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GAMES ROOM

Showroom the biggest of itskind in Europe – page 3

ROLE MODEL

Beauty contestant an inspirationwith her business – page 5

BIG INTERVIEW

Law firm boss makes the casefor making work fun – p8&9

THE FORCE ISSTRONG WITHTHIS ONE . . .The Bristol tech firm creating amazingbionic hands for child amputeesinspired by Star Wars – see page 7

OPEN BIONICS

142015OCT

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2 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 3We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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

AGAMES room supplier hasopened a new showroomjust north of Bristol which itbelieves makes it the biggestof its kind in Europe.

Home Leisure Direct has added anew showroom to its existing two,meaning the three combined nowhave a floor space covering morethan 7,500 square feet.

The showrooms display an arrayof products that includes 32 pooltables, seven table tennis tables, fourfoosball tables, six jukeboxes, 22 pin-ball machines, 18 arcade machinesand a 12-foot shuffleboard.

The showrooms have been de-veloped from converted barns in El-berton, just north of Bristol.

Managing director Andy Beres-ford said: “In our line of work gettingyour hands on our products is a vitalpart of the customer experience.

“As they say ‘the sizzle sells thesausa g e’ and our showroom is cer-tainly sizzling. Allowing our cus-tomers to try their hands at a widerange of the equipment that we offerenables them to appreciate just whatthey’ll be getting – and hopefullyinspire them to consider even morep o s s i b i l i t i e s. ”

He added: “Our showrooms are thelargest of their type in Europe. Theircombined size and scale puts us atthe forefront of the European marketas no other games room supplier isable to offer a similar setup.

“Our existing showrooms used toattract visitors from far and wide,with some flying in from overseassolely to pay us a visit.

“With the introduction of our newshowroom we hope to encourageeven more to swing by and see whatwe ’ve got on show.”

Alongside the games equipment,the showrooms house a selection ofsporting and movie memorabilia onthe walls, including signed footballshirts from Lionel Messi, CristianoRonaldo, Paul Gascoigne and Pele,which are all for sale.

And a soon-to-be-launched rangeof home bars is also featured, withsamples of on tap beverages.

The company invited key clientsand customers to celebrate thelaunch, mingling with some of theUK’s leading games room players,including pool’s Mosconi cup winnerKarl Boyes, Commonwealth Gamestable tennis gold medallist Ryan Jen-kins and Team GB foosball captainBen Mason.

Andy said: “It was great to see somany in attendance. There were

around 200 across the course of theday, which was a fantastic turn outgiven everyone’s busy schedule.

“We ’re absolutely delighted withour finished showroom so we werepleased that we were able to show itoff to so many. We look forward towelcoming more customers throughour doors as we continue.”

So far in 2015 the company hasalready won three awards covering

� Staff at Cadbury Garden Centre in Congresbury

Te c h Le i s u re

Computer firmannounces itsglobal ambition� SUPER computer maker CrayInc has announced ambitiousplans for a Europe, Middle Eastand Africa research lab in itsBristol offices.

The firm made the revelationat the 2015 International HighPerformance Computing UserForum in Paris.

The lab will work on largeresearch and developmentprojects with key customers andpartners.

It will be at the forefront of thefirm’s work with what it calls the“European high performancecomputing ecosystem”.

The company makes supercomputers which cost millions ofpounds to customers, includingthe Met Office.

It opened its European HQ inBristol earlier this year.

The research lab shouldposition Cray to work withnew and existing customers onvarious projects such as specialresearch and developmentinitiatives, working with them onbespoke computers to solve theirspecific problems.

Steve Scott, senior vicepresident and chief technicalofficer at Cray, said: “Establishinga dedicated research lab inthe region allows us to furtherengage with our customers inco-designing solutions for theircurrent and futuresupercomputing requirements.

“The European market is vitallyimportant to Cray.

“With the recent opening of ourregional headquarters in Bristol, anew Cray EMEA Research Lab,and a growing customer base inthe region, our commitment to theEuropean HPC community isstronger than ever.”

Ret a i l

In full bloom Revamped gardencentre reopens creating 40 jobs

A GARDEN centre near Bris-tol has reopened after a13-week redevelopmentwhich has created 41 newj o b s.

Owner Wyevale Garden Centreshas given Cadbury Garden Centre inCongresbury, North Somerset, am a ke ove r.

The new-look space, which is thelargest garden centre in Bristol, in-cludes a 91,221sq ft outdoor area.

The owners are aiming to create the

“ultimate retail destination” combin-ing shopping, leisure, dining andeve n t s.

The are hoping to spark a love ofgardening in all ages and offers achoice of thousands of differentplants, shrubs and trees.

Features include:� A new botanic kitchen, an openplan eatery serving breakfasts, af-ternoon teas and hearty mains;� A kids’ soft play area;� Walter Smith Farm Shop, offeringlocally-sourced produce;� Costa coffee shop;� And new concessions including aClarks Outlet, Christy, MountainWarehouse, Laithwaites Wines, Craftshop and Yankee Candle.

The new concessions and shopswithin the garden centre are helpingcreate the new jobs.

Centre manager Paul Butcherssaid: “Our new-look garden centrewill not only offer quality, range andvalue to customers who love theirhome and garden; but also a uniqueday-out destination for all the familyto enjoy.

“We look forward to welcomingnew customers through our doorsand are confident they will enjoy thee x p e r i e n c e.

“With the countdown to Christmasalready beginning and our ChristmasPreview Night around the corner, weare also looking forward to bringingthe joy of Christmas to Bristol.”

The centre has also appointed char-ity and environment champions whowill be responsible for building linkswith the local community.

James Searle-Mallon will be re-sponsible for raising money for theWyevale chosen charities, MarieCurie and NSPCC, as well as any localcharities the centre chooses to sup-por t.

Meanwhile Gary Upham Jones hasbeen made environment champion,responsible for spearheading cam-paigns to reduce the impact the busi-ness has on the environment.

The centre has planned a series ofevents to pull in shoppers, includinghalf-term activities, a Christmasgrotto and a food festival.

Te c h

3D printing firm moves into another dimension

Huge public interestin Lloyds Bank shares� MORE than 120,000 investorshave registered an interest in theupcoming public sell off of LloydsBank shares with Bristol investmentfirm Hargreaves Lansdown.

It shows there’s been more thanBake Off on the minds of the GreatBritish public in the last week, as the£2 billion sale of the Government’sremaining stake in the bank isplanned for next spring.

And the overall number interestedwill be much higher, as this figureonly relates to those registering onthe website of the FTSE 100investment specialist.

Lloyds is already the most popularstock amongst HargreavesLansdown share investors, and findsits way into the portfolios of JuniorISA investors and drawdowninvestors alike, which the firm saysis testament to the broad appealenjoyed by the stock.

Senior analyst Laith Khalaf said:“Sid has come out in force to findout more about the forthcoming saleof Lloyds shares.

“The bank is a trusted high streetname and will be offered onattractive terms for investors, whichhas generated a wave of interestfrom the public.

“Lloyds has a broad appealamongst investors, and shares inthe company find their way intoaccounts ranging from Junior ISAsfor children, right through to thedrawdown portfolios of pensionerslooking for income.

“The tremendous level of interestin the Lloyds sale demonstrates howhigh profile offerings can reallycapture the public imagination, andget people thinking about investingfor their future.”

Holiday park buy-outsafeguards 18 jobs� JOBS have been saved after aWeston-super-Mare holiday parkwas bought out.

West Country Park Homes hasacquired Purn Holiday Park for anundisclosed seven-figure deal withsupport from Barclays. The movesafeguards 18 jobs and adds to thecompany’s portfolio of nine caravanparks in Somerset. The 28-acre parksits in the greenbelt landscape ofBleadon, housing 165 static caravanpitches and space for 60 touringcaravans along with numerouspitches for tents. It also has aclubhouse, including bar, restaurantand an indoor swimming pool.

Director Sean Abrahams said:“We look forward to carrying on thework started by its previousowners.”

Financial

To u r i s m

Biggest in Europe Games supplieropens new star-studded showroom

A GROWING Bristol 3D printingcompany aims to break new groundby building a new Additive Manu-facturing Technology Centre.

HiETA Technologies, based at theBristol and Bath Science Park, spe-cialises in additive manufacturing,otherwise known as 3D printing.

The process uses layers of materialto create 3D objects and compon-e n t s.

The firm will offer what it calls afull A-to-Z service that will take cus-tomers from concept through toproduct at the site.

HiETA has grown quickly since itwas founded in 2012 from a hot-deskat the park to a 24-strong team.

The centre will create six new jobs.It will comprise a large office space

for design work, a materials room,on-site additive manufacturing ma-chines and a testing lab.

The development of the centre fol-lows a grant from the West of EnglandLocal Enterprise Partnership.

Chief executive Mike Adams, pic-t u re d , said: “The success of HiETAover the last two and a-half years istestament to the collaborative envir-onment that we call our home, Bristoland Bath Science Park.

“We have built strong relationshipswith other tenants like CFMS andAltair that have served us very well.

“We believe our additive manufac-turing technology centre presents anexciting opportunity for innovativemanufacturers who like the flexib-ility that the process can offer them.

“Our full service offering meansthat clients will be able to see thewhole process under one roof and beconfident that we have everystage of the process, frominitial concept through topart delivery, covered.”

The firm has de-veloped components forthe automotive, de-fence, aerospace andclean energy sectors,working alongside or-ganisations including theMinistry of Defence and In-n ovat e U K .

Iain Gray chairman of the steer-ing committee at Bristol & Bath Sci-ence Park, in Emersons Green, said:“HiETA is an exemplar tenant that

illustrates exactly what we are tryingto achieve here at BBSP, fromstart-up, to successful company and

market leader.“The growth and innova-tion within the walls of

H i E TA’s developingcentre come hand inhand with our futureambitions for the Sci-ence Park that were un-veiled earlier this year.

“It is an exciting timefor the industry and we

are delighted to be a part ofthe foundations of HiETA’s de-

ve l o p m e n t . ”The science park has attracted

more than 40 tenants, which havehelped to create 350 jobs since 2011.

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

customer service, best small busi-ness, and best leisure, entertainmentand sports ecommerce retailer.

It has also been shortlisted as afinalist in the Lloyds Bank NationalBusiness Awards, featuring in twocategories; The Lloyds Bank DigitalBusiness of the Year and The LloydsBank Small to Medium-Sized Busi-ness of the Year. The winners are dueto be announced on November 10.

‘Exciting’ times aheadafter new acquisition� AN Avonmouth company thatsupplies motor, pump andgearbox repair and maintenanceto the water and rail industries hasbeen bought by a Scottish firm.

Parsons Peebles Group, a ClydeBlowers Capital company, hasacquired Anstee & Ware Ltd.

The acquisition means thegroup can offer more services andin more locations. Its employeenumbers rise from 120 to 270,creating what bosses believe willbe one of the strongest players inthe UK electrical service market.

Group chief executive FrankBarrett said: “Anstee & Ware are ahigh quality company with anexcellent reputation and strongcustomer relationships.

“They will enable access to newmarket sectors, significantlyenhance our coverage and add aservice capability on specificmechanical equipment. I’m veryexcited about the additionalcapability this acquisition bringsand we look forward to deliveringeven better service to our growingcustomer base.”

Jonathan Anstee, whorepresented the sellers in the deal,said: “We consider this sale verybeneficial to the future growth ofAnstee & Ware. The combinedstrengths of the two companieswill deliver one of the mostcomprehensive electromechanicalservice providers in the UK.”

Sale

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

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

F i n a n ce

Money&Co founder to guide Clifton expansionBRISTOL firm Clifton Asset Man-agement has appointed Money&Cochief executive and founder NicolaHorlick as a non-executive director.

The high-profile appointment willprovide the board with expertise tohelp guide the pension-led fundingspecialist through the next phase ofits growth.

Based in Ham Green, just outsideBristol in North Somerset, the com-pany helps the owners small andmedium-sized companies to invest intheir business from their own pen-sion funds. The firm won the BestAlternative Provider Award in 2014and is one of the largest providers ofalternative business finance in theUK having facilitated more than £250

million in funding to more than 1,500businesses. Nesta research found al-most two-thirds of SMEs using pen-sion-led funding saw their profitsrise and almost half employed morep e o p l e.

Nicola, right, has been a leadingfund manager in the City of Londonfor over 30 years. During that time,she has set up and managed severalinvestment businesses. Crowdfund-ing platform Money&Co has ashared interest with Clifton as itprovides loans to SMEs looking togrow their businesses.

She said: “I get approached fornon-exec roles almost every week,but what particularly attracted me toClifton was that pension-led funding

is something genuinely original anddisruptive in the pension space. Pen-sion-led funding has the potential tobecome a much more main-stream funding solution forSMEs – particularly asthe government,through pension free-dom, has changed themindset of not touch-ing your pension untilretirement. As a result,we are seeing a newwave of entrepreneursturning to their pensionfunds for growth capital.”

Adam Tavener, chairman of Clif-ton Asset Management, said: “We ’redelighted Nicola has decided to be-

come a non-executive director. Herhuge experience in the City and inthe alternative funding market will

benefit Clifton and pension-ledfunding.com.”

He added: “Pe n s i o n - l e dfunding has hugegrowth potential. Manyentrepreneurs andbusiness owners havebeen forced to give per-sonal guarantees, often

putting their familyhome at risk. Pension-led

funding allows businessowners to invest in their busi-

nesses and potentially create a lar-ger pot of money for their retirementif the business succeeds.”

� TheHomeL e i s u reDirect teamled byhusbandand wifeAndy andMichelleB e re s f o rdand dogsCharlie andFrank inf ro n t :above,inside thes h o w ro o m

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2 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 3We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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

AGAMES room supplier hasopened a new showroomjust north of Bristol which itbelieves makes it the biggestof its kind in Europe.

Home Leisure Direct has added anew showroom to its existing two,meaning the three combined nowhave a floor space covering morethan 7,500 square feet.

The showrooms display an arrayof products that includes 32 pooltables, seven table tennis tables, fourfoosball tables, six jukeboxes, 22 pin-ball machines, 18 arcade machinesand a 12-foot shuffleboard.

The showrooms have been de-veloped from converted barns in El-berton, just north of Bristol.

Managing director Andy Beres-ford said: “In our line of work gettingyour hands on our products is a vitalpart of the customer experience.

“As they say ‘the sizzle sells thesausa g e’ and our showroom is cer-tainly sizzling. Allowing our cus-tomers to try their hands at a widerange of the equipment that we offerenables them to appreciate just whatthey’ll be getting – and hopefullyinspire them to consider even morep o s s i b i l i t i e s. ”

He added: “Our showrooms are thelargest of their type in Europe. Theircombined size and scale puts us atthe forefront of the European marketas no other games room supplier isable to offer a similar setup.

“Our existing showrooms used toattract visitors from far and wide,with some flying in from overseassolely to pay us a visit.

“With the introduction of our newshowroom we hope to encourageeven more to swing by and see whatwe ’ve got on show.”

Alongside the games equipment,the showrooms house a selection ofsporting and movie memorabilia onthe walls, including signed footballshirts from Lionel Messi, CristianoRonaldo, Paul Gascoigne and Pele,which are all for sale.

And a soon-to-be-launched rangeof home bars is also featured, withsamples of on tap beverages.

The company invited key clientsand customers to celebrate thelaunch, mingling with some of theUK’s leading games room players,including pool’s Mosconi cup winnerKarl Boyes, Commonwealth Gamestable tennis gold medallist Ryan Jen-kins and Team GB foosball captainBen Mason.

Andy said: “It was great to see somany in attendance. There were

around 200 across the course of theday, which was a fantastic turn outgiven everyone’s busy schedule.

“We ’re absolutely delighted withour finished showroom so we werepleased that we were able to show itoff to so many. We look forward towelcoming more customers throughour doors as we continue.”

So far in 2015 the company hasalready won three awards covering

� Staff at Cadbury Garden Centre in Congresbury

Te c h Le i s u re

Computer firmannounces itsglobal ambition� SUPER computer maker CrayInc has announced ambitiousplans for a Europe, Middle Eastand Africa research lab in itsBristol offices.

The firm made the revelationat the 2015 International HighPerformance Computing UserForum in Paris.

The lab will work on largeresearch and developmentprojects with key customers andpartners.

It will be at the forefront of thefirm’s work with what it calls the“European high performancecomputing ecosystem”.

The company makes supercomputers which cost millions ofpounds to customers, includingthe Met Office.

It opened its European HQ inBristol earlier this year.

The research lab shouldposition Cray to work withnew and existing customers onvarious projects such as specialresearch and developmentinitiatives, working with them onbespoke computers to solve theirspecific problems.

Steve Scott, senior vicepresident and chief technicalofficer at Cray, said: “Establishinga dedicated research lab inthe region allows us to furtherengage with our customers inco-designing solutions for theircurrent and futuresupercomputing requirements.

“The European market is vitallyimportant to Cray.

“With the recent opening of ourregional headquarters in Bristol, anew Cray EMEA Research Lab,and a growing customer base inthe region, our commitment to theEuropean HPC community isstronger than ever.”

Ret a i l

In full bloom Revamped gardencentre reopens creating 40 jobs

A GARDEN centre near Bris-tol has reopened after a13-week redevelopmentwhich has created 41 newj o b s.

Owner Wyevale Garden Centreshas given Cadbury Garden Centre inCongresbury, North Somerset, am a ke ove r.

The new-look space, which is thelargest garden centre in Bristol, in-cludes a 91,221sq ft outdoor area.

The owners are aiming to create the

“ultimate retail destination” combin-ing shopping, leisure, dining andeve n t s.

The are hoping to spark a love ofgardening in all ages and offers achoice of thousands of differentplants, shrubs and trees.

Features include:� A new botanic kitchen, an openplan eatery serving breakfasts, af-ternoon teas and hearty mains;� A kids’ soft play area;� Walter Smith Farm Shop, offeringlocally-sourced produce;� Costa coffee shop;� And new concessions including aClarks Outlet, Christy, MountainWarehouse, Laithwaites Wines, Craftshop and Yankee Candle.

The new concessions and shopswithin the garden centre are helpingcreate the new jobs.

Centre manager Paul Butcherssaid: “Our new-look garden centrewill not only offer quality, range andvalue to customers who love theirhome and garden; but also a uniqueday-out destination for all the familyto enjoy.

“We look forward to welcomingnew customers through our doorsand are confident they will enjoy thee x p e r i e n c e.

“With the countdown to Christmasalready beginning and our ChristmasPreview Night around the corner, weare also looking forward to bringingthe joy of Christmas to Bristol.”

The centre has also appointed char-ity and environment champions whowill be responsible for building linkswith the local community.

James Searle-Mallon will be re-sponsible for raising money for theWyevale chosen charities, MarieCurie and NSPCC, as well as any localcharities the centre chooses to sup-por t.

Meanwhile Gary Upham Jones hasbeen made environment champion,responsible for spearheading cam-paigns to reduce the impact the busi-ness has on the environment.

The centre has planned a series ofevents to pull in shoppers, includinghalf-term activities, a Christmasgrotto and a food festival.

Te c h

3D printing firm moves into another dimension

Huge public interestin Lloyds Bank shares� MORE than 120,000 investorshave registered an interest in theupcoming public sell off of LloydsBank shares with Bristol investmentfirm Hargreaves Lansdown.

It shows there’s been more thanBake Off on the minds of the GreatBritish public in the last week, as the£2 billion sale of the Government’sremaining stake in the bank isplanned for next spring.

And the overall number interestedwill be much higher, as this figureonly relates to those registering onthe website of the FTSE 100investment specialist.

Lloyds is already the most popularstock amongst HargreavesLansdown share investors, and findsits way into the portfolios of JuniorISA investors and drawdowninvestors alike, which the firm saysis testament to the broad appealenjoyed by the stock.

Senior analyst Laith Khalaf said:“Sid has come out in force to findout more about the forthcoming saleof Lloyds shares.

“The bank is a trusted high streetname and will be offered onattractive terms for investors, whichhas generated a wave of interestfrom the public.

“Lloyds has a broad appealamongst investors, and shares inthe company find their way intoaccounts ranging from Junior ISAsfor children, right through to thedrawdown portfolios of pensionerslooking for income.

“The tremendous level of interestin the Lloyds sale demonstrates howhigh profile offerings can reallycapture the public imagination, andget people thinking about investingfor their future.”

Holiday park buy-outsafeguards 18 jobs� JOBS have been saved after aWeston-super-Mare holiday parkwas bought out.

West Country Park Homes hasacquired Purn Holiday Park for anundisclosed seven-figure deal withsupport from Barclays. The movesafeguards 18 jobs and adds to thecompany’s portfolio of nine caravanparks in Somerset. The 28-acre parksits in the greenbelt landscape ofBleadon, housing 165 static caravanpitches and space for 60 touringcaravans along with numerouspitches for tents. It also has aclubhouse, including bar, restaurantand an indoor swimming pool.

Director Sean Abrahams said:“We look forward to carrying on thework started by its previousowners.”

Financial

To u r i s m

Biggest in Europe Games supplieropens new star-studded showroom

A GROWING Bristol 3D printingcompany aims to break new groundby building a new Additive Manu-facturing Technology Centre.

HiETA Technologies, based at theBristol and Bath Science Park, spe-cialises in additive manufacturing,otherwise known as 3D printing.

The process uses layers of materialto create 3D objects and compon-e n t s.

The firm will offer what it calls afull A-to-Z service that will take cus-tomers from concept through toproduct at the site.

HiETA has grown quickly since itwas founded in 2012 from a hot-deskat the park to a 24-strong team.

The centre will create six new jobs.It will comprise a large office space

for design work, a materials room,on-site additive manufacturing ma-chines and a testing lab.

The development of the centre fol-lows a grant from the West of EnglandLocal Enterprise Partnership.

Chief executive Mike Adams, pic-t u re d , said: “The success of HiETAover the last two and a-half years istestament to the collaborative envir-onment that we call our home, Bristoland Bath Science Park.

“We have built strong relationshipswith other tenants like CFMS andAltair that have served us very well.

“We believe our additive manufac-turing technology centre presents anexciting opportunity for innovativemanufacturers who like the flexib-ility that the process can offer them.

“Our full service offering meansthat clients will be able to see thewhole process under one roof and beconfident that we have everystage of the process, frominitial concept through topart delivery, covered.”

The firm has de-veloped components forthe automotive, de-fence, aerospace andclean energy sectors,working alongside or-ganisations including theMinistry of Defence and In-n ovat e U K .

Iain Gray chairman of the steer-ing committee at Bristol & Bath Sci-ence Park, in Emersons Green, said:“HiETA is an exemplar tenant that

illustrates exactly what we are tryingto achieve here at BBSP, fromstart-up, to successful company and

market leader.“The growth and innova-tion within the walls of

H i E TA’s developingcentre come hand inhand with our futureambitions for the Sci-ence Park that were un-veiled earlier this year.

“It is an exciting timefor the industry and we

are delighted to be a part ofthe foundations of HiETA’s de-

ve l o p m e n t . ”The science park has attracted

more than 40 tenants, which havehelped to create 350 jobs since 2011.

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

customer service, best small busi-ness, and best leisure, entertainmentand sports ecommerce retailer.

It has also been shortlisted as afinalist in the Lloyds Bank NationalBusiness Awards, featuring in twocategories; The Lloyds Bank DigitalBusiness of the Year and The LloydsBank Small to Medium-Sized Busi-ness of the Year. The winners are dueto be announced on November 10.

‘Exciting’ times aheadafter new acquisition� AN Avonmouth company thatsupplies motor, pump andgearbox repair and maintenanceto the water and rail industries hasbeen bought by a Scottish firm.

Parsons Peebles Group, a ClydeBlowers Capital company, hasacquired Anstee & Ware Ltd.

The acquisition means thegroup can offer more services andin more locations. Its employeenumbers rise from 120 to 270,creating what bosses believe willbe one of the strongest players inthe UK electrical service market.

Group chief executive FrankBarrett said: “Anstee & Ware are ahigh quality company with anexcellent reputation and strongcustomer relationships.

“They will enable access to newmarket sectors, significantlyenhance our coverage and add aservice capability on specificmechanical equipment. I’m veryexcited about the additionalcapability this acquisition bringsand we look forward to deliveringeven better service to our growingcustomer base.”

Jonathan Anstee, whorepresented the sellers in the deal,said: “We consider this sale verybeneficial to the future growth ofAnstee & Ware. The combinedstrengths of the two companieswill deliver one of the mostcomprehensive electromechanicalservice providers in the UK.”

Sale

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

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

F i n a n ce

Money&Co founder to guide Clifton expansionBRISTOL firm Clifton Asset Man-agement has appointed Money&Cochief executive and founder NicolaHorlick as a non-executive director.

The high-profile appointment willprovide the board with expertise tohelp guide the pension-led fundingspecialist through the next phase ofits growth.

Based in Ham Green, just outsideBristol in North Somerset, the com-pany helps the owners small andmedium-sized companies to invest intheir business from their own pen-sion funds. The firm won the BestAlternative Provider Award in 2014and is one of the largest providers ofalternative business finance in theUK having facilitated more than £250

million in funding to more than 1,500businesses. Nesta research found al-most two-thirds of SMEs using pen-sion-led funding saw their profitsrise and almost half employed morep e o p l e.

Nicola, right, has been a leadingfund manager in the City of Londonfor over 30 years. During that time,she has set up and managed severalinvestment businesses. Crowdfund-ing platform Money&Co has ashared interest with Clifton as itprovides loans to SMEs looking togrow their businesses.

She said: “I get approached fornon-exec roles almost every week,but what particularly attracted me toClifton was that pension-led funding

is something genuinely original anddisruptive in the pension space. Pen-sion-led funding has the potential tobecome a much more main-stream funding solution forSMEs – particularly asthe government,through pension free-dom, has changed themindset of not touch-ing your pension untilretirement. As a result,we are seeing a newwave of entrepreneursturning to their pensionfunds for growth capital.”

Adam Tavener, chairman of Clif-ton Asset Management, said: “We ’redelighted Nicola has decided to be-

come a non-executive director. Herhuge experience in the City and inthe alternative funding market will

benefit Clifton and pension-ledfunding.com.”

He added: “Pe n s i o n - l e dfunding has hugegrowth potential. Manyentrepreneurs andbusiness owners havebeen forced to give per-sonal guarantees, often

putting their familyhome at risk. Pension-led

funding allows businessowners to invest in their busi-

nesses and potentially create a lar-ger pot of money for their retirementif the business succeeds.”

� TheHomeL e i s u reDirect teamled byhusbandand wifeAndy andMichelleB e re s f o rdand dogsCharlie andFrank inf ro n t :above,inside thes h o w ro o m

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4 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 5We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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

AIRBUS has launched a longerrange version of its A350-900plane to service the world’slongest haul route, withmuch of the key modification

works to be carried out in Filton.The Ultra Long Range version is

being created for Singapore Airlinesand will be able to fly for 19 hours,meaning the carrier can fly non-stopto the United States.

It will include a modified fuel sys-tem to increase the fuel carrying ca-pacity, an increase in maximumtake-off weight, plus aerodynamic im-provements, which will give a rangenot just to the US West Coast but asfar as New York on the East Coast.

At a distance of some 8,700 nauticalmiles, the New York service will bethe world’s longest commercial pas-senger route, with an expected flighttime of up to 19 hours.

The airline will also be able tore-configure the planes to the stand-ard long-haul A350-900 specificationshould they need to later on.

Engineers at the Filton plant inBristol will be modifying the fuelsystem, improving the aerodynamiclift to cope with a heavier aircraft,and re-certifying the landing gear forthe increased maximum take-offwe i g h t .

Airbus president and chief exec-utive Fabrice Brégier said: “We areexcited to be working with SingaporeAirlines to re-launch its premiumnon-stop service to the US.

“The A350 is the perfect, flexibleplatform for such operations, offeringunrivalled operating economics forthe very longest routes.

“And the wider and quieter cabinwill provide the perfect environmentfor passengers to enjoy theworld-famous Singapore Airlinesin-flight product.”

The airline’s chief executive, GohChoon Phong, said: “Our customershave been asking us to re-startnon-stop Singapore-US flights and weare pleased that Airbus was able tooffer the right aircraft to do so in acommercially viable manner.

“This is another example of how we

strive to meet and exceed our cus-tomers’ expectations by remaining atthe forefront of product and serviceinnovation in our industry. It willalso further strengthen the Singa-pore hub by providing the fastest andmost convenient air connectivitybetween North America and South-east Asia.”

Airbus plane will provide longestpassenger flights in the world

How beauty contestant turned herbusiness around with new attitude

A52-YEAR-OLD Bristol busi-nesswoman is one of the old-est nominated finalists in anational beauty pageant,after being selected for the

finals of the Ms Galaxy competitionfor 2016.

Shelley Reice is managing directorof Thornbury-based Careflo and,newly anointed as Ms North Bristol,is one of the eldest in the nationalover-30s category, which is being runthis year for the first time as part ofthe Miss Galaxy UK pageants.

She hopes to inspire women of allages to recognise that there are nolimits to their potential, having set upher care business with nothing but atelephone from an office in Thorn-bury eight years ago.

As the business grew Shelleysuffered the classic challenges whichface many entrepreneurs, taking onmore and more responsibility andfinding it difficult to delegate.

“I was caring for patients,” shesaid, “at the same time as running thebusiness – doing the admin, co-or-dinating other carers, managing staffand even doing the bookkeeping.

“It was unsustainable and aroundlast Christmas I was at a real low.

“But I visited a couple of women’sbusiness meetings, worked with agreat coach and mentor, as well assome great accountants, to get thingson track.

“Now the company’s firing on allcylinders and we’re branching out tooffer a full range of care-related ser-vices. It’s an exciting time.”

Following a recent re-brand Care-flo, formerly known as Compliment-ing Care Training Services, hasdeveloped into a business which of-fers the full suite of care servicesthrough three strands: domiciliarycare through Careflo Care; wellnesstreatments through to Careflo Hol-istic; and care training through Care-flo Training.

The company turns over nearly£1 million per year and employs 50carers who work at homes aroundSouth Gloucestershire.

Shelley has a 17-year-old son Mat-thew who is currently at collegestudying business studies and lives athome with her in Alveston.

She said: “He says that seeing meentering a beauty pageant is quitefunny but I think he’s quite proud,too. It started off as a bit of fun – anidea my personal trainer came upwith. But as it’s gone on, I’ve got moreinto it. Now being selected as a fi-nalist has given me a lot of self-con-fidence. It’s made me realise thatanyone can do anything they want to,if they put their mind to it.

“From where I was last year, towhere I am now with the business… Id i d n’t know which way to turn but

BRISTOL and the South West arebeing targeted by Chinese investorsseeking overseas opportunities in re-sponse to their nation’s current eco-nomic uncertainties.

Tim Davies, head of the Bristoloffice of commercial property expertsColliers International, said: “The dif-ficulties being experienced by theChinese economy have resulted inChinese investors seeking new out-lets, and this has led to inward in-vestment into the UK.

“Initially this was focussed almostexclusively in London but more re-cently Chinese Investors have lookedto the leading regional centres, es-pecially Bristol and the South West.

“This is illustrated by the recent

announcement that Chinese invest-ment will be part-funding the newnuclear power station at HinkleyPoint C, near Bridgwater.

“These investors have been attrac-ted by the fact Bristol has a strongeconomy, and by concerns that Lon-don is overheating and will provideless opportunity for growth.”

The Colliers International Bristoloffice works closely with the West ofEngland China bureau, established tobuild links between the South Westand China, and in particular Bristol’stwin city Guangzhou.

Tim said: “There are regular Bris-tol trade missions to China organisedby the West of England China Bureau,and these have done much to raise

China views Bristol as latest investment target

Young entrepreneura true inspiration� A YOUNG entrepreneur hasbecome a motivational speakerlooking to encourage others toraise their aspirations.

Tanaka Chigwada, 21, is anentrepreneur and a youthambassador for social enterpriseBabbasa which reaches out topeople from disadvantagedbackgrounds, and also a residenton the E-Spark powered byNatwest incubation programme.

“I was born in Zimbabwe andhave had a tough upbringing,” hesaid. “I’ve been through a lot ofstruggles, which shaped me as aperson and defined myaspirations. I didn’t know manypeople who ran their own

businesses. I alsodid not know

how toaccess therightinformationor knewpeoplewilling to

support mewith my

ideas ofinspiring other

youngpeople to live a better life.”

Tanaka, above, first heard ofBabbasa last year and gotinvolved with its annual ‘AskAbout Me’ project, where he gavepresentations to both businessesand young people by taking part.And he hasn’t looked back since.

“They also helped me to finallysecure a mentor, who supportedme with getting my ideas down onpaper and turning them into abusiness plan,” said Tanaka.

“Babbasa has enabled me tosee the hard work that’s requiredin running a business day in, dayout and it has given me the driveto further reach out andencourage other young people tonot allow their environment to limittheir dreams. Young people needto believe in their ambitions andnot to be afraid of dreaming big.”

Luke Sapsed, CEO of KOJI, asoft drink brand, became Tanaka’smentor, through the Babbasascheme. The Ask About Meproject is a training programme,networking event and mentoringscheme. It takes place at BristolHotel on Saturday, October 24.

Find out more athttps://aam2015.eventbrite.co.ukor contact Amy onadmin@byep.org.uk or 07548645179.

Tra i n i n g‘Steady growth butspending to slow’� THE economy will continue topost solid growth rates over thenext three years but, as consumerspending slows, business will haveto rely on harder-to-win gains fromincreases in investment andproductivity, according to the EYITEM Club Autumn Forecast.

The club says over the last yearconsumers have enjoyed a “sugarrush” as falling commodity pricespushed inflation down to zero.

However, a combination of risinginflation – expected to start goingup in the winter despite thisweek’s fall – and a tightening fiscalpolicy will see consumer spendinggrowth slow from three per cent in2015 to 2.6 per cent in 2016 and2.1 per cent in 2017.

The forecast predicts that therecent upturn in productivity willcontinue, as firms use their strongfinancial position to step upinvestment. This, in turn, shouldallow wage growth to continue tosteadily accelerate and help firmsto weather the impact of theNational Living Wage.

As a result, the club expectsGDP growth to reach 2.5 per centthis year before it slows to 2.4 percent in 2016 and 2.3 per cent in2017.

Richard Jones, EY’s seniorpartner in Bristol, said: “UKproductivity is set to improve, butto accelerate growth South Westbusinesses will need to step uptheir efforts to improve theiroperations.

“After years of relying onoffshoring, outsourcing andplentiful labour to reduce costs,the ability of businesses to drivereal change in their activity nowcomes to the test.”

having the clarity of vision that I havenow is a really empowering thing.

“If this can help draw some at-tention and my story can show otherwomen in business, or in life gen-erally, that just changing the way youthink can turn your whole lifearound, then that can only be a goodthing.”

The Ms Galaxy UK 2016 compet-ition is the inaugural over-30s contestin the annual Miss Galaxy UK beautypageant. Nine category winners fromaround the country will represent theUK in the finals in America later nextyear. The pageant is raising fundsthis year for NHS cancer hospital TheC h r i s t i e.

Interest rates likely tostay same into 2016� INFLATION in the UK fell backto below zero, at -0.1 per cent,making an interest rate riseunlikely until the middle of nextyear, according to a Bristol expert.

Ben Brettell, senior economist atHargreaves Lansdown in Bristol,said the fall was down to the“usual suspect” of falling fuelcosts, coupled with smaller-than-usual increases in clothing prices.

He said: “The rate of consumerprice inflation has now been zero,or close enough to make nodifference, since February.

“It’s expected to climb in thecoming months as the big drop infuel prices falls out of the year-on-year calculation, but core inflation,which strips out volatilecomponents like food and energy,also remains weak at one per cent.

“This offers little suggestion thatunderlying inflationary pressuresare building in the UK economy,despite continuing strength inwage growth. Figures due outtomorrow are expected to showpay growing at 3.1 per cent.”

He said global risks to the UK,especially surrounding China andother emerging markets, havebeen well-documented, but therewere also signs the domesticeconomy could be faltering.

“While the impact of risingwages remains notable by itsabsence in the inflation figures,”said Ben, “I expect the Bank ofEngland to focus on the risks andexercise caution on interest rates.

“I see them remaining at 0.5 percent into the second half of nextyear, and quite possibly longer.”

THE UK’s best workplace is in ...Keynsham. The town’s new civiccentre was given the top prize in theBritish Council for Offices NationalAwards last night.

The judges singled out KeynshamCivic Centre & One Stop Shop inrecognition of the building providingan environmentally sustainable, lowmaintenance and flexible workspace,whilst acting as a catalyst for theregeneration of the town.

The judges felt the Civic Centreclearly served the local communitywith half of the building given over topublic realm, as well as providing

valuable retail space to stimulate therevival of the town’s High Street.

As a workplace for the local coun-cil, the judges praised the building’simpressive use of natural light tocreate an “uplifting workspace” aswell as the design of the office floorswhich lend themselves toward flex-ibility and encourage collaborativewo rk i n g .

The team behind the building werealso commended for conducting athorough and impressive stakeholderengagement process, from the incep-tion of the project through to com-pletion.

Peter Crowther, property directorat Bruntwood Estates and awardschairman, said: “This is an inspir-ational development that improves

Uplifting offices are theUK’s best workplace

working practices and offers much tothe local community in terms of itspublic facilities and its form withinthe urban landscape.

“Whereas the scale and formality ofa number of civic buildings can oftenserve to drive away the people theyare designed to accommodate, thisdevelopment provides a clear, access-ible and inviting beacon of civicp r i d e.

“To achieve all of this whilst alsodelivering such a low carbon buildingis remarkable.”

BCO chief executive RichardKauntze added: “The judges were un-animous in the opinion that the Keyn-sham Civic Centre & One Stop Shop isan excellent building that offersmuch to the local community.

“At a time where office space is inhigh demand, creating a dynamicworkplace that delivers to both thoseusing the space, and the community itforms part of, is more important thaneve r. ”

The civic centre took the corporateworkplace prize as well as the best ofthe best award. It was the only winnerin the South West.

Ae ros pa ce

Awa rd s Overseas investment

Eco n o my

Eco n o myCare services

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

� The Keynsham CivicCentre and One Stop Shop

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

awareness of the many investmentand trade opportunities that can befound in the West Country.”

The Colliers’ Q3 2015 Capital FlowsReport predicts that strong inflows ofcapital to Europe from domestic andinternational investors will result inrecord volumes in 2015, with thispattern likely to continue into 2016.

The research identifies three dis-tinct waves of Asian investment intoEuropean real estate: long-term play-ers such as Singapore, Hong Kongand Japanese capital; mid-termentrants including Malaysian andKorean Pension Funds; and thirdly,fresh capital like Chinese and Tai-wanese insurance companies, T haiinvestors and Indonesian developers.� Guangzhou in southern China

� Shelley Reice, who has been chosen for the finals of the Ms Galaxy competition for 2016

If this can show otherwomen in business, or inlife generally, that justchanging the way youthink can turn your wholelife around, then that canonly be a good thing.

“

Under an amendment to the car-rier’s existing order for 63 A350-900s,seven of the aircraft will now bedelivered with the Ultra-Long Rangec ap ab i l i t y.

In addition, the airline has orderedfour extra A350-900s, taking its totalfirm orders for the A350 XWB Familyto 67.

We are excited to beworking with SingaporeAirlines to re-launch itsnon-stop service to the US.

“

� The A350-900; below, the Fuel Test Facility atFilton; bottom, A350 XWB landing gear test rig;left, Robert Pimm, gear installation engineer,working on the newly installed A350 XWB noselanding gear

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

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4 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 5We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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

AIRBUS has launched a longerrange version of its A350-900plane to service the world’slongest haul route, withmuch of the key modification

works to be carried out in Filton.The Ultra Long Range version is

being created for Singapore Airlinesand will be able to fly for 19 hours,meaning the carrier can fly non-stopto the United States.

It will include a modified fuel sys-tem to increase the fuel carrying ca-pacity, an increase in maximumtake-off weight, plus aerodynamic im-provements, which will give a rangenot just to the US West Coast but asfar as New York on the East Coast.

At a distance of some 8,700 nauticalmiles, the New York service will bethe world’s longest commercial pas-senger route, with an expected flighttime of up to 19 hours.

The airline will also be able tore-configure the planes to the stand-ard long-haul A350-900 specificationshould they need to later on.

Engineers at the Filton plant inBristol will be modifying the fuelsystem, improving the aerodynamiclift to cope with a heavier aircraft,and re-certifying the landing gear forthe increased maximum take-offwe i g h t .

Airbus president and chief exec-utive Fabrice Brégier said: “We areexcited to be working with SingaporeAirlines to re-launch its premiumnon-stop service to the US.

“The A350 is the perfect, flexibleplatform for such operations, offeringunrivalled operating economics forthe very longest routes.

“And the wider and quieter cabinwill provide the perfect environmentfor passengers to enjoy theworld-famous Singapore Airlinesin-flight product.”

The airline’s chief executive, GohChoon Phong, said: “Our customershave been asking us to re-startnon-stop Singapore-US flights and weare pleased that Airbus was able tooffer the right aircraft to do so in acommercially viable manner.

“This is another example of how we

strive to meet and exceed our cus-tomers’ expectations by remaining atthe forefront of product and serviceinnovation in our industry. It willalso further strengthen the Singa-pore hub by providing the fastest andmost convenient air connectivitybetween North America and South-east Asia.”

Airbus plane will provide longestpassenger flights in the world

How beauty contestant turned herbusiness around with new attitude

A52-YEAR-OLD Bristol busi-nesswoman is one of the old-est nominated finalists in anational beauty pageant,after being selected for the

finals of the Ms Galaxy competitionfor 2016.

Shelley Reice is managing directorof Thornbury-based Careflo and,newly anointed as Ms North Bristol,is one of the eldest in the nationalover-30s category, which is being runthis year for the first time as part ofthe Miss Galaxy UK pageants.

She hopes to inspire women of allages to recognise that there are nolimits to their potential, having set upher care business with nothing but atelephone from an office in Thorn-bury eight years ago.

As the business grew Shelleysuffered the classic challenges whichface many entrepreneurs, taking onmore and more responsibility andfinding it difficult to delegate.

“I was caring for patients,” shesaid, “at the same time as running thebusiness – doing the admin, co-or-dinating other carers, managing staffand even doing the bookkeeping.

“It was unsustainable and aroundlast Christmas I was at a real low.

“But I visited a couple of women’sbusiness meetings, worked with agreat coach and mentor, as well assome great accountants, to get thingson track.

“Now the company’s firing on allcylinders and we’re branching out tooffer a full range of care-related ser-vices. It’s an exciting time.”

Following a recent re-brand Care-flo, formerly known as Compliment-ing Care Training Services, hasdeveloped into a business which of-fers the full suite of care servicesthrough three strands: domiciliarycare through Careflo Care; wellnesstreatments through to Careflo Hol-istic; and care training through Care-flo Training.

The company turns over nearly£1 million per year and employs 50carers who work at homes aroundSouth Gloucestershire.

Shelley has a 17-year-old son Mat-thew who is currently at collegestudying business studies and lives athome with her in Alveston.

She said: “He says that seeing meentering a beauty pageant is quitefunny but I think he’s quite proud,too. It started off as a bit of fun – anidea my personal trainer came upwith. But as it’s gone on, I’ve got moreinto it. Now being selected as a fi-nalist has given me a lot of self-con-fidence. It’s made me realise thatanyone can do anything they want to,if they put their mind to it.

“From where I was last year, towhere I am now with the business… Id i d n’t know which way to turn but

BRISTOL and the South West arebeing targeted by Chinese investorsseeking overseas opportunities in re-sponse to their nation’s current eco-nomic uncertainties.

Tim Davies, head of the Bristoloffice of commercial property expertsColliers International, said: “The dif-ficulties being experienced by theChinese economy have resulted inChinese investors seeking new out-lets, and this has led to inward in-vestment into the UK.

“Initially this was focussed almostexclusively in London but more re-cently Chinese Investors have lookedto the leading regional centres, es-pecially Bristol and the South West.

“This is illustrated by the recent

announcement that Chinese invest-ment will be part-funding the newnuclear power station at HinkleyPoint C, near Bridgwater.

“These investors have been attrac-ted by the fact Bristol has a strongeconomy, and by concerns that Lon-don is overheating and will provideless opportunity for growth.”

The Colliers International Bristoloffice works closely with the West ofEngland China bureau, established tobuild links between the South Westand China, and in particular Bristol’stwin city Guangzhou.

Tim said: “There are regular Bris-tol trade missions to China organisedby the West of England China Bureau,and these have done much to raise

China views Bristol as latest investment target

Young entrepreneura true inspiration� A YOUNG entrepreneur hasbecome a motivational speakerlooking to encourage others toraise their aspirations.

Tanaka Chigwada, 21, is anentrepreneur and a youthambassador for social enterpriseBabbasa which reaches out topeople from disadvantagedbackgrounds, and also a residenton the E-Spark powered byNatwest incubation programme.

“I was born in Zimbabwe andhave had a tough upbringing,” hesaid. “I’ve been through a lot ofstruggles, which shaped me as aperson and defined myaspirations. I didn’t know manypeople who ran their own

businesses. I alsodid not know

how toaccess therightinformationor knewpeoplewilling to

support mewith my

ideas ofinspiring other

youngpeople to live a better life.”

Tanaka, above, first heard ofBabbasa last year and gotinvolved with its annual ‘AskAbout Me’ project, where he gavepresentations to both businessesand young people by taking part.And he hasn’t looked back since.

“They also helped me to finallysecure a mentor, who supportedme with getting my ideas down onpaper and turning them into abusiness plan,” said Tanaka.

“Babbasa has enabled me tosee the hard work that’s requiredin running a business day in, dayout and it has given me the driveto further reach out andencourage other young people tonot allow their environment to limittheir dreams. Young people needto believe in their ambitions andnot to be afraid of dreaming big.”

Luke Sapsed, CEO of KOJI, asoft drink brand, became Tanaka’smentor, through the Babbasascheme. The Ask About Meproject is a training programme,networking event and mentoringscheme. It takes place at BristolHotel on Saturday, October 24.

Find out more athttps://aam2015.eventbrite.co.ukor contact Amy onadmin@byep.org.uk or 07548645179.

Tra i n i n g‘Steady growth butspending to slow’� THE economy will continue topost solid growth rates over thenext three years but, as consumerspending slows, business will haveto rely on harder-to-win gains fromincreases in investment andproductivity, according to the EYITEM Club Autumn Forecast.

The club says over the last yearconsumers have enjoyed a “sugarrush” as falling commodity pricespushed inflation down to zero.

However, a combination of risinginflation – expected to start goingup in the winter despite thisweek’s fall – and a tightening fiscalpolicy will see consumer spendinggrowth slow from three per cent in2015 to 2.6 per cent in 2016 and2.1 per cent in 2017.

The forecast predicts that therecent upturn in productivity willcontinue, as firms use their strongfinancial position to step upinvestment. This, in turn, shouldallow wage growth to continue tosteadily accelerate and help firmsto weather the impact of theNational Living Wage.

As a result, the club expectsGDP growth to reach 2.5 per centthis year before it slows to 2.4 percent in 2016 and 2.3 per cent in2017.

Richard Jones, EY’s seniorpartner in Bristol, said: “UKproductivity is set to improve, butto accelerate growth South Westbusinesses will need to step uptheir efforts to improve theiroperations.

“After years of relying onoffshoring, outsourcing andplentiful labour to reduce costs,the ability of businesses to drivereal change in their activity nowcomes to the test.”

having the clarity of vision that I havenow is a really empowering thing.

“If this can help draw some at-tention and my story can show otherwomen in business, or in life gen-erally, that just changing the way youthink can turn your whole lifearound, then that can only be a goodthing.”

The Ms Galaxy UK 2016 compet-ition is the inaugural over-30s contestin the annual Miss Galaxy UK beautypageant. Nine category winners fromaround the country will represent theUK in the finals in America later nextyear. The pageant is raising fundsthis year for NHS cancer hospital TheC h r i s t i e.

Interest rates likely tostay same into 2016� INFLATION in the UK fell backto below zero, at -0.1 per cent,making an interest rate riseunlikely until the middle of nextyear, according to a Bristol expert.

Ben Brettell, senior economist atHargreaves Lansdown in Bristol,said the fall was down to the“usual suspect” of falling fuelcosts, coupled with smaller-than-usual increases in clothing prices.

He said: “The rate of consumerprice inflation has now been zero,or close enough to make nodifference, since February.

“It’s expected to climb in thecoming months as the big drop infuel prices falls out of the year-on-year calculation, but core inflation,which strips out volatilecomponents like food and energy,also remains weak at one per cent.

“This offers little suggestion thatunderlying inflationary pressuresare building in the UK economy,despite continuing strength inwage growth. Figures due outtomorrow are expected to showpay growing at 3.1 per cent.”

He said global risks to the UK,especially surrounding China andother emerging markets, havebeen well-documented, but therewere also signs the domesticeconomy could be faltering.

“While the impact of risingwages remains notable by itsabsence in the inflation figures,”said Ben, “I expect the Bank ofEngland to focus on the risks andexercise caution on interest rates.

“I see them remaining at 0.5 percent into the second half of nextyear, and quite possibly longer.”

THE UK’s best workplace is in ...Keynsham. The town’s new civiccentre was given the top prize in theBritish Council for Offices NationalAwards last night.

The judges singled out KeynshamCivic Centre & One Stop Shop inrecognition of the building providingan environmentally sustainable, lowmaintenance and flexible workspace,whilst acting as a catalyst for theregeneration of the town.

The judges felt the Civic Centreclearly served the local communitywith half of the building given over topublic realm, as well as providing

valuable retail space to stimulate therevival of the town’s High Street.

As a workplace for the local coun-cil, the judges praised the building’simpressive use of natural light tocreate an “uplifting workspace” aswell as the design of the office floorswhich lend themselves toward flex-ibility and encourage collaborativewo rk i n g .

The team behind the building werealso commended for conducting athorough and impressive stakeholderengagement process, from the incep-tion of the project through to com-pletion.

Peter Crowther, property directorat Bruntwood Estates and awardschairman, said: “This is an inspir-ational development that improves

Uplifting offices are theUK’s best workplace

working practices and offers much tothe local community in terms of itspublic facilities and its form withinthe urban landscape.

“Whereas the scale and formality ofa number of civic buildings can oftenserve to drive away the people theyare designed to accommodate, thisdevelopment provides a clear, access-ible and inviting beacon of civicp r i d e.

“To achieve all of this whilst alsodelivering such a low carbon buildingis remarkable.”

BCO chief executive RichardKauntze added: “The judges were un-animous in the opinion that the Keyn-sham Civic Centre & One Stop Shop isan excellent building that offersmuch to the local community.

“At a time where office space is inhigh demand, creating a dynamicworkplace that delivers to both thoseusing the space, and the community itforms part of, is more important thaneve r. ”

The civic centre took the corporateworkplace prize as well as the best ofthe best award. It was the only winnerin the South West.

Ae ros pa ce

Awa rd s Overseas investment

Eco n o my

Eco n o myCare services

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

� The Keynsham CivicCentre and One Stop Shop

Rupert JanischBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

awareness of the many investmentand trade opportunities that can befound in the West Country.”

The Colliers’ Q3 2015 Capital FlowsReport predicts that strong inflows ofcapital to Europe from domestic andinternational investors will result inrecord volumes in 2015, with thispattern likely to continue into 2016.

The research identifies three dis-tinct waves of Asian investment intoEuropean real estate: long-term play-ers such as Singapore, Hong Kongand Japanese capital; mid-termentrants including Malaysian andKorean Pension Funds; and thirdly,fresh capital like Chinese and Tai-wanese insurance companies, T haiinvestors and Indonesian developers.� Guangzhou in southern China

� Shelley Reice, who has been chosen for the finals of the Ms Galaxy competition for 2016

If this can show otherwomen in business, or inlife generally, that justchanging the way youthink can turn your wholelife around, then that canonly be a good thing.

“

Under an amendment to the car-rier’s existing order for 63 A350-900s,seven of the aircraft will now bedelivered with the Ultra-Long Rangec ap ab i l i t y.

In addition, the airline has orderedfour extra A350-900s, taking its totalfirm orders for the A350 XWB Familyto 67.

We are excited to beworking with SingaporeAirlines to re-launch itsnon-stop service to the US.

“

� The A350-900; below, the Fuel Test Facility atFilton; bottom, A350 XWB landing gear test rig;left, Robert Pimm, gear installation engineer,working on the newly installed A350 XWB noselanding gear

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6 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 7We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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

AHUSBAND-and-wife runbusiness is getting ready toopen its 22nd site in the newyear. Mama Bear’s Day Nurs-ery has expanded quickly

with most of its sites in the Bristola re a .

Bev and Tony Driffield’s next en-deavour will be on the new HanhamHall housing development in Whit-tucks Road.

Located in the picturesque resid-ential area, the nursery itself will behoused in a striking grade II listedbuilding, which is being convertedfor its new use.

The nursery has its own gardens aswell as access to three parks and playareas, a secret garden and a naturewalk area with a pond.

Bev said: “We are so excited to be

opening a new nursery in Hanhamand adding to our portfolio ofmuch-loved nurseries in Bristol.

“This nursery will not only servethe families who will be moving in totheir new homes at Hanham Hall butalso other families living or workingin the local area, looking for qualitych i l d c a re.

“At the moment we are workingreally hard to completely renovatethe nursery and create our pur-pose-built rooms which are suitablefor each age group from babies totoddlers. The home-from-home feel issomething we ensure we install ineach of our nurseries and the samewill be said for our Hanham setting.

“While we will not be officiallyopen until the new year we are in-viting any families interested in look-ing around and finding out more tocome along and see us from Novem-b e r.

“We will also be taking registra-tions straight away and we expectthis nursery to be fully-subscribed so

I’d encourage anyone interested toget in touch soon.”

Mama Bear’s is a family-run busi-ness founded in 2002 with its officesnearby in Hanham.

It now runs nurseries across Bris-tol, Somerset and Devon, aimed atproviding children with their firststage of education to give them ahead-start when they start at primarys ch o o l .

Bev added: “It will be run to thesame high standards as our othernurseries with a friendly atmosphereand purpose-built rooms suitable foreach individual age-group.

“We put a massive focus on thequality of care we provide. MamaBear’s has gained a reputation in theSouth West for offering the highestquality, affordable care and has beenawarded an Outstanding grade byOfsted every year since 2009. It is thiscommitment to quality that has al-lowed us to grow to 22 nurseries andwe look forward to caring for morechildren in the years to come.”

Bear necessities Coupleexpand nursery portfolio

The world-first Disney deal that’smaking bionic hands cool for kids

ABRISTOL company is creat-ing amazing bionic hands foramputees inspired by Mar-vel, Frozen and Star Warsch a r a c t e r s.

It means child amputees or thoseborn without hands can be the coolestkids in class, thanks to Open Bionicswhich has signed a world-first dealwith Disney.

The first prototypes are the IronMan hand, LightSabre hand and theSnowflake hand, inspired by QueenElsa from Frozen.

Open Bionics, based at the BristolRobotics Lab at the UWE Frenchaycampus has been working onground-breaking robotics hands foramputees with the goal of dramat-ically cutting the cost of high qualitylimbs by using 3D scanning and print-ing techniques.

The company, which is staffed byjust a handful of people, recently wona place on the Disney-backed TechStars scheme, which picks a smallnumber of tech companies and givesthem three months of intensive ment-oring and support out in California.

And clearly they’ve made somegood contacts, resulting in the land-mark Disney deal.

Chief operating officer SamanthaPayne – a regular columnist for theBristol Post Business section – said:“We ’ve spent a year developing handsfor adult amputees and somethingthat struck us nearly every time wespoke with an older amputee was justhow much of a social stigma theyfaced growing up.

“We ’re now living in a societywhere we can embrace our differ-ences and we like being unique.

“It’s really important for us to en-courage young people with limb dif-ferences to see themselves as cool.

“T hey’re not lacking anything,they just have a difference. So we’remaking bionic hands to celebratethose differences. We’re making pros-thetics cool.”

The team has used their time in theDisney programme productively, todevelop the first child versions.

“We ’ve spent the last three monthsworking on hands for children anddeveloped two wearable prototypes,”said Samantha.

“The kids loved them. We fitted a10-year-old boy called Logan, and a12-year-old girl called Sydney, bothchildren born without hands.

“It was amazing to see how quickLogan responded to the device.

“He was controlling the fingers andchanging the different grip modeswith ease. It was very promising andthe first time Open Bionics has fitteda child.

“We 3D scanned his left hand and

A BRISTOL web design and onlinemarketing company has expanded itsteam – with more than half of the newrecruits coming through apprentice-s h i p s.

GWS Media has employed half adozen people as their client base con-tinues to increase.

And the family firm has taken onfour apprenticeships through place-ments from the University of the Westof England and Bristol University.

David Graves, who set up the com-pany in 2000 with his father, Richard,said: “I think it’s essential to renewour skillset and respond to a chan-ging market. The apprentices havebeen brilliant, bringing new ideasand a fresh perspective.

“In return, we offer training andmentoring, which aids personal andprofessional development.”

Richard, 69, who is the marketingand financial director for GWS Mediaand a published author, added: “Inmany ways this is a young person’sbusiness and they help to keep us onour toes.

“We are optimistic about the futureand hope to continue to grow in theupcoming months and continue todevelop young talent.”

Senior graphic designer Ian Rich-mond, 29, is one of the longest servingemployees after Richard and Davidspotted his work at a UWE exhibitionin 2007.

He said: “It happened much quick-

er than I expected or hoped for. I thinkUWE helps to develop a creative mindwhile also providing practical sup-por t.

“I really enjoy working for GWSbecause of the variety of work in-volved and the range of clients wework with. We cover anything frombranding to web design.”

UWE graduate and marketing ex-ecutive Lauren Dickson, 21, is now afull-time employee after completing asix month internship.

She said: “I’ve learned so muchsince I started working with GWS andwould definitely recommend an in-ternship to anyone interested in de-veloping their skills in thewo rk p l a c e. ”

Young talent helping GWS growth

Courses make digitalmore accessible� BRISTOL businesses havetaken a central role in helping theGovernment-backed DigitalBusiness Academy launch asecond tier of courses aimed atenabling UK SMEs improve theirprofile and trade online.

The new courses are now liveon the Digital Business Academywebsite - www.digitalbusinessacademyuk.com with one – ‘Howto Use Social Media for Business’– having been designed by digitalmarketing consultancy ValuableContent, based at Spike Island inBristol.

It aims to demonstrate how tomake the most ofsocial mediafor business.

R i c h a rdDennys,pictur ed,head ofDigitalBusinessA c a d e m y,said: “Smallbusinessowners are awareof the value that having a goodonline presence and tradingcapability can provide, but it isanother thing knowing how to goabout getting that right.”

Valuable Content founder SonjaJefferson said: “It was a greatprivilege to have been picked tocreate this course but also wewere very aware of theresponsibility that we wanted tobe able to make something thateveryone could get involved with

“To do this we were privilegedto be able to work with threeoutstanding companies who areall very different and who havebeen successful in making socialmedia an integral part of how theygo about their day-to-daybusiness lives.”

The businesses featured on thecourse are start-up Bristol-baseddining app Wriggle, online beerclub BeerBods and Clutton CoxSolicitors, based in ChippingS o d b u r y.

Paul Hajek, managing directorof Clutton Cox Solicitors, said:“We are a small firm in ChippingSodbury and have been aroundfor many years, so it could besurprising that we have been sosuccessful through our online andsocial media channels.

“But I realised quite early on as Iwas using the internet for my ownresearch to find things I neededhow powerful a tool it would be.”

OnlineArchitects move intocity’s Colston Tower� ARCHITECTURAL practiceChapman Taylor has moved itsBristol design studio into newpremises at Colston Tower as aresult of the company’s growth.

Property consultancy JLLsecured new premises for the firmat the landmark building, whichenables the company to remain inthe heart of the city and willaccommodate up to 25 architects.

The office was established inJanuary 2012 to create newopportunities for the practice.

Bristol director Nick Thursbysaid: “The new ‘tower studio’ willallow the office to double in sizeover the coming years whilstmaintaining its welcoming,productive, imaginative nature.”

Hannah Waterhouse, associatedirector at JLL in Bristol, added:“We were delighted to beappointed by Chapman Taylor andpleased to secure offices whichmet their expectations.”

The pan-European real estateinvestor acquired Colston Tower in2014. Its plan for the buildingincludes refurbishment andbranding to reposition it withinBristol’s burgeoning creative anddigital market.

Hospice to benefitfrom brewery funds� THE Hare Foundation, a charityset up by South West brewer BathAles, has donated £5,000 to StPeter’s Hospice in Bristol.

The funds donated to Bristol’sonly adult hospice, will helptowards the work the charity doesto improve the quality of life forpatients with life-limiting illnesses,as well as to offer comfort andguidance for their loved ones.

To raise money, the businesshas organised many charitableevents such as sponsored bikerides, cake sales and dress-downFridays. Substantial donationswere received from the BathAles-owned Graze Bar andChophouses in the South West,from customers generouslyadding to the funds.

Foundation trustee KarinAshwell said: “We are delighted tobe able to help St Peter’s. After avisit to the centre in Brentry, thetrustees all agreed that the workthe hospice does for, and with,local families is fantastic.”

Prominent officesare now fully let� THE 76,000 sq ft OneCastlepark office building incentral Bristol is now fully let,following the securing of threelettings within recent weeks bylandlord, Circle Property Unit Trust.

The prominent seven-storeybuilding, above, is situatedbetween Temple Quarter andCabot Circus and has recentlyseen the extensive refurbishmentof the final office suites.

Acting on behalf of the trust,Knight Frank and Alder King havelet a third floor suite, comprising4,898 sq ft, to Heat RecruitmentLimited on a five year lease and afurther 4,898 sq ft to BaseKitPlatform Limited at fifth floor levelon a ten year lease.

Meanwhile, existing tenant IrwinMitchell Solicitors has expandedits presence in the building, andwill now occupy 11,893 sq ft onthe top two floors of the building.

Martin Booth, partner in theoffice agency team at Knight Frankin Bristol, said: “This flurry of dealsis indicative of a strong marketwith occupiers keen to securehigh-quality refurbished space.One Castlepark provides exactlythis space.

“Sadly, other occupiers havebeen disappointed by the absenceof further available space withinthe building.”

Tom Dugay of Alder King added:“The location of One Castleparkbetween Cabot Circus and TempleMeads station makes it popularboth with occupiers and with theiremployees. The recent successescome as no surprise within theBristol office market.”

DTZ acted on behalf of BaseKitPlatform Limited. JLL acted onbehalf of Irwin Mitchell Solicitors.

3D printed him a right hand based onthe size of his left. I’m pretty surethere hasn’t been a bionic hand madethat is so proportional to the wearer.

“We ’re now focused on furtheringthe development of these hands, so wecan release children’s and adult’shands next year.”

Open Bionics has now graduatedfrom the Tech Stars Disney Accel-e r at o r.

Samantha added: “We ’re verylucky to have received world-class mentoring and business coach-ing as part of this accelerator pro-g ramme.”

Disney owns both Marvel and Lu-casfilm, and Open Bionics has se-cured the royalty free licence toproduce bionic hands based on char-acters from Marvel, Star Wars andthe smash hit animated film Frozen.

To give an idea of the popularity ofthe brands, the latest Marvel filmAvengers: Age of Ultron which fea-tured Iron Man has made so far$1.4 billion while Frozen is not farbehind at $1.2 billion.

SIX Bristol companies have been lis-ted in an annual table of mid-marketstar performers.

The Sunday Times Grant ThorntonTop Track 250 league table ranks theUK’s private mid-market growth com-panies with the biggest sales.

Topping the Bristol contingent wasenergy supplier Ovo, based nearTemple Meads, with sales of £339million, ranked 63rd overall.

Building firm Integral followed,ranked 74th, with £309 million sales.

Next was Oasis Dental Care, 119th,with sales of £234 million.

The provider of NHS, private and

specialist dental care in the UK, hasmoved up an impressive 90 places. Inthe last year, the firm, which now has350 practices across the UK and Re-public of Ireland, has gone through aperiod of rapid expansion – g rowingby over a third in size.

It now uses almost 1,500 dentistsand 3,000 staff to deliver dentistry toits 2.8 million patients and believes asit continues to expand, consistency indelivering quality dental services topatients across its practices will bevital to its success.

Chief executive Justin Ash said:“Seeing the company jump so many

places in this year’s Top Track 250 is areal achievement and testament tothe hard work that the team have putin across the board.

Firms stand out as starperformers mid-market

“It’s been a year of tremendousgrowth, driven by both organicgrowth and acquisitions and mer-g ers.”

Catering equipment supplier Nis-bets, 128th, is next with £226.7 millionsales; then building product supplierTaylor Maxwell, 171st, £183.5 million;and finally recruitment consultancyResource Solutions Group, 182nd,£176.2 million.

The Clifton-based recruitment con-sultancy expanded into Europe thisyear, opening offices in Munich, Am-sterdam and Dublin, and grew sales12 per cent in 2014.

Chief executive Mike Beesley said:“We are delighted to have made suchan inroad on the Sunday Times Fa s tTrack 250 this year by leaping 15p l a c e s.

“In the 40 years we have been op-erating as a business, this year wehave seen significant levels of ex-pansion and growth with the openingof four new offices, three of which are

outside of the UK, so it’s great to havethat recognised at a national level.

“The result is testimony to the ded-ication and talent of everyone whoworks at RSG as they consistentlydeliver excellence and I’m grateful fortheir continued support and enthu-siasm in getting the job done to thehighest standards possible.”

Tim Lincoln, head of the Bristoloffice at Grant Thornton, sponsor ofthe league table, praised the com-panies for their performance.

“It’s inspiring to see such a diverserange of businesses creating growthopportunities both at home andabroad and positively contributing tothe UK economy,” he said.

“The fact that over half of the TopTrack 250 businesses areheadquartered outside of London andthe south east speaks to the growinginfluence of the regional businesshubs and the opportunity thesepresent in the creation of a morevibrant UK economy.”

Day care D es i g n

Drink

G row t h M a r ket i n g

Proper tyTe c h

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

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

� Apprentices join long serving members at GWS Media

University of Bristol student CatrinHarris, 19, is on a part-time workplacement as a computer coder withGWS Media, while studying for adegree in Chemical Physics.

She said: “I did some computercoding as part of my physics module.The university encourages this as itcan be applied to physic experimentsand makes you more employable.”

� Tony and Bev Driffield with Mama Bear

� Open Bionics founders Joel Gibbard and Samantha Payne

� Justin Ash

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6 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 7We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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

AHUSBAND-and-wife runbusiness is getting ready toopen its 22nd site in the newyear. Mama Bear’s Day Nurs-ery has expanded quickly

with most of its sites in the Bristola re a .

Bev and Tony Driffield’s next en-deavour will be on the new HanhamHall housing development in Whit-tucks Road.

Located in the picturesque resid-ential area, the nursery itself will behoused in a striking grade II listedbuilding, which is being convertedfor its new use.

The nursery has its own gardens aswell as access to three parks and playareas, a secret garden and a naturewalk area with a pond.

Bev said: “We are so excited to be

opening a new nursery in Hanhamand adding to our portfolio ofmuch-loved nurseries in Bristol.

“This nursery will not only servethe families who will be moving in totheir new homes at Hanham Hall butalso other families living or workingin the local area, looking for qualitych i l d c a re.

“At the moment we are workingreally hard to completely renovatethe nursery and create our pur-pose-built rooms which are suitablefor each age group from babies totoddlers. The home-from-home feel issomething we ensure we install ineach of our nurseries and the samewill be said for our Hanham setting.

“While we will not be officiallyopen until the new year we are in-viting any families interested in look-ing around and finding out more tocome along and see us from Novem-b e r.

“We will also be taking registra-tions straight away and we expectthis nursery to be fully-subscribed so

I’d encourage anyone interested toget in touch soon.”

Mama Bear’s is a family-run busi-ness founded in 2002 with its officesnearby in Hanham.

It now runs nurseries across Bris-tol, Somerset and Devon, aimed atproviding children with their firststage of education to give them ahead-start when they start at primarys ch o o l .

Bev added: “It will be run to thesame high standards as our othernurseries with a friendly atmosphereand purpose-built rooms suitable foreach individual age-group.

“We put a massive focus on thequality of care we provide. MamaBear’s has gained a reputation in theSouth West for offering the highestquality, affordable care and has beenawarded an Outstanding grade byOfsted every year since 2009. It is thiscommitment to quality that has al-lowed us to grow to 22 nurseries andwe look forward to caring for morechildren in the years to come.”

Bear necessities Coupleexpand nursery portfolio

The world-first Disney deal that’smaking bionic hands cool for kids

ABRISTOL company is creat-ing amazing bionic hands foramputees inspired by Mar-vel, Frozen and Star Warsch a r a c t e r s.

It means child amputees or thoseborn without hands can be the coolestkids in class, thanks to Open Bionicswhich has signed a world-first dealwith Disney.

The first prototypes are the IronMan hand, LightSabre hand and theSnowflake hand, inspired by QueenElsa from Frozen.

Open Bionics, based at the BristolRobotics Lab at the UWE Frenchaycampus has been working onground-breaking robotics hands foramputees with the goal of dramat-ically cutting the cost of high qualitylimbs by using 3D scanning and print-ing techniques.

The company, which is staffed byjust a handful of people, recently wona place on the Disney-backed TechStars scheme, which picks a smallnumber of tech companies and givesthem three months of intensive ment-oring and support out in California.

And clearly they’ve made somegood contacts, resulting in the land-mark Disney deal.

Chief operating officer SamanthaPayne – a regular columnist for theBristol Post Business section – said:“We ’ve spent a year developing handsfor adult amputees and somethingthat struck us nearly every time wespoke with an older amputee was justhow much of a social stigma theyfaced growing up.

“We ’re now living in a societywhere we can embrace our differ-ences and we like being unique.

“It’s really important for us to en-courage young people with limb dif-ferences to see themselves as cool.

“T hey’re not lacking anything,they just have a difference. So we’remaking bionic hands to celebratethose differences. We’re making pros-thetics cool.”

The team has used their time in theDisney programme productively, todevelop the first child versions.

“We ’ve spent the last three monthsworking on hands for children anddeveloped two wearable prototypes,”said Samantha.

“The kids loved them. We fitted a10-year-old boy called Logan, and a12-year-old girl called Sydney, bothchildren born without hands.

“It was amazing to see how quickLogan responded to the device.

“He was controlling the fingers andchanging the different grip modeswith ease. It was very promising andthe first time Open Bionics has fitteda child.

“We 3D scanned his left hand and

A BRISTOL web design and onlinemarketing company has expanded itsteam – with more than half of the newrecruits coming through apprentice-s h i p s.

GWS Media has employed half adozen people as their client base con-tinues to increase.

And the family firm has taken onfour apprenticeships through place-ments from the University of the Westof England and Bristol University.

David Graves, who set up the com-pany in 2000 with his father, Richard,said: “I think it’s essential to renewour skillset and respond to a chan-ging market. The apprentices havebeen brilliant, bringing new ideasand a fresh perspective.

“In return, we offer training andmentoring, which aids personal andprofessional development.”

Richard, 69, who is the marketingand financial director for GWS Mediaand a published author, added: “Inmany ways this is a young person’sbusiness and they help to keep us onour toes.

“We are optimistic about the futureand hope to continue to grow in theupcoming months and continue todevelop young talent.”

Senior graphic designer Ian Rich-mond, 29, is one of the longest servingemployees after Richard and Davidspotted his work at a UWE exhibitionin 2007.

He said: “It happened much quick-

er than I expected or hoped for. I thinkUWE helps to develop a creative mindwhile also providing practical sup-por t.

“I really enjoy working for GWSbecause of the variety of work in-volved and the range of clients wework with. We cover anything frombranding to web design.”

UWE graduate and marketing ex-ecutive Lauren Dickson, 21, is now afull-time employee after completing asix month internship.

She said: “I’ve learned so muchsince I started working with GWS andwould definitely recommend an in-ternship to anyone interested in de-veloping their skills in thewo rk p l a c e. ”

Young talent helping GWS growth

Courses make digitalmore accessible� BRISTOL businesses havetaken a central role in helping theGovernment-backed DigitalBusiness Academy launch asecond tier of courses aimed atenabling UK SMEs improve theirprofile and trade online.

The new courses are now liveon the Digital Business Academywebsite - www.digitalbusinessacademyuk.com with one – ‘Howto Use Social Media for Business’– having been designed by digitalmarketing consultancy ValuableContent, based at Spike Island inBristol.

It aims to demonstrate how tomake the most ofsocial mediafor business.

R i c h a rdDennys,pictur ed,head ofDigitalBusinessA c a d e m y,said: “Smallbusinessowners are awareof the value that having a goodonline presence and tradingcapability can provide, but it isanother thing knowing how to goabout getting that right.”

Valuable Content founder SonjaJefferson said: “It was a greatprivilege to have been picked tocreate this course but also wewere very aware of theresponsibility that we wanted tobe able to make something thateveryone could get involved with

“To do this we were privilegedto be able to work with threeoutstanding companies who areall very different and who havebeen successful in making socialmedia an integral part of how theygo about their day-to-daybusiness lives.”

The businesses featured on thecourse are start-up Bristol-baseddining app Wriggle, online beerclub BeerBods and Clutton CoxSolicitors, based in ChippingS o d b u r y.

Paul Hajek, managing directorof Clutton Cox Solicitors, said:“We are a small firm in ChippingSodbury and have been aroundfor many years, so it could besurprising that we have been sosuccessful through our online andsocial media channels.

“But I realised quite early on as Iwas using the internet for my ownresearch to find things I neededhow powerful a tool it would be.”

OnlineArchitects move intocity’s Colston Tower� ARCHITECTURAL practiceChapman Taylor has moved itsBristol design studio into newpremises at Colston Tower as aresult of the company’s growth.

Property consultancy JLLsecured new premises for the firmat the landmark building, whichenables the company to remain inthe heart of the city and willaccommodate up to 25 architects.

The office was established inJanuary 2012 to create newopportunities for the practice.

Bristol director Nick Thursbysaid: “The new ‘tower studio’ willallow the office to double in sizeover the coming years whilstmaintaining its welcoming,productive, imaginative nature.”

Hannah Waterhouse, associatedirector at JLL in Bristol, added:“We were delighted to beappointed by Chapman Taylor andpleased to secure offices whichmet their expectations.”

The pan-European real estateinvestor acquired Colston Tower in2014. Its plan for the buildingincludes refurbishment andbranding to reposition it withinBristol’s burgeoning creative anddigital market.

Hospice to benefitfrom brewery funds� THE Hare Foundation, a charityset up by South West brewer BathAles, has donated £5,000 to StPeter’s Hospice in Bristol.

The funds donated to Bristol’sonly adult hospice, will helptowards the work the charity doesto improve the quality of life forpatients with life-limiting illnesses,as well as to offer comfort andguidance for their loved ones.

To raise money, the businesshas organised many charitableevents such as sponsored bikerides, cake sales and dress-downFridays. Substantial donationswere received from the BathAles-owned Graze Bar andChophouses in the South West,from customers generouslyadding to the funds.

Foundation trustee KarinAshwell said: “We are delighted tobe able to help St Peter’s. After avisit to the centre in Brentry, thetrustees all agreed that the workthe hospice does for, and with,local families is fantastic.”

Prominent officesare now fully let� THE 76,000 sq ft OneCastlepark office building incentral Bristol is now fully let,following the securing of threelettings within recent weeks bylandlord, Circle Property Unit Trust.

The prominent seven-storeybuilding, above, is situatedbetween Temple Quarter andCabot Circus and has recentlyseen the extensive refurbishmentof the final office suites.

Acting on behalf of the trust,Knight Frank and Alder King havelet a third floor suite, comprising4,898 sq ft, to Heat RecruitmentLimited on a five year lease and afurther 4,898 sq ft to BaseKitPlatform Limited at fifth floor levelon a ten year lease.

Meanwhile, existing tenant IrwinMitchell Solicitors has expandedits presence in the building, andwill now occupy 11,893 sq ft onthe top two floors of the building.

Martin Booth, partner in theoffice agency team at Knight Frankin Bristol, said: “This flurry of dealsis indicative of a strong marketwith occupiers keen to securehigh-quality refurbished space.One Castlepark provides exactlythis space.

“Sadly, other occupiers havebeen disappointed by the absenceof further available space withinthe building.”

Tom Dugay of Alder King added:“The location of One Castleparkbetween Cabot Circus and TempleMeads station makes it popularboth with occupiers and with theiremployees. The recent successescome as no surprise within theBristol office market.”

DTZ acted on behalf of BaseKitPlatform Limited. JLL acted onbehalf of Irwin Mitchell Solicitors.

3D printed him a right hand based onthe size of his left. I’m pretty surethere hasn’t been a bionic hand madethat is so proportional to the wearer.

“We ’re now focused on furtheringthe development of these hands, so wecan release children’s and adult’shands next year.”

Open Bionics has now graduatedfrom the Tech Stars Disney Accel-e r at o r.

Samantha added: “We ’re verylucky to have received world-class mentoring and business coach-ing as part of this accelerator pro-g ramme.”

Disney owns both Marvel and Lu-casfilm, and Open Bionics has se-cured the royalty free licence toproduce bionic hands based on char-acters from Marvel, Star Wars andthe smash hit animated film Frozen.

To give an idea of the popularity ofthe brands, the latest Marvel filmAvengers: Age of Ultron which fea-tured Iron Man has made so far$1.4 billion while Frozen is not farbehind at $1.2 billion.

SIX Bristol companies have been lis-ted in an annual table of mid-marketstar performers.

The Sunday Times Grant ThorntonTop Track 250 league table ranks theUK’s private mid-market growth com-panies with the biggest sales.

Topping the Bristol contingent wasenergy supplier Ovo, based nearTemple Meads, with sales of £339million, ranked 63rd overall.

Building firm Integral followed,ranked 74th, with £309 million sales.

Next was Oasis Dental Care, 119th,with sales of £234 million.

The provider of NHS, private and

specialist dental care in the UK, hasmoved up an impressive 90 places. Inthe last year, the firm, which now has350 practices across the UK and Re-public of Ireland, has gone through aperiod of rapid expansion – g rowingby over a third in size.

It now uses almost 1,500 dentistsand 3,000 staff to deliver dentistry toits 2.8 million patients and believes asit continues to expand, consistency indelivering quality dental services topatients across its practices will bevital to its success.

Chief executive Justin Ash said:“Seeing the company jump so many

places in this year’s Top Track 250 is areal achievement and testament tothe hard work that the team have putin across the board.

Firms stand out as starperformers mid-market

“It’s been a year of tremendousgrowth, driven by both organicgrowth and acquisitions and mer-g ers.”

Catering equipment supplier Nis-bets, 128th, is next with £226.7 millionsales; then building product supplierTaylor Maxwell, 171st, £183.5 million;and finally recruitment consultancyResource Solutions Group, 182nd,£176.2 million.

The Clifton-based recruitment con-sultancy expanded into Europe thisyear, opening offices in Munich, Am-sterdam and Dublin, and grew sales12 per cent in 2014.

Chief executive Mike Beesley said:“We are delighted to have made suchan inroad on the Sunday Times Fa s tTrack 250 this year by leaping 15p l a c e s.

“In the 40 years we have been op-erating as a business, this year wehave seen significant levels of ex-pansion and growth with the openingof four new offices, three of which are

outside of the UK, so it’s great to havethat recognised at a national level.

“The result is testimony to the ded-ication and talent of everyone whoworks at RSG as they consistentlydeliver excellence and I’m grateful fortheir continued support and enthu-siasm in getting the job done to thehighest standards possible.”

Tim Lincoln, head of the Bristoloffice at Grant Thornton, sponsor ofthe league table, praised the com-panies for their performance.

“It’s inspiring to see such a diverserange of businesses creating growthopportunities both at home andabroad and positively contributing tothe UK economy,” he said.

“The fact that over half of the TopTrack 250 businesses areheadquartered outside of London andthe south east speaks to the growinginfluence of the regional businesshubs and the opportunity thesepresent in the creation of a morevibrant UK economy.”

Day care D es i g n

Drink

G row t h M a r ket i n g

Proper tyTe c h

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

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

� Apprentices join long serving members at GWS Media

University of Bristol student CatrinHarris, 19, is on a part-time workplacement as a computer coder withGWS Media, while studying for adegree in Chemical Physics.

She said: “I did some computercoding as part of my physics module.The university encourages this as itcan be applied to physic experimentsand makes you more employable.”

� Tony and Bev Driffield with Mama Bear

� Open Bionics founders Joel Gibbard and Samantha Payne

� Justin Ash

EPB-E01-S3

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E01-

S3

8 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 9We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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

He’s head of office at a leading large law firm but,as Gavin Thompson finds out, there’s more to PeterClough than clients and casework

“I AM the guardian of the of-fice culture... it’s my job tomake sure people have a lot offun.” Perhaps not the wordsyo u ’d expect from the head of

office of one of the city’s biggest lawfir ms.

You might expect winning cases orclients to be top of the to-do list. ButPeter Clough is confident he has hispriorities right.

He has just started his three yearterm as the head of the Bristol officeat Osborne Clarke and the firm is on ahigh, having been named UK law firmof the year by two of the three biglegal trade publications.

Serious stuff. But Peter is a manwho takes fun seriously. This is aman, after all, who owns a PennyFar thing.

“I rode it from home to the officethe other day for National Cycle toWork Day,” says Peter. “Comingthrough Queen Square at 8.45am wasquite amusing, people almost run-ning out of the way. It’s about sixmiles and I had to come the long wayto avoid Park Street.”

The bike washanded down from hisgrandfather, who hada “treasure trove” of agarage in Cornwallwhich also housedclassic cars includinga 1903 Dion Boutonwhich Peter will bedriving to Paris nextmonth with his fam-i ly.

The bike has had afew outings too,mainly charity ridesthrough the coun-tryside. “Usually byrivers as you tend toget flat sections,” hesays. “We ’ve probablyraised about £150,000for cancer charitiesover the years.”

This adventurousspirit crosses overinto work. Peter be-lieves the company has an enviableculture that needs to be protected.

“We ’ve got a great social life at OCin a fun and professional way,” hesaid. “We put on good purely socialevents for people. We have fancy dressparties. The last one was GreatGatsby. People tend to really go for itand I have to set the example.

“We decided to go as a Barber ShopQuintet and sang some silly songs.Sadly singing is not one of my tal-e n t s. ”

The parties take place twice a year.The previous one asked people todress up as what they really wanted tobe when they grew up. Peter went as achef, largely so that he could throwflour around. No one went as a lawyer.Which is sort of the point.

“If you want to have really wellmotivated interested people workingfor you, the last thing you want to dois put everyone in a room and makethem do legal work all day,” s ay sPe t e r.

T hat’s why the firm encouragespeople to do charity, community orpro bono work. Everyone in the firmhas a target of 25 hours a year of suchwork. Some of it is done for the officechosen charities the rest for causes

WE H A V E DYNAMIC STAFF WHO ARE FUN TO W O R K WITHthe individual cares about. The be-nefits for OC, as the staff refer to thefirm, are happier and more roundedp e o p l e.

“We want to attract the best talent,”he says. “Not just the best lawyers butthe ones who are good to work withand relevant to our clients.

“We take being a good lawyer asgiven. We want people who are dy-namic, innovative and fun to workwith. I had a client ask me the otherday, he said ‘I’ve worked with lots ofOsborne Clarke lawyers and they’veall been fun to work with... what’s thes e c re t ’. I found that a really gratifyingthing to hear.

“You want to hear people sayingyou did a great job and the peoplewere good to work with and relevantto our business. And I don’t thinkyo u ’d get that in all law firms.

“It really came home to me theother day. I was at dinner with clientsand two of our associates. We talkedabout the work and finished that andthen the two of them were just fant-astically engaging with the client.

T hat’s what you want.People who are good atthe legal part of the jobbut also talking topeople and under-standing what theywant from us. I wasreally proud of them.”

The firm has a longpedigree in Bristol,having advised Brunelon the construction ofthe Clifton SuspensionBridg e.

That puts Peter’sown career in perspect-ive. He joined in 1996.

“It seems like yester-d ay, ” he says.

A commercial dis-putes lawyer, Peter washired to grow the com-mercial and corporatelitigation division.

“Over the years wedeveloped that into apractice that is now

doing huge international arbitrationcases and we work for more than halfof the largest companies in the SouthWe s t , ” he said. “Now the team hasabout 100 people, when I started itwas 20. It was tremendous fun.”

The firm has grown overall too. Itemploys 450 people in Bristol, thebiggest office, but has 1,200 staffacross 20 offices in nine legal jur-isdictions. Six of those territories arenew in the past five years.

Another part of Peter’s role is tocontinue that growth.

“We ’ve done very well over the last10 years in growing the business,attracting some fantastic clients andexpanding internationally,” he says.“The key challenge is to keep up theg rowth.

“To do that we have to make surethat we help our clients succeed intomor row’s world. We have to makesure the marketplace understandswhat we are about and how we canhelp them.”

The international reach is a keypart of that offer. As is its strong linksto the City.

“For businesses in the region want-ing to do transactions in London orfind investment, we are very well

“Yo uwant tohearpeoplesayingyou did agreat joband thepeoplew e regood toworkwith andre l e v a n tto ourbusiness.

B R I S T O L’S commercial property market re-mains buoyant and demand could prompt morespeculative development in the city centre nextye a r.

Martin Booth, p i c t u re d , partner in propertyconsultancy Knight Frank’s Bristol officeagency team, said city centre office take up forthe third quarter of 2015 continued on the sametrend as the first half of the year.

He said: “Following a pause for breathpost-election and the good news from the gen-eral UK economy, occupier sentiment remainspositive. Q3 take up of 131,162 sq ft was in linewith the five and 10-year averages and we are allhoping for a strong finish to 2015.

“The quarter’s figures were not distorted byany unusually large deals. However, the quarterdid have the largest deal to date this year, whichwas the letting of 14,494 sq ft to Civica in theSpectrum building.”

He added: “The autumn rush of new enquiriesto the market has not materialised to the highlevels we were hoping for.

“That said, enquiry levels remainhealthy with demand for ‘c re at ive ’ or‘quirk y’ space far exceeding supply.

“To date in 2015 a further 128,000sq ft of accommodation has beenremoved from the city centre of-fice market for alternative uses,predominantly residential or stu-dent accommodation which in-creases the pressure on an alreadytight market.”

The out-of-town office market con-tinued at a steady pace with the thirdquarter take up of 64,641 sq ft.

The largest deal was the letting of 12,831 sq ftat 740 Aztec West to Northgate.

“This comprehensive refurbishment by L&Ghas seen real success, with 38,534 sq ft alreadypre-let to Alcatel Lucent at the end of 2014,” saidMartin. “It demonstrates a demand for

high-quality product in a market wherethere is a real scarcity.”

Looking ahead, he said there couldbe some big deals to come.

“A number of the larger indi-genous grade A and B require-ments of more than 10,000 sq ftwhich have been circling the mar-ket are beginning to hone in on

their preferred options, and we ex-pect a number of those to land in Q4

2015,” he said.“With availability now standing at its

lowest level since September 2008, we anticipatespeculative development will commence in Q12016 within the city centre.”

More big deals on the wayin buoyant office market

placed to help them,” says Peter.“We are a leading international

business law firm with internationalreach, we can provide access to theCity and are a good place to come forpremium transaction work.”

The firm acts for more than half ofthe biggest firms in the South West,Peter says, but its interest goes bey-ond the corporate giants.

“We act for a lot of smaller busi-nesses too,” he says. “We try to get abalanced portfolio of clients. We don’twant to just work for very large com-panies when there are some fantasticgrowth companies too.”

Bristol has had only a handful ofcompanies floating or pulling in bigprivate investment in the last coupleof years. Are there more to come?

“U n d o u b t e d ly, ” says Peter. “T herewill be more companies emergingwho become very successful. Peopleare now talking about Bristol as theSilicon Valley of the UK. If you look atsome of the possibilities for Bristoltech companies it could be very in-teresting. We’re also seeing US com-panies coming here and setting upoffices because they know it’s a placeyou can get people who innovate.”

In his 19 years in Bristol, Peter hasseen the city change and grow. Hesays the firm is rarely short of peoplewho want to come and work for it andwhile part of that is about its ownreputation, Bristol’s image is import-

My downtimeI’ve got three kids so Ispend a lot of timedoing various sportingand other activities withthe family. We sailtogether which is greatpartly because it’s funand exciting and partlybecause they can’t getoff! I love old cars andold bikes too. We’redoing the London toBrighton car rally soonin a 1903 veteran carwhich has been in thefamily since 1960 atleast. A Dion Bouton.It’s a labour of love. Itgets to 30mph tops. Wepile the kids in, getabout eight in there.

ant too. “Bristol has become a realhub of professional services, legalservices in particular,” he says. “T heindustry here was nothing like assignificant 20 years ago.

“We are lucky enough to be verysuccessful and that obviously helpswith our talent attraction but the wayBristol has grown helps too, into acity people want to come and workin.”

The city still has challenges, oneleaps out.

“Transpor t,” says Peter. “T hat’s theone thing the city really does need tosort out. Happily there are thingsgoing on but it will hold back thesuccess of the city. The South BristolLink road should help. It needs acoherent policy of road, rail, bus andtram.

“But Bristol has changed much forthe better overall. It’s a very exciting,dynamic place.

“When I arrived the docks werederelict, Temple Quay area didn’t exitand the city needed to reinvent itself,which it has done really successfully.The docks are now very vibrant, thisarea is fantastic. It’s been quite asuccess story in difficult times. Therea re n’t many cities to achieve that.”

And Temple Quay of course is nowhome to many serious players in theprofessional services.

As well as the odd one that doesn’talways take itself too seriously.

Proper ty

� The Spectrum building

� Peter with his PennyFarthing having ridden

to his office on NationalCycle to Work Day lastmonth. He had cycled6 miles in 50 minutes

Vital statisticsName: Peter CloughTitle: Head of Bristoloffice of OsborneClarkeAge: 48From: St Ives,Cornwall. An amazingplace to grow up.Education: C a rd i ffUniversity, studyinglaw, then Law School inG u i l f o rd .First job: General pubdogsbody at the CastleInn, St Ives. I knockedon the door of the pub,I was too young towork behind the bar atfirst but did barreling,cleaning, re-stocking.

My working dayNormally take my kids toschool on the way in, about8.30am. My day is spent onthree main things, the officehead role; looking after clients- I’m client relationship partnerfor a number of key clients;and then doing actual legalwork in the litigation andarbitration team. I’ve justcome from serving a notice onbehalf of an Indian client on aGhanaian company.

Part of the Local World group

Whether your conference is on a small or large scaleour expert knowledge will give you a professionaland stress free event by providing you with theright presentation equipment, lighting and sound.

Audience Response

Presentation Production

Video Presentation

Staging your Conferencedoesn’t have to cost a fortune...

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-

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S3

8 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 9We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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

He’s head of office at a leading large law firm but,as Gavin Thompson finds out, there’s more to PeterClough than clients and casework

“I AM the guardian of the of-fice culture... it’s my job tomake sure people have a lot offun.” Perhaps not the wordsyo u ’d expect from the head of

office of one of the city’s biggest lawfir ms.

You might expect winning cases orclients to be top of the to-do list. ButPeter Clough is confident he has hispriorities right.

He has just started his three yearterm as the head of the Bristol officeat Osborne Clarke and the firm is on ahigh, having been named UK law firmof the year by two of the three biglegal trade publications.

Serious stuff. But Peter is a manwho takes fun seriously. This is aman, after all, who owns a PennyFar thing.

“I rode it from home to the officethe other day for National Cycle toWork Day,” says Peter. “Comingthrough Queen Square at 8.45am wasquite amusing, people almost run-ning out of the way. It’s about sixmiles and I had to come the long wayto avoid Park Street.”

The bike washanded down from hisgrandfather, who hada “treasure trove” of agarage in Cornwallwhich also housedclassic cars includinga 1903 Dion Boutonwhich Peter will bedriving to Paris nextmonth with his fam-i ly.

The bike has had afew outings too,mainly charity ridesthrough the coun-tryside. “Usually byrivers as you tend toget flat sections,” hesays. “We ’ve probablyraised about £150,000for cancer charitiesover the years.”

This adventurousspirit crosses overinto work. Peter be-lieves the company has an enviableculture that needs to be protected.

“We ’ve got a great social life at OCin a fun and professional way,” hesaid. “We put on good purely socialevents for people. We have fancy dressparties. The last one was GreatGatsby. People tend to really go for itand I have to set the example.

“We decided to go as a Barber ShopQuintet and sang some silly songs.Sadly singing is not one of my tal-e n t s. ”

The parties take place twice a year.The previous one asked people todress up as what they really wanted tobe when they grew up. Peter went as achef, largely so that he could throwflour around. No one went as a lawyer.Which is sort of the point.

“If you want to have really wellmotivated interested people workingfor you, the last thing you want to dois put everyone in a room and makethem do legal work all day,” s ay sPe t e r.

T hat’s why the firm encouragespeople to do charity, community orpro bono work. Everyone in the firmhas a target of 25 hours a year of suchwork. Some of it is done for the officechosen charities the rest for causes

WE H A V E DYNAMIC STAFF WHO ARE FUN TO W O R K WITHthe individual cares about. The be-nefits for OC, as the staff refer to thefirm, are happier and more roundedp e o p l e.

“We want to attract the best talent,”he says. “Not just the best lawyers butthe ones who are good to work withand relevant to our clients.

“We take being a good lawyer asgiven. We want people who are dy-namic, innovative and fun to workwith. I had a client ask me the otherday, he said ‘I’ve worked with lots ofOsborne Clarke lawyers and they’veall been fun to work with... what’s thes e c re t ’. I found that a really gratifyingthing to hear.

“You want to hear people sayingyou did a great job and the peoplewere good to work with and relevantto our business. And I don’t thinkyo u ’d get that in all law firms.

“It really came home to me theother day. I was at dinner with clientsand two of our associates. We talkedabout the work and finished that andthen the two of them were just fant-astically engaging with the client.

T hat’s what you want.People who are good atthe legal part of the jobbut also talking topeople and under-standing what theywant from us. I wasreally proud of them.”

The firm has a longpedigree in Bristol,having advised Brunelon the construction ofthe Clifton SuspensionBridg e.

That puts Peter’sown career in perspect-ive. He joined in 1996.

“It seems like yester-d ay, ” he says.

A commercial dis-putes lawyer, Peter washired to grow the com-mercial and corporatelitigation division.

“Over the years wedeveloped that into apractice that is now

doing huge international arbitrationcases and we work for more than halfof the largest companies in the SouthWe s t , ” he said. “Now the team hasabout 100 people, when I started itwas 20. It was tremendous fun.”

The firm has grown overall too. Itemploys 450 people in Bristol, thebiggest office, but has 1,200 staffacross 20 offices in nine legal jur-isdictions. Six of those territories arenew in the past five years.

Another part of Peter’s role is tocontinue that growth.

“We ’ve done very well over the last10 years in growing the business,attracting some fantastic clients andexpanding internationally,” he says.“The key challenge is to keep up theg rowth.

“To do that we have to make surethat we help our clients succeed intomor row’s world. We have to makesure the marketplace understandswhat we are about and how we canhelp them.”

The international reach is a keypart of that offer. As is its strong linksto the City.

“For businesses in the region want-ing to do transactions in London orfind investment, we are very well

“Yo uwant tohearpeoplesayingyou did agreat joband thepeoplew e regood toworkwith andre l e v a n tto ourbusiness.

B R I S T O L’S commercial property market re-mains buoyant and demand could prompt morespeculative development in the city centre nextye a r.

Martin Booth, p i c t u re d , partner in propertyconsultancy Knight Frank’s Bristol officeagency team, said city centre office take up forthe third quarter of 2015 continued on the sametrend as the first half of the year.

He said: “Following a pause for breathpost-election and the good news from the gen-eral UK economy, occupier sentiment remainspositive. Q3 take up of 131,162 sq ft was in linewith the five and 10-year averages and we are allhoping for a strong finish to 2015.

“The quarter’s figures were not distorted byany unusually large deals. However, the quarterdid have the largest deal to date this year, whichwas the letting of 14,494 sq ft to Civica in theSpectrum building.”

He added: “The autumn rush of new enquiriesto the market has not materialised to the highlevels we were hoping for.

“That said, enquiry levels remainhealthy with demand for ‘c re at ive ’ or‘quirk y’ space far exceeding supply.

“To date in 2015 a further 128,000sq ft of accommodation has beenremoved from the city centre of-fice market for alternative uses,predominantly residential or stu-dent accommodation which in-creases the pressure on an alreadytight market.”

The out-of-town office market con-tinued at a steady pace with the thirdquarter take up of 64,641 sq ft.

The largest deal was the letting of 12,831 sq ftat 740 Aztec West to Northgate.

“This comprehensive refurbishment by L&Ghas seen real success, with 38,534 sq ft alreadypre-let to Alcatel Lucent at the end of 2014,” saidMartin. “It demonstrates a demand for

high-quality product in a market wherethere is a real scarcity.”

Looking ahead, he said there couldbe some big deals to come.

“A number of the larger indi-genous grade A and B require-ments of more than 10,000 sq ftwhich have been circling the mar-ket are beginning to hone in on

their preferred options, and we ex-pect a number of those to land in Q4

2015,” he said.“With availability now standing at its

lowest level since September 2008, we anticipatespeculative development will commence in Q12016 within the city centre.”

More big deals on the wayin buoyant office market

placed to help them,” says Peter.“We are a leading international

business law firm with internationalreach, we can provide access to theCity and are a good place to come forpremium transaction work.”

The firm acts for more than half ofthe biggest firms in the South West,Peter says, but its interest goes bey-ond the corporate giants.

“We act for a lot of smaller busi-nesses too,” he says. “We try to get abalanced portfolio of clients. We don’twant to just work for very large com-panies when there are some fantasticgrowth companies too.”

Bristol has had only a handful ofcompanies floating or pulling in bigprivate investment in the last coupleof years. Are there more to come?

“U n d o u b t e d ly, ” says Peter. “T herewill be more companies emergingwho become very successful. Peopleare now talking about Bristol as theSilicon Valley of the UK. If you look atsome of the possibilities for Bristoltech companies it could be very in-teresting. We’re also seeing US com-panies coming here and setting upoffices because they know it’s a placeyou can get people who innovate.”

In his 19 years in Bristol, Peter hasseen the city change and grow. Hesays the firm is rarely short of peoplewho want to come and work for it andwhile part of that is about its ownreputation, Bristol’s image is import-

My downtimeI’ve got three kids so Ispend a lot of timedoing various sportingand other activities withthe family. We sailtogether which is greatpartly because it’s funand exciting and partlybecause they can’t getoff! I love old cars andold bikes too. We’redoing the London toBrighton car rally soonin a 1903 veteran carwhich has been in thefamily since 1960 atleast. A Dion Bouton.It’s a labour of love. Itgets to 30mph tops. Wepile the kids in, getabout eight in there.

ant too. “Bristol has become a realhub of professional services, legalservices in particular,” he says. “T heindustry here was nothing like assignificant 20 years ago.

“We are lucky enough to be verysuccessful and that obviously helpswith our talent attraction but the wayBristol has grown helps too, into acity people want to come and workin.”

The city still has challenges, oneleaps out.

“Transpor t,” says Peter. “T hat’s theone thing the city really does need tosort out. Happily there are thingsgoing on but it will hold back thesuccess of the city. The South BristolLink road should help. It needs acoherent policy of road, rail, bus andtram.

“But Bristol has changed much forthe better overall. It’s a very exciting,dynamic place.

“When I arrived the docks werederelict, Temple Quay area didn’t exitand the city needed to reinvent itself,which it has done really successfully.The docks are now very vibrant, thisarea is fantastic. It’s been quite asuccess story in difficult times. Therea re n’t many cities to achieve that.”

And Temple Quay of course is nowhome to many serious players in theprofessional services.

As well as the odd one that doesn’talways take itself too seriously.

Proper ty

� The Spectrum building

� Peter with his PennyFarthing having ridden

to his office on NationalCycle to Work Day lastmonth. He had cycled6 miles in 50 minutes

Vital statisticsName: Peter CloughTitle: Head of Bristoloffice of OsborneClarkeAge: 48From: St Ives,Cornwall. An amazingplace to grow up.Education: C a rd i ffUniversity, studyinglaw, then Law School inG u i l f o rd .First job: General pubdogsbody at the CastleInn, St Ives. I knockedon the door of the pub,I was too young towork behind the bar atfirst but did barreling,cleaning, re-stocking.

My working dayNormally take my kids toschool on the way in, about8.30am. My day is spent onthree main things, the officehead role; looking after clients- I’m client relationship partnerfor a number of key clients;and then doing actual legalwork in the litigation andarbitration team. I’ve justcome from serving a notice onbehalf of an Indian client on aGhanaian company.

Part of the Local World group

Whether your conference is on a small or large scaleour expert knowledge will give you a professionaland stress free event by providing you with theright presentation equipment, lighting and sound.

Audience Response

Presentation Production

Video Presentation

Staging your Conferencedoesn’t have to cost a fortune...

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 14, 2015 11We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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 Government is steppingin to force landlords tomake the buildings we workin greener. Gavin Thompsonreports on what thesemeasures will mean forlandlords and tenants andwhy you need to be con-sidering it now

� AS Bristol’s year as EuropeanGreen Capital 2015 enters its finalquarter, there is strong evidencethat businesses across the city andregion have increasingly engagedwith experts to access practicaladvice on how they can improvethe environmental performance oftheir operations.

In particular, buildings present ahuge opportunity for companies toreduce energy spend and carbonemissions – but it is often a trickyprocess to implement energyefficiency works here, given thediffering motivations of the variousstakeholders involved in thep ro c e s s .

The traditional barrier has beenthe ‘split incentive’ betweenlandlords and tenants – w h e re b ythe landlord bears the cost forimproving the energy efficiency ofa property, and the tenant benefitsthrough lower bills.

Amongst the methods beingused by the Government toaddress the split incentive issue isthe introduction of the MinimumEnergy Efficiency Standards(MEES) regulations which willprohibit the letting of assets withpoor Energy PerformanceCertificate (EPC) ratings from April2018.

The MEES regulations are seenby many in the property sector asa game changer, forcing landlordsto address energy performancewithin their portfolios or facesignificant fines.

The impacts on landlords willinclude reduced marketability ofassets at risk, and implications forrent reviews and dilapidationsassessments. Tenants should alsoconsider the lease terms they enterinto on properties which arepotentially captured.

Whilst landlords should start toevaluate the impact of the MEESregulations on their revenuegenerating estates now, they canalso positively engage with tenantson this issue to ease the burden ofcompliance and additionallyengender more co-operativerelationships with the businessesoccupying their built assets.

An example of this is a ‘G re e nLease’, under which contractualarrangements between landlordsand tenants can be structured soas to promote a collaborativerelationship between the parties towork together to improve buildingenvironmental performance,overcoming the split incentive withall reaping benefits.

What is clear is that with aprogressively onerous legislativelandscape and a long term upwardenergy price trend, businesses willincreasingly come under pressurein the areas of energy andsustainability; and co-operativeengagement with all stakeholdersin their property relationships isvital to successfully drive energyefficiency, ensure legislativecompliance and improveenvironmental performance.

In short – engagement is key!

Engagement is keyin mitigating risk

� WITH the Government bringingin measures in 2018 to improveenergy efficiency, commercialproperty landlords will beturning to a suite of alternativesto address the properties EnergyPerformance Certificate (EPC)Standard Assessment Procedure(SAP) points.

The improvements that couldsave you the most energy dependon your property, but typicalexamples include insulation,heating, draught-proofing, doubleglazing and renewable energygeneration through either solarpanels or heat pumps.

As a business landlord whichshould you choose? A recent EPCYour Power completed saw theEPC range from 39 to 55 SAPpoints, an uplift of 16 points afterinstallation of 4kW of solar.

From previous improvementsyou can expect to achieve5-20 SAP points domesticallywith a much larger uplift forcommercially let properties. Othertechnologies give a various rangeof SAP points, with solar onlyranking behind condenser boilersin terms of points uplift.

Solar PV is the perfect wayto reduce your energy bills, cutCO2 emissions, and ensure that atleast part of your electricityrequirements will be met whateveris happening to the grid.

With EPC SAP points solar isone of the easiest and mostproven technologies to implement.

The system is quick to installwith minimal impact on thebusiness, not only increasing theefficiency of the building but alsofuture proofing your energy needs.

Because solar generation isstable and easily modelled we canaccurately forecast the number ofunits a system will generate overits 20 year lifetime.

By dividing the number of unitsby the system cost we cancalculate a cost per unit, a pricethat is significantly lower than thecurrent market rate for gridconnected electricity.

In essence, installing solar PVenables you to pre-purchasepower today at a fixed unit cost,protecting businesses from energyprice rises in the future.

The huge uptake in solar panelsfor businesses is testament to thereliability and strong returns offeredby solar PV. With no moving partssolar panels have long warrantiesand provide predictable long-termelectricity generation. Coupledwith the large roof spaces and highon-site energy demand of mostcommercially-let premises, solarPV is a proven way to reducecosts, protect your businessagainst future price rises, and upliftyour EPC points with minimalhassle.

You can contact us at YourPower on 01225 667 151 or atw w w. y o u r p o w e r u k . c o m .

Nick SpicerChief Operations OfficerYour Group

How to gain EPCpoints with solar PV

Green offices

WHAT ECO LAWS MEAN FOR TENANTS AND LANDLORDSDavid EynonSenior Sustainability AdvisorColliers International

Expert eye

WHAT TO DO

� Check whether new andexisting properties are compliant.� If any properties don’t comply,take advice on whether thelandlord can require the tenant tocarry out or pay for the relevantworks.� Plan for the future – theminimum standard is likely toi n c re a s e .� If a new or renewal lease isbeing entered into, ensure MEESis dealt with.� Tenants with an option toterminate the lease before 2023should consider terminating ifthey are likely to have to pay forMEES works, unless the landlordwill agree to bear the costthemselves.� Tenants with rent reviews whoare obliged to comply with MEES,should ensure that this obligationis taken into account when settingthe new rent.� Tenants should bear in mindthat the prohibition on newlettings from April 2018 applies tosub-lettings. If the property isnon-compliant and over-rented(meaning an assignment isunlikely to be possible), this mayeffectively close the tenant’s onlyremaining exit route. It may beworth attempting to sub-let beforethat date.� Landlords should ensure thattenants do not carry out anyalterations which might result in alower EPC rating. New leasesshould contain a specificrestriction against doing so.

Know how

BR I S T O L’S newest officebuildings boast about theirgreen credentials. WhenSkanska built 66 QueenSquare the plan was for it

to be a beacon of environmentalgood practice.

Such green credentials are at-tractive to the top tier tenants theywere aiming for, the likes of KMPGwhich is letting most of the space.

But most of Bristol’s office build-ings aren’t new. They are old and insome cases badly energy ineffi-cient.

If we want a greener city, this iswhere we need to make the dif-ference. Retro-fitting measures,however, cost money. And that’swhere the system has fallen down.

David Eynon, of property consult-ants Colliers International, saidbuildings present a “huge oppor-tunity” for companies to reduce theamount they spend on energy and tocut carbon emissions.

“But it is often a tricky process toimplement energy efficiency workshere, given the differing motiva-tions of the various stakeholdersinvolved in the process,” he said.

“The traditional barrier has beenthe ‘split incentive’ between land-lords and tenants – whereby thelandlord bears the cost for improv-ing the energy efficiency of a prop-erty, and the tenant benefits throughlower bills.”

Now the Government has steppedin to tackle the issue. From April2018, it will be unlawful to let build-ings with an F or G Energy Per-formance Certificate rating.

That means 18 per cent of the598,512 EPC registered commercialproperties in the UK, and 17 per centof Bristol’s buildings, will not beable to be let unless they are broughtup to scratch.

At the same time, the Governmenthas dropped the so-called GreenDeal which gave financial incent-ives to improve commercial build-ings. Which leads to the bigquestion. Who has to pay to bringyour office up to scratch?

Steve Schofield, commercial prop-erty solicitor at Thrings, says therules will have a substantial impacton both tenants and landlords.

“The key question for landlordsand tenants is the same,” he said. “Ifthe property fails to comply withMEES (Minimum Energy Effi-ciency Standards), who has to carryout – or pay for – the required im-p rove m e n t s ?

“The regulations are imposed onlandlords. However, leases generallyrequire the tenant to comply with alllaws relating to the property – eve nif those laws are actually imposed onthe landlord.

“Unless the tenant secured anamendment to the lease when it wassigned, most leases will require thetenant to bring the property up to anE rating at the tenant’s cost. Leases

may also require the tenant topay for improvements tothe energy efficiency ofa shared buildingthrough a servicecharg e.”

S t eve said tenantssigning new leaseswould be well ad-vised to have meet-ing the newregulations excludedfrom their responsibilit-i e s.

But many leases were signed longbefore the new rules were

dreamt up.“Those tenants may have

secured general carve-outs, but the situationwill be less clear becausethe lease could not havedealt with MEES spe-

c i f i c a l ly, ” he said.He advised tenants to

check if their propertiescomplied and to take advice on

their rights if not. If their lease

expires before 2023, when the rulesroll out to all properties regardlessof when the lease was signed, theymight want to move out rather thantake on the burden of paying forwork to be done. And firms shouldplan for the future, as the minimumstandards could well rise.

Steve said the rules will affectlandlords and investors too.

“For commercial buildings, insti-tutional investors tend to look forleases which enable them to pass onall costs relating to the property to

their tenants,” he said. “This en-ables them to receive the rental in-come without having to spendanything on the property. If the land-lord is likely to have to pay for theseworks, their investment value islikely to suffer. The introduction ofMEES will obviously have thegreatest impact on those propertieswhich are rated E or below, butespecially where the tenant is notobliged to pay for improvements oris unlikely to be able to pay, or wherethe lease is unclear.

“I suspect that there may alsobe an effect on value forproperties rated D, whichare currently compli-ant but dangerouslynear the minimums t a n d a rd .

“Properties whichare well above the min-imum standard may besubject to an increase invalue if we see a flight toquality. The extent of the impactitself remains to be seen.”

Jonathan Gibson, associate atBilfinger GVA, believes the

impact will be big. “T heregulations are likely tocause problems for atleast a fifth of the com-mercial property mar-ket with winners and

losers in both landlordand occupier businesses,

he said.“This impact will be par-

ticularly prevalent from now in therun-up to the implementation date

of April 2018 whilst the industrywakes up to the regulations.”

Ian Wills, director at propertyconsultants JLL in Bristol, pointedout another pitfall for tenantsshould they wish to move out beforethe end of their lease.

“Most landlords are aware of theneed to green up their buildings intime for the new energy efficiencystandards, but it is important thatoccupiers are also up to speed withthe requirements,” he said.

“If you’re an occupier who signsup to a building which doesn’t meetthe minimum energy efficiencystandards due to take effect in 2018and takes a 10-year lease withoutany break options, whilst it isn’t aproblem in 2015, you could be caughtout later down the line.

“You won’t be able to get rid ofyour lease by assigning it or sub-let-ting. So, you need to understandwhat your current building’s EPC isand what plans your landlord has tomake sure it’s compliant.”

Ian said landlords had been re-luctant to invest in premises butthat that was now changing.

He said: “In the last few years,where offices are concerned, therents and demand haven’t beenthere to warrant the investment inmaking them compliant in energyefficiency terms, especially inpoorer quality offices and locations,and, with the introduction of per-mitted development rights, manylandlords have chosen to convertoffices to residential use instead.

“However, at the moment, theredoes seem to be a bit of a flip oc-curring. Improving rents and de-mand make the refurbishment andupgrading of many more ‘dir ty’ of-fice buildings viable.”

Amy Robinson, of Low CarbonSouth West which supports com-panies looking to become greener,said the new regulations would nodoubt create difficulties for somebut would hopefully have a widerbenefit for all.

“These regulations are useful indemonstrating an overall directionof travel within the property sector,”she said. “I hope that they will helplandlords to develop a sound busi-ness case for making improvementsto their buildings and help growconfidence among the businesseswho provide retrofit services.

“Action only needs to be takenwhen the cost of the work involvedcan be paid back in energy savingsover a reasonable period, and thereare a variety of finance optionsavailable for companies required toundertake the work.

“This will clearly create some up-heaval and present a steep learningcurve to begin with. However, wehope that it will result in a sig-nificant boost to local green indus-tries, a reduction in carbonemissions, and importantly, im-proved building stock that providesa better working environment and ismore commercially attractive to fu-ture tenants.”

The key advice, however, echoesBob Hoskins’ famous words in theBT adverts – “it’s good to talk”.

David Eynon added: “C o - o p e r at -ive engagement with all stakehold-ers in their property relationshipsis vital to successfully drive energyefficiency, ensure legislative com-pliance and improve environmentalperfor mance.”

D o n’t ignore the problem, seizethe opportunity.

� The Government will require higher energy efficiency standards in office buildings from 2018 - the question is, who will pay for improvements, tenants or landlords? Below, Steve Schofield and Amy Robinson

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10 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 11We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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 Government is steppingin to force landlords tomake the buildings we workin greener. Gavin Thompsonreports on what thesemeasures will mean forlandlords and tenants andwhy you need to be con-sidering it now

� AS Bristol’s year as EuropeanGreen Capital 2015 enters its finalquarter, there is strong evidencethat businesses across the city andregion have increasingly engagedwith experts to access practicaladvice on how they can improvethe environmental performance oftheir operations.

In particular, buildings present ahuge opportunity for companies toreduce energy spend and carbonemissions – but it is often a trickyprocess to implement energyefficiency works here, given thediffering motivations of the variousstakeholders involved in thep ro c e s s .

The traditional barrier has beenthe ‘split incentive’ betweenlandlords and tenants – w h e re b ythe landlord bears the cost forimproving the energy efficiency ofa property, and the tenant benefitsthrough lower bills.

Amongst the methods beingused by the Government toaddress the split incentive issue isthe introduction of the MinimumEnergy Efficiency Standards(MEES) regulations which willprohibit the letting of assets withpoor Energy PerformanceCertificate (EPC) ratings from April2018.

The MEES regulations are seenby many in the property sector asa game changer, forcing landlordsto address energy performancewithin their portfolios or facesignificant fines.

The impacts on landlords willinclude reduced marketability ofassets at risk, and implications forrent reviews and dilapidationsassessments. Tenants should alsoconsider the lease terms they enterinto on properties which arepotentially captured.

Whilst landlords should start toevaluate the impact of the MEESregulations on their revenuegenerating estates now, they canalso positively engage with tenantson this issue to ease the burden ofcompliance and additionallyengender more co-operativerelationships with the businessesoccupying their built assets.

An example of this is a ‘G re e nLease’, under which contractualarrangements between landlordsand tenants can be structured soas to promote a collaborativerelationship between the parties towork together to improve buildingenvironmental performance,overcoming the split incentive withall reaping benefits.

What is clear is that with aprogressively onerous legislativelandscape and a long term upwardenergy price trend, businesses willincreasingly come under pressurein the areas of energy andsustainability; and co-operativeengagement with all stakeholdersin their property relationships isvital to successfully drive energyefficiency, ensure legislativecompliance and improveenvironmental performance.

In short – engagement is key!

Engagement is keyin mitigating risk

� WITH the Government bringingin measures in 2018 to improveenergy efficiency, commercialproperty landlords will beturning to a suite of alternativesto address the properties EnergyPerformance Certificate (EPC)Standard Assessment Procedure(SAP) points.

The improvements that couldsave you the most energy dependon your property, but typicalexamples include insulation,heating, draught-proofing, doubleglazing and renewable energygeneration through either solarpanels or heat pumps.

As a business landlord whichshould you choose? A recent EPCYour Power completed saw theEPC range from 39 to 55 SAPpoints, an uplift of 16 points afterinstallation of 4kW of solar.

From previous improvementsyou can expect to achieve5-20 SAP points domesticallywith a much larger uplift forcommercially let properties. Othertechnologies give a various rangeof SAP points, with solar onlyranking behind condenser boilersin terms of points uplift.

Solar PV is the perfect wayto reduce your energy bills, cutCO2 emissions, and ensure that atleast part of your electricityrequirements will be met whateveris happening to the grid.

With EPC SAP points solar isone of the easiest and mostproven technologies to implement.

The system is quick to installwith minimal impact on thebusiness, not only increasing theefficiency of the building but alsofuture proofing your energy needs.

Because solar generation isstable and easily modelled we canaccurately forecast the number ofunits a system will generate overits 20 year lifetime.

By dividing the number of unitsby the system cost we cancalculate a cost per unit, a pricethat is significantly lower than thecurrent market rate for gridconnected electricity.

In essence, installing solar PVenables you to pre-purchasepower today at a fixed unit cost,protecting businesses from energyprice rises in the future.

The huge uptake in solar panelsfor businesses is testament to thereliability and strong returns offeredby solar PV. With no moving partssolar panels have long warrantiesand provide predictable long-termelectricity generation. Coupledwith the large roof spaces and highon-site energy demand of mostcommercially-let premises, solarPV is a proven way to reducecosts, protect your businessagainst future price rises, and upliftyour EPC points with minimalhassle.

You can contact us at YourPower on 01225 667 151 or atw w w. y o u r p o w e r u k . c o m .

Nick SpicerChief Operations OfficerYour Group

How to gain EPCpoints with solar PV

Green offices

WHAT ECO LAWS MEAN FOR TENANTS AND LANDLORDSDavid EynonSenior Sustainability AdvisorColliers International

Expert eye

WHAT TO DO

� Check whether new andexisting properties are compliant.� If any properties don’t comply,take advice on whether thelandlord can require the tenant tocarry out or pay for the relevantworks.� Plan for the future – theminimum standard is likely toi n c re a s e .� If a new or renewal lease isbeing entered into, ensure MEESis dealt with.� Tenants with an option toterminate the lease before 2023should consider terminating ifthey are likely to have to pay forMEES works, unless the landlordwill agree to bear the costthemselves.� Tenants with rent reviews whoare obliged to comply with MEES,should ensure that this obligationis taken into account when settingthe new rent.� Tenants should bear in mindthat the prohibition on newlettings from April 2018 applies tosub-lettings. If the property isnon-compliant and over-rented(meaning an assignment isunlikely to be possible), this mayeffectively close the tenant’s onlyremaining exit route. It may beworth attempting to sub-let beforethat date.� Landlords should ensure thattenants do not carry out anyalterations which might result in alower EPC rating. New leasesshould contain a specificrestriction against doing so.

Know how

BR I S T O L’S newest officebuildings boast about theirgreen credentials. WhenSkanska built 66 QueenSquare the plan was for it

to be a beacon of environmentalgood practice.

Such green credentials are at-tractive to the top tier tenants theywere aiming for, the likes of KMPGwhich is letting most of the space.

But most of Bristol’s office build-ings aren’t new. They are old and insome cases badly energy ineffi-cient.

If we want a greener city, this iswhere we need to make the dif-ference. Retro-fitting measures,however, cost money. And that’swhere the system has fallen down.

David Eynon, of property consult-ants Colliers International, saidbuildings present a “huge oppor-tunity” for companies to reduce theamount they spend on energy and tocut carbon emissions.

“But it is often a tricky process toimplement energy efficiency workshere, given the differing motiva-tions of the various stakeholdersinvolved in the process,” he said.

“The traditional barrier has beenthe ‘split incentive’ between land-lords and tenants – whereby thelandlord bears the cost for improv-ing the energy efficiency of a prop-erty, and the tenant benefits throughlower bills.”

Now the Government has steppedin to tackle the issue. From April2018, it will be unlawful to let build-ings with an F or G Energy Per-formance Certificate rating.

That means 18 per cent of the598,512 EPC registered commercialproperties in the UK, and 17 per centof Bristol’s buildings, will not beable to be let unless they are broughtup to scratch.

At the same time, the Governmenthas dropped the so-called GreenDeal which gave financial incent-ives to improve commercial build-ings. Which leads to the bigquestion. Who has to pay to bringyour office up to scratch?

Steve Schofield, commercial prop-erty solicitor at Thrings, says therules will have a substantial impacton both tenants and landlords.

“The key question for landlordsand tenants is the same,” he said. “Ifthe property fails to comply withMEES (Minimum Energy Effi-ciency Standards), who has to carryout – or pay for – the required im-p rove m e n t s ?

“The regulations are imposed onlandlords. However, leases generallyrequire the tenant to comply with alllaws relating to the property – eve nif those laws are actually imposed onthe landlord.

“Unless the tenant secured anamendment to the lease when it wassigned, most leases will require thetenant to bring the property up to anE rating at the tenant’s cost. Leases

may also require the tenant topay for improvements tothe energy efficiency ofa shared buildingthrough a servicecharg e.”

S t eve said tenantssigning new leaseswould be well ad-vised to have meet-ing the newregulations excludedfrom their responsibilit-i e s.

But many leases were signed longbefore the new rules were

dreamt up.“Those tenants may have

secured general carve-outs, but the situationwill be less clear becausethe lease could not havedealt with MEES spe-

c i f i c a l ly, ” he said.He advised tenants to

check if their propertiescomplied and to take advice on

their rights if not. If their lease

expires before 2023, when the rulesroll out to all properties regardlessof when the lease was signed, theymight want to move out rather thantake on the burden of paying forwork to be done. And firms shouldplan for the future, as the minimumstandards could well rise.

Steve said the rules will affectlandlords and investors too.

“For commercial buildings, insti-tutional investors tend to look forleases which enable them to pass onall costs relating to the property to

their tenants,” he said. “This en-ables them to receive the rental in-come without having to spendanything on the property. If the land-lord is likely to have to pay for theseworks, their investment value islikely to suffer. The introduction ofMEES will obviously have thegreatest impact on those propertieswhich are rated E or below, butespecially where the tenant is notobliged to pay for improvements oris unlikely to be able to pay, or wherethe lease is unclear.

“I suspect that there may alsobe an effect on value forproperties rated D, whichare currently compli-ant but dangerouslynear the minimums t a n d a rd .

“Properties whichare well above the min-imum standard may besubject to an increase invalue if we see a flight toquality. The extent of the impactitself remains to be seen.”

Jonathan Gibson, associate atBilfinger GVA, believes the

impact will be big. “T heregulations are likely tocause problems for atleast a fifth of the com-mercial property mar-ket with winners and

losers in both landlordand occupier businesses,

he said.“This impact will be par-

ticularly prevalent from now in therun-up to the implementation date

of April 2018 whilst the industrywakes up to the regulations.”

Ian Wills, director at propertyconsultants JLL in Bristol, pointedout another pitfall for tenantsshould they wish to move out beforethe end of their lease.

“Most landlords are aware of theneed to green up their buildings intime for the new energy efficiencystandards, but it is important thatoccupiers are also up to speed withthe requirements,” he said.

“If you’re an occupier who signsup to a building which doesn’t meetthe minimum energy efficiencystandards due to take effect in 2018and takes a 10-year lease withoutany break options, whilst it isn’t aproblem in 2015, you could be caughtout later down the line.

“You won’t be able to get rid ofyour lease by assigning it or sub-let-ting. So, you need to understandwhat your current building’s EPC isand what plans your landlord has tomake sure it’s compliant.”

Ian said landlords had been re-luctant to invest in premises butthat that was now changing.

He said: “In the last few years,where offices are concerned, therents and demand haven’t beenthere to warrant the investment inmaking them compliant in energyefficiency terms, especially inpoorer quality offices and locations,and, with the introduction of per-mitted development rights, manylandlords have chosen to convertoffices to residential use instead.

“However, at the moment, theredoes seem to be a bit of a flip oc-curring. Improving rents and de-mand make the refurbishment andupgrading of many more ‘dir ty’ of-fice buildings viable.”

Amy Robinson, of Low CarbonSouth West which supports com-panies looking to become greener,said the new regulations would nodoubt create difficulties for somebut would hopefully have a widerbenefit for all.

“These regulations are useful indemonstrating an overall directionof travel within the property sector,”she said. “I hope that they will helplandlords to develop a sound busi-ness case for making improvementsto their buildings and help growconfidence among the businesseswho provide retrofit services.

“Action only needs to be takenwhen the cost of the work involvedcan be paid back in energy savingsover a reasonable period, and thereare a variety of finance optionsavailable for companies required toundertake the work.

“This will clearly create some up-heaval and present a steep learningcurve to begin with. However, wehope that it will result in a sig-nificant boost to local green indus-tries, a reduction in carbonemissions, and importantly, im-proved building stock that providesa better working environment and ismore commercially attractive to fu-ture tenants.”

The key advice, however, echoesBob Hoskins’ famous words in theBT adverts – “it’s good to talk”.

David Eynon added: “C o - o p e r at -ive engagement with all stakehold-ers in their property relationshipsis vital to successfully drive energyefficiency, ensure legislative com-pliance and improve environmentalperfor mance.”

D o n’t ignore the problem, seizethe opportunity.

� The Government will require higher energy efficiency standards in office buildings from 2018 - the question is, who will pay for improvements, tenants or landlords? Below, Steve Schofield and Amy Robinson

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12 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 13We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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 CBI South West dinner

‘We must p l ay h u g e part in Eu ro p e d e ba te ’

Business diary

Post your events online atsouthwestbusiness.co.uk.Events 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. Aimed at businesspeople over 50. Cost £10, bookvia eventbrite.

Thesis seminars: assessingand selecting DFM partners:Experts from Asset RiskConsultants (ARC), FinancialExpress (FE), Diminimis andThesis Asset Managementexplain how to choose and usediscretionary fund managers. TheBristol Golf Club, Almondsbury,Thursday, October 15, 8.30am.

Online Influence West:P i n t e re s t ’s UK marketingmanager Lizzy Sibley, Airbnb’sEMEA marketing manager HollyClarke, global lead socialanalytics at Microsoft ThaneRyland and Twitter head ofcontent Europe Paul McCruddenare among speakers at this eventat Mercure Hotel, Bristol, onOctober 16. Find out more atw w w. o n l i n einfluence.net/oi-west.

Preparing your business forsale: Free half day seminar jointlyhosted by ActionCOACH Bristol& North Somerset, Burton Sweetand the HR Dept. It’s aimed atowners of businesses with salesbetween £250K-£30m who wantthe option of selling or creating abusiness that works withoutthem. Leigh Court, 8.30am onFriday, October 16.

Landlords legal propertyseminar: Andrews holds finalfree landlord seminar of the yearin Keynsham on MondayOctober 19, from, 6.15pm at thetown’s civic centre. The event willprovide guidance on issuesincluding: immigration checks;new fire safety regulations;problem tenants; and evictionnotices. Register viasouthwestbusiness.c o . u k / b u s i n e s s - c a l e n d a r.

Small Business SaturdayInspire Series: Dare to Dreamtalk by Freelance Mum FayeDicker. Tuesday, October 20,12.30-1.30pm at KudaCan,Dongola Avenue, Bristol.Register at https://www.smallb u s i n e s s s a t u rd a y u k . c o m / i n s p i re

Employers’ pensions Seminar:Punter Southall is hosting apensions seminar on WednesdayOctober 21for employers andpension scheme trustees. FormerPensions Minister Steve Webb,who was the architect of many ofthe recent changes to pensions,is guest speaker. Contact theevents team on 0117 202 0449or atdcevents@puntersouthall.com.

Bristol Connected: The BristolPost’s regular businessnetworking event, this timetaking place in our offices inTemple Way. Post editor MikeNorton will talk about ourchanging audience whilemanaging director Sarah Pullenwill discuss the future of media.From 6pm, Thursday, October29, please register via eventbrite.

BUSINESSES must engagewith Government and thepublic over big issues, ac-cording to CBI regionalchair Steve West.

He was speaking at the organisa-t i o n’s annual South West dinner,where more than 300 industry leadersgathered in Bristol.

Steve, who is vice chancellor of theUniversity of the West of England,said: “The business community has ahuge role to play engaging with thedebate on Britain’s future in Europe.

“We have to try to understand theopportunities and of course the dif-ficulties of either leaving Europe orstaying in.”

He said another area businessneeded to shape the debate was therecent announcement about de-volving business rates to local coun-c i l s.

“It has the potential to have a hugeimpact on us as businesses, we need

to be at the table and having a voice,”he said.

Steve also raised the prospect ofsuccession planning at local enter-prise partnerships.

The Post previously reported thatWest of England LEP chair ColinSkellett wanted to retire but could notfind a successor.

“We need to find the next gen-eration of LEP chairs,” said Steve andhe suggested that candidates couldcome from within the ranks of theCBI membership.

The audience also heard from newBBC England chief operating officerJenny Baxter, who put the case forpreserving the BBC as a nationaltreasure for future generations.

And former Defence SecretaryGeoff Hoon paid a warm tribute tooutgoing Augusta Westland boss andformer South West CBI chair GrahamC o l e.

Afterwards, CBI South West dir-ector Deborah Waddell said: “It was afantastic evening that provided ourmembers the opportunity to discussimportant topics affecting businessesacross the region, such as the recentdevolution announcement.

“We welcome the opportunitiesoutlined by the Chancellor for boost-ing local growth, as long as they don'tpush up costs for businesses

“If this bold announcement on

business rates is a way to cut them, itwill spur councils to take apro-growth approach, and has theCBI's support.

“Taken together these changes rep-

resent the largest ever shake-up inlocal government – so elected rep-resentatives should work with busi-nesses to get any changes rightwithout adding further layers of com-p l e x i t y.

“We also need to see an overhaul ofthe outdated business rates system.Switching the up-rating from RPI toCPI, exempting smaller propertiesfrom the system, and more frequentvaluations will help to boost jobs andinvestment right across the SouthWest and beyond.”

Lee Everson, head of large cor-porate banking at Barclays, theeve n t ’s main sponsor, said: “This is akey date in the business calendarattracting many of the region’s lead-ing businessmen and women.

“It provided the perfect opportun-ity to showcase the exceptional talentthe region has to offer during whatwas an informative and entertainingeve n i n g . ”

Guests enjoyed food and a goodiebag from a host of South West sup-pliers including Luscombe Drinks,Marshfield Bakery, Ministry of Cake,Orchard Pig, Wadworth brewery,Wyke Farms and Yeo Valley.

� Hugh Cooke, Burgess Salmon, Chris Perry, Marsh Insurance, Chris Dover, Marsh Insurance,and Dominic Davis, Burgess Salmon Pictures: Michael Lloyd � Shirley Walker, Rich Adams, David Coslett and Carolyn Ansell, of Plymouth University

� Guests at the CBI South West annual dinner� Prof Steve West, UWE, and Stephanie Winnard, Vanessa Dowst and Tessa Griffiths of BathSpa University

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

� Jenny Baxter, BBC, and former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon

� Laura Rawlings, BBC, with Kaz Dev and Paul Rodwell ofGrant Thornton � Mark Russell, Jemma Inker and Penny Hilton of EY

� Simon Moore, CBI, Jill Williams, Pittards, and SamanthaBurn, Moon Consulting

� Andrew Woollard and Nigel Poole of Smurfit Kappa

� PageGroup Jack Watters, Matthew Rick and Nick Stavri� Alex Anderson, Hills Group, Gareth Waite, Marsh, and Rachael Runane -Burgess Salmon

� Donna Whitehead, UWE, and Adrian Dawson, Plymouth University� Shirley Walker, Rich Adams, David Coslett and Carolyn Ansell of PlymouthUniversity

� Hugh Cooke, Burgess Salmon, Chris Perry, Marsh Insurance, Chris Dover,Marsh Insurance, and Dominic Davis, Burgess Salmon � Members of the Grant Thornton team at the dinner

� The CBI dinner held at the Bristol Marriott Hotel City Centre

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12 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 13We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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 CBI South West dinner

‘We must p l ay h u g e part in Eu ro p e d e ba te ’

Business diary

Post your events online atsouthwestbusiness.co.uk.Events 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. Aimed at businesspeople over 50. Cost £10, bookvia eventbrite.

Thesis seminars: assessingand selecting DFM partners:Experts from Asset RiskConsultants (ARC), FinancialExpress (FE), Diminimis andThesis Asset Managementexplain how to choose and usediscretionary fund managers. TheBristol Golf Club, Almondsbury,Thursday, October 15, 8.30am.

Online Influence West:P i n t e re s t ’s UK marketingmanager Lizzy Sibley, Airbnb’sEMEA marketing manager HollyClarke, global lead socialanalytics at Microsoft ThaneRyland and Twitter head ofcontent Europe Paul McCruddenare among speakers at this eventat Mercure Hotel, Bristol, onOctober 16. Find out more atw w w. o n l i n einfluence.net/oi-west.

Preparing your business forsale: Free half day seminar jointlyhosted by ActionCOACH Bristol& North Somerset, Burton Sweetand the HR Dept. It’s aimed atowners of businesses with salesbetween £250K-£30m who wantthe option of selling or creating abusiness that works withoutthem. Leigh Court, 8.30am onFriday, October 16.

Landlords legal propertyseminar: Andrews holds finalfree landlord seminar of the yearin Keynsham on MondayOctober 19, from, 6.15pm at thetown’s civic centre. The event willprovide guidance on issuesincluding: immigration checks;new fire safety regulations;problem tenants; and evictionnotices. Register viasouthwestbusiness.c o . u k / b u s i n e s s - c a l e n d a r.

Small Business SaturdayInspire Series: Dare to Dreamtalk by Freelance Mum FayeDicker. Tuesday, October 20,12.30-1.30pm at KudaCan,Dongola Avenue, Bristol.Register at https://www.smallb u s i n e s s s a t u rd a y u k . c o m / i n s p i re

Employers’ pensions Seminar:Punter Southall is hosting apensions seminar on WednesdayOctober 21for employers andpension scheme trustees. FormerPensions Minister Steve Webb,who was the architect of many ofthe recent changes to pensions,is guest speaker. Contact theevents team on 0117 202 0449or atdcevents@puntersouthall.com.

Bristol Connected: The BristolPost’s regular businessnetworking event, this timetaking place in our offices inTemple Way. Post editor MikeNorton will talk about ourchanging audience whilemanaging director Sarah Pullenwill discuss the future of media.From 6pm, Thursday, October29, please register via eventbrite.

BUSINESSES must engagewith Government and thepublic over big issues, ac-cording to CBI regionalchair Steve West.

He was speaking at the organisa-t i o n’s annual South West dinner,where more than 300 industry leadersgathered in Bristol.

Steve, who is vice chancellor of theUniversity of the West of England,said: “The business community has ahuge role to play engaging with thedebate on Britain’s future in Europe.

“We have to try to understand theopportunities and of course the dif-ficulties of either leaving Europe orstaying in.”

He said another area businessneeded to shape the debate was therecent announcement about de-volving business rates to local coun-c i l s.

“It has the potential to have a hugeimpact on us as businesses, we need

to be at the table and having a voice,”he said.

Steve also raised the prospect ofsuccession planning at local enter-prise partnerships.

The Post previously reported thatWest of England LEP chair ColinSkellett wanted to retire but could notfind a successor.

“We need to find the next gen-eration of LEP chairs,” said Steve andhe suggested that candidates couldcome from within the ranks of theCBI membership.

The audience also heard from newBBC England chief operating officerJenny Baxter, who put the case forpreserving the BBC as a nationaltreasure for future generations.

And former Defence SecretaryGeoff Hoon paid a warm tribute tooutgoing Augusta Westland boss andformer South West CBI chair GrahamC o l e.

Afterwards, CBI South West dir-ector Deborah Waddell said: “It was afantastic evening that provided ourmembers the opportunity to discussimportant topics affecting businessesacross the region, such as the recentdevolution announcement.

“We welcome the opportunitiesoutlined by the Chancellor for boost-ing local growth, as long as they don'tpush up costs for businesses

“If this bold announcement on

business rates is a way to cut them, itwill spur councils to take apro-growth approach, and has theCBI's support.

“Taken together these changes rep-

resent the largest ever shake-up inlocal government – so elected rep-resentatives should work with busi-nesses to get any changes rightwithout adding further layers of com-p l e x i t y.

“We also need to see an overhaul ofthe outdated business rates system.Switching the up-rating from RPI toCPI, exempting smaller propertiesfrom the system, and more frequentvaluations will help to boost jobs andinvestment right across the SouthWest and beyond.”

Lee Everson, head of large cor-porate banking at Barclays, theeve n t ’s main sponsor, said: “This is akey date in the business calendarattracting many of the region’s lead-ing businessmen and women.

“It provided the perfect opportun-ity to showcase the exceptional talentthe region has to offer during whatwas an informative and entertainingeve n i n g . ”

Guests enjoyed food and a goodiebag from a host of South West sup-pliers including Luscombe Drinks,Marshfield Bakery, Ministry of Cake,Orchard Pig, Wadworth brewery,Wyke Farms and Yeo Valley.

� Hugh Cooke, Burgess Salmon, Chris Perry, Marsh Insurance, Chris Dover, Marsh Insurance,and Dominic Davis, Burgess Salmon Pictures: Michael Lloyd � Shirley Walker, Rich Adams, David Coslett and Carolyn Ansell, of Plymouth University

� Guests at the CBI South West annual dinner� Prof Steve West, UWE, and Stephanie Winnard, Vanessa Dowst and Tessa Griffiths of BathSpa University

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

� Jenny Baxter, BBC, and former Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon

� Laura Rawlings, BBC, with Kaz Dev and Paul Rodwell ofGrant Thornton � Mark Russell, Jemma Inker and Penny Hilton of EY

� Simon Moore, CBI, Jill Williams, Pittards, and SamanthaBurn, Moon Consulting

� Andrew Woollard and Nigel Poole of Smurfit Kappa

� PageGroup Jack Watters, Matthew Rick and Nick Stavri� Alex Anderson, Hills Group, Gareth Waite, Marsh, and Rachael Runane -Burgess Salmon

� Donna Whitehead, UWE, and Adrian Dawson, Plymouth University� Shirley Walker, Rich Adams, David Coslett and Carolyn Ansell of PlymouthUniversity

� Hugh Cooke, Burgess Salmon, Chris Perry, Marsh Insurance, Chris Dover,Marsh Insurance, and Dominic Davis, Burgess Salmon � Members of the Grant Thornton team at the dinner

� The CBI dinner held at the Bristol Marriott Hotel City Centre

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14 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 15We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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

Powerful wordsEngaging with adigital revolution

RICK Haythornthwaite ischairman of the energygiant Centrica and a manwhose philosophies and dir-ection have been called upon

by many companies to steady thes h i p.

In short, he is possibly one of thebest business leaders in the UK andhe captivated the audience at theUniversity of the West of England’sBristol Distinguished AddressS e r i e s.

He combines a hard-edged businessdrive with a searching mind that hasmade him a target for major com-panies looking for dynamic andthoughtful leadership but based onthe most important tool in a firm’s

box – its top people.This is a visionary leader who has

chaired Network Rail, during whichtime his team delivered major railprojects. He has also been a non-ex-ecutive director of Cookson, Lafargeand Land Securities.

His lecture at UWE was titled: Dis-ruption and the future of leadership.How do we stop the digital revolutionbecoming too disruptive?

“The impact of the digital revolu-tion is far greater than leaders allowthemselves to believe”, he said.” It isvery tempting to think about thisdigital revolution like all the otherrevolutions which have gone before.

“We have been having revolutionsfor the last millennium, each oneabout a third shorter than the onebefore and it’s disruptive for a coupleof reasons.

“The first is that it’s moving everfaster and actually that allows us totackle one of the big issues of our time

Service delivers bestfood on offer in city

In pictures Deliveroo party

which is productivity.“So, a really big opportunity there.

But at the same time, it is actuallychanging society – our relationship toeach other, our relationship to power,our relationship to ideas in a greaterway than we have seen since the 15thc e n t u r y.

“That is posing questions for lead-ers which were at one time exciting

but also quite disorientating. Thatmakes it a threat unless leaders em-brace it and find new ways of leadingin this different digital world.”

So how do they do that?“The nature of the opportunity is

very clear. In the UK we have a bigproductivity gap – 25-35 per cent.

“People look at this and say: This isreally weird we have this digital re-

volution but productivity is lagging.Well, the good news is that it hasalways lagged in history.”

He believes we are now waiting fora series of technologies to comethrough , including the Cloud and BigData, which will then make a pro-found difference to our areas of weak-ness like manufacturing.

“Leaders need to relax and doeverything they can to bring in thesenew technologies and deploy them.”

He cites the revolution when theprinting press was invented by Gut-tenberg, giving society huge amountsof information and data.

“Then, suddenly, society wantedfreedom of the press and humanrights – it was all pretty chaotic.Leaders were struggling with how tomake sense of it. That’s what’s hap-pening today in my view,” he says.

“Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Bern-ers-Lee (World Wide web) have donethat in this day and age – just whatGuttenberg did with the printedword. They have democratised so-ciety putting huge power in the handsof individuals.”

Against this background, it is nocoincidence, he says, that we aregoing through a period of trust inbusiness: “Good service is notenough in this society – the slighteststumble on this high wire and youf all.

“Things are moving too fast. Toembrace strategy you have to reallystep forward in time – what might thefuture look like? It is a different worldfor leaders today and leaders whocome to terms with having a veryexciting set of tools at their disposal.

“Those who don’t and fight are infor a hell of a bad time. We are in anextraordinary time of history – justrecognise it and ride it.”

In your position as chairman ofCentrica, do you see energy as one ofthe key issues of today?

“As chairman it certainly feels likeit – it is clearly rarely out of the newsand rightly so. People’s energy billsmake up a lot of their disposablespend,” he says.

“Inevitably, customers are worriedabout their bills. Right now, climatechange is a peripheral issue butsomehow we have got to find a way ofcommunicating that. In the end, anenergy supply company must servethe customer and you are absolutelyright – they want lower bills. We haveto crack that one.”� You can watch full interview withRick Haythornthwaite atw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k� Details of future lectures in theBristol Distinguished Address Seriesat UWE can be found atwww1.uwe.ac.uk/whatson/bristoldaseries,aspx

Ian MeanBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

A GROUP of Bristol men and womencelebrated the publication of theirnew book at The Grosvenor Casinowith champagne and canapés.

The Missing Piece in Bouncing Backis a collection of inspiring storiesfrom individuals who have all battledback from adversity.

Each writer is given a chapter totell their story, which also includesdetails on how their life has improvedand a few helpful tips tip for readers.Out of the 24 writers, 14 hail fromBristol and Bath.

The book has been compiled byNicky Marshall, who works throughher company Discover Your Bounceto foster positive attitudes andhealthy and happy communities.

Nicky has her own story of re-covering from adversity, havingsuffered a stroke and recovering fullywithin three years.

She said: “My hope for this book is

that it inspires people to find theirown bounce.”

“Maybe they will pass the book onto a friend that is going throughchallenges to help them find theirs.”

In pictures Discover Your Bounce book launch

� From left, Peter Haigh, managing director at Bristol Energy; Sam Nwanko, founder of Altitude Tech and a UWErobotics student Centrica chairman Rick Haythornthwaite and UWE professor Nicholas O’Regan

Inspirational individualscelebrate book launch

FOOD lovers in Bristol can now enjoytheir favourite restaurant dishesfrom the comfort of their desks orh o m e.

Deliveroo – the premium restaur-ant food delivery service – has beenlive in Bristol since the beginning ofApril, but with an expanded roster ofimpressive restaurants there hasnever been a better time to use thes e r v i c e.

Deliveroo aims to revolutionise theway Bristolians dine by deliveringquality food from local independentand chain restaurants direct topeople’s doors.

The firm invited a bunch of keyinfluencers within the city to samplesome of the food on offer.

Deliveroo Bristol is quickly grow-ing its customer base, doubling num-bers in the last month.

Nick Lonergan, South West region-al manager said: “Bristol has one of

the most thriving foodie scenes, notjust in the South West but in the UK.

“The selection of restaurants inBristol is world class, and the peopleof Bristol really know their food.

“It has been a real delight workingwith such a fantastic selection of thecity’s favourite restaurants, trans-porting those great tastes to people’shomes and offices.

“Whether it’s award winning In-dian from Myristica, elegant Thaifood from Giggling Squid or a ‘bu i l dyour own’ burger from The BurgerJoint, Deliveroo has it covered, andnow, six months down the line we areadding more quality restaurantsevery week”

The Bristol arm of Deliveroo hasalready welcomed a selection of pop-ular eateries including Three Broth-ers Burgers, Planet Pizza, Bagel Boy,Yume Sushi and Gourmet Burger Kit-ch e n .

In recent weeks it has addedWagamamas, Giggling Squid, KohThai Tapas, Las Iguanas, Loch Fyne,Entelia and Krishnan’s Kitchen tothe platform adding to an alreadyexcellent choice of restaurants.

Jack Cunliffe, South West com-munity manager said: “The first sixmonths in Bristol have been reallyexciting - what a city to launch a food

delivery service in!“We are going from strength to

strength, and the calibre of restaur-ant we have on the platform has neverbeen higher.

“In a year’s time we hope to be atthe core of Bristol’s food landscape,helping Bristolians access the verybest independent and chain food thecity has to offer.”

� Guestsand foodp ro v i d e r senjoying theD e l i v e ro ofunction

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14 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015 15We d n e s d a y, October 14, 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

Powerful wordsEngaging with adigital revolution

RICK Haythornthwaite ischairman of the energygiant Centrica and a manwhose philosophies and dir-ection have been called upon

by many companies to steady thes h i p.

In short, he is possibly one of thebest business leaders in the UK andhe captivated the audience at theUniversity of the West of England’sBristol Distinguished AddressS e r i e s.

He combines a hard-edged businessdrive with a searching mind that hasmade him a target for major com-panies looking for dynamic andthoughtful leadership but based onthe most important tool in a firm’s

box – its top people.This is a visionary leader who has

chaired Network Rail, during whichtime his team delivered major railprojects. He has also been a non-ex-ecutive director of Cookson, Lafargeand Land Securities.

His lecture at UWE was titled: Dis-ruption and the future of leadership.How do we stop the digital revolutionbecoming too disruptive?

“The impact of the digital revolu-tion is far greater than leaders allowthemselves to believe”, he said.” It isvery tempting to think about thisdigital revolution like all the otherrevolutions which have gone before.

“We have been having revolutionsfor the last millennium, each oneabout a third shorter than the onebefore and it’s disruptive for a coupleof reasons.

“The first is that it’s moving everfaster and actually that allows us totackle one of the big issues of our time

Service delivers bestfood on offer in city

In pictures Deliveroo party

which is productivity.“So, a really big opportunity there.

But at the same time, it is actuallychanging society – our relationship toeach other, our relationship to power,our relationship to ideas in a greaterway than we have seen since the 15thc e n t u r y.

“That is posing questions for lead-ers which were at one time exciting

but also quite disorientating. Thatmakes it a threat unless leaders em-brace it and find new ways of leadingin this different digital world.”

So how do they do that?“The nature of the opportunity is

very clear. In the UK we have a bigproductivity gap – 25-35 per cent.

“People look at this and say: This isreally weird we have this digital re-

volution but productivity is lagging.Well, the good news is that it hasalways lagged in history.”

He believes we are now waiting fora series of technologies to comethrough , including the Cloud and BigData, which will then make a pro-found difference to our areas of weak-ness like manufacturing.

“Leaders need to relax and doeverything they can to bring in thesenew technologies and deploy them.”

He cites the revolution when theprinting press was invented by Gut-tenberg, giving society huge amountsof information and data.

“Then, suddenly, society wantedfreedom of the press and humanrights – it was all pretty chaotic.Leaders were struggling with how tomake sense of it. That’s what’s hap-pening today in my view,” he says.

“Zuckerberg (Facebook) and Bern-ers-Lee (World Wide web) have donethat in this day and age – just whatGuttenberg did with the printedword. They have democratised so-ciety putting huge power in the handsof individuals.”

Against this background, it is nocoincidence, he says, that we aregoing through a period of trust inbusiness: “Good service is notenough in this society – the slighteststumble on this high wire and youf all.

“Things are moving too fast. Toembrace strategy you have to reallystep forward in time – what might thefuture look like? It is a different worldfor leaders today and leaders whocome to terms with having a veryexciting set of tools at their disposal.

“Those who don’t and fight are infor a hell of a bad time. We are in anextraordinary time of history – justrecognise it and ride it.”

In your position as chairman ofCentrica, do you see energy as one ofthe key issues of today?

“As chairman it certainly feels likeit – it is clearly rarely out of the newsand rightly so. People’s energy billsmake up a lot of their disposablespend,” he says.

“Inevitably, customers are worriedabout their bills. Right now, climatechange is a peripheral issue butsomehow we have got to find a way ofcommunicating that. In the end, anenergy supply company must servethe customer and you are absolutelyright – they want lower bills. We haveto crack that one.”� You can watch full interview withRick Haythornthwaite atw w w. s o u t h w e s t b u s i n e s s . c o . u k� Details of future lectures in theBristol Distinguished Address Seriesat UWE can be found atwww1.uwe.ac.uk/whatson/bristoldaseries,aspx

Ian MeanBusiness@b-nm.co.uk

A GROUP of Bristol men and womencelebrated the publication of theirnew book at The Grosvenor Casinowith champagne and canapés.

The Missing Piece in Bouncing Backis a collection of inspiring storiesfrom individuals who have all battledback from adversity.

Each writer is given a chapter totell their story, which also includesdetails on how their life has improvedand a few helpful tips tip for readers.Out of the 24 writers, 14 hail fromBristol and Bath.

The book has been compiled byNicky Marshall, who works throughher company Discover Your Bounceto foster positive attitudes andhealthy and happy communities.

Nicky has her own story of re-covering from adversity, havingsuffered a stroke and recovering fullywithin three years.

She said: “My hope for this book is

that it inspires people to find theirown bounce.”

“Maybe they will pass the book onto a friend that is going throughchallenges to help them find theirs.”

In pictures Discover Your Bounce book launch

� From left, Peter Haigh, managing director at Bristol Energy; Sam Nwanko, founder of Altitude Tech and a UWErobotics student Centrica chairman Rick Haythornthwaite and UWE professor Nicholas O’Regan

Inspirational individualscelebrate book launch

FOOD lovers in Bristol can now enjoytheir favourite restaurant dishesfrom the comfort of their desks orh o m e.

Deliveroo – the premium restaur-ant food delivery service – has beenlive in Bristol since the beginning ofApril, but with an expanded roster ofimpressive restaurants there hasnever been a better time to use thes e r v i c e.

Deliveroo aims to revolutionise theway Bristolians dine by deliveringquality food from local independentand chain restaurants direct topeople’s doors.

The firm invited a bunch of keyinfluencers within the city to samplesome of the food on offer.

Deliveroo Bristol is quickly grow-ing its customer base, doubling num-bers in the last month.

Nick Lonergan, South West region-al manager said: “Bristol has one of

the most thriving foodie scenes, notjust in the South West but in the UK.

“The selection of restaurants inBristol is world class, and the peopleof Bristol really know their food.

“It has been a real delight workingwith such a fantastic selection of thecity’s favourite restaurants, trans-porting those great tastes to people’shomes and offices.

“Whether it’s award winning In-dian from Myristica, elegant Thaifood from Giggling Squid or a ‘bu i l dyour own’ burger from The BurgerJoint, Deliveroo has it covered, andnow, six months down the line we areadding more quality restaurantsevery week”

The Bristol arm of Deliveroo hasalready welcomed a selection of pop-ular eateries including Three Broth-ers Burgers, Planet Pizza, Bagel Boy,Yume Sushi and Gourmet Burger Kit-ch e n .

In recent weeks it has addedWagamamas, Giggling Squid, KohThai Tapas, Las Iguanas, Loch Fyne,Entelia and Krishnan’s Kitchen tothe platform adding to an alreadyexcellent choice of restaurants.

Jack Cunliffe, South West com-munity manager said: “The first sixmonths in Bristol have been reallyexciting - what a city to launch a food

delivery service in!“We are going from strength to

strength, and the calibre of restaur-ant we have on the platform has neverbeen higher.

“In a year’s time we hope to be atthe core of Bristol’s food landscape,helping Bristolians access the verybest independent and chain food thecity has to offer.”

� Guestsand foodp ro v i d e r senjoying theD e l i v e ro ofunction

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16 We d n e s d a y, October 14, 2015w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

The back pagePe o p l e� A Bristol businessman has won anational award for his successfulgroup of McDonald’s restaurantfranchises.

Mike Guerin, 57, who began as atrainee manager at McDonald’s 36years ago, won the ‘O l d e r p re n e u r ’category at the 2015 BritishFranchise Association HSBCFranchisee of the Year Awards.

Mike operates 13 restaurants inBristol and Wiltshire, employingaround 1,000 staff. He has been afranchisee with the chain for 23years.

He said: “It’s a pleasure to beacknowledged for my business andwork in the local community. I’veenjoyed great support over theyears from my family, my staff andfrom McDonald’s and I appreciatebeing in a position to givesomething back to them all.”

Cathryn Hayes, who chaired thejudging panel, said: “Mike stood outfor his exceptional commitment tohis local community and fellowfranchisees, giving his time tocharitable causes while building ahighly impressive business.”

Andy Brattesani, head offranchising at HSBC, added: “This isa notable success story. Mike’scommitment to staff development,highlighted by the fact that some ofhis very first apprentices are nowmanagers in the business, hasempowered his teams and in turnunderpinned his accomplishments.”

� Commercial law firm RoxburghMilkins has boosted the team byhiring Harriet Webb.

Somerset-born Harriet, below, hasrecently finished her training with alarger firm and is looking forward tojoining the specialist commercialbusiness based in Wapping Road,Bristol. Founding partner BruceRoxburgh said: “It’s importantto us to keep providingopportunities for youngerlawyers to join ourgrowing team andfurther strengthen ourresource, so we’rethrilled that Harriet isjoining us at the start ofher career as a qualifiedsolicitor and we areconfident that she willcomplement our existingteam well.”

The firm was founded in 2003 bytwo lawyers to serve growingbusinesses, entrepreneurs and

investors. A decade on, the modelhas proved itself and the team nownumbers 9 lawyers covering therange of corporate transactional andnon-contentious commercial legalwork. Recent highlights includeacting for Curtis Banks Group plc onits £85 million AIM flotation in May2015.

� Property consultancyLambert Smith Hampton

has strengthened itsBristol office with theappointment of anassociate director tohead up its leaseadvisory team.

James Banks will workclosely with its agency

and building surveyingteams to identify long-term

opportunities in the area.He previously worked at Cushman

and Wakefield, where he advised arange private and corporate clients

Heathrow hub will help South West compete on global scale

BUILDING a new runway atHeathrow will be one of thebiggest decisions facing ourre gion’s MPs in 2015. Whilethe runway may not be in the

South West, the implications offailing to take action certainly are.

I say that because if we are to accessas many markets as possible, theevidence clearly demonstrates thatthe key way to achieve this is throughboosting direct flights.

Independent research demon-strates that eight new routes to emer-ging markets alone would provide upto a £1 billion boost to annual UKt r a d e.

And of course, what works for tradeworks for investment too, which ex-

plains why 85 per cent of multina-tionals say strong air links are adetermining factor in their invest-ment location.

Competitive airports in the SouthWest must be a key part of the solu-tion.

Businesses in this region willalways prefer to travel whereverpossible from the airport that isnearest to them, so government mustmake this as easy as possible.

This is why for firms such as Air-

Opinion

bus and Rolls-Royce, better surfaceaccess connections with airports likeBristol are critical. This will drivedemand that will lead to a widerrange of connections right here onour doorstep.

Yet we must also acknowledge therole that having a thriving nationalhub airport like Heathrow plays inconnecting firms in the South Westsuch as BuroHappold Engineering tothe BRICs of today and the MINTS oftomor row.

The data speaks for itself – by draw-ing on transfer passengers, hubairports serve on average three timesas many emerging market destina-tions as non-hubs.

But with Heathrow full and Lon-

d o n’s airports set to be full as early as2025, we have reached a crunch point,with clear implications for this re-gion too.

As this decision has stalled, wehave handed first-mover advantagein the markets of the future to ourcompetitors – and it is costing usd e a rly.

A glance at flights to China tellsyou everything you need to know. Byfostering links to cities like Xiamen,Wuhan and Shenyang – among others– other European hubs now haveaccess to a Chinese market with acombined population of more than 38million, to which the UK does nothave a single direct flight.

Our inability to do the same is like

throughout the South West andLondon.

“This is an exciting opportunity togrow a team while servicing keyLSH clients,” said James. “With thegrowth of the Severn regionpowerhouse, the South West has agolden opportunity to focus on itspotential and we’ll be looking to seehow our experts can play amajor role in thedevelopment of thea re a . ”

James, right, will beleading a team thatprovides a range ofkey services to thecommercial propertysector, including leaserenewal, rent review,lease re-gear and Section18 advice to both investorsand occupiers in the public andprivate sectors. Key clients includeNationwide, Mapeley, WesleyanAssurance and Urban Splash.

Welcoming James to the firm,regional head of office DarrenSheward said: “There are a growingnumber of opportunities in thecommercial property sector in theregion and having James join usmeans we can offer an even broaderrange of high quality services toboth existing and potential clients.”

P l a ces� The increasing attraction of theBristol Temple Quarter EnterpriseZone has been demonstrated by therapid letting of Kingsland House byColliers International.

Will writing and estate planningspecialists ELM Legal Services hasmoved into the recently refurbishedtwo-story office building on a10-year lease with breaks.

Alfie Passingham, of the nationaloffices team at Colliers International

in Bristol, said: “There hasbeen a noticeable rise in

demand for office spacein the Temple QuarterEnterprise Zone.

“Forthcomingdevelopments such asthe new arena areundoubtedly

encouraging companiesto move into the area,

together with theopportunities for business rate

discounts for companies located inthe enterprise zone. This has beenunderlined by the speed in which anoccupier was found for Kingsland

Your digest of the week in business

the UK refusing to trade withCanada.

The Airports Commission couldnot be clearer.

In recommending a third runwayat the UK’s hub airport, Heathrow, ithas recommended the option thatwill deliver maximum benefit outsideof the South East, for all regions of theUK.

The message from businesses toour MPs here in the South West isequally clear – play your part andvote to get it built alongside theinfrastructure for our regional air-ports to connect easily to the hub.

We need joined-up and compre-hensive infrastructure to compete ona global scale.

Steve WestVice Chancellor, UWE Bristol,and CBI South West chair

House, attracted by its proximity toTemple Meads railway station, andin a location that is the preferredchoice for a growing number ofbusinesses.”

Kingsland House is aself-contained 4,639 sq ft office onSilverthorne Lane, on the easternside of the enterprise zone, featuringa mixture of cellular officeaccommodation and larger openplan rooms, plus a kitchen, showerfacilities, secure cycle storage andseven parking spaces.

Colliers International acted onbehalf of the private pension fundowners. ELM Legal Services wasu n re p re s e n t e d .

� Business rates and rent specialistCVS has moved to a new officewithin the financial district of Bristol.

The move is part of the firm’sstrategy for investment in new staffand infrastructure as it responds towhat it describes as the strong,nationwide appetite for cost-savingbusiness rent and rates services.

The company, previously basedon Great George Street, has movedto Bull Wharf, Redcliff Street, overthe weekend.

Stephen Philp, ratingmanagement director, said: “Wehave enjoyed a lot of successrecently for clients in the South Westand are seeing a much higherdemand for our services. Bristol is afantastic city to do business fromand we are delighted that we aremoving to the prestigious Bull Wharflocation.”

The firm, which also has offices inLondon and Manchester, citessignificant wins for clients this year,such as Fowlers, Cotswold Inns,Royal Mint and S4C Wales.

Chief executive Mark Rigby said:“CVS is growing nationally as moreand more businesses look foreffective and professional advice onreducing their business rent andrates bills.

“We have been delighted with thedevelopment of the Bristol officeover the past four years.

“The move to Bull Wharf fallsin line with our ambitious growthplan and I am sure we will have ahome in the city for many years tocome.”

� Steph McGovern (BBC Breakfastpresenter), Andy Brattessani(HSBC), Mike Guerin (winner),Cathryn Hayes (bfa head judge),Sean Hammond (ExpressNewspapers)

� Bull Wharf, Redcliff Street � Kingsland House