The Works

The Works is an exciting new restaurant chain launching soon in Aylesbury. Set to open its doors at the end of October, The Works at the top of Market Square will serve delicious savoury and sweet waffles and crepes, with sensational and ‘quirky’ fillings, handmade ice cream, sundaes and hot desserts, with fresh ingredients key to the philosophy.

The Works will be the perfect venue to sit and chat, take the family, celebrate with friends or organize meetings, all while trying some great food and drink with a difference.

“We wanted to do something a bit different and give something back to the town,” said Tom ‘Billy’ Bolton. “We love freshly made food and have always dreamt about making a career with it, so we set out to create the sort of venue that we would really enjoy going to.”

Handelsbanken

Handelsbanken, the fast-growing relationship bank, was this week rated top for customer satisfaction for the sixth year running in an independent survey of British banks’ personal and business customers.

The 143-year-old locally-focused bank, with a branch in Aylesbury, has been found to “far exceed” its British banking competitors for both customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Derek Beards, manager of Handelsbanken’s Aylesbury branch commented:
“Customer satisfaction is the bed rock for everything we do, both in Handelsbanken and here at a local level in Aylesbury. It is very pleasing to see that we are consistently ranked at the top of these independent external surveys for both satisfaction and loyalty.”

Green Banana Marketing

Specialist Marketing agency Green Banana Marketing is enjoying a year of celebration, having just been awarded its sixth award win of 2014. Also this year, founder Giles Robertson was awarded a Fellowship of the Marketing Society.

Green Banana Marketing helps charity businesses to grow through expertise in marketing, partnership marketing and digital. Their six award wins came from separate organisations; Doctors of the World, Plantlife, Voluntary Services Overseas, Fairtrade Foundation, British Trust for Ornithology, and Earthwatch.

Giles said, “2014 has been an immensely exciting and successful year for us. We are looking forward to new client challenges and remain motivated to help make a difference to the companies we work with.”

Green Dragon Rare Breeds and Eco Centre

The eagerly awaited opening of the Green Dragon Rare Breeds and Eco Centre took place on Monday 20 October. After 40 years of dreaming, planning, saving and working, Ray Marzec’s dream has finally come true with the opening of the first phase of the Green Dragon project. Launch day saw the opening of the eco centre, café, shop and conference rooms and guests for first time shared in Ray’s dream. The main visitor centre, café, farm shop, and conference centre was partially funded with a LEADER rural grant of £40,000.

“The LEADER grant made such a difference and really moved us forward when we were at a cross roads. It couldn’t have happened without this support,” said Ray.

Further support came via a £5,000 Velocity Grant which helped to market the eco centre and to furnish the conference centre.

Find out more about the £50,000 rural business grants available via the LEADER Programme on their website, or call 01494 568969. For information on Velocity Grants, which are available to businesses located in the Aylesbury Vale district and which can be worth up to £10,000, contact Heather Martin on 01494 568941 or at heatherm@bbf.uk.com.

James Couzens - 'Regional Notary Public of the Year'

James Couzens has been voted 'Regional Notary Public of the Year' for the South East. James, who runs 'James Couzens Notary Public' alongside his work with law firm Parrott and Coales won the award by public vote in the Global ACQ awards 2014.

In his role as a notary public James has successfully helped individuals and businesses with matters such as witnessing powers of attorney, preparing documents for the purchase or sale of land and property abroad, and much more.

Do you have some news that you want to share with your fellow BBF members? Whether it’s award success, the opening of a new store, or the launch of a new product or service we want to hear about it! Email the team at bbfnews@bbf.uk.com.