UK: Confidence in Yorkshire Grit.

The Yorkshire character, particularly the love of hard work and thrift, proved to be the major point of discussion for the 21 delegates gathered at Ripley Castle for the Management Today regional lunch in October.

The Ripley delegates were mainly professional advisers to Yorkshire business and they saw these traits both in the large number of well-established firms and in the number of local quoted companies.

John Dyson, of Leeds stockbrokers BWD Rensburg, made the point in his analysis of the Yorkshire and Humberside region. There are some 125 local companies quoted on the stock market, while the more densely populated North West "has less than 100".