The Times - UK (2022-04-04)

32 Monday April 4 2022 | the times

Business

treatment of staff came into focus after

more than 100 former employees

published an open letter last June criti-

cising the culture of BrewDog. The

BBC also broadcast a Disclosure docu-

mentary about the company.

Watt apologised after the complaint

by former staff, who went by the name

Punks with Purpose. An internal

review was launched, with Leighton

brought in to oversee changes.

Hand & Heart, which is based in

Berlin, has set up a platform on its

website where it says that BrewDog

workers can independently register

their experiences with the company “to

assist Punks with Purpose in their core

mission of tackling BrewDog’s cultural

issues”. The consultancy had not been

formally hired by BrewDog.

The letter from Leighton was first

reported by The Mail on Sunday. In it he

also raises concerns about paying Hand

& Heart “significant” fees to manage a

reconciliation programme.

Bailey said: “BrewDog issued a letter

to me and my company that was

filled with malicious, unfounded accu-

sations designed to discredit me and

my work. I published two lengthy and

evidence-based factual rebuttals on my

website. The letter and its dissemina-

tion, in my professional opinion as an

experienced workplace consultant, is a

failure of leadership and corporate

governance who seemingly cannot

comprehend the paper trail of facts that

easily refute their claims, or how that

would reflect on their company in the

future.

“For the sake of BrewDog’s work-

force and the many people exhausted

by this situation, I do wish BrewDog

could focus on the individuals who

have alleged being harmed in their

workplaces and make it right with

them, and growing into a thriving

global company — instead of spending

their time attacking me and my

company on false grounds.’’

BrewDog confirmed the letter had

been sent but did not comment further.

1

Boris Johnson is expected to

drop plans to treble the number

of onshore wind turbines and

instead will “go for nuclear” by

committing to up to seven new

plants. Pages 4, 27

2

Britain will “lag behind” the

rest of the world after shelving

plans to give the new digital

regulator the power to tackle the

dominance of the biggest

technology firms, MPs said. Plans

to give the Digital Markets Unit a

statutory underpinning will not be

in the Queen’s Speech. Page 18

3

Cadbury is facing claims that

it is profiting from child

labour after reports that

children as young as ten have been

working on cocoa farms that

supply the confectioner. Page 20

4

The trade battle between

China and Australia has led

to a vintage year for South

African winemakers. Growers in

the Western Cape have taken

advantage of the row to double

their exports to China in a year.

China imposed a 212 per cent

tariff on Australian wines in 2020.

Page 28

5

City firms are sponsoring

overseas recruits to come to

work for them in the UK at

the fastest rate since before Britain

left the European Union,

according to Home Office figures.

About 200 foreign-based workers

a week are being hired by British

banks, fund managers, insurers

and other City firms as the search

for talent intensifies and as visa

rules are relaxed. Page 31

6

The mood among consumers

about their finances has fallen

to its lowest since the first

Covid-19 lockdown. Concerns

about rising prices and the cost of

living have pulled consumer

sentiment down to -20 on an

index tracked by PwC, a fall from

+8 a year ago. Page 31

7

Passion Capital has expressed

its “shame” and “deep regret”

after Stefan Glaenzer, its co-

founder, was charged with sexual

assault. The venture capital firm

said that it was “in the process of

removing” Glaenzer from “his

involvement and membership in

all Passion entities”. Page 31

8

Carnival is facing a revolt over

pay after leading investor

advisory groups raised

concerns over its chief executive’s

remuneration. The cruise operator

declared a total package of

$15.1 million for Arnold W Donald

for the year to November 2021.

9

Employers that miss the

gender pay gap reporting

deadline for a second

consecutive year will face “formal”

enforcement action and could be

named and shamed, the Equality

and Humans Right Commission

has warned. Page 34

10

A golf retail chain bought

out of administration

three years ago is

planning to open thirty new golf

courses over the next five years.

Pre-tax profits at American Golf,

Europe’s largest seller of golf

accessories, have risen to

£7.8 million from only £200,000 a

year ago, while sales have grown

by 43.8 per cent to £166 million.

Page 37

Need to know

A row has erupted between BrewDog

and a human resources consultancy

that offered to improve relations

between the beer brand and its staff.

Allan Leighton, BrewDog’s chair-

man and the former boss of Asda, has

accused Hand & Heart of “amplifying

attacks” on its management team and

has declined to take part in a proposed

reconciliation programme.

In a letter to Kate Bailey, Hand &

Heart’s managing director, Leighton

said he was concerned about a platform

that had been set up for BrewDog work-

ers, claiming it was “encouraging par-

ticipants to submit malicious content...

The unavoidable impression is that of

H&H charging the company to extin-

guish a fire it is fuelling itself.”

BrewDog was founded in 2007 by

James Watt and Martin Dickie and is

based in Ellon, Aberdeenshire. As well

as sellings its beer, which includes Punk

IPA, it operates more than 100 bars and

employs 2,000 people worldwide. Its

Jessica Newman

BrewDog in row with HR adviser Carnival boss

faces revolt

for $15m pay

Emily Gosden

Carnival is facing a revolt over pay after

leading investor advisory groups raised

concerns over its chief executive’s re-

muneration.

The cruise operator behind the

Princess, Cunard and P&O brands

declared a total package of $15.1 million

for Arnold W Donald for the year to

November 2021, including a $1.5 million

salary, a $6 million bonus and $7.5 mil-

lion in stock awards. It is up from

$13.3 million for 2020 and $11.1 million

for 2019.

Institutional Shareholder Services

has recommended that investors vote

against it. It said that “the annual bonus

does not disclose any performance

targets or even specific metrics used to

determine payouts” and that “despite

British firms wanting

transatlantic success

‘must think of the

whole United States’,

reports Callum Jones

How should British businesses crack

America? According to the UK official

whose job it is to promote trade with the

United States, the key lies in steering

clear of the places that you might think

matter most — New York and Silicon

Valley. Kunal Khatri, deputy trade com-

missioner for the US, says there are “big-

ger and better” opportunities for British

businesses than being “blinded by the

lights of New York and San Francisco”.

Britain is yet to strike a trade deal with

America, its largest national trading

partner, since leaving the EU and nego-

tiations are on ice. However, a team of

160 civil servants are on the ground

across the US trying to boost exports

and investment. Khatri, 38, leads this

team. Emma Wade-Smith, the trade

commissioner and consul general in

New York, has broader responsibilities.

“For a lot of firms, they’re not ready

[for New York and San Francisco]. They

will suffer and they will find it will take

a long time to get back to market,”

Khatri said.

Instead, companies chasing

the American dream are being

encouraged to approach the

country as 50 distinct states,

paying careful consideration

to where they set up shop.

“We’ve always been quite

consistent that you actu-

ally should look at

other markets,” he

said. “The last two

years of the pan-

demic have made it

even more obvious

that you can suc-

ceed by not going to

just New York and

San Francisco.”

Relocating workers

and businesses are

breathing new life into

areas that previously went unconsid-

ered. Key cities in Texas, Utah and Flor-

ida are on the rise. Populations have

fallen in New York, Chicago and Los

Angeles. There are tentative signs of a

significant economic shift.

In recent years, a steady stream of

British companies have eschewed the

brightest lights of America’s east and

west coasts while seeking a foothold.

Denver, Colorado, is home to Gym-

shark, the fitness clothing business;

Arrival, the electric vehicle maker, has

opted for Charlotte, North Carolina.

The Biden administration’s attempt

to divert investment beyond the

country’s financial and technological

capitals was “very similar” to Downing

Street’s pledge to spread economic

opportunity across British towns and

cities, Khatri said. However, another

top priority in No 10 promptly dropped

down the agenda in the White House

when President Biden took office.

Negotiations over a sweeping bilateral

free trade agreement have faltered,

although informal talks on broader

issues were launched in Baltimore,

Maryland, last month.

“We’re ready to go when the US

are ready to go,” Khatri said, “but at

the same time we’ve always said we

don’t want a quickfire, shallow FTA;

we want a substantive, deep, compre-

hensive FTA.”

In the meantime, officials are test-

ing the appetite for smaller,

localised deals. Ministers have

raised the prospect of memo-

randums of understanding with

states amid speculation that they

could sign a series of such agree-

ments in future.

Five years after Biden’s pre-

decessor promised to get a

full trade deal done

“quickly”, industry

leaders are watching

with a degree of scepti-

cism. Memorandums

of understanding gen-

erated “good mood

music”, one said, but

“whether there’s

any substance in

them is another

question”.

Khatri insisted

that such agree-

ments would be

signed only if they

had a meaningful im-

pact for companies. “We could consider

and scope out doing MOUs where they

substantively add value and make a

difference to business,” he said. “There’s

no point in doing anything for the piece

of paper and a PR opportunity.”

Britain launched an insurance tech-

nology corridor with Connecticut last

month, for example. The deal, while

short of a memorandum of under-

standing, is designed to remove barriers

for companies looking to expand.

“We’d love to replicate something

like that in other states, as well,”

Khatri said.

Long before Brexit, trade with Amer-

ica — particularly exports of services

from finance to fashion — was rising.

The UK exported goods worth £47.1 bil-

lion to the US last year, according to the

Office for National Statistics, and

imported goods worth £39.3 billion.

Tasty opportunities await

Some British companies have avoided New York and San Francisco and have turned

Kunal Khatri says

that some British

firms are not ready

for large US cities