Are you ready to attract new buyers?

West Sussex County Council has commissioned Natural Partnerships CIC to create an opportunity for the county's food and drink producers to meet and sell to new buyers. This Meet the Buyer Event will be held on 26th February 2018 in West Sussex - spaces are limited, so register below for your stand space! 

 Building up to this, we are managing four fully subsidised workshops to help you get ready to sell to new buyers.

You might make the most delicious product in the world, but a recent survey showed that buyers from retail, wholesale and hospitality businesses often find that local producers don't have everything ready to be able to sell to them, however good your product is. This might be that your pricing isn't quite right; you don't have the right certificates to meet their health and hygiene procurement rules; or your marketing and packaging needs to be more appealing to customers. Or perhaps you've got all this right, but just need a refresher to make sure you're bang up to date. 

The following workshops have been designed, with input from local producers, to help make sure you are ready to sell - and that you are ready to sell to the right buyer for your business. Sign up for any or all of the following workshops now, but be quick places are limited!

Meet the Buyer Event - 12-4pm, 26th February 2018

We can offer free stand spaces to up to 50 West Sussex food and drink producers at a special event, hosted in West Sussex, attended by dozens of buyers from retail, wholesale and hospitality businesses. This will be based on a first come first served basis.

REGISTER HERE

Workshop 1 - The Nuts & Bolts 

Monday 22 January 2018, 2-4.30pm, Bolney Wine Estate

Who are my customers? Costings and pricing. How to distribute. Packaging and design. 

Experts will help you make sure that you have everything in place to get to the exciting part - selling to new customers. 

REGISTER HERE

Workshop 2 - Are you ready to sell?

Monday 29 January 2018, 2-4.30pm, Highdown Vineyard

Legal requirements. Packs for auditing. Preparing for a customer visit. Can you scale up the business?

Experts will help you get the paperwork in place so that you are ready to receive new customers and manage success, without compromising your business and product. 

REGISTER HERE

Workshop 3 - Marketing your products

Monday 12 February 2018, 2-4.30pm, Bolney Wine Estate

Developing your story. Marketing packs - practical exercise. Social media. Public relations. 

Experts will help you through a practical exercise to build your story and prepare your marketing pack to give to buyers, with top tips on supporting your customers through social online and attracting media profile.  

REGISTER HERE

Workshop 4 - Selling your products

Monday 19 February 2018, 2-4.30pm, Highdown Vineyard

Going to a trade show & following up enquiries. Finding the right customers. Relationship building and maintenance. Keeping your products listed. 

Southern Co-op's Local Flavours Sourcing Manager will lead this workshop, with support from a leading local food producer who can add producer insight.

£14.35 Million ERDF Call Launched

Coast to Capital has launched a new £14.35 million European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) call.  This call focuses on Innovation, Business Support and Low Carbon, and whilst the activity must take place in the Coast to Capital area we are looking for bids from organisations across England. Coast to Capital held an event in Horsham last week to launch the funding, which was both well attended and well received. Read the full press release here. 

£27 Million for Regional Projects

Coast to Capital has announced that 10 projects from across the region will be provided funding from the final phase of Growth Deal 1 and Growth Deal 2. A total of £27 million has been allocated in the areas of Housing, Regeneration & Infrastructure; Business, Enterprise & Skills; and Transport. The approved projects are subject to due diligence and final checks and will provide 810 new homes, 2,651 new jobs, 34,762 square metres of Commercial Space and 7,953 square metres of Learning Space. Read the full list of projects here. 

First Rampion power is delivered to the national grid

The first of Rampion Offshore Wind Farm's 116 turbines has started generating electricity, with the others set to follow as they are commissioned and turned on one by one in the coming months.

Delivering first power to the grid is a significant milestone for the project, as it moves from the construction phase towards full operation.

The installation of all the turbines was completed in September in just six months, with the two MPI jack-up vessels - Discovery and Adventure - working around the clock to get the job done.

Installing the final turbine was a major milestone but since the last newsletter, work has also included completion of the project's electrical infrastructure, which is less visible but no less vital for the wind farm.

Offshore, this meant the burial of all 144 kilometres of array cables, which connect the turbines to the offshore substation, as well as the completion of the offshore substation itself. Onshore, all 26.8 kilometres of cables are now installed and working, and the substation at Twineham is also operating. The first power generated by Rampion was delivered to the grid on 26th November. Teams of technicians working inside the turbines and onshore in the control rooms will continue carrying out final work required for each turbine to start producing electricity.

All turbines are due to be generating power later in 2018 when the wind farm will be fully operational.

Click here to read the rest of the Rampion newsletter 

Seasons Greeting from Rampion

For the past seven years, during the development and construction of the Rampion Offshore Windfarm, we have been proudly supporting the Sussex-based international charity, 'Renewable World' and their work to tackle poverty through renewable energy.

The funds donated during this time have enabled Renewable World to change the lives of those living in some of the poorest communities in the world; providing them with a clean and sustainable source of energy to light homes, pump clean water and power small businesses.

Over the years, instead of buying Christmas cards our support has equated to the installation of 50 solar panels, which can generate electricity for 4 solar-powered water pumping systems, giving 30 Nepali families access to their own tap water right outside their home.

Find out more information about the work of Renewable World visit
www.renewable-world.org

Teville Gate: We are underway, says council, as hoardings go up 

The first stage of the redevelopment of Worthing's Teville Gate is now evident as the installation of the hoardings that will surround the whole site begin to go up.

Concrete ballast blocks which will anchor the hoardings are currently being delivered and the work to seal off the site will take three weeks.

In a separate development Worthing Borough Council has confirmed it has put out the tender for the demolition of the multi-storey car park.

The Council has injected fresh impetus into the Teville Gate project by securing funding for the demolition of the only part of the site it controls, the car park, in a bid to accelerate redevelopment on the wider site.

To help keep everyone informed about the demolition, two large banners will adorn the car park before it comes down telling passers-by that the project is undertaken by Worthing Borough Council supported by Coast to Capital Local Enterprise Partnership, ECE Architecture and RLF consultants.

Councillor Kevin Jenkins, Worthing Borough Council's deputy leader and executive member for regeneration, said: “I am pleased the Council has taken the lead on this. We wanted to show our commitment to making things happen on this key site and I think people can see as the hoardings go up that this is an important first step forward. It demonstrates our determination of Building Worthing.

“We can only really affect what we control and that is the car park. But of course it forms part of the plans to transform the whole site so we wanted to show that we are prepared to lead the way, kickstarting the regeneration for residents now and for the generations to come.

“We very much look forward to seeing the owners of the site Mosaique develop their plans working with them to bring the long overdue renaissance of this gateway area of Worthing to fruition.”

The Council has a long-term lease on the car park which has enabled it to move for demolition.

Mosaique, who own the site, has announced plans to build build houses, retail and office space on the site which it now calls Station Square.

Earlier this year Aized Sheikh, CEO of Mosaique said: “We have invested heavily in Worthing because we see its potential as a rising star on the South Coast.”

The hoardings will seal off the site and allow preparatory work to take place ahead of work commencing in the new year.

When the hoardings are up the thoroughfare that commuters use through the middle of the development will be closed, subject to permission by the highways authority West Sussex County Council.

A small car park, also controlled by West Sussex County Council, will no longer be in use.

In addition, the underpass at the multi-storey car park which connects to the Morrisons superstore side of the A24 will also no longer be in use.

The Council has committed to creating clear signage from the railway station to both the town centre and the superstore when those routes are blocked off early in the new year.

Although West Sussex County Council is the highways authority, officials at Worthing Borough Council are asking politely for motorists not to park on the site and find alternatives nearby.

The West Sussex Plan 

This ambitious plan sets out where the county will be in five years’ time.

It looks in detail at how the County Council, on behalf of our communities, can support our children, our older people, our businesses and our place.

Through the West Sussex Plan, the County Council will concentrate our efforts on delivering on five key outcome priorities, for all our communities, these are:

· Best Start in Life

· A Prosperous Place

· A Strong, Safe and Sustainable Place

· Independence for Later Life

· A Council that Works for the Community

The Plan has been refreshed in order to reflect the focus and priorities of the authority for the next five years.

It reflects the policy priorities following the recent County Council elections and is an evolution of the previous “Future West Sussex Plan”.

The full Plan can be accessed on our website here.

I look forward to working with you to deliver our key outcome priorities for our residents and businesses over the next five years.

Yours sincerely,

Merry Christmas from Glide Training - a FREE online Excel course

Here's an early Christmas present from the good folks at Glide Training - a link to access our online course "Speed Through Excel With Autofill" totally FREE!

With over half an hour of video content, interactive quizzes and a downloadable reference sheet, this course gives you all you need to use Autofill to speed up your day-to-day activities on Excel.  

No fee, no catch. A good old-fashioned freebie, no more no less. 

http://glidetraining.thinkific.com/courses/speed-through-excel-with-autofill

Merry Christmas and here's hoping for an enjoyable and prosperous New Year. 

Best wishes, 
Jane and Frank at Glide Training

Baked - Cake with a cause 

Year 7 students from Worthing High School took part in a business enterprise event called BAKED on the 6^th December. They arrived first thing in the morning in their preselected teams of 10 and were introduced to their nominated Business Partners who supported their teams throughout the challenge. The Business Partners were a group of West Sussex based business leaders and owners from many differing professions and industries including, Prosperon Networks, Nay Nay’s Salon, Always Possible, ETI, Tipton Marketing, Pixel Internet, The Orchard Café, Santander bank, Seriously Sorted, Fresh Egg, White Box, Worthing College, Bald Designs, Care UK, Gauntlet Price, HM Revenue and Customs and Clean Cut gardening. ‘The students were a credit to the school and were actively questioning their own assumptions and learning loads about their own abilities to innovate and collaborate.’ Richard Freeman CEO of Always Possible 

The day ran as a partner event with Lauren Roffey who left Worthing High in 2002 and now owns a café in Worthing called Baked. She has a passion for entrepreneurial activity and chocolate brownies!

The students were welcomed and attended individual workshops which included: Finance, Production, Design, Leadership and Marketing. They then feed back to the team so everyone knew what each other’s roles and responsibilities were. The teams then set about their task to plan, design, create and sell a cake showing the judges their ability to work together and to create a viable business.

‘I found the whole experience extremely rewarding and was really proud of the creativeness from all the students. They are all really talented individuals - many of them clearly have a good grasp of business and will be great leaders in the future.’ Mark Schools of HMRC.

During the course of the day the judges looked at every aspect of their businesses and selected the finalists who then did a sales pitch to a panel of experts. It was hotly contested and Team 20 (Cakes R Us) won. Alice Thompson from Year 7 student and from the winning team said; ‘I really enjoyed the day and I now know what it is like to run a business, we had to work really hard and we all had our jobs to do. Luke Brice from Clean Cut Gardening was our Business Partner and he really helped us succeed.’.

‘I think Worthing High is doing a phenomenal job teaching core values to young people, whilst also building resilience and self-motivation.’ Naomi Oliver Owner of Nay Nay’s Salon

‘It was great to step outside of the everyday business environment and work with such a fantastic group of children for the day. I really enjoyed getting to know them, helping them explore their different skills and bring these into the business enterprise challenge. It was so interesting to see the students grow in confidence throughout the day and all the different personalities and skill-sets coming together. You have a hugely talented group of children at the school, many of which you can already see are really passionate about certain subjects and personal interests. Given that they’re only just at the start of their high school careers, it’s very exciting to think what they might bring to the world of business in the future!’ Nicky Moody Project Director of Fresh Egg

‘I am so pleased the day went so well. Having the whole year group engaged in such an ambitious task was a challenge but thanks to the support of the local Business Partners students were able to flourish. Worthing High School is really grateful for having such a positive business support network for its student’s employability progression and entrepreneurial experiences.’ said Phil Dean-Business Partnership and Careers Manager at Worthing High School.

Contact details:

Karen Hayler, Business Development Manager, Worthing High School

01903 229275 email khayler@worthinghigh.net

Highdown Gardens wins lottery funding for project to protect its future

Worthing’s world-famous gardens at Highdown have received a major boost with the award of Lottery funding to help preserve their future.

The gardens, internationally important because they are home to hundreds of rare and exotic plants and trees uniquely grown on chalk soil, are visited by tens of thousands of people every year.

Worthing Borough Council, which owns and maintains the gardens, has now successfully applied for Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) money to develop a long-term survival plan for the landmark which is open free to the public.

The Fund has awarded almost £100,000 to the Council to develop a new plan for the 8.5 acre-gardens which will include;

·        Action to preserve plants which could be crucial to stopping extremely rare specimens becoming extinct

·        The establishment of breeding processes to ensure the survival of the rare plants.

·        The building of a new visitor centre to tell the story of the gardens and its surrounding landscape

·        Plans to tell the fascinating story of the originator of the gardens, Sir Frederick Stern, and his contribution to worldwide horticulture

·        Proposals to develop community ownership of the gardens through a full volunteer programme

Worthing Borough Council’s Executive Member for the Environment, Cllr Diane Guest, said; “I’m delighted to hear about the award of HLF Stage One money. Highdown Gardens is a jewel in our crown and I think the Council can be justifiably proud of our work keeping Sir Frederick Stern’s legacy intact.

“However this money will allow us to develop a plan which will preserve the future of Highdown, its important plant collection and increase enjoyment for the tens of thousands of visitors who enjoy the gardens every year.”

Highdown was designated a National Collection in 1989 to recognise that Sir Frederick had proved something most experts told him he could not; to grow plants on terrain with just a few inches of soil above chalk. Chalky soils are notoriously difficult to grow on.

Sir Frederick moved to Highdown Towers, now a hotel and restaurant, in 1909 and began a project to expand and develop a garden using exotic plants brought back from places such as China and Bhutan by intrepid hunters.

He left the gardens to the Council after his death in 1967. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of the Council taking ownership. Now the authority wants to bring the story of the gardens to life and begin plans to create an archive of all materials, letters and, plant records concerning Stern’s project for the use of garden researchers and visitors.

Plans are also being developed to catalogue the number of different species in the garden, protect the valuable plants from damage, improve disabled access, extend opening hours in the summer, rebuild the greenhouses and provide interactive displays for families.

The Council now has a year to bring together more research and costing for the projects, involve partners and then submit a full second round application for the full cost of the scheme.