Category: Business News

A THAME cafe has this week launched a scheme which will see 10% of the money paid for every milk shake purchased, go towards buying a cow for a family in Africa.

The Well, in North Street, Thame, is now offering a milkshake bar selling every imaginable flavour from Mars bars to Marmite!

The Buy a Cow scheme is in association with Oxfam and The Well aims to send a whole field full of cows over the coming months!

Over the next few weeks, images of Clarissa the Cow will be appearing everywhere.

The Well is now open all day until 10pm on Fridays and Saturdays for what they are calling, their Coffee and Pudding Nights – Cafe Culture in Thame for all!

WAITROSE Supermarket has opened its smallest branch so-far, at the Welcome Break Service Station, at Wheatley.

The store will mean 25 new jobs for local people and is the first in a planned succession of outlets at other Welcome Break service stations.

THAME FIRST is currently planning its second Thame Food Festival, to be held on Saturday, September 26, 2009.

Once again, the festival will be based in and around the Town Hall with the aim of supporting local food producers, pubs and restaurants to provide a different platform to promote their business. Thame First is inviting all local food and drink outlets to get involved.

There will be stalls outside the Town Hall with demonstrations inside, including Beverley Glock, of Splat Cooking, the Times newspaper’s Children?s Food writer. She will be running a children?s cookery workshop and there will also be an Indian cookery workshop. Arrangements are still in their infancy and other workshops will take place.

The cost for a stall is

AROUND 160 jobs in Haddenham have been lost, after a leading local employer was forced to go into administration.

The marketing and sales company, Jenks, which handled accounts for some of the top consumer brands, told its staff yesterday that it had been unable to refinance the struggling business.

THERE is to be a Late Breakfast – Building a Better Business Event in Thame on Thursday, May 21, at The Spread Eagle Hotel, Cornmarket Thame OX9 2BW, between 9 – 10.30 am.

This month’s event will include a presentation:
Modern Marketing – by Christine Rayner ACIM DipM
of Tangram Ltd.

? How does traditional marketing interlink with modern marketing?

? Why is it important to do both?

? How does the balance work?

Marketing is at the heart of every business but how do you mix the new with the traditional in a cost effective and efficient way without breaking the budget?
Christine has been working with small businesses creating effective cost effective marketing plans for almost 12 years.

You can book or simply turn up on the day. Either way the entry fee of

THE future economic development of Thame is in danger of stalling if the town council fails to give its support to the draft Economic Development plan currently being put together by South Oxfordshire District Council.

This was one of the conclusions made by the Leader of the district council, Ann Ducker, when asked today (06/05/09) about the progress of Thame’s Economic Development plan.

Economic Development plans for all four market towns in the district came about after wide consultations and work shops throughout the district and both Henley and Wallingford are already implementing parts of their plans.

After submitting its views on the proposed plan after the closing date, Thame Town Council’s comment was that it was “unfit for purpose,” said Mrs Ducker.

“Since then, we have met with the Town Clerk and the Mayor of Thame and other councillors, but they did not seem to have a lot of time for the plan. The council has been asked for its own ideas on the future economic development of the town but so far, they had not been received by SODC.”

“We need those ideas,” said Mrs Ducker, so that others in the process can consider them alongside what has already been proposed.”

She added, “We need to keep the impetus going for this plan and are trying to find some way to push it on. The SEEDA (South East Economic Development Agency) funding available to take these plans forward, is soon to be reduced and Thame could miss out.”

Mrs Ducker concluded: “We like partnerships and we would of course like Thame Town Council on board, but we cannot afford to stand still.”

Today, Wednesday (06/05/09), the Mayor of Thame, Don Butler, said that a letter with the town council’s views and ideas had been sent yesterday, (Tuesday) and that he felt unable to comment further.

Photo: Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council, Ann Ducker.

A THAME businessman is offering a reward for information leading to the prosecution of the vandals that daubed obscene graffiti on the new shelter at Thame’s skate park.

International Watch Specialist, Matthew Cundy, owner of Kismet Jewellers in Thame’s Buttermarket, is so disappointed by the way that this amazing new facility has been treated, by what he calls “a few selfish youngsters,” that he has offered a

THE owner and staff of a Thame hair salon gave up some of their training day time to re-plant flower beds in a local car park today.

Adam Buckland, owner of Brothers Hair Salon in Buttermarket, Thame, worked with his staff to raise money through a ‘mufty’ day and raffle in the salon, to buy plants, stones and pebbles to improve the environment of the car park behind the Co-op in Thame.

Local garden designer (and regular contributor to ThameNews.Net), Jane Folis, drew up a design for the planting and purchased the plants at a special discount from one of her suppliers – in exchange for a free hair cut.

Local stone merchant, Stone World, provided hard landscaping materials at a discount.

Today’s project was the second in a series of sixth-weekly days out on training days for Adam’s young staff, aimed at improving the environment, team building amongst his staff and encouraging them to be community minded, well-rounded people.

Photo: Brothers’ owner, Adam Buckland and his young staff take a rest from beautifying borders instead of ‘barnets’ this afternoon (21/04/09).

LOCAL businesses are being offered the opportunity to use the challenge of climate change to generate new commerical opportunities.

? Hear from business owners who have already used the
green agenda to drive their businesses forward.
? Question and answer session with a panel of
industry experts including Envirowise, Business
Link, Click-on Logistrics and BC Strategies.
? Hear why large company, Amey, are seeking
environmentally friendly lower carbon suppliers
from the local area.

FREE event & refreshments

Roadshow Dates and Venues
12th May – Didcot – Cornerstone Arts Centre
26th May – Witney – Corn Exchange
2nd JUNE ** – THAME ? SPREADEAGLE HOTEL – THAME
24th June ? Chipping Norton ? Crown and Cushion
21st July – Abingdon ? Council Chamber, Guildhall
18th August – Faringdon ? Faringdon Business Centre
15th Sept ? Oxford City ?Town Hall
30th Sept ? Henley – Thames Room, Henley River &
Rowing Museum
8th October ? Wantage ? Lains Barn
27th October – Wallingford ? South Oxfordshire
District Council offices

To book:
Call Business Link: 0845 600 9 006 quoting your preferred date, quoting ?Make Money from Climate Change?.
Or email info@businesslinksolutions.co.uk
More information ? email sue.priest@ems2.com

Programme:
Introductions
Business Link and the Federation of Small Businesses
Scene setting
Climate change overview ? Sue Priest of Ems2
Pressures for low carbon procurement: Patricia Wainwright, Keith Sexton or John Culley of Amey
Case Studies
A set of three case studies presented by local business owners showing how they have changed their companies to offer new products or services to help with climate change.
Question and Answer Panel
Our speakers will be joined on the expert panel by:
Envirowise, Business Link, Click-on Logistics and BC Strategies of Operation Ostrich.

Sponsored by the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership, FSB and Business Link with support from the Oxfordshire Town Chambers Network, the District and City Councils, our speakers and Envirowise.

Photo: Courtesy of conservationvalue.blogspot.com

SWITCHED on business owners in the Thame area know that, despite ‘doom and gloom’ in the media, there are still ways to keep their businesses growing.

Nearly 60 of them met at the Barns Centre on Wednesday, March 25, to take part in a Sales and Marketing Masterclass presented by two of the area?s leading business trainers.

Cat Young of STW, a Thame-based web agency, and Trese Rowe of Amplia, a leading sales consultancy operating out of Streatley, shared their ideas to a packed room. Cat Young revealed her method for optimising websites to gain more leads and Trese Rowe explained how ?what customers are buying? is more important than what you?re selling.

The popularity of the event indicated that switched-on business owners are keen to keep their businesses growing in the face of the current financial climate and that there is life in the economy yet, especially for enterprising organisations.

For smaller businesses their means of survival will be to find quicker and cheaper ways to gain more business, and so they are turning to online marketing. As Cat explained, promoting your business online is flexible, quick, affordable and measurable and as more and more of us use the Internet to shop, businesses need to have a strong online presence to share in that growing market.

Improving your marketing is just the first step. As Trese explained, businesses must recognise that customers buy the outcome not the product or service. The end result could be increased profit, less wasted effort, a more relaxed lifestyle or less down time.

“We don?t buy products and services for their own sake,” explained Trese. “We buy what they can do for us. Good sales techniques help us identify what the potential customer really wants and then we can shape our offering to help them achieve this.”

Nicky Angell, who attended the event on behalf of Business Link, one of the sponsors, said: “I thought the seminar went really well today. There was a huge queue of people at the end waiting to sign up for more help!”

As the event was free to attend, STW asked for donations for their chosen charity, The Hearing Dogs for Deaf People. Not only did the local charity provide information to display, the event was honoured with a visit from Rio and her trainer Hannah.

It would be unfair to Cat Young and Trese Rowe to say that Rio was the star of the show, but she certainly was a crowd puller!