From scrap metal to compostable wiping cloths: 125 years of history at Harrison Wipes In 2016, the Harrison Wipes family business celebrated its 125th anniversary. What started in Great Yarmouth in 1891 as a textile rag and scrap metal business is now one of the world’s leading suppliers of high-performance non-woven wipes. “Even a hundred years ago, we were an international business,” says Stephen Harrison, the current MD and great-grandson of the founder. “You only have to look at my great grandfather’s passport in 1925 to see that we were trading in countries as far away as Japan at that time.” Since then, the business has evolved as technology has improved, and customers’ needs have changed. “For example, we used to weave our own rags, now we are the UK partners for two of the world’s largest nonwoven producers, Chicopee ® and Sontara®, providing advanced wiping solutions to our customers including compostable cloths and pre-impregnated solvent wipes to help tackle the environmental issue of VOC emissions. Our real expertise is in developing specialist wipes for very specific uses which are used by companies such as Bentley and Jaguar. We’ve come a long way from the heavy-duty cloths we used to supply to factories in the first half of the last century.” The structure of the firm has changed as well. By the late 1990’s, the business had 13 family shareholders who were not directly involved in the business; not the ideal share structure for a forward thinking business planning a growth strategy as a non woven converter. By 2002 a deal was eventually put together to enable a full share buyback. “It was important for me to consolidate ownership with working directors so as to be in control of the business’s destiny,” says Stephen. There is now the prospect of a new generation coming through. “I’m getting to a point where I probably need to have a five to ten year plan in place, as the youngest of my 3 boys will graduate from university in 2021. I feel it is really important that all of the boys get the chance to work somewhere else before they decide if Harrison Wipes is the right place for them to have a career . This is in the best interest both for the boys and the business. They should only work here if they feel passionate about it, not because it is expected of them. So, the long-term plan needs to be flexible enough to cope with lots of different scenarios.” It’s not just about a new generation of the family: “We’ve also made the transition to a new era of employees. We used to have a big group of staff who had been here for more than 30 years, with the final employee retiring in 2016 after 47 years of service. Almost everyone who’s here now has joined since 2002. So, it is now about maintaining and passing on the values of the business to the new team to help ensure continuity in the next generations.” Those same principles apply in relation to the Board. “If you’re a long-established family business it’s really valuable to bring in outsiders to keep you challenged. It’s so easy to get consumed by the day-to-day issues, and lose sight of the bigger picture. Especially if, like me, you’re mainly focused on the sales and marketing and spend most of your time on the front line. My non-exec ensures we tick all the boxes on governance, and have a long-term strategic vision as well as a short-term operational plan. He is also great at asking difficult questions – and challenging the status quo from an impassioned perspective which is exactly what we need. Geoff Brady once told me that he was introduced to Harrison Wipes by a colleague as “the most boring business in the world”. If by ‘boring’ he meant stable, resilient and efficient…that’s just fine by me.”

We caught up with Rebecca Jeffery who appeared on The Apprentice but now runs a successful business with her sister. Rebecca Jeffery is full of life, energy and passion for what she does as she shares her insight into her life in business with her sister Fi which they set up over three years ago, aptly named Fi and Becs Design and Marketing. Life for Becs began in the corporate world in the worlds of funerals and telecommunications. As she explains, “I loved what I did and had a real passion for the marketing side of things which was great. I worked long hours and loved what I did and for me it was like a childhood dream fulfilled as I loved writing as a child and dreamt of becoming an author so the world of marketing and copywriting is probably as close as I could get. I do feel very fortunate to have had the roles that I had!” Life changed in 2012 following the birth of her little boy Olly and some time on maternity leave where she did some freelancing for her sister who was working in design and needed some words for a client. From that moment on, although they probably never realised it at the time, their business was born and the sisters began to work together. As Becs adds, “Fi is my older sister by six years and we have always got on well together and what started out as a bit of freelance work became a business in 2013. My maternity leave was coming to an end and I was weighing up all my options and the possibility of going back to the corporate world full time or part time but took a brave decision not to go back to employment and start the business with Fi.” Fi and Becs have complimentary skills and a like-minded approach to business. Fi has a design background that marries well with the copywriting and wordsmithery of Becs which has a multitude of uses – advertising, proposals, point of sale materials, brochures etc and their clients range from the smaller end of the business scale with farm shops to more household names and the larger operations of Matalan. As a business, clients are at the core and as Becs adds, “We both love to be creative and come up with campaigns delivering what it is the customer actually wants to see and we use the stories behind our clients in their brands and collateral to help them deliver and demonstrate a real point of difference.” Much has been written over the years about siblings starting out in business together but Fi and Becs are certainly bucking any negative trends. “It took about six months of working together to set the parameters and framework for the way we work today,” continues Becs, adding “After six months we really respected each other and we are wired the same way too which really helps and in meetings it is like we can read each others minds – we certainly know what the other is going to say even before they have said it.!” Fi and Becs both have young children – Becs has Olly who is now 4 and Fi has two children under the age of 9. “Family is integral to who we both are and has been right from the start,” continues Becs. “Our business is built around us meeting the needs of our clients whilst being Mums too. We make no attempt to hide from our parental roles and embrace being Mums, flexibly working to get things done and our clients all know that we work later but are not around much from 3-7pm and that is OK!” Family dynamics and sibling relationships in business can be a challenge but Fi and Becs embrace this relationship. “We are totally honest with each other,” continues Becs, “and it helps to keep things real and we can deal with moods and normal things in life, probably because we are sisters. There is nobody that I would rather be in business with – Fi is mega and our dynamic enables us to work with clients and take them to the next level, and to do that with your sister is amazing!” “For us there are not really any downsides as we have lots in common with the business and the kids and the way that we work but we are conscious that when there is a wider family get together that we do not let every conversation take the two of us back to the business, which would be really easy to do and it is important to try to have time away from the business and not to let it take over your life, but that is easier said than done when it is something that you do and are passionate about every day!” The business continues to grow and now has over 180 clients on their books. “We are so proud of where we are today but have big plans for the future too and we are both incredibly proud of our achievements, not least in that we have created a successful business and balanced being Mums at the same time. Whilst you never get a lot of downtime, we would not have it any other way and one thing that we have both aware of is the grey area between the personal and business lives that we lead but we never apologise for being Mums either, and our clients understand.” As a growing business Fi and Becs face challenges like other businesses too. “Our challenges are about growth and keeping up with demand – a great position to be in and we are always on the look out for freelancers who we can work with, understand our brand and get the model.” We could not finish without mentioning The Apprentice which as Becs sums it up, “was the most massive piece of free advertising for our little business, the business that I was running with my older sister. I was only on the series for six weeks and never won a task but at the same time I never stabbed anyone in the back either. I was me, honest and open and these qualities have really helped us in business too. Our connections on social media grew as a result of the show and have helped us to grow subsequently.” Fi and Becs continue to make their mark and summing their life in business together Becs is clear. “We are flexible in the way that we work and what we deliver to clients to make it work for them, don’t take ourselves too seriously and like to have fun and it is all about family. We want to see our kids grow up and be involved in their lives and we have created the framework that allows us to do that too.” Flexibility, fun and family wrapped up in one business! Find out more at www.fiandbecs.com

The cycle of growth in India with Apollo Hospitals, one of the leading hospital chains with an international reputation and an outstanding track record in harnessing the power of new technology. Shobana Kamineni, Executive Vice Chairperson at Apollo Hospitals in India shares her thoughts. The business was founded by Dr Prathap C. Reddy in the 1980s, when he returned from working in the US and saw how far Indian healthcare was lagging behind. He galvanised a group of doctors from across India and beyond to invest in a hospital, and it opened in Chennai in 1983. His four daughters were involved from the start, and Shobana Kamineni was employee number three. She is now the Executive Vice Chairperson, and Apollo boasts 64 hospitals, 150 clinics, over 9,000 beds, almost 2,500 pharmacies, and a health insurance business. Shobana sees the evolution of the business in three phases: “In the beginning, we were a straightforward family business with all the advantages and challenges that brings. But while we had great expertise in our own field – healthcare – we needed to hire talented people to help us build a robust business. People with financial expertise, for example.” In the second phase, Apollo was listed on the stock exchange, which allowed the family to grow to three hospitals, but also brought increased demands in terms of reporting, accountability, and governance. The board was also strengthened with more independent directors, who still play a key role. The third phase was Private Equity. “We were one of the first Indian firms to get PE funding in the late ‘90s, when India first opened up to foreign direct investment. But we thought about it carefully before we did it: we sat down as a family to discuss it because we knew things were going to change radically, and we’d have to be even more accountable, and willing to adapt.” “We also knew that PE work to a very different timescale to families: PE houses are looking for a quick return on their money, and I’m glad to say that every PE investor we’ve had has achieved a good exit price. That’s why our share price is so high: we do what we promise.” Having Private Equity investors also focused the business more on short-term performance: “This is one of the biggest differences between PE and family business. Family businesses have uniquely infinite perspective – if you don’t reach your target this quarter, you can always do it next quarter. What PE taught us was quarter-to-quarter performance. That really sharpened us up. I think we’re actually unique in that we grew around 25% for 25 consecutive quarters. PE can be very active investors too: some of our PE investors have been in on a weekly basis, so they could really understand how we operate. You have to not just accept that, but welcome it, or the partnership isn’t going to work.” Looking ahead, Apollo has built a strong competitive advantage on new technology. “We have an innovation division where the employees work with innovation labs in Israel, the US and elsewhere in India. We incubate new ideas, and work hard to keep pace with new developments. We also encourage our doctors to take part in conferences and research forums across the world, and to collaborate actively with one another. We don’t let people or ideas get stuck in silos. This is one reason why we now have three dynamic new companies within the Apollo group: one doing analytics, one working on stem cell therapies and personalised medicine, and one working on digital and telemedicine. The latter has given us huge visibility, and allowed us to reach many more people. I doubt there are many businesses doing this sort of thing better than we are. That’s something we’re very proud of.” This feature was part of the PwC Global Family Business Survey 2016. It has been reproduced with permission of PwC.

Milaan Thalwitzer, Non-executive Chairman of The Bosveld Group, Citrus fruit producers in South Africa explains what it means to them to give something back. One of the family firm’s great strengths is its rootedness in its community. Many family firms turn their relationships into a unique competitive advantage, and take pride in the positive role they play in creating local employment, and supporting local communities. The Bosveld Group, of South Africa, is a great example. The company was founded in the 1960s, and is now South Africa’s largest private citrus fruit producer, exporting 5.5 million boxes of fruit to 50 countries across the world. Milaan Thalwitzer, is the current non-executive chairman, and three of his sons-in-law hold management roles, with one as CEO. Milaan was named National Farmer of the year in 2014, in recognition of the company’s commitment to land reform, and making the black empowerment agenda a reality. Bosveld committed to Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (or BBBEE) thirteen years ago, and is now involved in a number of pilot projects in which the company leases land from black communities on long-term contracts, and then pays rent from the proceeds of the fruit growing business. Training for local people is built into the scheme, so that the owners of the land get a chance to work on it too. “If we can get this right, it should be a win-win for everyone. Land reform is a complex and sometimes divisive issue here, but we can find a way forward if the farmers themselves play an active part in finding the answers.” Bosveld is committed to South Africa, because the family has always been committed to South Africa: “When people ask me why we’ve been so successful I say it’s down to three things: keeping pace with change, seizing new opportunities, and our commitment to this country. In the next five years our plan is to make the most of the energy the next generation are bringing to the business, and empower our local communities so we make a positive and sustainable impact. We have no plans to diversify our fruit production internationally. South Africa is a land full of potential and we must first invest in our own future and the future of our people.” And how does Milaan want to be remembered? “AS SOMEONE WHO WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO COMBINE HIS GREATEST PASSIONS: MY LOVE FOR MY FAMILY, COUNTRY AND COMMUNITY, AND MY LOVE FOR FARMING.”

Hemsby Beach and the adjoining coastline is recognised as one of the most attractive in the UK and a coastline that is awash with family businesses. Second generation family firm Seadell Shops & Holiday Chalets is one of them. Whether building sandcastles, watching the waves roll in or going on a leisurely walk through the dunes, Seadell and their collection of holiday chalets affords a warm welcome to this part of Eastern England with a proud family heritage and a real passion for what they do too. Paul Andrews spoke to the family behind Seadell Shops & Holiday Chalets to find out more about their journey. The story began back in 1976 as Toni Reeve was moving towards the end of a career in the insurance industry. Having spent many years writing lots of agricultural insurance Toni and his wife Ann had lived all their lives in Norfolk. One farmer had previously offered some advice to Toni such that “You will never make money working for anyone else” and this was ringing in his head when Toni decided to buy their first ‘long-leasehold’ holiday property in 1976 as they embarked on the next stage in their journey. In fact, Ann and Toni are in agreement when they say that the purchase of the first chalet was the start of a new business that they felt was the route to retirement – building a business that they could grow, sell and retire on the proceeds in due course. At the outset, there was little thought given to building a business to pass on to the next generation as the kids were pursuing their own interests and not showing any desire to return to the coast. Over time, more ‘long-leasehold’ properties were added to the portfolio and the entrepreneurial couple also took over the running of the shop. Ann is the first to admit that taking on the shop for the first time was daunting. “I had never done anything that involved serving the public before, and when we took the keys to the shop Toni was still working in insurance. We picked up the keys, looked at each other and said let’s give it a go – it might be fun!” At the end of their first season they were informed that the landlord had sold the shop so they handed back the keys, only to be asked to run them again a year later as the sale had fallen through. At the end of 1986 Toni bumped into the landlord as he was coming out of the local Post Office and was asked if he wanted to buy the shop. Negotiations continued for a while, stalling as Toni wanted to ensure that parking rights were secured and was prepared to walk away from the deal had they not been included. As Toni continues, “the seller was not happy about giving up the parking rights but without them there was no deal, and finally, on 6 March 1987, the shops were ours too.” Seadell as a family firm was well and truly up and running but at a time of great economic uncertainty. “They were difficult times,” continues Toni. “Bank interest rates were at 17% and the economic climate was difficult too. Remortgaging the house was the only option, and a reluctant one, but we went through with it, but the mortgage was released a year later as the results continued to improve.” Fast forward to 1995 and son Stuart returned from his time in Australia and New Zealand where he had been working and travelling. Stuart worked hard in Australia to fund his travels as well as play football, but in his own words did what needed to be done. “I loved the variety of jobs that I had, from the chemical plant to the chicken farm, and the office life I had done previously in the UK was well behind me. I had a ‘moment’ where I realised the beauty there was I working in an environment that you love. When I returned to Norfolk, I never intended to join the business but as it is seasonal, I started work when I got back to the UK for one season and have never looked back. I love it and now truly appreciate that the East Coast of Norfolk is a great place to live and work.” Ann adds, “We never put any pressure on Stuart to join us and when we set out it was all about us, Toni and I, and our journey. Stuart joining us has scuppered our plans and we are now having to change the journey and are following an evolving plan.” This is an engaging and entrepreneurial family who have not hidden away from difficult conversations. “You cannot afford to shy away from things” adds Toni, “especially when you have put everything on the line.” As an entrepreneurial family, they continue to improve, striving to improve the service to their customers, creating a brand and a sense of pride underlines all that they do. Stuart has added a fresh perspective to the evolving business and has helped to introduce a consistent look and feel to the chalets that now have a fresher look. As Stuart adds, “Too many people fail to keep up to date and improve and I am fortunate that my parents realise that we have to change with the times, and encourage me to step up and make decisions too. We are on a journey which is exciting for all of us. I relish then opportunities going forward but we are aware of the success challenges but we are working through it, talking and making decisions. We are fortune that there are three voices so we always get a decision and can move on.” The business may be taking a turn from the original retirement plan that Toni and Ann set out to create but they are embracing the future, providing customer service at all times of the day and night and continue to create memories along this stunning stretch on the Norfolk coastline. Visit www.Seadell.co.uk to find out more.

Blenheim Palace, the home of the 12th Duke of Marlborough is also a business, and the business has been transformed in the last 15 years under the management of its first professional CEO, John Hoy. Blenheim Palace is one of the most spectacular buildings in the UK and a World Heritage site. It was built to celebrate the battle victory of the first Duke of Marlborough, and 300 years later is still the family home of the 12th Duke, which makes it one of the most enduring ‘family concerns’ we’ve ever profiled. But Blenheim Palace is a business too, and over the last fifteen years the family and trustees have overseen the transformation of that aspect of Blenheim’s activities under the management of its first professional CEO, John Hoy. We travelled out to his beautiful workplace to ask about the special challenges of a position at the Palace. Why did the family decide that they needed a professional CEO and when was that decision made? The Palace is actually owned by a family trust, which has family members as trustees, as well as some high-profile external advisers with expertise in areas like the law and land management. About 15 years ago, the 11th Duke decided to bring in two of the younger members of the family, who had City and business experience. That was the catalyst, because they quickly realised that Blenheim needed to modernise if it was going to fulfil its potential, and generate the money needed to keep the palace in proper repair. Part of that modernisation was about changing the business structure, and part of it was bringing in different skills. That’s when they hired me. I had land management qualifications, and experience in running a big estate at Knebworth, and major leisure attractions like Madame Tussaud’s and Warwick Castle, so it was a great fit. And for me – a fabulous opportunity. What was Blenheim like when you arrived – what did you find? It was a tourist attraction, but I wouldn’t really call it a ‘business’. There was no budget process, no proper reporting, no strategy, no long-term plan. There wasn’t even a World Heritage site management plan, and you really do need one of those if you have that status. So there was a really pressing need to professionalise the way we worked. We didn’t do marketing or PR back then either – that was a hangover from the ‘70s and ‘80s, when sites like this used to assume that if you opened the doors people would just come. And yes, it did work that way for many years, but by 2003 that wasn’t enough as there was so much competition. So there were some big challenges, but there were big opportunities too. What did you do? We did a complete review, both of what we were doing, and how we did it. And right from the start, I had huge support both from the Duke and the trustees, and more recently from the 12th Duke, since he inherited. I couldn’t have made as many changes as I have without that degree of engagement. They supported me in instituting the professional business processes you’d expect from an entity of this size, and then I started looking at what we were offering people, because the first priority was the core activity – our visitor experience. We opened up more parts of the Palace, and built a new attraction called ‘The Untold Story’. We also changed the ticket pricing structure to make it more modern and flexible, and we introduced an annual pass, which was pretty ground-breaking at the time but proved to be a great success. A place like this can struggle to get repeat visits because people think they’ve ‘done it’ if they come once. So you have to find ways to tempt them back again; the annual pass was very good at that. We also extended our open season to almost the whole year, which, again, is quite unusual in our sector but allowed us to offer special events in the winter as well. We also completely overhauled the supporting commercial activities – much better catering facilities, and a superb new shop which is probably one of the best of its kind in the country. Having done all that, our next objective was to explore how we could diversify, and bring in new sources of revenue we weren’t tapping into. We’re bang in the centre of the country, with excellent transport links, and we have 2,000 acres of some of the most glorious grounds in the UK, but we simply weren’t making the most of any of that. We hardly ran any events, for example. In the last ten years all that has changed. We have events all year round, from celebrity weddings to huge public events like BBC Countryfile Live, which attracted over 125,000 people. We have sports events, and car rallies, and fashion shows, and contemporary art installations. The Ai Weiwei show in 2014 was phenomenal. Another case of people telling us ‘you can’t do that’, and us replying ‘yes, we can’. So there’s a huge amount going on, but it is working – when I first came we had around 300,000 visits a year. This year, we may well reach the magical million across all of our activities. Have you diversified in other ways? Definitely. The film location side is really booming – we were used for Spectre and Mission Impossible 5, as well as all sorts of smaller productions. And that involves a whole lot of new skills too – you have to balance the need to protect the fabric of the building (literally, in some cases) with what a film unit need to be able to function efficiently. Our head of operations is very good at this, and her team are very experienced, and as a result we’ve got a reputation for being good to work with. That’s essential. We also look at diversification in a wider sense – not just diversifying what we do at the Palace itself, but within the much larger estate, which is another 10,000 acres. For example, we invested in an industrial estate in Witney, to ensure we have a more even balance between industrial, agricultural, and residential property. Ironically enough, that same site used to be owned by the estate until the government compulsorily purchased it before the last war. We also have our own construction firm, Blenheim Estate Contractors Limited, which is building both commercial units and market/social housing. That whole area is very complex, with a lot of tax and planning issues, and we always have to decide if a particular development is the right thing to do with land that’s been part of the estate for generations. On the other hand, it can bring in vital revenue, and we’re looking to channel some of that into a new charitable trust, which will make it easier for us to apply for lottery funding for some of our capital and restoration projects at the Palace. At any one time there’s about £40 million of work that needs to be done, and at the moment we manage about £2 million a year which implies a 20 year cycle. But it’s like the Forth Bridge: by the time you finish you have to start all over again. Another diverse venture is Blenheim Palace bottled water. That’s fabulous because it gets our name out there in the sort of restaurants and hotels that our potential visitors are likely to use. We’re now exporting the water too, with an emphasis on China and Hong Kong. North America and China are the two most important overseas markets for us, in terms of our visitor numbers. How important is digital in reaching your visitor audience? Absolutely vital. We use everything – Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest. Everything. What role do you see the Palace playing in the wider community? There are lots of answers to that. On a commercial level, I see Blenheim as a lynchpin for tourism in the Oxfordshire region. It’s imperative that we all work together to maximise the value of the visitors who come here – we’ll all do better if we don’t stand alone. That’s why I sit on the Visit England Advisory Board, and why I was part of setting up Experience Oxfordshire, as well. Looking more locally, we take our responsibilities to the neighbouring area very seriously. The social housing venture is an important part of that, and the events we run can have a big economic benefit beyond the estate walls – we did a study of the last Game Fair at Blenheim and the wider impact was around £50m for the area as a whole and new events such as Countryfile Live will also contribute strongly to the local economy. There’s also our education work, and all the efforts we’ve made to improve our environmental performance. Things like reducing our waste, and cutting our energy and water consumption – all things that you probably wouldn’t think a stately home would be doing. All of this is part of the same overall purpose – the same sense of responsibility. This estate has been here for 300 years. We don’t just own the land, we’re part of the landscape. That’s why everything we do is driven by the need to be conscientious land-owners, and careful custodians of the family’s heritage, both now and for future generations. This feature forms part of the PwC Global Family Business Survey 2016. It has been reproduced with permission of PwC.

The challenge is to do all that’s required to pass the company on to generation two… A most challenging aspect of entrepreneurship has nothing to do with who started or maintains the family business, yet has everything to do with perpetuating it. That challenge is to do all that’s required to pass the company on to generation two. Over the past 30 years I have had many clients who did the technical things: created an ownership plan, formalised an estate plan and engaged with their family to perpetuate their business legacy. Unfortunately, in some cases, by that time the entrepreneur was ‘burned out.’ He or she had exhausted the energy and desire, and lacked the skills to devote to training and developing the business family’s next generation of leaders. A decision had been made to keep the company in the family, but the retiring generation was totally at sea about how to makes that happen with the ‘kids.’ While the situation can be frustrating, good results are vital if you are to successfully pass the business baton to generation two. A common interim solution is to hire a non-family person as president to run the company and train new family leaders. Many business executives are looking for just such an assignment. The trick is to find one suited for your family and company. Here are some tips to help you bridge the gap: Look for a person with a proven track record of business growth and success; ask for a bio or other proof of competence. Determine that he or she has the skills and temperament to train and mentor; if possible talk to individuals who have had them as a ‘coach.’ Determine how well the prospective candidate fits into your business family culture. For example, someone from large, public corporations may not comfortably fit in a lean, social, family work culture. Discuss mutual expectations with the candidate to clarify what success looks like. Include in these discussions your expectations for the next generation leaders. Thoroughly explain the family’s values, what you expect to see perpetuated in the company, and how the new non-family president can provide leadership. Set clear, formal boundaries for the working relationship that will exist between the entrepreneur and the non-family president. Write those rules down and also write down rules for company performance. Here, I suggest that the entrepreneur has regular meetings with the non-family president to stay informed about progress. Beyond an interim non-family president, an active board of directors can enormously benefit the entrepreneur in managing the leadership transition and training generation two. A strong, competent board can make it easier for both the entrepreneur and a non-family president who reports to the board. An engaged board of directors can broaden the entrepreneur’s perspective, reflect company/family history, amplify objectivity and enhance discussions about any potential shortcomings discovered in generation two. Prepare an employment agreement to memorialise the employment expectations for the non-family president. The agreement protects everyone involved and supports the president’s ability to monitor new family leaders and hold them accountable. Consult with your own adviser to help develop such a document that formalises expectations necessary for the continued successful operation of your family business. Business families are complex entities because they combine so many unusual characteristics—expressed and unexpressed. This does not mean that an ‘outsider’ is difficult to find or may be challenged to coach the incoming generation. In fact, the right candidate can simultaneously relieve the entrepreneur’s stress and launch the family business legacy into a strong future. About the Author - Tom continues his long-standing dedication to helping families of wealth and family-owned businesses succeed. He helps families develop a shared vision for the family and for the business; identify individual talents; tackle any unspoken issues; and create individual and organisational strategies to ensure a personally and financially rewarding business with a wealth preparation plan that ensures family values continue to emphasise a family culture of gratitude, philanthropy and purposeful living.

Family Business United is once again devoting a week to celebrating the contribution of family firms to the Scottish economy. 2024 sees the return of Scottish Family Business Week which will run from September 23 to274, incorporating a number of events during the week, including the Scottish Family Business Road Trip. During the week the Scottish Family Business Road Trip will see the sponsored car visiting a number of family businesses, getting behind the scenes and showcasing what they do on a daily basis, where they do what they do too. Each year this is a real journey of discovery and we know that 2024 will be no exception. Further details will be announced in due course but if you are interested in a visit please do get in touch. We will also be hosting a networking/drinks reception in Glasgow which will see the family business community come together and a dinner in Edinburgh too. Throughout the week we will be sharing plenty of news and insights on all manner of family business topics and engaging with as many family businesses as possible too. As Paul Andrews, Founder and CEO of Family Business United explains, "We have a significant number of family business members across Scotland and it is always a pleasure to visit as many of them as possible. Family businesses are at the very heart of the Scottish economy and it is a pleasure to champion them. As an organisation we have published the only report into the oldest family firms in Scotland and also reports into the contribution of the top 100 Scottish family firms too, and with family business at the centre of all that we do, we are looking forward to getting back on the road and uncovering some more great Scottish family business stories." "Scottish Family Business Week is always inspiring as there are so many great family firms with strong narratives, a real sense of purpose and deeply rooted entrepreneurial spirit that gives a nod to the past with eyes firmly focused on the future."

Reputational risk is a key concern for many family firms. Alistair Morgan explains some of the considerations as to how families can manage their reputations. Setting The Scene Many wealthy families “trade” on their reputation, which has often taken years, decades or even centuries to develop. However, thanks to social media and mobile technology, we now live in a world where reputations can be won or lost in a matter of seconds or minutes. Taking the middle ground – maintaining a reputation – is far from straightforward, and is an ever-evolving task. The reputation of a person or entity is, quite simply, an opinion which is often formed as a result of social evaluation by one part of a community or the public generally. A positive reputation can present opportunities; negative reputation on the other hand can be extremely damaging, and in the worst cases, highly disturbing. Managing reputation is a complex business on a number of different levels. The purpose of this article is to explore how wealthy families can manage their reputation, including the role of philanthropy. Central to these matters is the role of a wealthy family’s private office. Social Media, Mobile Technology And The Internet We have witnessed a cultural shift in recent years whereby the public demands more intrusive and intimate information about those in positions of power or celebrity. The private and financial affairs of wealthy individuals and families, entrepreneurs and well-known companies are ripe for public discussion and criticism, particularly if they touch on the controversy of the day. The structuring of wealthy families’ tax affairs is a notable example – more on this below. Malicious and intrusive publications, notably online, can cause significant and lasting reputational damage. Negative publications can be devastating and wreak havoc on personal and business relationships, profitability and investment opportunities. Once images and information have been publicised across different platforms, the task of completely removing it can be almost impossible to achieve. The old adage that “prevention is better than the cure” is particularly apt when advising wealthy families on how to manage their reputation. Challenges Faced By A Family And The Role Of The Family Office The structures that hold and administer a family’s wealth are often far from straightforward. Such families often have an array of trusts (both on and off-shore), companies (private and public), partnerships, charities and foundations. Each of these vehicles will inevitably have an ongoing, typically annual, compliance obligation which can take the form of tax returns, annual accounts and annual returns, to name but a few. It is common for families whose affairs involve such a degree of complexity to have their own private family office. A popular misconception about private family offices is that they are simply a private investment office with an administrative function attached to it. While these services often form a part of the overall service function for a wealthy family with complex wealth arrangements, a private family office should also seek to provide families with strategic advice about many different aspects of their private wealth arrangements, and ensure that such advice is implemented appropriately. Set out below is a number of issues that the private office of a wealthy family need to address in order to manage their reputation: Compliance (fiscal, regulatory, accounting) The work can either be undertaken in-house, in which case it will need to employ the appropriately qualified and experienced staff to do this, such as an in-house director of tax, head of compliance or chief financial officer. Alternatively, the work can be outsourced to a third party, but the family office should coordinate and drive the process. The “Smell Test” Some, or even all of the activities of a family’s wealth structure may not fall under the supervision of a regulatory body such as the Financial Conduct Authority, or have a statutory need to be audited. However, in the absence of statutory or regulatory obligations, a family may want to ensure that all of its private wealth arrangements are governed and operated in accordance with “best professional practice”. As a result, a private family office must aim to operate such that its policies and procedures conform to the standards required if it were under the supervision of a professional or regulatory body. One way to achieve this is for a private family office to establish an Audit and Risk Committee (ARC), which can also be used to monitor a family office’s obligations when it does fall under the supervision of a professional or regulatory body. Ideally the ARC should be chaired by an independent individual who is neither a family member, nor an employee, either within the family office itself or in a business owned by the family. Furthermore, families can elect to have their entities audited by a professional auditing firm in the event that there is no statutory audit requirement. For example, an offshore family trust structure may have greater complexity, quantum of wealth, and number of financial transactions each year than a company listed on the London Stock Exchange, and the latter would need to have a full statutory audit. The audit of a private trust structure can help to provide family members with an additional level of comfort that their affairs are being administered in a way which is unlikely to have an adverse impact on their reputation, with the full support of a professional firm’s report. Security Having a robust security plan is integral to maintaining a wealthy family’s privacy and reputation. Intrusion, for example through a breach of an IT system or as a result of an employment matter, can have a detrimental impact on a family’s reputation. A private family office can develop a coordinated strategy for them in order to help prevent, detect and respond to a breach of security. Public Profile For some wealthy families, having a public profile is inevitable and simply unavoidable. This may range from a family member being the CEO of a public company, to being the family of a well-known sporting celebrity. A private family office may need to engage a consultant who can advise them on how to manage their public profile, and by implication their reputation. Such a consultant will also be an integral part of any exercise that is required to manage an attack on that reputation, irrespective of whether there is any truth behind allegations made by an unscrupulous third party. Crisis Preparation How to react when disclosure is threatened or a breach of confidentiality occurs. The previous points all confirm the need for a family office to have a clear strategy and plan to deal with a “Crisis” before one actually occurs. This then needs to be integrated with a disaster recovery plan for the private family office in order to deal with events such as, inter-alia, the death of a key (and probably publicly well-known) member of the family, the broadcast of a story or event in the public press, or a transaction involving one of their business interests. The plan should also include a set of procedures to deal with a third party seeking to tarnish the reputation of a family. In advance of such an event taking place, the private family office will need to consult with them about their views on the extent to which they would want to trace and bring to account a perpetrator of an attack against their reputation. Attitudes To Tax Much has been discussed and written about attitudes to tax in recent times, both nationally and internationally. Popular themes and their respective drivers include: The national deficit – political pressure to generate sufficient revenue from taxation in order to pay for the cost of providing public services. The on-going search for someone to bear the responsibility for the 2007/08 financial crisis. Bankers have taken much of the pain, coupled with the perception that they were the main promoters and users of aggressive tax avoidance schemes that have cost the Treasury access to many billions of pounds of taxation revenue. The moral argument about tax avoidance and the blurring of the lines with tax evasion. A wealthy family’s approach to taxation is therefore a critical aspect of how they manage their reputation. As has been recently seen by the string of celebrities embroiled in suspected tax avoidance schemes, it is not possible (not least from a legal perspective) for wealthy families to simply leave it to their tax accountant “to get on with it”. Each family member has to take responsibility for the management of their tax affairs – to do so otherwise could have a serious detrimental impact on their reputation even if they were simply following the advice of their professional adviser. Failure to comply with these obligations could result in a public trial and prosecution, bringing with it the inevitable impact on the family’s reputation (irrespective of the eventual outcome). A private family office can assist with this by dealing with the following issues: Tax Compliance A private family office may be mandated to maintain all of the personal financial records of the members of the family. The office may also maintain the accounting records of the entities (corporations, trusts, partnerships, charities etc.) that exist within the family’s private wealth structure. Typically the data produced and maintained by the family office will be presented to their tax accountant to enable them to prepare and submit tax returns. The late or incorrect submission of a tax return can result in negative connotations for a family. While such a submission may not become public knowledge, a wealthy family’s relationships with taxation and regulatory bodies are critically important to the successful administration of their wealth. It is therefore imperative that a family’s private office is structured and managed in a way that will enable the tax compliance obligations to be met accurately and in a timely manner, working alongside the professional tax community where necessary and appropriate. Transactions A private family office is likely to be involved with the planning and implementation of transactions on behalf of the family and their wealth structures. It is highly likely that any such transaction will have a fiscal implication, and so the manner in which the process is driven and organised by the family office will potentially have an impact on its outcome. The senior family office executives need to work closely with the family and its professional advisers to identify the key tax issues and risks, to give them clear and definitive advice on the potential implications of the transaction. The Role Of Philanthropy Wealthy families engage in philanthropy for a variety of reasons, including a moral desire – people who may feel that they would like to contribute more may make philanthropic donations of their own choosing rather than contribute to the public purse. Or they may simply wish to continue their family’s history of philanthropy. One of the many advantages of being involved in philanthropy is the positive effect that it can have on a family’s reputation (whether such attention is desired or not). Executed well, philanthropy can present them with a favourable public image. However, get it wrong and the negative impact can be disastrous. It is therefore imperative that a wealthy family’s involvement with philanthropy is properly managed and administered, and their private family office should play an integral role in this by establishing the appropriate governance structure for their philanthropic interests. The private family office can also help to bring cohesion to this matter by delivering a consistent set of policies and procedures to the governance of the family’s interests generally. Typically, a wealthy family’s involvement in philanthropy will take the form of a charity that is specifically incorporated to pursue their philanthropic interests, which I will refer to as a “Family’s Private Charity” (as opposed to a “public” charity, such as the Charities Aid Foundation. The issues that a wealthy family need to be mindful of when involving themselves in philanthropy include: The public perception as being an ineffective funder if a grant made by the Family’s Private Charity is misused or the charity folds. Grantees could perceive the Family’s Private Charity as being an inefficient funder if it rejects requests for subsequent grants, or withdraws a commitment before full payment is made (for whatever reason). Conflicts of interest need to be handled appropriately, particularly where a family has many diverse interests aside from their philanthropic pursuits. For example, difficulties can arise if a business that is owned and operated by one family member appears to pursue activities that are contrary to a Family’s Private Charity which is run by another member or branch of the same family. Compliance with charitable legislation and regulations appropriate to the charity’s activities, such as those issued by the Charity Commission. Internal financial controls – if a Family’s Private Charity is managed ineffectively, it will reflect badly upon the family, particularly if one or more of the family members are involved in a commercial enterprise (“they should know better” syndrome). Conclusions Managing the reputation for a wealthy family is far from straightforward. There are many pitfalls, but there also a number of proactive steps that can be taken to mitigate these risks. A well-organised private family office, which operates with clear policies and procedures, is a good method of enabling them to be strategically advised on these issues. Philanthropy is an integral part of managing a wealthy family’s reputation. However, a family’s interest in philanthropy should be led by their philanthropic interests and objectives, rather than a means of managing their reputation. About the Author - Alistair Morgan is CEO of Mayfair Private. This article was first published by Familia, the official magazine of the Family Office Council and has been reproduced with their permission.

As the first non-family CEO of Charles Wells, Justin Phillimore looks back on his first year in the job and to the future challenges and opportunities. It has been almost half a decade since Pub & Bar first ventured to Bedfordshire to visit Charles Wells and talk to then managing director Peter Wells. Back then he spoke about the importance of retaining tenants and lessees through a bespoke system of support and investment within an estate segmented four ways. Five years later and we’re back, talking to new CEO Justin Phillimore. Last January, Phillimore took over as CEO, becoming the first chief executive of the company not to be ‘one of the family’. While he acknowledges the custodial implications of looking after a family business for generations to come and the inevitable influence that comes from outgoing CEO Paul Wells still being chairman, Phillimore is making his own decisions on how to shape the business. To that end, he has looked to develop investment and training for tenants further and wider. “The key development we’ve been pushing has been support for our tenants, from marketing through social media, and that realisation that they need training,” he explains. “It isn’t just that big five-day burst that we give to start with where we cram people with tons of information. It’s how we deliver that ongoing development for them in a way that is manageable.” Phillimore wants a more hands-on approach to his estate. While he understands the importance of letting people run their own business, he doesn’t want to simply leave them to it without a few nudges and helping hands. The management to tenant ratio, with each regional development manager (RDM) looking after 33 pubs, means they are able to get around to each regularly, assessing progress and offering guidance within each venue. “In the past, we would have said: ‘You’ve got a plan, great. Let’s go,’ and then never come back to it,” he explains. “Whereas now I think it’s about: ‘That was your plan, what worked, what didn’t work? What’s your plan for the coming year and how can we form that plan? What do you need from a development and training perspective to enable you to do it?’ It’s their business and we just want to help them make the greatest success of it that they can. And there are areas of the business that we know we can support. We’re much more proactive than we’ve ever been because the world’s a more difficult place than it’s ever been.” In addition, Charles Wells has a service desk behind the RDMs, with experts in subjects like property, insurance, legal and maintenance. It appointed an in-house training manager in 2016, who visits pubs and develops the skills of licensees and staff without them having to take time and money out of their business going to a training day in Bedford. For Phillimore, the key change in the last year has been that RDMs no longer just score highly on getting around and visiting the pubs. There has been a determined focus now on making sure that they are adding value to every business they visit. “We were probably ahead of the game in terms of our support and service a year or so ago, and we rested on our laurels to a certain degree,” admits Phillimore. “But now the competition has caught up, so we are stepping on the gas and ratcheting it up again.” Managing Managed However, while Phillimore sees the leased and tenanted estate, within which Charles Wells has almost 200 pubs in the UK, as a core part of the business, it has been the managed sector that has seen considerable focus in 2016. One of Phillimore’s first decisions upon becoming CEO was to invest £3m improving the brewery and a further £4m on the pub estate, of which over £3.7m has already been spent. Around £1.5m is being spent on the company’s leased and tenanted estate, the rest went into buying and refurbishing managed houses in France and the UK. The Apostrophe brand, which currently consists of three pubs, is not something that can be easily rolled out, given the scale of these sites. The first of them – d’Parys in the heart of Bedford – won the Bedfordshire Pub of the Year in the National Pub & Bar Awards and is Charles Wells’ flagship site, with food, drink and accommodation on offer. So Phillimore started looking for smaller, simpler offers with which to build a managed estate. Thus Pizzas, Pots and Pints (PPP) was born in The Salisbury Arms in Cambridge. “The big managed establishments are getting harder and harder to find,” he explains. “If we’ve got the ambition to grow that sector of the business we’re going to be stuck looking for those large places. These smaller, simpler pub operations enable us to use creativity. We get that right then it’s a much more straightforward operation to roll out, providing you get it in the right place. It doesn’t have the complexity of big food operations at a time when everybody is struggling for chefs.” There will be more Apostrophes appearing, with two new openings – in Olney and Harpenden – in the pipeline, but the PPP concept has the greater potential in Phillimore’s eyes, with its smaller footprint offering more opportunities for acquisition and two income streams bringing in profit. The company has even taken out a few leases to expand the brand more quickly without the capital cost. It is in managed houses that Charles Wells will grow its business and its estate. However, while Phillimore considers the opportunity for growth to be in the managed sector, he has no intentions of doing so at the expense of the leased and tenanted estate. “We’re not wanting to dip in and pick out all the great pubs from our estate and turn them into managed houses,” assures Phillimore. “A vibrant and viable tenanted estate has to have those good houses that attract good tenants and give our other tenants somewhere to move up into. There will be one or two that we’ll take out, but we won’t be raiding the leased and tenanted estate for our managed estate growth.” International Flavour For a company set right in the heart of England and a beer that screams St George in Bombardier, Charles Wells is perhaps one of the most international regional breweries. With its oversized brewery needing to be filled, it has taken on brewing responsibilities for companies around the world, as well as exporting its beer to around 40 countries. While it has five managed houses in the UK, over the English Channel, its estate in France currently stands at 13, and Phillimore knows there is room for growth. “We’re starting to think about going beyond France, but there’s still lots of room in it,” he says. “There’s no reason why we couldn’t have a fourth or even fifth pub in Bordeaux and there’s no doubt that we could do 10 or 12 in Paris quite easily. There are at least 10 or 12 cities we haven’t been to yet that could do at least a couple of pubs.” The French estate is clustered around five cities – Bordeaux, Paris, Lyon, Toulouse and Montpellier – and this clustering is important not just from an operational and economical perspective. In a foreign city, the more venues in one place, the more one can learn about that place. The customer base is predominantly French and in a relatively uncrowded market the style is modelled on the ‘French idea of an English pub’, a style which occasionally needs to be reinforced by the executive team that runs them. “If we leave them for too long, saucissons and steak tartare start creeping onto the menu,” he says. “We’re then saying: ‘Non non, get back to sausages and pies’. It’s important to get that French idea of Englishness because that is its USP.” Talking about France leads us seamlessly into a conversation about the biggest thing to happen during Phillimore’s first year at the top: Brexit. With a business earning Euros in France and one of the largest export businesses in the UK drinks trade, Charles Wells is relatively well placed. However, the uncertainty surrounding the market, coupled with cost increases, is a concern that Phillimore sees as a challenge in an increasingly competitive market. But it is also an opportunity. “There is no doubt that whatever happens there will be massive uncertainty for a considerable length of time,” says Phillimore. “There are so many forces that are pushing up prices and competition that we’ll see a few people struggle in the next couple of years, which is hopefully a great opportunity for us.” The Years Ahead Phillimore has been at Charles Wells for nine years and in his opinion more has happened within the industry in that time than in the last 500. For example, while the four-way split of the Charles Wells estate – Traditional Community, Destination Community, Town Centre and Destination Food – remains, the place of the community wet-led pub has been challenged. In the last decade, Charles Wells has disposed of around 35% of its pubs, most of which were small, rural venues that were no longer viable for the company. The smoking ban, drink driving, the growing cost of beer – all have contributed to difficulties in the traditional wet-led pub, but there are ways for these pubs to thrive. “There is clearly a place for community wet-led pubs, but the economics of that are changing,” he explains. “The wet-led boozer will disappear and replacing that is going to be something with a broader appeal. It will need to be flexible. That means coffee in the morning, becoming that community space that people use throughout the day. Then it becomes a question of size and scale really.” The brewery remains Charles Wells’ primary challenge for the future, but its difficulties can serve as a metaphor for the on-trade itself. Both operate in an increasingly congested and competitive market, with new entrants challenging the status quo. But just as brewers are starting to look to more sessionable beers rather than extremes, so too is the on-trade seeking ways to retain fickle customers in their venues, whether that’s through the offer of food and accommodation, or through good value, choice and quality. And while choice remains a key point of difference for many operators and customers, for Phillimore, it is the quality of the offer that will determine whether people will return, whether that’s coming from the cellar or the kitchen. To this end, he has sought to grow the managed estate, produce more premium beers that appeal to the younger market and maintain and improve standards within his tenanted and leased estate. In his first year, he has prepared for that and laid the groundwork. “Now it’s execution time,” concludes Phillimore. “It’s about the task rather than the strategy – the detail rather than the big brush strokes.” Having set out plans for his tenancies, leaseholds and managed pubs that will give customers the choice they want, his primary role now is to ensure that they are consistently delivering on that more intangible but more valuable desire – a quality experience. This article was first published on Pub & Bar Magazine. It has been reproduced with the permission of their editor Tristan O'Hara. For more information, visit the website here

Yaşar Holding is a great example: born out of a trading concern in the 1920’s, it evolved into the country’s leading paint business in the ‘50s, and is now a diversified group in its fourth generation. Turkey is one of the most vibrant markets in the world, with a young and tech-savvy population, an enviable position at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, and an entrepreneurial culture. There have been many political upheavals in the last thirty years, and the region still faces significant challenges, but when it comes to emerging economies, Turkey is still putting the ‘T’ in MINT. Around 95% of Turkey’s businesses are family-owned, and these firms are an absolutely vital part of the country’s economy, driving growth, prosperity, and innovation. Yaşar Holding is a great example: born out of a trading concern in the 1920’s, it evolved into the country’s leading paint business in the ‘50s, and is now a diversified group in its fourth generation with nearly 80% of its interests in food production. And while the majority of its US$1.5 billion of annual sales are within Turkey, Yaşar Holding remains true to its trading roots and exports successfully to the Middle East, Europe, and the former Soviet economies. “When I became chairman,” says Selim Yaşar, “I said ‘we want to grow. How can we do that?’ Part of it was about maximising our production, but we also looked more laterally – at growing our brand, and diversifying our revenue streams. The key to everything was flexibility: being flexible in how we utilised our manufacturing capacity, and being prepared to utilise our distribution systems to distribute other companies’ products.” “That was our strategy. And it has worked. And we have never stopped investing in innovation. You have to do that, if you are in the FMCG industry. Every year, we spend around US$100 million on new machinery, better packaging, and more efficient processing. And we keep up with trends in food too – we have organic farms, and we make a whole range of healthy products, and we are expanding our private label business, which is a growing segment and very exciting for us. We also offer easy-to-cook meals, designed for the increasing numbers of people in Turkey who are working outside their homes and do not have time to create meals from scratch.” Yaşar Holding has fully embraced the potential of digital: “We capture a huge amount of data and can access it on a PC or mobile device. Information such as the location of our transportation vehicles, for example. And our monthly reports are available eight days after the end of the month. That means I can see what is going on in all our companies very quickly, which makes us more agile, and allows us to take very fast decisions.” In fact, the Group has got so good at running ERP systems that it is making such expertise available to other businesses as a service. Having established a business which leads in sectors as diverse as industrial paint and children’s dairy products, Selim has strong views about leadership from a family business standpoint. “We are experts in it. We have centralised finance and HR functions, and we have professional managers at senior levels. However, there is a limit to their commitment. We have brought in external managers many times, but some of them only stayed a few years, then they quit. But the family members do not quit. We are born to it. So you can have professionals working for you in areas like accounting, finance, marketing, and R&D, and they are really valuable. But sometimes for real leadership and taking risk, you need the family.” One area where Yaşar Holding offers a valuable model for other family firms is in its approach to its Board, which includes three people from the family and three professional executives: “In my opinion, family members should work outside the business for a couple of years and then work for the company. And after twenty years of doing that they should become Board members. In each of our companies we have professional executives who have no relation to our company, because it is important to have outside views on a Board. And every year we change Board members – we remove directors who do not contribute and find other people who will. So being on one of our Boards is a challenging position. But that is what we want. That is what will help us grow.”

Mother Parkers is one of the largest coffee and tea suppliers in North America and can trace its roots back to 1912. With Paul and Michael Higgins at the helm of the family business, they have recently sought to professionalise the organisation by bringing in a President from outside the family. “We’ve been Co-CEOs since 1992,” says Paul, “and in that time the business has achieved great growth. We’ve also made some significant progress in areas like Research & Development (R&D) and the use of IT. But for the last few years we’ve been thinking very seriously about what the next phase looks like. The next generation isn’t old enough to take over for a while yet, and we really felt we needed an injection of new blood and a different set of professional skills, insights and experience to help us to the next level. So we made the decision to hire a President, Fred Schaeffer, from outside.” “But we didn’t make a decision like that lightly,” says Michael. “We talked to our advisory board, we talked to the kids, and we talked to other family businesses who’ve done something similar. Because we’d heard some horror stories, where the owners had hired people to come and run the business, but the owners weren’t prepared to let go and it turned into a complete mess. That’s the last thing we wanted, so we talked to other firms about what pitfalls we might encounter, and how the process worked. We quickly came to the conclusion that the best time to do it is when the company is in a strong and steady state, and there’s plenty of time to embed the new person, without the pressure of a looming retirement date.” Supporting the next generation is a key part of Fred’s role. “I wanted a mentor for my kids,” says Paul, “to help them get a broader view of the industry and the global market than I can give them. Fred has worked for big consumer brands around the world – that’s going to be invaluable, both as a manager and a mentor.” It’s clear that mentoring isn’t just about management skills, either. As Michael says, “We’d love it if the kids were the right people to lead the business forward, but there’s no culture of entitlement here. You have to work as hard as any other employee, and you don’t get any favours just because your name is Higgins. And however things turn out, we want to make sure the next generation will be good owners, even if someone outside the family is CEO. And that’s a tough role – being a good steward. That’s how Paul and I see our role here: we’re stewards of this. We didn’t start it. We didn’t create what our father developed. We were fortunate enough to have the opportunity to take what he did and build on that, so we’d like to instil the same sense of responsibility with the next generation. Their job will be to build it, make it bigger and better, more successful. Having the support of a professional CEO at this stage in their careers is part of that.” Thus far, at least, the decision seems to have paid off: “We were really impressed at the calibre of applications we received,” says Paul, “and a few months into the role, Fred has impressed just about everyone, both inside and outside. Relationships with customers are particularly important, given how much of our turnover is B2B. These days it’s much more of a partnership than a sales relationship. We don’t just sell product, we sit down and work out what new blends or tastes might be successful, how best to manage the supply chain, how to build in recyclability – key issues like that. And looking ahead even further, the next big thing in our sector might not be a new beverage at all, but a new way of delivering it. We’re already selling to all the most important parts of the market – the Big Box stores, the really large grocery chains, food service, fast food. You name it – we’re there. So, they know us. They trust us. And that means if we can come up with something new that’s really spectacular, the opportunity could be significant.” This feature was part of the PwC Global Family Business Survey 2016. It has been reproduced with the permission of PwC.