Monthly Archives: August 2021

News

Assistant head teacher’s educational resource business spells success

Teacher Play Ltd, an online retailer and business which creates and sells educational resources designed for children–by teachers, has experienced a huge surge in sales since its launch in October 2019.

Emma Anderson, a Peterborough-based assistant primary school headteacher and entrepreneur is the brains behind the play-based learning, e-commerce business.

Emma has been teaching for ten years and launched Teacher Play to fulfil her dreams of running a small business that helps children learn. Emma works hard behind the scenes to develop creative, play-based products to enhance a child’s educational journey.

Teacher Play products help children flourish in their early stages of life, accelerating their existing skills by teaching them language, reading, writing, and numeracy skills.

Teacher Play’s products are made for children aged 1-7 years and designed to help create and spark conversation by teaching vocabulary, conversation and phonics.  The product range features reusable and wipeable flashcards, learning mats, home learning packs and the most recent addition to the range – decodable phonics books, all of which support learning by enhancing fine motor skills and pre-writing skills.

The business has seen huge success in 2021, with sales increasing by over 5,000% in the past six months, driven through social media marketing and the rise in home learning as schools were forced to close during the pandemic. A recent study by I CAN suggests that 1.5 million children were struggling with communication skills following the isolation of successive lockdowns. Teacher Play’s products aim to help bridge the gap paved by the pandemic, supporting the development of social skills in early years settings and through home learning.

As well as being popular among parents to use at home, Teacher Play Ltd has also seen an increase in demand to stock its products in both primary schools and nurseries. The business has also recently begun stocking its products on Amazon, making them accessible for even more parents and children.

Emma, Director of Teacher Play Ltd explained: “I have a huge passion for teaching, and I love watching children grow in their knowledge. Our products have been a blessing to so many in lockdown and I know they continue to help children learn no matter what level they are at.

“As a teacher, the biggest reward is watching children progress in their learning in a fun and engaging way. This has always been the main aim with our business, and I am so proud to know we are achieving this with our products.”

News

Cheshire fintech Income Group expands ‘Faster Payments for payroll’ footprint through new Zellis partnership

Fast-growing Cheshire fintech Income Group working with its strategic partner Mastercard has today (Tuesday, 3rd August) announced a new collaboration with Zellis, the UK and Ireland’s leading provider of payroll and HR solutions, to bring real-time Faster Payments for payroll to its UK customers.

Zellis’ customers, which include a third of FTSE 100 companies, process pay for tens of thousands of employees and they will now have a quicker alternative to the traditional Bankers Automated Clearing Services (Bacs) payroll transfers, made possible with IGsend, Income Group’s FCA-regulated payment technology platform.

While consumers have become accustomed to near instantaneous money transfers through Faster Payments, most company payrolls still operate using the traditional Bacs, which takes up to three business days to complete.

Zellis’ Faster Payments service will now give organisations the ability to process these payments in seconds, 24 hours a day, every day of the week, giving busy payroll teams much greater flexibility in processing payrolls, in addition to freeing time for more strategic work. The service is easily integrated alongside existing payroll processes, including large organisations with complex and diverse payroll requirements.

With Bacs, organisations must lock in their payroll information well in advance of payday to ensure salaries are paid on time. Businesses may also need to use the Clearing House Automated Payment System (CHAPS) and pay fees to rectify payroll errors identified during processing windows, or when making other supplementary payments, adding significant extra administrative and banking cost. This can be reduced by up to 80 per cent by using Zellis and Income Group’s integrated Faster Payments platform.

The introduction of Zellis’ Faster Payments service illustrates the company’s ambition to offer the most innovative and effective solutions to its customers, most of whom have the most sophisticated and complex payroll structures required to accurately pay thousands of employees.

It also reflects an overall trend towards the growing use of real-time payments including for payroll processing. The latest data from Pay.uk shows a 25 per cent increase in the volume of single immediate payments through Faster Payments compared to last year (link).

“We are very excited to be introducing customers to the speed and efficiencies Faster Payments can bring. Companies like PayPal and Revolut have shown the power of Faster Payments in our daily lives. It’s time for employees to enjoy the same speed, flexibility and accuracy in their payroll – whether they are paid monthly, weekly, or – in the future – even daily” said John Petter, CEO, Zellis.

“We are delighted to be working with Mastercard and Income Group on this exciting innovation. Faster payments offer real cost savings, management time efficiencies and real risk mitigation benefits. We also see faster payments as the foundation of more flexible approach to pay, and a step on the journey to delivering the ability to pay in real-time. This is an emerging vision of a way of paying people that will deliver real financial well-being benefits and a better experience to employees.”

Ian Wheeler, CEO & Founder at Income Group said: “We are thrilled to be collaborating with Zellis to help expand the footprint of Faster Payments, using our innovative IGSend platform to bring positive disruption to payroll. Payroll is the most critical payment a business can make with trust between employer and employee paramount. Zellis is a forward-looking organisation leading the charge, embracing the bright future of Faster Payments, supporting the case for ‘not if, but when’ for businesses.”

“Payroll is a time critical process and a key use case for how real-time payments can make a valuable difference, not only on businesses, but also their employees, when it comes to paying salaries and getting paid. At this challenging time, enabling businesses with more control over their cash flow is a significant benefit,” said Gregor Dobbie CEO of Vocalink, a Mastercard Company.

 

Care, News

Former Matron At Christie Hospital Takes The Helm At Hospice

Nightingale House Hospice has welcomed a new face to its’ senior management team.

Mandy Cunningham took up her role as Head of Clinical Services & Patient Care last month. She brings a wealth of experience with her after holding senior posts at leading North West cancer hospitals The Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, Liverpool and The Christie Hospital, Manchester.

She lives on the Wirral with her husband Chris and the couple have two children, a son Steven, who is married to Stacey, and daughter Abbie, and two grand-children.

Mandy always had an ambition to be a nurse and started out as cleaner when she was 16 years old. She took her first nursing job as a community bath nurse in Chester, then as an auxiliary nurse, before being offered the opportunity to do her formal nurse training and finally graduating with a degree in nursing from the University of Chester.

Mandy said: “I enjoyed palliative care in the community so I knew I wanted to specialise in Oncology. During my time at Clatterbridge I was a chemotherapy nurse and became a ward manager before I moved over to Christie to be Matron of Acute Oncology.”

“As soon as I walked into Nightingale House I felt it was a very inspirational place. I am always looking to see how things can be improved and I am optimistic we can bring about positive change and improved services for those in our catchment area living with life-limiting illnesses.”

Mandy recently introduced a new respite care service as part of a four-week rolling programme. Patients can be offered between four and seven days respite in the hospice, to give families an opportunity to take a break knowing their loved ones are being cared for at Nightingale House, whilst being able to facilitate those patients who may need urgent admission on to the ward.

She added: “When patients and their families are given advanced notice of respite care they are able to make plans, particularly if they need to get away or re-charge their batteries at home, away from the responsibilities of being the primary carer.”

Education, News

Northumbria’s Young Entrepreneurs In The Spotlight at Awards

Students and graduates from Northumbria University were among more than 40 new business founders to have their talents showcased during a prestigious online awards event.

Organised and hosted by learning and development agency FIRST, Startup Awards North East provided an opportunity for new business owners to pitch for support and build their professional networks, whether they were at the starting-up, skilling-up or scaling-up stage with their businesses.

Those involved spoke passionately about their entrepreneurial ambitions to audiences made up of more than 300 members of the North East business community and bid for their chance to win both Social Impact and High Growth awards.

Second year Fashion Design student Amy Clunes was one of seven finalists from Northumbria and was selected as joint winner of the Social Impact Award after she took part in the SkillUP day.

Amy explained: “The placement year is a real bonus on the course because it gives students like me the chance to link up with a business and spend time in the world of work. But I knew my end goal would be self-employment and working for myself, so I chose to spend my time on placement with the enterprise team.”The 20-year-old has been working with Northumbria’s Student and Graduate Enterprise team as part of the placement year offered on her course. She has shown real promise while working to develop her fledgling fashion and accessories brand, Whozamy.

With support from the Northumbria enterprise team and introductions to organisations like FIRST, Amy has attended meetings, training sessions and webinars which have helped her build vital skills such as book keeping, website building and marketing.

She added: “I’m doing a Sage accounting course at the moment and working towards launching my own website. The support I’ve had has been amazing and I’m really excited to see what the future holds.”

Amy was inspired to start her own business after friends commented on her hand-made earrings and she went on to sell hundreds of face masks online at the height of the pandemic. Her goal is to produce her own clothing using sustainably sourced fabrics which are less harmful to the environment. She also plans to make her designs size inclusive by creating them in sizes 6 to 22.

Amy and the other winners from Northumbria are part of the European funded Northumbria Enterprise and Business Support (NEBS2) project. This specialist scheme brings in professional mentors to support prospective entrepreneurs as part of an end-to-end business start-up support service.

Graham Baty, who manages the enterprise strand of the service, said: “We are very lucky to work with fantastic students and graduates and it has been incredible to see their potential continue to grow and flourish during the pandemic, which has been a challenging time for so many businesses and individuals.

“The ERDF NEBS2 Project has enabled us to further enhance our offer with fantastic opportunities for our start-ups to focus on business growth. It’s wonderful to see the efforts of so many recognised and celebrated through initiatives like the FIRST Startup Awards North East.”

Amy is celebrating her win alongside a host of other Northumbria students and graduates who were selected as finalists and saw the University represented across all three categories.

Mechanical Engineering PhD student Farzaneh Hajirasouliha was joint Social Impact award winner with Amy after pitching a business idea, named Vivid Futures, which would deliver workshops in schools and colleges to demonstrate how curriculum subjects are used in the world of work.

Also in the SkillUP category, Paul Kane and Carla Prior made the final. Callum Mather was recognised as a finalist in the StartUP category and Andrew Cartwright reached the final of the ScaleUP day.

Charlotte Windebank, Managing Director and Co-Founder of FIRST, said: “After the year we have had, early stage founders need to be celebrated, showcased and connected in to the business ecosystem now more than ever.

“Running the awards, whilst incredibly challenging, was the right thing to do and we are so proud of everyone involved. This includes the early stage founders, our partners and the production team behind the scenes ensuring the events were meaningful and engaging.

“The awards highlighted the drive and ambition of these incredible founders and the team and I at FIRST were privileged to provide a platform, albeit a digital one, to these incredible, resilient entrepreneurs. I am so excited to follow their continued journey to success – if you can start a business in a pandemic, you can literally do anything.”

Northumbria has been ranked in the top three for graduate start-ups in the UK, based on estimated turnover, since 2011/12, including five years in first place. Since 2009 the University has assisted in the creation of nearly 300 new businesses which have led to the creation of more than 1,000 jobs, the vast majority of which are in the north east of England.

Source: https://newsroom.northumbria.ac.uk/pressreleases/young-entrepreneurs-in-the-spotlight-at-awards-3118885

News

Why Differentiation Will Win The Social Audio Race

Here, WOLF CEO Gary Knight discusses the importance of having a clear value proposition

Social audio is a hot topic in the world of social networking right now. The combination of innovative user experiences, a global lockdown, and Elon Musk raving about one of the newest audio platforms on the market has accelerated its growth over the past year.

Clubhouse, an invitation-only social audio app where users can communicate in voice chat rooms, has been instrumental in putting the spotlight on audio and has been so successful that it became one of the Apple Store’s most in-demand apps, despite still being in beta phase and exclusive. It sparked a surge of interest in social audio content and now we’re seeing a growing number of platforms, new and old, reacting and trying to capitalise on it.

It’s exciting to see the popularity of audio as a medium, but for there to be enough space for multiple versions of the same thing, brands will need to have a clear value proposition for their users. The progression of video, from YouTube to being synonymous with the majority of social networks, illustrates how a medium is a method to communicate with, rather than an exclusive feature in itself.

The audio market feels very rudimentary right now; we’re yet to see what all the new audio experiences are going to offer the consumer in the longer term.

Interestingly, with all the noise around audio in the western market right now we can see how it is catching up with the east. For several years social audio has thrived in the MENA region where anonymity is crucial to allow and encourage freedom of expression. Users have long sought platforms that avoid video and visual content but that have the ability to build profile, belonging and friendship. There is clearly huge potential for audio to be as successful in the western market but to enjoy success, brands need to have a very clear value proposition for their users, before they enter the market.

At WOLF (The World’s Online Festival), which is a community-oriented audio social app, we differentiate ourselves by building vibrant audio communities through live entertainment. By bringing the magic of real world festivals to the MENA region, we’ve created a platform where audio content creators can perform on stage and express themselves freely and creatively to live, engaged and avid audiences. Much like real world festivals, our user community can chat, watch shows, explore, play games and make new friends whilst sharing the belonging of a like-minded entertainment community.

As we see audio attract several new players in the west, and we look at how we’ve achieved the success we’ve had in the east, one thing is clear. Ultimately, the winner in the audio race needs to adhere to old marketing principles of product-market fit. With the race on for organisations to deliver compelling audio experiences, there are two approaches we are seeing across the market – do you build or do you buy?

Spotify provides a good example of the buy approach to hasten its ability to deliver a live audio community experience to its huge user base, with its recent acquisition of Locker Room – a sports-focused audio platform.

Spotify purchased a proven audio community business and switched it up to offer an enhanced live audio experience for a far wider range of creators and fans that went way beyond the sports niche that Locker Room was delivering. Rather than just stamp audio on its brand, Spotify has given Locker Room a refresh, added in upgrades and rebranded it to Spotify Greenroom, quickly delivering a core experience in line with its broad user base.

Whether vertical differentiation is enough for Spotify to succeed, time will tell but the effort to achieve harmony between the market opportunities, the consumer trends, and an effective product market fit, should be advantageous as should the huge audio loving user base they have from which to develop their community. The decision to buy an already well formed audio experience surely makes good business sense here.

For Twitter and Facebook, who both scrambled to launch their audio offering after Clubhouse arrived with a bang, their entry to market was to build internally and build impressively, quickly highlighting their mighty engineering capacity. Their initial offerings lacked too much differentiation from the core Clubhouse offering – suggesting the initial roll out of audio was a speedy defensive move to cover off Clubhouse owning audio as a unique social offering. Although Facebook has already added a couple of neat features the real point of difference is yet to become clear but will no doubt be supported by an aggressive roll out of product upgrades in the coming months. With audio being a secondary aspect to the core offering of both Facebook and Twitter, it will be interesting to watch how the audio user experience establishes itself within their respective services.

Meanwhile, for Clubhouse the clear point of differentiation they arrived with will need evaluating. It’s carved a niche for a more selective, very high-end user and is the go-to reference for social audio at the moment, but this exclusivity could present some challenges as the market becomes increasingly competitive. Clubhouse will likely become one player in the audio ecosystem rather than the dominant offering and it’ll be exciting to see how they continue that success and scale up, while still meeting the demands their exclusive hungry users have come to enjoy. Following its initial explosive user growth, it’s likely that Clubhouse will double down on content creators and establish unique and compelling audio experiences only available on their own platform.

As we move into the next phase of growth in social audio, we can see that it will be an experience across many different social platform offerings; like any offering its success will be dependent on delivering value through a differentiated experience in line with their particular audience needs , whether that be consumer, creator, lifestyle or professional. Let’s keep listening.

 

About WOLF

WOLF’s mission is to bring the magic of real-world festivals to the online world – uniting people across the globe in discovery, entertainment, and belonging.

The app brings together a lively and interactive community of producers, show hosts, radio presenters, singers, poets, comedians, DJs, and fans. The app has had particular success in The Middle East with users exploring and developing their talents in a safe, inclusive, and supportive space, without the need for video.

Users can explore a wide variety of groups hosting live and interactive audio shows and can jump on stage themselves. Entertainment is how WOLF stands out, built on a foundation of friendship, community, and supporting emerging audio talent.

News, Waste and Recycling

Cardiff company secures international interest for innovative PPE waste solution

A Welsh manufacturer, which is on a mission to tackle the world’s growing personal protective equipment (PPE) waste problem, is set to expand its global presence after securing its first export deals in Australia and Canada.

Cardiff-based Thermal Compaction Group (TCG) specialises in the manufacture of innovative technology used to recycle single-use, disposable plastic PPE, including surgical tray wraps, drapes and medical-grade face masks. The company was one of the first in the world to develop the new technology and has seen interest in its recycling solutions soar in light of the pandemic.

Earlier this year, it unveiled its patented ‘Sterimelt’ device, which thermally compacts polypropylene at 350°C and re-engineers it so that it can be used to make new plastic products. Following initial success in the UK, with the device being rolled out to hospital trusts across England and Wales, TCG is now looking at expanding into international markets.

The company has just signed deals to export the Sterimelt to leading industry names in Australia and Canada, agreeing contracts to supply over 100 of the devices to Australian waste management firm, 180 Waste Group, as well as Vancouver-based Alternative Recycling, and Advanced Extraction Systems, located on Prince Edward Island. The firms, which are TCG’s first clients outside of the UK, will distribute the product across the health and social care sectors in both regions.

Research estimates that, since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak which began last year, over 129 billion face masks are used globally every month, the majority of which are made from single-use plastic, leading to a significant amount of waste going to landfill.

TCG is confident that its device could help to tackle this global problem and play a key role in helping countries across the world reduce their PPE waste.

Following its initial deals in Australia and Canada, the company is now looking to further expand its international client base, with plans to also enter Africa and develop its European markets.

Mathew Rapson, Managing Director at Thermal Compaction Group, said: “PPE waste is very much a global problem and securing these new international partnerships is the first step in achieving our goal of preventing as much plastic as possible ending up in incineration, landfill or in our oceans and rivers. PPE is of course still very much an essential part of protecting people during the pandemic, but it’s essential that these products are used sustainably.

“As both an innovator and manufacturer, we are continually working on new developments and ways to provide solutions to the global waste issue currently facing us. Exporting our equipment will exponentially increase the recovery of single use plastics worldwide and therefore help the planet, whilst supporting the adoption of ‘resource recovery’ solutions for the world.”

Commenting on the global success and innovation of the TCG, Cari-Anne Quinn, CEO, Life Sciences Hub Wales, said: “The technology created by TCG is ground-breaking, and we’re proud to share another example of the brilliant innovation and dedication we are seeing from the life sciences industry in Wales.

“The global response and uptake to this made-in-Wales technology is incredible, and we hope to see TCG continue to grow and innovate new solutions to combat the mass waste generated from the pandemic and tackle the ongoing environmental crisis.”

Wales’ Economy Minister, Vaughan Gething said: “As a government, we want to build a stronger, greener economy here in Wales. In our ambitious five-year programme for government, we have a clear focus on sustainability and developing the industries of the future. So it’s great to see a Welsh business like TCG starting to export its recycling equipment, which could help solve a real and growing global waste problem resulting from the pandemic.”

Automotive, Finance and Banking

Belper Bodyshop Opens New Unit With HSBC UK Support

Little Eaton car and van repair centre, Panel Match, has received a five-figure loan from HSBC UK to support the opening of its new unit. The move, which has increased the operating space by 50 per cent, has enabled the company to meet increasing customer demand for its body repair and paint services.

Panel Match, which provides bodyshop and end of lease body repair services for cars and commercial vehicles, has also used the loan to fund the purchase of a brand-new spray booth, compressors and a service repair van for the site. The new equipment has enabled the business to accommodate a large influx of customers.

Founded in 2009, the team has also seen demand grow from its commercial customers and is now providing support for rental companies and car dealerships across the region. The increase in unit size, as well as the additional equipment, has also allowed the company to continue to take on larger scale business opportunities.

Richard Vickery, Owner of Panel Match, said: “We are grateful for the continued support from HSBC UK as we continue to grow the company to meet increasing demand. We have been pretty much working flat out since lockdown measures began to ease and have even taken on a new member of the team to keep up with demand.

“The larger site and new equipment is invaluable to us and has been instrumental in winning new business as we can accommodate a larger number of vehicles on site with the increase in capacity.”

Laura Petch, HSBC UK Area Manager for North Midlands Small Business Banking, added: “During what has been a difficult time for many in the sector, it is great to see a small business expand and provide vital support for its increasing customer base.”

Food & Drink, News

UK Based AI Food Tech Company Spoon Guru Expands Its Leadership Team with Five New Hires

London-based AI food technology start-up Spoon Guru is strengthening its leadership team ahead of the revised HFSS legislation coming into force in October 2022. Hires include a newly created Head of Health and Sustainability role alongside senior recruits across marketing, sales and strategic counsel.

As a Registered Associate Nutritionist with the AfN, Johanna Bolinder has joined Spoon Guru’s team as the Head of Health and Sustainability. Johanna will focus on providing expert guidance on a broad range of nutritional issues to build long term value including leveraging her deep understanding of scientific/regulatory affairs and consumer and sustainability trends.

Markus Stripf, Co-Founder and CPMO, comments: “Johanna has vast experience working on business critical product change projects and will play an integral role in the business as we move towards making a positive difference at scale to the way we sell and buy food. Johanna’s passion about food and driving better health for people and the planet through sustainable food choices makes her a perfect fit for Spoon Guru and supporting our partners ahead of the HFSS legislation changes next year. “

Johanna adds: “To truly drive lasting change, retailers need to use the technology and tools available to them to help remove friction from food search and discovery. Shoppers want to be better educated about the health and nutrition of the food they buy, but research has found that they put retailers at the very bottom of the list of places they go to for this information. That, in itself, presents a very big opportunity for differentiation in the grocery space”.

Additional new hires at Spoon Guru include Shruti Chawla as Vice President of Marketing, Justin Yaxley as EMEA Vice President of Sales, Trusha Pandya as Head of Sales and Vice President Americas and Nicola Davis, Vice President Customer Success.

Shruti Chawla is an experienced marketing leader who has built a decade-long career working across the B2C & B2B space at both global enterprise technology companies and startups. Her passion for technology has proven to help her scale businesses in various verticals into successful and profitable organisations.

Justin Yaxley has worked for companies such as Unilever, Diageo, and Google. Justin will be bringing a wealth of experience in helping CPG and retailers to adopt modernising sales technologies.

Trusha Pandya‘s 15+ years of experience with top consulting firms, leading software providers in retail operations and store transformation have made her a strategy-focused sales and operations expert. She will focus on combining exceptional relationship building skills with a diversified background in all aspects of sales, logistics, product management and operations in domestic and international markets.

Nicola Davis has worked with grocery retailers around the globe for the last 20 years specialising in supporting clients to leverage data to drive customer-centric experiences with a strategic focus across all channels. Nicola will bring vast knowledge of customer insight analysis, personalisation, and driving value from customer data.  Leading the Customer Success team at Spoon Guru, Nicola will be helping clients to achieve the maximum value from Spoon Guru’s services alongside creating strategic digital customer experiences.

Markus Stripf summarised: “These new additions to Spoon Guru’s team will support the AI technology brand ahead of the HFSS legislation changes. The new team will also be invaluable while the business continues to focus on creating a healthier and sustainable shopping experience and enabling grocery retailers to help their shoppers eat healthier, sustainably and more consciously, at scale. Our goal is to accommodate personal dietary needs and various lifestyle goals among the end consumer while ultimately adding value to our partners’ businesses and increasing revenue potential through intelligent commerce.”

Food & Drink, News

Leading chef shares his top tips to Welsh Lamb success

Acclaimed Michelin Star chef, Gareth Ward, of Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms has been unveiled as Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales’ new PGI Welsh Lamb ambassador for 2021-22.

Regularly cited as one of the most exciting chefs cooking in the UK today, his Ynyshir Restaurant and Rooms is the most highly-awarded in the whole of Wales, boasting a Michelin star, five AA rosettes and being named in the top 5 of the Good Food Guide (as well as being named their chef of the year for 2019). Gareth takes pride in the fact that for him there are “no rules, no guidelines” as he continues to build on the startling success in turning a remote – yet beautiful – location in mid Wales into a leading food destination in its own right, and all in a relatively short space of time.

The unveiling of Gareth comes as Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales, the Welsh red meat levy body, launches its annual campaign under the ‘Uniquely Welsh. It’s in the taste’ banner. As part of his work, Gareth has created a series of exclusive recipes and accompanying videos that will be launched online on Lamb Day – 1 August – allowing consumers to get a taste of what it takes to cook a dish inspired by a Michelin starred chef. Also hosted on the dedicated masterclass web page will be some of his hints and tips to help people get the best out of the unique characteristics of Welsh Lamb from the comfort of their own kitchens.

For Gareth, he’s a strong advocate of Welsh Lamb because for him, it’s part of the nation’s DNA to produce it: “It’s the passion of the farmers, the land their livestock are reared on and the grass that they eat – all these combine to create a unique product. I get a particular enjoyment from cooking it because I see the passion and dedication of the farmers – week in, week out. Producing it is central to their life and all this comes through in the flavour. Being fully traceable to the farm where it was reared is also so important and pretty special.

“As well, being so versatile allows you to experiment with different flavours and cooking methods. You’ve got several braising cuts, others that you can cook nice and pink or go for the ribs. You can use the fat or dabble in the offal cuts, with lamb hearts being incredible. And that’s even before you get to legs and a delicious Sunday roast. It’s amazing to think that you can do all these different things with it.”

Rhys Llywelyn, Market Development Manager for Hybu Cig Cymru – Meat Promotion Wales, added: “We are delighted that Gareth is joining our campaign this year as our Welsh Lamb ambassador. As we know from the success he’s been having at Ynyshir, Gareth’s an extremely talented chef and his approach to the dining experience is truly unique – just like our Welsh Lamb.

“We hope those at home make the most of this valuable resource over the coming weeks and months and get an insight into how to make high-quality Welsh Lamb dishes from the comfort of their own homes.”

For more information on the masterclass page and all things Welsh Lamb visit eatwelshlamb.com.

News, Security

All-In-One Rental Solution From Interphone Removes The Need To Compromise On Building Security Systems

Interphone has launched an all-in-one rental solution that enables building owners and occupiers to adopt the latest building security systems without the need for a large initial capital outlay. This unique finance package will be available for any type of commercial or public sector property, with flexible agreement terms to suit most operating budgets and cashflow, while also providing added protection against unforeseen maintenance or support costs.

“The outright purchase of security systems can be costly, requiring a sizeable capital outlay to install and maintain the latest equipment”, explains Julian Synett, CEO of Interphone Limited. “Justifying this expenditure and then either raising funds or competing for an already overstretched internal budget can be a complicated process. Our aim is to create a rental solution to remove this financial barrier, so businesses can avoid delays to critical work that is putting buildings, occupants and products at unnecessary risk.”

The single rental package will combine all the equipment, installation and ongoing maintenance needed for a high-quality and robust security system, including affordable yearly payments that are spread over the length of the contract. It will be available across Interphone’s entire product range including access control, biometrics, CCTV, door entry, and automated gates and barriers. Meanwhile, comprehensive planned and reactive maintenance cover is designed to minimise any system downtime, avoid operational disruption and gain added peace of mind.

All agreements will be internally approved by Interphone’s in-house finance team, based on 60 years of experience in the security systems sector and without the use of any third-party leasing partners. This means that customers can benefit from quick decision-making – typically within forty-eight hours – based on industry-specific risk assessment to achieve a high approval success rate.

We are providing budget certainty, with no unexpected or hidden overheads, so there is no longer a need for compromise in terms of timings, scope or quality due to budget limitations. Our new rental option is also future-proofed, allowing a security system to be adapted depending on changing circumstances or the availability of newer, more effective technology. This added flexibility ensures that we can best meet the needs of our customers.”