COMMERCIALPROPERTY Talking the market upROUND TABLE Room to move?INSURANCEKeeping yourbusiness safewww.blmgroup.co.ukWWW.EASTMIDLANDSBUSINESSLINK.CO.UKAUGUST 2015EAST MIDLANDS LEADING BUSINESS E-MAGSKILLS:BLOCKING THEBRAIN DRAINSKILLS:BLOCKING THEBRAIN DRAINLinkingbusinesstogetherEast Midlands Business Link has been bringing businesses together through itsonline pages and we’re now offering even more chances to network andcreate new relationships with a host of special events – and there are numerous sponsorship opportunities to help promote your brand!Round TablesBringing together leading names from local businesses, our round table events debate the latest hottopics. By sponsoring the event you can decide on the topic and help shape the guest list to ensurerelevance. The resultant debate will appear in our pages.Breakfast EventsEast Midlands Business Link's breakfast events present topical and incisive discussion. A panel ofexperts offer their views on business matters in front of an informed and interested audience –alongside plenty of opportunities to network! Sponsors of the event receive access to the delegate list as well as extensive pre- and post-event coverage.AwardsHighlighting the best of local business, there are myriad sponsorship opportunities atEast Midlands Business Link's awards evenings. Bringing together guests from across the region,sponsoring a category or even the entire event will ensure exceptional exposure for your business! These events are also a great place to entertain and welcome distinguished guests.Business Link is renowned as the voice of the East Midlands business scene. By partnering with us at these special events you can take advantage of our strong reputation and enjoy exceptional exposure for your brand!Connectwith us today to see what we can do for your business...s.metcalf@blmgroup.co.ukl.muckle@blmgroup.co.ukEDITOR’S NOTESWho really misses out when graduates leave the East Midlands? Is it the likes of Boots andExperian - or is it the region's SMEs who, whilst they might not have the biggest graduateintake in the world, crave go-getting new people to come into their company?A recent report from the Higher Education Careers Service Unit (Hecsu) shows that theEast Midlands has the lowest retention of students of any UK region, with 39.2 per cent ofthose who studied in the region in employment there six months after graduation.Clearly, retaining skills in the East Midlands has never been more vital. In this issue wetake a look at how the region's SMEs are enticing graduates to stay in the area, and whathelp they're receving from both the government and local bodies and academia.What we found in our special skills round table is that the picture is often a very confusingone. SMEs often don't really know where to turn when it comes to funding for placements orgraduates, and they're constantly up against the big boys who have more money - and time- to market themselves to those looking for their first job.Conversely, do SMEs truly sell themselves well enough? Do graduates know how they canprogress their careers in a small company, or are the bright lights of the bigger players - andfor that matter London - too hard to resist?One thing's for sure, if the East Midlands is to continue to create jobs at the pace it hasbeen doing for the past 12 months, then it needs to hold on to its best talent.Sam MetcalfEditorTalent(mis)managementContentsAugust 2015Latest News 6The latest news from the regionDeals News8The latest news from the dealmakers around the regionProperty News10All the latest from the property sectorAppointments12Who’s moving where Manufacturing News 14News and views from around the East MidlandsFinance 16First Tory budget screws small business owners by SerenaHumphrey, F Word TrainingNottingham Office Market18Does Nottingham have the office space available to attractthe big inward investors? When will the city see anyspeculative development? And how is the rash of studentaccommodation affecting the office sector? Our latestround table, sponsored by Freeths, asked the questions..Skills - Blocking The Brain Drain22How can East Midlands SMEs attract the top talent - ourlatest round table asked the questionsProductivity 24Productivity: A workforce or management problem or acombination of the two? By James Pinchbeck, marketingpartner, Streets Chartered AccountantsProperty 26The property market is vibrant once more – and that’spartly down to the election. Tim Garratt, MD of InnesEngland, explains why.IT 27It seems forever ago since we got that first iPhone in ourhands, says Sean Price, owner of iBox-Security, but inreality it was June 2007, eight years ago...Business Scene 28The Bank of England’s agent for the East Midlands, AlastairCunningham, was guest speaker at the Nottingham CityBusiness Club’s recent event.Insurance 30Business owners are counting the cost of a devastating firewhich ripped through business units in Cotgrave,Nottingham in July. Sally Swann, head of insurance brokerJLT Specialty’s Nottingham office, comments on theaftermath of the disaster.Succession Planning 32Brendan Dawson is the MD of Qdos Broker andUnderwriting Services, here he stresses the importance ofsuccession planning.Public Relations33It is a truth universally acknowledged that marketing folkare so busy with buzz words that they forget to tell uswhat they actually do, says Greg Simpson of Press forAttention PR.Motoring 34With registration changes just around the corner the motortrade will be going all out once again to woo buyers. Whatcan we expect in the region’s showrooms over the nextfew weeks? Out of Office36All the leisure sector news from the last month143634EditorSam Metcalfs.metcalf@blmgroup.co.ukAdvertisingLisa Muckle l.muckle@blmgroup.co.ukAccounts & SubscriptionsAngela Sharmanaccounts@blmgroup.co.ukTel: (01472) 310301 Fax: (01472) 310311Design & ProductionGary Jorgensen, Mark Casson,Rachel Greenstudio@blmgroup.co.ukTel: (01472) 310304Fax: (01472) 310314E-Mail:eastmidlands@blmgroup.co.ukPublisherHaychart Ltd, t/a Business Link Magazine Group,Armstrong House, Armstrong Street, Grimsby, N.E. Lincs., DN31 2QE.All rights reserved. No part of this publicationmay be reproduced, transmitted, photocopied,recorded or otherwise without expresspermission of the copyright holder, for whichapplication should be addressed first to thepublisher. While every reasonable care is taken,neither the publisher nor its participating agentsaccept liability for loss or damage to prints,colour transparencies, negatives or othermaterial of whatever nature submitted to thispublication. The views expressed in thispublication are not necessarily the views of thoseheld by the publisher.@BLMEastMidlandsBLMEastMidlandsSHUTTERSTOCK.COM/TASHATUVANGOSHUTTERSTOCK.COM/TASHATUVANGOGENERAL NEWSEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk6Breedon Aggregates setto "exceedexpectations"Breedon Aggregates, the Derbyshire-based aggregatesgiant, has announced a hefty rise in revenues and profitsbefore tax.Revenues for the six months to 30th June were up 28 percent to £160.5m, whilst profits rose by 92 per cent to£17.5m.Peter Tom CBE, executive chairman, said: "Tradingduring the first half was strong, with both the underlyingbusiness and recent acquisitions performing ahead of ourexpectations. March was a record month for the Group,with exceptional performances from both England andScotland."Assuming that current trading conditions continuethrough the second half of 2015, we believe that marketexpectations for the year will be exceeded."Tom also said that the firm has "several acquisitionopportunities under review".Source BioScience snaps up Scottish rival for £7.3mNottingham-based laboratory services and products business Source BioScience is set to buy Scottish rival Select PharmaLaboratories for £7.3m.Bosses at Source BioScience say the deal will create one of Europe's strongest and most comprehensive businesses for integratedstability storage and stability testing services.Source BioScience will fund the deal raising £4.4m from current and new investors, and from a new debt £3.2m debt facility.Dr Nick Ash, CEO of Source BioScience, said: "The proposed acquisition of Select will provide the company with the expertise andcapability to provide stability testing services that are highly complementary with the Group's existing stability storage services."The Select team will bring significant experience and knowledge which will enable the Group to meet increasing demand for stabilityand pharmaceutical batch release testing services, from a broad spectrum of customers and from territories that Source BioScience doesnot currently address."This proposed acquisition fits squarely with our stated objective of continued expansion through targeted acquisitions, to enhance thebreadth and depth of our portfolio of services, in conjunction with ongoing organic growth and development of the existing business."Browne Jacobson’s advisory team acted for Source BioScience and was led by corporate finance partner Mike Jackson assisted byJude King.Crowdicity set to create 20jobs in NottinghamA online crowdsourcing platform has said it is committed toNottingham - and is looking to expand in the city.Crowdicity, which supplies cloud-based innovation software, which alsohas offices in London and Sydney, says Nottingham is the perfect placefrom which to base its global business, and is looking to boost staffnumbers.Rob Wilmot, CEO and founder of Crowdicity, said: "We're now servicingbig brands and international customers so we need to be in London andSydney, but we are going to stay headquartered in Nottingham and willcontinue to grow our product development and technical abilities."We committed to growth and increasing employment and we're proudto have been born and based in Nottingham. The city has a rich heritageof innovative tech-based companies and initiatives such as the CreativeQuarter are creating a real buzz and bringing the best talent intoNottingham. We're most definitely a part of that and we want to growalongside our peers so that Nottingham has one of the best tech clustersin the UK."Wilmot says that the talent pool in Nottingham is second-to-none."There are now over 1 million people living in the wider Nottingham cityarea, and there are 55,000 students at Nottingham’s two leadinguniversities, and as a result we have access to an excellent talent pool.We're looking to create 5 software development jobs immediately, with 20more over the next 12 months, and I'd urge anyone with an ambition towork for one of the city's fastest-growing, most innovative tech firms toget in touch."GENERAL NEWS7Quotient Clinical on the expansiontrail in NottinghamNottinghamshire pharma company Quotient Clinical in set to double capacity through theacquisition of a second GMP manufacturing facility and the construction of new formulationdevelopment and pharmaceutical analysis laboratories.The new laboratories, based within the company’s existing Ruddington facility, werecommissioned in response to an increasing customer demand for Quotient’s formulationdevelopment services, and have a footprint of approximately 8,000 sq ft. The new GMPmanufacturing facility is located in the MediCity innovation hub in Nottingham, and will be around 3,000 sq ft.Mark Egerton, CEO Quotient Clinical said: “This expansion is in direct response to the increasing demand for our Translational Pharmaceutics services.Our approach of integrating formulation development, real-time GMP manufacturing and clinical testing is proving an attractive option to reducedevelopment timelines and associated costs.”Nikki Whitfield, vice president, pharmaceutical sciences, Quotient Clinical, added: “These new facilities form a key component of our strategy to expandour pharmaceutical sciences capacity and capabilities. We will continue to focus on building advanced formulation development approaches to solveimportant challenges in drug development, and our expanded GMP manufacturing capacity will allow us to support Translational Pharmaceutics programsat Quotient, or to supply drug products to other clinical centres of excellence worldwide.”www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link Piling business tocreate 200 jobs inNottsA piling and ground engineering business inPinxton, Nottinghamshire has bought 11 acres ofland that it says will create nearly 200 jobs in thenext two years, with the support of a £10.5mfunding package from Lloyds Bank.Van Elle has bought the land next to its existingsite in Summit Close, Kirkby-in-Ashfield, which willhouse its new headquarters.The business has also secured a £1.5m fundingpackage to purchase the offices and yards itoccupies in Pinxton and Dereham, Norfolk, whichare currently leased.In addition to the land and propertydevelopments, the business identified anopportunity to expand its presence in the railsector by offering on-track piling techniquesprimarily on Network Rail’s £3bn NationalElectrification Programme. To facilitate thisexpansion, Van Elle purchased six Road RailVehicles (RRV’s) and has plans to purchase afurther six during 2015/2016. This investment isbeing financed using a £6million hire purchasefacility made available from Lloyds BankCommercial Finance.Paul Pearson, finance director at Van Elle, said:“We saw an opportunity to develop our businessover the long-term by branching out into the railsector, and the addition of these specialist vehicleshas increased the variety of work that we canprovide.“The support of Lloyds Bank has played afundamental role in enabling us to activate ourinvestment plans, and we are looking forward toexpanding our manufacturing capabilities andwelcoming new staff to the business over the nexttwo years, as well as increasing our market sharein the rail sector piling market.”Nelsons reveals Derby office refurbDerby law firm Nelsons Solicitors has announced it is to upgrade its city centre premises with a major refurbishment. The firm’s office, at Sterne House in Lodge Lane, will be open plan with a glass entrance hall added to the exterior of the front of the building.The refurbishment will also include the addition of a new conference room on the top floor of the building.Staff based at Sterne House will temporarily move out of the building on 24th July and from 27th July will be based at Moody and Woolley’s formerpremises in St Mary’s Gate, a firm which Nelsons acquired in April.Chief executive at Nelsons Solicitors Tim Hastings said the refurbishment reflected the firm’s commitment to Derby and was a continuation of itsinvestment in the city.He said: “We are all looking forward to seeing our improved office space and impressive entrance once the work is completed. We have signed arenewed lease on Sterne House with a term of 10 years, which demonstrates our commitment to and investment in the local business community here inDerby."DEALSEast Midlands Business Link www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk8Premier Logistics goes to Hull and back to buyrivalLeicester-based haulier, Premier Logistics, has bought a Hull-based fellow Pall-Ex member CJ Logistics in a movethat will increase its turnover to £21m.Premier Logistics says that branching out along the M62 corridor to the East will give it better access to the North.Lee Christopher, managing director, said: "“The port city of Hull offers a vast market for groupage and full-loadwork, and CJ Express were open to new energy and investment. We are delighted to have added this extremelycompetently-run business to our Premier group of companies; while Pall-Ex’s palletised freight distribution networkwill benefit from an increase in groupage, generated by our focus on sales and growth.”CJ Express founders, husband and wife team Nick and Susan Carter, have joined the Premier Logistics team ascommercial manager and health and safety manager.Nick Carter, co-founder of CJ Express and now commercial manager at Premier Logistics, said: “The deal withPremier Logistics is exciting for both parties. We had been contemplating the future of our business for some time.We wanted to ensure continuity and growth for all of our stakeholders, creating development opportunities for thestaff and retaining CJ Express’s Pall-Ex partnership.“This very amicable and mutually satisfactory deal presented an ideal solution. CJ Express’s solid reputation forquality and strong operational core will be an asset to Premier’s group of companies; while I’m confident that thePremier team will invigorate CJ Express, ensuring progression for the business, which will now participate in a largernetwork for full-load traffic in and out of the North East.”Premier says it will invest £500,000 in the CJ Express fleet in the coming months.Mark Group soldStateside Leicester-headquartered renewables firm MarkGroup has been sold to American companySunEdison.Mark Group, which has 14 depots around theUK, had previously been one of SunEdison’s UKpartners offering solar sales and installation.Lee Cottingham, one of the sellingshareholders, said: “It was important for us to finda buyer which would provide Mark Group with theopportunity to expand and continue to providegreat value whilst supplying insulation, solarpower and green energy products to itscustomers.“Having dealt with SunEdison for a number ofyears, and given their world leading position in theindustry, we know we have found the ideal buyer.Corporate lawyers at law firm Geldards advisedon the sale. Paul Feenan, a partner in the team,said: “This was a significant deal both for MarkGroup and the renewable energy sector in the UK.“We’re delighted to have helped the shareholders realise a sale that will not only benefit an industry leading company in the long term, but alsostimulate growth and competition to meet the growing demand for renewable energy solutions in the UK.”Quest sold to AFHAFH, the investment management firm, has bought Quest FinancialManagement, a Leicestershire based IFA, for £585,000.The owners of Quest have left the business and existing AFHadvisers have taken over their client relationships.Alan Hudson, chief executive of AFH, said: "Following theacquisition of Independent Financial Services at the end of April wecontinue to offer IFA businesses the opportunity to either become partof a larger group or to allow the principals of those businesses theability to realise value as they retire."Allied Irish Bank Nottingham reportsstrong first halfAs we pass the mid-way point of the year, the Nottingham branch of Allied Irish Bank (AIB)have been reflecting on the business year to date. As team leader Gerry McPake and hiscolleagues point out below, it's a positive story they have to tell.“We came into 2015”, says Gerry, “knowing that we had some significant events ahead ofus. We had a premises move to complete, we wanted to re-define the way we manage andinteract with our customers and, most of all, we had a pipeline of deals that we really wantedto deliver on. Looking back at the last six months, I am delighted with the progress we havemade and the successes we can point to.“Our premises move went really well and we now operate from a fantastic office suite upon the Ropewalk. It's a superb base to work from although we do of course spend more andmore time out and about with our clients and contacts. We have successfully implementedsome changes to our business model giving us a keener focus on those clients who need aclose engagement with their bank characterised by a mutual desire for a positive, long termpartnership. On the deal side – and whilst we haven't converted every single prospect webrought with us into 2015 – we are more than happy with what has been achieved.” AIBs Dale Cowdell added, “We wanted to make sure that we didn't allow our premisesmove and other factors to distract us from our primary focus which is to grow, develop andsustain long term relationships with top quality business clients and professional contacts. Tothat end, we put our customer focus right at the top of our list of priorities for 2015, a strategyand mindset which has seen us successfully support a range of clients and contacts – bothnew and existing – throughout the year to date. It's hugely rewarding for those businessesand their advisors to then act as advocates for us and gives us great confidence as we enterthe second half of the year.”David Grier, Chairman of Trust Utility Management, offered this view on his company'sexperiences with AIB. “The team at AIB Nottingham are commercially aware, we have regularcontact with them and they grasp our business needs. AIB have provided us with excellentservice since our first transaction together, moving through the process and obtaining fullcredit approvals in a very short period.” Carol Noonan, the deputy team leader, commented further on the bank's recent changes.“Whilst we look back with affection on our 25 years at Byron House, it's clear that we got itright with our move. Byron House was a bank for the 90s and the early 2000's but with thehabits and requirements of our business banking clients changing so much in recent years, itreally was time for us to launch a model more appropriate to banking in today's world. We'vedone this and our experience in the first half of 2015 positions us well for the rest of the yearand beyond. In a competitive market though, we recognise we must take nothing for granted,and so we will seek to deliver, at all times, a banking experience which clients really value.”In looking forward to the rest of 2015, Gerry points to a number of deal opportunities whichhe and his team are working on. “We have a range of proposals which we are activelyprogressing at present. Clients are investing and expanding, corporate finance transactions arehappening, plant and machinery are being upgraded. Underpinning our approach to all ofthese opportunities is a real focus on understanding the business of our customers at a deeplevel whilst appreciating their future ambitions, both personal and business. This makes fortruly valuable long term partnerships.”DEALS9www.eastmidlandsbusinesslink.co.uk East Midlands Business Link Heathcoates secures£20m funding dealChesterfield-based healthcare providerHeathcotes Group has agreed a £20m expansionplan which will double the size of their businesswhich specialises in providing care homes foradults with learning disabilities.With more than 30 care homes and around 800full-time staff, Heathcotes already has a strongpresence in Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire,Derbyshire, Staffordshire, Lancashire, Cheshire andYorkshire, but is now targeting cities such asManchester and Birmingham for further growth.The Group plans to add a further eight care homesto its expanding portfolio in 2015 alone, with morescheduled in 2016 and 2017.David Harrison, CEO of Heathcotes Group, said:“Since founding the business 12 years ago wehave successfully built a strong reputation acrossCentral England for delivering high-quality,purpose-built facilities for our residents."Mitchells Chartered Accountants and BusinessAdvisers advised on the deal.Tony Hornsby, partner at Mitchells who led theteam that was involved in the refinance processbetween the Heathcotes Group and YorkshireBank, said: “Heathcotes has been a client ofMitchells since its incorporation and we haveworked together since the acquisition of the firsthome in 2003. We have a fantastic relationshipwith the group and their rapid growth sinceincorporation is testament to their commitment toexcellence in care and professionalism. We haveenjoyed assisting them with their growth and lookforward to working with them through theirexpansion process.”Next >