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Businesswww.bristolpost.co.uk

RATES REFORM

Reaction to Osborne’s shockbusiness rates shake-up – p4

BAD MANAGEMENT

Why we’re all being run byaccidental managers – p12&13

WELSH WORRIES

Airport right to fear tax change,warns biggest carrier – page 7

BUILDING GOOGLEWHO’S WHOMeet the Stokes Croft man heading a team of geniusescreating people search engine dubbed Project Whoogle

– See pages 8&9

THE BIG INTERVIEW

072015OCT

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2 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 3We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

A COMPANY offering innov-ative safety wear is seizing amajor stake of the $1.5 bil-lion global high viz marketas it expands rapidly across

the continent.Fhoss Technology, a British

start-up based in Wes-ton-super-Mare, supplies personalprotective equipment (PPE) to helpilluminate workers.

The wearable technology is thefirst significant change to high vis-ibility garments in many years, fea-turing battery-powered strips on topof normal reflective material allow-ing employees to be clearly visible inlow-light conditions.

Founder Andy Kimitri says thecompany is revolutionising work-place safety around the globe, withproducts now being imported toAmerica, Australia and Europe.

Products are manufactured inCambodia and have already beenadopted by more than 200 construc-tion customers including NetworkRail, London Underground, BalfourBeatty, Skanska and Amey.

Since the company was founded,sales and turnover has more thandoubled in each year, with 2015 fore-cast to achieve more than 500 percent growth year on year.

Andy hopes the technology willsave the lives of staff working indangerous situations around thewo rl d .

He said: “Fhoss Technology hasmade huge waves across several in-dustry sectors with wearable tech-nology that improves workforcesafety and empowers customers toachieve higher productivity.

“Fhoss has been successful in in-troducing its products across a num-ber of industry verticals. In rail wehave worked extensively with TFLLondon Underground, who is look-ing to roll out our wearable tech-nology across its network in thecoming months.

“In the highways industry we areengaged with a number ofwell-known contractors includingBalfour Beatty, A1+, Skanska andAggregate industries to name a few.

“Another exciting development isour recent partnership with Tower-gate Insurance. The UK’s largestbroker has recognised the reducedrisk that our products create when

used by work forces that operate atnight.

“Towergate will take the increasedsafety and reduced risk thatFhoss wearable technologybrings to the workplaceand use this to drive downinsurance premiums fora company that usesF h o s s. ”

The idea of FhossWearable Technologywas originally conceivedwhile Andy worked in thehospitality industry inWe s t o n - s u p e r- M a re.

He felt he could help distinguishsecurity personnel in case of anemergency and later realised theproduct would be beneficial to theindustrial world.

Fhoss was developed over threeyears alongside expert input from

Network Rail and Transerv Scotlandto ensure its products complied withthe much stricter standards re-

quired for the hi-viz industrialm a rke t .

As the firm developedits products, it wanted toensure that it met allinternational stand-ards to enable strongexport growth, whichit has achieved.

The global high vis-ibility garment market

is worth $1.5 billion (£1billion) and growing, and the

company is exploring every op-portunity to seize a major stake.

Andy continued: “Exports are im-portant to us in that it helps usminimise the impact of seasonality.

“Naturally our products sell betterin the winter months, so when we

I nvest m e n t P rote c t i o n

Lloyds Bankshares to beoffered to all� PENSIONERS and investors willbe queuing up to buy a piece ofLLoyds Bank after theGovernment announced it willgive the public the chance to buyat least £2 billion of shares.

The Government bought Lloydsto save it from collapse in themidst of the financial crisis in2008 and has been slowly sellingoff its stake to institutionalinvestors as the bank recovers.

But it has revealed that a bigchunk will be sold to the public,sparking memories of theprivatisation of utilities in the1980s when people snapped upshares in the likes of British Gas.

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst atBristol investment firm HargreavesLansdown, believes demand willbe very high again.

“Wild horses couldn’t draginvestors away from this sharesale, especially given thediscounted price and the dividendstream Lloyds is expected to startchurning out,” he said.

“Pensioners in particular arelikely to respond to a trusted highstreet brand with a decent yieldwhen interest rates are so low.

“Lloyds is already the mostpopular share held by our clientswho have taken advantage of thenew pension freedoms to investrather than buy an annuity. Nextyear’s share sale is likely to attracteven more silver savers to thebank’s cause.”

Investors will be offered adiscount of five per cent to themarket price, and will be offered abonus share for every ten sharesbought and held for a year,subject to a maximum of £200 inbonus shares, to encourage themto hold onto them.

G row t h

Taxing work Clampdown presentsnew job opportunities at EdgeTax

A SMALL tax consultancyfrom Bristol is on a recruit-ment drive after a 400 percent increase in new clientswho have been notified by

HMRC that they are suspected of taxavoidance or evasion.

A clampdown by HMRC in theSouth West and Wales on unpaidtaxes, primarily on income tax andVAT, has seen a dramatic growth inthe number of Code of Practice 9(COP9) letters issued this year.

The letters do not specify whichareas of the individuals tax affairsare under suspicion and are effect-ively invitations to make full dis-closures of all tax mitigation activityto the authorities.

Edge Tax, which is led by managingpartner Anton Lane and is based inHambrook in South Gloucestershire,is dealing with a fourfold increase innew customers facing investigation.

The company, which employs sixstaff at its offices in Vantage OfficePark, is now looking for an account-ant and a tax manager to join theteam.

Anton said: “We predicted last yearthat, as a result of HMRC taskforcesmoving to the South West and Walesand due to a reorganisation of its taxinvestigation teams, that enquiries ofthis kind would increase in this re-gion.

“We have noticed a rise in Accel-erated Payment Notices being issued,a rise in the number of people want-ing to disclose through the let prop-erty campaign and also the offshoredisclosure facility comes to a close inDecember. All of these have contrib-uted to the need for us to take on newskilled staff.

“But the main reason is the in-crease in new clients being issuedwith COP9s. These are only issuedwhen HMRC suspects a serious loss oftax through fraud or evasion, so theyneed to be treated accordingly.

“We are a small unique practicethat excels in our market.

“While we are small, we prideourselves on performing more pro-actively and with a more personal

approach than our larger compet-i t o r s. ”

Anton said that research issued byHMRC in October 2014 was a usefulguide to demonstrate where they willconsider making enquiries and po-tentially issuing COP9s.

He said: “The Measuring Tax Gaps2014 Edition, issued by HMRC lastyear, shows that the tax gap is 41 percent with income tax, National In-surance Contributions and CapitalGains Tax, alongside 39 per cent onVA T.

“By groups, 44 per cent of the taxgap falls among SMEs and 27 per cent

among large businesses. These arethe areas where the investigation islikely to come and the types of or-ganisations which should make sure

their affairs are in order.“A client shouldn’t simply assume

that HMRC won’t know or find outabout another irregularity. HMRC donot inform a recipient of a COP9enquiry notice on what their sus-picions are, because it is for thatrecipient to choose to make a full andcomplete disclosure.

“Where the recipient chooses not tocooperate, HMRC will investigate andmay take any action they deem ne-cessary, from taking tax they con-sider due, securing assets, or evenbeginning criminal investigationswith a view to prosecution.”

Engineering

Rolls-Royce reveals further cuts to workforce

Top online brands toshare their secrets� SENIOR figures from some of thebiggest online brands will be sharingtheir marketing secrets in Bristol.

P i n t e re s t ’s UK marketing managerLizzy Sibley, Airbnb’s European,Middle East and Africa marketingmanager Holly Clarke and ThaneRyland, global lead social analyticsand insights at Microsoft will beamong the line-up at OnlineInfluence West.

They join Twitter’s head of contentEurope for Twitter Paul McCrudden,Advertising Standards Associationchief executive Guy Parker, JeremyWaite, Salesforce head of digitalstrategy, and Keith Lewis, Zurich UKsocial media lead.

The conference will also includequick fire panel debates and meetthe expert sessions.

Attendees will have theopportunity to network with topsenior executives, learn about thelatest digital trends and gain keyindustry insights.

The event will take place onOctober 16 2015 at the MercureHotel in Bristol City Centre.

There are only 200 places. Formore information visitw w w. o n l i n e i n f l u e n c e . n e t .

Company director isnamed ‘leading light’� A DIRECTOR of a Bristolcompany has been nominated as aleading lights in her sector.

Emma Millington, pictur ed,director of projects at People forResearch, has been nominated asone of the BritishInteractiveMediaAssociation’s(BIMA)Hot 100in thedigitalandinteractivemedias e c t o r.

People forResearch helps userexperience agencies and digitalmarketing agencies to recruit users.

She said: “It’s a pleasure and aprivilege to be given this accoladeand to gain this level of recognitionin such a competitive industrysector as the digital and interactivemedia space further boosts thereputation of Bristol-based businessPeople for Research as a leadinglight across the country in this area.”

Digital

User experience

Bright future New clothing firmis helping to make a safer world

ENGINE maker Rolls-Royce is mak-ing more job cuts, this time in itsmarine division.

The firm revealed to the to thestock exchange that an extra 400 jobswould go worldwide on top of 600announced in May 2015.

It is understood most of the cutswill be in support and admin rolesrather than engineers and produc-tion staff.

A Rolls-Royce spokesman said:“These proposed reductions willmainly be management and indirectroles, across the business.

“At this stage, and until we havegone through appropriate consulta-tion, we cannot give exact details ofwhere the reductions will be. We will

be consulting with our employeesand their representatives over thecoming weeks and months, and ex-pect the reduction to be com-pleted by the end of 2016.

“We need to speed up thetransformation of Mar-ine, and act quickly toreduce costs in light ofthe rapidly deteriorat-ing market, mainly dueto the impact of low oilprices. We want to giveour employees a clear in-dication of the scale of re-ductions we need make in thef u t u re. ”

The company’s marine divisionemploys 5,800 people worldwide,

around half in the Nordic countries.Rolls employs more than 3,000 at its

plant in Patchway, just outside Bris-tol, mostly in the defence side of

the business but a number inthe marine side too.

The marine staff inBristol largely work onnaval projects, such asthe MT30 marine gasturbine engine, where-as it is the oil and gas

sector which isunder-perfor ming.The firm aims to reinvest

some of the savings into re-search and development projects.The company has endured a bumpy

ride as it looks to keep the business

on track of late.Just last year, Rolls-Royce an-

nounced 2,600 job cuts in itsaerospace business worldwide, mostof whom have now left the business.

And in February it revealed awhopping 96 per cent fall inpre-profits from £1.7 billion to£67 million.

However there has been invest-ment locally too. It spent £18 millionin a new test and repair facility forthe TP400 engine which powers theAirbus A400M military transportplane and plans to open a compositetechnology hub in the coming years,developing ways to use newlight-weight materials in its en-g i n e s.

Assistant Editor (Business)Gavin Thompson

Call 0117 934 3336Email gavin.thompson

@b-nm.co.ukTwitter @gavin_thompson1

Get in touch

Advertising RobertRodgersonCall07584 003229Email ro b e r t . ro d g e r s o n@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising JaneChapman

Call 01179 343025Email jane.chapman

@b-nm.co.uk

have summer in the northern hemi-sphere, we can maintain growth inthe southern hemisphere countries.

“For regions such as the MiddleEast more works happen at night dueday time temperatures and for theNordic regions there is far less day-light, creating obvious opportunit-i e s. ”

The firm continues to go fromstrength to strength, with a continu-ally expanding team and new part-nerships being established.

Andy added: “The future is verymuch centred around wearable tech-nology and internet of things.

“Fhoss has some exciting devel-opments in the pipeline and laterthis year will introduce some veryexciting new product developmentsthat will further help enhance work-force wellbeing, safety, comfort andef fectiveness.”

Record profits forproperty company� PROPERTY company KnightFrank has reported a record profitof £162 million for the financialyear ending March 2015.

Profit across the group was up20 per cent from £136.6 millionthe year before and turnover rosefrom £392.7 million to £443.1million.

Group chairman Alistair Elliottsaid that had been achievedwhilst continuing to invest inrecruitment and expanding thefirm’s global platform.

Looking ahead, Alistair added:“At a time when activity incommercial occupier markets isincreasing in many cities aroundthe world, we see the return ofrental growth drawing moreinvestor interest.”

Steve Oades, who heads up theBristol office, said: “Knight Frank’shighly successful performancenationally and internationally overthe past 12 months has beenreflected in the West of England,too, where we have achieved anumber of milestones includingtransacting over £170 million ofinvestment deals involving someof the city’s best-known buildingsand the UK’s biggest investors.

“These included the £32.8million acquisition of 66 QueenSquare, the new Bristol offices ofKPMG. Our office and industrialagency teams also performedsuperbly throughout the year.”

Bricks & mortar

Conf idence

Businesses hit by global economic uncertaintyBUSINESSES are finding timesharder, with sales, cash-flow, recruit-ment and confidence taking a hit inthe last quarter.

Business West’s survey of morethan 300 businesses in Bristol andthe West of England found mostmajor indicators were down on theprevious quarter.

• Domestic (42 per cent) and in-ternational (29 per cent) sales fell byeight points and twelve points re-s p e c t ive ly.

• Recruitment dropped one pointto 32 per cent, and expectations totake on staff in the next threemonths decreased three points to 32per cent

• Cashflow decreased six points to

34 per cent.• Business confidence dropped

seven points but remains high at 64per cent.

James Durie, p i c t u re d , ex-ecutive director of theBristol Chamber of Com-merce and Initiative,said the results made“tougher reading” witha decrease in key in-dicators against boththe previous quarterand the same period lastye a r.

“Last quarter we saw somesigns of a bounce back after a slowstart to the year, but the last threemonths have seen a shift back in

t h i s, ” he said.“Whilst anecdotal evidence points

to more positive conditions, our eco-nomy appears to have been hit

by the seasonal effect of thesummer period and grow-

ing global economic un-cer tainty.”

He said a turbulenttime in the global eco-nomy had take its toll,including a Monday in

August when Chinesemarkets lost hundreds of

billions in value in oned ay.

“With these events taking placeduring the period of this survey oflocal firms, the downbeat results

should perhaps come as no sur-p r i s e, ” said James.

But he added it wasn’t all badnews. “A couple of weeks ago weheard that employment rates, wealthand salaries mean Bristol is one ofthe five most affluent places to live inthe UK, he said. “High profile eventsare helping put us more and more onthe world map. With Banksy’s Dis-maland, the Arcadia Spectacularand Bristol’s year as EuropeanGreen Capital, you can see why busi-ness confidence remains high at 64per cent.

“We may be experiencing somehurt to our growth for now, butlooking forward there are still reas-ons to be positive and optimistic.”

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

“COP9 notices are onlyissued when HMRCsuspects a serious lossof tax through fraud orevasion, so they need tobe treated accordingly

� Anton Lane, centre, and the team at Edge Tax

� Fhoss Technology safety wear on the London Underground; below, Andy Kimitri

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2 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 3We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

A COMPANY offering innov-ative safety wear is seizing amajor stake of the $1.5 bil-lion global high viz marketas it expands rapidly across

the continent.Fhoss Technology, a British

start-up based in Wes-ton-super-Mare, supplies personalprotective equipment (PPE) to helpilluminate workers.

The wearable technology is thefirst significant change to high vis-ibility garments in many years, fea-turing battery-powered strips on topof normal reflective material allow-ing employees to be clearly visible inlow-light conditions.

Founder Andy Kimitri says thecompany is revolutionising work-place safety around the globe, withproducts now being imported toAmerica, Australia and Europe.

Products are manufactured inCambodia and have already beenadopted by more than 200 construc-tion customers including NetworkRail, London Underground, BalfourBeatty, Skanska and Amey.

Since the company was founded,sales and turnover has more thandoubled in each year, with 2015 fore-cast to achieve more than 500 percent growth year on year.

Andy hopes the technology willsave the lives of staff working indangerous situations around thewo rl d .

He said: “Fhoss Technology hasmade huge waves across several in-dustry sectors with wearable tech-nology that improves workforcesafety and empowers customers toachieve higher productivity.

“Fhoss has been successful in in-troducing its products across a num-ber of industry verticals. In rail wehave worked extensively with TFLLondon Underground, who is look-ing to roll out our wearable tech-nology across its network in thecoming months.

“In the highways industry we areengaged with a number ofwell-known contractors includingBalfour Beatty, A1+, Skanska andAggregate industries to name a few.

“Another exciting development isour recent partnership with Tower-gate Insurance. The UK’s largestbroker has recognised the reducedrisk that our products create when

used by work forces that operate atnight.

“Towergate will take the increasedsafety and reduced risk thatFhoss wearable technologybrings to the workplaceand use this to drive downinsurance premiums fora company that usesF h o s s. ”

The idea of FhossWearable Technologywas originally conceivedwhile Andy worked in thehospitality industry inWe s t o n - s u p e r- M a re.

He felt he could help distinguishsecurity personnel in case of anemergency and later realised theproduct would be beneficial to theindustrial world.

Fhoss was developed over threeyears alongside expert input from

Network Rail and Transerv Scotlandto ensure its products complied withthe much stricter standards re-

quired for the hi-viz industrialm a rke t .

As the firm developedits products, it wanted toensure that it met allinternational stand-ards to enable strongexport growth, whichit has achieved.

The global high vis-ibility garment market

is worth $1.5 billion (£1billion) and growing, and the

company is exploring every op-portunity to seize a major stake.

Andy continued: “Exports are im-portant to us in that it helps usminimise the impact of seasonality.

“Naturally our products sell betterin the winter months, so when we

I nvest m e n t P rote c t i o n

Lloyds Bankshares to beoffered to all� PENSIONERS and investors willbe queuing up to buy a piece ofLLoyds Bank after theGovernment announced it willgive the public the chance to buyat least £2 billion of shares.

The Government bought Lloydsto save it from collapse in themidst of the financial crisis in2008 and has been slowly sellingoff its stake to institutionalinvestors as the bank recovers.

But it has revealed that a bigchunk will be sold to the public,sparking memories of theprivatisation of utilities in the1980s when people snapped upshares in the likes of British Gas.

Laith Khalaf, senior analyst atBristol investment firm HargreavesLansdown, believes demand willbe very high again.

“Wild horses couldn’t draginvestors away from this sharesale, especially given thediscounted price and the dividendstream Lloyds is expected to startchurning out,” he said.

“Pensioners in particular arelikely to respond to a trusted highstreet brand with a decent yieldwhen interest rates are so low.

“Lloyds is already the mostpopular share held by our clientswho have taken advantage of thenew pension freedoms to investrather than buy an annuity. Nextyear’s share sale is likely to attracteven more silver savers to thebank’s cause.”

Investors will be offered adiscount of five per cent to themarket price, and will be offered abonus share for every ten sharesbought and held for a year,subject to a maximum of £200 inbonus shares, to encourage themto hold onto them.

G row t h

Taxing work Clampdown presentsnew job opportunities at EdgeTax

A SMALL tax consultancyfrom Bristol is on a recruit-ment drive after a 400 percent increase in new clientswho have been notified by

HMRC that they are suspected of taxavoidance or evasion.

A clampdown by HMRC in theSouth West and Wales on unpaidtaxes, primarily on income tax andVAT, has seen a dramatic growth inthe number of Code of Practice 9(COP9) letters issued this year.

The letters do not specify whichareas of the individuals tax affairsare under suspicion and are effect-ively invitations to make full dis-closures of all tax mitigation activityto the authorities.

Edge Tax, which is led by managingpartner Anton Lane and is based inHambrook in South Gloucestershire,is dealing with a fourfold increase innew customers facing investigation.

The company, which employs sixstaff at its offices in Vantage OfficePark, is now looking for an account-ant and a tax manager to join theteam.

Anton said: “We predicted last yearthat, as a result of HMRC taskforcesmoving to the South West and Walesand due to a reorganisation of its taxinvestigation teams, that enquiries ofthis kind would increase in this re-gion.

“We have noticed a rise in Accel-erated Payment Notices being issued,a rise in the number of people want-ing to disclose through the let prop-erty campaign and also the offshoredisclosure facility comes to a close inDecember. All of these have contrib-uted to the need for us to take on newskilled staff.

“But the main reason is the in-crease in new clients being issuedwith COP9s. These are only issuedwhen HMRC suspects a serious loss oftax through fraud or evasion, so theyneed to be treated accordingly.

“We are a small unique practicethat excels in our market.

“While we are small, we prideourselves on performing more pro-actively and with a more personal

approach than our larger compet-i t o r s. ”

Anton said that research issued byHMRC in October 2014 was a usefulguide to demonstrate where they willconsider making enquiries and po-tentially issuing COP9s.

He said: “The Measuring Tax Gaps2014 Edition, issued by HMRC lastyear, shows that the tax gap is 41 percent with income tax, National In-surance Contributions and CapitalGains Tax, alongside 39 per cent onVA T.

“By groups, 44 per cent of the taxgap falls among SMEs and 27 per cent

among large businesses. These arethe areas where the investigation islikely to come and the types of or-ganisations which should make sure

their affairs are in order.“A client shouldn’t simply assume

that HMRC won’t know or find outabout another irregularity. HMRC donot inform a recipient of a COP9enquiry notice on what their sus-picions are, because it is for thatrecipient to choose to make a full andcomplete disclosure.

“Where the recipient chooses not tocooperate, HMRC will investigate andmay take any action they deem ne-cessary, from taking tax they con-sider due, securing assets, or evenbeginning criminal investigationswith a view to prosecution.”

Engineering

Rolls-Royce reveals further cuts to workforce

Top online brands toshare their secrets� SENIOR figures from some of thebiggest online brands will be sharingtheir marketing secrets in Bristol.

P i n t e re s t ’s UK marketing managerLizzy Sibley, Airbnb’s European,Middle East and Africa marketingmanager Holly Clarke and ThaneRyland, global lead social analyticsand insights at Microsoft will beamong the line-up at OnlineInfluence West.

They join Twitter’s head of contentEurope for Twitter Paul McCrudden,Advertising Standards Associationchief executive Guy Parker, JeremyWaite, Salesforce head of digitalstrategy, and Keith Lewis, Zurich UKsocial media lead.

The conference will also includequick fire panel debates and meetthe expert sessions.

Attendees will have theopportunity to network with topsenior executives, learn about thelatest digital trends and gain keyindustry insights.

The event will take place onOctober 16 2015 at the MercureHotel in Bristol City Centre.

There are only 200 places. Formore information visitw w w. o n l i n e i n f l u e n c e . n e t .

Company director isnamed ‘leading light’� A DIRECTOR of a Bristolcompany has been nominated as aleading lights in her sector.

Emma Millington, pictur ed,director of projects at People forResearch, has been nominated asone of the BritishInteractiveMediaAssociation’s(BIMA)Hot 100in thedigitalandinteractivemedias e c t o r.

People forResearch helps userexperience agencies and digitalmarketing agencies to recruit users.

She said: “It’s a pleasure and aprivilege to be given this accoladeand to gain this level of recognitionin such a competitive industrysector as the digital and interactivemedia space further boosts thereputation of Bristol-based businessPeople for Research as a leadinglight across the country in this area.”

Digital

User experience

Bright future New clothing firmis helping to make a safer world

ENGINE maker Rolls-Royce is mak-ing more job cuts, this time in itsmarine division.

The firm revealed to the to thestock exchange that an extra 400 jobswould go worldwide on top of 600announced in May 2015.

It is understood most of the cutswill be in support and admin rolesrather than engineers and produc-tion staff.

A Rolls-Royce spokesman said:“These proposed reductions willmainly be management and indirectroles, across the business.

“At this stage, and until we havegone through appropriate consulta-tion, we cannot give exact details ofwhere the reductions will be. We will

be consulting with our employeesand their representatives over thecoming weeks and months, and ex-pect the reduction to be com-pleted by the end of 2016.

“We need to speed up thetransformation of Mar-ine, and act quickly toreduce costs in light ofthe rapidly deteriorat-ing market, mainly dueto the impact of low oilprices. We want to giveour employees a clear in-dication of the scale of re-ductions we need make in thef u t u re. ”

The company’s marine divisionemploys 5,800 people worldwide,

around half in the Nordic countries.Rolls employs more than 3,000 at its

plant in Patchway, just outside Bris-tol, mostly in the defence side of

the business but a number inthe marine side too.

The marine staff inBristol largely work onnaval projects, such asthe MT30 marine gasturbine engine, where-as it is the oil and gas

sector which isunder-perfor ming.The firm aims to reinvest

some of the savings into re-search and development projects.The company has endured a bumpy

ride as it looks to keep the business

on track of late.Just last year, Rolls-Royce an-

nounced 2,600 job cuts in itsaerospace business worldwide, mostof whom have now left the business.

And in February it revealed awhopping 96 per cent fall inpre-profits from £1.7 billion to£67 million.

However there has been invest-ment locally too. It spent £18 millionin a new test and repair facility forthe TP400 engine which powers theAirbus A400M military transportplane and plans to open a compositetechnology hub in the coming years,developing ways to use newlight-weight materials in its en-g i n e s.

Assistant Editor (Business)Gavin Thompson

Call 0117 934 3336Email gavin.thompson

@b-nm.co.ukTwitter @gavin_thompson1

Get in touch

Advertising RobertRodgersonCall07584 003229Email ro b e r t . ro d g e r s o n@b-nm.co.uk

Advertising JaneChapman

Call 01179 343025Email jane.chapman

@b-nm.co.uk

have summer in the northern hemi-sphere, we can maintain growth inthe southern hemisphere countries.

“For regions such as the MiddleEast more works happen at night dueday time temperatures and for theNordic regions there is far less day-light, creating obvious opportunit-i e s. ”

The firm continues to go fromstrength to strength, with a continu-ally expanding team and new part-nerships being established.

Andy added: “The future is verymuch centred around wearable tech-nology and internet of things.

“Fhoss has some exciting devel-opments in the pipeline and laterthis year will introduce some veryexciting new product developmentsthat will further help enhance work-force wellbeing, safety, comfort andef fectiveness.”

Record profits forproperty company� PROPERTY company KnightFrank has reported a record profitof £162 million for the financialyear ending March 2015.

Profit across the group was up20 per cent from £136.6 millionthe year before and turnover rosefrom £392.7 million to £443.1million.

Group chairman Alistair Elliottsaid that had been achievedwhilst continuing to invest inrecruitment and expanding thefirm’s global platform.

Looking ahead, Alistair added:“At a time when activity incommercial occupier markets isincreasing in many cities aroundthe world, we see the return ofrental growth drawing moreinvestor interest.”

Steve Oades, who heads up theBristol office, said: “Knight Frank’shighly successful performancenationally and internationally overthe past 12 months has beenreflected in the West of England,too, where we have achieved anumber of milestones includingtransacting over £170 million ofinvestment deals involving someof the city’s best-known buildingsand the UK’s biggest investors.

“These included the £32.8million acquisition of 66 QueenSquare, the new Bristol offices ofKPMG. Our office and industrialagency teams also performedsuperbly throughout the year.”

Bricks & mortar

Conf idence

Businesses hit by global economic uncertaintyBUSINESSES are finding timesharder, with sales, cash-flow, recruit-ment and confidence taking a hit inthe last quarter.

Business West’s survey of morethan 300 businesses in Bristol andthe West of England found mostmajor indicators were down on theprevious quarter.

• Domestic (42 per cent) and in-ternational (29 per cent) sales fell byeight points and twelve points re-s p e c t ive ly.

• Recruitment dropped one pointto 32 per cent, and expectations totake on staff in the next threemonths decreased three points to 32per cent

• Cashflow decreased six points to

34 per cent.• Business confidence dropped

seven points but remains high at 64per cent.

James Durie, p i c t u re d , ex-ecutive director of theBristol Chamber of Com-merce and Initiative,said the results made“tougher reading” witha decrease in key in-dicators against boththe previous quarterand the same period lastye a r.

“Last quarter we saw somesigns of a bounce back after a slowstart to the year, but the last threemonths have seen a shift back in

t h i s, ” he said.“Whilst anecdotal evidence points

to more positive conditions, our eco-nomy appears to have been hit

by the seasonal effect of thesummer period and grow-

ing global economic un-cer tainty.”

He said a turbulenttime in the global eco-nomy had take its toll,including a Monday in

August when Chinesemarkets lost hundreds of

billions in value in oned ay.

“With these events taking placeduring the period of this survey oflocal firms, the downbeat results

should perhaps come as no sur-p r i s e, ” said James.

But he added it wasn’t all badnews. “A couple of weeks ago weheard that employment rates, wealthand salaries mean Bristol is one ofthe five most affluent places to live inthe UK, he said. “High profile eventsare helping put us more and more onthe world map. With Banksy’s Dis-maland, the Arcadia Spectacularand Bristol’s year as EuropeanGreen Capital, you can see why busi-ness confidence remains high at 64per cent.

“We may be experiencing somehurt to our growth for now, butlooking forward there are still reas-ons to be positive and optimistic.”

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

“COP9 notices are onlyissued when HMRCsuspects a serious lossof tax through fraud orevasion, so they need tobe treated accordingly

� Anton Lane, centre, and the team at Edge Tax

� Fhoss Technology safety wear on the London Underground; below, Andy Kimitri

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4 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 5We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

BRISTOL and other local au-thorities in the region willbe given control over busi-ness rates in one of thebiggest shake-ups to the tax

regime in a generation.Councils will be able to cut busi-

ness rates to make their region moreattractive to businesses or even raisethem to fund road, rail or other in-frastructure projects.

But the move will come at a price,as the Exchequer plans to end thecore grant from Whitehall.

The Bristol Post has campaignedfor local control over business taxedunder its #RealRatesReform cam-paign and business groups have wel-comed Chancellor George Osborneannouncement... but want more de-tail on how it will work.

By the end of the Parliament, localgovernment will be able to retain 100per cent of local taxes – including all£26 billion of revenue from businessrates – to spend on local governments e r v i c e s.

A Treasury statementsaid: “Fixing the cur-rent broken system offinancing local govern-ment will be a hugeboost to local growth,help attract businessand create jobs.

“The government willalso abolish the UniformBusiness Rate and givelocal authorities thepower to cut businessrates to boost enterprise and eco-nomic activity in their areas.

“Local areas which successfully

promote growth and attract busi-nesses will keep all of the benefitfrom increased business rate reven-ues. At the same time, the core grantfrom Whitehall will be phased out,and local government will take on

new responsibilities.”Areas with elected

mayors will also havethe power to increaserates to fund infrastruc-ture, however this isaimed at the Govern-ment’s favouredcross-authority metro-politan mayors and it isnot clear yet whetherBristol will be in-cl u d e d .

Business rates havebeen set centrally since 1990. Theyare collected by local councils but themoney goes to central government,

while council’s are given a centralg rant.

Since 2013 councils have been ableto keep a portion of rates but thisannouncement goes much further.

The announcement caught manyon the hop and while many welcomethe principle, they want to see thedetail.

Mark Owen, right, regional chair-man of the Federation of Small Busi-nesses for the West of England andGloucestershire, welcomed the newi n i t i at ive.

“The FSB has been calling for rad-ical thinking on business rates andthis surprise announcement cer-tainly fits that bill,” he said.

“The devil, as ever, will be in thedetail but we certainly hope that ourlocal councils will look at this as agreat opportunity to work with thesmall business community to our mu-

Shake-up Councils to take control of rates Disability aidsWe just want tomake life a littlemore fabulous...

ABRISTOL company that isrevolutionising the disabil-ity market by producing styl-ish but practical living aidshas signed a deal to supply

high street giant Argos.Blue Badge Company’s colourful

range, which includes walking stickbags, lap trays and wheat warmers, isnow available on Argos online, mark-ing another major step forward inbringing disability products into them a i n s t re a m .

The high street giant is the latest ina string of big name retailers to stockBlue Badge Company products,coming just a few monthsafter a deal withH a l fo rd s.

The Montpelli-er firm will sell12 Blue Badgepermit covers,four leatherdisplay wallets,Radar Keys andfive lap traydesigns throughA r g o s. c o m .

As the secondbiggest online retailer inthe UK, the Argos contractis an important win for BlueBadge Company, which was startedjust four years ago by a designer whowas fed up with what she saw as theuniversally dull, clinical productsavailable to disabled consumers.

She enlisted the help of friend,Ellen Green, and sitting in the bed-room of her small house in Bristol,the pair started hand-stitching hun-dreds of eye-catching Blue Badge dis-play wallets.

The company has now sold morethan 100,000 of the wallets across theUK and expanded to produce a rangeof attractive living aids.

Its workforce has grown to 20 in thepast two years, after winning con-tracts to supply 2,500 Boots storesnationwide, the Post Office, Halfordsand now Argos.

Turnover has quadrupled in thesame period from £64,000 to £250,000and looks set to hit nearly £400,000this financial year.

With an ageing population and12 million disabled people in the UKwith a spending power of £200 billion,the company’s success reflects thegrowing demand for desirable livingaids and universal accessibility.

Following an appearance on the hitBBC2 show Dra gons’ Den in August,its following has grown even larger.

Ellen, 30, who became sole directortwo years ago when her friend left topursue other projects, wants their

designs to be viewed as desirableproducts which bring a bit of

joy to people’s lives aswell as being prac-tical living aids.

“We ’re on a mis-sion to invigorateand revitalise every-day products forpeople with chal-lenging health con-ditions, to makelife a little morefabulous for every-o n e, ” said Ellen.“My dream is to

see our products sit-ting alongside mainstream

desirable household gift itemsand, for the first time, to bridge thatgap between the mainstream marketand the disability market.”

All its products are British madeand about 40 per cent of the workforceeither has a disability or is a primarycare giver.

This ensures the team has a first-hand appreciation of various disab-ilities, from mental health issues tophysical impairments.

“Because of the way we manufac-ture, we can provide jobs and train-ing for those with limited work

options, like people who have do-mestic responsibilities or disabilit-i e s, ” said Ellen.

“I believe a company is only asstrong as the team behind it.

“Providing work for people who

After the first legal judgmenton the misuse of Twitter byan employee, Jayne Nevinsfrom Bristol based DAS Lawdiscuss how employers andemployees can keep them-selves out of trouble

THE Game Retail Ltd vs Lawsjudgment showed the prevalence ofsocial media in today’s culture andthe decision gives employees,employers and HR directors plentyto think about when offeringguidance on social media usage.

For employees:� Avoid using your privatesocial media to discuss youremployment – p re v e n t i o nis better than cure.� If you do post aboutyour employment,ensure your employer isnot identifiable andconsider whether thepost could damage youremployer and theirre p u t a t i o n .� Bear in mind that even if apost is not work related, you couldface disciplinary action anddismissal depending on thec i rc u m s t a n c e s .

� Check if youremployer has a social

media policy in place andfamiliarise yourself with it.� Consider who you follow and whofollows you – is your private accountmore work oriented than you

thought?� Be tech savvy; learn how to useprivacy settings and consider whocan view your posts.� Remember, more and moreemployers check your social mediapresence when you’re applying for

Social media From employed to unemployed in 140 characters...

New chief executivefor internet platform� N E I G H B O U R LY – the internetplatform that connects localcommunity projects withcompanies that want to make adifference – has appointed a newchief executive.

Luke McKeever, b e l o w, brings atrack record in growing successfulinternational technologybusinesses.

The moveseesfounderNickDaviesfocus onbuildingtheNeighbourlymovementas thecompany’s chiefactivist.

Luke has been CEO at PortraitSoftware, a UK-listed customerinteraction optimisation specialistthat was acquired by PitneyBowes for £44 million in 2010, andOB10, a global trading networkacquired by Tungsten Corporationfor £100 million in 2013.

He first joined Neighbourly aschairman in September 2014. Hewill now oversee day-to-dayoperations as Neighbourly looksto move from an ambitious UKstartup to a rapid growth,international organisation.

The company recently closed itsthird funding round andannounced a move into theNetherlands as its first overseasexpansion.

The platform, based at theEngine Shed in Bristol, launchedin July 2014 with the aim ofhelping community projects findsupport.

It saw major brands to pledgealmost £2 million and some 6,500volunteer days to local communitycauses in its first year.

The business recently broughtin Lloyd Buxton as head of clientengagement and Annette Merceras head of operations, to helpcontinue therapid scalingof thebusiness.

Nick,right, said:“Neighbourlyhas madehugestrides thisyear. As wegrow, we needan experiencedeye on ensuring we continue todeliver a positive impact forcompanies, and the causes andvolunteers in local communities.

“Luke’s knowledge and hisbelief in our purpose make himthe perfect match for the CEOrole. It also gives me the timerequired to concentrate on drivingawareness and understanding ofNeighbourly’s role in transformingthe intersection between businessand society, to the benefit of localcommunities.”

Luke added: “In our journey sofar, it has become increasinglyclear that we are not just buildinga company – we’re also building amovement of like-mindedindividuals and businesses.

“Driving that type of socialchange is a full-time role and Nickis the natural leader of theseconversations. As CEO I lookforward to working withNeighbourly’s talented team in aday-to-day capacity, gettingeverything in place as we prepareto make an even bigger impact in2016 and beyond.”

Digital

find it more difficult to access em-ployment really boosts personal con-fidence and team moral.

“It also adds to our understandingof customers and their needs andwishes, which is key.”

WORK has started on an £8.5 millionasphalt plant in Avonmouth.

John Wainwright & Co, or Wain-wrights, has been at its existingMoons Hill Quarry on the Mendipssince 1898.

The independent Somerset com-pany supplies high-quality stone,premium aggregates, asphalt andformation material to a growing cli-ent base throughout the South West.

Its new 4.5 acre Avonmouth site isset to launch early next year on theback of the upturn in the economy.

The firm needs the plant to fulfil itsgrowing order book and to take ad-

vantage of future business opportun-ities and the move is being supportedby Barclays.

Chief executive Peter Barkwillsaid: “The new facility is a bold movefor our company and we believe nowis the right time to invest and build onour reputation for quality, serviceand efficiency. The site is ideally loc-ated within one mile of the SouthWest motorway network giving usaccess to a range of additional mar-kets throughout the region.”

The company employs nearly 180people – with plans to take on moresoon – and is expected to turn over

more than £35 million in the currentfinancial year.

John Squier, relationship director,corporate banking at Barclays, said:“This is an exciting time for Wain-wrights which continues to demon-

Wainwrights in ‘boldmove’ to new plant

strate substantial growth in revenuesfrom their portfolio of products.

“With an impressive client base,strong management team, the com-pany is firmly on track to achieve itsfuture growth objectives.”

Business rates

C o n st r u c t i o n

K n ow h ow

Ret a i l

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

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

jobs; make sure there’s nothing onyour social media you wouldn’t wantthem to see.

For employers:� Ensure you have a clear, welldrafted social media policy

highlighting actions which couldresult in disciplinary action.Consider including in the policy thatdisciplinary action could be takenagainst an employee whose use of aprivate account could impact onyour business.� Communicate your policy toemployees effectively; providetraining where appropriate.� When disciplining an employee,have regard to how many peoplecan see the tweet, its link with theworkplace and any complaintsreceived. Consider all the relevantfacts and consider the mostappropriate course of action.� Be mindful of balancing anemployee’s freedom of expressionand the impact of posts on yourbusiness interests and reputation. Isthere a need to take disciplinaryaction in the circumstances orwould an informal discussionresolve the matter?� Always seek legal advice prior todisciplining an employee for misuseof social media.

DAS is a leading provider of legalexpenses insurance and legalassistance to millions of people inthe UK. Its Legal Advice helplinehandles thousands of legal queriesevery year. Its team of expertsregularly deals with employmentdisputes.

� Staff at the new asphalt plant being built in Avonmouth

� Ellen Green and, inset, one of the colourful blue badge holders

tual benefit and help create genuinelocal prosperity and jobs.

“We now look forward to hearingmore about the proposals which wehope will ultimately lead to a fairerbusiness tax and one whichwill mean the Bristol areakeeps more of the moneycreated by its amazingsmall businesses.”

CBI director gener-al Mark Mistry said:“If this bold an-nouncement on busi-ness rates is a way tocut them, then it willspur councils to take apro-growth approach, andhas the CBI’s support. But thismust not be a way to increase rateswithout the consent of the local busi-ness community.”

Simon Walker, director general of

the Institute of Directors, added:“Businesses are excited about theprospects for devolution, and thepromise to devolve business rateswill give local authorities a greaterstake in the success of their locale c o n o my.

“Businesses have been clear thatthey want enterprise to be put at theheart of the devolution agenda, andthe Chancellor appears to be doingjust that. More than sixty per cent ofIoD members back local politiciansbeing given the power to set businessr at e s. ”

But Business West manager dir-ector Phil Smith was more cautiousand criticised the lack of consultationwith businesses.

“Here in the South West we areconstantly hearing cries of the im-pact of a broken business rate sys-tem,” he said. “So it is odd for theChancellor to announce majorchanges to business rates withoutconsulting with the business com-munity that ultimately foots the bill.

“Greater control of business ratescould give local authorities more in-centives to cultivate local businessgrowth and invest in local economic

improvements. However whensurveyed our members voice

strong scepticism that localauthorities have the trackrecord or capabilities todeliver and there is areal concern about alack of accountability ofmany town halls in

listening to local busi-nesses and getting the ba-

sics right.“The detail of the Chancel-

lor’s plan is critically important.Businesses will want assurances thatgreater local control over businessrates does not translate to more taxeswith little or no business benefit.”

The Treasury

“Fixing thec u r re n tb ro k e nsystem offinancinglocalgover nmentwill be ahuge boostto localg ro w t h ,help attractbusinessand createjobs.

GAME RETAIL LTDVS LAWS

� The case involved a risk andloss prevention investigator,Laws, hired by Game Retailwho was alleged to havemade offensive, non-workrelated comments on Twitter.

An employee reported himand he was dismissed forgross misconduct. He broughta successful unfair dismissalclaim to tribunal.

The company appealed,however, and the EmploymentAppeal Tribunal found thatcomments on Twitter couldnot be viewed as private asthey could be viewed byanyone who followed Laws.The employer only needed toshow the comments couldhave caused offence and thatother staff or customers couldhave read them.

� Social mediahas had animpact on theworkplace;below, JayneNevins

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4 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 5We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

BRISTOL and other local au-thorities in the region willbe given control over busi-ness rates in one of thebiggest shake-ups to the tax

regime in a generation.Councils will be able to cut busi-

ness rates to make their region moreattractive to businesses or even raisethem to fund road, rail or other in-frastructure projects.

But the move will come at a price,as the Exchequer plans to end thecore grant from Whitehall.

The Bristol Post has campaignedfor local control over business taxedunder its #RealRatesReform cam-paign and business groups have wel-comed Chancellor George Osborneannouncement... but want more de-tail on how it will work.

By the end of the Parliament, localgovernment will be able to retain 100per cent of local taxes – including all£26 billion of revenue from businessrates – to spend on local governments e r v i c e s.

A Treasury statementsaid: “Fixing the cur-rent broken system offinancing local govern-ment will be a hugeboost to local growth,help attract businessand create jobs.

“The government willalso abolish the UniformBusiness Rate and givelocal authorities thepower to cut businessrates to boost enterprise and eco-nomic activity in their areas.

“Local areas which successfully

promote growth and attract busi-nesses will keep all of the benefitfrom increased business rate reven-ues. At the same time, the core grantfrom Whitehall will be phased out,and local government will take on

new responsibilities.”Areas with elected

mayors will also havethe power to increaserates to fund infrastruc-ture, however this isaimed at the Govern-ment’s favouredcross-authority metro-politan mayors and it isnot clear yet whetherBristol will be in-cl u d e d .

Business rates havebeen set centrally since 1990. Theyare collected by local councils but themoney goes to central government,

while council’s are given a centralg rant.

Since 2013 councils have been ableto keep a portion of rates but thisannouncement goes much further.

The announcement caught manyon the hop and while many welcomethe principle, they want to see thedetail.

Mark Owen, right, regional chair-man of the Federation of Small Busi-nesses for the West of England andGloucestershire, welcomed the newi n i t i at ive.

“The FSB has been calling for rad-ical thinking on business rates andthis surprise announcement cer-tainly fits that bill,” he said.

“The devil, as ever, will be in thedetail but we certainly hope that ourlocal councils will look at this as agreat opportunity to work with thesmall business community to our mu-

Shake-up Councils to take control of rates Disability aidsWe just want tomake life a littlemore fabulous...

ABRISTOL company that isrevolutionising the disabil-ity market by producing styl-ish but practical living aidshas signed a deal to supply

high street giant Argos.Blue Badge Company’s colourful

range, which includes walking stickbags, lap trays and wheat warmers, isnow available on Argos online, mark-ing another major step forward inbringing disability products into them a i n s t re a m .

The high street giant is the latest ina string of big name retailers to stockBlue Badge Company products,coming just a few monthsafter a deal withH a l fo rd s.

The Montpelli-er firm will sell12 Blue Badgepermit covers,four leatherdisplay wallets,Radar Keys andfive lap traydesigns throughA r g o s. c o m .

As the secondbiggest online retailer inthe UK, the Argos contractis an important win for BlueBadge Company, which was startedjust four years ago by a designer whowas fed up with what she saw as theuniversally dull, clinical productsavailable to disabled consumers.

She enlisted the help of friend,Ellen Green, and sitting in the bed-room of her small house in Bristol,the pair started hand-stitching hun-dreds of eye-catching Blue Badge dis-play wallets.

The company has now sold morethan 100,000 of the wallets across theUK and expanded to produce a rangeof attractive living aids.

Its workforce has grown to 20 in thepast two years, after winning con-tracts to supply 2,500 Boots storesnationwide, the Post Office, Halfordsand now Argos.

Turnover has quadrupled in thesame period from £64,000 to £250,000and looks set to hit nearly £400,000this financial year.

With an ageing population and12 million disabled people in the UKwith a spending power of £200 billion,the company’s success reflects thegrowing demand for desirable livingaids and universal accessibility.

Following an appearance on the hitBBC2 show Dra gons’ Den in August,its following has grown even larger.

Ellen, 30, who became sole directortwo years ago when her friend left topursue other projects, wants their

designs to be viewed as desirableproducts which bring a bit of

joy to people’s lives aswell as being prac-tical living aids.

“We ’re on a mis-sion to invigorateand revitalise every-day products forpeople with chal-lenging health con-ditions, to makelife a little morefabulous for every-o n e, ” said Ellen.“My dream is to

see our products sit-ting alongside mainstream

desirable household gift itemsand, for the first time, to bridge thatgap between the mainstream marketand the disability market.”

All its products are British madeand about 40 per cent of the workforceeither has a disability or is a primarycare giver.

This ensures the team has a first-hand appreciation of various disab-ilities, from mental health issues tophysical impairments.

“Because of the way we manufac-ture, we can provide jobs and train-ing for those with limited work

options, like people who have do-mestic responsibilities or disabilit-i e s, ” said Ellen.

“I believe a company is only asstrong as the team behind it.

“Providing work for people who

After the first legal judgmenton the misuse of Twitter byan employee, Jayne Nevinsfrom Bristol based DAS Lawdiscuss how employers andemployees can keep them-selves out of trouble

THE Game Retail Ltd vs Lawsjudgment showed the prevalence ofsocial media in today’s culture andthe decision gives employees,employers and HR directors plentyto think about when offeringguidance on social media usage.

For employees:� Avoid using your privatesocial media to discuss youremployment – p re v e n t i o nis better than cure.� If you do post aboutyour employment,ensure your employer isnot identifiable andconsider whether thepost could damage youremployer and theirre p u t a t i o n .� Bear in mind that even if apost is not work related, you couldface disciplinary action anddismissal depending on thec i rc u m s t a n c e s .

� Check if youremployer has a social

media policy in place andfamiliarise yourself with it.� Consider who you follow and whofollows you – is your private accountmore work oriented than you

thought?� Be tech savvy; learn how to useprivacy settings and consider whocan view your posts.� Remember, more and moreemployers check your social mediapresence when you’re applying for

Social media From employed to unemployed in 140 characters...

New chief executivefor internet platform� N E I G H B O U R LY – the internetplatform that connects localcommunity projects withcompanies that want to make adifference – has appointed a newchief executive.

Luke McKeever, b e l o w, brings atrack record in growing successfulinternational technologybusinesses.

The moveseesfounderNickDaviesfocus onbuildingtheNeighbourlymovementas thecompany’s chiefactivist.

Luke has been CEO at PortraitSoftware, a UK-listed customerinteraction optimisation specialistthat was acquired by PitneyBowes for £44 million in 2010, andOB10, a global trading networkacquired by Tungsten Corporationfor £100 million in 2013.

He first joined Neighbourly aschairman in September 2014. Hewill now oversee day-to-dayoperations as Neighbourly looksto move from an ambitious UKstartup to a rapid growth,international organisation.

The company recently closed itsthird funding round andannounced a move into theNetherlands as its first overseasexpansion.

The platform, based at theEngine Shed in Bristol, launchedin July 2014 with the aim ofhelping community projects findsupport.

It saw major brands to pledgealmost £2 million and some 6,500volunteer days to local communitycauses in its first year.

The business recently broughtin Lloyd Buxton as head of clientengagement and Annette Merceras head of operations, to helpcontinue therapid scalingof thebusiness.

Nick,right, said:“Neighbourlyhas madehugestrides thisyear. As wegrow, we needan experiencedeye on ensuring we continue todeliver a positive impact forcompanies, and the causes andvolunteers in local communities.

“Luke’s knowledge and hisbelief in our purpose make himthe perfect match for the CEOrole. It also gives me the timerequired to concentrate on drivingawareness and understanding ofNeighbourly’s role in transformingthe intersection between businessand society, to the benefit of localcommunities.”

Luke added: “In our journey sofar, it has become increasinglyclear that we are not just buildinga company – we’re also building amovement of like-mindedindividuals and businesses.

“Driving that type of socialchange is a full-time role and Nickis the natural leader of theseconversations. As CEO I lookforward to working withNeighbourly’s talented team in aday-to-day capacity, gettingeverything in place as we prepareto make an even bigger impact in2016 and beyond.”

Digital

find it more difficult to access em-ployment really boosts personal con-fidence and team moral.

“It also adds to our understandingof customers and their needs andwishes, which is key.”

WORK has started on an £8.5 millionasphalt plant in Avonmouth.

John Wainwright & Co, or Wain-wrights, has been at its existingMoons Hill Quarry on the Mendipssince 1898.

The independent Somerset com-pany supplies high-quality stone,premium aggregates, asphalt andformation material to a growing cli-ent base throughout the South West.

Its new 4.5 acre Avonmouth site isset to launch early next year on theback of the upturn in the economy.

The firm needs the plant to fulfil itsgrowing order book and to take ad-

vantage of future business opportun-ities and the move is being supportedby Barclays.

Chief executive Peter Barkwillsaid: “The new facility is a bold movefor our company and we believe nowis the right time to invest and build onour reputation for quality, serviceand efficiency. The site is ideally loc-ated within one mile of the SouthWest motorway network giving usaccess to a range of additional mar-kets throughout the region.”

The company employs nearly 180people – with plans to take on moresoon – and is expected to turn over

more than £35 million in the currentfinancial year.

John Squier, relationship director,corporate banking at Barclays, said:“This is an exciting time for Wain-wrights which continues to demon-

Wainwrights in ‘boldmove’ to new plant

strate substantial growth in revenuesfrom their portfolio of products.

“With an impressive client base,strong management team, the com-pany is firmly on track to achieve itsfuture growth objectives.”

Business rates

C o n st r u c t i o n

K n ow h ow

Ret a i l

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

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

jobs; make sure there’s nothing onyour social media you wouldn’t wantthem to see.

For employers:� Ensure you have a clear, welldrafted social media policy

highlighting actions which couldresult in disciplinary action.Consider including in the policy thatdisciplinary action could be takenagainst an employee whose use of aprivate account could impact onyour business.� Communicate your policy toemployees effectively; providetraining where appropriate.� When disciplining an employee,have regard to how many peoplecan see the tweet, its link with theworkplace and any complaintsreceived. Consider all the relevantfacts and consider the mostappropriate course of action.� Be mindful of balancing anemployee’s freedom of expressionand the impact of posts on yourbusiness interests and reputation. Isthere a need to take disciplinaryaction in the circumstances orwould an informal discussionresolve the matter?� Always seek legal advice prior todisciplining an employee for misuseof social media.

DAS is a leading provider of legalexpenses insurance and legalassistance to millions of people inthe UK. Its Legal Advice helplinehandles thousands of legal queriesevery year. Its team of expertsregularly deals with employmentdisputes.

� Staff at the new asphalt plant being built in Avonmouth

� Ellen Green and, inset, one of the colourful blue badge holders

tual benefit and help create genuinelocal prosperity and jobs.

“We now look forward to hearingmore about the proposals which wehope will ultimately lead to a fairerbusiness tax and one whichwill mean the Bristol areakeeps more of the moneycreated by its amazingsmall businesses.”

CBI director gener-al Mark Mistry said:“If this bold an-nouncement on busi-ness rates is a way tocut them, then it willspur councils to take apro-growth approach, andhas the CBI’s support. But thismust not be a way to increase rateswithout the consent of the local busi-ness community.”

Simon Walker, director general of

the Institute of Directors, added:“Businesses are excited about theprospects for devolution, and thepromise to devolve business rateswill give local authorities a greaterstake in the success of their locale c o n o my.

“Businesses have been clear thatthey want enterprise to be put at theheart of the devolution agenda, andthe Chancellor appears to be doingjust that. More than sixty per cent ofIoD members back local politiciansbeing given the power to set businessr at e s. ”

But Business West manager dir-ector Phil Smith was more cautiousand criticised the lack of consultationwith businesses.

“Here in the South West we areconstantly hearing cries of the im-pact of a broken business rate sys-tem,” he said. “So it is odd for theChancellor to announce majorchanges to business rates withoutconsulting with the business com-munity that ultimately foots the bill.

“Greater control of business ratescould give local authorities more in-centives to cultivate local businessgrowth and invest in local economic

improvements. However whensurveyed our members voice

strong scepticism that localauthorities have the trackrecord or capabilities todeliver and there is areal concern about alack of accountability ofmany town halls in

listening to local busi-nesses and getting the ba-

sics right.“The detail of the Chancel-

lor’s plan is critically important.Businesses will want assurances thatgreater local control over businessrates does not translate to more taxeswith little or no business benefit.”

The Treasury

“Fixing thec u r re n tb ro k e nsystem offinancinglocalgover nmentwill be ahuge boostto localg ro w t h ,help attractbusinessand createjobs.

GAME RETAIL LTDVS LAWS

� The case involved a risk andloss prevention investigator,Laws, hired by Game Retailwho was alleged to havemade offensive, non-workrelated comments on Twitter.

An employee reported himand he was dismissed forgross misconduct. He broughta successful unfair dismissalclaim to tribunal.

The company appealed,however, and the EmploymentAppeal Tribunal found thatcomments on Twitter couldnot be viewed as private asthey could be viewed byanyone who followed Laws.The employer only needed toshow the comments couldhave caused offence and thatother staff or customers couldhave read them.

� Social mediahas had animpact on theworkplace;below, JayneNevins

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6 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 7We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

BRISTOL Airport is right tobe worried about the pro-spect of the Welsh Assemblygaining the power to setpassenger taxes, according

to a senior figure at Europe’s biggesta i rl i n e s.

The Welsh Government lookslikely to be given the power to cut orabolish Air Passenger Duty, alongwith the Scottish Parliament.

That would mean airlines wouldpay less tax to fly from Cardiff Air-port, which Bristol Airport bossesbelieve could cost thousands of jobs.

David O’Brien, chief commercialofficer at Ryanair, told Business thatBristol was “right to be worried”.

“Cardiff is not well served at themoment,” he said. “If the Welsh Gov-ernment cut APD we could get twicethe profit per passenger flying fromCardiff – and if you think that we areone of the most profitable airlines inEurope, you can think what thatwould mean for Bristol.

“T here’ll always be a market herein Bristol but in terms of developingmore challenge routes such as thebusiness routes where the small and

medium sized businesses want to flyto build new markets, Bristol willfind itself the victim.”

David described air passengerduty as “an ill-advised tax to beginwith” and said if it was scrappedacross the UK, the Governmentwould recoup the money throughVAT as visitors would have more tospend.

He described Bristol as a well man-aged airport but said that it was hardfor airports to do much to improvetheir competitiveness because anymeasures fell short of the negativeimpact on profits of the tax.

“UK Airport Passenger Duty costsus about 18 euros per passenger,” hesaid.

“Our profit per passenger is in theorder of 10 euros so you can see whyt h at ’s a negative influence on ca-pacity allocation to the UK.”

Ryanair, which is Europe’s biggestairline based on the numbers of pas-sengers carried, will be expandingfurther in the coming years.

It has huge numbers of new planeson order, made up of 180 Boeing 737800s and then 200 of the manufac-t u re r ’s new 737 Max from 2019.

Just four of its fleet are based inBristol, where it employs about 120pilots and cabin crew and supports atotal of 1,660 jobs on site.

But as the fleet grows, the numbers

might here not rise. David said theairline is looking at where thegrowth will come, with Central andEastern Europe offering the biggestoppor tunities.

“We look at our utilisation of oura i rc r a f t , ” he said. “For us that’s nottime in the air but number of flights.The further we fly, the more fuel weuse but passengers aren’t keen to paymore to fly to southern Italy than thenorth. They just think they are flyingto Italy.”

F i n a n ce

Av i a t i o n

H a rg reavesLansdown inadvice switch� BRISTOL investment firmHargreaves Lansdown will nolonger be providing“independent” financial advice.

The company says it has madethe change to keep costs downfor customers.

It argues that in order to beclassed as independent, advisorsare obliged to research a vastrange of over complicated,opaque, risky or expensiveinvestments for customers.

By restricting its advisoryservice to what it sees as theinvestments relevant tocustomers, the firm says it cansimplify its fees and is removingthe minimum portfolio sizerestriction on offering advice byphone.

Head of communicationsDanny Cox said: “This changewill set the groundwork for us tosimplify and reduce our advisorycharges, develop our telephonebased service and increase theuse of technology to improve theefficiency of the advice process.

“At the same time we want toensure everyone who wantspersonal advice can have adviceand are removing our minimumportfolio requirement.

“In reality investors will seevery little change in what weo ff e r.

“We shall continue to offer thesame broad range of investmentadvice, including portfoliomanagement, investment andpension advice, retirementplanning and inheritance taxmitigation as we do now.”

The firm will now offertelephone advice subject to aminimum fee of £495.

However the FTSE 100 firm,which won the large businesscategory at this year’s BristolPost Business Awards, has builtthe majority of its success on DIYinvestors over the internet ratherthan those opting to take advice.

Building boost Homes scheme creates jobs

HOUSE-BUILDER TaylorWimpey Bristol is set to cre-ate hundreds of jobs afteracquiring an area of landfor development.

The firm has bought land to theeast of Coldharbour Lane, close to theUniversity of the West of England.

It has planning consent for up to 550new homes along with communityspace and a nursery.

Named Scholars Chase, the newdevelopment is expected to create 100jobs for people working on site, aswell as an additional 200 jobs throughthe supply chain. It is estimated ap-proximately 70 new homes will becompleted each year at ScholarsChase, with the first occupants ex-pected to move in next summer.

Managing director Keith Simmonssaid: “We ’re delighted to have se-cured the land in Filton and are look-

ing forward to starting work on site.“The project will bring many be-

nefits to the town and the region as awhole, including the creation ofmuch-needed housing as well as newemployment opportunities plus sig-nificant investment in the local com-

munity. The economic benefits that anew homes development brings to anarea are very much the same as thosebrought by a factory opening, andwith manufacturing across the UK indecline, house-building is movinginto the gap, bringing support to the

local jobs market and supplych a i n s. ”

According to the Home BuildersFederation (HBF), 4.3 jobs are createdfor every new home built, due to theimpact the construction industry hason the wider economy. Taylor

I nvest m e n t

Financial firm reviews its long term strategy

EY expands cityoffice as feeincome booms

� PROFESSIONAL services firm EYhas increased the size of its Bristoloffice by 10 per cent in the pasty e a r.

The firm, one of the big fouraccountants, now employs 331people in its South Westheadquarters.

The increase was revealed as thefirm announced results, with its feeincome breaking the £2 billionmilestone in the UK.

Income nationally rose eight percent from £1.9 billion to £2 billion forthe year to July. Profits went up sixper cent from £412 million to £437million.

Locally the year saw the firm hireKaren Kirkwood from a rival, comingstraight in as an equity partner.

Four new executive directors,Tony Trussell, Eleanor Meredith,Chris Gilbert and Eleri James, wonp ro m o t i o n .

Richard Jones, pictur ed, SouthWest senior partner, said: “Investingand developing our people, as wellas ensuring wehave aninclusivec u l t u re ,havebeenvital tooursuccessinre c e n tyears,and thiscontinued thisy e a r.

“We appointed a new partner andfour new executive directors who,along with the large number ofgraduate, school leaver andexperienced hires we took on, willhelp to grow our business in theyears to come.

“The South West is an importantmarket for EY, as confidence returnswe’re seeing increased demandfrom our clients to help them drivegrowth in the UK and internationally,which has given us significantcompetitive advantage in themarket.

“All of our core service lines havegrown and our Financial Servicespractice is going from strength tostrength, developing newopportunities and services. As afirm, we’ve got real momentum andover the coming years we’ll continueinvesting to help our clients,communities and people thrive.”

Acco u n t a n cy

Ryanair boss Bristol is right tofear tax break for Welsh airport

FAMILES, entrepreneurs and retire-ment will be the main focus for ac-countancy, tax and investmentmanagement group Smith & Willi-amson.

The firm, which has a flagshipBristol office, revealed details of areview of its long term strategy as itreported a rise in profits and in-c o m e.

John Erskine, partner and head ofinvestment management at the Port-wall Place office, said: “As part of thisreview, family office services, laterlife planning and entrepreneurs havebeen identified as key areas of focusand investment over the comingyears, providing services which drawon the strength of our complement-

ary financial services.“Our pooled funds business has

also been prioritised and it hasrecently been reorganised tocreate a core of activelymanaged funds.”

Nationally, the groupreported an eight percent rise in incomefrom £199.1 million to£215.1 million and anincrease in profits from£36 million to £41.1 mil-lion, excluding newcharges relating to the Fin-ancial Compensation Scheme.

John added: “Notwithstandingvolatile market conditions, the hardwork and focus shown by colleagues

over the past few years has builtstrong momentum in the business

that is reflected in the currentye a r ’s results.

“We are well placed totake full advantage of fu-

ture opportunities andare committed to contin-ue investing in ourpeople, infrastructureand business develop-

ment to ensure we cap-italise on our current

favourable position. At thesame time, we recognise that

this investment is likely to have animpact on profits in the currentye a r. ”

Mike Lea, p i c t u re d , managing part-

ner in the Bristol office, added a noteof caution about the economy butopportunity for the firm.

“We are cautious about theshort-term outlook for the UK eco-nomy due to the persistently chal-lenging economic and geopoliticalconditions in Europe,” he said.

“We believe changes in the fin-ancial services environment will cre-ate opportunities for us; for example,the internationalisation of clientscoupled with the importance of theUK and London as a global centre,developments in pensions and theimpact of retail distribution reviewon the wealth management sector –all of which point to change andpotential opportunities.”

Britain and Bristol, he points out,is on the edge of Europe, whichmeans it’s more cost effective for thefirm to add new flights to Warsawfrom Cologne than Bristol.

He added much of the growth inthe UK’s aviation market hasbeen helped by the strength of cur-re n cy.

“Britain should be mindful of fol-lowing winds that sterling’s strengthhas given them that won’t always bet h e re, ” he said.

Bosses at Bristol Airport, which isin the midst of a £180 million ex-pansion, believes a Welsh cut to pas-senger duty that wasn’t mirrored inEngland would mean:� The loss of 33 routes at BristolAir port.� The loss of one million passengersper year.� £843 million per year lost to there gion’s economy.� The loss of around 1,500 jobs at theairport and dependent businesses.� Shelving of plans to introducedirect flights to long-haul destina-tions such as America, the Carib-bean and Middle East from Bristol.

Ryanair, which first came to Bris-tol in 1997, has just announced itssummer schedule from Bristol, with29 routes expected to carry 1.5 mil-lion passengers on holidays, busi-ness trips and family visits.

Lord mayor officiallyopens newest hotel� B R I S T O L’S newest hotel has nowopened its doors.

Called Hampton by Hilton, thehotel is located on the corner ofBond Street and York Street andforms a major conversion of whatwas York House, a 1960s officeblock.

Managed by Focus HotelsManagement Ltd, it includes 186bedrooms in the heart of the cityand is headed by general managerImran Ali.

Creating 45 jobs and representingan investment of £20 million, theopening of the hotel follows anincrease in demand for qualityrooms in Bristol as the city attractsmore business and tourism.

The hotel will also provide muchneeded accommodation for thoseattending events once the buildingof the new arena near TempleMeads is complete.

Imran said: “It’s great to be openand I’d like to thank the Lord Mayorfor officially opening this fantasticnew venue.”

H os p i t a l i ty

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

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

Te c h

Hat-trick of nominations for CubikELECTRONIC product design con-sultancy Cubik Innovation is in therunning for its third award of theye a r.

The firm, based at the Bristol andBath Science Park, has been short-listed for Start-up of the year at theBritish Engineering ExcellenceAw a rd s.

The announcement tops a success-ful year for the firm, which hasalready been named Start-up of theYear at the Bristol Post BusinessAwards, held in association withUWE Bristol, and picked up highlycommended small business at theInstitute of Directors South WestAw a rd s.

Established three years ago bymanaging director Paul Mullen, thecompany has gone from strength tostrength, rapidly expanding its clientlist of inventors and quadruplingteam size.

With big ambitions for the futureCubik works across a range of sectorsand has recently added Ministry ofDefence-approved suppliers and mul-tinational companies to its portfolio.

Due to this rapid growth it is alsolooking for a move to a bigger spaceinside the science park.

Paul said: “To be shortlisted at theBEEA awards really underlinesCubik’s progression is a short spaceof time and really demonstrates how

the team has grown, improving therobustness of our processes and de-livering quality and satisfaction toour customers.

“It also highlights the ethos of thiscompany, our dedication to partner-ing with UK, innovators, SMEs andacademics, transforming ideas andconcepts into tangible products ands y s t e m s. ”

Paul described the shortlisting as a“a great way to recognise the team’sability and talent”.

He added: “However, this shortlistmeans a great deal because now weare in our third year, we are on thecusp of leaving behind our start-ups t at u s ”

“We ’ve had endless sleeplessnights, lots of hard work and a lot ofcoffee, but winning this award wouldbe the cherry on top of a fantastic

ye a r. ”The winners will be announced at a

ceremony for the finalists held at theHurlingham Club in Fulham.

C o n st r u c t i o n

Wimpey Bristol has also helped toprovide young people with the ne-cessary skills to acquire a job, afterrecruiting new apprentices earlier inthe year following the Bath and Bris-tol Apprentice Fair hosted at the FryClub and Conference Centre at itsSomerdale development.

The firm will also provide con-tributions to the local community, aspart of the planning agreement withSouth Gloucestershire Council.

Those include £500,000 towardspart of the Hengrove MetroBus routeand £50,000 towards improvements tothe Frome Valley Cycle route; £1.4million towards the provision of ad-ditional primary school places; con-tributions towards open space,including local allotments, and£700,000 towards outdoor sports fa-c i l i t i e s.

Taylor Wimpey’s Scholars Chasewill comprise a selection of one andtwo-bedroom apartments and two,three, four and five-bedroom houses.

Property consultants Alder Kingacted on behalf of the land’s previousowner in the sale.

� The Cubik Innovation team

� From left, PJ McGrath, hotel owner, the Lord Mayor of Bristol, Councillor Clare Campion-Smith and Imran Ali,general manager, at the opening of the new Hampton by Hilton, Bristol City Cen t re

� An artist’s impression of atypical street scene at Taylor

Wimpey’s Scholars Chasedevelopment in Filton

� David O’Brien

� Ryanair has four planes basedat Bristol Airport but high taxescould hamper any expansion

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BRISTOL Airport is right tobe worried about the pro-spect of the Welsh Assemblygaining the power to setpassenger taxes, according

to a senior figure at Europe’s biggesta i rl i n e s.

The Welsh Government lookslikely to be given the power to cut orabolish Air Passenger Duty, alongwith the Scottish Parliament.

That would mean airlines wouldpay less tax to fly from Cardiff Air-port, which Bristol Airport bossesbelieve could cost thousands of jobs.

David O’Brien, chief commercialofficer at Ryanair, told Business thatBristol was “right to be worried”.

“Cardiff is not well served at themoment,” he said. “If the Welsh Gov-ernment cut APD we could get twicethe profit per passenger flying fromCardiff – and if you think that we areone of the most profitable airlines inEurope, you can think what thatwould mean for Bristol.

“T here’ll always be a market herein Bristol but in terms of developingmore challenge routes such as thebusiness routes where the small and

medium sized businesses want to flyto build new markets, Bristol willfind itself the victim.”

David described air passengerduty as “an ill-advised tax to beginwith” and said if it was scrappedacross the UK, the Governmentwould recoup the money throughVAT as visitors would have more tospend.

He described Bristol as a well man-aged airport but said that it was hardfor airports to do much to improvetheir competitiveness because anymeasures fell short of the negativeimpact on profits of the tax.

“UK Airport Passenger Duty costsus about 18 euros per passenger,” hesaid.

“Our profit per passenger is in theorder of 10 euros so you can see whyt h at ’s a negative influence on ca-pacity allocation to the UK.”

Ryanair, which is Europe’s biggestairline based on the numbers of pas-sengers carried, will be expandingfurther in the coming years.

It has huge numbers of new planeson order, made up of 180 Boeing 737800s and then 200 of the manufac-t u re r ’s new 737 Max from 2019.

Just four of its fleet are based inBristol, where it employs about 120pilots and cabin crew and supports atotal of 1,660 jobs on site.

But as the fleet grows, the numbers

might here not rise. David said theairline is looking at where thegrowth will come, with Central andEastern Europe offering the biggestoppor tunities.

“We look at our utilisation of oura i rc r a f t , ” he said. “For us that’s nottime in the air but number of flights.The further we fly, the more fuel weuse but passengers aren’t keen to paymore to fly to southern Italy than thenorth. They just think they are flyingto Italy.”

F i n a n ce

Av i a t i o n

H a rg reavesLansdown inadvice switch� BRISTOL investment firmHargreaves Lansdown will nolonger be providing“independent” financial advice.

The company says it has madethe change to keep costs downfor customers.

It argues that in order to beclassed as independent, advisorsare obliged to research a vastrange of over complicated,opaque, risky or expensiveinvestments for customers.

By restricting its advisoryservice to what it sees as theinvestments relevant tocustomers, the firm says it cansimplify its fees and is removingthe minimum portfolio sizerestriction on offering advice byphone.

Head of communicationsDanny Cox said: “This changewill set the groundwork for us tosimplify and reduce our advisorycharges, develop our telephonebased service and increase theuse of technology to improve theefficiency of the advice process.

“At the same time we want toensure everyone who wantspersonal advice can have adviceand are removing our minimumportfolio requirement.

“In reality investors will seevery little change in what weo ff e r.

“We shall continue to offer thesame broad range of investmentadvice, including portfoliomanagement, investment andpension advice, retirementplanning and inheritance taxmitigation as we do now.”

The firm will now offertelephone advice subject to aminimum fee of £495.

However the FTSE 100 firm,which won the large businesscategory at this year’s BristolPost Business Awards, has builtthe majority of its success on DIYinvestors over the internet ratherthan those opting to take advice.

Building boost Homes scheme creates jobs

HOUSE-BUILDER TaylorWimpey Bristol is set to cre-ate hundreds of jobs afteracquiring an area of landfor development.

The firm has bought land to theeast of Coldharbour Lane, close to theUniversity of the West of England.

It has planning consent for up to 550new homes along with communityspace and a nursery.

Named Scholars Chase, the newdevelopment is expected to create 100jobs for people working on site, aswell as an additional 200 jobs throughthe supply chain. It is estimated ap-proximately 70 new homes will becompleted each year at ScholarsChase, with the first occupants ex-pected to move in next summer.

Managing director Keith Simmonssaid: “We ’re delighted to have se-cured the land in Filton and are look-

ing forward to starting work on site.“The project will bring many be-

nefits to the town and the region as awhole, including the creation ofmuch-needed housing as well as newemployment opportunities plus sig-nificant investment in the local com-

munity. The economic benefits that anew homes development brings to anarea are very much the same as thosebrought by a factory opening, andwith manufacturing across the UK indecline, house-building is movinginto the gap, bringing support to the

local jobs market and supplych a i n s. ”

According to the Home BuildersFederation (HBF), 4.3 jobs are createdfor every new home built, due to theimpact the construction industry hason the wider economy. Taylor

I nvest m e n t

Financial firm reviews its long term strategy

EY expands cityoffice as feeincome booms

� PROFESSIONAL services firm EYhas increased the size of its Bristoloffice by 10 per cent in the pasty e a r.

The firm, one of the big fouraccountants, now employs 331people in its South Westheadquarters.

The increase was revealed as thefirm announced results, with its feeincome breaking the £2 billionmilestone in the UK.

Income nationally rose eight percent from £1.9 billion to £2 billion forthe year to July. Profits went up sixper cent from £412 million to £437million.

Locally the year saw the firm hireKaren Kirkwood from a rival, comingstraight in as an equity partner.

Four new executive directors,Tony Trussell, Eleanor Meredith,Chris Gilbert and Eleri James, wonp ro m o t i o n .

Richard Jones, pictur ed, SouthWest senior partner, said: “Investingand developing our people, as wellas ensuring wehave aninclusivec u l t u re ,havebeenvital tooursuccessinre c e n tyears,and thiscontinued thisy e a r.

“We appointed a new partner andfour new executive directors who,along with the large number ofgraduate, school leaver andexperienced hires we took on, willhelp to grow our business in theyears to come.

“The South West is an importantmarket for EY, as confidence returnswe’re seeing increased demandfrom our clients to help them drivegrowth in the UK and internationally,which has given us significantcompetitive advantage in themarket.

“All of our core service lines havegrown and our Financial Servicespractice is going from strength tostrength, developing newopportunities and services. As afirm, we’ve got real momentum andover the coming years we’ll continueinvesting to help our clients,communities and people thrive.”

Acco u n t a n cy

Ryanair boss Bristol is right tofear tax break for Welsh airport

FAMILES, entrepreneurs and retire-ment will be the main focus for ac-countancy, tax and investmentmanagement group Smith & Willi-amson.

The firm, which has a flagshipBristol office, revealed details of areview of its long term strategy as itreported a rise in profits and in-c o m e.

John Erskine, partner and head ofinvestment management at the Port-wall Place office, said: “As part of thisreview, family office services, laterlife planning and entrepreneurs havebeen identified as key areas of focusand investment over the comingyears, providing services which drawon the strength of our complement-

ary financial services.“Our pooled funds business has

also been prioritised and it hasrecently been reorganised tocreate a core of activelymanaged funds.”

Nationally, the groupreported an eight percent rise in incomefrom £199.1 million to£215.1 million and anincrease in profits from£36 million to £41.1 mil-lion, excluding newcharges relating to the Fin-ancial Compensation Scheme.

John added: “Notwithstandingvolatile market conditions, the hardwork and focus shown by colleagues

over the past few years has builtstrong momentum in the business

that is reflected in the currentye a r ’s results.

“We are well placed totake full advantage of fu-

ture opportunities andare committed to contin-ue investing in ourpeople, infrastructureand business develop-

ment to ensure we cap-italise on our current

favourable position. At thesame time, we recognise that

this investment is likely to have animpact on profits in the currentye a r. ”

Mike Lea, p i c t u re d , managing part-

ner in the Bristol office, added a noteof caution about the economy butopportunity for the firm.

“We are cautious about theshort-term outlook for the UK eco-nomy due to the persistently chal-lenging economic and geopoliticalconditions in Europe,” he said.

“We believe changes in the fin-ancial services environment will cre-ate opportunities for us; for example,the internationalisation of clientscoupled with the importance of theUK and London as a global centre,developments in pensions and theimpact of retail distribution reviewon the wealth management sector –all of which point to change andpotential opportunities.”

Britain and Bristol, he points out,is on the edge of Europe, whichmeans it’s more cost effective for thefirm to add new flights to Warsawfrom Cologne than Bristol.

He added much of the growth inthe UK’s aviation market hasbeen helped by the strength of cur-re n cy.

“Britain should be mindful of fol-lowing winds that sterling’s strengthhas given them that won’t always bet h e re, ” he said.

Bosses at Bristol Airport, which isin the midst of a £180 million ex-pansion, believes a Welsh cut to pas-senger duty that wasn’t mirrored inEngland would mean:� The loss of 33 routes at BristolAir port.� The loss of one million passengersper year.� £843 million per year lost to there gion’s economy.� The loss of around 1,500 jobs at theairport and dependent businesses.� Shelving of plans to introducedirect flights to long-haul destina-tions such as America, the Carib-bean and Middle East from Bristol.

Ryanair, which first came to Bris-tol in 1997, has just announced itssummer schedule from Bristol, with29 routes expected to carry 1.5 mil-lion passengers on holidays, busi-ness trips and family visits.

Lord mayor officiallyopens newest hotel� B R I S T O L’S newest hotel has nowopened its doors.

Called Hampton by Hilton, thehotel is located on the corner ofBond Street and York Street andforms a major conversion of whatwas York House, a 1960s officeblock.

Managed by Focus HotelsManagement Ltd, it includes 186bedrooms in the heart of the cityand is headed by general managerImran Ali.

Creating 45 jobs and representingan investment of £20 million, theopening of the hotel follows anincrease in demand for qualityrooms in Bristol as the city attractsmore business and tourism.

The hotel will also provide muchneeded accommodation for thoseattending events once the buildingof the new arena near TempleMeads is complete.

Imran said: “It’s great to be openand I’d like to thank the Lord Mayorfor officially opening this fantasticnew venue.”

H os p i t a l i ty

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

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

Te c h

Hat-trick of nominations for CubikELECTRONIC product design con-sultancy Cubik Innovation is in therunning for its third award of theye a r.

The firm, based at the Bristol andBath Science Park, has been short-listed for Start-up of the year at theBritish Engineering ExcellenceAw a rd s.

The announcement tops a success-ful year for the firm, which hasalready been named Start-up of theYear at the Bristol Post BusinessAwards, held in association withUWE Bristol, and picked up highlycommended small business at theInstitute of Directors South WestAw a rd s.

Established three years ago bymanaging director Paul Mullen, thecompany has gone from strength tostrength, rapidly expanding its clientlist of inventors and quadruplingteam size.

With big ambitions for the futureCubik works across a range of sectorsand has recently added Ministry ofDefence-approved suppliers and mul-tinational companies to its portfolio.

Due to this rapid growth it is alsolooking for a move to a bigger spaceinside the science park.

Paul said: “To be shortlisted at theBEEA awards really underlinesCubik’s progression is a short spaceof time and really demonstrates how

the team has grown, improving therobustness of our processes and de-livering quality and satisfaction toour customers.

“It also highlights the ethos of thiscompany, our dedication to partner-ing with UK, innovators, SMEs andacademics, transforming ideas andconcepts into tangible products ands y s t e m s. ”

Paul described the shortlisting as a“a great way to recognise the team’sability and talent”.

He added: “However, this shortlistmeans a great deal because now weare in our third year, we are on thecusp of leaving behind our start-ups t at u s ”

“We ’ve had endless sleeplessnights, lots of hard work and a lot ofcoffee, but winning this award wouldbe the cherry on top of a fantastic

ye a r. ”The winners will be announced at a

ceremony for the finalists held at theHurlingham Club in Fulham.

C o n st r u c t i o n

Wimpey Bristol has also helped toprovide young people with the ne-cessary skills to acquire a job, afterrecruiting new apprentices earlier inthe year following the Bath and Bris-tol Apprentice Fair hosted at the FryClub and Conference Centre at itsSomerdale development.

The firm will also provide con-tributions to the local community, aspart of the planning agreement withSouth Gloucestershire Council.

Those include £500,000 towardspart of the Hengrove MetroBus routeand £50,000 towards improvements tothe Frome Valley Cycle route; £1.4million towards the provision of ad-ditional primary school places; con-tributions towards open space,including local allotments, and£700,000 towards outdoor sports fa-c i l i t i e s.

Taylor Wimpey’s Scholars Chasewill comprise a selection of one andtwo-bedroom apartments and two,three, four and five-bedroom houses.

Property consultants Alder Kingacted on behalf of the land’s previousowner in the sale.

� The Cubik Innovation team

� From left, PJ McGrath, hotel owner, the Lord Mayor of Bristol, Councillor Clare Campion-Smith and Imran Ali,general manager, at the opening of the new Hampton by Hilton, Bristol City Cen t re

� An artist’s impression of atypical street scene at Taylor

Wimpey’s Scholars Chasedevelopment in Filton

� David O’Brien

� Ryanair has four planes basedat Bristol Airport but high taxescould hamper any expansion

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8 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 9We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

The Big Interview

How do you find out allthe public informationabout a person? GavinThompson meets TomSavage, the entrepren-eur solving that problemby creating peoplesearch engine, dubbedProject Whoogle

STOKES Croft is Bristol’s coolquarter. Gritty, urban, col-ourful and claustrophobicwith counter culture. It’s inyour face. As you walk up

Stokes Croft from the affectionatelynamed Bear Pit underpass, youwould pass the heavy grey doornestled between a bicycle shop and apaint store without a glance.

Yet in a small office on the otherside something big is happening. It’shome to the Bristol base of Peo-pleGraph. If there is one companyfrom the city’s burgeoning digitalscene that could become a globalstar, and become part of our dailylives, it’s this one.

PeopleGraph is the creation of en-trepreneur Tom Savage and it’s hissparse office that is found here.

“A third of all searches online are

SO, WHO IS TOM? YOU’LL HAVE TO WHOOGLE HIM...

My working dayWhen I’m in the office I try towork on whatever the mostimportant thing is at the time. Itry to do what needs to bedone to let the geniuses dowhat they need to do. I travel toBucharest or to meet investors.

Vital statisticsName: Tom SavageTitle: Founder, formally I’mCEO but that doesn’t meanmuch for a small businessAge: 36From: LondonEducation: Degree inbusiness at Edinburgh andmasters in business at OxfordFirst job: When I was atuniversity I set up theentrepreneurial society andwe created a project out ofthat to organise expeditions.It later became a companycalled Blue Ventures.

A TESTING rig to help the oil and gas industrymake the most of new lightweight compositematerials has been unveiled.

The rig, funded by Shell, will be available forall companies big and small across the sector atthe National Composites Centre in EmersonsGreen, Bristol.

Developed by the centre with Shell it willpioneer testing of composite pipes that don’trust and how they might be used in the industry.It’s a major landmark for the centre, as it looksto extend the use and expertise in composites tomore industries.

The material is becoming widelyused in aerospace because it isstrong yet lightweight, meaning ithelps aircraft to burn less fuel.

But it has always had potentialbeyond, with interest from notjust oil and gas but automotive,marine and even construction.

Within oil and gas, it is thoughtthe material could help firms as theyhave to drill deeper to find harder-to-reach reserves of natural resources.

Ultra-lightweight, corrosion free pipe sys-tems could have a game changing impact on theindustry, significantly lower the costs of a num-ber of applications as pipes that don’t rust don’tneed replacing and enable new uses.

The opportunities for composite materialsextend well beyond pipes; other uses includedeep water infrastructure needed to filter andprocess the oil on the seabed as well as ratings,railings, ladders, blast protection structuresand other top side equipment.

By working with the centre, Shell hopes to beable to develop its technology faster.

Graham Harrison, oil and gas sector lead at

the composites centre, said: “One challengefacing the composites industry, as advancedmaterials make their way into new sectors, isthe need for appropriate standards to provideend-users with the assurance that new productsare fit for purpose.

“Without such standards, oil companies can-not adopt innovative new products and thecomposites pipe fatigue rig will provide anability to test against and influence those stand-ards. The NCC is therefore focusing on the endusers, equipment suppliers, those who deploy

offshore infrastructure, and leading glob-al standards bodies which are devel-

oping such standards.”Earlier this year, Innovate UK

awarded one of its largest evergrants to a consortium led bypipe-maker Magma Global, BP,offshore installation contractorSubsea7 and the NCC. This, and a

number of other promising leads,has resulted in the NCC deciding to

appoint a technical representative inA b e rd e e n .

Ian Phillips, chief executive of the Oil and GasInnovation Centre, added: “Accessing the latestresearch and design capabilities within thefields of composites, forming and advancedmanufacturing will provide the oil and gasindustry with unrivalled opportunities to in-novate and address the complex technical chal-lenges it faces.

“It is essential that we collaborate more ef-fectively and learn from other industries.

“This new partnership with three of the highvalue manufacturing centres will support thisagenda and help to accelerate the pace of in-novation in the industry.”

Pioneering work to developnon-rust pipes for oil industry

My downtimeFlyfishing, if I find I’m notbeing creative and needsome thinking time, I mightspend the afternoon flyfishing. Kitesurfing, cyclingand spending time withfriends and family.

for people,” says Tom. “But if youare researching someone there’s noway of finding out the public in-formation that’s online.

“We ’re building a people searchengine. Like a Google for people, Icall it Project Whoogle.

“We are not hacking into privateinformation, we’re just making iteasier to find the public information.It could actually benefit privacy be-cause if you know what’s out thereyou have a chance to control it.”

So far, the team has indexed morethan two billion profiles on the weband has built the algorithms andarchitecture that enable it to workout who is who.

“We ’ve just patented a lot of thatwo rk , ” Tom says. “It’s at the cuttingedge of what we describe as bigd at a . ”

How does it differentiate one BillSmith from another?

“We ’ve built artificial intelli-gence algorithms that determinewho is who much like you or I wouldd o, ” Tom says. “If you were lookingthrough the first 100 pages of Googlewe are doing much like you woulddo, looking at indicators like they

are at the same company, have asimilar photo and so on.”

It’s easy to see people using it, butwhat about the business model?

“We are still early in our de-velopment and a lot can change,”says Tom. “The nature of a techstart-up is you don’t necessarilyhave to have the answers. What wedo want to build is something thatyou or I or anyone in Bristol orelsewhere could use to help find thepeople we wanted to more effi-c i e n t ly.

“If you wanted to find a doctor todeal with a certain problem, anexpert in a certain subject in Bristolor if you wanted to hire somebodywith particular skills...”

He believes the engine will alsohelp people better understand anduse their own network. We all havenetworks of friends or professionalsbut we don’t know all the skillsthose people have. This tool willenlighten us.

The company’s story is not typ-ical of a Bristol start-up. Like someof its peers, it is a member of SET-squared, the accelerator for highgrowth companies backed by Bris-tol University and based at the En-gine Shed. But that’s where theparallels end.

Tom studied business at Edin-burgh University and while therestarted organising expeditions witha friend. After graduating, they de-cided to turn it into a business,called Blue Ventures.

“We were trying to build a busi-ness model that would allow us tocontinue doing what we were en-joying while at the same time spear-heading a conservation project insouth-west Madagascar,” he says.

He worked for three months at aninvestment bank, which he de-scribes as a “smash and grab” raidto save some money, then went toMadagascar to find the right spot,settling on somewhere a 24-hourdrive from the nearest telephone.

Money remained a challenge so inorder to avoid having to pay himselfa salary, Tom secured a place on amasters business course at OxfordUniversity. “It was kind of a hack,”he says... “it was pretty busyye a r ! ”

The company is still going strongbut Tom moved on to other socialenterprise projects, includingco-founding Tenner, which chal-lenges the next generation of en-trepreneurs to turn £10 intosomething special.

Next came an environmental re-

cruitment business, started after hewas approached by one of hisformer tutors at Oxford.

“It went exceptionally well for thefirst couple of years,” says Tom.“We had offices in London and SanFrancisco. And then the recessioncame along and environmental re-cruitment was about one of theworst businesses to be in. We hadn’tlost money but decided it was nolonger the opportunity we hadthought so we closed up shop.”

After a year’s break living inKenya, Tom came back to the UKwith his idea for a people searchengine. He knew it would only be-come reality with the right peopleon board.

“I spent six months looking for asuitable technical co-founder,” hesays. “I identified about 2,000 peopleand interviewed 200 before choos-ing my business partner (RazvanDinu). We started the company andtook part in 500 Start-ups accel-eration programme based in Moun-tain View, Silicon Valley.”

During this time Tom lived in thevan, parked on the streets of PauloA l t o.

In May 2014, Tom came to theWest Country. “I’ve always lovedBristol,” he says. “A lot of my good

friends are here so I ended up mov-ing here. I don’t really like Londonbut I love what Bristol stands for. Ilove the size of the city and theindependent alternative ethos ithas of challenging the system.”

Stokes Croft then seems a perfectfit, not just for his office as Tom hasbought a house a stone’s throw

away too.He finds the city a breath of fresh

a i r.“I love that in Bristol people like

you for who you are, not what youd o, ” he says.

While Tom, the CEO and founderof PeopleGraph, is in Bristol, histeam are based in Bucharest. Fit-

tingly for an organisation devel-oping a people search tool, thedecision to set up in Romania wastaken in part because of its ownsearch for talent. Romania is thehome of Tom’s co-founder but alsothe country is home to some veryclever people.

“The idea of a people search en-gine sounds simple but behind thescenes that’s a huge technical chal-leng e,” says Tom. “T hat’s the reas-on I hired such a crack team ofgeniuses. My developers areex-Twitter, Facebook, many havewon medals at international mathsand informatics olympiads – theyare some of the best developers inthe world.”

Managing a team more than 1,000miles away is an unconventional setup. But in this case, Tom thinks itwo rk s.

“I keep out of the way,” he says. “Iam a servant leader, all I am there todo is make sure my team, who aremuch more amazing than me, havethe chance to do the best they can.”

He says when it comes to softwareengineers the best of the best are 20or 100 times better than the nextlevel down and you have to trustthem to manage themselves.

Trust runs through the company.

Everyone in the 10-strong teamknows how much everyone elseearns and how much equity theyhave in the business. There are noholidays – you just take time offwhen you want it.

The team is deep in developmentand starting to build products ontop of the infrastructure so it cantake its work to market.

It has about 12 months fundingleft, from a £1 million pot of capitalraised last year but the next step isto raise some big money and Tom iscurrently talking to major in-ve s t o r s.

It’s a crucial time and, true toform, Tom is doing things his ownw ay.

He’s going to spend the nextmonth living in a tent in Somerset.It’s part of a talk Tom will be givingat TEDxBristol on November 11,titled Is Ambition Killing Us?

T here’s no doubt that Tom him-self is ambitious. His CV is a longlist of achievements that don’t hap-pen without drive. He’s a past win-ner of the title Young SocialEntrepreneur of the Year Awardand European Innovator of the Year.He’s founded several companiesand social enterprises.

But he believes society needs to

take stock sometimes and not getexcited about technology simply fortechnolog y’s sake.

“Fifty years ago technologypromised us more leisure time yetwe spend more and more time atwo rk , ” he says. “Despite the fact weare richer and have better tech-nology than before, we are lonelier,more stressed, more medicated andmore therapised than we have everbeen. We don’t stop and think aboutwhy are we continuing to pushourselves so hard, what does ita ch i eve ?

“My talk is trying to find thatplace between the wonders of in-novation, for example medical in-novation, and some of thetechnology which doesn’t benefitour lives.”

Tom says he’s excited by amazingmedical developments, for example,

but not the iPhone 6s.How does his own company make

things better? Tom says he wants tomake it easier for people to connector communicate... then get out ofthe way.

“Through technology I’m tryingto get people to use technologyl e s s, ” he says. “There is some tech-nology which helps speed up ourability to find the thing we arelooking for and others that try todistract us as much as possible.”

He cites Google as a good exampleof the former – a successful searchmeans you find what you want asquickly as possible.

Those distractions are part of thereason Tom thinks such a pivotaltime for the business is exactly theright time to spend his nights sleep-ing in tent in a Somerset field. Thechange of scenery will help himfocus and the distraction-free en-vironment will give him time tothink big... although he has checkedthat there is a mobile signal, just inc a s e.

It has been said it’s hard to raisemoney here, but Tom doesn’t be-lieve a Bristol company can’t grow.

He cites the success of ClusterHQand Brightpearl as proof that Bris-tol companies can raise money fromSilicon Valley and elsewhere.

If PeopleGraph is equally success-ful we may see the Bristol officegrow and hire more of our localtalent. Whether it’s long-term fu-ture lies here, Romania or San Fran-cisco is less certain.

But regardless Tom will keepcoming back to Bristol. If and when‘Project Whoogle’ becomes amulti-million-dollar business, it’ssuccess will have been shaped byBristol and the charms of StokesC ro f t .

� Tom Savage is speaking atTEDxBristol at Colston Hall onNovember 11. Tickets and moredetails are available atw w w. T E D x B r i s t o l . c o m .

Tom Savage

“ I keep out of the way.I am a servant leader, all

I am there to do ismake sure my team,who are much more

amazing than me, havethe chance to do the

best they can.

M a n u fa c t u r i n g

Part of the Local World group

AN Event Services provide audio visual equipmentand support for all your event needs. We offer aprofessional and experienced approach withpre-show, on-site and post-show technical support.

Staging your event doesn’thave to cost a fortune...

Whatever the event, we’ve got it covered

Call us on: 01684 575832Email us at: enquiries@aneventservices.co.ukVisit us at : www.aneventservices.co.uk

NOW TAKING BOOKINGSFOR 2016 - 2017

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

E01-

S3

8 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 9We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

The Big Interview

How do you find out allthe public informationabout a person? GavinThompson meets TomSavage, the entrepren-eur solving that problemby creating peoplesearch engine, dubbedProject Whoogle

STOKES Croft is Bristol’s coolquarter. Gritty, urban, col-ourful and claustrophobicwith counter culture. It’s inyour face. As you walk up

Stokes Croft from the affectionatelynamed Bear Pit underpass, youwould pass the heavy grey doornestled between a bicycle shop and apaint store without a glance.

Yet in a small office on the otherside something big is happening. It’shome to the Bristol base of Peo-pleGraph. If there is one companyfrom the city’s burgeoning digitalscene that could become a globalstar, and become part of our dailylives, it’s this one.

PeopleGraph is the creation of en-trepreneur Tom Savage and it’s hissparse office that is found here.

“A third of all searches online are

SO, WHO IS TOM? YOU’LL HAVE TO WHOOGLE HIM...

My working dayWhen I’m in the office I try towork on whatever the mostimportant thing is at the time. Itry to do what needs to bedone to let the geniuses dowhat they need to do. I travel toBucharest or to meet investors.

Vital statisticsName: Tom SavageTitle: Founder, formally I’mCEO but that doesn’t meanmuch for a small businessAge: 36From: LondonEducation: Degree inbusiness at Edinburgh andmasters in business at OxfordFirst job: When I was atuniversity I set up theentrepreneurial society andwe created a project out ofthat to organise expeditions.It later became a companycalled Blue Ventures.

A TESTING rig to help the oil and gas industrymake the most of new lightweight compositematerials has been unveiled.

The rig, funded by Shell, will be available forall companies big and small across the sector atthe National Composites Centre in EmersonsGreen, Bristol.

Developed by the centre with Shell it willpioneer testing of composite pipes that don’trust and how they might be used in the industry.It’s a major landmark for the centre, as it looksto extend the use and expertise in composites tomore industries.

The material is becoming widelyused in aerospace because it isstrong yet lightweight, meaning ithelps aircraft to burn less fuel.

But it has always had potentialbeyond, with interest from notjust oil and gas but automotive,marine and even construction.

Within oil and gas, it is thoughtthe material could help firms as theyhave to drill deeper to find harder-to-reach reserves of natural resources.

Ultra-lightweight, corrosion free pipe sys-tems could have a game changing impact on theindustry, significantly lower the costs of a num-ber of applications as pipes that don’t rust don’tneed replacing and enable new uses.

The opportunities for composite materialsextend well beyond pipes; other uses includedeep water infrastructure needed to filter andprocess the oil on the seabed as well as ratings,railings, ladders, blast protection structuresand other top side equipment.

By working with the centre, Shell hopes to beable to develop its technology faster.

Graham Harrison, oil and gas sector lead at

the composites centre, said: “One challengefacing the composites industry, as advancedmaterials make their way into new sectors, isthe need for appropriate standards to provideend-users with the assurance that new productsare fit for purpose.

“Without such standards, oil companies can-not adopt innovative new products and thecomposites pipe fatigue rig will provide anability to test against and influence those stand-ards. The NCC is therefore focusing on the endusers, equipment suppliers, those who deploy

offshore infrastructure, and leading glob-al standards bodies which are devel-

oping such standards.”Earlier this year, Innovate UK

awarded one of its largest evergrants to a consortium led bypipe-maker Magma Global, BP,offshore installation contractorSubsea7 and the NCC. This, and a

number of other promising leads,has resulted in the NCC deciding to

appoint a technical representative inA b e rd e e n .

Ian Phillips, chief executive of the Oil and GasInnovation Centre, added: “Accessing the latestresearch and design capabilities within thefields of composites, forming and advancedmanufacturing will provide the oil and gasindustry with unrivalled opportunities to in-novate and address the complex technical chal-lenges it faces.

“It is essential that we collaborate more ef-fectively and learn from other industries.

“This new partnership with three of the highvalue manufacturing centres will support thisagenda and help to accelerate the pace of in-novation in the industry.”

Pioneering work to developnon-rust pipes for oil industry

My downtimeFlyfishing, if I find I’m notbeing creative and needsome thinking time, I mightspend the afternoon flyfishing. Kitesurfing, cyclingand spending time withfriends and family.

for people,” says Tom. “But if youare researching someone there’s noway of finding out the public in-formation that’s online.

“We ’re building a people searchengine. Like a Google for people, Icall it Project Whoogle.

“We are not hacking into privateinformation, we’re just making iteasier to find the public information.It could actually benefit privacy be-cause if you know what’s out thereyou have a chance to control it.”

So far, the team has indexed morethan two billion profiles on the weband has built the algorithms andarchitecture that enable it to workout who is who.

“We ’ve just patented a lot of thatwo rk , ” Tom says. “It’s at the cuttingedge of what we describe as bigd at a . ”

How does it differentiate one BillSmith from another?

“We ’ve built artificial intelli-gence algorithms that determinewho is who much like you or I wouldd o, ” Tom says. “If you were lookingthrough the first 100 pages of Googlewe are doing much like you woulddo, looking at indicators like they

are at the same company, have asimilar photo and so on.”

It’s easy to see people using it, butwhat about the business model?

“We are still early in our de-velopment and a lot can change,”says Tom. “The nature of a techstart-up is you don’t necessarilyhave to have the answers. What wedo want to build is something thatyou or I or anyone in Bristol orelsewhere could use to help find thepeople we wanted to more effi-c i e n t ly.

“If you wanted to find a doctor todeal with a certain problem, anexpert in a certain subject in Bristolor if you wanted to hire somebodywith particular skills...”

He believes the engine will alsohelp people better understand anduse their own network. We all havenetworks of friends or professionalsbut we don’t know all the skillsthose people have. This tool willenlighten us.

The company’s story is not typ-ical of a Bristol start-up. Like someof its peers, it is a member of SET-squared, the accelerator for highgrowth companies backed by Bris-tol University and based at the En-gine Shed. But that’s where theparallels end.

Tom studied business at Edin-burgh University and while therestarted organising expeditions witha friend. After graduating, they de-cided to turn it into a business,called Blue Ventures.

“We were trying to build a busi-ness model that would allow us tocontinue doing what we were en-joying while at the same time spear-heading a conservation project insouth-west Madagascar,” he says.

He worked for three months at aninvestment bank, which he de-scribes as a “smash and grab” raidto save some money, then went toMadagascar to find the right spot,settling on somewhere a 24-hourdrive from the nearest telephone.

Money remained a challenge so inorder to avoid having to pay himselfa salary, Tom secured a place on amasters business course at OxfordUniversity. “It was kind of a hack,”he says... “it was pretty busyye a r ! ”

The company is still going strongbut Tom moved on to other socialenterprise projects, includingco-founding Tenner, which chal-lenges the next generation of en-trepreneurs to turn £10 intosomething special.

Next came an environmental re-

cruitment business, started after hewas approached by one of hisformer tutors at Oxford.

“It went exceptionally well for thefirst couple of years,” says Tom.“We had offices in London and SanFrancisco. And then the recessioncame along and environmental re-cruitment was about one of theworst businesses to be in. We hadn’tlost money but decided it was nolonger the opportunity we hadthought so we closed up shop.”

After a year’s break living inKenya, Tom came back to the UKwith his idea for a people searchengine. He knew it would only be-come reality with the right peopleon board.

“I spent six months looking for asuitable technical co-founder,” hesays. “I identified about 2,000 peopleand interviewed 200 before choos-ing my business partner (RazvanDinu). We started the company andtook part in 500 Start-ups accel-eration programme based in Moun-tain View, Silicon Valley.”

During this time Tom lived in thevan, parked on the streets of PauloA l t o.

In May 2014, Tom came to theWest Country. “I’ve always lovedBristol,” he says. “A lot of my good

friends are here so I ended up mov-ing here. I don’t really like Londonbut I love what Bristol stands for. Ilove the size of the city and theindependent alternative ethos ithas of challenging the system.”

Stokes Croft then seems a perfectfit, not just for his office as Tom hasbought a house a stone’s throw

away too.He finds the city a breath of fresh

a i r.“I love that in Bristol people like

you for who you are, not what youd o, ” he says.

While Tom, the CEO and founderof PeopleGraph, is in Bristol, histeam are based in Bucharest. Fit-

tingly for an organisation devel-oping a people search tool, thedecision to set up in Romania wastaken in part because of its ownsearch for talent. Romania is thehome of Tom’s co-founder but alsothe country is home to some veryclever people.

“The idea of a people search en-gine sounds simple but behind thescenes that’s a huge technical chal-leng e,” says Tom. “T hat’s the reas-on I hired such a crack team ofgeniuses. My developers areex-Twitter, Facebook, many havewon medals at international mathsand informatics olympiads – theyare some of the best developers inthe world.”

Managing a team more than 1,000miles away is an unconventional setup. But in this case, Tom thinks itwo rk s.

“I keep out of the way,” he says. “Iam a servant leader, all I am there todo is make sure my team, who aremuch more amazing than me, havethe chance to do the best they can.”

He says when it comes to softwareengineers the best of the best are 20or 100 times better than the nextlevel down and you have to trustthem to manage themselves.

Trust runs through the company.

Everyone in the 10-strong teamknows how much everyone elseearns and how much equity theyhave in the business. There are noholidays – you just take time offwhen you want it.

The team is deep in developmentand starting to build products ontop of the infrastructure so it cantake its work to market.

It has about 12 months fundingleft, from a £1 million pot of capitalraised last year but the next step isto raise some big money and Tom iscurrently talking to major in-ve s t o r s.

It’s a crucial time and, true toform, Tom is doing things his ownw ay.

He’s going to spend the nextmonth living in a tent in Somerset.It’s part of a talk Tom will be givingat TEDxBristol on November 11,titled Is Ambition Killing Us?

T here’s no doubt that Tom him-self is ambitious. His CV is a longlist of achievements that don’t hap-pen without drive. He’s a past win-ner of the title Young SocialEntrepreneur of the Year Awardand European Innovator of the Year.He’s founded several companiesand social enterprises.

But he believes society needs to

take stock sometimes and not getexcited about technology simply fortechnolog y’s sake.

“Fifty years ago technologypromised us more leisure time yetwe spend more and more time atwo rk , ” he says. “Despite the fact weare richer and have better tech-nology than before, we are lonelier,more stressed, more medicated andmore therapised than we have everbeen. We don’t stop and think aboutwhy are we continuing to pushourselves so hard, what does ita ch i eve ?

“My talk is trying to find thatplace between the wonders of in-novation, for example medical in-novation, and some of thetechnology which doesn’t benefitour lives.”

Tom says he’s excited by amazingmedical developments, for example,

but not the iPhone 6s.How does his own company make

things better? Tom says he wants tomake it easier for people to connector communicate... then get out ofthe way.

“Through technology I’m tryingto get people to use technologyl e s s, ” he says. “There is some tech-nology which helps speed up ourability to find the thing we arelooking for and others that try todistract us as much as possible.”

He cites Google as a good exampleof the former – a successful searchmeans you find what you want asquickly as possible.

Those distractions are part of thereason Tom thinks such a pivotaltime for the business is exactly theright time to spend his nights sleep-ing in tent in a Somerset field. Thechange of scenery will help himfocus and the distraction-free en-vironment will give him time tothink big... although he has checkedthat there is a mobile signal, just inc a s e.

It has been said it’s hard to raisemoney here, but Tom doesn’t be-lieve a Bristol company can’t grow.

He cites the success of ClusterHQand Brightpearl as proof that Bris-tol companies can raise money fromSilicon Valley and elsewhere.

If PeopleGraph is equally success-ful we may see the Bristol officegrow and hire more of our localtalent. Whether it’s long-term fu-ture lies here, Romania or San Fran-cisco is less certain.

But regardless Tom will keepcoming back to Bristol. If and when‘Project Whoogle’ becomes amulti-million-dollar business, it’ssuccess will have been shaped byBristol and the charms of StokesC ro f t .

� Tom Savage is speaking atTEDxBristol at Colston Hall onNovember 11. Tickets and moredetails are available atw w w. T E D x B r i s t o l . c o m .

Tom Savage

“ I keep out of the way.I am a servant leader, all

I am there to do ismake sure my team,who are much more

amazing than me, havethe chance to do the

best they can.

M a n u fa c t u r i n g

Part of the Local World group

AN Event Services provide audio visual equipmentand support for all your event needs. We offer aprofessional and experienced approach withpre-show, on-site and post-show technical support.

Staging your event doesn’thave to cost a fortune...

Whatever the event, we’ve got it covered

Call us on: 01684 575832Email us at: enquiries@aneventservices.co.ukVisit us at : www.aneventservices.co.uk

NOW TAKING BOOKINGSFOR 2016 - 2017

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

E01-

S3

10 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 11We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

The appearance of Bristolcity centre is being trans-formed by major works.However, a demographicchange has been under wayfor some time. Business ex-amines the commercial shifttowards Temple Meads

BY the time constructionwork currently under way toreconfigure roads aroundBroad Quay and Colston Av-enue has been completed,

Bristol city centre will have under-gone its latest metamorphosis.

However, a less visible but nev-ertheless significant demographictransition has been taking place inthe heart of Bristol for some years.

Major businesses have been mov-ing towards the area around TempleMeads railway station, part of whichis in the Temple Quarter EnterpriseZone. The previously derelict landhas become Bristol’s business dis-trict, and is now home to major com-panies including Burges Salmon,IBM, BT Osborne Clarke, Bank ofIreland, Deloitte, IBM, Canada Life,Bond Dickinson and HSBC.

In recent months, Colliers Inter-national has moved from Broad Quayto the grade A office building at 10Templeback, while PwC officially re-located its Bristol office from GreatGeorge Street to Grade A premises atGlass Wharf in Temple Quarter.

Meanwhile, an increasing numberof office buildings around The Centreare no longer workplaces, but arebeing turned into residential flats orstudent accommodation.

The former Greyfriars complex inLewins Place – consisting of twolinked tower blocks of 15 and eightstoreys – is to become 130 apartments,while the nearby Art Deco styleformer Electricity House, formerhome of the South Western Electri-city Board (SWEB), has been turnedinto 85 apartments which have justlast week gone on sale.

Student housing schemes that havebeen launched or are being built informer office blocks in the city centreinclude accommodation run by Vitaat the former Raphael House officebuilding on Colston Ave, and byUrban Creation at neighbouringStonebridge House.

Nearby in Rupert Street, DrakeHouse and Nelson House have beenturned into student dwellings byUnite Students, while conversionwork is underway at FroomsgateHouse for student accommodation

company Fusion, and the former ma-g i s t r at e s ’ complex for The StudentHousing Company.

Barra Mac Ruairí, strategic dir-ector for place at Bristol City Council,predicts more businesses will moveto the Temple area in next decade,and that at the same time the citycentre will gain a new vibrancy asdated office blocks are converted for

residential use.He said: “Temple Meads is an im-

portant gateway to the city and theregion. The area will change rapidlyover the next 10 years as previouslyderelict pieces of land around thestation are developed and the elec-trification of the Great Western main-line dramatically reduces journeytimes to London.

“Not only will Bristol become evenmore accessible; it will have the spaceto accommodate many more jobs andbusinesses that may rely on thesetransport links.”

He added that Bristol city centrewill benefit from the shift of busi-nesses to the Temple area, as olderoffice blocks could be put to newu s e s.

� THE Colliers Internationalregional office in Bristol, whichcovers the South West and SouthWales, recently relocated to Grade‘A’ waterfront offices in the Templea re a .

Head of office Tim Davies said:“Our move to the 10 Templebackoffice building beside the FloatingHarbour means the South Westregional office of ColliersInternational is now based in whatis widely regarded as Bristol’smost prominent officedevelopments.

“This statement building reflectsour position as a majorinternational real estate advisor,but this was not the sole reasonfor our recent move from BroadQuay, where we had been basedfor 15 years.

“The move means we are nowstrategically positioned in theTemple area, close to otherleading businesses in thecommercial heart of the city, andwithin easy walking distance ofone of Bristol’s major transporthubs at Temple Meads Station,with excellent connections for rail,bus, taxi, ferries, cycle routes andro a d s .

“As head of European industrialand logistics at Colliers, in additionto being in charge of the Bristoloffice, I am only too well aware ofthe huge importance of locationfrom a business perspective and Iam confident our new office withinthe most desirable office locationin the city will help drive ourgrowth and development.

“I have worked in the city forover 25 years and there has never

been a clear and obvious centralbusiness district.

“The development of the TempleQuarter has changed thisperception and now every leadingprofessional firm wants to be here.

“The new Colliers office atTempleback is not within theEnterprise Zone, but it is right nextto it near Temple Bridge, and

means that our employees andvisiting clients are just a short walkfrom transport facilities, and thebenefits of this will soon beenhanced by shorter train journeytimes resulting from theelectrification of the Great WesternRailway line.

“The sustainability of our newlocation is further enhanced by

Case study

Move takes usto commercialheart of city

� DOMINIC Toller opened hisnationwide online estate agencyAgentonline.co.uk at One TempleQuay, Bristol, earlier this year.

He said: “The location of OneTemple Quay and the quality of theoffice space was a major factor inmy decision to baseAgentonline.co.uk here.

“It might seem rather strange thatthis sort of detail should matter tothe managing director of an onlineestate agency business whichcovers the whole country and hasno need for high street premises.

“However, an attractive andeasily-accessible workingenvironment is essential forAgentonline.co.uk to attract highcalibre personnel to provide clientswith a professional telephoneresponse service 24 hours a day,seven days a week – something notoffered by other online agents.

“After some two decades spentworking in the financial and propertysectors, I was very much aware thata quality setting matter would bevital to attracting and retaining theright people.

“As a result we are now based onthe fifth floor of One Temple Quay,which has an in-house canteen,

Case study

Quality of officespace was thedeciding factor

secure parking, cycle parking andshowers, and is just a short walkfrom the station, and also withineasy reach of buses, road links, andcafes.

“The Temple area is now knownas Bristol’s prime business district,and I very much wanted

Agentonline.co.uk to be part of thisprofessional community.

“A decade ago, I wouldautomatically have looked for officespace in Bristol city centre, as thiswas where most major officebuildings were located at that time.

“Things have changed

MAKING TEMPLE MEADS A VIBRANT ENTRANCE TO CITY CENTRE

“Modern cities thrive from havinga mix of uses and often it’s the casethat retaining existing buildingsgives us not just a reminder of thecity’s history but makes it more char-acterful. Reuse of buildings can alsobe more sustainable,” he said.

“Bristol has seen its share of officebuildings in the city centre beingconverted to residential or student

sustainability of the Templebackbuilding, which has featuresincluding energy efficient boilers,photovoltaic cells, self-dimminglights and cycle spaces andshowers.

“This is all in keeping with oursustainable business ethos, andour support of Bristol’s role asEuropean Green Capital.”

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

Property Matters In association with

OWNERS of Bristol’smany listed buildingsmay be breathing asigh of relief that theirproperties will be ex-

empt from strict new energy per-formance rules due to come intoeffect in 2018 – if the minimumEPC requirements would unac-ceptably alter the property in thecontext of its listed status.

We have been warning againstcomplacency – and are advisingclients of the advantages of en-suring listed buildings are keptin tip top condition.

Owners need to consider theimprovements that could bemade to their buildings to ensurethey remain viable.

If they suspect their buildingwould have an EPC rating of lessthan E, which is the minimumstandard required under the En-ergy Act 2011, then they may becommercially disadvantagedwhen trying to lease their build-ing, as they will not benefit fromenergy efficiency savings thatowners of unlisted buildingshave had to make.

It’s important to bear in mindthat any alterations will requirelisted building consent to be ob-tained as required by currentplanning legislation.

If landlords do look to makealterations they need to considera suitable programme for un-dertaking the works in order tominimise disruption to tenants,whilst at the same time allowingthem sufficient time to obtainthe consents required to under-take the works.

Early consultation with thelocal authority conservation of-ficer will help determine theworks that could be undertakento the building should landlordslook to improve the energy rat-ing of their property.

The Energy Act 2011 has setMinimum Energy EfficiencyStandards for buildings in boththe domestic and non-domesticprivate rented market – land-lords will need to ensure theirproperties achieve a MinimumEnergy Efficiency standard ofE.

Don’t abuseexemption forlisted buildings

James VowlesBuilding SurveyorBruton Knowles0117 287 2101james.vowles@brutonknowles.co.uk

Expert eye

accommodation, often in cases whereredevelopment or refurbishment forcontinued office use isn’t viable.W h at ’s important is that these newuses don’t sit in isolation but insteadfit well within Bristol’s rich city-s c ap e. ”

The redevelopment of the Templearea will be accelerated by the open-ing of the Bristol Arena, according toMr Mac Ruairi, which will createhundreds of new jobs, and lead to tensof millions of pounds in additionalspend in the region.

Further momentum will be createdby the £1.7 million Engine Shed pro-ject, brought forward by Bristol CityCouncil in partnership with the Uni-versity of Bristol, which has seen therefurbishment of Brunel’s Old Sta-tion into a business space that in itsfirst year of operation provided ac-commodation for over 300 jobs andadded £7 million to the local eco-n o my.

Barra said: “In the future, the

Temple Meads area will be totallyregenerated: it will be a vibrant, sus-tainable, green and well connectedwelcome to the city.

“It will be an exciting place forpeople to live, play and work. It will bea hub for creative, high-technologyand low-carbon companies, and acentre for knowledge and innova-tion.

“The area’s strengths in financialand business services will developfurther too.

“The region will be one that isrecognised worldwide for its enter-prise successes, and will attract newand start-up companies, as well astourists and visitors.

“It will also continue to attractinvestment from established compan-ies overseas and across Britain. Ini-tial estimates suggest that around 400new businesses could be accommod-ated in the Enterprise Zone, leadingto around 17,000 new jobs over its25-year lifecycle.”

� Tim Davies, Colliers International

considerably since then. The citycentre has extended east and southas a result of the opening of CabotCircus, and modern office blockshave been constructed on formerpost-industrial wasteland in theTemple Quarter Enterprise Zone,near Temple Meads Station.”

� Dominic Toller, Agentonline.co.uk

Property of the Week

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10 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 11We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

The appearance of Bristolcity centre is being trans-formed by major works.However, a demographicchange has been under wayfor some time. Business ex-amines the commercial shifttowards Temple Meads

BY the time constructionwork currently under way toreconfigure roads aroundBroad Quay and Colston Av-enue has been completed,

Bristol city centre will have under-gone its latest metamorphosis.

However, a less visible but nev-ertheless significant demographictransition has been taking place inthe heart of Bristol for some years.

Major businesses have been mov-ing towards the area around TempleMeads railway station, part of whichis in the Temple Quarter EnterpriseZone. The previously derelict landhas become Bristol’s business dis-trict, and is now home to major com-panies including Burges Salmon,IBM, BT Osborne Clarke, Bank ofIreland, Deloitte, IBM, Canada Life,Bond Dickinson and HSBC.

In recent months, Colliers Inter-national has moved from Broad Quayto the grade A office building at 10Templeback, while PwC officially re-located its Bristol office from GreatGeorge Street to Grade A premises atGlass Wharf in Temple Quarter.

Meanwhile, an increasing numberof office buildings around The Centreare no longer workplaces, but arebeing turned into residential flats orstudent accommodation.

The former Greyfriars complex inLewins Place – consisting of twolinked tower blocks of 15 and eightstoreys – is to become 130 apartments,while the nearby Art Deco styleformer Electricity House, formerhome of the South Western Electri-city Board (SWEB), has been turnedinto 85 apartments which have justlast week gone on sale.

Student housing schemes that havebeen launched or are being built informer office blocks in the city centreinclude accommodation run by Vitaat the former Raphael House officebuilding on Colston Ave, and byUrban Creation at neighbouringStonebridge House.

Nearby in Rupert Street, DrakeHouse and Nelson House have beenturned into student dwellings byUnite Students, while conversionwork is underway at FroomsgateHouse for student accommodation

company Fusion, and the former ma-g i s t r at e s ’ complex for The StudentHousing Company.

Barra Mac Ruairí, strategic dir-ector for place at Bristol City Council,predicts more businesses will moveto the Temple area in next decade,and that at the same time the citycentre will gain a new vibrancy asdated office blocks are converted for

residential use.He said: “Temple Meads is an im-

portant gateway to the city and theregion. The area will change rapidlyover the next 10 years as previouslyderelict pieces of land around thestation are developed and the elec-trification of the Great Western main-line dramatically reduces journeytimes to London.

“Not only will Bristol become evenmore accessible; it will have the spaceto accommodate many more jobs andbusinesses that may rely on thesetransport links.”

He added that Bristol city centrewill benefit from the shift of busi-nesses to the Temple area, as olderoffice blocks could be put to newu s e s.

� THE Colliers Internationalregional office in Bristol, whichcovers the South West and SouthWales, recently relocated to Grade‘A’ waterfront offices in the Templea re a .

Head of office Tim Davies said:“Our move to the 10 Templebackoffice building beside the FloatingHarbour means the South Westregional office of ColliersInternational is now based in whatis widely regarded as Bristol’smost prominent officedevelopments.

“This statement building reflectsour position as a majorinternational real estate advisor,but this was not the sole reasonfor our recent move from BroadQuay, where we had been basedfor 15 years.

“The move means we are nowstrategically positioned in theTemple area, close to otherleading businesses in thecommercial heart of the city, andwithin easy walking distance ofone of Bristol’s major transporthubs at Temple Meads Station,with excellent connections for rail,bus, taxi, ferries, cycle routes andro a d s .

“As head of European industrialand logistics at Colliers, in additionto being in charge of the Bristoloffice, I am only too well aware ofthe huge importance of locationfrom a business perspective and Iam confident our new office withinthe most desirable office locationin the city will help drive ourgrowth and development.

“I have worked in the city forover 25 years and there has never

been a clear and obvious centralbusiness district.

“The development of the TempleQuarter has changed thisperception and now every leadingprofessional firm wants to be here.

“The new Colliers office atTempleback is not within theEnterprise Zone, but it is right nextto it near Temple Bridge, and

means that our employees andvisiting clients are just a short walkfrom transport facilities, and thebenefits of this will soon beenhanced by shorter train journeytimes resulting from theelectrification of the Great WesternRailway line.

“The sustainability of our newlocation is further enhanced by

Case study

Move takes usto commercialheart of city

� DOMINIC Toller opened hisnationwide online estate agencyAgentonline.co.uk at One TempleQuay, Bristol, earlier this year.

He said: “The location of OneTemple Quay and the quality of theoffice space was a major factor inmy decision to baseAgentonline.co.uk here.

“It might seem rather strange thatthis sort of detail should matter tothe managing director of an onlineestate agency business whichcovers the whole country and hasno need for high street premises.

“However, an attractive andeasily-accessible workingenvironment is essential forAgentonline.co.uk to attract highcalibre personnel to provide clientswith a professional telephoneresponse service 24 hours a day,seven days a week – something notoffered by other online agents.

“After some two decades spentworking in the financial and propertysectors, I was very much aware thata quality setting matter would bevital to attracting and retaining theright people.

“As a result we are now based onthe fifth floor of One Temple Quay,which has an in-house canteen,

Case study

Quality of officespace was thedeciding factor

secure parking, cycle parking andshowers, and is just a short walkfrom the station, and also withineasy reach of buses, road links, andcafes.

“The Temple area is now knownas Bristol’s prime business district,and I very much wanted

Agentonline.co.uk to be part of thisprofessional community.

“A decade ago, I wouldautomatically have looked for officespace in Bristol city centre, as thiswas where most major officebuildings were located at that time.

“Things have changed

MAKING TEMPLE MEADS A VIBRANT ENTRANCE TO CITY CENTRE

“Modern cities thrive from havinga mix of uses and often it’s the casethat retaining existing buildingsgives us not just a reminder of thecity’s history but makes it more char-acterful. Reuse of buildings can alsobe more sustainable,” he said.

“Bristol has seen its share of officebuildings in the city centre beingconverted to residential or student

sustainability of the Templebackbuilding, which has featuresincluding energy efficient boilers,photovoltaic cells, self-dimminglights and cycle spaces andshowers.

“This is all in keeping with oursustainable business ethos, andour support of Bristol’s role asEuropean Green Capital.”

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

Property Matters In association with

OWNERS of Bristol’smany listed buildingsmay be breathing asigh of relief that theirproperties will be ex-

empt from strict new energy per-formance rules due to come intoeffect in 2018 – if the minimumEPC requirements would unac-ceptably alter the property in thecontext of its listed status.

We have been warning againstcomplacency – and are advisingclients of the advantages of en-suring listed buildings are keptin tip top condition.

Owners need to consider theimprovements that could bemade to their buildings to ensurethey remain viable.

If they suspect their buildingwould have an EPC rating of lessthan E, which is the minimumstandard required under the En-ergy Act 2011, then they may becommercially disadvantagedwhen trying to lease their build-ing, as they will not benefit fromenergy efficiency savings thatowners of unlisted buildingshave had to make.

It’s important to bear in mindthat any alterations will requirelisted building consent to be ob-tained as required by currentplanning legislation.

If landlords do look to makealterations they need to considera suitable programme for un-dertaking the works in order tominimise disruption to tenants,whilst at the same time allowingthem sufficient time to obtainthe consents required to under-take the works.

Early consultation with thelocal authority conservation of-ficer will help determine theworks that could be undertakento the building should landlordslook to improve the energy rat-ing of their property.

The Energy Act 2011 has setMinimum Energy EfficiencyStandards for buildings in boththe domestic and non-domesticprivate rented market – land-lords will need to ensure theirproperties achieve a MinimumEnergy Efficiency standard ofE.

Don’t abuseexemption forlisted buildings

James VowlesBuilding SurveyorBruton Knowles0117 287 2101james.vowles@brutonknowles.co.uk

Expert eye

accommodation, often in cases whereredevelopment or refurbishment forcontinued office use isn’t viable.W h at ’s important is that these newuses don’t sit in isolation but insteadfit well within Bristol’s rich city-s c ap e. ”

The redevelopment of the Templearea will be accelerated by the open-ing of the Bristol Arena, according toMr Mac Ruairi, which will createhundreds of new jobs, and lead to tensof millions of pounds in additionalspend in the region.

Further momentum will be createdby the £1.7 million Engine Shed pro-ject, brought forward by Bristol CityCouncil in partnership with the Uni-versity of Bristol, which has seen therefurbishment of Brunel’s Old Sta-tion into a business space that in itsfirst year of operation provided ac-commodation for over 300 jobs andadded £7 million to the local eco-n o my.

Barra said: “In the future, the

Temple Meads area will be totallyregenerated: it will be a vibrant, sus-tainable, green and well connectedwelcome to the city.

“It will be an exciting place forpeople to live, play and work. It will bea hub for creative, high-technologyand low-carbon companies, and acentre for knowledge and innova-tion.

“The area’s strengths in financialand business services will developfurther too.

“The region will be one that isrecognised worldwide for its enter-prise successes, and will attract newand start-up companies, as well astourists and visitors.

“It will also continue to attractinvestment from established compan-ies overseas and across Britain. Ini-tial estimates suggest that around 400new businesses could be accommod-ated in the Enterprise Zone, leadingto around 17,000 new jobs over its25-year lifecycle.”

� Tim Davies, Colliers International

considerably since then. The citycentre has extended east and southas a result of the opening of CabotCircus, and modern office blockshave been constructed on formerpost-industrial wasteland in theTemple Quarter Enterprise Zone,near Temple Meads Station.”

� Dominic Toller, Agentonline.co.uk

Property of the Week

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12 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 13We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

In pictures Bristol Distinguished Address Series - The Annual Bolland Lecture

‘MANAGERS NEED MORE TRAININGBusiness diary

Post your events online atsouthwestbusiness.co.ukEvents are sometimescancelled without us beingnotified so please check withorganisers before travelling.

Netwalk for olderpreneurs:Walk and talk consideringhealthy you, healthy business,running a business as anolderpreneur. Takes place onThursday, October 15, gatherBristol Folk House at 9.15am for10am start back by noon. Aimedat business people over 50. Cost£10, book via eventbrite.

Online Influence West:P i n t e re s t ’s UK marketingmanager Lizzy Sibley, Airbnb’sEMEA marketing manager HollyClarke, global lead socialanalytics and insights atMicrosoft Thane Ryland andTwitter head of content EuropePaul McCrudden are amongspeakers at this event at MecureHotel, Bristol, on October 16.Find out more ath t t p : / / w w w. o n l i n e i n f l u e n c e . n e t/oi-west

Preparing your business forsale: Free half day seminarjointly hosted by ActionCOACHBristol & North Somerset, BurtonSweet and the HR Dept. It’saimed at owners of businesseswith sales between £250K-£30mwho want the option of selling orcreating a business that workswithout them. Leigh Court,8.30am on Friday, October 16.

Employers’ pensions Seminar:Punter Southall is hosting apensions seminar on WednesdayOctober 21for employers andpension scheme trustees.Former Pensions Minister SteveWebb, who was the architect ofmany of the recent changes topensions, is guest speaker.Contact the events team on0117 202 0449 or atdcevents@puntersouthall.com.

Natwest Legal SectorC o n f e re n c e : Now in its fifthyear, the conference will look athow law firms can exploit newchannels to market, improveprofitability and partnerperformance and deliverbusiness strategy via alternativefunding structures. Speakersinclude Dez Derry of mmadigital,Stephen Gold of Stephen GoldConsulting, Peter Scott of PeterScott Consulting and ColumSmith from McMillan WilliamsSolicitors Limited. Takes placeon Wednesday, October 21 atTemple Quay, Bristol. To registervisit https://www.mmadigital.co.uk/natwest/

Bristol Post Green CapitalAw a rd s : Celebrating theachievements of businesses,communities and individuals inmaking the city a greener andbetter place. The gala ceremonytakes place on November 12 atBristol Marriott Hotel CityCentre. To nominate or buytickets, visit www.bristolpost.co.u k / g re e n c a p i t a l a w a rd s .

Global MSC – Technology andInnovation in the SecurityIndustry: With speakers fromchief constables to Big BrotherWatch, Global MSC’s annualconference is a high profileindustry event. November 9 and10 at the Bristol Hotel. Emailevents@globalmsc.net.

GALLERIESGALORE

FOR MORE PICTURESCheck out our

website at

bristolpost.co.uk/business

HOW many times have welooked at and listened to anew manager in a businessand wondered how did heor she get there?

Well, it was probably by accident.And when that conclusion comes

from one of British industry’s mostsenior managers you have to sit upand listen.

T hat’s exactly what the audiencedid when Mike Clasper CBE gave theannual Bolland lecture at the Uni-versity of the West of England tomark the start of the new Distin-guished Address Series.

He has a pedigree second to none inbig business as the current presidentof the Chartered Management Insti-tute, chairman of Coats Group plc aswell as a senior independent directorat Serco plc and chairman of Which?Ltd.

Mike has also been chief executiveof the British Airport Authority andchairman of HMRC – all that from along background in senior positionswith Procter & Gamble, which is re-garded as one of the world’s bestmanagerial and marketing stables.Here is a man with thoroughbred

management blood coursing throughhis veins.

“I think it has always been true thatthere has been good and poor man-a g ement,” he says. “But I think one ofthe real issues today is that we have alot of what I would describe as ‘ac-cidental managers’.

“They have not been developed andtrained as managers before they areactually put in charge of a lot ofpeople. Often, they have proved them-

selves in technical areas like account-ancy or engineering and thensomebody says go and run this groupof people.

“The great ones have enough rawtalent to succeed but a lot flounderand when they flounder the peopleworking for them suffer, they sufferand the organisation suffers. So, Ithink, it’s a real problem.”

So, why aren’t managers givenmore training and more personal de-ve l o p m e n t ?

“It is quite surprising that there isa belief that management is not aprofession. Somehow, it is somethingyou pick up along the way and alsoyou can’t teach it – that great leadersare born and not taught.

“I don’t believe that at all. But it’sthat – the fact that management is notthought of as a profession.”

Mike believes the result of thisthinking is that often managers donot get the training they need anddeserve for perhaps four or five years,and along the way cuts in trainingbudgets just do not help their overalldevelopment as people managers.

“At the end of the day we are shortchanging our people and we areshort changing our organisations,”he said.

He sees interpersonal skills asbeing key to a good manager in aworld of ever-increasing automationand technology.

“What it means is that people youare leading have complexity and dif-ficult tasks. You have to motivate,teach and mentor to be a great leader.Not enough people get that today asthey approach leadership roles.”

What advice does he have for stu-dents setting out on their careers?

“The graduate jobs recruitmentmarket is just so competitive now. So,I think they actually need to startvery early. I think internships arevery important – trying to find waysto get to good interpersonal skills.

“They need to be very self-aware – ifthey are developing or not? My advice

ONE MILLION MORE MANAGERS BY 2020

IN HOW TO BE MANAGERS’Ian MeanBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

� The Chartered ManagementInstitute (CMI) predicts some 1million managers will be requiredin the UK by 2020 .

This and the fact that only onein five managers received traininghas led to University of the Westof England (UWE) to invest in anumber of initiatives to supportthe region.

UWE’s Faculty of Business andLaw and CMI recently announceda joint partnership to offerprofessional accreditation

alongside academicqualifications.

The Partnership with CMI willmean some 400 Undergraduateand 50 MBA students will receiveCMI professional accreditation aspart of their degree.

Information about thesecourses can be found here: MBA- http://courses.uwe.ac.uk/N12212/2016, or forundergraduate degreehttp://courses.uwe.ac.uk/N201/2016.

to graduates is to be self-aware and ifyou are not developing take action.”� The Bolland Lecture which MikeClasper gave at UWE was establishedin 1976 to commemorate Dr RobertBolland, who held the post of Directorof Bristol Polytechnic from its found-ation in 1969 to his death in 1974. In1992, Bristol Polytechnic gained uni-versity status becoming the Uni-versity of the West of England.� Details of the BristolDistinguished Address series inpartnership with the Bristol Post canbe found at http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/whatson/ bristoldaseries.aspx

� Mike Clasper

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12 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 13We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

In pictures Bristol Distinguished Address Series - The Annual Bolland Lecture

‘MANAGERS NEED MORE TRAININGBusiness diary

Post your events online atsouthwestbusiness.co.ukEvents are sometimescancelled without us beingnotified so please check withorganisers before travelling.

Netwalk for olderpreneurs:Walk and talk consideringhealthy you, healthy business,running a business as anolderpreneur. Takes place onThursday, October 15, gatherBristol Folk House at 9.15am for10am start back by noon. Aimedat business people over 50. Cost£10, book via eventbrite.

Online Influence West:P i n t e re s t ’s UK marketingmanager Lizzy Sibley, Airbnb’sEMEA marketing manager HollyClarke, global lead socialanalytics and insights atMicrosoft Thane Ryland andTwitter head of content EuropePaul McCrudden are amongspeakers at this event at MecureHotel, Bristol, on October 16.Find out more ath t t p : / / w w w. o n l i n e i n f l u e n c e . n e t/oi-west

Preparing your business forsale: Free half day seminarjointly hosted by ActionCOACHBristol & North Somerset, BurtonSweet and the HR Dept. It’saimed at owners of businesseswith sales between £250K-£30mwho want the option of selling orcreating a business that workswithout them. Leigh Court,8.30am on Friday, October 16.

Employers’ pensions Seminar:Punter Southall is hosting apensions seminar on WednesdayOctober 21for employers andpension scheme trustees.Former Pensions Minister SteveWebb, who was the architect ofmany of the recent changes topensions, is guest speaker.Contact the events team on0117 202 0449 or atdcevents@puntersouthall.com.

Natwest Legal SectorC o n f e re n c e : Now in its fifthyear, the conference will look athow law firms can exploit newchannels to market, improveprofitability and partnerperformance and deliverbusiness strategy via alternativefunding structures. Speakersinclude Dez Derry of mmadigital,Stephen Gold of Stephen GoldConsulting, Peter Scott of PeterScott Consulting and ColumSmith from McMillan WilliamsSolicitors Limited. Takes placeon Wednesday, October 21 atTemple Quay, Bristol. To registervisit https://www.mmadigital.co.uk/natwest/

Bristol Post Green CapitalAw a rd s : Celebrating theachievements of businesses,communities and individuals inmaking the city a greener andbetter place. The gala ceremonytakes place on November 12 atBristol Marriott Hotel CityCentre. To nominate or buytickets, visit www.bristolpost.co.u k / g re e n c a p i t a l a w a rd s .

Global MSC – Technology andInnovation in the SecurityIndustry: With speakers fromchief constables to Big BrotherWatch, Global MSC’s annualconference is a high profileindustry event. November 9 and10 at the Bristol Hotel. Emailevents@globalmsc.net.

GALLERIESGALORE

FOR MORE PICTURESCheck out our

website at

bristolpost.co.uk/business

HOW many times have welooked at and listened to anew manager in a businessand wondered how did heor she get there?

Well, it was probably by accident.And when that conclusion comes

from one of British industry’s mostsenior managers you have to sit upand listen.

T hat’s exactly what the audiencedid when Mike Clasper CBE gave theannual Bolland lecture at the Uni-versity of the West of England tomark the start of the new Distin-guished Address Series.

He has a pedigree second to none inbig business as the current presidentof the Chartered Management Insti-tute, chairman of Coats Group plc aswell as a senior independent directorat Serco plc and chairman of Which?Ltd.

Mike has also been chief executiveof the British Airport Authority andchairman of HMRC – all that from along background in senior positionswith Procter & Gamble, which is re-garded as one of the world’s bestmanagerial and marketing stables.Here is a man with thoroughbred

management blood coursing throughhis veins.

“I think it has always been true thatthere has been good and poor man-a g ement,” he says. “But I think one ofthe real issues today is that we have alot of what I would describe as ‘ac-cidental managers’.

“They have not been developed andtrained as managers before they areactually put in charge of a lot ofpeople. Often, they have proved them-

selves in technical areas like account-ancy or engineering and thensomebody says go and run this groupof people.

“The great ones have enough rawtalent to succeed but a lot flounderand when they flounder the peopleworking for them suffer, they sufferand the organisation suffers. So, Ithink, it’s a real problem.”

So, why aren’t managers givenmore training and more personal de-ve l o p m e n t ?

“It is quite surprising that there isa belief that management is not aprofession. Somehow, it is somethingyou pick up along the way and alsoyou can’t teach it – that great leadersare born and not taught.

“I don’t believe that at all. But it’sthat – the fact that management is notthought of as a profession.”

Mike believes the result of thisthinking is that often managers donot get the training they need anddeserve for perhaps four or five years,and along the way cuts in trainingbudgets just do not help their overalldevelopment as people managers.

“At the end of the day we are shortchanging our people and we areshort changing our organisations,”he said.

He sees interpersonal skills asbeing key to a good manager in aworld of ever-increasing automationand technology.

“What it means is that people youare leading have complexity and dif-ficult tasks. You have to motivate,teach and mentor to be a great leader.Not enough people get that today asthey approach leadership roles.”

What advice does he have for stu-dents setting out on their careers?

“The graduate jobs recruitmentmarket is just so competitive now. So,I think they actually need to startvery early. I think internships arevery important – trying to find waysto get to good interpersonal skills.

“They need to be very self-aware – ifthey are developing or not? My advice

ONE MILLION MORE MANAGERS BY 2020

IN HOW TO BE MANAGERS’Ian MeanBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

� The Chartered ManagementInstitute (CMI) predicts some 1million managers will be requiredin the UK by 2020 .

This and the fact that only onein five managers received traininghas led to University of the Westof England (UWE) to invest in anumber of initiatives to supportthe region.

UWE’s Faculty of Business andLaw and CMI recently announceda joint partnership to offerprofessional accreditation

alongside academicqualifications.

The Partnership with CMI willmean some 400 Undergraduateand 50 MBA students will receiveCMI professional accreditation aspart of their degree.

Information about thesecourses can be found here: MBA- http://courses.uwe.ac.uk/N12212/2016, or forundergraduate degreehttp://courses.uwe.ac.uk/N201/2016.

to graduates is to be self-aware and ifyou are not developing take action.”� The Bolland Lecture which MikeClasper gave at UWE was establishedin 1976 to commemorate Dr RobertBolland, who held the post of Directorof Bristol Polytechnic from its found-ation in 1969 to his death in 1974. In1992, Bristol Polytechnic gained uni-versity status becoming the Uni-versity of the West of England.� Details of the BristolDistinguished Address series inpartnership with the Bristol Post canbe found at http://www1.uwe.ac.uk/whatson/ bristoldaseries.aspx

� Mike Clasper

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14 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 15We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

In pictures Just Eat launch

Ta l e n t Fu t u relooks tasty asJust Eat opens‘innovation hub’

ONLINE takeaway food or-dering platform Just Eat of-ficially opened its Bristolinnovation hub, after tak-ing out a 10-year lease on

10,000 sq ft of office space at BroadQuay House.

The opening is a result of the com-p a ny ’s plans to expand its technologydevelopment activity in the UK. Theoffice will be populated by softwareengineers and developers working onall core business projects alongsidethe London team.

The Bristol office will focus ondeveloping and strengthening e-com-merce platforms, mobile apps, andelectronic point of sales systems.

These innovations will benefit res-taurant owners and consumers.

The company recently publishedthe first economic impact study of theUK takeaway sector, which found theindustry is worth £620 million to the

South West economy and supports17,300 jobs throughout the region.

Group chief technology officer Car-los Morgado said: “Bristol is an ideallocation for our tech innovation hubdue to the dynamic technology talentpool. The city is host to a cluster oftechnology companies and world-class universities, as well as beingculturally rich.

“The quality of life is also excep-tional which we feel will appealgreatly to our employees.

“The innovative office is alreadyhome to 50 employees, and we haveambitious plans to grow this signi-ficantly in the coming months.”

Ross Gardiner, a graduate recruitwho recently joined to work at theBristol office added: “Just Eat is on anamazing journey, revolutionising thetakeaway industry and bringinggreat benefits to consumers and res-taurant owners.

Law firm celebratesmilestone at museum

In pictures Simmons & Simmons party

LAW firm Simmons & Simmons cel-ebrated the third anniversary of theopening of its Bristol office.

The company marked the mile-stone by hosting a client reception atthe M Shed museum in Bristol.

Partner Mahrie Webb spoke at theevent, saying that the firm hadgrown from 15 people in 2012 to morethan 100 today, including more than50 lawyers.

“Our growth in Bristol reflects thesignificant progress we have madesince we opened,” she said.

“We receive consistently positivefeedback on the quality of our peoplein Bristol and on the work we do, and

we look forward to continuing tog row.”

She also spoke about the firm’sculture, its art collection and, inparticular, its sponsorship of I’mStaying, a neon artwork commis-sioned by the Bristol Biennial in 2014that moves to different locationsaround Bristol in response to publicvo t e.

“It’s a work that demonstrates ourcommitment to the arts and our com-mitment to Bristol,” Mahrie said.

Guests also heard from HannahClark, the artistic director of BristolBiennial and Shaun C. Badham, theartist who created I’m Staying.

� Left, LaurynMann, ErinHookey andHeatherMcMasterduring thedrinksreception tocelebrate lawfirm Simmonsand Simmons’birthday at MShedPictures: DanRegan

� Right,Hannah Clark,

Shaun CBadham and

Dee Hedd

� Left, JamesChapman andScott Townson

FOR MORE PICTURESCheck out our

website at

bristolpost.co.uk/business

GALLERIESGALORE

� JonathanHammond andGemma Slater

� IanMacKinnon(centre) chatsto other guests

� RosannaP i p e r- G i l l

enjoying theparty

“It’s exciting to be part of such aninnovative team, and seeing the im-pact of your work on millions of cus-tomers and thousands of small

businesses up and down the countryis very rewarding.”

To mark the opening, members ofthe team took part in a sponsored 140

mile bike ride from the company'sLondon office to Bristol in aid of thechildren's charity Starlight, raisingmore than £1,000 for the cause.

MEMBERS of the legal communityattended a costs seminar; learningmore about the impact of recentchanges on victims of medical neg-ligence and personal injury.

Led by keynote speaker DominicRegan – a qualified solicitor whoacted as an advisor to Lord JusticeJackson on the recent overhaul ofcosts budgeting and management –the event was hosted byclaimant-only costs experts PIC.

The event, which welcomed prom-inent legal professionals from acrossthe region, covered a number of con-troversial changes which have ‘ove r -hauled’ the industry in recent years –including the introduction of cappedcosts, the ruling on proportionatecosts and the rollout of cost budget-ing.

Attendees stayed after the seminarcelebrate the official launch of PIC’sfirst office in the South West.

The session, which took place at StJo h n’s Chambers in Victoria Street inBristol, had insight from costs lit-igation Barrister Darren Lewis, aswell as PIC’s litigation project man-

agement and budgeting expert Re-uben Glynn.

Professor Regan said: “The law ofcosts is trickier now than ever before.Get it wrong and risk getting paidnothing. It is as simple as that. Wiseguidance is of the utmost import-a n c e. ”

In pictures PIC seminar

Legal expertsget update oncost changes

John Plunkett, who heads up thePIC South West office, said: “T heseminar was very successful, withmany of the region’s leading legalplayers joining us to hear from theexperts themselves about the impactof recent changes within the costs lawindustry, as well as to help celebrate

PIC’s official launch in the SouthWe s t . ”

Barrister Darren Lewis from StJo h n’s Chambers spoke about costsbudgeting and management at thes e m i n a r.

“Cost budgeting is a very prom-inent subject that is affecting people

in the industry,” he said. “This costupdate was a useful opportunity forpeople to ask questions and under-stand the impact the changes have onthem and provided a space for legalminds to come together and shareinsight and knowledge, key to mov-ing with the recent changes.”

� Barrister Darren Lewis speaks at the seminar; right, Dominic Regan

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14 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 15We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015 w w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u kw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k

In pictures Just Eat launch

Ta l e n t Fu t u relooks tasty asJust Eat opens‘innovation hub’

ONLINE takeaway food or-dering platform Just Eat of-ficially opened its Bristolinnovation hub, after tak-ing out a 10-year lease on

10,000 sq ft of office space at BroadQuay House.

The opening is a result of the com-p a ny ’s plans to expand its technologydevelopment activity in the UK. Theoffice will be populated by softwareengineers and developers working onall core business projects alongsidethe London team.

The Bristol office will focus ondeveloping and strengthening e-com-merce platforms, mobile apps, andelectronic point of sales systems.

These innovations will benefit res-taurant owners and consumers.

The company recently publishedthe first economic impact study of theUK takeaway sector, which found theindustry is worth £620 million to the

South West economy and supports17,300 jobs throughout the region.

Group chief technology officer Car-los Morgado said: “Bristol is an ideallocation for our tech innovation hubdue to the dynamic technology talentpool. The city is host to a cluster oftechnology companies and world-class universities, as well as beingculturally rich.

“The quality of life is also excep-tional which we feel will appealgreatly to our employees.

“The innovative office is alreadyhome to 50 employees, and we haveambitious plans to grow this signi-ficantly in the coming months.”

Ross Gardiner, a graduate recruitwho recently joined to work at theBristol office added: “Just Eat is on anamazing journey, revolutionising thetakeaway industry and bringinggreat benefits to consumers and res-taurant owners.

Law firm celebratesmilestone at museum

In pictures Simmons & Simmons party

LAW firm Simmons & Simmons cel-ebrated the third anniversary of theopening of its Bristol office.

The company marked the mile-stone by hosting a client reception atthe M Shed museum in Bristol.

Partner Mahrie Webb spoke at theevent, saying that the firm hadgrown from 15 people in 2012 to morethan 100 today, including more than50 lawyers.

“Our growth in Bristol reflects thesignificant progress we have madesince we opened,” she said.

“We receive consistently positivefeedback on the quality of our peoplein Bristol and on the work we do, and

we look forward to continuing tog row.”

She also spoke about the firm’sculture, its art collection and, inparticular, its sponsorship of I’mStaying, a neon artwork commis-sioned by the Bristol Biennial in 2014that moves to different locationsaround Bristol in response to publicvo t e.

“It’s a work that demonstrates ourcommitment to the arts and our com-mitment to Bristol,” Mahrie said.

Guests also heard from HannahClark, the artistic director of BristolBiennial and Shaun C. Badham, theartist who created I’m Staying.

� Left, LaurynMann, ErinHookey andHeatherMcMasterduring thedrinksreception tocelebrate lawfirm Simmonsand Simmons’birthday at MShedPictures: DanRegan

� Right,Hannah Clark,

Shaun CBadham and

Dee Hedd

� Left, JamesChapman andScott Townson

FOR MORE PICTURESCheck out our

website at

bristolpost.co.uk/business

GALLERIESGALORE

� JonathanHammond andGemma Slater

� IanMacKinnon(centre) chatsto other guests

� RosannaP i p e r- G i l l

enjoying theparty

“It’s exciting to be part of such aninnovative team, and seeing the im-pact of your work on millions of cus-tomers and thousands of small

businesses up and down the countryis very rewarding.”

To mark the opening, members ofthe team took part in a sponsored 140

mile bike ride from the company'sLondon office to Bristol in aid of thechildren's charity Starlight, raisingmore than £1,000 for the cause.

MEMBERS of the legal communityattended a costs seminar; learningmore about the impact of recentchanges on victims of medical neg-ligence and personal injury.

Led by keynote speaker DominicRegan – a qualified solicitor whoacted as an advisor to Lord JusticeJackson on the recent overhaul ofcosts budgeting and management –the event was hosted byclaimant-only costs experts PIC.

The event, which welcomed prom-inent legal professionals from acrossthe region, covered a number of con-troversial changes which have ‘ove r -hauled’ the industry in recent years –including the introduction of cappedcosts, the ruling on proportionatecosts and the rollout of cost budget-ing.

Attendees stayed after the seminarcelebrate the official launch of PIC’sfirst office in the South West.

The session, which took place at StJo h n’s Chambers in Victoria Street inBristol, had insight from costs lit-igation Barrister Darren Lewis, aswell as PIC’s litigation project man-

agement and budgeting expert Re-uben Glynn.

Professor Regan said: “The law ofcosts is trickier now than ever before.Get it wrong and risk getting paidnothing. It is as simple as that. Wiseguidance is of the utmost import-a n c e. ”

In pictures PIC seminar

Legal expertsget update oncost changes

John Plunkett, who heads up thePIC South West office, said: “T heseminar was very successful, withmany of the region’s leading legalplayers joining us to hear from theexperts themselves about the impactof recent changes within the costs lawindustry, as well as to help celebrate

PIC’s official launch in the SouthWe s t . ”

Barrister Darren Lewis from StJo h n’s Chambers spoke about costsbudgeting and management at thes e m i n a r.

“Cost budgeting is a very prom-inent subject that is affecting people

in the industry,” he said. “This costupdate was a useful opportunity forpeople to ask questions and under-stand the impact the changes have onthem and provided a space for legalminds to come together and shareinsight and knowledge, key to mov-ing with the recent changes.”

� Barrister Darren Lewis speaks at the seminar; right, Dominic Regan

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16 We d n e s d a y, October 7, 2015w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

The back pagePe o p l e� Keynsham-based Almeda hasbrought in Ben Arbery, 42, who joinsthe family business as associatedirector. He will work alongsideBrady George, who recently tookover the facilities management firmfrom his father Gary as managingd i re c t o r.

Ben spent 15 years working withinthe financial

services industry,initially as afinancialadviser andmortgagebroker andlatterly as afinancial

servicesassessor. He

worked for a hostof companies

including John Charcol and theCooperative.

In his new role Ben, above, will beresponsible for working with existingclients, developing new businessand helping the senior team to takeadvantage of new commercialopportunities.

Despite only being a few weeksinto the job Ben has already beenimpressed by Almeda’s influence inthe city. He said: “In my first week Imet the team at the Arnolfini, abuilding that Almeda manages, and Iwas so energised about the positivethings they had to say about us andthe difference we are making.”

� Architects AWW has appointedJamie Furse, below, as its ninthdirector in the firm’s 40th year inbusiness.

Jamie joined in 2006, and has leda number of award-winningprojects including work onFinzels Reach, ImperialTobacco headquartersand the grade II listedComputershare officesin Bristol. Mostrecently he wasproject leader for thetransformation ofNarrow Quay Houseoffice building, in the citycentre. A significantproportion of the space was letoff plan, the first such letting in thearea for over three years. Theproject has been shortlisted forInsider South West OfficeDevelopment of the Year.

An experienced master planner,Jamie’s specialisms are within the

office and residential sectors. Healso has extensive experience inacute and primary healthcare andextra care developments.

Richard Francis, practice director,said: “Jamie is an invaluableaddition to the team of directors.2015 finds AWW well placed forfurther adventure both at home andincreasingly internationally, secure inthe knowledge that our successionplan will lead the practice to evengreater heights.”

� Kasia Nowak and AgnieszkaCzapiewska have been brought inas head of housekeeping and frontoffice manager respectively at theDoubleTree by Hilton, Bristol CityCentre hotel on Redcliffe Way.

The appointments followimproved occupancy levels and anincreased appetite for both businessand leisure travellers to visit Bristol

and stay in qualityaccommodation.

Also, with the ongoingrecovery in the economythe hotel has seenbusinesses start torelease the pursestrings, leading to anuptick in conferenceand event business.This has resulted in a

need to appoint managersto cater for this increase in

demand and expected levels ofservice.

John Dowling, general manager atthe hotel said: “These newappointments are fully deserved.

“It’s important that we have inplace the right people who canprovide the service and high

Understanding our fellow human beings is a business essential

OCTOBER sees Black His-tory Month taking place inBristol and there is a wholeseries of events to attend ifyo u ’re interested in this es-

sential part of our heritage.One of the things I love about busi-

ness is that essentially it is non-dis-criminatory. If you have a product orservice that the market wants, it hasno preference as to your ethnical ori-g i n s.

Judging someone by the colour oftheir skin is a ludicrous way to assesstheir character. We live in a mul-ticultural society where business hasglobal export intentions so under-standing our fellow human beings isessential. Especially if we are to sell

them goods produced in Britain.I have friends across many nation-

alities and who are proponents ofvarious religions too. I see no dif-ference in whether they are good orbad people based on either religion ore t h n i c i t y.

There are many black entrepren-eurs who contribute enormously tothe wealth in our society. People likeLevi Roots, Piers Linney and WilfredEmanuel Jones to name but three.

I understand there are 10,000 blackowned businesses in London who con-

� Agnieszka Czapiewska and Kasia Nowak

The Phone Box Millionaire

tribute millions of pounds to our Ex-chequer and provide a huge number ofjobs too. I’m not sure how many blackowned businesses there are in Bristolbut given the city’s rich cultural her-itage it doesn’t seem enough.

Last year I co-hosted a series ofshows on Ujima Radio with myfriend, the black author andpresenter, Roger Griffith, where wediscussed various business relatedtopics including encouraging peoplefrom disadvantaged backgrounds tostart their own businesses.

We weren’t especially encouragingblack and Asian people to join in theenterprise revolution but as the showwas broadcast from the heart of StPa u l ’s in Bristol it certainly leant that

way. And why not?The UK needs more entrepreneurs

from varied backgrounds and thatincludes every skin colour and re-ligious preference too. We all want aprosperous Britain and should beaiming to spread the word that re-gardless of background and otherpotential disadvantages it is still pos-sible to succeed.

It shouldn’t matter where you arefrom, it’s where you’re going thatcounts. I see many new entrepren-eurs in my role as Ambassador andEntrepreneur in Residence at TheBritish Library in London and havenever even thought about their skincolour or religious beliefs when as-sessing the potential of their idea.

standards expected from all ourguests. This is vital especially asBristol emerges as a destination ofchoice for both tourists andbusiness people alike.

“With DoubleTree by Hilton alsobeing a well-known worldwidebrand, making sure service levelsare consistent is also key so thatregular users of DoubleTree hotelsare not disappointed during theirs t a y. ”

P l a ces� An empty Bristol office buildinghas been sold to aprivate buyer. Acting onbehalf of a privateinvestor, ColliersInternational has sold1970s office blockKenham House, right, inWilder Street, St Paul’s.

Chris Dawson,director in Colliersinter national’sdevelopment consultingand agency team said,“Our client has held thisbuilding for many yearsas an office investment,and earlier this year itbecame 100 per cent void.

“Our client considered applyingfor a ‘prior notification’ or fullplanning consent to change thebuilding’s use from office toresidential in addition to otheroptions for the site, but has decidedto exit given the opportunity to selln o w.

“The sale was negotiated quickly,completion having taken placeearlier in September.”

� The freehold interest in a group offive industrial units in Clevedon,North Somerset, has been sold for£1.75 million.

Acting on behalf of The ConygarInvestment Company PLC, ColliersInternational sold Units 5A, B, C and6A & B at Tweed Road IndustrialEstate in Clevedon to a privateinvestor represented by Deloitte UK.The multi-let property comprises fiveunits housed within two industrial,terraced warehouses totalling30,800 sq ft and producing anincome of circa £147,000 perannum. The sale yielded just underan eight per cent return.

Richard Coombs, director ofnational investment at the Bristoloffice of Colliers, said: “Demand forindustrial investments in establishedlocations continues to be popularamong a range of buyers. There wasstrong interest in the Tweed Roadunits from property companies, highnet worth investors and somemanaged funds.”

He added: “Demand for industrialinvestments are as high now as anytime in the last 18 months, anddespite the usual slowdown involume of transactions over thesummer break we are predicting astrong fourth quarter.”

S u ccess� The Castle School, Thornbury,has been recognised for the work it

does to bridge the gapbetween Education andthe world of work. Winnerof the British Chambersof Commerce RegionalAward for ‘Business andEducation Partnership’,its Premium Partnershipscheme, which was setup four years ago, hasbuilt, long-lastingrelationships withbusinesses ranging frommultinationals such asRenishaw to SMEs in thelocal area. Together, theschool and its 70

business partners raise aspirations,run projects that challenge andinspire students, and help youngpeople develop the soft skills andattitudes that are so important in theworkplace. The scheme is nowoperating at Marlwood School andwill be rolled out to other schools.

It will go on to the national awardon November 26 in London. To findout more contact Tess Wilkinson ati n f o @ p re m i u m - p a r t n e r s . c o . u k .

Your digest of the week in business

Bristol is an amazing place whichhas produced some equally amazingpeople. Its history is steeped in theslave trade but its future should notbe trapped by it.

We must never forget the sufferingcaused to a people who were oftentreated worse than we treat animalstoday. It was barbaric and somethingthat Britain should never forgetwhich is why events like Black His-tory Month are so important.

It shouldn’t be forgotten either thatVictorians sent very young whiteboys up chimneys and to work insatanic mills for 12 hours a day.

Times move on but memories mustremain so future generations remem-ber not to repeat our past mistakes.

Stephen FearFear Group

In numbers

Business currentaccounts

1.01%£10,000 deposit

0.25%£1 deposit

State Bankof India

Corporation tax

20 % Main rate

Business savingsaccounts

1.50%£5,000 deposit

H a m p s h i reTrust Bank

Inflation (CPI)

0.1 %

Weekly earnings

1.8 %Base interest rate

0.5 %Ave mortgage rate

3.99 %

S o u rc e :

Inflation (RPI)

1.0 %

1.49%£10,000 deposit

State Bankof India