MAN BUSINESS MAIN 07-28-08 A 1 MBDB.qxd - Edocr

12 FOCUS SPORT
CLUB Taking Leigh
Genesis into a
league of its own
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11
and his family ran a shop in the town.
Despite the emotional connections,
he is trying to take a businesslike
approach to the club. First was
the rebrand, from Leigh RMI (Railway
Mechanics Institute) to Leigh
Genesis, a name deliberately chosen
to stand out. There’s a new crest, new
Nike kit and the new stadium, built
and maintained by the council.
Speakman said: “We pay the council
in proportion to the income we
bring in, which is brilliant for us. What
we need to do is fill the stadium, and
we are putting the infrastructure in
place to make that happen.”
Strong links
Part of that infrastructure is forging
strong links with businesses and
using the full potential of the stadium
by sellng boxes and conference facilities.
“We’ll be using football as a catalyst
to get businesses here,” said
Speakman, who has recruited two
commercial staff from Blackburn
Rovers and tasked them with bringing
in new revenue.
His peers in football’s bargain
basement admire his chutzpah, but
expect him to find it a long, hard slog.
Dave Pace has been manager and
chairman of east Manchester club
Droyslden FC for 14 years, over
which time the club has won 14 cups
and he has spent £4.2m, building the
stadium himself on parkland.
He looks enviously at Speakman’s
good fortune in having a ready-made
stadium. “A large amount of the
money I’ve spent has been on the
ground, as you really have to get
Above, the
new Leigh
Genesis home
(front) and
away kits
‘What we need to do is
fill the stadium, and we
are putting the
infrastructure in place
to make that happen’
DOMINIC SPEAKMAN, ABOVE
things right off the pitch as well as on
it,” he said. “It’s great that Dominic is
doing this, although it’s a big challenge.
I put all my money into the
club, but we just scrape by most
years.”
Pace said Speakman’s objective of
getting attendances up into four figures
are admirable but unlikely. “Even
in the Conference we only picked up
800,” said the Droylsden boss. “It
would be a real achievement if he got
gates of 1,000. He has to make the
club attractive to businesses and fans
— there’s a lot of competition around
here.”
But Speakman said he is an optimist
and believes he can make it work
this season and beyond. “It’s three
promotions to the Football League
and our stadium can certainly sustain
us, right up to the Championship.”
COMMENTS? manchesternews@crain.com
Crain’s Manchester Business / July 28, 2008
Dream new
England football squad adviser designs range of
new products and signs manufacturing deal
BY JAMES CHAPELARD
Manchester-based sleep
coach Nick Littlehales
has advised the England
football squad on how to
achieve maximum match fitness by
getting the right kind of overnight
rest.
His expertise could not save the
team from the
nightmare of failing
to qualify for
Euro 2008, but he
hopes this will not
hinder his new
business venture.
Littlehales has
designed up to 40
sleep-related
products using
technology developed
in the sports
industry.
He has now
signed a deal with
Wilmslow-based Comfy Quilts to
manufacture items such as mattresses
which use the same cushioning
materials as sports shoes and pillows
with chilled inserts which cool
down a sleeper’s head.
“Sleep is often interrupted
because a person’s head gets too hot.
You put the inserts in the fridge for a
few hours and they cool the head
down during the night,” he said.
Littlehales believes there is a market
for the products among the public
as well as athletes. “All these products
and the technology come from
the world of sport rather than Bhs,”
said Littlehales. “Sleep debt is a
major problem which many people
have never taken much notice of.
You might be sleeping eight hours a
day but you are not getting the
full benefits — unless you sleep
in the right way and on the right
products.”
The deal will involve privatelyowned
Comfy Quilts taking a 50 per
cent share in Littlehales’ business,
Sleep Active Ltd, which trades as
sleepathlete.com. The website,
which promotes the consultancy
‘Sleep is often
interrupted because
a person’s head gets
too hot. You put the
inserts in the fridge
for a few hours and
they cool the head
down during
the night’
NICK LITTLEHALES
side of his business as well as selling
the products, is being relaunched in
September.
Littlehales, a former international
sales and marketing director at the
Slumberland Group, said the sports
world has a lot to teach business
people about the value of sleep.
Having worked with the Football
Association since Euro 2004, he said
he has seen first
hand the link
between performance
on the
field and full
recovery from a
good night’s
sleep. Despite
stories about
boozing footballers,
Littlehales
said they take
sleep very seriously
and see it as
an essential part
of their training
and recovery. “If you are a professional
athlete you need to know how
to sleep properly, if you have to perform
mentally and physically on the
pitch.
Things have changed so much
since the days when George Best
used to run around on a diet of
whisky and fags,” said Littlehales,
whose clients include present day
Manchester United players.
Overstretched
In 2005 Littlehales had a consultancy
business in Tib Street in the
Northern Quarter and received regular
visits from premiership players.
The business, Private Sanctuary
Ltd, went under in August 2005
when he overstretched himself by
opening a large shop in Piccadilly
Gardens selling sleep products on
the back of his work with the
England squad. “The shop was
too big at the time and I couldn’t
devote enough time to it,” Littlehales
said.
After the collapse, he started
again by moving his consultancy to
Ben Haworth,
and Bill Jones