Category: Business News

TRIBUTES and good wishes to the couple who have run a Thame cafe for five years, have been paid recently, including many on Facebook, following the news that they have given up the business and that the cafe has been taken over by a new proprietor.

The first many local people knew that Time Out, the popular cafe at the top of the High Street, had closed, was when builders moved in early last week, and a sign outside indicated that the cafe, now to be known as Treacle’s Tea Rooms, will be re-opening on Tuesday – tomorrow (August 12).

Jeremy and Helen, who opened Time Out in 2009, messaged their friends and customers on their facebook page: “To all our lovely fans and friends; As some of you already know, we have decided to move on from Time Out.
This was a very hard decision but after five amazing years we’ve decided to move on and do something new.

“Time Out will be taken over by a lady called Dawn who has some really great ideas and will be continuing with many of your favourite Time Out treats. We think you’ll really love what she’s got planned!

“Thank you all so much for your loyalty and friendship over the years. It has been a real honour serving you and getting to know you. We are really going to miss everyone! We are very sad to be leaving but excited to begin the next chapter in our lives.”

Regular customer, Jo Noble, spoke for many when she responded: “We will miss you, the great friendly service & the lovely food; but completely understand the need to move on & hopefully be able to enjoy having a cup of coffee yourselves one day!”

Time out is the second Thame shop to change hands in the last few weeks. The Lovely Shop in Swan Walk was recently taken over by My sweet Art Creations, a party venue and sweet shop. The new owners, sisters Sabrina Vickery and Alicia Wallace, describe it as: “…a retro style sweetshop with a party and celebration venue attached, as well as a craft work shop making sweet creations and more.

“We will have a range of crafts to buy and kits to make in store and make away. We will also have our ideas area for customer to feel inspired by. Our sweet cart will be on display in the shop which will be available for hire, Our sweet art creations to buy and order and the famous slushy machine!

Children’s parties, adult parties, hen parties all types of celebrations available to book day or evenings. We can even help with styling of upcoming weddings! “

THE provision of life-saving defibrillators that can be used by the public, is growing and growing and a fourth has been installed in Chinnor thanks to the fundraising efforts of Chinnor BUZZ, an independent group of local businesses.

More than £2,000 was raised from a quiz night organised by the group, just enough to pay for the purchase and installation of the new defibrillator, as well as a pager for use by the local First Responders. The defibrillator has been installed outside the Wheatsheaf pub in Chinnor.

Chinnor now has four defibrillators located strategically around the village. These modern defibrillators are very easy to use and provide spoken instructions to guide anyone through the process of using them to try to restart the heart of a casualty who has suggered cardiac arrest. A training day for residents was also held to help make them feel at ease using the equipment.

Fiona Mantle, a Community First Responder and a Chinnor Parish Councillor, said: “I’d like to thank Chinnor BUZZ for their fundraising efforts. Chinnor is now very well equipped in terms of defibrillators, which provide a very useful addition to the existing Community First Responders Team. I’m sure the defibrillators will help save lives over the coming years.”

THAME based tractor and groundcare specialist, Kubota UK, is continuing its pledge to support the local Thame community as part of its 35-year celebrations. Kubota has recently sponsored Thame Football Club with the loan of a B20 Series compact tractor and a donation of £2,000 for the Kubota Arena.

The B1620 multi-task tractor will be used for brushing the artificial turf of the Kubota Arena, a floodlit 3G Astro pitch. The small tractor will enable them to de-compact the playing surface with regular brushing and sweeping of the rubber crumb overlay.

Frank Thompson, General Manager of Thame Football Club partnership, commented: “We’re delighted to be in partnership with Kubota here at Meadow View Park and would like to thank them for their support of our junior teams. The B1620 tractor and our current Kubota model will be essential in maintaining and cutting our eight pitches, which covers 20 acres of land in total.”

Adrian Langmead, Business Development Manager at Kubota, said: “We’re thrilled to be involved in Thame Football Club as part of one of our many initiatives to support Thame and our local community, which has been our home for 35 years.”

As part of Kubota’s 35-year celebrations, Kubota has also supplied Thame Council with the donation of a Kubota RTV900 to help council workers keep the town looking its best. They also joined the festivities of Thame Carnival with an open day and demonstrations at their Thame head office, as well as running Kubota floats and a selection of RTVs in the carnival procession.

For more information about Kubota, visit http://www.kubota.co.uk or call 01844 268000

SOURCE: From an original article in http://www.yourguides.net/

THOMLEY Activity Centre near Thame, which specialises in providing play and activities for young people with special needs, received a huge boost this week when an Oxford Accountancy firm made a very generous donation.

Oxford accountants, Shaw Gibbs, had made the centre its Charity of the Year 2013, and the money was raised by the employees in a variety of activities including bake sales and prize draws, auctions for the office reception flowers each Friday and quarterly ‘dress down Fridays.’

The whole firm was involved in one way or another over the course of the year. One donation of £200 came from a refund at a restaurant, which the Shaw Gibbs employees chose to donate to Thomley Activity Centre. Staff also organised a boxing night by showing old boxing matches on TV and charging for entry. At Christmas they donated to the charity instead of buying Christmas cards to give to each other.

Hannah Cartlidge, Facilities Manager at Shaw Gibbs, coordinated the fundraising efforts. She presented Harriet Hieatt-Smith of Thomley Activity Centre with a cheque for £3,892.81 at the Centre on Friday, (July 11). Accepting the cheque, Harriet said:  “It has meant a great deal to Thomley to have been chosen as Shaw Gibbs’ charity of the year. Having been our accountants, Shaw Gibbs know how careful we are to spend donors’ money wisely, ensuring we provide the best possible service for our beneficiaries whilst keeping our costs manageable and sustainable.

“We are grateful to the staff at Shaw Gibbs for all their hard work to raise this fantastic amount, helping us to support the thousands of disabled young people and families that visit our centre each year.”

Hannah Cartlidge of Shaw Gibbs added: “Thomley Activity Centre is a very welcoming, accommodating facility which provides activities for young disabled people within a completely safe environment, as well as providing much-needed support for their parents and carers.

“The main focus of the charity is to instill confidence, teach life skills and encourage a feeling of inclusion, for young people of all ages and all needs.”

YOU Ltd – change your life by applying the principles of accounts to your own finances! That’s the title of the talk to be given at this month’s Late Breakfast meeting for local businesses on Thursday, July, 17,  by Greg Lovett of Fizz Accounting in Thame.

The Late Breakfast event will be in the Eden Suite at The Spread Eagle Hotel, 16-17 Cornmarket, Thame, OX9 2BW and runs from 9.00 – 10.30am.

The entry fee is £12 (including light refreshments) More information and booking details HERE

A new online one-stop shop for advice and information has been launched to help businesses across South Oxfordshire, and those looking to locate into the area.

www.southoxbiz.co.uk offers a wide range of support and information sources for businesses of all sizes. The new site, which is being administered by South Oxfordshire District Council, contains useful information, research and statistics on the district, details how the council is supporting market towns and rural employers, identifies specific resources to assist tourist based businesses, and gives details of news and events that maybe of interest to local organisations.

SouthOxBiz also has its own Twitter feed @southoxbiz, which will help to keep businesses up to date with latest news, and outlines the ‘ambassador scheme’ that the council will launch later this year that will connect influential members of the South Oxfordshire business community, provide a forum to help smaller businesses, and will also help to spread news and advice across the district.

SouthOxBiz was launched by South Oxfordshire District Council as a way of providing an easy to use resource for local businesses and support for the council’s corporate priorities of ‘building the local economy’ and ‘supporting business growth in appropriate locations across the district’.

READ more about www.Southoxbiz on South Oxfordshire District Council’s website: http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/news/2014/2014-06/online-hub-launched-support-businesses-south-oxfordshire

A team of volunteers from Thame-based tractor, groundcare and construction machinery specialist Kubota have raised over £1,000 after taking part in the charity bike ride, Mix96 Tour de Vale, held on Sunday, June 8.

The team of 27 Kubota employees cycled over 1,000 miles in total, on 15, 35 and 55 mile courses, starting and finishing at Stoke Mandeville Stadium and travelling through Buckinghamshire countryside and villages.

The event was in aid of Wheel Power, a national charity providing opportunities, facilities and equipment to enable disabled people to play sport and lead healthy, active lives.

Kubota is hoping to secure further donations to increase its fundraising total to £1,500 in total, in order to help Wheel Power beat last year’s fundraising effort, when £34,000 was donated.

Dave Roberts, Managing Director of Kubota UK, commented: “Our team have trained hard over the past few months and we’re pleased to be raising money for this fantastic Buckinghamshire based charity that we feel very passionate about.

“We had an enthusiastic response throughout the company and people of all levels of cycling experience signed up to help with our fundraising efforts. There was a great atmosphere at the event and we were proud to be part of the great turn out.

“Any further sponsorship we can raise following the race from local residents and employers will be a great help as every little donation will assist Wheel Power and the fantastic work they do in our community.”

For more information about how you can donate visit http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/kubota

THAME based manufacturer, Kubota UK, will continue its 35-year celebrations this month by taking part in the Thame Carnival which is to be held in the town centre.

The groundcare and construction specialist, which has had its home in Thame, Oxon, since 1979, will take part in the yearly celebration as a thank you to the local community that has played a big role in the continued success of the brand.

The theme for this year’s event is ‘The world of Sport’ and Kubota will be dressing a range of its machinery and taking part in a number of activities throughout the day in celebration.

To kick things off, Kubota will be hosting an open day at its factory from 9.30-11.30am, where they will invite the local community to come in and take a look around. On display will be a range of tractors and excavators, with on-going demonstrations throughout the morning showing how the world famous Kubota engines are put to use.

At midday, the festivities will continue with two decorated Kubota floats and a selection of RTVs joining the carnival procession.

The brand will also display a big marquee in the recreation ground where they will hold activities for all the family including kids games such as ‘throw the ball in the excavator bucket’ and tractor rides around a specially built track. All funds that are raised by Kubota on the day of the event will be given to the chosen charities of Thame Town Council.
Dave Roberts, Kubota UK Managing Director, commented: “Thame has been our UK home for many years, employing over 100 staff, and we’re extremely proud to continue to play a role in this thriving community.

“The Kubota brand has gone from strength to strength since we first set down roots here, with many of our staff born and raised in the area.

“it is great for us to get involved in such a popular local event and give something back to the local people that have been a great support to us.”

For more information about Kubota,  visit www.kubota.co.uk or call 01844 268000.