Member News

We are thrilled and proud to announce that we are working with Cedar Dean Group across their entire online presence, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and online lead generation. Our SEO and website teams are working very closely with the in-house marketing team at Cedar Dean across a number of their websites including their Cedar Dean Commercial website and Cedar Dean Leisure.

The Cedar Dean group of companies is a rapidly expanding business which already boasts Central London offices and a large, growing team of property and lease experts. Cedar Dean also work with some of the largest brands in the UK as well as those new to the UK, helping them with commercial, leisure and other potentially complex lease deals and negotiations.

With the Tudor Lodge team possessing swathes of experience in the mortgage, property and financial markets both on and offline, Cedar Dean Group have brought us in to help their business at this exciting time of expansion and development.

What we are doing for Cedar Dean

Working across a number of sites under a single brand umbrella has meant that we have had look carefully at each website in its own right whilst always keeping the brand identity and values at the forefront of our mind throughout the process. The Cedar Dean Group of websites are built on both WordPress and Silverstripe content management systems (CMS), both of which have their strengths yet throw up their own challenges.

We have started this process by assessing each website’s CMS, looking at what each website needs for its specific position in the property industry and we have also been carefully working to enable the necessary SEO-related updates and amendments across their websites. Updates and crawling factors that we have fixed include:

Meta Data – With the meta data being one of the first and most fundamental ranking factors for both Google and other search engines, this has been one of the first things we have started to work on updating. Properly optimised meta data can be the difference between ranking on page 2 or page 1, as it is this data that users see in Google search as well as what Google pays some of the most attention to.

Error Fixes and Clean Ups – Including broken links and website crawl errors, these can have devastating effects on both rankings and user experiences, with Google rewarding websites that offer the cleanest and most streamlined user experiences. Moreover, each website under the Cedar Dean umbrella has its own targets to pursue online and therefore very different meta data requirements.

Backlink Profiles and PR – As with most other SEO campaigns, having a strong backlink profile (the links that point towards a website from third party websites) remains very important. We have therefore been working with some of our partners to secure Cedar Dean online PR which has naturally lent itself to some backlinks to strengthen the online as well as the brand positioning of the Cedar Dean websites.

Content and Targeting – We are continually ensuring that Cedar Dean are able to target the ideal people; prospective clients and customers via unique and SEO-friendly content. This has meant creating landing pages and formulating a solid content plan which will take their websites to the next level online.

Results so Far

Whilst we are still in the very early stages of our exciting work with the team at Cedar Dean Group, there have already been a few positive movements online with regards to some of their current target keywords, with many of their preferred search terms starting to show movement as Google re-ranks them. We look forward to continuing our progress online with Cedar Dean Group and we look forward to helping the company reap the rewards of the ongoing works throughout 2018.

Paris, Amstelveen, Norwich – March 2018 – AFI KLM E&M subsidiary is delighted to announce the signing of an extension to its line maintenance agreement with BA CityFlyer.

Market leaders in the best total value for money in regional and narrow body aircraft maintenance on the Boeing 737, Embraer 170/190, BAe146/Avro RJ, Fokker 70/100 & Airbus A320 Family, KLM UK Engineering is delighted to confirm its contract with BA CityFlyer and pleased to announce they have reached agreement to increase the level of line maintenance support they are providing BA CityFlyer on their ERJ170/190 aircraft.

Alan Lawson, Line Maintenance Manager – ‘KLM UKE is delighted to continue its working relationship with BA CityFlyer at its Edinburgh line station and look forward to many more years of working together’.

About BA CityFlyer

Launched on 5th March 2007, BA CityFlyer is a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways operating a network of UK domestic and European services from London City airport. We have expanded our aircraft fleet and route network at London City Airport where we are now officially the largest operator with the highest number of destinations and customers. This year British Airways serves 26 destinations from London City Airport, and are perfect options for both business and leisure travel. BA CityFlyer currently operate a fleet of twenty-one aircraft comprising 76-seat Embraer 170s and 98-seat Embraer 190SR’ following extensive recent fleet expansion. BA CityFlyer also operates a variety of charter services from airports around the UK on behalf of other airlines, tour operators and private clients.

Every day the East Anglian Air Ambulance saves lives across the region.

Being a charity it relies on the support of the public. One way of bringing in donations is through a weekly lottery and it was decided to try and increase participation with a TV campaign on Sky Adsmart.

As the region’s foremost producer of TV commercials JMS was invited to work on the campaign. The advert concept involved an ordinary couple going about their daily lives. Even though they may not work for the emergency services, in their own way they are lifesavers – just by playing the EAAA lottery.

Our shoots always throw up some unexpected challenges. On this occasion we needed to film the air ambulance taking off. However, the EAAA can’t be seen to be wasting fuel so were unable to stage the shot for us. Our crew had to wait for a genuine emergency callout before springing in to action!

On the day of our pre-production recce our chosen residential street location was bathed in warm sunshine. But inevitably come the day of the shoot the street was covered in snow! Did we panic? No! We just enlisted our Production Manager Anna Eastick to clear the bushes with a broom! As for our actors and extras – we had to wrap them in coats between takes to stop them from freezing!

But then, making TV commercials on location is always a bit of a lottery!

Businesses have been sharing their own activities to help drive the delivery of the Economic Strategy for Norfolk and Suffolk.

Nearly 300 businesses attended the events, taking the opportunity to feed their activities and ideas into the delivery plans for the strategy, which was launched in the autumn.

The sessions, including events run with Norfolk Chamber of Commerce in King’s Lynn, Norwich and Great Yarmouth, followed a series of workshops during the development of the strategy last year which saw a further 1,000 businesses, public sector partners and organisations take part.

For each event, businesses shared the ways in which they are already working to support the three key themes in the strategy: ‘Our Offer to The World’, ‘Driving Inclusion and Skills’ and ‘Driving Business Growth and Productivity’.

Hayley Mace, Head of Communications at New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “We’ve been delighted with the turnout and engagement at our events. The strategy has been a collaborative project since the start so it was great to see so many people joining us to share what they currently do in their organisations and the interventions they’d like to see to be able to make more change.

“All of the activities shared at the events will be fed into the delivery plans along with inputs from local authorities, our sector groups and education leaders. We’ll be looking for fantastic ideas and investigating how we can roll those out across a wider area. We’ll also see where there’s duplication of activity and where there are gaps which need filling. The strategy sets ambitious targets – including 88,000 new jobs and 30,000 new businesses – so if we’re going to achieve those, it’s vital that we get the delivery plan in place so we can start taking the actions we need.”

The delivery plan will be completed late in the spring.

To find out more about the Economic Strategy for Norfolk and Suffolk, visit newanglia.co.uk/our-economic-strategy

AFI KLM E&M subsidiary is delighted to announce the signing of a Commercial Goods Consignment Contract with Monks & Crane.

A European leader in the regional jets & narrow body aircraft market and having an internationally acknowledged expertise on the Boeing 737, Embraer 170/190, BAe146/Avro RJ, Fokker 70/100 & Airbus A320 Family, KLM UK Engineering is delighted to confirm its contract with Monks & Crane.

KLM UK Engineering has been working in partnership with Monks & Crane for a number of years already.

Alan Sumption, Supply Chain Manager commented “We are delighted to continue our relationship with Monks & Crane and now have an opportunity to move forward with solutions that will improve our supply chain efficiiency. We have always appreciated the way Monks & Crane work with us to help improve our business”.

Andy Smith, Account Manager at Monks & Crane – “Having been an existing supplier to KLM UK Engineering over the years, we are delighted to reach a further long-term agreement regarding the supply of aid to production materials. Monks & Crane and KLM UK Engineering work very closely together to achieve a shared vision of driving cost down, and to continually improve our supply chain solution. On behalf of Monks & Crane I would like to thank the KLM UK Engineering team for their continued support, and also for creating a wonderful partnership”

Flagship Group and Victory Housing Trust have announced that they are in talks to consider working in partnership. If the discussions result in a partnership, the combined organisation would become the largest East Anglian-based housing group.

Talks are at an early stage, but the boards of both organisations have agreed that working together could generate more opportunities to invest in local communities. The proposed partnership would create a 28,000 home landlord which would be able to deliver 10,000 new homes of which 7,000 will be affordable over the next ten years, as well as enhancing services to residents and investing £500 million in maintaining and improving existing homes.

The structure of any new partnership is still being discussed, but it is envisaged that Victory would join the Flagship Group, retaining its identity and ensuring continuity of tenancy for residents and of employment for staff.

Philip Burton, Chair of Victory Housing Trust, said: “We are exploring whether through working together we can deliver more new affordable homes and better quality services to our residents and our communities. An important part of this will be retaining and developing our people, as well as being able to invest more to meet housing need in our region.”

Peter Hawes, Chair of Flagship Group, added: “Our organisations share similar visions and values, and through working with our staff and customers we will explore how best to jointly manage our homes in Norfolk – bringing the best of both organisations together.”

We’re proud to say that we’ve just been confirmed as official sponsors and filmmakers for NNF2018 

A new report published by leading East Anglian recruitment agency Cooper Lomaz has found that the skills shortage in the region has worsened in the last 12 months, with companies struggling to hire sufficient highly skilled workers.

The Salary Survey and Recruitment Trends 2018 reveals that business growth is being hindered by a lack of skilled staff. The survey, which questioned 2,740 employees, found that 4 in 10 (41%) felt that their teams were understaffed, an increase of 8% from 2017.

With the UK economy expected to grow by as much as 2.2% in 2018 and unemployment at its lowest level (4.3%) for over 40 years, the demand for highly skilled candidates is higher than ever to support this growth.

This is the 10th year this report has been published and, whilst uncertainty has reigned across much of the UK due to the fast-changing political and economic landscapes, it found that the job market in East Anglia remains strong, with half of businesses expecting to grow in 2018.

With increased numbers of companies looking to grow, and fewer employees saying they will change jobs in the next 12 months (down a huge 15% from last year), employers are going to have to do much more to attract and retain the best talent.

The skills shortage is forcing employers to not only pay even more for the best talent, it’s making them look at their entire non-financial offering and hiring process, to ensure they can retain and attract the very best people.

Simon Brown, Managing Director of Cooper Lomaz, said: “Looking at this year’s report, it’s interesting to see salaries rising for most employees last year and the majority expecting a further rise this year.  This trend certainly bucks some of the national statistics we see from across the UK about wages being flat.

“Our report also revealed that employees no longer class salary as their primary determinant when evaluating job satisfaction. Instead, competence of their manager, personal recognition of achievements and an interesting and varied role all rank as important, if not more important, than salary.”

The report highlighted that there is a growing trend for flexible working, whether this is in relation to employees’ work/life balance or having the ability to work remotely. This will continue through 2018 as employees see flexibility as a staple of the workplace, and as businesses improve their infrastructure to support this.

GENIX Business Support has announced the keynote speaker at the next Coffee Means Business networking event taking place on 20th March. The event will be held at Scarborough Hill Hotel, North Walsham and the invited speaker is Rob Davies of Norfolk based, One on One Communications. The monthly, mid-morning events attract a wide range of business people who enjoy the informal and friendly format of Coffee Means Business. More than 25 visitors are expected to attend to hear Rob, a seasoned marketing communications specialist. He has substantial experience in business to business marketing. and is a brand advocate who will talk about how to bring a company’s brand to life for staff and customers. “We’re looking forward to welcoming many more businesses interested in marketing to Coffee Means Business.” Commented Leanne Castle of GENIX. “During February the GENIX Business Marketing Conference saw 64 delegates gather at Northrepps to gain ideas to improve their online marketing. This month’s networking event leads on from this, providing an opportunity to find out what a business needs to do before embarking on marketing activity. Rob will explain the key things that need to be identified to drive a marketing campaign to ensure time and money isn’t wasted.” Since September 2016 GENIX has held 15 networking events and three business information conferences in north Norfolk. Coffee Means Business takes place on Tuesday 20th March at Scarborough Hill Hotel, North Walsham from 9.30am until 11.30am. Booking isn’t essential, there aren’t any membership fees, just £5 per person payable on arrival. For more details go to www.genix.org.uk

GENIX the business support agency hosted a Business Marketing Conference at Northrepps Country Hotel on Thursday 22nd February attended by 64 business people eager to gain ideas to improve their marketing presence.

Paul Brittain of Prevolution Digital gave an informative talk on how to use Google to extend brand reach with improved web presence, relative content posts and good pictures. He demonstrated the importance of gaining good Google reviews and measuring results using the free tools available.

Email marketing is a cost-effective way of reaching customers and Holly Stibbon of Smart Messenger gave examples of the best ways to ensure marketing emails are opened, read and actioned. These included ensuring emails can easily be read on a mobile phone with a clear call to action.

Social media is an increasingly important marketing tool and Nick Pandolfi gave an entertaining and informative talk explaining that not every platform is right for all businesses and choosing the right ones is key. He reminded delegates that most of their clients liked and used social media and how, in just 15 minutes a day the right posts and photographs give a business a wider marketing reach. Nick talked about the power of telling business stories and building relationships with future customers via social media. He reminded delegates that by using the medium they can educate, inform and entertain to ensure their business is memorable to potential new clients.

Nick Barrett of Hugh J Boswell Insurance Brokers sponsors of the Business Marketing Conference said, “The feedback from the conference was excellent, business delegates found the information and ideas they heard extremely useful. The breadth of knowledge of Paul, Holly and Nick have was exceptiona, it’s rare to have the opportunity to hear such useful marketing tips in just three hours.”

Leanne Castle of GENIX commented, “In 2016 North Norfolk District Council commissioned GENIX to provide events to inspire business owners to consider ways to grow. Small businesses have a huge, positive impact on the local economy by increasing employment opportunities and the prosperity of the area and our aim is to highlight ways this can be achieved with conferences and networking events.

“I’m very grateful to all our speakers who gave a wide view of what is possible and how growth can be achieved in a sustainable and manageable way. My thanks to Hugh J Boswell, commercial and business insurance brokers whose sponsorship enabled us to hold this event.”

Cllr Nigel Dixon, North Norfolk District Council’s Cabinet Member for Business and Economic Development, said: “We are pleased this Business Marketing event was attended by 64 business people and was such a success. It’s vital small businesses are actively encouraged to reach their full potential and we hope this conference has helped to remove barriers to growth and inspire Norfolk’s business owners to take their work to the next level.”

GENIX will be holding a networking event, Coffee Means Business on Tuesday 20th March at Scarborough Hill Hotel in North Walsham from 9.30am until 11.30am.

Booking isn’t required, and it costs £5pp to attend. For more details got to www.genix.org.uk or by calling 0800 096 3013.

Flagship Group’s first ever higher level apprentices undertaking its pioneering ‘Bright Futures Programme’ are well on their way to gaining a degree and a career in housing. During National Apprenticeships Week (5-9 March), Flagship are celebrating the new qualification and the value of apprentices within the business. The innovative degree sponsored management training programme, which is a first for the housing sector, brings together the best of higher and vocational education. Matt Levesley, 18, and Ellie Colk, 19, both from Norwich, started their Housing Policy and Practice Apprenticeship last summer and will complete the course in 2020. At that time, both will have gained a degree and have permanent employment with Flagship. Matt said: “When I saw the apprenticeship advertised I thought housing would be really interesting as it’s so topical, especially at the moment. “The course is fantastic as you get to work across a broad range of departments such as HR, Development, Response and Housing so you quickly learn about all aspects of the business and meet lots of different colleagues. “Flagship is a really welcoming organisation and there are so many exciting things to get involved in.” Ellie said: “This particular apprenticeship really appealed to me as it looked different to many of the others which focus a lot on admin. Already we’ve been involved in lots of projects. I like the variety as you’re always doing something different so no two days are the same. “It’s a great opportunity to learn valuable skills such as social and IT skills which you can apply anywhere.” The Programme brings together the next generation of housing employees with leaders and mentors from the industry. From September 2018, two new positions will be available on the Bright Futures Programme. The apprentices will split their time between the workplace and university study. Most of the university study will be online with some attendance at Salford University, dependent on the needs of the apprentice and Flagship. Lisa Collen, Director of People at Flagship, said: “We’re passionate about growing our own talent which is why we value our Apprenticeship Programme so much. With over 20 years of experience in the housing sector, our skilled staff are keen to pass on their knowledge to the next generation, hoping to make a difference in the housing industry. “Ellie and Matt have been fantastic, really embracing our new course. It’s proven to be an excellent way for our apprentices to gain professional training and hands-on practical experience at the same time. This not only allows them to develop a good understanding of our business, but also means they make valuable contributions to our teams.” Since launching its Apprenticeship Programme in 2014, Flagship Group has had 13 young people complete their qualifications, and currently 27 apprentices are working towards qualification completion. For more information about all of Flagship’s apprenticeship opportunities please contact the Learning and Development Team on L&D@flagship-group.co.uk A film of Matt and Ellie talking about their Bright Future apprenticeship can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/85MZkERSUIc

Freebridge Community Housing announced as one of the countries best places to work

Freebridge Community Housing are delighted to announce that they once again appear on the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Not-For-Profit Organisations to Work For list.

Not only did Freebridge reach 68th place in the list, they also retained their One Star accreditation, which they first received back in 2014. The accreditation means that Freebridge continues to have ‘very good’ levels of employee engagement within the organisation.

Tony Hall, Chief Executive of Freebridge, said: “I could not be happier to have Freebridge recognised in this way. Appearing on the list is largely down to the efforts that our employees make in creating a great working environment and I want to thank them for their continued support.

“I am also looking forward to reading the feedback on our entry and identifying further ways to make Freebridge a great place to come to work.”

The Best Companies employee engagement survey captures how people genuinely feel about working for their organisations.

Best Companies methodology shows that the following eight factors are linked to overall engagement. They are: Leadership, My Team, Wellbeing, Personal Growth, Giving Something Back and My Manager. As well as completing the employee engagement surveys, Freebridge also completed an extensive questionnaire which provides an overview of the organisation.