WHEN a successful entrepreneur confides in you that watching Leeds United is “enjoyable” then you realise how tough his day job must be proving.
I called in for a cup of tea with Simon Berwin, the fourth generation of the family tailoring business Berwin & Berwin, founded back in 1885.
He’d seen last week’s comments by Eversheds lawyer Robin Johnson about the challenges of Brexit.
“I’ve just spent nine days in Asia trying to explain it to our suppliers,” said Simon, with what I detected was a hint of exasperation, as he sat across the boardroom table beside racks of its Lambretta, Paul Costelloe, Baumler and Daniel Hechter branded suits.
Given that his firm pays in dollars the collapse in the value of the pound against the dollar as well as most other currencies, has provided another challenge in an already tough market place.
Travelling from Hong Kong to China and Vietnam, Simon said the suppliers who make the suits that his Leeds-based business provides to customers such as John Lewis, House of Fraser and Next, all share the same views.
“Their attitude is that they will trade with other European countries that haven’t done something stupid like this [voting to leave the European Union].”
And the double whammy is that there is little chance of passing on the costs to customers.
“The retailers we sell to are saying that we have to absorb some of the margin loss,” he told me.
And all of this comes after Berwin & Berwin lost one of its large customers when Austin Reed collapsed into administration earlier this year.
“We had a severe loss from that. It’s a shame that you are loyal to a customer for 30 years and then that happens. So that meant we were having to pedal extra hard…and then this comes along,” he says of Brexit.
And the loyalty he speaks of is no longer a given in his business.
“A major retailer we have supplied for the last 30 years – so 60 seasons – told us to forget that, we will only be judged on price from now on.”
“I remember walking around a trade show with industry veteran Harry Rael Brook [the man behind Rael Brook shirts and Mr Harry suits] in 1995 and he said to me: ‘This will be the last year you can buy a suit for under £100.’
“Many of them are cheaper than that now.”
So when it comes to manufacturing garments, Berwin & Berwin have moved their main production base, once all in the UK, to first Eastern Europe and then South East Asia.
Simon warned that the pressures on costs and prices will mean other, cheaper manufacturing options will have to be considered in future.
“We follow poverty around the world. I know someone that is looking at opening a factory in Ethiopia.
“No one understands what we have done. It is a very strange time and this country is doing itself no favours.
“Some of the pompous people that voted for Brexit say: ‘You watch, in five years time everything will be fine’. But we have got to get through those five years first.”
It was almost a relief to get him talking about Leeds United, it certainly cheered him up.
I’ve know of Simon’s passion for his home town club for many years and in one of its previous crises, immediately post the Peter Ridsdale era, I was among a group of representatives from the city’s business community who Simon invited to his offices to discuss the future of the club.
Some things don’t change. While on the pitch performances appear to have improved and off the pitch owner Massimo Cellino is keeping remarkably quiet, there is a sense that if the biggest one-club city in the UK, if not Europe, is to get Premier League football then it needs to do that with new funding and ownership.
“It’s my only retreat,” said Simon, “who used to have his customers and suppliers from all over the world clamouring to join him at Elland Road during the glory years.
“Now I’ve got two seats at the ground and I often go on my own because nobody else wants to join me!” he laughed.
“I would even use the world ‘enjoyable’ about the football I’ve been watching,”
Given Simon had started smiling again, I resisted asking him whether he thought Leeds would be able to get back into Europe before Britain exits it.
:::
CONSIDERING they are taking early retirement from Lloyds Bank and have almost 70 years of service between them, Jamie Allison and Richard Townsend look incredibly youthful and energetic.
I met them for lunch at Harrogate fish restaurant The Drum & Monkey yesterday, on the eve of their departure from the banking giant.
And while both assured me that their future won’t be working for any other bank, I’m sure there are plenty of firms who will want to tap into their deep knowledge of funding, finance, business development and plain common business sense.
Jamie’s always been a man for whom building relationships with customers and potential customers was a long-term job, while Richard has built up a customer base of some of the best blue chip companies in East Yorkshire.
They had both spent a lunchtime with Eversheds’ banking lawyer Kathryn Walters the previous day but much to my disappointment, didn’t pass on any of the wealth of stories and gossip I’m sure they gleaned from her.
But I suppose when you’ve built your career on trust, you are not going to throw it away with some idle chatter over a bottle of New Zealand sauvignon blanc.
Jamie was the captain of Moortown Golf Club for its centenary celebrations in 2009 and the club, which hosted the first ever Ryder Cup on European soil in 1929, went to town.
He invited me to a memorable lunch in a marquee beside the 18th hole featuring a very funny Liverpudlian comedian called Willie Miller.
After being heckled by one guest, I thought the comic handled it rather gently, not turning his barbs on the loudmouth.
But Jamie did remind me that when Willie Miller was announcing the raffle prize winners he called out the number of the ticket that claimed the top prize.
When the heckler got to his feet waving his raffle tickets in delight, the comic, who had clocked his numbers earlier, told him it was a wind up and somebody else with a completely different number had won it.
Now that is one way of dealing with a rowdy heckler.
:::
ONE thing I did learn yesterday was secret regarding one dish that doesn’t appear on the Drum & Monkey’s menu but which it serves to diners in the know.
It’s called the ‘Bobbie’s’ which is king prawns served in queenie scallop shells with a thick covering of melted cheese and garlic.
Apparently they were created for former rag trade and Variety Club stalwart Bobbie Caplin, who didn’t want the scallops.
How Bobbie managed to manipulate the Jewish dietary laws to allow him to eat one shellfish rather than another, I don’t know, but if anyone can do it, it’s him.
Some people who name drop can be annoying, but I love a conversation with Bobbie as it is peppered with the names of his high level friends and contacts amongst royalty and showbiz.
I remember seeing him on a documentary about Morecambe & Wise recounting how he had been with them at Batley Varieties on the night Eric Morecambe had a heart attack while driving back to his hotel in Leeds.
I also recall Bobbie arriving at the Variety Club Business Awards in Leeds with the current Miss World on his arm.
He then proceeded to make sure she sat next to me on the raised top table.
Result!
The fact she was from Venezuela and spoke not a word of English is neither hear nor there.
I had a lovely chat.
And we definitely ‘connected’.
Have a great weekend.
you could have asked Simon how Leeds got on at Derby a couple of weeks ago 🙂