Business Diary: July 13

SO, profit warnings in Yorkshire and the North-East have fallen in the first half of 2010. On the face of it, that's good news.

Or perhaps not, according to Hunter Kelly, a partner at Ernst & Young, the accountancy firm behind the research.

The reason for the fall is boardrooms talking down prospects or, in other words, managing expectations.

"UK plc could be in for another rough ride," predicts Mr Kelly.

He points out that this is the last period in which Britain's expansionary fiscal policy will help. Soon, fiscal tightening will rein in public spending and consumer spending.

Mr Kelly says it looks like 2011 will be the "crunch period", dashing the hopes of anyone who hoped the economic recovery might pick up pace next year.

It's a downbeat assessment from Mr Kelly, who hails from north of the Border.

In an effort to lighten the mood, Diary asked him what he was optimistic about.

"Scotland's chances for the next World Cup," he shot back, proving that accountants do have a sense of humour.

Here and there

AN amusing missive from Clark Herron arrived in Diary's inbox. Mr Herron, a former journalist who once edited the Cyprus Times, is the urbane communications manager at the Rotherham Investment and Development Office.

He wrote: "Two cracking pieces in last week's Business Tuesday – Assured Fire & Security and Macalloy. Cracking companies, too.

"One wee thing – the curse of the Royal Mail postal address strikes again. Both companies are in Dinnington, which is in Rotherham, not Sheffield.

"It's just that the Royal Mail decided that Dinnington, and a host of other Rotherham locations, would be ascribed to Sheffield – don't get me started about Wales (the village)! Sheffield address, Worksop phone-code… and in Rotherham.

"Frankly, as long as the firms are successful I don't much care, but it is important to show that Rotherham can attract companies such as these."

Light years ahead

DOCUMETRIC chief executive Rami Cassis can be forgiven for touch of self-indulgence in renaming the business.

Mr Cassis, an aerospace engineering and physics graduate, founded the company just over three years ago and is now engineering a stock market entry by reversing his Rotherham company into software group Intelligent Environments.

For the company's new incarnation, he has chosen Parseq, similar to a name used in astronomy to denote the distance to a star.

The parsec – the parallax of one arcsecond – is equal to about 19 trillion miles or about 3.26 light years.

"Maybe I'm just a closet nerd – or just a nerd," he admitted.

Stars check out

B-LIST celebrities looking to increase their income by doing a few Morrisons ads on the side, are to be sorely disappointed.

The Bradford-based supermarket group is "resting" stars such football pundit Alan Hansen, TV presenters Richard Hammond and Denise Van Outen and singer Lulu – in favour of children – for its new television advertising campaign.

A spokesman for Morrisons said: "While the use of celebrity brand ambassadors has worked extremely well over the last four years and really put Morrisons on the map, it's time for a change and to allow the celebrity-orientated format to be rested.

"The new format allows Morrisons to even more strongly communicate the things it does best. The first ad focuses on the provenance of the fresh food on Market Street, our direct sourcing of livestock from British farmers and our fully-trained in-store butchers."

The ad launched last night.

Go for it

IF Sunday's British Grand Prix left you with a desire to make your rivals eat your dust, then now is your chance.

Yorkshire businessmen and women will take to the tracks in go-karts to compete for PPiK's annual corporate cup.

Heats start this week for the July race and contenders include HBOS, Royal Bank of Scotland, property consultancy GVA Grimley, cost management firm Auditel, Form Bespoke Jewellers, Chocolate PR and many more .

Organisers expect to raise at least 10,000 for Leeds Children's Hospital, Leeds Community Foundation and 96.3 Radio Aire's Cash for Kids and to attract more than 100 teams.

Leeds gourmet pizza company Box Pizza is sponsoring the competition.

Teams are of four drivers and at least one wildcard entry, alongside the winners, will be invited to the celebrity final.

The cup is open to anyone over the age of 16, along with a 200 minimum sponsorship donation. To enter. go to www.ppik.net/leeds-corporate-cup