Crain's Manchester Business - 21-25 June, 2010 - (Page 1)

AWARDS 2010 WORK BEST PLACES TO office Oscars BY STEVE BRAUNER Staff have their say in the I BIGGEST 101 OR MORE EMPLOYEES t was party time last Thursday at the Ramada Manchester Piccadilly Hotel. The finalists in Crain’s Best Places to Work 2010 had every right to celebrate, whether or not they came away with an award. The 50 companies represented had been narrowed down from more than 100 who nominated themselves for the awards. Who decided whether they made the cut or not? Their own employees. In an independent survey, carried out online and administered by Quantum Market Research, staff were asked to rate their own company on key indicators such as team effectiveness, retention probability, trust with co-workers, their individual SEE SURVEY, PAGE 15 Laura Hickman-Sparkes from Simplyhealth, centre, with Michael Hartig and Gaynor Smith from Barclays Corporate # WINNER: Barclays Corporate, Manchester. Number of employees: 270 A mong the region’s biggest companies, the new Spinningfields office of Barclays Corporate is Crain’s Best Place to Work 2010. Barclays announced last year that 270 staff from five banking divisions covering corporate, capital, strategic debt finance, commercial finance and asset and sales finance services would move to 36,000 sq ft of offices at 3 Hardman Street. Michael Hartig, head of Barclays Corporate in Manchester, said the move was “a reflection of our confidence in the business opportunities within the region and our desire to support a more specialised approach to the market by continuing to segment ourselves along industry sectors”. He said the new surroundings were part of ensuring that the bank had a happy team to help it increase its share of the corporate market, which the bank defines as companies with a turnover of £5m or more. The bank offers staff formal awards through share plans, childcare vouchers, private medical expenses, discounts on Barclays’ products and incentives to cycle to work. Rewards for good work include a personalised car parking space for a week and retail vouchers. Photographs of the best performing staff are placed on the wall in the office. There are also opportunities for socialising through an established social committee, team building activities, and playing in bank football and cricket teams. Hartig said the most important attribute for a thriving office is “all the team working together to achieve the common goal, or targets, while maintaining a team atmosphere of support and camaraderie”. Bev Wilson, head of sales support at Barclays Corporate in Manchester, said: “I take real pride working for such a wellknown brand in our fantastic new premises in Spinningfields. “We have a great team of like-minded people who are committed to providing excellent service for our clients and each other as well as the community in which we work. “Barclays really encourages colleagues to support their local community either through fundraising or volunteering and we have a busy social calendar for staff too. “There are also many opportunities for career progression without moving out of the Manchester team.” CRAIN’S MANCHESTER BUSINESS VOL. 3, ISSUE 25, JUNE 21 - 25, 2010 CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk £2 CREDITS COPY: CHRIS VISSER ALL PHOTOS: MARTIN O’NEILL/STUDIOFIVEFOUR.COM G SEE PAGE 11 FOR BIGGEST RUNNERS-UP Meet the winners Page 9 What’s News ■ Lloyds Banking Group has asked property advisors to find 50,000200,000 sq ft of space in Manchester city centre. Property market sources have told Crain’s that the requirement results from a review of Lloyds’ accommodation in the city following its merger with Bank of Scotland in 2008. Lloyds’ various business arms currently occupy various offices in Norfolk Street, King Street and Booth Street. Bank of Scotland occupies four of the eight floors at Langtree’s 40 Springardens, where it moved in during 2008. Lloyds did not respond to calls for comment. However, at the bank’s own Property Perspectives seminar in Manchester last week, its northern corporate real estate director Gary Gerrard predicted that the region’s property market would “play a pivotal role” in the recovery of the local economy. ■ The Circle Club, the Manchesterbased private member’s club owned by Blacksheep Leisure, is looking for investors to form joint ventures and help the company expand. The club, based in the Grade II-listed Barton Arcade off Deansgate, is aiming to create a further six Circle venues within the next two years and is already in negotiation on two proposed sites, as reported by Crain’s in March. The firm is looking for interested entrepreneurs throughout the region to fund a joint venture franchise agreement where they can claim up to half of their outlay of up to £2m against income tax allowances through the Enterprise Investment Scheme. Managing director Craig Ince described it as “the ideal opportunity for people looking for an investment that will give them tax relief in the short term and also pay dividends going forward.” Ince co-owns the venue with fashion label entrepreneur David Mallon. The pair are looking to open in the Cheshire honeypots of Alderley Edge and Knutsford as well as Liverpool and Leeds city centres. ■ The Northwest Regional Development Agency is to slash by more than half the amount it spends on developing and promoting “key regional sites” such as MediaCity and Rochdale’s Kingsway Business Park. The cuts are revealed in the organisation’s recently-published business plan for 2010/11, which showed that spending on employment sites and premises has dropped to £18.4m from £39.9m last year. Funding for priority growth sectors is falling to £62m from £83.3m while the amount of money devoted to supporting the size of the workforce has shrunk to £400,000, from £4.9m a year earlier. The agency’s total spend has been cut to £474.9m, down from £556.7m Watchdog launches waste firm ‘greenwashing’ probe BY JAMES CHAPELARD Manchester City Council’s trading standards department has started a formal investigation into allegations that a North West waste management firm is “greenwashing” its recycling reports. The allegation centres around whether waste collected from several high profile city centre firms and buildings is actually being recycled or has been dumped into landfill. It’s alleged that in some cases Investigation follows allegations that collectors are handing out dubious recycling certificates waste which is supposed to be sorted and recycled has in fact gone to transfer stations in Trafford Park which only sort and recycle very small proportions of the waste before it is sent to landfill. Trading Standards are understood to be examining recycling claims made in environmental recycling certificates given to companies whose waste has been collected. The certificates, which verify how much a company’s waste has been recycled, are used to obtain ISO14001, the internationally recognised environmental management standard which is used for auditing purposes. In some cases the waste company in question has been claiming that 95 per cent of waste it collects from clients is being recycled, a claim which is being investigated by Trading Standards. Included in the 95 per cent figure is the fact that some of the initial waste stream is used to create Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF) which can later be burnt in incinerators. The allegations have come to light SEE WASTE, PAGE 18 Three years rent free to lure chefs to city centre BY SIMON BINNS Developers are hoping to lure the region’s top chefs by offering three years rent free and help with fit-out costs if they agree to move into the city centre’s Spinningfields business district. Mike Ingall, chief executive of Allied London, which has been building the 2.37 million sq ft office district over the past 10 years, said he was keen to talk to local favourites on the independent food and drink scene. The idea is to attract those currently located in the outer fringes of Greater Manchester to open up in and around The Avenue, the district’s high-end retail strip which is due to open next year. That could mean a free pass for the likes of Ramsons and Aumbry, both in Bury, and Rochdalebased Nutters. “Those are the sorts of restaurants I’d be absolutely keen to talk to,” Ingall told Crain’s. “The next task for us is to look at putting food and drink around The Avenue.” Allied is working with Living Ventures, which will open a bar/bistro and a “massive” restaurant close to The Avenue, according to Ingall, but the firm is also in talks with a handful of restaurant operators about other sites, including the ground floor of Manchester House. “Our restaurants are doing well — the likes of Carluccio’s, Giraffe and Wagamama have stuck with us and EMPORIUM OF SMILES BY JAMES CHAPELARD fflecks, the trendsetting Northern Quarter emporium, is back in the black and fully let — bringing smiles to the faces of tenants like Angie Hulme, pictured. The shopping centre, which was taken over by Bruntwood in February 2008, made a pre-tax profit of £13,658 in the year to September 30, 2009 compared to a £12,000 loss for the 229 days before. Bruntwood said that in the space of 28 months, the number of independent businesses renting space had increased from 30 to 73. Afflecks Ltd, the company which manages the property, posted turnover of £703,756, compared to A SEE WHAT’S NEWS, PAGE 2 £241,000 for the prior period. More than 323,500 people have visited since January, when the new owners began counting footfall. The figures show that that Bruntwood’s strategy is working while tenants, many of whom were initially suspicious of them, are breathing a sigh of relief. Hulme, co-owner of the Me&Yu fashion label, feared the Manchester property developer might ruin the emporium where Urban Splash owner Tom Bloxham cut his teeth with a poster shop and Wayne Hemingway launched his Red or Dead brand. SEE AFFLECKS, PAGE 18 SEE CHEFS, PAGE 18 Leading Page 3 FAMILY PUTS RESTAURANT UP FOR SALE AFTER 31 YEARS AS RENTS SHOOT UP http://CrainsManchesterBusiness.co.uk

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's Manchester Business - 21-25 June, 2010

Crain's Manchester Business - 21-25 June, 2010