Yorkshire business leaders’ priority is funding and transport

YORKSHIRE’S most high profile business leaders believe that availability of funding from banks and improvements made to the region’s transportation and communications infrastructure would ultimately ensure the long-term health of the region.

The findings come from the ‘2012 – A View into the Future’ event hosted by accountants and business advisors BDO Stoy Hayward, and was just one of the results from an interactive voting session during the event.

‘Historian of the future’ and leading authority on forward strategy, Dr James Bellini was guest speaker and he predicted that as e-commerce grows, there will be a greater importance placed on efficient logistics.

He said: “E-commerce is a major growth area for the future and during this recession we have already started to see it develop. As a result of this, there will be a greater dependence placed on logistics, in order to move products around the country and world, so these two areas could be massive areas of potential for Yorkshire businesses.”

A panel of experts featuring Stephen Martin, chief executive of Clugston Group; David Jackson, chief executive of Redhall Group; David Maybury, regional director of Clydesdale and Yorkshire Bank; Mark Hunt, head of business assurance at the Leeds office of BDO Stoy Hayward; and Dr James Bellini, debated results from the voting session in a panel discussion chaired by David Parkin, Editor of TheBusinessDesk.com.

Results to the questions posed during the evening reveal that:

• 30% of business people believe that improvements to Yorkshire’s transportation and communications infrastructure would ensure the long-term health of the region. Equally, 30% also believe that availability of funding from the banks would help to drive growth
• 44% think that the downturn will turn into an upturn in at least 12 months, with 37% estimating that it will be at least two years before we see any real improvement
• 56% believe that adverse trading conditions in key sectors will be the most testing challenge to their businesses, whilst 25% believe that it will be access to finance
• 35% advise that staying close to their customer base during a downturn should be top of a board’s agenda to ensure future success
• Optimistically, 58% believe that funding is available if the business case is right, although 34% state that direction from the Government is not being reconciled on the ground
• Looking forward to the next 12 months, 29% of business leaders state that they are most likely to invest most of their cash in acquiring other businesses, though 18% said that their wallets are staying firmly shut

The panel looked forward to the future and Stephen Martin predicted that a lot of challenges and issues are yet to surface. He felt that there are green shoots of recovery but the roots are short, and with growth not coming from consumer spending, things will get worse before they get better. However, he felt that there are lots of good examples in Yorkshire of businesses bucking the trend and predicts that the mid to second half of next year is when the economy will begin to recover.

Dr James Bellini stated that we are beginning to see more liquidity in the system and predicted that a new age of prudence and caution will arise, with financial habits changing as a result.

Mark Hunt advised that banks need to understand their client’s business and that business leaders should work closely with their bank managers to keep them fully abreast of developments in order to ensure accurate margin levels and avoid opportunistic banking.

Ian Beaumont, managing partner of BDO Stoy Hayward based at Bridgewater Place in Leeds, said: “The Yorkshire Report 2009 revealed some interesting findings and highlighted issues that the region’s businesses are facing. It was great to be able to open this up into a debate with our panel of experts and gauge their expectations as to what the business community can expect to see in the next few months and beyond.”