SME in Brief: Yorkshire bosses praised by MP; Equestrian business boosts websales; Entrepreneurs inspire school pupils
MEMBERS of Yorkshire’s business community have been praised by Regional Minister Rosie Winterton for their efforts to build their business and recruit more staff.
Representatives from around 50 of the region’s employers were among the organisations joining the Minister at a business breakfast in Leeds.
The event, hosted by first direct at its HQ in Stourton, explained to businesses how to use Business Link Yorkshire to access the full range of government-backed support available to help them through the recession, prepare for recovery and to recruit, train and skill staff.
The event also included testimony from businesses that have used government-backed schemes and benefited including first direct in Leeds, Future Roofs in Barnsley, care home provider Exemplar in Rotherham and Gama IT in Castleford.
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RIDE-AWAY, the equestrian goods specialist ,is looking to improve sales with the launch of a new website designed and built by York-based e-commerce solutions provider PureNet.
The new website features a ‘Wish List’, gift vouchers which can be bought and redeemed online, the ability for customers to design their own ‘Nag Rags’, as well as choose many customised products.
Ride-Away, which is based near Easingwold was established in 1980 by Stephen and Angela Clark and continues to be a family-run business.
The new website complements the15,000 sq. ft. customer showroom at Sutton-on-the-Forest.
Ride-Away director Angela Clark, said: “When we launched our first mail order catalogue back in the late eighties,we had no idea how the mail order side of the business would take off.
“Our original website was developed in 2000, but we felt it lacked the modern features our customers now expect. PureNet have done a fantastic job with the new site in understanding our original brief and keeping to our timescales.”
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INNOCENT drinks co-founder Richard Reed was one of 50 business mentors speaking at a two day stepUP event in aimed at young people.
The Huddersfield event, which was attended by 500 pupils from schools across Calderdale and Kirklees, was held to help raise young people’s aspirations about their future, self-employment and business.
Also speaking were Matt Bowman, lead singer of the Pigeon Detectives and iTeddy Dragon’s Den winner Imran Hakim.
The event has been brought to Yorkshire from Australia by the Young People’s Enterprise Forum – a Yorkshire Forward-funded initiative.
