Coventry & Warks chamber members set for a right shoeing from conference keynote speaker
THE secrets behind Britain’s biggest shoe repairers, Timpson, will be outlined to delegates at this year’s Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce annual conference.
Keynote speaker at the event, which takes place on October 17 at the city’s Belgrade Theatre, is the chairman of the Timpson business, John Timpson.
The company, which offers a range of services from key-cutting to shoe, watch and mobile phone repairs, has more than 1,300 branches across the UK, including 18 across Coventry and Warwickshire.
The company, which is wholly owned by Timpson and his family, turns over more than £150m a year.
Timpson said: “I like to get out and speak to businesses. It’s always interesting to see the reaction you get. My feeling on business is that it is simple really. You let people get on with it. Of course, you have to have the right people but once you have them, you have to give them the power to do what is needed.
“Too many believe that business is a process. They think if they get the right process in place then everything will take care of itself. It doesn’t work like that.
“We do benefit from the fact that we are a privately-owned, family company so we don’t have shareholders in the city to answer to.
“If we did have those shareholders, I will still run it in the same way because I believe it is the right way. If they didn’t like it, they’d have to get rid of me.”
Timpson’s eldest son, James, (he has five children as well as fostering more than 80 children with his wife, Alex) is now the company’s chief executive and that has helped Timpson senior to enjoy his role even further.
He said: “It means he gets all the difficult bits and I get to enjoy going round to our branches and seeing the people and the ideas that are coming out.
“I’ve never thought about it in the sense of being proud because my son is running the business. I just know he is very good at it, we work well together and I thoroughly enjoy it.”
Louise Bennett, the chamber’s chief executive, will also address the conference ahead of Jonathan Browning, chair of the Local Enterprise Partnership, and Tom Vosa, Yorkshire Bank’s chief economist.
The conference will also see Catherine Mallyon, of the RSC, and representatives from Turkish Airlines and Centre for Cities, take part in a debate around the issue of the region’s town and city centres, while Coventry and Warwickshire manufacturing success story Safetyflex Barriers will highlight what it has achieved on the world stage.
