Monday August 24, 2015

Business

HERALD SCOTLAND.COM

Healthy move

University expertise
helps artisan producer
add fresh twist to juice
Page 23

business@theherald.co.uk

CityBriefing

Ernst & Young adds a partner

ACCOUNTANCY firm Ernst &
Young has named its 12th new
partner in Scotland this year.
Paul Copland, who has
previously been with Deloitte,
has worked in sectors including
technology, media and
telecommunications,
transportation, oil and gas and
manufacturing.
Mark Harvey, the senior

partner for EY Scotland, said:

Pauls appointment comes at a
time of significant expansion
and investment for EY in
Scotland.
Just one month ago the firm
promoted 10 of its staff to
partner.
The appointment of Mr
Copland means EY now has 33
partners in Scotland.

PG Paper snaps up Tullis brands

PG PAPER has acquired two
brands owned by the collapsed
paper-maker Tullis Russell.
Kilmacolm based PG, owned
by husband and wife Puneet and
Poonam Gupta, paid an
undisclosed sum for the Trucard
and Gemini ranges. Tullis
Russell was said to have sold
more than 73,000 tonnes of
Trucard in 2014.

Gemini is a similar
cartonboard type of product
with both brands used by
modern printers and in highquality packaging. In a joint
statement the Guptas said: We
are delighted to have acquired
two incredibly reputable and
well-respected brands in the
premium packaging board
industry.

Acumen co-founder plans to retire

THE co-founder of public
relations agency Acumen is
retiring at the end of next month.
Alistair McLean spent the
early part of his career as a
tourist officer for a number of
different areas of Scotland but
has spent the last 36 years
working in PR. That included a
spell heading communications

outside of London and then in

Scotland for accountancy giant
PricewaterhouseCoopers.
He formed Edinburgh-based
Acumen with Kevin Dorrian in
2002. Mr Dorrian will continue
to run the company.
Mr McLean said: I know that
Acumen clients are in very good
hands and that is important.

SCOTLANDS TOP 30 SHARES

in association with

the complete communications company

Castle Street Investments

Iomart Group
Craneware
Optos
STV Group
Menzies (John)
Faroe Petroleum
Standard Life
Stagecoach
British Polythene
FirstGroup
Edinburgh Inv Trust
Monks Inv Trust
Scottish Mortgage
Wood Gp(J)
Scottish Inv Trust
Alliance Trust
Devro
Barr (AG)
SSE
Smart Metering Systems
Royal Bank Scotland
Cairn Energy
Bowleven
Aberdeen Asset Mgt
Weir
Aggreko
Parkmead Group
Johnston Press

Current
price

Base
price

37
246
639
339
470
450
69
427
383
683
110
667
393
244
578
591
462
290
555
1490
341
323
145
23
313
1324
1036
84
98

+/-p
on week

18
170
476
255
365
355
60
400
370
661
106
651
394
248
596
611
478
305
590
1622
395
394
178
31
432
1851
1504
127
166

+1
-9
-5

1
2

3
4

1
4

1
4

1
8

1
4

-7
-59
-2
-12
-15
-13
-7
-25
-23
-17
+
-29
-25
-12
-14
-48
-2
-18
-7
-1
-28
-138
-43
-13
-9
3
4

1
2

1
4

1
2

3
4

3
4

1
8

7
8

3
8

5
8

1
8

3
4

1
4

3
4

1
2
7
8

3
8

1
2

7
8

1
2

7
8

1
2

1
2

1
8

3
8

1
2

1
2

1
4

3
8

1
2

1
4

1
2

1
2

7
8

1
4

5
8

1
4

3
8

1
4

3
4

1
4

1
2

+/-%
on base

+100.00
+44.71
+34.40
+32.88
+28.77
+26.65
+14.05
+6.92
+3.59
+3.33
+3.09
+2.42
-0.25
-1.29
-3.10
-3.27
-3.34
-4.75
-5.93
-8.14
-13.54
-18.08
-18.49
-24.80
-27.44
-28.47
-31.12
-33.95
-40.96

Base price is close on December 31, 2014

workingforbusiness08000522345
voice data vision internet e-commerce

STOCK EXCHANGE INDICES LAST WEEK

Close
6187.65
16876.60
3399.93
3024.61
16459.75
4706.04
1970.89
1427.13
10124.52
4630.99
23378.81
19435.83
22409.62

FTSE 100
FTSE 250
FTSE All-Share
FTSE techMARK All-Share
DJ Industrials
NASDAQ Composite
S&P 500
FTSEurofirst 300
XETRA Dax
CAC 40
FTSE Italia All-Share
Nikkei 225
Hang Seng

BANK DEALING RATES

Pound/Dollar
Euro/Pound

Close
1.5682
0.7243

Change
+0.0058
+0.0132

INTERNATIONAL MONEY RATES

Overnight
Sterling
n/a - n/a
US Dollar n/a - n/a
Euro
n/a - 14

TOURIST EXCHANGE RATES

()
United States
Eurozone
Australia
Canada
Croatia
Czech Rep
Denmark
Hong Kong
Iceland
Israel

Buy
1.4958
1.3214
2.0299
1.9376
9.4995
34.13
9.8906
11.55
181.56
5.5031

Sell
1.5830
1.4021
2.1856
2.0712
10.72
38.70
10.57
12.34
6.2701

Change
-363.09
-744.33
-187.24
-148.19
-1017.65
-342.20
-120.65
-101.02
-860.62
-325.48
-1562.06
-1083.62
-1581.41

Gold ($)
Brent Crude

3mnths
23
17
32 32
15
5
32 - 16
n/a - 332

()
India
Japan
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Singapore
South Africa
Sweden
Switzerland
Turkey

Close
1156.50
46.62

%Change
-5.54
-4.22
-5.22
-4.67
-5.82
-6.78
-5.77
-6.61
-7.83
-6.57
-6.26
-5.28
-6.59

Change
+38.25
-2.60

6mnths
5
16 - 8
5
15
8 32
1
1
8 - 32

12mnths
1132 - 2732
31
13
32 16
7
1
32 - 32

Buy
91.32
184.15
2.2250
12.29
5.1599
2.0671
18.93
12.69
1.4280
4.3405

Sell
113.63
198.05
2.4537
13.09
6.0121
2.2802
21.62
13.49
1.5196
4.7539

13

TAILPIECE

CONTACT

+0.10%
+1.00%
258.60

Business Editor: Ian McConnell

Tel: 0141 302 7142
Fax: 0141 302 6699

GREIG CAMERON

DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR

MARK WILLIAMSON

BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT

THE man leading an English hotel

groups 40 million expansion into
Aberdeen has expressed confidence
in the long-term prospects for the
market in the city although the
downturn in the oil and gas industry
has weighed on trading.
Andrew Mcloughlin said the
London-based Dominus Group was
pleased with the progress it has
made in the Granite City since it
opened its first outlet there in June,
under the Holiday Inn Express
brand.
The 193-bedroom hotel opened
near Aberdeen Airport during a
period when oil and gas firms have
been slashing spending in response
to the plunge in the crude price since
June last year. Travel budgets are
seen by some as a soft target.
A report earlier this month found
occupancy levels slumped in Aberdeen hotels in May.
Dominus will open a 165-bedroom
Crowne Plaza hotel near Aberdeen
Airport next month amid signs the
North Sea oil and gas industry faces
a long downturn. This did not seem
to be on the cards when Dominus
bought into the city.
Dominus Group acquired sites for
both hotels in November 2013
during the boom in the oil and gas
market that ended last year.
However, Mr Mcloughlin, who is
general manager of the Aberdeen
hotels, said the indications are the
new Crowne Plaza will get off to a
good start.
We are happy with the level of
rooms that weve picked up in line
with our forecasts, said Mr
Mcloughlin.

CONFIDENCE IN FUTURE: Andrew Mcloughlin has been pleased with the progress being made in the Granite City.

The hotel, which offers conference

facilities, has signed up a range of
corporate clients. It has taken bookings for events.
Mr Mcloughlin said the Holiday
Inn Express had taken slightly longer
to build up momentum than would
have been expected during the
boom. However, it has achieved
occupancy rates of around 90 per
cent on key midweek nights.
Occupancy is averaging 70 per
cent over the seven days.
But the hotel has accepted lower
rates than may have been hoped for
to attract retail customers.
Its common knowledge that
rates in the market have dropped,
said Mr Mcloughlin. We have
d r op p e d i n l i ne w i t h t he
competition.
While rates paid by corporate
customers have held up, Mr
Mcloughlin noted other signs that
market conditions have got tougher,
including the trend to leave it
increasingly late to book hotels.

The booking lead time has

dramatically reduced, he said.
However, he expects such pressures to ease as conditions improve
in the oil and gas industry.
We see the current situation as a
dip, it will not last for ever, said Mr
Mcloughlin, who noted other
aspects of the Aberdeen market that
encourage confidence.
Its a fantastic city its not just
oil and gas.
Theres wind and energy, theres
a vast amount of corporates.
Recent reports have underlined
the scale of the challenge that is
currently facing the leisure sector in
Aberdeen.
Aberdeen Airport said recently
that its domestic passenger numbers
in July were down by 5.9 per cent on
the same month of 2014.
Helicopter traffic remained below
2014 levels, showing a 14.8 per cent
year-on-year decline in July.
Aberdeens international passenger numbers in July were up by

Partners at
Deloitte to
share profit
of 593m

Base Rate: (06/08/2015) 0.50%

Fin House Rate (Aug)
1.00%
Source: The Press Association

Deputy Business Editor:

Greig Cameron
Tel: 0141 302 7145

PARTNERS at Deloitte have seen their

average earnings rise from 750,000 to
822,000 as the accountancy firm
posted a seven per cent rise in profits.
Deloitte, which has 42 of it partners
in Scotland, said its revenue grew 6.4
per cent from 2.55 billion to 2.71bn
in the 12 months to the end of May this
year. That helped the profit which is
distributable to partners reach 593
million, up from 554m.
Not every partner would receive the
average figure with some getting more
and others less.
David Sproul, senior partner and
chief executive at the company, said:
The past 12 months have been
marked by improved economic condit ion s a nd s t r onger bu s i ne s s
confidence.
Whilst we saw some hesitation in
the run-up to the General Election, the
broad-based increase in appetite from
UK plc to invest in growth, productivity and efficiency improvements,
governance and risk management and
their customer focus has contributed
to a positive set of results for our firm.
Audit services remained the largest
part of the practice, signing off more
than 16,000 reports in the year, but
only grew 0.3 per cent from 706m to
708m. The consulting arm saw revenue increase 10.5 per cent from 622m
to 687m while tax advisory revenue
was up five per cent from 562m to
590m.
The financial advisory division grew
nine per cent from 424m to 462m.
Mr Sproul, first elected as chief executive in 2011 and re-elected earlier this
year, said the firm was working to get
more women into senior roles and is
targeting 25 per cent of partner positions being filled by women by 2020.
He also hopes to close the gender
pay gap of 17.8 per cent at the firm,
which is around 1.3 per cent below the
UK average. He said: However, when
looking across the organisation as a
whole the pay gap between male and
female employees at each grade is
significantly lower, at 1.5 per cent.

1.8 per cent on the same month last

year.
By contrast, Glasgow and Edinburgh airports saw total passenger
numbers increase by 13.7 per cent
and 10 per cent respectively year on
year in July.
Accountants BDO found occupancy in Aberdeen dropped 17.5 per
cent year on year in May to 62.5 per
cent, whilst the cost per average
room fell almost one third to 52.45.
Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness recorded strong increases in
business.
Dominus Group also operates a
Holiday Inn hotel in Dumfries.
Founded in 2011 the group operates three hotels in England.
It has properties under construction in Manchester, Oxford and
London.
Companies have shed around
5,000 jobs in the North Sea in
response to the plunge in the crude
price from $115 per barrel in June
last year, to less than $50.

Crosswords

7 Man in street upset about ten

stupid diversions (14)
9 After dance you'd regularly
stand (6)
10 Wimps pick up the tab for
Spooner's sport (8)
11 One agreeing to enrol on a
ship (8)
13 Bolt in tie-breaker (3-3)
14 Responsibility over nation
upset Scotland's leaders (4)
15 Fish that's commonly excellent (5)
16 Charge forwards (4)
17 That woman's clothing was
staggering guy (6)
19 Holiday involves couple
heading off with flight (8)
21 Thread from suit worn by the
French soldiers (8)
23 In goal, blocking shot (6)
24 Dish often being well cooked
(4,10)
Monday, 24th August, 2015

SUSTAINED consumer
spending along with greater
business investment will
help boost UK economic
growth this year, the CBI has
said.
The business group upped
its forecast for GDP growth
in the UK to 2.6 per cent, up
from the 2.4 per cent it
predicted in June.
The projection for 2016
was increased to 2.8 per cent
from 2.5 per cent.
It also predicts interest
rates will rise to 0.75 per cent
in the first quarter of next
year, having previously
pencilled in the increase for
the second quarter.
The CBI said it was more
bullish as a result of better
productivity in the first half
of this year which is starting
to feed through to stronger
wage growth in some parts
of the economy.
Household spending is
tipped to remain buoyant
partly as a result of low inflation and depressed commodity prices.
Along with that the CBI
said its own surveys indicate
an appetite for capital spending by businesses causing it
to revise growth projections
upwards from 4.5 per cent to
6.2 per cent.
John Cridland, CBI director general, said: Were
encouraged by the twin
engined-growth of household spending, spurred by
stronger wage increases and
low inflation, buttressed by
business investment. Were
also seeing tentative signs of
productivity picking up.
However the CBI did
warn that export markets
may continue to be a drag for
the immediate future even

Continued on Page 23
More puzzles on Page 20

ACROSS

DEPUTY BUSINESS EDITOR

Source: Travelex (for indicative purpose only)

CPI Inflation (Jul)

RPI Inflation (Jul)
Retail Price Index (Jul)

Manager at city
venues insists
Aberdeen is well
placed to outlast
current crisis

GREIG CAMERON

GOLD & OIL

1wk
1mnth
21
15
11
1
32 32
16 - 2
3
5
5
3
8 - 32
16 - 16
3
3
1
5
32 - 16
32 - 32

Hotel chief says dip

will not last forever

Bullish
CBI ups
economic
growth
forecast

DOWN

1 Typical soldiers put on musical when retreating (14)

2 Corks, maybe, in front of
some hats (8)
3 Swallow metal polish (6)
4 Try to return bananas (4)
5 Essential triangle playing (8)
6 Heavy head leads to early
night (6)
8 With skill in raising fine, we
find cars misbehaving (7,7)
12 Cords that may be connected
to chargers (5)
15 Sat next to writer, holding up
second-class degree (8)
16 Warnings left by social workers exchanging notes (8)
18 County provides workers for
crooks (6)
20 Temporary extra work (6)
22 Cost of bikini, possibly not
including top (4)

No. 13,840 by QIX

The Wee Stinker by Myops

in association with McTear's Auctioneers

ACROSS
3 Its an Oval delivery
(9)
8 Elder with longer
service (6)
9 In a bad way (9)
10 Free in free from
crudity (6)
13 Marsh tree (5)
14 Saucy fish (7)
15 Lyric poem (3)
16 Not dear (7)
17 Ticket office (5)
21 As you choose cloth
(2,4)
23 Ethical dealing (4,5)
24 Fringe (6)
25 Morse code (4-5)

DOWN
1 Is he NASA tourist?
(9)
2 Beyond words (9)
3 Before long the rest
(4)
4 Prepared & plated (5)
5 Winstones winning
part (7)
6 Faithful on balance?
(4)
7 Just sole (4)
11 Hypnotic (9)
12 Got my holy stories?
(9)
14 Help (3)
15 Propriety (7)
18 Junior DA &c.? (5)
19 Ring 4 men (4)
20 Allys tartan? (4)
22 Scotts 11 (4)

SATURDAYS SOLUTIONS

A c ro s s : 1 H i g h , 4 S c re a m , 7 A d o , 9
Torn, 10 Unending, 11 Gin, 12 Whim, 13
Daybreak, 16 Transport cafe, 19 Lonsdale,
23 Belt, 24 Nib, 25 Idomeneo, 26 Lees, 27
Cue, 28 Wealth, 29 Rash.
Down: 2 In other words, 3 Hangman, 4
Sound, 5 Reedy, 6 Adder, 8 Unlawfulness,
14 Aboil, 15 Bat, 17 Sad, 18 Cobbler, 20
Somme, 21 Annul, 22 Enoch.
Last weeks Wee Stinker

LAST WEEKS WINNERS:

A. Duncan,
Strathaven.
-------------------------L. Matheson, St
Andrews,
L. Hawthorne, Clarkston.
N. Brown, Troon.
O. Morrison, Helensburgh.

Todays winner will receive a Wee Stinker

T-shirt and a 50 voucher to spend at a
McTear's Auction of their choice over the next
12 months. Standard Herald rules apply.
Send the finished crossword, to arrive by first post Thursday, to: The Wee Stinker,
PO Box946, Marketing Dept, The Herald, 200 Renfield Street,GlasgowG2 3QB.

Across: 1 Alcopop, 5,8 Thick space, 9,10

Paisley pattern, 11 Onset, 12 Partan, 14
Simian, 17,19 Dutch auction, 22 Open air,
23 Coarb, 24 Kudos, 25 Siamese.
Down: 1 Aesop, 2 Chanter, 3 Piece, 4
Piping, 5 Tripoli, 6 Isles, 7 Krypton, 12
Puddock, 13 Ashrams, 15 Imitate, 16
Harris, 18 Tweed, 20 Cocoa, 21 Noble.

Please indicate your size: S, M, L, or XL. Please allow 28 days for prize delivery.
NAME ...................................................................................................................
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l Published by Newsquest (Herald & Times) Ltd, registered in Scotland with registered number SC011138 and registered office at 200 Renfield Street, Glasgow G2 3QB. Printed at 125 Fullerton Drive, Glasgow G32 8FG