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Chantry Place is delighted to announce the appointment of Jo Bates as the new General Manager of the shopping centre, succeeding Paul McCarthy, who recently took early retirement. Jo transitions into this role from her previous position as Operations Manager.

Having been a key member of the Chantry Place team for several years, Jo has significantly contributed to the Centre’s ongoing success through her leadership, dedication, and focus on customer experience. In her new role, Jo will manage all aspects of the Centre, including operations, tenant relations, and daily management, ensuring Chantry Place remains a top destination for shoppers, visitors, and businesses.

Jo Bates, General Manager at Chantry Place said: “I’m excited to step into this new role and continue working with the incredible team here at Chantry Place. It’s been a pleasure to be part of such a brilliant place, and I’m looking forward to what’s ahead, especially delivering great experiences for our visitors.”

Nathan Reidy Associate Director at APAM said: “We’re delighted to see Jo continue to progress with us into the role of General Manager. Her experience and passion for the Centre, her deep understanding of our operations, and her unwavering commitment to excellence makes her the ideal person to continue to take Chantry Place forward.  Jo’s ability to build on our strong foundations and drive continued success will be crucial to delivering future successes at the centre.”

With her extensive understanding of the Centre’s operations and her commitment to providing excellent customer service, Jo is well-equipped to guide Chantry Place into its next chapter. She will continue collaborating closely with the internal team and the local community to ensure Chantry Place remains a lively, welcoming space for all.

For more information about Chantry Place, please visit www.chantryplace.co.uk or follow @chantryplacenorwich on social media.

A farmer in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, is enjoying the benefits of renewable heating with a ground source heat pump system powered by his own green electricity.

Attleborough-based renewable heating expert Finn Geotherm, installed the ground source heat pump for Hugh Whittome at his farmhouse. The property was previously heated by an oil-fired boiler, which was timed to go on and off in the morning/evening but it was cold during the day. Built in 1860s with single skin walls and Georgian sash windows, the farmhouse has an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of E making it a challenge to keep warm.

Hugh said: “I decided to make our farm carbon neutral so I installed a wind turbine in 2010. This enable us to generate our own electricity and then Feed in Tariffs were introduced which provided an added bonus to sell back the power we didn’t use. With our electricity carbon neutral, the farmhouse heating and hot water was the obvious next step. We wanted to replace the boiler with a system we could run using our own green electricity. Having researched alternatives, a ground source heat pump was the ideal option – particularly as the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI) was available and would enable us to recoup our investment in a short period of time.”

Finn Geotherm specified and installed a Lämpöässä Emi 28 ground source heat pump with 700 litre thermal store. The 1400 metre ground loop array was installed in a field next to the house and an existing outbuilding used as a plant room. While the farmhouse has a low EPC rating, the heat pump works efficiently to keep its owners warm by utilising the thermal mass of the property.

Hugh said: “It’s a common myth that you can only use a ground source heat pump with underfloor heating but our installation proves otherwise. We have radiators throughout and the house has never been warmer, day and night. The heat pump has taken away the hassle of heating and hot water – we just leave it to run and don’t have to order oil deliveries. I am very proud our farm is now carbon positive and the heat pump, which is a non-combustion based system (it doesn’t burn any fuel), runs entirely on our green electricity.”

For more information on renewable heating, contact Finn Geotherm by visiting www.finn-geotherm.co.uk.

On 1st January 2020, Karl Sandall not only celebrated a new year and a new decade but also the 20th anniversary of him joining the TaxAssist Accountants franchise.

Having previously worked for 26 years at Midland and subsequently HSBC Bank at a senior level, Karl was approached by his friend and the founder of the franchise John Westgarth, who could see in Karl the potential to drive the growth of the franchise with his professionalism, integrity, warm personal style and solid work ethic. He initially joined as Group Operations Director, before taking on the role of Chief Executive Director in 2002.

Karl was presented with a celebration cake and card on 7th January to a rapturous reception from the TaxAssist Accountants Support Centre team in Norwich, who enjoyed speeches from Karl and his fellow directors including reflections and anecdotes from his time at the helm.

An emotional Karl, looking back on his time with TaxAssist, said: “It has been a tremendous honour to lead the company for the last 20 years. When I looked around the office today at the fantastic support team we have built up, now numbering over 60 and knowing that more than 2,000 people now make their living from the TaxAssist brand, it makes me incredibly proud.

“It was always my intention to lead from the heart as well as the head while driving the company forward. I think the ‘family feel’ I’ve helped to nurture at the Support Centre has not only created a warm environment in which staff can feel valued and supported, but has extended out to our fantastic network of franchisees who can benefit from the stable and happy workforce.

“There have been a number of highlights over the years – way too many to mention, but among the moments that stand out include our 200th shop, our management buy-out in 2014 and our successful expansion to Ireland and Australia.

“I continue to be heavily involved in many exciting projects both on a national and international level and am looking forward to many more years of success ahead.”

James Mattam, Group Business Development Director, said: “It’s an amazing achievement to have steered TaxAssist Accountants for the past 20 years. Karl has inspired us all over the years to buck trends by staying focused on what clients want and need from their accountant.  “His many years of experience managing in retail banking environments was a major factor in the complete transformation of our business model 18 years ago, when we first launched our shopfront concept. Since then we’ve never looked back, seeing the success it continues to bring to hundreds of franchisees throughout the UK, Ireland and Australia.” 

2020 is a year of special anniversaries for The TaxAssist Group, which also marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the franchise.

TaxAssist is now guaranteeing 25 qualified leads to all new joiners within the first 12 months of joining the franchise.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the small business tax and accounting franchise, and, confident in its business model and its increased strength in brand across the UK, TaxAssist Accountants is rolling out a new client lead guarantee incentive.

Karl Sandall, Chief Executive Director of The TaxAssist Group said, “As part of the package we offer to new franchisees, we are now happy to guarantee 25 free qualified leads within 12 months, from our unique national lead generation activities. The qualification process maximises efficiencies for franchisees, who currently report a high one-in-two conversion rate. If for any reason we do not deliver 25 leads, we will refund £200 per lead for reinvestment to the business. No quibbles.

“Having helped hundreds of franchisees to build accountancy practices, we know what works and we have the systems and processes in place to help facilitate strong growth for our accountants. With our proven and effective lead generation service, we are confident and pleased to be able to offer a guarantee which we hope will attract new accountants to our network and reassure them regarding any concerns they may have on new client attraction.”

To help kick start a franchisee’s business, the TaxAssist Support Centre provides a comprehensive initial marketing campaign in addition to the client lead generation service. This encompasses national marketing, both online and via TV, a variety of client acquisition activities through paid search engine advertising and social media, as well as support and guidance for local marketing within a franchisee’s territory.

Karl added: “These national activities managed by our in-house Business Development team, combined with a visible and welcoming shop have consistently generated new client sign-ups for all franchisees. We are also making further developments and enhancements to the process that will see an ever-increasing number of leads being generated delivering significant new business each and every year to the network”.

If you are interested in finding out more about the benefits of joining TaxAssist Accountants, we are holding a discovery day on Saturday, 18th January. To book your place, please call Nikki Haythorne on 0800 0188297.

We are delighted to be working with Casino Viking, a new operator in the highly competitive casino industry and helping them maximise their organic search presence on Google and other search engines such as Bing and Yahoo.

The casino industry is very competitive with both real and online casinos and lots of new brands and affiliates are trying to grab the elusive top positions on Google to attract new customers and get the lowest acquisition costs possible.

What We Are Doing For The Client

CasinoViking run a number of sites in the gambling affiliate space and our role is to maximise their search positions on Google using a host of SEO techniques including:

• Content – both guides and landing pages for each game, bonus or product
• Link-building – finding natural links across the internet relevant to gaming, casino, news and sports
• On-site SEO work – optimisation of meta-data, images, internal links, sitemaps, crawl errors and more

Our daily tasks include writing content for the website, including a number of landing pages with different games, bonuses and offers and also relevant guides to build up the authority of the website including types of games, payment options, rules, regulations and general news, whilst maintaining the regulatory guidelines from the Gambling Commission.

Understanding the Casino Algorithms

It is common for Google to have different algorithms for different industries including loans, insurance and above all, gambling. This is to ensure quality and push out any websites trying to ‘game’ Google’s search results by exploiting various techniques. 

To understand the algorithm, we have had to look carefully at competitors and those that are performing well, taking into account that some that are doing well have been struck by different penalties and have fluctuated over time. It is a matter of trying to find common themes and techniques and trying to scale them over the next 6-12 months, also making yourself flexible in case you want to reposition and make changes along the way.

How Casino Viking Attracts New Customers

One of the most popular methods to attract new customers or ‘players’ is to offer incentives including free spins, welcome bonuses, match bonuses and similar. For example, see Casino Bonus UK’s Free Spins Page.

Whilst offering free spins does not generate revenue initially, it is useful to have the customer’s details and they may always make a deposit if they like the company and user experience. 

Other methods include using other partners and affiliates to drive players and traffic, although this will usually require giving some form of commission for every sign up or player passed on.

Whilst it is early days with the client, we are seeing some promising signs and are very excited about what we can achieve in the next 6 to 12 months, particularly working on the newest sites in 2020 from CasinoViking. 

One of Greater Anglia’s brand-new intercity trains has now entered passenger service between Norwich and finally London Liverpool Street.

The brand new 12 carriage electric train, built by Swiss company Stadler, left Norwich at 7.40am on Wednesday 8 January, calling at Diss, Ipswich and London Liverpool Street.

It then returned from Liverpool Street at 10.00am, calling at Colchester, Manningtree, Ipswich, Diss and Norwich – the first time Greater Anglia’s new trains have been in passenger service calling at stations in Essex. Ian McConnell, Greater Anglia franchise and programme director, said: “We’re very pleased to have brought one of our new intercity trains into passenger service.

“Last month was difficult for our customers, as signalling issues on our rural branch lines caused a great deal of disruption and also set back our new trains roll-out.

“We are making every effort to improve our service – and the first longer intercity train in service with all the facilities customers expected will start to make a difference to our intercity customers.

“This week we also ran one of our new bi-mode trains, which run on electricity and diesel, on the Ipswich-Peterborough route, where disruption has continued for much longer as a knock-on effect of the signalling issues. “This year, we will concentrate on getting more new trains into passenger service and making sure they are as reliable as possible.”

The new intercity trains have 757 seats, which is between 23 and 41 per cent more than on the trains they replace. They will all be in passenger service by this Easter.

They have plug and USB sockets, free fast wifi, air conditioning and improved passenger information screens. There is also a First Class seating area and a café bar service.

Just as on Greater Anglia’s new bi-mode trains which are replacing all of the company’s diesel trains, the new intercity trains have gold standard accessibility features including a lower floor and a retractable step at every door to bridge the gap between the train and platform.

They have electric push-button doors – double width in the middle of each carriage – which are easier for customers to open once they have been unlocked and speed up the train’s departure from stations as they driver can close them all automatically.

Martino Celeghini, technical project manager at Stadler, said: “The roll-out of the intercitys represents a key moment in the overall introduction of the two new Stadler fleets. These trains, which will run into London are built to exceptionally high standards.

“They will vastly improve rail travel in East Anglia, supporting business and helping boost economic growth. They will be transformational for the travelling public in the region.”

The intercity trains are part of a £600m investment in new Stadler trains for the region which have been financed by Rock Rail East Anglia and will be leased to Greater Anglia for the life of the franchise.

Holidaymakers have a chance to bag a bargain later this month at Norwich Airport’s Travel Show.

The annual show, which attracted more than 1,000 people last year and is celebrating its 11th year, takes place at the airport’s main terminal from 10am to 2pm on Saturday, 25th January.

Entry is free as is event parking.

Fifteen tour operators and airline representatives will be on hand throughout the day, offering first-hand destination and product advice on departures from Norwich Airport, which is a member of Norfolk Chambers of Commerce.

They include TUI, Balkan Holidays, Newmarket Holidays, Transun Holidays, Wendy Wu, Classic Collection Holidays, Premier Holidays, Mercury Holidays, Titan Travel, Loganair, JTA and Palladium Hotel Group.

There is an extra 5% discount on offer for all bookings made at the Travel Show plus free holiday parking for up to 15 days at Norwich Airport and other exclusive offers and discounts too.

Airport managing director Richard Pace said: “This is a great opportunity for winter-weary holidaymakers to bag discounts as they plan their sunshine breaks abroad.

“Our show has become a firm fixture for people looking to book a holiday from their local airport, with sales over the last two years holding up well despite political and economic travails nationally.

“We have a great selection of destinations for the summer season, including, with TUI, the new Mediterranean destination of Antalya on Turkey’s Turquoise Coast and the seasonal continuation of Dalaman, on the country’s south-west coast, with the introduction of a second weekly flight.”

Richard added: “For the winter programme, TUI has added an extra 10,000 seats from Norwich Airport, with 10 and 11-night holidays to Tenerife, with the addition of a second weekly flight operating on Saturdays. We are proud to provide travel convenience for holidaymakers in the airport’s catchment of Norfolk, Suffolk and North Cambridgeshire.”

Airlines operating from the airport are KLM, Loganair, Aurigny, BH Air and Sunwing/TUI.

Destinations include the Amsterdam, Arctic Circle, Bulgaria, Corfu, Crete, Cyprus, Ibiza, Italy (the Como, Garda and Maggiore lakes, plus Tuscany), Lapland, Majorca, Menorca, Rhodes, Tenerife and Turkey.

Norwich Airport employs 274 people and supports, directly and indirectly, 1,240 jobs, with approximately £70 million contributed to the local economy.

It is part of Regional & City Airports, the airport management division of Rigby Group plc, which also owns and operates Bournemouth Airport, Coventry Airport and Exeter Airport.

Steadfast Training are the prime contractor for the Skills Support for the Workforce project supporting companies in Norfolk and Suffolk offering fully funded training to upskill their workforce.  The project commenced in April 2010 and working with a number of sub-contractors has already engaged with over 120 companies throughout New Anglia and supported over 600 learners.  This has included short training interventions up to full level 2 Diplomas in a wide range of topic areas supporting the LEPs priority sectors. The contract also supports companies that are having to put employees through redundancy and we have provided training and support in areas such as Employability skills, Warehousing Certificates, IT upskilling programmes etc. to help them attain new positons or re-deployment. Over the next 15 months working with the LEP we are reaching out to as many companies throughout New Anglia to collect data on their training needs.  This could influence future funding in the area.  Please take a few minutes to complete the link below: PLEASE TAKE PART IN OUR SKILLS SURVEY FOR NEW ANGLIA: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/HKFPPS8

Delve into a world of artistic beauty and surprise at Norwich Puppet Theatre at Manipulate 2020 1st – 8th February. Not long now!

Run in conjunction with Puppet Animation Scotland, Manipulate 2020 is is an annual festival of visual theatre, puppetry and animation.

Sat 1st Feb 2020.  “After Chekhov” is inspired by Three Sisters and is presented by Compagnie Samolœt, who combine their Russian training and heritage with contemporarywestern techniques to create compelling and inspirational work acclaimed in arts festivals across Europe.  Full details and booking at https://puppettheatre.co.uk/whats-on/manipulate/after-chekov

Thu 6th Feb 2020 to Fri 7th Feb 2020. Based on the idea that hand shadows may be the oldest form of puppetry, Drew Colby leads the audience on a hilarious and highly skilled journey from the age of the caveman to the present day, via the magic of the silver screen, TV cartoons and (in)famous politicians. Full details and booking at https://puppettheatre.co.uk/whats-on/manipulate/cinema-in-silhouette

Sat 8th Feb 2020.  Official Sell-Out Show at the Edinburgh Fringe 2019, Box Tale Soup present Great Grimm Tales: a remarkable new adaptation of Grimm’s most delicious tales. Join us for the weird and wicked, horrible and hilarious! Full details and booking at https://puppettheatre.co.uk/whats-on/manipulate/great-grimm-tales

Friday 7th February.  Theatre in a Suitcase Workshop with amazing and leading practitioner Judith Hope. Working under Judith’s expert supervision, you will make your own puppet theatre in a suitcase. You will create a cast of puppets and backdrops to fit in your own theatre which is small enough to carry home on the train. Full details and booking at https://puppettheatre.co.uk/whats-on/manipulate/theatre-in-a-suitcase

You can book online as above or offline by calling the box office on 01603 629 921 or emailing info@puppettheatre.co.uk? Call us and ask about special discounts for Norfolk Chamber members! 

Don’t miss this chance to experience these really great artists and support your local Puppet Theatre!

After all, we are one of only 3 in England and a special part of the Norfolk and Norwich cultural and tourist offer, and you’ll be really welcome!

Have you started to plan your recruitment strategy for 2020 yet? Does it include reviewing whether you could benefit from additional recruitment support?

At Pure, we recognise that engaging a recruitment agency is an investment. That is why we are proud to say that every year, more than a thousand of our region’s richly diverse organisations invest in working with us. In many cases, this collaboration is a result of the business having identified a particular need for additional expertise. Because we regularly ask our clients for feedback on working with us, we get a great insight into what these needs are, what they were expecting us to deliver which they didn’t think they would be able to do in house, and the reasons why they trusted us as their agency of choice.

We’ve used this feedback to compile the top five priorities clients were looking for. Could any of these benefit your business and hiring needs in 2020?

1. Quality of candidates The number one priority was the quality of potential candidates. This isn’t surprising as the current recruitment market has made both finding and competing for high-calibre candidates tough. Our consultants are experts in their different disciplines and the local market and they have invested time in developing and maintaining a strong network of contacts. This dedicated focus connects us to the best people and enables us to source high-quality and ‘hard to find’ candidates. This is an area where we feel we can really add value and save our clients time and money in the long run. With four offices located across the Eastern region, our reach, networks and insights extend beyond this and we have a strong track-record of also attracting talent from outside the region. To support our ability to source candidates from our extensive referral network, we have also invested significantly in a wide range of candidate attraction technology. This has provided us with the best systems to find and engage with potential candidates who may not be actively job hunting.

2. Knowledge of candidates Again, it doesn’t surprise us that this was second on the priority list. After all, what would be the point of working with a recruitment agency if you only get sent a load of CVs with no additional insight? We recognise that our clients have chosen to work with us because they want the benefit of our experience, knowledge and support. We are one of only a few recruitment agencies to use competency-based interviews  in conjunction with expert biological interviewing to assess potential candidates before even providing a shortlist of people. We consider this best practice in helping us to make great matches. It enables us to see beyond the candidates who just talk the talk or look the part on paper. In addition, we have all the resources and expertise in place to provide further insight into candidates via psychometric profiling. Before we put people forward, we want to discover whether they have the right attributes, attitudes and values to be a great fit in the long term.

3. Professionalism and friendliness of consultants We put people first and our focus has always been on establishing long-term client and candidate relationships and making great matches. Joseph O’Sullivan, our senior manager in our Norwich office, summed it up when asked what was most important to him when working with clients and candidates. He said: ‘I’ve found that a focus on relationships, integrity and personalities are the key’. In his recent Q&A article he goes on to say how he has developed some great, long-standing relationships and how he loves being able to make a positive impact on people’s careers, their lives and their businesses. All our consultants aim to be both professional and approachable, allowing them the opportunity to become trusted advisors to our clients.

4. Knowledge of local market A good recruitment consultant will have their finger on the pulse of the industry they specialise in, and the local recruitment market. Our specialist sector knowledge is another key reason why companies chose to work with us. For example, one piece of fantastic feedback our Director Caroline Batchelor received was: “Caroline is known in the area for knowing everyone there is to know in HR, so I trusted Caroline to find the right person for our HR Team.” As well as helping to find suitable candidates, our specialist knowledge can help our clients to understand how they can stand out and compete in attracting the best talent. We can advise on everything from the jobs being advertised by competitors, through to any shifting trends in salaries or benefits packages.

5. Fulfilment of roles within timescale When our clients are faced with a need to fill a skills gap quickly, we pull out the stops to help them without cutting corners. Our specialist knowledge means we are in a better position to find suitable people quickly, for example our consultants will have access to people who may not consciously be looking for a job. Plus, we can ensure the process runs as quickly and efficiently as possible throughout by doing the leg work. We can also help with temporary or interim recruitment to fulfil any immediate needs. We have developed a network of highly experienced temps, freelancers and consultants, which we can place with organisations on a short-term basis to provide a temporary injection of skills, resources and specialist knowledge.

We are proud to say that our feedback also revealed that 97% of our clients rated us as good or excellent and would use us again. If you would like to find out more about how we could support you and your organisation in 2020, contact your local Pure office.