BGL Team Newsletter - Nov/Dec 22

BGL Team News

11

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LONG

SERVICE LUNCH

On Wednesday 9th November, members of the team that had achieved long service milestones were treated to a nice afternoon lunch.

BGL Golf, Ramsdale Park, and Hoebridge Golf Centre have all been recognised at the recent MEA Awards in Nottingham.

The Member Experience Awards were created to recognise and reward health and fitness clubs, leisure centres, gyms, and golf clubs across the globe for their delivery of excellent member experience, as measured by Net Promoter Score®.

CEO UPDATE

Colin Mayes

Dear Colleagues,

Now the clocks have changed, we are well and truly coming into our winter period with long, dark nights. What a year 2022 has been with some terrific trading highs and all divisions of the business performing extremely well.

Like everyone, we have suffered from the issues facing our country this year, such as high inflation, wage costs spiralling, and nearly all inward costs going up in one form or another. We have been passing on some of these costs to our members and customers, but we are also very focused on ensuring that we do not put them off from visiting us.

Maintaining strong memberships at our golf clubs and encouraging customers to use our facilities is what we need to keep all of us in work and for the company to prosper. Keeping a balance between passing costs on and maintaining sensible profit margins is a challenge that the senior management team are dealing with daily. Importantly, we must continue to offer value for money in each of the trading environments in which we operate.

I am also very well aware that many of our team members are finding the going tough at the moment. Please be assured that we will be implementing pay reviews as soon as we can for this reason.

You should be aware from your General Manager that the company is dealing with a huge increase in its electricity bills. We are desperately seeking ways to reduce our consumption of electricity, and I am pleased to say that in many areas your efforts are starting to make a big difference. Consumption is down in the golf division by over 10% in October vs the same month last year. Adventure Leisure is showing a similar trend, so we all need to keep these efforts up. Our support office team have been great in adopting new ways of reducing our power consumption. Corridor lights are no longer left on and many of the team are using just half of the lighting previously used.

I recently visited Redbourn Golf Club. While I was eating breakfast, Ben the F&B assistant came over and asked if I would mind him turning the lights off, and whether I could work without them? I was delighted he asked the question, and we did exactly that. This saved us money, and from a customer’s perspective, I was happy that he asked a sensible question during the current energy crisis. Taking this approach could make a huge difference across all our sites.

November is looking likely to become the first month where we drop into a trading loss situation. Hopefully, this will be followed by a strong December as the party season kicks in. I know many of our businesses have already seen the uplift for Christmas begin to start.

As long as we maintain high levels of service and make sure all our customers are looked after, they will keep coming back to us.

We’ve been hard at work in the last month forecasting our yearend result and agreeing a budget platform for 2023 with General Managers. This has been no easy task with many of our key costs continually changing, in some instances overnight. One thing that a few of my grey hairs has taught me is that you can only do your best in such difficult circumstances. So, it’s important to just focus on the things you can control and not let all the other stuff get you down.

As a business, we are in very good shape despite the difficulties that surround us. The new businesses we’ve opened this year are all performing well, and I’m delighted to say that I am still hopeful that the business will meet its year-end target. We have a clear plan for next year, and whilst it will almost certainly be a tough winter, I do believe we can look to the future with some degree of confidence.

I am looking forward to getting out amongst the businesses in the run up to Christmas, where I hope to meet up with you. However, if that opportunity should not arise, I would like to thank you all for your hard work and commitment to BGL this year and wish each and every one of you a very happy festive period, and above all a happy and healthy 2023.

Regards, Colin Mayes CEO

Warmest

BGL GOLF

RAMSDALE

BGL RECOGNISED AT THE

2022 MEA

AWARDS CONTINUED

Net Promoter Score, or NPS® as it is commonly referred to, is a globally recognised measure of customer loyalty and satisfaction used within a vast array of industries.

The awards recognise the best sites and operators in their sector with awards also on offer for overall performance across sectors.

BGL were proud recipients of four awards, including the hotly contested, Golf Operator of the Year. Other awards received:

Hoebridge Golf Centre Most Improved Golf Club of the Year

Ramsdale Park Best Golf Club Member Experience

BGL Golf Best Member Experience Golf Club Group (for the second year)

Ramsdale Park Club of the Year (across all sectors)

PARK CHARITY DRIVE

Ramsdale Park Golf Centre has smashed its record for the amount of money raised for the captain’s charity in a single year, with close to £20,000 presented to Maggie’s Cancer Care.

This incredible sum was accrued at various events throughout the year, as well as via season-long fundraising initiatives. The most significant portion was raised during the annual Captain’s Charity Day, this year held on Saturday 6th August. The bulk of the money raised on the day was generated by the sponsorship of holes, competition entries, a raffle, and an evening auction.

Further fundraising initiatives included the club’s Senior Section sponsoring ‘hole-in-one’ prizes in support of the Charity Day, raising in excess of £1,000. An additional £500 was raised through donations and unclaimed prize vouchers, while the Ramsdale Park Ladies Section bought in a total of £1,220 via the Lady Captain’s Charity Day in June, among other events.

The club hosted a presentation evening on Saturday 12th November, during which a cheque for £19,275 was handed to representatives of Maggie’s Cancer Care. Further funds will be contributed right the way through to Christmas.

RAMSDALE HEAD PRO SMASHES

COURSE RECORD

Ramsdale Park’s Will Davies shot an incredible round of 60 in the Notts PGA Pro Am. His amazing round consisted of seven birdies, two hole-out eagles from the fairway, and a front nine score of 26 shots. So close to a 59!

Held at Ramsdale Park itself, Davies won the Pro Am by six shots, capping off a highly successful year which saw five Pro Am victories. Not only that, but he is now the Nottinghamshire Strokeplay Champion, and he won the Nottinghamshire PGA Order of Merit for 2022. An outstanding year of golf!

JUNIOR TEAM

GOLF

'Burhill A’ qualified for the Home Nations final to be played in early 2023 having come runners up to Goodwood GC in the England qualification final at Portal Golf Club in Cheshire. We now join six other teams from Ireland, Scotland, and Wales to play in the Grand Final.

Burhill Juniors also won the Surrey Golf ‘Rookie League’ finals for Under 14’s and Under 18’s at Milford Golf Club (Sunday 13/11). The U18’s beat Camberley Heath on the first playoff hole. And U14’s beat Walton Heath 2-0.

BGL GOLF

HALLOWEEN SPOOKTACULAR CHARITY ADVENTURE GOLF DAY AT HOEBRIDGE

On 26th October 2022, Hoebridge ran a family fun spooktacular event in aid of CSSEF. Chloe and Sophie’s Special Ears Fund is a charity that helps and supports deaf children and their families across Surrey, Hampshire, and Berkshire. Over 200 people attended!

Families enjoyed a round on our Adventure Golf Course before coming inside to enjoy our Halloween themed fair. There were lots of fun activities including a raffle, tombola, crafts, cake decorating, treats, and even a pumpkin carving competition. Front of House Manager, Desi did an amazing job on face painting – the kids loved their spooky makeovers!

The day was organised by Hoebridge’s newly promoted Events Manager, Abby Jackson. Abby did a fantastic job in making the day such a success. A huge well done to Abby and the team at Hoebridge, who together raised more than £1,800 for charity.

Adventure Leisure

EMPLOYEE OF THE QUARTER

TEAM SPOTLIGHTGEORGIE KERSSENBROCK

Georgie Kerssenbrock has been with us since the start of July, and has recently graduated from the University of Gloucestershire with a degree in Film Production. For her graduation project, she directed and co-wrote ‘Neonate’, a short psychological thiller/ horror film about a lonely and reclusive woman who is forced to question her darkest desires. Neonate started its festival run in July this year, and since then has been accepted to screen at six film festivals. Neonate has won five awards already, while Georgie herself has also been nominated for a Best Director award at the Pompeywood Film Festival in Portsmouth. Georgie has been a fantastic addition to our team and we look forward to continuing to work with her until Hollywood snaps her up!

Autism workshop with their team, we were able to run our first event at the site in July 2021 after the Covid break.

Our members had exclusive access to the building for two hours, and all registration was prearranged for ease. BUNKERS! even offered access at a discounted rate to make it more affordable for our parents and carers.

We’ve been running sessions regularly with BUNKERS! since. We have even run an autistic adult event there giving 30 adults the opportunity to try out the venue in a safe, non-judgemental way. The team at BUNKERS! are always extremely approachable and happy to help, and they are very easy to work with.

TikTok Stardom

Cheltenham

BUNKERS! Swansea –NAS Swansea Branch

An extract written by Anthony Quinn-Flipping from the National Autistic Society (NAS)

NAS Swansea provide autistic people with the opportunity to access and try activities that they wouldn’t ordinarily be able to. We first reached out to BUNKERS! in 2020 about doing a private event for our members. After conducting an Understanding

Our Mulligan’s Cheltenham site has shot to TikTok fame in recent weeks, as they have continued to increase the amount of content they create. The team’s latest video has racked up over 778,500 views and amassed more than 6,300 likes – ridiculously good numbers!

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All the nominations:

BUNKERS! Swansea - Summer Rees

Mulligan’s Tonbridge - George Sams

Mulligan’s Newcastle - William Skey

Mulligan’s Sidcup - Danielle Routley

Mulligan’s Cheltenham - Maxine Greenwood

Mulligan’s Basildon - Michelle Watling

Mulligan’s Stevenage - Ellie Bates

Mulligan’s Bournemouth - Ruby Way

Mulligan’s Birmingham - Ebrahim Mahmood

Mulligan’s Milton Keynes - Emma Penny

Samantha Price, Assistant General Manager Mulligan’s

Adventure Leisure winner for Q4 is Ruby Way from Mulligan’s Bournemouth

Adventure Leisure

A MARATHON EFFORT

Connor Kingsley, from Mulligan's Birmingham, recently completed the London Marathon in a fantastic time of six hours and 22 minutes.

In taking on this challenge, Connor set out to raise as much money as possible for his chosen charity, Marie Curie. In total, he raised a phenomenal amount of more than £2,900! I think everybody at BGL will agree, when we say, well done Connor!

Ninja Leisure

EMPLOYEE OF THE QUARTER

Ninja Leisure winners for Q4 are Axl Thomas & Zena Cseprehgi from our sites in Manchester and Milton Keynes.

All the nominations:

Ninja Warrior Southampton - Dylan Wilkinson

Ninja Warrior Milton Keynes - Zena Cseprehgi

Ninja Warrior Sheffield - Megan Linderworth

Ninja Warrior Swansea - Carmen Channouf

Total Ninja Manchester - Axl Thomas

Janice Moore Learning and Development Manager

j.moore@bglcompany.co.uk

Support Office

FROM HIRE TO THRIVE –

Creating a breeding ground for internal mobility

Jack’s Story

Name: Jack McDonagh

Location: Wycombe Heights Golf Centre

Start Date: September 2018

Jack wanted to let others know that career progression within the Burhill Group is REAL.

“I joined Wycombe Heights in 2018 as F&B Assistant. During the Covid period I also helped out in the Professional Shop and on the driving range, so I was really learning on the job. My General Manager at the time, Sarah Blunden made sure I never felt thrown in at the deep end.

“In 2020, I was promoted to Golf Services Supervisor, which felt like a great achievement. This brought another learning curve, but again I was supported by my manager by way of objective setting and a development plan.

“A vacancy then came up for Driving Range Manager, and I was encouraged to go for it. I was successful in my application, and I am currently getting my teeth stuck into that new role. I really love the fact that I continue to learn and grow.

“Because of the BGL Performance Management Process, the framework is there for me, and anyone, to progress if they want to. Progression doesn’t have to mean a promotion; it can also mean diving deeper into your current role by developing new skills and knowledge.

“Is this it for me? No! I’ve already been speaking with my manager about being considered for the ‘Manager in Training Programme’, which is the official BGL journey toward becoming a General Manager. Several of our current GM’s progressed internally through this programme. Even though I’m not part of the programme yet, I have been trying to take on and learn as many different aspects of the business as possible.

“In a nutshell, I want to let everyone know that BGL is a big, growing company. With that comes opportunity. So, speak to your manager to put a plan in place to prepare you for those opportunities when they arise.”

Tips for Managers:

1. ‘People first’ isn’t a cheap phrase to throw around. Mean it and live it in your management decisions. A thriving team member is an engaged team member, which impacts customer service and sales, and reduces the costs associated with high staff turnover.

2. Embrace the Performance Management Process. It is one of the best management tools you will ever come across to create a breeding ground for internal mobility.

3. You get back what you sow. Jack wants to do his best for BGL, because BGL (in his own words) has been good to him.

Tips for Team Members:

1. Take ownership of your experience. If you want the opportunity to have regular, open, and honest conversations with your manager, ask them.

2. Play your part in the Performance Management Process. Download the team member preparation form from The Academy ahead of meetings and reviews.

3. Use The Academy for self-development. Thousands of courses are available to you 24/7 from any device. Download the ‘SAP Litmos’ app from the app store. The Academy isn’t just for compliance training.

Support Office

LONG SERVICE LUNCH SHROPSHIRE

On Wednesday 9th November, members of The Shropshire team that had achieved long service milestones were treated to a nice afternoon lunch.

Ivan Beetlestone celebrated 25 years and Mark Beetlestone, David Ashton, and Jill Preece celebrated 10 years. The group was joined by GM Stuart Perry, Golf Division Operations Director, Guy Riggott, and Group Retail and Golf Manager, Scott McKitterick. A lovely afternoon spent reminiscing memorable moments over the respective terms of service. THANK

Joanne Gritton - 27 years Ramsdale Park

Daniel Breen - 17 years Hoebridge GC

Thomas Wilson - 16 years Ramsdale Park

Anthony Perez-Gonzalez - 13 years Developments

John Law - 12 years BPGC Health & Fitness

Jill Preece - 11 years Shropshire GC

Kevin Jones - 11 years Abbey Hill GC

Amanda Johnson - 10 years Milton Keynes

NEW TEAM MEMBER

Name: Jack Newell

Role: Marketing Executive

Jack brings with him strong experience across print and digital and has already got off to a flying start.

Start Date: 31st October 2022

Interesting Fact: Met the Queen in 2004 in London

Andrew Scholey - 9 years Support Office

Nicola Dodds - 7 years Burhill GC

Timothy Good - 7 years Thornbury GC

Katie Burgess - 6 years Shropshire GC

Rachel Mitchell - 6 years Head Office BGL

Bradley Meager - 6 years Birchwood PGC

Elaine Williams - 6 years BPGC Health & Fitness

Soniya Shahzaib - 5 years Wycombe Heights GC

William Davies - 5 years Ramsdale Park

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