The Swansea coffee shop boss who 'looks after' 853 city businesses (original) (raw)
Hitler’s Lufftwaffe may have destroyed Swansea’s original Kardomah cafe in 1941, but the name lives on.
Its most famous customer, Dylan Thomas, described it as being “razed to the snow” in his radio play Return Journey. It was here that Thomas had sat with a group of bohemian friends, drank coffee and discussed “Einstein and Epstein, Garbo, Stravinsky, death, religion, Picasso and girls.”
In 1957 a new Kardomah opened in Portland Street and today its co-director Juliet Luporini talks about her hopes for business in Swansea and a development bank for Wales.
As they say in theatrical progammes, the time is 9.30am, the setting a city centre cafe-restaurant where early-morning shoppers are drinking coffee. A waitress is busy taking orders. Enter Ms Luporini.
“We have been a family business for 44 years, first with my parents who moved here from London, and now with my brother and myself,” she said.
“There are still the original tables and chairs but the rest of the business has been modernised, and today we sell 30 different kinds of coffee beans to wholesale and retail customers. But the cafe culture remains.”
As all business people know, the past is a foreign country where things are done differently, and it’s not about the past that Ms Luporini wishes to talk.
Of her role as chair of Swansea’s Business Improvement District, where she looks after some 853 businesses in the city centre ranging from national and international retailers to the smaller independent traders, the 48-year-old business studies graduate said: “These are all part of the rich retail offer that we try to achieve.
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“We have seen across the UK the problems that town and city centres are facing and the Business Improvement District has been both mechanism and catalyst for improving trading conditions in Swansea’s city centre.
“We have been running for eight years and are now one of the most successful, accruing £500,000 annually, which we use to promote offers to attract shoppers here.”
Her only criticism is that Wales hasn’t been the best at publicising its success, something other parts of the UK tend to do much better.
Three years ago Ms Luporini was appointed to an independent review panel set up by Business and Enterprise Minister Edwina Hart to examine business rates and how they meet the needs of Welsh business.
She said: “We were delighted that the recommendations were taken up by the Minister, and since then there has been a £200,000 fund given by the Welsh Government to set up improvement districts in several parts of Wales.
“Bids are not just about towns or city centres. There can be tourism, commerce or finance bids. Initially 18 places applied, sadly there was only enough money for 10, but we hope this will be a growing mechanism as we see in Scotland.”
Her work on the Business Rates Task and Finish group she describes as “fascinating”, adding “it’s likely this is going to happen in 2015”.
Of her own contribution she said: “Through involvement in that policy you get to see realistically what can be done. I raised some of the practical issues we face in business on a daily basis, whether it’s cashflow or how business rates can impact on these. It also gives a wider understanding of what the Welsh Government and local authorities are dealing with and how business rates income is actually used.”
Following her work on business rates Ms Luporini was appointed to the First Minister’s commission to look at government’s delivery of public services. It was, she said, an intellectually challenging appointment, providing a steep learning curve.
“I got to see public services from another side and help devise a model that could help take this forward into a sustainable future in Wales. I hope the recommendations will now be taken on board,” she said.
This leads to her appointment to the Swansea Bay City Region’s board at the end of last year.
Perhaps anticipating the next question, she said: “People ask why I give up my time for the City Region board. I say it’s because we need a coming together in order to achieve a common goal.”
About her expectations, she’s emphatic: “I expect the City Region board to be the economic driver that a region like this with a small population needs. If we can get the connectivity right we can have an agglomeration of employment, and work on a common planning policy between the city region and local authorities.”
To which she adds: “We shouldn’t be allowing any more out-of-town planning in our region, knowing that Troestre and Fforestfach have sucked life out of both Swansea and Llanelli.
“It mustn’t happen anymore. We need a common vision for the city region, a goal to drive towards a brand and identity for the region that must be clearly defined.”
In short, she would like to see the creation of a place which people want to visit to shop, stay and invest, underwritten by an area of outstanding natural beauty and an attendant quality of life.
“We know that in terms of GVA we are behind Cardiff and the rest of the UK,” she said.
“So we are starting from a different standpoint, but what we do have in our Swansea Bay City Region board are excellent partnerships such as the regional learning and tourism partnerships.
“Overarching these is the will to succeed, but it’s never going into be plain sailing.
“There will always be tribalism but it’s about more than that and needs to transcend politics.”
She added: “At our first meeting I asked, ‘are we going to have long-lasting economic development like Norway and other countries, which set a plan for economic development that stands 25 years regardless of the party in power? Without that we are not going to get anywhere.’ The answer was, ‘it’s going to be place before politics’.”
Although just 10am the Kardomah has seen an increase in customers and the decibel level has risen.
Turning to the economic climate in Wales, she refers to the recent CBI lunch and the words of CBI deputy director general Katja Hall.
She said: “I agree with what Katja Hall said. I think it’s a mixed picture here in Wales with the shoots of recovery being seen sooner in Cardiff than in Swansea.
“We are not out of the woods yet and there is still work to do, but the picture is certainly better than it has been. In terms of Swansea coming out of recession, I like to think that the projects earmarked for redevelopment will go ahead and regeneration happen.”
We finally arrive at the subject of accessing finance, an abiding problem for those in the SME sector. This, it would seem, has not been a problem for Kardomah since finance has not been required, but there has been a change in the relationship between and her and her bank, as she explained: “We have used the same bank for 44 years and until recently we had a relationship manager I was able to talk to.
“This has now ended, which for me is a retrograde step. I have been told that because we don’t turnover enough money we will not have a face-to-face point of contact, and this makes banking too remote.”
This leads to her saying: “There is an enormous gap in funding which, I believe, is one of the findings that has led to an independent panel being appointed to explore the feasibility of a development bank for Wales.
“In many ways the banks are ticking the boxes of offering certain customers money, but it’s not possible for every small business to take this on board.
“With the smaller businesses we look after we have done a few schemes through the Business Improvement District, where we have been able to open up businesses to loans, sometimes only up to £15,000, which is all a small business needs.
“I believe we should be setting up an organisation or model where we can make sure micro and other businesses are able to access the funding needed to help them to grow.”
This, she believes, is something that can have an impact on the whole economy by making sure start-up and growing businesses get the right finance and the right advice.
She said: “I really believe that in moving forward as a country and in Swansea as a city, we need to work together as a partnership as purse strings tighten.
“For me it’s about harnessing human resources in order to move forward. The city region is an economic driver but bureaucracy can always get in the way.”
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