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Business Diary June 2
Plain speaking is my favourite currency...
Lloyd Dorfman, the founder and executive chairman of currency giant Travelex, revealed some illuminating insights into the world of business during a lunch in Leeds last week.
The multi-millionaire told the audience of select businessmen and women how he started out in a tiny shop at the back of the British Museum.
"I took a little shop in Southampton Row, London. I opened in 1976. There were lots of tourists. My first customer came in to change 300 French francs.
"In those days, this world was dominated by some of the biggest and oldest banks and financial services companies in the world.
"I started a business. I did not know where it would lead to or what it would become. I can't produce a 32-year business plan.
"In the real world of businesses, we all know it's all ********.
"Business is not just about key performance indicators and spread sheet management. You can quote that."
Prince and the poet
Entrepreneur Jonathan Hick was among those at last week's Prince's Trust lunch at Aspire. Mr Hick, who appeared on TV's Secret Millionaire earlier this year, regaled those present with another of his poems.
The wordsmith wrote:
For thirty three years
Our Prince of Wales
Has been hosting lunches like this
To tell us the tales…
Of young people in prison
Of young people on drugs
Talented, but lost
Humans, not thugs.
Over half a million youngsters
Have been touched by the Trust
But we need a million a week
To avoid going bust!
I'm sure, as Yorkshiremen
You'll have all had a hunch
That there's nought such thing
As a truly free lunch!
And before you left home
I take it as read
You emptied your piggy banks
And the cash under the bed...
Call of the shop floor
Yorkshire's top business people love to stay close to the coal face, long after they have earned enough to put their feet up.
According to legend, Sir Ken Morrison used to check the bins behind Morrisons stores to make sure stock wasn't being wasted. Self-made millionaire Terry George is another entrepreneur who has no desire to inhabit an ivory tower. His business empire includes a launderette.
Terry often pops into the launderette to chat to customers, and get a first-hand account of whether his business is helping their clothes stay in pristine condition.
Is this a quality unique to Yorkshire? Can our readers supply us with examples of other Yorkshire millionaires who simply cannot
bear to be torn apart from the workplace?
Getting a grip
It's not often a Yorkshire chief executive brings you back a little present from his latest trip abroad.
But many thanks to Croda's chief executive Mike Humphrey who presented Business Diary with a lovely tube of "Snott Gorila Hair Gel" from his recent visit to Mexico.
Apparently, it's extremely strong and has a "gorilla like grip on
your hair".
Natural chemicals company Croda, which is based in Snaith, provides one of the essential polymers for the snot-coloured gel, which Humphrey assures us is one of the best selling hair gels in Mexico.
"Mexican teenagers love it because it annoys their parents," Humphrey tells us cheerfully.
According to the tube, Snott Gorila Hair gel is: "The product for any kind of way-out hair styles that need a gorilla's strength".
We are not sure whether to take this as a compliment or not.
Rocky relaunched
Northern Foods remains tight-lipped over its plans for a biscuit relaunch later this year.
The Leeds-based company, behind the Fox's biscuit brand, plans to relaunch its best-selling Rocky biscuit.
While the latest 7m advertising campaign for Fox's features Vinne, an animated cross between a panda and dog, chief executive Stefan Barden said the new Rocky ads won't be fronted by an animal.
"It's repositioning the brand," is all Barden will say. "It's very interesting and clever stuff."
A very bad year
Which chief executive has confided to the Diary that his wife has run off with their neighbour?
The Yorkshire-born businessman, who runs a global company, said his wife left him and their children because she "preferred the look" of the family friend.
As if that wasn't bad enough, his company's profits and sales fell dramatically in the first three months of the year, proving that 2009 is turning out to be a tough year all round.
If you have a story for the Business Diary email bernard.ginns@ypn.co.uk
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Weather for Yorkshire
Tuesday 22 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 9 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 21 mph
Wind direction: North
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 10 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
