Participants at the latest Dorset Biz News roundtable agreed that Dorset must harness the strength of its business community to sell its benefits to the UK and beyond.

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PARTICIPANTS 

Hannah Mazrae, Partner, Saffery

Paul Stewart, Managing Director, Goadsby 

Tyrone Meiring, Commercial Insurance Broker, Gallagher

Lewis Barr, Partner (Non-Solicitor) Head of Marketing & Commercial, Frettens Solicitors

Gemma Murphy, Director & Solicitor, View HR

Nick Douch, Managing Director,  Douch Family Funeral Directors

Darren Seward, Agent & Partner at NFU Mutual New Forest, Isle of Wight & Bournemouth 

Alan Clifford, Volunteer, Wildlife in Need

Lee Peck, Director and Founder,  Lee Peck Media 

Fiona Harwood, Corporate Partnerships Manager, Lewis-Manning Hospice Care

Don McQueen, Chairman, Dorset Business Angels

Alan Lindstrom, Sales Manager, Dorset Biz News

Stephen Emerson, Managing Editor, Dorset Biz News (Host)

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Bournemouth and the wider Dorset area must strive to be seen as less of a place at the seaside where people do work and its business community must come together to spread the message about its vibrant and resilient economy.

This was one the key messages heard at a Dorset Biz News roundtable at Gallagher’s offices in Poole in January, which focused on the challenges and opportunities facing the county’s economy in 2025.

Gemma Murphy, a Director at View HR, posted a popular LinkedIn post calling for more positivity around Dorset’s business community and economy.

The post was in reaction to online comments following OnBuy’s decision to move its headquarters to London due to perceived failures of Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council to support the region’s tech sector.

She said: “Bournemouth has a fantastic business that is highly supportive with many successful and industrious businesses in the area.

“I work with and see so many amazing business owners, professional services and organisations operate successfully in the area. 

“We need to change the attitudes and perceptions around Bournemouth.”

Dorset was described as a county with two economies with the BCP area focused on financial services, industrial and tourism with the rural county centred on agriculture.

The county was also seeing a promising growth in startups in telecoms, technology, healthcare around Bournemouth.

Don McQueen, Chairman of Dorset Business Angels, said: “There’s a strength in the diversity in that there’s a multitude of different sectors and we’re not overly reliant on one in particular.

“Tourism and hospitality has been central to the economy for a while, but it’s had a very hard time.

“It’s gone from 300,000 holiday beds down to about 80,000. It’s been decimated by cheap flights.”

Lee Peck, Founder and Director of Southampton-based Lee Peck Media, also said that Dorset’s diversity was its strength, particularly around its creative industries.

He said: “I think we look with envy at your digital offering in Bournemouth.

“Bournemouth has carved a real niche for itself – in broadcast media, digital AI.”

COMMUNITY

The strength of Dorset’s business community was also underlined which helped not only to support established and new enterprises but also the next generation of professionals and entrepreneurs.

Gemma Murphy of View HR said: “We’ve got a really great business community which holds business together.

“We all have a role to play as business owners and professionals in helping the younger generation and showing them the value of the community that we have here.”

Roundtable participants also recognised that while the county had its economic strengths, there were a number of issues that needed to be attended to if Dorset was to retain its economic position.

Town centre safety was identified as an issue impeding the liveability of urban centres such as Bournemouth and therefore economic growth.

Nick Douch, Managing Director of Douch Family Funeral Directors, pointed to the zoning of areas in the city centre for family-friendly activities that had worked in other cities.

He said: “I think if we had zonal areas such as those in Manchester and Leeds where you have areas for shopping and areas for clubs, this would give families the confidence to go out without mixing with a lot of drunk people.

“The most simple thing to put forward is to put in zonal areas and anyone looking to open certain types of business has to meet that criteria.”

CULTURE

The power of culture to lift up an urban area was also highlighted.

If more events such as live music and comedy were staged, it would encourage not only residents to return at night but also attract visitors.

Partner at accountancy firm Saffery, Hannah Mazrae, said more live events would have a positive impact.

She said: “Bournemouth lacks the live music offering that you get in other cities and by offering this, it could attract people from neighbouring counties and further afield.

“If you get events in the area then that brings people in who will go on and spend money in other parts of Dorset.”

The issue of empty shop units in Bournemouth town centre was also raised with an acceptance that this was an issue that affected towns and cities throughout the UK and that innovative solutions were needed.

Roundtable participants said consumer behaviour had changed with many consumers favouring the ease of access provided by the out-of-town shopping centre at Castlepoint.

The decline of the high street was not universal across the county, with small community-led retail centres providing a source of optimism.

Don McQueen, Chairman of Dorset Business Angels, said: “High streets are dying all over the country, so it’s not a Bournemouth-specific problem.

“However, there’s so many other smaller, localised areas that are absolutely thriving, including Westbourne, Ashley Cross and Southbourne.”

PROPERTY

The reasons for Bournemouth’s lack of construction, particularly in the housing sector, were also discussed with innovative solutions also put forward.

Alan Clifford, a volunteer at Wildlife in Need, said that with little money around for new developments, new approaches were needed.

The BOXPARK development in Shoreditch was cited as a potential source of economic inspiration for Dorset’s urban areas.

Alan said: “Bournemouth could benefit from that because it creates an almost instant hub of either creativity or food or performance space.

“It’s flexible so businesses can go in and try out. If it doesn’t work for them, they’re not tied into contracts.

“BOXPARK in Shoreditch is vibrant and very busy because it has a great offer.”

PARTNERSHIPS 

Roundtable participants agreed that the support of the business community for a number of charitable causes was one of the reasons for its cohesiveness.

Fiona Harwood, Corporate Partnerships Manager at Lewis-Manning Hospice Care, said volunteering is much more than just ticking a box.

She said: “It’s brand awareness, opportunities and real partnerships. 

“Volunteering provides excellent networking opportunities and the chance for companies to have a real impact in the places where they’re based.

“It also makes staff feel engaged, not only for the companies that they work for but also in the wider community.”

Darren Seward, Agent and Partner at NFU Mutual New Forest, Isle of Wight and Bournemouth, said volunteering had increased staff engagement at his organisation.

He said: “We have a fund from each office and the staff chose which charity that this should go to each year.

“This helps with team building and engagement.”

Lewis Barr, Partner (Non-Solicitor) Marketing and Commercial at Frettens Solicitors, said that charity partnerships put in place had multiple benefits for his firm.

“We’ve worked with MYTIME Young Carers for four years and we offer all our staff the opportunity to volunteer.

“Our staff engagement scores have gone through the roof. This has contributed to improved retention, and we’ve built some really valuable business connections.

“We also get great PR, but we’re doing this fundamentally because it’s the right thing to do and provide help to young people who are in a caring position.”

Tyrone Meiring, Commercial Insurance Broker at Gallagher, said working with the third sector gave employees a grounding in the community in which they work.

He said: “Gallagher is very big in volunteering, with each branch having its own charity.

“We work with Julia’s House Children’s Hospice and Forest Holme Hospice, where we raise money through a variety of activities.

“The good thing about this approach is that it allows us to give back and connect with similar types of people.

“Doing this work also brings you back down to earth and gives you a lot of gratitude for what you do have.”

Alan Lindstrom, Sales Manager at Dorset Biz News, agreed that there were clear benefits to society from volunteering.

He pointed to Rwanda as a country that had innovated on a country-wide level in this space.

Alan said: “Rwanda is now one of the cleanest countries in the world thanks to its volunteering programme and its economy is also growing rapidly.

“This is down to its volunteering policies where people are encouraged to volunteer in their communities one day a month.

“It has completely transformed their country.”

The January roundtable was hosted at Gallagher Insurance’s offices in Poole, a partner supporter of Dorset Biz News.