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www.businessmag.co.ukTHAMES VALLEYJULY/AUGUST 2011 #189

BusinessTMT H E

M A G A Z I N E

Surviving the shipwreckCorporate recovery

Revealed:Top private companies in region

Plus: Deals, finance, law, property, international trade

250THAMES VALLEY

250®

Not all law firms are the same

Regional law firm of the year

Banner 2010 Jan.indd 1 09/12/2010 16:11:34

That’s why for the seventh year in a row, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets is Bank of the Year.

Voted for by the UK’s leading Finance Directors, it goes to show that our clients value the importance of great relationships just as much as we do.

The award owes much to the quality of our service, the expertise of our relationship managers and our continued commitment to supporting UK businesses like Fortnum & Mason.

So whilst the award may be the same this year, we know that every relationship is different.

For information on how we can help your business, contact Steve Clarke on 0118 921 9192 or email [email protected]

lloydsbankcorporatemarkets.com

STRONG RELATIONSHIPS REALLY DO ADD UP.

Please remember we cannot guarantee security of messages sent by e-mail. Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, Lloyds TSB Corporate Markets and Lloyds TSB are trading names of Lloyds TSB Bank plc, Lloyds TSB Scotland plc and Bank of Scotland plc. Lloyds TSB Bank plc. Registered Office: 25 Gresham Street, London EC2V 7HN. Registered in England and Wales no. 2065. Lloyds TSB Scotland plc. Registered Office: Henry Duncan House, 120 George Street, Edinburgh EH2 4LH. Registered in Scotland no. 95237. Bank of Scotland plc: Registered Office: The Mound, Edinburgh EH1 1YZ. Registered in Scotland no. SC32700. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority under registration numbers 119278, 191240 and 169628 respectively. Bank of the Year 2005-2011 FDs’ Excellence Awards in association with the ICAEW and supported by the CBI & Real Business. LS99-FO700AD-0611

Charles Lamplugh, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets Relationship Director Nigel McGinley, Fortnum & Mason Finance Director

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JULY/AUGUST 2011 www.businessmag.co.uk

regular features

special featuresCorporate Recovery 14 No fire without smoke 15 Managing your bank 16 ‘Phoenix’ pre-packs 17 Supporting the recovery 18 Corporate recovery should mean precisely that

Thames Valley 250 19 12-page feature listing the region’s top 250 private companies

Focus on AIM 31 AIM market – fit for purpose?

International Trade 32 Looking at current trends 33 Offshore tax penalties: an update

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News 4 Opinion – Cautious when talking about a recovery 4 Pressure on pay5 Doing business abroad6 Franchise industry helps UK economy7 Find the ‘right skills’8 Bridge the gap in enterprise education9 Shareleague9 Modern parenting reforms... again?10 New Centre for Health Communication Research11 Making M&A transactions less taxing12 Time to win some silverware

Technology13 Partnering for digital success

Deals Update 34 Latest deals data from across the region

Deals 35 H.I.G. Europe acquires AIRCOM International

Finance36 Payrise on the taxman?37 SME businesses targeted by HMRC

Law38 TWM Solicitors secures awards shortlist39 Think before you Tweet40 Should I stay or should I go?

Business Focus41 Tweet of the month41 Have you got an exit plan?

Property42 Welcome to the land of the business cluster43 Croudace purchase in Woodley

Employment 44 Accent discrimination?

People 44 Movers and risers ...

Diary 46 Dates for your diary

Not all law firms are the same

Regional law firm of the year

Banner 2010 Jan.indd 1 09/12/2010 16:11:34

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p42

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In the September issue of The Business Magazine

• Law South East/The Legal 500 • Mergers & Acquistions • Focus on Windsor & Maidenhead • Dining & Your Business

For more details: 0118-9745308 [email protected]

opinionPublic sector cutbacks and only marginal private sector growth continue to have an impact on organisations’ ability to reward employees, according to the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development’s (CIPD) annual Reward Survey.

The survey of 280 respondent organisations, produced in partnership with online reward and benefits provider Benefex, found that 65% of employers have, or are planning to, increase base pay in 2011, 26% have or will freeze pay, 9% have decided to delay the pay review and 99% plan not to cut pay.

Well over half (60%) of all respondents considered market rates the most important factor in determining pay levels. Ability to pay is the most important factor for one in four organisations (26%). The most common approach to managing pay progression is to link pay to a measure of individual performance (61%), either on its own or in combination with another factor, such as competencies.

Two-thirds (67%) of organisations are operating performance-related reward schemes, with merit pay rises (56%) and individual bonuses (54%) the most common forms, the survey shows. One in three (29%) organisations also operates individual non-monetary recognition awards for clerical and manual employees.

Pressure on payCharles Cotton, performance and reward adviser at CIPD, said: “In the context of public sector spending cuts and cautious economic growth in parts of the private sector, it’s not surprising that not all organisations have been in a position to make a pay award this year. The findings also show that this competitive environment is having the effect of encouraging employers to focus on linking pay rises and bonuses to employee and organisational performance.

“We expect that there will not be much change to the proportion of organisations making a pay award in 2012. This is again due to a public sector that doesn’t have much money to play around with as employers freeze pay, scrap bonus schemes and ask employees to pay more towards their pensions. Some private sector organisations will also find it hard to increase pay if their part of the economy does not grow as quickly as anticipated.”

The survey also reveals the latest pension practice, with nearly every respondent offering a pension scheme to its employees with an employer contribution. Over two-thirds (69%) of open pension schemes offered are defined contribution schemes, while a quarter (25%) are defined benefit. Around two-fifths (41%) of employers are intending to make changes to their pension arrangements within the next

year, the most common being a shift to salary sacrifice (28% of all those making a change), increasing employee defined benefit contributions (26%) and switching from RPI to CPI (21%).

Most employers are relaxed about the abolition of the Default Retirement Age (DRA), with the majority of respondents (52%) saying they would allow employees to work as long as they are able so that they have the opportunity to build up savings for retirement. 42% of respondents thought it was too early to say what their response would be, 25% said they would improve their performance management system, while 12% would objectively justify a retirement age.

Matt Waller, CEO of Benefex, added: “With the backdrop of longer working lives and the need for employees to build up larger savings for retirement, it’s not surprising to see so many employers now embracing the removal of the default retirement age and an acceptance that employees should be allowed to do the job as long as capable.

“However, with the significant burden of pensions auto enrolment, it’s fascinating to see such a large percentage of organisations state that the changes would not impact on the value of their pension offering, but that the Government is acting in a responsible way in educating and communicating to employees about the pension reforms.”

We have all learned to become so cautious when talking about a recovery...

...that appearing optimistic about recent economic data would seem to be tempting fate.

But there are signs that Britain is doing OK – with the latest indicators from the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) showing that the UK is heading for modest expansion over the coming months.

Compared with France, Italy and almost the entire Eurozone (Germany being a notable exception), the UK is showing signs of relative expansion.

Anecdotally, and gathering feedback from companies involved in our Roundtable discussions, it appears that many businesses in the south are optimistic that demand is slowly growing and that the order books are beginning to fill again.

Consumer confidence was also up in May – the sharpest month-on-month climb since 2004 – but this has been put down primarily to the royal wedding ’bounce’. Another good sign is that the demand for empty units in retail parks is back to levels last seen before 2008. Retailers are snapping up units, presumably at very favourable prices.

Unemployment shows little sign of reducing significantly, but there is an acknowledged skills shortage in certain sectors, so there remains the challenge of reskilling jobless people and preparing them better for what employers actually need.

So, as the summer holidays loom, it’s not overly optimistic to think that the start of the new business impetus that September always brings will add further momentum to the economy.

David Murray, Publisher

Centrix Software, the Newbury-based provider of unified end-user computing solutions, has won a 2011 Red Herring Top 100 Europe award in recognition of its innovations and technologies.

The Top 100 Europe list, compiled by the editorial team at media company Red Herring, has become a mark of distinction for identifying promising new companies and entrepreneurs. Red Herring editors were among the first to recognise that companies such as Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, Skype, Salesforce.com, YouTube and eBay would change the way we live and work.

Red Herring’s editorial staff

Centrix Software named in Top 100 Europe evaluated companies from across Europe on both quantitative and qualitative criteria, such as financial performance, technology innovation, management quality, strategy, and market penetration. This assessment of potential is complemented by a review of the track record and standing of a startup relative to its sector peers, allowing Red Herring to see past the ‘buzz’ and make the list a valuable instrument of discovery and advocacy for the most promising new business models in Europe.

Lisa Hammond, CEO of Centrix Software, said: “It’s an honour to be named a Red Herring Top 100 Europe tech startup.

This further validates our value as a company in helping organisations successfully address the complexity and cost issues associated with delivering technology services.”

Details: www.centrixsoftware.com

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JULY/AUGUST 2011

news 5

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Read these stories in full in the current issue of The Business Magazine:Digital

at www.businessmag.co.uk

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“Britain’s manufacturers continue to drive economic recovery, in particular taking advantage of export-led demand which shows no signs of slowing. Growing exposure to export markets has not only helped companies survive the recession but also improved productivity, benefiting the wider economy,” said Chris Needham, MAS South East specialist.

With a number of surveys recently suggesting that export focused companies and sectors are moving ahead, the Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) South East recently held an informative Q&A session, in partnership with ngage solutions and UKTI, for SMEs in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire looking to explore exporting opportunities.

Benefits of trading overseas, how to get started, where to go for advice and support, managing financial risk and support and managing overseas partners were discussed. But perhaps most importantly, attendees heard from two local-based companies that are successfully trading abroad – Award-winning Hansford Sensors based in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire and Norbar Torque Tools from Banbury, Oxfordshire.

Hansford Sensors recently won the Thames Valley Business Magazine Export Award, although the company was only formed four years ago and has just 20 employees, managing director Chris Hansford, has grown the company rapidly over this time and now exports over 80% of its turnover.

Hansford said: “With the downturn in the economy in the UK, we set our sights on overseas markets and now sell our vibration sensors into over 44 countries. Asia has been particularly fruitful, with an incredible rise in products sold into the Australian marketplace.”

He continued: “Our third full service sales and production office was opened in Brazil in May this year and we are continuing to work at attacking other export areas. We have recently visited Mexico and

Doing business abroad

Japan to discuss how our products can be applied into the maintenance management of industrial plant and machinery.”

The three-hour workshop also heard from Angus Murray from UKTI, who focused on export-led recovery, reporting on the opportunities that key emerging markets and high-growth markets present, and the support available to help companies break into them – UKTI named both Saudi Arabia and the UAE as key emerging markets. Just 37% of companies are currently exporting to China – barriers include language and getting to grips with business law and procedures.

Needham concluded: “Now is the time for manufacturers to start looking forward and further afield for business opportunities. Companies working with both the domestic and export markets are better placed to win new business, gaining a higher percentage of the market share. Manufacturers need to start changing their perspective on the global market and discover how international competitive manufacturing can be sustained in the UK whilst expanding export sales.”

Details: www.mas-se.org.uk

Women discover hands-on careers

Currently there are more men working in industries such as building, plumbing and electrical engineering than women, but this is a changing trend, according to Checkatrade, which helps people avoid cowboy builders by providing a free, transparent and impartial directory of vetted tradespeople and service providers across the UK.

Young people ‘not wanted’ by employers

Despite the number of 18-24 year olds who are unemployed at an astonishingly high rate in the UK, businesses are still failing to invest in them, suggests a new survey released today by EST (Ethical Skills & Training).

How to manage older workers

Employers need to train and performance manage older workers better or risk falling foul of the law when Default Retirement Age is phased out, shows CIPD survey

Agency workers get more rights

Employers and agency workers need to take heed: the Government has announced that the new Agency Workers Directive will come into force in the UK on October 1, 2011, without any changes.

MAGA ZINE:DIGITAL

T H EBusinessTM

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WORKIИGTOGETHER

As the UK looks to its businesses to lead the way to recovery, there are welcome signs of growth in the latest NatWest/British Franchise Association (bfa) franchise survey 2011.

Throughout 2010 franchising has further increased turnover in the south east by £500 million (+26%) to £2.4 billion, contributing to the national total increase of £600m (+5%) to £12.4b. Since 2006 the sector’s turnover and number of franchise systems have both grown by 15%, despite a UK GDP growth rate of only 9.4% in the same period.

The 27th annual survey also reveals that the number of franchise systems operating in the UK has grown to 897 over the past year, increasing the number of franchise business units to 36,900. An extra 56,000 jobs have been created, taking total employment in the sector to 521,000. Franchising is also helping to drive international trade. Around a third of UK franchisors have units located outside the UK, and 38% of domestic-only franchises plan to expand abroad.

Peter Ibbetson, chairman of small business at NatWest, said: “With 87% of franchisors planning to expand in the year ahead, we’re already seeing strong demand for our new £100m franchise fund. We bank more franchise businesses than anyone else so our discounted loans will play an important role in financing further industry growth.”

Brian Smart, director general of the bfa, said: “Yet again franchising has

Franchise industry helps UK economy ‘get back on its feet’

demonstrated its inherent tenacity and stability, despite a tough climate last year. This means many more sustainable business startups and jobs have been created by ethical franchising – further helping the UK economy get back on its feet.”

Four out of five franchisors surveyed said being part of the franchise model offers them a competitive advantage over similar businesses that aren’t. Appearing to be a larger business, standardised products/services and quality expectation were cited as the three main advantages. Franchisors also see better prospects for themselves than the rest of the economy, with 75% expecting improvements for their businesses over the next year but only 31% expecting the economy to pick up.

The franchise model is becoming an increasingly attractive option for those looking to run a business for the first time. Two thirds of franchise businesses trading for less than two years reported making a profit. Average start-up costs also reduced for a second year to £46,600.

While nine out of 10 franchisees remain profitable, confidence may have taken a dent for some, with one in eight relying on the public sector for over 90% of sales – proving the industry is not totally immune to the recent economic fall out.

Visit www.natwest.com/franchise for information on accessing discounted lending through the £100m franchise fund.

Details: www.thebfa.org

Thames Valley accountants and business advisers James Cowper has coordinated a detailed response on an EU consultation on the future of VAT on behalf of clients and accountancy firms in 94 countries.

The response was lead on behalf of James Cowper clients in the UK and the Kreston network of accountancy firms in response to an EU Commission consultation

Response to EU reform of VAT

entitled ‘Green Paper on the future of VAT – Towards a simpler, more robust and efficient VAT system’. The Kreston network represents independent accountancy practices in 94 countries, with 700 offices and employing more than 19,500 people.

The response, which was led by James Cowper’s VAT manager Ruth Corkin, was submitted to the EU Commission on May 31. A copy is available through James Cowper’s website.

Details: www.jamescowper.co.uk


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“The right skills are absolutely vital for our future economy,” said Steve Lamb as he addressed a well-attended Skills Summit in Reading.

The statement was important and indicative since Steve Lamb of Oracle Corporation is chairman elect of the Thames Valley Berkshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which he believes can play a key role in helping to provide those ‘right skills’ and with them a better employee-pool for local businesses.

The Thames Valley Berkshire LEP – like others, tasked by the Government to create a business relevant economic forum and establish a driving force for local development – had “a once in a generation opportunity to regenerate our local economic environment to make it vibrant and healthy both now and for future generations, “ said Lamb, while urging businesses to support LEP activity wherever possible.

One LEP priority, said Lamb, was future skills education and labour supply linked to the overall objective of jobs growth. The Thames Valley Berkshire LEP has already set up a dedicated skills and education group.

“We are known as the Silicon Valley of Europe but we have to make sure the area continues to provide the skills we need to support and generate our growth. Education is a main pillar to what we can do in business in the future. My challenge to this summit audience, and businesses everywhere, is to let your LEP know if there are barriers to growth, so that we can work with our local partners to remove them.”

Based on a ‘growth agenda’ and with a sub-theme of ‘gainfully training’, the Skills Summit was staged by Reading UK CIC at the Penta Hotel. Speakers at the event included Philip Britton of the Skills Funding Agency; Martine Bantick of Jobcentre Plus; Stephen Uden of Microsoft, Lesley Donoghue of Reading College; David Gillham from the University of Reading,

Reading Skills Summit – find the ‘right skills’and Richard Byard of Reading UK CIC. The changing nature and skill requirements of the business world, and the existence of skills gaps was a common message from speakers.

The need to improve the sharing of industry experience and best practice, explain the true values of both vocational and academic skills, encourage uptake of less popular but industry essential studies, and to create well-rounded employees with ‘work-ready skills’ were other topics raised at the summit.

Stephen Uden revealed how Microsoft had customised an apprenticeship scheme with the National Apprenticeship Service to suit its industry requirements, while gaining government funding. Microsoft provided a bespoke training programme that its SME suppliers could access to improve their vocational skills and knowledge. Microsoft Vendor qualifications had resulted, now a recognised standard within the IT industry. “We’re incredible fans of apprenticeships – a model of learning that is applicable across almost every workplace.”

Despite public spending cutbacks, Philip Britton of the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) confirmed the government’s £4 billion commitment to improving UK skills, not least to assist private sector growth and new jobs. An increased expectation of providers to meet the needs of employers, abolition of top-down government targets, greater employer engagement with academia, improvement of vocational education for 14-19 year-olds, an adult skills budget, loans to learn, and funding for workplace training were all latest SFA headlines.

Martine Bantick gave a detailed overview of the Get Britain Working measures provided by Jobcentre Plus, including Work and Enterprise Clubs, sector-based work academies, the new Enterprise Allowance and Work Together and Work Experience schemes.

Faced with funding cutbacks and changes to fee structures, the academic world is changing too, “Globally connected generations coming through now will access knowledge and skills in a very differently to the way in which I was taught,” Lamb pointed out.

Lesley Donoghue invited people to revisit Reading College – “the College for Reading” – and see how its culture and environment was changing, particularly since its FE provision was divested from TVU late last year. Employability of students, local employer involvement and professional standards were now key foci.

Employability was also a main objective at the University of Reading said David Gillham highlighting how the university, “itself one of the biggest businesses in Reading”, was increasingly working more closely with local businesses. Sector specific skills initiatives and applied research excellence was complemented by a purpose-built science and technology centre and an enterprise centre opening this year. The Henley Business School at the university is also a leader within professional executive development.

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Business leaders, teachers, head teachers and government joined youngsters at iconic bridges around the country to launch the Young Enterprise ‘Build a Bridge’ Charter, which calls on local business, government and educational establishments to recognise the importance of enterprise education for every young person in the UK.

In Oxford, students aged 15-19 gathered with supporters under The Bridge of Sighs (right) to launch the charter in the Oxfordshire region.

Young Enterprise, the UK’s leading enterprise education charity which is based in Oxford, believes that bringing teachers, employers and employees together with young people to share their skills will help inspire them to become the business leaders, entrepreneurs and enterprising employees of tomorrow.

The charter calls for action now to equip the next generation with the skills to compete globally and drive the UK’s economic growth in the future. It calls for government to place business, employability and entrepreneurship education within the statutory curriculum, and calls for employers to help dedicate 10,000 volunteer days to enterprise education during 2011/12, while 500 schools, colleges and universities are asked to commit to a dramatic increase in their employer engagement during 2011/12.

John May, CEO of Young Enterprise, said: “It’s vital that young people have the enterprise and entrepreneurial skills to drive our economic growth as well as to stand out in a very competitive market

Oxford charity launches charter to bridge gap in enterprise education

place and ensure they succeed in the workplace. To do this, we need to work together to build relationships between education and business and we need the Government to help facilitate this.

“This Charter is all about building bridges. We need to bridge the gap in enterprise education in schools by making it a part of the curriculum. We need to build bridges between young people and the business community by encouraging skilled employees to volunteer their time to teach young people about key business and entrepreneurial skills through hands-on experience. Finally, we need to help young people successfully cross the bridge between education and work.”

Sue Croft, principal of Oxford Spires Academy (OSA), said: “I wholeheartedly support the Young Enterprise Charter. Schools must ensure that students develop the skills, attitudes and aspirations which lead to success. At Oxford Spires Academy we embrace fully the aims of this charter; we want to engage fully with businesses in a variety of projects, mentorship and work experience. Our aim is to ensure that when an OSA student stands in line for a job at any stage in their future that they are at the front of the queue! We want students to feel empowered to shape their futures.”

Details: www.young-enterprise.org.uk

Leading commercial interior specialist the Fourfront Group has been shortlisted in the top 60 Sunday Times Best Green Companies 2011.

The Sunday Times Best Green Companies awards, sets out to identify and celebrate the achievements of British businesses that are striving to improve their environmental performance and use a robust methodology to measure environmental information such as energy spend, waste produced and internal environmental policies, procedures and controls.

Over the past four years the Fourfront Group has

Fourfront shortlisted in ‘Green’ awardsendeavoured to minimise the environmental impact of its activities and the implementation of its robust Environmental Management System has gained the ISO14001 accreditation.

The Fourfront Group’s environmental initiatives – ranging from reducing waste on site by, becoming carbon negative, the launch of a ‘reuse, reduce, recycle’ scheme and other more ‘hands on’ schemes such as a volunteering day in Alice Holt forest, a tree planting day in Dartmoor and introducing a cycling scheme for its employees – have contributed to being recognised as one of the UK’s top 60 Green companies.

Clive Lucking, Fourfront Group ‘s managing director, commented: “Our consistent environmental message and initiatives have played an important part in educating our supply chain and transforming our internal processes. Our employees have embraced our green initiatives right from the start and this was reflected in the employees survey carried out by the Sunday Times to find out whether the company standards and procedures are executed throughout our organisation.”

Details: Guenaelle [email protected]


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iPeople in focus

Large (over £1 billion)

Medium (£250 million to £1 billion)

Small (£50 million to £250 million)

Sub £50 million

Closing price Closing price Change in 29/04/11 31/05/11 share price

SPECTRIS 1483 1575 6%ELECTROCOMP. 278.2 293.8 6%HALMA 373.5 394.2 6%SHIRE 1850 1917 4%RECKITT BENCKISER GROUP 3324 3437 3%VODAFONE GROUP 171.6 168.95 -2%ULTRA ELECTRONICS HDG. 1728 1691 -2%CABLE & WIRELESS COMMS. 46.4 45.22 -3%WOLSELEY 2168 2058 -5%BG GROUP 1533.5 1406.5 -8%


DIXONS RETAIL 14.41 19.65 36%MCBRIDE 134.5 154 14%TT ELECTRONICS 178.5 203 14%GALLIFORD TRY 415 462 11%FIDESSA GROUP 1769 1945 10%GENUS 997.5 975 -2%DAIRY CREST 402 388.1 -3%ELEMENTIS 166 158.2 -5%AVIS EUROPE 194 184.2 -5%ASHTEAD GROUP 202.2 182.8 -10%


ANITE 64.25 73.25 14%ALBEMARLE & BOND HDG. 295 335 14%MICROGEN 139.5 146.5 5%UNIQ 75 78.25 4%COSTAIN GROUP 226.25 229.5 1%NANOCO GROUP 86.75 79.5 -8%YELL GROUP 7.13 6.43 -10%AEA TECHNOLOGY GROUP 4.68 4.18 -11%GAME GROUP 52.75 47 -11%SINCLAIR PHARMA 35.5 31.25 -12%


PARSEQ 5.13 7.37 44%BEZANT RESOURCES 35.75 42 17%ZINCOX RESOURCES 50.88 58 14%FUTURA MEDICAL 71 80 13%ENV.RCYC.TECHNOLOGIES 5.2 5.63 8%STARVEST 16.5 14 -15%CLINICAL COMPUTING 2.13 1.75 -18%PETARDS GROUP 0.5 0.4 -20%HMV GROUP 10.75 8.53 -21%OMG 39.5 26.5 -33%

EMPLOYMENT LAW UPDATES ShareleaguePresented by in association with

Thames Valley

BusinessT H E

M A G A Z I N E

Employers are warned to brace themselves for further legislative changes reshaping the landscape of family friendly rights and parental leave in the workplace, says Boyes Turner’s Michael Farrier.

In spite of their promise to limit future employment law, the Government has commenced consultation on a new system of flexible parental leave, stating that the current systems are too rigid and don’t reflect current and modern notions of parenting and family responsibilities. The consultation, entitled ‘Consultation on Modern Workplaces’ went live recently on the Department for Business Innovation and Skills website and will run until August 8, 2011. However, any proposed changes to parental leave should not be in place before 2015.

So what are the proposals?

The consultation considers encouraging parents to share their leave, which could allow fathers to be more involved with parenting and spend more time at home in the first year after birth. Whilst it is intended that an initial block of maternity leave will be reserved to mothers and that fathers will retain their current two-week paternity leave, it is proposed that the remaining maternity leave period of 34 weeks will be reclassified as parental leave. This may then be shared between the parents as they see fit. With the details of how this will operate in practice likely to be the subject of much discussion and debate, this could mean essentially that parents will be able to share their overall leave allowance between them, taking it in a number of chunks and at the same time as each other.

The consultation on flexible parental leave will also look at;

• Whether unpaid parental leave should be extended to beyond the child’s fifth birthday; and

Modern parenting reforms... again?

• Whether fathers should be allowed unpaid leave to attend ante-natal appointments.

The consultation as a whole also looks to consult on a right to request flexible working extended to all employees, the interaction of annual leave and sick leave and measures to encourage equal pay for equal work between men and women.

How will the parental leave proposals affect businesses?

Under the proposals, employers may be faced with variable parental leave requests in the first year after birth, together with an increase in expenditure as fathers become entitled to additional paid parental leave.

We will await the outcome of the consultation in August which will, we hope, give employers a better idea of how many of these changes will come into force and how they will work in practice. The intended delay of introduction until 2015 is subject to affordability and will give businesses ample opportunity to prepare themselves. It will be interesting to see how the Government balances the delicate line between not overburdening business in difficult economic times with creating a more workable and realistic work-life balance.

Consistent with Boyes Turner’s policy when giving comments and advice on non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of any specific problems we recommend that professional advice is sought.

Details: Michael [email protected]

Request weekly employment law updates email: [email protected] to our employment law podcasts:www.boyesturner.com/services-employment.html?pgid=349Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/btemplaw

Dixons Retail plc, one of Europe’s leading specialist electrical retailing groups, saw its share price rocket 36% during May.

Although it announced trading figures that showed underlying Group total and like-for-like sales were down 2% in the full year and down 4% in the second half, the company said its businesses were performing “ahead of their markets, particularly in the UK, Nordics, Italy and Greece”.

Dixons, with 60 megastores now open with average annual sales of £20 million, delivered £50m of cost savings in the year and launched its new customer services brand, KNOWHOW. It said there was an ongoing shift to multi-channel shopping, with pure play e-commerce sales down 9% while multi-channel internet sales were up 12%.

Spectris, the Egham supplier of productivity-enhancing instrumentation and controls, was one of the best performing large companies in the region, with its share price jumping 6%.

Chairman John Hughes told the annual meeting that trading in the first four months of the year was strong, assisted by a healthy order book following the particularly good performance in the last months of 2010.

He said: “The group has made good progress throughout all segments, geographic regions and end markets as the trends seen in the latter part of 2010 continued into 2011.

“On a like-for-like basis, sales for the four months ended April 30 were 21% higher than the comparable period in 2010.”

news10


Launch of new Centre for Health Communication ResearchBucks New University is

to establish a research centre

that focuses on the communication

challenges and issues within the health sector.

The Centre for Health Communication Research and Excellence (CHCRE) will operate within the newly established Institute of Applied Leadership and will aim to establish strong relationships with both public and private sector health organisations.

The director of the new centre will be John Underwood who was appointed an Honorary Professor at Glasgow University in 2006 and who is a director of Freshwater, one of the UK’s largest regionally-based communications consultancies. Freshwater has a specialist health communication division and offices throughout Britain. Over the past 15 years Underwood has advised a wide range of NHS organisations

Dr Nichols said: “The new health communication research centre will focus upon a range of issues including engagement and consultation, media coverage of the health service, the challenges surrounding lifestyle health campaigns such as smoking cessation and obesity, and the relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and public health systems. I cannot imagine a more challenging time for the healthcare sector than that which lies ahead.”

on complex communication and reputation management issues.

He said: “Much of the new centre’s work will involve NHS organisations and the tremendous communication challenges they face. Effective communication is never more important than in times of great change and, of course, the NHS is currently facing greater change than at any time since its creation over 60 years ago. We are looking forward to helping the NHS address the communication challenges of the immediate future.”

The deputy director of CHCRE will be Dr Bill Nichols, a marketing and public relations specialist who worked in France, India and the US as well as the UK before joining Bucks New University as a senior lecturer in marketing in 2009. He ran his own international communications consultancy before completing a DBA at Henley Business School where he is also now a visiting lecturer.

Asset Managementby Angus Thomas Photography

for lit corporate and environmental portraitswww.angusthomascorporate.com

CHCRE will undertake academic research, postgraduate level teaching, short courses for health practitioners, practical/commercial research and communications consultancy. The centre will be located at Bucks New University’s High Wycombe Campus .

Details: John Underwood 07730-955689

Dr Bill Nichols (left) and John Underwood

Wokingham-based contract caterer Blue Apple has been awarded a prestigious catering contract at the new Help for Heroes Personnel Recovery Centre (PRC) at Tedworth House in Tidworth, Wiltshire.

Tedworth House is one of five regional PRCs that will provide ongoing training and support for wounded servicemen and women in the Armed Forces, created through a partnership between the Help for Heroes charity, the MoD, The Royal British Legion and other Service charities.

The centre is set to welcome the first group of wounded personnel on July 4, and will be fully operational by spring 2012. It will act as a ‘one stop welfare shop’, a place where the wounded can find jobs, learn life skills, continue to keep fit and know exactly where to go when problems arise.

The food produced by Blue Apple for Tedworth

Blue Apple wins Help for Heroes contractHouse will be crucial to the centre. Mealtimes act as one of the key meeting points in the day for the wounded and their families, and provide the balanced nutritional focus that is so important for a successful recovery.

Blue Apple, which was founded in 1998 by former chefs Ruston Toms and Brian Allanson and whose clients include easyJet, Mercedes, BMW, Sharp, Hertz and Monarch, won the Help for Heroes contract after competing in an exciting ‘cook-off’ contest against contract caterer BaxterStorey.

The two companies had to produce a menu of main course choices and desserts, in large quantities and at top speed. A cross-section of diners including wounded personnel, Help for Heroes staff and the families of those serving in the Armed Forces were invited to vote and Blue Apple was announced as the winner.

Ruston Toms, director of Blue Apple, said: “We

wanted to cook food ‘the blokes’ would like, so the menu prepared wasn’t complicated, just very tasty and served in a friendly way. We are thrilled to have won the contract and so proud to be a part of the team at Tedworth House.”

Details: www.blue-apple.co.ukwww.helpforheroes.org.uk/prc-tedworth-house.html

From Left: Ruston Toms and Brian Allanson at the H4H ‘Cook off’


news 11


“We are seeing many of our clients actively exploring M&A as a vehicle to drive their growth plans, balancing the shareholder pressure to deliver stellar returns on capital investment with a still delicate global economy. But, there is a distinct focus on growth – M&A has an impact on every part of business.’’

Thorne has an outstanding reputation for advising clients at all points in the transaction lifecycle. He gets to know and builds relationships with businesses well before any transaction; ‘holds hands’ with them throughout the process, and sees the deal through to completion.

He comments: ‘’There’s plenty to think about and discuss. Initially we need to think about competitive and industry analysis; market entry strategy, and target identification. Then target profiling and preliminary due diligence; initial tax structuring and integration consideration. Once we move to the execution phase, our full Deloitte Reading team, including specialists Pauline Biddle (transactions services); Ian Barton (corporate finance advisory) and our Consulting industry colleagues, are on hand to assist with all aspects, right through from advisory, to transaction support, and then post-merger integration.’’

Thorne continues: ‘’The tax opportunities associated with transactions are significant; the reforms are making the UK a very attractive place to do business. The third successive increase to the lifetime limit in Entrepreneurs’ Relief in as many years seemingly demonstrates the government’s commitment to encouraging entrepreneurs to invest and reinvest in the UK. The current limit of £5 million has been doubled to £10m. All gains which qualify for Entrepreneurs’ Relief up to this lifetime limit will be subject to a reduced rate of capital gains tax of 10%, and any gains in excess of this lifetime limit will be subject to the standard rate of 28%. For those for whom this will apply, this relief results in an effective saving of £1,800,000, an increase of £900,000.

“Those in our Deloitte team working with entrepreneurial business, including partner Claire Webster who leads our private client team, can give specific and detailed advice before, during, and on completion of a transaction.”

Innovation was another key theme of the Budget 2011. A critical part of this initiative is the introduction of a UK Patent Box, ‘to encourage companies to locate the high-value jobs associated with the development,

manufacture and exploitation of patents in the UK, and maintain the UK’s position as a world leader in patented technologies’. The Government is continuing to consult on the detail of this measure but has confirmed that a reduced 10% rate of corporation tax for profits arising from patents will be effective from April 1, 2013. The measure is intended to benefit innovative industries in general, so patent filers in pharmaceutical, technology, manufacturing, energy and utilities, telecoms, aerospace, defence (A&D), consumer and media businesses should benefit. Deloitte in Reading has genuine specialists in all these industries within the office, including A&D national industry leader Pauline Biddle.

“Although there remain a number of difficult areas yet to be designed in the patent box proposals, and the success of the regime will be dependent on how these issues are resolved in the next consultation phase, we are well-placed to advise on how businesses should be planning now to make the most of this measure. With innovation such an important part of the agenda for growth in the Thames Valley, we anticipate that this legislation will be of huge interest to businesses in this area.”

The delivery of controlled foreign company (CFC) reform is still on track, enabling companies to finance to maximise their tax position. The proposed reduction in the finance company ratio, resulting in an effective UK tax rate of 5.75% on overseas financing profits, is encouraging and will enhance the UK’s position as a holding company location. This will, however, be subject to the detailed rules and anti-avoidance measures expected in the imminent consultation document, but with the additional proposed changes to the

holding of IP in a CFC, a holding regime will be particularly tax-efficient.

Again, with national specialist partners including Matt Jones and Philip Kaye, Deloitte is able to provide the very best advice locally.

Companies should not forget Research & Development (R&D) tax credits – one of the biggest funding mechanisms provided by government to encourage innovation in UK businesses. Since their introduction, the schemes have supported nearly £52 billion of R&D activity by UK companies. Brian White and Kathie Haunton in the Deloitte Reading R&D services team have assisted a number of clients in delivering substantial cash benefits by optimising their R&D relief claims. Historically one of the more difficult areas to determine is where R&D activity ends and where production, which does not qualify, begins. HMRC have recently reviewed their position on this, leading in turn to opportunities for organisations involved with any kind of manufacturing activity to potentially extend the scope of their claim. While there is no definition of production for these purposes, our recent experience suggests that a number of principles are emerging.

Key points to bear in mind include that R&D activities can occur as part of engineering and software design, or large maintenance and upgrade works; that eligibility is not contingent upon the success of the research; and that you do not need to retain IP to make a claim. We can help with all this.’’

Lisa Stott, head of corporate tax for Deloitte in the south east, is delighted to welcome Thorne back to the firm. She says: ‘’With 19 experienced client-serving corporate tax partners in the region (14 in Reading) we already offer the most comprehensive services locally. Mike’s breadth of expertise is a great addition to our team, particularly at this time.

“As private equity begins to re-emerge from its quiet period, we anticipate increasing demand for the services of our full audit, tax, consulting and corporate finance team. Working together with us, our clients can expect exceptional service from acknowledged experts in their respective fields.’’

Details: 0118-9508141www.deloitte.co.uk

Making M&A transactions less taxingTransactions tax specialist Mike Thorne has joined the Reading office of Deloitte. An alumnus of the firm, he rejoins after some time as a partner at E & Y. Thorne is delighted to be returning, commenting: ‘This is a really exciting time in the M&A market, particularly in technology and telecoms. Spring 2011 brought with it an air of confidence and appetite for new opportunities’

Mike Thorne

news12


all the fuNof the fair CHRISTMAS 2011

CELEBRATIONS Royal Berkshire Conference Centre, Madejski Stadium, Reading

www.rbcc.org.ukTo book call 0118 968 1333

Your Disputes“Our goal is to achieve the commercialoutcome you need as fast as possible”

Rick Munro, Partner, Dispute [email protected]

www.lamportbassitt.co.ukLamport BassittSolicitors

BusMagAdvert-jan2011-artwork:Layout 1 13/01/2011 17:31 Page 1

Time to win some silverwareGet your entries in now for the Thames Valley Business Magazine Awards. This is your chance to put your company in the spotlight.

The Thames Valley Business Magazine Awards (TVBMA) is the leading awards competition in the region and the 2011 event closes for entries on September 30.

Winning a category in this prestigious competition will provide valuable promotion for your business, will encourage your employees and senior management, and will enhance relationships with clients and suppliers.

Entry is free. Up to six companies are chosen as finalists per category.

Categories are:

Thames Valley Export Award – sponsored •by DediPower

SME of the Year Award – sponsored by •James Cowper

Best Company to Work For – sponsored by •Vail Williams

Business Management Team Award – •sponsored by RBS

Dynamic Business Award – sponsored by •Deloitte

Business of the Year Award – sponsored by •Pitmans.

The TVBMA gala dinner is on November 17 at the Royal Berkshire Conference Centre, Madejski Stadium, Reading. Lord Digby Jones, former director general of the CBI and a champion of British industry, is the special guest speaker.

Digby Jones, who is about to publish a book on “fixing Britain” is a former minister of state for UK Trade & Investment, and has been an adviser to Deloitte and Barclays. He is currently on advisory boards for HSBC and British Airways, among others.

The event presenter will be award-winning journalist Nadine Dereza, who is a permanent fixture on the corporate circuit, chairing and facilitating numerous conferences and live events for a diverse range of businesses and organisations, across many different sectors globally. These include senior management and sales conferences, product launches, award ceremonies, consumer and trade shows.

Dereza has presented for CNN, Simply Money, BBC, Sky TV, SABC and Summit TV. Over the past 20 years, as well as interviewing chief executives and senior management teams

on their company’s performance and results, she has also presented reports on all the major business and financial stories. Dereza won Financial Journalist of the Year while she was London Markets Correspondent for the Financial Times.

To book tickets for the event, email events manager Linda Morse on [email protected]

Details: www.businessawards.co.uk

THAMES VALLEYBUSINESS MAGAZINE

AWARDS 2011

Nadine Dereza


technology 13


Partnering for digital success As recession forces many UK companies under, some are fighting back using the power of the web to secure customers, drive sales and expand markets. The result? The Thames Valley is now host to a vibrant digital design industry; founded on close collaboration between creative teams and infrastructure providers

Chris Miller, CEO of DediPower Managed Hosting

“Digital design agencies are ahead of the game when it comes to their relationship with hosting partners,” according to Chris Miller, CEO of Reading-based DediPower Managed Hosting. “They realise that no matter how much effort they put into developing a site, it’s worthless if the infrastructure can’t deliver. At the same time, cloud and virtualisation are offering them innovative new ways to address capacity as online traffic soars and digital data demand from mobile applications, pervasive computing and ubiquitous social networking sites increase.”

Indeed, for web companies struggling to balance the cost, quality service equation: hosting has proved to be a revelation; boosting performance, capability and efficiency while reducing costs.

Tom Cahalan, CEO of Lost Ferret, a specialist e-commerce developer who works with leading high street retailers including Moss Bros, Quiz and Officers Club, agrees. “Since switching to DediPower, we have improved responsiveness and support, increased performance and, importantly, reduced hosting costs by 30%. Our online retail clients have increasingly come to appreciate how important website performance impacts sales, whilst keeping costs down.”

All this activity has created an upsurge in hosting resellers – who buy hosting capacity and resell it at a profit. As a result, industry pundits believe there are growing issues around quality of service, infrastructure and support. Speaking with digital designers it becomes clear that finding and working with a hosting partner they trust is crucial to their success.

Tim Deeson, director, Deeson ONLINE, works with brands such as the BRIT Awards, Future Publishing, The Royal Society and Institute of Economic Affairs. He confirms: “When most people think of hosting, they think racks of servers. But it’s the skill set that the provider wraps around them that actually matters. That’s what

we get with DediPower. Our high- profile sites require that extra skill because what ‘just works’ for 100,000 visitors may require some niche knowledge for 1,000,000 visitors.”

But what will these types of inter-industry partnerships mean for consumers?

DediPower believes they can expect faster, more compelling web experiences; even richer digital content – with music, video, interactive mechanisms – pushed out by multiple channels; and media streamed globally 24/7. Virtualisation and cloud-based hosting will be key to delivering this new consumer experience. But it will also bring challenges.

Miller explains: “Our experience has shown that properly designed and implemented solutions can contribute to operational efficiencies; however, a badly thought out solution can create over-specified, high-cost systems that fail to deliver to expectation.

“The good news is that with more options and suppliers available, companies are taking more time to choose the right hosting partner. They are actively seeking service providers that can meet their future commercial goals as well as their current digital requirements. That’s the reason DediPower provides business consultancy as part of our investment in the client partnership. I believe that true understanding of a client’s business will continue to be a key differentiator for hosting companies.”

A good example of this is DediPower’s collaboration with DCH, which manages and directs international communications requirements for more than 20 high-profile clients, including Nikon, Fuller’s, Discovery Foods, MG, and The Football League. By moving to DediPower’s virtualised Private Cloud hosting platform, DCH has achieved a 40% saving on previous hosting expenditure and gained three times more capacity and 100% availability.

Phil Hobgen, technical director, DCH, confirms: “DediPower ensures we have the right technical knowledge in the right place to make sure we operate as effectively as possible. We are much more competitive as a result.”

As the digital industry grows, design companies will expect lower cost, more innovative technology with greater capability and richer features all backed by better service and a fundamental desire to underpin their business goals and objectives. Solid and mutually effective hosting partnerships, with managed hosting providers such as DediPower, can help them achieve this and more.

Details:[email protected]

corporate recovery14

THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – JULY/AUGUST 2011www.businessmag.co.uk

A unique community of UK turnaround investors has emerged since the dawn of the recession and has invested nearly £1b in distressed companies in the UK in the past 12 months, according to research by KPMG.

Ian Corfield, restructuring director at KPMG in the south east, commented: “We have seen a new breed of investor come to the distressed acquisition market since the beginning of the downturn. Historically, distressed investors acquired companies out of administration to salvage what remained. While the traditional model still exists, we have seen small investors in the UK looking to step into businesses while they are still solvent. This change in approach is driven by a need to step into a distressed situation before it unravels into insolvency and precious value is destroyed.

”The UK turnaround investor community, which has emerged in the past few years, differentiates itself from the traditional distressed investor model by rescuing companies earlier; 76% of firms surveyed have completed a solvent acquisition in the last year. There are also key differences with the typical private equity investment model where

Distressed investors sitting on over a billion of cash– rather than suffer possible delays created by due diligence and committee decision-making which could prevent a solvent business rescue – many UK distressed investors can write a cheque on the spot.”

Key findings:

There are around 60 specialist turnaround • investors in the UK;

The group has completed 73 deals in the • past 12 months;

Over £940m has been invested in UK • headquartered businesses in the past 12 months;

76% of turnaround investors have • completed a solvent acquisition in the past 12 months;

80% of turnaround investors are seeing • more opportunities than a year ago.

Commenting on the characteristics of the people behind the funds, Ian Corfield added: “The funds themselves are typically set up by small groups of high-net-worth individuals, often with a background in restructuring, who

understand that timing is crucial in business rescue. There will always be an inherent block in identifying acquisitions targets, in that directors find it difficult to admit to the severity of their problems until it is too late but 80% of the investors we surveyed said they were seeing more opportunities in the next year.

“Deals such as Gardner Aerospace, acquired last year by Jon Moulton’s Better Capital, and structural steelworkers Robinsons, acquired by Jamie Constable’s RCapital (both rescue transactions avoiding insolvency) show that the community is prepared to put its cash to work. It is difficult to estimate the total fire power of the UK distressed investor community as their style is to tap into their network of contacts when the right deal comes along. However, with nearly a billion spent in the last year and the community seeing more opportunities in the year ahead, we’re certainly looking above the billion mark.

“With such a large pool of cash to invest, this emerging breed of specialist investor is good news for business rescue in the UK.”

‘If people got professional help when the sparks had just started to ignite, I think that nine out of 10 cases could be saved or turned around, but that’s not the typical scenario,” says experienced business recovery professional Frank Wessely, talking to John Burbedge. Too often owner-managed businesses and even large established companies fail to spot the warning signs of commercial distress. Some spot the signs but fail to take the right recovery action soon enough – either through lack of knowledge and experience, or because the remedy falls into the ‘too hard and time-consuming to tackle at the moment’ tray.

Too often entrepreneurs and management boards also see the problem as one to be kept secret within the company; best handled internally by adopting the ‘we’ll work extra hard to get ourselves out of this mess’ attitude. Wessely has seen it all before. “When people come to us they have ‘zoomed in’ and are micro-managing aspects that shout loudest at any particular time. They lose awareness of the true overall shape of the business, their objectives, and where it should be going. Directors tend to get diverted onto fire-fighting issues that waste valuable management time and company resources.

“When they come to see us, directors can be like rabbits in headlights, they don’t know which way to turn, they are frozen in time and may be in denial as well. As part of our services we try to

No fire without smokeSmoke alarms save lives and costly fire damage. An early warning that a business is heading for trouble can save livelihoods and costly corporate damage

Frank Wessely

get them to take a step back and see things from a wider angle.”

Of course, with an early warning system in place seeing the wider picture is much easier – and less rabbits get run over.

More and more businesses are becoming aware of the benefits of the firm’s Tracker early warning service – an interactive real-time online monitoring system that accesses numerous trusted data sources to flag up potential business and financial risks across a client portfolio and supplier base.

“We believe Tracker’s scope, flexibility and tailored detail makes it a market leader, and excellent value in terms of restoring control of one’s company, and providing management peace of mind,” said Wessely.

Using an early-warning system like Tracker, not only helps bring stability and confidence to business operations, it can also highlight the need for change – leading to innovation and market gain opportunities.

With regular information generation, junior and middle managers can also pro-actively douse problem embers before they become corporate fires that burn up valuable senior management time.

Wessely says the need for his business recovery skills, and those of his many RSM colleagues, usually stems from two main factors:

• businesses not having appropriate systems in place to generate satisfactory management data and reporting

• people becoming too emotionally involved with their business, and not being able to become detached when making decisions.

Overseen by RSM Tenon, Tracker provides that appropriate system and assists from an external and impartial stance. If you are interested in learning more about Tracker, email [email protected].

Details for RSM Tenon Offices Reading: 0118-9530350Basingstoke: 01256-312312Marlow: [email protected]


corporate recovery 15


Many banks are in the process of building their balance sheets through disposal of non-core business, raising money on the capital markets and appraising their portfolios. Meanwhile, the political and public pressure to lend money grows unabated, especially in the SME sector. These competing pressures have created certain financial situations unique in the banking field which are worthy of scrutiny.

Consider this proposition – ABC bank has provided a number of complimentary facilities to you (overdraft, clearing, hedging and term loan) for 15 years. You have never been in default but because of the poor trading environment, your three monthly cashflow projections are going to be harder to meet.

You ring the bank, not for more money but to let your client manager know the state of affairs as you are upfront and an

open finance director. You are subsequently called by someone you do not know in Specialised Lending who tells you that your accounts are being transferred to this unit. He continues that although the accounts are not on stop, a representative of the unit wishes to meet you to:

understand and review the • businessevaluate its security• determine whether on a going • concern or break up basis the bank can exit this relationship without losing moneyrequest you appoint a firm • of turnaround professionals (another name for an insolvency practitioner).

You are shocked. From the innocuous call to your relationship manager to this! But please don’t panic.

Firstly, although you may be aggrieved by the way this issue

has arisen, given the relationship developed over a number of years, don’t be overly defensive. Smooth the way by trying to be measured and balanced.

Secondly, try and find other sources of finance from a variety of funders (sometimes through independent brokers) if there is a threat, perceived or otherwise, that the bank wishes to exit the relationship. Banks like to sell their products to you on the basis of price and administrative ease. However, putting all your eggs in one basket may not be wise in these difficult times so consider giving discrete parts of your lending requirement to a number of lenders.

Thirdly, always remember it’s the bank’s money. It may have genuine anxieties based perhaps more on the lack of understanding of how you do things. Try and make the complex simple.

Managing your bankAbe Ezekiel of Penningtons Solicitors LLP examines how SMEs can work effectively with their banks during mutually testing times

There are no rules in this situation but a level head, good professional advice, and a clear strategy for the future are strong attributes to weather the storm.

Details: Abe [email protected]

Abe Ezekiel

The number of businesses becoming insolvent in the construction sector has jumped by 19% in the last quarter to 948 (Q1 2011) up from 796 in the previous quarter (Q4 2010), says Wilkins Kennedy, the Top 22 chartered accountancy firm. It is the first quarterly rise in insolvencies in two years (Q1 2009) and has stoked fears of another prolonged downturn for the sector.

Wilkins Kennedy explains that the cancellation of public sector building programmes, such as Building Schools for the Future, has driven this rise in the number of construction firms going bust.

Keith Stevens, partner, and head of Wilkins Kennedy restructuring and recovery, comments: “We have seen a number of construction related insolvencies in the Thames Valley and Solent areas over the past two years; the Government has slashed capital spending on infrastructure across the board in order to plug the deficit

Pain for SMEs and double dip for construction sectorWith a drought in government contracts leaving the sector reeling, small companies could be forced to bear the brunt, says Keith Stevens, partner and head of restructuring and recovery at Wilkins Kennedy

and that has pushed the construction sector into a double dip.

“Fiscal stimulus at the start of the recession had included substantial infrastructure projects that keep the construction sector’s head above water. But that support is now being withdrawn.

“The question now is how quickly private sector construction work will be able to pick up the slack left by the public sector. So far this has not happened.”

Experts estimate that public-sector spending on construction projects represents about 40% of the industry’s turnover. The Government is committed to halving this, with more than £90 billion of capital spending cut between now and 2014.

Research from Barbour ABI reveals that the value of contacts awarded for construction projects fell to just £21b in the year to May 2011, down from £34.6b on the previous year.

According to Wilkins Kennedy the effects of the downturn in government contracts is likely to be widespread as companies scramble to fill the void left by the reduced public sector spending.

Stevens comments: “Large companies who typically win the most valuable public sector contracts will be forced to look at alternative projects. This is unlikely to fill the void completely and may force many large firms into price cutting, which will drive down the rates of smaller construction firms.

“Many companies could be forced

to pass their pain down through their supply chain, which will have a big impact on sub-contractors, electricians, plumbers and builders’ merchants as well as the rest of the ecosystem that makes up the construction industry.”

Details: Keith Stevens01784-435561keith.stevens@wilkinskennedy.comwww.wilkinskennedy.com

corporate recovery16


The proposals are described as aiming to improve the transparency of, and confidence in, pre-packaged (pre-pack) sales by administrators, who have been criticised for rushing through the sale of insolvent businesses, leaving creditors with little or no time to question the sale.

A so-called ‘pre-packaged sale’ is a sale of all or part of the business and assets of an insolvent company which is negotiated before the company enters a formal insolvency process and which is concluded immediately upon the company’s entry into an insolvency procedure – often administration.

Davey suggested: “This will enable creditors to express concerns, which the administrator would need to consider or, where the circumstances justify it, apply to the court to prevent the sale from taking place.”

Administrators already need to provide a detailed explanation of why a pre-pack sale was undertaken to creditors in compliance with professional standard Statement of Insolvency Practice 16. Under the new proposals these will in future need to be included in their administration proposals which are lodged at Companies House, making the information available to the public at large, including credit reference agencies. Administrators will also need to confirm that the sale price represents best value for the creditors.

Davey commented: ”Particular concerns have been raised about sales of assets back to the current management, or other connected party, something that is often referred to as ‘phoenixism’. Where such sales are at undervalue, creditors get less than they should. Competitors who pay their debts in full also suffer. I want to make sure that creditors have a fair chance to have their voice heard. I also want to enable others to scrutinise such transactions after the event to ensure that deals being struck are fair in the circumstances.”

James Hyne, head of insolvency & corporate recovery at Charles Russell, commented: “Mr Davey appears to have overlooked the fact that if an administrator sells the assets of a company at an undervalue, creditors have an express statutory remedy pursuant to the misfeasance provisions of para 75 of schedule B1 Insolvency Act 1986. Perhaps more worryingly, the proposal to impose a notice period (of possibly three days) published to the world at large could have detrimental consequences for the continuity of a business and its goodwill, potentially adversely affecting the interests

‘Phoenix’ pre-packs

of creditors which is precisely the opposite of what was intended by this proposed change.”

Charles Russell Oxford-based partner Mark Howard commented: “While appropriate checks and balances are clearly required, we need to recognise that very often those best placed to understand the risk profile of the business and its value are the incumbent management team. With speed and confidentiality so often the key to preserving value and therefore delivering a successful outcome for creditors these proposals could result in more liquidations, meaning more unsecured creditors losing out.”

Geoff Sparks, head of corporate & commercial at Charles Russell’s Guildford office, said: “Acquiring assets from an administrator or liquidator can provide purchasers with good value opportunities. However, purchasers need to be aware of the risks and potential liabilities that accompany this type of transaction. Our cross-office insolvency and corporate recovery team handle a variety of transactions in this practice area (advising buyers, sellers, insolvency practitioners and creditors) and are on hand to help clients negotiate the complicated legal issues which insolvency and restructuring involves.”

No timeframe has yet been suggested for the implementation of these proposals.

Details:

Mark Howard, partner0845-359-0092 [email protected]

Geoff Sparks, partner01483-252529 [email protected]

James Hyne, partner0845-359-0024 [email protected]

This information has been prepared by Charles Russell LLP as a general guide only and does not constitute advice on any specific matter. We recommend that you seek professional advice before taking action. No liability can be accepted by us for any action taken or not taken as a result of this information. Charles Russell LLP is not authorised under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000 but we are able in certain circumstances to offer a limited range of investment services to clients because we are members of the Law Society. We can provide these investment services if they are an incidental part of the professional services we have been engaged to provide.

On March 31 the minister for business innovation and skills, Ed Davey, announced proposals to require administrators to give notice (a three-day notice period has been suggested) to creditors where they propose to sell a significant proportion of the assets of a company or its business to a connected party in circumstances where there has been no open marketing of the assets

Mark Howard

Geoff Sparks

James Hyne


corporate recovery 17


© 2011 PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP. All rights reserved. In this document, “PwC” refers to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (a limited liability partnership in the United Kingdom), which is a member firm of PricewaterhouseCoopers International Limited, each member firm of which is a separate legal entity.

Delivering the value you’re looking for

We work to create the value our clients, our people and our communities are looking for.

It is a sad fact that property, and specifically excessive bank lending that was secured on property (or, as it turned out, inadequately secured) was one of the fundamental causes of the current recession, writes Paul Batho, chief executive, NARA. The collapse of Lehmann Bros bank in September 2008, which so nearly precipitated a global economic melt-down, was ultimately caused by the rash lending policies of US banks to the sub-prime sector of the property market and excessive lending to the property sector was also behind the failure of the Irish economy.

British banks were by no means guilt-free and most are now sitting on mountains of bad debts, loans to borrowers secured on property whose value has fallen below the amount of the sum borrowed or where the borrower is unable to keep up interest and repayment obligations. Further lending, essential to fund economic recovery, has been held up as a result.

Where a borrower has defaulted on the terms of a mortgage, the

Supporting the recovery

Paul Batho, chief executive, NARA

lender may appoint a receiver as an alternative to taking action against the borrower itself. Once appointed, the receiver will effectively step into the shoes of the property owner and will be responsible for managing the property, collecting rents and providing specialist property advice. The receiver may also seek planning consent to redevelop, arrange lettings and sell the property if this is the best way of repaying the debt.

A receiver’s appointment is made under the provisions of the Law of Property Act 1925, so the person appointed is often called an ‘LPA Receiver’.

The advantage of appointing a receiver, as opposed to an administrator or a liquidator, is that the receiver is appointed only in relation to the property subject to the mortgage. By contrast, administrators and liquidators are appointed over all the assets of a trading business and may run it with a view to selling it, or to winding it up. If a loan is secured only on a property, the business itself may continue to trade while the receivership proceeds and

the costs to the lender will be substantially less.

NARA is the trade body representing over 350 Registered Property Receivers (RPRs) and other professionals involved in receivership work. RPRs have to complete a rigorous training and examination process before qualifying and are thus well-equipped to deal with the often complex nature of receivership appointments. Most are also qualified chartered surveyors or insolvency practitioners with many years professional experience.

Most RPRs have never been busier and are making an active contribution to recovery in the property sector and in the wider economy. A receiver will look at all the options available to a property subject to a distressed loan in order to ensure the maximum recovery of the monies owed. Immediate sale is often not the best answer, and many banks are using the skills of receivers to manage, develop and enhance value over what can be a number of years to ensure that the

situation is resolved effectively. In this way banks’ losses are minimised and they are better able to resume lending, injecting the vital oil of finance into the stalled economic engine.

A survey of NARA members in March this year indicated that 2011 will be a testing time as lenders are feeling increasing pressure to recover ‘bad’ loans. The survey suggested that the number of receiverships may well increase as the year progresses. Whether this will be a steady rise or a flood will be governed by interest rates, the patience of the banks and the ability of the market to absorb distressed property sales.

Details: Paul Bathowww.nara.org.uk

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Whilst it is often true that to save a business there will be a requirement for recourse to administration or liquidation it does not always have to be the case. Key will be the nature and causes of the problems faced by a business and the extent of any cashflow problems – attention to which at an early stage can be the determining factor in whether formal insolvency is avoidable.

When, for example, James Cowper was consulted by a hi-tech company working in the field of space exploration, the size of the business had reduced substantially over a number of years. The management, bank and institutional shareholder were all evaluating their options and administration was a possibility. The company had a very clear idea of its work volumes for at least six months ahead and faced a real risk of running out of cash. Were there to be any suggestion of financial problems, however, there was a real risk that key contracts would be terminated exacerbating the position. By embarking on an accelerated disposal process it was possible to sell the company – ensuring all creditors were paid and some value was secured for the institutional investor (and the management).

Underwater

A recurrent theme arises with management teams, which perhaps embarked on leveraged acquisitions prior to the banking crisis in 2008 and now find that the business is no longer able to service the level of debt burden. In corporate finance parlance such businesses are described as ‘being underwater’.

Another example: the turnover of a consumer electronics business which approached the firm had reduced by more than half. Nevertheless, because of strong management the company was able to operate perfectly well in the short term until it faced the prospect of breaching banking covenants and later of being unable to meet scheduled repayments of loan capital. The shareholders, in this instance, were generally unable or unwilling to inject fresh capital whilst they were not receiving a return on their existing investment, and the management felt left ‘holding the baby’. Unless something could be done, there was a risk that key personnel would leave the business. In the

The term ‘corporate recovery’ has become a euphemism for ‘corporate insolvency’. For many companies that is not the case, as James Cowper’s business recovery team explains

circumstances, they would prove hard, if not impossible, to replace.

In such situations, one obvious option is to restructure the finance of the business. By agreeing to reduce the level of debt the lender assisted management to restore the company to a viable footing. Such negotiations are delicate and often require an outside adviser to ‘hold the ring’. The adviser’s role will be to try to ensure the ‘pain’ is shared as fairly as possible between all parties for the greater good.

Insolvency

Sometimes circumstances dictate that formal insolvency cannot be avoided. Team Precision Pipework was a subsidiary of a US group until its turnover dried up following the financial crash and subsequent downturn in motor manufacturing. The company supplied parts for automotive air conditioning and the parent company decided that it was unable or unwilling to sustain it through a prolonged period of uncertainty. In the circumstances, the decision was made to place the company into administration. The administrators were able to negotiate terms with key suppliers, customers and staff which enabled the business to continue. An expedited marketing of the business was conducted and a buyer was found for it. The sale resulted in all creditors being paid in full.

Key to these types of solution is short-term cashflow – is funding available to run the business whilst a turnaround strategy is developed? Where cash is constrained such strategies are not impossible but they are made much more difficult.

A final word of warning: HMRC is proving less accommodating than it was at the height of the financial crisis and directors who allow substantial arrears to accrue risk actions to hold them personally liable or disqualification from the management of a company for a period of two to 15 years.

Details: Peter [email protected]. www.jamescowper.co.uk

James Cowper’s Business Recovery and Insolvency team

James Cowper has one of the Thames Valley and south coast’s leading corporate recovery and insolvency teams. The 11-strong team operates from offices in Oxford, Newbury, Reading, Southampton, Henley and London. The team prides itself on working with clients to achieve the best solutions for debtors – be they companies or private individuals – and their creditors.

The firm offers a full range of business turnaround and restructuring support across a variety of industry sectors. Its focus is to assist in the recovery or rescue of struggling businesses however the firm recognises that this is not always possible. When a business has failed James Cowper can assist in choosing the right insolvency procedures to minimise losses to creditors and exposure on the part of directors.

From left: Sue Staunton, Peter Whalley and Sandra Mundy, James Cowper

Corporate recovery should mean precisely that

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Today we unveil a £17b grouping of the Thames Valley’s top private companies.

The Thames Valley 250 lists the top independent businesses in the region, ranked by turnover.

The combined turnover of these companies amounts to more than £17.2b, and they represent a wealth of home-grown and locally headquartered businesses that together contribute significantly to the south’s economy.

Sponsored by HSBC, business adviser Grant Thornton, law firm Blandy & Blandy, The Business Magazine, and the Thames Valley Innovation & Growth Team, the 250 is an annual listing of unquoted businesses that have their head office in the region.

Following the launch of the inaugural 250 last year, this year’s list shows a number of changes -

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£17 billion powerhouse of private companies

both in companies included and turnover figures.

We have taken the decision to exclude some companies featured in 2010, as further research has revealed foreign ownership, public placement of shares, or that the company is a subsidiary of a group headquartered elsewhere.

“This year’s 250 has been fine-tuned and, while we will continually hone the listing, we believe it better represents the private business community in the region,” said publisher David Murray.

For the 2011 list, universities are included. University of Oxford dominates, at number four, while University of Reading comes in at 16 and Surrey at 20.

Logistics provider Unipart Group heads the list, with increased sales over last year. Top IT company Westcoast (Kelido) is at number three.

Rules of engagementThe Thames Valley 250 is compiled from • Companies House records through OneSource

Rankings are based on last published • accounts (the year-end dates are listed)

The 250 excludes multinational and foreign-• owned companies that simply have a UK base in the Thames Valley

Companies listed on stock exchanges either • here or abroad are also excluded

Companies that have a registered office in • the Thames Valley but don’t trade here are not listed

Businesses in last year’s 250 were asked to • submit their latest results; some of these are included as they are more current than OneSource results

In some cases, last year’s turnover, published • in the 2010 250, has been updated

The Thames Valley is defined as the • circulation area of the Thames Valley edition of The Business Magazine. It includes RG, SL, HP, OX and some GU and UB postcodes

Key: SVCS = Services; Soils = Solutions; Int = • International

Next month: The Top 10 in more detail, plus report of the launch event and awards.

ReceptionThe Thames Valley 250 will be unveiled at a drinks reception at Stoke Park, Stoke Poges, on July 5, in front of an invited audience of 100. Special guest speakers are Stuart Green, chief UK economist of HSBC, and Glenn Caton, recently appointed managing director of Direct Wines, who are at number nine in our list.


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COMPANY NAME TOWN DESCRIPTION SALES (M)

SALES (M)PREVIOUS EMPLOYEES YEAR-END

1 UNIPART GROUP Oxford Logistics provider 1130.0 1034.2 8487 Dec 31, 2010

2 URENCO Marlow Nuclear fuels 999.2 1129.7 3015 Dec 31, 2009

3 KELIDO (WESTCOAST) Theale IT products supplier 958.5 565.0 720 Dec 31, 2010

4 UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD Oxford University 890.6 862.5 8921 July 31, 2010

5 WASTEINVESTMENTS (BIFFA) High Wycombe Waste management 701.9 554.9 4515 Apr 2, 2010

6 OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Oxford Publishers 611.9 578.7 3700 Mar 31, 2010

7 AIRWAVE SOLUTIONS Slough Emergency comms provider 413.0 380.1 866 Jun 30, 2010

8 WESTBURY STREET (BAXTERSTOREY) Reading Catering 362.4 209.8 8533 Dec 31, 2010

9 DIRECT WINES Reading Wine producer & retailer 344.3 343.9 907 July 2, 2010

10 RIDGEWAY GARAGES Newbury Motor dealerships 307.9 282.6 781 Dec 31, 2010

11 McLAREN GROUP Woking F1 racing and roadcar manufacturer 291.6 264.9 1587 Dec 31, 2009

12 HOOK 2 SISTERS Bampton Poultry farming 281.9 276.7 290 July 31, 2010

13 NEWBURY INVESTMENTS (STEARN) Newbury Electrical goods wholesaler 274.1 267.3 1076 Dec 31, 2009

14 THE GARDEN CENTRE GROUP Slough Garden centres 251.4 244.4 2999 Dec 27, 2009

15 TRADER MEDIA GROUP Thatcham Specialist multimedia publisher 250.9 296.0 2860 Mar 28, 2010

16 UNIVERSITY OF READING GROUP Reading University 225.4 184.3 4200 July 31, 2009

17 ALLPORT GROUP Uxbridge Independent freight forwarder 221.2 272.7 1158 Dec 31, 2009

18 2e2 GROUP Newbury IT services provider 200.8 204.9 1205 Dec 31, 2009

19 KILLINCHY AERO (MARTIN-BAKER) Uxbridge Engineering 194.3 162.8 773 Mar 31, 2010

20 UNIVERSITY OF SURREY Guildford University 193.8 191.3 1400 July 31, 2010

21 FURNITURE VILLAGE Slough Retail furniture household etc. 172.4 161.9 712 Apr 4, 2010

22 MEDINA DAIRY Windsor Non-specialised wholesale food, etc 147.7 121.7 323 Oct 31, 2009

23 NORBAIN GROUP Winnersh CCTV equipment 132.3 152.6 370 Apr 30, 2010

24 UNATRAC Slough Caterpillar dealerships 130.7 92.2 74 Dec 31, 2010

25 GEOS GROUP Henley On Thames Marine fuel sales 127.4 229.9 14 Dec 31, 2009

26 FRESH HOLDINGS Bicester Fresh fruit wholesaler 126.9 106.3 699 July 31, 2010

27 GAMMA TELECOM Newbury Network voice services 126.2 143.8 196 Dec 31, 2010

28 KAYTERM/JARVIS HOTELS High Wycombe Hotels & restaurants 119.1 130.1 3198 Mar 27, 2010

29 IRIS SOFTWARE GROUP Slough Application software 119.0 119.2 1252 Apr 30, 2010

30 SOFTCAT Marlow Software licensing & solutions 113.1 102.9 194 July 31, 2009

31 INTERSURGICAL Wokingham Respiratory care products 105.1 98.5 554 Dec 31, 2009

32 PRODRIVE Banbury Motorsport manufacturer 100.0 110.0 657 Dec 31, 2010

33 BANNER HOMES GROUP High Wycombe Housebuilder 95.8 69.1 164 May 31, 2010

34 MICHAEL J LONSDALE Langley Service contractors 94.0 106.3 118 Mar 31, 2010

35 JOHN GUEST INTERNATIONAL West Drayton Plastic fittings & tubes manufacturer 87.6 110.4 1085 Dec 31, 2009

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36 SHANLY GROUP Beaconsfield Property developer 87.5 NA 96 Dec 31, 2009

37 AGRICULTURAL CENTRAL TRADING Chesham Animal feeds & minerals 85.9 107.4 91 Jun 30, 2010

38 TIMBMET Oxford Wood products 84.8 111.9 364 Mar 31, 2010

39 FOOD PARTNERS Slough Sandwich suppliers 84.5 81.3 1231 Oct 3, 2009

40 PD HOOK GROUP Bampton Poultry farming 81.8 81.3 392 Oct 31, 2009

41 REBOUND TECHNOLOGY GROUP Newbury Electronic component distributor 81.3 36.2 185 Dec 31, 2009

42 BLUE SKY INTERMODAL Marlow Marine container leasing 81.0 53.3 9 Dec 31, 2009

43 STANJAMES (ABINGDON) Wantage Bookmaking 79.8 300.5 153 Dec 31, 2009

44 CSM MOTOR GROUP Basingstoke Motor dealerships 79.7 84.6 390 Dec 31, 2008

45 MEDCO HEALTH SOLS (CAREOLOGY) Oxford Homecare service for patients 75.4 59.2 59 Jun 30, 2010

46 GRUNDON WASTE MANAGEMENT Wallingford Waste management 75.1 82.3 739 Sep 30, 2009

47 CH & CO Reading Catering 74.0 81.4 1900 Mar 31, 2011

48 SAFTDWIN Basingstoke Motor dealerships 73.1 79.1 276 Dec 31, 2009

49 NIKE LAND SECURITIES Bracknell Construction, hotel, leisure 72.0 65.0 669 Apr 30, 2010

50 HATCH MANSFIELD AGENCIES Ascot Wine importer 70.1 54.0 35 Dec 31, 2010

51 SAS INTERNATIONAL Reading Metal ceilings 67.9 76.5 630 Dec 31, 2009

52 GOODHEAD GROUP Bicester Web-offset printing 66.4 65.9 565 May 31, 2010

53 CLINIMED HOLDINGS High Wycombe Healthcare products 65.2 58.9 552 Dec 31, 2009

54 ATEX GROUP Reading IT software systems 64.7 59.8 532 Dec 31, 2009

55 INSTA GROUP Wokingham Cavity wall & insulation work 63.0 64.2 141 Jun 30, 2010

56 BAUMATIC Reading Household appliances 62.3 60.8 213 Mar 31, 2010

57 LEASEDRIVE VELO Wokingham Vehicle management solutions 62.0 20.0 135 Dec 31, 2010

58 UNIBOND INTERNATIONAL Uxbridge Food processing & packaging 61.8 64.0 16 Dec 31, 2009

59 AIRTANKER SERVICES Carterton Tanker aircraft maunfacturer 59.9 39.9 29 Dec 31, 2009

60 OWEN MUMFORD Woodstock Medical device manufacturer 59.6 44.9 561 Sep 30, 2009

61 BUCKS NEW UNIVERSITY High Wycombe University 57.2 54.7 NA July 31, 2009

62 SIGMA HOLDINGS Slough Motor dealerships 57.1 70.2 187 Dec 31, 2009

63 CENTERPRISE INTERNATIONAL Basingstoke IT solutions 54.9 37.1 118 Aug 10, 2010

64 TOWRY LAW Bracknell Wealth advisers 54.7 35.4 1500 Dec 31, 2009

65 AUDLEY TRAVEL GROUP Witney Travel operator 53.7 49.5 156 Dec 31, 2009

66 HINDS Uxbridge Jewellery retailer 53.1 50.8 714 Mar 28, 2010

67 MILLGATE DEVELOPMENTS Twyford Housebuilder 52.0 65.4 54 Jun 30, 2010

68 HARRISON CATERING SERVICES Thame Catering services 51.5 49.6 2442 Mar 31, 2010

69 SNELL CORPORATION Reading Television & digital media solutions 48.9 36.7 419 Dec 31, 2009

70 ULTIMA BUSINESS SOLUTIONS Reading IT infrastructure solutions 48.5 46.6 231 Mar 31, 2010

71 GUAVA INTERNATIONAL Guildford Automotive parts 48.0 29.4 42 Dec 31, 2010

72 GENIE MANAGEMENT GROUP Aylesbury Recruitment support services 46.9 45.1 1767 Mar 31, 2010

73 NORTH OXFORD GARAGE Oxford Motor dealerships 44.9 38.3 125 Sep 30, 2010

74 KINGERLEE HOLDINGS Kidlington Residential developer 44.4 30.9 120 Dec 31, 2009

75 Q ASSOCIATES Newbury IT hardware supplier 43.0 45.7 73 Mar 31, 2010

76 MITCHELLSON FORMWORK Slough Building services 42.9 52.7 165 May 31, 2010

77 = KJ CHERRY & SONS Banbury Animal feedstuffs & property 42.6 35.0 149 Jun 30, 2010

77 = QUANTEL HOLDINGS Newbury Broadcast systems 42.6 34.9 212 Sep 30, 2010


22



79 TRL Wokingham Transport research 42.5 39.0 404 Mar 31, 2010

80 ASCOT AUTHORITY HOLDINGS Ascot Racecourse 42.1 44.2 82 Dec 31, 2009

81 FELTHAM GROUP Newbury Construction services 41.4 36.6 94 Jun 30, 2010

82 IMAGO HOLDINGS Thame Printing & publishing 41.2 41.6 149 Dec 31, 2009

83 HUNTSWOOD CTC Reading Business performance specialists 40.8 37.7 535 Sep 30, 2010

84 = CAB INTERNATIONAL Wallingford Science-based research & dev 40.5 NA 216 Mar 31, 2009

84 = GENISYS ENTERPRISE Basingstoke IT solutions 40.5 NA 75 Apr 30, 2009

86 BROOK HENDERSON GROUP Reading Asset-related services to public sector 39.8 57.5 108 Apr 2, 2010

87 FAROL HOLDINGS Thame Agricultural machinery 39.4 36.4 111 Jan 31, 2010

88 RICO LOGISTICS Slough Courier & logistics services 39.3 35.4 455 Dec 31, 2009

89 CHAS A BLATCHFORD & SONS Basingstoke Prosethic and orthotic specialists 39.1 34.5 494 Mar 31, 2010

90 = LISTER WILDER Wallingford Agricultural machinery 39.0 38.4 150 Dec 31, 2009

90 = A&O SYSTEMS Slough IT infrastructure solutions 39.0 45.3 239 Dec 31, 2009

92 IMAGO GROUP Thatcham Video comms distributor 38.7 32.9 105 July 31, 2010

93 STOCKFORD Windsor Property management, hotels etc 38.1 40.1 539 Dec 31, 2009

94 AC LIGHTING HOLDINGS High Wycombe Lighting & audio supplier 37.6 38.9 192 Jan 31, 2010

95 TRADEDRIVE Windsor Chemicals trading 36.7 24.7 NA July 31, 2009

96 OISE HOLDINGS Oxford Language tuition 36.3 38.1 876 Dec 31, 2009

97 OPTIMA INVESTMENTS High Wycombe Partitioning & interior fitting 36.0 44.1 215 Jan 31, 2010

98 = RECTORY HOMES Aylesbury Housebuilder 35.5 28.7 25 May 31, 2010

98 = RH AMAR & CO High Wycombe Food importer 35.5 39.5 51 Sep 30, 2009

100 PRACTICUS Henley On Thames Interim management 35.2 33.3 57 Dec 31, 2009

101 DAYBREAK FOODS Sunninghill Food importer 33.9 33.9 9 Oct 31, 2009

102 FOURFRONT GROUP Egham Commercial interior specialists 33.4 39.6 91 Apr 30, 2010

103 MANICHEM Reading Pharmacy group 33.0 22.8 185 Mar 31, 2010

104 = PENLON Abingdon Anaesthesia & medical gas solutions 32.7 32.0 292 Dec 31, 2009

104 = SURFACE TECHNOLOGY INT Hook Electronics manufacturing solutions 32.7 25.4 303 May 31, 2010

106 READING FOOTBALL CLUB Reading Football club 32.6 31.0 491 Jun 30, 2010

107 EUROPEAN ELECTRONIQUE Eynsham IT hardware & software solutions 31.7 36.0 122 Mar 31, 2010

108 BYBOX Wantage Electronic locker manufacturer 31.6 28.7 229 Dec 31, 2009

109 XTRAC TRANSMISSIONS Thatcham Motorsport gearbox manufacturer 31.4 35.1 234 Sep 30, 2010

110 MANCHES LLP Oxford Legal services 31.1 34.2 277 Dec 31, 2009

111 TRI-Q GROUP Oxford Polymer film & paper products 30.9 25.6 154 Sep 30, 2010

112 TRADESTAR INTERNATIONAL Windsor IT hardware & software reseller 30.1 27.4 3 Aug 31, 2009

113 FACILITAS GROUP Reading Building management & maintenance 29.9 29.9 276 Dec 31, 2007

114 AIRINMAR HOLDINGS Wokingham Aircraft parts repaiir 29.7 28.7 124 Mar 31, 2010

115 HAMILTON SERVICES GROUP Bracknell IT and AV rentals 29.6 13.9 73 Dec 31, 2009

116 DIMENSIONS Theale Support to those with learning difficulties 29.0 57.3 750 Mar 31, 2010

117 PETER BRETT ASSOCIATES Reading Transport & development consultants 28.6 40.5 75 Mar 31, 2010

118 COVION Theale Facilities management 28.5 31.5 495 Dec 31, 2009

119 JSP Witney Protective safety equipment 28.2 27.8 192 Dec 31, 2009

120 ALLMAKES 4x4 Abingdon Motor vehicle parts 28.1 19.2 109 May 31, 2010

121 KL VENTURES Banbury Pizza delivery services 27.2 NA 998 Mar 31, 2010


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122 DIREKTEK DISTRIBUTION High Wycombe Photographic wholesaler 27.0 31.5 34 Jun 30, 2010

123 ENGLISH LANDSCAPES Yattendon Landscaping & maintenance 26.7 18.4 55 Mar 31, 2010

124 ALAN GIBSON Basingstoke Motor dealerships 26.5 24.4 81 Dec 31, 2009

125 ENCASE HOLDINGS Banbury Corrugated board manufacturer 26.4 32.0 275 Jun 30, 2010

126 GCS RECRUITMENT HOLDINGS Reading IT recruitment specialists 26.3 27.0 51 Apr 30, 2010

127 READING TRANSPORT Reading Bus transport 26.2 27.1 545 Oct 4, 2009

128 = GOLFBREAKS Windsor Golfing holidays 25.8 18.3 88 Oct 31, 2010

128 = SIMON ELVIN High Wycombe Greetings cards producer 25.8 27.3 158 Dec 31, 2009

130 = GRANT & STONE High Wycombe Agents in building materials 25.5 21.9 114 Mar 31, 2010

130 = SYMM GROUP Oxford Building services 25.5 34.8 276 Mar 31, 2010

132 = DAR LIGHTING Banbury Lighting products manufacturer 25.2 21.5 155 Jun 30, 2010

132 = MUTCHMEATS Witney Meat preparation 25.2 NA 68 Dec 31, 2009

134 CIRCLE EXPRESS Slough Freight transport by road 25.1 23.8 264 Oct 31, 2010

135 GEORGE WILLIAMSON & CO Newbury Tea & coffee merchants 24.8 24.8 5392 Mar 31, 2009

136 = CORDWALLIS COMMERCIALS Maidenhead Commercial vehicle dealerships 24.6 30.3 148 Dec 31, 2009

136 = TSL (TELEVISION SYSTEMS) Maidenhead Broadcast systems 24.6 28.2 53 Jun 30, 2010

138 RIDGE AND PARTNERS LLP Woodstock Property & construction consultants 24.4 26.0 271 Dec 31, 2009

139 CLINICAL SOLUTIONS Basingstoke Healthcare software solutions 24.2 25.7 175 Dec 31, 2010

140 = BURNHAM GARAGE Slough Motor dealerships 24.1 21.6 112 Dec 31, 2009

140 = HOSPEDIA Slough Hospital activities 24.1 27.7 961 Mar 26, 2010

142 = AVK/SEG (UK) Maidenhead Uninterruptible power systems 24.0 26.3 47 Mar 31, 2011

142 = THE APM GROUP High Wycombe Company & process certifications 24.0 19.4 88 Mar 31, 2010

144 ID BUSINESS SOLUTIONS Guildford Software solutions 23.3 17.7 206 Dec 31, 2009

145 = ALLPARTS AUTOMOTIVE High Wycombe Motor vehicle parts 23.2 19.9 286 Jun 30, 2010

145 = HR WALLINGFORD GROUP Wallingford Environmental hydraulics research 23.2 25.6 264 Mar 31, 2010

145 = PA TURNEY Bicester Groundcare equipment 23.2 24.1 103 Dec 31, 2009

148 = BDZ HOLDINGS Newbury Residential property 22.9 NA 18 Oct 31, 2010

148 = BOX TECHNOLOGIES Thame Computer peripherals 22.9 17.6 79 Jun 30, 2010

148 = INTRO 2020 Maidenhead Photographic goods distributor 22.9 19.7 53 Apr 30, 2010

151 CLEAN LINEN SERVICES Maidenhead Professional laundry services 22.8 19.5 520 Mar 27, 2010

152 RAPIER EMPLOYMENT Abingdon Recruitment 22.6 20.6 1105 Jun 30, 2010

153 RESOURCING SOLUTIONS Twyford Recruitment 22.5 22.7 53 Apr 30, 2010

154 COFFEE NATION High Wycombe Self-service coffee 22.0 20.1 64 Mar 31, 2010

155 HOH OILFIELD SERVICES High Wycombe Supplier to oilfield industries 21.7 22.1 11 Aug 31, 2009

156 GUINNESS DEVELOPMENTS High Wycombe Property developer 21.6 37.3 NA Mar 31, 2010

157 = NOMINET UK Oxford Internet domain name registry 21.5 19.8 115 Sep 30, 2010

157 = FG ALDEN Kidlington Building services engineers 21.5 19.8 119 Sep 30, 2009

159 SAINTS TRANSPORT Slough Freight transport by road 20.9 23.8 323 Dec 31, 2009

160 LTI METALTECH Abingdon Pressure vessel manufacturers 20.8 24.0 83 Dec 31, 2009

161 ADEPTRA Reading Credit & rick management solutions 20.5 12.3 116 Dec 31, 2009

162 FOREMOST GOLF Slough Golf products 20.4 20.7 33 Dec 31, 2010

163 HORIZON INTERNATIONAL CARGO Slough Other transport agencies 20.3 13.5 73 Mar 31, 2010

164 ILG HOLDINGS Camberley Carehome provider 19.8 19.8 667 Mar 31, 2010


24



165 INTERNATIONAL GROUP Stoke Poges Property & leisure developers 19.7 12.4 211 Dec 31, 2009

166 STEER HOLDINGS (JCA) Reading Paints for body repair shops 18.9 16.9 89 Dec 31, 2009

167 CLEARSWIFT SYSTEMS Theale IT security systems 18.8 20.9 168 Mar 31, 2010

168 ALBION HOUSE FINANCE (XERETEC) Wokingham Digital print providers 18.4 14.6 57 Aug 31, 2010

169 AXIAL SYSTEMS Maidenhead Network analysis systems 18.3 20.1 38 May 31, 2010

170 = OPP Oxford Psychometric testing 16.9 20.3 162 Dec 31, 2009

170 = HOUSING 21 PROPERTY SERVICES Beaconsfield Residential & carehome developer 16.9 11.0 NA Mar 31, 2010

172 = BOSHERS Cholsey Builders 16.8 14.7 117 Apr 30, 2010

172 = RICHARDSON ROOFING HOLDINGS Staines Roofing contractors 16.8 21.7 50 Aug 31, 2009

174 LOWE HOLDINGS Oxford Engineering & contracting services 16.5 31.3 150 Jan 31, 2010

175 CAUSEWAY TECHNOLOGIES Bourne End Construction software & online services 16.4 14.9 147 Dec 31, 2009

176 BEECHCROFT Wallingford Retirement homes 16.2 24.2 21 Apr 30, 2010

177 = OSNEY MEAD Oxford Property management, interiors 16.1 NA 130 Mar 31, 2010

177 = ELLA'S KITCHEN Henley On Thames Children's foods 16.1 NA 15 July 3, 2010

179 PULMAGEN THERAPEUTICS (HOLDINGS) Slough Respiratory drug developers 15.9 NA 69 Mar 31, 2010

180 BARRETT ESTATE SERVICES Thatcham Building contractors 15.8 21.5 97 Dec 31, 2009

181 MATHEMATICAL MARKET RESEARCH Wallingford Scientific research 15.6 NA 123 Mar 31, 2010

182 MCVEIGH PARKER & CO. Bradfield Fencing & agricultural supplies 15.5 17.0 66 Jan 31, 2010

183 ASAP DRIVING & INDUSTRIAL SVCS Reading Labour recruitment 15.3 15.3 103 Sep 30, 2009

184 = ALAMY Abingdon Stock photography agency 15.2 17.3 155 Dec 31, 2009

184 = THOMAS HOMES Thatcham Housebuilder 15.2 15.7 21 Sep 30, 2010

186 STEVENS & BOLTON Guildford Legal firm 15.1 15.3 105 Apr 30, 2010

187 PC COX GROUP Newbury Sealant applicator manufacturer 15.0 40.5 233 Dec 31, 2009

188 MM BELLINGER Wantage Motor dealerships 14.7 7.0 70 Dec 31, 2009

189 LEE MARLEY BRICKWORK Uxbridge Brickwork subcontractors 14.5 17.0 31 Dec 31, 2009

190 WHITE HORSE CONTRACTORS Abingdon Sports turf construction & landscaping 14.3 NA 80 Nov 30,2009

191 NIRVANA SPA & LEISURE Sindlesham Spa & health services 14.2 12.9 348 Mar 31, 2010

192 = CHANCELLORS GROUP Henley On Thames Estate agencies 14.0 12.6 290 Dec 31, 2009

192 = OXFORD SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL Oxford Education 14.0 14.0 91 July 31, 2010

194 FOCUSRITE AUDIO ENGINEERING High Wycombe Audio and electronics equipment 13.9 9.1 47 Aug 31, 2010

195 = KELTEC Bracknell IT services & technology 13.6 12.9 51 Dec 31, 2009

195 = MOBILE PHONES DIRECT Reading Mobile phones retailer 13.6 9.9 69 Mar 31, 2010

197 READYPOWER ENGINEERING Wokingham Plant hire 13.1 11.6 133 Mar 31, 2009

198 STUART TURNER Henley On Thames Provider of pump solutions 12.9 15.8 73 Sep 30, 2009

199 CAMP HOPSON & CO Newbury Department store & removals service 12.8 13.0 125 Jan 31, 2010

200 = DENNIS COX BUILDING SERVICES Slough Construction, design & building services 12.7 15.6 2 Dec 31, 2009

200 = OXFORD POLICY MANAGEMENT Oxford Economic & social research 12.7 13.5 86 Sep 30, 2010

202 CLEARVIEW TRAFFIC GROUP Bicester Traffic data systems 12.5 17.1 163 Mar 31, 2010

203 WOKINGHAM MOTORS Wokingham Motor dealerships 12.2 12.9 55 Dec 31, 2009

204 BUSINESS MOVES GROUP Reading Removals & storage 12.1 9.7 164 Oct 31, 2010

205 DW CONTRACTORS Oxford Painting & decorating 11.9 13.7 46 Apr 30, 2010

206 UNIVERSAL TELECOM High Wycombe Telecoms sales 11.8 12.1 100 Sep 30, 2009

207 = VAIL WILLIAMS LLP Reading Real estate agents 11.7 13.8 95 May 31, 2010


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165 INTERNATIONAL GROUP Stoke Poges Property & leisure developers 19.7 12.4 211 Dec 31, 2009

166 STEER HOLDINGS (JCA) Reading Paints for body repair shops 18.9 16.9 89 Dec 31, 2009

167 CLEARSWIFT SYSTEMS Theale IT security systems 18.8 20.9 168 Mar 31, 2010

168 ALBION HOUSE FINANCE (XERETEC) Wokingham Digital print providers 18.4 14.6 57 Aug 31, 2010

169 AXIAL SYSTEMS Maidenhead Network analysis systems 18.3 20.1 38 May 31, 2010

170 = OPP Oxford Psychometric testing 16.9 20.3 162 Dec 31, 2009

170 = HOUSING 21 PROPERTY SERVICES Beaconsfield Residential & carehome developer 16.9 11.0 NA Mar 31, 2010

172 = BOSHERS Cholsey Builders 16.8 14.7 117 Apr 30, 2010

172 = RICHARDSON ROOFING HOLDINGS Staines Roofing contractors 16.8 21.7 50 Aug 31, 2009

174 LOWE HOLDINGS Oxford Engineering & contracting services 16.5 31.3 150 Jan 31, 2010

175 CAUSEWAY TECHNOLOGIES Bourne End Construction software & online services 16.4 14.9 147 Dec 31, 2009

176 BEECHCROFT Wallingford Retirement homes 16.2 24.2 21 Apr 30, 2010

177 = OSNEY MEAD Oxford Property management, interiors 16.1 NA 130 Mar 31, 2010

177 = ELLA'S KITCHEN Henley On Thames Children's foods 16.1 NA 15 July 3, 2010

179 PULMAGEN THERAPEUTICS (HOLDINGS) Slough Respiratory drug developers 15.9 NA 69 Mar 31, 2010

180 BARRETT ESTATE SERVICES Thatcham Building contractors 15.8 21.5 97 Dec 31, 2009

181 MATHEMATICAL MARKET RESEARCH Wallingford Scientific research 15.6 NA 123 Mar 31, 2010

182 MCVEIGH PARKER & CO. Bradfield Fencing & agricultural supplies 15.5 17.0 66 Jan 31, 2010

183 ASAP DRIVING & INDUSTRIAL SVCS Reading Labour recruitment 15.3 15.3 103 Sep 30, 2009

184 = ALAMY Abingdon Stock photography agency 15.2 17.3 155 Dec 31, 2009

184 = THOMAS HOMES Thatcham Housebuilder 15.2 15.7 21 Sep 30, 2010

186 STEVENS & BOLTON Guildford Legal firm 15.1 15.3 105 Apr 30, 2010

187 PC COX GROUP Newbury Sealant applicator manufacturer 15.0 40.5 233 Dec 31, 2009

188 MM BELLINGER Wantage Motor dealerships 14.7 7.0 70 Dec 31, 2009

189 LEE MARLEY BRICKWORK Uxbridge Brickwork subcontractors 14.5 17.0 31 Dec 31, 2009

190 WHITE HORSE CONTRACTORS Abingdon Sports turf construction & landscaping 14.3 NA 80 Nov 30,2009

191 NIRVANA SPA & LEISURE Sindlesham Spa & health services 14.2 12.9 348 Mar 31, 2010

192 = CHANCELLORS GROUP Henley On Thames Estate agencies 14.0 12.6 290 Dec 31, 2009

192 = OXFORD SAID BUSINESS SCHOOL Oxford Education 14.0 14.0 91 July 31, 2010

194 FOCUSRITE AUDIO ENGINEERING High Wycombe Audio and electronics equipment 13.9 9.1 47 Aug 31, 2010

195 = KELTEC Bracknell IT services & technology 13.6 12.9 51 Dec 31, 2009

195 = MOBILE PHONES DIRECT Reading Mobile phones retailer 13.6 9.9 69 Mar 31, 2010

197 READYPOWER ENGINEERING Wokingham Plant hire 13.1 11.6 133 Mar 31, 2009

198 STUART TURNER Henley On Thames Provider of pump solutions 12.9 15.8 73 Sep 30, 2009

199 CAMP HOPSON & CO Newbury Department store & removals service 12.8 13.0 125 Jan 31, 2010

200 = DENNIS COX BUILDING SERVICES Slough Construction, design & building services 12.7 15.6 2 Dec 31, 2009

200 = OXFORD POLICY MANAGEMENT Oxford Economic & social research 12.7 13.5 86 Sep 30, 2010

202 CLEARVIEW TRAFFIC GROUP Bicester Traffic data systems 12.5 17.1 163 Mar 31, 2010

203 WOKINGHAM MOTORS Wokingham Motor dealerships 12.2 12.9 55 Dec 31, 2009

204 BUSINESS MOVES GROUP Reading Removals & storage 12.1 9.7 164 Oct 31, 2010

205 DW CONTRACTORS Oxford Painting & decorating 11.9 13.7 46 Apr 30, 2010

206 UNIVERSAL TELECOM High Wycombe Telecoms sales 11.8 12.1 100 Sep 30, 2009

207 = VAIL WILLIAMS LLP Reading Real estate agents 11.7 13.8 95 May 31, 2010



207 = NEVERFAIL HOLDINGS Theale Software distribution 11.7 10.6 137 Mar 31, 2010

209 TARGET SITE SERVICES Slough Electrical engineers 11.6 11.6 56 July 31, 2009

210 = ITC HOLDINGS (IMMEDIATE TRANSP) Slough Freight forwarders 11.5 12.5 59 Nov 30,2009

210 = ELECTRO MECHANICAL SYSTEMS Reading Other wholesale 11.5 9.9 50 Aug 31, 2010

212 CROSSFLIGHT Slough International courier 11.4 13.5 131 Mar 31, 2010

213 = MAINDec COMPUTER SOLUTIONS Wooburn Green Computer maintenance 11.3 12.3 112 Mar 31, 2010

213 = HYPERTEC Hungerford Other computer related activities 11.3 9.9 39 Jun 30, 2010

215 = JOHN STACEY & SONS Tadley Building contractors & plant hire 11.1 14.8 101 May 31, 2010

215 = BCMS CORPORATE Newbury Business sales & acquisitions 11.1 11.0 142 July 31, 2010

217 BSRIA Bracknell Other building completion 11.0 10.7 162 Mar 28, 2010

218 SAVONA PROVISIONS Kidlington Wholesale food suppliers 10.9 10.6 67 July 2, 2010

219 = SMITHS CONCRETE Banbury Concrete, gravel & landfill 10.8 13.5 61 Dec 31, 2009

219 = LANGFORD LANE Kidlington Equipment rentals 10.8 11.3 NA Apr 30, 2010

221 = ASHRIDGE CONSTRUCTION Thatcham Civil engineering & construction 10.7 18.9 59 Apr 30, 2010

221 = AZIO (ACCESS IS) Reading Electronic keyboards manufacturer 10.7 10.7 57 Dec 31, 2009

223 WESTBUILD HOMES Reading Housebuilder 10.6 8.0 25 Dec 31, 2008

224 FDD INTERNATIONAL Ascot Perfume and cosmetics distributor 10.4 NA 22 Mar 31, 2010

225 WHITE KNIGHT LAUNDRY SERVICES Reading Laundry services 10.3 12.4 288 Dec 31, 2009

226 = EPI SERVICE Witney Computer maintenance 10.1 6.5 54 Mar 31, 2009

226 = STRATFORD'S WINE SHIPPERS Maidenhead Wine distributor 10.1 11.9 24 Jan 31, 2010

228 = ARTIZIAN CATERING SERVICES Wargrave Contract catering 10.0 13.8 273 Mar 31, 2011

228 = COUNTAX Great Haseley Garden tractors 10.0 24.8 145 Jun 30, 2010

230 MEETINGZONE Thame Telecommunications 9.9 8.2 65 Mar 31, 2010

231 CELLOGLAS Theale Decorative print finishers 9.8 13.3 124 Dec 31, 2009

232 = FONTAIN MOTORS Iver Motor dealerships 9.7 9.7 13 Apr 30, 2010

232 = JAMES COWPER Reading Business advisers & accountants 9.7 NA 135 Apr 30, 2010

234 = CONSTANT AIR SYSTEMS High Wycombe Heating & air conditioning systems 9.6 18.2 93 Jan 31, 2010

234 = CLAIRES COURT SCHOOLS Maidenhead Secondary schools 9.6 9.7 248 Aug 31, 2010

236 REBELLION DEVELOPMENTS Oxford Computer games & magazines 9.0 14.7 154 Jun 30, 2010

237 CF LAKE Slough Electrical products provider 8.8 9.5 50 Apr 30, 2010

238 GURALP SYSTEMS Aldermaston Seismic instrumentation 8.6 7.1 67 Mar 31, 2010

239 = BALDWINS CRANE HIRE Slough Crane hire 8.5 8.6 101 Mar 31, 2010

239 = CLARKSLEGAL LLP Reading Legal activities 8.5 10.4 96 July 31, 2010

239 = HALWELL TRADING Hook Wholesale 8.5 9.0 46 Dec 31, 2009

242 JOHN MADEJSKI ACADEMY Reading Education 8.3 7.0 129 Aug 31, 2010

243 OXFORD ENGINEERING Abingdon Precision engineering 8.2 11.7 58 Jan 31, 2010

244 CLAREMONT AUTOMATICS Chinnor Amusement machine rentals 8.1 8.0 126 Jun 30, 2010

245 = HAZLEMERE HOLDINGS High Wycombe Replacement windows & conservatories 8.0 NA 52 Jan 31, 2010

245 = RABBAH BLOODSTOCK Newbury Bloodstock 8.0 8.2 42 Dec 31, 2009

247 HAMPSHIRE TILE WAREHOUSE Aldershot Tile retailers 7.6 15.4 65 Mar 31, 2010

248 ROWSTOCK Didcot Sale of motor vehicles 7.4 11.2 25 Mar 31, 2010

249 RELAY HOLDINGS Uxbridge Freight transport by road 7.0 8.8 159 Mar 31, 2010

250 DEACON HOLDINGS Goring Building tools & products wholesaler 6.8 11.5 65 Dec 31, 2009


26

Astin Trew (Air Audio)Contact: Michael Osborn Location: Henley-on-Thames Turnover: £200,000 No of employees: 1 Website: www.astintrew.co.uk

Astin Trew manufactures home audio products, which are now transitioning from single room entertainment to whole house ‘lifestyle’ audio of the highest quality. Its product developments incorporate the most recent digital and power line technologies. They will bring about a fundamental change in the way we can easily and cost effectively distribute and ‘consume’ audio, audio-visual and data formats throughout our homes and work places. Astin Trew’s ‘triple play’ solution will offer audio, alongside HDTV and Ethernet computer networking – for the highest-quality home entertainment and workplace solutions available without installing any new cables.

Avco SystemsContact: Raphael Kanza Location: Slough Turnover: £1.7 million No of employees: 27 Website: www.avcosystems.com

Avco Systems provides data services and near-the-shelf bespoke software to blue-chip companies and the public sector. The company has led the field in computer science for 25 years. Latest projects include new developments in mobile, web and semantic web technologies. Avco Systems has recently moved to prestige offices on Bath Road in Slough. The new premises are being turned into an information technology emporium comprising engineering, solutions, development and hosting.

BemokoContact: Matt Diss Location: BasingstokeTurnover: £144,000 No of employees: 8Website: www.bemoko.com

Bemoko is expert in mobile web. It provides mobile website design and build, mobile strategy consulting and mobile development platforms. Its team of mobile experts take clients from the idea stage to a fully functional mobile presence covering all mobile devices and tablets, now and into the future.

Cereno (ISDN datacom)Contact: Jocelyn Lomer Location: Reading Turnover: £1 - £1.5 million No of employees: 6 Website: www.cereno.co.uk

Cereno is a service solution provider and expert who improves working efficiencies, innovation, reduce costs and carbon footprints for customers. Cereno’s web, audio, video and world leading real-time remote collaboration solutions suit companies of all sizes and national and global scale industry sectors. Whether you want an off-the-shelf basic communications package, or a fully tailored video conferencing, collaboration and consultancy solution, Cereno can meet all your requirements to ensure the very best result to your company.

ConnectegrityContact: Linda Cheung Location: Basingstoke No of employees: 4 Website: www.connectegrity.com

Connectegrity is behind CubeSocial: software to win business through social media. CubeSocial filters the noise so that you can identify where your prospects, clients and influencers are talking. It saves you time, shows you which social media platforms to use and tracks ROI. You’ll never need to make a cold call again!

Control Network SolutionsContact: Mike Welch Location: Basingstoke Turnover: £450,000 No of employees: 4 Website: www.control-network-solutions.co.uk

Control Network Solutions has developed an entirely internet-based intelligent lighting management solution called elitedali for Niagara AX. The product offers many benefits over traditional lighting solutions. These include from within a single web-based environment the commissioning, control, maintenance and management of intelligent lamps based upon the global DALI standard. It reduces installation, maintenance and management costs and significantly reduces energy. It seamlessly integrates with all other building systems and client business applications including energy management. Being web-based the solution enables the engineering, control, maintenance and management of lighting from remote locations. Control Network Solutions operates globally.

Over the next four pages we spotlight a Watch List of fast-growth, smaller businesses from across the region. These are companies that have the potential to innovate and grow significantly.The A-Z list, compiled by the Thames Valley Innovation & Growth Team, highlights 30 companies that the IGT is currently working to support. None of them are yet big enough to appear on the Thames Valley 250 list itself, but all are businesses with potential to make their mark in their particular sectors.For more on the work of the IGT across the south east, visit www.innovationgrowth.co.uk

The Watch List: Companies with big potential


250THAMES VALLEY

250TM

Cotswold FayreContact: Paul HargreavesLocation: Henley-on-Thames Turnover: £4.8 million No of employees: 27 Website: www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk

Cotswold Fayre has grown to become one of the main wholesalers of speciality food and drink within the UK, supplying a wide range of quality products not found in the supermarkets to delicatessens, farm shops, garden centres and food halls through the UK and Ireland.

Dynamic ExtractionsContact: David Keay Location: Reading Website: www.dynamicextractions.com

Dynamic Extractions specialises in the field of Countercurrent Chromatography (CCC), an orthogonal and complementary High Performance Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) technique.

EfftelContact: David Rosenthal Location: Basingstoke No of employees: 6 Website: www.efftel.co.uk

Efftel is a specialist provider of landline and mobile telecoms cost-reduction services to major organisations. Its services include billing audits, procurement support and expense management. Typical savings are 5-15% in billing refunds, service redundancy and efficiencies, and 20-40% in procurement improvements.

Event SquadContact: Mark Hardman Location: Reading Turnover: <£1 million No of employees: 2 Website: www.eventsquad.co.uk

If your organization spends more than a couple of days a month administering events, webinars, meetings or seminars, then talk to Event Squad. Using a unique cloud-based platform, Event Squad can increase your guest engagement and drastically reduce your costs.

FISCAL Technologies Contact: David GriffithsLocation: Reading Turnover: £650,000 No of employees: 20 Website: www.fiscaltec.co.uk

FISCAL provides world-class accounts payable audit software that enables corporations and government agencies to find duplicate payments, invoicing errors, compliance issues and supplier fraud. Organisations trust these solutions to meet their needs for cost reduction, fraud detection and optimisation of their working capital.

FrontsoftContact: Babak RouhiLocation: Reading Turnover: £50,000 No of employees: 2Website: www.frontsoft.co.ukFrontsoft has extensive experience around business processes and information flows of varying sizes and has developed UniContent, an enterprise content management system which streamlines the content creation process and improves the quality while reducing costs. Frontsoft offers other services such as system development, document conversion and templates and XML Schema/DTD creation.

Growth EngineeringContact: Melanie GowLocation: Windsor Turnover: £1 millionNo of employees: 17Website: www.growthengineering.co.uk

Growth Engineering delivers exceptional eLearning experiences. Its Learning Management System (LMS) platform is a flexible, user-friendly, fully-managed service allowing its clients to quickly and cost-effectively create, distribute and track online staff training, easily. Fully trackable, testable and reportable it is leading the way with gamification and design to deliver engaging and effective training online.

Hypha DiscoveryContact: Liam EvansLocation: BerkshireTurnover: £250,000 No of employees: 6 Website: www.hyphadiscovery.co.uk

Hypha Discovery is a natural products drug-discovery company that finds novel bioactive molecules from fermentations of an exotic collection of mushroom fungi, mostly from South American and south east Asian rainforest. Since 2009 Hypha’s library of 10,000 extracts has seen significant take-up, with cooperation deals signed with Evotec and European Screening Port, and deals with multinational pharmaceutical companies in negotiation. Hypha is the only company worldwide with such focus and expertise in this area of natural products, and will fully exploit the pharmaceutical discovery potential of the technology while exploring other applications, such as the ability of the fungi to produce enzymes that degrade lignocellulose, which can add efficiencies to second-generation biofuels production processes.

Impress Sensors & SystemsContact: Mark Noel Location: Reading Turnover: £1.5 million No of employees: 10Website: www.impress-sensors.co.uk

Impress Sensors & Systems provides an incredible variety of input and output combinations to suit individual customer requirements. 48 x analogue current or voltage inputs could be used; up to 16 x relay/SSR outputs; 24 x thermocouple inputs; or 12 x RTD inputs; or a combination of these.


28

Intelligent RetailContact: David MackleyLocation: Newbury Turnover: £2.3 million Website: www.intelligentretail.co.uk

Intelligent Retail designed and developed from the ground up the most sophisticated multi-channel retail system on the market. With a single stock system, single customer database, single re-ordering and single reporting everything is done only once, everything is in one place no matter where a customer buys from.

Interchange SolutionsContact: John Burbidge-King Location: Basingstoke No of employees: 3 Website: www.interchange-solutions.co.uk

Interchange helps businesses to mitigate the real and present danger of bribery and the risks that presents to reputation, directors and ultimately the shareholders. As companies are made up of people – and as many companies trading internationally employ local agents – preventing bribery is something of a challenge. The role of Interchange is to help companies understand their legal and ethical obligations and then work with them to devise and implement business solutions, including analysis, consultancy, training and specialist software.

Lein Applied DiagnosticsContact: Dan Daly Location: Reading No of employees: 14 Website: www.lein-ad.com

Innovative solutions for diagnostics and measurements via the eye. Lein is a dynamic research company pioneering innovative solutions for the healthcare market. Their primary research focus is non-invasive diagnostics and measurement via the eye, with a view to developing products for both healthcare professionals and the consumer. As a company, Lein is committed to improving quality of life by providing immediate, pain free, accurate and cost-effective diagnostics and measurements; thus making quality healthcare more accessible.

Made in Mind Contact: Matthew Judkins Location: Marlow Turnover: Pre-market No of employees: 4 Website: www.madeinmind.co.uk

Made in Mind has developed and patent protected a three-pin plug which folds flat making the product ideal for use with mobile devices such as laptops. One version includes a transformer in the plug with a USB output for mobile device charging. The company has also developed a multi-plug, which can take up to three folding plugs that plug into the main plug, in their flat position, producing up to three plugs in one three-pin socket but protruding away from the socket by no more than a few centimetres. Several design awards have been won and Made in Mind is gearing up for an initial product launch later.

MetakineticContact: Jocelyn Kirby Location: Wokingham Turnover: £600,000No of employees: 12 Website: www.metakinetic.com

Metakinetic was founded in 2005 as a full-service digital agency, priding itself on taking a technically robust approach without compromising creativity. With a retail pedigree, Metakinetic developed its SaaS ecommerce solution MetaCommerce, a feature-rich and highly cost-effective ecommerce solution, available to retail end-users and also via the agency reseller channel.

Mobile ProductivityContact: Hugh Mahony Location: Newbury Turnover: £500,000No of employees: 5 Website: www.mobileproductivity.com

Mobile Productivity is a specialist software developer for the finance industry. Its products are used by bank lenders, brokers and their dealers from their smartphones and PCs. The finance industry is a very enthusiastic user of these advanced mobile technologies, providing an ever growing market for its products and services.

Petrophase Contact: Brian Moffat Location: Wokingham Turnover: £0.8 million No of employees: 5 Website: www.petrophase.com

Petrophase is an award-winning petroleum fluids technical consultancy. It interprets, models and predicts oil and gas behaviour to optimise production, reduce costs and minimise carbon footprint. It is an upstream petroleum specialist for hydrocarbon and contaminant phase behaviour modelling from the reservoir, well, surface processing to export streams.

PhabrixContact: Erica Adams Location: Newbury Turnover: £3.4 millionNo of employees: 14 Website: www.phabrix.com

Manufacturer of test and analysis equipment for the broadcast television market. Phabrix is research and development strong, owning all its own IP. Phabrix’s leading-edge products work with signals compatible with almost all standards worldwide, its USP is measurement capability previously impossible to achieve at its cost-effective price point.

Prestige NetworkContact: Cheryl Walker Location: Thatcham Turnover: £3 millionNo of employees: 20 Website: www.prestigenetwork.com

Capable of translating and interpreting over 200 different languages, Prestige Network provides specialist translation and interpreting services to the legal, medical, retail and financial services. It can handle all forms of technical data as well as providing comprehensive packages for conferences and business services; helping people communicate whatever their language.


250THAMES VALLEY

250TM

The Reseller NetworkContact: Grant WardLocation: Basingstoke Turnover: £150,000 No of employees: 4Website: www.the-reseller-network.com

Using the web to bring together companies from across the globe, The Reseller Network has established a unique platform for both online and offline vendors, distributors, wholesalers, resellers, retailers, and affiliates to connect and do business together.

Sequoia Technology GroupContact: Nick LidingtonLocation: Spencers Wood, ReadingTurnover: £4.8 million No of employees: 30 Website: www.sequoia.co.uk

Sequoia Technology Group is a leading provider of ‘real-life’ engineered hardware and software solutions serving the M2M-wireless, touchscreen kiosk, remote monitoring, SMSprinter and antenna markets. Sequoia’s customers for electronics systems range across the NHS, Clinton Foundation in Africa, local government and many UK systems integrators.

Step Up Software Contact: Jeff Antram Location: Crowthorne Turnover: £500,000 No of employees: 2 Website: www.stepupsoftware.co.uk

Step Up Software uses agile development tools and techniques to develop bespoke apps for business clients on a low-cost, fixed-price, fixed-time basis. Step Up Software also offer products for mobile data capture, to increase the productivity of mobile workers, providing electronic versions of traditional paper forms using digital pens, smart phones or tablets.

Sutherland Health Group plc Contact: George SutherlandLocation: Thatcham Turnover: £956 No of employees: 6Website: www.sutherlandhealth.com

Sutherland Health Group specialises in consulting with medical professionals and government bodies to develop and source innovative products manufactured to their own specifications. The company currently operates in four key categories; sexual health, gynaecology, patient hygiene, and nutrition, supplying the National Health Service, private hospitals, GP’s and medical wholesale.

Syntegra ConsultingContact: Alan King Location: Reading and LondonTurnover: £300,000 No of employees: 5 (plus a network of 70+ sub-contractors nationwide) Website: www.syntegraconsulting.co.ukSyntegra is a leading energy certification and energy consultancy based in London and the south east. Clients range from private self-builders through to blue-chip clients and 150+ unit regeneration schemes. It specialises in low zero-carbon design and renewable technology and are able to undertake a FREE building energy health check to businesses that meet qualifying criteria. The company has been appointed on a number of zero-carbon development schemes and is also offers specialist LED lighting feasibility studies and design. Furthermore a strategic partnership has been formed to enable Syntegra Consulting to offer developer clients a turnkey ‘design-supply-commission’ offering for renewable technology solutions.

TalengeneContact: Ram RaghvanLocation: ReadingTurnover: £30,000 Website: www.talengene.com

Talengene helps organisations analyse and bridge the gap between how they see themselves and how others see them using a set of proprietary assessment tools modelled on human behaviour. That applies to gaps between employees and management, employees versus customers and customers versus organisations. It helps organisations: 1–Retain customers and increase revenue; 2–Ensure strategy developed gets implemented without problems and in line with market requirements; 3–Help employees perform better to increase organisations’ bottom-line profits.

TweetMeme Contact: Nick Halstead Location: Reading No of employees: 12 Website: www.tweetmeme.com

TweetMeme is a service which aggregates all the popular links on Twitter to determine which links are popular. TweetMeme categorises these links into categories, subcategories and channels, making it easy to filter out the noise to find what you’re interested in. It makes it easy for you to subscribe to each category and the most popular through its RSS feeds and Twitter accounts. You can find out more about these through its help pages.

VCU Europa Contact: Steve Morris Location: Theale, Reading Turnover: £2 million No of employees: 5 Website: www.vcutechnology.com

VCU designs, manufactures and installs VCU composting plants. It has the expertise to design and build entire waste treatment facilities or can supply VCU composting technology as part of a larger project. Services include design, planning advice and submissions, waste license applications, accreditation services to meet the EU Animal By-Products Regulations, composting support and plant maintenance. It offers a range of services to facilitate the establishment and up-keep of VCU composting plants.

Walk On Website VideoContact: Paul Lamb Location: Theale, Reading No of employees: 3 Website: www.walkonwebsitevideo.com

A lot of companies are losing out on so many enquiries from their website all because visitors either don’t know what is on offer or there is no call to action. Walk on Website Video provides a professional presenter to explain your products/services with a clear call to action which in turn will increase the number of enquiries.


30

Austerity consumers search for value

Grant Thornton’s Thames Valley 250 sector watch

R H Amar, the High Wycombe-based fine food distributor, was founded by Raoul Amar in post-war Britain. Importing French grocery products may not have seemed an obvious market-winner but today the family firm of R H Amar (No 98 in our TV250) imports from 22 countries and distributes a 1,000-product range nationwide to major UK supermarkets, multiple retailers, wholesalers and independents.

Henry Amar, second-generation chairman of R H Amar, has been in the food and drink sector for more than 50 years, but he admits being surprised at the strength of consumer demand that his company experienced during the recession.

“I think it’s because in hard times people do cut back, but they like to console themselves by buying decent food. Happily, that demand for quality products has held up and appears to be continuing.”

In reality, falling consumer demand was not the worst of the recessionary challenges.

Being an importer, the devaluation of sterling against foreign currencies was a serious concern (the £ lost more than 30% against

The distribution of quality and choicethe €; 25% against the $). Profit margins got squeezed, assisted by pressure from retail market powerhouses to keep supply prices low.

More recently, the alarming rise in commodity prices exacerbated by European near-drought growing conditions has left several food suppliers short on profit and working capital, says Amar.

R H Amar has tackled those challenges by securing fresh distributorships with good trading brands such as Del Monte canned fruit, McCormick Foodservice and Ella’s Kitchen baby and toddler food (based in Henley). It has also used innovation, developing new own-brand products for its COOKS&CO range, which includes olives, antipasti, sauces and oils.

“We’ve also become much sharper about running the business, much more cost-conscious. We made a lot of logistical savings – now our lorries don’t carry fresh air – and we journey plan all our salesforce trips.” Care is taken to ensure such cost-efficiencies don’t endanger personal working relationships established over many years – for example, R H Amar has worked with Crespo olives for 56 years. “Our business is as much about people as it is food..”

Henry Amar’s key business advice is to manage

intensively, watch costs carefully, look to innovate, and “Recognise the world that we are working in. Shoppers today are savvy, and we have to find products that represent value for money and excite them enough to buy”.

Being a three-generation family-owned business of just 60-people (Henry’s son Rob is now vice-chairman) allows R. H. Amar to make quick-decisions. To boost commercial flexibility, the company recently added extra warehousing to its well-located Turnpike Way site and this April radically updated its operational computer systems.

“We preserve family values but have a modern approach to business.” R H Amar is a silver grade Investors in People member and runs a staff incentive scheme.

“We have a long-term plan for what we want to do with our business, not what we need to do to satisfy someone in the City. We are well established, fully capitalised and these qualities will help us overcome threats such as higher energy costs and the risk of inflation.”

Like keen cricketer Henry Amar, one gets the impression that R H Amar will confidently stay at the crease, while patiently waiting for the opportunity to strike decisively when the right ball comes along.

Trefor Griffith, Grant Thornton’s director of corporate finance, highlights some of the concerns and opportunities within the food & drink sector.

The battle for sales in this sector has got personal from the consumers’ point of view that is, as they each look for their individual perception of value.

Pre-recession brand-led spending extravagance is already a distant memory. Today’s age of austerity consumers are looking for personal value. That can mean the earlybird Toby carvery offer or a single bottle of single malt whisky depending on the individual’s definition of value.

With the focus on more cost-conscious, considered purchasing – less volume, more value – the result is reduced overall consumer spending.

This doesn’t mean that the lowest price wins the value battle. Convenience shopping in supermarkets may see consumers switching from name-brand products to own-brand to save money, but it is significant that premium range own-brands are still faring well. Consumers are still buying themselves treats that reflect their ‘because I’m worth it’ personal values.

And, personal values are not all price-focused.

Ethical purchasing through Fair Trade, calorie-conscious labeling, and dietary requirements such as gluten-free products, have all opened up opportunities for niche product suppliers, but matching products correctly to consumer demands and trends remains crucial.

Choice and service are also two values more prized nowadays. Internet-linked consumers are aware of the increased range of choice offered at the click of a mouse and are more sophisticated purchasers. Suppliers and retailers need to remain alert to home-shopping via the Internet – the customer critiquing and the sales opportunities.

Adapting to customer needs is vital. In mid-June, leading UK wine and champagne retailer Majestic Wines reported a 27% profit jump as total sales rose 10% to £257 million. One reason for its healthy results was the widening of its customer base through a reduction in its minimum sales requirement from 12 to six bottles.

So, how does that leave the sector overall? Like other sectors, recession recovery is painfully slow,

and the current trading story is mixed. Wet-led pubs continue to struggle, but food-led licensed outlets are staying busy catering for consumers looking for an affordable evening out.

Food and drink producers and suppliers are facing financial pressures from high raw material, import and transportation costs, not to mention margin-squeezing multiple retailers – all impacting on operating bills and ultimately profit levels. Good working capital management remains key with funding still difficult and costly to obtain.

I think we can expect a year of increasing M&A consolidation. Poultry tycoon Ranjit Boparan made a £342m deal to buy Northern Foods in March and Morrisons, Sainsbury’s and Asda have all been rumoured to be eyeing Iceland Foods acquisitively. Critical mass may become more essential for smaller businesses as consumer spending reduces. M&A will be used as a strategy to gain market share, reduce competition and enable operating costs to be reduced.

Details: Trefor [email protected]


focus on aim 31


Since the start of the current financial turmoil, prior to which the number of new entrants to the market boomed, there has been a significant slump in primary issues and fundraisings on AIM. This has of course coincided with a downturn in the global economy and the resulting drain on the cash available for investment in the UK, but does the problem run deeper than that?

When AIM was launched in 1995 it sought to provide a platform for smaller and growing companies, providing them with liquidity and access to capital on a global scale. This made AIM a very popular choice for small and medium-sized companies looking for growth and for investors looking for an exit route. Over the past 15 years the success of the AIM market has shown why it is important to have a strong, functioning junior stock market in the UK and it has become a model for other stock markets across the financial world.

Most growing companies reach a point in their development when they need access to more capital. Frequently they will turn to venture capital or private equity funding to obtain it. Any such investors typically will be looking to exit that investment in a three to five year timescale, often dictated by the lifespan of the funds which they in turn have raised from external investors. Although the growth of a secondary and tertiary buyout market over the years has meant that has become a very serious alternative, and a trade sale to a competitor is in many cases another option, an IPO onto AIM or the full list is one of the classic exit routes.

If this IPO exit route is increasingly closed out, it reduces the exit options for those investors. Given how important the financial investor sector has been to the UK economy over the last two decades, this in itself is a reason to try to address some of the problems that AIM has been experiencing. It is even more pressing because of the issues that currently dog the debt funding market. As we know, many banks (both UK and international) are busy focusing on strengthening their own balance sheets following the 2008 credit crisis (and given the sovereign debt risk that is still out there in much of Europe) rather than on new lending to corporates. Therefore, the number of avenues for corporates to seek new capital to grow their businesses is further reduced.

So what has gone wrong and why have we seen an increase trend in de-listings and alternative investment routes? In some ways AIM has been a victim of its own success. Sold on a brochure of lighter regulation, access to international investors providing increased visibility and profile and the badge of being a listed company, entrants to market have not been hard to find in the good times.

AIM market – fit for purpose?It has become increasingly commonplace for commentators to cast doubt on the effectiveness of the AIM market, write Andrew Peddie, partner, and Daniel Jacob, partner, of Pitmans

Now that investment capital is limited, is the market is self regulating the quality of successful applicants as investors become more selective or cautious about where they invest their money? Is there a danger that this self regulation will disappear when the equity taps begin to open again and how should this be addressed? Alternatively is it the cost of regulation that is putting off growth companies these days from going down the IPO route?

More emphatic regulation by the London Stock Exchange both of AIM market companies and their nominated Advisors would be welcomed in some quarters to counteract any reputational damage sustained over recent years and further improve the quality of market applicants. In order to achieve this any such regulation could make it harder to get an inappropriate company onto the market, or make the consequences for failures to meet minimum standards more severe. The fear amongst the investment community is however that over regulation may strike at the heart of what AIM is about and further dampen the appetites for IPOs.

Whilst greater regulation is a cornerstone of a sound financial market, it is unlikely to address all of the issues currently facing AIM. There has been some discussion as to whether the UK Government should give further tax incentives to those making AIM investments. While this seems unlikely in the current economic climate, encouraging a broader mix of investors into AIM, which is still dominated by investment funds, would certainly be likely to increase the range of investors and liquidity in the market generally, thereby reviving the market.

Whilst it is true that if nothing is done to turn the AIM market around, it may continue to slide in popularity and that would be to the detriment of UK industry, particularly at the medium-sized company level, many of the problems faced by AIM are not of its own doing and the solution should not be found in tinkering with the market. Medium-sized companies need access to long-term, reliable sources of capital. The absence in the UK of a banking system like the German regional banks, who support these types of companies over the long run, means companies, who are not FTSE 350 size, but have long outgrown friends and family and business angel funding, do need a functioning junior public market as an alternative. Regulation coupled with tax breaks can be a good thing where market regulation fails, but on their own they will not change market sentiments. Confidence is slowly returning and advisers are reporting an upturn in AIM related instructions. Now is the time for investors in AIM to lead the way, allowing medium-sized companies to access capital, grow and succeed, providing confidence to other sectors in the economy. Of course we could just create a new regional banking structure – but that is another challenge altogether.

Details: Andrew Peddie0118-9570321 Daniel Jacob020-7634-4653 www.pitmans.com/corporate

Daniel Jacob

Andrew Peddie

international trade32


Businesses looking to trade internationally are under a number of competing pressures at the moment, writes David Squibb, regional trade director, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets.

As the recovery continues, wholesalers are facing challenges to their businesses in terms of the rising costs of raw materials and labour, and the strength of the Euro, for instance. We are seeing a number of trends in overseas markets that point towards a shift in power from importers to exporters.

Importers

Importers are currently facing a number of financial and commercial challenges to their businesses. There is evidence that wholesalers are seeing a slower call-off of stock by UK retailers, meaning they have to spend much more time sitting on stock than previously. A major reason for this is the current fragility of high street sales - according to the most recent BRC-KPMG retail sales monitor, sales fell by 2.1% year on year in May.

Because suppliers are having to hold on to their stock for longer, this is putting more pressure on cash flow. This is due to a prolonged trading cycle together with increased storage costs for goods. Along with this, we have found that there has been a general shift in power from buyer to seller. With exporters across Asia facing increasing demand, they are becoming more selective about who they sell to. Importers are now finding that they might

Looking at current trendshave to commit resources much earlier in the year in order to secure production and guarantee their supply, creating more pressure on cash flow due to the extension of their working capital cycle.

Looking at the commercial side of business, importers are seeing prices continuing to rise due to two major external factors. Firstly, importers are grappling with much higher raw materials costs at a time when the UK retail market remains intensely competitive. This rise in the cost of raw materials has affected almost all industries and pushes up the price of manufactured goods. Coupled with this rise in the cost of raw materials, there has been substantial wage inflation on goods coming from Asia, from countries such as Bangladesh and China. As wages continue to rise dramatically in these emerging markets, the price of goods produced there will rise in tandem.

Due to this combination of factors, we are seeing that there is a general desire from both banks and customers to ensure that lending for working capital matches the actual trading cycle, taking into account any seasonal peaks and troughs, replacing the more general but less flexible overdraft facility.

Exporters

As the economic recovery continues to gather speed, the importance of exporters to the UK market becomes more and more evident. The government’s desire to have an export-led

recovery means that there are a number of new schemes being launched to support British exporters. These programmes see banks, including Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, working alongside the Export Credits Guarantee Department to offer different methods of assistance to exporters.

Among these, there are some major programmes that will have a beneficial impact on British exporters. The first of these is the export working capital scheme, which is aimed at large, one-off projects valued at over £1 million. The purpose of the scheme is to assist UK exporters to gain access to working capital finance, and will involve the ECGD guaranteeing up to 50% of the risk in such a transaction.

The second scheme worth noting is the Bond Support Scheme. This programme aims to support businesses that need to issue contract guarantees with bid bonds, performance bonds and advance payment guarantees. For all three of these, ECGD will guarantee up to 50% of the bond, but for advance payment guarantees they will consider a higher rate of up to 80%.

These new programmes will offer real benefits to UK exporters. Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets is ready to support qualifying businesses with facilities under these schemes. Trading conditions are expected to remain tough for the remainder of this year, however we expect, partly through these initiatives, to see market improvements as we enter 2012.

The UK remains Europe’s top destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) with its highest number of investments since 1997, according to Ernst & Young’s annual European Attractiveness Survey, but it needs to broaden its pool of investors to remain competitive.

The report, which analyses inward investment and the attitudes of global investors, shows that the UK attracted 728 FDI projects in 2010, up 7% on the previous year, compared with 562 projects in France and 560 in Germany - whose projects rose by 34%, bolstered by its position as the number one location for Chinese investment in Europe since 2007.London by itself attracted more projects than all but France, Germany and Russia, with 289 FDI projects in 2010 up from 263 in 2009.

The US was still the largest investor into the UK last year (254 projects) followed by India and Germany (44), Japan (42) and France (41). Many of these companies are repeat investors, with the UK building up a strong loyalty and reputation

among those organisations that have created a firm base in the UK market. James Close, partner at Ernst & Young, said that overall the headline figures for the UK are very positive: “The UK has shown strong resilience in the face of adversity, pulling through the recessionary years to reinforce our position as the leading base for investment by foreign companies into Europe.

“The international business community, surveyed as part of the report, continues to cite our technology infrastructure (89%), stable social environment (87%), quality of life, culture and language (86%) as what makes the UK the most attractive investment destination in Europe. We have a loyal following of foreign investors prepared to do repeat business here and government has an important role to keep us in pole position.“

However, Close believes that while the UK is slowly improving trade relations with the BRICs, success at attracting investment from these countries is still below par compared

with the UK’s leading position in Europe overall: “Trade relations with India, for example, are gaining momentum (projects were up from 38 to 44 in 2010), but despite the number of projects coming into the UK from China increasing (up from 18 to 30) - the eighth most important source of FDI projects into Europe - our figures continue to disappoint compared with Germany’s stronghold on FDI.

“We need to do more to attract high quality foreign investment, re-orientate where that investment is coming from towards the BRICs and manage better our reputation with all overseas investors, not just those established in the UK. These are all areas where government has a role to play. If the UK fails to address these challenges we could start to see declining investor interest in our market relative to our competitors.

“Of the 274 global executives interviewed specifically about the attractiveness of the UK as an investment destination, three key areas to address as having an impact

on future competitiveness were: the level of corporation tax, the administrative burden, and the levels of personal taxation.“

The report shows that 21,000 jobs were created last year in the UK. While this was the highest level of employment generation in Europe in 2010, it only represented one quarter of the levels achieved in 1997. Although business and software services still lead in the UK both in terms of actual numbers of projects (285 in 2010) and investor perception – 79% of all the global executives questioned said the UK’s reputation as a leading financial services centre kept it attractive – ‘cleantech’ could dominate in the future.19% of all respondents considered clean technology an important growth area for the UK market, making it the third most important sector in the eyes of investors, up from 10th in 2009. However, success is highly reliant on capitalising on government’s commitment to addressing climate change.

UK still number one in Europe for attracting investment


international trade 33


In the UK, HMRC and the Treasury have toughened their messages against those who avoid and evade UK taxes. This has been coupled with extra funds being used to finance the investigation of tax avoidance and fraud.

On April 6, HM Revenue & Customs’ (HMRC) new offshore tax penalty regime began. It will affect those individuals, trustees and executors who pay insufficient UK income and capital gains tax on income or gains arising in an overseas jurisdiction. If an error is made on which HMRC impose tax-geared penalties then the penalties may be increased to up to twice the amount that would be charged if the error related to UK income or assets, ie up to 200% of the tax unpaid due to the error.

The level of the penalty will vary depending on the tax jurisdiction in which the assets are held or in which the income arises as shown on the list published on HMRC’s website. Broadly, HMRC is charging lower penalties for income or gains arising from jurisdictions which share information with HMRC compared to those with whom the UK has limited exchange of information agreements. Whether this will deter taxpayers from investing in jurisdictions which may cause them to be charged the highest level of penalties is yet to be seen.

Offshore tax penalties: an updateSince the international banking collapses in late 2008 and the worldwide financial troubles that followed, the UK and numerous other countries have focused resources on counteracting tax evasion and avoidance, writes Malcolm Joy, tax partner, BDO

This is just one of a whole package of changes to the tax administration legislation by HMRC recently. The other changes include:

Increased penalties for people who submit • their tax returns late. The new penalties will be a percentage of the tax shown on the tax return (rather than a percentage of the unpaid tax) if the Return is submitted more than six months late

New penalties for tax paid late•

More powers enabling HMRC to obtain • information and documentation as well as to inspect business records

The new Managing Deliberate Defaulters • regime which HMRC will use to more closely monitor those who have been charged a penalty for deliberately evading tax; and

Provisions that enable HMRC to publish • the name and details of taxpayers who deliberately evade more than £25,000 tax since April 1, 2010.

The changes are all designed to act as a deterrent against taxpayers failing to disclose all their income and gains as well as those using tax avoidance schemes. HMRC wants to encourage people to take care to keep proper records, seek advice when they are unsure, file their returns on time and pay the correct amount of tax.

If taxpayers know they have an issue lurking in their past, like an offshore bank account on which they have not declared the interest, then making a voluntary disclosure to HMRC will resolve the matter and minimise penalties charged. From my experience, using the Liechtenstein Disclosure Facility with its fixed penalty of 10% for unpaid tax between April 6, 1999 and April 5, 2009 is the most beneficial approach for the majority of taxpayers who have an issue relating to offshore assets.

As always, if you know that you have a problem then the best advice is to take action now. Do not delay, hoping that it will go away. You may end up with an in-depth, lengthy investigation by HMRC which will cost more to resolve than making a voluntary disclosure to correct your tax affairs both in terms of your time, professional fees and tax geared penalties.

Details: Malcolm [email protected]

From left: Fiona Aris, sales director, Henry Ayres, head of engineering and Tony Salter, chief executive

AngloINFO, the online network providing local English language information services to expatriates worldwide, has moved its UK head office to the prestigious Howbery Park business campus in Wallingford. The company is occupying a newly refurbished 3,000 sq ft office suite in the Manor House complex at the park on a five-year lease. AngloINFO is the world’s largest network of websites for English speakers living abroad. It operates in many regions within countries around the world, providing vital support and information to the local international communities. Users come from all nationalities and walks of life, from those on expatriate job contracts and their partners and children, to students and retirees, second-home owners and permanent emigrants.

Tony Salter, chief executive at AngloINFO, said: “Having outgrown our previous space in Wallingford, we were searching for new accommodation locally when we had the good fortune to find out that there was available office space at Howbery Park. “Howbery Park is a hidden gem and the perfect location for our

New home for online support network for expats settling abroad

business. It has the space we need to expand, with excellent facilities for our staff and visitors. Since arriving as a team of nine, we have already recruited eight new employees and are looking to be 24 strong by the end of the year. Our new home has already proved an advantage in recruiting good people and helps us to sell the image and ethos of our company. This is such a lovely place to work and we are enjoying seeing the park’s landscape coming to life with the changing season.”

deals update34


Latest deals data from across the region

Next DeadlineThe next Deals Update will appear in our September 2011 issue

Deadline for submissions is Wednesday Aug 10Submissions are free. If you would like to submit deal information or to advertise on this page contact:

Tanya Liddiard 0118-9745308 [email protected]

Elcot Publications is not responsible for the accuracy of information in the deals update section which is supplied by individual firms

Refinance for Direct Wines Holdings

Completion Date: 03/06/2011

Customer: Direct Wines

Value: Not disclosed

Details: Refinance a revolving credit facility with a 50/50 split between HSBC and Barclays to support the rapid global expansion of a highly successful business. Going forward, HSBC is delighted to be the global partner for Direct Wines by supporting its seven overseas offices and international growth

Corporate Finance Advisers: N/A

Legal Advisers: Addleshaw Goddard

Financial Due Diligence: N/A

Commercial Due Diligence: N/A

Project s92


Target: Bond Aviation Group

Acquirer: Grupo Inaer Spain

Deal Value: Not disclosed

Details: Bond Aviation Group, a UK group which provides onshore and offshore helicopter services, was sold by brothers Stephen and Peter Bond to Spanish operator Inaer (backed by Investindustrial and KKR). Bond provides onshore and offshore helicopter services to the emergency services, police and oil and gas operators

Funding: Not known

Corporate Finance Advisers: NM Rothschild

Legal Advisers: Not known

Financial Due Diligence: KPMG LLP

Commercial Due Diligence: KPMG LLP

World Wise Foods

Customer: World Wise Foods

Deal Value: Undisclosed

Details: Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets is pleased to support this strong management team in their new business venture import-ing sustainable pole and line caught Maldivian tuna for major UK retailers. The Trade and Commercial finance facility provides funding through the working capital cycle from shipment to shelf

Funding: Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets

Corporate Finance Advisers: N/A

Legal Advisers: N/A

Financial Due Diligence: N/A

Commercial Due Diligence: N/A

Site Intelligence


Target: N/A

Acquirer: N/A

Funding Value: £3 million

Details: Acting for Site Intelligence Limited on an equity invest-ment by new investor, Nauta Capital, and its existing shareholders

Corporate Finance Advisers: None

Legal Advisers: Manches LLP, Taylor Wessing LLP

Financial Due Diligence: None

Commercial Due Diligence: None

Target: Greenwich School of Management (GSoM)

Acquirer: Sovereign Capital

Details: Moore Blatch successfully advised on Sovereign Capital’s recent investment in Greenwich School of Management (GSoM), a leading private-sector provider or university-accredited masters and doctoral programmes. The Moore Blatch team of six lawyers, lead by Roger Bailey, advised the existing GSoM sharehold-ers. Moore Blatch worked with Sovereign in November 2006 when advising on Sovereign’s investment in London Property Maintenance (Cleaning)

Funding: Additional finance for the transaction has been provided by Lloyds Bank Corporate Market Acquisition Finance and Sovereign has committed further funding to develop GSoM through its “buy and build” strategy.

Legal Advisers: Sovereign - Moore Blatch and GSoM - Jones Day

Financial Due Diligence: Alvarez and Marsal

Sovereigh Capital's investment in GSoM

Project Sapphire


Target: Newfield Information Technology

Acquirer: Xerox plc

Deal Value: Non disclosable

Details: Osborne Clarke acted for Xerox in connection with its acquisition of Newfield Information Technology

Legal Advisers: Osborne Clarke (Sara Valentine & Caroline Drummond)

Completion Date: 05/2011

Target: JSM Property Management

Acquirer: Leaders Lettings

Details: HMT Corporate Finance, led by partner Andrew Thomson and associate director Catherine Jones, undertook due diligence for Leaders, a regional independent business specialising in the letting and management of residential properties, on its acquisition of JSM Property Management. JSM is one of its largest acquisitions to date. JSM operates from six branches in East Anglia with an active tenancy base of circa 3,000 properties, giving Leaders a significant foothold in a new region

Funding: Lloyds TSB, RBS

Legal Advisers: Dean Wilson

Financial Due Diligence: HMT Corporate Finance

Leaders Lettings acquisition

AFL Telecommunications acquisition

Completion Date: 05/2011

Target: TCC Group

Acquirer: AFL Telecommunications

Details: HMT Corporate Finance led by partner Peter Barrand advised AFL Telecommunications on its acquisition of TCC Group, a leading telecommunications network implementation and integration provider based in Bracknell. AFL manufactures fiber-optic cables and components and provides design, project management and installation services from the USA, UK and Germany. TCC which has significant experience in designing, building, installing and maintaining next generation networks for a number of large telecommunications customers will join the AFL global portfolio to provide communications services to European markets

Corporate Finance Advisers: HMT Corporate Finance

Legal Advisers: Thrings

Commercial Due Diligence: RPL

Leumi ABL/Bristol & London plc


Deal Value: Undisclosed

Details: Leumi ABL has provided financing to Bristol & London plc, the UK’s leading hirer of prestige cars, for drivers who have been involved in an accident. Leumi ABL provided an invoice discounting facility to replace the client’s bank funding in full and to provide additional working capital

Legal Advisers: Squire Sanders Hammonds

Project BartCompletion Date: 06/2011

Target: Centrebet International

Acquirer: Sportingbet plc

Deal Value: £118.5 million

Details: Placing an open offer to raise £65m and issue of £65m of 7% convertible bonds due 2016 by Sportingbet plc in order to fund the acquisition of Centrebet International. The transaction wil make Sportingbet plc the market leader in Australia

Funding: Placing an open offer and convertible debt as above

Corporate Finance Advisers: Oriel Securities (equity) and ISM Capital LLP (debt)

Legal Advisers: Nabarro LLP

Financial Due Diligence: Grant Thornton UK LLP


deals 35


H.I.G. Europe acquired AIRCOM from Advent International in a deal that sees new capital injected into the business to fund AIRCOM’s global growth strategy. AIRCOM, with revenues of over £90 million, is the world’s largest independent provider of network planning and optimisation services to the mobile telecoms industry. Its customers include all of the 20 top global operators who depend upon AIRCOM’s tools and consultants to improve network coverage and service quality for more than 1.1 billion subscribers worldwide.

Paul Canning, managing director at H.I.G. Europe, said: “AIRCOM is already a leader in its market, and has ambitious plans to grow and provide a real end-to-end suite of solutions for the mobile telecoms industry. We look forward to supporting the management and we believe that we can bring added firepower and support for their ambitious growth plans.”

Founded in 1995, AIRCOM is headquartered in the UK, and employs over 900 professionals spread across 14 offices worldwide. AIRCOM is market leader in the provision and deployment of network engineering tools, and its products are in use across over 135 countries by over half the world’s mobile operators.

Today’s mobile market is undergoing a dramatic transformation, driven by the growth in data-hungry devices such as smart-phones and iPads. AIRCOM’s business is built around helping the mobile industry to cope with these data challenges. It partners with market-leading companies including Hewlett Packard and Nokia Siemens as well as working directly with blue chip telecom operators such as Vodafone and O2.

Under the leadership of chief executive Darryl Edwards, who joined the business in October 2009, the company has taken advantage of

H.I.G. Europe acquires AIRCOM InternationalAIRCOM International, the Leatherhead-based provider of software and services to mobile network operators, has been acquired by H.I.G. Europe

the rapid growth in mobile traffic. Edwards said: “AIRCOM is incredibly well placed to grow with our clients – more and more of whom are turning to us to help them get the most out of their networks. With H.I.G.’s support, we can ensure our products and services remain at the cutting edge of the industry.”

H.I.G. is a leading global private equity firm focused on management buyouts and recapitalisations of leading mid-market companies as well as growth equity investments. Since its founding in 1993, H.I.G. has invested in and managed more than 200 companies worldwide. Including its investment in AIRCOM, H.I.G. Europe has made 14 new investments in the past 12 months, and eight since the start of 2011.

Details: Paul [email protected]

Chartered Accountants Business Advisers Registered Auditors

Richard Somerville | Andrew Beet

Sarah Wildey | David Rice

0118 989 9780

www.rice-associates.co.uk

Fabris Lane, the privately owned UK frame and sunglasses company, has appointed Spectrum Corporate Finance LLP to help identify acquisitions. Fabris Lane is looking to grow by acquisition and is actively seeking to purchase an established optical distribution business.

Tim Downes, managing director of Fabris Lane, explained that the long established company has recorded strong growth in its sales of private label product to fashion brands, High Street retailers and optical chains internationally, particularly throughout Europe.

Fabris Lane looks to acquire frame company“However, the time is right and we are looking to the next growth phase. We believe the most expedient path is through acquisition and we are looking to acquire a well respected company with an established sales structure, which may also licence some strong consumer brands. Being in a cash-positive position we would fund any purchase from existing resources,” he said.

“Our excellent customer service facility, extensive quality testing laboratories and fully integrated EDI and bespoke stock management warehousing, which ships thousands of frames around the world each day, supports sales into 35

countries, across 10,000 retail outlets including ophthalmic frames into France and Germany. We have the means, and desire, to bring further eyewear products to market.”

Fabris Lane has a strong quality ethos, maintaining technical files for each frame which it produces, built in procedures to ensure nickel compliance and with a policy to exceed all Medical Devices Directive requirements.

Details: Clive HatchardSpectrum Corporate Finance [email protected]

finance36


For those who work in the UK, there is an opportunity for a pay rise from the taxman of up to £10,470 per year in the form of working tax credits.

This amount increases by up to £7,030 per year if responsible for a child and up to an extra £6,485 for each additional child thereafter. The child does not even have to live in the UK as long as they live in the EEA or Switzerland.

If childcare is paid, up to a further £9,100 for one child or up to £15,600 for two or more children can also be obtained annually.

There are income thresholds, which, if exceeded, reduce the amount attainable but it is not only low paid employees that should consider making a claim as most business owners have the ability to manage their income to ensure they qualify.

For most business owners, it is not unusual to be paid a small salary of around £7,000 per year and the balance of any remuneration as dividends. Careful planning on the timing of dividends (as should always be the case for income tax purposes) could ensure entitlement to the hefty tax credit awards.

Income increases of up to £10,000 on the previous year are ignored in working out the amount paid by HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) in respect of tax credits which makes for a significant planning opportunity.

In order to preserve full entitlement to tax credits for the current tax year, a claim must be made by July 5, 2011 at the latest.

Payrise on the taxman?Increase your employees’ salary at no extra cost to your business. You could even benefit personally. Many people are able to take advantage of the tax credit system, writes Zoe Peck of Harwood Hutton

For every day after this that the claim is not made, the daily entitlement is lost permanently.

This is a specialist area and should be discussed in detail. Harwood Hutton has a comprehensive tax credits service and is able to assist with new or existing claims.

Details: Zoe [email protected]

For accountancy expertise contact:t | 0118 956 3900

e | [email protected] | www.gcsltd.com

Only 3,000 firms have taken advantage of the government’s National Insurance Contributions (NICs) holiday for new businesses set up outside London and the south east.

The Treasury had predicted that the scheme would benefit 400,000 companies, but at the House of Commons question time, chancellor George Osborne acknowledged that “take-up has been in the low thousands.”

The chairman of the Institute of Directors (IoD) South, Chris Dodson, is calling for the chancellor to change the policy, saying: “I am sure that many businesses across the region

IoD South calls for chancellor to change policywill join with us at the IoD in calling for the chancellor to make the NICs holiday available to new businesses in the south east. We argued against the policy when the chancellor announced it in his June 2010 Budget, saying it would hinder the growth in the only net-contributing regions of the UK – London and the south east.

“Here is an excellent opportunity for the Government to stimulate growth through new business start-ups at a time when it is forcing the public sector to make significant job cuts.

“With the region missing out on the allocation of Enterprise Zone and

Regional Grant Funds, we feel that now is the time for the chancellor to change the policy and make the money available to businesses in the south east.”

Currently, the government scheme allows for new businesses set up outside London and the south east to be eligible for a NIC holiday worth up to £5,000 for up to the first 10 employees they hire in their first year of business. It was described by the Treasury as a way of encouraging private sector job creation in regions reliant on public sector employment.

For more information about IoD South: www.iod.com/home/local-network/south/


finance 37


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Small and medium-sized businesses in Reading and Southampton are being targeted by HMRC as part of a new tax inspection trial.

The tax inspection trial, called a single compliance process, will combine VAT, income tax, corporation tax and PAYE inspections into one visit by HMRC.

James Cowper suggests a note of caution saying: “Many businesses will be familiar with a VAT inspection, where HMRC simply check VAT invoices and receipts against VAT returns. This single compliance process is likely to be a very different and more intrusive affair. It will be very easy for business owners to trip up without the right advice and support.”

A single compliance process has become extremely disruptive for some larger organisations as Sharon Bedford explains: “The business is typically visited by three inspectors, rather than just one, who will want to examine all tax affairs. Business owners can then expect to face in-depth questioning.”

Bedford offers this advice to businesses approached by HMRC under the single compliance process trial:

Do not panic. If your business tax affairs are all • in order you will have nothing to worry about.

Do not treat the inspection lightly – it will be • very different to any previous inspections most business owners are likely to have encountered

Prepare for the inspection – your accountant • should be able to help you prepare for any such investigation by asking HMRC exactly what they wish to see and what questions they are likely to ask.

Ensure your accountant or tax adviser is on • hand on the day of the inspection, preferably joining you in any meeting with HMRC.

Prepare for any potential follow-up visits.•

HMRC cannot insist on meeting the taxpayer, • although it can insist on inspecting the premises.

The HMRC single compliance process is being trialled in Reading, Southampton, Newcastle, Warrington, York, Exeter, London Euston, Cardiff, Belfast, Edinburgh and Dundee. The trial began on June 1 and will run for six months.

SME businesses targeted by HMRC in tax inspection trial

Barclays and HSBC’s Corporate Banking Teams in the Thames Valley have refinanced a revolving credit facility for Direct Wines that will support the business in its continued international expansion.

One of the UK’s largest privately-owned businesses, Direct Wines sells wine directly to consumers in the UK, Continental Europe, the USA and Asia Pacific via the web, phone, mail order and a small number of UK retail outlets, including its flagship store ‘The Arch’ in Borough Market, London. It trades as Laithwaites Wine, Virgin Wines and Averys, and provides wine clubs in partnership with The Sunday Times, Die Welt in Germany, The Wall Street Journal and The Australian. Founded in 1969 by Tony Laithwaite, it prides itself on its exclusive range of wines sourced globally from small independent producers, as well as from its own vineyards. Its

Direct Wines raises a glass to partnership with Barclays and HSBC

wines recently won over four hundred international awards in the International Wine Challenge and from Decanter, the leading trade publication.

As part of the refinancing facility, Barclays Corporate, Thames Valley, will continue to act as agent and security trustee and remain the provider of the company’s UK cash management services. HSBC’s Thames Valley corporate banking team will support the roll-out of a global cash management solution that will see HSBC become Direct Wines’ lead international banking partner.

Mark Haines, HSBC’s head of corporate banking, Thames Valley, said: “We’re delighted to be acting as Direct Wines’ global banking partner. Our international offering means we will be able to support the business on both a local and global level. We’re looking forward to working with the

management team to help them realise their growth plans in the coming years.”

Tim Mayes, relationship director, Barclays Corporate, Thames Valley, added: “We are thrilled to have strengthened our position as Direct Wines’ trusted UK banking finance partner. The integrated banking solutions now in place demonstrate our ongoing appetite to back a successful management team in the roll out of their international expansion plans.”

Tim Curtis, group head of treasury for Direct Wines, commented: “This new facility and the global cash management solution underpin our continued rapid international growth plans. We have developed excellent relationships with HSBC and Barclays over recent years and are delighted that both banks have shown strong support for Direct Wines.”

law38


The firm is among six others nominated for ‘Private Client Team of the Year’ at the 2011 Lawyer Magazine Awards. Five of the six other shortlisted firms, (which include Farrer & Co and Miscon de Reya) have their main offices in London.

The Lawyer Awards is an established event in the legal calendar, and recognise expertise and high levels of service provided by law firms to their clients. The shortlist was derived following scrutiny by an expert panel of judges of all of the written entries. The TWM entry highlighted:

Tax advice to a lottery winner;•

Resolving a lengthy dispute involving • various family members concerning the termination of a multi-million pound family farming partnership; and

Complex family and matrimonial advice • to high-net-worth individuals, often with an international dimension.

TWM Solicitors secures national private client awards shortlistTWM Solicitors with six offices across Surrey has been shortlisted for a prestigious national legal award

The family and private client teams at TWM are already recommended in the current edition of The Legal 500 (an annual independent guide to the legal profession). The shortlist announced by The Lawyer is another example that the private client legal service provided by TWM is highly regarded

in Surrey and the south east region. Given the proximity of TWM’s offices to London (Cranleigh, Epsom, Guildford, Leatherhead, Reigate and Wimbledon), the firm believes it is ideally placed to offer a City quality private client service at a value for money price.

Patrick Stewart, managing principal at TWM, said. “Everyone at TWM is delighted with this news. This is an excellent achievement for our private client team confirming what our clients know, that our expertise and service is equal to the best in the profession.”

Details: Patrick Stewart01483-752700patrick.stewart@twmsolicitors.comwww.twmsolicitors.com

Top 25 UK chartered accountants WK has expanded its offering with a new Lexcel consultancy service for law firms.

WK Law has announced that15 WK partners and staff have achieved prestigious Lexcel consultant status.

The new status allows trained partners and senior staff of the top 25 UK chartered accountancy firm to act as national Lexcel consultants to law firms who are looking to attract new clients with the internationally recognised credentials.

The Lexcel accreditation process ensures firms meet a robust quality standard by adhering to detailed set procedures and guidelines, leading to better customer service and lower insurance premiums. It helps to demonstrate improved risk management procedures, marketability and competitive advantage.

Kevin Walmsley, head of WK Law, said: “An integral part of working with our solicitor clients has been adding value as well as carrying out the client-money-audit-solicitors-accounts rule audit and producing the accounts and tax computations. The Lexcel Accreditation will be very much a part of that added

Wilkins Kennedy launches new services for law firms

value offering, on the one hand, whilst enabling us to also work with solicitors’ practices to obtain the Lexcel accreditation for their practice.”

Clare Jarratt, Lexcel manager at The Law Society, added: “The adoption of Lexcel continues to grow within England, Wales and beyond. WK have invested in a two

and half day training in a way to try and better the support to their customers. This shows a commitment to better understanding their legal clients, the business management systems they use, and the environment they operate in.”

Details: www.wilkinskennedy.com

WK’s 15 Lexcel consultants


law 39


With Twitter already managing to squirm through a super injunction and UK privacy laws, how do employers balance the delicate line between encouraging their staff to discover new and innovative ways of propelling their business to new heights through social media and protecting itself in the process?

Perhaps a simple way to look at it is to apply the UAM test. Simply put employers should define the USE of social media, explain what is regarded as ABUSE of its social media and also clarify what will be regarded as MISUSE.

USE –‘To tweet or not to tweet’

Many businesses have jumped on the opportunity to raise their profile and keep their clients, contacts and customers in the loop in ‘real time’ by using various forms of social media. For those who yet haven’t, it is perhaps only a matter of time. The potential uses of social media as a business tool are limitless, but businesses should ensure that they are aware of the legal implications of doing so. Marketing and commercial managers will need to familiarise themselves with not only the legal and regulatory requirements of the sites they use but also how to protect their own brand and intellectual property. In this age of modern technology, it is imperative that organisations not only have social media policies for all employees, explaining what is and is not permitted, but also for commercial and marketing managers to be aware of the company corporate guidelines on the use of social media for marketing and PR purposes.

ABUSE – ‘But sir, I tweeted in my own time...’

When will an employee be in breach of a social media policy? Does it have to occur during work time or can it also apply to outside of work activities? The following two cases have addressed these points.

The first case Preece v J D Wetherspoons plc considered the interesting question of whether an employee can be dismissed for comments made on a personal social networking site during work time. Preece, an unfortunate pub manager was subjected to a torrent of verbal and physical abuse by a group of customers, which was later followed that day by abusive phone calls. Preece chose to respond to this by posting comments on her facebook page, whilst at work, which included expletives and derogatory comments about the customers. A couple of weeks later, one of the customers complained about Preece’s facebook entries, describing them as “offensive comments”.

Think before you TweetWith the ever increasing number of ways to socially and professionally network, all sorts of legal conundrums are thrown up for lawyers to resolve. It is now with apparent ease that confidential information can become public and the potential consequences of this are huge. It is therefore imperative that businesses are savvy enough to both exploit social media for their own purposes, whilst protecting themselves from its misuse, writes Boyes Turner’s employment law partner Helen Goss

Wetherspoons agreed and dismissed Preece. The reason for her dismissal was lowering the company’s reputation and failing to comply with the company’s email, internet and intranet policy, which specifically forbade staff from “sharing opinions and thoughts in an online diary” where those thoughts or opinions could lower the reputation of the company, its staff or customers.

Whilst, as in this case, it may be fairly straightforward to monitor and discipline employees for their use of social media during worktime, what about those posts, comments or tweets that are made outside of work? Again, the courts have taken a fairly broad view of this issue and the case of Gosden v Lifeline Project Ltd concerning a chain email outside of work, demonstrates these blurred lines of privacy.

In this case, Gosden was employed by Lifeline Project (Lifeline), a charity which assigns its employees to HM Prison Service to work with drug-users in prisons. Gosden sent an email containing offensive comments, accompanied by images of naked women, from his home computer to a colleague’s home computer. The email concluded: “It is your duty to pass this on!”, the colleague forwarded the email to another colleague who worked at the prison. The email chain came to the attention of the prison, which instituted an internal investigation.

Following an investigation, Gosden was dismissed for misconduct for having carried out an act which may damage the employer’s reputation or integrity and breached its equal opportunities policy.

As part of its decision, the tribunal considered the fact that this was sent outside of work from the employee’s personal email account and the interrelation with the right to a private life in accordance with the Human Rights Act 1998. As the email sent by the claimant was a “chain email” requesting recipients to pass it on, stating “It is your duty to pass this on!”, the tribunal concluded that it had no privacy conditions attached to it. If the communications were intended to be strictly private between two individuals the decision may well have been different.

These cases show that not only can an employee’s use of social networking sites in a personal capacity spill over into the employment relationship but activities outside of work in a personal capacity, can become public very easily and therefore also impinge on the employment relationship.

MISUSE - A facebook face-off

Robust social media policies are a must; however, these will not necessarily be a saving grace in all facebook dismissals as was seen in the case of Stephens v Halfords plc. In this case, an employment tribunal found that the dismissal of an employee, who had made comments on facebook which made derogatory comments about the company and breached its policy on social networking sites, was unfair.

Whilst it was accepted that Mr. Stephens had breached Halfords’ policy on social networking sites by creating a facebook page entitled ‘Halford workers against working three out of four weekends’, prompted by a proposed reorganisation and consultation, the tribunal accepted as mitigating factors his action in removing the page as soon as he became aware of the company policy on social networking, his apology at the disciplinary hearing and that his judgment may have been affected by the stress he was suffering at the time.

The case shows that even where there is a clear breach of a company policy, employers will still need to act reasonably when considering dismissal and a breach of a social media policy is no exception to this.

So what should employers be doing now?

Working in conjunction with Clearswift who are experts in information-security and Moreover Technologies who specialise in online media monitoring and business intelligence gathering, Boyes Turner is pleased to offer you the Social Media Toolkit – a comprehensive solution to all your social media needs.

To find out more about this invaluable new toolkit, contact Shaista Ali at [email protected] or on 0118-9527293.

Consistent with our policy when giving comment and advice on a non-specific basis, we cannot assume legal responsibility for the accuracy of any particular statement. In the case of specific problems we recommend that professional advice be sought.

Details: Helen Goss0118 [email protected]

law40


We know that the right professionals add value to our businesses or protect them from risk. We use professionals we can trust, and often have a relationship built up over many years. Sometimes, however, we have a suspicion that we may have been let down. Our business may have lost money and we think an adviser may be to blame. If not examined, that suspicion will taint an important relationship and undermine its value to us.

You are entitled to be happy that you are getting the service you are paying for and should not be afraid of challenging advice or other professional input. Such challenges do not have to be adversarial. With the benefit of a careful prior assessment, very positive results can emerge from informal or formal complaints procedures or even mediation, which can lead to an outcome which is satisfactory to all parties without irreparably damaging the relationship.

So what factors will be taken into account in assessing whether you are entitled to redress from a professional for failings in the service provided?

The basic requirements for a claim against a professional are:

1 a duty owed;

2 a breach of that duty;

3 loss caused by that breach.

Proving that the professional’s act or omission caused the loss suffered is a frequent stumbling block.

A professional adviser may incur liability for breach of contract and/or beach of a duty of care owed in the tort of negligence. Less commonly, liability can arise from breach of fiduciary duty or breach of statutory duty.

The first question to consider is what was the professional engaged to do? The starting point will be the contract – what has been agreed. The agreement need not be in writing. In some cases only part of it may have been written down. But the contract is likely to contain relevant terms (express or implied) and it is important to establish what these are. The precise ambit of the contractual obligations will depend on a number of factors including the experience of the client.

One then looks at whether the professional has carried out their engagement properly or at all. In a contract for services, a professional acting in the course of business

Should I stay or should I go? Addressing problems with professional advisersIn our business and private lives alike, we all rely on professional advice and expertise from many quarters, writes Sue O’Brien, head of dispute resolution and accredited mediator, Pitmans LLP

will be obliged to carry out the service “with reasonable care and skill”. The client is entitled to rely on the professional to exercise the highest degree of care and skill which a competent professional would exercise in work of that kind. This duty may be limited by contract, subject to the Unfair Contract Terms Act (1977) and any applicable professional rules. Level of experience is not relevant to the standard of care which is imposed although a special skill can raise the standard of care to be expected.

A concurrent duty in the tort of negligence may (but will not always) exist.

Establishing whether there is a cause of action in contract or tort can be important in that different limitation periods may apply to any claim. The limitation period (after which claims may not be brought) is often longer in tort than in contract.

There are also differences in the measure of damages which can be recovered. In contract, damages seek to put the injured party in the position he would have been in if the contract had been properly performed. So for example the innocent party can seek to recover expected profits. In tort, however, the injured party is to be put in the position he was in before the tort was committed, which will not include expected profits.

The defence of contributory negligence is more widely available in tort claims than in contract claims.

Assessing the quantum of a claim can also

pose interesting questions. Many claims against professional involve a claim for a loss of a chance.

That the professional’s error caused the loss must be established in fact and in law. In contract a claimant can recover losses arising naturally from the breach or loss which was in the contemplation of the parties at the time the contract was made. In tort, the type of damage suffered must have been reasonably foreseeable at the time of the breach of duty.

A claimant cannot recover damages for any loss which could have been avoided by taking reasonable steps in mitigation. And in some cases the level of damages recoverable will effectively be capped by a restricted definition of the scope of a professional’s duty and the loss which can fall within it.

So if your analysis of duty, breach, causation and loss indicates that you may have real cause for concern, how should you proceed? In general, if a professional has fallen below the standard of work expected, he or she will welcome the opportunity of explaining or making amends for any failings. You may wish to secure financial redress. The professional will normally be keen to continue to work for you and you may find you can use the opportunity to refresh and restate your relationship. Having conducted an objective assessment of your position, and having invited your professional to address the issues, you will be able to take an informed decision as to whether this is appropriate or whether it really is time to move on.

This is a complicated area of law and reliance should not be placed on this article to make decisions about particular issues. This is not a comprehensive statement of the law.

Details: Sue O’[email protected]/dispute-resolution


business focus 41


Details: www.hwca.com

HW, Chartered Accountants, presents a series of articles based around Tweets appearing on their Twitter pages. This month Paul Simmons discusses:

What are your options when family members want to exit the business? Buy out or new shareholder?

For details on Haines Watts Young Entrepreneur of the Year competition 2011 visit: www.hwye.co.uk or follow us on Twitter @HWYE2011 and Facebook: search for Haines Watts HWYE.

Funding

For the continuing family members to buy out the exiting member/s will probably mean a buy back of shares by the company and often this will be too expensive. The company will require a mixture of bank loan, perhaps debt factoring – and probably the exiting family member will need to accept some deferred consideration. In the current lending climate the bank borrowing may be very difficult to arrange and deferred consideration always has a degree of uncertainty as to whether it will ever get paid.

Alternatively, the continuing family members could buy the shares personally but they will face the same funding challenges. A new shareholder who could deliver the cash within the required timescales may be the only answer.

Whilst ‘keeping it in the family’ may be the preferred option as it ensures control of all shares and the way that the company is run, a new shareholder also provides benefits. They may be

able to bring new ideas and energy to take the business forward; they will have business contacts with customers and suppliers – and they have the potential to introduce further funds to help with capital investment, working capital and other expansion.

Valuation

Normally the company’s Articles of Association set out how the shares would be valued if a shareholder wishes to sell internally, or there may be a shareholders’ agreement which sets out a calculation. Selling to a third party may give a larger sale price because they may be willing to pay a premium to enter the company.

Tax

The seller’s tax position will probably be the same regardless of who buys the shares. Entrepreneurs’ tax relief will apply if the seller has held the shares and worked in the company for more than the last year but the conditions are complicated and advice should be taken.

After all the hard work to build up a successful business, isn’t it logical to spend some time planning for how to maximise its value when the time comes to pass it on?

Whatever the reason for seeking an ‘exit’, the common theme for all business owners is usually the desire to maximise the value of the business.

Your exit can be planned by working through five key stages:

1 Identifying your objectives;

2 Identifying the obstacles to a successful exit;

3 What are the options;

4 Preparing the business for sale; and

5 Implementing the exit.

The first stage in the exit planning process is to determine

Have you got an exit plan?It always surprises us how many times we meet successful business owners who do not have an ‘exit’ strategy, writes Jean Piercy of Griffins

your objectives as well as your capital and income needs following the sale. Some owners may want to pass the business to a family member or reward a loyal management team.

Whatever your objectives, the reasons for selling should be thoroughly explored: is it the right time? What are the business’ immediate future prospects? Will its value increase or decrease over the next few years? Do you need to raise capital to live comfortably in retirement or are you already financially secure?

The next stage is to consider the obstacles to a successful exit. These can be many and varied. You can assess your business by using our Investor Ready Diagnostic on griffinscorporate.co.uk . This will enable you to carry out a review of your

business by looking at it from an investor’s point of view. The review will often identify actions you need to take before the business is ready for sale.

Then identify the options for a successful exit. Although not an exhaustive list these may include:

a trade sale;•

a management buy out;•

going public on AiM or • another public market;

introducing a private equity • backer;

a purchase of own shares • (often called a share buyback);

passing the business to the • next family generation.

Whichever route is likely to suit your business you should plan your exit several years before you want to sell or retire. The strategy you should follow if, for example, a buy-out is your preferred exit route will be very different from the strategy you should follow for a trade sale or flotation and may take several years to put in place.

The best way to navigate your way through the ‘exit’ process is to take timely and complete advice from a suitably qualified professional.

Details: Jean [email protected]

property42


Research into the type of business ‘clusters’ located in the Thames Valley has been commissioned by Battle Associates, enablers of the conference, and will be presented on September 8 as part of the Thames Valley Property Forum. The presentation by Dr Rob Harris from Ramidus Consulting, an expert in property research, will explore the reason for the location of these business clusters in the Thames Valley region.

For example the ICT, digital media and technology software cluster is located primarily in Berkshire and represents one of the biggest in Europe. The Thames Valley boasts unique characteristics which enables this cluster to grow and prosper. Established members of this cluster include Microsoft, Cisco and Oracle Corporation. However as the new ‘generation y’ enters the workplace and new start-up companies break away from their ‘parents’, expectations will change for the use of office space, which may compromise the success of the Thames Valley cluster.

Some of the questions asked at the conference on this important issue will include:

What benefit does a cluster bring to the • region?

How does the region maintain these • clusters?

Finally, why is the Government planning a • new cluster at East London Tech City?

Dr David Gillham, director of research & enterprise services at Reading University, in his session will continue this theme

Welcome to the land of the business cluster

Thames Valley Property Forum (TVPF) announces the content for its conference in September, writes Matthew Battle, chairman TVPF

and present an example of innovation by showcasing the recently opened Enterprise Centre located at the main university campus. The 55,000 sq ft facility already houses 25 technology-based companies including fast-growing Twitter business, Favorit.

This session will be complemented by a panel representing the companies Oracle Corporation, RIM Blackberry and CoreNet who can comment on the validity of the need to be co-located next to similar companies and part of a ‘cluster’.

Also integrated into this year’s conference is new content which is occupier focused, and chief executives working in the Thames Valley have been invited to provide their perceptions of the reason for locating in the region. Speakers from the C-Suite include Kevin Gaskell (ex CEO Porsche and BMW Cars located in Reading and Bracknell) and now well know keynote conference speaker, Alastair Storey, CEO, Baxter Storey and Ronan Dunne, CEO, O2 UK.

As members of the C-Suite they will inform delegates on what they believe the Thames Valley must do to improve and maintain its position as a location of choice for occupiers looking for relevant skills and innovation. We have also partnered with Estates Gazette, SEGRO and the CBI for these sessions to produce a unique insight into the views of some of the most important leaders in the region.

Complimentary sessions include a presentation on the new Reading interchange being developed by Network Rail and how this will benefit the Thames Valley. Peter Brett Associates will lead this debate which is always topical and very relevant as the transport agenda underpins the whole success of the Thames Valley story.

Pricing of the conference has remained

competitive and held at last year’s price. However, new for this year we have introduced a membership section. This allows access to a separate events programme outside of the conference. In 2011 this has involved exclusive trips to the new facilities at Yell in Reading and an introduction to the real estate strategy adopted by RIM Blackberry in Slough. Future events planned for after the conference include a breakfast at The Blade in Reading, held jointly with Aviva/Cushman & Wakefield/Peter Brett & Associates, looking at the sustainability of cities. More details can be accessed at www.tvpf.co.uk and click on the membership tab.

TVPF 2011 is the fifth conference held in the Thames Valley and was well received last year when over 160 people attended the event held at the Holiday Inn at IQ Winnersh near Reading on the A329(M).

Major sponsors of the conference are SEGRO and the Oracle Corporation. Event supporters are Savills Commercial, Willmott Dixon and Peter Brett Associates. Other partners for the conference include Reading University, FD, Circle Square and Estates Gazette.

For delegate bookings see details below.

Details: www.tvpf.co.uk 07768-377172 [email protected]


property 43


Croudace Homes is a well established family run south east regional residential developer with a high-quality product range from affordable starter homes and apartments, through to town houses and traditional style family housing.

The multi-million-pound deal provides Croudace with a 4.20 acre oven-ready site in the sought after suburban residential location of Woodley. The site has outline planning permission for 51 dwellings including 38 private market units and 13 affordable units.

Steven Smith of Haslams commented: “The site attracted a huge amount of interest with 16 offers received from local developers and a number of national house builders. The sale bucked the trend in what is a difficult land market. We hope this sale denotes a recovery in the market.

“This goes to show that there is still strong demand for good sites in prominent locations with planning permission for family housing in what still remains to be an otherwise challenging market.”

Matt Armstrong of Croudace said: “Croudace Homes were attracted to the site because, situated within a pleasant suburban setting in Woodley four

Croudace purchase in WoodleyHaslams Chartered Surveyors has recently concluded a sale of the site at the former Addington School in Woodley to Croudace Homes Group on behalf of Wokingham Borough Council, writes Andrew Fraser of Haslams

miles west of Reading town centre, it is an excellent site for family housing. Rivermead Primary School immediately adjacent to the site will provide an appropriate backdrop for the completed development as well as being of practical benefit to family purchasers of the dwellings.

“It is anticipated that a reserved matters application will be submitted in due course pursuant to the outline permission already achieved. We envisage a well-designed scheme with a generous mix of family housing and starter homes for the local market, products we believe will be welcomed in the current market. We believe that demand for family housing will remain strong for the foreseeable future in established popular residential areas.”

Haslams Chartered Surveyors has substantial experience in the field of development land, acting for a large and varied range of land-owning clients such as local authorities, independent schools, private and charitable trusts, as well as private house owners and developers.

A comprehensive list of all of our current development land for sale can be found on our

website. Alternatively for further information contact Haslams Chartered Surveyors.

Details: Andrew Fraser 0118-9211518 [email protected]

BRINGING BUSINESS TOGETHER

KINGFISHER COURT BUSINESS CENTRENEWBURY, BERKSHIRE

For further information on Kingfisher Court contactthe Sales Office on 0118 981 1006

Available for immediate occupancyAllocated parking

fax mail eb 0118 981 3417 [email protected] www.countryestates.co.uke w

AVAILABLE

NOW

The Business Centre is set on the established Kingfisher Court Business Park

Fully refurbished business suites1 to 4 desks in 93 - 279 sq ft suitesOn site security & CCTV

What’s in store for 2011?


44 employment people

with Doyle Clayton

the employment solicitors

EMPLOYMENT LAW IN PRACTICE

A study in 2008 by Peninsula found that ‘accent discrimination’ is perceived to be widespread. The top five worst accents in the UK as voted for by 2,647 employers, according to the survey, were Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow and ‘London’ Cockney.

So should an employer be allowed to turn down a job applicant just because of their accent? There is no legislation that specifically says it is discriminatory to treat someone differently because of their accent, however an employee may bring a claim for discrimination on the grounds of race or nationality if they are discriminated against for having a foreign accent.

An employer may have a defence to such claims if they can show that being easily understood is an “occupational requirement” for the job. However this defence only applies where clear communication is vital. For example it may succeed when the job involves such roles as teaching, working in customer service or on reception. It would not work where the job does not require much communication with others.

In Meshram v Talk Talk (2007) an employee was successful in suing his employer when he was moved out of his job because his accent “wasn’t English enough.” The defence failed as Mr Meshram’s job was to train other staff and he did not communicate directly with customers.

Accent discrimination?

Contrast this with Hundal v Initial Security Ltd (2006). The employer was able to show that its treatment of Mr Hundal was genuinely due to his difficulty in speaking English clearly, since his duties required him to communicate on the telephone.

So an employee with a foreign accent may claim race discrimination but what about someone with a Geordie accent being turned down for a job in London because their regional twang is too strong?

Sadly for Cheryl Cole, if she were an employee in the UK, she would have no grounds for claiming unlawful race discrimination, although there might be other remedies available to her (such as unfair dismissal).

Discrimination law covers less favourable treatment on the grounds of nationality, but this only includes discrimination on the grounds of being, for example, Irish or Scottish, it does not yet include discrimination because of the region of England from which the employee originates.

Details: Piers [email protected]

Cheryl Cole was axed from the US version of the X Factor because of fears the audience wouldn’t be able to understand her thick Geordie accent. Piers Leigh-Pollitt, partner, takes a look at whether employers can discriminate on the basis of your accent

Movers and risers...Chris Devonshire• has been named the first head of GCS Technology at GCS Recruitment Specialists. The newly created role marks the start of the company’s transformation from an IT specialist into a multidisciplinary agency. Devonshire, a GCS employee since 1999, aims to grow the Technology division to £30m turnover by 2013.

Leading financial advice firm, • Jelf Financial Planning, has appointed a new adviser, Paul Pettitt. He will be based out of its Reading office, serving

clients across the Thames Valley region. The move will help to bolster a growing financial planning team, and is a reflection of Jelf Financial Planning’s commitment to growth in the Reading area. Pettitt joins from Aviva where he was a senior sales consultant for over 30 years. He specialised in pensions, investments and personal protection. Commenting on his appointment Pettitt said: “I really enjoy working with clients and helping them achieve their goals. Jelf is the ideal firm, they are well established and respected with an excellent client ethos, I’m excited to be part of the team.”

Manches private client team • is delighted to announce the arrival of Penny Wright as a senior associate in its team in Reading. Wright joins the team from Thomas Eggar in Newbury where she worked alongside Anna Burnside and Fiona Wheeler (who joined Manches last year). She has extensive private client experience, including inheritance tax planning, complex Wills, trusts and probate as well as significant expertise in charity law. Her charity law expertise includes setting up and registering new charities, dealing with constitutional issues and compliance with charity law, advising on trustees’ responsibilities and duties and charity mergers. She is also a member of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners), the Private Client Section of the Law Society and Solicitors for the Elderly. Anna Burnside,

partner and head of the private client team comments: “We are delighted that Penny has joined the team as we further develop our practice in the Thames Valley. We expect to see some new challenges and with our expanding team we are very well placed to meet them”. Wright added, “I am very pleased to be working with Anna and Fiona again, and looking forward to helping build up the Reading practice”.


people 45


“What sets Doyle Clayton apart from other firms is their pragmatic, commercial employment law advice and their ability to get to the heart of the issue quickly. I would recommend them as a strategic business partner to any organisation.”

Richard CowlishawHuman Resources Director, Courtaulds (UK) Ltd

The UK’s largest employment law firm

London City Canary Wharf

Reading

DC_BusinessMagazine_AD NEW Feb 2010.indd 1 9/2/10 16:05:28

Top 25 UK accountancy firm Wilkins Kennedy has announced the • addition of two new insolvency specialists at the firm’s Reading office, creating further expansion of its insolvency department. New partners David Tann (above right) and Matt Waghorn (above left) were previously directors at Reading insolvency specialists Nortons Recovery. Tann founded the company in 1998 after working as a senior manager at Ernst & Young’s Reading office. He has over 30 years of insolvency experience. Waghorn was a director at Nortons Recovery for three years, having previously been a partner at professional services firm Oury Clark in Slough. Tann comments: “Matt and I are delighted to be joining Wilkins Kennedy, a move that brings together our great resources, connections and wide range of experience in the insolvency and recovery industry across the Thames Valley and the south of England.” John Kirkpatrick, managing partner at Wilkins Kennedy’s Reading office, comments: “Our two new partners have a strong reputation and track record working with SMEs and small corporates in the south east and we would like to warmly welcome David and Matt to the team, further strengthening our insolvency offering in the Reading office.”

Award-winning law firm Pitmans • LLP boosts its London office with the arrival of corporate partner, Daniel Jacob (top right), and digital media partner, Philip James (middle right). Senior solicitor Rustam Roy (bottom right) joins the technology team based in Reading. Daniel Jacob advises on all aspects of corporate work, including mergers and acquisitions, joint ventures, company reorganisations, restructurings and fundraisings. Jacob has particular experience in the leisure and corporate real estate sectors and in implementing growth share schemes. He joins from Olswang, where he was a senior associate. Philip James specialises in digital media and data privacy, and advises clients on the creation, acquisition and exploitation of content and technology, particularly in the marcomms, mobile and digital sectors. James is an expert in data privacy and assists clients in devising effective and practical data strategies to achieve compliance, brand integrity and IP asset growth. He joins from Lewis Silkin where he was a senior associate, having trained at a niche media and entertainment practice. Rustam Roy is a commercial technology lawyer, with experience in the media & entertainment (film, television and video games), IT and IT-enabled services and outsourcing sectors, as well as a wide variety of general commercial matters. Roy has also spent time on secondment, assisting the procurement teams of major retail and investment banks in the City.

Lloyds Bank Corporate • Markets has strengthened its Thames Valley and South team with the addition of Parul Odedra as relationship manager. Odedra, an experienced corporate banker, will look after a portfolio of clients in the £15 million to £100m turnover space.

Michael Infante• , the chairman and CEO of One Media Publishing, based at Pinewood Studios in Iver Heath, has won the PLUS award 2011 for Chairman/CEO of the Year. The PLUS awards, now in their fourth year, celebrate the achievements of companies listed on the PLUS Stock Exchange (PLUS-SX). One Media Publishing, which was also shortlisted for the PLUS award for Company of the Year, is a digital music and video rights company owning and/or controlling in excess of 100,000 music tracks as well as over 1,000 hours of music video. Of the Chairman/CEO of the Year award, the awards organisers noted that Infante “has led the company through a very successful year in building its impressive catalogue of music and video rights.” Infante said: “I’m absolutely delighted; it’s an honour to have won this coveted accolade. One Media has made significant progress in the last year and it demonstrates the fantastic efforts and achievements made. I would like to thank my co-directors Nigel, Roman and Scott for their hard work and continued support.” Alex Peal, a partner at accountants and business advisers James Cowper, of whom One Media Publishing is a client, said: “The PLUS Stock Exchange is a terrific introduction for companies seeking to take the first step onto a public market and many of our clients choose this route to access equity investment and a potential full listing.

diary46


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Credit ControlLorraine Buckle: 0118-9745588

[email protected]

All major credit/debit cards taken

Published monthly by: Elcot Publications Ltd

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how to reach us

To have your business event included in this monthly diary, email details to: [email protected]

diary – july12

“Newly Self-employed”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, Reading. Details: 0845-603-2691.

13

“Doing business in Germany”, UKTI event, Holiday Inn, Guildford. Details: www.uktisoutheast.com

“Becoming a director”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, Oxford Business Park South. Details: 0845-603-2691.

“Keep Business Local”, TV Business Advisers lunch, Coco Bar, Maidenhead. Details: www.ukba.co.uk

Stokenchurch Business Biscotti, Kings Hotel. Details: www.businessbiscotti.co.uk

Ladies & Gentlemen That Lunch, Witney launch, Eynsham Hall. Details: 01635-578500.

“Sustainable Supply Chains, Meet the Buyer”, SUSCIN event, Bracknell. Details: www.suscin.org.uk

L&G That Lunch, Cotswold Lodge Hotel, Oxford. Details: www.ladiesandgentlementhatlunch.co.uk

14

“Overview of Exporting”, TV Chamber seminar, Slough. Details: www.thamesvalleychamber.co.uk

West Berks Business Lunch, TV Chamber event, Regency Park Hotel, Thatcham. Details: 01753-870500.

15

Bucks Business Breakfast, TV Chamber event, Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury. Details: 01753-870500.

18

“Newly Self-employed”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, Oxford Business Park South. Details: 0845-603-2691.

19

“Building better relationships through assertiveness”, Newbury College workshop. Details: 01635-845229.

Business Biscotti Henley, River & Rowing Museum. Details: www.fsb.org.uk

20

“Late Breakfast Milton Park”, networking event. Details: www.latebreakfast.co.uk

21

“Late Breakfast Thame”, networking event, Spread Eagle Hotel. Details: www.latebreakfast.co.uk

High Wycombe Connections Club meeting, Cricket Club. Details: www.hwconnections.co.uk

IoD Oxon meeting, The Unicorn, Deddington. Details: 01865-390025.

26

“Management Workshop”, Newbury College event. Details: 01635-845229.

27

Reading Business Lunch, TV Chamber event, Penta Hotel. Details: 01753-870500.

28

IoD Oxon networking meeting, The Fishes, North Hinksey. Details: www.iod.com

“Late Breakfast Chalgrove”, networking event, Monument Business Park. Details: www.latebreakfast.co.uk

“Becoming an employer”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, Reading. Details: 0845-603-2691.

Networking Lunch with Joolz Lewis, Cotswold Lodge Hotel, Oxford. Details: www.ladiesthatlunch.co.uk

29

Slough Business Breakfast, TV Chamber event, Copthorne Hotel, Slough. Details: 01753-870500.

august1

“Newly Self-Employed”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, Staines. Details: 0845-603-2691.

2

Oxon Business Lunch, TV Chamber event, Kassam Stadium. Details: 01753-870500.

3

“Late Breakfast Abingdon”, networking event, Four Pillare Hotel. Details: www.latebreakfast.co.uk

4


4


5

Oxon Business Lunch, TV Chamber event, Kassam Stadium, Oxford. Details: 01753-870500.

“Managing Poor Performance”, Newbury College workshop. Details: 01635-845229.

Networking Lunch, guest Rona Cant. Carnarvon Arms, Newbury. Details: www.ladiesthatlunch.co.uk

Windsor Business Community meeting, All Bar One. Details: www.fsb.org.uk

“Spring Forward Taster”, L&G That Lunch workshop, Carnarvon Arms, Burghclere. Details: www.ladiesandgentlementhatlunch.co.uk

6

“Becoming an employer”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, Oxford Business Park South. Details: 0845-603-2691.

“Late Breakfast Abingdon”, Four Pillars Hotel. Details: www.latebreakfast.co.uk

7

“Contracts of Employment”, Pitmans seminar, Reading. Details: www.pitmans.com

8

Bucks Business Breakfast, TV Chamber event, Holiday Inn , High Wycombe. Details: 01753-870500.

“Question Time”, TV Chamber political working lunch, Microsoft Campus, Reading. Details: www.thamesvalleychamber.co.uk

“Becoming a director”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, Reading. Details: 0845-603-2691.

11

Networking lunch, OxFocus event with Said Business School dean Colin Mayer, Oxford. Details: www.oxfocus.co.uk

12

“Time Management & Delegation”, Newbury College workshop. Details: 01635-845229.

5

“Business Insight”, TV Chamber event, Ascot Racecourse. Details: www.thamesvalleychamber.co.uk

“How VAT Works”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, High Wycombe. Details: 0845-603-2691.

Cross Reference Networking Group meeting, Bull Hotel, Gerrards Cross. Details: www.networkinggerrardscross.co.uk

9

Windsor Business Community meeting, All Bar One. Details: www.fsb.org.uk

“Search Engine Optimisation”, ODM seminar, Oxford Science Park. Details: www.oxforddigitalmarketing.co.uk

10

“Keep Business Local”, Thames Valley Business Advisers lunch, Coco Bar, Maidenhead. Details: www.ukba.co.uk

diary – continued11

West Berks Business Lunch, Regency Park Hotel, Thatcham. Details: 01753-870500.

12

Bucks Business Breakfast, TV Chamber event, Holiday Inn, High Wycombe. Details: 01753-870500.

“Newly Self-employed”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, High Wycombe. Details: 0845-603-2691.


16

Business Biscotti Henley meeting, River & Rowing Museum. Details: www.fsb.org.uk

Bracknell Business Club meeting, The Bull. Details: www.fsb.org.uk

17

“Late Breakfast Milton Park”, networking event, Innovation Centre. Details: www.latebreakfast.co.uk

“Becoming an Employer”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, Oxford Business Park South. Details: 0845-603-2691.

18

“Late Breakfast Thame”, networking event, Spread Eagle Hotel. Details: www.latebreakfast.co.uk

19

Bucks Business Breakfast, TV Chamber event, Waterside Theatre, Aylesbury. Details: 01753-870500.

“Future Inflation”, TV Chamber briefing with Bank of England, Hilton Reading. Details: www.thamesvalleychamber.co.uk

19


25

Slough Business Breakfast, TV Chamber event, Copthorne Hotel. Details: 01753-870500.

“Becoming a Director”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, Oxford Business Park South. Details: 0845-603-2691.

26


31

“How VAT Works”, HM Revenue & Customs workshop, Staines. Details: 0845-603-2691.

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