A fully funded advisory service offered by the University of Leicester is launching this month to help Leicestershire’s small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) thrive. City and County SMEs are invited to the launch of the GreenerFuture Leicestershire service on Thursday 23 January. GreenerFuture has been developed by Leicestershire CAN (Collaborate to Accelerate Net Zero), an Innovate UK-funded Net Zero Living Programme project to deliver carbon reduction services across the county. Leicestershire CAN brings together partners across the public and private sectors, academic institutions and community energy groups so that businesses can learn how to cut their costs, comply with their supply chains partners, and develop new greener products and services. The University’s School of Business is delivering the advisory service element of the project with a website containing a raft of tools and online resources to help SMEs kickstart, continue and evidence their green journey, and including 1-2-1 sustainability consultancy and expert advice. Professor Paul Baines, from the University of Leicester School of Business, said: “We’re delighted to offer this unique carbon reduction service to help Leicestershire businesses and other organisations become more sustainable at no cost to them. “This service is available in only a select few counties in the whole country, so we’re very privileged to be able to offer this in Leicestershire. “Getting fully funded support from the project is ideal for businesses looking to strip out costs in their value chain to make themselves more competitive, upskill their employees on sustainable business, or learn how to develop new more sustainable products and services.” At the launch, guests can find out more about the expertise and resources available and hear from inspiring business owners who have already taken steps towards net zero with the help of Leicestershire CAN. Businesses will have an opportunity to try a simple diagnostic tool to identify their sustainability journey stage and the most beneficial actions they can take, based on their business needs.

Leicester-based software developer THJ Systems Ltd, advised by law firm Freeths, has won a multi-million-pound damages inquiry against ex business partner Dan Sheridan. Following a trial in July, the High Court handed its judgment down awarding £3.35m in damages after a judge ruled Sheridan had failed to properly advertise the developer’s OptionNET Explorer software. Both THJ and Sheridan founded the business in 2010 to combine OptionNET Explorer with Sheridan’s options trading mentoring business, Sheridan Options Mentoring Corp. THJ expelled Sheridan from the business in 2016 when the relationship broke down, citing various failings on the part of Sheridan – including his failure to properly advertise THJ’s software. In 2022, The High Court ruled that there was justification for Sheridan being pushed out of OptionNET. A judge stated that his failure to advertise “robbed THJ of a benefit it reasonably expected to receive under the LLP Agreement.” This recent trial considered factual and expert evidence that set out the extent to which THJ believed subscriber numbers had been negatively impacted by the failure to advertise by Sheridan. The subscriber numbers had not increased as both had forecast and then flat-lined. The High Court was asked to rule on what should have happened, ultimately concluding that THJ had been denied the ability to earn profits of at least £3.35m. Acting for THJ, Martin Noble, Intellectual Property & Media Partner at Freeths, said: “This judgment follows on from our successful visit to the Court of Appeal 12 months ago, when it put in place an injunction against Sheridan and reiterated that copyright did in fact subsist in the screenshots of the software that Sheridan had been using. “THJ was able to demonstrate to the court’s satisfaction that the business had been adversely affected by Sheridan’s failures and an appropriate award has been made. “It is unfortunate that Mr. Sheridan did not take advantage of the several opportunities he was previously given to avoid the trials in this case and the associated significant costs and expense. That should serve as a warning to businesses involved in a dispute to consider alternative dispute resolution at every stage.” Andy Mitchell, owner of THJ, added: “We are pleased that this chapter of the proceedings has been decided in our favour. It goes some way to recognising the failures by my former business partner that resulted in a very significant loss of subscribers to my software.”

A commercial contractor working on high-profile retail developments across the Midlands is set for growth following a management buyout supported by a £720,000 funding package from Mercia Debt and Frontier Development Capital. GI Sykes, a third-generation family business, employs 40 permanent staff as well as dozens of independent contractors. The buy-out gives control of the business to the existing management team led by Richard Downs, who becomes MD, and including fourth-generation family member James Sykes (Operations Director), Anthony Bennett (Contracts Director) and Dan Westbury (Commercial Director). The deal provides an exit for brothers Richard and Jason Sykes, grandsons of the founder, though they will continue to work with the business as consultants. GI Sykes was established in the 1940s by Richard Sykes as a painting and decorator, and took advantage of the post-war housing boom to expand its services. The company now also delivers specialist coatings for cladding, roofing and flooring and carries out general building work, maintenance and repairs. Clients include local authorities, developers, private landlords and commercial property agents. GI Sykes carries out work on many high-profile developments such as Harvey Norman’s flagship store at Merry Hill, MacArthur Glen Designer Outlets, River Island, Home Bargains and McDonalds restaurants. Half of the company’s funding package comes from Mercia’s SME Loans Fund to support the buy-out, and the remainder from the Midlands Engine Investment Fund II, through its appointed fund manager Frontier Development Capital, to support the future growth of the business. Richard Downs said: “The Sykes family has built a great business with a solid reputation and we are proud to be taking over the reins. We want to maintain the family business ethos, which is all the more relevant as some of our employees now have their own children working in the business. “We will continue to provide the same first-class service to existing clients while seeking opportunities to expand our service lines and client base. We aim to achieve steady growth, while continuing to support our loyal workforce and, through our apprenticeship scheme, nurture a new generation of skilled tradesmen in the region.”

Greg Simpson, founder of Press For Attention PR, helps you achieve your 2025 PR resolutions. It’s that time of year when we’re making resolutions. Whether health, wealth, or just plain happiness, we’re all at it. How many you’ve already broken… Of course, to do these properly, we need targets or good old ‘goals’ if you prefer and crucially, we need to know where we are starting from. This should be the case with your PR efforts too. You may have a resolution to make a more strategic effort with your PR campaign or perhaps you want to rekindle a campaign that spluttered out a little last year? Perish the thought but maybe you didn’t do ANY PR in 2024 whatsoever. It has been known. As we all know, what gets measured gets managed. So, what might you measure with regards to your PR efforts this year and against what benchmarks? You might look at how many stories you published and issued and how many got used. This is what we call your ‘hit-rate’. How well did you do? For some, the figures will be reassuringly high. I pride myself on a 100 percent hit rate for my clients but that’s my job and I will only release stories I know will get covered and make a difference for my client. You may have different pressures. What about the amount of stories you started but honestly, never finished? Maybe time got the better of you or the moment passed? Perhaps you lacked a decent picture or couldn’t herd the cats into place before the news angle fizzled out? This happens a lot, don’t worry. You might measure how often your pictures got used, whether your quotes were included or check out how many brand mentions you managed to squeeze in. Many people like to consider the cost/value ratio of advertising v editorial. Essentially how much you ‘paid’ in editorial resource via an agency or in-house v how much that same space would cost if bought as an advert. I do not do this, it is pretty much taboo now in PR for various reasons I won’t bore you with, but it might help as ONE metric to consider. Rather than this, I’d measure the tone of the coverage. Go for quality over quantity. Does it portray your business as you would wish? Also, was the coverage in the right place? You can compare all sorts of things and even compare versus your competitors, but the key thing is to go for something you can measure fairly easily that makes a difference to you and preferably you can check quarterly. That way you can address problems or embrace opportunities in a far more timely and effective manner. Finally, do you know what your target media thinks about you? Do they know you? Do they know exactly what you do? That research is incredibly powerful. We are offering the target media audit worth £250 as a free service throughout January and February. Get in touch if you’d like us to help you discover what your target media thinks and knows about you.   A former business journalist, Greg Simpson is the author of The Small Business Guide to PR and has been recognised as one of the UK’s top 5 PR consultants, having set up Press For Attention PR in 2008. He has worked for FTSE 100 firms, charities and start-ups and conducted press conferences with Sir Richard Branson and James Caan. His background ensures a deep understanding of every facet of a successful PR campaign – from a journalist’s, client’s, and consultant’s perspective. See this column in the January issue of East Midlands Business Link Magazine here.

It’s that time of year, when Business Link Magazine invites the region’s business leaders to offer up their predictions for the year ahead.  It has become something of a tradition, given that we’ve been doing this now for over 30 years. Here we speak to Vinod Patel, Deal Advisory Partner at BDO LLP. Whilst macro-economic headwinds have continued to create a difficult trading environment for many regional East Midlands businesses, their resilience and ambition remains unwavering. The region is well known for its strong manufacturing, logistics and technology base and these sectors will continue to evolve in the coming months. Businesses that successfully leverage emerging technologies and automation will attain enhanced productivity and efficiencies. This is increasingly important in a time of labour challenges (availability and cost), tighter budgets impacting operational and capex spend and higher ‘growth’ targets. It goes without saying that the Autumn Budget has definitely added an additional layer of pressure for many businesses; notwithstanding, it has provided a degree of certainty about how the UK and regional East Midlands economy will look in the coming years. Yes, the National Insurance Contribution (NIC) increase will sting for many, undoubtedly impacting on cost bases in 2025. For some, this will result in a reduction in headcount, a pause on pay rises and a freeze on recruitment, amongst other things. What it’s likely to also bring, is a greater examination of pricing strategies (by those businesses that are able to) in response to increased costs. Against what remains a challenging business landscape, the East Midlands region must continue to invest in education and skills development, ensuring that the workforce is equipped to meet the demands of a rapidly changing job market. Local universities and colleges will continue to attract students and researchers, contributing to innovation and economic development. However, this also requires greater collaboration with businesses to provide tailored training programmes, fostering innovation and entrepreneurship. Retention of talent in the East Midlands is also critical and the region’s strategic location certainly offers a varied mix of urban and rural living which appeals to a broad talent pool. This is complemented by affordable housing, high quality education, healthcare and a range cultural and recreational activities. Of equal importance, is the strong transport infrastructure, including major motorways, rail links (although these would benefit from increased investment) and proximity to East Midlands Airport, all supporting increased national and international trade in 2025 and beyond. Overall, there is a growing sense of optimism and excitement for the East Midlands in 2025 and beyond, thanks to a relatively stable base post-election. Additionally, government initiatives and local enterprise partnerships are actively supporting growth through investment in infrastructure, business support services, and skills development. This was evidenced most recently, through the approval of the £160 million East Midlands Investment Zone (“EMIZ”) and East Midlands Freeport investing more than £2 million in the Future Energy Skills Hub (“FESH”). Funding of this nature certainly helps to create a more business-friendly environment that encourages investment and expansion – something that a number of East Midlands businesses and entrepreneurs are focused on in the coming months. Combined with the market expecting interest rate reductions during the next 12 months (likely to be welcomed by many), this may further strengthen appetite for deals – trade, private equity, debt and IPOs. M&A activity could also be triggered by a desire to consolidate, particularly in those markets that are becoming increasingly fragmented and/or facing revenue and margin pressures. In short, investment in people, technology and infrastructure must continue to be the priority, to ensure that the region (society and economy) remains competitive and forward-thinking.

The latest KPMG and REC UK Report on Jobs survey, compiled by S&P Global, signalled the sharpest fall in permanent placements since August 2023 in the final month of 2024. Temp billings continued to increase, albeit at a softer rate than that seen in November. Demand for permanent staff continued to fall in December, with the rate of decrease the most pronounced in four-and-a-half years. Concurrently, recruiters suggested that redundancies had contributed to additional candidates being available to work, as indicated by sustained increases in both permanent and temporary staff supply. On the pay front, permanent salary inflation remained modest, and well below the series average. Temp pay meanwhile rose for the second time in three months. The KPMG and REC, UK Report on Jobs: Midlands is compiled by S&P Global from responses to questionnaires sent to around 100 recruitment and employment consultancies in the Midlands. Sharpest fall in permanent placements for 16 months December data signalled a further decline in the number of permanent placements made by recruitment agencies in the Midlands. Staff appointments were reportedly curtailed by hesitancy among firms to hire amid weak business confidence and economic uncertainty. The pace of contraction was marked and the most pronounced since August 2023. At the UK level, the Midlands saw the second-softest drop in permanent placements, behind London. Temp billings across the Midlands saw growth for the ninth consecutive month at the end of 2024. The rise in temporary staff placements contrasted with the UK average which signalled a solid decrease. Panellists noted that the expansion was sometimes due to new client wins. That said, the rate of increase in the Midlands was the softest seen for three months, and modest overall. Permanent vacancies in the Midlands decreased for the seventh successive month during December. Of the four monitored English regions, the Midlands saw the second-sharpest reduction in demand for permanent staff, with the overall decline the most marked since June 2020. With regards to temporary vacancies, the Midlands posted a fourth consecutive decrease in December. That said, the reduction in the Midlands was the softest of the four monitored regions. Stronger rise in permanent staff availability The supply of permanent staff rose again in December, thereby extending the current sequence of increasing candidate numbers to 21 months. Moreover, the pace of growth accelerated from November and was the steepest in 2024. Of the four monitored regions, the Midlands saw the strongest rise. Anecdotal evidence suggested that redundancies in the market had boosted the supply of candidates. Temporary candidate availability in the Midlands increased for the twentieth consecutive month during December. The rate of growth in temp candidate supply eased from November to reach a three-month low. Panellists stated that new candidates had become available in the temporary staff market. The pace of the upturn was the second-strongest of the four monitored English regions, behind the North of England. Permanent salaries rise moderately Permanent starting salaries in the Midlands increased again in December, thereby extending the current sequence of inflation that began in March 2021. The rate of salary inflation quickened slightly from the previous survey period, though remained below the average seen over 2024. The rise in salaries for new permanent joiners was linked to shortages of suitably skilled candidates. The pace of salary inflation was weaker than the UK average. Midlands recruitment firms registered an increase in temp pay rates for the second time in three months in December. The pace of wage inflation was only modest, however. Where temp hourly pay rose, recruiters pointed to the need to hire skilled staff, though this was partly offset by higher candidate availability. Kate Holt, People Consulting Partner at KPMG in the Midlands, said: “While the Midlands saw the second-softest fall in permanent placements in the UK during December, the region’s businesses are still holding back on recruitment against an uncertain backdrop. “A drop in permanent vacancies – the most marked since June 2020 – shows firms are worried about the economic outlook, despite signs of more stable conditions in 2025. “If uncertainty prevails, Midlands firms must consider longer-term solutions to secure the skills they need to grow – whether this means investing more heavily in learning and development for existing staff or adapting their hiring strategies to attract the right candidates.” Neil Carberry, REC Chief Executive, said: “This report emphasises a weak mood in some businesses as they built their budgets for this year, and made changes designed to save on costs after a tough Budget. That said, sentiment can change quickly. Temp billings across the Midlands saw growth for the ninth consecutive month at the end of 2024. “December is always a hiring low point, and a new year brings new hope – with inflation under control, low unemployment and economic growth expected, the fundamentals are better than many appreciate. It is what happens now, as firms return to the market in January, that will decide the path ahead. “Recruitment is one to watch in early 2025 because it is one of the earliest indicators of a broader economic recovery, with any sign of a turn hugely significant with the sector contributing a massive £44.4bn to the UK economy in 2023.”