Tim Watts makes £64,000 donation in memory of David Grove

WELL-known local businessman Tim Watts has made a significant donation to charity in tribute to the memory of industrialist David Grove who died last November.

Watts, chairman of recruitment firm Pertemps, has given Birmingham & Black Country Community Foundation (BBCCF) £64,000, handing over the cheque to its director Zoe Keens.

Watts – who is president of BBCCF – has personally donated £40,000 while £24,000 has come from the Connie Watts Fund, which he set up by through BBCCF in honour of his mother who founded Pertemps in 1961.

From the donation, £40,000 will go to Marie Curie Hospice.

The remaining £24,000 has been donated to The Coventry Lord Mayor’s Community Fund which is administered by Heart of England Community Foundation. The foundation makes grants to groups and projects in Coventry and Warwickshire which are mostly volunteer-led.

Watts said: “David was an incredible friend and a visionary businessman who did a huge amount for charity.

“Like BBCCF, Heart of England Community Foundation is a fantastic organisation working to make the communities within Coventry and Warwickshire stronger, better and safer places to live.

“David Grove lived in Warwickshire and my company, Pertemps, is based in Meriden – the heart of England – so I thought it was only fitting.

“This time you could say I am putting my money where my mouth – or rather my heart – is.”

David Grove was chairman of Grove Industries, which owns a clutch of manufacturing and engineering firms centred in the West Midlands.

He was awarded the OBE for services to business in 2009 and he was a former president of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.