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BUSINESS EDITOR:BILL GLEESON0151 472 2319

DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR:TONY McDONOUGH0151 330 4918

BUSINESS REPORTER:PETER ELSON0151 472 2502

BUSINESS REPORTER:ALISTAIR HOUGHTON0151 472 2449

BUSINESS REPORTER:ALEX TURNER0151 472 2321

BUSINESS REPORTER:NEIL HODGSON0151 472 2451

DESIGNER shopping centreMetquarter has suffered a huge fall inoccupancy as major high street nameshave either left town or relocated torival retail developments in Liverpoolcity centre.

Cafe Rouge has become the latesttenant to seek a way out of its lease.The restaurant’s owner Tragus Group

has this week launched a search for abuyer for the French style brasserie’slease as part of a package of disposalsof poorly trading units.

Tragus said its restaurant in theMetquarter was “no longer consideredsuitable” for the Cafe Rouge brand.

Although it will continue trading,the move will come as a blow to thecentre which has struggled to main-tain levels of occupancy throughoutthe recession and the onslaught ofcompetition from Liverpool One.

Currently, 11 of its 48 units arevacant, while for some time fashion

retailer Aspecto has been looking tofind someone to take on its lease.

However, Metquarter centre man-ager Jennina O’Neill does not believethere is a need to panic, and a patientapproach will reap rewards. She said:“Metquarter does have some vacanciesat present, although we expect to beshortly in a position to announceexciting new retailers and with thebrands that appeal to our customers.

“In other words, we won’t let thespace to just anyone for the sake of itand have to accept that some dealstake time to close.

“This is particularly the case withbig name players operating nationallywhere we have to take time convincingthem to make a move to Liverpool andbe exclusive to Metquarter.

“That said, we are in talks with anumber of very interesting brands –some of these negotiations look prom-ising but we are acutely aware that theclimate is tough and we have to workreally hard to get the results we want.”

The Metquarter’s vacant units areconcentrated at the Victoria Street end

Metquarter losesoutasdesignershopsquitTHE London market

was boosted yester-day by a winningcombination of strongChinese trade data,hopes of a deal tosolve Greece’s debtcrisis and solid earn-ings reports.

The FTSE 100 Indexclosed higher to6018.8 after bankingstocks were boostedby a report whichindicated Greece wasto receive a freshround of aid to com-bat its debt mountain.

MARKET REPORT:PAGE 15

FTSE-1006018.8

76.2▲

Holidays helpairport to arecord AprilBANK holidays andlate Easter encouragepassengers to flyfrom Liverpool JohnLennon Airport.

PAGE 2

Bank summitSMALL business own-ers in Merseyside willtoday question lead-ing bankers.

PAGE 4

Retail driveTHE new MD of JohnLewis’s Liverpoolstore wants to boostthe city’s retail sector.

PAGE 5

insideRecorddeal forHeatonsOFFICE furniture sup-plier Heatons haslanded the biggest con-tract in its history.

The Birkenhead firm,founded in 1986, won a£240,000 contract withworkwear firm Alexan-dra to provide interiordesign, layout and fur-niture planning ser-vices at its Bristol base.

It follows other con-tract wins for Heatons,including one to createa refectory area atNeston High School.

Heatons’ director offurniture, Nicola Hum-phray, said: “We havehad a hugely intensivethree months.”

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

EXCLUSIVEbyAlexTurnerLDPBUSINESSSTAFFalex.turner@liverpool.com

Nicola Humphray –director of furniture atHeatons, in Birkenhead

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2 Wednesday, May 11, 2011

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‘The demise of the RoyalLiver name is part of theinevitable cycle of change’

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1 Forever 21’s £25m store scheme2 Vauxhall’s break-even plan3 RBA 2011 shortlist revealed4 Euro deal for palm oils firm5 Anchor tenant for Orford Parkldpbusiness.co.uk

Updatesthroughoutthe day

JLApassengernumberssoartoApril recordlevel

Leasebreakscauseconcern

of the centre, where CafeRouge occupies a key loc-ation at the entrance.

At the start of therecession, in Septem-ber, 2008, the develop-ment was almost full.But it lost its largesttenant, Flannels, at theend of 2009, which occu-pied 17,500 sq ft andhas remained empty forthe last 18 months.

Whistles, Hobbs andCoast have also left –along with Flannels,they all now have out-lets in Liverpool One –while other brandsincluding Storm andKate Kuba have shut.Other retailers, such asAll White 3000, haveopened and closed inthat time.

Liverpool City Coun-cil’s recent retailstrategy document saidone of the challenges itfaced was “securing thefuture of the Metquarterin light of upcominglease breaks – the riskof high vacancy rates inthe Metquarter islikely to be one of thebiggest short/mediumterm challenges for themain retail area”.

Ms O’Neill highlighteda couple of recent suc-cesses so far this year.

“The nature of theretail market currentlymeans that it is inevit-able that some storeswill close or move.”

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LIVERPOOL John Lennon Airport(JLA) enjoyed a record April as thelate Easter, staggered school holidaysand the Royal Wedding bank holidayencouraged people to fly away.

Last month, 490,831 passengers usedJLA, more than 40,000 more than theprevious best, which was achieved in2007. It showed an increase of morethan 120,000 people on last year, whenvolcanic ash closed UK airspace forseveral days.

Robin Tudor, head of PR for PeelAirports, said: “Over the Easter, RoyalWedding and May Bank Holidayperiod alone, almost 200,000 passen-gers chose to travel via the airport. It’sa pity a late Easter and a Royal Wed-ding doesn’t happen every year.

“We knew passenger numbers thisApril would be significantly higherthan last year, having seen over 100,000passengers affected by the Icelandicvolcano in April, 2010; however, thisyear’s bumper April holiday periodsaw volumes of passengers surpasseven our expectations.”

The period from Good Friday to MayDay saw four bank holidays in an11-day period which encouraged hol-idaymakers.

Also the late Easter resulted in somelocal authorities moving the schoolholidays to earlier in the month, res-ulting in the airport having four weeksof school holiday traffic.

The bumper month increased itsyear-to-date total to 1.54m, which isahead of the previous two years.

The airport’s management is fore-casting the improvements to continue,with routes to a range of destinationsacross Europe expected to increasetraffic to its highest annual total sinceLiverpool’s year as Capital of Culturein 2008.

Then, 5.36m people travelled to orfrom the airport, but the economicdownturn prevented JLA building onthe momentum from the city’s year inthe spotlight.

Passenger numbers fell to 4.95m the

following year, before improvingslightly to 5.08m in 2010.

Last June, Peel Group sold 65% ofPeel Airports – of which JLA accountsfor a large majority – to Canadiangroup Vancouver Airport Services

(VAS) for £110m. VAS has said it islooking to increase passenger numbersand the revenues generated frompassengers using the airport and itsfacilities, which were extended lastyear.

TOP FIVE

More than 490,000 people used John Lennon Airport in April Photo: PAUL HEAPS / ph230211airport-11

byAlexTurnerLDPBUSINESSSTAFFalex.turner@liverpool.com

Stelios calls on Easyjet board to return cash pile to shareholders

BUDGET airline Easyjetreported a near-doubling offirst-half losses yesterday asit battled higher fuel pricesand challenging consumerconditions.

Pre-tax losses increased94% to £153m, in the sixmonths to March 31, afterthe latest surge in the price

of aviation fuel cost £43mand it absorbed an increasein air passenger duty.

At the same time, com-pany founder and largestshareholder, Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou, criticised the air-line for holding cash bal-ances of £1.4bn.

Sir Stelios said: "This cash

pile is about £600m overand above the board man-dated policy of holding £4mper aircraft, that is circa£800m. I think shareholderswould be better off if theboard returned this surpluscash to them, so they can in-vest it in other businesses."

Passenger numbers

increased 12%, to 23.9m,despite the disruption fromthe snow in December,which caused the wide-spread cancellation offlights. Easyjet is thesecond-biggest airline at Liv-erpool John Lennon Airportby passenger numbers.

Chief executive Carolyn

McCall said: “The past sixmonths has been tough withsharply rising fuel costscombined with cautiousbehaviour by consumers andan adverse impact fromtaxes on passengers.”

She warned that furtherfuel price increases couldforce up air fares.

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3Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Shaw next pulls out a piece of card,and says: “Typically, unbaled, wecould sell this for £30 a tonne. Simplybale it, and it’s £130 a tonne.”

Next comes a piece of cloth. Shawsays that by sorting clothing, ratherthan simply baling it all together, itcan be sold at higher prices.

Finally, Shaw pulls a piece ofplastic from his props bag.

“Baled, this is worth £200 a tonne,”he says. “But, if we have the space tooperate in, we can granulate it.

“It ceases to be waste and becomesa raw material, and we can sell itback to the plastic moulders whomade it in the first place. And it goesfrom £200 to £800 a tonne.”

EWC already has MRFs – Shawpronounces that “merfs” – in Know-sley, Neath Port Talbot and London.By the end of this year, it hopes tohave opened sites in London,Leicester and East Kilbride, nearGlasgow.

Shaw says EWC may consideropening an MRF in the West Mid-lands – a densely-populated area witha shortage of recycling sites.

To open these MRFs, EWC needscash – hence its aim for AIM status.But there are, says Shaw, otheradvantages to flotation.

“The funds will help,” he says.“They will clear most of our debt.

“There’s also a kudos attached tobeing listed.

“We have our eye on some tacticalbolt-on acquisitions. Being able tooffer shares will help with that.

“And being able to offer shareshelp us to retain the staff we havenow and attract those will need inthe future.

“Our founder, Bill Edwards, hasalways had the ambition to float thebusiness at some point. Now we feelthe time is right.”

Edwards founded EWC in 1993 and

sorts waste from 300 UK firms. In theyear to last August, EWC posted salesof £23.8m, with a pre-tax profit of£2.1m.

But Shaw and the managementteam have ambitious plans to growsales to £40m and beyond.

The key, he says, is opening morelarge Material Recycling Facilities(MRF) centres, to give EWC staffroom to sort waste before selling it toother recycling firms.

And, to demonstrate that point,Shaw brings out the props bag.

“Copper wire is a good example ofadding value,” says Shaw, brandish-ing a piece of wire encased in yellowand green plastic.

“If an electrician does a rewire atyour house, you’re left with half areel of cable. It sits in your garage,then you find it four years later andthrow it in a skip.

“We could bale that wire and sell itto a commodities dealer for £1,800 atonne. But if we get a plastic stripperand strip off the coating, you’re talk-ing £5,500 a tonne for the copper, and£200 a tonne for the plastic.”

profile

Rubbishbagofpropsshowsthere’sstill cashtobemadefromtrash

IT’S not often that you can impress aroomful of investors by dropping abag of rubbish on their table.

But that’s how Bill Shaw is launch-ing Environmental Waste Controls(EWC) on the stock market.

Knowsley-based EWC is provingthe old saying that “where there’smuck, there’s brass”. It turns overmore than £23m from the waste man-agement services it offers to councilsand businesses across the UK.

Now it plans to float on London’sAlternative Investment Market toraise £4m to further growth plansShaw describes as “aggressive”.

Shaw, who became EWC’s chiefexecutive last year, is this week meet-ing potential investors in London.And to showcase what the companydoes, he carries a “bag of props” con-taining a piece of used copper wire, ascrap of fabric and a chunk of plastic.

He is telling investors how EWCplans to invest in larger recyclingsites to sort the waste it collects so itcan make more money from it.

“One thing I’ve learned sincebeing involved in this company,” hesays, “is that there is value in waste.I’m almost convinced there’s no suchthing as waste.

“More and more, every wasteproduct can be turned into aresource. It’s just a question of howdifficult it is to do that.”

EWC operates 30 household wasterecycling centres for local authoritiesin seven areas, including Warring-ton. Its commercial arm collects and

AlistairHoughtonmeetsBILLSHAW,CEOofEnvironmentalWasteControls, inKnowsley

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Age: 54Biggest achievement in business:Becoming a director of a company asprominent as United UtilitiesBiggest regret: Not picking my sea-son ticket up at Goodison Park untilfive years ago, having let it lapse for20 yearsBest advice received: A previousboss asked me if I was going to applyfor a job which would have been asignificant promotion. I said I didn’tthink I’d get it. He said ‘It’s not yourrole in life to draw up the shortlist fora job you’re about to apply for’

q&a

still owns the firm. He has nowstepped back from day-to-day man-agement at the firm, but will retain alarge stake after it has floated.

Shaw says: “For me, he’s a greatsounding board. It’s useful to havesomeone like Bill to call on.

“We have an aggressive businessplan. We plan to do £24m this year,then £28m next year, then £35m, then£40m. It excites me, Bill and the restof the team.”

Evertonian Shaw is a charteredchemist who joined the North WestWater Authority – now United Util-ities (UU) – 35 years ago.

By the time he left UU last year hewas its operations director, leadingthe provision of water and wastewater services.

Three years ago, Shaw decided togain new experience by taking onanother directorship – and joined theboard of EWC. He says: “I got thebenefit of working with Bill Edwards,an entrepreneur, at an organisationthat is a lot smaller and more nimblethan a necessarily bureaucraticorganisation such as UU.”

Shaw retired from UU last Marchand joined EWC as part-time chiefexecutive. He says: “I worked forthree days a week until July, but itbecame obvious that if we were goingto take the business to the next level,we couldn’t do it with a part-timechief executive.”

Shaw says the demand for recyc-ling services will continue to grow asthe Government continues its pushto reduce the amount of waste goingto landfill and as more and moregreen regulations are introduced.

But, he says, members of the pub-lic are also keen to do their bit.

“If people go to our civic amenitysites,” he says, “the first thing theysee is a meeter and greeter, whohelps them to recycle.

“But if you take a step back, you’llsee it’s the members of the publicthat do all the work. Our guys arethere to educate and direct people,but it’s the members of the publicwho go from receptacle to receptacle,getting stuff out of their car boots.We cannot make them do it – theywant to do it.”

Shaw is also confident that EWCcan win more local authority con-tracts based on its track record.

“We have 13 sites for Leicester-shire County Council,” he says.

“When we took over the contract,the recycling rate for those centreswas 39%. Three years later, it was74%. That saves the council £1.4m ayear in landfill costs.”

And EWC is still thinking of newways to make money from the wasteit already processes.

One idea is to start reconditioningthe many televisions dumped at itssites, so they can be sold abroad. Andanother venture will surely interestthe bargain-hunters of Knowsley.

Shaw says: “We end up with thous-ands of items of bric-a-brac at ourcivic amenity sites – such as picturesand ornaments.

“So we take a lot of that bric-a-bracto an auction that we run in Leeds.We turn over £40,000 a month fromthat auction. We plan to openanother auction house in Mersey-side. We’ll house it somewhere inKnowsley. It’s a way of driving valuefrom waste.”

Shaw, who lives in Warrington, is akeen golfer. But he expects that work-ing at EWC will keep him away fromthe golf course for some time yet.

“This business is exciting for mebecause I really believe in it,” hesays.

“I will be investing in this organ-isation. I believe in the team and Ibelieve in the sector.”

Bill Shaw, left, talks toEnvironmental Waste Controlsemployee Kelly Richardson

4 Wednesday, May 11, 2011

BankstofaceMerseySMEs

A toughMarchfor hotelsHOTELS in the NorthWest are continuing tostruggle in the eco-nomic climate, accord-ing to figures fromaccountants PKF.

In March, the roomrate in Liverpool’shotels fell 5.5% to£67.40, while occup-ancy rates fell 4.3% to68.2%. This resulted ina rooms yield of £45.97,a drop of 9.6% from£50.84.

In Chester, the roomrate increased in thecity by 1.2% from£60.60 in March lastyear, to £61.33 in Jan-uary this year. Roomoccupancy fell to 63.4%while rooms yielddropped 2.2% to £38.88.

In Manchester, roomrate decreased 0.2%from £75.44 last year to£75.30 this year.

Room occupancydecreased 0.7% from75.7% in 2010 to 75.1%this year. Overall, thismeant a rooms yielddecrease of 0.9%, from£57.07 to £56.55.

Angela Knight, of the BBA

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StarstogoGagaforeventsfirm’sfoodshowcaseEVENTS management firmSK Events will this weekendpromote North West foodand drink to some of themusic world’s biggest stars –including Lady Gaga.

Liverpool-based SK, whichorganises the annual TasteCumbria Food Festival, willbe serving up Cumbrian pro-duce to performers and crewat Radio One’s Big Weekendin Carlisle.

The stars, who alsoinclude the Black Eyed Peas,will dine in a yurt backstageat the festival’s VIP area.

The food will be preparedby chefs from the Mich-elin-starred restaurant atthe von Essen Group’s Shar-row Bay hotel, in the LakeDistrict.

SK director, Denise Har-ris, said: “We are thrilled tohave been able to linktogether some of thenation’s best food producersand high-calibre chefs withsuch a massive event on themusic calendar.

“Bringing the Taste Cum-bria brand to this event isvery exciting for everyoneinvolved, and we cannotwait to see what the world’sbiggest musicians think ofwhat we have to offer.”

Lady Gaga is among the stars who will be served Cumbrian food by Liverpools’ SK Events Picture: JASON ROBERTS

byTonyMcDonoughLDPDEPUTYBUSINESSEDITORtony.mcdonough@liverpool.com

SMALL business owners from across Mersey-side will today come face-to-face with the UK’sbiggest banks and get to question them dir-ectly about lending.

Liverpool Chamber of Commerce is hostinga free half-day roadshow which will see thechief executive of the British Bankers’ Assoc-iation, Angela Knight, address business own-ers directly.

The Better Business Finance event will alsobe attended by representatives of Barclays,HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds andSantander.

Speaking to LDP Business ahead of the road-show, Ms Knight admitted the banks had“made mistakes”, but insisted they were pre-pared to work with and help small firms.

“We are not perfect and we don’t pretendotherwise,” she said.

“But 80% of applications for funding arebeing granted and businesses are paying backloans at a greater rate than ever before.

“One of the questions that we need ananswer to is whether the issue is about supplyor demand.

“We are going to pay for some proper sur-veys to look at this, and we will be speaking to5,000 businesses every quarter. We hope torelease the first figures end of June or start ofJuly.”

Today’s event, which will be attended bymore than 90 small firms, will seek to ensurebusinesses understand how lending decisionsare made, what sources of finance are avail-able, how to write clear funding applicationsand how the appeals process works if an

application to borrow is turned down. JackStopforth, chief executive of Liverpool Cham-ber, said: “We see the banks coming to Liv-erpool as an excellent opportunity for smallbusinesses in the area.

“There is a lot of help available, but it canoften be difficult to digest all of the inform-ation.

“We’re encouraging any small business inthe area looking for support to come along andspeak to representatives from the banks dir-ectly.”

When exceptional people cometogether, great things happen.When Weightmans and Mace & Jones merged to become onefirm on 1 May something special developed.Weightmans and Mace & Jones. Together we are stronger.Find out more at www.weightmans.com

5Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Its Liverpool One store has hadthree consecutive quarters oflike-for-like sales falls, with sluggishsales since October resulting in justseven of the last 31 weeks showing animprovement.

Despite the store having been openfor three years, trading patterns havebeen slow to emerge with significantupward or downward pressure onsales arising from Capital of Cultureyear, the credit crunch-turned-reces-sion and public spending cuts.

He said: “Everyone recognises it wasgoing to be a challenging year but it’stoo early to say where we are going tobe later in the year. ‘Cautious’ is theright word to use, you can’t rest onyour laurels.”

Mr Cooke’s appointment was wel-comed by David Barford, John Lewis’sdirector of selling operations.

He said: “We’re always delightedwhen our Partners take on new chal-lenges and I’ve no doubt Dan will excelin this role.

“His years of retail experience andoutstanding record of achievementprior to joining John Lewis will bringfresh ideas and perspectives to therole, making him ideally suited to lead-ing and growing our business in Liv-erpool.”

THE newly-appointed managing dir-ector of John Lewis’s Liverpool Onestore is determined to use theretailer’s brand to help drive the pro-file of the city’s retail sector.

Dan Cooke has started at the depart-ment store after a career that hastaken in Debenhams, Peacocks – wherehe was area director for Merseyside –and most recently Blacks Leisure.

“John Lewis is a key store for Liv-erpool,” said Mr Cooke. “It’s a bigdepartment store so it should be a des-tination, but it also needs to be fullyintegrated within Liverpool One.

“Liverpool One’s managementseems to be forward-thinking – we willbe looking at how we can help eachother.”

He added: “The transformation ofthe city over the past few years and therelocation of John Lewis to LiverpoolOne have established the city’s repu-tation as a world class shopping des-tination. I am proud to be joining it.”

Mr Cooke takes charge during atricky period of trading at the retailer,which is often described as a bell-wether of middle-class spending.

SMEs getfreeinvite toseminarSMALL and medium-sized manufacturingfirms are invited to afree business confer-ence by the regionaloffice of the Govern-ment-backed Manufac-turing Advisory Ser-vice (MAS).

Elevating Excellencewill take place on June16 at ManchesterUnited FC’s Old Traf-ford stadium, and willconsider the twothemes of quality andcontinuous skillsimprovement, whichhave been based onindustry feedback toMAS during the year.

A panel of industrial-ists and key-note speak-ers includes RichardElse, plant director ofJaguar Land Rover’sHalewood site.

Delegates will hearhow to drive orderbooks, reduce operat-ional costs and positionthemselves for futuregrowth.

They will also havethe opportunity to meetpotential new custom-ers and suppliers, learnabout innovations totransform their busi-nesses, as well as learnabout sources of prac-tical support. The eventwill begin with an8.30am early morningspeed networking ses-sion, which proved ahit with attendees lastyear, and factory toursof key north west sitesare being arranged forthe following day.■ TO REGISTER, visithttp://journey9.co.uk/MAS

CapitadeniespublicsectororderbookisdryingupOUTSOURCING giant Capitahas dismissed suggestions itsmarket is drying up due tospending cutbacks, sayingdemand is now rising bothfrom local and central govern-ment, while private sectorbusiness is buoyant.

The firm, which adminis-ters the Liverpool-based Crim-inal Records Bureau and the

collection of the licence fee forthe BBC, said: “The marketfor outsourcing has becomemore active following a quiet2009 and 2010.”

Local government anddefence are the strongest pub-lic sector markets, with the“the number of new tendersacross our areas of expertisenow at the levels enjoyed

prior to the May, 2010, elec-tions and the public sectorspending freeze,” it said.

Chief executive Paul Pindarsaid the last four weeks hadseen a pick-up in the amountof public sector work goingout to tender, a reversal of thetrend only six months agowhen it said the cutbacks hadhit it harder than expected.

Capita still cautioned thatrevenues growth in the firsthalf of this financial year willbe “modest”, but that progressafter that should be better,especially as several bigorders potentially could comethrough.

This includes a re-bid forthe BBC licence fee deal andcontracts for army recruit-

ment and with Edinburgh CityCouncil.

The Government’s plans forpublic services are due inJune, in a White Paper delayedfrom February.

Recent reports had sugges-ted the Government mightrein back the amount of busi-ness it hands over to out-sourcing companies.

Liverpooltohostconferencetopromotesocialenterprise

JohnLewislookstoaddtocity’swideretailappeal

New JohnLewisLiverpoolMD, DanCooke

Picture:COLIN LANE/

tmcl100511johnlewis-5

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byAlexTurnerLDPBUSINESSSTAFFalex.turner@liverpool.com

LIVERPOOL will host amajor national conferencenext week to promote fran-chising as a way of expandingthe social enterprise sector.

Shared Growth is beingstaged at St George’s Hall onMay 17, featuring a range ofspeakers and workshops toexplain the benefits of replic-ating and licensing socialbusinesses.

Experts will includeAgnieszka Lewonowska-Banach, the manager of afranchised Le Mat hotel inKrakow, Poland, called UPana Cogito; Robbie Davison,from Can Cook, in Liverpool;and Guy Turnbull, from Careand Share Associates.

Organiser Val Jones, fromSocial Enterprise NorthWest, said: “Most people in

business are looking for thenext big idea, but sometimesthat’s not the best route totake. There are already busi-ness models out there thatcould be franchised and rep-licated.

“The benefit is that theyhave a proven track record insuccess which, for a socialenterprise, is particularlyimportant.”

Includes:Return seacrossing as afoot passengerPLUS2 NIGHTS B&Bat the 4-StarPalace HOTELCASINOonDouglas

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6 Wednesday, May 11, 2011

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AStrictlyunmissablegalaawardsevening

Broadcaster John Sergeant – hosting this year’s business awardsceremony next month

ZOMBIE businesses arein the banks’ intensivecare units for twice aslong as two years ago,and are at serious riskfrom any interest raterise, according to aKPMG survey of 400bankers across theNorth.

Zombie companiesare those that are justsurviving but havelittle room for man-oeuvre in the event ofany further downturnor any one-off cashissues.

They typically havesignificant levels ofdebt, an,d though ableto cover their currentinterest payments, arelikely to struggle torepay the capital.

Brian Green, ofKPMG, said: “There hasundoubtedly been anincrease in the numberof Northern businessesthat are in a zombiestate, with the scale ofthe problem growing.”

Zombiestakinglonger torecover

byBillGleesonLDPBUSINESSEDITORbill.gleeson@liverpool.com

IF YOU want to be at this year’sLiverpool Daily Post Regional Busi-ness Awards, you need to actquickly.

Around 500 guests are expectedto attend the glittering, black tieawards dinner, which will takeplace at Liverpool AnglicanCathedral next month.

Television celebrity John Ser-geant will be hosting the event onbehalf of the Liverpool Daily Post,a title he used to work for as ayoung reporter.

Mr Sergeant has previouslyworked as a politics reporter forthe BBC and ITN, and famouslywithdrew from the 2008 StrictlyCome Dancing after a storm ofprotests about his success in thecompetition.

The winners of nine award cat-egories will be unveiled on thenight, which takes place onThursday, June 23.

Among the categories is the DLA

Piper Business Person on the Yearaward. This is awarded to an indiv-idual who has made a major con-tribution to his or her business andthe reputation of the region as awhole. Past winners of this prizeinclude Steve O’Connor, of Stobart,and Sir Michael Bibby, of BibbyLine Group.

Another award, known as the O2Judges’ Award, is made to a busi-ness seen by the judges as demon-strating an extra spark of entre-preneurial spirit during the year.No shortlist is drawn up for eitherof these two categories.

A shortlist for five of the cat-egories was published last weekand is available on our website,www.ldpbusiness.co.uk. The short-list for the remaining categorieswill be published next week.

Daily Post editor Mark Thomassaid: “This is a prestigious, not-to-be-missed occasion that offers afabulous networking opportunityand great entertainment.”■ TO BOOK places at this year’sevent, please call 0151 472 2422.Single places cost £95 plus VAT. Atable of ten is £950 plus VAT.

SHE’S BACK...

THE LIVERPOOL INTERNATIONALTENNIS TOURNAMENT 2011A Northern Vision Event

16TH - 19TH JUNE, CALDERSTONES PARK

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Also starring...Richard KrajicekGreg RusedskiMartina HingisMansour Bahrami

7Wednesday, May 11, 2011

MattJohnson

LukewarmresponsetoJLR’s£1bndebtscheme

Facebookban for50% ofworkersHALF of workers havebeen banned by theiremployers from usingFacebook and othersocial network sites intheir offices, accordingto a report today.

A survey of morethan 2,000 employeesfor computer servicesprovider HCL Tech-nologies found thatmany bosses fearedtheir business reputat-ion was at stake bystaff using social net-working sites.

Chief executive Vin-eet Nayar said: “It isquite remarkable that,in this day and age,many employers arestill putting theiremployees’ interests asa low priority by notallowing them to usesites like Facebook.

“While we alwaysadvocate responsibleuse of social networksin the office, banningthem outright willimpact employees’approach to work in anegative way, having adetrimental effect onthe business as awhole.”

Mobilephonesarerevolutionisingthewaywedobusiness

JAGUAR Landrover’s (JLR) plan toraise £1bn to refinance its balancesheet debts has been given a lukewarmreception by two leading credit ratingsagencies.

JLR wants to refinance existing debtand repay preference shares by issuing£1bn of senior unsecured notes.

However, Standard & Poor’s (S&P)and Moody’s have both rated given thenew debt a sub-prime rating.

In a statement, S&P said: “Based onour criteria, we assess JLR’s financial

risk profile as aggressive and its busi-ness risk profile as weak.”

Rival credit rating agency Moody’sassigned a B1 rating to JLR’s proposednew loan notes.

JLR will this summer launch itsnew Range Rover Evoque, which willbe built at its Halewood factory, nearLiverpool. The project has resulted inthe recruitment of 1,500 extra employ-ees.

S&P said it was assigning a prelim-inary “B+” corporate credit rating toJLR, factoring in some support from100% owner Tata Motors.

Despite the poor rating, S&Pdescribed the outlook for JLR as

“stable”. JLR generates about 60% ofIndian-based Tata Motors consolidatedrevenues and 66% of its consolidatedoperating profits in the nine months tolast December.

Tata bought JLR from Ford in 2008for $2.3bn. The acquisition was init-ially loss making. Tata had at the timelaunched a $3bn loan to fund the pur-chase.

The unit has seen a turnaround inits trading fortunes in the last fewquarters, and posted profits of 19.58bnrupees for the three months endedDecember.

Last Friday, the firm said it wasseeking a partner in the fast-growing

Chinese market as it ploughs morethan £5bn into developing newvehicles over the next five years.

Earlier this week, there werereports that the car maker has heldtalks with the British governmentabout financial support for bringing anew £750m engine plant to the UK.

The reports claimed senior manage-ment from JLR Tata Motors met offic-ials from the Department of BusinessInnovation and Skills last Thursday.

JLR has identified three potentialareas to base the plant.

They are Wolverhampton, SouthWales and a site in India, with Wol-verhampton the front runner.

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THE way we interact with tech-nology is constantly changing, withnew technologies having an impacton every aspect of our daily lives.

Technological advances in recenttimes have given us the ability toview stunning hi-definition and 3-Dtelevision from the comfort of ourown homes, unimaginable to mostpeople only a few years ago.

Similarly, it’s not so long since theidea of real-time news updates wouldhave been impossible, but social net-working sites such as Twitter haverevolutionised the way we receiveour news. An example being thisweek’s revelations on Twitter aboutwhich celebrities have been takingout injunctions.

And it’s not just our newsgather-ing that’s affected by changing tech-nology.

The mobile landscape, in partic-ular, is constantly in flux, with newideas and innovations occurringevery day and changing the way weview and use our mobilephones.

The age of the mobilephone as a device for justmaking phone calls haslong gone. Increasingly, ourmobiles are used in allaspects of our lives.

This week has seen thelaunch of JustTextGivingby Vodafone, in partnershipwith JustGiving. This new schemewill make it easier than ever for con-sumers to be generous, allowing

them to donate directly from theirmobile phone.

In the recent past, charity giantssuch as Comic Relief and Children In

Need have been able tomake excellent use of textgiving, but prohibitiveset-up costs have been abarrier to smaller charities.

But JustTextGivingrequires no set-up fees forthe charities involved, andthe entirety of the sumdonated goes to the charity,meaning that organisations

from all corners of the charitable sec-tor can benefit.

And with almost 90% of UK adults

now owning a mobile phone, the easein which text-based giving can bedone will encourage more and morepeople to donate on the spot.

The ways in which businesses canuse this impressive consumer mobileusage to generate revenue are manyand varied.

Think-tanks estimate text donat-ions could be worth £96m a year by2014.

With that in mind, many businessowners should consider how theycan integrate consumer mobileusage into their own businesses.

‘Theageof justmakingcallshaslonggone’

RebrandedMerseyhaulier issues‘green’pledgeA SEFTON haulier that hasannounced a rebranding hasvowed to put the environ-ment at the heart of everydecision it takes.

Abbey Road Tanks, whichemploys 250 people from itsBootle base, is now calledAbbey Logistics Group.

The change reflects theway the company has diver-sified from its core businessof transporting raw foodingredients, such as liquidchocolate, to manufacturerssuch as Burton’s Biscuits.Today, the company alsooffers powder distributionand pallet transport ser-vices.

Managing director SteveGranite said: “In addition toa change in name, Abbey hasadjusted its strategy and vis-ion to make our environ-mental impact a muchhigher issue on the com-pany’s agenda.

“While we have madegreat strides to reduce ourcarbon footprint in the past18 months, we now feel it istime that the environmenttook centre stage ineverything we do.”

Mr Granite said the com-pany plans to launch a30-point environmentalaction plan in June. A new-look tanker at Abbey Logistics Group, formerly Abbey Road Tanks

byBillGleesonLDPBUSINESSEDITORbill.gleeson@liverpool.com

■ MATT JOHNSON is chief executiveof Mando Group

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8 Wednesday, May 11, 2011

RoyalLivermustmigratetomoresoutherlyclimes

Bid to improve business arThecreationofabusinessimprovementdistrict isbeingputtoavote.AlexTurner findsoutmore

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THE commercial district could benefitfrom investment of more than £2.7m inthe next five years – if its businesses voteto fund a business improvement district(BID).

Ballot papers are now with the 800-plusbusinesses which would be called upon tofund the plans and they will be submit-ting their ayes or nays in the comingweeks before voting closes on May 27.

The vote is being managed by the Elect-oral Reform Society and the decision isdue to be announced three days later,with the BID pencilled in to begin almostimmediately.

All businesses with a rateable value of£10,000 or more are eligible to vote onwhether to accept a levy equivalent to 1%of rateable value. Smaller companies,who will not be charged the levy, are notbeing balloted.

The annual revenues raised by the levywould be more than £550,000, which can-not be used to fund statutory council ser-vices, but only “to add value to busi-nesses in the area through additional ser-vices or activity beyond the remit of thepublic sector”.

To come into effect, the BID – whichwould replace the existing, voluntary Liv-erpool Commercial District Partnership –needs to gain a majority of votes and alsoa majority of the aggregate rateable valueof those voting.

The proposed BID area boundaries areformed by King Edward Street and LeedsStreet in the north, Pall Mall, Moorfieldsand Stanley Street in the east, Lord Streetand James Street in the south, and NewQuay and The Strand in the west.

It will look to match the success of CityCentral BID, which covers the main retailarea in the city centre, apart from Liv-erpool One.

That is generally seen as having had avery positive effect on the streetscape,from events and marketing initiatives toadditional street cleaning and creating asafer environment.

The application for BID status has beenled by Liverpool Commercial DistrictPartnership.

That has £125,000 allocated to capitalprojects – which is expected to be mostlymatched by public sector funding – with afurther £50,000 on events. £60,000 will bespent on operations while marketingactivities will get £70,000.

The BID’s overheads arebudgeted at £150,000, with thebalance going on inward invest-ment support, transport andaccess, and contingency.

Paul Rice, chief executive ofLiverpool CDP, said: “Researchacross the world, not just in theUK, voluntary partnerships orthose run on voluntary cont-ributions follow similar pat-terns.They are started off with enthusi-asm but after a few years you tend to geta plateau and it can then fall away.

“Those that have been paying are facedwith the dilemma that they are payingbut others are getting something for noth-ing.

“It was that situation that was beingseen in town and city centres across theUK that led people to look at BID legis-lation – it gives a mechanism to find a

way to fund projects that will benefit thelocale.

“Our situation was exacerbated bywhat has happened in the last five years.We had to look at spreading the cost.”

The majority of the five-year BID planis focused on smaller, manageable chunksthat will provide practical improvements.

“We have gone through awhole series of consultationsover the last 12 months,” headded.

“The conversations we arehaving now is ‘you tell us whatwill make a difference to youand give you a return on thatlevy, whether it’s £12,000 or£120’.

“It’s not big ticket stuff, it’ssmaller, but that’s what place

management is about and making thebest of the resources you have available.

“It might be about, say, animating StPaul’s Square, but in Temple Square itmight be about cleaning it up after aFriday and Saturday night. Or on some ofthe smaller routes, like Bixteth Street,Harrington Street, Rainford Place, get-ting work done.

“We might be able to finish thoseschemes off, which were never on the

council’s list anyway.” Although thereseems to be a generally positive senti-ment towards the creation of a businessBID, Mr Rice is keenly aware that it isnearly impossible to predict how the votewill go.

He said: “It’s very difficult, given thenumber of businesses out there. But thosewe have engaged with, once we have star-ted talking to them, they can see howthey will benefit as a business.

“Some people take the position that it’sanother tax but I say we can’t afford notto do it.

“But so much has happened over thelast 10 years and we are on the cusp ofsomething here.

“There’s a real challenge for us tomake sure we don’t fall back. The BID isa key element in making sure we don’tfall back.”

A successful outcome would see theLiverpool Commercial District BID jointhe existing corporate structure of CityCentral BID, although there is a desire foran injection of new faces and enthusiasm.

“The city council wanted one BID com-pany, so the executive board will havepeople added to it. Probably a couplebecause there is already Max Steinberg[Liverpool Vision chief executive], Jack

ROYAL Liver’s member-ship will in the next 48hours vote on a boardproposal to consign themutual to the historybooks by merging withrival Royal London.

For more than 160years, the life assurer hasplayed a major role in theeconomic history of thecity from which it tookits name. Its head office,the Royal Liver Building,has become an icon, ashave the mythical birdsatop it.

The votes are to be castat the Royal Liver’s mara-thon four-day (161st andprobably last) annualgeneral meeting, takingplace this year at StGeorge’s Hall. Yesterday,200 delegates represent-ing 900,000 membersspent all day discussingthe annual report andaccounts.

I once attended Shell’sAGM. Despite the fact theoil company is much big-ger, its AGM took justtwo hours from start tofinish, including the bitwhen the police arrestedthe anarchists. Today,Royal Liver’s delegateswill debate voting proced-ures, then tomorrow theywill actually vote. Good-ness knows what theyplan to do with Friday.

It all begs the questionwho has got the time tospend four days at anAGM? It gives the impres-sion of an organisationhidebound in traditionand arcane, archaic gov-ernance processes; inother words, an institut-ion unlikely to modern-ise and face up to today’sruthlessly competitiveand fast-moving world offinancial services.

Over the past 10 years,Royal Liver’s perform-ance has been one of mar-ginal profitability. On theother hand, while RoyalLiver hasn’t been veryprofitable, it hasn’t beena financial disaster either– you couldn’t lump it inthe same category asEquitable Life. It could,in all probability, limp onfor many years yet, butmanagement havedecided it’s time to throwin the towel.

Three factors havecome together to work

against it. A failure tocompete in the marketplace has been matchedby volatile investmentmarkets and ever tighterregulations governingthe solvency of financialservice providers. Thegoal posts have beenmoved.

These days, an increas-ingly financially sophist-icated consumer marketplace is more interestedin which savings andinvestment products givethe best returns, ratherthan the principle ofmutuality. The mutualprinciple served a won-derful purpose in pasttimes, but we are nolonger so anxious aboutsaving to ensure a dig-nified funeral as poorVictorian Liverpudliansonce were.

The board has a dutyto conduct the businessof the society alongprudent lines. Weakinvestment returns and adecision to close the lifebook to new memberseffectively pulls the rugfrom under the businessmodel. A lack of newmembers means lowerrevenues, which in turnmakes the maintenanceof a significant overheadat head office unsustain-able. As a consequence,there is only one rationaloutcome to tomorrow’svote, Royal Liver mustcease to exist.

THE Metquarter stole amarch on Liverpool One,opening two yearsbefore the £1bn develop-ment.

The phrase creditcrunch hadn’t beencoined and the White-chapel shopping centrefilled up with tenants.Now, retailers like Flan-nels, Hobbs, Coast andWhistles have quit theMetquarter in favour ofthe much bigger Liver-pool One, which hasproper anchor tenantsdrawing in the crowds.

As a result, theMetquarter is now 25%unlet. Yet, just 200 yardsaway, Forever 21 is takingspace at the junction ofChurch Street and White-chapel. It’s a short dis-tance, but it will make abig difference to footfall.

BillGleeson

‘Youtendtogetaplateauandit canfallaway’

9Wednesday, May 11, 2011

ove business area

Canadian concept that hasspread across the worldOld Hall Street is a key part of

the proposed businessimprovement district that isunder consideration

Paul Rice – heading the proposals to turn the CommercialDistrict Partnership into a Business Improvement District

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Stopforth [Liverpool Chamber of Com-merce chief executive] and Cllr MalcolmKennedy on the board, but we would adda couple of people to represent ourinterests directly.

“We also want to freshen up our oper-ating board and get a broader constit-uency of people involved.

“This is their money, we wantthem to make sure it’s beingspent in the right way. We wantdoers who want to roll theirsleeves up.

“There’s not a huge represent-ation from Dale Street andNorth John Street, but it’s alsoabout getting some of the smal-ler companies involved.

“We want to see more retail-ers and a broader spread of busi-nesses because the board was made up ofpeople paying the money on a voluntarybasis.”

Approval in the ballot is all that MrRice is waiting for before starting workon the next phase of activity.

“We will start implementing that busi-ness plan straightaway, doing the smallerstuff straight away, and sitting down withthe city council about the capital projectsas well as sitting down with businesses to

get a more detailed programme of whatthey want,” he said.

“We want to really hit the ground run-ning. The business plan is largely aboutthings we have talked about with stake-holders for the last 3-4 years, but we havenever managed to get sustainable fundingin place to do.”

But he has considered whatwould happen if the businessesdon’t support the BID’s plans.

He added: “The CommercialDistrict Partnership wouldcarry on but it would be in amuch reduced form, probablyon a project by project basis.But the large scale projects thatwe are talking about would nothappen, and there wouldn’t bethe collective benefit.

“It would be project specific – nothingof the scale we have seen over the last fiveyears or that projected in the businessplan.

“The vote will be close. If the peoplewho have said they will vote yes do voteyes then I’ll be confident.

“We currently think the business casewe have set out has the merit to securethe yes vote and we just hope businessessee that and support it.”

BUSINESSES in Bloor West Vil-lage, Toronto, set up the world’sfirst business improvement dis-trict (BID) in 1970.

Frustrated by problemsarising from a new subway line,they had banded together in abusiness association to pay forimprovements to their area.

But their appeal for volun-tary contributions failed tomatch their ambitions, whichled to them lobbying local gov-ernment for assistance.

The result was legislationwhich led to a BID being cre-ated and the unwilling compan-ies were legally required tocontribute.

Four decades later, the ideahas spread across the world,from Albania to New Zealand.

In the UK alone more than110 BIDs have been set up sincethe first one launched in King-ston upon Thames in 2004.

Locally though, they havestruggled to gain acceptance.

The first vote for City CentralBID – which covers Liverpool’smain retail area – in March,2005, was rejected, failing tosecure a majority by aggregaterateable value. However it

managed to convert a fewretailers to scrape over thethreshold in a second ballotlater that year.

At the end of its term threeyears later, the BID receivedmuch stronger backing witharound two-thirds in approval.

However plans for a BID inSouthport have been rejectedtwice, in 2005 and 2007.

On both occasions a numer-ical majority was achieved butit failed to gain the support ofthe larger businesses.

So far, most of the BIDs havebeen set up in town centres andhave predominantly focused onthe needs of retailers and otherbusinesses operating in themain shopping areas.

But their successes haveencouraged commercial dis-tricts and industrial estates tomake use of the legislation.

It is in such places that BIDshave been even more popular,with “yes” votes garneringmore than 70%, and sometimes80%, of those cast.

In Halton, ballots on BIDs atAstmoor and Halebank indus-trial estates in 2007 were bothsupported by 72% of voters.

‘Wewanttoreallyhit thegroundrunning’

privatebusiness

KNOWSLEY-BASEDColloids bounced backfrom a tough 2009 asits diversificationstrategy had a bigimpact on its top line.

The firm producesmasterbatches – con-centrates of colour forthe plastics industry –which can end up inproducts as diverse ascar parts to plasticbags to gas pipes.

After seeingturnover drop by 11%in 2009, like-for-likesales increased bynearly £7m to £23.0mlast year, “significantlyout-performing” itsbudgeted figures.

In addition, its pur-chase of Impact Col-ours, in Northampton-shire – completed inNovember, 2009 – addedsales of £2.9m, takingthe group’s turnover to£26.0m.

Colloids pre-taxprofits also rosestrongly, up £900,000 to£1.1m.

In accounts filed atCompanies House, Col-loids’ directors said:“During the year, thegroup has continued tofocus on growth in itstarget markets anddiversified its exposureto the auto sector, theseactions are proving tobe successful.

“The directorsbelieve that when thegroup’s position inthese markets becomesmore firmly estab-lished it will supportfurther profitablegrowth and make a sig-nificant contributionto the group’s results.

“The challenges thegroup faces in 2011 arethe continued uncer-tainty in the stabilityof the global economygoing forward, availab-ility of raw materialsand pricing volatilitydriven by oil priceinflation and finiteresources reachingtotal capacity.

“We believe that ourproduct mix is nowmore balanced and cap-able of adapting to thechanging markets.”

In March, Colloidssecured a £1m commer-cial mortgage fromBarclays Corporate tobuy its Kirkby BankRoad premises inKnowsley IndustrialPark.

ALEX TURNER

Colloids’strategyproducesgrowth

10 Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Car dealer inmarket surgeas sales riseCAR dealer Pendragonsaid it had outper-formed the market inthree months toMarch 31 after salesvolumes of used andnew vehiclesincreased by 16% and9% respectively.

However, aftersales,which remain thebiggest source ofprofits for the com-pany, saw turnoverdecline marginally.

Profits up athotels groupINTERCONTINENTALHotels, the world’slargest hotel companyby number of beds,reported a 35%increase in operatingprofits to £68.4m inthe first quarter of2011. Revenues rose9% to £242m with thehelp of the highestincome from the USfor five years.

G4S pressureSECURITY services pro-vider G4S said itsprofit margins wereunder pressure afterits cash transit busi-ness saw a 1% declinein organic growth inthe first quarter. Rev-enues rose by 3.8%and profits were alsoahead of last year butmargins were lower.

Orders upCONSTRUCTION firmBalfour Beatty saidthe value of its globalorder book hasincreased from the£15.2bn it reported atthe end of 2010. Its UKconstruction orderintake was helped bya Crossrail contract.

briefing Cityjewellerydesignersenjoyingsparklingtrade

Claudia Pink at her Metquarter store, in Liverpool

Alice Hughes shows off one of her jewellery designs Picture: JASON ROBERTS/ jr090511jewellery-1

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ALICE HUGHES was first inspired todesign and sell jewellery following atrip to New Zealand.

She was overwhelmed by the beautyof the natural environment of thecountry and saw great potential in pro-ducing individual pieces of jewellerybased on plant and shell designs.

While she was out there, Ms Hughesenrolled on a jewellery making courserun by a man called Ray Mitchell.

He made the “One Ring” used in theblockbuster film trilogy, Lord of theRings.

She said: “I was totally inspired bythe country – by the plants and theshells – everything is on a larger scaleand I felt totally overwhelmed.”

That was in 2004 and shortly afterher return to the UK she set up AliceIn Wonderland Jewellery.

The business has traded steadilyover the last few years, with MsHughes working out of premises inand around the city centre.

She now has her design studio inher Sefton Park home, and is embark-ing on a rebranding of her businesswhich will now simply be known asAlice.

The rebranding came about afterAlice sought out help from top brandconsultancy, Elmwood, run byJonathan Sands.

She said: “Elmwood is a globalbrand company. I went to their officein Leeds and sat down with Jonathanand five of his colleagues, and theygave me their ideas.

“He advised me to call the businessAlice. He felt it was stronger andwould fit into the luxury market bet-ter.”

There are two strands to the busi-ness – tailored jewellery designed andmade to order and a fixed range ofcollections each with different themes.

They are Diamond Violet, Bridal,Snow Queen, Grasses and South Islandand each collection has its own col-oured gemstone.

Ms Hughes has stayed true to theroots of her business, with her designscontinuing to be based around naturalthemes.

Prices start at £150 with tailoredpieces with jewels costing up to £1,200.She added: It is all about the beauty ofnature and trying to recreate that in apiece of jewellery.

“Colourful gemstones are used tocreate each piece and the focus is verymuch on creativity and quality.”

As well as designing in her homestudio, Ms Hughes also has an office inSilkhouse Court, in Liverpool citycentre’s business district, where sheholds meetings with clients.

Typically, they may be couples look-ing for Alice to design and make wed-ding or engagement rings.

She is currently working on a designfor one client featuring a bluediamond.

“I am building a high-quality brandthat can compete with the likes ofBoodles,” she said.

Celebrity endorsements can give abusiness a real boost, as Claudia Pinkcan confirm.

Ms Pink designs and makes costumejewellery out of antique pieces of jew-

ellery. She started off with a store inQuiggins, in Liverpool city centre, fouryears ago and now trades from theup-market Metquarter shoppingcentre, in Whitechapel.

Her hand-made masterpieces havebecome a hit in Merseyside and farbeyond, and high-profile customersinclude Alex Gerrard, wife of Liver-pool FC star Steven Gerrard, as well asColeen Rooney.

Ms Pink said: “I taught myself. Iwent to university to do fashion designand I have dabbled with all kinds ofthings including costume design andinterior design.

“I buy vintage pieces of jewelleryand then break it down and put myown design together.

“When I started, I found peoplereally liked what I was producing andwanted to buy it – no one in Liverpoolwas doing what I was doing.

“My only competition was TopShop,but what they were selling wasmass-produced.

“Customers like Coleen Rooney andAlex Gerrard really helped becausethat got me a lot of press. I was feat-ured on GMTV alongside names likeChanel and YSL – and that got thenational magazines interested.”

Leaving Quiggins was a toughdecision for Ms Pink, as it was theplace she had forged her reputation.But the opportunity to be based amongdesigner fashion outlets at Metquarterwas too good an opportunity to miss.

She added: “The actual shop units inMetquarter were too expensive, butthey offered me space in the middlewhich has worked out really well – Ithink I have brought some colour andsparkle.

“My typical customers are the glam-orous girls of Liverpool. Alex Gerrardcould afford to go anywhere and yetshe still comes to me.”

However, despite her growing reput-ation, Ms Pink has resisted thetemptation to hike up her prices,which range from £10 up to £60.

“Many of my customers have stayedwith me from Quiggins and I don’twant to appear greedy.

“Around the Grand National isalways a good time for me, and I dowell in the summer because I will alsocustomise bikinis.”

Ms Pink’s reputation is now spread-ing further afield and she is nowselling her designs through top onlinefashion site ASOS.

She added: “I am in with mainlyretailers from London and the SouthEast, so really feel like I’m represent-ing Liverpool.”

byTonyMcDonoughLDPDEPUTYBUSINESSEDITORtony.mcdonough@liverpool.com

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11Wednesday, May 11, 2011

KingpoisedtodowngradeBritain’sgrowthforecasts

Bank of England governor Mervyn King – says inflation will easePicture: CHRIS RATCLIFFE

Tax hikehits BGrevenuesGAS and oil explorationgiant BG posted a sharpfall in profits yesterdayas it counted the cost ofthe Government’s raidon North Sea drilling.

BG took a charge of£162m to reflect the risein the offshore drillingtax to 32%, from 20%,announced in the MarchBudget. Its effective taxrate this time rose to45% from 42% as a res-ult of the Chancellor’smove, it added.

The oil and gas groupwas also hit by theproblems in NorthAfrica, bad weather inAustralia and mainten-ance shutdowns on twomajor platforms in theNorth Sea.

Production growth in2011 will be “modest”,chief executive FrankChapman said, thoughhe expects a ramp-up inoutput through next yearand into 2013 as hugedevelopments in Egyptand offshore Brazilstart to come on stream.

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byJamieGriersonLDPCORRESPONDENTbusiness@liverpool.com

BANK of England governor MervynKing is expected to slash growth fore-casts for the UK today, in a furthersign the recovery is under strain.

Mr King, who will present theBank’s quarterly inflation report, isalso expected to say inflation willspike later this year before easing in2012.

The report should bring some reliefto millions of homeowners as it islikely to reinforce dwindling expect-ations of an imminent interest ratehike.

But lower growth will once againraise concerns over the strength of theUK economy as it enters the age ofausterity, and questions will be raisedover the severity of Chancellor GeorgeOsborne’s fiscal squeeze.

Economic growth forecasts havebeen progressively downgraded sincethe start of the year as more gloomydata emerges.

The Bank predicted growth ofaround 2% for 2011 in its February

report, and City analysts expect it torevise estimates to around 1.5%.

The Bank estimated growth of 3%for 2012, a figure some economists alsoexpect to be cut.

Recent figures revealed grossdomestic product (GDP) grew at atepid 0.5% in the first three months of2011, which, following a shock 0.5%decline in the final quarter of 2010,meant the economy had been flat forsix months.

Furthermore, inflation unexpec-tedly dropped in March to 4%, whichwhile still double the Government tar-get, eased pressure on the Bank toraise interest rates, which have beenat an historic low of 0.5% since March2009.

The rate of inflation for April is yetto be released.

The Bank is expected to reiterate itsbelief that inflation will drop backtowards the target in 2012.

Howard Archer, chief UK andEuropean economist at IHS GlobalInsight, said the flurry of recent dis-appointing data and surveys waslikely to have heightened the MPC’sconcerns over the economy.

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location

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byTonyMcDonoughLDPDEPUTYBUSINESSEDITORtony.mcdonough@liverpool.com

Liverpool’s retailpropertymarketcontinues tohold itsown

THERE is a misguided view that allhigh street lettings since the end of2008 have been at a highly discountedrate.

But, while some highly conces-sionary deals have been agreed, thisis certainly not the case across theboard.

Different areas within Liverpoolare coping with the current eco-nomic climate with varying successbut the basic rule still applies –where demand for space remains, sodo rental values.

Liverpool One has helped the cityweather the economic storm, in nomore apparent way than its unex-pectedly positive impact on ChurchStreet – which has helped Liverpoolmaintain a buoyant traditional highstreet.

Liverpool One itself is performing

well with its boutique streets such asKeys Court and St Peters Walk nowreaching full occupancy to match itsmain shopping streets ofParadise Street and SouthJohn Street.

There are still vacancieswithin the scheme, but thisis to be expected as tenantsshuffle around and findtheir feet in what is still avery young scheme.

Outside of Liverpool One,the traditional shoppingstreets of Liverpool are stillholding their own.

Bold Street remains a vibrant anddiverse shopping street with an

assorted tenant mix, and RenshawStreet is coming back to life with there-letting of the former Rapid Build-

ing.There is also the positive

impact that the Central Vil-lage scheme will have onthe area, with the redevel-opment of the formerLewis’s department store.

The problems facing Liv-erpool’s retail property aresynonymous with the prob-lems all high streets arefacing.

To date, Liverpool has largelymanaged to fill the voids created onthe high street by the apparent

never-ending succession of retailersgoing bust.

The retailers who have taken thesespaces have tended to provide aretail offer tailored more to the valueend of the retail industry.

This is, perhaps, a double-edgedsword.

On the positive side, the voids onthe high street are being filled, but atthe cost of the tenant mix of the highstreet – for example, where a fashionretailer once traded, there is now apawnbroker.

Landlords need to be careful thatthe tone of the street is maintained,not just in rental terms but also inretailing terms.

AgencyappointsseniorpartnerPROPERTY firmEdward Symmons hasappointed Nick Boyd asits senior partner,while current seniorpartner, Paul Proctor,moves to the newly-created role of chairman.

Mr Boyd will takeover responsibility forthe firm’s operationalmanagement and lead-ership.

Mr Proctor willhandle responsibilityfor client developmentand market direction.

Both roles will focuson business strategy,growing Edward Sym-mons’s enviable clientbase and looking forfurther opportunitiesto strengthen andexpand the firm’s nichespecialisms.

Edward Symmonshas offices across theUK, including one inLiverpool. Mr Boydsaid: “I take on the roleof senior partner at avery exciting time forEdward Symmons, andwith the support of ourexpert staff I am look-ing forward to leadingthe firm as it continuesto evolve and grow.” Leisurecompanypurchase

boostsGVAexpansionplans

GrowinglogisticsfirmsealsdealforgiantnewbaseTHE North West Industrialteam at CB Richard Ellis hassuccessfully advised PinProperty Consultancy on thesale of 100,000 sq ft atPremier Point IndustrialFacility at WhitehouseIndustrial Estate, Runcorn,to logistics specialist Down-ton Distribution.

Jeff Pike, Pin’s seniorbuilding surveyor, was incharge of overseeing the pro-ject which involved modify-ing and extending the facil-ity to provide a concretedyard in excess of 2.5 acres,along with refurbishedoffices, vehicle wash andfuel pumps.

Downton will use the facil-ity as a North West base toservice the company’s grow-ing number of clients in theregion, including INEOAand Shotton Paper.

Jonathan Thorne, directorof industrial agency atCBRE North West, said: “Itis encouraging to seeanother large deal in themarket, showing thatdemand is still strong andbuildings are being taken ifthe fundamentals are rightfor occupiers.”

Davies Harrison acted asjoint agent on the sale withCBRE.Representatives from Downton, Pin Property, CBRE and Halton Council, outside the Runcorn facility

‘Landlordsneedtomaintainthetoneofthestreet’

PROPERTY consultancy GVA is toexpand its presence in the hotels andleisure market with the acquisition ofHumberts Leisure.

Contracts have been exchanged, andGVA will complete the deal later thismonth.

The new leisure unit, to be namedGVA Humberts Leisure, will bringtogether the specialist leisure advisoryexpertise of Humberts Leisure and

GVA’s existing hotels and leisure cap-ability.

GVA is the seventh-largest propertyadvisor in the UK, and the firm saysthis acquisition will establish it as“one of the UK’s leading leisure con-sultants”.

Mark Rawstron, regional senior dir-ector at GVA in the North West, said:“We welcome this expansion into thehotel and leisure sector.

“GVA has a dedicated hotel and leis-ure offering in the North West, so theacquisition of such a prestigious busi-ness as Humberts Leisure is of great

significance to our business in theregion.

“The leisure sector requires ahighly specialised skills-set, and it isimportant to us that we can deliver toour clients the best possible advice inthese challenging times.”

Its existing hotels and leisure team,led by James Williamson and IanThompson, is particularly focused onhotels, so the acquisition will allowthe company to effectively tap into thewider UK leisure sector.

This will include pubs and licensedproperty, hotels, general leisure, hol-

iday property and caravan parks, golfcourses, sports complexes and venues,urban leisure, water-based leisure, vis-itor enterprises and institutional prop-erty.

John Anderson, executive chairmanof Humberts Leisure, added: “We'redelighted to have agreed the mergerwith GVA as this provides us with astrong platform from which to driveour growth strategy.

“Integration of the two complement-ary leisure teams is a tremendousenhancement to our national leisureservice.”

Industrial Property

UNITS TO LET Bootle Area5,000−15,000 sqft. Flexibleterms 0151 486 0004

Commercial Premises

INDUSTRIAL UNITS To Let.South L’pool 500 to 4000 sqft,monthly tenancy, competitiverents. From £50pw Tel: 0151427 5051

KNOWSLEY OFFICES TOLET From 800 to 9,500 sq ft.Deacon Park, Moorgate Road,L33, flexible terms, contact Ed-ward Symmons 0151 2368454

BUSINESSto BUSINESS

13Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Fitton Estates.comcommercial

SPEC I A L I S T RES I DENT I A L AND COMMERC I A L PROPERTY CONSULTANTS

www.fittonestates.comHoghton Place,47 Hoghton Street, Southport PR9 0PG. 08450 500345

John Barnes FICBA FNAEAGraham Bowling BSc(Hons) MRICS

.

Commercial Property Consultancy Throughout Sefton & West Lancashire

2 Large Building Plots with Planning Permissionfor Individually Designed 5 Bedroom DetachedProperties. Detached Architecturally ImpressiveSubstantial Executive Homes. Houses Proposed inexcess of 3,200 Sq.Ft. Exclusive Residential Devel-opment Opportunity Design & Build and BespokeSpecification Packages also Available.Further details on application

Hattersley House, Burscough Road, Ormskirk340 – 1,500 sq ft suites available. On site parking facilities.Close proximity to Ormskirk town centre.Good access to motorway network (M58)FROM £95.00 P.W. Ref: 001980

Outline consent granted for 7 detached dwellingsFreeholdOffers In Excess of £550,000 Ref:LO/1919

RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITY

Chapel Lane, NethertonApproximately 1.34 AcresWarehouses, offices & hardstanding. Long leasehold,owner occupier or development potential.Vacant Possession.GUIDE: £250,000 Ref:WHO/1952

BROOKFIELD LANE, AUGHTONTotal site area 6.7 acres approximately. Gatedroadside access. Timber four stable block,with concrete hard standing, tack room,storage and water connection. PlanningPermission granted for new riding arena withnew fencing and gate. Rare Opportunity toacquire Paddock Land in Aughton, WestLancs. £150,000 Ref: LO1957

PADDOCK & STABLES WELL APPOINTED RETAIL UNITAvailable due to Relocation

LORD STREET, SOUTHPORTMezzanine sales area, Scope for alternativeuses such as Bar/Restaurant subject to thenecessary consents. Prominent position toLord Street. Excellent glazed and fasciasignage potential.Quoting rental £30,000 per annum.Ref: SO1977

TO LETOFFICE SUITES

HOUSE WITH PLANNING PERMISIONREDEVELOPMENT/PLOT

FOR SALE BUILDING PLOTSShore Road, AinsdaleFOR SALE

FOR SALE FOR SALE FOR SALE

Moss Side, FormbyBuilding plot/ detached house. Planning permissiongranted (subject to 106 agreement) Total site areaapproximately 1.1 acres. Semi rural location.Previously used as kennels.Best offers in writing Ref: LO1786

PREMISES AND LAND

Russell Road

SUBSTANTIAL FREEHOLD GARDEN CENTRE

Sale due to Retirement.Long established GardenCentre, high profile to main road between Ormskirkand Southport. Approximately 5 acres.Rental totalling approximately £39,400 per annumfrom UPVC windows and conservatory sales, café,kitchen sales, Koi Carp Aquatics and Landscapers.Main retail turnover figures on application£575,000 Ref: LO1931

FOR SALE TO LET

OLD PARK LANE, SOUTHPORTVehicle repair premises and yard,4 x bedroom cottage style bungalowConvenient Churchtown and High Parkamenities.Development subject toappropriate permissions.Goodwill/business by separate negotiationGuide Price: £335,000 Ref:GO/1788

VEHICLE REPAIR PREMISES PLUS 4 XBEDROOM BUNGALOW

FOR SALE

ALEXANDRA ROAD, SOUTHPORTWould suit offices, doctors surgery, etc.subject to planning.Well appointedthroughout retains many original features,close to Southport town centre.Large rear plot with external brick builtancillary accommodation.Price: £375,000 / Rent From £20,000 p.a.Ref:IVO/1884Various options available

DETACHED SUBSTANTIALVICTORIAN PROPERTY

FOR SALE

14 Wednesday, May 11, 2011

LondonStockMarketatClose

Last night, the pound was worth: $1.6330 (down 0.0006) ..... 1.1376 euros (down 0.0051)......125.57 yen (down 0.16) ..... Its trade weighted index was 79.70 (unchanged)Metals in $ per troy ounce: Gold 1513.50 (up 11.50).......................... Silver 38.40 (up 0.40).......................... Platinum 1793 (up 2).......................... UK base lending rate 0.5%

Keep track of all the major share moves of the day with our live FTSE ticker at www.ldpbusiness.co.ukLDPbusiness.co.ukLDPbusiness.co.uk

96 39 Adv Medical 83 -14 -114

2012 334 AEA Technology 412 +18 -14

28712 241 Albany Inv Tst 283 -312

1251 764 AMEC 1186 +22 -16

92 2012 Anglesey Mining 6514 -312 -1014

35714 22934 Balfour Beatty 33334 xd +858 +414

3912 29 Beale 3012

594 501 Compass Gp 59112 +712 +212

1258 478 Coral Prod 1034 +18 +18

119212 89712 Dee Valley 119212 +10

479 32214 easyJet 357 +1014 +414

9112 5934 IS Pharma 8712 -1 -1

96412 683 JD Sports Fashion 89212 xd +12 +4

21212 1112 JJB Sports 2912 +112 +434

3512 1534 Johnson Serv 3438 xd +14 +1

52434 361 Nichols 52434 xd +2 +25

12112 8312 NWF 111 -212

44 1934 Park Gp 43 -12 +212

1257 76212 Rathbone 1170 xd +41 -12

13918 9712 Redrow 12712 +114 -378

14312 11434 RSA Insurance 13878 xd +158 +1

3412 1914 Speedy Hire 3014 +34 +14

48 3534 Sportech 45 -134 +12

42 2514 Telme Gp 4178 -18 +58

5514 3234 UK Coal 40 -1 -214

2 78 Ultima 158

2000 1688 Unilever 2000 +33 +13

63112 520 Utd Utils 62112 +812 -912

UNIT TRUSTS

DAILY POST REGIONAL INDEX 1231.21 up 15.97 ▲ 1.31%

In order to give a greater range of Unit Trustinformation, covering a larger number of trusts, thelist of funds changes each day as follows:UNIT TRUST MANAGERS DAYS PUBLISHEDA to Com ................................................... TuesdayF to Inv....................................................WednesdayJP to Pru...................................................ThursdayRoy to T.........................................................Friday

FUNDS

Consols

£90932 £761132 Cons 4%.................£7734

£582732 £50 Cons 212% ................ £52 -1

Conversions

£8134 £69 Cnv 312%.................£7212

£10958 £1011532 Cnv 9% 11 ......... £1011532 -132

Treasury

£61 £50 Tr 212%................. £553132 +178

£1171516£1082932 Tr 9% 12................£10914 -12

£10738 £1031732 Tr 5% 12............. £1031732 -332

£121516 £1152532 Tr 8% 13.............. £116516 -332

£114332 £109532 Tr 5% 14............. £1102332 -18

£1112932 £105732 Tr 734% 12-15........£10614

£325732 £304116 Tr 212% IL 16 ....... £324516 -14

£142316 £1322132 Tr 834% 17.......... £1352132 -1932

£147132 £1332732 Tr 8% 21................£13938 -14

War

£8334 £6712 War Ln 312%......... £741316 +2

High Low Price Var 5Day High Low Price Var 5Day High Low Price Var 5Day Country Currency Tourist Buy Sell

FTSE 100 INDEX

SPOTLIGHT

KEYs............ dealing suspendedxd.............price ex-dividendxs......... price ex-scrip issuexr ........ price ex-rights issuexc ..... ex-capital distributionxa................................ ex-all£......price value in £ sterling

Those securities which haveincreased in value since the previ-ous close are shown in bold type.

To assist in the analysis of themarket two figures are given foreach sector. Firstly an index (setat 100 on January 1 1992) togive a comparison in the perfor-mance of various market sectors.Secondly an indication of the per-centage change in the price of allthe securities within a sector sincethe previous close.

Mar 28 - Apr 1 Apr 4 - Apr 8 Apr 11 - Apr 16 M T W T F5710

5805

5900

5995

6090

FTSE-100

20-Day Moving Average

Nov 10, 2010 May 10, 2011EASYJET Share price (pence)290

345

400

455

510

FTSE-Rebased

£ ABROAD

Australia dollars 1.44 1.509 1.514

Canada dollars 1.50 1.568 1.570

Denmark krone 8.11 8.477 8.487

European Union euro 1.09 1.137 1.138

Japan yen 125.57 131.890 131.990

New Zealand dollars 1.93 2.057 2.062

Norway krone 8.58 8.893 8.894

Poland zlotys 3.95 4.465 4.473

Sweden krona 9.80 10.179 10.189

Switzerland francs 1.36 1.436 1.437

Turkey new lira 2.38 2.551 2.561

United States dollars 1.56 1.633 1.633

Cancel Bid Offer Yield

Fund Terms Price Price Gross

FIDELITY INVESTMENT SERVS

Amer Spec Sits - 619.00 -

American - 1847.00 0.32

Gwth & Inc - 328.40 1.67

Income Plus - 205.20 4.30

Japan - 232.20 0.50

Jpan Spec Sits - 132.00 0.10

Spec Sits - 2000.00 0.01

Sth East Asia - 769.00 0.01

GARTMORE FUND MANAGERS

Euro Sel Opps - 921.55 1.11

Income - 215.29 3.56

Pratical Inv -161.17 172.91 4.28

GUARDIAN

Index-Linked Acc -505.01 531.59 -

International Acc -1024.32 1078.23 -

Pacific Acc -254.35 267.74 -

Property Bonds -1997.74 2080.98 -

HSBC INVESTMENT FUNDS (UK)

Balanced - 107.50 0.99

British -271.00 271.00 3.04

Gilt & FI - 63.63 3.40

Gilt & Fixed -224.30 224.30 3.08

Monthly Inc - 134.10 3.59

HENDERSON HORIZON FUND

European Smllr Cos A - 1054.60 -

Sterling Bd Unit Tst - 54.22 56.65 4.40

UK Equity Inc A - 455.90 2.83

HILL SAMUEL UNIT TST MGRS

Capital -316.52 329.19 1.10

European - 823.50 0.70

Far East - 565.60 1.80

Inc & Gwth - 209.20 3.30

International - 427.00 0.40

North Amer Acc - 471.60 0.10

INVESCO FUND MANAGERS

Sing ASEAN - 220.86 0.38

High Low Funds Price Var

Closing Indices

FT-SE 100 INDEX 6018.89up 76.20 ▲ 1.28%

20 DAY MOVINGAVERAGE 6004.34up 2.72 ▲ 0.05%

FT ALL-SHARE 3133.73up 39.59 ▲ 1.28%

Aerospace & Defence

Index 3419.28 ▲ 71.84

28112 9812 Avon Rbbr 280 +412

36978 29434 BAE Systems 33212xd +834

73612 51958 Chemring 653 +512

25214 19214 Cobham 23018xd +478

38078 26134 Meggitt 36178xd +738

665 535 Rolls-Royce 64312xd +12

15912 10634 Senior 15638xd +234

Automobiles & Parts

Index 5146.08 ▲ 91.18

23718 10914 GKN 22018xd +378

Banks

Index 4650.40 ▲ 63.01

344 25538 Barclays 278 xd +4

87512 610 Bco Santander 717 +12

73078 59614 HSBC 65614 +8

14634 1938 Ireland 2058 -18

7758 5012 Lloyds Banking5458 +1

5218 3758 Ryl Scotland 4212 +78

1959 1525 Stan Chart 159212xd+2012

Beverages

Index 9863.67 ▲ 102.05

1394 90912 Barr (AG) 1369xd +29

518 36412 Britvic 421 -112

1273 1025 Diageo 1273 +8

2306 1827 SABMiller 2258 +35

Chemicals

Index 7504.57 ▲ 148.60

1919 901 Croda 1919xd +26

16934 5834 Elementis 160 xd +4

2100 1460 Johnsn Mat 2029 +44

Construction & Materials

Index 4243.54 ▲ 98.32

35714 22934 Balfour Beatty 33334xd +858

265 18512 Costain 22812xd -112

174634102938CRH 146158xd+2058

1413 88612 Kier Group 1413xd +24

6312 2834 Low Bonar 6214 +1

12412 7834 Marshalls 12134 +1

Electricity

Index 8238.27 ▲ 165.46

45778 32614 Drax Gp 45634xd+1334

44858 28412 Intl Power 32418 +414

1358 1010 Scot&Sthrn 1333 +25

Electronic & Electrical

Index 3232.58 ▲ 96.81

705 38312 Domino Ptg 66412 +3

179 9834 Laird 14778xd +212

32918 16712 Morgn Cru 32918 +15

774 256 Oxford Inst 748 +3

377 12712 Volex Gp 31814 +812

Equity Inv Instruments

Index 6140.70 ▲ 49.17

385 29312 Alliance 38212 +3

14012 105 Br Assets 13858 +112

796 577 Candover Inv 61012 -112

228 17118 Dunedin IncGth22212xd +212

142 10034 Dunedin Sml 14112 +238

478 369 Edin Invst 478 xd +812

66012 53012 Edin US Trkr Tst 653 xd +912

31712 25138 Forgn & C 31712xd +334

32334 206 Hend Smllr Cos 31412 +314

367 27314 Law Debenture367 +312

252 18614 Scot Am 252 +4

528 40978 Witan 51912 +312

Fixed Line TelecomsIndex 2449.07 ▲ 40.64

20114 11934 BT Gp 20114 +414

6278 4438 Cble&WComm 4778 +38

92 4658 Cble&WWwide 5034 +18

6512 41 KCOM 6234 +214

Food & Drug RetailersIndex 4867.86 ▲ 82.36

30714 25758 Morrison W 30714 +414

395 31358 Sainsbury 35534 +658

44058 37712 Tesco 41114xd +714

112 70 Thorntons 70 -1

Food ProducersIndex 5362.83 ▲ 93.21

1182 92012 AB Foods 1051 +18

72312 47712 Carrs Mill 720 xd

90712 735 Cranswick 760 +3

42478 33934 Dairy Crest 40714 +34

7534 4134 Nth Foods 73

3478 16 Premier Foods 3478 +218

62612 40918 Tate Lyle 62612 +11

2000 1688 Unilever 2000 +33

Forestry & PaperIndex 6619.00 ▲ 145.41

61412 36758 Mondi 61412xd+1312

General FinancialIndex 6025.19 ▲ 72.40

340 25418 3i 27114 +214

88812 664 Close Bros 80712 +512

57012 35912 ICAP 510 +2

933 544 London Stk Ex 82712 +112

1033 72812 Provident 1013 +1

1257 76212 Rathbone 1170xd +41

1922 1154 Schroders 1750xd +93

General IndustrialsIndex 3321.60 ▲ 71.74

72412 36738 Cooksn Gp 72412 +18

1258 478 Coral Prod 1034 +18

658 338 Cosalt 312 -38

398 29038 Rexam 398 +814

226 108 Smith DS 21414 +334

1429 1008 Smiths Gp 1240 +30

General RetailersIndex 1786.17 ▲ 18.63

2514 1214 Ashley L 2034 +12

31114 221 Brown (N) Gp 298 +1214

7738 53 Debenhams 7158 +12

30 1134 Dixons Retail 1534 +18

550 34814 Halfords 39514 +612

28058 18812 Home Retail 22534 +318

414 23718 Inchcape 37112 +1058

96412 683 JD Sports 89212xd +12

27958 19812 Kingfisher 27838xd +278

42712 32638 M & S 39578 +334

62712 382 Mothercare 42414 -138

2326 1868 Next 2320 +19

2885 1724 Signet Jwlrs 2583 +4

523 39814 WH Smith 49834 +514

Health Care Equip & Serv

Index 3856.61 ▲ 21.26

742 53712 Smith Nph 68712xd +312

Household Goods

Index 6704.31 ▲ 49.47

138 74 Aga Rngmstr 118 xd +814

12514 70 Barratt Dev 11418 +2

74512 511 Bellway 72812 +1612

196 114 McBride 14014xd

3648 3015 Reckitt Benck 3455xd +9

13918 9712 Redrow 12712 +114

4314 2214 Taylor Wimpey 3912 +78

Industrial Engineering

Index 7513.14 ▲ 152.14

39734 18212 Bodycote 39734xd +15

85312 567 Charter 790 xd +8

38734 18314 Fenner 38112 +918

1112 578 IMI 1112xd +31

108 4312 Molins 9334xd

230 115 MS Intl 230 +8

45 23 Renold 3412 -112

2063 1344 Spirax Srco 2063xd +21

1948 846 Weir Gp 1948xd +37

Industrial Transportation

Index 2644.58 ▲ 32.74

24034 175 BBA Aviation 22314xd +338

Life Insurance

Index 4602.86 ▲ 77.26

47778 29414 Aviva 44634xd +814

12334 7214 Lgl & Gen 117 xd +14

777 48914 Prudential 770 xd +21

31134 21114 Resolution 29614xd -118

24434 173 Standard Life 221 xd +212

Media

Index 4319.15 ▲ 64.46

849 53612 BSkyB 842 +3

59412 433 D Mail Tst 49358 +1434

9312 4814 ITV 7578 +178

1159 864 Pearson 1150xd +14

59012 46058 Reed Elsevier 54912xd+1712

168 66 STV Group 157 -434

13834 4534 Trinity Mirror 5234 +2

725 48018 Utd Business 588 xd +212

151 106 UTV 14312 -34

84612 608 WPP 77212 +1312

Mining

Index 25895.46 ▲ 453.63

3437 2254 Anglo Amer 3055 +38

1634 761 Antofagasta 1220xd +17

263112168412BHP Billiton 2449 +43

1682 81112 Fresnillo 1471xd +33

1671 965 Kazakhmys 1301xd +18

1983 1355 Lonmin 1576 +14

6655 4425 Randgold Res 4899 +9

4712 2812 Rio Tinto 423512 +100

5514 3234 UK Coal 40 -1

Mobile Telecoms

Index 3877.24 ▼ 10.88

821 575 Inmarsat 620 +1

18234 12912 Vodafone Gp 16958 -12

Nonlife Insurance

Index 1676.46 ▲ 24.91

1753 1238 Admiral Grp 1740 +39

188412125938Marsh McL 182314xd+414

14312 11434 RSA Insurance 13878xd +158

Oil & Gas Producers

Index 8526.97 ▲ 84.34

156412984 BG 141212xd -23

54758 30278 BP 45512 +1

49314 366 Cairn Energy 43438 +814

2140 1085 Premier 1921 +69

2336 1554 Ryl D Shell B 2250 +4312

1493 99112 Tullow Oil 1381xd +31

Oil Equipment & Services

Index 25741.01 ▲ 376.81

1251 764 AMEC 1186 +22

Personal Goods

Index 21854.09 ▲ 338.89

1329 61212 Burberry Gp 1329 +27

409 27914 PZ Cussons 32934 -18

Pharma & BiotechnologyIndex 9434.20 ▲ 39.75

3385 280112AstraZeneca 3140 +3912

1318121095 GlaxoSmthKln 1302xd -112

50 31 Vernalis 3738

Real EstateIndex 1958.11

35314 28438 Big Yellow Gp 34312 +434

604 41814 Brit Land 593 xd +312

2919 2157 Daejan Hldgs 2776 +51

42734 28012 Gt Portland 40978 +318

79112 545 Land Secs 77112 +512

33114 25014 SEGRO 319 +34

Software & Comp ServsIndex 756.28 ▲ 15.55

1975 1271 Autonomy 1726 +51

6112 3012 Emblaze 51 -78

36414 23014 Invensys 33314 +414

12612 85 Kewill 9812 +14

14714 10134 Logica 14318 +134

302 22234 Sage 296 +1014

Support ServicesIndex 4684.11 ▲ 67.23

2012 334 AEA Tech 412 +18

1792 1173 Aggreko 1792xd +29

20778 77 Ashtead Gp 20012 +518

51912 36014 Berendsen 49112 +412

783 658 Bunzl 75012 +2

81212 63512 Capita 741 xd +512

984 54912 De La Rue 800 +3

28534 20534 Electrocmps 28534 +12

819 57512 Experian 817 +712

28234 23734 G4S 27834xd +514

452 24134 Hyder Cons 377 -2

29634 18312 Interserve 29214xd +912

545 33734 Menzies J 540

34634 15214 Northgate 34078 -78

30834 20838 Prem Farnell 29512 +618

12734 8414 Rentokil 9512 +138

122 79 Smiths News 10112 -14

3412 1914 Speedy Hire 3014 +34

1127 709 Travis & P 1080xd +5

2261 1223 Wolseley 2146xd +26

Tech Hardware & Equip

Index 766.77 ▼ 0.04

651 22838 ARM Hldgs 593 xd +7

3714 1934 BATM 2512

10234 7134 Psion 98 xd -2

16014 10234 Spirent Comms 144 +358

Tobacco

Index 31646.47 ▲ 678.93

2718121959 Br Am Tob 271812 +4812

2224 1753 Imperial Tob 2224 +67

Travel & Leisure

Index 4866.07 ▲ 64.97

3153 2037 Carnival 2603 +47

594 501 Compass Gp 59112 +712

479 32214 easyJet 357 +1014

13634 8438 Enterprise Inns 96 +158

41258 31114 FirstGroup 34414 +538

1500 1042 Go-Ahead Gp 1500 +15

500 37614 Greene King 500 +634

360 240 Holidaybreak 269 xd -4

1435 982 Intercontl Htls 1298xd +49

285 21278 Intl Cons Airlns 24838

15214 12234 Ladbrokes 14978xd +178

11718 8978 Marston’s 11058 +214

361 274 Mitchells&Btlrs 333 +34

9038 58 Punch Taverns 7878 +158

15234 9434 Rank Gp 152 +38

335 20814 Restaurant Gp 329 +514

24678 16034 Stagecoach 24512 +158

23618 16114 Thomas Cook 162 -334

27178 190 TUI Travel 248 +438

1887 1266 Whitbread 1658 +13

Utilities

Index 4676.07 ▲ 87.60

34618 26412 Centrica 30834xd +514

11921289712 Dee Valley 119212

62912 48414 National Grid 62912 +15

662 48278 Pennon Gp 662 +12

1513 1126 Severn 1485 +19

63112 520 Utd Utils 62112 +812

AIM

Index 898.94 ▲ 0.37

26 758 API Gp 2358 -18

1514 412 Armour Gp 518

564 19012 Cape 52412 +112

134 1 Crimson Tide 112

214 112 Dawson Intl 2

838 414 Eckoh 818

21212 1112 JJB Sports 2912 +112

3512 1534 Johnson Serv 3438xd +14

86 3034 Man Brnze 4814 -114

12 4 Metalrax 1158

550 355 Portmeirion P 49212xd

17312 55 Redhall Gp 65

5112 1112 Scapa Gp 4712 -14

142 115 Swallowfield 11912xd

7812 67 Uniq 7478 -58

670 510 Young A 597 -4

15Wednesday, May 11, 2011

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Wednesday, May 11THE IOP BusinessForum will bringtogether businesspeople, policymakersand educationalists todiscuss current oppor-tunities for phys-ics-based business, andhow businesses canensure the graduates

they hire have theskills they need.It is at The Atrium,STFC DaresburyLaboratory, from6pm-9pm. For moreinformation, emailbusiness@iop.org

Thursday, May 12LIVERPOOL Chamberof Commerce will hold

its Digital MarketingInsight Conference, atFACT, in Wood Street.The event will coversubjects includingsocial media and aug-mented reality. Fordetails, visit www.liverpoolchamber.org.uk

Thursday, May 12UKTI Northwest isencouraging NorthWest businesses toattend a free event to

find out about thelatest Incoterms 2010rules and how they canassist in internationaltrade success.It is at UKTI NW, Traf-ford Park, Manchester.For more information,email events@uktinorthwest.co.uk

Tuesday, May 17KNOWSLEY Chamberis hosting its latestBusiness to BusinessNetworking & Enter-

prise Club at the Vil-lage Hotel in FallowsWay, Whiston. Attend-ance costs £12 forChamber members and£18 for non-members.

Wednesday, May 18ST HELENS Chamberis hosting a seminarcalled “The benefits ofeffective health andsafety management”. Itwill discuss how com-panies can create a pos-itive safety culture.For

details, see www.sthelenschamber.com

Thursday, May 19SPEKE-based ChoiceOnline has teamed upwith Clearer Thoughtsto run a second freesocial media marketingworkshop. The event,which will be held atClearer Thoughts inBridle Way, Netherton.For details, see www.choiceonline.co.uk

Monday, May 23

THREE free workshopshave been arranged byLCVS United Way tohelp people looking toset up new social enter-prises or communityorganisations. The firstwill take place at itsoffices in Dale Streeton May 23, with otherson June 22 and July 21.To book places, callJane Peet on 0151 2275177 or emailinfo@lcvs.org.uk

ExchangeCEOhopesmergerswillstreamlineglobalrulesLONDON Stock Exchange chief exec-utive Xavier Rolet, who wants tomerge with Canadian market TMXGroup, hopes the current spate ofinternational exchange mergers willhelp streamline global trading rules.

“If you look at the existing exchangemergers, including the transatlanticmergers, there's not a unified regulat-ory environment,” he told a conferencein London yesterday.

“This is the greatest opportunity thefinancial crisis has presented – tounify regulation.”

The LSE signed a $3.2bn agreementto join with TMX in February but thisdeal was overshadowed when DeutscheBoerse detailed its $10.2bn takeover ofNYSE Euronext.

The Boerse-NYSE deal was throwninto doubt last month when Nasdaqand the IntercontinentalExchangemade a counter-bid for NYSE, valuedat $11.2bn.

The LSE chief executive said hehopes to set a precedent for cross-bor-der regulatory harmonisation with theTMX deal, which the partners hopewill complete in the third quarter ofthis year.

“This transaction is the basis of onesuch framework between Canada andEurope, to enable firms to establishthrough a single listing the ability toraise capital in North America andEurope,” Rolet told the conferenceorganised by The Economist Group,publisher of the Economist weekly.

Exchanges and listed firms havecomplained that different nationalauthorities impose different regulat-ory requirements, which can complic-ate listings in multiple jurisdictions

and restrict cross-border investment.Mr Rolet is keen to break down thesebarriers and enable the free flow ofcapital between Canada and the UKonce the TMX deal is completed, amove that will offer Europeaninvestors easy access to Canada’sstrong stable of listed mining compan-ies.■ IRELAND’S pension industry willfoot the bill for a “modest” package ofmeasures designed to revive the jobsmarket, the Irish government said onTuesday.

“The direct stimulatory effect oftoday’s package of initiatives will bemodest and there will be no extravag-ant claims made in that regard fromthis side of the House,” Finance Min-ister Michael Noonan told Parliament.

“What the measures announcedtoday principally represent are thefirst steps by this government towardsimproving the competitiveness ofimportant sectors of the economy.”

Dublin agreed the measures, whichinclude a temporary reduction in thesales tax to some sectors, with its cred-itors at the International MonetaryFund and European Union on the

basis that it would not derail efforts tocut the budget deficit.

To pay for the package, Noonan saidIrish pension funds would have to paya 0.6% levy for four years, raising470m euros annually. It will not applyto pension funds based in Ireland thatprovide services to non-residentemployers and members.

“The imposition of the levy is for arelatively short period,” he added.

Irish dole queues have ballooned to17-year highs due to a property crashand subsequent severe recession.

Net emigration, banished during theboom years, has returned with a ven-geance leading to fears of a braindrain.

Merger bid: London Stock Exchange chief executive Xavier Rolet

LondonmarketTHE London market wasboosted yesterday by awinning combination ofstrong Chinese tradedata, hopes of a deal tosolve Greece’s debt crisisand solid earningsreports.

The FTSE 100 Indexclosed more than 1% or76.2 points higher to6018.8 after bankingstocks were boosted by areport which indicatedGreece was to receive afresh round of aid to com-bat its debt mountain.

Elsewhere, minerswere lifted by figuresfrom China, whichshowed its global tradesurplus widening to £7bnin April, as importgrowth fell amid govern-ment efforts to cool anoverheated economy.

In the US, traders’ con-fidence was lifted byMicrosoft’s takeover ofinternet telephone ser-vice Skype for £5bn.

The pound slipped backon fears the Bank of Eng-land will downgrade itsgrowth forecasts today.Sterling was downagainst the US dollar at1.63 and off against theeuro at 1.13.

Mining stocks alsobenefited after bargainhunters moved in follow-ing last week’s slump incommodity prices, withXstrata, 22.5p higher at1442p, Rio Tinto, ahead100p at 4235.5p and Ant-ofagasta, up 17p, to 1220p.

Support services firmCapita was 5.5p higher, at741p, after it reported arecord bid pipeline andsigns of recovery indemand.

The biggest Footsierisers were Schroders,up 93p to 1750p, Intercon-tinental Hotels, ahead49p at 1298p, Sage, up 10.2pat 296p and Reed Elsev-ier, ahead 17.5p, at 549.5p.

The biggest Footsiefallers were BG Group,down 23p at 1412p, Res-olution, off 1.1p at 296.3p,Vodafone, down 0.5p at169.6p and GlaxoSmith-Kline, off 1.5p, at 1302p.

16 Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Directorseekinganoldbathandasurfboard

Grateful to all our fundraising supporters – Kate Cowie, director at Liverpool-based retail group,Utility Design

■ AS THE economicgloom continues to

cast a bigger shadowthan the more optimisticanalysts had hoped for,Trading Gossip isdelighted to bring somemuch-needed good newsto local businesses.

The “private sectorlobby group and businessnetworking club Down-town Liverpool in Busi-ness” – as it snappilydescribes itself – hasbeen providing a plat-form for the views of itssupreme leader FrankMcKenna, below, for thelast seven years.

The announcement,which included that hall-mark of the pretentiouswriter, the colon and itslittle brother, thesemi-colon, no fewer thanseven times expressed

Frank’s delight at reach-ing the “milestone”. Wehope whoever it was thatbroke the mirror back in2004 is truly sorry forwhat they did.

■ ONE city lady exec-utive was delighted

to have won a meal fortwo at a top city restaur-ant when her businesscard was plucked fromthe hat at a recent Fish!networking event.

However, her delightturned to embarrassmentwhen it became apparentshe’d written her shop-ping list on the back.

Good to knowsomeone’s found a use fortheir business card.

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8am: Get to our head office in Spekeand have breakfast at my desk – yogurtand blueberries and a big pot of coffee.I have an early meeting with Richard& Dick (my two partners) to lookthrough shop details for potential sitesfor our next store in London.

9am: Mark, our warehouse managerarrives and we check through all thedeliveries from the day before. We haveover 400 suppliers, so there may be upto 20 or so deliveries each day. Lots ofnice new stock for the stores hasarrived ready for spring, so we decidewhich products will be featured on ourwebsite and then allocate the stock sothat each of the stores receives it assoon as possible.

10.30am: I open the post and receive aletter from the Giftware Associationtelling us that we have been short-lis-ted in three different categories for theNational Retail Awards – Best Gift Re-tailer – North, Best Jewellery Retailerand Best Retail Employee of the Year.It means a trip to London to an awardsdinner, and fingers crossed we will dowell and win at least one award.

11am: Meet with a new local supplier,Palm Sugar, to select and order a rangeof confectionery.

12 noon: Have a catch-up phone callwith Anne Jackson, chief executive ofNorth West Cancer Research Fund. AsI’m one of the trustees of the charityand chair of the Liverpool fundraisingcommittee, we discuss the success ofour two recent events at Puschka andThe Hope Street Hotel where we raisedover £3,000 for the charity.

I compose thank you letters to allour sponsors and those who donatedraffle prizes. The charity funds vitalresearch into the causes of cancer, andrelies heavily on support from the pub-lic, so we’re really grateful to everyonewho helped out at the event and madeit a huge success.

1pm: We have a visit from a new jew-ellery supplier, based in South Wales,called Blaze. Selecting new and excit-ing products for the stores is the bestpart of the job and we choose some

lovely pieces that will feature in allour stores throughout the next season.Because we have so many regular cus-tomers, we make sure that we havenew products arriving every week ofthe year, so that there is always newstock to see on every visit.

1.30pm: Answer all the morning’semails and drive into city centre viaDelifonseca to pick up lunch.

2.30pm: Visit our new store in Liv-erpool One and do a walk of the wholestore with the manager, Adam.

We look at what is working in thestore, what we might need to change,where we can improve merchandisingdisplays and complete an action planof all the key tasks for the next week.

4pm: I hold a meeting in our HomeStore, in Bold Street, with our “win-dow champions” from each store, todiscuss the schedule of whattheme/products will feature in ourwindows for the next quarter. We prideourselves on having great, eye-catch-ing, bright and fun displays and usethe creative talents within the team tohow each one will look. This involvesus agreeing which products will feat-ure, ensuring that they will arrive ontime and sourcing any props that wemight need. This month, I have taskedthe team to find some bunting, an oldbath, a surf board and an easel – watchthis space.

5.30pm: Hold meeting in Leaf withmembers of my fundraising committee

to interview potential caterers for theNorth West Cancer Research FundAnnual Butterfly Ball, in September.We are holding the event this year inthe Crypt at the Metropolitan Cathed-ral. The venue itself is amazing, butwe need the caterers to come up with amenu that is contemporary and excit-ing and really has the wow factor, sothat people are talking about the eventfor months afterwards.

6.30pm: Call all stores on the wayback to check daily targets have beenmet and discuss how the day has been.

7pm: Get home and then quick showerand change. Walk round the corner toChuba Chuba, on Allerton Road, forlovely Thai food with some friends.

KateCowie isadirectoratLiverpool retailerUtilityDesignandchairoftheLiverpoolcitycommitteefortheNorthWestCancerResearchFund

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