Category: Business News

THAME based hotel company Travelodge, victoriously reclaimed their championship title from Fosse City FC recently in a friendly charity match with an impressive 5-2 win – and raised over

DUBBLE SUCCESS !! Pupils from John Hampden Primary School in Thame were rewarded by the local branch of the Co-Operative supermarket for their commitment to Fairtrade in an achievement assembly at their school last week.
Year 5 pupils had been working on a project about chocolate ? from bean to bar ? and learnt that the cocoa grown in Mim, a village in Ghana, was used to produce the Fairtrade ?Dubble? chocolate bar. But when it came to tasting it the children were disappointed to discover that the only place they could buy it from locally was at the Oxfam shop.

So, the children wrote to the management of the Thame Co-Op, who sell a large range of Fairtrade goods, to try to persuade them to sell the Dubble bar in their store. They were delighted that their letters were answered very promptly ?.AND with the news that they?d hoped for!

Within days the Co-Op were selling Dubble in their Fairtrade caf

A LOCAL mum has come up with an original way to cloth babies and toddlers and save money.
The Stork Exchange, a new second hand clothing agency in Thame, will be specifically for mums-to-be and children under two.
The Stork Exchange is somewhere you can sell on your maternity wear and baby clothes to other people in an uncomplicated and trouble free manner with no postage or listings to worry about. What?s more, you can buy the next stage too – seeing it for yourself first – from maternity through to 24 months.

Shelley, who came up with the idea for The Stork Exchange, said. “It all started when I discovered that having a newborn and a toddler meant absolutely no time to get my outgrown baby clothes listed on auction sites.
“My tots were growing fast and with limited local clothing outlets, I was also buying a lot of things from the internet. After being disappointed for the umpteenth time with something I had bought this way (colour not as pictured, too small, postage fees) I started talking to other mums with young families in the area and discovered that many of us were in the same predicament. And so The Stork Exchange was created.
“All the items are good quality new or nearly new clothes from designers and the high street, so you can dress yourself and your little one at a fraction of the normal price.
“It?s taken months of planning, some sleepless nights and a lot of hard work and now we?re ready to open!”

The Stork Exchange will be launched at Christchurch, Thame from 10.30am, on June 21.

The website will support all local businesses and events to do with families plus enable mums to advertise other items that they no longer require, all free, so it has a communiity feel to it as well.

Visit the website at: www.the-stork-exchange.co.uk

OXFORDSHIRE’S economic leaders want to know how your business is being effected by the so-called ‘credit crunch’ and oil price increases.
Oxfordshire Town Chambers Network, OTCN is one of a number of organisations, led by the Oxfordshire Economic Partnership, canvassing the views of local businesses by asking them to take part in a survey on the issues.
You can take part via OTCN’s website at www.otcn.co.uk. It takes 5 minutes to answer the questions and there is scope to make additional comments.

The survey will be live until June 20.

A LARGE proportion of The Natural Cafe chain, which included an outlet in Thame High Street and which was taken into Administration, has been sold off.
A spin-off business of Costa Coffee, Marco Costa’s
Caf

EMPLOYEES at the Pied Pedaller in Thame, will not lose their jobs, following the sale of the retail chain, Toyzone, of which the toy shop in North Street is a branch.
Youngsters, together with its retail chain, Toyzone, has been bought by J A Magson Ltd, of York.

Although 40 people at Youngsters’ head office in Watlington have received redundancy notices, all 20 Toyzone stores will remain open for business and all 200 jobs preserved.

THE company behind Toyzone, which owns the Pied Pedaller toy shop in Thame, has been taken into Administration.
Youngsters, the company behind all 20 Toyzone stores, found that conditions over the Christmas period, which is traditionally the peak time for toy retailers, were tougher than expected, resulting in increased cash flow pressure which the company can no longer sustain.
The Administrator says that it is now “reviewing options” and hopes to secure a buyer for the business and its assets but that all 20 stores will carrying on trading while a buyer is sought.

It would seem that in the City, analysts are predicting a rise in the rate of businesses defaulting on loan agreements as consumers cut back on spending in the face of climbing mortgage bills.

AS well as seeing the closure of Adrian Mills’ gift shop, Mi Casa this week, another Thame retailer has ceased trading.
The company that owns The Natural Cafe, in the High Street, which only opened last May, has gone into Receivership.
However, on a more positive front, the old Woolwich Building society building in Cornmarket, Thame, is to be opened as an eco-friendly clothing store.
The Mi Casa shop is to be taken over by the Douglas House Hospice Charity, based in Oxford.
All good wishes for the future went to Adrian Mills last night, at a meeting of Thame First (formerly Thame and District Chamber of Commerce. Adrian has been a stalwart of the organisation for over four years, particularly taking the lead in the Thame Christmas event of 2006.

Photo: Adrian Mills, outside his shop, Mi Casa which closes its doors for the last time on Saturday.

As part of the support for this year’s Thame Festival, Thame Fm 87.9 plans to broadcast a local radio service for a three week period from Saturday, May 31 to Sat June 21.
Thame Fm will broadcast news and information on the Festival events along with details and awareness of other local community groups in the Thame, Long Crendon, Haddenham, Chinnor and Princes Risborough area.
The station will be music led and play a cross section of popular Classic Hits of the 60?s, 70?s and 80?s along with selected 90?s and quality current hits. Local businesses are invited to take the opportunity to advertise on Thame Fm 87.9 at highly competitive rates. The station will reach up to 30,000 people who live within the transmission area.

Advertising Rates
8 x 30 second spots per day =

HELENE CUENOD, from Thame’s twin French town of Montesson, is looking for a summer job in England.
Helene is in her 2nd year at INSA Lyon (Institut National des Sciences Appliqu