Case study – Goodwood Estate Company (no. 52)
Encompassing 26 business units and brands – including Glorious Goodwood, Goodwood Revival, the Festival of Speed and Vintage at Goodwood, aviation and a hotel – and with a £55 million annual turnover, Goodwood’s success is enviable. From 2008 to date it has grown both in revenue and profitability, with 2010 a record year, and all this during the recession.
Adam Waterworth, managing director of Goodwood Racecourse, who joined in January after a six-month handover, said: ”We are lucky, because Glorious Goodwood is the favourite event of the year for many of our visitors and they won’t drop it. Year on year the racecourse corporate side is showing good levels of growth as clients start to invest again. We offer a wide range of packages and have loyal sponsors; those clients that dropped out for a year or so are returning. We continue to invest, to the tune of £500,000 in the Sussex Stand, which opened in April.”
The monumental loyalty of corporate customers is cited too by Alex Williamson, chief financial officer: ”Our relationship with our sponsors is very important and very robust; we have to do what we do very, very well. At no stage do we cut any of the deliverables and we continue to invest heavily and wholeheartedly.”
Williamson explained that some areas of the business have been reshaped, not just for economic reasons, but as part of Lord March’s ongoing business strategy. A renowned and award-winning entrepreneur, Lord March has
invested in senior people for his management team and tasked them with showing each part of the various business units greater attention, with a focus on investment in product, content and experience. ”He has restructured the organisation to better shape the business and make it more commercial,” continued Williamson.
Of course you cannot buy heritage and Goodwood’s brands carry bucket loads of it.
”It
”There’s a definite look and feel to what Goodwood does,” added Waterworth.
captures something personal and creates a unique experience for every individual.”
Looking to the future, Goodwood is responding to demand by adding capacity to the Festival of Speed and regards economic challenges as having led to its events becoming more dynamic, such as the innovative World War 2 Mess Room re- creation at the 2010 Revival. As well as continued investment, there are plans to grow Goodwood internationally in the next 18-24 months, bringing it to a wider worldwide audience.
education & business roundtable ... continued from page 29
The university will also be helping with initial premises, and involvement with local business networks and contacts.
In addition, the university aims to increase work placements and its provision of graduate internships in future to 100 per year, each paid at a fair rate and with the option for further study. ”It’s all about different routes to make our graduates more employable.
”I think in this region we actually have a good offer to help entrepreneurial students succeed,
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH CENTRAL – JUNE 2011
but we also need to create an environment that keeps businesses in this locality.”
Stark agreed. ”We are generating business formations in our area but we struggle with retention. Students form their businesses then disappear back home because there isn’t the innovation centre capacity to sustain them.”
Bournemouth University is doing similar support work to Southampton Solent. It has a 300-strong extra-curricular student society that brings in external business friends and experts to work with them to teach real-life knowledge
of business operations. Bournemouth has also created a Council of Entrepreneurs, formed from high-net-worth individuals and funders, who can advise and help on business formation.
Birkett said encouraging students to be involved in entrepreneurship and setting up new businesses was a key to the success of the University of Southampton Science Park, which currently had 120 graduates working in onsite businesses.
Ramsden: ”For our company, it was fortunate that we achieved a good marriage between the University’s innovative ideas and the proven business skills of an excellent CEO. Otherwise, I don’t think we would still be around now.”
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