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BACK FROM BURNOUT

Businesswoman’s mission tosave others from struggles – p3

052014NOV

TUNNEL VISION

How robotics firm is extendingits global reach – page 4

PROPERTY MATTERS

Can sector adapt to Bristol’sgrowing tech scene? – p8&9

How this team of industry specialists has helped bring morethan 1,000 new jobs to the West of England

THE JOBSEEKERSINWARD INVESTMENT SPECIAL

– Pages 6&7

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S32 We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 3We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

� From left, Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich, tennis champion Venus Williams – one of the judges, and Sammy Payne and Joel Gibbard from Bristol firmOpen Bionics at Intel’s ‘Make It Wearable’ competition in San Francisco, California Picture: Paul Sakuma Photography

Holiday pay N etwo r k i n g

EU ruling couldprove costlyfor UK firms� A LANDMARK legal ruling onholiday pay could leave businessacross Bristol counting the cost.

The Employment AppealsTribunal ruled firms have beenwrongly interpreting Europeanrules and that overtime should beincluded in holiday pay.

It means employers mustinclude the overtime pay staffwould have earned whencalculating holiday pay.

The ruling could also haveimplications on firms who paybonuses and commission.

John Cridland, CBIdirector-general, described it as a“real blow” to businesses whichnow face “the prospect of punitivecosts potentially running intobillions of pounds – and not all willsurvive, which could meansignificant job losses”.

He added: “These cases arecreating major uncertainty forbusinesses and impacting oninvestment and resourcingdecisions.”

Jonathan Rennie, employmentpartner at Bristol headquarteredlaw firm TLT, agreed the decisionwould lead to higher wage bills.

But he added: “The anticipatedretrospective claims going backnumbers of years may very wellbe more limited.”

Jonathan said the “tension” wasbetween UK and EU law and howUK regulations interpret the EUWorking Time Directive.

He said: “The European courtshave consistently emphasised theneed for normal remuneration tobe maintained during periods ofannual leave. So the decision isnot a surprise.

“The interesting part of thejudgment is that claims must bebrought within three months ofthe last pay deduction.”

He added that EU rulesstipulate four weeks of paidholiday so the ruling would onlyapply to four weeks, not five asmany firms offer.

The case was brought by tradesunion Unite against Amec andHertel for work carried out on apower station in Nottinghamshire.

Unite executive director forlegal, membership and affiliatedservices Howard Beckett said:“Until now some workers who arerequired to do overtime have beenpenalised for taking the time offthey are entitled to.”

Te c h n o l o g y

‘Amazing’ Bionic hands creatorsland £125k in global competition

A COMPANY with the ambi-tion to make affordable robothands for amputees is$200,000 (£125,000) closer tothat goal after finishing run-

ner-up in a global competition forwearable technology.

Joel Gibbard founded Open Bionicsat the Bristol Robotics Lab at UWE’sFrenchay campus and has since beenjoined by community managerSammy Payne.

The pair flew out to San Franciscofor the finals of Intel’s Make It Wear-

able contest, to pitch against nineother finalists hailing from China,Europe, Latin America and theUnited States.

They put their case to a judgingpanel which included tennis cham-pion and fashion designer Venus Wil-liams, Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly,Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and lead-ing lights from Louis Vuitton, Nikeand more.

The top prize of $500,000 was wonby American firm Nixie for the firstwearable camera that can fly.

But second place was an amazingachievement and 24-year-old Joel toldthe Po s t they had come away with farmore than a big cheque.

He said: “Over the last couple ofmonths we’ve had an intense course

of business coaching from world lead-ing experts.

“We ’ve learnt how to approach ourbusiness and our product from thepoint of view of the customer, so we’llbe creating hands that are far bettersuited to amputees. The key piece ofadvice has been to talk to as manycustomers as possible.

“This money is going to make sucha huge difference to our project. Itbrings the end into sight as we canafford to complete the rest of thedevelopment process.”

Sammy added: “This has been anincredible experience. It feels amaz-ing to be at the forefront of wearabletechnolog y.

“It was also particularly inspiringbecause there were only five women

in the whole competition and the twoteams that placed first and secondwere the teams with women pitch-ing.

“We ’re looking forward to the fu-ture and getting bionic hands to chil-dren who need them.”

It has been a heady few weeks forOpen Bionics. Joel was named YoungDesign Engineer of the Year at TheBritish Engineering ExcellenceAwards last month and Founder ofthe Year in the SPARKies Bristol andBath tech awards.

Last week the Post reported how hehad created a hand for DannyMelville, from Reading, who had beenborn without one. Joel got to ex-perience shaking the robot hand hehad designed with Danny.

‘Love Lending’ highlights firm’s crucial roleF i n a n ce

Re fo c u se d Burnoutled to new careersupporting womenGavin Thompson

Assistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Bottle Yard

Studios on the perfect wavelengthAN EMMY-award winning music andsound design company has opened aBristol base as the city turns up thedial on its film and TV industry.

Radium Audio is the latest businessto move to the Bottle Yard studios inHengrove, where a cluster of spe-cialist companies is beginning tospring up lured by the growing num-ber of productions filmed there.

The move is the first venture out-side the capital for the creative audiocompany, which has its head office inSouth East London. It brings thenumber of business tenants operat-ing from the former bottling plant to ado zen.

The firm was founded in 2007 byAndrew Diey and has since picked up

gongs including an Emmy, CannesLions and International Music andSound Awards.

Its work includes some originalmusic composition, sound designprojects and sound brand work forcorporate clients.

Commercial director Robyn Taylorsaid: “We needed to increase our pro-duction capacity, and struggled tofind the ideal space for expansion inLondon.

“We design and build our own in-struments and create much of oursound source in-house, so we need tobe able to make some noise and a bitof a mess sometimes too!

“The Bottle Yard presented a veryviable option for us for a number of

reasons, Bristol’s close proximity toLondon makes it logistically easier tomanage the two locations comparedto somewhere further afield, the areahas a vibrant creative communitywith a great local talent base we candraw upon, and the Bottle Yard’smanagement has offered excellentsupport throughout our design,fit-out, and setup process.”

The firm is filling 3,600 square feetof space including several electronicproduction studios, a live studio,sound creation lab and editings u i t e s.

It has created four jobs with themove and hopes more will follow.

Fiona Francombe, site director ofThe Bottle Yard Studios, said she was

delighted to welcome the firm.“The calibre of their cutting-edge

audio work is of the highest possiblestandard, pushing boundaries andwinning critical acclaim internation-a l ly, ” she said.

“We ’re proud to have played a partin attracting them here to Bristol, a

city with an already outstandingreputation for audio post productions e r v i c e s.

“This is the third new tenant tosign with The Bottle Yard Studiossince the summer and it’s fantastic tosee the profile of our production hubdevelop with each new addition.”

AFTER more than a decade pursuinga successful career in broadcast pro-duction and event management,Amanda Kerin hit the wall. She ex-perienced an unexpected and debil-

itating period of what she calls “bur nout” in2012.

Now she is using her experience to en-courage ambitious women in business tonurture more than just their careers.

Through her recovery she developed theconcept for a series of events designed tosupport women in a new way of working andthinking.

She said: “Businesswomen today have solittle ‘switch off ’ time. In this digital world ithas become the norm to be permanently oncall in high pressure roles.

“If we find it tough, there’s a tendency tothink it must be our own fault, ignore it andjust keep on going.

“It’s easy to fall into the trap of blindlychasing career goals without staying true toyour own personal aspirations, but by doingso you risk jeopardising your emotional andphysical wellbeing.

“I learnt the hard way, and I want toprevent women from making the same mis-takes as I did. Inspiring Women Live! isdesigned to help women realise their ownneeds for work/life balance, giving them thecourage to say ‘no’, whilst still supportingthem to be successful.”

The event invites working women fromevery field of business to meet every twomonths, to network and hear from two speak-ers who share their personal and profes-sional journeys to success.

The focus is on sharing and learning in an

ego-free environment, the events encouragewomen to regularly refocus career goals, andwarns against the dangers of sacrificingpersonal development.

It launched in May this year, regularlyattracting around 50 people and in 2015,Amanda is looking to roll out an idea oforganising bespoke retreats, in particular forstaff teams whose employers are looking todevelop the professional and personal well-being of their workforce.

She said: “We ’ve received such a fantasticresponse in our first six months that we’realready developing the next stage of thebusiness, exploring what our approach can

Amanda Kerin

“ I learnt the hard way, and Iwant to prevent women frommaking the same mistakes as Idid. Inspiring Women Live! isdesigned to help womenrealise their own needs forwork/life balance

offer professionals around the country, aswell as employers looking to ensure theyhave a healthy and happy workforce that willbe most productive, with reduced risk ofcosts to cover stress related sick leave.”

The next Inspiring Women Live! eventtakes place on Thursday, November 13, at thePavillion, Hanover Quay. It features guestspeakers Bray Leino’s learning directorStephanie Morgan, discussing how womenshould pursue board appointments, andKaren Lowe, image consultant and personalstylist, talking about how the clothes we wearcan have a positive or negative impact onhow we feel about ourselves.

A BRISTOL investment firm has provided£25 million of funding to businessesacross the South West.

Clifton Asset Management, basedin Ham Green, has helped fund 43companies in the city themselves,which collectively employ 409people and turn over £36 million.

The firm was sharing the newsto coincide with Love LendingWeek, organised by the NationalAssociation of Commercial FinanceB ro ke r s.

Clifton chairman Adam Tavener, pic-t u re d , said: “We have been very active with anumber of initiatives to promote alternativeways of funding small businesses at a local,regional and national level.”

“This campaign will once again shine alight on how a collaborative culture

between corporate finance brokersand lenders can ensure the right

funding solution for the businessow n e r. ”

Clifton has provided fundingto 150 South West based busi-nesses over the past eight years,such as Bristol-based Upstream

Procurement Solutions, whoseowner, Martin Niblett wanted to

expand the company’s consultancyarm by buying an existing procurement

business, Merlin Tools and Fixings, andturned to pension-led funding for help.

Martin received £23,000 through a pensionl o a n - b a ck .

� Amanda Kerin

� RadiumAudio’sFounderA n d re wDieyre c o rd i n gclocksounds forproject inthe studio

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2 We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 3We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

� From left, Intel chief executive Brian Krzanich, tennis champion Venus Williams – one of the judges, and Sammy Payne and Joel Gibbard from Bristol firmOpen Bionics at Intel’s ‘Make It Wearable’ competition in San Francisco, California Picture: Paul Sakuma Photography

Holiday pay N etwo r k i n g

EU ruling couldprove costlyfor UK firms� A LANDMARK legal ruling onholiday pay could leave businessacross Bristol counting the cost.

The Employment AppealsTribunal ruled firms have beenwrongly interpreting Europeanrules and that overtime should beincluded in holiday pay.

It means employers mustinclude the overtime pay staffwould have earned whencalculating holiday pay.

The ruling could also haveimplications on firms who paybonuses and commission.

John Cridland, CBIdirector-general, described it as a“real blow” to businesses whichnow face “the prospect of punitivecosts potentially running intobillions of pounds – and not all willsurvive, which could meansignificant job losses”.

He added: “These cases arecreating major uncertainty forbusinesses and impacting oninvestment and resourcingdecisions.”

Jonathan Rennie, employmentpartner at Bristol headquarteredlaw firm TLT, agreed the decisionwould lead to higher wage bills.

But he added: “The anticipatedretrospective claims going backnumbers of years may very wellbe more limited.”

Jonathan said the “tension” wasbetween UK and EU law and howUK regulations interpret the EUWorking Time Directive.

He said: “The European courtshave consistently emphasised theneed for normal remuneration tobe maintained during periods ofannual leave. So the decision isnot a surprise.

“The interesting part of thejudgment is that claims must bebrought within three months ofthe last pay deduction.”

He added that EU rulesstipulate four weeks of paidholiday so the ruling would onlyapply to four weeks, not five asmany firms offer.

The case was brought by tradesunion Unite against Amec andHertel for work carried out on apower station in Nottinghamshire.

Unite executive director forlegal, membership and affiliatedservices Howard Beckett said:“Until now some workers who arerequired to do overtime have beenpenalised for taking the time offthey are entitled to.”

Te c h n o l o g y

‘Amazing’ Bionic hands creatorsland £125k in global competition

A COMPANY with the ambi-tion to make affordable robothands for amputees is$200,000 (£125,000) closer tothat goal after finishing run-

ner-up in a global competition forwearable technology.

Joel Gibbard founded Open Bionicsat the Bristol Robotics Lab at UWE’sFrenchay campus and has since beenjoined by community managerSammy Payne.

The pair flew out to San Franciscofor the finals of Intel’s Make It Wear-

able contest, to pitch against nineother finalists hailing from China,Europe, Latin America and theUnited States.

They put their case to a judgingpanel which included tennis cham-pion and fashion designer Venus Wil-liams, Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly,Intel CEO Brian Krzanich and lead-ing lights from Louis Vuitton, Nikeand more.

The top prize of $500,000 was wonby American firm Nixie for the firstwearable camera that can fly.

But second place was an amazingachievement and 24-year-old Joel toldthe Po s t they had come away with farmore than a big cheque.

He said: “Over the last couple ofmonths we’ve had an intense course

of business coaching from world lead-ing experts.

“We ’ve learnt how to approach ourbusiness and our product from thepoint of view of the customer, so we’llbe creating hands that are far bettersuited to amputees. The key piece ofadvice has been to talk to as manycustomers as possible.

“This money is going to make sucha huge difference to our project. Itbrings the end into sight as we canafford to complete the rest of thedevelopment process.”

Sammy added: “This has been anincredible experience. It feels amaz-ing to be at the forefront of wearabletechnolog y.

“It was also particularly inspiringbecause there were only five women

in the whole competition and the twoteams that placed first and secondwere the teams with women pitch-ing.

“We ’re looking forward to the fu-ture and getting bionic hands to chil-dren who need them.”

It has been a heady few weeks forOpen Bionics. Joel was named YoungDesign Engineer of the Year at TheBritish Engineering ExcellenceAwards last month and Founder ofthe Year in the SPARKies Bristol andBath tech awards.

Last week the Post reported how hehad created a hand for DannyMelville, from Reading, who had beenborn without one. Joel got to ex-perience shaking the robot hand hehad designed with Danny.

‘Love Lending’ highlights firm’s crucial roleF i n a n ce

Re fo c u se d Burnoutled to new careersupporting womenGavin Thompson

Assistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Bottle Yard

Studios on the perfect wavelengthAN EMMY-award winning music andsound design company has opened aBristol base as the city turns up thedial on its film and TV industry.

Radium Audio is the latest businessto move to the Bottle Yard studios inHengrove, where a cluster of spe-cialist companies is beginning tospring up lured by the growing num-ber of productions filmed there.

The move is the first venture out-side the capital for the creative audiocompany, which has its head office inSouth East London. It brings thenumber of business tenants operat-ing from the former bottling plant to ado zen.

The firm was founded in 2007 byAndrew Diey and has since picked up

gongs including an Emmy, CannesLions and International Music andSound Awards.

Its work includes some originalmusic composition, sound designprojects and sound brand work forcorporate clients.

Commercial director Robyn Taylorsaid: “We needed to increase our pro-duction capacity, and struggled tofind the ideal space for expansion inLondon.

“We design and build our own in-struments and create much of oursound source in-house, so we need tobe able to make some noise and a bitof a mess sometimes too!

“The Bottle Yard presented a veryviable option for us for a number of

reasons, Bristol’s close proximity toLondon makes it logistically easier tomanage the two locations comparedto somewhere further afield, the areahas a vibrant creative communitywith a great local talent base we candraw upon, and the Bottle Yard’smanagement has offered excellentsupport throughout our design,fit-out, and setup process.”

The firm is filling 3,600 square feetof space including several electronicproduction studios, a live studio,sound creation lab and editings u i t e s.

It has created four jobs with themove and hopes more will follow.

Fiona Francombe, site director ofThe Bottle Yard Studios, said she was

delighted to welcome the firm.“The calibre of their cutting-edge

audio work is of the highest possiblestandard, pushing boundaries andwinning critical acclaim internation-a l ly, ” she said.

“We ’re proud to have played a partin attracting them here to Bristol, a

city with an already outstandingreputation for audio post productions e r v i c e s.

“This is the third new tenant tosign with The Bottle Yard Studiossince the summer and it’s fantastic tosee the profile of our production hubdevelop with each new addition.”

AFTER more than a decade pursuinga successful career in broadcast pro-duction and event management,Amanda Kerin hit the wall. She ex-perienced an unexpected and debil-

itating period of what she calls “bur nout” in2012.

Now she is using her experience to en-courage ambitious women in business tonurture more than just their careers.

Through her recovery she developed theconcept for a series of events designed tosupport women in a new way of working andthinking.

She said: “Businesswomen today have solittle ‘switch off ’ time. In this digital world ithas become the norm to be permanently oncall in high pressure roles.

“If we find it tough, there’s a tendency tothink it must be our own fault, ignore it andjust keep on going.

“It’s easy to fall into the trap of blindlychasing career goals without staying true toyour own personal aspirations, but by doingso you risk jeopardising your emotional andphysical wellbeing.

“I learnt the hard way, and I want toprevent women from making the same mis-takes as I did. Inspiring Women Live! isdesigned to help women realise their ownneeds for work/life balance, giving them thecourage to say ‘no’, whilst still supportingthem to be successful.”

The event invites working women fromevery field of business to meet every twomonths, to network and hear from two speak-ers who share their personal and profes-sional journeys to success.

The focus is on sharing and learning in an

ego-free environment, the events encouragewomen to regularly refocus career goals, andwarns against the dangers of sacrificingpersonal development.

It launched in May this year, regularlyattracting around 50 people and in 2015,Amanda is looking to roll out an idea oforganising bespoke retreats, in particular forstaff teams whose employers are looking todevelop the professional and personal well-being of their workforce.

She said: “We ’ve received such a fantasticresponse in our first six months that we’realready developing the next stage of thebusiness, exploring what our approach can

Amanda Kerin

“ I learnt the hard way, and Iwant to prevent women frommaking the same mistakes as Idid. Inspiring Women Live! isdesigned to help womenrealise their own needs forwork/life balance

offer professionals around the country, aswell as employers looking to ensure theyhave a healthy and happy workforce that willbe most productive, with reduced risk ofcosts to cover stress related sick leave.”

The next Inspiring Women Live! eventtakes place on Thursday, November 13, at thePavillion, Hanover Quay. It features guestspeakers Bray Leino’s learning directorStephanie Morgan, discussing how womenshould pursue board appointments, andKaren Lowe, image consultant and personalstylist, talking about how the clothes we wearcan have a positive or negative impact onhow we feel about ourselves.

A BRISTOL investment firm has provided£25 million of funding to businessesacross the South West.

Clifton Asset Management, basedin Ham Green, has helped fund 43companies in the city themselves,which collectively employ 409people and turn over £36 million.

The firm was sharing the newsto coincide with Love LendingWeek, organised by the NationalAssociation of Commercial FinanceB ro ke r s.

Clifton chairman Adam Tavener, pic-t u re d , said: “We have been very active with anumber of initiatives to promote alternativeways of funding small businesses at a local,regional and national level.”

“This campaign will once again shine alight on how a collaborative culture

between corporate finance brokersand lenders can ensure the right

funding solution for the businessow n e r. ”

Clifton has provided fundingto 150 South West based busi-nesses over the past eight years,such as Bristol-based Upstream

Procurement Solutions, whoseowner, Martin Niblett wanted to

expand the company’s consultancyarm by buying an existing procurement

business, Merlin Tools and Fixings, andturned to pension-led funding for help.

Martin received £23,000 through a pensionl o a n - b a ck .

� Amanda Kerin

� RadiumAudio’sFounderA n d re wDieyre c o rd i n gclocksounds forproject inthe studio

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S34 We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 5We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

A BRISTOL company has in-vented a robot which is play-ing a vital role in digging agiant undersea tunnel inHong Kong.

OC Robotics designed a snake armrobot to clean the giant bores used todrill undersea tunnels.

It was first used on a project inMiami for a road link to the port. NowFrench firm Bouygues Constructionhas hired its services again for atunnel section of a venture to linkHong Kong and mainland China.

“Boring machines find rock quiteeasy but they have difficulties gettingthrough sand and soil as they cloggthem up,” said OC’s technical dir-ector Andrew Graham.

Previously trained divers who areused to working in high-pressure en-vironments cleaned the heads. But itis dangerous work in a difficult set-ting.

Andrew said: “We developed a ma-chine to do that cleaning and in-specting job more safely.”

The company was founded by And-rew and then business partner RobBuckingham in 1997.

But the idea of the snake arm hadcome to them years before when thepair were at Bristol University.

They published a theoretical paperon how a robot arm could be con-trolled, even though one did not existat the time.

It was only years after they foundedtheir company that they actually de-veloped the technology when theMinistry of Defence approachedthem to discuss safer bomb disposal.

“The project didn’t come tofr uition,” said Andrew.

“But there were so many potentialapplications for this once we had thetechnolog y.”

The first snake arm was built onthe fifth floor of an office in BroadQuay House in the city centre.

“We had a few problems getting itout in the lift!” said Andrew.

The firm has since moved to moresuitable accommodation close to theMoD Abbey Wood base.

The technology is also used in thenuclear industry, as many olderplants weren’t built with muchthought to maintenance and decom-missioning.

The snake arm robots allow tech-nicians to see round corners or carryout tasks where it would not be safefor people to be.

Business Secretary Vince Cablewas given a first-hand demonstration

of the snake arm on a visit to thefir m’s Filton operation.

Afterwards, he told the Po s t : “T hisis world-leading technology, develop-ing a specialist arm of robotics work-ing in decommissioning nuclearpower among other things.

“It brings home the strength thatwe have in the UK in terms of ad-vanced manufacturing and entre-preneurs. We just need an awful lot

Snake robot playing keyrole in Hong Kong tunnel

First steps Digital agencyputs word on the street

A DIGITAL recruitment com-pany has been employingsome good old-fashionedshoe leather to get the mes-sage out to potential candid-

at e s.Talent Blok is one of the businesses

to come out of the WebStart Bristolstart-up incubator based at the En-gine Shed.

Chief executive Rebecca Wasley, 22,and technical director Christof Con-stantinou, 31, believe the companymeets a need in the recruitment mar-ket by allowing candidates to show offportfolios of their work.

But while the business is digital,the team are prepared to use all roadsto get their message out.

Rebecca said: “We have been toseveral job centres to speak to peoplecoming out and talk to them aboutwhat we are doing. They thought itwas a really good place to find jobsand had never seen anything like itb e fo re.

“We ’ve been around Broadmeadand Cabot Circus and to UWE to talkto students as there are internshipsand graduate jobs on the site.

“And we have been using socialmedia and blogging, anything we canto get the word out.”

The pair are using desk space at theEngine Shed but hope to expand andget their own office within threem o n t h s.

During their stint with WebStart,where they received a small start-upinvestment as well as mentoring andtechnical support, they developedtheir first version of website.

Things have taken off faster thanRebecca expected, with more than3,000 jobs advertised so far.

“We had more than 1,000 newsign-ups in the first month,” she said.“That far exceeded expectations. Wethought we’d get 50-100; more than10,000 UVs in the first month too.”

Since then the focus has been ondeveloping the technology and get-ting feedback to make the site work aswell as possible.

The firm has been working with anumber of Bristol recruitment agen-

cies, advertising their jobs initiallyfor free in order to use their feedbackto develop the site and is willing to dothe same for companies too. They canintegrate with company websites tooand mange the ads for them.

“We have a good pool of candidatesalready so we are in a good position tooffer a service to companies andagencies who need to recruit.”

The site’s point of difference is thatrather than just advertising jobs ordisplaying CVs, it allows people tobuild a strong portfolio showing off

THE main political parties are back-ing more local control of how busi-ness rates are spent.

The Bristol Post is campaigning forwholesale reform ofbusiness rates, withlocal control over howthe tax is spent one ofthree main goals.

Last week Labour un-veiled a policy to enablelocal authorities, whichcollect business rates, tokeep all of the moneyrather than send it toLondon. And now Con-servative Cities Minister Greg Clarkhas told the Po s t that greater localcontrol is “very much the direction oft r ave l ”.

Mr Clark pointed to the recentGrowth Deal which saw more than£200 million of funds devolvedthrough the West of England Part-

nership and the CoalitionGover nment’s recentmove to allow councils toretain up to half of busi-ness rates.

“It is very much thedirection in which we aretravelling at pace,” hesaid. “We want to go fur-ther but there are checksand balances which needto be there and there are

still national services to pay for.”Both parties are looking for re-

gions, rather than just local councils,to show they can be trusted to spend

the money for the greater good.Labour would pass an English De-

volution Act, transferring control of£30 billion of funding to England’scities and counties.

Councils that come together as acombined authority would be able totap into the pot of Whitehall cash topromote the economy of the city andwider region. In return for devolvingbusiness rates to the new statutoryauthorities, city and country regionswould need to work together to de-liver agreed key infrastructure in-vestments to drive regional growth.

Labour said excessive centralisa-tion was holding back cities and re-gions, with 95 per cent of all taxes –including income tax, stamp duty,land tax as well as business rates –

Parties united on need to devolve rates spending

Depot build companyreceives skills award� A PROJECT that includes thebuilding of a depot in StokeGifford that will service new trainson the Great Western Line hasbeen awarded National SkillsAcademy status.

The status, delivered by theConstruction Industry TrainingBoard, was conferred onVolkerFitzpatrick because of thecompany’s commitment tomaximise skills and employmentopportunities on the project.

The firm was chosen to designand build four depots for newtrains that will run on the line onceit has been electrified.

Paul Lilley, contracts manager,said he was proud to be headingup the scheme.

“It is regularly reported back tomy colleagues and I that the clientand the staff employed on theseprojects are getting as muchbenefit as the apprentices andwork experience placements,” hesaid.

“Everybody has embraced theprinciples of the Skills Academyand I look forward to spreadingthe success and the valuesestablished, throughout all ourfuture projects.”

Finances our mainfear, say start-ups� ENTREPRENEURS believe thataccess to finance is the biggestissue to setting up a company, anEY survey has found.

Fifty-eight per cent ofrespondents cited funding as akey hurdle to launching abusiness, followed by uncertaintyof income (48 per cent) and fear offailure (45 per cent). In contrast,only five per cent of respondentsthought that bad marketconditions could hold backentrepreneurs, while just 13 percent cited lack of skills as a barrierto starting a business.

David Wilkinson, partner at EYin Bristol, said: “Matching fundingto business growth plans remainsa key area of concern forambitious entrepreneurs, not leastas rapid growth tends to absorbcash. Business leaders thatdevelop controls over cash andcash forecasting as they grow areable to plan early for fundraisingand are more likely to attractinvestors.”

Wine merchant theoldest city business� AVERYS wine merchants is theoldest business in Bristol,according to a new study.

The firm was established in1793, although its real success issaid to have come in the 1920swhen Ronald Avery was at thehelm. While other UK winemerchants bought wines fromagents, he travelled to wineestates to taste the wines with themakers. In 1949, after sailing hisyacht to Bordeaux, he met theMoueix family, one of today’s mostimportant familiesin the city.

Theyencouragedhim to buya fewcases ofChâteauPétrus, awine whichwasunknown atthe time butwould become one of the mostexpensive wines in the world.

His son John championedCalifornian and Australian winesand Averys has become one of theearly supporters of both thosenow-popular wine producers. Thelast Avery in the business is fifthgeneration Mimi, who works as abrand ambassador. The firmemploys five people in its CulverStreet shop, which is undergoing amajor refit, and 30 in the office.

Mimi, above, said: “Averys hasstood the test of time with itspioneering wine selections by myGrandfather, father and the currentbuying team.”

The report was compiled byClose Brothers Asset Managementand launched at Bristol Museumand Art Gallery. Head of clientservices Penny Lovell said: “Familybusinesses are the lifeblood of theSouth West, not only financiallybut culturally too. The familybusinesses that we have identifiedhave all been in existence for over150 years. Having endured for solong, they have left a real mark oncommunities, from the local to thenational. In many ways, thesebusinesses have becometimeless.”

The next oldest family firms inBristol were both funeral directors,Thomas Davis, founded in 1840,and Burnell Tovey, founded 1860.

Averys was listed as sixth oldestacross the South West, the oldestbeing Dorset butcher RJ Balson &Son, founded in 1515.

their work, including video, imagesand documents to make it interact-iv e.

“Talent Blok has a variety of jobsava i l abl e, ” said Rebecca. “But be-cause of the profile element, we aretargeting creative jobs, such as pho-tography, web design and developers,because they can really show off theirwork on the portfolio.

“We have had really positive feed-back from customers seeing it.”

After honing the product, now theyneed to get back out and sell it.

A £28-MILLION investment in using cuttingedge materials is already paying off for Bris-tol, according to the Business Secretary.

Dr Vince Cable opened the extension to theNational Composites Centre, where an arrayof applications for the strong lightweightmaterial was on show.

An innovative racing yacht, lightweightcars and the largest openly accessiblehigh-rate manufacturing press for compos-ites in Europe were on display.

The centre in Emersons Green was es-tablished to help businesses find ways toexploit composite materials.

Dr Cable was joined by more than 400 gueststo see the new facility, funded by £28-millioninvestment from the department of BusinessInnovation and Schools, via InnovateUK andthe High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

He saw demonstrations of the high-techmanufacturing capability, including the highvolume manufacturing composite press.

Dr Cable told the Po s t : “We ’re already see-ing the return on the investment. The hallwas full of companies making use of it and not

only the big guys, Airbus and Rolls-Royce, butalso a lot of small companies.

“There are hundreds of small and mediumsized companies, many highly innovative,making use of the new materials. The po-tential for some of them is astounding.

“There was a process for fabricating carcomponents reducing time from hours tominutes, footbridges for railways can now bemanufactured at a fraction of the cost.

“These are revolutionary applications andsince this is the part of the world where it isbeing promoted it is local companies who willget to take advantage of it.”

Peter Chivers, NCC chief executive, said,“The NCC is building the future for com-posites. We will work with companies toaccelerate innovation and develop people todeliver commercially viable solutions.

“We have installed the world’s largestopenly accessible high-rate manufacturingpress for composites manufacturing. This isaimed at supporting sectors such as auto-motive, where developing high-rate, low costmanufacture of composite components is key.”

Investment at centre alreadypaying off, declares Cable

Te c h n o l o g y Tra i n i n g

S u r vey

C o m p os i tes

Bristol Post campaign

Family businessRe c r u i t m e n t

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

� Rebecca Wasley and Christof Constantinou

being paid into central governmentcof fers.

Analysts believe since revenues forbusiness rates were transferred toWhitehall in 1990, local authoritieshad increased restrictions on plan-ning which led to less business de-ve l o p m e n t .

The Post’s #RealRatesReformcampaign is calling for:� Greater local control over howrates are spent so they can be used toencourage more investment and jobc re at i o n .� A simpler system that small busi-nesses can understand.� To break the deterrent to expan-sion. This could be done by replacingrates with a local sales tax or a profitstax.

Vince Cable

“ It brings home thestrength that we have inthe UK in advancedmanufacturing andentrepreneurs. We justneed an awful lot more.”

more of them.“The creativity and imagination

has impressed me most, not just tak-ing a standard technology. This is asmall company that’s exporting andtraining their own staff, we’ve gotyoung people here with apprentice-ships so we’ve got the next generationbeing brought on as well.”

� Vince Cable comesface to face with thesnake robot during hisvisit to OC RoboticsPic: Simon Galloway

� From left, PeterChivers, NCC chiefexecutive, Colin Sirett(Airbus) NCCindustrial steeringboard chair, ProfNishan Canagarajah,PVC research atBristol University,Dick Elsy, CEO HighValue ManufacturingCatapult, Alison Starr,(GE) chair ofCompositesLeadership Forum,Vince Cable,Business Secretary

Rebecca Wasley

“We have been toseveral job centresto speak to peoplecoming out and talkto them about whatwe are doing.”

VALUATION DATE

� April 1, 2015 has beenrevealed as the valuation datefor business rates assessmentsto apply from 2017 onwards,with the necessary statutoryinstrument laid beforeParliament last week.

The aim of rating revaluationsis to achieve fairness of taxliabilities by ensuring rateablevalues are based on up-to-daterental values and therefore toredistribute liability in line withrelative movements in propertyvalues since the previousre v a l u a t i o n .

The revaluation should havehappened two years earlier butwas postponed. Many believe itwas because the Treasurywanted to keep the steady£27 billion a year rolling in.

Part of the Local World group

We supply a glossy setting worthy of any awardwinner. From staging and set design, to an assortmentof lighting from LED’s to gobos. We provide all thenecessary services and equipment you would needto make your awards evening the one to remember.

Staging your Awards doesn’thave to cost a fortune...

Presentation Production

Live Camera Relay

Pyrotechnics

Call us on: 01684 575832Email us at: enquiries@aneventservices.co.ukVisit us at : www.aneventservices.co.uk

EPB-E01-S3

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S3

4 We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 5We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

A BRISTOL company has in-vented a robot which is play-ing a vital role in digging agiant undersea tunnel inHong Kong.

OC Robotics designed a snake armrobot to clean the giant bores used todrill undersea tunnels.

It was first used on a project inMiami for a road link to the port. NowFrench firm Bouygues Constructionhas hired its services again for atunnel section of a venture to linkHong Kong and mainland China.

“Boring machines find rock quiteeasy but they have difficulties gettingthrough sand and soil as they cloggthem up,” said OC’s technical dir-ector Andrew Graham.

Previously trained divers who areused to working in high-pressure en-vironments cleaned the heads. But itis dangerous work in a difficult set-ting.

Andrew said: “We developed a ma-chine to do that cleaning and in-specting job more safely.”

The company was founded by And-rew and then business partner RobBuckingham in 1997.

But the idea of the snake arm hadcome to them years before when thepair were at Bristol University.

They published a theoretical paperon how a robot arm could be con-trolled, even though one did not existat the time.

It was only years after they foundedtheir company that they actually de-veloped the technology when theMinistry of Defence approachedthem to discuss safer bomb disposal.

“The project didn’t come tofr uition,” said Andrew.

“But there were so many potentialapplications for this once we had thetechnolog y.”

The first snake arm was built onthe fifth floor of an office in BroadQuay House in the city centre.

“We had a few problems getting itout in the lift!” said Andrew.

The firm has since moved to moresuitable accommodation close to theMoD Abbey Wood base.

The technology is also used in thenuclear industry, as many olderplants weren’t built with muchthought to maintenance and decom-missioning.

The snake arm robots allow tech-nicians to see round corners or carryout tasks where it would not be safefor people to be.

Business Secretary Vince Cablewas given a first-hand demonstration

of the snake arm on a visit to thefir m’s Filton operation.

Afterwards, he told the Po s t : “T hisis world-leading technology, develop-ing a specialist arm of robotics work-ing in decommissioning nuclearpower among other things.

“It brings home the strength thatwe have in the UK in terms of ad-vanced manufacturing and entre-preneurs. We just need an awful lot

Snake robot playing keyrole in Hong Kong tunnel

First steps Digital agencyputs word on the street

A DIGITAL recruitment com-pany has been employingsome good old-fashionedshoe leather to get the mes-sage out to potential candid-

at e s.Talent Blok is one of the businesses

to come out of the WebStart Bristolstart-up incubator based at the En-gine Shed.

Chief executive Rebecca Wasley, 22,and technical director Christof Con-stantinou, 31, believe the companymeets a need in the recruitment mar-ket by allowing candidates to show offportfolios of their work.

But while the business is digital,the team are prepared to use all roadsto get their message out.

Rebecca said: “We have been toseveral job centres to speak to peoplecoming out and talk to them aboutwhat we are doing. They thought itwas a really good place to find jobsand had never seen anything like itb e fo re.

“We ’ve been around Broadmeadand Cabot Circus and to UWE to talkto students as there are internshipsand graduate jobs on the site.

“And we have been using socialmedia and blogging, anything we canto get the word out.”

The pair are using desk space at theEngine Shed but hope to expand andget their own office within threem o n t h s.

During their stint with WebStart,where they received a small start-upinvestment as well as mentoring andtechnical support, they developedtheir first version of website.

Things have taken off faster thanRebecca expected, with more than3,000 jobs advertised so far.

“We had more than 1,000 newsign-ups in the first month,” she said.“That far exceeded expectations. Wethought we’d get 50-100; more than10,000 UVs in the first month too.”

Since then the focus has been ondeveloping the technology and get-ting feedback to make the site work aswell as possible.

The firm has been working with anumber of Bristol recruitment agen-

cies, advertising their jobs initiallyfor free in order to use their feedbackto develop the site and is willing to dothe same for companies too. They canintegrate with company websites tooand mange the ads for them.

“We have a good pool of candidatesalready so we are in a good position tooffer a service to companies andagencies who need to recruit.”

The site’s point of difference is thatrather than just advertising jobs ordisplaying CVs, it allows people tobuild a strong portfolio showing off

THE main political parties are back-ing more local control of how busi-ness rates are spent.

The Bristol Post is campaigning forwholesale reform ofbusiness rates, withlocal control over howthe tax is spent one ofthree main goals.

Last week Labour un-veiled a policy to enablelocal authorities, whichcollect business rates, tokeep all of the moneyrather than send it toLondon. And now Con-servative Cities Minister Greg Clarkhas told the Po s t that greater localcontrol is “very much the direction oft r ave l ”.

Mr Clark pointed to the recentGrowth Deal which saw more than£200 million of funds devolvedthrough the West of England Part-

nership and the CoalitionGover nment’s recentmove to allow councils toretain up to half of busi-ness rates.

“It is very much thedirection in which we aretravelling at pace,” hesaid. “We want to go fur-ther but there are checksand balances which needto be there and there are

still national services to pay for.”Both parties are looking for re-

gions, rather than just local councils,to show they can be trusted to spend

the money for the greater good.Labour would pass an English De-

volution Act, transferring control of£30 billion of funding to England’scities and counties.

Councils that come together as acombined authority would be able totap into the pot of Whitehall cash topromote the economy of the city andwider region. In return for devolvingbusiness rates to the new statutoryauthorities, city and country regionswould need to work together to de-liver agreed key infrastructure in-vestments to drive regional growth.

Labour said excessive centralisa-tion was holding back cities and re-gions, with 95 per cent of all taxes –including income tax, stamp duty,land tax as well as business rates –

Parties united on need to devolve rates spending

Depot build companyreceives skills award� A PROJECT that includes thebuilding of a depot in StokeGifford that will service new trainson the Great Western Line hasbeen awarded National SkillsAcademy status.

The status, delivered by theConstruction Industry TrainingBoard, was conferred onVolkerFitzpatrick because of thecompany’s commitment tomaximise skills and employmentopportunities on the project.

The firm was chosen to designand build four depots for newtrains that will run on the line onceit has been electrified.

Paul Lilley, contracts manager,said he was proud to be headingup the scheme.

“It is regularly reported back tomy colleagues and I that the clientand the staff employed on theseprojects are getting as muchbenefit as the apprentices andwork experience placements,” hesaid.

“Everybody has embraced theprinciples of the Skills Academyand I look forward to spreadingthe success and the valuesestablished, throughout all ourfuture projects.”

Finances our mainfear, say start-ups� ENTREPRENEURS believe thataccess to finance is the biggestissue to setting up a company, anEY survey has found.

Fifty-eight per cent ofrespondents cited funding as akey hurdle to launching abusiness, followed by uncertaintyof income (48 per cent) and fear offailure (45 per cent). In contrast,only five per cent of respondentsthought that bad marketconditions could hold backentrepreneurs, while just 13 percent cited lack of skills as a barrierto starting a business.

David Wilkinson, partner at EYin Bristol, said: “Matching fundingto business growth plans remainsa key area of concern forambitious entrepreneurs, not leastas rapid growth tends to absorbcash. Business leaders thatdevelop controls over cash andcash forecasting as they grow areable to plan early for fundraisingand are more likely to attractinvestors.”

Wine merchant theoldest city business� AVERYS wine merchants is theoldest business in Bristol,according to a new study.

The firm was established in1793, although its real success issaid to have come in the 1920swhen Ronald Avery was at thehelm. While other UK winemerchants bought wines fromagents, he travelled to wineestates to taste the wines with themakers. In 1949, after sailing hisyacht to Bordeaux, he met theMoueix family, one of today’s mostimportant familiesin the city.

Theyencouragedhim to buya fewcases ofChâteauPétrus, awine whichwasunknown atthe time butwould become one of the mostexpensive wines in the world.

His son John championedCalifornian and Australian winesand Averys has become one of theearly supporters of both thosenow-popular wine producers. Thelast Avery in the business is fifthgeneration Mimi, who works as abrand ambassador. The firmemploys five people in its CulverStreet shop, which is undergoing amajor refit, and 30 in the office.

Mimi, above, said: “Averys hasstood the test of time with itspioneering wine selections by myGrandfather, father and the currentbuying team.”

The report was compiled byClose Brothers Asset Managementand launched at Bristol Museumand Art Gallery. Head of clientservices Penny Lovell said: “Familybusinesses are the lifeblood of theSouth West, not only financiallybut culturally too. The familybusinesses that we have identifiedhave all been in existence for over150 years. Having endured for solong, they have left a real mark oncommunities, from the local to thenational. In many ways, thesebusinesses have becometimeless.”

The next oldest family firms inBristol were both funeral directors,Thomas Davis, founded in 1840,and Burnell Tovey, founded 1860.

Averys was listed as sixth oldestacross the South West, the oldestbeing Dorset butcher RJ Balson &Son, founded in 1515.

their work, including video, imagesand documents to make it interact-iv e.

“Talent Blok has a variety of jobsava i l abl e, ” said Rebecca. “But be-cause of the profile element, we aretargeting creative jobs, such as pho-tography, web design and developers,because they can really show off theirwork on the portfolio.

“We have had really positive feed-back from customers seeing it.”

After honing the product, now theyneed to get back out and sell it.

A £28-MILLION investment in using cuttingedge materials is already paying off for Bris-tol, according to the Business Secretary.

Dr Vince Cable opened the extension to theNational Composites Centre, where an arrayof applications for the strong lightweightmaterial was on show.

An innovative racing yacht, lightweightcars and the largest openly accessiblehigh-rate manufacturing press for compos-ites in Europe were on display.

The centre in Emersons Green was es-tablished to help businesses find ways toexploit composite materials.

Dr Cable was joined by more than 400 gueststo see the new facility, funded by £28-millioninvestment from the department of BusinessInnovation and Schools, via InnovateUK andthe High Value Manufacturing Catapult.

He saw demonstrations of the high-techmanufacturing capability, including the highvolume manufacturing composite press.

Dr Cable told the Po s t : “We ’re already see-ing the return on the investment. The hallwas full of companies making use of it and not

only the big guys, Airbus and Rolls-Royce, butalso a lot of small companies.

“There are hundreds of small and mediumsized companies, many highly innovative,making use of the new materials. The po-tential for some of them is astounding.

“There was a process for fabricating carcomponents reducing time from hours tominutes, footbridges for railways can now bemanufactured at a fraction of the cost.

“These are revolutionary applications andsince this is the part of the world where it isbeing promoted it is local companies who willget to take advantage of it.”

Peter Chivers, NCC chief executive, said,“The NCC is building the future for com-posites. We will work with companies toaccelerate innovation and develop people todeliver commercially viable solutions.

“We have installed the world’s largestopenly accessible high-rate manufacturingpress for composites manufacturing. This isaimed at supporting sectors such as auto-motive, where developing high-rate, low costmanufacture of composite components is key.”

Investment at centre alreadypaying off, declares Cable

Te c h n o l o g y Tra i n i n g

S u r vey

C o m p os i tes

Bristol Post campaign

Family businessRe c r u i t m e n t

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

� Rebecca Wasley and Christof Constantinou

being paid into central governmentcof fers.

Analysts believe since revenues forbusiness rates were transferred toWhitehall in 1990, local authoritieshad increased restrictions on plan-ning which led to less business de-ve l o p m e n t .

The Post’s #RealRatesReformcampaign is calling for:� Greater local control over howrates are spent so they can be used toencourage more investment and jobc re at i o n .� A simpler system that small busi-nesses can understand.� To break the deterrent to expan-sion. This could be done by replacingrates with a local sales tax or a profitstax.

Vince Cable

“ It brings home thestrength that we have inthe UK in advancedmanufacturing andentrepreneurs. We justneed an awful lot more.”

more of them.“The creativity and imagination

has impressed me most, not just tak-ing a standard technology. This is asmall company that’s exporting andtraining their own staff, we’ve gotyoung people here with apprentice-ships so we’ve got the next generationbeing brought on as well.”

� Vince Cable comesface to face with thesnake robot during hisvisit to OC RoboticsPic: Simon Galloway

� From left, PeterChivers, NCC chiefexecutive, Colin Sirett(Airbus) NCCindustrial steeringboard chair, ProfNishan Canagarajah,PVC research atBristol University,Dick Elsy, CEO HighValue ManufacturingCatapult, Alison Starr,(GE) chair ofCompositesLeadership Forum,Vince Cable,Business Secretary

Rebecca Wasley

“We have been toseveral job centresto speak to peoplecoming out and talkto them about whatwe are doing.”

VALUATION DATE

� April 1, 2015 has beenrevealed as the valuation datefor business rates assessmentsto apply from 2017 onwards,with the necessary statutoryinstrument laid beforeParliament last week.

The aim of rating revaluationsis to achieve fairness of taxliabilities by ensuring rateablevalues are based on up-to-daterental values and therefore toredistribute liability in line withrelative movements in propertyvalues since the previousre v a l u a t i o n .

The revaluation should havehappened two years earlier butwas postponed. Many believe itwas because the Treasurywanted to keep the steady£27 billion a year rolling in.

Part of the Local World group

We supply a glossy setting worthy of any awardwinner. From staging and set design, to an assortmentof lighting from LED’s to gobos. We provide all thenecessary services and equipment you would needto make your awards evening the one to remember.

Staging your Awards doesn’thave to cost a fortune...

Presentation Production

Live Camera Relay

Pyrotechnics

Call us on: 01684 575832Email us at: enquiries@aneventservices.co.ukVisit us at : www.aneventservices.co.uk

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

E01-

S36 We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 7We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

Inward Investment focus

IT’S all about the black book.Bristol is attracting new busi-nesses to the city, building onits global strengths such as ad-vanced aerospace engineering,

robotics, hardware and software.Much of the credit goes to the

work of Invest Bristol and Bath,which has pulled all the region hasto offer into strong propositions forbusinesses looking to get away froman overheating London or be closeto giants such as Airbus andRo l l s - Royc e.

But the real reason behind thesuccess is good old-fashioned con-tacts. Who you know as much aswhat you know.

Matthew Cross, head of inwardinvestment at Invest Bristol & Bath,

O U R SECRET W E A P O N S B R I N G I N G F I R M S A N D JOBS HEREThe team at InvestBristol and Bath hashelped create morethan 1,000 jobs here inless than two years.But despite many ofthem being in hi-techindustries, GavinThompson finds out theold-fashioned methodsbehind the success

� A GLOBAL financialservices player has bought asuccessful Bristol companyand is planning a majorexpansion to the team.

Momentum UK, part ofMMI Holdings Ltd (MMI),one of the largest financialservices groups in SouthAfrica, acquiredBristol-based Blue SpeckFinancial, its award-winningMoneyHub technology andYo u r We a l t h . c o . u k .

The group made thepurchase in order to bring itsvision and products to theUK market.

And it is already deliveringon plans to invest in thebusiness.

Blue Speck Financial hastripled in size to 35 sinceMarch 2013. In the firstquarter of next year, theteam is moving to newoffices with the capacity for115 staff to accommodatemore growth.

Toby Hughes, chiefexecutive of Blue SpeckFinancial, said there werestrong reasons for choosing

CASE STUDY

SOUTH West nursery operator Happy Days isexpanding into Bristol with its first site in thenorth of the city at Bradley Stoke.

Work is underway on the 100-place nursery atthe Almondsbury Business Centre in Wood-lands Lane, with completion due at the end ofNovember, before open days in December.

Staff recruitment is currently under waywith new team members due to start soon, inpreparation for the new nursery set up.

They will support nursery manager JulieBright in the run-up to and following the nurs-ery opening in January next year.

Happy Days, which announced in April that ithad received £3.9 million of investment to driveexpansion throughout the South West, plans toopen another nursery in north Bristol in spring2015. The company, which is the largest child-care provider in the South West, currentlyoperates 16 nurseries across Devon and Corn-wall, is now identifying sites for further nurs-eries in the Bristol area.

Managing director Jackie Arthur said: “T hisheralds the beginning of an exciting time for usand we are putting our extra investment to gooduse in this strategy for growth.

“The Woodlands Lane site is close to thejunction of the M4 and M5 and the Aztec Westexit of the M5 itself, so it’s ideally located forbusiness people travelling around or into Bris-tol and wanting to leave and collect their chil-

dren on the way to and from work.“We are delighted to have achieved an Out-

standing Ofsted grade at our recently openednursery in Exeter, demonstrating our commit-ment to delivering high-quality provision with-in our settings.

“So we are extremely keen to work in part-nership with businesses and employees to offerthem high-quality childcare in the area.”

The new nursery will accommodate 100 chil-dren from up to five years old and will open from7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday.

The room and resources will be designedfollowing the same proven blueprint whichrecently helped to achieve the Outstandingrating at the Exeter nursery.

The blueprint is the culmination of five yearsof researching and testing designs and meth-odologies to create cutting-edge nurseries thatare able to deliver high-quality care whilstfocusing on maximising children’s learningpotential for their future education.

Miss Arthur said: “All of our learning spacesare being designed specifically to inspire chil-dren of different ages to play and learn to-g ether.

“We also have free-flow access to the outsideareas from all children’s rooms, which at Brad-ley Stoke have been designed to utilise theexisting natural resources including trees andgrass areas.”

Happy Days nursery launches new site

AN award-winning Bristol-based business thatspecialises in the design of eco-friendly laundryproducts is exporting to over 30 countries world-wide after bringing its production back to theUK from China.

Ecoegg developed an innovative DryerEgg product and was keen to securefunding to enable it to be manu-factured in the UK.

The company received supportfrom SWMAS Ltd through theManufacturing Advisory Service(MAS) programme and theProduct Development Centre(PDC). The Park Street-based firmwas awarded a grant to fund thedesign and development of a newinjection moulding tool through thePDC project, which is part-funded by theEuropean Regional Development Fund Com-petitiveness Programme.

Ecoegg director Dawn White, pictured, said:“Being able to bring our production back to theUK has so many advantages. From a qualitycontrol perspective, we are able to see theproduct being manufactured and meet our sup-pliers face-to-face with no language barriers to

overcome. It has also turned out to be at least asequally cost effective because the price of trans-portation from China is growing rapidly.”

The product parts are now being manufac-tured across the UK, in South Glamorgan,

Bournemouth, Manchester, Nottingham,Liverpool and Hastings.

“We have also been able to createthree full-time jobs and six part-timejobs including ongoing work for awarehouse manager, a logisticsmanager and our own team of pack-e r s, ” said Dawn. “A further five jobshave been created indirectly with

our UK suppliers.”She praised the support from the

MAS and PDC team.“We are now working on another pro-

ject and they are helping us in our attempts tolink up with some university expertise as welook to develop a new dishwasher product,” shesaid. Ecoegg is exporting to more than 30 coun-tries worldwide including Italy, Germany,Brazil and Australia. It has come full circle inthat it now sells in to China.

The company is on track to hit sales of £1.5million by the end of its next financial year.

Ecoegg now exporting to 30countries around the globe

M a n u fa c t u r i n g

Ed u c a t i o n

� Jackie Arthur outside the new Happy Days nursery in Bradley Stokesaid: “Our strategy is focused onattracting new investment that cre-ates jobs in the Bristol and Bathregion and we are delighted that wehave now surpassed the 1,000-markin this respect.

“In fact, to date, we have helped tocreate 1,253 jobs in the region andwe are on track to achieve ourtwo-year target of generating 1,380jobs, 529 of which were created lastye a r.

“Our success in attracting astring of international businessesto the region has boosted these fig-ures significantly.”

The successes have been reportedin these pages, including:� Kainos, the specialist independ-ent software company from Belfast,which opened an office in Bristolcity centre with plans to create up to80 jobs;� Chinese giant Huawei, whichmakes the technology used in mo-bile phone base stations as well aswi-fi boxes and dongles, is opening a£135 million research centre cre-ating 30 specialist jobs;� Mobile solutions firm Somo setup a centre hiring at first 20 en-gineers but building towards 60over time.

These firms and others like themtend to cite the same reasons forcoming to Bristol. The talent pool,

either based on an existing core ofbusinesses in their field or strongoutput of graduates from the localuniversities; ease of access to Lon-don via the soon-to-be electrifiedGreat Western Railway; and qualityof life for their workforce.

Being named the best city to livein by The Sunday Times h a s n’t doneany harm but the fact that so manystudents and others who come toBristol stay here adds substance tothat headline.

T here’s plenty in Bristol’s favourthen, but what the inward invest-ment team has done is pull all thattogether coherently.

“We ’ve got a pipeline we’re prettyconfidence on of about 1,500 jobs tocome in the next year or so,” saidM at t .

“From starting from scratch,we ’ve started to make a strong im-pact. We thought there would be alonger lag before things started tocome in but the strength of Bristoland Bath market and the fact it hasnot done a great deal to promoteitself and encourage investment inbefore means just by organisingourselves and developing a coher-ent set of propositions, stuff hasstarted to come in and respond tothat. Somo and Just Eat are goodexamples of that.”

The agency was founded in Janu-ary 2013 with £2.35 million fundingfrom the Department of Business,

Innovation and Skills to last untilApril 2015. One of the first things itdid was carry out a large assess-ment of the region’s skills and in-dustries, in order to find the areaswhere it could make most impact.

Based at the Engine Shed, theagency employs seven people in thecore team, plus the four sectorchampions. The sectors, low car-bon, aerospace, creative and digitaland tech, were chosen as areaswhere Bristol and Bath already hasstrong clusters of world-leadingbusinesses which can act as a hookwith which to pull in more.

The champions, the team’s an-swer to the Fantastic Four, aretasked with going out into the worldand bringing back new companiesto Bristol, and with them new jobs.

“The reason we hired them isbecause of their contacts and back-g round,” said Matt. Those littleblack books.

“They are our secret weapons,thoroughly networked, experts intheir field and able to pick up thephone and have a conversation withsenior staff in Airbus or big techc o m p a n i e s. ”

He cited an example of Huaewiwhen he and tech champion RickChapman went to China to meet thecompany as an example of the valuethe champions bring.

“I sat at a meeting with them andI might as well have been a million

miles away for all I knew what wasgoing on,” he said. “It was a realpeer-to-peer conversation withsomeone who understood what thecompany wanted.”

David Maher Roberts is theteam’s sector champion for digitaland creative. He’s a former directorat Future Publishing in Bath andfounder of digital consultancy Di-gital DNA, among other things.

David said: “It’s about under-standing the market trends then

using contacts to maximisestrengths of region.

“We know London is overheatingin the digital software start-up mar-ket, mostly in terms of skills.

“The effect of that is a lot of techcompanies struggling to fillfull-time roles either because theyc a n’t afford the wages or because alot of people are preferring to con-tract and have the freedom and notbe full-time employed.

“Just Eat, for example, has a

centre in Kiev and Madrid butd i d n’t want to ship everyone out sowanted to explore whether peoplehere would be more interested infull-time roles because building loy-alty and culture within the com-pany is important.

“They found through work we didthat this was the case, so theyopened an office here.

“I was in London last week meet-ing a firm with 15-20 people, re-cently funded, which has exactlythe same problem. They are con-sidering just having sales people inLondon and moving whole devel-opment team here as they want tokeep in one place but can’t afford tokeep it in London. They’ve looked atBrighton, Reading and Bristol asthey wanted to be within 90 minutesof London.”

He added that their business ex-perience allowed the champions tobe honest with companies too.

“Because we’ve all run busi-nesses, we are upfront about thethings that are more difficult,” saidD av i d .

“Two companies who came re-cently started with about 15 peoplethen wanted to grow to much largerteams. I’ve been on the board of amedia company, been CEO ofstart-ups so I can talk about that.”

When the agency’s money runsout next year, it will be down toorganisations including the local

authorities and West of EnglandEnterprise Partnership to decidewhether to fund its work. With allthe great things Bristol has to offer,you might ask if the team is reallyneeded. Wouldn’t these companiescome knocking anyway? The an-swer is that some might, but wouldanyone answer?

David refers back to the start-uphe met in London recently lookingto relocate to either Bristol,Brighton or Reading.

“They said ‘we have identifiedthree cities and contacted them andyo u ’re the only ones who have comeback to us with any information’,”said David. “T hat’s because thoseother cities don’t have inward in-vestment agencies.

“The company contacted the localcouncil and got nothing back. In-stead we had a meeting with them,next they’re visiting here and I’d besurprised if we don’t land them.”

Matt added: “The alternative isit’s councils who do it. It’s just a partof their job not all of it, they end updoing basic tasks and can’t do theother bits you need resources to dothat make the different. Thelong-term commitment really im-por tant.”

With 1,225 jobs and counting. Thecase seems to add up.

Bristol as a place to grow.“Bristol has two great

universities, strong creative,tech and financial servicesindustries, and good links toLondon,” he said.

“Incubators such asSETsquared, voted one ofthe three best in the world,make Bristol a great place toaccelerate a tech-focussedbusiness.

“T h e re ’s a wealth of talentin Bristol and it’s one of thebest cities in the UK for awork-life balance.”

MMI uses the Momentumbrand as its operating brandin the UK. MMI has a marketcapitalisation of £2.44billion, and manages clientand shareholder assets ofcirca £34 billion, whilstemploying more than 16,500people.

� Toby Hughes, chiefexecutive of Blue SpeckFinancial

Matthew Cross

“Our strategy isfocused on attractingnew investment thatcreates jobs in theBristol and Bath regionand we are delightedthat we have nowsurpassed the1,000-mark.”

PROPERTY MATTERS: PAGES 8&9THE WEST’S TECH OSCARS: PAGE 12

� Amy Robinson, BarryWarburton and RickChapman of Invest Bristoland Bath Picture: Dan ReganBRDR20141024B-002

� DavidMaherRoberts

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Inward Investment focus

IT’S all about the black book.Bristol is attracting new busi-nesses to the city, building onits global strengths such as ad-vanced aerospace engineering,

robotics, hardware and software.Much of the credit goes to the

work of Invest Bristol and Bath,which has pulled all the region hasto offer into strong propositions forbusinesses looking to get away froman overheating London or be closeto giants such as Airbus andRo l l s - Royc e.

But the real reason behind thesuccess is good old-fashioned con-tacts. Who you know as much aswhat you know.

Matthew Cross, head of inwardinvestment at Invest Bristol & Bath,

O U R SECRET W E A P O N S B R I N G I N G F I R M S A N D JOBS HEREThe team at InvestBristol and Bath hashelped create morethan 1,000 jobs here inless than two years.But despite many ofthem being in hi-techindustries, GavinThompson finds out theold-fashioned methodsbehind the success

� A GLOBAL financialservices player has bought asuccessful Bristol companyand is planning a majorexpansion to the team.

Momentum UK, part ofMMI Holdings Ltd (MMI),one of the largest financialservices groups in SouthAfrica, acquiredBristol-based Blue SpeckFinancial, its award-winningMoneyHub technology andYo u r We a l t h . c o . u k .

The group made thepurchase in order to bring itsvision and products to theUK market.

And it is already deliveringon plans to invest in thebusiness.

Blue Speck Financial hastripled in size to 35 sinceMarch 2013. In the firstquarter of next year, theteam is moving to newoffices with the capacity for115 staff to accommodatemore growth.

Toby Hughes, chiefexecutive of Blue SpeckFinancial, said there werestrong reasons for choosing

CASE STUDY

SOUTH West nursery operator Happy Days isexpanding into Bristol with its first site in thenorth of the city at Bradley Stoke.

Work is underway on the 100-place nursery atthe Almondsbury Business Centre in Wood-lands Lane, with completion due at the end ofNovember, before open days in December.

Staff recruitment is currently under waywith new team members due to start soon, inpreparation for the new nursery set up.

They will support nursery manager JulieBright in the run-up to and following the nurs-ery opening in January next year.

Happy Days, which announced in April that ithad received £3.9 million of investment to driveexpansion throughout the South West, plans toopen another nursery in north Bristol in spring2015. The company, which is the largest child-care provider in the South West, currentlyoperates 16 nurseries across Devon and Corn-wall, is now identifying sites for further nurs-eries in the Bristol area.

Managing director Jackie Arthur said: “T hisheralds the beginning of an exciting time for usand we are putting our extra investment to gooduse in this strategy for growth.

“The Woodlands Lane site is close to thejunction of the M4 and M5 and the Aztec Westexit of the M5 itself, so it’s ideally located forbusiness people travelling around or into Bris-tol and wanting to leave and collect their chil-

dren on the way to and from work.“We are delighted to have achieved an Out-

standing Ofsted grade at our recently openednursery in Exeter, demonstrating our commit-ment to delivering high-quality provision with-in our settings.

“So we are extremely keen to work in part-nership with businesses and employees to offerthem high-quality childcare in the area.”

The new nursery will accommodate 100 chil-dren from up to five years old and will open from7am to 7pm, Monday to Friday.

The room and resources will be designedfollowing the same proven blueprint whichrecently helped to achieve the Outstandingrating at the Exeter nursery.

The blueprint is the culmination of five yearsof researching and testing designs and meth-odologies to create cutting-edge nurseries thatare able to deliver high-quality care whilstfocusing on maximising children’s learningpotential for their future education.

Miss Arthur said: “All of our learning spacesare being designed specifically to inspire chil-dren of different ages to play and learn to-g ether.

“We also have free-flow access to the outsideareas from all children’s rooms, which at Brad-ley Stoke have been designed to utilise theexisting natural resources including trees andgrass areas.”

Happy Days nursery launches new site

AN award-winning Bristol-based business thatspecialises in the design of eco-friendly laundryproducts is exporting to over 30 countries world-wide after bringing its production back to theUK from China.

Ecoegg developed an innovative DryerEgg product and was keen to securefunding to enable it to be manu-factured in the UK.

The company received supportfrom SWMAS Ltd through theManufacturing Advisory Service(MAS) programme and theProduct Development Centre(PDC). The Park Street-based firmwas awarded a grant to fund thedesign and development of a newinjection moulding tool through thePDC project, which is part-funded by theEuropean Regional Development Fund Com-petitiveness Programme.

Ecoegg director Dawn White, pictured, said:“Being able to bring our production back to theUK has so many advantages. From a qualitycontrol perspective, we are able to see theproduct being manufactured and meet our sup-pliers face-to-face with no language barriers to

overcome. It has also turned out to be at least asequally cost effective because the price of trans-portation from China is growing rapidly.”

The product parts are now being manufac-tured across the UK, in South Glamorgan,

Bournemouth, Manchester, Nottingham,Liverpool and Hastings.

“We have also been able to createthree full-time jobs and six part-timejobs including ongoing work for awarehouse manager, a logisticsmanager and our own team of pack-e r s, ” said Dawn. “A further five jobshave been created indirectly with

our UK suppliers.”She praised the support from the

MAS and PDC team.“We are now working on another pro-

ject and they are helping us in our attempts tolink up with some university expertise as welook to develop a new dishwasher product,” shesaid. Ecoegg is exporting to more than 30 coun-tries worldwide including Italy, Germany,Brazil and Australia. It has come full circle inthat it now sells in to China.

The company is on track to hit sales of £1.5million by the end of its next financial year.

Ecoegg now exporting to 30countries around the globe

M a n u fa c t u r i n g

Ed u c a t i o n

� Jackie Arthur outside the new Happy Days nursery in Bradley Stokesaid: “Our strategy is focused onattracting new investment that cre-ates jobs in the Bristol and Bathregion and we are delighted that wehave now surpassed the 1,000-markin this respect.

“In fact, to date, we have helped tocreate 1,253 jobs in the region andwe are on track to achieve ourtwo-year target of generating 1,380jobs, 529 of which were created lastye a r.

“Our success in attracting astring of international businessesto the region has boosted these fig-ures significantly.”

The successes have been reportedin these pages, including:� Kainos, the specialist independ-ent software company from Belfast,which opened an office in Bristolcity centre with plans to create up to80 jobs;� Chinese giant Huawei, whichmakes the technology used in mo-bile phone base stations as well aswi-fi boxes and dongles, is opening a£135 million research centre cre-ating 30 specialist jobs;� Mobile solutions firm Somo setup a centre hiring at first 20 en-gineers but building towards 60over time.

These firms and others like themtend to cite the same reasons forcoming to Bristol. The talent pool,

either based on an existing core ofbusinesses in their field or strongoutput of graduates from the localuniversities; ease of access to Lon-don via the soon-to-be electrifiedGreat Western Railway; and qualityof life for their workforce.

Being named the best city to livein by The Sunday Times h a s n’t doneany harm but the fact that so manystudents and others who come toBristol stay here adds substance tothat headline.

T here’s plenty in Bristol’s favourthen, but what the inward invest-ment team has done is pull all thattogether coherently.

“We ’ve got a pipeline we’re prettyconfidence on of about 1,500 jobs tocome in the next year or so,” saidM at t .

“From starting from scratch,we ’ve started to make a strong im-pact. We thought there would be alonger lag before things started tocome in but the strength of Bristoland Bath market and the fact it hasnot done a great deal to promoteitself and encourage investment inbefore means just by organisingourselves and developing a coher-ent set of propositions, stuff hasstarted to come in and respond tothat. Somo and Just Eat are goodexamples of that.”

The agency was founded in Janu-ary 2013 with £2.35 million fundingfrom the Department of Business,

Innovation and Skills to last untilApril 2015. One of the first things itdid was carry out a large assess-ment of the region’s skills and in-dustries, in order to find the areaswhere it could make most impact.

Based at the Engine Shed, theagency employs seven people in thecore team, plus the four sectorchampions. The sectors, low car-bon, aerospace, creative and digitaland tech, were chosen as areaswhere Bristol and Bath already hasstrong clusters of world-leadingbusinesses which can act as a hookwith which to pull in more.

The champions, the team’s an-swer to the Fantastic Four, aretasked with going out into the worldand bringing back new companiesto Bristol, and with them new jobs.

“The reason we hired them isbecause of their contacts and back-g round,” said Matt. Those littleblack books.

“They are our secret weapons,thoroughly networked, experts intheir field and able to pick up thephone and have a conversation withsenior staff in Airbus or big techc o m p a n i e s. ”

He cited an example of Huaewiwhen he and tech champion RickChapman went to China to meet thecompany as an example of the valuethe champions bring.

“I sat at a meeting with them andI might as well have been a million

miles away for all I knew what wasgoing on,” he said. “It was a realpeer-to-peer conversation withsomeone who understood what thecompany wanted.”

David Maher Roberts is theteam’s sector champion for digitaland creative. He’s a former directorat Future Publishing in Bath andfounder of digital consultancy Di-gital DNA, among other things.

David said: “It’s about under-standing the market trends then

using contacts to maximisestrengths of region.

“We know London is overheatingin the digital software start-up mar-ket, mostly in terms of skills.

“The effect of that is a lot of techcompanies struggling to fillfull-time roles either because theyc a n’t afford the wages or because alot of people are preferring to con-tract and have the freedom and notbe full-time employed.

“Just Eat, for example, has a

centre in Kiev and Madrid butd i d n’t want to ship everyone out sowanted to explore whether peoplehere would be more interested infull-time roles because building loy-alty and culture within the com-pany is important.

“They found through work we didthat this was the case, so theyopened an office here.

“I was in London last week meet-ing a firm with 15-20 people, re-cently funded, which has exactlythe same problem. They are con-sidering just having sales people inLondon and moving whole devel-opment team here as they want tokeep in one place but can’t afford tokeep it in London. They’ve looked atBrighton, Reading and Bristol asthey wanted to be within 90 minutesof London.”

He added that their business ex-perience allowed the champions tobe honest with companies too.

“Because we’ve all run busi-nesses, we are upfront about thethings that are more difficult,” saidD av i d .

“Two companies who came re-cently started with about 15 peoplethen wanted to grow to much largerteams. I’ve been on the board of amedia company, been CEO ofstart-ups so I can talk about that.”

When the agency’s money runsout next year, it will be down toorganisations including the local

authorities and West of EnglandEnterprise Partnership to decidewhether to fund its work. With allthe great things Bristol has to offer,you might ask if the team is reallyneeded. Wouldn’t these companiescome knocking anyway? The an-swer is that some might, but wouldanyone answer?

David refers back to the start-uphe met in London recently lookingto relocate to either Bristol,Brighton or Reading.

“They said ‘we have identifiedthree cities and contacted them andyo u ’re the only ones who have comeback to us with any information’,”said David. “T hat’s because thoseother cities don’t have inward in-vestment agencies.

“The company contacted the localcouncil and got nothing back. In-stead we had a meeting with them,next they’re visiting here and I’d besurprised if we don’t land them.”

Matt added: “The alternative isit’s councils who do it. It’s just a partof their job not all of it, they end updoing basic tasks and can’t do theother bits you need resources to dothat make the different. Thelong-term commitment really im-por tant.”

With 1,225 jobs and counting. Thecase seems to add up.

Bristol as a place to grow.“Bristol has two great

universities, strong creative,tech and financial servicesindustries, and good links toLondon,” he said.

“Incubators such asSETsquared, voted one ofthe three best in the world,make Bristol a great place toaccelerate a tech-focussedbusiness.

“T h e re ’s a wealth of talentin Bristol and it’s one of thebest cities in the UK for awork-life balance.”

MMI uses the Momentumbrand as its operating brandin the UK. MMI has a marketcapitalisation of £2.44billion, and manages clientand shareholder assets ofcirca £34 billion, whilstemploying more than 16,500people.

� Toby Hughes, chiefexecutive of Blue SpeckFinancial

Matthew Cross

“Our strategy isfocused on attractingnew investment thatcreates jobs in theBristol and Bath regionand we are delightedthat we have nowsurpassed the1,000-mark.”

PROPERTY MATTERS: PAGES 8&9THE WEST’S TECH OSCARS: PAGE 12

� Amy Robinson, BarryWarburton and RickChapman of Invest Bristoland Bath Picture: Dan ReganBRDR20141024B-002

� DavidMaherRoberts

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THE face of Bristol’s businesscommunity is changing. Ifyou look around the EngineShed – a hub of digital andtech companies from

start-ups to fast growing businesses –yo u ’ll see more hipster beards thant i e s.

That change is reflected in prop-erty needs too. Style is important.These companies are attractingyoung, skilled and motivated workerswho don’t want to sit in a boring oldof fice.

The industries are fast moving too.Companies expand quickly andsometimes vanish just as fast, solong-term leases just don’t work.

And that can be a problem for thecommercial property market, whereinstitutional investors such as pen-sion companies look for safe,long-term returns.

But this thriving technology anddigital sector is growing in import-ance in Bristol. It is becoming theposter child of economy.

Government ministers arequeuing up to the pictured next to afancy piece of kit that symbolises afast-paced and future-proofed eco-nomy. This past week saw BusinessSecretary Vince Cable meeting thecreations of OC Robotics in AbbeyWood. The week before the Presidentof Singapore was at the University ofBristol to see how advances in wear-able technology could be applied tothe healthcare market. The EngineShed itself is a regular stop-off forVIPs, from politicians to royals.

Paul Williams, from commercialproperty agency Bruton Knowles’Bristol office, said the influx of tech-nology firms was good for the city.

“The regeneration of large areas ofpreviously abandoned commercialspace has been key to Bristol’s recentsuccess and is lifting the city up thenational league table in terms of at-tracting new business,” he said.

“Previously redundant and neg-lected locations in the city centre andaround the Temple Quarter are set-ting the trend, attracting increasingnumbers of technology, media andtelecommunications firms and ex-tending the city’s so-called MediaMile out along the A4.”

He points to the £1.35 million re-furbishment project by Cube RealEstate which has transformed the oldHTV studios in Bath Road. Just

tions, media and technology sectordeals tend to be fairly modest in scale,the sheer number of business movesbrings the footfall – not to mentionspend – city centres rely on forg rowth.”

The modest nature of those dealscan pose a problem, particularly forold-style property investors such aspension funds which look for steadylong-term returns.

Matt Cross, head of inward invest-ment agency Invest Bristol and Bath,said: “When developers are governedby institutional lenders then thoseinstitutions create conditions on

funding which don’t suit lower cost,easy-in easy-out terms.”

It takes a different kind of de-veloper, with a different businessmodel. Thankfully there are some,with firms such as Verve behind thePaintworks and TCN behind TempleS t u d i o s.

Matt said Invest Bristol and Bathwas building a picture of demand,finding out what the needs of some fothe companies it is attracting to thecity are and being proactive and hav-ing “mature conversations” with de-ve l o p e r s.

“We have been working on creating

a proposition to take to developers tosay we’ve got four of five companieswith demand – where can you buildbased on evidence of demand we cangive you?”

Ben Shorrock, product develop-ment manager at Invest Bristol andBath, said: “It’s often not about styleof space but having a bit more flex-ibility. If you are working in anim-ation for example, need to go up anddown a lot in size. With traditionaloffice, you sign a five-year lease forspecific space so that doesn’t work.”

He added firms moving to Bristolare often won over by spaces like the

WITH money from overseas continuing toflow into the UK, Bristol is poised for asignificant increase in inward invest-ment. For many years overseas investorshave been concentrating their cash on

trophy investments in London and the South East.But high demand and rocketing prices are obliging

more and more overseas investors to look at theregional cities as well as the capital. Manchester andBirmingham are already seeing increased activity butBristol is also on their radar.

Overseas investors own almost a quarter of in-come-producing commercial property in the UK, withshopping centres, warehouses, hotels and office build-ings a favourite target. China, Russia and more re-cently Brazil have been busy in this area but there hasalso been a marked rise in investment from Germanfunds and also from the Middle East.

Invest Bristol & Bath is helping to focus interest inthe Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire,Bath and North-East Somerset areas and has workedclosely with groups like the West of England ChinaBureau to raise the city’s profile.

High-powered delegations from the major Chinesecities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou have visited Bristolin the past month looking for investment oppor-t u n i t i e s.

Overseas in-vestors snappingup competitivelypriced propertyhas its draw-backs – shar pen-ing demand andincreasing com-petition for UKbuyers – but this is more of an issue in London than itis in the regions.

So what is it that makes the Bristol and Bath areasuch a target for overseas investment?

As well as being a key regional transport andcommunications hub, the concentration of aerospaceand other high-tech industries attracts and supports ahighly skilled workforce ably supported by no fewerthan four major universities.

UWE Bristol alone is investing £220 million ininfrastructure including a dedicated business schoolbuilding. The additional student accommodation re-quired to support a steeply increasing student pop-ulation is also proving highly attractive for overseasi nve s t o r s.

A report by Centre for Cities and McKinsey &Company named Bristol and Bath’s high tech sector asthe only fast-growing, globally-significant cluster of itskind in the UK, with the South West’s aerospace sectorhighlighted in this category too.

The profusion of skills exhibited in the key growthareas such as aerospace, the nuclear industry; andSTEM (science, technology, engineering and math-ematics) is further helping to focus overseas intereston what Bristol and Bath has got to offer.

Overseas investors setto look towards Bristol

The growth of Bristol’stechnology and creativesectors is leading to changingdemands from the propertymarket. But can it adapt?Gavin Thompson reports

Contemporary workspace nowcomplete - and already 80% let

Case study

Property matters

BOOMING CREATIVE SCENE’S BUZZY H U B S L E A D I N G T H E WAY

Engine Shed, only to find it’s full-up.But the market is responding.

There are plans being drawn up for asecond Engine Shed within theTemple Quarter Enterprise Zone.

Another of the city’s hubs for techfirms is the Bristol and Bath SciencePark. The Emerson’s Green includeshot desk facilities for start-ups plus agrow on centre for companies thatneed more space. Crucially it is de-signed to meet the needs of researchand development-led businesses,where lab space can be more im-portant than desks.

Chief executive Bonnie Dean said:

“There is strong demand for com-mercial property space from tech-nology businesses in Bristol but notenough appropriate supply, so it vitalthat this need is addressed.

“Businesses in this sector are ableto develop and scale up more easilythan previously as barriers to entryhave been reduced. It is, for example,much easier to make prototypes nowso technology is advancing quickly.

“In addition, our region has astrong engineering skills base, de-veloped off the back of a rich heritagein aerospace and advanced engin-eering, which means that it is an

attractive location for both big busi-ness and innovative start-ups to grow.It is important that we make space tocater for this demand and at Bristol &Bath Science Park we are working upplans for a new building to help ac-commodate this.”

Such expansions need to happensoon or businesses as such as Just Eatwhich have been lured to the citybecause of the talent pool and qualityof life (and cheaper-than-Londonproperty prices) won’t wait.

The property market needs to learnfrom the technology sector and pickup the pace.

Ruari Laidlaw

“ Whilst it’s a highlycreative and relaxedenvironment to work in,t h e re ’s an air ofprofessionalism thatresonates throughout

0117 287 2101brutonknowles.co.uk

To Let - High Quality Offices Near Parkway Station, Bristol

• From980-1,980sqft(91-183.9 sqm)

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• Flexibletermsavailable

Contact: paul.williams@brutonknowles.co.uk BK code:2639

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enquiries@brutonknowles.co.ukbrutonknowles.co.uk

0117 287 2101 Achieve morefrom your property

B015-1411 Bruton Knowles Bristol Post Commercial Advert 270x40mm AW 2.pdf 1 06/05/2014 17:24

0117 287 2101brutonknowles.co.uk

To Let - High Quality Offices Near Parkway Station, Bristol

• From 980-1,980 sq ft (91-183.9 sq m)

• 8 parking spaces

• Easy access to M4/M5/M32 motorways

• Flexible terms available

Contact: paul.williams@brutonknowles.co.uk BK code:2639

enquiries@brutonknowles.co.ukbrutonknowles.co.uk

0117 287 2101 Achieve morefrom your property

B015-1411 Bruton Knowles Bristol Post Commercial Advert 270x40mm AW 2.pdf 1 06/05/2014 17:24

The recovery in theBristol property marketis gathering pace butthat speed could lead toa bottleneck in theplanning process. GavinThompson re p o r t s

TWO years ago there was littlebuilding work going on inBristol. That has changedand quickly! In the residen-tial sector we have Finzel’s

Reach at the former Courage Brew-ery revived under new developerCubex, Wapping Wharf near theM shed rising from the ground andthe General Hospital conversion intoflats is well under way.

On the office side Salmon Har-ve s t e r ’s Two Glass Wharf standsproud in its Bristol blue colourswhile Skanska’s 66 Queen Square de-velopment is taking shape, with thesteel frame that will sit behind thecurving facade now visible.

Then there’s all the bed spacesbeing created to accommodate thethousands more coming to study in

IMAGINE having to find space for the equi-valent of a new town ten times bigger thanKeynsham, somewhere in the vicinity ofBristol and Bath. Well that’s the prospect thetwo cities are facing as they seek to provide

accommodation to cope with a continuing surgein student numbers.

With Bristol, UWE, Bath and Bath Spa cam-puses predicted to grow significantly over thenext few years demand for new student accom-modation has absorbed many available sites – notjust in the residential market but also around thea re a ’s commercial, office and industrial loca-t i o n s.

With four top universities within a 20-mileradius, the impact on Bristol and Bath will bemore pronounced than in many comparable re-gional cities.

Bruton Knowles has been closely monitoringthe conversion trend since it gained tractionduring the downturn. Back then, owners, buildersand developers were keen to keep busy and setabout transforming secondary office and elderlycommercial stock into residential – e s p e c i a l lystudent – accommodation. But what wassomething of a stopgap measure has been boostedby the faster than expected recovery and is nowf u n d a m e n t a l lytransforming theentire commercials e c t o r.

And whereasmost people wel-comed the trans-formation of somany abandoned offices or unused industrialpremises, the continuing demand for even morestudent accommodation raises the question ofwhere such development will take place – es-pecially once the supply of secondary sites isexhausted.

In Bristol, a number of well known office build-ings have already been converted or earmarkedfor student accommodation, not to mention thecity’s former ice rink, a police station and anumber of old people’s apartments.

Now developers are looking at ‘hands on’ in-dustrial and commercial sites in Bristol and Bath– several of which have already been taken out ofthe sector to create additional space for studenta c c o m m o d at i o n .

Hands on businesses such as garages, tyre firmsand repair shops have traditionally been locatedin secondary premises and many are beginning torun out of options if they need to move, aftergrowing out of their old premises for instance.

The level of demand we are seeing is certainlyskewing development patterns and impacting onthe city centre scene, transforming traditionalcommercial property function and usage.

According to recent forecasts some 50,000 stu-dents are expected to be looking for accommod-ation in Bristol over the next few years with afurther 20,000 in Bath – the equivalent of buildinga new town ten times bigger than Keynsham.

We need to accommodate thesurging student population

Focus on start-ups | Sponsored by THEME SPONSOR’S NAME HERE.

Mayor maps out thefuture at conference

Property matters

STRETCHED P L A N N E R S S T R U G G L E TO KEEP PACE W I T H RECOVERY Paul WilliamsHead of AgencyBruton Knowlespaul.williams@brutonknowles.co.uk0117 287 2101

Expert eye

� Skanska’s 66 Queen Square development is taking shape with the steelframe now in place

Jo Davis, senior planningdirector at property

agency GVA in Bristol

“They cut the planningteams very hard and theability to build back thatresource toaccommodate growthwill be challenging

the city each year at our universities(see Expert Eye column, right).

And that’s just Bristol itself. Thenorthern and eastern fringes arebuzzing with largely house-buildingled activity, such as the Lyde Greendevelopment in Emersons Greenand several sites around Keyn-sham.

The upsurge is welcomed acrossindustry, but the speed of the re-covery has caught many off guard,not least the local authorities.

Planning departments have notbeen exempt from years of austerityand deep cuts in local authoritybudgets from Whitehall.

For the last five years, it probablyd i d n’t matter because there was so

little development activity.Jo Davis, right, senior planning

director at property agency GVA,said last year in Bristol 878 homeswere built, compared with 2,574 in2008/9.

“In the last three years, the onlycranes we had seen in sky were atSouthmead Hospital,” she said,speaking at a recent property sem-inar the firm hosted at the M shed.

She praised Bristol, SouthGloucestershire and Bath andNorth-East Somerset councils forusing the downturn in activity todevelop their core strategies for fu-ture development sites.

“We now have some planningpolicy certainty across the Bristola re a , ” said Jo. “The property in-dustry needs to use that toensure we speed up theplaning process.

“And the planning au-thorities need to beready to take on theextra activity that istaking place.

“That is more difficult.They cut the planningteams very hard and the abil-ity to build back that resource toaccommodate growth will be chal-lenging.”

The problem is that all those newdevelopments need input from the

relevant council all along theway, including public con-

sultation, reports andeventual planning per-mission. Any big devel-opment will involvemultiple applications.

That means theslimmed down, auster-

ity-sized planning teamsare becoming a bottleneck

that could be holding up eco-nomic growth in and around Bris-

tol.Gavin Bridge, far right, director of

Cubex which is behind the Finzel’sReach development in Bristol citycentre and has also been refurbish-ing Bridgewater House in VictoriaStreet to bring it up to grade Astandard, has seen the problem firsthand.

He understands the challenges fa-cing the city council, but would liketo see action taken.

“We have five planning applica-tions being considered by BristolCity Council at the moment and areshortly to submit a further two,”said Gavin. “Collectively these rep-resent over £100 million of devel-opment, more than 100 homes, a new

bridge and the potential to createover 800 new jobs.

“We enjoy an excellentworking relationshipwith planners but haveseen how the cutbacksat council to reduceplanning officernumbers has put tre-mendous pressureon the remaining of-f i c e r s.

“This does causedelays in the planningprocess whether before anapplication is registered or duringthe consideration period. We would

welcome any measures that wouldprovide additional resource and sup-

port to those officers.”The obvious impact is onnew developments but any

bottleneck will have an ef-fect further down thechain. If, for example, anew office site is delayed,then firms interested inmoving in might have to

wait, meaning there oldpremises is tied up that bit

longer. And the propertymerry-go-round stops.

It’s an issue Bristol City Council iswell aware of and it is looking to hire

more people. Zoe Willcox, servicedirector for planning and sustain-ability, said: “The council’s devel-opment management section ismanaged to ensure it has resilienceto flex and respond to the demands ofthe local property market.

“The global financial crisis of 2008resulted in a significant drop off inthe amount of planning applications.Happily however, Bristol has been atthe forefront of a national economicrevival which has led to a significantincrease in development activity inthe city and we are currently in theprocess of recruiting in order tomeet this renewed demand. We reg-

ularly liaise with property organ-isations such as the Planning UserGroup and Bristol Property AgentsAssociation to ensure that they arekept up-to-date with any develop-ments to our service. In this way wefeel confident that we will maintaina good working relationship with thecommercial property sector at thisincreasingly busy time.”

Recruiting skilled people in thecurrent growing market is not al-ways so easy however, as manyprivate sector companies havefound, so developers, agents andother interested parties will bewatching closely.

� BRISTOL mayor George Ferguson will bespeaking at a major property conference laterthis month.

The MIPIM commercial property event is amainstay of the industry calendar and the Bristolregion has in the past sent high profiledelegations in a bid to woo investors to there g i o n .

The event takes place in Cannes but this year aUK version of the event is being staged for thefirst time at London’s Olympia.

Bristol’s elected mayor is taking part in asession called My Future City in 2050, staged bythe Future Cities Catapult,looking at how placessuch as Bristol canbecome smarter andmore successful.

But overall,Bristol’s industry istaking more of await-and-seeapproach to theevent.

David Mace,regional senior directorat GVA, which is attendingthe event but not exhibiting, said: “As a companyGVA has been attending MIPIM in Cannes forsome time, and for the last couple of years we’veworked very closely with Bristol, Bath, SouthGloucestershire and North Somerset on theirpresence at this hugely influential event – we’relooking forward to being there again in 2015.

“It’s therefore a talking point for the propertyindustry that the UK is to have its own event inLondon, and we’re hugely encouraged thatmayor Ferguson will be representing Bristol in aCities of the Future debate, clearly strengtheningBristol’s place as a core city.

“We ’ll be a keen and supportive observer of theLondon event this year both from the perspectiveof Bristol’s participation and GVA’s own.”

in association with

MIPIM commercial property

� Bridgewater House in Bristol’s Victoria Street which has been refurbished by Cubex, the firm behind the Finzel’s Reach development in Bristol city centre

� CREATIVE companies like tohuddle together for inspiration. It’sone of the appeals of places suchas Bath Road Studios.

The final phase of theredevelopment of the former HTVstudios into office what theowners describe as “n e w,contemporary workspace” spacehas been complete, and it isalready 80 per cent let.

The project, commissioned bythe building’s owners Cube RealEstate, highlights a continueddemand for small-scale,contemporary space in Bristol, inline with a rise in the number ofstart-ups and SMEs in the city.

Almost 80 per cent of thebuilding has now been let to avariety of firms, ranging from smallstart-up companies to bigmultinationals such as PUMA.

The fact that the site includes anon-site Friska café and a Pilatesstudio gives you an insight into thetarget market.

Ruari Laidlaw of Cube RealEstate said: “We are really pleasedto have completed thismuch-needed refurbishmentproject, which will now allow us toturn our attention to improvingsustainability and green initiativeswithin the building.

“It also gives us an opportunityto work with existing tenants tofurther improve our offer so it iseven more attractive to futureoccupiers.”

Jon Mowat, managing directorof tenant Hurricane Media said:“Being in a building with suchgood facilities, and a broad range

of other creative SMEs, hasbenefited Hurricane enormouslysince we arrived here in February2012.

“Whilst it’s a highly creative andrelaxed environment to work in,t h e re ’s an air of professionalismthat resonates throughout thebuilding which is perfect for ourbrand’s image and our ability tocollaborate with otherbusiness-focussed creative

companies.”The building is also home to The

Set, an workspace that operatesas a membership club wherelike-minded businesses cannetwork and share skills andideas. Its collaborative baseremoves the isolation of workingfrom home, while offeringcontemporary facilities.

On the first Wednesday of eachmonth, The Set plays host to aninformal networking night wherelike-minded creatives share aglass or two of something, a fewnibbles and some of thatcollective inspiration.

� Mainp i c t u re ,the newlyre f u r b i s h e dBath RoadStudiosand,above, theBristol andBathSciencePark

across the road, Paintworks is one ofthe top media hubs in the city, whilstTemple Studios next to the train sta-tion has continued the trend.

“These popular centres help createthe buzz which all cities need to takefull advantage of the recovery,” saidPaul. “The confidence generated inour creative hubs is percolating backalong the riverside to mothballed citycentre sites such as the Glassfieldsdevelopment in Temple Way – wh i chhas now been earmarked for threenew buildings including offices, flatsand a café.

“Although many telecommunica-

Property of the Week

Paul MatthewsPartnerBruton Knowles0117 287 2101paul.matthews@brutonknowles.co.uk

Expert eye

In association with

EPB-E01-S3

EPB-

E01-

S3

8 We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 9We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

THE face of Bristol’s businesscommunity is changing. Ifyou look around the EngineShed – a hub of digital andtech companies from

start-ups to fast growing businesses –yo u ’ll see more hipster beards thant i e s.

That change is reflected in prop-erty needs too. Style is important.These companies are attractingyoung, skilled and motivated workerswho don’t want to sit in a boring oldof fice.

The industries are fast moving too.Companies expand quickly andsometimes vanish just as fast, solong-term leases just don’t work.

And that can be a problem for thecommercial property market, whereinstitutional investors such as pen-sion companies look for safe,long-term returns.

But this thriving technology anddigital sector is growing in import-ance in Bristol. It is becoming theposter child of economy.

Government ministers arequeuing up to the pictured next to afancy piece of kit that symbolises afast-paced and future-proofed eco-nomy. This past week saw BusinessSecretary Vince Cable meeting thecreations of OC Robotics in AbbeyWood. The week before the Presidentof Singapore was at the University ofBristol to see how advances in wear-able technology could be applied tothe healthcare market. The EngineShed itself is a regular stop-off forVIPs, from politicians to royals.

Paul Williams, from commercialproperty agency Bruton Knowles’Bristol office, said the influx of tech-nology firms was good for the city.

“The regeneration of large areas ofpreviously abandoned commercialspace has been key to Bristol’s recentsuccess and is lifting the city up thenational league table in terms of at-tracting new business,” he said.

“Previously redundant and neg-lected locations in the city centre andaround the Temple Quarter are set-ting the trend, attracting increasingnumbers of technology, media andtelecommunications firms and ex-tending the city’s so-called MediaMile out along the A4.”

He points to the £1.35 million re-furbishment project by Cube RealEstate which has transformed the oldHTV studios in Bath Road. Just

tions, media and technology sectordeals tend to be fairly modest in scale,the sheer number of business movesbrings the footfall – not to mentionspend – city centres rely on forg rowth.”

The modest nature of those dealscan pose a problem, particularly forold-style property investors such aspension funds which look for steadylong-term returns.

Matt Cross, head of inward invest-ment agency Invest Bristol and Bath,said: “When developers are governedby institutional lenders then thoseinstitutions create conditions on

funding which don’t suit lower cost,easy-in easy-out terms.”

It takes a different kind of de-veloper, with a different businessmodel. Thankfully there are some,with firms such as Verve behind thePaintworks and TCN behind TempleS t u d i o s.

Matt said Invest Bristol and Bathwas building a picture of demand,finding out what the needs of some fothe companies it is attracting to thecity are and being proactive and hav-ing “mature conversations” with de-ve l o p e r s.

“We have been working on creating

a proposition to take to developers tosay we’ve got four of five companieswith demand – where can you buildbased on evidence of demand we cangive you?”

Ben Shorrock, product develop-ment manager at Invest Bristol andBath, said: “It’s often not about styleof space but having a bit more flex-ibility. If you are working in anim-ation for example, need to go up anddown a lot in size. With traditionaloffice, you sign a five-year lease forspecific space so that doesn’t work.”

He added firms moving to Bristolare often won over by spaces like the

WITH money from overseas continuing toflow into the UK, Bristol is poised for asignificant increase in inward invest-ment. For many years overseas investorshave been concentrating their cash on

trophy investments in London and the South East.But high demand and rocketing prices are obliging

more and more overseas investors to look at theregional cities as well as the capital. Manchester andBirmingham are already seeing increased activity butBristol is also on their radar.

Overseas investors own almost a quarter of in-come-producing commercial property in the UK, withshopping centres, warehouses, hotels and office build-ings a favourite target. China, Russia and more re-cently Brazil have been busy in this area but there hasalso been a marked rise in investment from Germanfunds and also from the Middle East.

Invest Bristol & Bath is helping to focus interest inthe Bristol, North Somerset, South Gloucestershire,Bath and North-East Somerset areas and has workedclosely with groups like the West of England ChinaBureau to raise the city’s profile.

High-powered delegations from the major Chinesecities of Shenzhen and Guangzhou have visited Bristolin the past month looking for investment oppor-t u n i t i e s.

Overseas in-vestors snappingup competitivelypriced propertyhas its draw-backs – shar pen-ing demand andincreasing com-petition for UKbuyers – but this is more of an issue in London than itis in the regions.

So what is it that makes the Bristol and Bath areasuch a target for overseas investment?

As well as being a key regional transport andcommunications hub, the concentration of aerospaceand other high-tech industries attracts and supports ahighly skilled workforce ably supported by no fewerthan four major universities.

UWE Bristol alone is investing £220 million ininfrastructure including a dedicated business schoolbuilding. The additional student accommodation re-quired to support a steeply increasing student pop-ulation is also proving highly attractive for overseasi nve s t o r s.

A report by Centre for Cities and McKinsey &Company named Bristol and Bath’s high tech sector asthe only fast-growing, globally-significant cluster of itskind in the UK, with the South West’s aerospace sectorhighlighted in this category too.

The profusion of skills exhibited in the key growthareas such as aerospace, the nuclear industry; andSTEM (science, technology, engineering and math-ematics) is further helping to focus overseas intereston what Bristol and Bath has got to offer.

Overseas investors setto look towards Bristol

The growth of Bristol’stechnology and creativesectors is leading to changingdemands from the propertymarket. But can it adapt?Gavin Thompson reports

Contemporary workspace nowcomplete - and already 80% let

Case study

Property matters

BOOMING CREATIVE SCENE’S BUZZY H U B S L E A D I N G T H E WAY

Engine Shed, only to find it’s full-up.But the market is responding.

There are plans being drawn up for asecond Engine Shed within theTemple Quarter Enterprise Zone.

Another of the city’s hubs for techfirms is the Bristol and Bath SciencePark. The Emerson’s Green includeshot desk facilities for start-ups plus agrow on centre for companies thatneed more space. Crucially it is de-signed to meet the needs of researchand development-led businesses,where lab space can be more im-portant than desks.

Chief executive Bonnie Dean said:

“There is strong demand for com-mercial property space from tech-nology businesses in Bristol but notenough appropriate supply, so it vitalthat this need is addressed.

“Businesses in this sector are ableto develop and scale up more easilythan previously as barriers to entryhave been reduced. It is, for example,much easier to make prototypes nowso technology is advancing quickly.

“In addition, our region has astrong engineering skills base, de-veloped off the back of a rich heritagein aerospace and advanced engin-eering, which means that it is an

attractive location for both big busi-ness and innovative start-ups to grow.It is important that we make space tocater for this demand and at Bristol &Bath Science Park we are working upplans for a new building to help ac-commodate this.”

Such expansions need to happensoon or businesses as such as Just Eatwhich have been lured to the citybecause of the talent pool and qualityof life (and cheaper-than-Londonproperty prices) won’t wait.

The property market needs to learnfrom the technology sector and pickup the pace.

Ruari Laidlaw

“ Whilst it’s a highlycreative and relaxedenvironment to work in,t h e re ’s an air ofprofessionalism thatresonates throughout

0117 287 2101brutonknowles.co.uk

To Let - High Quality Offices Near Parkway Station, Bristol

• From980-1,980sqft(91-183.9 sqm)

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Contact: paul.williams@brutonknowles.co.uk BK code:2639

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6 We d n e s d a y, October 1, 2014 7We d n e s d a y, October 1, 2014 w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/businessw w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

enquiries@brutonknowles.co.ukbrutonknowles.co.uk

0117 287 2101 Achieve morefrom your property

B015-1411 Bruton Knowles Bristol Post Commercial Advert 270x40mm AW 2.pdf 1 06/05/2014 17:24

0117 287 2101brutonknowles.co.uk

To Let - High Quality Offices Near Parkway Station, Bristol

• From 980-1,980 sq ft (91-183.9 sq m)

• 8 parking spaces

• Easy access to M4/M5/M32 motorways

• Flexible terms available

Contact: paul.williams@brutonknowles.co.uk BK code:2639

enquiries@brutonknowles.co.ukbrutonknowles.co.uk

0117 287 2101 Achieve morefrom your property

B015-1411 Bruton Knowles Bristol Post Commercial Advert 270x40mm AW 2.pdf 1 06/05/2014 17:24

The recovery in theBristol property marketis gathering pace butthat speed could lead toa bottleneck in theplanning process. GavinThompson re p o r t s

TWO years ago there was littlebuilding work going on inBristol. That has changedand quickly! In the residen-tial sector we have Finzel’s

Reach at the former Courage Brew-ery revived under new developerCubex, Wapping Wharf near theM shed rising from the ground andthe General Hospital conversion intoflats is well under way.

On the office side Salmon Har-ve s t e r ’s Two Glass Wharf standsproud in its Bristol blue colourswhile Skanska’s 66 Queen Square de-velopment is taking shape, with thesteel frame that will sit behind thecurving facade now visible.

Then there’s all the bed spacesbeing created to accommodate thethousands more coming to study in

IMAGINE having to find space for the equi-valent of a new town ten times bigger thanKeynsham, somewhere in the vicinity ofBristol and Bath. Well that’s the prospect thetwo cities are facing as they seek to provide

accommodation to cope with a continuing surgein student numbers.

With Bristol, UWE, Bath and Bath Spa cam-puses predicted to grow significantly over thenext few years demand for new student accom-modation has absorbed many available sites – notjust in the residential market but also around thea re a ’s commercial, office and industrial loca-t i o n s.

With four top universities within a 20-mileradius, the impact on Bristol and Bath will bemore pronounced than in many comparable re-gional cities.

Bruton Knowles has been closely monitoringthe conversion trend since it gained tractionduring the downturn. Back then, owners, buildersand developers were keen to keep busy and setabout transforming secondary office and elderlycommercial stock into residential – e s p e c i a l lystudent – accommodation. But what wassomething of a stopgap measure has been boostedby the faster than expected recovery and is nowf u n d a m e n t a l lytransforming theentire commercials e c t o r.

And whereasmost people wel-comed the trans-formation of somany abandoned offices or unused industrialpremises, the continuing demand for even morestudent accommodation raises the question ofwhere such development will take place – es-pecially once the supply of secondary sites isexhausted.

In Bristol, a number of well known office build-ings have already been converted or earmarkedfor student accommodation, not to mention thecity’s former ice rink, a police station and anumber of old people’s apartments.

Now developers are looking at ‘hands on’ in-dustrial and commercial sites in Bristol and Bath– several of which have already been taken out ofthe sector to create additional space for studenta c c o m m o d at i o n .

Hands on businesses such as garages, tyre firmsand repair shops have traditionally been locatedin secondary premises and many are beginning torun out of options if they need to move, aftergrowing out of their old premises for instance.

The level of demand we are seeing is certainlyskewing development patterns and impacting onthe city centre scene, transforming traditionalcommercial property function and usage.

According to recent forecasts some 50,000 stu-dents are expected to be looking for accommod-ation in Bristol over the next few years with afurther 20,000 in Bath – the equivalent of buildinga new town ten times bigger than Keynsham.

We need to accommodate thesurging student population

Focus on start-ups | Sponsored by THEME SPONSOR’S NAME HERE.

Mayor maps out thefuture at conference

Property matters

STRETCHED P L A N N E R S S T R U G G L E TO KEEP PACE W I T H RECOVERY Paul WilliamsHead of AgencyBruton Knowlespaul.williams@brutonknowles.co.uk0117 287 2101

Expert eye

� Skanska’s 66 Queen Square development is taking shape with the steelframe now in place

Jo Davis, senior planningdirector at property

agency GVA in Bristol

“They cut the planningteams very hard and theability to build back thatresource toaccommodate growthwill be challenging

the city each year at our universities(see Expert Eye column, right).

And that’s just Bristol itself. Thenorthern and eastern fringes arebuzzing with largely house-buildingled activity, such as the Lyde Greendevelopment in Emersons Greenand several sites around Keyn-sham.

The upsurge is welcomed acrossindustry, but the speed of the re-covery has caught many off guard,not least the local authorities.

Planning departments have notbeen exempt from years of austerityand deep cuts in local authoritybudgets from Whitehall.

For the last five years, it probablyd i d n’t matter because there was so

little development activity.Jo Davis, right, senior planning

director at property agency GVA,said last year in Bristol 878 homeswere built, compared with 2,574 in2008/9.

“In the last three years, the onlycranes we had seen in sky were atSouthmead Hospital,” she said,speaking at a recent property sem-inar the firm hosted at the M shed.

She praised Bristol, SouthGloucestershire and Bath andNorth-East Somerset councils forusing the downturn in activity todevelop their core strategies for fu-ture development sites.

“We now have some planningpolicy certainty across the Bristola re a , ” said Jo. “The property in-dustry needs to use that toensure we speed up theplaning process.

“And the planning au-thorities need to beready to take on theextra activity that istaking place.

“That is more difficult.They cut the planningteams very hard and the abil-ity to build back that resource toaccommodate growth will be chal-lenging.”

The problem is that all those newdevelopments need input from the

relevant council all along theway, including public con-

sultation, reports andeventual planning per-mission. Any big devel-opment will involvemultiple applications.

That means theslimmed down, auster-

ity-sized planning teamsare becoming a bottleneck

that could be holding up eco-nomic growth in and around Bris-

tol.Gavin Bridge, far right, director of

Cubex which is behind the Finzel’sReach development in Bristol citycentre and has also been refurbish-ing Bridgewater House in VictoriaStreet to bring it up to grade Astandard, has seen the problem firsthand.

He understands the challenges fa-cing the city council, but would liketo see action taken.

“We have five planning applica-tions being considered by BristolCity Council at the moment and areshortly to submit a further two,”said Gavin. “Collectively these rep-resent over £100 million of devel-opment, more than 100 homes, a new

bridge and the potential to createover 800 new jobs.

“We enjoy an excellentworking relationshipwith planners but haveseen how the cutbacksat council to reduceplanning officernumbers has put tre-mendous pressureon the remaining of-f i c e r s.

“This does causedelays in the planningprocess whether before anapplication is registered or duringthe consideration period. We would

welcome any measures that wouldprovide additional resource and sup-

port to those officers.”The obvious impact is onnew developments but any

bottleneck will have an ef-fect further down thechain. If, for example, anew office site is delayed,then firms interested inmoving in might have to

wait, meaning there oldpremises is tied up that bit

longer. And the propertymerry-go-round stops.

It’s an issue Bristol City Council iswell aware of and it is looking to hire

more people. Zoe Willcox, servicedirector for planning and sustain-ability, said: “The council’s devel-opment management section ismanaged to ensure it has resilienceto flex and respond to the demands ofthe local property market.

“The global financial crisis of 2008resulted in a significant drop off inthe amount of planning applications.Happily however, Bristol has been atthe forefront of a national economicrevival which has led to a significantincrease in development activity inthe city and we are currently in theprocess of recruiting in order tomeet this renewed demand. We reg-

ularly liaise with property organ-isations such as the Planning UserGroup and Bristol Property AgentsAssociation to ensure that they arekept up-to-date with any develop-ments to our service. In this way wefeel confident that we will maintaina good working relationship with thecommercial property sector at thisincreasingly busy time.”

Recruiting skilled people in thecurrent growing market is not al-ways so easy however, as manyprivate sector companies havefound, so developers, agents andother interested parties will bewatching closely.

� BRISTOL mayor George Ferguson will bespeaking at a major property conference laterthis month.

The MIPIM commercial property event is amainstay of the industry calendar and the Bristolregion has in the past sent high profiledelegations in a bid to woo investors to there g i o n .

The event takes place in Cannes but this year aUK version of the event is being staged for thefirst time at London’s Olympia.

Bristol’s elected mayor is taking part in asession called My Future City in 2050, staged bythe Future Cities Catapult,looking at how placessuch as Bristol canbecome smarter andmore successful.

But overall,Bristol’s industry istaking more of await-and-seeapproach to theevent.

David Mace,regional senior directorat GVA, which is attendingthe event but not exhibiting, said: “As a companyGVA has been attending MIPIM in Cannes forsome time, and for the last couple of years we’veworked very closely with Bristol, Bath, SouthGloucestershire and North Somerset on theirpresence at this hugely influential event – we’relooking forward to being there again in 2015.

“It’s therefore a talking point for the propertyindustry that the UK is to have its own event inLondon, and we’re hugely encouraged thatmayor Ferguson will be representing Bristol in aCities of the Future debate, clearly strengtheningBristol’s place as a core city.

“We ’ll be a keen and supportive observer of theLondon event this year both from the perspectiveof Bristol’s participation and GVA’s own.”

in association with

MIPIM commercial property

� Bridgewater House in Bristol’s Victoria Street which has been refurbished by Cubex, the firm behind the Finzel’s Reach development in Bristol city centre

� CREATIVE companies like tohuddle together for inspiration. It’sone of the appeals of places suchas Bath Road Studios.

The final phase of theredevelopment of the former HTVstudios into office what theowners describe as “n e w,contemporary workspace” spacehas been complete, and it isalready 80 per cent let.

The project, commissioned bythe building’s owners Cube RealEstate, highlights a continueddemand for small-scale,contemporary space in Bristol, inline with a rise in the number ofstart-ups and SMEs in the city.

Almost 80 per cent of thebuilding has now been let to avariety of firms, ranging from smallstart-up companies to bigmultinationals such as PUMA.

The fact that the site includes anon-site Friska café and a Pilatesstudio gives you an insight into thetarget market.

Ruari Laidlaw of Cube RealEstate said: “We are really pleasedto have completed thismuch-needed refurbishmentproject, which will now allow us toturn our attention to improvingsustainability and green initiativeswithin the building.

“It also gives us an opportunityto work with existing tenants tofurther improve our offer so it iseven more attractive to futureoccupiers.”

Jon Mowat, managing directorof tenant Hurricane Media said:“Being in a building with suchgood facilities, and a broad range

of other creative SMEs, hasbenefited Hurricane enormouslysince we arrived here in February2012.

“Whilst it’s a highly creative andrelaxed environment to work in,t h e re ’s an air of professionalismthat resonates throughout thebuilding which is perfect for ourbrand’s image and our ability tocollaborate with otherbusiness-focussed creative

companies.”The building is also home to The

Set, an workspace that operatesas a membership club wherelike-minded businesses cannetwork and share skills andideas. Its collaborative baseremoves the isolation of workingfrom home, while offeringcontemporary facilities.

On the first Wednesday of eachmonth, The Set plays host to aninformal networking night wherelike-minded creatives share aglass or two of something, a fewnibbles and some of thatcollective inspiration.

� Mainp i c t u re ,the newlyre f u r b i s h e dBath RoadStudiosand,above, theBristol andBathSciencePark

across the road, Paintworks is one ofthe top media hubs in the city, whilstTemple Studios next to the train sta-tion has continued the trend.

“These popular centres help createthe buzz which all cities need to takefull advantage of the recovery,” saidPaul. “The confidence generated inour creative hubs is percolating backalong the riverside to mothballed citycentre sites such as the Glassfieldsdevelopment in Temple Way – wh i chhas now been earmarked for threenew buildings including offices, flatsand a café.

“Although many telecommunica-

Property of the Week

Paul MatthewsPartnerBruton Knowles0117 287 2101paul.matthews@brutonknowles.co.uk

Expert eye

In association with

EPB-

E01-

S3

10 11We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 w w w. bristolpost.co.uk

In pictures Bristol Post’s Bristol Connected

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Business diary

Email your business events togavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk.Events are sometimescancelled without us beingnotified so please check withorganisers before travelling.

Chamber NetworkingB re a k f a s t : Popular event held inthe Terrace bar of Colston Hallso you can network while takingin the spectacular city view.7.30-9am, November 6. Book atw w w. B u s i n e s s We s t . c o . u k .

Super-fast Business –Measuring Your OnlineSuccess: Understand how yoursocial media, online marketingand web strategies work for youby learning how to measure youronline success. Free event atBristol and Bath Science Park,8.30am-11am, November 6.

One-to-one drop-in advice:University of the West ofEngland advisers are holdingconfidential, one-to-one drop-insessions for the region’sinnovative businesses to discussits growth service at the EngineShed, November 7. Emailuwebusiness@uwe.ac.uk.

Backing Your Ambition: Focuson the importance of planningfor the next phase of growth,through accessing finance,understanding the risks andopportunities. Plus economicupdate from Rhys Herbert,senior economist, LloydsBanking Group, and talk byBrian McConnell, MD ofHydrock. Tuesday, November11, 8-10.30am, M shed.

South Bristol BusinessNetwalk: Gathering for coffeefrom 7.30am at Brigstow LoungeCafe (look for Cross HarbourFerry and the cafe is next door).Harbour walk starts promptly at8.20am. Returning for breakfasttreats an hour later. Wednesday,November 12. Sponsored byBlue Orchid. Register atnewwalkingsouthwest.co.uk.

Transatlantic trade talk: Anexpert panel will be discussing aground breaking TTIP EU-UStrade agreement and itsimplications for South Westbusinesses at Grant Thornton,Victoria Street. From8.30-10.30am on Wednesday,November 12. Emaileadam@babinc.org to register.

E x p l o re E x p o r t : Delivered byBusiness West in associationwith UK Trade & Investment(UKTI), gives you the opportunityto explore over 60 marketsaround the world in just one day.At The Bristol Hotel on Thursday,November 13, it offersone-to-one meetings withexperts from British embassiesand consulates from over 60countries. Register atexplor eexport.ukti.gov.uk/bristol.

Bristol Distinguished Address:UWE’s series giving the chanceto meet the leaders of industrycontinues with Anne Francke –CEO, CMI. Leigh Court, AbbotsLeigh, 6pm, November 13.Register via UWE.

Inspiring Women Live! Meetand network with other amazingwomen and be inspired by theevent’s speakers. The Pavilion,Hanover Quay, 6.30-9pm,Thursday, November 13. Bookvia eventbrite.

� Andy Hatten, Wriggle; Georgina Webb, Fishtank

� Bristol Connected at the Double Tree by Hilton Pics: Michael Lloyd BRML20141027F-013

� Inge Dowden, Inge Dowden CoachingBRML20141027F-007

� John Dowling, DoubleTree by Hilton, and Quintus Dickinson, Wriggle

� Dave Robinson and Dave Nichols, of Cardnest

can be a lightning rod for change’Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

BR I S T O L’S status asEuropean Green Capitalnext year will be a “light-ning rod for change” a ro u n dwhich businesses can rally.

That message was delivered to thebusiness community at the BristolPo s t ’s Bristol Connected networkingeve n t .

Tom Silk, commercial and branddirector of Bristol 2015, the companyformed to deliver events around thecity’s European Green Capital status,said it was an “incredible achieve-ment” for Bristol to win theaw a rd .

He said the prize did not come witha war chest of funds but the Bristol2015 team had been successful insecuring £7 million from Govern-ment and support from sponsors, in-cluding First, Skanska and KPMG, tofund a programme or events.

Tom said 400 organisations hadsigned up as members of the Green

“It’s a nice surprise each month, eventhough you can’t choose the card youwant they’re always very cheerful.

“They are exclusive designs fromindependent artists.

“They are all every different andit’s wonderful to see people engagingwith us.

“We have 65 subscribers alreadysince end of September.”

The event was held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre inRedcliffe Way and manager JohnDowling shared the hotel’s recent ex-perience of how a £5 million invest-ment and decision to switch fromRamada to Hilton in 2011 had paidof f.

� Bristol Connected is anevery-other-month businessnetworking event organised by theBristol Post. If you are interested inhosting the December event, emailgavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk.

� Katie Brown, Atkins Walters and Webster, with Samantha Barner, Designand Co� Karl Brown, Clarke Willmott BRML20141027F-010

Tom Silk

“How we are going tolive in a more sustainableway is the biggest singlechallenge on the planet.

Capital Partnership.“Why is it important?” said Tom.

“Well, what a fantastic opportunity!“We are a lightning rod for change.

How we are going to live in a moresustainable way is the biggest singlechallenge on the planet.

“The pendulum is swinging awayfrom the idea that combating climatechange is about nations and theirpolicies to the fact it is cities and theirpeople. There is no other city thatdemonstrates that like Bristol.”

Tom said the organisation nowwanted to get more small and me-dium sized businesses involved, bothin making their own companiesgreener and in supporting events.

The gathering of around 50 busi-ness people also heard from DavidNichols, of Temple Studios-basedstart-up CardNest, a greetings cardsubscription service.

“The idea is you build a nest egg ofcards for any occasion,” said David.

� Tom Silk, of Bristol 2015, and Hazel Chawa, Ross Office

Special feature

To find out more about connections that can help yourbusiness visit rbsbusinessconnections.co.uk.Or call Steve Wilson on07919 210737steve.j.wilson@rbs.co.uk

Go diGitalThe digital world impacts right across

enterprise and is helping businesses expand,grow and reach newmarkets. Don’t be left out.

The world is quickly becomingdigital with peopleconsuming digital content on

a daily basis. So far this year 38million, or 76%, of British adultsaccessed the internet every day.So it’s no surprise that some of

the UK’s most well known brandshave put growth down to theirdigital strategy.Digital is big business. But one in

three SMEs doesn’t have awebsite and is missing out on aslice of the online marketplace.There is a raft of opportunities

to get an online presence,whether it’s selling items via eBay,Amazon, or Etsy.Some enterprises are doing it

themselves, using websites suchas Wordpress and Moonfruit, to

create and market their ownwebsite. Specialist creativeagencies can also help businessesbuild websites.Social media – including

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, andInstagram – now plays a huge partin helping businesses connectwith customers, receive feedbackand share news on products andservices. It’s free and businessescan engage with customers inreal time.Smartphones and tablets have

also changed the digitallandscape. Potential customersare accessing information directlyfrom their mobile phones. Havinga mobile site is now just asimportant to businesses as adesktop site.

SteveWilSon, Director ofCorporate Banking, Bristol

Gina Fucci, Managing Directorof Films at 59

At RBS if a customer isn’t surehow to create an engagingwebsite, or doesn’t understandthe benefits that social mediacan bring – we can help. Wesupport Bizcrowd, a free socialbusiness network that canconnect you with professionals inyour area. If you have somethingyou need help with, just let themknow. We offer a range ofservices, including 24/7telephone and online banking,and even amobile app so you cancheck your balance andmaketransfers on the go. If you wantto stay competitive, it’s vital toembrace the digital age – andRBS will show you the way.

For me, it’s not just theimportance of the digitalage, but the impact of it. Youcan now find out about abusiness at a click of abutton and you have tostand out. Information is outthere and it’s out there for along time.For us and our clients,

digital is our business - weprovide text, audio and videoand it’s being streamed andbacked up every day.Without a doubt, the digitalage is here and we all haveto be a part of it. I think it’simportant to embrace it butnot to be a slave to it.

EPB-

E01-

S3

10 11We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014 w w w. bristolpost.co.uk

In pictures Bristol Post’s Bristol Connected

Green capital ‘Major event

GALLERIESGALORE

FOR MORE PICTURESCheck out our

website at

bristolpost.co.uk/business

Business diary

Email your business events togavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk.Events are sometimescancelled without us beingnotified so please check withorganisers before travelling.

Chamber NetworkingB re a k f a s t : Popular event held inthe Terrace bar of Colston Hallso you can network while takingin the spectacular city view.7.30-9am, November 6. Book atw w w. B u s i n e s s We s t . c o . u k .

Super-fast Business –Measuring Your OnlineSuccess: Understand how yoursocial media, online marketingand web strategies work for youby learning how to measure youronline success. Free event atBristol and Bath Science Park,8.30am-11am, November 6.

One-to-one drop-in advice:University of the West ofEngland advisers are holdingconfidential, one-to-one drop-insessions for the region’sinnovative businesses to discussits growth service at the EngineShed, November 7. Emailuwebusiness@uwe.ac.uk.

Backing Your Ambition: Focuson the importance of planningfor the next phase of growth,through accessing finance,understanding the risks andopportunities. Plus economicupdate from Rhys Herbert,senior economist, LloydsBanking Group, and talk byBrian McConnell, MD ofHydrock. Tuesday, November11, 8-10.30am, M shed.

South Bristol BusinessNetwalk: Gathering for coffeefrom 7.30am at Brigstow LoungeCafe (look for Cross HarbourFerry and the cafe is next door).Harbour walk starts promptly at8.20am. Returning for breakfasttreats an hour later. Wednesday,November 12. Sponsored byBlue Orchid. Register atnewwalkingsouthwest.co.uk.

Transatlantic trade talk: Anexpert panel will be discussing aground breaking TTIP EU-UStrade agreement and itsimplications for South Westbusinesses at Grant Thornton,Victoria Street. From8.30-10.30am on Wednesday,November 12. Emaileadam@babinc.org to register.

E x p l o re E x p o r t : Delivered byBusiness West in associationwith UK Trade & Investment(UKTI), gives you the opportunityto explore over 60 marketsaround the world in just one day.At The Bristol Hotel on Thursday,November 13, it offersone-to-one meetings withexperts from British embassiesand consulates from over 60countries. Register atexplor eexport.ukti.gov.uk/bristol.

Bristol Distinguished Address:UWE’s series giving the chanceto meet the leaders of industrycontinues with Anne Francke –CEO, CMI. Leigh Court, AbbotsLeigh, 6pm, November 13.Register via UWE.

Inspiring Women Live! Meetand network with other amazingwomen and be inspired by theevent’s speakers. The Pavilion,Hanover Quay, 6.30-9pm,Thursday, November 13. Bookvia eventbrite.

� Andy Hatten, Wriggle; Georgina Webb, Fishtank

� Bristol Connected at the Double Tree by Hilton Pics: Michael Lloyd BRML20141027F-013

� Inge Dowden, Inge Dowden CoachingBRML20141027F-007

� John Dowling, DoubleTree by Hilton, and Quintus Dickinson, Wriggle

� Dave Robinson and Dave Nichols, of Cardnest

can be a lightning rod for change’Gavin ThompsonAssistant Editor (Business)gavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk

BR I S T O L’S status asEuropean Green Capitalnext year will be a “light-ning rod for change” a ro u n dwhich businesses can rally.

That message was delivered to thebusiness community at the BristolPo s t ’s Bristol Connected networkingeve n t .

Tom Silk, commercial and branddirector of Bristol 2015, the companyformed to deliver events around thecity’s European Green Capital status,said it was an “incredible achieve-ment” for Bristol to win theaw a rd .

He said the prize did not come witha war chest of funds but the Bristol2015 team had been successful insecuring £7 million from Govern-ment and support from sponsors, in-cluding First, Skanska and KPMG, tofund a programme or events.

Tom said 400 organisations hadsigned up as members of the Green

“It’s a nice surprise each month, eventhough you can’t choose the card youwant they’re always very cheerful.

“They are exclusive designs fromindependent artists.

“They are all every different andit’s wonderful to see people engagingwith us.

“We have 65 subscribers alreadysince end of September.”

The event was held at the DoubleTree by Hilton Bristol City Centre inRedcliffe Way and manager JohnDowling shared the hotel’s recent ex-perience of how a £5 million invest-ment and decision to switch fromRamada to Hilton in 2011 had paidof f.

� Bristol Connected is anevery-other-month businessnetworking event organised by theBristol Post. If you are interested inhosting the December event, emailgavin.thompson@b-nm.co.uk.

� Katie Brown, Atkins Walters and Webster, with Samantha Barner, Designand Co� Karl Brown, Clarke Willmott BRML20141027F-010

Tom Silk

“How we are going tolive in a more sustainableway is the biggest singlechallenge on the planet.

Capital Partnership.“Why is it important?” said Tom.

“Well, what a fantastic opportunity!“We are a lightning rod for change.

How we are going to live in a moresustainable way is the biggest singlechallenge on the planet.

“The pendulum is swinging awayfrom the idea that combating climatechange is about nations and theirpolicies to the fact it is cities and theirpeople. There is no other city thatdemonstrates that like Bristol.”

Tom said the organisation nowwanted to get more small and me-dium sized businesses involved, bothin making their own companiesgreener and in supporting events.

The gathering of around 50 busi-ness people also heard from DavidNichols, of Temple Studios-basedstart-up CardNest, a greetings cardsubscription service.

“The idea is you build a nest egg ofcards for any occasion,” said David.

� Tom Silk, of Bristol 2015, and Hazel Chawa, Ross Office

Special feature

To find out more about connections that can help yourbusiness visit rbsbusinessconnections.co.uk.Or call Steve Wilson on07919 210737steve.j.wilson@rbs.co.uk

Go diGitalThe digital world impacts right across

enterprise and is helping businesses expand,grow and reach newmarkets. Don’t be left out.

The world is quickly becomingdigital with peopleconsuming digital content on

a daily basis. So far this year 38million, or 76%, of British adultsaccessed the internet every day.So it’s no surprise that some of

the UK’s most well known brandshave put growth down to theirdigital strategy.Digital is big business. But one in

three SMEs doesn’t have awebsite and is missing out on aslice of the online marketplace.There is a raft of opportunities

to get an online presence,whether it’s selling items via eBay,Amazon, or Etsy.Some enterprises are doing it

themselves, using websites suchas Wordpress and Moonfruit, to

create and market their ownwebsite. Specialist creativeagencies can also help businessesbuild websites.Social media – including

Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, andInstagram – now plays a huge partin helping businesses connectwith customers, receive feedbackand share news on products andservices. It’s free and businessescan engage with customers inreal time.Smartphones and tablets have

also changed the digitallandscape. Potential customersare accessing information directlyfrom their mobile phones. Havinga mobile site is now just asimportant to businesses as adesktop site.

SteveWilSon, Director ofCorporate Banking, Bristol

Gina Fucci, Managing Directorof Films at 59

At RBS if a customer isn’t surehow to create an engagingwebsite, or doesn’t understandthe benefits that social mediacan bring – we can help. Wesupport Bizcrowd, a free socialbusiness network that canconnect you with professionals inyour area. If you have somethingyou need help with, just let themknow. We offer a range ofservices, including 24/7telephone and online banking,and even amobile app so you cancheck your balance andmaketransfers on the go. If you wantto stay competitive, it’s vital toembrace the digital age – andRBS will show you the way.

For me, it’s not just theimportance of the digitalage, but the impact of it. Youcan now find out about abusiness at a click of abutton and you have tostand out. Information is outthere and it’s out there for along time.For us and our clients,

digital is our business - weprovide text, audio and videoand it’s being streamed andbacked up every day.Without a doubt, the digitalage is here and we all haveto be a part of it. I think it’simportant to embrace it butnot to be a slave to it.

EPB-

E01-

S3

12 We d n e s d a y, November 5, 2014w w w. b r i s t o l p o s t .co.uk/business

The back page

Your digest of the week in business

THE achievements of big hit-ting digital companies andentrepreneurs were recog-nised in the West Country’sannual tech Oscars.

With the region’s tech industrynow worth nearly £5 billion, judges atthe SPARKies had to choose from arecord field of 225 nominations acrossthe 14 categories.

This year they rewarded hardwareinnovators and those competing onthe global stage – while also backingthe region’s reputation as a gamedevelopment cluster.

Incubator games developer Oppos-able Games and Ultrahaptics, whichis developing pioneering technologyallowing users to ‘feel’ and change ascreen without physical contact, eachwon a brace of awards.

SPARKies founder David MaherRoberts said: “The judges’ thinkinghas reflected the growth of the localtech industry and they’ve tended toreward companies and individualswith big ambitions.

“We ’ve now moved into a situationwhere we’ve got local companies likeCoull, vouchercloud and Zynstrawinning business both nationallyand on the global market.

“And in the wings we’ve got a newgeneration of exciting start-ups –companies like Ultrahaptics and

Open Bionics.”The awards help to raise the area’s

profile too.David said: “We are shouting about

what we have here but it’s also aboutall these companies knowing aboutwhat each other is up to.

“Every single CEO or worker hereis an advocate for Bristol and Bath.

T hat’s part of what SPARKies is aboutso next time they go to New York orLondon they can say ‘this companywon best start-up award and will benext billion dollar business and theyare based in Bristol’.

“If you can get 100 people sayingthat instead of us four in this room itmakes a massive difference.”

THE WINNERSOne To Watch: UltrahapticsFrom Chips To...: UltrahapticsThe Good Award: Opposable GamesBest Game: Amazing Frog produced byindependent Swindon-based game developerFayju,Best App: WriggleBest Service Provider: SETSquaredTotally Killing It Abroad: CoullFounder Of The Year: Joel Gibbard - Open

BionicsBiggest Success Story: vouchercloudBest Start-up: ZynstraIndividual Contribution To Technology:Ben Trewhella, co-founder of both OpposableGames and the Bristol Games HubBest Mentor: Mark Mason, founder ofMubalooFuture SPARK: Jake Chandrasakera,Android developer at Somo GlobalCoder Of The Year: Sam Davies

Record field up for the region’s tech Oscars

YOUNG entrepreneur Rhys Thickettwas simply too busy to think just howsignificant the day was when helaunched his fledgling Bristol prop-erty sales and lettings agency on

Bonfire Night five years ago.The city’s property market was a damp

squib bogged down in recession when he setup Robert Rhys in a one room office in Cliftonwith the aid of a laptop, a mobile phone and abranded Mini.

His total assets at the time were £5,000 of hisown cash and an unlimited supply of youthfulenthusiasm and burning desire to succeedcome what may.

“Launching a property agency in themiddle of a slump as a 22-year-old was a crazyidea at the time but, in hindsight, the marketwas poised to come out of recession. So com-pletely unknown to me it was in fact ab-solutely the right time,” said Rhys.

Today Robert Rhys employs an eight strongteam, occupying a smart suite of offices on theedge of Cabot Circus, just a step down the roadfrom Harvey Nichols, and has plans to open asecond office in fashionable Clifton.

It’s all a far cry now from the impatientyoung man who dropped out of university notonce but twice.

Becoming friends with the agent who hadpreviously let a flat to him in Cardiff was thestart of a change of direction for Rhys, who leftUWE to become a lettings negotiator back inthe Welsh capital. After 18 months he re-turned to UWE, this time to do businessstudies, but continued his work in Cardiffbefore joining a Bristol agency and abandon-ing his studies for a second time.

But Rhys soon tired of putting in time andeffort to build up someone else’s business soone day he just went out and registered RobertRhys as a limited company; Robert being hisdad’s name.

“I started cold calling and chasing landlordsfor business and although I wasn’t reallymaking any money I was making lots ofcontacts and meeting some interesting andeven inspiring people,” he recalled.

Rhys went to every bank in Bristol and was

told that “no way” would he get an office inCabot Circus. But after 13 months of ne-gotiations, that’s exactly what he did, openingthe Broad Weir premises in January 2013 andthe business has grown since.

� Technology company Coull which is build-ing a growing business creating new revenuestreams for publishers of online video hasjoined the London Stock Exchange’s Elites ch e m e.

The support programme is for chief ex-ecutives of high-growth companies, offeringmentoring and access to investors. Coull wasamong a cohort of 16 firms joining thes ch e m e.

� Legal firm Ashfords is celebrating 10 yearsin Bristol. The team has gone from strength tostrength since the office was first opened in2004 following Ashfords’ de-merger fromBevan Ashford.

The original premises in Bull Wharf wasquickly outgrown following the office expand-ing by more than 60 per cent in three years andin 2010 the firm moved to Tower Wharf.

Bristol office head Andrew Betteridge said:“At a time when many were reining in theirexpansion plans, we have taken the oppor-tunity to do the opposite and we have sig-nificantly invested in the future.”

� Best Service Provider – S E T S q u a re d� Guests at the SPARKies awards

� From left, Alice Hay, Laura Keast, RhysThickett and Ben Rees of Robert RhysPicture: Jeremy Long/JCL Photography

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