1
WMN-E01-S4
Annual
Business
Guide 2014
Featuring the top 150 companies in Devon & Cornwall
IN ASSOCIATION WITH
westernmorningnews.co.uk
Sponsored by
2 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
Index
Sponsor’s overview
Sponsor’s overview
East Devon
South Somerset
West Dorset
Exeter
Torbay
Teignbridge
South Hams
Mid Devon
North Devon and Torridge
Plymouth
Isles of Scilly
West Devon
North Cornwall
South East Cornwall
Mid Cornwall
West Cornwall
Truro and Falmouth
Camborne and Redruth
Airports
Agriculture
Higher Education
Food and drink
Further education
Sponsors
Top 150 list
Listed companies
Top company – Babcock
Sponsors
Company profile – Cornwall
Glass and Glazing
Company profile – Brend
Hotels Group
Company profile – Mole
Valley Farmers
Company profile – St Austell
Brewery
Sponsors
Company profile – Plessey
Company profile – UTC
Aerospace
Company profile – Gregory
Distribution
Company profile – Merlin
Cinemas
IT and creative
Marine
Public sector
Manufacturing
Utilities
Retail
Tourism
Commercial property
Construction
Professionals
Renewables
WMN-E01-S4
Introduction
3
4
5
6
7
8/9
10/11
12
13
14
15
16/17
18
19
20
21
22
23
We must speak with one voice – or
risk our potential being swept away
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32/33
35
36/37
38
39
40
41
42
43
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52/53
54
55
56/57
58
59
61
62/63
The railway line at Dawlish earlier this year. The Westcountry’s various parts must unite to ensure we are never again cut off from the rest of the country
After a tough few years, the
South West has now emerged
from the shadow of recession
and is focusing, once again, on
investment and expansion.
Having been in survival
mode for the last six years,
businesses in all sectors are
now feeling confident enough
to start moving forward.
Standing still is not an
option.
As the global economy continues to move forward, South
West businesses know that
they must now start to invest
and to look at ways of growing
their markets in order to take
advantage of the opportunities
of an economic uplift.
I’m particularly aware of
this within my own business
as the Western Morning News
has just done something virtually unheard of in the regional newspaper industry by
launching a new title, the
WMN on Sunday. This means
that the Western Morning
News now offers a seven-day-aweek print product as well as
constant online news updates.
After a long, tough recession and a slow start
to recovery, all the indicators are now that
the Westcountry’s economy is, at long last,
moving forward. Western Morning News
editor Bill Martin looks at the challenges
and opportunities that lie ahead
It’s a bold step for us as a
business. It has meant investment and recruitment and a
careful analysis of the economic climate.
We believe that a rising economy is the right time to
expand and we believe that
the South West is the right
place to expand.
It’s heartening to see that
we’re not alone in our plans
for expansion, with the likes
of Mole Valley Farmers and
St Austell Brewery also on a
growth trajectory. As the profiles on pages 41 and 42 show,
there is definitely a feeling
that the corner has been well
and truly turned.
Of course, we live in an increasingly globalised world
where rapidly developing
events in places like the
Ukraine could have a knockon effect on the UK’s economic
recovery. Challenges like this
are beyond our control, but we
can ensure that our business
base is agile and responsive
enough to withstand them –
and, indeed, to exploit international opportunities as
online trading makes export
sales more achievable for even
the smallest business.
There are also challenges
for the region, much closer to
home, that we must ensure
that we don’t forget about, despite the summer sunshine and
returning confidence.
The biggest issue by far is
ensuring that the growth potential of South West businesses is not hamstrung by the
infrastructure
constraints
that were made so painfully
obvious earlier this year.
The image of the main railway line into and out of the
South West dangling over a
raging sea is one that made
headlines around the world.
Our region should be grabbing
the world’s attention for its
talent and innovation, not the
deficiencies of its rail network.
We cannot afford to be cut off
like that again and we must
make sure that Westminster
is left in no doubt about
the strength of feeling in the
region about the need for investment in faster and more
resilient rail links.
Winter storms seem like a
world away from the Westcountry in July, but we all need
to remember that they will be
back in a few short months.
These are the sort of issues
that are within our control
and we must make sure that
the Government is held to its
commitment of financial support to improve the region’s
resilience to extreme weather.
Historically, the South West
has not been good at lobbying
with a single voice. In the past,
Cornwall has argued for its
share of resources while
Exeter, Torbay and Plymouth
have also put forward the case
for investment in their own
areas.
By the time these disjointed
voices have reached Whitehall, they have drowned each
other out, to the detriment of
the region as a whole.
There is now a widespread
recognition that the Westcountry needs to come together in order to agree common
goals and to lobby with a
single voice that can be heard
loud and clear in the corridors
of power.
The formation of the Peninsula Rail Task Force is an
encouraging example of this
in action. The region needs to
get behind this task force to
ensure that the pressure for
infrastructure investment remains.
It’s what the South West’s
businesses and communities
deserve.
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 3
WMN-E01-S4
Sponsor’s overview
All the hallmarks of a strong
year for Westcountry SMEs
BY ROBERT DAVEY,
Head of Corporate Finance
at Bishop Fleming
The past year has seen a marked
change in how the Westcountry’s
unique business community is
feeling – and acting.
This region is unique in having
so few publicly quoted companies
and so many owner-managed
businesses. Twelve months ago,
most of our region’s business
owners were showing all the signs
of lacking confidence, including a
reluctance to invest, an aversion
to seeking finance, and only embarking on transactions that were
absolutely necessary.
Twelve months on, and the picture is very different.
Since the second quarter of
2013, we have seen a marked and
sustained improvement in the
corporate finance market among
SME businesses across this
region. Indeed, the recently released first Bishop Fleming Deals
Index reveals that this region is
ahead of the national curve in the
resurgence of company sales, acquisitions and growth transactions.
Despite that index showing a
dip in the first quarter of this year,
the underlying trend continues
upwards. This is underlined by
the level of pre-transaction activity, so 2014 has all the hallmarks of
being a strong year for business
deals in the Westcountry.
To my mind, the biggest indicator that confidence has returned to Westcountry boardrooms is the marked increase in
the discussions that we are having
with business owners and their
shareholders about strategic planning for mergers, acquisitions,
growth plans and disposals. This
is a positive switch from the more
negative pattern of recent years,
when companies were being defensive and investors were calling
in search of “cheap bargains” in
the downturn.
This upturn in confidence and
positivity coincides with an increase in available funding and
equity, resulting in upward movement in private company share
values, with one leading private
company price index showing an
increase of more than 20% in the
last 12 months.
Alongside the return to growth
of traditional merger and acquisition activity is a resurgence of
MBO
(management
buy-out)
activity which had become much
less popular with funders and
vendors alike over the recent
years of financial stress.
The pent-up desire to move forward positively and engage in
acquisition and disposal activities, which has built up over a
long and painful recession, is
resulting in a rapid growth in
deals activity. And that growth is
sustainable.
The Westcountry’s corporate
landscape is being re-energised
by a renewed confidence among
business owners and their shareholders to, once again, plan for
the future – including how best
to invest in maximising the value
of their business for a future
exit. That is a telling return to
“nor mality”, and represents a
very real “green shoot of recovery”!
Clearly, Westcountry businesses
Join in the
debate at
the Business
Supper Club
Controversial debate and honest
opinions are the name of the game
at City College Plymouth’s Business
Supper Club, run in partnership with
The Herald. The only event of its
kind in Plymouth, it enables business
professionals to debate key topics that
matter to the South West.
Guests can speak openly and honestly
without fear of ridicule and backlash,
enabling those passionate about
the South West to play their part in
supporting change. Previous speakers
have included Amanda Lumley, Chief
Executive of Destination Plymouth who
led the debate on the visitor economy
and David Parlby, Chief Executive of
Plymouth Chamber of Commerce and
Industry, who debated on the region’s
transport links.
‘This renewed appetite
for growth is matched
by a renewed access to
funding for growth’
are not immune to the impact of
global economic factors, so the
current resurgence is potentially
fragile to external events – from
recent talk of increased interest
rates to the uncertainties surrounding EU membership and
the worrying developments in
Eastern Europe.
Right now, though, Westcountry
boards are focused on the valuedrivers for their businesses that
they can influence, which includes the quality and experience
of their management teams. This
is a truly encouraging emergence
from what has been the “bunker
mentality” that has predominated
for the past few years of economic
uncertainty.
This renewed appetite for
growth is matched by a renewed
access to funding for growth.
While it remains somewhat
patchy, there is very real evidence
that many of the major banks are
again providing supportive and
flexible lending to business, while
there are now more alternative
sources of growth-funding, from
private equity and venture capital
to crowd-funding and government
growth grants.
And Government has a key role
to play in fuelling the potential for
Bishop Fleming’s Robert Davey has noted a ‘positive switch’
this region’s businesses to deliver
the growth, the jobs, and the
resulting taxes that the UK’s recovery needs.
It is a truism that most jobs and
most economic benefit are produced by the legion of smaller
privately-owned
businesses,
rather than the smaller number of
higher-profile listed companies.
The Westcountry is almost unique
in having very few listed corporations and being host to a
massive number of successful
owner-managed businesses and
innovative start-ups.
If asked, every one of those
Westcountry businesses would
almost certainly agree on the one
thing that Government could do
to make the biggest difference to
their ability to flourish and deliver the growth that the Gov-
PICTURE: JOHN ALLEN
ernment so badly needs: invest in
improving the Westcountry’s vital
infrastructure.
Westcountry businesses are
desperately in need of better communications – road, rail, air,
broadband and mobile connectivity. Only Government can deliver
those vital improvements.
The Westcountry can deliver
above its weight in economic
growth, but only if it gets its fair
share of the national infrastructure budget. A fraction of what is
planned for HS2, which will cut
train-journey times by a few
minutes for the North, would
transform Westcountry potential
if it delivered the long-overdue
A303 improvement, completion of
dualling the A30 in Cornwall and
solved the dire lack of rail links to
London.
Richard Smith, CEO of Bright Solicitors,
who has attended the Supper Clubs
since its creation said:
“It is quite refreshing to go to a
business event that is different
and unique in the City. It really is
a business event with a twist
and although it focuses on some
hard-hitting subjects of real interest,
it manages to remain a thoroughly
enjoyable event.”
Next event:
Tuesday 23 September
5.45pm - 8.30pm
PL1 Restaurant
Kings Road, PL1 5QG
Topic to be confirmed _ suggest a topic
by e-mailing employers@cityplym.
ac.uk or tweet @businessupper.
£15 per person (including a two course
meal with coffee)
E-mail employers@cityplym.ac.uk or
call 01752 305026 to reserve your place.
4 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
Quotes
‘The level of interest
in renewables is
great, particularly
from farmers and
landowners,
communities and
businesses – there is
a huge amount going
on, and a wide range
of people involved’
Merlin Hyman, chief executive of
Regen South West
‘We’re starting to see
pay come up for the
first time since the
start of the recession.
Clients are growing
as well and the
whole economy is a
lot more buoyant’
Mike Sturgess, president of the
South West branch of the Institute
of Chartered Accountants in England
and Wales
‘There has been a lot
of business activity.
There is no doubt that
the UK has woken up.
But our sector is still
very fragmented. In
such a difficult sector,
there is inevitably
more consolidation to
take place’
John Gregory, chief executive of
haulage giant Gregory Distribution
‘The last year has
been another highly
successful one for the
University of Exeter
and one in which we
continued to increase
our contribution to
the local and regional
economy, a figure
which currently
exceeds £600 million’
Vice-Chancellor Professor Sir Steve
Smith
‘Cruise ships are
very important to
Falmouth and our
role has been to
ensure that they keep
coming back’
Richard Wilcox, Falmouth Business
Improvement District manager
WMN-E01-S4
Sponsor’s overview
Praise where it’s
due, but we still
need action on
infrastructure
BY MATTHEW LEE
Managing Partner at Bishop Fleming
Twelve months ago, I was
urging Westcountry businesses to grab an emerging
opportunity for growth, at a
time when banks were slowly
beginning to re-open for business and there were some
early signs of recovery.
Although most business
owners were reluctant to
apply for lending while they
awaited something to boost
their confidence.
Since then, things have
moved on. The majority of
major banks are now much
more active in lending on
terms that their customers
find attractive, the statistics
on growth and employment
have restored confidence, and
several Government actions
have made a difference.
We really are now seeing the
“green shoots of recovery”.
They are evidenced by the
strong growth statistics, falling unemployment and low inflation. You know that things
must be improving when the
Bank of England starts to consider increasing interest rates
to calm down the property
market.
Perhaps the most significant change in the business
world is that most of the major
banks are demonstrably more
active in the market and have
changed their approach to
lending. We are seeing growing evidence that those banks
are now genuinely prepared to
lend on sensible terms, with a
more realistic view of repayment periods, which enable
businesses to invest with the
expectation that they will not
see all the profits going in loan
repayments.
They are also less inflexible
about personal guarantees
and covenants on retained
profit, and we are seeing the
revival of local bank managers
challenging and overcoming
strong centrally controlled
credit processes, which concentrate more on the numbers
than on an individual’s track
record.
A year ago, very few Westcountry businesses were applying for bank loans. This
was partly driven by a perception that borrowing would
be difficult, and partly by a
widespread lack of confidence:
everyone was waiting for the
Government to demonstrate a
firm plan for growth.
That has changed. We are
seeing many Westcountry
businesses applying for finance to fuel investment, and
getting those loans on much
better terms. The triggers for
this change are the greater
feeling of confidence in the
economy and the decision of
some banks to re-enter the
business market.
Fairness dictates that I must
acknowledge a game-changing
initiative by the Government.
Their decision to expand 100%
tax relief on Capital Investment to £500,000 is a huge incentive for businesses to
invest, at a time when banks
are making it easier to access
those investment funds.
The availability of cheaper
funding through schemes
such as the Regional Growth
Fund makes a compelling
reason to invest now.
‘Auto-enrolment for
pensions has thrown
an unnecessary
burden on to the
smaller business’
By the same token, the Gover nment’s help for first-timebuyers has been a real shot in
the arm for the crucial homebuilding industry and the
property market, both of
which are central to the UK’s
economy.
On the other hand, the Government has thrown an unnecessary burden on to the
smaller business with the rollout of the auto-enrolment pensions scheme. As smaller businesses become drawn into this
formula, it will be a crippling
experience for many Westcountry business owners, who
will not have the sophisticated
payroll systems to cope with
this new requirement, or the
time to handle the massive
increase in administrative
burden.
Many people ask me: “Why
did they not just increase
National Insurance contributions instead, and bring back
SERPS, which worked well for
many decades?”
The practicalities of implementing auto-enrolment in a
small business really needs a
major rethink.
Matthew Lee is impressed by Help to Buy and changes to Capital Investment, but has a wishlist for Government
It was also disappointing
that the Government has ignored the obvious need to
review the Stamp Duty rates
on house sales. This is a major
barrier to the housing market,
which – as we all know – has
an enormous impact on the
whole financial wellbeing of
the nation.
I suspect that, like the failure to reform the iniquitous
Business Rates, the decision to
leave Stamp Duty unchanged
was a triumph for the power of
The Treasury, which loves the
guaranteed income from these
two sources.
Right now, however, the
Westcountry has a bigger need
from Westminster.
It really is time for this
region to get its fair share of
national investment in infrastructure.
Yes, we’ve now got work underway to provide Torquay’s
link road, and we’ve been
promised help with dredging
the Somerset Levels, but the
provision of a second route
into the Westcountry (ie. a
fully dualled A303) should
have been delivered years ago
– just as the dualling of the A30
throughout Cornwall is long
overdue. Electrification of the
rail link between Bristol and
London seems to be just as
slow in delivery as the provision of high-speed broadband. Lack of broadband capacity is a real hindrance to
Westcountry businesses at a
time when so many new services are cloud-based.
It’s a similar story for this
region’s mobile phone connectivity: the network is overloaded and unreliable.
So I would ask three things
of Government:
■ Commit to the road, rail,
broadband and mobile network infrastructure improvements that the Westcountry
so badly needs – even if that
means delaying HS2.
■ Revisit the compelling need
to reform Business Rates and
Stamp Duty.
■ Admit that auto-enrolment
is a disaster waiting to
happen, and just raise NI contributions to provide a better
state pension.
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 5
WMN-E01-S4
East Devon
Sky’s the limit for bustling gateway to West
These are exciting times for East
Devon. Olivier Vergnault
looks at the wide-ranging
regeneration which is changing
the face of the area, bringing
in new businesses and
creating jobs
Roads are being widened,
homes are rising out of the
ground and businesses are
moving into East Devon in
their droves as regeneration
continues apace.
There is a renewed sense
of optimism permeating the
whole area, not just in Exeter
but also in the smaller towns
on the coast and further away
from the larger centres of
activity.
The £8 million Exeter Science Park and the not-so-distant SkyPark are now coming
to life as new tenants are
moving in, creating business
opportunities and jobs.
Backed by funds from the
Growing Places Fund and the
Regional Growth Fund, together with equity from the
project shareholders, the Science Park Centre is scheduled
to open in April 2015.
Local Enterprise Partnership chairman Steve Hindley
said: “The Growing Places
Fund is designed to create jobs
and boost economic growth,
and we are confident that the
Science Park Centre will do
just that. It will be a centre of
innovation, enterprise and
knowledge – all vital to our
economy and part of our
strategy for growth.”
Another key part of the
funding package is a £1 million grant from the Regional
Growth Fund.
This will support the development of infrastructure in
the centre, including the installation of a high-speed
fibre-optic network to the
landmark building.
The Science Park Centre
will open in two stages, the
first is 30,000sq ft due for completion in April 2015, followed
by a second 20,000sq ft stage
which will be added in line
with demand.
Exeter Science Park is part
of the Exeter and East Devon
Growth Point development
programme representing a
£2 billion investment, where a
number of strategic projects
are set to deliver more than
20,000 new homes and 25,000
jobs by 2026.
Andy Wood, project director
for the Exeter and East Devon
Growth Point, said the western end of East Devon was
undergoing a lot of positive
change.
He said: “The first building
has gone up at the Exeter
Science Park and the first
building has been completed
at the Sky Park. Exeter airport has changed ownership
FACT FILE
Population: 134,400
Employment
In employment: 77.1%
Employees: 61.2%
Self-employed: 16.0%
Unemployed: 3.7%
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 40.4%
NVQ3 and above: 63.1%
NVQ2 and above: 79.0%
NVQ1 and above: 91.5%
Earnings per week
All: £472.40
Male full-time: £536.60
Female full-time: £378.10
and the new owners, the Rigby
Group, are prepared to invest
and take the business forward. And it comes as Flybe is
ready to open new routes to
London from October.
“It will be good for the business community in Exeter and
Devon but will be good in the
other directions as it will help
drive more business from
London into the region.”
Mr Wood said that with
global services exchange the
Blur Group being among the
first companies to move into
the Science Park, having relocated from London, it is
bound to act as a magnet for
other big industry names.
The two business parks are
also well served by Cranbrook, which is continuing
apace. Already 1,500 people
have moved into the new town
on the edge of Exeter, which
has one primary school
(where pupils numbers rose
from 35 in 2012 to 260 this year)
and a second due for September 2015, along with a new
secondary school.
Mr Wood said: “The education
pathway
between
homes and jobs is vital as it
encourages families to come
here, not just to work but to
live. It is a critical part of this
change ongoing in the western part of East Devon.”
Predictions from Exeter and
East Devon councils suggest
that over the next 20 years,
20,000 homes and 26,000 jobs
will be created. These figures
are unmatched across the
South West and will go a long
way to enhancing Exeter and
its reputation as the foremost
city in the South West.
One of the key reasons for
Exeter’s past and future success is its geography. As the
gateway to much of the South
West, it benefits from its airport and links to the M5, while
the recent issues faced by the
rail network and line damage
at Dawlish highlighted the fragility of the infrastructure.
The developments on the
edge of Exeter are also well
served by new road infrastructure such as the B3184 airport
link road which should be
upgraded and widened from
The first stage of the Science Park Centre – a centre of innovation, enterprise and knowledge – is due for completion in April 2015
spring 2015. Further away
from the hustle and bustle of
Exeter, much welcome cash is
being injected in the coastal
towns to help grow the offer
for both visitors and residents
and encourage further development.
Richard Cohen, deputy
chief executive of East Devon
District Council, said coastal
towns such as Sidmouth,
Seaton and Exmouth have
started seeing improvement
in business optimism, high
streets are livelier and the
rate of shop vacancy has
dropped. This sense of optimism comes from inward investment such as the £2 million revamp of the Strand in
Exmouth and the £4 million
Jurassic Centre being created
in Seaton, which is scheduled
to attract 60,000 visitors a year,
and major hotel chain Premier Inn coming to the area.
He said: “The area is seeing
massive investment. We are
trying to extend the tourist
season and broaden the offer
for visitors and residents. Our
vision is not about just producing tourism leaflets, but
creating the infrastructure
which will attract visitors –
which in turn will have a
positive knock-on effect on all
businesses in the area.”
In places like Axminster,
which have suffered in the
past two years, the future also
looks rosier. Mr Cohen said:
“Axminster Carpets has had a
tough time but they are starting to rebuild and are employing new staff. Axminster
Tools is also doing well and
investing. East Devon has
5,700 VAT-registered businesses which is more than the
national average. I’m very
confident about the future. It
is looking good.”
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Supporting the region’s businesses
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6 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
South Somerset
Jigsaw pieces are starting to fit together
After years of promise, South
Somerset is finally realising its
growth potential. Martin Hesp
examines how, and why, the
area is booming at long last
For years, if not decades,
Taunton has attracted headlines like, “England’s fastest
growing town”, or “booming
county town may soon become
a city”. And it certainly has all
the right credentials to make
such claims come true.
Apart from being Somerset’s county town, it is the best
connected large community
in the Westcountry peninsula
– not least because it is closer
to the rest of Britain than anywhere else – save for Yeovil,
capital of neighbouring South
Somerset.
Blend attractive countryside with busy, flourishing, old
market towns – add good rail
and road communications –
and you have a recipe for success.
That is the hope of council
and business leaders in both
these parts of Somerset – and
their ambitions do seem to be
turning slowly, but steadily,
into reality. For example,
when the Western Morning
News asked civic leaders in
Taunton Deane about plans
for growth in a series about
market towns two years ago,
they spoke in terms of many
‘The dualling of the
A358 would make
traffic a lot easier’
David Evans, Taunton Deane Council
thousands of new homes being
built in the great vale around
the M5 motorway.
Now that hoped-for growth
is turning into the reality of
bricks and mortar.
“The homes are coming
along,” commented David
Evans, economic development
manager for Taunton Deane
Borough Council. “We have
plans for 14,000 new homes by
2026 and many have been – or
are being – built.
“The biggest development is
the urban extension at Monkton Heathfield – houses have
already gone up and been sold
there, and the infrastructure
is all in place.
“There is another big development on the Comeytrowe
side of town, where 4,000 new
homes are planned. Then, of
course, there’s Wellington just
down the road – it has two very
large new housing developments – one of which is apparently the quickest-selling
site in the whole South
West.”
Taunton’s
multi-millionpound Firepool development
The former rail depot at Taunton’s Firepool lock area, redevelopment of which will see 17 acres of former brownfield land transformed into a mixed-use waterfront scheme
FACT FILE
Population: 65,500
Employment
In employment: 86.2%
Employees: 68.9
Self-employed: 10.2%
Unemployed: 4.4%
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 24.8%
NVQ3 and above: 58.7%
NVQ2 and above: 75.0 %
NVQ1 and above: 89.3%
Earnings per week
All: £473.20
Male full-time: £483.10
Female full-time: £425.90
is now taking a step forward as
the site’s partner developer
and regeneration specialist,
St Modwen, receives planning
consent for the first residential phase of 49 new homes.
Ben Cook, regional residential director for St Modwen,
said: “We are delighted to welcome Acorn Property Group
on board to deliver the first
phase of homes at Firepool
and drive forward continued
development as part of the
wider master plan for the site,
which will see 17 acres of
former brownfield land transformed into an exciting mixeduse scheme with a waterfront
environment in the centre of
town, all served by improved
transport links.”
Councillor John Williams,
leader of Taunton Deane
Council, said: “This is a major
step forward towards regeneration of this important town
centre site and I welcome it.
“The fact it is coming forward now reflects the muchimproved market conditions
and underlines the importance that the rest of the site
will soon benefit from direct
access off that vital new road,
the Northern Inner Distributor Road, a £23 million investment. The start of the
housing development and
the new road construction will
really kickstart the regeneration of this important site.”
But residential development
always has to evolve hand-inhand with both infrastructure
renewal and the wherewithal
for all those new householders
to find jobs. So is Taunton
Deane where it needs to be,
when considering those two
crucial factors?
“With the infrastructure –
yes and no,” replied Mr Evans.
“The big new rail station improvement is part of that and
so is the building of new roads
in town. But where we will
struggle is around Junction 25
– the dualling of the A358
would make traffic a lot easier.
There is some serious infrastructure needed.
“On the jobs front, our view
is that development has to be
employment-led,” he added.
“We’ve been looking to create
11,000 new jobs – and there are
jobs arriving.
“Most of our big employers
are really optimistic; where
there isn’t so much progress is
in inward investment.
“Gone are the days when
there were inward investors
pouring into Somerset. Now
it’s about growing your own
jobs and businesses. We have
a lot of start-ups – and there is
more optimism now than
there was last year.”
Much the same could be said
for the Yeovil area: “The
recent recession has not been
without its challenges and setbacks, but as a district we have
fared incredibly well, with unemployment remaining significantly below the national,
regional and county average,”
said a spokesman for South
Somerset District Council.
He told the WMN that since
April 2013 the area had seen a
steady decrease in people
claiming Job Seeker’s Allowance (JSA). “Since then the
percentage for South Somerset has remained the same at
1.3%, with a small fluctuation
in the numbers of JSA
claimants each month until
the month of April. May has
seen a decrease from 1.3% to
1.1%, it was last at this percentage in November 2008,”
said the spokesman.
“More widely, we are seeing
an increased level of optimism
in the local economy. This has
been reflected in an increased
level of inquiries about finding premises in the district
and a series of new tenancies
at the Yeovil Innovation
Centre.”
Some of South Somerset’s
recent economic successes include the “unlocking” of the
Yeovil Western Corridor site,
which resulted in £6.49 million
of infrastructure funding.
“This will help to release
and support the delivery of
employment land [19.5 hectares] and residential land
[1,460 dwellings] at Brimsmore, Lufton and Bunford
Park in Yeovil. Public consultations are already underway,” said the council spokesman.
Yeovil also has a new hotel
and retail development in
Middle St – and at the nearby
Quedam shopping centre new
owners have put forward
plans for a new development
scheme. In Chard a development agreement has been
signed which should see the
regeneration of the town
centre and at Sparkford the
much-vaunted Haynes centre
has undergone a recent refurbishment.
“The conference facility
there is a huge step forward
for the district in tourism
ter ms,” said the spokesman.
WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 7
West Dorset
Seizing the
opportunities
from a dream
media boom
Martin Hesp reports on
how an Olympic boost and a
hit TV series are helping make
an economic fairytale come
true in West Dorset
If you were looking after the
economic development of an
area, perhaps the very best
thing you could ever wish for
would be the chance to stage
an Olympic Games, or at least,
part of one. After that you
might say a little prayer and
ask that a popular television
series based in your area
should go on to win just about
every media award possible.
If that sounds like an impossible fairytale, then look no
further than West Dorset.
In 2012 it really did play host
to a whole raft of exciting
Olympic competitions on the
high seas off Weymouth, and
for the past 12 months ITV’s
drama series Broadchurch has
been bestowing wider and
wider international fame to
the area.
Indeed, the programme recently mopped up at the Bafta
awards, bringing home three
top accolades including Best
Drama Series.
But is any of this reflected in
the economy of such a fortunate area?
That is a question taken so
seriously that local authorities in West Dorset put together
a report with the University of
Exeter to asses the economic
impacts which Broadchurch –
filmed exclusively around
West Bay – has had on the
area.
Key findings included the
fact that 77 per cent of local
businesses reported an increase in customer numbers
in 2013 – of these, 47 per cent
thought that this was due to
the impact of Broadchurch.
The increase in customer
numbers was most apparent
in the Bridport and West Bay
areas – with more than 70 per
cent
of businesses reporting an increase in turnover. Local profitability increased for more
than half the businesses responding to the survey.
Around a quarter of accommodation businesses reported
an increase in inquiries for
bookings in 2014 – and nine out
of ten agreed with the state-
FACT FILE
Population: 54,200
Employment
In employment: 79.7%
Employees: 58.8%
Self-employed: 20.4%
Unemployed: Data not available
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 38.7%
NVQ3 and above: 62.9%
NVQ2 and above: 80.3%
NVQ1 and above: 91.5%
Earnings per week
All: £503.20
Male full-time: £564.40
Female full-time: £429.80
ment: “I welcomed Broadchurch – it is the boost this
area needs.”
As for the Olympic legacy,
West Dorset District Council’s
senior economic regeneration
officer, Trevor Hedger, told the
Western Morning News: “The
information we are getting,
now that the Olympics have
come and gone, is that the area
is attracting higher-spending
visitors who are coming back
to the area, having been here
for the events in 2012.
“But the key thing – the
most important economic generator – is the roll-out of faster
‘Higher-spending
visitors are coming
back to the area,
having visited for
the Olympics’
broadband,” he added. “Charmouth was the first of two
villages to benefit from the
programme which is worth
£35 million in the county.
“Whenever we’ve been out
talking to businesses, or
indeed in general discussions,
broadband will always come
as the real need. The rollout
to areas like Charmouth and
Bridport is a major factor for
the commercial future of West
Dorset,” said Mr Hedger.
In May, Charmouth and
Wootton Fitzpaine became the
first West Dorset villages to
benefit from the multi-million-pound programme – and
councillor Robert Gould,
leader of the district council,
said: “Superfast broadband is
Olivia Colman and David Tennant in the first series of Broadchurch, which Chris Chibnall said he wrote as ‘a love letter to the Jurassic Coast’
vital for West Dorset’s future
economy and for our residents. It will make it easier for
people to work from home, do
business online and also
download films and television.
“This is why West Dorset
District Council has invested
£1.3 million to help get superfast broadband to parts of our
areas that would otherwise
have missed out.”
Grant Munn, BT’s programme manager for Superfast Dorset, said: “The arrival
of fibre broadband is one of the
most important investments
in Dorset in recent times.
High-speed fibre optic broadband is transforming the way
we live and work.
“For businesses, it can help
deliver a competitive edge,
which will help them attract
new customers and find new,
more efficient ways of working. For households, it is ideal
for quick and efficient online
shopping, entertainment, education, research and social
networking.”
Councillor Spencer Flower,
leader of Dorset County Council which is investing more
than £7.4 million in the project, added: “These 400 homes
and businesses are the start
of a programme which will
see us bring access to fibre
broadband to almost 80,000
premises. This will breathe
new life into Dorset’s villages,
enabling young people to
study online and older people
to work from home.”
Away from the digital revolution, developments have
also been happening on the
ground in West Dorset since
this WMN business supplement reported from the area a
year ago.
“We now have two very successful Business Improvement Districts – in Weymouth
and Dorchester – and between
them they are contributing
millions of pounds to the
area’s economy,” said Trevor
Hedger.
Perhaps the best commercial news of all in the West
Dorset area was that delivered
in central London by Steve
November, ITV’s director of
drama, when he said: “We are
delighted Broadchurch is back
in production – but we’re remaining tight-lipped about
how the story develops.
“Suffice to say, creator Chris
Chibnall has delivered, as
always, and the scripts are
just as exciting as the first
series.”
8 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 9
Exeter
Calls for more commercial
development in city centre
There has been a huge
turnaround in Exeter’s fortunes
in the last 12 months. And as
Olivier Vergnault discovers,
the year ahead promises to be
even better
Exeter is coming out of the
recession and trade is on the
up. Confidence is high, businesses are investing, jobs are
being created and homes are
coming out of the ground at a
rate of 1,200 a year.
The business community in
the city is unanimous in
saying that the past 12 months
have seen a huge turnaround
in the city’s fortunes – and the
next 12 months look set to be
even better.
Karime Hassan, chief executive of Exeter City Council,
said: “The last 12 months have
been really positive for Exeter.
We have seen a significant
turnaround in terms of confidence in the economy.
“We’ve gone from being
keen to keep momentum going
to evidence of growth, which
is reflected in terms of the
number of inquiries we have
had.”
Investment inquiries have
risen by 24% in the past 12
months, with the conversion
rate also rising by 66%.
Mr Hassan added: “Commercial property inquiries
have also gone up. A good indication of how buoyant the
market is are the numbers of
planning applications going
through.
“The Guildhall Shopping
Centre is being redeveloped,
Ikea is coming to Exeter and
we are also looking to revamp
the coach station. It is a tired
50-year-old area of the city.
This potentially represents an
£80 million to £100 million investment.”
Derek Phillips, vice president of Exeter Chamber of
Commerce, said a spring
survey of businesses in the
city had confirmed the upbeat
mood, with 68% of respondents saying sales and confidence levels were up.
He said: “Confidence level is
99%, which shows that local
businesses have faith in the
future.”
Predictions from Exeter and
East Devon councils suggest
that over the next 20 years,
20,000 homes and 26,000 jobs
will be created. These figures
are unmatched across the
South West and will go a long
way to enhancing Exeter and
its reputation as the foremost
city in the South West.
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The market for student accommodation has had a
change of fortune and after
years of being in decline is
coming back with a vengeance.
“There is a strong demand
for student blocks which is
part and parcel of the growth
of Exeter University,” Mr
Hassan said.
One of the key reasons for
Exeter’s past and future success is its geography. As the
gateway to much of the Westcountry, it benefits from its
airport and links to the M5.
And while Exeter itself was
not as badly affected as the
rest of Devon and Cornwall
when the railway was severed
at Dawlish during the storms
this winter, the importance of
quality transport links remains paramount.
Mr Phillips said: “When
Flybe opens its three-times-aday flights to London City airport in October it will encourage trade into the region and
shows the business community in the capital that we
are open for business. It creates a big PR boost for
Exeter.”
There has been much talk
about the Science Park and
SkyPark on the edge of the
city, fostering new growth and
inward investment.
SkyPark is a joint venture
between Devon County Council and St Modwen and will
pave the way for 1.44 million sq
ft of employment development
at the heart of Exeter’s Growth
Point region.
Also along the M5 corridor
will be the new Ikea store and
the improved conferencing facilities at Sandy Park – both
attracting trade and visitors
into the city.
Stratton Creber Commercial’s
associate
director,
Jonathan Ling, agrees that
almost every occupier who
looks at Exeter looks at the
SkyPark, but says there is still
enormous unrealised potential in other smaller schemes.
He hopes that as confidence
returns to the market investment will follow.
“Commercial
property
agents have spent the last five
years complaining about the
lack of demand and now we’ve
spent the last five months complaining about the lack of
supply,” he said.
“The better-quality space
has gone, which creates a challenge for commercial properties. Normally the market
forces adjust, but value has
dropped by 25 to 30% in the
past five years, so it is not
enough to trigger new development. We hear about the
SkyPark and the Science Park,
The owners plan to attract
quality retail or restaurant
businesses – including national names new to the city and
local independents – to the
new-look centre.
Simon Green, associate director of Aviva Investors, said:
“We are investing for the
future and creating a longterm vision for the Guildhall
Shopping Centre which will
see it as a destination of choice
for retailers, restaurant businesses and customers. Our
plans are exciting and designed to maximise the impact
of all the centre has to offer.
“Our aspiration is to create a
‘best in class’ retail and leisure
destination which will further
enhance what Exeter has to
offer, develop the sort of space
that innovative and attractive
retail and leisure brands require and ultimately deliver to
our customers an environment
that they will enjoy and that
will encourage them to keep
coming back for more.”
Mr Phillips said: “Many
things are looking good over
the coming months.”
The Rugby World Cup in
autumn 2015 is one of these
occasions which will give
Exeter a chance to shine on the
FACT FILE
Population: 74,100
Employment
In employment: 71.4%
Employees: 64.0%
Self-employed: 6.4%
Unemployed: Not available
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 34.6%
NVQ3 and above: 62.1%
NVQ2 and above: 80.5%
NVQ1 and above: 89.9%
Earnings per week
All: £423.70
Male full-time: £457.90
Female full-time: £379.00
which is great, but little is
being built.”
Property agents like Stratton Creber Commercial believe smaller-scale developments will help drive growth
in the city.
Woodbury Business Park is
one of those developments on
the outskirts that are forging
ahead. It will be completed by
Christmas and will include
5,000sq ft of office space and
14,500sq ft of industrial units.
Mr Ling said: “We’re going
ahead with the whole scheme
on the back of one pre-let deal
which will take up 50% of the
office space. It will create 16
jobs.
“It shows faith in the
market.”
Mr Phillips believes things
are moving in the right direction for Exeter’s business
community.
He said: “The Science Park’s
first building is up and started
trading. The Blur Group has
moved in and they are doing
incredibly well.
“The retail industry is also
doing well and the city is en-
joying the lowest vacancy
rate.
“The big news of the year of
course is Ikea coming to the
city. The diggers have moved
in and the store is scheduled to
open in autumn 2015.
“It will coincide nicely with
the Rugby World Cup in England. Exeter is one of the host
cities and it will certainly give
everyone a welcome boost. The
World Cup will definitely put
Exeter on the world map.”
Figures provided by Ikea
show a turnover of £52 million
by 2018, with 380 new jobs.
Meanwhile in the city
centre itself, developments are
proceeding apace. After Princesshay’s success story and
the John Lewis investment,
it is the Guildhall Shopping
Centre’s turn to show a sense
of renewed confidence.
In May, city planners granted the shopping mall permission to carry out a £7 million
revamp. The proposals will see
the entrance from High Street
replaced, a two-storey cafe created in the former shoe shop
on the corner and a total of
four flats created on the third
and fourth floors. A key element will see a remodelling of
the High Street facade to
provide a new gateway, providing a better initial impression
for shoppers.
In Higher Market, between
Market Square and Queen
Street, space will be used for
shops or restaurants. Improvements will also be made to the
centre’s lifts and toilets.
The public areas will be resurfaced, terraced seating introduced to the area around
the historic 12th-century St
Pancras church and a “green
wall” introduced to the northern face of Market Square
above WH Smith.
world stage. Several of the
group stages will see teams and
fans come to Sandy Park, the
home of the Exeter Chiefs. For
Mr Hassan, it is an occasion for
everyone in the city to take
pride and reap the benefits.
He said: “With the Rugby
World Cup, the glare of the
world will be on Exeter. We
already have strong visitor
numbers of 2.2 million a year
but that will improve with the
World Cup. It will provide the
business community with a
welcome shot in the arm.”
However, despite the shoots
of recovery showing, Mr
Hassan had a word of caution
about the number of empty
business properties in the city
centre being bought out as residential investments.
He said that while the
amount of secondhand accommodation was shifting, the
trend could lead to a shortage
of office blocks in the coming
years.
He said: “We’re OK in terms
of office accommodation on
the outskirts of the city, but
this could lead to a shortage in
the city centre. With increased
demand for office blocks, speculation and rising costs will
come.”
SkyPark will pave the way for 1.44 million sq ft of employment development at Exeter Airport. Left: The plans for the Guildhall Shopping Centre
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10 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 11
Torbay
‘At last we can see prosperity returning’ as
Torbay has struggled to find its
way in recent decades, but now
a sense of optimism is returning
to the area, as Phil Goodwin
discovers...
There is optimism among
business leaders in Torbay
that the completion of a major
new transport route into the
area could put an end to years
of under-achievement and finally unlock the door to economic prosperity.
The Bay has had a turbulent
year, which saw the fishing
fleet tied up and unable to
work during almost three
months of seemingly incessant winter storms and the loss
of 71 high-value jobs with the
closure of the AstraZeneca
laboratory in Brixham.
However, plans are currently under way to capitalise
on the construction of the
£110 million South Devon Link
Road, which is now under construction and set to relieve the
chronic traffic gridlock which
has blighted the area when it it
opens next year.
There is an expectation of
lasting economic benefits, including the creation of almost
8,000 jobs in Torbay.
Alan Denby, director of economic strategy at the Torbay
Development Agency (TDA),
said the road would be a “great
asset” but one that needed to
be “complimented” with the
right infrastructure.
The long-awaited 5.5km
dual carriageway will bypass
the existing A380 between
Newton Abbot and Torbay at
Kingskerswell
and
has
sparked a raft of smaller roadwidening schemes around the
Western Corridor.
Mr Denby said: “The road is
a great asset, but we have to
put in place the right infrastructure and we are working
with the Local Enterprise
Partnership to improve the
road network.
“We have got a real opportunity to be able to push on
over the next two years with
transport schemes to open up
employment sites.
“There is a real imperative
to make sure we have got the
right kind of space to support
our hi-tech business sector.
“There is a temptation in
economic development circles
when chasing funds to come
up with identikit plans, but we
are trying to make sure what
we do is relevant to our
strengths.”
There are currently two
schemes under consideration
– one at Paignton, considered a
niche area capable of growing
small businesses. A hi-tech
forum now has 70 firms signed
up and 50 engaged across
Torquay and South Devon.
Plans are also under way to
transformation of Torbay finally under way
FACT FILE
Population: 58,400
Employment
In employment: 72%
Self-employed: 13.6%
Unemployed: 5.6%
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 26.2%
NVQ3 and above: 49.0%
NVQ2 and above: 72.1%
NVQ1 and above: 85.7%
Earnings per week
All: £411.0
Male full-time: £424.3
Female full-time:£383.8
revamp town centres with
three “masterplans” under
consideration for Torquay,
Paignton and Collaton St
Mary.
International feelers to seek
out investment in the Bay have
been put out as far as Boston,
in the United States, through
an organisation called the England Development Agency.
The loss of AstraZeneca’s
Environmental Laboratory in
October delivered a blow to the
economy. But a decision to
donate the premises to Plymouth University, which plans
to create a global research
and education facility, has
provided hope that high-value
jobs can again be created.
Mr Denby added: “It was disappointing to lose the laboratory but the most recent conversations with the university
The South Devon Link Road, which will bypass Kingskerswell between Newton Abbot and Torquay; lobster pots at Brixham Harbour, where the fleet is facing difficulties; and Tor Bay from above
‘We have made a
substantial start to
reversing a trend
that’s been there for
more than 25 years’
Mayor Gordon Oliver
were encouraging and they are
surprised by the level of commercial interest in the site.
“There is a more cohesive
voice coming out of the Bay
now and a mood of optimism
and determination.”
He said BT claims the area
will be one of the best-connected places within the Heart
of the South West Local Enterprise Partnership zone,
which encompasses Devon,
Somerset,
Plymouth
and
Torbay councils.
“Now is the time for focus
and delivery,” he said.
Torbay’s economic problems
are longstanding. In 2012 its
workplace-based gross value
added figure per head was
£13,080 – the second lowest in
the South West, behind Cornwall. This equates to just 61.4%
of the UK average, the ninth
lowest in England.
However, signs of recovery
are emerging, with the latest
bi-annual survey by the TDA
revealing that over the last
three months 42% of businesses saw turnover increase
by 56%.
Mayor Gordon Oliver said
there had been “substantial”
turnaround during the last
three years, with close to £400
million of private investment.
He points to the £90 million
plans for the Palace hotel, one
of the biggest tourism regeneration schemes in the Bay for
many years, as evidence of a
renewed confidence.
Developers behind proposals to create a £20 million four-
star hotel by using Torquay’s
Pavilion and marina car park
sites have also confirmed they
are preparing to take the next
step.
The Tory leader said there
were lots of inquiries from existing businesses who want to
stay and expand and he hoped
an £8.5 million bid to build a
ring road would help convince
more to stay and grow.
“We are one of the most popular areas in the UK for tourism and there is a lot of optimistic news out there –
something we have wanted for
a long time,” he added.
“At last we can see prosperity returning.
“The single most important
word for business is confidence and it’s plain for all to see
that a transformation is taking
place.
“We are dedicated to bringing Torbay back to where it
should be – we are not out of
the woods yet but we have
made a substantial start to reversing a trend that’s been
there for more than 25 years.”
Alongside the traditional
tourism sector, fishing remains a huge influence on
the economy, with Brixham
market last year confirmed
the top port in England,
landing fish valued at £27 million.
However, this year is expected to be far less successful
after ferocious storms in
December, January and February are thought to have
wiped 10% off the haul.
And there are also long-term
concerns for the industry
when new regulations on fish
discards contained within the
re-negotiated
European
Common Fisheries Policy
come into force.
Jim Portus, chief executive
of the South West Fish Producers’ Organisation, said
the winter weather had
been “horrendous”, effectively
wiping a quarter off the year’s
fishing.
“The long-term effects are
that the fish got really mucked
about by the environment –
quite frankly they are confused and the industry is
pretty disturbed as well,” he
added.
“The impact of the waves
was felt as deep as 40m – deeper
than the usual 20m – and many
nets and crab pots were lost.
“The industry will just have
to hope that things settle down
and the fish stocks return to
the inshore water – we have to
remain cautiously optimistic
that the marine environment
is not permanently scarred,
but it’s not looking good at the
moment.”
When the mud literally
settles on the industry, the fleet
of boats will have to contend
with the new landing obligations – the so-called discards
ban championed by celebrity
chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.
But the rules will also force
fishermen to land fish even
though it is unfit for human
consumption because of its
size and can only be used as
meal, Mr Portus explained.
“There are a whole mass of
regulations the industry is
going to have to contend with
and people are worried,” he
said.
“Somebody with a bit of
entrepreneurial flair might
find an opportunity to stop the
produce being transported
long distances and create a
processing plant – the nearest
such plant is in Grimsby and it
currently costs £1,000 to send a
lorry load.”
PICTURES: DON PROCTOR, ROSIE SPOONER AND TCCT
12 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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Teignbridge
Setting out to
tackle brain
drain – and
traffic pain
Phil Goodwin finds
Teignbridge is spearheading
an education drive in an
attempt to return to the days
of engineering prowess
Teignbridge played host to
perhaps the most high-profile
construction site in the country this year, as Network Rail’s
300-strong
Orange
Army
worked day and night to rebuild the rail link between
Dawlish and Teignmouth.
Services resumed before
Easter without too much
damage to the local tourism
industry, and a now raft of
projects to transform the area
and its hi-tech economy over
the next few years are under
way.
Initial work began last
month on the £9.7 million South
Devon University Technical
College – the first such rural
college – which is expected to
harness local young talent and
continue a long tradition of engineering know-how.
The recent adoption of the
district council’s Local Plan,
with its proposals to build
12,400 homes over the next 20
years and create 70 hectares of
employment land, is also expected kick-start a series of
construction schemes.
Added to these, the local authority is investing around
£5 million in the renovation of
a dilapidated old theatre and
the creation of dozens of new
small business units.
Officials say the construction of the £110 million South
Devon Link Road – currently
ploughing through the nearby
countryside towards Torquay
and due to be unveiled in
December 2015 – will also have
spin-off effects and could see
new firms investing in the
area.
If the business strategy goes
to plan, they will eventually be
able to hire from a new wave of
youngsters who will begin
their studies next September
when the specialist college in
Newton Abbot accepts its first
intake. Up to 600 young people
aged 14 to 18 will primarily be
taught every year at the college once it opens in 2015.
It will focus on engineering,
water and the environment
and recruit from a 30-mile
FACT FILE
Population: Population 51,200
Employment
In employment: 77.6%
Self-employed: 11.3%
Unemployed: Not available
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 30.9%
NVQ3 and above: 53.2%
NVQ2 and above: 71.7%
NVQ1 and above: 86.2%
Earnings per week
All: £495.8
Male full-time: £575.0
Female full-time: £333.5
catchment area, including
Exeter.
It is hoped the major education drive will reverse a socalled “brain drain” in the
area by providing workers for
local firms Centrax, Galliford
Try and South West Water,
who have backed the initiative.
Tony Watson, business manager for the economy and
assets at Teignbridge District
Council, said Newton Abbot,
had always been an engineering town.
“There are world-renowned
companies here, including
others such as Centek and
Teignbridge Propellors, and
we have a strong engineering
background,” he said.
“The college is a partnership project with local businesses to provide advanced
training – it won’t turn out
engineers from day one, but
will give people more of an
aptitude
for
engineering
skills.”
In Teignmouth, there was
jubilation in March when a
bid by the council and an arts
group to redevelop the Carlton
theatre was handed £1.75 million from the Coastal Communities Fund.
The redevelopment of the
site is hoped to act as a powerful catalyst to regeneration of
the town and seafront.
Cultural and arts organisations will boost the year-round
tourist industry and create
seven full-time jobs and 50 further indirect jobs.
The work hub will offer
business support to around 80
businesses, encouraging further new jobs through selfemployment, plus the oppor-
Network Rail engineers at work on the storm-damaged line at Dawlish earlier this year and the £9.7 million South Devon University Technical College
tunity for work experience
and training/skills development.
Another major development
likely to boost Teignbridge is
the 5.5km South Devon Link
Road.
The route from Newton
Abbot is expected to create
8,000 jobs – including more
than 2,000 in Teignbridge –
and business leaders are
adamant the road will not only
benefit Torbay.
A key element of the new
road – to open in December
2015 – will be to divert traffic
from the notoriously busy
Penn Inn roundabout and
ease congestion in the village
of Kingskerswell, midway
between Newton Abbot and
Torquay.
Council leader Jeremy
Christophers said local business parks, such as Newton
Abbot’s Brunel industrial
estate, will benefit from reduced congestion, making it
easier to guarantee delivery of
goods.
The Conservative leader
says the creation of the Local
Plan – with its employment
land and a commitment to selfbuild homes – will help target
the two main problems: creating jobs and providing homes
for a low-wage economy.
“The road is beneficial for
us as much as Torbay as the
flyover will reduce 50% of
traffic congestion at Penn Inn
roundabout,” he explained.
“It has been a real year of
change for us, the most fundamental being the Local
Plan, which has taken years of
hard work and the courage to
oppose the Nimbys who would
shoot down any developments.
“The self-build programme
is a massive new initiative we
are looking to promote in an
attempt to solve the crushing
housing crisis.
“Employment has been
fairly stable – there is
something to be said for that –
we have weathered the storm
and are on a good footing.
“We cannot be more optim-
istic and are bringing real economic momentum and social
benefits.”
Steve Henson, chairman of
Newton Abbot’s chamber of
commerce, said his highlight
of the year had been the retention of CCTV cameras after
a decision by the council to cut
funding.
He said the creation of a
“security trust” funded by retailers to take over the running of the system had been
the “biggest worry and biggest
win”.
Mr Henson, a licensed insolvency practitioner, said the
high street in Newton Abbot
was better off than other
nearby towns, such as Torquay
and Totnes, and below the national average with around 8 to
10% of shops unoccupied.
“I would describe the feeling
within the business community as positive – the economy is improving, as is the
housing market. At the lower
end things seem to be getting
better.
“We have been through a
few difficult years – retail has
been hard-hit through the recession – but we have seen a
resurgence, including in property agents, lawyers and accountants.
“The infrastructure being
put into place will only serve
to improve the position and
breed confidence.
“The link road will make us
less of a traffic hotspot and
more attractive to live and
work in the area.”
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 13
South Hams
Rural district
has its share
of success
stories to tell
Buoyant business start-ups, a
new Business Improvement
District and a bid for ‘royal’
status have characterised a busy
year for the South Hams, as
Catherine Barnes reports
Boasting the second highest
employment rate of Devon’s
districts, the South Hams area
also has a slightly higherthan-average self-employment
rate.
Like West Devon, the
number of start-up businesses
is slightly lower than the national average, but those that
do get off the ground have a
higher-than-average survival
rate.
Key sector strengths include
wholesale, retail, food and accommodation – the total visitor spend was in the region of
£234 million in 2011, according
to figures compiled by Ekosgen for Devon County Council
in February this year.
In July last year, bags of
stinking uncollected refuse
were in danger of mounting up
in some of the area’s most
exclusive holiday hotspots,
after the firm that was meant
to collect them ceased operating. TQ Recycling, based at
Tor Quarry near Kingsbridge,
went out of business at the end
of June. It operated a pre-pay
scheme that enabled holiday
property owners to purchase
rubbish sacks that summer
visitors could fill and leave out
on their doorstep for collection.
Exeter-based Devon Contract Waste acquired some of
TQ’s commercial waste collection contracts, but not its
highly seasonal and labourintensive holiday cottage
rounds.
However DCW’s managing
director, Simon Almond, said
his business was doing its best
to help holiday cottage owners
after TQ’s collapse.
For sailing-inspired clothing brand Quba & Co, 2013
saw the launch of a major new
five-year growth plan.
The
Churchstow-based
brand appointed a new senior
management team, as it also
marked the opening of its 14th
retail outlet.
Former Harrods director
Nick Allen is now the company’s chief executive, while
FACT FILE
Population: 47,400
Employment
In employment: 70.1%
Employees: 56.3%
Self-employed: 13.7%
Unemployed: 5.8%
Qualifications:
NVQ4 and above: 29.3%
NVQ3 and above: 56.9%
NVQ2 and above: 76.6%
NVQ1 and above: 86.6%
Earnings per week
All: £463.00
Male full-time: £462.80
Female full-time: £467.00
former Ernst & Young and
HMV
director
Richard
Church stepped into the role of
chief operating officer. Jim
Hartley,
who
co-founded
Churchstow-based Quba in
1996, is now sales director.
The £5 million turnover
business’s e-commerce manager, John Williams, said:
“Within five years we hope to
be the world’s leading nautical
lifestyle brand.”
In December, Dartmouth
businesses voted yes to a £1
million Business Improvement District, which will include the entire town as its
designated BID area. Sixty two
per cent of those who voted
were in favour of the BID
scheme progressing, with
those also representing a 73%
majority in terms of their
combined rateable value.
BID chairman Paul Reach
said: “Around 50% of the
money will be spent on the
marketing and promotion of
Dartmouth.”
Phil Scoble has been appointed as the town’s BID manager.
Dartmouth BID members
are also campaigning for the
town to be given the “royal”
prefix, as the location of the
naval college and a Royal
Regatta.
Meanwhile industry experts said a High Court decision to take lucrative quotas
from giant companies and distribute them among smaller
boats will regenerate the industry.
The move could have major
beneficial implications for
fishing towns including Salcombe.
Eyebrows were raised when American-owned Wyndham Vacation Rentals UK acquired Salcombe Holiday Homes and Dartmouth Holiday Homes
In
October,
Americanowned Wyndham Vacation
Rentals UK announced it had
acquired holiday lets business
Salcombe Holiday Homes and
its sister company Dartmouth
Holiday Homes, sparking local
controversy.
The
New
Jersey-based
group includes UK brands
Hoseasons, cottages4you and
James Villa Holidays within
its portfolio.
David Hanmer, chairman of
Salcombe and Kingsbridge
Chamber of Commerce and
managing director of local
holiday lets business Toad
Hall Cottages, said: “It comes
as quite a shock when an
agency as large as Wyndham,
which is known around the
world, suddenly walks into a
local agency – you wonder
what’s going on.”
Mr Hanmer said he was concerned that the global business would have a marketing
spend that dwarfed that of
local operators, meaning that
they could easily dominate
online search engine optimisation rankings.
As a result of the acquisition,
Salcombe
Holiday
Homes was expelled from the
Cottageline website, which is
a national marketing group of
independent agencies. But
Nick Rudge, managing director (cottages) at Wyndham Vacation Rentals UK, said that
neither the Salcombe or Dartmouth offices of the businesses would be closing and
that having a local presence
was key to its strategy.
Family business WK Favis
& Sons, trading as Salcombe
Crab & Lobster, was named
Exporter of the Year at the
Western Morning News Business Awards in November.
It exports between eight and
30 tonnes of live crab to China
every week and employs up to
‘It comes as quite
a shock when
Wyndham walks
into a local agency’
David Hanmer, Salcombe CoC
20 people at peak times.
Weekly deliveries are also
made to France, Spain and
Portugal.
In April, the 31.75 billion
turnover business group that
owns Exeter airport announced it is investing £12 million in a new boutique hotel
that will create 100 jobs. The
Coventry-based Rigby Group
acquired
the
35-bedroom
Tides Reach Hotel in Salcombe from the Edwards
family, who have owned it for
47 years.
The family-owned group
founded by Sir Peter Rigby,
intends to redevelop the site to
create a waterfront boutique
hotel under its Eden Hotel
Collection portfolio.
In January, a South Hams
business park formerly owned
by a Plymouth firm that went
into administration was acquired by an Exeter-based
property company.
Anna Mill business and distribution park, at Wrangaton,
near Ivybridge, was bought for
an undisclosed sum by Stuart
Properties, which includes exMidas Developments commercial director Terry Murch
among its directors.
He said: “We are intending
to upgrade and improve the
estate and the surrounds.”
The business park’s freehold was sold by administrators of London & Westcountry
Estates, which fell into administration in 2012.
Meanwhile,
Ivybridge’s
Endsleigh Garden and Leisure
centre became part of The
Garden Centre Group’s portfolio in a multi-million-pound
deal.
Endsleigh’s parent firm,
Garden & Leisure Group, was
sold in September by its owner
Louis Delhaize, which also
owns Truffaut, a leading
French garden centre group,
to TGCG. In February the
Westcountry garden centre’s
new owner announced an ef-
ficiency review of its management structure and staffing
across its 132 Ivybridge team,
sparking redundancy fears.
Ivybridge-based Logo Marketing & Design attributed the
power of search engine optimisation to a deal that saw it
create new logos for a West
African state.
It was commissioned to produce two new corporate identities for the federal state of
Kogi in central Nigeria.
The state’s link with the
Westcountry agency was the
result of a Google search by
Nigerian officials for a graphic design agency.
Established in 1977 by Christopher Bray and Gilly Hancox,
Logo has a 20-strong team
based at its Ivybridge studio
and
has
also
recently
rebranded Sanjay, a long-established Indian ice cream
manufacturer
based
in
Mumbai.
Also based in Ivybridge is
the South West Coast Path Association, which appointed
Esther Pearson as its new
business development manager. She said: “During 2012,
the coast path had 8.6 million
users across the South West
which have generated around
£436 million to the area, an
increase of almost 15% in the
past three years – helping support 9,771 full-time equivalent
jobs.”
14 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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Mid Devon
The rural
district that
is coming
out fighting
It may be sandwiched between
two cities in the throes of huge
growth, but don’t write off
diminutive Mid Devon just yet,
writes Kate Langston
For years, Mid Devon’s rail
and road links have marked it
out as a potential hot spot for
development, as well as a desirable place to live.
But it is the links forged
between business leaders and
Mid Devon District Council by
the now well-established Mid
Devon Network (MDN) and
the Business Forum which are
breathing life back in to the
region’s economy.
“The forum is something
which really stands out in the
region, as it has allowed for a
big improvement in communication between the council
and businesses,” said MDN
secretary Richard Pym.
“The networks that have
been formed in the area are
working really well, allowing
businesses to get together and
build trust, which is the way
businesses in this area can
really grow.”
The network has seen its
membership grow from 20 to
35 over the last year, with
Business Forum Mid Devon
(BFMD) reporting a similar
increase in activity.
“We’re seeing a huge wave of
productivity from our existing
members, as well as new members as businesses move in to
the area,” said Niki Lathwell,
BFMD chair. “There seems to
be a real focus and positivity
in the area.”
Major infrastructure and
enterprise investments, such
as the Junction 27 site – a
partnership between AXA and
local developer Mountstephen
Advisors – may also help
towns like Crediton, Cullompton and Tiverton to raise their
profiles in the South West.
“There are certainly a lot of
exciting developments to
report in Mid Devon,” said
Gordon Cleaver, economic development manager at Mid
Devon
District
Council
(MDDC). “Things are coming
together and our town centres
are bouncing back nicely.
“While we have still got
some way to go and are in a
location between two areas –
FACT FILE
Population: Population 53,400
Employment
In employment: 82.4%
Self-employed: 21.4%
Unemployed: Not available
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 40.4%
NVQ3 and above: 70.4%
NVQ2 and above: 85.2%
NVQ1 and above: 92.7%
Earnings per week
All: £416.5
Male full-time: £465.8
Female full-time:£383.1
Exeter and Plymouth – with
massive growth which obviously puts us in a shadow,
there are great things on the
horizon.”
Cullompton
councillors
have voiced fears that developments like Junction 27 will
detract business from the
nearby town and divert funds
for much-needed road projects
to ease congestion through the
centre.
Mr Cleaver said questions
about whether to focus on
more incremental development of the towns or consider
new external settlements related to the motorway are
among the big decisions the
council will have to make in
coming years.
However, a relief road linking the A377 to Lords Meadow
Industrial Estate in Cullompton is due for completion next
year, which is expected to improve traffic flow through the
town.
Another project that it is
hoped will invigorate the
region is the East Urban Extension at Tiverton. Approval
has now been granted for a
housing development, leisure
and schooling facilities and up
to 30,000 sq metres of work
space on the site.
The town has also seen progress in the regeneration of
the old Tiverton and District
hospital site, with the commercial development nearing
completion and construction
of accommodation well underway.
There is also the possibility
of the Mid Devon area securing a further £1 million of
European funding from the
Leader Scheme.
The proposed site of the Junction 27 development alongside the M5, which critics say could damage nearby towns. Below: Gordon Cleaver
“The Leader initiative has
tended to focus on rural spaces
such as parks in the past, so
Mid Devon was not considered
Leader territory,” said Mr
Cleaver. “But there is the possibility of making a bid for
funding in the new round of
applications in September.”
If the bid is successful, the
money will largely be channelled in to the rural community, supporting small and
micro-businesses in areas
such as farm diversification,
forestry, culture and heritage.
But despite the good news,
industry leaders claim the
area is still suffering from
poor access to superfast broadband.
Steve Hindley, chair of the
Heart of the South West LEP,
said: “There is a lot of serious
discussion going on about infrastructure following the
winter disruptions. But our
biggest immediate concern is
with broadband.
“We are working towards
getting better connectivity in
the region to give access to
better connections to the final
10 per cent of the rural community. These days if you can’t
get quality connectivity that is
a major problem for your business and we need to do as
much as possible to support
the success of existing enterprises.”
Richard Pym shared these
concerns. “Farmers and rural
businesses do not enjoy a good
broadband connection,” he
said.
“The Government increasingly requires farmers to
submit paperwork online,
which makes it difficult for
them. It has pledged to make
improvements in the region,
but the jury is still out on
whether the Government can
deliver on it.
“If our internet links would
make it easier for people to
run microbusinesses in rural
areas that would be a real
boost for the local economy.”
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 15
North Devon/Torridge
Poised to benefit from new funding status
A new European funding
initiative has given a major shot
in the arm to the area. And as
Catherine Barnes discovers,
a raft of new developments are
adding to the feelgood factor
At the beginning of this
month, Assisted Area status
came into force across large
areas of Torridge and North
Devon.
The European Commission
approved the status for Barnstaple, Braunton, Ilfracombe,
Fremington and Instow.
The status allows for higher
levels of public funding and
support to businesses in areas
deemed to be in economically
disadvantaged locations.
The aim is to help them to
create jobs, invest in new
premises or machinery, develop and grow with support such
as Regional Growth Funding,
boosting incentives that also
use private-sector investment
to create economic growth and
jobs.
A new ‘one-stop shop’ website – investnorthdevon.co.uk
– was launched.
The regeneration strategies
for Barnstaple town centre
and Ilfracombe are based on
attracting new investment in
the retail, tourism and leisure
sectors. TK Maxx announced
that it intends to move into
Bar nstaple’s Green Lanes
shopping centre. Meanwhile,
Ilfracombe’s latest investment
is in the form of a new Wetherspoons, which has been designed to resemble a shell, reflecting the venue’s sea-facing
position. Premier Inn also
shortlisted potential sites for
a hotel development in the
town.
North Devon Council leader
Brian Greenslade says: “We
are committed to supporting
the local economy, with the
aim of seeing investment continue to grow in North Devon.
With this new investment and
additional attractions, like the
new land train operating in
Ilfracombe, we hope more
people will visit the area,
providing a further boost to
local businesses. Our larger
manufacturers also continue
to expand, with North Devon
profiling well in high-growth
sectors such as pharmaceutical, aerospace and power electronics.”
On top of this, employment
park developments, highways
infrastructure improvements
and more areas coming on
stream with superfast broadband continue to make North
Devon an attractive proposition for investment.
During the year, plans for a
multi-million-pound marina
development
in
Bideford
moved forward, with contracts signed between Oceanside Developments and Tor-
Plans for a multi-million-pound marina development in Bideford will start when the final planning and survey issues have been agreed this summer
FACT FILE
Population: 55,900
Employment
In employment: 71.5%
Employees: 52.8%
Self-employed: 17.2%
Unemployed: 5.4%
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 34.8%
NVQ3 and above: 58.7%
NVQ2 and above: 76.3%
NVQ1 and above: 87.7%
Earnings per week
All: £412.10
Male full-time: £434.00
Female full-time: £380.00
ridge District Council. Work
on the East the Water Wharves
will start when the final planning and survey issues have
been agreed this summer.
Torridge District Council
leader Philip Collins said:
“With modern upmarket restaurants, shops and accommodation this will be a huge
step in the regeneration of
Bideford. The benefits will
reach far beyond the town into
the wider Torridge and northern Devon area too.”
Holsworthy’s £6 million Agribusiness Park is due to
open this summer. Torridge
District Council appointed
contractor Morgan Sindall to
begin work on the project last
July and thanks to a dry
summer, a lot of the initial
groundwork was completed
ahead of schedule.
The centre includes a live-
stock market and agribusiness centre, together with 16
acres of new employment
land. Once it is complete, the
existing town centre livestock
market site will be transferred
to Tesco and Cavanna Homes
for development.
Councillor Collins said the
project would ensure Holsworthy remained a sustainable market town for years to
come.
He said: “The economic implications for Holsworthy and
the surrounding area are
massive.”
As businesses look towards
new investment and growth,
work continues to develop the
local skills base that they
need.
Terry Schofield, managing
director
of
Bideford
sportswear supplier MJM
Sports, said: “I can see my
order book fluctuation and I
know by the end of March each
year what the workload will be
like for the company. To be
honest I could have really done
with an apprentice last year.”
In North Devon and Torridge the number of new starts
on apprenticeship schemes
have seen greater growth than
elsewhere in the South West
and England. The figures increased by 15% between July
2010 to August 2013, compared
to 3% across the region and
8.5% at national level.
The Condition Monitoring
Group is behind two advanced
engineering manufacturing
businesses in Torrington;
Beran Instruments and Hel-
itune and won the Apprenticeship category at the 2013 Western Morning News Business
Awards for the in-house training programmes it has run for
15 years.
Its operations manager,
Lindy Stacey, said: “We need to
increase our skills capacity
and address the skills gap in
our industry, particularly in
engineering.
“We train our own ‘homegrown’ talent, hiring a minimum of two apprentices each
year. To date, 40% of our cur-
‘This will be a huge
step in Bideford’s
regeneration’
TDC leader Phillip Collins
rent employees originally
started as apprentices, highlighting our impressive retention rate.”
According to economic delivery
company
North
Devon+, businesses that are
new to apprenticeships want
coordinated, concise and practical advice about what’s on
offer, while young people may
receive ‘mixed messages’
about vocational learning
with schools and colleges competing for students and the
accompanying funding.
North Devon’s Apprenticeships Steering Group is facilitated by the local employment
skills board and includes representatives from the National
Apprenticeships Service, Careers South West, Jobcentre
Plus, Devon & Cornwall Training Provider Network, Petroc
and Group Training & Development.
Sarah Grigg, employment
and skills manager at North
Devon+ said: “It’s crucial that
we listen to business feedback
and improve the apprenticeship experience for all concerned, year on year.
“Despite a slight drop in the
number of apprenticeship
starts for 2014, by collaborating in this way we have
helped start 795 local apprenticeships so far, which is a
fantastic result.”
2013 saw the launch of the
Pupil & Employer Engagement Programme (PEEP), offering 11 and 12-year-olds an
insight into the world of
work.
The ground-breaking programme has been developed
by the Employment & Skills
Board (ESB) through North
Devon+ with pilot funding
from Torridge District Council.
It was created in response to
business dissatisfaction with
the lack of employability skills
that many youngsters were
demonstrating upon leaving
education.
Also embraced by North
Devon Council, the programme’s primary focus is
upon pupils who may be at
risk of ‘disengaging’ with
their learning, or with limited
career aspirations.
Sarah Grigg, employment
and skills manager at Susan
Marshall of North Devon+
said: “There was a gap in the
market for an initiative that
was employer-led that would
support youngsters to develop
a work ethic earlier than other
projects.
“By taking part in PEEP,
students have a greater context for why they are learning
what they are learning in
school. This has opened their
eyes to the myriad of future
job opportunities available in
the local area and beyond.
“We hoped the programme
would have a positive impact
on the pupils’ academic results and this has far exceeded
our expectations; with literacy, maths and sciences all
above or on target for the majority of the students involved.
“This is in marked contrast
to the achievements of the control group.”
A scheme that supports the
local fishing and fisheries industry has backed 37 projects
across the North Devon and
Torridge districts in a £750,000
investment.
Among its projects, The
Northern Devon Fisheries
Local Action Group (FLAG)
introduced a business skills
training programme specifically developed for the North
Devon fishermen. Capital investment supported three
Coombe Fisheries, Lundy
Fish and Bideford Fisheries
to upgrade equipment, boost
output and develop new
products ands markets.
16 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 17
Plymouth
Plymouth’s casting
off MoD shackles to
forge a new future
Devon’s naval ‘capital’ is on
course for an exciting future
after breaking free of
Ministry of Defence shackles,
as Mike Bramhall reports
Devonport’s South Yard is to become the hub of a thriving marine industries complex
This was the year when Plymouth finally took control of
its own destiny and embraced
a dynamic and prosperous
future.
That is the upbeat assessment of business leader Tim
Jones, who said the city had
freed itself from the shackles
of the Ministry of Defence and
Royal Navy and set out on an
exciting course buoyed by a
new-found
entrepreneurial
confidence.
Mr Jones, chairman of
Devon and Cornwall Business
Council and a member of Plymouth Chamber of Commerce,
said the catalyst was the announcement of an estimated
£296 million investment for
Plymouth and the South West
Peninsula under the City
Deal.
Leaders from all over the
South West gathered on King’s
Hill in Devonport Dockyard to
sign the historic deal on January 17.
It is expected to generate
hundreds of millions of
pounds of investment in the
region, and was formally
signed in the city’s historic in
South Yard, overlooking what
will become the hub of a thriving marine industries complex.
The agreement came with a
dowry of £8 million from the
Government and £1 million
from the MoD to open up a
large section of South Yard for
civilian use. On top of that was
£5.8 million of Regional Development Fund grants to
boost business across the peninsula.
It aims to reinvigorate the
region’s marine and advanced
manufacturing sectors, creating more than 9,000 jobs. It will
also tackle unemployment by
providing intensive support to
more than 1,500 young people
helping them back into work.
There was also new support
for small businesses.
In total, £34 million of public
sector investment is expected
to lever in £262 million of
private sector investment.
Referring to the 12 months
from last July, Mr Jones said:
“We will look back on this
period as the time when Plymouth made a dramatic transformation from being reliant
FACT FILE
Population: 258,000
Employment
In employment: 70.3%
Self-employed: 8.4%
Unemployed: 9.0%
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 29.4%
NVQ3 and above: 57.0%
NVQ2 and above: 74.6%
NVQ1 and above: 88.7%
Earnings per week
All: £454.80
Male full-time: £467.90
Female full-time: £414.20
on external forces controlling
its economy to being in control
of its own destiny.
“The very hard work put in
by the public and private sectors in the last five years will
be richly rewarded as Plymouth exceptionally outperforms the recession.”
“Despite severe head winds
thrown at Plymouth such as
the recession and external
forces such as being cut off
from the national rail network
for 57 days, the city has shown
growth in all sectors of the
economy and extreme robustness in the way employment
numbers have generated.”
Mr Jones said the City Deal
would enable the city to break
free from the MoD’s control of
large areas of the city, for example South Yard. But he
added: “It would not have
happened if the Government
did not feel Plymouth had
turned the corner.”
Mr Jones pinpointed the
large amount of housing construction, the business service
industry and the growth of
employers serving the health
sector as key drivers of Plymouth’s revival.
He said transport remained
an issue, with the A38 corridor
still needing improvements
and continuing concerns over
the fragility of rail connections to the rest of the UK.
But he said Plymouth is now
well placed for a healthier,
brighter future and paid tribute to everyone who had
worked so hard to pull it out of
the depths of recession.
The City Deal was signed
against the backdrop of developers shaping up to do
battle for the north of Plymouth, dubbed The Next Big
Thing in the city’s future prospects.
The city council has longterm plans to create a new
community, with thousands
of homes along with shops,
offices and schools and a
major new shopping centre.
City planners originally favoured a site owned by South
West Water to the west of
Tavistock Road, but switched
their attention to the old
Seaton
Barracks
parade
ground, acquired from the regional development agency.
First off the mark was
Wharfside Regeneration. The
company got into bed with the
Plymouth Hospitals Trust to
propose a big development at
the North West Quadrant site
at Derriford Hospital, to the
east of Seaton Barracks.
The council blocked Wharfside, but still faces competition from Sutton Harbour
Holdings, which has a controversial masterplan to build
on the former airport site, further north at Roborough.
The announcement in April
by Plymouth-born tycoon
Chris Dawson that he will
build
his
new
Range
headquarters at the councilowned Seaton site settled a lot
of nerves at the Council
House.
Mr Dawson said his £8 million
development
would
employ around 800 people.
Another significant boost
for the city came in March,
when it was announced that
the ageing Bretonside bus station was to be torn down, with
a 12-screen cinema and restaurant complex set to replace
it in a multi-million-pound redevelopment.
The scheme – due to be completed in 2017 – is part of a
£50 million transformation of
Plymouth city centre unveiled
by council leader Tudor
Evans. The existing bus station will be moved to a new £2
million “coach hub” in the
city’s West End, on the site of
the
soon-to-be-demolished
Mayflower West car park.
The central shopping area
got a further boost when the
city council announced it was
opening a new front office for
80 staff in the old Lawson
Building in New George
Street. The council is moving
out of the Civic Centre by the
end of this year and the building will be handed over to
Plymouth Argyle boss James
Brent to redevelop as a hotel.
The city centre had already
seen a £7.3 million refurbishment of the Theatre Royal and
its surrounds, while Plymouth
University is building a £7 million performing arts centre on
North Hill and Plymouth College of Art spent £8 million on
its new workshops at Drake
Circus.
Work started at Plymouth’s
£123 million tungsten mine,
with the first ore expected to be
out of the ground by next
year.
Australian-based speciality
metals firm Wolf Minerals
Limited carried out a symbolic
ground-breaking ceremony at
what is now being called
Drakelands mine, at Hemerdon, near Plympton, and construction is set to begin on a
£75 million processing plant by
next March.
In the city centre, the £7 million revamp of the disused
former Millennium nightclub
complex into a religious broadcaster’s TV studio was hailed
as a milestone in the transformation of the Union Street
area. The area is set for a rebirth, with building ongoing at
nearby Millbay, plans afoot to
create a Boulevard besides the
Pavilions and the Millfields
Trust constructing business
space further along Union
Street. GOD TV’s plans for the
one-time cinema-turned-nightspot is set to bring investment
and people into the area.
Regional director Fergus
Scarfe said GOD TV would
create jobs and attract huge
numbers of delegates to its
televised conferences.
In February, new analysis revealed that more than one in
ten people worked in manufacturing in Plymouth, with
the sector worth in excess of
£700 million to the city’s economy annually, making it a
regional giant.
On the employment front, it
was announced in January
that 100 jobs were set to be
created in Plymouth after a
private equity firm agreed to
invest £140 million in a city
wealth management business.
The Tamar Science Parkbased Succession Holdings announced that Inflexion Private
Equity was taking a 50.1 per
cent stake in the business.
Trade tool retailer Screwfix
expanded
augmented
its
Plympton store by opening
outlets in Exeter Street and on
Saltash’s Tamar View industrial estate, creating 26 jobs
and
the
Plymouth-based
Tanner brothers announced a
£200,000 investment as their
empire expanded into Looe in
south East Cornwall, creating
40 jobs.
Leaders gathered at Devonport’s South Yard to sign the City Deal for Plymouth and the South West Peninsula, worth an estimated £296 million
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18 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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Isles of Scilly
Islands back on track after a bumpy ride
Resilience is in the blood of
Isles of Scilly residents. And
as Lyn Barton reports, they
are fighting back after some
serious setbacks
It’s been a bumpy ride for the
Isles of Scilly over the last few
years.
First the helicopter service
was withdrawn, leaving just
fixed wing and a picturesque
– if often lumpy – ferry crossing.
Then the islands were
battered by a series of terrible
winters which brought torrential downpours that succeeded
in closing the turf runway of
Land’s End airport, which
offered a 15-minute hop to the
islands.
But people who live on a
cluster of tiny islands poking
up above the Atlantic 28 miles
from Land’s End are a resilient bunch. Tourism is the
mainstay of the economy and
despite drops – amounting to
more than £3 million in 2012 –
the challenge has been picked
up.
Amanda Pender, tourism
co-ordinator for the Island
Partnership, said their focus
was on looking forward and
giving the long-time return
visitors what they have always
loved about Scilly while tempting a new generation of tourists.
A new website has just been
launched, along with a new
brochure so packed with beautiful photographs that it has
already been a major hit.
“We are moving in the right
direction,” she said.
“The industry is working together and I think it’s fair to
say that we can see the green
shoots of recovery.
“We are actively marketing
the islands for the first time.
The website is getting some
really great feedback and the
new brochure is a real hit. It is
very much a changed format
in physical size and texture
and quite a departure, but we
are finding that people are
taking it home as a souvenir.”
In fact, the brochure has
been so well received that
since January there have been
17,000 direct requests to have
a copy mailed – astonishing
considering that last year only
2,500 requests were received.
The original print run of
40,000 has proved insufficient
to meet demand and another
10,000 have been ordered.
“It’s great news,” said
Amanda. But the trick in
keeping Scilly attractive for
residents as well as tourists
was maintaining its natural
unspoiled charms with demands for more up-to-date facilities.
“People will always say that
they lovely Scilly because it’s
so tranquil, but then in the
Transport remains a fundamental issue on Scilly and since the loss of the helicopter service there has been impressive investment by the Isles of Scilly Steamship Company, which runs fixed-wing
flights to the islands from Land’s End, Newquay and Exeter airports, above, and the Scillonian III passenger ferry, below, to Penzance
same breath they will say that
they don’t have a good signal
on their mobile. It’s a balancing act.
“We love the Isles of Scilly.
It is the most beautiful place in
the world.
“If we tried to change that, it
would be like killing the
golden goose and that is not
going to happen.”
Indeed there are definitely
signs of confidence in the Isles
of Scilly tourism market and
St Austell Brewery has recently invested in a revamp of
the Atlantic, a hotel and pub
in a magnificent position
overlooking the harbour at St
Mary’s.
It’s fair to say that transport
remains a fundamental issue
on Scilly and since the loss of
the helicopter service there
has been impressive investment by the Isles of Scilly
Steamship Company, which
runs fixed-wing flights from
Land’s End, Newquay and
Exeter airports.
Chief executive Rob Goldsmith said it was paying dividends.
“The Isles of Scilly Steamship Company and Isles of
Scilly Travel are seeing an
upturn in passenger numbers
and forward bookings for this
summer.
“After many years of declining visitor numbers and an
unprecedented stormy winter,
it is very encouraging to see a
current year-on-year increase
in forward bookings of 5% for
the period from March to the
end of October 2014.”
He said that the islands were
also on track to benefit from a
growing cruise ship market.
“There were many factors
that contributed to the years of
decline, not least the severe
economic recession and the
changing profile of the visitor
market, but there has been a
realisation that the tourism
industry on the Isles of Scilly
needs to adapt to attract and
retain a new customer base.
“The Isles of Scilly is unlikely to ever be the cheapest
or easiest place to visit, but it
has unique appeal within the
UK. Therefore it needs to focus
on providing good value for
money, consistent high standards of customer service and
improving the integration of
its product offerings to make it
more convenient for visitors.
“The establishment of the
Islands Partnership as a
single marketing organisation
has been a major step forward
and it will play a key role in
the future promotion of the
Isles of Scilly to a new and
wider visitor market.
“For its part, the Isles of
Scilly Steamship Company
continues to invest in and upgrade its service provision.
Over recent years the company has spent over £2 million
on its modernisation of the
Scillonian III passenger ship,
acquired an additional aircraft, built new terminal facilities at Land’s End Airport
and has plans to convert two of
its existing grass runways to
hard surfaces in the near
future.
“The company remains confident about the future market
to the Isles of Scilly and believes that it can grow through
more effective marketing and
the attraction of new visitors.”
WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 19
West Devon
Western outpost facing up to challenges
It may be sparsely populated,
but many businesses in West
Devon are showing a surprising
resilience despite geographical
and economic difficulties, as
Catherine Barnes reports
Rural West Devon is the
largest geographical but most
sparsely inhabited area of the
county, accounting for just 7%
of the population.
Its largest employment
sector is wholesale and retail,
with agriculture, accommodation and food sectors also
among its key enterprises.
The South West is home to
numerous sites that are now
part of farmers co-operative
Arla Foods, including the Taw
Valley Creamery.
In October, more than 30
firefighters tackled a blaze at
Hatherleigh Cattle Market.
But it was back to “business as
usual” by the end of the week
at the livestock market.
In March, Premier Foods
said its Lifton-based desserts
manufacturing business, Ambrosia, was among key brands
to have put in a strong performance as it unveiled a
£1.1 billion deal to bolster its
overall group finances as part
of a radical turnaround plan.
Meanwhile, the Princetownbased Dartmoor Brewery announced the appointment of a
former wine industry expert
to its brewing team. Ian
Cobham is now working
alongside head brewer, Mike
Lunney.
Ambitious plans to improve
cycling routes across Dartmoor were backed with a
£4.4 million grant from the
Government. The project, led
by Devon County Council and
Dartmoor National Park, will
open up access to the moor by
improving and completing a
number of trails and boost the
area’s tourism. It will create
“cycling hub” sites at Princetown and Moretonhampstead and it is anticipated will
bring in an extra £6 million to
the economy, creating 100 new
jobs.
Okehampton-based
Elemental Microanalysis was
among Westcountry businesses to have won the
Queen’s Award for Enterprise
for its success in international
trade. The company manufactures specialised chemicals,
glassware and reference materials used by industries in
elemental analysis – the process of analysing the make-up
of materials ranging from
soil samples to waste and
water.
Established in 1976 and now
boasting 31-strong team, the
business has seen continuous
growth since the recession
began.
In October, West Devon
Council lost a £50,000 court
action against its own planning decision over an out-oftown supermarket to be built
on the site of a former DIY
store.
Some Tavistock town centre
traders said that allowing the
development would be “catastrophic” for local businesses,
while others closer to the site
said they would benefit from
the site being brought back
into use.
While West Devon has a
fairly high ratio of small businesses to working-age residents, statistics compiled for
Devon County Council in February this year revealed that
the business start up rate was
‘significantly lower’ than the
national average – with 160
launched in 2012.
Yet the detailed report also
revealed that almost 70% of
West Devon businesses established in the teeth of recession
in 2009, were still actively trading three years later – bucking
the national average by almost
a fifth.
However, more than one in
three workers in some parts of
Devon are earning less than
the so-called Living Wage, according to new research conducted for KPMG by Markit.
The rate is £7.45 per hour out-
FACT FILE
Population: 58,100
Employment: 76.1%
Employees: 53.6%
Self-employed: 19.4%
Unemployed: Not available
Qualifications:
NVQ4 and above: 29.0%
NVQ3 and above: 49.4%
NVQ2 and above: 65.9%
NVQ1 and above: 81.8%
Earnings per week
All: £413.90
Male full-time: £462.50
Female full-time: £349.10
side London – compared to the
national
minimum
wage
which stands at £6.31. In West
Devon, 35% of working people
are paid less than the living
wage according to the report.
In November, plans were announced to further merge
South Hams District Council
and West Devon Borough
Council to save £3.8 million a
year between them. The two
Tory councils have been sharing services and staff since
2007, saving almost £6 million.
They said the latest move,
which saw around 100 jobs cut,
would “cast aside the traditional ways of local government” by replacing long-established council departments
with
“customer-focussed
teams of officers” within the
community.
In October, Geoffrey Cox,
MP for Torridge and West
Devon, launched a parliamentary probe into the impact national planning guidance has
on wind turbine planning applications. Mr Cox said:
“These turbines dominate the
countryside for miles around
permanently altering and industrialising its appearance.”
In January, a decision to
refuse planning permission
for a 252ft wind turbine to
replace an existing 88ft high
one at Lifton Farm Shop, was
overtur ned.
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20 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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North Cornwall
Investment frenzy amid shift
to ‘super-premium’ product
A new round of EU funding, the
completion of a fast road link
and more space for micro-firms
could be key to future prosperity
and growth of Cornwall’s
premium tourist destination,
writes Phil Goodwin
The continued success of Rick
Stein’s Padstow-based food
empire, along with fellow
chefs Nathan Outlaw and Paul
Ainsworth, has helped make
North Cornwall a “super
premium” tourist destination.
A cluster of exclusive resorts, which includes Rock
and Polzeath, was further popularised by the international
success of Port Isaac-based
TV show Doc Martin, which
now airs in more than 14 countries.
FACT FILE
Population: 52,300
Employment
In employment: 71.4%
Employees: 53.9%
Self-employed: 17.0%
Unemployed: Not available
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 27.3%
NVQ3 and above: 52.8%
NVQ2 and above: 74.9%
NVQ1 and above: 86.4%
Earnings per week
All: £417.90
Male full-time: £431.20
Female full-time: £360.00
An end to the long traffic
jams on the A30, which have
blighted the region, is now in
sight as work on a planning
application to dual the highway gathers pace and is set to
clear the first major hurdle in
August.
Businesses
looking
to
secure European investment
during the coming year will
see a pause as the lucrative
Convergence Funding scheme
enters a new round.
But Cornwall Council says
it is busy preparing the
ground for the next stage of
applications and pushing on
with plans to create new work
space and support growing
fir ms.
Malcolm Bell, head of Visit
Cornwall, said the tourism industry across the county saw a
rise in new visitors from 9% to
12% during last year’s heatwave.
He said people were “investing on the back of the success”
of the north of the county and
said businesses, such as the
Scarlet and Headland hotels,
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“should be applauded” for
creating such a high-value
product.
“They are competing for
business with places like
London, Dubai, Singapore and
Shanghai – but the local
plumber, kitchen fitter and
cheese maker is also benefiting.
“The whole of Cornwall is a
premium product, but North
Cornwall is super premium –
things are going well and the
only issues are guarding
against complacency and attracting new customers because everybody is after the
high-spending visitors.”
Figures from Cornwall
Council show the area to have
average annual earnings of
£17,994, the third highest in
the county’s six regions.
Tulip foods, Proper Cornish,
Trewithen dairy and Kelly’s
The Scarlet Hotel ‘should be applauded’ for creating a high-value product
ice cream are some of the big
players located in the area.
But self-employed people
make up 24% of the workforce,
the second highest in Cornwall and 90% of enterprises
are micro-businesses, also the
second highest.
Sandra Rothwell, head of
economic development, said
there was a need for more
high-quality work space for
growing small firms.
“It is a flexible market, quite
entrepreneurial, with a lot of
micro-businesses that are
quite vibrant and we want to
improve
participation
in
training and skills development,” she said.
Projects under way include
the £60m road widening of
the A30 Temple to Higher
Carblake, funded to the tune
of £30 million by the Government, £20 million from the EU
and £10 million from Cornwall
Council.
Work is set to begin in 2015
and should be complete by the
following June.
The Bude/Stratton Business Park Extension is also
well under way and expected
to provide 4.5 acres of serviced
employment land.
WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 21
South East Cornwall
Breathing new life into ‘forgotten corner’
Major investments, high-end
food outlets and a £125 million
homes and business scheme are
among the good things heading
to South East Cornwall, writes
Andy Greenwood
A proposed £125 million housing and business scheme on
the outskirts of Saltash is
among high-profile investments in South East Cornwall
in the last year.
The prime development
land at Broadmoor Farm,
between the A38 and the A388,
has been the proposed site of a
range of schemes over the last
20 years.
The latest proposals are for
a major housing scheme.
Commercial Estates Group
has submitted a planning application to Cornwall Council
for up to 1,000 homes as well as
a primary school, healthcare
centre and business facilities.
The company, which is
behind The Beach develop-
ment at Carlyon Bay, is also
seeking permission for a
neighbourhood centre and
community hall, and accommodation for the elderly.
The scheme would also deliver park spaces and areas for
public sports, while there are
options for a small hotel and
restaurant or pub.
It would also provide muchneeded highways improvements as well as a pedestrian
and cycle bridge across the
A38 to create links with the
town.
Matthew Tunley, development manager for Commercial Estates Group, said: “The
development will stimulate
economic growth significantly, with around 400 construction jobs on offer, plus up
to 1,000 direct and indirect
new employment opportunities created once completed.
“It’s anticipated that annual
spend in the locality by new
residents will be between
£13 million and £15 million
and an additional £1.3 million
council tax revenue will be
generated.”
Despite its reputation for
being the “forgotten corner”
of the county, South East Cornwall has seen particularly
strong investment in its food
sector. Lostwithiel-based Trewithen Dairies, the third
largest direct milk buyer in
Cornwall,
completed
an
£11.4 million package of improvements with the help of
£5.7 million in funding from
the Rural Development Programme for England.
Meanwhile, a vegetable processor is investing almost £1
million on new storage and
crop-handling facilities after
securing investment from the
same Defra fund.
Hay Farm Produce, based at
Antony,
near
Torpoint,
sources 8,000 tons of potatoes
a year, 6,000 tons of onions
and several thousand tons of
swedes from its parent company Agricola Growers Ltd,
which farms 2,700 acres in
South East and Mid Cornwall.
Works to install additional
storage and handling facilities
at the firm, which employs 30
people, are due for completion
this autumn.
The processing business
started out supplying pasty
firms such as Ginsters and
Proper Cornish. Over time, it
has also grown to supply
bakeries such as Tamar Foods
and WC Rowe.
The Cornish Gouda Company, which was only founded
in 2013 at Lanreath, is investing in new premises to increase its cheese storage
which will allow it to create
stronger mature gouda flavours.
On the food front, celebrity
chef James Tanner moved into
the fishing port of Looe to develop a range of food outlets.
Plymouth-based James and
his brother Chris, who already
run the popular Tanners Restaurant in the city centre, are
opening a farm shop, street
food hut, butchery and a
takeaway fish and chip shop
FACT FILE
Population: 53,600
Employment
In employment: 66.9%
Employees: 49.0%
Self-employed: 16.4%
Unemployed: Not available
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 38.3%
NVQ3 and above: 59.8%
NVQ2 and above: 77.2%
NVQ1 and above: 87.3%
Earnings per week
All: £439.20
Male full-time: £465.70
Female full-time: £388.50
on the quay. At the unveiling of
the project, Chris said: “We
can celebrate the fact that
there’s fantastic fish on the
doorstep and staff we can use.
I think it’s a great little spot
– it’s a popular place anyway.
We think it’s got great potential and it’s crying out for
something like this.”
Along the coast at Millendreath, the former neglected holiday village is being
transformed into a high-quality coastal resort. New watersports facilities, a beach club
and seafront cafe are now
open.
The development will ultimately offer residents and
members a gym, spa treatment rooms, indoor swimming pool and landscaped gardens.
Developer Espalier bought
the 75-acre site and beach
seven years ago with the ambition of creating an iconic,
high-quality coastal holiday
village. It has planning permission for more than 20
homes on the site.
On a smaller scale, Trevol
Business Park in Torpoint has
seen the completion and occupation of all six new workshops, totalling some 6,000 sq
ft. Work has started on an adjacent plot to create a medical
centre where 44 jobs will be
based.
“Since introducing our new
bespoke training through
CCB we have seen some great
results which, alongside the
introduction of our new Aqua
Spa has produced significant
growth at the club.”
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22 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
Mid Cornwall
Landing new
opportunities
on Cornwall’s
central strip
There’s been bad news in
Clay Country, but Mid Cornwall
can take heart from several
positive developments, as
Andy Greenwood reports...
Headline-grabbing developments on opposing sides of
the Mid Cornwall coast, which
promise major investment but
have also brought controversy,
suffered varying fortunes over
the last year.
Newquay’s “Aerohub” is
part of the Government’s flagship Enterprise Zone programme and continues to
attract new businesses to
Cor nwall.
In addition to AgustaWestland, British International
Helicopters and Skybus, who
were already on-site, the development is also home to
Classic Air Force, which
houses the largest collection
of flying post-war aircraft in
Europe.
There were two new arrivals
Newquay’s Aerohub is part of the Government’s flagship Enterprise Zone programme and continues to attract new businesses to Cornwall
in the last 12 months, with
Apple Aviation Group, a UKbased aircraft maintenance,
repair and overhaul company,
laying the foundation stone to
new hangar at Aerohub which
will serve as its base maintenance facility headquarters.
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An Australian logistics firm
also chose the site as the base
for its UK operations in a move
which could create up to 25
jobs. CIS UK, an international
provider of “modular buildings”, became the seventh
firm to relocate to the Enterprise Zone.
Less than ideal have been
further job losses at china clay
mining firm Imerys.
At the turn of the year, the
company said 64 jobs would be
cut as part of a company restructure following a merger
between the French-owned
firm and its former rival,
Goonvean.
It was the second round of
job cuts at the firm in less than
a year, after more than 60 positions were axed last April,
with others relocating from
St Austell to Heathfield, near
Newton Abbot in Devon.
Better news came from the
Eden Project, also forced to
make redundancies in recent
years, which announced a new
apprenticeship scheme would
result in 20-25 new jobs.
The new apprenticeship
scheme is being run in partnership with the Cornwall
College Group and its specialist Rural Environment arm,
Duchy College.
“The Eden Project has a
well-deserved reputation for
growing plants from around
the world,” said St Austell and
Newquay MP Stephen Gilbert,
who was among those at a
well-attended open day.
“It’s great that they are now
investing in growing young
local talent through a significant expansion of the apprenticeship
schemes
in
place.”
Plans for a £250 million,
luxury beach resort at Carlyon
Bay, which includes 510
homes, remain on hold until
markets improve.
However, small steps are
now being taken towards delivering another much-lauded
development on the outskirts
of St Austell.
Plans for one of the country’s first eco-communities,
with hundreds of new homes
FACT FILE
Population: 60,400
Employment
In employment: 73.3%
Employees: 59.8%
Self-employed: 12.1%
Unemployed: Not available
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 22.8%
NVQ3 and above: 48.2%
NVQ2 and above: 74.6%
NVQ1 and above: 88.4%
Earnings per week
All: £432.70
Male full-time: £444.20
Female full-time: £394.10
on former clay sites, including
a marina on land at Par Docks,
had been delayed because of
economic and planning uncertainties.
Another round of consultation on the “masterplan” for
the new community at West
Carclaze, supported by £1.4
million from Government,
was held last month.
The aim of the scheme – led
by Cornwall Council with the
landowner Imerys and the
developer Eco-Bos, is to bring
high-quality housing and new
jobs to the area and to regenerate redundant industrial
land.
Proposals include 1,500 new
homes, a new primary school,
employment space, new cycling and pedestrian routes,
and landscaping.
Work has already started on
a road scheme on the A391 at
Carluddon which will improve
journey times between St Austell and the A30.
The scheme, part of an
£18.4 million project, will also
provide access to a 2.8-hectare
technology park with initial
2,300sq metre premises and
6,000sq metre second phase.
“Our aim is to provide
a high-quality development
which will both serve local
people and attract investment
to the area” said Julian
German, Cornwall Council’s
cabinet member for economy
and culture.
“We want to create a place
where people can live and
work, educate their children,
have access to health and leisure facilities, meet friends,
create communities and enjoy
both the built and natural environment.”
The “green” scheme is being
developed by Eco-Bos, whose
parent companies are Orascom Development Holdings
AG and Imerys Minerals Ltd.
“The best solution will be
delivered by continued collaboration between ourselves and
the council and other public
sector bodies,” said John
Hodkin, from Imerys.
“We already have a positive
and constructive working relationship with these partners
and fully support the approach that is being taken
with regard to the proposed
eco-community development
at West Carclaze and Baal.”
Consultation responses are
being used to shape the masterplan for the area. It will be
presented back to the local
community before a formal
planning application is submitted in December.
To the west of St Austell,
meanwhile, developers are to
submit an amended planning
application to Cornwall Council for an out-of-town retail
park which has divided public
opinion in the area.
At the turn of the year, the
council’s strategic planning
committee rejected by one
vote the developers’ proposal
to build a retail park, Sainsbury’s supermarket and petrol
station at St Mewan.
The controversial application, jointly submitted by
Metric Properties, Mercian
Properties and Sainsburys, divided members of the community. Supporters of the £110
million scheme say the park
would create hundreds of new
jobs, bring national retailers
to St Austell and provide an
economic boost to Cornwall.
But opponents believe the
Coyte Farm development will
divert vital trade from the
town centre and put traders
out of business.
WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 23
West Cornwall
Bids to inject
life back into
Penzance
and St Ives
There is hope on the horizon for
West Cornwall, with a £1 million
windfall for Penzance and an
expansion to the Tate at St Ives,
as Lyn Barton reports
It’s all about the BID in Penzance as the town makes a bold
effort to turn its fortunes
around.
The recent opening of the
new supermarket on the outskirts of town has left more
than £1 million in planning
gain money sloshing around
looking for someone to spend
it meaningfully.
The windfall has civic leaders thinking about the best
way to reinvent the town and
give it as buoyant a future as it
has a past.
The formation of a Business
Improvement District, which
sees qualifying businesses
contribute to a central pot of
money for the common good,
appears to be gathering momentum.
Marcus Wilkinson, chairman of the Penzance BID
steering group and owner of
Alfred Smith & Co, the town’s
oldest shop, said there is a lot
at stake.
“It is true that Penzance has
had many of the challenges
that a lot of secondary high
streets have faced in recent
years,” he said.
“We have empty shops and
there has been a lack of investment. But we shouldn’t
see Penzance’s problem in
isolation; they are shared by a
lot of high streets.
“But while the problems are
not unique, Penzance does
have some unique advantages.
“We have a stunning location, a working harbour, a
great promenade, Mounts Bay
and there is a lot of stunning
architecture in the town.
“Penzance has so much
going for it.”
While Mr Wilkinson is convinced of his town’s bright
future, there is no doubt it
has suffered in the downturn,
losing more than two dozen
shops and businesses in 2013.
Dick Cliffe, chairman of the
town’s chamber of commerce,
said the physical signs of turnaround – scaffolding and
renovation – were abundant.
FACT FILE
Population: 51,200
Employment
In employment: 70.6%
Employees: 56.4%
Self-employed: 14.2%
Unemployed: Not available
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 33.2%
NVQ3 and above: 58.7%
NVQ2 and above: 78.2%
NVQ1 and above: 87.7%
Earnings per week
All: £382.90
Male full-time: £439.10
Female full-time: £346.50
A number of long empty
units are being spruced up
and the former tax office, long
considered just about the ugliest building in West Cornwall,
has been successfully reinvented as PZ360, which offers flexible office space in a town
which has suffered a drought
in that sector.
Work is getting under way
on revitalising St John’s Hall,
which will bring Cornwall
Council staff from the outskirts of town into the middle
of Penzance.
Wharfside shopping centre
continues to be fully occupied,
and manager James Pulford
said there had been a 9 per
cent increase in footfall in the
centre in 2013 compared to
2012.
“If Penzance’s fortunes were
entirely dependent upon a
general uplift in the nation’s
economy then there would be
good reason for caution, but it
is not,” he said. “Penzance has
not been realising its potential.
“Just by ‘punching its
weight’ in the competition
for visitors and shoppers,
Penzance businesses can
prosper.”
He said the establishment of
the BID will provide a fighting
fund of around £180,000 a year
with physical improvements
to the town centre, better security, signage and events
marketing all high on the
shopping list.
The evidence at Falmouth is
that the BID can work wonders
and for every £1 spent on marketing, the businesses saw a
£48 return on their investment.
The formation of a Business
Improvement District in
Penzance appears to be
gathering momentum
Mr Wilkinson said the early
evidence of the BID project
was that business people were
keen to grasp the nettle.
“There is a recognition that
we have to get together to help
ourselves because nobody else
is going to do it for us,” he
said.
“There is no magic wand
that is going to make
everything wonderful. It will
require a lot of hard work
from a lot of people to make it
successful.
“But the structure of the
BID is very democratic and
from my point of view that is
very good. We do have to work
in partnership with people
like Penzance Town Council,
Cornwall Council and grantmaking organisations.
“I also think ‘what is the
alter native?’ and I don’t think
there is one.”
While Penzance hopes to be
surging ahead in the BID
stakes, it has been a less clearcut picture at St Ives, an allyear-round tourism destination where businesses with
the right offer can boom.
Some premises – including
the former cafe under the bus
station – remain stubbornly
empty. However, in St Ives the
vote to establish a BID was
won by the narrowest of margins. Meanwhile, that tireless
driver of tourism for the last 21
years, Tate St Ives, is undergoing a multi-million extension project which will continue until 2016, creating the
capacity for three separate exhibition zones.
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24 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
Truro and Falmouth
A river of optimism
running through
south-west Cornwall
Making Falmouth the events
and festival capital of the
Westcountry is having a major
impact on the town’s fortunes,
as Olivier Vergnault reports
Long acknowledged as the Duchy’s administration and employment capital, Truro now wants to become a cultural
and creative centre of Cornwall too
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Falmouth and Truro share a
river, the Fal, but this year
they will share more than a
meandering waterway.
A renewed faith in economic
growth will unite the two,
which are feeling upbeat
about a recovery.
Not all is back to pre-recession levels, of course, but
there is a buoyant mood in this
corner of Cornwall.
All the indicators are on the
up and business leaders in
both towns believe 2014/15
will be a special year.
For the business community of Falmouth, 2014 will
mean hundreds of thousands
of visitors descending on the
picturesque historic coastal
town to attend the events and
festivals that traders have
been hard at work preparing.
“The Falmouth business
community is feeling buoyant,” said Falmouth Business
Improvement District manager Richard Wilcox.
“Of course it is still tough
out there and no-one can
afford to be complacent. But
we have been hard at work
creating a series of events
which will put our town on the
map and drive numbers in.”
Already 250,000 people visit
the town every year, but with a
special Tall Ships event scheduled for October these figures
will be bolstered by another
120,000 visitors, making Falmouth the events and festivals
capital of the Westcountry.
Mr Wilcox said that having
45 Tall Ships in the town over
four days in the autumn could
generate a £10 million revenue
bonanza for all involved in the
tourist trade, from food outlets
to hotels, restaurants and visitor attractions.
He added: “It will be the
biggest event of its kind in
Cornwall. The BID team has
been busy working on getting
45 Tall Ships and a series of
onshore events for all visitors
to enjoy. It will benefit everyone in Falmouth and surrounding towns.”
The Tall Ships festival will
come on top of the annual
Shanty Festival, Falmouth
Regatta and a new arts event
called Splash, scheduled for
the autumn.
FACT FILE
Population: 56,300
Employment
In employment: 73.2%
Employees: 53.9%
Self-employed: 19.9%
Unemployed: Not available
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 43.8%
NVQ3 and above: 69.2%
NVQ2 and above: 84.8%
NVQ1 and above: 90.3%
Earnings per week
All: £447.70
Male full-time: £455.40
Female full-time: £440.40
The BID team has also been
busy ensuring cruise ships
from Europe and America
visit Falmouth and spend
their money in the Duchy.
Mr Wilcox said 26 cruise
ships are scheduled to call in
to Falmouth over the coming
12 months. He said: “Cruise
ships are very important to
Falmouth and our role has
been to ensure that they keep
coming back.”
Cruise ships make up an
important part not only of the
town’s economy but Cornwall’s economy too.
Figures reveal about 60% of
visitors stay in Falmouth and
40% go elsewhere in Cornwall,
with the average spend of a
cruise passenger in Falmouth
being between £45 and £50 a
day.
Mr Wilcox said the Tall Ship
festival would also be the catalyst for the business community to launch an evaluation exercise to help drive
further business into the
town.
He said: “There has traditionally been an information
black hole in Falmouth. But
we want and need to know
what local residents do, how
our visitors spend their
money, how they go from place
to place.
“We need to understand how
our economy works so we can
go to prospective investors
and Cornwall Council with
some backed-up stats and figures.”
The economic picture is
equally much rosier in Truro
than it has been over the past
few years.
Neil Scott, the city’s BID
manager, said Truro had long
been acknowledged as the
Duchy’s administration and
employment
capital,
but
things are changing.
“We want Truro to become a
cultural and creative centre of
Cornwall as well,” he said.
“This is a desirable place to
live, to shop and to do business
in.”
Mr Scott said that while 12
business of all sizes had closed
in the past 12 months, 35 had
opened, proving that Truro remains attractive to retailers.
He added: “Some of these
new businesses have moved
into premises which had been
empty for ten years. They’re
not all premium brands either.
Some are small independent
businesses. At the top end we
have the White Company just
moving in, but at the other end
of the spectrum Kernow
Exotic has just opened a reptile store.
“It shows the diversity of
Truro’s high street.”
Shops are not the only indicator of a healthy high
street. Bars and restaurants
have already opened and
others are in the pipeline over
the coming months.
Mr Scott said: “Truro has
been innovative with its leisure offer. The past few years
have been challenging for
businesses and restaurants,
especially because of the infrastructure, highway and
water work which has been
disruptive to trade.
“Hopefully this summer we
will be able to reclaim our
streets and trade will pick up.
“It is good to see that despite
the disruption, despite the recession, most businesses have
been resilient and others have
opened. Despite all this, the
business offer has stood up
exceptionally well.”
Mr Scott believes Truro has
enough potential to rival Falmouth downriver and will
again put up the biggest
Christmas light switch-on
show in the region, which will
see 83,000 visitors pour into
the city. Truro’s creative offer
is also being extended and visitors come to enjoy the cathedral, the Royal Cornwall
museum and the Hall for
Cor nwall.
Looking ahead, Mr Scott remains confident things will
improve. He said: “If we can
get through the challenges of
the next six months we have
got a strong draw in this part
of Cornwall and a good event
programme, a great range of
leisure and retail offers and
rising employment prospects.
In Truro we’re feeling good!”
WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 25
Camborne, Pool and Redruth
Regeneration starting to unlock potential
Camborne, Pool and Redruth
have benefited hugely from EU
funding – but now they are also
starting to attract private-sector
investment, as Kate Langston
discovers
Long-term investment in infrastructure and regeneration
are continuing to transform
economic prospects for West
Cor nwall’s former industrial
towns.
Millions of pounds of funding to improve crucial access
routes,
such
as
the
£27 million East-West link
road, has proven to be the key
to “unlocking” development
prospects in the Camborne,
Pool and Redruth area.
Businesses here have also
enjoyed a welcome boost from
the roll-out of the £132 million
Superfast Cornwall broadband scheme. This has helped
to stimulate expansion projects at a number of business
parks in the region – with the
demand for work spaces in the
area ever growing – and created hundreds of new jobs.
As a result, many are optimistic that the district,
which currently suffers from
the highest unemployment
rate in Cornwall, has reached
a significant turning point in
its economic development.
“It’s amazing when you look
at what has gone on in just the
last year,” said Sarah Trethowan, non-executive director
of the Cornwall Development
Company.
“The East-West link road
has progressed well and increased capacity on the road,
which is exactly what was
needed – unlocking the area
for more development to
happen.
“You are really now starting
to see a lot of activity with
private-sector
businesses
coming and investing. The
region has benefited greatly
from European funding over
the last ten years, but we are
increasingly
seeing
this
matched by private-sector investment.
“This indicates a real renewed confidence and sense of
optimism that is acting as a
catalyst for the area.”
Tolvaddon Business Park
near Camborne is one site that
has seen further development,
with construction due to start
on a plot for Large Diameter
Drilling, which is relocating
from Falmouth. This marks
the first stage of a wider development which has planning permission to create
23,400 sq metres of employment space at the park.
Plans are also coming together for the Fibre Park business site, which is looking to
locate near the Business Innovation Centre in Pool to
allow companies to tap in to
FACT FILE
Population: 52,900
Employment
In employment: 66.1%
Employees: 52.1%
Self-employed: 11.9%
Unemployed: Not available
Qualifications
NVQ4 and above: 27.4%
NVQ3 and above: 45.8%
NVQ2 and above: 70.7%
NVQ1 and above: 90.1%
Earnings per week
All: £415.30
Male full-time: £433.80
Female full-time: £353.50
the ten gigabit per second hyperfast broadband introduced
there by the Superfast
scheme.
The site is expected to create
working space for up to 1,000
people and create 500 new
jobs.
“The demand for office
space in the Pool area has been
growing, particularly since
the beginning of 2014,” said
the project’s co-ordinator,
Toby Parkins. “Superfast
Broadband has enabled businesses to work more efficiently and allows them to
reach and work with clients all
over the world very easily.”
“It also makes it easier to
attract talent to the area as
many people now consider Superfast to be one of the most
important requirements when
choosing homes.”
Housing developments have
played a big part in the regeneration of a number of
derelict sites in the town of
Camborne, where hundreds of
new homes are already nearing completion in the town
and groundwork on a further
575 is under way at the Boilerworks site.
The town has also benefited
from the opening of a new
indoor market and the relocation of the Trevithick auction rooms from Pool, as well
Top: An artist at the Krowji arts complex in Redruth, which is about to undergo
a major expansion (above). Below: Large Diameter Drilling is relocating from
Falmouth to Tolvaddon Business Park near Camborne, which is also expanding
as the building of a Premier
Inn and branches of Costa and
Poundland.
Camborne Business Improvement District has maintained an active role, having
taken on the challenge of
rebranding the town through
its What’s Your Story public
consultation project.
“There are still challenges
in the area and nothing can be
take for granted, but people
love the town and are keen to
support its development,” said
BID manager Mel Martin.
“Businesses depend on
strong local support to succeed and thrive. Camborne
hasn’t got the best perception
in Cornwall, but it’s time to
shout about the positives and
that is what the rebranding
aims to do.”
Camborne has also been
chosen to be one of four
Cornish towns to pilot a cheaper parking scheme, which has
introduced free 30-minute
street parking and lower
charges in town-centre car
parks.
The town’s mayor, Colin
Godolphin, said the new parking scheme will “attract visitors to the centre, encourage
shoppers and provide a boost
to local businesses”.
Heritage continues to be the
focus of big investment for
both Camborne and Redruth,
following the announcement
at the end of last year that the
King Edward Mine Museum
has been awarded a £55,100
development grant from the
Heritage Lottery Fund.
The money will go towards
the £1.4 million refurbishment
of existing buildings as well as
the creation of 600 sq metres of
workspace and an exhibition
venue.
In Redruth, flood mitigation
infrastructure works are
ready to commence on the
town’s old brewery site, in anticipation of the construction
of the multi-million-pound
Kresen Kernow archive and
Cornwall studies centre.
The town has also secured
European Regional Development Funding for the first
phase of development at the
Krowji art complex, situated
on the old grammar school
site. The buildings host Cornwall’s biggest creative sector
cluster and the centre is set to
double in size as a result of a
major £3.7 million expansion
project.
It is hoped these new developments will act as a stimulus for further investment in
the town.
Now that the future is looking brighter for the West Cornwall region, the next pressing
issue is getting the positive
message across to more businesses and employees .
“Regeneration is always a
ten to 15-year process and
we’re starting to see the efforts
that the towns, businesses and
council have put in to the area
coming to fruition,” said Ms
Trethowan.
“Perceptions are changing –
people are beginning to realise
this is a place where businesses can come and be successful, while the new housing
developments
demonstrate
this is an area where people
have choices about where they
live and work. Now what we
need to get better at as businesses is communicating both
our needs and the many benefits and opportunities that
exist for people in the area.”
26 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
Airports
Rail debacle
provides a
windfall for
SW air links
The aviation sector has
experienced yet more changes
over the last year but, after an
eventful recession, the
Westcountry’s main airports
are seeing passenger numbers
rise again, writes Liz Parks
It’s been a year of challenges
and opportunities for the
Westcountry’s two main airports with routes coming and
going – and plenty of other
changes en route.
Following last year’s acquisition of Exeter International
Airport by Patriot Aerospace,
Devon’s airport has seen Flybe
announce route closures to
Newcastle, Nice and Barcelona.
These
disappointments
have been countered by more
recent news that, for the first
time, Exeter will have daily
flights to London City Airport
with Flybe scenting an opportunity to tempt travellers
away from the train. The airline said it would be taking on
rail services on both time and
cost with its 70-minute flights
with speedy check-ins aiming
to attract passengers whose
travel plans are time-critical.
Flybe, is set to launch three
daily London flights from
Exeter on October 27. It said
that the service will offer a
“very significant reduction”
in travel times, compared to
train journeys of between two
hours and nine minutes and
three-and-a-half hours.
Flybe will also be flying
from Belfast, Dublin, Edinburgh and Inverness, taking
on the likes of British Airways, who already operate at
London City.
The new routes are part of
Flybe’s
turnaround
plan
which has seen it make a raft
of new senior appointment as
well as raising £150 million of
additional finance from the
City following a period of poor
results and 500 job losses at
bases around the UK, including Exeter.
The group welcomed Sir
Timothy ‘Timo’ Anderson to
its board as non-executive
director in May, along with
executive appointments including Maunu Visuri as managing director of Flybe Finland, the joint venture
between Flybe and Finnair.
Jochen Schnadt has taken
up the role of interim director
of Flybe’s white label business
development, initially on a
six-month
assignment
to
identify opportunities for
their airline to expand its services carried out on behalf of
other
companies
across
Europe.
Exeter International Airport managing director Matt
Roach said that passenger
numbers had increased by
6% to 740,000 – the first upturn
since the start of the recession.
“It’s a move in the right direction,” he said. “We saw
growth across all parts of the
business, which was very encouraging. It’s been a positive
year with the change in ownership giving the business a
real lift and putting things on
a good footing to move forward.”
Last June, the airport was
bought by Patriot Aerospace,
the aviation division of the
Rigby Group Plc, which also
owns Newquay-based British
International Helicopters and
a stake in Coventry Airport.
The acquisition has seen investment in terminal facilities
with improvements pending
to road access to the airport
from the nearby A30 to create
a better “sense of arrival” for
visitors to the airport.
Mr Roach said: “At the forefront of what we’re trying to do
is to reposition the airport as
the airport of choice as a gateway to the South West. We
have seen some of the connectivity issues to and from
the South West over the
winter. It’s a chance now for
the airport to step up and play
a key role in linking the South
West to both London and to
international hubs like Paris
and Amsterdam.
“We have got an important
role to play and I think that the
new ownership and with the
changes to Flybe we’re well
positioned to do that.”
The new route to London
City would be a key part of
achieving this goal, he said.
“London has always been
the route that has been most
frequently requested and it’s
always been on the cusp of the
dynamic between rail and air.
I think the thing that makes it
strong is the fact that it’s into
the heart of London and the
Passenger numbers between Newquay and London were up 23% in April, strengthening the argument for a Public Service Obligation
timings are great. You can get
to London City by 8am, which
gives a head start on rail.”
Passenger numbers are also
on the rise at Newquay Cornwall Airport, with numbers
up to 198,000 overall and
100,000 of these coming from
flights to Gatwick.
But such is the volatility of
the aviation sector, that even
this route has had its share of
uncertainty in the last year.
After Flybe sold its Gatwick
landing slots to easyJet, the
‘It’s a chance for the
airport to step up
and play a key role’
Exeter Airport MD Matt Roach
Luton-based carrier said that
there
was
“insufficient
demand” to maintain the
London link leading to fears
that Cornwall could lose a key
part of its infrastructure.
But after determined lobbying, it was confirmed in
December that the air links
would be saved after the Department for Transport confirmed that the route was eligible for public subsidy.
Flybe has secured new slots
at Gatwick in order to continue the flights until October,
when the subsidy will come
into effect.
With the airport itself
already supported by a £3 million annual subsidy from
Cornwall Council, the need for
government funding underlines how vulnerable aviation
links to the far South West are
with the unprofitable link
likely to cost several million
pounds a year to prop up.
Cornwall Council, which
owns the airport, is currently
working through the tender
process and will put forward
its choice of airline to run the
route after October, which will
then be ratified by the Government. An announcement is
likely to be made in August.
Managing director Al Titterington said: “Things have
been moving in a positive direction. We have had our best
financial year since the airport was formed. The closure
of Land’s End airport and the
rail line at Dawlish underlines
the strengths of those air
links.”
Like Exeter, Newquay Airport has reaped some benefits
following rail disruptions at
the start of the year.
In February and March, the
Gatwick route saw a 100%
uplift in passenger numbers,
with numbers also up on the
Manchester service.
Mr Titterington said that
many of these travellers had
continued to fly even after the
railway link re-opened in
April.
“With our forecasting in
April we were 23% up on
London passenger numbers.
There is an element of these
passengers who will now
always fly,” he said. “We don’t
wish to do rail down but I
think that events [at Dawlish]
have strengthened the case for
a Public Service Obligation
because we can see it in terms
of the uplift in passengers.”
A new service to Birmingham has been launched and
Flybe has taken over the route
to Southend after easyJet
pulled out of the seasonal
service that it launched last
year.
Mr Titterington said load
factors were strong, with the
prospect of new routes being
signed off in the next few
months. “We have had an encouraging dialogue with airlines both domestic and international and I’m pretty
confident about delivering a
number of new routes,” he
said.
Progress has continued
with Newquay’s Aerohub Enterprise Zone, which offers
aviation businesses the prospect of lower business rates,
fast broadband and shovelready building plots. This
provides a huge opportunity
for Newquay, with investment
already confirmed from several international aviation
businesses. “It’s important
that one doesn’t happen
without the other. The Aerohub is a piece of grass
without the airport and
London connectivity – the two
go together hand in glove,”
said Mr Titterington.
With significant changes
taking place within the Westcountry itself, there are also
major developments on the horizon on a national level that
could impact on both Exeter
and Newquay airports.
With a decision still to be
made over where the next new
runway in the London area is
built, Newquay Airport, in
particular has been lobbying
hard for additional regional
connectivity,
with
some
degree of success.
Mr Titterington said the airport was strongly in favour of
additional development at
Heathrow, but with a recognition that regional airports
needed access to the enlarged
hub.
Newquay Cornwall Airport
chairman Tim Jeans is now
hoping to be part of the task
force that will look at this
issue.
“Our preference is for
Heathrow. We’re supportive of
development at Gatwick but in
terms of the first new runway
it 150% has to be at Heathrow
because of the requirement for
accessing new markets that
can only be delivered by
Heathrow. To me, it’s the show
in town.”
WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 27
Agriculture
Volatile prices
still the main
burden facing
West farmers
Athwenna Irons reflects on
how the region’s farming
industry has fared over the
turbulent past 12 months, which
brought flooding despair for
some – but a boost for beef
and lamb producers
No single week, month or year
is ever the same in farming –
and this past year has been
just as bewildering as ever in
the South West.
With a turbulent climate,
both financially and physically, gaining a firm foothold is
something which hasn’t come
easy for the region’s farming
community.
The agriculture industry is
essential to keeping our countryside ticking to the right
rhythm. This is reflected in
Defra’s latest figures for 2013,
which valued farming output
at £25.7 billion. Farming’s contribution to the UK economy
has also grown by a staggering
67% between 2007 and 2013.
On the home front, 2014 statistics from the National Farmers’ Union show Cornwall’s
gross output from farming as
a staggering £457 million, and
Devon higher still at £780 million.
Against a backdrop of recession and slow economic recovery, the value of farming
output is certainly something
to shout about. So, what have
been the main talking points
over the past year, and where
is the industry heading?
The Single Farm Payment
Scheme continues to provide
the profit on too many farms
and is likely to do so unless –
and until – the price of food
increases, so that the price
paid for farm produce outpaces the cost of production.
Brian Harvey, of accountants Francis Clark, summed it
up: “The national profit from
agriculture used to always
mirror the subsidy provided
to farmers.
“In recent years that has
moved as there has been a
degree of recovery in profitability for farming businesses.”
Mother Nature was a cruel
mistress in the months of
January and February, as the
heavens opened across the
region. Farmers and smallholders on the Somerset
Levels, and the low-lying areas
of East Devon, were faced with
scenes of despair as acres of
pasture were swallowed under
millions of gallons of flood
water.
The month of January did
come with a silver lining, as
the farmers and food producers alike celebrated the
award of a special recognition
status for the region’s beef and
lamb.
After a lengthy campaign,
beef and lamb which has been
born, raised and finished in
the Westcountry earned itself
Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) status, preserving
its authenticity and protecting
the product from imitation.
Peter Baber, chairman of
Meat South West, the organisation behind the PGI application, said: “It is a real opportunity for us to market beef
and lamb which has been produced in the South West.
We’ve now got that premium
product status.”
Mr Baber spoke of the PGI’s
progress since it was introduced in January, as more
than 20 processors have now
signed up to the scheme: “It’s
looking quite exciting as more
people are signing up and
wanting the product.”
The outlook for beef and
lamb continued on a positive
note, as the results of an
EBLEX survey in April revealed that confidence within
the industry had increased,
and 56% of farmers were planning to invest in their businesses.
In response to the survey,
Peter Garbutt, chief livestock
adviser at the NFU, warned
that we should not get our
hopes up just yet. He said: “Of
course, a more optimistic outlook doesn’t mean that there
aren’t still significant challenges to face to generate returns from the market, deal
with volatility and cope with
the increasing red tape that
farmers face.”
It turned out that Mr Garbutt had good reason to be
sceptical, as no more than a
week later the farmgate price
for beef slumped, causing a
number of beef farmers in the
region to seriously question
their future in the industry.
In June 2013 beef farmers in
the South West were quoted a
382p/kg base price for their
Cornish dairy farmer Mark Oliver says world markets – and farmgate prices – for dairy products are growing. But beef and lamb prices remain fragile
finished cattle from processor
ABP. In June this year, it was
312p/kg.
John Hoskin, a National
Beef
Association
board
member, runs a family businesses based outside Dorchester in Dorset and St Austell in
Cornwall, where they finish
1,200 cattle a year. He said: “In
real figures this means I am
now losing £240 on every
animal finished, compared
with last year.
“This scenario is totally
unsustainable. Autumn store
prices will reflect that loss. As
farming is a long-term business we have decided to stomach this loss for six more
months and, if the market does
not alter, we shall have to
make some serious decisions
about the future.”
In recent months, compared
with 2013, beef imports and
exports are up 12% and down
27% respectively. The Netherlands, Germany, Poland and
Australia are main importers
while a strong pound has a
detrimental effect on exports.
The result is a flood of beef on
to the market, depressing
home trade.
Mr Hoskin believes it will
take a while for the situation
to come right.
“There are fewer suckler females and young cattle on the
ground so supply should drive
up prices for the farmer,” he
said.
“However, I cannot see this
happening until next year so
we shall have to sit tight and
continue to cut every cost we
can in the meantime.”
The dairy industry has also
been subject to its share of
knockbacks in the past year.
Despite a rising global
demand, particularly in China
for powdered milk products,
the prices that processors are
paying to their farmers have
gone in the opposite direction.
A supermarket price war
reared its head in March, as
Tesco dropped the price of four
pints of milk to just £1. Other
retailers then followed in
Tesco’s footsteps, pushing the
retail price closer to the cost of
production for many dairy
far mers.
Another sharp intake of
breath was felt throughout the
dairy industry the following
month, as co-operative Arla
amba announced that it would
be dropping its milk price by
1.27ppl to 33.74ppl from 28
April, with other processors
then following suit.
Cornish dairy farmer Mark
Oliver, chairman of the NFU
South West dairy board, said:
“Following a difficult year in
2012, dairy farming made
some good progress through
2013 and into the spring of
2014. Dairy farming is now in
a different world. World markets for dairy products are
growing, milk processors have
been investing and trying to
tempt farmers to supply them
and this has resulted in a
fairer price at the farmgate.
“However the volitality that
we have been much warned
about has been in evidence
recently. A surge in produc-
tion nationally and globally
has lead to a significant fall in
dairy commodity prices which
has lead to producers’ prices
falling. The long-term outlook
is still for the marketplace to
grow, so demand should keep
up with supply even as the end
of quotas looms,” added Mr
Oliver.
The value of agricultural
land has continued to hold up
well, with good soil type, quality and versatility playing a
determinant role in the minds
of buyers. Throughout Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset, land sales at Stags in
2013 showed an average price
of more than £7,500 per acre.
Phil Bicknell, chief economist at the NFU, was optimistic
about what lies ahead for
South West farming in the
next year. He said: “The longterm prospects are pretty
bright for agriculture and we
have got a lot of potential in
terms of our home and export
markets.”
Mr Bicknell also spoke of a
promising outlook for the
arable sector in the South
West, with yields bouncing
back ahead of this year’s harvest.
There are also “significant
short-term challenges” which
farmers will be considering in
months to come, including the
volatility of prices in the beef
and dairy industry.
“We’re not an industry
without our challenges. We
need a farm infrastructure
equipped for the long term,”
he added.
28 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
Higher education
Universities raising the bar for ‘customers’
A difficult economic climate and
the introduction, in 2012, of
higher tuition fees has not
halted the growth of the
Westcountry’s universities,
reports Liz Parks
They are under more pressure
than ever to deliver cohorts of
industry-ready graduates to
address the much-publicised
skills gap, but the South West’s
universities have continued to
deliver to students and businesses alike.
With two new universities
in the region following the
Gover nment’s reappraisal last
year of the criteria involved,
and a growing number of
degree courses available at
further education colleges,
students have more higher
education options in the
region than ever before.
With an emphasis on providing value for money for students – now increasingly seen
as customers – investment
levels have remained high at
the University of Exeter. As
the only university in the Westcountry to be part of the prestigious Russell Group, Exeter
wants to promote its research
excellence – which means investing in the best facilities,
equipment and staff.
In the last year, the university has opened its £27.5
million Research, Innovation,
Learning and Development
building, in partnership with
the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS
Foundation Trust and partfunded by the Wellcome Trust
and Wolfson Foundation.
This year sees Exeter focused again on a large-scale
capital spend programme with
a £50 million construction
drive now under way including
the Living Systems Institute on
the Streatham campus and the
South Cloisters development of
accommodation, study and
teaching space on the St Lukes
campus.
The university will be focusing on the results of the
Research Excellence Framework in December, where it is
hoping to be ranked highly.
As well as seeing its income
rise to £300 million, the university is also working on increasing its partnerships with
business including the Met
Office, IBM and Shell. The
latest of these includes a £2
million research partnership
with AstraZeneca.
Vice-Chancellor Professor
Sir Steve Smith said: “The last
year has been another highly
successful one for the University of Exeter and one in
which we continued to increase our contribution to the
local and regional economy, a
figure which currently exceeds £600 million.
“The
higher
education
sector is set to become increasingly competitive and we, like
other universities, will have to
face the twin challenges of
political uncertainty about the
level of fee income and increasing pension contributions.
However, we are already plan-
ning for the future and I am
certain that the university will
continue on its upward trajectory for many years to come.”
One of the region’s new universities, Falmouth, has also
enjoyed a strong showing this
year. In May, the creative
sector-focused
institution
launched Alacrity Falmouth,
a new graduate entrepreneurship programme which is part
funded by the European Regional Development Fund.
The pilot programme is designed to foster the next generation of British digital
games companies and catalyse
growth in this emerging
sector in Cornwall. Graduates
will have the chance to create
their own company and benefit from capital, support,
mentoring and bootcampstyle training so that they
leave as directors and shareholders in a viable business.
During this period they will
also have the opportunity to
complete a Masters in Business Entrepreneurship.
The Alacrity approach, first
established in Canada has a
strong track record of incubating high-growth new businesses in the technology sector
using a ‘market-led’ model of
innovation. Falmouth is the
first organisation in England
to apply it in practice.
Falmouth has also created
more business-focused under-
‘The sector is set to
become increasingly
competitive’
Professor Sir Steve Smith
graduate courses, including a
degree in business entrepreneurship. The ‘no lecture’
course uses the European
Team Academy model of learning in which students set up
and run a business supported
by mentors and coaching.
Falmouth’s Academy for Innovation & Research, which
aims to promote closer working between the university
and businesses, has now
worked with more than 100
firms since it opened in 2012,
including via Knowledge
Transfer Partnerships.
Earlier this year, a study by
Oxford Economics found that
Falmouth University and the
University of Exeter in Cornwall have together contributed
£491 million to the county’s economy between 2002 and 2012.
Plymouth University has
also continued its focus on enterprise and forging a role as a
key economic driver for the
region, including playing a
leading role in the City Deal
initiative. This year has also
seen the university progress
its £7 million performing arts
centre, which is due to open in
time for the new academic year.
And like Exeter, Plymouth has
worked with AstraZeneca,
taking over its lab at Brixham,
with plans for research into
marine, environmental science
and biomedicine.
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WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 29
Food and drink
Top producers
feeding the
trend for
traceability
Sarah Pitt looks at how the
food and drink sector in the
region has fared over the past
12 months, and how new
markets are being reached by
inventive entrepreneurs
Just as the wider economic
picture is beyond the control
of individual businesses, so is
the weather. And as the green
shoots of economic recovery
began to emerge as the start of
2014, so the region was
battered by a series of storms
which put that recovery in
doubt.
The washing away of the
railway line at Dawlish looked
like it might be disastrous for
the tourist industry, including
cafes and restaurants and the
food producers who supply
them. Luckily, Easter was late
this year and all the stops were
pulled out to get the train service running again by then.
Ruth Huxley, who runs promotional organisation Cornwall Food and Drink, said this
was a huge relief to her hospitality industry members.
“Easter was good, there was
a renewed vigour and confidence and the cafes and restaurants did very well out of
it,” she said.
Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen, on
the beach at Watergate Bay
near Newquay, was among the
establishments that did well,
she said.
But the last-minute nature
of the success, nail-biting for
the businesses keeping the
tourists fed and watered, was
part of a wider trend that was
here to stay, she warned.
“Holidaymakers are making
their minds up much later
about coming down here, waiting to see what the weather is
going to do. It makes things
much more on a knife edge for
businesses.”
In fact last summer’s surprise hot spell – the first sustained period of settled sunny
weather in years – was a welcome fillip for her members
battered by the recession. But
it’s anyone’s guess what this
summer will bring. “It can
work in your favour if there is
good weather, but equally it
can be disastrous if the weather is not good,” said Ruth.
While the food economy related to tourism may be at the
whim of the weather, there is a
steadier trend to be observed
in exporting Westcountry food
and drink to the wider world.
“One of the things we have
noticed is the demand for
Cornish food from elsewhere,”
said Ruth.
She cited the example of
Launceston-based
butcher
Philip Warren, who sells Westcountry beef and lamb to restaurants in the capital, including the Pitt Cue Company, a
trendy new joint specialising
in meaty feasts.
“Philip is an exceptional
butcher and he was telling me
recently that these chefs in
London really do want Cornish
meat,” she said. “There is a
particular demand for speciality ways of hanging and
ageing the meat.
“Philip is a farmer himself,
and he works with the farmers
on the moor. He prefers their
meat because it tastes better
because the animals have
lived on the moorland herbage, so he pays them more –
and demand for that from the
chefs has snowballed,” she
said.
“One of the things that may
have helped is the big trend for
meat eating in restaurants –
gourmet burgers and ribs,
really good quality meat – like
the Pitt Cue Company.”
Members
organisation
Taste of the West has set up an
advice service to help members looking at exporting their
wares to emerging markets,
such as Hong Kong and
China.
“Selling our amazing produce to counties with a high
growth and higher disposable
incomes is an opportunity not
to be missed,” said chief executive John Sheaves.
Cheesemaker Mary Quicke,
of Newton St Cyres in Mid
Devon, agreed that marketing
Westcountry produce to customers abroad is where the
growth is for businesses like
hers. China might take a little
longer as the traditional view,
reputedly, is that “cheese
smells like off milk”, but the
Americans can’t get enough of
her traditional cloth-bound
long-aged cheddar.
“We are now exporting 31%
of our cheese,” she said. “The
States is the largest – America
seemed to have come out of
recession a bit sooner than us,
Mary Quicke of Quicke’s Cheeses, which exports 31% of its cheese. Below: Tor Amran and Lucy Jones of the Cornish Food Box Company
and Australia didn’t really
have a recession.
“In Britain it has become
more difficult with the supermarkets. Waitrose, who we
supply, has become much
harder edged than it used to
be. The thing that really seems
to be developing is the independents and the exports.”
Mary, who won best cheddar
at the British Cheese Awards
at the Royal Bath and West
Show in May, is one of only a
handful of cheesemakers who
still make traditional clothbound cheddars.
It is a product that is received particularly well in the
States, where her regular
newsletter,
Mary’s
Dairy
Diary, goes down a storm.
“I think it is an extension of
‘buy local’ in that the cheese
belongs to a place that you
know. That place you know
might be on another continent, but it is still a place you
know,” she said.
Another growth industry
for local food producers,
meanwhile, has been in selling
their wares – in more convenient ways – to the people
who live in the region all year
round.
It has been a year of expansion for sisters Tor Amran
and Lucy Jones, who run the
Cornish Food Box Company,
and have moved into larger
premises with a shop in Truro
and are planning to launch a
supermarket-style
website
later in the year. They sell
meat, fish, dairy products, vegetables and fruit and baked
goods from local producers to
customers in food boxes delivered to their homes.
The sisters grew up on a
dairy farm near Porthleven in
West Cornwall, and their business is all about supporting
other local businesses, said
Tor.
“I went to school with Tom
Sobey who runs Origin Coffee
in Helston, and while of course
coffee beans are not grown in
Cornwall, they are ground
and roasted there and that
employs a lot of local people,”
she said. “So our business is
not just about the farmers, it is
about supporting all sorts of
local producers – we work
with 100 of them, and for some
of them we are their biggest
customers.”
Her box customers were
overwhelmingly locals, rather
than holidaymakers, she said.
“Our quietest month is
August. We are very much a
local business based on local
people. We deliver to people in
every kind of house, from caravans to mansions, and when
people see what it costs they
are pleasantly surprised.
“It is just normal stuff for
normal people – it is not posh
and organic – that happens to
be grown by the farmer down
the road.”
30 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
Further education
Investment
continues in
spite of fears
over funding
Government spending cuts are
putting a financial squeeze on
the region’s further education
colleges but most are still
focusing on growth and
investment, reports Liz Parks
News that the Adult Skills
Budget, which funds non-academic education for 19-yearolds and above, will be cut by a
fifth by 2015-16 puts the pressure on the Westcountry’s further education colleges.
As well as apprenticeships
and employment training, this
fund includes college courses
and means that many of the
Westcountry’s further education institutions will have to
scrutinise
their
budgets,
courses and staffing levels.
Despite a pledge to ringfence funding for schools, the
Government has made no
such commitment to colleges
and, as a result the further
education budget has already
been cut by £1.1 billion in 2010
and in 2013 another £260 million was cut.
But despite these wider
challenges, Westcountry institutions remain focused on investing in staff and facilities.
City College Plymouth,
which is rated 14% above the
national average for its apprenticeships, has worked
with the city council to launch
the Plymouth Apprenticeship
Company, which allows smaller businesses to take on an
apprentice without employing
them. The college, which is
part of the business-focused
Gazelle Colleges Group, has
invested £4.5 million into its
engineering facilities and has
marked the fifth anniversary
of its Employer Endorsement
Scheme, which has grown
from working with four citybased employers to more than
50 firms based across the
country, and further afield.
College
principal
Phil
Davies said: “The past year
has been an exciting one for
the college. Looking forward,
there are many challenges
ahead, but there is no doubt
that the college will continue
to play a significant role in
delivering the skills that local
and regional employers need
in this continually changing
economic environment.
“As a Gazelle College, we are
deeply committed to developing students who have the
depth of technical abilities
that the labour market demands of them. However we
balance this with a range of
employability skills, ensuring
that all our students are able to
make a positive contribution
to their future employers.”
Petroc College, which has
campuses
in
Barnstaple,
Tiverton
and
Axminster,
notched up above-average Alevel grades last summer
and, in September, the college
welcomed the first BA honours degree students for
North Devon to its Brannams
campus, in Barnstaple.
The 35 students are studying
City College Plymouth launched the Plymouth Apprenticeship Company, which allows small businesses to take on an apprentice without employing them
for professional development
degrees in childhood studies,
business and management
and creative industries.
Investment has also continued, with news in November
that Petroc had secured £10.8
million of investment from the
College Capital Investment
Fund, to upgrade facilities for
engineering, motor vehicle,
tourism, hair and beauty and
hospitality students. This
work is due to be completed by
September 2015.
In March, work began at
Petroc’s new Future Technologies Centre in Tiverton, a
£3 million facility for science
and engineering students,
which will be finished by the
start of the new academic year
in September.
Principal David Dodd said:
“Throughout 2013/14 we continued to develop our provision to meet the needs of
learners and businesses in the
communities we serve, both
with the redevelopment of
large parts of our campuses
and through the expansion of
many of our curriculum
areas.”
West of the Tamar, Cornwall
College has a roll call of 2,400
students and a regional economic impact of £90 million a
year.
Key achievements this year
include seeing the Duchy College Rural Business School
being awarded the Queen’s
Anniversary Prize in February for its rural vocational
training.
Also this year, Falmouth
Marine School, which is part
of the Cornwall College
Group, secured £3.6 million of
funding from the Skills Funding Agency and European Regional Development Fund to
upgrade workshops, classrooms and laboratories at its
Killigrew Street base.
Investment worth £10 million is also going into the
Future Farm, at Duchy College, Stoke Climsland, which
will house the Agricultural
and Land-Based Skills and
Technology Centre, the Dairy
Unit and the University Hub.
Principal and chief executive Amarjit Basi said: “This
success provides an excellent
gateway to moving forward
with our transformation of
the Cornwall College Group,
focusing on world-class employer-led education as we
strive to become the career
college of choice.”
South Devon College has
celebrated a strong showing
in results published by the
Skills Funding Agency, which
ranked it as the top FE college
in England, based on 2012/3
success rates.
The college’s high-profile
South West Energy Centre is
now up and running and has
already won a slew of awards
including Eco Project of the
Year and Building of the Year
at the Michelmores/Western
Morning
News
Property
Awards. It was highly commended at the Sustainable
City Awards.
The college has a workforce
of 800 and contributes £30 million a year to the local economy.
Principal Stephen Criddle
said: “The focus at South
Devon College is to help students find gainful employment, and we are very proud of
our fantastic record in devel-
oping generations of skilful
and qualified practitioners.”
Exeter College achieved a
grade one ‘outstanding’ ranking in its latest Ofsted inspection.
The college has 5,500 fulltime students as well as 5,900
adult learners and a workforce
of 648 staff. It is now working
with the University of Exeter
to develop a new specialist
maths school, which will open
in September 2015 as a centre
of excellence for 16 to 19-yearolds who will go on to study for
degrees in this area.
It has also invested in the
Michael Caines Academy,
which opened in September
2013, a new sports hall due for
completion in January 2015
and a new sports hub at
Exwick.
College principal Richard
Atkins, said: “Our A-level and
vocational results, property
developments and improvements to facilities reflect the
college’s determination to
provide all our students with
the best education and training to enable them to achieve
their full potential.”
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 31
WMN-E01-S4
Sponsors
Focus on
West firms is
yardstick for
the economy
BY JERRY
O’SULLIVAN
Chairman of Bishop
Fleming
By applying very strict rules
on how we compile the Westcountry’s Top 150 Companies
list, a very telling picture
emerges about the unique
profile of this region’s business base.
Unlike many company
league tables, this Top 150 is
geared to the number of employees working in the Westcountry - a crucial yardstick
for the regional economy.
Our team has ignored any
temptation to include major
employers in the public
sector, or the huge companies,
like EDF and BT which
employ large numbers in the
Westcountry, but are not
based here. Instead, they have
concentrated their research
solely on businesses which
have their hubs in Devon and
Cor nwall.
To ensure maximum accuracy, the team managed to
speak by ‘phone with more
than 80% of the Top 150
companies to double-check
statistics.
The result is a list of the
region’s 150 biggest homegrown employers, with supporting statistics on their
business performance, from
which it becomes clear that
the Westcountry has a unique
business community profile,
and that this profile explains
why and how the Westcountry is out-performing other
regions towards the UK’s recovery.
What’s so unique about this
region’s business base? We
have just five publicly listed
companies and only 1% of
Top 150 businesses generate
more than £1 billion of annual
turnover. The biggest proportion of our Top 150 companies
(24%) have a turnover of less
than £10m, with the next
biggest number (22%) turning over less than £20m.
It may surprise some that
the biggest sector for our Top
150 businesses is manufacturing (30%), followed by
retail & wholesale (22%), and
leisure & tourism (11%). This
does not negate the massive
importance of agriculture to
the Westcountry, but the very
nature of that sector means
that only 2% of farming businesses are big enough to feature in this listing.
Another interesting feature
of this region’s Top 150 employers is that 86% are UK
owned. Of the remainder, the
USA is the biggest single
overseas investor (4%), with
almost equal holdings (1 to
2%) by France, Germany,
Japan, Canada, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
and Spain.
Over the past year, there
have been very few changes to
the Top 30, other than minor
shifts in position reflecting
slight alterations to employment numbers. This highlights an underlying stability
and strength of our largest
private companies to withstand the challenges of recent
years and to grasp the opportunities emerging from
the recovery.
This year’s list also demonstrates how that recovery is
gathering momentum. Over
the past twelve months, our
Top 150 companies have collectively
increased
their
turnover by 1.6% to more
than £9 billion (an increase of
more than £1 billion since
2011).
It’s a similar story for employment numbers, which
have grown by more than 2%
to almost 56,000. This is only
the increase achieved by our
Top 150 companies: if we were
to delve into the far larger
number of Westcountry businesses that are too small to
feature in the Top 150 list, the
growth in the region’s employment could be hugely impressive.
This is a vital point about
the Westcountry’s unique
business secret, reinforced by
the fact that most of the 18
new entrants to this year’s
Top 150 list are fast-growing
manufacturing companies.
This region is not home to
listed giants, but it IS home to
growing numbers of innovative entrepreneurs who want
to enjoy our quality of life
while producing successful
new products and services.
And it is home to hundreds of
owner-managed businesses,
who can respond more
nimbly than massive corporations, to challenge and
change.
Top 150 businesses in Devon and Cornwall by sector
2%
3%
2%
1% 1%
Manufacturing
4%
Wholesale and Retail
30%
5%
Leisure and Tourism
5%
Business Services
Health and Social Work
Transport, Storage and Communication
Community, social and personal service activities
5%
Property and Construction
Media and Creative Industries
9%
Engineering
Mining and Quarrying
Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry
22%
11%
Electricity, Gas or Water Supply
Top 150 businesses in Devon and Cornwall by turnover
3%
1% 1%
7%
£1m - £9m
24%
3%
£10m - £19m
5%
£20m - £29m
£30m - £39m
£40m - £49m
£50m - £74m
£75m - £99m
9%
£100m - £249m
£250m - £499m
£500m - £999m
22%
11%
£1,000m and above
14%
2%
4%
2%
1% 1%1% 1% 1% 1%
Top 150 businesses in Devon and Cornwall by
country of ownership
UK
USA
France
Germany
Japan
Canada
Ireland
Luxembourg
Netherlands
Spain
86%
32 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 33
WMN-E01-S4
Top 150 list
2013
(2012)
1 (1)
2 (2)
3 (3)
4 (4)
5 (14)
6 (5)
7 (6)
8 (7)
9 (8)
10 (9)
11 (-)
12 (10)
13 (11)
14 (13)
15 (12)
16 (15)
17 (17)
18 (16)
19 (19)
20 (18)
21 (20)
22 (25)
23 (22)
24 (27)
25 (26)
26 (30)
27 (24)
28 (21)
29 (45)
30 (29)
31 (32)
32 (34)
33 (33)
34 (65)
35 (36)
36 (44)
37 (42)
38 (35)
39 (43)
40 (79)
41 (57)
42 (37)
43 (70)
44 (46)
45 (52)
46 (48)
47 (49)
48 (41)
49 (47)
50 (54)
51 (40)
52 (53)
53 (51)
54 (55)
55 (56)
56 (50)
57 (61)
58 (76)
59 (-)
60 (62)
61 (58)
62 (68)
63 (66)
64 (67)
65 (63)
66 (73)
67 (93)
68 (69)
69 (105)
70 (102)
71 (71)
72 (74)
73 (107)
74 (75)
75 (78)
PositionCompany Name
Devonport Royal Dockyard Ltd / Babcock International Grp PLC
Princess Yachts International PLC
Pennon Group PLC
Cornwall Care Limited
Newcross Nursing Group Limited
Flybe Group PLC
Imerys Minerals Limited
Percy R Brend & Sons (Holdings) Limited
St.Austell Brewery Company Limited
Trago Mills Limited
White Rose UK Limited
Gregory Distribution (Holdings) Limited
Helston Garages Group (Management) Limited
Centrax Industries Limited
Norbord Limited
Mole Valley Farmers Limited
Vospers of Plymouth Limited
First Devon & Cornwall Limited
Actavis UK Limited
South West Highways Limited
Howmet Limited
WRIGLEY UNO UK Limited
Eden Project Limited
Wrafton Laboratories Limited / Perrigo UK
John Heathcoat & Company (Holdings) Limited
Gillett's (Callington) Limited
H.Tempest Limited
W.C. Rowe (Falmouth) Limited
CDS (Superstores International) Limited
The Barden Corporation (U.K.) Limited
John Fowler Holidays Limited
Warrens Bakery Limited
Torquay Leisure Hotels Limited
Otter Nurseries Limited
Foot Anstey LLP
Fine Tubes Limited
Francis Clark LLP
Mill Auto Supplies Limited
Swallowcourt Holdings Limited
Devon & Cornwall Media
Rittal-C S M Limited
Ashfords LLP
Sunshine Care Ltd
British Ceramic Tile Limited
Bandvulc Tyres Limited
Michelmores LLP
CWC (UK Holdings) Limited
Pendennis Shipyard Limited
H. Days Holdings Limited
Manor House Hotel (Okehampton) Limited
EMCAS
Tdk-Lambda UK Limited
Seafood Trading Limited
Kawasaki Precision Machinery (UK) Limited
Modus Care Limited
Bott Limited
UTC Aerospace Systems / Atlantic Inertial Systems Limited
Red Hotels Limited
David Hunt (North Devon) Limited
Riverford Organic Farms Limited
Ukrd Group Limited
Exeter and Devon Airport Limited
Ocean Housing Group Limited
Toshiba Carrier UK Limited
Rawle Gammon & Baker Holdings Limited
Stovax Heating Group Limited
Stephens Scown LLP
Lang & Potter (Holdings) Ltd
Twofour Group Limited
Goonvean Holdings Limited
H R Jasper & Son (Holdings) Limited
E. & J. W. Glendinning (Holdings) Limited
Broad Oak Toiletries Limited
Styles & Brown / Axminster Power Tool Centre Limited
Interfish Limited
Employees in
Devon &
Cornwall
Latest Turnover
(£000’s)
Type of
Organisation
4,257
2,300
1,477
1,366
1,242
1,158
1,136
1,096
1,043
966
915
892
817
815
786
750
663
642
608
606
573
508
504
492
489
489
480
450
448
445
441
440
400
394
394
392
389
385
369
366
361
351
350
345
339
337
336
332
327
312
303
301
289
284
282
281
280
276
274
273
265
264
260
259
256
255
250
250
247
247
240
239
239
230
225
570712
249906
1233100
25162
45200
614300
157741
47458
116562
86370
25534
123093
400000
96185
225000
400000
207900
23731
180324
85600
101533
245188
19128
44331
44518
61906
39696
25094
381903
48618
20488
11685
11510
18669
27500
40511
27000
24906
8698
35269
60005
29516
5500
40653
55795
22280
220646
34165
5197
14595
21711
34281
15100
59710
7571
26314
44053
9049
8694
41046
16851
19107
25279
73069
42389
26487
13500
15286
46967
30850
61606
25525
14000
32867
48760
PLC
PLC
PLC
Limited
Limited
PLC
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
LLP
Limited
LLP
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
LLP
Limited
Limited
Limited
LLP
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
LLP
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Country of
Ownership
Area of Activity
UK
LUXEMBOURG
UK
UK
UK
UK
NETHERLANDS
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
CANADA
UK
UK
UK
Ireland
FRANCE
USA
USA
UK
USA
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
GERMANY
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
USA
UK
UK
UK
UK
GERMANY
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
JAPAN
UK
JAPAN
UK
GERMANY
USA
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
Engineering
Manufacturing
Electricity, Gas or Water Supply
Health and Social Work
Health and Social Work
Transport, Storage and Communication
Mining and Quarrying
Leisure and Tourism
Manufacturing
Wholesale and Retail
Wholesale and Retail
Transport, Storage and Communication
Wholesale and Retail
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Wholesale and Retail
Wholesale and Retail
Transport, Storage and Communication
Manufacturing
Property and Construction
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Leisure and Tourism
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Wholesale and Retail
Media and Creative Industries
Manufacturing
Wholesale and Retail
Manufacturing
Leisure and Tourism
Wholesale and Retail
Leisure and Tourism
Wholesale and Retail
Business Services
Manufacturing
Business Services
Wholesale and Retail
Health and Social Work
Media and Creative Industries
Manufacturing
Business Services
Health and Social Work
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Business Services
Wholesale and Retail
Manufacturing
Community, social and personal service activities
Leisure and Tourism
Business Services
Engineering
Leisure and Tourism
Manufacturing
Community, social and personal service activities
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Leisure and Tourism
Wholesale and Retail
Wholesale and Retail
Media and Creative Industries
Transport, Storage and Communication
Community, social and personal service activities
Engineering
Wholesale and Retail
Manufacturing
Business Services
Manufacturing
Media and Creative Industries
Mining and Quarrying
Wholesale and Retail
Mining and Quarrying
Manufacturing
Wholesale and Retail
Wholesale and Retail
2013
(2012)
76 (90)
77 (94)
78 (91)
79 (88)
80 (86)
81 (87)
82 (82)
83 (104)
84 (83)
85 (110)
86 (85)
87 (106)
88 (72)
89 (31)
90 (77)
91 (59)
92 (-)
93 (100)
94 (64)
95 (-)
96 (-)
97 (92)
98 (132)
99 (133)
100 (98)
101 (81)
102 (112)
103 (113)
104 (114)
105 (99)
106 (130)
107 (103)
108 (108)
109 (-)
110 (138)
111 (140)
112 (111)
113 (119)
114 (109)
115 (122)
116 (118)
117 (129)
118 (143)
119 (121)
120 (97)
121 (116)
122 (-)
123 (-)
124 (101)
125 (-)
126 (126)
127 (-)
128 (142)
129 (-)
130 (84)
131 (-)
132 (39)
133 (137)
134 (-)
135 (125)
136 (148)
137 (146)
138 (131)
139 (123)
140 (128)
141 (139)
142 (144)
143 (-)
144 (147)
145 (145)
146 (149)
147 (-)
148 (-)
149 (-)
150 (-)
PositionCompany Name
Scot Group Limited / Thrifty
Usave Money Limited
Watson-Marlow Limited
Southern Healthcare (Wessex) Limited
VI - Spring Limited
Felix Engineering Limited
(Ocean BMW) Grevan Cars Limited
Chadwick Brothers Limited / Seasalt Limited
Peninsula Care Homes Limited
Cornwall Glass & Glazing Limited
Cannon Care Homes Limited
Hi-Line Contractors S.W. Limited
Proper Cornish Limited
Theatre Royal (Plymouth) Limited
South West Care Homes Limited
Western Greyhound Limited
Phoenix Learning & Care Holdings Limited
Philip Dennis Foodservice Limited
Landmark Information Group Limited
Champion Groundworks Limited
Still Materials Handling Limited
Suttons Seeds (Holdings) Limited
Bradleys Group Limited
Stonehaven (Healthcare) Limited
China Fleet
Bray Leino Limited
PRO - Direct Group Limited
Aero Stanrew Limited
Morleigh Limited
Midas Group Limited
Malcolm Barnecutt Bakery Limited
Bishop Fleming LLP
Sparex Limited
E T Holdings Limited / Evans Transport
Vistgate Limited
Merlin Cinemas Limited
Banburys Limited
Hawkins Motors Limited
Southern England Farms Limited
Graphic PLC
Securi Guard Limited
Roadform Civil Engineering Company Limited
Nettleton Holdings Limited / Fistral Beach Hotel & Spa
Original Style Holdings Limited
Watergate Bay Hotel Limited
Thomas Westcott
Samatt Limited
Golden Coast Sporting Villas Ltd / Woolacombe Bay Holiday Pks
Wilton Bradley Limited
The Blue Sea Food Company Limited
Plessey Semiconductors Limited
Centek Holdings Limited
Dartington Crystal (Torrington) Limited
Torcare Limited
Appleby Westward Group Limited
Allan Sichel Limited / Lowman Manufacturing Company Limited
West Pharmaceutical Services Cornwall Limited
Torquay United Football Club
Goodridge Limited
Devonshire Pine Limited
B B & B Leisure Parks Limited / Woodlands
Home Hardware Southwest Limited
Cornwall Airport Limited
BVJ Limited (Otter House & Calendar Club)
Falfish Limited
Crantock Bakery Limited
The Eurotech Group PLC
SB Holdings (Exeter) Limited / Shauls Bakery
Porthia Group
South West Communications Group Holdings Limited
B.A.I. (U.K.), Limited
E.I.C. Group Limited
Allen & Heath Limited
Steve Hoskin Construction Limited
J+S Limited
Employees in
Devon &
Cornwall
Latest Turnover
(£000’s)
Type of
Organisation
224
218
217
216
215
215
215
214
212
212
212
210
208
207
207
201
200
200
200
200
196
195
195
193
193
190
190
190
189
188
188
188
187
186
184
184
184
182
179
176
175
175
174
173
172
166
166
166
165
164
159
158
157
156
153
152
150
150
150
150
150
149
148
147
144
144
143
142
142
141
141
140
140
138
136
88742
9355
36106
4710
36600
26211
82821
15940
5162
12730
5374
8881
13399
18474
5684
11100
2218
30771
32815
10000
48923
16517
7492
4551
3729
55100
43536
15481
4310
180540
6250
16635
31915
20011
29722
4853
6413
59695
13379
11272
7169
14469
5391
16109
6481
8250
7446
6812
16248
8940
7886
21443
8457
2705
129982
36777
34596
2230
33913
15234
3279
26702
7501
37308
30700
10529
11077
3414
3285
18910
12235
8507
29846
17635
12646
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
LLP
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
PLC
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Partnership
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
PLC
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Limited
Country of
Ownership
Area of Activity
UK
UK
UK
UK
SPAIN
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
FRANCE
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
USA
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
USA
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
UK
France
UK
UK
UK
UK
Transport, Storage and Communication
Business Services
Manufacturing
Community, social and personal service activities
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Wholesale and Retail
Wholesale and Retail
Health and Social Work
Manufacturing
Health and Social Work
Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry
Manufacturing
Leisure and Tourism
Community, social and personal service activities
Transport, Storage and Communication
Community, social and personal service activities
Wholesale and Retail
Business Services
Property and Construction
Wholesale and Retail
Wholesale and Retail
Business Services
Community, social and personal service activities
Leisure and Tourism
Media and Creative Industries
Wholesale and Retail
Manufacturing
Health and Social Work
Property and Construction
Manufacturing
Business Services
Wholesale and Retail
Transport, Storage and Communication
Wholesale and Retail
Leisure and Tourism
Wholesale and Retail
Wholesale and Retail
Agriculture, Hunting and Forestry
Manufacturing
Business Services
Property and Construction
Leisure and Tourism
Manufacturing
Leisure and Tourism
Business Services
Leisure and Tourism
Leisure and Tourism
Wholesale and Retail
Wholesale and Retail
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Health and Social Work
Wholesale and Retail
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Leisure and Tourism
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Leisure and Tourism
Wholesale and Retail
Transport, Storage and Communication
Wholesale and Retail
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Property and Construction
Business Services
Leisure and Tourism
Manufacturing
Manufacturing
Property and Construction
Manufacturing
34
WMN-E01-S4
With Francis Clark,
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At Francis Clark, we’re used to winning. Our latest
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Taunton
Tavistock
Torquay
Truro
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francisclark.co.uk
WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 35
Listed companies
Turbulent year for West’s listed companies
BY JAMES FINNEGAN,
Corporate Finance Partner at Bishop
Fleming
It is a curious feature of the
Westcountry – Devon and
Cornwall – that it has so few
publicly listed companies
compared to almost any other
region.
In the past 12 months, that
small number has grown from
four to five, with the relocation
to Exeter of Blur Group PLC.
Only two are listed on the full
London Stock Exchange, with
the other three being listed on
AIM (the Alternative Investment Market). But all five have
had a fairly bumpy ride.
The region’s newest listed
company, Blur Group, floated
on AIM in late 2012. Providing
a web-based formula for businesses to buy, sell, and pay for
services from marketing to
technology, Blur Group has
seen a significant fall in its
stock price, with 2013 results
delayed but predicted to show
a $6.3 million loss, and a “large
project” delayed and causing a
further drop in share price.
Arguably the Westcountry’s
most successful listed company, Pennon Group, is the
name behind South West
Water and Viridor Waste Man-
‘There are now more
companies seeking
access to capital’
James Finnegan of Bishop Fleming
agement. They, too, saw declines in their share price
throughout 2013, after Viridor
announced reduced demand
for recycles and more than 150
redundancies.
Despite a £180 million drop
in profits since 2012, LSE
listed Pennon’s shares have
been rising steadily and are
close to their former peak of
760p.
Sutton Harbour Holdings is
the AIM listed property and
development company that
used to own Air South West
and run Plymouth City Airport. Those aviation deviations proved costly, and the
company is now battling to
restore its core strengths.
Over the past three years,
however, their turnover has
dropped by £30 million, with a
similar decline in profits.
They are now seeing some recovery from the sharp drop in
their share price, which
stands at about 30p, with proposals to redevelop the former
airport and revised plans for
Plymouth’s
waterfront
“boardwalk”.
The biggest brand among
the
Westcountry’s
small
clutch of listed companies is
Flybe Group PLC, the Exeterbased European airline listed
Flybe, above, has had a turbulent flight this year; while Pennon, owner of the Viridor group, below, saw declines in their share fall in 2013
Listed Companies in Devon & Cornwall
Business Name
Turnover
Number of employees Main Exchange
Pennon Group PLC
£1,201,100.00
4,584
London Stock Exchange Main Market
Flybe Group PLC
£614,300,000.00
2,667
London Stock Exchange Main Market
Blur Group PLC
£1,727,000.00
37
AIM
Sutton Harbour Holdings PLC
£7,039,000.00
35
AIM
Heavitree Brewery PLC
£7,231,000.00
14
AIM
on the LSE, which has experienced a turbulent flight in the
past year.
While turnover remains
steady, losses grew from £6
million in 2012 to £40 million
in 2013. They have undergone
a recent boardroom reshuffle,
including a new CEO and Finance Director, and have renewed their branding.
Share prices have recovered
from a low of 40p to about 140p
– still short of their height in
2011.
Smallest of the Westcountry’s public companies is AIM
listed Heavitree Brewery PLC,
which has low trading
volumes and, consequently,
few movements in share price.
They have shifted their focus
from running pubs to owning
tenanted
outlets.
Their
turnover and, to a lesser
extent, their profits remain
fairly steady: but profit is still
below pre-2012 levels.
So what can be learned from
this review of the Westcoun-
Best large regional firm in the UK
Odeon
try’s small clutch of listed
companies’ experience of the
past year?
With the region’s economy
gaining in strength, there are
now more companies seeking
access to capital. Indeed, we
are assisting more businesses
who are seriously considering
a public listing, and all that
goes with that process.
However, a public listing
comes with greater scrutiny
and higher costs, which may
be undesirable for many
medium sized firms at a time
when there is a strong appetite
among private equity investors to back growing businesses. It is a feature of Westcountry
fast-growth
companies that they have
thrived on independence from
the constraints of being publicly listed. Private capital is
likely to remain a better
choice for them than the costly
straight-jacket of a public listing.
36 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 37
Babcock
Positive news,
despite the
Devonport
question mark
The South West’s biggest
employer recorded another
healthy year’s trading. As Mike
Bramhall reports, the future is
looking good for Babcock,
despite continuing uncertainty
over its Devonport facility
The company which operates
Devonport Dockyard recorded
a “top-class” financial performance, making a 9 per cent
profit in the last financial
year.
Babcock
International
group, the operator of Devonport Dockyard and Appledore
Shipyard, published its full
year-end results in May with
revenue up 9 per cent to £3.5
billion and operating profit
also up 9 per cent to £378
million.
But with next year’s Strategic Defence and Security
Review (SDSR) – which will
look at all aspects of the UK’s
defence sector – on the horizon, uncertainty shrouds
the dockyard facility, with
politicians and military leaders in Plymouth gearing up
for another battle to safeguard
defence jobs and warships.
Babcock
International
group, Devon and Cornwall’s
biggest employer, reported a
healthy year’s trading.
The company published its
full year-end results in May,
with chief executive Peter
Rogers hailing the company’s
“top-class financial performance”.
He said: “Babcock maintained its record of delivering
strong revenue and profit
growth, with all our divisions
making progress, building on
our leading position in engineering support services.
“We produced a top-class financial performance, driving
strong cash flow and cash conversion, delivering another
year of growth in shareholder
value. Our markets remain
buoyant and we enter the new
financial year with a powerful
platform for further growth in
the UK and overseas.
“Building on the strong
growth in revenue and earnings delivered in the 2013/14
financial year, the board is
confident the group will continue to make further strong
progress in the 2014/15 financial year.”
The same month, the first
ship to be built at Appledore
Shipyard in 12 years was
handed over to the Irish Naval
Service.
The LE Samuel Beckett was
the first completed ship to be
built at the yard since 2002.
Andrew Hamilton, shipbuilding director, Warship Programmes, said at the time:
“LE Samuel Beckett is the first
ship to be built, complete with
weapons fit, at Babcock’s
Appledore facilities. The last
ship completed here was HMS
Enterprise, the sister ship of
HMS Echo, in 2002.
“The successful completion
of this vessel for our customer,
the Irish Naval Service, is testament to the skills, dedication
and workmanship of the
entire team here in Appledore.”
Babcock also announced it
is supporting a musical extravaganza in Plymouth later
this month celebrating 350
years of Royal Marines in the
‘We produced a
top-class financial
performance’
Babcock chief executive Peter Rogers
South West. The Devonportbased marine engineering
giant is lead sponsor of the
RM350 South West Proms, a
four-night celebration taking
place at Plymouth Albion
RFC’s Brickfields stadium
from July 16 to 19.
The sponsorship is aimed at
supporting the strong relationship Babcock – the largest
supplier of support services to
the Ministry of Defence and
Royal Navy – has with the
armed forces and the Plymouth community.
The aim of RM350 South
West Proms is to raise money
for Plymouth Drake Foundation and for The Royal Navy
and Royal Marines Charity.
Babcock plays a key role in
the £8 million University
Technical College Plymouth –
a new concept in education set
up by the Government in a bid
to train the scientists and engineers of tomorrow.
The college opened last
September with 100 Year 10
students, and 50 Year 12 stu-
Far left: Defence Secretary Philip
Hammond chats with the crew
of HMS Vengeance during a visit
to Devonport Dockyard, above,
where the nuclear submarine is
undergoing a refit and refuel
dents, and runs projects with a
number of city firms, including engineering graduates
from Babcock.
In March, Babcock was announced as Plymouth’s Half
Marathon headline sponsor.
Phil Jones, managing director
of Babcock, Naval Bases, said:
“This leading community
event provides an opportunity
for runners of all abilities to
take part in an exciting and
fun event which in turn raises
a fantastic amount of money
for both nominated and individual favourite charities.”
Among the runners were
some of Babcock’s own employees.
A busy year at the Devonport facility saw Babcock successfully complete the largest
maintenance programme undertaken to date, on Trafalgar
class submarine HMS Torbay.
The two-year RAMP programme – Revalidation and
Assisted Maintenance Period –
at Devonport Dockyard, involved 513,000 man-hours of
work, as well as a significant
subcontract requirement for
equipment upgrades, overhauls and commissioning.
During the RAMP, HMS
Torbay received 27 upgrades
and improvements in addition
to undergoing a substantial
maintenance programme.
The work ensured that the
submarine is operationally
safe and ‘fit to fight’ for the rest
of her extended commission.
Work undertaken while
Torbay was in dock last year
included examination of the
hull and ship’s systems including the reactor primary circuit. The weapons and communications
programme
included sonar system improvements, a full overhaul of
the torpedo tubes, and improved communications for
the vessel when in port. Other
work included a planned reactor system modification led
by Rolls-Royce and supported
by Babcock.
In February, Babcock began
work on a 15-month refit
period for HMS Monmouth at
Devonport, bringing to four
the number of concurrent support periods now underway on
Royal Naval ships at Babcock’s
Devonport dockyard.
The refit will involve a
number of upgrades and improvements to significantly
improve the frigate’s sustainability and fighting capability.
Also in March the Ministry
of Defence announced it is to
invest around £120 million at
Devonport Dockyard to refuel
Britain’s ageing nuclear submarine fleet after a leak was
found in a test reactor in Scotland.
The money, to be paid over
six years, is to pay for an unscheduled nuclear reactor refit
on HMS Vanguard.
Another £150 million could
follow if more submarines are
in need of a replacement reactor. A decision will be taken
by 2018.
Defence Secretary Philip
Hammond told the House of
Commons that HMS Vanguard, the oldest nuclear sub-
A vital part of our team
marine, will be refuelled in
Devonport during its planned
deep maintenance refit in
2015.
The Secretary of State said
the impact on jobs in Plymouth would be “modest”, but
pointed out it would provide
an additional three-and-a-halfyear contract after work on
HMS Vengeance is completed
in the same year.
‘Fight for Devonport
continues and we
must remain vigilant’
Gary Streeter MP
The vessel’s reactor will be
refuelled at a cost of £120 million, and a further £150 million
will be spent at two sites –
principally Devonport – to
ensure other nuclear submarines can also be refuelled if
needed. Mr Hammond said a
decision on refuelling the next
oldest submarine, HMS Victorious, would not need to be
taken until 2018.
ShelterBox
However it is the looming
SDSR which is causing concern among the workforce.
The results of the last review
in October 2010 resulted in
wide-ranging cuts to the UK’s
armed forces in a bid to plug
a £38 billion defence overspend. While the Government
decided to keep all three of the
UK’s naval bases open, that
decision had a knock-on effect
on other areas of defence.
Devonport Naval Base’s
entire fleet of four Type 22
frigates (HMS Cumberland,
HMS Cornwall, HMS Chatham
and HMS Campbeltown) was
scrapped. The Government
also announced that at any one
time either HMS Bulwark or
HMS Albion would be tied up
alongside on ‘extended readiness’.
The last SDSR also revealed
that the MoD would cut tens of
thousands of armed forces personnel and civilian staff, and
that Devonport’s Trafalgar
class submarines would be relocated to Faslane in Scotland
by 2016. This has still not taken
place.
While
the
forthcoming
review is unlikely to be as
harsh, concerns still remain in
the dockyard and naval base.
Workers fear what the review
will mean for work, and associated jobs.
South West Devon Conservative MP Gary Streeter said:
“It’s the biggest battle we will
ever face locally – the battle to
preserve our armed forces.
The fight for Devonport does
continue, and we must remain
vigilant. Thankfully I don’t
think the outlook is as grim as
it was the last time around.
“It is important that Plymouth continues to fight for
budget increases for the Navy,
and for more navy assets.”
Ultimately Mr Streeter said
he thinks the forthcoming
SDSR will “provide for
growth” as opposed to the previous defence review.
Stonehouse-based
Major
General David Hook CBE was
an integral part of the last
SDSR while working as the
‘head of navy resources and
plans’.
Maj Gen Hook has said he
remains optimistic about next
year’s review. He added: “It’s
difficult to say [how Devonport
will fare]. But in my view, with
its shipping and the Royal
Marines, it should have a very
bright future.”
He said the “big decision”
will be where the new generation of Royal Navy frigates
will be based.
The Type 26 Global Combat
Ships – currently in the design
process – are described by the
Royal Navy as being the “workhorses of the future Royal
Navy” replacing Devonport’s
existing Type 23 frigates. They
are due to arrive from 2021
onwards.
Oliver Colvile, Tory MP for
Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, said: “George Osborne recognises the importance of
Devonport in terms of local employment and protecting the defence of the realm. We now need
to make sure we fight for the
Type 26s to be located here.”
Alison Seabeck, shadow defence minister and Labour MP
for Plymouth Moor View, said:
“Plymouth is in a much better
place than it was ten years ago
when there was a great deal of
uncertainty.”
38 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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Sponsors
Regulations and exemptions set down by the European Parliament in Brussels, above, can be a potential minefield for organisations and bodies meant to benefit from them, says Marc Shrimpling of Foot Anstey
Expert advice can help jump EU hurdles
Tales of exciting and worthwhile projects that require
public funds being postponed
or abandoned as a result of
European Union regulations
will be painfully familiar to
many in the South West.
Even when public bodies
have a designated pot of
money to invest, EU rules
have often been a seemingly
insurmountable obstacle to
getting money into the hands
of the very organisations who
would use it to invest in the
South West economy, delivering much-needed growth and
jobs.
The overall objectives of the
EU’s state aid rules are clearly
laudable: to promote a levelplaying field for enterprises
and to ensure that public funding is invested in projects that
deliver value-for-money and
positive outcomes in the wider
public interest. However, navigating a path through the
complex regulations which
implement these objectives
Marc Shrimpling, Associate at Foot
Anstey, on why the firm has invested in EU
expertise to help South West businesses seize
new opportunities
can be hugely challenging and
there are serious financial
and
reputational
consequences if the rules are
breached. Many organisations feel that the time and
resource required to achieve
legal compliance are disproportionate, or even prohibitive. In recent months, the EU
has published a series of new
regulations which redefine
the extent to which public
money can be invested in local
economies and businesses.
The aim of this package of
reforms – part of the EU’s
wider State Aid Modernisation plan – is ostensibly to
streamline the rules and
thereby make it easier for
public funding to be invested
in worthy local initiatives.
The European Commission
now intends to focus its limited resources on scrutinising
the huge subsidies paid to
multi-national organisations,
such as in the banking sector,
which have the biggest impact
on the EU internal market.
These reforms represent
good news for the South West.
In particular, all of Cornwall
and neighbouring parts of
Devon have been designated
as ‘Assisted Areas’ until 2020.
This means that organisations planning to invest in
these regions may be entitled
to receive up to 45% (in Cornwall) or 30% (in Devon) of the
project’s costs as a public subsidy without breaching EU
state aid rules. In addition,
there are new exemptions to
the state aid rules which
should make it much easier
for public bodies to invest in
local infrastructure, innovation
centres,
renewable
energy providers and SMEs.
These new rules sit along-
‘These reforms
represent good news
for the South West’
Marc Shrimpling
side other existing mechanisms which can continue to be
utilised to ensure compliance
with EU law, including: the de
minimis Regulation, which
enables companies to receive
up to 200,000 Euros of public
support; funding of valuable
public services which would
not be viable without public
intervention; and, public investment on terms which
would be acceptable to a
private investor in similar circumstances.
Nevertheless, the EU rules
governing these various “safe
harbours” remain complex
and it is imperative to obtain
expert advice from legal advisers who truly understand
the process. Foot Anstey can
now offer specialist advice on
EU state aid and competition
law. This is another example
of the firm’s commitment to
“adding value” to its proposition, with a focus on specialist skills that can unlock
real benefits for our clients in
the South West.
We believe that organisations based in the South West
should be able to source exceptional services locally.
This includes exceptional
legal advice. When the firm is
able to provide an “end-toend” service to its clients,
City College Plymouth ... your first choice for training
If you would like to find out how City College Plymouth can support your business success,
please call 01752 305026 or e-mail employers@cityplym.ac.uk
even when relatively niche
specialisms are in play, it is
able to cement a valued relationship which contributes
to our regional economy. By
responding to the needs of its
clients for specialist EU law
advice, the firm is demonstrating its long-term vision as a
business with the best people
supporting
the
strongest
client relationships here in
the South West.
Marc Shrimpling has a
wealth of premier experience
advising both public bodies
and private organisations on
the investment of public funding in compliance with EU law.
Marc understands the EU
regime and is able to translate
this into practical solutions for
public and private organisations to take forward. This
complements our expertise in
public sector procurement and
investment, which was also recently bolstered by the appointment of procurement partner
James Falle.
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 39
Cornwall Glass and Glazing
Family values
at the root of
glazing firm’s
success story
A family-run Cornish glazing
firm bucked the national trend
by taking on workers and
expanding in the teeth of the
recession. No wonder the
future is looking bright, as
Mike Bramhall reports
Cornwall Glass and Glazing
has shattered the myth that
recession forced every major
employer to cut jobs in the
South West.
Because not only did it hold
on to its workforce as the
region was battered by the economic maelstrom, it increased
it by acquisition of other glass
and glazing companies.
And after weathering the
worst of the recession, the St
Austell-based glass specialists
is looking forward to a bright
future.
Managing director Mark
Mitchell said he is hopeful of
continuing steady growth in
the family-run firm’s fortunes.
The business was started in
Truro in 1978 by Mark’s parents, Heather and David.
Formerly known as Dave
Mitchell Glass & Glazing, and
later renamed Truro Glass
Centre, the firm has worked to
build its business, adding
glass centres across Cornwall.
It has expanded into a major
player in the South West and
beyond, employing more than
200 people at 15 sites.
Now based at the Holmbush
Industrial Estate in St Austell,
Cornwall Glass and Glazing
has branches in Penzance,
Redruth,
Penryn,
Truro,
Newquay,
Launceston,
Saltash, Plymouth and Exeter.
It also has sites in Highbridge
near Bridgwater, Bristol,
Yeovil and Warminster.
Dave Mitchell continues to
play a fundamental part in the
business, and is the company’s
chairman, with his sons Mark
and Garry alongside him as
company directors.
The four other directors are
Angus Herdman in sales and
Martin Phillips in finance,
along with Mark Norcliffe and
Paul Garrard who oversee
branches in Devon, Somerset,
Wiltshire and Bristol. The
group now has 15 branches
across the South West, along
with a national ecommerce
site, UK Glass Centre, and a
patterned glass brand, Opaltech.
Mr Mitchell said: “The company’s roots were very much
laid down by Mum and Dad.
My father is still chairman
and is very much hands-on.”
Mr Mitchell said the business has worked hard to maintain the family feel –
something which has paid off
during difficult trading conditions of the last few years.
He added: “We are proud of
our values and heritage – it is
felt throughout our group,
which I believe is a major
factor in our success.”
The firm specialises in a
wide range of glass products
and treatments. These range
from picture and processed
glass, through to sealed double
glazed window units and glass
treatments including sprayed,
drilled and bevelled glass.
Mark Mitchell said: “We
now have more than 200 employees, which has risen by 35
per cent since 2008.
‘We are proud of our
values and heritage –
it is a major factor
in our success’
Mark Mitchell
“With a low turnover of
staff, the group has a highly
skilled and experienced workforce – from apprentices fuelling the future to colleagues
approaching their 70s who
want to continue past retirement. We have kept the key
skills of those individuals,
while bringing on apprentices
for the future. It has blended
experience, youth and dedication, where the camaraderie
is unmistakable.”
Mr Mitchell said the current
turnover is £12 million, and
the company is aiming to grow
that by about 10 per cent.
“It is a profitable turnover.
We have had some leaner
years, but they were still profitable.”
The trend of expansion
began in 1998, when the company acquired St Austellbased Solaglas. Solaglas had
been the main suppliers to the
company, and this acquisition
enabled it to strengthen its
market position and provide
Managing director Mark Mitchell,
pictured left at one of Cornwall
Glass and Glazing’s factories. The
company serves 500 retail and
more than 1,000 trade customers
a week with everything from
windows to ornamental glass
the opportunity to manufacture its own products. From
this strategic move, Cornwall
Glass and Glazing Ltd developed.
In 2004, it invested £2 million
in setting up a manufacturing
facility in St Austell, where an
extensive range of glass processing is available. Five years
later it bought Saltash-based
Highly effective, bespoke, commercially focused service
Succession Group
Seleda out of administration,
allowing it to access a highly
skilled team of 20 as well as
specialist machinery and renaming the business Westcountry Glass. Mr Mitchell
said: “We benefited from
skilled staff and modern
equipment. It was quite a nice
fit that allowed us to push
further north and east.”
The further acquisition in
2012 of Highbridge-based Hill
Leigh Glazing, now renamed
M5 Glass, allowed the business to push further east,
opening up the Bristol market
as well as extending its reach
into Wiltshire and Dorset.
The group is now continuing its expansion, pushing
north of Bristol and on to the
M25 corridor, as well as towards
Portsmouth
and
Southampton.
The firm prides itself on the
diversity of its operations, and
Mr Mitchell said: “We are unusual because we sell to the
public, as well as trade. With a
network of 1,500 trade clients
including developers such as
Midas and Kier, the group
manufactures 2,000 double
glazed units a day.
“Whether it be a piece of
greenhouse glass, colourpainted glass splashbacks,
sandblasted or acid-etched
glass, we are able to supply all
of these requirements with
nearly all the processing completed in our manufacturing
factories.
“We serve 500 retail customers a week and more than 1,000
trade customers. We try to
appeal to both.
“If you want a piece of picture glass you would be welcome. But if you wanted 10,000
sealed glass units made, we
would be happy to do that as
well.
“I hope we wouldn’t alienate
any customer. If we are able to
do it, we will. We cater for
small orders and large ones
and I believe that has allowed
us to come through the recession.”
He added: “We have opened
more new trade accounts in
the last 12 months than in the
last six years, which I believe
is a sign of optimism that the
region is beginning to recover.
I am now hopeful of some
steady growth.”
40 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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Brend Hotels
Family firm on a constant quest for quality
Investing in the future is the key
to success for a Devon family
firm with a £50 million turnover,
reports Mike Bramhall
When Percy Brend first
opened his butcher’s shop in
North Devon, it was the start
of a stunning success story
founded on family values.
From those humble beginnings in the 1920s in Butchers
Row, Barnstaple, the Brend
brand has expanded into a
thriving leisure and motors
empire with an annual £50
million turnover.
Canny business acumen,
hard work and bags of vision –
plus an underpinning desire
to lavish care and attention on
guests while looking after a
loyal workforce – has paid off
in spades for one of the South
West’s most successful family
enterprises.
But what has made the
Brend Hotels Group stand out
has been its determination to
look to the future and invest –
not only in bricks and mortar,
but in the Westcountry’s
young people who want to
forge a career in the leisure
and hospitality sector.
John Brend, joint chairman
of the Brend Hotels Group
with his brother Peter, said:
“Our philosophy is simple:
giving guests value for money
and providing them with what
they want.
“But we are always looking
to the future. We keep re-investing while trying to keep a
solid business with staffing
levels. We are constantly
evolving and never stay still.”
It is a strategy which has
spectacularly succeeded for
the business, which has a portfolio of some of the best-known
leisure properties in Devon
and Cornwall – 11 three- and
four-star hotels across the two
counties, in some of the most
picturesque locations the peninsula can boast.
Add to that its other interests, including garages and
property, and it is a formidable
example of how vision and a
willingness to invest and
embrace new concepts can
turn a small business into a
multi-million-pound annual
turnover enterprise, employing more than 1,300 people in
Devon and Cornwall.
In Cornwall it owns the
Carlyon Bay Hotel at St Austell
and the Royal Duchy Hotel in
Falmouth. In Devon it has the
Saunton Sands Hotel, near
Braunton; the Victoria Hotel
and the Belmont Hotel, both at
Sidmouth; the Imperial Hotel,
Barnstaple Hotel, the Royal &
Fortescue Hotel and the Park
Hotel, all in Barnstaple; the
Royal Hotel in Bideford; and
the Devon Hotel in Exeter.
Its contemporary restaurants include Sands, on the
beach at Saunton, Carriages
bar and brasserie in Exeter,
The Bank cafe, bar and bistro
at Barnstaple and Florentino’s
Italian in Barnstaple.
Already awarded two AA
Rosettes for outstanding qual-
generations of knowing
you like
luxury breaks at
unique locations
As a family business, with 11 hotels and
over 50 years experience in catering and
hospitality, we believe we know you, like we
know ourselves. For generations we have
been looking after you and your families
and delivering impeccable service.
We know you like luxury accommodation,
fine dining and a wedding venue of your
dreams. So with our stylish collection of
luxury hotels set in unique and spectacular
locations, you will be sure to find your own
special experience.
For more information call 08455 760 760
or visit www.brendhotels.com
The Saunton Sands Hotel is one of 11 three- and four-star hotels Brend owns across Devon and Cornwall
ity, The Pendennis Restaurant, designed by Hannah
Brend, completes a three-year,
£1 million pound ground-floor
refurbishment programme at
the Royal Duchy at Falmouth.
Taw Garages, North Devon’s
Ford main dealership, is also
part of the Brend Group of
companies.
John Brend, 65, said: “It all
began when my father started
his butcher’s shop. Then in
1955 he bought the Exeter
Motel at what is now
Middlemoor. That was on the
only main road into Devon
then, long before the motorway.
“There were a couple of
petrol stations, a cafe and
some rooms. Then Dad started
building more rooms. A few
years later he realised that the
road was eventually going to
be by-passed, so he sold it.”
It was the start of a process
which saw the group grow to
its current size.
Mr Brend said an early introduction to business for him
was selling ice creams from a
bicycle to hot and thirsty motorists caught up in traffic.
But his love affair with hotels
began before then.
“When I was small my parents used to take me to stay in
hotels on holidays,” he said. “I
used to like them and thought
I would like to work in that
trade. As a teenager I used to
work in a hotel clearing tables
– so it has all gone on from
there.”
In 1968 John opened the
Fryary Restaurant in Barnstaple. “That did really well.
Then Dad bought the Royal
Hotel in Bideford and we
formed the company.”
Other members of the family
were also involved, including
Richard, his late brother, and
the empire evolved.
John said: “We have always
been workers and we are
always looking to improve. We
are trying to look at niches in
the market so we can provide
something different. For example, we have installed
gazebos at some hotels, so
couples can now get married
outside.
“Brend Hotels is not
something that offers the
same product everywhere.
Each hotel is different and
caters to different clienteles.
Saunton Sands is geared up
for families, but The Victoria
at Sidmouth is favoured more
by older people. But we have
the same philosophy everywhere: providing value for
money and giving guests what
they want.”
Underpinning its success is
the Barnstaple-based group’s
forward-looking attitude. A
hotel building may be Victorian, but inside its rooms will be
fitted with flat-screen TV, have
wi-fi and modern bathrooms.
John said: “We have our own
building team of 50, including
plumbers, electricians and
painters, and each year they
refurbish 200-300 bedrooms.
Around 15-20 per cent of our
stock is being upgraded at any
one time.
“We spend £4 million a year
on maintenance. We are just
about to start work on the
Devon Hotel in Exeter, adding
a block of 20 new rooms at a
cost of £1 million; and we will
provide an additional 25
rooms at the Royal Duchy
Hotel in Falmouth, at £3 million.
“In the coming year we will
spend £2-3 million, before
labour costs, on continuing
improvements. We will also be
taking on a new motor franchise early in the new year. We
are not just maintaining, we
are moving forwards.”
Each hotel has a ‘green
team’, looking at ways to implement energy savings and
eco-friendly practices. Last
year saw a £500,000 biomass
boiler installed at its Saunton
Sands Hotel, which it is now
considering rolling out to the
rest of its portfolio. The group
previously introduced sustainability measures including solar PV panels, but the
biomass development saw the
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introduction of a woodchip
boiler that will cut CO2 emissions by 70 per cent.
It meant the hotel switched
from oil to locally sourced
wood chip as its primary heat
source. The system replaces
old equipment which was less
than 70 per cent efficient. It
was installed using local companies and is expected to generate “substantial” savings as
well as bringing a derelict
building and land back into
use. All food waste is sent to a
power plant in Devon to help
generate electricity, while the
group buys as much fish,
meat, cheese and vegetables
from local suppliers as possible.
Looking to the future extends to its staff as well, in the
form of its training and apprenticeships.
The group is about to expans
its Florence Brend Apprenticeship – named after Percy’s
wife, the co-founder of the
business – which fast-tracks
apprentices keen to progress
to management who demonstrate the necessary aptitude.
John said: “We currently
have 42 apprentices which we
aim to increase to more than
50. We are moving to the next
level by offering training at
our own Brend Academy
which will be based at one of
our hotels in North Devon and
which we hope to start in
September. We already work
with local schools and this will
be targeted at local people.
“We have a very low
turnover of staff, which is unusual in this industry. We have
managers who have been with
us for 35 years. That is important to us, and guests like
to see the same faces.”
With many members of the
family actively involved in all
aspects of the business, a thriving apprenticeship scheme and
a constant process of refurbishing and improvement, the
Brend business is one that is
set to forge ahead, keeping the
Westcountry at the forefront of
the hotels sector.
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 41
WMN-E01-S4
Mole Valley Farmers
Navigating
the changing
world of
agriculture
It may be the country’s largest
farmer-owned business, but
Mole Valley Farmers is sticking
to the humble approach, finds
Mike Bramhall
Keeping pace with a rapidly
changing agriculture sector
has helped one of the Westcountry’s biggest businesses
reap a rich harvest.
Mole Valley Farmers is one
of the few remaining farmerowned agricultural supply
businesses in the UK, with a
string of outlets across the
South West and beyond.
It might be seen by some
uninformed observers as operating in a staid environment
where the rate of progress is as
slow-paced as the changing of
the seasons. But they would be
wrong.
Because it is a willingness to
embrace new concepts, adapting to changing demands and
branching out into new areas
of business which saw the cooperative achieve a record
turnover of £400.7 million for
the year ending September 30,
2013, a 14.36 per cent increase
of £50.3 million over the previous year.
After a year showing its
continued expansion through
more purchases, record sales
and a growing nationwide
presence, the company attributed this to the loyal patronage of its farmer shareholders
and sustainable business investment, as well as the hard
work and dedication of its
staff.
Announcing the results,
chief executive Andrew Jackson said: “I can assure shareholders that as we grow, our
culture will ensure we keep
our feet on the ground and our
priority will be to continue in
investing in core agriculture.
“We have to build for the
future to ensure our market
presence continues to create a
highly competitive pricing
arena for farm inputs.”
But it was chairman
Graeme Cock, speaking in
January as the firm published
its account of another record
year with assets now standing
at £42.1 million – who pinpointed the changing demands of agriculture, and
Mole Valley Farmers’ ability
to react to them. He said he
believed agriculture in Britain was moving into the
hands of bigger, and fast-changing, businesses.
Mr Cock, who is also a
farmer, said: “I can’t see it
going any other way. Agriculture is a changing place, with
lots of consolidation going on
and lots of businesses ceasing
to function in their existing
form. People are farming
bigger areas.”
Nearly three-quarters of
the co-operative’s activity is
based among farmers, country
dwellers and their allied businesses. It now owns 46 country
retail outlets from Cornwall to
the Scottish borders, and an
array of agricultural supply
units.
The enterprises, from feed
mills and forage services to
renewable energy and veterinary services, sold 14% more
in the year to last September,
making £6 million before tax.
The company has for some
years advertised itself as the
biggest rural retailer in Britain, but while some of its
vehicles carry that title, Mr
Cock said it was not a critical
component of the brand.
He added that the healthy
financial position was as
much down to an expanding
and loyal shareholder base,
careful assessment of the markets and remaining humble
despite continuing success.
He said: “None of it is
ground breaking, it’s continual evaluation and adaptation.
We’ve got continual growth,
10% like for like and we’re the
largest farmer-owned business, but I’d rather people
judged us by the quality. We
try to be humble as a business.”
As for the future he said: “I
think the outlook is certainly
better than it was. There are
challenges as a result of 2012
when people got desperately
short of cash, forage and enthusiasm. That’s had an
impact. Some fared better
than others.
“There’s quite a large gap
between the best and the worst
businesses and some farmers
are really struggling while
others are doing very well.”
He said the move to bigger
concerns was bound to happen
as some farmers gave up and
their operations were consol-
Chairman Graeme Cock says Mole Valley Farmers’ ability to react to the changing demands of agriculture helped
it to another record year in which the farmer co-operative made £6 million before tax
idated into other ones. “The
requirement for capital is
enormous and there will be
fewer and bigger farms. It’s
inevitable,” he said.
“There will always be an
opportunity for niche ventures that can do a small
amount of business with a
decent margin and a relatively
low cost base. But over and
above that will be larger structures.”
To that end, towards the end
of 2012, Mole Valley Farmers
launched two large animal
veterinary practices within
their Frome and South Molton
stores. Combined, these prac-
tices have attracted more than
500 farming clients. The
strategy of providing members with a transparent offering on veterinary services as
part of a fully integrated farm
offering has been well received.
Also, the renewables business, Mole Energy, has installed more than 80 biomass
projects, and supplied a further 27,000 solar PV panels
to domestic and commercial
sites.
Since Mole Energy started
three years ago, it has supplied
renewable
projects
across the South West that
now produce over 16 megawatts of electricity, enough to
power over 7,000 households.
The business has come a
long way from its start in 1960
by a small group of farmers
around South Molton, who
lived in and around the valley
through which the river Mole
runs. They were concerned by
what they felt were the discriminatory practices and the
large margins being taken by
many of their input suppliers.
Over the years, the company
made several investments, including nine outlets in the
South West supplying a wide
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range of goods to farmers and
the public. These range from
farm requirements to clothing, footwear, garden supplies,
pet food and accessories, domestic goods and power tools.
It has five feed mills for all
animal feeds, producing compounds, blends, meals and
mixes; a specialist feed supplement mineral plant; a quality farm building engineering
division; and a joint venture to
blend and supply a wide range
of conventional and new, technically advanced, fertilisers,
alongside customised on-farm
plant nutrition advice, particularly focused on the dairy
far mer.
The company also has 19
retail units under the SCATS
Countrystores banner across
the South and South-East of
England, ten Mole Country
Stores across East Anglia and
the East Midlands; and eight
Farmway Country Stores in
the North East.
In recent years significant
investment has taken place,
particularly within the company’s agricultural business,
to ensure it has a sustainable
long-term business for the
benefit of current and future
farming generations.
Its Mole Valley Feed Solutions offers a range of
products and services, including compounds, blends, meals,
straights and minerals, combined with a range of technical
support services.
42 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
St Austell Brewery
Huge growth in every part of its
business has given St Austell
Brewery a clout that many
firms could only dream of,
writes Mike Bramhall
These are heady times for St
Austell Brewery, one of Cornwall’s oldest companies which
is among the largest private
employers in the county.
Sales of the company’s own
beers are booming, last
September it was named UK
Regional Brewer of the Year
and a call by the managing
director for a freeze in beer tax
more than paid off when the
Chancellor announced a 1p
cut in March’s Budget.
The Chancellor went even
further in May when he paid
tribute to the company’s apprentice scheme during a visit
to the brewery on a whistlestop tour of Cornwall.
All of which means management and workers at the
St Austell-based company
could well feel entitled to raise
a glass to a successful 12
months.
In May, the St Austell Brewery Company Ltd, one of the
South West’s most successful
independent brewers with 170
pubs and a portfolio of awardwinning ales, reported a 10 per
cent increase in annual
turnover to £116.6 million. It
also reported a 7.4 per cent
increase in EBITDA (earnings
before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortisation) to
£13.8 million in the year ended
December 28, 2013.
With a workforce of around
1,000 people, St Austell Brewery is also the region’s largest
wholesaler of wines, spirits,
minerals, lagers and beers,
serving more than 3,000 pubs,
hotels, bars, clubs and restaurants.
Announcing the latest results, managing director James
Staughton said he was
“pleased to report a very encouraging
performance”
adding: “2013 was a year of
expansion for both our free
trade and national sales divisions, with our own beer
production increasing by
13.8 per cent in 2013.”
To meet this increased
demand, St Austell Brewery
invested in both the production and operational capacity
of the business. It had been a
year of consolidation for the
pub estate, with both its managed and tenanted divisions
seeing growth in trade in 2013.
In May, it announced further
investment in its estate with
the purchase of a Somerset
pub and a Cornish hotel,
meaning it now owns and
manages 170 inns and hotels
across Devon, Cornwall and
Somerset.
The brewery bought the 16room Port Gaverne Hotel in
Port Isaac and exchanged contracts on The Windwhistle Inn
at Cricket St Thomas, near
Chard in Somerset, with completion due at the end of June.
St Austell Brewery MD James Staughton, left, with George Osborne and St Austell mayor Steve Double. The Chancellor appeared to have listened to Mr Staughton’s plea to cut beer duty
Brewing giant maintains its
commitment to West roots
The food-led pub will be run as
a tenancy.
This followed continued
growth in Bristol and Somerset, supported by strong sales
of its award-winning Tribute
and Proper Job beers. The
brewery attributed some of
this success to its sponsorship
of Somerset and Gloucestershire County Cricket Clubs,
starting last year.
Mr Staughton reported that
the first four months of 2014
had seen volumes of St Austell
Brewery’s own beers increase
by 16 per cent, and comparable
sales in their managed estate
grow by 10.7 per cent on 2013,
despite the South West experiencing some of the worst
storms on record.
Non-executive
chairman
Will Michelmore said the company had invested £7.6 million
during 2013 in acquisitions,
refurbishments and infrastructure and said the strong
cash flow meant that net debt
had fallen from £29.5 million
to £27.4 million.
The company brews five
main cask ale beer brands:
Tribute, Proper Job, Trelawny,
Dartmoor Best and HSD.
Korev Cornish Lager is also
available on draught. But it is
not just alcohol which is driving the brewery’s figures.
Earlier this year St Austell
Brewery announced that it
was diversifying into the
coffee market, with the launch
of its own new, exclusive brand
of Fairtrade coffee in response
to growing consumer demand.
In April, it opened its first
Brewer & Bean coffee retail
outlet at the Great Western
Hotel in Newquay. The company said it was part of its
vision to provide high-quality
convenience coffee and establish its pubs as an alternative
to big-name coffee shops.
The launch came as pubs
increasingly look to food and
accommodation as their main
source of income.
In February, Mr Staughton
– great great-grandson of
St Austell Brewery founder
Walter Hicks – wrote to every
MP in Devon and Cornwall,
urging them to back calls for a
freeze in beer tax in the forthcoming Budget.
He contacted the 18 Westcountry MPs urging them to
support the measure in order
Told what you can do, not what you can’t Screwfix
to provide a boost to the
region’s pubs.
At the time, Mr Staughton
said: “Beer and pubs are vital
to our local economy and jobs,
especially for young people,
and this issue is particularly
relevant in the South West,
where local pubs form such a
crucial component of our leisure and tourism industry.
“Beer taxes are still too
high, and this is impacting on
trade and the economy. We
need to freeze the tax now so
we can be creating more jobs
and helping to lead the country out of recession – as well as
ensuring that our local pubs
prosper.”
His call paid off when Chancellor George Osborne cut
beer duty by 1p per pint, while
freezing taxes on ordinary
cider and spirits.
During May’s visit to the
brewery as part of a tour of
Cornwall, Mr Osborne promised the Government would
“honour its pledge” to provide
money for repairs in areas
damaged by the fierce storms
over the winter.
He also praised St Austell
Brewery for its commitment
to offering apprenticeships,
but said more could be done to
create employment opportunities for young people in Cornwall.
He said: “I want to create
more good, skilled jobs here.
In this brewery they’re taking
on ten new apprentices. You
see the potential here.”
Meanwhile, Mr Staughton
continues to campaign for a
VAT reduction for the hospitality industry. He is chairman
of the Independent Family
Brewers of Britain organisation, which is at the forefront
of the IFBB’s campaign to have
VAT reduced from 20 per cent
to 5 per cent for food and drink
served in pubs and restaurants.
The company, based at Trevarthian Road, St Austell, is
100 per cent independent and
family owned, and has been
brewing beer and real ale in
Cornwall for 163 years.
It was founded in 1851 by
Walter Hicks, who mortgaged
his farm for £1,500 to set up his
business in the Cornish
town.
Many of Walter Hicks’ descendants are still involved as
shareholders, employees and
directors, and it is one of the
longest established of the few
independent family brewers
left in the UK. It remains committed to continuing brewing
and to retaining its independence.
Its pub estate began in 1863
when Walter Hicks bought the
Seven Stars Inn in St Austell,
which remains part of its portfolio, spanning Cornwall, the
Isles of Scilly, Devon and Somerset.
The brewery’s history and
archive projects continue to
unearth fresh aspects of the
company’s past, and the brewery tour has been extended to
take in a series of displays and
restoration projects as well as
the new Cask Operating
Plant.
New additions to the tour
include a fully functional
Cooper’s Yard, restored mash
tun and cask racking machinery and a 1912 motorcycle,
similar to one owned by
Walter Hicks Junior at the
turn of the 20th century, on
loan from the motorcycle
museum at Hawkins Motors
in St Stephens.
Last year, St Austell was
named Britain’s Best Regional
Brewer in the Publicans
Choice Awards. Its flagship
Tribute ale was named Best
Drink at the Food Reader
Awards in 2013; voted the licensees’ Regional Cask Ale of
the Year at the Publicans’ Suppliers Awards 2012, and is in
the top five of the UK’s bestselling premium cask ales.
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 43
WMN-E01-S4
City College Plymouth
Colleges must
embrace long
term employer
relationships
Sharron Robbie Head of Corporate Relations,
Employability & Enterprise at City College
Plymouth, explains the college’s approach to
making sure it provides suitably skilled
employees for the region’s businesses
Over the past few years there
has been a real change in the
way further education (FE)
colleges connect with industry – there has been a
major shift from the traditional, transactional attitude
to a more strategic, collaborative and partnership-focused approach. This change
has been borne out of a
number of key drivers, which
have had a significant impact
on the relationship between
education and business.
The economic downturn is
an obvious place to start, with
industry requiring training
that was relevant, responsive
and affordable rather than a
one-size-fits-all offer, which
focused on NVQs and apprenticeships. Industry needed to
be leaner and sharper, with a
workforce that was multiskilled and able to add value
and deliver efficiency savings.
This sea change in the external drivers within the environment gave rise to the
very real need for colleges to
place employer engagement
and building sustainable industry relationships at the
heart of what they do.
In order for education to
keep abreast of changing industry demands, FE colleges
have had to evolve, developing
stronger
communication
strategies, building robust
and sustainable partnerships
that provide mutual benefits
to both parties, and ensuring
that our work with industry
is credible and benefits our
local economic community –
and this has been the case for
City College Plymouth.
We recognised the need for
the college to be more entrepreneurial, not only in
what we deliver to our students but also in how we ‘do
business’. Industry has been
demanding work-ready and
enterprising students for
some time now, and the
growth of the Gazelle Colleges
Group is a direct response to
this. City College Plymouth
became a Gazelle College in
2012 and since that time we
have responded to market demands by embedding enterprise and entrepreneurial
activity in all that we do. This
ensures that students leave us
Students leave City College Plymouth with a depth of technical knowledge and a breadth of capabilities and qualities, including commercial awareness
with not only a depth of technical knowledge, but also a
breadth of capabilities and
qualities, including commercial awareness and acumen –
we call these T-shaped
lear ners.
The positive impact the college has within the community cannot be underestimated; whether this is
through the alignment of our
curriculum to the city’s key
priority sectors to support
employers gain access to a
labour market skilled in the
competencies required for
growth and competitiveness,
or via shared priorities and a
collaborative approach to
achieving these.
We have developed and im-
plemented a robust employer
engagement strategy over the
past five years, which is yielding positive and mutually beneficial results. This has not
been achieved overnight – it
has taken time and resources
to establish and manage the
excellent relationships we
have with industry – but this
investment has certainly paid
dividends. Students and staff
at the college have access to a
range
of
industry-linked
activity, which enhances the
learning experience and supports continual professional
development. Our curriculum
is designed and developed by
industry via a series of advisory boards and we are seen
by the business and wider
communities as being a
valued strategic partner.
Further education must embrace the opportunity to develop long-term relationships
with employers, providing as
they do, strong partnership
working, sustainable collaborations and community cohesion, helping to stimulate
wealth and job creation.
The prospect of employers
having a real stake in their FE
college and being able to see it
as being absolutely key to
their future plans is critical if
FE colleges are to continue to
play a meaningful role within
training and skills for industry.
City College Plymouth is
keen to develop further in-
dustry links, and we are well
placed to support businesses
with workforce development
via apprenticeships, or via
skills training and recruitment to fill vital skills gaps to
enable greater competitiveness and efficiency. Our ethos
is to build strong, sustainable
relationships with industry,
and by doing so to be considered by employers as their
training partner – working
together to achieve business
success.
If you would like to find out
how City College Plymouth
can support your business,
please contact the corporate
relations team on 01752 305026
or
e-mail
employers@
cityplym.ac.uk.
Three ways charities can ensure they don’t fall prey to rise in fraud
BY JOE SCAIFE,
Head of Bishop Fleming’s
charities team
The Westcountry is home to a
huge number of charities and
not-for-profit bodies (we act
for almost 200 of them). The
biggest feature of the past year
has been an explosive growth
in fraud across the sector.
One of the reasons for this is
the impact of the difficult economic conditions of the past
five years, with charities and
not-for-profit bodies being
more tightly squeezed to generate funding. The advent of
the National Lottery hit charitable donations, but the extended recession has made life
even tougher for fundraisers.
Many of this new wave of
frauds are relatively small,
amounting to a few thousand
pounds for charities raising
millions. But those thousands
mount up and undermine the
finances of charities and notfor-profit bodies at a time
when they face their biggest
challenge to attract income.
All too often, the new wave
of frauds is based on cash
transactions. A number of
charities do not have the financial controls in place to spot
or prevent these cash frauds,
or have let those controls slip
as resources have become
squeezed. That fact goes some
way towards explaining why
this new growth in fraud is
hitting charities and not-forprofit bodies harder than com-
mercial businesses. Fraudsters also find that charities
are more trusting than private
companies – so they are an
‘easier’ target.
Dominant individuals are
often not challenged or questioned by charities in the way
that the finance director of a
private company would insist
upon. That’s a challenge for
the trustees of charities and
not-for-profit
bodies
like
academy schools.
There are two levels of fraud
hitting charities: external
fraud by pretending suppliers
and internal fraud by underpaid or non-paid volunteers
thinking it doesn’t feel wrong.
So what should charities
and not-for-profit bodies do to
protect themselves?
■ Be alert for unusual behaviour: many frauds are discovered by whistle-blowers
spotting inappropriate behaviour by people who have been
in place for many years.
■ Check internal controls and
systems, and how they are operated: zero tolerance is a
must!
■ Ensure a top-down approach. Trustees should never
sign a blank cheque, and
cheque signatories should examine carefully all paperwork
in support of any invoice or
expense claim.
Life is tough enough for
charities, so it is crucial they
do not fall prey to the massive
growth in fraud, which denudes vital funds from the important work they are doing.
Largest not-for-profit organisations
(limited by guarantee) in Devon & Cornwall 2013*
Not-for-profit organisation
Turnover
Number of
employees
(total)
Plymouth Community Healthcare CIC
£92,240,000
1,779
Peninsula Community Health C.I.C.
£130,379,000
1,691
Cornwall Care Limited
£25,162,000
1,366
Tempus Leisure Limited
£11,222,000
764
Devon and Cornwall Housing Trust
£80,383,000
629
The Pluss Organisation
£27,428,000
594
The Eden Trust
£27,938,000
504
Coastline Housing Limited
£22,218,000
462
Devon Doctors Limited
£18,974,000
414
Robert Owen Communities
£6,034,000
376
*We recognise that this list excludes other large employers in Devon & Cornwall including (but
not limited to) schools/academies, colleges and universities.
City College Plymouth ... your first choice for training
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• Word and Excel training – basic to advanced
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Don’t miss out ...
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 45
Plessey
Taking on the
Chinese and
Japanese –
and winning
William Telford finds
Plymouth business Plessey in
buoyant mood as it taps into a
multi-million-pound global
market for LED chips
The future is looking bright
for Plymouth semiconductor
manufacturer Plessey as the
company looks to double its
workforce and hit £30 million
in turnover on the back of
surging demand for LED lighting.
The privately owned company has invested about
£40 million into its business –
including working capital,
plant and research – in the
past four years.
That is because it has been
shifting focus. While still producing semiconductors for a
variety of applications, such
as hearing aids and pacemakers, it has developed a revolutionary process to produce high-brightness, low-cost
LEDs.
This means it can tap into a
multi-billion-pound
worldwide market, its “high
throughput, high yield, high
reliability” plant producing
chips which are more reliable
and cheaper than competitors’.
On the back of this it is
looking to double its workforce to 300 people within the
next three years. The majority
of these will be working at the
fir m’s plant in Roborough,
Plymouth. And it is aiming for
annual turnover to hit £30 million in the same timeframe.
With LED lighting being
considered the future, particularly in the emerging markets, Plessey is predicting
soaraway success.
“We’ve aligned manufacturing to making LEDs, the only
factory in the UK doing this,”
said product group director
Neil Harper. “There’s companies in the supply chain but noone making the basic starting
chips – we’re proud of that.
“It’s because there is an
enormous worldwide opportunity in LED lighting,” he
explained. “It uses 10 per cent
of the power of incandescent
bulbs with a tungsten filament. Plus tubes have a warmup time and are difficult to
dispose of.”
Mr Harper predicts that one
day all the world’s lighting
will be chip-based.
“Imagine the opportunities,” he said. “It’s a multi-billion-dollar market, worldwide,
for LED lighting chips.
“That’s why our investors
are supporting us and we are
realigning our facility around
an opportunity to supply into
a market that will grow like
crazy in the next ten years.”
He said Asian cities represent a huge potential market, as
does the development of
“smart lighting” with architects experimenting with coloured displays and realising
the more flexible and dynamic
uses to which LED lighting
can be put.
There are also opportunities
to produce products for lighting in growth sectors such as
healthcare and horticulture.
“There’s a new market,” Mr
Harper said. “It’s not just a
replacement market but one
for new uses.”
Christopher Bailey, finance
director, said: “There are 150
here now but that will double
in the next two to three years.
“We have another 20 in
Swindon, but Plymouth is the
city of manufacturing and that
is where most of the extra jobs,
very well paid jobs, will
come.”
Mr Harper added: “We have
brought in more than ten
people in the past six months,
some LED specialists – the
next tranche will be operators
and engineers.”
He said the workforce is
already highly trained, with
about 20 staff having PhDs and
up to 40 being graduates.
“These are high-quality jobs.
We have attracted people from
Malaysia and China, and local
talent too.”
The company produces Gallium Nitride on Silicon LEDs
using standard silicone-based
semiconductor-making processes. But because other
LEDs use more expensive sapphire and other exotic materials, Plessey is able to remain
very competitive.
The company aims to drive
global uptake of its patented
MAGIC (Manufactured on
GaN-on-Si I/C) technology as
a cost-effective alternative to
existing lighting systems, and
expand its manufacturing facilities in Roborough.
Plessey’s product group director Neil Harper says the firm’s low-cost, energy-efficient LED chips are finding new customers around the world
The Plymouth site, chosen
because its granite bedrock
provides essential stability for
chip production, has 13 acres
developed, with another 15
acres free.
Plessey makes the LEDs in
super-clean reactor units, and
has two, each costing two-million-euros. Mr Bailey said
each reactor has the capacity
to bring the firm £15 million a
year in LED sales, earning
£30 million in turnover within
the next two to three years.
And the factory has space to fit
in up to ten reactors.
“We have support from the
Regional Growth Fund with a
plan for four reactors in the
building,” Mr Bailey said.
The plant produces six-inch
silicon discs called “wafers”.
Each wafer is produced in one
of the reactors, which bake
them at temperatures of
1,000C. That deposits a thin
layer of Gallium Nitride, a
crystal, on to the silicon. This
emits a blue light when an
electric current is passed
through metal connections attached to the silicon.
The chips are then cut out
with a laser saw. There are
15,000 LED chips, 1mm square,
on a six-inch diameter wafer.
LED wafers take one week to
produce, traditional semiconductors take eight.
“And we are continuing to
work on the technology,” said
Mr Harper. “We’re continuing
to improve its efficiency and
how much light you can get
from a square millimetre. So,
less electricity, more light;
fewer chips for the same
amount of light or more light
from the same number of
chips.”
He said the firm could also
upgrade to producing eightinch wafers, which would be
even cheaper to make.
All this growth has come
just four years after the factory was subject to a management buyout.
The
Plessey
heritage
stretches back to 1917, when it
was involved mechanical engineering. Plessey built the
Roborough factory in 1985 but
‘Our competition is
mainly in Asia.
We’ve taken them
on before and won’
Neil Harper
four years later it was acquired by GEC, which traded
it as GEC Plessey. Nine years
later it was sold to Canadian
firm Mitel, which changed its
name to Zarlink. It was then
acquired by X-Fab in 2002.
In January 2010, the management buyout meant the
Roborough factory was back
under the Plessey banner for
the first time in 21 years.
It was because the plant was
already built, mechanised and
efficient, that production
could be switched to LEDs.
Building such a plant from
scratch would have simply
been too expensive. “Our production line has evolved from
integrated circuit manufacture,” Mr Harper said.
“It was heavily automated
when built in 1985 and we’ve
leveraged that into LED production.”
So the first reactor went in
two years ago and LEDs started to roll out.
“We can build LEDs at a
very competitive cost compared to Asia,” said Mr
Harper. “And Plessey was
always an innovative company.
“Our competition is in
Europe, but mainly in Asia.”
He said Plessey can compete
on price with the more expensive Japanese products,
and on quality with those
coming out of China.
“We’ve taken them on before
and won,” he said.
Today the firm is centred in
Plymouth but has an R&D and
sales arm in Swindon, a sales
office in Manchester, and a
sales presence in Germany,
Italy, Brazil, China, India and
three USA cities. It also has a
“relationship” with a company in Thailand.
“We have customers everywhere,” Mr Harper said. “And
selling LEDs in China, we’re
very proud of that.”
The firm also has five tenant
firms inside its huge plant,
spin-off companies run by
former employees.
While assembly and testing
is usually carried out in the
Far East, Plessey is now increasingly looking at doing
more of this in Plymouth, plus
“problem solving” for customers.
“Customers can design
their product round our
LEDs,” Mr Harper said. “The
European customers are most
engaged with that. We’re
easier to get to and there are
fewer cultural differences.
“The US market is very demanding, they have quality restrictions that tie them into
US manufacturers.
“But we are identifying customers there.”
Mr Bailey added: “We are
doing a lot in Brazil at the
moment, supplying a lot of our
older products.
“So there are opportunities
there,” Mr Harper said. “They
are highly energy sensitive, so
it’s not just about cost, it’s
about energy saving. A
massive opportunity.”
The firm has also been
working with the universities
of Sussex and Cambridge,
which provides the research
into sensors, another product,
and lighting, respectively.
The firm even bought a company that span out of Cambridge University: Camgan.
“They do the academic research; our role is to commercialise it and bring it into production,” Mr Bailey said.
Plessey has just announced
entering into a distribution
agreement with Comprel Srl,
an Italian electronics distributor, to expand its European
network with coverage in the
Italian market for its GaN-onSi LEDs.
46 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
UTC Aerospace Systems
A Devon gyroscope manufacturer
is looking to balance its portfolio
with its new technology for
non-military airports, writes
William Telford
After years of success in the
defence market, Plymouth
technology
firm
UTC
Aerospace Systems is planning to target civilian markets
and create jobs.
The triple Queen’s Award
for Enterprise-winning navigational systems manufacturer
already sells its cutting-edge
gyroscopes to the defence industry.
But with 80 per cent of its
products, including the innovative miniature inertial measurement units (IMUs), heading overseas, the Plymouth
firm is looking to lucrative
civilian uses too – including at
non-military airports.
“We are remaining steady,”
said
marketing
director
Alison Fenn. “Given the markets we’re in, it’s not a bad
thing to say we have managed
to hold our own.
“If you look at the defence
market as a whole, it is under
pressure.
“We are 75 per cent export,
ranging from the USA, which
is very big, to Turkey and
South Korea, and India is developing.
“They are all primarily defence markets, it’s a global
issue, but we are positioned
well.
“We are endeavouring to
keep a balance of customers
across the globe and between
the product ranges. And we
are trying to improve our commercial aerospace market, so
as not to depend on a single
market of region.”
UTC Aerospace Systems
was last year among a group of
firms announced as recipients
of Regional Growth Fund
cash. Receiving the cash in
phases, it hopes to receive
about £1 million and has been
using the cash to develop its
innovative Tactical Strike
Avoidance System (TCAS),
sensor technology designed to
help
aircraft
manoeuvre
around airfields protecting
them from colliding with
other grounded airplanes.
“That project is moving on
apace,” said Mrs Fenn. “We
hope to have some demonstrator models available later this
year.
“And this has global applications. It’s not about a specific
airline, we have to look at the
growth of the market generally.”
Already serving some nonmilitary
markets,
UTC
Aerospace Systems is looking
to such civilian markets so as
to make it less dependent on
shrinking defence budgets.
“The idea is to balance the
portfolio,” Mrs Fenn said.
“The other thing we are looking at is getting more performance out of our MEMS
sensors.”
Already serving some non-military markets, UTC Aerospace Systems is looking to civilian markets so as to make it less dependent on shrinking defence budgets
Defence navigation firm eyes
up civilian airport market
UTC Aerospace Systems
specialises in inertial technology, the ability to measure
tiny rotational and linear accelerations, used in precision
navigation and guidance systems. It provides these inertial
sensors for military and commercial users currently focusing on micro electro-mechanical
systems
(MEMS)
technology.
These MEMS devices are
based around a unique, patented, silicon vibrating structure rate sensor design, smaller than a fingertip.
One of these sensors, together with its control and power
electronics, can be packaged
to provide a single-axis device.
Three sensors can be mounted
along with three MEMS accelerometers to provide a complete inertial measurement
unit (IMU) with six degrees of
freedom.
They are already used in
weapons, with more than
25,000 sold worldwide, and
there is growing interest from
markets including unmanned
vehicles and stabilised platfor ms.
“We are managing to extract
higher performance from
these devices,” Mrs Fenn said.
“It gives us the chance to look
at Attitude Heading Reference
Systems.”
Such AHRS provide heading, attitude and yaw information for aircraft.
“The main prime navigation systems for aircraft are
still large black boxes,” said
Mrs Fenn. “These are very
precise, but smaller, light
weight devices can be used to
find the altitude and heading.
“We are looking to offer that
to aircraft as a back-up
system, or for small, lightweight unmanned vehicles.”
Mrs Fenn said the firm was
looking at spending its
“private venture” backing in
such a hunt for new markets,
exploiting all the potential of
each product.
Another key product is the
TERPROM digital terrain
system, used by military aircraft.
This terrain awareness and
warning system blends and interprets inputs from a diverse
array of sensors to provide
pilots with situational awareness, enabling them to fly far
more safely and effectively,
even in areas where GPS is not
available.
The software-based system
is in use with 14 nations worldwide and equips more than
5,000 aircraft.
UTC Aerospace Systems employs about 270 people at its
Southway plant, though has a
small number of vacancies.
The firm is looking for engineers and undergraduates
for one-year placements, and
is committed to apprenticeships.
“There’s steady growth with
staff levels,” Mrs Fenn said.
UTC Aerospace Systems is a
unit of US-based United Technologies Corp and part of the
global UTC Aerospace Systems operation.
The business began as
Sperry Gyro just before the
First World War.
Since then its innovations
and products have included
ship and submarine gyroscopes, the first aviation autopilots, a luminous dialled
gyroscope for Sir Ernest
Shackleton’s final Antarctic
exploration, and the auto pilot
and
inertial
navigation
system for the X-15 – the first
manned aircraft to reach
space, piloted by Neil Armstrong.
The Plymouth plant was
once part of UK defence company BAE Systems, but later
became Atlantic Inertial Systems and was, in late 2007, sold
to US private equity firm JF
Lehman and Co for US $140
million.
It became part of Goodrich
in a US $375 million deal in
January 2010, but two years
later the huge Americanowned defence business was
bought by another US giant,
United Technologies Corp.
That venture combined
Goodrich
with
Hamilton
Sundstrand to create the new
UTC Aerospace Systems business unit, headquartered in
the USA.
Key to production in Plymouth is a 15-year-old joint
venture with a Japanese company called Silicon Sensing
Systems.
With the products being designed in Plymouth, the Japanese company carries out
the silicon fabrication.
The chips are then assembled into the navigational
systems in Plymouth.
“We get the best of having a
strong design team and a
strong manufacturing team,”
Mrs Fenn said. “That’s one of
the not-so-secret secrets of our
success. And it focuses on the
civil markets.”
Last year, the manufacturer
received its latest cut-glass
Queen’s Award for Enterprise
bowl from Lord Lieutenant of
Devon Sir Eric Dancer at a
ceremony at its Southway
plant. The business was recognised in the innovation
section.
The firm has now won three
Queen’s Awards in the past
decade in recognition of a
three-fold surge in exports.
Mrs Fenn said the future
will be about refining what it
does at present, and looking at
new territories, applications
and products.
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 47
WMN-E01-S4
Gregory Distribution
Still growing strong after three generations
Haulage company boss John
Gregory is in the fast lane to
success. But as Mike
Bramhall discovers, keeping
his large fleet of vehicles on
track is a tricky and demanding
task
Haulage giant boss John Gregory is a man on a mission –
driving forward the business
founded by his grandfather by
astute acquisitions and an eye
to the future.
It is a strategy which has put
the Devon-based family firm
in the fast lane to success,
making it one of the South
West’s most recognisable and
familiar companies, as its
vehicles in their distinctive
brown and gold livery traverse
the nation’s highways.
But as the 56-year-old chief
executive of the expanding
Gregory Distribution – whose
proud and confident tagline is
‘Delivering winners’ – is keen
to point out, keeping the fleet
of hundreds of vehicles on
track is not an easy task.
The numbers tell their own
story. From humble beginnings in 1919 – when John’s
grandfather Archibald Gregory started the business in
North Tawton, hauling coal
with a horse and cart – it now
has an annual group turnover
of £140 million.
It operates 500 trucks from
17 sites from Scotland to West
Cornwall, and has around
1,400 employees – half based in
Devon and Cornwall.
The privately owned distribution business, which has its
head office in North Tawton,
includes local big-name companies such as Dairy Crest,
British Ceramic Tile, Arla,
Norbord, Crediton Dairy,
Booker, Toshiba, The Range
and South West Water on its
customer base.
The last 12 months have
seen a string of acquisitions by
the firm. But as Mr Gregory
made clear, it is not a case of
simple ‘empire building’. He
said: “There has been a lot of
business activity taking place.
There is no doubt that the UK
has woken up. But our sector
is still very fragmented.
“In such a difficult sector,
there is inevitably more consolidation to take place. We
had the opportunity to bolt on
five small businesses last year
and there are other opportunities planned for later this
year.
“There are endless business
opportunities within our
sector, but making an acceptable margin is the problem.
There is nothing new in that,
but getting price increases
and/or trying to reduce our
cost base is proving incredibly
difficult.”
One area which has proved
beneficial to the company this
Gregory Distribution chief executive John Gregory at the North Tawton base from which the now nationwide business is run
year has been a respite from
the seemingly never-ending
rise in fuel prices, which has a
considerable impact on the
haulage industry.
Mr Gregory said: “In the last
30 years, the trend has been
upwards. But 2014 has been
one of the quietest periods we
have had, with a calmer global
situation coupled with the exploitation of shale gas in the
United
States,
and
the
strength of the pound has also
had an impact.”
But in common with the rest
of the haulage industry, the
firm is about to face a new
challenge thanks to European
legislation.
Mr Gregory said: “A major
event this year is that all our
drivers after September will
need to be fully qualified in
Certificate of Professional
Confidence training.”
Each driver must complete
five days’ training to be fully
compliant. Mr Gregory said:
“That means 1,000 drivers
have had to be put through
5,000 training days over the
last five years, and they will
annually require 1,000 training days. The annual cost is in
excess of £250,000.”
Nevertheless, he is looking
ahead with cautious optimism
to the coming year. He said:
“Our sector is one of the first
to identify changes in business activity. We are a litmus
test of the state of the UK
economy, and there is no
question that in 2014 there has
been a rise in business activity.”
As for the future, Mr Gregory said: “There is relentless
tendering within the UK. We
are focused on trying to secure
our existing operations, or
bolt on to existing operations.
We are not actively seeking
growth, but most of our business units are growing.”
In addition to Gregory Distribution, the Group includes
Kay Transport based in Plymouth and Hayton Coulthard
in Scotland. The latter’s key
customer is Highland Spring
Water and Kay Transport is
proud to include The Range
chain, owned by Plymouth
self-made billionaire Chris
Dawson.
Mr Gregory said: “It is fantastic to be associated with
Chris Dawson and his relentless progress.”
And underlining the strong
family foundations on which
the business has been built,
Mr Gregory paid tribute to his
father, Jack, who will be 90 this
year.
He said: “Unlike many
family businesses, he was
fantastic to me when I took
over 29 years ago. He encouraged me to make my own decisions – then within a month
left me to it.”
It was another step along the
company’s rise to prominence.
After being started by his father
Archibald, Jack took over the
business at the end of the
Second World War. With stra-
tegic acquisitions, he had built
the business to 41 employees, a
fleet of 36 vehicles and a £1.25
million turnover by the time
John took over the business in
1985. By 1991 turnover had
reached £7 million.
The next significant goal is
to celebrate 100 years of trading. Hayton Coulthard will be
first in 2016, followed by Gregory Distribution in 2019.
Mr Gregory said: “In an era
of short-termism it is with
great pride that the heritage of
this company will be particularly prominent.”
48 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
Merlin Cinemas
Meet the man
on a mission
to save our
old cinemas
Turning a labour of love into a
thriving business, while saving
crumbling cinemas from being
lost forever, sounds like a
Hollywood tearjerker. But as
Mike Bramhall found out,
Geoff Greaves is a real life
picture house hero
It is a story worthy of the
Hollywood treatment, and one
which has captivated film fans
and cinema lovers across the
UK.
Movie buff sells his home to
buy a run-down cinema in
Cornish coastal town. Within
months he buys another.
Embarking on a mission to
preserve crumbling picture
houses, he buys ten across
Devon and Cornwall as part
of a portfolio stretching across
four counties, saving some
from demolition.
From a team of just three, he
now heads an organisation employing 170, bringing cinematic joy to thousands and preserving some of the UK’s
treasured cultural heritage in
the process.
Only this is not the product
of a Tinsel Town scriptwriter’s
fevered imagination. It is the
true-life story of Geoff
Greaves, the man behind the
independent Merlin Cinemas
chain, which has 12 outlets
stretching from Penzance to
Cromer, Cornwall to Norfolk.
Cinema lover Mr Greaves
was a former manager of one
of the UK’s first multiplexes in
the Home Counties when he
decided to become a movie
mogul in his own right.
In 1990, he sold his house
and bought the run-down and
virtually bankrupt Savoy
cinema on Causewayhead in
Penzance. Five months later,
he bought the equally declining Royal in the town, setting
the scene for a continuing
mission to save under-threat
cinemas from the final reel.
Each of the cinemas in the
Merlin chain are town-centre
establishments which have
been brought back to life and
put at the heart of their communities. As he admits, it is
something of a labour of love.
“I don’t see all of my job as
work, it’s almost like a hobby
collecting these big buildings
and preserving them,” he
said.
“I have to say that it gives
me great pleasure to be able to
bring these buildings back
to life. I just wish I could do
it to them all.”
Rewind four decades to
when Mr Greaves’ love affair
with old cinemas really began,
and his first job as a 16-yearold at the Regal in Purley,
south London.
He said: “When I started, I
was tearing tickets. After that
I did everything – I popped the
popcorn, did front of house
with queues of customers,
showed the films from the projection room. I just loved the
business and found it very interesting.
“ I am a fan of cinema rather
than films. I really love old
cinema buildings and the
pleasure of going to the
cinema. Now I am lucky
enough to be looking after a
group of cinemas and it is
fantastic.”
The Merlin adventure began
when Mr Greaves was working as manager of one of the
UK’s first multiplex cinemas
at High Wycombe in Buckinghamshire.
He said: “I had worked in
traditional cinemas and ended
up there. Then I came to Cornwall to work for a small independent group. They were
about to go bust, but I didn’t
know it.”
The opportunity arose for
him to buy The Savoy cinema
in Penzance in June 1990, so
he sold his home in Oxford
to fund the purchase, and
launched himself on his
cinema-saviour career.
He said: “I thought it had
great possibilities, but it
hadn’t been invested in. It had
holes in the roof and was
threadbare.”
Over the next four years the
cinema was given a facelift
and was converted to provide
three screens.
In May 2011 it was the first
Merlin Cinema to go completely digital, including Digital 3D. Other cinemas in the
chain include The Royal, St
Ives, bought in 1990, which
was also converted to three
screens. By 1997 admissions
had increased at both sites
from less than 60,000 a year to
more than 130,000.
Also in Mr Greaves’ portfolio is The Regal, Redruth,
acquired in July 1998. The
Geoff Greaves launched Merlin Cinemas after selling his house to buy the run-down Savoy cinema in Penzance. He now owns 12 town-centre cinemas
Regal is a cinema and theatre
operation and for over a
decade has staged live shows
for several weeks of the year
in the multi-purpose 600-seat
auditorium.
A £1.5m refurbishment of
the Art Deco town-centre landmark resulted in five modern
cinema auditoria and a remodelled 650-seat cinema/live
theatre within the existing
original building. It attracts
more than 100,000 people each
year.
In January 2000, Merlin
Cinemas bought the recently
closed two-screen Odeon in
Torquay. It was given a facelift
and renamed the Central
Cinema. Now boasting four
screens, it had a 3D digital
installation in March 2010, the
first in the area.
In 2002 an 80-seat single
screen cinema was leased
from the charitable trust
which operated it. In 2004, following the purchase of the
building, the Flora, in Helston, was converted to a twoscreen, 80 and a 60-seat,
cinema.
Four years later, Merlin
Cinemas purchased the freehold of the Embassy in Ilfracombe, which was converted
into a three-screen cinema.
In December 2006 the old
Market Hall in Okehampton
was converted into the twoscreen New Carlton cinema,
housing 70 and 160 people.
In 2009, the old drill hall in
Falmouth was converted to
The Phoenix, which in 2010
won the UK Independent
Cinema of the Year Award
from the RAAM specialist
cinema management consultancy.
‘If we hadn’t grabbed
the Ritz it would have
been lost forever’
Geoff Greaves
The chain also owns the
Regal Movieplex at Cromer,
Norfolk, at the former Theatre
of Varieties; the Tivoli, Tiverton; and The Studio at Coleford in Gloucestershire.
Summing up his philosophy,
Mr Greaves said: “Merlin
Cinemas have always passionately believed in keeping
cinema local, retaining existing and often historic traditional buildings, which are
part of each community, bringing visitors and local people
into town, with schoolchildren and families often able
to walk to their local cinema,
or at least just travel a short
distance.”
Merlin director Mr Greaves
continues to invest in his
chain, and said the company
has just completed a £1.5 million refurbishment of the
Regal at Redruth, which now
has a six-screen cinema and
also hosts live theatre.
Among the projects in his
pending tray is the Art Deco
Ritz in Penzance, which he
bought last year to save from
being lost as a cinema
forever.
He said it would have been
a tragedy if plans to turn
the cinema-turned-bingo hallturned-community venue site
into flats had gone ahead.
Speaking at the time of the
purchase, last July, he said: “I
know it looks dreadful from
the outside. But inside there is
a lovely old-fashioned Art
Deco interior.
“It is tired, but I can see in
my mind’s eye what it will look
like when we do it up and
when we restore that wonderful Art Deco interior.”
Now he has ‘parked’ the project until he can invest time
and money in it, but intends
in time to bring it back to life
as a restored asset for the
town.
He said: “We can only undertake one refurbishment
project at a time. We have
saved the Ritz, which was
going to be demolished.
“If we hadn’t grabbed the
building, it would have been
lost forever. It is a beautiful
building.”
Now Merlin Cinemas employs 170 people in Devon and
Cornwall and has an annual
net turnover of £5 million. Mr
Greaves paid tribute to the
people who work with him to
preserve these cinematic
jewels, saying: “We have got
an enthusiastic management
team around us who enable
this to happen.”
So what is this cinema fan’s
favourite film? He said: “That
would have to be The Last of
the Mohicans with Daniel
Day-Lewis from 1992. It looked
fantastic
and
sounded
superb.”
And his favourite cinema?
“That has to be The Savoy in
Penzance. The last major improvements there were in
1994. Now we are looking at
possibly adding an additional
two screens.
“I am also delighted with
The Phoenix in Falmouth. It is
nice to be doing something
like this which is so well received.”
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 49
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IT and creative
Noteworthy
companies
from a year
of innovation
Exciting innovation and
investment in new technology
has shown that the South West
continues to be a thriving
hotbed of creative and
technological talent. Catherine
Barnes reports on a busy year
for the IT and creative sectors
One of the biggest noises to
have come out of the region’s
IT and creative sectors this
Annual Business Guide year
has to be technology company
Blur Group’s move into the
region.
After relocating to Exeter
and establishing a research
base at the University of
Exeter’s Innovation Centre, it
moved into the first building
to be completed on the Exeter
Science Park in December and
has established it as its global
HQ with 100 staff.
The company is behind technology platform the Global
Services Exchange, which
allows professional services
around the world to connect
and collaborate on projects.
Since September, the platform
has seen major growth, with
projects worth a total $251 million signed up.
Blur Group – which also has
offices in London, Dallas and
California – has now said the
new Science Park base affords
the space and scope it needs in
which to centre its global operations.
The business also intends to
maintain its presence at the
Innovation Centre and plans
to open an academy next year
that will harness the university’s academic talent and
offer training and internships.
Also based at Exeter’s Innovation Centre is Crowdcube. Entrepreneurs Luke
Lang and Darren Westlake pioneered the technology platform on which the peer-to-peer
equity investment platform
was launched in 2011. In May,
it announced recruitment
plans to double its 20-strong
Exeter team within nine
months.
Meanwhile,
independent
radio station Radio Exe voiced
fears that a digital switchover
could “de-localise” regional
broadcasting. It forms part of
a coalition of broadcasters
campaigning against a move
they say would damage their
industry and cost the listening
public millions.
The station, which broadcasts around an 18-mile radius
of Exeter, has joined a national
network
of
broadcasters,
which includes Pirate FM operator UKRD, to lobby against
a shift away from analogue
that would see ordinary radios
become obsolete.
In September, Plymouth
media business Silverstream
was named a shortlisted finalist in a national technology
awards for its TwitterWall.
The big-screen technology
pulls together tweets about an
event and displays them so
that audiences present can see
The Exeter Fab Lab enables invention by providing access to tools for digital fabrication
what’s being said while watching the proceedings.
Silverstream, which was established by Simon Walton
and Roger Wiltshire in 2006,
produces
television
programmes broadcast online.
A £50,000 bank loan helped a
Cornish telecoms and entertainment business Orbiss to
invest in new technology. The
Truro-based company has used
the funding to buy a licence
that will allow it to expand the
hotel entertainment systems
side of its business – something
which they believe has huge
growth potential.
In February, Cosmic Peninsula Consortium was announced as the supplier who
will provide business and
community support around
the £94 million Connecting
Devon and Somerset superfast
broadband scheme. The consortium consists of Honitonbased
social
enterprise
Cosmic and Plymouth-based
Peninsula Enterprise.
In March, fast-growing
Plymouth digital marketing
business IO Technologies was
named as one of the 50 most
‘exciting and disruptive’ fir ms
in the UK. The business,
which was set up last May,
works in the field of big data
analytics, an emerging industry that is set to be worth
billions of dollars worldwide.
IO was founded by Raoul
Witherall, who recruited Alex
Nicholson, former chief IT
architect at the Exeter-based
Met Office, to design and build
the technology.
In May, a new business hub
aimed at making low-cost digital technology universally
accessible launched at Exeter
library, which has undergone
a £2.4 million revamp. Devon
County Council worked on the
Fab Lab project for 18 months
prior to its launch, with the
aim of creating an environment where SMEs, students
and artists can access equipment such as 3D and 2D print-
ers, milling machines and
computer-aided design software. Devon County Council
is in talks with Exeter College
about working in partnership
on the scheme and discussions
have been held with King
Edward VI Community College in Totnes about the idea of
establishing a Fab Lab centre
there.
Also in May, a short film by
University of Exeter film student Aygul Bakanova was selected to be showcased as part
of Directors’ Fortnight at the
Cannes Film Festival. The
PhD student’s film, The Void,
takes place on a ferry to a
Danish island in the Baltic
Sea, with a cast including The
Killing and Sherlock star Lars
Mikkelsen and Game of
Thrones actor Dar Salim.
In October, Plymouth media
firm Twofour announced its
merger with Cardiff production company Boom Pictures.
that was set up by a former
controller of BBC One.
Twofour said the deal would
create “a major new nations
and regions player” believed
to be worth about £30 million.
Each business has retained its
own branding, with Twofour
founder Charles Wace stepping down as chief executive
to
become
non-executive
chairman of both companies.
Mobile apps and software
developer
Rokk
Media
achieved turnover growth of
more than 350% over the past
three years, with a 407%
profits increase. During 2013,
the Exeter company secured a
number of six-figure contracts. and has worked on a
number of top-secret projects
for government.
Christow-based uCheck hit
the £1 million turnover mark
in September after pioneering
software that enables clients
to vet recruits’ credentials. Its
electronic record-checks are
completed in hours, replacing
paper trails that could take
several months.
Onwards and upwards – taking your business to the next level
SONYA BASSETT
Commercial
legal specialist
at Coodes Solicitors
As is often the case, many
businesses are set up around
great ideas formed between
family and friends.
These founding business
owners will then work around
the clock, giving their all to
establish the business and
make it successful.
After a couple of years the
team will start to look at expansion and development and
it is only then that the legal
structure is found to need
some work or the standard
contracts in need of review, or
these may even exist only via
a handshake.
At least once a year you
should carry out a business
health check and assess
whether you need the following in place.
If they are already in place,
check that you are happy they
are still in line with the way
you run your business.
Failure to do this could have
serious financial and legal
consequences further down
the line.
I suggest considering:
Corporate structure
■ Would you be best set up as
a limited company? The main
reasons for going limited are
for tax purposes or to seek to
protect the personal assets of
the directors.
Partnership agreement
■ If you are in partnership do
you have a partnership agreement in place which covers the
practices and agreed terms of
the partners?
Shareholders
■ If you are a limited company
do you have a shareholders
agreement in place which
covers what happens to your
shares in the company in certain circumstances, i.e. retirement of a director?
■ Does each shareholder have
a will in place?
■ Do you have insurance
policies in place and are in
need of cross option agreements?
Contract with employees
■ Do you have a standard employment contract with employees?
■ If you use an agency are you
happy with their terms?
■ Do you have a standard service agreement with the directors of the company?
Company books
■ Are they all up to date?
■ Is Companies House up to
date?
Intellectual property
■ Have you developed a brand,
name or logo which should be
protected?
■ Have you developed a
product which needs protection?
Provision of goods or services
■ Do you have a standard set
of terms and conditions with
your customers?
■ Do you have a standard
supply agreement with your
suppliers?
It’s important to address the
pitfalls before they happen,
saving time and money in the
long run and allowing you to
focus on running your busi-
ness. Coodes offers a fixed price
review with recommendations,
ensuring your business is on a
solid footing as it expands.
Sonya Bassett is a national and international
commercial specialist and heads up Coodes
Solicitors’ Corporate Department. With
experience in working on deals with firms
such as Tesco and Marks and Spencer plc,
Sonya also has a particular interest in
providing support
to start-up and
developing
businesses. Sonya
can be contacted
on sonya.bassett@
coodes.co.uk ,
01872 246200 or
via coodes.co.uk.
50 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
Marine
Westcountry
marine sector
has the wind
in its sails
The South West’s marine sector
is buoyant and set fair for a
positive future after weathering
the storms of recession. Mike
Bramhall reports on its
encouraging fightback
Confidence is returning to the
Westcountry’s marine sector –
and all the signs are that this
welcome improvement is real
and sustainable.
Paul Singer, board representative of the British Marine
Federation South West, is cautiously optimistic about this
vitally important area of the
region’s economy.
Mr Singer – who keeps a
weather eye on every aspect of
the marine sector – said the
last year had been positive.
“Overall for the region, we
in the British Marine Federation were very pleased,” he
said. “For the second year in a
row, the South West was the
largest region in the UK by
sales volume, accounting for
32 per cent of the total industry revenue from sales, or
£2.905 billion. That is very encouraging news and means a
substantial amount of money
is staying in the South West.
“Employment figures have
stayed broadly the same,
around the 10,000 mark. These
good things would say we have
a resilient industry. It has
weathered many storms, and
certainly has weathered the
latest one.
“Our members are saying
there is increased confidence
in the market – there is still
caution from the consumer,
but we have definitely turned
the corner and some are reporting busy order books.”
He pointed to South West
success stories like Princess
Yachts in Plymouth, but also
highlighted the education and
training sector, which is showing a revival. Courses run by
Plymouth University, South
Devon College’s Noss Marine
Academy
and
Falmouth
Marine School have seen a raft
of applications, he said. “That
is people wanting to work in
our industry. Some courses are
50 per cent up on last year.”
Another key area showing
improvement is the number of
employers offering apprenticeships and traineeships,
which Mr Singer said shows
“a healthy, confident future”
and which will help address
the skills shortage that has
afflicted the sector.
He added: “It is so encouraging to see employers engaging in that process – they are
confident enough to do that
now. For a while, companies
held back. Now we are seeing
them commit, bringing out
new products, recruiting and
training – these are all good,
positive signs.
“The region as a whole has
moved forward and I believe it
will be sustainable. Some
manufacturers have gone as
far as bringing boat-building
construction from overseas
back to the UK. That is a major
step and says ‘we are confident
for the future and are prepared to invest’.”
At Princess Yachts in Plymouth, the workforce is up to
2,500, with 300 new roles being
created in the last 12 months
and more expected in 2015.
Managing director Chris
Gates said: “Although the
global financial situation continues to be somewhat volatile
and certainly hard to read,
Princess Yachts has enjoyed
tremendous success over the
last few years, building market
share and ever larger vessels.
“Princess is now a truly international business with 50
regional distributors and
many more dealers. We have
enjoyed some notable successes in Latin America and
the Asia Pacific region, with
our more traditional markets
in Europe and North America
showing signs of an upturn.”
In January, Falmouth’s Pendennis Shipyard was awarded
a share of an £8 million government scheme aimed at developing the superyacht industry. The firm led a
consortium of four businesses
awarded £800,000 from the
Technology Strategy Board to
develop new ways of making
boats more energy efficient.
It was the latest stage in the
development of the yard,
which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2013. In April, the
remodelled sailing yacht M5
(formerly the Mirabella V) left
Falmouth following a 24month refit at Pendennis and
in May, the 47m motor yacht
A2 (previously Masquerade of
Sole) was named winner of the
Rebuilt Motor Yacht category
The Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth is one of the world’s leading custom superyacht facilities – and one of Cornwall’s most important employers
at the annual World Superyacht Awards.
Pendennis has one of the
world’s leading custom superyacht facilities and is one of
Cor nwall’s most important
employers, with more than 350
skilled tradespeople. The 6.5
acre waterfront yard’s undercover space has been increased, boosting capacity for
30-100m superyachts, it has
taken delivery of a 600 tonne
travel hoist and is developing
an adjustable-depth wet basin
to accommodate superyachts.
Over the past few years, the
company has expanded with
the creation of the Pendennis
Palma refit facility in 2011.
The creation of Pendennis
Plus, following the acquisition
of Devonport Yachts in 2011,
added expertise in the 60mplus arena, and in 2013 the
company extended their yacht
support service to the Pacific.
Ship repair company A&P
Falmouth said it was facing a
transitional year after weathering a challenging 2013 which
saw it shed 70 jobs. Managing
director Peter Child said:
“Last year we had a really
busy spring but we could see
the downturn coming. We
knew we were in for a difficult
18 months and we went
through a redundancy exercise last September, reluctantly losing 20 per cent of the
workforce. Fortunately 50 of
the 70 went voluntarily.”
But Mr Child said the picture
is now much brighter after a
busy start to 2014 which saw
A&P’s three docks occupied by
the tanker FSL Hamburg, three
P&O Ferries, two Condor Fast
Ferries, Oscar Wilde from Irish
Ferries and pipeline trenching
vessel Calamity Jane, plus several MoD vessels alongside.
In April, the 60-year-old heritage cargo-passenger ship SS
Shieldhall steamed in for a
major refit, paid for by a £1.4
million Heritage Lottery Fund
grant, which will extend its
life for another 25 years. Next
year will see two big MoD refit
contracts worth £20 million
and Mr Child said A&P is also
hopeful of expanding into the
‘The region has moved
forward and I believe
it will be sustainable’
Paul Singer, BMF South West
potentially lucrative marine
renewables sector.
He said: “We have weathered
the storm, and we have a pretty
good order book for the next 12
months.”
He said the firm had recently
completed a wave power device
for Seatricity, which is being
trialled at Cornwall’s Wave
Hub and could lead to an order
for a further 30.
A&P now has a workforce of
around 400 and a £55 million
turnover, and Mr Child said he
is hopeful dredging of Falmouth harbour can begin in
around two years, enabling
the company to accommodate
much bigger vessels.
Meanwhile, Devon engineering firm Supacat pioneered an
innovative new boat aimed at
the offshore industry and delivered the first one to a Cumbria-based marine services
group.
The Dunkeswell-based company handed over the first of
its SMV 24 multi-purpose vessels to Barrow-in-Furnessbased James Fisher Marine
Services at a ceremony on Plymouth’s waterfront.
Supacat spent two years developing a versatile multi-purpose vessel that would offer a
single alternative to any
number of task-specific craft
required to undertake operations on offshore facilities
such as wind farms and oil and
gas platforms.
Supacat managing director
Nick Ames said at the handover: “ “To have such a prestigious marine services company purchase the very first
SMV 24 speaks volumes for the
product and for its future potential in this growing sector.”
Supacat, which employs 120
staff at its North Devon base, is
also jointly behind the design
and build of the launch and
recovery system designed to
deploy the RNLI’s new Shannon-class lifeboat.
Wave Hub – the offshore
energy test facility in Hayle –
took a significant step forward
when it secured an international company to take on its
last berth. Carnegie Wave
Energy plans to deploy a device
called CETO 6, a fully submerged technology that pro-
duces high-pressure water
from the power of waves and
uses it to generate clean electricity. It plans to have a 3MW
array at Wave Hub in 2016, with
the option to expand to 10MW.
Wave Hub, a giant ‘socket’
on the seabed in St Ives Bay
connected to the grid network
onshore by an underwater
cable, now has three customers, with the potential to generate a capacity of 30MW.
Others have been reserved by
UK-based
Seatricity
and
Finnish multi-national utilities firm Fortum.
Cornwall Council leader
John Pollard, the local
member for Hayle and a board
member of the Cornwall and
Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise
Partnership, said: “Car negie
Wave Energy’s work based in
Hayle proves the international scope of Wave Hub.”
Meanwhile, FaBTest, the
offshore test area for marine
renewable energy devices in
Falmouth Bay, is continuing
despite being buffeted by the
2014 storms, during which it
measured a new maximum
wave height of 8.75m (30 feet).
Fred Olsen Ltd has had its
“Lifesaver” device deployed
since March 2012 as part of
commercialisation trials. Following a successful bid to
access ERDF money, Falmouth
Business Park-based Mojo
Maritime will deploy their lowmotion platform from September and the FaBTest management team is in talks with a
number of other national and
international developers.
WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 51
Public sector
Is ‘austerity’ just a political smoke screen?
London Editor Graeme
Demianyk on the shrinking
public sector, and how it has
affected the South West’s
economy
Received wisdom suggests
there is very little to separate
the main political parties.
They look the same – they
sound the same. The disaffection that fuelled UKIP’s rise to
the top of the European election polls stems, in part, from
our beige politics.
That’s received wisdom. The
reality is much different. It
might not be as stark as capitalism Vs socialism, or
Thatcher Vs Foot. But the Conservatives, and to a lesser
extent the Liberal Democrats,
take appreciably different positions on the size of the state
to Labour.
On one hand, the reduction
of the size of the public sector
is a matter of austerity. To
get the Government’s books
back in order, it has needed to
cut public spending. Save for
the NHS and schools, every
aspect has felt the pinch.
Councils particularly, but so
too everything else, from the
prison service to revenue and
‘A premeditated
attack resulting in
the destruction of
public services’
Stuart Roden, Unison
customs. But it’s not all about
pragmatism. It’s ideology too,
it appears.
David Cameron last October
said the Government is to
forge a “leaner, more efficient
state” on a permanent basis,
signalling he had no intention
of going on a spending spree
once the structural deficit has
been eliminated. It was a line
in the sand. In 2010 he said he
was imposing cuts out of necessity, rather than from
“some ideological zeal”.
The Prime Minister’s argument is that better services
Actor Dominic West gives a workshop for pupils at Route 39 Academy near Clovelly, one of three free schools in Devon. Below: Employment minister Esther McVey
can be delivered with lower
spending, and falling crime
while police budgets are axed
is one example regularly cited.
And the jobs lost in the public
sector? Replaced by increased
employment in the private
sector.
According to the Department for Work and Pensions,
there are now more than four
times as many people in the
South West employed in the
private sector than the public
sector – and the gap is widening as the economy recovers.
By the end of the third
quarter of 2013, there were 2.1
million people in the South
West employed in the private
sector – up 15,000 year-on-year.
Public sector employment for
the same period in the South
West was at 473,000, down 4,000
on the year.
So what has changed? Coun-
cils have been the most obviously hit. Libraries, bus services and leisure centres have
all been cut back. The NHS has
been overhauled and the military footprint – significant in
the South West – is smaller
than it was. Police forces have
reduced their back offices and
the “bonfire of the quangos”
has seen the South West Regional Development Agency
go. Schools too, with the move
from local authority control to
academies and “free” schools.
The Government makes no
apology for the shift, part of
the argument being that the
private sector generates the
revenue that underwrites the
schools, hospitals and other
public services. Its employment policies are geared towards it.
Among
the
flagship
schemes is the New Enter-
prise Allowance. Through it,
nearly 1,000 people in Devon,
Cornwall and Somerset have
moved from claiming benefits
to running their own business.
The scheme offers mentoring
and financial support to
people on benefits, helping the
unemployed become their own
boss.
There are now 2.63m people
in work in the South West – a
record – which is an increase
of 77,000 on the year. “As the
economy grows, more people
in the South West are able to
get a job, build a career, or set
up their own business and
become the employers of tomorrow,” said employment
minister
Esther
McVey.
“Everyone who has made a
new start, and every local
business who has hired
someone new is helping to
make the South West – and the
country – a more prosperous
and confident place to be.”
So what will Labour do if it
wins the election next year?
Ed Miliband talks of the
hammer blow delivered to the
public sector, but has stopped
short of pledging to reverse
the cuts, save for a handful of
areas such as the so-called
“bedroom tax”.
But the unions argue the
scaling-back of the public
sector will have “devastating”
consequences, and that unemployed workers are setting up
their own businesses reluctantly as there are no jobs available.
And is a millionaire entrepreneur more valuable than a
low-paid nurse? If you are ill,
you will quickly discover what
is more important, the argument runs.
Stuart Roden, South West
organiser of Unison, said:
“The impact on public services in the South West has
been devastating, with many
essential services slashed or
stopped completely.
“Thousands have lost their
jobs through redundancy and
many more have left or been
transferred out under various
privatisations.
“Austerity has been used as a
political smoke screen by the
coalition Government to cover
the premeditated systematic
and unprecedented attack
which is resulting in the destruction of public services.
“These cuts have targeted
the poor, young, disabled, elderly and those most disadvantaged in society who relied on
public services for essential
support. Those who are hurt
the most are least able to speak
out and protest.”
Red tape is biggest barrier to realising opportunities around outsourcing
BY TIM BORTON,
head of Public Sector services at
Bishop Fleming
In last year’s Annual Business
Guide, I highlighted how
public sector cuts were likely
to provide more outsourcing
opportunities for Westcountry
businesses, including this
region’s large number of small
and medium sized companies.
Indeed, a report by the All
Party Parliamentary Group on
Outsourcing and Shared Ser-
vices calls for more access to
public sector contracts for
SME's.
That
committee’s
vision has been shared by
politicians at both national
and local level – all agreeing
that public sector contracts
should no longer be the sole
preserve of giant companies.
Doubtless, all government
departments, agencies and
Quangos, local councils, and
such bodies as the MoD and the
NHS would say that their doors
are now open to smaller region-
al businesses. But trying to
enter those doors remains
almost impossible for all but
the largest companies.
The biggest barrier, which
remains unchanged, is the extraordinary red tape that
public sector bodies put in the
path of would-be suppliers.
Typical public sector tender requirements are unlike anything most businesses encounter in the private sector,
and demand huge amounts of
time and costs.
All too often, the demands
made in those tender requirements have no bearing on the
service to be provided, with
pages to be completed and documents to be submitted that
seem to be more “box-ticking”
than relevant.
Those who write and issue
these tender documents are
blocking the worthy aim of enabling public sector bodies to
make more use of their local
businesses, which can often
lead to lower costs. Why do they
do it?
It’s true that the very large
contracts, which are unlikely
to be appropriate for SMEs, are
governed by the procedures
laid down by the EU, and that
HM Treasury has set out public
procurement rules in their
“Managing Public Money”
document. I suspect, however,
that most public sector procurement processes are still
driven by the ethos of “we’ve
always done it this way”!
That has to change. Most
Westcountry businesses will
remain excluded from pitching
for public sector contracts
until the pitching process no
longer requires the resources
of large companies.
That change could benefit
the public sector as much as it
benefits SMEs. In truth, the
public sector has too many examples of bad experience with
giant company suppliers –
from the Olympics security
fiasco to a series of major IT
disasters.
52 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 53
Manufacturing
Optimism is
on a high as
order books
start to bulge
A surge in orders signalled a
productive change in fortunes for
many of the region’s
manufacturers who are now
experiencing a boom, as
Catherine Barnes reports
Optimism and confidence has
continued to increase among
the region’s manufacturers.
In last year’s Annual Business Guide we reported how
the sector had predicted a
‘modest’ recovery regardless
of slight sales dips, but that the
general outlook was upbeat,
looking ahead to 2014.
Before the year was out,
however, the sector’s leading
industry bodies were reporting order and output levels
unseen for years – and in some
cases, decades.
“The past year saw rising
fortunes for the majority of
the region’s manufacturers,”
says Phil Brownsord, regional
director of manufacturers’ organisation EEF.
“Even those that had seen
challenging conditions report
that the start of 2014 has seen
orders pick up.”
Reflecting a national picture
in November, the Plymouth
Manufacturers’
Group’s
annual State of the Sector
survey found that more than
half of manufacturing businesses located within and
around the city had capital
investment planned for the
coming year.
“Last year we continually
saw a forecast of increased investment but machinery manufacturers reported that they
were still waiting for this to
transpire into real orders,”
says Phil.
“In the first few months of
2014 we have seen more actual
investment as businesses look
to improve their productivity
and replace old equipment
now that they have more confidence in their own order
books.”
A month later, the latest
BDO Optimism Index, which
charts performance predictions and long term growth
trends, revealed that the
region’s manufacturing sector
was at a level unseen since
2010. This rose in December
and by January, had reached
an all-time high in the
survey’s 22 year history.
By March EEF reported that
upbeat manufacturers were
saying that new recruitment
was on the cards in the months
ahead.
Previous Annual Business
Guides bear testament to local
manufacturers who, downsized, consolidated and downtimed, but ultimately did their
best to retain the skilled workers key to building the business back up again in recovery.
Now, for many firms, recruiting the kind of skilled
staff they need is proving to be
among the biggest challenges
they face, as the sector forecasts that new jobs will be
created this year.
In December, the Plymouthbased Skills Group has said it
was ‘struggling’ to fill more
than 100 apprenticeship vacancies across Devon and
Cornwall, despite high unemployment levels.
Manufacturing and engineering firms were high among
those firms short-handed.
“Competition for skilled
people is heating up and in
some cases companies are
struggling to attract talent,”
said Mr Brownsord.
“Many are looking to introduce apprenticeships to gain
some control of this. Indications are that it is not going to
get better without further actions. At current rates, we are
likely to need a million people
to replace those currently in
the industry and to realise
their growth ambitions.”
Skills Group Plymouth
managing
director
Mark
Boulting said: “This is the best
opportunity youngsters have
had to get apprenticeships
that we’ve seen since the recession.
“The problem is that a lot of
young people are staying on at
school because they don’t realise that there are the opportunities for jobs within training or apprenticeships.”
Among the training and
education initiatives aiming
to redress that balance are,
university technical colleges
(UTCs).
Introduced as an alternative
to mainstream secondary
schools and catering for young
people aged 14 to 18, they aim
to prepare students for the
world of work in careers with
technical backgrounds.
Opportunities for
apprentices,
above, are
opening up as
manufacturing
and engineering
firms struggle to
attract talent as
business picks
up; Stephen
Boyd, right, who
was in a
consortium
which brought
Axminster
Carpets out of
administration;
left, Tubby the
pug, who starred
in a video trilogy
produced by
Plymouth’s Pipex
South Devon UTC will open
its doors in Newton Abbot in
September, with a focus on
science and engineering.
Among the local employers
supporting the college are
Newton Abbot-based Centrax,
which is involved in the power
generation industry; construction business Galliford
Try; and South West Water.
Plymouth’s UTC opened in
September 2013. Specialising
in marine engineering and advanced manufacturing, it is
already looking at further
growth before its first academic year is out.
Projects have been run with
manufacturing firms such as
Wrigley, MGB Group Ltd and
Spinnaker International Ltd,
and alongside engineering
graduates from Babcock.
Students at UCTs are more
confident of getting a job – and
will have the appropriate
skills demanded – than those
at mainstream schools, according to new findings published by the Baker Dearing
Educational Trust, the charity
behind the colleges.
The surveys highlight a significant difference in girls’ attitudes to careers in engineering, with two thirds of
female UTC students expressing confidence that they could
have good career prospects in
the sector.
Meanwhile, the number of
engineering students graduating in Cornwall has more than
doubled since the turn of the
millennium, it was revealed.
More than 700 students are
currently studying technology and engineering according to Combined Universities
in Cornwall (CUC) – a partnership of five universities
and colleges offering courses
in the county.
Ken Martin from the Cornwall Manufacturers Forum
said: “Skills are absolutely
critical if Cornwall is going to
stay competitive.”
Added
Mr
Brownsord:
“There is going to be increase
the competition for highly
skilled engineers and programme managers.
We already see that where
few exist in a locality, it is
often difficult to persuade
them to take the risk of relocating deep into the South
West. That means we need to
shout louder about some of the
amazing companies we have
and the state of the art work
they do.
“We are working with all the
Local Enterprise Partnerships and the companies in the
region to help address these
long standing issues.”
In terms of our local industries’ resilience, previous
Annual Business Guides reflect how, while there have
been casualties along the way,
our
regional
economy
weathered
the
economic
storms of the downturn better
than most, due to the sheer
diversity of its business mix.
One of the highest-profile
stories of a bounce-back that
reflects Westcountry determination and the value of its
quality brands’ identity has to
be that of Axminster Carpets.
In March this year, just one
year on from its rescue from
administration,
Axminster
Carpets has secured new contracts at Buckingham Palace
and Windsor Castle with
turnover on course to hit £12
million.
Three hundred workers
were laid off and there were
fears that it could be the end of
the business, which dates back
to 1755. But on April 8, Axminster Carpets was bought out of
administration by a consortium of private investors including
Somerset-based
Stephen Boyd, who is also
chairman of Yeovil luxury
leather firm Pittards.
After relaunching with 100
staff, an additional 64 have
been recruited – with most of
its previous employees who
wanted to work for the business again having been rehired.
Continuing along the theme
of strong brand identity, in
April this year more jobs were
saved, including those of workers in Penryn, after private
equity company Enact bought
The West Cornwall Pasty Company from administrators. The
Cornish-made pasties are sold
in branded retail outlets predominantly located in and
around the capital, home
counties and Midlands.
Meanwhile luxury mattress
and divan maker Vi-Spring expanded its foothold in the US
with the acquisition of a majority stake in a high-end Californian manufacturing company.
The Plymouth-based manufacturer has made an undisclosed investment in E S Kluft,
which is behind Kluft and Aireloom branded luxury mattresses.
Vi-Spring said that by joining together, the two companies would offer an “unrivalled
portfolio” of brands and
products in the US – the
world’s biggest market for
luxury beds.
Luxury handbag brand Mulberry officially opened its new
£7.5 million Bridgwater factory in March, doubling its UK
manufacturing capacity and
with 300 employees based
there.
The month also saw the departure of departure of boss
Bruno Guillon, two months
after a major profits warning
by the business which suffered
tumbling sales at Christmas
and fewer overseas wholesale
orders than anticipated, after a
move into more expensive and
exclusive markets.
Mulberry has said it will
look to drive sales by developing new lines at more affordable prices.
Moving even higher up the
price bracket, AgustaWestland
officially sealed a £1 billion
contract to supply 16 search
and rescue helicopters plus
support and training to the
Norwegian government.The
AW101 aircraft will be assembled at AgustaWestland’s
Yeovil facility, helping safeguard 3,000 jobs at the plant.
While it’s not quite a designer label, Newton Abbotbased Silvalea has been busy
building on its trusted identity
and launched a range of fashion clothes for children with
disabilities.
Silvalea has already become
a leading manufacturer of
slings designed to hoist and
transfer hospital patients and
people with disabilities since
its was established by Pauline
Guilfoyle from her garage in
1993.
Now it has developed and
launched a children’s fashion
brand – Guilly P – of easy-in
and easy-out clothing that
make it more straightforward
to yet youngsters with disabilities dressed.
What’s
groundbreaking
about the label is that while the
clothes are practical by design,
they are also stylish, so that
youngsters look and feel invogue. It’s a fresh take on adaptive clothing, which is
mostly extremely utilitarian
in design.
Said operations director
Gary Bevan: “With Guilly P,
what you see is a trendy jacket
with a few more zips than
nor mal.”
The company ships to countries including Canada, Australia, New Zealand and
Turkey, with exports accounting for 25% of its revenues. It
employs 65 staff and invested
around £350,000 in manufacturing systems over recent
years.
The Cornish Crisp Company
was flying high after sealing a
deal with Qantas to supply the
airline’s flights from London
to Dubai.
The Callington manufacturer secured the undisclosedvalue
six-month
contract
through a catering firm it met
at a London food trade show.
The past 12 months have undoubtedly been, on the whole,
upbeat and optimistic ones for
the sector.
But how to get the message
across about what – and how –
your company’s ‘the biz’?
For those within industry
where complex engineering
terminology is key, just how do
you express the wonder of your
world beyond your sector?
Plymouth-based Pipex took
the matter in hand by getting a
one-eyed pug called Tubby and
a doleful stunt sausage dog
called Duke to front a hilarious
Youtube video trilogy about
the industrial plastics it manufactures. Its marketing and
communications
director
Sarah Raynor said: “My colleagues were a bit nervous
about it, but it’s been received
really well. We’ve even had a
couple of inquiries – which
never usually happens when
we send corporate videos out;
they’re normally very straitlaced.”
Closer collaboration can help sustain the boom in manufacturing sector
BY NIGEL WARREN,
Head of Bishop Fleming’s
Technology & Manufacturing team
The news that UK manufacturing was one of the
strongest performers in the
first quarter of 2014, with
output growing by an annual
rate of 3.4%, is great news.
There is an overall feeling
that a sustained recovery is
underway.
There are signs that manufacturing companies of all
sizes have increased their investment plans and are getting
ready to meet the expected
upturn in orders. In addition,
companies’ confidence for the
year ahead is reflected in recruitment which has remained steady.
Changes to the tax and regulatory framework to encourage UK manufacturing investment seem to be paying off.
The UK now has one of the
most favourable tax regimes
in the EU, with a range of
incentives designed to encourage investment in research
and innovation. There are also
valuable tax breaks for business angels and serial entrepreneurs to invest in new
emerging technologies and
start-up companies.
There is already evidence
that these changes are encouraging investment in UKbased research by both UK
and overseas investors. The
recent plan for Pfiser to move
its base from the USA by
bidding for Astra Zenica is a
perfect example.
There is still much to do in
order to sustain the growth.
The global economy remains
weak, especially in the EU,
and there are fears that the
strengthening pound will hold
back expansion of exports.
The drive to increase exports
is vital to the region’s success
and the efforts of UKTI and
others to strengthen cross
border B2B networks are crucial.
The South West has world
class research and educational
institutions, together with
some of the most innovative
and creative SMEs. This is a
potent mix. We need to build
stronger links between them,
encourage more collaborative
research, promote knowledge
transfer, and increase commercial exploitation within
the South West.
Initiatives such as the new
Exeter Science Park and
Newquay Aerohub will help to
bring more investment into
Devon and Cornwall and more
local jobs, training opportunities and an economic boost to
the local economy. We also
need to attract and train our
young people for careers in
manufacturing, science and
engineering and to continue to
build strong links between our
education establishments and
South West employers. Companies will not invest in the
South West unless they can
attract and retain key staff.
54 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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Utilities
The South West’s utilities sector
has enjoyed a year of significant
progress with huge strides being
taken in key projects, reports
Mike Bramhall
A view of how the Hinkley Point C
nuclear power station could look
on completion. The plant is
forecast to pump £100 million into
the region’s economy during the
peak of construction work
Two projects which will have
far-reaching implications for
the whole South West – and a
major effect on the region’s
economy – made significant
progress over the last year.
BT’s trailblazing £132 million Superfast Cornwall high
speed fibre broadband roll-out
across the county continued
its impressive pace, reaching
50,000 customers – or one in
five homes and businesses in
the Duchy.
This progress is being
mirrored elsewhere in the
peninsula, where Connecting
Devon and Somerset aims to
ensure around 90 per cent of
premises have access to superfast broadband by the end
of 2016.
Meanwhile the long-awaited
“strike price” agreement
between the government and
EDF for power produced from
the £16 billion Hinkley Point C
power plant when it comes
into operation in 2023 brought
the much-debated project
nearer to construction.
But it is the speed of take-up
for high speed fibre broadband
which is set to have far-reaching implications for the South
West economy, according to
Paul Coles, BT’s South West
Regional Partnerships Director.
He said that in Cornwall,
households and businesses
are being connected at the rate
of more than 2,000 a month.
He added: “Our aim was to
get to at least 80 per cent fibre
broadband coverage in Cornwall by the end of this year – in
reality we are now going to get
to 95 per cent.
“Research by Plymouth University shows that 36 per cent
of businesses that are connected to high speed broadband
have seen increasing sales,
and that of those 25 per cent
have been to new markets
overseas. Exporting is key to
our economy, and the fact that
increasing numbers of people
in the South West are reaching
new markets is great news.”
Mr Coles said that the broadband revolution in the region
is also counteracting problems posed by poor road and
rail links to the rest of the UK,
and the geographical remoteness of the peninsula.
“The connectivity we have
here means you can work anywhere you choose. It is encouraging businesses to locate
here, and encouraging new
businesses to start.”
Mr Coles said investment in
the South West and the rest of
the UK is giving the country a
major
advantage
over
European competitors, with
more fibre broadband capability here than in Germany,
Spain, Italy and France.
Mr Coles underlined the importance of BT to the penin-
1,400 jobs through contractors
building its new Energy from
Waste facilities.
It has more than 80 facilities
across the South West.
Dan Cooke, Viridor’s Director of External Affairs, said:
“This has been another challenging year for the recycling
and waste sector in general,
but Viridor has won some important business in the region,
contributing to greater resource efficiency for the South
West.
“This includes a two-year
integrated
recycling
and
waste service contract for St
Austell Brewery, a complete
waste and recycling service
for 30 schools in Devon, and a
waste haulage service for
Wessex Water.
“Viridor’s £1.5 billion UK investment programme in essential energy, recycling and
resource management infrastructure
will
continue
coming to fruition this year as
five of our energy recovery
facilities come on-line. These
include two that will serve our
South West region, located in
Exeter and Cardiff.
“Investment will also deliver a new materials recycling
facility for Plymouth.”
In March, the company was
awarded a 10-year contract to
upgrade and operate a new
material recycling facility at
Chelson Meadow by Plymouth
City Council. The new £6m
facility, that will improve recycling services to households
across Plymouth, will sort all
the kerbside collection recycling material and enable Plymouth residents to include
glass in their recycling boxes.
Meanwhile Exeter’s energy
from waste plant started operations, and will process
60,000 tonnes of household
waste per year from the Exeter
and surrounding area.
As for South West Water, last
November, it was announced
that water bills in the peninsula were to be frozen for
two years, with subsequent
price rises pitched below inflation until 2020. South West
Water said it would not increase its standard tariffs and
standing charges for consumers and businesses for all
of its 800,000 customers during
2014/15, the first water company in the UK to do so. The
firm said efficiency savings
and reduced rates of interest
on loans had made it possible
to forgo a planned four per
cent rise – a £22 increase on
the average annual bill –
which had been previously
agreed in 2009.
The proposals were contained in its Water Future
Final Business Plan, submitted to Ofwat for approval this
summer.
Key projects are shaping the
economic future for us all
sula, when he pointed out the
company has 2,500 employees
in Devon and Cornwall, with a
gross added value impact of
£260 million. He said: “We also
spend £100 million with suppliers in the South West.”
“The government has said
that for every £1 invested,
there is a £20 impact in the
economy. We have spent £2.5
billion, which is a £50 billion
stimulus to the economy.”
In May, BT announced it was
creating up to 200 new engineering jobs in the South West.
It also announced 55 apprenticeships in the region.
Meanwhile energy provider
EDF has embarked on site preparation works for the giant
Hinkley Point C plant in Somerset, which will go on
through the summer.
The company estimates the
plant will pump £100 million
into the South West economy
during the peak of construction after the nuclear site licence was granted in November 2012, and full planning
consent was granted by
Energy Secretary Ed Davey in
March last year.
The Hinkley project, the
first new nuclear power station to be built since Sizewell
B in 1995, will have a massive
impact on the peninsula. The
project to build the new nuclear reactor near Bridgwater
will see at least £500 million of
contracts handed out to firms
in the West Country.
It has the potential to create
25,000 jobs during its construction, 400 new apprenticeship
opportunities and will provide
900 permanent jobs during its
60-year life. It is scheduled to
begin operating in nine
years.
French-owned EDF Energy
is investing up to 50 per cent of
the project costs, representing
around £16 billion, and 57 per
cent of the project’s construction value could be spent in
the UK, providing firms
across Cornwall, Devon and
Somerset with a massive
boost.
More than 1,600 companies
have registered their interest
to work on the project, while
130 local and 89 regional companies already have contracts
with a value of £85 million.
When the power station is
operational, it is anticipated
that £40 million each year will
be contributed to the local economy over its life span.
Pennon, the parent com-
pany of South West Water and
Taunton-based waste firm Viridor, announced its preliminary results for the year to
March 31 to the Stock Exchange on June 3.
Pennon
chairman
Ken
Harvey said the group’s
profits before tax rose 9.1 per
cent, said as its water business
more than compensated for
weaker performance in Viridor waste operations, where
profits fell by 19.5 per cent to
£27.6m.
South West Water saw its
pre-tax profits soar by 10.8 per
cent in the last year to
£162.5million, which contributed to an increased operating
profit of £12.2m (5.7%) to
£227million.
The company report said:
“Viridor continues its transformation from predominantly a landfill operator to
being one of the country’s
leading recycling, renewable
energy and waste management companies” and Mr
Harvey said: “This has been a
year of significant achievements for the group.
“South West Water is continuing its strong performance against the 2010-2015 regulatory contract and is well
placed to outperform its assumptions.
“The company continues to
deliver robust operational performance and improving
standards of customer service,
notwithstanding
the
dry
summer of 2013 and then the
extreme weather and resultant flooding of last winter.
“I am delighted that the
quality of South West Water’s
Business Plan was such that it
was
awarded
‘enhanced’
status in the 2014 price review
– the only water and sewerage
company to achieve this.
“As a result we received our
fast tracked Draft Determination for 2015-2020 on 30 April
which will enable early implementation of key elements
of the Business Plan.”
Mr Harvey said Viridor’s operating contribution was
slightly ahead of last year and
that the company had made
excellent progress in establishing its Energy from Waste
(EfW) business which will
transform Viridor into a leading player in the UK renewable energy sector.
Viridor, which employs 650
of its 3,200 staff in the Westcountry, has 200 apprentices
and supports an additional
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 55
Retail
Shoppers are
bringing back
confidence to
high streets
After the gloom of recession, the
Westcountry’s high streets are
being lit up by a sunny new
mood of optimism from retailers
and shoppers, as Mike
Bramhall discovers
Confidence is returning to the
Westcountry’s
shopping
streets, as delighted city
centre managers and traders
report a retail renaissance
across Devon and Cornwall.
The gloom of the recession
is being replaced by a sunnier
outlook in the main shopping
centres of Truro, Plymouth
and Exeter.
The new mood of optimism
is perhaps most apparent in
Devon’s
county
‘capital’,
already buoyed by the continuing feelgood of the John
Lewis factor.
Exeter’s John Lewis store
has continued to report brisk
business since it opened in
October 2012, and has been
credited with helping to attract other high profile retailers to the city, including Urban
Outfitters and Hollister.
But as Exeter city centre
manager John Harvey pointed
out, there are many more reasons for optimism – not least
the £7 million project to
revamp the Guildhall Shopping Centre, and the continuing campaign for a Business
Improvement District.
Mr Harvey said: “As a city,
we have had another very successful 12 months with further
investment.
“We have seen further examples with businesses like
The White Company opening
its third largest store in the
UK – that is a sign of real
confidence in the Exeter economy. Other names like Byron
Hamburgers are coming. The
message is that we are a city
that is very much moving in
the right direction.”
Mr Harvey said planning
consent was in place for the
Guildhall Shopping Centre
project, which would bring in
new retail, cafe and restaurant
names. He said: “That is incredibly exciting, not only for
the day-time economy but for
the night-time economy too.
“There has been increased
confidence from traders, some
of which is because of the
investment, and anticipated
investment, coming in.” Key
to this could be the outcome of
a second referendum on a proposed Business Improvement
District for Exeter, expected
next year.
The idea was previously rejected by businesses in a ballot
in July 2011. But Mr Harvey
said: “We are working extremely hard in the business
community to make sure that
when we get to a vote next
spring, it is a successful
vote.”
He said a ‘yes’ vote would
allow the city to kick on further in terms of hosting more
events and marketing.
Other prospects for the city
include plans by furniture
giant Ikea to open a new store
in 2015 creating 300 jobs, and
the prospect of Rugby World
Cup matches being played at
Exeter Chiefs’ Sandy Park, selected to stage three games in
September and October 2015.
In Cornwall, Truro reported
healthy trading and a thriving
central shopping area, despite
a backdrop of road improvements and gas main replacement work which caused
major disruption for several
months.
Neil Scott, Business Improvement District manager
at Totally Truro, said the roadworks had made getting in and
out of the city centre difficult.
Mr Scott said: “Against a
difficult local, national and international economic background, trade in Truro has
been as good, if not better, than
we expected.
“We had 35 new openings,
primarily retail and leisure
based. Among them was The
White Company, in Boscawen
Street. But we also had niche
independents opening too,
such as Kernow Exotics
selling reptiles.”
Mr Scott said four eateries
had also opened, while 12 businesses had closed. But he
added: “Some of the premises
that had remained empty for a
while have filled up. We have a
strong offering in Truro and a
good mix of retail.”
Major works went on in
Truro from September of last
year until May, with South
West Water working on a
sewer upgrade at the same
time as Wales and West carried out gas pipe replacement
Greg Lumley, centre director at Plymouth’s Drake Circus, says new stores have helped continue to pull in customers as shoppers’ confidence returns
works. This coincided with a
14-month project to upgrade
the Trafalgar traffic roundabout.
Mr Scott said: “All this made
access to Truro very difficult.
But the range of shops, combined with Truro being a very
compact city centre, makes it a
unique offering.”
A plethora of planning applications also meant the
Truro area emerged as key
battleground in the South
West’s store wars. In May, it
emerged that a retail park
with names such as John
Lewis and DFS could be built
on the site of Truro City Football Club. The Treyew Road
project was one of five sites
seeking planning permission
for significant developments –
while work has already started on another, which will feature a Waitrose store.
Truro City Council members were told the 125-year-old
football club could move to a
proposed stadium for Cornwall site at Threemilestone, or
to land at Nansavallan Farm
off the Truro to Falmouth
road. The retail park could
help deliver the £24 million
stadium for Cornwall, according to developers.
London firm Helical Bar is
looking to build the Truro City
Shopping Park and Jonathan
Cox, managing director of Helical Retail Ltd, told Truro
councillors that John Lewis
and DFS were possible tenants.
Meanwhile Asda and Morrisons both said they were in-
terested in opening in Truro,
while on the other side of the
city preparatory work began
on the Truro Eastern District
Centre, which will include a
Waitrose store. Cornwall
Council has said more than
one of the planned supermarkets near Threemilestone
could be approved.
Walker Developments is
seeking to build a supermarket and 650 homes at Maiden
Green.
Elsewhere in Cornwall, argument continued to rage over
the £110 million retail development at Coyte Farm, near St
‘As a city, we have
had a very successful
12 months’
John Harvey, Exeter city centre
Austell, after the plan was
thrown out by just one vote.
The project was viewed by
some as a golden opportunity
for business and jobs. But
others felt it would sound the
death knell for St Austell town
centre.
Plans were rejected by Cornwall Council in January.
The controversy was revived in March, when the St
Austell Bay Economic Forum
(SABEF) said it had agreed to
express in-principle support
for the proposed development.
In Plymouth, the Drake
Circus shopping mall contin-
ued to pull in shoppers, with
centre director Greg Lumley
reporting that it had maintained its annual footfall of 18
million visitors.
Mr Lumley said: “We have
had a strong 12 months.
“Trade is up on the last year
and much of that is down to
the fact that we have brought a
lot of new brands to the centre,
such as Fat Face, Apple and
The Entertainer toy store.
“We have some vacant units,
but we are in discussion with
retailers about taking them.
There is more confidence
among shoppers – we see that
in footfall and sales and
demand for units. ”
Mr Lumley said that among
the new offerings at Drake
Circus will be a new eatery,
Ed’s Diner.
In the West End of Plymouth, independent traders
and the City Market played
key roles in pulling in shoppers.
Ray Robins, chairman of
both the City Market Traders’
Association and the Cornwall
Street Shopkeepers’ Association, said trading conditions
remained tough with high
street outlets facing the
double challenge posed by the
internet and out-of-town shopping.
He said: “The City Market
has remained steady with a 96
per cent occupancy, and in the
independent quarter [in the
city’s West End] we have had
very few empty shops. ”
Mr Robins said it was the
range and quality of service
from niche and specialist
shops in this part of the city
centre, encompassing the
lower end of New George
Street, Frankfort Gate and
Cornwall Street, which had
kept pulling customers in.
Mr Robins said a gradual
return of confidence in the UK
economy coupled with major
spending initiatives which are
boosting the vibrant City
Market – including £35,000 on
a new car park entrance and a
£80,000 upgrade of toilet facilities – was adding to a more
optimistic outlook.
There was another boost for
the city centre when Poundland – which already had an
outlet on the corner of Royal
Parade and Armada Way –
opened its second Plymouth
store in part of the former
Woolworth building in New
George Street.
But there was disagreement
over the future of the city
centre Business Improvement
District – one of the first in the
UK when it launched in 2005.
In December some disgruntled
traders
united
against the BID, believing it
no longer represents value for
money, after it announced a
debt of more than £130,000.
The BID is run by Plymouth
City
Centre
Company
(PCCC).
Meanwhile in April, the Plymouth Waterfront Partnership Waterfront Business Improvement
District
announced it had delivered 40
per cent of its Waterfront Business Plan.
56 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 57
Tourism
Understanding
customers’
needs is vital
BY WILL HANBURY,
Head of Bishop Fleming’s Hotels &
Tourism team
It is vital that Westcountry
hotel and tourism businesses
become more ‘inclusive’ to benefit from the improving economy.
There is a need for increased
‘inclusiveness’ in terms of
global culture, with an upward
trend in overseas visitors,
tourists needing better physical and internet access and an
ageing population.
According
to
Carolyn
Custerson, Chair of Visit
Devon, an estimated 25% of
domestic holidaymakers are
now travelling with an associated disability. South West
tourism businesses, therefore,
need to ensure that they refine
their offering and pay more
attention to the detail.
Improvements to accessibility do not necessarily need to
cost the earth. A number of
small changes can demonstrate a good knowledge and
understanding of your customers’ needs.
According to Rob Lott, Manager of the award-winning Calvert Trust, there are a number
of low-cost or no-cost quick
wins for accommodation providers to improve accessibility.
These include reducing the
clutter in bathrooms, having
clear signage, using blocks to
raise the height of tables, and
making sure infor mation
about access is made available
on your website or other marketing material.
It is important that holiday
destinations cater for the specific requirements of the increasing ‘silver haired’ generation and growing overseas
market. Tailoring your website and product to overseas,
elderly, and special-interest
visitors will demonstrate you
have thought about their requirements.
International visitors made
up 17% of the tourists in
Torquay; the average for
Devon is 10%. For these visitors you can provide plug adaptors to ensure they can instantly charge their mobiles,
and use other devices.
As recently reported in the
Western Morning News, overseas visitors spent £552 million
in the South West in 2013. Attracting inbound tourists is a
key market for the sector.
By providing free wifi, you
have gone a long way to meeting the requirements of your
digital-savvy guests. Investing
in “foreign language” versions
of a website can pay huge dividends in overseas bookings.
The key to maximising a
return on the investment in
these areas is to ensure that
your marketing material advertises that you have thought
about your customers’ needs.
‘Staycation’
breaks bring
the sunshine
after gloom
A summer to remember and a
boom in ‘staycation’ holidays
has given the Westcountry’s
tourism industry a welcome shot
in the arm, as Catherine
Barnes discovered
Last year brought a break in
the clouds for the regional
economy, made manifest by
weeks of sunshine giving our
tourism sector a shot in the
arm after four consecutively
dismal summers.
Tourism bosses admitted
they breathed a collective sigh
of relief after enjoying the
best August for five years.
By late June, tourism businesses had begun to get the
jitters following an Easter
‘that didn’t happen’ and a
chilly May, according to VisitCornwall boss Malcolm
Bell.
“To be honest, people were
extremely worried,” he said.
“When the heat wave hit in
July and the first bit of August
we were really catching up a
bit on that lost early business.
“The sunshine then went
straight through the critical
kids’ holiday season. There
have been a lot more people
around and they were happy.
“It was a good August and
probably as good as 2008,
which was the last good year
we had. I think most business
would have survived another
poor season but it is the investment and confidence
levels which would have
gone.”
English Riviera Tourism
Company chief executive and
VisitDevon chair Carolyn
Custerson said that the industry had to box clever to
attract visitors whatever the
weather, saying:“After a series
of unpredictable summers, we
consider it is essential that we
all invest more in weatherresistant products and activities to create year-round visitor appeal.”
The Devon Hotels and Restaurants Association also reported a substantial rise in
bookings during the summer.
It said many of its members
had seen record numbers of
visitors throughout the holidays and sell-out July and
August months.
Chairman James Sharp
Harnessing the full range of funding
options to enable SMEs to grow
said: “We have seen an increase in overseas visitors,
but one of the main growth
areas has been holidaymakers
choosing to ‘staycation’ in
Devon due to the fantastic
weather we have been experiencing.
“One member has seen an
8.6% rise in overall bookings
in comparison to last summer,
with a 6% rise in July
alone.”
Research into the economic
and social impact of arts and
lifestyle events held in Torbay
last summer later revealed
that five key fiestas attracted
£1.7 million of entirely ‘new’
money into the local economy.
The study has broken down
the costings and profits of five
of the Bay’s most popular cultural events – its long-standing children’s festival, Welsh
National Opera performances, the Agatha Christie
Festival, Art on the Riviera
event Afloat, and its car, boat
and bike fest, Super Weekend.
‘The sector is getting
used now to roller
coaster years’
Malcolm Bell of VisitCornwall
The Westcountry has among
the heaviest reliance on the
industry in the UK, with 8% of
jobs in Torbay, East Devon
and West Devon – and 7% in
Cornwall – tourism-related,
more than double the national
average.
Previous Annual Business
Guides have reflected how the
Tourism economy – worth
more than £2 billion a year in
Devon and Cornwall – has
become more nimble in response to the ‘wait and see’
approach, which leads many
of us to leave our bookings
until the last minute.
And while consumer confidence is returning, the
downturn has seen the nation
develop ‘discretionary thrift’
and a taste for special offers
and bargains, delegates at
February’s West Country
Tourism conference were
told.
“It’s a habit that’s here to
stay,” said Sharon Orrell of
Visit England.
The boom in ‘staycation’ holidays has seen crowds return to the West’s shores, like Goodrington Beach near
Torquay
Largest Tourism & Leisure businesses
in Devon & Cornwall 2014
Number of employees (Devon
& Cornwall only)
Business name
Turnover
Percy R Brend & Sons (Holdings)
£47,458,000
1,096
Eden Project
£19,128,000
504
John Fowler Holidays
£20,488,331
441
Torquay Leisure Hotels
£11,510,000
400
Manor House Hotel (Okehampton) £14,595,000
312
Seafood Trading
£15,100,000
289
Red Hotels
£9,049,000
276
Theatre Royal (Plymouth)
£18,474,000
207
China Fleet
£3,729,000
193
Merlin Cinemas
£4,853,000
184
However, last summer’s
weeks of glorious sunshine
not only prompted hordes to
pack the car boot and make
the journey South West, but
also inspired many visitors to
pre-book ahead for this year.
Amanda Stinchcombe, operations manager at Aspects
Holidays said in November:
“As soon as the sun came out
bookings improved, and it has
given people the confidence to
rebook for 2014.
“To be 20% up on last year
at this point is fantastic.”
Accountants Francis Clark
reported during the month
that 2013 had seen hotel bookings return to pre-recession
levels in Cornwall alone, with
advance sales for 2014 in-
creased by a fifth.
Then came the winter
deluge which saw the main
line swept away at Dawlish
and rail connections West
beyond Exeter cut off for two
months.
Calls on the Government to
address and invest in upgrades to the Westcountry’s
vulnerable transport network
links were emphasised by figures reflecting the escalating
daily cost of the hiatus upon
the local economy.
At the same time, business
leaders were at pains to emphasise that the Westcountry
remained ‘open for business’,
with Malcolm Bell quick to
point out that only a small
percentage – 6% – of Cornwall’s visitors relied upon rail
links. Looking back, he said:
“The wet weather and storms
of 2014, and more importantly
the media reporting following
the Dawlish rail damage, certainly killed off the small but
very valuable March and
early April trade from many
businesses.
“The larger businesses with
good leisure and other facilities faired best, but the
smaller independent accom-
modation providers certainly
suffered and it will take a good
summer and a good autumn to
bring business levels for this
sector back to 2013 levels.
“2014 will be another roller
coaster year – but the sector is
getting used to roller coaster
years.”
Road and rail connectivity
was, unsurprisingly among
the hot topics discussed at
West Country Tourism Conference which took place in
Exeter in February.
Carolyn Custerson warned
that effective road and rail
links are crucial for the Westcountry to tap into new tourism trends.
She told how many tourists
are choosing to take more
mini-breaks and long weekends, instead of a longer holiday.
As such, when they hit the
highway or railway on a
Friday evening, they are heading towards destinations that
will afford them the maximise
time to relax. “The staycation
is here to stay,” she said.
“Access is crucially important, because the average
length of a stay has now decreased to around 3.8 days.
Speedy accessibility is more
and more important with
mini-breaks.
“That’s why city breaks are
out-performing the country.
The South West is perceived as
a beautiful place to stay, but it
takes time to get here. The
transport infrastructure is
vital and what’s happened at
Dawlish is indicative of that.”
The
conference’s
guest
speaker, travel writer Simon
Calder, described his First
Great Western journey from
London to Exeter as ‘just
about as long and slightly
more disagreeable’ as a
gruelling trip he once endured
on the Trans Siberian Railway.
January saw the Eden Project announce it had “turned a
cor ner” after posting a loss of
£6.3 million for 2013-13; its
worst ever financial year.
Accounts for the Eden Trust
revealed a trading loss of £1.3
million for 2012-13, while its
assets depreciated by £5 million. Its turnover was £25.4
million.
The attraction, which had
posted a surplus of £136,000
the previous year, blamed the
poor performance on the effects of the 2012 Olympics, bad
summer weather and the economic downturn. Meanwhile,
it was announced in March
that the tourism organisation
which represents businesses
based on Dartmoor is planning to up its game.
This is part of a concerted
push to bring more visitors
into the National Park.
The Dartmoor Partnership
plans to move from a voluntary organisation into one
that
will
professionally
market the wider Dartmoor
area as an all-year-round,
high-end tourism destination.
Chief executive Caroline
Webster, said that the area
needed to embark on an “aggressive” game of catch-up.
The South West came away
with more awards than any
other region in this year’s
national VisitEngland awards
held in May.
The wider region scooped 15
awards overall.
Westcountry gold honours
went to Exmoor’s Calvert
Trust, which provides accessible holidays for all, Martinhoe’s Old Rectory hotel and
luxury holiday cottage complex Little White Alice in
Car nmenellis.
Awards also went to the
English Riviera Tourism Company for its visitor information.
Cornwall
attractions
Trebah Garden and Gwel an
Mor Resort were also honoured.
Since the economic downturn,
the European Investment
Bank and the UK Government
have set up schemes to make
funding cheaper and more accessible.
Interest rates at a record low
have also had an impact on
how much it costs to source
finance for growth. Though
many people immediately
think of loans and overdrafts
when they look to secure investment, there are in fact
many different ways to borrow
money for your business.
Unlock your options
Research from Lloyds Bank
Commercial Finance suggests
that the average SME in the
South West has assets worth
£221,000 and is owed £59,000 in
unpaid invoices. Despite this
resource, SMEs are missing
out on the opportunity to recruit new staff, break into new
markets or develop new
products because they are not
harnessing the full range of
funding options that could
unlock the value in their assets
and invoices to help them
grow.
For example, asset finance
can be more suitable for seasonal businesses or manufacturers, as it helps to manage
cashflow by lending against
your assets. Alternatively, invoice finance can help businesses release cash quickly,
giving them access to up to
90% of the value of their issued
invoices, often within 24
hours.
Ultimately, the choice of finance depends on how much is
needed to borrow, what expansion plans are in place and
what repayment method is
needed. Often a combination of
different funding options
provides the best solution,
which is when a good broker or
funding provider, such as
Lloyds Bank, proves its
worth.
Driving the UK economy
Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) play a huge
role in driving the UK economy. According to figures
from the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills last
year, SMEs account for 99.9%
of private sector businesses
across the country, 59.3% of
private sector employment
and 48.1% of private sector
tur nover.
Recognising this enormous
economic contribution, the
Government has introduced a
number of initiatives specifically designed to provide SMEs
with access to growth finance,
and help to drive the UK’s economic recovery.
Designed to incentivise
banks and building societies to
boost their lending, the Funding for Lending Scheme (FLS)
ensures cheaper lending is
available to businesses, particularly SMEs. The govern-
BY DAVID BEAUMONT,
Area Director, SME Banking, South West, Lloyds
Bank Commercial Banking
ment-backed Funding for
Lending Scheme offer from
Lloyds Bank provides a 1%
discount to SMEs for the duration of the loan, and since its
launch in September 2012
Lloyds Banking Group has
committed £7.5 billion to our
SME customers under the
scheme.
Practical funding support
One business which has
taken advantage of the funding
and
Government-backed
schemes supported by the
bank is Penryn-based marketing agency, Eight Wire.
As the company’s reputation
continues to spread it has been
able to broaden its reach
across the UK and further
afield, including the USA and
Singapore, by securing new
contracts to create and maintain websites.
The agency provides ser-
‘SMEs are not
harnessing the full
range of funding
options that could
unlock the value in
their assets’
vices including copywriting,
custom designed websites and
search engine optimisation to
a range of sectors including
universities and leisure clients, and to cope with the increase in customer demand it
plans to hire several more staff
in the coming months, in addition to the seven already employed.
Owners Jamie Smith and
Sara Pugh decided to invest in
new business premises with a
larger studio space to house
their growing workforce, with
the support of a £150,000 loan
from Lloyds Bank Commercial
Banking.
The loan was provided
under the government-backed
Funding for Lending Scheme,
through which Jamie and Sara
received a 1% offered by the
bank on all SME loans.
Important financial lessons
The important lesson is to
seek a lender’s advice from the
beginning as this will put you
in a much stronger position
when you are ready to put forward your proposal.
Whatever the situation, it is
important for South West
SMEs to explore all the fund-
ing opportunities available to
them and be confident in the
fact that there are support options out there to help them
achieve their goals.
All lending is subject to a
satisfactory credit assessment
and we will need your permission to carry out a credit
check on you and your business.
You should not apply for an
amount that you cannot comfortably afford to repay now,
and in the future, to avoid the
possibility of legal action.
Lloyds Bank plc Registered
Office: 25 Gresham Street,
London EC2V 7HN. Registered
in England and Wales no. 2065.
Telephone: 020 7626 1500.
We subscribe to The Lending
Code; copies of the Code can be
obtained from www.lendingstandardsboard.org.uk
The Lloyds Banking Group
includes companies using
brands including Lloyds Bank,
Halifax and Bank of Scotland
and their associated companies. More information on the
Lloyds Banking Group can be
found at www.Lloydsbankinggroup.com
Authorised by the Prudential Regulation Authority and
regulated by the Financial
Conduct Authority and the
Prudential Regulation Authority
Lloyds Bank plc is covered
by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme and the Financial Ombudsman Service.
(Please note that due to the
schemes’ eligibility criteria
not all Lloyds Bank business
customers will be covered by
these schemes).
Factoring, Invoice Discounting and Asset Finance facilities are provided by Lloyds
Bank Commercial Finance.
Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance is a trading name of
Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance Ltd. Registered office:
No.1, Brookhill Way, Banbury
OX16 3EL. Registered in England and Wales no.733011.
When using these products
and services your agreement
will be with a Lloyds Banking
Group company whose terms
and conditions will apply.
Lloyds Bank Commercial Finance Limited is part
of Lloyds Banking Group and is authorised and
regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority for
activities relating to certain types of consumer
credit and consumer hire which are regulated
under the Consumer Credit Act 1974 and by the
Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 and are
not deposit takers and are not regulated by the
Prudential Regulation Authority.
58 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
WMN-E01-S4
Commercial property
Exeter benefiting from office space ‘divide’
mouth has a lack of prime
workspace and its retail units
are lying empty for long periods, with bargain stores filling
in the gaps, revealed Alder
King.
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coming to Exeter’ rumours are
It’s been all – or at least, mostly
finally set to bear fruit, with
– about Exeter in the comthe retail giant confirming
mercial property world this
that its big blue and yellow
year.
warehouse will be coming to
In its annual Market Monthe city ‘by 2018’.
itor report
in January,
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andsense
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In Cornwall, the debate has
million expected – and there is
ther
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old puppy)
andexwe felt
cellent.
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to day
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ulative commercial developthen the business scene in PlyAviva Investors’ £7
he whole
experience
very
positive.
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lovely. Every effort was made to enable
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ments in the Duchy. The latest
mouth and the rest of the
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level of independence within a safe environment. I was made to feel welcome (as was our 5 1/2 month old puppy) and we felt
highly
enough.
- The was
staffvery
arepositive.
very friendEU economic funding tranche
South West peninsula will be
city’s Guildhall Shopping
the whole
experience
- Excellent level of care. Staff very caring and kind. Mother settled in straight
away and Father is due to join her soon. I cannot recommend
– set to deliver until 2020 – will
changed beyond measure with
Centre in May. It says the
highly enough. - The staff are very friendhave a focus on supporting
a vibrant new economy.”
scheme will reflect the
projects that will foster skills.
Mike Oldrieve of Vickery
market’s architectural heritExisting EU investments
Holman said that one issue for
age which includes a 12th centhat have been delivered by the
Plymouth is its lack of prime
tury church within its periERDF
Convergence
prooffice space in the pipeline,
meter.
gramme in Cornwall will consaying there is ‘little opporBesides the city centre attinue to spend until 2015. The
tunity’ of new development for
tracting increasing numbers
scheme has supported enterthe next few years as rents and
of prestige retail and restaurprises when they have outcapital values recover.
ant leisure names into its
grown their premises to stay
“This does mean there is a
centre, Stratton Creber Comlocal, as well as shoulder a
real opportunity, particularly
mercial’s Jonathan Ling said
significant amount of the costs
in the centre of Plymouth, to
that new residential developthat have made property inprovide quality refurbished
ments around Exeter’s Southvestors shy away from investoffices,” he said, citing Studio
ernhay zone will bring new
ing.
5-11 in Millbay – where the
residents drawn in by and
Lincolnshire-based
HG
Western Morning News is now
boosting the buzz that’s hapSites, secured £1.38 million in
based – as one example. The
pening.
Care for the best of your life
match funding via Converformer government building’s
The Plymouth and South
gence for its development at
transformation was the work
West Peninsula City Deal, anTreleigh Business Park, Redof architect ADG.
nounced in January is a long
ruth.
High profile property deals
term growth programme
Exeter is setting the pace in the
commercial property stakes,
fuelled by Ikea finally coming to
the city. Catherine Barnes
examines the regional picture
and looks at some hot spots
“This really
s my home
from home”
“This really
is my home
from
home”
“This
really
“This
really
“The food is excellent.
All home cooking and
fresh vegetables”
my home
is myishome
home”
fromfrom
home”
You only have to listen
“The food is excellent.
All home cooking and
fresh vegetables”
to our residents...
You only have to listen
to our residents...
You only have to listen
to our residents...
to to
know
how
good
we
are!
know how good we are!
to know how good we are!
Care for the best of your life
Care for the best of your life
www.stone-haven.co.uk
www.stone-haven.co.uk
www.stone-haven.co.uk
WMN-E01-S4
WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 59
Construction
New towns
laying firm
foundations
for recovery
A house-building boom and a
raft of major projects are helping
to put the South West’s
construction industry on a much
firmer footing, as one of the
region’s key players tells Mike
Bramhall
Construction is playing a key
role in dragging the South
West economy free of the
shackles of recession.
That is the view of Alan
Hope, chief executive of the
Midas Group and a man with
his finger firmly on the
region’s economic pulse.
He said key residential developments, non-housing projects and a building boom
fuelled by the higher education sector have all combined
to put the construction industry on a much firmer footing in the last 12 months.
Add in rising demand for
new homes pump-primed by
the government’s Help to Buy
scheme, increased confidence
among builders on the back of
the general improvement in
the nation’s economy and the
looming boost which massive
projects like the Sherford new
town development near Plymouth and the new Hinkley
Point C nuclear power station
in Somerset will bring and the
picture is dramatically improved from the dark days of
five years ago.
Assessing the state of the
construction
industry
in
Devon and Cornwall, Mr Hope
said: “The picture is certainly
improving.
“Going back to the immediate aftermath of the credit
crunch and 2009, it was pretty
grim for the construction and
property industries.
“Outside housing, our figures show that the general
construction market shrank
by 30 per cent. But since about
a year ago, things have started
to pick up. Its improving
slowly but steadily.
“Outside housing, we are
not yet back to the pre-credit
crunch levels, but the last 12
months have seen a marked
improvement from the dark
days of the recession.”
Mr Hope added: “There is a
lot of talk on news programmes about how construction is going really well. But
the big beneficiary in the last
few years has been housing.”
He said this has been helped
to a large extent by the success
of the government Help to Buy
scheme which makes it possible to buy a new-build or
existing home priced up to
£600,000 with as little as a five
per cent deposit.
But he noted that other
schemes, such as the construction of schools, hospitals and
office buildings, have also
seen a gradual improvement
in the last year.
Mr Hope said that some of
these projects were the result
of big building projects such
as Sherford and the Cranbrook new town development
in East Devon, where Section
106 requirements mean that
non-housing projects are
being built by developers as a
proviso of planning permission being granted.
Mr Hope pinpointed Cranbrook as one of the key projects in the South West which
are laying the foundations of
the South West revival. Others
highlighted by him are the
Exeter Science Park and
Exeter’s Sky Park business
park.
But he said that he hoped to
see Newquay Airport in Cornwall become a business hub in
the next few years, and that
the Hinkley Point development would provide huge opportunities for employment
and businesses in North and
East Devon.
The Stadium for Cornwall
project near Truro could also
act as a catalyst for development in that part of Cornwall,
he said.
One new area which is increasingly coming on stream
An artist’s view of the new Sherford development outside Plymouth, which is starting to take shape; left, Alan Hope, chief executive of the Midas Group
for the construction industry
in the South West is the
amount of new student accommodation being provided by
the universities in Exeter and
Plymouth.
Mr Hope said: “Construction represents around 8% or
9%
of
Gross
Domestic
Product. It is a big chunk of the
economy. It acts as an enabler.
“We have a much more positive outlook for the next few
years. We are emerging from
what has been a difficult
period with slow, steady improvement – which is good.”
In March, planning approval was granted for the extension of a main road to open up
the second phase of the development of Cranbrook. The
decision by East Devon District Council to approve the
detailed plans for using £6 million for roads and infrastructure was the latest stage in the
drive to develop a new town
centre and represents a key
part of the Homes and Communities Agency’s £20 million
investment to ensure the pace
of building new homes in
Cranbrook is maintained.
The remaining £14 million
of funds will support the construction of a new secondary
school and a second primary
school as part of the next
phase of Cranbrook’s develop-
ment. Cranbrook now has
more than 500 homes occupied.
Meanwhile in February
plans for the new town of Sherford, five miles to the east of
Plymouth city centre, took a
major step forward with developers completing the land
purchase. After eight years of
planning, building the 5,500home development is expected
to start this year. It will be
built five miles to the east of
Plymouth city centre on a
1,200 acre site.
It will be delivered by Red
Tree, the project founder, and
a consortium of housebuilders
including Taylor Wimpey,
Linden Homes and Bovis
Homes.
The Homes and Communities Agency will contribute up
to £32 million to enable key
infrastructure,
including
roads.
At least 550 of the first 2,750
homes to be built will be affordable housing. When complete, Sherford will have more
than 12,000 residents, with
retail and commercial areas
expected to support at least
5,000 new jobs.
Sherford will include three
primary schools, one secondary school, a library, youth
centre, health centre, children’s centre, place of worship
and a sports centre with swim-
ming pool, playing fields,
sports pitches and pavilions.
A 200-hectare community
park will also include sport
facilities, community gardens
and allotments.
Sherford spokesman, James
Koe, said: “A tremendous
amount of work has gone into
ensuring that Sherford is sustainable – this means that it
must be delivered commercially, it must be a place that
people want to live in and must
not only survive but thrive.
“To achieve this Sherford
has been designed around the
best qualities of successful
towns that have been in the
South West of England for centuries, while ensuring that all
the benefits of current knowhow are applied to its delivery.”
The first phase of development is in the South West
neighbourhood, to the East of
existing settlements at Elburton, and is slated to begin by
the end of this year, with the
first building work set to start
in early 2015
Development in the first
phase will include upgrades to
Stanborough Cross roundabout on the A379 and provision of a new link road north
of existing playing fields. The
first 1,500 homes and the
South West neighbourhood
centre will be located east of
Elburton and West of Sherford
Quarry Wood on approximately the South Hams and Plymouth administrative boundary.
Development will progress
towards to the A38 and Deep
Lane Junction over the next 20
years.
Meanwhile in April, it was
announced that Cornwall
Council was taking on the site
near Truro which had previously been earmarked for a
stadium for the Cornish Pirates.
After weeks of backroom negotiations the council said the
land would be transferred to
the local authority – but that it
could only be used as a community outdoor sports facility.
The council said the decision would stop the land,
near Threemilestone, being
put to other use and “does not
necessarily preclude” its development as a stadium site in
the future.
The promise of a planned
supermarket nearby would
fund the £24 million project.
The land, along with £900,000,
will be transferred to Cornwall Council under conditions
attached to the decision to
grant planning permission to
developers Inox for 1,500
homes at Langarth near
Threemilestone.
60 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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Sponsors
Opportunities for SMEs
amid changes to grant scene
BY EWAN
MCCLYMONT
Bishop Fleming’s grant
funding specialist
One of the major changes
about to happen to the grants
world in the Westcountry is
the government announcement that several areas in
Devon have been recommended for Assisted Area Status.
This allows for greater EU
funding intervention and
higher levels of Government
support to help businesses in
disadvantaged communities.
It is part of a wider redrawing
of the Assisted Area Map of
Europe and, according to the
Heart of the South West LEP,
will benefit areas such as
Newton Abbot, Ivybridge,
Totnes, Ham ward in Plymouth, several wards in Torridge and Torbay, and much
of North Devon, including
parts of Barnstaple and Ilfracombe.
This is extremely good
news for Devon, which for
years has been over-shadowed
by the generous EU subsidies
from which its neighbour
Cornwall has benefited.
Yet as this newspaper recently highlighted, despite receiving £1 billion of EU
grants since the mid-1990’s,
Cornwall and the Isles of
Scilly is still one of the
poorest regions in the EU,
with a GDP productivity
figure of just 64%. That is
lower than it was in 1999, so I
hate to imagine what the
figure would have been
without this money.
The Cornwall & Isles of
Scilly LEP has submitted its
Strategic Economic Plan to
Government, part of which is
a 590.4 million euro Structural & Investment Fund from
Europe, which will be implemented over the next
seven years to 2020. In addition to several large infrastructure projects, the
SEP’s focus on low-carbon,
digital, marine and aerospace
industries is welcomed and
I’m delighted to see that the
backbone of the Cornish economy – the micro, small and
medium-sized businesses –
will receive support to improve productivity, skills and
wage levels across all sectors,
including traditional industries such as agriculture, fisheries and tourism.
EU funding is just one part
of the equation, however, and
both LEPs in Devon and
Cornwall continue to be
active in drawing down Regional Growth Funding and
Growing Places Funding
from Central Government, as
well as bid for their share of
Local Growth Funding to
enable key infrastructure
projects to be realised.
But it is the ‘private sector
leverage’ all these funds attract that makes the real
difference to the local economy. Grants are a stimulus,
not a cure, and in future
Westcountry businesses will
see a greater emphasis on
repayable loan funding support rather than one-way
grants.
This will help to facilitate
re-investment going forward,
but whether grant or loan, my
heart-felt plea to those tasked
with administering the funding is to ‘hide the wiring’ and
make the process as engaging
as it can be for the businesses
it is designed to assist.
Our people are the reason our clients keep coming back
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 61
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Professionals
After a difficult few years, the
South West’s professional sector
is now starting to move forward
with most firms feeling upbeat,
reports Liz Parks
After a volatile few years of
regulatory change and reduced activity levels, the Westcountry’s legal and accountancy firms have reported a
much stronger performance
this year with a sense that the
corner has now been turned.
While levels of compliance
work remained stable, more
lucrative advisory work has
been at a premium as corporate transaction levels slowed
during the recession.
After a sluggish six-year
slow down, transactions have
now started moving again,
with all indications that the
uplift is now well-established.
As a result, firms are now
starting to look at investment
again with Bishop Fleming
moving into new offices at
Sutton Harbour.
Having opened its first
office in Plymouth in 1965,
Bishop Fleming acquired the
city’s business of Grant
Thornton in 2002, when it
moved its business to Cobourg
House.
Now, the firm’s 40-strong
team in the city has moved to
Salt Quay House, in Sutton
Harbour, after spending the
last two years searching for a
suitable base.
Having pulled out of the
South West following a review
of its office network in 2002,
Grant Thornton announced
this year that it was now looking to re-enter the Westcountry marketplace.
The fifth-largest accountancy firm in the UK is eyeing
its two fledgling Westcountry
offices as a springboard for
expansion in the region.
Grant Thornton established
a presence in Exeter and
Truro in November 2012 after
winning a large volume of
public sector audit work following the disbanding of the
Audit Commission.
At present, these are not full
service offices, but the firm is
looking to extend the range of
services offered with the aim
of eventually establishing full
service offerings.
Mike Sturgess, president of
the South West branch of the
Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and
Wales, said he was finding that
managing partners were generally feeling upbeat.
He said: “Accountants are
far more positive about what’s
going on. There are still sectors that they are a bit nervous
about but growth is starting to
come through.”
Mr Sturgess said that this
growth in fee levels and activity was starting to filter
through into pay increases for
the sector, with average salaries forecast to rise 2.2%.
“We’re starting to see pay
come up for the first time since
the start of the recession. Cli-
Charlie Thomson, of Bishop Fleming, pictured at Sutton Harbour, Plymouth, where the firm has relocated its 40-strong team
Uplift in fortunes fuels legal
firms’ major investments
Largest Professional Practices in
Devon & Cornwall 2014
Number of employees
(Devon & Cornwall
only)
Business name
Turnover
Foot Anstey LLP
£27,500,000
394
Francis Clark LLP
£27,000,000
389
Ashfords LLP
£29,516,000
351
Michelmores LLP
£22,280,000
337
Stephens Scown LLP
£13,500,000
250
Bishop Fleming LLP
£16,635,000
188
Thomas Westcott
£8,250,000
166
ents are growing as well and
the whole economy is a lot
more buoyant,” he added.
“Accountancy firms are now
starting to look at things and
they are starting to recruit –
there is movement in the marketplace.”
Mr Sturgess said that one of
the main challenges that the
industry was currently facing
was the Government’s drive to
tackle red tape including a
lowering
of
the
audit
threshold to £10 million which
would see the vast majority of
companies in the South West
exempt from audit.
“That will have some impact
on the profession,” he said.
But Mr Sturgess said that
there were also some opportunities on the horizon including the Legal Services Act
which meant that accountants
could now provide more probate services.
The first licences for ac-
countants to carry out this
work are due to be granted this
summer.
“There is a lot of interest in
this. It’s natural for accountants to move into that area. A
lot of them are already doing
work around probate but there
is part of it that they cannot do
legally,” he said.
Of course, the Legal Services Act has also meant
changes for the Westcountry’s
legal sector over the last few
years with firms facing the
prospect of increased competition for volume transactions
such as will writing and conveyancing.
Against this backdrop, most
law firms have overhauled
their marketing and business
development functions, with
many focusing their growth
plans on specific sectors or
geographical areas.
Robert Camp, Stephens
Scown LLP’s managing partner, said: “Recent figures from
the Law Society reporting the
first decline for 20 years in the
number of solicitors, along
with a decline in all but the
largest law firms, make for
bleak reading. Competition is
increasing and changes to
legal aid rules and the civil
justice system have hit some
smaller law firms hard.”
As well as launching a new
website and rebranding, Ashfords relocated its London
office from Baker Street to the
heart of the City.
The office, which has 13
partners and 27 staff, has been
a key factor in the firm’s
growth in recent years, bringing in a pipeline of international business.
Chairman Mark Lomas,
who took over from the longserving Simon Rous last year,
has said that the firm will
remain focused on trying to
break into the UK top 50 as it
looks to increased specialisation and international work
for growth.
Foot Anstey continued to
focus on its Bristol office and
on providing highly specialised advice with partner and
Islamic finance specialist
Imam Qazi featuring among
industry
journal
The
Lawyer’s Hot 100 list of legal
practitioners for 2014 on this
basis.
Michelmores posted a 15%
increase in turnover to £26
million for the year ending
April 2014 with profits expected to show similar growth.
Over the last year, the business has added 100 people to its
offices in Exeter, London and
Bristol, bringing the firm’s
workforce to 400.
Managing partner Malcolm
Dickinson said: “2013 has been
another strong year for the
firm and demonstrates a
strong growth trend, with
both turnover and profit continuing to rise in line with our
business strategy.”
Earlier this year, Michelmores announced that it had
appointed Nigel Hall as its
chairman. Mr Hall, who has
been a non executive director
of the business for the last two
years, has previously been
group finance director to the
Arcadia Group and is also
chairman of Countrywide
Far mers.
Stephens Scown also increased its turnover this year
to £13.5 million – a growth of
12% compared to a 6% increase on the previous year.
Both Michelmores and
Stephens Scown will be paying
a bonus to employees as a
result.
In the last year, Stephens
Scown has recruited 29 new
staff including three new partners, two associates and 11
solicitors.
The last year has also seen
Stephens Scown recognised at
the British Legal Awards,
where the firm saw off competition from London firms to
win the Private Client Team of
the Year award.
62 THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 WESTERN MORNING NEWS
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WESTERN MORNING NEWS THURSDAY JULY 3 2014 63
Renewables
West plugs in
to an exciting
new future of
wave power
On shore and off, the
renewables sector continues to
surge ahead in the Westcountry
– which as Mike Bramhall
reports, is ideally placed to
benefit from these innovative
technologies
This has been another strong
year for renewables in the
South West, with some significant developments on
shore and off as the sector
continues to be a key growth
area in the economy.
Merlin Hyman, chief executive of regional sustainable
energy experts Regen South
West, said the biggest story of
the year on land had been the
progress of large solar farms,
coupled with the expansion of
the renewable heat sector.
But Mr Hyman said the loss
of the Atlantic Array offshore
wind turbine project in the
Bristol Channel had been a
‘big blow’.
There is a national target of
generating 15 per cent of the
UK’s energy from renewable
sources by 2020, which could
create 34,000 jobs in the
region. The South West is
ideally placed to benefit, because of world class technology centres like Plymouth
University’s COAST laboratory, Cornwall’s Wave Hub test
facility off Hayle and the
region’s geology and geography.
Mr Hyman said: “On shore,
the biggest story has been the
large solar projects. There has
been very strong growth, with
large commercial arrays beginning to feature. Solar on
commercial roofs and houses
has also progressed at a steady
rate.”.
But he said the spread of on
shore wind turbines had been
slowed because of what he
termed ‘a difficult planning
environment’,
popularly
known as ‘the Pickles Effect’.
This came after Communities
secretary Eric Pickles introduced a policy steer for planners last summer in a bid to
quell a growing backlash
against the proliferation of renewable energy schemes, seen
as electorally damaging in the
Tory rural heartland, which
saw a 31 per cent drop in the
number of successful appeals
by developers since the new
rules took effect. Mr Hyman
said: “That is significant.
Wind is the most cost-effective
form of renewable energy and
our biggest natural resource.
The cost of stopping good quality, sensibly located wind [developments] will put up
energy bills.”
The South West is the leader
in small and community scale
electricity projects. According
to figures published by Regen
last year on the impact of the
Feed In Tariff in the South
West, installations under the
scheme generate enough electricity for 142,000 houses. Its
2013 Renewable Energy Progress Report also revealed that
the total capacity of renewable
electricity in the South West
grew by almost 50 per cent in
the previous 12 months – from
714 MW in 2012 to more than 1
GW – and that the region now
generates 7.3 per cent of its
electricity from renewable
sources. Recent projects are
likely to have substantially increased that.
The South West is also leading the way in the adoption of
renewable heat, in the form of
biomass boilers fuelled by
wood chip from timber off
cuts, supported by the government’s Renewable Heat Incentive. The region has benefited from a long term “SW
Bioheat” project led by Regen
SW with partners which has
enabled local companies to be
better placed to benefit from
the government scheme.
Mr Hyman said the vast majority of people in the region
supported renewable energy
schemes, which was underpinned by a large growth in
community-led
renewable
energy projects, such as the
Wadebridge
Renewable
Energy Network in Cornwall,
which plans to install 1 MW
peak capacity of solar panels
and hopes to generate at least
a third of its electricity from
solar and wind power by 2015.
Mr Hyman said: “The momentum is there, but we need
to make sure we make the
most of the investment for
local communities and local
jobs . The level of interest in
renewables is great, particularly from farmers and land
owners, communities and
businesses – there is a huge
amount going on, and a wide
range of people involved.
The Seatricity
array at
Cornwall’s Wave
Hub facility,
above; Merlin
Hyman, chief
executive of
regional
sustainable energy
experts Regen
South West, left;
and an interior
view of Plymouth
University’s
Marine Building,
which houses
state-of-the-art
tanks to test tidal
and wave energy
devices
“Offshore renewables is also
a very exciting area for the
future. However, the loss of the
Atlantic Array project was a
big blow which showed how
lack of local control of our
energy resources makes us
vulnerable to corporate decisions by large overseas companies.”
Last November, German
energy giant RWE pulled the
plug on developing the Bristol
Channel project – one of the
world’s largest offshore wind
farms – amid concerns that
political pressure over household bills could stifle investment.
But Mr Hyman said projects
to harness the tidal wave
power in the Bristol Channel
and wave energy in the Celtic
Sea gave the UK an opportunity to build a world-leading
industry.
Regen’s South West Renewable
Energy
Manifesto,
launched in June 2013 supported by Cornwall, Heart of
South West and Dorset Local
Enterprise Partnerships and
20 MPs, commits the region to
building a world-leading industry delivering 34,000 jobs.
Cor nwall’s Wave Hub, the
offshore energy test facility,
was boosted when it secured
an international company to
take on its last berth.
Carnegie Wave Energy
plans to deploy a device called
CETO 6, a fully submerged
technology that produces high
pressure water from the power
of waves and uses it to generate clean electricity.
The company plans to have a
3MW array of the technology
at Wave Hub in 2016, with the
option to expand to 10MW, and
was the third customer to
commit to the renewable
energy test site in St Ives Bay
in four months.
Wave Hub, a giant ‘socket’
on the seabed connected to the
grid network onshore by an
underwater cable, now has
three customers with the potential to generate a capacity
of 30MW.
Others have been reserved
by UK-based Seatricity, which
plans a 10MW array in the
next two years, and Finnish
multi-national utilities firm
Fortum, which has reserved a
berth for an array of up to
10MW.
Announcing the CETO 6 development, Claire Gibson,
managing director of Wave
Hub, said: “We are delighted
they have decided to come to
Wave Hub and benefit from the
local expertise that is available in Cornwall.”
Cornwall Council leader,
John Pollard, who is the local
member for Wave Hub’s home
port of Hayle and also a board
member of the Cornwall and
Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise
Partnership, said: “Car negie
Wave Energy’s work based in
Hayle proves the international scope of the project.”
Wave Hub, which is publicly
owned by the UK Department
for Business, Innovation and
Skills, is also the preferred
location for the UK’s first offshore floating wind demonstrator project which could be
in place by next year.
It is a £30 million construction project funded with £16.5
million from the European Regional Development Fund
Convergence Programme and
£13.5 million from the UK Government and is a partner in
the South West Marine Energy
Park.
The importance of the
sector to the South West was
underlined when Climate
Change Minister Greg Barker
visited Plymouth in May, and
said the “marine revolution”
had finally come to the city.
Mr Barker toured Plymouth
University’s Marine Building,
which houses state-of-the-art
tanks used to test tidal and
wave energy devices at the
Coastal, Ocean And Sediment
Transport (COAST) laboratory.
Plymouth is one of three
centres that make up the
South West Marine Energy
Park, which Mr Barker created in 2012, and he said: “After
years of promise the marine
energy revolution has finally
arrived in Plymouth. It’s incredibly exciting to come back
to the South West and see our
vision go from paper to real-
ity.” Adam Corney, Plymouth
University’s marine commercial director, said the wave
tanks are fully booked until
May next year, adding: “We
have got people coming from
all over the world to use
them.”
He described COAST as a
world class facility, and said it
had got off to a great start since
it opened in October 2012.
He added: “We have had
some excellent progress. We
have been pretty much full
since we started. We have commercial clients from all over
the world – Europe, America
and we are currently talking
with people from Australia.”
But Mr Corney said that
COAST is also working with
South West SMEs, including
Mojo Maritime from Falmouth
and Valeport Instruments at
Totnes, adding: “It is important to maintain the supply
chain in the South West with
renewables”.
He said that the facility’s
role in boosting the local economy had been demonstrated
by the fact that Dutch company
Tocardo, an international producer of tidal turbines, had
opened its new UK headquarters in Plymouth at Sutton
Harbour.
The
renewable
energy manufacturer believes
a South West location will help
it to remain competitive when
it comes to tendering to for
French contracts for commercial tidal and free-flow water
turbines.
Mr Corney said: “That is a
good example of what we are
trying to achieve with marine
renewables.
“We are trying to bring value
to the local economy.”
FaBTest, the offshore test
area for marine renewable
energy devices in Falmouth
Bay, had a successful year despite being buffeted by the
winter storms, during which
the site measured a new maximum wave height of 8.75m (30
feet).
The nursery facility enables
device developers to test in a
moderate wave climate, while
giving excellent accessibility
to the device and benefiting
from the extensive nearby port
infrastructure.
The site is managed by Falmouth Harbour Commissioners, with operational support,
monitoring and world leading
research provided by the Renewable Energy Group from
the University of Exeter, based
on the nearby Penryn campus.
This support is made possible
partly thanks to investment
from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund of
£549,000, approved by the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local
Enterprise Partnership.
The site has been operational since October 2011, and Fred
Olsen Ltd have had their
“Lifesaver” device deployed
since March 2012 as part of
continuing commercialisation
trials.
Following a successful bid to
access European Regional Development Fund money, Falmouth’s Mojo Maritime will
deploy their low motion platform from September. FaBTest
management is in talks with
other national and international developers looking to
deploy in 2015. Dr Alan Taylor,
project manager of the Fred
Olsen Wave Energy Project,
said: “The extreme winter
weather conditions at the
FaBTest – the most severe
since we began testing in
March 2012 – underlined the
usefulness of this facility as a
trials and development location, and as a key part of the
UK research infrastructure. It
allowed us to demonstrate continued electrical generation of
our device in a real world
storm situation.”
Government consistency would be a welcome boost for this thriving industry
BY EWAN MCCLYMONT
Head of Sustainable Energy,
Bishop Fleming
Recent headlines have raised
new questions about the future
for renewable energy.
Those headlines have highlighted cuts in Government
subsidies for large-scale solar
installations and revealed a
pre-election battle between the
Conservatives,
who
have
spoken out against on-shore
wind generation, and their coalition partners.
Meanwhile, UK greenhouse
gas emissions fell by nearly 2%
last year, as less coal and gas
was used to generate electricity. However, official figures
show that, because of increases in 2010 and 2012, the
UK’s carbon footprint is still
roughly the same as it was in
2009.
The target to produce 15% of
the UK’s energy from renewable sources by 2020, therefore,
continues to influence Government policy in the industry,
and the South West is better
placed than ever to utilise its
natural assets of solar, wind,
wave and geothermal power.
Indeed, according to Regen
South West, four years ago
there were around 10,000
households and organisations
generating renewable energy
in the South West – it is now
approaching 100,000.
But targets are one thing and
public opinion is another.
While the public generally accepts that there is a need for
renewables in the energy mix,
opinion is divided on where to
deploy it – “anywhere else but
here” seems to be the case for
many people.
Some reports highlight that
the increase in turbines and
solar farms are a threat to the
region’s
tourist
economy,
while others state that they
are an accepted part of the
landscape and even enhance
the visitor experience. With an
election less than a year away,
this is a political hot potato
across the UK, and council
planning departments have an
increasingly difficult path to
tread. Political point-scoring
and planning uncertainty,
added to the Treasury’s finite
budget for renewables subsidies, continues to send out
mixed messages to the industry and does not make longterm investment easy.
The new feed-in tariff
scheme based on Contracts for
Difference (CfDs) will be open
to applications at the end of
this year, and is designed to
guarantee fixed prices for lowcarbon energy production. Details are still being finalised
but by bidding for CfDs
through auction and agreeing
a strike price, investors and
developers should be provided
with more certainty over the
long-ter m.
Overall, the renewables industry in the South West has
much to be positive about.
However, if Government is
serious about its commitment
to carbon emissions and maximising the economic potential of the sector, then a consistency in policy and message
would be welcomed.
64
WMN-E01-S4
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