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Ardeshir Naghshineh’s Norwich-based Targetfollow Group has gone from strength to strength from small beginnings in 1992 and now has a portfolio valued at more than £1bn, containing about 60 investments in office, industrial and retail buildings. It is also expanding into Europe.
Originally from Iran, Mr Naghshineh trained as a civil engineer, graduating in London and working on projects such as the Thames Barrier. He has lived in East Anglia since 1967.
Mr Naghshineh always attributes Targetfollow’s successes to his “first-class and highly professional team” – pointing out that the property group is “far from a one-man operation”. With a staff of more than 250, Mr Naghshineh’s businesses also include serviced office provider Targetspace, national car parking firm RCP Parking, cycle security specialist Sekura-Byk, Norwich private members’ club Reed’s and an organic farm at Salle.
A shrewd business operator with a fast-growing profile in the commercial property world, he remains a modest, thoughtful man who discourages personal publicity – preferring instead to promote Targetfollow’s role in regenerating brownfield sites, boosting local economies and improving urban landscapes. He has become a keen patron of the arts and charitable causes, has developed an interest in ‘green’ issues and remains passionate about all things Norfolk.
Patrick Mina is the head of operations for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia Pacific for Marsh.
Since joining Marsh, Mr Mina centralised Marsh’s UK operations in Norwich, set up an Indian servicing operation, introduced a balanced scorecard based performance management program, implemented electronic workflow as well as various process improvement initiatives supported by the introduction of six sigma. As a result, Marsh’s Norwich operation was transformed from a London Market specialty servicing business to a Marsh global best practice service provider. He also oversaw the growth of Marsh’s successful Norwich-based specialty business development operation.
The Norwich office currently employs about 1,000 staff. Prior to joining Marsh in 2001, Patrick spent two years setting up and running the shared post placement services for Alexander Forbes (now Lockton) in the UK. Patrick was previously strategic development sirector at GRE, having joined GRE from Mercer Management Consulting, where he was a partner specialising in organisational change, corporate turnaround and business transformation.
Before joining Mercer, Patrick worked with ICI Paints Division and in the white goods sector in a marketing and sales capacity. Patrick has an MBA from Manchester Business School and a BSc in Economics from University College London and speaks five languages fluently.
Clive Beecham is the managing director of Fakenham-based Kinnerton Confectionery, the chocolate business he founded with Andrew Sellers in 1978.
Mr Beecham became a multi-millionaire when he sold the business to AIM-listed Zetar – set up specifically to acquire confectionery businesses – for £32.2m in March, 2005. Kinnerton employs about 500 people at its hi-tech factory in Fakenham and its warehouse at South Creake. Staff shared a £1m windfall courtesy of Mr Beecham when the business was sold.
Kinnerton has been hugely successful in combining novel merchandising with a far-sighted approach to ethical and health issues. Kinnerton specialises in children’s and adults’ novelty confectionery products, capitalising on TV and film characters to produce branded goods based on everything from Shrek and Spiderman to Bob the Builder, Barbie and the Fimbles. In 1999 it tackled allergies by opening a nut-free zone within its Fakenham factory, and has since made further advances with dairy-free, gluten-free and egg-free products.
Alex McNutt has made no bones about his ambition and determination to revive the fortunes of the Anglian Group since he was appointed chief executive of the Norwich-based home improvements company in March, 2006.
Its Anglian Home Improvements business is the market leader in doors, windows and conservatories. It employs about 1,300 staff, including 900 workers at its four factories in Norwich. However, a slowdown in consumer spending has led to two lean years, with Anglian’s parent group, Naglian, last year recording losses of £10.7m to add to those of £12.7m a year earlier.
Mr Nutt arrived with experience in the home improvement and building products markets, and was previously president of ADT Fire and Security Systems (Europe and South Africa). He quickly stated his intention to double Anglian Group’s 8pc share of the market within two or three years, saying that rising sales of windows, doors and conservatories indicated that the corner had been turned.
Cookery queen Delia Smith and her publisher husband, Michael Wynn Jones, are widely estimated to have poured £10m of their fortune into Norwich City Football Club since becoming joint majority shareholders in 1996.
Their arrival rescued the club from financial turmoil. A sustained return to the Premiership has proved elusive, but the Canaries enjoyed one season back in the top flight in 2004-05.
Delia often sports her yellow-and-green scarf, and the Stowmarket-based couple still have City Stand season tickets. Delia has directed much energy into developing her “Delia’s Canary Catering” operation, which has capitalised on her powerful brand to benefit the club. In 2005 Delia and Mr Wynn Jones sold New Crane Publishing, the consumer and contract publishing business which they launched in 1993. Delia’s cookery books are believed to have sold about 18m copies over the past 35 years.
Born in Woking, she left school at 16, and worked as a trainee hairdresser, shop assistant, and at a travel agency before a spell washing up in a restaurant steered her towards food. She researched traditional English recipes in the British Museum, and 1969 she became cookery writer for the Daily Mirror. In 1973 she appeared in “Family Fare”, her first BBC series. “Delia Smith’s Cookery Course”, first shown and published in three parts between 1978 and 1980, sparked a TV and publishing phenomenon.
Andrew and Sharon Turner are the founders of Norwich-based financial services business Central Trust.
Mr and Mrs Turner are keen Norwich City Football Club supporters, and joined the board in May, 2007 when they made an interest-free £2m loan to the club.
Mr Turner was estimated to be worth £275m in this year’s Sunday Times Rich List, and was fourth in the Management Today list of Britain’s top 100 entrepreneurs. Central Trust specialises in the marketing and administration of mortgages and personal loans, and is one of the UK’s fastest-growing companies, with pre-tax profits rising from £10,000 in 1994 to £27.4m in 2005. Mr Turner’s ambition now is to increase turnover from £75m in 2005 to more than £1bn by 2010, creating up to 1,500 jobs in the process.
Central Trust was formed in London in 1987, and by 1995 was firmly established in Watford. It opened new offices in Norwich in 2000, and in Guernsey in 2001. Its 600-strong workforce includes about 300 employees at two sites in Norwich.
Managing director Peter Hawes has presided over the extraordinary growth of Norfolk County Services (NCS) since it was established as a subsidiary of Norfolk County Council in 1988.
The hybrid company – part private, part public sector, delivers management and contract services covering catering, cleaning, security, estates management, waste management, transport and environmental services.
It has 4,500 employees, and a £60m turnover. NCS operates across Norfolk, has contracts in Suffolk, and is seeking business elsewhere following the formation of Norse Group, a holding company which also embraces its sister business, Norfolk Property Services.
Norwich-born Mr Hawes left school at 16 and became an electrical engineering apprentice with Lucas, later moving to Laurence, Scott & Electromotors. He entered the shoe industry as a production engineer at Sexton, Son & Everard, and later at Bally. He managed a flip-flop factory in Australia before rejoining Bally, and was then operations manager at East Coast Plastics.
Mr Hawes joined Norfolk County Council in the early 1980s as a production manager at the workshops for the blind.
Jonathan Adnams became chairman of Southwold brewer Adnams last year, having previously been managing director for 10 years.
He represents the fourth generation to be involved since George and Ernest Adnams bought the Sole Bay Brewery in 1872. Adnams saw operating profits for 2006 rise by almost 12pc to £4.1m, and it runs one of the country’s most energy efficient and environmentally friendly operations. Its new £5.8m ‘green’ distribution centre at Reydon is expected to save £500,000 in energy costs over the next decade. Meanwhile its new brewhouse recycles steam to provide heating.
As well as beers, pubs and hotels, Adnams has a thriving wine and kitchenware retail operation. Mr Adnams’ early ambitions lay in deep-sea fishing and boating – he was a lifeboatman for 28 years, including 15 years as a senior helmsman, leading and training crews.
He joined Adnams in 1973 on the engineering side of the business. He ran the distribution centre, and subsequently every aspect of the business other than IT. Mr Adnams joined the board in 1988, and became managing director in 1996.
Last year he succeeded Simon Loftus as chairman.
Michael Foulger is chairman of Attleborough-based Banham Poultry, a family-owned firm which supplies chilled fresh chicken to butchers and food retailers throughout the UK.
He has also been a Norwich City Football Club board member for 10 years. Banham Poultry employs 700 people, and has an annual turnover of around £60m. The business covers farming, processing and distribution, and up to 600,000 birds are processed every week. Banham Poultry has recovered from a fire which destroyed its previous processing plant in 1998. It set up a subsidiary, Banham Power, which is working on plans to build a £10m renewable energy plant on the blaze site just outside Attleborough. This would transform by-products from poultry and other meat-processing operations into green electricity.
The firm pioneered the use of biodiesel in its 40-strong transport fleet, and its new combined heat and power processing plant recycles hot water for refrigeration and puts electricity back into the National Grid. However, another subsidiary, Banham Compost, has recently faced protests over plans to open a rendering plant on the outskirts of Great Witchingham.
Brian Potter is chairman of Potters Leisure Resort, at Hopton, and a legendary figure in Norfolk’s tourist industry.
Potters has invested more than £25m over the past 14 years, and is the UK’s only independent five-star holiday resort. In addition to a hotel complex it boasts the Atlas Theatre – in which the 65-strong Potters Theatre Company perform West End-style shows – plus restaurants and bars, and badminton, swimming, ten-pin bowling and clay pigeon-shooting facilities. Its investment in indoor bowls rinks has paid massive dividends – the resort hosts the annual World Bowls Championships, and has turned the family business into the UK’s leading bowls venue.
The resort was originally opened at Hemsby in 1920 by Brian’s grandfather, Herbert Potter, before moving to its present cliff-top location in 1936. Brian and his wife, Judy, took over the business in 1984 from Brian’s parents, Hector and Vera. Back then the resort had an 18-week season, and catered for up to 450 guests a week. It is now open all year, caters for 650 guests a week, and has an annual turnover of about £14m. The Potters’ son, John, is managing director.