Bristol Junior Chamber

Minutes Tuesday 10th January Bordeaux Quay

Attendees; Members and Guests 42

Oliver Brown Welcome from President and introduce Cerys Bradley.
Macmillian Cancer Care Cerys Bradley Introduction of charity and explain how BJC
can get involved.
Oliver Brown Introduce our speaker Giles Clarke.
Giles Clarke Thanks to Cerys for her moving introduction to Macmillan Cancer Care.
Background strong Bristol; born on Cotham roundabout hospital in Bristol. Very strong
family business connections, lots of hard work and entrepreneurship. Not inherited money.
Not possible to learn it, but the ability to take risk is a key to success. Sunday Times in 1989
wrote rudely about being an entrepreneur. Think you need a lot of luck, and you must ride
the tiger as hard as possible but also know when to get off, and to learn including how to
listen. Great advice is worth its wealth in gold, you want the best people possible around you
business is a team game. You need to encourage and develop, not denigrate and abuse.
Careers master at Rugby School, in 1969 this was a novel thing, what should I study at Oxford?
How many have taken advice about what you will study, its a major route there are those
who know what they want to be, but getting advice is not a bad idea. The careers master was
the German master, speaking languages and playing cricket was the extinct of my abilities. I
did Persian and Arabic I took a year out, student at Damascus in 1974, had a great time.
Everything was about broadening my mind, voracious about wanting to learn and understand
more very low boredom threshold.
Tutor at Oxford was the world authority on Islam and mystical righting and several religious
sects. Imran Khan captain of Pakistan cricket bowled at me at 18 yards, at 90 miles an hour.
Thinking about long term strategic thinking, what sort of country do you and your family, your
country what to be in? Money gives you the ability to think about what you will do with it
use it, to provide better opportunities for those who need it. Merchant Venturers member, 5th
generation but did also qualify on merit. School we took over in Withywood had an 8% pass
rate at GCSE, at 60% A-C pass rate now (with a lot of investment). We look to create our
opportunities for students that graduate from Merchants Academy, and feed in from schools.
If you come from South Bristol the single biggest barrier is that the jobs are in North Bristol
transport is a massive barrier, bad planning.
I spent 6 years as an investment banker, as I could speak fluent Arabic strange industry in
those days run by gentleman psychopaths. Had a great time, terrible industry want to
know that the person advising me is suitable! Set up the stock market in Kuwait a market
you could make a lot of money in. In 1983 the debts were 94 billion dollars, cheques for 8.4
billion he went to jail and the rest is left.
I found a business for sale called Wine Warehouses, Battersea (weekly taking 19). We named
the business Majestic Wine and sought to spend as little as possible large, empty, pile stuff
in, sell by the case. We took advantage of an 1871 law, that wholesalers had to sell by the case
and we could remain open for weekends/evenings. If you understand law and regulations
you have an opportunity and an advantage. We introduced taste before you buy, Muscadet,
pink champagne and the first container of Australian white wine and the first case of Cloudy

Bay. I sold out and became a tax exile and went round the world, including China. I went into
the pet trade with Pet City introduced to the hamster starter kit, to keep it alive for what is
necessary. You find all the massive by-products like hamster bedding and wood shavings
come from Tampax and saw mills massive gross margin, based on what people are buying
and selling. We built massive retail warehouses, and we got PR going which was very
juvenile at the time. February is a slow month, and you are reliant on the public to supply you
with rabbits at Easter. We sent a press release for rabbits not being high enough in numbers,
invited onto the Today Programme about the worrying lack of rabbits. Took company public
after the AIM market went live, in 1995 and sold it and it is now called Pets at Home. If you
take a company public and then you sell it, you do not have to give warranties a relevant
point if you ever wish to get out.
Started SafeStore, run by friends but they couldnt make it property. Self storage is a retail
business. We changed the economics, not by selling boxes/wrapping tape, but to get everyone
to take out insurance the 10% brokerage fee made the difference. Managed to get rid of it
people who make a billion a year, you shouldnt feel envious of people who make a billion a
year, they lead strange lives and dont give enough away.
Today, based in Cardiff (St Mellons) on an industrial estate. Boston Tea Party 7 in Bristol
and a further 23 around the UK. Fosters Event Catering, and a whole raft of other real estate
in China and Argentina.
One child who is a director of strategy at Lego but doesnt want to work with his father.
When I sold various apartments in China, and bought in Buenos Aires.
Public companies largest is an oil company and a mining company, which we bought a mine
and it turns out it has lithium in. Two businesses and another school based system, another
that makes clay pigeons and traps and various teacher recruitment businesses.
Cricket the C word as my wife says. Message about borrowing cricket pitch on the voicemail,
and ended up being headhunted for Somerset County Cricket Club. We got rid of a huge
committee and elected a great number of people. Became chairman of EBC and the World
Governing Body I dont get paid, but Ive done over 3billion rights and more for
sponsorship deals. I have met some fascinating people and we won the Ashes 3 times and the
World and had a great time. As a result you get into the media. In business you only get into
the media if you are incredibly successful, and theyll right a fawning piece, or youve done a
Philip Green always best to be nice to people on the way up.
Its a privilege to be in Bristol, and I think what you are doing is a great thing. It is a great
networking and I like that you are discussing and talking about things other than business,
including things that matter charity and such.
Oliver Brown Thank you for your very interesting presentation, we will watch carefully over
the next 60 years!
Q Youve gone into lots of markets, what goes through your mind when youre looking at a
new opportunity. A I dont run businesses on a day to day businesses, the key issue is who
is going to run it. The key thing is how to mentor people, men and women and I dont mind
who they are or where they are from. The key thing is the person/people who are going to
accomplish it. My long and painful experience of startups is that you always need more money
you have got to look at it in that way. I invest a lot of my perception of currency, the best
trade you could have done was to go with the Peso and the Real economics matter, China
was a no brainer massive population and it needed houses. The reason to go into Argentina

is that it was very cheap, logically a country which was the biggest economy in the 1930s is
capable of returning.
Q Do you still have the chance to return to your foreign language studies. My daughter in
law is Dutch, and my son speaks 6 languages. My grandson who is 2 speaks Dutch better than
us both. Jack is doing night school to try and catch up.
Q With a start up entrepreneur business, what is based on the quality and what is based on
execution in percentage terms? 90% is executive. Like cricket, 99% sweat and 1% talent but
if you dont have the talent you dont have a hope. I am sure youve read about James Dyson
going through 5000+ iterations before you get there. Majestic; we were lucky but didnt have
to change much although we increased the gross margin. You should listen, but you also
shouldnt listen. I had the pleasure of meeting Steve Jobs one of the strangest but most
fascinating people that is about focus and obsession, if you are designing you have to
believe in your ability. If you are in retail you have to be willing to change.
Q Cricket; Durham and the relegation? Durham it is very sad what happened. In my
view they overspent for about 10 years, they were paying wages to win the Championship.
Unfortunately for them they made a fundamental mistake you need people, Durham is a
very small town. If you are in business you have to be in the right place successful sports
clubs need good communities.
Q How do you prioritise? What skills you bring to the party will be most effective? What I
bring is that I can pick up the phone to anybody on Earth and get to somebody that we need
to get to, I can arrange something we need to get to. I am not going to run the business or sort
out design problems, is the person at the top of business appropriate or do we need to change
them? We need to let them to get on with it. I was concerned about someone at the top of the
company, and I sacked him too much hectoring and bullying I have changed it with a lady
who will change the culture. There will be more dialogue, less aggression.
Q Have you had any businesses that have flopped and what have you learned? I have had
businesses disappear because there was fraud, one that involved fraud by the IRA and was
very lively! You have businesses that are on the edge all the time, Pet City went bust three of
four times you put more and more money in and hope it will sort it out. You have to be ready
for that. I dont take too many financial risks, and I run everything on the basis that Ive lost
all the money in that business the moment I appoint the person I made that decision, and
Im not going to bleat about it. You must never cry in a corner.
Q Whats next? Im incredibly idle. The great thing about Steve Jobs is what he did for us. I
live on my iPad you can read attachments properly when you are 63 I can live on it. This
means Im not on all the family WhatsApp junk. I dont mind I know theyll turn up if theres
something serious!
Q Not being a fan of billionaires. Its wrong for governments to legislate in any area for what
their citizens should achieve. You can say we have some things we expect/we expect you to
give back. Im happy to pay what I should to live here. Its why I came back to Bristol. The
less government is better, we have far too much of it. A big problem for Bristol, Whitehall
doesnt like Bristol didnt like the way it was run for 30 years, no articulate MPs and no
Bristol MPs reached a good level and it was not beneficial. I have a long of optimism about
the current mayor, but I had no optimism in George knew him well and therefore wouldnt
trust him! Look at the road system, the M32 was the single biggest achievement apart from
the land near Barrow Gurney for the ring road. Why isnt there a monorail. Why is our airport
in Lulsgate? Why dont we have rail transport to Lulsgate? All these rubbish political issues.

Unfortunately Im too obviously upper class Conservatives to be popular! I am interested in

education, and Im interested in people with education.
Q In terms of legacy what are you hoping to achieve? I have several different projects, here
in Bristol. My focus is on scholarship programmes and the like in South Bristol. With
educating them, they are seeing opportunities. If they want to go to University how are they
going to afford that? We have to support them not living at home and going for an adventure,
how will they pay for it? We had to find someone who would be Chairman of Governors of the
state school Dennis was elected. A PTA meeting was held and 3 parents turned up, the
parents of 1 child. I am involved with a chap I was at school with called Future Hope, and also
Changing Faces. Future Hope he collected orphans from the railway station, had 42 in his
apartment he has a school in Calcutta for 260 children. The first student went to JP Morgan
in New York recently. Its for the railway children in Calcutta. I havent got a clue how to do
that, but I can write a cheque I trust him not to steal it, abuse it and he cares about what he
is doing.
Q Business all over the world, did you have a view on Brexit? One of my greatest friends was
a great funder, but I voted remain very firmly. I dont like the xenophobia and I dont like the
message and the divorce will be singularly messy. I cant see it being pretty. There is a blithe
belief in the great entrepreneurial ability of the UK, it is gross arrogance to think we are better.
Immigrants have benefitted us massively. There is nothing you can do about democracy, and
this is where we are. You have to get on with it you can bugger off if you want to. Im not
prepared to give up.
Oliver Brown Thank you, an amazing and brilliant talk. A very busy thank you hugely!
------Oliver Brown

Starting in April, Charlie takes over as President.

Next month is a work in progress, watch out on the emails!

Charlie Chami - VP

VP You have to be vice-president before you become President you need to attend
and support. The VP is shadowing the current President and getting a handle on the
role. It takes time, but tremendously rewarding. Encourage anyone to run.
UWE Distinguished Address Series, please check this out on the emails.
Visit from Hanover Junior Chamber need help planning.
We will be visiting Bordeaux too.
CofM all positions are open to be taken on, an excellent thing to do! Details will be
circulated on email. Nomination forms will be sent round. Summary read for Heather
Rees (Chair of Membership) and Georgie Baxter/Megan Turnbull (Chairs of
Education). Summary read for Rob Barnes (Chair of Heritage and Culture). Any
questions please shout.

Becky Purchase Events

Chair of Events Four main events that BJC host, Annual Dinner/Spring
Drinks/Members Dinner/Christmas Party organise these and ensure it goes
smoothly.
Annual Dinner Friday 3rd March at the Bristol Harbour Hotel. Massive event, 204
people last year we could do with volunteers. Sign up will be circulated on weekly
email.

Kirsty Swan Business & Enterprise

Role is dealing with business, establishing and maintain links with Business West.
Organising business networking breakfasts and lunches including specific events for
lawyers, first time buyers.
Go along to events to promote BJC, its fantastic from a personal development point of
view.
Consultation items for UWE will be sent, and breakfast events on the weekly email will
be circulated.

Ben Pean Charity & Social Enterprise

Two directions networking and focusing BJC (as an organisation) to generating an

impact. We are local but with good reach, no job spec! Do it as your heart dictates.
Event next Thursday, interesting speakers lined up! See email.

Emma Custance-Baker Marketing & PR

Twitter account, facebook feed and website. Create Instagram account. Getting the
name out and making people aware of this. Attending the events and taking pictures.

Ben Kenny & Jack Callow Treasurers

We take fees and ensure they are well spent. Bit of budgeting. Invoices go out, and we
tick them off when they are paid wise to get CofM debts paid off soonest. It has been
fun!
Some still havent paid Please pay up.

Alice Peacock Honorary Secretary

Bit of a glue role in connecting with all members of the CofM and keeping everything
up to date. Attend as many meetings as possible and take minutes. Keeping details
updates for members including name badges and sending the weekly emails, details of
which come in from CofM.

Ben St Quintin IPP

Being a President is brilliant. Submitting the accounts to companies house is a key

part of being a President, as IPP you are a director of the company it is a great lesson
in life and for business. As IPP you may carry over some projects/special interests, and
continue as an ambassador. It is a 3 year commitment, 18 months of which are intense.

Bob Durie Previous President of 1972

Well done!

AOB

Softball training this season is starting! Now is the time to start training, get in touch
if you would like more details!
Christmas cards any old Christmas cards, bring them along if you wish to donate
these to be recycled.

--Close up 20.00--