Business Profile
First of all we have come out of this recession far better than anywhere else in the UK, with the exception of London, which is another country, so it’s difficult to compare with London, although the export figures coming out of the Midlands are now, for the first time ever, bigger than London, so it’s certainly very strong and that success is largely down to Land Rover. The reason for this is not that we’ve been very clever for the last three or four years, the Midlands has been reinventing itself for the last 30 years when we lost British Leyland, Rover, British Steel, so we’ve been reinventing ourselves for quite some time. We’re more about tourism, education, culture; we’re more about exhibitions and high-end manufacturing, Land Rover as an example. So I think the Midlands is very strong, but the property question? I think there has been such a focus on London that people have forgotten about the rest of the UK and in the last six months the Israelis, Singaporeans, Chinese, Indian and American equity houses have woken up to the fact that it’s not London that’s the safe haven, it’s the UK. So why pay twice the price for the building when you can buy it in Birmingham for half the price, you get twice the yield, you get the same security and the same tax haven status, so that’s why the investment bit has come good, but our economy has been mending itself for a while, I think we have a really good 10 or 20 years ahead of us – if we don’t cock up it up. Things like HS2, the train station, the library, the airport – which has had
its busiest month – you know everything is starting to prove itself.
With such a range of businesses, where is your focus? My fulltime role is as Chief Executive of Real Estate Investors plc (REI plc), a quoted property company, listed on the Stock Exchange. Marcus Daly and I joined the Board and acquired a stake in the business in 2007. Prior to our appointment, the market capitalisation of the company was under £5m and we now anticipate that by the end of 2014 we will have gross property assets of over £100m, having spent the last seven years acquiring property throughout Birmingham and the Black Country and the wider Midlands, during the property crash and financial crisis. The business is in great shape, we commenced paying dividends in 2012, have increased the dividend year on year, and we are committed to a progressive dividend policy. Our aim is to establish the business as a major Midlands property plc alongside Mucklow and St Modwen. We have an excellent team and our Non-Executive Chairman is John Crabtree OBE, the former Senior Partner of Wragge & Co., Chairman of Birmingham Hippodrome and Staffline plc. His advice and wisdom is invaluable.
Although I have maintained my shareholding in all the other businesses, I’m a non-executive in them all, attending quarterly board meetings and supporting the management team when required and contributing towards an agreed strategy.
Bond Wolfe Commercial, based in West Bromwich, is now the leading property agency business in Sandwell and Black Country, run by James Mattin and David Waldron, who have done a great job growing the business year on year throughout the recession.
Bond Wolfe Homes trades as Paul Dubberley & Co. and is run by Lee Morton, who has been with us over 20 years. This business recently won a Sunday Times award for best local estate agency.
CP Bigwood is run by Rory Daly, with whom I started Bond Wolfe back in 1983, and Nigel Curry. They’ve done an exceptional job creating a business that manages almost £3 billion worth of property in 30 counties throughout the UK and operates the largest auction house outside London with annual sales of £60m.
57
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164