Penzance Chamber of Commerce

A Good Budget for Business?

Each spring when the Chancellor of the Exchequer takes to his feet, whichever party is in power, the business world holds it collective breath.

The separation of the fiscal and financial elements of the statement have taken away some of the anticipation - much of what is announced in March has been presaged in November. Nonetheless, businesses everywhere recognise that within the speech lies the possibility of improving or degrading the prospects for carrying on the hazardous pursuit of commerce. Overall then, what should a business person make of Gordon Brown's eighth budget?

On the side of reducing the impact of government on business, the pundits seem to see the measures as an overwhelming success. The Institute of Directors identified "significant steps in the right direction to reduce red tape and bureaucracy" while the CBI was even more fulsome. It's assessment was that the budget represented "an innovative and meaningful package".

Chief among the reductions in bureaucracy will be the merger of the Inland Revenue with the Customs and Excise. This blindingly obvious move has been resisted by governments of every hue for some very vague reasons and now it has been announced we should all welcome it - particularly if, as we pray, it leads to a rationalisation in the collection of taxes. The chancellor indicated that this step will not be the last of its kind as he promised to review "the overlap between enforcement regimes sector by sector". The Federation of Small Businesses welcomed this statement, having said that firms cannot deal with the rules of up to 350 official agencies, as is the current position.

Freezes in corporation tax and vehicle excise duty will keep business costs under control. Less welcome for many small firms (particularly those who recently incorporated having formerly operated as sole traders or partnerships) was the announcement that the zero-rate band for distribution of profits is to be abolished. This was described as a "loophole" although it was introduced by this chancellor as an incentive for traders to incorporate. On face value (the details depend on profits and shareholder practice) this might cost individual directors up to £3,800 this year. This measure will affect many of the kinds of one man (or woman) companies that operate in our district.

Taxes are one of life's certainties. Less clear is whether the chancellor's forecasts for the growth in the UK economy will be met. Since the ability to repay government borrowing is based on these estimates, opinion is divided on whether this is storing up problems in the future. Any shortfall will need to be made up from taxation. If we don't grow the economy, we'll all be paying a higher proportion of our incomes in a few years to come.

Which seems an apposite time to point out that the Chamber members and businesses of similar size are the engines of economic growth. We've the most scope for growth and the most impact when, collectively, we do well. For lower taxes in the future, support your local business community! .

Terrorism Touches Us All

Ensconced in our West Cornwall idyll, far away from the major centres of population, it's easy to assume that terrorism can't touch us - other than the emotions of shock and revulsion we all feel. If you run a business, however, there are other issues. Disruption is one problem, fear another. And if you fail to take steps to protect your business from the effects of far away outrages you might suffer not only commercial damage: those affected might, in theory, hold you liable in turn.

Take the example of an engineering company with a major contract to provide gear for a ship's refit. Built into the contract are penalty clauses for late delivery. All is going well until police impound a warehouse in London that is being used to store potential bomb-making chemicals. Unfortunately, the engineering concern's raw materials are stuck there too. It's not their fault but they end up out of business all the same.

The key is building a "force majeure" clause into your contracts so that circumstances beyond your control are excluded from your penalties. You can also insure against some of these kinds of losses. Even policies that exclude terrorism (almost all) can cover you for interruptions due to police actions.

These are simple measures of protection. There are others, but problems arise after the event for companies who have failed to put reasonable protective measures in place. Ex-employees who can prove that you failed to protect their jobs by failing to apply the right insurances or contractual diligence might have a case against directors for damages. The spectre of criminal negligence is never far away.

Now is a good time for all business people to think the unthinkable and imagine how either terrorism or anti-terrorist actions might impact your business. We're not immune: all business is interconnected. We've done well out of domestic tourism since many people have chosen to holiday in Cornwall rather than fly since September 11th 2001. We should recognise that other, negative consequent effects of terrorism are just as likely to reach us.

The assaults on our way of life appear set to become ever more frequent in the next few years. Those who want to kill as many who share our values as possible also seek to attack the economic life of the nation. Indeed, this was the thinking behind the attacks on the World Trade Centre - not just a symbolic target but an attempt to destroy some of the commercial activity that these people with their perverted world view see as our "religion". One way to defeat them is to ensure that your business will survive and prosper despite their activities. The cold war mantra "protect and survive" has more validity today than it ever did then.

Welcoming New Blood - A Cornish Tradition

Amid the fear and concern about the influx of incomers to the region and the problem of spiralling housing costs pricing young, locally born and raised families out of the market a disturbing trend has arisen which ignores much of Cornwall's past and our traditional acceptance of those who choose to make a new life here.

The scare stories have given rise to the expression of views that appeals to the baser, pseudo-nationalistic tendencies of a people in fear. That otherwise rational individuals should talk about "curbs" on people in a free society spending their money on whatever they like or giving preference to "pure Cornish" people smacks of social engineering at best and racism (based on a largely imaginary ethnicity) at worst.

Each time there has been one of Cornwall's periodic (and all too short lived) periods of economic boom we have relied on an influx of outsiders to augment both the population and the expertise within our boundaries. With mining, it was engineers from the coalfields of Wales and the Black Country. When Pilchard fishery was the rage a century ago, manpower was actively recruited from as far away as Scotland and the English North Sea ports. There hasn't been such a thing as a "purebred" Cornish person since the coming of the Great Western Railway.

One of the reasons for the stagnation in our industrial landscape has been that there simply hasn't been the resources of workers or entrepreneurs within the indigenous population and too often we have seen the process in reverse - our young people leaching to every part of the world from the mines of South Africa (remember - anywhere in the world there's a hole in the ground you'll find a Cornishman at the bottom of it!) to the leisure industry in Florida.

Let's not let distrust and fear scare away young people with families who want to come in, raise children and develop businesses amid the natural beauty we all treasure. The benefits for all of us are clearer now, in a world were place is increasingly irrelevant to the practice of business, than at any time in the past. The housing market will adjust itself through market forces (second generation incomers will need low-cost housing too) while those who claim Cornish precedence are ignoring the truth of their own heritage and best traditions.

Junk the Jargon! 25 Years of Plain English

Amid the celebrations of the Plain English Campaign's 25 year crusade against gobbledygook in official publications, we should all take a moment to reflect on how we came to the situation that this noble body has so eloquently opposed.

The origins of obfuscation and deliberate indecipherability in written (and often spoken) communications from those who see themselves as "Important" (always with a capital I) can be traced back to the dark ages and probably beyond. Why did priests and doctors and lawyers (the original professions) all use Latin as their lingua franca (tiny Latin in-joke there, if you'll indulge me)? The reason was simple: so that the ordinary folk had no clue what they were talking about.

It began with the Church. Before the reformation, clerics could pretty much tell their parishioners what they liked about Holy Scripture. Reading it for yourself wasn't only forbidden, it was pretty much impossible without a University education (conducted in Latin and Greek and the privilege of only a very few) or enrolling at your local seminary. Doctors back then had next to no idea what was wrong with their patients for much of the time let alone how to cure it. How reassuring that they could wrap their bafflement in page after page of coded Latin script. Lawyers being employed to decipher documents drawn up by other lawyers ranks as one of the greatest job creation schemes history has known and continues to this day.

Over the centuries we became so used to professions using arcane language that we came to expect it. Its successor is official gobbledygook. The bastard child of these is jargon.

All businesses and professions have their jargon today. The proliferation of professions, from the three above to everything from footballer to public relations practitioner (that's really how they style it) have invented a way of speaking that sets them apart from outsiders.

Jargon is not only a way of preserving the mystique of professions, ancient and modern: it serves also to present our work as too complex for the laity. Like the language we use, if you don't have our experience, you simply couldn't understand. At its core is a certain insecurity. For the new professions, having their own code is a mark of status. They inherit the mantle of the clergy and the medics. Professional means unintelligible.

This is, of course, utter rubbish. If you're good at what you do you'll be valued for what you contribute, not for how complicated you make it sound. Next time you're in a position of presenting your profession to a client or other person who doesn't appreciate your peculiar syntactic gymnastics, ask yourself whether you'd be better telling it how it is. It's time to celebrate the Plain English Campaign's silver jubilee with a commitment: junk the jargon.

Penzance, Open for Business (Except the Roads)

It's been a good Easter Holiday for business in Penzance, with bookings close to capacity levels, shops doing brisk trade and our crafts- and tradespeople busily attending to the needs of residents and visitors alike. For the visitors, the weather has been (mostly) kind. The pace of life in Cornwall, has, as ever been a source of relaxation and the odd smile for visitors while the state of the town roads has been something else altogether - an utter disgrace.

What these people must think of the level of planning that goes into putting road works with traffic controls on the Ross Bridge, for a large section of the promenade and on Chywoone Hill in Newlyn all at the same time (let alone at this time) is probably unprintable in a family newspaper. Many probably blame it on inbreeding. Others, even less charitably (but more accurately, I fear) see a total disregard for the tourist trade.

We're all familiar with the long-standing local authority finance fiddle of rushing through works at the last minute of the financial year to make up the budget or of straddling the year end so that the cost is split between two budget periods. Unluckily for us, this year the financial year end is in Easter week. For an area as dependent on visitor business to see so much disruption just as the first major influx of visitors arrive should result in serious protests from all those who care about the success of our town. Some people who have been here this time won't come back. Many will pass on their negative perception of Penzance's roads to others planning a trip.

Let's see a statement from the County and District councils that this kind of ineptitude will never again be allowed to blight the Penzance visitor experience. Get the work done in the winter. It's not like frost is a problem in Penwith. At least show some more sensitivity to those who generate most of the town's economic activity.

April Meeting Report

The Chamber of Commerce meeting of 6th April 2004 was a rather subdued affair at first. The eighteen members present seemed reluctant to get into the swing of things but the discussion picked up as time went on.

One landmark that was announced to the meeting was that the Penzance website www.penzance.co.uk has passed two-million visits. Thanks for his work on this shopfront for the Chamber and the town is due to Richard Hilder.

Hazel Trembath's fundraising activities continue apace - more than £100 raised from knitted chickens and a further £150 from her Chinese Banquet and associated raffles. More activities are planned for the summer including a duck race on the Sea and Sail day (27th June) -more details on this page later. If the Chamber's Christmas light burns as bright as Hazel it'll be a sight to see.

The five-member subcommittee to discuss the marketing and business plans for the Chamber will meet on April 23rd. All members were asked to pass in their comments and suggestions for a member recruitment drive and achievable plans well ahead of that time via the press officer Mark Curtis on 01736-731277.

The Chamber continues to vehemently oppose any proposal to diminish Penzance's Tourist Information Centre in favour of a "gateway" centre at Hayle. Chief among many arguments is the irrefutable fact that Penzance is the gateway for visitors arriving on public transport. In a climate where local authorities are supposed to be encouraging public transport use as an alternative to the private car, the Hayle solution looks a little silly.

Proposals for the marking of the Trafalgar 200 celebrations next year appear to be a little haphazard, the meeting heard. We have a strong claim (for readers who don't know, some accounts have Madron church as the first place that news of the victory and death of Nelson was publicly announced) to make a big event of this national celebration. For the sake of local hospitality and local trade we want any events to be properly planned and executed to the highest standards.

Finally a long standing irritation. Weathermen on all TV channels seem to be riveted to a spot right in front of Cornwall on their charts. Why some can't work from the east on some occasions is an inexplicable phenomenon. Letters have been written!

This Chamber meeting was completed in around an hour. Isn't it worth an hour of your time each month if you can influence public policy and help establish a more conducive business environment for our town? Be at the next meeting at the Pirates Rugby Club on Tuesday 4th May at 7.30 pm and have your say - Chamber member or not.

Lavender's: Expanding its Cornish Cornucopia

A production engineer by training, when Ken Lavender originally came to Penzance, in his forties, it was to build a factory at Long Rock fabricating circuit boards. Today he is head of a dynastic food and restaurant chain with four branches in the town and offering some of the most celebrated examples of Cornish fare and fine foods and beverages from wider afield.

After the closure of the factory he ran a milk delivery service that employed ten roundsmen delivering 8-900 gallons per day to homes, schools and hospitals in the district. With the advent of cheap supermarket milk Mr Lavender saw the writing on the wall for this business. Rather than wait for the decline in the doorstep pint of milk he took pre-emptive action, sold up and, inspired by examples he had seen on visits to France, opened Lavender's Delicatessen in Alverton Street - in the building that had, much earlier, been The Alverne pub. A former smithy (the Lavenders still have the original anvil and hay rack) at the rear of the premises provided space for the bakery and kitchens and the main building was quickly expanded to the rear to join the two buildings and provide a comfortable restaurant space. The Grade II listed building retains much of its original character - down to the hand moulded tiles that make up the restaurant floor.

In the 25 years since there have been expansions and diversifications yet Ken's enthusiasm is still self evident. Three generations of the family are engaged in the business now; Ken himself with wife Jo, son Ian and his wife Barbara and grandson Andrew forming a partnership in every sense of the word. The senior Mr Lavender sees the growth and success of the business as the best way that he can ensure the future for his family - and to allow himself the luxury of taking more of a strategic role, away from the day-to-day concerns of running things.

Lavender's now has four outlets. The most recent, the new Lavender's Buffet at the Penzance railway station, opened last October. Some £45,000 has been invested in providing a quality environment in which to enjoy a drink (the buffet is fully licensed), a cup of coffee or a bite. As well as food prepared under the watchful eye of manager (and qualified chef) Mike Benians, internet access is available for those who simply must have one last check on their e-mail before boarding their train. Ambitious plans for the Buffet include late opening through the winter, with two or three "themed" evenings each week. For visitors, the Buffet offers the opportunity to order pasties at any of the shops and have them ready for collection at the station, freshly baked, ready for the journey home. No need to carry them through the town, let alone keep them for a few days leading up to departure.

The Penzance Pasty Company was added to the Lavender's portfolio three years ago and has carried the commitment to fine food through the preparation and presentation of Cornwall's most traditional foodstuff. The company cooks all its own pasties on the premises and its bulk order offer - twelve pasties for the price of ten - remains popular with locals and visitors alike. One of the two Market Jew Street shops - at the top end - also has a restaurant.

The company's flagship remains Lavender's Delicatessen and Coffee Shop in Alverton Street. Over 200 cheeses, home cooked meats and a wide variety of pastries and cakes (baked on the premises) are sold for take-away or to be eaten within the restaurant. Lavender's is particularly proud of its coffees. At any one time you will find around eighteen prime examples of fine Arabica coffees both for imbibing on the premises or to be taken home either ground or as beans.

For the future, Ken Lavender still has some ambitions to expand further. 'I've got two or three expansions in mind" he confides, "but they are still in the early stages." The Lavender's brand and colours (lavender, of course) are likely to be extended to the Penzance Pasty Company and given more prominence within all the branches. Although Ken sees himself taking a little more of a back seat role in the coming years, it's hard to see him becoming completely "hands off" - and the word retirement is best left unspoken. "Whatever you do, don't mention that word in front of my wife," he admonishes, with a smile.

Lavender's Delicatessen is still thriving at 6a Alverton Street Penzance (01736-362800) with branches of the Penzance Pasty Company at 8 Market Jew Street (01736-333209) and 85 Market Jew Street (01736-331330). Lavender's Buffet within the Penzance railway station can be reached on 01736-360369.

Join the Chamber

The Chamber of Commerce represents the interests of local business with the County, District and Town Councils, Government agencies and public bodies. It actively campaigns on issues affecting the business community as well as issues affecting the community as a whole. This requires finances and direct involvement by committed people, and deserves the support of every business in the region.

Our Chairman is coordinator of the West Cornwall Group of Chambers and the Cornwall Business Partnership. He is a member of the Priority Management Group 3, which approves Objective One funding in the area of Learning and Skills development He is also a member of the Penzance Regeneration Steering Group that has worked on the submission of an Objective One bid to greatly enhance the prosperity of the town and its inhabitants. Other members represent the Chamber on such bodies as the Police Consultative Committee and Tourism Committee.

All businesses have problems from time to time, and it has been proved that representation from a Chamber Officer on behalf of the member concerned can greatly enhance the prospect of a satisfactory conclusion. With major issues, such as the Penzance Regeneration Project, West Cornwall Hospital, Objective One and so on needing input from the business community there has never been a better reason for all businesses to become Chamber members - the greater our membership, the bigger our voice. JOIN NOW!

We invite membership applications from individuals and businesses large or small. For further information, visit the Membership Enquiry or Membership Application pages on this site.

Forthcoming Meetings

The next monthly Chamber Meeting will be held on Tuesday, May 4th at 7.30pm at the Pirates Rugby Club, Alexandra Road, Penzance.

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PENZANCE - THE PLACE TO BE

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