A locally owned family plumbing and heating company have just celebrated their second anniversary and at the same time, have acquired new commercial premises in Norwich and in addition increased their workforce, with the employment of a full-time office administrator and another full time heating engineer to facilitate with the continued growth of the business.
The business success has been built on some strong core values which include reliability, trust and transparency all aligned with delivering a high level of customer service and quality of workmanship.
Having already attained an excellent portfolio of satisfied and returning clients the company aims to build on its success of 2017 which saw them shortlisted for best small business of the year in the EDP business awards and in 2018 following an approach from Lovewell Blake saw the company selected as one of the Norfolk and Suffolk the 2018 Future 50 programme members.
Looking ahead the company is aiming to offer apprenticeships for 2019, to give opportunities to people wanting to carve out a successful career in an industry which needs to do more to advertise itself.
Being able to offer a domestic and commercial service for every aspect of heating which encompasses
v Gas
v Oil
v LPG
v Biomass
v Air Source
v Ground Source
v Passivhaus
means they are able to accommodate projects for both city and rural-based businesses.
In addition, they also offer a design and installation service for wet rooms, supply and installation for the latest range of digital showers, heated shower rails, contemporary and designer radiators with a wide range of sizes and colours to suit all businesses, heated towel rails, water softeners and instant boiling water heaters for the office. For more information contact Tel: 01603 980950 or info@heatlinkservices.co.uk
TMS Media is looking for a WordPress developer and PHP programmer with experience in creating plugins and themes. Contact steve.scott@tms-media.co.uk. No agencies please.
Based in our Great Yarmouth offices, you will work with a team of fellow developers, designers and copywriters on a wide range of web projects. You’ll need a good practical knowledge of the inner workings of WordPress, CSS and jQuery.
Chartered accountants and business advisors Larking Gowen has launched a new market-leading benefits package for its people. The new package is the result of 12 months of research through regular staff surveys and polls, discussions with employee representatives, benchmarking and market research. Benefits include enhanced maternity, adoption and paternity pay, the introduction of a range of agile working practices, a new career break scheme and full salary exchange options. Other changes include protection from financial hardship in the event of serious illness or accident, improved compassionate leave and travel to work discounts and loans for public transport. The new benefits package supports the comprehensive programme of wellbeing support already in place, demonstrating the firm’s ongoing commitment to the total wellbeing of employees. Jon Woolston, Managing Partner, said: “At Larking Gowen, our core value is ‘Passion for our People’ because we know that our business will only succeed through them. This is why we have developed this comprehensive new benefits package, based very much on employee feedback. “We want to be an employer of choice for our existing and future employees and we believe that our new benefits package is an excellent offer that helps us to achieve this goal.” In addition to the new package, the firm has simplified its Human Resources policies and reduced them in number significantly, instead allowing freedom for managers to make decisions to support their people. Jon added: “We wanted to make it simpler for our managers to manage, and we wanted to give more freedom to the people who are running our teams. This change demonstrates our trust and confidence in our managers and our employees.” To find our more about working at Larking Gowen visit our careers page.
East Coast College currently has a vacancy for a new governor to join the current governing body. Governors make a difference and we are looking for volunteers to work with us who can use their skills and experience to help the College grow and flourish. Finance/Audit experience are needed, including a Chair of Audit.
If you are interested in this opportunity please contact Wendy Stanger on w.stanger@eastcoast.ac.uk or visit: https://tinyurl.com/ECCGovernors
Some of the KLM UK Engineering cyclist that took part in the East Anglian Air Ambulance’s EPIC 50 mile Cylce ride in May got to get up close and personal with the crew and helicopter. This was a great visit for our fund raisers to find out more about how the funds raised are put to use and just what a great job the doctors, paramedics & pilots do. Thank you so much to the crew for taking the time to meet our team and talk through their job. A great charity that helps saves lives!
The Maids Head Hotel in Norwich is hosting the visit to Norfolk of the 392nd Bomb Group Association from the USA. Thirty members of the association have made the trip to the UK to honour the memory of their loved ones, who were killed flying B24 Liberator bombers from Wendling Air Base, during World War II.
The 392nd Bomb Group flew 285 operational missions from Wendling near Dereham, from August 1943 to April 1945, comprising 7000 sorties; 781 young crewmen lost their lives.
Bob Books, President of the Bomb Group Association is making his first visit to Norfolk. His father 1/LT Dallas O Books , a pilot in 579 squadron, was killed in action on 18 March 1944, a day when the Bomb Group lost 14 aircraft and their crews.
Bob Books explained: “The 392nd Bomb Group Association was formed in 1985 for veterans, but in 2010 the group’s role was revised to become an education programme for both veterans, their children and relatives and anyone wanting to preserve the memory of the role of the 392nd Bomb Group.”
The association is supported in Norfolk by John Gilbert, who, as a young boy, lived close to Wendling Air Base. John’s family home on Unthank Road in Norwich was destroyed in a bombing raid in April 1942, so the family moved to Wendling, where John’s father was working on the construction of the airfield. His father then managed to get a job with a local farmer and John met and befriended many of the US airmen.
Ralph Winter, Vice President of the Bomb Group Association, who is on his second visit to Norfolk added: “John Gilbert is a very important member of the association, as our representative in the UK. He has built excellent relationships with local community and businesses to provide access onto what remains of the airfield.”
The association’s programme featured a visit to Wendling of Friday, with a tour conducted by John Gilbert, including the 392nd Memorial, one of the first established in the UK in 1945. The group also saw the surviving runways and visited the officers’ mess hall, with its a mural of B24s in flight. On Saturday they are heading to the Imperial War Museum at Duxford and the American Cemetery at Madingley. Then on Sunday, they return to the Wendling area for a remembrance service at the 392nd Memorial followed by a service in Beeston Church.
Larking Gowen is delighted to welcome personal tax specialist, Sally Farrow, as head of its Personal Tax team in Norwich. Sally, who is a Chartered Tax Advisor and member of the Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners, originally trained with Larking Gowen, and now returns as Senior Tax Manager, after a number of years with a national accountancy firm. Sally says, “I’ve worked with individuals and trustees for over twenty years, advising on tax planning and compliance.” She explains, “There’s a lot of satisfaction in helping clients manage their tax confidently, in an ever-changing tax landscape, ensuring they make best use of tax allowances, and taking the worry out of compliance.” With more than 16 years’ experience of advising private clients and trusts with a national firm, Sally will be leading the Personal Tax team in Norwich, and working closely with the company’s other offices across East Anglia.
“I’ve enjoyed the transition to Larking Gowen,” Sally says. “The firm has a strong personal tax team and an emphasis on client service that’s relevant to the local market place, which is particularly important to me,” she adds. “We’re delighted to have Sally working with us again, adding her considerable expertise to our team,” says Partner Richard Proctor, who leads the Larking Gowen Tax team. “I’ve worked with Sally previously and know her as someone who takes an active approach to providing tax guidance to individuals and trustees, who have the security of knowing they’re in safe hands. We are very pleased to welcome Sally back, and wish her all the best in her new role at our Norwich office,” Richard concludes.
Larking Gowen is pleased to welcome 17 new trainees for 2018. For over 100 years Larking Gowen has welcomed new trainees to its professional training programmes. With the exception of the War years when the country’s young were recruited for the war effort, the firm has consistently trained groups of A Level and University graduates who have gone on to have long and fulfilling careers in the profession.
photo:
Bottom row (from left):- Dominic Heather, Beth Smith, Abi Davis, Lydia Kelsall, Amanda Ninham (Head of Human Resources), Jon Woolston (Managing Partner), Ben Horner-Glister, Jaya Ewing, Jess Mclean-Wright, Josh Chapman and Waled Ali.
Top row (from left):- Zak Hubbard, Spencer Everett, Oliver Peach, Kieran Manning and Thomas West.
KLM UK Engineering is delighted to welcome 15 new apprentices to our team at Norwich. The apprentices will complete a 3 year programme in aircraft engineering maintenance and will start in the hangars at the end of September. We wish them good luck on this journey!
TOP-PERFORMING businesses are invited to showcase their achievements by entering the Spirit of Enterprise Awards 2018, the most prestigious annual celebration of business excellence in the Great Yarmouth borough.
Organised by enterpriseGY, Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s business support service, the popular awards aim to recognise and raise the profile of the borough’s top-performing businesses, while boosting confidence in the strength of the local economy.
Businesses of all sizes and sectors are encouraged to put themselves forward for the various awards by noon on Monday, October 15. The awards are free-of-charge to enter online at www.soea.co.uk and finalists will be profiled in a supplement in the Great Yarmouth Mercury, with winners appearing in a further supplement.
The finalists and winners will be showcased in the press and at a glittering awards ceremony and gala dinner at the Town Hall’s prestigious Assembly Room on Friday, November 23.
Each award is backed by a local organisation. Sponsors choose the winner in their category from three finalists shortlisted by a local independent panel or by the category sponsor themselves.
This year, enterpriseGY is delighted to announce that the main sponsor is Noritake Itron, who will choose the 2018 Business of the Year from the winners of the other categories.
The categories and sponsors are: • Great Manufacturing/Engineering – sponsored by P&S Personnel • Great New Business – sponsor to be announced • Great Business Growth – sponsored by Bateman Groundworks • Great Business Idea – sponsored by Aston Shaw • Great Customer Services – sponsor to be announced • Great Family Owned Business – sponsored by Birketts • Great International Growth – sponsored by Pasta Foods • Great Investment in People – sponsored by GYB Services Ltd • Great Community Contribution – sponsored by Potters Friends Foundation Cllr Graham Plant, the council leader, said: “The Spirit of Enterprise Awards help to highlight the borough’s many and varied successful businesses, supporting our priority to work with partners to help champion and enable economic growth and job-creation in the area.
“For the businesses, having the chance to celebrate and be recognised for their achievements on the public stage brings important benefits, including raising their stature and reputation, and boosting staff pride.
“This wonderful showcase of successful businesses goes from strength to strength each year and helps to boost confidence in the local economy, helping to create favourable conditions for investment, sustainable growth and job-creation.
“There are lots of brilliant businesses across the borough, so make sure you submit your entry to stand the chance of being honoured as 2018 Business of the Year. I must also take this opportunity to thank the sponsors, including main sponsor Noritake Itron, without whom this wonderful celebration of business excellence would not be possible.”
Abate Pest Management has set the wheels in motion to grow a network of pest control franchises throughout the UK. The business from Morley near Wymondham is owned by husband and wife team, Jon and Jill Blake, started operating in 1999 and has grown to be a major player throughout the Eastern region working to prevent and cure pest problems.
Abate has developed a client base throughout the region servicing domestic and commercial customers including Anglian Water, Intu Shopping, Best Western Hotels, Johnston Logistics UK and Greene King. In addition to the normal wasps, fleas, mice and rat problems they also specialise in property woodworm treatment and bird proofing solutions.
The business has created a new team to roll out and manage the franchising. In addition to Jon and Jill, Neil Foley joins, who has spent 40 years in sales and business coaching and Jonathan White who has supported Abate for the past 8 years in Sales and Marketing. The business has also appointed franchise experts Morgan Blake Solutions Limited.
Jon Blake Managing Director said “We have worked extremely hard on becoming a quality company delivering a quality service. We are triple ISO accredited, a full member of the British Pest Control Association and hold Safecontractor and CHAS certification. All of this has proved to be very successful in our client growth and retention strategies. The geographical area we work in has become much larger with client activity reaching out to Essex and Hertfordshire and we often get asked if we can cover areas which are even further afield. We can now replicate our service with our standard operating processes, quality accreditations and training programmes to other areas of the UK. Franchising is a perfect solution to support our growth.”
Abate Pest Management are looking to have their first franchise in operation by January 2019 and 15 franchises by the end of the year. Jon also said “One area we are looking at for our franchise recruitment plans are current pest controllers, who want to step up, have additional support with all the legislation and accreditations and to build a business. There are currently 35,000 pest controllers in the UK!”
Photo – Left to right: Jeffrey Rafftree, David Noble, Morgan Blake Solutions Ltd. Jill Blake Director, Tracey Jeckells Senior Business Administrator, Jonathan White Director, Neil Foley Director, Jon Blake Managing Director.
The whole team at Tudor Lodge Consultants are delighted to announce that we are working with the Transparent Umbrella Company on their new website. With the introduction of new employment rights legislation by the government, covering England and Wales, it is more important than ever that freelancers and contractors ensure they and their respective employers are up to date with IR35 laws and legislation.
We are working with the Transparent Umbrella Company on their online positioning, using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques, their lead generation, website performance and development and online offering to workers, recruiters and contractors alike. There have been a number of challenges with their website.
The Challenges
The Transparent Umbrella Company’s previous website (which we started with) was developed abroad and was not designed to be ranked on Google and other UK search engines. This posed the challenge that the entire build and nature of the website needed upheaval. However, aware of the interruption to a business’ online presence that an entire new site can cause, we worked with the development team at the Transparent Umbrella Company to ensure minimal interruption.
Furthermore, the site, having been around and live for a number of months, was not ranking on Google at all and this meant that we needed to address both the build and the content of the website as well as how content was presented to Google and other search engine ‘spiders’ which crawl websites.
What We Have Achieved
We designed a new website design within the confines of the branding and business goals of the Transparent Umbrella Company. The new website is fully responsive, supportive of content, media and user engagements; unlike the old website. Furthermore, the new Transparent Umbrella website has more useful information than ever and provides contractors, recruiters and workers with all the information they need to sign up to the Transparent Umbrella Company.
Furthermore, the website is now SEO and Google friendly and this means that it is being ranked for various high-value terms including ‘umbrella company.’ This has all been achieved through the use of clean and efficient SEO techniques and practices which we are continuing, to a great degree of success.
How We are Achieving Success
Having picked up the Transparent Umbrella Company’s old website, we undertook a number of SEO-focused actions and activities alongside the various in-house marketing teams they possess. This has included:
Responsive Website Design – The new website is focused on user experience, information and allowing interactions with the brand which means that the website is now fit for purpose and users can easily convert to a lead for the Transparent Umbrella Company.
Meta Data – One of the most important factors when it comes to SEO, the meta data is one of the first aspects that search engines crawl to determine where pages should rank. We therefore updated all of the meta data on the Transparent Umbrella website to make it more focused, relevant and SEO-friendly, which has already boosted rankings for the website.
Website Content – The Transparent Umbrella Company website was previously almost devoid of content. However, we have undertaken a strong and effective content strategy to ensure that there is both relevant and optimised content across the website in various forms. This allows users to engage with the site in a variety of ways. The website now plays host to content that includes landing pages, useful information and core navigation pages such as contact and about pages.
How Our Work Has Improved Rankings
Since beginning our work with the Transparent Umbrella Company, they have seen themselves go from not ranking at all to ranking for more than a dozen relevant and important terms organically. Climbing up the rankings and improving n an almost daily basis, we look forward to continuing to build on the progress with the Transparent Umbrella Company for the future.