Prior to the onset of the global pandemic Dr Linda Murphy (Lecturer – Management, Cork University Business School) and Dr Giovanna Campopiano (Director of the Centre for Family Business at Lancaster University Management School) had begun a research project into the organisational resilience of family firms. The topic is in the spotlight even more in light of ongoing events and here they share their initial findings from the research with us and explore some of the ways that family firms have been resilient throughout these challenging times.

Linking in with Yorkshire Family Business Day 2021 this family business forum for the Yorkshire family business community seeks to celebrate the sector and provide insights, learning and best practice to enable family firms to survive for generations to come. Paul Andrews was joined by David Kerfoot MBE DL, Jason Rockett (Potter Space) and Fergus Bailie (Bailie Group). David Kerfoot MBE DL, High Sherriff of North Yorkshire David founded The Kerfoot Group jointly with his wife Elizabeth in 1980 using £300 capital which grew to sales of over £80 million on a global basis exporting to over 50 countries. The company processed, packed and distributed vegetable oils on three sites in the Port of Goole with a subsidiary in Poland and a sales office in New York. The Group was sold to French agricultural giant Avril in 2015. David is a passionate social entrepreneur and has a long history of community service. Currently Chairman of the LEP for York, North Yorkshire and the East Riding, Chairman of the Pendragon Community Trust which he helped found 12 years ago to build a facility for the multi disabled, trustee of a food bank and founder of an initiative called Smile for Moldova which supports people in the poorest country in Europe. He is also a patron of the Samaritans and a lifelong activist in the Prison Service as well as being a trustee of Breadline. He is a Deputy Lieutenant of North Yorkshire and High Sheriff of North Yorkshire for the year 2020. Jason Rockett, Managing Director of Potter Space Jason is the new, non-family Managing Director of Potter Space and brings a wealth of property experience to the company, having operated at a high level within the sector for more than 25 years. He joins from Gentian Development Group, prior to which he was at Scarborough Property Group and, more latterly, Sheffield United. Jason spent over ten years with the Scarborough Property Group, ultimately as Development Director responsible for the growth and management of a £350 million+ development portfolio within London, the South of England and Wales. From a standing start with Gentian, he built a diversified £25million+ portfolio of completed projects and created a development pipeline of more than £50 million. Prior to that he was CEO of Sheffield United where he was responsible for the growth and diversification of the club’s off-field revenue streams, as well as creating an international presence across three continents. He will share an insight into the family business and what inspired him to join the family firm. Fergus Bailie, Group CEO, Bailie Group (formerly known as the Baird Group) Family-owned communication specialist The Bailie Group has recently revealed a fresh identity and a completely new name, as the 158-year-old firm eyes a £20 million rise in turnover, by the end of 2021. Group CEO Fergus Bailie will share his thoughts on entering the family business and how purpose and values underpin all that they do. Their intention is to continue with a programme of internal investment and acquiring companies which meet their philosophy and purpose, for the benefit of future generations. As well as hearing their family business stories, key learnings from the session include: – The need for clarity of purpose Communication at all levels of the organisation The need to be adaptive and flexible as a business The need to talk (customers, suppliers, staff, other stakeholders) Help others and invest in the long term Listen to the people around you Take account of the wellbeing of others Keep checking in on staff.

Family Business United founder Paul Andrews interviews Stuart Dantzic, the second generation Managing Director of Caribbean Blinds UK Ltd to gain an insight into the family firm through the eyes of the next generation. As well as appreciating the role that Stuart has today and his clear pride and passion for the products they make and their plans for growth going forward, we learn about the steps taken by the next gen as they took their first steps in leading the family business after the baton was passed to them by their parents, the founders of the business.

John Broons interviews another Australian family business and gains some great insights that we can all learn from.

Peter Leach is one of the leading family business experts globally and here he looks at why it is important to have a mix of family and non-family on the board of a family business and at the role of non-executive directors.

A major challenge that family business leaders face today is inefficient and ineffective succession planning. There is every reason to get it right, but too often the process is not given enough consideration. Have you ever thought why this might be the case? Listen to Wayne Rivers from The Family Business Institute as he explains the Top 9 reasons why family businesses struggle with succession planning.

The economy is quietly dominated by family businesses, but they tend to be short-lived: few make it to the third generation. Victoria Mars YC ’78, part of the fourth generation of her family at Mars Inc., told Yale Insights that the company’s culture and mission play a key role in keeping each generation involved and ready to take over.

Stewardship: it’s a seemingly old-fashioned term, thought to have been first used in the 15th century, and, at first sight, maybe somewhat obsolete in today’s business world of quarterly profits and shareholder value. But although it’s a centuries-old term, it may still resonate today, particularly with family businesses. INSEAD Professor Randel Carlock explains more.

In the latest of the Family Business Insight series, Paul Andrews interviews Jake Karia, Managing Director of award winning Food Attraction, owners of the Jake and Nayns food brand. Hear the personal insight from Jake Karia into the growth and development of the family firm that was inspired by the tasty meals prepared by his Mum growing up. An award winning business that has grown significantly over the years, continues to invest and despite the global pandemic is looking forward positively to the future.

Ridgeview is an award-winning family business set in East Sussex run by CEO Tamara Roberts and family who are a pioneering family business producing English Sparkling Wines and celebrating 25 years as a family firm in 2020. Tamara shares her thoughts on growing up in the family firm, their journey to date and the investment that they are making for the future.

The story of Cartwright and Butler is a story of family and their love of baking that spans over five generations. You would be forgiven for thinking that the families involved were the Cartwrights and the Butlers, but this is real life and things are seldom so simple. Instead, it begins with the Adam sisters, Jennie and Kathrine who lived in a house down Derringham Street in Hull, in the North of England. The third sister Maria was already married to Charles Arnett. Upon the death of their father Henry Fearn Adam in 1903 their step mother returned to Scotland leaving them without an income. As a result, Jennie and Kathrine turned the front room of their house into a shop offering the unconventional pairing of sewing and baking. It wasn’t long before their natural talent for baking saw them leave the sewing behind with a move to new and bigger premises of J&K Adam in Princes Avenue Hull where their sister Maria also worked. The Bakery was born along with a reputation for some of the finest breads, pies, cakes, biscuits, puddings and preserves in Hull. Later, the Arnetts (remember them? We said they would be back) who had their own small chain of bakery shops by now bought J&K Adam and the families were united over their joint passion to be the finest bakers in the North. It is the direct decedents of the Arnetts, three brothers, who still run the business today, along with that same passion to make finest products possible, still burning just as bright. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves and need to return to the 1930’s… To be an Arnett is to be a baker and so it was always going to be simply a matter of time before the next generation would continue the family legacy, with two cousins (Gordon Arnett, the grandfather of today’s owners and another Kathleen Arnett) taking over a shop and café in the village of Cottingham, Yorkshire. More tough times were around the corner and in 1939 World War Two broke out and with-it food rationing was introduced. During the early war years Gordon Arnett took over a bakery in Norfolk Street Hull and with ingredients now in such short supply the shop would sell out everything they made within the first few hours of opening each day. In 1946 immediately after the war The Cake Shop was acquired in North Bar within Beverley and the business flourished. An article in The British Baker dated 1st April 1955 at the opening of the refurbished Cake Shop which now included the shop next door, had Grandfather Arnett already looking ahead to the time when his two sons John and Charles would take over the business, despite them being only twelve and eight at the time! It wasn’t until the middle 60s that this was to happen. By now the Arnetts’ reputation for being skilled bakers was gaining national attention and they were selling their cakes and biscuits across the country in stores with such wonderfully old-fashioned British names as The Army & Navy Stores, The Civil Service Stores and the legendary Barkers of Kensington A lot of this success was down to the hampers that they were included in. Here was an opportunity to showcase their skill in making not just luxury cakes and biscuits but also classic puddings and mince pies. Now diversification was happening with the starting of Beaverlac Home Bakery firstly in Beverley and then moving to Beverley Manor, Park Avenue Hull in 1980. In the 1990’s there was further diversification into the Yorkshire Farm Bakery where a range of boxed cakes using innovative packaging were produced. This range was added to in the early 2000’s by a comprehensive range of gluten free breads and cakes which supplied the needs of a growing market. With a new generation of Arnetts now running the business, it was time for the next evolution of the business. The brothers were concerned at what they saw at this time in Britain. Food was going through a bit of a crisis. Taste was being forsaken for profit. Chemists were replacing cooks. The joy of eating was being replaced with an obsession with calorie counting. All of which was an anathema to the Arnetts. Here was a family who for generations not only prided themselves on mastering the art of baking, but who derived great personal pleasure from food and the sharing with friends and family that went with it. Enough was enough, they were going to bring back unadulterated joy to the British teatime table. They would go back to what Jennie and Kathrine did – bake great tasting biscuit and cakes and preserves, the kind that put the biggest of smiles onto faces. Looking around to supplement their skill as bakers they bought a small company making jams and preserves with the simple aim to make them better than homemade. So enamoured with these products were the brothers that they decided to keep the name, Cartwright and Butler. Whatever the next chapter holds for the Arnett family of bakers you can be sure of one thing, that passion for making only the finest products, that is at the heart of who they are and have been for generations will continue for years to come. To find out more please visit www.cartwrightandbutler.co.uk

John Falder, managing director of HMG Paints and his son Jonathan Falder discuss how their values are part of who they are. John Falder, managing director of HMG Paints and his son Jonathan Falder, operations manager of HMG Paints are the 4th and 5th generation working for their family business HMG Paints. Established in 1930 with two employees and a single product (capping solution), HMG Paints is now the largest independent paint manufacturer in the UK. “It’s not about writing stuff down, I mean, you write stuff down and it just goes in a cabinet or whatever. It’s actually what you do, it’s how you live it really, it’s what we do,” explains John. Valuing What We Do “Our values are the core of everything” John explains, “they are the first pillar of what we do and why we do it. Our values of decent, worthwhile, secure, underpin what we are all about. None of them are more important, because they work together. Those three words are our benchmark for decision making. I inherited another very useful question from my father, what are we really trying to do? This gets to the core of the purpose of HMG Paints, great, we’ve grown the business by 20%, but what we are really trying to do? Is it a good thing that’s happened, or is it just being big, or is it just growing for the sake of growing? Is the company, the people in the business in a better position at the end of the year than we were at the beginning of the year?” Reflecting on HMG Paints as a business family, it has thirteen third generation families currently in the business, both father and son believe their strong values and purpose play a key role. It also gives HMG Paints an enviable competitive edge, their average length of service is around 15 years. For John, the loyalty of their people is “a good barometer whether we are doing it right, because if you are in a good place to work, you want your family to work here.” Making It Worthwhile Investing in the next generation of Collyhurst talent also makes a lot of sense for HMG Paints. Their Next Generation Coatings programme with local academies and secondary schools brings 14-year-old into the business. “During second world war, there was 14-year-old, 15-year-old, and 16-year-old running HMG because all the young men had gone to fight, all of our staff had gone,” points out Jonathan, “so my father came up with the idea if a 14–year-old, my grandfather, Ronnie Harvey and Albert Moore, aged 15 and 16, could run HMG, so can today’s 14-year-old and 15-year-old.” A programme set up because it felt like the right thing to do benefits HMG Paints. “One of the original next generation coatings is now a trainee accountant and is doing spectacularly well in the business,” and while some of the local kids did not end up joining the business, they found their direction, and for Jonathan, “that’s just as good as someone who joined the business.” “To me as a next gen, it makes an enormous amount of sense, this is where we live. We have been in Collyhurst since 1930, it is our home, why on earth wouldn’t we want to make it better for both ourselves and the local community?” Securing The Future It may sound counter intuitive but being secure keeps HMG Paints agile, as Jonathan tells us, “the security part of it is being in many different market areas, and what we find is, sometimes a market area becomes uncompetitive, sometimes it drops off a cliff. There are many different pillars, if one pillar falls, the rest of the pillars hold up the business. For example, looking through the top 10 products sold today, not one product in the top 10 now, was there five years ago. So, secure is being able to adapt quickly and evolve your business.” From discussing a new concept in nail polish with a client and testing it on the nails of the same client an hour later, to creating the next generation of coatings because if you are not constantly thinking what’s the next thing, then somebody else will think of it and leap ahead of you. Decent, worthwhile, secure has nurtured, over the generations, a collective passion for coatings in the HMG Paints family. Their enthusiasm to ‘move the game on again’ makes them leaders in their market, built loyalty in both their customers and people, and helps bring prosperity to their local community. This feature was first published by PwC as part of their Family Business Survey. It has been reproduced with their permission. Visit their website here to find out more.