Sweet deal for investors as Haughton Honey launches crowdfunding bid

Premium honey brand Haughton Honey has launched an £80,000 crowdfunding investment campaign to support the next stage in the company’s growth.

The firm hopes to attract additional investors so that it can recruit more bee farmers to help satisfy the increasing demand for its pure, raw honey.

Since launching in 2014, Cheshire-based Haughton Honey has steadily expanded and recently began supplying the fine food retailer Booths.

Now it hopes to move onto the next stage of growth by attracting investors via crowdfunding platform, Crowdcube, in return for shares in the business.

Haughton Honey founder Crispin Reeves said: “The honey market alone within the UK is worth £119.5m per annum, with healthy annual growth.

“Forget spreading the love. Loving the spread is more accurate at the moment. UK sales of jams, spreads and honey grew 5.9% in the year up to October 2015, with growth in honey sales alone between 2014 and 2015 increasing by £9.8m year-on-year.

“Since we began trading, we've established more than 70 regional sales outlets across the North West and Midlands, as well as recently winning our first premium supermarket customer, Booths, who started stocking Haughton Honey at the beginning of April 2016. 

“During 2015 we packed and sold over 8,000kg of English honey and anticipate requiring more than double that amount during 2016. Now is the time to seek additional investment to support the growth of Haughton Honey so that we can take on more bee farmers, increase our honey production to satisfy our growing month-on-month demand, and hopefully achieve a listing with a second premium multiple retailer.”

The firm is also exploring export markets in a project spearheaded by Mel Reeves, Haughton Honey's second director and wife of Crispin. She is a professional linguist, fluent in both French and Spanish.

The company, based at Radmore Farm, Haughton, bottles raw honey which comes straight from the hive, is cold extracted and never pasteurised which means that it retains all of the natural enzymes and proteins that make English honey so special. It is also 100% natural and pure and features traces of dandelion, chestnut, blackberry, clover and other wildflowers.

As well as supplying consumers direct from its website and a wide range of retailers, the firm also recently began supplying to The Protein Works, a large sports nutrition brand owned by Alliance Boots, which has just launched a co-branded Cashew Nut Butter Luxe product containing Haughton Honey.

Any investment in Haughton Honey through the Crowdcube project will attract Seed Enterprise Investment Schemes (SEIS) tax relief.

“Businesses like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s River Cottage and the Eden Project have all raised investment on Crowdcube, the world’s first and leading investment crowdfunding platform,” said Crispin Reeves. “Investing on Crowdcube is simple. All you need to do is sign up to Crowdcube’s investor community of more than 200,000 people. Registering is free, quick and has no obligations to invest.”

A series of rewards is on offer for those who invest in Haughton Honey, including discounts, honey, bee farming experiences, and hotel, restaurant and cookery school vouchers.

To find out more about the Crowdcube investment opportunity visit www.crowdcube.com

For more information about Haughton Honey visit www.haughtonhoney.com

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

Investments of this nature carry risks to your capital. The availability of any tax relief, including SEIS and EIS, depends on individual circumstances. You should seek independent tax advice.

Approved as a financial promotion by Crowdcube Capital Ltd which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (No. 620205). 

Students supported by contractor J Tomlinson in partnership with Ashfield Homes and Ashfield District Council

Youngsters are being given support into the world of work as part of a number of community initiatives being undertaken by contractor J Tomlinson in Sutton-in-Ashfield.

The company is currently carrying out investment work valued at more than £30 million to Ashfield District Council’s housing stock in a five-year programme for Ashfield Homes Ltd.

As a business that is keen to support and encourage the next generation, the J Tomlinson team is taking part in several projects locally to support students as they prepare to leave school and start their careers.

The most recent involved providing interviewers for a mock interview day for year 10 pupils at Sutton Academy.

J Tomlinson head of bids Steve Timmins and HR administrator Lucinder Dulay, as well as Carol Atherton, from sub-contractor Avonside Roofing, joined a number of other employers and business representatives at the event, which was part of the Work Related Learning Course run by the academy for 14 and 15-year-olds.

“To make our mock interviews as realistic as possible, we ask members of the local community to act as ‘interviewers’,” explained the academy’s work related learning coordinator Penny Runnalls.

J Tomlinson has built up a relationship with the academy in recent times, and is also hosting two students on a two-week work experience placement in July – having organised a realistic application process that involved submitting a CV and undergoing an interview process with J Tomlinson operations manager Ian West. The exercise is aimed at giving the pupils experience and skills that should prove valuable in the future.

The Nottingham-based contractor is also committed to providing job opportunities to young people in the Sutton-in-Ashfield area, and is due to take on 12 apprentices as part of the improvement work project, which includes replacement kitchens, bathrooms, central heating systems, electrical installations, roof coverings, windows and external doors.

Ian West said: “As a company, J Tomlinson is committed to supporting the younger generation into work in whichever route they choose, and we understand the importance of providing realistic experiences and giving young people the chance to develop skills which will help them as they leave school and move into the world of work.

“We’re very much a part of the community in Ashfield - undertaking the work that we are completing in thousands of homes and employing many local people - and we are pleased to be getting involved in initiatives with Sutton Academy and other learning establishments across Ashfield.”

The firm, which provides a range of integrated building solutions across the East Midlands, West Midlands and Yorkshire, has also built up a relationship with the local job centre, with Ian West recently giving a careers talk about construction.  J Tomlinson has also taken part in Ashfield social eating project Let’s All Eat, which brings people together for social events, utilising supermarket surplus to combat social isolation and food poverty.

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

Pizza base producer Deli Conti joins cream of the crop at food event

Nottingham-based artisan dough ball and pizza base producer Deli Conti will be showcasing its range at the UK’s largest food and drink trade fair later this month.

The company, run by Sardinian Luciano Vendone and his wife Susan, will be joining the cream of the crop at Food and Drink Expo 2016, which is being staged at the NEC, Birmingham, from 18^th to 20^th April.

It’s the chance for Deli Conti, which supplies its dough and pizza bases to restaurants, bars, hotels, schools, universities and caterers across the East Midlands and beyond, to join other producers to highlight the latest innovations in the sector.

And with Luciano lined up to give a number of demonstrations on the Deli Conti stand at the show, it’s also the opportunity for chefs and caterers to discover how to get the best out of the doughs and pizza bases produced by the company.

“We supply many of the key restaurants and bars and other establishments in Nottingham with the dough for their pizza bases, plus many others across the region, but Food and Drink Expo attracts buyers and decision makers from across the UK, so this is a good opportunity for us to showcase our range more widely,” said Susan.

Luciano has been making authentic pizzas for almost 40 years, always using the same method. He regularly hosts training sessions for chefs to advise on how to get the best results from the dough, understanding dough fermentation, and how to make perfect pizza from scratch. This free training to customers is run approximately once a month at the firm’s headquarters.

He will be giving tips during a number of tasting and demo sessions on the Deli Conti stand (B78) at Food and Drink Expo.

Based at a unit on Victoria Business Park, Colwick, the Deli Conti team has more than 25 years of experience in food service.

For more details, visit www.deliconti.co.uk

Food and Drink Expo is staged every two years and is a trade only event open to professionals involved in the food and drink market. Around 600 exhibitors will showcase their latest innovations to thousands of buyers and decision makers.

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

Time to move forward for British Horological Institute plan

A team of experts has been assembled to spearhead the creation of a national Centre for Horology at Upton Hall, near Newark.

Last October it was announced that the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) had earmarked a £2.8 million grant for the BHI to develop a new centre of excellence to help train the next generation of clock and watchmakers in the UK.

The project – known as Saving Time - is the first phase of an £8.5 million masterplan that Nottingham-based funding, economic development and project management specialist Focus Consultants has developed for the site.

Now a team has been appointed to progress plans, produce a fully costed proposal, apply for planning permission, and submit a second round application to the HLF before the earmarked grant can be released.

“I am delighted that we have now appointed a team of experts to support the British Horological Institute as we move into the next phase of making our plans a reality,” said Dudley Giles, chief executive officer of the BHI. “Work on Saving Time is now in full swing.”

The team appointed by the BHI includes Focus Consultants as project manager, bid planner and quantity surveyor, Newark-based Guy Taylor Associates as architects, Newark-based William Saunders as civil and structural engineer, and Hertfordshire-based mechanical and electrical engineers SVM. Other members of the team are activity planners Oakmere Solutions Ltd based in Ipswich and Cambridge, access consultants Jane Toplis Associates, from Bath, fundraising consultants Judith Egerton and Nancy Chambers, from Gloucestershire, and Swinton-based exhibition designer PLB.

“This is the next stage in the process of securing the grant from the HLF,” said Focus partner Kevin Osbon. “Focus and architects Guy Taylor Associates have been involved in the long-term planning of the scheme right from the start and for around three years now, so we’re really pleased to be part of the team going forward, along with a number of other professionals who have expertise in developing exciting and innovative projects like the one being undertaken at Upton Hall.”

The realisation of the masterplan will eventually see the refurbishment of Upton Hall – a Grade II* listed building, which is included in the Heritage at Risk register kept by Historic England.

The BHI priority in the masterplan is training and education. This is to address the UK-wide shortage of horologists by creating new training and workshop facilities, allowing the BHI to double the number of students it trains over the coming years.

The facilities created during Saving Time include new clock and watch workshop spaces in a former stable block and glasshouse adjacent to Upton Hall. Saving Time will also include the refurbishment of the ground floor of the west wing of Upton Hall.

Focus, which also has offices in London, Leicester, Boston and Aubourn in Lincolnshire, specialises in creative approaches to securing funding packages and delivering high quality projects across the UK. Since its creation in 1994, Focus has helped to secure more than £953 million of grant assistance for a range of projects and businesses across the UK and delivered more than £1.3 billion of projects and programmes – making it one of the most successful companies of its kind.

For more information visit www.focus-consultants.com 

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

Haughton Honey makes a bee-line for Booths

Cheshire-based business Haughton Honey is celebrating securing its first premium major multiple retailer contract after signing a deal with Booths.

It means the high-quality honey brand will be available on the shelves of Booths outlets across the North West, including Hale Barns and Knutsford stores in Cheshire and at Media City in Salford.

The move marks a key step forward for the brand, which was launched in 2014, said founder Crispin Reeves.

“Booths, with almost 30 stores across Lancashire, Cumbria, Yorkshire, Cheshire and Greater Manchester, is the perfect outlet for Haughton Honey and complements the scores of independent delis, farm shops and retailers that currently stock our pure honey,” said Crispin, who is based at Haughton, near Tarporley.

“This deal is great news for the business, as we expand, and also good news for customers who now have more places where they can buy Haughton Honey.”

Haughton Honey is raw honey which comes straight from the hive, is cold extracted and never pasteurised which means that it retains all of the natural enzymes and proteins that make English honey so special. It is 100% natural and pure, and features traces of dandelion, chestnut, blackberry, clover and other wildflowers.

Haughton Honey is supplied by apiaries locally as well as from around England, all run by experienced bee-keepers, and now has more than 1,600 hives in the cooperative, stretching across the North West and the Midlands, including Cheshire, Staffordshire and Shropshire.

The Booths contract launched at the end of March 2016.

“It has always been our aim to supply Haughton Honey to top-end multiple retailers, such as Booths which has an enviable reputation for its fine food and drink, and we’re delighted that our honey is now on their shelves. It’s a ringing endorsement for us and for our honey,” added Crispin.

For more details, visit www.haughtonhoney.com

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

Welcome back to Nottingham for Orange tree head chef

Chef Ian Martin at the Orange Tree

Chef Ian Martin has returned to his roots in Nottingham and is back in the kitchen he helped to establish more than 12 years ago when he became the first head chef at the Orange tree pub in the city.

Ian has once again taken charge in the kitchen of the popular bar after returning to the city following a spell working abroad.

It’s a venue he knows well. He spent four years there as head chef when the pub opened in 2003.

Ian, 45, said: “It’s great to be back running the kitchen where I was the original head chef when it first launched back in 2003. It was very satisfying to be the launch chef and help to build up the good reputation for food that the Orange tree still has today.

“There’s been a lot of change in Nottingham in that time. There’s much more choice for eating and a much stronger presence from the chains, but there are fewer strong independent pubs, like the Orange tree, in my view.”

Coincidently, there’s another link for Ian to the building that houses the Orange tree on the corner of Shakespeare Street and North Sherwood Street.

Before he joined the Orange tree first time round, he had previously been head chef to Nottingham Forest Football Club, and the Orange tree sits on the site of the building in which the football club was born 150 years ago, in 1865. Then known as the Clinton Arms, it was the venue for a meeting of shinney players – who played a sport similar to hockey – and, when they decided to begin playing football instead, it was the start of Nottingham Forest Football Club.

During Ian’s first spell at the Orange tree, more than a decade ago, the menu was very much targeted at the student market. Now, however, the pub attracts a much wider clientele and the new Spring menu, which has just launched this month, has been designed to reflect that.

His appointment at the Orange tree marks a home-coming for Ian, who grew up in the city where his dad ran various pubs. Classically French trained, he undertook his chef’s training in Nottingham before working at a variety of positions in the region including at Nottingham Forest, where he travelled all over the world with the football team. He also worked as head chef at the county cricket ground at Derby.

After four years at the Orange tree, he moved on to run a bistro restaurant in the Canary Islands, and later became the head chef at a four-star hotel on the islands.

Ian, who is also head chef for Orange tree Weddings and the Orange tree group’s events side of the business, said: “Styles and fashions in food have changed over the years, but I’m really pleased that the Orange tree still has a good reputation for quality food and for a relaxed, laid-back atmosphere. It’s good to have returned to the kitchen here.”

The Orange tree in Nottingham, part of the East Midlands-based independent Orange tree group of bars, serves food daily from noon until 7pm.

Group managing director Gareth Smith said: “We’re delighted to have Ian back at the helm in the kitchens in Nottingham. He knows the group, he knows the Nottingham pub, he knows the kitchen very well, and what’s really important is that he knows our customers.”

For more information, visit www.orangetree.co.uk/nottingham

Press release issued by Nottingham based pr company Perfect 10 PR http://www.perfect10pr.co.uk 

Focus Consultants celebrates Royal Transformation Project funding success

Royal Transformation Project plans

Funding experts at Focus Consultants are celebrating the news that one of the East Midlands’ key arts and entertainment centres has been successful in securing £1.5m from the Arts Council England.

The grant, along with £1.8m from Nottingham City Council, will support the £3.3m Royal Transformation Project being planned by Nottingham’s Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall.

Focus, which is based in the city, worked alongside the Theatre Royal and Royal Concert Hall team to create the masterplan to develop the two venues, and more recently has been the project manager, quantity surveyor and business planner for the successful Arts Council England Round 2 application.

Robert Sanderson, managing director for the venue, said: “We are so delighted in this vote of confidence from the Arts Council England and from Nottingham City Council. I would also like to thank Marsh Grochowski Architects and Focus Consultants who led the professional team, for their expertise, advice and support throughout the bid process.”

Focus, which is based at Phoenix Business Park, Nottingham, and has offices in London, Leicester, and Boston and Aubourn in Lincolnshire, specialises in creative approaches to securing funding packages and delivering high quality projects across the UK. Since its creation in 1994, Focus has helped to secure more than £953 million of grant assistance for a range of projects and businesses across the UK and delivered more than £1.3 billion of projects and programmes – making it one of the most successful companies of its kind.

Focus Partner Steven Fletcher said: “The ambitious programme of building and development works for the Royal Concert Hall and the Theatre Royal is designed to ensure the sustainable future of two of the largest arts and entertainment venues in the East Midlands, and we are very pleased to hear that the Arts Council England Round 2 bid has been successful, paving the way for phase one of the work to begin this summer.”

The Royal Transformation Project aims to increase daytime use of the venues by improving facilities and underused spaces such as meeting rooms, foyer spaces, the café bar and roof terraces.  The project will also see accessibility improvements to ensure that the new facilities can be used by everyone.

Developments include improving the building façade and streetscape on South Sherwood Street by creating a striking two-storey canopy and a new entrance way to both the Theatre Royal and the Royal Concert Hall, remodelling the Box Office and Royal Concert Hall entrance foyer, refurbishing the Royal Concert Hall foyer bars and repositioning the foyer kiosk, enlarging and improving the Theatre Royal’s ground floor café bar and upper floor roof terraces to provide a better dining experience throughout the day, and creating a new street-level outdoor seating and performance area under cover of the new canopy on South Sherwood Street.

Work will take place in two phases - phase 1 during summer and autumn 2016 and Phase 2 during summer and autumn 2017. 

Press release issued by Nottingham based pr company Perfect 10 PR http://www.perfect10pr.co.uk