North West business briefs: Absolute Agency; Fibrus; Built for Athletes; Addleshaw Goddard; Choptsix; AfterAthena
Bolton-based Absolute Agency has launched a bold initiative that will kick-start creative and digital careers for young graduates and is now open for applications.
Ignite is a graduate trainee scheme with a significant investment of £500,000 over the next three years. It gives young talent direct access to live client briefs and one-to-one guidance from senior agency mentors.
Six positions are available and applications for final year students are now open for the following roles: Marketing assistant, account executive, junior creative, junior developer (front end), junior developer (back end) and a junior content creator.
The team will be closely guided and trained in a 12 month programme to help launch their agency careers. Whether they choose to go down a creative, marketing or development route, they will receive dedicated training and experience, while being paid, and this will stand them in great stead to move into the wider agency world of work or stay at Absolute Agency.
The Absolute team has worked on campaigns for Manchester City FC, Applethwaite Homes, Carrs Pasties, Edge Hill University and Newcastle and Staffordshire Colleges and more over the past six months. The new intake for Ignite will have opportunities to get involved in live campaign briefs at all stages. Junior designer, Leah, said: “I’ve had such an amazing opportunity to learn from, and to be a part of, a strong and passionate team in an intense learning environment.”
Managing director, Chris Hodgen, said: “Greater Manchester is the fastest growing tech hub in the UK and the largest outside of London. With this great opportunity also comes increasing challenges for recruitment with some graduates not considering an agency career. We want to ignite the careers of bright spark graduates and have created the programme to exactly do this.”
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Water sports, swimming and boxing clubs are among the beneficiaries of a new grassroots sports fund established by Fibrus.
The Full Fibre broadband company had originally set aside £30,000 for the initiative but an additional £17,000 was added to the initial pot after applications flooded in this spring, meaning more local communities have benefitted from funding in Cumbria. Nearly 50 grants of up to £1,000 have now been given to a range of grassroots sports across Northern Ireland and Cumbria, as Fibrus continues to roll out in these regions.
In Cumbria, 20 grassroots sports clubs are set to benefit from the investment. These clubs, who are working with young people, will get a share of the cash, covering everything from rugby to golf, football to cricket, swimming to hockey, all funded through the Play It Forward fund.
Appleby Football and Squash Club will be able to allow more young people to take part in their activities thanks to their grant which will pay for additional goalposts for their junior teams. Martin Smith, chairman of the club, said: “Our juniors have doubled over the past few years and we’ve now got 10 teams so this grant will provide us with the facilities and equipment to support that. We’re in a rural community so that means we have kids from the town but also from the nearby villages and that makes us a real asset to local people.”
Dominic Kearns, Fibrus chief executive, said the ‘Play it Forward’ fund reflects the company’s commitment to invest in communities beyond broadband: “Our promise to connect communities on a local level also means encouraging children to go outside, make friends and have fun. The decision to increase the fund this summer will help nearly 50 grassroots clubs to thrive and make a lasting impact in their communities, empowering young people to excel in sport, while enjoying themselves.”
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Warrington-based premium fitness brand, Built For Athletes, has formed a partnership with training platform, PRVN Fitness. PRVN’s programming is designed to improve athletic performance for individuals of all fitness levels.
Developed with a dedication to high quality performance, their programming is proudly utilised by Tia-Clair Toomey – six times Fittest Woman on Earth, Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist and Australian Olympian, along with a stable of other veteran and upcoming games athletes. PRVN Fitness is programmed by her coach and husband, Shane Orr, with a team of other professional coaches.
Built for Athletes, which specialises in high quality bags, luggage and accessories for elite and everyday athletes, has worked with PRVN Fitness to create a limited edition backpack built specifically with performance in mind. With the purchase of every PRVN x Built For Athletes backpack, consumers will receive 60 days of free PRVN programming, having the option to choose from a variety of programs that best fits their training needs.
Shane Orr, PRVN founder and head coach, said: “We prioritise utilising brands that offer the highest quality products and constantly strive for better – Built For Athletes is a perfect match for us. They understand not only our need for peak performance on competition day, but everything involved in the build up to that point. Durable and comfortable training equipment is such an important part of our lives in CrossFit, and Built For Athletes deliver the goods with their top-class product line.”
Nick Costello, Built for Athletes CEO, said: “We’re so proud to partner with such a prestigious CrossFit training brand who have crafted some of the finest athletes. As a company, we continually strive to improve our knowledge of athletes’ lives – whether that be nutrition, biomechanics or their day-to-day routine – it all feeds into our product development to supply items which add value to their life around training, competition and in the every day.”
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Aster Crawshaw
BT Group has re-appointed Addleshaw Goddard to its legal panel in recognition of the firm’s outstanding commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI).
The telecommunications group announced in 2020 that the firm, within its existing panel that could demonstrate an overarching commitment to DEI, would automatically win a place on its renewed roster.
Addleshaw Goddard’s DEI programme, which was assessed against those of 14 other panel firms, was chosen based on its comprehensiveness as well as its effectiveness across various geographies and levels of seniority. BT Group was particularly impressed by the firm’s approach to measuring the impact of their DEI programmes and with the innovative approaches within their DEI programme.
BT Group renewed legal panel will be announced in full next year. Aster Crawshaw, senior partner at Addleshaw Goddard, said: “The recognition we have received by BT Group is testament to the hard work so many people have put in to creating meaningful change across our firm. We have made a huge investment in our diversity, equity and inclusion programme, ensuring greater understand where we are falling short and why, as well as setting out a long term plan for improvement.
“We want to nurture a culture that centres around equality, inclusion and mutual respect for all colleagues. Though we have still got work to do, I am confident we are on the right path. It is fantastic to be re-appointed to BT Group’s legal panel. The group is, of course, one of the world’s most recognisable brands and one with an exciting pipeline of projects in the near future.”
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Pan-Asian noodle chain Chopstix reveals an updated look for its Blackburn with Darwen store today (September 25) following a £100,000 revamp.
Situated at the Blackburn with Darwen Extra Services, M65 Junction 4, Darwen BB3 0DB, the store, which is part of the brand’s continuing expansion, has seen a number of new features added, including a living wall, sparkling star lights and a timber-clad counter, with the decor synonymous of the Chopstix brand.
Chopstix marketing director, Rob Burns, said: “It’s really important to Chopstix to make our restaurants accessible for people up and down the country.
“We’re thrilled to be able to give our store an extra special makeover and we’re sure our customers will love the new look.”
The noodle bar’s popular dishes are also available to order from Uber Eats, Deliveroo and Just Eat.
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Chris Boyle
Clients of Northern employment law, HR and health & safety firm AfterAthena, will benefit from a deal giving them access to one of the world’s leading document automation solutions.
The Preston-based firm has adopted M-Files Ment, a next-generation no-code automation tool from global information management leader M-Files, allowing AfterAthena’s clients to quickly and easily generate HR documents, including template contracts of employment, apprenticeship agreements and settlement agreements. Standard automated templates come as part of AfterAthena’s employment law retained service.
AfterAthena’s adoption of M-Files Ment will also help the firm to minimise repetitive tasks and optimise processes. AfterAthena, part of Napthens Group, launched this year and is working with clients including Booths, YMCA and Blackburn Rovers Football Club.
Chris Boyle, head of AfterAthena and head of employment at Napthens, said: “There is growing pressure on business leaders, directors and HR professionals to make HR processes simple, fast and effective – an integral part of that is legal services. M-Files Ment will help AfterAthena’s clients use the latest technology to create and update important documents, wherever they are in the world.”
M-Files Ment is the first 100% visual, no-code automation interface tool. Clients worldwide value its ease of use and client facing functionality. Kaisa Kromhof, vice president of M-Files Ment, said: “We applaud AfterAthena’s client-centric approach and know its use of M-Files Ment will support the wider provision of outstanding service to clients. By being at the forefront of client-facing legal technology innovation, AfterAthena will be able to use the M-Files Ment solution to help deliver a bespoke service that clients within the legal industry need now, and in the future.”
