WEAR WORDS
As we emerge from full Covid restrictions , we asked eight Wear business leaders : Will there be any long-term effects of the Covid pandemic for your business or is it all systems go ?
Sarah Reid , managing director , Richard Reed Solicitors It is very much all systems go . There are some long-term effects but for us they have been positive , such as the ability to fully embrace hybrid working in a very meaningful way . I don ’ t think we would be this far ahead without the pandemic . This means we have been able to offer our staff a more flexible way of working something that enables a better work / life balance while still meeting the needs of our business .
Howard McCain , senior partner , Sovereign Wealth Management The pandemic has seen some major changes for a chartered financial planner . The main behavioural shift is the move to virtual client meetings ( Zoom , Teams etc ) which , two years on , is proven to work well and is now embedded .
This shift to virtual communication has two main positives – time savings for both the adviser and the client , and a clear environmental advantage as business car journey miles have dropped to 50 per cent of pre-pandemic levels . Increased home working for the adviser / support teams means less reliance on an office-based hub .
Sergio Petrucci , founder , Red Sky Foundation We ’ re good to go ! We were awarded full charitable status on Friday , March 20 , 2020 , the day lockdown started , but showed how resilient we needed to be . We have a busy year of fundraising opportunities to look forward to including a World Record Fire Walk , The Sunderland 5k , 10k and half marathons , cycling challenges , golf days , sponsored walks and the largest charity dinner in the North-East , Red Sky Ball . We ’ re about to smash through the £. 5m milestone of funds raised ( net !) and , best of all , we use it to save lives and restart so many hearts in Sunderland and the wider North-East .
Pete Williams , director and co-founder , SMS We launched SMS at probably the worst time , as we were in and out of lockdown and the economy was on its knees .
However , it gave us an opportunity to streamline processes , get the correct managerial systems in place and gain our ISO accreditations 9001 , 1401 , 27001 and 45001 .
This has put us into a stronger position to bring in new business and we ’ re now looking ahead to 2022 being a big year for us , with plans to double turnover and recruit additional staff which will enable us to secure further opportunities and continue our support to the North-East manufacturing sector .
Dr Mick Thirlbeck , chief executive , Stapleton International EMEA I don ’ t envisage any long-term effects on the business due to Covid . We initially suffered severe disruption to on-site forensic and due diligence audits due to travel restrictions . However , our clients were quick to engage with remote working , assisted by the use of advanced video technology . I suspect this will become the model for future contracts .
David Cook , managing partner , Northern Spire Giving clients face-to-face advice has always been a key value of ours and so when the pandemic began we quickly embraced Teams and Zoom technology , which gave us the opportunity to schedule even more face-to-face meetings .
This option continues today and is a definite switch away from before when we only saw our customers in person . It also happens to be better for the environment as we spend less time in our cars .
Graeme Carter , owner , Shred Direct After a tough couple of years , when I had to furlough staff to keep the business going , we ’ re now very much back on track and are busier than we ’ ve ever been . Our clients have adapted to the challenges presented to Covid and , as such , are able to safely welcome us onto site , which is great news .
I see 2022 being a positive year , not only for Shred Direct but for the business community in general , as employers look to bounce people and show that it ’ s very much business as usual for them .
Mark Catterall , CEO , Smart Group While travel restrictions and the closure of leisure and retail outlets impacted heavily upon our digital out-of-home advertising business early in the pandemic , the past 12 months have been unbelievable for Smart .
As well as diversifying our offering with the launch of a new arm to the business and a sister company , the faster-than-expected uplift in business confidence has led to demand soaring for our network of prime outdoor advertising assets . With plans in motion to rapidly rollout more screens across the UK over the coming months , it ’ s certainly all systems go for us .
42