Lives of Colour in Gloucestershire
It began by accident for Florence Nyasamo-Thomas, but a decade-plus on she leads an organisation helping Gloucestershire better understand race and diversity - and one getting government recognition.
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Dear readers,
We hope you had a great weekend. For fans of Gloucester Rugby, it was probably the very best start to a weekend they could have wished for. A massive congratulations to the club and everyone at Kingsholm on Friday night who made it so incredible.
It was a great way to finish a pretty good week here at The Raikes Journal too. Figures for all three of our editions were very pleasing, as was the reaction on social media (we usually share on Linkedin, with a little X and a smattering of Facebook thrown in).
We have a host of stories queuing up for you this week, and to be honest don’t know what order we are going to serve them up for you yet. An interview with the man behind one of the county’s most exciting and potentially transformative developments, some insight into exciting places already afoot at Cheltenham Chamber, a serious warning for any business about energy contracts and more!
But back to today (Monday). We awoke this morning to an email from one of Gloucestershire’s most financially successful and able businessmen, Bob Holt, who seems very much on the front foot. We’ve included just a few words below which gives you some idea what he is up to.
And this evening (5pm) we’re heading over to Brickhampton Court Golf Complex to listen to three county businesses talking about Business as a Force for Good – QuoLux (which is staging the event), Creed Foodservice and Hobbs House Bakery.
Please do continue to bear us in mind for your stories and ideas. The best email currently is andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk. Or telephone 07956 926061.
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* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (we’ve already let you know about QuoLux and more partners will be revealed over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. The support from all of you is invaluable! For commercial opportunities visit our About page. To get in touch email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.
Why today’s main story?
When The Raikes Journal re-launched as a community interest company at the start of February it vowed to look to offer an alternative to the maelstrom of press releases and social media posts, slow it all down a little and offer something extra.
We wanted to pause for a moment and take a proper look at some of the stories whizzing by all of us, put the magnifying glass over some of the businesses, charities and education and training providers and really look at what they are doing and why.
And we wanted to discover some new heroes. Or, at least, introduce more people to those individuals and teams that have been achieving great things right beneath our noses. And in Florence Nyasamo-Thomas (see below) we have found one.
Her approach and that of our colleagues in the group Lives of Colour is to work with her community, with business, with organisations, and to help make the county a better place. It is work that is enriching the lives of many, and making us all better understand one another.
She is the subject of our big read today. We hope you enjoy it.
Our chosen charity: Or rather, ‘chosen charities’!
Here’s your chance to say you helped some good causes and made some new friends - while you are at an auction to buy a reindeer!! Yes, this is for real (although the reindeers are sculptures)! There will be 11 up for grabs. The brightly-painted beasts were part of a public art project organised by the city centre business group Gloucester BID last Christmas. Now, in collaboration with Gloucester Brewery, the BID is auctioning them off for charities including Gloucestershire Young Carers (GYC), GDA (Gloucestershire Deaf Association), Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC), Sunflowers Suicide Support, Gloucestershire Community Foundation (GCF), Hollie Gazzard Trust, Heart Heroes, Scoo-B-Doo, Gloucestershire Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre (GRASAC), Goals Beyond Grass, The Nelson Trust, The Chamwell Centre. You can find out more via Geoff Smith’s Linkedin post here or Gloucester BID’s website here.
Your Raikes’ briefing
🔎 You may think of Bob Holt as the architect of what today we call Mears Group Plc, one of the biggest businesses in the county. His track record began before he made himself and most investors a fortune by taking over and growing that business, eventually stepping back in 2018/2019. It was not the end of the story, of course. His skills have been called upon to stabilise or turnaround number other companies, most recently Revolution Beauty, part owned by Boohoo Group, and Sureserve plc. Now he's driving forward again with EARNZ PLC, described as a 'cash shell’ company on the look out for acquisition targets in the energy services sector.
💷 Asset Management Services (AMS), a firm that bizarrely once sold a life-sized replica of Dr Who’s arch nemesis, the Dalek, expects to increase its turnover by more than 25 per cent this year to £15 million after moving to a new auction centre off Bristol Road in Gloucester. Founded by 2001 by Rob York, AMS currently employs 12 staff but now has plans to recruit four more as a result of the move - which was supported by a £1 million loan from Lloyds Bank. Aside from the Dr Who memorabilia, AMS usually specialises in the sale of commercial and private vehicles, construction plant and agricultural machinery as well as machine tools.
🏰 It looks like jobs are safe at Golden Castle Caravans in Gloucester after administrators were called into the firm (which was part of Robinsons Caravans Ltd). Some swift footwork from restructuring specialist Interpath Advisory meant the assets of the Norton-based Golden Castle business were able to be transferred over to Gloucestershire Leisure Ltd, with all 17 staff moving across to the new business - described as a ‘connected party’ through one of its directors. It is understood pressures on the wider group caused by the cost of living crisis forced the drastic action.
🖥️ If your business is in the digital and cyber sectors, especially in training staff, then the following could well be of interested. Gloucestershire College is inviting you to its Cheltenham campus for an IT and cyber drop-in session. You'll get a chance to meet its employer training team, hear from its apprentices, tour the college’s Advanced Digital Academy (ADA) facility and even get involve with hands-demonstration exercises to get a taste of how it helps apprentices develop thier skills. Tea, coffee and pastries will be provided. The event is due to take place on Wednesday March 27 from 9am to 10.30am. Find out more here.
Lives of Colour in Gloucestershire
It is a mission that began by accident for Florence Nyasamo-Thomas, but a decade-plus on she leads an organisation in demand and helping Gloucestershire better understand race and diversity - even receiving recognition from Government.
By Andrew Merrell

I put the journalist’s catch-all question - ‘is there anything else you haven’t mentioned and should have?’ - to Florence Nyasamo-Thomas at the end of an already lengthy and fascinating chat.
She thought for a moment, as if wondering whether anyone would be remotely interested in what she was about to say, and then ventured that she might have something else.
“I was invited to Downing Street recently,” she said, “to meet the Prime Minister.”
It is a response that gives you both a sense of the modesty of the women herself, and just how far the positive impact of the charity she leads has travelled.
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