Chamber News

Companies trading with Qatar are becoming increasingly concerned about the severing of diplomatic ties with that country on 4 June by Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt have implemented what is effectively a blockade against Qatar, closing airspace and territorial waters and preventing onward shipment of goods traditionally routed through them. This is of greatest concern to companies which might have goods destined for Qatar now ‘stuck in transit’ in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt, particularly those with Letters of Credit stipulating delivery by specific dates to secure payment. UK exporters are being encouraged to discuss with their shipping agents alternative routes into Qatar but a threat of wider action by Yemen, Libya and the Maldives could further complicate arrangements. The British Chamber of Commerce in Qatar has issued a statement which said: “On 4 June 2017, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt cut diplomatic ties with Qatar. This has led to closures affecting road, air and sea routes between these countries and Qatar, as well as travel and residence restrictions affecting Qatari nationals. Restrictions on entry to the UAE have also been placed on certain holders of Qatari Residence Permits. These restrictions don’t apply to British nationals. As of 6 June 2017, the land border between Qatar and Saudi Arabia is closed. All flights between Qatar and Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain are suspended until further notice. These measures are likely to lead to some disruption for travellers in the region. You should check with your airline before you travel. Direct flights to and from the UK aren’t affected. Travellers should also check with the FCO Travel Advice for Qatar which is being updated regularly. Trade with Qatar is similarly affected by the closure of ports and road borders to Qatar bound shipments. Companies with goods in transit to Qatar should check with their shipping and handling agents to determine how best to ensure the shipments can reach Qatar. Local shipping agents in Qatar can advise on what new routes are proving most reliable and effective. For companies that have future business in Qatar, the Qatar government has emphasised that its ports and the airport remain open and they are operating business as usual. The British Chamber of Commerce in Qatar judges the embargo to be only temporary in nature but it is not possible to say how long it will continue. Further information will be posted as and when the situation changes.”

Commenting on the General Election result, Jonathan Cage, President of Norfolk Chamber said:

“After two long years of elections, referenda and wider uncertainty, many Norfolk businesses were doing their best to ignore the noise of politics – up until today. 

“The electorate’s split decision generates further uncertainty for business communities, who are already grappling with currency fluctuations, rising costs, and the potential impacts of Brexit. 

“The formation of a workable administration that can give voters and businesses confidence around economic management must be the immediate priority.

“Whilst Norfolk companies have for many months done their best to screen out political noise in order to focus on their own operations, this result will prove much harder for UK businesses to ignore. The swift formation of a functioning government is essential to business confidence and our wider economic prospects. 

“Businesses are adept at forming alliances and coalitions when important interests are at stake. We should expect the same of our politicians.” 

On the timetable for Brexit negotiations, which are scheduled to begin in less than a fortnight, Mr Cage said:

“No business would walk into a negotiation without clear objectives, an agreed starting position, and a strong negotiating team. It is hard to see how Brexit negotiations could begin without answers on these important questions.”

Successful Norfolk entrepreneur Chris Sargisson commences his new role as Chief Executive of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce today, Monday 12 June.

Chris was educated in Norwich and lives in the city with his wife and two children. He worked in the 1990s shaping Norwich Union Direct before leaving to set up and launch its4me plc, one of the UK’s most successful online car insurance brokers and major Norwich employer. Chris also created House Revolution, one of the UK’s first online estate agencies, alongside running his own business consultancy practice which has helped organisations of all sizes across the UK.

The new Chamber Chief Executive will be attending many of the key Chamber networking events in the coming months, so there will have plenty of opportunities to meet with Chamber members.

Upon starting the role, Chris said:

“To represent the many Norfolk businesses that form the Chamber membership is incredibly exciting. I’m extremely honoured to have been given this opportunity and genuinely looking forward to using my entrepreneurial business experiences to support, develop and build upon the already outstanding hard work and successes of the chamber team.”

(Based on May 2017 data releases)

Monthly headlines:

• UK GDP growth in Q1 revised down as the trade deficit widens
• UK consumer price inflation rises to three-year high as pay growth continues to slow 
• UK pay growth weakens still further
• Indian economic growth slows sharply as Brazil emerges from two-year recession

The second official estimate for Q1 2017 UK economic growth (GDP) stood at 0.2%, down from the previous estimate of 0.3%.

Retail sales rose by 2.3% in April, the strongest rate of growth since January 2016.  The improvement was largely due to a 5.1% rise in the sales of clothing, footwear and textiles in April. However, with wage growth expected to continue falling in real terms, the downward pressure on retail sales is likely to increase in the coming months.

The latest UK labour market figures revealed that in the three months to January 2017, the number of people in employment rose by 122,000.  However, with regular earnings growth slowing from 2.2% to 2.1% and inflation rising to 2.7% in April, earnings growth is now trailing behind price growth.

India’s economy, the world’s seventh-largest, grew by 6.1% in annual terms in Q1 2017, down sharply from the growth of 7.0% recorded in the previous quarter.  The slowdown means that India has lost its place as the fastest growing economy to China.  Meanwhile, Brazil, the largest economy in Latin America, grew by 1.0% in Q1 2017.  This is the first time that Brazil’s economy had grown since Q4 2014 and means that it has now emerged from the country’s longest recession in history.

For full details of this month’s economic review click here.

On Wednesday 7th June Norfolk Chamber held its first South Norfolk Business Breakfast, at Applewood Hall Banham.  Over 60 Chamber members attended the popular networking morning, hosted by Events Manager, Philippa Bindley. The morning got underway with a popular networking icebreaker that that asked delegates to reveal their first or worst jobs, leading to interesting discussions about their career paths and working lives. After tucking into to a full English breakfast and getting to know other members in the room through a safari networking move, Matt Sykes, a Trainer at Mindspan delivered an insightful presentation about the challenges that sales professionals are experiencing in today’s marketplace. Matt warned delegates of common mistakes they may be making when trying to promote their businesses at networking events, such as talking excessively about their business selling points. He stated that: ‘People aren’t interested in what you do…they want the result and the benefit that comes with the service you provide.’ You can watch the video of Matt’s presentation online here or access the presentation slides by clicking here. The morning ended with a final round of free networking and a last chance to exchange of business cards. The next South Norfolk Business Breakfast will take place on Thursday 26th October 2017

In an effort to avoid post-Brexit tariffs, a third of British businesses are looking for UK firms to replace EU suppliers. Meanwhile, nearly half of EU businesses working with UK suppliers are in the process of finding local replacements.

The figures are revealed in a new survey by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), which found that 32% of UK businesses who work with suppliers on the continent are actively looking for alternative suppliers based in the UK.

For those trading with other Member States, UK-based suppliers are set to lose out as 45% of businesses currently using them seek non-UK replacements.

The survey of more than 2100 supply chain managers also found that 36% of UK businesses are intending to respond to Brexit by beating down supplier prices and that 11% of firms think that part of their operations may no longer be viable.

Although both UK and European supply chain managers agree that the main priority for the Brexit negotiations should be to keep tariffs and quotas to a minimum, those in the UK with responsibilities for brokering international deals believe there are serious obstacles to achieving that objective.

More than a third (39%) said they thought that the UK is in a weak position to negotiate and 36% cited lack of time as a major factor in achieving a good deal.

Even more worryingly, 33% of respondents believe that the UK has a dearth of supply chain expertise and knowledge to draw on.

Commenting for the CIPS, Gerry Walsh noted that both European and British businesses will be ready to reroute their supply chains in 2019 if trade negotiations fail – they are not wasting time to see what happens.

“The separation of the UK from Europe is already well underway even before formal negotiations have begun,” he added.

Whitehall is not set up to do trade well, a new report insists. Not only does it lack the necessary expertise, but its standard ways of working will make it more difficult to establish an effective trade policy.

By nature generalist, secretive and unwilling to make difficult trade-offs, Whitehall will, the report argues, present Government Ministers with some very difficult political choices.

Published by the Institute for Government (IfG), Taking Back Control of Trade Policy says that, despite the creation of the Department for International Trade (DIT), the UK’s Ministers and civil service are not even close to being ready to negotiate – let alone implement – new global trading relationships.

The UK will only reap the benefits of taking back control of trade policy if the Government radically changes the way it operates, the IfG states.

The report’s authors argue that good trade policy requires civil servants to work across departments, collaborate with business, be open with consumers and the public, and spend their careers developing deep knowledge and expertise.

However, it points out, that is not Whitehall’s normal way of doing business.

Ministers will have to make difficult choices about the UK’s priorities – and must recognise there is much more to trade policy than making deals.

Rather than prioritising negotiations with Brazil, Russia, India and China (the BRIC countries) or the USA, the focus should be on replicating existing EU deals with Canada, South Korea, Switzerland, Turkey and Singapore, the report recommends.

Commenting for the IfG, Oliver Ilott warned against the UK launching trade negotiations with large numbers of countries, and either doing bad deals quickly or getting bogged down in protracted talks going nowhere.

“The Government needs a strategy that targets a few priority countries and explores options that may be better than free trade agreements,” he said.

If the UK is to retain its position as a global trading hub, then the Freight Transport Association (FTA) believes that creation of increased airport capacity in the southeast of England is vital.

The leading membership association in the logistics sector, whose members account for around 70% of the UK’s imports and exports, made the comment in response to the Government’s Draft Airports National Policy Statement.

It called for a swift resolution to discussions over the construction of a third runway at Heathrow before the airport loses further prominence in global trading to its European neighbours, including Paris Charles de Gaulle and Schiphol.

Alex Veitch, the Association’s Head of Global Policy, said: “The FTA has consistently supported the construction of a third runway at Heathrow, in preference to Gatwick, as our members believe it will deliver greater economic benefits to the whole of the UK from what is the key logistics hub for the entire country.”

Cargo is currently sent to and from Heathrow to 185 destinations in 84 countries, he went on, and expansion work must start swiftly to protect the airport’s reputation as the UK leading air freight gateway.

According to the York Aviation Report, jointly commissioned by FTA and Transport for London (TfL) in 2015, failure to expand capacity at London’s airports would have a detrimental effect on future trading partnerships, hitting shippers in terms of time and cost as they attempt to get goods to market, both in the UK and overseas.

The FTA’s Sky-high Value report into the value of extending Heathrow’s capacity can be found here.

Addressing the 2017 European Business Summit in Brussels, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström set out the state of play for the EU’s ambitious agenda of trade policy.

This includes working with partners including the USA, China, Canada and Japan as well as Latin America, southeast Asia, Australia and New Zealand.

The Commissioner noted the benefits trade can bring including cheaper products and services, and the creation of new jobs. She called for an approach which responds to people’s concerns, with a trade policy which is transparent, based on values and which shapes globalisation.

With regard to the UK, Ms Malmström expressed her personal sadness at the Brexit vote.

“But we’ll have to respect it and get on with it,” she continued. “Negotiations will resume after the election. The first priority is to ensure it’s an orderly withdrawal.”

In her speech, the full text of which, is available at trade.ec.europa.eu, the Commissioner gave an overview of progress in the trade agreements currently under discussion.

She also took the opportunity to attack the rise of protectionism and populism, and stressed that trade must not lead to a race to the bottom, with each side undercutting on standards.

The Commissioner closed by calling for a strengthening of the open, rules-based global trade system. The EU, she said, is open for business.

If you’re considering entering the EDP Business Awards but you’re unsure about which category is right for you, or you would like advice on how to tell your business story, then this session is not to be missed.

Norfolk Chamber of Commerce are running a special one-off free training as part of their Chamber Sessions which are one-hour free training workshops at their Norwich office.  How to write award winning entries Date: Friday, 23 June, 2017 – 8:30am to 10:00 Venue: 9 Norwich Business Park, Whiting Road, Norwich, NR4 6DJ FREE TO ATTEND

The interactive workshop will feature top tips from PR expert Suzy Pettican from Reflection PR, revealing the secrets of how to construct a winning entry which stands out to the judges.What’s more, Anna Norman (Events Manager for EDP Business Awards) will be providing insights about meeting this year’s criteria and answering any questions you have about the judging process.  

Entering the awards provides significant opportunities to reward, recognise and promote your business – so if you have an initiative to shout about, join us and improve your chances of success.

Three take aways from this session:

• Know what category is right for your business to enter.
• Discover how to make your entry stand out from the crowd.
• Find out answers to EDP Business Awards myths.

To book your place on this free workshop click here. 

EDP Business Awards 2017

The EDP Business Awards 2017 are open for entries. The deadline for submitting your entry to any of the twelve award catergories is Sunday 30 July. Finalists will be invited to the black-tie Awards Ceremony at the Norfolk Showground on Thursday 2 November 2017. 

We have an announced the lucky winner of our competition to receive 2 x VIP Tickets to the Royal Norfolk Show, congratulations Jonnie Butcher from Desire Marketing.

Don’t forget Norfolk Chamber members can receive 10% off the price of Royal Norfolk Show tickets. 

The Royal Norfolk Show is the county’s biggest event of the year. It attracts tens of thousands of visitors from all over the UK.  It takes place on Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th June 2017 at The Royal Norfolk Showground. 

To purchase your ticket and receive 10% discount click here and use the code RNS44.

Ahead of the general election, Norfolk Chamber is setting out the key Norfolk business asks for any future government and is calling for support for Norfolk exporters and for the government to work with businesses to secure the best possible deal with the EU.

Commenting on the need to support Norfolk’s exporters, Esther Evans, member of Norfolk Chamber’s Board and Managing Director of STM Packaging Group Ltd said:

“Many of Norfolk’s most successful businesses are staying very positive about Brexit and ensuring they are in a good position to take advantage of any opportunities that arise. 

“To give Norfolk companies greater confidence over the next two years, we want to see down to earth and sensible dialogue on business issues from any future government, but we would also like to see the government working closely with businesses of all sizes to help deliver the best possible deal with the EU and deliver the most advantageous economic environment in which Norfolk’s exporters can thrive and grow. This can be achieved by canvasing opinions and utilising all the region’s best business talent via the voice of the Chamber of Commerce.”

“Brexit is also a fantastic opportunity for the UK Government to lighten the regulatory burden on businesses in order to stimulate business growth and innovation. Norfolk businesses have a huge capacity for both growth and innovation, and are perfectly placed to take advantage of these opportunities so that they can offer greater employment and improved skills opportunities to all current and many new employees.”

Nova Fairbank, Public Affairs Manager for Norfolk Chamber outlined what Chamber members want to see as part of the Brexit negotiations:

1. Business Voice: support Norfolk exporters to drive economic growth.  Develop trade policy with business, and leverage Chambers of Commerce, which are best placed to provide stable export support in all regions of the UK.
2. Labour: Protect the rights of existing EU workers to stay in the UK.  Create a future UK immigration system that is responsive to economic needs and skills shortages at all levels, and ensure that there is no hard border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.  
3. International Trade: Tariffs need to be kept to a minimum, with simplified customs procedures to make exporting as easy as possible.  To grow our export capacity, swift trade agreements with countries should be reached and trade missions should be expanded.
4. Standards: Product standards should be aligned and recognised by the EU, to ensure that Norfolk products remain competitive.
5. Funding: UK funding levels for business and people development need to be maintained in Norfolk to the levels that were formally funded from the EU.

Norfolk Chamber members are already noting how Brexit has impacted on their businesses so far:

Gordon Chetwood, Managing Director of Pasta Foods said:

 “Pasta Foods has seen an upward path since the UK’s Brexit vote. Most of our pasta competitors are European businesses supplying into the UK, so the devaluation of the pound makes us more competitive to UK customers, in spite of the fact that we have faced rising costs, as we buy raw materials from Europe.

“In our snack business, we export snacks across the world to over 40 countries and we have seen very good sales growth in spite of raw material cost inflation and we anticipate that this will continue into the future.”

Alex Durand, Chief Executive of SaxonAir Charter Ltd said:

“Brexit has shown no signs of affecting our business yet, but as the majority of our flight operations are international, and particularly to, from and around Europe, it has the potential to significantly damage our business.  Our view is that we need to prepare ourselves both for the good or the bad – there may be new opportunities created, or we may have to dramatically change our business. Either way, our approach needs to be the same: we have less than two years to make our business as efficient and dynamic as possible.”

Huw Sayer, Director of Business Writers said:

 “Surprisingly, the Brexit vote has been good for our business so far but longer term uncertainties remain. Several of our European clients have already asked us to write marketing material emphasising their continued access to the EU single market and a pan-European supply chain.

“We have also been writing case studies for inward investment agency clients, showing how they can advise and support UK companies looking to future proof their business by establishing a base in the EU. The main threat we see is to our UK manufacturing and financial services clients, who may find themselves trading under WTO rules if the UK government does not secure a negotiated settlement.”

Sean Clark, Director of Clark St James said:

 “Clients in the financial industry, based around stock investment, have severely cut their advertising spend as uncertainty is delaying potential investors from making any significant investment decisions.  Travel and tourism advertising spend is up within the “staycation” market as the exchange rate makes it more beneficial to holiday in the UK.”