EXETERWORKS Business movers and shakers

It’s the city’s business

EXETERWORKS

Styling it out

ALL WORK AND PLAY

Heads up parents, there’s a new local family attraction that’s just opened its doors. Bear Town, located between Exeter and Cullompton, features 12 diff erent role play areas where children are free to explore a range of ‘grown up’ jobs, from vets and mechanics to fi refi ghters and hairdressers.

“Bear Town off ers a fun educational experience that supports the Early Years Foundation Stage, yet all the children know is that they are having an amazing time,” says Ben Jordan, owner of Bear Town.

“Whilst coronavirus has delayed our plans, it has meant we have been able to design Bear Town ensuring we are covid-secure, whilst taking nothing away from the amazing experience. This indoor all year-round attraction, is fun, unique and educational.” For more: www.beartown.co.uk

ONE FOR THE DIARY! Look out for our virtual Exeter Living Business Club, Charities and Christmas Special on 15 December at 10am. For more: www.mediaclash.co.uk

Food for thought

FareShare South West, a charity who redistribute good quality, in date surplus food to frontline organisations supporting the most vulnerable, has announced that it is launching its core service into Exeter.

FareShare South West is partnering with Exeter Food Action to launch and operate its service, with eight key local frontline projects now signed up and ready to receive weekly deliveries of food support. “The partnership with Exeter Food Action has allowed us to make strategic partnerships with key frontline organisations, thanks to their local knowledge and contacts, which in turn means our impact will be greater,” says Shelley Wright, FareShare South West’s Devon and Cornwall Manager.

“I’m excited to see the impact this community of frontline organisations can have, linked by their food coming from FareShare South West.”

The launch has also been supported by South West pasty makers Ginsters, with the donation of two vans for transporting food, along with a donation of £15,000 from Exeter Chiefs, which has allowed for a chiller to be installed at Exeter Food Action’s base. For more: www.fareshare.org.uk

FareShare South West Team

Flower power

BUSINESS IS BLOOMIN’

The British Academy of Floral Art based in Dunchideock, near Exeter is doubling the size of their floristry training centre for beginners and professionals and taking on three new tutors.

The academy is run by Julie Collins and Tina Parkes and offers professional floristry training and flower-arranging courses suitable for beginners through to masters.

“We made the decision to expand the business prepandemic and it has turned out to be a blessing,” says Julie. “It means with the extra space we can safely offer social distancing teaching and have the capacity to take the full quota of students we had before lockdown when we only had one classroom.”

THE AWARDS WILL RETURN NEXT JULY!

There’s been a change of date; the Exeter Living Awards The big do will return next year are happening on 22 July at the University of Exeter’s Great Hall.

It’ll be a stylish, much-needed event celebrating the very best of Exeter’s businesses and organisations. It’s a chance for companies to come together once more – all wrapped up gorgeously in true in the UK once again, such was the For more: www.academyoffloralart.com

uberglam style. massive interest in congratulating

Nominations for the Awards will the winners. open in the new year. They’re free to “Having moved the Awards back enter, and offer a great opportunity to July we are looking forward to to share what you’ve done over the celebrating the best of Exeter’s last year. There will be a special business scene with a grand return question about business response to for us all,” says MediaClash event the pandemic. organiser Claudia Butler.

Sponsorships are also now available “We understand that 2020 has been to boost your business with association tricky for many but we can’t wait to alongside Exeter’s most-prestigious come together and recognise all the Awards ceremony. The extra time for good work that this city has produced the Awards means yet more marketing this year.” benefits for all. For sponsorship enquiries, please

The Awards are backed by a contact Paula Miller paula.miller@ high profile, all-channels marketing mediaclash.co.uk or Harriette Dixon campaign, peaking in July. In 2020, Harriette.dixon@mediaclash.co.uk the Awards were trending on Twitter For more: wwww.mediaclash.co.uk

Donkeys in your living room? Sounds good to us Sarah Martin of Nourish

DONKEY WORK

© THE DONKEY SANCTUARY

An event that brought donkeys ‘virtually’ into people’s homes during lockdown has scooped Best Audience Engagement Campaign at the 2020 UK Social Media Awards.

Due to the lockdown, the Donkey Sanctuary decided to launch ‘Sanctuary From Your Sofa’, an event which saw six 30-minute live broadcasts from its headquarters in Sidmouth, via Facebook.

The Donkey Sanctuary’s virtual event on Easter Sunday – their first ever virtual event – reached 1.1 million people; with 440,000 viewers, 41,000 total engagements and 8,300 comments – from Hawaii to New Zealand. The event also helped The Donkey Sanctuary to achieve a +110 per cent year-on-year increase in online revenue on the event day.

“Bringing donkeys into people’s living rooms was a key objective of our digital strategy this year (before anyone ever uttered the word ‘lockdown’) and we’re all delighted with the success of our ‘Sanctuary From Your Sofa’,” says Cheryl Martin, director of brand and communications at The Donkey Sanctuary.

For more: www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk

MOVERS, SHAKERS ETC

Sarah Martin, the founder of the first zero waste store in Exeter, Nourish, has been named a finalist in the prestigious MBA Entrepreneur of the Year award.

Sarah opened her first shop in Topsham in 2018 followed by Magdalen Road in 2019. For more: www.nourishzerowaste.com

Exeter-based online advertising business Launch Online, has been crowned the top agency in its class at the European Agency Awards 2020 for its work through the pandemic to support South West and UK tourism businesses. For more: launchonline.co.uk

Faye and Matthew

EXETER LIVING AWARDS 2020 A secret garden, a belter of a breakfast, and a smiley team might just be some of the reasons why Faye and Matthew Rowbury of DAISY CAFÉ scooped the award for Exeter’s best café at this year’s awards ceremony

Faye, how did it feel to win an Exeter Living award? We were very honoured and excited to have won this award for the second time (we previously won in 2018). Myself and the whole team were, and still are, ecstatically happy about it!

How did you celebrate? Matthew and I celebrated by going to the after party at Pink Moon – we planned a bigger celebration with the team but with the Covid lockdown problems looming we decided against it, so we are still waiting to properly celebrate.

Where do you keep your award? Our award is proudly sitting in the window of the café for everyone to see.

Why do you think The Daisy Café won? The Daisy Café caters for everyone – the team are all very talented with

CAFÉ WINNER

fantastic customer service skills. We don’t just work together, we are like a little family and I think this shows. As well as serving locally sourced, delicious food, we offer a smile, and a chat.

What do you think sets you apart from other cafés in Exeter? The café has the passion of being owner driven and run. Fresh produce from a range of local suppliers, food cooked with love, and a friendly and passionate team results in an ambience and culture that can’t be easily replicated.

Have you had to change your business model because of Covid? Initially on the lockdown in March we closed for four weeks. We then decided to keep on going and we opened as a takeaway. We were completely blown away with the support we received – it was truly humbling to see how much we are loved by the local community.

We then opened properly on 8 July. It’s been hard, it’s been stressful, (Eat Out to Help Out took difficult to a new level), but the café is succeeding and we believe we have bought in Covid measures to protect our customers and ourselves without making the experience for people unsettling.

What advice would you give someone looking to open a café in Exeter? Be passionate, be individual and expect to work very hard!

If we were to come into your café, what would catch our eye? As well as our lovely, relaxingcafé space we have a beautiful southfacing garden which we have always fondly called The Secret Garden of

“IT WAS TRULY HUMBLING TO SEE HOW MUCH WE ARE LOVED BY THE LOCAL COMMUNITY”

Heavitree. People just love it – and one local gentleman named it a little bit of heaven in Heavitree! We are also very dog friendly – Daisy was a dog after all. She was my Dalmatian who I had from eight weeks old until she went to the rainbow bridge at nearly 17 years old...

Anything exciting on the menu at the moment? As well as our regular menu, we offer different ‘Daisy Specials’ every day. Recently we have had different homemade soups, homemade cottage pie, medium rare 28-day aged West Country beef ciabatta with horseradish and rocket, served with fresh salad, homemade coleslaw and hand cooked crisps, Brixham crab sandwiches, and pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. We always have gluten-free, vegetarian and vegan options available.

We are extremely proud to say that our breakfasts are now renowned and people travel far and wide to enjoy one of them! We don’t know whether it’s the award-winning sausages, the free range Devon eggs, the passion whilst cooking, or the fresh bakery bread that does it, but it works and even if we say so ourselves, they are delicious!

For more: The Daisy Café, 98 Fore Street, Heavitree, Exeter; www.thedaisycafe.co.uk