South: 50 guests attend Solent 250 annual dinner

Fifty guests attended the Solent 250 private dinner at Lainston House Hotel, near Winchester, last night to network, share stories, and listen to the views of two business experts. 

The dinner, sponsored by HSBC, KPMG, and law firm Irwin Mitchell, celebrated the publication of the Solent 250 list. The companies on this list, ranked by sales, generated a combined turnover of over £13.5 billion in 2016, and included household names such as Lush Cosmetics, Stannah Lifts, and Fat Face. 

David Murray, publisher of The Business Magazine, opened the evening by drawing attention to the key political events that are likely to shape 2017. From March 29, the date upon which prime minister Theresa May has informed the European council she intends to trigger Article 50, through to the ramifications from Trump's confrontational presidency, and onto the European general elections, Murray highlighted a host of concerns on the horizon. However, he also stressed that businesses had always managed to adapt to past uncertainties, and was confident that they would continue to do so for the future. 

Following starters, the first speaker of the evening, Mark Berrisford-Smith, head of economics, HSBC UK Commercial Banking, addressed in detail some of the political concerns raised earlier, and provided his thoughts on the shape of the Brexit negotiations to come. 

Then, before dessert, Spencer McCarthy, chairman and CEO, Churchill Retirement Living, took the delegates on a journey through Churchill's history, from its creation in 1994 with just one plot of land, through to its current position of 13th on the Solent 250 list, having generated £190m of sales for the year ended 2016. 

A fuller article will appear in the May edition of The Business Magazine.