The Government has issued guidance for business regarding metrology ( weights and measures) and product safety in the event of a no- deal Brexit.
Businesses should be aware of the guidance if they are involved in these areas.
After an accident left her disabled, Laura Remblance took to crocheting to cope. She has now turned her hobby into a full-time, fully-fledged business thanks to MENTA’s free business skills training. Laura, founder of Lovingly Handmade Crochet, was nervous about starting a business. She creates lifelike ‘plushy’ cuddly toy versions of people’s pets. The plush toys are also purchased as memorial gifts after a pet has died. The 30-year-old didn’t know whether her hobby-turned-business venture would work. With health concerns and little idea of how to start a business, Laura decided to try MENTA’s start-up workshops as her initial approach to setting up had been directionless. She says, “The three, free courses and great business advice gave me confidence, knowing my unique products would sell, I could establish myself as a sole trader.” MENTA’s friendly business advisers inspired Laura to take her business seriously, without being overbearing in their approach. “Because of my disability, I am sensitive to criticism,” Laura says. “A put-down would have been a shut-down to my business. But this was not the case.” Alex Till, CEO of MENTA comments, “It is fantastic to hear such a success story developing from our business workshops. More than 500 people based in Suffolk and Norfolk have completed the 12 hours of start-up training and 270 have started their enterprises. The Start Right, start-up programme (which is unaffected by Brexit), is funded by the European Regional Development Fund.” Fiancée, Riccardo Veronese left work to care for Laura and as the demand for plushies grew, Riccardo took up his own crochet hook. He is now an integral part of this start-up which has expanded, selling via online platforms such as notonthehighstreet.com where the products reach a wider range of potential customers. The plushies take from 50, to 60 hours to complete and each one is unique with clients providing photographs of their pets as reference for Laura and Riccardo. As well as the plushy range, Laura sells other products that focus on inclusivity and diversity. These include bespoke, crocheted dolls and toys made to order as keepsakes. Despite her collection of crochet figures, Laura’s pet plushies are central to the heart of the business. For more details regarding MENTA’s free business skills training, dates and locations across Suffolk and Norfolk visit www.menta.org.uk and the start-up page or call 01284 760206. Lovingly Handmade Crochet can be found at www.lovinglyhandmadecrochet.co.uk
Norwich-based design agency, The Click Design Consultants, are delighted to discover their advertising campaign for the National Trust, titled Nature’s Playground, has been shortlisted for the ‘Writing for Design’ category in the 2014 Design Week Awards.
The winners will be announced on 15 May at The Troxy, a stunning Art Deco former cinema in East London.
Creative Director, Bobby Burrage, says: “It’s a cliché, however, to us, being shortlisted is like winning already – the calibre of the competition is truly outstanding. We’re honoured and, quite frankly, surprised, that we’ll be allowed in the same room as these design gods! We’re looking forward to what will be a great night.”
Twitter: @theclickdesign
The new Centrum building, on Norwich Research Park, is making excellent progress.
Centrum, located at the heart of the Park, will offer laboratory and office space on flexible lease terms, with a restaurant and drop-in café for networking and events. Informal meeting areas will create a good environment for stimulating collaboration and information sharing. Additional features include board and meeting rooms for hire and a link to the international conference centre at the John Innes Centre. Exhibition space and informal meeting areas in the large ground floor atrium will create a great environment for networking events and the sharing of ideas.
Companies located on the Park will benefit from investment in state-of-the-art IT infrastructure. This includes superfast broadband, site-wide WiFi, integrated telecoms and the ability to link into academic networks.
Matthew Jones, Chief Operating Officer for Norwich Research Park says the Centrum is set to become the hub of the Park.
“Collaboration is vital for successful research and development and the Centrum will offer space for informal networking and bookable meeting rooms in addition to the dedicated laboratory and office suites.
“It is always useful to have space for adhoc meetings. However, smaller businesses try to keep their overheads down and often have to compromise on this. The Centrum offers informal meeting areas as part of the wider working environment and this will make the building very conducive to business.”
If you would like to see plans for the Centrum please contact Jonathan Barnard, Estates Manager on 01603 274411, [email protected]
To find out more about the accomodation available click on the link below https://www.norwichresearchpark.com/businessandaccommodation.aspx
The Advice & Guidance team at City College Norwich design sessions around employability and progression which are used within the curriculum at various times of the year.
These sessions are reviewed annually and it would be really beneficial to have some employer input during these reviews to ensure that the sessions are relevant to today’s employer requirements. This could be in the form of focus groups or 1:1 sessions and would help the students develop the skills required to engage with business’ within the local community.
This year the sessions will be reviewed week commencing July 8th, specific dates to be confirmed.
If you would like to be involved in creating the next lot of sessions for students please contact Alexandra Miller, IAG and International Team Leader on [email protected] or Laura Pitchfordm Careers Advisor and IAG Team Leader on [email protected]
Risk & Policy Analysts Limited have announced that on the 3rd April 2019 they transitioned to become an employee-owned business run through an employee ownership trust (EOT).
Pete Floyd and Meg Postle founded RPA in 1990 providing independent consultancy to the private and public sector across UK and Europe. RPA has developed a strong reputation and proven expertise in the fields of environment, economics, chemicals, UK & EU policy and sustainability. RPA’s headquarters are just outside Norwich in Loddon and are supported by London and Brussels offices.
The decision to transition to be an employee owned business was driven by the desire to sustain the company’s independence and recognition of the fact that the company was built through the hard efforts of its employees. Pete Floyd said “It is a great time to step back as I know that the jobs we created are in safe hands and the team will flourish over the coming years”.
Staff will own 75% of the business through the trust, with future profits being shared equally. Newly appointed Managing Director Matthew Lambert and long-term employees Panos Zarogiannis and Teresa Fenn become Directors and join Meg on RPA’s board. They will work with the newly appointed Trustees to ensure RPA grows and develops for the benefit of all employees. The Trustees compromise of 2 elected Directors, 2 elected employees and 1 ndependent Trustee.
When asked what the transition meant for staff, Researcher Liam Wakefield said “This is a really exciting opportunity for myself and my colleagues. I really feel part of something now, and I’m sure it will show in our work”. Elizabeth Daly, who is one of the employees elected to the Trustee board, stated “I’m looking forward to our first meeting and contributing to the future development of the company”.
Matthew Lambert confirmed “This is a fantastic start to 2019 for us all. Everyone has contributed to our future vision and we are all excited by our plans to grow profit and headcount this year whilst ensuring that RPA remains a great place to work.”
RPA has joined 330 other employee owned companies and became a member of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA). Deb Oxley OBE, CEO of the EAO, said: “We congratulate Risk & Policy Analysts on its transition to employee ownership. By widening ownership of the business to its employees Risk & Policy Analysts is securing the future of the business, including its ethos, values and employees, while rooting itself locally for the longer term to the benefit of the communities which it serves.”
Can you help Break make a difference?
Do you want to join a dynamic and developing charity that has been changing the lives of young people for nearly 50 years?
Why not become a Break Trustee
Break is a registered charity and company limited by guarantee which has been providing a diverse range of specialist residential and community based services for vulnerable children, young people and families across East Anglia for nearly 50 years.
Break is seeking to appoint new Trustees to strengthen the Board and to work with us to achieve our mission to ‘Change Young Lives’ by providing services of the highest quality, working together to create stability and improve opportunities for a better future.
We are looking, in particular, for Trustees with commercial and financial expertise.
If you are interested, please contact Break CEO, Chris Hoddy on 01263 822161, email [email protected] or visit the Break website www.break-charity.org/opportunities to download the advert and profile.
The Home Office is working with industry through its Flag It Up campaign to help raise awareness of the threat of money laundering.
A toolkit is available with information and leaflets to download.
For more information click below
The Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) team at Tudor Lodge Consultants are proud to announce that we are now working with youTalk-Insurance, a news and information website dedicated to the happenings and developments across the insurance and risk management sectors in the UK.
youTalk-Insurance has for many years been providing the UK market as well as the wider world, with unique and thoroughly informative insights into what makes these unique industries tick as well as the latest news.
We were approached by the team at youTalk-Insurance as they have been seeking to update what they do and how they do it. With Google becoming more and more important to businesses right across all sectors, changing focuses to search engines has been a logical destination for youTalk-Insurance.
Why Google for News and Guides?
Although many people associate search engines with only offering up ‘sales’ and ‘products,’ there is an underlying core of information which lies at the very heart of what Google in particular does. Hence, over the last few years, ranking highly on search engines such as Google in cases of websites not explicitly selling something has become very important.
Millions of people in the UK and indeed around the world are turning away from traditional media and news outlets such as newspapers, television broadcasts and radio; the natural place most of these audiences have moved to is online. This is split between social media, such as Facebook and search engines such as Google, where people can pick the outlet whose views and leanings reverberate with them.
Therefore, for news, sites, it is now of paramount importance that when it comes to popular online searches like ‘UK latest news’ or ‘business news UK’ that they are right up there, where they will be found. For youTalk-Insurance this has been no different. The insurance and risk management industries are the same as other key industries, with consumers actively searching for relevant news and content.
What We are Doing for youTalk-Insurance
youTalk-Insurance have a bespoke content management system (CMS) and this has meant that implementing the necessary SEO updates and changes is quicker and more straightforward than it may otherwise be.
Meta Data – As with many news and information-focussed sites, youTalk-Insurance had some meta data (titles and descriptions) that were inadequate; too long, too short and duplicates, which we are working to clean up. This will help the site to be properly indexed by search engines
Backlinks – A crucial factor in SEO, we are ensuring that only clean and reputable sites link to youTalk-Insurance, making it a cleaner and more efficient site for Google to crawl
On Page Work – We are also working to ensure that youTalk-Insurance capitalise on their great content, structuring it all properly and to a satisfactory standard for SEO. This includes how H titles are used and the topics titles of the content
bmi regional is the UK’s most punctual scheduled airline for the ninth consecutive year, independent figures* just released show, placing it ahead of carriers such as British Airways, Ryanair, Flybe and British Airways.
Independent website flightontime.info analyses UK flight punctuality data – which is then used by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) – to assess airlines’ punctuality. The latest figures, for 2013, show that bmi regional achieved an On-Time Performance of over 92 per cent in the previous twelve months, over six per cent greater than BA CityFlyer. This figure also places bmi regional above BA CityFlyer, KLM, CityJet , SAS, Aer Lingus, Flybe and EasyJet. A flight is deemed to be on time if it departs or arrives within 15 minutes of its published schedule.
Cathal O’Connell, CEO of bmi regional, said: “As we continue to develop and expand our network, punctuality is an enduring priority for us. Being named for the ninth consecutive year as the most punctual scheduled airline in the UK is testament to the commitment and hard work of our teams on the ground and in the air who never lose sight of our customers’ needs.”
bmi regional owns and operates an all-jet fleet of 18 Embraer aircraft that serve routes between nine European countries. In 2013 the airline – which became fully independent in June 2012 – expanded its profitable routes, doubled its charter business and launched domestic routes in Scandinavia to serve the oil and gas industry.
All bmi regional flights offer 20kg checked baggage, a full at-seat bar and snack service and 30-minute check-in. In 2013 the airline won the prestigious accolade of Silver Airline of the Year at the European Regions Airline (ERA) Association in Salzburg, Austria.
bmi regional operate daily services to Aberdeen from Norwich International, Please visit www.bmiregional.com for full details.
It is with great pleasure that Cozens-Hardy announces the promotion of Claire Nelson from Solicitor to Associate Solicitor.
Claire joined the firm in 2014 as a Trainee Solicitor and qualified into the Private Client team in July 2016. Claire advises on Wills, powers of attorney, trusts and estate administration and inheritance tax planning. She is currently an Affiliate member of STEP (Society of Trust and Estate Practitioners) and is studying for the Diploma in Trusts and Estates.
Michelle Collins, Partner and head of Cozens-Hardy Private Client department:
“Claire has really come into her own as a private client solicitor since starting with the firm five years ago.She works incredibly hard and is very determined to increase her skill set and knowledge, alongside which she is always keen to participate in the firm’s marketing activities. Her ambition, coupled with technical abilities and highly approachable personality, have been quite rightly reflected in her promotion to the position of Associate in the firm.”
Claire Nelson, Associate Solicitor:
“I’m delighted to have been appointed as an Associate Solicitor. I undertook my training contract with the firm and am shortly coming up to three years’ qualified. It’s brilliant to have received recognition for my hard work to date and I’m looking forward to the next stage of my career with the firm.”
Metals Testing Company celebrates 30th Anniversary.
The Directors and Staff at ASAMS in Great Yarmouth are proud to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their independent metal testing business in 2019.
A look back at some key events
Interesting details and photographs from the company archive are shown here https://www.asams.co.uk/about/company-history
Over the years the company has continued a programme of investment and updating, both in terms of equipment and people, to raise standards and improve efficiency. “The 100 hour weeks are no more”, says Andrew Page who was a Test Technician back in 1989 and is now a Director.
This has resulted in the bright, modern lab and offices that the team and their clients experience today.
Highs and lows
One of the highlights from recent times was in 2017 when, having worked in the business for 8 years, Thomas Whiskin BSc MSc CEng MIMMM MWeldI, became a Director and Shareholder in the business. Thomas said at the time “I am excited to help grow the company, deliver excellent customer service and create opportunities for more high skilled jobs”.
A low point for the company was in 2005 when a member of the machine shop staff used a fork lift trick to accidentally lift a section of the roof off of the machine shop. Another was in 2018 when strong winds blew the roof off the Marine Building in Great Yarmouth. However taking a typically calm approach, part of the business was relocated into a temporary building in the car park whilst repairs were completed and in true ASAMS style they managed this with no visible disruption to client service. ASAMS appears to have problem keeping the roof in place!
The future
Whilst celebrating 30 years with a series of events during 2019, the Directors are confident that the business is well positioned for continued success in the future. This includes having a clear vision to be the first choice for quality, personal service, speed and accuracy in metals testing a focused business plan which includes further expansion into the Aberdeen area, a people plan and a strong set of values:
Indeed the Directors and Staff are pleased to promote that they can achieve in 2 days what it takes competitors two weeks to achieve – that’s Amazing Customer Service!
Please see www.asams.co.uk for more information about ASAMS Ltd and the metal testing services including: