roundtable: building on success 53
managed to survive in recent years, and planned to thrive now in the recovery.
Jon Stradling said that HSBC had benefited through the financial upheaval and economic downturn by being seen by businesses as a ‘safe haven’. “For the past couple of years boards have been understandably cautious about making large decisions such as M&A etc, because life has remained hugely uncertain. Now, in the past three months we have seen positive signs and a genuine uptick in activity.
“We are not completely out of the woods yet, but a lot of companies now want to make investments in their fixed assets. There are more companies wanting to re-finance or overhaul their capital structure so they have more firepower for strategic activity.
“There are some concerns that a lot of the incentives and stimuli in the UK economy may not be sustained and are merely the froth of the moment, for example in the housing market. There is still a bias towards consumption activity rather than investment, but overall I think business owners and boardrooms are feeling a level of confidence and security in their businesses that they haven’t felt for some time.”
Funding was not impeding market activity he felt. “I see no lack of appetite among banks generally to support the growth of successful business.”
Stradling agreed with Murray that the finances of many companies are now in good shape “Cash holdings on corporate balance sheets are at a record level. M&A activity does not always mean that you have to borrow money. The environment is there for people to act if it is right for their business.”
HSBC colleague John Wilkinson, pointed out that strong businesses have been paying down debt and waiting cautiously for the right time to invest and act. “It is still a fragile recovery but there have been a number of indicators in recent months that point to a more robust growth going forward.”
Tatham revealed that Westcoast had almost doubled in size over the past five years, and used invoice discounting to finance the business, ironically to help cope with the pace of technological change. Five years ago iPhones weren’t yet launched, now iPads and the advent of cloud technology have arrived. “Our company will distribute 100,000 tablets in the coming four weeks.”
Grundon: “We took a conscious decision to continue marketing throughout the recession and our business is growing well. I envisage our headcount going up, and I feel a lot more comfortable than last year.” He also noted an indicator that the economy as a whole was recovering: “Rubbish tonnages have gone through the roof in the past few months.”
SPONSORS David Bloxham
This is a significant change for us as it’s all about educating consumers, understanding their behaviour and promoting change rather than simply the collection and recycling of waste.”
Stanley said his business remained vibrant with 15% growth over the recent September/ October booking window for 2014. “But, there are around four million golfers in the UK. We book around 200,000 golf breaks annually so there are still a lot to play for.”
He was optimistic of reaching the £50m turnover milestone within the next five years, not least through the boost of Golfbreaks new American office and uptake of the company’s online booking services
Teeofftimes.co.uk and
BookaSpa.com.
Tatham: “We had a good ‘recession’, and I anticipate us growing by around 20% this year, and potentially adding £200m to the business topline. We are very optimistic, but we have always delivered on our optimism. We always set ourselves targets that stretch us and make us think differently; if you set small targets, you can achieve them by working a little harder.
Jones expected CH&Co to grow 15-16% this year and similar in 2014. He admitted the company had “battened down the hatches in the past”. Now, it was about getting the right balance of cautious expansion and robust growth. “You don’t want to dampen
... and better times ahead?
Grundon: “We also sought to invest in complementary businesses. For example, recently we bought the UK arm of RecycleBank which has 250,000 members, and we are relaunching that under our ‘Green Redeem’ brand, a venture which will reward consumers for their recycling through a voucher system. Recycling behaviours are pretty well established in the home and at work, but a lack of recycling facilities and motivation are baulking their adoption when people are out and about or ‘on the go’.
enthusiasm, but you have to be mindful that this frothiness could be short lived.”
While his company was proud to have achieved a £100m turnover milestone, he stated that the real focus now was to improve profit margins eroded during the downturn and strengthen the company’s finances.
Bloxham’s GCS has doubled in size over the past three years and he said his focus is on achieving continued growth. “I see vacancy levels up 14% year-on-year. Obviously, this is good for us, and offers the opportunity for our consultants to make placements within growing companies.”
Future recruitment worries?
Alsop queried if company costbases were likely to increase as a result of competition for good staff as the recovery takes hold, thereby leading to reduced margins.
Bloxham commented that GCS’s most recent quarterly review showed that professional and technical salaries are rising. “All businesses today are driven by some form of technology. Highly-skilled people are needed to keep things moving forward. I read recently that the number of technology start-ups has risen by 40% in the past 12 months – that’s new businesses creating new jobs but competing for the same talent.”
Jon Stradling
“At the same time, increased recruitment within established and traditionally high- paying businesses in The City, such as banks and long-standing accountancy firms, is also
Continued overleaf ...
THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – THAMES VALLEY – NOVEMBER 2013
www.businessmag.co.uk
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