FINANCIAL AND BUSINESS SERVICES Fife, Scotland

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1 FINANCIAL AND BUSINESS SERVICES Fife, Scotland

2 Fife s location within the Edinburgh City Region has attracted a wide range of businesses involved in the Financial and Business Services sector. Many of these companies are working at the forefront of the sector.

3 Introduction Fife Fife has long played an important role within Scotland s Financial and Business Services sector. Adam Smith is one of the region s most famous sons and his economic theories continue to play a role in the global economy. That proud history continues today and several multi-national companies are based in the area. One of the key benefits of being based in Fife is its location within the Edinburgh City region. The capital has more FTSE 100 headquarters than any other UK city outside of London and is the UK s second largest financial centre. With easy access to green space, world class golf courses, and no city centre congestion Fife offers the high quality of life required to attract highly skilled workers. Fife is also surrounded by several world-class universities. These institutions run a wide range of courses suitable for the Financial and Business Services Sector.

4 Why Fife? Skills Several education institutions including the University of St Andrews, Adam Smith College, Carnegie College, University of Edinburgh, Heriot Watt University, University of Dundee and Edinburgh Napier University produce graduates for the Financial Services sector. They run undergraduate courses in a variety of subjects including Accounting and Mathematics as well as postgraduate courses such as Banking and Finance & Investment. Quality of Life Fife is a world-class visitor destination. It is home to some of the world s finest golf courses, including the Old Course in St Andrews. Fife s coastline also offers excellent walking and wildlife. With a fabulous natural larder and award-winning restaurants and accommodation, including Michelin Star dining, it s easy to see how Fife delivers an exceptional visitor experience, whatever your pleasure Edinburgh: Best office space Office rent (per square metre) Glasgow Grade A 193 Edinburgh Park 110 Fife Grade A Source: Scottish Property Network Costs An additional benefit of Fife as a location is that both wages and rental levels are lower than those in the centre of Edinburgh. Due to the high number of people who commute from Fife into Edinburgh, companies located in Fife can offer lower wages in exchange of the benefit of being located closer to home. Grade A Property There is a shortage of Grade A office space in Edinburgh and as of June 2012, there is approximately only 260,000 sq ft available. In Fife we have a good selection of Grade A office space, particularly within the Forth Bridgehead area and Kirkcaldy s John Smith business park. A map of these buildings can be found in the Rosyth/Dunfermline and Kirkcaldy profiles overleaf.

5 Regional Selective Assistance grants Regional Selective Assistance (RSA) encourages businesses to undertake investment that will directly result in the creation or safeguarding of jobs in Scotland. Both indigenous and foreign companies can apply for grants if they are carrying out projects that will result in increased employment and help to ensure Scotland s economy remains globally competitive. Examples of Regional Selective Assistance grants Company RSA Grant offered Location Jobs created Barclays Bank Plc 6,600,000 Glasgow 600 Tesco Personal Finance plc Ceridian Holdings UK Ltd Level Four Software Ltd 5,000,000 Glasgow 880 1,700,000 Glasgow ,000 Dunfermline 16 Several Financial & Business Services companies have been offered RSA grants in recent years. These grants have helped to create hundreds of jobs. RSA grants are available for businesses of all sizes in Fife, the only area within the Edinburgh City region where large companies are eligible for RSA. Examples of RSA awards in recent years are listed in the table opposite. Transport infrastructure Fife is well connected to Scotland s main cities as well as further a field. The East coast train line runs through Fife allowing easy access to the centre of Edinburgh to the South and Dundee to the North. London can be reached by train in under 5 hours. Edinburgh Airport is located 10 miles from the South West of Fife. There are on average 46 flights per day to London from Edinburgh as well as regular flights to major financial centres including Frankfurt, New York, Paris, Dublin and Madrid. Destination Distance Time Edinburgh Airport 12 miles 20 minutes Edinburgh City Centre 15 miles 29 minutes Glasgow 41 miles 50 minutes Glasgow Airport 46 miles 60 minutes Dundee 49 miles 60 minutes Commuting out of Fife... Almost 13,000 Fife residents travel daily from Fife to Edinburgh to work, many of them in the Financial Services sector. A further 2,000 and more travel from Fife to the Lothians (including Midlothian) to work. Source: Census 2001

6 Bridgehead profile The Bridgehead area, which includes Dunfermline and Rosyth, is rapidly becoming a significant and confident business region with a growing reputation as Edinburgh s financial edge. Significant financial services investments in the area include Lloyds Banking Group and The Nationwide Building Society. Carnegie Campus The development of Carnegie Campus began in 1992 and has attracted a number of high profile companies such as BSkyB, Nationwide Building Society and is headquarters for Scottish Water. BSkyB The Satellite TV, broadband and telephony service provider employs 2,250 people within their Dunfermline centre. The centre handles the whole customer journey including Sales, Customer Service and Retention. Lloyds Banking Group Lloyds have two facilities in the area, one in Pitreavie Business Park and the other in Rosyth. employing around 1,000 staff. Bridgehead case study 1 BSkyB BSkyB has over 10 million customers through-out the UK and was recently voted number one for customer service by Ofcom. Their contact centre in Dunfermline is its flagship operation and employs 2,250 staff in sales and service roles. The Centre s sales division is the hub for attracting new customers, retaining existing customers and handling campaign responses. The service division looks after new customers in their first 90 days and provides help on technical issues, billing, home moves, and broadband. Rail Network Dundee Edinburgh Meeting customer expectations is critical to the business so flexible staff are required to ensure that customer expectations are exceeded. An e-service team deals with s from customers and web chat is an increasingly popular service. This helps customers who find it difficult to find time to call. Finding the right staff is vital and the company offers opportunities for people with all kinds of backgrounds school leavers, parents working around the needs of families, graduates and people wanting to work longer after retiring. Inverkeithing Train Station M90 Nationwide Building Society The Nationwide Building Society acquired the Dunfermline Building Society in 2009 and the Dunfermline office employs around 280 people. No.1 Masterton Park Highly quality open plan office accommodation over three floors. The 30,000sq ft available for let. George Square, Masterton Park A collection of offices providing high quality accommodation up to 8,000sq ft. Pitreavie Business Park Pitreavie Business Park covers approximately 74 hectares (183 acres) of land. Key 1 No 1 Masterton Park 2 George Square 3 BSkyB 4 Lloyds Banking Group 5 Aquarius Court 6 Nationwide Building Society 7 Lloyds banking Group 2 1

7 Bridgehead case study 2 Level Four Level Four is a Software company based in Dunfermline specialising in ATM test software. Their customers include banks based around the globe. Their customers include Abbey, Lloyds, Nationwide, Den Norske Bank, Rabobank, Standard Bank of South Africa and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Fife has a proud history of being at the forefront of technology and innovation, especially in the area of self-service technology in which Level Four operates. Due to this there is a high number of experienced technical and managerial staff who we have been able to attract to the company to help us with our growth plan. Here in Fife we are blessed to be surrounded by a number of world-renowned Universities and colleges. We have been able to use that to accelerate our growth in recent years. We have a number of staff who have joined Level Four from a number of other areas, including myself, and there are a lot of benefits of living in Fife. Since we have been based here we have received continued support from Fife Council and Scottish Enterprise. We ve had both practical and financial support to help us move into new markets in Asia and develop our technical infrastructure here in Dunfermline. Being a Global business transport links are very important to Level Four. We are very close to the motorway network which allows us easy access to our customers in the UK. We are also served by Edinburgh and Glasgow airports which have flights to all our customer sites around the world. Fife is the perfect hub for a global business. Paul Gardner, Operations Director Road Network Edinburgh Airport 12 miles Edinburgh City Centre 15 miles 4 5 Rosyth Train Station 3 7 6

8 Kirkcaldy Kirkcaldy is approximately 25 miles north of Edinburgh, across the Forth Road Bridge and along the A92 from Junction 2A of the M90. The town, with a population of 48,000 is well served with excellent public transport networks including frequent trains to and from Edinburgh. The bus network is extensive, radiating from the centrally located bus station. John Smith Business Park John Smith Business Park lies to the North of Kirkcaldy and immediately adjacent to the A92. The Park is a 60 acre greenfield development site offering excellent access to both Kirkcaldy and the rest of Scotland. JSbp offers great potential for businesses looking to relocate or expand within Fife. Dunfermline 9 miles Edinburgh Airport 22 miles Edinburgh City Centre 25 miles Developme opportunitie The Park has outline planning consent for approximately 415,000 sq ft of Class 4 business development, incorporating an element of hotel/leisure accommodation. Land to the east has been allocated for further residential development. JSbp3 is a High Quality office building offering space from 7,838 sq ft to 23,611 sq ft over 3 floors. The building is the third to be developed by Fife Council within the business park. The other two buildings were sold to MGt. There is currently 19.1 hectares of undeveloped sites ranging form 0.81 hectares to 4.21 hectares

9 Road Network A92 Dundee 30 miles Development opportunities JSbp 3 nt s Development opportunities Fife Central Retail Park

10 Kirkcaldy Case study MGt MGt was launched in 1988 and is based with John Smith Business Park in Kirkcaldy. The company provides outsourcing services to a number of media companies including BT and Digital UK. Today they employ around 500 staff, although this can increase by up to 400 people to cope with the demands of clients. The company bills over 250m per annum in service provider revenue and manages 10m customer interactions every year. The company has acquired more than 3 million new subscribers on behalf of its clients and launched over 90 broadcast channels. As well as providing services to other companies their inhouse software specialists have developed an online payment system called PayWizard. It is a pre-paid e-wallet designed to enable the increasing requirement to monetise media micropayments across all platforms and devices. PayWizard supports transactions made on multiple devices, including: online, tablets, smartphones, connected TVs and digital set-top boxes. Since its launch in 2010 it has quickly attracted business from sports and leisure companies, like Racing UK and BoxNation.

11 In order to provide services for a wide range of clients they need a flexible and knowledgeable workforce. They have traditionally attracted parents who want the option to work around school hours. In the past few years, a new tranche of recruits has emerged people who have been made redundant from quite senior positions in other sectors and are keen to stay in the workplace. To help ensure a supply of skilled workers MGt work closely with Adam Smith College, which runs courses twice a week in the company offices, and Carnegie College. Staff can work towards their European Computer Driving Licence and an SVQ in Customer Service as part of their progression towards line management responsibilities.

12 The Invest in Fife team is the inward investment arm of Fife Council. We work closely with Scottish Development International to offer a bespoke service to companies seeking to invest in Fife. We have a proven track record of helping investors make their projects happen. Whatever your requirement we have the skills and experience to make your move to Fife as easy as possible. We can help you with: Property searches Detailed local information such as local demographics Familiarisation trips Introductions to other Fife Council departments such as Planning and Transportation Contacts within other organisations To find out more contact us direct Ross Mackenzie Lead Officer (Investment) E: ross.mackenzie@fife.gov.uk T: +44 (0) ext M: +44 (0) Tina Fong Economic Adviser (Investment) E: tina.fong@fife.gov.uk T: +44 (0) ext Fife Council, Enterprise, Planning & Protective Services, Kingdom House, Kingdom Avenue, Glenrothes, KY7 5LT