Member News

Pre-season Dinner and 80th Anniversary

29th July 2015

Over £2,900 was raised for Age UK Norwich thanks to the Club’s prestigious event

FANS, players and the management team remembered 80 years of Carrow Road last week at its Pre-Season Dinner which celebrated the anniversary.

BBC Radio Norfolk’s Chris Goreham hosted the evening, which looked back over 80 wonderful years. Supporters were also given the opportunity to meet the first team players and collect autographs as well as browse through memorabilia, setting the mood for a great evening of nostalgia.

First team manager Alex Neil added excitement with his positivity for the new Premier League season which gets underway against Crystal Palace on Saturday. Fans and players alike were honoured to hear from a variety of guests such as Bert Vincent – a fan who was at the first game played at Carrow Road 80 years ago – and the current club captain Russell Martin, who had very different but equally special memories of Carrow Road.

image: https://www.canaries.co.uk/cms_images/80years-inbody132-2597752.jpg

[Bert Vincent enjoyed sharing his memories of Carrow Road]

The evening closed with a charity auction and raffle, with Chris being helped out by Colin Tovell from the Ambassadors Club, who entertained the audience and helped raise an impressive £2,911.20 for Age UK Norwich’s ‘Still on the Ball’ campaign. Susan Ringwood – who is the Chief Executive of the Charity – explained the details of the campaign, which is designed to help people living with dementia by reviving memories of their football experiences and sharing these memories with others.

Also present were Canary Legend Duncan Forbes’ wife Janette and son Elliot, who have been involved with Age UK Norwich – a charity close to their hearts and one that seemed fitting for an event looking back at the past 80 years.

Helen Burgess, Fundraising and Community Relations Manager for Age UK Norwich, said: “We had a fabulous night; it was incredibly well-run, the food was delicious and the generosity was amazing. We will be sure to keep the club updated on the project and how the money is being used to help people living with dementia.”

Norwich City Chief Executive David McNally said: “I really enjoyed the pre-season dinner and 80th anniversary of Carrow Road celebration. Having attended many events at Carrow Road over the years, all are of a particularly high standard but this was certainly one of the best. As always, the food was top-class and the video to celebrate 80 years at our historic home, along with the interview with Bert Vincent, were both moving and inspirational.”

For events coming up at Carrow Road please go tohttps://www.deliascanarycatering.co.uk/events/.

A pioneering joined-up approach to improving people’s lives and public services is to be expanded in Great Yarmouth. Business in the Community (BITC) is one of a number of partners that will be working on the project over five years, which is supported by a £3m grant from the Big Lottery Fund.

The Neighbourhoods that Work project builds upon a successful integrated way of working with communities, developed over the last decade by Great Yarmouth Borough Council and partners, which has gained national recognition.

The £3m project is initially funded to run for five years: helping communities to develop their ideas for improving people’s quality of life, helping existing services to work better together to support vulnerable people, and helping people into training, volunteering and work.

Led by the borough council and delivered with the help of local partners, it is hoped that the model will provide a blueprint for similar initiatives in other parts of the UK and in other areas of work. One aim of the project is to increase capacity in communities, enabling them to become more resilient in the face of changing social, economic and environmental conditions.

Cllr Penny Carpenter, the borough council’s cabinet member for communities, said: “The Neighbourhoods that Work Project will help the borough council, partners and communities themselves to further improve even more people’s lives. Traditionally, various areas of work which are actually inter-related have been funded and delivered in relative isolation because they are wrongly seen as separate, whereas Great Yarmouth is pioneering a broader joined-up approach to improving life chances for residents.”

Business in the Community will play a critical role by engaging employers on the project. Employers will help people gain and sustain jobs; assist with capacity building of communities and play a stronger role in creating local solutions for those in most need.

Commenting on the launch Paul Winter, CEO Ipswich Building Society and Chair of the BITC Regional Advisory Board said: “We’re delighted to be building on Business in the Community’s work in Great Yarmouth to further support people into employment and training. Employers who support the programme will not only benefit the local community but also their own business by gaining an insight to the local market.”

Employers who think that they, or their staff, could help enhance the local economy of Great Yarmouth through this project should contact Mike Brophy on 07739 092426.

For further information on the project and partners involved visit Great Yarmouth Borough Council’s website.

Nor-Folk is a graphic design led lifestyle brand, founded by husband and wife team Fiona and Bobby Burrage of The Click Design Consultants. Launched earlier this year, Nor-Folk has enjoyed rapid growth in sales and serves a global customer base.

Nor-Folk was merely a side project when it started -part of The Click’s ten year anniversary celebrations (as featured in Creative Review), although, six months on, it has made the rapid transition from being an extra-curricular self-initiated ‘project’ to fully-fledged ‘proper business’.

Headed up (on a day-to-day basis) by Fiona, Nor-Folk now sells to circa 50 stockists worldwide and has a growing social media presence, including 30k+ followers on Instagram.

Nor-Folk continues to add to the product range, which includes apparel for adults and children, as well as homewares.

In addition, they curate a Journal with content from the fellow Nor-Folk team, including posts on fashion, food, visual stories and more.

You can shop Nor-Folk here and follow on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.

www.nor-folk.com

Within the list of leading names in the UK accounting industry, TaxAssist Accountants has moved up to number 24 in the 2015 Accountancy Age Top 50+50 survey, up one place from 2014 and up an impressive ten places since first entering the survey back in 2010. TaxAssist is the only accountancy franchise in the Top 50.

The report shows that most leading accountancy firms across the UK have continued to grow their fees, including TaxAssist who reported a 9% year-on-year revenue increase and a growing nationwide and international franchise network which saw the company recoup almost £30m in income – £2.49m more than in 2014.

The survey’s partner, Wolters Kluwer, believes an increasing use of technology has underpinned the growth of the UK’s leading accountancy firms, whilst reducing overheads and improving efficiency.

Karl Sandall CEO of The TaxAssist Group comments “Clearly we’re very pleased with this new position and shows we continue to move the business forward in the right direction for the mutual benefit of the TaxAssist network, the Directors and Shareholders, of which our franchisees themselves form a considerable percentage.

I would certainly echo the comments of Wolters Kluwer. At TaxAssist we have recognised that emerging technologies have revolutionised the way we work and will continue to do so. As a franchisor we research, evaluate, recommend and train the network on new technologies that we believe will be of benefit. We’ve used technology to take the guesswork out of managing financial business records. Our online accounts software organises all key aspects of financial reporting; from sales and purchases to customers and suppliers.”

A link to the article can be found here. A link to the Top 50 can be found here.

August 2015

Aston Shaw, the fastest growing accountancy firm in East Anglia, has appointed two new directors to the firm’s board, in order to create a long-term structure that addresses the company’s ongoing expansion. The current directors of the firm, Mark Noakes and Dominic Shaw, are keen to promote senior positions from within and long-serving Client Managers Lee Stratton, 28 and Adam Hook, 34 will take a Directorship role within the business as of August 2015. The ethos at Aston Shaw has always been to accelerate the growth and experience of younger employees, going against the accepted industry trend and this is now being reflected from the top down.

Lee Stratton and Adam Hook joined Aston Shaw in 2005 and 2006 respectively and both qualified as Chartered Certified accountants in 2011. They both manage their own varied portfolio of clients, with Lee specialising in the construction industry and Adam the agricultural sector. Both directors will retain their current portfolio and will continue to have day to day interaction with their clients, alongside their new responsibilities.

Lee Stratton, Director, commented: “I’m extremely proud to be a director of the company. After 10 years and knowing Aston Shaw inside out, I felt ready to take on the new role and help Mark Noakes and Dominic Shaw drive the business forward onto bigger and better things. Adam and I are looking forward to continuing our work with our current client portfolios, and we are both excited to be a part of the key decision making process in the company”.

Adam Hook, Director, added: “Lee and I have been part of Aston Shaw for a very long time and we both feel the time is right to make the step up. The company has grown significantly in the last few years and the structure being put in place will mean we can help grow it even further, which is something I can’t wait to drive forward”.

Aston Shaw has gone from strength to strength since their merger with Morgan Woods in 2014, and their recent takeover of Roger Hopkins in 2015. Since 2014 the company’s staff numbers have grown by 50% and the number of clients has also grown by upwards of 15%.

With August now here, Shield Health & Safety recently celebrated its one year anniversary since launching and what a year it has been!

Late summer 2014 saw Shield Health & Safety come to fruition, forming from a single ideal – to offer a training service that focuses on customer satisfaction.

By focusing on this ideal, Shield quickly became a successful brand that has seen its client base explode over the past twelve months.

Of course all of this would not be possible without the help of a certain individuals – all of whom deserve a massive thank you:-

First off, Neal & Sheila Carr for their massive support in getting Shield up and flying (without their love and encouragement we would not be here!)

A massive thank you goes out to Shields first three instructors, all of whom helped shape the focus of quality in training and customer satisfaction. Their dedication and professionalism has helped drive Shield forward as they continue to set the bar for a first rate service.

All of our suppliers and designers who helped create the successful Shield Brand.

Debbie Hilliam, Shields Operations Director – who continues to be the driving force of love and support that has made Shield what it is today. She has steered Shield through its first year, helping to drive growth whilst maintaining its core principles

What’s next?

• Year two has already seen Shields Instructor numbers increase to help maintain our ‘Customer Focus’ ideal – and with our continued customer growth, we will look for new instructors in the coming months.
• Shield will be moving towards the end of the year to a brand new site so as to help us spread our wings further which in turn offers our clients additional services.
• Our online booking service is currently under development and when ready, will offer our clients more flexibility in managing their requirements.
• Shield will be adding to our training portfolio in the coming months so what this space.

On a final note Shield would like to thank all of our clients, without whom none of this would be possible!

For all of your H&S training needs, please visit – https://www.shieldhealthandsafety.co.uk/

A refreshingweekend atLatitudegot me thinking about whyfestivals are now so popular. Like many other people, I’ve discovered there’s farmore to them thanmuddy wellies and smelly loos.

Have you been to a festival recently? Have you been raving about the experience to your friends ever since? If so, you are not alone.

The 50 members of theAssociation of Independent Festivals(AIF) entertained 635,000 fans in2014. The average festival-goer spent £466 each time (at the event itself and in local businesses), making festivals an important part of Britain’s summer tourist season. So what lessons and inspirations can other tourism businesses take from this surge in festival going?

Having just returned from a fabulous family weekend at Latitude in Suffolk, I think there are four key things we can learn about what makes festivals so popular. Tourism providers in particular should take note. After all, according to an AIF audience survey,49% said they chose a festival instead of a holidayin 2014.

What’s the big attraction?

1) Socialising – The whole family spends time together

Festivals have come a long way from the days of only appealing to teens or twenty-something music fans. There’s now a whole raft of family-friendly festivals; one of the oldest is theLarmer Treenear Salisbury, which has been going 25 years. Their big selling point istheir ability to appeal to all ages.

Although they often have special areas for children and teens, the main areas tend to be for the whole family. Here people can mingle with friends, listen to music and comedy acts, craft, watch theatre performances or fashion shows, or shop. The opportunity for children, teens and adults to enjoy time together ina relaxed, friendly and safe environmentis a big draw for many people.

2) Diversity – There’s something for everyone

Many festivals have cultivated an all-round appeal to cater for families or groups of friends with a variety of interests. For example, theElderflower Fields Festival, held over four days in Ashdown Forest, East Sussex, has wildlife and environmental projects, theatre, dance and science camps, as well as the more usual sports activities including a climbing wall. You can even relax in the hot tubs before the Sunday picnic.

3) Entertaining – The food is an event in itself

At most festivals, the food has a vibrant street-food feel; Latitude even had an impressive pop-up restaurant. The quality’s good and the range is huge – from gourmet burgers and organic pizza to Mexican and Vietnamese for the more adventurous. Festival organisers recognise that eating is an important part of the overall experience. It’s another opportunity for people to have fun and socialise, as well as to experiment with more exotic foods.

4) Experience – It’s about the way you make people feel.

Most fans will tell you that festivals are not just about the music, the facilities or the events. For them, it’s the overall experience that counts. Festivals appeal to all the senses; they have an emotional quality and a distinctive, yet intangible, vibe.

In fact, in the AIF’s 2014 audience survey,58% said that the single most important factor was “the general atmosphere, overall vibe and character of the event.”Only 8.3% said the “headline acts” (and 21.5% said “the music generally”) were the most important factor. If your tourism business is focusing on the functional excellence but not creating an engaging experience, you may risk losing your customers.

Between 2010 and 2014, independent festivals contributed around £1billion to the UK economy. To me, the attraction is clear. They bend over backwards to appeal to everyone in the family, providing a fun, cool but safe holiday atmosphere.

The crowds at Latitude enjoyed everything from lake swimming to tranquillity zones. There was even the opportunity for ambitious teenagers to gain UCAS points by completing aTrinity Arts Award.Are there any other tourism attractions or holiday venues that offer such choice?

Festival organisers focus on providinga complete experience– the music, the facilities, the staff, the food, the events. It’s not just the core product itself (the music) that attracts people – but how the festival experience makes them feel. For many, this is an expression of their own identity – if other tourism businesses could create that level of personal buy-in, they might be on to something.

What’s your experience of festivals? Do you think other tourism businesses should try to emulate the best of them? Please post your comments below – it would be good to hear from you.

Judy Randon is Regional Director ofShopper AnonymousNorfolk & Suffolk. She is passionate about excellent customer service and will have a stand at the upcoming 2015 B2B exhibition, come and visit us!

Norse Commercial Services and its subsidiaries around the UK have added over £2.3 million worth of new cleaning contracts in the last month.

The Norfolk based group have won two major new contracts in Norwich and Cambridge, and three others through its joint venture companies in Enfield Medway and Devon.

The three-year agreements cover educational establishments and empty housing stock being prepared for new tenants.

“Premises cleaning is worth around £25m a year to Norse and we are seeing significant wins in competitive tenders around the country,” said Sales Director Geoff Tucker. “We are providing employment for almost 10,000 people across the UK and over 6,500 within East Anglia.”

The company will be investing around £40k in new equipment to run the contracts, primarily using suppliers based in the area in line with its local supply chain support policy.

Anglian Water has over six million customers and has made ITV sponsorship an important part of reaching out to many of them with key water-saving messages. We’ve had the great pleasure of working on those messages for over a year now, producing idents for daily sponsorship of ITV1 Anglia weather. This includes the soundtrack production and compliance approval.

Having produced a set of idents for their 2014 campaign, this year we’re working on a further 13 – a combination of brand new copy and a refresh in style of our previous productions.

But alongside this, we’re also producing a series of MPU’s and Leaderboards for display across ITV.com and even a mobile banner for those viewing ITV.com via smartphones and tablets.

Plus we’ve now been commissioned to produce, from the videos, a matching series of print artwork for an Anglian Water press campaign in the East Anglian Daily Times.

It’s a little out of the ordinary for us to produce on so many platforms at once – in this multi-platform world, we’re always keen to acquire skills which add value for our clients.

Considering a sponsorship campaign and need a full service production partner? Talk to our team today.

We recently interviewed one of our clients about their experiences working with us. The feedback we got made us very happy indeed!

Naked Element develops pricing application for IDSystems

“Naked Element were a breath of fresh air”

Naked Element are working with Norwich-based company IDSystems to develop a bespoke web application. IDSystems are specialists in all aspects of glazing and supply and install German bi-folding doors together with manufacturing high quality aluminium sliding doors and windows. The new application is designed to aid their trade partners through the complex choices and range of options available to IDSystems customers. Founded in 2000 IDSystems offers tailored glazing solutions for unique properties – so impressive is their product range and installation service, that they have been featured many times on the popular Channel 4 show ‘Grand Designs‘. Because of the complex nature of the product and service that this Norfolk company offer, the software used to handle their sales and quotes, both internally and when with a potential customer, has to be truly unique.

Their current system employs a combination of Access, Excel and an SQL Server database, but they wanted to make their system more efficient. Carl Farrow, the Technical Development Manager at IDSystems, was introduced to Naked Element after receiving a referral. After meeting with Carl to discuss the specific requirements, Naked Element recommended development of a single web application, using Ruby on Rails, which could be used both internally by employees as well as externally by trusted trade partners, via the trade arm of their business; Sunflex UK. The application would present pricing options, produce quotes for customers, process orders and present the numerous options available such as colour, types of material, design of doors and more. This web application would also have the ability to integrate with a mobile app in the future. Previously IDSystems’ partners were having to contact them and ask an agent to manually enter the details of each order or quote into a spreadsheet. After this was completed, the results from the spreadsheet would have to be entered manually again into Access, a process that proved cumbersome and prone to errors. The new application from Naked Element will save both time and money, as well as minimising the risk of errors and making the whole sales process more efficient.

Carl said “I haven’t done anything like this before so I didn’t really know what to expect, but everything’s gone really well. It was always extremely clear what was happening, what work was on going and what they were expecting to do in each iteration of the project. Compared to some other companies we have worked with, Naked Element were a breath of fresh air.” As with every project there were some challenges, namely the sheer variety of options and products IDSystems has available to its customers, but Carl said the Naked Element team took it in their stride. “They’ve always managed to solve any issue that has arisen and deal with any complex rulings required.”

Paul Grenyer, Director at Naked Element said, “I have really enjoyed working with Carl at IDSystems as he understands innovation and what technology can do for his business. It was clear from the outset that our solution would add value and help streamline their processes. I was able to employ my experience of bespoke software development to quickly solve each issue as it arose. I worked closely with Carl at every stage to make sure he was always satisfied with the software and service IDSystems received.”

When asked if he would recommend Naked Element to others, Carl said just one word. “Absolutely”.

The 2016 Cooper Lomaz Salary Survey is live!

Every year Cooper Lomaz runs a Salary Survey to take a look at average salaries across the regions and sectors we work in. We also want to know things like why people like (or hate) their current jobs, and how long it takes them to get to work.

Last year we received an unbelievable 1,500 responses to our online survey (thanks!) and paired this with data from over 15,000 candidate interviews to produce our annual report. This year we’re hoping for more!

Every year local businesses eagerly await the release of our Salary Survey report. Companies find the report really useful for hiring new staff or just to get an idea of what’s going on in the region.

Now the survey is live again. What’s more, it’s easier and quicker than last year! We’d really appreciate if you’d fill it out, it should take less than 5 minutes. Take the Salary Survey.

Norwich based security company SSY Group Ltd (Security Solutions Yes) are the latest local company to show their support for East Anglia’s Children’s Hospices (EACH) nook appeal by signing up to the charity’s corporate scheme – the nook business network.

This new scheme will look to generate funds to help deliver a new purpose built children’s hospice in the heart of Norfolk. The nook business network encourages companies small, medium and large to commit to raising either £10,000, £15,000 or £25,000 over the duration of the appeal in return for a number of benefits and support the charity will provide.

SSY who offer the complete security package from Event Stewarding, Door Supervision, Manned Guarding, CCTV, Fire and Security as well as other essential security services have pledged to raise at least £15,000 over the duration of the appeal with their 280 staff all playing their part.

The company whose services are used by a number of local high profile events and businesses including Desira Motor Group, NWES, The Royal Norfolk Show, Sundown Festival and Reload will also promote the nook appeal on their fleet of vehicles, promotional literature as well as on their staff uniform encouraging others to support the appeal too.

Nigel Briggs and Shaun Yallop, Owners and Directors of SSY Group, said: ” It is a privilege to be asked to be associated with EACH and the nook appeal. We are committed to helping raise funds and awareness of the appeal. I am sure you will see our teams at many events across East Anglia and we would be grateful of any support you can give when you do.”

Gary Cook, the nook appeal corporate fundraiser, said: “I’m delighted that Nigel and Shaun have agreed to support us by signing up to the nook business network and are looking to raise significant funds to help make our vision of a new hospice, for local life-threatened children and young people a reality.

I know that their can do attitude and ethos will ensure that they and their staff will undoubtedly achieve at least their target and I look forward to working with them over the duration of the appeal and beyond.”

Anyone who is interested in finding out more about the appeal or the nook business network should contact the Norfolk Fundraising Team on 01953 666767 or funding@each.org.uk or for more information on the SSY Group please visit www.ssy-guarding.co.uk