Member News

Leah Hurd, Pure Senior finance professionals from across the East of England have come together to discuss the UK’s departure from the European Union at a series of Finance Director (FD) Breakfast Clubs organised by executive recruitment consultants Pure Executive and accountancy firm Grant Thornton.

Five breakfast sessions were held in Cambridge, Chelmsford, Peterborough, Ipswich and Norwich between 20 June and 13 July and were attended by over 160 finance professionals. These regular, interactive events are designed to provide forums for finance leaders to come together and discuss topical issues likely to impact on businesses and the local economy.

The latest breakfast sessions were organised to help finance leaders understand how the key issues of Brexit are likely to impact on businesses in the Eastern region. The discussions included preparing for Brexit, trade and cross border activity, adapting finance processes and systems and future talent recruitment and retention.

Tom Earl, Director at Pure Executive, a division of professional recruitment specialists Pure, said: “The triggering of Article 50 represented the first major step towards the UK’s departure from EU and marked the start of a two-year period of negotiation. The shape of the UK’s relationship with Europe beyond March 2019 maybe unknown but this doesn’t stop businesses from starting to plan how they can prepare for Brexit and beyond. The Future FD clubs provide a great forum for like-minded senior finance professionals from our region to come together to discuss topics like this and to benefit from shared experiences and expertise.”

The FD Breakfast Clubs were first launched in 2014 by Pure Executive and Grant Thornton to help support the local business community and to grow the regional economy. Subjects covered at previous sessions have included Corporate Governance, Apprenticeship Levy, Cyber Security and Data Protection, Risk and Reputation and International Growth. The FD Breakfast Clubs are open to all senior finance professionals. For more information about future events email Tom Earl at Tom.earl@pureexecutive.com

A new course to help managers to have better conversations about mental health has been launched – as research shows that employees feel unable to talk to their managers about their wellbeing. 31% said they feared their career would suffer if they said something.

The ‘Mental Health for Managers’ course will take place on 3rd October at The Open in Norwich and will provide an insight into the challenges around mental health in the workplace. It will show managers and HR professionals the signs to look out for and practical tips on how to talk about mental health and offer immediate support.

The workshop is being run by workplace mental health experts Bamboo Mental Health and people engagement and workplace wellbeing specialists The Engaging People Company. It comes after a recent survey by Bamboo Health found that 35% of respondents feel unable to talk to their manager about mental health problems. 39% ignored the worker or offered poor support.

Tom Oxley, Director of Bamboo Mental Health said, “Our research confirms people are working unwell in Norfolk and staying silent. Yet the first point of help should be their manager. People need to speak up and get support before, during and after absence.

“When managers spot the signs, ask and listen, an employee can get help sooner – and may avoid time off which is costly to employers and can disengage workers.”

By the end of the course, attendees will feel confident to have better conversations with their direct reports, leading to improved manager-employee relationships, better wellbeing and, ultimately, increased engagement and satisfaction.

Michelle Gant, Director of The Engaging People Company explained:

“Managers have an absolutely critical role in supporting and promoting wellbeing within the workplace but conversations about mental health can be daunting. We want to equip managers with the skills, knowledge and confidence to be able to talk to employees and offer them the support they need, which will benefit not only the individuals but the organisation.”

Some of the comments shared during the research included:

·         ‘I wanted to leave and look for another job but my self-esteem was so low.’

·         ‘I was told I did not have a problem and should not waste their time. I felt belittled and worthless, I felt very resentful towards my employers and it did nothing to make me an effective member of staff.’

·         Managers were ‘not adequately trained’

·         ‘Feeling incredibly stressed and undervalued and felt like walking out.’

·         ‘They had no real concern about my health apart from when I would be back at work and refused to give me a more beneficial work hour pattern.’

Visit here to find out more or contact Michelle Gant on 07834 578872 or Tom Oxley on 07718 130930 to book a place.

We are delighted to announce that we are working with the historic Clifton Pub in St John’s Wood, London. The popular pub is said to be more than 200 years old and was frequented by Edward VII. However, the establishment faced closure in 2013 and then the pursuit of a wealthy individual to turn the estate into a mansion, equipped with a basement, home cinema and gym. Following the signing of thousands of local supporters, The Clifton Pub was saved and is now back in business thanks to two entrepreneurial brothers Ed and Ben Robson.

What Work We Are Doing With Them

The challenge for The Clifton NW8 is helping their website to rank on Google for their brand name such as The Clifton and The Clifton Pub. There are several other Clifton’s out there with big businesses and older domains including a school, hotel, club and even a bridge.

The SEO Approach

We have built up their domain by gaining some local press through the likes of the Kilburn Times, Ham & High and St John’s Wood Times. This has strengthened their domain and proven that they are a local business too. 

We have had to make amendments to their website including cleaning out the code to ensure it is faster and is easier to crawl on Google.

With little content on the website, we have had to sharpen up all their meta-titles, meta-descriptions, headings and ensure that every image has an alt-text too. 

The site has made considerable progress on Google, including several page one positions within 6 weeks of implementing the changes. We are encouraging the client to add regular content to the website to show Google that they are active and use it as an opportunity to bulk up the content site of the site.

GROUND has been broken for a multi-million-pound landmark headquarters on the Enterprise Zone at Beacon Park, which will enable a major energy sector employer to expand further in the area.

Great Yarmouth Borough Council is developing a new Great Yarmouth base for Proserv on a prominent site at the park, a growing hub for the energy sector which is owned by the borough council.

The development, to be called Artemis House, will enable the business to consolidate and grow its Great Yarmouth operation under one roof. It currently employs about 190 staff at three sites across the borough. Most of these employees already live within 10 minutes of Beacon Park.

To celebrate the traditional ground-breaking ceremony, the council’s political group leaders gathered on-site, part of the Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft (New Anglia) Enterprise Zone, together with representatives of Proserv, New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership and construction contractor Morgan Sindall.

The borough council has invested £4.5m in the development, with an additional £1.5m coming from New Anglia LEP’s Growing Places Fund. Proserv is contributing up to £2m towards the fit-out for their requirements and will be taking a 20-year lease on completion.

The development will be completed in early 2018 and will form another part of the borough council’s important property portfolio, generating significant rental income which is used to help support vital public services.

In a joint statement, the council’s political group leaders, Cllr Graham Plant, Cllr Kay Grey, Cllr Trevor Wainwright and Cllr Adrian Myers, said: “Over the coming months, people travelling through the park on the new link road will see this landmark building take shape: a clear symbol of this council’s close work with partners to support sustainable economic growth and unlock its benefits for communities.

“This ground-breaking is another chance to celebrate what the development will bring to the borough. Importantly, these skilled jobs, mostly held by local people, will continue to be based within the borough, supporting the local economy and prosperity. In addition, Proserv will have the capacity to invest and expand further in this purpose-built base, creating even more local job opportunities. We would like to thank the team who helped to bring this development into fruition.”

Comprising 65,000sq ft of modern office and production floorspace, the prestigious building, flanking the new link road, will be one of the largest commercial buildings in terms of floorspace ever constructed in the borough. There is also an option to add a further 20,000sq ft of workshop capacity at a later date.

Simon Harvey, Head of Operations at Proserv, said: “This is a significant milestone in the development of our new facility which will serve as a global hub and Centre of Excellence for our subsea communication and controls activities. We would once again like to extend our sincere appreciation and thanks to Great Yarmouth Borough Council for their continued support in getting us to this exciting stage.”

Chris Starkie, Managing Director of New Anglia LEP, said: “This is great news for Proserv, their employees and the wider economy. It’s also a real shot in the arm for our all-energy coastline – within which Proserv is a key supplier and employer – and further evidence of the significance of our Great Yarmouth and Lowestoft Enterprise Zone in attracting and retaining investment in the East.”

Saul Humphrey, managing director of Morgan Sindall’s East Anglia business, said: “We’re pleased to have broken ground at this new commercial warehouse site. Once complete, the building will provide Proserv with the office, storage space, and specialist facilities they need, helping to deliver real efficiencies for the business.

“The 6,050 sq.m warehouse is one of the largest steel frame buildings being built in Norfolk at the moment and we’re working closely with the council to deliver this important and ambitious scheme.

“Morgan Sindall has experience delivering projects of this nature and we’re looking forward to completing the scheme in spring 2018.”

There is a real need for businesses to embrace the concept of producing short, engaging video content as a way to attract, retain and perhaps even to entertain their customers with content. Here at Eye Film we have created a two day training course to help you to do just this. Learn how to shoot the footage you need, with professionals showing you what you should be thinking about, and giving you the technical and creative insights to create high quality content that you can use and share. On day one you will cover what types of videos can be produced, what works and what doesn’t and the basics of camera work, sound and editing. You will return on day two with footage you have shot at your own business and will edit and upload your own video for your business or organisation to use – while still having Eye guide you through. The training will build your confidence to go away and start your own video marketing! Sound interesting? Our next course is now planned for Monday 9th/16th October at EPIC Studios in Norwich. Do see our website for more details at www.eyefilm.co.uk or contact us at info@eyefilm.co.uk or on 01603 727750 for a chat.

We are working closely with Vaccoda Design on Mediclub Financial Services’ website and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). Mediclub Financial Services are one of the best-known names across the dental and medical fields and are run by established investment firm Chantler Kent Investments. Having provided a fee based advisory service and various other financial services and offerings, they approached Vaccoda with regards to their website.

Having provided Mediclub with a new, updated website run off the WordPress content management system (CMS) for ease of use and improved functionality, Mediclub faced the challenge of only limited online users finding them via organic searches [those via search engines]. We have therefore commenced a structured SEO programme to ensure their rankings are improved, relevant and closely tied with their business goals.

What we have done

With a fairly large website that incorporates a regularly updated news section, Mediclub have not faced the challenges of many others; not having anywhere near enough content. Rather, a problem faced by their website has been a lack of SEO-friendly crawling factors, content requiring updating and improving with regards to their services and a backlink profile that needs strengthening.

Prior to undertaking those improvements, we undertook comprehensive keyword research as part of a ‘discovery’ phase to identify and work with the keywords for Mediclub’s targets and service offerings. Having found a range of relevant keywords such as ‘dental practice finance’ amongst others, we have planned a number of landing pages to support them.

These pages include a significant amount of original and informative content, fully optimised meta data, internal and external links and various other SEO ranking factors. The aim for these pages is to rank highly across Google and other search engines for a plethora of relevant terms. Filling these pages with useful content also means that users are far more likely to engage with the site and get in touch with Mediclub.

We have also undertaken an approach to their site speed which is becoming an increasingly important factor in SEO. Because slower sites show increased bounce rates and decreased engagement, we have been working on the speed of Mediclub. This has entailed a number of development-related updates that we are continuing to work with Vaccoda on implementing.

These include improving load times, decreasing site response times and ensuring there are a minimal number of 301 and 302 redirects across the site; all of which add a number of seconds to the site’s response, having a detrimental effect on the overall speed.

In addition, we have been providing up to date and search engine-friendly meta data; titles and descriptions to all pages. This allows all search engines to better rank and read all pages and appropriately place them online for users. Supplementing the meta data, we have also implemented an xml sitemap and are working on a new structure for the site pages to strengthen it in respect of user experience.

Mediclub have already seen many of their rankings jump significantly including ‘buying a dental practice’ already moving from page 10 to page 6 at this early stage and we are looking forward to the further progress to be made on and off site. We look forward to continuing our work on this exciting project for a well-renowned company in conjunction with Vaccoda Design.

The Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) team at Tudor Lodge Consultants are pleased to announce that working with OverThrow Digital, we are working on the online presence, SEO and website for Cube Funder who provide short to medium term business loans and alternatives to merchant loans to a wide range of businesses throughout the UK.

Cube Funder are a brand-new company and have started their campaign from a blank canvas. Working with the design and development teams at OverThrow Digital, we have been able to be involved in this exciting project from its outset. There have been a number of challenges for Cube Funder, mainly not existing prior to starting the online marketing campaign. This has meant that they have not been present on Google and other search engines.

We have therefore undertaken in-depth and detailed keyword research around their target industry and around their target customers’ searches to identify where there is keyword and search traffic worth targeting. From the design phase with OverThrow Digital we have been working to make sure that the design of the site is as clean as possible and that the user experiences are as easy and efficient as possible. This has been a strong emphasis in order to maintain users who arrive on the site.

As part of the initial planning process we have also been working closely with both OverThrow Digital and the team at Cube Funder to make sure that the site architecture is easily navigated upon arrival.

Having launched the website for Cube Funder we have been designing, planning and writing a broad range of landing pages for some of their specific services. These highly optimised pages are designed to rank strongly on Google and other search engines. Through SEO-friendly use of written and visual content, meta data and other criteria we have launched very effective landing pages for the site.

Furthermore, we have gone through all other pages of the website to ensure that they fulfil all of the necessary criteria. This has meant providing every site page with its own unique set of meta data (titles and descriptions). This allows Google to crawl and rank the site in the best possible way; ranking it for the most relevant target terms.

We are now in the process of undertaking a comprehensive content strategy in which we will be improving and increasing their website’s content offering across their services, industry knowledge and offerings to the wider business community in the UK. This has already entailed a large degree of planning and writing of useful information for a dedicated section on the site.

In addition, Cube Funder do not have a substantial link profile as they are new to the inline world. Therefore, we are continuing to build them a clean, strong and reputable link profile around their industry which will see them improve further for their already promising keyword and search term rankings.

Cube Funder are already ranking at this early stage for a number of target keywords such as ‘medium term business loan’ and others. We look forward to continuing on this already successful path and building on these early successes with Cube Funder.

The OPEN Youth Trust (OPEN) are launching their inaugural Youth Awards, celebrating the achievements of young people in Norfolk and are looking for sponsors for the awards.

OPEN has been working alongside young people for eleven years now and these awards are designed to highlight young people’s astonishing achievements and to give them the recognition and encouragement they deserve.

Nominations for these awards will be aimed at young people in Norfolk aged between 11-19 years of age (or up to 25 years for those with additional needs), with the exception of the Hero Award which will be for young people to nominate an adult who in their eyes is a ‘hero’ or champion, will open on Friday 8th September.  The awards will be judged by an independent panel of judges and Joe Crowley, Ambassador for OPEN and presenter of The One Show and Countryfile will host the Awards ceremony which will take place on Wednesday 28th February 2018.

To make these awards “super exciting”, “the very best they can be”, “go with a bang” – take your pick – OPEN is calling for sponsors to support them.  As sponsors you will be joining media partners the EDP and Evening News as well as the following organisations who have signed up as category sponsors: Leathes Prior (Outstanding Achievement), Active Norfolk (Sport Individual), Hugh J Boswell (Education), Norfolk Constabulary (Hero) and Larking Gowen (Entrepreneur).

OPEN is looking for headline sponsors for the awards as well as a further six for the remaining categories:

• Community 
• Sport (Team)
• Arts
• Charity
• Perseverance
• Volunteer

John Gordon-Saker, CEO for OPEN said: “Following the format of the former Bernard Matthew Youth Awards, OPEN wanted to re-establish these awards to recognise the inspirational young people we have living in Norfolk.  This is an amazing opportunity to honour the future generation of the region and we are inviting anyone interested to join us to champion them by sponsoring these awards”.

Anyone interested in getting involved should contact Grainne Buckley, Head of Fundraising at OPEN on 01603 25 2112 or email grainne@opennorwich.org.uk

Visit Youth Awards for more information.

Now the largest fishing retailer in the UK, Angling Direct was originally set up by Martyn Page (seen above) and William Hill when they purchased their first fishing store in Wroxham in 1986. 

Company Chairman and co-founder, Martyn Page CTA, TEP is generally regarded as the visionary behind Angling Direct’s culture and strategy. As a keen and successful fisherman he wanted to provide a modern and more experiential retail offering to the angling community and this purpose coupled with both his and his fellow co founder, William Hill’s, professional experience have guided the company from start up to floatation on the London Stock Exchange Alternative Investment Market (AIM).

Martyn is and William was, until he retired this year, a partner with M+A Partners, Norfolk Accountants and Business advisers. 

“Apart from my desire to improve and inspire the angling lifestyle, William and I could see a commercial opportunity and we were keen to roll up our sleeves and experience the real problems and challenges faced by businesses both daily and as they grow. M+A Partners advises businesses from owner managed start ups to multi-million pound plus groups on growth, strategy, taxation, succession etc. Whilst I strongly believe that professional advisers generally have excellent technical knowledge, the added practical experience of running and growing ones own business is invaluable to our clients; I think clients regard me as different to the usual accountant and see me more of their entrepreneurial adviser.” Said Martyn 

Read more >>>

Briar Chemicals launched its new initiative, the ‘Farm to Fork’ campaign, earlier this month by facilitating a trip for pupils from Mile Cross Primary School to a local farm.

Briar’s new ‘Farm to Fork’ campaign is being introduced into local schools to teach children about the lifecycle of crops and how Briar play a part in helping farmers maintain healthy crops and increase yields.

The campaign features three stages; fun and interactive experiments about how sunlight and water helps our food grow, farm visits to see where the crops grow followed by providing grow-your-own vegetable packages for the children to grow in the gardens at their school.

Tim Green, Site Manager at Briar Chemicals said: “Bringing science to life is the best way to create curiosity. Our aim is to educate young people about important topics including food production, nutrition, sustainability and how they can contribute.”

During the visit to Easton and Otley College farm, Mile Cross Primary pupils learnt how and what crops need to grow, about the machinery used and what each crop produces. The children enjoyed hands-on activities such as grinding wheat and crushing rape seed to produce oil.

Farm visits provide hands-on sensory experiences; learning where food comes from and the natural cycles from planting through to harvesting. Easton & Otley, an agricultural farming college, provide educational sessions for children up to KS4.

Ruth Cannon, Schools Technician at Easton & Otley College said: “We always enjoy hosting school visits at our Easton Campus. The visits enable school projects on food and farming to come to life. We would like to thank Briar Chemicals for their sponsorship of the Mile Cross Primary School visit.”

As part of the ‘Farm to Fork’ campaign, Briar also work with Mad Science, a local science educational organisation who provides science workshops aligned to STEM objectives and the curriculum.

Mile Cross Primary school pupils had a visit from Dr Dee Enay at Mad Science to help teach them about the importance of the sun in food production. They had the opportunity to take part in fun experiments learning about photosynthesis and prisms.

Briar’s Science in Schools programme, aimed at children aged 5-11 years old, is designed to make science learning fun, informative and capture imaginations.

Briar facilitate trips to other educational hubs across the region creating opportunities for children to learn about the environment around them.

We are pleased to announce that we are working with Electricians Blackheath, in conjunction with Vaccoda Design to improve their online presence, Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and content. Electricians Blackheath is a local electrician and electrical services business based in South London in the Blackheath, Bromley and Kent areas. They have many decades of experience in their practice area and as such, have dozens of satisfied customers from over the years.

We were approached by Electricians Blackheath through the development team at Vaccoda who had already been working on their site for some time, developing and improving the look and feel of the site.

However, things were starting to plateau online, with almost no rankings for their website and therefore, they saw the need for some SEO work in order to address and improve this and to make their site fit for purpose.

We started the SEO campaign by assessing the current site and where it sat online. With almost zero views for their site via organic search, the first port of call for them was to ensure the website could be crawled [read and ranked] by Google and other search engines. We applied all necessary updates to their website’s content management system (CMS). Their website is based on the very user friendly and SEO-friendly CMS, WordPress.

Working with Vaccoda’s developers, we went about installing SEO-related updates and site improvements such as ensuring full integration with the Yoast SEO plugin and creating for them a new and Google-friendly sitemap (an xml file submitted to Google with all site pages in a logical order.)

We then undertook keyword research to identify the keywords that Electricians Blackheath were not being ranked for. We also identified a variety of keywords that their site should be ranking for but that due to crawling factors were not. As a result of this, we went about fixing all of their crawling factors and criteria. This has included fully optimising their meta data (titles and descriptions.) By making sure their data that is read by Google is optimised to the best standards, the site ‘encourages’ search engines to read its pages.

In addition to the meta data we have made sure that every site page has an H1 tag [title]. This is the title of the page that Google looks at immediately after the meta data and it must therefore be closely tied to the written copy on the page.

We have now commenced our content building strategy for the website too. The Electricians Blackheath site did not arrive with much content apart from detailing what services were offered. Through our keyword research and client discussions, we have a list of content pages around their services and who they are in order to improve and increase the content offerings on the site; a critical ranking factor for SEO.

The link building for them has also commenced. Having previously had a non-existent link profile it has been of paramount importance that we work on a number of links and content opportunities from established and strong websites. This includes websites such as TechRound and others.

We are looking forward to continuing our work with Vaccoda design and Electricians Blackheath, building on our already strong progress for the future.

Fete smiles on Hillington Square

The summer fete is back again at Hillington Square this Saturday, 15 July 2017, from 12 – 3pm.

The Square will be packed with food and fun for all the family, with music and games on offer throughout the afternoon.

The Mayor of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk, Councillor Carol Bower, will also be in attendance to support the fete and take part in some of the activities on offer.

Flukes ukulele band will be providing music, whilst face painting, a bouncy castle and a number of crafts and activities will be on offer to keep young and old entertained.

Freebridge Director of Housing, Robert Clarke, said: “The Hillington Square Fete is one of the highlights of the summer for Freebridge, and this year looks set to be better than ever.

“The work of our Providence Street Placeshaping Team has meant that we can offer a wider range stalls and activities and we are looking forward to welcoming the wider community into Hillington Square.”