20 FOR 2020
20 business people look ahead into 2020
Punchline could, of course, wax lyrical about what should be on the radar of business people in Gloucestershire in 2020. But in everyone’s best interests, we decided to ask those really in the know to provide us all with some food for thought.
Adrian Goodall, a director of Rokeby Merchants, a key player in the redevelopment of Bakers Quay at Gloucester Quays “This promises to be the year we take forward phase two of the project to regenerate Baker’s Quay. It will mean a further £20 million investment in the water side site and bringing forward 70 apartments. “We have had a successful phase one. The biggest challenges are still to come. The biggest is Downings warehouse. “We feel the whole ethos of Rokeby Merchants is the heritage. By going the extra mile to keep the structure and a new building inside, it will be worth doing.” MartijnVos, managing director of Hydro Components UK “With Brexit, we needed a decision one way or the other, so people know the future. Then investments will be made, because everything has been on hold. Related to that, is what is the future for the Japanese car industry in the UK. “Will Nissan and Toyota continue to build cars in the UK? That is extremely important to my business. “Manufacturing industry is really important for the UK car industry and aluminium production in the UK is very important for building and construction. At the moment there is no investment being done because of the uncertainty as a result of Brexit.” Dale Vince, the founder of Ecotricity and chairman of Forest Green Rovers “I think UK affairs will continue to be dominated by Brexit this year – what kind of deal we strike with the EU, or whether we end up with the No Deal favoured by Johnson and other hard Brexiters. “Then there’s what kind of deal we can do with the USA. We’ll find out what negotiating power we really have as a standalone country - chlorinated chicken seems certain to be a price we’ll have to pay for a deal
Ian Renton, regional director of Cheltenham Racecourse “The biggest challenge we face is to maintain and enhance The Festival as a world class sporting event, whilst maintaining a lid on costs.
“The expectation of our customers quite rightly increases every year and meeting these expectations in a challenging economic environment and competitive marketplace is never an easy task. “However, we plan to put on four days of extraordinary racing from 10 to 13 March.”
Chris Creed is chief executive of Staverton headquartered family firm Creed Foodservice “From our point of view, the A417 is still very much unresolved. That continues to be a major issue. Brexit
is also a big concern. We bring in food stuff daily from Europe. We still need guidance in terms of potential blockages to our traffic.That will be an issue. “Moving forward, the issue will be about staff.We want to be a company potential employees would choose. That is why we do so much staff engagement. “If people want a job in a warehouse, etc, for which there can be a lot of competition, we want them to come to us.We have invested in these areas.”
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18 | February 2020 | www. punchline-gloucester .com
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