Business

Business Golf clubs open up as lockdown restrictions are eased

With coronavirus restrictions easing, golfers old and new are being welcomed back onto the fairway and for many golf clubs – business is booming! As one of the first sports permitted to be played again, many people wanting to get active outside, make new friends and celebrate summer, are picking up a club for the very first time and heading to Wheathill Golf Club, between Lydford on Fosse and Castle Cary. Wheathill is an 18-hole parkland course of 5,607 yards of gently undulating fairways along the River Cary. It may not be the longest or toughest of courses but Wheathill, with its unique hazards, offers a real challenge to golfers of all abilities. With three PGA professionals, the club has set itself up as a venue that can encourage you to learn, practice and enjoy playing golf and keep fit. And the club boasts an eight-hole academy course and large driving range. A host of demonstration days with the latest equipment are being held throughout the season so wannabe golfers can give it a try and secondhand clubs are traded in and also sold. Individual and group lessons are available along with lessons for juniors from five years old. The clubhouse is open for outside dining although it will be open inside and out from May 17. The patio boasts a roof cover to enable social distancing while allowing diners to drink in the parkland views whatever the weather! Non-golfers are welcome too! Wheathill is renowned for its friendly atmosphere and affordable fees: n Ring 01963 240667 for more details or go to wheathillgolf.co.uk

Blessed are the cheesemakers helping

By Miranda Robertson newsdesk@blackmorevale.net

The High Sheriff of Somerset has rewarded cheesemaker brothers for their work in rehabilitating offenders. Archie and Jamie Montgomery were given the YOUNITED Flag by MaryClare Rodwell, together with Eva Hamilton MBE, Founder and CEO of Key4Life, for employing exoffenders on their estate. They were the first small company to receive the new award. The pair run Montgomery Cheese and the Cadbury Estate and North Cadbury Court The Montgomery brothers have supported Key4Life since its inception, and the charity was officially launched in front of North Cadbury Court by Sir Bob Geldof in September 2012. Over the last eight years, Archie and Jamie have given a number of placements and jobs to graduates of Key4Life’s rehabilitation programme, the most recent being a young man called Jack, who spent three years working on the Montgomery Estate farm and with Montgomery Cheese. Archie and Jamie Montgomery also hosted a flagship event in 2016 alongside Andy Marsh, the Chief Constable of Somerset & Avon Police, challenging local companies to employ offenders. Somerset-based crime prevention charity Key4Life rehabilitates men who have been to prison and those at risk of going to prison. The charity launched the YOUNITED Flag Campaign in 2019 with the help of music legend Nile Rodgers, to encourage companies to employ ex-offenders and give them another chance. Archie Montgomery said: “We are delighted to receive this wonderful YOUNITED Flag. We have been involved with Key4Life since Eva convinced us that the charity offered a practical way to keep young men out of jail and of the value in taking part. It’s not been an easy challenge but we have been pretty successful. Reoffending costs the UK government £18 billion a year. For every young man kept out of jail we save the

Business Jerry leads the whey at dairy processing machine makers

By Karen Bate

Jerry Redman has been appointed managing director of Sycamore Process Engineering. The move will look to strengthen the position of the Somerset-based company, as the go-to people for commercial projects in the dairy, food and beverage industries in the UK, Ireland and beyond. The company, which was formed in 1989 as a three-man partnership serving the local cheesemakers, has grown and Jerry will lead a team of more than 40 people in design, engineering, sales, operations, and manufacturing. Jerry will focus on international growth, sales, marketing, developing the company’s product portfolio and offering of diverse and innovative process solutions. Jerry said: “I have been busy in the background working on a growth strategy for the business and whilst we can already see positive results from this, I’m still very excited to see how the next steps will play out for us all. “We have many opportunities ahead of us and despite everything we currently endure, I look forward to the future and to working with such a committed and motivated team of people.” Jerry has been with the company since 2001 and as ex-operations director was instrumental in the recent growth and delivery of major projects for large cheese and dairy manufacturers in the UK and Ireland. Jerry will supersede current chairman and mentor to the board of directors Tim Sharp. Tim joined the company in 1989 shortly after it was formed by Colin Carpenter and Ron Bowsher and has seen it grow into an international organisation. Tim said: “I think the time is right to step aside, we have nurtured an enthusiastic, dedicated and professionally trained team fully capable of taking the business successfully on through the next 30 years. “That said, I intend to remain involved and on hand if required.

offenders go straight

taxpayer money and give that person a new start in life. I am proud of what we have achieved and the men that we have helped and supported.” Jamie Montgomery said: “We can all get dragged down by talk of re-offending and being involved in yet another committee meeting to talk about it. Yet Key4Life has actually just got on and done the job offering practical support to young men who need it.” He added: “We employed Jack for the last three years. He started working on potatoes and at the end of the season we decided that he was much too good to lose so we offered him a job working in the cheese store. Jack really worked hard, has been a pleasure to have around, and since he began working in the cheese store, the quality of the cheese has significantly improved.” Ms Hamilton said: “JA & E Montgomery is the first company to receive the flag through this scheme; a further 11 companies will be awarded the flag at a ceremony in May this year. “New research shows that 51% of corporate Britain would not hire ex-offenders, and Key4Life wants to change the negative perception of ex-offenders so that our young men are not excluded in society, starting with the corporates.” Mary-Clare Rodwell, High Sheriff of Somerset, said: “Archie and Jamie Montgomery led the way in providing work placements for those with criminal records. Opportunities for employment are critical for these young men to transform their lives. Most importantly, it enables them to unlock their untapped potential.” In addition to employing exoffenders, the Montgomery brothers also produce and supply the delicious cheese for Key4Life’s Food Cell, an ex prison van turned burger van which provides tasty organic burgers to locals in Somerset, giving young exoffenders valuable business skills and experience to help them get future work. For more information about Key4Life and the YOUNITED Flag campaign visit: key4life.org.uk

Never lose your freedom...

Before going self-employed, my mentor Tom Meldrum urged me to get two years’ experience in production (making things happen), sales (aligning customer requirements and closing deals), and in finance (being profitably organised). In larger companies, you gain more experience on a substantial scale. Understanding principles matters more, whereas precise technical details change every few years. Once under way, it’s too late to discover the experience of being a salesperson. In a conference call, each key player in their Zoom box needs mastery of their subject, since each comment and reply is a oneto-one ‘face-to-face’ exchange, rather than a less probing discussion across a boardroom table where one can discreetly refer to one’s notes as it goes along. On screen, the body language has fundamentally altered, as has the power interplay. Effective leadership reflects previous experience and recent performance. Kate Bingham and her eight-strong UK Vaccine Taskforce won months of advantage in rapidly getting tens of millions of jabs into British arms. Her skill base was robust and relevant; she hand-picked each person in her team, based on their proven aptitudes across relevant areas of expertise. They knew each other, had worked together before, and shared a mindset attitude of 15/7 (working at crisis pitch 15 hours a day, seven days a week), since they were on a critical path for the entire nation. There would be no public enquiry needed afterwards, when ‘lessons will be learned’. Every move had to be right first time, swiftly checked and crosschecked so the few causes of setback would be when a calculated risk came home to bite – and could be quickly rectified before it held up the process. Believe in yourself, your skills and unique knowledge of your own business. No one remotely cares for it as much as you do. Keep outside expertise on a tight rein, for short sharp pieces of defined advice. Don’t let regular advisers take root. Don’t allow a web of constraints or complicated legal contracts (designed for the ‘comfort’ of your provider) constrain you. The phrase “You could gain so much, and you’ve got nothing to lose” should ring alarm bells that you are being stitched up. Gulliver was tied up by hundreds of little threads till he could not move. Never lose your unfettered freedom to act! n Adrian Fisher MBE is an award-winning maze designer from Durweston. He is on BBC TV Countryfile on Sunday 9th May, explaining the significance of the world’s oldest Miz-Maze