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24/03/2004 14 Western Mail cboase 25/03/2004 APPOINTMENTS Mar 25

The Western Mail The business newspaper of Wales Thursday, 25 March 200414

BUSINESSBusiness 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

 Win a corporate golf day – see page 16 of the main paper

Peacock spreads its wings

Bar clayschief doubles

pay to£3.9m

Car msBusinessof 2004

is CRClarke

VALUE-FOR-MONEY cloth-ing group Peacock has an-nounced an expansion into theMiddle East.

The Cardiff retailer yester-day revealed it had secured afranchise deal to open Pea-cocks stores in Turkey and theGulf States.

The exclusive franchiseagreement, which extends theglobal reach of the Peacocksbrand, has been agreed withSaudi Arabian companyAlshaya.

Alshaya, established in1890, is the largest franchiseoperator of western retailbrands in the Middle East.

It already operates morethan 550 outlets throughout theregion in countries includingSaudi Arabia, Kuwait, BahrainLebanon and Turkey.

Its stores trade under a vari-ety of popular internationalbrand names, including manyfrom the British high street,such as Next, BHS, Moth-

ercare and River Island.The first of Alshayas new

Peacocks brand stores openedin the region during the pastfew days.

March18 saw the opening of the first Peacocks in the Turk-ish capital Istanbul, and asecond store opened inBahrain on Tuesday thisweek.

A further store is to open in

Dubai, part of the United ArabEmirates, on April 4.Under the agreement with

Alshaya, the Peacock Groupwill supply its full range of womenswear, menswear, chil-drenswear, footwear andhomewares to the Middle Eaststores, and receive a royaltypayment on all sales.

The move requires no outlayon behalf of the PeacockGroup and it is understood thatroyalty payments will bearound 5-10%.

Both Alshaya and Peacockbelieve there is considerablescope to roll out the Peacocksbrand name across the MiddleEast, predicting that at least 40new stores will be createdacross the region over the next

five years.Mohammed Alshaya, chief executive officer of Alshayasretail division, which employs3,500 staff across the MiddleEast, said that the firm wasplanning an aggressive expan-sion across the region.

We are excited and havehigh expectations of the

Peacocks brand, he said.It widens our portfolio by

allowing us to trade across thefamily shopping spectrum atlead-in retail price points. Assuch, we are planning a chal-lenging and aggressive open-ing store programme across allof the major markets in whichwe operate.

Richard Kirk, chief exec-utive of the Peacock Group,

said the deal provided newopportunities to grow the Pea-cocks brand.

Alshaya has great exper-ience and a proven track recordof working well with Britishretailers in this increasinglyimportant and dynamic re-gion, he said.

Our partnership with them

minimises the risks associatedwith international develop-ment, while maximising thepace and likelihood of its suc-cess.

We are excited by the part-

nership and the interesting op-portunities that it will open upgoing forward.

The Welsh store group cur-rently has around 400 storesacross the UK, trading underthe Peacocks brand name.

The group has a further300-plus stores trading underthe Bonmarché name.

In its last full year of trading(to March 31, 2003, the Pea-cock Group achieved totalsales of around £396.6m, andposted pre-tax profits of £23.1m.

At the beginning of thismonth, the company an-nounced that 250 of itsCardiff head-office staff hadbenefited from a £1m windfallin employee share options,because shares in the com-pany have almost trebled invalue over the past fouryears.

Rhodri Evans ■ Business Correspondent ■ rhodri.evans@wme.co.uk

Clothing chain expands into Middle Eastthrough 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 criticisedfor a gaffe over borrowing bycredit card is to double hisannual pay package to £3.9m,it emerged yesterday.

Barclays chief executiveMatthew Barrett, who said hewould never borrow by creditcard because it was tooexpensive, will be paid £3.1min pay and bonuses for 2003.

As a reward for leading thebank to profits of £3.84bn lastyear, Mr Barrett will also pickup share options worth£831,000 four times theamount he collected in 2002.

And according to its annualreports and accounts, MrBarrett will also receive a£990,000 top-up to his pensionfund.

The pay arrangements drewcriticism from unions whilethe National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF)wanted evidence that the riseswere sufficiently tied toperformance targets.

NAPF joined a shareholderrebellion last year over the paydeal for the chief executive,which included a goldenparachute clause that entitledhim to twice his annual pack-age in the event of a change of control.

A spokesman for Unifi,which represents workers atthe bank, said yesterday, Staff 

at Barclays will have difficultyreconciling their pay increasethis year with that of MatthewBarrett.

But a Barclays spokesmandefended the pay package,pointing out that Mr Barretthad not received an increase inhis basic pay of £1.1m lasty e a r.

The hike in bonuses reflec-ted improved performance atthe bank and this was the basisfor judging the pay of everymember of staff, she said.

Share options were awardedto directors after the perform-ance of Barclays was meas-ured against 11 major rivalsincluding HSBC, Royal Bankof Scotland and DeutscheBank.

The spokesman said, Thepast four years have been themost profitable in Barclays

h i s t o r y.Since Matthew Barrett hasbeen there, hes transformedthe bank.

Mr Barrett was criticisedlast year after telling theTreasury Select Committee hedid not use a Barclaycard toborrow money because it wastoo expensive.

AMMANFORD manufacturerCR Clarke was last nightnamed as the CarmarthenshireBusiness of the Year.

The firm, which producesplastic forming machinery forindustry and the educationalmarket, was announced as theoverall winner at the Car-marthenshire BusinessAwards, held at the StradeyHotel in Llanelli.

The event was compered byBBC Radio Wales broadcasterRoy Noble, pictured below.

CR Clarke took the overallprize after being named asCarmarthenshire Exporter of the Year, a category sponsoredby Wales Trade International.

WTI International tradecounsellor, Elaine Choules,congratulated the company onits success.

CR Clarke & Co hasplanned and implemented asuccessful approach to alloverseas activities, she said.The company has found aniche in a very competitivemarketplace and maintainedan excellent reputation forquality of product andafter-sales support.

Five other category winnerswere announced on the night.

Picton Sports of Llanelliwon the Environmental Award2004, sponsored by ArenaNetwork.

Maros Riding Centre, Llan-

elli, scooped the Best TourlinkBusiness award, sponsored byCarmarthenshire Tourist As-sociation.

The E-Commerce Award,sponsored by Antur Teifi, wentto Health Leads UK of StClears. The WDA-sponsoredGareth Jones Memorial Awardfor Best Use of Innovation andTechnology went to Excel Pre-cision of Llanelli.

The Self-Employed NewDeal Achiever of the Yearaward, sponsored by JobCentre Plus, was won by Car-oline Anne Davies ofthe Cot-ton Nappy Company.

Rhodri Evansrhodri.evans@wme.co.ukDavid Winning

newsdesk@wme.co.uk

Amec wins biggest Iraq contract so far awarded to a British company

IQE in red after drop in sales

BRITISH firm Amec has won aone billion dollar (£600m) con-tract to rebuild the water supply inIraq, the biggest contract won by aUK company, it was announcedy e s t e r d a y.

The deal is one of 10 major

construction projects being fun-

ded by the US Congress to rebuildthe war-ravaged country.

The work will be carried out byAmec in partnership with US firmFluor, a joint venture which wonanother big reconstruction projectearlier this month.

The new deal was awarded by

the US Department of Defence toreconstruct water and sewage sys-tems across Iraq.

Brian Wilson, Prime MinisterTony Blairs special envoy in Iraq,said, This latest award confirmsthat British companies will play a

key role in reconstructing Iraq,

particularly in the water sector.This is a US-funded contract

and I have no doubt that, as fund-ing sources diversify, British com-panies will play an even biggerpart in rebuilding Iraq.

There is no doubt tha t the

Iraqis very much want the in-

volvement of British firms.Mike OBrien, UK Trade and

Investment Minister, said, Wehave said all along that UK firmshave the skills and capabilities tomake a significant contribution tothe reconstruction of Iraqs es-

sential infrastructure.

THE weakening of the dollar andtough pricing policies have con-spired to keep semiconductor ma-terial manufacturer IQE firmly inthe red.

The London Stock Exchange-listed company, which has itsheadquarters in Cardiff, yesterdayposted pre-tax losses for its fin-ancial year to December 31, 2003

of £13.6m.It was an improvement on its

trading position for 2002 whenit reported losses of £118m fuelled by a massive write off of assets.

IQE, which manufacturersadvanced customised wafers forthe semi-conductor industry, saidits 18.3% fall in sales from £22.9mto £18.7m, was the result of ad-verse dollar exchange rate move-ments and aggressive pricing to

attract higher volume outsourcingopportunities.

During the year the companyalso transferred from the mainLondon exchange to the junioralternative investment market and

successfully raised £17m throughthe placing of 125 million newshares.

Its wafer volumes increased by28% to more than 110,000 on2002.

Dr Drew Nelson, president andCEO, said, Although 2003 salesrevenue fell due to a combinationof adverse exchangerates and aggressive pricingpolicy by the group, operatinglosses before exceptional items

were reduced even more signi-ficantly by 43% due to tight costcontrol, lower raw material pricesand better operational efficien-cies.

Wafer volumes increased by28% with the group shippingover 110,000 wafers during they e a r.

The product portfolio was sub-

stantially strengthened and a num-ber of exciting outsource oppor-tunities began to emerge duringthe year.

All key products weretransitioned to large volume pro-duction systems to improveefficiencies and lower productioncosts and as a result we continue tosee improved demand for ourproducts.

Shareholders will not be paid adividend.

Cobra joins ExchangeINVESTMENT vehicle CobraCapital was yesterday admitted tothe London Stock Exchange withWelsh expertise appointed to over-see its £10m war chest.

Guernsey-based Cobra hasraised £1.35m through an equityissue at 50p a share

It has also entered into a sub-scription agreement with Lyn-

wood Group to raise a further£1.95m on or before April 22 atthe same share price. It has anoption agreement withForestdale Trading todrawn down a fur-ther £6.6m of fund-ing by next March.

Monmouth-based JonathanFreeman, until re-cently a corporatefinance partner

with Cardiff-based Gambit Cor-porate Finance joins Cobras boardas a non-executive director.

Dr Godfrey Ainsworth, pic-tured, managing partner of Gam-bit, has also been appointed to theindustry advisory panel of Cobra.

He said, Cobra is a strategicinvestment company whichaims to achieve capital

growth for its shareholdersthrough the purchase, hold-ing and sale of minority

stakes in other companiesand entities. Cobra willinvest primarily insmaller capitalisedcompanies, whichare, or are expectedshortly to be, quotedon recognised in-vestment exchangesin Europe.

Siôn BarryBusiness Editorsion.barr y@wme.co.uk