Clearview National June 2016 - Issue 175 | Page 22

INDUSTRYNEWS UNTAPPED POTENTIAL »»A NEW REPORT FROM OBITUARY GORDON NELSON »»THE BRITISH Woodworking Federation (BWF) is mourning another serious loss to the joinery industry this year, with the death of its Senior Vice President and Chairman for Scotland, Gordon Nelson. Gordon passed away at the end of March, aged 74. Gordon began his career in the joinery industry almost 50 years ago as Northern Field Sales Manager for Gliksten Doors, selling flush doors and doorsets. In 1974, Gordon took on the position of Sales and Marketing Director for Rothervale Joinery in Sheffield. Gordon became well known within the industry, helping to grow the company’s sales to eventually become one of the largest in the industry. In 1987 Gordon bravely took the decision to invest in a management buyout of Sarek Joinery from its Swedish private equity owner. He helped to grow the business to a £30 million organisation with operating profits of £3 million. The success of the business lead to interest from Norcross plc. The business was acquired by Norcross plc at the end of 1988 and subsequently the organisation was merged with Crosby Doors to form Crosby-Sarek. At the time of the merger, annual sales were in excess of £80 million. Gordon remained in the newly formed company for a year before leaving to form his own company, Eurojoinery. Gordon also acted for a time as the Sales Director for J B Kind, a door distributor in the Midlands. ‘immense industry experience’ Iain McIlwee, Chief Executive of the BWF, said, “Gordon had been an active and enthusiastic member of the BWF for some years. Only last year he was made the Chairman of our newly formed Scottish division and had already started to develop some very good contacts and new membership for the BWF north of the border. He was a passionate Scotsman and a senior leader in his Highland clan, Clan Gunn. His immense industry experience, sound strategic thinking and sense of fun will be greatly missed by all who knew him.” 22 » JUN 2016 » CL EARVI E W- UK . C O M the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) ‘Women in Enterprise:The Untapped Potential’, explores the specific challenges faced by women-led businesses and makes recommendations for improving support, developing mentoring networks, and increasing the diversity of business ambassadors. ACUTE ISSUES While the report finds women-led businesses face many of the same challenges all small firms encounter, including cash flow issues (42%), and difficulty accessing finance (25%), there appear to be issues that were more acute for women business owners. FSB spoke to over 1900 women business owners in the UK. It found key challenges included balancing work and family life (40%), achieving credibility for the business (37%) and a lack of confidence (22%).All of these are limiting women’s ability to start, run and grow their businesses. BOOSTING GROWTH Helen Walbey, FSB Diversity Policy Chair and the only woman to run her own motorbike scrapyard in Wales said,“Womenled smaller businesses already contribute over £75 billion to the UK economy. But less than one in five (18%) of businesses are majority run by women. If women were to set up businesses and grow them at the same rate as men, we would see a huge boost to growth and prosperity in this country. In fact, the Government estimates it could add £600 billion to the economy. WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION The report also found that a third (34%) of women business owners say they have experienced gender discrimination in the workplace.This was felt particularly in sectors that are traditionally male dominated, for example in construction where over half (54%) had experienced discrimination. Helen Walbey added,“More needs to be done to really empower women.Vocational education is one way to grow the next generation of women entrepreneurs, but they also need long term business support to help them succeed and grow. Better advice and mentoring should be provided and Maternity Allowance for the self-em ployed should be brought in line with Statutory Maternity Pay. HARNESSING POTENTIAL “Small firms already make a huge contribution to our economy; if we were to harness the still largely untapped potential of women entrepreneurship, it could lead to additional jobs, economic growth and a more diverse and representative small business community.” www.fsb.org.uk