-winners from theLondon Olympics are working with aBristol-based initiative to encouragebusinesses to help raise money forgood causes.

Legacy 300, a project created byTeam GB Olympians andParalympians, organises individualand team experiences.

A pilot scheme in London raised£110,000 selling these experiencesat auctions. A reserve price providesdirect funding to the athletes andanything above that figure goes tothe nominated good cause.

Winscombe-born rower andBeijing Olympic medallist, SteveRowbotham, said: “If your companyor members of staff receive requeststo donate auction items to help withthe fundraising of good causes,please can you consider maximisingthe impact of this donation and helpGB athletes raise £200,000 for goodcauses in 2014.”

Bristol will be hosting severalexperience days in June as part ofThe Harbourside Games. Theyinclude rowing with GB Olympians,meet-and-greets with goldmedallists such as Gloucestershire’sPete Reed and Alex Gregory, andtrack cycling with GB cyclists.

C h a r i ty

� SOLICITORS’ firm GreggLatchams has appointed Dr HartleyBooth, formerly lawyer to MargaretThatcher, as a strategic adviser.

Dr Booth’s first commission will beto help the Queen Square firmdevelop its business in China, wherehe will be presenting a series ofseminars this month as part of theRed Dragon Advisors initiative. Heflew to China on Saturday withGregg Latchamspartners PaulHardman andKen McEwan.

Red DragonAdvisors is aChinainvestmentservicesconsortium, ofwhich GreggLatchams arefounder members.

In addition to this role, Dr Boothwill also help develop the servicesthe firm is beginning to offer from itsLondon base in Berkeley Square.

Dr Booth was a policy adviser onlaw and the environment to MrsThatcher when she was PrimeMinister, and he held ministerialposts in the Foreign Office andDepartment of Education when anMP from 1992 to 1997. He was aGovernment trade envoy in centralAsia from 1998 to 2012, for whichthe Queen awarded him an OBE. Heis a barrister at law, having studiedlaw at Bristol University andCambridge University, where he wasgiven a doctorate.

Richard Hill, managing partner atGregg Latchams, said: “We see theappointment of Dr Booth as anexcellent opportunity for GreggLatchams to raise its profile,particularly in London and the SouthEast, and to help develop our newservices.”

Dr Booth said: “I am delighted tobe joining Gregg Latchams. I hopeto play a part in promoting Anglo-Chinese and other internationalbusiness, which is so important.”

Former lawyerto Thatcher willadvise solicitors

Le g a l

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

E01-

S3

4 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 5We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

MIPIM - Bristol business leaders report back from international property co n fe re n ce

THIS year was my first atMIPIM. Our real estate teamhas attended the event inCannes for many years, usingit to meet with agents, clients,

investors and other European lawfirms with whom we work closely.

MIPIM 2014 was buzzing, with atangible sense of confidence return-ing to the property market. Unlike inprevious years, when the worst ef-fects of the recession were biting,businesses were fielding large teamsof senior people. All the majorEuropean cities were representedand Stockholm (the first EuropeanGreen Capital) was one of the mains p o n s o r s.

We were delighted to be the mainsponsors of Invest in Bristol and Bathfor the second year running. TheSouth West local authorities (Bristol,Bath and North East Somerset, NorthSomerset and South Gloucestershire)came together with the support of theLocal Enterprise Partnership topresent a clear and cohesive case forinvestment in our region as the smartLondon alternative.

While comparisons will inevitablybe drawn with other regions, the au-thorities’ focus on key areas likeJunction 21 and the Temple QuayEnterprise Zone, with a vision forthose areas and support from SouthWest businesses like ourselves, gen-erated genuine interest.

One of IBB’s key events was aforum on the European Green Capitalthat I hosted on the Thursday morn-ing. Attendees included Sir PeterSousby, from Leicester, the first En-vironment City; Staffan Ingvarsson,the vice CEO of Stockholm; Bristolmayor George Ferguson; architectsfrom the UK and Sweden; BRE andAndreas Lindeloff, from Swedish

property developer Skanska. The keytheme was the city’s challenge tobusiness for European Green Capitaland business’s challenge to the city.

The debate provided an excitingopportunity for us to share the ex-periences from Stockholm andL e i c e s t e r.

It was recognised that the award ofgreen capital was just the beginning.Creating a sense of place from theaward was vital and Bristol’s brandshould be enhanced alongside itsstrong green credentials.

The benefits of a successful capitalwill be widespread – promoting ex-isting businesses, creating jobs andraising standards for new buildingsand development.

Work starts here Winning GreenCapital status ‘only the beginning’

� The Invest in Bristol & Bath stand at the MIPIM property conference in Cannes

Te c h n o l o g y

In the picture Lorry cameras couldmean the end for insurance fraud

FORWARD-facing camera tech-nology could put a stop tofraudulent haulage insuranceclaims, according to a Bris-tol-based broker.

Alec Cole, account director at Ven-ture Insurance in Clifton, is now lend-ing the cameras to haulage firms sothey can see for themselves the effectthe technology can have in resolvingdisputed claims.

He said the technology, which hasbeen around since 2008 but has onlyrecently gained a foothold in thehaulage industry, could make fraud-

ulent claims a thing of the past.And he said it had the added effect

of driving down premiums, withsome of Venture Insurance’s partnerfirms offering discounts of up to 10per cent to hauliers installing thetechnolog y.

The premium savings far outweighthe costs of installing the camerasand Mr Cole believes it is only amatter of time before the technologyis used as standard throughout thei n d u s t r y.

Mr Cole, who has more than adecade specialising in haulage in-surance, working with hauliersacross the South West and furtherafield, said a significant bank of man-agement information was beginningto be built up to support the viabilityof the cameras.

Where appropriate, Venture Insur-ance is urging clients to install thecameras because they can provideincontrovertible evidence in dis-puted claims, in turn reducing risk.

Mr Cole said: “T here’s no questionthat this is going to be agame-changer in our industry. Weexpect that in a few years everyhaulage company will install thesecameras on their vehicles as stand-a rd .

“At the moment, because the tech-nology is still to become mainstream,t h e re ’s a lack of management inform-ation to support its feasibility.

“But we’ve been working with man-ufacturers for a couple of years nowand there’s no doubt that, slowly butsurely, hauliers are starting to re-cognise the benefits.”

A CAR repair firm that works forinsurers has opened a new bespokepremises in Warmley.

WBC Automotive Ltd was estab-lished in 2002 following a manage-ment and staff buy-out fromNationwide Accident Repair Ser-v i c e.

Now the firm has moved intopremises on Caxton Business Park,which have been built and refur-bished to WBC Automotive’s specific-ations to incorporate astate-of-the-art body shop.

Director David Turner said: “T hiswas a great opportunity for us to

showcase to our guests a client ex-perience which is second to none. Thepremises house the latest diagnosticand specialist repair equipment witha separate 6,000sq ft. aluminium re-pair facility, while at the same timeintroducing an eco-friendly environ-ment aimed at driving down energyc o s t s.

“We ’re delighted that Barclays hasbacked our ambitious plans to createan energy-efficient body shop fit forpurpose in the 21st century.”

The firm deals directly with majorinsurance companies, includingAviva, Allianz Cornhill, Churchill

and Catlin and is one of only fiveAMG Mercedes accredited structuralaluminium approved body shops inthe UK.

Local MP Chris Skidmore wasamong guests at the opening, withrepresentatives from across themotor industry. He said: I’ve beenimpressed by the facilities and work-manship I’ve seen and hope this willencourage like-minded businesses toinvest in the area, which has to begood news for creating local jobs andfor the local economy.”

The firm recently hired 10 morestaff, taking the tally to 50.

Au to m ot i ve

State-of-the-art base for repair firm

� Staff outside WBC Automotive’snew premises in Warmley

� Alec Cole, account director at Venture Insurance in Clifton

Market for 3D printerscould be worth £2.9bn� A PORTISHEAD firm hoping todevelop a 3D printer for thedomestic market says the industryis potentially worth more than£2.9 billion.

Research carried out for Roboxfound that one in 10 people wouldbe prepared to spend £500 or moreon a 3D home printer.

Chief executive, Chris Elsworthy,said: “3D printing has already madeits mark in the technologycommunity, but where the generalhomeowner is concerned there isstill a long way to go. But we’refinding more and more peoplewould love to have a printer if itlooked great, was relatively cheapand they had a clear idea of how touse it.”

The study quizzed 1,000 adults.

Te c h n o l o g y

Get the bigger picture.Business news from Bristol,Bath, Gloucestershire and

Somerset. Scan to sign up fornews direct to your inbox

Forward-facing cameras areproven to improve driver behaviour,reducing the likelihood of accidentsin the first place.

And in terms of the cost of claims,they can have a massive impact, evenwhen the policy-holder is at fault.

Mr Cole said: “These cameras caneffectively make fraudulent claims athing of the past.

“These claims can also be settledmore quickly and efficiently and canshorten the period that our insurerswill hold outstanding claim estim-at e s.

“Even when the impact is notpicked by forward-facing cameras,the video evidence shows theve h i cl e ’s movement and lane discip-line that can substantiate the driver’sversion of events.”

Integral secures £5mleisure centre contract� REFURBISHMENT and buildingfirm Integral has won a contract todo up a leisure centre in London.

The Aztec West-based firm wonthe £5 million job in Tottenham onthe back of a successfulrefurbishment of another centre forthe same client, Fusion Lifestyle.

Tim Stringer, divisional director ofIntegral Build, said “The project atTottenham Green really puts IntegralBuild into the major projects divisionfor leisure and health clubrefurbishment projects. We’redelighted to be working with Fusionagain. We’ve proved ourselves to beable to deliver complexrefurbishment projects within thesefast-track, live environments.”

Re n ova t i o n

Plum prize awardedto treatment centre� A PR firm from Weston-super-Mare has given away its services toa local charity.

Plum Communications & PRinvited charities to nominatethemselves for free PR for a year.The winner was Broadway Lodge, aWe s t o n addiction treatment centre.

Centre chief executive, BrianDudley, said: “This has come at theperfect time as Broadway Lodge iscelebrating 40 years of deliveringsuccessful treatment programmes.”

Public relations

Movers & shake-ups

The latest appointments news. Sendyour news to business@b-nm.co.uk

� SANTANDER Corporate &Commercial has appointed JulianStevens as international director forthe South West, a new role createdto increase its support forbusinesses looking to growoverseas.

Julian, below, joins Santanderfrom Barclays and will lead amultilingual team of tradespecialists. He will be responsiblefor developing stronger relationshipswith new and existing customerswanting to tradeinter nationally.

Julian lives in Bristoland has 25 years’experience in thebanking sector, withmore than 15 years ofexperience in tradeand internationalfinance roles at HSBCand Barclays.

Julian said: “I amdelighted to have theopportunity to lead a great team ofpeople as we continue to build onour reputation in the sector and

expand on our ambitions in theinternational market.”

� LAW firm Foot Anstey hasincreased the number ofpartners in its rapidlygrowing Bristol officeto 15 after appointinga new specialist to itsBristol-based realestate team.

Paul Clark, right,joins the firm fromBurges Salmon, where hehas spent the past 10 yearsadvising clients in the finance,investment and energy sectors.

Paul has particular experience inadvising on complex developments

involving biomass, hydropower and wind energy

projects – both onshoreand offshore.

Managing partner,John Westwell, said:“Paul has both thespecialist skills andproactive approach that

our clients demand.”Since opening in Bristol

in 2011, the office has grownto more than 60 staff.

� SARAH Daly has joinedindependent environmental firm SLR

Consulting as communicationsmanager. Based in the firm’s Bristol

office, Sarah will oversee thedevelopment of internal and

external communications,marketing and biddevelopment across thecompany’s 24 UK andIrish offices.

Sarah, below, is achartered marketer andfellow of the Chartered

Institute of Marketing,with 28 years’ experience

in senior roles, including 21years as managing director of

her own consultancy.Director Alban Forster

said: “Sarah brings agreat deal of wisdom,experience andcreativity to thisposition and will havea key role to play aswe shape and growthe business.”

� COMMERCIAL propertyconsultancy Lambert SmithHampton has appointed MatthewArmstrong as a surveyor in itsBristol office.

Matthew, who has joined thevaluations team, will be workingwith key clients across the region.

He said: “I’m excited to havejoined such a dynamic companyand look forward to playing mypart in providing highquality valuation servicesto clients.”

Darren Sheward,head of office at LSHin Bristol, said: “As welook to strengthen ouroperations and expandthe team, Matthew,right, will play animportant role in deliveringour services across theSouth West.”

� TWO staff at the HolidayInn Bristol Filton arecelebrating winningcustomer service prizesat the Bristol Tourismand Hospitality Awards.

Peeradej Swetnant,sous chef at the hotel’s

Sampans restaurant, wascrowned winner of the

Individual Customer ServiceAward for Hospitality, and the

hotel’s academy host, LynnCadwallander, came runner-up.

Lara Beechey, general manager atHoliday Inn Bristol Filton, said: “Weare very proud of Peeradej and Lynnand delighted they were both

recognised for their dedication andhard work over the last 12 months.

This award means a lot to thehotel as it demonstrates our

commitment to customerservice by ensuring ourguests receive a level ofservice they cannot findelsewhere in the area.”

� LAW firm ClarkeWillmott LLP has

appointed a new partnerin its social housing finance

team.Vicky Kells, below, who

specialises in charging affordablehousing portfolios to lenders andsecurity trustees, brings sevenyears’ experience of working withthe social housing sector. She joinsfrom Eversheds inC a rd i ff .

Chiefexecutive,StephenRosser, said:“Vi c k ybringsextensiveindustryexperiencethat will be ofgreat benefit toour team and clients.”

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

� THE mood at MIPIM 2014 wasgenuinely buoyant and it was greatto see local authorities from theWest |Country leading the way byattending the event to make thosevitally important connections withproperty investors.

MIPIM is the world’s largestproperty fair and The Midas Groupwas proud to once again be a partof this globally important event, butit was especially heartening to seesuch great representation from UKcouncils this year.

Some criticisms may have beenlevied at local authorities forsending delegations, but Midasapplauds them for being proactiveabout attracting investment intotheir towns and cities.

It is essential forcouncils to take anactive role inkey events likeMIPIM tomeet withinvestorsanddeveloperswho havethe funds,contacts andthe desire tobuild in the UK – andas a construction company based inBristol, Midas was delighted to seedelegations from Bath, Bristol CityCouncil and North Somerset inattendance.

This year’s MIPIM had anespecially upbeat atmosphere, andwas the busiest event I haveexperienced for some time after sixyears of attending.

Bristol was the subject of talksgiven by mayor George Fergusonabout the city being recognised asthe European Green Capital for2015 – the same year that the city’snew £11.6m Filwood GreenBusiness Park will be completed byMidas Construction – and we lookforward to many more futurecollaborations with theforward-looking local authority.� By Andy Smith, above, director ofbusiness development, Midas Group

It was great tosee our co u n c i l sleading the way

� MIPIM is an international realestate conference held in Cannesin the south of France. It bringstogether investors from across theglobe.� Bristol and Bath sent a jointdelegation for the city region,including Bristol mayor GeorgeFerguson, to promote the area topotential investors. The cost waspaid for from grants andsponsorship from Burges Salmon.� The delegation met with morethan 700 investors and property

professionals over four days.� Hundreds visited the Invest inBristol & Bath exhibition stand,which was modelled on theEngine Shed business centre inthe Temple Quarter EnterpriseZone.� More than 80 delegatesattended the team’s Developingthe Region event.� At the conference, the regionwas ranked seventh in the top 25European Cities of the Future byFDi magazine.

MIPIM FACTS

Elizabeth DunnPartner at Burges Salmon

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4 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 5We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

MIPIM - Bristol business leaders report back from international property co n fe re n ce

THIS year was my first atMIPIM. Our real estate teamhas attended the event inCannes for many years, usingit to meet with agents, clients,

investors and other European lawfirms with whom we work closely.

MIPIM 2014 was buzzing, with atangible sense of confidence return-ing to the property market. Unlike inprevious years, when the worst ef-fects of the recession were biting,businesses were fielding large teamsof senior people. All the majorEuropean cities were representedand Stockholm (the first EuropeanGreen Capital) was one of the mains p o n s o r s.

We were delighted to be the mainsponsors of Invest in Bristol and Bathfor the second year running. TheSouth West local authorities (Bristol,Bath and North East Somerset, NorthSomerset and South Gloucestershire)came together with the support of theLocal Enterprise Partnership topresent a clear and cohesive case forinvestment in our region as the smartLondon alternative.

While comparisons will inevitablybe drawn with other regions, the au-thorities’ focus on key areas likeJunction 21 and the Temple QuayEnterprise Zone, with a vision forthose areas and support from SouthWest businesses like ourselves, gen-erated genuine interest.

One of IBB’s key events was aforum on the European Green Capitalthat I hosted on the Thursday morn-ing. Attendees included Sir PeterSousby, from Leicester, the first En-vironment City; Staffan Ingvarsson,the vice CEO of Stockholm; Bristolmayor George Ferguson; architectsfrom the UK and Sweden; BRE andAndreas Lindeloff, from Swedish

property developer Skanska. The keytheme was the city’s challenge tobusiness for European Green Capitaland business’s challenge to the city.

The debate provided an excitingopportunity for us to share the ex-periences from Stockholm andL e i c e s t e r.

It was recognised that the award ofgreen capital was just the beginning.Creating a sense of place from theaward was vital and Bristol’s brandshould be enhanced alongside itsstrong green credentials.

The benefits of a successful capitalwill be widespread – promoting ex-isting businesses, creating jobs andraising standards for new buildingsand development.

Work starts here Winning GreenCapital status ‘only the beginning’

� The Invest in Bristol & Bath stand at the MIPIM property conference in Cannes

Te c h n o l o g y

In the picture Lorry cameras couldmean the end for insurance fraud

FORWARD-facing camera tech-nology could put a stop tofraudulent haulage insuranceclaims, according to a Bris-tol-based broker.

Alec Cole, account director at Ven-ture Insurance in Clifton, is now lend-ing the cameras to haulage firms sothey can see for themselves the effectthe technology can have in resolvingdisputed claims.

He said the technology, which hasbeen around since 2008 but has onlyrecently gained a foothold in thehaulage industry, could make fraud-

ulent claims a thing of the past.And he said it had the added effect

of driving down premiums, withsome of Venture Insurance’s partnerfirms offering discounts of up to 10per cent to hauliers installing thetechnolog y.

The premium savings far outweighthe costs of installing the camerasand Mr Cole believes it is only amatter of time before the technologyis used as standard throughout thei n d u s t r y.

Mr Cole, who has more than adecade specialising in haulage in-surance, working with hauliersacross the South West and furtherafield, said a significant bank of man-agement information was beginningto be built up to support the viabilityof the cameras.

Where appropriate, Venture Insur-ance is urging clients to install thecameras because they can provideincontrovertible evidence in dis-puted claims, in turn reducing risk.

Mr Cole said: “T here’s no questionthat this is going to be agame-changer in our industry. Weexpect that in a few years everyhaulage company will install thesecameras on their vehicles as stand-a rd .

“At the moment, because the tech-nology is still to become mainstream,t h e re ’s a lack of management inform-ation to support its feasibility.

“But we’ve been working with man-ufacturers for a couple of years nowand there’s no doubt that, slowly butsurely, hauliers are starting to re-cognise the benefits.”

A CAR repair firm that works forinsurers has opened a new bespokepremises in Warmley.

WBC Automotive Ltd was estab-lished in 2002 following a manage-ment and staff buy-out fromNationwide Accident Repair Ser-v i c e.

Now the firm has moved intopremises on Caxton Business Park,which have been built and refur-bished to WBC Automotive’s specific-ations to incorporate astate-of-the-art body shop.

Director David Turner said: “T hiswas a great opportunity for us to

showcase to our guests a client ex-perience which is second to none. Thepremises house the latest diagnosticand specialist repair equipment witha separate 6,000sq ft. aluminium re-pair facility, while at the same timeintroducing an eco-friendly environ-ment aimed at driving down energyc o s t s.

“We ’re delighted that Barclays hasbacked our ambitious plans to createan energy-efficient body shop fit forpurpose in the 21st century.”

The firm deals directly with majorinsurance companies, includingAviva, Allianz Cornhill, Churchill

and Catlin and is one of only fiveAMG Mercedes accredited structuralaluminium approved body shops inthe UK.

Local MP Chris Skidmore wasamong guests at the opening, withrepresentatives from across themotor industry. He said: I’ve beenimpressed by the facilities and work-manship I’ve seen and hope this willencourage like-minded businesses toinvest in the area, which has to begood news for creating local jobs andfor the local economy.”

The firm recently hired 10 morestaff, taking the tally to 50.

Au to m ot i ve

State-of-the-art base for repair firm

� Staff outside WBC Automotive’snew premises in Warmley

� Alec Cole, account director at Venture Insurance in Clifton

Market for 3D printerscould be worth £2.9bn� A PORTISHEAD firm hoping todevelop a 3D printer for thedomestic market says the industryis potentially worth more than£2.9 billion.

Research carried out for Roboxfound that one in 10 people wouldbe prepared to spend £500 or moreon a 3D home printer.

Chief executive, Chris Elsworthy,said: “3D printing has already madeits mark in the technologycommunity, but where the generalhomeowner is concerned there isstill a long way to go. But we’refinding more and more peoplewould love to have a printer if itlooked great, was relatively cheapand they had a clear idea of how touse it.”

The study quizzed 1,000 adults.

Te c h n o l o g y

Get the bigger picture.Business news from Bristol,Bath, Gloucestershire and

Somerset. Scan to sign up fornews direct to your inbox

Forward-facing cameras areproven to improve driver behaviour,reducing the likelihood of accidentsin the first place.

And in terms of the cost of claims,they can have a massive impact, evenwhen the policy-holder is at fault.

Mr Cole said: “These cameras caneffectively make fraudulent claims athing of the past.

“These claims can also be settledmore quickly and efficiently and canshorten the period that our insurerswill hold outstanding claim estim-at e s.

“Even when the impact is notpicked by forward-facing cameras,the video evidence shows theve h i cl e ’s movement and lane discip-line that can substantiate the driver’sversion of events.”

Integral secures £5mleisure centre contract� REFURBISHMENT and buildingfirm Integral has won a contract todo up a leisure centre in London.

The Aztec West-based firm wonthe £5 million job in Tottenham onthe back of a successfulrefurbishment of another centre forthe same client, Fusion Lifestyle.

Tim Stringer, divisional director ofIntegral Build, said “The project atTottenham Green really puts IntegralBuild into the major projects divisionfor leisure and health clubrefurbishment projects. We’redelighted to be working with Fusionagain. We’ve proved ourselves to beable to deliver complexrefurbishment projects within thesefast-track, live environments.”

Re n ova t i o n

Plum prize awardedto treatment centre� A PR firm from Weston-super-Mare has given away its services toa local charity.

Plum Communications & PRinvited charities to nominatethemselves for free PR for a year.The winner was Broadway Lodge, aWe s t o n addiction treatment centre.

Centre chief executive, BrianDudley, said: “This has come at theperfect time as Broadway Lodge iscelebrating 40 years of deliveringsuccessful treatment programmes.”

Public relations

Movers & shake-ups

The latest appointments news. Sendyour news to business@b-nm.co.uk

� SANTANDER Corporate &Commercial has appointed JulianStevens as international director forthe South West, a new role createdto increase its support forbusinesses looking to growoverseas.

Julian, below, joins Santanderfrom Barclays and will lead amultilingual team of tradespecialists. He will be responsiblefor developing stronger relationshipswith new and existing customerswanting to tradeinter nationally.

Julian lives in Bristoland has 25 years’experience in thebanking sector, withmore than 15 years ofexperience in tradeand internationalfinance roles at HSBCand Barclays.

Julian said: “I amdelighted to have theopportunity to lead a great team ofpeople as we continue to build onour reputation in the sector and

expand on our ambitions in theinternational market.”

� LAW firm Foot Anstey hasincreased the number ofpartners in its rapidlygrowing Bristol officeto 15 after appointinga new specialist to itsBristol-based realestate team.

Paul Clark, right,joins the firm fromBurges Salmon, where hehas spent the past 10 yearsadvising clients in the finance,investment and energy sectors.

Paul has particular experience inadvising on complex developments

involving biomass, hydropower and wind energy

projects – both onshoreand offshore.

Managing partner,John Westwell, said:“Paul has both thespecialist skills andproactive approach that

our clients demand.”Since opening in Bristol

in 2011, the office has grownto more than 60 staff.

� SARAH Daly has joinedindependent environmental firm SLR

Consulting as communicationsmanager. Based in the firm’s Bristol

office, Sarah will oversee thedevelopment of internal and

external communications,marketing and biddevelopment across thecompany’s 24 UK andIrish offices.

Sarah, below, is achartered marketer andfellow of the Chartered

Institute of Marketing,with 28 years’ experience

in senior roles, including 21years as managing director of

her own consultancy.Director Alban Forster

said: “Sarah brings agreat deal of wisdom,experience andcreativity to thisposition and will havea key role to play aswe shape and growthe business.”

� COMMERCIAL propertyconsultancy Lambert SmithHampton has appointed MatthewArmstrong as a surveyor in itsBristol office.

Matthew, who has joined thevaluations team, will be workingwith key clients across the region.

He said: “I’m excited to havejoined such a dynamic companyand look forward to playing mypart in providing highquality valuation servicesto clients.”

Darren Sheward,head of office at LSHin Bristol, said: “As welook to strengthen ouroperations and expandthe team, Matthew,right, will play animportant role in deliveringour services across theSouth West.”

� TWO staff at the HolidayInn Bristol Filton arecelebrating winningcustomer service prizesat the Bristol Tourismand Hospitality Awards.

Peeradej Swetnant,sous chef at the hotel’s

Sampans restaurant, wascrowned winner of the

Individual Customer ServiceAward for Hospitality, and the

hotel’s academy host, LynnCadwallander, came runner-up.

Lara Beechey, general manager atHoliday Inn Bristol Filton, said: “Weare very proud of Peeradej and Lynnand delighted they were both

recognised for their dedication andhard work over the last 12 months.

This award means a lot to thehotel as it demonstrates our

commitment to customerservice by ensuring ourguests receive a level ofservice they cannot findelsewhere in the area.”

� LAW firm ClarkeWillmott LLP has

appointed a new partnerin its social housing finance

team.Vicky Kells, below, who

specialises in charging affordablehousing portfolios to lenders andsecurity trustees, brings sevenyears’ experience of working withthe social housing sector. She joinsfrom Eversheds inC a rd i ff .

Chiefexecutive,StephenRosser, said:“Vi c k ybringsextensiveindustryexperiencethat will be ofgreat benefit toour team and clients.”

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

� THE mood at MIPIM 2014 wasgenuinely buoyant and it was greatto see local authorities from theWest |Country leading the way byattending the event to make thosevitally important connections withproperty investors.

MIPIM is the world’s largestproperty fair and The Midas Groupwas proud to once again be a partof this globally important event, butit was especially heartening to seesuch great representation from UKcouncils this year.

Some criticisms may have beenlevied at local authorities forsending delegations, but Midasapplauds them for being proactiveabout attracting investment intotheir towns and cities.

It is essential forcouncils to take anactive role inkey events likeMIPIM tomeet withinvestorsanddeveloperswho havethe funds,contacts andthe desire tobuild in the UK – andas a construction company based inBristol, Midas was delighted to seedelegations from Bath, Bristol CityCouncil and North Somerset inattendance.

This year’s MIPIM had anespecially upbeat atmosphere, andwas the busiest event I haveexperienced for some time after sixyears of attending.

Bristol was the subject of talksgiven by mayor George Fergusonabout the city being recognised asthe European Green Capital for2015 – the same year that the city’snew £11.6m Filwood GreenBusiness Park will be completed byMidas Construction – and we lookforward to many more futurecollaborations with theforward-looking local authority.� By Andy Smith, above, director ofbusiness development, Midas Group

It was great tosee our co u n c i l sleading the way

� MIPIM is an international realestate conference held in Cannesin the south of France. It bringstogether investors from across theglobe.� Bristol and Bath sent a jointdelegation for the city region,including Bristol mayor GeorgeFerguson, to promote the area topotential investors. The cost waspaid for from grants andsponsorship from Burges Salmon.� The delegation met with morethan 700 investors and property

professionals over four days.� Hundreds visited the Invest inBristol & Bath exhibition stand,which was modelled on theEngine Shed business centre inthe Temple Quarter EnterpriseZone.� More than 80 delegatesattended the team’s Developingthe Region event.� At the conference, the regionwas ranked seventh in the top 25European Cities of the Future byFDi magazine.

MIPIM FACTS

Elizabeth DunnPartner at Burges Salmon

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6 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 7We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

Bristol Food Connections launch at the Watershed The Education Agenda: Whose Business Is It? at the Engine ShedBusiness diary

Email your business events togavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk.Events are sometimescancelled without us beingnotified so please check withorganisers before travelling.

Advice clinics: One-hour clinicswith Business West formanaging directors who want tofocus on challenges of growth.Leigh Court, Abbots Leigh,t o d a y. Email info@growthsouthwest.co.uk.

We d n e s d a y @ 6 : Institute ofDirectors informal networking atthe Radisson Blu Hotel, 6-8pm,today. Non-members welcome.Free, but to register call 01173707785 or emailiod.southwest@iod.com.

The Bristol DistinguishedExecutive Address Series:Networking event andopportunity to hear from aleading business voice. Thespeaker is Air Vice MarshalJulian Young OBE, UWEFrenchay Campus, 6pm, today.

The Bristol DistinguishedExecutive Address Series:Networking event andopportunity to hear from aleading business voice. SimonCollins, chairman and seniorpartner at KPMG, City Hall,tomorrow, 6pm.

IoD Bristol & Bath YoungBusiness Forum Dinner: Aplace for ambitious directors tointeract, learn and engage withpeers and mentors. Waterhouse,Monkton Combe, Bath, 6pm to8.30pm, tomorrow. Emailr o g e r. p l a h a y @ s a n d l e r. c o m .

Ta s t e Te c h : Institute of Directorshosts an interactive evening atExplore@Bristol withaward-winning taste technologyexperts TasteTech. Tuesday,March 25, 6-8pm. For tickets call0117 370 7785 or emailiod.southwest@iod.com.

FSB South Gloucestershireseminar: Wednesday, March 26,6.45pm-9.45pm, Aztec WestHotel, Almondsbury BS32 4TS.Register at w w w. f s b . o r g . u k .

Silicon Gorge 1.0: Showcasing25 tech and digital firms fromBristol and Bath to potentialinvestors. Joint event withWebstart Bristol and SetSquaredat the Engine Shed, TempleMeads, on March 26. Ticket only.

The Bristol DistinguishedExecutive Address Series:Networking event andopportunity to hear from aleading business voice. Sir WinBischoff, of Lloyds BankingGroup, at City Hall, 6pm, onMarch 26.

Ready for business workshop:Introductory workshops foranyone who is exploring theconcept of self-employment orstarting a business at Brave, TheCoach House, Upper YorkStreet, Bristol, 10am-4pm,Thursday, March 27. Free.Contact r eadyforbusiness@businesswest.co.uk.

Bristol & Bath Women inBusiness Awards: A celebrationof women’s achievements inbusiness. At the Bristol CityCentre Marriott, Wednesday,April 2. See w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/wiba to book tickets.

� THE Bristol businesscommunity got stuck into acelebration of food and drink.

Business West, together withthe Watershed, Bristol FoodNetwork and Destination Bristol,hosted the business launch ofBristol Food Connections.

The ambitious festival will takeplace over 11 days in May tocelebrate the outstanding andinnovative food culture in Bristol.

The launch event gavebusinesses an insight into theopportunities around the festival.

Speakers including LornaKnapman, the curator of BristolFood Connections, and TristanHogg, from Pieminister, enthusedattendees with their vision.

The festival will reachcommunities and schools acrossthe city from Southmead,Lockleaze, Barton Hill and Eastonto Knowle West. It aims to bringpeople together to get themtalking to each other and sharetheir stories about good food.

James Durie, executive directorat Business West, said: “We aredelighted to be playing a part inthis exciting event for Bristol andour wider region.

Local food and good food issomething valued and celebratedin Bristol and it can play such anamazing role in bringing peopletogether from all ourcommunities.”

With almost 150 businesspeople, it looks like the businesscommunity is keen to get behindthis initiative.

Business can get involved byvisiting the Bristol FoodConnections website at w w w.bristolfoodconnections.com.

� BUSINESSES were urged to takeup the gauntlet of education at alively debate.

The Education Agenda: WhoseBusiness Is It? brought togetherpeople from business and educationto talk about the skills gap, whetherschools are turning out work-readystudents and what can be doneb e t t e r.

The panel included Lisa Middle

� Peter Snowman from Bristol Cider Shop BRJK20140312D-015

� Zaheer Shabir, Ileana Constantinescu and Dr Razvan Constantinescu,Honorary Consulate of Romania Pictures: Jon Kent BRJK20140312D-007

form Bristol NUT; Councillor AlistairWatson, who is leading a mayoralcommission on education and skillsin Bristol; and Rebecca Tregarthen,chairman of the Bristol Institute ofD i re c t o r s .

Among the speakers was17-year-old St Mary Redcliffe pupilJoanna Dombek, who impressedthe audience telling them how shehad worked with business and

education charity Envision to createa project giving backpacks tohomeless people.

Afterwards, Joanna said theproject had been great training forthe world of work.

“We were managing budgets,organising, working in teams andworking to deadlines,” she said.

Debate chairman Dave Harvey,the BBC business editor in the

West, summed up the event bysaying: “T h e re ’s a lot of energy inthis room. Don’t let that evaporate.Go and make that connection andtake that idea forward.”

Rebecca said: “There seems to bea huge diversity over businessinvolvement in schools.”

The debate was run by theInstitute of Directors and hosted atthe Engine Shed, Temple Meads.

� Guests listen to the debate Pictures: Michael Lloyd BRML20140314A-003 � Rebecca Tregarthen, chairman of the Bristol IoD BRML20140314A-004

� Speaker 17-year-old Joanna DombekBRML20140314A-020

� David Walters, Provident Personal CreditBRML20140314A-018

� Simon Quinn, Moon ConsultingBRML20140314A-015

� Richard Lowe, HR & Training Solutions, withKaren Yates, ACCA BRML20140314A-009

� David Pinchard, of the IoD, and Matt Butler, principal of Oasis AcademyBrightstowe BRML20140314A-014

� Debate chairman Dave Harvey, the BBC business editor in the WestBRML20140314A-002

� Peter France, Rotork plc, and Colin Cattanach,The Bath Studio School BRML20140314A-006

� Sarah Dickens, Provident Personal CreditBRML20140314A-016

Send us photosfrom your event,

with namesplease, tobusiness

@b-nm.co.uk

Get inthe picture

GALLERIESGALORE

FOR MORE PICTURESCheck out our

website at

bristolpost.co.uk/business

EPB-E01-S3

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6 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 7We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

Bristol Food Connections launch at the Watershed The Education Agenda: Whose Business Is It? at the Engine ShedBusiness diary

Email your business events togavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk.Events are sometimescancelled without us beingnotified so please check withorganisers before travelling.

Advice clinics: One-hour clinicswith Business West formanaging directors who want tofocus on challenges of growth.Leigh Court, Abbots Leigh,t o d a y. Email info@growthsouthwest.co.uk.

We d n e s d a y @ 6 : Institute ofDirectors informal networking atthe Radisson Blu Hotel, 6-8pm,today. Non-members welcome.Free, but to register call 01173707785 or emailiod.southwest@iod.com.

The Bristol DistinguishedExecutive Address Series:Networking event andopportunity to hear from aleading business voice. Thespeaker is Air Vice MarshalJulian Young OBE, UWEFrenchay Campus, 6pm, today.

The Bristol DistinguishedExecutive Address Series:Networking event andopportunity to hear from aleading business voice. SimonCollins, chairman and seniorpartner at KPMG, City Hall,tomorrow, 6pm.

IoD Bristol & Bath YoungBusiness Forum Dinner: Aplace for ambitious directors tointeract, learn and engage withpeers and mentors. Waterhouse,Monkton Combe, Bath, 6pm to8.30pm, tomorrow. Emailr o g e r. p l a h a y @ s a n d l e r. c o m .

Ta s t e Te c h : Institute of Directorshosts an interactive evening atExplore@Bristol withaward-winning taste technologyexperts TasteTech. Tuesday,March 25, 6-8pm. For tickets call0117 370 7785 or emailiod.southwest@iod.com.

FSB South Gloucestershireseminar: Wednesday, March 26,6.45pm-9.45pm, Aztec WestHotel, Almondsbury BS32 4TS.Register at w w w. f s b . o r g . u k .

Silicon Gorge 1.0: Showcasing25 tech and digital firms fromBristol and Bath to potentialinvestors. Joint event withWebstart Bristol and SetSquaredat the Engine Shed, TempleMeads, on March 26. Ticket only.

The Bristol DistinguishedExecutive Address Series:Networking event andopportunity to hear from aleading business voice. Sir WinBischoff, of Lloyds BankingGroup, at City Hall, 6pm, onMarch 26.

Ready for business workshop:Introductory workshops foranyone who is exploring theconcept of self-employment orstarting a business at Brave, TheCoach House, Upper YorkStreet, Bristol, 10am-4pm,Thursday, March 27. Free.Contact r eadyforbusiness@businesswest.co.uk.

Bristol & Bath Women inBusiness Awards: A celebrationof women’s achievements inbusiness. At the Bristol CityCentre Marriott, Wednesday,April 2. See w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/wiba to book tickets.

� THE Bristol businesscommunity got stuck into acelebration of food and drink.

Business West, together withthe Watershed, Bristol FoodNetwork and Destination Bristol,hosted the business launch ofBristol Food Connections.

The ambitious festival will takeplace over 11 days in May tocelebrate the outstanding andinnovative food culture in Bristol.

The launch event gavebusinesses an insight into theopportunities around the festival.

Speakers including LornaKnapman, the curator of BristolFood Connections, and TristanHogg, from Pieminister, enthusedattendees with their vision.

The festival will reachcommunities and schools acrossthe city from Southmead,Lockleaze, Barton Hill and Eastonto Knowle West. It aims to bringpeople together to get themtalking to each other and sharetheir stories about good food.

James Durie, executive directorat Business West, said: “We aredelighted to be playing a part inthis exciting event for Bristol andour wider region.

Local food and good food issomething valued and celebratedin Bristol and it can play such anamazing role in bringing peopletogether from all ourcommunities.”

With almost 150 businesspeople, it looks like the businesscommunity is keen to get behindthis initiative.

Business can get involved byvisiting the Bristol FoodConnections website at w w w.bristolfoodconnections.com.

� BUSINESSES were urged to takeup the gauntlet of education at alively debate.

The Education Agenda: WhoseBusiness Is It? brought togetherpeople from business and educationto talk about the skills gap, whetherschools are turning out work-readystudents and what can be doneb e t t e r.

The panel included Lisa Middle

� Peter Snowman from Bristol Cider Shop BRJK20140312D-015

� Zaheer Shabir, Ileana Constantinescu and Dr Razvan Constantinescu,Honorary Consulate of Romania Pictures: Jon Kent BRJK20140312D-007

form Bristol NUT; Councillor AlistairWatson, who is leading a mayoralcommission on education and skillsin Bristol; and Rebecca Tregarthen,chairman of the Bristol Institute ofD i re c t o r s .

Among the speakers was17-year-old St Mary Redcliffe pupilJoanna Dombek, who impressedthe audience telling them how shehad worked with business and

education charity Envision to createa project giving backpacks tohomeless people.

Afterwards, Joanna said theproject had been great training forthe world of work.

“We were managing budgets,organising, working in teams andworking to deadlines,” she said.

Debate chairman Dave Harvey,the BBC business editor in the

West, summed up the event bysaying: “T h e re ’s a lot of energy inthis room. Don’t let that evaporate.Go and make that connection andtake that idea forward.”

Rebecca said: “There seems to bea huge diversity over businessinvolvement in schools.”

The debate was run by theInstitute of Directors and hosted atthe Engine Shed, Temple Meads.

� Guests listen to the debate Pictures: Michael Lloyd BRML20140314A-003 � Rebecca Tregarthen, chairman of the Bristol IoD BRML20140314A-004

� Speaker 17-year-old Joanna DombekBRML20140314A-020

� David Walters, Provident Personal CreditBRML20140314A-018

� Simon Quinn, Moon ConsultingBRML20140314A-015

� Richard Lowe, HR & Training Solutions, withKaren Yates, ACCA BRML20140314A-009

� David Pinchard, of the IoD, and Matt Butler, principal of Oasis AcademyBrightstowe BRML20140314A-014

� Debate chairman Dave Harvey, the BBC business editor in the WestBRML20140314A-002

� Peter France, Rotork plc, and Colin Cattanach,The Bath Studio School BRML20140314A-006

� Sarah Dickens, Provident Personal CreditBRML20140314A-016

Send us photosfrom your event,

with namesplease, tobusiness

@b-nm.co.uk

Get inthe picture

GALLERIESGALORE

FOR MORE PICTURESCheck out our

website at

bristolpost.co.uk/business

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

E01-

S3

8 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 9We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

TAX relief to encourage in-vestment in enterprise zonescould be a big win for Bristolin today’s Budget, but on thewhole businesses want sta-

bility, not surprises, from the Chan-c e l l o r.

George Osborne, below, will deliverhis key speech this afternoon andwith many announcements alreadytrailed, such as raising the personalallowance for income tax and a newchildcare tax relief, there’s littleroom to play with.

Whatever is new is likely to focuson encouraging firms to invest, ac-cording to EY partner JosephineBush.

“We would like to see increasedincentives and allowances within theenergy sector,” she said, adding thatpolitical stability in this area wasalso vital.

“Everyone wants a more consistentpolicy to provide a stable platform fori nve s t m e n t . ”

That claritywould be wel-come in Bris-tol, whichhas the po-tential to de-velop are putationfor expertisein nuclear,with the pos-sibility of newplants at bothHinkley and Oldbury in the next 20years, and has a strong renewablessector, too.

Josephine believes a tax regime toencourage businesses to relocatehere, through low corporation taxand other incentives, needs time tobed in and so is unlikely to changedrastically, but there could be moreregional incentives.

She said: “We are hoping for themaintenance of the annual invest-ment allowance of 100 per cent taxrelief for the first £250,000 of capitale x p e n d i t u re.

“We may see that extended with amore generous allowance within en-terprise zones in order to encourageinvestment in the regions.”

Any boost for enterprise zones,which include the area aroundTemple Meads station in Bristol,would be welcomed by James Durie,executive director of Bristol Cham-

ber & Initiative at Business West, whobelieves in local decision-making andtax powers.

“We are best equipped to drivegrowth of our economy,” he said.

James believes the needs of Bristolshould be at the top of the Chan-cellor’s mind today.

He said: “Bristol is the capital en-gine of the South West and thestrongest performing economy out-side of London, therefore measures inthe Budget must spur the economic

growth of the city. Businesses in Bris-tol must be given the confidence bycentral government to enable them toexpand via access to finance andawareness of export opportunities.

Firms of all sizes must have thetools available to enable them to growand increase future job opportunitiesin the city.

“Youth unemployment remains toohigh, therefore measures must be inplace to address the skills gap andensure that business demands are

met through education and vocation-al training.”

The Chancellor may givesomething on youth employment. Ascheme introduced in the AutumnStatement last year exempted firmsfrom paying employers’ national in-surance contributions for workersunder 21.

But the small print made it easierfor that to be extended to those under25 and the Chancellor could an-nounce a step towards that today.

Focus on start-ups | Sponsored by THEME SPONSOR’S NAME HERE.

As the Chancellor preparesto deliver his key Budgetspeech, Gavin Thompsonassesses what businesses inBristol want and can expect

What would make brewer toast the ChancellorCase study

� THE boss of a mail deliverybusiness has attacked theGover nment’s green energy recordand called for the Chancellor toreverse the trend in today’s Budget.

Dave Broadway, managingdirector of CFH Docmail, said theGovernment was taking the wrongroad in cutting support for greenp ro j e c t s .

“The Government is putting moreand more emphasis on cutting costsfor consumers and business bycutting the support for green energy.They are talking about reducingvarious tariffs and lowering orfreezing the carbon floor price. All ofthat takes away the support forgreen initiatives.”

He said his own firm had plans toinstall a low-carbon heating systembefore the last election but theCoalition changed the subsidymeaning it would have taken 10years to pay for itself instead ofthree. “We can’t afford for it takethat long,” he said.

He said energy problems were ofthe Government’s own makingbecause it was no longerencouraging firms to find analter native.

“We used to have a fast growingrenewable energy sector,” saidDave. “For £50 off annually for theconsumer, they have thrown away

‘Bring back theincentives forgreen projects’Case study

� Dave Broadway, managing director of CFH Docmail

sources helped everyone because itensured stability of supply.

Docmail, which employs 200

the future for this industry.”He said encouraging businesses

to use low energy or renewable

The Budget preview

WITH an electionjust 414 days aw ay,the Chancellor willbe consideringwhether he can in-

troduce measures that are able tohave a positive effect in time, orwait until his last Budget to an-nounce any eye-catching initi-atives. Whatever his choice, itlooks like he’ll have little sparecash available in the Treasury’scoffers and so it will need to be aBudget of moving parts, withrevenue-raisers required to fundany spending giveaways.

However, any changes to thetax system would need to be care-fully targeted and designed tosupport the re-balancing of theeconomy. Consumers have beenresponsible for driving the re-covery so far, but long-ter mgrowth will be dependent on busi-nesses stepping up to the plateand growth broadening out bey-ond the high street. The Chan-cellor won’t want to risk chokingoff the UK’s fragile recovery.

He has stuck to his ‘BritainOpen for Business’ a g enda,which seems to have served thecountry well, with signs of great-er investment by multinationalsin the UK and the realisation ofthe UK being a country of choicefor regional and globalheadquarters. Next year will fi-nally see the arrival of the 20 percent corporation tax rate, whichdelivers on the aspiration of theUK having the lowest (equal) taxrate in the G20, alongside Russiaand Saudi Arabia.

The Chancellor may look toincrease the seven per cent toprate of stamp duty on high-valueproperties (or even add a new‘s u p e r- b a n d ’) to help keep a lidon prices. The personal allow-ance is already set to increase to£10,000 in 2014/15, but he may goeven further or address the widen-ing gap between the NationalInsurance contribution lowerlimit and personal allowance.

Josephine BushEY’s Tax Partnerin Bristol(0)1179 812 050w w w. e y. c o m

A Budget ofmoving parts

Expert eye GEORGE, WE’D LIKE A STABLE PLATFORM FOR INVESTMENT

Another area of concern is hous-ing, with rising prices making it nighon impossible to get on the propertyl a d d e r.

James said: “House prices in Bris-tol have increased 39 per cent over thelast 10 years and are predicted tocontinue to increase until the hous-ing shortage in the city is addressed.

“Local authorities must be giventhe power and incentives to fully ad-dress housing shortages locally toensure that demand is met and pricesdo not escalate further.”

The housing sector will featureprominently today, perhaps not sur-prising as many believe we are ex-periencing a property-fuelledre c ove r y.

Already heavily trailed has beenthe extension of Help to Buy for newhomes until 2020, which had been dueto end in 2016.

Julia Smart, a partner at law firmMetcalfes, based in Queen Square,where she heads up the property

team, said that was a welcome move.“We need more houses, the decline

in the number of new homes duringthe recession was massive,” shesaid.

“With more and more people livingin smaller units, we need more prop-erties to house them, so it makessense to encourage house-building.”

She said the scheme should also beextended for all homes to help makethem more affordable.

“It’s very tough for young peopleand many are relying on the Bank ofMum and Dad, but for those peoplewho haven’t got that it is hopeless,even at the bottom end of the mar-ke t . ”

The scheme sees the Governmentloan buyers up to 20 per cent of thevalue of the home to allow them to geta mortgage with just a five per centde posit.

Some have blamed it for causing aproperty bubble, although largely inthe South East.

However Julia called on the Chan-cellor to make it simpler.

“It’s hard work and the most un-pleasant bit of conveyancing. There’sa lot of duplication,” she said. “Yo uhave the builder doing their bit, theHomes and Communities Agencydoing its bit, the estate agent or de-ve l o p e r … a lot of it is duplicated.Simplification would be helpful.”

people at its Radstock site, deliversmail which people upload to itswebsite.

EXPERTS have been givingtheir Budget forecasts. Beloware some of them, tick them offto see who got it right...

Peter Brunt, hotels director,Colliers International� Relief on VAT for hospitalitybusinesses. Food is not VATedon input to the pub/hotel but iswhen sold on. Take 20 per centoff your selling price as the taxcollected with no offsetting onthe input side and youcan see why it is hard tomake money on food.

Jeremy Blackburn, RoyalInstitute of CharteredSurveyors head of UK policy� Reform stamp duty. A moreintelligent, modern way oftaxing property sales isneeded for a marketwhich is changing at arate of knots.

Helen Demuth, tax partner,Smith & Williamson� If the Chancellor really wantsto lift people out of tax, heneeds to bring nationalinsurance and incometax thresholds into line.

David Ford, regionaldirector CVS� Business rates need reformbut we don’t need a quick-fix,pre-election smoke andmirrors. We needconsidered andcomprehensive reform.

Allister Weir, director of taxat Grant Thornton� A national insurancecontributions exemption foremployers and employees forthe duration of anapprenticeship to furtherencourage businesses toinvest in equippingpeople with the rightskills for today’s market.

James Durie, director,Business West� Fix the broken businessfinance system which has ledto constrained access tofinance for SMEs andstart-ups.

Robert Brown, tax directorat BDO� A temporary reduction inemployers’ NI contributions forthe manufacturing sectorwould help bolster employmentand support thegover nment’s rhetoric ofdoubling exports by2020.

Phil Bommer

Bristol is the capitalengine of the South Westand the strongestperforming economyoutside of London,therefore measures mustspur the economic

“There is always speculation around

stamp duty and pressure is growingfor a change in the way it works. Atthe moment, if a house sells for£249,000, you pay one per cent stampduty (£2,490), but if it sells for £250,000you pay three per cent (£7,500). Manywant the higher rate only to apply onthe amount over the threshold, so youwould pay one per cent on the first£249,000 and three per cent on any-thing above it, similar to income taxr at e s.

Julia believes that would mean a“smoother” market and get rid of theproblem of sellers being trapped intheir homes or forced to slash theirprices below the value to squeezeunder one of the stamp dutyt h re s h o l d s.

Whatever happens today, the Chan-cellor has limited scope for big ges-tures, with the deficit still standing ataround £90 billion a year. But formany in business, little change willbe welcome.

PREDICTIONS

& WISHLISTS

� Bath Ales director Roger Jones

� IT’S no surprise Warmley-basedbrewer Bath Ales would like beerduty frozen at worst.

Ideally, the maker of Gem, WildHare and other beers would like tosee it at the same level as the cider,which remains lower from dayswhen apple growing landownersheld sway in Westminster.

But there’s plenty more directorRoger Jones would like from theChancellor this afternoon.

The firm has become an exporter,selling its beers in South America,Russia and other countries.

“We have employed an exportm a n a g e r, ” said Roger. “I’d like tosee travel subsidies when he goesabroad to fill the order book.”

As the owner of several pubsaround the region, the businessemploys lots of casual staff andwould like a softening of thelanguage around zero-hourscontracts, as well as help hiringnew people.

“Relief from employer nationalinsurance contributions for the firstthree months to cover theprobation period would be useful,”said Roger.

He was also supportive of theidea of raising the exemption fromemployer national insurancecontributions from under 21s tounder 25s, which would help thepub trade which employs a lot ofpeople in their early 20s.

“We would also like more grantsand tax breaks around capitalinvestment.”

And he said VAT on food sales inthe pubs made it hard to competeagainst supermarkets offeringmeal-for-two dinner dealsencouraging people to eat in.

Bath Ales employs about 240people, 100 full time and rest parttime workers.

Bringing crystal-clear insights to your business issues. Go to ey.com/issues

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8 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 9We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

TAX relief to encourage in-vestment in enterprise zonescould be a big win for Bristolin today’s Budget, but on thewhole businesses want sta-

bility, not surprises, from the Chan-c e l l o r.

George Osborne, below, will deliverhis key speech this afternoon andwith many announcements alreadytrailed, such as raising the personalallowance for income tax and a newchildcare tax relief, there’s littleroom to play with.

Whatever is new is likely to focuson encouraging firms to invest, ac-cording to EY partner JosephineBush.

“We would like to see increasedincentives and allowances within theenergy sector,” she said, adding thatpolitical stability in this area wasalso vital.

“Everyone wants a more consistentpolicy to provide a stable platform fori nve s t m e n t . ”

That claritywould be wel-come in Bris-tol, whichhas the po-tential to de-velop are putationfor expertisein nuclear,with the pos-sibility of newplants at bothHinkley and Oldbury in the next 20years, and has a strong renewablessector, too.

Josephine believes a tax regime toencourage businesses to relocatehere, through low corporation taxand other incentives, needs time tobed in and so is unlikely to changedrastically, but there could be moreregional incentives.

She said: “We are hoping for themaintenance of the annual invest-ment allowance of 100 per cent taxrelief for the first £250,000 of capitale x p e n d i t u re.

“We may see that extended with amore generous allowance within en-terprise zones in order to encourageinvestment in the regions.”

Any boost for enterprise zones,which include the area aroundTemple Meads station in Bristol,would be welcomed by James Durie,executive director of Bristol Cham-

ber & Initiative at Business West, whobelieves in local decision-making andtax powers.

“We are best equipped to drivegrowth of our economy,” he said.

James believes the needs of Bristolshould be at the top of the Chan-cellor’s mind today.

He said: “Bristol is the capital en-gine of the South West and thestrongest performing economy out-side of London, therefore measures inthe Budget must spur the economic

growth of the city. Businesses in Bris-tol must be given the confidence bycentral government to enable them toexpand via access to finance andawareness of export opportunities.

Firms of all sizes must have thetools available to enable them to growand increase future job opportunitiesin the city.

“Youth unemployment remains toohigh, therefore measures must be inplace to address the skills gap andensure that business demands are

met through education and vocation-al training.”

The Chancellor may givesomething on youth employment. Ascheme introduced in the AutumnStatement last year exempted firmsfrom paying employers’ national in-surance contributions for workersunder 21.

But the small print made it easierfor that to be extended to those under25 and the Chancellor could an-nounce a step towards that today.

Focus on start-ups | Sponsored by THEME SPONSOR’S NAME HERE.

As the Chancellor preparesto deliver his key Budgetspeech, Gavin Thompsonassesses what businesses inBristol want and can expect

What would make brewer toast the ChancellorCase study

� THE boss of a mail deliverybusiness has attacked theGover nment’s green energy recordand called for the Chancellor toreverse the trend in today’s Budget.

Dave Broadway, managingdirector of CFH Docmail, said theGovernment was taking the wrongroad in cutting support for greenp ro j e c t s .

“The Government is putting moreand more emphasis on cutting costsfor consumers and business bycutting the support for green energy.They are talking about reducingvarious tariffs and lowering orfreezing the carbon floor price. All ofthat takes away the support forgreen initiatives.”

He said his own firm had plans toinstall a low-carbon heating systembefore the last election but theCoalition changed the subsidymeaning it would have taken 10years to pay for itself instead ofthree. “We can’t afford for it takethat long,” he said.

He said energy problems were ofthe Government’s own makingbecause it was no longerencouraging firms to find analter native.

“We used to have a fast growingrenewable energy sector,” saidDave. “For £50 off annually for theconsumer, they have thrown away

‘Bring back theincentives forgreen projects’Case study

� Dave Broadway, managing director of CFH Docmail

sources helped everyone because itensured stability of supply.

Docmail, which employs 200

the future for this industry.”He said encouraging businesses

to use low energy or renewable

The Budget preview

WITH an electionjust 414 days aw ay,the Chancellor willbe consideringwhether he can in-

troduce measures that are able tohave a positive effect in time, orwait until his last Budget to an-nounce any eye-catching initi-atives. Whatever his choice, itlooks like he’ll have little sparecash available in the Treasury’scoffers and so it will need to be aBudget of moving parts, withrevenue-raisers required to fundany spending giveaways.

However, any changes to thetax system would need to be care-fully targeted and designed tosupport the re-balancing of theeconomy. Consumers have beenresponsible for driving the re-covery so far, but long-ter mgrowth will be dependent on busi-nesses stepping up to the plateand growth broadening out bey-ond the high street. The Chan-cellor won’t want to risk chokingoff the UK’s fragile recovery.

He has stuck to his ‘BritainOpen for Business’ a g enda,which seems to have served thecountry well, with signs of great-er investment by multinationalsin the UK and the realisation ofthe UK being a country of choicefor regional and globalheadquarters. Next year will fi-nally see the arrival of the 20 percent corporation tax rate, whichdelivers on the aspiration of theUK having the lowest (equal) taxrate in the G20, alongside Russiaand Saudi Arabia.

The Chancellor may look toincrease the seven per cent toprate of stamp duty on high-valueproperties (or even add a new‘s u p e r- b a n d ’) to help keep a lidon prices. The personal allow-ance is already set to increase to£10,000 in 2014/15, but he may goeven further or address the widen-ing gap between the NationalInsurance contribution lowerlimit and personal allowance.

Josephine BushEY’s Tax Partnerin Bristol(0)1179 812 050w w w. e y. c o m

A Budget ofmoving parts

Expert eye GEORGE, WE’D LIKE A STABLE PLATFORM FOR INVESTMENT

Another area of concern is hous-ing, with rising prices making it nighon impossible to get on the propertyl a d d e r.

James said: “House prices in Bris-tol have increased 39 per cent over thelast 10 years and are predicted tocontinue to increase until the hous-ing shortage in the city is addressed.

“Local authorities must be giventhe power and incentives to fully ad-dress housing shortages locally toensure that demand is met and pricesdo not escalate further.”

The housing sector will featureprominently today, perhaps not sur-prising as many believe we are ex-periencing a property-fuelledre c ove r y.

Already heavily trailed has beenthe extension of Help to Buy for newhomes until 2020, which had been dueto end in 2016.

Julia Smart, a partner at law firmMetcalfes, based in Queen Square,where she heads up the property

team, said that was a welcome move.“We need more houses, the decline

in the number of new homes duringthe recession was massive,” shesaid.

“With more and more people livingin smaller units, we need more prop-erties to house them, so it makessense to encourage house-building.”

She said the scheme should also beextended for all homes to help makethem more affordable.

“It’s very tough for young peopleand many are relying on the Bank ofMum and Dad, but for those peoplewho haven’t got that it is hopeless,even at the bottom end of the mar-ke t . ”

The scheme sees the Governmentloan buyers up to 20 per cent of thevalue of the home to allow them to geta mortgage with just a five per centde posit.

Some have blamed it for causing aproperty bubble, although largely inthe South East.

However Julia called on the Chan-cellor to make it simpler.

“It’s hard work and the most un-pleasant bit of conveyancing. There’sa lot of duplication,” she said. “Yo uhave the builder doing their bit, theHomes and Communities Agencydoing its bit, the estate agent or de-ve l o p e r … a lot of it is duplicated.Simplification would be helpful.”

people at its Radstock site, deliversmail which people upload to itswebsite.

EXPERTS have been givingtheir Budget forecasts. Beloware some of them, tick them offto see who got it right...

Peter Brunt, hotels director,Colliers International� Relief on VAT for hospitalitybusinesses. Food is not VATedon input to the pub/hotel but iswhen sold on. Take 20 per centoff your selling price as the taxcollected with no offsetting onthe input side and youcan see why it is hard tomake money on food.

Jeremy Blackburn, RoyalInstitute of CharteredSurveyors head of UK policy� Reform stamp duty. A moreintelligent, modern way oftaxing property sales isneeded for a marketwhich is changing at arate of knots.

Helen Demuth, tax partner,Smith & Williamson� If the Chancellor really wantsto lift people out of tax, heneeds to bring nationalinsurance and incometax thresholds into line.

David Ford, regionaldirector CVS� Business rates need reformbut we don’t need a quick-fix,pre-election smoke andmirrors. We needconsidered andcomprehensive reform.

Allister Weir, director of taxat Grant Thornton� A national insurancecontributions exemption foremployers and employees forthe duration of anapprenticeship to furtherencourage businesses toinvest in equippingpeople with the rightskills for today’s market.

James Durie, director,Business West� Fix the broken businessfinance system which has ledto constrained access tofinance for SMEs andstart-ups.

Robert Brown, tax directorat BDO� A temporary reduction inemployers’ NI contributions forthe manufacturing sectorwould help bolster employmentand support thegover nment’s rhetoric ofdoubling exports by2020.

Phil Bommer

Bristol is the capitalengine of the South Westand the strongestperforming economyoutside of London,therefore measures mustspur the economic

“There is always speculation around

stamp duty and pressure is growingfor a change in the way it works. Atthe moment, if a house sells for£249,000, you pay one per cent stampduty (£2,490), but if it sells for £250,000you pay three per cent (£7,500). Manywant the higher rate only to apply onthe amount over the threshold, so youwould pay one per cent on the first£249,000 and three per cent on any-thing above it, similar to income taxr at e s.

Julia believes that would mean a“smoother” market and get rid of theproblem of sellers being trapped intheir homes or forced to slash theirprices below the value to squeezeunder one of the stamp dutyt h re s h o l d s.

Whatever happens today, the Chan-cellor has limited scope for big ges-tures, with the deficit still standing ataround £90 billion a year. But formany in business, little change willbe welcome.

PREDICTIONS

& WISHLISTS

� Bath Ales director Roger Jones

� IT’S no surprise Warmley-basedbrewer Bath Ales would like beerduty frozen at worst.

Ideally, the maker of Gem, WildHare and other beers would like tosee it at the same level as the cider,which remains lower from dayswhen apple growing landownersheld sway in Westminster.

But there’s plenty more directorRoger Jones would like from theChancellor this afternoon.

The firm has become an exporter,selling its beers in South America,Russia and other countries.

“We have employed an exportm a n a g e r, ” said Roger. “I’d like tosee travel subsidies when he goesabroad to fill the order book.”

As the owner of several pubsaround the region, the businessemploys lots of casual staff andwould like a softening of thelanguage around zero-hourscontracts, as well as help hiringnew people.

“Relief from employer nationalinsurance contributions for the firstthree months to cover theprobation period would be useful,”said Roger.

He was also supportive of theidea of raising the exemption fromemployer national insurancecontributions from under 21s tounder 25s, which would help thepub trade which employs a lot ofpeople in their early 20s.

“We would also like more grantsand tax breaks around capitalinvestment.”

And he said VAT on food sales inthe pubs made it hard to competeagainst supermarkets offeringmeal-for-two dinner dealsencouraging people to eat in.

Bath Ales employs about 240people, 100 full time and rest parttime workers.

Bringing crystal-clear insights to your business issues. Go to ey.com/issues

EPB-E01-S3

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10 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 11We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

The Big Interview

WHEN Shakespearewrote: “That which wecall a rose, by any othername would smell asswe e t ” he may have

come close to the fact that names canbe a very thorny issue indeed.

But it’s an issue new Gloucester-shire Cricket Club chief executiveWill Brown may be willing to grasp.

Will, who joined from Betfair inSeptember, can see where the clubhas the potential to grow – in its homecity of Bristol.

“We ’ve been playing in Bristol for125 years, yet we are GloucestershireCricket Club,” he said. “We havesuffered from a lack of awareness ofus within the city. We are the sixthbiggest city in England and we are theonly international sporting venue inthe South West of England, from

in the heart of Bristol and have beenfor 125 years?”

He added that including Bristol inthe name would be more appealing topotential sponsors in the city, too. It’scertainly a difficult subject and Willadmits that if the management teamat the club decided to go for it, theywould have to make a strong case.

He added: “Ultimately, we are amembership society and membershave the final say.”

The name is not the only bouncerWill may face in the coming years.His drive to win over Bristolians tosupport the club stems from chal-lenges within the business that canonly be addressed by swellingc rowd s.

Like many sports clubs,Gloucestershire has been strugglingto live within its means, althoughWill says the decision to invest mil-lions in the ground has been made ina businesslike way.

Ideally, he says, the club shouldtrade a surplus or balanced budget ina year when it has no internationalmatches, then in years when it hostsgames, such as England versus Indiathis summer, it could put money

Gloucestershire CricketClub has taken a gamble onappointing a young chiefexecutive from the bettingindustry to drive the clubforward commercially. GavinThompson meets WillBrown to find out if the clubhas backed a winner

Birmingham to Southampton.“We need to engage with Bristol a

bit more. A lot of the T20 (20overs-a-side cricket) fixtures are nowon Friday nights, so we want to at-tract the groups of girls and guys tocome up here, have a pint on the wayup Gloucester Road, have a burger inthe ground, watch the cricket andthen head off into town.”

The 38-year-old believes the clubmight have a better chance of en-gaging with the city if it was moreobviously a Bristol club.

“The name is an issue,” he said.“Should we be Bristol andGloucestershire? There is a growinggroundswell of opinion that maybewe should be looking to have Bristolin the name somewhere.

“Should we follow Warwickshire’sexample, where they have renamedthe T20 team the Birmingham Bears?Should we be the Bristol Badgers, orsomething?”

He said he did not want to alienatefans in Cheltenham, Gloucester, orelsewhere, adding that the Chelten-ham Festival, where the club de-camps for a fortnight in July, is “tr ulys e n s at i o n a l ”.

But he said: “If we did put Bristolsomewhere in our name, wouldpeople wake up to the fact we are here

My working dayWake up: When our two boys (aged one andtwo) wake up!B re a k f a s t ? Bowl of muesli and fruit, plus theodd Danish pastry.Start work? The minute I switch my phone on.Typical working day? Lots of meetings(internal and external), mild swearing, phonecalls and emails galore, and the opportunity towork with some deeply passionate andmotivated people.Go home? Not late – about 5.30-5.45pm.Take work home/attend evening functions?Yes, both. Not as many as I should, but morethan I would like.

Name: Will BrownAge: 38Bor n: Upton-upon-Sever nSchool: King Edward VI (Bath)First job: Paperboy; firstpost-uni was as a typist for theforensic science service drugsunitHero or inspiration: Mygrandfathers – it’s aninspiration knowing that I’m ahugely fortunate person tohave the life I have.

Vital statistics

WILL BROWN

My downtimeMy perfect weekend Lots of time with my wifeand the boys, nice wine and food, shorts,T-shirts and flip-flops, good weather and BathRugby and Glos CCC both winning!Favourite book or film or TV show? Book: ASuitable Boy by Vikram Seth; film: Little WhiteLies/Les Petits MouchoirsHobbies: Watching and participating in sportand just being with my family.

bristolpost.co.uk/business

Wh a t ’sthe bestpiece ofa d v i ceI’ve everre ce i ve d ?Wa tc hthe videoto findout

SMALL businesses are in-credibly important to anyeconomy. However, in toughtrading times, it is the smallbusiness owner who saves

the day – innovating, adapting andcontinuing to employ people intheir communities.

Small and local businesses arethe lifeblood of any country andthey pride themselves on building asolid reputation through great ser-vice, quality products andword-of-mouth marketing .

For decades, small business own-ers have known the importance ofrecommendations, referrals andpositive reviews. But when it comesto online marketing they seem tothink the rules are different.

Online marketing is no differentto offline marketing, there are justdifferent delivery mechanisms.Search engines like Google, Yahooand Bing are just the same as YellowPages and directories. Referralmarketing and word of mouth havebeen replaced with social mediaand blogs, and content marketing issimilar to local newspapers.

However, as an online marketingspecialist, I all too often find thatsmall business owners either seemfrightened of the online arena orbewildered by techno-babble.

We recently visited a brilliantlocal business. It was clear the own-ers were passionate about whatthey did, were experts in their fieldand were incredibly proud of theircustomer service. To support this,they had a wall almost covered withnotes, postcards, cards and lettersfrom clients thanking them fortheir service, help and support andrecommending them to cl i e n t s.

This immediately built trust inthem and what they had to offer.

However, when you looked attheir website and online presence(social media etc) there was hardlya mention of these happy custom-ers, testimonials and well-wishers.We have said time and again thatthe currency in this new economyis trust and nowhere more so thanonline. It is essential that smallbusiness owners build up positivereviews and recommendations on-line. Latest statistics show:� 73 per cent of customers say pos-itive reviews make them trust abusiness more, up from 58 per centlast year� The number of customers in-fluenced by positive reviews hasgrown significantly year-on-yearfor the past three years� 79 per cent of consumers trustonline reviews as much asword-of-mouth recommendations.

It is vital any business builds uppositive reviews, but particularlythe small, local business owner. Topsites to add positive reviews includeGoogle Plus/local pages, Yelp, Yel-low Pages and local newspaper on-line directories.

For more details, contact CraigSheppard on c.sheppard@bathchron.co.uk or 07818 517296.

John BonneyOnline marketingspecialist

Online reviewsare so crucial

Know how

aside for the next capital develop-ment.

“Very few clubs manage to do that,”he said. And Gloucestershire is notamong them yet.

Compared with nearest neighboursSomerset, the clubs have taken verydifferent approaches. The latter hasbuilt its membership and a strongteam to attract fans, and is now look-ing to bid to host money-spinninginternational cricket matches.

Gloucestershire has invested heav-ily in its ground to chase interna-tional games, but borrowed to do soand now needs to build its followingto give it a sounder financial foot-ing.

The ongoing redevelopment of theground is costing £6 million. About 80per cent of that is funded by the 147flats Linden Homes is close to fin-ishing within the ground.

That still leaves about £1.2 millionborrowed from the bank.

“We ’ll be paying for the stand for 10,12 or 15 years to come,” said Will. “Ifwe lose international cricket come2019, there’ll still be lots of zeros onthe debt with no meaningful way topay them back.”

CRICKET CLUB ON A STICKY WICKET AS IT DRIVES FOR GROWTH

And international cricket is no cer-tainty. The club will host an Englandgame this summer and another in2016, but after that, who knows? It’salways a race against other groundsto land the big games.

“The next thing is floodlights,” saidWill. “We have been told in no un-certain terms by the England andWales Cricket Board that if we wantto host World Cup games in 2019 wehave to have permanent floodlights,and it’s likely to be same for allinternationals in future.

“T hat’s a real challenge for us. Ourneighbours and local residents haveput up with a lot with the devel-opment we have done. We are going tohave to go and ask them for theirsupport again.

“The biggest challenge of flood-lights is that they have to go in veryspecific positions to light the righta re a s. ”

He is hopeful locals will supportthem. Lights would only be used ahandful of times a year and modernlights are very targeted, without thebackwash you get from old-style foot-ball floodlights.

But if they cannot get planningpermission, what then?

“We would probably have to thinkabout whether the future lay else-wh e re, ” said Will. “But I hope itd o e s n’t come to that.”

Indeed, Will revealed the club ser-iously considered moving out of Bris-tol after its plans to redevelop theground were initially refused, al-though that was before his timet h e re.

“There was a very real proposal tomove away from here to SouthG l o u c e s t e r s h i re, ” he said. “Some ofour advisers on the ground redevel-opment were saying, ‘D o n’t go for asecond round of planning permis-sion, just move’. It was a viable optionand a site was being considered.”

It didn’t happen and amendmentsto the plans, including reducing theheight of the new flats, saw permis-sion granted.

Will joined the club in Septemberbut has been a fan since he was a boy,despite growing up in Bath.

“By rights, I should have followedSomerset,” he admits. “I havewatched them play at the Rec in Bath,but this is where I came first. It’s oneof those things that sticks in yourmind. I remember my first day herewith my dad, aged six or seven.”

Perhaps that’s why he’s keen toincrease junior membership, withthe season ticket cost reduced to just£20 and the junior limit raised fromunder 16 to under 19.

He said: “Matchday experience iscrucial, giving people a great exper-ience. Cricket is fun, people want tosee competitive cricket on the pitchand we want to provide that, but it’sabout enjoying the day, not just thec r i cke t . ”

Cricket isn’t the only part of thebusiness, either. The BS7 gym hasaround 1,400 members and makes aprofit for the club. The new facilitieshave made the ground a more at-tractive venue for conferences andevents. It even has a wedding li-c e n c e.

But the game will always be thereason for the club’s existence, andtherefore at the heart of the business.The club hasn’t spent big on playersin recent years, but Will is hopefulperformances will improve.

He said: “Membership has been ona downward slide for the last eight

years. This year we have alreadybeaten the last three years and seen itgrow in numbers of people, not justreve nu e.

“We have about 2,000 members, but14 years ago about 6,000. Admittedly,we were winning a lot then.”

Will says the key performance in-dicators include the club making thefinal stages of one or both short formsof the game and being in the top threeof the championship.

“We need to be competitive on thep i t ch , ” he said. “We have got thebiggest squad we have had for a fewyears. We have been called a youngside for a while, but they are not soyoung anymore and we are askingthose players to step up this year.”

D o n’t worry, though. While Will isin his office running the business, hehas a glorious position from which tokeep a sharp eye on events on thep i t ch .

GETTING IT RIGHT

� In last week’s Big Interview wewrote that Yankee Candle had beenbought by Yardley Plc when it wasactually Jarden Corporation. We arehappy to put this right.

FOR SALETYTHERINGTONCastle Quarry, TytheringtonGL12 8QU

IN PLOTS OR POSSIBLY WHOLE

Approx 11.88 acres (4.81 ha)

Office Building – 5,046 sq.ft.

Industrial Building –3,636 sq.ft.

Suitable forvariety of uses,subject toplanning

Ref: N. Clark

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

E01-

S3

10 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 11We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

The Big Interview

WHEN Shakespearewrote: “That which wecall a rose, by any othername would smell asswe e t ” he may have

come close to the fact that names canbe a very thorny issue indeed.

But it’s an issue new Gloucester-shire Cricket Club chief executiveWill Brown may be willing to grasp.

Will, who joined from Betfair inSeptember, can see where the clubhas the potential to grow – in its homecity of Bristol.

“We ’ve been playing in Bristol for125 years, yet we are GloucestershireCricket Club,” he said. “We havesuffered from a lack of awareness ofus within the city. We are the sixthbiggest city in England and we are theonly international sporting venue inthe South West of England, from

in the heart of Bristol and have beenfor 125 years?”

He added that including Bristol inthe name would be more appealing topotential sponsors in the city, too. It’scertainly a difficult subject and Willadmits that if the management teamat the club decided to go for it, theywould have to make a strong case.

He added: “Ultimately, we are amembership society and membershave the final say.”

The name is not the only bouncerWill may face in the coming years.His drive to win over Bristolians tosupport the club stems from chal-lenges within the business that canonly be addressed by swellingc rowd s.

Like many sports clubs,Gloucestershire has been strugglingto live within its means, althoughWill says the decision to invest mil-lions in the ground has been made ina businesslike way.

Ideally, he says, the club shouldtrade a surplus or balanced budget ina year when it has no internationalmatches, then in years when it hostsgames, such as England versus Indiathis summer, it could put money

Gloucestershire CricketClub has taken a gamble onappointing a young chiefexecutive from the bettingindustry to drive the clubforward commercially. GavinThompson meets WillBrown to find out if the clubhas backed a winner

Birmingham to Southampton.“We need to engage with Bristol a

bit more. A lot of the T20 (20overs-a-side cricket) fixtures are nowon Friday nights, so we want to at-tract the groups of girls and guys tocome up here, have a pint on the wayup Gloucester Road, have a burger inthe ground, watch the cricket andthen head off into town.”

The 38-year-old believes the clubmight have a better chance of en-gaging with the city if it was moreobviously a Bristol club.

“The name is an issue,” he said.“Should we be Bristol andGloucestershire? There is a growinggroundswell of opinion that maybewe should be looking to have Bristolin the name somewhere.

“Should we follow Warwickshire’sexample, where they have renamedthe T20 team the Birmingham Bears?Should we be the Bristol Badgers, orsomething?”

He said he did not want to alienatefans in Cheltenham, Gloucester, orelsewhere, adding that the Chelten-ham Festival, where the club de-camps for a fortnight in July, is “tr ulys e n s at i o n a l ”.

But he said: “If we did put Bristolsomewhere in our name, wouldpeople wake up to the fact we are here

My working dayWake up: When our two boys (aged one andtwo) wake up!B re a k f a s t ? Bowl of muesli and fruit, plus theodd Danish pastry.Start work? The minute I switch my phone on.Typical working day? Lots of meetings(internal and external), mild swearing, phonecalls and emails galore, and the opportunity towork with some deeply passionate andmotivated people.Go home? Not late – about 5.30-5.45pm.Take work home/attend evening functions?Yes, both. Not as many as I should, but morethan I would like.

Name: Will BrownAge: 38Bor n: Upton-upon-Sever nSchool: King Edward VI (Bath)First job: Paperboy; firstpost-uni was as a typist for theforensic science service drugsunitHero or inspiration: Mygrandfathers – it’s aninspiration knowing that I’m ahugely fortunate person tohave the life I have.

Vital statistics

WILL BROWN

My downtimeMy perfect weekend Lots of time with my wifeand the boys, nice wine and food, shorts,T-shirts and flip-flops, good weather and BathRugby and Glos CCC both winning!Favourite book or film or TV show? Book: ASuitable Boy by Vikram Seth; film: Little WhiteLies/Les Petits MouchoirsHobbies: Watching and participating in sportand just being with my family.

bristolpost.co.uk/business

Wh a t ’sthe bestpiece ofa d v i ceI’ve everre ce i ve d ?Wa tc hthe videoto findout

SMALL businesses are in-credibly important to anyeconomy. However, in toughtrading times, it is the smallbusiness owner who saves

the day – innovating, adapting andcontinuing to employ people intheir communities.

Small and local businesses arethe lifeblood of any country andthey pride themselves on building asolid reputation through great ser-vice, quality products andword-of-mouth marketing .

For decades, small business own-ers have known the importance ofrecommendations, referrals andpositive reviews. But when it comesto online marketing they seem tothink the rules are different.

Online marketing is no differentto offline marketing, there are justdifferent delivery mechanisms.Search engines like Google, Yahooand Bing are just the same as YellowPages and directories. Referralmarketing and word of mouth havebeen replaced with social mediaand blogs, and content marketing issimilar to local newspapers.

However, as an online marketingspecialist, I all too often find thatsmall business owners either seemfrightened of the online arena orbewildered by techno-babble.

We recently visited a brilliantlocal business. It was clear the own-ers were passionate about whatthey did, were experts in their fieldand were incredibly proud of theircustomer service. To support this,they had a wall almost covered withnotes, postcards, cards and lettersfrom clients thanking them fortheir service, help and support andrecommending them to cl i e n t s.

This immediately built trust inthem and what they had to offer.

However, when you looked attheir website and online presence(social media etc) there was hardlya mention of these happy custom-ers, testimonials and well-wishers.We have said time and again thatthe currency in this new economyis trust and nowhere more so thanonline. It is essential that smallbusiness owners build up positivereviews and recommendations on-line. Latest statistics show:� 73 per cent of customers say pos-itive reviews make them trust abusiness more, up from 58 per centlast year� The number of customers in-fluenced by positive reviews hasgrown significantly year-on-yearfor the past three years� 79 per cent of consumers trustonline reviews as much asword-of-mouth recommendations.

It is vital any business builds uppositive reviews, but particularlythe small, local business owner. Topsites to add positive reviews includeGoogle Plus/local pages, Yelp, Yel-low Pages and local newspaper on-line directories.

For more details, contact CraigSheppard on c.sheppard@bathchron.co.uk or 07818 517296.

John BonneyOnline marketingspecialist

Online reviewsare so crucial

Know how

aside for the next capital develop-ment.

“Very few clubs manage to do that,”he said. And Gloucestershire is notamong them yet.

Compared with nearest neighboursSomerset, the clubs have taken verydifferent approaches. The latter hasbuilt its membership and a strongteam to attract fans, and is now look-ing to bid to host money-spinninginternational cricket matches.

Gloucestershire has invested heav-ily in its ground to chase interna-tional games, but borrowed to do soand now needs to build its followingto give it a sounder financial foot-ing.

The ongoing redevelopment of theground is costing £6 million. About 80per cent of that is funded by the 147flats Linden Homes is close to fin-ishing within the ground.

That still leaves about £1.2 millionborrowed from the bank.

“We ’ll be paying for the stand for 10,12 or 15 years to come,” said Will. “Ifwe lose international cricket come2019, there’ll still be lots of zeros onthe debt with no meaningful way topay them back.”

CRICKET CLUB ON A STICKY WICKET AS IT DRIVES FOR GROWTH

And international cricket is no cer-tainty. The club will host an Englandgame this summer and another in2016, but after that, who knows? It’salways a race against other groundsto land the big games.

“The next thing is floodlights,” saidWill. “We have been told in no un-certain terms by the England andWales Cricket Board that if we wantto host World Cup games in 2019 wehave to have permanent floodlights,and it’s likely to be same for allinternationals in future.

“T hat’s a real challenge for us. Ourneighbours and local residents haveput up with a lot with the devel-opment we have done. We are going tohave to go and ask them for theirsupport again.

“The biggest challenge of flood-lights is that they have to go in veryspecific positions to light the righta re a s. ”

He is hopeful locals will supportthem. Lights would only be used ahandful of times a year and modernlights are very targeted, without thebackwash you get from old-style foot-ball floodlights.

But if they cannot get planningpermission, what then?

“We would probably have to thinkabout whether the future lay else-wh e re, ” said Will. “But I hope itd o e s n’t come to that.”

Indeed, Will revealed the club ser-iously considered moving out of Bris-tol after its plans to redevelop theground were initially refused, al-though that was before his timet h e re.

“There was a very real proposal tomove away from here to SouthG l o u c e s t e r s h i re, ” he said. “Some ofour advisers on the ground redevel-opment were saying, ‘D o n’t go for asecond round of planning permis-sion, just move’. It was a viable optionand a site was being considered.”

It didn’t happen and amendmentsto the plans, including reducing theheight of the new flats, saw permis-sion granted.

Will joined the club in Septemberbut has been a fan since he was a boy,despite growing up in Bath.

“By rights, I should have followedSomerset,” he admits. “I havewatched them play at the Rec in Bath,but this is where I came first. It’s oneof those things that sticks in yourmind. I remember my first day herewith my dad, aged six or seven.”

Perhaps that’s why he’s keen toincrease junior membership, withthe season ticket cost reduced to just£20 and the junior limit raised fromunder 16 to under 19.

He said: “Matchday experience iscrucial, giving people a great exper-ience. Cricket is fun, people want tosee competitive cricket on the pitchand we want to provide that, but it’sabout enjoying the day, not just thec r i cke t . ”

Cricket isn’t the only part of thebusiness, either. The BS7 gym hasaround 1,400 members and makes aprofit for the club. The new facilitieshave made the ground a more at-tractive venue for conferences andevents. It even has a wedding li-c e n c e.

But the game will always be thereason for the club’s existence, andtherefore at the heart of the business.The club hasn’t spent big on playersin recent years, but Will is hopefulperformances will improve.

He said: “Membership has been ona downward slide for the last eight

years. This year we have alreadybeaten the last three years and seen itgrow in numbers of people, not justreve nu e.

“We have about 2,000 members, but14 years ago about 6,000. Admittedly,we were winning a lot then.”

Will says the key performance in-dicators include the club making thefinal stages of one or both short formsof the game and being in the top threeof the championship.

“We need to be competitive on thep i t ch , ” he said. “We have got thebiggest squad we have had for a fewyears. We have been called a youngside for a while, but they are not soyoung anymore and we are askingthose players to step up this year.”

D o n’t worry, though. While Will isin his office running the business, hehas a glorious position from which tokeep a sharp eye on events on thep i t ch .

GETTING IT RIGHT

� In last week’s Big Interview wewrote that Yankee Candle had beenbought by Yardley Plc when it wasactually Jarden Corporation. We arehappy to put this right.

FOR SALETYTHERINGTONCastle Quarry, TytheringtonGL12 8QU

IN PLOTS OR POSSIBLY WHOLE

Approx 11.88 acres (4.81 ha)

Office Building – 5,046 sq.ft.

Industrial Building –3,636 sq.ft.

Suitable forvariety of uses,subject toplanning

Ref: N. Clark

EPB-

E01-

S3

12 We d n e s d a y, M a rc h 19, 2014w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

Showcase 2014 Commercial feature

Eve n ts

SOME of the biggest names inbusiness will be speaking at afree showcase taking place atColston Hall on April 8. TheBusiness Showcase South

West 2014, sponsored by EnterpriseRent-A-Car, is a major business eventthat celebrates innovation, business,creativity and sustainability in there gion.

Speaking on stage is Karren B r a dy,who is perhaps now best known forher role alongside Lord Sugar inBBC1 show The Apprentice.

But her business experience goesmuch deeper. A former director ofSport Newspapers, she came to thep u bl i c ’s attention as the first womanat the top of football, as managingdirector of Birmingham City FC,from 1993 to 2009.

She took the club from adminis-tration to the stock market in just afew years. She is now vice-chairmanof West Ham United FC.

Karren has won numerous awardsand is one of the highest profile rolemodels for women in business today.

Organiser Jamie Breese said: “Tosecure a first-class headliner such asKarren Brady, and all our other key-note speakers, is a statement of howbig a player Bristol and the SouthWest is in business today.

“We ’re delighted to bring all thattalent and expertise under onero o f. ”

Olaf Swantee, chief executive ofmobile phone firm EE, is anotherheadline speaker.

The firm has headquarters in Brad-ley Stoke, as well as a number ofshops in the city. With close to 30million customers in the UK, Olaf ’swords will be listened to keenly.

Other speakers at the event includeBusiness West managing director,Phil Smith; executive director of theBristol Chamber of Commerce,James Durie; chief constable of Avonand Somerset Constabulary, NickGargan; and motivational speakerBrad Burton, of 4networking.

The main event starts at 10am and

Star billing Karren among the bignames at major business s h owc a se

� Karren Brady, left,will be speaking at theBusiness ShowcaseSouth West 2014, aswill EE boss OlafSwantee, above. Theevent takes place atthe Colston Hall inBristol

THERE’S a saying in busi-ness that people are muchmore likely to do businesswith people they’ve met.It’s one of the greatest of

motivations for networking and it’sproven time and time again.

More than six years ago, I foun-ded Only Connect in Bristol. It’sgone on to become a regular featureof the South West’s networkingl a n d s c ap e.

Just when the recession startedto take a hold, business networkingstarted to get a real grip. It’s animmensely affordable form of mar-keting and is fun if you know how topitch yourself well. If you haven’tattended one of our Only Connectevents, be sure to try us out – wenormally welcome over 500 guestsat a time and they have a uniquesocial edge to them.

Business exhibitions take theconcept of networking and super-charge it – rather than a few hours,you get a day; rather than a fewhundred guests, you have thechance to connect with multiples oft h at .

I started work on the BusinessShowcase South West 2014 fiveyears ago. It’s been a waiting game– waiting to grow my own network,reputation and finding a line-up oftruly stellar speakers who will in-form and inspire. Take, for ex-ample, Ajith – he’s one of Bristol’ssuccess stories, building the na-tional Las Iguanas and Turtle Bayrestaurant chains. I’ll be interview-ing him on stage. I want to put on agreat show that people go away andtalk about.

Any exhibition usually teams upwith a sponsor. We’ve been incred-ibly lucky to find one – and a globalleader at that – in EnterpriseRent-A-Car. They are doing greatthings in the South West right now– and in Bristol in particular – f ro msupplying the Lord Mayor’s newlower emission car to running apilot scheme with special low-emis-sion car shares. They are into sus-tainability and invest a fortune inour city.

My tips for attending our show-case on April 8 is register earlyonline, be sure to get there early onthe day (there are only 1,800 seats tosee the keynotes), bring lots of busi-ness cards with you and overcomeany networking nerves – bu s i n e s sis about getting out there.

Get your free tickets atw w w. s h o w c a s e 2 0 1 4 . c o m .

Jamie BreeseJamie Breese, DirectorBusiness ShowcaseSouth West

Why events give bestvalue for networking

Know how

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

runs until 5pm. The exhibition isopen throughout, with a host of toplocal firms exhibiting – from BathAles to N3 Display Graphics (part-ner), Gregg Latchams to 4Networking(partner) and UWE to Veale Was-brough Vizards.

The origin of the event was thefoundation of Only Connect network-ing events in 2008. Only Connect hasbecome one of the largest open net-working events in the UK, welcoming

more than 500 guests on each oc-casion.

The event gives businesses the op-portunity to present and promotetheir products and services, fromstart-ups and SMEs to big and long-established brands.

The day is free for delegates, in-cluding attending the keynotes p e e ch e s.

However, visitors should registerfor tickets first by visiting the website

at w w w. s h o w c a s e 2 0 1 4 . c o m .In addition to this, the chief ex-

ecutives of the region’s leading com-panies have been invited to a privatedrinks event at lunchtime, supportedby Desynit.

There will also be a special OnlyConnect networking event – in as-sociation with Business West – in theevening to round off what promises tobe one of the business events of theye a r.

Sponsored by

Jamie Breese

“To secure aheadliner suchas KarrenBrady, and allour otherkeynotespeakers, is astatement ofhow big a playerBristol and theSouth West is inbusiness today.”

SHOWCASING THE BEST IN THE SOUTH WEST TUESDAY 8TH APRIL 2014, COLSTON HALL, BRISTOL. 10AM - 5PM

FREE TO ATTEND 88 EXHIBITORS from across the region BOOK TICKETS NOW – www.showcase2014.com

Celebrating the BEST in Commerce, Innovation and Creativity

SEEKARREN BRADY CBEfrom ’The Apprentice’

and others speak