You are a fourth-generation member of Notcutts Ltd. Tell us about your family business. I am one of six fourth-generation owners of the business. In 1892 my great grandfather started with a small nursery in Ipswich and in 1897 purchased a more established nursery business in Woodbridge, which supplied the country estates and large townhouses of the day. Diversifying into landscaping, the business developed its range and scale and opened its first garden centre in 1958. This side of the business grew rapidly during the 1980s and 90s. Since 2007 it has divested itself of almost all the other business activities inherited or accumulated by the third and fourth generation and is now almost exclusively focused on garden centre retail, operating the fifth largest chain of garden centres in the country. You recently started your own business venture. What drove you to do so, and could you tell us a bit more about what this business is all about? After twenty years at Notcutts, I left seven years ago for strategic reasons so that I could develop my own diversified agricultural estate business, William Notcutt Estates. It includes arable farming, renewable energy generation and forestry, commercial and residential property, and furnished holiday lets. You have been a strong advocate of the role family businesses play in our economy and society for many years. What drives this passion? I have long appreciated the responsibility and opportunity that family businesses represent and have been keen to learn about it and communicate on behalf of the sector. Family businesses have the potential to provide the greatest luxury of all, choice, and when carefully nurtured, they can be a powerful force for good. What do you think makes family business different? There is a tremendous sense of duty that a kitchen table apprenticeship cultivates, a feeling of stewardship, with often illiquid but patient capital and the willingness to do what is right by past, present and for future generations; not just of the family, but of staff, customers and all stakeholders. This goes above and beyond a mere job or a financial investment, or the short-term reporting cycles which might encourage short term high risk strategies. For me, family business is all about sustained creation and preservation of wealth over generations. Family companies are often ‘unsung heroes’ of our communities. What do you see as some of the myths that surround family firms? The greatest myth around family business is nepotism. The responsibility of sustainably running a business for all stakeholders, for now and future generations, and adopting change to adapt to the opportunities of the economic environment means that all family members need to keep their foot to the floor; there are and there should be no easy jobs.
Why did you join the IFB and how has it helped you? I appreciated the opportunity that a peer group of family business owners presented in enabling improved governance and succession in our business. It provided the context for our older generation to gain the reassurance they needed before we embarked on the governance review, creation of family constitution and family council. It has helped to inform our wider family as responsible shareholders as they in turn have engaged with the IFB through Family Council Chair forums, next generation meetings, as well as drawing on other IFB resources. Why did you take on the IFB East of England Chair role, and what do you hope to achieve during your tenure? I wish to encourage other family businesses to engage with each other on local level. We are in an era of great economic and political uncertainty. The cross fertilisation of ideas and sharing of stories in a non-competitive environment could be of solace and support to regional family businesses, as they adapt to the new environment. The recipients should be business owners, their next generations or non-family managers engaged within the businesses. On a regional basis we need to ensure the sector maximises the opportunity to be that “power for good”, in support of the wider IFB objectives. What one piece of advice would you offer to a family business owner? To communicate. Engage early with the next generation and managers, to talk and listen widely to our own and the older generation and to reaffirm values with the next generation. At what point did the Notcutt family step back from working in, to working on the business? The Notcutt family has always been quite small in relation to the size of the business, so non-family managers, executive directors and non- executive directors have been engaged for many years. I was the last member of the family to work full-time in the business and the role of the family now is to work with the non-family chairman and through the nonfamily CEO to ensure that our values permeate through the business; whilst at the same time we are fortunate to not be burdened by working in the business. What external support can professional service firms give to a family business. Whilst naturally they must deliver competence in their professional sphere, understanding the family business sector and the opportunities and constraints that arise with intergenerational succession will enable them to add greater value. Advising the business is one matter, there is also a role in advising the family as there are times when the interests of each do differ. This tension is healthy where it is transparent, discussed and managed. The Institute for Family Business (IFB) is a not for profit, membership organisation supporting and promoting UK family business through events, connections, advocacy and the latest family business knowledge. They provide family businesses with key insights on important family business issues, and offer access to expertise and best practice from within and outside the family business community through connections with leading family firms and experts from all over the world. For further information on how Scrutton Bland can support family businesses contact Nick Banks on 0330 058 6559 or nick.banks@scruttonbland.co.uk
For more information on the IFB, please see www.ifb.org.uk E: info@ifb.org.uk or T: 0207 630 6250 .
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