May 2010

More than seventy key Kirklees business people were in attendance at the first Kirklees Summit, gathered to debate the district’s business climate.

Run quarterly throughout the year and working on an ‘Invite Only’ basis, Kirklees Summit runs as a panel Question and Answer session, like BBC’s ‘Question Time’.

The Panel for the opening Summit consisted of: Simon Hill, Executive Director of Business at Yorkshire Forward; Matt Holmes, Managing Director of Huddersfield based Liquid Accounts; Kevin Newson, Senior Partner at Yorkshire Bank; Jill Hague, Area Commercial Director for HSBC and Professor Bob Cryan, Vice-Chancellor, University of Huddersfield. The Panel was Chaired by Margaret Wood, regional Chair for the Institute of Directors.

The Summit was opened by Cllr Mehboob Khan, Leader of Kirklees Council, in his first public address since being re-elected and Panellists were subject to questions from the audience of business leaders on a wide range of subjects, from the banking crisis to youth unemployment levels.

Danny Matharu of Summit organisers, Hillrich said: “This was a unique opportunity for the audience to have their say publicly on business in Kirklees whilst networking with other, high profile Kirklees stakeholders.

“In a format unlike any other business gathering currently taking place, Kirklees Summit brought together a wide variety of industry leaders and created a live forum where Kirklees businesses openly debated how to make our district an even better place in which to run a business.”

Leader of Kirklees Council, Cllr Mehboob Khan said of the Summit: “Kirklees Council supports the development and growth of local businesses and so I was delighted to be asked to attend and open the Summit. It was great to see so many of our region’s businesses in attendance and to see business being done between them. I was interested to hear the issues being discussed and will be working with the Council’s business team to try to address some of these through future council events and initiatives.”

Kirklees Summit is sponsored by Kirklees Council, Fantastic Media, Ramsdens Solicitors and Kirklees Grantmakers’ Alliance.

Paul Joyce, Managing Partner of Ramsdens said: “The summit was an excellent forum allowing delegates the chance to have discussions on current topics, to listen and share experience with people facing the same challenges in Kirklees and to touch base with like-minded professionals.”

The next Summit takes place on 16th September, two weeks prior to Kirklees Business Conference. Both event are held at the Galpharm Stadium and are free to delegates.

For a link to more images from the night click here.

Here are the questions put to the Panel on the night:

1). History seems to show without exception that supermarkets have a detrimental effect on retail outlets in the adjacent Town Centre. As Chairman of The Huddersfield Town Centre Partnership, my members are already in strained marketing situations, so are greatly concerned about the arrival of Tesco and/or Asda. What does The Panel think about the Tesco/Asda arrival on the town centre’s doorstep?
Steven Pollitt
Partner
Eaton Smith Solicitors
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2). The recession has hit youth employment levels hard, the effect in Calderdale & Kirklees has been particularly acute when compared to other local authority areas. Recent press reports highlighted that around two-thirds of employers do not employ young people despite the raft of Government initiatives designed to encourage employers to do so. What measures do the panel think should be used that will really encourage employers to take on more young employees?
Gerald Hey
Chief Executive
Calderdale & Kirklees Careers Ltd
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3). As a supplier of capital equipment and services I am interested in when and if the banks are likely to start looking more favourably on lending to allow local business to invest in technology.
Phil Pinder
Director
Logical Telecom
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3.5) As the banks face tougher regulation, what facilities will be put in place to help small businesses in Kirklees finance expansion and take advantage of an improving economy?
Andrew Firth
Director
Ascensor
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4). As a nationally-recognised company with huge potential for growth, at the forefront of a new emerging industry, and based in Huddersfield, we come under a lot of pressure to move out of Kirklees – either to South Yorkshire for economic reasons or to a big commercial centre like Leeds, Manchester or even London – why should stick to our roots and stay?
Richard Holmes
Director of Strategic Partnerships
Liquid Accounts
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5). One of Huddersfield’s great claims to fame is its manufacturing heritage (David Brown, Brook Crompton, Textiles) does the panel see a resurgence in local manufacturing and if not why?
Gary Smith
Director
Novaglaze Gardner & Newton Ltd.
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6). What ideas does the panel have to create synergy between large and small businesses in Kirklees to ensure supplier opportunities? E.g. Should business supplier relationships be requested/put on offer by the larger Kirklees companies or should the smaller ones be sourcing them more actively?

What steps could be taken to move towards this model of more open local supply and should the Council have a stronger input in bringing the two together?
Nick Hill
Director
Binary Vision NLP
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