24/03/2004 14 Western Mail cboase 25/03/2004 APPOINTMENTS Mar 25 The Western Mail The business newspaper of Wales Thursday, 25 March 2004 14 BUSINESS Business Editor Siôn Barry 029 2058 3656 w w w. i c w a l e s . c o . u k / b u s i n e s s Peacock spreads its wings Barclays chief doubles pay to £3.9m Car ms Business of 2004 is CR Clarke VALUE-FOR-MONEY cloth- ing gr oup Pe acock has a n- nounced an expansion into the Middle East. The Cardiff retailer yester- day reveal ed it had s ecured a fra nchise deal to open Pea - cocks stores in Turkey and the Gulf States. The exclusive franchise agreement, which extends the globa l reach of the Peac ocks br and, ha s be en agre ed wi th Saudi Ar abia n company Alshaya. Alshaya, established in 1890, is the largest franchise operator of western retail brands in the Middle East. It already operates more than 550 outlets throughout the region in countries including Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain Lebanon and Turkey. Its stores trade under a vari- ety of popular international brand names, including many from the Bri tis h high str eet , su ch as Ne xt , BHS , M ot h- ercare and River Island. The first of Alshayas new Peacocks brand stores opened in the reg ion dur ing the pas t few days. March18 saw the opening of the first Peaco cksin the Turk- is h cap it al Is ta nbul , and a second store opened in Bahrain on Tuesday this week. A fu rther store is to op en in Dubai, part of the United Arab Emirates, on April 4. Under the agreement with Alshaya, the Peacock Group wil l sup ply its full ran ge of womenswear, menswear, chil- drenswear, footwear and homewares to the Middle East stores, and receive a royalty payment on all sales. The move requires no outlay on beha lf of the Pe acock Group and it is understood that royalty payments will be around 5-10%. Both Alshaya and Peacock believe there is considerable scope to roll out the Peac ocks brand name across the Middle East, predicting that at least 40 new s tores will be cr eated across the region over the next five years. Mohammed Alshaya , chief executive officer of Alshayas retail division, which employs 3,500 sta ff acr oss the Middle East, sa id t hat the fi rm wa s planning an aggressive expan- sion across the region. We are excited and have high expectations of the Peacocks brand, he said. It widens our portfolio by allowing us to trade across the family shopping spectrum at lead-in reta il price points. As such, we are planning a chal- lenging and aggressive open- ing store programme across all of the maj or mar ket s in whi ch we operate. Richard Kirk, chief exec- ut ive of the Pe ac ock Gr oup, said the deal provided new opportunities to grow the Pea- cocks brand. Alshaya has great exper- ience and a proven track record of worki ng well with Brit ish retailers in this increasingly important and dynamic re- gion, he said. Our partnership with them minimises the risks associated with international develop- ment, while maximising the pace and likeli hood of its suc- cess. We are excited by the part- nership and the interesting op- portunities that it will open up going forward. The Welsh sto re group cur - rentl y has around 400 store s across the UK, trading under the Peacocks brand name. The group has a fu rther 300-plus stores trading under the Bonmarché name. In its last full year of trading (t o Ma rch 31, 200 3, the Pe a- cock Group achieved total sales of around £396.6m, and posted pre-tax profits of £23.1m. At th e be gi nning of this month, the company an- nounced that 2 50 of its Cardiff head-office staff had benefited from a £1m windfall in employee share options, because shares in the com- pany have almost t reb led in value over the past four years. Rhodri Evans ■ Business Correspondent ■ [email protected] Clothing chain expands into Middle East through franchise deal with Saudi firm TURKISH DELIGHT: The new Peacocks store in Istanbul opens up a whole new market. Below, the Arabic Peacocks logo THE banking chief criticised for a gaf fe ove r bor rowing by credit card is to double his annua l pay packa ge to £3.9m, it emerged yesterday. Bar cla ys chie f exe cut ive Matthew Barrett, who said he would neve r borrow by credit card because it was too expen sive , will be paid £3.1m in pay and bonuses for 2003. As a reward for leading the bank to profits of £3.84bn last year, Mr Barrett will also pick up share options worth £831, 000 four time s the amount he collected in 2002. And according to its annual reports and accounts, Mr Ba rre tt wil l als o rec eiv e a £990,000 top-up to his pension fund. The pay arrangements drew criticism from unions while the National Association of Pe n si on F un ds ( NA PF ) wanted evidence that the rises were sufficiently tied to performance targets. NAPF joined a shareholder rebellion last year over the pay deal for the chief executive, which included a golden parachute clause that entitled him to twice his annual pack- age in the event of a change of control. A spokesman for Unifi, which represents workers at the bank, said yesterday, Staff at Barclays will have difficulty reconciling their pay increase this year with that of Matthew Barrett. But a Barclays spokesman defended the pay package, poi nti ng out tha t Mr Ba rre tt had not received an increase in his bas ic pay o f £1. 1m la st year. The hike in bonuses reflec - ted improved performance at the bank and this was the basis for judging the pay of every member of staff, she said. Share options were awarded to directors after the perform- ance of Bar clays was meas- ured against 11 major rivals including HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland and Deutsche Bank. The spokesman said, The past four years have been t he most profitable in Barclays history. Since Matthew Barrett has been there, hes transformed the bank. Mr Barrett was criticised last year after telli ng t he Treasury Select Committee he did not use a Barcla ycard to borrow money because it was too expensive. AMMANFORD manufacturer CR C larke was last night named as the Carmarthenshire Business of the Year. The firm, which produces plastic forming machinery for industry and the educational market, was announced as the over al l wi nner at t he Ca r- marthenshire Business Awa rds, he ld at the St ra dey Hotel in Llanelli. The event was compered by BBC Radio Wales broadcaster Roy Noble, pictured below. CR C larke took the overall prize after being named as Carmarthens hire Expor ter of the Year, a category sponsored by Wales Trade International. WTI I nte rna tional tra de counsellor, Elaine Choules, congratulated the company on its success. CR Cl arke & Co has planned and implemented a successful approach to all overseas activities, she said. The company has found a ni che in a very compet it ive marketplace and maintained an excellent reputation for quality of product and after-sales support. Five other category winners were announced on the night. Picton Sports of Llanelli won the Environmental Award 2004, sponsored by Arena Network. Maros Riding Centre, Llan- elli, scooped the Best Tourlink Business award, sponsored by Carmarthens hire Touri st As- sociation. The E-Commerce Award, sponsored by Antur Teifi, went to Health Leads UK of St Clears. The WDA-sponsored Gareth Jones Memorial Award for Best Use of Innovation and Technology went to Excel Pre- cision of Llanelli. The Self-Employed New Deal Achiev er of the Y ear award, sponsored by Job Cen tre Plu s, was won by Ca r- oli ne Ann e Dav ies ofthe Cot - ton Nappy Company. Rhodri Evans [email protected] David Winning [email protected] Amec wins biggest Iraq contract so far awarded to a British company IQE in red after drop in sales BRIT ISH f irm Amec has ded by the US Congress to rebuild the US D of De fence particularly in the water sector. volvement of British firms. THE we akeni ng of the dolla r and tough prici ng polic ies have con- spired to keep semiconductor ma- terial manufa cturer IQE firmly in the red. The London Sto ck Exc hange- list ed comp any , whic h has it s headquarters in Cardiff, yesterday pos ted pre -ta x los ses for its fin- ancial year to December 31, 2003 of £13.6m. It was an impro vemen t on its tra din g posi tio n for 20 02 whe n it rep orted l osses of £1 18m fuell ed by a mass ive wr ite off of assets. IQE, which manufacturers advan ced custo mise d wafe rs for the semi- condu ctor industry, said its 18.3% fall in sales from £22.9m to £1 8.7m, was t he res ult of ad- vers e dollar excha nge rate move- men ts and agg res siv e pri cin g to attra ct highe r volume outso urcin g opportunities. During the year the company also tr ansfe rred fr om the mai n London e xchang e to th e junior alternative investment market and succe ssful ly rais ed £17m throu gh the pl ac ing of 125 mil li on new shares. Its wafer volumes increased by 28% to mor e th an 110,000 o n 2002. Dr Drew Nelson, presi dent and CEO, said, Although 2003 sales reven ue fell due to a combi natio n of adverse exchange ra te s a nd ag gr es si ve pr i ci n g polic y by the group , opera ting los ses bef ore exc ept ion al ite ms wer e reduce d eve n more sig ni- fi cant ly by 43% due to ti ght cost control, lower raw material prices and bet ter operat ional eff ici en- cies. Wafe r vol ume s inc rea sed by 28% with the group shipping ove r 110, 000 waf ers dur ing the year. The product portfolio was sub- stantially strengthened and a num- ber of excitin g outso urce oppor- tunit ies began to emer ge during the year. All key products were transitioned t o large volume pro- duc ti on sy st e ms t o impr o ve effi cienc ies and lowe r produc tion costs and as a result we continue to see improved demand for our products. Share holder s will not be paid a dividend. Cobra joins Exchange INVESTMENT vehicl e Cob ra Capital was yesterday admitted to the London Stoc k Excha nge with We lsh expertise appointed to over- see its £10m war chest. Guerns ey- bas ed Cob ra has raised £1.35m through an equity issue at 50p a share It has also entered into a sub- script ion agreeme nt with Lyn- woo d Gro up to rai se a furt her £1.95m on or before April 22 at the sa me share pr ice. It has an opt ion a gree men t wit h Forestdale Trading to drawn down a fur- the r £6. 6m o f fund - ing by next March. Monmouth- based Jonathan Freeman, until re- cent ly a corpo rate finance partner with Cardiff-based Gambit Cor- porate Finance joins Cobras board as a non-executive director . Dr Godf rey Ai ns wort h, pic- tured, man agi ng par tne r of Gam- bit, has also been appointed to the industry advisory panel of Cobra. He sa id , C ob ra is a st ra te gi c inves tment compa ny which aims to achieve capital growt h for its share holder s throug h the purcha se, hold- in g an d sa le o f mi nori ty stakes in other companies and entities. Cobra will inv est pri mar ily in smaller capitalised companies, which are , or are exp ect ed shortly to be, quoted on rec ogn ise d in- vestment exchanges in Europe. Siôn Barry Business Editor [email protected]