Bernard Ginns: It filled in the missing links but it’s always good to talk

It is the next best thing while we wait for the roll-out of facial recognition software, which will be coming soon in the form of wearable search engine technology.

I imagine it will be a godsend for social climbers and anyone wishing to avoid deranged stalkers or other such public relations executives and business coaches.

In the meantime, LinkedIn can be very useful for me in helping to track down the people I want to interview.

Last week, I used it to find one of the founders of an online holiday price comparison website called Icelolly. While most of us in the business world use a grown-up corporate-style picture of ourselves as an avatar, Adrian Walton has a photograph of a yacht, pictured against glistening sea and clear blue sky. It was a clue.

Mr Walton and business partner Lesley Etienne launched Icelolly in 2005.

Today, the fast-growing company offers 40m holiday packages from 50 UK-based tour operators. This year, it will generate sales of £12m and pre-tax profit of £3m.

The founders sold the Bradford-based business to management with the backing of northern buyout firm Palatine Private Equity for a stonking £17m.

The accompanying press release was a little bland with the usual, predictable quotes from the army of advisers; I needed some colour.

I got hold of Mr Walton late afternoon on Wednesday. He described himself as an entrepreneur. I asked him what he is doing next. “We have a project to sail across the Atlantic in November. Attempted it last year but failed.”

I asked the name of his boat. “Icelolly,” he said, after his business. Wonderful bit of detail. It is very rare that business people, even the most colourful ones, stop to add such gems to their online profiles. Which is why there is no substitute for talking; it’s the real thing.

“We will be departing from Gibraltar, then on to the Canaries and then Antigua,” said Mr Walton. Icelolly is 50ft.

Next year, he plans to launch a new business, possibly in the insurance industry.

He has the new domain, www.treasureislands.co.uk, continuing the nautical theme.

“It’s in the idea stage,” said the Ilkley-based businessman. I asked him how he succeeded with Icelolly. A million and one websites are launched, many with the aim of offering consumers a platform for the best deals in a safe and trusted environment. Like a boat in uncertain waters. But very few websites achieve any serious commercial success.

“A clearly defined target market and the brand building behind it,” he said in response to my question.

“A lot of hard work in marketing and technical.”

I asked Mr Walton, who is 47, if he had any advice for other would-be entrepreneurs.

“The way not to fail is not to try and the only time you do fail is when you give up,” he said.

I asked how it felt to be a multi-millionaire. He replied: “I was already.” He and Ms Etienne sold their previous business, Sunmaster, in 2005.

He had mixed emotions about the sale of Icelolly. “It’s time for the corporate guys to go on with it now,” he said.

And so, with the backing of Palatine, the management team led by travel industry veteran Dave Clayton sail off into the sunset.

n COMMUTERS travelling by train into Leeds via Guiseley who spend the journey staring into their smartphones will be totally unaware of the small but significant revolution taking place a few feet from their trance-like states.

Next to the station is a nondescript factory housing what is thought to be Britain’s last remaining vertically integrated textiles mill.

The family-owned Abraham Moon & Sons does everything: all the dyeing, blending, carding, spinning, weaving and finishing processes take place on one site.

The company, which generated sales of £17m last year, of which 70 per cent came from exports, manufactures woollen fabrics for apparel, furnishings and accessories and counts Burberry, Paul Smith, Ralph Lauren and Chanel among its customers.

In the summer, Moon opened a 45,000 sq ft extension of its historic premises. The company invested a seven-figure sum in the largest expansion of a woollen mill in the last four decades.

John Walsh, the managing director, said: “It’s opened, it’s full and we’re looking for additional space.

“There continues to be this general resurgence of interest in brands and heritage in UK manufacturing. We are just continuing to see the upside.”