Raikes reveals the first of its founding partners
Today we introduce you to the first of our founding partners. If you want to develop leadership skills and realise the potential within you and your business you visit this company. Guessed who it is?
🔓 You’re reading a free edition of The Raikes Journal. If you upgrade to paid and become a member, you will be able to see beyond the paywall on our second and third editions each week and that locks our archive after two weeks. You will be able to view our rolling Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series and comment on our stories, and you will be helping make possible this community interest company dedicated to supporting Gloucestershire — all for just £2.30 per week!
Dear Readers,
We hope you had a great weekend.
Last week was a busy one at Raikes’ as we flitted about the county gathering some great stories for future release and published editions led by the big interview with Phil Hindson from the Gloucester Culture Trust, Dr Nathalie Cole, from the Ladies of Cheltenham Hacking Society, and finished it a piece revealing insight into the future of GFirst LEP.
We also introduced you to three more of the county’s charities; Heart Heroes, James Hopkins Trust and The Ernest Cook Trust.
This week one event looms large on the menu for many UK-wide. Always hyped, often with detail difficult to digest – we have the Budget (on Wednesday). Raikes is going to take a look at that, and try and make it appetising for you.
On a local level, we have a decision on The Phoenix Project in Gloucester tonight. More of which below.
But today, it is a very, very special day for Raikes, as you will read in the pre-amble to our main story.
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.
Group subscriptions can get a 20 per cent discount here…
* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (who we will be revealing over the coming weeks, and the first of them today!!) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. The support of all of you is invaluable! To find out about 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 began exploring a relaunch it asked the county business community what it wanted to read, what was missing, and what it thought of a digital magazine where some of its content was paywalled.
It then took those pieces to the hangar where it keeps the parts from Raikes mark one (launched in 2020 to support county business through the Covid-19 pandemic), took the best bits and built the concept you see in front of you - a model that went down the runway in early February, piloted by the experienced business journalist Andrew Merrell, and took flight.
But it would never have gotten airborne and be able to promise so much if it did not have the backing of a handful of incredible founding partners, to whom we are ever so grateful to.
Like anyone starting a small business, in this case a community interest company, support means everything. And when that support comes from companies you already hold in such high regard, the feeling is incredible.
We will be thanking them all individually (and asking them what on earth they were thinking!) and start today in our main article.
We feel strongly that the decimation of local journalism in recent years has left communities without a credible, independent, editorially and journalistically-led platform to represent them. We think Raikes can deliver with the right values, identify and compliment the best of the information in the social media maelstrom and build a narrative about the county that gives you insight, introductions, reason to be proud. This is Raikes’ mission.
If you are subscribing, you are already helping. If you can go further and become a paid-for subscriber, that would make our day (just £2.30 a week!) and make us sustainable.
Our chosen charity: The Nelson Trust
The Nelson Trust and its partners for this initiative (including Active Gloucestershire) aim to invite people to get active together through May. Don't’ panic – it's not another half marathon - your exertions will take place over a single kilometre. However, the challenge will be to do that distance every single day, ideally as part of a team from where you work or a friendship group. You can walk, run skip or hop the distance. Entry fees start from as little as 50 pence, with all money going to The Nelson Trust. More details are expected to be released early next week. But you can register your interest now, right here. The Nelson Trust is an award-winning charity which supports people whose lives have been impacted by addiction and multiple unmet needs. It also provides community support to women throughout the South West.
Your Raikes’ briefing
This week we’ll find out if Gloucester may – just may – have found a potential solution to how it can bring the historic former Fleece Hotel in Westgate Street back into use. As we mentioned previously a grand scheme has been proposed to redevelop the site and the adjacent multi-storey car park into a “state-of-the-art community hub with carefully curated independent professional businesses”, somewhere to “teach, train and mentor disenfranchised young adults, providing work opportunities and qualifications, as well as support”. The recommendation from its officers is that the council cabinet accept The Phoenix Project’s proposal, which would both parties work on the heads of terms with the local authority begin looking for potential funding sources, and plan for an eventual transfer of ownership. It has been trying to get a viable scheme moving for more than 10 years to date. The report to Wednesday’s meeting (March 6) calls the scheme “a highly sustainable contribution towards the regeneration of Gloucester”.
Claire Maddox, the boss of Eurolink Connect, has a job on her hands. Her Stonehouse-based business has just merged with Cirencester-based Horizon Telecom and Bristol-based Channel Comms to form SCG South West. Maddox (pictured second from the left above) has been named managing director of the new connectivity and communications company, which has declared ‘ambitious’ growth plans to build on its existing £7 million turnover. Parent group SCG, which was founded in 1965, acquired Horizon Telecoms in December 2021, Eurolink Connect in April 2022, and Channel Comms in December 2022. The internet service provider (ISP) operates what it calls a ‘diverse network’.
Gloucestershire College’s win in the 2024 Digital Training Provider category at the AAC National Apprenticeship Awards could not have been more timely - or more deserved! If your business is in the digital and cyber sectors, or you want to know more about training apprentices in these areas, then the following could well be of interest. The college is inviting you to its Cheltenham campus for an IT and cyber breakfast 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 involved with hands-on demonstration exercises to get a taste of how it helps apprentices develop their skills. Due to take place on Wednesday March 27 from 9am to 10.30am. Find out more here.
Raikes reveals the first of its founding partners
Today we introduce you to the first of the founding partners helping make The Raikes Journal possible. If you want to develop leadership skills and realise the potential within you and your business you visit this company. Have you guessed who it is yet?
by Andrew Merrell
This is an incredibly proud and humbling day for The Raikes Journal as we start to unveil our key partners - the companies and organisations that are backing us so we can deliver quality journalism about your communities.
If you can imagine a line of herald trumpets, then do so... we give you QuoLux, a business which has helped hundreds of county business leaders and middle managers develop skills to help them make their companies even better places - more productive, more efficient, better places to work.
We have followed QuoLux’s story from the very beginning to today’s highly respected operation – keeper of an enviable, growing library of knowledge and a company that has given birth to a community of leaders whose support of one another has created a trusted business family they can depend on.
Founded by Dr Stewart Barnes, today the senior team at QuoLux includes Jo Draper, Rachael Ramos, Keeley Witts, Simon Townsend and advisor, Professor Steve Kempster.
Raikes would suggest more conversations have taken place among leaders of county firms, in confidence, within the realms of its Gloucester headquarters about how to grow, develop, sustain, succession plan and succeed, than anywhere else.
Oh, to be a fly on the wall!
Why would it turn its sights on the relative minnow that is Raikes?
“The Raikes Journal is Gloucestershire-based and founded in Gloucestershire. It’s journalistically-led – and that suggests quality as well.
“You have a good reputation; you are embedded in the community, and there have been links between yourself and QuoLux for years,” said Dr Barnes, sparing Raikes no blushes.
“We want you and The Raikes Journal to thrive as well because what Raikes is aiming to do is to do good for that community.
“That is consistent with what QuoLux has always set out to do, and that is very important to us.”
QuoLux is one of the county’s first companies to achieve B Corp status, one of only 20 or so in the county and an estimated 2,000 in the UK – part of a world-wide movement to benchmark companies against rigorous standards and be recognised as a force for good.
The mantra – ‘people, planet, profit’ - is all about business benefitting everyone from being embedded in and aware of its community.
Raikes isn’t a B Corp, but it is a community interest company – with a focus on business, the third sector and education and training – using journalism to help build a sense of pride and place and community, celebrating the efforts of those within the county to make it a better place.
Although this is a re-launch of the operation that began in the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020 to support the sectors mentioned, and its editor has been reporting on the county for two decades-plus, Raikes is really only just starting.
“We started QuoLux in 2011. We know what it is like to start a business. We understand the emotions. Starting a business is hard to do.
“Supporting Raikes is us putting up our hand to help you and I think that is important for us to do that,” said Dr Barnes.
“The value you have at Raikes Journal is important, and we want to help make sure it succeeds.
“We want to give a helping hand to see it get going, for you and also for what it will mean. There were some people who helped us when we started – and now it’s our turn.
“It stems from being able to put something back as well. It is symbolic of us putting our shoulder to the cart to help.
“We need to get the messages out there about the great companies we have here in Gloucestershire, and you have a great platform for that.
“We work with many good companies as well. I think there are parallels there.
“What you have in your key areas of focus, they chime with a lot of our key areas.
“I think we can help you to help the community to help spread the word about some of those companies and what they are achieving.”
The community connection and B Corp threads lead us to another tool in QuoLux’s armoury – Good Dividends, developed to help companies understand the benefits of creating positive social impact in their communities and wider society through purpose-led leadership.
“Good Dividends is a business model that helps business leaders put something together to show their business is a force for good,” said Dr Barnes, distilling it neatly.
Raikes intends to explore B Corp and Good Dividends at a future date, and to explore the stories of some of the incredible companies QuoLux works with, but for those eager to know more, here's a more specific date that might help.
QuoLux is due to stage a B Corp-focused event on March 18 from 5pm to 8pm.
Three inspiring speakers will share their insights and experience on the themes of regenerative farming for ‘good’ food, creating social value, and being a Best Large Company to Work For.
Those speakers, George Herbert, of Hobbs House Bakery, Martin Holmes, of Creed Foodservice, and Dr Stewart Barnes. Find out more here.
Our weekly ideas list of things to do
Tuesday
🏇🏽Cheltenham Business Improvement District, known as the BID, is due to stage its latest networking event at The Ivy Montpellier Brasserie restaurant from 8.30am to 10.30am. This is a chance for the town centre business group to meet and, on this occassion - just ahead of the Cheltenham Festival, get up close and personal with the annual jump racing event's famous The Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup trophy.
Wednesday
💷🗳️ You can’t do a diary date list this week for the business community without mentioning the Budget. Due to take place from noon-ish, this is Chancellor Jeremy Hunt’s last big chance to impress ahead of this year’s election. You can watch it all live in good company at Gloucester Rugby’s Kingsholm Stadium, courtesy of Randall & Payne and Rathbones. The event is from 11am to 2.30pm and features a Q&A. Find out more be emailing marketing@randall-payne.co.uk.
Thursday
☕ If you are in business and vegan, or want to get to know people from the vegan community, then this is for you. Yes, a vegan networking event! Whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur or just starting out this is about expanding your business opprotunities in the vegan industry. Due to take place at 197 London Road, Charlton Kings, Cheltenham, from noon to 1.30pm.
Friday
🧗🏽♀️ Adventurer and mountaineer Tom Clowes is due to talk about his successful climb on the South East ridge of Everest, where he and his sibling became the first British brothers to stand on the summit together. Due to take place at Cheltenham College, Bath Road, from 7pm for a 7.30pm start. The event raises money for Cheltenham Cancer Research Fundraising Group. Find out more here.
* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (who we will be revealing more of over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. The support of all of you is invaluable!
🔓 You’ve been reading a free edition of The Raikes Journal, for which we are grateful. Please do spread the word about what we are trying to do - create a real, journalistically-led, community-orientated, Gloucestershire-focused digital magazine. If you upgrade to paid (just £2.30 per week) you will get on average eight extra members-only editions every month and will be able to see beyond any paywalls, as well as read Raikes’ rolling Top 100-plus Businesses in Gloucestershire series. You will also be allowed to comment on stories, make suggestions for what we should be writing about, vote in our awards, and might even be invited to our roundtable events. And you’ll be supporting the rebirth of high-quality journalism in Gloucestershire on a website championing the county you love (ask us about 20 per cent off for groups of two or more subscribers).