Recession Fund - Rate Relief Initiative round 3

You may be aware of the previous 2 rounds of the above which ended in January this year and we have launched the latest round this week which covers manufacturing companies in Kirklees who employ between 5 and 49.  The closing date is 8 October and the link below will take you to the web page with the basic details and also a fact sheet with eligibility criteria, self assessment sheet and application form.

The fund is limited and eligible applications will be assessed by a panel as before.

www.kirklees.gov.uk/ratesrelief

 

Cryer and Stott are a Cheese Monger and Fine Food Wholesaler, operating from their premises in Castleford. The business started as a partnership in May 1998, and is still a family run business with all their employees hired from within the local area.

The company is a wholesale consolidator, buying local food from around forty to fifty suppliers, as well as producing their own range of cheeses which they intend to expand on in their recently acquired premises in Allerton Bywater. Their new facility is also intended to incorporate a small café which will sell their produces as well as a Cheese Counter, Butchers, Bakery, Fresh Produce plus cakes and preserves which will be made on the premises.

Cryer and Stott have also been awarded a £120,000 contract to supply their “artisan cheeses” to a number of local Football Clubs, as well as supplying “£20,000 worth of specialist cheeseboards to the St Ledger at Doncaster Racecourse and York Racecourse” (Yorkshire Evening Post, Sept 09). What is more, Cryer and Stott anticipate significant growth and confidently predict that turnover will rise by £300,000 in the next 18 months. This growth will mean that nine full-time and five part-time positions will be created for members of the local community.

Richard Holmes, Director of Cryer and Stott said: ''Winning the Eaton Smith Business of the Month Award means a great deal to us. It’s wonderful that our commitment to supporting local producers has brought us recognition. Samuel Valentine, our new venture at Allerton Bywater Castleford, is building up a great client base and reputation for quality and local sourcing which we think is fantastic.”

On Friday 30th July, The Mid Yorkshire Chamber hosted the Joint Area Council Meeting 'The Coalition - What will it mean for business?'

The event was attended by Jason McCartney MP, the newly-elected MP for Colne Valley, and Craig Whittaker MP, the newly-elected MP for Calder Valley. Along with members of our Board of Directors and the Chamber.

 

 

 

Laura Burnett of local Chartered Accountants Wheawill & Sudworth has become a full member of the Association of Tax Technicians.

With first-time passes in all subjects, Laura has added this qualification to her existing membership of the Association of Accounting Technicians. The firm’s Managing Partner, David Butterworth, said “It is good to see Laura’s hard work being rewarded. Her skills will help to enhance the range and quality of advice and support available to our clients.”

Scotland's Capital City, Edinburgh was lit up pink for The MoonWalk on Saturday 19th June as 10,000 MoonWalkers took to the streets in decorated bras for on a breast cancer charity marathon.  Amongst the Moonwalkers who took part to raise funds for Breast Cancer Research were the girls from a Huddersfield based company, CoGri Group. 

Lynn Dare, Louise Wibberley, Gemma O’Toole and Lara Dare from the CoGri Group Accounts Department were joined by another member of the local Colne Valley Ladies Circle (CVLC), Val Dyson, in a bra clad 26.2 miles marathon walk around Edinburgh which started at midnight.  Kate Atkins, a member of CVLC was unable to join them as planned as she contracted acute Tonsillitis the weekend before.  She is however, determined to complete her 26.2 mile walk around Huddersfield when she is better.

The weather was kind on the night, with clear skies and just a cold breeze from the coast. The girls forged ahead on their gruelling MoonWalk, dressed in bras adorned with cerise pink feathers; pink tutus and leg warmers. They also took Kate’s bra to cross the finishing line with them.

The CoGri Group girls raised almost £ 3000.00 for the charity and completed the walk between 6 hours and 48 minutes to 8 hours and 12 minutes.  This was a major achievement for the girls, particularly for Louise who is still recovering from a broken leg sustained during training!

Leading up to the date, the girls have been training very hard since March, with short walks during lunchtimes and longer walks at the weekend.  They set out on Sunday 6th June to do their final big training walk for 20 miles, in the rain!

Lynn Dare, Financial Director of the CoGri Group said, ‘The whole atmosphere was brilliant.  We were stopped by people on the streets who were handing their cash over when we told them what we were doing.  For one man, it meant a lot to him as his wife died of breast cancer. This made us even more determined and made all the blisters worth while.’
Walk the Walk are a grant making charity. The charity looks at various projects and campaigns that are involved with breast cancer and grants funds to where they know it will make the most difference. Their policy is to support research and also to support those that have cancer now with equipment and cash.
Walk the Walk charity are not only committed to raising money and awareness for vital breast cancer causes but are also passionate about encouraging women and men to become healthier, fitter and to take charge of their own well being.
It’s not too late to make your donation. To sponsor us online, please go to www.walkthewalkfundraising.org/cvlc_cogri_girls  or post your donations made payable to “Walk the Walk Worldwide” and send it FAO: Lynn Dare, CoGri Group, Dene House, North Road, Kirkburton, Huddersfield, HD8 0RW.
For more information about Walk The Walk Charity or to make your donations directly, please visit www.walkthewalk.org

For information about the CoGri Group, please visit www.cogrigroup.com

We are relieved to report that our Executive Director, Andrew Choi, successfully conquered his fear of heights on Saturday 5th June when he joined in with a sponsored abseil down Wakefield Cathedral.

The abseil was part of an event to raise £10,000 for Chamber member, Wakefield Hospice. Andrew thoroughly enjoyed the challenge, but admitted it was pretty scary to be dangling by a rope after 60 seconds of basic instruction at the top of the Cathedral's West Tower. The event was supervised by 299 Parachute Squadron of the Royal Engineers, with WO2 Dave Bellamy in charge at the top. Well done to Andrew, we are all extremely proud of your efforts. Please don't hesitate to contribute to the valuable and important work of the Hospice in any way you can.

Early in June, the Chamber hosted a fabulous golf day for this year’s Silver Cup Tournament, which was held at the picturesque Halifax Bradley Hall Golf Club.

Chamber Head of Membership, Tracy Smith, organised the event together with Kathryn Shuttleworth, Chamber Head of Marketing. The format was Fourball Stableford, with the best two scores on each hole counting towards the team total. In addition to the Silver Cup, the players relished the opportunity to win a top of the range car for a hole-in-one, very generously sponsored by Hepworth Honda Halifax.

The new Honda Insight SE provided a tremendous incentive for players to hit the perfect tee shot on the par-three 18th hole, but try as they might, and despite some near-misses, the car went back home to Hepworth Honda at the end of the day!

The worthy winners of the event were Chamber members ETS UK Ltd – with an excellent score of 82 points – which in the demanding conditions was a tremendous team performance. They took away the Silver Cup together with a well-deserved prize of a bottle of champagne each, courtesy of the Chamber.

The best individual prize went to ETS team member Peter Craft (off 12 handicap) who scored 38 points. Considering the challenging conditions this was a mightily impressive round of golf, which was further enhanced by a great tee shot at the 18th which also won Peter the prize for Nearest the Pin. The winner of the longest drive was Kimberley Hill (21) of HSBC who connected with a monster tee shot at the 15th to set a distant fairway marker which none of the other competitors could match. The Chamber acknowledges grateful thanks to member companies who generously donated valuable prizes for the individual competitions, including tickets for a Groove Night at the Shay Stadium, Halifax; dinner for two at the Temujin Restaurant, Milnsbridge; and the ’Schools out for Summer’ event at the Galpharm Stadium, Huddersfield.

Steven Leigh, Chamber Head of Policy and International Services officiated as official starter, and later in the evening as Master of Ceremonies. Last years worthy winners Carry Cargo were unable to retain their trophy, and this year found themselves at the back of the field and therefore the recipients of the infamous “Chamber Pot”. The Crest IT team (who ‘won’ the Chamber Pot last year) really turned their fortunes around with a strong team performance of 72 points which bounced them back up the leader board to take third place this year. The Crest IT captain Michael Branford said: “We had a wonderful day, and it was a great relief to pass the Chamber Pot on to Carry Cargo – that is a prize we definitely don’t want to win again!”
He added: “on behalf of all the players, may I thank and congratulate the Chamber for organising such a fabulous day, and also extend our appreciation to Bradley Hall Golf Club for making us all feel so welcome and for preparing the course in such excellent condition.”

In the evening, the players enjoyed a 3 course evening meal followed by the prize giving
ceremonies. Chamber Chairman, David Horsman, was pleased to present the prizes to the worthy winners at the end of what had proved to be a really enjoyable and memorable day.

AS Fabrications (UK) Ltd

AS Fabrications (UK) Ltd, of Liversedge, is a “leading supplier of Architectural Fabrication Services.” Although they have been established for less than two years, they have already seen their share of difficulties, but are now starting to reap the benefits of their hard work, not only for the directors, but for the staff and customers too.

In May 2009, Glentworth Architectural Metalwork, part of the Glentworth Holdings Group, went into liquidation, which left the directors and 40 staff out of work. Instead of giving up, the management team took over AS Fabrications just four weeks after their redundancy, by obtaining financial support from HSBC and Yorkshire Forward, which allowed them to re-employ 18 of their staff.

Since their rough beginning, AS Fabrications have gone from strength to strength as they have received an unprecedented level of support from previous suppliers and customers. Their story has also been featured in most local and national newspapers, including the BBC Business Lunch programme. They have also been able to expand their workforce from the original 18 to its current 39 in just an incredible twelve months. This has helped to bring jobs, business and training opportunities to the region as they have also introduced their own in-house training schemes. A remarkable story made possible by exceptional people.

Mick Fortune, Managing Director of AS Fabrications said: “We could not have achieved our present level of success without the confidence and support of our customers, suppliers and funders. We consider the Eton Smith Award to be acknowledgement of all the hard work our management and employees have put in, which has enabled us to achieve our current level of success.”

Discovery Bay Ltd

Established in 2006, Discovery Bay Restaurant was formed by Barrington Douglas, after years of saving to fulfil his life long dream.

From the age of 12, Barrington had a passion and flair for cooking. Everyday he would watch his mother cooking wonderful Caribbean meals using skills and family recipes passed down from generations. Barrington knew from a very early age that he wanted to share such skills and recipes and spread the word about Caribbean food.

At the age of 19, Barrington started working in the construction industry, saving £20 out of every £100 he earned and after 21 years of saving, he was finally ready to invest into his lifelong dream of opening a Caribbean restaurant.

Through hard work and determination, Barrington’s dream finally became a reality with the opening of Discovery Bay Restaurant in Huddersfield. Such drive, character and passion has enabled Barrington to achieve great things in such a short period of time. Among them, and after only one month of opening, Discovery Bay was awarded second place in Yorkshire’s Best Ethnic Restaurant 2006, as well as receiving the Yorkshire Black Entrepreneur of the Year 2008 Award presented by MBE Chris Akabusi. What is more, he was invited on a once-in-a-lifetime trip working alongside Gary Rhodes while he filmed his new series “Rhodes across the Caribbean”. This involved touring eight Caribbean islands from Jamaica to Tobago and cooking with some of the Caribbean’s top chefs. On his travels, Barrington picked up over 200 recipes which he now offers in Discovery Bay, with his own twist of course!

Barrington Douglas, Managing Director of Discovery Bay Restaurant said: “Winning the Eaton Smith Business of the month Award means the world to me and all the staff at Discovery Bay. As a Black Entrepreneur, I’m not only trying to be a role model for the younger generation, but as a Caribbean restaurant I am trying to get as many people as possible to indulge in Caribbean cuisine. This will then encourage more people to buy produce from Caribbean Islands to help create a more sustainable economy.”