Business Scene, August, 2009
Be positive. Be proud. Shout loud
Be positive. Be proud. Shout loudly about what you are doing. That's part of the recession-beating recipe from leading Uckfield businessman Malcolm Diamond.
He is president of the chamber of commerce and back at the helm as chairman of TR Fastenings.
He told Business Scene it was also important for businesses to maintain and, if possible, increase sales and marketing at this time.
Mr Diamond and his colleague, Jim Barker, the chief executive officer, returned to TR Fastenings earlier this year.
Mr Diamond had retired in 2002 and has been involved with a number of other business activities.
Sustained growth
He said: "One of the reasons we were asked to come back to TR was because we had managed the company through two previous recessions and still sustained growth."
It is important, he said, to maintain your sales and marketing activities and if you can increase them.
"Many companies contract their publicity and their sales activities when times get tight because they think the business will maintain its own momentum without them but in my experience if you take away or reduce sales and marketing you feel it about six months later.
"Our business is like that. It is not like retailing where you get instant sales and instant walkaways. We have customers who take time to come to us and take time to leave us.
"Also, be positive. We have just done presentations to investors in the City. I was a third of the way through the programme of meetings and I suddenly realised I was getting bored hearing myself saying ‘when the recession is over'.
Recovery
"I said ‘no, let's assume this is the way it is always going to be. Our recovery is in our own hands so let's grab a larger share of a smaller cake. Let's stop blaming circumstances and look at how we can improve what we are doing'.
"That's the thing, don't give up because everyone is blaming the recession. Shout louder and prouder to your customers about what you are doing.
Mr Diamond said such lessons worked well for business and could also work well for Uckfield as a town.
He said: "I think from my perspective it is actually a truism no matter where you are or what business you are in. I have been involved in such a range of businesses as a non-exec for the last 15 years and really the rules of business stay much the same whether you are in retailing, construction, distribution, manufacturing, the basic rules of business seem to be the same.
"Keep promoting what you are doing if you can afford it. Find cheaper ways of doing it; PR for instance. If you have a good story it will get published without a huge cost."
Insight
Mr Diamond gave an insight into how the recession had affected TR Fastenings and what they were doing.
"We supply manufacturers of cars, sub-assemblers to cars, consumer electronics, so it is computers, TVs that sort of thing and we have seen on average a 35 to 40 per cent drop in demand globally.
"We clearly have big challenges in rebuilding our sales growth.
"We have just come back to manage the company. I have been retired for seven years and my colleague Jim for two and half years and we have been brought back by the shareholders to try and grow the company back.
"We wouldn't have taken that challenge on unless we thought we could succeed.
Resources
"We are putting back in place sales resources and marketing ourselves much harder. Right now I don't see any uplift until the late autumn this year.
"It is not all doom and gloom. There are still people out there buying components. We just have to work harder to find them."
Mr Diamond also cast his eye over retailing in Uckfield. "It is the normal story and look at the High Street and it gives you a clue - the usual number of empty shops that you see in any market town.
"I do not get the impression that is dying on its feet but you don't get the impression of dynamics either.
"It is very difficult for independent retailers to make a difference in today's climate because to really push into marketing themselves is obviously costly.
"This is possibly where your activities can help. It is all about communication. How do we know what is on sale in the High Street unless we go and visit it? (We're happy to help: Make sure you read our Personal Shopper feature and take a look at the Uckfield Directory)
High Street
"Of course, we get dragged away to the Morrisons in Crowborough and Tesco's is forever being held up as perhaps contradictory to the high street. I don't necessarily agree. Tesco brings a lot of people into the town, some will migrate to the high street.
"Of course we have the proliferation of charity shops but charity shops are becoming more acceptable as a place to shop so that is perhaps not such a bad thing as it was seen three years ago when the big cry was Uckfield High Street is all about estate agents and charity shops.
"All of us in the community within organisations like the chamber of commerce should continue to work to promote the attractiveness of actually shopping in a small town rather than taking the traffic queues into the big ones.
"My feeling is that we are bumping along, if you like, but to go into retailing now as an independent will be considered more risky now than it was five years ago.
I think that is trend, not just the economic recession; a trend of people migrating to the big superstores."
(Added to site Saturday, August 1st, 2009)
