H A L T O N T O D A Y E I G H T

I t ’ s a l l h a p p e n i n g i n H A LTO N

Halton Expansion and Growth

For information and advice please contact:The Economic Regeneration Service - Halton Borough Council

Tel: 01928 516124email: property@halton.gov.ukwww.runcorn-widnes.comIt’s all happening in HALTON

Investment andproperty brokersOptimum InvestmentProperties have recently moved into newpremises at Hale Road in Widnes. The company,who have acquired over 7000 square feet of high profilemodern office/showroom space, will be creating up to ten jobs.

Also cracking on a pace, is Speke Approach, where the last Phase ofdevelopment has recently been completed.The Fork Truck Warehouse have created five jobs following theirmove to modern, brand new industrial premises in Montague Road.

Runcorn based specialist service provider to the pharmaceutical, biotechand agrochemicals sectors, Chromatide, recently received a £150,000financing package to build the business.

Chromatide, based at The Heath Business and Technical Park in Runcorn,was formed by partners Saeed Gulzar and Don Wellings to provide botha purification facility and produce peptides and oligonucleotides forindustry, research institutions and academia.

Saeed and Don have between them thirty-five years experience withmulit-national chemical companies including AstraZenica, Avecia and ICI.

Saeed commented 'This is a very exciting time for us.We have extensiveexperience, a solid business plan and we already have a huge amount ofinterest in what we are doing so I am confident we can grow thebusiness'.

Mitchell Charlesworth Accountants and Business Advisors were called into help to put together a finance package which included £100,000 fromthe Small Firms Loans Guarantee Scheme and a grant of £24,000 fromthe Northwest Development Agency.

Paul McGerty of Mitchell Charlesworth said 'Saeed and Don were at thestage where they had a great business idea and the expertise and wewere more than happy to help them pull some of the funding togetherand set up the company'.

'They have now established an exciting business in a niche high tech'industry and all the key foundations are in place for it to become anextremely successful enterprise'.

Merrion Packaging have movedinto two modern industrial units at Berkeley

Court in Runcorn. The company, who areinvolved in the film printing industry are taking around

24,000 square feet of space and creating up to thirty jobs.

The Mobile Phone Hospital have expanded into new higherprofile premises in Widnes, close to the new Asda development in

Frederick Street.

Onyx Security Hardware Ltd are a new name to the Runcorn area.The company have acquired over 6000 square feet of industrial space atManor Park, and have created four new jobs.

The Heath Business & Technical Park continues to go fromstrength to strength. Over 150 businesses are now resident there.Thelatest additions being; Myvesta UK Ltd, Manchester MetropolitanUniversity, Gemini Biomedical,Yara, DNA Corporation Ltd, and SiriusGeotechnical & Environmental.

Electrical wholesalers, Palmer Riley (Widnes) Ltd have created fourjobs following their move to St Michaels Industrial Estate.

Employment agents for the rail industry, JSB Rail, have expanded intonew, larger premises in Runcorn old town. The company have relocatedinto 1723 square feet of office space in High Street.

Decco Dompak Grosvenor Ltd have relocated into new premises atFoundry Lane,Widnes. The company, previously based on Everite Roadhave acquired just under 50,000 square feet of industrial space.

Haulage company, Freight First Ltd, have relocated from Frodshamover to Runcorn. The company are bringing eight jobs to Goddard Roadon Astmoor Industrial Estate, where they taken 3154 square industrialspace.

There has also been a flurry of activity over at Dewar Court with fournew businesses moving in recently. Countrywide Environmental Services,Essential Deliveries, Contact Technical Services and CentralServe are allnew names to Halton and the Astmoor area.

In Widnes town centre, the night time economy has received a furtherboost with the arrival of Oliver's Steak & Fish Restaurant inWidnes Road. Another fast food outlet Emperor Express have movedinto the new retail units at Simms Cross, as have SAB Print, who haverelocated from the Windmill Centre.

H A L T O N

H A L T O N

Summer 2006Issue 31

Cllr Rob PolhillExecutive Board MemberHalton Borough Council

waterfront progressinside...

Waterfront Facelift ContinuesSecond CrossingOffice Hat-trick at Waterfront

Second Crossing to ProvideMajor Boost to WaterfrontOne hundred and one years after the first road vehicles could crossthe River Mersey between Widnes and Runcorn on the nowdismantled Transporter Bridge,Transport secretary Alistair Darlinghas approved Government funding for a second road crossing linkingthe Borough of Halton.

The £209m grant paves the way for Halton Council to develop thescheme, seek the statutory powers for its implementation and guidethe project through the procurement and planning processes.

The second crossing is necessary to take the strain off the existingJubilee Bridge, which opened in 1961 and is now inadequate to deal with today's level of traffic flow -particularly during peak times when the bridge becomes a notorious congestion black spot - current projectionssuggest that up to 90% of traffic could be removed from the existing Jubilee Bridge.

The decision has been hailed as a momentous decision for entire north west region with areas such as theWaterfront being ideally located to benefit for the increased infrastructure provision and connectivity to theroads network.

Initial designs show a two-lane duel-carriageway with hard shoulders, which could be reconfigured into a three-lane duel-carriageway should it be necessary in the future.

The bridge will not only benefit motorists. Pedestrians, cyclists and public transport will also benefit from theincreased capacity and the entire area will experience a step-change in the quality of traffic flow and fewercongested roads.

Businesses on the Waterfront will be ideally located to benefit from the second crossing, as it will link to theexisting road network at a newly created junction at the southern end of the Waterfront site.

Cllr Rob Polhill Executive Board Member at Halton Borough Council with responsibility for Planning andDevelopment commented “The long awaited bridge announcement can only add further impetus to theimpressive strides that have been made to bring the Widnes Waterfront project to fruition in the last few years.Clearly the attractiveness of the site as a business location can only be enhanced by its proximity to the newcrossing'

Improved communication will encourage existing businesses to expand and new businesses to set up, bringingnew jobs and generating wealth.

Current estimates for a full cost of the bridge are put at around £335m and the partnership working to deliverthe second crossing are working flat out and hope that the bride could be open to traffic as early as 2012.

For many years the BoroughCouncil has made thediversification of the economicbase of the borough one of itskey economic development andregeneration objectives.

For too long Halton has beenreliant upon the manufacturingsector. It was, therefore,necessary to work withpartners to try and introducenew, higher value added jobsinto the Borough. It is,therefore, heartening in this, thecurrent issue of Halton Today,to reflect upon not only someof the exciting developments atDaresbury Science andInnovation Campus but also onsome of the truly innovativework that is taking place atcompanies like Protherics andChromatide.

The Borough of Halton clearlyhas a future as a centre forscience, technology andadvanced manufacturingsomething that has clearly beenrecognised by centralgovernment with theirannouncement in the recentbudget that Daresbury is to beone of only two dedicatedcentres in the UK for what isoften termed 'big science'.

Clearly Halton has come a longway in the past few decades.Perhaps now we can begin toshake off the tired oldstereotypes?

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Daresbury village, best known for the world-leading Daresbury Laboratory and as the birthplace of Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll), is in thevanguard of an ambitious UK effort to transfer knowledge from the science base and into the wider economy.

The Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus (DSIC) is a partnership between CCLRC, the North West Development Agency (NWDA), theuniversities of Lancaster, Liverpool and Manchester and Halton Borough Council. It will attract elite high technology companies, whose activitieswill benefit from being positioned next to the Daresbury Laboratory and its academic partners.

The campus concept is what makes DSIC so different - and something which will put Halton onto the international stage. The campus combinesthe Daresbury Laboratory's world-class research facilities, which already attract visitors from companies and universities around the globe, withinvestment by the region's top research-led universities and facilities that allow companies developing high technology products to work and growin an environment that stimulates synergistic discussion between science and business. This mixture will give UK companies the opportunity totake science out of the lab and into the market in a way that has never been tried before, and Halton is leading the way for the world.

DSIC moved from a concept to reality in just 18 months, thanks to the NWDA purchasing land adjacent to the Laboratory and constructing twobuildings. The first of these, the Daresbury Innovation Centre, opened in April 2005 and is already home to 21 new high tech companies. Dr PaulTreloar, the centre manager, anticipates it will soon be full. “We're negotiating with over 40 small businesses who want to take advantage of theunique facilities that the Innovation Centre and wider campus have to offer. The current tenants have already attracted over £5 million of venturecapital funding. It's a very stimulating environment to work in,” he said.The second building will house the Cockcroft national accelerator science institute. This centre, funded by the Particle Physics and AstronomyResearch Council, NWDA and CCLRC, will bring together scientists who work on particle accelerators from CCLRC and the partner universitiesto create a critical mass of internationally recognised scientists working in an area which has become a technological forcing ground. There will begreat opportunities for ideas to spin-off and be exploited elsewhere on the campus.

Plans for further expansion are already underway. There will soon be an urgent need for 'grow on' space for businesses in the Innovation Centreand NWDA is seeking funding to add another two buildings to the campus. But this is just the next step;beyond this, the partners are planning to establish a company that will oversee further expansion.

The campus plans were further endorsed by a statement made in parallel with the recent Budgetannouncement. The government said the Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus and the HarwellScience and Innovation Campus, based around CCLRC's Rutherford Appleton Laboratory in Oxfordshire,would be developed further as the homes of internationally competitiveresearch facilities supporting world-class science. These will act as a focusfor academic and industrial research, helping to generate the critical massnecessary to achieve a step change in transfer of knowledge from science tobusiness.

Professor Colin Whitehouse, CCLRC's deputy chief executive, believes thefuture is very positive. “We have a ten-year vision for DSIC which will placethe North West firmly on the international innovation map,” he said. “I amdelighted with the government's announcement and the opportunity thatCCLRC and its partners now have to make a significant contribution of UKwealth creation. I believe this is a unique model within the UK and onewhich I am certain will be a great success for all involved.”

Halton’s Campus CultureLeads the Way for Science and Business

£50 Million Jobs Boom

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Property investors have paid British Waterways more than £10.25m for a 44-acre site at Weston Point.The cash comes from the Westbury Property Fund.

Developers say over the next three years, the site will be developed into a transport hub offering road, rail, inland waterway and sea access.Investment manager Richard Burrell said: 'I cannot put an exact number on how many jobs will be created but it will be significant.'

The site, close to the M56, is a storage operation owned by Westlink Storage and Shipping, which is owned by Westbury.

Mr Burrell said: “We want to secure big contracts with local companies to take a significant amount of freight traffic off the roads and put it on to therail system and the sea.The site sits on the Manchester Ship Canal and we hope to bring in large vessels.”

Small Business SurveyIn autumn 2005 a survey of small and medium sized companies (SME's)in Halton was undertaken to assess how best the needs of businessesare served by the local business support agencies; Halton Chamber ofCommerce and Enterprise, Business Link and Halton Borough Council.The survey looked at four key business areas:-

Finance - Management - Legal - Marketing

Other considerations such as health and safety, recruitment, ICT,exporting, environmental issues etc were also considered.

A great many local companies responded to the survey, particularly thoseemploying less than forty-nine employees who accounted for 64% of thetotal respondents.The type of business that responded broadly reflectedthe economic structure of Halton. For example, approximately 20% of thecompanies who completed a questionnaire are involved in manufacturing.

When analysed the results of the questionnaire provided an invaluablesnap shot of the views of the local business community.

For example, 80% of businesses indicated that they didn't requireassistance with financial planning but almost 50% would welcome financialassistance.

There was a marked difference between the strategic and operationsmanagement support required, with circa 31% of the respondentsindicating that they would benefit from strategic management supportand just under 15% from operations management support.Approximately 25% of businesses indicated they would benefit fromsupport with human relations management and 17% with help supplychain issues.

Businesses were also asked if they would value assistance to aidunderstanding of the legal framework in which businesses operate, forexample changes in the regulatory framework. In both cases businessesindicated a high demand rating of 36% and 57% respectively.

Top Quality Commercial SpaceNew to the MarketIn the last few months a number of new high specification office developments have come to the market across the Borough.

Phase 2 Abbots Park is a 6-acre office Ashall's development on Chester Road adjacent to M56 Junction 11. Phase 1 at AbbotsPark is already fully let.Tenants include Cemex, AD Aerospace, Data Dimension and David McLean. In total Phase 2 is madeup of four buildings ranging in size from 5,049 ft2 to 16,345 ft2. All buildings are fully are air conditioned with raised floorsand suspended ceilings and feature glazed receptions and ample parking.

Close to Abbots Park is Bridgemere House a stunning glass fronted head office building of impressive architectural merit in abusy, high profile location. Available space comprises a 2,777 ft2 open plan, ground floor office suite

One junction further down the M56 is Sutton Quays Business Park. Situated on the A557 Clifton Road Phase 1 of Sutton QuaysBusiness Park consists of two, new, two storey office buildings set in managed landscaped grounds with dedicated parking offeringflexible accommodation from 2,000 ft2.

Within sight of Sutton Quays Business Park is Weaver House a new office building offering office suites from 1,750 ft2 to 8,500 ft2 within the AshvillePoint development.

Across the river in Widnes Grenfell House in Widnes Town Centre offers a very different sort of accommodation. Grenfell House provides officeaccommodation of between 4,226 ft2 and 9,395 ft2 at first floor level in the heart of a busy town centre.The development also has dedicatedparking, invaluable in a town centre location.

For further information about any commercial property requirements in Halton contact Steve Clark from the Council's Business Development Teamon 01928 516124 for a free property search or check out the on-line property finding service at www.runcorn-widnes.com

Assistance with marketing planning and market research was rated at50% and 44% respectively which would indicate that markets forproducts and services are becoming increasingly competitive.

Overall information about grants (83%), a directory of businesses (72%),and workforce training (68%) were considered to be the most valuableform of assistance that the various support agencies could provide tobusiness. Recruitment and retention (53%), health and safety (52%),environment and waste minimisation (45%) and the use of informationand communications technology (35%) also featured prominently.

In response to the finding of the survey the business support agencieswill promote more aggressively a number of existing services and initiatea number of new services. For example, the Council will advertise morewidely the existing searchable grant availability database hosted on theCouncil web site. A new edition of the Halton Businesses Directory willbe published in the summer.

Another major study has been undertaken over the last few months bythe Council to ascertain the skills and training needs of local employersover the coming years. A Halton Workforce Development Strategy isclose to completion and implementation of a range of new initiative willbegin in the autumn.

The Council have also set up Halton Economic Forum which is anopportunity for the local business community to put questions directlyto the Chief Executives of the Council, Chamber, Business Link and theLearning and Skills Council on any subject.To date the Forum has mettwice with fifty plus businesses attending on both occasions.

The partners have also produced a directory of business services whichwill be distributed widely and posted on the inward investment sitewww.runcorn-widnes.com

A summary and full report of the findings of the survey can be found atwww.b2k.net/survey

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LGC Forensics

How sure are you that your business could continue after amajor setback, for example a fire or a critical I.T. failure ? Whatwould you do if your main supplier went out of business ?

You may say, “It could never happen to me” but just ask thosebusinesses who it has happened to. Remember the BuncefieldFire, Carlisle Floods and the Birmingham Tornado. They said thesame.

Whether your business has a turnover of £20,000, £200,000 or£200 million. A serious and unforeseen incident could impact onyou, your staff and the community if you were unable to carry onyour business.

Nearly one in five businesses suffer a major disruption everyyear. Yours could be next. With no recovery plan you have lesschance of survival.

Common small business disasters include :-

l Fire/flooding l Computer/telecoms failurel Key equipment failurel People issues such as illness/resignations/maternity

leave/

Everyone Should beAsking for EMIBUSINESSES across Merseyside are missing out on a littleknown scheme which could help them retain key employeesand safeguard their future.

Enterprise Management Incentives - EMIs - are share option schemesdesigned to help small-to-medium sized businesses recruit and retainthose top staff who possess the key skills to drive the business forward.

Companies reap the obvious benefits butstaff are rewarded for taking a risk andinvesting their time and expertise to helpthe firm achieve its goals.

Paul McGerty, Business Development Manager at leading North Westaccountancy firm Mitchell Charlesworth, said every side benefits from anEMI.

Paul said: “EMIs are perfect for small to medium sized enterprises.

“They allow employees to buy a percentage stake in the business whichwill naturally make them motivated to work for the good of the firm.

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How Safe isYour Business ?LGC Forensics, a division of science service company LGC, officiallyopened its new Specialist Services facilities at The Heath in Runcorn,Cheshire on 28 February 2006.

Lord Stevens, former Metropolitan Police Commissioner, opened thenew facilities, which are extensively equipped to analyse fire debris, andchemical traces and marks including footwear marks, glass and paint fromcrime scenes.The new labs were brought to life at the opening event forguests from UK police forces in a case study, which followed the analysisof items including DNA and firearms involved in a burglary.On opening the facilities for LGC Forensics, Lord Stevens said: "With theever-present threat of terrorism and other challenges in modern policing,responsive and intelligent support from forensic science providers is nowa necessity, not an option. Specialist services such as those I have openedfor LGC Forensics in chemical traces and marks embody this vitalrelationship."

LGC Forensics also formally opened an additional Digital Crime Unit inRuncorn, which specialises primarily in the forensic analysis of mobilephones and computers.

Commenting on the expansion in the services offered to police, fireinvestigators and other law enforcement agencies, Dr Angela Gallop,Director, LGC Forensics, said: "The addition of these purpose-built newlaboratories significantly enhances the capacity of LGC Forensics to servecustomers in this rapidly evolving market, particularly those forces basedin the North West."

The new facilities for digital crime and chemical traces and marksaugment existing expertise at Runcorn in forensic drugs, toxicology andDNA analysis. Combined with the facilities at Risley, North West forcesnow have the full range of forensic services available locally. LGCForensics currently serves the UK with complex and rapid forensicscience support from the facilities in Cheshire and, on a wider scale,

from Teddington, Culham,Tamworth and a specialist

firearms facility withinthe Royal

Armouries,Leeds

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“It is an option for bosses to present to employees who they do notwant to lose.“The scheme is very tax efficient. Basically, subject to some conditions,when share options are granted, neither the company nor the employeepays National Insurance or PAYE on them whilst on the potential sale ofany shares, favourable tax rates typically apply.Also, apart from the tax benefits, there are the ordinary benefits thatarise under any option scheme. If the value of the company's shares fall,the option is allowed to lapse, while if they rise, the option is exercisedand a profit realised.”There are, as you would expect, some qualifying criteria. For example,firms qualify for EMIs if their gross assets are less than £15M whilst anemployee's share holding of a company cannot exceed 30 per cent.

Equally however, a great deal of flexibility is also evident with shareoptions having the potential for built-in conditions. For example a salesdirector might have to achieve certain targets for the scheme to kick in.

l Denial of access to the premisesl Product defectsl Bomb/terrorism threatl Legal/regulatory action

Halton Borough Council has over a number of years developedexpertise in the field of Emergency Planning to ensure that whenan emergency situation occurs they can minimize the disruptionto the local community and businesses. The expertise andresponse does not happen by chance. It has been well plannedand exercised.

The Borough Council is undertaking an exercise to inform thelocal business community and other organisations of the need toprepare and maintain business continuity plans. Details can befound at www.b2k.uk.net/bc.

Within the site you will find information links to sites can help youand your business to survive and prosper.

Waterfront FaceliftContinuesCompanies within the Waterfront have continued to reap the benefitsthe Business Improvement Area (BIA) grant scheme with morecompanies receiving grant assistance to overhaul the physical appearanceof their properties.

Amongst those companies benefiting from the latest round of grants are:

Forward Chemicals. Benefited from a £50,000 grant to an existingmanufacturing building which consisted of exterior re-cladding, upgradingof roof resulting in 2,400 sq m of improved commercial floor space andthe safeguarding of 68 jobs.

Graham Hale (Managing Director) said, “the grant funding that ForwardChemicals Ltd secured through the Business Improvement Area Schemehas enabled the company to vastly enhance its site and make it evenmore attractive. The application process was straightforward and wewere pleased that we could contribute to the renaissance of the WidnesWaterfront”.

The work was completed in March and was crucial to the widerregeneration of the area as the site sits alongside the burgeoning HeronBusiness Park.

Holmac Engineering. A grant of £2,740 was awarded to remove anunsightly and inadequate asbestos roof and replace it with a modernhigh-grade system which has safeguarded three two jobs and improvedthe general appearance of the site. Graham McCann (Owner) statedthat, “the new roof has vastly improved the visual aspect of the building,providing a higher quality finish. The new roofing system has improvedinsulation and natural lighting, which has improved the buildings energyefficiency and the working environment".

The BIA grant scheme has also been put to use in the general environsof the Waterfront area with £46,840 of funding being used to bringDennis Road up to the standards of the completed Earle Road and theplanned works on Tan House Lane. The European RegionalDevelopment Fund (ERDF) provided £26,420 offunding towards these improvements.

By upgrading Dennis Road in a similar way tothe other roads in the area, a consistent highquality public realm environment will becreated across the Waterfront.

The work, which was completed inMarch, has seen the removal ofexisting trees andreplacement with semi-mature Lime and SilverLime species, installationof bollards and the re-instatement of grassverges.

For further informationon the BusinessImprovement Areagrants, please contactGareth Bennett,tel: 01928 516123.

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Bio-tech FirmSells Off Right toProductRuncorn biotechnology firm Protherics has signed the rights for its

experimental septic shock treatment over toAstraZeneca, in a deal that could be

worth up to £195m. Shares inProtherics, which makes most ofits money from an antidote torattlesnake bites, soared morethan 50% yesterday, on the backof the agreement. Protherics willreceive an upfront payment of£16.3m for the global licensing

deal of CytoFab. It is hoped thedrug will become available for

doctors to use in the treatment ofseptic shock, or sepsis - a life-threatening condition resultingfrom uncontrolled severeinfections that affects 3m peoplea year worldwide.

Three separate developers have won planning permission to createaround 180,00 sq ft (16,672 sq m) of new office, distribution and light-industrial space within the Widnes Waterfront development area.

At the planning committee meeting of Halton Borough Council onWednesday 15th March 2006, proposals from the three developerswere unanimously passed by councillors.

The details of the three developments are as follows:

Priority Sites. Won permission for 100,000 sq ft (9,290 sq m) of officeand high specification flexible work spaces. The 5.5-acre site, borderedby Earle Road and the newly created boulevard, is to be developed intoten separate buildings with car parking and new landscaping.

Langtree Group plc. Won planning permission for 30,000 sq ft (2,787 sqm) of managed office space targeted at small businesses looking torelocate into a high quality, modern business environment. The1.6-acresite occupies a gateway site on the corner of Earle Road.

Forward Group. Won planning permission for 50,000 sq ft (4,595 sq m)of office and distribution space on two separate sites. The first planningapproval is for three modern, flexible office buildings with glass façadesone of three storeys and two two-storey buildings. To be called ForwardPoint, the buildings will provide a dramatic gateway to WidnesWaterfront at the junction of Tan House Lane and Fiddlers Ferry Road.

A second planning permission has been granted to the Forward Groupfor a new industrial or distribution park. Consisting of two linear rowsof double-height single storey buildings, Forward Business Park on BrownStreet is adjacent to Heron Business Park, which is currently underdevelopment.The buildings on both sites will be released for sale or lease and areexpected to be complete in summer 2007.

Three developers win planningpermission for 180,000 sq ft ofnew buildings

Payment of Invoicesby ClientsThere is a business expression that is commonly used which goes asfollows:

Turnover is VanityProfit is RealityCash is Sanity

I am not a person for business jargon but the above has never beenmore true in the case of Small and Medium Enterprises (SME's) whereeffective cash flow management is as critical to business survival as theproducts and services that they actually provide.

Indeed, mismanagement of cash flow is the single biggest reason thatSME's go under - the problem of profitability is not usually the issue butthat of solvency!

For SME's this causes a real problem when chan 'over-rider' agreement,delivery terms and more importantly, extended credit terms.

This results in a dilemma! These larger customers are often the mainsales target as they can provide the volumes necessary to facilitate theprovision of the service or products via the economies of scale they canrealise, both in terms of cost savings and sales transmission costs.

So what can we do?As with all sales agreements, irrespective of who the customer is, a bestpractice framework is required when deciding whether to commit yourcompany to the sale and how to manage that sale within your creditcontrol system.

The first point of even committing yourself to the sale may sound astrange one but you need to consider, especially when dealing with a

large firm, if you can actually meet the delivery terms and if the businessrisk of having 'all your eggs in one basket', otherwise know as customerconcentration, is worth it? For many this is a not even an issue but itshould be considered for the longevity of the business.

The second issue infers the implementation of a robust credit controlsystem which allows the monitoring of the situation on an ongoing basis,daily if needed - this is a prerequisite.

The above is all well and good in theory but let's say your biggestcustomer, accounting for a high concentration of your sales, asks for anextension of their credit term - say from 60 to 90 days? This is notuncommon and indeed I have seen this many times in practice with thephrase 'asking' being replaced by 'demanding'!

What can you do?Well in theory, you should already have a binding legal agreement, viayour terms of trade, which states your payment agreement and as such,the 'breaking' of this allows you to charge interest on late paymentunder the Late Payment of Commercial Debts legislation.

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Office Hat-trick at Waterfront

H A L T O N T O D A Y F O U R

Councillor Rob Polhill, Executive board Member at Halton BoroughCouncil said: “These planning permissions are a real shot in the arm forour plans for Widnes Waterfront. They build on the work that iscurrently ongoing at the site and show strong support and belief fromthe private sector in Widnes.

“We look forward to the developers getting on site and starting to helpregenerate the area and create new jobs for Halton.”

Development Director at Priority Sites, John Boanas said: “We aredelighted to be contributing to the regeneration of the Waterfront area.We will be bringing our unique recipe of high specification commercialaccommodation that offers flexibility, making our premises suitable for awide range of businesses.”

Stephen Barnes, Senior Development Manager at Langtree Group said:“Langtree Group is currently expanding its managed business spaceoffering and is delighted to have achieved planning consent for this site.We are confident that interest from small businesses in Widnes, whohave a strong requirement for high quality managed office space, will addto the future success of our scheme and of other developments on theWaterfront.”

Chris Wright from the Forward Group said: “We are delighted to haveobtained these consents and look forward to contributing to the successof Widnes Waterfront by providing these high quality developmentswhich will attract growth sector businesses and industries, therebycreating new employment opportunities for the local community and thewider Halton area.”

For further media information on the Widnes Waterfront EDZ, Pleasecontact Steve Sanders at SKV PR on 0161 236 9909 / 07971 079 314or e-mail steve.sanders@skvpr.co.uk

For general information on Widnes Waterfront please visitwww.widneswaterfront.co.uk

Albert SquareBin Cage Scheme, WidnesThis simple but effective project was designed in partnership with thefire service. Local traders and property agents to reduce the incidence oftrade waste fires in and around Widnes town centre.

Six steel mesh 'bin cages' have been provided to store retail trade wasteand minimise spillages from receptacles at the rear of the shops. Steelgates and high rise security fencing has already been erected, greatlyincreasing security in the area.

The project has the potential to cut retail insurance premiums, as well assafeguarding employees and increasing revenue by improving the qualityof the shopping environment. Cheshire fire service also predicts asignificant saving in the long-term, through an estimated 20 per centreduction in trade waste fires year-on-year.

Primarily funded through Halton Council's Capital Allocation Fund,contributions were also received from property agents Savills Ltd, andcomplementary security in the form of ally gates have also been paid bydonations from local retailers.

Further information: Paul Smith,Town Centres Manager,The HeathBusiness & Technical Park, Runcorn WA7 4QX.Tel: 01928 516119,E-mail: paul.smith@halton.gov.uk

However, in reality, your relationship with the client is key and so I wouldnot consider this the first step, especially if the customer is essential toyour sales targets.

Basically, in such a 'David and Goliath' situation, you are at their mercyunless you provide a unique service which no one else provides (thus,supplier switching is not a possibility) and so, an open dialogue is the key.

I suggest maybe something like the following:

l Explain to them your situation and that you do not have financialresources to suffer such a change in terms. If your relationship andtrading history is good, play on this

l Perhaps meet them half way, offer a stage payment process or earlypayment discount (after considering your cash flow and profit marginindicators).

If the above does not work then unfortunately, there is probably not alot you can do as the ultimate weapon belongs to your customer - theymay take their business elsewhere!

It comes down to a commercial decision: can your finances match therequirement?; is invoice discounting a possibility?; can your margins takethe increase in costs?

I appreciate it sounds doom and gloom but the reality is that, unless youprovide a key input, you cannot dictate the terms of trade or you maylose the business. As such, the relationship with your customer is the key- get behind the business and know the people! If that does not work, acommercial decision must be made: does it still contribute and what canwe do to defend our situation and improve it going forward by customerdiversification, growth, market strength?

Basically, the moral of the story is to create your own barriers to entryand become a 'Goliath' and help stop these big businesses stifle thedevelopment of those ambitious SME's in the market place!

k at Waterfront

For more information,please contact: Paul McGertyMitchell CharlesworthChartered Accountants and Business AdvisorsTel: 07762735711

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