Supporting Businesses in North Warwickshire, Nuneaton & Bedfordshire

Sam Neale with Helena Bassett

Truck Smart is expanding its services nationally to areas such as Heathrow and York, as well as broadening its offer in the Midlands.

The firm, founded by managing director Sam Neale in 2010, was initially started as a car valeting service before progressing to cleaning trucks.

Now, with the help of Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, it has taken on two new staff and is creating another two jobs in the months ahead.

The Chamber’s Accelerated Growth programme offers a range of support, including one-to-one coaching sessions and helped the company win a grant of up to £25,000 towards the purchase of new equipment.

The project forms part of the Coventry and Warwickshire Business Support Programme which is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

The funding boost has contributed to the company’s purchase of three new vans which will hit the roads next week.

Sam said the expansion has been made possible thanks to the help on offer from the Chamber programme, which included help and advice on website reviews, business planning and customer journeys.

He said the Chamber also helped the company maximise its brand and how it looks online.

“From being a small business mainly run by myself and a couple of other staff, we are now able to scale up, invest and create new jobs,” Sam said.

“We’ve doubled in size in a year, which has been a big achievement given the uncertainty of the past 12 months.

“I genuinely feel blessed and proud to be able to offer people jobs now and grow the business.

“It’s really rewarding when you take on new staff and see your business grow.”

Grant funding has allowed the firm to buy new vans and equipment to carry out new work and expand its fleet cleaning programme.

The company now washes up to about 500 trucks per week, and as well as offering services to family-run transport firms, it has also taken on work with larger companies such as Tesco and international courier DHL.

“The grant funding has allowed us to buy new vans and equipment, leading to us being able to create the jobs and the capacity which we needed,” Sam said.

“For four or five years we ran at capacity, turning down work which we could not do as we were not able to access the right support or the right funding.”

Helena Bassett, business advisor at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “We are really pleased to have been able to support Sam and the team at Truck Smart.

“The past 12 months have been a very difficult time for so many companies so to be able to help a local company grow, win new business and take on new staff is extremely positive.

“We’d encourage other businesses to get in touch with the Chamber to find out how we can support them and help to grow the individual company and the regional economy.”

Contact the Accelerated Growth team by email on ag@cw-chamber.co.uk

A specialist truck washing firm based in Nuneaton is creating four new jobs as it expands its operations

Coleshill cafe benefits from a serving of support

A Coleshill couple have been serving up meals and treats to the local community over the past 18 months – after being served up support with their online presence. Tina and Dale Glastonbury run the Café on the Hill in the town after starting the business at the beginning of 2019.

Just a year after launching, Covid hit and, for a fortnight and like many other businesses across the region, they went into a state of shock.

But once they started to come to terms with the crisis, they started to look at opportunities to keep the café serving customers during lockdown and for any support available.

They’d already built up an online following on social media and, through that, started delivering to customers in the town including everything from Sunday lunches through to afternoon teas for special occasions.

Tina also found about digital support available and that was a key breakthrough in helping Café on the Hill reach more people.

The workshops were delivered by Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce and Stories Marketing, on behalf of Warwickshire County Council through the Warwickshire Towns Network Programme. The workshops shared insights into how businesses can use social media and other digital tools to grow an online community.

Tina said: “We’d just started to get the business where we wanted it to be after a year and then the pandemic hit. For a fortnight, we just didn’t know what we were going to do. We were in shock.

“We both love Coleshill and it was our dream to open a business here and to move here. We had our first date in the town 30 years ago – just over the road from the café – and then went on to get married.

“So, we couldn’t stand by and let the business go under, we knew we had to try everything we could to survive and look for all the support we could get.

“I attended three online group sessions with Stories Marketing to help improve my digital skills and then had a one-to-one session and it was really useful.

“I started to understand a bit more of theory behind posting and using things like hashtags. I suddenly went from a couple of hundred views of a post to getting thousands.

“We were very well known in the local community, but more and more people got to know about us and it definitely helped us survive the crisis.”

Some of the innovations will continue, despite restrictions being lifted. The Café on the Hill delivered 40 Sunday lunches to customers on a recent weekend and has even ventured into event catering.

Such is the success, they’ve taken on their first member of staff.

Keely Hancox, from the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “Tina and Dale have so much personality and they’ve found a way to make that shine through online.

“They’ve shown a real fighting spirit to come through the crisis by diversifying and that, coupled with Tina’s enhanced digital skills, has seen Café on the Hill become even more popular despite having to close their doors for so much of the past year and a half.

“It’s great to see that those skills and those changes are not going to be cast aside now that restrictions are lifted. On the contrary, they are using everything they’ve learnt over the past 18 months to not only keep

going but to get the business growing again.” Warwickshire County Councillor Kam Kaur said: “The pandemic really made an instant difference to how businesses would have to operate and the County Council, along with our partners, offered an extensive range of support. What was key to our thinking was not only in solving the problem to help businesses stay operational but also to enable them to grow and develop beyond the immediate crisis, in the changing market place that the pandemic brought. “The Café on the Hill is an exemplar of this. We have supported them to broaden their skills base, reach new customers and engage with local residents. I am delighted to see how well they have adapted and grown. This is precisely the kind of outcome that we were looking for and long may their growth and success continue.”

More courses will start this September which are available to Retail, Hospitality and Tourism businesses. For more information, go to https://www.cw-chamber.co.uk/business-support/digital-retailer-workshops/

Warwickshire gamesmaster grows his business after receiving support

An emergency services hero turned professional games master is capturing the imagination of players from Atherstone to Arkansas after adapting to the need for online meetups.

While many children dream of growing up to fight fires and save lives, Into Adventure Ltd has been helping fans of one of the world’s biggest board games on both sides of the Atlantic fulfil fantasies of their own.

Richard Mortimer, from Dordon in Warwickshire, has spent the last 20 years protecting communities across the West Midlands as a firefighter, but has been playing Dungeons and Dragons in his spare time since he was 16.

Richard, now 46, has served as a Dungeon Master for the popular fantasy game across North Warwickshire for more than a decade after he originally founded Into Adventure Ltd to support his local library in the wake of funding issues by hosting D&D sessions.

Like many businesses, Richard was forced to operate almost exclusively online throughout the last 18 months due to Covid-19 restrictions.

The video conferencing software used by Richard in his online sessions, however, has allowed him to host games like never before by visually transforming himself and his guests into orcs, elves and other fantasy creatures, while taking advantage of digital marketing has enabled him to expand his customer base.

He has since been able to access markets across Scotland and Ireland and, most recently, the United States after seeking advice from Warwickshire County Council’s start-up service which is delivered by Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce.

The programme for start-up businesses is part of the CW Business: Start, Grow and Scale project which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, Warwickshire County Council, North Warwickshire Borough Council and the other District and Borough Councils.

Richard said: “The pandemic highlighted the ways that not having an online presence can severely impact the potential of your business, and the support I received from the Chamber helped me to enhance my ability to connect with new customers in ways that would have never crossed my mind.

“The Chamber put me in touch with other business owners to exchange advice on how to be flexible and deal with the challenges of operating across different countries and states, and I have since enrolled onto their digital training programme with a view to boosting Into Adventure’s Online presence.

“There is a huge demand for Dungeon Masters across the UK but also a very strong following in the local area, including three of my crew members at Tamworth Fire Station.

“It would be great to hear from even more players across the UK who might have been unable to play with their friends over the last year or so.

“Our games are always extremely fun and held to a very high standard, and the ability to appear as a range of characters adds a whole new dimension to the experience.”

Hardeep Sandhu, Enterprise Manager at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce said: “The team at the Chamber can offer a range of support to start-up and early-stage businesses to help them not just survive but grow.

“It’s been great to see that Richard has made the most of the support we offer and started to see the material results in the growth of his business.”

The Chamber will be holding online clinics for individuals thinking about starting a new business and those candidates that have started a new business in the past 24 months.

Hardeep added: “People need to be almost ready to start their businesses, as the start-up programme is geared up to supporting those that have a business idea, are clear about what they want to do and need guidance on how to start and what to do.”

Anyone interested should email Rita at ritab@cw-chamber.co.uk, with an overview of their business and contact details and include in the subject, ‘North Warks Clinic Booking Request’.

Clinic dates are September 7, 14 and 21 and take place between 9.30am and 2.30pm, all sessions are delivered online and meeting links will be sent out after the initial phone call.

For more information visit www.cw-chamber.co.uk/business-support “The pandemic highlighted the ways that not having an online presence can severely impact the potential of your business, and the support I received from the Chamber helped me to enhance my ability to connect with new customers in ways that would have never crossed my mind."