State of the Region: Now is the time to grasp business opportunities

LEADING Yorkshire business figures have highlighted the opportunities the recession has provided.

Speaking at TheBusinessDesk.com State of the Region Round Table discussion held at DLA Piper in Leeds, senior business leaders said the tough climate the recession brought has also sparked the chance to transform and capture opportunity.

Jonathan Procter, partner and head of the Leeds Corporate Group at DLA Piper, said: “The whole of last year was busy for us. We saw an increase in the second half of the year in terms of deals around – this is driven by an increase in confidence. Companies have been sitting on cash for a long time and these focuses on finance are such that the deal market is strong. There’s no seasonality in this – things are changing.”

Many businesses have transformed and adapted to a challenging climate and companies have had to make changes “underneath” the surface in order to survive, those round the table said.

“Companies may have locked down, but there’s been a lot of change going on underneath. Change has carried on and those that have adapted are seeing the opportunity become experiential”, Procter added.

“The recession has given a lot of organisations the opportunity to change things fundamentally. But if we are all being dragged into a mind-set that we don’t need to make future fundamental changes – that would be a huge mistake.”

The business leaders taking part in the discussion were: Sarah Day, managing partner at DLA Piper, Leeds; Jonathan Procter, partner and head of the Leeds Corporate Group at DLA Piper; chairman of Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, Roger Marsh; chief executive of Leeds Building Society, Peter Hill; Land Securities’ portfolio director, Gerald Jennings; Lee Collinson, managing director and head of Northern Key Clients at Barclays; John Sutcliffe, finance director at Henry Boot and Andy Caton, corporate development director at Yorkshire Building Society. The event was chaired by David Parkin, founder and director of TheBusinessDesk.com

Lee Collinson, managing director and head of Northern Key Clients at Barclays, said that the past 12 to 18 months had been very positive, with a lot more M&A activity and refinancing deals taking place. He said people are looking at how they can expand their business.

“There is a lot of money out there and there’s a lot more activity. People are now starting to see there is opportunity in this region,” he said.

Land Securities’ portfolio director, Gerald Jennings, said that he believes the recession has given businesses the chance to go out and invest but he referred to restaurant closures and other city centre leisure businesses placing an element of blame for their demise on Land Securities’ Trinity Leeds, which has seen more than 12m people set foot in it since opening in March last year.

“There’s still a degree of complacency by people,” he said. “They expect people to do something for them but they have to go out and grasp some of that business. If millions of people come here, there must be opportunity.

“I think there are just some businesses which just don’t quite get the changes.”

Chief executive of Leeds Building Society, Peter Hill, added: “As new business comes in, they raise the bar and there are higher expectations. 2013 was an iconic year for Leeds with Trinity and the Arena. What is really important now is to be thinking about what happens when other cities in the UK say ‘how are we going to compete with Leeds?’

“It is important not to be complacent but to build on this and keep the momentum going. The moment we take the foot off the gas, we will start to go into decline.”

Chairman of Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, Roger Marsh, said that if you look at the Leeds City Region with a glass half full, you will see opportunity, and the challenges become the opportunity.

However he highlighted that it is not just “business as usual”, it’s about “transformation”.

Caption: Business leaders at the Round Table discussion held at DLA Piper’s offices in Leeds.

From right to left: Roger Marsh, Gerald Jennings, Peter Hill, Andy Caton, John Sutcliffe, David Parkin, Lee Collinson, Jonathan Procter and Sarah Day.