The Raikes Journal

📈 Every great achievement is built on a foundation of grit, innovation and purpose When a Gloucestershire-based firm secured a £5m contract, the headlines might have been about the win – but the real story lies in the leadership and vision that made it possible 💡 Discover how this remarkable company navigated challenges, empowered its people, and stayed true to its values on the path to success. It's a story that reminds us all that great business is about more than profits — it's about creating lasting impact. 🚀 Read the full story from this week's guest writer, Andrew Merrell of The Raikes Journal, and get inspired 👉 https://bit.ly/3AZRLzs #Leadership #InspireBelief #GloucestershireBusiness #GoodDividends #Purpose with Kane Lewis

Welcome to the second edition of The Raikes Journal of the week. There is a double-header of stories on the edition linked below. We wanted to help draw attention to Circle2Success Ltd's Educational Outreach Live event at Cheltenham Racecourse while it was still live - via a special interview. C2S has used the might of its vast membership and teamed up with the influential Cheltenham-based cyber group CyNam to stage probably the biggest coming together of students and businesses for a careers fair ever in Gloucestershire. On until 6pm this evening, Educational Outreach Live and CyNam’s EmPowerCyber, will see scores of businesses and experts, advisors and support groups meet face-to-face with hundreds and hundreds of students from schools, colleges, sixth forms, and universities across the county and beyond. But the article is not really an event-plug, we've done that elsewhere. It's an exclusive interview with general manager of its headline sponsor, Ian Menzies of the usually secretive tech firm L3Harris Technologies. He has some great news for anyone looking for a career with the business, or in the tech and cyber sector. But the first story on the edition - and just as important - is for businesses still wondering how to cope with the impact of Chancellor Rachel Reeves Budget. Later this month a special meeting is due to take place organised by Randall & Payne LLP which will offer what it says is a solution to the thorny issue of that rise in National Insurance contributions. That's all explained in the first story on the edition.

The main story on today's edition of The Raikes Journal is given over to Gloucester BID's Believe in Gloucester Awards 2024, staged on Wednesday evening last week (20 November), a showpiece, black-tie gala event that filled the grade II-listed guildhall with the great and good of the city and with its heroes. This was the return of an awards ceremony founded in 2013 to fan the flames of pride, to help the city learn how to celebrate what we now regard as the beginning of its modern renaissance, by shining the spotlight on its great businesses, initiatives, charities and individuals that help make it so special. Despite a five-year hiatus there were some familiar faces at the Westgate Street venue for the awards, not least BBC reporter Steve Knibbs who returned to host proceedings as only he can. But what was new was the city the awards looked out on. The pride the event was set up to restore was clearly alive and well and in the hall it was clear the city also has a newfound confidence, one that reflected well on the whole county. This was an event that brought together Gloucester’s great and good, from its MP, Alex McIntyre, its Dean the Very Reverend Andrew Zihni, its Mayor, Cllr Lorraine Campbell, leader of the city council, Cllr Jeremy Hilton and representatives from all the other sponsors who backed it. Massive credit should go to Gloucester BID for its efforts to bring the clearly much-loved awards back, to Emily Gibbon MIPM, BID manager, for leading the charge, to the team of Jenny Eastwood, Mhairi Ball and Paul James who worked tirelessly as volunteers to make it all happen, and to the staff at Gloucester Guildhall for making everyone so welcome. Plus to co-headline sponsors WSP Solicitors and Gloucester Quays for making it all possible. And a massive contrgratulations too all the winners too! I hope you enjoy the read. Have a great week.

🌟 From Family Business to Industry Success Story 🌟 Discover how Creed Foodservice Ltd transformed from a family-owned Gloucestershire business into a nationally recognised industry success! 🚀 Through a dedication to culture, values and leadership development, Creed has set a new standard for sustainable growth and values-driven leadership. Guest writer Andrew Merrell from The Raikes Journal shares insights from Chris Creed and Dr. Stewart Barnes of QuoLux on the strategies and dedication that fueled this inspiring journey. Get a behind-the-scenes look at what made Creed Foodservice thrive! 📈 👉 Read the full story here https://bit.ly/48AnoMl #FamilyBusiness #Leadership #Culture #GrowthMindset Christopher Creed Philip de Ternant Miles Roberts Martin Holmes

Aged just 25 and suddenly saddled with a very modest family firm Kane Lewis thought about walking away, but instead set off on a journey of personal discovery that's created a multi-million pound business. This is the preamble to the main story on the latest edition of The Raikes Journal. I often end up using the money when writing in the hope it grabs people's attention and they keep reading. And when it's about business it's true - it's usually about the money. But it's also true to say that's usually only part of the tale, and quite often not the most interesting part. As is the case here. When you really start to unpick most people's stories it's the journey and the people that they meet along the way that start to reveal something far more captivating and inspiring. It's how important those connections are, what learning they do, what impact they want their business to make, how they react to challenges, personal and private, the opportunities they create, how they view their staff. These are the bits that add the colour and, as big as the money can get, they are the bits that really speaks to you about what sort of person they are and how you will think of them when you stop reading. A massive thanks to apt marketing & pr for introducing me to Severnside Security Ltd and to Kane for his time. As well as some other news shorts the edition linked below also flags another of Gloucestershire's incredible charities - this time Cirencester Signpost, which helps support homelss people in the #Cotswolds. Volunteer run, it recently won The King’s Award for Voluntary Services. Another inspirational story. * If you like what Raikes is doing, please do join our growing family of followers who're helping make this community interest company possible. And please spread the word about what we do - real, orginal, interesting journalism about Gloucestershire, the way you would like it done if someone was writing about you!

We didn't get around to posting this story over the weekend, so we're putting it out there now. It was sent out to our subscribers on Friday and tells the story of a cyber firm from Cheltenham that's raised millions of pounds of investment money already and now been bought by an American fund that intends to grow it further. Rather than just put that out there as a story, we wanted to ask what that said about the business - is it staying in Gloucestershire?, for example, which might suggest the county is indeed a suitable place to grow such businesses and bode well for the many others following in its footsteps. Afterall, we keep talking about the county as the cyber capital of the UK. We were lucky enough to get some insight from someone who knows the firm well, the county and perhaps has a good view of the bigger picture. A massive thanks to Chris Dunning-Walton of CyNam for his time.

Here's is a link to the latest edition of The Raikes Journal (emailed out to subscribers yesterday). It goes big on the theme of tackling the skills gap with two stories. When Ofsted calls at schools it also looks at career advice provision. That was also a point of focus for GFirst LEP - Gloucestershire's Local Enterprise Partnership. The LEP might be gone, but its legacy is not just infrastructure projects. All Saints' Academy in Cheltenham worked with one of the LEP's enterprise advisors, Angie Petkovic, and now has a careers service for its students that has forged powerful connections with businesses as mighty as IBM and is changing lives. We went to have a look. It shows it can be done and it's being done here in the county. But the main point of focus is a momentous event due to take place this month (November) that will bring together students, schools, colleges, universities, families, businesses, organisations and training providers to actually meet and talk, to build connections, open minds, spread the word about opportunities and help thousands of young people begin their journey into the world of work, making companies sustainable and showing everyone the possibilities there are right here in Gloucestershire. This is Circle2Success Ltd and CyNam, two of the best-connected business groups in the county, coming together to stage a joint careers fair at Cheltenham Racecourse on a scale never seen before - thousands of students and scores of businesses! NB: Raikes is a reader-supported publication - it is able to deliver journalism and a credible, respected editorially-led platform for Gloucestershire because of its paid-for subscribers and our generous Founding Partners and Founding Members. If you are not one of our growing tribe of paid-up members already (or one of those who subscribe for free), please do consider joining them.

The lead on The Raikes Journal's first edition of the week (linked below) began as a short article flagging Gloucester BID's forthcoming Believe in Gloucester Awards, which we are proud to say Raikes is the media partner for. But it quickly morphed as we recalled why those awards were first set up and then spoke to one or two people involved this year. It struck us just how much the city has changed. What started all those years ago as an event to inject some pride back into Gloucester is re-launching as a full-blown celebration of what the city has to offer. And it flagged up something that tickled us too - Cheltonians are visiting the city now for a day out! That was pretty much unheard of when the awards were first launched. And if you think how high the bar is in Cheltenham, it points to just how much variety the county now has - as well as how far Gloucester and the county has come! The edition also features the usual briefing notes - these ones include how much money Hazlewoods made last year, what BPE Solicitors LLP has been up to, the latest on Robert Hitchins Limited's Cotswold Designer Outlet, as well as some business-related events for the week ahead at the likes of The Music Works (Gloucestershire), the county's Growth Hubs and something James Geary BMus CTA ATT of Randall & Payne LLP is involved in to do with advice on R&D. And if you want news of a Christmas procession with a difference the edition has that too. Last year 85 tractors decked out with lights and tinsel took part in a convoy that ended at St Oswalds in Gloucester. This year it's back. Why are we featuring that? Because it's about community and it's about charity, in this case The Pied Piper Appeal and other good causes. NB: The Raikes Journal is a community interest company set up to deliver an independent digital magazine supporting Gloucestershire's business, charity, education and training sectors. It's about keeping independent community-minded journalism alive in the county and it's supported by our founding partners and paying subscribers who enable us to email three editions a week to subscribers. If those sectors, real community journalism and Gloucestershire are important to you, please do join our growing readership as a free or paid-for subscriber. All the details are on the edition linked below.

Well worth a look if you are still trying to digest the Budget just gone!

We published an inspiring short story on Friday's edition, alongside the lead story you can see publicised and linked below. That short story is the latest installment in the efforts being made to raise £17.5 million for a new oncology centre for Gloucestershire in Cheltenham - what is billed as the Big Space Cancer Care Appeal. When we published and emailed the edition to our subscribers at the end of last week we'd just heard where £2 million of the £8.5 million already raised came from and wanted to share it. But what really inspired us was the incredible effort by two brothers from the county who’ve raised several thousand towards the cause with an amazing effort. Take a bow Clive and Dave Organ, 60 and 61 respectively, who cycled more than 1,600km from Land’s End to John O’ Groats and also climbed Mount Snowdon while on the route as well! The main story about the hotel sale is a snippet we’d heard from Superdry-founder Julian Dunkerton, no less, and wanted to see how it stood up. We were also curious why the owner had put the hotel up for sale. It’s no secret that hospitality is difficult for many at the moment, but was that the reason? We also wanted to know if a buyer was already in the frame, what would it mean for the well-known restaurant within its walls, Brasserie Blanc Cheltenham, and was the owner giving up on Gloucestershire altogether? So many questions. We’re talking about The Queen’s Hotel. The answers to all those questions are in the story.