New commercial manager at frozen food distributor Central Foods

Neil Cooper of Central Foods

Frozen food distributor Central Foods has appointed Neil Cooper to the newly created role of commercial manager.

The position has been created as part of the company’s continued expansion plans and growth.

Central Foods managing director Gordon Lauder said: “Central Foods has been experiencing steady and sustainable growth over some time, working with a growing number of clients and supplying frozen food to an increasing number of wholesalers and food service operators in the UK and around the world.

“Neil’s appointment strengthens our team and will support us, as we build on that success.” 

Neil joined the Northamptonshire-based company from foodservice provider Bidvest, where he held the position of buyer, with responsibility across a number of key product categories. He brings with him a broad range of knowledge and experience within the catering leisure industry, including FMCG, gained from experience in many areas of business and industry, and purchasing including food and non-food categories.

He said: “I am very pleased to have become part of the team at Central Foods – a company that is really focused, offering a point of difference and highly regarded within the frozen food distribution sector and the foodservice industry in general.”

Central Foods, which is based at Collingtree near Northampton, supplies more than 220 independent wholesalers, as well as larger national and regional wholesalers. It also supplies to foodservice caterers across the entire foodservice industry, including pubs, hotels, restaurants, staff canteens, schools, hospitals, coffee shops, football grounds and universities.

Offering a one-stop shop to the foodservice sector, it sources products from around the world and the UK, supplying more than 400 different lines, ranging from meat, bakery items and canapés through to buffet products, desserts and puddings.

Central Foods has been regularly named in the annual Grant Thornton Northamptonshire Ltd report which highlights the growth of the top 100 privately owned businesses in Northamptonshire, and was ranked as one of the 200 fastest growing companies in the East Midlands in the 2015 Grant Thornton and CBI report, the most recent available, which highlighted growing organisations. 

The company is due to mark its 21^st anniversary in 2017. For more information visit www.centralfoods.co.uk

Press release issued by Nottingham based Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk

Business boosted for CLC Mastermind Programme graduates

Keith Rodgers from Guy Taylor Associates

Graduates of a mastermind development programme for those working in the East Midlands construction sector have praised the course after experiencing a range of business benefits.

Participants have opened new branch offices, drawn up plans to take on extra staff, and put in place other expansion proposals as a result of attending the Construction Leaders Club Mastermind Programme.

Now they are highlighting to others within the sector the importance of taking time out of the day-to-day running of a business to focus on continuous development.

“Taking part in the Mastermind programme allowed us to talk about where the company was going and what we would like from it and use it as a framework for decision making,” said Keith Rodgers, managing director of Newark-based architects Guy Taylor Associates. 

“In fact, it was so helpful that we finished writing and implementing our five-year business plan within a year, leading to us opening additional offices in Sheffield, Derby and Manchester. It’s worked out very well. We have expanded our client base and we have expanded the regions we are working in, so we have a bigger spread and less of a risk.

“It was definitely worthwhile going on the Mastermind Programme as it helped to consolidate thinking and helped to focus on what matters to the business, and what doesn’t. I particularly liked the peer mentoring too.”

Phil Plant, a Nottingham-based health and safety consultant working within the construction industry, hopes to soon begin taking on his first employees after attending the Mastermind Programme. 

“I’d recommend the programme to anyone who’s thinking about doing it because it helps you to focus, it helps you to come out of the mundane day-to-day running of your business, and it is good for the morale,” he said.

“One of the best things about it was that you are a group member, you are a team player and any issues you may have in business there are generally people around the table who have experienced that and can assist you and can give you answers to your questions.”

Phil, who heads up Integral Safety Management, which operates across the country, said he had learned valuable lessons from the course, in particular how to recognise and focus on his firm’s market.

“You can start to target everything and come back with nothing but if you know your market it’s best to focus on that and set your goals,” added Phil, who, with business booming, is hoping to reap the benefits of the course after he takes on his first staff members within the next couple of months.

Designed for business owners and senior decision makers working within the construction sector who have the opportunity to set or re-set the direction for a brighter future, the CLC Mastermind Programme features a programme which brings together a group of like-minded committed individuals who want to achieve sustainable growth and want to develop themselves both professionally and personally in order to drive their business forward.

The nine-month programme is run by construction industry and business management veteran Terry O’Mahony, founder and CEO of The Construction Leaders Club, together with his associates Peter Jubb, a Chartered Marketer, and Andrea O’Mahony an executive education specialist; all of whom have a successful track record in business growth and development within or associated with the construction industry.

Sessions generally take place at Risley Hall Hotel, Risley, between Nottingham and Derby. 

For more information about the next course, visit http://www.constructionleadersclub.com/ or email terry@constructionleadersclub.com

Press release issued by Nottingham based PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk 

Expanding contractor J Tomlinson moves to larger West Midlands base

The J Tomlinson team in the new West Midlands office

Growing construction services company J Tomlinson has opened a new West Midlands headquarters after experiencing expansion in the region. 

At the same time, the firm is creating around ten additional posts.

The company has transferred its West Midlands base from a site in Birmingham to larger offices in London Road, Canwell, near Sutton Coldfield.

The move follows a number of significant contract wins and an expansion in the number of staff employed in the region by the construction, refurbishment, repairs and maintenance, mechanical and electrical engineering, facilities management, and energy efficiency and renewables firm.

“J Tomlinson has worked in the West Midlands for many years, and on the back of a growing portfolio of projects and an increasing reputation in the region, opened an initial base in Birmingham last year,” said J Tomlinson CEO Mark Davis. 

“Since then, as a result of further expansion, the company has outgrown the space and we are delighted to have opened a new headquarters at Canwell near Sutton Coldfield which will allow us to continue to serve our existing clients and to work with additional public and private clients in the West Midlands as we continue to broaden our portfolio.” 

To coincide with the opening of the headquarters, J Tomlinson has been recruiting locally in the West Midlands and currently has new positions for a quantity surveyor and an assistant quantity surveyor, a site manager, an estimator and a trainee administrator, having recently appointed a range of other posts.

J Tomlinson, which is based in Nottingham and works across the West Midlands, East Midlands and Yorkshire, increased its turnover from £54 million in 2014 to £84 million in 2016. It employs more than 400 people.

J Tomlinson is working on a number of on-going contracts in the West Midlands, including being appointed to a four-year framework contract by Warwickshire Police and West Mercia Police which is now part of a joint property vehicle with four other public sector bodies known as Place Partnerships, covering servicing, maintenance, reactive repairs and minor building works. 

Last year, the firm won a five-year contract to replace kitchens and bathrooms in around 1,600 properties in Birmingham, Coventry, Stoke, Walsall and Wolverhampton for housing organisation Midland Heart, and has a gas servicing and repair contract with housing provider and social organisation Bromford, providing services to over 10,000 properties.

The firm is also constructing a new 65-bed care home for Hamberley Development and a new building for Sutton Coldfield Conservative Club on the same site in Sutton Coldfield. Recently the company completed the mechanical and electrical work on the new five-storey, 6,500sq m headquarters offices for West Bromwich Building Society at Providence Place in West Bromwich.

The new office is headed by J Tomlinson construction managing director Martin Gallagher and offers the full range of services provided by the company.

For more information, visit www.jtomlinson.co.uk

The photo shows, left to right, Andy Morris, contracts manager, Toni Baker, office manager, Andrea Jones, business development manager, Martin Gallagher, managing director construction, Pete Woods, operations director.

Press release issued by Nottingham based PR company Perfect 10 PR www.perfect10pr.co.uk