Want your business to benefit from half a billion pounds-plus?
A project two years in the making to get Gloucestershire’s biggest businesses to spend an extra £550 million of their budget with small and medium-sized county firms is about be unveiled.
Good afternoon,
Welcome to the second edition of The Raikes Journal this week. In Monday’s edition we looked at the origins of an incredible project to help make Gloucestershire a better place for the many young people growing up with ADHD. Our best-read story to date. Today we talk about money and a very different project. And when we say money, we mean lots of it!
This is the story of a plan that will enable Gloucestershire’s biggest businesses to spend an extra half a billion pounds with small and medium-sized county companies.
Raikes spoke to some of those at the heart of the talks and we let you how it will work, how you can find out more and get involved and benefit.
We’ve also corralled our usual pick of the stories that have caught our eye so far this week, including a quick view of the future of fashion house Superdry.
And we introduce you to another charity – one with a very handy guide to help those parents and carers help young people navigate issues of gender identity.
We hope you enjoy everything below. Remember, although we are a community interest company here to serve you, we need to pay our way. Which means all our archive will soon become hidden behind a paywall after two weeks, along with our Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, the main story on our Friday email newsletter (from this week), and then our Thursday main story too!
* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (who we will be revealing over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. If you are not already, please consider upgrading to paid and making this community interest company sustainable. The support of all of you is invaluable! To get in touch email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.
Group subscriptions can get a 20 per cent discount here…
Why today’s main story?
If ever the power of the concept of spending your money locally is going to hit home, it is Together Gloucestershire that will convince you. It’s been in the wind for a while, but those behind the project now feel confident enough to release some figures. And they are very, very seductive. By its calculations the county’s biggest businesses can be helped to spend an extra five per cent of their annual procurement budget in the county. This would make our small and medium-sized firms an incredible £550 million better off. Now you can see why those who have been sitting around the table for two years so far to make this happen remain excited.
Briefing notes
📉 Lots of speculation this week about Superdry, the Cheltenham headquartered fashion brand famously started by Dowdeswell resident and entrepreneur extraordinaire, Julian Dunkerton. Reports have spoken of 'talks' with a 'US private equity firm' led by US investor David Kempster, owner of Britain Oak Furnitureland. Will it happen? Raikes decided to put things in a little context, beginning with Dunkerton’s successfully battling himself back into the board in a boardroom in 2019 in a bid to reverse the firm’s fortunes - a battle not without its casualties. It took three years to return the firm to the black amidst all sorts of challenges, including tough economic conditions. Nevertheless, in December 2022 speculation began about a potential buy-out amidst concern over finding a new lender to replace an existing £70 million asset-backed lending facility. Share price rose briefly in early February 2023, but from then on in it has been a downhill trend. In fact, share price is down 92 per cent over the last five years, rising a little with more talk this week of a sale. That comes after the departure of its fourth finance boss in five years just four weeks ago as losses widened.
🥬 Whether you are excited by the idea of a vertical farm or not, Jones Food Company has opened its second in Lydney in the Forest of Dean. Everyone’s posted the firm’s press release. For some, including James Lloyd-Jones, the ceo of JFC, this is technology coming to our rescue. The Gloucestershire ‘plant’ will grow crops including basil, coriander, flat-leaf parsley, dill, green lettuce, red lettuce, baby leaf pak choi, bulls blood, mizuna, komatsuna, and baby leaf cress.” For others, including the Soil Association, it is not so clear cut. It welcomes a move away from 'conventional pesticide-intensive agriculture', but questions whether vertical farming should be brought under the banner of 'organic'. As it says, true solutions to creating farming that is sustainable and healthy for the planet and those who live on it tend to have 'deeper roots'.
Another Gloucestershire firm joins The Circus
We know the firm is not the first to back the hugely exciting Gloucester-Hartpury Women’s Rugby team, but Cheltenham-based SF Planning is more proof that the businesses of Gloucestershire are putting their shoulders firmly behind the club, nicknamed The Circus. Simon Firkins, founder and managing director of the Cheltenham firm of planning experts, said: “The team are true trailblazers, breaking down barriers and stereotypes and championing the message that there’s a place for everyone in sport; a message we strongly support. We’re looking forward to seeing more great performances from them this season. Fab timing too, with the team sitting nicely at the top of the Premiership following the win against Sale Sharks last weekend.” SF Planning joins companies including Prima Dental, Pro Global, Cygnet, Choice Trade Frames, Westons Cider, Cotswold Raw, HCR Law, AIS, who have also lined up to support the winners of last year’s Allianz Premiership title. Interested in sponship yourself? Hartpury has a lot going on. Email: sponsorship@hartpury.ac.uk.
Our chosen charity: Young Gloucestershire
Young Gloucestershire was bound to come up as Raikes introduces you to the many charities of Gloucestershire. The new 'free downloadable resource' it is currently promoting gave us the perfect excuse this week. The charity supports young people to have the confidence, motivation and skills to improve their lives. As part of LGBT History Month, an annual month-long observance of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender history, the charity is offering a free downloadable resource aimed at supporting parents and carers to help them navigate the journey of gender exploration with their children. You can download a copy here and find out more about Young Gloucestershire here.
How your business can become a customer of companies with £550 million to spend in Gloucestershire
By Andrew Merrell
“Imagine a dating website, but for businesses,” is how Adam Vines jokingly described the project he is helping steer along a very long road – but one where the match made in heaven could deliver a win of several hundred million pounds for the county!
To pretend this is just a ‘dating website’, some sort of Gloucestershire-centric matchmaking machine bringing big and small businesses together to do business, would be to do it a disservice considering the amount of work already complete and yet to be done.
And Vines knows that better than anyone. He is one of those who has been driving the project from the start.
But it is a useful way of introducing the idea that everyone invested in the project they call Together Gloucestershire, and which after two years of looking at how to make it easier for the county’s biggest firms to spend locally is about to get its first public scrutiny.
When Vines and others sit down at the Gloucestershire Business Show at the University of Gloucestershire’s Oxstalls Campus on Wednesday next week they will reveal the aim is to make it easier for Gloucestershire biggest firms to increase their county spend by just five per cent.
It may sound small, but such are their budgets that single-figure percentage would amount to an additional £550,000,000 being spent in the county annually.
Vines, the boss of Lounge Designs and president of Cirencester Chamber of Commerce, can’t help but puff out his cheeks when Raikes asks him how long it has taken already (two years), but he remains positive, and he feels with very good reason. And he is not alone.
“After two years you might think people are giving up trying to make this work, but it is quite the opposite. If anything, people are more enthusiastic,” said Vines.
“It has always been first and foremost about getting it right. We’ve never put a deadline on it. And in December last year (2023) we got the first round of seed funding from St James’s Place, which is great.”
The Cotswold-headquartered wealth management firm is not just any old business to have backing your project. It is the biggest firm featured in Raikes’ perpetual Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series in our Reports & Deals channel, which makes it the biggest by turnover in the county currently.
“It has led to the first draft version of the database, and we hope to be able to show an example of what we are proposing and how it will work at Gloucestershire Business Show next week,” said Vines.
It will be the first public outing of the master plan.
Around the table at the show will also be Ian Mean, of the business group Business West, that represents chambers of trade across the region, Sam Holliday, of the region's FSB, Claire Thayers, of Cheltenham Chamber, and Philip McLaughlin, who represents one of the businesses involved, Innsworth-based Jaslyn Embroidery and Print.
Big businesses on-side include Wotton-under-Edge-based Renishaw, Publica, Spirax Sarco, Gloucestershire Constabulary, Cheltenham Borough Council, Cotswold District Council and the county council.
Consider the list above - across local authorities with public services, big businesses and small - and you can understand why it has taken two years to date.
But when you consider everyone is still coming to the table and the energy levels are high, you can understand the growing optimism the project will achieve its goal.
Holliday, who represents and fights the corner for an estimated 3,000 FSB (Federation of Small Businesses) members across Gloucestershire, is as positive about the project as Vines.
“I think the thing that has impressed me most is that everyone involved sees the opportunity in this and wants it to happen,” he said.
“If we can keep more business in the county it is a better economic picture for everybody.
“I have been able to talk about some of the frustrations for small businesses have sometimes, about not knowing when contracts are available, or who to approach when they do want to work with big businesses.
“And we’ve learned more about what big businesses need and want – and that they do want the chance to work with local firms too.
“Everyone understands what this could be worth, and they also understand what it could mean for community cohesion as well.”
Thayers, a CSR consultant and board member of the Cheltenham Chamber of Commerce, said the process had been an education for everyone: “We needed to understand how procurement decisions have changed, especially with carbon footprint being measured, and councils working towards being carbon neutral in the next 10-15 years.
“It is going to become more important to have shorter supply chains, and become more resilient (especially post Covid, impact of wars, recession etc).”
As Vines put it: “It would be good for business, but knowing the big business you work for supports local firms, or that the small company you work for supplies a major business – these are all good stories, good for community, and good for staff retention, good for the county as a whole.”
Vines is careful not to be drawn into discussing a timetable just yet, and stresses the digital database will need some development yet, but it sounds like companies will be able to register, identify themselves through a personal pledge, describing what they do, how they do it, their ethical and environmental credentials – all the things a big business would also consider.
Those bigger firms would then be able to search by area too, ensuring they bought as locally as they wished to, assessing each potential spend based on the power of the company’s pledge.
“This has been very complex. You can see why no one has done it before, but the prize of £550 million extra spending in the county is too big to give up – and it feels like it could now be within reach.
“It is a great story, but we do not want it to remain ‘just a story’. I think the next three or four months will see a huge change in momentum and once we have that database people will be able to look at something and begin to put their weight behind it too.”
Renishaw told Raikes it had supported Together Gloucestershire since its inception, with senior members of our purchasing team involved with both the steering group and corporate group.
“As one of the county’s largest businesses and largest private sector employer, we have long been committed to supporting our local communities, including the business community,” said, Chris Pockett, head of communications for Renishaw.
“We are committed to supporting the three United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which are most relevant to our business.
“One of these is SDG 8 which relates to sustainable economic growth and the promotion of policies that support the growth of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs).
“Together Gloucestershire is a project that aims to support such businesses in the county, helping them to grow by having the knowledge and capability to supply larger local companies, including Renishaw.”
Thayers added: “This is really important for the county, as this will not only improve our sustainability here, but can also create a positive impact on our local economy, and more resilient businesses with shorter supply chains. A win win for all.”
You can find out more about the Gloucestershire Business Show event here.
Diary dates for the end of this week
Wednesday
🎶 For those who are loud and proud about their classical music or like a touch of class to their heavy metal this could be for you. The Rock Orchestra by Candlelight returns with an epic new 90-minute concert, ‘breathing beautifully dark energy into legendary rock and metal’ tracks. Due to take place at Cheltenham Town Hall from 9pm to 10.20pm.
Thursday
💻☕ Cheltenham’s monthly networking morning for all things tech, Cyber Sips, is due to take place today, supported by the mighty CyNam and fuelled by sponsor Brink coffee. Guest speaker this month is the rather mysterious sounding ‘Charlie K’, from the UK arm of the US firm CrowdStrike, an American cybersecurity technology company based in Austin, Texas.
Friday
💪🏽 Gloucestershire College will be one of many organisations and businesses gathering at Gloucester Guild Hall on Friday February 23 from 9.30am to 2.30pm to stage the Futures Fair - an event aimed to help people get into work. Not only will you be able to access extra support and advice to secure a more positive future, but you can also find out more about job opportunities, skills development, advice on debt, energy and living costs, volunteering and learning opportunities.
* Everything you read on Raikes is made possible by the generous support of our partners (who we will be revealing over the coming weeks) our founding members and our paid-up subscribers. A massive ‘thank you’ to all our other subscribers too. If you are not already, please consider upgrading to paid and making this community interest company sustainable. The support of all of you is invaluable! To get in touch email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk.
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