Former FD returns to help Town Centre grow car park business

Duncan Syers was FD from 1993 to 2001 and played a key role in building up TCS’s Universal Parking company, which owned 23,000 parking spaces across Britain.

Dutch-owned Q Park bought Universal in 2001 in a deal worth £36m and appointed Mr Syers as chief financial officer to run the business.

Mr Syers, who left Q Park in 2003 to pursue various entrepreneurial ventures, will be working part-time with Ben Ziff, managing director of Town Centre Car Parks, to identify and assess potential acquisitions.

The group is looking at teaching establishments, health authority car parks and transport terminals as well as traditional city centre shopping car parks. Mr Syers will also attend management meetings as a consultant.

The £5.2m turnover business owns 4,500 parking spaces across Leeds and Manchester and employs 30 staff.

Town Centre Securities, the listed investor and developer, sees strong growth potential in the sector with conditions in the property market remaining tough.

Edward Ziff, chairman and chief executive, said: “We built up quite a meaningful car park business during the ’80s and ’90s and then sold it to Q Park, which is how they came to have a UK representation.

“Q Park have taken the business on to a whole new level – they are first class operators. But having said that, we decided about four years ago to go back into the car park business.

“The next generation of my family are involved. My son is running the business and doing a really good job. We are very keen to expand that part of the business.

“It is very competitive and as hard as the property business is, what we have seen with the car park business is by clever use of social media we have been able to drive revenue forward.”

The group has invested in new parking technology to improve the quality of service and customer experience over the last two years.

Mr Ziff said: “We have got some really good initiatives with state-of-the-art equipment for the car park and working with suppliers who are at the cutting edge of technology in terms of creating something that we hope is going to be very exciting.”

He said the group will use social media to distribute discounts and discount prices at certain times of the day.

Mr Ziff added: “When we were last in the car park business, the car park in the Merrion Centre used to get the ‘full’ signs up in Christmas week, the first few days of the January sale and then maybe when the two universities used to have their degree day at the town hall.

“Now we are probably seeing the ‘full’ sign up most working days and that’s because we are able to move pricing more easily and more quickly to suit demand.

“That’s had a really big impact on total revenue and we have mirrored that experience across our other car parks here in Leeds and Manchester.

“We are now keen to take that show on the road and see if we can start acquiring car parks in other major cities across the country.

“We would look at any of the top dozen cities, but there is a certain logic that we would like to do it geographically in clusters so that you can have a meaningful representation in any one city before moving on to the next.

“We are looking at teaching establishments, health authority car parks and transport terminals as well as the traditional city centre shopping car parks.

“It’s a generation two of what we did last time but we are keen to start growing that business because we see it as a really interesting opportunity.

“We have found that our income is not only resilient but able to grow whereas in provincial retail property growing income has been a real struggle.”

Leeds-based Town Centre Securities had net assets worth £143.6m at the end of 2012. It controls properties worth £287.5m.

After leaving Q Park, Mr Syers and business partner Chris Corkhill acquired a series of construction services firms. One of their interests, GWD Group, which provided mechanical, electrical and engineering services, went into administration in 2011, which the directors blamed on the economic downturn.

Finding space in the city

TOWN Centre Securities controls 4,500 car parking spaces, mainly in Manchester and Leeds.

The latest annual report said income grew strongly in the second half of last year with revenues increasing to £4.9m.

The group said the division maintained underlying profitability of £2.3m during the year ending June 2012.

Overall, Town Centre said its underlying portfolio performance was in line with expectations despite the difficult market conditions.

An increase in borrowing costs, following refinancing at the end of 2011, resulted in a slight fall in profits in the year to £3.8m from £4m.

“We retain a robust financial position,” said Edward Ziff, announcing the results last month.