Member News

A Great Yarmouth businessman has successfully completed one of the toughest and most notorious triathlon events in the world, the annual Escape from Alcatraz.

Pasta Foods managing director Karl Jermyn had to swim a mile and a half across San Francisco Bay from the legendary island prison and then cycle 18 miles and run another eight.

Even though his sponsored effort will raise hundreds of pounds for Great Yarmouth charity Centre 81, 40-year-old Karl admitted that he would have taken up the challenge for nothing.

“I’ve been in triathlons before. I like setting a goal, pushing the boundaries and seeing what you can achieve,” he said.

That attitude is also important to members of Centre, 81 – where he is a trustee – which supports people with physical and other disabilities and helps focus on their abilities rather than disabilities. He was delighted that his achievement helped their 30th anniversary appeal.

The swim from Alcatraz to the shore, something never successfully achieved by a prison inmate in its 29-year history, was the toughest obstacle.

“Once, it was thought to be impossible and the adrenaline kicks in when you plunge into icy waters with strong swirling currents and the potential for sharks,” said Karl. “Not everyone makes it. There are about 100 small craft standing by to help in an emergency.

“At first, it is silent. Then you hear the announcer on the far side encouraging swimmers ashore. Then you hear the cheers of the crowd and see the shore and that spurred me on.

“I had trained hard and always thought I would make it but it was a mixture of relief and joy to get there.”

There was no time to rest; he then had the gruelling cycling stage around the steep, undulating streets of San Francisco, followed by the demanding run, a mile of it on sand.

“Having completed the swim, nothing was going to stop me. Most of the 2,000 competitors are American and as I approached the finishing line it was brilliant to hear the announcer calling my name from Norwich, England.”

Karl clocked 3hr 53m 25s for the event, just under an hour of it on the swim. Afterwards, he received a medal, a recovery drink and, appropriate to his day job, a pasta meal.

The Library Restaurant Bar and Grill Fashion Gala Dinner for Charity

Local Charity Leeway Domestic Violence and Abuse services Wednesday 25th July from 6.30pm and will involve presentations from Rachel Glick of Lingerie Indiscrete and Claire Bunton of Claire Bunton Image Consultancy, followed by a beautiful two course meal and a fashion show from Style Quarter, a new, independent fashion company.

This event is aimed at all women with an interest in fashion and will provide them with an ideal opportunity to learn more about the importance of wearing correctly fitted lingerie and also how they can make the most of their image with colours, shapes and textures.

Tickets available from www.leewaysupport.org.uk or calling 0845 241 2171 (extension 4). Ticket 20.00pp with a two course supper and welcome drink

Gordon Secker is taking a fortnight off work as auditor with PKF Accountants and business advisers for a once-in-a-lifetime chance to get involved in the Olympic games.

The Lowestoft man has been selected for the team of Olympic volunteers and will help organise travel for more than 25,000 journalists – even though it has meant giving up tickets to see a couple of the actual events.

“It wasn’t an easy decision but it’s something different; something I have never done before and will never do again and rather than watching I will be playing an active part and savouring the atmosphere across the Olympic Park,” he said.

It means a significant few weeks for the 38-year-old senior business adviser who has also just completed 10 years service with PKF in Great Yarmouth.

More than 12 hours training has prepared him for the Olympic role where he will join a team ensuring smooth passage for broadcasters and writers using a shuttle bus system to various Olympic events. He’ll work 13 eight-hour shifts and get to keep his official uniform as a souvenir.

PHOTO: Bubbly moment for Gordon Secker (left) as he marks 10 years at PKF and prepares for his Olympic role. Bob Hawkins, PKF partner, hands over the Champagne.

Child Contact – proposed amendments

The Government recently announced its intention to amend legislation regarding parental contact with children, following the Family Justice Review published in November 2011.

Many have raised concerns over the plans to amend the current legislation which aim to make it clearer to those going through separation/divorce that children must have an ongoing relationship with both parents following their separation; unless contact with either parent causes concerns over the safety and welfare of the child.

The current legislation in this area is covered by the Children Act 1989. Section 1 makes it particularly clear that “the child’s welfare shall be the court’s paramount consideration”.

In practice, some couples going through separation/divorce will find that they are able to finalise contact arrangements between themselves without the need to involve Solicitors or the Courts. Many will find they require a little assistance from Solicitors and others will need more help from Solicitors and will also need the involvement of the Court system to reach a suitable contact agreement.

Whichever route is taken, whether it includes the Courts or not, the child’s best interests will always be the overriding factor.

The Government propose to amend section 1 of the Children Act 1989 to require the Court to ‘work on the presumption that a child’s welfare is likely to be furthered through safe involvement with both parents – unless the evidence shows this is not to be safe or in the child’s best interests’.

Practically the amendments appear to make little difference to what happens within the Courts now. The current position adopted by the Courts is that ideally both parents should be involved in the child’s upbringing with contact being the most important way of achieving this.

The proposals clarify the need to be fair and reasonable when finalising contact arrangements with both parents. The proposals do not attempt to verify the minimum amount of time each parent is to spend with their child, nor will they be suggesting an equal division of the child’s time between each parent. Realistically these suggestions would be impractical and are matters to be decided on a case by case basis.

It seems the proposals are to make it clear to parents who are or have separated that, in cases where there are no concerns for the child’s safety, consideration must be given to the importance of the child seeing both parents regularly in order to maintain a meaningful relationship with each of them.

The amendments will mean it is no longer acceptable for a parent to deny the other parent contact with their child where there are no concerns for safety or welfare because of the legal presumption of shared parenting.

The consultation on the above proposals closes on 5 September 2012.

We’re delighted to announce the launch of the new Britannia Training website which will allow you to search for and book the courses you need online.

Because customer service is important to us, we will be following up each booking in exactly the same way as before – making sure that you have found the perfect course to suit your needs, and ensuring that you know what to expect on the day. We hope you will have a browse of our new website and let us know what you think! We would appreciate your feedback!

Britannia Safety & Training has a Twitter page, you can find us at Britannia_train, just type this is the search engine and tweet us! Keep updated with the latest news, legislation and updates on Health & Safety.

Britannia also has a page on IPatter, you can find us at Britannia Safety & Training, Wymondham.

COMING SOON! WATCH THIS SPACE! Britannia will have a Facebook page “Britannia Bad Boys”, you can read the lastest health & safety information and play videos!

We have just launched our new ecommerce website design and build service to help companies take advantage of the massive growth in online shopping. The new platform allows bespoke design and has a very long shopping list of ecommerce features to allow our clients to have highly effective and usable shopping sites.

Bigfork can also provide digital marketing services to help increase profitable traffic to your online shop through SEO, email marketing, social media and PPC campaigns.

To see the new platform in action take a look round at our snappy demo site at www.krocodile-photo.co.uk

You can also download our ecommerce pack below which has full details. To see more examples check out our ecommerce portfolio.

Bigfork are a digital marketing agency that gets results.

www.bigfork.co.uk

t:01603 513080

The May 2012 survey was emailed to the over 500 contacts. The response rate for the survey was five percent.

Summary of results There was a broad cross-section of industry sectors who responded to the survey including engineering, retail and marine services.

In the past six months, half of the respondents have experienced an increase in orders, compared to 23 percent that had seen a reduction in the number of orders received. Forty-six percent of respondents saw an increase in their costs, compared to nine percent who saw a reduction. Nine percent of respondents experienced an increase in that staff numbers compared to 18 percent who saw a reduction in staff levels.

Over the next year, 43 percent of respondents are planning investments with just under a thirty percent are expecting to increase staff levels. However, 43 percent are delaying their investment plans, which is due to insufficient demand (63 percent) and a lack of available finance (31 percent).

Forty seven percent of respondents would like general business advice events, whilst 21 percent of respondents said that they would like general business training, skills development and customer retention advice.

Attached is a full graphical summary of responses

Three members of the firm’s Franchising Team (Jonathan Chadd, Ed Savory and Vicki Mitman) recently attended the British Franchise Association’s (BFA) Annual Conference in Telford.

The Conference comprised as follows:

•keynote speech from the UK Trade & Industry on the services which are available to UK businesses looking to expand into foreign jurisdictions

•update from the BFA on it’s the progress of “One Vision” with the introduction of franchisee membership so that the BFA will become truly representative of the entire franchising industry in the UK

•retirement of Sir Bernard Ingham as President of the BFA

•keynote speech from Sarah Walker (freelance writer journalist) on engaging with the media

There were also three sets of concurrent seminars lead by BFA franchisors and professional adviser members (known as Affiliates) on the following topics:

•Session 1: Advanced Franchising – Exit planning for franchisors; Franchising Essentials – Building the right support structure; Legal & Ethics – Making sure your agreements are up to date; and Sales & Marketing – The dangers & pitfalls of social media

•Session 2: Advanced Franchising – How to use successful profiling in franchise recruitment; Franchising Essentials – Avoiding franchisee first year failures; Legal & Ethics – Managing franchisee disputes; and Sales & Marketing – Local franchisee marketing

•Session 3: Advanced Franchising – Managing franchisees out of the comfort zone; Franchising Essentials – Ongoing training and levels of support; Legal & Ethics – Advising on the Ethics of Franchising; and Sales & Marketing – Online marketing

The highlight was undoubtedly on the evening of Thursday 21 June which saw a glittering awards ceremony for the 2012 bfa HSBC Franchisor of the Year Awards, supported by Express Newspapers. The winners were as follows:

bfa HSBC Franchisor of the Year Award

•Gold – Autosmart

•Silver – Home Instead Senior Care

•Bronze – Driver Hire

•Other finalists – McDonalds and Tax Assist Accountants

HSBC Franchisee Support Award

•Winner – Auditel

•Other finalists – Countrywide Signs; Jaspers; Maid2Clean and O2

Express Newspapers Brand Builder Award

•Winner – Cafe2U •Other finalists – Mac Tools; Envirovent and Wiltshire Farm Foods

Leathes Prior was proud to support clients nominated for awards and sends its warmest congratulations to all of this year’s finalists. To find out more about the 2012 awards winners click on: www.thebfa.org/news/bfa-news/uks-top-franchisors-revealed

25 June 2012 – Intellectual Property consultancy Novagraaf UK has further expanded its growing patent team with the hire of IP specialist Dr Oliver Harris. Dr Harris will be providing patent services to businesses in South East England, from Novagraaf’s Norwich office.

Dr Harris is a qualified UK and European Patent Attorney with extensive experience of patent drafting and prosecuting patent applications on a worldwide basis. He handles a range of subject matter, but specialises in the Life Sciences, particularly pharmaceuticals and biotechnology (including molecular biology, genomics, microbiology, plant science, agrochemicals and immunology). Dr Harris obtained a Masters Degree in Biochemistry from the University of Oxford and a PhD in Cell Biology at UCL/Cancer Research UK under the supervision of Nobel Laureate, Sir Paul Nurse. Following a year in the medical research analysis and brand monitoring sectors, he trained as a patent attorney at a London-based IP firm, working in its biotech team before relocating to his hometown of Norwich. In his career to date, Dr Harris has worked for clients ranging from individual inventors through to multinational pharmaceutical companies, including universities and public sector research and healthcare institutions. At Novagraaf, Dr Harris will be advising clients in the Life Sciences industry with a particular focus on start-ups, technology transfer offices and spin-out ventures.

Dr Harris said: “Eastern England and the Home Counties have a vibrant Life Sciences sector with many new start-up companies joining established businesses at the growing number of science parks in the region. Patents play a crucial role in this sector, but with budgets often tight, many small- and medium-sized companies need expert assistance if they are to capture their valuable IP rights. I’m looking forward to working with Novagraaf’s established Life Sciences patent team to help these businesses recognise, protect and exploit their assets.” Dr Tracey Cooke, Managing Director, Patents at Novagraaf UK, added: “Dr Harris’s appointment will further strengthen the Life Sciences expertise of Novagraaf’s patent team, enabling us to meet the needs of the growing pharmaceutical and biotech sector in Eastern England.

“The region’s science parks are an incredibly vibrant concentration of world leading scientific and research organisations,” added Dr Cooke, “These organisations need an equally vibrant, pro-active and expert IP partner, if they are to obtain the maximum protection and value for their important scientific advancements. By continuing to strengthen and grow our patent team, we are able to ensure the right expertise to meet their needs.”

About Novagraaf Novagraaf is an international patent and trademark consultancy that advises clients on Intellectual Property (IP) strategy and management. Our expertise and day-to-day work includes advising on new ideas or new discoveries and inventions, and on strong brands, new brands or innovative new products. Whether trademarks, patents, domain names or designs, Novagraaf specialises in the protection and global management of IP rights, including identifying abuse and acting decisively if and when infringements take place.

With over 400 IP professionals across 13 offices, Novagraaf provides all kinds of core IP services and consults on strategic issues every day. From our offices in Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the UK, among others, we work for innovative start-ups, for organisations operating at a regional or national level, and for multinationals with a global portfolio of strong brands and innovative inventions. For more information, visit our website www.novagraaf.co.uk.

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For further information To arrange an interview, or to request images or any other information, please contact: Emma Wilson Novagraaf UK T: +44 (0)20 7469 0957 E: emma.wilson@novagraaf.com

NORWICH, Tuesday 19th June 2012 – Norwich International Fire Fighters Sky Dive for Local Charity

Always keen to help a worth cause, Norwich International Airport’s blue watch Fire Fighters, Karl Appleton and Mark Matless will be jumping from an aircraft 13,000ft high at speeds of 120mph and descending 5000ft back to land in just 40 seconds for their sky dive to raise vital funds for one of the airport’s chosen charities this year, the East Anglian Air Ambulance on 28th September 2012.

The East Anglian Air Ambulance now operates two fully medically equipped helicopters (Anglia One and Anglia Two) serving the people of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. Between the two helicopters they provide a life saving resource reaching patients quickly and if required, transporting them to the most suitable hospital (rather than the nearest) within minutes.

Karl Appleton said “We work closely with the Air Ambulance team at the airport and see what an invaluable service they provide to the wider communities across the four counties. Hopefully we won’t need them on the day! We couldn’t have chosen a more appropriate cause in the East Anglian Air Ambulance.

Andrew Bell, Chief Executive of Norwich International Airport, said: “Norwich International Airport is proud to support this local charity. Our firemen do a fantastic job of ensuring fire safety at the airport and have stepped up yet again to help raise money for this worthy cause” The East Anglian Air Ambulance relies entirely on independent fundraising and contributions from local businesses and on-going public support is essential to enable this vital service to continue in the region. To sponsor Karl and Mark go to www.justgiving.com/NIAfirefighterskydive

90% of franchisees succeed – banks are keen to invest in franchisees because they follow a proven successful system. Franchising is close to “copper bottomed” and as with any new business it requires tenacity, determination and energy. 4myschools is seeking a franchisee in Norwich to expand our service to local schools and teachers.

We are looking for people who are great at building relationships, understand customer service and are determined. This is a full time role that requires a relatively small initial financial investment. We provide all the support required to enable you to earn in excess of £70,000pa. in your third year.

4myschools is a social enterprise; our focus is on helping schools, teachers and children to succeed. We return the majority of our profit to benefit the community. If you feel this mission is worthy then we would like to hear from you.

To find out more please contact us by email at: franchise@4myschools.org or look at our web site: www.4myschools.org/franchise or www.franchisedirect.co.uk

Our two most recent web design and build projects have had a strong “green” flavour which we are very pleased about. The two clients are the Norfolk Climate Change Task Force and Abel Energy. Both sites are promoting a greener, low carbon lifestyle with great products and smart advice. You can see the full case study on our website here.