🎉 Big news from the Smash Marketing team! Beks was recognised at the BNI Norfolk Awards Gala 2024/2025, winning the Director Consultant Award for the City Chapter. This award celebrates connection, collaboration, and helping businesses like yours grow through strong networks and shared success.
At Smash Marketing, it’s all about people, building relationships that make a real difference. So here’s to Beks, to the community, and to every business owner who shows up, supports others, and makes things happen.
Last Thursday, our team enjoyed a fantastic
day at the Norfolk Chambers of Commerce B2B event at the Norfolk Showground.
The day brought together a wide range of local businesses, all keen to connect,
collaborate, and share ideas, and it was great to be part of such a vibrant
community.
Meeting the
Local Business Community
Our Partnership Manager Liam and Business
Manager Claire were both there representing the firm and spoke with many
business owners, advisers, and professionals from across Norfolk.
The event provided a brilliant opportunity to
talk about how we support businesses facing financial challenges, as well as
the positive impact of early advice when it comes to business recovery and
restructuring.
Conversations throughout the day highlighted
how valuable it is for local businesses to access practical, professional
advice during uncertain times, whether for themselves or their clients.
A Touch of
Friendly Competition
Our stand attracted plenty of visitors keen to
enter our prize draw for a luxury Jarrolds hamper!
Everyone who stopped by and dropped their
business card into the bowl was in with a chance to win, and the lucky winner will
soon be announced on our socials.
A Great Day
for Local Connections
The event was a reminder of the importance of
community within Norfolk’s business landscape.
We’re proud to support and collaborate with
local organisations through the Norfolk Chambers of Commerce, helping to keep our
business network strong, resilient, and ready for the future.
We’d like to thank everyone who came to see us,
and we will soon be in touch with those we chatted to. You can also drop Liam an
email at [email protected],
if you’d like to continue any conversations!
NORWICH, Thursday 4th April 2013 – New service to Turkey starts today from Norwich. Oska Travel officially marks the launch of their low cost luxury holidays to Turkey from Norwich International Airport today. The flights to Antalya, Turkey will operate during April for a short season in advance of the main summer flying program from Norwich International. The holidays include guided tours and accommodation in 4 and 5 star hotels for a touch of luxury at affordable prices. Andrew Bell, CEO at Norwich International commented “Turkey is an exceptionally popular destination from our region, and we are delighted that these flights have proven to be a hit with our customers. This service compliments the summer flights offered by Thomson and Thomas Cook to both Antalya and Dalaman during 2013 and we hope to work with Oska Travel to offer another short series later in the year. Andreas F Forsthuber, Director KENBA Group said “OSKA Travel will do our best to make customers as happy as possible during their Turkey vacation. We do hope that word will spread and the interest for these off season offers will even increase in the near future.”
Photo: James and Valerie Kirkwood with Gary Blake, Customer Services Manager at Norwich International. All passengers received Turkish Delight pieces at Check-in today to celebrate the launch of the short series with Oska Travel.
CSSCloud celebrated a year since the newly-formed company completed a merger to create the region’s new I.T. Support powerhouse with an Open Day. The event was in part a celebration, but also a chance to show off their newly refurbished premises, which has been a significant investment in their Great Yarmouth base. The company also raised funds to install a life-saving defibrillator on-site.
The Mayor of Great Yarmouth, Cllr. Mary Coleman opened the building and launched the festivities on the 6th of July.
The team were joined by customers and local businesses to enjoy food, drink and games in an open-air “street party” – featuring retro arcade games and raffle prizes. Being a technology company, the top prize was a new iPad, which was taken home by lucky Ronnie Blyth from ABC Diesels Ltd.
Besides the festive atmosphere, the event struck a serious note by fundraising for a public defibrillator to be installed at CSSCloud, for the use of everyone on Gapton Hall Industrial Estate.
This equipment is provided in partnership with Heart2Heart Norfolk, set up by Jayne Biggs following her 7 year old daughter’s sudden cardiac arrest. Thankfully, a defibrillator saved her life and Jane now campaigns to ensure this life-saving equipment is freely available around Norfolk.
Capitalising on people enjoying the food, drink and party atmosphere, the team at CSSCloud were able to raise enough money to cover the defibrillator plus a further donation to Heart2Heart’s funds.
Suffolk County Council and New Anglia Growth Hub have also awarded grants totalling almost £40,000 towards the cost of the building refurbishment. Converting the building into CSSCloud’s new premises, appropriately named Nimbus House, has given a prominent building on the estate a new lease of life and created a hub for the region’s tech talent.
Peter Green of CSSCloud was overjoyed with the turnout:
“Thanks to everyone who visited and made this day possible. A massive thank-you goes out to Jayne and Heart2Heart Norfolk for making a difference in our community and to Suffolk County Council and New Anglia Growth Hub for the grants.
Hopefully, we won’t have to use the defibrillator, but it definitely makes us feel more at ease. The CSSCloud Open Day is one we are never going to forget!”.
For more information contact Alexis Brackpool, FurtherMore Marketing [email protected] or call 01603 273131
Breakwater IT have welcomed two new arrivals on their Service Desk – Dave Parlour as a Level 1 Engineer and Thomas Secker as a Trainee Systems Engineer.
Breakwater support apprenticeship and work experience schemes within the business and were fortunate to have Thomas join the team during his studies to discover what it is like to work for an IT service provider.
Thomas now returns as a Trainee Systems Engineer, having just completed his A-Levels, and will be learning more about how Breakwater delivers IT services to organisations within East Anglia and beyond.
Another former apprentice within Breakwater, Toby Kalkman, has now progressed to the position of Level 1 Engineer and achieved his CompTIA A+ certification.
Dave Parlour joins the company with valuable experience of supporting users in technological environments. He will work along-side our growing Service Desk team to resolve enquiries, helping many varied organisations use technology to enhance the way they operate.
Are you a Norfolk manufacturer based outside of Norwich and Great Yarmouth City Centre?
You might be eligible for 50% skills funding!
Labour and skills shortages are widely recognised as a huge concern and financial drain for Norfolk businesses. In recognition of the need to support Norfolk manufacturer’s productivity and growth, Cassandra Andrews Ltd has developed an ‘Engaging Manufacturing for Growth’ programme to ensure you have a talent and succession plan to support the growth of your manufacturing business.
The programme is currently being considered for 50% funding from the European Social Fund and in consequence would offer a significant discount and value for money.
Rather than providing line management ‘skills training’ in isolation, the programme will look holistically at your business, identifying your business challenges and focusing on achieving success through your workforce. The programme will support you with a way forward that is flexible, adaptable and driven by you including:
An on-site review of current engagement levels in your business, based on the Engage for Success enablers.
Motivational Maps for the management team to identify what individual managers are motivated by and to what extent their key motivators are being met.
A simple review of current people management practices.
An action plan aligned to business priorities with key metrics to monitor success of the programme eg absence/turnover rates, productivity, H&S accidents etc
A bespoke line managers skills development programme, including three days formal training and three days on-site coaching. This will be created and delivered from a menu of short courses/sessions such as motivating and engaging your team, performance management, absence management etc
Professional development has proven effective in retaining top talent, maintaining quality levels, and achieving competitive advantage. In addition, it is widely reported that 75% of employees leave their line manager not the business. As this is one of the four drivers for engaged employees, it is critical for your bottom line that all line managers understand the key business benefits of an engaged workforce and how to lead, motivate and engage their teams.
Important Information
You should be a manufacturer based outside Norwich and Great Yarmouth City Centre. With particular interested in manufacturers based in West and North Norfolk
You should employ less than 250 people
It is expected that the programme would start Autumn/Winter 2018
Places are limited, for more information please email Cassandra on [email protected] or call 07544 386818
Bolting specialist Gee-Force Hydraulics is opening its doors for a customer awareness week to showcase its expanding equipment range of portable products for offshore and manufacturing engineering.
It is inviting its clients and potential clients to its Great Yarmouth headquarters in the week beginning Monday 23 July when expo vans from manufacturers HTL and Climax will be on site.
The company, which marked a record £1m turnover last year and is on course to break that record this year, wants businesses to feed back on what equipment they would like to see on its Beacon Park shelves.
Managing Director Graeme Cook said including the portable range from Climax, which includes pipeline repairs, re-facing flange facers, and pipe preparation, was in response to customer demand.
“We will be the only company having these portable machines here,” he said. “We will be carrying stock on our shelves in Great Yarmouth, which will take out excessive carriage charges for customers. We already have some out on hire now.
“There is much demand for this portable machine – for manufacturing, offshore work, including flange facing and use at the Bacton gas terminal by different companies.”
The equipment has been used by Gee-Force customers working as contractors on the Spirit Energy offshore project at Morecambe Bay and also at Bacton Gas Terminal.
“We’re expanding our shelving to accommodate the pneumatic or hydraulic flange facers, pipe bevellers and clam shell cutters. We would like to hear from the market place about any other equipment our clients and potential customers would like on our shelves for hire and purchase. Gee-Force Hydraulics was acquired by its rental and training partner, the national HTL group, bringing an even larger product base for its increasing customers, while maintaining its Gee-Force Hydraulics identity.
Business, especially deliveries of equipment to the Bacton Gas Terminal, has been brisk.
“We are very happy with business in the first six months this year,” said Mr Cook. “If we can maintain this level of growth, our turnover will be another record for us this year in terms of turnover and profit.”
Another innovation is the i-calibrate software on all its torque wrench equipment – manual, hydraulic and pneumatic. Certification and calibration information about each piece of equipment is revealed by hovering a smart phone over the QR code on each piece of equipment.
To take part in the customer awareness week, contact Gee-Force Hydraulics on 01493 603797.
Flagship Group and their suppliers have raised £5,500 for the charity Metabolic Support UK through their charity golf day that took place on Friday 13 July.
The charity was chosen by Liam Betts, Managing Director of RFT Services and Gasway after they supported his family when his son was born with a genetic condition.
Staff from the Group including Flagship Homes, RFT Services and Gasway were joined by a number of local and national suppliers in a round of golf followed by a raffle and auction at Dunston Hall near Norwich. The winners by a narrow victory were the team from Mr Overalls, a supplier of clothing and equipment based in Wymondham.
Neal Simmons, organiser of the event and Head of Supply Chain at RFT Services, said: “Today has been a great success and cemented this as an annual event in our calendar. I would like to thank all of the sponsors for their generous donations and players for taking part and making it a successful day.”
Liam Betts, Managing Director of RFT services and Gasway said: “This has been a great opportunity to get together with our suppliers and raise funds for a fantastic cause which is close to my heart as they helped us through a challenging time to understand and cope with my son’s condition when he was born.”
Breakwater have been working with local schools as part of the Business for Life scheme that’s running in association with our client, Almary Green Investments, which aims to give teenagers real life experience in marketing and selling their own products and services.Mark Poole, our Commercial Manager, has been mentoring pupils from Norwich High School for Girls as they prepared to present their business ideas following around 6 weeks trading with an initial start-up budget of £100 that was donated by Almary Green. The teams aged between 14 and 15 made their presentations on the 21st March and now eagerly await the decision that the judging panel will announce on the 25th April. The winning team will receive £500 for their school. Mark says “It’s hard to know what to expect when going into meet a group of Year 9 girls and I certainly didn’t expect to come away feeling positive and inspired by what they had achieved. The professionalism, collaboration, creativity and eagerness I witnessed was enough to put a few real businesses to shame.”
The launch event was covered by both Mustard TV and the EDP. See the video of the event here
Breakwater IT are based on the Meridian Business Park and offer IT Support in Norwich and all over East Anglia as well as Business Telecoms Solutions and IT Consultancy.
The Norfolk Economic Intelligence Reportbrings together key business, economic and labour market intelligence to provide a regular insight into the current state of the Norfolk economy.
The report is produced on a quarterly basis by the Economic Development Team and reflects economic activity in the county from the previous financial quarter.
The current document covers January to March 2016.
KLM UK Engineering Limited 2018 Charity Golf Day was a great success & we would like to thank all the attendees and generous sponsors, who helped us raise £1,500 for East Anglian Air Ambulance!
As part of Start-Rite ‘s journey in continuing to invest in future growth, 16 staff members at its Norwich HQ recently completed a 12-month LEAN programme, to learn tools and techniques that improve operational performance in the workplace.
The fun and interactive course, delivered by Fedden USP in conjunction with MIT Skills, demonstrates the practical application of LEAN principles in today’s business environments in order to improve profits through continuous improvement. The course consisted of five-days of theory, followed by eight days of mentoring to help the candidates deliver two work-based improvement projects that would benefit both them as an individual and the business.
The course was delivered by sector specialist Colin Allaway, who has over 20 years’ experience using best practice within various sectors, including extensive supply chain and logistics experience. Topics covered included the basic principles of LEAN, its origins from the Japanese automotive industry and how it applies to both operational and office environments; improving productivity and reducing lead-times; mapping out the customer journey to improve service levels; workplace organisation techniques; problem solving; creating standard operating procedures to capture best practice; and cost/benefit analysis.
Colin said: “Our workshops have a big emphasis on fun, as we use a range of games and business simulations to get the message across and ensure that people enjoy being part of the improvement workshop. The real benefit is in the use of work based projects to embed the learning, whilst also providing an ever more important opportunity for both individual and team development. This has been most prevalent with the Distribution Team in particular and has been very rewarding.”
Implementing LEAN business processes across the business has helped Start-Rite to empower its workforce, improve productivity, increase the levels of innovation within the business, and support collaborative and cross function working for future business initiatives.
Chris Knights, PM Shift Supervisor, at Start-Rite said: “I think the single most important factor regarding our LEAN course is the message it’s sent to the workforce. From day one, what your employers are doing is stating that not only do they value the constructive input of their staff, but they want to nurture and encourage it. My experience in working on the course with the Distribution Centre team has been extremely positive. A noticeable confidence is evident in some members of staff who previously may have been less likely to put their ideas forward or take ownership of a project, and this has made the course entirely worthwhile.”
Rebekah Lake, AM Shift Supervisor, at Start-Rite, said: “I found the LEAN course extremely interesting and beneficial, as it taught me a lot about saving time, energy and money for the company. It incorporates the meaning of a team effort and was an eye-opener into how a company can become more profitable.”
Ian Watson, Start-Rite CEO, said: “The development of skills within our office and distribution centre teams has had beneficial results for the business and individuals, in particular, helping to deliver a complete overhaul of our DC working practices to improve our service levels to customers and consumers.” On completing the course, all candidates received a Level 2 NVQ qualification.
To find out more about the benefits of the LEAN development course visit www.fedden-usp.co.uk.