LDP Business 06.07.11

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BUSINESS EDITOR:BILL GLEESON0151 472 2319

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BUSINESS REPORTER:PETER ELSON0151 472 2502

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BUSINESS REPORTER:ALEX TURNER0151 472 2321

BUSINESS REPORTER:NEIL HODGSON0151 472 2451

TYPHOO Tea is looking for a freshblend of high-profile marketing activ-ity to boost sales by £10m this year.

The Wirral company said it isalready “running way ahead” of itsforecasts as it enters its secondquarter.

It is embarking on a series of “majorinitiatives” that it believes will deliversignificant growth in the current fin-ancial year.

Typhoo launched its two-year spon-sorship of Super League club St HelensRLFC and power boat racing cham-

pionship P1 SuperStock at the AlbertDock in Liverpool yesterday.

While the water was choppy, it hasbeen smooth sailing for Typhoo so farthis year, as it outperforms its ambit-ious plans to grow revenues by 15%.

The tea firm increased sales 5% inthe year to March, to £71m, buildingon 8% growth in 2010.

Typhoo chief executive Keith Packeris targeting turnover of £100m by 2015,which will require compound annualgrowth of 9% over the next four years.

The Moreton-based manufacturerwill be launching a product nextmonth which it expects “will be a stepchange” for the company and it willreturn to television screens thisautumn with an advertising campaign.

Typhoo is also changing the shade ofred it uses in its packaging, returningto its traditional, brighter red ratherthan the current maroon.

“It’s all part of our overall market-ing mix,” said Mr Packer. “Typhoo hasambitious plans for 2011-12 targeting15% growth this year and the sportssponsorship deals will help us withthat. We recognise that we want to getfurther recognition for Typhoo. That’swhy we have gone with both oppor-tunities.

“We have recognised that the oppor-tunity for us in rugby league is withour core market, and a high propor-tion of women go to watch it. The sporthas also got a high coverage in termsof people who watch it on television.”

Exports currently account for 5% ofthe business, and are also enjoyinggrowth, while Mr Packer was partlyattracted to the St Helens sponsorshipdeal because of its television exposureoverseas in countries including Aus-tralia and New Zealand.

While the rugby league and power-boating competitions are mainlybroadcast on satellite television,Typhoo will be raising its profile onterrestrial television as well with aseries of advertisements starting inSeptember or October.

Typhoo, which employs 280 staff,was part of food giant Premier Foodsuntil it was bought by India’s ApeejaySurrendra Group, in 2005.

TyphooTeaturnsuptheheatonitsrivalsTHE London market

struggled to makeheadway yesterdayafter banks and min-ing stocks slid onrenewed fears aboutthe strength of theglobal recovery.

The FTSE 100 Indexhad made stronggains in recent days,having pushed abovethe 6,000 mark for thefirst time in morethan a month afterGreece agreed to aus-terity measures.

But the blue-chipindex gained just 6.5points after factoryorders in the US camein lower than expec-ted and China warnedthat inflation pres-sures remain high.

MARKET REPORT:PAGE 15

FTSE-1006024

6.5▲

Firm plans forgrowth after£30m MBOTHE buyout team atHaydock’s IntrinsicTechnology has gotinvestment to back asales push.

PAGE 2

Profits upST MODWEN seeshousing demandgrow though officemarket remains quiet.

PAGE 4

Funding hopeBID to clinch a fund-ing lifeline for Liver-pool’s Sirolli projectsfor entrepreneurs.

PAGE 5

Two sectorsPOLL shows St Helensmanufacturers areupbeat, but servicesector still downbeat.

PAGE 7

inside AirporttrafficremainsstrongLIVERPOOL John Len-non Airport (JLA) hasenjoyed its busiest firsthalf of the year since2008 as passengerlevels continue toimprove.

Last month, 492,780people used JLA, up5%, taking itsyear-to-date total to2.53m.

That is more than150,000 higher than ayear ago, and the bestsince Liverpool’s yearas European Capital ofCulture. JLA’s manage-ment attributed therise to strong growthon some routes andhigher load factors.

Factors including thelate Easter and theRoyal Wedding bankholiday, which alsospread out school hol-idays, contributed to abumper April, whileMay and June also sawtotals of around490,000 passengers.

Liverpool John LennonAirport has seen a markedimprovement in passengerlevels in the first sixmonths of the year

Photo: PAUL HEAPS/ph230211airport-11

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■ TRADING Gossip: Page 16

2 Wednesday, July 6, 2011

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The latest fromthe creative anddigital industries

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1 B&M ruled out of TJ’s race2 Exclusive: Ian Ayre interview3 Uniform takes on Liverpool FC4 Flybe in £22.6m Finnish deal5 Royal Liver name disappearsldpbusiness.co.uk

Updatesthroughoutthe day

£30mMBOis Intrinsictohi-techfirm’sexpansion

IneosagreesplasticsventureGERMAN chemicalsgroup BASF expects toreceive 600m eurosfrom a styrenic-plasticsjoint venture it is set-ting up with Britishrival Ineos.

BASF agreed inNovember to transferparts of its styrenicsbusiness into a jointventure named Styrolu-tion with Ineos, after amore than two-yearsearch for a buyer orpartner.

The cash paymentwill be made once theventure is set up by theend of this year andwill compensate BASFfor contributing assetsthat were more valu-able than the 50%shareholding it willown in Styrolution, aspokeswoman for theventure said.

The businesses to befolded into Styrolutionposted combined salesof 6.4bn euros last yearand profits of 407meuros.

BASF’s first quartersales rose a sixth to1.8bn euros whileprofits almost doubledto 174m euros, puttingStyrolution on track tobeat its 2010 results.Styrenics are used forphone casings and foodpackaging.

ServicesectorperformanceupBRITAIN’S service sector per-formed better than expectedin June, but growth was stillnot strong enough to generatejobs, a purchasing managers’survey showed yesterday.

The Markit/CIPS headlineservices PMI index nudged up

to 53.9 last month from athree-month low of 53.8 inMay.

That was above the 53.5 thateconomists had forecast, andgave a boost to the pound.

But it remains below itslong-run average, and Markit

said Britain’s economy waslikely to have expanded by0.3% over the second quarterat best. “It was a relief that itwasn’t weaker, but that’s notto say it’s a particularly greatoutcome,” said Alan Clarke,economist at Scotia Capital.

Offeragreed

newsLDPbusiness .co.uk

PEARSON, the owner of Penguin books and theFinancial Times, said its £113m offer for vocat-ional awards body Education DevelopmentInternational was accepted by investors hold-ing more than 90% of the company’s shares.

It can now begin to issue compulsory pur-chase orders for the remaining 6% of shares inthe Coventry-based firm.

A HAYDOCK technology firm’s£30m management buy-out isexpected to lay the platform forsignificant growth.

Intrinsic Technology’s founderand majority shareholder, AllanGauld, has been bought out in adeal led by chief executive MikeMason and backed by privateequity firm RJD Partners.

The company, which providesICT and unified communicationssolutions and managed services,was set up in 1999.

It grew slowly at first because ofMr Gauld’s insistence on remain-ing as debt-free as possible, butenjoyed strong growth once it hadestablished itself after five years.

He has been seeking investmentfor the last two years to enable thecompany to make a step changefrom turning over £25m to aimingfor annual sales of £100m.

As part of that process, MikeMason was brought in to the com-pany after previously advising MrGauld, who owns about three-quarters of Intrinsic’s share cap-ital, on his options for the com-pany.

Mr Mason was acting as a con-sultant after a 20-year career in ITand communications businesseswhich had seen him involved inseveral buy-outs and acquisitions.But he admitted to getting “boredof advising people what theyshould be doing and not beingresponsible for the execution ofthose plans.”

Mr Mason said: “Having workedin the business team for nearlytwo years, I’m delighted to nowtake the business forward to thenext stage in its strategic plan,along with the current manage-ment team and existing teamsbeneath them.

“Intrinsic has developed anexcellent reputation for high qual-ity and responsive customer ser-vice.

“We aim to build on this by tak-ing advantage of both the organicgrowth and acquisition opportun-ities presented in a dynamic butfragmented market. RJD areexperienced investors in the ITservices sector and fully share ourambitious vision.”

Frank Bulman, partner at RJDPartners, is excited about thepotential of the St Helens firm.

He said: “Mike Mason has aproven track record of creatingtransformational ICT solutions,delivered and underpinned bystrong service organisations.

“We are delighted to have theopportunity to back him in lead-ing a highly motivated andimpressive management team andworkforce, in the buyout ofIntrinsic.

“The company is an innovative,leading player in an attractivemarket with excellent growthpotential and we look forward toworking with the team to fullyexploit this.”

The company believes that therecession has focused organisat-ions, whether operating in thepublic or private sector, on theneed to increase productivity fromtheir assets.

That includes both their peopleand their premises and Intrinsic’scloud computing and unified com-munications solutions are, theybelieve, well placed to add value.

Adam Jarvis, sales and market-ing director at Intrinsic Tech-nology, added: “Ultimately, thistransaction will further facilitateour growth to deliver a simplifiedclient experience with better pur-chasing power across a greaternumber of vendors, giving our cli-ents better choice at betterprices.”

TOP FIVE

Mike Mason – led the buy-out of Intrinsic Technology founder andmajority shareholder Allan Gauld

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VIDEO: THE VISITOR ECONOMY

We host a debate on Merseytourism – including theimportance of cruise ship visits

3Wednesday, July 6, 2011

onment of recruitment: “When I firststarted, I thought I had worked hardbefore, but, after the first two weeksin this industry, I was shattered,” hesaid. “But I enjoyed it, which made itworthwhile.

“Within two weeks, I was making asubstantial amount of money for thebusiness. Within a couple of months,I had won a huge contract worth£2m. The rest is history.”

He added: “There were five of uswhen I worked in the business. It wasat that point I realised I was good atwhat I did and I saw the potential togrow.

“Within 12 months, I was takingresponsibility for other people in thebusiness. I took on my first officialmanagement title a couple of yearson.

“I am always of the opinion thatyou need to earn your stripes.”

Although Parish has known onlyone place of employment for 14 years,he has no regrets about shunningoffers from other recruitment com-panies earlier in his career.

“When you know what you aredoing and you have the rightstrategy, there’s no need to go else-where,” he said.

“It’s not all about the money. It’sabout the success and being proud ofwhat we are achieving.

“We have got a great reputation inthe marketplace.”

GPW has three core divisions –technical and design, manufacturingand engineering, and construction –while it is looking to develop itsoffice personnel division, which hesays “has the potential to be thebiggest in our company”.

Parish became managing directortwo years ago when Graham Worsley,son of the founder Gilbert PeterWorsley, became chairman afternearly 20 years running the company.

“Things have started to recoveracross the board, and we are startingto do really well again.

“In 2007-08, our consultants had aratio of 10 calls to one sale. At itsworst, to get a deal it got to about 100calls.

“The economy is recovering andthe ratio is getting better. It’s backdown to about 20 calls for each suc-cess.

“The harder you work and themore focus you have, the more youwill get out of it.

“If the consultants keep it up withthe pace and the attitude that theyhave, they will rocket ahead.”

Parish, who admits to sometimesworking “excessive hours”, wasquickly bitten by the recruitmentbug when he chose to join GPWRecruitment after graduating with adegree in business studies from Liv-erpool John Moores University.

He had worked for Boots for fiveyears through university, and hadalso completed a year in industrywith Marks & Spencer as part of hisdegree course, which saw him takeresponsibility for up to 150 staff.

But even those experiences didn’tprepare him for the hothouse envir-

profile

2020visionforrecruitmentfirmMDfocusedongrowth

A SLIGHT astigmatism, caused by asports injury, prevented Mark Parishfrom fulfilling his dream of becominga fighter pilot, so instead he focusedon becoming a top gun in recruit-ment.

Fourteen years after leaving uni-versity and joining St Helens-basedGPW Recruitment as a trainee, he isplotting for its turnover to soar from£20m to £200m by 2020.

“Our plan to get to £200m is a10-year plan,” said Parish. “We stillhave nine years left. Can we achievethat? I think that’s a realistic forecastto work with.”

He says that, although the com-pany is already in the top 1% of thecountry’s 15,000 agencies based onturnover, GPW’s growth can be swiftand significant.

“It’s a £25bn industry and we aredoing £20m,” he said. “We are onlyjust scratching the surface.”

The recession put the brakes onthe company’s growth – it addednearly £5m turnover in the year toOctober, 2008, to take it above £21mbefore the jobs market ground to ahalt – but GPW remained profitabledespite the downturn.

Parish said: “In the last two years,with the recession we have plat-eaued, while a lot of companies havegone backwards.

“We have performed very wellindeed, but I think that’s onlybecause we have put the time andeffort in. We have had a good coupleof years, but it’s been a hard slog.

AlexTurnermeetsMARKPARISH,MDofGPWRecruitment

LDPbusiness .co.uk

GPW Recruitment managing directorMark Parish – I am very hands-on,there’s nothing I won’t do

Picture: JAMES MALONEY/ jm040711ldpbiz-6

Age: 38Lives: St HelensHighest educational qualification: Adegree in business studies from LJMUProudest achievement in business:Gaining membership to the EngineeringConstruction Industry Association, whichwas key to winning a £2m dealBiggest regret: I don’t have anyregrets, that’s quite a nice thing to beable to sayUnfulfilled ambition: To drive a For-mula 1 car around a track

q&a

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“I am very hands on, there’s noth-ing I won’t do,” he said. “I will rollmy sleeves up and help them out. Wecreate a culture of teamwork.

“If you can show that to your staff,they will have respect for you. We areall like that.”

He acknowledges that it is “dif-ficult” to avoid getting dragged intothe day-to-day operations of the busi-ness, but accepts it as a necessaryresponse to the tough conditions ofthe last couple of years.

“I do struggle with that because ofthe size we are,” he said. “I deal withthat by doing more hours.

“Put simply, that means some ofmy private life gets lost in trans-lation sometimes.

“I just put whatever hours in Ineed to get things moving. You don’tget anywhere without hard work.

“I don’t struggle to differentiatebetween working in the business andon the business. It’s just about time.

“We are in a position to recruitextra people, and when we do that Iwill create more time for me andother staff. It has been all hands-ondeck.”

Working long hours is sustainablefor Parish while the successes keepon coming.

That was the case when GPWgained membership to the Engineer-ing Construction Industry Assoc-iation – an achievement which Par-ish ranks as his proudest. It put GPWinto a very select group of about 15agencies and enabled it to seek luc-rative contracts.

He said: “I handled that projectmyself. It was very political and Ihad to lobby a lot of people. It allowedus to gain access to a big project andopened us up to the nuclear sector,which is going to go boom over thenext few years.

“It’s a very detailed and complic-

ated process. I had a window of fourweeks to complete it, to secure a con-tract worth £2m for us.

“I worked 24/7 on it, we achieved itand won the project.

“We achieved what we achievedbecause we are good at what we do.It’s going to be huge for us goingforward.”

Parish is a big fan of businessbible How to Win Friends and Influ-ence People, by Dale Carnegie, andsays he reads it “every two or threemonths”.

He said: “It’s a really interestingbook and it gives you all of the toolsto communicate with people.

“It’s made me a much, much bettermanager as a result.

“I’m down to earth but very ambit-ious. I am aware of my own limit-ations, I do learn from my mistakes.”

His ambitions, for himself and forGPW, don’t include a change of loc-ation any time soon.

Parish, who is working just onemile from where he went to school atCowley High, has lost his adolescentindifference to St Helens and is nowkeen to extol the virtues of his hometown.

He said: “When I went to uni-versity, I always said I would neverstay in St Helens, but I am quitepassionate about the town now.

“I am very proud GPW is a localcompany, I’m proud of our town.

“It would be nice to be recognisedas a St Helens-based company thathas really achieved something.

“I have got such pride in what wedo as a company.

“It’s not me, it’s the staff, they aredoing the hard work. It’s about hav-ing pride in what you have gotaround you.

“I would like us to achieve thegoals we have set out for the staff, sothey feel the benefits as well.”


Developeraimstoexploitincreasedmarketactivity

A computer-generated image of the Venture Fields development, by St Modwen, in Widnes, which isnow almost fully let and will open later this year

PricecutssqueezemarginsathomeshoppinggiantNBrown

ComiclegendtovisitTheHeath

CATALOGUE and online shop-ping group N Brown warnedaggressive promotional dis-counting had cut into profitmargins – but said salesremained buoyant.

The group, which also ownsSimply Be and High & Mighty,said price-cutting was neces-sary to help drive revenue –which increased 1.6% on alike-for-like basis in the 18weeks to July 2.

The push to pull in custom-ers, which N Brown said was inline with the rest of the sector,saw gross margins dip by 0.2%in the period, but total grouprevenue was up 5.1%.

The retail sector has sufferedin recent weeks as consumers

rein in their spending as thecost of living soars and wagegrowth remains muted.

N Brown said menswear andfootwear is growing stronglywhile ladieswear is down – atrend consistent with the sameperiod last year.

High inflation is hitting itscore ladieswear ranges, whileclothing at the higher pricepoints is doing well. In itsbrand portfolio, Jacamo, Mar-isota and Simply Be all per-formed strongly.

N Brown said internationalsales for Simply Be in Germanyand the USA were rising in linewith expectations.

Simply Be, which sells fash-ionable clothes for plus-size

women, is also moving onto thehigh street for the first time.

The Daily Post revealed lastmonth that N Brown hadchosen Liverpool One as thesite of its first store, whileanother is planned forManchester.

The group wants to increaseits online marketing activities –as online sales now account for47% of the total, up from 41%last year.

Matthew McEachran, retailsector analyst at Singer Cap-ital, said: “The niche nature ofthe business, positive demo-graphic, customer trends andthe increasing sales shift onlineremain key positives to theinvestment case.”

DEVELOPER St Modwen posted a 40%rise in pre-tax profits for the sixmonths to May 31.

They jumped from £26.7m to £37.4m,while revenues improved from £58.3mlast time to £61.3m this year.

The group, which operates aregional base in Warrington, said ithas also seen increased demand in theresidential housing market, althoughthe industrial and regional office sec-tors remain slow.

Property valuations increased by£25m and a 2% improvement in netrental income realised £17.8m, com-pared with £17.4m in 2010.

Since the end of its financial year,the group has also signed a deal todevelop office and production facilitiesfor communications group Siemens, inLincoln.

St Modwen chairman Bill Oliversaid: “We have achieved very strongresults for the first half of the year inmarkets that continue to present chal-lenges.

“We are also seeing an increase indemand for developable residentialland and we continue to progress ourresidential development programmeboth in-house and through joint ven-tures.”

He added: “Over the past two years,we have focused heavily on site pre-paration, remediation and securingplanning permissions, putting us inthe highly competitive position ofbeing able to offer ‘ready to develop’sites to potential occupiers orinvestors.

“Increasingly, we are now turningour attention to growing our develop-ment pipeline. This will be achievedboth by bringing forward new devel-opments from our existing landbankand through the acquisition of newopportunities.”

One project to be brought forward,

next year, is the £150m Project Jenniferscheme, on Great Homer Street, whichwill regenerate a deprived area ofnorth Liverpool and create 1,100 jobs.

The development is finally set tostart after a land dispute betweensupermarket giants Tesco and Sains-bury’s was settled.

And North West director MichelleTaylor outlined more progress acrossthe region: “We’ve continued to makegreat strides forward in the NorthWest, including completing the £2.8msale of 20,000 sq ft of retail units thatwe developed at Connah’s Quay.

“Venture Fields, our highly success-

ful leisure scheme at the WidnesWaterfront, is almost fully let. Thescheme will be completed on time andon budget and will welcome its firstvisitors this year.”

Housing firm Jones Homes also tookfive more acres at the former VulcanWorks site, in Newton-le-Willows.


COMEDY legend Ken Dodd will bring his spec-ial brand of humour to an exciting communityopen day at The Heath Business and TechnicalPark in Runcorn.

The much-loved Liverpool comic is sure toraise more than a few titters when he wel-comes charities and voluntary groups to TheHeath’s inaugural Community Open Day, onTuesday, July 19. The event will showcase thebusiness park’s facilities and strengthen ties tolocal residents and groups.

It will be a family affair for the comedian,whose nephew, John Lewis, is managing dir-ector of SOG, the owner and operator of thepark which is home to more than 150 separateorganisations employing a total workforce inexcess of 1,700 people. The Heath’s restaurantand event facilities have just undergone a£250,000 refurbishment. Mr Lewis said: “Thiswill be a fun day and there’ll be a lot of laughter– especially with my zany uncle around.”

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privatebusinessIncreasedvolumesbrew upprofitsTHOMAS HARDY con-tinued to brew strongprofits in an “excel-lent” year for the Bur-tonwood brewer.

It saw turnover rise9% to £40.4m in theyear to September, 2010– maintaining growthwhich has seen salesincrease £17m in thelast three years.

Pre-tax profits rosesharply, from £640,000to £1.73m, which thecompany said wascaused by “increasingvolumes and good costcontrol”.

In accounts just filedat Companies House,the directors said: “Build-ing on the previousyear’s growth, produc-tion volumes continuedto increase in bothbrewing, up 6%, andbottling, up 5%.”

Thomas Hardy has abrewery and bottlingplant at Burtonwood,near Warrington, and,in October, 2009, itbought the freehold ofa Kendal bottling andpackaging plant, whichit already operated.

At Burtonwood, thecompany produces beerand other alcoholicdrinks for eight com-panies, includingHeineken UK.

It employs nearly 50of its 135 employees atBurtonwood, whichcontributed £24.4m ofthe group’s turnoverand generated £670,000pre-tax profit.

The directors saidtheir forecast “placesthe group in a goodposition to meet anyprospective tough eco-nomic challenge”.

They added: “Theprospects for the com-ing year continue tolook promising and thegroup is expected totrade profitably.”

Emoluments for thethree directors – PeterWard, Rae Ward andNeil Voss – totalled£1.25m, with thehighest-paid receiving£858,000.

Mr Ward founded thecompany in 1997, andin 1998 formed a jointventure company withBurtonwood Breweryto manage the com-pany’s brewing opera-tions. It bought theplant in 2005, while thepubs business is nowpart of Marston’s.

ALEX TURNER

[email protected]


BBC tofilm cityhousingauctionTHE BBC televisionseries, Homes Underthe Hammer, is to filmSutton Kersh’s prop-erty auction next Tues-day at the MarriottHotel, Queen Square,Liverpool city centre.

The auction housewill offer 78 propertiesat the event. Includedin the catalogue are 35vacant residentialproperties and 25 res-idential investmentopportunities.

For every propertythat is sold at the auc-tion, Sutton Kersh willdonate £50 to MarieCurie Cancer Care insupport of its BloomingGreat Tea Party Cam-paign.

Cathy Holt, auctionmanager at SuttonKersh said: “Interesthas been high pre-auc-tion, with lots of view-ings being booked andoffers being received.”

BidtofindnewSirolli funding

Dr Ernesto Sirolli


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Bramallbasesfutureonvaluesof its80-yearpastBUILDING firm BramallConstruction has celebratedits 80th anniversary.

The Speke-based company,which has offices acrossEngland and Wales, waslaunched in 1931 by GeorgeBramall and Dick Ogden,near Rotherham, and nowemploys more than 950 staff,has a turnover of £225m, andis part of the KeepmoatGroup of companies.

North West managing dir-ector Dave Prescott said:“Over the past 30 years, wehave grown to become one ofthe largest providers of newand refurbished homes andeducational faculties in theNorth West.

“While I am sure the busi-ness has changed substan-tially over the past eight dec-ades, I believe the familyvalues and culture thatmade the business a successthen, are still the keyingredient to our successtoday.”

The company has a proudhistory in Liverpool, includ-ing an award-winning hous-ing project in Walton toinstall solar panels and newheating systems that has ledto a 74% reduction in carbonemissions per property eachyear. Looking back . . . an archive photograph of a Bramall and Ogden board meeting which took place in 1972

MOVES to clinch a fundinglifeline for Liverpool’s Sirolliprojects have begun.

They centre on establishinga Community DevelopmentFinance Institute (CDFI) toattract investment for theentrepreneurs of the future.

The Sirolli projects wereintroduced to Liverpool in1996 when acclaimed Italianbusiness guru Dr Ernesto Sir-olli followed up on visits twoyears previously to establishthree schemes aimed at devel-oping grass roots entrepren-eurs.

The Sirolli model encour-ages communities to shapetheir own future by poolingresources to help create newbusinesses that contribute tothe area’s regeneration asthey grow.

Each institute is spear-headed by a “business facil-itator” aided by a board oflocal people, including exist-ing small businesses who canpass on valuable advice.

Enable North covers NorthLiverpool, Dream Highfocuses on the East of the city

and Waves looks after centraland South Liverpool.

But their funding runs outwith the ending of Stepclevernext March.

So Enable North chairmanMark Rea, 29, has suggested aCDFI to generate new invest-ment.

He explained: “CDFIs havebeen around since 1999 but,because of the Objective 1money, Liverpool has neverneeded one before.”

CDFIs attract communityinvestment tax relief, so aninvestor giving, for example,£1,000 for five years would get5% tax relief over the periodand their money back.

Mr Rea said: “We’re hopingto be able to add a little bitmore as a bonus to involvemore people, so low earnerscould consider it as an invest-ment.”

He said the proposal wasjust at the “baby steps” stage,but he wants to involve organ-isations like regenerationagency Liverpool Vision, thecity council, Liverpool Cham-ber of Commerce and the Fed-eration of Small Businesses:“We want to work in partner-ship with these people and say,we want you as a partner. Wewant to be collaborative.”

He added: “We need tograsp this with both handsand do it properly.”

CDFIs can provide fundsfrom £500 to £50,000 forstart-up businesses, overseenby the current communitypanels that assess the busi-ness risk in new ventures.

Mr Rea hopes his proposalscould move a step closer toreality when the CommunityDevelopment Finance Assoc-iation comes to Liverpool thisSeptember to stage its annualconference at the CrownePlaza Hotel.

[email protected]

SATISFYYOUR OFFICEREQUIREMENT




GatwickshortlistingaddsshinetoMorganSindall

Burberryfacesrevoltonpay

Councils ‘stuckindarkages’overturbineapplications

The third phase of work at the £110m English Cities fund St Paul's Square development, in the centreof Liverpool, involved Morgan Sindall's Muse division

THE positive start to its year has con-tinued for construction and fit-outgroup Morgan Sindall, it confirmed ina trading update for the six months toJune 30.

The group, which has a regionalconstruction office on Liverpool’sWavertree Technology Park, an afford-able housing operation in its Lovelloffices in Birkenhead, and designfunctions in Warrington, said it is ontrack to meet full year targets and itsforward order book is in line with thestart of the year.

Contracts in its Merseyside port-folio include work on the £110m Eng-lish Cities fund development at StPaul’s Square, in Liverpool’s businessdistrict.

The statement said constructionand infrastructure is trading as expec-ted, although margins are tight due toincreased competition.

The affordable housing operationcontinues to see opportunities in themixed tenure, new build social hous-ing, and planned and response main-tenance markets.

And the group also reported a slightimprovement in the open markethousing sector, despite sales remain-ing constrained by a lack of availablemortgage finance.

Revenues in the fit-out division areahead of the previous year, and thegroup said it is well placed for ananticipated recovery in the marketfrom 2012.

The urban regeneration team hasbeen selected by Warrington councilas its development partner on thecouncil’s £130m Bridge Street scheme.

And while the group’s cash positionof £44m is lower than the same periodin 2010, it is still above expectations.

The statement said: “Overall, wehave had a positive first half of 2011and, with our track record in growthsectors, broad sector spread and depthof capabilities, we remain well posi-tioned to face the challenges aheadand to benefit from opportunities as

they arise.” One such opportunity is afoothold on the billion-pound revampof Gatwick Airport after it made ashortlist of firms appointed for thework yesterday.

It is one of 10 building contractorsthat will compete for the various partsof the £1.2bn project, which willinclude upgraded terminal facilities,new aircraft piers, new baggage sys-tems and new retail, security andimmigration areas.

A MERSEYSIDE environ-mental consultant says localauthorities are dragging theirfeet over the mounting num-ber of planning applicationsfor small scale wind turbines.

David Hunt, director ofBootle’s Eco Environments,said the introduction of theGovernment’s Feed-in-Tariffscheme in April last year wasintended to hasten the num-ber of homeowners and busi-nesses considering installingturbines.

But Mr Hunt says it failedto deliver the expected resultsbecause local authoritieshave allowed a “massive log-jam of applications” to build

up. He said: “The biggestproblem is the total lack of aconsistent approach fromcouncils across the UK.

“There are a handful ofcouncils who have a stronggreen agenda and are happyto support Government init-iatives, but the majority arestill stuck in the dark ages.

“While it is good that theGovernment is seeminglysupporting the green eco-nomy, support is no longerenough. The Prime Ministernow needs to ensure itswords are backed up by thestrongest possible actions toensure its policies are beingimplemented effectively and

consistently on the ground.We have a number of custom-ers whose applications forsmall-scale wind turbines arestuck in planning and weknow of hundreds moreacross the UK in a similarposition.”

One leading small windturbine manufacturer, Scot-land-based Proven Energy,successfully lobbied theirconstituency MP MichaelMcCann who raised the issueat Prime Minister’s Ques-tions. David Cameron said hewould instruct the BusinessDepartment to meet the com-pany as soon as possible todiscuss the issue.

LUXURY fashion house Burberry faces a potentialrevolt over “excessive” executive pay after a lobbygroup urged its members to vote against the com-pany’s remuneration plans.

PIRC, which advises big-hitting pension fundsand asset managers, said the total rewards forexecutives in the past year and the proposedawards for the coming year are excessive.

It pointed towards a one-off share paymentworth nearly £5.8m made last year to chief exec-utive Angela Ahrendts, which was equivalent tonearly six times her base salary of £990,000.

PIRC has recommended that shareholders voteagainst the remuneration report at its annualmeeting on July 14. It says the highest targetsunder its share plan were not challenging enough.

No specific targets are disclosed for the annualbonus scheme and awards are made at the dis-cretion of the remuneration committee, it adds.

Morgan is already carrying outwork at Gatwick for owner GlobalInfrastructure building the £50mNorth Terminal extension.

Stephen Scard, head of Morgan Sin-dall’s aviation arm, said the groupwas already doing work on a numberof UK airports, including building thenew control tower at Birmingham andthe North Terminal at Gatwick.

Liverpool stockbroker PanmureGordon recommended the construc-

tion firm’s stock as a “buy” after thetrading update. Analyst Andy Brownwelcomed the latest snapshot of pro-gress for the group, saying: “Tradingremains in line with expectations.

“There are signs of improvingvolumes, although pricing remainscompetitive.

“Its order book has been main-tained and (the) financial position ishealthy. With an attractive valuation,we stay positive.”

A CLAMPDOWN on taxdodgers was launchedyesterday as traderswho have failed toregister to pay VATwere given a chance tocome forward.

Small businessessuch as builders maynot have realised theirturnover was above thethreshold of £73,000,while others could havebeen avoiding payingthe tax, HM Revenueand Customs said.

More than 40,000 let-ters will be sent outover the next few weeksoffering those who havenot registered thechance to come forwardbefore September 30and avoid a maximumpenalty.

HMRC said wheretraders have to pay apenalty on undeclaredtax other than VAT, thiswill be lower than thecustomary penalty ofup to 100% charged tothose who fall outsidethe opportunity.

HMRC warned itwould investigate allthose who fail to comeforward before Septem-ber 30, and substantialpenalties or even crim-inal prosecution couldfollow.

Mike Wells, HMRC’sdirector of risk andintelligence, said: “Ourcampaigns are designedto ensure tax is paid sothat the money is avail-able to spend on publicservices used by every-one.

“The aim is to makeit easy for individualsand businesses to con-tact us, make a full dis-closure of their incomeand face a reduced pen-alty on any tax owed.

To use the VAT init-iative, people and busi-nesses must registerwith HMRC by Septem-ber 30 to notify thatthey plan to make a vol-untary VAT disclosure.

VAT manclampsdown ondodgers

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We are urging the monetary policy committee to hold its nerve on interest rates – Sara Williams,director of enterprise development at St Helens Chamber of Commerce

Confidencelowasservicesectorseesordersdecline

Help forsmall oiland gasfieldsBRITAIN will boost taxsupport for North Seaoil and gas companiesto help firms operatingin smaller, less profit-able fields, softening anearlier tax increasethat had promptedwarnings about thefuture of the nation’senergy supply.

The Treasury saidyesterday it wouldraise the annual rate ofthe Ring FenceExpenditure Supple-ment to 10% from 6%.It also said it wouldcontinue to consultcompanies on findingnew categories of fieldallowance.

The move follows theGovernment’s surprisetax increase on NorthSea output in lastMarch’s Budget, whichhad led the industry towarn that investmentin Britain’s oil and gaswould suffer, increas-ing imports and drivingUK jobs abroad.

Oil firms cautiouslywelcomed the move.Norway’s Statoil said itwould resume prepar-atory North Sea worksuspended in the wakeof the tax rise, while aUK trade group calledit “constructive” andshares of smaller NorthSea-focused firms rose.

“They’re alleviatingsome of the damagingeffects of the taxincrease, and we couldsee more of this as thecompanies lobby thegovernment. It is reallyletting companiesincrease the value oftheir tax loss position ifthey’re not profitable,”said Sanjeev Bahl,analyst at Numis.

The Governmentearlier this yearannounced an increasein a tax on North Seaoil and gas producersto 32% from 20% to off-set fuel duty cuts.

Thehighstreet is takingabuffetingas stormsrageallaround

A TALE of two sectors has emerged inthe latest quarterly economy surveyconducted by St Helens Chamber ofCommerce.

Second quarter figures reveal thatthe local manufacturing sectorremains robust, while service sectorindustries continue to report worryingtrends.

After a dip in the first quarter, themost recent survey results show thatconfidence is on the rise among man-ufacturers, with orders both home andabroad up on the previous quarter.

Investment plans and employmentlevels are also both looking positivewith almost half of all local manufac-turers attempting to recruit.

However, the picture is looking lesspositive in the service sector, as adecline in sales and orders has under-mined confidence.

Domestic markets are slowing aspublic sector cuts and higher VATrates dampen demand.

A number of service sector busi-nesses are also reporting difficultiescaused by the number of working dayslost in April through public holidays.

Employment growth in the sectorimproved slightly with a quarter ofrespondents attempting to recruit. Butthe outlook on job creation into thenext quarter looks less positive.

A worrying trend reported by bothsectors, which the chamber said it isworking hard with businesses to tryand overcome, is an increase in skillsshortages. This has led to a noticeableincrease in recruitment difficulties forboth sectors.

Service sector firms found recruit-ing professional managerial staff aproblem, while the number of man-ufacturing companies facing dif-ficulties in recruiting skilled technicalstaff has doubled since last quarter.

Chamber director of enterprise,Sara Williams, said: “As we enter thesecond half of 2011, the UK economystill faces some significant challenges,and St Helens is no exception.

“Despite this, many local companiesare doing well and continue to createjobs for local people. Manufacturingcompanies have performed particu-larly well this quarter, but we are con-cerned about the lack of any sustained

growth in the service sector.” Sheadded: “With UK inflation more thandouble its 2% target and likely toincrease further in the next fewmonths, the chamber network is call-ing on the MPC (monetary policy com-

mittee) to hold its nerve on interestrates, for the next few months at least.

“The Government must implementpolicies to support growth andempower businesses to invest, exportand create jobs.”

The latest quarterly economic sur-vey was compiled from responses from168 members between May 23 and June13, including 37 from manufacturingcompanies, and 131 from firms oper-ating in the service sector.



ARE we seeing the green shoots ofrecovery, or is the vista ahead just abarren and arid landscape?

The view of the economic land-

scape from our high streets remainsmixed. At one end, or more accur-ately slightly out of town, are themajor, successful supermarkets.Their strength continues to lie intheir enormous resource and resil-ience.

Whether they are liked or disliked,these major players continue toweather the economic storm.

And, lest we forget, it’s a stormstill raging.

Some of the big rocks may havestopped rolling into the economicpond, and the ripples may be fewerand further apart. But, every sooften, another major shockwavestrikes.

The latest to hit the UK retail sec-tor is close to home, too – the demiseof Liverpool-based TJ Hughes.

Accounts of the last couple ofweeks at this once strongand proud brand wererelayed in some of theweekend business supple-ments.

TJ Hughes’s owners arethemselves a company spec-ialising in saving ailingfirms, and had stepped inlast March to take on thediscount retailer.

As a result, 57 stores and 4,000 staffare facing bleak uncertainty.

Equally stark is the message com-

ing from other parts of the highstreet. Fashion outlet Jane Normanhas also gone under. Carpetright isclosing 50 stores. Thorntons the con-

fectioners are reviewingtheir options, as is multi-brand owner Arcadia.

Habitat and Homeformsank two weeks ago.

Hundreds, possibly thous-ands, more jobs are at risk.

Wreaking this havoc iswhat some analystsdescribe as a collapse inconsumer confidence.

Too much uncertainty is curbingtoo many people’s shopping habits.On top of this, many stores are hav-

ing to cope with rising rents, costlierimported goods and higher VAT.

The way to a brighter future forretailers lies largely in the successthat can be achieved in every othersector of the economy.

The high street can’t operate inisolation from the rest of the eco-nomy.

Firms investing and creating newjobs, generating more income forindividuals to return to the highstreets with a spring in their stepand money in the bank, will makethe difference that’s required.

‘Weareseeingacollapse inconsumerconfidence’

■ MATT JOHNSON is chief executiveof Mando Group

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City indangerofmissingout inknowledgegame

Big news for city’CanLiverpool incubateanewgenerationofinnovativepharmaceuticalfirms?AlistairHoughtonreports

An artist’s impression of the plannedBioCampus for the Royal LiverpoolHospital site. The BioCampus is thegrey group of buildings on the left,with the new Royal on the right

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WHEN it comes to growing Merseyside’spharmaceuticals sector, it seems smallreally could be beautiful.

The “life sciences” sector has long beentipped for growth by regeneration off-icials, who believe it could create thous-ands of skilled jobs.

The region already plays host to someof the biggest names in the pharmaceut-icals world, from Novartis to Eli Lilly.

But, according to the team at ambitiousLiverpool pharmaceuticals firm RedX, itwill be small companies that will drivethe sector’s growth in years to come.

RedX, based at MerseyBIO, specialisesin developing new drugs based on exist-ing compounds, rather than using thetraditional “big pharma” model of devel-oping drugs from scratch.

That means it can get drugs to marketmore quickly, without the lengthy testingprocedure needed to develop new drugs.

RedX has big ambitions. Its chief exec-utive, Dr Neil Murray, said: “The hope isthat we will become a cornerstone of thebiotechnology sector in Liverpool and theNorth West.”

It aims to do that through its plans,unveiled in the Daily Post last month, fora £39m “centre of excellence” to developcancer treatments.

RedX has applied for £5.9m of RegionalGrowth Fund cash, which will in turnunlock £33m of private investment.

The centre could, says Dr Murray,employ as many as 250 people when itopens in five years’ time.

Initially, the project will be based atLiverpool Science Park, but in time it willmove to the proposed BioCampus set tobe built at the new Royal Liverpool Hos-pital.

RedX would be the first company tosign up to the BioCampus – which healthbosses hope will house many more smallfirms developing and marketing manynew drugs.

Speaking last year, Royal Liverpoolchief executive Tony Bell said: “TheBioCampus should enable Liverpool tocarry out some of the best research in theworld, it will put us right up there.”

The BioCampus is designed for smallfirms that have the potential to grow intomedium ones. That, says Dr Murray, iscrucial to the long-term healthof Liverpool’s pharmaceuticalsector.

He said: “The BioCampus isabout organically growing com-panies of about 200 or 300 peoplethat can give critical mass to thebiosciences sector in the city.”

Last month, RedX joined a2Bio conference in Liverpoolthat debated the issues facingthe pharmaceutical sector.

Speakers, including private equity vet-eran Jon Moulton, agreed that smallfirms needed to step into the gap left by“big pharma” as those giant firms werenow developing fewer drugs.

Dr Murray said: “There are threeprimary issues with the big pharmamodel.

“Firstly, their ability to develop theirown drugs – they can’t bring their drugsquickly enough to the market to meet

their needs. Then there is their fundingmodel, in terms of the investment ofmoney in developing a drug versus therisks involved versus the revenue madein return.

“That drives them to a decision like,for example, they will only bring throughdrugs that will generate over $1bn insales. Therefore, they will cut pro-grammes that will only bring $500m ofsales.

“It sounds crazy, but I understandwhere that comes from.

“The third thing is the skillsgap. There’s a significant lack ofpeople at a technician level.”

RedX is based at MerseyBIO,the Crown Street innovationcentre that today houses nineinnovative life sciences firms.

Geoff Wainwright, director ofMerseyBIO’s owner 2Bio, agreesthat small firms are vital to the

future of Merseyside’s pharmaceuticalsector.

He said: “The pharmaceutical industryis producing less and less products. Thecost of producing them isn’t going down.

“The understanding that we now haveof medicine is so much more sophistic-ated than even five years ago, let alone 20years ago when some of these blockbusterdrugs were conceived. The world is chan-ging and it’s hard for large organisationsto adapt at that pace.

“It’s a great opportunity for companieslike RedX to step into the breach, and tohelp supply new products for the future.”

One of the key issues for the sector, asidentified in The Mersey Partnership’sreport into the city region’s knowledgeeconomy, is lack of laboratory space.

The report says, for example, that sev-eral companies from MerseyBIO havegone on to greater success – but that“lack of grow-on space in the area hascontributed to 16 companies moving awayfrom the city region.”

And the report later states that, for thesector to grow, regeneration bodies willneed to “tackle the severe shortage ofincubation space” and “tackle the com-plete lack of grow-on space.”

Several developments in the regioncould help solve that problem. As well asthe BioCampus, the University of Liver-pool is also developing new laboratories,while there have also been proposals tocreate an Innovation Park at Clatter-bridge, Wirral.

The region boasts a skilled workforceof pharmaceutical researchers but, incommon with the rest of the UK, has alack of lab technicians. Mr Wainwrightsaid he was now working with Liver-pool’s universities on plans to train moresuch technicians.

The region also boasts a new source offinance for life science firms in the formof the new North West Fund. A £25m pot

GIVEN the emphasis thathas been placed onidentifying the sectorsthat offer the region thebest prospects for eco-nomic growth in theyears ahead, togetherwith all the Europeanmoney that has beenexpended on economicdevelopment in recentyears, its amazing thatsome people still feel theknowledge economy sec-tor has not yet receivedsufficient support.

But, as our adjacentfeature highlights, TheMersey Partnershipknowledge economyreport states that theregion suffers from a“severe shortage ofincubation space” and a“complete lack ofgrow-on space” for busi-nesses in this sector.

It also appears thatLiverpool Vision chiefexecutive Max Steinbergconcurs with this view,despite the plans for thenew Mersey Biocampuslinking the University ofLiverpool with the RoyalLiverpool University Hos-pital.

One concern is thenumber of firms thathave been incubated atthe Merseybio incubator,but which have had tomove outside the regiononce they have started togrow.

When you hear aboutthe numerous break-throughs in gene scienceand regenerative med-icine, you can’t help butbe struck by the obviouspotential of the life sci-ences sector to make ahuge contribution to theregion’s economy in thefuture. The sector willcontribute ever more out-put to the nation’s eco-nomy. That means Mer-seyside must keep pacewith other regions byhaving the right facilitiesready and waiting for thescientists that will workthere.

Foresight is definitelypreferable to hindsight. Akey characteristic of thelife sciences sector thatposes a big challenge isits rapid pace of changeand development. Thereis so much discoveryemerging at such a rateof knots that only those

who have thought aheadwill thrive.

ONE of the most prom-ising economic develop-ments under consider-ation in the past decadehas been the redevelop-ment of the formerUnited States Air Forcebase at Burtonwood.

This huge 500-acre site,which sits alongside aformer RAF airbase,offers huge potential fordevelopment.

Its location close to thejunction of the M62 andM6 makes it a primeopportunity. It’s also justminutes from Liverpooland Manchester, withtheir airports, docks andbusy business districts.

Known as Omega, thiswas the commercial prop-erty scheme they allfeared. Liverpool andManchester councilsobjected to the develop-ment on the grounds thatit would damage theireconomies. Yet Omeganever really got off thedrawing board.

There is now a sugges-tion that Warrington Bor-ough Council is hoping tosecure Enterprise Zonestatus for the area. Thathas to be a great idea.Warrington has beenvery successful as a loc-ation for business overthe decades. EnterpriseZone status would add tothe weight of the argu-ment in favour of thedevelopment, and couldbe the vital ingredientthat encourages itsinvestors and the banksto press ahead with theplans.

The Omega project wasonce mooted to provideup to 25,000 jobs over 25years and would includeoffices, manufacturing,distribution, hotels, leis-ure, education and healthfacilities.

To become an Enter-prise Zone, it will have todemonstrate value formoney, an ability todeliver growth and jobs,and “robust” implement-ation plans. Omega cancertainly do all of thesethings already. It wouldalso benefit the widerregion, creating jobs farbeyond Warrington.

BillGleeson

‘GreatchanceforSMEstostep intobreach’


Big news for city’s ‘small pharma’

Biomedical firms flockto £25m funding pot

Jon Moulton – says there are investors willing topump money into small pharmaceuticals firms

the big feature

has been set aside for the sector. Speakingat the 2Bio conference last month, RedXchairman Pete Jackson explained that hisfirm had been attracted to Liverpool fromBradford by three factors.

“Firstly, the infrastructure,” he said.“There was a lab ready-built that wecould move into.

“Secondly, there was a pool of peoplethat could do the jobs we wanted. Werecruited some great people from the uni-versity at post-doctoral level, and are inthe process of attracting peoplefrom elsewhere in the UK.

“But probably the key thatunlocked the whole thing wasthe availability of finance. Inone room we could meet peoplewho gave us a grant.

“At Merseybio, that was rel-atively easy for us. We startedwith two people and went up tofour.

“What’s got to happen now is the samelevel of infrastructure, people and financehas to be in place for us to go up to 250people.

“That’s available in places like Singa-pore. The city has to be competitive forpeople to come here.”

The conference also debated how thesmall firms that could change the face ofthe pharmaceuticals sector are becomingincreasingly attractive to investors.

Jon Moulton, one of the UK’s

best-known venture capitalists, todayleads private equity firm Better Capital.He told the delegates at Liverpool SciencePark that small firms were well-placed tocompete against the dinosaurs of theindustry who were no longer innovating.Those innovative firms would, he said,prove attractive to private investors.

“There are opportunities galore toinnovate in low-cost areas,” he said.

“Small pharma has the opportunity tobe nimble, lower-cost, innovative and to

make money out of it.“There’s definitely money out

there to finance these compan-ies.

“It doesn’t have to behandouts from the Govern-ment.”

Mr Moulton was backed bySavvas Neophytou, an analystwith Liverpool broker PanmureGordon.

“If you make your companies attractiveenough to outside investors, we’ll findthem,” he said.

People like Jon Moulton, Mr Neo-phytou said, need to be encouraged toinvest in Liverpool.

He said: “Let’s give the world a successstory and more will follow.”

Max Steinberg, chief executive of Liv-erpool Vision, said the city should offer a“coherent package” of support to phar-maceutical firms, including support to

THE head of the NorthWest Fund says there hasbeen “enormous interest”in the £25m funding potearmarked for biomedicalfirms.

Avente Medical ProductsLtd, which is in the processof relocating to Liverpool,and Daresbury-based Top-Cat Research have eachsecured £50,000 pathfinderinvestments from the£25m North West Fund forBiomedical.

The fund is run by SparkImpact, and is part of theoverall £185m fundprovided by the EuropeanInvestment Bank and theEuropean Regional Devel-opment Fund (ERDF).

Aventé Medical Productsplans to develop a range ofsingle-use medical devicesand the funding will beused on intellectual prop-erty protection, a marketsurvey and finalisingproduct design.

TopCat Research is devel-oping cost-effective testprocedures for the pharma-ceutical, environmentaland food markets whichmeasure the presence orconcentration of a sub-

stance in solutions. Theinvestment will be used totake its first diagnostic kitfrom development to pro-totype stage.

SPARK Impact hasalready received over 100applications for funding.

Andy Leach, chief exec-utive officer of North WestBusiness Finance, said: “I’mdelighted that The NorthWest Fund for Biomedicalis officially out of theblocks with two excit-ing investment opportunit-ies.

“We have been enthusedby the quality and varietyof the biomedical compan-ies applying to the NorthWest Fund.”

David Malpass, directorof the European pro-gramme at the ERDF, said:“The North West is one of ahandful of globally recog-nised bioscience com-munities, as well as beingEurope’s biggest biomanu-facturing region.

“Congratulations toAventé and TopcatResearch on their recentinvestments, which will gotowards growing the sec-tor further.”

‘Showasuccessstoryandmorewillfollow’

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help them find premises. The biocampusand the Apex centre being built by theUniversity of Liverpool could also, hesays, help seed the bio-science firms ofthe future.

Liverpool should also, he said, shoutabout its record as a “science and learn-ing city”, while organisations in the sec-tor should work together to ensure theydo not duplicate each other’s work.

And, he said, pharmaceutical firms inLiverpool should build on expandinglinks with China, where demand forpharmaceuticals is increasing.

He said “The city has some advantages,but if it doesn’t develop these Chineselinks it could miss out substantially.”

Mr Jackson, of RedX, is clear that thepharmaceuticals sector could, with theright support, become a key part of Liv-erpool’s economy.

He said: “If Liverpool wants to end upwith vibrant industries, we are anindustry based on intellectual propertyand the human skills base.

“It’s a really good business area forLiverpool to push for.

“It needs people, facilities, decentbuildings, university support.

“They’re all in the land of the feasible.“It’s important that Liverpool gets

things like this, or Liverpool will slidesteadily downwards.

“ It needs a council that’s constructive.It needs all the help it can get.”


Travelex sellsbusinesspayments armFOREIGN exchangefirm Travelex hasannounced the sale ofTravelex Global Busi-ness Payments toWestern Union for£606m.

The proceeds of thesale will be used tofund Travelex’sstrategy of focusingon its retail customersand wholesale bank-notes business acrossthe world.

Galliford Try inupbeat updateCONSTRUCTION groupGalliford Try said thenumber of homes itsold increased 27% to2,170 in the year tothe end of June, whilethe average price ofits private salesincreased 10% to£227,000.

In a trading updateahead of its full-yearresults, it said thenon-housebuildingpart of the businesshad put in a resilientperformance in dif-ficult markets.

Oil recordTULLOW Oil said itexpects to post recordrevenues of £653mfor the first half of2011, and describedits performance asexcellent.

It said productionfrom its Jubilee field,off the coast ofGhana, has beenramping up steadilyand will see its outputincrease by 50% overthe next month.

briefing Hardworktheessenceinservingthecommunity

The aftermath of the riots, in Toxteth, in July, 1981, with theRialto on the right and the NatWest bank on the left

Omar Elmi has created a thriving business on the site of the former Rialto ballroom, which wasdestroyed in the Toxteth riots 30 years ago Picture: JAMES MALONEY/ jm300611ldpbiz-6



“HAVE you got any of those littleloaves that you had in yesterday,”enquired the elderly shopper, with ahint of hope in his voice, but probablyalready anticipating the worst.

“No,” replied the assistant. “Sorry,we sold out.”

Then he added: “But, how many doyou want? If you can hang on, we canmake some more.”

This was customer service – withbells on.

And it is just part of the offer thatmakes Omar’s Continental Store, inToxteth, the successful communityresource he has developed since step-ping behind a counter almost 13 yearsago.

Situated on the junction of UpperStanhope Street and Berkley Street, inthe shadow of the Rialto centre, on thesite of the former Rialto ballroom des-troyed in the Toxteth riots 30 yearsago, Omar’s boasts its own in-storebakery, as well as a delicatessen and aspecialist halal meats counter over-seen by 31-year-old owner Omar Elmi.

But things could have been so muchdifferent for Granby Street-born Omar,had his father, Adam, and eldestbrother, Abdi, not decided to start uptheir small fruit and veg retail busi-ness in Berkley Street in 1998.

Omar had studied mechanics andwas planning to go to university tostudy business for a Business Inform-ation Technology degree.

He explained: “The family set thisup but didn’t have anyone to run it, soI came in.”

He was willing to lend a hand on atemporary basis before heading off touniversity, but he admitted that oncehe got behind the counter he was welland truly bitten by the retail bug andhe soon got a taste for the business.

“To start with, I was just working onthe till and on the floor.”

But, after three months running thesmall store, he realised that he wantedto make a go of it – so he bought outhis father and brother and took overthe venture in his own right.

By September, 1998, he had movedthe shop the short distance to its cur-rent location and, he says, has beenserving the community for almost 13years.

Once in full control of the shop, hebegan to diversify and develop hisstore into the cosmopolitan operationit has become today.

He studied and honed his skills as ahalal butcher, establishing his MakkahHalal butchers in the rear of the storethat provides a range of halal meatsand poultry.

Omar said: “I get the finest meatfrom North Wales and we do all theContinental goods as well, like herbs,spices, rice and fish.

“We stock a whole range of olive oiland olives for different types of cook-ing and we have Mediterraneaningredients as well as West Indian,Caribbean and African.”

He referred to Raggas, a popularCaribbean-style restaurant on Smith-down Road and which recently openeda second operation in Lark Lane , say-ing: “We do all the ingredients that

somewhere like Raggas would be usingin their menus.”

He said: “Halal meat is our biggestseller and separates us from otherretailers.

“There is a lot of preparation workfor halal meats, but we are very strongon hygiene and wrapping.

“It takes time and effort, but, likethey say, people buy with their eyes, sothe preparation is everything.”

And, completely oblivious of theearlier exchange between the elderlycustomer and his helpful assistant,added: “Customer service is also a bigfactor.”

These two USPs, he believes, haveserved to establish Omar’s as a suc-

cessful Toxteth trader. He revealed:“When we started in 1998, we probablycarried about £2,000 of stock. Today wecarry about £15,000-worth.”

Turnover has reached about £300,000and is growing, which gives Omar theconfidence to plan for the future, withmore stores on the horizon.

“Our aim in the next 13 months is toopen a Halal superstore in this area.

“We have two or three locations inmind at the moment, and we are justsorting out the small details.”

Regeneration agency Liverpool Vis-ion is advising Omar on his businessplans. Open seven days a week, hebelieves in optimising his resourcesand says demand warrants his ambi-

tious expansion plans: “People come tous from as far away as North Walesand Cheshire.”

And, he says, providing he gets itright for Liverpool, there’s no reasonwhy he couldn’t expect to replicate themodel farther afield: “If we could gettwo strong superstores in Liverpool,we could then look at Manchester andlook at having a superstore there.

“It is getting the first one off theground, though.

“We have done the business planand we are identifying properties now.Liverpool Vision are helping guide usin the right direction.”

And, despite the parlous economicsituation and a dearth of banking fin-ance, he reckons his expansionstrategy would impress even the mostcautious of bank managers.

“I believe the way the business isgoing at the moment, and with thebusiness plan, I would hope for a pos-itive feedback from the banks.”

He has no regrets about missing outon university: “This has been a bigeye-opener for me. People go to uni-versity, but the way the economy isgoing, I could have gone to universityand been out of a job now.”

He said his family are happy for hissuccess, but added: “In another way,they’re probably thinking they shouldhave stayed in the business.

“But it is all down to hard work anddetermination.”

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■ TOXTETH riots 30 years on –Main paper: Pages 12-13

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Nucleardeal forAMECENGINEERING firmAmec has been awar-ded a contract withCheshire-based UrencoUK.

No value was givenfor the three-year deal,but Amec said it was a“major contract”.

Urenco, which sup-plies uranium to nuc-lear power plants, isbased in Capenhurst,near Chester.

Clive White, vice-president of AMEC’snuclear business, said:“This is a very import-ant contract for amajor player in the UKnuclear industry andwill help develop ourposition as a leadingprovider at the frontend of the nuclearcycle, to complementour strong position inreactor support andclean up.

“In addition to bring-ing our renowned andestablished nuclearexpertise to bear in thiscontract, we will alsobe able to call upon thefull range of capabilit-ies throughout AMECto ensure we give aworld-class service.”

HOUSEBUILDER Persimmon hasreported healthy visitor numbersand resilient demand, despiterecent surveys suggesting thehousing market is weak every-where except London.

The York-based group, whosebrands include Charles Churchand Westbury, said demand fornew properties sped up throughthe spring selling season to liftorders above this time last year.

Private sales reservationssince April have been 6% higherthan last year, and the forwardsales order book is now £725m,compared with first-half turnoverof £715m.

Persimmon sold fewer housesthan the comparable period, at4,439 compared to 4,657, though itexpects to reverse this over therest of the year as volumes pickup.

Selling prices are also expectedto increase over the rest of 2011from £162,000 in the first half,which was almost 4% lower thanlast year, as more sales of larger,detached houses come through.

Even though Persimmondescribes the market as stable, itsaid output was still being heldback by constrained mortgagelending, despite a greater numberof higher loan-to-value productsnow available.

The group received £35m offunding from the Governmentunder the FirstBuy scheme,where the housebuilder and thestate stump up the depositbetween them, the largest alloc-ation given to a housebuilderunder the scheme.

It was launched because mort-gage lenders have demanded big-ger deposits, which is making itharder for first-time buyers to geton the property ladder.

Persimmon, which operatesfrom 25 regional offices, alsobought an additional 7,500 plotsover the period, which included800 plots at Gatwick and 200 atWhinmoor, in Leeds, with the twosites expected to generate “super-ior returns”.

Net borrowing at the end of thefirst half fell to just £15m, downfrom £122m, despite the addit-ional land buying, while under-lying profit margins for the firsthalf rose 1% on last year, to 9%.

byAlistairHoughtonLDPBUSINESSSTAFFalistair.houghton@liverpool.com

Off Brookfield Drive,Aintree Industrial Estate L9 7AR

For Sale/To LetNew BuildIndustrial Space3,000 to 12,000 sq ft

Rents from £2.50 psfRent free periods available• 6m eaves height

• Self contained secure yard

• Fully fitted office suite includinggas central heating

Only 4 units left

An exciting new development by:

For further information or to arrange a viewing

www.hitchcockwright.co.uk


by Alan Robson, MD of Innov8Safety Solutions

LDPbusiness .co.uklocation

viewpoint

INASSOCIATION

WITH


Wemustbringonthenextgenerationofconstructionworkers

IN THE last few months, we havewitnessed something of a blitzkriegof headlines, statistics and bold plansabout our region’s future.

We have heard about the Super-port and its £1.8bn worth of infra-

structure projects which aim totransform Merseyside into a gatewayof international stature. Theseinclude the creation of a £200min-river container berth at Seaforththat would be able to handle theworld’s largest cargo ships.

Another part of the plan is therecently announced 1.4m sq ft expan-sion of Stobart’s container handlingsite, at Widnes. Meanwhile, therecently published Mersey PortsMaster Plan is forecasting that tradepassing through the Port of Liver-pool and the Manchester Ship Canalwill grow by 70% over the next twodecades.

If your head is not spinning yetfrom these projections, then howabout this. The Mersey Partnership

further believes that the region’s air-port, roads, logistics, and port couldsee 21,000 new jobs by 2020, and30,000 by 2030.

The £200m post-Panamaxcontainer facility at thePort of Liverpool could cre-ate 3,000 jobs. The £600mMersey Gateway bridge,meanwhile, could create4,600 jobs.

Time to take a deepbreath. Readers runningbusinesses balancing tightbudgets will know thatoptimism and grand plans onlycount for so much. The market isbrutally honest.

As a small construction industrybusiness on Merseyside, we are

enormously excited about workingon these projects and the wealth andjob creation opportunities they will

create for our region. Ourconcern is that we desper-ately need to train localpeople in the skills theseprojects require. Failure tohave a skills base locallywill mean we cannot fulfilthe potential of these plans.

We therefore must ensurethat we focus on teachingapprentices and existingstaff the skills they will

need for these projects across thetrades. Colleges such as the Mari-time and Engineering College NorthWest, in Birkenhead, have a key roleto play and need Government invest-

ment and support. So, too, doschools, who must grasp the gravityof the opportunities here at a timewhen job prospects for young peopleare so poor.

We need to bring on the next gen-eration of workers, inspire them andgive them the skills they need. I fear,however, that too many schools aretoo removed for the commercial real-ity of what our economy needs. Thisneeds to change.

Employers and small businesses,meanwhile, require resources andsupport from Government to trainour staff and apprentices. If this isthe future, we cannot afford to dropthe ball by being ill-prepared. Theplans are clear – we must deliverthem. Our future depends on it.

TyrefirmtakesStHelenssite

‘Gateway’opportunitygoesonthemarket

MartialartscentretoopenonWirralestate

‘Optimismandgrandplansonlycountforsomuch’

PROPERTY AllianceGroup has secured anew tenant at itsAbbotsfield Indus-trial Estate, in StHelens.

Titan Distribut-ion, which suppliesspecialist tyres,wheels and rims foroff-road vehicles inEurope and Africa,has agreed a five-year lease of Unit 4at the estate.

Existing tenantsat Abbotsfieldinclude EFG Mat-thews and RutlandVeterinary Surgery.

Andrew Lynn, ofProperty Alliance

Group, said:“Abbotsfield hasbeen a successfuldevelopment for us,attracting high-cal-ibre occupiers aheadof and since ourrefurbishment pro-gramme was carriedout.

“With its superblocation, good yardspace and our flexib-ility to alter theunits according torequirements, theestate provides anideal proposition fordistribution firmslooking to expand orexpose their pres-ence in the region.”

A MARTIAL arts centreis to open in July at theOld Hall Estate, in Brom-borough, Wirral.

Richard Saunders, afifth degree black belt,will open the TaekwondoAcademy at the site afteragreeing a deal for a 3,327

sq ft unit. Mr Saunders,who is the academy’schief instructor, said: “Weare calling it a centre ofexcellence because wehave high hopes for ournew base where studentswill be able to improvetheir skills.

“It also provides thespace we need to hostseminars and courses andbring many more seniortaekwondo practitionershere.

“We are passionateabout the sport and wewant to get more people

involved – whether forself defence or fitnessreasons – and to raisestandards.”

The Old Hall Estate haswarehouse and industrialunits from 3,369 sq ft to10,504 sq ft currentlyavailable to let.

Owner London andCambridge Properties isone of the UK’s largestprivate owners of indus-trial, retail and officeproperty to let.

Its total commercialproperty portfolio runs tomore than 14m sq ft.

RE:CO PROPERTIES hasinstructed Legat Owen to offer a“gateway” development oppor-tunity to the market at a prom-inent site in Chester.

The site occupies a location

fronting New Crane Street andSealand Road, one of the prin-cipal arterial routes into the citycentre.

The opportunity forms part ofthe Old Port redevelopmentwhich also incorporates ElanHomes’ residential apartmentscheme and new stables forChester’s historic Roodee race-course.

The site, which extends to 0.85acres, has previously had plan-ning permission granted for afive-storey, 53,000 sq ft officedevelopment.

Stephen Wade, director ofLegat Owen, said: “This is asuperb opportunity to secure agateway location alongsideChester’s famous Roodee race-course.

“The site has potential for awide range of uses, and we willbe delighted to discuss ind-ividual requirements on abespoke basis.

“Our clients, Re:Co, have anenviable track record in the pro-vision of turnkey property solut-ions, and are able to offer com-pleted buildings on either free-hold or leasehold terms.”

byTonyMcDonoughLDPDEPUTYBUSINESSEDITORtony.mcdonough@liverpool.com

Legat Owen will be marketing the development site in Chester for Re:Co Properties

Commercial Property

FOR SALEWarehouse & Storage Land

Contact Rory Dillon or David [email protected]

0161 259 7000sandersonweatherall.com

Everite Road, Widnes, WA8 8PT

On the instructions of Dermot Power and Tracey Pye of BDO

• GIA 2,113.70 sq m (22,752 sq ft)• Site Area 1.77 hectares (4.38 acres)• £950,000 (subject to contract)• Large Secure Surfaced Yard• Suitable for Waste Management/Scrap or Haulage Yard/Open Storage uses• Suitable for sub-division

Commercial Premises

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

BURTON BELL L17 RetailShop with storerooms with flatover. Large yard & warehouse,freehold, vacant £385,000. Tel:0151 427 9653

COMMERCIAL UNIT/WORK-SHOP Rainhill to let £65pw,£750sq ft 0161 980 1912

UNITS TO LET 5,000−15,000sqft. Initial Rent free period.0151 486 0004

BUSINESS to BUSINESS

This spacecould beworking foryou.For detailstelephone0151 227 2000DAILY POST


ZONEFIRST lets its OWN land, offices, commercial and industrial property.If you are looking to down-size, move premises or indeed start up your

new business, contact us for details on what we have available

Any individual site can be let onflexible terms to suit your needsNo deposit, no hidden service

charges, no agent fees. Simple,straight forward solutions so youcan get on with your business.

Tel: 0151 666 1555Email:[email protected]

www.zonefirst.co.uk

LIGHT INDUSTRIAL UNITS LAND

RETAIL

OFFICES

258 BROOK STREET, BIRKENHEAD(ex Wirral Engineering)16,500 SQ FT UNIT £2.00 PER SQ FT PA High BayFactory UnitsOverhead cranes, Fume Extraction System, LargeCapacity Compressed Air System. Good loadingand general access. 3 phase electricity, fullyalarmed, Roller Shutters. Includes Office Complex,Secure Car Parking, Toilets, Canteen. Furtherstorage land available if required.Ready for immediate occupation

304 CLEVELAND ST, BIRKENHEAD1,100 SQ FT UNIT £125 PER WEEKNewly Refurbished Unit.700 SQ FT UNIT £100 PER WEEKBrand New Unit.Roller Shutter, Ample Car Parking. Part of asmall development of newly built industrial units.Fenced, gated, secure. Good road side location.

2 LIVINGSTONE STREET, BIRKENHEAD500 SQ FT UNIT £78.00 PER WEEK PLUS VATBrand New UnitPart of a small, secure Industrial Park. RollerShutter, Car Parking. Fenced, gated. Good roadside location on corner with Corporation Road.

344 CLEVELAND STREET,BIRKENHEAD CH41 8EGSTORAGE LAND RENT £POALarge, Hand Standing, Secure, fenced and gated.Good road side location with excellent TransportLinks. Easy access to Docks, Mersey Tunnels andM53. All Utilities on site

CORPORATION RD BIRKENHEAD, CH41RENT £POAStorage Land fenced and gated. Dockside location

CAPITOL BUILDINGS, LISCARDSHOP UNIT RENT £POAUndergoing major refurbishment. Very busylocation right at the front of Capitol Buildings nearto Tesco. 1 remaining.

10 SEAVIEW ROAD, LISCARD/WALLASEYSHOP UNIT RENT £170 PER WEEKNewly refurbished to a high standard. Very busylocation. Viewing highly recommended.

1A HAMILTON STREET, BIRKENHEAD2,600 SQ FT ENTIRE BUILDING RENT £20K PAEx-Bank Building with Basement, Ground floor andFirst Floor. Recently refurbished and re-decorated.Wood Flooring, Air conditioned. Very light andairy overlooking the Liverpool Waterfront. Goodparking nearby.


LondonStockMarketatClose

Last night, the pound was worth: $1.6084 (down 0.0006) ......... 1.1117 euros (up 0.0036 ) ......... 130.7900 yen (up 0.67)..........Its trade weighted index was 78.10 (up 0.40)Metals in $ per troy ounce: Gold 1510 (up 15)............................. Silver 34.76 (up 0.66) ............................. Platinum 1731 (up 9) ............................. UK base lending rate 0.5%

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

96 4514 Adv Medical 75 -12 +214

1812 312 AEA Technology 312 -18 -14

28712 241 Albany Inv Tst 270 xd +112

1251 84712 AMEC 1109 xd -1 +61

92 2012 Anglesey Mining 5814 -4 +714

35714 23458 Balfour Beatty 31612 xd +212 +1534

3912 2914 Beale 3634 +12 +12

607 501 Compass Gp 607 xd +12 +512

1258 478 Coral Prod 11 -38

126212 98212 Dee Valley 1230 -5 +1212

479 32214 easyJet 36658 +38 +1334

1005 72312 JD Sports Fashion 980 xd +60 +60

14212 1112 JJB Sports 21 +12 +314

36 1534 Johnson Serv 3434 -58 +118

578 396 Nichols 54712 -514 +712

14612 95 NWF 14612 +7 +17

50 2112 Park Gp 46 -14 -12

1257 80312 Rathbone 1150 +12 +80

139 9712 Redrow 12812 +318 +612

14312 12018 RSA Insurance 13778 +1 +514

34 1914 Speedy Hire 3012 xd -12 +34

4634 3412 Sportech 3812 -18 +1

42 2514 Telme Gp 3934 -14

5514 3234 UK Coal 37 -1 -14

2 78 Ultima 138

2037 1688 Unilever 2034 -3 +46

63112 53812 Utd Utils 60912 xd -112 +17

UNIT TRUSTS

DAILY POST REGIONAL INDEX 1240.68 up 7.96 ▲ 0.65%

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

FUNDS

Consols

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

£582732 £50 Cons 212% ................ £53

Conversions

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

£108716 £10018 Cnv 9% 11 ............£10018 -132

Treasury

£61 £50 Tr 212%................. £531516

£116332 £1071516 Tr 9% 12............. £1071516

£107 £1021516 Tr 5% 12............. £1021516

£121516 £11512 Tr 8% 13................£11512

£114332 £109532 Tr 5% 14................£11118 +18

£111932 £105732 Tr 734% 12-15........£10614

£334116 £30414 Tr 212% IL 16 .........£33138 +2932

£142316 £1322132 Tr 834% 17.............£13558 +14

£147132 £1332732 Tr 8% 21............. £1393132 +38

War

£8334 £6712 War Ln 312%......... £712932 -4116

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

FTSE 100 INDEX

SPOTLIGHT

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

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

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

Jan 5, 2011 Jul 5, 2011

PERSIMMON

Share price (pence)380

415

450

485

520

FTSE-Rebased

£ ABROAD

Australia dollars 1.42 1.501 1.506

Canada dollars 1.47 1.545 1.547

Denmark krone 7.85 8.287 8.297

European Union euro 1.06 1.111 1.112

Japan yen 123.67 130.460 130.560

New Zealand dollars 1.80 1.940 1.945

Norway krone 8.17 8.608 8.609

Poland zlotys 3.83 4.381 4.389

Sweden krona 9.58 10.068 10.078

Switzerland francs 1.29 1.359 1.360

Turkey new lira 2.45 2.608 2.618

United States dollars 1.53 1.608 1.609

Cancel Bid Offer Yield

Fund Terms Price Price Gross

FIDELITY INVESTMENT SERVS

Amer Spec Sits - 617.80 -

American - 1846.00 0.32

Gwth & Inc - 327.70 1.66

Income Plus - 205.40 4.24

Japan - 230.00 0.51

Jpan Spec Sits - 136.10 0.10

Spec Sits - 2013.00 0.01

Sth East Asia - 771.90 0.01

GARTMORE FUND MANAGERS

Euro Sel Opps - 932.35 1.03

Income - 213.26 3.83

Pratical Inv -162.02 173.46 4.27

GUARDIAN

Index-Linked Acc -515.52 542.65 -

International Acc -1029.03 1083.19 -

Pacific Acc -259.32 272.96 -

Property Bonds -2010.83 2094.61 -

HSBC INVESTMENT FUNDS (UK)

Balanced - 107.60 0.99

British -272.30 272.30 3.02

Gilt & FI - 63.75 3.20

Gilt & Fixed -223.50 223.50 3.09

Monthly Inc - 134.30 3.84

HENDERSON HORIZON FUND

European Smllr Cos A - 1067.60 -

Sterling Bd Unit Tst - 53.85 56.26 4.50

UK Equity Inc A - 464.70 2.82

HILL SAMUEL UNIT TST MGRS

Capital -322.87 335.79 1.10

European - 848.90 0.70

Far East - 564.10 1.80

Inc & Gwth - 206.50 3.30

International - 436.10 0.40

North Amer Acc - 485.80 0.10

INVESCO FUND MANAGERS

Sing ASEAN - 225.13 0.37

High Low Funds Price Var

Closing Indices

FT-SE 100 INDEX 6024.03up 6.49 ▲ 0.11%

20 DAY MOVINGAVERAGE 5805.00up 7.97 ▲ 0.14%

FT ALL-SHARE 3139.39up 4.45 ▲ 0.14%

Aerospace & Defence

Index 3398.36 ▲ 4.06

324 109 Avon Rbbr 305 -412

36978 29434 BAE Systems 31778 -118

73612 51958 Chemring 63412 -4

24758 19214 Cobham 21214

38512 26134 Meggitt 38414 -114

665 552 Rolls-Royce 653 xd +5

18758 11114 Senior 18714 +114

Automobiles & Parts

Index 5531.86 ▲ 51.43

23718 12114 GKN 23658 +214

Banks

Index 4453.58 ▼ 26.51

344 23714 Barclays 25912 -314

87512 61012 Bco Santander 722 -1012

73078 60118 HSBC 62458xd -238

7814 1012 Ireland 1018 -34

7758 4338 Lloyds Banking4834 -118

5218 3518 Ryl Scotland 3914 +18

1959 1519 Stan Chart 1660

Beverages

Index 10093.32 ▲ 81.40

1395 1035 Barr (AG) 1308 +3

518 36412 Britvic 39312xd -6

1306 1050 Diageo 1306 +9

2314 1841 SABMiller 2314 +24

Chemicals

Index 7822.32 ▲ 95.86

2042 1069 Croda 2042 +57

17834 66 Elementis 17834 +34

2119 1525 Johnsn Mat 2015xd +7

Construction & Materials

Index 3909.09 ▲ 26.07

35714 23458 Balfour Beatty 31612xd +212

265 190 Costain 218 -3

152812105338CRH 134738 -2378

1418 918 Kier Group 1399 +15

73 35 Low Bonar 73 +612

12412 85 Marshalls 11012xd +214

Electricity

Index 8784.54 ▲ 78.75

50312 35358 Drax Gp 49814 -138

44858 30514 Intl Power 319 -134

1417 1108 Scot&Sthrn 1417 +15

Electronic & Electrical

Index 3424.13 ▲ 10.61

705 440 Domino Ptg 686 -1512

204 101 Laird 204 +38

333 18712 Morgn Cru 32334xd -114

959 275 Oxford Inst 959 +612

377 180 Volex Gp 33734 -412

Equity Inv Instruments

Index 6173.75 ▲ 2.15

39038 30478 Alliance 38934 -58

14012 11214 Br Assets 13514xd -1

777 555 Candover Inv 588 +7

228 18212 Dunedin IncGth 22434 -118

15734 10234 Dunedin Sml 153 +338

49214 38812 Edin Invst 47214xd -258

66012 538 Edin US Trkr Tst65212 -12

32478 26334 Forgn & C 32412 -38

32334 21512 Hend Smllr Cos 322 +334

379 287 Law Debenture379 +12

252 19414 Scot Am 24334 -214

528 42618 Witan 52712 +12

Fixed Line Telecoms

Index 2458.30 ▲ 34.86

20418 13058 BT Gp 20418 +358

6138 3712 Cble&W Comm 4012 xd -12

90 45 Cble&W Wwide 4778 xd -18

7812 44 KCOM 78 xd +112

Food & Drug Retailers

Index 4771.43 ▲ 32.78

30814 26234 Morrison W 30038 +278

395 32214 Sainsbury 33414xd +4

44058 378 Tesco 40614xd +2

112 56 Thorntons 56 -3

Food Producers

Index 5382.73 ▼ 5.06

1182 940 AB Foods 1078xd -8

875 47712 Carrs Mill 870 +3212

90712 724 Cranswick 729 xd +2

42478 33934 Dairy Crest 382 xd +738

3518 16 Premier Foods 1914 +58

656 40918 Tate Lyle 63412xd +212

2037 1688 Unilever 2034 -3

Forestry & Paper

Index 7044.47 ▲ 96.94

654 386 Mondi 654 +9

General Financial

Index 6039.40 ▲ 21.83

340 25418 3i 29218xd +412

88812 664 Close Bros 795 -12

57012 38014 ICAP 49338 -538

1062 574 London Stk Ex 1062 +3

1033 72812 Provident 97712 -12

1257 80312 Rathbone 1150 +12

1922 1192 Schroders 1612 +16

General Industrials

Index 3343.48 ▲ 23.34

72412 40612 Cooksn Gp 697 +7

1258 478 Coral Prod 11

6 278 Cosalt 3

400 293 Rexam 39414 +212

265 12534 Smith DS 265 +638

1429 1079 Smiths Gp 1210 -2

General Retailers

Index 1729.02 ▲ 23.16

2514 1214 Ashley L 1912xd -112

31114 221 Brown (N) Gp 26734xd +578

7738 56 Debenhams 7012xd +1

2812 1134 Dixons Retail 1614 +12

525 34814 Halfords 370 xd +14

24412 15918 Home Retail 165 xd -34

42538 25314 Inchcape 41878 +34

1005 72312 JD Sports 980 xd +60

28718 19812 Kingfisher 267 +58

42712 32914 M & S 376 xd +914

62712 38112 Mothercare 42018xd+1534

2339 1868 Next 2339xd +36

2959 1724 Signet Jwlrs 2946 -13

523 39814 WH Smith 500 +8

Health Care Equip & Serv

Index 3790.22 ▲ 3.08

742 53712 Smith Nph 67212 +12

Household Goods

Index 6926.21 ▲ 131.24

138 74 Aga Rngmstr 11314 +2

119 70 Barratt Dev 11558 -1

75312 511 Bellway 72412xd +1

192 12814 McBride 142

3648 3015 Reckitt Benck 3578 +90

139 9712 Redrow 12812 +318

4314 2214 Taylor Wimpey 3814 -58

Industrial Engineering

Index 7861.47 ▲ 84.12

39734 189 Bodycote 38114 +4

85312 53812 Charter 831 +212

41558 198 Fenner 41414 -138

1119 65712 IMI 1119 +41

116 4312 Molins 10712 +12

31212 119 MS Intl 28712xd

45 2414 Renold 3712 +14

2063 1478 Spirax Srco 2043xd +16

2187 1128 Weir Gp 2187 +2

Industrial Transportation

Index 2660.45 ▼ 13.01

24034 175 BBA Aviation 22078 +18

Life Insurance

Index 4527.35 ▲ 14.34

47778 33318 Aviva 44578 +114

12334 8034 Lgl & Gen 12012 +58

777 50112 Prudential 734 -212

31618 21114 Resolution 29814 +558

24434 18238 Standard Life 21514 +34

Media

Index 4429.65 ▲ 10.75

850 69312 BSkyB 845 -5

59412 43438 D Mail Tst 46812xd +34

9312 4914 ITV 7358

1207 88112 Pearson 1207 +5

59012 50512 Reed Elsevier 575 +2

168 6934 STV Group 12812 +112

12414 4034 Trinity Mirror 4214

725 502 Utd Business 55912

151 106 UTV 134 xd +334

84612 62912 WPP 786 xd +7

MiningIndex 26237.60 ▼ 142.34

3437 2254 Anglo Amer 3126 +11

1634 82312 Antofagasta 1435 +4

263112 1767 BHP Billiton 245912 -1312

1682 990 Fresnillo 1400 -4

53118 46658 Glencore Intl 486 +5

1671 1017 Kazakhmys 1384 -11

1983 1374 Lonmin 1437 -14

6655 4425 Randgold Res 5155 -5

4712 3005 Rio Tinto 4478 -5812

5514 3234 UK Coal 37 -1

Mobile TelecomsIndex 3792.93 ▲ 28.77

75612 54212 Inmarsat 563

18234 14178 Vodafone Gp 16614xd +114

Nonlife InsuranceIndex 1664.07 ▲ 12.35

1754 1409 Admiral Grp 1668 -3

196058139358Marsh McL 196114 +58

14312 12018 RSA Insurance 13778 +1

Oil & Gas ProducersIndex 8542.47 ▲ 0.53

156412100312BG 145112 +1212

509 362 BP 45938 -312

49314 366 Cairn Energy 40514 +12

535 35034 Premier Oil 45418 +178

2336 1603 Ryl D Shell B 2250 -512

1493 1108 Tullow Oil 1301 +48

Oil Equipment & ServicesIndex 25854.04 ▼ 31.89

1251 84712 AMEC 1109xd -1

Personal GoodsIndex 23461.19 ▲ 17.47

1484 75812 Burberry Gp 1475 -9

409 32012 PZ Cussons 37134 +1034

Pharma & Biotechnology

Index 9681.52 ▲ 33.28

3385 280112AstraZeneca 316612 +1612

1348121111 GlaxoSmthKln 1347xd +312

50 3112 Vernalis 42 +58

Real Estate

Index 1958.11

35314 28718 Big Yellow Gp 32112xd +6

62912 443 Brit Land 62812 -1

2919 2263 Daejan Hldgs 2770 -5

445 289 Gt Portland 445 xd +2

885 573 Land Secs 885 xd +412

33114 26212 SEGRO 31534 -314

Software & Comp Servs

Index 762.09 ▼ 0.53

1915 1271 Autonomy 1741 +2

6312 3212 Emblaze 60 -78

36414 23014 Invensys 32534xd -138

123 85 Kewill 10134 +134

14714 10134 Logica 13558 +34

302 23138 Sage 28938 -38

Support Services

Index 4655.16 ▲ 16.65

1812 312 AEA Tech 312 -18

1992 1346 Aggreko 1992 +12

20778 77 Ashtead Gp 17434 +1

548 36134 Berendsen 548 +11

801 67412 Bunzl 79112xd -2

79412 63512 Capita 72212 +1312

939 54912 De La Rue 77112 +11

29478 20534 Electrocmps 27334xd -58

819 589 Experian 811 xd +5

291 23734 G4S 28434 +212

452 32112 Hyder Cons 425 -1258

339 18312 Interserve 339 +834

550 378 Menzies J 54712 +212

34634 17734 Northgate 33018 +638

30834 215 Prem Farnell 249 +112

114 8414 Rentokil 9534 -18

12012 79 Smiths News 8814 -134

34 1914 Speedy Hire 3012xd -12

1127 747 Travis & P 1018 +7

2261 1223 Wolseley 2075 -2

Tech Hardware & Equip

Index 772.11 ▼ 7.52

651 28058 ARM Hldgs 60112 -8

28 1934 BATM 23 xd -14

10234 7134 Psion 7434 +12

16014 11414 Spirent Comms 15018 +58

Tobacco

Index 32096.64 ▲ 226.22

2813 2166 Br Am Tob 2813 +26

2231 1784 Imperial Tob 2146 +3

Travel & Leisure

Index 4845.49 ▲ 2.55

3153 2037 Carnival 2440 -25

607 501 Compass Gp 607 xd +12

479 32214 easyJet 36658 +38

12234 64 Enterprise Inns 6614 -114

41258 31114 FirstGroup 35412 +434

1592 1073 Go-Ahead Gp 1579 -1

518 398 Greene King 50612 +12

360 240 Holidaybreak 290 -5

1435 982 Intercontl Htls 1304 +4

285 21278 Intl Cons Airlns 25834 +34

15514 12234 Ladbrokes 15514 +118

11718 92 Marston’s 10614 +38

361 28438 Mitchells&Btlrs 31912 +112

9038 5818 Punch Taverns 73

153 9834 Rank Gp 14934

335 21414 Restaurant Gp 30278 +2

26812 16034 Stagecoach 26178 +18

20434 12534 Thomas Cook 13234 -134

27178 190 TUI Travel 22714 +14

1887 1368 Whitbread 1639xd -3

Utilities

Index 4742.49 ▼ 6.68

34618 30338 Centrica 32814 -34

12621298212 Dee Valley 1230 -5

63212 48758 National Grid 614 xd -12

71012 560 Pennon Gp 71012 +512

1517 1250 Severn 1493xd -3

63112 53812 Utd Utils 60912xd -112

AIM

Index 877.54 ▲ 6.94

3714 914 API Gp 2812 -14

13 4 Armour Gp 414

158 1 Crimson Tide 138

214 112 Dawson Intl 178

838 478 Eckoh 778

14212 1112 JJB Sports 21 +12

36 1534 Johnson Serv 3434 -58

86 3034 Man Brnze 4712 +1

12 4 Metalrax 1018

550 35712 Portmeirion P 49212 -212

17312 55 Redhall Gp 69 -12

6114 16 Scapa Gp 5912 +14

142 99 Swallowfield 108

7938 67 Uniq 7718 -38

685 513 Young A 66334xd -114

June 13 - Jun 17 Jun 20 - Jun 24 Jun 27- Jul 1 M T W T F5655

5750

5845

5940

6035

FTSE-100

20-Day Moving Average


businessdiary

LDPbusiness .co.ukmarket comment

LDPbusiness .co.uk

For all the latest local and national business news online, log on to www.ldpbusiness.co.uk

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Wednesday, July 6Knowsley Chamber ofCommerce’s AfterHours networkingevent is being hostedby O’Connell &Squelch, StanleyGrange, L34 4AR. Net-working will take placeover canapés, cocktailsand drinks. It costs

£15+VAT for membersand £20+VAT fornon-members. Formore details, seewww.knowsleycham-ber.org.uk/events.aspx

Thursday, July 7JellyLiverpool is forpeople to get togetherto work in a differentenvironment from

their usual one,whether it be freelan-cers, homeworkers orjust people who want achange of scenery. Youcan visit for the day orjust drop in for anhour. It is at Leaf Bar &Café, Bold Street, from9am to 5pm. Fordetails, see open-labs.org.uk/jelly/ orcall Allison Cordner on0151 231 4777.

Wednesday, July 13

Phil Blything, fromGlow New Media, willbe outlining a range ofmethods that can beused to increase trafficto websites, includinghow to raise a site’ssearch ranking andhow to use socialmedia, as well asadvice about the con-tent of websites. TheKnowsley Chamberevent is being held atThe Village Hotel,

Whiston. It costs£12+VAT for membersand £18+VAT fornon-members. To book,visit www.knowsleychamber.org.uk/events.aspx

Friday, July 15The monthly Dares-bury Science andInnovation Campusbusiness breakfast net-work event bringstogether around 100people working for

hi-tech companies,entrepreneurs, uni-versities and supportorganisations. Thebreakfast is at Dares-bury InnovationCentre, starting from8am. For more details,see www.daresburysic.co.uk/events

Friday, July 15A one-hour seminar onimproving email man-agement techniques ispart of Liverpool

Chamber of Com-merce’s latest 60 reallyuseful minutes series.The session will gothrough a series ofsimple hints and tipson how best to manageemail. It begins at 9amand is free for Liver-pool Chamber mem-bers and £5 fornon-members. To book,visit www.liverpoolchamber.org.uk/events.html

HotairandinflatedpositionscauseUSbreakdownYOU would never know it from all thehot air rising out of Washington, butPresident Barack Obama and Congres-sional Republicans could easily reacha deal to raise the debt limit and avoidan early August default.

Before talks hit a brick wall lastweekend, negotiators were tantal-isingly close to a $2 trillion-plusbudget deal that would enable Con-gress to sign off on further borrowing,according to Democratic and Repub-lican sources.

Since then, things have not lookedgood. Obama compared Republicans tolazy schoolchildren, and Democratsaccused them of deliberatelysabotaging the economy.Republicans have not shiedaway from salty language,either.

“Washington is addicted tospending, and the addict-in-chief is the president,” Repub-lican Senator Jim DeMintsaid on the Senate floor onThursday.

Analysts worry lawmakersmay be painting themselvesinto a corner.

“In order to get out of thismess, they’re going to have toeat some of their words,” saidJoe Minarik, a former budget officialin the Clinton administration.

The Treasury Department haswarned the country will face default ifCongress does not lift the $14.3 trilliondebt ceiling by August 2.

That could push the country backinto recession and up-end financialmarkets across the globe.

From a dollar standpoint, the two

sides are closer to a deal than it mightappear.

In talks led by Vice President JoeBiden, negotiators had agreed toreduce discretionary spending, which

covers everything from spaceexploration to pollution con-trol, by between $900bn and$1.7 trillion over 10 years.

Republicans resisted cuts tomilitary and other securityspending sought by Demo-crats, but Senator CharlesSchumer, a Democrat knownas a hard-nosed partisan, saidon Thursday he thought acompromise was possible inthis area.

The two sides had also tent-atively agreed on cuts to awide range of benefit pro-grammes, such as farm sub-sidies, student aid and Federal

employee retirement plans – a total ofroughly $200bn, according to Demo-crats.

Democrats have hammered theirconservative opponents over a Repub-lican proposal to scale back the Medi-care programme for future retirees,but the budget talks have yielded someconsensus in this area as well.

Democrats say the deal could save

roughly $200bn through structuralchanges to health programmes likeMedicare and Medicaid, the healthcareprogramme for the poor and handi-capped, that don’t scale back benefits.

Both sides have also taken a look atchanging the inflation index, whichcould slow the growth of benefit pay-ments and tax exemptions. That couldyield $300bn.

The lowered spending levels wouldreduce the amount the Governmentspends on interest payments. Thatcould yield a further $400bn or so in

savings, according to a back-of-theenvelope calculation.

That adds up to at least $2 trillion incuts – roughly enough to ensure thatCongress would not have to revisit thepolitically toxic issue before theNovember, 2012, elections.

The main sticking point is taxincreases.

Republicans leaders have saidthey’re off the table, and Democrats nolonger expect to get the increase inincome-tax rates for wealthy house-holds that they had initially sought.

President Barack Obama and Vice-President Joe Biden face a toughmonth as they seek to strike a budget deal Picture: MORRY GASH

LondonmarketTHE London marketstruggled to make head-way yesterday, afterbanks and mining stocksslid on renewed fearsabout the strength of theglobal economic recovery.

The FTSE 100 Indexhad made strong gains inrecent days, havingpushed above the 6,000mark for the first time inmore than a month, afterGreece agreed to toughausterity measures, mak-ing it seem likely it wouldavoid a debt default.

But the blue-chip indexgained just 6.5 points yes-terday, closing at 6,024,after factory orders in theUS came in lower thanexpected and China’scentral bank warned thatinflation pressuresremain high. This causedcommodity prices toslide, which impacted onmining shares.

The market was alsoheld back by a lacklustrestart on Wall Street,which reopened after theJuly 4 break.

The pound was upagainst the euro at 1.11after disappointing euro-zone service sector data.

Capital ShoppingCentres was among thefallers after investmentbank Credit Suisse down-graded the company tounderperform from neut-ral. The Trafford Centreowner fell 1.2p to 400.5p.

Outside the top flight,Persimmon dropped 0.3p,to 491.4p, despite report-ing resilient demand andhealthy visitor numbersin its most recent tradingupdate.

The biggest Footsierisers were Tullow Oil,up 48p at 1301p, IMI,ahead 41p at 1119p,Reckitt Benckiser, up90p at 3578p, and Marks& Spencer, ahead 9.2p, at376p.

The biggest fallerswere Intertek, down 53pat 1910p, Lloyds BankingGroup, off 1.1p at 48.8p,Arm Holdings, down 8pat 601.5p, and Rio Tinto,off 58.5p, at 4478p.

Whatdoyouthink?Email us withyour views [email protected],or write to usPO Box 48, OldHall Street,LiverpoolL69 3EB


Libraryworkisfarfromanoff-the-shelfproject

I like to review safety and general progress with my own eyes – Steven Gerard is leading ShepherdConstruction’s work on the Liverpool Central Library refurbishment

■ ANY good comedianworth their salt

wants to be topical, andLiverpool comic andRadio Merseysidepresenter Sean Styleswas bang on the moneywith his routine at lastweek’s Venmore officeopening.

The affable Evertonianled the congratulationsfor commercial propertyfirm Venmore on theirnew Dale Street site, in aweek marred by thelatest high street casual-ties of the coalition Gov-ernment’s austeritydrive.

Reading a selection ofgoodwill messages toVenmore he said: “Thebest of luck, from JaneNorman and TJ Hughes –so we’re off to a goodstart there, then.”

However, Sean didn’treckon to the wittyriposte of Venmore chiefexecutive Rob Farnham,who was just as droll inhis thank you speech tothe comic.

Rob intoned: “We are aLiverpool institution –one that has been aroundfor longer than some ofSean Styles’s jokes.”

Touché!

■ DISPUTES involvingtea have occasion-

ally resulted in someminor skirmishes thathave had major con-sequences.

But Boston, 1773, maysoon be replaced by St

Helens, 2012, which isbrewing up to be thelatest battleground fortea supremacy.

Yesterday’s announce-ment that Typhoo Tea isto sponsor St HelensRLFC puts them on a col-lision course with theSuper League’s club mostfamous fan. Forcomedian Johnny Vegas,above, has featured inadverts as Al, alongsidehis sidekick Monkey, pro-moting PG Tips.

Typhoo Tea’s chiefexecutive, Keith Packer, isunfazed by the challenge,and is looking forward toplaying his ace card –Typhoo will be providingthe tea to St Helens’s newstadium next season.

“That’s the moment Iwant to catch,” he said.“Johnny Vegas drinkingTyphoo.”

LDPbusiness .co.ukthe back page

tradinggossip

workingday

5.30am: Leave home after kissing mykids as they continue sleeping.

6am: Head to the gym for a wake-upworkout.

7am: Drive into work in the citycentre, where we’re in the first phasesof the redevelopment of the CentralLibrary, a hugely complex project thatrequires intricate project manage-ment. Liverpool has always been animportant location for Shepherd, andwe are currently constructing anumber of other projects across thecity.

7.30am: I begin making calls to theteam for progress updates.

8am: Greet the office team and reviewthe day ahead.

10am: Host the Workforce Consult-ation meeting down on site. This is anexcellent opportunity to communicatedirectly to the workforce on safetyissues and plan out the programme ofwork for the weeks ahead.

We currently have 80 people work-ing on site, which will rise to 180 in thefuture as construction progresses, andworking safely is of paramountimportance to us.

11am: I take a tour of the project toreview the safety and general progresswith my own eyes, rather thanthrough reports issued to me.

Through experience, you knowwhen a site is being run well, and myteam is doing us proud, particularly asthere are numerous challenges thatarise during the restoration process.

12pm: Attend a lunch meeting withour local apprentice supply chain part-ner to review our plans to bring moreapprentices into the industry and lookat the opportunities that may ariseduring the library’s redevelopment.

1pm: Head back to the office and catch

up on emails from the client and con-sultant team. I always try and blockout 30 minutes each day for this as theemails are plentiful.

1.30pm: Take a call from our mar-keting team to discuss our communityengagement programme.

We are partnering with JohnMoores University on aspects of theircurriculum and also supporting theClaire House Children’s Hospice.

2pm: Step into another meeting todiscuss the procurement of the manyworks packages that we need to put inplace on the project as construction

progresses. This is an extremely busytime and a complex process as we needto ensure the right packages are pro-cured that will deliver the project ontime and within budget.

3.30pm: I have a quick catch-up meet-ing with Joyce Little, head of librariesfor Liverpool City Council to reviewprogress.

Joyce has over 30 years’ experiencewith the library services and any timespent with her is invaluable, due toher knowledge of the building.

4pm: Do some work on the upcomingprogramming constraints with our

senior planner to ensure that we arealigned and know how we’re planningto overcome the challenges.

6.30pm: Leave the office and headhome for some quality family time,having tea and putting the kids to bed.

8pm: I’m not one for TV and find thatI switch off better spending an hourgetting some practice at the local golfdriving range.

9.30pm: Chill out with Stacy and talkabout each other’s days before gettinga good night’s sleep ahead of anotherbusy day.

StevenGerard,37, isproject leaderforShepherdConstruction,themaincontractordeliveringthe£50mrefurbishmentandredevelopmentofLiverpool’sCentralLibrary.Helives inSeftonwithhis fiancée,Stacy,andtheir twochildren

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LDP Business 06.07.11