Outlook 2019: ‘Exciting’ to see businesses and cities thriving and growing

Leading business men and women spoke about their success in the North and West Midlands at TheBusinessDesk.com’s Outlook 2019 seminar, when they shared their passion for a thriving economy with a diverse number of sectors including digital, manufacturing, engineering and construction.

David Wilton, chief financial officer at Sumo Digital

David Wilton, Chief Financial Officer at Sumo Digital, spoke about the success of the first year since the Sheffield-based games developer debuted on the stock exchange in a listing which valued the business at £145m. He said: “ There’s plenty of demand for the sector we are in and the market is growing very quickly, which is a great place to be.

“We’ve increased our headcount by about 100 people, so we now have a team of 600 across all of our studios, including one in India and another in Canada. But around half of that increase has been in Sheffield. I’m really struck by the technology and talent there is in Sheffield.

“Sheffield Hallam in particularly we’ve worked very close with, as we have with University of Sheffield, and they are turning out very skilled young people and we are trying to hire as many of those as we can.”

Going forward into 2019, Wilton also spoke about the “exciting” times ahead not just for Sumo Digital, but also Sheffield as a whole as well.

He said: “You look at the centre of Sheffield and it’s a rejuvenated city, the new infrastructure and buildings in development are great. 250 of our 600 staff are working in Sheffield so the centre is really important for us as well. I’m optimistic about 2019, we’ve got very ambitious targets that we expect to achieve.”

Huw Dolphin, managing partner for the Birmingham office of DLA Piper

Huw Dolphin, managing partner for the Birmingham office of DLA Piper UK LLP, explained that even in the face of ongoing political concerns, business had remained strong and on track in 2018.

He said: “Birmingham has seen huge growth in professional financial services as this sector is something that the city does really well. We’ve seen professional services firms and banks increase their presence in Birmingham over the last year.”

For the year ahead, Dolphin said that the impending Brexit fallout would be a major concern, but something they are confident in tackling. He explained: “As for DLA Piper, we have found it very difficult to plan for Brexit because it still remains uncertain, but when it finally goes through we are confident we will adapt to any changed. Despite this we still see the wide UK market as a significant part of our global business, and Birmingham as well as the wider midlands area forms a very important part of that.”

Mark Phillips, chief financial officer at Zenith

Mark Phillips, Chief Financial Officer at Leeds-based Zenith, firstly spoke about the successful collaboration and relocation of the firm’s headquarters to the £400m Kirkstall Forge development.

Phillips said: “A highlight for us is moving to new offices at Kirkstall Forge, which actually won a national award for the best new office space in the whole of the UK.

“This was achieved through working together with councillors, politicians and the private enterprise CEG, which developed the scheme. Zenith then came in to sign a lease for the premises, thus enabling building work to start. It’s really good to see what can happen when all these different parties come together.”

Zenith, an independent leasing, fleet management and vehicle outsourcing business, has experienced rapid growth in recent years but as the looming outcome of Brexit is still unclear, Phillips said that planning for 29 March “almost seems impossible” as they await for what the impact will be on the business.

He added: “We are just making sure we have plenty of liquidity in case cash flow stops and we can’t secure new deals because we can’t connect with the supplier. We are also finding that Brexit is becoming a management distraction because we have better things such as developing and growing the business, and employing more people in the region.”

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