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From take-off to full throttle

in association with

FeaturingFashion retailer Want That Trend. 8

Peter Roberts, Pure Gym founder. 11

Who inspires you? 19

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SupplementMarch 2016 The drive

to thrive

2EdIToR FoREwoRd

contentssponsor foreword: entrepreneurs boost the northern powerhouse. Victoria Price, partner at EY in the North west. 3 ➔

Scaling upsupport for the journey. while business confidence is improving, considerably more could and should be done to help small firms during their early stages. 4 ➔

one-to-one: lawrence Tomlinson, lnT Group. 6 ➔

case study: start-up fashion firm scores with selfie generation 8 ➔

InnovationAhead of the game. To grow businesses need to innovate and quickly adapt to customer demands and market conditions. 9 ➔

one-to-one: peter Roberts, pure Gym. 11 ➔

case study: Warren partners keeps people at the heart of the matter. 12 ➔

ExpansionThe challenges of rapid growth. It is often difficult for growing companies to keep up to speed at every turn with customers, products, funding and finance.

15 ➔

one-to-one: John hayward, pressure Technologies. 16 ➔

case study: Abbey logistics targets acquisitions for growth. 18 ➔

Who inspires you? 19 ➔

A LITTLE under a year ago we embarked

on a project with accountancy and advisory

firm EY to look at the drivers of growth for

entrepreneurial companies and the people

behind it.

The idea was that over a series of three round

table discussions we would be able to draw conclusions about the different

stages of an entrepreneurial company’s lifecycle and gain an insight into

how successful business owners do what they do.

The first round table was all about scaling up and making the right

decisions at an early stage of a business’s growth. The second looked at

innovation and the third focused on the rapid expansion phase.

we’ve also conducted in-depth one-to-one interviews and detailed

company case studies with highly successful, high profile entrepreneurs

from across the north that run along the broad themes of: scaling up,

innovation, and expansion.

As you will read in the pages of this supplement, there are some common

threads to the discussions. A number of people have succeeded by taking

their businesses off in a whole new direction.

Entrepreneurs also tend to be self-starters. They may welcome help and

certainly wouldn’t turn it down but one never feels that they would be at

home twiddling their thumbs if that help wasn’t there.

But it is important when we are competing against other parts of

the country - and indeed other parts of the world - that we create an

environment in which those with the right ideas and the right attitude to

risk can not only survive but thrive.

Joanne Birtwistle,

publications editor, TheBusinessDesk.com

Portland Tower, 53 Portland Street, Manchester M1 3LF. Tel: 0161 238 4922

Commercial director: Lee-J walker [email protected]

Publications editor: Joanne Birtwistle [email protected]

DRiVinGENTREPRENEURSHIP



is the link between strategic intent and the ability to deliver on that intent.

5. Funding and finance – a CFo and finance function developing as you grow, accessing different and more complex sources of growth funding.

6. Transactions and alliances – market leaders seek out commercial partnerships and key acquisitions to support growth.

7. Risk – outstanding entrepreneurs identify and manage the risks that all businesses face, reviewing their risk appetite as they grow.

By focusing on this broader set of capabilities, we believe that companies at different stages of their development can accelerate their expansion and, critically, make it sustainable. It is one of the ways we are helping entrepreneurs in our region to grow, which is something the north must focus on if we are to realise our economic potential.

The Northern Powerhouse is a bold and ambitious vision for expansion, which could see the region begin to punch its economic weight and close the gap on the southern regions in the long-term. To make it a reality, we need to celebrate entrepreneurs and support them in new, innovative ways to deliver wealth, jobs and growth.

Victoria pricePartner at EY in the North West

WITH northern economic expansion having

climbed the political agenda, the role of entrepreneurs in our region has never been more important, especially as we enter the next industrial revolution as digital technologies drive sweeping changes around the global economy.

They form the foundations of economic growth here in the North west, with their fast expanding companies creating vital jobs and wealth. It is critical that we nurture, support and celebrate the success of these entrepreneurs and their businesses to enable them to help the north of England thrive.

Northern entrepreneurs are upbeat around their prospects for growth, according to our recent survey. All of the respondents have previously been part of our EY Entrepreneur of The Year programme. 55% of entrepreneurs said they expect their

companies’ profits to expand by over 10% per year over the next three years, compared with 53% nationally.

That is not only good news for these businesspeople and their employees but also for the north as a whole. However, taking the economy in the north as a whole, we are still facing the prospect of a widening economic divide with the south.

our first EY UK region & city economic forecast report, which was published in december 2015, predicted that the North west’s economy will grow by 2.0% a year in gross value added terms (GVA) between 2015 and 2018, compared with a wider UK average of 2.3%. London and

Entrepreneurs boost the Northern Powerhouse

3SPoNSoR FoREwoRd


its southern neighbours are set to lead the way.

To fulfil their growth potential and help address this divide, entrepreneurial businesses need to continue finding new and innovative ways to accelerate growth. The winners of our North EY Entrepreneur of The Year Awards – and those that went on to win awards at our UK final – have certainly done this.

one example is Macclesfield-based Zuto, which partners with a panel of lenders to provide car finance options and car buying know-how. It was praised by our judges for building ‘exciting and innovative technology’ to create an online business in a competitive market.

By working with a wide range of firms and entrepreneurs from our global awards programme with similar stories to that of Zuto, we developed EY’s seven drivers of growth, a new framework for company expansion.

we have worked with entrepreneurs around the world on these seven drivers of growth and our findings show that we need to move the conversation about entrepreneurial growth and customer-value beyond the traditional focus on people, systems and processes:

1. customers – at the core is always the customer and by putting customers’ needs and desires first, you can achieve competitive advantage.

2. people, behaviours and culture – building an environment that attracts the right people for each stage of growth, embedding the right behaviours and culture in the team, as you grow beyond the first base, and especially during periods of international expansion.

3. Digital technology and analytics – for entrepreneurs leading their businesses, information is power, helping them and their teams to make faster, smarter decisions.

4. operations – an operating model that



So says Vince Ferguson, chairman of Inciner8, a green technology company based in Southport.

He adds that along with tenacity, product and market knowledge, entrepreneurs need to be flexible and able to change track quickly.

Matt Hirst, chief executive of Chorley-based software company Utiligroup, agrees: “You absolutely have to evolve as things happen and listen to what customers want.”

Hirst, 37, who led a management buyout (MBo) from a listed company backed by private equity investor NorthEdge Capital last year, says that for him, the issue of mentoring and support was key.

“I have been very

particularly digital and technology.

Victoria Price, director at EY, says it is trying to step into this void by creating a forum of more than 150

“During the planning stage, you have to pull your business plan apart - you have to always think ‘what if’. Cash flow is

such a massive thing for early-stage enterprises.”

While business confidence is improving, considerably more could and should be done to help small firms during their early stages.

Support for the journey

➔

‘it can be a rocky road and i think we all need sometimes to speak to someone who has

been there.’

fortunate - but being a business owner can be very lonely - so you need some support.”

Ferguson concurs: “Yes, it can be a rocky road and I think we all need sometimes to speak to someone who has been there and has a few grey hairs.”

The availability in the region of a pool of mentors/non-executive directors with the time and the talent to advise entrepreneurs is “patchy” - with there being a distinct lack in some sectors,

Vince Fergusonchairman of Inciner8

4SCALING UP


entrepreneurs in the region, which have gone through the firm’s Entrepreneur of The Year programme.

Alongside the need for impartial business advice, the availability of

talent and funding are fundamental requirements for start-ups to thrive.

In the broadest sense the north is a good location to build and grow a business, although there are sub-regional disparities for business support - for example, Greater Manchester has a dedicated Business Growth Hub, Liverpool and Lancashire do not.

Most recently, the government funded Business Growth Service, which included the popular Manufacturing Advisory Service (MAS) and the Growth Accelerator programme was suddenly axed without notice by the department for Business Skills and Innovation, following the government’s Autumn Statement.

It is now no longer able to help any further businesses and is winding down its support of those companies it already works with.

Ferguson says: “There doesn’t seem to be that independent, one-stop portal for

advice any longer, it depends where you are in the region.”

Hirst adds: “while our local council (Chorley) is helpful - I do think there is a void that has not been filled since the NwdA (North west Regional

development Agency) closed. I always found it pretty good to deal with.”

Hirst says that while the principle behind the Government’s Northern Powerhouse agenda is good, he is concerned about where “the smaller towns” fit in to the vision.

“The focus does seem to be Liverpool, Manchester and Leeds, and it’s clear to see that Manchester in particular

is booming - but smaller towns are struggling.

“Transport links generally are appalling - but that’s a massive issue for all businesses, not just start-ups.”

Ferguson too is positive over the devolution of decision making from whitehall to the regions, but as a business based on Merseyside, he believes Liverpool is “something of the poor cousin to Manchester”.

matt hirstchief executive, Utiligroup


‘There doesn’t seem to be that independent one-stop portal for advice any longer,

it depends where you are in the region.’


6➔

“I THINK it would be nice to go to the moon, just to go and have a look.”

There is an almost constant sense of mischief in the air when Lawrence Tomlinson is in the room. It’s not always clear when he’s joking and when he’s being deadly serious - but it is clear that he cultivates that tone deliberately to keep you slightly off-balance. It’s more Jose Mourinho than Niccolo Machiavelli.

A simple question about unfulfilled ambitions to a serial entrepreneur with five businesses, racing trophies from Le Mans and who famously crossed swords with the UK banks with his Tomlinson Report is never going to elicit a simple answer.

He continues: “Is that an ambition or a dream? If it was an ambition, I probably would have done it.”

His deadpan delivery covers a range of subjects - why did you first set up a business? “I could make more money”; how did you react

to the threat of Tesco delisting a de-icer product? “They seemed to have mistaken me for someone who cares about Tesco”; what should be done to help start-ups and people running them? “we don’t need to worry about start-ups. It’s up to them - if they can’t get to the next stage, maybe that’s just their fault”.

He becomes more animated on the subject of entrepreneurs, having made himself into a very rich man through a combination of entrepreneurial drive, vision, and sheer bloody-mindedness.

“People start a business and they want all this help,” he says. “There’s too much of the nanny state, people have to take responsibility for their own business and what they do.”

His tip for development? “They should read a book”.

But although he has a strong sense of individual reponsibility, he does not believe in unfettered free markets.

“when a marketplace is broken there needs to be government intervention,” he says.

Lawrence Tomlinson – LNT Group

The Tomlinson Report, which came out of a year spent in government as an entrepreneur-in-residence, was particularly critical of the role of Royal Bank of Scotland’s Global Restructuring Group (GRG) and the bank’s property division west Register and the cosy relationship between the two. west Register was on many occasions the purchaser of distressed assets that were sold at the behest of GRG.

Tomlinson says: “I have to be careful what I say...I think the business world is a bit better off and a bit safer from the work I did.

“GRG, the restructuring division of RBS, has now closed, which didn’t have a good reputation for helping businesses.

“west Register is now closed and the people who ran that have now left the bank. Apparently because the economy has picked up they don’t need it now but it was just after my report came out.

“Perhaps I was a bit naive. I was truly shocked at how some of those businesses had been treated. we have had people who have lost marriages, taken their kids out of school.” ➔

lawrence TomlinsonLNT Group

“I think the lending marketplace is broken - I am not an interventionist - but it has failed the customers, not the corporates in that space. The energy market is the same.

“Thatcherism has its limits. The current crop at the top of the Tory Party are Thatcherites. It’s good to a certain level but ultimately one company, one player, becomes dominant and creates an oliogopoly or monopoly.

“You have to control the markets in some way.”

He made his own intervention into the way parts of the UK banking system was being run, specifically the way in which some businesses were treated when they were struggling, or when their bank decided they were struggling, during the recession.

oNE-To-oNE


despite the problems it caused - he had to rebank his businesses, for example - he is proud of what it achieved.

He says: “would I do what I did again given the opportunity? Yes. would I do it again considering the personal stress, hardship and effort? Yes.

“what did I get out of it? I think I helped a lot of businesses that would probably have been destroyed survive. Going forward, people are more aware.”

He had originally got involved - having been selected ahead of more than other 100 people - because he “just wanted to help”.

“I wanted to help government and businesses,” he said. “I currently operate five fairly diverse businesses and I just wanted to put something back.”

His first business was care homes, which he got into aged 23 when he bought one from his parents, and from there he added a care homes construction business, a software business, a company which provides weather protection solutions to the aviation, rail and facilities management industries (but no longer to Tesco), and sports car manufacturer Ginetta.

Together they sit under the umbrella of the £90m-turnover LNT Group, but Tomlinson is not taken by the label that often prefixes his name.

“what is an entrepreneur?,” he asks, rhetorically. “I really don’t know why I’m an entrepreneur. I’m just a guy who is in business. I don’t see myself as a serial entrepreneur.

“I am interested in making things and optimising situations, as an engineer. Your life experiences define you, not this rubbish about being an entrepreneur.”

AS BUSINESSES grow they often experience phases of rapid expansion when their customers seem to suddenly “get it” and revenue growth accelerates as a result. Clearly, this can be both an exciting and dangerous time as resources get stretched and the entrepreneur faces escalating

demands from all sides.

The entrepreneurs who have capitalised on these periods of success and rapid growth, and have gone on to market leading positions,

tell us this is all about maintaining balance across the drivers of growth, or keeping all the balls in the air.

one of EY’s seven drivers of growth relates to funding and finance. All businesses need funds to grow and how a business manages its money – and its new investors – will determine its course for the future.

These firms need to be able to achieve success while staying true to their strategy, determining the best financial solution to keep control of their cash flow and manage risks.

Emerging leaders can tackle these challenges simultaneously, maintaining the right balance between each of these factors to accelerate sustainable growth. Many also turn to mentors, entrepreneurs’ networks and advisers who can share best practice and work with the entrepreneur as they invest in their own leadership skills.

other important measures entrepreneurs should think about when they are smoothing the road for rapid growth include

listening carefully to customers and responding to market changes, hiring the right people in the right places, investing in their own leadership skills and appointing the right advisers who can support specific expansion ambitions.

our Entrepreneurs Forum, which brings the region’s business leaders together to share experiences and hear from stand-out speakers, is one of the ways we are supporting entrepreneurs in the North west.

The north of England continues to produce many great entrepreneurs – but we can do more to create the networks and support mechanisms for businesses as they scale up.

dynamic and innovative entrepreneurs are vital to achieve a thriving northern economy, and so celebrating the achievements of the best entrepreneurs and encouraging the emergence of the next generation is key.


Accelerated Growth – keeping all the balls in the air

CoMMENT



8➔

AN oNLINE fashion retailer aimed at the selfie generation is on target to turnover at least £6.5m in its first year’s trading.

Victoria Molyneux from Crowton near Northwich launched wantThatTrend.com in April 2015, using Facebook as a platform for her clothing designs.

despite the scale and marketing might of the likes of competitors ASoS and Boohoo, the business has rocketed, and now has more than 1 million Facebook fans and a turnover of £6m to date.

Molyneux, says: “despite the rise of online fashion I couldn’t very often find something I wanted to wear.

“I also found that some of the pictures of the clothes were a bit misleading too, which is why, through Facebook I decided to start posting selfies to show

what the clothes really look like. The response has been incredible. I have been overwhelmed by how fast the business has taken off.”

She started the business with just £200 - returning to

the wholesaler for more stock each day as she couldn’t afford to buy in bulk - before finding her own manufacturer, based in Leicester.

“I saw an opportunity as wholesalers are run by men and so often the clothes are too strappy or too short or not good colours – I was frustrated that when I did find a winning style I could only get 30 or 40 units and they would sell immediately.

“Now I have a manufacturer I can tell them what I want and will have it in within a few days. I can have repeats within 48 hours - since then I have not looked back.”

The company, which operates out of a warehouse in Stockport, sold more than 200,000 Christmas pattern swing dresses over the festive period and it also produced a popular range of matching children’s dresses – it’s best sellers so far.

It has 15 full-time staff and is planning to take on another 30 staff over the next year. with plenty of cash in the bank, the next move will be in to overseas markets.

CASE STUdY Start-up fashion firm scores with selfie generation

Victoria molyneuxfounder, Want That Trend

Molyneux says: “we are starting to market in Canada, also on Facebook, as my manufacturing partner has contacts there, so that will hopefully minimise the risk.”

The 27-year-old, who used to work in a call centre selling Facebook advertising, has achieved all of this whilst pregnant and looking after a young child – and she says her now four month-old daughter will be ‘”taking a selfie in matching clothes once she’s standing”.

“I’m successful because I know what women want – what we do is Karen Millen on a budget. our USP is keeping affordability in mind.”


So says Matt Hirst, chief executive of Chorley-based Utiligroup.

“For us, it’s about listening to customers and finding out what they need to stay ahead of their competition.

“It’s quite easy to try and force it, by creating innovation groups, but you want it to be coming through from all parts of the business. The key, I believe, is listening to customers.”

Vince Ferguson, founder of Southport-based incinerator manufacturer Inciner8 International, agrees, adding that his business finds it useful to

work with existing customers during new product development.

“Everyone is encouraged to come up with ideas, and many do come from the shop floor,” he says.

we found this was the case when our backs were against the wall during the recession,” he says.

But david Grimes, founder of MPd

“uNLESS you are Apple, innovation does not mean coming up with a new product that no one has ever heard of before.”

To grow businesses need to innovate and adapt quickly to customer demands and market conditions. To grow quickly, many find they also need to access outside investment, of which there is an abundance.

Ahead of the game

➔

‘necessity is the mother of invention - we found this was the case when our backs were against the

wall during the recession.’

“we also find that engaging with big customers at an early stage in new product development breeds a form of ownership, which can be very helpful later, in a competitive process when we’re trying to make a sale.”

For david Judge, managing director of £100m turnover Bury manufacturer Cormar Carpets, innovation means not

just new products, but also working with suppliers to optimise and refine the manufacturing process.

“Necessity is the mother of invention –

matt hirstchief executive, Utiligroup

9INNoVATIoN


Group, the venture capital-backed technology company, which is behind MyParceldelivery, takes a different tack, stating: “Innovation is at the very heart of our business. If we are not innovating we’re not keeping up

with new developments in our sector.”

Technological changes in the gaming sector forced Adam Hodges, former chief executive of PlayNation, and his team to search the world for new machines that users want to play.

“Look at the advances in mobile gaming, in online, what you can do at home with console and surround-sound TV. driving and shooting games used to be 30% of our revenues and it’s now 7% and still declining,” he says.

Hodges and Hirst took their businesses out of the ownership of larger corporates via private equity-backed management buyouts.

Hirst bought Utiligroup out from listed company Bglobal with the backing of NorthEdge Capital, while Hodges was supported by another Manchester investment firm, Palatine, in his acquisition from US-headquarted Inspired Gaming.

Both say this “energised” their teams and has been a huge catalyst for innovation and growth.

Hodges adds: “It (private equity) challenges you and drives you forward. You go from

being starved of investment to being supported and you have to find growth.”

EY director Ben wildsmith agrees that for the management team with a proven business plans and further growth prospects there are a host of options.

“The BVCA (British Venture Capital Association) has highlighted Manchester as having the largest concentration of private equity firms in Europe outside London and this is further proof of the entrepreneurialism and enterprise in this region,” he says.

The lending landscape for entrepreneurs is robust, with abundant choice locally of private equity and venture capital investment, bank debt at attractive terms, and also public markets such as AIM.

Grimes says: “The market is buzzing at the moment – as an entrepreneur you can almost take your pick about who to go with. If you make the right choice you won’t look back, but for me this is more than money, it’s vision and experience too.”

Hodges spoke to around 30 private equity firms when he did his deal, while Hirst saw more than a dozen firms.

Having a good team to support him during the fundraising process was vital to Grimes.

“Being challenged during the process is a good thing,” he adds.

“often when you are sat at the top, you are not challenged and questioned that way. It’s really tough keeping a handle

on the business during it though, and you have to be careful nothing tails off. The team you have behind you is so important.”

Private equity also requires businesses to adopt more rigid business disciplines – not least around sharing data and of course delivering on strategy.

Hodges concludes: “If you are not moving the business forward, as agreed, they will replace you with someone who will, it’s as simple as that.”

Adam hodgesformer chief executive, PlayNation

David Grimesfounder, MPD Group

‘private equity challenges you and drives you forward. You go from being starved of investment to being supported and you have to find growth.’


11➔

“wE BASICALLY pinched other people’s ideas,” admits Pure Gym’s executive chairman Peter Roberts.

As founder stories go, what it lacks in lightning-bolt inspiration it makes up for with its honesty. But it is typical of the matter-of-fact manner in which the serial entrepreneur details his remarkable career.

“I am a not a pioneer,” he says. “You take someone else’s idea and see if you can improve it.”

Roberts had sold his budget hotel group Golden Tulip to whitbread for £44m in September 2007 and found he was “kicking his heels about” when someone asked him if he had “heard about those low-cost gyms”.

He had some experience in the sector, having been chairman of dragons Health Clubs, which was started by the same person who would go on to launch The Gym Group.

Pure Gym is his latest venture which has already resulted in his

original investors exiting with 18 times their money. It simply took the low-cost gym model that was prevalent in the United States, Germany and Scandinavia and placed it into the UK just as the credit crunch was starting to hit consumer spending.

“It confounded me why it hadn’t come to the UK,” he says. “It almost seemed too good to be true. we were right in the heart of the recession and we could offer people really good value.”

Enough money was raised initially to fund four gyms - its first was next to the Corn Exchange in Leeds, while the other three were located near offices in Manchester, on a retail park in wolverhampton, and close to students in Edinburgh.

“we were testing what worked - and all four worked,” he says. “The biggest problem we had is that people thought it must be rubbish. we quickly learned it was all about referral and making an offer.

“They all did extremely well. we made a few mistakes in terms of buildings, but put them right and started rolling it out.”

The original plan was to have 20 gyms,

Peter Roberts – Pure Gym

but six years after launch the chain’s website now boasts 128 gyms with a further 29 opening soon. when it reached 65 gyms, private equity group CCMP bought it in a £118m deal.

“did we go out too early?”, he asks, rhetorically. “You have to leave something in for the next guy.

“The way you go about it is important. There’s no point in screwing someone down to the last penny. You need to do it so they think they have a reasonable deal as well.”

Roberts learned his negotiation skills in his first job as a chartered surveyor, specialising in rural asset management, which included negotiating rents with dales farmers.

“I learned to try and get in other people’s minds - what are they thinking, what do they want?” he says.

despite an entreprenuerial career that started in the 1970s developing a leisure resort in the Lake district - “we were the second indoor leisure centre in the UK, after Gleneagles”, he recalls - before moving on to hugely successful ventures Luminar and Country Style Inns, he does not have the gung-ho attitude that forms part of the stereotype of the serial entrepreneur.

“I have been quite conservative in my investments,” he says. “There have been times when I could have been a bit more adventurous but I have always been conscious of not wanting to lose other people’s money.”

Roberts, who was educated at Charterhouse, grew up surrounded by entrepreneurial spirit in the family. He describes his uncle and father as “great entrepreneurs”, who started Halifax dairies - that, via Associated dairies, became part of Asda - and developed a hotel in London which was sold to Forte.

He believes that being an entrepreneur is not something that can be taught, but has much more to do with instinct and attitude.

He says: “I’m convinced it is in the blood. You have to be really hungry, you have to be prepared to work hard. There are a lot of challenges out there - it’s about energy.”

And he has no concerns about the pipeline of future homegrown entrepreneurs.

“I think there’s a lot more entrepreneurial spirit than people are aware of,” he says. “The UK is quite an entrepreneurial place, the character of the people is just that.”

peter RobertsPure Gym

oNE-To-oNE


12➔

JoELLE warren MBE - she was awarded her MBE in the New Year’s Honours list for services to business - founded executive search firm warren Partners on the principle of delivering “leadership consulting with heart, because people matter”.

A firm believer in the importance of family life and giving back to the local community, she has shown that you can stay true to your values and still succeed in business - today the company has a turnover of £5m and profits of £500,000.

“It is not always a transparent industry when it comes to costs and processes,” says warren. “our approach is to tell the truth and treat people decently, give feedback and do what you say you are going to do, when you say - that

plays out with both candidates and clients and suppliers. I didn’t particularly expect that to be different, but it is.”

The company, which employs 30 staff across its offices in Cheshire, London and Edinburgh, was an early champion

of diversity in the workplace. warren herself was involved in establishing the North west and other regional branches of the Two Percent Club, a network of women leaders from across the country which drives forward the issue of the under-representation of women in boardrooms.

To promote greater gender diversity, warren Partners has adopted a voluntary code of conduct for executive search firms and is one of just eight accredited by the department of Business, Innovation and Skills in the ‘Beyond FTSE350’ category.

warren says: “we are big on diversity. Part of that is about being treated equally – we have a lot of women in the business and men who share that ethos. we always have women on our long lists and shortlists – it is ingrained in our dNA.

“we have a strong belief that a diverse board is a better board.”

The firm has taken on Alastair da Costa, of law firm dLA Piper, as executive chairman from January this year, who before this role had taken a year’s secondment at chief executive of the Princes Trust.

“There are so many things I was to do within the business and to develop further. As the original entrepreneur and major owner I could do with external input – we are taking our own advice and doing it for ourselves,” says warren.

The plan is to have reached a turnover of £6m by 2017, and to have around 40 staff.

“It would put us into the top 20 in the UK for what we do,” says warren, adding: “we will also have a plan for international growth – that is one of the big reasons Alastair has been brought in.”

CASE STUdY Warren Partners keeps people at the heart of the matter

Joelle Warren mBefounder, Warren Partners

http://www.thetwopercentclub.com/

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/enchanced-code-of-conduct-for-executive-search-firms-accreditation-process


ENTREPRENEURSHIP and innovation go hand in hand and it stands to reason that to create an environment where entrepreneurial businesses can thrive, companies need to be empowered to innovate.

The North west is already an innovative region, whose companies benefit from many of the government’s key tax reliefs that encourage innovation, such as patent box. Businesses in the region have close ties with leading northern research universities and are benefitting from various funding streams focused around innovative young companies.

we also have new and existing firms congregating in the region’s enterprise zones and specialist sector hubs, which include offices and workshop

facilities for start-up and growing companies where they can share best practice. Manchester Science Park and daresbury Innovation Centre are two examples.

one of EY’s seven drivers of growth relates to digital, technology and analytics. we believe that information is power. It can help business leaders make better, quicker and smarter decisions that improve business performance and manage risk.

digital technologies – including social media, the cloud, data analytics and mobile – are having a profound impact on businesses across all industries, from retailers and banks through to carmakers and energy companies.

Innovation which leads to rapid growth can also come from within large, established corporates. To foster a culture where ‘intrapreneurs’ can thrive, firms need to set up structures where

employees can pursue their own ideas, ask their employees for ideas, build diverse workforces and prepare for failures – because not all ideas will be a success.

The North west has a raft of innovative business success stories, as showcased by our own Entrepreneur of The Year programme. To boost the economy over the coming years, we need to do even more to create the setting for innovators to succeed.

we can do this by continuing to support and celebrate innovation, lobbying government for even more support for specific high growth sectors in the region and spreading the word about the benefits of intrapreneurship to established corporates, who can use it to step-up their expansion.


Innovation, innovation, innovation

CoMMENT


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“All of a sudden you find you don’t have the right infrastructure in place,” says EY partner and entrepreneurial business specialist Victoria Price.

“Sometimes you don’t have the right expertise. or you find that people expand and then inadvertently trip-up on various compliance issues, particularly in relation to overseas markets, and they don’t have the expertise in house.

“It’s important in the fast-growth stage to not just focus on growing the top line and pleasing the customer, it’s making sure you look at everything. It’s not always easy to do.”

This strikes a chord with Mark Januszewski, founder and chief executive of Salford-based kitchens

worldwide Recruitment Solutions, says

that hiring the right people was crucial

to wRS too, and a dearth of talent meant

he had to find his own solution.

iT IS often difficult for growing companies to keep up to speed at every turn with customers, products, funding and finance.

Ensuring the right team is in place; accessing the right support from advisers or non-executive directors; ensuring adequate infrastructure and systems are in place to cope with rising demand are all important considerations for fast growing businesses.

The challenges of rapid growth

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‘sometimes you have to put a brake on growth if you don’t have the infrastructure or the team and

management in place.’

and homewares business designer Habitat. He says: “Sometimes you have to put a brake on growth if you don’t have the infrastructure or the team and management in place. You almost grieve though if you are unable to take an opportunity.”

He says designer Habitat’s biggest challenge is recruiting people, and

“trying to get the infrastructure right ahead of growth”.

Mark Brown, co-founder and director of south Manchester-based recruiter

mark Januszewskifounder, chief executive, Designer Habitat

15EXPANSIoN


“we recognised we were never going to be able to bring in experienced people because there wasn’t that pool of talent that we needed to grow to a critical mass.

“So we went into the graduate market looking for people with the right attitude and hunger and built a training programme around them.”

designer Habitat is also curating its own talent. Januszewsk says: “Yes you need a

certain base level of skills, but you can’t teach attitude, and how to be hungry for business.”

Ian Kelly, who built-up and sold green energy group Matrix and is now a non-executive director of a number of growing businesses, says recruitment is one challenge, but monitoring performance of newcomers should not be forgotten.

“one thing I am massively keen on is bringing in an RoI tracker on people to measure their contribution each month.

“what happens in fast growth, and I

have seen it loads of times, is your top line is flying away and it’s hiding the fact that you have got underperforming people in your business, and guess what? once it starts flattening out you realise that Billy-Bob’s done nothing.”

Kelly, who also chaired the EY Northern Entrepreneur of The Year judging panel, says one fundamental thing should not be forgotten: “It’s absolutely critical for me when you are in growth phase that you don’t screw-up your service to existing customers. The last thing you want is them feeling unloved, so over-invest in your sales team.”

ian kellyfounder, Matrix

16➔

JoHN Hayward is a man who happily wears many titles - among them, chief executive of Pressure Technologies, a deputy lieutenant of South Yorkshire, Methodist lay preacher and squadron colonel of 64 Signal Squadron - but there is one that doesn’t sit particularly comfortably with him.

“There are many more people around who deserve the title ‘entrepreneur’ more than I do because when I look at them and the progress they have

made, I see myself in the slow lane,” he says.

It is a very modest assessment from a man who in 2004 led a management buyout of a £4m-turnover division of a failing engineering firm which, just 10 years later, announced to the stock market pre-tax profit figures greater than that turnover. Last year its sales passed £54m, and the business continues to grow, driven by both organic growth and acquisitions.

His career, however, got off to an unlikely start for an entrepreneur, entering the army after graduating from oxford University with a physics degree.

“I had some fantastic management training in the army,” he said. “It didn’t end up being the career I wanted it to be but I wouldn’t knock the experience.

“I had never met a poor accountant or lawyer so I had a think about what I wanted to do. Because I had a

John Hayward – Pressure Technologies

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oNE-To-oNE

John haywardchief executive, Pressure Technologies


physics degree I quite liked messing around with numbers, so I chose accounting.”

After stints at Boots and Courtaulds, family brought him north, where he joined Turner & Newall before being headhunted to join United Engineering Forgings (UEF) which is when, he recalls, “things really started to happen”.

But his earlier experiences were formative. At Boots he worked in the IT department as an analyst programmer and learned how to stitch systems together. At Courtaulds, he had it drilled into him the importance of being on top of the numbers and got involved in hedging. At T&N he saw the value of being embedded in the supply chain.

This steady accumulation of experience, allied to the knowledge his degree gave him which allowed him to be comfortable holding his own with engineers, laid the platform for the 35-year-old new finance director of UEF’s cylinder division to make an impact.

“It’s building experience on experience,” he says. “I started to build up a formidable toolkit. Lots of people do that but the difference between them and me is I am very good at spotting opportunities.”

In 2001, four years after he joined, a German company bought UEF but he felt “they weren’t interested in my division”. He soon began making plans that would, two years later, result in him leading a management buyout (MBo).

Hayward says: “whilst I was probably good at spotting opportunities I didn’t have the experience. Everything came together at the time we were ready to buy the business.

“I could see a clear path. I had seen so many people make a mess of the business I thought me and my management team could do a much better job.”

The business, Chesterfield Special Cylinders, soon moved to Sheffield and later became Pressure Technologies, a group specialising in controlling high pressure in safety-critical systems in the oil and gas and defence industries.

The MBo had been backed by Yorkshire Fund Managers, which had a 40% stake, but as the company’s turnover raced past £10m, Hayward and his team began preparing for its next phase.

He says: “we could have gone for a trade sale but that’s only lifting up your skirt and showing everyone what you have got.

“we could have looked for a private equity buyer or a high net worth individual but they would have called the shots.”

Instead the company floated on the Alternative Investment Market in June 2007, valued at £17m and raising £6m to fund working capital and the expansion of the cylinder business.

A personal award followed in 2008, the EY Entrepreneur of The Year for manufacturing, and revenues continued to rise, passing £20m, despite the impact on the oil and gas sector of the global economic crisis and the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

Pressure Technologies then went looking for its first acquisition.

“our strategy is quite clear - niche businesses, we don’t do turnarounds, we are generally looking at things that can instantly add value to the group,” he says.

In 2010 it formed its engineering products division through the purchases of Al-Met and Hydratron. It followed that with another set of acquisitions in 2014, of Roota Engineering, Greenlane and Quadscot.

“As long as you stick to what you know, you stand a good chance of being successful,” says Hayward, as he

sketches out a 2x2 matrix of markets and products showing the benefit of either moving into a new market with an existing product, or introducing a new product into an existing market.

Crucially he avoids the area that was memorably described to him as “the wally box”, which would involve putting a new product into a new market.

“we are looking at things related to pressure,” he says simply.

Hayward, now 54, is happy to see what the future brings, saying he has no unfulfilled ambitions - “apart from playing golf regularly” - and reckons he still retains “as much energy and drive as when I was 24”, which is probably for the best as his wife has banned him from retiring.

For now the reticent entrepreneur is happy to keep his eyes open for the future opportunities for the group, while he remains excited by the “sheer breadth” of activity going on.

He says: “we had a strategy meeting last week and there is just so much going off in the group and the amount of progress our businesses make, the development work is still going on.

“The thing that gets me up is we have so much going off.”


18➔

BooTLE-BASEd Abbey Logistics is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with a record turnover of £45m.

The company, which employs 480 staff and has 300 trucks across nine UK bases, has ambitious growth plans for the next five year – with moves in to new sectors and European territories planned.

Steve Granite has been with the company since 1995 and took over as managing director in 2009.

He says: “when I first took over I spent the first six months going around the customer base and asking what would help customers if we were to diversify. Until 2009 the company had just focussed on bulk liquid transport in the UK. The plan was to diversify

away from being a specialist tanker firm to being a logistics provider.”

Granite set a five year plan in 2010 to double the size of the business, with the aim of offering extra services to its existing customer base.

He says: “we made two acquisitions to buy in expertise in other areas in 2010 and 2011 - by buying smaller companies we grew rapidly and we achieved the five year plan in four years.”

In June 2014 Abbey Logistics also bought the assets of bulk powder transport business Seafield Logistics out of administration.

Its latest five year plan was set in 2015 when turnover reached £35m – to grow the business to £70m by 2020. It has secured bank funding to fund the company’s ambitious growth plans over the next few years.

“we are at £45m now,” says Granite. “we are working on two strategies – one to look at acquisitions in northern Europe where we do a lot of transport to and from.

“we’d buy smaller businesses in that market to grow and put our stamp on. That would offer one of our four services in Europe outside the UK and then we’d build on that from there.”

Abbey is also looking at expansion into the vehicle market in the UK, while it entered the warehousing market for the first time last year – taking space in Bromborough, Merseyside and on Jan 1

it doubled the size of the space available.

“The challenge when going into a new area is having that lack of knowledge so when we go into a new area, we get the people first, from a competitor. we build expertise and then the operation behind that,” explains Granite.

CASE STUdY Abbey Logistics targets acquisitions for growth

steve Granitemanaging director, Abbey Logistics


oNCE an entrepreneur has achieved early expansion and scaled up their company, the overriding challenge is to maintain that growth as the business becomes larger and more complex.

Expansion can put a strain on businesses’ cash flow, recruitment, infrastructure and leadership, and it is vital that companies prepare for growth to ensure they can grasp market opportunities to meet their ambitions. Failure to do so can at best mean firms never quite match their potential – but at worst can threaten their survival.

As in the early stages, networking with likeminded entrepreneurs and sharing best practice remains vital, as well as being prepared to invest back into the company to ensure operations match a company’s order book and customer needs. However, other considerations come into play.

EY developed its seven drivers of growth, drawing on evidence from our Entrepreneur of The Year programme alumni, to help established companies achieve

their long-term expansion strategies.

one of EY’s seven drivers of growth relates to transactions and alliances. Market-leading companies rarely evolve by organic growth alone. To rise to the top, they seek successful partnerships and strategic acquisitions capable of enhancing their growth, competitiveness and profitability.

Leading businesses, while quick to grasp the value of transactions and alliances in today’s dynamic markets, also appreciate that landing the right deal is not about luck. They make a concerted effort to remain alert, to build profile in their markets and to ensure that they’re well positioned to seize an opportunity as soon as it arises.

while this is simple in concept, the journey can be difficult. There are many pressures that affect the ability of a business to achieve its goals. Having a plan – aligned with your strategy – to address known issues proactively and react to future pressures will increase your ability to achieve success, which can dramatically improve expansion and help to drive long-term, sustainable growth.


Focusing on the long-term growth strategy

CoMMENT


Who inspires you?We asked some of the region’s top entrepreneurs to highlight which north West businesses they admire and why.

David Grimes, founder of technology firm MPD Group

For him, Ao world, the Bolton-based online retailer, really stands out.

“Their approach to technology, shipping and putting the customer first, really impresses me”, he says.

Adam hodges, former chief executive of PlayNation

His pick was Living Ventures, the entrepreneurial Cheshire restaurant and bar operator.

“I knew their venues, but as a result of our investment with Palatine I got to know the people, Tim Bacon and Jeremy Roberts. For me the way they innovate, create brands and evolve their business is exceptional. Their approach to training and people development is first class too,” he says.

matt hirst, chief executive of Utiligroup

He is drawn to “disruptive technology-led success stories”, such as the recently floated online holidays business on The Beach.

Vince Ferguson, chairman of Inciner8

Stobart is his pick. He says: “I love the way the business has evolved from a Carlisle haulier to being a national name, with interests in property, biomass and airports.”

David Judge, managing director of Cormar Carpets

Unsurprisingly, given Cormar’s status as a family firm, his choice is Bolton-based warburtons, the baking giant, due to its growth, longevity, values and innovation.

Documents

ENTREPRENEURSHIP - Amazon Web Servicesbusinessdesk.s3.amazonaws.com/_files/documents/mar... · ENTREPRENEURSHIP From take-off to ... early stages. 4 ... decisions at an early stage