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08
Jan
Last Updated: 05/01/2024
Business Breakfast: Rudding Park to hold Dragons' Den for local businesses
Three of the Rudding Park's five 'Dragons'.
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Rudding Park in Harrogate will be hosting a Dragons' Den-style event this month to give local businesses the opportunity to pitch their products to key decision-makers at the luxury resort.
The hotel plans to revitalise the range of gifts it gives to VIP guests, and is looking for fresh ideas from the local business community.
Candidates will have three minutes to pitch their products and will then answer questions from the Rudding Park ‘Dragons’ – Matthew Mackaness (managing director), Karen Tyson (resort general manager), Julia Featherstone (head of rooms division), Matthew Wilkinson (head of kitchens) and Nicola Cook (head of marketing).
The Dragons will be looking for high-quality products with links to travel, lifestyle, food and drink, design or well-being. They must also align with sustainability and/or giving back to the community.
Julia Featherstone, head of rooms division at Rudding Park, said:
“We always strive to surprise and delight our guests, many of whom return time and time again. Our selection of VIP gifts are given to guests to help recognise and reward loyalty, so we are really excited about this initiative and I am hoping we will discover a range of new, quality products to incorporate into our VIP gifting to really wow our guests”.
Nicola Cook, head of marketing at Rudding Park, said:
“I am conscious it can often be quite challenging, particularly for smaller businesses, to get a foot in the door to showcase their products. It occurred to me that a Dragon’s Den-inspired event could be great opportunity for us to discover some amazing products to enhance our guest experience and a chance to showcase some talented local suppliers in a fun and innovative initiative.”
The initiative also supports the Rudding Park Giving Back initiative, as the Rudding Park Dragons will each have a pot of Rudding Park gift vouchers ready to ‘invest’ in charities nominated by candidates who particularly impress.
Dacres still top in Knaresborough
Dacre, Son & Hartley has once again claimed the top spot as Knaresborough’s best-performing estate agent, an accolade it has now held for more than a decade.
The agent's Knaresborough office sold more than twice as many homes as its nearest competitor in the HG5 and YO26 postcodes, with a total of 75 sales, according to figures from Rightmove. The other companies in the top five sold 35, 31, 30 and 20 each.
This also means that Dacre, Son & Hartley successfully marketed more than a fifth of the 373 homes that sold during the 12-month period across the two postcodes, which include Knaresborough town centre and surrounding villages including Scotton, Arkendale, Coneythorpe, Flaxby, Goldsborough, Kirk Hammerton, Green Hammerton, Whixley and Little Ouseburn.
Dacre, Son & Hartley has had an office in Knaresborough for 45 years and senior associate, Nick Alcock, who is branch manager at the firm’s Knaresborough office, has worked for the business for 28 years. He said:
“With 52 different companies selling homes in the HG5 and YO26 postcodes in the last 12 months, it’s clearly very competitive, but our dominance in the local area is undisputed.”
Dacre, Son & Hartley was founded more than 200 years ago and is Yorkshire’s largest independent estate agent, with 20 offices across North and West Yorkshire.
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