Call to support family firm sector ahead of event focused on these firms arriving in Glasgow

Hundreds of family businesses are to gather north of the Border this week as a key event focused on and advocating for the sector comes to Glasgow for the first time.

The annual Institute For Family Business (IFB) National Family Business Conference kicks off on Wednesday June 14, with the three-day event expected to see family firms of all sizes and from every sector within the UK meet up to discuss the future of this type of business model and how such firms innovate and invest to support the next generation of organisations of this type and their leaders.

The IFB says the conference will showcase some Glaswegian and Scottish family business success stories – adding that north of the Border there are more than 280,000 family firms, around 84 per cent of all businesses in the nation, with 874,000 staff altogether.

Exclusive research commissioned by the IFB and produced by Censuswide, which obtained the views of more than 2,000 respondents in late May, found that the British public find family-run businesses to be the most trustworthy companies (25.4 per cent) when compared to PLCs (14.7 per cent), private equity backed-companies (9.8 per cent), and venture capital firms (7.6 per cent).

In addition, the poll found that the public thought family businesses – along with employee-owned organisations – looked after their employees the most compared to other business models. Family companies also scored highly when it came to customer service, with more than a fifth of respondents associating them with a strong offering in this regard, and they are seen as the most trustworthy businesses in Scotland (23.5 per cent).

The IFB added that in 2020, family businesses across the whole of the UK boosted the economy by £575 billion, and employed 13.9 million people, which it said means that family firms comprised 85.9 per cent of all UK firms, directly generated 44.4 per cent of gross domestic product, and were responsible for just over half of all private sector employment that year. High-profile Scottish family firms include William Purves Funeral Directors and Graham’s The Family Dairy.

Sustainable

The conference attendees will hear how a thriving family business sector is essential to achieving a more prosperous society with long-term sustainable growth, according to the IFB. The organisation's boss Neil Davy welcomed what he said is the UK’s biggest family business conference making its maiden appearance in Glasgow, adding that it enables firms in the sector to have their voices heard. “For too long, political, industry and business decision-making has taken a restricted approach to investment decisions that responds to priorities of non-family business PLCs, whose priority is to meet shareholder demands for short-term returns on investments,” he added.

The organisation's boss Neil Davy welcomes what he said is the UK’s biggest family business conference making its maiden appearance in Glasgow. Picture: contributed.

“The UK needs to formulate a growth strategy that encourages and incentivises businesses to focus on longer-term investment opportunities and returns for stakeholders, the environment, and the UK’s role and place in the wider world.

“That starts with listening to the thousands of family businesses in Scotland and across the UK and supporting them in making day-to-day decisions that encourage them – and gives them the confidence to invest – while also helping to tackle wider challenges like revitalising our high streets, creating job opportunities and improving everyone’s livelihoods.”