Chamber News

Following on from the success of our One Hour Networking in King’s Lynn we are going for bigger and better.  From May, our free networking will move from one hour on a Wednesday to Two Hours on a Tuesday.  At the same time, we will also be increasing the Chambers overall presence in West Norfolk; by taking on a monthly dedicated Chamber space at the Town Hall in the heart of King’s Lynn for all local businesses to drop in.

One becomes Two – new ‘Two Hour Tuesday’

It’s the same brilliant networking, only better! Join us for our usual early morning networking over coffee and pastries. Delivered, in partnership with Swarm Apprenticeships and Solace Coaching, we are expanding the morning from a one hour slot to a two hour slot – for those who want to continue networking and building more new business connections.

Bigger & Better – Drop in

Following the two hour networking slot, the Chambers Team has partnered with the Borough Council of King’s Lynn & West Norfolk, to enable us to remain at the King’s Lynn Town Hall for the rest of the day and we will be available for local businesses to drop in over the day to say hi, asks questions, find out more about us.  We will be joined by various ‘experts’ from within the Chambers membership, so you can have the opportunity to meet the Chamber team, discuss the ways we can support your business, as well as gaining knowledge from our on-hand experts.

West Norfolk ‘Experts’ – We Need You If you’re an expert in your field, based in West Norfolk, and would prepared to volunteer some of your precious time to help support fellow local business-people, please get in touch. Our drop-in sessions are designed to add value and support the business community, so anyone who’s interested in passing on their expertise in a non-salesy way will be warmly welcomed. We’d love to hear from you! – drop me an email: [email protected].

Sounds Amazing – When and Where? All sessions will be held in the Council Chamber Room at the King’s Lynn Town Hall, Saturday Market Pl, Norfolk PE30 5DQ.  The next Two Hour Tuesday will be on the 14th May starting at 7.30am.

Dates for the rest of 2019:

• Tuesday 18th June
• Tuesday 23rd July
• Tuesday 20th August
• Tuesday 24th September
• Tuesday 8th October
• Tuesday 19th November
• Tuesday 3rd December

To get involved or find out more please contact Nicole Risby, Customer Experience Team, on 01603 729702 or by email: [email protected]

Staying up to date with our skills and professional learning is always a good thing. In fact, with the fast-moving working environment, this has become even more important. Attending a training course can give you a new approach to tasks, an investment in your knowledge, and helps to encourage your staff to grow professionally too.

With the support of our expert trainers who are specialists in their business areas, Chamber Training offers a diverse choice of half day courses across the year, with the Spring and Summer dates now released. 

Whether you are looking to develop your business writing, or hone your Instagram for your work account, or prepare documents for international trade, our training course are here to advance you and your business.

Here are some of our courses we have coming up: 

• Engaging Writing for Business – Tuesday, 30 April, 2019 
• Google Analytics – Wednesday, 1 May, 2019 
• Social Media Advertising – How To Succeed – Wednesday, 8 May, 2019 
• Time Management – Thursday, 9 May, 2019 
• The Essentials of Email Marketing – Tuesday, 14 May, 2019
• Finance for Non-Financial Managers – Friday, 17 May, 2019 
• Instagram for Business – Wednesday, 22 May, 2019 
• How to Improve your Sales Success – Thursday, 23 May, 2019 
• The Art of Networking – Tuesday, 4 June, 2019 
• Facebook for Business – Wednesday, 5 June, 2019 
• Create Profitable Google AdWords Campaigns – Thursday, 13 June, 2019

The courses comprise of small groups, with the chance for one to one support from the trainer, groups activities, and the opportunity to answer questions throughout. All handouts from the sessions will be available, and light refreshments with tea and coffee will be included too. 

What’s not to like, book today here: https://www.norfolkchamber.co.uk/training

Is your business ready for Brexit? Are you a customs agent? Or does your company use customs agents and intermediaries to help you trade with the EU?

If so, you need to know how to meet customs requirements fast and efficiently after the UK leaves the EU. There will be new processes to follow and new forms to complete. We can help. Our training will highlight what you need to know to be able to accurately complete a simple customs declaration.

Norfolk Chambers of Commerce have launched a new training course on Customs Declaration with dates in May and June to help businesses understand the procedure ahead of Brexit. These courses are affordable with grant funding available from HMRC to cover up to 70% of the training costs.

Dates

The full day training course will take place at Norfolk Chambers of Commerce office in Norwich from 9am – 4.30pm on; 

Tuesday, 21 May, 2019  Tuesday, 18 June, 2019

Prices

Grant funding: this is available from HMRC with up to 70% of training cost covered. Please note the availability of this funding is limited, and will close on 31 May. You can find out more at  www.customsintermediarygrant.co.uk 

Member Rate: £280 + VAT (only £84+VAT with 70% HMRC funding) Non-Member Rate: £350 + VAT (only £105+VAT with 70% HMRC funding)  

To find out more information about the course and to book please click on the link of the dates of the training courses above. 

For any further information please contact Julie Austin, International Trade Manager on 01603 729706 or email [email protected]

Norwich Business School is hosting a free “Doing Business with China” networking event for Norfolk businesses at the University of East Anglia on Wednesday 03 July 2019 from 5pm – 8pm.

The event will provide an opportunity to tap into the social capital, knowledge and talent of a group of around 65 Open University of Hong Kong (OUHK) MBA students that are visiting our region. Over two thirds of the students have between seven to ten years work experience as professionals or entrepreneurs. They have worked in a wide range of industries, with the top sectors being: Manufacturing, Financial/Professional services, Creative, Arts and Entertainment and Food.  The students have contacts and networks throughout China, including the provinces of Shenzhen, Beijing and Shanghai.  They are looking to explore new business ideas, collaborations and build local links.

Businesses could benefit if they are, for example: considering importing and exporting; looking to create Chinese partnerships; or seeking foreign investment or referrals; or simply just doing market research in the Chinese market. Interaction will take place through talks, speed networking, breakout sessions and targeted connections.

If your business would like to attend this unique event, please register your interest at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/would-you-like-to-do-business-with-china-tickets-61036767615

Norfolk Chambers mission is: Connecting, supporting and giving voice to every business in Norfolk.   As part of that mission, we are here to support our members goals and aims, get their voice heard and promote the ‘wow’ factors for Norfolk’s business community.

To help us achieve this we are now using our monthly columns in both EDP and the Lynn News to shout about our members successes; to hear from them on thought-leadership; to get their views on issues that impact on businesses; and to understand their thoughts and feelings on what is happening in Norfolk.

Last month saw the first of these columns be published in the EDP.  Dave Wilson, Managing Director of Tiger Eye provided a great article on ‘Change, Progress and People’.  It was a thought-provoking piece and inspired an immediate response from Alex Cosham at Image Display – who responded by writing an interesting blog pondering how change could be viewed as progressive or augmentative, from an events perspective.

Every member of Norfolk Chambers can contribute to these columns.  We will also ensure that your content appears on the Chambers website and in our social media.  You can be an individual, a big company, or a small business. You can be anywhere in Norfolk.

Now, more than ever before, Chambers is about you – the members. Because it’s you who define Norfolk, who fuel its growth and deliver its goods and services. It’s you, who create and innovate to make the county the success it is.

Let’s work together to share positive news about Norfolk.  So, if you’re a Chamber member and you want to help celebrate the success of Norfolk, this is your chance.  

We’ll collate your stories and input, and we’ll use our media columns, website and social media to share them. From here on it will be your voices. Do it!

Register your interest now by e mailing: [email protected]

Commenting on the labour market figures for April 2019, published today by the ONS, Suren Thiru, Head of Economics at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said:                                  

“The strong increase in employment, coupled with another fall in the number of people out of work, suggests that the UK labour market remains in good order.

“However, behind the strong headline figures a number of key challenges remain.

“Businesses are increasingly reporting that persistent hiring difficulties, cost pressures and ongoing uncertainty are dampening recruitment intentions. If this trend is sustained it could well translate into a weakening in UK jobs growth over the next year.

“Pay growth continues to comfortably outstrip price growth, and in real terms is likely to remain in positive territory for some time to come. However, the combination of a sluggish economy, weak productivity and high upfront costs for business is likely to limit the extent of pay rises.

“The record high number of job vacancies is further confirmation of the perennial skills shortages plaguing UK businesses, which continues to hold back business activity and growth. 

“To protect the long-term health of the UK labour market, businesses need answers to key questions on how firms will be able to manage their future workforce needs over the next few years. Brexit has distracted government and Westminster for too long, much more must be done at home to address the UK’s chronic skills shortage, including easing the burden of upfront business costs to help firms to hire and train staff.”

The Norfolk Chambers of Commerce are very pleased to announce the launch of Coastal Co.nnect, a dedicated monthly Chamber space in the heart of Great Yarmouth.

What is Coastal Con.nnect? Coastal Co.nnect is the name of the monthly sessions we will be running in partnership with Great Yarmouth Borough Council from the Town Hall. Whether you’re a member or non-member these are a great opportunity to come and meet us to find out how we can support your business. As we run more sessions we will also have business experts with us who can give advice and guidance on a variety of topics – we’d actually love to hear from you about what kind of expert advice your business could benefit from, please get in touch with us using the details below.

How will they look? Initially we will be running morning networking sessions, 09:30 – 11:30, from the space to encourage local businesses to connect with not only ourselves but also each other. Each week we’ll have a different guest speaker with us covering a range of topics useful to any business. There will be plenty of tea and coffee to keep everyone hydrated and we might even throw in some biscuits! The chamber team will then be available for a further two hours to allow anyone to drop in over lunchtime to say hi, asks questions, find out more about us, whatever you need. The rest of the day will then be spent visiting businesses in the area who want to explore membership further or just want to see our lovely faces.

What happens now? These really are your sessions so as we run them we’d love your feedback to make sure they’re as successful as possible, we welcome all fantastic ideas about how we can benefit our members and the wider business community in Norfolk. For all the early birds out there there’s no need to panic, our networking breakfasts are continuing as normal (we love them as much as you do) Coastal Co.nnect is just another way for us to support our lovely members in East Norfolk.

I’d love to get involved… If you’re an expert in your field and would like to volunteer some of your precious time to help fellow business-people in the Greater Yarmouth area, please get in touch. These sessions are designed to add value to the business community so anyone who’s interested in passing on their expertise in a non-salesy way will be warmly welcomed. We’d love to hear from you!

Sounds amazing, when and where are they? All sessions will be held in the Assembly Room at Great Yarmouth Town Hall, the first is Thursday 16th May. After that they will be: • Friday 14th June • Thursday 18th July • Thursday 15th August • Thursday 19th September • Thursday 10th October • Thursday 21st November • Thursday 12th December

To get involved or find out more please contact Jordan Domin, Customer Experience Team, on 01603 729707or at [email protected].

Norfolk County Council, Norfolk Chambers and Vattenfall have been successful in securing funding from New Anglia LEP’s first ever revenue fund.

£22,000 has been secured to deliver a project (overall value £59,000) to build supply chain capacity in the onshore and offshore industries for the energy sector, by seeking to alert SMEs to supply chain opportunities and get ready for them to potentially bid for these. The aim will be to support the creation 15 full time high value jobs, 47 learners and 40 apprenticeships.

Commenting on the funding award, Nova Fairbank, Head of policy for Norfolk Chambers of Commerce said: “We are delighted to be awarded the funding to start building capacity into the Norfolk supply chain.  By working in partnership with Norfolk County Council and Vattenfall, we hope to engage with a wider range of SMEs. In understanding where the barriers and gaps are in their capability to be part of the supply chain, we can work with them to improve skills and  raise their aspirations.”

Food Matters Live 2019 is pleased to unveil a bespoke, curated pavilion dedicated to showcasing the latest sustainable and nutritious food and drink innovations from around the UK.

Open to the creative and innovative food and drink start-up community, this pavilion will connect UK buyers looking to meet and do business with the UK’s most promising brands of the future.

Who can apply and how does it work? UK start-ups who are less than two years old are invited to apply for a place on this prestigious pavilion. What makes it unique is that a panel of food and drink experts, involved in the buying process, will be reviewing all the applications and selecting the participants for the Future Brands Pavilion.

The judges include Paul Hargreaves, Chief Executive, Cotswold Fayre; Wan Mak, Head of Nutrition, Sodexo; Olivier Sevenou, R&D Lead – Future-facing Health & Wellbeing, pladis Global; and Tom Elliott, Origination & Development Manager – Future Brands, Sainsbury’s.

As well as an innovative concept that meets consumer demand in health and wellbeing, the judges will be looking for proof of commercial success to date to include the number of existing customers, marketing and distribution channels and future growth strategy.

Every start-up will receive feedback on their application, which will help inform their future business development. Successful applicants will be invited to display their innovations as part of an attractive, purpose built pavilion designed by Food Matters Live

Taking matchmaking one step further

A targeted marketing campaign will promote the Pavilion and run alongside a tailored matchmaking service provided by the Food Matters Live partnerships and hosted buyer team.

Briony Mansell-Lewis, Director at Food Matters Live commented: “With SME’s now representing 97% of the food and drink businesses in the UK* we are seeing how these small, agile and creative food and drink producers are transforming categories, changing retail shelves and providing consumers with a great variety of nutritious, sustainable choices.

With the rise in the number of start-ups, we also recognise the pressure on buyers to keep ahead of the most innovative brands coming on to the market.

By taking this curated approach to creating a UK Future Brands Pavilion, we believe that we can add value to both communities – on the one hand, providing buyers with an efficient way to meet and do business with the brands of the future and on the other, helping ambitious, entrepreneurial start-ups succeed in a competitive market.”

If you are a start-up food and drink producer and would like to apply for a place on this unique Pavilion, get in touch…. Entries close 12 July 2019.

The sixth Food Matters Live will take place on 19-20 November 2019 at ExCeL London with the launch of the UK Future Brands Pavilion. This unique event brings together the food and drink industry, retailers, foodservice providers, government, and those working in nutrition and health. In addition to an extensive exhibition, Food Matters Live offers a multi-stream seminar programme and thought-provoking theatre attractions, featuring hundreds of speakers covering wide-ranging topics – from the latest food and public health policies to the future for the free-from food and drink market, latest trends in sustainable retailing, packaging design and exemplar brand strategies. 

Visit: https://www.foodmatterslive.com/

Norfolk Chambers mission is: Connecting, supporting and giving voice to every business in Norfolk.   

As part of that mission, we are here to support our members goals and aims, get their voice heard and promote the ‘wow’ factors for Norfolk’s business community.

To help us achieve this we are now using our monthly columns in both EDP and the Lynn News to shout about our members successes; to hear from them on thought-leadership; to get their views on issues that impact on businesses; and to understand their thoughts and feelings on what is happening in Norfolk.

Last week saw the first of these columns be published in the EDP.  Dave Wilson, Managing Director of Tiger Eye provided a great article on ‘Change, Progress and People’.  It was a thought-provoking piece and inspired an immediate response from Alex Cosham at Image Display – who responded by writing an interesting blog pondering how change could be viewed as progressive or augmentative, from an events perspective.

Every member of Norfolk Chambers can contribute to these columns.  We will also ensure that your content appears on the Chambers website and in our social media.  You can be an individual, a big company, or a small business. You can be anywhere in Norfolk.

Now, more than ever before, Chambers is about you – the members. Because it’s you who define Norfolk, who fuel its growth and deliver its goods and services. It’s you, who create and innovate to make the county the success it is.

Let’s work together to share positive news about Norfolk.  So, if you’re a Chamber member and you want to help celebrate the success of Norfolk, this is your chance.  

We’ll collate your stories and input, and we’ll use our media columns, website and social media to share them. From here on it will be your voices. Do it!

Register your interest now by e mailing: [email protected]

Living and working somewhere makes it very easy to forget why it’s great and you fell in love with it to start with. Delegates at the Great Yarmouth breakfast on April 4th were treated to a rare moment where they fell in love with the area again courtesy of Siobhan McEvoy-Ridley and Graham Ridley from Retro Activewear.

Retro Activewear are the UK’s leading garment printer and have been in the business for over 30 years. Traditionally their clients were in rock and roll and they print tour t-shirts for Led Zepplin and Metallica as well as now Ariana Grande. Since moving to Great Yarmouth they’ve diversified and now have their own web-stores, work with companies further afield than they could in London, and have diversified their clients to include sportswear and small-scale designers.

They had a large site in Hackney which they had been in for a long time, unfortunately they experienced a dramatic increase in business rates, from £35,000 to £80,000 as the financial year changed over. When Graham attempted several times to contact Hackney Council in various different ways with no success they took the decision to move the business to Norfolk, following their personal move several years earlier. Their experience with Norfolk County Council and the Enterprise Zone among other agencies has been nothing but positive. They have downsized the business but are concentrating on being the best in the business as opposed to the biggest.

Graham feels the people working for them in Norfolk have a completely different and much more positive attitude to working, they have aspirations to learn a trade and want to increase their knowledge. Their customers have only perceived the move to be positive, they’re even considered to be better value for money! They even have new companies wanting to work with them because they’re not in London, it makes them more accessible and “friendlier”.

In conjunction with the move they also took the decision to invest £300,000 in new digital printing technology which has also increased their ability to diversify. Alongside their screen printing abilities which is perfect for large-scale printing, they now have the ability to print very small runs and one-offs.

It was great to hear from a company who had experienced starting up and growing in a different area and made the decision to move to Great Yarmouth, especially since they have had such a positive experience and feel supported by the local community and business organisations. The whole room left feeling enthused and positive and there was a great buzz as delegates walked out.

We also had two fantastic stands from The Benjamin Foundation, who are celebrating their 25th anniversary with butterflies, and East Norfolk Sixth Form who have over 1600 students studying over 80 A Levels and BTECs. Both looked absolutely fantastic and we were delighted to have them with us for the morning. A big thank you goes out to Chris from GGS for taking some fantastic pictures of the morning.

Every networking breakfast features a different speaker, if you’d like to be there for the next one on June 20th book now!  

Help us give a warm welcome to the newest members of Norfolk Chamber of Commerce for the month of March

Visit their business to explore what they have to offer. Click on a business name below to view the full listing in our Member Directory.

PLMR PLMR is an award winning public affairs, PR and digital marketing agency, based in Westminster at the heart of the UK’s political scene, and with more than 50 consultants working across a wide range of sectors with various specialisms, we are one of Britain’s fastest-growing communications companies.

JV Consultants JV Consultants are experienced IT managers who have spent the last 20 plus years working in both the NHS and Local Government.

The Happiness Branch My name’s Gemma Sandwell and I’m a Positive Psychology Practitioner, ICF accredited coach and Mindfulness teacher. I’ve been on a journey of personal self-discovery through these tools myself and it lead me to setting up the Happiness Branch which has helped many people and businesses flourish.

SQMS Ltd A Medical Device QMS consultancy specialising in helping start up companies establish and gain certification of their QMS.

Livelink Resource Ltd We are a multi award-winning Virtual Receptionist and Telephone Answering Service. We have been handling calls for over 8 years for some of the largest and smallest clinics in the country. Solving the callers problem at the time of the call – not passing on a message to you to deal with later.

Greyfriar’s Project Management Greyfriars Project Management has over 20 years experience in the construction and civil engineering industry. We have a strong reputation for delivery on time and to budget, working with clients on a range of exciting projects both in the public and private sector. We provide the full range of services and support for all stages of the project life cycle. 

Elysium Aesthetics We are based in a private clinic in the centre of the market town of Fakenham. The clinic is filled with natural light, is exclusive, private, warm and welcoming. Victoria has been providing aesthetic treatments since 2008 in and around Fakenham and Norwich. She initially trained in aesthetics with Dr Kate Goldie of Medics Direct. She is training to be a mentor with Northumbria university as part of the MSc in Non-surgical aesthetics.

Alpha Canine Specialists We are husband and wife team, Chris and Ruth Bond, and we launched Norwich based Alpha Canine Specialists (ACS) with one main goal in mind – to provide a professional, high quality service focused on giving customers the very best care and consideration.

C Harrison Business With a First Class Honors degree in Professional and Business Studies, along with numerous years in accounting, finance and professional roles including estate agency, Chantelle has a diverse wealth of experience along with complementary accounting and bookkeeping qualifications to help your business finances run smoothly.

Zero Taxis To get Norwich moving in safe, punctual, clean cars, using professional and courteous drivers. We charge our cars using 100% renewable energy from Zero Taxis own solar panels and storage batteries. One journey at a time, 100% electrical, zero emissions.

Independent Lives Norfolk Ltd Independent Lives (Norfolk) Ltd is a Day Service for Adults with Learning Disabilities. 16+ For Transitional Work and Short Break Schemes For Children. Our Ethos is ……. Because independence is a right, not a choice.

NXTGEN Recruitment Ltd NXTGEN is a specialist Finance, Accountancy and Executive Search recruitment consultancy.

Vision Assets Vision Assets is a multi-disciplinary consultancy specialising in Intellectual Property, Licensing, Product Development and Growth Funding.

Block Bus Building Communication in Teams & Individuals. Alpha Communication is the Commercial Element of the organisation. With a commitment to upskilling staff and building teams, we focus on the essential skills needed for your workforce to perform effectively.

Claire Carney Floral & Balloon Designs Bespoke flowers and balloons for all occasions! If you are looking for bespoke flowers and balloons, then look no further! Based near Norwich in Norfolk, I specialise in beautiful floral designs and high impact balloon decor, created to your specific requirements.